Names and Places

My big accomplishment for the day? Getting up at 5:45AM (wait, that's not it) and going into work to put up three EIGHT FOOT BY THREE FOOT STICKERS onto wood stands built for them by each of the venue entrances. This involved chairs, a ladder, slow peeling off of backing, and lots of massaging air bubbles by hand.

Baby Belly is located in a cobblestone alley that has about a dozen doors on it, so things need to be labelled with idiotic obviousness. The stickers say Baby Belly 1, 2, and 3, and hopefully lead people to the correct Cave entrance. Oh yes - Baby Belly is also referred to as "the caves" by slightly older staffers, and I think that is the venue's name most of the year. Poor cave people.

Edinburgh is awesome because it has layers (layers, Donkey!) - e.g. the main Underbelly venue is located UNDERNEATH George IV Bridge , which runs perpendicular to Cowgate (the street the entrance gives onto) - but five stories up. The two layers of streets are often connected by extremely steep and amusing streets like Old Fishmarket Close. See picture: taken on George IV, looking down onto Cowgate.

In other news... linguistic discoveries continue: they don't believe in drip coffee here, so asking for a regular coffee will either get you an Americano or "white coffee" which looks to me like a latte but I have found for about 1 pound ($2), which is a bargain for a latte. "Fag" is still an acceptable term if you're referring to cigarettes, and I am slowly but surely sussing out the true meaning and usage of the expression "cheers".

Seamless

Arrival
I got in fine, took a stroll up the Mound with my suitcase, in flipflops - yes, I'm stubborn enough to not seek out a bus map. Found the flat and the flat mates, everything looks great there.

Training
They refer to it as mucking in for a reason. I work in Baby Belly, the venue that used to be bank vaults, and now reminds me quite a bit of that prehistoric grotto in southern France. The walls drip, nothing ever air dries, and during the rest of the year they give Ghost Tours around the place. Tasks completed yesterday and today:
Painting various wooden things black.
Sweeping and inhaling worrisome amounts of dust.
Setting up, cleaning chairs and zip tying them together.
Writing up the huge timetable board with all the show names - quite an endeavor.
Laying rough felt carpet using a boxcutter and duct tape in the two dressing rooms.

And I had a baked potato from Cockburn street. All is well.
I'm relying on Black Medicine coffee shop for Wifi until the apartment gets hooked up. The store is closing, so I'll scoot off to the staff barbeque and write more later.

Love and purple cows to all. Oh la vache...

Le Retour!

I've decided to revive this blog for another round of Fringe adventures. The theory is that this time around I will have a bit more time to update - and I can quickly post things that I want to remember.

What the hell I'm doing:
This year I am working at the wonderful Underbelly venue on the Front of House team. I'm pretty sure I'll be spending August keeping people in orderly lines and talking into an earpiece.
I am not working for a producer this time around, which means that a) I forgo the crazy, complex, snazzy job, and b) keep far more sane hours.

Things to expect:
Show reviews
Restaurant/bar reviews
Food posts (playing house!)
Poetic ramblings
Photos, if I'm good.

There will be a lull in postings between now and the Fringe while I explore the south-west of France, but do check back in August for my second Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Leaving

Tried to see the fireworks from rooftop restaurant terrace, too cold gave up. Chips and Magners my last Edinburgh meal. Taxi coming in 2.5 hours (3AM) for airport. France, douce France!

Must pack up the office. Computer, in ye get.

Urbanity

From Potted Potter(All Six Books and Book Seven Teaser in Sixty Minutes):
Don't squeeze me, Harry... I'm your Headmaster.
and, from the Teaser bit:
Dead! They're dead!
Who's dead?
All of them! It's a bloodbath! But on a lighter note, Harry and his friends do a lot of camping.
So Dan, you're saying that book seven is Death... and Camping.
Plus Quidditch in the audience. That's quality stuff.

Went climbing in the hills yesterday, it was cloudy and a bit damp but absolutely beautiful, with views of the city and the sea and thistle growing all over. And big black slugs, lots of them. We made it up Arthur's Seat, which looks over the city. It's amazing that all that separates Edinburgh from the Wilderness is a fifteen minute walk. At the same time, it feels totally urban to me because of the variety - our neighborhood has Indian, Kurdish, East African, Chinese, and Italian restaurants, and French or Italian shops to augment the regular supermarket. I was also VERY impressed when we succeeded in buying ice cream at about 12:30 at night. You can count on the local Fried Everything place, yes indeed.

Ginormous Update

Note to self: Resist the urge to use "Huzzah!" or "Woot!" in emails to The Producers. Even when usage is to celebrate a sold-out house.

Last night had a substantial conversation with Mrs. Congressman Mike McIntyre. (aka Dee McIntyre, but this is American politics - it's an Old Boys Club and no two ways about it.) Her husband and the other bigwigs in town were sporting cute crossed American-and-Scottish flag pins, Mikey even had a Scottish flag pattern on his tie. The Missus and I talked about stem cell research - apparently Scotland has done quite a bit of it without getting mired in pesky moral debates, so she's here to ask questions and see how it's done. However, seeing as she's a politician, I still have NO idea whether she's actually with the Good Guys. I have my doubts, since she repeatedly mentioned god's will, divine plan, role as creator. Her husband was wearing his wedding band and his UNC class ring - they have two sons in law school there.

And, true to form, I had to come all the way to Edinburgh to meet Wes alum John Freeland, a native Middletowner and fellow SIBLING. Whoa Nelly. He's been working in theatre ever since teaching at Oddfellows, his show just finished its run here - it's about a man who was shot in the eye and went blind at 23. His recommendation: teach at Oddfellows. One of his recent gigs was doing workshops with incarcerated teens - get a Latino kid and a Crip to do a scene together. Someone want to check for his picture in the '79 composite?

Work work work, in just a few I take off for Potted Potter - all the books in one hour!

Glam

Okay, so this is pretty cool:

Last week there was a "Fringe U.S.A." reception, for all American Fringe participants. It was nice and schmoozy, they invited the incoming Fringe head, John Morgan, and the U.S. Consul, Lisa Vickers. I felt like it was an Americans Anonymous support group, but it was fun just the same. They had little American flags on the tables, we drank coffee and watched excerpts of people's acts.

A few days later, all those involved got invited to a cocktail reception at the Consul's house. So tonight I'll be rubbing elbows (any other good synonyms for schmooze?) in a politician's house. Neat.

In other news... I really wish I could credibly greet people with "Wotcher." I will most certainly be referring to completed tasks as "sorted" and I am considering switching from coffee to tea. (France will kill that aspiration, no question. AAAAAH One week!)