Catching up on Grotowski?  

We've been away to Amsterdam for a few days recently, and Alice is itching to finish editing her photos. As I have pointed out before, she's an out-and-out perfectionist, so that will take just ages. There are an awful lot of them too, including, of course, some of me and Ba enjoying the visit. [Don't forget you can click to see them larger.]


Oh dear, I wish I'd never said "out-and-out", as although the meaning is obvious, Alice has just wasted fifteen minutes or more Googling away trying to find the origin of the phrase, with no luck. Stop!

Right. I've insisted she has to catch up here first, after promising in our last post to come up with more about the visit of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards to Scotland during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

It all happened at Summerhall, where I also went last year, before Ba felt confident enough to attend such public events.

But this time she was more adventurous, and admitted she enjoyed the courtyard space, especially the many flowers and plants.

As you can see here.
 
And here too.


We also came across two most unexpected figures.



Look what we found in the Ladies' Loo of the Royal Dick bar! Buddha of the toilet? Alice was praying no-one would come in and wonder what on earth she was doing with us and a camera. [Do click!]

Summerhall used to be known as the Dick Vet, the University's Veterinary College, before they moved elsewhere: it was founded by Willian Dick.

We found this huge turquoise gorilla extremely friendly. And there's a nice little tea and coffee outdoor cafe behind us.

But to get to the shows...

The queue would gather here for the performances in the Upper Church Gallery. It was the Workcenter's 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.)

Open this one on a new page or tab to see it larger and take in the extent of the programme. We went to all of it, apart from the workshop, as it clashed with Amsterdam, and was rather expensive.

When the queue were eventually allowed to move inside, we had a few flights of stairs to climb. Because we were actually at the top of this old building, apparently round the corner from the main Summerahll complex, but now part of the organisation.

Hope Park Church Galleries once had a religious purpose, being the former Hope Park and Buccleuch Congregational Church, built in 1876 and designed to seat 730 worshippers. See the history of Summerhall here. 

This is the original door. Rather attractive, don't you think? But it wasn't open during the Fringe.

Here is a corner of the topmost space, with sofas, rugs, stools and chairs for us in the audience. We were given tea, coffee, juice or water to drink, and little cakes or sandwiches, to make us feel at home in this "in the round" (really in a square) Living Room setting.

There's a video on YouTube showing selected parts of the piece, from a previous performance elsewhere. Do have a look at the informative blurb that goes with it. 

This is a photo found on the Workcenter's website showing some of the lively action.

There's an interesting interview with Thomas Richards, and a review of The Living Room in the Herald Scotland.

The most amazing part of the performance (and the others we witnessed) was the fantastic singing which broke out every now and again. Apparently they were mainly Afro-Caribbean songs. You could tell they were singing with the whole of their bodies. It was awesome. The sheer power of the reverberations made me tingle right down to the tip of my tail! Alice said she felt it deep in her belly. Ba was slightly scared, having heard nothing like it before, but cheered up when reassured no-one meant her any harm.

A historic photo of Thomas Richards and Jerzy Grotowsky, probably taken some time in the 1990's. You can read informative obituaries for Grotowski in The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Independent.

There's lots more could be said about the Workcenter, and Grotowski's heritage: try this video for starters (it is in English). But you'll have to research any more for yourselves as Alice needs her sleep now.

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.

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.