Kingston, Ontario

I don't see any palm trees.

(thanks Google images, Queens Univ. and the tourist who posted the docks)

travels with gary

Having never been to Kingston, Ontario, I naturally dreamt of it extensively last night. My parents and I were wandering around on a warm day and there is a spectacular beach next to city hall that looks just like Miami Beach, but I took my dog Buster into city hall and we were wandering around and bumped into Alan who was very surprised that me and my dog were wandering around in his office, and although happy to see me, he was wondering if I was some kind of stalker.

I shall be very disappointed if this city on Lake Ontario does not have a gorgeous beach with palm trees. Anyway, everything I write here is true, although I do spread it on thickly at times, but I do not lie or make up stuff. I don't have to! If I am able to travel to Ontario, and there are strangers reading this, we will be the ones on the beach. I will be wearing my black Led Zeppelin t-shirt and wild hula-girl swimming suit and my wife says she will be the one in the black leather mini (see Halloween). OK, I made that part up.

So, little face mugs above. Nothing like a green face on your coffee mug leering up at you for sipping pleasure.

Our old pal CM has flown from Toronto to New York city to do some secret work for BIG CORP, and she has plans to hang out with my sister-in-law Emily. This is all quite cozy, and shows the power of blogging. All these nice strangers getting together, but HELLO to cm, have fun.

Alright, How About Jane's Addiction's other big hit, an irresponsible guide to shoplifting?

where an elephant teaset begins

I got confirmation around 4 that a customer needed an elephant teaset, like the one down a couple of pics, in blue. It needs to be dried and glazed and delivered soon. I said I would be able to show step one by 5:30, freshly thrown cup and teapot parts. Check.

ok, 2 elephant creamers for a teaset

sugar bowls

another way of making an elephant teapot

Ok, one way of doing an elephant and a teapot

Dental perfection

Gordo is well known herabouts. Now, I hate orders, as mentioned before, BUT I always listen politely, and heck, sometimes people have good ideas, like Sean and the hippo sugar bowl (I made another just now, on the right). So, Gordo has a family, saw Sean's toothbrush holder, and asked about one with a starfish. I think he had some good and specific ideas, but I got my own ideas and ran with them. The problem with an order is if it is somebody else's idea, you make it poorly. You have to get into yourself, with the planning and such, to do your best work. Like Denis saying I should do Big Foot. Just can't picture it, Denis.

But I have made many cute little starfishes, although not since about 1996. Gordo is giving me a VERY helpful idea here. So, his family has maybe 5 humans in it, plus maybe the occaisional visitor. Six holes then. BUT, how to wrap the arms of the starfish around the holes, yet leave the middle open for toothpaste? Also, if there are little kids, maybe kids toothbrushes are really short? I dunno. The holder on the right was the taller first one, the far left is with the top curled over a bit. It seems to me that these 2 starfish have sort of a saucy look about the lips....

Anyway, I think I want to glaze them entirely in light green, but maybe one of the starfish I will leave as a sandy color? I will do one each way.

up to 2300 plus

You havn't asked yet, but OH YES, it was on your mind. 'What's all this talk about kilns, computers, microwave ovens?'
The kiln I use most often, to about 2200 degrees F, which is what, about 1000 c? is on the right. The large blue box on the right is the firing control, you can just see the digital readout and number pad on the top. Yep, just like a microwave, roughly: key in time, temp, hit start. It has an automatic program you can use, or alter as you prefer, and it goes slooooow at first, then fast then faster, and sloooow at the end, and I program two extras: at the start I XXXXXXXX secret and at the end I also XXXXXXXXX secret. The second bit, at the end, promotes crystal development, and each of my glazes has a lot of XXXXXXXXXX secret ingredient one, two, and three, to make crystals. Crystals, to the layperson, are speckles, in this case. If you XXXXXXXX for 3 hours, it would make huge crystals, but I don't do that.
Anyway, industrial blower on top with a counterbalance on top, to raise and lower. Big duct out the window to remove water vapor, sulphur dioxide and carbon something oxide, out of the house.
The 2 little kilns on the right are also electric kilns, and I don't use them often, unless I have to repair the big guy. I have torn the big kiln apart a few times: the more fancy features, the more that can break down, sigh.....like the thermocouple, twice replaced, 5 of the six elements, and most of the wiring inside.

