ABOUT ME ME ME!

Music and art are my favorite things, which are probably right under beer, sports, sex and shopping for most people. I had a habit of traveling to folk art enviroments around the west coast (and in France and North Carolina), photographing them and tossing them up onto this site. The art I prefer is early 20th century European, particularly Surrealism and Soviet Constructivism. For the last several years I have been into Eastern European folk and gypsy music, and I spent five months in 2003 chasing it from Hungary to Austria to Croatia to Serbia to Romania to the Czech Republic. I also visited Slovenia, but they only had pretty ports and cheap Italian food. From Sept - Dec 2003, I spent three months in Prague as an exchange student at Charles University. I love to travel and have also visited France, Italy and England twice each, including several villages. Though I wish I'd gotten much more, I did get some recordings and photos in Eastern Europe and created a resource I hope people will find interesting and informative. Next, I'd love to see Turkey and Bulgaria (together) and Thailand. I also enjoy astrophysics, ecovillages, eastern philosophy, anyone with four paws, books, free stuff, unplanned trips, pillowfights and having other people cook (I'll do the dishes).

In 2004 I moved to Bainbridge Island, WA, with my parents and my brother's family, and I moved to Fremont, on the northern side of Lake Union in Seattle, on New Year's Eve. My professional website is here. I was an arts journalist for a while and am now moving into information technology writing and editing and web stuff. I'd love to get into journalism again, but it's a bit tough when you want to write articles about Bulgarian-style women's choirs from San Francisco.

MY LIFE STORY IN FACTOIDS
Birthday: August 27, 1973
Virgo-ness: I'd say an 8 out of 10, but I'm laid back, spontaneous and arty, so go figure.
Home: Seattle, WA. Previous: Carrboro, NC (2002-2004), Los Angeles, CA (1992-2000) and Orange County, CA (1973-1992).
Height: Tall enough to keep me off the kiddy rides at Disneyland, but short enough to keep me from the top shelf at the grocery store.
Personality Type: INTP with some "F" thrown in.
Instruments: piano (once good), guitar (never good), recorder (getting better), accordion (achieving competence), singing saw (do you really care?)
Politics: No thanks.
Languages: Decent French, so-so Spanish, about 300 Czech phrases and as many Serbian words.
Languages in which I can say BAGPIPE: Eleven. French - cornmuse, Romanian - cimpoi, German - dudelsak, Hungary - dudy, Czech - duda, Balkans - gajda, Spain - Gaita, Greece - Tsambuna, Swedish - säckpipa, Turkish - tulum, English - duh.
Cell Phone Rings: Mozart's 40th Symphony, Smurfs, Muppets, She's a Brick House (P-Funk). Stay tuned.
Cats I've Had: More than 30.
Favorite Foods: Indian, Thai, Greek, Persian, Lebanese. Anything but European. Except Italian.
Stuff that makes people make a face: I have never wanted kids. Bagpipes and accordions are my favorite instruments. I want to return to Serbia. I was a cheerleader. I don't have a television (unless you count a 1940s deal that is my only real piece of furniture. It's a nighttable).

FAVORITE BANDS
Rock: Neutral Milk Hotel, R.E.M., Flaming Lips, Komeda, Trash Can Sinatras, Magnetic Fields, Mercury Rev, Built to Spill, Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, Smiths, Oingo Boingo, Radiohead, Mountain Goats, Stereolab.
Oldies: Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Waller, Bix Biederbecke, Sidney Bechet, Original Dixieland Jazz Group, Golden Gate Quartet, Glenn Miller.
Foreign: Kocani Orkestar (Macedonia), Bulgari (Bulgaria, surprisingly), Romanyi Rota (Hungary / Gypsy), Taraf de Haidouks (Romania), Gothart (Czech), Edith Piaf (France), Jean Sablon (France), Yves Montand (France), Goran Bregovic (Serbia), Fanfare Ciocarlia (Romania), Tito Puente (Cuba), Perez Prado (Cuba), Slobodan Saljevic Orkestar (Serbia). I love Sufi (Egypt and Turkey) music, gypsy brass (Serbia) and 1930s French.

FAVORITE ARTISTS:
Marc Chagall, Vassily Kandinsky, Renee Magritte, Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Gustav Klimt, Max Ernst, Egon Schiele, Georgi and Vladmir Stenberg, Alexander Rodchenko. Outsider Artists: Vollis Simpson, Adolf Wolfli, Friedrich Schroeder-Sonnenstern, Facteur Cheval.