A continual work in progress
At the end of this August, I went to Edinburgh to the Fringe festival. It is the largest event of its kind in the world. For three weeks, there are comedy acts, plays and performance taking place allover the city. I went last year for a day with a acquaintance from Glasgow. One of my goals this year was to go back to Edinburgh and spend moretime at the Fringe. It was such a fantastic atmosphere last year and I wanted to experience it again for longer.
I flew up on Friday with a friend David McAdam. David is native to Scotland; he is originally from Dunfermline which is close to Edinburgh. On the first day, we managed to see three shows and go to apparently 9 different bars and restaurants. We touched down in Edinburgh around midday. The first show we saw was "Atomicity" by Chris Addison; it was a very funny and witty show. David was familiar with his column in the Guardian newspaper; this show was one of his picks. The loose premise of the show was about the universe of and how we are all made of atoms. Ultimately, the show ended on a positive note of a philosophical nature about living one's life, funny how he snuck that into a comedic monologue. At one point during the show, an older man stood up and exited the show; to exit the small hall, he had to go down to the front of the room and interrupt the show. Then the man, was not sure of the way out of the room and Chris stopped his monologue momentarily to assist. It then took Chris a few moments to remember what he was talking about; he was holding his face and laughing as he tried to regain his composure. Everyone was greatly amused by the unscheduled interruption. 
Chris Addison's home page
Before the show, we had attempted to eat lunch at the Hard Rock cafe just near the venue the Assembly rooms. We abandoned our lunch about halfway only to be waiting in a queue to enter the venue. This was a preview of things to come.
David and I walked around Edinburgh after the show. We did stop at place called "Tiles restaurant and Bar" which is a listed building. I snapped a few pictures there. See the photo of David holding a Scottish five pound note.
The next show we was "Ray Peacock and Son" The premise of the show was a father and son routine that goes wrong during the performance. We saw this show at the Pleasance courtyard. We were sitting down in front and Ray asked me who I was and what I did. I mentioned that I worked for a TV company in London. He eventually got it out of me that I work for Sky Digital; he then proceeded to ask me if I could get him free satellite TV and what my phone number was. I said, "Sure" my number is 555 ...". He cut me off; he was not going to be mislead that easily. In TV and movies when someone gives out a phone number with 555 that means it is fictional; there is no 555 prefix in North America; it was my little joke. The show had its moments; the performance we saw was uneven.
Ray Peacock and Son
The last show we saw on Friday was "S.W.A.LK." This stands for sealed with a loving kiss. It was staged by a group called "Walk the Plank" with video artist Mark Murphy. "Walk the Plank" is a performance troupe from Manchester that specialize in staging outdoors events; this was no different. The production manager for the "Walk the Plank" is a mate of a mate Strat; I was hoping to get a chance to see Strat when I was in Edinburgh but I missed him by a week. This show was combination of physical theatre, video projections and pyrotechnics. We were lucky it was not raining much that night. It was a very compelling show. There is so much going on during the show that it is worth seeing twice."
I sort of lose track in what order things happened after that show. I know we went to Vodka bar called Kohl that more types of Vodka then I knew existed"
At some point in the evening, we went to the bar in the Apex hotel in Grassmarket and there was a trio of people speaking with American accents sitting across from us; I could not resist and asked them where they were from; part of the fun is meeting people at the Fringe. That is how David and I came to know Ana, Elmo and Chris.
Elmo and Ana were doing a show called "Submissive Barbi" and Chris was doing a show called "Fat, Bald and Loud". Being from Vancouver,I had the West coast connection with them. They were from the Los Angeles area; I think Chris is originally from Chicago. We bonded - haha. David and I made a point of going to see their shows over the next two days. As we sat in the bar having a few drinks, we were making each other laugh continuously. Chris was saying to David he should consider his hand at comedy stateside and do something like get a radio show. I was told that I could be David's sidekick; I replied but I don't want to Ed McMahon to David's Johnny Carson; I need to be me. Ana went on to say but see how successful and wealthy Ed McMahon is.
I know that we went to a rock pub and struck up a conversation with a fellow named Ian Gilmour. Ian had a landscaping business. He was a hardy man and talked about the outdoor life. He went to talk about some of the characters he employed and Ian came to know all kinds of people in his work; one of his clients was in band that performed earlier that night. I love that there are so many types of bars and pubs in England and Scotland. This was the type of boozer where loud music was heard in; people wore black and possibly neo unreconstructed Goths could be observed in.
