Or, some reflections on Edinburgh
Published at 6:38 pm on July 14th, 2022
Filed under: Artistic.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been in the news lately, as many performers were upset that it’s not having an app this year, which led to news stories that some comedians are giving up on it altogether. Which made me feel a little bit on the old side, because when I lived in Edinburgh smartphones weren’t even a thing, an app was unheard of, and you navigated the Fringe using the official programme, *ThreeWeeks* magazine, and the hundreds and hundreds of flyers constantly thrust at you in the street. ThreeWeeks was the new, modern innovation at that point: I recall, when I first moved there, one of my flatmates proudly telling me about the new Festival reviews newspaper some friends of his—from the EUSA weekly freesheet Midweek—had started putting out when Midweek was closed for the summer.
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Keyword noise: Edinburgh, Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Or, digging out some old words
Published at 5:03 pm on January 1st, 2022
Filed under: Dear Diary, The Old Blog.
On never really understanding the popularity of something
Published at 1:33 pm on December 18th, 2021
Filed under: Artistic, Media Addict.
It’s shaping up to be another quiet month on here. December is the tiredest month, after all: next week it’s Christmas itself, last week it was the office party, and in between I am at home worrying whether all the presents will get delivered in time. Time, then, to pull another old post from the backlog of drafts and get it into some sort of shape.
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Keyword noise: books, literature, Harry Potter, J K Rowling, Edinburgh.
Or, some news about a legend.
Published at 5:28 pm on May 24th, 2021
Filed under: Linkery.
In which we discuss “Halting State” by Charles Stross
Published at 9:20 pm on June 24th, 2008
Filed under: Artistic.
This month I have mostly been reading: Halting State by Charles Stross, a near-future techno-thriller set in an independent Scotland, ten years or so from now. It’s a very good book; I recommend it; full of where-tech-might-be-going extrapolations. When reading it, though, I couldn’t help thinking: I have a bit of an advantage on the average reader.
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Keyword noise: Bannermans, books, Charles Stross, Cowgate, Edinburgh, Halting State, High School Yards, literature, review, science fiction, SF, Stockbridge Colonies.
From the recent search hits: “sir thomas bouch blog”. Somehow, I doubt Sir Thomas Bouch is likely to have a blog. For one thing, he’s dead.* Secondly, he was always more interested in building railways than writing about them, or about anything.
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Keyword noise: bouch, Dean Cemetery, Dean Gallery, Edinburgh, engineer, etymology, ferry, grave, history, memorial, railway, Tay Bridge, Thomas Bouch, train ferry, trains, urban myth.
In which we discover something wrong on the internet
Published at 5:16 pm on August 16th, 2007
Filed under: Geekery.
Last night, on TV, I was idly watching a documentary, Real Men, about the maintenance of the Forth Bridge. Rather interesting it was, even if the risks were a bit overstated sometimes.* One thing, though, puzzled me. It started off, as you might expect, with the history of the bridge: in the 1870s construction had begun on a Forth Bridge designed by Sir Thomas Bouch, previously responsible for designing the train ferries the bridge was to replace. In 1879, though, Bouch’s Tay Bridge collapsed catastrophically, so work on his Forth Bridge was stopped.
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Keyword noise: botch, Edinburgh, etymology, fake etymology, Fife, Firth of Forth, Forth Bridge, inaccuracy, urban myth, Scotland, Thomas Bouch, Tay Bridge, Wikipedia.
In which a song reminds me of Scotland
Published at 4:30 pm on October 7th, 2006
Filed under: Dear Diary, Media Addict.
…is one of my favourite cosy, romantic songs. It’s by The Clientele, and it goes something like:
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Keyword noise: Edinburgh, Glasgow, indie, lyrics, Morningside, music, romantic, Scotland, The Clientele.
In which we wonder where religions come from
Published at 8:15 am on May 3rd, 2006
Filed under: Dear Diary, Unbelievable.
In which we talk about poverty, diet, and the deep-fried pizza
Published at 9:11 pm on April 11th, 2006
Filed under: Media Addict, Political.
I often don’t agree with the writing of Julie Bindel, the left-wing feminist who apparently believes that everyone should have full control over their own body, unless they were born male, or want to prostitute themselves. Today, though, I thought she was along the right lines when she wrote about diet and classism: it’s easy to criticise poor people for being unhealthy, when they don’t have the time or the money to eat well.*
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Keyword noise: classism, Clerk St, deep-fried Mars Bar, deep-fried pizza, diet, Edinburgh, feminism, food, Julie Bindel, Mars Bar, Pasquale's, pizza, poverty, Scotland, takeaway.
In which Boris Johnson might help perpetuate a stereotype
Published at 11:41 am on January 16th, 2006
Filed under: Political.
In which the city makes me think of music
Published at 3:21 pm on July 20th, 2002
Filed under: The Old Blog, Dear Diary.
Of course, in the end we didn’t discuss Festival stuff at all, just drank ate and gossipped. After that, we wandered round the New Town looking for ideal places for our next Picnic (next Saturday), and looking in people’s front windows.
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Keyword noise: Edinburgh, The Clientele, rain, weather.
In which the Edinburgh summer inexerobly approaches
Published at 1:13 pm on July 19th, 2002
Filed under: The Old Blog, Dear Diary.
… but the boss has decided to go away for a few days, and he’s the only one with the keys. So, the office itself is empty, and I have to just keep an eye on things from afar.
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Keyword noise: work, hayfever, Edinburgh, people watching.
Or a day in town when nothing seems to go right
Published at 11:33 pm on June 11th, 2002
Filed under: The Old Blog, Dear Diary.
I was walking up The Vennel today, in heavy drizzle, when I saw a piece of paper pinned to a wall. On it, it said “What would make Edinburgh better? Have your say!” The top entry was “SUNSHINE” in big letters, and with a smiley-faced sun. I couldn’t help but agree.
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Keyword noise: Edinburgh, graffiti.
Or, buying a wedding guest outfit
Published at 9:33 am on April 17th, 2002
Filed under: Dear Diary, The Old Blog.
This month I won £50 on the Premium Bonds, so today I thought I’d go and look for clothes, and maybe get some ideas for a wedding outfit. I know it’s only April and the wedding I’m going to is in August, but I wanted to be prepared. Anyway, I searched round every branch of Armstrong’s and didn’t find anything. I was thinking maybe some tweed trousers, but they’re a bit expensive. Part of the problem is that each of their shops has two or three racks of clothed attached to each wall, one about the other, so you can’t really see what’s way up near the ceiling. They have a ladder you can borrow, but I daren’t use it for fear I’ll fall over than thwack the assistant on the head, knocking over everything in the shop in the process. In any case, you can’t really browse through everything whilst you’re stood on top of a stepladder.
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Keyword noise: Edinburgh, clothes, shopping.
Following on from previously...
Published at 9:21 am on April 16th, 2002
Filed under: Dear Diary, The Old Blog.
As I was saying, I went to the theatre on Saturday. It’s not often I do something at all cultured, so it was something to be relished.
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Keyword noise: Edinburgh.
So, I had an actor friend staying the past week or so, which was nice. He’s currently playing in The Borrowers, and is mid-way through a 6-month tour of the UK and Ireland, a different town every week. He cooked me yummy food, and last night we went out after his show and got very very drunk. Details to follow (when I get round to it).
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Keyword noise: Edinburgh.
I was out walking this afternoon, and I saw a man out walking a ferret, on a lead. Twice. I think it’s a sign of the impending apocalypse.
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Keyword noise: Edinburgh, pets, ferrets.
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