Cameo Toddler Time: short screenings for pre-school children, their parents and carers. Today: The Hive, Programme 6 (U) – join Buzzbee and friends in their fun-packed adventures in The Hive! Every day brings something new for the little bee as he explores the world around him with best friends Barnabee, Debee, Jasper the wasp and his sister, Rubee. 11am, Cameo, Home Street. Tickets cost £3 per child (accompanying adults free) and may be purchased from the Box Office in person, by calling 0871 902 5723 or online here.
Girls Rock Scotland! Ever thought about taking up an instrument and forming a band? What’s stopping you – think you can’t sing or play? We don’t care! Wanting to try something new and having a positive rock attitude is more important than perfect pitch and instruments can be learnt. Girls Rock School will be running group music workshops for girls (including trans*) for 6 weeks on Monday evenings, starting tonight. Come along and have a try out singing or playing guitar, bass, keyboards or drums in a friendly, supportive environment. Instruments are provided, but if you have your own, bring it along. Vocals: 6-7pm, Keyboards: 6-7pm, Beginner Guitar/Bass: 7-8pm, Intermediate Guitar: 7-8pm, Drums: 8-9pm, St Margaret’s House, 152 London Road. Please sign up here; it’s free, but donations are always welcome. Girls Rock School is inspired by the Girls Rock Camp movement which started in the US: it is based in Edinburgh.
Blackhall Knitters: the group meets every two weeks on a Monday evening to knit, natter and help each other with personal projects in knitting or crochet. The Knitters’ most recent project has been warm clothing and small teddies for Syrian families in the refugee camps in Lebanon. They are going to be delivered by Edinburgh Direct Aid which is an all- volunteer charity delivering aid and a hand of friendship in person. 6-7.30pm, Blackhall Library, Hillhouse Road. All welcome; no skill required!
Leith Conversation Cafes: a new initiative for you to meet others from all over the world while learning more about what’s going on in your local community. Today’s topic, chosen by volunteers, is ‘What have you gained from moving here? And what do you miss most about home?’ It will be discussed at both of today’s sessions: 10am-11.30pm, Drill Hall Arts Cafe, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny Street and 7.30-9pm, Yellow Bench Cafe, 31 Crighton Place (off Leith Walk, opposite Pilrig Street). Everyone welcome!
For Crying Out Loud: exclusive screenings for parents/carers (maximum of two adults per baby) and their babies under 12 months old. Baby changing, bottle-warming and buggy parking facilities are available. Today’s film is Steamboat Bill, Jnr. (U): Steamboat Bill thinks his business woes have been solved when he learns that his long-estranged son is returning home from college – but he’s sorely disappointed to find that Bill Jr (Buster Keaton) is not quite the hardy seafarer he expects him to be. And Bill Jr’s sudden affection for the daughter of Bill’s more successful rival isn’t helping matters one bit. Plus short: The Play House (U) starring Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline. 11am, Filmhouse, Lothian Road. Tickets cost £4.50/£3.50 (babies admitted free) and may be purchased from the Filmhouse box office in person, by calling 0131 228 2688 or online here.
Create A Masterpiece: join artist Erik Petrie to explore exciting art techniques and learn how to become a perfect painter and drawer, taking inspiration from the colours and textures in the gallery’s collection of Scottish art. 2.30-4pm, City Art Centre, 2 Market Street. £4 per person. Places must be booked in advance via the Usher Hall Box Office, Lothian Road, in person, by calling 0131 228 1155 or online here. Please note that these workshops are intended for families working together: at least one paying adult must accompany your child, and no child should be booked into a workshop alone.
Guid Blethers: come along to Guid Blethers on the first and third Mondays of every month – make new friends, share stories, exchange ideas and views and take a trip down memory lane. We use a computer and projector to illustrate our topics. It is a most enjoyable afternoon for all ages, with lots of guid blethers over tea and cake. Today’s theme is Cards & Postcards – bring along your treasured cards and share the story behind them. 2-4pm, Polwarth Parish Church, Polwarth Terrace. For more information please contact Margaret on 0131 229 2963 or Audrey on 0131 447 5153. The next meeting will be on 5th October 2015.
Take One Action! Film Festival: ‘connecting people, world-class cinema and creative action for a better world’. Twelve days of screenings and discussions, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, on issues as diverse as environmental activism, LGBT rights in African countries, cycling, the value (or not) of university degrees, the Arab Spring, literacy, the global financial system, food chains and much more. Today’s film is The Wanted 18 (12A) (in English and Hebrew with English subtitles): during the First Palestinian Intifada – the unarmed civilian insurgency that included protests, stone throwing, civil disobedience and refusal to pay taxes to Israel – a group of townspeople in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour decide to buy eighteen cows and produce their own milk. Seeking to create an alternative economy as a stepping stone towards self-sufficiency and sovereignty, their venture proves so successful that the collective farm becomes a landmark. Even the cows become local celebrities – until the Israeli army takes note and declares that the cows pose “a threat to the national security of the state of Israel”. Through interviews and playful animation, The Wanted 18 charts a stirring portrait of a community united in defiance. 6pm, Filmhouse, Lothian Road. Tickets may be purchased from the Filmhouse box office in person, by calling 0131 228 2688 or online; prices vary. Presented in association with Scottish Palestinian Forum.
