Kim’s comments are standard Anne’s comments are italicised
Well after Anne strongly hinted, I thought I’d write about our weekend in Edinburgh. Though I technically think Anne should be writing this entry since I, you know, live in Edinburgh? Nothing we did was new to me.
OH WELL.
Hi.
Friday 28th October
After spending the entire day helping out at an East Asian art conference, I emerged from the Student Union, blinking at the glaring light of day, to pick up Anne from a Costas near the Edinburgh train station. (I think that was quite a poetic sentence)
It was quite a nice day and you can see that Autumn has arrived in full swing.
look at those colours!
On our way back to my flat, after having a quick browse in Top Shop, we bought some salmon and Wensleydale cheese (with cranberries! – my favourite) for dinner, picked up Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls on DVD from the local film rental shop place thing. Quite a quiet night, we had our dinner, watched the films and stuffed our faces with cheese. Sudden realisations and epiphanies were that I definitely did not understand a lot of the jokes in the Ace Ventura films when I was younger, and When Nature Calls is so much better than Pet Detective. Largely because of the slinky bit.
I seem to recall thinking the “she’s a virgin!” scene was the most scandalous thing when I was 8. I was also far too amused by the rhino scene for my current age. Ace Ventura clip, anyone?
Saturday 29th October
Anne and I had scrambled eggs for breakfast before heading to the train station to pick up Fio. It was a lovely day in Edinburgh and actually Fio and Anne picked the perfect weekend to come up and visit. Edinburgh was truly beautiful that weekend (and actually, is incredibly beautiful today as well).
After picking Fio up from the train station we ambled towards Biblos for lunch with a couple other Hong Kong friends. They have a wonderful student discount and the food was okay.
For dinner we went to a little Japanese restaurant. I stuffed my face with sushi and green tea which was a really nice change from eating roasted salmon on what seems to be a daily basis.
So so so delicious! Durham fails at providing good east-Asian food so I got a chance to stock up on sashimi and tempura, score!
It can
Afterwards of course we had a halloween party to get ready for, so full with sushi we waddled our way back to the flat. Fiona and Anne dressed up as kittens and I was medusa. It was a pretty uneventful flat party. Ahem. Apart from someone getting special attention from a superhero whose costume really was far too tight in the crotch area and then later, an attractive but dull pirate.
No, just dull. (Kim is talking about Fiona here btw, I received no such attention).
On the way home we stopped off at the kebab shop right under my flat, and I found myself getting aggressive because they didn’t give pita bread with their humous, and then trying to get a discount on account of living in the same building. Hm.
ANOTHER incredibly delicious thing, humous/hummus really is the greatest thing ever invented.
Sunday 30th October
We had brunch at my favourite cafe in Edinburgh, Kilimanjaro. Delicious. Preach it!
Then we tackled Arthur’s Seat for the beautiful view of the whole of Edinburgh.
Again, it was a beautiful day but that doesn’t mean we were able to escape the horrific wind at the top of the hill. If you want to illustrate this comment about the wind with your photos Anne, feel free since the one I doesn’t really demonstrate how painful it was.
It was like being whipped in the face for an hour? Worth it.
We then ambled down to the bottom and that’s where I took this pretty picture and realised just how much I love my new phone.
We then headed back to the flat where Fio and Anne packed their bags, and we headed off to another favourite cafe of mine, Black Medicine, for some amazing smoothies and hot chocolate.
They had the greatest jack-o-lantern on display as well, which I think will give you an idea of the kind of place it is (answer: awesome).
AWESOME.
CUTE
Fio hopped on a train at half four and then Anne, Emma and I wandered around Urban Outfitters for a bit, before grabbing our dinner at a nearby Costas. We then came to the horrible realisation that pretty much everything in Edinburgh shuts at 6pm on a Sunday and we had to entertain ourselves till their 8pm train.
