CAUTION: Fowl language ahead

Turkeys.

Chickens.


Big chickens.

Canada Geese.

Mallards.

Been a while since I posted, of course...had a few days off and, well, got out of my daily rhythm of 'stuff' and took a few days off from writing. I actually spend a good bit of time on my entries...as you can tell so far, that's not the case today!

Dusting off the cobwebs getting back into the swing of work and forecasts and big changes ahead in the short-run. Already there's 'talk' of some sporadic sleet or freezing rain late Saturday up in the mountains of NW NC and SW VA....which could include a small part of Surry County. Sunday may be our first 'cold wedge' or CAD event (cold-air-damming) as moisture from the west overspreads a cold pool off the eastern flanks of the Blue Ridge. Cold showers for the Triad proper and nothing more...but tell-tale of the season ahead.

From highs in the 70s today to just the 40s for Friday, there's gonna be a whole lot of wardrobe swappin' goin' on. I'll definitely have to add a long-sleeve shirt and maybe even wool socks with my shorts by Friday...

Made a LOT of sawdust the past few days, and will share some of the 'stories' that came to pass around particular flutes...like my first ultra-high A-flat that is a quite playable 6-hole (heretofore they've been only 5-holers), and a "phoenix" of a flute that was successfully renewed, even if I do say so myself. That's all coming up in later posts.

So tomorrow is the big Turkey Day, where 99.99% have no idea what really went on back in 1621...or should I say most have ideas that are erroneous. Regardless, family and friends will gather for good times (hopefully!), and it looks like at least some rain will fall and add to the "thanks" list.

I also mulled that Thanksgiving Day seemed a little early this year, and did a little scratching for info I guess I knew but had forgotten...info like...

1. Which President suggested a day of Thanksgiving be observed annually, nation-wide?

2. Which day did the above president suggest it be on?

3. Which day is it now celebrated on?

4. Which President made the change to the present Thanksgiving Day calendar and made it a 'fixed' national holiday?

5. Which president in which year held Thanksgiving twice?

5b. Why?


A1. Abraham Lincoln

A2. The last Thursday of November

A3. The 4th Thursday of November

A4. Franklin D. Roosevelt

5. James Madison, in 1815.

5b. I have no idea.

What prompted the above info was my realizing there are 5 Thursdays this month, with tomorrow, the 22nd, being the earliest possible Thanksgiving date (the November 1 was on a Thursday). I trust you will now be able to more soundly sleep at night.

Thought I'd be writing a bit more, but this will do it for today's entry. Safe travelin' to all y'all.

"Fried Fridays: Ho, Ho, NO!!!"

Just when you think you've heard it all...

Westaff, A U.S.-based recruitment firm, has created a most unpleasant buzz in the Land of Down-Under. Santas hired in Sydney, Australia have been 'urged' not to say "Ho, Ho, Ho!" anymore because of the offensive nature of the word in American culture. I can't even make this stuff up...

"Ha, Ha, Ha!" just doesn't hack it, but that is what Westaff recruiters have urged Sydney Santas to say as an alternative. It's bad enough that so many downright stupid things have come about so that people or things can be 'politically correct'...but now we're crossing the line. You don't mess with Superman's cape, and you surely don't mess around with bearded guy in the bright red suit.

The only paraphrased quote I've seen from Westaff states "it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself." (AFP wires)

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Scrooge.

And a screwed up one, at that.

"Travelogue: Crazy Horse Memorial, Black Hills, SD"

Apologies for this temporary format - swamped by weather work and other technical difficulties, as well as a flute performance later, so not sure when I can spend the time to write my normal discourse for blog posting....

These are my pics from the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a well-known destination for tourists and locals, alike. When completed, the 'sculpture' will dwarf Mt. Rushmore only a few miles away.

Because I don't have the writing time, I've got a few links for you if you want to read more:

Crazy Horse Memorial

(Tuh-SHOON-kah WIT-ko)
"Crazy Horse"

I don't even know where to begin on how to impress upon you the importance of this warrior to the Lakota Nation...the purpose of the sculpture, direction of his pointing, etc. is tied into the quote below. Too, not everyone, including Lakota, thinks this is such a worthwhile endeavor. You have to wonder if Crazy himself would even approve of it. Personally, I do not favor such alterations of nature, no matter the 'message'. I simply don't care for the Stone Mountains and Mount Rushmores of this world. I do like their 'vision' of a college to be built there, however, and the museum displays are absolutely wonderful.


