Ahoy hoy blogger f(r)iends,

i think edinburgh is the perfect size city for me...once everyone leaves... festival wrapup:

fringe shows-

Sohetho Gospel Choir

cool show. an hour of south african gospel music. good colorful costumes, fun upbeat music, kinda sucky just sitting there - definately dance type music, but when you're stuck in a pew it is pretty limiting. not worth the money we paid, but solid nevertheless.

Mr. Nice (ahhh, the explaination to my cousin's confusion)

this is one of the most well known drug smugglers in the UK. he only smuggled pot (i think) and got busted by the feds years and years ago. cool talk, interesting ideas, stupid stoners in the audience unable to ask legatimate questions. interesting and cool.

Book festival –

Persecuted Writers Forum.

The only free event I went to. I was a bit disappointed as I thought I would actually be SEEING the persecuted writers, but instead I was treated with a selection of Scottish writers READING the works of said persecuted writers. Actually very interesting and cool, but I was not prepared for a lecture style presentation, so paying attention was a bit tough at times.

Film Festival – (finally, the only festival I was looking for)

Checkpoint

Israeli documentary about the various checkpoints that Palestinians are required to travel through to cross the Israel/Palestine border. Decent film, but didn’t go anywhere. Needed to either take a step forward to develop the story of the checkpoints more, vary the footage of Israeli soldiers or cut down on time and reduce the footage overall. Eventually it boiled down to the same sort of footage being played over and over again. Yes, shocking, yes, offensive, yes, violent, yes, we get the idea. 2-2.5 stars of 4.

A Thousand Dreams Such As These

Oooooh, a gem. Despite having some technical camera/cinematography problems (bad depth of field focusing, graininess without purpose) it told a brilliant story. It is about 3 friends who went to school together in India during the late 60s/early 70s. Interesting story about how different people can lead different but intertwining lives. Very tragic flick, but not heartbreaking or anything. Started a bit slow, but in the end definitely worth the wait. 3-3.5 of 4 stars.

Alright, so the festival is OVER! Hurray. The streets are less crowded, there are actual Scots in the pubs and the sun is shining – yes, after 2 weeks of pretty much constant shit weather, we’ve had a good solid period of sun. Yes, it is chilly sun, but sun nevertheless. I’ve met a few cool people over the past week - some potential friends and just some interesting characters. I’m preying that I find someone to play sports with, but none have come around just yet. I’m still on a quest to find a basketball court. Number seen in Scotland:1 (with no asphalt and weeds growing over the whole thing). My aunt and uncle say I’ll be able to find people who play netball (a bastard offspring between bball and ultimate – you can pass, but once you have the ball, no running/dribbling?!?) – no thanks…

This is by far has been the first week that has made me think that sticking around for longer than expected might be worthwhile.