Category Archives: de rebus familiaribus

Parzen and Levy families doing well in Houston. Thanks for all the notes after yesterday’s shooting in Texas.

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It was actually an Italian friend and colleague of mine who alerted me via Facebook that there had been a shooting yesterday in Houston where Tracie P and I have been living with our girls for more than two years now.

When I received her message on Facebook, my heart sank before I immediately called Tracie to learn that everyone was okay.

The shooting occurred at a shopping mall that our family regularly frequents. Tracie shops often at a craft/hobby store there for her cookie-making supplies and we’ve attended kids birthday parties there as well.

And some of our Levy cousins also live close by.

Thank G-d, everyone is okay.

Yesterday and this morning, I found myself writing to my Italian friends wondering out loud: who could have imagined that our children (ages 4 and 3) would be growing up during “years of lead” (or “years of terrorism”) as our Italian sisters and brothers did during the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s? Bombings, shootings, and kidnapping were common in Italy during those years.

Between the news of the shooting and reports from last night’s presidential debate, I can only think to myself: o tempora, o mores.

Thanks again to everyone who checked in. We really appreciate it.

rothko houston

Oristano dreaming and missing my girls dearly as I head back to Franciacorta for the last time this year

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malvasia-di-bosaCan’t stop thinking about this Oristano wine that we drank Saturday night with a U.S. importer of Italian wine in Houston.

It’s from a PDO that I’d never heard of: Malvasia di Bosa, from the west coast of Sardinia in Oristano province, a DOC with three producers according to the excellent Italian appellation wiki Quattro Calici.

Gorgeous gold and amber in color, the 2010 Columbu Malvasia di Bosa was lithe and salty with just the right touch of dried stone and dried white fruit to make it pair beautifully against aged white domestic cheddar and dark chocolate tabs.

Enjoying it immensely at the end of the evening, it occurred to me how wines like this and its sister appellation Vernaccia di Oristano were overlooked in the wave of oxidative-style wines (Sherry, Jura, etc.) that swept the überhip sommelier crowd some years ago.

What a great, truly original, and utterly delicious wine…

And how cool that Florence-based Ernest Ifkovitz, owner of Portovino, was in Texas working the market with his distributor for a week between Houston and Austin?

More and more, we see independent importers like the affable Ernest coming to our markets in Texas as smaller distributors continue to flourish, even where big wine once eclipsed the little guys. I loved that wine and I also really liked the Zero di Babo white by Marco Merli (Umbria) that Ernest poured for us that night. Super groovy stuff and cool packaging, too…

zero-di-babo-merli-grape-varieties-umbriaToday, I’m on my way to Franciacorta where I’ll be leading a group of wine writers and bloggers for the next few days.

It’s one of the last events in my Franciacorta Real Story campaign for 2016. Everyone in the group is super nice, fun, and talented and it should be a fun visit (one of them is the son of a one of my favorite wine bloggers and one that you probably love and follow like I do if you’re here).

I’m looking forward to it and some other fun eating and drinking I’ve got lined up for this Italian sojourn — my seventh for the year? I’ve lost count!

But today I’m just feeling super blue about saying goodbye to the girls (below) and Tracie P. It’s been such a lovely summer, with just a little bit of light travel for work. Now begins the season of some heavy lifting. And it just never gets easy to say arrivederci…

Wish me luck, wish me speed. See you on the other side…

best-childcare-southwest-houston

Goodbye California (a poem)

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toes in the sandGoodbye California, goodbye beach, goodbye pool. 
Goodbye fish tacos, goodbye nigiri and sashimi, too.
Goodbye ocean, goodbye seal, seagull, and pelican.
Goodbye to some of our favorite things American.

parzen poolThank you San Diego, La Jolla, and thank you sweet friends.
Thanks for a week of paradise we wished would never end.
Thank you dear mother and thank you big brother.
Sister-in-law, niece, better family there is no other.

jeremy parzen wine blogBless you daughters and bless you wife.
Thank you for sharing the place where I came to life.
Sun, water, sand, and good things to eat.
This vacation will be a tough one to beat.

