SimCity Should Be A Requirement For City Leadership

Photo by Chris Ensminger on Unsplash

When I got my first Mac in 1987, the Mac community was much like a fraternity. There was so much creativity going on, and all of it was being shared rather than commercialized. It was a new world and a community of disc swappers. 

Whether it was on my first Mac or second, one of the discs I received was an interesting "game" called Foxes and Rabbits. It wasn't a real game, but it did teach lessons about the relationship between predators and prey. When you set it in motion you could watch it play out based on the parameters you set. 

You would select a number for how many rabbits you wanted to start with, and another number for the foxes. Suppose you started with four rabbits and ten foxes. In short order the rabbits would be devoured and the game would be over as the foxes starved to death. But if you started with 76 rabbits and five foxes, you would initially see the rabbits multiply (like rabbits) and the foxes devouring them but multiplying at a slower pace. At a certain point when there were lots of foxes the rabbit population would decline and when it was in serious decline some of the foxes would starve, too.

The lesson here was that you could change the variables and visually observe the consequences.

Two years later the game SimCity (Simulated City) was created based on a similar concept. Originally developed by Will Wright, the game player (called the Mayor) would begin with a blank map that he or she would begin to develop. The goal of the game is to create a city that attracts citizens and businesses, then continues to grow.  

The player would soon learn about budgeting, as well as the various tradeoffs that need to be made to create a successful community. For the city to grow, citizens must be provided with utilities (electricity and water) and services like health care, education and parks, as well as relevant infrastructure and transportation.

This blog post was generated by a comment that a friend of mine made recently. He said, "It should be a requirement of everyone on city counsel and in city leadership to excel at SimCity 2000 and or the current version of this game, City Skyline. They need to excel at these games before they’re allowed to be on the council, in order to understand the inter-relatedness of all facets of the big picture involving power, people, and revenue... and most importantly the economics."

Having never played the game, I decided to search online for a few articles about lessons learned from playing. One of these was titled "Obsessively Playing SimCity 2000 Taught Me a Vital Lesson in Money Smarts." (1)

The author wrote, "There are all kinds of tweaks you can make to attract more citizens, from building roads to planning green space into your city to offering an attractive tax rate. But there's one factor that, unless addressed, will mean you attract zero new citizens to your growing town: utilities."

The author begins by noting the importance of understanding cities as systems. In this case he applies it to our personal finances by suggesting we view our whole life as a system.

Another article was titled "Learning with SimCity: Valuable Lessons Kids Can Learn Playing Mayor." (2) This article outlines numerous lessons gained by playing. The relationship of supply and demand, budgeting, urban planning, managing the environment, transport systems, and how utilities and services impact your city. To be successful in the game, children need to learn how to plan ahead. One outcome you don't want is urban decay. Another is bankruptcy.

One of the most powerful lessons kids can learn, this writer says, is how a society works as a whole system. Like the foxes and rabbits in my intro, changing one variable will have an impact in other areas. And, of course, there is always the law of unintended consequences waiting in the wings. 

Here are examples highlighted in the article:

If you provide decent living conditions with good employment and plenty of schools, crime rates drop, so you need fewer police stations. Good education systems also lead to richer Sims that work in high-tech industries, reducing pollution in your city.

If you create a good-quality health care system with plenty of hospitals and clinics then you improve the health of your citizens. This makes them work more effectively and brings more business to your city, which in turn increases tax revenue.

If you’re running short of cash, you can up your tax rates, but this may drive people away from your city. Alternatively you can choose to legalize gambling; however, this can push your city’s crime rate up.

* * * 

All these "ifs" sound great when you're starting with a clean slate. Most city leaders today find themselves inheriting a long history of well-meaning decisions with consequences that are only now coming to roost. Unlike SimCity and other games, you can't scrap it and start over. 

I have concerns about some of what's happening in our town. But that's a topic for another day.

Here are links to the stories cited above.

