I Have Known All Along and Pretended Not To Only Out of Weakness

It's clear. It's clear. It's clear. It's clear. It's clear and true. It's clear and true and true and clear that the critic is artist as every attempt to define the gap between art and response will end up lost... the critic responds and are we supposed to believe that the artist is responding to nothing but life itself is not generating the art and the critic comes from the same place... and considerations of form make the haiku and review and the poem all equal...

Another day another we'll look at what political and social considerations are at play that keeps me down, thinks Criticulous. But now we see the true and clear and good and holy even holy urge that strives both in Luke Sutherland as he trembles the strings of his guitar and Robin Masson as he rolls deep oceans through the cello's bow and the sweat of Tony Mills, and Chris Devaney's final loving swerve... the last thing we hear is laughter as the child spins...

Heading home

Shorts...

It's cooler in the corner. Criticulous can command a better view of the room. Mills is like a giraffe over there... tall, elegant. Emma has been dancing with a young child so long it is as if they are a symbol of a young woman still in touch with her childhood. The girl laughs as she chases Emma in circles. Beautiful doppler effect.

Daphne has another question... and the contact improvisation is working... she talks through Facebook... she responds to my responses...

I have a question though... your next post is titled 'meaninglessness and being'

but in life, as in art and criticism, all of us (intentionally or unintentionally) look for a purpose/meaning

so is art for the sake of art meaningless?

Five for Daphne

Last year, Daphne and I were the coolest editorial team on The Fringe. We had help from Mark Harding, I guess, but The Shimmy Skinny was embodied by the pair of us, looking so similar, stomping about and arguing about the art. This year, you are in Cyprus and I miss you. But you'd get a kick from these shows.

I blew your mind by sending you to Turandot by Polish mavericks NeTTheatre. They are rocking Summerhall, but I have talked about them too much for one week: instead, let's go with one of my favourite books, now adapted for the stage. Varieties of Religious Experience might have something to do with a study that tried to categorise different mystical states, but comedian Adam Strauss has translated it into an hour that celebrates the potential of drugs.

Apparently, all the stories he tells are true, from falling in love with a PhD student to hanging out with the chemical underground. Inspired by the use of mushrooms as a treatment for OCD, Strauss wants to share his psychedelic wisdom.

The Royal Mile Tavern, 4 -25 August @ 6.10pm, Free

You remember that night we went to the overlong cabaret at the Sapphire Rooms last year, and how uncomfortable I was after the show ended? This year, there is a site-specific performance piece in the lap dancing club. It's like they copied that fictional review I wrote one time.

I had the poor lad from Cathartic Connections on the Radio Show yesterday, and gave him such a hard time about the venue, I felt guilty. But he did well: they justified the location by the content of Gob Shop, and he came across as appropriately ambivalent about the way that lap dancing has a presence in contemporary society.
Cathartic Connections are a young company, based in Glasgow and are devising their own pieces, using their skills. It happens that one of them has striptease skills, yet this insist that they are trying to break down the stereotypes. The whole sounds dark rather than decadent, and might answer some of the questions we had about the Sapphire's usual order of business.

The Sapphire Rooms, 7 -25 August

Next two from Dance Base: Curious Seed are back, this time they are The Woman Who Wants to be Funny. I've been shouting about this one ever since I saw the preview in Tramway, and now it is hooked up with A Corpo Libero - a show which, according to Lorna Irvine's Skinny review, gives new meaning to the phrase "bingo wings". It's Luke and Chris together again - they've been working together since the NTS introduced them - but they are also doing a three hour improvisation session on Tuesday. It's free and you'll get to dance along to Luke's magical musical, throw some shapes and watch me sit in the corner doing a live blog. Beat that!

Dance Base, 14 August @ 1pm

Remember the rows we had over hip-hop, and how you scored that interview with Flawless? You remember them - they were the big dance show last year. And you became their pal (and East End Cabaret... everybody loved you. I guess it made up for me being grumpy and sulky). Countryboy's Struggle is my hip hop theatre choice for you: a one man show that's all about the rap, and a tale of a boy from Cornwall trying to make it in London. That's a big like you coming from Cyprus to Glasgow, isn't it?

