Match Impressions - Edinburgh Capitals SNL vs Solway Sharks, Autumn Cup Final

The first chance for the Capitals SNL side to take home a trophy this season.  In the first period the Caps made their chances, but couldn't take them.  Solway took advantage of a powerplay opportunity to end the period a goal to the good.  Caps lacked most of their EIHL stars tonight, and in the opening twenty minutes one of them, David Beatson, looked well off form.  That would change.

Caps started to dominate more and more as the second progressed, and when a goal finally came out of the pressure it was that man Beatson who rocketed in from just inside the blue line.  He'd already started to look much more his usual self, and never looked back from that moment.  But it was still only one all when the final twenty minutes began.

In the final period Caps started to reap the rewards for all their pressure and the goals started to come aplenty.  The third stood out with that man Beatson firing a magnificent defence splitting pass from behind his own goal line and putting Neil Hay through on his own to stick the puck in the five hole.  And Black's delicate little touch for the fifth goal was lovely.  That man Beatson wrapped it all up with his second and team's sixth in the closing minutes, another bullet of a shot from just inside the zone.  And he got Man of the Match too.

Looking forward to seeing the SNL guys fighting for more silverware in the coming weeks.

Woody Pines

Yeehaw!  At The House for a Country Blues Swing R&B Rock and Roll kinda experience.  A three man American band playing a mix of old time and self penned material with two guitars and a double base at the core.  Backed up by some harmonica, a single silver drum, and, pleasingly, just a hint of kazoo.

There are a few ballads in the mix, but mostly this is high-energy foot tapping stuff, with the audience driven along into whooping, cheering, clapping and singing along.  The arrangements are imaginative and the guitar solos excellent.  Even the bass player adds invention.  Woody's voice is occasionally a little less than note perfect on some of slower numbers, but get him rocking and he delivers in full.  Above all this band delivers something that so many others forget - fun.  The bass player is cool in the way only bass players seem to be capable of.  The guitarist gives a wide range of facial expressions and poses, reminiscent of Bill Bailey.  And Woody is a natural storyteller, telling tales to introduce songs and lacing the music with narrative.  His grin is all naughty schoolboy and his vitality is infectious.

A live act not to miss.  They are touring Scotland until 29 March.

Here's a bit of Woody to enjoy.

The Day the Pope Emptied Croy (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), Traverse

THE DAY THE POPE EMPTIED CROY

Another lunchtime performance.  Today's pie - curried lentil.  With the usual pint of Traverse Ale as accompaniment.

In 1982 the Pope delivered a mass in a Glasgow park and around 250,000 people attended.  The story goes that the town of Croy, a small Catholic community, was empty of people that day, all of them attending the mass.

Against that backdrop two teenagers have entered the empty Croy church, intent on stealing the chalice then running away south.  One looks every inch the archetypal Glasgow ned, but who has a secret inner life, the other a punk who, it turns out, has received plenty of verbal and physical abuse for daring to be different in a very conservative society.  They sniff glue, they attempt their theft, their dialogue reveals much to the audience about what is a very asymmetrical relationship, and they are very, very funny at times.  Then a third character is revealed and the drama takes a much more sinister twist, leading us towards tragedy.

This is a play about the bigotry of conformity and the damage it inflicts on those perceived to be 'other'.  It would have been near impossible to be an openly gay man in a town like Croy in the eighties.  To do so risked persecution, not to do so meant twisting your own self to fit a norm you didn't belong to.  This drama engages our sympathies for both choices.

There are some great lines.  Not least when there's the suggestion that had the christian bible simply included some words explaining that homosexuality was perfectly natural it could have saved a lot of trouble for a lot of innocent people.  My own favourite was the response to being informed that Jesus came from the Middle East -

"What?  Grangemouth?"

(Apologies to non Lowland Scots to whom this joke will mean nothing!)

Forty five minutes flew by, this was one of the best PPPs I've seen.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was enjoyable, but not great, and I'm not generally a fan of sequels, especially those which do little more than cash in on the success of their predecessor.  Despite which I still thought it would be a good idea to go and see this particular sequel.  Would I regret my decision?

