Let’s Glow: Edinburgh College Classical Music Degree Recitals. The College’s final year BA students perform on tuba, trombone, clarinet, piano and voice. From Sondheim and Gershwin to Mozart and Hindemith, there will be something for everyone to enjoy. 10am-6.30pm, The Music Box, Sighthill Campus, Edinburgh College, Bankhead Avenue. Free and open to all.
Books in Focus: Pablo Picasso. The Books in Focus sessions look at artists’ books held in the special collections of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. This session will look in detail at some of the fine examples of classic livres d’artistes by Pablo Picasso. Many belonged to Roland Penrose, who wrote the first English language biography of Picasso in 1961, and contain unique original drawings and dedications to Penrose and Lee Miller. 11.30am-12.30pm, First Floor, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art TWO, Belford Road. Free but places are limited and must be booked in advance: please email gmainfo@nationalgalleries.org or call 0131 624 6253.
Dementia Awareness Week 2015: today Alzheimer Scotland will be collecting Living Memories and there will also be an information and awareness table. 10am-4pm, Ocean Terminal, Ocean Drive.
Portobello Amenity Society AGM: Tom Parnell, Forth & Borders Cases Panel Convenor of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland will talk on Casework Challenges. 7.30pm, Baptist Church Hall, 185 Portobello High Street. All welcome.
Evenings of Enlightenment: join University of Edinburgh researchers (normally on Wednesday evenings but this week on a Thursday) 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 Joan Simon (School of Mathematics) will talk on Black Holes – the singular marriage between Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity through information. 6.30-7.30pm, Red Lecture Theatre, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall. Tickets are free and may be booked via eventbrite here.
Where I Am: A Screening Programme in Three Acts. The concluding episode of LUX Scotland’s touring programme, featuring selected works from the Where I Am Project across Scotland alongside new selections spanning artists’ moving image from the 1930s to the present day. The screening will be introduced by artist and filmmaker Peter Todd (co-editor of Subjects and Sequences: A Margaret Tait Reader); Isla Leave Yap (Director of LUX) will also reflect on the programme and the progress of the tour. 6.30-9.30pm, Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, Old College, South Bridge. Free tickets may be obtained via eventbrite here.
Dementia Awareness Week 2015: Become a Dementia Friend. PALM run a successful cafe for people with dementia and their carers. Come along for coffee, cake and a chat, and find out how to become a ‘dementia friend’ and contribute to the Pentland Dementia Friendly Communities Project. 10am-5pm, Currie Library, 210 Lanark Road.
Spark Greyfriars Lunchtime Concerts: music students from St Aloyisius’ College, Glasgow perform excerpts from Gluck Orfeo and Gilbert & Sullivan Trial by Jury. Directed by Ann Archibald (soprano). 12 noon-12.45pm, Greyfriars Kirk, Greyfriars Place. Free: no booking required.
Dementia Awareness Week 2015: come and meet members of Alzheimer Scotland West Lothian team on board the Memory Bus. 10am-4pm, Dobbies Garden Centre, Beughburn, Houston Mains, Livingston.
2015 Arbuthnott Lecture: After Independence – The Strange Power of Continuity. In the context of continuing discussions about Scottish independence and the reframing of the relationship between Ireland and the UK, Fintan O’Toole (Irish Times) distinguished writer and arguably Ireland’s leading public intellectual, explores how continuity shaped the evolution of modern Ireland after independence in 1922, drawing out lessons for the contemporary political situation. 5.15-6.15pm, Lecture Theatre G.03, 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh. Free and open to all; please register via eventbrite here.
Let’s Glow: The Winter’s Tale. Edinburgh College HND Year One Acting and Performance students present Shakespeare’s great tale of love and loss. Can that which is lost be found? 2pm or 7pm, PASS Theatre, Edinburgh College Granton Campus, 350 West Granton Road. Tickets cost £10/£5 and may be purchased by emailing edward.mcgurn@edinburghcollege.ac.uk.
The Edinburgh Bookshop Presents Sarah Winman: A Year of Marvellous Ways. The actress and author of When God was a Rabbit talks about her new book, the story of a ninety-year old woman who wears a battered old yellow oilskin coat and lives in a caravan, and a young soldier washed up and broken by war at the age of twenty-six. 7pm, Eric Liddell Centre, 15 Morningside Road. Tickets cost £5, redeemable against the price of the book, and are available from The Edinburgh Bookshop, 219 Bruntsfield Place, in person, by calling 0131 447 1917 or by emailing mail@edinburghbookshop.com.
Nothing Ever Happens Here: Yorkston, Thorne and Khan. An experimental collaborative group consisting of James Yorkston, one of the most influential singer/songwriters on the Scottish folk scene, Suhail Yusuf Khan, award-winning sarangi player and classical singer from New Delhi, and Jon Thorne, best known as jazz double bass player with electro outfit Lamb. For over 18 years only. 8pm-late, The Dissection Room, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall. Tickets cost £10 and may be booked online here or by calling the Box Office on 0131 560 1581.
The Dark Horse 20th Anniversary Celebration Event. The Dark Horse is an international literary magazine committed to British, Irish and American poetry; it was founded in 1995 by Scottish poet Gerry Cambridge, who will introduce the evening. Readings by Alasdair Grey, Douglas Dunn, Vicky Feaver and Claire Askew, with music from Findlay Napier. 7pm, The Voodoo Rooms, West Register Street. Tickets cost £6/£4 (plus transaction fee) and may be purchased from Brown Paper Tickets here.
Rosy Blue: live acoustic session. 9pm, Old Chain Pier, Trinity Crescent.
Blackwell’s Edinburgh Presents Ryan Van Winkle and Matthew Siegel. Edinburgh-based poet, tutor, podcaster and Edinburgh Libraries’ Poet in Residence Ryan Van Winkle launches his new collection The Good Dark, which includes poems from his acclaimed one-on-one poetry performance Red, Like Our Room Used to Feel (Edinburgh Fringe 2012) and cements his reputation as one of the most evocative poets writing today. Matthew Siegel is an award-winning poet and essayist living in San Francisco; his debut collection Blood Work reveals what happens to the self when the body is compromised by illness. His poems explore the struggle to remain whole in the shadow of Crohn’s disease and to make a home for oneself in the body and in the world. 6.30pm, Blackwell’s, South Bridge. Free tickets are available from the shop’s front desk, by calling 0131 622 8218, emailing events.edinburgh@blackwell.co.uk or via eventbrite here. Following this event there will be an after party at The Forest Cafe, Lauriston Place, featuring musical guests Supermoon, Faith Eliot, and more.
Angus Glens Walking Festival: here’s your first chance to get away this weekend! A four-day festival of walks guided by experienced mountain leaders, enhanced by the knowledge of local countryside rangers and estate managers, with stunning scenery, beautiful landscapes and fantastic wildlife-watching opportunities. Walks are graded to suit all abilities, and include Glen Isla to Glen Doll, a ‘Coastal Crawl’, Glen Prosa Circular and Airlie Ridge – Minister’s Path – and there’s even a Forfar Lochs Wild Food Forage, and an evening talk rather worryingly entitled Ticks and Tales…. You can book and pay for your places here. For more information (including accommodation and transport advice) see the Festival’s website here. Angus Glens Walking Festival continues until Sunday 7th June 2015.
