Ideology 101

There was a request made when I wrote on Facebook about the genesis and affect of ideology to be put in one blog piece so that it could be shared by those who don't visit Facebook. That made sense to me so this is that piece. It’s long, I make no apologies for that. If I’m going to lay out my thoughts, that is usually what happens. I think long.

Ideology is always a blinder - it limits vision to what fits the reality tunnel dictated by the ideology's worldview. That's how the Nazis believed they were building a "master race" while degrading Germany to unthinkable depravity, how Mao called wholesale extermination of intellectuals a "Cultural Revolution," and how Stalin killed without conscience, millions of working class people to build the "Worker's Paradise."

The nature of ideology is that it defines the world by the theory, it doesn't create the theory by comparing it to the world. In the case of Trumpism, the central beliefs - that the Government is evil and corrupt, that only Trump can "drain the swamp," and that those who support him are the only real, loyal Americans - are the operative realities; the first principles. Anything that questions those tenets is by definition, false.

In the case of Libertarianism, the operative first principle is that all government (except, conveniently, that which protects private property) is illegitimate. Therefore, anything the government does that is beneficial is inherently corruptive. It cannot be otherwise. Therefore, voting for a Libertarian is, to an observer outside their reality tunnel, much like hiring someone to run a nuclear plant that believes that physics is an evil conspiracy.

I hasten to add here, that ideologies of the left are not exempt from this phenomenon. Any set of beliefs that operates as a "first principle," that is to say a moral axiom that must be held if you are to be considered a "good person" will have the same reality-excluding affect.

Now assuming that you are not operating from a position of omniscience, that is to say, you're not G-d, you live in a tunnel. You can only observe so much, know so much, process so much in a moment, or in a lifetime. The vast majority of "the real" is, and must be outside of your knowledge. But certain axioms and habits of thought narrow the reality tunnel to reject anything that doesn't accommodate them, while others expand the reality tunnel - they admit the possibility of new information, and expand perception and understanding to accommodate it.

Ideology is a set of rules that purport to explain how the world "really" works. Ideologies are not organic, they are artificially constructed and propagated. Their genesis comes when some segment of the middle class is suddenly economically displaced. Suddenly, their old, inherited answers and folkways are rendered inoperable, and they search, often desperately, for a new explanation.

Invariably, there is a demagogue to provide them with one - usually self-serving, but always flattering to those who adopt it - you, oh downtrodden one, are the vanguard of the future, the true patriots, the moral folk who will tear down the old order and create the new...

...by doing, and thinking, exactly as I tell you.

The visit of Pope Francis 2015...

Pope Francis holds his hand out over masses of people

So far the papal visit & Pope Francis' tour have been a very refreshing & yes, so far, a joyous experience for me, a non religious person. To watch & listen as he makes his way around Washington, speaking with the people & to the people in an intelligent & supremely caring manner.

Pope Francis Skips Lunch With Politicians To Be With Homeless In Washington, D.C.

Let's be honest here - this is not just a man of God, this is a man of the people...a man of the ages. A man who truly loves the people he sees, who truly holds compassion & caring for all of them, above everything else! He does not just lend lip service or the church dogma with each stop, but shows he wants the best for all people...& he is calling for the best from all of us as well!

He doesn't have to be a man of God...a man of faith, for me to listen to him. He had me with intelligent dialogue.

All I have to know is how important his messages are to the masses & how important his station is on a global level. Perhaps in his loving & humble way, he will achieve the things we all need to have happen! And many who feel as he does, want to have happen.  Will those in high places, those who hold important positions listen to him? Take to heart what he is saying? 

Or will they again tell him to 'butt out' when he doesn't come in line with their agenda like he's already been told pre to this visit? The line they've been 'preaching' in God's name is being contradicted by his speeches & sermons...so how do they deal with this? Or will they bother? It seems to me that the people they speak to don't really care what the church says, or what the bible & Jesus said. They only care about what their 'party' says...those politicians wishing to hold on to support with the use of religion & discredit each other by using the same.

We are all the same in Francis' eyes. All equal. And all too often that is not what is seen in this country. Oh, we can deny that, but actions speak so much louder than words & Christians themselves might want to take a closer look in the mirror, as well as at their actions & stop hiding behind God's name.

