RIP to a real one, Phil Isenberg. He died unexpectedly last week after a short illness. He and his wife Marilyn were and are my absolute role models for dynamic aging. In addition to his accomplished political career, he was a strong supporter of the arts, including Midtown Monthly. I met them through MidMo, and through my food writing. He was an early champion of Vampire Penguin and once gave me a gift certificate for it. Looking back through old emails and can see him sending me encouraging notes (like a "Good for you!" when I first wrote something for the Bee).
Until I just saw the emails I had totally forgotten that I once met them to attend a UCB production of the play The Old Woman starring Baryshnikov and Willem Defoe.
We dined out together, shared many amusing emails and would always chat at art openings, etc. We lost touch during the pandemic and never fully reestablished our hangouts, although I last saw him at Verge a few months ago.
I remember one time, I think at the opening of Terminal B, which has an artwork that depicts cranes (you never see it because it's in international arrivals, which are rare in Sac, right?) and I mentioned I had never seen a sandhill crane. He responded with his typical bemused reaction, eyes sparkling, and recommended I make sure to slate in a viewing. Only later did I discover that the viewing area/reserve in Lodi is called the "Phil and Marilyn Isenberg Sandhill Crane Reserve". D'oh!
I absolutely loved running into them, just a wonderful, wonderful man. My thoughts are with Marilyn in her loss.
5 comments:
I'm so darn glad I got to interview Phil for the Midtown book, which produced this wonderful quote:
When we got elected in 1971, Bruce Allen was a partner in the McDonough, Schwartz & Allen law firm...Bruce got quoted, “The red flag of rebellion has gone up over city hall!” It was hysterical; it was just a hoot. For guys who had run the city, it was a big deal. Later, the [older members of the] chamber of commerce, and it was mostly a chamber of a few old anti-young-people, wanted to make peace, so they decided to hold a reception for the newly elected council members at the Sutter Club, where I had never been. And I think it was the day before the reception, they called over to city hall, somewhat embarrassed to say that they wanted to go on with the reception, but Anne can’t come, because [they] didn’t let women into the Sutter Club! And that was just great because we were able to boycott the meeting and make mean statements about the Sutter Club, and they looked like fucking idiots—as they were! And we didn’t have to go to the Sutter Club for years after that…At the time, they felt it was a striking change.
—Phil Isenberg
Beautiful!
Hella lifelong civic mensch, indeed! 🔥
That header pic is 🔥✨😎
it's a pic from the top of a radio tower in Seoul!
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