There isn't much of a plot.  What storyline exists is largely predictable, formulaic and determinedly 'feelgood'.  There are heartwarming conclusions, triumphs over adversity and a Bollywood-style dance sequence.  Box office stuff.  Does this all make for a bad film?  Probably.  Does that mean it's not enjoyable?  Not really.

Once again it's good to see major roles for older actors to shine in.  There are still far too few around, especially for women.  And here there are character depictions to savour.  What else would you expect with Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Ronald Pickup and Celia Imrie up there?  And Penelope Wilton is  only on screen briefly, but is perhaps the best of the bunch this time.  But my personal choice for standout performance would be Lillete Dubey as Mrs Kapoor.  She gives her role a depth of character the lines don't fully deserve and shines on screen (although with so many of her scenes being with Richard Gere she may have had an unfair advantage....).

The weakest link in the chain, apart from the script, is Dev Patel as Sonny, the hotel owner.  Whilst his character is supposed to be gauche and overly dramatic, he could still do with some lessons in restraint from his older colleagues.  He is rarely believable.

What makes it all worth while is the gentle humour, the warmth and energy of the older people's relationships, and the mere suggestion that they might still have active sex lives (and how many Hollywood movies can you say that of?)  And India - colour and noise and humanity.  

Best line.  Celia Imrie staring at Richard Gere like a combination of Eric Pickles approaching a pork pie, Jo Brand holding a gateau and Mrs Robinson beckoning Benjamin to her : "I would".

Fun.  But definitely second best.

Match Impressions - Edinburgh Capitals vs Dundee Stars

Caps' final league match of the season.  And, having been removed from any possibility of a Play Off place after defeat in Cardiff on Wednesday, probably the last time that this particular group of players will play together.

With both player/coach Richard Hartmann and top scorer Rene Jarolin unavailable to play it was clear that greater use would be made of our Scottish players in the match.  Whilst there was clearly a strong desire to get a final win, both for themselves and for the fans, Hartmann used this game (and the one on the previous day in Dundee) to experiment a bit and look to the future.  Thus two of the Scots defencemen, who had previously only had brief roles on the forward line, took up their preferred positions at the back.  If this led to a high number of defensive errors it was probably a price worth paying, with the league position no longer in question.  Good to see the youngsters getting the chance to show what they can do.

So although the match wasn't top quality, it turned out to have plenty excitement.  Caps took an early lead, but Dundee pulled it back and then took the lead with a couple of goals breaking quickly from defence.  In the second period Caps came back, scoring two goals to one to level the score, with Portwood's flick for the third of the night being a thing of beauty.  The third period was goalless, but Stars had the best of the play, and there was a worrying last couple of minutes when a penalty left Caps a man short with just over two minutes to play.

So we went to overtime and no further goals, but a bit of a fracas that had everyone on the ice involved, and resulted in Flemington being thrown out of the game.  A penalty shootout to decide the result and again it was good to see the coach letting the young Scots take the responsibility.  While Tomas Haidlovsky did a superb job of keping the puck out of his net, at the other end it was Jay King's effort that ended the night with a win for Caps.

We finished off with the usual man of the match awards, but also the Caps Supporters' Player of the Month, Dennis Rix and Daniel Naslund sharing the honour, and Player of the Year.  Skate forward the big man, Riley Emmerson, who has become a huge crowd pleaser at Murrayfield this season.

And that was that.  September seems a long time away.

Stu and Garry, The Stand

Every Sunday (outside of the Festival weeks) there is a free comedy show called "Whose Lunch is it Anyway?", starting at 1.30 and featuring the same two guys week in, week out.  Stu Murphy and Garry Dobson have been performing improv together for well over a decade.  If they are not quite telepahtic by now then they are the next best thing.  Their interaction and understanding is incredible and a joy to watch unfold.

In their show they play a number of games, based around suggestions from the audience, and improvise a comedy sketch form that basis.  They have several alternative scenarios in their bag of tricks, and know exactly what will, or will not, work as the basis for laughs.  For instance today, in the game they call MacGyver, they asked for a crisis to resolve, and two household objects which they could use in their heroics.  Which led to a scenario where there was no more Irn Bru and they had only a colander and a cat litter tray from which to improvise a solution.  Most times that would result in the pair of them creating some dialogue that led to them saving the world.  But the intervention of a cry from the baby at the back of the room (who would become a recurring theme over the afternoon!) had Stu narrating the tale in the style of a child's story, while Garry mimed the actions being described.  Which is why we ended up watching a fortyish man with long hair and a scruffy beard pretending to climb a burning ladder and put out a fire by shaking cat litter and poo from a colander.  You had to be there....

