Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A Christopher Radko ornament.

Important side

Back side

Here's a bit of a stretch...while we're looking at a Christopher Radko ornament, here's the "two turtle doves" part of his 12 Days of Christmas garland:

Merry Christmas!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Yertle the Turtle ornament.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A copper ornament we got at Indian Market.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

An ornament featuring a turtle petroglyph.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A tempered glass trivet.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A ceramic bell by Todd Warner.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A ceramic box.

Turtle Tchotcke Tuesday

A mug from the San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Society.

Vote!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A napkin holder (holding a notebook) and matching salt and pepper shakers.

They're from Otagiri. We don't use the salt a pepper shakers.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Our Chia Pet turtle.



We rediscovered this buried in a heap of junk in the back yard.

This now is the best of all the YouTube videos of time-lapse Chia Pets.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A Randy Chitto story teller.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Three wooden turtles from Mexico.

They came from Las Manos del Artesano in La Jolla.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A watercolor by Dawn Dark Mountain. We got this at Indian Market 2012.

Little Turtle & the Sun

The story of the painting:

It is said that when there was darkness in the world, it was Little Turtle who climbed into the sky and gathered the lightning into a great ball that became the sun and a smaller ball that became the moon and that is how light came into the world.

Our other pictures by Dawn Dark Mountain are here.

¡Feliz Navidad!

(First an apology. My illustrations using YouTube videos have ads that you have to endure for a few seconds before you can dismiss them. YouTube needs to make money, after all.)

Years ago I was bewildered by the popularity of José Feliciano's Christmas tune "Feliz Navidad." It has a catchy tune and two lines that are repeated over and over and over.

A web site that gives us songs' lyrics gives us this:

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad

Prospero Año y Felicidad.

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad

Prospero Año y Felicidad.

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas

From the bottom of my heart.

[Repeats]

"Repeats" is putting it mildly. 

The song got a lot of airplay when it was new. I didn't really like it then but the rest of the world seemed to love it. It came back year after year. I was hoping the interest in the song would wane and we could get back to more complex Christmas tunes.

I made a game of my bewilderment. I deemed a successful Christmas season as one when I didn't hear that tune played even once. It is difficult to avoid. Shopping malls play Christmas carols and you can't avoid shopping malls at Christmastime.

Its popularity spread...it's not just for shopping malls anymore. It has invaded classical radio. It can't be avoided. The Three Tenors™ sang a version of it. They livened it up a bit with some extra lines. Plácido gives us the line "I want to wish you a Merry Christmas with lots of presents to make you happy!" It doesn't help. It's a dull song even when given superstar treatment.

Christmas 2012 is not a success. I got to hear a very sappy rendition of it today in the bathroom of the restaurant we had lunch at today. Today is still September.

I don't think I have gone a year without hearing the song since I invented my game. Sigh.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A coaster we got at SeaWorld from the gift shop of Turtle Reef.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A pottery turtle by Ryan Roller.

Its underside.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A ceramic candle holder.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A Red-eared Slider made of nanoblocks (2¼ inches long).

Peggy gave me this while we were visiting New Mexico.

Cohen the Violinist, 2012

The 2013 edition is HERE.

It's Labor Day weekend! Ms. Magic Meryle Cohen, Cohen the Violinist, published her annual celebration today. Here's this year's edition of her story (click on it to see it better, you might need to open it in another window if you have a low-resolution monitor).

I didn't make it over to see Magic Meryle this year. When some of my family were visiting, we were hoping to go to the Oceanside Sunset Market where she plays the first Thursday's of each month. (You should visit her yourself when you have the chance!) The problem was that they were going to be leaving early that Friday morning and we had had a rather busy week. They needed a rest so we stayed home to let them relax.

As she mentions in her story, I have uploaded several videos of her to YouTube. For your convenience, here they are.

I visited Magic Meryle at the Sunset Market and recorded a 20 minute performance of hers. Here it is in four segments.









