CURRENT MISSION

In a search for cinematic moments.

ABOUT ME

I should admit that I've been staring intently at this section for the best part of an hour. I go to write something, stop...then delete it. I think it's probably because we aren't really meant to sell ourselves in such a way: to make someone like you from a simple (or in some cases not so simple) description. How warm and intriguing can a collection of words make you seem? Perhaps this says more about me than anything else. I'm a neurotic, and by all accounts, a dreamer in life. Until now I have had the tendency to prefer the idea of something rather than actually doing it. I have thought of travelling the world for quite some time now, to meet people who are interesting, unusual, intelligent, thought provoking and who can show some kind human spirit to a wandering traveler. I now need to travel and explore, mere dreaming is not enough. Up until now I've been a student of English Literature for the past five years of my life, only occasionally have I been able to see parts of the world, but even then it was in a constricted limiting manner. I've recently graduated and plan to embark on a career as a freelance film journalist, having completed an internship for a national culture magazine. I would say most people describe me as a gentle giant - my nature belying my 6ft 7 inch frame (don't worry I do fit into most beds...I've carried out tests. I'm not expecting to meet best friends for life in every house that I enter, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I would hope to make connections that will stay with me for a long time; I guess that's essentially what travelling is to me. To make connections with everything around me - the landscape, the culture and most of all the people of other places. For nowhere is simply "somewhere", and I want to try to feel truly part of everywhere I go.

PHILOSOPHY

I'm hoping to live life as seriously as possible without having to be serious.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I currently have no experience couch-surfing. I'm a blank canvas! Hoping to meet a few experienced couch-surfers who can show me the ropes (or the couch in this instance (I swear I'm wittier in person!))

Interests

Old Cinema Houses, Music, Flemish Art, Abstract Art, Belgian Beer, New World Wine, Indian Food, Architecture, Walking around deserted places with headphones on, Walking around crowded places with headphones on, Going to music gigs, making lists, piling new unread books up really really high and thinking of all the potential they have. Potential.

I also rate almost everything which I consume - Books, Films, Music, Beers, Food. I am constantly looking for the best of something, to experience something greater than I have before and log it down forever, as part of my experience in life.

• arts
• culture
• books
• literature
• architecture
• dining
• wine
• indian food
• beer
• walking
• movies
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• surfing
• freelancing
• journalism

Music, Movies, and Books

I always feel like this is a very lifeless way of trying to find common ground with people, but I suppose it is needed under such circumstances, so here we go.

I'm interested in books...here are some books which have made me more interested in books : The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Stranger by Albert Camus, most things by Georges Perec (sorry if that isn't very helpful in us establishing common ground), A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, The Red and The Black by Stendhal, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov, Pale Fire and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes (probably the first book which opened me up to the magical escapism which literature can afford you).

I'm interested in films... here are some films which have made me more interested in films : Annie Hall, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Vivre Sa Vie, The Graduate, Lost in Translation, Harold and Maude, Synecdoche New York, Pelisky, Un Homme Qui Dort, Persona, The Third Man, Before Sunrise, Cinema Paradiso, Alice in The City, Claire's Knee, Breathless, City of God, Rear Window, A Separation, Melancholia, The Circus, Dogtooth and The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. (Should note that this isn't a definitive list of my favourite films, just a sort of sample group)

I'm interested in music...here is some musicians and groups which have made me more interested in music : BRIAN ENO, Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Interpol, Mogwai, M83, Arcade Fire, My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Slowdive, Tycho, Air, Broken Social Scene, Beach House, Boards of Canada, Ulrich Schnauss, Active Child, The Knife, Deerhunter, Lykke Li, Robyn, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Belle & Sebastian, Four Tet, Burial, Caribou, Grizzly Bear, Deerhunter, James Blake, Stars of the Lid, Galaxie 500, William Basinski, Loscil, Christina Vantzou, Grouper, Fennesz, Jefre Cantu Ledesma, Oneohtrix Point Never, Yellow Swans, SWANS, David Bowie, Hall and Oats, Kate Bush, Sparks, Joy Division, Velvet Underground, The Kinks, Sonic Youth...I really should stop now, but there is so much ground I haven't covered, so please have some patience take a sip of whatever you have by your side and continue to find things in common with me...Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Built to Spill, Archers of Loaf, Pixies, Fugazi, Black Flag, Spiritualized, Sebadoh, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Unwound, Bikini Kill, PJ Harvey, Arthur Russell, Robert Wyatt, R. Stevie Moore, Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Orange Juice, Paul Simon, Simon and Garfunkel, Talk Talk, Cat Stevens, Cat Power, Elliott Smith, Sun Kill Moon, Daniel Johnston, Yann Tiersen, Steve Reich, Phillip Glass, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Sun Ra, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Skip James, Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, Arnold Schonberg, Gyorgi Ligeti, Bela Bartok. I also like a lot of music before the years of 1900, but can't confess to know as much about that and I feel as if I should stop now anyway.