An exciting email, Monkey's makeover, a few films and a flying finale
[Updated Tuesday 12th & Saturday 30th July 2016] 

Exciting email
Guess what! Our updated video of Reading in Bed @ 70 [see our previous blog post] has been shortlisted in the top ten by the Edinburgh International Film Festival Short Film Challenge, no less! It will be screened with the others on Saturday August 6th at the Edinburgh Filmhouse at 2:00pm. It's free, but ticketed, so if you intend to come, you should book. They will all be shown again on August 20th and 25th at this event as part of the Edinburgh Digital Entertainment Festival (looks interesting) but you'll have to pay! Oops, these showings are free, but others in the EDEF may cost you.
  
We were all so extremely excited when Alice got the email there was a lot of leaping about and laughing and cheering.

Of course, we don't have any expectations of actually winning, and suspect it was shortlisted just because it is so unusual, even if not up to professional standards. But then we did include some self-referential criticism! However, we notice there is "a special recognition for Most Innovative Use of the EIFF theme (seventy)" which might just apply. . . Watch this blog later.

Please be reassured that in the image above Ba has not trapped her hand, she is in the process of raising the clapper in order to bring it down again with a really satisfying bang. You can see and hear this in the original Reading in Bed [the one without the crucial @ 70 alterations and additions] on Alice's friend Joy's YouTube channel. If you can't manage to be at the Edinburgh event, or just don't feel so inclined, we're going to get her to post the new version too, after the show, for you to see at your leisure if you wish.

In view of this impending public event, I required some really real patching up. This involved being darned by Alice with Anchor embroidery thread (colour matched, of course.) Give her her due, she was very careful.

The first photo here (click to see larger) shows half-way through the process and reveals, for the first time, my remaining sad bald patches. (It's all that being carried about in a rucksack, rubbing against my sensitive fur, and nothing to do with age!) The second shows how I appear with the digital touching up, previously employed only for online appearances. I much prefer this look, but needs must, I suppose. Sigh.

Next, we found some wool, rather than embroidery thread, and darning with that seemed to have a less glaring effect. Whew. Then she decide Ba and I both needed  a good scrub-up (just on the non-delicate areas ..) The things we do for appearances! Here we are sitting together for mutual support while drying out and recovering. [Click as usual . . .]

Alice herself is already wondering whether she'll turn up in full feminine finery, or do a sort-of Jenny Beaven wearing her jeans, or bright patchwork trousers, with Iris Apfel style necklaces from the Cancer Research charity shop. We'll let you know, and might even have a photo.

It's getting late, as it usually does somehow when we're writing a blog, so the bit about a few films will have to wait for the updated version. Night, night!

A few films
I think two films will do for now, or this will never get posted before bed-time again.

See me here, beside a huge poster for Tale of Tales in Edinburgh's Cameo cinema, before going to see this super film of three interwoven  traditional 17th century fairytales. The little booklet below is much more my size.


Some of it is pretty gory (15 certificate) even more so than appears in the trailer, and horrific, as well as rather sexy. It had absolutely some of the most gorgeous design and cinematography we've ever seen, and wonderful music too. The acting was superb all round, the sets and settings were fantastic. The special effects were so well done that I even forgot they were almost certainly "added" to the scenes later.

There are of course morals to be found, but these are deep ones and Alice said you'll have to work them out for yourself. So there! In fact she has seen it twice, though once satisifed me.

We went to several films in the Edinburgh Film Festival, and our film friend has reviewed most of them, but one we really liked, Neither Wolf nor Dog (based on the book of the same title) hasn't got listed by Letterboxd yet, though it is on IMDb and Facebook.

See the trailer on YouTube to get a taste of it.

The most amazing thing about it is that Dan, stubborn, quirky, serious and humorous too, is played by 97 year old real-life Chief Dave Bald Eagle. He's simply terrific - and apparently still going strong.

The film reveals the horrific history of white oppression of the Native American Indian race, and is very enlightening as well as moving, especially when we reach the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre.

