The Spirit...

...Of Detroit, the Marshall Fredericks sculpture in Detroit.  I love this piece, and wish they sold miniatures of it.  The Bible quote is from 2nd Corinthians 3:17 - "Now the LORD is that spirit, and where the Spirit of the LORD is there is liberty."

In his left hand is a bronze orb representing God; in his right is a family.  Fredericks explained he was expressing God, through the spirit of man, manifests Himself in the family, the most important human relationship.

Whether you like his theology or not, it's a fabulous mid century modern sculpture, and I'd love to own a replica.

Recently bought a Fuji Instax mini-8 camera, which is really cool.  Fuji has mastered instant film...they produce great pictures that develop before your eyes in a minute or less...the Impossible Project has not come anywhere near the quality of Fuji instant film.  Really wish Fuji would make film for the old SX-70 cameras...it would be fabulous.

Here are a few of the little pics taken with my Instax mini camera:

My Marx Atomic Reactor toy with some little Toy Story, 3 eyed aliens scattered hither and yon.

Franky and son, with Yeti to his left...more Marx creations from the early 60's

my Monkeyshines picture...that's the Jolly Chimp; a King Kong bank where the little gorilla climbs the Empire State building and deposits a coin; a small windup King Kong; and a larger battery operated Kong.

The Marx Merry Makers band...circa 1939, with their original box.

The 1966 Rock'em Sock'em Robots by Marx.  This was my Christmas morning dream come true many years ago.

The Marx Big Parade...a very cool marching band toy, complete with conductor's wand.

Two for one in this pic...to the left is a 1960's Monster Magnet; to the right is a 1990's Toy Story alien.  #5 son was enamored of all the Toy Story characters as a young lad when that movie first came out.  Woody, Buzz, the Alien, etc...we bought most of them for him back in the day.

Recently made the acquaintance of another vintage electronics aficionado, and got me to thinking about my humble collection of vintage radios and tv's, to wit:

a little bit of various and sundry, including old transistor radios and a replica telechron clock.

an Emor Globe radio, and my tv's...my favorite is the RCA 621TS from 1946 on the bottom left.

my 1970 Weltron 8 track / radio / phono in the foreground; a 1959 Predicta Barberpole tv on the left; a Weltron 8 track player / radio on the top shelf; and a Philco Boomerang, Emerson 744B, and Travler radio.

my phones and art deco radios from the 1930s and 40's...favorites all, but I really like the ivory Colonial New World Globe radio, and the 1936 Sparton Bluebird.  Also snuck in a Wondergram portable, battery operated record player on the second shelf on the right.

Later, mcm fans.

The Long Search...

1933 Colonial New World Globe Radio in Ivory...design by Raymond Loewy

...is finally over.

After several years of frustration I have at last acquired this most spectacular example of all the art deco radios, courtesy of ebay seller "pilgrimhands".  Her specialty is vintage textiles - see her ebay profile here: pilgrim_hands_ebay_profile - but this radio belonged to her father, and I am the fortunate soul who now takes stewardship.  She's been selling on ebay for 30 years and is a delightful person as well as a highly rated seller.  Do yourself a favor and check out her ebay offerings.

Next step is to drive the radio down to Tom's Antique Radio Repair for electronic restoration.  Tom has restored / repaired many of my vintage tube radios and always does a fabulous job...can't wait to get this one fully functional.  I don't know why I enjoy these vintage, tube, radios so much...I suppose it's the idea that something created 80 plus years ago is a beautiful objet d'art while still serving its original purpose.  There's something reassuring and comforting about that type of longevity and stability.

Switching gears, some encouraging news:  my son who suffered a stroke is now at home...not fully recovered, of course, but making progress.  My sincere thanks to any and all who offered up prayers to God in heaven on his behalf.

Today was Saturday but a work day...spent most of the day trying to catch up and write some programs that have been hanging over my head.

Wood etching of the Sword of Damocles

Ok, so it's not quite that bad, but still felt good to catch up a little...but I do mean a little...plenty more to do.

Tonight Karen and I watched an old Marilyn movie, The Prince and The Showgirl.  Previously we watched "My Week With Marilyn", a disputed account by Colin Clark of the making of that movie.  He claimed to have worked on the original 1957 film and to have grown close to Marilyn after her husband, famed playwright Arthur Miller, left England and returned to New York.

Fact or fantasy, is was an interesting movie and provided some context for watching the original.  As always, Marilyn was captivating on the silver screen, even if the film itself was little more than a costume epic.

