Category Archives: Artisan

Artisan, Entertainment

Hands On

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She taught herself.

How to renovate homes and to use nearly every tool in her toolbelt.

nicole_curtis
‘A self-taught home rehabber and designer, Nicole Curtis is also a mom, a master of salvage picking and a spirited advocate for saving old houses and rebuilding communities. Resourceful, creative and always in motion, Nicole is hands-on with all of her projects and wouldn’t have it any other way. Her work reflects her passion for repurposing and creating amazing budget-minded designs. In Rehab Addict, her series that airs on DIY Network and HGTV, Nicole harnesses her experience with interior design, contracting and real estate to rebuild neighborhoods one house at a time in Detroit and Minneapolis.’

nicole_curtis_rehab

She does what she loves
She does what she does best.
She is a Rehab Addict.

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Artisan

Tomboy

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“I had to play. I had to find the heart of the game.” 

“She was a very good baseball player,” — Hank

Toni was a pro and “smooth,” — Ernie

Hank Aaron, some people have argued, is the best baseball player ever.  So Hank knew what he was talking about.

Mister Cub, Ernie Banks, one of the top baseball players in the 50’s, no doubt.

But she knew she was good, good enough to play with the best: including Satchel.

‘He was so good that he’d ask batters where they wanted it, just so they’d have a chance. He’d ask, “You want it high? You want it low? You want it right in the middle? Just say.” People still couldn’t get a hit against him. So I get up there and he says, “Hey T., how do you like it?” And I said, “It doesn’t matter, just don’t hurt me.” When he wound up — he had these big old feet — all you could see was his shoe. I stood there shaking, but I got a hit. Right out over second base. Happiest moment in my life.’ — Toni Stone.

Baseball.  For the love of the game.

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Artisan, Entertainment, Famous personality, In Memoriam

Can We Talk

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She sure could.

“I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes and six months later you have to start all over again.”

“People say that money is not the key to happiness, but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made.”

“I’ve had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.”

And her friend Barbara Walters accused her of “Frankly, she did almost anything for a laugh” — but Joan would definitely disagree, for she said of herself “I will do Anything for a laugh.”

In Memoriam
Joan Rivers
[June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014]

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Artisan, Entertainment, Famous personality, In Memoriam

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

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That’s not easy to do.Especially for the talented Performer Artisans.

For they are the happiest people in the world, but…

On the side of light: There are the highs, the higher highs, and the highest high.

On the side of dark: Then there are the lows, the lower lows, and the lowest of lows.

Creativity can be an addiction.
— Robin Williams

What happens when you feel that your creativity and grace disappeared, not to be found ever again? There is no faking(acting) a fix.  No, the quick fix of drugs and alcohol can’t solve the problem, either.

The curtain rises on the scene
With someone shouting to be free
The play unfolds before my eyes
There stands the actor who is me.  

The Word that Dr. Keirsey used for this is Latin (via French): ENNUI

Freedom just another word for,
nothing left to lose.

en·nui

noun
  1. a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.
    synonyms: boredom, tedium, listlessness, lethargy, lassitude, languor, weariness, enervation;

    malaise, dissatisfaction, melancholy, depression, world-weariness, Weltschmerz
    “an ennui bred of long familiarity”

“Ennui” is how the Artisans become “depressed.” There are two kinds of “depression” (for two of the Temperaments) and they are quite different. Depression for the Guardian is painful and “red”: they are very sick and very tired: they are demobilized. The Artisan “ennui” is akin to boredom — they find themselves in grey and fog filled landscape, they are beguiled. To them, they feel in their gut, nothing exciting will ever happen again. It scares the Artisan…

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Artisan, Entertainment, Famous personality, In Memoriam

Maverick is His Name

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Who is the tall, dark stranger there?
Maverick is his name
Riding the trail to who-knows-where
Luck is his companion
Gambling is his game
Wild as a wind in Oregon,
blowing up the canyon.
Easier to tame

River boat, ring your bell!
Fare thee well, Annabelle
Luck is the lady that he loves the best
Traveling ’round New Orleans,
living on jacks and queens
Maverick ïs the legend of the West

Yes, he was a natural.

He never did memorize the exact lines, but he was better than the writers, at what he said at the moment.  In the moment.

He didn’t need to act as Maverick, he was an original Maverick.  James Bumgarner,  was a self-described “scrounger” for his army company in the Korean War.

The Natural Operator.  It’s called Temperament.