All together it was a very lovely weekend. I absolutely love showing off Edinburgh to people and I’m so glad it was a beautiful weekend that allowed me to do so. I’m so pleased Anne and Fio could come up to visit.
Then just over a week later (aka, on Monday) I will be heading to Durham to see Anne for a couple of days! VERY EXCITING.
YES. A much needed break from dreary Durry. Next week: Durham, the lake district and perhaps more? Stay frosty, people.
Those of you who know me, and I’m going to assume it’s all of those reading this blog, will know that Bon Iver is my favourite band. Perhaps the only band I can say that I honestly love whenever people ask me about my taste in music.
I discovered Bon Iver in the Hong Kong HMV in Causeway Bay shortly after For Emma, Forever Ago was released in 2008. I was walking around and saw a band I was familiar with in one of the CD players. For the life of me I can’t remember what band it was, perhaps Uh Huh Her? But in the CD player directly below was For Emma, Forever Ago. I was intrigued by the short blurb that had been written about Justin Vernon retreating to a cabin in the woods and so I gave the album a little listen. And what can I say, I fell in love.
When I arrived at university I knew that they would be playing on the Wednesday of Fresher’s Week at Queen’s Hall. It was not sold out. Me being me though I was far too shy and a little but too awkward to ask any of the people I’d just met if they wanted to go. It never occurred to me to just go by myself. And so I missed a great opportunity to see Bon Iver perform live.
Roughly a year after I discovered Bon Iver, I preordered their EP Blood Bank. The sound was still quite true to For Emma, the songs were essentially those that didn’t make it onto the For Emma track list. With the song “Woods” though there seemed a bit of experimentation.
Then came their self titled album. Also pre-ordered but this time I had to wait until I returned to Hong Kong from my time in Beijing before I could get my hands on it. I think this album was a bit harder to love after being so obsessed with For Emma. The album reached number 2 in the US charts and 4 in the UK. If I were to name my favourite songs from the album I would name half of the album – “Perth”, “Minnesota, WI”, “Towers”, “Michicant” and “Calgary”.
So realising a new album was being released meant the possibility of a tour, and perhaps either an Edinburgh or Glasgow gig. The tickets sold out on the day they became available to the public. I struggled with the website and when I could finally pick the tickets there were only 6 remaining. That was in May.
5 months later (last night!) I saw them perform.
Not the best seat in the house, but it definitely had its perks.
The set list to begin with left much to be imagined in the sense that the songs were played in the order they appeared in the new album. So they, like their album, started strong with “Perth”, then played “Minnesota, WI”, then “Holocene”, “Towers”, “Michicant”. But then things were mixed up a bit once “Flume” from For Emma was played.
I say that the set list was a bit dull to start, but the band were absolutely amazing. What started out as just Justin Vernon has become a 9 piece band with everyone being incredibly talented. So many instruments were picked up and played: violin, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, chimes, french horn, saxophones… The result was beautiful swells and crescendos and absolutely incredible moments when – and this is where it will become painfully obvious that I know nothing about Music really – descended into an artfully constructed sound with every instrument playing. I can’t even describe how wonderful some of the instrumentals were.
And Justin Vernon’s vocals did not disappoint at all. I think to an extent I was worried that he wouldn’t match up to expectations. But Justin Vernon’s voice is more beautiful live than off of a CD. “Re: Stacks” was absolutely stunning because all we listened to and watched was essentially Justin Vernon and his guitar.
I don’t know how to end this post really. This was a beautiful gig. Because I had been waiting 3 years to see Bon Iver live, last night I could have experienced crushing disappointment. Instead, I’m sitting here and I cannot wait until I can see them again.
Standing ovation! Also, how beautiful of a venue is usher hall. Wish I'd taken photos of the details in the construction.
So the weather has gone unbelievably cold all of the sudden. I think this is pay back for that incredibly warm week at the end of september.
Good news though, both Anne and Fiona will be joining me in Edinburgh in just over a weeks time so we’ll be able to update you about life in this beautiful Scottish capital.
