Hot off the press

Our picks for the Bay Area's 10 sexiest people

THE SAN FRANCISCO Bay Area is one of the sexiest places we know, and one of the crazy, beautiful things about sex appeal is that everyone's definition is different. So, as you can imagine, narrowing this list down was a challenge. We thought about all the dreamy people in our community whose actions have inspired us, the performers who have brought us to our knees, the poets whose words have slayed us, and all the other folks who have made our jaws drop. And now, after weeks of hand-wringing, hearts pounding, and heated discussion, we bring you the 10 sexiest people we've seen all year.

James Tracy

JAMES TRACY Guardian Photo by Mirissa Neff

Remember that boy in your college poetry class who blew you away with his dark eyes and wise comments? Who drank black coffee and smoked hand-rolled cigarettes and carried around a battered copy of Das Kapital? Ever wonder what happened to him? Meet James Tracy.

Tracy has been a fixture on the local activist scene for years. He worked with public housing tenants as part of the Eviction Defense Network and now heads up the Coalition on Homelessness's Right 2 a Roof project. He recently edited The Civil Disobedience Handbook: A Brief History and Practical Advice for the Politically Disenchanted (Manic D).

The book, an ode to grassroots organizing, seems to encapsulate Tracy's own philosophy. He's that rare activist who knows the issues, plans the protest, spends all night making flyers, and then never grabs the mic.

Then again, when Tracy does grab the mic, as a spoken word artist with the Molotov Mouths, it's pretty sexy too. Delivering edgy lyrics at a rapid, rhythmic clip, he makes us feel like we're back in that poetry class, secretly longing for the dark-eyed boy.

The Lovemakers

THE LOVEMAKERS Guardian Photo by Lori Spears

It was an Oakland house party, summer 2002, when we first met up with the Lovemakers. About a hundred people were jammed into the kitchen and makeshift stage/living room to bear witness, and there they were: A girl with long, just-got-fucked black hair and a microskirt, showing us how to rock an electric violin. Two could-be-Euro-hottie guys, popping and synthing their way into our hearts. The cooing, the smoke machines, and the midset makeout session were so hot that one audience member didn't even notice when her hair caught on fire via candle.

The Lovemakers – Lisa Light (vox, violin, bass), Scott Blonde (guitar, vox, live effects), and Jason Fish (synth, laptop, live effects) – describe their sound as Depeche Mode rear-ending My Bloody Valentine. Through the fog of a head injury and too much Jameson that night we could also hear '80s guilty pleasure Book of Love, but TLM are sexier and raunchier. And let's not forget that violin, haunting and longing like a dead lover – Jeff Buckley inhabits Light's machine. Three must be the magic number, because this trio has got the Bay Area buzzing like a vibrator.

James Hammer

There is so much we can never really be sure of in this life – Does X really love us? Will Y's check bounce again? – but one thing we can be certain of is that deputy district attorney James Hammer was called "the Hammer" in his youth. And it doesn't even matter if ... well, you see where we're going with this. When a man tells you his name is Hammer, he's telling you all you need to know, at least if you're an insatiable slut.

Yes, all right, we have obsessed some about the name, and all the obvious double entendres having to do with nails. But we also like the man's firm jawline – so Harry Hamlin-ish, really, so Michael Kuzak, so LA Law. So ... firm. It's a string of associations that reminds us of how, for a brief shining moment at the end of the giddy 1980s, television actually made lawyers seem sexy.

And the hair. And the voice. And the fact that Hammer was positively stoic while his opposite number in the infamous dog-mauling case, the spectacular Nedra Ruiz, got down on her hands and knees and barked. And the fact that he isn't Terence Hallinan, or lippy Kimberly Guilfoyle. Kiss kiss, bang bang, that's what we say.

Karen Marcelo

As every red-blooded San Franciscan knows, there's nothing hotter than a woman who says, "I like to blow shit up." Karen Marcelo, whose explosions are the stuff of legend, is the mad hacker behind monster robot group Survival Research Labs' mobile 802.11b bots. While working as a researcher at infamous tech think tank Xerox PARC (what she did there is still partly classified), she designed the bots in her spare time.