In his soft spoken way, Pope Francis asked us to not trample peoples equality...women's as well as everyone else. He reminds people, politicians specifically that the country is founded on immigrants & some, like himself achieve greatness if allowed to prosper without being shut out, sent away or persecuted. He also reminded us that 'all' religions should enjoy freedom of worship, not just the one you follow. And if you choose to follow none, that's fine too...you aren't a heathen nor should you be hated or called some of the names that I have been called.

Some of us follow a God, some of us follow a philosophy. But as long as we care about one another, for one another & hold out a helping hand to the needy, to those who are crushed under events that have taken place in their lives, leaving them with little to nothing, we will be doing what he wishes. He reminds people that nowhere in their bible does it say 'you earned that money so you get to keep it all & forsake those in need'. In fact, your Jesus taught quite the opposite...

Other good men...as well as women, have preceded this man & after the spin put on their words by politicians & those who wish to minimize them, we are left with not a lot of what they tried to teach us actually getting accomplished. Do we stand a chance that this good man has reached the right people where heretofore no one else seems to have?

I guess we stay tuned now & do whatever we can to promote his words.

Misplaced pride, Ignorance is unbecoming...

Vintage 1887 patchwork quilt

In this day of environmental awareness and looking after our planet, it has resulted in many people doing their part to assure the earth is hurt no more than it already has been and with each of us making our own contribution to that cause, we should be able to, if not turn things around, at least halt much of the pollution that's seen today growing worse. So many of the people born into this generation are thinking this way and it becomes second nature to them to recycle and pick up bits of trash and litter as they see it laying around the streets and wilderness. But as good as they are, they have one thing terribly, terribly wrong!
 
This became abundantly clear while standing in line at checkout one afternoon when the young woman at the register peered at the woman in front of me and told the elder lady that she 'should be doing her part'. That that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment!

The woman apologized to the young girl, saying she'd remember this for next trip to the store and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "And that's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations to come."

The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady then went on to explain:

"Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.
So they really were recycled...but we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable, besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But, too bad, we didn't do the "green thing" back then.

And if we had a cat, the shredded bags were placed in a pan and provided kitty a place to pee if she had to go. No expensive litters or fancy mechanical self cleaning litter pans using electricity back then.

We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. And very few of us had weight problems for these same reasons."

  And she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

After the dishes are done...by hand...

In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us either. 

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not 'purchased for the purpose' Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she's right - we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or carrying around a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of throwing them away and buying a new pen...and we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Back then we did recycle our outgrown or out of fashion clothing much as they do today, but we also made use of those clothes that weren't fit for wearing any longer. They became patchwork quilts! No buying brand new cotton when there was so much good usable cotton in the shirt with the blown collar or elbows. Or the dress with the stain or the blouse with irreparable seams...or sheets with too many patches became the quilt backs of the 'new' patchwork quilt. 
But she was right, we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Your ride to and from school everyday...

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

Please feel free to share this with another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't really take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced, spiky haired smart ass who can't even make change without the cash register telling them how much to hand us back.

The Extremely Outdated and Oft Misread Second Amendment....

The first Bill of Rights

 
The Extremely outdated and oft misread Second Amendment desperately needs to be amended again, this time including a guarantee that all citizens are given an adequate education so that they are capable of reading and comprehending what they have read. This amendment has been so often misread, intentionally or otherwise, for the personal gain of those that want it to support their views. 
It was written at a time when a property owner also needed to protect his property because he was the only one around that was able to do that. There really were no organized police forces that you could call on your cell phone...erm, phone....oops, yell out the window to the small local constabularies!

 Fast forward 222 years, from it's inception in 1791 to today, 2013. You can almost hear the rumbling underfoot as the Founding Fathers spin in their graves. They are appalled and stunned that the people they gave guidance in the form of the Bill of Rights, are so stupid as to never amend that Bill again, never amend to fit the era they live in, never understand that in the day when there were no assault rifles, no multi magazines, no phones, no TV, no cars, no computers, no radios, not even something as simple as a zipper!

