Brian

it's a farm

University of Chicago, Attended 2006 - Present, Class of 2008, Master's Degree, MBA
Stanford University, Attended 2000 - 2004, Class of 2004, Bachelor's Degree, Urban Studies, History

investment strategista, biz skewl stud(ent)

left-wingers, non-insane residents of Uptown, shameless gentrifiers, BlackBerry Separation Anxiety Anonymous, iPod Separation Anxiety Anonymous, Critical Mass

cities, architecture, history, public transit, reading maps, Chicago, hiking, cold room/warm under covers, reading, attempting to cook, NPR, NYT, original Nintendo, modern design, Brooklyn, swimming laps, cycling, red wine, dark beer, clear cocktails, riding subway lines to the end just to see what's there, i heart complex frequent flier programs and fondling my MacBook

I'm a nonfiction junkie ... I have a strange love of textbooks (I'm currently reading one about airport planning and, less excitingly, financial accounting)

Brokeback Mountain, Bad Education, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Garden State, Angels in America, Lost in Translation, L'Auberge Espagnole, High Fidelity, 28 Days Later, Magnolia, Mullholland Drive, Run Lola Run, Igby Goes Down

Stars, Broken Social Scene, Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service, Magnetic Fields, the 6ths, Rilo Kiley, Sea and Cake, Rogue Wave, Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, Belle and Sebastian, Electric President, Cut Copy, Aqueduct, Elkland, VHS or Beta, Fischerspooner, The Stills, Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright, Her Space Holiday, M83, The Flaming Lips, The Go Find, The Arcade Fire, Of Montreal, Mates of State, Aimee Mann, The Cure, Depeche Mode

The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Simpsons, Six Feet Under, Airline. sometimes my TiVo records Cops without my persmission (!?!) so I watch that

So, yeah, bike riding. It's a great way to explore cities. I am obsessed with cities and architecture and urban history. I studied them in college. Now I work in the commercial real estate investment industry--shopping malls, office towers, swimming pools, black gold, texas tea. That kind of thing. I guess it's just the sell-out version of my academic interest.

For a long time I thought I would be a professor, and I would have researched the intersection of urban consumer cultures and real estate. But instead of writing about the contradiction of the young, liberal urbanite who constructs his countercultural identity through the consumption of organic goods and other self-consciously non-mass-produced wares, I live the contradiction. Ha! Living a contradiction, what a pompous way to describe myself. It's like the time I used the phrase "valedictory address."

Ira Glass. David Rakoff. Sarah Vowell. Starlee Kine. Jon Stewart. Ben Gibbard. Michael Phelps (he doesn't have to talk, just stand there in proper swim attire). Frank Lloyd Wright. Barack Obama...wait I already did meet Barack Obama...