NYC Journal

DeAngelico, DeAquisto, Monteleone, and Mirabella are all of Italian descent.

DeAquisto learned his skill as an apprentice working under DeAngelico.

Monteleone, cut his teeth doing repairs of vintage instruments at the newly founded “Mandolin Brothers” vintage shop on Staten Island, then cloning Gibson mandolins, which were sold by Mandonlin Brothers. Eventually this led to guitar building and John going off on his own.

Cris worked at a high end vintage guitar shop. He started at an early age, and worked on and handled many of the DeAngelicos, DeAquistos in existence doing restoration work.

(I had asked Cris out of the 1100 DeAngelico’s and the 700 DeAquisto’s in the world how many of them has he handled, taken apart, or restored; and he responded, “About half of them.”)

Lastly all the above are from and are located in New York.

So the lineage has parameters: must be of Italian descent; must learn trade and skill through long apprentiships, or vast amount of time; and lastly you have to be from and based in New York.

The film/documentary on John Monteleone shows much of the work/building of perhaps his “golden years” where he got to the level where demand was so high that he could dedicate his life to doing only one thing: build guitars.

I knew John’s work and guitars from 20 years ago, but the guitars from what I call his golden years far exceeds work from his past IMHO. More the work of an artist verses a “craftsman.”

This level has not been achieved by Cris yet, the golden years still lay ahead, but when John Monteleone passes my friend Cris will be the “man.”

You have to know that this career path is very fraught, and it is not an easy entrance. Pretty much years of struggle and a very vulnerable profession where you have to be at the very top of the game to do well.

Cal

POSTSCRIPT: I guess the deeper meaning of what I observed above is that having the time to focus on becoming great at a craft, and to develop skill, then come up with your own style looks to take a lifetime.

I’m retired, and I’m acutely aware of the opportunity I have on hand where I can focus on just one thing, well eventually…
 
A few months ago I had the idea to get a folding bike in order to get a ride in before and after work during the commute with Bethanne. She was working at a hospital in the same healthcare network as myself, but about 2 miles away. I was going to throw a folding bike in the back of our tiny Ford Fiesta, park in the hospital structure, then ride up to my work.

So, I found a 1973 (Sturmey hub age) green Raleigh Twenty and set about to customizing it. Wheels were 406 and the bike wouldn't stop even with new Kool Stop pads. Of course, I began by wanting to replace the wheels with alloy rims, so I chose a set of Rhyno Lites and I wanted a dynamo hub, so I pulled the trigger on a Sturmey XL-FDD with the 90mm drum brake. Might be too much drum strength for this fork, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I figured that I'll go with drum brakes all around , so the rear hub is a RXL-RD3, 3 speed. The rear triangle is going to be respaced to 135mm soon. I found a really cheap Sturmey seatpost mount shifter, and decided to use that instead of the handlebar shifter in order to simplify the cable routing from the front to the rear of the bike. Got a long seatpost and stuck a Cambium C67 on it which is awesome for the upright position. I got a long riser threaded/threadless adapter and stuck on a Redshift Shockstop stem I had to take up the harsh bumps from the 20" wheels and Philly streets. Lighting is all Busch & Muller. I swapped out the crankset for a Williams Cottered 5-bolt in case I want to turn this into a double using Stronglight or VO rings.

Well, after I gathered up all the parts for this bike, stripped it and began the build, I thought it would be nice to have two of them in case we both want to take the car someplace and then ride around (we have family in NYC, so it would be handy). My old employer got me in touch with a former customer whose bikes I've worked on before and he happened to have a near-mint 1971 R20 (root beer) he wanted to sell for not too much. I bit on the offer which came with a few other British bits and bobs for our pair of Rudge 3 speeds.

Root Beer R20 will eventually get an alloy set of 451 wheels. I swapped in a set of NOS Weinmann/DiaCompe 750 centerpull calipers and some salmon pads for better stopping power on the chrome rims. I think this bike will be getting the Cambium C67 and I'm going to put a C19 on the Green Machine.

So then over the month of December, Bethanne took a job offer which is very close to home, doesn't require carpooling and now we have two more nice bikes, both of which can fit in the back of the hatchback egg car if we want.

And so it goes; I was looking for one bike and wound up with two.

