I’m taking pottery lessons right now… and my teacher said “the kiln gods are being kind to me right now.” And that made me stop and think. Is there a god of pottery? I tried to look it up but it’s hazy.
In Ancient Greece, Athena was apparently the goddess of crafts, which is a bit vague. Hephaestus was the god of sculpting, but that’s not right either.
In Ancient Egypt, I found Khnum who made the other gods and humankind on his potter’s wheel.
I found two gods of pottery in Southeast Asian cultures, Lianaotabi and Panthoibi.
But I wasn’t able to find anyone else. Pottery being such an important part of daily life all around the world, it seems like there would be more. Does anyone know of any other gods of pottery?
kiln gods are also A Thing!
they’re little sculptural critters that potters make and leave on or around their kiln for good luck. a lot of them have to do with fire or are holding pottery (Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle is one I’ve seen multiple times) but a kiln god can be anything
I share a kiln so I don’t want to take up space on or near the kiln, so I just put a kiln god through with every batch of pottery
here’s a selection of mine (all holding pottery)
the head of the ceramics dept learned his wood fire techniques in Japan, including a Shinto take on the kiln gods.
wadding is a material glaze doesn’t stick too, and it’s used to prop up pieces in a wood fire kiln because otherwise the wood ash would weld them to the shelves.
everyone has to make a little wood fire idol out of wadding and place them on top of the kiln
and unlike a gas or electric kiln that can be programmed and then left alone aside from a few checks, a wood fire kiln needs to be babysat for the full 2-3 day fire (for our size kiln anyway).
cool thing is there’s an external pit where we burn thin pieces of wood to get a good ash layer on the pieces, and you can cook in said pit while you’re watching. but our prof required us to throw a little bit of whatever we cooked into the main fire as ordering
he also opened the firing by sharing some sake with the kiln before lighting it
absolutely insane having bryan show he knows hes in a manipulative relationship and showing that he has the power to break it and reverse the power….
and then just not. bc hes fine with it and so is aaron. like when they ask him to invest he immediately goes to aaron after the monologue. and without question agreeing with whatever he says. no interest in completely changing their dynamic
edit: actually by doing this he does change the dynamic a bit. now aaron knows he does have his own thoughts and could leave if he wanted. but he doesnt want to leave
starting the episode in media res and the circular storytelling!! the writing in this episode is really good overall, just so clever and inventive and effective. go off megan
“you ARE ready. everything you need is already inside you” sunny is ready to do a gay, gay-ass love story you guys. the gays are already inside it
titling it frank vs. russia when that’s clearly the b-plot? because we’re burying the lead? because we’re telling lies???
the denny’s shirt…
“aren’t you like 60?” misogyny is so sad 😞
dennis ANYBODY can get a guy to bang them ONCE reynolds
everyone wants dennis’ help but who will help dennis? :(
when mac says “it’s VERY romantic” dennis literally smacks the counter like… yikes
“one day he will and it is going to be hot” - I choose to believe this means that rcg think old man yaoi is hot and they are excited to show it :)
sunnyblr university is producing so many brilliant scholars who understand the significance of the beads as a metaphor for queerness and whether the audience is in or out and how it doesn’t matter because the queerness is all the way in and as of this episode it’s been turned up to full blastand leads us to a resounding victory. I’m just rehashing what others have said but I wanted to make sure I include it with my notes from this episode because it really is such a central idea and yet one that can be so easily missed by someone who isn’t reading the show like this… ugh the duality of sunny will never cease to confound me
dee calling mac out like yes bitch get his ass!! (so to speak)
uncle fucking jack walks in saying “they dropped all those charges weeks ago” - playdate EW - “I don’t– I don’t have any ice cream” - “shut UP dude, that’s gross, man”
charlie is so PRECIOUS in his little outfit and glasses
is he schizophrenic? I wonder if that will come up again or if it was just a throwaway joke
violent heterosexual shushing from dennis
the backing track of the sinned system/date scene is “in the hall of the mountain king” and it’s just so fucking classic sunny and so perfect
how did mac show patrick that he needed his power? and how did he engage physically?? we need to know these things!!!
kaitlin’s whole performance in the date scene is so fucking good
“the person who made him feel powerful, but also powerless.” the macdennis of it all is truly overwhelming sometimes
the person whose validation he’s been seeking his entire life :/
“it worked” jesus christ mac
“well yeah but listen, the dennis system is a system for getting a woman. this is a system for getting a man, and that’s why sinned is actually dennis backwards!!” when I first watched this episode I was high as balls and sick with anticipation and this whole bit nearly pushed me over the edge. I mean he basically just straight up says that it’s bad for him to like men (sin) after explaining a tried-and-true system for getting them???
