Inspirations

In Memory

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One of my inspirations passed away yesterday.

ZZ Top – Gimme All Your Lovin’ – Official Video – 1983

Dusty Hill the famously bearded bassist of ZZ Top passed away at 72 years of age 7/28/21.

ZZ Top formed as a group in 1969 with the current configuration of Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard (the non bearded drummer) and Dusty Hill performing together continuously since 1970. Here is a classic from 1971 that shows the raw talent and depth of this trio.

ZZ Top – Brown Sugar – 1971

The last recorded performance is this one from not quite two weeks ago.

ZZ Top – Gimme All Your Lovin’ – Live – 7/16/2021

Thank you Dusty for the incredible tunes and the Bearded inspiration. Godspeed.

How’s Fearsome?

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A treasured reader asked us through the comments the other day how we were doing post surgery. I appreciate his concern and appreciate even more his gentle nudge to open myself up and express myself more. I’m grateful to be part of a blogging community that is just that…community, a community that cares.

We are doing well. Fearsome survived uncut and unscathed. I got both scoped and cut.

The surgeon cut in order to open the top of the shoulder large enough to remove the rather large cyst that had developed on top of my right AC Joint. He then scoped into the AC joint and removed the end of my clavicle in order to clean out the arthritis that had caused the cyst to develop and then took a look at my bicep tendon as well as my rotator cuff. Both the rotator cuff and bicep tendon were in good shape so I got away with just a cyst removal and the clavicle clean up.

Pain has been tolerable and I am doing well as long as I don’t really do anything. So do nothing right now is the key I have discovered. Stitches come out this Thursday and I’ll be able to finally shower. Physical therapy will begin April 15th.

So during my do nothing time I sleep and I watch films. I also indulge in YouTube clips and just found this one. I’m not a religious man but I do enjoy a well performed gospel tune. Oh honey… is this performance fabulous. It’s truly a work of art that moved me to tears. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Leslie Jordan featuring Chris & Morgane Stapleton – Farther Along – 2021

Manila never disappoints

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I love when my day starts with a brand new Manila Luzon video and today was one of those fabulous days!

Manila Luzon – Inspire Me – 2021

I was kind of running late this morning, but when I saw this had just dropped into my YouTube feed I threw all caution to the wind and just clicked play. Manila didn’t let me down.

Fabulous fabulousness.

Proud Mary Keep on Rollin’

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President Biden has hit the road and he’s a rollin’.
Let’s keep the steam pumpin with not one, not two but three wonderful versions of a Fearsome favorite, Proud Mary.

Broken Peach – Proud Mary – 2017

Tina Turner – Proud Mary – 2009 (49 years after she first charted a tune in 1960 and 38 years after she & Ike made their cover of this tune famous, she is 70 years old in this performance.)

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Proud Mary – 1969

Keep on rollin’ Joe. You are doing a good man’s work and we support you.

Leaders

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We here at Fearsome Beard the blog thingy believe in recognizing and even promoting those who we feel are working not only to improve themselves but the world around them.

Yesterday we had the honor of witnessing a break out moment for a rising star of our future. We were so moved by Amanda Gordon that the moment we could find a clip of her poetry reading on YouTube we posted it. Today we learned more about her from Anderson Cooper. We hope to learn lots more about her in the future as we watch her rise into a leader. A leader worth listening to.

She gives us hope.

 

Inaugural Poet

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Amanda Gordon / Youth Poet Laureate 2017 – The Hill We Climb – Presidential Inaugural Reading January 20, 2021

Spellbindingly beautiful.
“For there is always light if only we are brave enough to see it, if only we are brave enough to be it.”

Happy Days Ahead

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I’ve been saving this famous clip of Judy & Barbra just for today.

Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand – Happy Days Are Here Again / Come On Get Happy – 1963

Congratulations President Biden and Vice President Harris. Thank you for your service to our country. The world breathes a sigh of relief.

Leaders

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Well it’s 2021. We are still here.
There is a light at the end of this here tunnel and on this here blog thingy we hope to inspire in the coming year. It is time we got back to our roots, took stock of what we have and commenced to grow into what we wish to become.

Fearsome is still growing, I desire to follow his lead.

John Lennon has always been a leader who inspires me, so I’m handing it to him to kick us off on this very New Year’s Day 2021.

John Lennon / The Plastic Ono Band – Instant Karma! ( We All Shine On ) – 1970

Don’t aim for the finish line

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Aim past it!

Keeping with our friends Stephen & Rab, The Kilted Coaches, Fearsome and I have some attitude adjustment to do in order to keep us on track. Today we are reminded that in order to achieve our goals, we need to aim beyond them.

Now that Fearsome is at belly button, his next goal is belt buckle. Therefore he’s aiming for mid fly.

My next fitness goal is to regain the strength and muscle I’ve lost in the isolation and closed gym of the pandemic, so I am in my garage setting up my new home gym and am going to aim for 10lbs beyond my last lifting best, but will safely start lifting far below that and aim to gain slowly to 10 lbs beyond. My next financial goal is to pay 70% of the cost of my new Cybertruck in cash January of 2022, so I’m going to aim for paying 100% cash!

Let’s get this party started!

The Viking Mindset

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Fearsome has recently been reminding me that I’ve been lacking in motivational posts.

Personally I need to feed my mind motivational video, books, podcasts and affirmations in order to stay positive, grow and move forward. I find it helps me stay on track and avoid stagnation. I agree with Fearsome that I’ve dropped that ball along the way and, of recent, have become stagnant.

Since we have a new year upon us therefore, not to be cliché but maybe to be cliché, I’m going to follow Fearsome’s suggestion and seek out motivational things to occasionally share on a more frequent basis. You have been forewarned. 😉

To start our little self motivational endeavor we turn to our old friends Stephen & Rab who are better known as The Kilted Coaches.

“A Viking never seeks hardship, but is always ready for it. The thing is…in order to be ready for it,  he must seek it out. This is the Viking mindset.”
…The Kilted Coaches

“Growing is never easy. If we don’t seek growth, there will not be growth.”
…Fearsome Beard

 

I Still Believe

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Dolly has been a guiding light throughout my life.

I still vividly remember the very first time I heard her sing Jolene through the speaker of the AM radio of my mother’s white 1967 Buick Electra 225 as we drove through the back county of Tennessee late at night on the way to my uncle’s house in Missouri. I also remember being at my friend Melissa’s house when she played Dolly’s new 45 of Two Doors Down as we danced to it in the living room of her mother’s small apartment, as well as hearing Dolly and Kenny Rogers sing Islands In The Stream while running the cash register at my very first “real” job at the corner convenience mart gas station.

I consider her a blessing to not only my life, but to our society as a whole. She’s a kind and giving soul. May her message of hope light up your holidays as it is lighting up mine.

Dolly Parton – I Still Believe – 2020

I still believe in Dolly Parton.
Peace.