CURRENT MISSION

To get a whale of a kick out of life

ABOUT ME

Here's my story: my job gave me a year long sabbatical, I'm on an awesome adventure.

It started in February when I went on tour - I played 30 shows (I'm a singer/songwriter/guitar player) from Boston to Seattle. Highlights included freezing my ass off but playing an awesome show in Biddeford Maine, seeing a tree packed full of Egrets in New Orleans, playing a show in the wood in Dallas and taking a bath in a tub by the mountains (see pic) in Montana.

Then I spent a month in Seattle working for a progressive organization that I care about. One highlight was walking into a Seattle cafe and accidentally sitting at french-language "meet up" table where I got to speak french with folks for an hour.

Next (skipping brief trips to Denver and Boston) I had a job in Maine, cooking for 12 painters on an island for a week, using nothing but a wood burning stove. There I played a short concert on the mailboat back to the mainland (see my journal, below for that video).

Now I'm on my way to Mexico to visit for the first time and Guatemala to visit family (my cousin has a Guatemalan mom and she has graciously connected me to her family). I'm really excited to improve my spanish.

Then in the fall I will fly to Iran to visit my family there for the first time. My father is Iranian and I have not yet been to our family's home - a place where my name won't stand out :)

I like life and I like people. It is very likely that I will like you!

Feel free to check out my online travel journal:

http://poetofthewastes.blogspot.com/

PHILOSOPHY

You were born with wings. Why prefer to crawl through life?

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I'm new to CS! Finding my sea legs.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

So far I have yet to surf. But I've had a few nice email exchanges...and I'm looking forward to hosting people when I return to Boston in February 2011.

Interests

Eating things I've never heard of, playing music with other people, Persian cinema, rigorous academia with uncompromising footnotes, people who are just themselves, poetry, learning new recipes, talking about politics and justice, laughing at dumb things, gardening and thinking about local food systems, going to the beach, playing with children, outdoor markets, learning languages.

• poetry
• concerts
• running of the bulls
• dining
• cooking
• recipes
• running
• walking
• flying
• gardening
• politics
• movies
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• outdoor activities
• languages
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Recent favorite movies:

In Bruges
Vicci, Christina, Barcelona
Let The Right One In
Inglorious Bastards
Away We Go
Anvil (The Story of Anvil)
Once
Funny People

A few good books:

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran by Fatemeh Keshavarz
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Heat (About the chef Mario Batali) by Bill Buford

A few great albums:

Courtney Love - Nobody's Daugher
Tom Waits - Closing Time
Anthony Hamilton - Coming From Where I'm From
Nas and Damian Marley - Distant Relatives
Otis Taylor - Recapturing the Black Banjo
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
The Roots - How I Got Over
Francis Cabrel - Je T'aimais, J'e T'aime et Je T'aimerais
Ben Harper - Fight For Your Mind
2Pac - All Eyes On Me
David Grey - White Ladder
Joanie Mitchell - Blue
Rodrigo Y Gabriella - Rodrigo Y Gabriella
Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks
James Brown - Star Time

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

When I was 15 I won an exchange scholarship to go to high-school for the year in Rombas, France, a small post-industrial town near Metz. It was an amazing year where I made many friends, learned french and learned a lot about myself. That summer I traveled to Spain with a friend and we decided to go to Pamplona for "encierro" - the running of the bulls. It's a long story but a good one; for now I'll just tell you that when 12 bulls at 1500 lbs each come running up the cobblestones, the earth shakes. And so do you.

Countries I’ve Visited

Germany, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Spain

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, United Kingdom, United States

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