(1) https://themakingofamillionaire.com/obsessively-playing-simcity-2000-taught-me-a-vital-lesson-in-money-smarts-1c36076e927f

(2) https://www.brightpips.com/learning-simcity-valuable-lessons-kids-learn-playing-mayor/

Flashback Friday: Ida B. Wells, Courage Personified

Ida Bell Wells

Courage Made Her Influential
Originally published Jan. 2020

Last week when I shared A Little Girl’s Dream on my blog here, it prompted me to become more familiar with the stories of African Americans who were early pioneers in the pursuit of freedom and justice. Many of their names were familiar to me but I knew very few of their stories, Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman preeminent examples.

While doing research this week for Black History Month (Feb 1-29) I came across a list titled the 100 Greatest Books by African American Women. It was an enlightening read. This blog post, featuring one of the women in this book, two years ago on Dr. Martin Luther King Day.

* * * *
Ida born into slavery in 1862 during the Civil War in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Her parents were slaves till the 13th Amendment freed them after the war. In 1877 a yellow fever epidemic killed both of her parents while she was away visiting her grandmother.

The authorities would have split the family but she said she could raise her younger siblings, and took a test that enabled her to get a teaching job. Her only previous experience was teaching her younger brothers and sister.

One day Ida took a seat on a train but was forcibly removed to the smoking car. She sued the railroad and actually won a $500 settlement. The headline in the papers read, “Darkey Damsel Gets Damages.”

Naturally, the railroad didn’t like that outcome and took the matter to a higher court where the decision was reversed.

Ida wrote about these experiences for her church newspaper The Living Way, and even though she never received the money, she saw the impact her writing had on people who reacted to what she wrote. She was learning the power of the written word. In 1889 she became part owner of a black-owned newspaper called Free Speech and Headlight. For two more years she also continued teaching until she was dismissed for writing about conditions at the black schools.

Ida learned early the power of the written word, but it was her courage that most stands out. She wrote about what she saw in order that others would know what was going on.

Ida had friends who ran a black grocery store called The People’s Grocery, which was in competition with a white grocery store. An incident occurred which escalated. Three black men were taken to jail. Then, in the middle of the night 75 masked men came, took them from the Shelby County Jail and shot them dead.

It was this event that led Ida to begin investigating and writing about lynchings. After writing an editorial about another incident, her newspaper office was burned to the ground.

Ida married in Chicago and raised a family there.

Ida was in New York at the time her office was looted and destroyed. She was urged not to return and began writing from up North. She later moved to Chicago.

In 1892 Ida Wells began publishing her lynching research in pamphlet form It was titled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. The following year her lynching research was compiled in a book titled The Red Record. Frederick Douglass wrote the introduction.

She was invited to speak in England and Scotland. She spoke with eloquence and passion about the unfair treatment of blacks. Her pamphlets included disturbing photos of actual lynchings.

Ida claimed that "ten thousand Negroes have been killed in cold blood, [through lynching] without the formality of judicial trial and legal execution." She believed that the massive rise in such killing after the Civil War was because previous to the war Blacks had more value as “property” of the slaveholders.

Ida found support from white women involved with the battle for women’s rights, becoming friends with Susan B. Anthony and others in the movement.

In 1928 she began working on her autobiography, but it was never finished. She died in 1930 after an influential career. Her story was published posthumously four decades later in 1970. For more than half a century she used her writing skills to promote freedom, safety, and justice.

* * * *
Information for this brief bio came from the Walter Dean Myers' book Ida B. Wells: Let the Truth Be Told and Wikipedia.

Related Link

Strange Fruit

 

Trivia: Have you seen those shiny new quarters with Maya Angelou on them?

This is a Test -- I Will Explain

I posted a Throwback Thursday post and it was rejected by Blogger because of a Malware infection. 

I sought advice and it was suggested that one of the links went to an infected site.

After removing the links, I tried again. 

Purportedly there was still a problem.

