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Cell Perches & HVO

Art Shows, Cell Perches & HVO

The Inside Story

May 14, 2022

For the theme of the Spring exhibit, the community art league challenged its members to “explore their own understanding of the interior: interior design, interior thoughts & feelings, interior to our bodies or minds or buildings and spaces, inner circles of trust and community, and more.”

For the BRC craftsman, who plays Bluegrass with picking pals, writes songs, and builds 5-stringers, identifying his interior life was a no-brainer: music. These invisible sonic waves that we call music enter our inner ears and are miraculously converted into audio perceptions that entertain, comfort, inspire, uplift, and not infrequently transport us by touching the heartstrings. The gift of hearing is a wondrous blessing which brings us a cosmos of music and its myriad genres of  style.

For the Interiors show, the BRC founder crafted the “Inside Bluegrass “banjo which featured laser cut wood inlays representing most of the principal stringed instruments heard in this unique acoustical style of folk music.

At the gala evening reception in the gallery, curious art enthusiasts closely study the open-back instrument.

Also recently constructed was a “Zodiac Cell Perch” smartphone holder which was decorated with celestial inlays left over from the “Not in the Stars” banjo that was built in the BRC workshop last year and exhibited in the “Hindsight is 20/20”  springtime show. It was gifted to the BRC craftsman`s daughter who had skillfully redesigned the BRC website format, inside and out, last year.

Upon receipt, she texted, “Ta-Da! Thank you, it`s gorgeous and just my style.” With the message, she included a photo of the grandkids on her smartphone taken while it was perched on the table top implement.

For more details on the materials used in the Zodiac Cell Perch, enter “retrospect ” in the search engine on the website home page to view the “In Retrospect” posting of May, 8, 2021, which features the aforementioned astrology-based banjo.

From the BRC: Hearing is believing, so listen-up and count your lucky stars.

BRC Activities, Cell Perches & HVO

Preserve the Environment: Tiny Steps

March 12, 2022

Banjo pickers are eco-friendly. Scratch a Bluegrass musician, and you will find an environmentalist underneath. The BRC workshop was founded 11 years ago, but we overlooked its 10th anniversary last year while distracted by the pandemic. Over the past decade, unused spare parts have steadily accumulated in the workshop. To avoid dispatching these materials to a land fill, our 10th year of business will be celebrated belatedly by the purposeful re-incorporation of extra materials into inventive mini projects.

The local community art league has an annual “Tiny Things” competitive show each Spring where artists submit works measuring no more than 8x 8 inches in size. As a banjo clearly exceeds these dimensions, the BRC craftsman decided to apply left-over inlay inventories into decorating cell phone holders and submit these tiny entires into the yearly competition. Hopefully, these inlayed and practical desktop items would be of interest to the judge adjucating the exhibit, gallery visitors, and musicians. What banjo player would not want a smartphone stand to check-out online picking turorials?

Last year was our first occasion to experiment with this modest eco-strategy, and “The Lair” was accepted (above) into the springtime Tiny Things show. After the annual community exhibit concluded, this prototypical and planar pine model was gifted to an out-of- state friend. The dragon image on the front was so fearsome, that the new owner reported months later that the family dog had mauled the piney item beyond repair one night.

Despite the almost poetic Viking`s demise of The Lair, a peaceful array of leaping dolphins had resided quietly on the flip side. To see previous dolphin-themed BRC banjos, enter “dolphin” in our home page search engine.

This year, the BRC craftsman has ambitiously fashioned two upgraded desktop items for submission to the Tiny Things exhibit. Both feature a sturdy center post secured with wood glue and a stout rebar-like screw. The smaller cedar model (below) entitled the “Unicorn Cell Perch”‘ measures just over 3 inches at the base.

It is inlayed with enamel-covered laser cut wood images and some mother of pearl stars.

If you look closely, you might recognize the inlays that appeared on the “Unikorn” and “Moonshine” banjos previously depicted on the BRC website.

Another slightly larger and even more rugged red oak iteration for this year’s competition is entitled the “Tree of Life Cell Perch.”  It measures just over 6 inches in length and is decorated with mother of pearl leaves and iconic Tree of Life symbols.

The leafy mother of pearl inlays may remind you of our “Time for Tea” and “Tea Leaves”  BRC banjo. The aforesaid 5-stringer can be reviewed by entering “tea” in the search engine on our home page. It is hoped that the serene imagery on this year`s fortified smartphone holders will not provoke canine reactions.

The BRC focus remains building art show crafted banjos at modest prices for entry level buyers. Although desk top cell phone stands with fingerboard inlay decorations could potentially attract a niche market of stringed instrument musicians, or perhaps evolve into a profitable franchise for pet chew-toys, these diminutive but sturdy items will mostly be devised in our workshop around the time of the annual Tiny Things art show. This mini project is our small step to preserve the environment.

From the BRC: Be well, be safe, be eco-friendly.

P.S. Have a happy St. Paddy`s Day.

