From Fringe to Fridge

MUSIC, FILM, COMEDY AND... HOCKEY

Monday - Fringe came to an end, and we fitted in a final couple of shows courtesy of the half price hut.  Tuesday - Return to the Fridge of Dreams, and a first chance to see some of the new players that will make up the Edinburgh capitals team this season.  Monday - Hot, sweaty rooms that have you wringing your shirt out.  Tuesday - Cold, cold and more cold.  Icy ice rink.

Contrasts.  Next Sunday I can indulge in the Asian exoticism of The Edinburgh Mela during the day, and the chilled and pie scented air of Murrayfield in the evening.  Life is never boring here.

I see some of my fellow Caps fans on social media over the summer, wishing their lives away until the rink opens it's doors and there's a puck getting battered about again.  That's not a problem I ever have to resolve these days  April - hockey ends for the season.  May - TradFest.  June - FilmFest.  July _ JazzFest.  August - Fringe, and all the other shenanigans that plonk several hundreds of thousands of tourists on top of us and turn entertainment into a stamina test.  And then.... hey, it's hockey season again.  I hardly missed it.

It helps to have the time to do all these things (being retired is a big part of that help...).  And, of course, it does need a bit of spare cash, and some financial planning.  (Being poor in this city is no better than it is anywhere else, and there are still way too many people who have to live lives of poverty in this, our grossly wealthy society.)  I fully recognise how privileged I am.  Part of that privilege is being able to live in one of the world's most beautiful cities, and take advantage of so much of what it has to offer.  Which, for the next seven months, will mostly mean Edinburgh Capitals...

Return to Brigadoon

The Edinburgh Fringe is gone from our streets, and there's eleven months of work getting ready for the 2018 extravaganza.  We get our city back and get on with life, and all the things there are to do here.  Yes, we really do.

You wouldn't think so to hear some of the acts who come here for August - especially comedians.  Too many appear to think of this place as some kind of comedy club Brigadoon, only coming into existence once a year for their benefit.  We get used to it, and they get laughed at in more ways than they'd hoped for.

Worse, to my mind, are the comics who see themselves as 'political'.  Most were sensibly avoiding the beyond-parody farce that is the current White House, but there were plenty having a go at the stinking potage that the UK is in right now.  The UK is, you may remember, a union of countries, and some of these comedians have terrible memories.  Like being unable to recall that they are performing in a different country, with a different political dynamic.  Andrew Doyle was the most obvious offender I saw this year, asking his audience if they'd voted Tory.... or Labour.... or Lib Dem.... or.... No, that was it, apparently we don't have any other options.  But what would I know, I only live here.  In Brigadoon.