An early sign of impending Edinburgh festivals is the emergence of assorted marquees in odd parts of the city. Few would categorise Charlotte Square as a shanty town despite the tents sprouting all over it in preparation for the Bookfestival. I suspect the august class of August squatters in that area would dispute these terms if applied to them.
By far the best temporary structure is the Famous Spiegeltent back again in George Square with a great programme all this month.
At the other end of the gorgeousness spectrum is the off white structure at Shrub Place. Nofitstatecircus is described as an amazing spaceship. Nope, not how I'd describe it, but I'm not a fan of circuses whatever their state having been traumatised very early on at Blackpool Circus by someone dropping their melting ice cream over me while not paying attention to the clowns. I've made no effort to get over this, so far down the trauma list is it. But obviously, as the therapists say, "there's a wee live issue there, hen."
It's very likely that NFSC do a very good show very appreciated by their audiences and if given a free ticket I'd go - for my own good you understand ...
However, apart from scouting about the place as I get on and off the buses across this town, I've made no significant progress towards festivaling in the last several days. Things get going by the end of this week, so high hopes for taking a run and jump into the deep end.
Rain stops play
I'm quite upfront and not ashamed to say I'm only a fairweather festivaler. The miserable weather yesterday quite discouraged my vague plans to head off to the Jazz Festival goings-on in the Grassmarket. As previously mentioned, jazz is not my favourite music, so standing around in the rain is not up there with any priorities.
I did manage to attend two openings at the art festival on Friday evening. Kirsty O'Connor who paints and pots invited me to her new exhibition running during the festival period in the Shiatsu Centre in Bread Street.
I've seen a lot of Kirsty's pots and love them, but I've not seen her earlier paintings. She has some stunning paintings in this exhibition, in pastels and in charcoal.
I did manage to attend two openings at the art festival on Friday evening. Kirsty O'Connor who paints and pots invited me to her new exhibition running during the festival period in the Shiatsu Centre in Bread Street.
I've seen a lot of Kirsty's pots and love them, but I've not seen her earlier paintings. She has some stunning paintings in this exhibition, in pastels and in charcoal.The other opening was in the new foyer of the Usher Hall. I'd not been in it before the other evening and was so impressed with what's been done there. It's not a big space, but I think it is well designed and makes the best use of the space.
Lara Greene is an Edinburgh-based sculptor whose kinetic works are on show in the foyer for the duration of the festival. I've not seen anything like them before, so am probably doing them a disservice when I say they are 'moving objects' placed on pillars and walls. They are constructed from pieces of musical instruments eg violin bows and metal, made to move by electricity and wires. There is a lot more to them than this inadequate description.
Most of the main fringe doesn't get underway till later this week, so I've no plans to get out and see anything in particular, but the Edinburgh Mela is coming up at the weekend so fingers crossed for sunny weather for that down at Leith links.
Festivalising begins
Last night I attended the opening of the Edinburgh Printmakers exhibition Prints of Darkness. The exhibition explores record cover art and original prints by 12 artists.
While I was not moved to great delight by the prints, I liked them and would go again to look in more depth and in less crowded circumstances. I'd also need to return to listen to Vicki Bennett's LP, People Like Us as it was too warm and too busy to do that adequately yesterday.
The LP cover art installation was fascinating. Two opposite walls of LP covers almost none of which I've ever owned, with the trite exception of Led Zepplin IV.
The exhibition describes this installation thus:
The question posed in Norman Shaw's essay in the exhibition is "Why does the devil have all the good tunes?" (Echoing plaintive cries of 70's evangelical Christians faced with keeping their young folk on the straight and narrow when tempted by good music, but off-message lyrics.)
The radfem question is more likely, "why does such great rock music have to be at the expense of the bodily integrity of women?" But that wasn't answered either at the height of the rock age or now when we are steeped in misogynist music video. The arguments would involve more and better crafted writing than I'm up for today when I want merely to feed back my instant observations on an exhibition that is thoughtful and thought provoking.
In amongst the 'apocalyptic' stuff were curious insertions. LP's by Jimmy Shand, surely the least goth-surrealistic of all musicians, while the Black and White Minstrel cover displayed a long discarded version of unthinking racism to which we are (mostly) no longer exposed. And the Tubular Bells artwork cannot be accused of transgressing any diversity issues.