Thank you Sherman-Parzens, Yelenoskys, Battle-Ericksons, Georges, and Krylows for making this such a special week for the Texas Parzens in California!

And thank you, mom, for making this trip possible and for the great week at your apartment… What a wonderful experience for us. We’ll never forget it.

Houston to Major Tom: a song for shipwrecked souls (new track by the Parzen Family Singers)

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Above: the Parzen Family Singers covers David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (for better audio quality, check out the SoundCloud below).

Every since the Parzen family moved to Houston nearly two and a half years ago, our daughters and I have been obsessed with astronauts (the “real astronauts,” as the girls call them) and NASA’s Johnson Space Center, which lies about 40 minutes away by car from the house where we live in southwest Houston.

The girls and I go there once or twice a month (Tracie P, not so much).

Somewhere along our journey into space, we came across this video-cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who recorded vocals and an acoustic guitar overdub for the track on the International Space Station.

That YouTube led us to our obsession (especially Georgia P’s) with this vintage David Bowie video version of the original song, shot on analog film.

Major Tom and our beloved “real astronauts” have become central to the Parzen family narrative.

Our daughters — ages 3 and 4.5 — don’t yet tap into the astronauts as metaphors for the unknown and unknowable. I’m not really sure where the appeal lies for them. I am certain however that like dinosaurs, astronauts are an interminable source of fascination for (our) children, perhaps because they innately intuit their significance in the unsignifiable.

For me, Major Tom and the real astronauts (like Ulysses) are allegories for our own shipwrecked souls and the human condition driven by our very real need and desire to face our aloneness (tell my wife, I love her very much, she knows…).

It’s so powerful to sit in the original gallery of the original Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center and hear the docent recount the 1969 moon landing.

“The first time words were heard from the moon,” she said on our most recent visit (with my bromance Giovanni), “they were heard in this room. That’s pretty cool.”

(Our dear friend Elaine also visited the real astronauts with us earlier this year.)

Like Columbus, like Magellan, like Ulysses, the real astronauts travel into the unknown so that we may know it, making the unknowable knowable. They haven’t unlocked the mystery of the universe and our existence. But with each step they take, they chip away at and assuage our aloneness.

And so on this sleepy Friday, the hottest day of summer so far, I offer you the Parzen Family Singers’ cover (SoundCloud follows below and the YouTube lies above).

One giant step for a middle-aged wine blogger… Thanks for listening.

girls in space

Thoughts and prayers for America…

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On a day like today, we can only look within ourselves, our hearts and minds, and reflect on how we can make our country and this world a better place for all.

The Parzen family is praying for all those affected by the wave of violence that continues to plague our nation.

G-d bless the victims of this week’s tragic events and their families and G-d bless America.

rothko houston

Alfonso Cevola responds to a post (and breaks our hearts)

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alfonso cevola glazersAbove: Italian wine blogger Alfonso Cevola in a happier time in our now defunct friendship, which dates back to 2007. Here’s a profile of Alfonso I wrote for the Houston Press after he won the Vinitaly International Prize in 2013.

In the spirit of fair and balanced wine blogging, I’d like to share a note from leading Italian wine blogger Alfonso Cevola in response to my June 27 post, “Freedom’s just another word for shitty wine: Houston defiant in the face of corporate distributors.”

Your post last week, claimed three falsehoods:
1) The two large distributors do not control 99% of the market
2) As for heavy taxation on wholesale wine sales –Texas is #43 (along with California) in state wine taxation among the 50 states.
3) RE:The main issue is that it is illegal in Texas to use an outside fulfillment warehouse or delivery trucks – Outside fulfillment is legal as long as the fulfillment company ( and the trucks they are using) have proper TABC permits. And yes, small distributors can (and do) pool deliveries in Texas.

