Another event ... 

I finally managed to persuade Alice to help me write up another outing we had recently. As you know, she's been "underground" for simply ages, but I think we can say she's making her way up to the everyday world again, although she hastens to add it's very gradually indeed. She's up a bit (for a little longer?) then down again (but not quite so far?) by fits and starts. If you've been there yourself, you'll know what we mean.

The picture of me here is a kind of clue to what, or who, we've seen. Do you get it? I had to make do with one of Alice's gloves to pose in, as although she managed my stripey scarf, I imagine mittens my size are a bit beyond her capabilites with knitting needles. Still, she took the photo anyway, and got so carried away Googling links and looking for images she almost forgot she needed some lunch.
We went to the cinema. First time since February (oops) March, will you believe! She was determined to see 20,000 Days on Earth which is a fictional (very much so, see this article) psudo-documentary, purportedly (what a simply splendid word) recounting a day in the life of Nick Cave. Got the clue now? Alice really likes his music, and the film isn't a three hour epic like some. [Don't forget to click on images to see them larger.]

Yes, we enjoyed it, despite the fact that afterwards Alice felt totally exhausted and even a bit dizzy. That's not because of the content, it was just the effect of the assault on the auditory and visual senses that any film launches at its audience. When your nervous system has become over sensitive like hers has recently, movies are not the best experience to go for too soon!

We first came accross Nick Cave when a Five Rhythms teacher played his magnificent Red Right Hand for some energetic Staccato. Listen on YouTube here if you don't know it: we're not quite sure how we feel about the accompanying visuals, however. Alice has been something of a fan ever since.

IMDB lists some of Nick Cave's Trade Marks as "Unique musical style which mixes Punk Rock, Blues and classical piano based ballads" and "Soaring sorrowful musical scores". Quite. There's a long compliation on Alice's iPod, mostly from The Best of  Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds CD, plus a few others.

When she'd recovered at home from the screen onslaught, she played them over and even sort-of danced in the kitchen. That was indeed a good little slice of Up.

20,000 Days is certainly a very weird film. Mark Kermode was rather iffy, but still gave it four stars. Check out other reviews at Rotten Tomatoes. Some of it was hilarious, some very self-obsessed:  yet the most interesting part, in our view, was how he worked so tirelessly on his songs, nurturing his creativity, then both composing and recording.

We see him with his long-time collaborater, Warren Ellis, trying out melodies and ingenious backing sounds in the studio.

Now that's a truely amazing beard that Ellis sports.

As well as recordings and live gigs, the two have a number of excellent and usually very atmospheric film scores to their credit. For some of our favourite films, too: The Proposition, for example: a gritty Australian "Western" starring Ray Winstone, for which Cave also wrote the screenplay. It got four stars from The Guardian.

Although she won't rush to go to the cinema again that soon - except perhaps to Mike Leigh's forthcoming Mr Turner with Timothy Spall and breath-taking cinematography - Alice thought she'd try watching TV again.

Downton Abbey is both easy on the intellect, not too taxing on the senses (there are breaks for ads, or the loo, or a cup of tea, after all) it's superbly acted, and altogether harmlessly delightful as only the best in costume drama can be.

But Red Right Hand stirred memories of rather different fare: it's the theme tune for Peaky Blinders now back on the BBC for its second season.

Aaah, that dishy Cillian Murphy, playing the head of a Birmingham mafia-style family between the wars.

The peaks are on the caps, by the way, and they're blinders beause there are razor blades hidden therein.

It's nasty and violent in places, but also very emotionally engaging, and so brilliantly acted and filmed that it's well worth our time.

And it has some fabulous period cars!

Now we'll just have to wait til the next series, I suppose...

