More L S-B

Lynn Smiser-Bowers. Think of all the time she spends decorating a piece.

Lynn Smiser-Bowers, KC potter of the day

http://www.lynnsmiserbowers.com/

Ok, still hanging out in Kansas City. My third favorite KC potter is my MOST favorite, as anybody who knows me and my work might have guessed already. This woman’s work is so colorful and fun and well made, I wouldn’t mind spending a months’ grocery and cat food money on one of her pieces, and I wouldn’t say that about anybody else’s work in the world! My favorite potter on earth!!!!! As Wayne said to Alice Cooper "I’m not worthy!", but also as celeste would tell me, "patience, grasshopper", which my wife now uses as my nickname. Maybe one day I can be cool like Lynn S-B. OK, I will keep plugging away. Her resume, of course, lists a BA at KC Art Institute, and we can guess that Ken Ferguson got her started, etc. Like I said Monday.

North Korean Death Rays

According to Mrs Potter'sblog, everybody in the city has a head encased in cotton candy. What is this head fog, with attendant stuffed nose, sinuses, scratchy throat? Well, I place the blame squarely on Kim Jong Il, and although that is funny to joke about, it actually isn't funny to joke about. We are downwind of North Korea, after all.
Stuffed heads lead improbably to creative thoughts. Dreams of dog sled racing in far northern Manitoba, followed by some kind of of sky scraper and a rapid descent of stairs in order to get married, all over again, because I have been married nearly 14 years. Feverish, yes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL65_vsazKM

Radiohead, day 4, ‘Kid A’, LIVE. Thom Yorke dancing, great tune, nice camera job by some average Joe in the audience, in Dublin.

what a lovely firing

These are groovy cups. Hot off the press, freshly baked, luscious. Kiln openings are like Christmas. Well, good firings are. More stuff manana.

Everybody's favorite Welshman

Something's wrong with me today. I don't feel too good. Usual start, but then flew into the clouds, sat down with a peanut butter sandwich and woke up feverish 2 hours later. The good thing about working for yourself is that nobody cares if you fall asleep over your p.b and j, the bad thing is that work still needs to be done, in the other room, and unless you're dead, you do it. I love working for myself.
OK, some rousing tunes from Tom Jones to get a move on.

Steven Hill, Red Star Studios, KC

OK, also heading back to Kansas City potters. Steven Hill today, maker of bodacious and beautiful pots, setting new standards in functional work, and techniques. Maybe he is the best known younger potter of our day, or the most popular?

http://www.redstarstudios.org/steven_statement.php

He and other artists took over an old yeast factory in KC and make pots there, and he travels all over giving workshops. He glazes in multiple layers of color with airbrushing, but one thing that makes him unusual is his once-fired technique. Basically, people like me dry the pots then bisque fire them (call it a half firing) which makes for easily glazing and handling, before you fire them all the way. If you once fire, it is hard to handle the pieces, they are brittle, and you are adding water back to the piece, so it has to be dried carefully too. All right, who cares about all that, look at his wild colors and shapes!

havn't you...

http://www3.youtube.com/watch?v=_nA83pLw4h0&mode=related&search=

So, back to Radiohead, day 3. ‘Let Down’ here, an atmospheric thing. For tunes o' the day.

OK, back to monkeys too. The big guy on the right will have monkeys soon. I was toying with the idea of doing a ‘see no evil, hear evil, speak no evil’ thing, but prefer goofy monkeys instead, eating bananas and hanging around.
No dreams in memory, but Jack, our 11 year old lab, had another seizure, his 3rd in 3 weeks.

Radiohead week brief break for best of the 80s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcmenwqkjmA

OK, best tune of the 80s: Big Audio Dynamite, ‘E=MC2’ OR

Smith’s, "How Soon is Now’?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcaGoqY8EmY

I doubt if Celeste will vote for the Smiths.

