these last few months

I have been shamefully delinquent. But I am here now.
Many things have happened since I wrote to you last.

For example, I received an MFA from Edinburgh College of Art. Check out images from my degree show here: http://www.culturedcuttlefish.co.uk

I saw Errol Morris' new film, Standard Operating Procedure during the Edinburgh Film Festival, and I got to hear him give a live interview before the film, and a Q&A after. He said something along the lines of, "I wanted to make a film that would make people wish they had never been born." I'm not sure you achieved that exactly, Errol, but you did make a very, very sad piece of work. It is absolutely worth seeing, and I'd recommend it all around, but don't expect to be uplifted . . . the film attempts to explain -- no, not explain, but examine -- aspects of our humanity that are unbelievably difficult to understand, to explain, even to accept. It's an important film, I think, though I hope I never have to watch it again.

I went camping in the outer hebrides on an island called Barra, which is all rolling hills and expansive sandy beaches, sheep in the meadows and cows on the sand dunes, and pipers in the castle. Let me see if I have some pictures . . .



I went on a bus tour of the scottish highlands with my mom -- a bizarre-o three day trip that showed us exceedingly beautiful parts of scotland and exceedingly ugly parts of tourists. More on that soon, hopefully.

I did some volunteer private catering for artists in a town called Strontian, which leads on to the fact that I'm moving to the highlands at the end of this month, and before the end of the year, going very far away indeed. More on that soon as well.

I saw TOM WAITS in Edinburgh. I'd seen him once before, four years ago, in Seattle, but in all honesty this show was better better better. It was all grunts and growls, rags and bones, dusty shit-kickers and bowler hats, spastic dancing and contorted faces, bad jokes and junkyard orchestration. Absolutely brilliant. Worth every penny of the exorbitant ticket prices (truth be told, I paid more to a seller on ebay to see him in Seattle). This ain't no rock show, it's a full theatrical experience.

That pretty much sums up my last several months. Bringing us up to date. I saw The Dark Knight the other night. It was entertaining, but flawed -- too much plot, too many explosions, way too long. Christian Bale was a snotty, beefy, obnoxious batman with no endearing character traits, or even character flaws. A very cardboard portrayal, and too much growling (leave the growling to Tom Waits). The best thing about the movie, by far, was Heath Ledger's Joker, which, in itself is just a damn depressing and tragic thing. I found it very difficult to not keep reminding myself, each time the joker came on and was really fantastic, that the man behind the mask died too young, and under incredibly tragic circumstances.