Show #7 Total Hero Team, The Dram House Upstairs

On Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting two of my friends, Calumn and Lynz. An additional reason to be happy about this is that their visit was the cause of me attending this charmingly whimsical show.

A two-man musical theatre show about superheroes wasn’t the most promising of ways to spend a Saturday evening. To be honest, when it started I felt justified in my lack of enthusiasm. However, the sheer force of humorous awesome quickly won me over.

Sadly, Saturday was the end of the run at the Edinburgh Fringe, however they are playing the Camden Fringe this Friday and Saturday

http://mjhibbett.co.uk/totalheroteam/index.php

Show #6 That’s No Line of Work for a Man, Brian Kimberling and Allan Wilson, Edinburgh International Book Festival

I was pleasantly surprised by Brian Kimberling’s reading of his debut work “Snapper”. For some illogical reason I had arbitrarily decided that I didn’t like him whilst at the Amnesty International reading, however he spoke eloquently and passionately about his work which explores rural Indiana. Hearing a work in the author’s own voice can be misleading in my experience, however I was suitably won over and will definitely be checking it out.

It was then the turn of Allan to talk about his work, the upcoming novel “Meat”. How upcoming is up for debate given that it is not yet finished and this provided the real focus for the discussion that followed. Allan spoke about the difficulties faced in trying to juggle writing with working, the frustration of never truly being pleased with one’s own writing and his dislike of self-promotion on social networks.

Show #5 Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers Series: Arms Trade Treaty. Edinburgh International Book Festival, Tues 13 August

I normally try to make it to a couple of Book Festival events each year, usually involving Alasdair Gray or James Kelman. However my first experience this year was the free event to discuss how ordinary people can make a difference globally. Each day throughout the festival sees Amnesty International promote an event involving a different theme. Today’s was chosen to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the death of David Grimason’s son due to a stray bullet whilst on holiday in Turkey. Since then David has campaigned for arms control, lobbying the UN for an Arms Trade treaty. Such an treaty was reached in April and indeed just 3 hours before today’s event Nigeria became the latest state to ratify the treaty.

Disclaimer: this is not why I attended. Truthfully I went because my friend, Allan Wilson, was reading. Allan worked with me at my first school, but more importantly is a talented writer whose debut “Wasted In Love” was critically acclaimed. Also on stage were Regi Claire, Brian Kimberling and as a late replacement for Meg Rosoff, Nicola Morgan. Each author paid tribute to persecuted writers by reading short poems and extracts.

Each day explores a different theme and I would highly recommend spending 45 minutes dropping by. Tomorrow’s is on the theme of “Love is a Human Right” which is particularly pertinent given the recent events in Russia.

Show #4 Party Piece, Bedlam Theatre

On Saturday I had the pleasure of accompanying a friend into Edinburgh city centre to soak up the Festival atmosphere. This turned out to mostly consist of “having a pint on George Street since it’s nice out” and “get into lengthy unproductive conversations with people who are flyering”. A typical experience then.

However it was decided that we should at least go and see something and were convinced to go to see Party Piece at Bedlam Theatre. This is a physical theatre piece exploring the morning after the day before, following four late teens/early twenty-somethings through their hopes and regrets.

Ah regrets, if I had only one it would be shelling out to watch this. There were plenty of decent ideas throughout, but given the time available not enough effort is devoted to getting you to care about the characters and as a result very quickly they become two-dimensional stereotypes. A better approach may have been to follow one main character instead of flitting between four, or alternatively focus on their fears for the future or the regrets of their actions of the night before. In short, it tried to do too many things in too short a space of time and fell short in everything.

1 star for effort.

Show #3 Celtic vs Ross County, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park 3 August 2013

Celtic 2 Ross County 1

 

So only a few days after watching Celtic defeat Elfsborg I was back in Paradise to see the league flag unfurled. Truth be told, it wasn’t the most exciting match with many of the problems Celtic faced in terms of their own play on Wednesday replicated today. In saying that, the pace (or lack of it) to our play suggests that we didn’t really get out of second gear. Three points were duly won however and that is the main thing.

Show #2 Higgs, Summerhall, Edinburgh

My first Fringe show of 2013, billed as a

“lecture performance by Jan van den Berg, about the many years’ hunt for the Higgs particle. A theatrical voyage of discovery with exclusive background stories, unique film footage, live music and live discussions with experts”

Should be right up my street as a physics teacher.

Well, whilst it was an enjoyable 80 minutes I didn’t feel I got as much out of it as a layman would. Obviously I was aware of the scientific underpinnings of the theory and search for the Higgs boson so I wasn’t expecting startling insights from that point of view. However the lecture had very little film footage, no live music and the discussion with experts (tonight’s expert was Alan Walker from the University of Edinburgh) was limited to a brief chat at the end with little explanation of the theory behind the Higgs boson.

Instead it was more of a journey through van den Berg’s love of particle physics with little devoted to Peter Higgs himself or the actual search for the boson. Thankfully, van den Berg is a captivating speaker and you can’t fail to be enchanted by his enthusiasm for the subject. The Summerhall website promises that some performances will be attended by Peter Higgs so if you’re lucky enough to catch one of those you will undoubtedly get value for money out of your £10.

Show #1 Celtic vs Elfsborg, 31 July 2013, Champions League Third Qualifying Round First Leg

Some might say that I’m cheating by having a football match in this category. Especially since I’ve been to many Celtic matches in my time. However, as The Celtic Song states

“Because we only know that there’s going to be a show

And the Glasgow Celtic will be there”

Plus, it’s my challenge, my rules. On that basis, it’s in.

Anyway, to the match. Elfsborg didn’t offer much of a threat, however neither did Celtic. They seemed very content to let us play in front of them, moving quickly to surround Samaras whenever he was on the ball. The only other notable aspect on the field of play was the probable last appearance at Celtic Park of Mo Bangura.

I never saw the point of worrying if he’d play or not. He’s obviously been deemed not good enough to play in our first team, Elfsborg are paying his wages just now so let him play. Certainly nothing to justify the boos any time he received the ball. Until that is, his theatrical dive in an attempt to get Kelvin Wilson either booked or sent off. Now, cheating is one thing, but against the side you are still technically an employee of. Ridiculous.

The other “controversy” has been the alleged comments directed towards Elfsborg’s female physios. I say alleged as I personally didn’t hear any shouts, however there was a fair storm on Twitter yesterday. If people were shouting sexist abuse then that’s obviously unacceptable.

The tension continued throughout the second half with a rare headed goal from Kris Commons in 76 minutes providing some measure of relief. A single-goal lead isn’t what I’d have liked to take into the second leg but at least we didn’t concede.

What is apparent though is the need for a creative midfielder who can unlock defences. Very few chances were created which at home is far below the standard we should expect.