Royal Blind Pub Quiz: the legendary quiz makes its comeback! Pit your wits against Guru Gary; prizes and raffle too! For over-18s only. 6.30pm, Hemma, 73 Holyrood Road (the Tun building opposite Dynamic Earth). £5 per person – you can come on your own or as a team of up to 6 people. Tickets may be purchased online via the Royal Blind’s website here, by calling Frances on 0131 229 1456 or emailing frances.chisholm@royalblind.org (please put ‘Royal Blind Pub Quiz’ in the subject box).
Bookbug Week: to celebrate this annual event – for which this year’s theme is Bookbug’s Big Bedtime Story – there will be more special sessions today, all including fun, songs, rhymes and stories for children aged 0-4 years and their parents and carers. 10.15am and 11.15am, Portobello Library, Rosefield Avenue, 2pm, Piershill Library, Piershill Terrace.
Quintinshill: a film by Finestripe Productions (director Ian Lilley) will be shown at 9pm on BBC Scotland tonight. It tells the story of the 1915 railway disaster near Gretna, in which over 200 men of the Royal Scots 1/7th Battalion (the Leith Battalion) died. A new exhibition about the disaster opens at Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny Street on 22nd May and a new promenade theatre production will be premiered there that evening (see listings). Quintinshill will be shown again at 9pm on BBC4 on Thursday 21st May.
Lunchtime Concert: Will Pickvance – Piano Speak. 12.15pm, St Giles’ Cathedral, High Street. Free.
Let’s Glow: Pipe Dream. Edinburgh College HND Year 2 students from both the Popular and Classical courses present this comedy musical, following a Glaswegian lad chasing his dream of playing Scotland’s most traditional yet controversial instrument. 7-8.30pm, The Music Box, Sighthill Campus, Edinburgh College, Bankhead Avenue. Tickets cost £7/£5 and are available from The Music Box reception or by emailing tickets.pipedream@gmail.com. Also at same time on Thursday 21st May 2015.
Slavery, Politics and Poetry: historian Alastair Learmont considers the extraordinary life of poet and politician Robert Cunninghame Graham of Gartmore. 12.45-1.15pm, Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, Scottish National Gallery, The Mound. Free and unticketed.
John Knox in Edinburgh: Walking Tour. Storyteller and author Donald Smith leads you through the dramatic story of John Knox in Edinburgh. Beginning at the Edinburgh International Festival Hub (top of Royal Mile), the tour will take in places of interest in the Old Town en route to John Knox House, entry to which is included in the ticket price. 4.30pm, The Hub, Castle Hill. Tickets cost £5/£4 and may be obtained online here or by calling the Box Office on 0131 556 9579. Also at same time on Thursday 21st May 2015. The tour is part of the General Assembly of Scotland 2015’s celebration of John Knox.
Let’s Glow: My Romantic History. Edinburgh College HND 1 Acting and Performing students present DC Jackson’s contemporary Scottish play, set in Glasgow. My Romantic History follows the relationship of Tom and Amy, showing that the first cut is indeed the deepest and that our memories don’t always reflect what actually happened. 2pm or 7pm, PASS Theatre, Granton Campus, Edinburgh College, 350 Granton Road. Tickets cost £10/£7 and are available by emailing ashling.findlay-carroll@edinburghcollege.ac.uk. Also at same times on Thursday 21st May 2015.
Stockbridge and Inverleith Community Council: 7-8pm, Stockbridge Church, Saxe Coburg Street. All members of the community are welcome to attend and participate. The community council may be contacted via Stockbridge Library, Hamilton Place or at stockbridgeandinverleithcc@gmail.com.
Edinburgh Napier University Film Graduate Show: a compilation of short films from final year undergraduate students. This year there is an emphasis on documentary films – from the enthusiasm of bat conservationists to a poetic look at the sea through the eyes of those most in contact with it. Fiction is not left out, however – there are mysterious spirits abroad, and even aliens from another world. 6pm, Filmhouse, Lothian Road. Tickets may be purchased online here or by calling the Box Office on 0131 228 2688. A further Napier graduate show will follow on 26th May, with Edinburgh College of Art graduate screenings on 2nd and 15th June and a showcase by Edinburgh College students on 10th June 2015.
