“I recall late November, holding my breath, slowly I said, ‘You don’t need to save me…’” – TS A whole decade of before. A post shared by Scott Cooper (@stearth) on Nov 28, 2017 at 1:30pm PST … And, starting today, a new after. A post shared by Scott Cooper (@stearth) on Nov 28, 2017 at 1:31pm PST The difference is shocking; startling; surreal. If this was a dream, you guys would let me know, […]
“And the time on the clock, when you realize it’s so late, and this time we’ve spent, together.” – Dashboard Confessional I just realized something. Something that probably shouldn’t have taken 46 years, 5 months, and most of 16 days to figure out. Something that maybe I used to know, once, in the shining moment of youth, and then forgot, along the hard way. You have to be chasing something. It almost doesn’t matter what. […]
“In silent screams, and wildest dreams, I never dreamed of this.” – TS winter. night. firing. breath. A post shared by Scott Cooper (@stearth) on Nov 22, 2017 at 1:52am PST Back to my faux death, the one where I tripped in the studio and drowned in a bucket of white slip: it’s interesting that near the start of this fall run of writing, I was thinking in terms of death metaphors. Not intentionally, but […]
“Candle wax and Polaroids on the hardwood floor.” – TS My new favorite sound in the world is the bell that rings in Taylor’s Gorgeous. It happens — I dunno — four or five times in the song, right before that killer chorus; you’d think I’d have memorized every bar by now, for the number of times I’ve listened to it the last few weeks. The rest of the tracks — the synth bass, the […]
“Don’t we dream impossible dreams?” – TS So I spent about 2o,ooo words calling to The Muse in October, and in return she graced my first firing of the season. Not that it’s strictly transactional like that, of course, but I’m quite sure it’s related. And it feels like if I keep dancing before dawn every morning and playing at least one song on the guitar at night and writing writing writing, but also pausing […]
“I’m so happy I can’t stop crying.” – Sting Ugh, this is a hard one. So now I cry almost every other day. For a while there, it was even a couple times a day, face down on my yoga mat in the corner of the showroom, where I hope people will come stand soon to look at the pots that are still too hot outside in the kiln. Pretty sure that was on five, […]
“And someone with strengths, for all the little things… You need.” – Wheat Today feels good, and also very random. Waking up at 4:30 and starting to work will do that, I guess. First light. 1167•F. A post shared by Scott Cooper (@stearth) on Nov 16, 2017 at 4:23am PST OK, so I am admittedly a complete homer on this, but I say that “Gorgeous”, “Call It What You Want”, “Delicate”, and “New Year’s Day” […]
“Yesterday we broke from the parade.” – Wheat Spoiler alert: there’s no Pottery Bloggers’ Club. Of all the peeps I came up with, in the Golden Age, pretty much all have quit now, or stopped, yet again for an indeterminate time. Just like I have before; just like I will again. No shame in that, but it does get a little lonely sometimes. We, collectively, made a thing, a spark of beauty in the world, […]
“Squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi. I can tell it’s gonna be a long road.” – TS That’s a strange phrase, “like the back of my hand”. It seems like I know the front of my hands a lot better than the back. Maybe focusing on the front is a potter’s thing. We like insides just as much as outsides; a lot more than the average Jane. Things finally seem […]
“I am not the type of dog that could keep you waiting… for no good reason.” – R.E.M. I told that anecdote from The Night Of a couple weeks ago. Don’t worry; no spoilers coming. If you’ve seen it, you know the one I mean — about the care package. If you haven’t seen it, just imagine that it’s a great story, but one that a person like me really should never attempt to use […]
“Don’t we dream impossible dreams?” – TS And here’s me after just two days back at ten: David Carr, whose passing I still lament: “Hope is oxygen for someone suffocating on despair.” And he knew, more than most, about real despair. I’ve had my taste, and no thank you. Not anymore, if I can help it. I’ll go to the doctor, go to the mountain, look to the children, drink from the fountain — you […]
“I’m a crumpled up piece of paper lying here, ’cause I remember it all, all, all… too well.” – TS So here’s me after about a week at five, written a couple days ago: It’s been intense. I’m worn out. Worn down. Worn. Trying to work when everything is screaming that I’ve earned another hour off, a day off, a week off. Imagine: taking a whole week off. Insane, but definitely insane in November. Potters […]
“You make me so happy it turns back to sad; there’s nothing I hate more than what I can’t have.” – TS I went back up to ten. It was getting a little too sad in here; sad in a way that felt too familiar, and so a little scary. There should still be a range, ups and downs. There’ve been a lot more ups — like, super ups — lately than I’d have guessed […]
Things I Shouldn’t Have Said This Week Vol. 373 – Maybe by different starlight I could find another dream worth having. – That’s how it works… – Your instincts on these things are usually wrong. – I actually feel sorry for the sanctimonious jackasses who are too far gone to enjoy this. – Gygaxian Premise – I’ve been waiting for that invite for ten years. – Oh shit! [Not sure if I actually said this […]
