Gary's Third Pottery Blog

When the going gets tough, dragons gonna get going....

Gary's third pottery blog

WRITE TO ME! garyrith@yahoo.com Come see me! Open studio HERE! November 25-26 (11-4 each day); Aurora Art and Design, daily until 12/24; Cooperstown Art Assoc. daily until 12/24; Ellis Hollow Community Fair, 12/10; December 10, Little Red Wagon at the Space at Greenstar. All material on this blog unless stated otherwise is copyright Gary Edward Rith 2016

Monday, February 28, 2011

HEAVY METAL MONDAY! \m/


The great happiness and optimism of HIGH FIVE FRIDAY seems to be, in my mind, logically followed by HEAVY METAL MONDAY. Feeling vaguely pissed off? Had enough of February??? Dang, its MONDAY after all! GET YOUR DEVIL'S HORNS OUT!!!!

If I look back, I realize that like with fine wine or French movies, the older you get, the more you appreciate some things--like heavy metal. I didn't pay any attention to it back in the 70s and 80s, because I was too busy listening to Tears for Fears and Flock of Seagulls. But as your tastes mature, you come to love teh Megadeth, Motorhead, Motley Crew and Metallica.

And so, we have a new feature to add to High Five Friday's optimism and celebration, Heavy Metal Monday is where we grouse and complain and kick some ass....
Of course, actually, I have absolutely no reason to be pissed at anything today, the wife being back from a trip, mild temps and rain out there, not snow.......




(new teapot by Gary Rith, and below Penny waits for her mother to come home...)

Sunday, February 27, 2011

blueberry muffins from heaven



(new pottery by Gary Rith above, Penny on the cat perch looking out the window, below)




Years ago I had a Dannon yogurt blueberry muffin recipe that I liked, but tossed out when my dairy allergies worsened. But, as this pic shows, there is excellent soy yogurt available, and I wanted to try the recipe again using that.

I remember years ago, just as me and the wife were starting to see each other, she invited me over for paella. I asked what I could do and she said 'make sangria'. I had never made sangria before, and went to the Chicago Public Library to find a recipe (remember libraries????). They had a wonderful and huge collection of cookbooks, and I found what I needed. Man, those were the days: take the elevated train downtown, walk up the street, up the stairs, through security, find the building directory for cookbooks, take an elevator, wander past a thousand sleeping hobos enjoying the library's warmth, then start pulling books off the shelf, flick through them, find what you want, find a xerox machine.... I MISS THOSE GOOD TIMES! I was at the Ithaca library yesterday checking out mysteries, still full of hobos, but anyways...

So, these days, you want a recipe, any recipe, you just sit at your desk and in two seconds you have dozens to choose from. I did not like the Dannon recipe, as it requires milk too, and kept searching, and like this recipe that I used here. It is very simple, esp. since I rejected their approach of dirtying every bowl in the house, simply mixing everything into one bowl. It worked fine.

blueberry yogurt muffins!

2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 c yogurt
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 c oil
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 c blueberries, fresh or frozen

Preheat oven to 350, grease 12 muffin pan

-crack egg into bowl, add oil, vanilla and sugar and stir, then add yogurt and stir some more
-add flour, bake powder and soda, stir thoroughly
-gently mix in the blubes
-spoon batter into pan, it is thick and sticky
-bake 25 mins, check and make sure a knife stuck in comes out clean, that's it! And soy yogurt worked wonderfully :)

Saturday, February 26, 2011

project for crafty guys: making the mouse mousepad





I am chatting with the wife:
"I want a new mouse pad for the computer" and she is like
"you don't have a mouse pad, you have a pad of paper under the mouse. Doesn't work very well"
"plus" sez I "you are always writing notes on the paper, and the mouse makes your writing all smeary" and she doesn't have much to say to that so I go on, as my imagination fires up
"I want a Mickey Mouse Mouse Pad!" and she is like
"you gonna buy one?" and I am like
"NO! I can make it!" and she is like
"OH! You could take a picture of your Mickey tee, print it out and paste it onto blahblah and then cut out blahblah..." (it was sounding like Ocean's 11: a VERY complex plan) and I am like
"well, I was thinking I could just take foam and a big circle and 2 small circles and cut them out" and as I am puzzling out my simple plan she is like
"we can get black foam sheets at Michael's!" and she helped me find them and it was about 49 cents and you can see what I did here. Super easy, and YES, I made those cups and that bowl.....