monkeying around

Here it is 8 am and I really need to get the stuff down there glazed and firing, but with the nice comments earlier, I felt I could show off a bit, besides, I am totally stoked on this hazelnut coffee--so potent! So energizing! So happy!
Anyway, I dusted off some pics here from summer 2005. The two teapots below are in the fairly ordinary category. As in, simple round teapots, with the animal used as a knob. There is a supplier in California that has cane handles from England and bamboo handles from Japan (or China?) and they are just soooo good looking. This guy above is the last monkey thing I made, for a special order in 2005. It is in the category of 'let's do everything to this teapot we can think of': whack the bottom, slice the sides, slice the lid here and there, and then fit some monkeys on there too.'
The Spirit and Kitsch Cooperative Art Garage has been invited (there are about 30 of us) to a special exhibit at Smart Monkey Cafe. I am doing monkey things this week in preparation, and will post that stuff later. There will be bananas too, I think. Special exhibits are fun because you are challenged to make something....different?

two teapots

Nekkid in Iceland

Picture shows all the stuff made
Monday. I had this hazelnut coffee from Ludgates http://www.ludgatefarms.com/ and it fuels the beast it is so wicked tasty, I can potter til I drop.
It occurs to me, sometimes, that all these complicated and experimental cups need to be balanced by plain cups--as plain as I get, take a look at those 2 bright and swirly finished cups on the table. Just straight sided, but with the pig or dog, swirly glaze, easy to make as falling off a log.
But that thing on the left is special. There is this monkey exhibit coming up next week (????) that I will tell you more about, but yes, I am rising to the occasion.
Dreaming last night: OOOOPH! Talk about public nekkidness. I was at a spa, hot springs place in Iceland and the natives all knew how to change (or did they just go nekkid?) before going in, but why did I end up in the gift shop with only my boots to cover myself and a lot of Icelanders hanging around looking at me?
No, I don’t make this stuff up.

KC and Ken Ferguson, part 2

Ken Ferguson, part 2. OK, a couple more pictures. Note solemn elongated rabbits, and turtle on top!

Radiohead, day 2, 'Optimistic'

http://www3.youtube.com/watch?v=yvtacJD3GmU

OK, tunes o’ the day and WEEK: Radiohead, ‘Optimistic’ here. This is my favorite Radiohead tune, but there are so many good tunes from them. This one came from the Kid A album, which seemed to come and go pretty fast around 99 or 2000. It took me almost forever to find this video clip, so I guess I am the only who likes this tune. Anyway, you listen to Radiohead, and you don’t feel like ‘hey, I am listening to heavy metal, imagine that!’ or ‘my friends will have no respect for me because I played Rush on the blog’ (at least it wasn’t Steely Dan! yuck). With Radiohead you feel hip. Cool. In the know. Not easy for a 40 year old.

CUTE KITTEN IN A BOX

We are taking a brief break from potting to put up a cute picture of a kitten in a box. Our kitten Emily is 12 and a half, not very bright, cross eyed, very fat, but enormously affectionate and kittenish. Her older brother, Sam cat, would disagree with that description.

we interrupt this Radiohead week...

We know Kasabian is an exciting band, and 'LSF' an entirely fantastic tune AND video, maybe my favorite video. OK, our friends at Aol Music have a strange, non-prison break video version of 'LSF' here, but more than that, 'Club Foot', which was on the radio this morning--just plain exciting. The video of 'Club Foot' shows some kind of Prague uprising or Sarajevo thing, and I think these guys see themselves as peace activists of some kind.

and finally...

Well, you may read this starting here, but this is my last post for the early am.
So, last Friday I was playing store at the art garage coopertative I belong to, Spirit and Kitsch, and man, I can really ruin a machine. The cash register is simple enough, I guess, but I don't get out much, and let's just say that I created miles of hand voided tape, there were beeps, there was confusion, and I can't say I was calm. Move to last night: anxiety dreams of trying to ring up sales on the cash register, and there are mad beeps and irate customers....

"Kansas City, Kansas City, here I come...

...they got some crazy little women there, and Ima gonna get me one. " Classic bluesy, early rock and roll tune, and I did get me a Kansas City chick to marry, and everybody knows that Kansas women kiss better than any other women on earth.

Well, why do so many good potters come from KC, or live there now? I am gonna do a Kansas City potter's week, sort of, and we start with the source: Ken Ferguson. One of the big daddies of the twentieth century in pottery, he taught forever at the KC Art Institute, a former mansion and grounds in the middle of the city. One of the best potters of our time, MAKE NOTE of his clever use of bunnies here, making it respectable to mix animal sculptures and thrown pieces, as I do. His animals are solemn and serious, and half the great potters in this country, young and old, were his students.

