TOPHILL.COM

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Or maybe you're looking for one of these (thanks, Google):

tophill.net (Top Hill Telecom, Ft.Lauderdale FL)
tophill.com.au (Tophill Fencing & Stockyards, Melbourne, Australia)
tophill.me (Nightclub Top Hill, Budva, Montenegro)
tophillfarms.com (Xmas tree farm, Goodrich MI)
tophillcabins.com (Vacation cabins, Cook Forest PA)
tophillhospital.com (Hospital, Eldoret Kenya)
saratogatophill.com (Motel, Saratoga Springs NY
tophillind.com (Tophill Piao Cai Industries, Hong Kong)
tophillmusic (Stuart Kenney, esteemed contradance musician, Greenfield MA)
math.stonybrook.edu/~tony/ (mathematician, Stony Brook NY)

Vintage Cuban taxi, Santiago de Cuba 2012

photo by Fletcher Oakes 2000

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=phillto02

TP & TJ 2005

Dawg music at San Gregorio, early '90s

late night jam, Westwind International Folk Ensemble, Koprivshtitsa, Bulgaria 1995

parade with Jubilee American Dance, Czech Republic 2002

Chachkas in the studio, San Geranimo 2002

Pam, TP, Larry at birthday party gig, China Camp 2005

Failure To Disperse, Noe Valley Farmers Market, SF 2011

Failure To Disperse (TP, Kerry, Carol, Rodney, Mark) at Noe Valley Farmers Market, SF 2011

Morning jam with Larry White, Joseph D'Amico, Bob Applebaum, Barry Schultz, John Schott, TP, Dan Paik, Don Burnham, Amy Kirsch, Mayne Smith, at Sweets Mill 2006

Ngirchoureng with Jim at Koror Night Market, Palau, March 2018

Ngirchoureng at Koror Night Market, Palau, March 2020

I've played mandolin, fiddle, guitar, etc. with:

Red Hot Chachkas klezmer band with Julie Egger, Barbara Speed, et al. (1999-2015). Check out old website, and CDs "Beats Without Borders" (2010), "Spice It Up!" (2007), and "Family Album" (2002). KlezmerShack says: "Tony Phillips on plucked strings is a standout, giving the sound a slight bluegrass tinge...."
Probabillies (oldtime) and Probabillies de Nord (Quebecois) with Kerry Parker et al., mainly at Noe Valley Farmers Market in San Francisco, occasional Saturdays 11am-1pm
Crop Swappers with Catherine Rose Crowther et al., mostly at Transition Berkeley's Crop Swap in Ohlone Park near the North Berkeley BART station on summer & fall Mondays at 6:30pm
Freight & Salvage oldtime jam leader (2016-2024)
Berkeley Old Time Music Convention oldtime jam leader at Berkeley Public Library on third Tuesdays of each month, 5:30-7:30pm (2025-...)
Ngirchoureng with Jim Geselbracht performing Palauan string-band songs (2018-2022)
Instant Klezmer (2015-...) with Barbara Speed et al.
Instant Klezmer Mandolin Orchestra (2005-...), which I formed and led, performed occasionally at Jewish Music Festival and San Francisco Festival of the Mandolins
Jubilee American Dance Theatre (2000-2010s) band
- Palma Soriano, Cuba (Dec. 2011)
- Festival de Gannat (Gannat, France, July 2008)
- Ramblin' Roads (Lesher Theatre, Walnut Creek, May 2006)
- Kaustinen Folk Music Festival (Kaustinen, Finland, July 2005)
- San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival (June 2000, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2011, 2016)
- Festival della Collina (Cori, Italy, July 2002; listen to "Mezzogiorno in Cori" )
- Mezinárodní Folklorní Festival (Klatovy, Czech Republic, July 2002)
- Festival Internacional del Folklore (Baja California, Mexico, Nov. 2000)
Westwind International Folk Ensemble (1995-1999) band for American and ethnic dance, including home shows at Cowell Theatre at Fort Mason and San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, plus tours to Bulgaria, Hungary, and Fresno
Contra Costa Civic Theatre production of "Foxfire" (April-May 2008)
Mandorian Candidates, a Mandolin/Octave Mandolin/Guitar/Bajo Sexto/Hammer Dulcimer/etc. trio with Olivier Zyngier and Jim Geselbracht, playing favorite tunes from as many nations as possible (active in the 1990s, plus reunion at 2016 San Francisco Festival of the Mandolins).
Siteless (pre-internet) bluegrass bands, including County Line, Gold Coast, Hayfever, and Wildcat On Toast, that played many places including San Francisco's legendary Paul's Saloon

Wildcat on Toast (Doug, David, TP, Lawrence & unseen Joyce). My first bluegrass band in the late 1980s, at Paul's Saloon.

Doug and I at the summit of Mt Kilimajaro (Uhuru Peak), Tanzania, in 2010. Sadly in 2013 Doug died of pancreatic cancer.

