Aug 26 2008
Film and talk and music (but not Arabic)
On Monday the talk at Cafe Scientifique was given by New Zealand’s contender for the 2010 Winter Olympics in the skeleton bob sleigh event. He’s also doing a PhD in related areas — studying how the sledge interacts with the ice, and how the drivers’ wind profile and helmets affect their performance.
It was a damn interesting talk. We had to rush off to catch the final performance of the Antonion Forcione Quartet, but it would have been really great to stay behind and ask more questions.
The film we saw before was as good as I remembered, though Helen slept through it. Last time I took her to see a Japanese film she said it wouldn’t happen again. So it’ll be A Fistful of Dollars and Magnificent Seven from now on!
Nick was waiting in the queue for Forcione when we arrived, so we got good seats (in the third row, left of centre). There were two annoying guys behind me that would gasp and squeal and exhale sharply every time Antonion Forcione did something impressive (which of course was all the damn time). I really didn’t appreciate this running commentary. It got to the point where I would cringe after every display of virtuosity because I knew there was going to be a ridiculous exclamation from behind my right ear.
Show was awesome though. Band were really tight and enjoying themselves too. Apparently he’s been playing the Edinburgh Fringe for about 17 years now… see you there next year!
In completely unrelated news, we received a flyer through the door on Sunday for the Islam Festival in Edinburgh, that had been running concurrently with all the other festivals in August. Including a 3-day conversational course in Arabic! That would have been seriously cool — where else can you get nine hours tuition in beginners’ Arabic for fifteen quid? If we’d received the flyer when the festival started instead of when it ended that probably would have been the impetus I required to ask for time off.
There’s a lesson — don’t hand out flyers after the event has finished.
2 Responses to “Film and talk and music (but not Arabic)”
What busy people you are… We managed to get to see Antonio on Sunday night. Sadly, we were 3 rows from the back, having been the last people in the queue until just before we went in.
Yup, he’s good, but the next Michael Hedges? I don’t think so.
(a) MH was just jaw-droppingly ahead of everybody then, and still now a bit.
(b)You are guitarist newbies. When you have the time and money, you could try a weekend of Ullapool Guitar Festival. The instrumentalists are many and various, and some are NOT fabbo wow zippy players, but old and famous instead… but there are usually some people who will also make the chin descend.
No, really…..
It’s true we haven’t been to the guitar festival (yet). I was thinking that when we saw Forcione for the second time. So I don’t have much to go on — and Michael Hedges, like Nick Drake, doesn’t seem to be touring much these days.