time and place!

(MY PURPLE HOUSE, and the river behind the house)
Tink's weekly challenge is Time and Place. I cannot believe I live in such a pretty house in such a pretty place--esp. now: the colors are peaking!
Note the small and cute beagle in front of the house.....

As for time, I collect Elgin pocket watches (approx. 1865-1930s), and lately some of their later wrist watches (1930s-40s). All of my watches work, and I have an awesome repair lady here. The thing I love about Elgins is that they are easily repaired, although very old, and tough as nails (unless you really stomp on them)--so that one repair is good for a lifetime!
I got started with the large silver one on the left from just just after the Civil War. It had belonged to my great-grandmother's great uncle Edgar. She gave it to me, and it needed some repairs, but it got me started. Then I bought the little gold one on the right with the chain for 3 bucks and had it repaired--who wouldn't be hooked??? The silver one next to the large silver, which is middle top, I bought because it usually feels too special to wear the old family antique out of the house, and it is nearly the same looking. The gold one bottom left is my most recent watch---I bought it in good working condition, but my repair lady tells me it was originally in a solid gold clamshell case (hunter) and somebody removed it, sold the gold, and put it into this cheaper case! Live and learn, eh? The bottom middle silver one is very ornate, and was given to my wife by her grandmother, and the octagon on the bottom right is my prettiest. I have quite a few more. I'll set them all ticking at once and it is LOUD!

And the lower pic shows my Daffy Duck clock in the studio, under Jesus.

What is........

(zebra pots by Gary Rith)

From Animal fun:
What is black and white and red all over?

A zebra with a SUNBURN!

What's the difference between a horse and a zebra???

The zebra is wearing his pajamas!

What's black and white with red dots?

A zebra with polka dots!!!

And from basic jokes:

A man was driving down the road in the country. He looked over and saw a baby pig in the field. He stopped and picked up the pig. He was driving around town with the pig in the car and a cop sees him and pulls him over.

Cop asks "Hey, What are you doing with that pig in the car?"

The driver says "Well, I just found the pig beside the road in the field."

The cop says" I want you to take that pig to the zoo!"

The driver agrees he will take the pig to the zoo.

The next day the cop sees the guy driving around again and pulls him over. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO TAKE THAT PIG TO THE ZOO!!"

He replied, "Well I did take the pig to the zoo. We had such a good time we are going to the ball game now."

le pig

(piggy sugar bowl by Gary Rith)

Monday Class Makes BIG POTS

Like fish to water, pat, Ellen and Kaisa watched me make big pots, and wouldn't you know, they made big pots themselves!

Billy Bragg and Kate Nash

Billy Bragg's old 'New England' tune was on the radio, and I looked around youtube and found typical concert footage, BUT THEN THERE'S this recent performance with the rather CUTE singer Kate Nash.............yeow! (no, she's more than cute when you add that ACCENT)

WALL STREET AND DOG FOOD

So Wall Street takes a dive and you wonder: will we all be eating dog food someday soon? I mean please, would somebody put their finger in the dike for a few minutes and STOP some of the bad news? There's gas STILL short and expensive, groceries are up (for Us) 50 bucks a week, people losing their houses and jobs, and OH YES, there's that war. Or the two wars I should say. Dang.

So, I am remembering Mad Max in the movie 'The Road Warrior' eating old Dinky Doo dog food from a can and I am gloomily thinking about apocalypses, and what do I come up with? Some fool spent 300 bucks for an empty dog food can from Paris Hilton's little mutt.......

ghost mugs!

(ghost mugs by Gary Rith)
Hey, get them now while they're hot! Ghost mugs, at my online etsy gallery, on the right or click here!
UPDATE FROM CHERI: You make my eyes go pitter pat when I see new mugs!

is it really Monday?

(doggie sugar bowl by Gary Rith)
I went looking for doggy jokes and I found this floating around on the web. Hogs and kisses for Monday!