One of Marcelo's favorite recent projects involved using techniques from telerobotics to create an SRL robot that shoots a gun. The telerobotics part means the gun is controlled by somebody playing on a computer miles away. During one show, she supervised while people in Japan used the bot to shoot guns in the United States.

Now Marcelo is working with Australian performance artist Stelarc, who's known for his work on the interpenetration of bodies and machines. She'll be leading a team of designers working on a robot head that interacts with users, tracks their movements with its eyes, and talks to them in a lifelike manner. She's also running a geek salon called dorkbotSF (dorkbot.org/dorkbotsf), where tech luminaries come to present their latest work. Recent speakers have discussed everything from the relationship between science and the media to the art of creating fire-spewing vacuum cleaners. Check Marcelo out at the next SRL event near you.

Marcus Rene Van

You don't even have to look at Marcus Rene Van to know that he is fine. All you have to do is listen – that smooth, rich voice and those words that drip off his hot tongue like melted butter are enough. A member of the Deep Dickollective and a solo spoken word performer who has graced stages all over the Bay Area, this black, queer, transgendered artist and hip-hop MC transgresses boundaries and defies easy categorization. Van had his film premiere at this year's San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival with "Junk Box Warrior," a haunting, poetic piece that puts the viewer in his skin, charting the complicated space he occupies and forges through his work and life. Van's performance makes the phrase "spoken word" sound like a misnomer. He doesn't simply speak; he elucidates, illuminates, and incites. Like the infectious beats they are often set to, his words resonate like a melody caught in your mind. He's a man with a message, and if you're smart, you'll pay attention to every word.

Sean San Jose

SEAN SAN JOSE Guardian Photo by Lori Spears

"Nothing shivers me like a song," Sean San Jose told the audience during his powerful performance in Erin Cressida Wilson's I Feel Love, which had a sold-out run this summer at Intersection for the Arts. Were audience members given a chance to respond, more likely than not they would have said nothing shivers them like Sean San Jose.

San Jose has, in recent years, become a major attraction on local stages as a member of Campo Santo, currently Intersection for the Arts' resident theater company. In the process he's built a reputation for ignoring the time-honored phrase "keep your shirt on" – at one performance of I Feel Love, a trio of his fans were overheard placing bets in the lobby as to how long it would take for him to pull it off (only a few minutes, as it turned out). It's not that San Jose is short on talent. He is a gifted, versatile actor who is also blessed with a beautiful, sculpted body and isn't shy about showing it off (the thick leather necklace used to keep him chained as the half wild – and half naked! – Lazaro in Octavio Solis's recent Dreamlandia added a kinky twist to his appeal).

Campo Santo's decidedly macho work has cast San Jose in a certain hetero light over the years, and his wonderful performance this spring as Joey, a gay hustler, in Greg Sarris's Mission Indians was a breath of fresh air. If you're one who worships in the church of San Jose, chances are you're hoping that the heart he has tattooed over his left breast will someday beat for you.

Roberto Robinson

ROBERTO ROBINSON Guardian Photo by Mirissa Neff

The Mission District is a hotbed of attractive people who get paid to pour our drinks, take our tips, and watch our inhibitions lower as the night wears on. But on Monday nights, while the kids are lined up on the sidewalk outside El Rio for dollar drinks, you'll find us down the street, leaving our tips on the bar at Bar (or Mission Bar, as the watering hole for literalists is also called) for Roberto Robinson. His eyes are dark. His smile is dreamy. His voice is so deep you could fall into it and never return. And Robinson's barside manner, courteous and charming, will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy long before the whiskey has made any serious inroads.

