Issuing supreme power to you...one moment.

My self-summary Propose an edit

I think I best succinctly summarized myself when I told someone I expected never to see again: "I may be one of the strangest people you'll ever meet but I'm probably also one of the nicest." One of my closest friends described me as "the most confounding combination of masculinity and femininity" he had ever encountered.

I tend to be brutally honest (perhaps to a fault) but do my utmost to avoid being honestly brutal; I've been told that this makes me a great shopping buddy.

While agnosticism is the best one word description of my religious views, I am not aspiritual. Briefly, while I think that the universe may one day be logically comprehensible, I think that emotionally, we (or at least I) will always experience nature as a whole as something that is too vast to grasp as is therefore awe-inspiring. The closest thing to a spiritual revelation I experienced occurred during a Paul van Dyk set when I felt a universal connection between everything (including myself), Freud's "oceanic feeling"; I was completely sober at the time (unless you count nicotine).

I was born in Moscow but my parents are from Daghestan (this little war-torn region in the Caucasus, east of Chechnya and north of Iran) and belong to this small ethnic group known as Judeao-Tats that most likely were at one point Persian. My full name is a wonderfully unpronounceable blend of Tat Pharsi, Russian and Hebrew which I can't quite say properly myself so I prefer Benny. I was three when I got to the US so I don't have a sexy (or scary) foreign accent. Kind of boring and irrelevant information, I know, but it somehow seems like it belongs in a proper self-summary.

Not that you can tell from my pictures, but I find an above average amount of things amusing and tend to smile and laugh a lot (often inappropriately).

I tend to dress like either a skater or a librarian, depending on my mood.

I love natural settings but only when they're contained (i.e. city parks). I like walking around in general and have a soft spot for industrial areas and waterways, particularly this one little jetty in the East River near 20th Street. I enjoy talking a lot while walking.

I like going to galleries and museums though I generally dislike at least half of the contemporary works and most of the classic ones. (What can I say? I'm picky.) My favorite pieces are by the Surrealists and YBAs but I really tend to like just about anything I find moving or thought-provoking.

I love video games but I'm trying to cut back. My all time favorite is probably either Soul Caliber or Powerstone.

What I'm doing with my life Propose an edit

Idealistically, I have high (more like reasonably low) hopes of becoming a published fiction author someday. I mostly write semi-fantastical stories. I'm currently working on the following: a piece about an everyman who is compelled to buy a particular car, finds a CD of whale songs in it and becomes so entranced by them that he drowns amid beautiful marine wildlife while driving; a novella about a genderless character who goes on a pilgrimage to see an electronic Sybil after failing to reconcile science and spirituality through alchemy and ends up futilely falling in love with the prophetess; a half-formed story that somehow combines a jade fountain, the minimalism of early Tibetan depictions of Buddah and the form of stupas with a search for self-identity. I sometimes write abstractly emotional poetry as well. I also occasionally make sculptures out of scrap metal and computer parts (my favorite is made out of a fence and modem and looks vaguely like a mosquito) but it's been a while since I found any pieces of metal that really inspired me.

Practically speaking, I just finished my bachelor's at NYU (Linguistics major, Creative Writing minor and a pseudo-minor in English Lit). I'm probably going to be applying to Creative Writing MFA programs sometime next year. If that plan fails, I plan on applying to MSW programs or maybe (big maybe) law school.

I recently switched jobs from doing unlicensed electrical work to tutoring for an after-school program; roughly the same money but much more fulfilling work (or so I hope).

I'm saving up for the following (in order of priority): adopting a cat, getting a hummingbird on a cherry blossom tattooed over the scars on my left shoulder, taking dance classes and getting earrings (two black diamond studs in my right ear and a pair of small black hoops in my left ear).

I'm really good at Propose an edit

Figuring out what's wrong with electrical circuits, welding, sounding vaguely profound while not really saying anything, rollerblading (to get around; haven't really done stunts since high school and the last time I went to a skate park I left badly bruised), knowing random and completely useless bits of information, making tree diagrams of sentences (this took 4 years of college to learn), listening, finding connections between things that are not overtly related, giving massages, gambling (sadly not good enough to quit working) and dispensing advice that is truly hit-or-miss.

The first thing(s) people usually notice about me Propose an edit

My voice: I sound really girly which contrasts pretty strongly with the way I look.

