Art Seminar Last Night

Okay, so in order to graduate I have to take this class, Art Seminar, four times. Basically, six times throughout the semester you go and listen to lectures from different people who work in the arts, take notes and that's it. Last night was a ceramicist, Larry Davidson, and I'm sorry to say but he was boooring. It was just killing me. I'm not the type of guy who falls asleep during things, but I swear that last night I wish I was. The guy was going on and on about feldspar, carbon impregnation and silicates - really exciting stuff.

I must admit that ceramics isn't my favorite subject. I admire the heck out of the work produced, and Mr. Davidson's work was especially beautiful, but I have no natural aptitude for it and find that the discussion surrounding it quickly devolves into chemistry talk, which fascinates me not at all. Here's a teapot by Mr. Davidson:

Anyway, so during all of this talk he starts talking about ash glazes and how he gets his ashes from his brother's fireplace. Now in order to fully understand the next part you've got to understand that this guy had a kind of lisp. Anyway, so this guy starts in on ashes and informs us that most people don't properly wash their ash (try saying it with a lisp...), which induced a giggle, but then he began to talk, for roughly three minutes about how he thoroughly washes his ash and the way he washes his ash. Well, I lost it - for a while. It was the kind of laughing reserved for prayers, the kind that only grows as you supress it. I was literally crying and felt like I was going to throw up because I had a bit of a burp caught in my throat as he started in on washing his dirty ash. I was sitting behind a couple of friends who are clowns (not literally) and that only made it worse. Just when I thought I was done, I'd hear one of them start up again and I was launched into another fit of uncontrollable, barely supressed giggling.

Moral of this story: washing yor ash is funny.