How Many Dogs Does It Take to Change A Light Bulb?
Golden Retriever: The sun is shining, the day is young, we've got our whole lives ahead of us, and you're inside worrying about a stupid burned out bulb?
Border Collie: Just one. And then I'll replace any wiring that's not up to code.
Dachshund: You know I can't reach that stupid lamp!
Rottweiler: Make me.
Boxer: Who cares? I can still play with my squeaky toys in the dark.
Lab: Oh, me, me!!!!! Pleeeeeeeeeze let me change the light bulb! Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Huh? Can I? Pleeeeeeeeeze, please, please, please!
German Shepherd: I'll change it as soon as I've led these people from the dark, check to make sure I haven't missed any, and make just one more perimeter patrol to see that no one has tried to take advantage of the situation.
Jack Russell Terrier: I'll just pop it in while I'm bouncing off the walls and furniture.
Old English Sheep Dog: Light bulb? I'm sorry, but I don't see a light bulb?
Cocker Spaniel: Why change it? I can still pee on the carpet in the dark.
Chihuahua: Yo quiero Taco Bulb.
Pointer: I see it, there it is, there it is, right there ...
Greyhound: It isn't moving. Who cares?
Australian Shepherd: First, I'll put all the light bulbs in a little circle ...
Poodle: I'll just blow in the Border Collie's ear and he'll do it. By the time he finishes rewiring the house, my nails will be dry.
The Cat's Answer:

"Dogs do not change light bulbs. People change light bulbs. So, the real question is: How long will it be before I can expect some light, some dinner, and a massage?"

ALL OF WHICH PROVES, ONCE AGAIN, THAT WHILE DOGS HAVE MASTERS, CATS HAVE STAFF.

Adam and Eve

(Gary Rith and a pair of pots)
Didn't want yesterday's big pot to be lonely, so made it a friend. Some potters might shake their heads and say: "I've made bigger!". But I don't often go big, and this is with just one ball of clay, not two (the big clay challenge is how big can you go with just one ball of clay, without adding anything?).
I needed it anyway, the way my kiln loads up there would have been an empty tall slot next to Adam, so I had to make Eve to fill the space and keep him company.

Korgi!

I read Korgi a couple of weeks ago, and got Korgi 2 yesterday, a graphic novel with virtually no words. Just at the front and back.
On the one hand, it is ineded for ALL audiences, such as pre-school through adult, so do I feel embarrassed reading about cute little magic doggies and elf types frolicing in the woods and battling mysterious monsters???
No. I love cute doggies which is why I had to buy #2. This guy draws so well and expressively....
anyway, 2 gets kinda scary!!!!!!!!!! There is an evil alien who steals___________, but our heroes manage to___________.
Loved it, gets a 10 out of 10.

Up and at 'em!

(teapot by Gary Rith--I just tried this glaze combo out at Cornell studios, and yeow! kinda cool)
So, wide awake at 4:51 on a Sunday, dark as can be, warm and humid outside, fed the dogs who went back to bed.
FINE!
We went to the Apple Festival yesterday and saw Denis' ladyfriend Kim and had a rollicking good time, except where was the camera? I had been placed next to the fudge people when I did a festival last year myself (selling through a booth) and they were there and they are my pals too, and they gave us free fudge when we said hello, how nice is that? We went to the hippie bakery up by the Cornell campus, a place I absolutely LOVE, and were sitting there forever eating and gossiping about, among other things, Denis, and this large group of what we used to call YUPPIES came in. So, the place went from being empty except for us went to standing room only. They were all 40ish, the guys had been in a frat together, and they had left the homecoming football game because of rain.
Now, we were on the bakery side, which has the counter and coffee and bakery case and a few tables and chairs. There is one server there at the counter, and we had bought our stuff and dumped money into the tip jar and we had enjoyed ourselves, but these yupiies, they had no manners. I think they had drunk TOO many and were just sitting out the rain, but they had the counter girl running all over getting drinks and orders, and she isn't a waitress, and they never gave a tip, plus they were yelling and all the rest, really boorish.
I guess it has been a long time since these bond traders and insurance salemen ever had a job cutting grass, washing dishes or working a bakery counter, but how do some people (read: yuppies in their 40s who think they're big shots 'cause they went to Cornell) grow up thinking its OK to act like a drunken lout and make some poor minimum wage slob run around like a slave, and don't even put a nickel in the tip jar? Is there a special hell for people who are that insensitive?