Jane says

It had been a busy morning, Sunday. I had to glaze fairly fast. Glaze firings last about 12 and a half hours total, going to around 2200 degrees. Therefore, you want to get an early start. In the evening, around 1950 degrees, the kiln made some electronic squeals. You never start the kiln and then go out on the town, you know, just in case. Although it is computerized, like a microwave oven, things can go wrong or break, although they seldom do go wrong. So, the fuse was loose and the kiln was kinda off and on there at 1950, and I made sure it stayed ON. The firing had been briefly interrupted, but all was well and it was a good firing, and this teapot for Shelly, for example, came out very nicely. The question is, where do you get these sexy bamboo handles? Aftosa in Calisfornia sells them now, this one is from Sheffield pottery in Mass. There are rigid wire loops at each end, so you use pliers and tighten the handle onto the teapot.
Dreamt that Spirit and Kitsch Gallery had added a preschool, which makes sense in a way, as us artists are little kids still messing around with paint and clay.
OK, Jane's Addiction, 'Jane Says'. What is it with this band? They are so strange, but certainly had a couple of sweet hits, this one may be about their biggest. This performance is quite a spectacle, and you sorta wanna join the fun.

Inspiring: Kerry Jameson

(pug by Kerry Jameson, UK)
Kerry Jameson is a sculptor in England. Currently, she is making cute but unsentimental sculptures of dogs, which are fairly large. Awesome.

cuteness

So, our old Pal Sean needs a toothbrush holder, with a hippo. In my mind, that meant an alligator was needed also. I know, everybody who saw this before thought the alligator look skinny and anemic, perhaps you will agree that the green glaze was just what he needed.
There is more to the toothbrush holder than meets the eye OH YES! In this case, the six holes should not line up over the animals, because that means the brushes would come down on them. Also, when I made my first toothbrush holder, LONG AGO, toothbrushes were slim little things. Now with all the comfort grip contouring and ergonomic doodads they are rather thick, so the modern toothbrush holder must have wide holes. And, in Sean's family, I think there are five humans and one cat, so this is a big toothbrush holder, six holes.
This is gonna cost him, OH YES. Better go to the bank mister, and get yourself a wheelbarrow full of loonies....

Bernard Leach and his legacy

(Leach Pottery, UK)
No figure did more for the studio potter than Bernard Leach. In the early 1800s factory work meant goods became cheap and mass produced, including pots, and they were easily and cheaply shipped on trains. This ruined the livlihood of the country potter, who supplied his neighborhood with pots. The stuff from factories varied, of course, but tastes became fancy, as the Victorians liked carefully designed, thin and light China. Naturally, most black smiths, chandlers, cobllers, coopers, bakers etc also lost their way of life.
Bernard Leach was an Englishman and artist who traveled in and worked in Japan, becoming an apprentice and later a master potter shortly after WW I. He found that the Japanese still had and respected hand made family potteries. He returned to England and opened up a pottery in Cornwall, and set out to revive craft and studio pottery in a rural setting. It was a revolution, and nearly every potter working now can thank him. He brought his eastern skills together with what had been common English pottery shapes and forms and materials. Every piece is made and finished and glazed by a potter. As low tech and old-fashioned as it gets.
Bernards' children and grandchildren still work the pottery, and many of the most famous US potters worked there as apprentices.
The Leaches revived traditions so that they could be appreciated as an art form, and pottery is more respected now in the west because of his work.

Sam cat

Yesterday's potrait of the working potter stated that he was working on a child's teapot. As I said, I can get pretty small, marble or golf ball sized, but this thing was a piece of cake. Smaller than a baseball, but fully functioning, I made a tiny little cat teapot for a customer who collects teapots, but has a full house. You see, there is always room for more of my work. Sammy says that thing looks nothing like him.

I entered a teapot competition in September, amid much fanfare on this blog, and the jury made a mistake and I am not a winner. There are competitions opening every month around the US and the world. The Strictly Functional Pottery National may be the biggest enchilada, other than stuff the Smithsonian Museum sponsors. I have won some entries in recent years, and lost a whole lot more, but the only way to get into the Strictly Functional National is to enter. There is also a cup thing I am considering, and every year this nifty teapot show in Chicago, which tries to showcase outlandish teapots. Oh yes, I can do outlandish teapots.

like a twister in the sun

Dreamt of my old pal David Makar last night, a blogger here in town and newly elected memberof the Town Board. We went over to his house to play twister in his basement, and all I can say is, politicians should be careful who they play twister with.

