I was raised in the Midwest and on the East Coast, and I tend to carry a combination of New York vibe and Chicago down-to-earth-ness about me (at least, I think so). Overall, I would describe myself as being kind, patient, sensual, and creative. I love to go to concerts, and to go out to eat, and to go to the beach in the summertime. I love to cook at home (I tend to do this mainly when there is someone to do it for), I love to talk about anything & everything and consider myself to be a good listener, and I spend a lot of time showing up for the people in my life. I'm warm, affectionate, and empathetic, although my occasionally twisted sense of humor goes over some peoples' heads (and, occasionally, even gets me into hot water). I'm nice to waiters, and I tend to notice and be kind to people in distress. I have incredibly great friends in my life, both male and female, who are very important to me, and I'm living a very nicely-balanced life. All I need now is someone special to share it all with...maybe you?

First of all, I'm enjoying my life more than I ever have before, at any point in my life. I would say that I am (and my life is) a curious mix of the pragmatic and the artistic. I'm an attorney, but I'm also a musician, and I need both sides of my life in order to be complete. If you met me, you wouldn't guess that I'm a lawyer, but you might guess that I'm a musician...it's one of the advantages of being in charge of my own life: I can wear whatever I want, most of the time. I look great in a suit & tie (if I do say so myself), and can go there whenever I need to, but, really, I'm a blue jeans & T-shirt guy most of the time. I work out regularly, and I work on myself in lots of ways that are meant to keep me positive and healthy in my outlook on life, and I show up for people. I spend evenings with friends, often, and I'm rarely so busy that I won't pick up the phone, when someone calls just to chat. I live one day at a time, and I feel quite blessed to have the life I have.

Listening; offering perspective; legal research; literary criticism; writing; photography; cooking; driving; body-boarding in the ocean (Zuma, baby!!!); kissing (and one or two other things that you'll have to discover for yourself!). I would also say playing the guitar, except I'll probably never be as good at that as I wish I were.

Probably my eyes, because they're very very blue.

Books: Recently: If the Buddha Dated; The Inner Game of Music; Chronicles, Vol. I, by Bob Dylan; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (all three books); time-honored favorites: The Magus, by John Fowles; A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving; The Women's Room, by Marylin French; Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh; The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger; Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov; The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test; The Right Stuff; The Bonfire of the Vanities; I Am Charlotte Simmons (all by Tom Wolfe); Catch-22, by Joseph Heller; Sometimes a Great Notion, by Ken Kesey; Burning the Days, by James Salter; The Tao Te Ching (in an ongoing way, I'm reading the Tao Te Ching in three different translations simultaneously, in order to help get the concepts across the translation-barrier from Chinese to English...it's easy, because each page is a separate "verse," and you only read one a day); classics of literature: Homer; Virgil; Beowulf; Chaucer; Dante; Edmund Spenser; William Shakespeare; John Milton; Lord Byron (I majored in English literature, special emphasis on medieval and Renaissance epic poetry...and had a ball doing it); but the list is really too long to actually write out...I've been an avid reader since I was a little kid...Oh, and I subscribe to The New Yorker.

Movies: Michael Clayton; Unfaithful; The Devil Wears Prada; Prime; Shawshank Redemption; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (all three Swedish films, and the American version of the first one); The Social Network; Mulholland Dr.; Beautiful Girls; My Cousin Vinnie; Heat; Training Day; Mission Impossible (I, II, and III...IV not so much); Alien; Aliens; The Godfather (I & II); Days of Heaven; The Shining; All That Jazz; The Deer Hunter; Apocalypse Now; Sophie's Choice; Kramer vs. Kramer; Tootsie; Traffic; Before the Devil Knows You're Dead; Love, Actually; The Graduate; Straw Dogs (the original, not the remake); The Getaway; A Stir of Echoes; Lust, Caution; Rachel Getting Married; Notes on a Scandal; anything and everything by Stanley Kubrick; anything and everything by Terrence Malick; most films by David Fincher; most films by Ridley Scott, and by Tony Scott; anything by Michael Mann; and the list goes on and on...I used to be a cinematographer, remember.

Shows: none...call me odd, but I don't get into watching television...when I have time to curl up on the couch, I'd rather watch a solid, well-made film. I won't judge you if you like T.V., it just never occurs to me to watch any.

Music: Ah, now here is where the list is really too long, but I'll try: Morning Becomes Eclectic, on N.P.R.; Favorite genres: classic rock; contemporary rock; R&B; soul; "Americana"; bluegrass. Favorite artists: The Beatles; The Stones; Jethro Tull; Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; Talking Heads; Bowie; CSN&Y (or, for that matter, CS&N); Cream; Sean & Sara Watkins (both in and out of the band Nickel Creek); Gillian Welch; David Rawlings; Robert Earl Keen; Fiona Apple; Feist; Dawes; Jackson Browne; Dylan; Joni Mitchell; Neil Young; Stevie Wonder; Dusty Springfield; Elvis Costello; Squeeze; The Pretenders; Brian Eno; Warren Zevon; Oingo Boingo; CCR; Natalie Merchant; Amy Winehouse; A Fine Frenzy; The Clash; The Punch Brothers; Old Crow Medicine Show; Doc Watson; The Band; Leon Russell; Frank Zappa; Aimee Mann; Garbage; Joan Armatrading; Delbert McClinton; Blake Mills; Jimmy Cliff; Desmond Dekker; Michael Jackson; I mean, it's really too overwhelming...let's talk?

Food: Indian; Japanese; Thai; Italian; French; good old fashioned burgers/fries/chocolate shakes; pizza (well, I guess that's Italian, technically). I love to eat out at restaurants. Favorites: Mozza (both the Osteria, and the Pizzaria); Dominick's; Little Dom's; Jinpachi (maybe the best sushi I've ever had); Akbar; Electric Karma; Chan Darae; The Alcove; La Mill (in Silverlake); Umami Burger; and my all-time favorite, stand-by hangout: The 101 Coffee Shop (on Franklin, in Hollyweird, in the lobby of the Best Western Hotel, at Argyle Street...best burger/fries/shake combo in town, and the people-watching is amazing, especially late at night!).

In no particular order:
1) Family and friends (OK, these aren't "things," but, I think a broader interpretation of the word was called for)
2) Music (and my guitars)
3) Chocolate
4) Smart women (again, most definitely not "things")
5) Sex
6) The ocean

Music; food; sex; career (not necessarily in that order, and depending upon the time of day). Am I doing the right thing? Am I really a good person, or am I a fraud? What's next? How can I help my friends with the things that challenge them? What's a guy gotta do to meet someone nice on OK Cupid (or anywhere else, for that matter)? Is there rhyme and reason to the way things happen (I think so), or is it all just random chance (sometimes it seems like it might be)? My one and only New Years resolution: not to tolerate anyone in my life who's full of shit. And (of course), the eternal question: how do we know that when we close the refrigerator door the light really goes out? (After all, we eat the only witnesses!)

Out, playing music in a coffee shop, and then either off to a late dinner with friends, or else home, curled up on my couch, with a pizza and a DVD.

After years of living in L.A., I still say "east" when I mean "west," and vice versa, when giving directions, because, for most of my life, east was the direction in which the ocean lay...oddly enough, though, I don't mix up north and south....

You like what you've read (seen?) here, you're willing to actually step up to the plate and connect (and, potentially, enter into a long term relationship), and you're attractive, smart, interesting, funny, open-minded, left-of-center, and, oh yeah: it wouldn't hurt if you like to kiss for hours...