It's certainly an exhibition to return to and spend more time viewing and thinking about the messages conveyed in the LP covers. It was also an opportunity to wallow briefly in memories from a time where I had to endure my brother's taste in prog rock while fielding his scorn of my enjoyment of glam rock.
Edinburgh Art Festival Programme has more details of the exhibition.
Evening sun shining on the castle esplanade which is built up with seats ready for the annual Military Tattoo which proclaims its triumphal conclusion each night with a volley of fireworks resounding off the tenements in old and new towns. Iirritating!
While I was not moved to great delight by the prints, I liked them and would go again to look in more depth and in less crowded circumstances. I'd also need to return to listen to Vicki Bennett's LP, People Like Us as it was too warm and too busy to do that adequately yesterday.
The LP cover art installation was fascinating. Two opposite walls of LP covers almost none of which I've ever owned, with the trite exception of Led Zepplin IV.
The exhibition describes this installation thus:
...the project recalls the golden age of the record cover in the thick of post-psychedelia's goth-surrealistic art-nouveau apocalyptic landscape explosion...
The art is often viewed for at least as long as the duration of the record - for much longer than most gallery-based work. The record cover synaesthetically maps the sonic journey inscribed on the record.Yeah, that's what I thought about it too. But as I go everywhere with my archetypal radfem head on, I also could not fail to see the explicit torture motif underpinning a sizable minority of the covers on display. The torture was almost without exception of women, women's bodies and where not explicit was merely the banal encouragement of the male gaze so precious in art.
The question posed in Norman Shaw's essay in the exhibition is "Why does the devil have all the good tunes?" (Echoing plaintive cries of 70's evangelical Christians faced with keeping their young folk on the straight and narrow when tempted by good music, but off-message lyrics.)
The radfem question is more likely, "why does such great rock music have to be at the expense of the bodily integrity of women?" But that wasn't answered either at the height of the rock age or now when we are steeped in misogynist music video. The arguments would involve more and better crafted writing than I'm up for today when I want merely to feed back my instant observations on an exhibition that is thoughtful and thought provoking.
In amongst the 'apocalyptic' stuff were curious insertions. LP's by Jimmy Shand, surely the least goth-surrealistic of all musicians, while the Black and White Minstrel cover displayed a long discarded version of unthinking racism to which we are (mostly) no longer exposed. And the Tubular Bells artwork cannot be accused of transgressing any diversity issues.
It's certainly an exhibition to return to and spend more time viewing and thinking about the messages conveyed in the LP covers. It was also an opportunity to wallow briefly in memories from a time where I had to endure my brother's taste in prog rock while fielding his scorn of my enjoyment of glam rock.
Edinburgh Art Festival Programme has more details of the exhibition.
Re-activating the blog
First post for ages and only because it's coming into frenetic festival time here in Edinburgh. I have set myself the goal of going to something in every festival over the next month.
As there are probably more festivals coming up than there is time to go to, I might inadvertently miss one or more festivals, but the main source of info on the whole festival listings is Edinburgh Festivals.
This can get costly, and I'm planning to prioritise free events where possible unless it is something unmissable. The Free Fringe is growing in size each year and there is always the ploy of standing around in the High Street and picking up the odd free ticket to something.
I've found that practising spontaneity and grabbing any chance of free tickets has almost always resulted in attending shows I'd never have chosen simply on the description in the programme. I have only once walked out of a show I'd been given free tickets to, and that was because the comic was so cringingly bad, I could no longer stand the pain. Every other free opportunity has been at least ok but several have been memorable.
Today is the begining of the Edinburgh Art Festival, so this evening I aim to visit one exhibition from the programme. After that, I'll try to pop into the nearest art venue whenever I have time and am out and about round the city.
Looking at the programme there is far more than I could ever visit in a month, so it's fortunate that some exhibitions carry on into September and beyond.
Tomorrow the Edinburgh Jazz Festival starts. This is more of a challenge for me since I really cannot be doing with jazz music. I'll study the programme and see what I could realistically go to without behaving badly and moaning throughout the performance.
It's especially annoying as the only event I fancied is the Jazz Flashmob on Saturday when I'm working.
Lets see how far I get in meeting my goal. I'll update as and when.
As there are probably more festivals coming up than there is time to go to, I might inadvertently miss one or more festivals, but the main source of info on the whole festival listings is Edinburgh Festivals.
