I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!

Post 3,333. And that's it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Blogger tells me I am out of space!!!!!!!!!! Time for a new pottersblog.
Go to: http://grpottersblog3.blogspot.com/ NOT WORDPRESS!

Gardening with Gary: KIDS, DON'T DO THIS AT HOME

(my HOUSE, and my weed patch)
I was heading out into the studio a minute ago, and poor Spike. I had closed the door, and it wouldn't close all the way, and I hear hissing from the other side, and I look down and see a grey bit sticking through the door: Spike had tried to follow me (not allowed in the studio or outside, but he has been pushing it lately, as cats do) and got his paw stuck in the door and then Penny jumped on him when I opened the door (she doesn't like cats to hiss) then Emily, the other cat jumped on Penny who howled........ Jaysus. Well, I picked up poor Spike, and he was purring, and I set him down to give him a bowl of crunchies to apologize, and he dumped over the water dish with his sore foot by accident, so he was upset about THAT, but a bowl of crunchies cures all, that's for sure.

ANYWAY, I have to plant some flowers in the messy flower bed today, good for next year. Maybe I should weed a bit?

You can see I am ready for Art Trail, Open Studio weekends in October: COME VISIT ME! Last year I was surprised by Kate and Jim and Tracy!

Kiln Mojo restored

(wee little vases and a crock and spoon rest for TT)
Looks like a good firing yesterday, so Farmer's Wife, I think you'll be hearing from me about your order...
TT asked for a red kitchen utensil crock and spoon rest, which you see pictured, but I threw on a beagle for free (most generous of me!)
So, I think, if the planets and stars are playing games with us all, we need to relax, but make sure we cross our t's and dot our i's.

Rat is Dead

By CSS. EXCELLENT. From Brazil. Not exactly Hall and Oates....

Flake Report: Mercury is in Retrograde-- it all makes sense now

The missus tells me we are in for a crappy stretch here, beginning a few days ago. An astrological site here on the web tells us (so it must be TRUE!)

At 07:18 UT (Universal Time), on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008, Mercury the cosmic trickster turns retrograde in Libra, the sign of the Scales, sending communications, travel, appointments, mail and the www into a general snarlup! This awkward period begins a few days before the actual turning point (as Mercury slows) and lasts for three weeks or so, until October 15, just after the Full Moon in Aries.

So basically, don't try to do anything, and reports are that this is an especially devilish Mercury retro-whatever.

groovy celebs of the day: Tina and Yogi

Yogi and Tina had big weekends. Yogi Berra was on hand to say goodbye to Yankee Stadium, and Tina Fey won a bucketload of well-deserved Emmys.
Yogi is famous for, other than being one of baseball's greatest players AND managers, his loopy comments and quotes, such as: "Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours."
And Tina......well, Tina.....congrats. Keep it up Tina, and maybe one day you'll pass Susan Sarandon as my favorite.....well, you know.

restoring the karmic balance

(Mister Pottersblog, his smily sunny mug, his kiln, and a little something for Laura next week)
SO, as I say below, I am trying to tip the karmic balance back to happy skippy. Flowers for the wife yesterday? Check. A little ducky pencil topper for Laura (shipped next week) check.
The result? Cold may be easing, muffins were NOT burned this time and are most tasty, and most importantly, tore apart the guts of my kiln early this morning and put it back together again. Burned out connector and loose thermocouple wires. Few things depress a potter more than a kiln problem, and soooooo, fingers crossed today---because there are orders in there for Farmer's Wife, Lynda and Cheri (and Laura!).

Oktoberfest!

(stein by Gary Rith and a 25 ounce Foster's oil can)
J asks if I make beer steins, and SURE I DO! This is a cute one, I think, but would it hold 25 ounces????

le primitive

(items by Gary Rith)
Tink's weekly word challenge is for primitive! Hey, I've made primitive.

Friday..

...I'm in love again, a video request for The Cure from Holley. Did you know that their singer Robert Smith, now almost 50, met his wife when he was 14 and they have been together since and he sings these songs for her? That's cute! Holley herself, now a mother and in her 30s, met her husband when she was 15 and a high schooler!