Phil Forrest
 
Phil_F_NM said:
A few months ago I had the idea to get a folding bike in order to get a ride in before and after work during the commute with Bethanne. She was working at a hospital in the same healthcare network as myself, but about 2 miles away. I was going to throw a folding bike in the back of our tiny Ford Fiesta, park in the hospital structure, then ride up to my work.

So, I found a 1973 (Sturmey hub age) green Raleigh Twenty and set about to customizing it. Wheels were 406 and the bike wouldn't stop even with new Kool Stop pads. Of course, I began by wanting to replace the wheels with alloy rims, so I chose a set of Rhyno Lites and I wanted a dynamo hub, so I pulled the trigger on a Sturmey XL-FDD with the 90mm drum brake. Might be too much drum strength for this fork, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I figured that I'll go with drum brakes all around , so the rear hub is a RXL-RD3, 3 speedb. The rear triangle is going to be respaced to 135mm soon. I found a really cheap Sturmey seatpost mount shifter, and decided to use that instead of the handlebar shifter in order to simplify the cable routing from the front to the rear of the bike. Got a long seatpost and stuck a Cambium C67 on it which is awesome for the upright position. I got a long riser threaded/threadless adapter and stuck on a Redshift Shockstop stem I had to take up the harsh bumps from the 20" wheels and Philly streets. Lighting is all Busch & Muller. I swapped out the crankset for a Williams Cottered 5-bolt in case I want to turn this into a double using Stronglight or VO rings.

Well, after I gathered up all the parts for this bike, stripped it and began the build, I thought it would be nice to have two of them in case we both want to take the car someplace and then ride around (we have family in NYC, so it would be handy). My old employer got me in touch with a former customer whose bikes I've worked on before and he happened to have a near-mint 1971 R20 (root beer) he wanted to sell for not too much. I bit on the offer which came with a few other British bits and bobs for our pair of Rudge 3 speeds.

Root Beer R20 will eventually get an alloy set of 451 wheels. I swapped in a set of NOS Weinmann/DiaCompe 750 centerpull calipers and some salmon pads for better stopping power on the chrome rims. I think this bike will be getting the Cambium C67 and I'm going to put a C19 on the Green Machine.

So then over the month of December, Bethanne took a job offer which is very close to home, doesn't require carpooling and now we have two more nice bikes, both of which can fit in the back of the hatchback egg car if we want.

And so it goes; I was looking for one bike and wound up with two.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

Phil,

A nice story that has a lot of giving.

What’s not to love about recycling, going green, and building out capabilities that have legs. I say a great way to build out a resource that has many benefits.

Cal

POSTSCRIPT: also to have the resources and vision to not build one bike, but two, is kinda special.
 
How crazy was it last Saturday when 3 NYPD cops were attacked in Times Square by someone using a Gerk-ER knife.

In some headlines they called this large knife a machete, but its design with a hooked blade is meant to sever heads.

Luckily the assailant did not know how to use a Gerk-ER knife the way it was designed to be used. Two cops suffered skull fractures.

Large Geri-ER knifes claim to be able to sever an oxe’s head in one blow.

Someone I knew at Grumman served in WWII and he describes how he set up his fox-hole and surrounded it with dried leaves as a warning system, but one day this GerK-ER with his knife tapped him on his helmet and said, “Hello Joe.”

Jules did not know how this Gerk-ER evaded detection and was able to stalk him.

Cal
 
My friend Dave called. He and my friend Cris will be coming up to check out the Baby-Victorian and deliver a guitar and some of my gear that Cris was storing for me out on Long Island.

Seems at a Miami guitar show Cris and Dave took charge of John Monteleone’s guitars and drove them back to New York, and as a result Dave got a chance to play all of them.

Dave’s opinion is that Cris’s guitars are the old school Jazz guitar that has the sound where a guitar had to stand out and project because it was being played in an orchestra. This is more along the old school Jazz players that would want a DeAngelico and be used as intended, to be loud, cutting, and most of all to project and stand out against an orchestra.

You should know that Dave is a great player and has mucho guitars.

About 19 years ago Dave remodeled his kitchen, and now he is going to get it done again. Nineteen years ago Dave did what he could and was not able to do things in a one and done manner. Oh-well.

