I wanna be Scooby Doo

Oh boy, I really want this costume. I mean, who would you want to be? Scooby, Shaggy, The Incredible Hulk, Spider Man, my fave, Batman, or maybe Ginger and Mary Ann?

historic pots and planning

(pots by Gary Rith)
I just got these babies out of the kiln. The green stuff is, like the 400 year old originals, unglazed on the lower outside portion. This is not a usual practice nowadays, as you want to glaze the whole piece, but potters may have tried to save considerable time and trouble by not glazing the lower portion. OK, I can do as they did. I have in mind making a proper gallery of historically copied pieces by me and their documentation alongside.

guest dj CM checks in

Finally! Poor Angus are on youtube. First up, a short clip, because I was singing this when I got home last night. Works well as a lullaby (there was a baby in the elevator, if you can imagine at 2:30 in the morning).

Thanks, CM, to be continued.....

pops comes over

(Gary and pops)
So, off to the doctor early yesterday, I am most healthy thanks, then pops was over for lunch without his over-active dog, then out to help hang an exhibit of photos....OK, back to normal work stuff today, I hope.

Bennington College,class of 1987

When I declared that I wanted to go to Bennington, my dad asked 'why would you want to go to that crazy school for rich girls?' or maybe it was 'why would you want you want to go to a college for crazy rich girls?'. The question contained its own answer, don't you think?

This arrived in the mailbox yesterday, the real mailbox, on real paper:

Dear Mr. Rith:
Some months ago my daughter presented me with a blue teapot charmingly adorned by three little pigs cavorting on its lid. (ed. note: is there any other kind of teapot?)
Normally I do not write 'fan' letters but the little leaflet shows that you went to Bennington-well so did I-many years ago-your artistic talent and ability are not surprising! Happily I have been enjoying it.
Happy continued potting!
Sincerely,
EB

JD Salinger famously wrote in his novel 'Franny and Zooey': '...the Bennington-Sarah Lawrence type looked like she had spent the whole train ride in the john, sculpting or painting or something...'
Well, yeah, that's the Bennington type. We havn't managed to take over the world yet.

working hard on a Monday

Penny and Jack busy at their usual occupation.

elephant teaset

(teaset by Gary Rith)
I love this sort of thing. Tea pours out his trunk, or the trunk is the cup handle. I am in a show in September, collaboration with other artists being the theme, and a friend is making a table shaped and painted like an elephant to go with this set. THAT will be cool.

guest dj CM checks in

Moi je voudrais, by Jeronimo. A nice bouncy tune, the title of which translates as "I would like". I got nuthin' on this guy except that judging by the url of his official site, he's from Belgium. Which, as we know, doesn't exist.

Thanks, CM, and I didn't know that about Belgium. Some people seem to think it is all a liberal Clintonista plot, eh?

Mr and Mrs Pottersblog, 3 dogs, one cat, purple house

It is a coincidence that I am wearing a purple t-shirt today.

(Emily is fierce)
More later!

WOO HOO: BLUR SONG TWO

Live at Wembley and the studio video. Awesome tunes o' the day.
OK, for the pics: February sees a lot of internet and blog traffic, but we all have better things to do in summer don't we? We made a peach pie last night, it is amazing. Me here with my parent's dog Abby and their tractor at their petite farm near Ithaca. It will be 80 plus today, rather different than six months ago.
Also, I have been asked to make mugs for a new cafe, logo here, a most amusing challenge.

Darn BLOOGER! AND, rare DEEP thoughts with Gary

(stuff by Gary Rith and Jack looking glossy and handsome)
I am not receiving comments and some of you are unable to post them. Nothing too unusual, try anyway, alright?
I woke up Mr. Sunshine but realized I was quickly becoming Mr Hustle. For Gawd's sake, GR, relax. Plenty of time to get it all done today.
I am noticing that so much of what I read is 'memememe'. I know this is my blog, but I hope I don't seem to be too selfish with the attention. Some people crave the spotlight so much, they have their own little 5 star world. I blog to share and converse, and I hope that it comes across that way.

