ABOUT ME

Hello!

I'm a professional musician and music teacher. I'm primarily a bassist (electric and upright), and also play guitar and drums.

Outside of music, I enjoy writing, reading, hiking, and good conversation. I love meeting new people and learning about what they're passionate about.

PHILOSOPHY

"The unexamined life is not worth living." -Socrates
"The unlived life is not worth examining." -Someone else

"I had often speculated with images of the future, dreamed of roles that I might be assigned, perhaps a poet or prophet or painter, or something similar. All that was futile. I did not exist to write poems, to preach or to paint, neither I nor anyone else. All of that was incidental. Each man had only one genuine vocation--to find the way to himself. He might end up as a poet or madman, as prophet or criminal--that was not his affair, ultimately it was of no concern. His task was to discover his own destiny--not an arbitrary one--and live it out wholly and resolutely within himself..." -Hermann Hesse, Demian

I can be very serious but also very not serious. I love to think about life's deep questions, but I also have a hedonist streak and like to experience life as fully as I can.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I don't currently have the ability to host people where I'm living, but I still want to meet and connect with couchsurfers and would love to show them around town.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Some of the most wonderful, incredible and inspiring people I have met have been couchsurfers. That's enough reason for me to want to participate in general.

Interests

I am constantly fascinated by everything in my daily life. I love nature, animals, food, drinks, friends, conversation, travel, adventure...

Music is my primary passion -- mainly classical and jazz, but lots of rock, funk, soul, etc... aside from music, I am an amateur writer, hoping to eventually make that a second career.

I am pretty obsessed with philosophy and psychology, and especially the crossover between those two. I'm really interested in existential/humanist psychology. I am a chronic over-thinker. I love to think about self-development, meaning, purpose, life and death...how to really live life as well as possible.

• arts
• writing
• poetry
• education
• traveling
• music
• martial arts
• animation
• teaching
• neuroscience
• philosophy
• psychology
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: Classical composers -- Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Schubert, Wagner, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Strauss, etc... all those guys! Jazz lover -- Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Coltrane, Mingus, Lester Young, etc... Frank Zappa, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder, Parliament-Funkadelic, James Brown... pretty all over the place.

Movies: Waking Life, The Weatherman, American Beauty, Midnight in Paris, Blade Runner... not hugely into film, but want to be. Some favorite shows: Dead Like Me, Mad Men, Bojack Horseman, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Books: read almost everything by Hermann Hesse, except Magister Ludi. Definitely my favorite author and has hugely influenced my life. Also a big fan of Hemingway and Jack London. Been reading mostly nonfiction lately. Spent lots of time studying Eastern thought when I was younger, mostly Buddhism and Taosim; been trying to educate myself more in Western philosophy the past few years. Recently gotten pretty into the works of Jung. Pretty mind-blowing.

Also: Calvin and Hobbes :D

Long story short, I'm a big nerd.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Once I saw a squirrel get drunk off of fermented berries, and do multiple backflips off of the tree in my backyard.

Teach, Learn, Share

I love teaching music, talking about music, exchanging musical ideas, and simply jamming. I love talking about anything philosophical or psychological. I think if I weren't a musician, I would be a psychologist. I love analyzing and thinking about the human mind.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Happy to share anything musical that I can. Sadly I'm not the world's greatest cook; I'm happy to pitch in but you really don't want me to make any meals for you, unless it's cheese melted on toast which is 90% of what I eat. I do make a mean cheese-toast though.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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