CURRENT MISSION

To change the world, one audience at a time.

ABOUT ME

I'm pretty eclectic by nature. I can be very gregarious at times, yet I'm always observing, always studying. I can fit in nearly anywhere and with any crowd. Politically I'm very liberal, yet I refuse to always toe the party line with absolute faith. I will listen, admittedly sometimes briefly, to other sides and will agree with the more conservative views once in a while. I'm loyal to a fault, a perpetual optimist, and very even tempered.

PHILOSOPHY

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead
"Do more with less" --Bucky Fuller
"Even though I can make my own budgets, I always ask for less money than we need so that you have to be more creative, you have to strip it down. " --Robert Rodriguez
"I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can" -- Babe Ruth
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard, grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."--Webb Wilder

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None yet through this site, but as an aging Deadhead, I've crashed many places, and offered up my space many times.

Interests

I'm a photographer/filmmaker (mainly documentary) by trade. I've worked freelance for about 13 years now, and can't imagine what else I could do. I love the freedom of this job. Also I'm curious by nature - about everything and everybody. This allows me a chance to live inside another world, if only for a brief time. I get to experience some great things through my work. I can tell you what it is like to be on the road with Willie Nelson, to captain a blimp, to march with Dr. King, to be a rodeo cowboy, and to work in a lab hoping to cure cancer. I get to do all of this without years of experience, licenses, time travel, broken bones, or medical school diplomas.

I like books, flyfishing, kayaking, surfing, swimming and baseball. Art shows, all types of music, driving through the night, the desert, Grateful Dead, camping, bold colors, Hunter S. Thompson, Andrei Codrescu, and Larry McMurtry. New Orleans, Venice Beach, Durango, and NYC. History, travel, Macs, bicycles, modern design, and everything Aaron Sorkin has done.

I'm active in the independent film industry. I sit on the board of directors for the Kansas City FilmFest, and serve as one of the senior programmers. I've been on panels at Slamdance, and the Temecula Valley International Film and Music Festival, judged the KC 48 Hour Film Project, and KC Creepfest, plus spoke at colleges from Missouri to Maine. I attend about 4 -6 film festivals every year.

• arts
• books
• design
• photography
• documentaries
• film making
• festivals
• mardi gras
• film festivals
• dancing
• partying
• traveling
• music
• country music
• hiking
• kayaking
• camping
• hunting
• surfing
• baseball
• swimming
• freelancing
• history
• software
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Books - Shepard of the Hills, On the Road, The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, Travels With Charley, Walden, Where the Red Fern Grows, A River Runs Through It, pretty much anything by Larry McMurtry, Ken Kesey, Andrei Codrescu, Hunter Thompson.

Movies - Dazed and Confused, State and Main, El Mariachi, Spellbound, The Searchers, Billy Jack, American Flyers, Rio Bravo, His Girl Friday, Smoke Signals, Clerks

TV - West Wing, Boston Legal, The Shield, Treme, Newsroom, Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip, SportsNight

Music - Chris LeDeoux, The Grateful Dead, Willie Nelson, Kermit Ruffins, Trombone Shorty, Aaron Neville, Webb Wilder, Uncle Tupelo, Blind Boys of Alabama, Kid Rock, Reverend Horton Heat, Elvis, Diana Krall, Janis Joplin, Gram Parsons, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Shooter Jennings, Dolly Parton, String Cheese Incident, Ramones, The Clash

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've jumped out of a plane and off of a bridge. Delivered a baby calf, stood in the Oval Office, and slept overnight on a park bench. I've had lunch with movie stars and dinner at a homeless shelter, and a fascinating conversation at both. I've seen the sunrise on the coast of Maine, and the sunset from the Santa Monica Pier. From the floor of Yosemite Valley to the Acoma sky city in New Mexico to the windswept landscape of west Texas and the lushness of the Natchez Trace trail, I'm forever inspired by the sites I see and the people I meet. From the voodoo priestess in New Orleans, to the peace activist bus driver. The Seattle street mime to the Maine Lobsterman who once danced on Broadway, I cherish them all.

I've might drive 3000 mile in a roofless, doorless Jeep to see a childhood hero inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY, or spend a day hiking the Flint Hills of Kansas. I love big cities and small towns. From touching the Liberty Bell to kissing a country music superstar, from dancing down Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras to hanging out on Willie Nelsons tour bus, my life has been a pretty crazy ride. And you ain't seen nothing yet...

Teach, Learn, Share

photography, filmmaking and the movie industry, Mac computers, various photo/video related software

What I Can Share with Hosts

I do a mean tour of the Ozark mountains, Route 66, and all the local hot spots. Happy to show you around if I can free up my work schedule. Since I freelance, I normally have a lot of freedom.