Not really sure what the above advertising slick has to do with the actual movie; Laurence Olivier never appears on screen dressed like that...he is always in formal attire that I suppose was appropriate to the time frame depicted (1911) and to European royalty...and Marilyn spends almost the entire movie in a white evening gown.

An mcm objet d'art that graces my loft fireplace mantel:

Kitsch Kats

Not really a cat person, but I like the tall, elegant lines of these 1950's porcelain cats.  These types of "kitschy" art sculptures were common in the 50's and 60's as people started bringing "art for the masses" into their homes.

Another restoration project for Bob Adams of Ronson Repair:

Not Ronson, but an obvious mimic of the Ronson Bartender lighter style.

Scheduled to arrive at his place tomorrow, he's going to work some magic on this piece from the 1950's.  Eventually it will grace an art deco bar in the basement of our future mcm ranch:

If we build, these are the starter plans

Duty screams as always, so until next time...

Do Not Boast About Tomorrow...

James J Jeffries vs Jack Johnson, July 4, 1910

...for you do not know what a day may bring forth. (Proverbs 27:1)

Life's a battle, yes?  If you've reached the age of 40, you will undoubtedly agree...if you haven't, and are blessed enough to live in what was once the good ol' US of A, you might not have experienced that truth yet.

But it is...and last week one of my sons got an up close and personal view of that truth when he suffered a stroke.  He is currently in the hospital in the very early stages of recovery...don't know exactly what that means yet, or how steep his personal mountain to climb will be, but I'll update this blog as I learn more.

In the meantime, if anyone who happens onto this site is on praying ground, I / we appreciate your prayers to God Almighty in heaven on behalf of my stricken son.

Since there is no segue from the dismal to the delightful, I won't attempt one.

Any idea what this is?

If you guessed a hotel key, please award yourself 10 points to be used however you wish...but then answer this question...when was the last time you used an actual key at a hotel?  Everything is a swipe card nowadays...but we stayed at the Campus Inn in Ann Arbor recently, and they're still using genuine metal keys, God bless their backward hearts.

And it's a lovely, old hotel, too:

Campus Inn lobby, as seen from the 2nd floor

I was there for a company strategy meeting, at which much was accomplished, at least as far as strategy planning goes...now we'll see if execute what we planned or not.

On the mid century modern front, here's a pic of an original, 1959, #1 Barbie doll I bought for my wife at Christmas:

If you're a barbie collector - I'm not, but my beautiful wife is - you know this is the holy grail.  She's standing in front of a 1962 Barbie's Dream House and behind a 1962 Austin Healey convertible.  This is Barbie heaven for the serious collector.  Doesn't get more mcm than that.

Hasta la vista, mcm fans.

System Issues...

...are going to kill me...

Ok, so we're a little more advanced than that, but we're having major issues with a disk controller...too many 3 am wake up calls...as a matter of fact, as I write this it's 3:55 am and I'm just mopping up the third system reboot this week.  I should probably admit defeat and brew a pot of coffee at midnight while waiting for the clarion call.

An upcycled percolator lamp from BenclifDesigns  He has many very cool light fixtures on his site...you should check it out.

If this new and exciting routine we've settled into doesn't do me in before then, we're going to solve it with a system failover event this weekend...big fun.

In spite of these unpleasant circumstances, I generally like the middle of the night.  In a previous life I used to drive back and forth between Michigan and Maine, a 1,000 mile, 18 hour trip.  I'd always do it in one stretch, and my favorite part of the journey was from about 11 pm until 5 am...traffic was light, and for the most part it was just me and truckers counting the white lines as they zoomed by mile after mile.  On a clear night the stars would fill up my windshield and I'd mentally write that bestseller or solve my relational problems while sipping a large coffee and enjoying a Dunkin' Donuts cruller.

So Mr. Bob Adams of www.RonsonRepair.com has been working his magic on my Ronson lighters again...he serviced both my Junior Bartender and Maltese Falcon lighters:

Junior Barrtender lighter

He did a superb job of fixing the touch tip mechanism, and straightening and painting the base...here it is in action:

Here's the Maltese Falcon he repaired:

...and here's a video of it working:

In what appears to be a losing effort to drag this blog back into a mid century modern aesthetic I claim to adore (and in truth, I really do), here's a favorite item that stretches the definition the other way:

My Weltron 2005: radio, 8 track, record player

This was made around 1969 / 1970, and realistically, that's post-mcm...but it has that cool, atomic, space age vibe that was prevalent in the 50's and 60's, so I'm including it here.  A short video of it playing a CRC 45:

I'm home now, it's almost 5 am...as Yukon Cornelius once opined, let's get some shuteye!