CURRENT MISSION

Jam with as many people as I can

ABOUT ME

I'm a music teacher and anthropology enthusiast, and what I really want to do is combine them and study ethnomusicology--music in regards to world cultures. I play clarinet and sax as primary instruments, but for fun I play ukulele, bodhran, didgeridoo, assorted percussion, egg shaker, keyboard (the stranger the sounds the better), and vinyl records. I'm learning guitar, but it's not good enough to add to the list yet. I'm all about meeting people, and my favorite thing in the world to do is communicate with people whose language I don't understand at all.

PHILOSOPHY

They aint no such things as wrong notes lest you play 'em like wrong notes.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I host and I surf

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I stayed with some friends of friends of friends in Columbus, OH last year. It was couch surfing, but I didn't know about this network yet. It's a lot more of an experience to stay with people when I travel, and I try to avoid hotels as much as I possibly can.

Interests

Jazz, rock, hair, distance running, kayaking, reading big novels, juggling, unicycle, chop sticks, Rough Guides, candy (Jr. Mints, Mike and Ikes, M and M's, etc.), going to the park, improvisation, asking restaurant workers what their favorite dishes are, other people's dogs, talking to streetcorner saxophone players, the zoo, sketchy looking bars that have to have some way of attracting business other than their outside appearance, cinco de mayo parties, Chinese and Indian newspapers

• dogs
• running
• partying
• shopping
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• juggling
• music
• jazz
• guitar
• kayaking
• surfing
• anthropology
• business
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

I like the Michener books Hawaii and Caribbean so far, Moby Dick, The Naked and the Dead, From Here To Eternity (the book). Movies I like are the Motorcycle Diaries, City of God, The Full Monty, Gandhi, Chariots of Fire. My most recent favorite albums are Rammstein's Reise Reise and the soundtrack to The Wiz by Charlie Smalls.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Once when I was in Antigua, Guatemala with my buddy Chase Peeler, we went into an antique shop and found these really old instruments in the back of the store. We didn't see anybody around, so we started playing them--he played the old harp and I played this hollowed out log with 2 resonating slots on it. We were facing the wall, and we played for about 10 minutes. As soon as we finished, and before we could turn around, we heard this amazing round of applause behind us, and when we looked we found that a crowd of about 20 people had gathered to listen to us. We had no idea.

Teach, Learn, Share

To make a clarinet embouchure you have to cover your bottom teeth with the wet part of your lip (about half of it) flatten your chin (point it down), say 'eeee' with your tongue (high and arched in the back of your throat), say 'oooo' with your lips (rounded, covering bottom teeth)---the combined sound is like a french 'eu', then put the mouthpiece/reed setup in your mouth so that the horn is at a 45 degree angle or so from your body, make sure your air only goes into the mouthpiece, and blow! That's how you make a sound on clarinet.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Guatemala, Nepal

Countries I’ve Lived In

Germany, Iraq

•