The next generation

My niece and sister flew into town. Hard to believe, but that little blob of a baby is on a college tour. Heck, I was on my college tour just 25 years ago, where has the time gone? At least in my day college didn't cost 45 thousand bucks a year. Anyway, Leslie is, unlike me, smart, and also hard working, and college admissions offices should give her a whopping big scholarship.

RADIOHEAD WEEK

Ok, Tunes o’ the day, and about time too: Radiohead. Maybe this will be Radiohead week, and they deserve it.
http://music.aol.com/artist/radiohead/41092/main#

The question is, who is the art school, college crowd band for the 90s and oughts? Our generation (X that is) had the Talking Heads, thank gawd. Well, Thom Yorke of Radiohead grew up on The Talking Heads, and so we have him and his band. You have the srtrange, waily voice, the odd beats, and here are three very weird videos. ‘There there’ gets a lot of play on the airwaves here, and are very typical of them, but the other two videos here ‘Go to sleep’ and ‘Street spirit’ are sort of bonuses, but not exactly uplifting. Sort of gloomy and otherworldly, perfectly fitting a Monday morning mood.

beastley

Hard to believe there are

Beastie Boys videos that I havn't seen yet. Tunes o' the evening, if you will!

OK, so, I can make vases. easy as falling off a log. But if If I don't put pigs on them, then at least I can give them wild color schemes.

fat slug

Elephants make a good theme today. Heidi had her birthday, a monster ice cream cake was served, on top of a huge cheezy calzone. My dreams were lost last night in a cloud of fat creaminess.

Was it Lucia yesterday who mentioned parades of pachyderms and then my niece, sister, and dad were over asking about elephant pieces? I have probably shown this picture before, but it is a good teaset with an elephant teapot, missing only the creamer/pitcher you see below, from Friday. You can also see on the left the second type of elephant cup, squared, with the face and ears below and the trunk curving up. I started making those last year when a customer told me the other type, trunk down, was bad luck, good luck comes from elephants shown trunk up. I knew that custom, and I thought the customer was a rude idiot, but it got me thinking, and voila.

So, long before music videos, we had movie clips, like this sweet clip from the Beatles.

flying pigs and ME

So I went to Spirit and Kitsch yesterday, the Art Garage Coop, to play shopkeeper. Unlike Buffalo, it was a gorgeous October day, sunny and golden. I mentioned a couple of days ago I was going to make house signs and then pictured the parts from the roof. My example came out of the kiln yesterday, but could read "506" or "Jones" instead. It could even feature something other than a pig, like a dog or frog, depending on the customer. So, this example is on my display at S & K.

dream videos and dog dreams

I was planning something really raucous this morning, but it is so quiet and peaceful, let's go with Filter for tunes o' the day. The song and video are based on a dream the lead singer had one night. Sadly, in my opinon, the music is great, the video is strange.

Golly, such dreams last night. The last was worth avoiding: me, back in a new high school, our former neighbor-from-hell's menacing German Shepherd popping up in hallways here and there...

petit pachyderm pitchers

Some things make a lot of sense. I once saw a plastic plant watering can and the elephant's trunk was the spout, and it made sense, and is very humerous too. I have made teapots that are elephants, where the spout is the trunk. These guys are fairly simple to make, and good for use as a coffee creamer, or anything like that. Naturally, this means I need to remember to make a pachyderm teaset next week.

that time of year

This picture comes from the Albany newspaper, TWO FEET OF SNOW fell overnight, just to the west of here (where it is currently cold but sunny). Buffalo got hit so bad that there is no power and I cannot even get the Buffalo news online.

Irish coffee redux

There has been talk here of Irish coffee mugs. I made a rather wild one last month, and it was pictured, but there was something a little too ???? about it. Well, I was shopping for Heidi's birthday on Wednesday, and had a petit AHA! moment. I saw a pair of Irish coffee cups, and they were only medium /small in size, and they were wicked cute--the proportions of body and base to whole were perfect. I could see my mistake last month: I had made a full size mug and put it on a base, and the overall thing is just over-huge. So, I came home, threw a much smaller base and body, and as you can see, the finished little guy is perfecto! (he still needs his pig or dog on the handle)I have a bunch of different Irish coffee mugs around here that I have made, and when these boys get out of the kiln, we can do a comparison.

