Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Crazy Dancing - ALSO the bunny pin!

We put one of our bunny-guitar pewter pins up on Ebay this week.

Bunny Guitar Pin on Ebay - proceeds for Best Friends Animal Society


 For the story of the bunny guitar visit www.tagyerit.com/rabguit.htm

Now onto the dancing ...
As long as I can remember, I've always been a wild freestyle dancer. Not sure if that term "freestyle" really applies to me, since I don't know what its semantic uses signify, BUT I just know how to get up on a dance floor and my feet vamp the beat. But terminology aside, anyone who's seen me will attest that I'm a fun dancer to watch.

When I really get worked up into it, it feels very magical. So how did it really start. According to my older sister, when we were kids I asked her to help me to learn to dance and she just told me I should go off and do my own thing. So I did. She meant it as one sibling to another - to get me to embarrass myself. Instead it worked.

Maybe, that's why she later became a movement therapist, cause she saw how well it worked on her first victim (to which I'll be forever grateful). The truth is that over the years she has been working her movement therapy magic. A few years ago she designed a great fun tool for her movement practice - I could tell you more about it, but I'll just let her website and blog do that.

http://www.octaband.com
http://dancetherapymusings.typepad.com

Of course I've had other influences, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention how important our mom was in getting me to love music and dance. I keep threatening that someday I'll videotape myself dancing to some of our tunes, then you'll see what I'm talking about.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

The Middle of Nowhere


I've often wondered, how not to tell a story by going back to its chronological beginning. The biggest problem for me is figuring out how much back story is necessary before that "beginning" makes some kind of sense. So I always feel like I'm really telling the story from the middle. Well discovering a blog for the first time is always coming in on the middle and wondering how much you might have missed.

Would it make sense for me to periodically repeat stuff or just leave it to your imagination to wonder where in the world I could possibly be coming from?

So here then is the capsule as of today ... Flo & Rich Newman are the creative centers of TagYerit the band and TagYerit the website and all these offshoots such as this blog. But as in any division of labor, the web labor is principally Rich (that's me the guy who typed this out).

Speaking of labor, so this Rich guy, that's me has many skills with varying degrees of success in each skill. But, I like to think the primary skill is problem solving. So feel free to comment me and maybe I'll have a suggestion. I like making stuff from cast-offs. ... Recently built a U-shaped shower curtain hanger from the remnants of an old brass bed. If I could have found something like this in the right size it would have cost over $500 and not been as good. In the past I've done a fair degree of carpentry remodeling as well as antique restoration and a limited amount of wood carvings. ... but there's always pumpkin carving .... But I'm going to leave off this in the middle even as it seems I'm just getting started.

Just this one more thing. See Flo loves to build snow mounds and the Snow Ziggurat pictured above is her mound, with a little design assistance from our friend and housemate Matt.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Thursday, February 14, 2008

The Fairy Flush Toilet Paper Wedding Dress (Revised)







© (p) FloraLee Newman 2008
The following was the invitation that we handed to friends at L&F's wonderful annual Mardi Gras party (The theme was 'Love & Marriage):

"Dear friends & family,

The Fairy Flush and Peter Tapilo would like to
make you "privy" to their little secret. ...
They've decided to take the plunge!

Mr. & Mrs. Claug D'Raynz and
Mr. & Mrs. Scott Brown-Tapilo
announce the union of their daughter
The Fairy Flush to Peter Tapilo

The wedding will take place at the
Lovely Septic Meadows Pavilion

The flushing bride requests your presence
At a ceremonial soldering and the
traditional tossing of the waxed ring."

The Fairy Flush also included the following poem on the invitation:
"Surprise - it's me. The Fairy Flush
No one thinks about me all that much
I reside and work inside your tank
Yet, you never utter a word of thanks
But it's true - If I was not around
There'd be a whole lotta SH**
NOT going down!

When the handle's pulled
I get in the zone
Each swish, valve, pipe's
The perfect tone
I know how to make it swirl the best
As of your deposits I help you divest!"
Those of you already in the know will connect The Fairy Flush & Peter Tapilo to their other personas as curators of the Whole World Toilet Paper Museum
The inspiration for the tp wedding dress came from Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com

The Fairy flush created her dress in her spare time (when the toilets were not in need of flushing) over the course of a week. The approximately 3 1/2 unused rolls were not missed by the flushers. The dress was held together with various tapes, including double sided tape, regular scotch tape & packing tape. The chords & straps for the dress were also made from tp. The dress held up pretty well over the course of the party, though the "lace" did take a beating and The Fairy Flush wishes she had had a bit more time to style it prior to the party.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Birds & 2nd Dinosaur Age

Birds?

I'm not a "bird watcher" but I love to watch them. Sometimes I wonder if they're an omen or portent as some of our ancestors used to believe.

Friday night I turned onto Jackson St. in Northampton, and there's a car stopped in the middle of my right lane. As I started to pass and curse the driver under my breath, I realized that about 3 feet in front of the car is an owl sitting there on the road watching us all. From my quick glance I'd say it may have been a barred owl. Instead of cursing, I ended up being grateful to the attentive driver. I'd guess if the owl was there as a warning, it was a private message for the driver and not for me.

However, Saturday was different. I was standing in our yard half watching our 2 bunnies playing near the fence when out of the corner of my eye I realized a large bird was flying down not 4 feet from me about eye level. It happened too fast for me to identify it, either an owl or more probably a small hawk - wingspan of approx. 3 feet. It did not seem to be on an attack dive, there was no swooshing or anything. Then it immediately headed up on a pine tree across the driveway. I tried to get closer for a better look but it took off. What was that all about?

Fortunately it never saw our buns nor did they see it. So I guess it was there for me to piece together. At the moment, I figure it was our friend Teddy saying hello from the other side.

While I'm at it, these don't seem to have any cosmic significance on the forecasting horizon, but last week there was a pileated woodpecker on the tree right outside the house. Of course it was gone by the time I got the camera. It was quite striking looking though with its red head contrasted against the snowy field just behind it. AND in other bird news I saw 4 wild turkey over on Harkness Rd.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Interested in a relic from the 2nd Dinosaur Age?

Currently offering the following on Ebay ...
Vintage Texaco Motor Oil 5 gallon can

How much am I bid on this piece of history? Evolved from dinosaurs and soon to be relegated to a museum. One day you'll be taking your grandkids to a museum and you'll see an oil can artifact such as this and say, "I remember when cars were run on fuels made from old dinosaur fossils." And your grandkids will respond, "How quaint grandpa!"
More info at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130197234385&_trksid=p3907.m32&_trkparms=tab%3DSelling