AUGUST 2026 UPDATE

labyrinthian corridors of time edition

Greetings to you from Portland, Oregon, where renewable sustainability is the password to most velvet-rope social functions. Let’s begin:

WHAT HAPPENED IN July (BROAD STROKES):

- How Do You Move in This World world premiered in Chicago at the Vastlab festival

- edited a new short film called don’t opt in

- edited a promo video for xray.fm.

- had 2 photos published in Palisades Review

- ran the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta

BEST THINGS I SAW in July: The Love That Remains by Hlynur Palmason, After Hours by Martin Scorsese, The Storms of Jeremy Thomas by Mark Cousins, Juvenile Court by Frederick Wiseman, Hospital by Frederick Wiseman, Mr. Scorsese by Rebecca Miller, The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan (Lloyd cinemas IMAX), My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki (Moreland Theater), Trances by Ahmed El Maanouni

BEST THINGS I READ in July: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, El Paso by Jazmine Ulloa, The Revenent by Michael Punke, A Temporary Affair by David Radin, The True America by Ernest Cole, Nerve Damage by Annakeara Stinson

Therein ends the unnecessary first-act exposition, now onto the mythological journey of our embattled yet four-quadrant rootable protagonist. Let’s begin:

---

HOW DO YOU MOVE IN THIS WORLD

You know that feeling when you’ve had a personal breakthrough, a sort of bird’s-eye look at the contours and shape of your life’s trajectory and it’s so galvanizing and activating that you commit to making mammoth changes right now right this second and then reality intercedes somehow - a phone call, a text, a knock at the door - and that moment vanishes, subsumed by the world outside your head? How Do You Move in This World? attempts to speak to that, via the conceit of a man’s response to a ego-breakdown seminar in the woods, and his quick pivot when back in reality. The film was conceived on a walk with my dog at a nearby nature park, where the video was shot. Originally, the entire film would exist in the woods but during editing I added a highway shot and came up with the closing voiceover.

At the end of July, How Do You Move in This World? played in Chicago at VASTLAB experimental fest. The film is now available on my website or below.

---

ATLANTA RECAP

I was at PDX airport early on July 3. Flight to Atlanta went without incident until about an hour out when the pilot said active thunderstorms at Hartsfield were slowing all incoming flights so we circled in the air for ½ hour and then continued. Once we landed we all waited on tarmac for about 45 minutes before a gate became available. S picked me up. We’ve been friends since 9th grade. Went to her house in Sandy Springs and unpacked and then went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant and caught up on all fronts but mostly kids and parents and all peripheral considerations. I was in bed by 10 east coast time (7 pm west coast) and woke up at 3 am (midnight west coast) for no demonstrable reason and could not fall back asleep despite aching for slumber. I think my body clock was seriously off kilter but also being back in Atlanta, where I lived for roughly 10 formative years and catching up with a very longtime friend was also somehow pulsing through me, as if I could feel past present future rivers of time all moving independently and as one simultaneously. This sensation is a churning and tempestuous, almost dissociative, out-of-body experience that I’ve felt a couple times in my 50s. I had no option but to close my eyes and do some deep breathing exercises and try to rest and hope that along the way I would gently drift off but before I knew it my watch was beeping and it was 5:30 AM (2:30 AM west coast) and I had to get up, utterly spent and worse for wear.

Chris picked me up at 6:00 AM in the driveway. We drove toward the Brookhaven Marta station and parked across the street. We walked the half-mile or so to the start line, catching up and talking about everything we’ve been up to since we last ran together. Due to staggered start times we had situate ourselves separately among the other 60,000 bodies. The race began. Despite this being the 3rd time in 5 years that I’ve run the Peachtree, I sorely underestimated the heat and humidity and within half a mile I was gushing sweat and cursing myself for going out too hard. My sorely messed-up body clock did not help matters nor did the shrimp and noodles I consumed the evening prior. As a result, I crossed the finish line much slower than intended or than I trained for. But it really didn’t matter because my time was not really the point. It was fun and I was glad I was there, even if it didn’t go exactly as planned. (also applicable to general matters of existence.) We walked to the closest Marta station and took it back to Brookhaven. Chris drove me back to S’s house, where I showered and, around 10 AM (7 AM west coast) instantly fell into a deep, all-consuming sleep.

That evening, Chris and his wife came over and we ate some festive bbq’ed items and caught up. Shortly thereafter our friend JB arrived. It was so fortunate he was in town for our sake but the true reason he was in town was because his father was in hospice so not really very fortunate at all. I quickly felt those rivers stirring again, suddenly gushing through the room. I was just up to no good with these people, in our teens at murphy candler park and perimeter mall chick-fil-a, and now moments later we were discussing screen-time limits and navigating college applications as well as the vagaries of independent living scenarios for our elders. What does it all mean? I really have no idea. Just whistling through space and time like a rapidly-deteriorating arrow, shedding and accruing all at once.

