CURRENT MISSION

intrinsic motivation to cooperate - not to compete - is what defines us as a species

ABOUT ME

Like most, an odd combination of the externally-imposed and the self-fashioned, with however, a rather extensive miscellaneous array of both. Strong Gallic, Anglo-Saxon, Mediterranean and Luso-Latin undertones, from both sides of the Atlantic and the Equator.

PHILOSOPHY

hunter-gatherer primitivism

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

you know, the usual. I have surfed and hosted.

Interests

Searching for a vernacular sort of cosmopolitanism in both other people and myself, with an effort to both overcome and continue a somewhat bourgeois sort of cosmopolitanism.
As I get older, my interest in what seems like all places and people has grown considerably.
I really enjoy walking and travelling in no particular direction. I like to do the flâneur-thing alone, and also with my sons (age 5 and 2)

• walking
• drinking
• traveling
• music
• hunting
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

Of late, enjoying David Foster Wallace and Roberto Bolaño. Doing some writing.
I always find myself returning to Coetzee and Chatwin; Houellebecq and Vollmann annoy me, but I find it hard to stop reading them. Somehow into Michael Taussig, too, but not entirely.
Films: far too many. I like Herzong, Woody Allen, Harmony Korine, Milos Forman, some Greenaway, Mike Leigh, Todd Solondz.
Can never get enough of JS Bach.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I once went around the world in about three weeks in a rather confusing combination of trains, planes, boats, metros, tuk-tuks, taxis, a lot of walking, one 4000m summit, an academic conference, a week without drinking, a kufiya bought in the Gulf before they were made in China in colour, and very little sleeping. But I'd omitted to tell my (then)wife and my mother (among other people) about the circumnavigation-thing until after I got back. A few months later, I was standing on the sea-ice on Baffin Island with a headache and bad sunglasses, and a few weeks later still, I was hiding from the sun on a beach in Bahia-Brazil with an enormous beard.

Teach, Learn, Share

I indulge in a little too much teaching in my profession. Would much rather learn at this stage. I miss playing music with people, too.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Germany, Guyana, Malawi, Malaysia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Portugal, Qatar, Slovakia, Spain, Suriname, Switzerland, Thailand, United States, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Algeria, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Peru, United Kingdom, United States

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