THIS IS AN EFFORT TO SEE IF THE VIRUS OR MALWARE IS ON MY COMPUTER OR LATENT IN THE LINKS.

I AM ABOUT TO PUBLISH and if it is rejected I will have to give my system a bath.

Hope you are all well.... 

Wordle Gives Game Making Programmers a Shot in the Arm

Do you play Wordle? It's really quite an amazing phenomenon.

Here's what my Wordle for Tuesday,
March 8, looked like.

If you already play, then you know what it is. It's an online word game in which you try to guess the word of the day within six tries. With each guess, you can learn something. A letter tile will be grey when it is not in the word, orange when it is in the word but not the right location, and green when it appears in its correct spot.

Most game makers try to create games so addictive that you can't stop playing them. Wordle is indeed addictive, but different. You can only play once a day. And it probably drives some Wordle players crazy to have to wait till the next time they can play. In fact, the game actually has a little timer that lets you know how long you'll have to wait. To me, that's brilliant.

The creator of the game was a Brit named Josh Wardle. Before creating Wordle he was into New York Times crossword puzzles (and may have worked on some of my daughter's crosswords there) and the Spelling Bee. Evidently he was a programmer and he created a game for he and his partner to play. After perfecting it, they shared it with friends and relatives. In October 2021 the decided, because they saw how much everyone enjoyed it, to make it available to anyone and everyone.

At the beginning of November only 90 people were playing. On January 2, 2022, 300,000 people played Wordle. One week later, two million people were playing. Tow THAT is what "going viral" means.

Official NYTimes logo for Wordle

These things don't go unnoticed. Today the New York Times owns the game, and John Wardle has pocketed a cool nine million dollars.

The web page where it resides is clean and uncluttered, fast loading and responsive. Many players are incentivized by the fact that it requires brain work, but is not impossible. Other players are motivated by competition. For this reason, the “Share” button was a brilliant addition. 

One day in February I guessed the word of the day on the First Guess. Had I understood that I could share my triumph I would have used that Share button. A week or two ago I noticed that someone was on television for solving it in two. 

Actually, solving it in one, or probably two, is pretty much luck. It takes a little more skill to solve it in three, which is a fun target to aim for.

I'm sure that the brushfire speed at which the game spread has incentivized countless other programmers to try their hand at bringing other new games to market. What's the name of the game you're working on?

 

Learn More

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordle

* * * 

Here's one I got in two!

Wordle 259 2/6

🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

A Visit with High-Flying Opera Soprano Amy Owens

World class by any measure.

I was introduced to Amy Owens by means of a mutual friend, the photographer Gary Firstenberg. When I checked out a few of her YouTube videos I was astonished by her range. Her high notes are capable of poking holes in ceilings. I was also impressed by the joy she exuded as she sang. Though any professional singer is a performer per se, Owens comes across as the genuine article.

This is my first interview with an opera singer and I learned a lot. Amy Owens is also a voice teacher, cross-genre performer and lifelong learner. Here are a couple quotes from the critics.

“high-flying vocals…. technically clean and focused” --Opera News

"... a wonderfully unique coloratura soprano who never stops creating. I love her positive energy and cheerful personality." --360 of Opera

While preparing for this interview I listened to/watched several of her videos. You will want to fetch a few on the link at the end of this blog post and give a listen. Then follow her on Instagram and become a fan. 

EN: You're an opera singer so you have lived a nomadic life, moving to where the jobs were. Where ARE opera jobs found today? 

Amy Owens: In Northern America, being an opera singer means being a freelance artist and working gig-to-gig. Many singers have a home base from which they travel frequently. Most opera gigs are about a month long; concerts and recitals are usually a week or less. So depending on a singer’s schedule, they may opt to be completely nomadic! I currently have a home base in New Orleans, but there were many years where I was subletting my New York City apartment most of the time, and then I went completely nomadic for a few years. 