How about some noise? Godsmack sure does have a large selection of noisy videos. When will it end?

altogether now...

I was messing with these last week. Coolness. I might have to make the rings thicker.
The kitten is asleep (remember, she got up to do aerobics on me at 5 am) and I think I need a nap.

c'est moi

The roving photographer (see kitten, wife, sugar bowl below) is occaisionally snapped himself. Some people will note the hair is headed toward extra fuzzy, which defies brushing.
Working on a toy teapot here. I can make 1 inch-1 foot size pots, (dollhouse size) but a teapot the size of a marble is non-functional, but a little bigger, doll-sized teapot (think golf ball sized) I can make a spout big enough to work.
The kitten pictured below, who is actually 12 and a half, was doing her morning exercises on me at 5 am, but I have a load to glaze, so who cares if it is Sunday. Well, Creed does, because they are a Christian band, or started as one, and they are giving us our tunes o' the day.

Cute hippo

Well, a pal of mine, Sean, saw the elephant sugar bowl, but he has an allergy to elephants, so he asked for a hippo sugar bowl to go with his hippo toothbrush holder. People collect the weirdest things, but I am READY TO HELP THEM collect stuff, and in turn I collect their money. Not a bad tradeoff, especially once I get them hooked.
There is no difference between this guy and the elephant sugar bowl, except the face and head, obviously. I have only made very small hippos before, and this thing is huge actually. I was pleasantly surprised, as I waded into new hippo territory, at how it was coming along, and then how it finished. No matter how real hippos look, I make note of: huge mouth and jaw, 4 peg teeth, tiny little ears, googly eyes. Hippos also have a certain look to their mouths that I found myself really pushing to get this smile--not sure how to describe it, but the overall effect is FUN.
Out of the blue and from a different direction, I got an order from town yesterday unrelated to this, for two...............hippo jars. I think there is a small disease passing around out there, a hippo craving. That customer wants a little hippo on top of each of two big jars, but I bet I could sell one of these things to them too.
I have a nice bluish/slate gray glaze for these, and naturally the teeth remain white.

CUTE

Cute wife, cute fat little kitten, cute sugar bowl.

Old School

Up at 4:30, WIDE awake but heart pounding because I had been dreaming I was 21, had a new girlfriend and was racing to get my Chuck Taylors on and running to my literature class, followed by biology, gonna be LATE and I hadn't completed any assignments all term....sure, a nightmare.
I was on the bus the other day headed into Cornell to see the missus and Ming vases and the bus was crowded with students, in predicaments like my dream some of them no doubt, and as we neared an intersection there was much excitement. A very tall bearded student type, black leather jacket and sandals was racing for the bus, which he made. A young woman at the front of the bus was all excited to see him, his girlfriend, there was a kiss, hand holding and such, it was really cute. Thing is, and this is ITHACA, the dude was wearing a kilt. Or maybe just a skirt. It wasn't plaid or anything, just this brown skirt. Iwas glad somebody loved him.
OK, back to Ska and the planet of........Mighy Mighty Bosstones for tunes o' the day and one of the best tunes of the 90s. It seems that in order to be ska, there has to be a certain use of horns, a fast pace, and the wearing of slick suits.

Light bluish/purple

Purple with olive trim. Yellowy olive trim. When we looked at it in ugly, gray March, the world was muddy, and this place STOOD OUT. Just painted, ready for us. I am strangely attracted to purple, not just because my wife's swimming suit is purple. I have a large Gorbachev style birthmark under my hair (you see, I HAVE HAIR, unlike Gorby) and it is light purple, much more attractive, if you could see it, than Gorby's. But I think it sends messages to my brain, loving the purple, you see.