Alfonso is the Italian Wine Director for Glazer’s, previously one of the two biggest wine distributors in Texas. Now, with the completion of the Southern-Glazer’s “mega deal” merger, the company is part of “the U.S. market’s largest wine and spirits distributor by far, distributing more than 150 million cases of wine and spirits annually, employing more than 20,000 people and operating in 44 states plus the District of Columbia, the Caribbean, and Canada. Total revenues are at more than $15 billion” (Shanken News Daily, June 30, 2016).

I don’t entirely agree with Alfonso’s assessment but felt it was important to share it here. I have also updated my June 27 post with an errata corrige.

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See why I moved to Texas? Thank you, Tracie P, for giving them to us!

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tracie and georgia thumbWhat a joyous day for this proud daddy yesterday when Georgia P performed in her first big dance recital at the Stafford Centre theater in southwest Houston!

She was part of the ensemble performance by her four-year-olds class at the Banbury School of Dance (located in our neighborhood, Westbury; they did a fantastic job of producing this show, btw).

That’s my little ballerina with her mother, above!

georgia on stage thumbMan, can you imagine the lump in my throat and the pounding in my chest as we waited patiently in the audience for her big stage debut!

And lo and behold, she took the stage with that gorgeous smile on her face and unbridled confidence in her steps.

Georgia P, I couldn’t have been more proud! The stage lights, the packed house, and a sizable cast of talented dancers: you handled yourself like a pro, my sweet, sweet girl!

lila jane thumbAnd Lila Jane, you had so much fun cheering your sister on!

You sat so patiently through the dress rehearsal and the show. By the end of last night’s performance, you were performing the moves in the aisle!

Tracie P, thank you for giving us these beautiful girls. You gave them your big heart and your brilliant smile.

And you have given me a dream life that I never could have imagined until I came here to Texas to be with you.

I love you all so much…

Bitter herb and salty tears for Prince… wishing everyone a good Passover #hagsameach

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passover foodsThe bitter herb and salted water will be especially acidic and savory this year.

Tracie P and I are both reeling from the news that Prince has left this world for a better one.

Just a few weeks ago, Michael Z., a friend from Australia who works in the music industry, sent me a video from a private performance by Prince he had attended. What an electric, magical entertainer he was, a triple threat as they used to say…

After everyone else went to bed last night (my mom is in Houston for the holiday), we stayed up and sipped some Venica Pinot Grigio as we watched all the remembrances on CNN and listened to our favorite Prince tracks on our phones.

He gave us so much through his music, energy, activism, and charity. Now he’s gone. It makes both of us so sad.

Tonight we’ll be celebrating the Passover with my mom and Tracie’s parents, Rev. and Mrs. B.

And when we dip our parsley into the water and remember the bitterness and salty tears of the Hebrews enslaved in Egypt, I will also remember how Prince brought us so much joy and light and sweetness in the daily toil of life. The world isn’t the same without him.

Wishing everyone a happy Passover… hag sameach, yall…

The Parzen Window: remembering Emanuel Parzen, who died last weekend

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manny parzenAbove, from left: Sam Greenhouse, Sir Ronald A. Fisher, unknown, Carol Parzen, Ingram Olkin, and Emanuel Parzen (my great uncle) in 1961 at the meeting of the International Statistical Institute in Paris (image via ProjectEuclid.org).

My father’s father died when my father was very young.

My paternal grandmother, née Levy, was remarried soon thereafter to Rabbi Maurice Parzen, whose family had immigrated from Łódź in what is now Poland (I believe that the family name comes from the village of Parzeń in current-day Poland).

The Rabbi’s brothers included Ben Parzen, who would become one of the world’s leading electrical engineers and inventor of an oscillator that could withstand the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear fallout (his greatest invention, among many others). He died in 2005.

The Rabbi’s youngest brother was Emanuel “Manny” Parzen, a world-renowned statistician and pioneer in kernel density estimation, a field which is often referred to as “the Parzen Window” in his honor.

Uncle Manny died on Saturday, February 6 in Florida where he lived with his wife and my aunt Carol.
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