Although he didn't frame it quite this way, I imagine it's times like this when David prefers his native Pennsylvania, where August temperatures only infrequently punish as unrelentingly as they do here. Besides, Pennsylvania summers produce some of the creme de la creme of the folk things he lives, such as the Bethlehem Musikfest. Echoing the event announcement on his Web site, David points out that this festival draws roughly a million visitors in its ten-day run, spread throughout downtown Bethlehem (normal population 71,728) and the river valley, a perfectly magical delight for devotees.

It was during his student days at Swarthmore that David was introduced to ethnic song and dance. The 60s found him in Greece, performing with a dancing company in Athens. “I loved the moussaka,” recalls David, “but I passed on the retsina.” (Retsina, to educate the unwary, is a table wine unique to Greece, liberally flavored with resin from the Aleppo Pine. Some say that it takes a superb vintner to produce a product that does not taste like fresh pine board.) When David came back to the States in ‘66 he had become, quite naturally, an expert on Greek culture. He has since returned fourteen times.

His professional career includes teaching stints at Columbia and Queens College. And, over the years, he has edited and desktop published numerous professional newsletters. For the past eight, he has worked on one for the Pennsylvania Convocation of a national church group based in Ft. Worth.

In 1993, David accepted an offer to direct folklife activities at Our Lady of the Lake University, where he remained until the department was eliminated two years later. He joined Alamo PC while on staff at OLLU. Then, when word went out that warm bodies were badly needed to help with the move to the Central Park Mall site, David helped out. He continues to volunteer at the Resource Center, both as a Wednesday Warm Body (his description!) And for the Home Page Jumpstart SIG.