The last port of call that night was a pub called "The Auld Hoose". A few more drinks were had. We kept going back to that pub over the next few days as it was not too far from where we were staying. David loved the place. It was a very local pub; when we were to return on Saturday night it would be a memorable night.
We got back to the hotel at 3:30 AM that night.
We did mange to get up and eat breakfast on Saturday somehow. We were not actually staying in a hotel but a university residence. Breakfast was in the residence cafeteria. It was full of people having their morning meal; I though these people must have been mostly sleeping when David and I got in the previous night.
We went into the centre of town and did some shopping. I took the chance to buy a straw trilby hat; I had wanted to buy one for months. Result.
We wandered around Edinburgh a bit; the weather was ok; at least it was not raining down like it can be in Scotland. When I was in Edinburgh last year, the weekend was fantastic and I had just missed the torrential rain around that time.. David and I walked to Edinburgh castle and had a look at the queue to get in and thought nah. We did hop on sightseeing bus and have a tour of the city. I think tour buses are great things to do especially when you have been out late the night before; you can just sit on the bus and do the sightseeing from the comfort of a seat; the tour was on a double decker bus which was even better for getting a view of the city. In the photo gallery, you will see a rather striking bit of modern architecture that is the Holyrood building which is the seat of the Scottish parliament. The unusual shape you see by some of the windows is a half of a curtain and not a hair dryer as the bus driver explained.
The lack of sleep did eventually catch up with me and I went back to the dorm to take a cat nap. David continued on and we would meet up later. I was making my way into to town to meet David and wearing my new hat and a gust of wind blew it off my head. It landed in the road. There was a railing and I thought about jumping over it to get my hat back but there was on coming traffic. I went up to the intersection and got on to the road there.I watched helplessly as my hat was run over by a bus and then a car without getting squashed but it was eventually run over by a car.I thought just my luck; I buy a hat and it gets run over only hours after buying it. I proceeded to keep the hat firmly in hand as I went to join David; it was still quite windy about. I showed David my hat and told him about my mishap. The hat is still wearable; it is bit dented in one side.
We stopped in the at the Dome bar and restaurant; in a former life it was a bank; it was now a restaurant and bar with a some rather impressive features. There are some photos in the gallery.
We wondered about what to do for dinner. The original plan was to go to a "Yo Sushi" but it turns out that the branch in Edinburgh closed. We asked the bar staff if they new of any Japanese restaurants and no- one knew of any. So we decided to go for Indian food. We went to restaurant called "Shezan Tandoori" near the Kings Theatre. The food was quite good but the service was just a little bit of the hard sell which I really don't care for.I was curious to see if Indian food was different in Scotland compared to London. Did you know that "Chicken Tikka Masala" comes from Glasgow? But by the time we started eating the main course, we had to leave and catch a taxi to the next show. We were just a little bit far away from the next venue which was in the Smirnoff Underbelly. Didn't this happen the day before at lunch where we abandoned a meal halfway through it? We caught a taxi to the venue and ended up missing a couple minutes of the show. I will say that I think the "Shezan Tandoori" is worth a visit to try and eat a complete meal if possible and check out the risque painting of a maharajah and three courtesans.
The first show we saw on Saturday was called "Splice" What a wonderful and fun show it was. Four actors acted out scenes form 100 years of cinema in an hour long show. And being a big film buff; I was able to figure most of the movies being re-enacted. Some were very obvious. They did an Acapella version of the Star Wars theme. The use of props was very clever; Yoda was a green oven mitt
Pants on Fire
Feeling thoroughly invigorated after the show we went up the Pleasance Courtyard to see a Canadian act called the "Pyjama Men" While waiting in the courtyard before this Pyajama men show; we struck up a conversation with Hannah and Phil. Hannah is from Edinburgh and Phil just came up from Manchester. They are both artistic types. I think Phil does a bit of this and that like making sets for plays. Hannah works in art education and does work with some museums in Scotland; she was telling me how she was in the Shetland islands making art pieces from fishing nets retrieved from the beaches. On Saturday night, the courtyard was hopping with people. The Pyjama men are two men. In this show, they were going from one skit to another and with only a few props being chairs. I think it was intentional that in the first sketch they spoke with English accents to later reveal they were not English as they quite clearly spoke some form of North American. They would jump from one sketch to another while in the middle of one; quite a clever thing to do by virtue of there not being any physical set. As an audience member, you would be using your imagination to fill in what was not there. I would like to see this act again; we had to duck out early to make our way to see another show in Grassmarket.
