web tech again

[millring]

How can I tell with whom I have registered my domain name? I'm receiving notice that renewal is coming due but I'm really not sure if it's spam because I can't remember back two years ago to who I registered my name with.

[gbacklin]

Try...

www.betterwhois.com/

type in the domain name (cnn.com, for example) and it will return you information....

Take Care,
Gene

[millring]

Thanks, Gene. That told me what I needed to know.

[TDR]

Had to go check out your website, Millring. Nice work.

Are these the spheres we were worried about imploding?

[millring]

Naw, it's these...



At my last show another potter came by and was asking about the small acorns on top. He assumed they were solid because he couldn't find a weep hole. Without a weep hole it seems unlikely that they'd have survived the firing process.

I told him that I had actually just plain ol' forgotten to drill one as I was making them and was surprised myself that they survived anyway.

I guessed that they survived by virtue of the connection between lid and acorn wasn't that great -- I knew they'd fuse together later.

What I hadn't thought about, once having dodged the problem of exploding acorns due to lack of weep hole and allowing expansion, was that now the interior was a vacuum. Thankfully, Peter set my mind at ease.

[TDR]

If they started life at room temp, then got hot and pressurized, then cooled... wouldn't they be right back to atmospheric at room temp again?

Anyway, good lookin stuff.

[millring]

Thanks.

If they started out at room temp and the air couldn't escape during the climb to 2400 degrees -- and then they cooled back to room temp, you'd be right.

What's happening is that the air is escaping on the way up (that's why they aren't blowing up in the kiln). It's escaping through the dry then liquid (melted) glaze on the way up -- the joint at the bottom of the acorn allows it. But the instant the glaze is no longer melted (about 20 degrees cooler than peak) the air can no longer move between in and outside.

[kariseal]

Wow, that is beautiful. I love how you have incorporated natural elements in your work. I hadn't seen your website before, thanks tdr for reminding me to look. I think next time I have to buy a wedding present I will know where to go....or maybe a present for ME! I would love to see something in person. Do you do shows all year round or only in the summer?

[millring]

Thanks!

I do show year around right now dammit (I used to do six months of shows and six months of no shows, but worry about how good the shows are going to remain has me trying out new ones).

I'm hoping to try out a hot show in Naperville next year.

[kariseal]

Shows are a lot of work, I can imagine...I went back and saw show schedule..duh. I bet you do well for the holidays tho showing thru november. Well naperville would be a good place for you I would think. They would have the right clientelle. Maybe if you come in March to enjoy Peirce with us we could work out a way for you to bring me something

[millring]

I will be there to get "Pierced" come hell or highwater.

[kariseal]

Oh goody, I can't wait. Maybe we can work something out. I love pottery, had a real hard time pulling pots in ceramics in college. Ended up slab building EVERYTHING....

I am so glad you are coming. I had an amazing experience at a song writing workshop in August in new mexico where Pierce was the musician in residence. He sat in for several of our classes, played in worship, and gave a concert at the end of the week. What a nice guy he is, and WOW can he play guitar. We had some great conversations over the week, he really impressed me. When I signed up for his email list and saw he gave workshops I sent him an email to find out details and sure enough...we are hosting him! I can't wait.

[millring]

So YOU'RE who we have to thank for getting him up this way?! Good work!

Did you read my review of the Pettis concert from hell I attended?

[kariseal]

No, do I want to? is it scary?

[Cribbs]

I think I am going to start calling my wife "Weep Hole" and see where that gets me.

[majorminor]

you mud stud you

[Deleted]

admin said:

I think I am going to start calling my wife "Weep Hole" and see where that gets me.

It could get your acorns exploded

Tom

[Supertramp78]

Just went to the site. Man you do good work. Not that I would be the first to tell you but DANG. Soon as Kelly gets a job, might need to talk about some of your stuff. The pumpkin pot is on the table as we speak.

[millring]

Here's the review I wrote a few years ago. The reference to Rani Arbo was because she had just written a review of "State Of Grace" in Acoustic Guitar Magazine.
******************************************************

Well I had it all planned. I was going to literarily kick Rani Arbo’s skinny little butt for her insipid review of a superlative CD----“State Of Grace” by Pierce Pettis.

I was going to see Pierce in concert last night and come home and post a glowing review, a review so grand that everyone would rush out and get the CD. Besides, I, unlike Ms Arbo, am not limited to 25 words or less (though I’m sure some wish that were the case).

Strangeness intervened and I instead spent the evening in.....The Twilight Zone.

I should have guessed that something was amiss when, last week as I called nearby Goshen College for tickets and concert info, I was met with...and I quote, “Who?”.

