Good Evening My Dears,
When last I wrote, my Mama was visiting and I had a job interview. I took my Mom to Rosslyn Chapel and we wandered around Edinburgh as well. We had some really bad food experiences while she was here. In fact, I can't say that any of it was really good. I also wasn't very good at picking Fringe Shows. The Fringe is the eclectic answer to its more staid counterpart the Edinburgh International Festival of the Arts. Whatever your heart's desire, in terms of the arts, can be found here. I booked three with my Mom: a performance of French Baroque Music, a flamenco, and a candid cabaret. In true Tina-style, I booked the Baroque performance because I met the soprano who was singing at the performance on the bus, and promised to go. Now, I like Baroque music quite a lot, but not when it focuses on coffee and gallstones. What does coffee have to do with gallstones, you ask? I didn't see the connection either until it was explained that coffee was thought (rightly so, it appears) to cure gallstones. Who knew? It is certainly more than I ever wanted to. The flamenco was good, but it wasn't dancing, it was guitar. I must say, it was not very stimulating watching a young Scottish man play flamenco while ignoring the other people on the stage. There was a little bit of dancing and that was excellent, there should have been more of it, but on the whole, the performance was quite boring. The candid cabaret was so bad that my mom and I walked out during the first intermission. All the acts, save one, were unprofessional. We should have gotten a clue when the performance started nearly 45 minutes late.
I did not learn my lesson regarding the Fringe. Stephen and Patrin (WIS wisdom), came up from London and we saw 7 shows in two days. In great Fringe tradition, some of the shows were better than others. One was so good that I actually went back a second time. The good thing about the Fringe is that most of the performances are about an hour long - not long enough to rue purchasing a ticket. We saw a Chekhov play, a play about Britain's 1987 hurricane, A play about an Edinburgh Tour Guide giving his last tour ever - I really liked that one, and a stand up comic called Jen Brister is British-ish - she was the one so good I went back. That was yesterday, I ended up seeing her at a bar and having a conversation with her, without letting on that I knew who she was. In the show she ended up using me as a straight man. It was hilarious. If any of you come to the UK, you must go see her. You can check out her website www.jenbrister.co.uk. Right, on with the Fringe Frolic. We also saw Showstoppers, improvisational musical theatre that is a not so veiled allusion to High School Musical meets Glee. I must say there didn't seem to be much improvisation going on but it was fun. Next was The Dumb Waiter, which is a play by Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize winning British Dramatist, who wrote the Screenplay for The French Lieutenant's Woman. Pinter plays do not seem to have much of a resolution but, if done well, are very good, indeed. Last of the Fringe Frolic for The Three Musketeers, was The Three Englishmen, a quartet of musically inclined sketch comedians, who proved amusing but not as amusing as Jen Brister.
I sent Stephen and Patrin back down to London, and was contemplating my lonely jobless life, so in a flash of inspiration thought, let me go spend more money I don't have. I went to see two shows with Giselle: The Pajama Men, rather incomprehensible sketch comedy, not really that funny, and I dragged her to Jen Brister. She loved it. I have just come back from listening to my all time favorite dancing band in the world, the Jive Aces. They were wonderful as always, but it is so much more fun to dance than listen. Alas, no one to dance with. Tomorrow, I am off to try and see You Once Said Yes, at Stephen's insistence, but as it is sold out till Festival End - I am going to have to go to the venue and see if there are any tickets. More on that if I actually see it.
In other news, my interview with the Software company was a no, which is a shame as the job was really rather interesting. More operations than accounting. However, I have gotten a temp job with a Scottish Investment house in reconciliations that starts on the 5th of September till 31 December. So I am in Scotland for 4 more months.
Right, that is all she wrote, folks.
Next Up: Work begins and I contemplate a bit of travel.
Cheerio for now,
Tina
When last I wrote, my Mama was visiting and I had a job interview. I took my Mom to Rosslyn Chapel and we wandered around Edinburgh as well. We had some really bad food experiences while she was here. In fact, I can't say that any of it was really good. I also wasn't very good at picking Fringe Shows. The Fringe is the eclectic answer to its more staid counterpart the Edinburgh International Festival of the Arts. Whatever your heart's desire, in terms of the arts, can be found here. I booked three with my Mom: a performance of French Baroque Music, a flamenco, and a candid cabaret. In true Tina-style, I booked the Baroque performance because I met the soprano who was singing at the performance on the bus, and promised to go. Now, I like Baroque music quite a lot, but not when it focuses on coffee and gallstones. What does coffee have to do with gallstones, you ask? I didn't see the connection either until it was explained that coffee was thought (rightly so, it appears) to cure gallstones. Who knew? It is certainly more than I ever wanted to. The flamenco was good, but it wasn't dancing, it was guitar. I must say, it was not very stimulating watching a young Scottish man play flamenco while ignoring the other people on the stage. There was a little bit of dancing and that was excellent, there should have been more of it, but on the whole, the performance was quite boring. The candid cabaret was so bad that my mom and I walked out during the first intermission. All the acts, save one, were unprofessional. We should have gotten a clue when the performance started nearly 45 minutes late.
I did not learn my lesson regarding the Fringe. Stephen and Patrin (WIS wisdom), came up from London and we saw 7 shows in two days. In great Fringe tradition, some of the shows were better than others. One was so good that I actually went back a second time. The good thing about the Fringe is that most of the performances are about an hour long - not long enough to rue purchasing a ticket. We saw a Chekhov play, a play about Britain's 1987 hurricane, A play about an Edinburgh Tour Guide giving his last tour ever - I really liked that one, and a stand up comic called Jen Brister is British-ish - she was the one so good I went back. That was yesterday, I ended up seeing her at a bar and having a conversation with her, without letting on that I knew who she was. In the show she ended up using me as a straight man. It was hilarious. If any of you come to the UK, you must go see her. You can check out her website www.jenbrister.co.uk. Right, on with the Fringe Frolic. We also saw Showstoppers, improvisational musical theatre that is a not so veiled allusion to High School Musical meets Glee. I must say there didn't seem to be much improvisation going on but it was fun. Next was The Dumb Waiter, which is a play by Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize winning British Dramatist, who wrote the Screenplay for The French Lieutenant's Woman. Pinter plays do not seem to have much of a resolution but, if done well, are very good, indeed. Last of the Fringe Frolic for The Three Musketeers, was The Three Englishmen, a quartet of musically inclined sketch comedians, who proved amusing but not as amusing as Jen Brister.
I sent Stephen and Patrin back down to London, and was contemplating my lonely jobless life, so in a flash of inspiration thought, let me go spend more money I don't have. I went to see two shows with Giselle: The Pajama Men, rather incomprehensible sketch comedy, not really that funny, and I dragged her to Jen Brister. She loved it. I have just come back from listening to my all time favorite dancing band in the world, the Jive Aces. They were wonderful as always, but it is so much more fun to dance than listen. Alas, no one to dance with. Tomorrow, I am off to try and see You Once Said Yes, at Stephen's insistence, but as it is sold out till Festival End - I am going to have to go to the venue and see if there are any tickets. More on that if I actually see it.
In other news, my interview with the Software company was a no, which is a shame as the job was really rather interesting. More operations than accounting. However, I have gotten a temp job with a Scottish Investment house in reconciliations that starts on the 5th of September till 31 December. So I am in Scotland for 4 more months.
Right, that is all she wrote, folks.
Next Up: Work begins and I contemplate a bit of travel.
Cheerio for now,
Tina
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