I did a bit of the Art Festival today.

I went to Wind Pipes for Edinburgh, an installation in a former church (a wonderful space off the Royal Mile which I didn't know existed!). An organ playable by visitors, made of bits of waste pipes. The deep notes had a very breathy sound, almost alive. It was driven by huge bellows, and I thought it was ( Read more... )

Last weekend, I went on another anti-SDL (aka EDL) march. Edinburgh Council decided that it was fine to let the EDL march through the city in the middle of the biggest cultural event in Europe - the Fringe as well as the Edinburgh International Festival - which host performers and visitors from all over the world. In case you are not aware, the EDL ( Read more... )

It's like 1978 all over again. Last week I went to a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition; tonight I saw Patti Smith perform... with Philip Glass. She read poetry by herself, Allen Ginsberg and Robert Louis Stevenson, accompanied by Glass, and sang acoustic versions of Dancing Barefoot and Pissing in a River, accompanied by Thomas Shenihan (?). They ( Read more... )

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival starts this weekend. Perhaps you've noticed the wall-to-wall media coverage. From now until early September, Edinburgh will be full of people visiting from London to watch other people visiting from London perform ( Read more... )

I did lots of different things during the Edinburgh International Festival - I experienced new music, radical theatre, new artists. Much of it was excellent, a little was dreadful ( Read more... )

"Speed of Light" was an interesting experience: simultaneously brilliant and disappointing. NVA, the company behind it, have worked a lot with light in the environment (their installation at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 2008, " Spirit", was beautiful, and I heard great things about their work in Skye and Glen LyonSpeed of Light is hard to ( Read more... )

My last night of the Proms came a few days earlier than the last night of the Proms. I went to several Proms this year, and listened to several more on wonderful Radio3. Many years ago, I actually used to prom - when I was at school and an undergraduate (and when I was much less inclined to listen to orchestral music than I now am), I prommed a few ( Read more... )

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I like Matthew Bourne’s choreography: when a show he has choreographed appears in Edinburgh, I make an effort to see it - which means in the last few years I have seen his famous Swan Lake (famous not least for having an all-male chorus of swans - mute swans, obviously), Play Without Words (his magical take on “The Servant”), Edward Scissorhands ( ( Read more... )

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s featured exhibition for the festival is Vanity Fair Portraits - a large collections of photographs from the glossy magazine Vanity Fair ( Read more... )