And that's how it goes.  You never really know what might happen next, and neither do they, except that it will be funny.  I don't think I've ever come out of one a Stu and Garry show without having hurt myself from laughing too much.  This is a show you could easily go to see every week and never get bored with it.  And the club does some decent beer and food too.

Leviathan (A Play, a Pie and a Pint), Traverse

The first of five in this season of A Play, a Pie and a Pint at the Traverse was this Welsh production.  (For those not aware of the concept, PPP is a lunchtime performance where the audience first indulge in a pie and a drink, then go down to see a one act play, usually of around fifty minutes duration.  Today I went with the haggis pie and pint of Stewart's Traverse Ale.)

Three women in the garden of a council house in South Wales.  Daughter, mother, grandmother.  The mother is slouched in an armchair, oblivious to the action around her, and comes to life only to deliver imagined monologues which are lyrical and, initially, oblique.  The younger and older women bicker and fight over their relationship with each other and the near catatonic figure in their midst.  As the drama unfolds the mother's speeches become more and more significant in revealing the awful secrets underlying the tensions.

To begin with I was concentrating on tuning in to the Welsh accented dialogue, and found I wasn't taking in much of the mother's information.  From around half way through the importance of her testimony became more obvious.  By then the lives of the others had begun to unfurl before us, the grandmother a 'functioning' alcoholic, the daughter a promiscuous, rebellious and troubled figure who indulged in fantasies that no longer fooled her elders.  At the end the mother begins to show some signs of returning to the reality of the other two, and possibility of rapprochement is given to us.

Rich in metaphor and symbolism, a greater understanding of the play could be gained from analysis of the script.  For such a short work there is a considerable depth of meaning and it would repay a chance to see it for a second time.  You get a good idea of a quality of a work, not from the initial reaction, but from the conversations it provokes later.  The four of us who had gone were still discussing the implications several hours later.

A good start to the season.

Brooks Williams

An eagerly awaited gig at The House tonight.  We've seen Mr Williams half a dozen times before and knew exactly what we were going to get.  A great collection of songs and tunes, a soft, warm voice, plenty of laughs and some of the greatest guitar playing you could see.  The style swings between country, blues, balladry and old time American, the man himself originating from Statesboro, Georgia.  Many are self penned, some go back to the thirties,  an eclectic mix.  All delivered with a dose of charm and amusing anecdotes.

In addition to his usual acoustic guitar there was a steel guitar, a classic old mandolin and a three string cigar box guitar.  The latter has an amazing tone and is a joy to watch being played.  The songs were a mix of, to us, familiar oldies and some new songs which will be on his next album.  I really enjoyed the fresh treatment of Haunted played on mandolin.  And, responding to Barbara's suggestion, his very own dynamic instrumental version of Amazing Grace as an enthusiastically received encore.

One of his stories praised Canadians for having a sense of humour that appreciated
irony, at the expense of his more literal minded countrymen.  Something the Canucks sat next to me appreciated, but they were already fans of the music by then, along with the rest of the room, judging by the number of CDs being sold.  He's a hard man to dislike.  Have a listen.

Still Alice

In a blog post last year I mentioned that I'd the read the book Still Alice and something of the impact it had had on me.  So it was a given that I'd want to see the movie adaptation, if only out of curiosity to see how the story would be handled.  In general I find 'the film of the book' is often a second best form of entertainment, yet will maybe add some extra visual factor that would be hard to realise on paper.  But there was some reassurance from learning that the eponymous central role would be played by the great Julianne Moore.

Alice Howland is a highly regarded professor of linguistics who finds herself becoming more and more forgetful and is then diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's.  The story charts the progress of the disease and its effects on the lives of Alice and the members of her close family.