Video Postcard link



Lots of neat sculptures and excellent art/museum displays abound throughout the modern buildings at the Memorial...

Where Crazy Horse is buried no one knows...though I have a strong feeling that a rare few elders in a secret Lakota group may have a good idea. In itself that's not imporant. Another giant among the Lakota was Black Elk, Hehaka Sapa...his quote below a worthy one...

"And a good time was had by all..."

Reading to the second graders was a lot of fun...like just about anything I do I put my heart and soul into it, and it's worth every effort. Speaking of putting heart and soul into something, the children's costumes were adorable and downright creative. To refresh your memory from yesterday, it was "National Young Author's Day" during which students picked a word from a list and dressed up to represent that word. They had an early morning parade, and other adults came and read to classes...just a good, wholesome day all around the board.

I would have loved to post more students in their costume, but I had no way of getting parental permission to put their child's pictures in here. However, I did have three that were 'covered' up that I thought you'd like to see.....

"BOOKWORM"


"SKYSCRAPER"

"BUFFALO"

"WEIRDO"


OK,...."GIGANTIC"

The book that I read had a good lesson...there was a little boy who, like many today, was hooked on his TV, video games, and electrical gizmos...so when a storm blew in and the power went out, he freaked...all his back-up batteries were dead....saw his little sister happily playing with a battery operated doll, stole the batteries which then opened a whole 'nuther can of worms... anyhow, long story short, he learned to have creative fun with his little sister and realized he didn't need all those electrical whatchamadoodles to bring him happiness.

And it was good to see all the students having put so much effort into their creative costumes, too. Plenty of children today could benefit from more of such creative exercises, eh? And just maybe my deep winter pac boots will bring us good luck with lots of snow this winter. Water for us. Snow-days for the kids. Something to talk about in the weather...

"Reading To The Kidlets, Today..."

Today is "National Young Author's Day" at a local elementary school, and I was asked to come read a book after work...it is the type of effort that is worth every ounce and then some, especially when you see the smiling faces light up. In this case, these are second graders, and I'd previously talked to all of them about weather as well as my flutes. What do you think they remembered most about my hour-long discourse that fall day? Why of course, the fact that I played one of my little flutes with my nose...!

The book I'm reading is "When Charlie McButton Lost Power", by Suzanne Collins and Mike Lester:

As well, for today, the kids were to choose a word from a pre-designed list and dress up for school in a way that is in the spirit of their chosen word...all to help them expand their vocabulary as they interact with others. With my coming to read, I, too, chose a word that I could represent well....and so I will dress up and wear my 2-piece sign, with the cover flap reading:

Keep in mind I'm no small petunia at 6' 4" and decidedly way beyond 200 pounds. In moving east from Rapid City, South Dakota, I still had my deep winter boots that failed to sell at various yard sales, and I figured they were worth hanging on to, just in case some historical winter storm beset me back east. The picture below does not do justice to the expanse of these boots, even though I put a Splenda packet in for scale. OK, ya got me, I'll have to admit...yes, I am a veritable fashion plate in these boots, shorts and a big coat. Guilty as charged. The kids and faculty will simply have to deal with it today.

Oh, lest I forget...the word I am embodying is.....

Personally, I think it's rather appropriate. So if you think I'm all about weather forecasts and Native American style flutes, think again. When I say I have a lot of irons in the fire, take my word for it. As the old saying goes, "Anything worth doing is worth doing well."

Amen.

"Building The Winter Reserves..."

Short-term apologies to James, Christa, Ken, Rick, and Mike...your flute projects are on the top of my list (no, really!), but for the past couple of weeks I felt led to build up my stockpile of "flubies", or flutes-to-be. I will say that the tremendous amount of time to fully shape, sand, and finish a flute is time-consuming, but it has the distinct advantage that the tools involved are rather simple and more flexible in their use. I can pick up one flute and sand pretty quickly.