Tunes o' the day: radio 4

Radio 4 shares something with the BBC, which makes googling them almost like searching for a needle in a haystack. Their website is terrific, the music even better, BUT I can imagine Celeste loving the music in the video for 'Enemies Like This' (as I love it) and then rolling her eyes and calling the boys performance 'precious' in that scornful way she has. And I would agree with her. Too many cheerleaders and other distracting pompous artsy touches.

trampoline

So the cats treated me like a happy little trampoline between 3 and 4 am, leading to feverish dreams of college when I was a senior and needed to get a show together to graduate.

Shopaholic

From the Ludgate website we get these excellent pumpkins and flowers. My customers have been spending a lot of money there (thanks!!!!) and keep it up! Just delivered MORE MORE MORE! And....

because my Saturday afternoon craft fair has been canceled due to SNOW predictions, I can up the quantity of stuff I have at Ludgates AND.....

Spirit and Kitsch, who just called to say they are putting me up front, by the door, near the window, but not IN the window, although I currently have stuff in the window, it is wise to avoid Gary and the Window Curse, and keep my stuff by the entry instead.

the good, the bad, and the ugly

OK, I had an email from Jessie asking about the roof. Jessie was correct in noting the rather heavy rains that fell yesterday and today, and our old and porous garage roof. My tar patches held up nicely, thank you very much.

More importantly, let's talk about being an experimental potter. I mentioned earlier I was working on some new things and would post pics later. It is later. You have the before and after here. Nice vases, freshly made on Wednesday because I said 'what if I chopped here, and whacked there?' The guy on the left was pushed too far and fell apart (!!!) and the guy on the right was sliced and diced, and held together fine, but looked UGLY. Final result, scrap pile, where ugly pots and trimmings go to die and live another day as a bowl or something....

Got a VERY HUGELY HUGELY SUCCESSFUL experiment to post tomorrow morning, tune in then folks.

Fat Dog

Jack is a big dog, but not a Fat Dog, like his cousin who posed for the label of Stoudt's Fat Dog Oatmeal Stout. Jack is very athletic and handsome, sporting his favorite blue bandana.

An AHA moment!

Well, my friends and Yahoo have been no help at all here, (although they have tried and tried and tried, but I am an exceptionally slow learner) but maybe the kitten helped me figure this out. You type in Beasties, then highlight it, and hit the links button, paste the http, and AHA!!!
Then you go dance in the snow........

Um, celeste, no it doesn't, maybe you can explain again?

6:13

Alright, triple busy day today and I am not ready for posting pics. Most days you will, say, glaze pots in the morning, (goof off with the computer and have lunch) then throw or trim pots in the afternoon. Something like that, 2 different tasks. Today is that occaisional day when I do all 3 of the pottery making tasks, glaze, then trim then throw, plus there goes the temps, so I think trying to replace the screen doors with glass is a good idea. But, speaking of trimming, I have a couple of experiements in the works, and will post that stuff later.
Yesterday's big experiment, of course, was making a link here. Although it looks cool, adding all that code to an html sure seems like a lot of work.
Big dreams last night, the import of which pales in the face of my 'special dream guest of the night', Kim Basinger who was...passing through with her boyfriend. I didn't even get an autograph. So, tunes o' the day dedicated to Kim: c'mon, Ms. Bassinger, walk this way.

Ha! I think I figured out links!

Let's celebrate with the Beasties

A good beer blog

http://beerblog.genx40.com/archives/2006/october/quicknote
What is this, my 5th post today, and it is only 8:16?

OK, loyal readers remember that I am a beer journalist at Beer Blog. Latest edition of incompetent beer reviews in my name above. At least I have fun!

final entry today, really!

Fantastic Brown Trout Artisans logo by Suki, Pig and Pot by me.

