I'm a musician in the Indie Folk scene here in Denver who drives for Lyft full time these days, and previously owned a medium sized company that I closed just over a year ago. I'm a social person who recharges my social energy alone, I'm a lover of beer and great conversation, I'll eat just about anything, and I'm not afraid of strangers, or the power of strangers trusting strangers.

This year, I've also been working on Spanish quite a bit, so we're not quite fluent, there, but it's pretty much at an intermediate level, entonces viajeros de habla española, ven y quédate! Si puedes tener paciencia conmigo, podemos practicar juntos :-)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I joined CS in 2005, surfed for a short bit in 2006 and again in 2008 in Europe, hosted while living in Poland, surfed on return, and now host in Denver. To me, having a place where travelers can find a place to perch without the transaction, without the expectations, and sometimes without a plan, is the last bastion of an old world, where we can travel and explore freely and without restriction. It's kind of a big deal to me :-)

Interests

• wine
• beer
• coffee
• walking
• drinking
• traveling
• music
• folk music
• rock music
• guitar
• physics
• hitchhiking
• travel
• beers
• rock'n'roll

Music, Movies, and Books

As a kid, my music mostly came from my Grandmother's record collection and the Adult Alternative radio station, which was pretty much the same thing: 50s, 60, 70, and 80s music; mostly folksters and motown and the like.

As a teenager, I discovered the hard stuff through Alternative Nation and Headbanger's Ball on MTV. Back when they played music all the time. So bands like Faith No More, Jane's Addiction, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Tori Amos,The Breeders, and others crept into my world. However, so did Enya, Yanni, George Winston, and the Indigo Girls.

As a young man, it was all about Ani Difranco, Joni Mitchell, John Hiatt, Elvis Costello, Peter Gabriel, and the like.

These days, my playlist is going to be full of bands similar to my own, such as Blind Pilot, The Raconteurs, Phosphorescent, Typhoon, Delta Spirit, Motopony, Ryan Adams, Spoon, Wilco, Frightened Rabbit, Beirut, The Mountain Goats, Dr. Dog, and the like. And for some reason, Spotify's been throwing a lot of Canadian bands at me, like Mother Mother, Arkells, Tera Lightfoot, July Talk, Glorious Sons, and others, and they've definitely found their way in to my playlists recently, too.

My band is called Julean and the Rai.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I'm also kind of a community leader here in the local Lyft driver community, and run the groups around that community (on Facebook, etc). I defend that culture as fiercely as I defend this one, and very much for the same reason. If you ever see any bumper magnets or stickers around town that say #beatjuilan ... that's me!

As a traveler, just over the time I've been a Couchsurfer, I've taken a lot of risks and really put myself out there. I showed up in NYC with about $17 and my guitar, no ties there, and no ties behind me. In the winter. I'm not sure how smart that was, but it turned into me being a semipermanent resident of the city for a couple of years, performing and working with the Living Theatre as an actor until I left. I kind of did the same thing when I went to London for the first time, and traveled Europe until landing in Poland for a couple of years.

For a time, I busked from Amsterdam, all the way to Romania, and stayed there for a time, too. When I got back stateside, I spent some time just over the border in Tijuana, playing shows at los cafes en la playa. When I got back to the actual states, I spent time in San Diego as an actor in another musical, and performed around the city until I made my way to Denver. Here in Denver, I founded a company (?!) with about 100+ employees over about five years, and ran that until I let it go to focus on being an actual person again. It's been a bit of a journey.

Countries I’ve Visited

Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom, United States

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