It happens here

Well, the garage doors are purple now. We put up the nifty picket fence on the left, and had a monster tree overhanging the house removed, but: The house went up in1865 as a one room log cabin, and the living room ceiling consists of LOGS. Then the place grew a bit, into 'Italianate', the 2-story block on the left consisting of the main house, a style popular in rural NY in the late 1800s. The bit to the right of the front door was added maybe 40 some years ago, and has a seperate entrance, if needed, skylight etc and is the studio. Photos from 1880 show a shed in back. This was the cobbler's house, and that was the workshop. The shed was dragged up and became the garage on the right about 70 years ago, before there was a connection to the house (studio, just mentioned). The garage is in scary shape, and we put on the garage doors after we moved in, but the roof and part of the foundation posts....
other than that, the previous owners tore the inside of the house apart and remade it beautifully. So, it is a brand new house inside a very old house, good roof, insulation, new wiring and lights and appliances and cupboards, even new bathroom stuff. Two doors down is the old mill, now apartments, and 100 years ago the river behind us was dammed, and there was a huge mill pond back there. The dam was removed some time ago, but our property line remains the original bank of the pond, which you can see now as a steep dropoff that slopes down to the river. We don't own that, the mill owners house is behind us, across the river, and they still own all the woods and river bank around us, which is good, because they pay taxes on it and I DON'T. And they can't do anything with a floodplain anyway, so its not like a McDonalds will be built back there someday. The slope leading down to the river is covered with ancient junk. There are old whiskey bottles and buckets, nothing younger than 1890.

OK, like Ross says

311, 'Amber'. Phew. Let's put this up again. Gordo, what are we doing up in the cold cold north when we could all be living on a warm beach with a ping pong table?

"Ska is the music from the planet of beautiful women"

So says Ross. OK, here is another, studio video, version of 'Gangsters' from the Specials, for Gordo, big pottery fan. Like I say, I was gonna put these up this am, but got sidetracked by the missus.

In comments, Lucia mentions I must have a happy happy life, and yes, I do. I sit around in my own private fog thinking of bowls and piggies and zebras and teapots and put it all together. I am actually quite reclusive and shy, rarely go out, spend most of my time rattling around house and studio, with the missus and the dogs and cats. I have met artists with cheerful and happy, cute work, but they have been sour and crazy, oddly. I am pretty cheerful and content, I love to laugh and joke and goof around, and know I am a darn lucky guy to be working at this, rather than roofing or digging ditches or flipping burgers.

Live!

Gordo mentioned listening to SKA this morning, so I am putting up these two links, which I was gonna put up today but got sidetracked. I REMEMBER SEEING THIS ON TV back in 1979. I was only 13, but remember it well.
live, 'Gangsters' by the Specials

Thompson Twins

Thompson Twins, 'Hold Me Now', a slightly schmaltzy new wave tune from my youth makes the tune o' the day. I was browsing last night, saw this and happily put it on, and the missus, from a distant part of the house came running. These guys are soooo sincere...
So, dreamt I was with the missus baby sitting a group of kids and the oldest was a sixth grade thug, my size, and I was trying to minimize his negative effect on the good little kids, because this thug smoked like a chimney and drank whiskey. I suggested he go party behind the garage.
We have babysat the kids next door, who are angels with no bad social habits, and Heidi was planting her bulbs yesterday so I got out OUR daffodils and lined the fence :^) with them and around the front door too. Daffodils are the first big deal in spring, when everything is dreary, these sweet and excited yellow flowers come up. The missus asked me later what directions I followed, and there was an uncomfortable moment when I admitted that me and the shovel had improvised.
SO, BACK TO ZEBRAS. Spent all of Thursday fiddling with these two pieces, and they aren't finished yet. I guess I could make 3 dozen piggy banks in the time it takes to make a pair of zebra pots. Interesting formulation, huh? I have a little more to do on them, carving on the lines marking the stripes. The guy on the left was a surprise: I wasn't thinking very carefully, and went to make a wide and low dish, as the original was, and this went tall, but I said 'OK' and then I was making the columns and they were way tooo short but I said 'hey, put zebra heads on those columns!' and so a little improvisation becomes a wicked cool piece. The pot on right wanted a full zebra, so he got one. Sure, I am just bumbling along here, listening to the greatest dance hits of the 80s and fiddling with clay....

GROCERIES and GOD

So, a call comes in and you say 'Thank you God, I can buy groceries and catfood'. I just got an order for hundreds of banks, cash. I make elephant banks, doggy banks, bunny banks and several others, but piggies remain the most popular. This is some of everything. Generally, as you know, I like to make WHATEVER, but sometimes it is nice to have a set thing, you know? Speaking of which, I have been fiddling with zebra pots all morning, and plan to fiddle with them all afternoon. They are the opposite of hand-made mass production (I make banks on auto-pilot) where you are jiggling little teeth and zebra ears into place and suddenly the morning is gone and you have to do some laundry and take the dogs out.

Time for some sweet tunes, how about 311 and 'Amber'. Listen, I don't know where these guys are hanging out, but i want to go there with my dogs and wife in her little purple swimsuit and play frisbee and roast tofu pups and play ping pong with the band and......

