Category Archives: de rebus familiaribus

Shanah tovah! Parzen family New Year letter.

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Happy new year, everyone! Shanah tovah! May your year ahead be filled with light, health, and joy!

Georgia, now 13 and in 8th grade, is finishing her last year of middle school where she plays viola in the varsity orchestra. She auditioned and was accepted into Houston Youth Symphony this year. She’s also playing electric bass. Every time I drop her off at rehearsal and every time she asks me if she can play bass for 10 minutes before bed, I weep a little: when I think of what my life was like at 13, it feels like Georgia has finally made me whole again.

Lila Jane, now 12 and in 7th grade, plays cello in the same orchestra. She, like her sister, will be auditioning for the state regional orchestra this year. Her playing is getting insanely good. It’s my dream come true — especially because I played cello as a child. She is a social butterfly, with an extended “friends group.” They meet every day, 8-10 girls, and walk to school together. She and her friends are starting to face the challenges of teenage life. Tracie and I are so proud of how she carries herself.

Tracie’s real estate career continues to grow. Poo, poo, poo — sometimes we look at each other and still can’t believe the way she has transformed our financial lives. She’s been working extremely hard and it hasn’t always been easy. But she also enjoys the high pressure and the reward of building her business. I’m studying to get my realtor license so I can help her more.

Every year, Tracie, the girls, and I take time out to enjoy apples and honey before the new year. It’s a Jewish tradition that reminds us of the sweetness of life — even in dark times.

The world seems to be changing at breakneck speed these days. We know we are fortunate to count so many blessings at home while so many others are struggling. Never have Dickens’ words hit home so powerfully: “It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness.”

Happy new year. G-d bless us all.

Praying for peace.

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Tracie and I are deeply saddened and frightened by the expanding war in the Middle East.

There’s no doubt that the American government’s decision to bomb Iran is going to have repercussions that will acutely affect our lives as well as those of generations to follow.

And in the meantime, innocent people are dying on both sides of the conflict.

War is wrong. Period. No matter what the argument, killing people to reach a political objective is always wrong. But the fate of the world is now in the hands of pathologically ego-driven men who live and breathe faraway from any battlefield.

Please join Tracie and me in praying for peace.

Happy Juneteenth everyone! Do something on purpose!

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Above: Juneteenth and Solidarity Day in Washington D.C., June 19, 1968. Screenshot via The New Yorker.

Happy Juneteenth, everyone!

Here in Houston, the day is celebrated large, with a major festival held each year in Emancipation Park, the historic site where the holiday originated more than a century ago.

The above photo of “Solidarity Day” (Washington, D.C., June 19, 1968) comes via The New Yorker. It appears as part of a writer’s personal remembrance.

Can you imagine a sight like that today on the National Mall?

Click here to read more about Juneteenth, how it started in Houston, and how Houstonians made it into a national observance.

How are you celebrating Juneteenth this year? As my good friend Annette Purnell likes to say, do something on purpose!

If you happen to be in Southeast Texas and need something to do, please meet me in Orange for the Southeast Texas Impact Initiative protest of the neo-Confederate memorial there. Click here to learn more.

Happy Juneteenth!

Brown people are being “disappeared” in the U.S. We must stand up and speak out for them and their families and communities!

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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “disappear” first began to be used as a transitive (as opposed to intransitive) verb in the 1960s.

As you can see from the OED, the term was initially used to describe the abduction and vanishing of political opponents in Soviet bloc and Latin America countries in that decade.

Today, the U.S. joins that list of countries whose governments have engaged historically in the practice.

On Saturday, more than 15,000 Houstonians took to the streets to protest the U.S. raids on Brown communities (among other egregious transgressions of American values). Tracie and I were there and it was an amazing and energizing experience (photo above).

But on Friday, I also attended a protest at a privately run ICE prison near Bush airport. There, multiple speakers shared their stories of family members who had been aggressively abducted and locked up despite the fact that they had legal status to be in the country.

In one of the most hideous moves by the U.S. government, I learned, ICE agents are lying in wait outside courtrooms in Houston. As it was described by multiple speakers on Friday night, they collude with the prosecutors who summarily move to dismiss the cases of asylum seekers. And as soon as they walk out of the courtroom, thinking that they are free to go, they are snatched by mask-wearing agents.

It’s entirely illegal: volunteer lawyers who have challenged the agents report that agents back down when they are pressed to show a warrant. One lawyer at the event managed to save 15 persons from deportation by challenging the agents.

In the meantime, these poor people are lost to the vortex of the byzantine immigration system. On Friday, I watched and listened to people weep for their relatives behind the walls of the privately run prison. Literally.

It’s time that we finally call this what it is: the profiling of Brown people and Brown communities by the U.S. government.

It’s anti-American and it runs counter to everything that we were taught to love about our country.

Thanks for being here and thanks for your solidarity and support. Please stand up and speak out!

