At this point should commence the usual coating of one’s imperfections in many shades of honesty, sincerity, compassion, ambition, skill, a love for animals, the elderly, and the infirm, as well as the requisite marvelous cocksmanship. To be sure, I possess all of these clichéd traits in abundance (most men probably qualify at least some times in their lives), but I’m afraid that I really am a bit different from many Phoenicians. Before moving here in 2011 to do a PhD, I spent the previous seven years as a journalist and teaching journalism in Lebanon. And yes, I saw a lot of man’s inhumanity to man.

The 12 years before that I had lived in post-communist Europe; I arrived in 1992, not long after communism fell, and it was the best party I’ve ever been to. It was also an absolutely engrossing, three-dimensional, life-size, and real-time laboratory of all-encompassing social change. I spent 11 years in Prague.

I dislike starting so many sentences with “I”; I do yoga every day and went to an ashram in India and was silent. I don’t eat meat anymore. My bliss, however, is not total; I still haven't learned to love Republicans. I haven't owned a television in 20 years... I read a lot.

Warning: relentlessly energetic. I teach and I study here, but there is still time to go to the gym, run or swim just about every day. I'll get back into playing ultimate. I’ve been told that I don't look my age. I feel like dancing most of the time.

If your hopes and plans revolve around the acquiring of much money, nice cars, a man who wears a tie and tinkers with things, that’s great; I wish you a big house in the suburbs with much lawn maintenance (please go easy on the water, though, OK?) and many renovation projects that you enjoy. I've always gotten along best with women who dig both Karl and Groucho Marx.

And no, I am not the arrogant, haughty type. I grew up in Milwaukee, for fuck's sake. Travel and clever stuff are great, but I'm rarely happier than when I'm drinking a good beer, laughing my ass off, and sorting out the world's problems. And then dancing. Awkwardly.

Grammar nerds welcome!

a PhD; sounds dreadful, I know, but I spent hours every day reading even before I began this ordeal. At least now they'll give me a shiny trophy for it. And it's fun to indoctrinate the youth of this country!

Reaching stuff in very high places

I'm tall; that and my big, goofy smile, and dark hair just a bit longer than the standardized style... Or I could be totally full of shit. Who knows what people usually notice about them?

This will all sound horribly pretentious, but I kind of hope that your list does, too. My favorites include lots of classics, but I am not some tight-ass cultural elitist, terribly serious about the canon--I've always been enthralled by the arts, and I just had the good fortune to live for years in a European capital where I could go one or two nights a week to the art-house cinema run by the national film archive. And I still love Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle." Stop cringing. And there's so much more to see, so I'm looking for someone who wants to go to FilmBar and Valley Art and Camelview 5!

I read mostly nonfiction now, but I still get really excited for new books by Ian McEwan, Amin Maalouf, and Jonathan Franzen. If you get excited by Grisham, The Alchemist, and Eat, Pray, Love, we're probably not going to have much to chat about. I love Maugham, William S. Burroughs, Huxley, Orwell, Milan Kundera, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe's nonfiction, Nate Silver, Evgeny Morozov, Sherry Turkle, Debord, Bourdieu, Habermas, Samuel Huntington (not the neo-cons' misreading of him), and Michael Lewis.

As for movies, yes, yes, all the artsy cliches--my favorites are Tarkovsky and Bergman. I love Fritz Lang, film noir, Billy Wilder; Godard & Truffaut; Coppola, Scorsese, and Woody Allen; and all the great films being made today: the Coen Brothers, Werner Herzog's documentaries (lots of documentaries, actually...), "Goodbye, Solo"--basically anything intelligent but not pretentious bores ("Tree of Life"...). Beyond the artsy bits, I enjoy escapist entertainment, too--"Tropic Thunder," "Anchorman," "South Park," "Team America," and "Ted" all made me laugh until my face hurt. However, if your favorite films typically include titles with the words "wedding" or "love," that would be an inauspicious omen (do I hear sniffing?).

In music, jazz is my nerdy passion (Mingus, Dolphy, Tyner, Lee Morgan, the Esbjorn Svensson Trio), but I love everything from classic rock (Led Zeppelin) to hip-hop (The Roots, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings) to grunge (Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden) to classical (Beethoven; I should probably listen to more Bach...) to funk (The Meters!) to electronica (Stereolab, Jazz con Bazz) to far-out-there stuff (Tool, Soul Coughing, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, and, yes, the Grateful Dead). No Top-40, please, and never got into punk, typical 80s music (that decade sucked enough the first time through; I blame Reagan for everything), or "indie"--white people with angst? No, thank you--I'll just listen to musicians who can play their instruments well.
I'm quite impressed with the depth and seriousness of the lists people come up with for their music favorites. I'm sure that we'd find some common ground--although jazz is pretty crucial...--but differences of opinion are fine. Many fascinating people seem to really be into indie/alternative stuff; no, I don't dig Radiohead (well, OK, "The Bends" was some good rock'n'roll) or Arcade Fire (The White Stripes, however, are an absolute revelation), but there are obviously a lot of new things that I have missed by being out of the country--and I always want to hear new stuff. It's music, not a fascistic dogma. If you rock out to Zeppelin, we're going to get along well.

Without being even more pretentious and listing favorite artists, I'll just say that when I travel, the art museum is often the first sight I want to see.

As for food, I love Thai, Indian, Arab, French, sushi, what gets labeled Mediterranean, anything spicy, fresh vegetables and fruits, and I have a weakness for the grill and seafood. I love to eat; I also love to cook, even though I'm still far from an expert.

reading
intellectual stimulation
arts & culture
intense physical activity
sunshine and warm weather
learning...

world events, the media, history, politics, music, and the unfathomable oddities of human behavior... how did this whole neck-tattoo thing start?

having fun with my friends--well, at least until I moved here

I like watching sunsets with someone. I buy flowers for women. I do not think the word "hippie" is an insult.

the preceding hundreds of words caught your attention... Although an ardent feminist, I worry at times that third-wave feminism can serve as a convenient alibi for unthinking self-objectification, so if you keep the make-up, jewelry, heels, and various forms of hair torture to a minimum, you should message me... (And if you understood a word of that and clocked the irony...). Or if you water-ski--yalla!