CURRENT MISSION

I could tell you, but... (acrid odor of self-destructing audio tape)

ABOUT ME

Freelance translator and writer of prose and comics. What I really, really want to do is work in a windowless cubicle... meanwhile, I just write to pay the bills.

PHILOSOPHY

THOMAS MORE: (quietly) I neither could nor would rule my King. (pleasantly) But thereâ

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Heard about this over Chinese vegetarian buffet at a Dallas strip mall during the recent American Literary Translators conference. Sounded cool. Fake pork was also tasty.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Ibid.

Interests

Reading, writing, film, swimming, photography, origami, animation, theories (of all sorts, except conspiracy)

• fish
• arts
• writing
• photography
• cooking
• vegetarian
• comics
• reading
• origami
• fishing
• swimming
• animation
• freelancing
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC:
Astrud Gilberto, My Little Airport, The Innocence Mission, Camera Obscura, Belle & Sebastian, Future Bible Heroes, The Mamas and the Papas, Arthur H, Sam Cooke, Francoise Hardy, Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens, Jean Corti; early Bruce Springsteen, Dar Williams, Lyle Lovett, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Guy Clark, and Shawn Colvin
MOVIES:
Days of Heaven, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Masculin/Feminin, Lawrence of Arabia, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, The Hustler, Top Hat, Mary Poppins, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, My Darling Clementine, Once Upon A Time in the West, The Asphalt Jungle, The General, Excalibur, Paper Moon, Sans Soleil, Der Himmel über Berlin, The Right Stuff, Ran, Manhattan, Being Human
BOOKS:
The Transit of Venus, Ninety-Two in the Shade, Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard, The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, Liars in Love, Light Years, CHRZ, Julius Knipl, The Aleph, Skinny Malinky Leads the War for Kidness, (GEORGE), The Sportswriter, Terrasse a Rome, Les Freres de la Consolation, Fat City... this is much harder with books, my first love.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

"Charlie Black: Of course you do. When you think to yourself—and most of our waking life is taken up thinking to ourselves—you must have that feeling that your thoughts aren't entirely wasted... that, in some sense, they’re being heard. I think it's this sensation of silently being listened to… with total comprehension... that represents our innate belief
in a supreme being. What it shows is that a kind of belief is innate in all of us. At some point most of us lose that... after which it can only be regained by a conscious act of faith.
Sally Townsend: You've experienced that?
Charlie Black: Uh, no, I haven't. But I—I hope to someday." ~ Whit Stillman, Metropolitan

Teach, Learn, Share

Lived abroad in France and Taiwan. Ex-outdoorsy type. Degrees in film and creative writing currently being used to wrap fish. Love comics--ahem, sequential art. Would never use comics to wrap fish. Can cook (fish included)--used to a lot, less restaurant than hearty home fare--but don't much any more, living alone now. Happy to, for company.