California-born, public University educated, with a deep and abiding love for American fiction, progressive politics, baseball, good beer and snowboarding. Maybe the most important thing I can express is that I view conversation as one of our purest art forms. I believe generosity and find this to be one of the most attractive qualities in a person.

If you can find me a bar or a band that plays actual blues or actual rock and roll, hand me a drink, and have a good time, it's essential you contact me.

If you like the idea of playing some darts or nine ball over Bell's Two-Hearted while discussing Ruy Teixeira's latest paper (and who doesn't, really), then we would probably get along.

Black Diamond - Not recommended for beginners.

Be a challenge; there are better things in the world than nice.

I am incorrigible, ineffable, and in afterburn

Finding a cure for cancer with one hand tied behind my back and solving 81 square-per-side Rubix cubes on my lunch break.

Last March I started a small business, and this year I started another. Trying to beat insurmountable political odds.

Reinventing communication, leveraging every imaginable resource, and trying to make enough to live along the way.

Telling stories. Making drinks.

And grammar, despite starting a sentence with a conjunction.

I have a few other talents too, but I don't give that away first thing.

The five o'clock shadow. I gave up shaving in celebration of leaving an oppressive law firm.

Books:

The Great Gatsby when I want to be reminded of how beautiful language is, and how elusive dreams are.

The Long Goodbye (or any Chandler) for the glamor and California.

The Cry of the Owl when the world seems mundane and I take that as a negative thing.

Love In The Time Of Cholera, Invisible Man (Ellison, not Wells), Memoir From An Antproof Case, Shopgirl, The Satanic Verses, American Psycho, A Thousand Acres, In Our Time, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, House of Sand and Fog, Hamlet, Through The Safety Net, All The Pretty Horses, The Sun Also Rises, Strangers on a Train, Operation Shylock, The Fifth Business, The Blind Assassin, Portnoy's Complaint, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, Moneyball, Lies My Teacher Told Me, Fast Food Nation, Liar's Poker, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, The Tipping Point, Influence.

Music:

To quote Slug "I'm just a man who loves rap." Seriously, the local hip-hop community in the cities is incomparable.

Any of the Doomtree crew when I need to be pumped up with music as good as Shakespeare.

U2 to remind me of all the beautiful things, even the ones that hurt.

Silversun Pickups when I need to pour some honey through my ears into my brain.

John Coltrane as I mix a martini or Manhattan.

Dessa, The Hold Steady, U2, Bob Dylan, Atmosphere, POS, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash, Brother Ali, No Bird Sing, John Mayer, Dido, Paul Simon, Matchbox 20, The Doves, No Bird Sing, Thelonius Monk, Jimmy Smith, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Red Garland, Richard 'Groove' Holmes, Weekend Players, Rilo Kiley, Soul Position, DJ Shadow, Eminem, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Otis Rush, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Elmore James, Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Movies:

Casablanca, Fight Club, The Apartment, Brick, Dr. Strangelove, Lilies of the Field, Roman Holiday, Charade, Bringing Up Baby, LA Confidential, Blade Runner, The Big Sleep, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Prestige, Adaptation, Say Anything, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Johnny Dangerously, Kingpin, Bull Durham, Three Amigos!, Stranger Than Fiction, Blazing Saddles, One Two Three, Sabrina, Some Like it Hot, Rear Window, To Catch A Thief, North By Northwest, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Annie Hall, Match Point, Casino Royale (2006), Volunteers, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Open Range, Frailty, Die Hard, Batman Begins.

Something to test myself against
Good gin (or whiskey)
Music
NPR
Good friends / family

The sixth I reserve to change at a moment's notice.

What a real challenge feels like.

Pragmatism and my intense ambivalence about it.

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.

Whether or not the idea of something is better than the experience, and what it means to have an experience. How people connect, and change.

Plots for books I badly need to finish writing.

How to get everything I want to do to fit into my schedule with everything I need to do.

That "there are dinner jackets, and dinner jackets."

Specific examples: engaging in 6 hours of strategizing / research for a congressional campaign; or throwing a party with three bands and a half dozen DJs; or watching a horrifically bad movie (think "Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter," or "Red Dawn) and inventing the most ridiculous drinking game possible.

Variety = spice of life.

There are times that I worry that my life might be following the same trajectory as John Cuasck's career. Started out as Lloyd Dobler, hit a high point for artistic merit in Being John Malkovitch, but will eventually end up in 2012.

And I'll give you another one for free - I lived (500) Days of Summer.

Usually this is a list of arbitrary conditions. Not going to happen here. It'll take a little moxie on your part, but if you don't have that, then it's probably not a good idea anyway.

Just one - must find this funny: http://musicforants.com/assets/vs/How%20You%20Remind%20Me%20Of%20Someday.mp3