CURRENT MISSION

SHARE HUGS LUV & GREAT FOOD. . . AND Underground Wed @ 8p

ABOUT ME

NOTE: WE ARE UNABLE TO HOST BUT STILL GET SEVERAL REQUESTS A DAY - PLS Check your hosts availability preferences BEFORE msging or couch requesting. UPTOWN NEW ORLEANS AND DOWNTOWN SF BABY, WITH TRANNY HOOKERS ON THE FRONT LAWN AS GOD INTENDED. We are back and forth every month or so. First of all I'm insanely, UNUSUALLY open about my life. I've even written a play about it which just opened in SF, which you can find out more about HERE. Male couple, still INSANELY, dorkily, sickeningly in love, together 10 yrs (married 9) not so many gay friends (considering this is SF and even more surprising since I work in theater) but GOD KNOWS we're open to everything. We work in design, theater and film. Enzo has directed 4 short documentaries, mostly political, and wrote a travel sex column for 7 years and one play that is about to open in San Francisco. David has done several local ad campaigns and designed everything from websites to underwear packaging to UCLA textbooks. We both work from home and LOVE it. Enzo is Sicilian and Czech (from Baltimore), and David is Mexican, Cajun and a mix of American Indian tribes, from San Diego.

PHILOSOPHY

ALWAYS BE KIND AND OPEN; BE FEARLESS, FOCUSED AND FLEXIBLE, AND LOVE IS UNAVOIDABLE.
Give as much as you can give without having expectations. If you find yourself disappointed with the results, you may have given too much. Find the balance that works best for you.
"If you don't ask, the answer is always NO."
Art is whatever fills your life, whether it's paintings, porn or infomercials. What fills your life, what does your art mean to you and what does it say about you? (can you smell the ex-buddhism?)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

The real goldmine of CS to me isn't even the free couches - it's the access to the locals. Enzo organizes SF cheap food and local indie theater events at local places tourists usually don't find. CS doesn't come with the normal "getting to know you" "make time in my schedule" baggage that normal acquaintances come with. There is a certain kind of person that is open to this experience - most people are not or find it "interesting" but would never do it. I think it also poses a challenge to what we normally think of as friendship. Community is way more than people sleeping on your couch. It's being able to feel like a local wherever you go, having access to locals wherever you go, and giving visitors a local perspective when they visit wherever you call home. San Francisco has the best quality cheap food in the world, and I've been everywhere. Like many Sicilians, I'm super passionate about local food and hangouts. It's a huge part of what I experience when I'm travelling and at home. I love to show people local places to eat that they wouldn't discover as tourists, that's what we like to do when we travel. Though married to the LOVE of my life for 9 years, we're STILL HUGE food whores and ALWAYS WILL BE. COME TO CS UNDERGROUND EVERY WEDNEDSDAY IN SF!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I backpacked from the time I was 15 until around 30. When i wrote my travel column, I always had to immediately break away from the tourists. I always knew if there was a gay place/cafe in town I could always meet someone local and fun, stay with them a few days or just be shown around. Then when they visited the US or London (depending where I was living) we would meet up again and I would show them around like they did for me. It was like an exchange, which is sort of like what we now do with hometrading.

Interests

Food and culture. Travel. We like to meet people when travelling and show people San Francisco, especially our great food. Enzo is video director (3 documentaries, mostly on Civil Right and Progressive CA politics) theater producer/standup comic/ex travel journalist, longtime backpacker. David is graphic designer, completely new to travel since Enzo, has near-encyclopedic knowledge on almost everything (I've never been with anyone smarter than me before - though I've always been very modest about it) and NOT much fun on a long flight or anywhere there isn't good water pressure. Whenever we travelled, we wanted to experience actually living in the cities, have an apartment in a real neighborhood, go food shopping, cook, etc. We discovered home exchange (like couchsurfing except you you stay at each other's homes at the same time) and have been trading homes with people all over the world, mostly Europe, since 2001. We have made great friends but also love advising people who visit San Francisco.

• arts
• culture
• theater
• design
• graphic design
• documentaries
• dining
• cooking
• shopping
• politics
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• backpacking
• buddhist
• journalism

Music, Movies, and Books

Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia. Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida.

Music: MIKA, Robbie Williams

Directors: Kevin Smith, Rob Rodriguez, John Cameron Mitchell, and OY GUILLERMO DEL TORO.

Our favorite film of all time is "A Little Romance" (1978) w Diane Lane. Close second would be "The Polar Express" - it is much deeper than a cartoon about Christmas. It is about vision - about believing in something you can't necessary see or prove - it is the only way to create great change in the world - is to have vision.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Oy, which one? SURVIVED OUR F*CKED UP FAMILIES for starters. I flew over the North Pole once and saw the sun setting behind me and rising in front of me - that's pretty hard to catch. Hiked the Great Wall. Power hang-gliding (ultralighting) in Hawaii. Beat lymphatic cancer TWICE. Learned to train elephants in Thailand. Worked as a street musician in the Paris Metro and London underground. Lived on a kibbutz (or as my goombah uncles would call it, a "kaputz") in Israel. Worked as an air courier for years to Asia. Met my husband online and drove 500 miles to have our first date. Moved to guatemala city without speaking a word of spanish and in 6 weeks taught a computer skills class IN SPANISH - with just that 6 weeks of training. I was more or less fluent (probably speak like a child) in 3 months.

Teach, Learn, Share

Love to share local food and visit local places when we travel. What we love about hometrading, like couchsurfing except you are in each other's place at the same time, is how you get to live in a local neighborhood of a city rather than the tourist center. We share lots of local information and get to experience different cities as locals.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bermuda, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Thailand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Guatemala, Israel, United Kingdom, United States

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