Gah, what a dream. We were staying with my parents, who were being so nice, but it was breakfast time and M gave the cat some chicken soup which he horked up all over the floor and I had to clean and I woke up CRABBY.

flying pigs and potters

Of course I wasn't flying, thank goodness. Alert readers in the post below may wonder why I took a photo of a drying sign, from the roof. Even more alert readers will recall that last week I went to the rooftop to do repairs on the ancient and leaky garage roof. That repair showed that I had a lot of repairs to do, and the WEATHER REPORT IS CALLING FOR SNOW. (good thing I have a craft fair Saturday evening, darn it all). We moved from northern New England to northern New York. Both are quite snowy, early and often, from before Halloween to after Easter.

Anyway, the roof is in better shape now, thanks to me, some gloves, and a lot of tar. I couldn't resist taking pics on such a pretty day. This picture shows the studio entrance here at the purple house, including the flying pig on a hook. (upper left, by the Arcuri Democrat for Congress sign). The sign at the studio door is one of my three logos. This was my first logo, just spectacular, painted by my sister. Suki penned the second, a BTA with a fish in calligraphy, and the silly pig and pot is my own doodle.

More flying pigs

OK, last week hanging around Spirit and Kitsch
http://www.spiritandkitsch.com/intro.htm

I saw in the Talk book that a customer was looking for a ceramic house sign. Well, as I have said, I am stubborn about orders and other people’s ideas, but I said, ‘hey, if I did it my way, this could be fun’. So, I thought a nice shaped background, a scroll type thing for letters, and a flying pig on top. I took this picture from the roof as it dried a bit, and the scroll bit and pig havn't been attached yet.

Goth Metal from Finland???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisonblack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ09asJ5474

I had Chrissy and Celeste in mind with these tunes o’ the day, so here is the story: So, let’s say you have Canadian friends coming over and you search for Rush, that early 80s band, that I have to admit sounds pretty good after all these years. But what if something really really weird comes up? Like a Goth Metal band from Finland called Poisonblack playing their tune ‘Rush’ (who could have guessed I would discover Finnish Goth Metal at age 40?)? Well, you might listen, as I did. I have to say, I DID like this tune quite a bit, as a person might find themselves surprised to be enjoying Rob Zombie. A second look at the video says ‘danger Will Robinson, danger!’--this is not necessarily a family friendly video, actually, it is disturbing and demonic. So, let’s laugh a bit at the folly of it all, and play ‘Finland Finland’ by Monty Python

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvK4yfFyblE

http://www.sendbread.com/

When Pigs Fly Bakery, York, Maine

when pigs fly

My parents were strict, which is a helpful way to start life, with a clear idea of what the rules are, but they never said anything like 'I'll let you get a tattoo when pigs fly', which some parents probably say on a daily basis. So truly, I came to that expression late in life, and flying pigs are a funny image. Last week, as I said, I was actively procrastinating, made myself a little flying pig, and he now lives in the front yard on an iron hook. He is flying superman style, sans wing or cape, and looks good just like that.

finishing

At the rather fab open house Sunday I made a number of pieces, but folks didn’t have a chance to see the finishing process. Once a piece is dried overnight, the pot is turned over, as on number 1, trimmed as the wheel spins for a nice foot ring as on number 2, then signed and set up to finish drying as in number 3. Of course later, glazing and final firing, as in number 4.
Finishing pottery can be simple or complicated. I never trim a piggy bank, just clean the rough area with the knife and sponge, then add eyes, ears, trotters, tail. But with bowls, cups, vases etc you want a clean and even, attractive surface. Sure, it is under the pot, but as they said when I was learning this stuff in college ‘a Japanese master always looks at the bottom of the pot. Did the potter finish the piece as beautifully under as with the upper part?’ and as Jane my instructor always said in a thick Texas accent ‘juuusst make sure the top and the bottom of a pot are perfect, everthang in b’tween takes care a itself’.

flogging molly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOXAnmFIOr4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f6GKi5hpxQ&NR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flogging_Molly


So, our old pal cm is visiting, as said before, and she is very into modern Celtic music, such as yesterday’s Poor Angus, and of course, The Pogues who may have started it all, and she was even kicked in the head at The Dropkick Murphy’s concert. Just before she left, the radio played Flogging Molly’s ‘Laura’ and I didn’t aske her what she thought of them. Awesome tune, when are they coming to my town???? So, Tunes o’ the Day from Flogging Molly.

mushy

Thanks for everything Madame R, I love you sweetie!

