If you read Arthur, you saw this a few days ago. It bout made me crazy. IF you want more–go to Brett Ingram’s site and watch some of the trailers. Independent stop animation is for a special breed of dilligentry.

Maybe if you get sick this Christmas you can get your mom to get you all kinds of Robitussen and you can drink it all at once, just sit back on the couch and make a 2D stop action like this on your macbook. Just don’t drip it on your keyboard or you’ll never get it out! Happy Christmas everybody! Almost time for a little Break in the action!

One of the nice things about living in a small city is that when a good show rolls thru, you’re more likely to get a more intimate listening experience. Last night, Bill Callahan, Lights and Neal Morgan played at a real intimate place here in town.

I was talking with the drummer for Lights (see how intimate?) and realized that my main concerns were how they and Bill were all traveling, what they were eating and what kind of arrangements they were making…

I realized something I do a lot–project and idealize. I’ve been listening to Bill Callahan for 12 years or something, so I figure he’s got “it” made. What does this mean.

If you watch the desk concert below, look at the pain in Bills face at the douchie question @ 11:00. But really, its such an uncomfortable situation, everybody’s almost supposed to be uncomfortable. But when the music fills the space all that “deskjob” dootie takes a nap. That douche-guy may as well have be me.

When I say “project and idealize”, I mean that I tend to think everybody that does something worthwhile is getting money to do it. Otherwise they’d “get a desk job”. There’s no such thing as artistic integrity.

Q: Huh? there is? What? how will I know how full of integrity people are if they’re not tweeting me about it, or blogging on about how full of artistic integrity they are?
A: You can see it in there work/life/music. They pile into a rented van with 5 other people and play at midnight on a Monday night in Kentucky…

The conversation with drummer wasn’t nec. stupid; I’m on a journey towards artistic integrity or whatever, and I have a super long way to go. that’s all.

This video invokes how it feels to eat too much at the folks house–all cold outside, all warm inside, fuzzy with stardust, cheesy and tired. You know, Thursday afternoon.

Now, let’s go get thankful!

aw. no. (the idea now, is to hit play on the vid and watch for a while, then read this junk while the song plays…for effect).

Saturday morning I loaded up 2 kilns worth of an order for one of our favorite shops (elsa & sam). It was the glaze firing, so the 2nd of 3 for our main pieces. Cone 5, it gets to about 2100 degrees and takes about 13 hours. 13 hours later the red kiln was done and the blue kiln read “error 1″, which means something’s wrong. I reset it and it kept climbing, for another, I don’t know, 24 hours or some crazy time.

Tis the season and every firing counts. Peeples want there tings fast for the folks to get ‘em and I’m watching and waiting, pacing and grinding. I’m thinking the whole kiln is ruint and I’m going to have to not only remake everything, but wait another 2 days for it to dry, fire it, let it cool a day and then glaze. Wait another day, fire again (13 hours) let it cool and then be back to where I started. All the while, the favourite shop is waiting for the goods. You don’t want to keep people waiting cause they’ll drop you like yesterday’s dinner.

When the ice storm came last winter we lost our only tree in the back yard. But there’s a tree in the neighbors yard that is pretty much in ours. A magnolia tree that keeps its nice, fat green leaves for a long time. While these troubles lurk in the studio (basement), I can go out back for a breather. Hold on. Look up at the jetstreams still trying to be clouds. The clouds turning from turtles into lizards into snakes into ether.

Oh, hold on to the goods life brings. We’re doing this. and sometimes it doesn’t work out according to plan. I heard that if you want to make God laugh, make a plan. aw, how can we live without plans. sometimes God doesn’t laugh, and that magnolia is holding on to summer with its fat, green leaves.

Turns out one of the elements in the kiln burned out and we ordered a new one (thru Mudworks , our great local, and its overnighting tonight from Canada–thanks Link!). That’s it, that’s life. An orthodox monk said once, in response when asked what they do all day, “we fall down and we get back up, we fall down and we get back up”. Hold on Magnolia, hold on er’ybody. Even if them leaves fall down, spring will come and you’ll get those beautious fat flowers to go with it.

I know I put this video up before, but its autumn and you could watch and listen to it more than once for sure. I’m not sure when it started but there’s been a tradition of needing to catch one leaf out of the sky every autumn in order to avoid a dreadful year (or something). I’ve tried to ignore it and move on. But, every fall I see a leaf and go for it. If you miss it, you’re in, you can’t not catch one.

I avoided feeling pressure this year. I never went for one. Until today. I just got back from a walk outside with Franny and low and behold–a perfect floater on a perfect decent. I only had to quicken the pace for about the last five steps and yessir, I landed it. Even though I’d given it up for the season I gotta say it was a nice relief to have that lil fella in my hand.

We had a lot to be happy about at the end of this past week: we sent off the final orders that were taken from the Philly buyers market (3 months ago!) and went to Morehead University as “visiting artists”. It doesn’t sound like that much but it surely felt it. Getting that last box out on Friday felt like huge relief. The visiting artist demo and lecture felt like something coming that was always in your mind but never recognized til it came and went and the relief felt after, let me know, that it was a bigger deal to me than I’d thought.

I’ll update the website of all the sweet new shops we in (hopefully this week) and you can go check out where its at.

I’ve also been working on some Shaker images that I’ve finalized as screen prints. When its done, I’m thinking, “idea or form, how could I make it better? the idea is all there, does it matter if there’s emotion. or, it doesn’t ‘feel’ right.” Anyways I’ve done three and plan for 5. I guess getting those done feels like an accomplishment too.

