Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.Just keep going. No feeling is final.-RilkeEarly 1990s- drummer and lyricist for "cult favorite" punk rock band "Perpetual Kaos" (with a backwards 'K'). Notable gigs included animal rights fest on the National Mall in front of Air & Space Museum.1994- While attending the University of Michigan, studied abroad in Central America, ended up doing field work with an agricultural agency of the FMLN setting up rural coffee cooperatives in the Salvadorian highlands shortly after the first round of land reform following the recent peace accords.Student Campaign Manager for Green Corps in Boulder, CO ('92) and PIRG in Michigan ('94-'95).1995- Graduated from Michigan with High Honors in English/Creative Writing and with distinction in Political Science.Fall following graduation found myself living out of my tent, picking grapes in a microclimatic vineyard overlooking a cool blue bay of northern Lake Michigan, soon becoming assistant to the cellar-master. Writing through the winters in classic cabins.1997- Started backpacking all over Latin America from Cuba to Chile, experiential learning, coming back to wait tables and bartend for more coin to travel again. In the south, my passion with Pablo Neruda grew and such has been my path these past years. Won 2nd place in the 1999 Santiago's Spring Flower Competition for a rose I grew on a rustic ranch in Chile's central valley.2000- MA, Latin American Studies from Stanford University, fellowship from US State Department2004- Collaborated in the development of the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco. (www.redpoppyarthouse.org)Publication of "The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems" by my heroes at City Lights. Celebrated Neruda's Centennial in SF with an incredible artistic festival, read Neruda on NPR's Morning Edition:www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3301011Screened a cinematic exploration of the poet, "Pablo Neruda! Presente!", which won the Latin American Studies Association's Award of Merit in Film. Now am close to completing a deeper, more dynamic documentary, "Pablo Neruda: The Poet's Calling" (please see video posted on this page).Launched Red Poppy, a non profit dedicated to promoting the power of Latin American poetry: the power to evoke emotions and foster social consciousness. www.redpoppy.com Pablo Neruda film section: www.redpoppy.net/pablo_neruda.phpBesides Latin American consulting work, and my own personal poetry and short stories, have just finished co-editing a new Red Poppy project, a multilingual anthology of Latin American "Poetry of Resistance". Won a grant from Latino Public Broadcasting to move the movie forward. Revising a biography on Neruda I've been working on for a while. Built a little writer's cabin in southern Chile with a view of a snowcapped volcano out the window.It's been an incredible, fortunate life and I am so grateful for my family, friends, and la buena onda for all the colorful beauty despite deep bruises and scars, for the combination of all that makes for such an enriched life, and that's what I'm living.