Well. Where were we?

I'm from Northern Massachussetts, a strange and beautiful place. Strange because it's basically New Hampshire, beautiful because it's basically New Hampshire. I grew up beside an orchard (now a development -- Orchard Heights) and adjacent a vast farm, so I'm probably one of the last guys in the cold Northeast corridor who had bulls free-roaming his backyard as a child. Pretty wild experience, pretty docile animals, usually. I was a reader. I was a musician. I had brothers to piss me off and get into trouble with. I was pretty good at making and finding my own fun, and I still am.

In the interest of time: I went to college in Boston, studied literature and started writing and performing music, traveled abroad -- studying in England and traveling Western Europe as time and cash allowed -- and kept writing and playing until I decided to move to NYC two years ago, and I'm happy to say, we're getting along quite well together.

In other news:

I love the high you get onstage, and the high you get going onstage two nights in a row, or reading a batch of writing onstage, to friends, to strangers, to strangers who become friends, that strange combination of anxiety and the primitive burn to share and to entertain. Language(s) fascinate(s) me. Where any of these things intersect with politics fascinates me. I love to hear where people come from, are coming from, what moves them, deeply, where they've lived and where they want to go. Flights of the mind. Nights at Film Forum. Finding a new restaurant. Thrifting, with friends. I love ferries, boats, vessels generally, and would like to find a way to spend six months traversing some body of water on a small vessel without completely abandoning my life in NYC, which I adore. Though I do, regrettably, feel under-traveled. Maybe that's why I like hearing where you've been so much.

I'm also in a competition with friends to see who can listen to this segment on loop for the longest period of time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PIIDq-lzKCM.

You'd surprise yourself, honest. Especially with a pair of Bose headphones.

Finishing a Masters at Columbia; balancing work, art, and life delicately. Thinking teaching could be a great way to rake in (jk) some extra cash while having shit tons of free time and doing what I love dearly, which is to make and to talk about art, writing, music, and life, with the young, the elderly, and plenty in between. Also pursuing publishing, on the editorial side, having worked there before.

When I'm not in class or working, I'm out wandering. We've probably run into each other. Still kind of astounded by how small this city can feel.

Opening entirely sealed pistachios; guitar (particularly the Open Position); finding that word on the tip of your tongue; fixing leaks; choosing that bottle of wine; lending books; laughing; driving; deep-sea diving; board/card/parlor games; choosing that bottle of bourbon, etc.

The beard? Also my eyes, if I'm wearing blue, which I don't do too often. You'll have to let me know.

Poetry -- Vallejo, Stevens, Donnelly, Jeff Clarke, Ashbery,Katy Lederer, Lundy-Martin, Plath, Michaux, Robyn Schiff, Ben Lerner, Transtromer, Mackey, Creeley, Brock-Broido, Bob Kaufman, and a longer list of people who have been dead for quite some time now.

Movies -- Entirely taken with the work of Leos Carax. Kieslowski, typically anything criterion. I also think "The Master" is potentially the greatest American film of the past decade (though that may just be because I saw it on Village East's 78mm print, which was fucking stunning). And in no particular order, much-loved films from my childhood: Point Break, anything Tarentino, The Fifth Element, Commando (for the comedy factor), yes, most things by the Farrelly Brothers, anything and everything by the Joel and Ethan Coen duo, etc, etc. Also, Double Indemnity, right? And documentaries, many documentaries, and anything that's playing at Film Forum.

Prose -- Cortazar, Carver, Bataille, Pessoa, Bolano, Barthelme, Borges, Duras, Isherwood, Coetzee, Maggie Nelson, Musil, anything Didion, always Kafka, always Buchner, always, always looking for suggestions.

Music -- Bon Iver, The Walkmen, the Basement Tapes, Granada Doaba (amazing fusion of flamenco and a beat box), Kendrick, LCD, Mazarin, Townes Van Zandt, Al Hirt, Al King, Elliot Smith, Drake, Black Keys, most Jack White projects (actually, scratch "most"), Broken Bells, Carlos Montoya, MC5, Nina Simone, T Rex, Bud Powell, Monk, The Clancy Brothers (one of whom is my namesake), Dan Sartain, Chromatics, The Dirty Projectors, Fela Kuti, Clapton, Gang of Four, The Felice Brothers, Karen Dalton, The Greenhornes, Father John Misty, Etta James, The Kills, The National, The Meatpuppets, NICK CAVE (abbattoir blues, right?), Tame Impala, Sharon van Etten, Ray Charles, that sleigh bells record, the Soledad Brothers, and it's usually fun running into the Stumblebums somewhere along the L, though I've some issues with those guys. Also, T Bone Burnett. The War on Drugs.

TV -- anything HBO (Go)

bare essentials, in no particular order:

-- coffee
-- my ipod (I came late to the hype and got my first Mini last summer. It was a game changer).
-- slide guitar, rig, half-stack
--a stack of books on my nightstand
--Dylan
--the occasional sunrise

What was the name of that painter I saw at the Guggenheim during the Cattelan exhibit? Kandinsky? Kandinsky. Now that that's settled...

Someplace I've never been before, with friends or making new ones.

People still have private lives?

You'd like to catch a show or reading.
Your mind is livin' on cloud nine and that nine ain't never on vacation.
You really, really like Maggie Nelson.
You'd like to have champagne and oysters on a rooftop for a few hours, sometime the weather's nice and we can lose track of time.
You love your body, you're comfortable in bed.