The Cure

Close to me. The movie below ends with this song, and this is, as you might expect, a strange video of a boppy little goth tune...

SON OF RAMBOW=movie of the year

Maybe you can tell, the regular guy loved this movie: Son of Rambow. Two odd little boys find each other and make a movie--they are creative and goofy and fight but come together again----by far the BEST movie of the year....10 thumbs up out of ten!

Cheri and Laura check in

(Duck bowl by Gary Rith)
Cheri and Laura in California rec'd their ducky bowl and write:
"Laura went gaga over the duck bowl. She begged to have granola for dinner so she could use it right away yesterday, and we let her. She ate cottage cheese from it this morning for breakfast."

BIG pots

(Gary Rith making a big pot-pics by Maude Rith)
My pal Doug Fitch was making somw big jugs in England, and my Monday class asked if we could try to make BIG pots, so I am messing around a bit this morning, when I should be ________.
The question here, of course, is make it into a pitcher (jug) or leave it as a large vase?

for Chatty

(mug by Gary Rith)
Chatty asked for a black mug with a green frog....

Le studio transformed:

I hear my friends blogging about exercising and all. My wife exercises, but she has an unusual metabolism: she is five seven and between 100-110 pounds, and eats like a horse. I am only an inch taller, but weigh more.
Anyway, I had been a runner, marathoner and even a cross country and track coach back in the 90s, and retired from running in 2003. (AND MY BACK HAS BEEN SO HAPPY SINCE!!!!) But at that time, I substituted walking, and had no upper body strength. NONE. Couldn't do a chinup!
Well, these last five years we bought weights and this rower and they lie in the corner of the studio and provide me with sweaty fun several times a week. 50 chinups, 75 situps, pushups, bench presses, curls etc.
I can't say I enjoy it, but it allows me to keep up with the wife and be a somewhat sexy and youthful hunk of burning love for her to enjoy.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

The pet report: Missus Pottery Blog and Spike Le Cat, Penny cuddled up next to Buster.
Missus Pottery Blog as ususal said: "you're not going to post these pictures, are you? Why are you taking my picture???" And my reply, of course, was from Carly Simon's "Anticipation, you're keeping me waiting.............."

I AM A WINNER!

HA! Watch the video at Farmer's Wife: she and her daughter cracked me up, they were so funny, and I won! They picked my name! (Think about this: FW won a prize from Lis, which FW used to buy a pot from me, but then Lis won MY raffle and got a piggy BUT when I shipped the pot to FW I added _______ and ________ as gifts. It's like the three of us are swapping prizes!!!)

you can buy these groovy pots TODAY!!!

(pots by Gary Rith)
View them on the right, or go to my etsy gallery direct. Ducky bowl and a pair of blue vases, yeow!!!!!!!!!!

hard head

My pal Thoughtful reflections wrote about a guy on a bike hit by a car and a train one day....got me thinking:

I was hit by a car when I was 14 and biking lawfully up the street---a car pulled across traffic, into my lane, and I smashed into the side and flew up onto the car hood and smashed the windshield with my head and passed out briefly and came to lying on the car--and it was all in FRONT of two police officers. I had a concussion etc, but was otherwise OK, but can you believe the woman who hit me sued me for the broken windshield and dented bodywork???? We countersued and won but never would have sued if she hadn't given us the idea.....now there's stupidity!

(the law is on the side of a pedestrian when hit by a car 99% of the time----esp. when witnessed by 2 cops!!!)

It's a duck thing: you just wouldn't understand

(more ducky bowls by Gary Rith)
What time does a duck wake up?
At the quack of dawn!!!!!

A woman walks into a bar and the bartender says "Hey where'd you get the pig?"
The women says "This isn't a pig it's a duck"
and the bartender says "No, I was talking to the duck!"

Can you believe there is an online site dedicated to clean duck jokes??????
Oh, life is good, I love the web...........

Band of horses

You hear this sweet sweet song by Band of horses and you love it, and so you are VERY SURPRISED when you see that the band is composed of a bunch of guys with huge beards. Watch it anyway---sounds fantastic, and the video is tres funny.