In Europe, the model is different and opera singers can find more stable work in one city. This is made possible by government funding and a public that engages with the art form more regularly. 

EN: You're an opera singer, but you do pop. Can you tell us how you got into that? 

Amy O: Being an opera singer requires very specific training, but most professional singers come from backgrounds that involved musical theater, pop, folk, gospel, etc. It can sometimes be difficult for an opera singer to go back to a pop sound after training for years, but it is really fun to do! It’s almost a palette-cleanser to just sing for the joy of it. I personally love being part of the creative process, composing and crafting music the way singer-songwriters do. In opera we don’t get to do much of that because the singing itself is so demanding. 

I started experimenting with pop as an exploration in collaboration and style. I treat singing and collaboration as a laboratory, a place and process to explore, express, and create new things. Whether the experiments result in something that can accurately be called “pop” is up to listener discretion! A more accurate term might be “alternative.” :) 

EN: You said you enjoy collaborating with people with different musical backgrounds. "Fusion music challenges me. I've tried many different things," you said when we talked. "In New Orleans I feel that same collaborative feeling with the jazz musicians. Being a creator, composing, writing lyrics... a totally different approach to music. It was like a new world." 

Amy O: Confronting unfamiliar genres and collaborators requires me to get out of my comfort zone, which is the place of greatest learning. Magical things always happen when I’m working with someone who has a different musical background or experience than I have. Not only is the resulting music unique, but the collaboration also helps me to be more empathetic and understanding of humanity, which in turn brings more authenticity to the music itself. 

I am a lover of process, and collaborating in an improvisatory way is an extremely different process than preparing classical music. My love of practice is what brought me to classical music in the first place: it is an endless adventure in refining the voice and discovering more of what a composer intended, and rehearsing with other musicians is an amazing experience of listening and trust. Listening and trust are required in jazz music as well, except the rehearsal (if it happens at all) is different, and performances are expected to spin out in unexpected ways. For a classical musician who is used to rehearsing something a lot before performing, improvising in a jazz band can be unnerving! But it’s also incredibly fun. I sang at jazz fest in 2019 with the Glen David Andrews band, and honestly, I went up on the stage without knowing the songs at all. I figured out pretty quickly how to sing the required backup vocal lines, and I was occasionally directed to improvise solo lines. There were thousands of listeners, so my only option was to go all in and just sing!

EN: Which path has the most potential for a long career? 

Amy O: No career looks the same, but a sustainable one will undoubtedly require pivoting. Singing operatically is extremely athletic, so aging has an affect on the voice. It doesn’t mean you have to stop singing, it just means that engagement with music might be different. Operatic careers tend to be more sustainable than pop careers (not including the biggest stars). But if there’s anything that COVID taught us, it’s that the arts industry is fragile. Almost everyone I know has diversified their skill set in order to survive.

EN: What do the music critics say about your opera singing?

Amy O: Critics! We love them and we despise them, but they can be important. The themes that emerge from most of my reviews are that my voice is very clear and lyrical, and that I have great comedic flair. 

EN: You said you also teach a lot. What do you enjoy most about teaching singing?

With photographer Gary Firstenberg.

Amy O: I love teaching! The human voice is a very personal instrument and is closely related to a person’s confidence. I try to empower my students to choose for themselves the advice they will take to heart and what they will discard, treating every lesson and practice session as a grand experiment. Every bit of feedback you receive from your own mind and from your teachers is simply a data point. In this way, we separate the progress of the voice from the worth of the singer. Every singer has great worth, period, no matter what they get hired to do or what the critics say.

Seeing a student make breakthroughs with their technique brings me incredible joy. I am usually skipping after a day of teaching! Learning to sing is learning how to apply tools to figure out a problem instead of giving up. As a teacher, I give tools and I help create a process so that no matter whether I am there to guide or not, my students don’t feel stuck. I tell them: “You are your own best teacher,” and I mean it. This problem-solving empowerment not only changes voices, it changes whole lives. I can’t think of anything more fulfilling.

