(no subject)
Helloooooo! I have returned from my 2 week Edinburgh extravaganza! Well, i actually returned on the Saturday but Isaac came back with me for a few days and I’ve only just got round to updating.
Edinburgh was completely awesome. So awesome that i am now horribly skint. It’s the kind of skint that allows me to only have one drink when i eventually meet up with friends to say my farewells before i go back to uni.
Anyhoo, yes…I had a great time up in the Scottish capital. For the first week, my mama, sis and bro came up too and we all stayed in what i think is quite possibly the poshest apartment i have ever stayed in. Just look at the street where the flat was.
And so that i wouldn’t be called a liar by my friends, here is more photographic proof!
A bit of a blurry one there
Of course, me and Cas just had to make up little imaginary portraits of the type of people who lived owned this place: Lydia and Max, a young ( unmarried as they frown upon that sort of thing), high flying couple with a 5 year old daughter, Felicity. Many a story was made up about them, including one revolving around a flustered Lydia who found out that their maid (and nanny), Sandra has not been using sun-ripened, Italian tomatoes in the sauce for Felicity’s pasta packed lunch, preferring the big ol’ economy bag of tomatoes from Tesco’s.
So, one of the first things we went to was the (free) Fringe at the Meadows, which was great. I can never get sick of crazy Australian/Canadian fire eaters, unicyclists and sword jugglers. Alas, the hippy head bands and bracelet stalls were too much for me and i ended up buying a few things.
Because so many people wanted to see so many things, we didn’t actually to get to see that much in the first week. A lot of arguments broke out because of that but..eh! I have a feeling we were the loudest people in the building. Anyway, we did see some things. Most notably, Gamjobaret: A Shutup Comedy From Japan. We bought the tickets in advance considering i heard so many good things about them and well..everything was justified. They were amazing. And on the Monday we saw them, we caught a glimpse of their royal mile show too!
Essentially they’re just two Japanese mime artists. Yes, mime artists. But they make mime so cool. No, i have not been hired by them to advertise.
We saw a few other comedians whilst we were there such as Boothby Graffoe (Isaac introduced me to him last year and it was a must for this year), a improv comedy group called The Oxford Imps , Seymore Mace and Fat, Bald and Loud. The last one must have been the most involved I’ve ever been in a show. At the start, he dressed up as a security guard and proceeded to scan all 7 of us (t’was a small turn out) for “dangerous items” and commenting on each person. For me, it was that he sensed an “unbelievable amount of sexual tension between us”. Aha…ahaha…no. The show got better as we had to shout out random accents for him to tell a story with from his fantabulous “Giant Wheel of Accents”. Craziness.
On the Thursday, i met up with my online friend of aaaaages, Chris! Or ‘Shade Edge’ as he was known online. It was great! We got on exactly like we did online, which is normally us spouting utter rubbish at each other for a good few hours. That Thursday was no exception, with Scottish pirate zombie’s being the recurring theme of the day. We aimlessly wandered the streets of Edinburgh and ended up at The Pleasance (big ol’ courtyard used as a major comedy venue for the festival) where we munched on pizza and tried to avoid the people handing out the flyers for shows. Good times!
To be honest, most of the time was spent wandering around beautiful Edinburgh and hiking up the mound to witness the spectacle which is the Royal Mile. From last years experience, I was armed and ready with my trusty digital camera so I took a few piccies..
I should have taken more but i am silly and forgetful. When my mom gets her film developed they’ll be more Royal mile-ness
My family went home on Saturday (not before meeting Isaac’s Dad and Step mom, Ruth on the Friday night for dinner…eep) and I stayed on for another week at Isaac’s dad place. They were all very nice to me and it was love-er-ly!