Keep in mind please, that this amendment was written & adopted when George Washington was still in his first term as president!! It had only been eight years since the end of the American Revolution, altho' we were in the midst of the Northwest Indian War, taking place in what today, we know as the Industrial Midwest – Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. Vermont had just recently become the 14th state. Originally, the Second Amendment is very much about local militias keeping check on a federal military establishment. 
It’s about Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill. It’s a product of the American Revolution. The motto at the founding is when guns are outlawed, "only the king’s men will have guns." 

In a nutshell, almost everything ordinary Americans think they know about the Bill of Rights, including the phrase ‘Bill of Rights,’ comes from the Reconstruction period. Not once did the Founders refer to these early amendments as a bill of rights. We read everything through the prism of the 14th amendment — including the right to bear and keep arms.” The reconstruction Republicans didn’t love local militias. They believed in Grant’s army so they recast it. It becomes an individual right. The NRA is founded after the Civil War by a group of ex-Union Army officers. Now the motto goes, when guns are outlawed, only klansmen will have guns. Individual black men had to have guns in their homes because they couldn’t count on the local constabulary. 
It’s in the text of the Freedman’s Bureau Act of 1866 that we actually see the reinterpretation of the original Second Amendment. It becomes about original rights.” 

To say the United States was a very different place at that time than it is today, is an enormous understatement. At that time, the country’s population was a little more than 4 million, nearly 1/80th of what it is today. The inventions of the American Industrial Revolution were still 40 years away. The Colt 45 Revolver wasn’t invented and wouldn't be for another 80 years. The firearm of choice in 1791 was a single-shot highly inaccurate muzzle loaded rifle. While we can certainly say that the framers of the Constitution were wise and prescient men, it would be ludicrous to think that they envisioned a world where anyone on the street could buy an automatic or semi-automatic gun with incredible firepower and large self-loading magazines. They would cry to see how the IQ of an entire nation has decreased and using your words to support sheer stupidity. And that’s where we are today. 

Yes, we hear the words from people -- 'Everyone wants reasonable gun laws...gun controls'. But that simply is NOT true. Gun manufacturers certainly don't. The NRA by and large, doesn't. We need to face this first and foremost before anything can be resolved - not "everyone" is for reasonable gun control. A wide swath of people are for no gun regulations at all, which is what makes this national "conversation" so frustrating to the more sane element in the country. 
 If what you have in your personal arsenal is equal or greater to what your military has, with its drones, anti-aircraft shoulder rockets and weapons grade plutonium, then I, for one, think it more than reasonable to limit your access, as you seem to have taken an oath to sheer insanity.

Ding Ding The Monster's Dead!

The wicked monster's dead! But is the war on terrorism over? Absolutely NOT.

It should be noted that terrorism in the form of Islamo-facism did not start 10 years ago with the attacks on the Towers and it will not end with the demise of its mastermind. He has become, in recent years, merely a figurehead to their cause. The strife in the middle east is thousands of years old and will continue throughout our lifetime. It was there before any of us were born and it will still be there long after our deaths. What we have seen is merely another horrid chapter come to a close.

However, despite this rather gloomy reality, bin-Laden’s death is cause for great celebration. It represents a huge victory for justice as well as closure for the families of the victims of 9/11 and the men and women who sought him out for the past decade. It is a victory for civilization over the forces of barbarism in the modern world. And it is no less a victory for the Muslim world as a whole. Bin Laden has preyed on them as well. The Muslim world suffered tremendously from terrorism, and in all too many cases, far more, at the hands of his terrorists’ than did many other peoples of this world. Up to and including the Towers tragedy, in which it was speculated 1200 Muslims died as well. There is no way of having exact numbers because sadly there are still bone fragments that haven't been identified.

Yet we mistakenly blame Muslims as a whole for what radical fascists do in the name of Allah. We haven't seemed to learn that to stop hatred, someone has to lead by example. I wonder sometimes, did Timothy McVeigh pray to his god before engaging his bombs in Oklahoma? Did Reverend Jim Jones get to his knees and pray for guidance before setting out his instructions to his followers? If so, should we not be fearful of all Christians as well? And yes, there are those who actually enjoy hating, those who shock me with their hatred, feeling easy and righteous about it, but that's something for another blog on another day.