Also I’m seeing my all time favourite Bon Iver perform this Saturday so crazy excited about that.
Very sorry for this lack of posting on my part. Anne has done a very good job of keeping this blog alive while I’ve been MIA. It’s been quite a task adjusting back to life in the UK. Not that it has been difficult but after 10 months in China and a total 16 months away from the UK and university there have been things I’ve had to get used to, such as actually preparing for classes, doing reading, classical Chinese grammar and also traditional Chinese characters.
I have just gotten the new iPhone 4s, it arrived yesterday and as much as I love my 2year old blackberry I am loving this iPhone. Thanks to Siri I can actually dictate messages and I will actually dictate the next bit (and I won’t be making any changes.
is me dictating this message theory is very accurate agree piece of technology
Okay so what I meant to say there was “this is me dictating this message. Siri is very accurate and a great piece of technology”. How brilliant is that? I also got Instagram do I can post faux hipster photos like the one below.
This is going to be a really fun review to write because Waste Landfeatures a very famous and an amazing contemporary artist, Vik Muniz.
Vik Muniz is a Brazilian artist from Sao Paulo who currently lives and works in New York. His work came to attention on an international scale with his series “Sugar Children” in 1996, portraits of the children of sugar labourers in St. Kitts made out of sugar.
Big James Sweats Buckets, from the series "Sugar Children", Vik Muniz, 1996
Since then Vik Muniz has been known for creating pieces out of unique materials and then photographing them. For example in Double Mona Lisa, After Warhol, Muniz used peanut butter and jam to recreate Warhol’s 1963 screen print of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Double Mona Lisa, After Warhol, 1999
In Waste Land Vik Muniz has decided to travel to one of the world’s largest landfills to work with recyclers whose job involves sorting through the landfill and picking recyclable goods which are then sold to recycling companies. A handful of the few thousand people who work on the landfill are interviewed and photographed by Muniz, and eventually they are employed by Muniz for two weeks to recreate their portraits out of the recyclable materials that they themselves picked from the landfill.
Irmas' portrait in the studio
Waste Land is a powerful documentary in that it focuses on a largely unknown/forgotten group of people. I think what makes it so moving is that it is not a sad documentary about poor people, the recyclers that are shown are quite proud of themselves. Some become pickers at a young age to help their parents, and some became pickers after drastic changes in life style. While it’s not ideal, most, if not all, of the pickers say that they are incredibly proud of their choices because their is more dignity in becoming a picker than selling drugs or becoming prostitutes.In watching the very personal interviews with the pickers through the art process you’re able to see the impact that Muniz and his art has made on their lives. More than just the USD$300,000 that was made through the sale of the art pieces.
A few of the pickers featured were heavily involed in the Associação dos Catadores do Aterro Metropolitano de Jardim Gramacho (Association of Collectors of the Metropolitan Landfill of Jardim Gramacho or ACAMJG for short), for example the president of the association of Tião Santos. Muniz always said that the proceeds of the art sales will go entirely to ACAMJG and the most moving part is seeing Tião go to London to be at the art auction and seeing his reaction to the sale of his portrait.
Tião Santos posing as Jacque Louis David's 1973 portrait of Marat, and the completed piece
Waste Land is a very powerful documentary and I highly recommend you watch it. If you need further proof of how good it is, it scored 100% on Rotton Tomatoes, was winner of the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary at 2010 Sundance Film Festival, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 83rd Academy Awards, won the Human Rights Film award from Amnesty International and the public in the Panorama at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival… The list goes on. So here’s the trailer:
After picking Fio up from the train station we ambled towards Biblos for lunch with a couple other Hong Kong friends. They have a wonderful student discount and the food was okay.
We then headed back to the flat where Fio and Anne packed their bags, and we headed off to another favourite cafe of mine, Black Medicine, for some amazing smoothies and hot chocolate.
