I'm almost 52 and a half years old as I write this. I'm submitting this short outline of a few of the significant events of my life so far, to allow for a skeleton upon which to place the stories I suspect will follow on my blog.
1954 - born Los Angeles, California as the third child in my family
lived in a split level home and rode my trike down the stairs.
1958 - moved to Riverside, California right after my younger brother was born
Remember lightning storms, the mail plane's drone, eating dirt in the backyard
1960 - moved to Los Angeles - started school
Walked to school, caught a rat with a friend, walked to Beverly Hills and had lunch
1963 - moved to Houston, Texas - 3rd and 4th grades
Had a Cajun teacher whom neither my mother nor I could understand.
First Hurricane and snow storm in same year
1965 - moved to Saratoga, California - 5th through 8th grades
Walked through an orchard to get to school, swim team, boy scouts, violin
Hebrew school
1968 - moved to Edina, Minnesota - 9th through 12th
flew in from 70 degrees in San Francisco to 22 degrees below zero in Minneapolis
1972 - moved to San Diego - college and started with IBM
BA Anthropology (Archaeology), MBA Marketing, IBM Marketing rep
1983 - moved to Minnesota with IBM
37 degrees below zero, blizzard 3 inches high, Ice stalactite in the basement
1984 - moved to Cary, North Carolina
Home carved out of a forest, blue volvo
1986 - moved to Stamford, Connecticut
Found out about "Yankees", radon
1989 - moved to Winchester, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom
Chalk, Flint, Battle Abbey, haggis
1991 - moved to Staines, UK
London to San Diego to Tokyo to Phuket Thailand, to Sydney to London
1992 - moved to San Diego, California Left IBM
Landscape
1994 - moved to Portland, Oregon
Founded Cliffside Software, Inc.
Although it has been said we were ahead of our time, it is possible that we were too late.
2001 - moved to West Hollywood, California
And that's where I am now.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Welcome one and all
Frish has been my nickname forever. Well, at least 35 years or so. It is part of my last name, Frishberg. My whole name is Michael Wolf Frishberg. I've always had a problem pronouncing my last name, so Frish works for me!
The derivation of Frishberg had an odd substantiation last year, when my uncle David Frishberg (a jazz pianist, google him) was playing at a club here in Los Angeles (The Jazz Bakery).
After the first set all Frishberg relations in the audience stood to the side of the theatre and visited with David. Up walked a fellow, who introduced himself as David Frishberg! That was pretty funny all by itself, there aren't many Frishbergs altogether, so it was an odd coincidence that someone named David Frishberg would appear at David Frishberg's concert.
The history of the name Frishberg is murky. There are at least three competing explanations on how our name became Frishberg.
Frishberg is a misspelling of the German: frisch berg - literally, Fresh Mountain. I like to think of myself as a volcano, as that's the freshest possible mountain.
One story had it that the officials at Ellis Island didn't know how to spell Didychus which we believe was the original family name. They knew my great-grandmother was Jewish, and so gave the family a Jewish sounding name.
Another story had it that there was a rich man in the village named Frishberg, so my great-grandmother told the immigration folk that was our name, thinking it would have equal weight in America.
Now however, David Frishberg (the younger), had it that there was a wealthy patriarch in the village named Frishberg who sponsored many of the villagers as they emigrated to the U.S. and so, they had his name. That basically confirmed another of the stories that my family also told.
There is a law firm in Kiev named Frishberg. Possibly the descendents of said patriarch!
We've discovered at least two strains of Frishbergs, mine is based in Minnesota, and the other branch is East Coast.
How about the rest of my name?
Michael comes from the Hebrew M'hail - "Who is like god?" I believe it is a philosophical question, that is, "Is there anyone like god?" as opposed to the statement "who is like god" refering to person named Michael.
Wolf was the Yiddish name of a great grandfather (Max) who died before I was born. And, yes, it is wolf as in animal, no "e" on the end.
So, my name, translated into "English" =
Who is like god? Wolf Freshmountain
Since I was born in the U.S., I believe that makes me a Native American (indigenous peoples, please forgive me).
Therefore, I have frequently felt I ought to retire to a career on the radio, using the handle "Wolf Freshmountain, Native American".
The derivation of Frishberg had an odd substantiation last year, when my uncle David Frishberg (a jazz pianist, google him) was playing at a club here in Los Angeles (The Jazz Bakery).
After the first set all Frishberg relations in the audience stood to the side of the theatre and visited with David. Up walked a fellow, who introduced himself as David Frishberg! That was pretty funny all by itself, there aren't many Frishbergs altogether, so it was an odd coincidence that someone named David Frishberg would appear at David Frishberg's concert.
The history of the name Frishberg is murky. There are at least three competing explanations on how our name became Frishberg.
Frishberg is a misspelling of the German: frisch berg - literally, Fresh Mountain. I like to think of myself as a volcano, as that's the freshest possible mountain.
One story had it that the officials at Ellis Island didn't know how to spell Didychus which we believe was the original family name. They knew my great-grandmother was Jewish, and so gave the family a Jewish sounding name.
Another story had it that there was a rich man in the village named Frishberg, so my great-grandmother told the immigration folk that was our name, thinking it would have equal weight in America.
Now however, David Frishberg (the younger), had it that there was a wealthy patriarch in the village named Frishberg who sponsored many of the villagers as they emigrated to the U.S. and so, they had his name. That basically confirmed another of the stories that my family also told.
There is a law firm in Kiev named Frishberg. Possibly the descendents of said patriarch!
We've discovered at least two strains of Frishbergs, mine is based in Minnesota, and the other branch is East Coast.
How about the rest of my name?
Michael comes from the Hebrew M'hail - "Who is like god?" I believe it is a philosophical question, that is, "Is there anyone like god?" as opposed to the statement "who is like god" refering to person named Michael.
Wolf was the Yiddish name of a great grandfather (Max) who died before I was born. And, yes, it is wolf as in animal, no "e" on the end.
So, my name, translated into "English" =
Who is like god? Wolf Freshmountain
Since I was born in the U.S., I believe that makes me a Native American (indigenous peoples, please forgive me).
Therefore, I have frequently felt I ought to retire to a career on the radio, using the handle "Wolf Freshmountain, Native American".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
