SSW Life Weeks 1-3 (though right now we're in week 6! I'm so pokey!)

Hello! We've gotten quite settled here in Lumsden and we are actually just a little beyond the half way point! So seeing as it's week 6, I should probably show you week 1-3! (I knew I wouldn't keep up with this! Well, at least I'm doing it!)) In this new album, you might notice a distinct lack of any pictures relating to what I'm making or looking at for inspiration. That's because I have pulled out those photos and will put up a post this week that is just about that alone.  Also, I didn't really have much clay to work with till week three anyway, so I was just kind of taking in my surroundings and whittling (Really!). It's a very, VERY different thing to be at a residency where just looking about you and taking time to be inspired and affected by your surroundings is just as important as the making itself, than being at grad school where its about making art at a break-neck speed and constantly defending every aspect of the final product. Took some major re-calibrating even though I've been out  of school well over a year. But more on that later... So the album for this post is mostly our daily life in Aberdeenshire...and other people doing artistic things! I won't say much here because this album, like the other's, is heavily captionized.
General thoughts about our first few of weeks here: we both felt instantly welcomed into the very small and constantly changing community with-in SSW (we, unfortunately, have very little contact with the rest of the tiny town). There has been plenty for Ben to do. Some times he spends entire days at our house drawing, playing banjo and making bread. He's just finished a drawing for the Carolina Chocolate Drops (a big-time old-time band from North Carolina) and a drawing for the banner on the SSW Blog (not posted yet...but it's got lots of sheep!). He is often at SSW (note: the house and SSW are 1 block apart) helping out with various projects as well.  As for me, it's funny that  I thought I would have SO much time to make art that I would get sick of it, but there are so many activities and fun distracting things going on here or in the area multiple times a week! It's also interesting to come to what feels like  a very remote place, seemingly unattached from any thing we know...yet the Tin Hut, where the Hot Seats have played 4 times over 6 years, is just down the road, Emily (the creative director) lives in a cottage owned by a potter and metal sculptor who teach at U of Georgia and have been repeatedly to Penland, AND Emily was at a wedding in NY state last year and saw the Gentlemen play! Small tiny world.
Anyway, I'll get on with the pictures, since there's so many! Click Me. Enjoy! More fun stuff coming soon!
Oh! Cool thing tomorrow (Thursday)! If I were on top of this, I would have already posted
about the radio station launched here at SSW on Oct 15. You can  see SSW's Blog post about the launch here.  ( I gave very popular pinch pot workshops :) The station is online just 5-7 each evening, but Ben and I will be on air talking about art/playing music between 5-7 UK time and 12-2 US time if you want to listen live. BUT you can go to: Radio Lumsden's site here and listen any time! I'll send out a reminder tomorrow.

Ok Bye!

Following

Morning! People are asking how to follow this blog. I explored the options and it looks like you can "follow"  and be a "member". Don't know what the difference is! Make sure you scroll alllll the way down the blog to see these options. I still don't know if either of these options will put a notification in your email or just put an notification on your  google or yahoo "dashboard". If people have more info about how to follow blogs, please post in the comments.
Thanks!      P.S. Which of these cookies below would you NOT want to eat?

Blog 2 Amsterdam and Berlin Sept 4-13 2011

Hi! Well, I'm doing great with this blog, eh? I'm only about 3 weeks behind! Anyway, I'll do better...blah...blah. It takes so longggggg! First off I want to point out that you can "follow" this blog by clicking below. That way I can stop sending annoying emails every time I post something. So today we're here to talk about our time in central Europe. It was Ben's first time there, so he was pretty jazzed. We were kind of uncharacteristically (for me) winging our travel plans as I seemed to have used up all my planning energies just getting my self across the ocean! This resulted in some unsavory hostel accommodation and some wasted money on lots of last minute bookings. But that made it exciting, right?!
 Anyway, it was nice to just show up and figure stuff out day by day. We stayed in the cheapest hostel we could find with "decent" ratings the first night. So bad! I woke up once to the owner arguing with a group of  drunk German guys who had snuck people in at 3 am and then there were mosquitoes coming in an open vent right over my bed all night! Anyway, we moved to a much nicer hostel right next to the Vondel Park. We spent most of our time just  exploring, and managing to do maybe one touristy thing a day. Highlights:  The van Gogh Museum, canal-side picnics with cheap strong beers, walking through the Red light district trying not to make eye contact with the "ladies", the Condomerie, Ben trading one of his prints for a wooden tulip souvenir with some school girls. Lowlights: rain, wind and more rain...which we seemed to mind less after visiting a cafe...

