Fritz

Steven Allen Perlberg

He never had an official resume or bio to speak of – wherever he worked, he was pretty much always in charge, and never had to apply for a job.

But he wrote this personal note to Taj Mahal about a year ago, as a postscript to a pitch for him to play a gig in Topanga. It’s the closest thing to a bio I can find. Even this encyclopedic view leaves out major pieces of Fritz’ life work, career and accomplishments. People saw what Fritz wanted them to see.

 …Michael North; 10-30-06

p.s. without trying to be presumptuous, i'm providing some background on me in case you're interested: i was born and raised in Baltimore, attended college in Madison-Wisconsin, then to Vancouver BC, back to Baltimore, then L.A.

In college, while taking a light academic load (mostly philosophy courses), i worked fulltime at the Good Karma collective and co-managed the live music (held about 250 people -- for larger shows we rented out a hall at the University). We did shows with: Charles Mingus, Odetta, George Benson, Mose Allison, Sunnyland Slim, Roger McGuinn, Vassar Clements, Mimi Farina, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Bonnie Rait, Eddie Harris, Charles Lloyd, Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Terry & Brownee McGhee, and others.

I dropped out of college and moved to Vancouver and co-managed the Humanity Foundation -- we organized workshops, symposia and live concerts as well. I wound up involved in promoting benefit concerts with Les McCann, Chick Corea, Paul Horn, Paul Winter, Sonny Terry & Brownee McGhee, Odetta, John Denver, as well as producing symposia featuring Buckminster Fuller, Stephen Gaskin, RD Laing, Carl Rogers, Ralph Nader, Laura Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, Dr. Bernard Jensen, Swami Satchidananda, Michio Kushi, Pir Vilayat Khan, and others.

I moved back to Baltimore and became involved in promoting the various endeavors of several talented friends -- acting as business manager and promoter. I was involved in co-founding the Wright/Gaby Nutrition Institute (nutritional medicine taught to doctors), Earth Sky & Open Sky Productions (music video productions -- did an early program called the Evolutionary Spiral w/ music by Weather Report), Matrix Information Systems (computer software), and became involved in buying and rehabilitating historic properties.

I later moved to L.A. to put more energy into Earth Sky & Open Sky and Matrix Information Systems which were both morphing -- into Open Sky Productions (focussing on video special effects) and North Communications (doing touchscreen public information kiosks). We had some success in video effects, doing live video at stadium shows of the Grateful Dead, as well as with the kiosk business, providing public access to government information in multiple languages for the underprivileged.

Today i work as a business manager and consultant for several of the same people who i've been working with over the past several decades -- including with the Greenstar Foundation (providing solar installations to remote villages around the world), VivoMetrics (selling a LifeShirt which can be worn and "takes a movie" of a person's vital signs and breath, translated through special software capable of providing meaningful information to a doctor), and the Wright/Gaby Nutrition Institute. I am a core member of TEDOC, Topanga Earthday Organizing Committee which holds an Earthday event each year here in Topanga, and thus have come into contact with much of the Topanga community.

11-01-05