Santa Barbara & Los Olivos

Nothing changes your life like having a child. We left Hollywood to raise Mikael Myggen in a “softer” environment. We found a home in Santa Barbara and started the next chapter of life.

Adventures in Caring Foundation

In Santa Barbara I met Karen and Simon Fox who had founded Adventures in Caring Foundation – teaching the art and practice of communicating with compassion to medical students & health professionals.

Over the next many years I produced many training documentaries, some of which won national awards. Today our videos are used by students, volunteers, nurses, doctors, hospice workers, police and EMT skills to also help dealing with stress.

Click on Karen & Simon’s picture to see the a trailer for the latest video “Oxygen for Caregivers” or Karen’s picture to see “The story of AiC”.

Click pictures to see AiC Videos ⇒

The garage became my studio until it was hit by a flood. Here, grandmother Lillian and Mikael is my cheering section.

Filming in Nepal

Wilderness Travel of San Francisco hired us to make a promo-film showing trekking in Nepal. There was no roads, and no electricity where we were going to go, so I constructed a solar pannel that would charge our camera batteries along the way. It went great, and we went to Katmandu, Ghorka and places few Westerners had gone in the foothills (11,000 feet) of the Himalayan Mountains.

Meeting the Nepali people was the sweetest part of the journey. Many would stop their actions and pose for my camera when I was filming, not knowing it was video – not still pictures. We did not speak Neuwari, and they spoke neiter Danish or English, but still connected through the heart. Click on the picture above to see the full video we produced.

Nepal Trekking film (Click picture to see the film)

Alas, over the next 8 years, “irreconcilable differences” outweighed our family’s ability to stay intact. Divorce followed. I purchased a VW ‘Pop-Top” classic van which became my bedroom for a few years. Our son first stayed with Magi, then with me as I moved from place to place and eventually found a new facility to produce music and videos. It was a wonderful place, called Casa de Maria/Ladera Lane.

The Casa de Maria story

I needed a new place for my studio and in my mind’s inner vision I saw something like living in a barn along with other artist – perhaps a painter and a sculptor. But rather than looking for a barn, I spoke to friends of what my heart, not my mind, was hankering for. “I wish for a place where there is peace” I said, “A place where there is a community engaged in a worthwhile pursuit, where I am a contribution to them, and they contribute to my life. A place of beauty, vision & honor”.

Hearing this a friend, Simon D’Arcy, suggested I should meet with a fellow who ran two retreat centers in Montecito, La Casa de Maria @ El Bosque and Ladera Lane. We met in Don George‘s office at Ladera Lane. where I explained what I was looking for. After 10 minutes of conversations Don said, “Let’s take a walk around the place to see where you could set up shop”.

I ended up using the mezzanie level inside the main chappel – originally designed as a novitiate, a place where monks became monks. There was a full size pipe organ, and room for 150. During the next years I helped hosting events for many amazing people. Tibettan Monks, Barbara Max Hubbard, healers, speakers, artists.

Lesson: I learned that by describing what was in my heart, Providence gave me something far better than I could imagine. I learned, “we can have what we want, or we can settle for perfection”.

We also staged magical free-form & contact-improv movement workshops with Suzanne Riodan in the Chapel. During these classes I found a favorite dance partner. For a year and a half we just danced, never spoke until one day. Then we became more than dancers & lived together in her little house with a piano, two dogs and a fireplace. I wrote a song about that.

At La Casa de Maria, Montecito I had my studio on the mezzanie level of the main chappel, next door to a full size church pipe-organ, which I played for events and whenever possible. What a magnifficant instrument a church organ is.

Trish

Going to free-form/contact improv dance classes, I gained a wonderful mystery dance-partner. For a year and a half we never spoke a word, just danced. Then we became more than dancers and we lived happily together for many years. Trish showed me the magic of horses.

When horses became a reality, we moved to Santa Ynez valley – and life took yet again another turn.

Santa Ynez Valley, Los Olivos and The Crooked Path

After a wonderful few years living on a ranch, learning about horses and my son attending school in Los Olivos, it became obvious I needed to be back out among people, so I found a small house to rent. It was in the center of a small wine-town with a garden in front. A marketing cheif, Bradley Mansfield, hired me to produce short wine-commercials for his online wine-club. This paid my bills (I did roughly 150 productions), while I started performing in my garden for tips.

I named my place, The Crooked Path. I built a stage, a sign, fencing, Frank Palmer (bass player, long time LO resident) donated speakers, Robyn Hannon gave me a fountain, Blair Weimouth entrusted us with a grand 1960’s Hammond B3 & Leslie speaker, which Ron Cobb (who also lived at my home for some years) played magnifficently. Over the next 12 years I hosted many bands, singers/songwriters and the stage grew larger and larger. The place was open to the public, donations-only, and it was “all about the music”. I have a guest book with glowing accounts of the many, many shows we all did together. Today the Crooked Path is hosted by Karen Seeley (link to webpage here)

Mother Lillian came to live her last years with me in Los Olivos and loved the town and its people.

More about The Crooked Path

"The VisionEars Band"

Over several years a group of fine players were kind enough to learn my songs and delighted visitors on many Saturday afternoons. Kurt Kummerfelt/Bass, Like Sundquist/Guitar, Ronn Cobb/Keyboards, Grace Feldmann/Drums, Yves Bajulaz/Sax & your truly/Keysboard & guitars. We were the “sound of Los Olivos”. Below are some live recordings.

Below is a collection of videos from The Crooked Path

Randy Cobb, L.P. Ronn Cobb, Frank Palmer, Tony Martinez & others…

Here is Feelgood (his real name), then Ronn Cobb, Grace Feldmann, Eric Brittain & yours truly.

Santa Ynez Valley is a beutiful place. I produced a series of nature videos with original music, called “Peace”. Click on the picture above to see a section.