I'm always trying to learn about the world (and myself), whether it be as a deliberate nomad, visitor, or longer-term resident. After a long stretch of alternating between open-ended travel and quiet isolation in familiar surroundings, I'm settling for a while in the hectic city of Chicago, thanks to an opportune appointment with Americorps/VISTA.

As for the rest, well, I was born in Ohio to a short Mexican mother and a taller Anglo-Ohioan father. My heart (and taste for food) is Mexican, so I'm finding my voice as a Chicano in Chicago. My Midwest American upbringing means I am also guided by a strong impulse towards self-determination, bound by a live-and-let-live philosophy, and proud of my capacity to make the most out of threadbare conditions.

But lest I come across as a grass-chewing country boy, my philosophical leaning is French, as I continue to be fascinated by the implications of things like poststructuralism, deconstruction, and postmodernism.

My dancing owes a lot to William Forsythe, house dance, Brazilian samba and capoeira, and Japanese Butoh.

My biggest inspirations in life are those late bloomers who took a long time to find their voice; people like Henry Miller (author), Pierre Verger (photographer), and Edgard Varèse (composer).

My ideal girlfriend would be a lanky, sharp-witted, peace-loving gal who is adept at more than one language and doesn't mind rolling her eyes at my funny ways.

What else is there to say?

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I've been an unofficial couch-surfer, house-sitter, and improviser of places to sleep for years and years. It hasn't always been ideal, but it's been interesting—like the time I slept sitting upright on a La-Z-Boy chair for three weeks in San Francisco, comfortably. I didn't think it was possible, but I did it.

As for actual CouchSurfing, I somehow still haven't officially been obliged to use it. But hey, here's my profile!

Interests

I used to take a lot of pictures and spend too long in coffee shops. Nowadays I'm doing some of that, but also biking and walking the streets of Chicago, getting to know a place that is familiar to me (I came here a lot in my 20s) but in a different way.

This wandering sometimes helps me find cool things and people to connect with. I am still a bit of a dancer, with a degree to prove it, but I don't have much formal training (I came into it as a DJ and techno dancer, more like). I love books, but cannot currently carry many of them around with me. I am borrowing one of those e-readers right now, but I'm not sure how I feel about it yet...

• writing
• books
• poetry
• dancing
• capoeira
• dining
• coffee
• walking
• drinking
• traveling
• cycling

Music, Movies, and Books

My taste in music owes a lot to my ability to traverse between realms of high and low, back country and big city, margin and center. My biggest influences are the music of Detroit and Berlin (techno, avant-garde, industrial, electro, garage punk, soul/funk, blues) as well as that of Brazil and New Orleans. Disco and boogie are in there, too, not to mention the house music of Chicago and New York. Jazz also continues to blow my mind (especially the music of Sun Ra and my unsung hometown hero, Rahsaan Roland Kirk).

But there are two types of music that have really awakened me lately. First, what might be called "noise" music, or that which exists in the realm of sound art, environmental, experimental, and musique concrète—from Pierre Henry and Daphne Oram in the 1950s-60s to latter-day artists like Aube and Cindytalk. It's stunned me to learn how little I still know about that music, even after listening to it for 20-plus years.

Second, is what everyone wants to call "Classical" music, but I simply call "music for..." (piano, violin, orchestra, or whatever it may be). Music that is written down and brought to life, usually by others. I was very poorly educated about all of that music, from Vivaldi to Saariaho, and now I'm catching up big time. It's been a massive effort to educate myself, as I've immersed myself in the lessons of Bach, Haydn, Clementi, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann (Clara and Robert), Chopin, and then skipping the schmaltzy Romantic era (for now) to get back up to Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Chaminade, Stravinsky, and the rest of the 20th century avant-gardsists I have always found intriguing. The connections are more clear to me now than ever before. (In short, if we're to be pals, we'll likely be talking about music!)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

They happen daily, if I am paying attention keenly enough. One great one that comes to mind was just a small thing that happened while sitting at a café in Portland, Maine, with a friend. He was expressing his frustration with fatherhood, just venting. That's when I pointed out that the mug he was drinking his coffee out of said DAD. It was like a little smirk from the universe. Those things happen a lot, if you're paying attention.

Teach, Learn, Share

Most of the time, I have lived a rather safe (and somewhat unambitious) existence, but once in a while, I've taken some forays into excitement, creative activity, and itinerant living. Ask me more about that when we see each other.

Lately, I've really trying to let the old life fall away, along with the assumptions about what I can and can't do. The purpose for me now, is to get to know something deeper about the world through real-time communication, listening, images, words, meals, journeys, meetings, rendezvous, or moments of fleeting poetry. I'm open.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Scotland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, Mexico, United States