My life largely revolves around music. I play guitar and banjo and sing, and I perform both solo (www.facebook.com/jillianholzbauer) and in a band (www.facebook.com/vagittariusmusic). I've met people from all over the world through music; I've been fortunate enough to receive hospitality from strangers when my band went on tour, and I love hosting other bands when they come through my town. I'm friends with all sorts of folks from all walks of life. If you're a kind and good person, that's all that really matters!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Encouraging a culture of hospitality, mutual trust, and interdependence is an act of revolution in a world that wants to keep us divided. :)

Interests

Music, hiking, kayaking, reading, writing, metaphysics

• reading
• music
• hiking
• kayaking

Music, Movies, and Books

I love folk and punk music of most any variety, and especially any combination of the two. Major favorites are Gogol Bordello, Larry & His Flask, Murder By Death, Streetlight Manifesto, Goddamn Gallows, Carrie Nation & The Speakeasy, The Dirty Mugs. I have to say Chuck Ragan and Frank Turner both make me swoon, hard. Sassy female-fronted rock bands like Rilo Kiley and Tacocat have a direct route to my heart. I dig a lot of classic country: Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline. I go pretty weak in the knees for dreamy female singer-songwriter types too: Lisa Hannigan, Rachel Sermanni, Fiona Apple.
Favorite movies are Pan's Labyrinth, The Fountain, Inglourious Basterds, and Mean Girls.
My list of favorite books is pretentiously long, but my favorite of the moment is The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley. All-time favorite is probably Life of Pi. I also have a weakness for cheesy science fiction & fantasy.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hiking Mt. Sinai at sunrise.
Sleeping in a Bedouin camp in Wadi Rum, Jordan.
Walking the boulevard of ancient Palmyra, Syria.
Visiting the home-turned-museum of one of my favorite writers, Khalil Gibran, in Bsharre, Lebanon.
Eating Palestinian knaffeh. This may not sound like that amazing of an experience, unless you have also had Palestinian knaffeh, and then you KNOW.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm usually traveling with a guitar or a tarot deck, so I'll serenade you and/or give you a tarot reading if you like! Sometimes I'll have DIY zines to give you written by myself or my friends. I will typically grab some some beer or a bottle of wine on the way to share, if you're into that, though I'm not a big drinker myself. I tidy up before I leave. :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Costa Rica, Egypt, Guatemala, Iceland, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syrian Arab Republic

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States