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  • Last login about 4 years ago

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Overview

  • 22 references 12 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in English, Icelandic; learning Hungarian, Spanish
  • 40, Male
  • Member since 2006
  • musician
  • B.M. in music composition, B.M. in electronic music perfo...
  • No hometown listed
  • Profile 100% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

To start an art-rock-orchestra-video-electronic band to enhance the consciousness of ourselves and others through music.

ABOUT ME

I’m an American Icelander from Michigan, living in Reykjavik.

I like: practicing Icelandic, lucid dreaming, baking, Shostakovich's 11th Symphony, noise, yoga, vegan junk food, string quartet arranging, breakcore, linux, bubblemaking, nonviolence, beatboxing, freeform radio, recording, my sister, everything cyberpunk, Koyaanisqatsi.

I love kids, music, and technology and am fortunate to work with all three. I currently manage a makerspace at the Reykjavik City Library, where I spend my days teaching kids to program, 3D print, and make electronic music. I also play violin and viola, teach, and compose and arrange. I work with a lot of different bands, so if you enjoy Icelandic music (or want to discover some) I’m your best listening buddy.

PHILOSOPHY

Avert the subdominant paradigm.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love people. I love digging into a place by making friends there, and when I can, learning the language. I love showing off my favorite bits of Iceland. I’m the trusting type and quick to make friends. My best friends are like me — terrible at staying in touch, but we are 100% there for one another whenever we meet. I believe that the circular economy and relationships are the currency of the post-climate-catastrophe future.

For guests, I can give advice on learning Icelandic, understanding Icelandic manners/humor as a foreigner, and finding the hidden gems of Reykjavík.

Interests

Frisbee, science fiction, electronic music production/composition, artsy films, cooking/baking, violin, viola, making soap, freeform radio, making/hacking, Lovecraft, Indian food.

Favorite random thing: standing between two rooms playing different music and finding where it fits together.

  • arts
  • books
  • dancing
  • salsa dancing
  • cooking
  • chocolate
  • indian food
  • baking
  • yoga
  • running
  • meditation
  • dumpster diving
  • classical music
  • electronic music
  • violin
  • science fiction
  • composing
  • lucid dreaming
  • vegan cooking
  • makerspaces
  • viola
  • intersectional feminism
  • lovecraft

Music, Movies, and Books

🎧 Recent/favorite music: Chrome Sparks, Danger, Jon Hopkins, Moderat, Rachel’s, Stereolab, J.S. Bach, Penderecki, Charles Ives, Robot Koch, Kronos Quartet, Shostakovich, Throwing Snow, BADBADNOTGOOD, Phantogram, Soulwax, Thom Yorke, Floex, Clarence Clarity, Max Cooper, Max Richter, Max Tundra, Maxstack, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Nils Frahm, Kelly Moran, Oneohtrix Point Never, Mal Waldron, Kiasmos, IRAH, Julee Cruise. If it’s difficult or obscure I already like it. I strongly dislike Mozart.

📽️ Recent/favorite movies: Pretty much anything Marvel, no matter how bad; the Qatsi trilogy, Black Panther, Woman at War, Hvítur hvítur dagur, Djöflaeyjan, Joker, Flight of the Navigator, My Neighbor Totoro, Bulworth.

📺 Recent/favorite TV: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Russian Doll, Altered Carbon, Sex Education, Broadchurch, You, The IT Crowd, Black Books, The Wire, Fargo, Ozark, Dark, Dear White People, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, Westworld, Firefly, Carnivale, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Rick and Morty, Stranger Things, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

📚 Recent/favorite books: I’m a librarian, where do I even begin? Roxanne Gay’s Hunger, The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust, The Fifth Season, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Who Fears Death, Parable of the Sower, The Power, Them: Adventures With Extremists, Uprooted, Emergent Strategy, the Binti trilogy. Life goal: Read everything ever written by Neal Stephenson and Isaac Asimov. Just finished Harry Potter for the first time, I’m thinking of coming out as a fantasy reader, or at least pan-fantasy-scifi-oriented.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Swam 1 km in the Icelandic sea to Viðey island north of Reykjavik.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can share what I know about making giant bubbles, messing with the Raspberry Pi, 3D printing, music collage-DJing, baking vegan chocolate chip cookies, master smoothie blender technique, yoga.

I want to learn: mindfulness, trail running, turntablism, intersectional feminism, how to be a better listener and ally.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I appreciate silence, and also filling silence with dad jokes and board games and laughs (and groans). I can cook amazing vegan dishes, and I also love washing the dishes, with the occasional exception of dishes in my own flat(!). I have some good stories but really want to hear yours, I’m an active listener and won’t interrupt to give you unsolicited advice. If you need me to play with your pets or entertain your little people, I’d be delighted. Can be a running/hiking/biking buddy. I do my best to live a vegan lifestyle and take full responsibility for finding my own food. I’d never impose my lifestyle upon anyone else. However I will almost certainly impose my cookies upon you.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Wales, Åland Islands

Countries I’ve Lived In

Iceland, India, United States

Old School Badges

  • 3 Vouches
  • Pioneer Badge

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