In Common Cause: Commonwealth Scots and the Great War. David Forsyth, Principal Curator in the Department of Scottish History and Archaeology at National Museums Scotland, explores the relationship between Scottish migration, military traditions and emerging national identities within the British empire. Emigration has been an ever-present theme in Scottish history. In 1914, as the world prepared for war, thousands of men enlisted in Scotland for military service, and across the British empire and beyond, thousands more of Scottish birth and descent joined up. 10.30am, Lauriston Castle, 2a Cramond Road South. Tickets cost £8 and must be booked in advance via the Usher Hall Box Office, Lothian Road, in person, by calling 0131 228 1155 or online here.
Grassmarket Community Cinema: Glasgow Short Film Festival 2015 Family Animations Touring Programme. Free hot chocolate for anyone wearing their pyjamas to this special one hour session! The films are Zebra, The Little Cousteau, Hopfrog, Grump, Choir Tour, Polar Where? Frenemy, New Species, Avocado Bear, Macropolis and Silent; all are cert. U. 7pm, Grassmarket Community Project, 86 Candlemaker Row. All welcome; free – donations to the Project also very welcome. The cafe will be open – please use it!
The Art of David Jones: after being received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1921, artist and poet David Jones joined the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic founded by Eric Gill, a community where religion and art were brought together in daily life. This exhibition includes a group of engraved sacred images dating from this period, most notably illustrations for an edition of The Book of Jonah. 10.30am-4.30pm, Greyfriars Kirk, Greyfriars Place. The exhibition will continue until 25th September 2015 but please contact the church for opening times, which may vary from day to day.
Sofi’s Cult Movies: popular classics on the silver screen in the cosy, darkened back room. Free popcorn! Tonight’s film is Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (15): in the 1930s the Grand Budapest Hotel is a popular European ski resort, presided over by concierge Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes). Zero, a junior lobby boy, becomes Gustave’s friend and protege. Gustave prides himself on providing first-class service to the hotel’s guests, including satisfying the sexual needs of the many elderly women who stay there; when one of Gustave’s lovers (an unrecognisable Tilda Swinton) dies mysteriously, Gustave finds himself the recipient of a priceless painting and the chief suspect in her murder. 8pm, Sofi’s, 65 Henderson Street. Free.
Leith Central Community Council: 7pm, Nelson Room, McDonald Road Library, 2 McDonald Road. All local people welcome to attend and participate. The agenda for the meeting and the minutes of previous meetings can be found on the community council’s website here.
LGBT Drop-In: please note there is no drop-in at Howe Street tonight.
Picturehouse Documentaries: new and topical documentaries covering issues around the world. Today’s film is The Closer We Get (12A); after her mother Ann suffers a devastating stroke, Karen moves back home for what will be a long goodbye. But Karen isn’t the only one who comes back to care for Ann in the crisis: her prodigal father – the endearing yet unfathomable Ian, who’s been separated from Ann for years – also reappears. Reunited so unexpectedly, and armed with her camera, Karen seizes this last chance to find out the real story of her family and the truth behind a secret her father had tried – and failed – to keep from them all, before it’s too late. Candour, warmth and much unexpected humour bring to life both an extraordinary story and a profound portrait of family survival. After the screening there will be a Q & A session with director Karen Guthrie. 6.30pm, Cameo, Home Street. Tickets may be purchased from the Box Office in person, by calling 0871 902 5723 or online here; prices vary.
Caritas Public Lecture: What Are We Doing Here? Dr Brandon Carter FRS is famous for the so-called Doomsday Argument, which he first developed in 1983 and which is sometimes known as the ‘Carter Catastrophe’. This is a probabilistic argument that proposes that there is a 95% chance of that the human race will be extinct within 9,120 years. Dr Carter was born in Sydney, Australia in 1942 and was a pupil at George Watson’s College from 1954 to 1959. He went on to study Natural Philosophy (Physics) at the University of St Andrews and Mathematics at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He graduated as PhD in 1968. In 1975 he moved to France to work in the Paris Observatory at Meudon and was appointed Research Director in 1986. He retired with the status of Research Director Emeritus in 2009. Amongst Dr Carter’s achievements has been pioneering research on black holes, the mechanics of neutron star crusts and the formulation of the ‘anthropic principle’. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1981. This lecture forms part of George Watson’s Festival of Ideas, a series of lectures and seminars given by distinguished visiting speakers and staff of George Watson’s College, all of whom will address the question ‘What Are We Doing Here?’ in their own individual way. 7.30pm, Assembly Hall, George Watson’s College, Colinton Road. This event is open to the public but tickets are required, and may be obtained by contacting the Senior School Reception on 0131 446 6000.
Cameo Culture Shock: ‘the best in cult and genre films’. Tonight’s film is Alien (15): when commercial towing vehicle Nostromo, heading back to Earth, intercepts an SoS signal from a nearby planet, the crew are under obligation to investigate…. but they do not know the danger they are in until it is too late. 9pm, Cameo, Home Street. Tickets may be purchased from the Box Office in person, by calling 0871 902 5723 or online here; prices vary.
The Band of Holy Joy LP Launch: the London-based band, intermittently active since 1984, launches its latest album, Land of Holy Joy. Supported by Edinburgh alternative rock band The Cathode Ray and Glasgow-based Lola in Slacks. For over 18s only. 7.30pm, Voodoo Rooms, West Register Street. Tickets cost £10 (booking fee applies) and are available from Tickets Scotland here.