The whole enterprise was done with crowd-funding, and had just two in the crew. There's a good review of the film here, so read that, and we'll save Alice's weary typing fingers and some space on here.

A flying finale
As you will probably know if you've followed us for a while, we're avid fans of HBO's Game of Thrones. Recently we had occasion to see the last two episodes of Season Six with a neighbour down the road and her Monkey. WOW! What a blast that was. Those in the know will know what I mean. No spoilers here, however.

We thought you might enjoy this photo of the other Monkey, practising his dragon-riding. It clearly startled the leopard hiding behind baby Drogon's wing. There's something in the show for everyone, you see, human or not.

Films, forgotten photos, flowers . . . 

I know, it's been ages since our last post, but we've been very, very busy indeed.
If you've seen the video of Reading in Bed on Alice's friend Joy's YouTube channel, you will see this title is a bit different: we've added "@ 70". It's a new version, based on the earlier video, but with significant alterations to the title, the commentary by me and Ba, the background music, and other stuff, so we could enter it for a competition!

The Edinburgh International Film Festival (of which more in a while) has a yearly competition for a short film (under 8 minutes) and each year there's a key word which has to be included: this year, the 70th such festival, it was SEVENTY! Perfect for us, as Alice is just a bit over that age.

She was so keen to enter, that she's even allowed us to admit to her truly venerable years, not just here, but also in my commentary when her glasses slide off her nose. There's generosity in the cause of creativity for you! [She's blushing as she types.]

Of course, it's meant a lot of extra work and not a few bouts of swearing blue (why "blue?) slaving over the computer, preparing the new version in a hurry to get it submitted in time.

And then, they extended the deadline!! If we'd known, we could have tidied up some of the little glitches which had bothered Alice. She's a terrible perfectionist, with Virgo rising, which is why everything we do takes so very long. But then, I think, they are part of what lends the enterprise its own unique charm. Anyway we'd let Ba make her naive criticisms, as they sent the whole thing up in a trendy, filmic self-referential manner.

On top of this, we've also been working on the promised Extras! Lots of photos and bits of video to sort out there, not to mention our own judicious commentary. No wonder we're behind with this blog. When the competition is over, we'll ask our friend Joy to upload @ 70 to her channel as well.

Forgotten Photos

Back in April, when Alice recovered her funeral hat, we mentioned seeing the Titum Aurum, and posted a photo. Recently she was reminded of the sheer amazingness of plants, when her Poetry Group discussed a poem by Denise Levertov.

But she couldn't find the other photos of the visit! She eventually discovered it was because it was in late June 2015, after the momentous trip to Yorkshire (when we adopted Ba) and the delay in catching up extended from that catching up to this one too.

So Alice busily edited away and caught up.

And here they are, very much delayed. Just click to see them at a larger size.

Above I'm waiting in the long queue. On the left is a banner prepared by the RBGE explaining the growth cycle of the flower - not every year, but only rarely. See also the RGBE website for more details.

While we were there, we also visited the wonderful hot houses.

They are indeed very hot, and very steamy. But Alice declared it was worth a dose of sweating for the beautiful water lillies, and the graceful Hibiscus.

And the wilder flowers are lovely too. I enjoy just sitting in the gardens, soaking up the atmosphere, so we go back there every now and again, sometimes for an Art Exhibition, too. See our previous blog post, right below this one, or in a separate tab here.


More flowers still

As you may well know already, we have our own flowers at home, despite living in a tenement flat.

Our window boxes might not look like much from the outside, but they give us a lot of pleasure. [Do click!]

Recently we did a big re-planting, removing the dead bulbs and getting ready to replace them with fresh plants newly bought (from Homebase.) We've got some trailing blue Lobelia, some Empress of India Nasturtium (a gorgeous red, we hope) and some bright yellow Marigolds, already in flower. It was very late in the evening by the time the whole job was complete and we put them back outside, hoping the tender young plants would survive a slightly chilly night.