REVERSING the bad KARMA

(flowers for the missus, Penny and Emily)
I was kind of feeling LOW this morning. Yesterday I burned the heck out of my peanut butter and jam muffins and worse yet, the KILN broke horribly (hopefully I can fix it). I was thinking:
a) if you fall off your horse, GET BACK ON, so made more muffins--perfecto this time
b) I need to reverse some bad karma, SO I got some flowers for the missus at the farm stand (eek! I havn't done this in soooo long!) AND I took a premium blue vase off the shelf in the studio and brought them to her new office at Cornell. Therefore, the people in her office think maybe I am a great guy, maybe SHE thinks I am a great guy, etc, and maybe the people in the new office want to buy one of my vases. That makes the flowers a tax deduction AND hopefully a little good karma too.

mememememememememe!!!!!!!!!!!

I gotta RUN but first: thanks Giggles! A small and fun meme

1. Think of all your exes. Would you take any of them back?
There is a reason they are EXES. I have no doubt they are all looking quite aged and bitter and would be most jealous of my wife.

2. What was the first car you drove? What happened to it?
AN MG convertible, yeow!!!!!!!!!!

3. What’s the longest amount of time you have driven a car non-stop?
Chicago to New York A FEW TIMES but also Miami to New York once, which I think was almost 24 hours......

4. Have you ever been stood up on a date? If yes, when?
HA! what is a date? Never had one....

5. What TV network do you watch the most?
Zip.
Netflix!!!!

6. Pick out a song you like that has special meaning to you. Share with us what song is it, and what’s the meaning to you. Psycho Killer by the Talking heads. Quest que cest, or whatever.

7. Who was your first celebrity crush on?
Maryan and Ginger!!!!! MARCIA BRADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8. What is your favorite romantic comedy movie?
That Christmas movie, Love Actually!

9. It has been said, "First Loves Are Never Over." Is this true for you? Well, when I was 5 or 6, there was Sally, and her life, according to my parents, has been rocky, although she IS a millionaire. If you are rich but your life is horrible, what does that mean? Better to be a poor slob with me, right Missus Pottersblog?

blech: little Mister Sunshine

(cups by Gary Rith)
Ugh.
So, I struggle with the kiln all weekend, but something is WRONG and I finally shut the thing off last night, 200 degrees short of the end, it just isn't working, so tear it open later and try, AGAIN, to fix it. Dang. I have so much work that needs firing, and here's a delay, and YES Farmer's Wife, your order is stilled unfired...
AND I made an ingredients mistake and the peanut butter and jelly muffins are hard as rocks and burnt too AND I spent the night dreaming I had to move from Florida today.
Grump and groan. I'll make it better today.

Holley checks in

When you are a famous blogger, the world makes demands, and Holley has a request. See that couch in the post below? Put yourself back 30 years, on that couch, in the basement rec room, faux wood paneling on the wall, ping pong table, hi fi stereo turntable, and orange shag carpet: I lived it and you did too. And here's Hall and Oates, thanks to Holley, sitting in that rec room, and singing for US.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

(Penny and the ugliest couch on earth, gone to its maker, and a rather FAB pizza we just made)
Is this the FUGLIEST couch you have ever seen????????????????? FUGLY FUGLY FUGLY!!!!!
We were walking just now and the apartments on the corner had this in their dumpster. When we got up to it, some dude in a little black car was checking it out!!! As my wife said, 'that would be perfect on some frat's front porch!'. The dude took off when we got near. He was ashamed I am sure!
So, maybe circa 1974? Totally polyester? I mean, this thing is in pretty good shape, and it isn't entirely brown--note the little blue accent in the plaid. What is it about 70s stuff that reminds you off the inside of a baby's diaper?

In other news, we made TWO rather delicious pizzas. I made the dough---super-paper-thin, and the missus did the veg chopping. Pizza number two is ready when we get home late tomorrow from teaching class.

BTW---I am nearing post 3,333 in two years and one month at potsblog. Blogger tells me that I have reached 99% of my storage space. That's a whole lot of music videos and stupid photos!
I wonder what happens when I reach 100%? NEW BLOG! Le nuevo pottersblog!

Priscilla Queen of the Desert

I loved To Wong Fu... and now I've seen Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. A drag queen road trip. You always wonder why Terence Stamp isn't in more movies, he's incredible. The other two girls are fantastic. I must say, CAMP is sooooo funny: the zebra prints, the bright colors, the gowns and headgear. It is a bit of a sweet love story too.
The regular guy gives this one 9 thumbs up out of ten, a big round of applause too.

2 cute girls

(Penny and Missus Pottersblog)
Now she will be mad I called her a girl. I am a bit reckless, as I post madly whether anyone wants to be posted or not, and the Missus prefers NOT.
But she had a hair trim yesterday, looks cute eh?