EN: Your range is incredible. How much do you practice each day to stay tuned? 

Amy O: I practice almost every day. If I have a lot of music to learn, it can be hours and hours a day, although not all of that is singing full out. A lot of practice is silent study. But I can stay in top shape if I’m practicing at least one hour every day consistently. 

EN: You compared being an opera singer to being an Olympian?  In what ways do the two activities compare?

Amy O: Opera is the olympic sport of singing because it is the most athletic. Any variables in health, weather, pollution, and emotion can affect singing in a profound way. If you are singing in a less demanding style, you can maybe get away with being a little dehydrated, but if you are trying to sing an opera, you better be drinking that water! You can’t expect to take a few days off and be in good vocal shape. You simply have to be thinking about it all the time, every day. I’m extremely grateful for the body/health awareness that singing has given me. 

EN: You obviously enjoy singing. When did you first begin?

Amy O: I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t singing. I grew up in a family and church with a strong musical tradition, and my first public performance was in church at age 5. Growing up, I never planned on having a career in music, but midway through college it began to make more sense. I feel pretty lucky to do this is a career!

EN: How did you become interested in opera?  

Amy O: I always loved classical music, and I studied classical piano for a very long time. Opera singing isn’t something one does until they are essentially “grown up,” because of the maturity and athleticism it requires. But I think that my voice naturally lent itself to a classical style, and by the time I was 17 or 18 it was clear that studying classical and operatic repertoire was a good fit for me. Opera is challenging and requires the study of multiple languages, which added interest to my love of practice as a pianist. Basically, opera was challenging, so I loved it. I applied for a degree in Vocal Performance almost on a whim, because my high school voice teacher suggested it, and then I had many mentors and teachers who showed me the path of opera and encouraged me to pursue it. I would never have done this without their guidance.

EN: Why does music have such power to move people?

Amy O: Music is an expression that moves beyond words. It is vibration, it is energy, it is movement. Humanity longs to connect, and music gives us a medium to do so. For an artist, it is a way to self-express. In live performance, it is communication with an audience, an exchange of energy and appreciation. Music is the thing that is greater than the self, and since it is often also beautiful, it can meet people wherever they are at without judgment. There’s no way I could ever describe in words why music has power to move us… I should just play you some music instead and you’ll know what I mean. ;)

EN: You made an album of Leonard Bernstein music. What was it called and how did you come to take an interest in his work? What qualities made Bernstein significant? 

Amy O: Bernstein was brilliant for so many reasons, but I especially love his curious, experimental approach to composition. He composed in so many styles! My album tries to capture just a little bit of his breadth. Some composers didn’t take him seriously in his day, but he was way ahead of his time and his music is also timeless. I hope I can be as curious and experimental as he was.

* * * 

You can find Amy and her music on her website: amyowenssoprano.com 

Follow Amy on Instagram: amy_owens_music 

Videos and Reviews: amyowenssoprano.com/media

Check out Centauri, a variation of Dueling Banjos, except it is a vocalist and violinist. 

Wait, maybe you should start here, with Discreet. Wow!

 

Turning Negatives into Positives, the photography of Gary Firstenberg

Jorma Kaukonen Wows Sold Out Crowd at the West Theater in Duluth

Jorma Kaukonen at the West

Duluth Reader publisher Bob Boone had a dream of renovating the historic West Theater. The challenges were many. In 2019, Boone brought the historic Art Deco theater to life through sheer determination. With months the beginning of our two year pandemic cut the legs out from under the rollout plan. Nevertheless persistence prevailed. The West is a wonderful venue for movies and performances. Thursday evening, Boone was delighted to place the words SOLD OUT on the West's marquis. Jorma Kaukonen was in town.