National Galleries Visually Impaired Tour and Workshop: ARTISTS ROOMS – Roy Lichtenstein. A free descriptive tour and practical workshop for the visually impaired. 10am-3.30pm, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art ONE, Belford Road. Please book your place by calling 0131 624 6560.
Graham Fagen: Scotland and Venice. Graham Fagen, one of the UK’s foremost contemporary artists, will talk about his new exhibition at the 56th Venice Biennale, the most prestigious contemporary art platform in the world. This major new work has been commissioned and curated by the Arbroath-based arts organisation Hospitalfield. Fagen’s work mixes media and crosses continents, combining video, performance, photography and sculpture with text, live music and even plants. 6.30-8pm, Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, Scottish National Gallery, The Mound. Free and unticketed.
Art Space Nature: new work from students on this Edinburgh College of Art MA/MFA course. Patriothall Gallery, 1D Patriothall, off Hamilton Place, Stockbridge.
Reid School of Music Final Year BMus Student Recitals. Today: 3.30pm Ashton Brower (soprano/vocals), 5pm Andy Britton with his trio at The Jazz Bar, Chambers Street, 6.30pm Jessica Bennett (saxophone) and 7.30pm Finlay Turnball (percussion), all at Reid Concert Hall (except Andy Britton), University of Edinburgh, Bristo Square. All recitals are free and open to the public; recitals continue on Thursday 21st May 2015.
Evenings of Enlightenment: join University of Edinburgh researchers on Wednesday evenings in May and June to celebrate the 2015 International Year of Light. Experts from various disciplines will explore this fascinating area – from historical discoveries to today’s cutting-edge research. Tonight Dr Neil Robertson (School of Chemistry) will talk on Solar Energy in Scotland – A New Dawn? 6.30-7.30pm, Red Lecture Theatre, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall. Tickets are free and may be booked via eventbrite here.
Graham Greene Spy Stories on Screen: as part of Edinburgh Spy Week, this mini-season presents three fascinating examples of Greene’s politically acute and psychologically probing spy fictions. Today’s concluding film is Our Man in Havana (PG) (1959): Wormold, a vacuum-cleaner salesman in pre-revolution Cuba, agrees to act as an agent for the British Secret Service to fund the expensive habits of his daughter. He makes up a network of agents, sending back sketches of invented military installations based on his own vacuum cleaners – until the plot darkens. This screening will be introduced by Professor Penny Fielding (University of Edinburgh). 6.15pm, Filmhouse, Lothian Road. Tickets may be purchased online here or by calling the Box Office on 0131 228 2688. Edinburgh Spy Week is organised by the University of Edinburgh in partnership with Filmhouse, National Library of Scotland and Blackwell’s.
Boda Quiz: topical questions, true or false rounds and great games for teams of four people. No entrance fee – and prizes! 8pm, Boda Bar, 229 Leith Walk. Please book by calling 0131 553 5900 or emailing boda@bodabar.com.
Bi & Beyond Edinburgh: a fortnightly social gathering for people who identify as bisexual and non-monosexual. With organised social activities and refreshments provided, whatever your label or lack of label, we welcome you. 7-9pm, LGBT Health & Wellbeing, 9 Howe Street. Group contact: biandbeyondedinburgh@gmail.com.
Vera Chytilova Film Season: Vera Chytilova, the leading lady of 1960s Czech New Wave, died last year at the age of 85. A rebel, a feminist, a critic of contemporary society and an innovative filmmaker best known for her work Daisies, Chytilova focused on women rebelling against a male-dominated order, while consistently applying her own moral vision. She was banned from filming by the Czech government. Today’s film is Traps/Pasti, pasti, pasticky (18) (in Czech with English subtitles). Described as a ‘feminist black comedy’, Chytilova’s post-communist film continues the confrontational approach of Prefab Story with the subject of a woman who is raped by two men; unfortunately for them she is a veterinary surgeon practised in techniques of castration. Also a political commentary attacking male power, the film shows Chytilova treating capitalist morality with the same enthusiasm previously reserved for ‘socialist’ compromise. The screening will be introduced by Dr David Sorfa (University of Edinburgh), editor-in-chief of the journal Film-Philosophy. 6pm, Filmhouse, Lothian Road. Tickets may be purchased online here or by calling the Box Office on 0131 228 2688.