open studio wrapup

You would be amazed at the number of nice people who stopped in this weekend. We counted at least 30, nicely spread out over the whole day. Parking never seemed to be a problem. Kids came too. I demonstrated finishing some piggy banks, but I noticed everybody stopped their talking and such when I threw on the wheel, therefore I did quite a bit of throwing. Somebody said it looks like magic. Well, it is almost, it caught my attention back when I was a teen, and I am lucky to make pots every day, and lucky all these nice people came over, from Canada even, and especially lucky to have the help of Mrs Pottersblog.

cm

(cm chooses to remain chic and mysterious)

http://www.poorangus.com/

Tunes o' the day, Celtic music by way of Ontario! The best!!!! Look for their new cd!!!

So, our Canadian guest departs this morning for the great white north. cm has been an unbelieveably fun guest and we will miss her. On the one hand, it would be nice if she lived around here, on the other, this provides us with a tour guide on our own vacation north.
Geeez, what a great guest, thank you so much cm.

Gen x at 40 reunion # 6

You know that fuzzy elephant on Sesame Street called the Snuffleufagus? How you never quite get there in time to see him? cm was here this weekend for the gen x at 40 reunion, and Alan missed her.

Open studio weekend!

We are having an open studio tour today. Our old pal cm, who prefers to remain chic and mysterious, has driven hundreds of miles and crossed international borders to visit us. We need something rousing for tunes o' the day, so here is Blur ‘Song 2’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ-6xGaETHQ

I dreamt i was at a kenny g concert!

No I didn't. Wicked busy here at Santa's North Pole Workshop.

Rush

OK, so it is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, and we have Canadians visiting!!! Yippee. Everybody knows that if you want to have a good time you have to get a few Canadians on board.
So, going back to my youth, say 1981 or thereabouts, here are a couple of clips from Bob and Doug MacKenzie and 3 from Rush. Holy cow, this stuff is good. Take off, eh, from the great white north.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh4k3L0WrEE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-llwCUTdQM&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhcM_hx0zxw&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSweDJP1CAM&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5g4mQk96Aw&mode=related&search=

Little cups again

So what we have here is that sweet little cup made last week, from a doodle. It turned out well, and Madame Pottersblog models it even better. I put super celadon on it, a color which Madame P.B. also happened to be wearing Thursday am. Super celadon has to go on the piece almost as thickly as pudding, which is alarming. As for this cup, remember I mentioned that it had so many steps in the making it would be hard (at first) to reproduce? So, I made 3 Thursday, only one of which was correct.

Ooohh Canada...

The garage is very old. Pictures of our house from 130 years ago show the basic house with a shed in back. This place was the cobbler's home and workshop. 50 or so years ago, an addition was added, my studio now, and the shed was moved up and attached. Just about everything in the garage is old, drafty, creaky and leaky, so I went up on the roof to tar some holes. Turns out I need to tar the whole darn thing, sigh, so back for more.


OK, back to Canada! Here is a sweet pop/folk singer named Sarah Harmer, who has sort of disappeared from the airwaves after much success a few years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Harmer

Turns out she has been an activist, and hanging out in Kingston, ONT. And she has produced plenty of music, but why havn’t my stations played it? When she sang ‘basement apartment’ my lungs hurt too. (oh, that sounds soooo sentimental, but really!) Try this tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3BnEIi97YI

BAD SANTA

There is a funny story about Santa Dogs, believe it or not. So, the bird feeder outside the studio was attacked by a chipmunk Wednesday. I was making little Santa Dogs (see picture!) and I ran to the door and began tearing the clay dog in my hand apart and throwing little wet clay balls at the invader. Can you believe I hit him square on with my fourth and final toss? At 20 plus paces? My mother says I must oil the stand, making it slick and unclimbable.

Buster here shows some Santa Dogs, ornaments which improve every Christmas tree.

