Would she have been amused?  I hope not, because the statue temporarily sharing the Kirkgate with Victoria has a serious purpose.  The statue is called The Knife Angel and its presence there is one stop on a UK wide tour advocating against violence, particularly that wrought on young people by the use of knives.  The various related activities in Edinburgh are detailed here.  Today is your last chance to see BALISONG, a play dealing with knife violence which has been touring Edinburgh schools and is this weekend being presented to the public at the Traverse. 

Way back in the 50s when I was young knives were popular with boys.  Like many others I had a sheath knife.  I'm not sure I did much more than throw it at the ground or maybe at a tree in the hope of it sticking into the target.  AI tells me such knives are used in Bushcraft and Survival ( Ideal for heavy-duty tasks like splitting small pieces of wood, carving, or preparing kindling), Hunting and Fishing ( Used for field dressing game or cutting line and bait) and Camping (Handy for general camp chores and food preparation).  I can probably lay claim to the last of these uses.

Whatever we used them for neither I nor my friends had any thoughts of using them as offensive (or for that matter defensive) weapons.  Are my recollections just rose tinted?

I confess to still carrying a knife. It's a miniature Swiss army knife with a small blunt but pointed blade, a combined nailfile and mini screwdriver and the implement that I use most often - mini scissors.

I went to a talk about the violence Edinburgh and thereabouts experienced during the second world war.  How much?  Not much it turns out and after 1942 none.  The speaker has written a book about it called The Bombing of Edinburgh and Leith.  Very interesting and lot of fascinating photos.

Continuing on the theme of WWII I saw a pair of films about De Gaulle and his activities during the war.  Wikipedia has a long article about De Gaulle and the war and AI gives a neat summary if you google "de gaulle's part in world war two".  The films cover all of that pretty accurately as far as I can tell highlighting the struggles he had to weld together such French leaders and forces that were opposed to Vichy and his almost herculean struggles to get France equal billing as it were with the Americans and the British.  The films are maybe a bit on the Boys Own Paper side in their portrayal but I don't think anyone can deny that although he was an awkward bugger to deal with he was a great wartime leader.

Back in WWI Lawrence of Arabia (another awkward bugger) was making his mark and I saw the film, I think for the first time, on the telly.  It's quite long so I split it over two evenings.  It's definitely Boys Own Paper material and very enjoyable to boot.  I'm not surprised it won so many Oscars.  The cinematography was out of this world and made the most out of the films' beautiful locations. 

Everybody Digs Bill Evans gets a well deserved four star review from The Guardian but I was disappointed in the film. Disappointed because I had expected to hear lots of Evans' great piano music, not realising that the film was all about a period in which he was unable to make music because of the grief that he suffered after the death of his friend and musical collaborator Scott LaFaro.  Having got the idea I admired the film.  To hear his music an excellent album of the same name is available on Spotify.

Music that I have heard this month came from the RSNO's and the SCO's opening concerts of the 26/27 season.  Both started with big works, Mahler's 6th Symphony from the former and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique from the latter.  Both works have tremendous final movements but my mind drifted a good bit waiting for them.

I've always enjoyed Robert Harris's books so I was pleased to join Claire to hear him, courtesy of Toppings, speak about his latest novel, Agrippa.  It's a fictional memoir by a man who we've never really heard of.  He was famous for building aqueducts which is apparently what sparked Harris's interest.  It turns out he was a big chum of Octavius, later Augustus the first of Rome's emperors, and if not exactly the power behind the throne then a pretty significant player.  Harris gave a nice relaxed and informative talk.  I didn't buy the book but Claire did so I hope to borrow it at some point.

This week I heard Robert Harris in his earlier life as a Newsnight reporter on a great Radio 4 series about the Hitler Diaries forgery exposure in 1983.

The Palm Houses at the Botanic Gardens are on the verge of reopening to the public after a five year refurbishment programme.  Those of us who have spent a paltry few quid on membership of the Botanics have been able to steal a march on the public and get in a couple of weeks in advance.  I went down and admiringly walked through.  I had thought that the project included other of the glasshouses and it does but they remain to be tackled.  The restoration is lovely.  I took some pictures but these on the RBGE site are a lot better.  