Someone asked yesterday how we met. Maude ran a gallery and open studios at the University of Illinois in Chicago where I was a grad student. In 1989 she sponsored the first gallery exhibit I was ever in, and I was on the poster! My pottery was anyway. And later I started working in that studio, teaching classes etc and we were friends for a long time and then started a thing in 1992 and then couldn't wait and so got married Christmas 1992. A long long time ago.

(pots by Gary Rith)
Some new things, including an angel mug for Chatty...

Wings: Silly love songs

(Gary and Maude Rith)
For Missus Pottersblog, I give you Sir Paul singing it better than I can

more HAWT stuff

I wake up thinking "Thelma or Louise? Cary Grant or Gregory Peck?"
Me? I would definately pick Susan Sarandon over Gina Davis, although Gina is mighty cute. With apologies to my wife, I'd wash Susan's convertible any day.
Peck and Grant is more difficult. I admire both guys a lot, but I think young Cary Grant was the MOST dapper actor ever, but Gregory had many better roles and movies.

HAWT stuff

(pots by Gary Rith)
The Ithaca Art Trail, 2 October weekends where the world comes to ME is around the corner. To kick the studio tours off is a large party and exhibition at State of the Art Gallery downtown. I need something HAWT to bring customers to ME, my studio, where they will spend bucketloads of cash so I can buy food for my cats. And dogs.
Obviously, it has to be a special piece, one that is UBER GARY, so I made this teaset and I think it looks pretty HAWT.

Spike the cat and his beautiful mistress

(Missus Pottersblog and Spike)
She'll ask 'why are you taking my picture? you're not going to BLOG this are you?' To which I am silent, maybe hum a few bars of that Minnie Ripperton song "Loving you, is easy cause you're beautiful..." then she asks 'well, you'll let me look at these first, WON'T YOU?' and then maybe I will sing something by Paul McCartney like 'some people wanna filll the world with silly love songs....what's wrong with that, I'd like to know.....'.
I thought I would post these pics before she had a chance to realize what was going on.
Better to apologize in life than ask permission, eh?

And I say Rock ON.......

(Mister Pottersblog shows some appreciation for Van Halen)
It seems clear that Pottersblog visitors might say 'ho hum, more beautiful and cute pottery' or maybe 'ho hum, more cute pets'. Visitors here seem to get excited by the participatory stuff, where YOU get to weigh in. To vote on the issues.

More important than the White House, what divides this country is Metallica vs. Van Halen. Or maybe it is only my fluffy little brain that thinks this is important. But tell us:
Van Halen or Metallica? Vote early and often, please.....

The Cradle Will Rock here by Van Halen has ALL the bells and whistles: the HAIR, the BARE CHEST, the TIGHT LYCRA BODY SUIT THAT LEAVES NOTHING to the imagination, esp. when David struts up to the camera for a closeup, and yes, the fuzzy white boots...


and Metallica's Nothing Else Matters....

ducky cuppy #1

(cup by Gary Rith)
Cheri and her daughter Laura asked about a duck cup, and this guy is the first. I glazed it light blue and light green for that sort of pond look. I think it goes 'one down, 30 to go'. Cheri and Laura need a lot of ducky cuppys.

Emily: Kitten Le Blob

We were just given a new quilt. The minute you put that thing on the bed BOOM, cat jumps on and starts to shed dark hair on the light colored cloth.

Thursday advanced class

With me at Cornell. This is a totally posed picture of Jenine, Susannah, Katie and me. (hope I spelled those names right!)
ANYWAY, it was a most excellent class--handles this week! Next week lids! Katie is working on some bird houses and aren't they absolutely cute???????

checking in with Nancy at Thou Art

(my cow bowl at Thou Art Gallery, more of my things plus books made by Missus Pottersblog, and Nancy Boyce, the artist who owns Thou Art Gallery)
I went up to see Nancy and buy our coffee on a pretty day, and she was painting some of her gorgeous pieces and we gossiped and talked art and what a fab little former church now gallery that it is.

checking in with the world's worst gardener

We had various unidentified plants and weeds out there this year. None of our tomatoes ripened early, or on time, but there are all these green things out there this week and FROST is expected in the coming nights. Maybe some of these guys will ripen on the window sill, and maybe next year I will read a book about growing a garden....

news from My Bloody Valentine

You've probably been wondering, as I have, what is up with My Bloody Valentine. They produced one noisy excellent little album in the early nineties, and have apparently been fiddling around since. Well, according to the New Yorker, they're back. And here's a noisy little something for breakfast.

VIKING KITTIES sing Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin

\m/

CM suggests.....

down on the farm

OK, last pics of my parents' place. And ME!