The argument of course, is that these Christian men I've cited were sick minds. Like bin Laden I presume?

Bin Laden repeatedly used Islamic texts taken out of context and twisted to exhort violent action from an ignorant and hate-filled following of terrorists. Usually, very young radicals wanting to break away from the rigid confines of their religion and who were easily convinced the US was an evil empire of infidels. This was how his operations started and grew to wreak havoc against American military as well as our citizenry. It is for this reason we celebrate the death of Bin-Laden in the same way that those of an earlier generation celebrated the death of Adolf Hitler and for many of the same reasons.

There are concerns that bin-Laden’s death will spur new and more violent acts of terrorism. That his death will cause greater hatred among his followers. I am not convinced that bin Laden’s death will somehow give these people super powers to accomplish what they’ve failed at over and over again in the last ten years - to repeat the heinous crime of 9/11…but they may well try. Frankly, I don’t see how those who hate us enough to murder thousands of innocent people from all over the world, can possibly hate us any more than they already do, but again, I don't think they have the capacity to stop how they feel, it is so engrained.

We think of the Americans lost in the New York City tragedy, the act that left a crater in the middle of our largest most populated city, but it wasn't just Americans lost that day. While it happened on our soil, 91 other countries lost people that day. Including the Muslim world. Terrorism isn't discriminatory.

I salute all our men & women in uniform for this great victory. I salute them all. It may well be that the actual credit for this go to the few who were actually there & carried out the mission, but it was the efforts of all of them, from the private killed in Iraq to the Sergeant wounded in Afghanistan, that eventually brought this about.

Yup, right up to the President, who at great political risk to himself said, "You think you have him? Okay, DO IT!"

This is Your Brain on Music – the science of human obsession

It is funny how I initially came upon this book. Myself, along with a group of friends were sitting around talking one afternoon about how we eventually all seem to get stuck or trapped in our own generations music.I immediately thought about myself and questioned if there was perhaps a piece of generational gene that I’d not inherited, because I had definitely not stayed with my generations’ music. As new music is released I have moved along with it and embraced it. Perhaps it was because, for most of my life I have been a musician.

Or maybe it was because I could hear the recycled riffs and shared melody from past compositions that bridged the music from the past to the present. But it was that thought that led me to Googling the question “Why do we love our own generations’ music best?”And that search eventually led me to this book.

This is Your Brain on Music is pretty hard book to argue. Written by multi-hatted Daniel Levitin, you have to accept that the man knows where he’s coming from. Among the non-music related things he’s worked at professionally are a diverse and somewhat eclectic list of jobs. He worked as an automobile mechanic and as a graphic designer - a typographer, a chauffeur, product manager, data analyst, dishwasher, computer operator, television repairman, fry cook, standup comedian, door-to-door salesman, camp counselor and wood stove salesman.

Then in his thirties he returned to school and studied cognitive psychology/cognitive science, first at Stanford University (he received his B.A. in 1992 with honors and highest university distinction) and then the University of Oregon where he received his M.Sc. (1993) and Ph.D. (1996). He completed post-doctoral fellowships at Paul Allen's Silicon Valley think-tank Interval Research, at the Stanford University Medical School, and at the University of California, Berkeley.

He has been a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, Dartmouth College and Oregon Health Sciences University. As a cognitive neuroscientist specializing in music perception and cognition, he is credited with fundamentally changing the way that scientists think about auditory memory, showing that long-term memory preserves many of the details of perceptual experience that previous theorists regarded as lost during the encoding process, and with drawing attention to the role of cerebellum in music listening, including tracking the beat and distinguishing familiar from unfamiliar music.

He has worked with the likes of the Grateful Dead, Santana, Steely Dan, Chris Isaak, Joe Satriani – just the beginnings of a very lengthy list of musicians. He has won awards from the Sundance Film Festival and Venice Film Festivals, and returning to university in the 70’s.