Many Canadian Tunes o' the day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tegan_and_Sara

http://music.aol.com/artist/tegan-and-sara/437241/main

http://www.teganandsara.com/index.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pal7YktvAs0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlpPyNQCORc&mode=related&search=

Let’s talk about Tegan and Sara. In 99 and 00 they had some fanstastic singles, which I like better than their current hit single ‘Walking with a Ghost’. But let’s step back for a sec.
I have friends coming for a visit from Ontario this week, and so we go back to Ontario, to a pair of sisters (just like KITTY! except less noisy, and twins). The thing with ‘Walking with a ghost’ is they do something strange to their voices, and they have quite sweet voices as you can find by listening to samples at the website above, from several years ago. Maybe they didn't like sounding folksy. Their website is a fun wander, AOL has the video there, and Wiki gives you the scoop. The last 2 youtube videos are earlier work. Now you can impress your friends, as a Tegan and Sara expert.

Gone Daddy Gone

OK, so we have blogger beta now which may mean that I spend less time wrestling with the darn thing every morning, therefore BIG midday pic. Jack D: here is some of the stuff I finished yesterday and had thrown Monday. It has to be dry and go into the bisque firing Thursday, therefore must be bone dry. The kiln is cooling from yesterday's glaze firing, the studio is nice and toasty.
I am gonna slip this in here today, Gnarls Barkley covering The Violent Femmes 'Gone Baby Gone'. A very funny video, but, ah, not as family friendly as it could be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKZR_9e_reM&eurl=

Alpha beta gamma

OK, now in Beta, whatever that means.

LUDGATE FARMS, ITHACA

http://www.ludgatefarms.com/
Remember everybody, shop early and often at Ludgate Farms. They have sold a ton of my pots, which means we can still buy catfood.

The perfect bowl?

So, what makes the perfect bowl? This guy looks pretty darn good.

Jack asks...

OK, so I get this email from ‘Jack Disaster’, our Jack D., whatever his real name is (he seems harmless) asking about a potter’s usual day. I have the feeling our Jack is a pottery student or something, lurking about looking for tips. Well, Jack, you’re not going to get any tips from me. I will admit yesterday was pretty insane, pots from dawn til dusk, 6-6. Busy day and week. So, except for the many breaks I took, what went on?
6ish other than reviewing other blogs and tending my own like a delicate little plant, I had to glaze. Glazing is 2-5 hours depending on decorating. Little dogs that need painting slow things down, for instance. Elevenses follows, as the person who gets up early wants an early lunch, and then...............huh. Some pots, as you might know Jack, finish quickly. Others don’t, like the simple little bottles turned into piggy banks--you add the ears and snoots and trotters and such. Sooo, except for messing around online and taking care of dogs, suddenly it was 6 pm. Miller time. You know Jack, I find that strangely just sitting there at the wheel all day my old body feels like I was chopping logs all day. Exhausting, in a way. Good thing I don’t have to chop logs or dig ditches for real, I’d be dead in a day.
No dreams to speak of....

Tunes o' the day: Death Cab for Cutie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0hTJF7xqV0
Death Cab for Cutie! No no no, it isn't what you think. My sister and niece and just about everybody would love this little tune and video, totally g-rated. This gets a lot of airplay on the radio, another Seattle area band of nerds making it onto the big stage.

Watch it while you can!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrUYKB99IXs
The record company or somebody has pulled some copies of this video, so catch it before they find them all I guess. I swear tomorrow I will post something less noisy.
OK, OK, I am working, really, but I get a break too, huh? Linkin Park, 'In the end'

More concise bio

Gary Rith started learning pottery in 1983 and earned a bachelor’s degree in art from Bennington College in 1987. He has been a full-time sculptor and potter since 1997. Gary started his business in New Hamspshire, where he was selected as a member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen in 2004 and in 2005 was named one of New Hampshire's Emerging Ceramics Artists. He moved to the Ithaca, NY area in 2006, near where he grew up, and is happily making pots and sculpture in a purple house on Fall Creek in the hamlet of Etna. Gary likes to laugh, and his first goal is to have fun making pots.

Her majesty

Oh, who cares about my dreams anyway? Well, so far the cat and the wife today, but maybe the cat was looking my way and daydreaming about mice.
So last night took me to England where I was a special detective on the Queen's bodyguard brigade. You know, the tough guys who get to guard her life with their own, not the guys in the red outfits and bear hats, nor the beefeaters either. The Queen had lost some papers in London, and we were walking around looking for them, and she saw a bagel joint and wanted to try it for lunch, so we all had lunch there which she thought was quite novel and so did the average people in there who were surprised the Queen was wandering around like anybody else.
I felt very important.

