Memorial Day Weekend...

Benjamin Hare in Afghanistan

...don't forget to thank a vet!

We live in what used to be the greatest nation on earth, the only one with a belief in our Creator and a commitment to freedom enshrined in its founding documents...."We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness..."

These beliefs are under assault, but it's not too late to take our country back to the principles of its founding.  It requires the will of the people, "the consent of the governed" as the Declaration of Independence phrases it.  I pray to God in Heaven we find that will before it's too late.

In the meantime, as the son of a soldier and father of the same, my sincere and heartfelt THANK YOU to veterans everywhere for their service to this country.

This has been a pretty good weekend...great weather, and Karen's kids went north for a couple of days so we had some alone time in our backyard and in the pool:

Modesty and the mores of polite society forbid me from sharing details, but suffice to say a good time was had by all.

I mentioned the "Three Blind Mice" antique store that just opened in Grandville in a previous entry...we visited it on Saturday and found an interesting item...a 1949 Admiral Phono / Radio console.  It's not in working condition, but she wasn't asking too much for it, so we thought about it for a day, then went back this afternoon and bought it.

It needs some work, but once refinished and repaired it will be really cool...we stopped by The Corner Record Store on our way home to see if they could repair the phono part of it...they repaired the turntable in my 1970 Weltron 8 track / radio / phono a while back...but the guy we talked to had a bit of an attitude about it because this is a console...he tried to maintain they don't repair anything other than small, portable turntables.  I thought about calling his jackass bluff since my Weltron does NOT qualify as a small turntable, but I figured there's no point in arguing with people like that.  Instead I asked if he knows anyone who does repair these and he gave me the name of someone in Lowell...I'll give him a call and see what he says.

Karen says she'd like to do the finish work on the wood cabinet, so hopefully within a month or so we'll have a restored and refinished entertainment center, circa 1949.  Pretty cool.


One more day in this three day weekend...

...later, mcm fans...

Decisions, decisions...

...ok, so it's not that kind of decision...

This one has to do with housing.  The one we were looking at is gone, so now we're considering building...found a piece of property and we're currently talking to builders about total project cost.

The main problem is, I've never talked to anyone who built their house who did NOT say, "It took longer and cost more than we expected."  Not encouraging,  but we'll keep that in mind while we're making our decision, hopefully this week.

On the mid century modern front, Bob Adams of Ronson Repair repaired / restored a bartender cigarette dispenser for me:

Yeah, I know...cigarettes are bad for you...but Bob did a great job as usual, and that's still a cool item, very clever.  It's gonna look great on top of our art deco bar next to the bowling lane.

He also threw in an Octette lighter with a unique walnut grain finish:

Thank you, Bob.

This weekend Karen and I drove down to Ohio to pick up a couple of radios I had restored...that makes for a long day, about 12 hours from the time we leave until we park the car in the driveway at home again.  We usually visit an antique mall while we're down there, just to take a break from 5 hours of driving, and we did so again this time.  Didn't see anything compelling, but it was still nice to stand up and walk around before we got back in the vehicle for the long trek north.  I've pretty much concluded most "antique stores" are really little more than glorified flea markets, and to find anything truly valuable you need to know other collectors or glom onto the occasional ebay item.

It's approaching midnight on this Sunday, the 27th of April, 2014, and it's time for sleepy bye before we jump into yet another work week.

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...

ENIAC circa 1946

...take 4...

Apparently our computer system has morphed into a sentient being that hates my guts, so tonight we took HAL down and changed the disk controller board.  So far, so good, but time will tell...the witching hour has been between 1 am and 2 am, approximately an hour from now.  Can you say pins and needles?


A shout out to an etsy seller...we bought these very cool, vintage wall hanging cats from Fleaosophy and I highly recommend her shop...here are the cats in our living room:

Visit her shop on etsy...you won't be disappointed.

Later, 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!

Palm Springs...

What a fabulous vacation...we started here:

Chicago, IL

...and boarded this:

California Zephyr

...saw this:

 ...and this:

...got off here:

train station in Grand Junction, CO

...stayed here:

Hampton Inn, Grand Junction, CO

...caught a flight out of here:

Grand Junction Airport

...flew on this:

Grand Junction to Phoenix to Palm Springs

...and finally landed here:

Palm Spring airport, Sonny Bono concourse...yes, that Sonny Bono of Sonny and Cher infamy...former mayor of Palm Springs

...stayed here:

Desert Riviera Hotel

The people at the Desert Riviera Hotel are wonderful...couldn't ask for a better place to stay.

 ...saw this every morning:

the view from our room

...this every day:

...splashing in the pool, soaking in the hot tub, relaxing by the fire...

...and this every night:

I even swam lap here...no, I did not leave off an "s"...I did it once to prove I could, then collapsed in a lounge chair...

...we hung out with Marilyn:

she's taller than I remember...

...Karen's the beautiful one in blue...

...saw her house:

...and Ol' Blue Eyes' Twin Palms pad:

...visited Dino's place:

...and Elvis' home:

...and we visited the house where part of "Behind The Candelabra" was filmed...the story of Liberace:

The happy couple!

They filmed for 3 days here and used less than 3 minutes in the final cut.

...our love story beats Liberace's any day of the week and twice on Sunday...

...we had lunch at Sammy G's:

this was taken just before we were arrested for dancing in the fountain...

Karen's mug shot:

 ...and mine:

I am NOT a tourist...

...but it wasn't all fun and games...I did have to slave away at work in desperate conditions:

...could hardly sleep a wink in the luxurious, king size bed...

...and when I awoke it was back to the sweat shop...

...but at night we enjoyed the sights and sounds of Palm Springs:

...including pizza at Bill's, self-proclaimed "best of class in the USA"...hhmmm...

Their Stella Artois beer was pretty good...

...but all too soon it was time to kiss the sunshine and warmth good bye...

farewell, Desert Riviera...see you next March!

...and board that big bird and fly...

...goodbye, Palm Springs...

...the not so happy couple...

...especially when we arrived at our layover in Minneapolis, MN, and it was minus 15 degrees!

...we attempted to take the edge off with a consolatory meal at Ike's:

...and alas, we arrived back home to this:

...heavy sigh...how many more days until summer??