Yet another octopus whistle. Forgive me.

Dear Esteemed Correspondent-- Thanks for your recent email and thoughtful question. As for the answer, please refer to the email you just replied to in which I had anticipated your question and answered it. You will find a copy of that email below what you just typed, where you so generously pasted it to remind me where we are in this conversation.

Sincerely,
Me

As you can see, we here at Marc Mancuso Design Studios take Quality Control very, very seriously. We thought you'd take comfort knowing that our products are the best they can be. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Chief Quality Control Officer
Oliver the Cat

P.S. Thanks cmeckhardt for everything, and the photo!

It whimpers for mercy, bargains, shrill, breath coming in gulps. Tells me how much I used to like its subcategories, its past due dates, its urgent highlighted parts. Don't I like it's urgently highlighted parts anymore? Finally, just after this morning's coffee, when the Shortener comes, The List writhes, edges aiming for an artery: The list only growed longer because I said I liked it that way. I was no good in the studio. I just fumbled around with the extra length anyway. It was going home to Ream.

A client asked me if I could put hearts on stuff. ( Early results. )

There's some new work o'er on flickr. Below is a group of bird whistles. No, I didn't tweet this.

One asked me, "What do you smell like to [Twilight dreamvamp] Edward Cullen? Take this quiz and find out!"

Quiz? Why the hell should I take the quiz. Just roll over and ask him, silly.

I pray to the ceramic kiln gods that the 26 mud and glass husks --plus one sacrifice-- were found to be acceptable, and that I may afterward remove their corporeal forms, transformed by the gods blinding favor. I pray that the gods --if at all possible-- really blindingly favored the little bird with the black head, since it is likely to be my favorite.

Dear All You Artists with Astonishingly Large Resources:

I'm sure all of us are deeply grateful for your presence on the Planet at this time. What are the odds! Really, we are grateful. But some of us would just like to say, very quietly, that it kinda sux to be satisfied with insufficiently epic ideas.

I'm still going to see Ponyo and all the other movies that are impossible to contemplate making in one's basement, even when the Cat offers to help.

Damn you all, but, of course, thank you. Please don't stop.

Sincerely,
I.E.B. Mancuso

(Insufficienly Epic Basement)

Personal squee here: I was just juried into a wholesale online promotional group called http://www.wholesalecrafts.com/index.asp You can see the front page online, but unless you're a wholesale buyer, you can't actually go much farther.

You pay 'em a little money per month, pictures are up for retailers to see, and online money transactions ensue, hopefully. I will offer line of whistles, vases, and lidded boxes, plus more when it proves necessary. There is also a printed buyers guide which goes out four times a year which I'm coughing up some cash for. Goes out to god knows how many stores.

In a few days things will be live, I'll upload a variety of pictures. I'll be featured as an emerging artist, so there will an extra spin of visibility for a while.

They also have a fancy tradeshow in Las Vegas in June, 2010. http://www.acrelasvegas.com/ which I'm already accepted into, though additional monies may need to be exchanged. Go figure.

10 For I= 1 to unconsciousness
20 Let sound = squeeeeee
30 Next I

"It's not the distance I want to travel that will kill me. It's the revving while still in neutral."

http://www.raredevice.net/item.php?item_id=1569

Perhaps it's a trophy cozy. Regardless, equal parts cool and weird.

People who leave me ladybug-themed fabric to find when I least expect it are the best.

I'm lookin' at you, drbitch.

It is so part of the whistle display. I might make lovely little shorts out of it!

http://www.cambridgema.gov/CAC/Community/river.cfm

It's fun. It's a big craft fair out near the water by Hahvahd. I bring whistles and sundry ceramics, a handful of paintings, etc. I'd love to see you, each and every one of you.

LOCATION: Along a mile-long stretch of Memorial Drive between JFK St. and Western Ave. Between Harvard Square & Central Square on Memorial Drive
Nearest MBTA station: Harvard Square on the Red Line
Wheelchair accessible

(And if any of you locals stop by in the 6pm region and have your, ahem, car with you, I'd truly love to see you. I usually want to jump in the River at that point, so arranging for alternate transportation might be wise.)

When I do an image search on "clay whistle" on google, and I get an image like the following, I figure SOMEone has to be looking out for me. I can only imagine what the pair is talking about.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/clay%20whistle/bostero_2006/nadwj3.jpg

Medieval Help Desk
http://www.flixxy.com/medieval-tech-support.htm

Yeah. Some days it's like that.

You might want to know that I shall be taking over the universe Anydaynow, all thanks to decorative craft foam, gimp, and a neato adhesive that the shopkeep called "Twin Mount."

"What is this 'Twin Mount' you speak of?" you very well might ask. I didn't know it existed until today, and My Life It Is Changed: It is a thin membrane of adhesive, with peel-back coating on BOTH sides.

Remove one protective side and attach the exposed adhesive to a handy craft embellishment, say, the cat. Press to ensure full contact. Remove the other protective side and apply the embellishment to the substrate, say, the underside of the over-the-counter kitchen cabinets. More pressing, more full contact, etc. Now I can decorate even hard-to-reach areas without losing valuable counter space.

Even better, the membrane has a bit of flex to it, so you could attach somewhat flexible craft embellishments, say, the cat, to curved surfaces, say, the bottom of a large stainless steel mixing bowl. All the folks at this weekend's barbeque will wonder how you did it!

Posted from heaven.

but some days you just need a drill press....

There's a new batch of ceramic whistles over on flickr. ( There's a few under here to whet your, um, well you know. )

Tonight, officially, I began to compile a mailing list of potential retailers in North America which might want to carry the leetle whistles, painted vases, or possibly both. It is chilling and thrilling at the same time. I hope to get 400-500 addresses by mid-to-end of summer to interest folks in carrying work for fall-winter 2009. The internet is my friend. Fancy picture postcards come in lots of 500.

I expect a modest response rate of 5-10% from my mailing/email gesture, giving me up to 50 rubes retailers willing to take a chance on my stuffz. I figure a dozen whistles to each store would be for them a comfortable start, which I think, even in this economy, would sell over a Nov/Dec period. But 50 stores carrying ten whistles each means a number of whistles unheard of in my dreams. Let's just see who answers, shall we?

I imagine this is like inviting hundreds of people to a party.

What if they don't come?
What if they do come?

My kingdom for something more than excel....