CURRENT MISSION

dig tunnels deep, store more rice, never seek hegemony

ABOUT ME

I have energy, strange insight, and a medium amount of soul. I like to do fun things that get my heartbeat up. I fancy myself an amateur (read: half-assed) anthropologist.

I had this epiphany one night: We're souls caught in these absurd bodies and situations, and they kind of force their own realities on us -- but that's not us. We don't really know what we are (especially when we're "altered"), and the primary purpose of life seems to be this kind of playful trying on of identities, attitudes and interests, and making babies. So we shouldn't take anything too seriously, except when we should.

As the great Grant Morrison says: "Your head's like mine, like all our heads; big enough to contain every god and devil there ever was. Big enough to hold the weight of oceans and the turning stars. Whole universes fit in there!"

I'm trying to get over my ingrained misgivings, but I want to share the world with you.

PHILOSOPHY

"And then I get this role and I end up in East Africa. I go out to the forest in Uganda. There's this woman. She brings me deep into the forest, to this cave made from the roots of a tree – the entrance is made from the roots of a tree. You go inside and there's a well in the ground, a little well. This is where they say the first man lived. And I'm sitting there. I've got my shoes off and I'm thinking to myself, Touch the ground, man. Touch the wall, feel your feet, smell it, don't forget it. Let it be inside of you." Forest Whitaker, Esquire interview

AND!!!

http://www.viddler.com/explore/Ms_Valerie/videos/240/

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

CS KARAOKE NIGHT!!!!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've done a sweatlodge with some amazing newly-discovered distant relatives in coal country Nevada.

I've watched Motorcycle Diaries in Piraeus, Greece, with unexpectedly Greek subtitles, with my very best travel buddy Nancy who translated about 40 minutes of the film before she got tired and opened a bottle of wine.

I've hunted pyramids in small-town Bosnia with some crazy optimistic kindred spirits.

I've infiltrated a km of catacombs to get to a 16th century Serbian castle where the largest festival in Eastern Europe was being held, and got in in time to see Billy Idol.

Interests

The short story, judging people on 10 second snippits of overheard conversation, photography, magic (great for traveling), music-listening and show-going, having great conversations in which every 10 seconds are maddeningly funny and intelligent.

• photography
• festivals
• wine
• traveling
• magic
• music
• karaoke
• anthropology

Music, Movies, and Books

I'll pick a few. The Man Who Planted Trees is probably my favorite thing ever. It's a short animation of a Jean Giono story, about the effect a single-minded person can have on the world. It inspired an 84-year-old Indian man to start Dandakaranya — The Green Movement — which purportedly sowed 45 million seeds and saplings in its first month of operation in 2006 (details are sketchy thereafter). Art that has that potential gives me ideas.

Dan Deacon, Jonathan Richman, Sam Cooke and Dave Eggers have the kind of positivity I like and are awesome about spreading it around. Louie CK, Marc Maron and Spalding Gray always crack me up with their neurotic honesty. Keith Richards' autobiography Life blew me away, it felt like I was listening to the coolest old man tell me about mistakes I didn't have to make myself. I'm inspired by the style of 1970s Michael Caine, and the 1970s in general. I like weirdo directors like Kusterica and Passolini and Almodovar. I like Yiddish and Eastern Euro surrealist writers, indie comics, and read a lot of basketball, architecture and urban exploration blogs. At a recent show, I handed a geeky fan letter to Eleanor Friedberger.

For reference, check the sparse contents of worldeddy.tumblr.com and residuals.tumblr.com (my urban-ex/nostalgia blog).

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

...

Teach, Learn, Share

Silence like the wind overtakes me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vl5vcG9VI

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Serbia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, United States, Viet Nam

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