I’ve been fortunate enough to have a partner who supports my creative endeavors and does everything he can to allow me space and time to...

Certain cities ooze an ephemeral quality of “culture” and it can be tricky to explain exactly why. But then other times it’s clear how...

Since I’m a newcomer to places like New Zealand, Australia, and Canada, I don’t harbor much of the shame of the colonialist past that...

It’s this weird thing that my thoroughly continental childhood had a slight Asian flavor to it, although it’s not something I generally...

I had an auditory flashback whereby I realized why Bowie’s 1971 Life on Mars always felt familiar to me yet not quite right. Because I...

Let’s talk about the muse and how they function in the life of the artist. We all have influences that kick our artistic butts into gear....

In every family there is a person that holds the center; around whose gravitational pull the other family members orbit. We refer to them...

I do enjoy pulling the celebrity-style vintage photos from my family vault to share with you guys. These are from a photo shoot my mother...

The trouble with having such a deep knowledge of my family history is I find I must bite my tongue when my kids speak casually of their...

It’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. You’ll recall I had a grandmother who escaped a concentration camp. In my historical digging I’ve learned...

I had a fair number of technical difficulties with this entry as the reel-to-reel from 1959 was damaged. You’ll hear some interference...

Palavas-les-Flots is a French seaside resort south of Montpelier. My mother, along with her mother and new stepfather, spent a summer...

The items my performer parents accumulated in their long careers sometimes travel down to me in the form of mysterious poster tubes. I...

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in castles. Although, technically, many of these are considered manor houses. I have many childhood...

One of my fellow opera nerds made a joke by saying, “Meet you at Maxim’s” and I was transported to Art Nouveau Paris. Only, I could hear...

With a photo of Elise from from a few years prior to that same time period. My grandmother was a very talented artist. The whole family...

Virtually everyone I know, in a virtual manner, has renamed themselves Charlie this week. #jesuischarlie The gruesome murder of staffers...

My paternal great-grandfather was a rakish fellow from near Brussels, Belgium. The bit of family lore we do know about him is that he was...

We had a traditional relationship with animals. We had many pets we adored living alongside our fur coats and hunting trophies. It’s a...

No one is more American than an immigrant. I think of my family when the US  immigration reform discussion crops up again because we are...