CURRENT MISSION

Explore. Find a path, or several. Possibly cure restlessness, but maybe not.

ABOUT ME

I'm 25, a graduate of Bard College in upstate NY where I studied, among other things, history and English literature. I love exploring new places, especially when I have some recommendations from trusty locals that will keep me away from the tourist traps. I'm happier out in nature than in the heart of a major city, but I think both have their upsides and downsides, and I've found ways to be content in both environments. I've moved around a fair bit in the past couple years, from New York, to San Francisco, to Philadelphia, with stints in upstate NY and New Orleans. I've worked for non-profits, on a nationally syndicated radio show, in coffee shops, and on a goat micro-dairy. Although I've traveled a fair amount, there are always new places I want to go - I suppose I'm fairly restless in general.

PHILOSOPHY

Learn, explore, and avoid indoctrination.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

At the moment I'm new to it, although I hope that changes really soon. I'm looking forward to surfing, and I'm excited to host once I'm settled somewhere I can call home.

Interests

Movies (everything from goofy 80s sci-fi, to French noir, to Czech new wave, to silent epics), food and cooking/food crafting, food activism, hangin' with animals, beer and brewing, travel, art (found objects, found sounds, mixed media, paint, cardboard), noise-as-music, photography, history, books (everything from Thomas Pynchon to John Milton)

• animals
• arts
• books
• literature
• photography
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• coffee
• movies
• traveling
• painting
• music
• surfing
• sailing
• swimming
• communications
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:
Jean-Pierre Melville's gangster films, anything by Seijun Sezuki/Japanese noir, Hausu, Black Narcissus, The Rules of the Game, Aki Kaurismäki's movies, Red Desert, Seven Samurai, Night Train to Munich, Elevator to the Gallows, Shoot the Piano Player, Rome Open City, Battle of Algiers, Z, Die Hard, weird-o sci-fi and horror, Barton Fink, experimental films from Stan Brakhage and Paul Clipson. The list goes on and on.

Books:
Moby Dick, Paradise Lost, V/Gravity's Rainbow/Mason & Dixon/Against the Day, The Three Musketeers, works by Faulkner, Cortozar, Bolano, Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy, Homer, Virgil, Vargas Llosa, Garcia Marquez, Vonnegut, Foster Wallace, Don DeLillo, Jim Shepard, Tolstoy, Charles Simic, etc. etc.

Music:
So many things. Classic pop hits from the Beach Boys, 60s Ethiopian R&B, West African Taureg guitar, Vietnamese folk music, indie rock, free jazz, noise, drone, micro-tonal, krautrock. Favorite artists at the moment include Tarentel, Grouper, Boubacar Traoré, Alameyahu Eshete, Aaron Dilloway, Nicholas Bullen........

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Driving across America, the Grand Canyon (touristy but truly breathtaking), sunrise and sunset over Halong Bay in Vietnam, swarms of monkeys in the Dominican jungle, medieval churches in Istanbul, towering redwoods in California, delivering baby goats, night swimming in the Adriatic, sailing in the Caribbean

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States