I'm from New England, so I am jovial and like to have a good time, but a little prudish and I have a dark side, which rears it's ugly head quite often in my humor. I grew up near the ocean, love it dearly, and am still trying to get used to the fact that I can't get in the water here, totally bizarre. I'm from outside Boston, lived in Austin TX for three years, and now have been out here for a little over three. Is California now my "home?" Jury's still out on that one, but I can't see myself going anywhere soon. Now here's some stuff I love.

I love food: cooking, exploring new restaurants, finding new street vendors and getting ice cream from bi-rite

I love music: playing in a band, going to shows, talking about favorite albums, listening

I love movies: Kurasawa, Bergman, Hitchcock, Polanski, auteurs, Sergio Leone (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is probably my favorite film), Eastwood, westerns in general, and also have been known to relish a horror or zombie flick or two

I love history and non-fiction: I love reading history, particularly ancient Greece, Rome, and the Middle East, and 20th Century history. Some favorite nonfiction authors: Kurlansky (food history), Hobsbawn (20th century), Cronon (developmental and 19th century), Susan Orlean (biography/profile pieces) and Jeffrey Steingarten (food)

I am also addicted to NPR.

Currently I work in the food industry and play in a dark, heavy, loud band. I am looking for a different direction in life right now and am currently plotting my escape!

Karaoke, but that is probably subjective, particularly from a drunken perspective.

Other than that I play guitar, drums and bass and if I get my mitts on an instrument you play I might soon become better than you!

Also, I enjoy cooking and have a good ability to imagine flavor combinations and then make them come true.

I'm easy going, approachable and try to set people at ease.

Editors

• ntmk

favorite books: Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan kundera in general really, Salt: A History of the World - Mark Kurlansky, In Our Time - Hemingway, The Double - Dostoyevsky, 100 Years of Solitude - Marquez, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup - Susan Orland, Waiting For The Barbarians - Coetze, Welcome to the Monkey House - Vonnegut

Favorite movies: I mentioned a number before, but in addition enjoy directors: Wes Anderson, John Sayles, and Ken Burns.

Favorite music: There is too much, I listen to a lot of different music, generally like music with space if that makes any sense. Here's some bands: Radiohead, New Order/Joy Division, Cure, Talking Heads, Modern English, Bjork, Tortoise, Slint, Unwound, Braid, The Rachels, Wilco, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, Do Make Say Think, Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Panda Bear, Arovane, Bartok, Beethoven, Bach, Debussy, Tchakovsky, Shostakovich, Janacek, Sinatra, Miles Davis, Band of Horse, Beck, Bedhead, Bonnie Prince Billy, The Clientele, Early Day Miners, Fleet Foxes, Goblin Cock, The National, Pinback... totally just shuffling through my IPhone right now...

There's just too much, we'll just say I'm obsessed with music, generally listen to Inde, enjoy going to shows and I collect records, but only if it's something that was recorded in analog, cause I care how things sound

Editors

• ntmk

Record Collection (1 thing)
Glasses (gotta see)
Food (and not just for sustainance, if it didn't taste amazing I'm not sure I'd bother eating it)
Books (again 1 thing damnit, and I'm talking the entire world's collection, The Library gets an honorable mention)
NPR
Alcohol - goes good with food and makes things more fun... until it makes things absolutely horrible

How to get back into a more academic or intellectual life
Music
Food, recipes, what house dinner to make next
Daydreamed conversations
How to discuss politics with my family

Either having band practice or cooking food at home, possibly before going out or watching a movie

I also often enjoy listening to City Arts and Lectures on NPR, can't remember if that's on Saturday night or Friday, and often Selected Shorts is on one of those weekend nights as well. Generally, during this listening session I'm contemplating a moderately priced bottle of wine, a fine spirit or one of my favorite beers, say Scheider and Sons Edel Weiss (Organic Heffeweisen, really quite good, I urge all to try it, unless you have a deadly wheat allergy, then I'll understand).

By the way: wine, beer and spirit are totally activities

My hair is actually a weave made from real horsehair. Okay, that's a bunch o' horseshit, I could never afford real horsehair. You'll just have to wait to get to know me to know my deepest darkest secrets, such as what substance is my hair!?

And... I don't really like most tattoo art! I didn't say all! There goes almost the entire bay area population between 25 - 35. But really, I don't care one way or the other if you have tattoos.

Do you like music, seeing/listening or even playing?
Do you enjoy food, eating/making/watching other people make?
Are you interested in our world? History, politics, things happening in it?
Do you enjoy getting lost in images? Photographic, moving, framed?
Do you like to learn? Magazines, NPR, researching, the library, books, books on tape?

Do you enjoy over-analyzing any of the above-mentioned experiences or subject matter?