Anyhow, Countryboy himself tells the whole thing, through the medium of the rhyming couplet (mostly), throws a few freestyles and learns that perhaps the whole community thing isn't so great after all. Writer and performer Maxwell Golden is all over the raps, he worked with the Mighty Jonzi D and I reckon that hip hop theatre is the one thing that the UK gave back to the culture. Oh, apart from grime.

Golden has been touring the gig round the country, old church halls, regional theatres, so he's got the old story-telling skills off pat. It's not just about the rapping, there's compassion hidden behind the fronting.

He did a special video so you could see it, too. 

Pleasance Courtyard, 10-17 August @ 2.35pm 

Last choice - but there is so much you love. I am missing your company and this blog - and all the fun of the Fringe hardly makes up for it...

One more from Dance Base. Smallpetitklein did part of Within This Dust last year - the bit where Tom Pritchard fleshed out the truth behind Richard Drew's picture of the Falling Man from the Twin Towers. This version is longer, has Pritchard, a duet, and has had audiences sat in compelled, moved silence. As we so often said, dance expresses the emotions that transcend language.

Dance Base, 7 -19 August @ 6.30pm

Top Five Dance Shows OMG you must see (Fringe only)

The best thing about the Fringe is that it is a rare time when people read critics with a view to seeing something that we recommend. So before I become too jaded and exhausted, I am going to throw out my top fives in anything I vaguely understand.

Dance is the first victim...

The Woman Who Wanted to be Funny (Curious Seed) @ Dance Base

Curious Seed tend to win Fringe awards, so get in on the ground level. Artistic director Christine Devaney is both witty and cerebral, and here she teams up with musician (as heard on Mogwai's last album) and writer (author of Venus As A Boy) Luke Sutherland. Finding the missing link between stand up and choreography, The Woman promises to be moving and thoughtful, but playful.
Born out of Sutherland and Devaney's continued improvisations - they were originally introduced by the NTS when Venus As A Boy was transformed into a play - it discovers that comedy is... oh, okay... no laughing matter.



Booking Dance Festival @ EICC

I have been banging on about this in The Skinny for the past three years: it is a compilation show of American companies, with everything from a spot of tap, a dash of ballroom to more experimental choreography.
A good one if you are not convinced by dance as a medium, as nothing last too long and the seats are comfortable. It's unlikely that every turn will hit the spot, but it usually ends in the amusing sight of audience members arguing over which piece won.
Special note: I am looking out for Hammerstep, who have a live bluegrass band and claim that they are integrating a variety of outsider dances to create a contemporary and relevant style. Plus, that's the most METAL name I have ever seen for a dance company...

bAnger (Tara Cheyenne) @ Dance Base
...except for perhaps this solo show. And that is because it is about metal. And being a young man trying to find a place in the world. It sums up what I love about dance - it can cover most things, and in a form that is funny and accessible. I couldn't think of anything worse than a monologue about being a metal fan, and how the world doesn't understand. Mix in some choreography, and it is top of my must-see list.


Flamenco Roots (Ricardo Garcia) @theSpace
I love it when critics get poetic about shows, trotting out cliches about how this show or that show will transport the audience from rain spattered Edinburgh to an underground bar in Madrid. Puts me fair off my paella. Still, Garcia is good at this stuff: his shows tend to be folkier and more intense, with a real sense that the dancers and musicians would be going for it even if the gig was in their bedroom.
His website gives a taster of his guitar picking style (nice and loose), and although I don't want to get into that critical nonsense, I do believe that a hour with the Flamenco Flow will probably cheer up another Edinburgh day of storm clouds. 

Flashmob (Corrie McGuire) @ Assembly Hall
This is my wild card choice. Every year, the Fringe has one massive dance show. I reckon this is it... although it might be challenged by the one about football. Details to follow.