Skip to main content

Three Outstanding Birds

Podcast - Three Outstanding Birds . . .

“I made the show!”

“What show?”

The Acoustic Tuesday Show on YouTube.

“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

Most Popular of All Time

Back to School (Without the Triple Lindy)

I hadn’t set foot inside a public library in over thirty years. Last Saturday, when I walked through the sliding doors of the modern County of San Diego branch on Eucalyptus Avenue in Vista, my eyes instinctively scanned the floor for the familiar, comforting sight of varnished oak cabinets and brass pull-handles. Nothing . No card catalog. No little wooden drawers. No rows of index cards typed by someone who presumably had beautiful penmanship and a pension. I walked up to the front desk, looked the librarian dead in the eye, and asked with complete earnestness: "Where’s the card catalog?" She didn’t laugh, though she had every right to. Instead, she offered a warm, dry smile: "We magically had the computer digest it." And just like that, I was enrolled. Not the Rodney Dangerfield kind of back-to-school. No diving board, no loud blazer, no campus party, and thankfully, no need to convince anyone I belonged there. Just an overdue reminder that while I was busy with ...

Beyond Facts-The Deep Dive

✨ In this episode, Beyond Facts: Reimagining School–in the Age of AI . . .   This week's podcast is a bit different; it's another example of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can offer tools to creatively enhance your analytical presentation of information. We took this week's blog and copied it into Gemini with the question, “If a story is to work, it must, on some level, create an illusion of escape and also achieve a goal simultaneously. Does this apply to my blog post that follows?” What's created is not just an analysis of the writing, but an AI-generated discussion produced “On the Fly” - Enjoy! Did you know that the word "school" comes from the ancient Greek word scholē , which originally meant "leisure"? Not a rigid schedule or droning lectures filled with "facts," but free time for thinking and conversation. To the Greeks, learning happened best when life slowed down—when you had room to reflect, to ask questions, and to wrestle ...

Doc Welch - The Country Doctor

In this episode, Doc Welch . . . Many authors have characterized life in rural Illinois over the years. Among the more notables are Edgar Lee Masters, who wrote Spoon River Anthology, Carl Sandburg for his poetry and biography of Abraham Lincoln, and little known to me until recently, my first doctor, whom everyone in town always called Doc Welch - James K. Welch, M.D.  (Feb. 7, 1915, to May 5, 1998) While exploring the microfilm of the Cuba Journal (published from 1884 to 1992), I consistently kept running across articles entitled The Country Doctor. This intrigued me. Doc Welch was a third-generation practicing Country Doctor in Cuba for over 40 years. His father, James William Welch, M.D., practiced medicine in Cuba for more than five decades. His grandfather, James Knox Welch, M.D., settled in Cuba after the Civil War. Cuba, Illinois, is a small, rural farming community in west-central Illinois, where I grew up. Like many small towns, it boasts a central square with a ban...

The Rhythm of the Woodpecker

The morning in Vista often begins under a heavy, gray marine layer that rolls in from the coast, pressing a damp, muffled stillness over the neighborhood. At 4:30 a.m., the driveways are still full. The local commuters are either blissfully unconscious or stumbling blindly toward their showers, clinging desperately to their last shred of peace before the nine-to-five grind claims them for the day. I, on the other hand, am voluntarily wide awake in the dark. When your agenda consists of absolutely nothing, it is critical to get an early start. Inside the house, the quiet is profound, broken only by the sharp, mechanical click of the kettle as it reaches a rolling boil. I stand at the counter, watching the dark ground coffee bloom as hot water hits the French press's stainless steel. The smell is sudden and heavy—a deep, roasted-earth aroma that cuts through the morning fog. I push against the plunger’s gritty resistance, pouring a cup that radiates dark, stinging heat against my pal...