A 50’s vintage style Tele will be returned that Cris has had from before the Pandemic. Lots of the gear/parts he held onto for me from before we moved into Madhattan, so that was over 14 years ago. Hard to say or remember what I did so long ago, but this was stuff I was saving for retirement.

Cris is a car nut, so I think he will love my barn find 1966 C-10. Cris owns a historic vintage Funny Car that held some records. Also owns a vintage Harley from the 40’s.

So maybe later this month a Meet-Up with two of my Long Island friends.

Cal
 
I got spammed by a Northrop Grumman advertisement. A very slick ad that made me feel old. Aircraft, space craft, communications, and electronics have become so advanced from my back in the day.

I still feel proud of what I did and what I contributed. I may not have been in the military, but I helped win the Cold War.

*******************

I wonder if 8 years ago when Crimea was annexed by Russia if being passive about that event only embolden the more recent history that is happening/occurring today?

The Ukraine is better prepared to fight a war today, and were less ready back then.

I can understand why historically Russia thinks of Nazi’s as invaders, and the threat that was put off into the future. Crimea getting taken back was written into the future.

The Ukraine becoming part of NATO seemed likely to happen, was a provocative maneuver, and is a big threat.

A lot is going on here, very tragic the cost of war.

Cal
 
Calzone said:
I got spammed by a Northrop Grumman advertisement. A very slick ad that made me feel old. Aircraft, space craft, communications, and electronics have become so advanced from my back in the day.

I still feel proud of what I did and what I contributed. I may not have been in the military, but I helped win the Cold War.

*******************

I wonder if 8 years ago when Crimea was annexed by Russia if being passive about that event only embolden the more recent history that is happening/occurring today?

The Ukraine is better prepared to fight a war today, and were less ready back then.

I can understand why historically Russia thinks of Nazi’s as invaders, and the threat that was put off into the future. Crimea getting taken back was written into the future.

The Ukraine becoming part of NATO seemed likely to happen, was a provocative maneuver, and is a big threat.

A lot is going on here, very tragic the cost of war.

Cal
Click to expand...

Cal, were you involved with the F14 program at Grumman? I served on the Connie (CV64) in the late ‘70s and can still hear the F14s landing on my “bedroom roof!”
 
JoeV said:
Cal, were you involved with the F14 program at Grumman? I served on the Connie (CV64) in the late ‘70s and can still hear the F14s landing on my “bedroom roof!”
Click to expand...

Joe,

Thank you for your service. For me every day is Veteran’s Day.

My day U.S. Army WWII, oldest brother U.S. Army Vietnam 1967; second oldest brother Silent Service on nuclear attack subs (Nuclear Operator), younger brother Strategic Air Command.

My dad was allowed to become a U.S. citizen, was one of 1428 Chinese allowed to be naturalized because of his service.

I worked first as a CNC Electronic Technician on machines and machine tools used to build the F-14, A6, EA6B, and the Hawkeye E2C.

After 2 1/2 years I became a technical writer where I specialized on navigation and weapon systems on the A6.

Then I moved into Research where I worked in research labs and got an education you could not get in a grad school working one-on-one with PhD scientists. I learned all about optics, solid state physics, and mostly pure physics. I worked with the brightest and the best. I built lots of electronics prototypes.

Spent a year and a half working on a Ronald Ray-Gun Star Wars project: a Neutral Particle Beam space based weapon to shoot down ICBM’s.

Got laid off twice at the end of the Cold War, but the first layoff I volunteered for because a rumor of cutting severance pay was circulating and I wanted to go to grad school. At that point Grumman was down to about 10 thousand down from 30 thousand.

After being out of work for a year, I ended up getting my old job back, but then more layoffs and downsizing took me out.

So even though I was not in the military, I had a huge military influence because many of the people I work with were vets. These men kinda toughened me up and set me straight. They took a crazy and angry kid and helped make me the man I am today.

My dad was an immigrant and was not a good role model for me. Spent 17 years at Grumman growing up.

I witnessed the end of the Cold War. Dick Cheney when he was Secretary of Defense, visited out lab (Star Wars Project), then about 2 weeks later top USSR officials, Generals, and Russian scientist were invited to visit our secret labs.

This made no sense at the time, but in effect it was a military parade, as well as a show and tell.

