CURRENT MISSION

Learning everything I can, and getting better at creating music every year.

ABOUT ME

I grew up in rural Ohio, and I sold my overly huge guitar amp for a plane ticket after hitting San Francisco with a fortuitous dart I threw at a map. Moved there, raced sailing yachts and raised money for nonprofits for 4 years, then Santa Barbara for grad school.

PHILOSOPHY

Every person you meet is another shot at learning something new.

We're all playing poker against entropy, and it has never lost a game. Choose your bets as well as you can, win a few hands, find people you want around your table, and try to give entropy the finger and a few kicks before you cash out.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Well, um, yeah! I can maybe host.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I went sailing once with someone from the site.

Help me put more here!

Interests

Creating music: guitar, piano, banjo, vocals, lyrics

Playing games/sports: soccer, sailing, pool, chess

History, apparently, and learning, generally.

Growing carnivorous plants and other cool houseplants.

• chess
• billiards
• poker
• music
• guitar
• piano
• hunting
• sailing
• sports
• soccer
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Some books, in no particular order:
Lolita & Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
100 years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez
Slaughterhouse 5 & Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Gravity's Rainbow & The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, & The Gambler by Dostoevsky
1984 by George Orwell
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Skinny Legs and All & Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
The Ancestor's Tale & The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
Stephen Jay Gould's essay collections and Mismeasure of Man
Everything Toni Morrison has written, but especially Beloved & Sula
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Satanic Verses & Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
J.R.R. Tolkien for old times' sake
Many history books that might bore you to tears just from reading the titles.

Movies:
The Godfather Parts I & II
Snatch
Being John Malkovich
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Royal Tenenbaums
Death to Smoochy
Planet Earth, Blue Planet, and Human Planet Docs
Almost Famous

TV:
Arrested Development
30 Rock
Mad Men
The Wire
The Colbert Report & The Daily Show

I love music of all kinds. I'm a complete sucker for vocal harmonies, and I have a musician's appreciation for well-played instrumental parts. I will admit to being able to forgive a lot of artistic mediocrity if there is a kickass guitar solo involved. I like to delve into song lyrics. I am fascinated by songs that have been performed repeatedly for decades or longer by very different artists, particularly old folk standards that were written who-knows-when by someone-or-other.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I fed wild hyenas in Ethiopia, and I was close enough to touch them.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can give a few pointers on sailing, shooting pool, or playing guitar.

Countries I’ve Visited

Costa Rica, Ethiopia

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States