CURRENT MISSION

Get To Connecticut In One Piece.

ABOUT ME

“Golly! Writing paragraphs about myself is just the greatest!,” said no one ever.

Let’s keep this simple. Here are a few interesting albeit revealing albeit terrible anecdotes from my life. If you read these and think, “I would absolutely get along with this guy,” then perfect, befriend me. If not, don't worry about it. I'll appreciate your clicking on my page nonetheless.
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I studied film and tv production, philosophy, and sociology at NYU. While I'm full of utterly useless information, I'm happy to report that I use all of my learnings to this day. That said, my parents still owe me $10 on this bet.

Before deciding to go the lofty film route, my loftier aspiration was to become a composer/concert pianist. I was - surprisingly - accepted into Juilliard to study piano, but that ended after seeing brilliant musicians in the subways of NYC literally begging for money. The world is not kind to content creators. Mr. T pities us fools.

I've inadvertently amassed a monstrous collection of music over the course of my life. And I'm not talking about 500 gigs worth. It's... I don't know how much more than that, but it's definitely more than that. From Javanese gamalan music to Brazilian samba to African jazz to... hmm... Lady Gaga I pretty much have it all. This being the case, I've never made a perfect playlist. It's impossible. I gave up a long time ago.

I eat ice cream at lightning speed. True story.

One of my favorite toys is a little remote-controlled helicopter. I typically try to fly it into people's heads. It's obscenely fun.

I think that a car is the best place to philosophize. I find myself doing it often... sometimes without driving over people.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm brand new to this. I'm originally from Connecticut. I ended up in NYC for school. Now I'm ready to explore.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I'm very new to the idea. A friend recommended this to me as a good means of travel and meeting people. I think he may be on to something...

Interests

-Writing
-Astrophysics
-Kind people
-OCD clean people (I must confess that I am one)
-Todd Solondz movies
-Maurice Ravel
-Christopher Hitchens
-Paul Krugman
-Musicians and music
-Readers and reading
-White Tea w/slice of lemon/honey
-Belgian witbier (Hoegaarden is the current libation of choice)
-Flying
-Traveling (although I think that I really just like flying)
-Spelling "traveling" with one "l"
-Swimming
-Biotechnology
-The internets
-Early 20th century piano music
-Post-Modern Abstract Expressionism
-Orchestration
-Niles and Frasier Crane
-Bakunin and Marx
-Social Exchange Theory

• writing
• concerts
• cooking
• flying
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• classical music
• jazz
• piano
• boxing
• swimming
• sociology

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Happiness, Goodfellas, Being John Malkovich, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Boogie Nights, Tiny Furniture, Pulp Fiction, Vanilla Sky, Star Wars, Lost in Translation, Sideways, Annie Hall, Traffic, American Beauty, Magnolia, Rushmore, Children of Men, Deconstructing Harry, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, All About Eve, Manhattan, Knife in the Water, Margot at the Wedding, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, Husbands and Wives, The Departed, Star Wars, Greenberg, Wild Strawberries, Bowling for Columbine, Punch-Drunk Love, Raging Bull

Music: Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Scriabin, Maurice Ravel, Art Tatum, Destroyer, AIR, Belle & Sebastian, Phoenix, The Doors, Frank Zappa, Bill Evans, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Nine Inch Nails, N*E*R*D, Al Green, Röyksopp, Guster, Black Sabbath, ? and the Mysterians, Cream, Daft Punk, Devo, deadmau5, Justice, Antonio Carlos Jobim, The Cure, Jamiroquai, Ella Fitzgerald, Johann Sebastian Bach, Louis Armstrong, Radiohead, Telepopmusik, Miles Davis, LCD Soundsystem, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Jens Lekman, Elliott Smith, The Beatles, Frédéric Chopin, The Gipsy Kings, Bill Withers, Talking Heads, Franz Liszt, Sigur Rós, Medeski Martin & Wood, MGMT, U2, of Montreal, Pink Floyd, Steve Reich, The Kinks, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC,

Books: Anything by: Charles Bukowski, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Albert Camus, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cormac McCarthy, Ernest Hemingway, Edward O. Wilson, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Sylvia Plath, Jean-Paul Sartre, David Foster Wallace, Brian Greene, Hunter S. Thompson, E. O. Wilson, Franz Kafka, Daniel Dennett, Paul Krugman, Michio Kaku, William S. Burroughs, Karl Marx, H. L. Mencken, Steven Pinker, Vladimir Nabokov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Jeffrey Eugenides, Ludwig von Mises, Aldous Huxley, Don DeLillo, Sylvia Plath, J. D. Salinger, Max Weber, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anton Chekhov, Herman Melville, Leo Tolstoy, Upton Sinclair, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Ernest Hemingway, Sam Harris

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I saw a UFO once.

... and I played Gershwin's Piano Concerto.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you anything and everything about photograhy, playing the the piano, music theory, and orchestration.

I'm known to give excellent film, music, and reading recommendations.

Oh, and I can cook like no other.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm always happy to bring a very nice bottle of wine for my hosts.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Poland

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States