The Surreal and the sublime  

My goodness me, we've been very, very busy most of this August, so haven't had time to write about it here. But Alice has at last caught up with editing the photos she's taken of our various activities. She's such a perfectionist it takes an awful lot of hours where she's totally absorbed, forgets to eat, doesn't sleep when she's tired and so on, while Ba and I get bored.

But the results are worth it, I hasten to add, before she gets all sniffy and retorts, "Who's in most of them!" or starts muttering about the trials of being creative and misunderstood . . .

There was an exhibition called Surreal Encounters at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art One, where we've often been before. (If that's your sort of art, it's on until 11th September.) Ba doesn't "Do Art" like Alice and myself, but consented to come beause she likes spending time in the gardens.

Arriving somewhat after our lunch-time, we first went straight to the truely excellent cafe. They had a salad with spicey roast parsnips! It was so yummy we're going to try making it ourselves this very evening. If you click on the photo, you can read about the StreetSmart charity, which persuades diners to donate and help the local homeless and hungry. Cunningly good idea.

As for the exhibition itself, Alice admits she was glad she's a Friend of the Galleries, and doesn't have to pay for entry once her subscription's gone out, as there actually wasn't a lot in it we particularly liked. There was some interesting SalvadoR DAli work [ I think we should keep that typo, he would have liked it, I'm sure.] It included an absolutely gigantic Triptych, which we simply can't do justice to. See it online here, and let it fill your whole screen.

Despite herself, Ba was absolutely delighted by one of the famous Lobster Telephones (plural, as there are a few of them in the world.) It made her giggle a lot. I acknowledge it was amusing. But is it Art?

Alice and she were both quite drawn to Max Ernst's jungle paintings as well, with all their weird and wild greenery. Click on it and take a closer look at this one!

But we soon made up for our indoor disappointment, when we went into the totally real green garden outside. Here, in keeping with the exhibition theme, the gallery had set up a kids' playground called Surreal Adventures.

Where are we?
What's out there?

As ever, click on the images to see bigger versions.

Just take a look at the photos below: we won't bother to explain too much.

Remember the Escher Maze at Modern Two, last year? (There's a delightful video of it on YouTube.) Well, this was a lot less frustrating, and a great deal more fun! Plus it had an Alice in Wonderland theme, so our Alice was all the more enchanted.

Outside
looking in. Note what looks like the back of a grey sofa.

And inside,
looking out.

There were quotations like this on several of the "cards."

Looks comfy? Alice cheated and "took out" the edge of the text fully visible in the next picture.

There were helpful hints on how to make your photos look Surreal as well.

The Blogger interface here
isn't WYSIWYG at all (you Google that one!) and Alice is getting extremely frustrated trying to make it look how she wants, and swearing with terms I refuse to let her type in.

I've told her to give up gracefully, and just add the last few photos any old how. Oh dear, it seems from the next round of swearing that's as good as sacrilege to a perfectionist like her. But I was only trying to help.

This fallen over clock is very Lewis Carroll, isn't it?

And no, we didn't actually have a surreal ice-cream. They were just things like strawberry flavour, coloured green. And expensive too.

But it was a jolly good visit all round, I must say.













What else? 
Most of our Edinburgh Fringe Festival time was spent at Summerhall, attending the varied programme put on by the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards.

It was their first visit to the UK, and Alice says we were privileged to be able to see them here for nine days. It was quite an experience: it blew my socks off, as they say. (Why socks? Have a look at Quora and the video there.)

But it needs a completely separate post, with more photos of the venue plus some of the company, and a bit of history to explain what it's all about. Be patient, please.

The Sublime  

By way of ending this post, we'll just mention a concert we went to, given by the Edinburgh Renaissance Band. They play the most amazing collection of historical instruments, such as sackbuts and cornetts, shawm, recorders and viols. There's even a bizarre looking one called a Serpent.

Alice was keen to hear them, though I thought it would probably be rather old hat. (Why hat? Try here.)

They were joined by Polyhymnia, a dance trio who perform Renaissance dances. Some of these were so very slow and stately, they were barely dances at all, but they did liven up at points.

Alice took a bit of video, and hopes she'll eventually find time to edit that too. Watch this space. . .

Ba stayed at home with the geraniums and missed a treat. I have to admit, after all, that it was really very beautiful, even if in a weird kind of way. You can hear a sample of the music on YouTube.

EIFF Short Film Challenge, floral update, and (maybe) working on The Extras
[Updated Tuesday 9th August  2016] 

We're just recovering from the excitement of going to the Filmhouse on Saturday for the awards presentation of the winning films. It was all rather like a mini-version of the Oscars, but without a procession up the red carpet, I'm sorry to say. I'd been especially looking forward to that!

Having decided to dress more like Jenny Beavan, or Iris Apfel, than in an evening dress (Alice hasn't got one as such) and diamonds (ditto) we were relieved she's finally put up the rack for her collection of necklaces. Most of them come from a Cancer Research charity shop. The job entailed an awful lot of swearing and two sets of holes in the crumbly plaster. Don't ask.

She finally determined on her patchwork trousers and colour co-ordinated tops, with just a few of the necklaces. She had promised to make me a kilt, but progress there is particularly slow, given that we're very busy with The Extras, so Ba and I went "au naturel." Having wool and fur, it's not at all the same as it would have been for an elderly human being. [Alice won't type what I was going to say about that.] 

After watching all ten shortlisted films, we went up on stage for a Q&A with the other film-makers. Alice's son took some photos, but distance and camera only produced something very blurred and pixelly. Our photo whizz-kid spent ages doing her best, so please do click!

The lights were shining straight at us, and we couldn't see the audience very well, but we managed to pick out most of our friends and supporters, though not whether they were smiling or not. Still, they all said nice things afterwards, so we must have seemed OK.

Our submission was titled Reading in Bed @ 70, as you'll know if you've been following us. Ba says you must click on this image, to read her witty wording.

We didn't actually win any of the awards, but felt we'd done ourselves proud to be shortlisted as one of the ten out of thirty or so entries.

You can see the list of winners and the day's program on the EIFF site.
Now it's all over, you can also watch the video on Alice's friend's YouTube Channel.

Floral update
We like to keep our followers up to date with the state of our windowsill and indoor plants, so here's a few recent photos of their progress.

You can see how the windowbox has filled up as the plants gradually flourished after we planted them in early June. [See this post.] Ba loves the tiny, delicate Lobelia and I like the big bold Marigolds.

The tall straggly plants are Chrysanthemums, never removed since last year: we'll have to wait for them to flower later on. We were delighted when the first Nasturtium finally came out, ten days on.

And even more so when we got a whole bevvy of the beauties! This photo was taken only a week later. Funny how we seem to be sitting in almost exactly the same places, isn't it?

We've got a good collection of indoor plants as well, sitting behind the sink in the kitchen window. Several of these are Geraniums, some too tall to see here.

Living in a tenement flat wihout our own garden, all three of us take great pleasure in being able to look at the various plants growing away so happily.

I don't think you can really justify that "happily", unless it's a transferred epithet, but Ba insists that plants do experience such feelings, and she can tell. Alice sometimes talks to them, too, but she has an annoying habit of thinking out loud a lot of the time anyway. She says it's a great deal more deliberate with the plants, and she thanks them for looking so lovley and cheering her up if she's down. Humans!

Working on The Extras 
You'll need to wait for that, as there's plenty to say on the topic but weariness calls Alice to her bed for some sleep. 

This part of the title sequence gives you a taste of how much is involved. Click to see it at a readable size.

She's yawning. It really will have to wait.