Marina's new sugar bowl

OK, the customer needs sugar on the table for her cereal, I bet this guy arrives just in time. As mentioned last week, this thing is quite big, as the customer requested, so that life will be sweet.

big cookie jar

with a dancing dog. In purple.

Daoism and dadaism

Cornell Johnson Museum.

noisy evening tunes and Ming or Qing vases

OK, Godsmack again! This video features the BIGGEST drum kit ever seen by me--I love drums, and this guy brought along every drum in the store. Question is, why did they ruin a great live performance with the weird zombie crawling out of the bath tub?

And, for more tunes of the day, how about Linkin Park. Oh boy, so much noise!!!!

So, let's say you are wandering around the Cornell Johnson museum looking at Dadaists and surrealists and you turn a corner and come across MING VASES?
OK, Ming vases were copied and reproduced in factories all over starting in the 1800s, and it continues now. You can go to Pier One and get Ming reproductions and they look cheap and common. But what about the REAL THING? Oh my. Some potter sat there hundreds of years ago at his wheel, with clay from his yard, and with his brush in hand....

a bunch of green beans or some cookies

That is what this crazy little lidded pot could hold, and now that we know what we can do with it: it is admittedly, as I have said all along, an example of throwing in every idea but the kitchen sink. It turned out perfectly, a smiling little zebra, swirly purple glazes, little columns. OK, the measure of success is not making something, but making it again and again, and you can see I am excited and already making more lidded pots and columns, but there will be some evolution too. I think a more swirly lid is possible, also a taller pot with more zebras.

before.....

the business of CUTE

Feeling all jingly-jangly this morning. Up at 4:22 because the cat overate and was horking it up..then election news and such. So, simultaneouslyy exhausted and over-stimulated, made a delicious double espresso and sat down to make some puppies on a pedestal. In the front you can see some fired puppies with their mamas, and then what I have been fiddling with this morning. Nothing calms more than making puppies, very zen or something. It is actually a sugar bowl, in back, as 99% or more of what I make, even sculptures, is functional. Fact of the matter is, my customers like CUTE. Not schmaltzy and cutesy like Hummel figurines, but cute like Charles Schultz making Snoopy and Charlie Brown. You know, simple, unsentimental, that sort of thing.

futbol

Ummmm, forgot to mention the dreams, which my frequent readers tune in for every day. My international contacts here will be surprised to hear that I have never played soccer, been on a soccer field, I don't know the rules, I don't know how many people play. (a shame, actually, because in theory I think it is a good sport) So imagine my surprise at dreaming I am a goaltender and my team wins 6 to zip, thanks in part to my rather impressive goal tending and so I am asked to join a traveling team, and I say sure I can go anywhere thinking Europe or Australia, but I think they want to send me to Pakistan.

Mondale, Ferraro 1984

I have never voted for people who have actually won, going back to 1984, my first. Even my buddy David Makar, who wore out 10 pairs of shoes walking around town, going door to door, won a town board seat. The man earned it for sure! Wonder if some of my pet projects around town will .....?? Like longer library hours....???

Zebra

Finally got around to glazing and firing the zebra pot. Just starting to glaze here (yesterday morning), then by 10 last night the kiln reached temperature, about 2200 degrees, and I took a peek in now, although the temp was still high, 530 degrees, and I can unload maybe 3 pm this afternoon when it has cooled to about 100.
Anyway, the guy looks GOOD. I had planned to glaze the pot itself all swirly, forgot, and was about to do it all in blue jeans, remembered to make it purple and swirly, and as I say, nice result I think, pic later.

Whither the Senate?

Michael Arcuri wins NY 24th district, hurray! My little yard signs on the lawn no doubt contributed to this win. Interestingly, Michael Sylvia, the libertarian candidate is a great guy and lives right across the river behind us, and came to our party last month with his wife, and he drew a respectable 1 percent of the vote. Nice guy, but I didn't vote for him. The 24th has been republican for years, and the rep. retired this year, and I bet my parents wish that me and my wife and our yard signs hadn't moved into their district.....
For a bigger surprise, our old state of New Hampshire turned out BOTH Republican incumbent congressmen. NH probably hasn't had democrats in congress, maybe ever? The republicans generally could put up a moose with 3 legs and half a rack and win in NH, so that was huge.

