Sourdough Drives Me Crazy

I like to bake, but don't do it enough. Lately, I've been into a cookie (the holidays, of course) and sourdough bread thing. I really like to perfect something before I move on to something else, and sourdough'll drive you crazy. Mothers, barms, poolish, biga, starters, sponges, preferments, ferments, aaaagghhh. You have to be a mini chemist - but I think that's why boys like to bake. Who knows?

Here's a boule (that's what I'm trying to perfect) I recently baked.


And here are shots of my next attempt:

A third attempt - you'll notice they're actually not getting any better, unfortunately:

But I refuse to give up - I tried two loaves the next time, baking one in a covered Dutch oven and the other directly on the stone. You can see my slashing technique, or lack thereof, caused the weird sort of growth in the bread on the left...