Back from a few days up in Edinburgh in the company of Sj for the weekend in order to catch the start of the Fringe. Good weekend, apart from the sheer length of the journey there and back (the A702 just eats time over what should be a half-hour journey). Some good stuff seen, one spectacularly bad thing and a good weekend in all.
Friday managed to catch the tail end of the various pieces of street theatre, a spot of folk music and then some jazz later in the evening (which was good except for the open mike bloke at the end who was awful). Long journey meant that wasn’t really a late night before calling it a day and getting some rest before the Saturday.
Saturday we actually went to see some ticketed events – in turn very good, fucking awful and so good I need to mention separately. Lots of street theatre again going on, including a truly painful to watch contortionist and a gypsy band.
The Very Good; The Scat Pack – Lights, Camera, Improvise! Improvised film night with three adverts for films the audience had devised (genre & location) before you picked which film you wanted to see (including optional extras). Ended up as bizarre action film set in the Antartic Circus named “Revenge of the Penguins”. Very funny, utterly bonkers from start to finish but very professional.
Fucking Awful; Chomp – A Zombie Musical. A lead actor who was carved from teak. Bad songs, awful sound design (no fades, almost as if the power was pulled out to stop the Bontempi style music) and a lack of anything redeeming, it wasn’t even bad enough to be good. Unfortunately sat at the front so unable to leave half way (well, ten minutes) into the performance so had to just sit and endure.
Other thing mentioned in separate post but was utterly fucking wonderful.
Drove back after a late breakfast on the Sunday, long journey but did ensure managed to sleep well last night. All in all saw the good side and the bad of the Fringe, will definitely go again (perhaps on opening weekend as you can get tickets for almost anything and it’s more of a risk in what you see) but will plan more time for travel.
Midland Film Monkey 