CURRENT MISSION

Fighting to Keep the Natural World Alive. Loving to Keep it Healthy.

ABOUT ME

I am who I am.. doing what i can to maintain my integrity in a society that requires cash to survive.... i like to play records in public, make others move and feel good, agitate/advocate for positive change, explore abandoned buildings and other forbidden places, cook/eat good wild foods, experience new things, encounter new points of view, travel, and generally live life to the fullest....

i worked for 4 years in non-profit residential programs and shelters for people with mental illness... i enjoyed it and found it easy, but i felt like i could have more long lasting positive effects working with youth... for the last several years i have worked with young people in a variety of settings... the albany free school, a wilderness program for homeschoolers, a farm, and several camps...

i look to the ability of thousands of diverse indigenous tribes/cultures to coexist and survive for tens of thousands of years to remind myself that if there is such a thing as "human nature," it is survival, not greed....

i feel that i am as much a part of the organism that is my community, my environment and my universe as my liver is a part of the organism that is me... i don't think the synapses in my brain are much smaller than the space between you and me, especially when you consider the spaces between planets, and/or electrons... egotism is a misunderstanding of scale and relation... i believe we are the sum of our social and economic relationships and i try to make mine as positive, inspiring, diverse, loving, and sustainable as possible...

i believe that there is truth to be found in contradiction, or the synthesis there of....

i've lived in detroit, indianapolis, chicago, minneapolis, rome italy, south florida, bed-stuy brooklyn, albany, ny, bloomington indiana, east jordan, michigan and the northeast kingdom of vermont... i've never stayed in any one place too long, but I try to never rule any possibility out.. i try to jump at the opportunities i'm presented with, and i try to live without regrets...

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

just started using CS2, but so far so good. in the past i've hosted lot's of people (not through CS2) in several different collective houses. i generally sleep outside when i travel, and i generally rely on an informal network of friends to host me, but CS2 has given me access to cool people in places where i wouldn't have known a soul.

Interests

my friends, my dogs (all animals), kids, love, (com)passion, self-sufficiency, and autonomy... trains, travelling, getting respect and love, the library, having too many records but never having enough, getting closer to my food sources, liberating myself and supporting those who want to liberate themselves, building networks of mutual aid, and having fun while working towards sustainability/justice/ harmonious entropy....

• animals
• dogs
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• traveling
• survival

Music, Movies, and Books

i like lot's of music... generally, music from the soul.. and music that makes my head nod, my hips shake, and my boots knock... currently i'm listening to lots of old timey stuff--country/roots blues and bluegrass stuff... blind willie mctell, scrapper blackwell and leroy carr, elizabeth cotten, hank williams, etc... but i've spent many an hour listening to: syl johnson, lee dorsey, cymande, horace andy, dennis coffey, jack mcduff, the sylvers, shuggie otis, brothers unlimited, gil scott heron, billy childish, the animals, the stooges, the mc5, the rolling stones, hendrix, curtis knight, the yardbirds, the kinks, crimpshrine, op ivy, the functional blackouts, the romance novels, miss mother, the seeds, king khan and bbq show, the standells, the zero boys, the gizmos, the white stripes, the dirtbombs, the clash, t rex, david bowie, the temptations, rufus thomas, james brown, marva whitney, eddy senay, sly and the family stone, bill withers, joy division, jimmy cliff, the velvet underground, elliott smith, robert johnson, sonny boy williamson, woody guthrie, bob dylan (his 1st album is still amazing), against me!, defiance ohio, johnny hobo and the freight trains, whatever the (folk) it takes, the mountain goats, minor threat, embrace, fugazi, bright eyes, desaparecidos, dj shadow, cut chemist, rjd2, blackalicious, peaches, har mar superstar/sean na na, david axelrod, charles mingus, andre nickatina, dead prez, jeru, DITC, pep love, molemen, the coup, immortal technique, roots manuva, common sense, the streets, smif-n-wessun (dah shinin'), asheru and blue black, digable planets, el da sensei, hugh masekela, fela kuti, ali farka toure, antibalas, rusty bryant, herbie hancock, miles davis, the meters, etc.

documentaries (fourth world war, the party's over, crumb, rivers and tides, style wars, spellbound, why we fight, pictures of a revolution, pickaxe, this is what democracy looks like, videograf, state your name, etc.) scorcese films (goodfellas, taxi driver, casino, mean streets, etc.) todd solondz (happiness, storytelling, welcome to the dollhouse) over the edge, breaking away, they live, soylent green, donnie darko, waking life, ghost world, carandiru, godfather, amelie, shawshank redemption, buffalo 66, good will hunting, american beauty, breaking away, harold and maude, the usual suspects, rockers, downtown 81, v for vendetta, battle of algiers, city of god (especially the documentary on the dvd), best in show, rushmore, napoleon dynamite, etc. i like the most of the stuff "film movement" puts out on dvd... you can find em all at the library..

i'm currently carrying 6 different library cards.. i read mostly non-fiction with the occasional gonzo/beat/drunken/outlaw literature thrown in for good measure... os cangaceiros translated by wolfi landstreicher, flaming arrows-a compilation of the writings of rod coronado, navigating the space between brilliance and madness by the icarus project, the autobiography of malcolm x, from a native son and pacifism as pathology by ward churchill, the black panthers speak edited by phillip s. foner, people's history of the united states by howard zinn, culture of make believe and endgame by derrick jensen, the monkey wrench gang by edward abbey, illuminatus trilogy by robert anton wilson, hunter s. thompson, charles bukowski, breakfast of champions by vonnegut, story of b by daniel quinn, really the blues by mezz mezzrow, days of war nights of love, gaviotas: a village to change the world, ringolevio by emmett grogan, kerouac, bury my heart at wounded knee by dee brown, the long haul by myles horton, true hallucinations and food of the gods by terrence mckenna, deep cover by cril payne (IF YOU HAVE MY COPY PLEASE RETURN IT...), savage inequalities by johnathan kozol, freedom and beyond by john holt, teaching the restless by chris mercogliano, you can't win by jack black, the anarchist collectives by sam dolgoff, defying corporations defining democracy by POCLAD, kon tiki by thor heyerdahl (one of the first books that made me enjoy reading... aside from the choose your own adventure series), the communities directory by www.ic.org, AERO, Infoshop News, The Anarchist FAQ, and everything at Quiver Distro and The Anarchist Archives are good reads too.....

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