On the sound effects side of things he worked at A Broun Sound in San Rafael, California, building speaker cabinets for The Grateful Dead, for whom he later worked as a consulting record producer. He was invited and became one of the golden ears used in the first Dolby AC audio compression tests, a precursor to mp3 audio compression.

I know one of the first things out of people’s mouths is to wonder how dry this book is. Admittedly, the first part is a bit, but it’s by no means something that would put you to sleep. Not by a long shot.

Daniel writes in the introduction:

“By better understanding what music is and where it comes from, we may be able to better understand our motives, fears, desires, memories and even communication in the broadest sense. Is music listening more along the lines of eating when you’re hungry, and thus satisfying an urge? Or is it more like seeing a beautiful sunset or getting a backrub, which triggers sensory pleasure systems in the brain? Why do people seem to get stuck in their musical tastes as they grow older and cease experimenting with new music? This is the story of how brains and music evolved --- what music can teach us about the brain, what the brain can teach us about music, and what both can teach us about ourselves”

You will find that Daniel can tell a very good story. He imparts many in this book and you begin to wish you could have been a fly on a lot of walls during some of the times he tells about. You also come to understand yourself a little better and understand about things such as ear worms, that which makes songs stick in our heads for much too long sometimes. He tells about finger snapping and toe tapping and how they differ from each other. And he tells about meeting and working with John R Pierce who had also been noted for his work while serving as vice president of research at Bell Labs in New Jersey. He relates how Pierce asks him to explain rock and roll music to him, something Pierce had never paid attention to and didn’t understand.

Pierce requested that Levitin come up with six rock and roll songs that he felt would capture the essence of rock and roll. No easy feat! Levitin’s offerings were

1. “Long Tall Sally” – Little Richard
2. “Roll Over Beethoven” – The Beatles
3. “All along the Watchtower” – Jimi Hendrix
4. “Wonderful Tonight” – Eric Clapton
5. “Little Red Corvette” – Prince
6. “Anarchy in the U.K.” - the Sex Pistols.

This list alone has you going over in your head which six songs would you have picked? And if any one of yours is among the ones he picked?

This book surprised me because I thought I’d pretty much had a full understanding of the impact music had on my brain. But he opened whole new thoughts about that by bringing a scientific perspective to it. I caution that this book does not read like a text book, but it does talk about research on how the brain processes music and discusses things like pitch, timbre, rhythm, loudness and harmony and how they affect the human body.

If you have any interest in music whatsoever, I think this should be a book on your MUST READ list.

Out of the ashes - Baby is well

Thank you Linda, for prodding me to do this. I may never have put any of this together without your asking.

Sometimes we need to just kick off our shoes...socks too, and grab the guitar, noodle around and do some simple stuff.


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Maybe not quite as laid back as Grayson Capps, especially if you're female, but you get my gist? We complicate our music so many times and then wonder why it is we can't relax with it.

It's funny y'know, but from the moment I picked up my guitar so many years ago now, I wanted to play what I was listening to on the radio - or what I was hearing from my albums. Just exactly like I was hearing it. Little did I know as a kid that this stuff was multimixed! The sound was manipulated and the tracks layered! And then mixed some more.
I anguished for years, thinking I would never play as well as I wanted to. I had fun doing what I was doing but there was always that feeling of inadequacy - sad huh?

Well, fast forward a few more years to my band years. Though I was playing an acoustic guitar I was still required to use a pick up and amplify the guitar. Not the soft sound of thumb or plectrum on the strings - no, it still needed to be artificial sound.

Then an event happened that took even that minuscule talent away from me. A monumental event that sank me for a number of years. Many on you who read my blog regularly will know what I'm referring to, but for those who don't, I had a brain aneurysm which paralyzed my left side and meant learning all the things I'd learned as a baby over again - things like sit up, walk, talk and use my hand and arm again.

But I've always been resilient - I don't take any credit for that - I just am. And my determination to get better made many of these things return fairly fast. Within four years I was doing everything again and while not climbing mountains or playing hockey due to an noncomplying leg, I am in the process of learning to play my guitar again. Perhaps the luck of the genes.
But whatever it is, I'm now in the long process of climbing out of that damn deep pit I was put in.
Odd too, because I truly believe that if my dear old guitar hadn't been hurt bad, I may never have attempted coming back from my own hurt. There you have it though - the mystery of the way life works sometimes. From something bad comes something better. You hear people say it all the time, and probably have even given that advise out yourself, but until it hits home, you don't realize just how true it can be.

