The comedy night was a lot less funny than "The Best of Scotland" one the other night. There were some drunken hecklers and rather than use comedy (you know, like comedians do) to diffuse the situation, one of the comperes got aggressive and kept the aggression going. Some of the other comedians behaved the same way, particularly an American, Sean Collins, who was particularly nasty. I cringed a little. Eventually the bouncers kicked the guys out, but way to late in the day (I mean night). Still some comedians were actually funny and one, Phil Kay, born an Aussie, had a strong line in political humour I for one appreciated. Besides all that I bumped into a cute female London animation producer with aspirations to comic writing. Well, we chatted. C'est la vie.

I forced myself out of bed at 9.40 to benefit from some breakfast. I'm ashamed to say I'm proud of that.

At 12.30 I took a visit to the Cameo cinema for another Korean movie, this time, "The Red Shoes". On the negative side it draws heavily on Hideo Nakata's "Dark Water", with all the same tricks as almost every other Asian horror flick at this stage; the long haired female ghosts, the sudden noises, the elevator scene, the image on the video screen and the child with her back turned (which was of course taken from "Don't Look Now" in the first place). The story too is a little muddled. However, for all that you
know exactly what's coming it still scares the life out of you. There's even an Argento style killing with a broken sheet of glass. (Red shoes, Argento, Elaine are you listening!) Worth seeing for all that it's cliched.

Chiara had recommended the Ron Mueck exhibition, and there's also a lot of buzz about it here in the press, so I wandered along. Mueck makes intensely lifelike figures, realistic in every way save one; their size. They might be tiny (as in one infant figure) or huge (as in another, a baby measuring maybe 20 feet long). It's all very impressive and everyone was oohing and ahhing. Apparently Mueck puts each strand of body hair (they're usually nude figures) in by hand. Anyhow I suddenly realised I'd already seen one of his pieces ("Pregnant Woman") in Canberra (he's Australian). Whatever his effect on everyone else, I have my doubts about it all. The choice of subject and their stance (a wild man gripping a chair, for instance) is for me the main artistic aspect of these pieces. The extreme realism is for me a bit of a gimmick, especially when you learn he's coming from a special effects background. I'd much rather they were more obviously not flesh and blood and their size too is just off-putting. A bronze by Degas presents itself as an aesthetic object by it's very artificiality. Size is not enough to distance the viewer from the object in order to appreciate it as a presented artifact.

That's Gabriel Byrne, honest, it is!
There is more than one Dubliner in Edinburgh. At 5.30 I had my next screening, "Jindabyne", an adaptation of a story by Raymond Carver by the Australian director of "Lantana", Ray Lawrence. The star, Gabriel Byrne, put in an appearance to introduce the film. I felt like asking if he wanted to go for a pint; us Dubliners should stick together, you know.. As it happens the movie features one of his best ever performances; very understated, very real. The film is very powerful too. I think I've read the story (I certainly recognised it), but it expands it in a very broad, rich way.

I hadn't eaten much, but no time for such trivialities, there was a jazz quartet to see! The Antonio Forcione Quartet are comprised of a drummer, double bassist/flautist, cellist and Antonio, a pretty accomplished quitarist (apparently "probably the best acoustic guitar player in the world" according to Wikipedia). I am not a great jazz buff, but it was an excellent performance and I, getting there late, still managed to get a front row seat, granted right at the end, but fine by me.

By the way, Phil, Belle and Sebastian play here next week. According to the programme it's a four and a half hour set. Yeesh!

Anyhow thought I'd go home early tonight. The problem with all this is finding the time to plan what to do and then get the tickets etc.. I'm under no illusions, tomorrow will be the same, but for now I'll pretend I'm having an early night in preparation.