le tortoise, und le hare: a few new items....

(pottery by Gary Rith)

The Tortoise and The Hare

There once was a speedy hare who bragged about how fast he could run. Tired of hearing him boast, Slow and Steady, the tortoise, challenged him to a race. All the animals in the forest gathered to watch.

Hare ran down the road for a while and then and paused to rest. He looked back at Slow and Steady and cried out, "How do you expect to win this race when you are walking along at your slow, slow pace?"

Hare stretched himself out alongside the road and fell asleep, thinking, "There is plenty of time to relax."

Slow and Steady walked and walked. He never, ever stopped until he came to the finish line.

The animals who were watching cheered so loudly for Tortoise, they woke up Hare.

Hare stretched and yawned and began to run again, but it was too late. Tortoise was over the line.

After that, Hare always reminded himself, "Don't brag about your lightning pace, for Slow and Steady won the race!"

Jason Statham will star in the Hollywood movie about my life...

(and the delectable Amy Smart will play my delectable wife---Amy Smart isn't as pretty as my wife, and she seems really dumb, but she will just have to do...)
Jason Statham kicks AZZ. We saw CRANK last night, which is a stupid movie, but wicked entertaining. I totally dig his Brit-cool badazz persona....
Last summer we went to see DEATH RACE at the cinema and it KICKED AZZ and Jason KICKED AZZ. It was, again, stupid, but less stupid than CRANK and more entertaining.
For a movie entirely UNSTUPID Jason starred in the true story movie version (just as he will star in the true story movie version of my life) of a real bank robbery called THE BANK JOB and I challenge anybody to not like that movie....fantastico!

blogs come, blogs go....

I know a blogger who has been posting every day for over ten years, and another who has posted everyday since 2003. BUT man, a lot of blogs have disappeared, whether because the folks went to facebook or ran out of things to say.
This blog began on myspace today 3 years ago but by late August 2006 I had come to blogger and
the original pottersblog lasted 2 years and one month and then I opened this one. This blog is 11 months old, and running out of memory :)
I am proud of myself. I post 3-6 posts of baloney a day, and when this one fills up I'll start another.
Let's look at the figures:
-3 years
-2 blogs
-over 4500 posts total
-I have now met face to face dozens of bloggers from around the world
-and in 2008 the blog sold over 500 pots, over 3 years it has sold over 1000 pots

Thanks for hanging in there with me!


(teapot by Gary Rith)

old school

SO, as I have been saying, have been meeting up with a variety of friends going back to sixth grade. When I was 12. Sarah has been visiting here and Carrie lives in town nearby--wowie, imagine 2 women who have known you over 30 years saying you LOOK exactly the same and you SOUND exactly the same and your personality is exactly the same? Could it be that our personalities are formed by the time we are 12? Could be.
I am still tied up.
I miss you.
SO, what are you all up to? Please comment here and let me know.....

Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is a tres famous author and we go to hear her speak tonight.
We are movers and shakers, aren't we? Wicked busy at the moment, will be back to the usual baloney soon.....

Percival Pig Proceeds through Britain....

A customer of mine from Texas traveled through Britain in July and she brought along my piggy pencil. You have followed my wee little piggy on their shared journey through Yorkshire etc....and now they finish their travels and come home to rest....

a wee little adventure....

Went to Taughannock Falls yesterday (how do you spell that??) Which, although just a little creek, is higher than Niagara, and is indeed the highest falls in the northeastern US....
if you are cheap like me, you park up top for free, walk all the miles down to the lake, then all the way up to the falls, then all the way back etc....and count it as a pretty good workout, not a penny spent on parking either....

around the studio....

(pottery by Gary Rith)
My pals Lynda and Heath and Gaye are like "you should post pics of all the pots around the studio today, then we will spend gobs of money on your stuff"
OK, they said the first part, I added the gobs of money part, but you know, anything here could be yours....
anyway, the place is messy, normal for me, except the top 3 pics, my "GALLERY area....