Our economy was three times theirs and Regan raised defense spending. The Russians destroyed their economy trying to keep up, and this is how the Cold War ended. We fought them economically.

I was a big part of this. Know that being involved in research and also defense spending, I was very aware that my career was a risky game of sudden death. My job would be where cuts would be made, and every year I was vulnerable.

Here in this thread I kinda claim that I operated kinda like a Navy SEAL within a Fortune 500 Company that was also the 4th largest military contractor in the U.S. I got the work done and was kinda ruthless.

Cal
 
“Maggie” asked me if the Ramones still exist, so I inquired.

The band emerged from Forest Hills.

Evidently Paul McCartney at one point signed into hotels as Paul Ramon. The band members decided to create stage names, and Dee-Dee convinced the other members of the band to all use Ramone as a surname, so that’s how they became “The Ramones.”

So the band evolved many times in many forms, with different members. They toured a long time.

I kinda sing “I Wanna Be Sedated” as a kid’s nursery ryhme to my grandson. The 8 1/2 year old grand daughter hates the song I can tell, but the grandson loves the song, anyways the way I sing it. The 8 1/2 year old grand daughter asked me a few time what “sedated” means.

Know that the granddaughter is hyperactive… the grandson is a calm baby…

When he has one of his crying fits where he can be hysterical, I can not only stop his crying, but he will basically eventually laugh or smile.

It is kinda funny when I demonstrate how I can calm a 4 month old baby with a punk rock tune from the seventies.

So a few myths were broken for me. I thought some of the members were actually related by blood, and somehow I thought they came from Rockaway Beach.

Anyways lots of smut and drama is on wikipedias page on the Ramones.

Cal
 
JoeV said:
Cal, were you involved with the F14 program at Grumman? I served on the Connie (CV64) in the late ‘70s and can still hear the F14s landing on my “bedroom roof!”
Click to expand...

This made me think of the frame number of my berthing on the Stennis and I seem to have forgotten it! I'll probably remember it in some arcane dream or perhaps a nightmare about a fire. We were on the 01, starboard side. Our berthing forward bulkhead was a trunk to access the cables for Elevator 3, just below us aft was both the laundry and the trash compactor. Above us were V4 men's and V2/3 women's berthings. Above that was the arrestor wire machinery spaces then up to the flight deck. I think the 4 wire was three levels directly above our berthing. That space is one of the reasons I wear hearing aids today. If I wanted quiet, I had to go to work up on the 06, or almost anywhere other than the berthing. I count my time on deployment in 1998 and 2000 as both that in which I got the best sleep in my life, and also generally the best time of my life. Simply an awesome experience.
When I rotated to shore duty in late 2000, I got to NAS Whidbey and my DivO asked after my third day if there was anything I needed. I said I needed aircraft to land on the roof while I was sleeping because it was far too quiet up there in the woods!

On a cycling note, I built a set of wheels for the green R20 last night. It's nice to sit down to a repetitive, meditative project like a wheel build. One of these days, when I'm a licensed clinician in private practice, I'll be working bicycle mechanical operations, such as wheel building, into psychotherapy.

Phil Forrest
 
Phil,

The only aircraft carrier I was on was the Intrepid, and this was for some fashion gala event.

A modern aircraft carrier’s scale and complexity is hard to fathom.

I did end up heading out to Calverton for some aircraft training, and I experienced being near the runway when a test pilot decided to use an EF-111 to scare the air traffic controllers in the towers.

Of course evidently a Navy pilot because he did not use a lot of runway, and as soon as the weight-on-wheels indicated that he was a airborne he started banking the plane. I thought a wing would scrape the runway.

At Calverton there are a pair of towers near the runway, and the pilot of the EF-111 flew sideways in between these two narrowly spaced towers to scare the people in the towers. Pretty much the pilot could eyeball them.

Know that the F-111 is a heavy plane and not a highly rated fighter. This was an EF-111 one set up for electronics countermeasures and jamming.

I was told by a co-worker that he was alone fishing on a boat in the Long Island Sound when an A6 “buzzed” him.

I find it interesting how these pilots find amusement.

Over Grumman’s Bethpage facility I heard a roar of a jet and looked overhead to see a F-14 with its wings swept forward. The plane almost appeared to be hovering in place, but there was all this noise, then I heard a pop which was a sonic boom as the afterburner was used.

