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.