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

“I had no wish to take any determined route on that stroll; I attempted, rather, a maximum latitude of probabilities in order not to wear out expectation with an obligatory anticipation of a single one of them. I was able, within the imperfect limits of possibility, to walk, as they say, at random. I accepted, without any conscious prejudice but that of avoiding the wider avenues and streets, the most obscure invitations of chance.”
― Jorge Luis Borges

"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

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 visiting the city of my birth Milwaukee for a couple of nights in August and would love to hang out with some folks while I'm there. And if you've got a couch to crash on, well, that's twice as nice.

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 heroes 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; River of Shadows by Rebecca Solnit; I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins; Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World; Poor Things by Alasdair Gray; Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell; V. by Thomas Pynchon; The Autobiography of Malcolm X; City of Quartz by Mike Davis; The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe; Necropolis by Santiago Gamboa; Don Quixote by Cervantes; anything by Raymond Chandler 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

Eating a tarantula in Cambodia

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach English, and maybe some things about books or movies. I've been involved with making book once, so maybe bookmaking. I worked as a video editor, so I can show you how to use Premiere Pro, and have some basic Photoshop skills as well. I suppose all of this can be done with AI now though. What use are we humans in this most automated age?

What I Can Share with Hosts

Laughter, Stories, A splendid time is guaranteed for all...I can cook a few things, my specialties include pesto bowtie pasta and sheet pan chicken thighs with spicy corn. I studied history, so I might be able to share some knowledge history.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Peru, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States