Alice decided to record the event, anyway. Shooting with flash at night has a quite dramatic effect, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, we have our indoor collection inside the kitchen window.

Ba didn't want to risk falling off the hanging basket, but sat more happily below.

Alice doesn't always "remember" to water them, as it invloves climbing a ladder and standing on the draining board, but the Geraniums seem to forgive her and keep on blooming. A welcome sight to cheer her while washing the dishes, I say! She's grunting now - it's not a favourite occupation.

The Film Festival

The 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival will soon be upon us! Therefore much anticipatory excitement in our film-loving houshold.

We  grabbed a programme as soon as they came out.

There's lots and lots of films of all genres and styles and nationalities to choose from. Actually, Alice thinks it's easier to browse it online. You can start by making a provisional list, with the help of the "My EIFF" section.

By the time we'd compared our not-so-short list with what was possible, given the clashing dates and/or times, all four pages of the calendar looked like this! But our tickets are now booked, paid for and delivered. Hurrah!

I expect, however, there will be another long gap in our blogging while we enjoy, digest, and recover fom the event. You have been warned.

Another type of film
Meanwhile, we made a rare visit to our local multiplex, booking online (cheaper) and using an E-ticket on the smartphone for the first time.

Can you guess what we went to see?

Not a hard job, with our Alice's enthusiasm for all things related to the literary Alice and the original real-life Alice Liddell.

Yes, it was the new Disney film, called Alice Through the Looking-Glass. It's had terrible reviews in general, but our favourite critic, Mark Kermode, said on Radio5 that he liked it, so we gave it a go. If you don't mind spoilers, this early trailer (there are several versions around online) gives you a good feel of the piece. 

 [ We had to chop this rather splendid poster in half, it's so long and thin. . . ]

As long as you realise that the film is NOT a version of the original Lewis Carroll book, although we do see all our favourite characters - it's still good fun, and even touching in places.

One of the "new" characters is Time (deliciously played by Sacha Baron Cohen.) In the A Mad Tea-Party chapter of the original Wonderland book, the Hatter explains to Alice that Time is a "HE" not an "IT". In this film, he is owner of the Chronosphere, which keeps the minutes of the univese ticking as they should, but can be used to travel in time.

Time also has some delightful tiny machine-like helpers, the "Seconds" (they can aggregate into Minutes and Hours when required) who in character reminded me just a little of the Minions.

This one is Wilkins, metal-mustachioed and steam-powered, with an exhaust pipe on his head. He can speak, though the other Seconds communicate only in ticks and tocks. The cute, green-eyed robot propping up the book is "our little oil can with legs", says director James Bobin, "the curious puppy who always wants to help out."

See the article in Entertainment Weekly for more details, plus a scarey photo of an angry Minute. There's also a simply wonderful clip of Alice being introduced to the Seconds by Time on good old YouTube. It's well worth a look.

Even Ba, whom we dragged along rather reluctantly (she's not fond of the cinema in general, says it's all too artificial, too loud, too bright, and just Too Much!) appeared to have fun after all. I think the Seconds won her over.

There is a lot of manic time-travel in it, back and forth. Alice confuses the Hatter by meeting him when he is younger, but she is older.

The script is original and daring: not only is Alice a fiercely independent and talented young woman, who expertly captains her deceased father's ship, but the backstories to the madness of the Hatter and the rivalry between the Red Queen and the White are cleverly portrayed. The subtilty of the psychological lessons learned, but never forced on us, reminded us of those in Inside Out.

There's yet another trailer on YouTube if you feel up to taking on one more highly compressed version of the plot.

A long post this time: so that's us for now, folks, probably for a good while yet - we'll be busy.

[UPDATED Friday 29 & Saturday30 April, 2016]  
Drones, a family surprise, doing art (again) and more flowers    

Drones
Alice and I went to see Eye in the Sky this week. Wow! What an incredible (or rather, horribly credible) film. Exciting, informative, full of tension, occasionally humourous, and very touching too. Two slightly more out-of-the-way reviews can be found at New York Review of Books website and ArsTechnica.