Rosie O'Donnell had a show on OWN for a while. Rosie had a segment where she had a crew visit some of Rosie's fans. Magic Meryle was the first such fan segment shown on her show. I got an email from Magic Meryle telling me of her appearance but she didn't know when it would air. I managed to record her episode and get her a DVD of it. Here's her appearance on Rosie's show.


As I said, if you're ever in Oceanside on the first Thursday evening of the month you should stop by the Oceanside Sunset Market when Magic Meryle performs. She might not be there right at the start of the market. Give her time to show up. You'll be glad you did!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesay

A copper turtle by Lynn Daniel.

We got it at Spanish Village in Balboa Park.

Canyon Road 2012, Part 1

Our walks up and down Canyon Road this year were very successful. Our most successful stop was at Winterowd Gallery, one of our favorite art galleries.

First, a funny story about Winterowd Gallery. Back in May I got an email from my sister Peggy telling me of an art gallery we should visit when we're in Santa Fe. Peggy told me that she had been to a talk by Destiny Allison, an artist "who is very passionate about her work in steel and about art in general." Peggy said that they went to Winterowd Gallery where Destiny's work is shown. Peggy thought that Destiny's sculpture fits our aesthetic. She also thought we'd be interested in glass sculpture by another artist, Alex Bernstein, who is represented by the gallery.

Well, yes, that's true! We have a piece by both Destiny Allison and Alex Gabriel Bernstein, both from Winterowd Gallery. Peggy knows our taste well!

Another funny story: While we were wandering through the gallery, Karla Winterowd, the owner of the gallery, was making calls to out-of-town clients inviting them to a reception they are having for Alex Gabriel Bernstein. Just as soon as she finished leaving a message on our phone back in California, there we were, right there in the gallery! Sadly, we won't be able to make it to the reception.

The first room of the gallery has an amazing installation by Sophia Dixon Dillo. We don't have the space for such a piece. But there were some of her boxes hanging in the same room that we were very intrigued by. We would have been happy with one that was hanging on the wall but Karla showed us more that were in their stock room. It was a hard choice but we took just this one from the stock room:

Untitled (2374)

These boxes appear to glow. They pick up light from their surroundings and change dramatically when placed in different places. They're magical. This piece will surely move around the house. Be sure to read her description of the pieces on the left side of this page of her web site.

I said that we got a glass sculpture from Winterowd Gallery by Alex Gabriel Bernstein. Glass is one of our favorite mediums. We couldn't pass up this kiln-formed, cast glass piece by Karen Bexfield.

Prana

And from above.

Prana

Goodness! This appears to be the piece on the home page of Ms. Bexfield's web site! Cool! I love glass and this piece is amazing. I'm glad there are artists out there that can create such things.

Then there were some Mystical Tablets by J. D. Wellborn hanging in another room. These paintings "are achieved through a woven technique of layering delicate papers, with canvas, fiberglass material." There were several hanging on the wall and they had a couple of boxes filled with more. Karla sat us down on benches and hung each of them so we could see all the colors, designs, stones and whatnot the different pieces offered. She'd hang nine of them and we'd dismiss some for whatever reason and the ones we kept considering would be rearranged on the hangers. Up would go another batch. They'd get rearranged and ones we liked from the previous group would go up with what we liked from the new ones. Through the process of elimination that lasted at least a half hour we settled on this one. Too bad we didn't have a sofa swatch with us...we could have gone straight to one that matched.

Mystical Tablet #916

If you need art and are in Santa Fe you should, as Peggy suggests, visit Winterowd Gallery. Tell them Charles and Jerry (and Peggy) sent you.

Just call her Lazarus

Or would that be "Lazara" for a girl?

Our beloved Silvia, our espresso machine, died on Friday evening.

As usual, on Friday I turned on Silvia and gave her a brief priming. That is, I put the portafilter into the group head and turned on the pump for a few seconds. We then let her heat up while we ate supper.

After supper, as usual, I was going to run some hot water into the little espresso cups to preheat them. When I pressed the brew switch nothing happened. No hot water.

