CURRENT MISSION

grow up, grow a beard

ABOUT ME

Call me Clark.
I live with my flatmate, awesomenaut and fellow couchsurfer Caitlin Jumperface McFistingly Kilborn, in the west end of Glasgow, which is a nice little bubble of bourgeois bohemia just next to the city's commercial centre. I study Politics and Philosophy occasionally via distance learning with the Open University and just from books and life and and conversations and whatnot and work full-time in a job dull enough to forego description here... I can only speak one language which is quite shameful, I get a seriously giddy kick out of making things for no-one in particular, lean heavily on spell-check software and overuse commas like they were going out of style, twitter says I'm a 'heavy user', though in reality I say nothing for long stretches then loads of pithy/ranty things all at once, I'm no musician but a competent enough guitar player, I love to laugh at anything and talk endlessly about the things other people create. Is that enough?
Addendum: I also now have a little blog for some silly comic strips I write and illustrate called, pointlessly, Knackery Slumps. So have a look, then if this silliness appeals to you, come and stay on my couch so we can chat utter nonsense for a while.

Also, Call me Clark - seriously, everybody always misses that, if you pick up on this I'll be very impressed, though not overly so, I'm mean block letters are hardly subtle! Yep, my name's Thomas Clark Wilson but everybody has just always called me Clark. There's an anecdote, I suppose, but it's only slightly entertaining, so only ask if you're bored.
Addendum to the addendum: the above addendum ceased to be an addendum some time ago but I just really like the word addendum so it stays. Addendum. It's like a bowling ball bouncing out to a roll on the hardwood bowling lane that is your tongue, or whatever.

PHILOSOPHY

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened." - Douglas Adams
Arbitrary list of cool philosophers:
Slavoj Zizek is fifty fifty buffoon fantastic.
Judith Butler I'd like to read a lot more of.
Daniel Dennett has a knack for explanation.
John Gray when he gets all nihilist on us.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Glasgow has it's share of museums and sights to see, but honestly the most prevalent kind of culture around the centre (where we live) is the night-life, the live music and the drinking. It doesn't really need to cost lots of money to enjoy it though, and it's typically an experience worth having.
I bring this up here to acknowledge what Glasgow can best offer; it is a city, and so will share much in common with mostly any other city you have been to, but I have hosted or hung out with many travellers and couchsurfers here that have been particularly taken with the music, the live scene, the folk jams and open mic nights.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Used to couchsurf by acquaintance and word of mouth, met a guy in Godalming about to move to Chichester and open the UK's first fairtrade diamond store. Surfed with a lovely lass in York who spoke Business Spanish and had her very own stalker who was then arrested by the military police....
That was quite funny...

Interests

I have fleeting and inconsistent interest in various things, which occasionally include couchsurfing, but the mainstays are typically literature, philosophy and music. I'm no walking textbook but I love discourse and new things to experience, revelling in someone else's imagination and the application of their creative ingenuity. So aye, I like to talk, at length, about no one thing in particular.
Right now I'm trying to get into Russian literature and history, and wouldn't mind cultivating a deeper understanding of neuroscience.

• culture
• books
• literature
• walking
• drinking
• politics
• blogging
• music
• live music
• guitar
• bowling
• business
• emergency services
• history
• neuroscience
• software

Music, Movies, and Books

Some people who make music I like:
The Phantom Band, Grinderman, King Creosote, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Beck, The Decemberists, Arab Strap, Regina Spektor, The Second Hand Marching Band, Animal Collective, Saul Williams, Bjork, Tune Yards, Radiohead, Blur, These New Puritans.
Some people who make movies and tv I like:
Charlie Kauffman, Chris Morris, Andre Tarkovsky, Alfonso Cuaron, Micheal Gondry, Armando Ianucci, Hammer and Tongs, Wes Anderson, The Coen Brothers, Spike Jonze, Edgar Wright, Danny Boyle, Stanley Kubrick, Ken Loach, Joe Cornish.
Authors I'm really keen on:
Joseph Heller, Douglas Adams, Homer (or whoever they were), Haruki Murakami, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Franz Kafka, Alisdair Gray, Jon Courtney Grimwood, Ian (M) Banks, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, John Gray, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Philip Pullman.
A couple of people who I think make amazing video games:
Hideo Kojima, Gabe Newall.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I was in the oxfam headquarters down in oxford once for campaign training, it's such a massive and lavish building! Fancy electronic turnstiles, big open plan office space, suits everywhere, it felt like a bank! One of the team I met greeted me with "Oh, your Clark? You don't look half as severe as you do in your picture". Ha! I guess it's necessary to attract big money corporate donations and plan out the worldwide projects, they are the second biggest charity in the world after all.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can happily go to local gigs with anyone who wants to get in about the music here, frankly I would welcome the excuse, and I guess I could offer some pointers as to some of the more interesting contemporary bands and artists Scotland has to offer. If you are happy to listen, I'm happy to share.
You may even leave with a record.
If you want to Google something right this minute, I recommend the Second Hand Marching Band for ensemble post-folk, FOUND for experimental electronic indie, mostly anything from the Fence Collective for all manner of genres or The Phantom Band for some diverse and deep kraut-rock.

Countries I’ve Visited

Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United Kingdom, United States

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