Sometimes you find yourselves in a different part of the world and discovering all of its wonders. Yesterday we did that. We ran down the street late for a meeting. Singing with glee and asking for directions as we scurried through the streets, people parted, pointing out the way as we passed. We made it just on time to meet Graham Clark at an Edinburgh favourite, Mary's Milk Bar. There was a line up (or queue, as they call it here) down the street and around the corner. It was totally worth the wait because we got to take "us"ies with Graham and the castle (which was in the background) and play some uke songs. They have something called "The Challenge" which is ten scoops of ice-cream but Jasp wouldn't let Morro order it. We both ordered hot chocolate floats instead which is the most amazing chocolate that you can imagine and then home-made fresh ice cream on top. Yes, it is as good as it sounds... better actually. It was un-imaginably-amazingly delicious.
Then we played for a bit and wandered around to the music shop, where Jasp got a giant harmonica because she was feeling like she wanted to be musical too. Morro keeps calling it a toddler's harmonica which is actually maybe what it is intended to be but it still sounds pretty good and Jasp learned how to play Auld Lang Syne from the instruction sheet. It sounds great! We tried on some Scottish hats and contemplated scaling the cliffside up to the castle - Morro is convinced that this is achievable. Jasp will keep reminding her that the castle was built so that people couldn't scale it, but Morro is stubborn... or determined (depending on how you look at it).
We met so many nice people on the streets, some of whom offered us food (Jasp ate some random guy's deep fried haggis and chips), others who recognized us from our show and wanted to talk about it and take pictures with us. Then we decided to sit on the street and play some uke songs. As we were singing away people came by to say hi or take a flyer for the show. One lady even gave us a pound and said "You are special". That warmed our hearts, which was good because two minutes later some girl came up to tell us we couldn't sing in the area. We could flyer here, but not sing... weird. We moved down the street to where artistic expressions were allowed, and sang some more.
Our show had a full house - two tickets away from being sold-out. There was something strange in the air this Saturday night at the fringe, however. Something that made people tired or uninspired or mean. We like to give our audiences the benefit of the doubt - if they are quiet, we assume they are just inside laughers, or they are tired, or that they just need to warm up a bit. Last night was the first time in the history of ever where it felt like the audience just didn't want to play. Like someone had forced them to be there. Like they were mad that they had to be at the theatre. We found out later that Saturday night has a strange vibe because a lot of people are drinking. We also found out later that some other people had similar audiences last night. We still don't feel better about it, though. It made our hearts sad.
We ate our feelings... we mean some nachos, and drank some gin because that is what they recommend at the bar. They have good gin here. Then we decided we would see a show to make us feel better. We saw Graham Clark open for the Pyjama Men in Pterodactyl Nights. It even said Morro and Jasp on our tickets because they had some reserved for us (if you look in the bottom left hand corner of the tix you can see our names). It's pretty special when your names are on the same ticket as the Pyjama Men because they are pretty awesome, as is Graham Clark who painted a picture of Donald Trump with his beard. The show was so fun and felt like medicine and reminded us that laughter does exist in the world despite the show we had two hours earlier. Tomorrow is another day full of smiles and medicine, right? Right??
Then we played for a bit and wandered around to the music shop, where Jasp got a giant harmonica because she was feeling like she wanted to be musical too. Morro keeps calling it a toddler's harmonica which is actually maybe what it is intended to be but it still sounds pretty good and Jasp learned how to play Auld Lang Syne from the instruction sheet. It sounds great! We tried on some Scottish hats and contemplated scaling the cliffside up to the castle - Morro is convinced that this is achievable. Jasp will keep reminding her that the castle was built so that people couldn't scale it, but Morro is stubborn... or determined (depending on how you look at it).
We met so many nice people on the streets, some of whom offered us food (Jasp ate some random guy's deep fried haggis and chips), others who recognized us from our show and wanted to talk about it and take pictures with us. Then we decided to sit on the street and play some uke songs. As we were singing away people came by to say hi or take a flyer for the show. One lady even gave us a pound and said "You are special". That warmed our hearts, which was good because two minutes later some girl came up to tell us we couldn't sing in the area. We could flyer here, but not sing... weird. We moved down the street to where artistic expressions were allowed, and sang some more.
Our show had a full house - two tickets away from being sold-out. There was something strange in the air this Saturday night at the fringe, however. Something that made people tired or uninspired or mean. We like to give our audiences the benefit of the doubt - if they are quiet, we assume they are just inside laughers, or they are tired, or that they just need to warm up a bit. Last night was the first time in the history of ever where it felt like the audience just didn't want to play. Like someone had forced them to be there. Like they were mad that they had to be at the theatre. We found out later that Saturday night has a strange vibe because a lot of people are drinking. We also found out later that some other people had similar audiences last night. We still don't feel better about it, though. It made our hearts sad.
We ate our feelings... we mean some nachos, and drank some gin because that is what they recommend at the bar. They have good gin here. Then we decided we would see a show to make us feel better. We saw Graham Clark open for the Pyjama Men in Pterodactyl Nights. It even said Morro and Jasp on our tickets because they had some reserved for us (if you look in the bottom left hand corner of the tix you can see our names). It's pretty special when your names are on the same ticket as the Pyjama Men because they are pretty awesome, as is Graham Clark who painted a picture of Donald Trump with his beard. The show was so fun and felt like medicine and reminded us that laughter does exist in the world despite the show we had two hours earlier. Tomorrow is another day full of smiles and medicine, right? Right??
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