CURRENT MISSION

Yes.

ABOUT ME

Life is crawling backwards down my spine.

PHILOSOPHY

Shoving gold up your ass does not make you an alchemist.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

People are actually okay, and I participate by helping them out. The status quo seems to dictate that encounters with strangers are necessarily uncomfortable, but I find myself less in line with that theory all the time, and I love proving it wrong.

Basically, interacting with people is not that hard, or it shouldn't be, and having moments together can really be great, unexpected fun and satisfaction.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have hosted quite a few people, on and off couchsurfing, in the last few years and I've managed to crash with others without offending them.

Interests

Playing music and seeing music played, gardening, mythology and the religious instinct, psychology, writing, Seinfeld, cartoons, history (especially Japan and the American West), anthropology, old movies, guitars, thrift stores, birds, tobacco pipes, hats, well made furniture, trees, basketball (?), bones, feathers, fur. Poetry. Mystery Science Theater 3000. Occasionally a computer game. And maybe you.

• birds
• writing
• books
• poetry
• theater
• gardening
• thrifting
• cartoons
• movies
• music
• guitar
• basketball
• anthropology
• history
• psychology
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

Kurosawa, Kubrick, Godard, Leone. Other favorite directors in no particular order: Masaki Kobayashi, Alfred Hitchcock, Kineto Shindo, Dario Argento, Jan Svankmajer, Terry Gilliam.....

MST3K is like, my favorite thing ever.

I listen to classical music with some regularity, as well as irregular doses of Black Classical, i.e. jazz -- and the usual Portishead Radiohead Black Sabbath Wu Tang Pixies Waylon/Willie whatever. I am really geeky fanboy for and not limited to: Nick Cave, Jethro Tull. Akron Family, Leonard Cohen, Einstuerzende Neubauten, Coil. Lots of stuff. The Kinks! PJ Harvey! Queens of the Stone Age. Anything from black metal to bluegrass, really. Doc Watson!

Generally I read a lot. History, other nonfiction. Favorite authors of fiction are Graham Greene (!), Nabokov, Steinbeck, Dashiell Hammet, William Burroughs. Poetry of Ginsberg, Sandburg, Ovid, Rilke, DH Lawrence.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Stood up on a motorcycle and drove it with no hands!

Wait, no, that was Jean Claude van Damme.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you the G minor seven chord on the guitar. That's it.

I have a lot of books that I like talking about and records I like to share.

There are many things I have written or drawn or painted or thought up which I like to learn about didactically, if you've got the guts for it.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can share my 8+ years of experience in Iowa City, and my 20+ years of life which, while being perhaps rather on the uninteresting side, nonetheless have been shot through with moments of solid insight which I am more or less well equipped to describe.

But really, I can share my basic good nature, which is the best thing I have and am able to bestow upon my fellows.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Ireland