when I'm 64

Mick Jagger turned 64 yesterday, and we could say he has done pretty well with his life. The Beatles may have had the 60s, but the Stones had the 60s AND the 70s, plus a little of the 80s, and, well, another 20 or more years of not such great original music. But Mick and the band are still rockin'. From the beginning 'Time is my side'and later 'Start me up', kind of the bookends of their best years, early to late.

guest VJ penny checks in

Beagles like me are real dogs, but I have to admit, pug's are pretty funny.
Thanks Penny for stopping by!

guest dj CM checks in

To continue, from guest DJ CM, tunes o' the day: Then, a bit of bombast with One Hundred Years From Now by Dennis DeYoung and Eric Lapointe. This one sounds like something from Les Miserables. Some of the lyrics are in English, so you have some idea of the story. OMG! Too funny! Turns out Dennis DeYoung was Styx! That explains the bombast. Apparently this is the title track from his latest solo release (currently released in Canada only).

I, for one, wonder how the guy from Chicago who was Styx starting in the 60s gets together with a guy from Quebec born in the late 60s. Worth looking at all this to find out.

blue Thursday

(Casserole dishes and mugs by Gary Rith)
You can see I like this new dark blue glaze. It breaks over ridges especially well.
I am still fiddling with this camera, and the questions are: flash or not, macro close-up or not....

(by Gary Rith)
Just a thought.

my sock monkey visits Quebec the first time

As we were saying below, Stanstead, QC and Derby Line, VT share a library (you see the LINE going across the floor ofthe library!), opera house, streets, people's houses and yards and apartments can be in two different countries. Pretty friendly and wonderful, and should be kept that way.

go shop for fresh pots

(pots by Gary Rith, sans pig)
Go to my online shop NOW!

guest dj CM checks in

This was going to be a whack o' tunes but since I could only find two of them, it's but a tap. Anyway, since I've been back from vacation I've been listening to CHOQ, which is a French-language station here in TO (there's not much to their website, so I'm not including a link). Not only are the commercials only on the hour (and only a few of them at that), I'm hearing the most interesting music.

First, a bit of fun with Camping St-Germaine by Cowboys Fringants. Not the best quality video, but still fun. They seem like the French-Canadian version of rockabilly.

Thank you CM, more tomorrow. The wiki piece tells us that their name means 'Frisky Cowboys' which is HILARIOUS.
I had an unusual, for an American, experience Saturday in Ontario. A person who looked like anybody else asked if I spoke French, in French. He had very little English. Canada is, surprisingly enough, different. Whenever I visit Denis, who lives on the Vermont-Quebec border, I see all these Vermonters, whether of French background or not, speaking only English and no other language, even in towns like Derby Line, VT-Stanstead, QC, which shares a library and opera house (the line goes through the middle of that, and other buildings in the twin villages-they share stuff). Americans don't pay attention to other languages mostly, and there are all those French people a stone's throw away to the north. Of course, I forgot the Spanish and Greek I took in high school immediately, but the missus worked in Italy and France and remains fluent, so I have a tour guide.

ick

I swallowed a fly before breakfast this morning, causing all kinds of coughing. Then I was sneezing sneezing sneezing and blew out, yes, a dead fly. That's gross. I thought it was funny, but my wife, viewing all this, did not agree.
More, much more, including tunes, later.

cute dog and boots

The trivia of my life. I hate wet feet, and live in a wet place. The morning dog walk down at the playground soaks through even my 'waterproof' boots, even though they are regularly reinforced with goo. I am terribly happy about these blue rubber boots. Turns out they are womens: the tractor supply store sells black rubber barn mucking boots for men, period, but women have all kinds of cool boot colors. 19 bucks! Not bad.

before and after

(pots by Gary Rith)
So, wet pot bodies a couple days ago, become pots yesterday. They need to be fired today, so I placed them on a toasty warm, cooling kiln to finish drying, and fast. That kiln load, btw, was perfect and magnificent and will be posted a little later.

blue and blue together!

(cups by Gary Rith)
Thought I would seehow it looked if blue jeans and bright blue glaze were together. Fantastico!

Korn cover

I have put this up before, and it is a petty great live performance. Evanescence covers 'Thoughtless' by Korn, although the original video is a bit hard to watch.

blueberry bowls!

(bowls by Gary Rith)