Extroverted when out and about, I am comfortable, introspective and at peace with myself when alone. Life is at its best for me, though, when I'm laughing and happy with the people I love. I've travelled the world -- the greatest time was while on a one year break from the corporate grind -- I strapped on a backpack and trekked through Southeast Asia and India -- which is the most colorful, spiritual, chaotic, frustrating, enlightening, energizing, place of beauty on this earth. I've also spent a lot of time in France and England -- and am both a francophile and anglophile -- how about them apples?

Other interests/passions/obsessions -- Sushi, Bicycles, Almond Butter, Ginger Ice Cream, Dostoevsky, Kielowski's Decalogue, 3 a.m., Gogol Bordello, Graham Greene, the color Blue, red wine, the movie Red, any movie with Audrey Hepburn, Tottenham Hotspur, long walks to nowhere, the east village, east asia, southeast asia, Paris, the unknown. And I love this crazy city. And Brooklyn -- the true and only motherland! [May 2013 UPDATE: After 19 years in Manhattan (!) I just moved to Brooklyn to a spectacular new apartment. I love everything Brooklyn. But I also love everything Manhattan. Really the only 2 places in the world worth living in! Working on living in both simultaneously . . .]

Who would I like to date? Someone with a love of life who is a little mysterious. She is bright, funny and warm, not to mention free-spirited, gentle and compassionate. She doesn't take life too seriously -- and together we would stumble happily through this crazy jungle of the world in which we live.

Filling out online profiles.

the English language test on this site. Also walking, walking around this city, talking, walking and talking at the same time, talking about movies, watching movies. Riding my bike. Figuring things out. Finding my way without a map. Solving problems. Being analytical. Being intuitive. Having something to say. Not being bored. Or boring.

does anyone really have any idea? I suppose if you have a dorsal fin, or you're half man(woman)/half beast (beastess), or you're a dead ringer for Oprah Winfrey, or if you get hit by lightning just at that moment . . .

Recently read Sea of Poppies -- amazing epic of India; loved Joseph O'Neil's Netherland; favorites: Brothers Karamazov - greatest ever; Midnight's Children; Shantaram; Some Hope- St. Aubyn; truly demented and hilarious; The Half Brother - Read This Book!; Europe Central - Vollman -- fascinating, educational, perverted and breathless; anything and everything by Ian McEwan. Just finished Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia -- a travelogue of just how screwed up Russia is (quite . . .) and the Finkler Question; life wouldn't be complete without reading the Booker Winner. I thought Freedom was fantastic; so much better than the Corrections. I'm starting the Bayou Trilogy based on Obama's suggestion . . .

I'm a big, big movie fan -- the old French and Japanese films, American movies from the 70s, not to mention Fletch. And how great was Sideways? Directors I love -- Bunuel, Bresson, Kurasawa, Kieslowski, Werner Herzog. Satyajit Ray was one hell of a great movie maker -- perhaps the films of the Apu Trilogy were the three greatest films ever made (not to mention the amazing Ravi Shankar soundtrack). Big fan of Errol Morris' documentaries. Lately I've been into both Turkish films - Head on, Climates (with the greatest sex scene bar none ever) and Romanian cinema -- Occident, The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. I love the old Woody Allen and have to say I thought that Midnight in Paris was spectacular. Welcome back Woody! The Master was the best movie of the year by far -- Philip Seymour Hoffman's best role for sure. Barbara was a great little German film that's quite extraordinary.

TV-wise, I had been obsessed with Current TV -- how great were SuperNews and InfoMania!! -- but then it met its sad end and was sold off to the highest bidder. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia always kicks ass. The Wire was the best show ever, no questions asked. I don't have HBO/Showtime - so many of the shows I love I see only when I'm on the plane -- Bored to Death, Californication, Weeds. Are they as good as I think or does your mind get a little twisted at 35,000 feet? I think they're as good as I think! I still haven't seen Homeland; I'm feeling a little out of touch . . .

Too much music to imagine! My iPhone is a big jumble. Lately, I've been on a big The National kick (how great is everything Brooklyn!) Also big in the rotation -- Cat Power. Milkymee. Andrew Bird, Keren Ann. Long time favorites -- Leonard Cohen, Portishead, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Van Morrison, The Clash, John Coltrane, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, The Fugees, The Smiths, Ravi Shankar.

A sense of humor
Travel
BBC America
Movies
The weekend
New York City

how to never work again!
Getting a perfect pair of sunglasses.
Buying a villa in the South of France.
Going back to India.
A good night's sleep.
How I can take so many taxi rides in this city and never have the same driver
A bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape
The meal I had last night at Del Posto
How great avocadoes are (and also, how is it that the plural can be s or es -- it's the great mystery of the English language)

Recovering from the week and promising myself that I will never, ever work again.

That I filled this out truthfully . . .

you think the scourge of the world is boredom.