Speaking of nightmares

http://www.gofish.com/player.gfp?gfid=30-1048597&hid=1458266526
I didn't have one last night, but this video tune o' the day sure looks like a nightmare. You know how teenagers like a lot of mayhem and such in their videos, noise too. As I have said before, something about Godsmack really holds together. Not to everyone's taste, but I find it a rather rousing way to start the morning.

Gettin' it together

So what do you do when Christmas is on the horizon (retailers like me are always 2 months ahead) and you have a rack of orders and Santa ornaments to make and all the rest? Well, it is like school days, when a deadline looms, time to do something FUN for YOURSELF. Time to make that flying piggy for the back side of the bird feeder. He is supported here on some brick pieces while he dries. I think that a sort of crazy, awkward tumbling through the sky posture is best for a flying pig, who you might not consider graceful. I am also wondering about the multi-media possibilities: wings or not? I know from past experience that I make bad clay wings, but maybe this guy could have cloth wings? But since it will be outside, maybe snip some aluminum for wings? He was originally plotted as wingless, but I guess I will have to see what he tells me when he comes out of the final firing.
This other picture, of pig and cup bodies, shows that after a rather strong and tasty hazelnut coffee, solid work was completed.

King of Pain turns 55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpjsgeBHS4g

The king of pain, Sting, turns 55 on Monday. This is a rather R rated video of a monster techno version of Desert Rose, barely family friendly, unless you asked my mom, who would say it isn’t family friendly at all.
Of course we all loved the Police back in our teens. Sting has done well as a soloist, and did a good job in the 80s acting in 'Dune', a mess of a movie, and better in ‘Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels’ in the late 90s. You think he is selling Jaguars in this video, but in some of the other parts, you wonder if his wife knew he was doing this?

Beastie Boys, that's it for now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc0dp1HSljY&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT8YUB1Ym0A&NR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3CafF1fumU&mode=related&search=

I am trying very hard to get the Beastie Boys out of my system. They are just so funny and entertaining, a really good show. Sly, silly, energetic.
Speaking of sly and silly, there has been some discussion of birding and twits lately. If Alan and Denis had ever met, they would realize that they are like me: full of sly and silly humor. This is a dark world sometimes, and so we must laugh at it. Carry on boys, you're on the right page.

Buster, the Psychedelic Furs and ME

Let's just say that not a lot of work got done Sunday, but Mrs. Pottersblog got her shopping trip, I got my (knockoff for 5 bucks) Ray Bans shades and a spectacular hot fudge sundae. Monday, I am loading the kiln at 6 am and......trying to catch up. We look sharp, do we not?

Babar's teaset

I make a boatload of these little elephant cups. Some things make a lot of sense. In this case, the handle is the elephant's trunk. I have an order for some of these cups. It also makes sense that the teapot's spout is an elephant trunk. This particular teaset was in the teashop fire, and I don't know how it will look. So, making today, elephant stuff.

Tailgate time two!

So, a bunch of Canadian friends came down, single for the day, to tailgate and go to Syracuse football. Mrs. Potters Blog had invited me to tailgating and Cornell football later, so although I didn't go to Syracuse football, I did tailgate with these guys. Middle Ages Brewing is a must stop for anyone who wants FREE BEER, but since I was Mr. Taxi for these guys, I had to actually spend money on a six pack for home. These guys are all carniverous, masculine meat-eaters, unlike super-macho me, the vegetarian, so they wanted Dino Bar-B-Q for lunch. It is probably the best bar on earth, right there in Syracuse. It is such a great place they exported one to New York City. It is all about the sauce, though. If my friends were blindfolded and a portabello burger was put in front of them loaded with Dino Habenero sauce, would they know it was veg? Especially considering all the free beer and such? I think not, eh.

Those jolly fellows had a grand game, double Syracuse OT win, but our games here are special. The huge band, the acrobatic cheerleaders, the ancient stadium, the rain, wind, thunder and lightening--a more authentic college football thing.

Beastie Boys again and again!

I was going to put up some rather noisy and creepy Godsmack videos for tunes o' the day, but since it is early Sunday....just seemed a little too much. Sooo, 'Whatcha want' from the beasties instead!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyFEj1hq88A&mode=related&search=