SOOOO, maybe George is a King Without a Crown (thanks Matisyahu, for tunes o' the day)

brain washing

Ever been walking around and developed an irresistable urge to make a toothbrush holder with a hippo on it? Wow, I sure don't know where that came from....
although I had to add a little alligator to the right side.

voted, CHECK

I have a yard full of candidate signs, some of which I will give to my Canadian friends as souvenirs.
Here in this tiny little hamlet, you vote at the fire hall, about a mile from the purple house, maybe more. Walk across the river, by the post office, past the community hall, turn left, go by the playground, pasture, woods, arrive at the fire hall, try to figure out how to use the lever machines (our old little town gave you a printed slip of paper and a pencil to vote, then you put it into the box and republicans either later tore it up or erased your choices and checked theirs, whichever suited them) so you finally figure out how to flick all the levers, then out of the fire hall, go home a different way, past more woods and pasture, along the river, up the hill to the post office, get a nice letter and coupons from mama bear back across the river and into the purple house again. There were roving bands of republicans riding around with shotguns and other younger republicans going around with baseball bats, the deal being you take their five bucks and vote republican or they break your arms and legs, SLOWLY. I offered to vote 3 times for 15 bucks and received smiles all around, a bonus six pack of beer and.......
OK, none of that last bit is true. Only the part about the pickups, but I guess that it is hunting season.....
We are lucky if we live in a place where we can vote privately, and it is correctly counted.

well, how did I get here?

You know, weird ideas pinging around in my head, but stay tuned: busy day today.

unneccessary zoom!

Closeup of that guy on the right. He may be mine when fired.

Here's lookin' at you kid...

Boy, sometimes the experimental potter says ‘what am I doing here and what do I think of this?’.



The studio here in my house is not glamorous, but it is nice, has a skylight and tons of west facing windows looking down through woods to the river. It has been bright all of the last 6 months but suddenly it is dark dark dark all day long. Just as March is mind blowingly bright, November is DARK. Always a shock to the system, but hey, northern NY was 60 degrees and sunny Monday, more expected this week...I tell ya, something is wrong!
Face jugs are an important part of traditional southern pottery, and I love them. I am a goofball, of course, but my first ever adventures in goofy pots was with face cups and jugs. When these guys are glaze fired in a few days I will put them up, with more about face jugs and mugs, but I finished these 3 today and I am wicked pleased. It was a VERY FUN day at the purple house and studio. I hadn’t made any faces in a year or two, and got in the mood because of paintings by Alice Muhlback, referenced last week. I wanted to make faces kind of looking up at the drinker with a sort of not exactly pleased look on their face, and these 3 look pretty good and they sure have me laughing. On the far right is a face mug I made back in 1989, still my favorite, and the little cup in front is from 1998, when I had that big mustache myself.

Groundhog day

I mean election day. To me, voting is like free candy: why wouldn't you take it? I don't understand why people don't vote. A person we know told us she doesn't because she doesn't want jury duty. What's so bad about that? Havn't you read any John Grisham novels? Juries and trials are FUN and EXCITING!
Here's New Order and 'Temptation'. (maybe this is the best tune of the 80s? whaddya think Celeste?) Because yes, we want a New Order here is the lower 48 plus 2, and it starts in 06 and sweeps 08.

LUCY AND MR PIG

This is hysterical. The League of NH Craftsmen in Littleton, NH is probably my favorite gallery (I know, I say that about most of the galleries selling my stuff, but at this moment...) and they have a special order for mugs with a lady's 2 different dogs, and then another with the little guinea pig. I have never made a guinea pig before, and this one looks like a little blob. Perhaps all I have to do is drop a small wet clay blob on the floor, color it and call it a guinea pig???
Hi Jody, Beth, Michele, Peg!!!!

Frog bowls and peanut sauce

So, here is the bowl with two frogs and his little brother, the chopsticks bowl with ONE frog. I mean, why wouldn't I make bowls with cute little frogs? But how, you say, do I use that nifty little item?
Try Gary’s Chinese noodles, veggies and peanut sauce!!!!
--boil ½ pound of pasta
--chop some veggies, Sunday I used: green beans, onions, tomato--saute the onions awhile, toss in the green beans, when it has fried for a couple of minutes, toss in the tomatoes and some peanuts, remove from heat
--in a little chopper or blender or cuisineart type thing add:
½ cup peanut butter
at least 2 garlic cloves
1/8 c red wine vinegar
1/8 c lime juice
2 tbsp. soy sauce, or more if you wish
as many shakes of hot sauce as you can manage
as much ginger as you like
¾ cup olive oil
grind into a lovely sauce!
Take out the finished pasta and put it into FROG SERVING BOWL, top with veggies, then top with peanut sauce and then spoon into small FROGGY BOWL
Oh man, too good.