What else.

I saw Daniel Higgs a few months back on Arthur and thought it kind of unbearable. But listening to it again I wanted to hear more. I recently bought a few of his solo albums as well as a couple from Lungfish. It’s real good at the right time. I’m sure it won’t mean a lot to a lot of folks who are in a different place at this specific time, but maybe later or maybe listen and remember a time before where this would have been good to hear.

Memories and emotions. Photos and things. When I take a photo today it feels cheaper than it did on film. Photo’s used to be memories, now they’re not even a dime a dozen, they free! What will become of memories, and with cheap memories we’ll have to dig deep for something real.

Today, I came across a bunch of photos I’d taken and forgotten. I was searching for something on my external hd and found some memories. A bourbon bottling shot (bourbon distillery–loves the still), and a shot of my first motorbike *sniff*. I remember riding home from work (aa) on a super chilly night–I’d just bought it. I could feel the air temp change as I passed a drainage ditch, headlight pointed too low (I didn’t know) thrilled to my gills, midnight and the air is all up in my grills, I actually yelped out a “wahoo!”, that’s the bike. I wish I kep it.

When I smell a dumpster I get transported to high school when I’d skate behind the Piggly Wiggly. The feelings of high school and skating by myself. A new town, new school, new people and what’s coming up next all floods back with the smell of nasty garbage. Some say smells bring back memories strongest. (oops.)

And I saw a bit of U2 on the Saturday Night live the other week and thought “old”. Bono’s voice, though I hadn’t heard it in years, brought back the same kind of thing. “Boy” was the first, second, or third album my brosef and me bought with our pittance. Many a road rid, dumpster sniffed, and song sung since then–on everybody’s end.

Reading in the Heath book (about a year ago, but its stuck) one person was writing an essay about growing up eating on Heath Ceramics. I think her sister got them as a wedding gift from her parents, but the writer had found a decent collection for herself. The dishes she’d eaten on, she can still eat on and remember the old days.

I hope that Dovetail can do that for someone too, but really its not up to Dovetail to make the memories, it the stuff that goes on around the dish. That’s life too. I hope that if my own personal, ugly mug shows up in anybodies memories or on anybodies memory cards, that it’ll be a pleasant enough thing. That I didn’t sour anybodies space. I want Dovetail to enhance and not sour. Let me know if you have something from Dovetail (or me) that’s gone rotten–we’ll try to make good. (aww…, blarf!)

Our friend Travis has curated a show for the LAL (Lexington Art League) called “Generously Odd: Craft Now”. It just opened tonight and we are happy to be in it. Both he and we didn’t think that our Dovetail wares would fit in the Generously Odd category, but oddly enough, it worked. The show looks good.

aww, yes. working hard, dawn to dusky, and for sure we smellin musky. mm, hm.

Things are cranking… just brought in about a ton more clay on my geezy weezy back. Also,
on the minute or two before I lay me down to go to sleep (praying the Lord my soul to keep) I been thinking about some new styles for Dovetail. Editions. Its been in the making since the name Dovetail was conceived. Its still a way off, but its fun to know that the dream isn’t die. dead.

Recently got some Santogold. Its been out a while but I have been in the basement. When your stooping over a glaze bucket and its in your eye this is a fun tune to hear tho:

The sign is terrible.
Saturday morning: grumpy, busy, not wanting to waste a day I could be using to fulfill orders or fulfill my life, a UK football game at 12:20. Just a few blocks away. We live on a terribly busy road and that road is the main vein to the Football stadium. 7 or 8 Saturdays a year, our “street” becomes a crazy road to nowhere. There have already been two nationally televised Saturdays this season and we’ve been too busy to bother. BUT…

Our neighbors moved out a month ago and their back yard is basically a parking lot. Last year they parked cars in their lot at $20 a car every home football game. I’d go over and talk to them thinking “I could never do that, its humiliating to stand around with a sign and beg people to give you hard dollars for something so silly as a spot to park it”. Yesterday, at 11:00, I put on my Kentucky T-shirt (and vintage hat I bought at Buffalo Exchange in Boulder) and took out my reluctantly painted sign and sold spots.

$180 in 1/2 hour. They actually thanked me!

I spend lots of hours doing some hard labours for little pay. That wasn’t hard and I can’t wait for the next home game! If they win, it means there’s interest. If there’s interest, there’s people that need “spots”. GO CATS!

The “mighty” dollar. One thing that’s cool about that whole deal, yeah it was nice to get some money for nothing, but it really feels like Capitalism in action. A need and a need fulfilled. That’s what this country allows and is known for. If you feel bad taking money for a spot you wouldn’t be using anyway, you’re a sucker that, as Darwin would put it, won’t survive. Here, you see a need, you provide for that need and you succeed (just don’t report it, don’t pay tax on it, oh-no, I’m going to prison in my white collar).

Making dishes doesn’t provide a need that Target can’t fulfill, but when it comes down to Local, or hand-made, or American–we fulfill that. If you can get one or fill your cupboards, its the same. Its one tiny grain of sand in the big U.S. sandbox. Its great to be able to contribute and be a part of it. I guess parking cars of local folks and taking money, which made me feel bad until they thanked me, made me realize that nobody here is forcing anybody to do anything. But this country provides opportunity and that’s good.