Tag Archives: edinburgh fringe

Goodbye to the Fringe

01 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Art, My Journey, Writing

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It’s my last day at the fringe*, I’m leaving early tomorrow and I feel a lot of things. I admit a fair whack of what I feel is tired, I didn’t get home till nearly 4am last night after the Crap Music Rave Party, but there are other feelings too. I think if Tomas Ford brought the show to Melbourne I’d get vast portions of my friends to come along. It was an extravaganza of nineties musical mediocrity!

I’m sad that the festival is winding down but in a way I’m relieved as well. It’s been a big, challenging, wonderful, intense adventure. I’ve seen a lot of shows (a total of 55 not including street shows) and while there were a few real duds there were lots of genuine diamonds too.. I’d like to do a show myself sometime. I think it could be good fun, but it would also be a lot of hard work. I have a lot of respect for these people, performers whose lives are lived on tour and with uncertain incomes. I feel like I have a better understanding of the fact that there are a lot of brilliant, creative people out there who still work in bars, or in office jobs because art (mostly) doesn’t pay the rent. I feel like I’m ready to accept that having a job in the ‘real’ world, one that allows some flexibility and secures my ability to pay my rent and to eat, is not a failing. It’s a necessary part of the sort of life I want to have. I can use my time outside of this job to learn and develop my art.

From now until Christmas I want to prioritise working on my performance skills. I know of some improv workshops around town which I want to check out and I’m going to get onto finding some more musicians to jam with. The challenge will be that in November I’ll attempt NaNoWriMo again. I’ve done it the last three years, but along with these two other priorities and working it might be a struggle. Then again, I tend to work fairly well under pressure, at least over fairly short periods of time, and I had other stuff on those other times too.

I’ll be back in Melbourne next weekend and I have some temp work lined up as soon as I get back. After a year of full-time study and a month long jaunt overseas I will feel much better once I’m earning and saving again instead of spending wildly. Well, I guess I haven’t been spending wildly, but it certainly hasn’t been a cheap year.

Despite being a bit travel weary I feel like I’ve been energised to get things happening. The manuscript for the novel I started during last November is almost ready to be sent out, and I think I’ll look into getting an agent this time. If anyone knows a book agent that might want to hear from me, please let me know.  So, while there is certainly nothing like travel to give a fresh outlook on things, there is also nothing quite like being on the way home. See you soon Melbs! I’ve missed you. Did you miss me? XOXO
*I wrote this yesterday, while waiting for a show, and posted it from London.

Edinburgh Fringe Brain Puddle

19 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Art, Music, My Journey, Travel

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I’ve spent today so far hanging out at my accommodation because yesterday I slipped on the cobbled streets of Edinburgh and hurt my right foot. This is my fourth day at the Fringe. I’m pretty devastated.

Since arriving I’ve seen so many amazing things. I’ve been filling my brain with all sorts of art and I don’t really how, or if, I’m going to be able to keep it all straight in my memory. I feel like there will be things that be pushed out when I try to fit something new in. That being said the idea of having an immersive experience where everything sort of blurs together into one abstract blob sounds kind of amazing too.

Maybe I’ll start last night and work backwards. I saw Beardyman, who is a sort of musical improviser. I have seen a bit of his stuff on YouTube and he was one of the few people who wa on my list even before I got to Scotland. The show, One Album Per Hour, is made up of song titles suggested by the audience before the show and he sort of makes up a genre and song based on those titles. My suggestions wee “Vampires on Speed” and “Watermelon Floyd”. I was really excited when he read out the first one and proceeded to make up a song which started with organ like massive chords and a dodgey Transylvanian accent through a dancey rave party high section, coming back to the organ chords at the end. It was pretty cheesy but I don’t know what else I was expecting from a suggestion like that.

I wanted to show off a bit about that last one, but I’ve seen too many shows so far to give them all a review. I’m also quite tired as I didn’t sleep very well, my foot kept hurting, so I’ll make a list and of the ones, so far, that are worth seeing:

Unfortunately some of these have already finished. Three plus weeks is a pretty long time to do a show. Apparently this is the point at which people start to go a bit insane which should be interesting. I’m hoping that I’ll be up for a short trip into the centre tonight for a show or two. It seems like a waste not to go out at all with so many things to see and so little time.

I’m feeling a bizarre combination of inspiration and brain fart. I feel like I really want to be able to produce something as great and mind blowing as some of the shows I’ve seen here, but I also feel this crippling sense of intimidation. I guess it’s that thing of comparing oneself to others; sometimes you come out well sometimes not, but usually the comparison is not worth drawing and is completely unhelpful. As much as I know it is unhelpful, I none-the-less am compelled to do it.

Perhaps this experience is a bit like being in India; you realise it’s true scope and effect on your mind only much later when you’re at home and have had time to assimilate the information properly.

I am learning, however, that I really struggle to respect someone if I don’t like their art. Strike that, I don’t have to like it, nor do I have to completely comprehend it, but I must respect the art if I am to respect the artist. Comedians who are dismissive or insulting to groups of people fall into this category. That isn’t art, it’s being a jerk.

So I have more than a week more here to drink in all the things, and hopefully venture to a couple of the other parts of nearby Scotland. I hope my foot will be more up for walking soon too!