CURRENT MISSION

9 July 2023:

Spanish citizenship stalled. PR family estate collapsing. My buddy Frank whose futon has been my refuge for the FIVE years since I left Puerto Rico died suddenly whilst I was working on residence/citizenship follow-up in my Grand Dad's town in Galicia (A Guarda, Pontevedra) ...so I'm DESPERATELY looking for couch(es) near/around Stone Ridge, NY & a co-pilot to help transport the 12 cases of wine in Frank's basement as soon as I find a deal on a van or on a U-haul...HELP! SOS!

Apologies for waaay overdue update: being asked/forced to vacate the family hacienda in the SJ suburbs of Villa Caparra under court order. The legal tails are wagging the dysfunctional family dog. Hurricane Maria bought me a reprieve of unspecified length, at very high interest. May be surfing couches as soon as July-August until I figure what I can do about 'retirement'. OUCH.

Meeting up with Sudamericanos emigrados en California & Internet-marketing savvy activists for help importing small lots of natural wine from Argentina.

ABOUT ME

Starting to feel my age. Castellano es mi lengua materna, English has become my code for the road. Lover of Japanese culture & 'lehrer-los' Rinzai student, one of my big frustrations in life is my failure to learn Nihongo. Performance & conceptual artist by temperament, inclination & default. Life has radicalized me as I grow older. Somewhat tired of being the solitary wandering Steppenwolf, though.

PHILOSOPHY

When the morning sun/comes streaming in/you get up & do it again: walk the Middle Path every day, each day, one day at a time.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Just discovered & joined. Maybe some of my ideas might work as part of this project? Self-managed, nomad-culture-net community cafés, self-funded by a portfolio of natural products from participants' home countries: wine, coffee, chocolate, olives, nuts, cheese...

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Family of birth situation in Puerto Rico is such that I don't have keys to the family beach 'cottage', so I regularly couchSurf at eco-activist surfer friend Ricardo Laureano's, being part of his support team.
Only way I stay in LA is couchSurfing beween my friend Mark's in the West Hills, my friend Adriano's in Sherman Oaks. Just had my first 'true' CS experience through the network, visiting with the lovely Renée & John Kramer of Vallecito!

Interests

Wild fermentation, small-scale permaculture, Fair Trade networks, Situationist détournement, political economy of religious ritual & the spirituality of economic integration...

• culture
• performing arts
• dining
• cooking
• chocolate
• wine
• cheese
• coffee
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

...film noir, films of Yasujiro Ozu & Kenji Mizoguchi, (--& Antonioni, Sam Fuller, Murnau, Wim Wenders, Jean Renoir, Goddard...)
Dexter Gordon, Thelonious Monk, Jeff Buckley, Camarón de la Isla, Annie Lennox, Buffalo Springfield, Brian Eno, Soda Stereo, Steely Dan, XTC, Robert Fripp, Cortijo y su Combo, Siniestro Total, Talk Talk, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Skip James, Albert King, Ali Farka Toure, Morey Kante, Nusrat Ali Khan, Frederic Chopin, Sergei Rachmaninov...
Poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, Kobayashi Issa, Miguel Hernández, Richard Hugo, Pedro Casariego, novels of Phillip K. Dick, Roberto Bolaño, Ross MacDonald, Raymond Chandler, Henry Miller, Joseph Conrad & William Gibson...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Memory fails me...um-- the NYC blackout of '77?
More recently, went all the way up to the Cristo Redentor monument on the border between Argentina & Chile, & missed a view of Aconcagua as snow flurries started blowing in the middle of the Southern Hemisphere's Summer.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm a very good cook. Go back n forth between vegetarianism & meat-eating: stress & anxiety seriously affect my digestion so I've learned to be varied but consistently 'medicinal' in my attitude towards food & nourishment. Some basic herbalism knowledge & 12-step self-help experience.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Switzerland, Venezuela

Countries I’ve Lived In

Puerto Rico, Spain, United States

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