The second week was used to see more of the Edinburgh film festival then the Fringe and well…it was an animation geeks dream. As well as a music video geek‘s dream. So, i was understandably in heaven. I saw eclectic music videos and animation from all round the world under the big, fabulous umbrella of Mirrorball. I also got to saw the launch of this years Mesh’ entries which was ace, as well as the best of Mesh, animate! And Animator In Residence from previous years. If you’re wondering what i’m blabbering on about, they’ll all initiative schemes to help get some good animators out there and something i’ll hopefully try to enter in soon. Hopefully.
Like last year, we saw a good few comedians like DJ Danny, Adam Buxton (yes! The Adam Buxton who was one half of The Adam And Joe Show) and Matt Tiller:Ladykiller a show which entire point was to make the audience fall in love with him. T’was very Dave Gorman like, with pie charts and videos and whatnot.
Have to say though, the biggest event we attended was the Comedy Gala. As we got the tickets so early, we had kick-ass seats (2nd from the from row) and it was all very professional. Pity it had to be hosted by Julian stinkin’ Clary and have Jimmy ‘I steal jokes from other comedians’ Carr in the line up. But i let those two niggles slip by. Do you know why? Because Lucy Porter and Demitri Martin were in the line up. But also because…BILL BAILEY WAS IN THE LINE UP TOOOOO! Oh….it was awesome and i swear he was looking at me when he was asking the obligatory ‘So, is anyone from Scotland?’ question. Heres a blurry photo of the man.
Along with…
Alan carr (from FAQ U)
And an Autrailain comedian called Tim Minchen
SOOOO, all in all, I had a fantastic, albeit exhausting time at the festival this year! Right, I can’t think of what else to babble on about so I’ll bring this disjointed re-cap of my holiday to an end.
I’ve missed so much. Hell, I’ve just spent an hour catching up on all the web comic updates i missed and i’ve yet to reply to a few emails and check zee Questionable Content forum I frequent.
Now, i have to come out of holiday mode and into..er….normal…mode. I’m moving into my new flat next Saturday and I have things to sort out and gaaaa! Oh, the unnecessary drama.
I have well and truly rambled enough (unless you skipped the lj cut, which quite frankly, i don’t blame you for doing so.) and I’m peckish so… I’ll be off now. Mmm…cereal.
Edinburgh was completely awesome. So awesome that i am now horribly skint. It’s the kind of skint that allows me to only have one drink when i eventually meet up with friends to say my farewells before i go back to uni.
Anyhoo, yes…I had a great time up in the Scottish capital. For the first week, my mama, sis and bro came up too and we all stayed in what i think is quite possibly the poshest apartment i have ever stayed in. Just look at the street where the flat was.
And so that i wouldn’t be called a liar by my friends, here is more photographic proof!
A bit of a blurry one there
Of course, me and Cas just had to make up little imaginary portraits of the type of people who lived owned this place: Lydia and Max, a young ( unmarried as they frown upon that sort of thing), high flying couple with a 5 year old daughter, Felicity. Many a story was made up about them, including one revolving around a flustered Lydia who found out that their maid (and nanny), Sandra has not been using sun-ripened, Italian tomatoes in the sauce for Felicity’s pasta packed lunch, preferring the big ol’ economy bag of tomatoes from Tesco’s.
So, one of the first things we went to was the (free) Fringe at the Meadows, which was great. I can never get sick of crazy Australian/Canadian fire eaters, unicyclists and sword jugglers. Alas, the hippy head bands and bracelet stalls were too much for me and i ended up buying a few things.
Because so many people wanted to see so many things, we didn’t actually to get to see that much in the first week. A lot of arguments broke out because of that but..eh! I have a feeling we were the loudest people in the building. Anyway, we did see some things. Most notably, Gamjobaret: A Shutup Comedy From Japan. We bought the tickets in advance considering i heard so many good things about them and well..everything was justified. They were amazing. And on the Monday we saw them, we caught a glimpse of their royal mile show too!
Essentially they’re just two Japanese mime artists. Yes, mime artists. But they make mime so cool. No, i have not been hired by them to advertise.
