Up Blackford Hill

I love Edinburgh.   I love looking over it.   One of my favorite Edinburgh views is from up Blackford Hill, with Arthur's Seat towering over it all.   Like so:
 

In the right light, Blackford Hill itself is very pretty too.

Hold On

This week I love this song.  Can I marry his voice please?

Gigs

Time to review some of the gigs I've been to recently.   First, Bowling for Soup.   I saw them back in the Autumn at the O2 ABC in Glasgow.   I like the ABC as a venue.   It's convenient to get to, and a good size.   Not too big.   I decided I had better things to do than stand around all evening, so I skipped the opening acts and turned up for nine, just to see Bowling for Soup.   I hadn't seen them for several years, and the boys were on form, as usual.   They played all their old favorites, along with some of their new stuff, and some songs they don't usually play, like Life After Lisa.   Their perfomances haven't lost any of their energy, and the boys till seemed to be loving every second of it.   Despite all of the show's good points, I'm wondering if I'm outgrowing them a bit.   I did love the songs, but a lot of their in-between songs banter does now seem to very immature and a bit annoying.  Still, despite a bit of growing up on my part, they're still well worth seeing!

Next, Nerina Pallot.   I saw her in Pleasance Theatre on Valentine's Day.   This was my second time seeing her, and once again I loved her!   I loved her wacky clothes, her great performance and her hilarious banter.   Her opening act, Carrie Mac, was very good as well.   I definitely don't really like Pleasance Theatre as a gig venue though.   The audience was definitely more subdued than they otherwise would have been if they'd been standing.   I think it was only Nerina's talent at putting an audience at ease that made it an enjoyable show.   And I do think it's lovely the way she takes the time at the end of her shows to meet fans.  

     




And finally, Amy MacDonald.   I saw her, for the first time, in the Picturehouse at the beginning of the month.   The Picturehouse is another gig venue I really like.   Again, it's not too big.   I always like it when people come to Edinburgh, instead of us having to go to Glasgow, but I can understand why they miss us out.   Most Edinburgh gigs seem to be full of weegies!   Anyway, Amy's performance was excellent.   I love her songs so much.   She also had a much bigger band with her than I'd expected.   I think it could have been improved with some female backing vocals though.   The male ones just didn't sound as good.   And despite her being great during the songs, I didn't really like a lot of her chat.   She did a fair bit of moaning, complaining about the small backstage area, and being away from home so much.   We don't want to hear that, Amy!   The lighting was awesome though!   Really big and bold and colourful.   Her opening act, Ben Montague was very good too.   I'll definitely be looking his stuff up! 

Save the World Get the Girl

I like the slightly rough and ready quality to this.   I like the accent and the tongue-in-cheek-ness and the sentiment.   Cos sometimes you do feel like the world is expecting rather a lot of you, and I couldn't have put it better myself.

Shows

Time to review some of the shows I've been to lately.  First up, The Phantom of the Opera.   I saw the touring production at Edinburgh Playhouse.   Despite knowing the music inside out and having seen the film version many times I'd never seen it on stage before, and I have to say it was utterly brilliant.   The music is, of course, wonderful, and the story is so strange and powerful.   I was very impressed with all the casts' performances too.   I wasn't too sure about Christine's voice to start with, but as the show progressed she really grew on me.   The sets and lighting were also fantastic.  Some of the effects they acheived were just spectacular.   The chandelier was covered in dust sheets during the first scene, but then for the next the dust sheets were suddenly sucked into the chandelier, quick as quick!   During the boat scene the stage was flooded with so much dry ice that you couldn't see the stage at all.   You could rally believe there was water there!   And the set was huge and multi-storied and could be spun round and had disappearing steps for the actors to walk down.   It was all so impressive.   So lavish!   I got so sucked in!   I hadn't enjoyed a show that much for a very long time.   Just wonderful.  

Next, that old Christmas favorite, The Nutcracker.   I saw the Scottish Ballet's production of it at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.   It was gorgeous, but not what I was expecting.   Other productions I have seen fairly light on story content, and just had lots of dancing, but this one incorporated lots of elements from the original Hoffmann story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.   It was very interesting, though I suspect many people who didn't know the original story were left rather confused as to what was going on.   The dancing was great and choreography was fresh and beautiful, with some unusual touches, for exampe the Arabian dance was performed almost entirely on the shoulders of other dancers.   There was also some very good use of masks, to emphasise the point of the transformations between dolls and real people, and the putting on and removing of masks was so slick that you couldn't see the changes at all until they'd happened.   Amazing!   The music from The Nutcracker remains to this day some of my favorite pieces of classical music.   I always leave humming all the tunes.

And finally, Cats.   Yes, another Andrew Lloyd Webber.   Cats has always been a firm favorite with me.   It's such an unusual and beautiful show.   I saw the touring show at the Playhouse, and really enjoyed it.   Having seen it in London, I have to say the West End production was better.   This show had a noticeably smaller cast, and the audience was further away from the action.   It was still awesome though!   the singing, sets and costumes were stunning, as usual, though I did think a couple of the characters weren't as good dancers as they should have been.   Skimbleshanks, for example, just couldn't jump as high as the Skimbleshanks I saw on the West End.   Mistoffolees was brilliant though!   The orchestra were also hidden!   The orchestra pit had been taken over by set, and I still have no idea where they actually were!   Though this show may not have been the best production I've ever seen, it was still excellent and I went home and immediately watched the whole thing through on my computer and listened to the songs many times over the next few days.  

       

Settle For Me

This week I have mostly been listening to this.   It's a by Tag Team Champion, some friends' band.   It's great!   Really sad and moving.   Love the music and vocals too!   Good work guys!  

http://tagteamchampion.bandcamp.com/

Warriston Cemetery

There's a strange old cemetery near me.   It's very overgrown and atmospheric.   There are lots of fallen grave stones and grave stones that have just been piled up and put to one side.   You'd think it was completely abandoned, but it's actually pretty popular with dog walkers, and it joins onto a newer, well-maintained cemetery.   I thought it would make for some cool photos so I took my camera down there.   But somehow, I just couldn't get the photos to work.   Neither the normal jpegs or the HDR photos looked good.   In the end, I decided to try making them black and white.   I hadn't really had much experience working in black and white, and I'd never tried to make black and white HDR photos before.   My photography textbooks had a lot of advice to offer on the subject of turning photos black and white by working with one colour at a time to get the best tonal range, but didn't have a lot to say on the subject of black and white HDRs.   So I asked around, played around, and ended up whacking the contrast way up on a lot of them.   I ended up with some fairly striking and interesting results, but I think the place is definitely worth another trip in the future.

                                             And a fallen statue that works better in colour