I haven't finished the bio and faq pages, and I'm still in the process of moving the shoutbox to its own guestbook page.

Meanwhile, here are a few juicy biographical snippets about me...

I don't look like this...

...anymore, but it's a reasonable approximation.

(My hair is a good deal less New Romantic looking nowadays, for example)

I do still play the cello, though.

I make a mean pot of Texas chili.

I work as a database architect / programmer / web designer. It pays the bills.

On my own time, I take pictures, do smelly things in the dark room, write (poetry & plays, mostly), dance, make music, read, and do smelly (hopefully a good kind of smelly) things in the kitchen.

I'm also in the process of taking up kendo, which appeals to me precisely because of its absolute uselessness as a self-defense mechanism (who, after all, carries a bamboo stick everywhere they go?), and because the armor looks cool.

And I need the exercise, both mental and physical.

I'm planning to do improv comedy classes later in the summer, and go to a photo workshop at either the Maine Photographic Workshops or Santa Fe Workshops.

I like to throw parties with bizarre themes.

I subject my friends to strange movies.

I am a romantic and an idealist at heart, but I wear cynical armor because it looks cool and keeps world events from beating me to a pulp with a splintery bamboo stick.

The world is full of beauty and cruelty, both of which are fascinating when seen from a respectable distance, and both of which threaten to overwhelm me if I get too close.

Silly me, I get too close all the time anyway. I may never learn, and I consider that a good thing.

If anyone qualifies to be the first indie rock artist to get her own VH1 "Behind The Music" special, it's Bridget Cross.

Cross is a former member of seminal D.C. indie bands including Velocity Girl, Unrest, and Air Miami (which penned the incredibly catchy "World Cup Fever" anthem, reissued in 1998 and now again in 2002 to commemorate the addictive sporting event).

In the past couple of years, her visibility in the indie scene has been limited to a stint providing backing vocals for Fugazi, but this sad and twisted tale of woe has led to a series of benefit concerts, a benefit eBay auction, and the reunion of the band that went on to indie stardom without her, Velocity Girl!

Strange things are afoot in indie-land.

Top 3 Lessons for Indie Rockers:

1. Don't buy these guitars,
2. Don't sign a contract with the man that will tie your unreleased 2-albums-worth up in legal-obligation hell, and
3. Don't go to Alaska with your boyfriend of a different race.

The good news is I finally tracked down every single skin edit needed to make this site scale properly from a hard minimum resolution of 640xsomething to as big as you want to make it.

It took me forever to track down that ickle snippet that forced the "other stories" snippet at the bottom to be 400 pixels wide.

Whee, hooray! Calloo, callay!