Then an overnight bus to Berlin! Woo hoo! What a relaxed city, but also so much going on! We had a great time with Aaron playing and watching music. We met lots of his great friends. Highlights: the Berlin Aquarium, and our walking tour...I can't think of anything else right now...its late, just check out the pics!  And YES! This guy really does live at the Aquarium! He made me pee my pants a little.

Alright, fun time is over!
Now for what will hopefully remain at the  Worst Part of the Trip Ever! (Gemma! Don't Click!) After a terrible, early morning Ryan Air flight from Berlin to Edinburgh, Ben and I were held by Immigration....in an ACTUAL Detention room...for over FOUR hours. That's right...we were Detainees. Literally. They made dossiers on us and everything. Holy shit ('scuse my french) was it the WORST! Here's what happened in a (big) nut shell. We made the "poor" decision to be withholding with the residency info and just say were visiting (which is exactly what I did on my way into Edinburgh the first time and had NO problem). But this agent was a total ass hole with a chip on his shoulder and when he saw "3 months" on our landing cards and the old musician's permits stamp in Ben's passport, he turned into "mean cop". This put us instantly in defense mode and Ben and I both started to try and explain what we were actually doing there. But because he was scary and we were nervous, we totally sounded like we were lying. We kept speaking over each other  and bits of random info kept coming out as we tried to figure out what would be the "right" things to say. He we also convinced that Ben would continue to play music for money. He was very aggressive with his questioning "How much money do you have? You can't live off that. Aren't there "artists colonies" in America you can go to?"...etc...Overload.
 He took our passports and made me go get our luggage to look for my sponsorship paperwork (and while doing so, didn't have Ben to help me lift the pack and I did a bad thing to my shoulder which STILL hurts now). But guess what! I accidentally threw out the paper work in Berlin! Woot! Go Me!  Oh, he loved that. I gave him the contact info for SSW. We sat there at the immigration kiosks for about 30 minutes, assuming he was calling SSW.... Nope! Just starting our files. Then they took us to have our bags searched...because we had been in Amsterdam. They went through EVERY LITTLE THING...that took another 30 minutes. Oh, did I mention that we had gotten up at 6:30 am  and it was now 11 am and we had not eaten or gone to the restroom yet?
We were then taken to the detainment room after our bags and phone were taken and stored and we were patted down. This is where we sat, for 4 agonizing hours, not knowing if  we were BOTH going to get sent home or just Ben or what. The officers in charge of us detainees (3 all together) were actually very nice (...because they can't do anything that could be construed as "abuse"). They brought us coffee, food and water. But we were too nervous to eat. Ben and I were separately and extensively "interviewed" (interrogated) by Officer Stick Up His Bum to see if we would tell the same story. He had printed out the residency info from SSW to see if I got all the stats about my program right. He had been to the Hot Seats website to see if there were more gigs. He recorded all our answers. At the end I asked if he had called SSW. No. Can I go into my email and show you the certificate "I don't know if that will be necessary..." Everything was so vague. We were then, again separately,  FINGER PRINTED.... and they took our pictures...of what? Our faces... or in other words...mugs? Yes, fucking mug shots. It felt like we were being arrested when at no point had we actually done anything wrong. You're allowed to stay in the UK for 6 damn months for no reason at all. We're here for 3 and BOTH have sponsorship numbers.....Can you tell I'm getting mad just writing this? So after 5 hours altogether he decided he had enough info to prove we were telling the truth...he never apologized for the  evident stress  of the situation or for detaining us for no legitimate reason. And...he never did call SSW to verify my story. Well that man can  kiss my you know what!!  Just before we were released he said "Mr. Belcher, I would suggest you let your wife do all the talking from now on." HaHaHa!

Wow...I just wrote more about that experience than Amsterdam and Berlin combined....it was traumatic! Man it was SO GOOD  to be out of there! Anyway you can see all the Europe Pics here. 
Oh! Before you go! I would like to draw your attention to 2 good things to support:
The fun one: The Two Man Gentlemen Band have a  kickstarter fund raiser to make a vinyl album, if you contribute, you get an album! There's levels for all budgets. Its all explained HERE  also, check out their facebook page for hilarious videos asking for donations!
The save-the-world One: Please go HERE to vote for Lucy Buck  who is in a competition to get funding for a children's program in Africa. There's TWO Lucys! Make sure you vote for the right one! Just takes a few clicks! Thank you!!

Next time: the first 3 weeks of Aberdeenshire life and the Mega Yurt Event!
We close with my first meal  of freedom after the immigration incident:

See you next time!
Oh and in case anyone was wondering, we DO  have a load of post cards and we WILL send them out...eventually!
Bye Bye!