CURRENT MISSION

To create beautiful things, foster good relationships, and be useful

ABOUT ME

I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, went to college in Ann Arbor, Michigan, moved to Saint Paul, MN and finally to Seattle, Washington, which I adore. It's a great town! From a young age, I was interested in music and computers, and those interests remain unchanged to this day, although I am currently trying to stage a transition from computer engineering as a day job to being a fulltime music performer and teacher.

I love building things of all kinds, whether it's relationships, instruments, musical compositions, or just dinner.

I keep myself quite busy because I have difficulty saying no to any interesting opportunity!

I love good conversations, coffee, and the quick-paced ideas that come when a new idea first comes into being.

PHILOSOPHY

I believe that for me, happiness comes from three things: Creating beautiful things, nurturing good relationships, and being useful to others. As much as possible, I center my life around these concepts, and try to gather as many experiences to remember as possible. In the end I would like a rich body of experience to look back upon.

Regarding music - I see music as a wonderful gift that should be shared as freely as possible. My eyes light up when I meet someone who is just learning to play guitar, piano, or some other instrument - they are just discovering the beginning of a very long, very satisfying road. I lost my competitive streak a long time ago, as that mainly suggests that the judgement of others is relevant to my feelings about myself. Instead, I play to please myself, and I teach to help others find their own way.

One of the reasons I love travel by motorcycle is that the set of experiences one gathers while traveling is much greater than when traveling by car. You are much more exposed to the elements, the sounds, and the smells of the places you pass through. Even the road surface is transmitted through the bars to your hands, giving you a much more intimate relationship with the road you travel over. With camping gear strapped on the back of the bike, the feeling of self-sufficiency approaches backpacking, while the range of travel is much greater. I highly recommend it :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

As an occasionally touring musician, I have slept on many an unlikely floor, porch, and backyard. There are so many kind and hospitable people out there!

Interests

Music performance, teaching, and recording, cats, cooking, coffee, motorcycles, travel, movies, reading.

• cats
• folklore
• performing arts
• cooking
• coffee
• motorcycles
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• piano
• cycling
• backpacking
• camping
• teaching
• engineering

Music, Movies, and Books

Indie comedies are my favorite movie genre. I listen to a lot of acoustic music from many different sources - the dance music of many cultures including Irish, Greek, and American traditional music. I am fascinated by tabla, Galician traditional music, shakuhachi, Jimmy Smith, Bela Fleck, Bach...the list just goes on and on.

In the book world, I love nonfiction, especially sociology, anthro, physics, biographies, and how-tos.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Rode the entire west coast from Washington to Santa Cruz on Highway 101 and Highway 1 by motorcycle. The year after, I did a two-week couchsurfing / camping tour of the western US, Alberta, and British Columbia. Couchsurfing is an amazing concept - we're all so afraid of our neighbors that the idea of inviting strangers into our home seems foreign. But hospitality is an incredibly old and important human tradition. I'm really excited to be able to take part in it.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach the basics or advanced playing on guitar, mandolin, fiddle, tinwhistle, or Irish flute. Also: I am a sponge when it comes to absorbing "how things work." Love teaching about different technologies (CD players, the Internet, optics, gasoline engines, acoustics of musical instruments, etc)