Hear and now +++==
First thing in the
morning, I'm standing on top of Calton Hill looking out to Arthur's Seat,
Princes Street and the Pentlands. It's a view I never tire of, but on my
headphones Jenny Lindsay is giving a different message. 'Edinburgh, you old
tart,' she's saying. 'Your knickers out to dry.'
This is my starting point
for (g)Host City, a series of downloadable poems and stories designed to be
heard in situ around the capital. Local performance poet Lindsay highlights
Edinburgh's peculiar combination of visual splendour and tourist tat, a place
that is both the cradle of the Enlightenment and home, here on the hill, to the
pretend hippy religion of Beltane. It is not a vision they give you on the tour
buses and is all the better for it.
Neither do the tourists
get to hear much about the suicide attempts off the North Bridge, the subject
of Lindsay's second contribution, 'Jumper on the Bridge', a wry commentary on a
population more concerned with interruptions to the daily commute than the
pressures that can lead a 16-year-old to take his own life.
Over in the graveyard of
St Cuthbert's Church, Alan Bissett tells a story of a dope-smoking encounter
before a Goldfrapp gig in 'I Take Bribes'. It's a tale made all the more
credible by the sight of a party of homeless men sitting among the tombstones.
Credibility is not the
concern of Momus who enlivens my bus journey through town with a couple of his
unreliable bus tours. They claim to focus on the final stops of various routes,
but actually focus on the wilder part of the Scottish maverick's imagination
and can be enjoyed at any point in your journey.
Apart from Laura Cameron
Lewis's 'Quantum Physical' that requires you to shuffle round the Central
Library, the Momus tracks are the only ones I heard that have movement built
in. This 'virtual festival' is a generally static experience and more than once
I found myself leaving the intended site and listening in transit. As the project
develops, it'd be good to see a more dynamic response to the city. (Mark
Fisher)
www.virtualfestival.org
© Mark Fisher 2011
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