Hayfever (Doug, TP, Holly, David, Lawrence)

Hayfever (clockwise: David, TP, Holly, Lawrence, Doug)

County Line (Sue, TP, Bob, Doug, Paul)

Gold Coast (Paul, TP, Jeanette, Glenn, Tony F)

Early Mentors

Prof. Kenneth Arrow
Prof. John Rawls
Hon. Ben C. Duniway, U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit

Organizations

KlezCalifornia (Board Member, to 2020) klezmer music, Yiddish language, culture, dance
Jewish Music Festival (Steering Committee, to 2015)
San Francisco Festival of the Mandolins (Organizing Committee) annual event on a Sunday afternoon in April at Croatian American Cultural Center of San Francisco
Berkeley Old Time Music Convention

Klezmer music

Proximity to some of the central people and influences made it virtually inevitable that I'd be drawn into the klezmer revival:

Read about the history of The Klezmorim, members of which I've often crossed paths
A crucial step was attending KlezKamp West in 1998, which led directly to joining The Red Hot Chachkas
Yiddish New York, which succeeded KlezKamp as an annual gathering in late December.
Sources of information include: Klezmer Shack, Der Bay, and Geneva Klezmer Music

Red Hot Chachkas 2011 (Diana, Breck, TP, Michael, Julie, Barbara)

Music groups, venues, organizations, media, stuff I like, etc.

Freight & Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, where for many years I hosted a monthly oldtime jam
Peter Thompson's Bluegrass Signal show on KALW radio, 91.7 FM in San Francisco, on Saturdays from 6:30 to 8:00pm. Then stay tuned for Dory Stein's Tangents at 8pm.
California Bluegrass Association / Calendar / Teacher list / Music Camp
David Brown's Trad Music Resources
Old Time Music and Roots of American Fiddle Music
Frets.com courtesy of repair-master Frank Ford of Gryphon Music in Palo Alto
Archtop.com by Joe Vinikow of Seattle, who did an excellent tune-up on my guitar
R & F Charle Lutherie if you want to see some nice instruments in Paris
Co-Mando.com
California Coast Music Camp in July
Walker Creek Music Camp in April and October
Festival of American Fiddle Tunes Port Townsend, Washington, the week of July 4th.
Kennaquhair for Doug Dieter's Universal String Tension Calculator
Steve Ryder Stringed Instruments makes electric mandolins and custom-wound pickups, including my solid-body 4-string mandocaster
Dr. Klez
Band name generator incredibly useful
Mandolincafe.com
Tone-Gard.com

Time-wasting odds and ends (old)

Thanks to Dee Brown and the South End Rowing Club I swam from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park, SF about five times until 2009
Some other "cool" swim spots: Bristol Bay (Alaska), North Sea (Netherlands), Black Sea (Bulgaria), Helsinki Harbor & Gulf of Ostrobothnia (Finland)
DHMO.org : notwithstanding the previous item, water can be dangerous!
Street Name origins and history of San Francisco
My favorite, ironically carnivorous, plant: Darlingtonia californica
Yiddish vocabulary
My publications:
- - "The Compleet Poofreeding Hanbook"
  - "How Not To Procrastinate!" (forthcoming)

Family matters

Irving Levin memoirs transcript & recordings
Tom Phillips Woodworking (below right) in Ashland, Oregon
2017 Obit of John Nova Phillips, globetrotting flâneur and literary executor of Violet Trefusis, my tenuous connection to the British Royal Family
2nd Lt. Louis H. Friedberg (below left), my mother's first cousin (son of Dorothy, my grandfather Irving's older sister), grew up in Midwood, Brooklyn. He served in W.W. II in the 15th Airforce as a navigator on a B-24 bomber ("Rusty Dusty" #42-99771, 742nd Bomber Squadron, 455th Bomber Group, Heavy, U.S. Army Air Forces). His plane departed from 742nd’s airfield at San Giovanni near Cerignola, Italy, and was shot down by German fighters and crashed near Neuaigen, Austria, on June 26, 1944, while on a mission to bomb an oil refinery at Moosbierbaum, Austria. Louis died from his injuries in a POW camp on July 22, 1944, at age 20.
Another cousin Edwin Brown (son of Etta, my grandfather Irving's younger sister; below left), also served in the Air Force in England during the war. Carla (far right in the same photo, daughter of Clara, grand-daughter of Dorothy).

Louis H. Friedberg

TP, Ed, Paula, Carla (SF ~ 1999)

Ed Brown's excellent likeness of brother Tom

Ken (1929-2007), TP, Tom, Lupin (Ashland, Feb. 2007)

Four generations: Paula, Mae, Margot, Anita, Tom, Maureen (Ashland, Mother's Day 2020)

All of 'em, Thanksgiving 2025

After an Alcatraz swim

Magda (Bodega ~1985)

Margot (SF 2018)

Levin family members at a wedding in New York around 1940.

Standing, L to R: Edwin Brown, Etta Levin Brown, Clara Friedberg, Dorothy Levine Friedberg, Louis Friedberg, Mike Friedberg, Gussie Pfefferblum, Joe Levine. Seated: Sam Brown, Rose Friedberg, Carol Levin, Irving Levin, Ida Levine. Apparently too young to attend: Arnold Brown (10), Paula Levin (10), Arthur Levin (5)

Below, about 4 years later, are Paula, Arthur, Edwin, Arnold: