7th February 2011

Have you heard about the special screenings at The Filmhouse for babies and their carers? It is called FOR CRYING OUT LOUD

Today they are showing Rabbit Hole Mon 7 Feb at 11.00am Becca and Howie Corbett (Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart) are a married couple struggling to return to their everyday existence several months after the loss of their child. Distancing herself from her family and her own emotions, Becca begins to surreptitiously follow a local teenage boy with whom she shares an unexplained connection.

Baby changing, bottle warming and buggy parking facilities are available.Tickets cost £3.50/£2.50 concessions per adult. Screenings limited to babies under 12 months accompanied by no more than two adults.

At The City of Edinburgh Council there is a busy week ahead. Today the Sub-Committee on Standards for Children and Families (North) convenes at The City Chambers at 2.15pm.

On 7th February at 6.30pm another coaching session for budding socialites – that is social media socialites. Social Media Surgeries continue at Stockbridge Library. “Edinbuzz Social Media Surgeries have a simple aim – to match up volunteer experts (or “surgeons”) with people from community groups or charities (the “patients”) that would like to make more use of the free online tools that are out there. All the events aim to avoid jargon and long boring speeches. Instead patients can expect some free one-to-one coaching from people who believe that social media can provide a cost effective boost to almost any organisation.” More details on the coaching on their website.

Song Tombola
Workshop | Free
Help create a bizarre and genre-spanning poem using everybody’s favourite lyrics. Like patchwork – but more fun and with great songs. Everybody welcome.
Gilmerton Library | 3pm | 13 Newtoft St, EH17 8RG gilmerton.library@edinburgh.gov.uk | www.edinburgh.gov.uk/libraries | 0131 529 5628

Polish Kaleidoscope – Film Lecture

The Polish Cultural Association invites anyone interested in Polish modern cinema to a lecture on Modern Polish cinema. This will be the first of the “Polish Kaleidoscope” series of cultural events.

“Throughout a series of public lectures and cultural events taking place during 2011 we aim to present different cultural aspects of Modern Poland. We hope to stimulate interesting discussions and shine the spotlight on the current issues in Polish modern culture. These issues are showcased through Polish contemporary cinema, design, animation, literature, urban design, history and language. “, the organisers said.

The talk will take place at The Filmhouse (88 Lothian Road,EH3 9BZ; telephone number: 0131 228 2688 ) at 6 PM. Tickets from £3.

8th February 2011

The Transport Infrastructure and Environment Committee of The City of Edinburgh Council meet at 10am at the City Chambers. First item on the agenda is the trams…The whole agenda is available for you to read.

1:10 PM Lunchtime concert: Mhari Lawson (soprano) and Jan Waterfield (piano). Admission free, Reid Concert Hall

Love Lyrics
Words | Free
The Sighthill Library book group brings us the love song lyrics that occupy our minds for days and nights on end. Come along to share your favourite ones and hear about love’s changing message.
Sighthill Library | 2pm | 6 Sighthill Wynd, EH11 4BL libraries@edinburgh.gov.uk | www.edinburgh.gov.uk/libraries | 0131 529 556

9th February 2011

Niddrie Mind The Buzzcocks
Quiz | Free | Booking Essential
Do you know your Rhianna from your Leona? Measure your knowledge of words in the best quiz ever invented – the song lyrics quiz. For under 18s.
Craigmillar Library | 6pm – 7pm | 7 Niddrie Marischal Gardens, EH16 4LX craigmillar.library@edinburgh.gov.uk | www.edinburgh.gov.uk/libraries | 0131 529 5597

Café Voices – Love!
Words & Music | £4
Warm up for Valentines and get into the spirit of the season in this session of love-inspired oral storytelling, poetry by memory, music and song in the relaxed ambience of the Storytelling Café. Hosted by Wendy Woolfson, part of the Connecting Voices project. For over 12s.
Scottish Storytelling Centre | 7pm – 9pm | 43-45 High Street, EH1 1SR reception@scottishstorytellingcentre.com | www.scottishstorytellingcentre.com 0131 556 2647

The Development Management Sub-Committee meets at 10am at the City Chambers. Various developments up for discussion including the proposed extension to Cameron Toll.

10th February 2011

The Budget meeting is at the Council Chambers at 10am. One of the first items on the agenda is that there is to be a deputation from the North Edinburgh News. This is a publication which has a distribution of 15,000 copies and which has historically received a grant from the council of £43,800. It is not able to fund itself and will no doubt be appealing for the funding to continue.

5:15 PM Dr Christian Weikop (Visiting Lecturer, History of Art, University of Edinburgh) “A Last Wave to Expressionism: Berlin Dada and the Carnivalesque”, Lecture Room 1, 20 Chambers Street

Words & Music | Free | Booking Essential
Scotland is famed for its warlike songs but has a wealth of peace lyrics too, especially those which opposed the might of the Holy Loch nuclear submarine base in 1961. Recently Ian Davison and Nancy Nicolson’s pro-peace songs have inspired many a marcher and demonstrator. Join the two songwriters in conversation with Ewan McVicar, Murdoch Kennedy and Ukes Against Nukes.
Word Power Books | 7pm | 43-45 West Nicolson Street, EH8 9DB books@word-power.co.uk | www.word-power.co.uk | 0131 662 9112

Dylan Uncovered
Music & Words | £7/£5 in advance
Love or loathe his own singing style, the man from Minnesota continues to be a source of inspiration for other artists, from Peter, Paul and Mary to Adele. Dylan Uncovered showcases some of Scotland’s finest indie talent offering their own unique takes on the Bob Dylan songbook. Bands performing: Hookers for Jesus, Norman Lamont, Shock and Awe and The Sundancer. The Voodoo Rooms | 8pm | 19a West Register Street, EH2 2AA Avalanche Records, 5 Grassmarket or WeGotTickets.com | www.thevoodoorooms.com 0131 556 7060

Scottish Literature and Music: A Bardic Inheritance. The annual Tannahill Lecture with Dr John Purser Words | Free | Booking Essential Composer, historian and playwright John Purser offers a riveting lecture on the centuries-old relationship between Scotland’s music and literature, from mediaeval epic to dramatic monologue, from early chant to modern lyric. With particular insight into the ballads and Gaelic song and incitement to battle associated with The Battle of Harlaw, this will be a history session to remember. National Library of Scotland | 6pm – 7pm | George IV Bridge, EH1 1EW
events@nls.uk | www.nls.uk | 0131 623 3918

11th February 2011

Pentland Hills Regional Park Consultative Forum convenes at Bonaly Scout Hall at 2pm when they will among other things be considering the introduction of car parking charges.

Music from World War II
Words & Music | Free | Booking Essential
Go back in time with this session on wartime tunes and your favourites from WWII. Join us in sharing your memories of music of the era, with songs and footage of the artists Vera Lynn, Gracie Fields, George Formby and many others.
Oxgangs Library | 10.30am – 11.30am | Oxgangs Road North, EH13 9LY oxgangs.library@edinburgh.gov.uk | www.edinburgh.gov.uk/libraries | 0131 529 5549

James Yorkston
Music & Words | £8/£6(concession)
Tales and tunes from the wandering Scottish musician of Fence Collective fame. Yorkston has just published his tour diaries It’s Lovely to be Here – come along and be captivated by his prose, which is as absorbing and vividly detailed as his songwriting.    IN FEBRUARY 2011
St.Paul’s Church | 8pm | 63 Jeffrey St, EH1 1DH | 0131 226 0000 www.wegottickets.com/event/98157 | www.jamesyorkston.co.uk/index.php

12th February 2011

Songwriting Session
Workshop | Free | Booking Essential
Piershill Library’s Pink Saturday Club is getting ready to encourage everyone to wear their hearts on their sleeves. Come along and have a go at writing your very own Valentines love song. Solo artists or group collaborations welcome. Could this be the beginning of something? For girls aged 8 and over.
Piershill Library | 10.30am – 11.30am | 30 Piersfield Terrace, EH8 7BQ piershill.library@edinburgh.gov.uk | www.edinburgh.gov.uk/libraries | 0131 529 5685

Garden Music & Stories
Music & Words | £8/6
Broadcaster and singer-songwriter Frieda Morrison joins RBGE horticulturist and curator David Mitchell to explore the plants in our gardens. With songs from Frieda’s new album Morven and adventure stories about the Scottish planthunters from Dave, this will be a very entertaining evening.
Royal Botanic Garden | 7.30pm – 9.15pm | Lecture Theatre, 20A Inverleith Row, EH3 5LR www.rbge.org.uk/buyonline | www.rbge.org.uk | 0131 248 2909

The Italian Cultural Institute in collaboration with The Filmhouse will be showing a film at The Filmhouse at 18.20. The film is called Harem Suare. Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Languages: Turkish, French and Italian with English subtitles
Cast: Marie Gillain, Alex Descas, Lucia Bosé, Valeria Golino, Malick Bowens. 1h34m

Born in Turkey, but based in Italy, Ferzan Ozpetek delivers an exotic film that delves into the traditions of his origin. Once again, the exotic city of Istanbul is the place of intrigue. Harem Suaré tells of an impossible love affair between a Sultan’s concubine and her eunuch in the last Harem of the Ottoman Empire, at the turn of the twentieth century. In the Sultan’s Harem, Safiye swears allegiance to Nadir, one of the black eunuchs, who is in charge of and serves the women inside the Harem. Through their story we enter a world of secrets, plotting, fear, unexpressed desires, warm friendships and grave betrayals. Tickets here.

13th February 2011

The Edinburgh Lecture series continues with James Robertson talking about the city in Scottish Literature. We told you about James in our earlier article. James Robertson is a novelist, short story writer, poet, translator, editor and publisher. For most of what we think of as Scottish history only one place in Scotland – Edinburgh – had anything approaching the attributes of a city. With the Industrial Revolution, other urban centres, most obviously Glasgow, experienced rapid expansion. But many of Scotland’s great writers, from the age of Enlightenment to the 20th century, came from rural or island communities: they found cities alien and incomprehensible, even when their political sympathies lay with the mass of the populations that inhabited them……. The lecture takes place at Lindsay Stewart Lecture Theatre, Craiglockhart Campus, Edinburgh Napier University, 219 Colinton Road, EH14 1DJ (that’s the big space bubble on the front of the building) Tickets here.

A Slice of Life From Sat 12th February – Sunday  20th February 2011 at Hawthornden Court
11:00 – 13:00
14:00 – 16:00
Entry is Free (drop-in)
Step back in time and encounter everyday characters from Scottish history – all with a story to tell! Who will you meet today?

On Sunday 13th February at 3 o’clock in the afternoon at The Usher Hall you can enjoy an intimate performance by members of the RSNO in the second concert of the brand new RSNO Chamber Series. The Dovecot is the perfect setting for this delightful programme, which contrasts masterpieces for String Quartet from the 19th and 20th centuries alongside atmospheric works for brass. Includes Bach’s immortal Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and excerpts from Rachmaninov’s Verspers. Tickets are £15 and are available here.

At The Filmhouse there is a screening of Tehran Backyard at 13.30, part of the Middle Eastern Film Festival. Pari is a sixty five year old woman who lives on the outskirts of Tehran. Each day she travels over six hours into the sprawling city to work as a cleaning lady for the middle class ladies of north Tehran. Her husband is blind, she has five children and two grandchildren and she is still the main breadwinner. Set against the backdrop of political demonstrations marking the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and promoting Iran’s right to Nuclear Energy, the film travels behind the political scenes to witness the extraordinary life of Pari, an extraordinary woman who has carried her family through many adversities. The film will be followed by three shorts.

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