Brooklyn Brewery Chocolate Stout

So at the beer store , which has about 800 different beers, there's a special issue from Brooklyn Brewery. I love Brooklyn Brewery. If you are a local booster, and I am, this is not only a NY beer, but they seem to do most of their brewing not down in the big bad city, but UP HERE in the wilds.
Brooklyn Chocolate Stout, WITH CHILI and a fat cat???????????? What's better than an A+? If you like Guinness, and I do, but you have found some stouts are like eating a bag of Kingsford charcoal briquets, this baby is for you. Sweet and smooth, and double the usual alcohol volume! ONE BOTTLE IS WORTH TWO!!!!!!

My chili? Vegan. Bubbling away in the crockpot all day (yes, Cheri and Rat, I crock pot too), never the same way twice. Today with red peppers, carrots, fake meat, real tomatoes and onions and garlic and black beans and a boatload of hot stuff. Wicked tasty. Bowl by me too.

James, 'Sit Down'.When me and the missus were getting together this thing rocked my day. I love James, quirky and upbeat and sounding GOOD.

trio of teapots and a tattoo joke

What you DON'T want to hear at the tattoo parlor:

"You wanted an Eagle??? I thought you said you wanted a BEAGLE!"


(teapots by Gary Rith)

Orange!

(missus and the easy peasey Monday crossword, and me and a piggy doodle)
My pal Tink has the weekly photo challenge, and here is some ORANGE!
Missus collects fountain pens and she has a few. I have a few too, and this is my set. Parker made what they called the Big Red fountain pen and pencil in the 1930s, but what they call red is actually orange. Classy and cool, eh?


(wavy groovy bottles by Gary Rith)


(our purple house)

Where does the time go? Feb 28, 2006 we closed and left our house in New Hampshire with a big UHAUL and 3 dogs and 2 cats and a check in our pockets for central NY. We stayed in my parents barn (it has been restored into a painting studio for my dad) but we sure as hell didn't plan on staying there long, on a snowy hilltop in the middle of nowhere in a little barn room with all our dogs and cats and belongings. We saw this house March 13, said we wanted to buy it and move in right away. Many people were interested in this house, but the purple color put people off, and ours was the most serious offer, and it was 70 degrees, unusally beautiful, March 31, 2006 when we moved in. (it snowed all the next week, totally ordinary!)
So, we spent exactly a month in my parents' barn, and now here in our HEAVENLY purple house for 3 years. :)

Just remembering, I dreamt first of a zombie invasion. They were SO slow and would have been harmless, but they were relentless. (hmmm, Sean of the Dead anybody?) Next i dreamt a friend of mine was telling me I am fat. Hmm, I weigh the same that I have been since I was 17. Maybe even thinner than when I was 17. I think I am going to have to punch this friend in the nose next time I see them, LIAR, SLANDERER!!!!!!!!!!

le afternoon

Emily is not exactly athletic, as you can see.

So my pal Rat sent me a cute piggy box she had made and it got me thinking: 'maybe I could make something a little like it? And maybe an elephant too????'.
Brilliant idea, Rat, thanks for the inspiration!


(mine above, Rat's below, plus some things I finished this afternoon including elephant boxes too)

le wavy groovy BOTTLE

(Gary Rith making a wavy groovy bottle)
Missus Tastycake was wandering around the studio yesterday and snapped some pics. I finished the bottle this morning, and there tis.

the good, the bad and the UGLY

So Penny is cutely rolling around at 4:55 saying she wants her breakfast, per usual, and I awake from a night of dreaming about my old buddy from college, A. A. is a doctor on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, but once he was a little weenie freshman like me (except he studied a whole hell of a lot more, etc). The other day A. is reading my heroic blog post 1 1/2 weeks ago about getting a sexy tattoo and he turns and tells his wife "hey, I'm gonna get a tattoo!" and his wife says "No you're not. What kind of tattoo are you gonna get?" and A. replies "a Tasmanian Devil on my A$$! Taz on my Azz!".
In the dream, we pretty much went from one dorm room to another eating lasagne then ice cream bars then chocolate chip cookies.....