This can get costly, and I'm planning to prioritise free events where possible unless it is something unmissable. The Free Fringe is growing in size each year and there is always the ploy of standing around in the High Street and picking up the odd free ticket to something.
I've found that practising spontaneity and grabbing any chance of free tickets has almost always resulted in attending shows I'd never have chosen simply on the description in the programme. I have only once walked out of a show I'd been given free tickets to, and that was because the comic was so cringingly bad, I could no longer stand the pain. Every other free opportunity has been at least ok but several have been memorable.
Today is the begining of the Edinburgh Art Festival, so this evening I aim to visit one exhibition from the programme. After that, I'll try to pop into the nearest art venue whenever I have time and am out and about round the city.
Looking at the programme there is far more than I could ever visit in a month, so it's fortunate that some exhibitions carry on into September and beyond.
Tomorrow the Edinburgh Jazz Festival starts. This is more of a challenge for me since I really cannot be doing with jazz music. I'll study the programme and see what I could realistically go to without behaving badly and moaning throughout the performance.
It's especially annoying as the only event I fancied is the Jazz Flashmob on Saturday when I'm working.
Lets see how far I get in meeting my goal. I'll update as and when.
RIP Radical Feminist Pirate
We’ve lost one of our most marvellous feminist foremothers this week. Mary Daly died at age 81 after a long career turning the meaning of words outside in and upside down. A few of her books live on in my feminist library. Not all read and digested, but to dip into when I need a refreshing dose of mind-altering consciousness raising.
I was privileged to see her speak on two occasions when she travelled to the UK. Her use of language made her perhaps less accessible than some other feminist academics, but her passion inspired. As did her heroism in standing firm against the college who instead of treasuring her genius sought to stymie her every effort to prioritise women’s education.
The theft of her energies by her college is well documented and this passage demonstrates what feminists mean when they talk about male entitlement. This is it in operation when one egotistical boy pouts, stamps his privileged foot and is facilitated by the male (right wing in this case) establishment to get his own way.
Mary Daly was a feminist theologian. This meant she took her philosophy into the heart of the patriarchy – religion and opened it up to scrutiny using her gift for deconstructing language and uncovering layers of meanings, as this quote shows.
I read Gyn/Ecology The Metaethics of Radical Feminism when I was pregnant and two and a half decades later, I still recall much of it, such is the impact of her writing. It contains a valuable overview of how we got here and reading it, no one male or female can be left untouched by the harm caused to humans by unthinking, belief in the patriarchy. For me, this is the central message of radical feminist thinkers like Mary Daly; patriarchy damages all of us, not just women.
I've not yet read her later books. This is a project I may keep for some future date when I need reinvigorated and reinspired. As Mary said:
Links I’ve used material from:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/mary_daly_pione.html
http://ncronline.org/news/women/mary-daly-radical-feminist-theologian-dead-81
http://www.crosscurrents.org/madsenf00.htm
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/mary_daly.htm
I was privileged to see her speak on two occasions when she travelled to the UK. Her use of language made her perhaps less accessible than some other feminist academics, but her passion inspired. As did her heroism in standing firm against the college who instead of treasuring her genius sought to stymie her every effort to prioritise women’s education.
The theft of her energies by her college is well documented and this passage demonstrates what feminists mean when they talk about male entitlement. This is it in operation when one egotistical boy pouts, stamps his privileged foot and is facilitated by the male (right wing in this case) establishment to get his own way.
“For thirty-odd years she has hung on by a thread to the academy -- a thread that has now been cut by Boston College, which has suspended her for her long-time policy of teaching only female students in the classroom (and male students in independent study). Whatever one thinks of her policy, the college's tactic is a little too transparently vindictive, as is the role of the Center for Individual Rights (the right-wing backers of the student who brought suit against Daly for discrimination). One does expect, however naïvely, of people who call themselves conservatives that they will have some sense of their own long-term interests. If they had been trying to prove Daly right -- by demonstrating the power of a stripling boy to reduce an old woman to dishonor and poverty with the help of a male-controlled hierarchy -- they could not have chosen a better tactic.”The links at the end of this post give more detail of this disgraceful behaviour by Mary Daly’s employers.
Mary Daly was a feminist theologian. This meant she took her philosophy into the heart of the patriarchy – religion and opened it up to scrutiny using her gift for deconstructing language and uncovering layers of meanings, as this quote shows.