Still here. . .  
and 
A Song of Ice and Fire

We are still here, despite indications to the contrary. Alice has been what she's called "Underground". That's really a euphemism, as you've probably worked out. Now there's a lovely word, isn't it? It even means "sounds nice". Humpty would have paid that one extra, I'm sure. I digress, but you must be used to that by now. In fact she's been overwhelmed by a sea of problems - personal, psychological, and practical - especially plumbing. All of which are "p" words, you'll notice. Odd, isn't it?

And we may as well add political, too. The Scottish Independence Referendum looms ever closer, and Alice has gone from Yes to No, to Yes again, and right now she's just Perplexed - another "p" to add to the mix. She's been anti-nuclear since forever, so it's hard for her to weigh that against all the confusion there seems to be over the financial implications. Sigh. But that's human politics for you. I just think we should all be nice to each-other, but she says I'm being simplistic.

I'm worried that she's been playing an awful lot of Mahjong Titans on her computer, far more than can be good for her. I think she's addicted, but she says it calms her down. Or is it a kind of freezing-over, I ask. It's a Solitaire game of matching, using these Chinese tiles: 144 of them, rather than the mere 52 of a standard card pack. I admit they are very pretty indeed, and the different lay-outs are named after animals. But no Monkey, however, so I just find it boring.  [Click on the images to see a bit bigger...]

The Computer plays a mean game of chess as well, but Alice is not able to think far enough ahead to do anything more than win by chance now and then at the very easiest level. She's always admitted her block, and has even consented to type that bit of information here! And that's despite all the chess characters like the White Knight in her namesake's adventures Through the Looking Glass.

In the book, she pulled him out when he got stuck, but I'm not big enough to do that for her now. She thanks me for  encouraging her to write this: and says it is a kind of pulling out. Fingers crossed, folks.

One of our followers (at least) has been concerned about this lack of blogging. But since we have recently been to an event worth mentioning, I've persuaded her to write a little about it. A friend got Alice a ticket to accompany her to hear George R R Martin at the Edinburgh Book Festival, given as how she loves his Song of Ice and Fire books, and has box sets of all the HBO TV Game of Thrones series. [Beware spoilers on any site about either of these. You have been warned!] As he wrote himself, "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies... The man who never reads lives only one." A Guardian report includes some quotes from the talk.

We did enjoy seeing him live. He talked about his literary forebears, both fantasy and horror, including Tolkien of course. Less obviously (to us at least) he admired Marvel Comics' Stan Lee who created the Fantastic Four superheroes.

His own characters, though, are never 100% villains, or completely good. That's one of the things Alice likes so much about his writing: they are all well rounded, they face moral dilemmas, and are changeable.

GRRM's reality influences included standing on Hadrian's Wall; the Wars of the Roses; plus some of the bloody events in Scottish history, such as the Glencoe Massacre and the Black Dinner  [scroll down this link]. If you don't know what episodes in the books are herein referred to - you have that pleasure still to come.

He started writing what he thought was a trilogy in the 1990's, and it's still unfinished, with five so-called "books" published - actually seven thick wedges of print. No-one at this event asked when he was going to finish it. Just as well, as there's a joke (we hope) online somewhere that whenever he gets asked that, he kills off another of our favourite characters! Alice asked him whether, when he began, he knew how he would end the epic and who would die en route. And had he changed his mind about any of that? The answer was Yes to the first, No the second.

He was amazed at first at all the fan websites with their many speculations and arguments about some deliberate mysteries in the plot, and the unknown ending. Only a few of the guesses were right. No-one in the audience (or the author himself) gave anything away or even suggested any of the answers. Good! In fact, even though he likes to surprise his readers, he won't alter his planned to-be-revealed solutions: he's planted clues saying "the butler did it", so he can't now turn round and say "it was the chambermaid". Our lips are sealed.

His favourite characters are probably Tyrion and Arya: they're Alice's too. Here's an early (so almost no spoilers) introduction to Tyrion on YouTube, and a similar one for the feisty wee lassie.

The photo is of Maisie Williams as Arya with her sword, named Needle. Why? Because she hated sewing but loved having very own weapon.