What takes longer stretches of uninterrupted time is the very beginning of it all...the selection of wood, preparation of the blanks, proper cutting and planing before routing, after careful measurements and markings...and those steps require the bigger, heavier equipment and lots of focused attention. It's the type of staging that you rarely go through for just one flute if you are busy, which I've been of late...so I decided to do one of my big batches to use time and machines more efficiently.

These pictures are only about 80% of the ones at this stage, with another 10-12 in the glue-up assembly line. (FYI, From this hexagonal stage I next create the sound hole mechanism and then drop the finger holes in place - and, no, it's not that simple!) Pictured below are two hybrid Half-Pipes in the mid F to G range under the clamps...and not that you can tell, but left is Sassafras and right is some beautiful golden Mahogany. I wish I could capture the smell of Sassafras when you cut or sand it...intoxicatingly sweet, it is.

This batch of ~55 'flubies' will potentially have keys ranging from my rare specialty ultra-high A Half-Pipes down a hair over two octaves to bass G. There's a good mix of round-bore and half-pipe designs to meet various budgets, though the half-pipe design is limited to nothing lower than mid F, maybe mid E. Part of the purposeful design of batching flutes this way is it give the wood time to 'cure' into its new form, allowing the grain to settle, which is helpful for tuning purposes.

Will all of these make it to Flutedom? No. There will always be a few (very few) of those flutes that just won't play right or well no matter what you do...and though noisome to me, I understand they can teach me something new if I spend enough time with them. The rarest of the rare trouble-makers visit the fireplace.

For the sake of testing my memory, the woods scattered in the pictures are Ambrosia Maple, Aspen, Poplar, Black Limba, Cocobolo, Purpleheart, Bloodwood, Sapele, Western Cedar, Eastern Cedar, Ipe, Massarunduba, Papua New Guinea Walnut, American Cherry, Brazilian Cherry, Mahogany, Sassafras, Wenge, Curly Maple, Pecan, and old-growth Great Fir. The pink ones in the upper left corner are two ultra high A plastic flutes made from pink and black #17 Bates knitting needles from a craft store...play great,too! Once I get caught up orders and get a few more stock up, I have a heap more other woods I want to bring to life. Ah, so many flutes to dream about making, and so many weather forecasts to get in the way of it...

Warmer weather kicking in this week...let the machines buzz and whir this afternoon!
Carpe diem, y'all!

"Fried Fridays: Fencing An Issue..."

Not my easy, clear-cut week for "Fried Fridays" candidates. Sure, there is the $25,000 desert in NYC that has gotten waaaay too much press and attention for something so stupidly frivolous when we are beset with overwhelming social ills...and the Fat Cat payment system/component of the U.S. Farm Bill (up for renewal this week) which would take a week of blogs to get you up to speed and explain, a Farm Bill that does just about everything except what it originally was supposed to do: help the struggling farmer.

So I turned my eyes locally and watched another event unfold wherein we in media dropped yet another gigantic medicine ball by taking the easy way out.

Meet Tom Knotts, head coach of Charlotte's Independence High School, a team who won 114 consecutive games against NC schools until Butler beat them last week (first loss to a NC team in 8 years)...winners of multiple consecutive state championships. A legendary powerhouse that would not have made it with anything less than solid coaching. Not that the whole program there smells like a bed of roses, mind you, but in terms of 'getting the job done' he wrote a sequel, if not the book on it.

And so it is varsity coaches often coach JV teams as well, and it was last Thursday that Butler JVs handed Knott's JVs a tough loss. On TV and in the print media, we get the Cliff Notes story that a heckling parent was at the fence yelling unsavory things, Knotts, surrounded by his young players, yelled at him to stop...man only got more rebellious, Knotts walked over to chain link fence, told him to quit again (to no avail) and Knotts grabbed the fence and quickly pushed it into the man's face, bloodying his nose.

You'd a thought a holy hell broke loose when it hit the airwaves. Famous coach loses cool, assaults parent, makes victim's nose bleed. Bad role model, hints at need for anger management, famous coach in the spotlight making waves. Suspended with pay while under investigation, not allowed to coach varsity game the next night with Butler, with Butler winning in an historic squeaker 21-20.