More shots of me around the parents' place.

more down on the farm

My dad turned the upper barn into a very nice year-round studio for painting watercolors.

sell the farm?

(Mister Pottersblog down on the farm, an hour east of Ithaca)
My mom just called to tell me that they are going to try to sell the farm. 3 years ago, due to HORRIBLE winters (which are the norm in upstate NY--see pic above), health problems, and the fact that mid-70s leads to the age of 80, they bought a house in town, 17 miles from the farm, which is NEXT DOOR TO THE HOSPITAL. Seems like a good move, but then they couldn't bear to list the farm, so stayed there, for now.
But it is inevitable that 2 aging folks would prefer to leave the extremely remote country place with the driveway that is about a kilometer long (and often under several feet of snow) which is miles from the nearest village of 300 people, and 17 miles from town.
So, do I feel sad? Well, the place has not sold yet. But you can see that I have had fun there. I did not grow up on this land, I was living in Chicago and in my mid-20s when they moved there.
The place has:
-a river
-a creek and small waterfall
-huge hills, HUGE
-its own very clean pond, which is very good for swimming, boating, it is stocked with trout etc, and you don't have to share it with anybody
-a barn-with a brand new studio/apartment on the upper floor
-a garage
-a small A frame house
-a wood shed
-2 old outhouses
-a boat house
-about 33 acres of meadow for hay
-60 acres of woods with miles of trails
-old apple orchard
-old Christmas tree farm--they have gotten pretty tall though
-no neighbors---it is surrounded by 5000 acres of state forest, and more hills and rivers
-the tractor is only 5 years old and comes with a grader, bucket loader, grass cutter, huge snow blower, a trailer and is wicked good fun

I am not a woodsy person, and I could not afford to buy the place, heck, I couldn't even afford the yearly tax bill! But, you know, things change, so I will say my goodbyes.
And it hasn't sold QUITE yet.

MIL comes to town

(cups by Gary Rith)
My mother-in-law graduated from Cornell, right here in Ithaca, 55 or more years ago, and she is visiting us for a couple of days. I won't say my mother-in-law is a party animal, but she is a whole lot of fun, esp. for a lady pushing 80. Or even if she was only pushing 30. I adore her.
Joe's Restaurant was here in the 30's, and it is still here. Different Joe, but still Joe's. In her freshman year, my MIL returned home at Christmas and told her father she had racked up 300 dollars in charges at Joe's (!!! a fortune!!! esp. in the late 1940s!) and her father told her to get a job....
We go to Joe's tonight.

Insane in the Membrane

By Cypress Hill. The dancing, the scratching, and that little WHIRR sound. \m/

The Kite Runner: A regular guy review

The Kite Runner is about 2 young boys in Afghanistan before and after the Soviet invasion and the Taliban takeover. Although it has a happy ending, you are not a happy viewer: at least twice I wanted to stop the movie and do something else.
Sure, a great movie, but no walk in the park. I can't give any thumbs up or down for this one. It is too painful.
Be glad you don't live in a place like Afghanistan, then or now.

READERS POLL: Hard Rock

(Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam)
Readers always amaze and amuse me. All those people down there voting on the Beatles and Zeppelin? OK, let's do it again:
What Hard Rockers do you prefer?????????? I think I know how most people will vote. Vote for your favorite, or rank all 3. UPDATE: Denis doesn't know Godsmack, poor boy. Go to this video link for the Pottersblog video of the YEAR 2006: Godsmack's 'Speak'. GIRLS!! Cars!!! Guitars!!!! Heavy METAL HEAVEN!!!!

A) Pearl Jam
B) Godsmack
C) The Bee Gees

Here's the Bee Gees 'Mend a Broken Heart' to help you with your choice....

weekly word photo challenge: she/he, him/her, male/female

Tink's weekly photo challenge is something about male and female, man and woman. There are so many obvious choices, BUT as I wandered across Cornell's campus yesterday, the modern sculptures screamed for inclusion.
YES, Cornell's art museum has Two Naked Guys Cafe, and there are 2 lifesize bronze naked guys in the cafe. Then I saw this naked lady outside the library. It is a cubist naked lady, but if you look closely, you realize, from the right angle, that she is in kind of a lewd position. Or not, depending on your imagination. Maybe it's just a big bronze blob.

bowls for Newt!

(bowls by Gary Rith)
Newt asked for some new pasta bowls--dogs and frogs, extra big servings.

@ Cornell Pot Shop

Ellen, Lauren and Pat, advanced students of mine, making wicked good pots.