DEMONS, DRAINS, DREAMS

So, dreamt of being in a (typical in Hollywood) old haunted manor house and there were demons with fangs in the drains.
Upon waking, I recall that Sunday I had been cleaning drains in the bathroom, and let me tell you, they were more scary than demons with fangs. I am a fuzzy dude, I guess, and.......

RERUN: Godsmack

The blogosphere was quiet over the weekend, except for me and Master Dib swapping recipes and cooking tips, I am afraid this awesome video from Godsmack did not get the respect and attention it deserves. So, play it again Sam.

Now what?

Just below you will see a ring with little columns under it. I have said that I studied architecture, so there is always this temptation to throw little neo-classical touches into your pots. So, I said 'hey, what if I had 4 little columns attached by a ring holding up an elephant?'. But when I got to the stage below I realized the base needed a BOWL, not an elephant.
You see, life as a potter is all about the quick thinking, the life and death decisions....
My left paw seems to be healed and moving normally, so slow speed week is over, and back to normal blazing work speed.
(further thinking: little columns might make a nice base for a teapot, cups???)

28-25 for the good guys

So, Cornell beat Dartmouth yesterday 28-25, which was satisfying of course. I lived for over 10 years just down the street from Dartmouth--right there! And never went to their games (it is such a snooty school and town) now I have seen Colgate beat them, now Cornell--two Dartmouth games in one season. Their 15 piece marching band insisted on playing at half time, and were so drunken and disheveled they really embarrassed their college. Then the home team band came on: Cornell has at least 100 in the marching band, nice uniforms, also flag swingers, baton twirlers, 18 or so cheerleaders, 3 music directors AND their halftime show was a set of three Beethoven tunes. I have never seen/heard Beethoven played by a marching band at football.
There is this seat right under the EE sign up at the top back of the stadium that is my own personal love seat (yes: a bench 2 people wide, with a back) or in the case of yesterday, my own personal lazy boy. There is this wicked Canadian wind that howls through the stadium, all the way from Hudson Bay.....

Your frozen host the football fan

Moby and Deborah Harry combine on this wicked funny video. Please watch, especially all my relatives who live in NY city and all my friends visiting there this month....

Useless dreams: I was visiting my sister's in-laws all night long. I actually ran into her sister-in-law last month.....

Back down memory lane

Me, Buster, My Mustache, around summer 2000.
I am making a Buster mug here, which will make up a whole post someday, but check out that big macho 'stache! Tom Selleck is an old friend of mine, and despite the fact that he is about 6-8 inches taller than me, we looked exactly alike! (HA!)
I grew the darn thing before I taught high school, as I looked shockingly young, but after 10 years of dragging it across ice cream cones and no kisses from the missus...

SATURDAY SPECIAL SURPRISE

A bowl of mine with two little frogs on the side. This is my pasta puttanesca recipe, and holy cats, it is spicy and delicious. I like recipes that are quick, easy, reliable and this is one of those recipes. I am giving the small version of the recipe, which feeds two people about to bursting.
My wife isn’t a native speaker, but she is pretty smart, and worked in Sicily for a long time, a long time ago. Puttanesca is the Italian word for lady of the night. You know, world’s oldest profession. I know the awful Spanish put-down ‘Hijo de puta’, son of a wh*re. Well, so, the Italians named this easy spicy pasta dish after spicy women?

Pasta Puttanesca from Gary
-Boil 8 oz. pasta or cheese tortellinis
-In fry pan pour 1-2 tbsp olive oil and heat
-chop 1-2 garlic cloves (or more!) and heat about one minute
add 2 large chopped tomatoes, ½ cup chopped olives (GOOD OLIVES), 1 tbsp. capers (I think some people do anchovies here), ½ teaspoon or more dry basil or fresh if you have it, a few shakes of dried pepper flakes: as much as you can stand: simmer this uncovered about five minutes
-measure 1/4-1/3 cup parmesan: use half of that to toss with pasta and veggies in a bowl. use the last of the parmesan to top then get some Chianti in a bottle in a basket and EAT.

