A Matter of Life and Death...

I did stuff today...

Up early – burned a new King Crimson compilation to go with the b’dillions of others I’ve burned – I think they are my favourite band...

Weather overcast then rainy – phoned Jamie and he wasn’t up for Leithstock re the weather – so Anne and I went down on our own to catch some of the early acts - just as the weather picked up a bit – saw Tommy Mackay, Scott Renton, Chris Brown, Impossible Songs and first half of Norman Lamont...

I picked up a copy of Al Stewart’s album, “Past Present and Future” at one of the market stalls (the music was taking place alongside Leith Market). It’s an album I’ve been looking for for a while...I first heard it at my old chum, Rory MacRae’s house when it was released in the early 70’s...Rory was influenced by his older sister and brother re music and liked Al, Incredible String Band and Roy Harper – while his friends (including me) liked T Rex, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Gary Glitter and erm Chicory Tip...

I have to say the Leithstock attendance was disappointing. A few members of the general public plus the aforementioned acts...

There are thirty people/acts doing the week long Lamb’s House gigs and sadly, of those, apart from me and Jamie (who was there for around an hour between my two visits) not one turned up to support today's event, even though it was to advertise the upcoming gigs that those people are doing...

This lack of support is typical of the open-mic scene here...

Anyway, the reason we only caught half of Norman’s set was we were off to the Dean Gallery for the Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition there...



It’s the widest ever exhibition of his work, including many previously unpublished photos. He’s basically a photo journalist who’s travelled the world snapping everyday scenes in a vast number of countries...nice job if you can get it...

All the pics are black and white, and many you’ve seen before without necessarily knowing there by H C-B.…..

Our favourite was one of some old Spanish priests at a midnight mass – while I also enjoyed seeing a portrait of Francois Mauriac – the inspiration behind “The Crocodile Song”...

We came home and Anne listened to the footie on the radio (Aberdeen stuffed Rangers 3-2 and Hearts got their third victory in a row and consolidated their position at the top of the league with a 3-0 away win at Dundee Utd) whilst I played three songs without referring to words or music – “Half a Lifetime Away”, “Skylines Full of Cranes” and “The End of Everything”...

I’d been discussing the fact that I don’t really “know” my songs with Anne and Norman this morning and so decided to see if I really didn’t know them...seems I at least know these three....

Then I went back down to Leithstock and took a few photos...



Caught Torpedo Buoy’s set and part of Flowers For Algernon before having to head back home to pick up Anne to go to her mum’s for tea...via the Dean Gallery for a couple of snaps (I’d forgotten the camera this morning).

At night when we arrived back, our neighbour Fiona was outside her garden – a wee fox (just a young one by the looks of it) had collapsed outside another neighbour’s gate – it must have been hit by a car on the road along from our houses and managed to make its way around thirty yards or so away from the road but no further – Fiona had phoned the SSPCA to try and help it – but, by the time she got through after waiting in a queue for 15 minutes, the fox had died...

A rubbish end to the day...not least for the fox of course – and I’m quite sad now...people are always intrigued as to why I’m a vegetarian – stupid people sometimes ask “but do you eat fish?” – “erm no, I’m a vegetarian” I say...and the reason is not because I don’t like to eat meat – it’s because I don’t like the thought of creatures, sentient beings, being killed for us to eat...simple as that. And to see a fox (or a bird or a squirrel for that matter) die from being hit by a car – I don’t like that either....but that’s life and death I suppose...