Update: no charges will be filed and Knotts can return to team next week, but not tonight for their playoff game at Greensboro Page.

Sadly, this is what media does best: going with the easy headline and splashing it ad nauseum with inappropriate follow-through. Focus on the splashiest icon. Take the quick hike and run with the ball. Make sure you add in footage of the Independence dynasty in action, tell all the records, and then contrast it with the giant tree falling in a moment of uncontrolled anger. What a crock of poop.

What concerns me most about all of this is our society's inability to get to core issues...instead, we embrace the fluffiest media bunny we can quickly grab and go "lookee here, y'all!". Through the pervasive dumbing of America, there are an uncomfortable number of people who take news stories and make it their "truth" without thinking through it for themselves.

In a millisecond of hearing the story I wanted someone to investigate Isaac Avant, Jr. the heckler. Father to one of the JV players, his home address was listed in Pennsylvania, so I read. And he wasn't heckling...he was cussing, swearing, and yelling expletives at the top of his voice at this family-friendly event, yet no security or other parents stepped up to speak up or diffuse the situation. His actions were inflammatory, abominable, and 100% inexcusable. Did he have a history of such horrid behavior? History of abusive behavior? Alcohol and or drug issues? Any arrest records that would have been pertinent?

We're not talking a civil rights issue, folks...we're talking blatantly stupid parental behavior at their children's family sporting events, and it's becoming more common.

Here was the perfect opportunity for media outlets to show and teach the public about personal responsibility, how it's NOT okay to behave certain ways and do certain things, and it's NOT acceptable, and it should NOT be tolerated. Put Mr. Avant under the same interrogation lamp and you'll come up with the real story that needed to be told. And it wasn't.

There seems to be a growing number of citizens who feel entitled to say anything and behave any way they want in public...and we used to stand up to it. Now it seems like many are too scared to stand up for what's right and proper, fearing legal and/or physical repercussions. Gee, I wonder where that sense of fear came from...

I'm not excusing Coach Knotts for his actions...but I can tell you that anyone who has been in that exact same situation can instantaneously understand why he did what he did. Time to move forwward. TGIF!

(photo credit: WSOC TV)

"Travelogue: Road to Nowhere"

Apologies, Saddle Pals...no entry for today as I've been bzzzzzzy as one of these yesterday and today, too...


Almost too many irons in the fire, especially thanks to a home-based holiday craft show I have to get some of my art to this afternoon. Thanks for your patience...at least you'll have learned something new (below):

"A Patriarch's Passing..."

George Osmond passed away yesterday in Provo, Utah at the ripe age of 90 years old. His wife Olive preceded him in 2004. The couple's offspring were born with worlds of talent in each of their fingertips. The Osmonds. Donny. Marie. Jimmy. Et al.

You may not be aware that he and his wife formed the Osmond Foundation...which later became an organization I think we have all heard of, going strong today: The Children's Miracle Network, a non-profit fundraising group for children's hospitals.

In good Mormon fashion, he left behind 9 children, 55 grandchildren and 48 great-grandchildren.

Can't say I was ever a big fan of the Osmonds...just not my cup of tea growing up, but I certainly can appreciate their talents. In scrounging around I found some vintage footage I thought you might enjoy...four of the young boys in a barbershop quartet...little Marie...fashions from an appearance on the Cher show that, well, you'll be glad to see fell out of style....

Young Osmonds in barbershop quartet

Sing karaoke with little Jimmy

Young Osmonds in Swedish special
(with appearance by a little Marie)

Osmonds as "Fashion Plates" with Cher

Bonus time! In scrounging around, I came across a group I'd never heard of singing a fun a capella number I actually had heard of, "A Flat Tire"....sung by The Dallas Boys in 1963. Enjoy!

The Dallas Boys - "Flat Tire"

"A Stroke Of Genius..."

Bev Doolittle. A lot of you may already be familiar with her style of painting pictures within pictures...some embedded images are readily visible, and others you have to just sit and look at for them to come to life and arise from the shadows.