The next day S and I went to the High Museum to see the Amy Sherrald exhibit. (While awaiting our time we also got to check the Isamu Noguchi exhibit as well as the photography exhibit in the basement which had some Stephen Shore, Daywoud Bey, Diane Arbus.) After, we went across town to the MLK museum (this February, reading King by Jonathan Eig, I decided somewhat impulsively to buy a plane ticket to Atlanta several months in the future. As in: how have i never ever been to the King museum? you know what i should do? buy a plane ticket tonight and run the Peachtree in july and use that visit to also go to the MLK museum. So from that vantage it was a bookend of sorts.) The MLK museum, steps away from his birthplace in one direction and Ebeneezer Baptist Church in the other, was partially under repair but we got to see some good things including the very blue reflecting pool.

The next morning S and I walked along the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in the gathering humidity and went out to lunch at a nearby diner before she took me to the airport. I couldn’t help but contemplate how different things might be if I hadn’t left there in 1992, a mix of gratitude and stupefaction. 4 people were having a business luncheon at the table near us. When their food arrived they held hands and loudly prayed. This, I was reminded, is an unremarkable occurrence in Atlanta. I flew home shortly thereafter thinking about rivers and arrows and not quite sure how to assign meaning to any of it.

---

DON’T OPT IN

Speaking of long-ago trapdoors to sub-floors to winding staircases alongside surging rivers, I recently digitized some super 8 footage from spring 1995 and have been cutting it into a new short film titled don’t opt in. The title comes from the fact that as i was reviewing said digitized footage an email dinged in asking me to take part in a quick survey. The kind of meaningless thing that washes ashore hourly. Without any forethought i recorded myself reading the email and started cutting footage around it and these two distinct eras were seemingly fused (or in conversation, as every filmmaker/artist is compelled to say regarding two different things smashed together.) This footage was really my first grappling with how to take images and simply understanding the operation of super 8 camera. It was oh so long ago. Repurposing the footage here to something else, far away in space and time from the original intent and moment it was captured, has been real fun but also an ever-extending hall of mirrors. will finish soon and share at an appropriate time. standby.

---

PHOTOS IN PALISADES REVIEW

The above photo appears in Palisades Review magazine, alongside writing by Crocket Doob. this photo is called parking garage and was taken on December 10, 2024 at 12:35 am at the Portland Airport on my iphone 14 pro.

The above photo appears in Palisades Review magazine, alongside writing by Sarp Sozdinler. This photo is called streetlight and was taken on February 25, 2026 at 6:42 am on my iphone 14 pro on MLK while i was waiting at a stoplight near the Hawthorne Bridge after dropping my son at morning baskeball practice.

---

XRAY FM PROMO

I was very happy to cut this video for xray.fm (I didn’t shoot it.) The very excellent Margaret Malone has a show on xray titled Bust the Canon, which you can listen to here and learn more about here. The whole point of this video is: xray.fm is moving locations and they need your assistance. learn more here and help if you can.

---

COASTAL HIGHLIGHTS

Speaking of the very excellent MM, she and I got away mid july for an evening and went to to the coast. It was a mere 18 hours from end to end but great. (big thank you to Andrea C.) As we hiked near Oswald West in the late afternoon, M deduced that it had been 30 years to the day that we’ve been together. What are the odds? We talked about the micro choices and movements that had to happen to put us together (including me leaving atlanta in 1992) and the grit and good fortune that helped us remain together across space and time. That’s a long-ass time, we reasoned, for two human beings to be in close contact. Before we could dwell too long in our joyous mystification we were driving back to town, quickly subsumed by the details of daily life.

---

PROJECT UPDATES

Apology Ghost (experimental narrative short, 5 min) out to a few festivals. Will probably make this available on my website in the coming months. more about Apology Ghost here.

Sister/Brother (narrative feature, 75 min) - still chugging along in watching-paint-dry fashion in post. More about Sister/Brother here.

Grief Stick (documentary short, 17 min) out to festivals. A 2026 fall screening are possibly beginning to take form. stay tuned. More about Grief Stick here.

---

ETC

impermanence clock

days I’ve been alive 19,771 | days until i turn 80 9,448

running

I’ve had notable uptick in running since Atlanta, pushing myself at pace, duration, location. Very much out of my comfortable cobwebbed zones. Unclear if this is just a post race spike or if it’s in some way a response to the rivers of time and aging referenced elsewhere in this post. Next big race upcoming is Silver Falls in October.

music

my music project impermanent marker released a 5 song EP last month called petty grievance you can find it on bandcamp.

fivver account!

I offer film editing, screenplay proofing, voice acting, and editing your kid’s AAU basketball footage into a reel. Do you have need of any of those? Does your loved one or friend? If so please go here. I could really use the support.

---

CLOSING IMAGE

here is the part of the post where i say something profound and/or witty that manages to exist as a standalone bit but also a summation and finalization of everything that’s come prior. I’m afraid to report I don’t have anything in the tank. thanks for reading this far though. i really appreciate that. how are you?

see you next month. xo

- - -