Founding Gobbies
Mike Michalski
Caught feral, floppy-haired and bitey in the prairie, and having been raised by opossums, his table manners and social contracts were at a low bar to say the least. After deworming and a thorough tick scrub, he was placed in the care of some south Chicago neighborhood serfs. Through growing up in the urban jungle, over time he started wearing clothes (first shirts, then pants – a critical step in his cultural awareness – and eventually, forcefully, shoes) and making friends(albeit mostly with rats) and learning the heathen common tongue somewhat more slowly than other children, he became an oddity and shunned from the iron fist rule of 3rd grade - an urban legend known as the 'South Side Goblin Boy.' True to his name, he could be found at dusk, scrabbling through dumpsters with a banana peel in his teeth, barded in discarded stuffed animals and Playmobil house paneling for which to make a stealthy escape into any passing junk trucks.
Currently, he is found at the TrashGoblins HQ in Oak Lawn, where he applies his raw skills of garbage fabrication towards making cosplay, woodwork, laser cut items, paintings, illustrations, booger art and footprints he rigs up with macaroni to look like turkeys. If you approach carefully and offer shiny rocks (FOR CRIPES SAKE, WITH AN OPEN PALM), he skitter out of his hermitage and sing you the warbling song of the scavenge-crafter. Watch your fingers.
Niki "Chu" DeFrancisco
At risk of not wanting this to sound like a CV, nor a rambling list of skills and hobbies - many of which seem entirely unrelated - we will say that Nicole (Niki) DeFrancisco is, above all else, a facilitator. She always seems to have knowledge of or experience with whatever the totally obscure thing is that you're talking to her about, and she can connect you to her BFF from circa 2002 who now owns and operates a professional outfit for said thing. You'd like to call her bluff, but either she's crazy or she's right. Some have tried to undermine her (silly thing to do to Gobbies given their subterranean lodging preferences)...Some MAY have even tried to "fact check" via FB or some other means... only to find that she's 100% for cereal (Fruity Pebbles, actually).
HOW DOES SHE HAVE THE TIME FOR ALL OF THIS?!?! Simple. She's a time sorceress with a life-long infatuation with efficiency. She's so good at it, she manages to (some say) occupy space in both Chicago and the Metro Atlanta areas simultaneously! Alas...fear not, slackers! She only uses her powers for the greater good! Why, though, when she could just choose to become supreme goblin empress of the underworld? Easy. Her dedication to "getting s**t done" is only surpassed by her Prime Directive to love all humans and do everything in her power to make life better for the ones that make it into her periphery. Note: we did NOT say "her family" or "her inner circle" or whatever. We MEAN...*periphery*. If she sees you so much as peek at her from behind a distant tree or rock or - god forbid - window, she will march up to you, demand to know your life's story and deepest darkest twisty-est stuff, befriend you instantly, not talk to you again for the preceding year and then see a post on FB that you are working on a passion project and really need help with [blank] and just explode immediately out of the ground, armed with the info of several contacts that have exactly the things or knowledge you seek, two beers, a donation, a podcast and a book she likes about this thing, and your favorite shoelaces you lost in the 3rd grade ...and then apologize for having to cut it short cause she's gotta get to a meeting for this BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) seminar fundraiser she's working on.
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If Mike is the resident designer, scavenger/forager, tinkerer, and builder of the Trashgoblin engine, Niki is the utilities manager and systems operator, often fueling it on sheer willpower alone. The girl LOVES a spreadsheet. She's been known to use them as Mike wards at Trashgoblins HQ to keep him out of her sock drawer. She'd ask what he could possibly want with her socks, but, sadly, that list would probably be longer than her "To Do" list...
