Hung Up

I've been rather busy, out on the road -- Not that this has changed my rather sporadic posting schedule in any way.....

I've got some great pictures to share, so I'll be putting those up soon. In the meantime, enjoy this singing by Internet Superstar, William Hung.

New Year's Eve

Spread the word. Come join us.

Pottery and the Like, Part II

UPDATE: Most of the pieces below are no longer for sale. Still available pieces include the darker bottles (bottom photos), as they will not be truly finished until today (corks need to be attached). Similar pieces are always available. Just drop me a line with a description of which type of piece you want and we'll get on it. (All painted type pieces can be done on tumblers, bowls, plates, etc.)

Some big news -- First, I've been awarded (I'm not sure if this is the right word or not, really) the position of Student Assistant at the Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts here in Asheville. This is the same studio where Beth is a resident assistant, in the River Arts District.

This means that I will now be nearly always taking a pottery class, and will have the opportunity to practice a great deal and learn tons. I will also have access to the studio, and therefore a place to fire my work, store pieces, throw pots, etc....

I'm obviously very excited.

Also very exciting is that Beth and I got all of our recent pieces out of the kiln. Our collaboration is now official and we have the pottery to prove it. And, dear friends, it is all for sale! I'm putting up pictures below. If you're interested in purchasing anything, let me know (email me or leave a comment) and we'll set up a way to pay (probably paypal) and a delivery method (me or the mail).

I'd also love to hear your reactions (good or bad) to the pieces -- Any feedback is welcome.

Cups and Bowls by Beth and Pancho, $30 each(blue shirt bowl SOLD)

Bottles, Beth and Pancho, $35 each(eyepatch guy SOLD)

Bottles, Beth and Pancho(eyepatch guy SOLD)

Bottles, Beth and Pancho, $35(eyepatch guy SOLD)

Bowl, Beth and Pancho, $30

Bowl, Beth and Pancho, $30(SOLD)

Mustache Mugs, Beth, $25

Painted Cups, Beth and Pancho, $28
Mustache Mug, Beth, $25

Sgrafitto Mugs, Beth and Pancho, $30

Bottles, Beth and Pancho, $35

Bottles, Beth and Pancho, $35

Bottles, Beth and Pancho, $35

Bottles, Beth and Pancho, $35

Bottles, Beth and Pancho, $35

Bottles, Beth and Pancho, $35

Bottles, Beth and Pancho, $35

Photographs

Here, as promised are some photographs for y'all to enjoy. I've included some recent photos of Beth and I, as well as some pictures of parts of our recent collaborations. We've attempted to focus in on the ring, though some photos were more successful than others.

We've been working together on a few different things -- the heads that you see below are part of a recent series of bottles and bottle tops that we're working on. More pictures to follow as things start to come out of the kilns.

Enjoy.

Pottery and the Like

I've been extremely busy these last weeks with some pottery projects that Beth and I have been working on. I"m looking forward to getting some pictures up as soon as everything is finished and ready to go.

We'll be unveiling everything at the Whimsical Art Sale in Brevard, NC on the 13th of December.

Oh, and for those that didn't know that I was involved in artistic endeavors, specifically pottery related, neither did I. This is a very new thing, yet it is a new love in my life. I'm learning quickly how to throw a pot on the wheel, and I've been working with Beth on the decoration of her pieces as well as some sculpture projects.

I"ll put pictures up soon.

What?

I'm getting married to the young Miss Beth Flanagan!

COME CELEBRATE perhaps on New Years with Sirius.B AND Bootstraps Burlesque at the Rocket Club?

Check it out and buy tickets now at www.siriusbmusic.com

Sirius.B in Atlanta

Hello All!

Sirius.B hits HotLanta next weekend (November 22). We'll be touring with Bootstraps Burlesque, with whom we've previously done a show (our record release in May) and with whom we'll be playing on New Years.

Please tell any friends, relatives, acquaintances that you have in Atlanta, as we'd love to pack this out-of-town show.

Peace.

Thank God

Obama is the president-elect. We can all take a collective deep breath and feel that maybe, perhaps, true change is on the way.

Imagine the alternative -- even the fashion would have been horrible. The following is taken from the NY Times:

PHOENIX – On Tuesday night, standing on stage as Senator John McCain conceded the election, Gov. Sarah Palin silently blinked away tears. Her husband, Todd, was stone-faced.

None of those tensions were visible by late Wednesday afternoon, when the Palins emerged from their villa at the Arizona Biltmore hotel to head to the airport in their last Secret Service motorcade.

“Hi, guys,” Ms. Palin said brightly, approaching a small group of reporters waiting outside.

With her infant son, Trig, resting on her hip, and dressed down in black sweatpants, high heels and a blue hooded sweatshirt that read “Alaska Grown,” Ms. Palin said it had been an “honor” and a “blessing” to be part of this “wonderful, wonderful campaign.”

Glenn Beck

From Glenn Beck (conservative crazy right wing talk show host):

Sucking at Blogging

I continue to suck at blogging, and continue to have no excuse. And yet, I continue to write on occasion (messages like this) in order to exhort all to keep the faith. I'll be back, just as soon as I have the time and I figure out what the hell I write this damn thing for anyway.

