6 THE “ST 13 2/ /‘~.:)' 2000

I read recently of a great concept, something to do with making a mistake on a cheque, or rather While writing a cheque. Making a mistake on your cheque. . in your cheque? . . . While writing it, making a mistake. . . I read recently of a theory linked to the initial you make to prove that it was you who changed the thing amount and not someone else.

And the theory was concerned with how it is only you that proves you are you and so initialing’s a bit silly. If you were a fraudster you would continue to fraud and initial the mistake, rather than refuse to get ’deeper in’. Of course if you did initial it then that would be non-fraudulent because at that pOint you are telling the truth. It is like a little bit of credit. Rarely do cheque fraudsters fall at this hOidle: ’Oh I am

not he . . I can no more initial this than take up With his Wife'

Well the theory didn’t actually go into that kind of detail. I’m sure the writer didn’t have enough time or rather space in that article to go off on all the indIVidual elements Within his theory.

So, the theory or idea said that seeing as how it is only you verifying the alteration, the mm of the initials is not that they are initials, but that they are a mark that later on you would agree is yours. It just so happens that signatures are as indiVidual as a snow print's finger flake and therefore a smart idea, a leading signing suggestion.

The columnist, haVing established the nature of the intention behind initialing one's own mistake, went on to suggest that you could therefore do any initials, JFK or KFC or whatever. He then suggested you write BISON and started to go bi-lateral, or to be honest, bi-bilateral.

After that the guy, I think it was in the Sunday Hera/d maga/ine, went on to suggest that you maybe could do a little treasure map or musical annotation for a tune, or even a draWing to validate your own authority; I really like that:

do a draWing to validate your

own authority.

The reason I tell you this is that it was me that wrote about the theory. I have just been to Being John Mal/covic/i and the bit when Malkowch goes into Malkowch and he is in a

restaurant and everyone is Malkowch and the only word anyone can say or sing or write is Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkowch.

It made me think about the possibility or possibilities of not being me. I thought a way to do this might be to try and sum up an idea of my own and see if I was able to lose slightly my own gist, see if the theory was maybe loose enough or not definite enough or not believed in enough to get lost in its originator. I picked a tricky little issue to baby Oil the shaft. Initialing on cheques I sometimes see as a portal through the reality of the commercial, non- hallucinogenic world where we can not live actually in our thoughts, just thought them.

Hence Art.

I could not do it: first the ideas humans have I’m sure all he in the brain forever and every now and then come shooting back or can be sought. Sometimes the selection is intended, and sometimes it is not, and sometimes the intention is unintentional and sometimes the

unintentional is intended, sometimes the intended unintentional is not achieved.

Anyway, all things are there, you simply need to find ways of being close to them, but being in a Similar state

of mind/simply being in the same mind. Then it is only a matter of taking time to think clearly.

At one mm in the film John Malkovich is playing Malkowch as Malkovrch being John Cusack being John Malkowch. It must be hard being John Cusack being John Malkowch.

It makes me think about the whole meaning of the word ’being’ and how it seems like the most important word, one that does not lose its sense even if repeated, like ’IvIalkowch’ or ’intentional’. In the way that

rattle relates to the sound it

describes. So ’being’ seems to me to be existential onomatopoeia Just so you know a little more about what it is being me: I have just set up breakfast for my kid on a little table With a little stool so she can come in and help herself to her own Coco Pops. I put out her favourite pink bowl and spoon and a cup on her favourite piece of floor jigsaw as a mat. Just to maximise the fun I put the stool on the far side so she could see us as she eats; then I angled the Whole arrangement, so she would see it all at once as she came in the door.

Favourite Girl is favourite film

A young Scottish filmmaker's graduation piece from Edinburgh College of Art has swept the board in the award ceremonies. A week after Winning the first annual Jim Poole Short Film Award at Edinburgh’s Cameo Cinema, Adrian J. IvIcDowall's Who’s My Favourite Girl has been awarded a BAFTA in the short film category.

Speaking after the prestigious ceremony in London’s Leicester Square, writer/director McDowall said that he and the film’s producers Kara Johnston and Joern Utkilen were ’absolutely ecstatic’. ’It was phenomenal,’ he said. ’I was speechless and babbling at the same time - the free drink certainly helped.’

The preVious Sunday, the fifteen-minute short about two boys and their Witty and touching attempts to get to grips with the perplexing emotions of puberty gained local recognition when it became the first recipient of the annual Jim Poole Short Film Award. Named after the Cameo cinema’s founder, the award, aimed at acknowledging new Scottish filmmakers and enc0uraging the ’independent spirit’, comprised a certificate and a cheque for £1000. ’We were really honoured to receive it,’ said McDowall. ’Jim Poole started something speCial With the Cameo, so I was just pleased to get it in his name.’

Last year’s BAFTA Winner in the short film category, Morag McKinnon (who was on the jury for the Jim Poole Short Film Award) has recently signed a £22 million deal with Tiger Aspect for her first feature. McDowall and his producers are hoping to follow her lead. ’If we can do that this time next year, then we’ll be where we want to be,’ he said. The team are due to start filming their next short in August, entitled Toon Fair and are currently seeking finance for their first feature project.

Meanwhile Who’s My Favourite Gir/ Will be screened at the Cameo before every shOWing of The Virgin Suicides which opens on Friday 19 May.

Christian Bale on the high life 6f American Pyscho. see page 10