I love books. I love food. I love travel. I love lamp.

Ahem. Maybe I should just put a quote. This has been attributed to the comedian Bill Hicks, though I've never been able to verify he actually said these words:

"I do not believe making money in order to consume goods is mankind’s sole purpose on this planet. If you’re wondering what I believe our purpose on this planet is, I’ll give you a hint...it has to do with creating and sharing."

And here, take some more quotes to better understand my outlook on life.

"I saw our struggles and dreams all tangled up in the same failure, and that failure was called joy." - Roberto Bolaño

"I really like things I don’t understand: when I read a thing I don’t understand I feel a sweet and abysmal vertigo." - Clarice Lispector

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.” - Jack Kerouac

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I hosted many people when I lived in San Francisco, couchsurfed all over Latin America and now I'm living in Los Angeles. I will be working in the Büro für
Bestimmte Dinge from Jan 31-Feb 18 and then traveling around Europe for two weeks after that, hoping to hang out with some couchsurfers!

Interests

Laughter, Literature, Live Comedy, Live Music, Movies, Museums, Street Art, Books, Beer, Bars, Bookshops, Libraries, Food, History, The Human Brain, Dreams, Madness, Chemicals, Conspiracies, Cryptograms, Maps, Mythology, Cults, Wikipedia, Rare Plants and Animals, Obscure Political and Religious Sects, Monsters, Aliens, Travel Travel Travel

• arts
• books
• literature
• street art
• dining
• cooking
• beer
• movies
• traveling
• music
• live music
• swimming
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

My literary gods are Roberto Bolaño and Jorge Luis Borges. Their work has changed my life, especially The Savage Detectives by Bolaño and Labyrinths by Borges. Because I like to make lists, here's some other favorite books o'mine: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; Poor Things by Alasdair Gray; Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell; V. by Thomas Pynchon; The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe; River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit; Necropolis by Santiago Gamboa; Don Quixote by Cervantes; anything by Hunter S. Thompson or Philip K. Dick

I have many cinematic gods - the Coen Brothers, Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, Woody Allen, Michael Haneke, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, and Wes Anderson, to name a few. I wasn't joking when I said I love to make lists. Some favorite movies: The Maltese Falcon; Zoolander; I Am Cuba; You Can't Take It With You; Black Swan; Two Lane Blacktop; The Red Shoes; Wet Hot American Summer; 8 1/2; Raiders of the Lost Ark; The Hustler; Live Flesh; The 40 Year Old Virgin; I Can't Sleep; The Searchers; Young Frankenstein; Lightning Over Water

My favorite kind of music is soul/R&B from the late 60s through the mid 70s such like James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sly & the Family Stone, the Isley Brothers, Curtis Mayfield, Shuggie Otis, Bill Withers, and Eddie Kendricks. But my favorite band is Radiohead. And because you can never have too many lists, here's some other bands and musicians I love: Joni Mitchell, St. Vincent, Fiona Apple, Billie Holiday, Tune-Yards, Julia Holter, Talking Heads, Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar, The Beatles, The Beastie Boys, The Beach Boys, Beck, Bob Dylan, Punch Brothers, Howlin' Wolf, Big Joe Turner, Chuck Berry, Charles Mingus, Brad Mehldau, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy, Herbie Hancock, Stan Getz, Earl Sweatshirt, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyonce, J Cole, Wale, Wu Tang Clan, Danny Brown, Action Bronson, James Blake, Erykah Badu, Shabazz Palaces, Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, White Fence, Marcos Valle, Edu Lobo, Joao Bosco, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gilberto Gil, The Funkees, Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Ween, Wilco, Primus, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, of Montreal, Little Dragon, Tame Impala, Foxygen, Django Django, The Beta Band, Mac Demarco, Perota Chingo, The Kinks, Violeta Parra, Soda Stereo, George Duke, The Soft Machine, Choc Quib Town, Bebel Gilberto

Also, this category doesn't seem to be for the fine arts, but I feel it necessary to include a few of my favorite painters: Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, El Greco, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Francis Bacon, Max Ernst, Remedios Varo, Oswaldo Guayasamín, Joan Miró,Yves Tanguy, Juan Antonio Roda and Jay DeFeo

There's also no space or warrant for mentioning video games, but here's my ten favorite video games of ALL TIME, in case you were wondering: Deus Ex; The Sims 2; Civilization II; Alpha Centauri; Tropico; Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight; Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis; Grand Theft Auto IV; Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2; Super Smash Bros.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Swimming in Lake Titicaca

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach English, and maybe some things about books or movies. I made a book once, so maybe bookmaking.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Laughter, Stories, A splendid time for all...I can cook a few things, my specialty is pesto. I studied history, so I might be able to teach some things about history.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States