I am a painter (brianjohnschaefer.com) and a filmmaker (reelpacific.com) and a writer (brianjohnschaefer.wordpress.com)and I make some money building cloud-based digital asset systems to organize and consolidate all of your important media and digital files. I freelance for marketing teams at companies who hire me to clean up their horrible digital messes. It is often tedious but rewarding. I was in entertainment photography and news for too long and worked at the Golden Globes, Oscars, Super Bowl, Grammys, fashion weeks, festivals, etc, every year. I like all kinds of music but lately I've been listening to a lot of hip hop and electronica. I am also a former cook who worked at Mediterranean, Italian, nouveau and American restaurants in college. I do not want children and I am happily single for first time in years. My personality? I am ENFP as well as a Capricorn, born two days before Christmas. I am a curious soul who can talk w/ anyone and people often will open up with their lives and feelings and trust me. I do not judge. And I am gracious with my time and heart. I am an introvert who forgets he's an introvert.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am finally returning to "the road" after too many years stuck in L.A. where I have worked and worked and done little else. When I was younger, my wife became sick w/ cancer and I took care of her for almost 10 years. She has since passed and is no longer in pain...and now I want to begin where I stopped...and travel and resume my life of adventure, which I used to have...commercial fisherman in Alaska, coffee mill worker and merchant marine in New Orleans, protective marine wildlife advocate in Baja Mexico where I helped sea tortoise by cleaning lost fishing nets from the ocean and guarding their beach nests, a ski bum in British Columbia, a free speech activist and fund-raiser in D.C. etc). I vote but I do not follow politics obsessively like I used to. There are better things to do.

Interests

• writing
• photography
• film making
• sketching
• music festivals
• cooking
• painting
• live music
• guitar
• ukulele
• food
• learning new things
• meeting new people

Music, Movies, and Books

Jack White, Henry Miller, David Lynch, Huber Selby Jr,, Wilco, Paul Thomas Anderson, Patti Smith, The Cure, Francis Bacon, Arthur Rimbaud, Stereolab, Velvet Underground, Edward Munch

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've saved my younger brother from drowning...twice. One time we were playing a prank and swimming beneath a pontoon boat of some girls we knew, and when he surfaced, he knocked his head and temporarily lost consciousness. I saw him sinking and swam to shore with him. Another time the rip tide was carrying him out with the waves and I swam out and grabbed him and got us both to shore.. The weather turned bad in a matter of minutes. So, he owes me.