Erika Whiteway

Erika Whiteway (b. February 26, 1954, San Jose, California) is a California writer, artist, musician, Thoroughbred breeder/trainer. She was an early member of The Well, dubbed by "Wired Magazine as "the world's most influential online community", where she met Tiffany Lee Brown, Jon Lebkowsky, Paco Xander Nathan and Monte McCarter, founders of Fringeware Review. She soon became a contributing editor; she co-edited issue #4, "Chicks In Psyberspace", and issue #8, "Fringe Lifestyles" with Tiffany Lee Brown.
She left high-school in 1971 and soon went to work at Golden Gate Fields racetrack. She was a groom for Jerry Dutton where she prepped Silky Sullivan for a 1973 St. Patrick's Day appearance with Kjell Qvale. Throughout the 1970's, she worked as a groom, freelance pony-girl and exercise rider at California tracks and ranches, where she also worked with cattle and sheep. She also has worked as a state livestock brand inspector, a mechanic, a veterinary technician, an adolescent crisis counselor and publicist for Mark Pesce, creator of VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language).
Her writing first appeared in "Wave Sector", a publication of San Francisco State's radio station, KUSF, under the pseudonym "Flippo Demimonde". She then became contributing editor of Thasher Magazine, writing music reviews, designing games and illustrating her own fiction. As entertainment columnist for the (West) Contra Costa Times, under the pseudonym "Dr. E.", she wrote about new music coming from bands like Negativland and Flipper. She has written for National Lampoon, World of Art, Mondo 2000, Santa Cruz Goodtimes, Bust, Unshaved Truths and many others.
In the 1980's, she had an all-girl rockabilly band, "The Stir-Ups". Known as "Ricki Memphis", she played bass, wrote songs and managed the band with keyboardist Big Lou. KUSF DJ, Big Rick Stewart, interviewed the band on-air. After garnering the attention of local "415 Records", "The Stir-Ups" played at the 1984 Democratic National Convention along with Jefferson Starship, Tower of Power, among others. Shortly thereafter, the band broke up over an intellectual property theft incident with producer Dan Levitan. "The Stir-Ups" performed in the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles with , X, Silvertone (), The Red Hot Chili Peppers and a host of other bands.
In the early 1990's, Ms. Whiteway opened "The Horse's Mouth", a jazz coffeehouse in El Sobrante, California, which hosted jazz performers such as Mad & Eddie Duran, and Mark Murphy as well as local garage bands or any musician wanting to play on open mic nights. Kids were always welcome at shows since no alcohol was served, a deliberate choice.
Also at this time, Ms. Whiteway helped with the formation of the El Sobrante Municipal Advisory Council, which would wrest control of the community from the County and place it in a local governing body. She was elected to public office and served as President before moving to Santa Cruz to breed and train Thoroughbreds. She lived slightly off the grid and off the computer entirely for nearly ten years, until returning to the Bay Area, where she once more resides, making art, writing, playing music and taking care of horses.

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