"Ever since childhood, I have been honing my skills for living the life of a Radical Feminist Pirate and cultivating the Courage to Sin," she wrote in the opening of "Sin Big," her New Yorker piece. "The word 'sin' is derived from the Indo-European root 'es-,' meaning 'to be.' When I discovered this etymology, I intuitively understood that for a woman trapped in patriarchy, which is the religion of the entire planet, 'to be' in the fullest sense is 'to sin.' "When asked in one interview about criticism from other feminists she replied:
“Maybe they focus too much on criticizing. You know, it seems to me that if you spend a lot of time criticizing rather than creating, that suggests a lack. I do have critiques of de Beauvoir, there are a lot of ways in which I think she's wrong. And I've written about it, but I don't spend a lot of pages on that; I respect her for what she's done. So I think a lot of that [focus on criticism] is just leaning on me, or on any village guru -- and that's not what I ever want to be -- leaning on me instead of branching out. My intention, say, in writing Gyn/Ecology was to -- truly for it to be a springboard, say for example the Second Passage [Daly's comparative analysis of Indian Suttee, Chinese footbinding, African genital mutilation, European witchburnings, and American gynecology, with an afterword on the influence of Nazi medicine on American gynecological practice]. And instead, You didn't do it perfectly, there's something wrong with what you did about the African genital mutilation, oh go to hell. It's just a springboard! You carry on, when you have specific knowledge.”That answer encapsulates the frustration I feel when I see women sometimes wantonly, ripping into other women’s work. This is the activity of the oppressed not that of (allegedly) empowered equality.
I read Gyn/Ecology The Metaethics of Radical Feminism when I was pregnant and two and a half decades later, I still recall much of it, such is the impact of her writing. It contains a valuable overview of how we got here and reading it, no one male or female can be left untouched by the harm caused to humans by unthinking, belief in the patriarchy. For me, this is the central message of radical feminist thinkers like Mary Daly; patriarchy damages all of us, not just women.
I've not yet read her later books. This is a project I may keep for some future date when I need reinvigorated and reinspired. As Mary said:
“You guard against decay, in general, and stagnation, by moving, by continuing to move.”Mary Daly understood that change is not going to happen overnight and looking ahead to this century she also said;
“Women who are Pirates in a phallocentric society are involved in a complex operation. First, it is necessary to Plunder -- that is, righteously rip off -- gems of knowledge that the patriarchs have stolen from us. Second, we must Smuggle back to other women our Plundered treasures. In order to invert strategies that will be big and bold enough for the next millennium, it is crucial that women share our experiences: the chances we have taken and the choices that have kept us alive. They are my Pirate's battle cry and wake-up call for women who I want to hear.”Thank you Mary Daly for your work and your courage and your steadfast feminism.
Links I’ve used material from:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/mary_daly_pione.html
http://ncronline.org/news/women/mary-daly-radical-feminist-theologian-dead-81
http://www.crosscurrents.org/madsenf00.htm
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/mary_daly.htm
2010 off to a snowy start
What’s happening with this weather? Is there no end to the cold and snow?
Lots more eating and drinking this year so far: Sig Other just keeps making lovely eats. Yesterday we celebrated Ne’er Day with scrumptious broccoli quiche served with creamy chicory, celery and peas mixed with Quorn fake bacon bits. These are a new discovery for me, although they aren’t too much like actual bacon, otherwise I’d be less likely to eat them. Also, Quorn has changed the recipe in some of their products to make them gluten free which is useful for the GF/veggie meals.
I’ve decided to avoid making resolutions this year. I never keep them and previously assumed that making life improving efforts like taking more exercise/reading less trashy science fiction/being more saintly in general –type resolutions were part of the routine surrounding New Year. But apparently, the practice of resolving to change at the beginning of a year dates back to Babylonian times. And no doubt the ancients were just as good at keeping them as most of us are.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Talkin39-bout-a-resolution.5950474.jp
Seizing a gap in the freezing conditions when the sun even came out yesterday, seemed the best time to go for a walk in the gardens at Dunham Massey. The pic above is of the birch triangle in the middle of the winter garden created a couple of years ago in the grounds near the house.
Zillions of bulbs are due to emerge in the early spring, making this an attraction to revisit in a month or two.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8328000/8328348.stm
I finished my stay in the south with a meal in my favourite place in Manchester, the curry mile in Rusholme. Fingers crossed for a smooth return to Edinburgh normality soon.
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