Pencil and Paper.

Some recent studies I have done for school. Using various graphites, some water color pencil, and some india ink. The ghostly work is a portrait of my beloved cousin Kai as memory. It is a composite image I made using multiple photos. For the 3 portraits I used Hedi Slimane photos as reference.

Things Pt. 3: Deutschland

Germany was a whirlwind seen primarily through grimy bus windows, subway windows, and train windows. Berlin ( the bit I saw in 24 hours) was grey and industrial, beautiful but bleak. The kebap was sublime, as was the hanging mist. Hamburg was a Christmas market at night, and Pretty Woman played by a youth accordion orchestra, in other words brilliant. Heidenau was cozy, with family, and songs, and endless dinner, and a puppy dog. Bremen was like a postcard, tinged with sleep deprivation. Picturesque and old, old, old. Here are some photos.

Things Pt. 2: Praha

Prague was icy, and gilt and sunlit. There were blackened statues on the Charles bridge crossing the Vlatva, and the sky was violet, our hands freezing. Sausages and steaming pastry browned over the fire at the Christmas market. A woman walking a pig down the street in the afternoon. Red candles lit for sorrow and remembrance, and Kafka's name on walls and street corners. 

See All The Things pt. 1.

After dear ol' Glasgow Uni let out we packed up our bags and boarded a night sleeper bus to London. It was madness. Bleary eyed we walked to the hostel as the sun came up. After drinking all of the English breakfast tea to be found we tubed to Camden. Unfortunately there were no Noel Fielding sightings. Then on to Abbey Road, Portobello market and dinner before falling to sleep in a room of many bunks.

                                    yeah, it's backwards. But we look like $$$$ and fame anyway.

The next day it was a speed sightseeing. We saw the changing of the guard, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar square, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Harrods and Piccadilly circus. We slept for a few hours before we were walking arm in arm with exhaustion to the bus stop in the frozen darkness. Despite the extreme haste with which it was experienced London was lovely.

Bonnie Scotland.

It has been awhile. Right now there is sunshine outside my window, and the voices of men doing construction next door lack the expected Glasgow lilt. California is nice, we have vegetables and recycling, and markedly less rain. Back for a month, and I miss Scotland, but the pangs are bearable as I am still pretty thrilled to be in the beautiful, beautiful bay. I suppose I should finish my travelogue, before getting back to the normal swing of things; not because I think anyone will read it but because I think it will come in handy. What with my very shoddy recording habits and a million blank journals stashed under my bed. So lets see, the remaining Glasgow highlights before the Christmas travel extravaganza began. I got to see Girls. Yes, another American band. It was wondrous. November in Glasgow was freezing, and I wrote this after an incident with a stapler that left me disturbed and more in love than ever.

Untitled

It’s never bright enough that I don’t need the light on

Even at Midday 

This may be a real November

My hair only curls when it rains

Lately it’s been so curly the mirror has forgotten I have ears

When I staple my finger

It's so cold it doesn’t bleed

Friends visited from Spain and France, they grimaced over Scottish breakfast and ooohed over chips and curry. Thanksgiving was celebrated with an American feast and British companionship, as well as an impromptu fiddle session by a lovely girl from Skye. Christmas came to George's Square and many a night was spent shivering and smiling at the Christmas market. Birthdays were celebrated nicely and sleazily at Nice n' Sleazy, and we got our first snowfall which was magic. There was a midnight pajama walk to campus with a bunch of wide-eyed California kids, as pure white feathers fell from the sky, and we laughed in disbelief. Eden and I took a trip to the Highlands in the middle of a hurricane and made it home safely by the grace of god and Billy the tour guide. There were of course more Stuart Murdoch sightings, and even a trip to the Blair Estate, the ancestral seat of my Scottish predecessors. I have been dreaming of that trip since the silliest days of girlhood, and actually making it with Eden and a dusting of snow on the ground was kind of the best thing ever. After that it was off to London, Prague, Berlin, and Christmas in Heidenau before a few messy and mournful last days in Glasgow. Here is some (read: far too much)  photographic proof to substantiate the last paragraph. 

Living under the Union Jack. 

Not the Girls show, but the Antlers at the ever hip King Tut's. 

View from Calton Hill, Edinburgh at night. 

Fiddling at Thanksgiving. 

Eating the leftovers the night of Thanksgiving. It was delicious. 

Black pudding, bacon, sausage, potato scone, baked beans, fried eggs and fried tomato = Scottish Breakfast. 

Christmas slide at Georges Square, 

Lights! 

Birthday bakery trip. Happy happy kids. 

The Kelvingrove river. 

Birthday timez. 

The ultimate pub wall graffiti. Maggie Smith FTW!

Snow. 

Making snow angels in the quadrangle. 

Sledding in Kelvingrove. 

My hood. 

Getting to know the statuary at the Wallace Monument. 

Monty Python castle. 

Anyone for a swim?

Glencoe. 

Hello hurricane!

LOCH NESS!!!

The misty, snowy highlands. 

The road to Blair Estate. 

The door, above which the house is dated 1203. 

My christmas card pose. 

The grounds. 

Glasgow outskirts with a dusting of snow.