We saw a few other comedians whilst we were there such as Boothby Graffoe (Isaac introduced me to him last year and it was a must for this year), a improv comedy group called The Oxford Imps , Seymore Mace and Fat, Bald and Loud. The last one must have been the most involved I’ve ever been in a show. At the start, he dressed up as a security guard and proceeded to scan all 7 of us (t’was a small turn out) for “dangerous items” and commenting on each person. For me, it was that he sensed an “unbelievable amount of sexual tension between us”. Aha…ahaha…no. The show got better as we had to shout out random accents for him to tell a story with from his fantabulous “Giant Wheel of Accents”. Craziness.
On the Thursday, i met up with my online friend of aaaaages, Chris! Or ‘Shade Edge’ as he was known online. It was great! We got on exactly like we did online, which is normally us spouting utter rubbish at each other for a good few hours. That Thursday was no exception, with Scottish pirate zombie’s being the recurring theme of the day. We aimlessly wandered the streets of Edinburgh and ended up at The Pleasance (big ol’ courtyard used as a major comedy venue for the festival) where we munched on pizza and tried to avoid the people handing out the flyers for shows. Good times!
To be honest, most of the time was spent wandering around beautiful Edinburgh and hiking up the mound to witness the spectacle which is the Royal Mile. From last years experience, I was armed and ready with my trusty digital camera so I took a few piccies..
I should have taken more but i am silly and forgetful. When my mom gets her film developed they’ll be more Royal mile-ness
My family went home on Saturday (not before meeting Isaac’s Dad and Step mom, Ruth on the Friday night for dinner…eep) and I stayed on for another week at Isaac’s dad place. They were all very nice to me and it was love-er-ly!
The second week was used to see more of the Edinburgh film festival then the Fringe and well…it was an animation geeks dream. As well as a music video geek‘s dream. So, i was understandably in heaven. I saw eclectic music videos and animation from all round the world under the big, fabulous umbrella of Mirrorball. I also got to saw the launch of this years Mesh’ entries which was ace, as well as the best of Mesh, animate! And Animator In Residence from previous years. If you’re wondering what i’m blabbering on about, they’ll all initiative schemes to help get some good animators out there and something i’ll hopefully try to enter in soon. Hopefully.
Like last year, we saw a good few comedians like DJ Danny, Adam Buxton (yes! The Adam Buxton who was one half of The Adam And Joe Show) and Matt Tiller:Ladykiller a show which entire point was to make the audience fall in love with him. T’was very Dave Gorman like, with pie charts and videos and whatnot.
Have to say though, the biggest event we attended was the Comedy Gala. As we got the tickets so early, we had kick-ass seats (2nd from the from row) and it was all very professional. Pity it had to be hosted by Julian stinkin’ Clary and have Jimmy ‘I steal jokes from other comedians’ Carr in the line up. But i let those two niggles slip by. Do you know why? Because Lucy Porter and Demitri Martin were in the line up. But also because…BILL BAILEY WAS IN THE LINE UP TOOOOO! Oh….it was awesome and i swear he was looking at me when he was asking the obligatory ‘So, is anyone from Scotland?’ question. Heres a blurry photo of the man.
Along with…
Alan carr (from FAQ U)
And an Autrailain comedian called Tim Minchen
SOOOO, all in all, I had a fantastic, albeit exhausting time at the festival this year! Right, I can’t think of what else to babble on about so I’ll bring this disjointed re-cap of my holiday to an end.
I’ve missed so much. Hell, I’ve just spent an hour catching up on all the web comic updates i missed and i’ve yet to reply to a few emails and check zee Questionable Content forum I frequent.
Now, i have to come out of holiday mode and into..er….normal…mode. I’m moving into my new flat next Saturday and I have things to sort out and gaaaa! Oh, the unnecessary drama.
I have well and truly rambled enough (unless you skipped the lj cut, which quite frankly, i don’t blame you for doing so.) and I’m peckish so… I’ll be off now. Mmm…cereal.