I realize the holidays are right around the corner and I could have put it on my wish list, but I couldn't help buying a 2008 Bev Doolittle calendar while passing through a store last Saturday (darn those point-of-purchase displays!) Got me to thinkin' I might share some of her work here in case you've never seen it...

No doubt she is famous for her snow scenes, especially involving Paints and Pintos...there are some especially neat scenes of them running through a thick snow covered birch forest with other hidden animals, but I couldn't find good enough images of them on-line.

For obvious flute-related reasons, I am the proud owner of one discontinued Doolittle print entitled "Music in the Wind", seen below:

Remember to click on pics to enlarge...most of these will show a lot more detail, like the starlit sky below, as well as myriad animals like a moose, badger, bear, bobcat, Bighorn ram, and more in the rocks and vegetation details:

How many times have you walked in the woods and thought someone was watching you? Maybe they WERE, certainly if Bev Doolittle had anything to do with it:

Couldn't bear not to show you this one...make sure you 'paws' and look for the grizzly details. In her prints, there is always something 'bruin'...

Interesting self-portrait, the pictures within the pictures within the picture...

If nothing else, next time you're in the bookstore, look for her books or calendars and enjoy the much better quality images. Great way to pass time on a rainy day...oh, I forgot, we don't have those...

"A Frued-ian 'Slip'?"

What a gorgeous weekend we had here in the Carolinas...crisp morning lows, cerulean skies, and pleasant, mild afternoons...oh yeah, and an extra hour of sleep! Interesting that my atomic satellite clock did not reset automatically like the cell phone and cable boxes did...go figure.

And so it was I had hoped to attack some wood for roughing out flutes after I tended to myriad errands and things-to-do early on in the weekend. A few months ago I purchased a new 1" diameter core box router bit as I knew my old 1" Viper bit had seen its better days. Finally decided to unbox the new bit and let it glide through Cocobolo, Cherry, Papua New Guinea Walnut, and Brazilian Cherry for starters. I've used Freud saw blades for years, an Italian company well-known and respected in the woodworking world...and they ain't cheap! Figured this Freud bit was a great investment.

"DOINK"

2/3 of the way through a simple 1"x4"x28" blank of Cherry there was a silent whir and no wood cutting...I carefully lifted the blank to find the head of the bit lying peacefully within millimeters of the 20,000RPM whirring shaft of the router. The shank snapped off clean in two. Normal wood and cutting, nothing unusual. I have never ever seen or heard of such a thing, but there it was, in all of it's broken glory.

Oh, I'll get a free replacement since the bit has a lifetime warranty...but I'll lose days of work waiting for the new one to arrive. I have other sized bits to use in the meantime, but the 1" bit makes the oft sought after low Es, Fs, and F#s in the Native American style flute realm. Nothing wrecks creativity like the sudden stoppage of momentum, eh fellow artists?! Ugh.

Honestly, I've got more than an ample wood supply for my flutes and other projects...but a particular piece on eBay caught my eye a couple of weeks ago. It was a 58" long piece of a gate or some wooden object that had iron pegs on either end to slide into slots. It came from a Williamsburg, VA estate around an old blacksmithing shop on the property, dating back to, or slightly before, the Civil War era.

So why would I have wanted to pursue this piece? Old nicked wood with end cracks and some old iron pieces in the end? I had my ideas, and since no one else bid on it, I got it at a good price, with shipping costing more than the wood. So why the interest?

We're talkin', conservatively, wood that has been drying for ~150 years. More than likely the wood came from a mature tree (read 'old growth')...and it was obviously dry as a bone. I figured I could easily get two lower key flutes from it, that should have a very unusual resonance and tone, given the above factors. Not often you come across 150 year-old dried wood to make into flutes...

In fact, the growth rings/grain lines are very close together, definitely old growth of either a pine or spruce member. Such tightly packed growth rings make for a much richer tone and resonance than younger trees with more widely spaced growth rings, FYI. In short order I plan on removing the extraneous pieces and planing down the main plank, which is a healthy 1.75" thick. And I'm bettin' I'll be creating two very unique sounding flutes with a bit of history attached.

Kind of reminds me of a scaled-down scenario of a great movie I'd recommend renting, "The Red Violin." When these flutes are made and start to sing, it will be very intriguing to picture the life history of the wood up to this point...

