The Salon Project: Anticipation

The Salon Project was the most interesting performance I’ve experienced in years. It had about as much to do with traditional theater as parkour does with ballet. Maverick, enticing and entirely topsy-turvy, the evening was devised to explore and interpret the Parisian Salon culture of the late 19th & early 20th Centuries. Learned, liberal folk … Continue reading

Bundles of Joy ( & Thirty Things #9)

A few weeks ago, I boarded the train to London. The East Coast line between Edinburgh and the Big Smoke is one of life’s great pleasures, but on this occasion I was rather too excited to gaze fondly at the crashing North Sea or the quaint clusters of Northumbrian sheep. I was en route to … Continue reading

Thirty Things Update

We are going away tomorrow. For a whole week of blissful time-out and thankfully, also some blistering sunshine. Lord knows monsoon season in Scotland hasn’t provided us enough Vitamin D this year. So before we leave, I thought it was time for a check-up. How am I getting on with my Thirty Things? One Visit … Continue reading

The Clandestine Bibliophile

There is a stealth artist in our midst. The Batman of bookart has been gallivanting about town for months, leaving precious sculptures with inscribed messages for the literary community. First there was Scottish Poetry Library – a poetree stashed among the shelves. The National Library displays theirs in the entrance, a badge of honor. Then … Continue reading

Edinburgh’s Festivals

My town in pretty famous. It has this thing in the summer where hundreds of people, some of them famous, come and put on shows. We are awash with talent (and, admittedly, a lot of un-talented deluded people). It’s crazy, messy, chaotic, art-tastic fun. It is also really hard to live your normal life through. … Continue reading