CURRENT MISSION

Istanbul.

ABOUT ME

I listen.
I try.
I consider.

Was born in Winston-Salem, NC; Was a kid for a while in Maine; grew up in Rutherfordton; went to school in Asheville

Now I'm in Istanbul.

PHILOSOPHY

"I exist as I am that is enough
If no other in the world be aware I sit content
And if each and all be aware I sit content...

Unscrew the locks from the doors!
Unscrew doors from the jambs!
Whoever degrades another degrades me... and whatever is
done or said returns at last to me,
And whatever I do or say I also return...

To walk up my stoop is unaccountable... I pause to
consider if it really be,
That I eat and drink is spectacle enough for the
greatest authors and schools,
A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the
metaphysics of books."

-Walt Whitman

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Mostly I just try to be considerate and have a good time.

I'll host some people, but I can't be bothered with spam surf requests.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

It's all been great (I owe a huge debt):
New Orleans, London, Edinburgh, Brussels, Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Genova, Istanbul, Bursa, Izmir, Damascus

Interests

language, poetry, jazz, blues, rock n' roll, classical, old pop (the Phil Specter kind for example), photography, philosophy, politics, literature, people... I could go on, but this gives you the basic sense

oh, and Bill Hicks

• books
• literature
• poetry
• photography
• drinking
• politics
• jazz
• blues
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

Lots, could talk about this for a long time: film noir, old movies, foreign films, dry humour, monty python slapstick, a ridiculous horror, action film sometimes, Martin Scorcese, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Pedro Almodovar, Stanley Kubrick, Larry David...

New York rock, rockabilly, classical, jazz, soul, funk, blues, The Velvet Underground, Gang of Four, Sly and the Family Stone, Al Green, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Television, Joy Division, The Ronnettes, James Brown, Theolonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus...

philosophy, poetry, plays, Cormac McArthy, Nietzsche, Bertolt Brecht, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Ovid, Karl Marx, Jonathan Williams, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Biked from Paris to Rome.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm always up for conversation, either existential or of the more "something you saw today" sort.

I also enjoy language, both learning and teaching. The only living language I know is English, but I want to learn more. I'm moderately proficient in Latin and Greek, and I love digging down into the roots of English, the Romance languages, and language in general.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Russian Federation, Serbia, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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