Sorry...

It seems Alice's trip "Underground", mentioned in our previous post below has turned into something a little longer-lasting, more akin to Persephone's sojourn in Pluto's murky underworld.

The encompassing gloom and the length of it, however, is just about where any similarity ends, as she hasn't eaten a pomegranate, and there's no sign (yet, I keep telling her) of rescue by a Demeter figure (perhaps she's within, I've tried hinting). She complains the season's not strictly correct, either, quoting April is the cruelest month at me. She even gave up on finding a good link to this, so you'll have to search one out yourself if you don't know (hint: it's from T S Eliot). Alice also insists a blog is not the place for diagnosis or prognosis.

Still, I did manage to get her to find a nice image for you lot out there. Of course, she protested she doesn't feel anything like as darkly romantic as Rossetti's painting, and something by Tracey Emin would have been far more appropriate. Sigh.

Just be patient, please.

Mind about the gap?
This is just by way of letting you know, in case you were worried, that we haven't totally given up on our blog: but Alice is in a bit of a psychological Underground just now. 

No, we don't mean the Lewis Carroll one. Or didn't you know that the original title of Dodgson's manuscript was actually Alice's Adventures under Ground? 

You can see his own charming illustrations and careful handwriting at this link to Lenny's wonderful Alice site.

Mind you, our Alice does say she feels (just sometimes) as though she's in a perplexing dream like that and wishes she could wake up.

Which she will, of course, in her own good time. I reckon that just bothering to write this brief apology is a propitious sign of her eventual emergence.

Talking of emergence, here's a cheery Spring-like photo of yours truly with our successfully bloomimg and sweetly smelling indoor hyacinth, plus some daffs from the supermarket, and a sweet little rose-bud we found on the stair. The window boxes are still suffering from the bitter cold, however.

Meanwhile we're secretly hoping you do "Mind the gap" without us.

But is it Art? 

We're so far behind that this is somewhat out of date, but we wanted to fill the gap.

Our afore mentioned visitor was an old (re-discovered) university friend of Alice's, who brought us these super goodies, including some lovely blooming iris. We got through the chocolates pretty fast, but the whiskey lasted just a bit longer.

We met her at the station, and went for a refreshing cup of tea in the Fruitmarket Gallery Cafe, round the corner.

We had a quick look at this exhibition. Louise Bourgeois is (or was, she died in 2010) a prolific, unusual and apparently very influential artist.

We saw some gigantic works on paper, made towards the end of her life: a mixture of writing, drawing and printmaking. The leaflet called them "both haunted and haunting". They were full of bizarre biological images, and statements like I distance my self from myself.

Personally I found them lurid and nightmarish, and not a lot of fun at all. Alice didn't say much, but did mutter she preferred Tracey Emin for that sort of personal stuff - at least she has a sense of humour.

Oh well, it certainly takes all sorts, especially in Art.  Of which there was more the next day.

We took a walk along part of the Water of Leith.

[Click on the images to see larger.]

Pretty berries aren't they?

Then we climbed the back steps up to Gallery of Modern Art. And there were snowdrops out here too! I do love being in Nature.

In the garden was our old friend Henry Moore's Reclining Figure,Two Piece. 

It used to live in the Botanic Gardens, and Alice is often reminiscing how her sons used to climb around it and in it when they were small.

We went to see, wait for it - yes, more of Louise Bourgeois.



But as you can tell from the poster, this was very different indeed. There were lots of intriguing objects made from varying materials. I particulary liked her Couple 1 featured here, despite them having no heads. But I wasn't allowed to climb and swing on it. Boo, hoo.

Check out the Gallery's website on the exhibition, and look at the links to the video and so on.

After a delicious salad in the cafe, we managed to get seats on the little Gallery bus into town, and were treated to an unofficial, but most entertaining guide by the driver.

