A very eye-catching embellishment to the King's Hall renamed House of Oz for the nonce.  It hasn't drawn me inside so far but there is yet time.

More reports on what I've seen.

The Road to Turangalila  and Turangalila - EIF concerts.  The former, introduced by Simon Rattle and Nicola Benedetti was a curtain raiser for the LSO's performance of Messiaen's enormous Turangalila Symphony.  As influences on that work they presented a fanfare by Dukas who had been Messiaen's teacher; Milhaud's La Création du Monde as the first classical work to fully embrace jazz, the spirit and indeed chords of which Rattle said run through the symphony; and Debussy's La Mer which they said took music in the direction that led to Messiaen.  Turangalila itself is long and contains much that is loud and played at a furious pace which is just the sort of thing I like.  For a more informed and informative report read this review.     

Adults - The Traverse scored again with this wonderfully funny contribution to the Fringe.  A male teacher arrives at an Edinburgh brothel to find that the young lady who greets him is a former pupil.  He has actually come in search of a male prostitute who is the girl's business partner.  Farce, comedy and tears ensued not to mention an exquisite political analysis of Thomas the Tank Engine.  Neither The Guardian nor The Stage thought much of the play but The Telegraph loved it as did I.  Does that mean I'm really a Tory at heart?

East Germany - Beyond the Myths -  In that inspired way it has the Book Festival brought together two totally different books that sprang from the same soil.   Jenny Erpenbeck grew up in the German Democratic Republic.  All her writing reflects that and Kairos, the novel featured in this session draws deeply on her personal experience and paints a picture far removed from the dark and dismal prison camp that we in the west imagined the GDR to be.  Katya Hoyer is a historian who came west when she was still a child but has a substantial connection with the east.  Her grandfather was one of the ten men who founded the GDR at the behest of the soviets.  Beyond the Wall is a history of that state in which she said that she refrained from judgement but laid out the facts for readers to draw their own conclusions.  Asked about the reception the book had had she said, amongst other things, that for the first time in her life she took issue with a positive review of her work on reading the Daily Mail's review.

Don Roberto - This was a cracker of a conversation between Ruth Wishart and Jamie Jauncey the author of Don Roberto a biography of R B Cunninghame-Graham whose great great nephew he is.  I heard him talk about Cunninghame-Graham a few years ago and everyone at that talk said "you must write a book".  And now he has and there is every indication that it's a corker.  A 19th century Liberal MP who agitated against child labour and for the rights of women; an MP who called for the abolition of the House of Lords and declared the Royal Family to be parasites; a toff who championed the working classes and co-founded the Scottish Labour Party with Keir Hardie; a man who was first president of the National Party of Scotland; a writer ; an adventurer who lived with the gauchos in Argentina and who was held to ransom in Morocco.  There is so much to be told about him.  Surely Hollywood will ultimately call.  

The Threepenny Opera - Audience and critics alike lauded this production but I was disappointed.  The more so in that Fiona and I had had a very pleasant lunch beforehand with old friends and I was in a benificent mood.  But the glitzy, showy nature of the production seemed to me quite the reverse of what Brecht had in mind so I took against it quite quickly.  A deliberate irony perhaps?  They played it too in a very knowing and self aware fashion that grated.  Their idea of Brechtian alienation perhaps?  On a practical note the elaborate steel grid that filled the stage looked good but partly hid the actors who crawled up and down it. In my line of sight as well was a double bass shaft (not the right word I'm sure) thanks to the band having been raised up in the orchestra pit.  I could go on but I won't.  Claire left at the interval and I don't blame her. 

Tartan - At the Book Festival.  Leonie Bell, director of the V&A Dundee discussed tartan with Jonathan Faiers who has been heavily involved in creating the must go to exhibition of that name currently on in Dundee and running till January.  It was a discussion that ranged widely over the history and cultural significance of tartan.  Faiers has also written a beautiful looking volume called Tartan that I shall give myself for Christmas.  As befits a professor of Fashion Thinking he had obviously thought about his appearance.  He wore a well cut black suit, a black polo shirt with discreet red trimmings at the neck and the most gorgeous red shoes.  I might give myself those for Christmas as well.

Waiting for a train at the bus stop -  I was drawn to this Summerhall Fringe show by a phrase in the programme blurb "Inter-weaving spoken word theatre with Zambian oral traditions."  It was a well performed production, technically very efficient and effective.  The acoustics of the performance space could have been better but that's not the company's fault.  I didn't think the phrase about Zambian oral tradition was borne out though.  It seemed completely and conventionally structured in the western theatre tradition.  The story was a not unfamiliar one of a person struggling to find herself, falling into a controlling relationship and ultimately not coming out of it well.

Showing Up - The Film Festival was caught up in financial travails last year putting its future in doubt but was rescued by the International Festival and was able to present a six day programme for the 2023 edition.  I signally failed to get my act together early enough to book and then clashes with the International and the Fringe meant that I had only one evening and one morning free to see anything at all.  So I saw this quiet and strangely compelling feature about an artist preparing her show, her broken down hot water supply, her slightly mal-functioning brother and the rescue of a pigeon with a broken wing.  I quietly enjoyed it.

The First Slam Dunk - I didn't enjoy this film at all.  It was Japanese which is why I chose it, despite it being an animated manga about which genre I generally hae ma doots.  It consisted of an interminable basketball game between the hero's school and the best basketing school in the country.  Short flashbacks interrupted the game to fill in the back story.  The hero's big brother was tall and a basketball wizard but he died in a fishing accident.  The hero, short and not such a wizard  was determined to fill his place.  The hero gets duffed up by bullying basketeers but this makes him more determined. Etc, Etc. The film ends with a one point last minute victory for the hero's team and he, having grown unaccountable taller, meets his mum on the beach, thanks her for letting him play and gambols in the shallows with his little sister. I could hardly understand a word of it either.  Hiss, boo. 

Alvin Ailley American Dance Theater -  A beautiful show, especially the last section called Revelations which was dancing to spirituals.  It looked gorgeous, sounded gorgeous and was worth the quite a lot of money.