“And I never saw you coming. And I’ll never be the same.” – TS On a typical day, now, I wake up thinking. I’ve got an idea for something to write, and I’m just going to keep thinking it until I’ve filled up my RAM and boxed myself in somewhere. I have to write it to get out of the box. When I don’t get to write it, I can just keep thinking myself farther […]
“And I know I make the same mistakes everytime, bridges burned, I never learn, at least I did one thing right. I did one thing right.” – TS Now if I could just figure out what that one thing was. Call it what you want to. Man, those typography videos just nail it for me. Even the parts that are a little obvious or formulaic; all in all they’re just grand. I love — love! […]
“I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me…” – TS It’s been reported to me that some girls were singing Look What You Made Me Do during a bathroom break at school. What?! Other people know our song?! And they were even ‘on chorus’, which I’m not sure whether that means ‘on tune’ or ‘in harmony’. Either way, when I asked (already knowing that the answer was no) if she joined in, she said, “That’s […]
“Say you’re sorry, that face of an angel comes out just when you need it to.” – TS How come the only things I really want are categorically impossible to get? Is it because that is the point of Dreams — not to achieve them, but as a goad to get us up off the couch? So that we at least do something? Anything? Something slightly better than nodding through this one shot at life, […]
“Autumn leaves were falling down like pieces into place…” – TS And I can picture it, yes, even after all these days. And I know it’s long gone; and I know there’s nothing I can do, but I forget about You long enough to forget why I needed. To. That’s Taylor, not me. Credit to the ghosts. In the expanse of woods behind our ten acre plot, I step outside the back door of my […]
“It was only one, I recall. It was all so different then.” – Peter Gabriel Back in the expanse of woods behind our yard, I can hear ten thousand leaves, falling to the forest floor as one. Like pieces falling into place. And yet, not like that, too. I loved this friend of mine, so many years ago, who I just heard today is suddenly gone. Today, when the time is already screwy, everyone’s extra […]
“Swift writes about her life so directly that the listener is forced to think about her persona in order to fully appreciate what she’s doing creatively.” – Chuck Klosterman Now look: I really like Chuck Klosterman. I read his books, enjoyed his columns when he was The Ethicist for the NYT, avidly awaited his podcast chats with Bill Simmons, about college football and pop music and random self-searching thought experiments. He’s way smarter than me; […]
Things I Shouldn’t Have Said Last Week Vol. 372 – You’ve got it, boss! – I’m crying more now, too. – Busking – Jason would have built it already. – A little bird told me… – p.s. Scott says, “You’re a jackass.” – …if everything fails to go according to plan. – Like black lines on white. Contours. – Fan-tastic. – And that was The Cuban Missile Crisis.
“And I just want to tell you, ‘It takes everything in me not to call you. And I wish I could run to you, and I hope you know that everytime I don’t, I almost do, I almost do.'” – TS One-thirty. With half a night’s sleep earned & banked, my mind turns on like the row of burners in the furnace below my writing desk. When the thermostat calls for heat, you get heat. […]
“Nobody’s heard from me for months. I’m doing better than I ever was.” – TS Somehow I got through the whole day without cracking open a glaze bucket. Not sure where the time went, but it went good. Well and good. Felt like The OA was around most of the day; mostly productive thoughts. Five mg thoughts. Some regrets, some guilt for not trying harder, for not pushing farther. Call it what you want to; […]
“And you keep my old scarf, from that very first week, ’cause it reminds you of innocence, and it smells like me.” – TS God/Goddess/Goodness… How many times did I imagine wanting to be my old self again, but still tryin’ to find it? How long, and in how many places, and in how many ways did I look? And now, so strange it’s surreal, it seems like he was right here all along. Buried […]
“Sometimes the words are part of the problem.” – Witt Back in September, I surprised myself by writing seven posts — I mean, when have I ever done that before? (Have I? I didn’t think so.) That was almost two a week for the month; practically double the old quota. Then, with that milestone reached, some sneaky part of my brain went, “Say, now that you’ve done seven in a month, what if you write […]
“Be still my broken dream. Shattered like a fallen glass. It’s not ready to be broken just yet — lessons once learned, so hard to forget.” – Sting I scratch the names of The Muse in clay; until they carve all the way through. The illusion of separateness is broken, and there’s nothing left but scraps and dust. Where did you go? I think I would have been a good letterer, in a stonecarving shop. […]
“Fix the Web?” – Emdub We’re ‘fixing the web’ at work. Finally. It’s great. Everyone will be so pleased. And I’m not saying more than that, because the zeroth rule of Pottery Bloggers’ Club is, “Don’t lose your job because of Pottery Bloggers’ Club.” Yeah, I know — that jumps ahead of Rule 1: “You Don’t Talk About P.B.C.” and Rule 2: “We Make You Wade Through Hot Garbage To Get Go The Good Stuff”, […]