Celebrity Organ Recital: celebrated international recitalist Adriano Falcioni (Perugia Cathedral) will play Howells Rhapsody No 3 in C Sharp Minor, Guilmant Marcia funebre et chant seraphique, GF Handel Organ Concerto in F HWV 295, JS Bach Prelude and Fugue in E Minor BWV 548, Mendelssohn Sonata V in D Op 65 and Jongen Sonata Heroica Op 94. 8pm, St Giles’ Cathedral, High Street. Tickets cost £8/£5 (students)/accompanied children free, and are available from the Cathedral shop (0131 226 0673), from the Fringe Festival Box Office by calling 0131 226 0000, online here or on the door (sta).
Edinburgh Book Fringe: daily events – all of them free (donations appreciated) – for two weeks at Word Power Books, Edinburgh’s independent radical bookshop. Today: North Uist poet Pauline Prior-Pitt, Chrys Salt MBE and the poetry of Tessa Ransford (founder of the Scottish Poetry Library), chosen by her friends. 1pm, Word Power Books, West Nicolson Street. All welcome! No booking required, but arrive promptly as space is limited.
Chatterbooks: if you are aged 8-12 and enjoy books and reading, come along to Chatterbooks to meet new friends, chat about books and join in games and competitions. 3.45-4.45pm, Fountainbridge Library, 137 Dundee Street. All welcome! For more information please ask at the counter, call 0131 529 5617 or contact Mohammed.boussabou@edinburgh.gov.uk. The next meeting will be on 16th September 2015.
Four Hands, One Piano – A Lunchtime Concert: Les Shankland and Morley Whitehead perform works by Mozart, Bach, Walton, Haydn, Rachmaninoff and Handel. 1.10pm, Morningside Parish Church, Braid Road/Cluny Gardens. Free: a retiring collection will be taken for the church’s music scholarship fund.
Made in Prague: the New Czech Cinema UK Tour 2015. The biennial UK showcase of contemporary Czech cinema is back for the fifth time, with five titles capturing the country’s dramatic past and its influence on contemporary life and culture. Today’s film is Fair Play (15) (In Czech with English subtitles), Andrea Sedlackova’s intimate study of a young female athlete caught in a web of state-sponsored doping. 6.10pm, Filmhouse, Lothian Road. Tickets may be obtained from the Box Office in person, by calling 0131 228 6382 or online: prices vary.
Guided Tour of the National Library: a tour of the building and an introduction to the Library’s collections and history. 10.30m, National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge. Booking is essential and may be made by calling 0131 623 3734 or online here.
Stockbridge and Inverleith Community Council Meeting: 7pm, Stockbridge Church, Saxe Coburg Street. All members of the community welcome!
The Green Screen Presents The Vanishing of the Bees (U): filmed across the US, in Australia, Europe and Asia, this documentary examines the alarming disappearance of honey bees and the greater meaning this holds for the relationship of mankind and Mother Earth. As scientists puzzle over the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss; conflicting opinions abound, yet after years of research a definitive answer to this harrowing mystery still has not been found. The film will be followed by a discussion. 8.30pm, The Skylark, 241 Portobello High Street. The Green Screen is organised by Porty and Craigmillar Greens.
‘Lifting the Lid’ Exhibition Tours: Manuscripts Curator Olive Geddes leads a tour of Lifting the Lid: 400 Years of food and drink in Scotland, an exhibition that uses the Library’s rich collections to explore Scotland’s changing relationship with food and drink, the diversity of Scotland’s larder and some of the myths and traditions of the Scottish diet. 11am-12 noon, National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge. Booking is essential and may be made by calling 0131 623 3734 or online here. Also at same time on 26th August 2015.
Curated by…. a season of films hand-picked by invited Festival regulars. Each screening will feature an in-person introduction by the curator, revealing their passion for the film and their reasons for choosing it. Today: Phill Jupitus presents Brazil (15), Terry Gilliam’s dystopian masterpiece, in which Jonathan Pryce plays the small man up against a gargantuan, faceless bureaucracy. 9pm, Cameo, Home Street. Tickets may be purchased from the Box Office in person, by calling 0871 902 5723 or online.
Edinburgh Festival Voluntary Guides Association: Morbid Curiosities. A look inside the Surgeons’ Hall Museum, with Iain McIntyre. Since its foundation in 1697, visitors to Surgeons’ Hall Museum have ranged from those wishing to learn about the human body or the history of surgery to those simply curious to see the morbid displays. The museum will reopen after a multi-million pound upgrade in September 2015. 7pm for 7.30pm, City Chambers, 253 High Street. Free; all welcome.
Bi & Beyond Edinburgh: a fortnightly social gathering for people who identify as bisexual or 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. For more information please contact biandbeyondedinburgh@gmail.com.
