Bio of Mark Bittner
I was born in 1951 in Vancouver, Washington, which is not the city in Canada, but a much smaller town across the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon. In 1969, after graduating from high school, I backpacked through Europe, staying mostly in Germany, England, and Greece. When I returned to the US, I moved to Seattle, where I spent several years working on singing, songwriting, and learning guitar. In 1973, I moved to Berkeley, California with the aim of starting my climb up the ladder of success. But my fantasy collapsed and I ended up living on the streets of San Francisco where I spent many years in spiritual search. In 1993, while caretaking an estate on Telegraph Hill, I started up a relationship with an exotic flock of wild parrots, which led to a book and a documentary film, both titled The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. I married the filmmaker, Judy Irving, and today we live on Telegraph Hill. In 2006, I began work on a manuscript called Street Song, which tells the tale of my journey to the street. I also have made a set of recordings to accompany the book, called Street Songs. The book is finished and in the hands of my agent who is looking for a publisher. The song recordings are finished as well—mixed and mastered, waiting for publication of my book.
