ABOUT ME

I'm a spur of the moment type of guy, happy to act on a whim, yet still measured enough to avoid being a complete idiot. I'm not a sad-sack, I'm Twitter challenged (and don't really care), and I enjoy spending hours and hours at a late night diner or gobbling tacos from a street vendor.

I adapt easily to my surroundings, without being the guy who always says "whatever." Grew up in LA, went to college in Berkeley, and lived in SF, and I feel at home in all of those places.

My personality is warm and I admire honesty.

yada yada yada

I'm going on a road trip in my car for 2 months across the U.S.--this has to be one of the better moments of my life, and I know it will only be as good as the strangers I meet along the way.

*I'm a huge fan of dogs, but ALLERGIC TO CATS

PHILOSOPHY

Less is More, unless it pertains to food.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

When I get back from my trip, I'll be happy to host people who mosey on over to LA. I live 15 min away from Hollywood, and there's a pool to keep cool during the scorching summer months.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

First timer.

Interests

Luckily my interests and work flow together. I spent a couple years working at Stones Throw Records, which is an independent funk/hip-hop/anything goes label based in Highland Park. My dad is a technical engineer and works in recording studios, so I grew up in an environment with lots of strange looking-equipment and music always present in the background. My job at the label wasn't glamorous--a lot of mail order stuff in a place called the "dungeon," but I did get to meet some of my favorite artists and write a couple press releases.

I'm not sure if I'll end up being a journalist, but in the meantime it's what I love to do, and I'm hoping to do something while I'm on this trip. I went to Cal and wrote for the school newspaper, mostly covering music [album reviews, concert reviews]. I worked at the LA Times Magazine for a summer, and thereafter began to freelance for some publications based in LA and SF. I'm a print publication slut and have 7 subscriptions to different magazines, ranging from Beer Advocate to Harpers.

This past year, I lived in San Francisco and commuted to the East Bay for my job. I worked at a French restaurant called Chez Panisse. It's a 40 year old institution in the heart of Berkeley, which adds to its aura. If there's one thing I'm absolutely obsessed with, it's food. After each shift, the staff would gather at the booths and the line cooks would re-create the menu that had been designed for that night: duck leg confit, braised pork shoulder, fresh wedges of ricotta cheese, baked clams from the wood burning oven. It was a tight-knit community, and on Sundays we'd often venture over to a cook's house with some beer and cook up a vat of chili and bring some fresh lettuces from the farmers market. There are also crazy stories about its 40th anniversary party, involving pot brownies, Tom Waits and David Byrne, but I'll wait to tell you that in person. I hope to do a lot of writing about food while I travel, and can't wait to see your favorite hang outs.

I love ballparks, beer gardens, and record stores. I'm a vinyl hound, and often base trips around places that are known to be purveyors of the best music.

• cats
• dogs
• writing
• concerts
• festivals
• mardi gras
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• cheese
• beer
• partying
• traveling
• billiards
• knitting
• music
• jazz
• engineering
• freelancing
• journalism

Music, Movies, and Books

Music runs the gamut. Here are some albums I <3: Gillian Welch, Revival; Kurt Vile, Smoke Ring for My Halo; Ty Segall, Goodbye Bread; The Band, Big Pink; The Meters, self-titled; Nina Simone, Black Gold; Cass Mccombs, Humor Risk; Van Morrison; Astral Weeks; Blind Willie Johnson, Dark Was the Night; MF Doom, Special Herbs; Alice Coltrane, Ptah el Daoud; D'Angelo, Voodoo; Shuggie Otis, Inspiration Information; J Dilla, Donuts; Frank Zappa, Hot Rats; Fiona Apple, Idler Wheel; Teebs, Collections 01; M. Ward, Duet for Guitars #2

Movies: Best one I've seen in the past 5 years or so was called The Prophet. ALSO. Jiro Dreams of Sushi.
I'm pathetic when it comes to cinema though... missed out on some classics

Books: Confederacy of Dunces, Essays from Emerson, Benito Cereno from Melville

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A mouse, sitting atop a cat, sitting atop a dog. I shit you not.

Going to New Orleans for the 2012 Jazz Festival, sleeping in a warehouse where an Italian family has been crafting Mardi Gras floats for the past 40 years.

Countries I’ve Visited

Czech Republic, France, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States