I'm awkward in groups, frightened of new people, and my many tics and idiosyncrasies tend to put mainstream folks off. I'm polite, but incapable of smalltalk. I used to try to engage in low-level social interaction with acquaintances the way 'normal' people would, but today I'm resigned to being myself, which has its own unique glories and splendors. If we're going to talk, it has to be real communication with a beating heart.

I'm sexed male, but gender complicated, and I never could pass convincingly for a regular boy. The truth is that I'm queerer than many gay people. (But yes, I like girls, and pretty much only girls-- all kinds of girls.)

I've been hooked on philosophy for nearly half my life, and I'm slowly getting good at it. I hope someday to develop the personal strength that would allow the quest for critical insight to permeate all the dimensions of my habitual and unconscious conduct-- but these days I'm still a long way from that ideal.

What strikes me as most misleading about this profile right now is that it all sounds so serious-- which is not at all what I'm like. Really, I can be hilariously witty or stupid; in fact, I'm committed to making the full absurdity of our world manifest and trying to laugh at it even (or especially!) when it's heartbreaking.

I'm working at becoming a professional philosopher, a good teacher, and a happier and more virtuous person. I'm dedicated to various enterprises in progressive politics, and I even dabble in political activism. Also, I recently got a dog. I am trying to love her, pay enough attention to her, and keep her from chewing everything I have.

Writing, understanding, breaking it down, finishing people's sentences.

If I had to guess, I'd say they probably notice that I'm not very tall, that I'm wearing bright colors, and that my toenails are painted.

Among my all-time favorite books: THE FLOWERS OF EVIL, MINIMA MORALIA, PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT, varous things by Immanuel Kant, INVISIBLE MAN, CHILDREN OF GEBELAAWI, and NICOMACHEAN ETHICS. Lately I've enjoyed reading things by Marie Cardinal, Audre Lorde, Kenji Yoshino, Michael Warner, Gayle Rubin, Thomas Nagel, and Sally Haslanger.

Perennial favorite movies include THE STENDHAL SYNDROME, DEEP COVER, ROMEO MUST DIE, HARAKIRI, Z, NAKED, CHAMELEON STREET, VELVET GOLDMINE, THE BIG SLEEP, GROUNDHOG DAY, and the HAROLD AND KUMAR pictures. More recently, I've enjoyed KUNG FU PANDA, THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR, JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN, LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT, and LIVE NUDE GIRLS UNITE!

Perennial favorites in music include Fela Kuti, Nina Simone, Alice Coltrane, J Dilla, Pete Rock, Wayne Shorter, and Dead Prez. Lately I'm listening to lots of Minnie Riperton, Ramp, Roy Ayers, Oh No, Jean Grae, Tenor Saw, King Britt, Decompoze, and The Foreign Exchange. I used to have wildly eclectic musical interests, but these days I generally stay within the jazz-soul-reggae-funk-hip hop tradition.

Foodwise: I really love red meat, but I've been trying to cultivate a taste for healthier and more ethically and ecologically sound foods.

hip hop, philosophy, politics, conversation, whiskey, and bright colors. But my best friend, 1975toomer, is up there too.

national and international news, how to make philosophy matter for the conduct of human life, the tension between the values of liberty and equality, sex and its general importance, racism, sexism, class oppression, the oppression of sexual minorities, whether social contract theory should be updated and reformulated or simply jettisoned, whether there's any secular political or social use for an idea like original sin, whether there's anything normative about normality, and sundry recondite philosophical puzzles that I can't help wondering about despite myself.

you have interesting things to say--

you like lounging on the rooftop, going to museums, having wonkish arguments, visiting bookstores, malingering all day in bed--

you're a smart, reflective, and considerate person with a nasty, dirty side--

or if you sense that in spite of my efforts to convey an authentic self, this profile is bullshit, and you want to find out what I'm really like.