Look at this horrible thing below. I dreamt I got something like that tattoed to my forearm, and some other horrible thing on the other arm. Even in the dream I was embarrassed....

Friday, February 25, 2011

huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge snow storm!



Early this am, I am preparing the day's work list. Knowing the weather report and looking ahead, I write down "shovel snow 1 2 3", as in, gonna shovel snow 3 times today. I have since shoveled FOUR times, and will shovel again at least once more. Not the worst storm ever, but the worst we have had this winter it seems. Above, Penny, below, me and Buster. You can see I have to clear a path for Penny!

HIGH FIVE FRIDAY and HOBOS happen....yes they do....






Me, my cat, and my rude French sock monkey Georges le Soq are ALL OVER TEH HIGH FIVE FRIDAY.
High five Friday as defined by the urban dictionary:
"In these troubled times in which we live, we are constantly searching for that one moment of pure joy that can uplift our spirits and bring them to a higher plane. People have sought for centuries that one golden flash of brilliance that would justify their lives, the arrow that would soar into the heart of darkness and vanquish the malevolent vortex that drains the very soul of mankind. We have known of and guarded this provenance of enlightenment for generations, and it is now time for destiny to unfold and unleash this power upon the masses. Of course you know of what we speak: THE HIGH-FIVE!!!
"Dude,you going to High Five Friday?!?!"

"You know it!!!"


In HOBO news, Kasey's mom is like:

"gary is having problems at the store isnt he? I was going to tell him. I have that problem all the time! I just look at someone and they tell me their whole life story."

Its true: the drunken hobos rob my time at every turn!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

great pair of jugs!



(new pottery by Gary Rith

Baby Alex strikes yet again.....

This blog, of course, is all about cuteness, my friends and imaginary cousins, and the occaisional pottery.
You will, of course, remember baby Alex, a frequent visitor to this blog, wicked charming, now aged about 9 and a half- 10 months. Check him out, playing with this cat, chewing on this cat, chasing this cat! Alex is walking pretty damn good for a 9.5 month old baby, wow! Also features his father Andrei.
It is no coincidence I dreamt of baby Alex. In the dream he walked over to the counter and was grabbing cookies...but being toothless, he was sorta gumming them...

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

'its just a little beagle'


Penny = FIERCE and TERRIFYING

dig some new pots.....





(pottery by Gary Rith, on sale now at his etsy gallery! Only ten more months till Christmas!!!!)

300 photographs.....


Beth comes over and takes pics of my class at Cornell last night...and at one point she is like
"I took 300 photos of you!" but then she took more.....and, um, I havn't quite seen them yet, SO we have this picture of my little sh!thead sock monkey trying to steal my beer last summer.....more later....
dig the best live music video EVAH....

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

"niche barket"


(teapot by Gary Rith)
the wife invents a new expression yesterday:
"niche barket: A niche market, for beagles" tres clever!

I have about 2 dozen items to ship today plus a class to teach and God knows what else....sorry, must run, catcha later... :)






Monday, February 21, 2011

slow news day = bring out the rude sock monkeys and the bikinis....




(cups by Gary Rith, but not just ANY cups, available at my etsy gallery)

Its like, zero out there. Winter weather warning or emergency or something like that this morning. 8 more inches of SNOW. Then getting colder. And snowier. DANG!

Well, so you start thinking of BEACH AND BIKINI time, and the wife and I wrote this haiku about my rude French sock monkey, Georges Le Soq

Georges says bikini
Season is coming quite soon
Will he wax it all?



speaking of bikinis.....same musical guests as yesterday....but soooo funny....and bikinis!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

moremoremore!


(teapot by Gary Rith)
Terri Ann across the street is like
"I love the teapot on teapot design. In fact I was telling my mom about it earlier today!"
So, Terri Ann across the street and your esteemed mom, here is another one! Terri Ann's mom, of course, has already begun a collection of my teapots....

More SNOW darnitall....Friday had been warm, we lost a lot of snow, and we got it all back Saturday, YUCK. Look at poor old Buster here, covered with the stuff....