You want them to always be there when you need them, but that's just plain selfish. Bartenders have lives too. And Robinson has been pretty busy lately: his career in the local theater scene has taken off in the past few years to include roles in The Lights at ODC and Stop Kiss at Brava. One of our personal favorites, it must be said, was his portrayal of the king of France in Sex-Club Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, in which lucky audience members caught a glimpse of his majesty's naked hind quarters. But we'll happily see Robinson in any state of dress, and the next week offers plenty of chances. There's always Mondays at Bar, of course, but Robinson is also finishing up a run in The Winter's Tale for San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's "Free Shakespeare in the Park" and starring as Mercutio in SFSF's Romeo and Juliet at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre.

Simone de la Getto

The first time we saw Simone de la Getto was, appropriately enough, at the Make-Out Room. It was a warm night, the room was a sauna, and Simone wasn't cooling anybody down. Dressed in a teddy, she performed a burlesque number for the crowd of entranced admirers and, for her grand finale, lit a torch and fed on the flames. Since then we've been lucky enough to see Simone all over town. As a traditional burlesque performer, she's danced with the San Francisco Burlesque Troupe and the Cantankerous Lollies and now performs solo, adding songs to the mix. As a sex educator, she's worked at Good Vibrations and performed in films such as Please Don't Stop: Lesbian Tips for Givin' and Gettin' It and Sugar High Glitter City, which, as she puts it, "focus on women's sexual pleasure and health ... a.k.a. porn!!!!" She also teaches a workshop called "Teasin' and Pleasin': Stripping for Yourself and Your Lover" (for women only, coming to the Harvey Milk Institute in December). As an erotic dancer, she has performed for 11 years at the Lusty Lady, the only unionized strip club in the country. And just to keep the kids happy, Simone gets up and go-gos at various dance clubs around town. Until last week's final night, she performed at the Stud's Club Red every month and at Hot Pants (26 Mix on fourth Fridays). Her moves practically start a riot on the dance floor, inspiring the crowd to shake it like they never knew they could.

Cate Riegner

Aside from Nicolas Cage in that Wings of Desire rip-off and the airbrushed ladies in the Victoria's Secret catalog, angels aren't necessarily seen as the sexiest creatures on earth. They're kind of above all that. But when it comes to artAngels founder Cate Riegner, we're forced to make an exception. After all, times are tough and government funding has dwindled, so anyone looking to ease the local art scene's economic pains deserves a double take. Riegner is the founder and research director of market research and consulting firm Media-Screen. When she entered Absolut Vodka's 1999 "Absolut Angel" business-plan contest, she drew inspiration from her own struggles to raise funds for Kunst-stoff – the innovative local dance company she'd cofounded – through traditional fundraising efforts. Riegner submitted her idea for a Web site that would bring together fledgling arts organizations and the people who could help them get off the ground by volunteering services, attending shows, or donating money. In March 2000 she won a $50,000 grant to put her plan into action, and by March 2001, artAngels.org was live. With artAngels, Riegner seeks to build a community online by providing connections, and in doing so, she strengthens the arts community that already exists.

Traci des Jardins

Organic tomatoes, grass-fed beef, and a fly ball's proximity to Pacific Bell Park – what more could you want in a 21st-century San Francisco steak house? Well, not all the tables at Acme Chophouse are being booked by environmentally conscious carnivores or steak-loving Giants fans. Managing chef Traci des Jardins has her own fan club.

Aficionados of her vigorous, big-flavored California cuisine have followed her around the city, from her beginnings at Aqua and Elka's to her high-profile stints at Rubicon and the whimsically eponymous Jardinière. Along the way she honed her skills while working with other swoon-worthy talents such as Elka Gilmore and pastry chef Elizabeth Faulkner – part of the second generation of female chefs eager to turn French-trained proficiency into delicious innovation. In des Jardins's hands, foie gras turned to velvet, and Jardinière became the sexiest dining in town.

After numerous long, hot years on the line, des Jardins is shifting into a more managerial role, working to boost the social and environmental consciousness of both Jardinière and Acme Chophouse, from the kitchen to the plate. From serving hormone-free, pasture-raised meats and sustainably grown produce to instituting recycling and composting programs and a realistic living-wage scale for employees, des Jardins is helping turn California cuisine into a way of life. And for that she can cook us breakfast – or lunch or dinner – anytime.