Much of the book explores Alice's mental cognitive deterioration through her own internal monologues.  Thankfully the director chose to reject the easy option of using voiceovers to replicate this.  So the onus for conveying how Alice sees the world rests almost entirely on Moore's acting skills.  Nobody should be quibbling over her Best Actress Oscar for the performance.  Her facial expressions, intonation and body language give us the fear, anger, frustration, confusion and, most critically, loss of self that the condition brings with it.  And the humour, for there are several moments when it's impossible not to laugh at the conflicts of understanding that arise, or the self awareness of the faux pas committed.  If I had one criticism it would be that in delivering her speech to the Alzheimer's Association she seemed almost too fluent, too able to speak without constantly looking down at her text.  But that did nothing to dim the emotion of the scene.  Moore has great support on screen, with Alec Baldwin superb as the husband who has own range of emotions and reactions to deal with, watching the person he loves and knows so well losing their own sense of themselves.

Spoiler alert for this paragraph.  In my memory there were two passages from the book that have always remained with me.  One was right at the end when Alice describes her husband as "the man who owned the house", a line that,sadly, had to be left out of the film script.  The other was the pivotal moment when Alice finds a message from herself, recorded when she was still in reasonable control of her memories, giving her instructions on how to take an overdose.  A simple scene in the novel was ramped up into a stronger visual episode on screen and was the better for it.

Moore reminds us that no matter whatever happens to her character's internal world she remains still Alice.  Highly recommended.

The Poozies, Voodoo Rooms

I've never bothered to watch BBC's The Voice, probably never will.  Talent shows just don't do it for me.  But I kind of followed  the competition last year, mostly through my Twitter timeline, because there was a contestant who, to me a least, was already far more famous than any of the judges.  (OK, maybe not Tom Jones, but the other lot.)  Sally Barker was a new name, I'd guess, to a lot of TV viewers, but definitely not in the folk world.

As a founding member of The Poozies she has been part of the best all woman folk group in Britain for most of the last twenty odd years (she had a break from membership for a few years).  No, scrub that, I'm underselling them.  The Poozies have been one of the greatest folk bands in Britain for a quarter of a century.  And tonight's performance did nothing to damage that reputation.

Whilst Barker's powerful, bluesy voice is a key element of the Poozies' vocal sound, she is backed up the others taking turns on lead vocals, and all four providing a stirring mix of harmonies, descants and, you know, other twiddly bits.

Musically most of the melodic workload is shared between Eilidh Shaw's fiddle and Mairearad Green's piano accordion, with much subtle interplay between the two.  Sally B provides some rocking guitar rhythms and a steady beat to underpin the fancy stuff.  But the key to the Poozies sound is Mary Macmaster on electro harp, which is an admirable substitute for a bass and also provides melodies, harmonies and, you know, twiddly bits.

The set mixed old and new material, songs and instrumentals, with old tunes given modern arrangements and new compositions made to seem timeless.  Plenty of foot tapping stuff and a few chorus songs to get the audience involved (including actions on one number....).  There are songs in gaelic, more in English and at least one, Small Things in the Cupboards, which provoked a few grins.  As did the band's intros, with all four taking the lead in talking to us out there, and all four proving amusing company, especially Eilidh.  The occasional mistake just provided further excuses for laughter, as did Ms Barker's talking handbag (you had to be there).

The gig ended with their fabulous a capella rendition of Pete Morton's moving anthem to hope, Another Train.  Which you can listen to here.  Enjoy.

After a couple more dates in Scotland the band are touring England for the rest of this month.  Well worth a night out.

Match Impressions - Edinburgh Capitals SNL vs Paisley Pirates

A drama with enough twists and turns in the plot to keep the crowd guessing.  This time we were watching the 'wee' Caps side.  They play in the Scottish National League in which imported players are banned, the speed of the game is that bit slower, and the standard of the teams varies greatly.  Earlier in the season I watched them complete an 18-0 demolition job on one of the lower ranked teams, but that was never likely to be repeated tonight.  Following a defeat by Kirkcaldy the SNL Caps team needed to win their remaining three league matches if they were to be sure of retaining the title they won last year.   And Paisley, just one place behind them in the table, would be the toughest of the trio.

