---- https://www.bewelcome.org/members/halbertmax -----

Hi! I'm Giorgos. Second name; Max. Most people call me "Max". I'm 23 years old, I studied Biology at the University of Ioannina and I will be moving to Frankfurt soon for an internship in Neuroscience. I make video art for a living. At the moment, I live in Athens.

In my free time I study philosophy, digging up lesser known music, watching films, experimenting with audio and video software and taking photographs. I also like learning new languages. Currently I'm leaning Russian and German. I speak a bit if French, too.

I love walking. I enjoy wandering around in a town, drifting, scraping the urban decay. If you Google "psychogeographical drifting", this is me.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because I genuinely believe that human relations not mediated by money are purer, more beautiful, productive and carefree. Traveling should be suitable and doable for everyone and not just for wealthy people. It's important and healing for everyone to leave their homebases for a while and see/do something different.

Interests

I love learning about how and why the world works thus, lately, I've been studying philosophy. I also love being in and learning about nature, so I'm majoring in Biology!

I also like language of any kind: cinematic, musical and linguistics. I make video clips for a living (you can check them here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQJZK53ho2fX88GuAsDzDiBIGVEQ8YjJX), music for my own enjoynment (https://soundcloud.com/dialectmixonstims) and I love watching films (https://letterboxd.com/koureli69).

I don't travel often, but when I do I try to get the most out of it — long walks, drifting through the urban hell or the mountain roads, not spending money on every little tourist distraction. I firmly believe that Couchsurfing will help me with this; getting to know other people just for the fun of it while saving money is often a must in order to enjoy my trip!

• photography
• music
• biology
• philosophy
• films
• cinema
• videography
• video editing
• music production
• media design
• montage
• musical technology

Music, Movies, and Books

I will mostly refer to creators, categorised by their genre/cultural era

Music:
- Radiohead, System of a Down, Manos Hadjidakis, Nina Simone (these four are invariably staying at the top of my list for years, so I'm mentioning them separately)
- OutKast, Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, MF DOOM, Aesop Rock, Kanye West, Buck 65, Run the Jewels, Atmosphere, Earl Sweatshirt, Danny Brown
- Franz Liszt, Dimitri Shostakovich, Philip Glass/Steve Reich/Wim Mertens, John Cage
- Igorrr, Aphex Twin, Venetian Snares, Amon Tobin
- Frank Zappa, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Aphrodite's Child, Neutral Milk Hotel
- Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits
- Death (the band), godspeed you! black emperor, Swans, My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, Xiu Xiu, Coil
- Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane, Sun Ra and many of the experimental avant-garde jazz stuff
of the Soviet Union
- Κόρε. Ύδρο., Παιδιά της Παλαιότητας, Βδέλυγμα, Λένα Πλάτωνος

Films:
- Wings of Desire, Lost Highway, My Dinner With Andre, Perfect Blue, Persona, Bicycle Thieves, Solaris, Eraserhead, Dreams that Money Can Buy, Kill Bill
- domestic cinema: the films of Theo Angelopoulos, Nikos Panayotopoulos, Nikos Nikolaidis and Kostas Sfikas

Series:
Mad Men, Community, Twin Peaks, Atlanta, Horace and Pete, Louie, The Office (UK), Shameless (US), Utopia (C4)

Books:
I love the works of Milan Kundera and Fyodor Dostoevsky, Herman Esse's "Sindharrta", Ernst Fisher's "The Necessity of Art", Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle" and the poems of Charles Baudelaire

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Well, nothing yet but if I *had* to think of something...

I managed to reach the highest point of a very dangerous mountain route at Tzoumerka, Ioannina, Greece; "Stroggoula", 2100 m. (and came out alive from it).

I sat down and watched a 1½ hour avant-garde film that was purposefully created to make no sense (and came out alive from it).

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm self-taught in anything outside my academic studies so let's say that I can "talk about" video (editing), image (photography, Photoshop), audio/MIDI theory, Biology/Ecology.

I always appreciate overanalyzing films and/or music.

As far as learning goes, I'd be happy to; brush up my Russian with a native (or non-native) speaker; get to know the place you're coming from through your eyes.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Regarding the practical stuff, I can offer cat-parenting and computer-fixing tips. I can cook you some mediterranean dishes and your morning coffee is on me (if you happen to own an espresso machine I can make it home-made for you!

Now for the not-so-practical stuff; I can offer long discussions about small, stupid things and big ideas. I can also be a discreet surfer, respecting my host's private space and time and/or his/her need to keep socialising to a lesser level. I, too, some times just want a couch to crash on.

Countries I’ve Visited

Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Greece