Lifelike

Life is what you make of it …or paint of it!

(updated: 27 July 2025)

I saw my late maternal grandmother, Ina Rose at the Tel Aviv Hilton in November 2009 with my mum. I recorded an interview with her during the morning of the 25th. I saw her again that night after TechAviv after a lift back there from Boris.

In our discussion, she describes her meeting with Albert Einstein in the USA sometime between 1945-1947. It was her being an artist that sparked Einstein’s interest to meet her.

During the war, Ini was freed from an internment camp and ended up hiding in Toulouse, France. There she learned French and followed the painting style of French Impressionism. Ini went to the USA after the war to meet her mother and sister.

[ Einstein ’46 | Ina’s WWII story | Australian naturalization ’56 | Marriage to Frederick ’47 in Melbourne ]

Ini mentions Fred (my grandfather) and Toulouse in her 2000 postcard to Luke and I below:

They met in Toulouse and even spoke French to each other at home in Australia as the norm. My mother, Jacqueline, speaks French very well to this day. I learned it for 3 years but struggled with it, unfortunately.

Anyway, my immediate family actually lived in an apartment down in the dip of Washington Street (but before I was born) before we moved up the hill to #38 that was sold in 2006.

[pic 2 – 2006 | pic 3, 4 – early 2000’s]

Continuing, Ini’s second home in Melbourne overlooked the ocean in Alimart Court (she actually named it after her children), Brighton, where she lived for many decades.

I have fond memories of going there a lot as a child.

I rode a two-wheeler bike there for the first time – in an Austrian ski helmet, ghostbusters tee, no socks and sweat-band watch.

[ 1984? ]

… I ain’t afraid of no ghost!

So the house was filled with her art and that was her main line of work for many years.

She held a couple of exhibitions over the years, one even well into her nineties.

The last time I saw her was in July 2013 back at the Hilton (below left) and to her, Israel was fantastic and that was a great realization. She had gone to Germany a few years prior and that really stirred up negative memories.

Also, the first and only time I met her mother, Elizabeth Kaplan was in January 1986, in Boca Raton, Florida.

Elizabeth had a concentration camp number tattooed on her forearm and survived it by being enslaved as a translator for the Nazis. Also, that trip took us to Disney World and EPCOT in Orlando, which was a very fortunate experience to have.

17 years later in 2003 I reconnected with the late Stewart Springfield again in New York City who was Elizabeth’s grandson from Ina’s sister Rita, and a really nice guy – at least he was to me. He was walking with a limp but I didn’t ask him about it.

Wait, isn’t that VP Kamala Harris schmoozing Hillary Clinton behind me? That’s not a photoshop either.

In the 80s he sent us a box of sunglasses for no charge as that was his line of work.

In 1986, Stewart told me that his mum was listed in the phone book as “R Springfield” and ended up getting a lot of phone calls from female fans looking for Rick Springfield and he ended up hanging the phone up on a few.

I loved Rick Springfield. In 1985 I won tickets to his concert and backstage passes to meet him. I brought my little nephew, who loved him as well. pic.twitter.com/ZcwlkRWaNE

— Linda – NOLA Lady⚜️⚜️⚜️ (@NOLALady6) January 13, 2022

But ladies were checking Stewie out anyhow down at the beach when I went down there with him in Florida, and he popped off his shirt too. Later in the day he showed us cable TV and we settled on WWF.

RIP Hulk Hogan together with Donald Trump and André the Giant in 1987 pic.twitter.com/yhJAsBMZgp

— Dives Sum (@LondonSparkle1) July 25, 2025

Stewart’s mother was Rita (blue pocket below, and striped shirt) and father was Steve.

I think he committed suicide around 2010, but in truth, I don’t know the full story as yet. I may be out by a few years too.

src [ link inactive July  2025 ]

Anyway, at Venice Beach on Superbowl day, (26 January 1986) some sort of street comedian pulled me out in front of a crowd and said I looked like Dan Quayle (“Who was that?” I thought) and then people cracked up laughing because I was Australian. I was an instant hit.

