ouch ouch ouch. but it looks neat. i got a tattoo yesterday from fish, who's a friend of mine and easily the best tattoo artist i know. (that wouldn't be hard, of course, because he's the only tattoo artist i know.) but he is a damned fine tattooer, which is why i went to him to get my first.

it's a big fucker at six inches tall, but the detail came out really really well. i got it on my leg only because that's where most of the padding is on my body. as a result i kept dropping my pants last night so people could take a look at it.

i have to say that the best thing about this particular design (the cover art from the crow road by iain banks, for those of you who couldn't immediately recognize it) is that it makes people go "oooooh" when they see it. and fish liked the design so much that he put it in his gallery of cool tattoos. that's really gratifying, actually - that the artist liked doing the image he put on you. on me.

someone asked me "what does it mean to you?", which is a fair question. permanent art should mean something. at least i think i should. and the meaning for this one comes straight from the book. it's my favorite iain banks book for two reasons 1) it's a great story and 2) it's a story about family. family means a lot to me, so this was a chance to wrap all of that meaning up into a nice, obscure literary reference and put it on my skin.

shannon has promised to buy me a tattoo for every book i publish. that should be interesting.

last night, as i was walking out of the farragut west metro, i saw vicki (my ex-wife, for those of you that haven't been playing along at home). she was taking the escalator down to the platform that i had just left and she didn't see me. it was an odd moment and it reminded me that it may be a big city, but there are only so many people living in it.

another note on the same theme from later in the evening. shannon was telling our friend will about her new smoking buddy at work, sarah. she gave a few details about sarah, which prompted will to ask one to two questions, at which point he declared that he knew sarah. sarah's sister was best friends with one of will's ex-girlfriends. very, very small world.

it's odd how stuff like this happens in this city. i guess all the freaks tend to glom together. but that doesn't really explain the sighting on the metro, does it?

whew. so much has gone by that i think it would be too much to capture it all. instead, we'll go with something that happened just a week or two ago. i sent out this email on july 17.

hello.

one of the things i do when i'm bored is wander around the web (especially amateur sites) and find pictures that i can work on in photoshop. why? why not?

in paticular, i worked with three pictures from your site.

http://www.geocities.com/oletheros/garden.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/oletheros/backbone.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/oletheros/waterfall.jpg

the galleries that these are included in can be found are:
http://www.geocities.com/oletheros/vraling.html
http://www.geocities.com/oletheros/kramen.html
http://www.geocities.com/oletheros/prelk.html

(you'll notice that there are a lot of images in these galleries that haven't been worked with yet - this is my raw material for the next few weeks. i just put them up so i have something to reference.)

in parting, i wanted to compliment the photographer. he really has a good eye and i've enjoyed the pictures from an aesthetic point of view (and yes, they are erotic, too. which helps.)

let me know what you think of the pictures i made from your photos.

matt

his response was:

Matt, you have stolen those pics from me, they are, as I am sure you are aware, copyright, I have sent a copy of your email to RC also, remove all those pics from your site straight away and do not ever steal a pic from RC9 again.

Forest

oh my! i didn't expect that. so i sat down and wrote out a small explanation.

huh. and here i thought you'd be flattered. i realize that those pictures are copyrighted and i never claimed otherwise. i was trying to make art. pardon me for bothering to share with you. no need to get snippy.

i am sorry that this sort of thing challenges you and your sense of self-preservation. i can see where you're coming from - sort of. i'd be upset if someone took something i did and just slapped it up and said "i did this." thing is that i didn't say that, did i?

my take on this is that because there is nothing on my site that says "you must pay to get in here" i
really don't see what difference it makes. especially since i don't plan to profit from a picture that i made and (as far as i know) the only person who ever visits those galleries is me.

i do resent being called a thief, though. i am no more a thief than someone who samples records to make new music. but that's your opinion and you are entitled to it. suit yourself.

your reaction, though, doesn't make me want to share, which is a shame. i would have thought that people posting pictures of themselves in an attempt to garner reactions would have liked to see what someone like me did with their picture.

btw, under copyright rules (here in the us) if a piece is suitably derivative enough that it is recognizably a new piece, then it can be considered new. at least i was courteous enough to say "hey, i thought what you did was good enough that i was inspired to take it one step further." just to let you know.

matt

so that's what happened. it caused a bit of conversation in the household and didn't stop me from doing my art at all. and i have not heard word one from red clouds or this guy at all. sheesh!

okay. i finally got the title transferred over. that's one major thing i don't have to worry about and thank fucking god, too.

our good friend carrie monster was in town on saturday night and we had a fucking blast. taking pictures, laughing, goofing off. it was good, solid fun. carrie should come back to dc more often. we tell her this and she always says "yes, yes." she'll be back in august and then shan and i are headed out for labor day. fun fun fun. because i deserve it, dammit!

what else? not much. my pictures are coming along nicely. i spent most of the day yesterday surfing around and looking for more raw material. sometimes i feel guilty about stealing the amateur pictures that people post of their naked spouses and girlfriends but then i remember that i'm turning interesting pictures into art. (or what passes for art.) besides, they wouldn't post naked pictures on the internet unless they wanted people to use them, would they?

copyright infringement is my best entertainment value. one of them, anyway. i imagine i'll feel differently once i actually have something to copyright.

details details. there are so many fucking details about buying a car that i could have just done without, frankly. take insurance. that's a pain in the ass right there. go someplace and have them assess how much of a risk you are? why yes, that sounds delightful. what? i have a fifteen percent chance of death, according to the records of other drivers my age? wonderful to know!

beg your pardon. just getting the crap out of my system now... there is more, i'm sure. i just can't be bothered to think of it right this instant...

as for the writing thing... well, it comes and goes. depending on how busy i am at work, i can either knock out a couple thousand words or i can just sit here and look at the blank screen while that little icon sits there and blinks at me. mocking me. taunting me.

eh. so i'm frazzled...

well, the car buying thing went better than i'd hoped. i ended up with a ford zx2, which is a sporty little coupe-y thing. very nice, actually. brand spanking new, too. only had 26 miles on it when i bought it. a sporty little electric blue car. hm.

anyway. so that's the news there. i still have to take care of any number of details, but the initial experience is done. now i can get back to paying attention to my writing.