My secret for keeping in shape and staying sane in the wine biz? Read it on A Balanced Glass.

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Back when I was still teaching wine communications at the Slow Food University of Gastronomic Sciences, we would always devote a session to blogs that push wine writing into new and interesting spaces.

One of those sites was Rebecca Hopkins’ extraordinary A Balanced Glass, the first “wine blog” to make mental health and self-care a focus of its media.

Rebecca, whom I admire immensely, is one of the most successful media relations and marketing specialists I have ever interacted with. She has worked at the highest levels of our trade and has had a hand in building countless “household” wine brands. It took a lot of guts to launch a blog like hers, especially in a time when few were examining the physical and mental toll of working in wine.

When she first mentioned that she wanted to profile me on the site, I was thrilled but I wasn’t quite ready to take account of my own well being. It took a little gentle nudging on her part. In the process, I realized that she was quite literally fulfilling her site’s mission by encouraging me to take time out and reflect on my own health.

Mission accomplished, Rebecca!

Thank you so much for thinking of me for this. And thank you for your voice and the space you have created for myriad voices in our community. We are all the better for it.

Check out the profile here. Buon weekend a tutti! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Happy Pesach, happy Easter! The holidays’ allegories of displacement and suffering seem very real this season…

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Happy sixth day of Peseach/Passover (yes, it’s ongoing) and happy Easter this Sunday!

One of the things that strikes me about this year’s Passover-Easter season is that the holidays’ allegories of displacement and suffering seem very real this year.

A month ago, I met Kevin, a young man in his 20s. He lives in Houston with his blind mother and has a work visa that allows them — legally — to stay in the U.S.

A few days before I met him, he had been arrested in an immigration raid. Despite his 100 percent legal status, he was put behind bars and was slated for deportation.

Immigration courts don’t work like civil and criminal courts, I learned. For Kevin to be released and (rightly) fight his deportation, he had to pay bail. In the case of immigration courts, the entire amount — not a percentage — needs to be paid upfront.

An immigrant aid group was able to raise the money within the 48-hour time limit. Had they not, he would have been swept up into the byzantine U.S. immigration system and ultimately sent back to his home country. Thank G-d he is still here today to provide for his mother’s care.

On the occasion when I met him and his mother (at an organizing meeting), all the volunteers and immigrants present were asked to share what their “super power” would be if they had one. When it came to his mother, she said: I wish I could help all people who need it.

People — yes, people, human beings! — in our country are living the same nightmare of our ancestors in ancient Egypt. What were the Hebrews of that time if not migrant workers?

And how not to view Kevin as a Christ-like figure? He was so innocent, his intentions so pure: he just wants to provide a good life for his mother and himself. Christ had three days to rise from the dead. Kevin had just 48 hours to raise literally life-saving money.

This Passover and Easter season, we are forgetting politics and remembering that we are all human — all too human.

Happy Passover, happy Easter. G-d bless America. G-d bless Kevin and his family. G-d bless us all.

Smith-Story Cabernet Sauvignon was delicious, a perfect fit for our family.

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Every since I poured my Houston cousin Neil a bottle of Smith-Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine he swooned over, it’s become a bit of a shared family quest: to find Neil Cabernet Sauvignon with freshness (acidity), a combination of fruit and savory flavors, and judicious use of oak aging.

Over the years he’s moved away from the oaky-jammy paradigm that managerial class members like him used to drink regularly. Maybe because he’s been enjoying Italian wines with us over the last decade, food-friendliness and freshness have become the two criteria that seem to drive his preferences.

While shopping for our family’s holiday wines last year, I came across the Smith-Story Sonoma Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon at our go-to wine shop, Houston Wine Merchant.

I first met Alison Smith back during her Texas career when she was a supplier rep for a high-profile Italian winery group. I’ve never met her husband Eric Story but I have enjoyed following their winery’s social media — especially their cynophilia.

Although the wine wasn’t a cheap date, it didn’t break the bank either. And it hit that sweet spot between inexpensive fruit-forward, oakier California Cabernet Sauvignon, and the really high end stuff (like Smith-Madrone), which I love but cannot regularly afford.

This wine had freshness, balanced fruit and acidity, judicious alcohol, and no oakiness.

Neil loved it, too, and it was gone in a flash after being served at our Hanukkah party. I highly recommend the wine and the people who make it.

Please don’t stop praying for our sisters and brothers in LA. And please join us for the MLK Day March in Orange, Texas on Monday, followed by our protest of the Neo-Confederate memorial there.

Rock with me, march with me, pray for LA.

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Our family is still reeling as we watch the awful images from LA.

So many of my friends have been displaced but luckily everyone, at least in my personal LA orbit, seems to be okay. Thank G-d.

It’s terrifying to read some of their accounts of escaping the flames.

