Who wants to take bets on the above statement? I've got a fiver that says it won't; I'm far too interested in listening to Presidents of the United States of America at the moment.
Let's see how I can possibly recap the past month or so... We'll split things into pre-Festival and post-Monsoon...
Pre-Festival days were pretty similar to what I described all summer long: boring, full of the drudgery known as work, etc. A wee excursion to Paris on the weekend of the 13th (of July), was a welcome intrusion, seeing as I hadn't been to the city since I was nine years old. It was quite cool to be there for the Bastille Day celebrations (read: fireworks/"feur d'artifice") and be able to practice my pathetic French, although most shops were closed for the holiday so I got exactly zero shopping in. How sad. It didn't render the whole trip useless, but still... Paris and no shopping? What sort of woman do I consider myself? Not that kind, that's for sure. At any rate, I trudged on with work for a few more weeks until the beginning of the festival...
All this Festival madness began on or about the 2nd of August, when we at Fresh Air started broadcasting our Fringe Festival coverage. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, for those of you who don't know, is the biggest of all the festivals on in town in August, and features mostly comedy shows (stand-up, sketch, all kinds) but also lots of theater and music and other genres of shows. I'm the Press Office Liaison/Reviews Coordinator for our Fringe Festival coverage, meaning I am responsible for booking press tickets for our crew and editing the resulting reviews to go up on the website. Reviews aren't the main thrust, though; live (but then recorded and made available for download) interviews are going up all the time, as well as fantastic audio features.
I realize I've just spent a paragraph selling Fresh Air to you. Sorry, too much time spent liaizing with Press Offices and trying to schmooze PR people for tickets. Right. So I've been involved with interviewing, editing interviews, ticket-getting, writing and editing reviews... there's little I haven't done around the station. It's all unpaid and time consuming and exhausting, and gets me anywhere from 15-25 urgent e-mails a day. Still, it's better than working in a shop for minimum wage! Did I mention I'm not getting paid to do this? Not so easy on the wallet, the way prices all over town get jacked up for the festival -- 3 or 4 pounds and up for a pint -- but as a Scottish friend put it to me, it's just overdue revenge on the English. The funniest thing about not getting paid is realizing that everyone we work with, all the PR, all the Press Offices, all the other press and artists and comedians and musicians... everone seems to assume we're getting paid. It's a sometimes pleasant, sometimes annoying feeling when you get the reaction, "Oh! So you're not getting paid anything to do this? At all??" What did we say? It's student radio, people. Use those little brains you were given. Actually, that's a lie, we DO get paid -- in sunshine and rainbows.
So you can tell I've been busy since the start of August? Yes, I struggled through a week of part time in front of house before quitting at Monsoon, and am all the happier for it. This is my first week free of work, and I'm, of course, thoroughly enjoying it. How could I not? Freedom is amazing, even though it makes me dread settling into the post-graduation rat race even more than ever. With any luck, that's a little way off. (Wahey, student loans, I'm lookin' at you!) I think I have too much of a problem with authority (christ, I sound like I've got a box full of asbo's) to ever work for a company or large organization. Guess I'll just have to start my own business.
Alright, let's see, how about some festival highlights? You didn't ask, and yet I still deliver. You're welcome:
-Interviewing Les Dennis. Yes, that's right, "Who?" Same thing I thought. Wrong wrong wrong, as I learned when his PR screamed, "Didn't you read the press release?!" at me. "Of course not," I said. "I looked at your website and googled the show. It just said there were some famous British actors in it, whose names I didn't recognize." Any Brit will know Mr. Dennis from his Saturday afternoon so-bad-it's-actually-sort-of-good game show hosting for years, but he's not a name any American would recognize. Particularly myself. Sort of like, the Bob Barker of Britain, I think. But less old and less dead. Right, long story short, he's in a play at the Fringe and came in with the author and co-cast member to chat about it on Fresh Air. The interview, is (I think) insightful and intelligent, and doesn't make too much of a fuss about the huge star in the studio. Unfortunately, the rumor around town now is that Fresh Air doesn't know who Les Dennis is. Sigh, I'm such a black sheep.
-Getting to go to loads of press launches. Previews of various venues' line-ups, where one was often plied by the odd free drink or two. 'Schmooz and booz' was the atmosphere, which, I decided, was unsatisfactorily Los Angeles-like. Sure, having a pint in an outdoor beer garden in pleasant weather is nice -- except when everyone's trying to act like they're someone important. I hate the egos of PR/Press people.
-The atmosphere of the city. It's crawling with... foreigners. Ick. English, Aussies, Americans, you name 'em, they're everywhere. I count myself out of this group, as I am a resident. Not for much longer, but I've been here a year and I know the back streets, so that counts for something, right? Anyway, you can't deny that there's a really fun atmosphere about, even if the Scots have almost been diluted out and the prices have run through the roof.
-Having seen more shows than I can shake a stick at. Woo. Too many to count in two weeks, and plenty more to come. Not to mention a lot of exciting films coming up at the film festival!
More later. I'm tired. Hey, this turned out to be a long post after all... you owe me five pounds. I accept cash and check, no cards, though.
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