This last site seems a really interesting one to follow if you're into both culture and geeky stuff. Like us here. In fact we've signed up.

My favourite bits were the actions of the Somali operative on the ground (played by Barkhad Abdi) with the miniature spy-drone disguised as a beetle: the stuff of James Bond (see GeekWire) and maybe not even possible - or just not yet?

Alice said she learnt a lot about exactly how modern Drone Warfare is conducted; how many political niceties need to be observed, and how they all negotiate passing the buck (a phrase originating in the game of Poker.) She declared it all a very chilling scenario, and had tears in her eyes at the end of the film.

Do take a look at this revealing article in The Guardian, which includes a video about the psychological effects on the young (mostly) operators of this kill-at-a-distance technology. Or see the video separately here.

A family surprise
To cheer herself up we went on a recce of the local charity shops. She's been doing this ever since seeing the documentary about Iris Apfel, which inspired her to wear more daring jewellery. Of course, Iris could afford multi-million dollar stuff, but she also hunted for super-cheap second-hand bargains. Don't forget to click on her fabulous picture.

Alice bought two more necklaces at her favourite Cancer Research shop. It's turning into such an obsession, we need a row of hooks to hang them on, before they get too tangled up. She's even got some hooks, but hasn't put them up yet. Typical.

And here comes my great surprise!

Shelter shop

Our last shop was Shelter, another worthy charity that works to improve life for the homeless.

You can see from the photo here that I've found I have a distant relative, like Ba!

Although we bonded immediately on a visceral level, an unexpected language barrier meant we couldn't communicate further. My idle fantasy is that he's an endangered primate refugee who is suffering from shock, as he does have a somewhat sad air about him. But I suspect he's only been "liberated" from some child's toy box and certainly not stolen like Woody from Toy Story 2. I hope he finds a new home soon.

Doing art (again) and more flowers

We decided to take a look at some of the local exhibitions in the British Art Show 8.

Our first stop was the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art - One, who were hosting part of the said Art Show 8.

It took us quite a while to progress up the drive.

Before we even got to the proper entrance of the Museum itself, I decided to explore a rather bizarre object.

Where am I?

Not obvious at all is it, even if you see a bit more of it.

It's a "sculpture" we assume, beside the driveway.

Much Googling (is that a verb now?) and surfing from one site to another by Alice, later on, revealed it is called Kolbenneblok by one Tony Cragg.  The Gallery says it's from "a series of works he refers to as the 'Early Forms'. These mark a shift away from the artist's use of found objects towards the use of materials, such as plaster or bronze, to make malleable, hollow sculptures." So there.

Ba was much more interested in the Spring display of flowers. Click and see how happy she is! Lovely daffs, and some mysterious but beautiful purple blooms, apparently called Snake's Head Fritillary.

See more about them on the Kew Gardens website.

Then we paused to enjoy the sun and admire the graceful Landform Ueda by Charles Jencks.

He did lots of shapes like this for Jupiter Artland, where we went back in 2012.

As for the exhibition itself, there was only one item all three of us really liked. It was Diagrams of Love: Marriage of Eyes by Linder.

Here's a close-up from the online Exhibition Highlights. 

Apparently it's also featured in a ballet!


Right-click to see the details.

We relaxed afterwards in Modern One's pleasant cafe garden, before heading back home.

Writing this up has, as usual, taken much longer than it should do. If only Alice wasn't such a perfectionist and didn't get carried away surfing for links and then following those up with more still! Not to mention her endless fiddling with the layout here (Blogger input is not WYSIWYG) until she's satisfied with the relationship beween text and image.

So we're taking a break here, and will fill you in later on with either an update or a new post.

