Why My August Will Be Better Than Your August

Despite the copious amounts of academic writing I have been and will be doing, August is full of exciting events for Ray and I. In anticipation of the awesomeoness that we will be encountering, I wanted to share with everyone what we will be doing:

Sunday, August 3, 2008 - 5:40PM
X-Files Improve with Dean Haglund @ the Edinburgh Comedy Festival on The Fringe
http://edcomfest.com/shows/X_Files_Improv_with_Dean_Haglund

Saturday, August 9, 2008 - 7:00PM
The Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2008 in the A or C section
http://www.edintattoo.co.uk/

Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 11:30PM
The Bad Film Club @ the Edinburgh Comedy Festival on The Fringe
http://edcomfest.com/shows/Bad_Film_Club

Saturday, August 16, 2008 - 8:00PM
Chuck Palahniuk @ the Edinburgh Book Festival
A very special visit from the States and a Book Festival event like no other as we launch Snuff by famed literary provocateur and creator of Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk. His hair-raisingly outrageous new novel is about a world record attempt in the porn industry. Expect bad taste, props, hilarity. Not for the easily offended; over 18s only.

Tuesday August 19, 2008 - Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams Film Festival in Nairn, Scotland
http://www.spanglefish.com/ballerinaballroom/
This festival was put together by Tilda Swinton and Mark Cousins, with input from Joel Coen. A friend of mine, Matt L., is working on the festival and has really helped me out getting tickets and recommending ways around the small coastal town. I have secured my train ticket for 20p roundtrip. I have my one bed at the Inverness Hostel booked for three nights (I’m leaving on an early train on the Aug. 22), and I already bought my 7 tickets for only 12p!!! So far it doesn’t look like any of my “friends” are going, so it’ll be a fun time all alone for me to enjoy the beauty of the northern coast of Scotland! Trust me… pictures will be plentiful! And if I get bored at the festival (which I won’t!) I can always pop around to some of the castles or other historical places in the area. It is going to be fun, though and a good time for me to relax a bit away from everything.

Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 6:30PM
Alexander McCall Smith @ the Edinburgh Book Festival
Due to extraordinary popular demand we are delighted to be able to offer another opportunity to spend an hour in the company of Scotland’s best loved storyteller. Revel in hearing more from the lives of Precious Ramotswe, Isabel Dalhousie and many more of your favorite characters.

And we are still debating over going to see an opera (Krol Roger) and an orchestra production. I want to call the theatre to find out more about their seating, especially for the Opera. If I’m going to spend 54p on tickets, I better be able to read the subtitles!!!

So that is just a brief introduction to the awesome list of events that are planned for this coming month. As you can see, most take place during the weekend, which leaves the week free for all that boring academicish stuff.

Other updates will be coming, especially regarding my dad and other things.