Two Fun Weekends, including The Fringe

Clubbing with Michele was awesome. We went to a fun little place in South London (Brixton Hill, for those who know where it is). Good Jungle and Drum 'n' Bass, as well as some Breakbeats (techo music). We danced like madfolk until the wee hours. I didn't get home until 6 am. At around 3 I left the house again for a Monkey Meetup. Hung with some of the wonderful people from Monkeyfilter . I always used to think meeting people you met in the Internet was wierd and creepy, but these cats are cool as all getout. There will be at least one or two more before I leave. I made them promise.

Right. I can hear you all wailing a gnashing your teeth out there. So, without further ado, here is my account of the Fringe.

We (Brooke and I) left London at 6ish, and arrived by train in Edinburgh around noon. The nice as hell fella from the "hostel" picked us up from the train station and brought us to where we were staying, including a mini tour on the way. It wasn't a real hostel (all of those were completely full), but this guy's flat. He had put some bunkbeds in an empty room, and was renting them out. It was a nice place, and he was really cool. There were 4 beds, but we had the place to ourselves.

We stashed our stuff and walked to the Royal Mile, Edinbugh's high street. It was PACKED with people. Street performers were scattered about, and little knots of people formed around them. There were stages set up with previews of shows on them, and folk handing out fliers every which way. We spent the bulk of the day there, watching free entertainment and trying to decide what we wanted to see that night.

We took the National Scotch Whiskey Heritage Tour, which was fun. I learned a lot about whiskey, and drank some very tasty stuff. I joined the club mostly for the "free" tasters it came with, but later decided I should have saved my money. The only adavantage of the club is if I go back, which I won't. I got my money's worth in whiskey, but only barely. No worries.

We finally decided on a show called "Beautiful Child," based on the description of a woman handing out the fliers. After some confusion about getting tickets, we made it to the venue only to find out they were sold out. We got tickets for the next night, and decided to see the show that was about to start. It was a sketch comedy group from New Jersey. They were funny. Not great, but funny. They played the "We're Americans in Scotland, whoa!" angle fairly well.

We got some food, and decided on another show to see. We picked one called "Stirring." It was about Internet dating, and it was fucking fantastic. Tiny little venue in this giant club network called the Underbelly (thanks for the recommendation, Tami!). The show was well staged, excellently written, and fantastically cast. It made me want to put a personal online and see what happens. Then, of course, things go bad and the desire went away. I highly recommend the script, and would love to direct it some time.

Afterwards we hooked up with a friend of Tami's from when she was there last year (thanks to her again). Eddie is likely in his 50s or so, and cool as the other side of your pillow. He took us on a larger tour, and showed us his favorite pub. There was some killer jazz. We had a drink, then headed back to his house for further libations. Hung out with him and his son Martin, who has inherited his father's cucumber-like coolness. He offered us a place to sleep, but as all our stuff was at the "hostel" and we didn't know if other people would be there or not, we declined. We did take him up on the offer for the next evening, however.

The next day, we went to a nearby park where Fringe Sunday was a-happening. Fringe Sunday is a weekly event where you can see 10 minute previews of most or all the shows, acts, musical groups, etc. There are also the usual perponderance of magicians, performers, and the like wandering about. We spent most of our time in the cabaret tent, watching the musical type acts. We saw a number of superb and funny musical groups, most of which weren't playing when we could see the whole show. There was a hip hip group called Freestyle Love Supreme that was crazy good. There were entirely freestyle, with no written songs or words. They improved based on what the audience was giving them. Thier beatboxer, ShockWave, was one of the best I have every heard, live or otherwise. I hope they go places, and I really hope thier website goes up soon with samples. They have www.freestylelovesupreme.com, but there's nothing there.

One of the previews we saw was a group called
Topping and Butch . Here's a picture of them from the above-linked website.



One skinny, one fat, both in red bondage leather, both very gay, and fucking hilarious. Topical humor, political stuff, all done in song and dance. They did one song called "Fag Hag" to the tune of "Downtown" by the B-52's (i think). Kim, I wish you could have been there! You sprang to mind instantly, although most of our Theatre friends would have loved it. Except Mr Plummer. I think he might have thrown a chair. Anyway, they were the highlight of the Fest. I really want to see thier other show now.

After that, we went to "Beautiful Child." We knew that it was about a teacher having an affair with a student, but we didn't know that the student was 8. The teacher (played by Tim Curry's fucking clone, only shorter) comes to his seriously dysfunctional parents asking for protection, due to the fact that he "loved" one of his art students. After much deliberation, mediocre directing, and inane dialouge, they finally decide that he can stay, but only if they PUT OUT HIS EYES. That's right. Their cure for pedophelia is a firm blinding. 'Cause that makes all kinds of sense. And of course the tragedy is hightened because he's an art teacher, so he can never paint again. Ugh. There were a couple of other characters in it, but they were so pointless as to not be worth mentioning. Brooke liked it, but I gave it a C-. The acting was decent, but watching mini-Curry spit gallons onto the other actors kind of killed any enjoyment I got out of his performance. And he couldn't cry.

We had a few pints at a nearby pub, and then went back to Eddie's. Hung out, played video games with him, drank some psudo-Absinthe (just acholholic, not really anything else), and went to bed. He dropped us off on the Royal Mile the next day, and we toured the Castle of Edinbugh.

I've seen a few Castles now, but this was the first to truly fulfill my boyhood dreams of what a castle should be like. Really, really cool. Bits of living rock jutting out here and there, ramparts, turrets, mutli-levels, and I could practically hear peasants trundling thier carts and Lords riding by on battle-dressed horses. There was a lot of museams inside the castle, and we followed a tourguide around for a little while. Here's Brooke and I at the top, standing on one of the afrementioned juts of living rock.



We ate lunch at the Gourment Burger Kitchen, which we had been to in London before. Best. Burgers. EVER. We spent the rest of the day watching street theatre and waiting until we had to be at the airport at 6. We were able to book the flight early enough that it was actually cheaper than the trian tickets, which we didn't book early enough at all. The flight took about an hour, and of course I was congested at the time, so decent was a very painful experiance. If you've never flown with a stuffed-up head, don't. The pressure change hurts like a mother. I'm fairly sure that's why I have a minor sinus infection now. Before it was just a little head cold, but since I've been expelling snot of a very unhealthy color. Which I'm sure you really wanted to know.

So that brings us up to date, and has killed my lunch hour nicely. I'm going to be spending the rest of the week being poor, so I'll not likely have anything to tell. But I'll try to think of something to rant about. I know how you all go a little crazy when you don't get your regular dose of Brettness.

/conceited bastard.

Cheers!