For me the coolest sound of a jet engine comes from an A-10. I love that plane.

Cal
 
I am thankful for the mild weather. The expected high in Peekskill is 64 degrees, although it is overcast and misty with a ground fog.

Overall it has been a mild winter, not only here, but in Europe.

Pretty much global warming continues: milder winters; and hotter summers. Droughts are happening in areas that were watery, and when it does rain it comes in violent storms.

Cal
 
RFF migration and a job change this fall kept me out of the loop here. Came back because of modern media:

Today I ran into Maggie being used to picture a TikTok that was used in an article. Long story short it was fed into my Google suggestion algorithm.
Screenshot below if I managed right. For some reason, and I work in tech, can't embed the TikTok itself.

Another layer of reporting, you can see it embedded in the article . She pictures Milagros and Angustias https://www.lavanguardia.com/cribeo/...a-sentido.html

Screenshot_20230104-121835.png - Click image for larger version Name: Screenshot_20230104-121835.png Views: 0 Size: 381.0 KB ID: 4814794​


On the global warming topic, pretty much. I went home to Spain and Christmas days were hitting 70F, swam at sea on a flat and cool water.
 
Prest_400 said:
RFF migration and a job change this fall kept me out of the loop here. Came back because of modern media:

Today I ran into Maggie being used to picture a TikTok that was used in an article. Long story short it was fed into my Google suggestion algorithm.
Screenshot below if I managed right. For some reason, and I work in tech, can't embed the TikTok itself.

Another layer of reporting, you can see it embedded in the article . She pictures Milagros and Angustias https://www.lavanguardia.com/cribeo/...a-sentido.html

filedata/fetch?id=4814794&d=1672846356

On the global warming topic, pretty much. I went home to Spain and Christmas days were hitting 70F, swam at sea on a flat and cool water.
Click to expand...

Jorde,

Welcome back.

The warm winter does not serve Putin well.

I’ve been digging into how the easing of lockdown will effect China. Seems like they pushed into the future the spread, and it seems plausible that there might be wave after wave after wave… Seems like their vaccine is limited in protection and durability also.

Economically, commodity prices will be effected by China’s economy, and I think the analyst's thinking that their economy will open up is wrong. China is fraught with problems, and the supply issues and shortages that are inflationary remain structurally tied to China’s problems.

Then there is all this talk about military action and Taiwan. Three levels of difficulty: one is the moat that is the Taiwan Straights. The last time in history China tried that was against Japan. a “Divine Wind” sank a good part of the armada that tried to invade Japan. The point I’m making is that China really does not have Marines like the U.S.

The fact is projecting power and military force is not really their forte.

So crossing a sea barrier to begin a fight is against China. Protecting your home turf is a big advantage.

So two other barriers are Taiwan is both mountainous and urban. Both make for tough-tough fighting.

Many Taiwanese are Cantonese, and this does not favor China. Almost a thousand years of feudalism and fighting certainly made and formed a warrior class.

Anyways, if you cut the chase and understand why China wants or needs Taiwan it comes down to high speed electronic chips, and this is due to and leads to military applications and making superior weapons.

Understand that this technology can never fall into the hands of the Chinese.

So with food and energy prices being the cause of inflation, government’s attempts to quell demand by raising interest rates does not really effect the root cause of a supply imbalance. Perhaps ending the war in the Ukraine might because this war directly has effected food and energy costs.

Then there is the war in the Ukraine itself. Very sad all the killing on both sides. Read an article on how decisive the next Ukrainian offensive is.

Anyways the takeaway is that inflation may moderate a bit, but the root cause remains, so hold on and expect about a third of the world to be in recession…

Cal
 
I have never been on an aircraft carrier, not even for a gala social event. I have been on a cable car though. It was dark green. It might even have been the one featured in the Rice-a-Roni commercials. It is hard to tell because the Rice-a-Roni commercials were in black and white.

