SCENES OF THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL 2016

It seems to me there are lots of Fringe bits to the Edinburgh Festival, but to keep things relatively tidy, (programmes, books, leaflets always being the exceptions) I see the Fringes divided up into the;

1. International classical theatre, concerts and The International Book Festival;
2. Professional Fringe; (worth a look)
3. Mainstream Fringe (semi professional, can be interesting);
4. Have-a-go Fringe (a huge range of options, often thought-provoking and clever);
5. Stand-up Comedy, and
6. Multinational talents Fringe, (A wide variety, some very beautiful).

Selecting from numbers 2-6  is not straightforward. This, for me, is a great big part of the fun of being at the Edinburgh festival...getting there and invariably taking pot luck. Number 5, is quite likely to be risqué! (I have no respect for 'comics' who operate with gratuitous vulgarity).

The Royal Mile pop up shows stand out on their own; The Royal Mile is always worth visiting.

This year I found myself second in a queue for a show; the Editor of The Children's Guinness Book Of Records, Craig Glenday was first. We had a lovely chat and sat in the same church pew to watch a really good show called The Gin Chronicles.  It's a spoof 1947 radio broadcast. If the show appears anywhere else, go see it.

And here is the Guinness Book of Records man doing his own ''show' at The Book Festival. There were only a few tickets left when I got mine on the day. Craig gave the young audience, (and their adults) guidelines about what records would not get into the books,  such as anything that would upset the people who help animals. It was a gentle humorous  production. We saw a couple of record holders, a bagpiper, and  a cyclist without a bike seat. The seat-less cyclist also tried to break a record at the show.   Children were invited  to play the bagpipes, or, monitor something with stopwatches, or, click devices, or, race to make up a potato head. (There is one on the low table).




The Festival seemed a bit slow to get into a bustling rhythm this year, partly because some of the elements of it were staggered not to clash too much with the Olympic Games. The new digital hub in the Centre of town had no  queues of festival-goers lining up for digital events in the Assembly Rooms, where, in previous years  you would have seen flows of people waiting for shows. It was all very quiet. The pop-up outdoor cafes and bars nearby were not over-subscribed with patrons. Up the hill in the Old Town where a lot of extra events seemed to be sited, it was busy.

What you see here is a newly refurbished banking hall at St Andrews Square, Edinburgh. It is gorgeous. The staff are happy for visitors to wander in and learn about the building's history. In the front garden - a Festival venue - you could sit and eat, or under gazebos, sit and play with outsize light -weight dominoes, or, under another, lounge on large cushions and play  with large cards.


So, in Princes Street, (the main shopping street of the city) I was darting through crowded spaces when I heard the attractive sounds of music.  I back tracked and gave the guy a donation. "Stop!" he called as I was about to dash off again. He raked around in a big bag and handed me a card... except it wasn't. He'd given me a gift of his CD "Because you are so nice", he said.

This is busker Marcello Vacante playing a track from  his CD 'Train For London' .  (His name is on the CD cover)

Does anyone know anything about this type of teapot, (if it is a teapot) seen in a charity shop window?



Oooops - In a back street I  found that The Driving License Authority had been busy (DVLC stamped on the clamp).



Let me introduce you to Audrey.



The last remaining vintage mobile cinema from around 1967.  Black and white Pathé News films, (remember those) were shown, a couple were of the 1947 beginnings of the Edinburgh Festival. My friend told me afterwards that she remembered going to the first festival with her mother!!!  You could have knocked me over with a feather.

This was called "The Rook". This must relate to Harry Potter and the fearful chess board game that had to be played in one of the stories.  The author JK Rowling is, after all,  a graduate of the university and more recently was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Edinburgh University.  'Wee horse" does look like a junior  and not too distant relative of the Kelpies that are based in Falkirk, Scotland. However, the Kelpies don't have reins or a feather topknot.




Scenes of Festival relaxation in Princes Street Gardens and Granny's Drying Green below Edinburgh Castle:



A musical venue, where guitars  also became percussion instruments for both classical and fusion genres.



Last, but definitely not least:



A view of Edinburgh Castle with an interesting wee look-out tower and a clear view of a lump of Dolerite, a coarse-grained Basalt rock.  The Castle rock is estimated to have formed about 350 million years ago and is the remains of a volcanic pipe.
References:

MacIvor, Iain (1993). Edinburgh Castle. p. 16. ISBN 9780713472950.
McAdam, David (2003). Edinburgh and West Lothian: A Landscape Fashioned by Geology. p. 16. ISBN 9781853973277.