Stacey is cool!

My buddy Stacey ordered a piggy bank and it took 2-3 weeks for the post office to deliver it...but it arrived safe and sound and she drew me this SWEET piggy picture....

skinny chip and dipper

(Ginger from Gilligan's Island and a chip and dip by Gary Rith)
Ginger was very important to me during my formative years....

OH YES we spun the bottle in 1981

(me in high school) Stefan is there somewhere....)


You know, if you had told my 12 year old self I would still be hanging around with my pals from middle school I might have been surprised.
SO, my pal Sarah is around from LA and we go back to 6th grade and she was in NY to see Cold Play and Oasis and now on her way to Lollapalooza and tis a bit enlightening to be reminded of WHAT YOU WERE LIKE and WHAT YOU did in high school. Thank god I never have to go to high school again....
Sarah doesn't remember spin the bottle at one of her parties, where I ended up starting a torrid thing (didn't last long) with Christine, but then Sarah tells me that all those years her plot was this: pal around Gary to get closer to my pal Stefan who she favored....
You do wonder what happened to people like Stefan and Carl, who I suspect have both become right wing republican fascists, and Evan, who reports say still lets his freak flag fly....and then we already know about Mary Beth---she has mellowed out a lot, and her fantastic sister Wendy who lives nearby and is much the same, and hopefully I will soon hear back from Carrie (the first girl I LIKED in 6th grade...)who lives HERE but has not been feeling well....
anyway, I suspect that there will be some goofing off this week...

Le Beastie Boys....

One of the Beasties has cancer, but reports say it is easily treated....

"honey, I forgot the kids!!!!!"

One of my buddies from WAAAAAY back is on her way here (ever notice that I always seem to have friends that are female, my whole life???? I like the company of women most and absolutely, who needs men? Although bear in mind, of course, the missus is my best friend and I don't like to touch anybody, so obviously we're talking platonic here, not girlfriends. Just my gal pals, you know???)
OK, so Sarah is one of my gal pals going waaaay back. To like, maybe 6th grade? I remember that her older brother and my older sister in high school that year were friends before I met Sarah. The first time I did meet her, being the vegan anarcho-punk that she is, just like me, she said that one day she wanted to be a translator at the UN. Which was a total fabrication, a total lie. Which, I suppose, is the anarcho-punk way.
SO anyway, we lived pretty close to school, but our town of Brockport, NY had the old Erie Canal running through the middle, and although Sarah lived out in the country, she was on the canal and I could ride my bike down the tow path to her house and talk radical politics and noisy music (anarcho-punk then, anarcho-punk still....)
Sarah's parents probably didn't like the influences at our school (SNORT! SNICKER!!!) and enrolled her in a small private high school. You would think we saw less of each other, but that was not entirely true, because she continued to hang out with the same bad influences from her old school. US.
The last time I saw Sarah, although we have kept in touch, was sometime in the early 1980s. Sarah had a wee little party at her house, and if I remember correctly, there was a little, you know, ahem, spin the bottle, and I think Grace wandered off with Evan, Carl wandered off with Sarah herself to the garage, and Christine and I..... :) were left behind... :) That was NOT a platonic friendship. But it only lasted that one passionate week..... well, who cares about Christine.....
My point is, of the dozens of people I went to school and college with, virtually NONE of us have had kids. NONE! I guess that is the anarcho-punk way? More to the point, it isn't like any of us are gonna suddenly start producing kids either, being mid-40s to 50ish.
I think we are all teenagers still. I mean, I am a good person, but just LOOK AT ME. I am the poster child for the Gen X slacker (except I bathe, and I get up and work everyday, but still....) Sarah, for example, lives in LA and is on her way back from a Beastie Boys concert in New York. Except, unfortunately, one of the boys is sick from cancer (sh!t! I love the Beastie Boys!). But Sarah is still passing through.....
In other news, go to Steve's blob and VOTE FOR ME ON THE RIGHT! I voted twice today myself, see what you can do for me....

there is NOTHING more fun than shopping for women's shoes....

