HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING A couchsurfer in the Virgin Islands once took me out to lunch and told me "couchsurfing restored my faith in humanity." people -- instigated by the media -- are just so afraid of each other these days, so the best way to participate is to do exactly that, restore faith in humanity. COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE KAZAKHSTAN: 40 hour round trip train ride into the heart of the Kazakh nomadic community, and to visit the Mausoleum of Yasawi. The people, the characters, the other-worldiness of the post-Soviet world we arrived in, was surreal and spectacular. PORTUGUESE ISLAND, MOZAMBIQUE: Got lost in a rainforest on a tiny island in between Madagascar and Mozambique. There was nothing there but a gigantic prison system full of old chains and bones of slave-criminals. FRANCE: Slept underneath the Eiffel Tower, surrounded by French Police officers, after spending the first night at a hotel on the Champ Elysees for free (long story). Even crazier, a friend of mine is now the owner of that hotel: http://www.champselysees-paris-hotel.com/ ....life is just crazy sometimes

Movies: Elevator to the Gallows, The Lives of Others, Bourne Trilogy, Orfeu Negro, 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Chinatown, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Psycho, Inception, Ran, etc. Music: 5'nizza (Jah soldaaat!), Revelacao, Royskopp, Flying Lotus, Radiohead, Jazz, Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Nujabes, etc. Books: Beat Generation, collected works of Neruda, memoirs, I AM THAT