Sarah and I had one of our periodic Japanese meals last weekend.  This time we went to Koyama in Forrest Road.  For a Saturday night they were not at all busy.  I suppose they and other businesses are suffering a post festival slowdown.  The food was good.  I had a lovely grilled aubergine starter and a tasty prawn yakisoba.  Pudding was so-so.  We tried their sake sampler which was small glasses of four or maybe five different sakes.  Unlike Sarah but true to my palate limitations they all tasted much the same to me.  I preferred my gin and tonic and would have had more had they not run out of tonic.  How can you do that??  I enjoyed a Sapporo beer instead.

My last visit to the cinema this month was to see the National Theatre Live production of The Misanthrope.  In a version set in today's world by Martin Crimp this strays somewhat from a direct reproduction. Moliere's play is a fairly straightforward satire on the hypocrisy of  the upper reaches of French society coupled with the paradox of Alceste's hatred of that hypocrisy while being head over heels in love with one of its finest exponents.  I thought Crimp's version, while entertaining and finely performed was overloaded with peripheral concerns.  I took part in Tony Harrison's version many years ago and I'd like to see the National Theatre who premiered it in 1973 perform it again.

Now that the equinox has passed winter is on its way.  I can't say I'm looking forward to it but I've had my boiler serviced in preparation. 

The EIF beanbag concert in tribute to John Wallace the trumpeter was very enjoyable. I particularly liked Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.  Getting out of the beanbag though was significantly more challenging this year than last.  I can see that next time I'll have to surrender to a conventional concert hall seat.

My other visit to the Usher Hall proved easier with respect to seating but was a little disappointing. Large choral works always attract me but Hiawatha didn't cut the mustard. Not that there was anything wrong with the music or the performance.  My damning critique is that it was inoffensive but dull.

Nothing dull about the music that accompanied the San Francisco Ballet's Mere Mortals.  Nor were the dancing or the staging in the least dull.  This for me was an utterly entrancing evening.  The Guardian's reviewer had lots of good things to say about it but felt that it lacked emotion and gave it a star or two less that I would have done. I'm sure she's right there but I'm happy to have forgone emotion (of which I am normally a strong supporter) in favour of the wonderful presentation.

Verdi's A Masked Ball also received a fine presentation from the Zurich Opera House with no shortage of emotion.  I'd never seen this opera before and opera is not entirely to my taste but I enjoyed all aspects of this production and as usual marvelled at the director's marshalling of her large forces.  This reviewer saw the first performance in Edinburgh and I saw the last so perhaps the weaknesses he found were eliminated over the run.  Or perhaps (which is very likely) I failed to perceive them.  This more sympathetic review accords more closely to my reactions. 

That rounded off my EIF shows.  Meanwhile on the Fringe I saw several things some good, some not so good.  For the record brief remarks on them all.

Wagner’s Ring for people who can’t be bothered to sit through it was a brilliantly funny adroitly managed and delivered romp through a parody of The Ring.  Great fun.

Steak Out was a well written and delivered comedy about a north Edinburgh family's plan to rob an up-market butchery of its meats and sell them in their own shop on Christmas Eve.  Plans naturally go agley and an entertaining hour of rich Edinburgh dialogue ensued. Excellent. Its venue was Teviot House, recently refurbished. As I went in I remarked to myself that it was 65 years ago that I first crossed that threshold. Tempus fugit and all that.

Already Here.  This was a shot in the dark prompted by a leaflet thrust into my hand near a venue and time that suited me.  Alas the play failed to suit me. The story told with great sincerity and feeling on the part of the actors (I felt nothing) is of a grieving widow who, failing to achieve another relationship, turns to AI.  She creates an AI boyfriend and we are condemned to follow the development of their affair. Big no from me but critics generally admired it.   

Through the Shortbread Tin.  This National Theatre of Scotland production which saw the light of day at the Tron a year or more ago was another show that failed to engage me.  Mind you I was tired and didn't attend full-time.  Sorry about that.  I enjoyed the Gaelic singing but otherwise this " Thought-provoking poetic theatre interrogating Scottish history" to quote a review provoked just yawns from me.