Bob Boone was delighted to introduce Jorma to the crowd. He began by admitting he did not know who Kaukonen was when he his connection in New York recommended him. The crowd had a better handle on that than Boone realized, many folks coming quite a distance to be here.

Jorma, whom Rolling Stone placed 54th on the list of 100 All-Time Greatest Guitar Players, has a long list of achievements under his belt. A member of the 1996 class of inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he has also been awarded a Grammy. 

Kaukonen's father was in the State Department, so he grew up all over the world before ending up at Antioch College in Ohio where he learned the finger-picking style that showcases his mastery of the guitar. From there he went to San Francisco where he met some folks who persuaded him to join their fledgling rock group. Till then he'd favored acoustic guitar, but was soon seduced by the technology of electric guitars and their capabilities. After recruiting his friend Jack Casady to play bass, he gave the band its name: Jefferson Airplane. Jorma and Jack evidently enjoyed jamming so much that they later went on to form their own band, Hot Tuna. 

The West concert was simple elegance, the sound system superb, the setting intimate. Kaukonen began by letting the audience know there would be an intermission and that there would be some CBD products for sale at that time. 

His presentation was something akin to being in his living room as he played some favorite tunes. Even at 82 his fingers moved with remarkable dexterity. It was apparent he enjoyed being able to bring pleasure to an audience through his music and singing.  The play list included songs like Take My Rocking Chair, Been So Long, Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out, Hesitation Blues, and Candy Man. 

He wore a red ruby-like ring on his right forefinger that glimmered in the spotlight as he played. His casual attire reflected his current down home residence in the Appalachian foothills near where I went to college. He also wore an aura of contentment and ease.

Late in the second half of the show he delivered two classics from his Airplane days: Good Shepherd (from Volunteers) and Embryonic Journey (from Surrealistic Pillow). An enthusiastic response followed each. His virtuosity at various points in the evening brought ovations and for many the evening brought back memories. 

The songs had many memorable lines. I liked, "The arrow of time goes only one way," a concept conveyed by Robert Frost's poem about paths diverging in a yellow wood, and our occasional tendency to wonder about things that might have been. 

It was indeed a very special evening. 

Keep your lamp burning. 

* * * 

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Class of 1996

David Bowie

Gladys Knight & the Pips 

• William Guest, Gladys Knight, Merald "Bubba" Knight, Edward Patten

Jefferson Airplane 

• Marty Balin, Jack Casady, Spencer Dryden, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen, Grace Slick

Little Willie John, 

Pink Floyd 

• Syd Barrett, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, 

The Shirelles 

• Doris Kenner-Jackson, Addie Harris, Beverly Lee, Shirley Owens, 

The Velvet Underground 

• John Cale, Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker

Throwback Thursday: Add Martin Guitar Factory to Your Bucket List

In the lobby of the Martin Guitar Factory.

Tonight Jorma Kaukonen will be in Duluth at the West Theater. Jorma is a Martin Guitar enthusiast and the company now makes a Jorma Kaukonen Signature Model M-30 acoustic guitar that you might fall in love with. 

The following was published in April 2019 after my visit to the Martin Guitar Factory, an impressive experience.

 

* * * 

I live in Minnesota, my family in Pennsylvania. Over the years I've spent a lot of time flying home from the ABE airport, a.k.a Allentown-Bethlehem-Emmaus. Like airports everywhere, ABE has a number of displays showcasing sites to see in the area. One of the sites advertised here is the Martin Guitar Factory in nearby Nazareth. Though I always expected it to be special, I had no idea how special their factory tour and museum would be.

Every business has a story, a starting point and a history. Martin Guitars just happens to have a story that leaves none of us untouched. That is, anyone for whom music or pop culture has been a part of their lives.

It began in Germany where a young man named Christian Frederick Martin, born to a long line of cabinet makers, left his home to go to Vienna to become an apprentice making guitars. Unfortunately, upon returning to Germany he found himself wedged between his dream and the realities of the guild system there. C.F. Martin left his homeland and came to America.