I have never ridden in a military aircraft, though I have ridden on TTA (Trans Texas Airlines). We called it Tree Top Airlines, and it was probably just as exciting. I have photographed a couple of airshows. Both the old planes and the new planes did stuff that was aerodynamically impossible. Most people probably attended hoping they would see someone crash. They had about twenty fire trucks all lined up just in case. The planes were all flown by a crew of one so they only needed one ambulance. They also displayed planes from WWII where the flight crews had painted pin-up girls on the side of their planes. Now that we have women military pilots, I wonder if they get to paint pin-up guys on their planes? If it were a mixed crew of men and women, one can only imagine what sort of scene they might paint.

On the inflation front, KitKat bars at the grocery store checkout counter are now up to $2.29. However, they are now the XL size. They didn't have any of the old size left, so I couldn't calculate how badly they are now hosing you. They priced me out of the market when they went to $1.39.
 
Phil_F_NM said:
This made me think of the frame number of my berthing on the Stennis and I seem to have forgotten it! I'll probably remember it in some arcane dream or perhaps a nightmare about a fire. We were on the 01, starboard side. Our berthing forward bulkhead was a trunk to access the cables for Elevator 3, just below us aft was both the laundry and the trash compactor. Above us were V4 men's and V2/3 women's berthings. Above that was the arrestor wire machinery spaces then up to the flight deck. I think the 4 wire was three levels directly above our berthing. That space is one of the reasons I wear hearing aids today. If I wanted quiet, I had to go to work up on the 06, or almost anywhere other than the berthing. I count my time on deployment in 1998 and 2000 as both that in which I got the best sleep in my life, and also generally the best time of my life. Simply an awesome experience.
When I rotated to shore duty in late 2000, I got to NAS Whidbey and my DivO asked after my third day if there was anything I needed. I said I needed aircraft to land on the roof while I was sleeping because it was far too quiet up there in the woods!

On a cycling note, I built a set of wheels for the green R20 last night. It's nice to sit down to a repetitive, meditative project like a wheel build. One of these days, when I'm a licensed clinician in private practice, I'll be working bicycle mechanical operations, such as wheel building, into psychotherapy.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

My berthing was frame 185, on the 03 level just forward of the number 3 arresting gear machinery room. The deck of the 03 was the ceiling of the hangar bay, and the ceiling of the 03 was the flight deck. The berthing space was midship between the port and starboard main corridors.

Flights ops while underway was about 18 hours per day; the F14s would land about once every 90 seconds, just about when I’d fallen back asleep! And the number 3 wire was the most common one snagged during a trap, as the plane slammed into the deck followed by the deafening hydraulic whine of the arresting gear. But at least I was young!
 
“More War Means More Inflation” is an article published today from Nouriel Roubini.

Other readings on war and inflation suggest that inflation usually continues after the war is over.

Roubini also outlines other reasons why inflation is not going away like geopolitical instabilities, need for defense spending, and don’t forget the Pandemic.

The takeaway is that there are some structural issues that will foster inflation, and that none the FED can control.

“Brace yourself,” I say.

Cal
 
Today I am officially old and retired. I’ll be using all available senior discounts, and I already have a stack of Metro North half priced tickets to use. Even though they expired in May of last year it seems the conductors don’t ever look at the date on the ticket.

Anyways I had bought them for “Maggie’s” use and now I’ll recycle them.

Anyways I’m still transitioning into retirement and every year seems like a new plan that is evolutionary. Lots of the same but different. Also perhaps bigger more drastic steps even though still evolutionary. It kinda reminds me of when I became a teenager.

Looks like our contractor will be installing a new custom door and new sidelites on our enclosed porch Monday. Know that we had to replace the brick stoop and front walkway. We used red bricks.

Custom wrought iron railings were added, so now the entrance will be fully dressed up, the curb appeal mucho improved, and our old lady of the block will be even more cute.

I intend on building out a set of screens to replace the windows that will open things up so the porch looks to be open, but I will also make framed glass panels to enclose and winterize the porch.

Buying power tools will kinda be my birthday present to myself. This also allows me to also build frames for my prints, build furniture, and built ins that were popular on old Craftsman houses.

Don’t know If the porch remodel will happen this year, but I will eventually insulate the porch hip roof, and the porch floor which had a porch foundation added underneath.

Like me the house is old. LOL. 111 years old.

BTW 111 years is my estimated life expectancy based on education, income, BMI and family history. No meds, no medical conditions other than I have to limit my exposure to the below freezing temperatures.

Cal
 
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