I used my baby kiln yesterday and fired 3 pieces, pictured below. I am EXTREMELY excited about the yellow jar with 3 pigs. It is, to my mind, SUPERB.
The swirly cups are, you know like in the movies, the little clacking thing and they say "glaze test take 12" CLACK at the start of yet another scene attempt? Well, this glaze test of mine remains stubbornly olive drab after maybe 12 attempts. Luckily my pal Nancy likes my glaze tests and says she LOves olive drab. I want to push this glaze color to teal. Back to the drawing board.




(pottery by Gary Rith)

"the bigger the cushion...

the better the pushin' "
Out of the blue Missus Blueberry Muffin, who was eating a blueberry muffin, says "the bigger the cushion, the better the pushin' ". We were talking about Jesus, we really were, and our chubby little cat Emily was crawling into my lap, and she has a big PoPo.
If you're like me and the Missus, you have Spinal Tap memorized, and here's their classic hit 'Big Bottom', one of the most ridiculous and offensive tunes ever performed.

le dream pot

(doodle by Gary Rith)
So Penny wakes me up at 4:56 on a Sunday morning, sweetly rolling around being cute saying she wants breakfast, and I had been dreaming I was trying to make this candy dish atop a tall and rickety structure. I wasn't having an easy time making it, but I like the bird on top.

do you picnik?

(jar by Gary Rith)
I was like 'this jar is sweet, but since I didn't put a pig or dog on it, it needs something in this pic, like a smiley face'.
I didn't do that. Have you ever looked at a Mac? It comes with this photo software that makes the guy with the 2003 Dell laptop a little jealous. I mean, you can distort pictures, Andy Warhol them, etc.
HA! I have free picnik software and you can use it too. My pal Lynda turned me onto it, and I used it below and with the writing in the post below.

awesome piggy box from Rat

(me and a wonderful sculpted piggy box that my 9 year old pal Rat made for me and sent as a surprise)
Cheri's daughter Rat is a new blogger and future potter (and also Rafiki's aunt, see below). I am totally thrilled. I go to the PO this morning to mail a box with a Rafiki cookie jar to Rat's sister, and here's a surprise for me from RAT? She designed and made the best piggy for ME (and wrote me a note on a fired tile!). I love pigs so much. THANK YOU!
Rat, I hope you don't mind, I am gonna try to make something a little bit like that myself, is that OK?
PS---Cheri posted a wonderful post about Rat whose real name is Laura.

best little band you've never heard of

James, and Born of Frustration live

Rafiki and me

(Rafiki puppy and a Rafiki cookie jar)
My buddy Cheri's daughter has a puppy named Rafiki who was found on her doorstep skinny and hungry and homeless. He's grown up sweet and healthy and handsome, and she asked me to make a cookie jar for them.

Beastie Boys: the early years

Rhymin' and Stealin' live in 1987, the year I graduated college. I remember listening to this exact tune in the studios somewhat loudly in 87 and my instructor Stanley saying to me: 'I didn't think you were that kind of person'. I am still that kind of person, whatever that person is.

Once again, I am probably the only one reading this blog who will watch this video and enjoy it, what with the raucous noise, the raunchy str!pper, the flying cans...

le bunny

What do you call a bunny with fleas???

A Bugs Bunny!!!!

bountiful and beautiful bunny stuff!

(pots by Gary Rith)
All of these items will go on sale later on my etsy gallery. You'll need them, so shop early and often.

some of my buddies

(Matt, Tom, Karen at the Cornell Pot Shop)
The Cornell Pot Shop is available to anybody, from high schoolers to college students and professionals. Rare moment this morning, there were 4 of us in there working and gossiping, all professionals. I finished some stuff, but let me introduce you to Karen. She is from a pottery family and has been making pots her whole life. Her son gets married in June, and she is making 240 goblets for the reception. Everybody there will toast the day with a handmade goblet and then take it home!
Matt and Tom are both house husbands like me. Matt makes massive pieces that take several hours each. Plus takes care of his little girl.
Tom's 3 kids are 8-15 and don't need him around as much, so he makes a lot of pots during the day. He is also a hockey player and is his daughter's Girl Scout Leader.
Not exactly traditional husbands, are we? ;)