Once I got my guitar fixed I could not wait to play it again. But being a 45 year old instrument it needed a little more than just the cracks mended and a shine up. As I soon learned, there was also a matter of tuning keys that actually tuned. The old ones slipped, or snarled and wouldn't turn. Yes, we can buy those things in any good music store, but what do shiny new and modern pegs look like on an old guitar? Not right. Not at all! I did not want to replace 1964 tuning mechanisms with 2009 anything!

So I wrote to the Framus company in Germany asking them if they could recommend a place for me to get replacements. After some correspondence with historian and descendant of the Framus founders family, Dr. Christian Hoyer, I was told that, yes, they were happy to announce - they could replace them for me themselves! They needed to see photos of my guitar as well as the tuners themselves and they would go from there. They still had access to them from their shop in Markneukirchen Germany.
Not only that, but because my guitar is a model they don't have in their museum, they were interested in having pictures of mine for the museum as well as a second edition of Dr. Hoyer's book about the Framus company - Framus: Built in the Heart of Bavaria.

The tears I'd shed at seeing my guitar destroyed by careless people became tears of joy. And so now thanks to the expediency of the Framus company the tuners are sitting beside my guitar awaiting installation. It cannot happen too soon!

Thank you so much Dr. Christian Hoyer for your assistance in this. Without your help, the guitar would be destined to sit idle, a reminder of things that used to be.

In the meanwhile though, while waiting, I was still without any guitar at all. Nothing to play...not any way to make my fingers work or make music at all, complicated or otherwise - Without a guitar, even a simply two chord lilt was impossible. So something had to be done.

Since I've played a 12 string guitar for most of my life, there were times I thought I'd like to invest in a six string as well, but finances never allowed that to happen. And I would absolutely never give up the 12 string for a six. Once you get all that sound from a guitar you're just not willing to give it up.

So - while all this was happening, Christmas was approaching and someone in my life was taking serious notes of all this. Subsequently on Christmas morning I found myself the happy owner of my new Martin D-18. If someone had told me five years ago that any of this was possible I know I would have rolled my eyes and thought them a bit daft. Well, guess who was wrong? And guess who is very happy to announce they were wrong?

This post is a bit of a ramble I know, but I just wanted to tie up some loose ends and remind people that there is always a silver lining to things even if it looks bleak. Never assume that reaching the bottom means you will stay there.
Now if you don't mind, I think I will go and make a little music...

There's noone as Irish as Barack Obama...

I knew I was feeling an unconscious reason to vote for Barack too....

A new president, a new precedent...

How can I possibly find something new to say after these last few days? It's virtually impossible now that everyone has had a chance to put their spin on events of the last days, so maybe just a few of my own words on how I feel about everything. And how we all finally got here in one piece.

I had written a blog some months back saying I was disappointed in Oprah Winfrey for putting her support behind Barack Obama. That post was gravely misunderstood and I immediately regretted not being clearer in what I was trying to say. I had been questioning how quickly Oprah backed Obama after so many years of saying we needed female representation in Washington and women should vote for a woman given the opportunity.

The opportunity arose and Oprah didn't do what she'd been asking of others because the woman candidate, Hillary Clinton had an opponent who was an African American man. Oprah dropped everything she'd been advocating over the years and put her support behind him. For one reason - he was black.
I felt she was setting a terrible example for others, especially in lieu of what she'd been preaching to her hordes and because the very last reason a person should vote for an individual is because of his or her color.

I eventually changed my thinking on the issue because I realized that it was just as bad for her to be asking someone to vote for a woman based solely on that one fact as well. We hopefully choose people for what they stand for, what they can bring to bear and how well we think they will do in a position of leadership. Not gender - not skin color, but ability, integrity and honestly.

However, I do not want to rehash that old post. It's past - it's done for whatever reasons Oprah gives for it now. She's a happy woman. I'm a happy woman.

