Daniel

School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), Univ. of London, UK.

Traveler, journalist, writer

Thai Ministry of Culture - *BLACKLISTED* by Khun Ladda Tangsupachai, Director of Cultural Surveillance. I don't know if she's on Friendster yet (is there such a thing as Enemyster?) but once she is, I plan on writing some really cruel testimonials; Freaks Club (lovingly founded March 07)

Traveling, reading, watching films, cooking, dining, teaching French to blind midgets, photography, clubbing, Russian vodka culture, music, human diversity, meeting people who do unusual things. Surveying the departure lounge at Istanbul International Airport. I'm not supposed to say why I do this. Some friends think I am a spy, and think that I do not know that they think this, which makes me smile.

Among others: Hanif Kureishi; David Foster Wallace; McSweeney's Quarterly; Vikram Seth; 'Ghetto' by Chanarin & Broomberg; Rohinton Mistry; William Dalrymple; 'Bangkok Inside Out' by Guy Sharett; Henry David Thoreau; David Grossman; Allen Ginsberg; Seno Gumira Ajidarma; Amitav Ghosh; friends of mine who write beautifully but haven't yet been published; Carlos Fuentes; Zadie Smith; Alice Munro; Jonathan Franzen; Jonathan Safran Foer; other writers named Jonathan; Dave Eggers; Arundhati Roy; Etgar Keret; and of course the peerless Rattawut Lapcharoensap.

Borat; Films by Pedro Almodovar, Mira Nair, Jim Jarmusch, Woody Allen, Spike Lee, John Singleton, Eroll Morris. Bollywood epics, especially with Priyanka Chopra or Aishwarya Rai. Films about puppies in the rain. Documentaries. But in the end, only 'Zoolander' & 'Kill Bill 2' really matter.

Kanye West; early Stevie Wonder; late Shakira; deep house; Eminem before he divorced Kim for the second time; Joni Mitchell; Mozart; Ryan (NOT Bryan) Adams; Endang S Taurina; Elvis Costello; Vladimir Visotzky; Nomi (my talented sister); Alison Krauss; Utha Likumahuwa; Regina Spektor; Arkadi Duchin; John Mayer; Indian devotional music and ragas; Inul; James Taylor; Iwan Fals; original songs by Titi, Boni and Ho, my as-yet-undiscovered pengamen jalanan; Sore; Marcell my bro; Dewi his freakish out-of-shell wife; and all the music in between.

BBC's 'The Doha Debates', Six Feet Under, Arrested Development, American Idol (minus Paula), Nip / Tuck, Ian Wright's Globetrekker; and always Ali G/Borat. And 'The Office' (UK version) - check out Ricky Gervais's important podcast at (copy & paste into browser window): http://www.guardian.co.uk/rickygervais

"A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing
to develop long after most adults have muffled
themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention." - Aldous Huxley

Friends will describe me (for a reasonable amount of money) as being VERY tall and EXTREMELY handsome. Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and can hardly believe what I see. I'm like, "Wow! Is that really me?! Ha Ha Ha!" I say to myself, chuckling out loud, but not so loud that I wake up the neighbors, wondering how I can be THERE, in the mirror, if I'm actually, like, standing HERE. It's so messed up, I tell you.

My shoulders are very powerful.

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I met you on a midway at a fair last year
And you stood out like a ruby in a black mans ear
You were playing on the horses, you were playing on the guitar strings
You were playing like a devil wearing wings
You looked so grand wearing wings
Do you tape them to your shoulders just to sing
Can you fly?
I heard you can! can you fly?
Like an eagle doing your hunting from the sky
(Joni Mitchell)

Good people. People who read. People who think for themselves and who live life deliberately. People who take risks and try new things. Upstanding young women from Khazakstan. Civil engineers from Burundi. Angela Merkel - arguably Central Europe's sexiest leader and certainly a future porn star. She is just so HOT right now. Anyone who loves to travel and can offer outrageous stories from the road.

i dO nOt wAnT tO mEeT pEoPLE wHo fInD iT nEcesSary tO wRiTe liKe tHiS.

Or people who their whole life have read only one book, and that book is Paolo Coelho's "The Alchemist".

Do not live like a sheep.
Some lyrics by Regina Spektor:

"Pavlov's daughter woke up in the morning
Heard the bell ring
And something deep inside of her made her want to salivate
So she lay there drooling on her pillow
So she lay there, the sun skimming her skin,
and drooling on her pillow
Pavlov's daughter
And it was far away and hazy like a dream
not a dream, but the ocean,
not the o