Halfway Fringe!

So we’re over half way through this year’s craziness. Except that this year it’s all much subdued for us. Madeleine is recovering well from her replacement hip operation at the beginning of July but is still off work and only getting about slowly. But she’s able to use buses now! And her stamina is increasing.
Just as well, as she’s already on the waiting list to have the other one done! That ought to be around late October/early November.

Her exhibition is hung in the shop, and going well, and she’s also had an ‘Open Studios’ weekend showing off her work down at Coburg Studios…
While that was on, I saw the Fringe Cavalcade in Holyrood Park, but soon retreated around Arthur’s Seat to the Sheep Heid Inn at Duddingston for beer and sausages!
Friends were up to see some shows and we managed to have two nice dinners (separtate evenings!) with them; once at Hanedan’s (almost on our doorstep) and then at Browns on George Street. The second time was after a Book Festival event they had gone to (I was at work). My friends (Keppet especially) really enjoyed hearing Ben Moor, and she got his book signed afterwards.
Of course, when I arrived shortly afterwards and met them, Ben almost immediately saw me and came over to talk to us and get his copy of the Alba Ad Astra book signed by Madeleine! So, everybody was happy!

Last night we were out again, at a reading/performance of Andrew Wilson’s Under a Bright and Hollow Sky in a rather dark little piano bar in the New Town. Six people took the parts of various characters and read articles, obituaries, interviews, letters, etc. building a picture of a mysterious local horror writer and how he may have met his end. Or not!
One of the interviews used was with me, and had previously been voiced by Ken MacLeod, but this time he restricted himself to only reading his own part, and Charlie Stross read mine. (I’m happier staying off-stage, but was in almost the front row and was referred to as having ‘lost my voice’)

We will be getting along to several more events; a couple of Book Festival ones, a show about surviving in the Arctic, and the Botanic Gardens soundscape event, whose name I forget right now…

Animals on Fire!

I just heard somebody’s ringtone – House of the Rising Sun, and I realised I should have posted about the gig we went to on Saturday night!

It was Madeleine’s first major outing (except for a funeral!) since her first hip operation several weeks ago – to the Queen’s Hall to see Eric Burdon and the Animals!

We got there a few minutes after the support had begun and, despite our seats being right beside the door nearest the bar, the usher insisted that we enter from the back and make our way in the gloom (with one of us on two sticks and slightly unsteady!) through the audience down to the front where our seats were. Pointless stupidity, imo.
Anyway, the female singer was pretty good – she played guitar and there was an energetic double bass player as well. Put me in mind of a young Bonnie Raitt.

At the interval we discovered that they’ve decided only to sell bottles beer – no taps except for Guinness! Bah!

Then The Animals came on! Great stuff, with Eric still belting it out, and the current Animals consisting of a 5-piece: organ, bass, drums, lead and what might have been an electric mandolin, played by the only woman in the group…
Several songs in, the fire alarm went off and we all had to evacuate the hall until the Fire Brigade declared it safe, and we all went in again after standing about outside for 20 minutes or so.  Three songs in to the restarted set, off it goes again!
And we all troop out again, and hang about while the Fire Brigade investigate the roof-space again until it looks like we’re being let in again, only to find that they’re only letting in people who left stuff behind, and the rest of the gig’s been cancelled. Apparently. No announcement that we heard, just hearsay through the crowd… A really disappointing way to finish off what had been a v. good concert.
And he didn’t get a chance to play House of the Rising Sun!

Unexpected Anniversary!

As part of an important message I had to run for Madeleine  I ended up with Andrew Wilson in a small pub in Leith! Madeleine and I had been there several times before and quite like the Roseleaf pub. Especially sitting outside in the evening sun with a pint… Or maybe she prefers the food; not too sure!

Anyway Andrew was driving, so he ordered a coke, and I had a pint of IPA

A few minutes later the barman came up and offered us complementary cocktails from a teapot he had on a tray. (This is how they present their cocktails – they have a thing about teapots, etc) I accepted and he laid down a teacup with ice already in it and poured a fair measure of a very nice cocktail of a newly launched Malt I’ve already forgotten the name of, Grand Marnier, and something else.

Very Nice! So nice, Andrew asked for a little  – also served in a teacup. Next,  one of the other bar staff appeared with a plate of little salad sandwiches followed in a few minutes by a second barmaid bearing a tray of salmon mousse sort of stuff on toast!
Turned out that they were celebrating their 2nd anniversary as the Roseleaf, so we had picked just the right day!

All completely unexpected, but most enjoyable.
Then, unfortunately,  it was time to go home…

Madeleine’s Hippy Hippy Slice

Tomorrow morning Madeleine is admitted to the Royal for a much needed replacement hip operation.

This goes some way to explaining the lack of wonderfully exciting posts about trips and events we might have gone to; as her mobility decreased and her pain increased, non-essential trips, etc. have fallen by the wayside.

This also means that our Festival & Fringe expeditions will probably be greatly curtailed this year as recovery can take quite a long time.
We will make it along to some events, though, I’m sure!

And in the meantime the garden’s getting more attention than usual this year!

Paint, Paint, Paint

Some of Madeleine’s studio down at Coburg House in Leith needs painted prior to an Artists’ Studio Open Day later this summer and this week is pretty much the only time spare to do it, so this’ll be the 3rd evening in a row spent rushing down there after work to put a coat of paint on. Some of the walls are ok, but  some is plain wood-coloured board and some is very black board, both of which need a lot of white paint to look good, and match the rest.