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Artisan, Leadership, out of the box

The First Visible Crack

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I remember the exact moment and place.  As we talked, Karel had made the gesture of flicking his finger at an imaginary glass globe in his hand that would crack into a million pieces:

“It would just take a small Ping — the whole thing could shatter and fall apart” he said.

I thought, yes, just like the edge-of-chaos/order: a phase transition.

Soon it happened.  Few, if any, but Karel could have imagined it happening — and so soon.

He knew the system well: as a kid, he had been prevented to pursue what he was good at — mathematics — for the powers of Czechoslovkia wouldn’t let him go to school, because his father had escaped from the Soviet bloc, leaving Karel and his mother to suffer the consequences.  Karel knew what it is like not to trust anybody outside his immediate family — not say what everybody knew but could not say — the Soviet system was a human prison: Private Truths, Public Lies.  Karel did get out in 1978 by Jimmy Carter’s diplomatic initiative with Alexander Dubček’s short regime. Only a few could escape from the system.

Karel obtained his PhD in Mathematics from Stanford University a couple years later after our talk.   Nobody really thought it would happen.  The Iron Curtain seemed still solid in 1988.  The Soviet system had lasted for more than 75 years.  The Soviet Union was one of the two superpowers: a military and nuclear super power. Rebellions had failed before: Hungary and Czechoslovakia, otherwise subversive acts had to keep a low profile.

The first real crack on the surface of that Curtain had started in 1982, three years before Mikhael Gorbachev took power. That first crack, that finally spread like that imagined shattered glass globe of Karel’s in 1989, was Promoted by one man….

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Artisan, Entertainment, Famous personality, In Memoriam

Here’s Mickey

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NO, THAT’S NOT MICKEY MOUSE, he would come much later.

When he was fourteen months old, unknown to everyone, he crawled onstage wearing overalls and a little harmonica around his neck. He sneezed and his father, Joe Sr., grabbed him up, introducing him to the audience as Sonny Yule. He felt the spotlight on him and described it as his mother’s womb. From that moment on, the stage was his home.

He was a natural Performer, from the beginning.

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Artisan, Famous personality, In Memoriam

The King

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of Comedy.

Hail Caesar!

He was the King: A Natural Caesar.  Sid Caesar.

And he was a natural Entertainer from the start:

Max and Ida Caesar ran a restaurant, a 24-hour luncheonette. By waiting on tables, their son learned to mimic the patois, rhythm and accents of the diverse clientele, a technique he termed “double-talk,” which he would famously use throughout his career. He first tried his “double-talk” with a group of Italians, his head barely reaching above the table. They enjoyed it so much that they sent him over to a group of Poles to repeat his native-sounding patter in Polish, and so on with Russians, Hungarians, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Lithuanians and Bulgarians.

He was the King.  Hail to King. Long Live the King. The King of early television comedy.

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Artisan, Leadership, out of the box, Rational, Teams

The Other Dream

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What a Dream.

The Dream Team of Olympic Basketball:  Michael, Magic, Larry …

dream_team

BUT, THIS is about the OTHER DREAM TEAM.

They couldn’t even imagine their Dream in the beginning, it had been so long ago.

The Dream of Freedom…

FOR ALL

in Lithuania

other_dream_dream

It takes a Nation, with a little luck, grit, and passion.

“Yeah, And it’s a bigger dream.”
Jim Lampley

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Artisan, Four Temperaments, Guardian, Idealist, In Memoriam, Keirsey Awards, Rational

Keirsey Temperament Awards 2013

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The Keirsey Temperament Awards for 2013

Keirsey Temperament Awards 2011
Keirsey Temperament Awards 2012

Each year an individual is awarded from each of the Four Temperaments: Artisan, Guardian, Idealist, and Rational.  And we acknowledge this year’s passing of well known individuals who exhibited their Keirsey Temperament, In Memoriam.

The awards are given to individuals who are usually “famous” and have significantly impacted the world, as to illustrate and highlight the Four Temperaments.  Keirsey Temperament Theory maintains all four Temperaments play important roles in society and we need all kinds of people to use their developed natural talents, to do the best at what they do best.

The selection is difficult, for sometimes Temperament is hidden because we are looking at these individuals from a far. Usually I don’t know the individuals personally, and only through the media am I familiar with these people.  I am the judge and jury, with the suggestions from those are interested in Keirsey Temperament.

2013 Keirsey Temperament Awards

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