THIS is a longhorn--see sugar bowl below

LONGHORNS maybe?

(me and my Thursday class at Cornell--Kaisa and Jenine, and a LONGHORN sugar bowl, I think....)
My pal Lynda asked if I could try a longhorn sugar bowl, 'cause she's a Texan, and her father has ACTUAL longhorns. I thought I would give it a whirl, now I should re-check the picture and see what a lonhorn looks like. People and their kinky requests......I made it while my students were doing their thing, and they were doing it so well!

THAT IS SO COOL!

This blog? Forget blog links. We get instant blog updates!!!! Man, I follow almost 50 blogs? Let me know if I forgot you!

A word about PRIVACY and my friends....

My pal TT was talking about privacy and real life friends and closeness and understanding and so I went and cut the lawn and thought on it an have to post a bit.

When I started pottersblog 2+ years ago, it was under the name 'GR' and I didn't say where I lived and there wasn't any picture of me. I was terrified of being found, because we had moved earlier that year from a neighborhood where we had been creatively stalked for 3 years by people who had a meth lab up our former street. They were BAD people, and so we sold our house secretly and told people we knew around our old house we had moved to Florida.

What a difference 2-3 years make! No peeps from those drug dealers (those types of people often don't need the police to catch them, as they manage to self-destruct on their own), fingers crossed. And so, I put my name on the blog, and pics, and even where we live. It has been OK! And we have had visitors from blog land visit us and we have gone to see them and it is a thrill.

TT goes on to mention that sometimes blog friends get her better than the real life friends. Well! I am amazed at the crowd I hang around with online, as different as we all are, we all share a common thread---it is friendliness, fun, creativity and RESPECT. Something very valuable, something to tresure, and thanks all of you for traveling with me to this new blog, which is, of course, more the same. Now I have to figure out this following thing, so bear with me....

It's a duck thing: you just wouldn't understand

(pots by Gary Rith)
These guys? On their way to Laura and Cheri in California.

:^)

I feel like I had to rush and move (from my old blog) but I was given a shiny new penthouse apartment. Oh! I can live with that. The question was 'should I hold back so that I don't fill up another storage meter in 25 months???' and you know the answer to THAT. NO. I should continue posting with abandon, pictures and all, and if I have to create another identity in 2010, I will. Of course, I could have added storage by paying, but the whole point of this is FREE FREE FREE

So, questions here include: what is this 'follow' thing? Should I clutter up the side with info and pics like the last blog? Or maybe just be more active in changing the etsy gallery?

Alright everybody, rock on.........

Lynda, Cheri and Laura

(pottery by Gary Rith)
Lynda asked for a puffin mug and I think this turned out super nice. Cheri and Laura wanted ducky mugs X 30, and here's five: they will be completed in different styles.
Yep, on my way to the UPS place now, boxes to them and Farmer's Wife too....
I can't make every animal or indulge in every kinky customer whim, but I can try.

BJORK

Human Behaviour. You know, the fast pace, the spooky singing, the little hedgehog...

FARMER'S WIFE AND her eggcellent order

(mug by Gary Rith)
My pal Farmer's Wife in south Texas asked for, nonconformist that she is, a mug of a cow jumping over the SUN not the moon. Well heck that's a nifty idea. She wanted it in YELLOW, but I think it needed sky blue behind the sun, and the rest of the mug in yellow. Just came out of the kiln, piping hot.
It is, of course, HUGE. (Texas STYLE!) Without exaggerating? 3 cups PLUS.

The dust begins to settle...........(oh yeah, Mercury in retrograde...)

Thank you for joining me here, and pass the word!
I loved old potsblog, but hey, this will be more of the same, and better!
I did not expect to spend the afternoon making a new blog. But it turns out I am comfortable with blogger and how it works, even though they would not let me just start a new blog, nosiree, I had to create a new identity and email blah blah blah, and sneak into the end zone, as it were. SO, nothing done this afternoon, gotta get to it............

Post number one

(Penny and fall leaves, and our neighbor's orange tree)

HA!!!!!! The real Nuevo Pottersblog! Wordpress is impossible so I created a new email and gmail and blogger thang..............................