Three Outstanding Birds

“I made the show!”

“What show?”

“What’s that?” Let me explain.

This crazy idea started to culminate in late January of this year (2020). I signed up for a one-week blues guitar challenge on Facebook hosted by Tony Polecastro of the Acoustic Tuesday Show from Bozeman, MT.

About a year and a half ago, I discovered that every Tuesday morning, Tony Polecastro brings you his list of acoustic guitar gear finds, music discoveries, and inspiration to keep you on the right path to maximum fun on your acoustic guitar journey.

Since every episode is posted on YouTube, you can watch it on demand. And I watched each episode every Wednesday morning, before work, while practicing guitar.

As a regular viewer of the program, I noticed Tony repeatedly promoting the idea of, “Show us your Guitarsenal.”

Purchase any Acoustic Tuesday merchandise, take a photo of you wearing said merchandise with your guitar collection (your guitarsenal), tell us your story, and post it to the Acoustic Life TV website. We will feature you on the show.

So I did . . . with a little twist.

My guitarsenal featured a real arsenal. A McDonnell Douglas Skyhawk A-4MII.

In hindsight, my photo couldn’t have appeared on a more appropriate episode: How the Gibson Hummingbird Changed the World ★ Acoustic Tuesday #134. Tony featured three very outstanding birds. The Gibson Hummingbird, the Bluebird Cafe, and the McDonnell Douglas Skyhawk A-4.

You’ve gotta check it out. Go to my blog, search for PBall001 and click this link to view the episode and Tony’s reaction; it’s priceless.

My comment to him was, “I’m humbled that you posted the photo of my "tiny" guitar collection (for now). Yes, I'm dreaming big - looking to add a Martin to my collection, or should it be the Gibson Hummingbird. So many beautiful possibilities.”

“Maybe both, yea, right (don't tell my wife). Thanks again.”

As James Allen wrote, "Dream lofty dreams, and so shall you become.”

Guitar Geeks Unite!

I'm Patrick Ball; thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.

Comments

Epictetus, Ego, and Acronyms

In this episode, Destroy Communication, One Three-Letter Acronym at a Time This week, I want to explore a deeply relatable, universally feared workplace character: the "know-it-all." Now, I’m not pointing fingers here. If we are being completely honest, we have all played this role. We've all uttered some version of, "Yes, absolutely, that aligns with our strategic objectives," while our internal monologue is screaming, "I don't even know what the objective is, let alone the strategy." What got me thinking about this was a chapter in Ryan Holiday's book, Wisdom Takes Work . Holiday leans on a powerful piece of Stoic truth from the ancient philosopher Epictetus: "It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows." It's a brilliant quote that strikes right at the heart of the human ego. You can't learn what you already know, and you certainly can't learn what you pretend to know to save face. Though to be ...

Breaking the Script

In this episode, The Art of the Short-Circuit. We spend a surprising amount of our lives on conversational autopilot. You see it everywhere. At the hardware store. At the post office. In office hallways, where two people can exchange greetings, discuss the weather, and continue on their way without either one actually hearing what the other said. "How are you?” "Good. You?” “Busy." “Yep." It's less of a conversation and more of a system check. Most of us aren't being rude. We're just moving fast. We have emails to answer, meetings to attend, errands to run, and a hundred other things competing for our attention. Before long, our interactions become little more than verbal lane markers helping us navigate the day. I like to break the script. When I run into someone, instead of the usual greetings, I'll ask: "What's the good word?” The reaction is almost always worth it. You can practically see the gears stop turning. People pause. They blink....

The Yellow Legal Pad

In this episode, the Art of Refiring July 1st is staring me in the face, less than two weeks away. For years, retirement seemed like something that happened to other people. Suddenly, it's on my calendar. I've been thinking a lot about the dreaded "R-word" lately. Not because I'm worried about having enough to do. Quite the opposite. What fascinates me is this strange paradox: Why does retirement make so many of us nervous, while having a job—even one that regularly drives us crazy—somehow feels comforting? Let's be honest. Most of us spend years complaining about meetings that should have been emails, reply-all disasters, impossible deadlines, and that one coworker who insists on microwaving leftover fish in the breakroom. Yet when the idea of walking away finally arrives, we hesitate. I think I've figured out why. A career isn't just a job. It's a highly structured coping mechanism. For forty-plus years, somebody else has basically decided what I...

That Fateful Four-Letter Word

In this episode, A Masterclass in Efficiency. For nearly four months, the western border of our property has stood as a living monument to determination, dubious planning, and forensic-level lumber acquisition. Since February, our neighbor Steve has been conducting what can only be described as a masterclass in deliberate calculation. This was never going to be one of those slick home-improvement shows where a cheerful pair of men installs a fence between commercial breaks, sipping lemonade. No. This was real life in retirement. We scaled the vertical wilderness of our hillside. We mixed concrete with the precision of medieval alchemists. We bled, we sweated, and we fought hand-to-hand with a buried tree stump that had the structural integrity of a Cold War bunker. By this week—May 16th, for those keeping score—the glorious end was finally within reach. The fence stood proudly, the line was straight, and victory practically hummed in the air. Only one major task remained: installing t...

On The Fly

Search This Blog