I'm in Mass. at the moment with Beth, visiting (and meeting) her family--most importantly her brand spanking new nephew--and friends. We've been sweeping back and forth across the state, east to west and west to east, and we're currently in Auburn, MA, visting with her mother.

Along the way, we've been stopping into used bookstores, as I'm trying to get rid of a number of books that I cleaned out of my parents' house on the way up here. Luck has not been overly kind, though I have gotten rid of one (out of four) box and replaced it with five books that I'm very excited to dive into.

We'll be back in Asheville by the end of the week, and I"ll surely have some photos to share of our trip, as well as some photos of some new art pieces that I've been working on.

Oh, and next week I start taking a pottery class (with Beth as teacher), so I"ll sure have much to share in that regard.

More soon.

Sirius.B

Sirius.B has been voted the 3rd Best Indie Band in Asheville. A step up, I'd say, from 3rd Best Unknown Band in last year's contest.

Voting and tallying was conducted by the Mountain Xpress, Asheville's premier arts and entertainment weekly. Check it out:

Mountain Xpress

Thanks to all who voted, and for those who are local, come on out and see us on October 24th at Stella Blue. We'll be playing with The South French Broads and Vortex Park (a great band from Atlanta). Bring your friends and enemies alike!

Painting

Well, once again a great deal of time has passed since my last post.

I feel like I'm going to confession when I apologize and explain myself like that. Let's just say that I've been busy with other things and the blog has not been a priority of late. Continue checking every once in a while, and don't lose faith. I'm still here.

In the meantime, I'm back with much better (and more) photographs of my recent foray into painting. Unfortunately this is not all of them, or better said, unfortunately, I don't have pictures of all of my paintings. There are a few new ones, and others have been given away as gifts and so are not here to photograph.

Xavi (my roommate, friend, bandmate) took the pictures.

Enjoy...

The Onion

I'll try and have a new and original post soon, but in the meantime, check out this article that my friend Sturd sent to me:

2001 Article from The Onion (the "fake" newspaper)

I'll tell you Hwut, that's some prescient s@#t.

Painting

I've taken up painting of late, and I'm finding that this is an art form that I could really get down with. I love the time that I spend painting, and I've been very happy with the results. Others seem to enjoy them as well, which is of course also quite nice.

I've jumped headlong into this whole watercolors thing, and I've already started working on a series of rather grotesque, slightly scary, semi-comic pieces. I've put them up in the order that I painted them -- The first one was painted as a present for Beth, and is actually still my favorite one. His name is Jean Claude. The second one is a man to whom I've given the name Frank. The fact that he's sitting at a table, staring so intently forward, joined by a bottle of "Party Cheese" -- this kind of freaks me out. I've forgotten the name of the last man. He's my least favorite of the three -- if only because I find him too obviously grotesque (the second one is "grotesque" and slightly unnerving because of a benign bottle of cheese, the third is wearing a bloody hook in place of a hand). Still -- he ain't bad for someone who has taken up painting after a twenty two year hiatus from watercolors.

It is funny to note that all three men are bald -- I'm not sure if this is because of my own shining pate or if this has something to do with how much easier it is to draw / paint a bald head than a hairy one. Either way, I'll think that I'll continue along that same path for a while.

(Note: All three paintings are approximately 1.5 feet by 1 foot in size -- or something like that)

Bobby is Back

Mr. Bob Herbert has done it again -- stolen the words from my head and put them into his New York Times column. Shame on him! The dastardly rogue!

Check out his writings / my thoughts here.

Matt Damon

Matt Damon is pretty cool in this video.

McCain

Check out McCain . . .

God help us if the voters pick this man. And, if you're looking for a tragicomic image, watch Sarah Palin's interview with Charlie Gibson, which aired last night. God help us if the voters pick this man and then he dies, leaving us with President Palin.

Lipstick on a Pig

I don't want or mean to use this blog as a political soapbox, so I sort of apologize for this and the many future posts regarding politics.

That said, I feel that this upcoming election is too important, the stakes are too high, and the reasons for outrage are too many, for me to ignore them in this forum. I would, of course, like to share many other things with you, my dear readers (such as, for example, some pictures of the fruits of my new hobby--watercolor painting), but I must mix these personal matters with political statements.

That's all for now -- See the video below for the reasons behind my newest sense of anger and outrage.

Bob Herbert

Bob Herbert, a New York Times columnist that I rarely read, has a great column that I read today -- check it out here

Busy

I've been quite busy lately changing hats.

Sunday afternoon I was a rocker at the LAAFF Festival (Lexington Avenue Arts and Fun Festival), an amazing street party here in Asheville that features local artists and musicians. We played at the EarthFare / BoBo Stage, and had a crowd of two to three hundred for our 45-minute set.

Yesterday I was a Spanish teacher in the morning, then quickly became a Phys.Ed. teacher, then once again became a Spanish teacher. All of this at the Learning Community, a school in Black Mountain, NC, about 30 minutes from Asheville.

Tonight I try on the GRE teacher hat, as I begin to teach a Kaplan course to prepare students for the Graduate Record Examination.

Thus the lack of posts of late. Thus my groaning and cussing as I try to figure out what the heck I need to do today.

More soon.