Martin

A cultural day. I'm going to rattle through it with a few links here and there, skip em if you like but there's a couple of things in here that run through August and one of them even goes on until October. I'm quite a fan of word-of-mouth-recommendations mesen but if you're not you can always just look at the picture. The choice is yours.

First up, family Fringe show The Ugly Duckling at C Venues on Chamber Street, a great little production in a cosy theatre that's more than decent all-round. On until 27th August.

Next up, a visit to the Talbot Rice Gallery for their exhibition featuring Tim Rollins & K.O.S. A terrific exhibition. The less you know the better. I wasn't aware of their work previously and the DVD screening that reveals the creative process is just as interesting as the artworks themselves. It's on until October and well worth a visit.

Kids art and craft at the National Portrait Gallery. Four activites completed wins a gold medal, there's an excellent range of art on offer, the 'team coaches' are all super-nice and there's a chance to dress up as well. What more do you want? On until 31st August.

Quick stop-in at the Book Festival to hear a friend of mine read one of his short stories as part of the Story Shop feature in the Spiegeltent. I've known Martin for years but never heard him read before. He did great. Well done that man!

Finally, an evening at the International Festival with my mum for Tatyana. Yes, if it's Monday then it must be Brazilian dance. I didn't always know what was going on (in fact I rarely knew what was going on) but as is so often the case with these things the sheer spectacle and athleticsim of the piece made it hugely enjoyable. It was pretty stunning actually if truth be told. I was wowed. One performance left on Tuesday 14th August.

Right, it's late, I'm tired and I've not even got to the music bit yet. I'm tempted to go for a bit of Stravinsky that featured in the dance piece tonight but instead and in honour of the blip title I'll go for summat that my pal Martin would most definitely approve of. OK, that is bizarre. I was just about to type this artist's name into You Tube to get the right link up and one of their tracks has just come up on shuffle mode as I listen to itunes on my headphones. Out of 20279 tracks I only have 6 by this artist. That's a miniscule percentage. Miniscule. Only one thing for it, that's a sign, fate even. It has to be this one.