Hello my friends, and welcome. I'm the California Beatnik, also known as JazzGrrl. I'm a 22-year-old from California (who'da thunk?), and thrive on Jazz and poetry. I've been involved in both for quite some time now, and the arts in general my entire life.

Online, I can be found in a variety of places. I have a score of web pages (well not quite that many but the number is quickly getting there), and can be found in a couple of different chat rooms and IRC channels online, usually in the evening after work but before bed.

In real life, I'm far less social, but no less friendly. I spend most of my free time reading, on the computer, or playing games on the Playstation, and I work at Apple Computer doing tech support.

My poetry involvement has lasted my entire life, but I didn't sit down and seriously write until I was 16. That year I wrote a lot of poetry, mostly due to my depression and the amount of changes my life was taking on. I don't write as much now, but I still write on occasion.

Digital art is a relatively recent addition to my repertoire. I've only been doing it for a few years now. I don't make that many images since it does take a while for them to generate, and they do start to look like each other after a while. But I do have a few and I will make a new one every once in a while.

I've been playing music since I was six years old, when I began taking piano lessons. Since then, I've played flute, clarinet, tenor sax, bass, and percussion. My main instruments now are bass and piano. I haven't played any of the wind instruments in years (though I wish I'd been able to play sax for longer and may take it up again someday when I have money to burn), but I still love to listen... especially when it's jazz.