My favorite books, movies, music, and food Propose an edit

My favorite foods are either spicy or sweet. Bananas if I really have to choose one food though San Loco's chipotle guaco loco is a close second. Other favorites include: rosewater rakhat lukum, tomato and onion omelets, vanilla yogurt and mint Skittles (why oh why did they take them off the market?). I abhor any and all seafood and only drink beer when the situation is truly dire. I'm vaguely considering becoming a vegetarian again.

I generally like either comedies (romantic or otherwise) or foreign dramas as far as movies go. Love Actually, Enjoy Your Bath (a horrible translation of the Russian title), Hackers, Amelie, Km. 0, Trainspotting, Kill Bill, Sex and Lucia, The Great Race, Our Music, Saw, 10 Things I Hate About You,Don't Look Now - We're Being Shot at (or La Grande Vadrouille if you prefer its original title), American Pie (shhh, I know), Mulholland Drive and Hot Fuzz are some titles that come to mind.

As far as TV goes, the Japanese Iron Chef, Monty Python's Flying Circus,Noir, Malcolm in the Middle, Twin Peaks, Sex and the City and The Simpsons are my all time favorites. I occasionally watch My Name is Earl (trying to understand what really living in the US is like) and Chuck. I should mention that I only watch TV shows online or on DVD. I go the Museum of Television and Radio every once in a while to catch up on all the wonderful commercials I missed.

My favorite authors are Haruki Murakami, Salman Rushdie, Anais Nin, William Gibson, Derek Walcott and Philip K Dick (I appreciate his ideas more than his writing style). I really liked Anne Rice's works (including the ones she published as A. N. Roquelaure) in high school but haven't read her recently. I recently started both the Harry Potter and Twilight series (barely denting the second book of both since a collection of steampunk arrived from the library). Some individual works: Spencer's Fairie Queene, Yeat's The Song of the Happy Sheperd, Danielewski's House of Leaves, Virgil's The Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Kafka's Metamorphosis, Tolstoy's Hadji Murat, Arnold's Dover Beach (I actually took a bus for 5 hours from London just to see the actual Dover Beach), Eliot's Wasteland, Christopher's A Trip to the Stars, The Song of Solomon, Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. I like reading non-fiction about alchemy and the evolution and history of language, intelligence and music.

I listen mostly to trance and other dance music. Basically if it sounds pretty and has a good beat chances are that I'll like it. Tiesto, Groove Coverage and Milk Inc. are currently my favorite artists. I've been developing a taste for BT's non-trancey works recently too and still love Garbage, VNV Nation, Skinny Puppy and Tori Amos even though I no longer listen to those genres; I also still wear t-shirts of bands I no longer listen to if I like the design. Scooter is my guilty pleasure music. I still like some orchestral/European classical works as well ( I was raised on them), particularly Beethoven's Tempest and Moonlight Sonata, Albinoni's Adagio in G minor, Barber's Adagio for Strings and most of Bach's works.

The six things I could never do without Propose an edit

Music, people to talk to, something (anything) to do, stuffed or living animals, dreams of flying and fleeting thoughts.

I spend a lot of time thinking about Propose an edit

The clouds and tree branches outside my window, the way words sound and interact with each other (their etymology too occasionally), what non-human things might be thinking about or feeling, the fluidity of gender, geometric patterns, what I should be writing, what things might look like on an atomic level and how the world is both completely awful and wonderful at the same time.

On a typical Friday night I am Propose an edit

Out (or in) drinking with my friends. Maybe seeing a movie. Sometimes I'll go clubbing but I'm not really a good dancer (though I love to do it anyways).

The most private thing I'm willing to admit here Propose an edit

I managed to fail two classes in college. It's a long story involving NYU's wonderfully reliable e-mail system and me being too naive to CC my final papers to myself but I ended up with two F's on my transcript nonetheless. (Don't worry I still graduated with honors.)

You should message me if Propose an edit

I seem interesting and you're not old enough to be my parent. I'm really pretty open to meeting different kinds of people so just message me if you feel like it. Random questions are also always welcome.
You get Brownie points for: rollerblading, creating art of some kind, being into BDSM (I'm a switch), appreciating poetry, enjoying dancing and having original tattoos.

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