Never Gonna Give You Up

Schoolwork and other academic activities have kept me grounded in the 'Burgh for the past couple of weeks, but it's given me a chance to explore more of the city in which I live. Hardly a bad thing.

Besides wandering around the Old Town again, I made the trek out to Leith, the old port. It's a cool little area that's more scruffy than downtown and it still retains that working class feel with an artistic bent, even with the influx of some trendy restaurants and bars that's apparently making it more appealing to yuppies. It was rainy, but such weather felt appropriate being that we were at the port. Why? Not sure, but it did.

Official Old Port. It's since moved north. 

Old Port "Square". Sailor's hotel on the left.

 Big ships at the new harbour.

Leith also houses the famed Britannia ship used by the Royal Family. An example of capitalism at its finest, it's only reachable through the giant mall to which it's attached, and if you don't want to pay the exorbitant 11 pounds to get on, the only hope you have of viewing it is from a balcony attached to the food court. Strategically designed, yes. Highly irritating even more so.

 The view that zero pounds buys you.

As mentioned Leith's got an artistic feel.

But it's also got some of the worst buildings I've ever seen in my life.

Blah. 

Leith Links is a big park in the area best known for the earliest documentation of the game of golf.

"Fore!"

So, a nice little day trip to get in touch with a different side of Edinburgh.

I delved a little deeper into Scottish/UK culture by watching my first ever rugby game. Scotland was playing England in the 6 Nations Tournament and even though England won, apparently it was closer than anyone expected. I didn't fully grasp all of the rules of the game (mostly how the scrum works), but I was able to follow what was going on and even chimed in with such facetiously insightful remarks as "Throw the ball backwards!" to my delight and the dismay of almost everyone else. Rugby: not the worst sport in the world to watch. Actually pretty good.

Riveted.

And finally, one of the better parts of the past couple of weeks was indulging myself in some Edinburgh record store culture. Besides concerts, the other thing I've missed dearly over here is wandering in to my usual Montreal and Toronto music haunts to browse and then, in moments of weakness, leave with far more than I can afford, though often with little to no guilt. Sure, $20 might buy you two meals, but a good 12" is the gift that keeps on giving. Temporary relief of hunger or a lifetime of musical wonder? Not a hard decision.

I visited two: Avalanche Records and Vinyl Villains. Avalanche carries more modern stuff and I picked up two 7"s of local Scottish bands that I'd never heard of and probably never would in Canada: The Hazey Janes (pictured below) and Broken Records (photo not found on Google). To quote Damian of Fucked Up, "You're in a new land, might as well find some new bands." Well said, sir. My plan is to try and buy a 7" of a local band in every major city (or at least country) I visit as a souvenir. At the end of it all, my "indie credibility" will be through the roof. (What, you've never heard of "____________"? Yeah, they're this little band from Cologne. You can't even get their record over here.)

Boo-yah.

Vinyl Villains was a whole other story. The place was a museum of all that is good and holy in classic music. The walls were adorned with rare 7"s and 12"s (Beatles, Clash, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Queen, Sex Pistols) and the stacks were pretty much just as good. Even though I'm not a huge fan of the classics, it felt like there wasn't a single bad record in the entire place, and it was all dirt cheap. My friend managed to find a used copy of the Queen "We Are the Champions" single for 2.50 pounds, about $4. The b-side to that album? "We Will Rock You". Wow!

I stuck to the discount bin for budgetary reasons, but still managed to pick up some good stuff, all pictured below. The grand total for four 7"s and a 12"er? Three pounds ($5). If you're in Edinburgh, go here.

And these two gems:

For real.

It's the last week of classes and then I've got about a month off before exams start in which I'll be traveling. It's super exciting. Where am I headed? Does anyone really care? These important questions will be answered all in due time, so sit tight.