and then mac and dee are like “what are the chances??” and dennis is like HIGH >:( because they don’t see it. they don’t see it even though it’s been plain as day the whole time :(
dennis: “I’m still buzzin from last night” 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀
AND I HAVE TO BE WITH HIM oh baby boy I pray you will be
the nastiness in dennis’ voice when he says “well no, see, that’s the thing – johnny doesn’t love you. he doesn’t even like you.” glenn I’m scared of you
“they ARE my favorite” he wanted mac to realize :( and yes the crabs are deeply metaphorical
“yeah, because I AM johnny” “then who’s dennis?” “what do you mean?!” “well if you’re johnny, then who– who’s you?” one of the best sunny exchanges of all time!!!!!!!! I cannot overstate how much I love this dialogue. it just captures so much about them so succinctly go off megan!!!!!
“I can’t engage with you on this right now” great delivery rob, so funny
does dennis want to control frank like a pawn bc he felt like that’s what frank did to him? or he’s just frustrated at mac and wants a situation he feels in control of?
kaitlin’s “… yeah” when dennis asks if dee has more pills is just so funny I keep remembering it and laughing randomly
“we’re gonna need to turn the lights out.” GLENN I’M SCARED OF YOU
the POV Being Frank throwback! I love the tossing of the clothes and the blackness and the sound of the door, cool little sequence
charlie’s such a good cheerleader 🥹 his little point is so funny
do you ever wonder what danny devito might be doing with his career if he wasn’t pretending to be split in half by giant vibrating anal beads on it’s always sunny in philadelphia??
“you don’t have to do this” this one speaks for itself I think.
dennis and uncle jack, two sexual deviants having a laugh in the van :| (also the van situation is so classic sunny obvs)
mrs. mac saying “nice” god there are just so many hilarious little character beats in this episode
“I DON’T KNOW HOW ELSE TO TELL YOU!!!” :( what’s in the texts rcgm
macdennis fightin :)
the full-blast alarm sound effect just gets me every time like to me that is peak comedy
The Burning Heart by Survivor is kind of macdennis coded tbh… “It’s a primitive clash venting years of frustrations / Bravely we hope against all hope / There is so much at stake” “Does the crowd understand?” “Though his body says ‘stop!’ his spirit cries ‘never!’ (omg) / Deep in our soul a quiet ember knows it’s you against you” like sorry if this song was supposed to be for straight people but it’s not anymore
so there’s something there about what’s acceptable and going full blast. the mommy issues are now explicit. dennis is bisexual.and he chose to have a romantic and sexual relationship with mac while pretending to be someone else, to the point that mac was in love with this other version of him. and he was so mad mac didn’t realize that he actually played his hand and told him, and mac still couldn’t accept it, upsetting dennis further. wtf man these homos are INSANE
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again but it is absolutely an example of civilizational inadequacy that only deaf people know ASL
“oh we shouldn’t teach children this language, it will only come in handy if they [checks notes] ever have to talk in a situation where it’s noisy or they need to be quiet”
My mom learned it because she figured she’ll go deaf when she gets old
My family went holiday SCUBA diving once, and a couple of Deaf guys were in the group. I was really little and I spent most of the briefing overcome with the realization that while the rest of us were going to have regulators in our mouths and be underwater fairly soon, they were going to be able to do all the same stuff and keep talking.
The only reason some form of sign language is not a standard skill is ableism, as far as I can tell.
For anyone interested in learning, Bill Vicars has full lessons of ASL on youtube that were used in my college level classes.
Update: you guys this is an amazing resource for learning asl. Bill Vicars is an incredible teacher. His videos are of him teaching a student in a classroom, using the learned vocabulary to have conversations.
Not only is the conversation format immersive and helpful for learning the grammar, but the students make common mistakes which he corrects, mistakes I wouldn’t have otherwise know I was making.
He also emphasizes learning ASL in the way it’s actually used by the Deaf community and not the rigid structure that some ASL teachers impose in their classrooms
His lesson plans include learning about the Deaf community, which is an important aspect of learning ASL. Knowing how to communicate in ASL without the knowledge of the culture behind it leaves out a lot of nuances and explanations for the way ASL is.
Lastly, his lessons are just a lot of fun to watch. He is patient, entertaining, and funny. This good natured enthusiasm is contagious and learning feels like a privilege and not a chore
And it’s all FREE. Seriously. If you’ve ever wanted to learn ASL
bryan cranston, who was parallel to mac the entire episode, told not to speak just as mac was, thought to be controlled just as mac was. telling us that dennis aaron has never really been in charge.
but it’s just acting, right? he couldn’t possibly be playing dumb on purpose…
mac playing dumb with the nuts making dennis care about him… playing dumb with johnny making dennis date him… like it didn’t come to a head in the episode. this is season long scheming. fucking hell