I repeated “Pierce Pettis”. Even a few times. But repetition didn’t seem to work. The only time they had heard of Mr Pettis was when I asked them the first time.

Well, not to be thwarted by a small college’s mega-bureaucracy, I consulted the local folk mafia to see if anyone knew if indeed, Pierce Pettis was coming to town. They knew nothing. Finally a friend called with the deduction that, as there seemed to be a sizable hole in the Pettis touring schedule, he could indeed, possibly, maybe be coming. I ordered tickets.

So yesterday afternoon I put plastic over the pots in progress, drove off to pick up a friend to go to the concert.

We arrived at the Goshen College campus in time for the doors to be open because it was general seating and we wanted to make sure we got good seats. We scored front row...unfortunately. They began the sound check at the time the concert was posted to begin. We could have arrived almost an hour late and still have scored those front row seats-----for two reasons…

1. The already mentioned tardy sound check, and

2. Only about 25 people showed up for the concert.

Seems that if one has a concert but fails to advertise it, announce it, promote it or even let anyone know that it’s taking place, one doesn’t attract nearly as large a crowd as one might expect.

Okay, remember I said “unfortunately” we scored front row? Well, here’s where the evening went from merely poorly scheduled to eerily Hitchcockian....

The opening act was a “Rap” act. Yep. Pierce Pettis shares billing with a rap act....git yer tikkits heeeeer folks!

And this wasn’t yer garden variety, inner-city hip-hop. No sir. Imagine if you will two white guys from Texas (I am not making this up).....the first a young guy who had “accountant” written all over his future. Permapress shirttails and the typical “pantsload” jeans---back pockets that could hold a small refrigerator.

The other guy.....and again, I am not making this up.....was wearing a fast food waiter type shirt (can I supersize that for you sir?”) and a red Bridgestone visor over his mostly shaved head. They did the usual gangsta strut.....that one stiff, one bent leg limp to the music....and they did the requisite hand thingy where they point all their fingers downward as they display, for your observation, the backs of their hands in time to the music (what DOES that mean anyway???).

The acoustics were SO bad that I only heard one or two words, which is somewhat ironic given that “rap” is...well...never mind.
There I sat in the front row, putting on my best “I appreciate you guys but don’t make me do that sway thingie, okay?” look in case they caught my eye, when my friend elbows me and shouts in my ear his observation that........”Hey, did you realize that the “DJ” is actually changing the records on the turntable between the songs?”

Keen observer, my friend.

Well, they finally limped off stage.....and some of the college kids in the audience actually left. Wow.

I did a little mental aural purge and waited for Pierce to take the stage. He did. Without introduction!.

I can only pray for Pierces’ sake that this is the worst venue he will ever have to play again! It was in an old Gymnasium that looked like...well...an old gymnasium. The stage was adorned with a very old, faded and worn, red velvet curtain. At the peak of the curtain, directly above the stage was an old College crest with the motto emblazoned in what used to be gold lettering “Culture for Service”.

We were crammed (all 25 of us) into this gymnasium like so many sardines in, say, one of the larger Great Lakes.

Pierce was the ultimate professional. He brought his whole game regardless of what must have been at least as Twilight Zonish an experience for him. He played many of my favorites and still played for over 1 ½ hours, culminating in his killer version of Down in the Flood. All 25 of us went wild.

This didn’t heighten my opinion of Pierce as a song writer (I could hardly hear the words anyway). It didn’t alter my appreciation for his wonderful voice, though I could only get a sense of it because I already own the CDs. But I did gain a new appreciation for a guy who will give his all in the worst of circumstances and not make the audience pay for the wrongs of the promoter.

So, in short, Rani Arbo, if you ever read this, State Of Grace is way better than you said.

[kariseal]

Ok, that would be the concert from HELL, I agree. I wonder who booked him there? What a mess. It sounded like he showed a state of grace

I was lucky to also sit front row..but in an environment where he was loved, a room filled with about 200 adoring people enjoying his music. I was astounded by his guitarwork, and his voice. I had never heard him before this week. He blew me away. The sounds he got out of his guitar was at times unexplainable. I would say his recordings don't do him justice, at least from what I saw. Because we were there writing songs, he was too and played several new ones he had written while he was there. One new one I just fell hook line and sinker for called "I am nothing" He ended up playing it twice during the week, and man what a song. I really hope he plays it in March. Leonardo was awesome, he also played Black Sheep Boy, I actually started writing down the list in my journal, I knew I had become an instant fan. It is funny how some people just aren't moved my certain artists. But I must say he "moves me" I could post a picture of him I took that day, but I don't get how to do that.....