August is Festival time here in Edinburgh, when the arts world descends on the city and the population allegedly triples overnight. As do the taxi fares!
This means that July is traditionally my time to ponder the various Festival catalogues, circle shows that look good, and then...do nothing. Because here's a confession: I've lived in Edinburgh for 20 years and I've never seen anything at "the festival". I know, I'm suitably ashamed.
Actually, it's not strictly true - I did go to the Scottish Parliament Open Day last year, part of the Festival Of Politics, but I'm not sure that counts! The Festival (and by The Festival, I actually mean the 200 or so Festivals that all take place at the same time) is one of these things that tourists do but residents don't. We fool ourselves into thinking that it'll always be there so we can go tomorrow. An Australian friend of mine once lived in Edinburgh for a number of years without visiting the Castle, on that basis.
So I've resolved that this year is different, and I've actually gone and bought tickets! I'll be going to a talk by Alastair McIntosh, the author of the book I'm currently reading, Hell And High Water
. He looks at climate change from a social perspective, using Scotland as a case study to ponder why we're not engaging as much as something "life threatening" should make us do.
I'm also going to see Mark Thomas. He's been one of my favourite "comedians" for a while. I put quotation marks around the word comedian because although he can be incredibly funny, he's not a stand-up or one-liner type of guy. His latest book, out in September, is about Coca Cola and how their bottling plant managers in Colombia allegedly colluded in the murders of trade unionists working for Coke.
Unfortunately, I can't make the talk by Oliver James, author of Affluenza
. Sorry Robin!
This means that July is traditionally my time to ponder the various Festival catalogues, circle shows that look good, and then...do nothing. Because here's a confession: I've lived in Edinburgh for 20 years and I've never seen anything at "the festival". I know, I'm suitably ashamed.
Actually, it's not strictly true - I did go to the Scottish Parliament Open Day last year, part of the Festival Of Politics, but I'm not sure that counts! The Festival (and by The Festival, I actually mean the 200 or so Festivals that all take place at the same time) is one of these things that tourists do but residents don't. We fool ourselves into thinking that it'll always be there so we can go tomorrow. An Australian friend of mine once lived in Edinburgh for a number of years without visiting the Castle, on that basis.
So I've resolved that this year is different, and I've actually gone and bought tickets! I'll be going to a talk by Alastair McIntosh, the author of the book I'm currently reading, Hell And High Water
. He looks at climate change from a social perspective, using Scotland as a case study to ponder why we're not engaging as much as something "life threatening" should make us do.I'm also going to see Mark Thomas. He's been one of my favourite "comedians" for a while. I put quotation marks around the word comedian because although he can be incredibly funny, he's not a stand-up or one-liner type of guy. His latest book, out in September, is about Coca Cola and how their bottling plant managers in Colombia allegedly colluded in the murders of trade unionists working for Coke.
Unfortunately, I can't make the talk by Oliver James, author of Affluenza
. Sorry Robin!
0 comments:
Post a Comment