August 2nd

technically…..

Well, it’s shortly after midnight, and I haven’t been to sleep yet, so in my mind it is still the 2nd of August. Still counts…. stop looking at me like that, it does. 

I had nothing interesting to say this afternoon, and I’m just home from an excellent night in Glasgow (my closest major city). I went to a variety/comedy/arts night at a little vegetarian cafe/bar called The 13th Note, and to be honest it was the best night out in a while. The simple reason for this is that it was a little something different. I am sick and tired of the four walls of my groups’ chosen local pub and unfortunately it seems to be one of the few places we gather socially as a group these days. 

The stand up performers were a definite highlight, a friend was doing stand up for the first time, and he did really well, however the others seemed to be mostly semi-professional, and have upcoming shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this month, so we got a nice little £2 preview. Not too shabby :).  

Another stand-out bit (as opposed to Stand-Up…. see what I did there…. yes, I’m not a comedian) was a guy who was rapping in a way I have never seen rap done before. He was like a Robin Williams/Jim Carey split personality to music. Wearing smart trousers and braces, the thickest lensed glasses I’ve ever seen and what can only be described as a squished fez. I’m sure it has a proper name, I don’t know what that name is. It was phenomenal…

As a writer, I always knew I’d be somewhat critical of my peers who were reading, but if I’m being really honest, a lot of it was studenty nonsense. A lot of poetry refering to some sort of revolution. Personally, I have absolutely no concept of what they may mean by this. These days, as a student in Scotland, we’re not actually that hard done by, our fees are paid; we are provided with a bit of money to live on; females, males, homosexual people, and people of all ethnicities are by and large all accepted and not oppressed in any way in the University culture. What do we have to revolt against? Except maybe our badly run Universities… but that’s a rant for a different day. However, I respect completely that they did it, it takes a lot of bravery to stand up and read what you’ve written to a judgemental (and in many cases… drunk) crowd, effectively putting a piece of your soul in the centre of a pit of dogs with questionable temperaments and hoping that they wont tear you apart. And I admire that even if I don’t agree with the sentiments shared by the poetry, it’s made me think. The fact that I even have an opinion, albeit opposing, puts it a step above most of the televised programming I’ve been watching recently, which renders me blank most of the time. 

It sounds cliché to say that I left inspired, but I genuinely did . There’s just something utterly refreshing about going to an event where people are sharing bits of their imagination for no other reason than for the love of it. 

Speak to you all tomorrow