We are praying for the city and its communities. We know our LA friends and colleagues are going to need a lot of help in recovering. Right now, many are just looking for a place to sleep tonight. It’s terrible.

For folks in Houston, I did want to let you know that my 80s cover band, Biodynamic Band, featuring Katie White on vocals and melodica, will be playing this Sunday, January 12, at Vinsanto on the westside. We’ll be playing three sets starting at 4 p.m.

And just around the corner… Tracie, the girls, and I will be marching in the historic Orange, Texas, MLK March on Monday, January 20. See flier below.

For those who have never participated, I believe you’ll find it to be an extremely compelling experience.

After the march, Tracie and I will be heading over the neo-Confederate memorial on I-10 for our yearly protest. Thanks again to everyone who contributed to our GoFundMe campaign to raise an MLK billboard across the from the monument. It will remain active throughout January and February (Black History Month).

I recognize that protesting symbols of white supremacy isn’t for everyone. But the march is something that nearly everyone in the community — except for the white supremacists — participates in.

We hope to see you then (Orange is an hour and a half drive from Houston btw).

Thanks for the support and solidarity. Please pray for LA. G-d bless the City of Angels. G-d bless us all.

Orange TX is not to blame for the Neo-Confederate monument there. A puny group of aging cosplay cowardly Neo-Confederates is.

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Thank you to everyone who has donated to our GoFundMe to raise an MLK billboard over the Neo-Confederate monument in Orange, Texas where Tracie grew up, where her family still lives, and where our family has deep roots.

The city of Orange in southeast Texas — located on the Louisiana border along I-10, the first stop in Texas heading west, the last heading east — is not to blame for the Neo-Confederate monument there. A puny group of aging cosplay cowardly Neo-Confederates is.

They are called the Sons of Confederate Veterans and they are notorious for similar campaigns across the country, mostly in the south, most often featuring the “Confederate flag.”

Don’t believe their lies when they tell you they are a benign group supporting the preservation of their “heritage.” In fact, they are an ideologically driven cult that deals in insidious racism, anti-Semitism, and conspiracy theories.

Just browse some of the titles published by the Sons’ Deputy Chief Heritage Promotions James Ronald Kennedy and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

The local yellow-bellied members behind the monument — Granvel Block and Hank Van Slyke — have made it clear to all involved that their conspicuous display of Neo-Confederate pageantry is intended to offend the city’s black community.

After all, they erected their puerile prank on MLK Dr., a main artery of the city.

The city of Orange fought tooth-and-nail to block the monument’s construction. They stymied the Sons by limiting the potential height of their flagpoles (so they are not entirely visible from the Interstate). A group of leading pastors pleaded with Block not to move forward with the site. The city attorney publicly condemned the site, calling it “repugnant.”

You can find an aggregate of mainstream media about the site and its origins at RepurposeMemorial.com. You’ll find detailed reports of the city’s efforts to block Block, the bird-brained architect behind the cheap-looking Greco-Roman atrium he built there. He’s been known as a prankster his whole life.

Nearly half the residents of Orange are black. The overwhelming number of people — black and white — who have reached out to us supporting our campaign have left me confident that we are doing the right thing. Nobody but Block and Van Slyke and their sad bunch of cosplayers want this aberration.

Image via Jimmy Emerson’s Flickr (Creative Commons).

Happy Ferragosto! See you week after next.

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Happy Ferragosto, everyone!

Above: “Torno subito (forse),” a shop sign I snapped many years ago in Italy, “I’ll be right back (maybe).”

What is Ferragosto and what does it mean for Italians? Here’s something I wrote a few years ago for the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Texas.

Enjoy the time off and see you week after next!

*****

In case you’re wondering why you are already getting so many auto-replys and vacation responses to your emails to colleagues and friends in Italy, it’s because in August the Italians celebrate Ferragosto (officially August 15), the Italian nationwide vacation.

It’s actually an ancient tradition that can trace its roots to the days of Emperor Augustus (63 BCE-19 CE) who proclaimed it an annual celebration and day of rest following the traditional harvest.

During the Fascist era, the Italian government offered citizens incentives to travel for Ferragosto by offering discounted train fair. It was during this period that the holiday became such an important date on the calendar for the Italian people. By the 1960s, Ferragosto had become a highly popular holiday and cultural phenomenon.

Today, an overwhelming number of Italians take their vacation the week of Ferragosto.

Many small businesses close and many large companies give their employees vacation time on or around Ferragosto. Basically, the whole country — except for people who work in essential jobs and sectors — takes a vacation and heads to the beach or the mountains (the best place to be during Italy’s hottest month).

Ferragosto can be frustrating for Americans who do business with Italy because in the U.S., the week of Ferragosto and the last two weeks of August in general are normal workweeks.

But for Italians, the holiday and its observance are such an important part of their yearly rhythms and culture that everyone knows to expect delays in getting work done during August.