CURRENT MISSION

To live an interesting life and to leave the room better than I found it.

ABOUT ME

I'm a creative New Yorker who's worn a number of hats over the years. These days the ones that fit best allow me to travel, take pictures, write and stay fascinated with the world.

Right now I'm a travel magazine photo editor and occasional writer who moonlights as a photographer. I'm currently finishing up my first book, "New York Bike Style", a collection of portraits of stylish NYC cyclists, due out in March via Prestel Publishing. Here's some employment history: After graduating from N.Y.U. film school in 1999, I was a lighting/visual designer, AV producer, video editor and documentary filmmaker. In 2003, I answered an ad in the back of a newspaper inviting interested parties to "Run Away and Join the Circus!" One year later, an article in which I documented my experience as a lighting assistant for the Big Apple Circus appeared in the now-defunct music mag Mixer. Thus began a side career as a freelance writer/photographer, during which I wrote and photographed €feature stories, event coverage, record reviews, that kind of thing. Eventually, the travel magazine industry came a-calling with a full-time position, and here we are. I live and work in Brooklyn, NY, and I am always up for an adventure.

When I'm not on the job, I'm interested in living my life so that I won't look back on it and think, "wow, that was boring." Which is why I live in Brooklyn and travel as much as possible. I struggle with the knowledge that I often feel the best when I'm someplace far away and beautiful, but my life is here. It's hard to explain the push/pull of NYC to someone who hasn't lived here for years. But suffice it to say that for me, it's quite powerful.
Want to know more? Yes, I have websites: http://www.sampolcer.com (my portfolio) and http://www.preferredmode.com (the book project)

PHILOSOPHY

"All I know is that I don't know nuthin'."

Warum ich bei Couchsurfing bin

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have slept on couches short and long, narrow and wide, soft and firm, domestic and international, for more than 15 years, but I'm a couchsurfing.com newbie. These days I am able to work out hotel accommodations through work most of the time, but I kind of miss the couches (and the people) a bit.

Interessen

In absolutely no particular order: music, food, drink, art, movies, cycling, writing, photography, sun, nightlife, nature, water, cities, making new discoveries.

• arts
• writing
• books
• design
• photography
• documentaries
• dining
• coffee
• running
• working out
• nightlife
• partying
• drinking
• movies
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• swimming
• freelancing
• history

Musik, Filme und Bücher

Movies: As a film buff, I've always found picking a favorite movie difficult, so I'll go with something I saw recently: Beasts of the Southern Wild. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Music: As the son of a jazz musician, tunes have always been important to me, and my tastes are far ranging. I like everything from indie rock to New Orleans Jazz to dancehall reggae to deep house music.

Books: As a magazine editor, most of my reading is limited to articles in magazines like Esquire and The New York Times and whatever's in my RSS reader, but I've been known to plow through novels and nonfiction books from time to time. The last interesting thing I read on that front was "The Power of Habit," which isn't nearly as "self-help" as it sounds.

Eine tolle Erfahrung, die ich gemacht habe

For some reason most of the things that come to mind involve watching the sun rise, whether it's while swimming in the ocean off the coast off the Yucatan or from the window of a bar in the Bywater district of New Orleans. A few other things come to mind (riding bikes at night through the streets of Nagoya, Japan? taking a voodoo priestess's picture?) but I'd like to tell you about them over coffee.

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