I went to A Celebration of Poulenc tonight at the Usher Hall. It included extracts of Poulenc's opera Les Dialogues des Carmelites, which ends with lots of nuns being guillotined. Sadly it was only sung, not staged, so there was no guillotine, but there were guillotine sound effects. I'm not sure which precise percussion instrument was used. ( Read more... )

(1) Every time I leave an art gallery I am subjected to market research. But I did see the story of the romance between Barbra Streisand and Joseph Beuys retold in comic strip format by Mel Brimfield, who misspelt Streisand's forename throughout. I am unsure if this was ironic. Afterwards I was asked to read out a list of numbers corresponding ( Read more... )

I live in the cultural centre of the world! It's true!Former Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus is to star in a disco version of the nativity story. The Scottish singer, 27, will boogie on down to Bethlehem as Mary in a panto-style production set to disco music which premieres at Edinburgh’s fringe festival in August.
Would somebody pay me to go see ( Read more... )

They've just put up a sign saying that on Leith Walk by Pilrig St Paul's church (the point where Edinburgh becomes Leith). It looks fairly official. I'm not sure if there's a Rio on Poland's Baltic riviera, or if there's been something even weirder going on ( Read more... )

The legends of two Scottish houses to be found in the Canongate, now part of Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

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Grave inscriptions from Greyfriars cemetery, Edinburgh. A long entry, with some photos.

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I bought tickets for Patti Smith in May and The Pipettes in April. Yay ( Read more... )

( Another literary rant! This time about Walter Scott, Ian Rankin, and UNESCO! )

Wow, it's all over, my epic journey around the world (or to Columbia, Missouri, at least, and New York). I'm back drinking Irn Bru. I brought a can of Irn Bru to New York, intending to transport it to Missouri to the lips of Carmen, but then all this nonsense about terrorism came up, and I wasn't allowed to carry any liquids in my hand luggage, ( Read more... )

Food photography.

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