The Edinburgh Fringe Free Showlist – 2023

Welcome to 2023’s most beautiful, culturally resonant and occasionally absurd Arts Festival!
From the 4th till the 28th of August, the city of Edinburgh’s central thoroughfares, church halls, hotel function suites, pub backrooms, Masonic lodges, and every other place imaginable will transform into a venue for some form of show.

And it needn’t cost you a penny to enjoy it.

The Trouble with Twitter: Some thoughts on social media

You might have noticed that people’s online reactions
“The internet and Social media has changed us, and not necessarily for the better.” – said someone, probably…

Now , while that’s a pretty bold contention. It’s a belief in which I’ve come, slowly over time, to feel more and securely in.  What am I talking about? Well, let’s start off with a little meandering history….

Concerning Hobbitses: At The End of All Things

It’s that time again, or more precisely it’s that time again, again… as with my rambling thoughts on the second instalment of the Hobbit Trilogy things took a little longer than expected. I meant to get round to it last year, but life and times got in the way. However, this week marks the 15th anniversary of the release of Fellowship of the Ring at the cinema, and the altering of the filmic landscape and industry in ways rarely seen in decades. Fantasy overnight became a renewed genre in Hollywood and around the world and billions of new eyes were opened to the joys of Tolkien and Middle Earth. So what better time for me to get my act together and write something up?

I have rewatched the movie, recently and have previously watched the entirety of the making of special features on the Extended Edition DVD, which gives a great insight into the severely troubled production during the conception and execution of the trilogy, as well as the rewrites, redesigns and general “running to catch-up” feeling that runs through this movie. But more on that later, first, let’s dive into the final instalment of the Hobbit, and also the last part of Peter Jackson’s epic Middle Earth film saga.

*insert Bilbo fingering his ring joke*

A long time ago on a VCR far, far away…

It can hardly have escaped the attention of anyone that in the wee early hours of tomorrow morning, the first new Star Wars film in over a decade is about to be released to an anxious public.  The first reviews are in, and word by the jungle-drums is overwhelmingly positive, if what we are told is true.

Still, it’s difficult to balance the mixture of tense excitement with the repeated feelings of sodden disappointment at the previous entries into the series. Yet for someone of my generation, Star Wars has always been part of my life; for as long as I can remember I’ve been enjoying stories set in a galaxy far, far away. It’s hard to know what Thursday 17th of December 2015 will bring, aside from a steady flow of cash into the coffers of the already very rich denizens of Disney. I feel more cynical about it now, but I didn’t always; not before the dark times… before the Prequels.

Concerning Hobbitses, Of Bears, Barrels and Baffled Dwarves

It’s strange how time can get away from you.  I originally planned to write this follow-up to my wee blog about the release of the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, a year ago, just fresh from seeing the theatrical release of The Desolation of Smaug.  However, a somewhat hectic work schedule, as well as a sense that it was somewhat more heavily edited than the first instalment, meant that I set the idea aside and eventually forgot.
Instead, having sat and watched the Extended Cut of Smaug, and the 9 hours of extras on the DVD, (and the final film as well) I feel a little more comfortable with giving some voice to my thoughts on it.

It’s like a breath of fresh air…

Cheers to The New Year! (Some thoughts on 2013 and hopes for 2014)

My God, It’s Full of Stars……

If you’ve ever attended the Edinburgh Fringe in full, you’ll likely have noticed that there’s a peculiar habit performers have, where they stick little pieces of paper across the posters for their shows as the month goes on.

Concerning Hobbitses, bookywooks and boyhood

Having finally made the effort of seating my rump down for three hours to watch the first instalment in the new Hobbit trilogy, I thought I’d cover my thoughts on the experience, but before I do so I’d like to take a few lines to mention some of my history with Lord of the Rings, which will go some ways to explaining some of my feelings on the films, books, games and general adaptery goings on therein. So before I digress too far and just in case you just want to know if I enjoyed it with no spoilers or the like, here is my highly condensed opinion.

If you enjoyed the LOTR films go and see it.

Sorry Graeme, Too Long: Didn’t Read

Is silence always the enemy?

So this afternoon a figure of hate came back to the focus of the internet, and therefore the world. This a highly successful and apparently popular entertainer, (whose name shall not be mentioned here for reasons which shall become apparent), famous for amongst other things, hospitalising his partner in a vicious and brutal assault.

On Writing – Why do I do it to myself?

The keyboard and the coffee made me do it…