The good thing is that it doesn’t take too long, and then we can go round to the nearby pub and sit outside on a bench with a pint or two!
It also means that no gardening is getting done this week, apart from some minor watering… Still a huge pile of lopped branches to deal with, but a lot more light is reaching parts of the garden than has done for years!

Big Red Writer’s Bloc

After a fairly quick exit for the shop yesterday, I met Madeleine at a fairly new cafe called something like The Tea Tray, where the old Web 13 internet cafe used to be.

Good, plain food, nice coffee, then off around the corner to what used to be Lawson’s Timber Yard – now known as the Big Red Door and run by a performing arts charity/collective called te POOKa…

Inside, it’s a large open space on the ground floor, with a small bar at one end,  a low stage in the middle, and some sofas and tables & chairs filling the rest of the space. The event we had come to see was a ‘best of’ selection by members of Writer’s Bloc, which was being recorded for future use as podcasts, etc.
It started a bit late, but no matter; it was all good fun and continued until after 12.00 – almost 4 hours of story-telling, and drinking gooseberry beer! Which was very nice.

Performers!

We recognised a lot of the pieces from previous shows, but there were a few we didn’t recognise, including various micro-stories which had first appeared on Twitter, etc.

The house dog was friendly, almost too friendly, sometimes sharing the stage with the performers, and Stef’s puppy was quite active, too!

Tonight? Probably back to gardening, if it’s dry enough; there’s a lot of branches to be disposed of somehow, as I’ve recently lopped off heaps to let more light through on to the grass, etc. And I’m trying to re-invent a completely overgrown flowerbed (or nettle patch as it has been until a few days ago!)

Son of the Tree – Jack Vance

Son of the Tree – Jack Vance

Originally uploaded by miketransreal

I’ve just blasted through Son of the Tree, a fairly early Jack Vance novel.
I quite enjoyed it – it’s only 120 pages long, or so, and originally appeared in the early 1950s in a pulp magazine – although it’s not really that good. Druids on a distant planet worship a giant tree. They think neighbouring planets would appreciate the opportunity to do likewise!
Into the mix comes our Earthan protagonist, looking for the man who stole his girl from him back on Earth. He becomes aircar chauffeur to a highly-ranked Druid and embroiled in a plot which isn’t unravelled until right at the end, in confrontation and disaster! But he gets the girl! Well, no, not that one, a different one…
It’s one of only a couple of Vance’s books that Underwood Miller didn’t publish in hardback; looking at the cover, I wish they had! Covers like this may explain why he never became as famous as he perhaps should have!

Quack!

Quack!

Originally uploaded by miketransreal

No sign of them using semaphore, but still very cute!
This was on the Water of Leith, just above the Dean Village last Sunday.

A stroll around some of the Dean Village then down the riverside walk to Stockbridge, coffee and a muffin and a bus home. Once Madeleine recovers from her upcoming hip operation in July, we may get further afield and do slightly more strenuous things!

Star Trek the movie was pretty good; lots of references for the knowledgeable, but not so many that they bogged the story down. By the end the ‘classic’ flight deck crew had been assembled, so it’s all ready for a re-imaginging of the original five year mission in subsequent films!
Wasn’t really convinced by the Romulan ship though, I’m afraid.

World Tapir Day, 2009

Raffles at the Zoo

Originally uploaded by miketransreal

Sadly, we couldn’t get along to the zoo today, but we did visit it yesterday, which is close enough!
This is the 2nd Annual World Tapir Day and hopefully our official WTD coasters will be waiting for us when we get home this evening…
Transreal’s sponsorship of the Edinburgh tapirs was also renewed, with effect from today!

May have to have a pint of Guinness tonight to celebrate; it’s black & white, just like Raffles and other Malayan tapirs!

Next year it’s on a Tuesday.

The Zombies at the ABC, Glasgow

The Zombies, with new guitarist

Originally uploaded by miketransreal

The Zombies were great!
I had never heard Oracle & Odessey in it’s entirety, so this was the ideal way to do so!
The first set wasn’t officially the Zombies, rather it was Rod Argent & Colin Blunstone’s touring band and they played the big hits, etc. that weren’t on the lp, and highlights from their solo careers. What Becomes of the Broken Hearted and Hold Your Head Up, Woman, for instance!
Good stuff!

The 2nd set consisted of the (more or less) original lineup of The Zombies playing the complete Oracle & Odessey lp in order, with a couple of other songs as encores at the end.

Brilliant stuff, with any number from 2* to 13** people playing or singing on stage, depending on the song. And Blunstone, especially, looked like he was having a great time! And his voice was still great.

*Blunstone & guitarist, and also Argent & bass player

**Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent, original bass player, original drummer, replacement guitarist (but officially a Zombie, I think), synth player (from the Brian Wilson band!), touring band drummer now on percussion, touring band bassist (played with the Kinks for 20 years) now on backing vocals, female backing vocalist, and 4 piece brass section! =13

And because it started fairly early, it finished just in time for me to get the 22.30 train home for a relatively early night!

edit: There are another couple of pictures, with brief comments, on my Flickr page, btw.