Martins have been in the center of music history for a long, long time.

New York was bustling, but business there had its challenges. Someone told him that there was land in Pennsylvania and an abundance of Germans there. In 1838, after five years in the big city, he bought a tract of land on the outskirts of Nazareth. Eventually it became a factory for hand-crafted guitars. By the time he passed away in 1873 he'd already created a legacy for fine guitars.

Two decades later an influx of Italian immigrants led to the introduction of mandolins to the product line. Distribution, however, was an issue for many years and things weren't always coming up roses.

Templates and tools of the trade.

In the 1920's there was a ukulele crazeand the third generation Martin was on it. Their initial entry into the uke market was lackluster due to the over-braced design. This was soon corrected and Martin eventually became the dominant ukulele in this arena. As the Roaring 20's roared, so did Martin Guitars. As with all market cycles, the 30's challenged everyone, including the Martins.

There's more than one way to respond to hard times. Some companies fold, others, innovate. The Martin Guitar Company chose the latter path. To their credit, they survived. Fans of all forms of American music have been beneficiaries.

Guitars with personality are part of the Martin tradition.

One of the innovations of this period was the Dreadnought, so named after a large class of World War I battleships. (In case you were wondering where that name came from.) It had a large body, booming bass and seemed a perfect accompaniment for vocals. In eventually proved to be the perfect instrument for the folk music scene that would soon evolve.

In the post-WW2 boom, the big challenge for Martin Guitars became keeping up with demand. In 1955 a decision was made to build a larger plant and really get serious about the business. The one constant throughout their history has been an adherence to high standards.

* * * *
This is a brief introduction only. If you play guitar at any level, you'll want to add "a visit to the Martin Guitar Factory" to your bucket list. You'll discover things about guitars that you'd never considered before. That sheen you love, for example, is the result of a process that includes nine coats of lacquer. The selection of woods, adhesives and strings are all part of the equation. You'll discover how they authenticate their guitars so that you know you have the real deal when you pay for your guitar. It's all there, not only the what but also the why.

The museum, too, is killer. You'll see the history expressed in the form of those who love the products they produced.

The who's who of Martin guitar players includes some of our most legendary names. Gene Autrey, Roy Rogers, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Jeff Beck, Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan, who played a Martin D-28 at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963, and a Martin 00-42 there in 1964. Dylan, a fan of Martins in the Sixties famously played a 1963 Martin D-28 at George Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. That Martin, which Dylan purchased for $500 sold for near $400K 46 years later.

Stringed instruments are their thing. 

Here are a few quotes that give you a sense of the value here.

I was in a parade with this singing cowboy
back when I was a boy circa 1960.

"I still play that guitar. It's a Martin D-18 with a clear pick guard. I've played that guitar on and off my TV shows for nearly 50 years. "
--Andy Griffith

"My favorite guitar now is my Martin HD-7 because it's got everything. It's got the jingle-jangle thing from the twelve string, it's got the flexibility of the six string, and the bass notes where you can do bass runs and that sort of thing."
--Roger McGuinn

"I only had time for one trip back in [to my burning house]. I grabbed my two prized possessions, a pound of marijuana and my Martin guitar."
--Willie Nelson

* * * *
There is a Martin Guitar Museum just off to your left, where most of these photos were taken. It gives you a sense of the history. Then there's the factory tour, and you see the great care with which the guitars are made. Both the museum and the tour are free. My iPhone battery was out of juice, to my dismay, by the time we got to the factory tour. It was exceedingly rewarding and I will likely return.

"Come gather 'round people wherever you roam..."

The Man in Black.

The Martin Guitar Factory Museum is a model for other companies
on how to market their brand. Don't compromise quality and
show others why people love their product.

Guitar pickers of all stripes drift through this lobby. Here's one I saw while I was there.

Birds-eye view of a table in the lobby.

For more information:
Visit https://www.martinguitar.com/about/visit-us/