Update 1: Even more art and flowers

We had another warm sunny day not long afterwards. This saw us pursuing the trail of the British Art Show 8 again, this time in the small gallery at Inverleith House in Edinburgh's delightful Royal Botanic Gardens.

There was a tapestry there we really liked, too: Mother George, 2015 by Caroline Achaintre.

We never found out who had inscribed this optimistic text above the doorway into the upstairs gallery. [Click on the photo to see it at readable size.]

But the item on the wall opposite was fascinating. To create Fabulous Beasts, Simon Fujiwara purchased old fur coats – once luxury commodities – and shaved them to reveal the patchwork skin beneath. Did you ever!

The art with the heron is The whole vibe of everything, 2015 by Jesse Wine, a sculptor who works primarily with ceramics.

The catalogue says "Making use of traditional glazing and firing techniques he produces autobiographical works that often take the form of objects from his daily life. This piece sees him distil a complex scene from a Japanese screen into a single element." They don't half go on in this stilted language. I just liked it.

There's a book to sign or add comments as you leave the building, but I couldn't think of anything at all to ask Alice to write. Anyway, Ba likes natural things, not invented objects, and was positively itching to get outside again.

We're taking another break now, to get some sleep: we'll catch up again tomorrow, we hope.

Update 2: Flowers again and a family extra

After seeing the exhibition above, it was such a lovely day that we lingered on in the Botanic Gardens and Ba had a wonderful time among the flowers.

The Camelias were such a beautiful pink, that she didn't want to come down, but we persuaded her there were even more delights awaiting us if we carried on exploring further.

So we did.

And found this delicate Blackthorn. [Click, won't you, click!]

Alice took several pictures at both stops, but says now we only have room for a selection on here, or else there's too much space and not enought text.

I don't think that matters, but she was most adamant. And she is the one actually doing all the layout jiggery-pokery.

She has consented to two of the Magnolia cylindrica however.

I suspect that's because this first one was taken "against the light" and involved a great deal of fiddly editing (and some swearing) to get the flowers to look the right colour, instead of being mere dark sillhouettes. But, as she says, the information is there in among the pixels, so determination, plus trial and error, will eventually bring it to light. [Nice pun?]

Ba does look very fetching in the fading sunshine, doesn't she?

It was then getting close to closing time. You can't ignore that, as a couple of officials traverse the gardens from opposite ends (it's a pretty big area altogether) clanging loud hand bells - old school style ones - shouting "Closing Time! CLOSE-ING Time!" and herding us towards the gates.

I wonder if anyone does ever get locked in . . .

Luckily we'd just had time to admire a simply ravishing Yoshino Cherry in full bloom. When we'd first arrived it had been commandeered by what looked like a professional fashion shoot, or an engagement party, so we couldn't get near.

It was worth the trudge all the way back to the East Gate just to see it properly, especially as they don't stay in bloom for very long and it might be over by the time of our next visit.

Did you know that because of this, in Japan they have special cherry blossom parties in the parks? That's proper appreciation of nature for you! You can go there on blossom holidays from other countries, too.

Family extra  

On the way home we passed Ba's Great Uncle's workplace, and found he had been moved to a different position in the window. You can just glimpse Alice's reflection with her camera at the apparent "back" of the room inside.

There was a poster for the May Beltane in front of him! The image here, however, is derived from the website of the Beltane Fire Society, where you will find more information.

It's actually tonight as we write this, so you'll have to wait until next year, unless you're very quick off the mark.

We'll leave you with this historic image of an
unrecognisable Alice, dressed as one of the May Queen's White Women, when she took part in the Edinburgh Beltane festival, in the days when she was a fair bit younger.

That was before you had to pay to watch the event, too. It became so popular that the organisation of volunteer performers, musicians and other workers had to limit numbers and pay the Council for safety personnel and all the cleaning up afterwards. A shame in some ways - but it's still great fun to see, if you don't mind the huge crowds.

Now we're up to date at last, we might get back to editing our Reading in Bed: the Extras video.

So watch this space.