A Southern California native son, I was born in Santa Ana on land once owned by my direct ancestor Jose Antonio Yorba, who came to California with Portola and Father Junipero Serra to found the famous missions and presidios in 1769.  Through my maternal grandmother’s ancestral family, which includes the Yorbas, Avilas, Pryors, Sepulvedas, Rioses, Ramoses, and Serras among others, you could say I am a living descendant of Orange County history.  One of my cousins was Whitey Harrison — of the surfing Hall of Fame — who was making boards back in the ‘40s in San Juan Capistrano, so again, I am connected to one of the roots of Orange County.  My maternal grandfather, Frank Winterbourne, published, edited, and wrote for the old Coastline Dispatch newspaper.  He covered business, art, culture, and local heritage.  His father, John, wrote for and ran newspapers in Colorado, including at Cripple Creek which boasted opera houses and theaters.  John’s father, George, wrote for and published newspapers in Kansas and Iowa in the 1880s.   Whatever I write here — for Orange County Arts and Culture — I’m just following in their pioneering footsteps, you see.

I was raised here, but have also spent years in the metropoles — Montreal, New York City, and Washington, D.C.  Like others here, I am proudly a foodie.  I like fine dining out from gourmet to soul food, from our wide ethnic diversity to hole-in-the-wall diners.  I shop the farmers markets and the local Trader Joes to cook my own meals, too.

I’ve kicked around in jobs mostly related to the Arts, from performance to galleries, from film, television, radio to stage and childrens theater.  I’ve written, edited and done illustration for newspapers, magazines, and websites.  I’m not tooting my own horn.  I’ve just been lucky and disciplined.  I’m deep in history, nostalgia, Art, culture, heritage, and that vague tenuous grasp on something we all share called community or — in the larger sense — humanity.  “It is in experiencing the good things of life that we dispel our worries and fears.  It is by sharing the good things in life that we come together in harmony.”