Just added nice stuff below to my etsy gallery, BUY SOME!






Impossibly catchy and pretty tune....

Saturday, February 19, 2011

the Marc Maron miracle....



(above, the wife, below, Marc Maron getting ready for the night)


The story goes something like this, and it is a very hard story to believe, but everything here is totally true:
2-3 weeks ago Kasey is like:
"Scott and I are going up to Minneapolis for Valentine's weekend to see his buddy the comic Marc Maron perform with Eugene Mirman from Flight of the Conchords" and I am like checking the links and say
"OH! Wicked funny dude...biting, inciteful, HE IS MAD AT THE THINGS WE ARE MAD ABOUT" and Kasey is like
"We are gonna give him gifts! He loves cats, he loves baked goods. I'll bake him cookies, but I am gonna buy your cat bowl to put them in!" and she does.

Last week, Kasey and Scott go to Mall of America, enjoy the show, and are hanging around with Marc after the show and she hands over my cat bowl and the baked goods and says
"You love cats and baked goods, here ya go!" and he enfolds her in a big hug he is so happy, even though he is a famous dude and she is super sick with a cold. SO, Marc Maron has my cat bowl! (Kasey, he does not seem to have caught your cold)

Monday, Kasey sends me more links and all to check out. I am listening to the radio which tells me: MARC AND EUGENE's NEXT STOP IS ITHACA. HERE! How cool is that? What a coincidence. I go down to the State Theater, a super old and super cool 80-90 year old theater with the ceiling painting like the sky and the rest like a palace, and I buy 2 balcony seats. I find out, for example, that I saved several bucks by buying tix in person rather than online....anyway!

SO, last night, me and the wife are headed out for the big date. It is nearly her birthday. I know one of the ushers at the theater, and I swear I am not making this up, and my FB friends will laugh when they see this:
The usher sees me and is like
"G BOMB!!!!" and then
"HIGH FIVE FRIDAY!!!!!!!" with appropriate hand slaps all around.

Thankfully, the State theater is a grown up place and they sell beers. We get the beers and head up to the balcony with the other lowlifes who like to sit up in the balcony with their beers and party and call down mayhem on everybody below...and who is on the stage, half an hour early? With his coffee and sandwich, talking to everybody? The star: Marc is out chatting with everybody, and later he worked it into his show, abusing and heckling the members of the audience, such as the dude who said he loved the pod casts and Marc's humor but his wife hates it....and here is his wife. The guy happens to be a fruitfly scientist. I think Marc had a good half hour's worth of new material thanks to fruit fly guy.

ANYWAY, so we are sliding into the balcony, and Marc is right under us on stage, yelling at the guy next to us "WHY ARE YOU SITTING UP THERE? You'll be all alone" and I call down "We're up here too!" and Marc asks me "Why are you up there with him?" and I am like "So we can look down on you and hurl abuse at you!" and he seemed to realize that made sense and so I further holler "Kasey brought you my cat bowl in Minnesota!" and he is like "Oh man, Minnesota...."

The evening staerted with a young comic from Brooklyn named Kurt then Eugene Mirman who is wicked silly. Both guys were so funny I was laughing so hard I could hardly breathe (TRUE! I have asthma, sometimes you laugh so hard...anyway...I was fine). Then there was intermission, and Marc was expected to come on for 45-60 minutes. By my clock, he went TWO HOURS AND NINE MINUTES. The other comics literally dragged him off the stage! But then, of course, he just sat down and started talking with anybody from the audience who was still around....

Anyway, like I say, he is mad about the stuff I am mad about, plus he is intense and neurotic and smart and quick and funny. Dig his podcasts to find out more....



and Eugene Mirman


I get outta bed this morning and the kiln has cooled off from yesterday and I pop it open and lookit this thing, YOWZAA! I lovvvvvvvvvvvvves it! So I had to toss that in here....

(teapot by Gary Rith)

Top pottery blog 2015

2014 winner

Me and Missus Tastycakes

Me and Missus Tastycakes

garyrith.com

ME, the TV interview :)

my etsy gallery

my second blog, 2008-2009

my first blog, 2006-2008

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
I am a full-time studio potter, sculptor, and dog walker, married to superhawt Missus Tastycake.