The Tamer Tamed.  Unlike the previous show where I was one of a full house at the Netherbow, for this show I was the entire audience.  That was a shame because there were some good things in it.  The presentation was simple but effective.  The acting was vigorous and committed.  The pace never flagged.  As Wikipedia explains  the play is a counterpart to The Taming of the Shrew in which the tables are turned on Petruchio by his second wife Maria.  It was written around 1620 and the text presented me with some difficulties.  I understood every word but after a bit of dialogue wasn't always sure what it was about.  For example there was some interchange about a wager at the end of which I wasn't at all sure who was wagering or what was being wagered about.

Japanese Grandma Funeral.  This was a great show; funny, warm, entertaining.  This review calls it a must see and they're right but it's too late now.

Wester Ross Story Club. Following on from the dramatised presentation of a story about a kelpie at a previous Fringe  (Was it last year?  I was in it but can't remember) this is a more straightforward telling of a couple of stories with some singing and a piece of music.  It was a pleasant and relaxing way to start the day.

Colin Steele and Martin Kershaw Quintet play Chet Baker and Stan Getz.  The title says it all.  That's what they did in the Jazz Bar with the support of piano from Dave Milligan, double bass from Brian Shiels and drums from Max Popp.  I've heard them do it before but that didn't detract from the pleasure of hearing the music again.  As my sister-in-law Sally said "it's nice to hear jazz with tunes in it".

Concerts of the Future.  This is where I made my own musical contribution to the Fringe.  When you go to this show you are met by chaps in lab coats who tell you that they are researching concert attendance; how to get away from the current convention of sitting quietly and attentively in a concert hall until breaking out into applause at the end. You then answer a few questions on a tablet and are ushered into the instrument lab where you are presented with an "instrument" supposedly fashioned to fit your personal qualities as revealed by your answers.  The group (the show handles five people at a time) then wave their instruments around and the various electronic bits and pieces in the room buzz and whistle, green lines spin across screens and you we get more scientific chatter from the "researchers".  Finally you put on a VR headset and find yourself sitting in an orchestra.  I had cellos to my left and violins to my right.  You then "play" your instrument in the closing section of Beethoven's 7th Symphony along with the orchestra.  It's good fun but the 30 second video of your performance that they send you afterwards is not flattering and best seen only by those who love you and swear not to laugh.  However feel free to react as you wish to this still from it.

It's a shame they don't integrate the participant and the orchestra that can be seen in the headset into the video.

The Curious Case of Osgood Mackenzie.  In this show I made my dramatic contribution to the Fringe. It was a rerun, with one cast change, of a show we performed in the 2023 Fringe and then took to where it is set, Wester Ross, in Autumn 2023 and in Spring 2024.  Osgood created the exceptional garden at Poolewe now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland.  The play though is about his relationship with his English wife Minna, their daughter and his redoubtable mother.  The NTS calls the garden "a labour of love and enduring commitment".  Unfortunately the same could not be said about Osgood and his mother's approach to his marriage. It's a sad tale of constant repression of what we would now regard as Minna's rights leading to complete estrangement between Minna and her daughter.  The Press and Journal published a good article about the genesis of the play in 2023. 

Considering Consciousness.  I've long been interested in the brain and its workings and where consciousness fits into the picture.  My interest tends to be pretty superficial having perhaps been at its deepest when I came across Gilbert Ryle and his Concept of Mind at university. At the book festival this year there were a few events related to the topic and this one was particularly enjoyable.  So enjoyable that I bought the books both authors were promoting.  You can't get more enthusiastic than that.  Let's hope I read them.

So you'll see I was reasonably busy during the festivals though rather less than in previous years.  It's not lack of interest but lack of energy.  I had to devote some energy to visitors.  My brother and sister-in-law stayed with me for a week and their daughter, husband and family who were glamping (though it sounded more camp than glamp) tended to breakfast in my flat.  We ate out together a couple of times.  I'd recommend La Sal but was less smitten by Cilantro (though my visitors loved it) and I mustered my resources and excited them all with my homemade ice-cream.

Thanks to being less active in show going than in the past I managed to read an excellent book which I picked more or less at random from the Book Festival bookshop.  It's A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.  I enjoyed it so much that I've ordered another of his novels from the library.