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THE LAST DRIP?
Re: Letters (530)
Cocildn't the 90-year-old woman who wet herself in the Pleasance COurtyard last week team up With the Puppetry of the Penis in a dOuble act? I've seen shows in worse taste than that at the Fringe.
Angela Havel
Edinburgh
REMEMBER POVERTY?
Re: GB coverage (524)
As the host of the biggest international arts festival. Edinburgh has more opportunity than most to celebrate the diverSity of the world we live in. In the wake of the G8 Summit (and yOur coverage was excellent) there are still many questions that need to be asked. Which was why I wanted to let yOu know ab0ut two lectures which are free and open to everyone. On Sunday at 4pm on 4 September Kumi Naidoo (chair of the Global Call for Action Against Poverty) will talk on ‘A World for All — After the (38' and on Monday at 7.30pm on 5 September Vandana Shiva (fOunder of the research foundation for science. technology and ecology in New Delhii will talk on ‘A World for All — the ethics of global CiVil society'. Both talks take place in the Assembly Hall at New College on the Mound. Cecelia Clegg
Centre for Theology and Public
ISSue
LEAFLET AVOIDANCE
I think I have finally discovered the secret of avOiding the constant leafleting which takes place on the Royal Mile at this time each year. Like many | Share a love hate relationship With the Festival: l enioy haVing the arts come to me. but after a brief walk down the High Street at lunchtime left me with pieces of paper protruding from my every orifice. I decided to take action.
PTOVIOLlSly. I had discouraged leafleting by assuming what I thought was an air of haying seen all this before yes. I am interested but I have a Fringe
2 THE LIST 2?) Aug 8 Set: 200:")
The List,
brochure at home. thank you very much. This. along With limiting one'S travel around Edinburgh to the early hours of the morning, w0rks to a certain extent. But for real success. try donning a shirt and tie. carrying a briefcase and striding (not walkingi purposefully down the centre of the Mile. Since adopting this mode of transpOrt. l have only been stopped once — and that was by a SuSpiCious copper enquiring whether I was being pursued.
Chris Green
Edinburgh
TARTAN HEARTFELT I just wanted to write a short letter to say cheers to everyone involved in the Tartan Heart Festival in Belladrum on 12 8t 13 August. Our band (the SundownSi opened the event and had a fantastic weekend — I can heartily recommend it to anyone who likes good muSic and good peeple. The setting was also Superb. with the main stage set up in an old walled Italian garden.
The atmosphere over both days was brilliant — very family orientated. and there was none of the slightly unsavOury element that often blights Our more well-known muSic festivals! My highlight of the weekend was the truly inspirational Jason Ringenberg. and we saw great sets from up and coming Scottish bands like the Endrick Brothers and the Ha/y Janes.
So when yOu're planning yOur summer next year. head up to the Highlands for a great weekend!
Keith Benzie By email
BURNS HURTS
When a comedian resorts to constantly telling his audience how funny his family and friends think he is yOu have to worry. I saw Brendon Burns on Friday night and felt utterly cheated that we had to pay it 1 for the priVilege of prowding him With dull group therapy. He kept warning us that even mOre shocking material was coming and asserting that only people who'd seen him before would
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
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be prepared for how but there' he is. He was neither shocking nor innovative. He was self pitying. self regarding and thoroughly bOring. On a tiny budget. in a poky venue. on the other hand. Penny Spubbs' Party was everything Brendon Burns thought he was — to the power of ten. The two woman
show is the funniest thing on the Fringe and deserves to be sold Out every day. The material is edgy. the performances are perfect and everyone left Smiling. They display more imagination in two minutes than Burns' entire set.
Paul
Edinburgh EH8
confidence.
please? Any spare change?‘
the sights of the City.
Orgy. . .'
Shayler.
seagull crapped on me. I have never taken drugs. In Edinburgh. no—one needs to.
John Fleming ww\.v.IiSt.co.uK behindthefringe
THE LUNATIC FRINGE
l have returned to Edinburgh after a two-day viSit to Clacton. where my 84-year-old mother has now fallen down so often that her right hand and arm resemble a pizza with too many tomatoes and a few bits of black pepper in it — instead of bruising, her body bursts blood vessels under the skin. It's always worth remembering life goes on outSide the Fringe. which exrsts only in a Surreal bubble of testosterone. primary c0|ours and egotists trying to undermine other egotists'
I passed a beggar in the Cowgate talking on her mobile phone while occasionally breaking off to say: 'Any spare change.
I got a phone call from Charlie Chuck. who was in a rickshaw in Edinburgh With a blind girl from his Show Don't Be Afraid to Try (Venue 4:3). Knowing Dave. I suspect he was showing her
Comedian Steve Day. who is 70”: deaf. is sharing a flat With blind comedian Chris McCausland and two midgets (I can't bring myself to say 'short people'. as it is PC gone (had). He says he is the only one tall enough to see himself in the mirror. He swears blind it is true. watching BBC News. that he heard Ann Widdecombe said: ‘Let me give yOu an analogy . . .' But the Sub—titles for the deaf were printed as “Let me give you anal
I saw Steve perform off the Fringe in the tiny Rennie Mackintosh Cinema. which is more like a tiny pink-painted alcove in a brothel in a Fellini film. It is under the Nicol Edwards pub in Niddry Street North and is one of the few basements where yOu have to climb up steps to enter.
I then went to see American Craig RICCI Shaynack's show at Sweet on the Grassmarket where. in the guise of a black-clad and bulky scourity man. he friskS and seCurity assesses the audience before they go in. A rather bitter-looking black-clad and bulky man from the preViOuS Show was standing to one side selling books. It was not until I saw the word SPIES on the book cover that l rec0gnised him as former-M15 agen DaVid
I asked the rather bitter-looking black-clad Dayld Shayler where he lives now. ‘EastbOurne. It's all I can afford.’
When I saw the revue Folk Off Ulster at SOuthSide. a member of the audience was dressed as a cat With whiskers and ears. She was not part of the show. When I came Out of the venue. a
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cusoow AND EDINBURGH EVENTS M
CONTRIBUTORS Publisher 8 General Editor Robin Hodqe
EDITORIAL
Editor Hick Barley
Deputy Editor Brian Donaldson Assistant Editors
Mark Robertson, Paul Dale Subeditor Ashley Davies Research Manager Julie Graham
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Reception
Claire Dewar
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SECTION EDITORS Around Town Moraq Bruce Books Brian Donaldson Clubs Henry Northmore (with Sandra Marron) Comedy Brian Donaldson Comics Paul Dale
Dance Kelly Apter
Eat & Drink Barry Shelby Film Paul Dale
Gay Nick Barley
Kids Kelly Apter
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Play Henry Northmore (with lain Davidson)
Shop Katy McAulay Television Brian Donaldson Theatre Steve Cramer Travel Rachael Street Visual Art Ruth Hedges