Thursday, September 13, 2007

August 5

This afternoon we headed to watch the Festival Cavalcade, in the rain. We went to the start of the route and couldn't stand the crowds or see anything so went to the end of the route and got a plum spot! Lots of Community floats and also most of the acts from the Tattoo. Some great costumes, much flyer handing-out. Here is my favourite - this day was certainly not what it said on the banner!

This site has a whole heap of photos up from the event - can you spot us in any?
http://www.edinburghcavalcade.com/

Made up for no shows yesterday by seeing 3 shows today with Briony. All female, one woman shows and also all Australian. How very patriotic!

Kate McLennan - The Debutante Diaries, 5.15pm in the Gilded Balloon, Complimentary tickets.
http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=4924

Earnest young Aussie performer, more of a theatre monologue than comedy (hard to pidgeonhole I suppose but the Brits like to do that). One woman show playing about 9 characters, all working towards the event of a Deb Ball. You could see she wrote the show as her performance was very passionate. I hope she did well here, I think Kate McClennan has a bright future in entertainment.


Jackie Loeb - Things I Can't Talk About , 7pm in the Gilded Balloon, Complimentary tickets.
http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=4838

Traditional standup, ala Seinfeld "what's the deal with (insert topic/item here)?" Taboo topics, quite funny, slightly confronting. This woman swallows her pride for a laugh and gets them in spades.


Kitty Flanagan - A Festival of Me, 8.20pm in the Pleasance Dome, £6.80
http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=4936

One of my personal favourites, grew up with Kitty appearing on many a sketch show including Full Frontal, Micallef Programme etc etc. A delight to watch, she now lives in London. Kitty opened her show with a short film she tried to enter into the Edinburgh Film Festival but it was rejected. So she made a standup show based loosely around it to be in the fringe instead. Fair enough and I'm glad she did. The short film was a better version of Bridget Jones Diary, if you ask me.

August 4

For the life of me I can't remember what we did this day but it didn't involve any Fringe shows. Yes, remember now! We went to my workmate Jilly's wedding reception at a castle 40 minutes out of Edinburgh. Beautiful night which ended in Briony and the RCN counsellor sucking helium balloons and singing classics such as Grease Lightnin'. How odd. I bought sparkly new (flat!) shoes for the occasion which were comfy in the store but resulted in me going barefoot at the reception and bleeding red raw heels upon my return home from walking up the Mound. Intense pain. I never learn...

Here are some photos:

This is me taking a photo of my new skirt (£10 at Debenhams, was £80. It's a full skirt with a tulle underlay. Love it!). Why I've taken this photo here as the toilets were like little caravans outside the marquee at the castle, but trying to be stylish by adding carpet on the floors. If the stupid flash wasn't on you would be able to see me hair which had been done earlier that day by Cheryl, with the help of about 450 bobby pins. Glam.




















This is the Castle where Jilly, my workmate and her parnter of 13 years tied the knot. The reception was in a marquee at the front. Favourite moment was watching the kids in all their finery, roll down the grassy hills near the castle, totally wrecking their outfits but having a good time doing it.

For some reason I can't add this picture on the page, so you'll have to click on the link. Let me know if it doesn't load.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sQaJ0trZdKk/RtqO_QjlV7I/AAAAAAAAAJA/xWaWLGzxCa4/s1600-h/P8050217.JPG

August 3

Stephen K. Amos 'More of Me', 9.40pm, Pleasance Courtyard, £7.
http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=5622

Briony had booked this for us a few weeks before. Amos is a great UK comic who always treks to Adelaide for the Fringe. He has some great jokes about Haighs and knows the city quite intimately. Amos is great at observation so laughs come easily from that, then adds twists to make you laugh at the absurdity of some things. He was clearly still working out what works and what doesn't work in his show (Still seeing previews before the festival actually starts, the toss up of seeing a cheaper show is not seeing it quite as polished). Was slightly disturbed at how much he sweats on stage - these venues are like saunas most of the time, so standing in front of a heap of glaring lights wouldn't help. At the end of the performance he gave free tickets away to his other show 'Weekend talk show' but Noni wanted to go to bed, Piker. We slink home while the rest of Edinburgh gears up for a big Friday night.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

August 2

Show: Greg Fleet and Mick Moriarty in Fleetwood Mick, 9.30 pm. £5, Gilded Balloon.
http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=4675

Stalwart of Aus comedy and a nod to my time spent devouring Good News Week episodes. Mick Moriarty's band the Gadflys was house band on GNW's Nite Lite. Show went really well until the end where their story goes downhill about them both lusting after a girl on a picture of a pack of cigarettes. Distasteful. Spent hald the show wondering if Greg Fleet was still a junkie. Juy's still out on that one.