We saw "Submissive Barbi" by Elmo Martin with Ana on the laptop. Elmo is a performance poet. His show was very good and I am not just saying that. I quote directly from his web-site what his performance was about:
"Submissive Barbi features poetry and observations on the American culture of sex, violence and media with an "emphasis placed on pop icons, obsolete technology and punk rock.
Armed with a Baseball Bat, Barbie and The First Amendment, Mr. Martin takes us from memories of the early 80's punk scene in Los Angeles to the current war in Iraq.
He questions what it means to be free in today's society, surrounded by a media of sex, violence and consumerism, while trying not to lose his sense of humor."
Did we mention that we talk about love, sex and death? Well we do. "
Submissive Barbi
We would later meet up with Elmo, Ana and a friend of theirs in the George Hotel. The other night, Elmo was showing us photos of stuff he and his friends would get up to in the desert like making huge concrete swings. We went to talk about the "Burning Man Festival" and the L.A. punk music scene. It was great to be talking about stuff that he been buried in my brain for years and I had chance to exercise those thoughts. I never grew up in a music scene like Elmo in California but I can appreciate the vibe and energy of the scene. Elmo was telling me how some bands are still performing and how others bands are involved in lawsuits; Jello Biafra and "The Dead Kennedys" are suing each other. And we talked about performance groups like survival research labs (SRL). I have never heard anyone mention them in the U.K in the nine years I have been over on this side of the pond. So I was quite chuffed to be speaking about American counter culture and art.
The weekend that David and I were in Edinburgh was when the TV festival was on; hordes of media types were in Scotland for the weekend. At the bar in the George hotel, there were many TV and media executives gathered. It was funny how when I walked into the bar everyone look at me wondering who I was. I do work in television but on the technical side. I am currently spending most of my time developing interactive TV gambling services on British Satellite TV. I do miss working with good content; the gambling work won't be all that I am doing (I hope).
David and I would later make our way up to David's favorite drinking hole of the moment the Auld Hoose. On Saturday, the pub was fairly busy. It did become a rather surreal night. There was a famous Scottish actor Ken Stot at the pub that night and some people were vying for his attention. One guy was trying to get Ken to speak to his mate on the phone and from what I saw Ken was not having any of it. I had seen this actor before he was the bad guy in "Plunkett and Macleane" and recently he was in "King Arthur". There was also a famous footballer there whose name I forget. But the funny part was there was a couple having a very loud and profane disagreement by the bar right next to me. The f word was being used a lot; I felt like I was in a TV soap opera like Eastenders. There was another couple getting very amorous on a sofa a the same time. To one side a heated argument and the other side people snogging. David was chatting away with the local celebrities at the moment. And then Phil and Hannah stepped into the bar. David and I had them earlier in the evening in the Pleasance Courtyard. So I had some people to talk to now. Hannah noticed my hat was on a hook by the bar and she asked if that was my hat. I said yes. It turns out she saw the whole incident with my hat getting run over earlier in the day. She said how she felt for me when she saw me trying to get my hat back off the road. David and I got to bed again very late the night; we were being very consistent :-) Bars stay open very late in Edinburgh and Scotland compare to London.
This was our last day to see performances at the Fringe Festival. During the day, David and I walked down to the new town in Edinburgh. We had certainly done a lot of walking over the last three days. We went to the City Cafe for lunch if I remember correctly. I had been here the year before and David Walliams the comedian actor from Little Britain was having lunch with some people. He was chatting with some people about his TV show and I swear he was making eyes at me; my friend was in the washroom and she missed it all. If she had seen it, I don't think I would have heard the end of it.
It was now our last day in Edinburgh. David and I met up and checked out of the residence. We then found a cafe and had a fry up for Breakfast. David was having the traditional Scottish hangover cure - some Iron Bru. Personally, I don't like Iron Bru; I find the taste a bit weird; it has a deep and rather artificial orange colour. But hey I like root beer which most people outside North America don't like. We did talk about walking up to the top of Authur's Seat but we just did not have the energy and it was quite blustery day; it was going to be very windy up there. 
Arthur's Seat at Wikipedia
So, we instead, went to the Auld Hoose (again) and read the newspaper and chatted with the bar staff. And we then went to the airport and caught our flight back to the "Big Smoke". I had a great time at the Fringe festival and I have a lot of gratitude to David for being a good tour-guide. Only, just recently did I become aware that there are actually two festival in Edinburgh at the same time . There is an Edinburgh Internation Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Edinburgh International Festival
Parting Words (copyright 2009 , 2010 all photos and words are copyright Manjit Bedi unless otherwise noted,.)