It certainly looked that way from the start, the west coast side having the best of the opening minutes.  Edinburgh got back into the match and created chances aplenty, but without the necessary finishing touch.  Instead it was Pirates who took the lead, and added a second before the twenty minutes were up.  But I've seen this squad making comebacks before and plenty time remained.  It was a bit more worrying when Paisley scored again early in the second, but then Caps started to find their form and scored two within a minute.  Paisley took the lead back out to two, but the best goal of the night reduced it to one, and when the equaliser came it was comedy gold.  A harmless Caps shot looked to be well wide of the target until a Pirates defenceman stuck out his boot and deflected the puck into his own net.  This script writer has class.  Caps ended the period with a late goal to take the lead for the first time.

One more early in the third looked to have the match under control and it seemed that that would be that.  Paisley disagreed and came back strongly enough to equalise half way through the period.  The final ten minutes swung back and forth.  Paisley dominated for a while and were unlucky with a shot that pinged off the pipes.  With just over three minutes left on the clock a penalty against Caps reduced them to four men and survival tactics, with the positions being reversed for the final fifty nine seconds.  Edinburgh came close, but there were no more goals and a draw seemed like a fair result.  Even if it may have ended those title hopes.

Brigid Kaelin and Diana de Cabarrus

Off once more to a House gig, and two singer-songwriters on tour together.  Kaelin is from Kentucky, de Cabarrus is based in Edinburgh but has English origins.  The American played guitar, ukulele, piano and piano accordion.  Oh, and one more instrument I'll come to later.  Diana played guitar and bohdran.  A cellist completed the line up.

It would hard to come to come up with a single word description of the style of music.  We got ballads, country, jazz, a Jacques Brel number and one lengthy piece from Ms de Cabarrus which veered close to 70s prog rock, if you can imagine such a thing being delivered from acoustic guitar and cello.  Both women have pleasant and melodious voices, if lacking any great distinctive qualities, and write interesting lyrics (with the American's humour shining through).  Overall I preferred the tone of the British singer, and her arrangements were generally the more imaginative.  Brigid was at her best on the piano delivering some of her jazzier numbers.  Meanwhile the cellist added colour and depth, but gave a curiously unsmiling performance, almost as if she was on autopilot.

It was a fun evening, made more so by that extra instrument I mentioned above.  Kaelin provided the highlights of the night playing instrumental versions of Yesterday, Somewhere Over the Rainbow and, as her finale, Loch Lomond on a 26" saw.  Worth the money for that alone.  We left smiling, singing and happy.  What more can you ask for?

Selma

SELMA - A REVIEW

I'm old enough to remember hearing the news of Martin Luther King's murder.  Whilst I was too young to fully understand the implications, it was clear from the coverage that this was a major historical event and an evil and regressive act.  I learned more about the man in later years, but watching this movie made me realise how little I still know.  Selma is a work of fiction and needs to be viewed as such, but one that deals with a hugely important real world figure and contains the essentials of truth.

The film deals with events in and around the town of Selma, Alabama in 1965, when civil rights marchers were brutally beaten by police and other government agencies, and a subsequent, much larger, march which took place without violence, the authorities giving way this time.  It was one big step along the road to improving black rights in America and a highlight in the long campaign of non-violence King advocated.  With such dramatic events at it's heart it would be difficult not to tell a compelling story, and that's what we get here.

Biographical portrayals of genuine heroes always run the risk of hagiography, and the film does little to demonstrate King's flaws.  The man was no saint, and his notorious womanising is only tangentially mentioned, while there is no sign of his alleged misogyny.  Does that make this a bad film?  Of course not.  There's only so much can be shown in two hours and, whatever his faults, this man was a true great.

In the central role David Oyelowo is commanding, majoring on showing us just what an incredible orator King was, and the depth of his personal bravery.  But there there were three other actors particularly caught my eye.  Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King made us spare a thought for the emotional turmoil of the woman left to hold together a family life that was constantly subjected to threats of death or violence.  Tom Wilkinson was impressive as LBJ, the politician torn between his beliefs, pragmatism, and the need to retain his own support.  (Although the portrayed relationship between King and Johnson has been the most heavily criticised element of the film for historical inaccuracy.)  And Tim Roth gives a performance of smiling evil as the racist Governor George Wallace (a Democrat, which shows how times change).