I am thrilled that Barack Obama is our 44th president of the United States.
It's not that I think Hillary would have been a bad president - I backed her initially and I don't doubt her capability if she'd stayed in and gone on to be president. After all, she would have Bills experience as president to draw on as well as his wealth of knowledge from those years.

But I love what has happened now! I love that history was made. I love that I stood for over two hours in the teeming rain to help make it happen. I love that we have dared to take the first tiny step over racial lines and thumb our noses at racism and recognize a person who is ideal for our times. The world looked on and rejoiced along with us. Did we regain our respect around the world? I would say we did quite a bit. The world too, recognized what we were trying to achieve and now it's up to us to prove this wasn't just a single fluke, a blip or lapse from the same ol' inbred politics of the past. It looks like America may have finally grown up at last. No more bogeymen under the bed. No more running scared because a candidate says we'll all die if we don't get him into office post haste.

And the YouTube propaganda couldn't put dent in the glacial move to make this happen. Fear mongering, while still rattling some, didn't work this time. People wanted change and they weren't buying into the threats "we're all gonna die". Or that Obama was the Antichrist. Or that he was the number one evil incarnate because he happened to have the middle name Hussein.

When I see things such as this being said, I have a better understanding of how we ended up having eight years of George W. Bush. Stupidity prevails no matter how hard we try to educate. One example: using names as a measure of good or evil. Well then, it's certainly good we didn't end up with John McCain. For all those fearful prophets reading doom into the name Hussein, let me give you bigger things we could have worried about! John!!! Yes, John McCain. You want stupid logic? Here's a bunch! According to this thought pattern a man named John would have certainly brought our nation to utter ruin. I mean just look at history, it's all right there. There was John Wayne Gacey. And John Wilkes Booth, John Gotti, John Dillinger, John George Haigh known as the 'Acid Bath Murderer' in the UK.

Oh yes, and let's not forget John Hinckley Jr. and John Schrank who attempted to kill Teddy Roosevelt. All just evil Johns. Can you see how dumb that line of thinking really is? Yet there were people wringing their hands and sending out email warnings about this 'omen' - this sign of all that is bad.
Furthermore, why not think about a great man like the late King Hussein instead? How did a name, Hussein, become a bad word? Who stole this name and corrupted it to mean radical Muslim terrorist? Utter nonsense, sorry.

A name doesn't make a man. A man makes a name for himself! I expect that our new president will make a fine name for himself if given the chance and that includes help from us, the people who will benefit the most from supporting him now. He has what he's coined as 'the audacity of hope'. I do too. I know that together, we can make this nation great once more.

Yes, we can.

And so after all of this, we can't always be somber - a little levity is in order - if you're Irish anyway - like Barack Obama. What, you say? Oh yes! He's as Irish as Paddy's tam - just give a listen - O'Click here.

This old guitar of mine...

This week or the next I will finally be reunited with my guitar. My best friend for so many years, my beautiful Framus 12 string guitar. Listed as the Texan by the company, so many people referred to it as the Hummingbird that Framus finally changed the listing in their catalog to the Hummingbird. While the bird on the Framus pick guard isn't really a hummingbird, but really some sort of songbird, the shape of the guard and the flowers on it are very much like that of the Gibson Hummingbird.

I've had this guitar with me what seems like forever, but in reality 35 years. It is one of my things that I always took good care of, making sure it was always cleaned and polished, even if I wasn't using it and keeping the wood hydrated. No dust ever dare try to lay on it for long.

It was the third guitar that I'd owned, my first being a student guitar, a black flattop Harmony - 'the peoples guitar' they touted it at the time. I often wondered "as opposed to what?" That guitar came with a 25 year warranty and was sold through Sears with their Silvertone name on it. It was a surprisingly nice sounding guitar for it's price tag, maybe a bit scratchy, but otherwise okay for $90.00.

As a kid I thought I had the best guitar that money could buy.
I don't know if mine would have made it the 25 years or not but it didn't matter because I sold it to buy a Gibson LG1.

The LG1 and I did not get along at all. It was a sort of clunky sounding little 3/4 guitar that had neck rod problems we were never able to get fixed. One song and I was having to tune - that did get rather old very fast.

