Archive for June 14th, 2008

Narimichi Kawabata

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

A great musician transports your soul in such a manner that you forget your body.  The rapture that you feel transcends the corporal self and you are lost in the music. When it is this good, you want to know how such feeling could be generated by one person toward so many. When I heard Narimichi Kawabata play violin during a local concert, I had to find more. 

I searched the web and found very little in English.  It turns out this dynamic violinist is blind, but by the manner of his stage entrance and exit, that was difficult to discern.  His expression of power, energy, finesse and passion are clearly embodied in his music. 

His devotion to his profession began at an early age when his father told the 7-year old Narimichi that he would never see again.  Despite what must have been anger at the poor fortune of having his eyes melt from a bad combination of incorrect diagnosis and inappropriate medication, he fondly recalls his time at UCLA Medical clinic where doctors determined his ailment.

A PDF that has an extract and talks about his book. “Bokuwa Namidano Denai Mede Naita” (I cried with my eyes, which cannot produce tears. Find it here.

The U.S. Amazon.com only lists a few of his CDs, You can find them by clicking on this search “Search Amazon for Narimichi Kawabata“. 
The Japan site: Amazon.co.jp has a more extensive list of books and CDs.  You will find them by clicking on this search “Search Amazon in Japan for Narimichi Kawabata“.

Popularity: 3%

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Air Attack dot com

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

I have found lots of relevant and timely information on this site.  So I decided to give it some space here…

http://www.air-attack.com/

Popularity: 6%

Posted in Aircraft, Internet | 1 Comment »

Leadership

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

Leadership is a difficult to define quality.  Often it is described in terms of what it is not, or in the sense that “you know it when you see it.”  Time Magazine gives a good description of a leader who challenged Morgan Stanley Executives to participate and allow fire drills [click on the Link to 29 May 2008 Time Article "How to Survive a Disaster"].  Rick Rescorla pushed the high-powered bankers on the 73rd floor to run drills down stairs to the 40th floor.  He timed them and made them run the stairs two at a time when they weren’t moving fast enough.  Those forced practices sessions are credited with saving the lives of 2,687  Morgan Stanley employees and over 250 of their customers.  Today, Morgan Stanley employees ask “when is the next drill”.  Leaders know when to do even unpopular things because they are the right things to do.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense is taking his leadership challenge seriously. He just asked for the resignation of the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Ralph Peters posted an opinion published in the New York Post titled “Gates the Great“that highlights some of the concerns that may have ultimately forced the two highest Air Force leaders to quit.

There are dozens more stories of leaders and their talent for taking on the difficult missions, seeing them through, and then letting others reap the benefits of their decisions.  The leaders we look up to make us feel better even if we didn’t really want to change our ways.  We see that things really are better now.

When we give leaders a chance, they can help bring us all to a better place.

Popularity: 1%

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