Ron Philbeck, potter

(me and the missus got a box today from Ron Philbeck)
My buddy in North Carolina Ron Philbeck swapped mugs with me. See the header for a cup similar to the piggy one I sent him.
YESTERDAY a box arrived from Ron, with a fish and goat drawn on it! Ron does the work that is the yin to my yang. I make and add little cute animals, Ron draws them onto pieces.
Ron is having open studio this weekend, GO VISIT RON AND SPEND BIG!

Josh Ritter

So I was plotting to post this live Beastie Boys video from 1987. It really goes to the edge of this blog's boundaries--you have the LOUD and racous music and in this case, the raunchy addition of a str!pper in a cage. I'll post it tomorrow when nobody is paying attention.

So at breakfast we're talking about Josh Ritter and KATHLEEN. He is a singer-songwriter and EVERYBODY can enjoy these videos, first live then second as a video--I mean, he loves Kathleen so much you just want to cry, and here it is, not even 6am and I am all mushy and sentimental.

This is good. Give it a listen, you won't be disappointed.

the economy, Fiwa, Knight, Tink, Fortune Cookie, wtf????

I just realized that 4 of my best bloggy buddies have recently gotten laid off from work. This sh!t STINKS, but Fiwa, Tink, Fortune Cookie and Knight are job hunting.
There but for the grace of God go all of us, but I have to admit I am p!ssed off.
That is all.
Everything in my corner is much the same, love you all. gr



(pots by Gary Rith, freshly made at Cornell as demos for class today)

"we're on a mission from God"

No I'm not. Just working and teaching at Cornell all day. I just gulped some pizza and it's all over this keyboard. Catch up with you later. :)

cardinal teapot

(teapot by Gary Rith)


A Cardinal walks into a pharmacy and buys a chapstick. The clerk asks: "will that be cash or charge?" and the Cardinal replies: "just put it on my bill". HAR!

So as I said last week, and it is still true, Cardinals have been following me around this winter and esp. this spring. I am working and look out the window: cardinals. Washing the dishes and glance outside? Cardinals. Walking the dog along the river, cardinals, over at the playground: CARDINALS! If you know what a northern winter and spring is like, grey and brown, you LOVE that flash of red! Esp. when he has his orangey missus with him, and some of his friends too.
The bird on this teapot is, shall we say, inspired by cardinals.

I got a new pillow at Target yesterday and let's just say I am in love. Its this big fluffy thing, curvy and soft in all the right places, yet firm where it should be. I held it close alll night long. Then dreamt I went to the beach. :)

3 skinny white boys from Brooklyn

You're probably all skipping this, as I alone on this blog seem to like The Beastie Boys. They are just so entertaining, like this one, Check it Out. The thing that gets you is these guys are exactly my age and have been together as a group since they were about 13 and formed a punk band, 30 years ago. What was I doing when I was 13 and why didn't I form a hugely successful punk band?

BEASTIE BOYS!

Live on the streets of NY!

tis a busy afternoon

26 messages in one email box and 42 in the other? Lose the net for a couple of hours and it piles up.
So, just finished a few things, including the jar and mugs below. The jar on the left was going to have a huge cat hugging a dog, but it was too big and the jar ended up with the 3 pigs. The 2 mugs have a swirly thing going on in front, an experiment, and you can see the lower pic all the pieces that went into those finished pots.




Emily and Penny took over Buster's couch so he came into the studio with me to nap. The girls out on the couch, us boys back in the studio. I shoulda put on some baseball, grabbed some beers and corn chips for us.




I have been working on a glaze experiment and the dang thing keeps coming out olive drab, no matter what I do (remember MASH? Everything was olive drab). Not what I want, so I will try some other ingredients in that recipe. My pal Nancy wants these below to paint upon. She said "I LOVE OLIVE DRAB!!!! I WANT YOUR GLAZE TESTS!!!" Rock on Nancy.