"Fried Fridays: Man's Best Friend....well, uh..."

Oh, trust me...when I first heard this story I thought "There's my 'Fried Fridays' entry this week...". To be fair, I wanted to scout out other odd stories to see if it was my best choice...

Let's see...robbers in Athens, Greece attempted to rob a store clerk, en route to a bank at night, by throwing giant bags of ketchup on the windshield of his car so he couldn't see to drive away...

An elderly Chicago couple got to stay in a $1,600 per night penthouse for $10, because they responded to a contest by that hotel: if anyone stayed there more than 50 years ago and had the receipt to prove it, they can stay the night for that price. As many octogenarians are, being a packrat has its advantages...they had the receipt, and their grandson paid the $10 fee for them. Ah, sweet bliss!

No, I had to stick to my guns, so to speak, and go with the Pooch with the punch. James Harris, 37, of Tama, Iowa, was doing what many folks in the northern Plains states do this time of year: hunting pheasants.

Oh, trust me, pheasant hunting out there is huge, and a sacred ritual with many. A group of the ol' pheasant chasers was hunting near Grinnell, Iowa...typical good time in that fresh midwestern air...someone downed a bird and James Harris just happened to be the lucky one to go pick it up.

He had to cross a fence to get to it, so he naturally laid the gun down while he made his way through the fence. No quicker than you could say "What about the safety switch?" did one of his dogs step on the gun and shoot him square in the leg from only 3 feet away.

To the tune of 100-120 pellets in a 4-inch circle in one of his calfs, I might add. Sounds like the dog is a better shot than most hunters, yea, even criminals. A spokesman for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reported that Mr. Harris was doing well as he recovered at University Hospitals in Iowa City...all things considered. Thankfully, no one else was injured, including the dog.

Surely there is a joke in there somewhere, but I don't feel like retrieving it.

Of course, I guess it could have been a lot worse. He could have been hunting with Vice President Dick Cheney on the same trip...

"Travelogue: Winter At The Rapid City Dog Park"

OK, so this isn't one of my normal 'journeys' to a land of pretty vistas, but I thought you'd like a taste of a neat sense of 'community' I found out in Rapid City, South Dakota. Braeburn Park is this wonderful leash-free dog park along Rapid Creek, and even in the depths of winter we had celebratory gatherings (yes, those are party hats on some pooches)...

True to form like any place where dogs and owners mingle, everyone knew every dog's name, but people's names, ah, they came and went with the prarie winds. "Oh, you're Sandy's mom! Nice to meet you!" "Hello, dad of Keeyah - nice day, eh?" Periodically, somebody would hold an impromptu birthday party for their 4-leggeds, regardless of the weather...and there were always willing participants!

I do remember Jim Hough, a gentleman through and through, whose brace of Newfoundlands were rather perfectly suited for the cold and snow...they reveled in it, no less. If it all looks very cold to you, rest assured...it was. But you get used to it, like you get used to any place you plant yourself for a while.

Another Jim, whom I called Pharmacist Jim, had this lanky pup named Baby...you'd think with about the 1.2% body fat on her that she'd be freezing out there, but she LOVED being out and romping around...even with an icicle moustache temporarily glued on...

Baby did make one exception, however...she chose to just stand on the frozen creek bank and intently stare at the bright yellow tennis ball on the other side of the creek...making sure it went nowhere. She was wise not to venture into the icy waters at those temperatures, and remembered her Braeburn Tao well: "Another day, another ball."

Reflections can be fun to seek out...this one below reminds me a little of a Bev Doolittle style of painting, as I see a stylized thunderbird or other streaking raptor in the icy mirror.

And so there were always neat things to look at...the frozen nature of snow and ice against the eternal rush of Rapid Creek...

...and the pseudo-cave-like formations where flowing water coated pillars of ice with spray which froze...not unlike the permament formations at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone.

Some people see the ice and snow as a time to stay indoors and sit tight. But quite a few of us saw it as an opportunity to gather and let our pups scamper and cavort and play snow-chase 'til their pads had had enough...and occasionally let 'em eat cake! Good ol' Braeburn Dog Park and all its stewards...