Hindsight

Business As Usual

Get Bent

The circus is in town for a couple of weeks; and I was reminiscing about the many cats I have known over the years. And thus-- a cartoon is born.

Tell It Like It Is

 

I humbly offer this very plausible explanation for male pattern baldness. 

See more about Crop Circles here.

Out of the Park

When I was a kid no one ever described baseball as being boring. Yet this is a complaint I hear often these days, especially from younger people. Americans have been trained by technology to have shorter attention spans, instant gratification, and constant movement. No one has patience for anything any more. Baseball is not a game of constant, shifting movement. Baseball is a game of strategy and subtleties. Those who have played the game on any level will understand this. Baseball has been the preferred game of artists, musicians and writers from the very beginning. There are books with essays, quotations, and observations about the game from great minds like Mark Twain and others. There is a history, a romance, and a humor about this game that other sports just don't have; and that has inspired many films over the years. I can name 15 great baseball movies just off the top of my head. Can anyone name an equivalent number of good American films specifically about football, basketball, soccer, or hockey?    

Baseball has not changed much since it's inception which is part of it's charm. But, that may also be a part of it's problem, and a contributing factor to the current slump in popularity. Smart and aggressive marketing by other major sports has outpaced baseball and I believe that someday it will be replaced by football as our national sport. That will be a sad turn of events in my opinion.

I have two suggestions that might help to "improve" the game a little in an effort to attract more of today's viewers. No radical changes involved here but it might be worth trying the following things 1) Allow for the use of aluminum bats. There would then be a big increase in base hits and home runs, thus adding excitment. 2) Add a "Pitch Clock" , similar to basketball's 30-second Shot Clock.  This would force the pitchers to throw the ball sooner, and more often. If the Pitch Clock runs out and the ball has not been released yet, then the batter gets awarded a "ball" in the pitch count. The batter would earn a "Walk" if the pitcher could not keep pace with the clock. 

Using "God" in the caption was about referencing the longevity, endurance, and until recently the universal appeal of the game. In some ways baseball seems eternal. It is an American original that has been with us almost as long the country itself. 

Uphill Battle

The Wise One has made a number of appearances over the years. Review his wisdom here, there, here again and finally here. There are a few more visits with his baldness, but I don't remember where they are. Feel free to poke around and find him again.

CBG #2 aka: "Big Volume"

There is concept called “Unnecessary Creation” where the idea is to make something on your own time, on your own terms, and with no other standard or expectation--except for your own. No rules, no deadlines, no critiques, and no real purpose except to enjoy the process. For me, this is….bliss. I can just feel the endorphins swirling around my brain as I work. What a pleasant break from the demands of my degree program. 

My most recent unnecessary creation is Cigar Box Guitar #2 (CBG-2)  which began with an eBay purchase of a pre-made Red Oak neck with Walnut laminates. I like the pointy headstock, because it looks slightly menacing. I sanded, stained, and glued a Poplar fretboard into place, and applied three coats of Tung Oil for the finish. Tung oil is awesome stuff and a recent discovery for me. It is now my preferred choice of wood finish. The box that serves as the guitar's body started out it's life as a “Diversion Book”. These are realistic looking books with hollow interiors designed for hiding valuables in plain sight. Diversion books have a long and interesting history and were the forerunners of today's book safes. I found my diversion book while poking around a re-sale shop last December after just completing CBG-1 for a school project. As most of my regular readers know my first CBG was a guitar that also qualified as an "Art Book". Or was it an Art Book that qualified as a guitar? Anyway, CBG-2 is a guitar that looks like a large and rather impressive book. There is no intentional pursuit of a book theme here, it just kind of happened that way. What I found at the re-sale shop was a good sized, well made, wooden box…that just happened to look like a book. How could I pass this up, right? Like my first guitar, CGB-2 also has an internal pick-up for amplification purposes. So it only seemed logical to name my book-that-looks-like-a-guitar, “Big Volume”.

 

Here are some photos of the build. No hidden panels or internal gadgetry as in CBG-1 but I did come up with an idea that I haven't seen anywhere else yet, after looking at hundreds of CBG images. My humble innovation was to continue the fret line around and over the top edge of the neck that faces the player. This is intended to allow the guitarist to see better when the instrument is laid across the lap and played with a slide. Small brass nails and screws were used to as fret markers in all the usual places. Brass studs were added to the book's cover to make it look a little more "top shelf", but also a little more rock & roll.

Although these are called cigar box guitars, so far I have yet to use an actual cigar box. I suppose I’ll get around to that eventually, but every project currently on the drawing board involves using some other box-like object for a resonating chamber. For example, CBG #3 will feature a vintage cedar humidor for the guitar's body. The humidor's interior is lined with copper sheeting that is loose in some places. With that particular combination of wood and metal, there could potentially be all kinds of interesting sounds produced when it gets played. I can hardly wait! I won't know how it will sound until I build it, and that's the fun part. I don’t have a clever name for this guitar yet, (Up In Smoke? Puff the Magic Dragon?) but that will come in time. I’m open to any suggestions.

­­In my life I've had many interests, a number of passions, but no real hobbies….until now. This kind of thing is just too much fun, and will hopefully keep me off the streets.