[src]

The wild thing was that as a result, Andrew saw me and came over and said hello, and he was in the extended family (below, red tie.)

The four of us only had 2 nights in LA waiting for a connecting flight and the Challenger space-shuttle blew up around the time we were leaving the country although I’m still somewhat perplexed as to the final sequence of cities eventually reached.

I remember it being really cold in Florida and being told to “put on layers,” and that the weather ended up taking its toll on Challenger.

Also, on that trip at either Vail (Westin) or Copper Mountain (Club Med,) someone pulled out a dollar bill and showed me the “All Seeing Eye” and warned me about it, yet I didn’t really get the gist of all his fear.

honest questions lads…

what is the normie explanation for the pyramid and all seeing eye on the back of the dollar bill? pic.twitter.com/4zyQ4ocBXa

— barney (@barneyxbt) November 18, 2023

It was a lot for a young guy to take in. He could’ve given me the dollar bill too, I would’ve taken it.

I also met some guys making a ski movie in the lounge and they wanted me to intro “Teton Gravity Research” or some words very hard for me to remember and I kept messing up as they filmed me. Was TGR even a thing back then – it couldn’t have been that!? I might’ve ended up on a bloopers reel.

This was a few seasons before China Bowl officially opened to skiers – but perhaps backcountry skiers made the trek as I saw badges and T-shirts for sale with that name on it.

Here’s some Colorado history for our winter sports enthusiasts….Vail’s famous “back bowls” officially opened in 1988, doubling the resort’s skiable terrain by adding China Bowl, Tea Cup Bowl, Siberia Bowl, and the Mongolia Bowls. #50to50 #historycolorado pic.twitter.com/V34R0VKnaN

— Corcoran Perry & Co. Denver (@CorcoranPerryCo) August 17, 2021

It may be worth mentioning that a couple of years later I met some Americans in India – there was Maximilian, a few years older than me, an only-child and with his single mum, ranting about how Def Leppard was the best band ever and Pour Some Sugar on Me was the best song and he mimed it on a dancefloor and attracted a bunch of girls after demanding the DJ play it… something like that anyway.

I ended up buying the cassette. Okay, so they weren’t Metallica.

In the dining room I met a manager from Chrysalis Records, he asked me “What bands do you like?” I told him “Huey Lewis and the News” and a couple of others. He went beserk. He rattled off some other names and I said I knew them. He also mentioned Was (Not Was.) He was so thrilled he ended up sending a box of 30 CDs back to Melbourne for us to play on our new CD player including the entire Huey collection up until Small World, David Sanborn, The Proclaimers, Vinnie Vincent and The Pursuit of Happiness. Very generous and cool guy – a lot of kind people in the USA – great with box shipping too! It could’ve also been guerilla marketing.

Anyhow, back to Venice Beach – the fellow that took us to Venice Beach was an African-American guy who was waiting around the airport working as a city guide: quite a random encounter. I don’t remember much of Venice Beach except for Muscle Beach.

But I also remember a large T-shirt shop with screen printing which was new to me. It was wall-to-wall with different t-shirt images. I may have even encountered Sky Ferreira’s future dad there – did his shop exist then? Was he old enough? I think there were a number of t-shirt shops in a row. Whoever he was, he demonstrated in front of my eyes how to run a flood-and-stroke T-shirt print.

Our tour guide’s name was Michael – I remember because I personally knew another Michael at the time and of course MJ. Strange stuff. I have my old passport somewhere so I Don’t Forget.

So, a couple of years prior to Ini’s passing in 2015, she made this toast after relocating homes – but her art (and husband) came with her!

My mother now paints, and I’m starting to get restless hands myself!

[~’92 | ’93, grandfathers Fred and Oskar | ~mid ’00’s after leaving Brighton]

 

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