A Hot Mug Of Something Or Other
https://www.fujichia.com/house/posts/2021-11-30/index.html
NOVEMBER SYLLABUS / HALLOWEEN / BACH SEASON / DISCO SEASON / CIRCLE OF FIFTHS / CERAMICS DIVISION / LINKS
I hope everyone had a nice November out there. I love the fall, even the late fall, even November. It starts on the leeward side of Halloween, going around to the stores and trying to get a discount on a huge plastic skeleton. Then I experience a distinct Bach season-- the time leading up to and including the annual "Bach to the Future" 12 hour marathon that Sakiko organizes (it's my job to run the coffee machine all night). Then there's disco season, when the sun sets before the end of a business day and the disco ball in the window of the record store I work at sends disco emanations across the sidewalk. In summer and spring the store closes before it gets dark, and the disco ball just hangs there lifeless. In November it spins again, through the fall and winter, into spring.
I know these microseasons of late fall aren't universal-- not everyone experiences a yearly Bach marathon or a disco ball obligation, and even if they do, they may not be timed as precisely as mine. Nonetheless, I really think it clicks. I mean it seems appropriate, seems resonant. And the move from Halloween to Bach season to disco season is so perfect somehow, it's like the circle of fifths. Maybe because Halloween and Bach both utilize pipe organs and harpischords, and Bach and disco both use crispy arpeggios? Again, I know that we all have different experiences of the year as it is commonly demarcated, but if I had to sum up all three of these personal late fall microseasons I'd say they coalesce on an idea of a corny, timeless time, where a facade of frenzied motion is wiped away to reveal stillness. Hopefully that's closer to a universal statement.
Anyway I didn't really want to get into all that, the main reason I'm writing today is to say that one of the projects I've been working on this Bach season / disco season is done now, it's pretty goofy but I'm happy about it, it's a series of ceramic mugs.
Right now there's about 130 of them up. They're all different designs, or the designs are very similar but the slogans are all different. My thinking on this is that I'm not good at making something that everyone likes, but I am good at making things that a few people really like, so if I can do a lot of those, at a decent spread, then maybe that's something. Maybe something here would be a good gift for a fussy individual. Maybe that fussy individual is you. If you click on the picture it should take you to a website where these are for all for sale. But it's also ok to just browse over these, and perhaps smile, like you're looking at a collection of cartoons from the New Yorker, but instead of the set-up being "some people drinking cocktails" it's "mug ideas". Thanks everyone!
If you want to share a link to these, the mug storefront is right here, on another platform: [link]. But because I'm however I am I had to archive all the designs here in the castle as well: [fujichia] . I think this time it really is too many images to put in an email so please click over to one of those other viewing options!
links / misc
I mentioned a month ago that it was unclear whether Mizutani, the leader of Les Rallizes Dénudés, was alive or dead. Well it came out recently via bass player Makoto Kubota that Mizutani in fact had shuffled off the mortal coil in 2019. He was in the process of officially releasing some of the band's music, so look for those to hit the shelves sometime soon. Also if you're in the habit of listening to the bootlegs on youtube, you'll probably want to download those as I imagine they'll eventually get taken down. I use the program "youtube-dl" for such things, you can get that here: [link]. Interview with Kubota is here: [link]
If you've never had your disco moment, I recommend going on youtube and looking for "old school disco mix" or something. If you're Bach-interested I think the best entry point for the contemporary listener is Wendy Carlos "Switched On Bach", which should be available wherever records are sold, or listen online however you do that. It was Wendy's birthday a few weeks ago-- Happy Birthday Wendy!