Leadership - With Integrity and Grace (A Second Chance)

TEDx Talk speaker

There is nothing like hearing a good story. I saw a great TEDx Talk posted by the U.S. Navy on their Facebook page today. The ten-minute presentation by Admiral Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations is excellent. Admiral Greenert is a native of Butler, Pa. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1975 and completed studies in nuclear power for service as a submarine officer. Greenert became the 30th Chief of Naval Operations Sep. 23, 2011. Here he tells the audience a little bit about this background, the point of his talk up-front, and then tells a story that winds up with a personal ending that brings the message home.

Across A Landscape - More Ellie Bogardus

The Streaker by Ellie Bogardus

This past week I received an email from Ellie Bogardus aficionado Allesandro who has furnished other information about Ellie and pieces of her art to this blog. This latest is titled, "The Streaker," which shows a naked man (the streaker in the upper left hand corner) running into a complex park landscape scene. This painting is the most complex in subject matter that I have seen, next to the mural that was etched into the south wall of Ellie's house in Cambria. The information that Allesandro furnished about the painting was it was given to his brother Alberto by Ellie when he visited her in Cambria around 1982. The painting is now displayed in a place where, "...he can often look at it, taking a pause or enjoying an holiday relax time." I appreciate all of the different sub-stories that are shown: a nun following a group of school children walking in a line, a dog-walker, people talking at a park bench, men playing chess, a woman walking behind a baby stroller - very interesting. The style/colors are still very Ellie Bogardus.

Airline 1964 Acoustic Guitar - Restored

Restored Airline tuning pegs

My college roommate from the last year before I was married gave me his acoustic guitar as a wedding present. Phil taught me a couple of songs while we roomed together - me using his six-string, while he showed me what to do while playing on his 12-string. After getting married, I didn't pick up the guitar very often, but it followed us each with each move: from our first apartment in Fresno, to one in Clovis, to Oregon for graduate school, and then to my first job in Fresno, back to Oregon for almost 18 years, and then to Maryland for seven, and now in Fort Collins. Along the way one of the tuning pegs

Airline bottom to top

was lost, and so was the pick guard. I had insisted that we not throw away the guitar while we were preparing to sell our house in Annapolis, so it was pack and shipped with the rest of our belongings. Once we moved in and unpacked in Colorado, it was kept standing against the wall in the "Girls' Room", the extra bedroom where our granddaughters sleep. I commented that I should get the guitar fixed. I didn't have any idea about the Airline brand, so I looked it up on the Web. To my surprise, it is a classic that was sold by Montgomery Wards catalog stores in the 1960's. Back in the times before The Guitar Center chain and others (I would go into Pryor's Music Store in Visalia when I was a kid and wanted to play), department stores were the places to buy sports gear, musical instruments, vinyl records - both long plays and 45's - they were a general purpose mercantile.

Montgomery Wards Catalog

A close up on the catalog page shows two guitars that could be mine: one for $21.50, and the other $52.50. Regardless which it is, listing on eBay and Google run anywhere for $350 to $500. So now that my guitar is restored, I am going to have to learn to play. Jan sent a text to our youngest son who is a good musician about a water and sand play structure she found, and mentioned that we had picked up my repaired instrument. He thought that was good, and recommended I check out a tutorial on-line, "You can learn about anything: advanced calculus and playing the guitar." I knew just what I want to learn, but we will see if there is any talent in my fingers.
_____________________________________
Below is a posting about an Airline guitar for sale on the Web. It gives a great desciption of what I have.

Check it out..I bought this Airline Grand Concert Guitar for parts..and again, I just couldn't bring myself to let this one go..LOL...I cleaned it up and revealed the awesome original finish on this guitar and just had to get it put back together.. Jeff the Tech did a great job with the setup..It plays now with awesome easy playing action . The original bridge was almost off. We reset and reglued it properly. The original nut was missing so I had Jeff make a new bone nut for it...

Its a Grand Concert Guitar from the 1960's Montgomery Wards Catalogs...The lower bout measures 15  inches...This model with the Airline Stencilled Headstock was made from 1963 to 1964. Airlines best Flat top acoustic guitar sold in that time. This one I am calling a 1963 but it could very well be a 1964. Only one of two years for this one.

This is how a much loved guitar looks after a lifetime of play...You won't look like a Rookie with this one....We sanded the bridge down to help the action. It will keep this guitar playing great for many years... We added a new bone nut as the original was missing...Complete with Original Kluson Double Line Deluxe Tuners that work great. 

This guitar looks great but its not perfect as you can see....superficial dings and scratches as you can see in the pics.. ......the original frets are nice and bright..not a lot of wear on them...see pics...I left the cool Music store sticker on it as found. I thought it added to the cool look. see pics!

This guitar is a blast to play ...What a looker!! .....it sounds great and its all original..... You don't see these Airline Grand Concert Guitars everyday and they aren't making any more...My tech has become an expert fixing and setting these old timers up ..The bolt on neck makes these easy to set up and adjust as time goes on.....
I ship World wide...so.........

Hit that BIN!!

It looks good, sounds good, and plays great .....It is a used guitar so it has scrapes and bruises ......Nothing that detracts from its terrific looks...see pics...it will all be pro-packed by yours truly...I do this alot and have not had one complaint.... It has very few nicks and scratches as seen in the pics but it is a solid 8.5 out of 10 Guitar..

