Let's Pay for Print Media

I have been reading so much lately about the end of print media. The Atlantic even went so far as to say the New York Times might close it's doors in May. (!) Well, I am here, a self appointed journalist, writing whatever I feel like when the spirit moves me, so I guess I am part of the problem. Or am I. Why do we all want to sit back and just let stuff happen? I am writing this right now, as the spirit is moving me, hehe, because I just responded to a New Yorker promo which agreed to send me a free copy of their groovy and historic cover for this most amazing day. I bit. OK. I like free stuff. I voted for Obama (God Bless America) I am saving press around this historic election. AND, I pressed the button asking me if I wanted to subscribe to the New Yorker. 40 bucks. For a year. For the best goddamned journalism out there. Malcolm Gladwell, Seymour Hersh, and a ton of other top notch PAID professional journalists who have put in their 10,000 hours. I am NOT a journalist. I am a potter. I write a blog. Maybe I'll write a book one day. BUT, I don't want to get paid for this. I do want to read the hard paid work of the masters of their craft. So I subscribed. If a million of us subscribed to our favorite print magazine or journal or paper, we might still have high quality journalism.

The free market is having a hay day with print journalism. I love the internet and I love trees. I also like analog. I like reading edited, high quality information that has been vetted by elitists. I don't have to believe it all or agree with it all but I do want to trust that there will be top notch sources for news and information that are NOT by the masses. That have been cultivated and curated and selected and honed in a chamber of knowledge that allows for top quality news to have a strong and supported voice.

My point is, pony up. Pay for your New York Times. Subscribe to the New Yorker. Subscribe to Gourmet. Subscribe to whatever magazine or journal you want to take to bed with you. Or read in the bathroom. Or clip to send to your mother. Or your best friend or whatever. Maybe, we can save some parts of the industry by actually paying for what we read.

Oh, and I am so wicked happy Barack Obama is being inaugurated today.

A Set of Dishes

I had an amazing day and a half with a brilliant young man, David Bausola, whom I met through conversations on Twitter. The interaction I have been enjoying there and elsewhere around the web has been teaching me an enormous amount. My work, though, continues to deepen my original concepts forming over the past 25 years of working.

This set of dishes which I removed from the kiln this week is the result of a year long development with a designer. The swatches on the table are what I was given to work with. The back and forth included sending the designer and client glazed saucers. My job was to steer the project in a direction I think will suit the daily use of the dishes on the table.

Looking at the table as art makes conscious use of tableware the first function of having a dinner or meal. Being awake and sensitive to all that is going on, be it in each other or in our environment, is an essential step in being on the planet together. Bringing the beautiful to the table in terms of background (dishes), food (fresh, well prepared), and guests to partake (friends and family) forms the foundation for a healthy culture. Elevating these practices to art is the task at hand.

technorati tags: dinnerware, zeroinfluencer, tableart

New Year

Been looking at a lot of very impressive 1st of the year happy new year wishes and all kinds of organizing tools and getting my head around another year past, a new year ahead. A lot of reflection on the high suck factor of 2008. A lot of amazing stuff happened too. I hope to stay a little more on this side of positive this year. Obama won, Hilary made a bunch of cracks in the glass ceiling of women in power, probably a million other small and not so small achievements I can't think of, don't know or are private in the hearts and minds of millions of people.

My goals, so far this year simple:

1) focus
2) clear out
3) reinvent the wheel, I mean website/blog presence

The first 2 are really my mantra. Keep it simple, DIY where and when I can, dig in, be strong and be a good friend, potter, artist, business person, mother, sister, wife and then some. My online life has added an immeasurable ability to be a human being. I look forward to the practice all this learning has inspired.

Happy New Year! and thanks for reading.