This was one of the Jazz Festival gigs that I most enjoyed.  Martin Kershaw had been commissioned to write some music to accompany the John Lavery exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland last year.  He wrote eight pieces in response to eight of Lavery's paintings done in the open air and reprised these with a trio of other musicians, guitar, double bass, and piano, for the festival.  

I went to see the Napier summer school concert and recognised about three players from one or other of the years in which I'd taken part. They played in St Brides this year which was fine but I feel lacked the atmosphere that the same gig generated in previous years in the Jazz Bar.

This year in the Jazz Bar I enjoyed a group led by Sue Mackenzie that played a fusion of jazz and folk.  They featured bagpipes on one number and in the confines of the Jazz Bar wonderful though it was, that was probably enough exposure to the pipes.

The other gigs I went to were fine but not paricularly memorable.  There is such a lot on that it's hard to choose.

I've only been back to the Filmhouse once since the re-opening.  Although what's on is easily ascertained on their website I miss the monthly arrival of a printed programme to leaf through and choose from.  What I went to see was the 40th anniversary restoration of Kurosawa's historical epic Ran. I'd never seen it but I'm glad I made the effort after 40 years.  It was absolutely brilliant.  The colour, the scale, the battle scenes, the drama;  all fantastic.  The acting style I suppose we might call heightened but the story deserves it and I don't think it quite tips over into ham.   

Filmhouse were having a wee bit of a Kurosawa fest that week so on the same day I also saw The Bad Sleep Well, an even older film.  It came out in 1960 in black and white.  A good revenge drama with most characters dead by the end.

Claire had a barbecue at the weekend.  The weather was reasonable though light rain drove us indoors eventually.  We were however annoyed by wasps.  They've apparently had a good year and are consequently more plentiful.  I know they play some vital role in keeping the planet spinning but couldn't they do it less publicly.  Someone put out a dish with honey in it to divert them from our plates but it turned out they preferred chicken, or more probably whatever the chicken had been marinaded in.  So we dumped chicken remnants into the honey dish and that helped.