.....Now this guitar is beautiful but used and old so it will be sold as-is no returns... but it will not disappoint the new owner..check my feedbacks ...This one will be no exception... it will be pro-packed by yours truly...I do this alot.....The lucky bid winner pays $38.00 Shipping for the lower 48...all others please ask first...

Please check my other auctions for other cool vintage guitars, amps and guitar parts!

Thanks for looking ..

Mike at Lawman Guitars

Product Specs 

Condition: Very Good 

Make: Airline 

Model: Grand Concert Bolt-on Neck 

Finish: Sunburst 

Categories: Vintage (pre-1980), Concert 

Year: 1963 

Made In: United States

Short Story Idea: Ionizing-Radiation-Human-Mutuants-From-Mars, Return To Invade The Earth

A short story idea came to mind when driving to work a couple of weeks ago while listening to a feature on NPR's Morning Edition - Are Humans Really Headed To Mars Any Time Soon?

Serial entrepreneur Elon Musk is focused on settling Mars, and has the vision and money to invest in new technology to support mass immigration from Earth to our neighbor planet.
 
In relatively near time, earth people mass migrate to Mars in people movers produced by Musk's ventures.

Precautions were taken to protect the travelers, but the dangers of radiation exposure were not completely realized.

Radiation-induced mutation is initiated while people cross space between Earth and Mars.

Slowly the exposed human population experiences genetic shift that occurs on Mars by the emigrants as they procreate.

Over time, the human population of mutants evolves into creatures different than Earth people that remain behind.

In the future, the Mars mutant population invades Earth with violent results that were unimagined at the time of the earlier first wave of migrants from Earth.

Use these story lines to re-connect to the origins of invader/invasion stories such as War of the World, Alien, and other. It would be more exciting than those television series that link different fairy tales or Disney stories together.

                                                                                                                                          © J.J. Steiner, 2015 
____________________________________

(1) NASA paper on protecting space travelers found here.

Pulp Fiction - George Plimpton - Sidd Finch - Baseball Is Around The Corner

My son noted on Facebook that I should view an ESPN video feature: Unhittable: Sidd Finch and the Tibetan Fastball. I was sitting out on our patio Saturday, enjoying a quiet afternoon, and had time to catch up on posts. I had no idea what I would see, particularly since it was more than seven minutes into the piece when it was revealed: this was a report on an April Fool feature from 1985, and I am one, 30 years after it was published - pure fun.

MLB Spring Training has been under way for some time now, and opening day will soon be on us. My old iPhone died this past week, and since I hadn't backed up the applications that were uploaded, I had to reload my MLB.com app. Of course, I chose the Mariners and Giants as my teams to follow.

A Sunday, Snowy, Sampling

A quick look at the what was hanging out at our backyard bird feeder a couple of weeks back, yesterday Sunday. The Goldfinch are beginning to take back their yellow feathers. The male House Finch stands in contrast with his red-color coat - he never lost it for the winter. The White-capped Sparrow stands incognito - its brown coat blending into the barberry branches and thorns that have been left bare for the winter, and the white cap, the perfect camoflague, that matches the small patches of snow caught in the shurb; the Hairy Woodpecker has adapted to picking the fine seeds from the artificial bark that the finch-feeder-mesh can substitute for the house siding in summer on a humid lake; and the frame of that large brute, the Northern Flicker, that comes and goes where it wants, hammering like a power tool on the metal rain gutters, sounding like a construction project on an otherwise quiet Sunday morning.

American Goldfinch and friends

House Finch

White-capped Sparrow

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Red Potatoes and Poet Laureate Phillip Levine

Preston Stanley

The news of United States Poet Laureate Phillip Levine's passing was on NPR Morning Edition yesterday. I came across this poem, that happened to be about red potatoes. It also just happens to be that last week was the Southern Rocky Mountain Agricultural Conference at which the Colorado Certified Potato Growers Association display of potato varieties that are marketing in the state, around the country, and around the world. Red potatoes, yellow potatoes, white potatoes, harlequin-skinned potatoes, purple potatoes, fingerling-shaped potatoes - the diversity expressed by these potatoes is remarkable; a credit to the Colorado State University potato research program that develops these for our industry partners.

The Simple Truth1

I bought a dollar and a half’s worth of small red
   potatoes,
took them home., boiled them in their jackets
and ate them for dinner with a little butter and
   salt.

Colorado Rose

Then I walked through the dried fields
on the edge of town. In the middle of June the
   light
hung on in the dark furrows at my feet,
and in the mountain oaks overhead the birds
were gathering for the night, the jays and
   mockers
squawking back and forth, the finches still darting
into the dusty light. The woman who sold me the
   potatoes

Masquerade

was from Poland; she was someone
out of my childhood in a pink spangled sweater
   and sunglasses
praising the perfection of all her fruits and vegetables
at the road-side stand and urging me to taste
even the pale, raw sweet corn trucked all the way,
she swore, from New Jersey. “Eat, eat," she said,
“Even if you don’t I’ll say you did.”

Purple Majesty

   Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and
   true
they must be said without elegance, meter and
   rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the
   salt-shaker,
the glass of water, the absence of light gathering
in the shadows of picture frames, they must be
naked and alone, they must stand for
   themselves.

Fortress Russet

My friend Henri and I arrived at this together in
   1965
before I went away, before he began to kill
   himself,
and the two of us betray our love. Can you taste
what I’m saying? It is onions and potatoes, a
   pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is
   obvious,

La Ratte

it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always
   wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, the metal we call
   salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live in it.

A box of genetic diversity

___________________________

1 Posted at the Website for poets.com.