PS - I've added a few photos to my post about Dublin. Go back and have a gander!

August 1

Show: Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre. Complimentary tickets, Gilded Balloon, 10.45pm.
http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=5502

Noni and I watched one man in a kilt behind a giant piece of tartan. 2 sock puppets. great idea for the first ten minutes, but a 50 minte performance was a bit of a stretch. however, high energy and enthusiasum for the month ahead meant laughs came easily. Helped that it was free too.

Almost August...

Fringe Festival rundown. Previews started on the 1st August, with the Fringe officially kicking off on the 5th. The 1st is when things started buzzing around here. All in all I saw over 30 shows, many free, mostly comedy, lots of Aussie acts. Scots all clear out of Edinburgh for August and the populations' accent takes a real nasal twang - the Aussies swamp the town!

Work kindly let me take a week and a half off to enjoy the festival which was great as there are so many things on during the day as well as late at night events. I really came to enjoy the long lie-in for that time. I'd wander down to a venue, usually Bristo Square where a cluster of venues are - the Gilded Balloon, Pleasance Dome and Udderbelly (a venue inside of an inflatable giant, upside down purple cow), and try to get as many free tickets to shows as possible. In the first week this was particularly easy and I saw some great neat things. It was also nice to not have to choose as the choice was so great sometimes you don't know where to start!

I think the best way to go through the shows I saw is to go through each day of August, start to finish. Better order another coffee...

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Lead up to my August posts (in September)

Slightly out of date as I am writing this a week after the Fringe finished. Agata and Lawrence have gone to Connect Festival and the house is even more quiet than usual. I have actually been looking forward to a Friday night by myself as August has just been madness. Briony was going to a workmate's house to watch the Big Brother final. Not realy my cup of tea. After work finishes, I walk down to Alphabet Video to hire some dvds. The weather was so nice, I decided to walk the wrong way home up to Bruntsfield to wander the gorgeous little boutiquey shops and get some dinner. I get some pasta and some flavoured peanuts from the little Thai store which sells Asian groceries, so much cheaper than the supermarkets. Get a message from Cheryl, her and her flatmates are going out tonight. I'm all set up for a night home so sadly decline - my time with Cheryl is limited as she is leaving to go travelling at the end of the month.

Diana and Marcos join me in my room to watch Somersault. This Aussie movie has a soundtrack that i adore - I hired it purely on that basis. It was a good movie for Marcos as there wasn't much dialogue. I put Rushmore on next as I love Wes Anderson films but I've never seen this one...and fall asleep halfway through.

Saturday Morning and I get up nice and early to do a spring clean. Washing, cleaning, vacuuming. The house is spotless (for now - it never takes long for noni to leave her mark!)

During the morning I went across the road to pick up my new book from the library. Alan Alda's autobiography. I have high hopes. I also listen to my first bit of "Speak Spanish" CD, also from the library. I want to surprise Marcos and Diana, which I do. I can mimic very well but don't retain them in my old age so practice practice practice. Also used Lawrence's computer to rip the CDs I've amassed onto my new mp3 player...all 2 of them - the new Crowded House and Something for Kate albums.

It's now 3pm and I've escaped the house to go across the road to pen this long time coming blog post about the fringe (when I know it's a big one I write it on paper first). I've come to the Elephant House which is where JK Rowling supposedly wrote a bit of Harry Potter. Because of this fact during August tourists flocked to this place, taking photos and the like. I don't know why I'm here as the coffee is shocking, the service ridiculous, plus the chairs are uncomfy. Perhaps I wanted a bit of my own inspiration? I must look like a tool sitting here, jotting things down but who cares? I'm most excited about getting this ticked off the list today so I won't have to do any chores tomorrow. Father's Day will be a day of complete choice to do whatever I please. There are a few exhibitions in their last weekend here I could make time for. If it's a nice day I might go down to the Botanic Gardens. In the evening there is a fireworks spectacular on which we will hopefully be able to view from our lounge room window. If not we will wander down the Mound and watch from outside (NB. my dinner was still in the oven when fireworks started, but we say them from our bedroom window. Twas no SA-FM Skyshow!).

The fireworks mark the official end of the 'festival' and already the town has gone so quiet, it's weird not getting accosted by a flyerer or having to walk on the road as the footpaths are full of roaming tourists who just stop abruptly for no reason, right in front of you. Also, having to play umbrella wars with those that don't realise that they're walking too close to you and are poking you in the head - has stopped.

September 1 and summer is officially gone. The general concensus is that it never arrived this year. Autumn has been quite agreeable so far with mild days, not much rain and wind at all. Hope that keeps up for a few more weeks - this will be great weather while Mum and Dad are here.