LONDON DOESN'T STAY STILL

It’s  August 2006 in London UK.  On a warm sunny weekend day the South Bank is busy with cultural festivals, meandering tourists, visitors to the Tate Modern, and The Globe. 

The River Thames, often referred to as the life blood of the Capital City, is alive with tour boats, boat buses and there are kayaks, which, at first, are moving fast in  a two lines formation, oars -in-out, tidily in together. They shift their positions  on the water and  move on, keeping up their speed.


It looks like the biggest draw for those of us on foot is The Millennium Bridge, It has connected up the old  City of London to the rest of the throbbing cultural metropolis, it has breathed life into a part of the square mile that is the Old City Of London, where it used to be sleeping once the business of the day had ended. As you cross The Thames towards the majestic sight of St Paul’s Cathedral, you can also take in the views up and down the waterway. Returning, you will see The Tate Modern Gallery,(from where this picture was taken) you could  also catch sight of The Globe Theatre. There is always so much to see whichever direction you are moving in.



Here on The South Bank you meet buskers, Greek musicians of quality,  who are here because of the celebration of their culture. I stop to listen and record a few phrases of their music. They tell me they are staying in North London (where there are large Greek and Cypriot communities). They earn their living playing music at night in some of the Greek restaurants in London.


I take photos as I wander over the Millennium Bridge; the tide is out.  

The Gherkin appeals to me, I love its clever  elegant shape, the colour of the glass and it’s design. It breaks into the utilitarian lumps of angular concrete of the buildings clustered around it, buildings which I think are not sympathetic to the Neo-Classical structures nearby them.  I never tire of the Gherkin. Eight years on, the skyline has altered with the development of more new fantastic architecture, slotted in and very visible from the vantage points from which I took these pictures in 2006.  London never stays still.

 

It’s been a really good day, it’s time to go.

MY EDINBURGH FRINGE AND FESTIVAL 2012

This year's Edinburgh Festival opened with a choreographed glowing night walk up and around Arthur's seat.  If you have visited Edinburgh, you will know that Arthur's seat is a predominating lump of extinct Scottish volcano that leaps out over Holyrood Park.

Arthur's Seat Picture courtesy of www.Geo.ed.ac

The Princes Street Gardens take you to a relatively tranquil zone of busy central Edinburgh as a rule, though not by the National Galleries of Scotland right now, because  for Festival you will find half price ticket booths for Festival Fringe shows of the day, adjacent to the Galleries.  It is an area of seething humanity queuing to obtain tickets. There are street artists - some more magnetic and entertaining than others - groups of people advertising and touting interest for Fringe shows; there are refreshment booths and stalls selling all sorts of interesting wares.  Above all, there is a lively atmosphere.

We zoomed into Festival with only a limited time to  make the most of it.  All sorts of nooks and crannies open up at this time to public access.  You are offered a rare opportunity to see a different and hidden, behind-the-scenes Edinburgh.   While waiting at one venue for a show, we sat and relaxed on one of a number of created  terraces,  enjoying refreshment while people watching.  The ubiquitous cell phone kept these people totally occupied

Everything you required for your personal comfort had been thought of.

A meander up the Royal Mile is an absolute must.  It is surprising what you can find and see there.  Here are three ladies of the..... street, [?]  in one of the many alleyways

I got some tickets, at last minute, for an evening talk at the Edinburgh Book Festival.  I had no idea how sought after they are. The theatre was full.  Below is  Paddy Ashdown,  who is described as having had a distinguished working life as a diplomat and as a Parliamentarian at  Westminster.  He currently sits in The House of Lords and represents the U.K. interests at The United Nations Children's Fund, (UNICEF).    There were no prompts no notes, and for forty-five minutes the speaker regaled us with his thoughts on global power shifts, interjecting techniques of poetry and the use of characterisation  into the talk to illustrate finer points, his arguments and propositions.  He was an excellent lecturer.

The talk was introduced by a BBC Radio 4 flagship  A.M  News Programme presenter and journalist James *Naughtie,  who, you see on the right in this picture managing  questions from the audience after the talk.  There was a surprising amount of candour in the answers given by the speaker, (seen left) not something we  are used to hearing and seeing through mass media channels beamed into our homes. 
* N.B.Naughtie is pronounced  like 'Nochtee' the ch having the same clearing the throat sound you hear in the Scottish word Loch

A busy day over, here is a late evening train taking festival visitors to wherever home is, or, wherever they are staying.