Overall the film works well as a powerful emotional drama, a historical reminder, and a call to arms in the face of continuing bigotry.  There are some good scenes illustrating the kind of internal conflicts that so often afflict and hinder progressive political movements.  And it was a personal pleasure to be reminded of Andy Young, a man I had once hoped might go on to be the first black US President.  It's one of those films you feel a better person for having seen, but whilst being entertained in the process.

As I watched I couldn't help wondering if a certain MEP, who is extremely well paid from our taxes, will have troubled herself to see Selma.  The one who referred to one of her constituents as a 'ting-tong'.  I really don't feel like naming her or her vile party, for they already get way more publicity than is their due, but you'll know who I mean.  Is that really the kind of person who should be representing us?  Have we learned nothing from the Dr King's in our midst?  I know that I could never be friends with anyone who judged a person because of the colour of their skin.

Caucasian Chalk Circle, Lyceum

Didactic, dialectical, dull.  Common reactions on telling someone you're going to see a Brecht play.  Common misapprehensions too.  Look beyond the German Marxist tag and you find someone whose lasting fame isn't down to propaganda and entirely due to writing works that are pioneering, entertaining and simply great theatre.  In truth we were attracted to this production because a friend was appearing on stage.  But the rewards were far greater than simply seeing a familiar face doing her stuff.

How appropriate that we should see this performance on the day that Nicola Sturgeon was putting an attack on inequality at the heart of her government's policies.  To quote the play's director, Mark Thomson, "it challenges the immoral and unethical assumptions of today's abhorrent inequality and the rotten, flawed ideals that ensure the continuing shame of a society that allows wealth and power to belong to the few".  Which it delivers by way of a parable, a play within a play, a morality tale with clear views of good and bad.

Which some might think sounds like heavy going for an audience, and some would be entirely wrong.  The stage is vast open area, the cast make themselves visible and engaged before the play begins, and sets up a scenario in which the boundary between us and them is often blurred.  There are songs (the narrator is actually called Singer), the cast bring musical instruments on and play them in character.  They also do a lot of their own scene shifting, moving furniture and buckets and gallows and creating imagined spaces that move on the plot.  There is a baby made out of cloth which is manipulated wonderfully to become a living being.  And there are laughs.  Lots of them.  Almost everyone on stage has multiple roles and plenty of cross dressing adds to the underlying humour.  This never feels remotely like a lecture, this is pure entertainment, with the added bonus of a powerful and contemporary message.  Barbara reckoned this was the best play she'd seen in years.  She might be right.

Oh, and our friend was pretty good too.

The Caucasian Chalk Circle runs until 14 March.

Match Impressions - Edinburgh Capitals vs Nottingham Panthers

Edinburgh, the Jekyll and Hyde city.  Stevenson would have loved this season's Caps team because you're never quite sure which one will turn up.  Or even if they'll undergo a personality shift during a match.  No wonder we compare being a Capitals fan to riding the rollercoaster.

If you don't know anything about British ice hockey then maybe a bit of context will help.  Edinburgh are one of ten teams in the EIHL, the top level UK hockey league.  Since mid season there has been a clear split between the top five teams, who have been battling for the title, and the rest.  Surprise, surprise, that 'rest' is mostly the teams who don't have the income that those at the top enjoy.  But they still have something to play for.  At the end of the season the top eight teams go into the playoffs, and qualifying for that is a big achievement for a team like the Capitals.

At present they lie ninth, in a tight battle with the three clubs ahead of them, but well clear of Dundee at the bottom.  To qualify they really need to be beating others in that 'rest' group, and sneaking what points they can in games against top teams.  Last weekend they did just that, winning in Belfast (top team) for the first time in years, and then taking the points against Hull (rest) at home.  And this weekend?

It's that split personality, although, to be fair, having a number of players on the injury list hasn't helped.  On Saturday they lost heavily to another of the 'rest' teams, Fife.  Could they make amends at home against one of the big money sides, Nottingham?

It never really looked very likely.  They did well to hold the Panthers to just a single goal in the first period, but things went out of control in the second and the English team had us 4-1 down and with seemingly little hope left.  And then there was that personality change again, and in the final twenty minutes it was a different team that showed up.  They showed far more fire and imagination and outscored Nottingham by two goals to one.  For a final score of 3-5, and a pointless weekend.  It's puzzling to watch a team you know can play much better look so much at sea.  Maybe they need Jekyll's potion?