I like this hat. I left it at The Higher Grounds one night a couple winters ago and it sat on a manikin there for the next 9 or 10 months. Finally Paul said he'd fought off as many attempted thefts of it as he could and suggestged I take it back, which I did. Rick doesn't like it but then I'm not a big fan of his John Deere tractor hat either.

People are interesting

I had an interesting drive to work this morning. Just after pulling out onto Route 27 I saw a car in my rearview mirror, wildly pass a car some distance behind me. Everyone was going at least ten miles over the speed limit but this car was screaming down the road at probably 80 or more in a 55 mph zone. It came up on me really fast with several cars coming at us in the other direction, making it impossible for it to pass me. My first thought was WTF? What an idiot driver! But then I remembered Rick’s post the other day about never assuming what’s up with someone else. So I looked in my rear view mirror as she was tailgating me at 60 mph and noticed that it was a woman, probably about 65, not your typical fast driver/tailgater. It occurred to me that maybe she wasn’t just one of the late for work idiot drivers who often scream past me in the morning, but perhaps there was some crisis she was responding to. The way she was leaning against her door, hand over her brow, she looked pretty distressed. When she turned off onto Leighton Road I was really tempted to follow her and see where she went. I would have been really disappointed if she’d pulled into an office someplace. But in any case if not for Rick’s post I probably would have just written her off as some jerk driver.

So just after she turned off another woman came up behind me at a stop light. I looked back and saw her obviously singing her heart out. We sat there for a couple minutes and she never let up for a second. She wasn’t just singing a line here and there, she was going full bore through an entire song, giving it all she had. I drove a couple miles and came to another stop light and I looked back and she was still going at it. I realized that she looked familiar. I thought maybe she was the lead singer to a band that we sometimes see in Hallowell called School Street Band. She is quite a character. One night Rick and I were sitting on the sofa at The Higher Grounds and she came over with her cordless mike and practically gave Rick a lap dance while never missing a beat in the song she was singing. I know she works at a bank in town and sure enough just before I pulled onto the rotary I saw the car turn into the bank parking lot.

People are interesting.

Art Exhibit

Check out the postcard for my upcoming art show . . . ok . . . well maybe it's not just MY show . . . there ARE a few other artists exhibiting as well. :-) But I'm very exicted to be included. I'm hoping at least one of the pieces I glazed this past Thursday will warrant inclusion. That would give me three pieces. Fun!

New Pottery Pieces

Here are some recent pieces. On this first one you can see I was experimenting with new kinds of handles. It's done with a chun glaze - one of my favorites.


This vase has a royal blue glaze and I dipped the top and arms in emerauld. I like the way I rolled the handles into a spiral before attaching them though they don't quite match.

Again - royal blue glaze with the rim dipped in emerauld. I purposely left the ridges inside the bowl to make the glaze break over them and give it a kind of cool effect.

I've been experimenting with various types of handles. I rather liked this one. I had dipped it in a spamboo glaze (our own concoction comprised of bamboo and spring green) but some of it had flaked off and I couldn't remember by the next week what glaze I'd used. So I guessed celadon froth and turned out to be incorrect. But I rather like the combo. Wish I'd done it all the way around.

The handles turned out kind of cool too. I tried a bunch of different handles this past Saturday on some bowls and can't wait to see how they turned out.

In The Rough

A couple of pieces I worked on at the studio yesterday. Had fun carving on this little vase.

This tile piece was great fun to make but glazing it will be challenging.

Lowell Celebrates Kerouac weekend 2009

Got back from Lowell Celebrates Kerouac weekend a couple hours ago. We met some interesting people - Charlie and Chris from Michigan, Steve from Ohio, and Cori from Boston at Kerouac's grave. Rick ended up selling 3 books there! Funny. We drank a couple shots of 16 year old Bushmill's and Rick read an excerpt from Dr. Sax and I read Ferlinghetti's poem entitled just 25 or The Smiling Mortician. It seemed appropriate at Jack's grave.

We had a quick dinner at the hotel and joined the tour at the Lowell Public Library led by Roger and Bill. The Library is truly a magnificent building, built in the late 1800s for a mere $175,000. Fabulous woodwork throughout majestic room after room. No wonder Jack was inspired by the place and often skipped school to hang out there. I remember my own little library in Readfield, Maine growing up. Two rooms in what is still their public library, just at the end of the driveway to our house. Not majestic but it was pretty impressive to me from the ages of 5 to 10ish, when we moved out of town. It felt like Christmas every week being able to walk down there with my brothers and sister and come home with an armful of entertainment. Many of those books I probably took out 20 or more times.

After the tour a bunch of us went over to the Smokehouse for some Margarittas then a taxi ride back to the hotel.

Saturday we started at what was supposed to be Kerouac Park but ended up moving to the Lowell Cultural Center because of rain. An enactment of an excerpt from Dr. Sax about the so-called Watermelon Bridge, with David Amran accompanying them on the keyboard and drum. David gave Rick one of his books in exchange for one of Rick's books. Cool.

Later we listened to a lecture by a professor from Notre Dame College and then a tour of some of the places in Kerouac's novels led by Roger. It rained pretty hard during the tour but we warmed up when we got to the poetry reading at Brewed Awakenings, where Rick and I both read an original poem. A quck dinner and then off to a nearby church for music by David Amran, his band, and members of the Lowell Symphony Orchestra.

Malley called while we were in Lowell to say that she's doing a show and including some student pieces and asked if I'd contribute some. I think I'll use some of my tile pieces - the tray and a wall hanging. Maybe one of my funky bowls, too.

The Maine Audobon Society loon contest has all the photos up on line. There are about 250 entries; some really nice photos! Mine hold up pretty well though.