 

CD songs, Cell Perches & HVO

Social Distancing & Masks & Win

October 24, 2020

In the mid 1980`s,the BRC founder joined Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) which is a non governmental organization (NGO) based in our nation`s capital and dedicated to providing medical care and education in resource poor countries in the developing world. Over the years, the BRC founder served overseas assignments and held leadership positions in the organization. In 2006, the executive director asked him to record a CD of original music to celebrate the 20th anniversary of HVO.

In a period of 10 days, the BRC founder drafted and scored a fund-raising album of songs for HVO entitled “Compass Points” which chronicled the challenges, fulfillments, and humorous adventures of international medical volunteerism. He recruited a trio of grand nieces to provide back-up vocals, as pictured above with him in a Chicago recording studio, and the fund-raising CD was marketed by the non- profit HVO office in Washington, D.C..   

In April of 2020, the executive director asked the BRC founder to make a music video for the HVO Facebook Homepage to celebrate World Health Care Workers Week. Click on the below video link and enjoy his desktop rendition of “Are You Looking for an NGO?”

https://www.facebook.com/hvousa/videos/3767106190028071/

The “Compass Points” CD contains a true story and cautionary tale about the importance of physical distancing when in the presence of a health hazard. Sound familiar? Many years ago on the Carribean island of St. Lucia, when the BRC founder and his family were there on volunteer medical assignment at St. Jude Hospital, a vacation hotel went bankrupt and abandoned their pet elephant “Bupa” to roam the tropical island. In the below picture of Bupa, note that the islanders (far left) are keeping safe distance from the unpredictable pachyderm.

Enjoy the attached calypso -styled sound file of “Bupa the Elephant” and especially the back-up vocals by our young trio of singing sisters. All the music was multi-tracked by the author (Copyright 2006).

Fast forwarding to stateside these days, the BRC founder and fellow musicians mask-up weekly at the Rock Island Municipal Park pavilion for an outdoor Ozark jam session.

The popular TV series “Petticoat Junction” that aired 1963-1970 was based on the old Burris Hotel in Eldon, Missouri, that was previously called the Rock Island Hotel because it was on the Rock Island Railroad Line. The granddaughter of the hotel owner was the wife of the creator and executive producer of the television show, and she visited the hotel often in her youth. She shared her fond memories of it and the people there with her spouse who used this story to model the Shady Rest Hotel setting and characters of the TV series. The hotel and railroad line are now gone, but the namesake Rock Island Municipal Park stands nearby in tribute today. Flatt and Scruggs played the theme music for the Petticoat Junction TV show. The above jam session musicians informally call themselves the Rock Island Rangers.

In a field of 4 submissions to the Gainor & Friends scary Halloween jam photo contest this month, a pre-pandemic picture of the Rock Island Rangers with a rusty van was the winner by a majority vote. Congrats to the Ozark pickers.

From the BRC: Be safe, observe social distancing, and wear a mask.

Cell Perches & HVO

Double Siege

July 1, 2019

Just over a month ago, our nearby capital city was besieged with a tornado followed promptly by flooding from the rain-swollen Missouri River. Fortunately, there were no fatalities from theses calamities, but the townspeople still reel from the exhausting impact of two almost simultaneous natural disasters and troublesome resurging water levels of the river.IMG_2624

 

On the night of the tornado, a Facebook photo captured the roiling tumult of a malevolent tornado-spawning cloud as it churned across the outskirts of the city.  Shortly thereafter, the cresting Missouri River breached its banks and spilled into the midtown area and over miles of surrounding floodplains.

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With the capital building dome seen faintly in the distant mid photo, sandbags stand guard over unpredictable flood waters that threaten an off ramp approach to the Jefferson City Bridge near the submerged municipal airport.

The flood tide finally relented and started to slowly ebb weeks later, and folks began to recover from the storm damage. Bluegrass musicians gathered at a capital city yogurt shop for a sidewalk summer jam. Children and passers-by applauded the cheerful homespun music and harmony singing, and our clogger instructed dance steps to those daring enough to kick-up their heels.IMG_1871

Heartened by the rebounding festive community spirit, an on-looking citizen exclaimed,  “This is what Jefferson City needs!”

Cell Perches & HVO

The Banjo Politic

December 4, 2018

A message of political activism on a folk musician`s instrument is not new. Pete Seeger`s banjos often displayed a decree condemning hate. In 1957, he was indicted for contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate  with the House Un-American Activities Committee, a conviction that was overturned in 1962. His legendary singing group, the Weavers, was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. One of Seeger`s personally autographed 5-string long necks is in the American Banjo Museum collection in Oklahoma City where it is admired by visiting patrons.

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American songster Woody Guthrie served in the merchant marine during World War II. On his first voyage, his ship hit a mine. On his last tour of sea duty, his ship was torpedoed off Utah Beach during the Normandy Invasion.

His guitar of that era issued a stern warning to oppressive regimes.

Let us hope that music of the Holiday Season might foster peace and understanding among all peoples. Through the all-inclusive language of song, a homespun but worthy model of fellowship and collegiality among folks of diverse political persuasions dwells in our monthly jam session at the capital city yogurt shop.01 Jamming at Yoyums copy

Music is a universal language without borders. As echoed in the 1971 Coca Cola advertisement that later became a pop tune,  ” I`d like to teach the world to sing/In perfect harmony.” All blessings this Season to our BRC readers.