So a dear friend of mine, who happened to own a music store, called me in and presented me with my Framus. He thought it was the best guitar I could have for the type of thing I did on guitar and he was right on the money. I bonded with my baby immediately and I've never looked back.

So fast forward to today and getting my guitar fixed after our last move back to the east from Vegas. The guitar was so mishandled by the moving company, having been left in 100 degree heat unprotected for nearly nine months, it split down the center of the face.
*all photos may be enlarged by clicking on them ~

I was beside myself when it arrived wrapped in only a sheet of newspaper, nothing else, even tho' the company, Puliz Moving and Storage, [remember that name] assured us the guitar would be specially grated and kept in air conditioned storage, it was more than evident that never happened. As an aside, Puliz damaged more of our belongings in this one move than any of our other seven moves combined. If you need to move anywhere, you need to avoid this company like the plague.
And so began a long saga of fighting with their insurance company to have the guitar fixed.

Since they were refusing, I sought out a man here on my own in Pennsylvania...Bangor PA to be exact. Mr Fred Castner. The guitar has not left my side in 35 years! I didn't want it replaced - I wanted my guitar in the condition they received it in. I want you to remember this name too, Castner Guitar Repair, because not only is this man an expert at his craft, but working with him has been a delight from beginning to end.
In today's world, with all the businesses that won't give an inch, or live up to their promises, how refreshing it is to find a person like Fred who will go the extra mile and then some, to get it right! He has kept me abreast of every step of the way in the restoring process. I have received daily reports and he's asked for my input at times if in doubt about what I expect.

How could you ask for anything better in business?
~the seemingly innocent looking crack~
The progress pictures arrived compliments of Fred's wife Regina and I am thrilled at what I am seeing so far! I can't post all the pictures, but I will give you a sampling and trust me, the remaining photos show a beautiful guitar emerging again thanks to talented hands.





~prepping for the lacquer

~the crack is mended and sealed.


~another look before polishing it up


And so now I'm counting the hours til I have it back again. Any guesses as to what song I will attempt to play on it first? Isn't it obvious?



I'm intending to add to this as the time nears to bring it home too, so please drop by again. Sorta like awaiting a new baby, isn't it?

Saturday, October 18, 2008 - homecoming day -

There was the sign just ahead at the roadside. The sign reads Castner Guitar Repair. Should also read “Miracle worker slash all round great guy!” I am still in awe of what he has worked with my guitar.

My heart started hammering as we pulled into the drive and it hit me that this was the day I was picking up my guitar to bring it home again.
We met Fred at the door and he took us into the shop and presented the guitar to me – and no, for those of you that know me, I didn’t cry. But it was an uphill battle not to.

~ No, it's not your eyes, it's hubby's eyes. The pix are blurry. He says he doesn't need to wear his glasses.





The guitar is so beautiful, as you can see.

Once I got it home, he & I went over a few tunes together - songs that I thought may be easy for me to pick up again. Now I have blisters on my fingers! Trust me when I say it’s been a long, long time since that’s happened, but I welcome it so much. And it didn't take too long either!

I was so relieved to find out I may have been worrying needlessly about my fingers not working. It will be like learning over again, I'm sure, but at least I can learn over…and with one advantage. This time I have the chords all in my head, I just have to send them all that back to my fingers.

I’m pretty confident that once I rebuild my calluses, I’m gonna be okay. Something I didn’t think about though, was the rest of my hand - my wrist will need some work because that is one wide neck, I tell ya! I had forgotten. I'm not a guitar weenie so I'm not sure of the measurements, but I believe the average 'at the nut' measurement for a guitar neck is 1 3/4" to 1 11/16" wide. Mine is 1 14/16ths"! That's quite a span for a female type hand, but ya do what ya gotta do! Life's little challenges, y'know?

And I will do it again, in fact already doing it, just awkwardly, but I’m not going for best looking guitar player so it doesn’t really matter! Wish me luck everybody. I will try to give a 6 month report on my progress.

And if you ever have a guitar that needs repair or refinishing, or know someone that does, keep Fred in mind, because as you can see you will not be disappointed.