I'm Michael, an Irish multimedia type, formerly a lecturer in the subject and now a self-employed project-chaser regularly changing city or country for creative projects in art, film, music and publishing. After a few years settled continuously at the same address, I'm now 'on the road' again, so to speak, as I've got things happening at intervals in the UK, Italy, Greece and the Netherlands.
As a result, I've recently been sticking to short lets, hostels and sofas and getting to see all of the friends I hadn't around the UK while making dozens of new ones on the hostel circuit. After a return to stay with family in December for an extended xmas-time, I seem to have an appetite for more of what they'd term 'instability' just now. Which is why I've returned to Couchsurfing, after quite some absence, because couchsurfers know what it is I've got the appetite for! :)

Por qué estoy en Couchsurfing

As a Couchsurfing HOST of olde, when I lived previously in London, I'm rejoining the community now as a SURFER. I never thought of doing that until now.
I'm familiar with and respectful of the rules and the courtesies and am tidy, sociable and helpful and I'm pretty sure I can get on with anyone by now with the power of Irish blarney an ting. :)

I've also done a lot of housesits/catsits etc over the years, usually when I'm in the midst of writing projects and am someone who has regularly been praised for 'adding' something good in my wake, which I'm pleased to have said about me as it's exactly what I'm about in general.

Intereses

• literature
• photography
• music
• art

Música, películas y libros

Most consistently listened to music artists probably Miles Davis, Prince, Zappa, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin.
I always return to them but I'm interested in all kinds of music from classical to drum and bass and have a huge digital collection. Most recent acquisitions include the latest Suede, Janelle Monae, Kendrick Lamar and Pusha T joints.
Same with books. I weaned myself off buying printed editions some years back as they're too difficult to bring on the move. So I have a large library of non-fiction with me on my areas of interest, from intellectual property to software and philosophy.
I tend toward the leftfield and love anything by Paul Auster, Umberto Eco, Haruki Murakami, Italo Calvino, J.M Coetzee among many others but recently have been devouring everything I can get my hands on from the Dalkey Press, especially world classics now translated into English for the first time.

I'm a student of the film-makers be they directors or writers so again, I'm always stocked with a lot of movies on my hard drive, with a bias toward 'arthouse' and world cinema although I do catch up with Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Marvel Studios in anything they do.

I'm a producing musician (as opposed to a performing one) and can play any instrument I chance upon well enough to put it on a recording within an hour.

Algo increíble que he hecho

I managed to move to Budapest in the depth of winter at two days notice (because friends there were suddenly moving to London and we did a flat swap) without any prior knowledge whatsoever of Hungary, (not even what currency to arrive with never mind the slightest phrase in the language!), and managed to start from scratch, survive the winter alone, gradually make friends toward Spring, get work by Summer and ultimately thrive there for over two years in the local film industry.
I still can't believe I did that, looking back :)

Enseña, aprende, comparte

I was a lecturer before I actually graduated (primarily because nobody else could work the equipment) and have done the odd full-time year but mostly visiting lecturer stints in Fine Art, Electronic Arts and Multimedia.

Qué puedo ofrecer a los anfitriones

Stories, know-how, humour, snacks :)

Países que he visitado

Austria, Canada, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Philippines, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United States

Países en los que he vivido

England, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Slovenia, United States, Wales