Alice's friend wanted us to go up Arthur's Seat, but  it was too far for the time of day (not to mention our legs) and is actually a much higher peak than it looks.

We made do with Calton Hill instead.

There are great views of the city, as well as over the Forth on the other side.

Up there a surprise awaited us.

Collective, a contemporary art organisation, is due to open in the old City Observatory on the hill later this year, but meanwhile is putting on events in a portacabin.

The three of us got to be the total audience for a strange theatre piece called Anti-VWAP. There was a pallet of bottles of water, with an actor doing physical exercises, inviting us to join in, and talking about some strange financial scheme I didn't understand at all.

If you want to be further puzzled, there's a review in this is tomorrow.

Sometime after our visitor departed, Alice and I went back to the Fruitmarket Gallery to examine Louise Borgeois' 220 Insomnia Drawings, created during an eight month period of insomnia over the winter of 1994-95, when she was struggling with deep anxieties.

Well, need I say any more? She certainly has our sympathy, but some things are not meant for public display.

The book I'm sitting on, however, had a good image of one of her many giant spider sculptures, an example of  which I really loved in the other exhibition - you could walk right under it. She identified the positive aspects of spiders with her mother, a weaver.

I will embarrass Alice by insisting that we note she had her birthday during our break from blogging.

She didn't really celebrate, as she was rather "in the doldrums" at the time. You look it up, this once.

I won't go so far as to mention the exact date, or her venerable age, but I will reveal that she is an Aquarian and seems to fit the bill.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible 

 Sorry folks for the gap in writing.

Alice has been awfully busy, preparing for and then entertaining a visitor (maybe we'll tell you about that later); getting ready for a new super-fast computer (lots and lots of backing-up); being somewhat poorly for the better part of two weeks (we won't go into the details here);  then trying to set up the new machine (partial success, but she lost one of her  passwords and some programs just won't work!) So you see, you'll have to be patient with us.

Doesn't that image above make the whole page look squint? Weird. It was the best we could find that didn't need any editing - technical difficulties there too. Oh well, bye for now!

Twelfth Day 

We've now had the traditional Twelfth Night of Christmas - or whatever religious feast or pagan festival you actually celebrated. See our post on December 19th for all that stuff. So today is the twelfth day - depending when you start the count, of course. And there's that song, too, which maybe had special hidden meanings!

The twelfth day is supposedly when the three Magi, or wise men, or astrologers, or kings (if they really did exist at all) arrived to see the infant Jesus in Bethlehem. It's also the time when more heathen celebrations took place. See what we said last year about that.

I'm quite sad to be taking down the decorations and cards, they cheer the whole place up, but we can't postpone it much longer or it'll be the thirteenth day and bad luck, or so they say ...

Alice has spent some time today revising her Annual Budget, based on last year's bills. Sounds a rather boring activity to me, but she seems to really enjoy compiling her system for keeping In the Black. She even uses Excel to keep track. I've protested that she's about to splash out an awful lot of £££ on a new super-fast computer, just so she can edit video! Pretensions of fame?

But this will be a deduction from her "Big Money" savings, not the monthly "Little Money", she says.

Little Money? Actually old duodecimal coins.

Pound and ten shilling notes

I even quoted the famous Micawber saying from Dickens:  
    Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.

It's especially pertinent as Alice is old enough to remember the pounds, shillings and pence which didn't get replaced by decimal until 1971. But to no avail.

Instead she got sentimental about the little Farthing coins, worth a quarter of an old penny, one forty-eighth of an old shilling, and 1/960 of a pound. That's roughly 0.1042 new pence. It used to buy a single "chew" in a sweetie shop.

This image is enlarged, it was only 20mm in diameter.
It is pretty though, isn't it?

These attractive coins went out of circulation in 1961. Alice had a collection of them when she was a child, and never forgave her mother for throwing them away! If only she'd known you can sell them on eBay, we might be rich.

Enough procrastination: stop blogging and finish taking down the decorations. Then supper.