Silvia was hot but nothing happened when I pressed the brew switch. There was no light that shows that she's turned on. Did a circuit breaker blow? No, Rocky was on the same outlet and he ran.

Silvia was dead.

One of the reasons to get a machine like Silvia is that she's very serviceable. I didn't panic, she (probably) could be repaired.

I found a YouTube video that showed how to reset the circuit breaker that turns off Silvia's boiler in case it overheats. The problem with that is that the pump is supposed to keep working even if the circuit breaker has turned off the boiler. My problem was more severe but I opened up Silvia to see if the circuit breaker had been tripped.

It hadn't tripped. While I was poking around with the circuit breaker Jerry peeked in. He noticed a wire with burnt insulation. The wire was going to the main power switch. With that wire out of commission Silvia just can't run.

We seem to have discovered the problem.

Now all I needed was a new wire and the connectors. It turned out that my crimper had just the right connector for the power switch and to splice a wire onto Silvia's power cable.

But where is the wire?

I searched around the house and finally found an old power cord. Since the broken wire in Silvia was delivering power I figured the wires in the power cord would be enough to use. I dissected the power cord and it had three separate wires.

I took one of the wires and crimped a spade connector onto one end and crimped the other end onto the wire left in Silvia.

I reassembled Silvia and turned her on. No smoke!

She warmed up and we brewed some espresso. She worked! Just as before! Yay!

After brewing that first batch I opened her up again. The wire wasn't hot. I think we're back in business for another ten years!

I'm confidant that all that was wrong was that there was a rotten wire, not that there is something wrong with Silvia that caused the wire to disintegrate. I'm betting that it had been rotting for years and Friday was just the day it finally ran out of time.

Here's a picture of the wire that I cut out.

Here's my spliced-in wire (from the blue connector up and around to the power switch).

Our happy family, Rocky and Silvia, as good as new!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A pincushion from the Ta-Ma-Ya Crafts Cooperative Association.

We got this at the 2012 Indian Market.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A beaded turtle. We got this at the Balboa Park American Indian Culture Days Powwow  earlier this year.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A pottery bowl (being used as a potpourri dish).

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday, Ceiling Edition

Last week Colleen asked if we had any ceiling turtles and Bobbie asked to see them. Here they are! They are all reruns but in new venues.

Turtle on a swing previously seen here

(the first non-art Tuesday turtle you saw!).

Clay ball previously seen here.

Wind chime previously seen here.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A metal turtle from Indonesia. We got this at the Mingei International Museum's gift shop.

Following it out of the corner is another turtle you saw a few years ago.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A Stave jigsaw puzzle.

Turtle Soup

All the loose pieces fit inside the turtle. I did finish the puzzle for this exercise but I don't want to post a picture of the solution. We don't want people to cheat.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Another nightlight.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Key fobs on a business card holder (by Adam Homan).

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A wooden notepad case.

Grocery lists are held here.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A turtle tumbler.

Four turtles whose bow ties and shells match!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A small story teller by Randy Chitto (with a dancing bear).

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

An embossed wallet.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A jute shopping bag from TUWA Elements of the Earth.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A little tile from Mexico.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Here's a little "Turkle Hatchling" that, I suppose, might be a little disturbing to the more sensitive of you folk.

But if you eat turkey at Thanksgiving you shouldn't be.

It's made of bones that are covered with gold leaf.

Turkle Hatchling

It's made by Jim Hornung. He doesn't have much of a web presence. Here is an article about an exhibit of his from a few years ago. Here is a video with him discussing his work. And here is a slide show narrated by Mr. Hornung telling us more about his work.

We like it. Do you? Tell the truth!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Another pillow. This time (I'm pretty sure) from Mexico.

It has a pocket on its back. You're supposed to write down a wish or something, put it in the pocket and sleep on it or something to make it come true or something. It hasn't yet held a wish.

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

An apple slicer/corer.

And slicing and coring an apple.

It makes preparing apples for the juicer a snap!

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

Another Mata Ortiz pot.

This and the earlier Mata Ortiz pots can be seen here.