Hey!

I'm Darwin and my birthday is usually the first full day of summer (June 22nd.) I was born and raised in the S.F. Bay area in California, but have made thorough rounds of the lower 48 over the past ten years. Having made it to Alaska this year, my state count is now at: 49! Hawaii, here I come (sooner or later)!

I like to travel and learn, create art through multiple mediums, read and write; I am an avid friend-maker, and I shoot film photographs with my trusty Canon AE-1; I enjoy conversations of all kinds, drinking good beer with good folks at a full table, making live music with people I've never played with, joking out loud and laughing, and making the world around me a better place.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm on Couch Surfing because I have no time to waste by being afraid to live. I want to meet new people and see their world through their eyes. (When I can,) I want to host travelers and be the guy who lends his hand for help or fun when called upon. I travel much, way more often than I stay put, but I have been known to invite surfers when in the right situation to host. I want to know of people and write books about my adventures!

Interests

I'm interested in everything!

I like creative writing (currently working on a year-long project I call Letters from Nonsense.) I bake from scratch and love to jam (I play any instrument I can get my hands on and I'm addicted to Garage Band on the iPad 2.) I would be more interested in film photography if it weren't so expensive, haha... I am interested in learning, and all that goes along with developing new skills and states of mind/perception. I like to learn new hobbies and try ones out that catch my mind (I want to learn to juggle, drive a car with the driver's wheel on the other side, concept draw etc.)

I smile almost all the time-- and on that note, happiness and freedom are my biggest interests in life.

• arts
• writing
• books
• photography
• beer
• drinking
• traveling
• juggling
• drawing
• music
• live music
• guitar
• surfing

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: You GOTTA check out The Iron Horse by the Sound Defects! When I get drunk I like to spit Tupac lyrics over some of the songs on that album. Frank Sinatra is a great go-to for softer music, and who doesn't love Patsy Cline? The drummer in me loves punk bands like NOFX and Propagandi, classic rock and bassy house music. I grew up listening to rap and hip-hop on the west coast, and can dig all most all multi-cultural and foreign musics. I also have a strong love for non-lyrical music: Jascha Heifetz, Glenn Gould, the classic composers...

Movies: Watching A Lust for Life (the Kirk Douglas film about van Gogh) has done more for me than a lot of things 'better than a movie.' I've only seen the first Beetles movie. Paper Moon has a hard-to-budge place in my movie-heart. Ooh, for some reason I could watch Saving Private Ryan 110 in a row and not get tired of it... I think they should make an Arrested Development movie and revive Daria, haha.. Oh, and DIE HARD 1 and 3!

Books: I'm currently reading three books that I picked up today from a Little Free Library: Tony Hillerman's mystery Dance Hall of the Dead; What's Worth Knowing by Wendy Lustbader; and the story of surfing, Sweetness and Blood, by Michael Scott Moore. Since becoming a writer, I've read and not finished reading a lot of the classics. Jack London stories excite me, The Steppenwolf changed me for the better in high school, I like to read in linguistics (S. I. Hayakawa), science and the related (Carl Sagan has some interesting books)... My reading and not knowing the ending of Moby Dick was ruined half way through by an old, "mindful" hippy in Vermont (he told me the ending, then I threw my copy in Lake Champlain).. I love reading!

Yondering, Louis L'amour
That book about Joshua Slocum sailing around the world alone
Perfume (and that novella the Pidgeon), Patrick Suskind
Redwall, Brian Jacques
Forrest Gump (the book is WAY better)
Rolling Stone

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I've been to all the lower 48 states and Alaska!

Teach, Learn, Share

Passion inspires;
Obsession drives.

I teach what I can, learn what I can, share what I can.

What I Can Share with Hosts

My enthusiasm and unique perspective, my guitar skills, and maybe a bread recipe or two ;)