Sugar Plum Fairy. Ritz purple die + long underwear. Teacher’s College, Columbia University pre-school.

Art Kelly’s “Pogo” first reading primer.

Walked the chicken before class in Irene Lancaster’s 2nd grade class of wonders

Played First Clarinet in New Delhi Orchestra. Lost my clarinet. Graduated high school in New Delhi. Stopped at the Dew Drop Inn in Bangkok to hang out with R&R GI’s from Nam.

Monterey Jazz Festival, 1966. Slept on the beach. Charles Lloyd “Forest Flower”. Carlo Rossi Hearty Burgundy gallon jugs.

Pomona College. Nope.

US Navy. Nope.

NYC. Concerts. Janis Joplin. Rolling Stones. The Who (empty). Drank a bottle of B&G Pommard bought by rocker friends. My touchstone. Forever in pursuit of more liquid velvet.

April 4, 1968. Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated. Maybe 50 people in new Filmore East. B.B. King on stage dedicates the night to ‘a man dedicated to peace and justice, a man who was shot for my freedom.’  He and Buddy Guy ripped it up.

1968 Christmas alone at snowed-in Heathrow. Next day Carnaby and all that.

Painting houses in Maryland. Plugging my Gibson Melody Maker into a Leslie.

Photography. Selling sheep skin coats in Harvard Square. Met my wife. Married at Salter’s Point.

Moved to SF. Produced sales training film to assist out-of-work used car salesman to pitch grave plots door-to-door.

Back to NYC. Ended up at New York State Council on the Arts. Redrafted enabling legislation. Divorced (sadly).

With dear friend, Doyle Warren, former NYC fireman, saved Eugene O’Neill’s Provincetown Playhouse on MacDougal Street from demolition. Formed a repertory theater. Directed US open of “Tango” by Slawomir Mrozek. We badly wanted to bring Dario Fo’s “Accidental Death of An Anarchist” to Broadway. No soap. Someone needs to do it.

Early 70’s London, fell in love with 1970 Bordeaux Magnums with Sunday roast leg-of-lamb.

Walked through another door, became COO of new product design firm that designed Polo, Ralph Lauren’s first store inside Bloomingdale’s, YSL Opium, Calvin Klein Obsession, many more.

Off to LA. Sold remake rights of Graham Greene’s “The Quiet American” after a five-year development.

Bummed about. Worked at Lifetime.

Formed a joint venture with Eastman Kodak to build a film laboratory in Romania. From London and Bucharest, produced commercials for European market.

On behalf of Shoah Foundation, produced video histories of Holocaust survivors in Bulgaria and Romania.

By late 90’s besotted with learning what made burgundy so unique. Bashed my head against the challenging dialectic of Paul Wasserman’s unique interpretation of wine architecture. Really owe all my insights to his tutoring.

Since 2008, retail slogger of wines that tell their story over decades. Owner of private client wine retailer First The Wine/Then The Story.

On a spring day of 2017—a conversation with Olivier Krug that led to the inception of Effervescence—A Champagne & Sparkling Wine Celebration

2018 Launched First The Wine Adventures, bespoke winery & culinary tours for groups of 4-6 amateurs.

2021 Sold wine storage business to Vino Vault, became Cellar Master and business consultant to Vino Vault.

2023 Effervescence emerges from COVID shutdown with a La Grande Dame Collector Dinner at Manzke, Los Angeles, hosted by Gaёlle Goossens, Pinot Noir specialist at Veuve Clliquot. Wines back to the 1970s are served.