(me, the missus, our feet, Grego and Gordo)
So, with Greg and Gord from Canada meeting us in Syracuse for supper at Strong Hearts, we wanted to multi-task first. (Strong Hearts, btw, is a new vegan cafe that is absolutely awesome---no animal anything on the menu, and all these young hipsters with tats and piecings hanging around....)
The missus has been trying to find the perfect pair of sandals all summer. But now tis August and:
a) not much warm weather left here in Canada's backyard
b) SALE TIME!

The missus did a ton of reseach, all summer long. Sunday I was like
"look, you walk into Lord and Taylor, they have hundreds of pairs of sandals displayed and on super-duper sale, you'll be happy".
And so me, who hatesHATES shopping for anything, esp. women's clothing and shoes, sat there like a very good boy for two hours. I really was good, and quiet, helpful even, and then she decided she was happy, twice, and off we went to meet my buddies Grego and Gordo, passing through on their way back to Ontario.
So Gord last month is like "if we're meeting, can I have some stuff shipped to you and you'll deliver it to me?" which sounds like the opening sequence in a movie involving Turkish Prisons or Homeland Security.
So what arrives????? Much to my surprise, something from, and I swear I am not kidding, the 'cannon fuse company'. Gord emails me "oh yeah, that's illegal in Ontario, so I had it shipped to you and then I'll bring it home"
and I am wondering what exactly the 'cannon fuse' company sent me. And then there was the huge box that probably held a body, and finally, the arrows. I swear I am not making this up, and if Homeland Security is reading this, believe me, that stuff is long gone now....

So then, of course, home again and grabbed the penguin and shook up a couple of vodka martinis......

Johnny Depp and me....

Argh, got yer attention, eh matey?
SO, here is another type of skull mug, ridged and squared, and then the earlier type I made last week, with a drawn skull inside!





(skull mugs by Gary Rith)

Oh what a feeeeeling and what a pair of

....legs.
I remember getting to college in 1983 and (it was a former women's college with lot's more women than men) everybody was wearing little leg warmers and had on a ripped shirt. Even a lot of the dudes were wearing leg warmers and ripped shirts (guys study dance too, ya know?).
So, this was on the radio yesterday. Hadn't thought of it in a long time. Catchy!


Check out this pair of super cute heart and pig mugs. Buono Domenica! (Italian: Happy Sunday!)

Pammy

Not having a TV myself, I was at the mechanic the other day and they had the TV tuned to that funny show Tim Allen did in the 90s, and the kids were very small, so it may have been season one.
Pammy was on there, I think it was her first big acting job, before Baywatch. She seemed a lot more, um, genuine? Innocent? (ooooph, Tommy Lee??? Kid Rock???? Ewww!)
Here's a Pam joke then take a look at my fab bunny cups below that.
(oh lord, I just realized "bunny cups"!!!!!!)

Pamela Anderson buys a box of laundry detergent, and it says on the box, “20 uses”. A day later, she calls the laundry detergent company and says” I bought your product and the box says ‘20 uses’, but all it does is my laundry!

cups by Gary Rith

LIES

The other day Bill was joking that he works with 2 people who are named Thompson, and they are twins....

ANVIL GOES TO ELEVEN

My cat Spike is a bit of a metalhead. He saw the movie ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL! and came home, had a shot of catnip and wants me to type:
(his paws held in the devil's horns)
\m/ \m/
"Rock on! The scene where it really does go to eleven??? Forking priceless....
A+ for this movie...dig this clip of the band in '84"

Spike makes some plans.....

(as told by Spike the cat to Gary)
"Gonna go to the SHOW tonight and catch ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL! About a Canadian heavy metal group that has LIVED Spinal Tap....I'll give ya the report later, but for now, dig this concert performance from the band in '84....."