Here are some shots of an urn commission I am currently working on:

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Vid of model:

Through Mortise, Stopped Mortises, Respective Housings, and Massive Rebate For Rest

Think I nailed it?

And the design:

Kind of nifty to help out a cause I believe in.  Sustainable Heights is next, if they’ll have me.

Thanks to Nick Matthew and the rest of the crew at the Coalition for having me on.

You can officially now all relax and take a break.  There really is no need to blow anything up in America.

Hubris, megalomanic greed, endemic political corruption, corporate personhood, and a public with the wool over its eyes is doing plenty good job of bringing America to its knees.

Only a matter of time until the problems with the other 30,000 rubber stamp approved shut-off valves further exacerbate the mega catastrophe in the Gulf.  Throw in a hurricane and volatile chemicals when they start burning the oil off and we have a real winner on our hands.

Meanwhile, “Drill, baby.”  Corporations and the market did a GREAT job keeping the 11 dead workers safe.  The market is sure to do just a good a job at dealing with the cataclysmic affects that are going to ripple through the environment, economy, and healthcare system.

Siting this article:

Also, Homeland Security has likely tracking your next click after reading this and the linked article.  Suggest you close the windows and move on.

One other lesson learned:  backfat must be ground up way finer than we did it this year.  Toooo chunky.

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We made 70 pounds of sausage this year. I know, it is nothing compared to the 400lbs that some of your families make, but without industrial processing, this is still an accomplishment. Next year, we agreed that an industrial grinder/stuffer is in order = more drinking, less labor, more meat.

We have been at this for three years now. Started out as family. Has expended to well, expanded family (if you haven’t been invited, consider this the promo piece to pique your interest (really people, we have a VERY tiny house, cut me some slack)). Quantities of meat have for sure increased but other lessons have been learned:

- be better organized (was much less drunk, bedraggled, and scatterbrained than ever before but my recipe quantities need to be bulletproof before the day)
- buy 30% more poundage of meat to allow for loss from bone, gristle, and sinew
- line up participants two weeks in advance
- prep all spice/herb/marinates the night before grinding and stuffing, and get help for this
- invite women but never let them touch the meat prior to it becoming sausage, as this would make it impure, especially if they are cycling (what? I can make up crazy rules too, Bible!!!!)

Please allow me to take a moment to talk about the Italian Fennel sausage we made. Because the fennel and meat were fresh, the result was an actual fragrance (gentle, no less) of an almost floral quality that permeates every bite. Hap’s insistence of red and green peppers provided just the right touch of sweetness to complement the spice. This is not a bun sausage. This is for pasta, not red sauce, with something delicate – like zucchini.

Game. I love me some protein not from an industrial farm. In this case, that means harvested by someone I know (Richard), or maybe myself one day. I understand what that entails – full flavor, what some people call gaminess. While this doesn’t bother me, as I would much rather eat an animal that has had a life in the wild than in a pen. In this case, all agreed that the duck/goose/chicken combo and venison (oh my god juniper berries are SO MUCH MORE complex than I thought they would be) were beyond all expectation. FAR beyond.

We also made some Iowa Breakfast that I am going to stuff the F out of with some F-toast, errrr, actually, stuff the F out of some F-toast with. Did I mention Chorizo? Look, Mexican/Latin is my cuisine of choice. I could eat tacos/burritos EVERY day of my life and look forward to dinner every night. But Chorizo? Did I mention Chorizo? Did I mentions hand made Chorizo so that your non-knife hand actually throbs because of all the hot peppers you have handled? Succulent, with tequila substituted for half the red wine vinegar? Christ (he’s my namesake, so I have right to use it, okay?), I would become a missionary of Chorizo if I could figure out a way.

So, really, the reason I am taking pen to paper (*sigh* – so long ancient technology) is art.

It started out with me asking Pete about his perception of the Beatles. This was prompted by my incidental and accidental re-exposure to them through Rock Band, which I would not have purchased on my own.

He was 6 years old and had no recollection, other than the aftershocks.

The aftershocks became the next topic… flowed into how artists and performance can so strongly affect experience.

Hell. I remember getting choked up in my dad’s red Maverick listening to “Here Comes The Sun” – at least 15 years after its release. As a four year old I was moved by the uplifting nature of that song. Eight years later, I remember being wrecked by “Long and Winding Road”. WRECKED!!! Had never had a relationship nor known heartbreak at that point, although Anne Marie Alexia did have my admiration in kindergarten and I did compete with her affections with by best friend Tommy Bordanero (he was better looking and smarter but I lived a street over). The power of music became the next topic.

I brought up a performance by U2 on SNL. Peter brought up one from Bjork.

U2 are rock gods. Even if you hate Bono’s cocky strides and musky odors, they ARE….

ROCK
GODS

Nothing any of us can do to take that away.

Despite that status, one which I am sure that they are well aware of, when SNL had a couple of spare ones at the end of a show in 2004, they played for a third time. For the hell of it? For the audience? To mock Ashlee Simpson? For the fun of it? Who knows, but they gave and obviously enjoyed it. The audience and cast were obviously thrilled. The engineers at NBC even seemed loathe to cut away. Based on Bono’s “…one more..” as the credits finished rolling, they probably played at least one more track for the live audience. What a gift!!! How real? I have a really low quality mpg of this. If you want to see it let me know. Very difficult to find online. Mention of it here though:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/inventory-ten-memorable-saturday-night-live-musica,1525/

Bjork. Ahhhh, that delightful freak girl/woman. Does she ever perform “Unraveled” and not mean it from the depths of her soul? Does she have perfect pitch? I would put money on it.

Christ (there he is again, our lord and savior – just shows up whenever he likes now, doesn’t he?), I don’t even know what to say to the following other than breath taking (minus the stupid black/white shifts in the first):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbHGOFwH09k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Qe5K7UV_0

Bjork, married to Mathew Barney, speaking of incredibly evocative, powerful and strange, flowing to Joanna Newsome and Smog…..

Blah, blah, and …..

Epiphany.

Aside from any commercial aims in order to make a living or a mockery of the art/music business, the thing that makes an artist an Artist is:

Generosity. Integrity. Honesty. Craftsmanship. Commitment to message (or a possession by message in some cases).

Makes me want to stop listening to music as background, see more music live, and see more art.

All this at $25 for 7 pounds of sausage each, plus NO SAWDUST in the sausage despite the fact that there was plenty at hand.

Also, since so much sausage fun has been had because of this man, I feel compelled to plug his book and site:

http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Aidellss-Complete-Sausage-Book/dp/1580081592

http://www.aidells.com/

Needless to say, sausage making leads to endless double entendre that never ceases to be funny.