I've been in the airline business for 16 years. COVID was a huge time of isolation for me as I took some leaves of absence to mitigate staffing overages. Now that I'm back to flying and have downsized my life, I am staying with family until I figure out what is next. I love movies of all genres. I volunteered at Sundance Film Festival twice and I was a driver for a French Film Festival for many years. I love photography and good laughs. You can't beat good company and stories. I started to learn French because as a teenager I found out Celine Dion had a French language album, and so I switched from Spanish, and that small summertime decision changed the direction of my life. I majored in French and see a good 30 French language films a year.

I grew up extremely religious and was involved with a cult like group in Texas immediately after high school. I was there for two years and it was a life detour I never imagined, but has been a large part of who I am. I don't really consider myself religious anymore. Spiritual is a better word, but at the same time I've seen the collateral damage religion has perpetuated on the world over the last few centuries and I tend to keep my distance.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I had an injury nearly two years ago that damaged my jaw and neck on a fall on some stairs. At the time I only noticed the ankle injury, but something slowly got worse on one side of my head and a long trail of appointments didn’t lead to the solution. After a while I eventually found the problem and had jaw surgery last September. I still can’t chew food, but I make it by with soups, and cutting things up small to slowly take them in. I’m ramping up to travel again, and the isolation of two years injured, has left me wanting to ramp up socially while on the road. I figured Id give it a try.

Interests

Ever since i was young I have loved movies. I worked in a video store back when those were a thing, and I loved being able to talk movies with people. “Oh, don’t rent that - its garbage” or “Oh you’re renting the dubbed version, you might definitely reconsider and get the original version with subtitles - a lot is lost in the dub.”

I have a knack for photography despite no formal training. I think about maybe taking some classes for a possible professional edge to add to my portfolio someday. I love meeting new people, and so entering the aviation industry was a natural fit back in 2008.

Most of my music collection is film scores from motion pictures going back decades. I still love purchasing physical media since the streaming ecosystem can drop content on any corporate whim and there isn’t anything you can do about it. I have a region-free Blu-Ray player so I can pick up regional disc releases in my travels and have no problem playing them at home.

• photography
• movies
• music
• foreign films
• french movies
• film scores

Music, Movies, and Books

As I mentioned above Céline Dion was somewhat formative in my introduction to franophone music and culture. My music collection has quite a bit spanning from ARIZONA (the band; not the state), anything 90s, Broadway and soundtracks, James Horner, John Williams and all things Intrada, La La Land Records and in between.

Movies are all over the place. RRR is fantastic and they show it once a month here in Portland, OR. I’ve gone so many times. Sinners has just come out and I’ve gone back several times - it’s a masterpiece from Ryan Coogler. Amélie was formative in my love for inventive visual cinema from Jean Pierre Jeunet. Incendies from Denis Villeneuve ranks high on the list of his gems. Christopher Nolan can make a movie. Inception, The Prestige and Dark Knight trilogy are fantastic. I adored I’m Still Here this last Oscar season. Anora was decent, but i think way overrated. With the rise of fascism in the USA it is very concerning, and the Brazilian window into their foray with it back in the 70s was beautifully made.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I backpacked Europe on my own after high school - this was back in 2000 - when there were still different currencies and you had to find a payphone to call home on a calling card.

I’d have to follow this up with my real world injury situation that I really had to figure out on my own and despite the setbacks and the pain and the mounting despair - I didn’t give up.

Teach, Learn, Share

I’m pretty decent working with Mac operating systems and peripheral devices. So if you need help organizing your digital life, or learning different software components - I do that a lot in my spare time.

Any of my passions of cinema, photography, music, performing arts - I’m happy to discuss or share. We can go to a film together, or something similar. If you’re in a cult, I can help you get out of one - as I did that twenty years ago myself.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can share my eclectic experiences and fun personality. While I know the our time together will be limited, I hope that my presence in your life albeit maybe briefly can have a lasting impact in some way: conversation, learning something from each other; just spending time with someone genuine.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Italy, Russian Federation, Turkey

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, United States