Johnny Depp and my mom

Dreamt of driving down a snowy hillside in a little car with bad brakes, 3 pizzas and Johnny Depp, or someody who looks like him. My wife thought he was OK, I was unconvinced.

We need some Godsmack. My mother won't enjoy these tunes of the day, but all the rest of you, well, all the rest of you GUYS, will think this is the absolute best video you have seen in your life.

Mr Potter'sblog, fall 1986

So today a little side step, a little break. Finding that picture of David from Fall 1986 was exciting, as was the collection of photos with it. So, here I am, fall of 1986, Bennington College, Bennington, VT, with a full rack of pots behind, and a full, very full FRO. I have curley hair, and when it gets long it gets wild, and you know, Robert Smith of the Cure and others were all doing the big hair thing......and here also you have me, 20 years later, same height, same weight, same hair (shorter, with gray) doing the same darned thing. (actually, I was physically a lazy slug in college, much more fit now)
My parents, and I, got good value in my over-priced college education, as I use it everyday. I was lucky, I went to the college I wanted to attend and studied what I wanted and later married who I wanted. Lucky boy.
There are other pictures for other days, and tomorrow, a special Saturday surprise!!!!

your host

GR, fall 2006

Lotsa BIG hair here

Big hairdos on guys, here with The Cure, for tunes o' th day.

MY MOM

I wouldn't be a potter without my parents. Here is my mom with her energetic little dog, Abby. My dad is a watercolor painter, and I think a special visit with him and his work should happen soon.

more pigs, please

So, as I said, I was toying with the idea 'hey, what if you had a cute little flared cup with a ring for a handle and then, of course, frog, pig, or dog up on the handle?'.

last chapter, monkeys

Smart Monkey Cafe, Elmira Rd, Ithaca
So, we set up the Spirit and Kitsch traveling show at the Smart Monkey Cafe, a rather nifty new place, and no celeste, I am NOT in any windows, and we all figure the owner will be glad that some of us made monkey things and she tells me 'I don't like monkey things here. I don't want to be too matchy matchy'.
Well! Break out the pigs next time.

Godsmack in tunes o' the day

Greed from Godsmack
Something my mother will NOT enjoy, but tunes o’ the day from Godsmack. OK, read wiki,
and find out that these guys are from Boston, therefore they got a lot of play at my old Boston radio station. As is the case sometimes, an extra noisy metal band that is somehow most satisfying.
WFNX

Marina's JUMBO sized sugar bowl

OK, talked about this order below, and there is a pair of bodies and lids in the back of the pic below showing the before, and here is the after. Foreground here: gigantic sugar bowl. Behind, an even bigger one. That one goes to Marina and Shelly and the little weenie dog Odie, once it is fired blue.

Alright Shelly, Marina and Odie!

Back in the saddle again.
So, the person who has been injured gladly gets back to work. Well, it was only Monday I rested the hand, but I managed to clean the bathroom then even with a sore left paw. But you know, I am most grateful the hand was feeling better, and although I worked at less than half speed, got some good work done, pictured here. The little twists of fate: going along, enjoying life, and suddenly you drive off a cliff! Well, that is an exaggeration, but we all have to be thankful for the moments we feel good and things are going well. I am working on a new idea here, more on that if it works out, but various bits lying on the table here will become....

Shelly and her daughter Marina and little dog Odie are old pals from New England, and Shelly’s rotten son, well, he is a good guy usually, broke their elephant sugar bowl, and they found me and the blog, since we moved out of the neighborhood. That is how the blog is supposed to work: customers come here, old and new customers, and spend large amounts of money. Well, anyway, I am replacing the sugar bowl, body is up in that picture, lid too, with a jumbo-gigantic sized sugar bowl, more than twice the size of the original, but it comes with a disclaimer: I am not liable for dental bills.

Post Halloween, day of the Dead

Well, last night's candy tally comes to a total of only 5 children, leaving us with a ton of leftover chocolate. Sure, I had some chocolate dipped in peanut butter, inspiring further heroic dreams, where despite my not very large size, I was a defensive end in the NFL, and a really good one too. In reality, I did play football in high school, but even as compact as I am, I did well, because all it took was knocking kids down at the knees. Our teams were never very good.
I’ve put this up before, but here it is again, Dead Can Dance, for Mexican day of the dead and tunes o’ the day.