who buys tourist souvenirs?

On August 31, 2009August 29, 2009 By Rick McIn product complaints, travelLeave a comment

It amazes me all the tourist trinket shops in the world can stay in business. Even with an 80% mark-up.

Who buys this crap?

In Europe it’s still mostly Japanese tourists. Rushing from one “famous” tourist attraction to the next. Snapping photos of one another at each. Buying at least one authentic (made in China) souvenir at each bus tour stop.

The only others I’ve seen actually pay for anything in those shops are suspiciously blonde, suspiciously busty, loud American women who like to be seen clambering on and off trains with awkward armloads of shopping bags. As if it’s Christmas Eve.

=== On a completely unrelated topic, I’m shopping for a novelty Scotland t-shirt.

Any recommendations?

Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2009 – a review

On August 30, 2009June 3, 2024 By Rick McIn Cirque du Soleil, product endorsements, travel3 Comments

It was great.

The setting cannot be beat, outdoor on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle. Images are projected on the castle ramparts. Wonderful.

tattoo060809-1006

Over 217,000 people see it each year. About half get rained upon, I reckon. Luckily it stayed dry for my show on the last night of 2009.

I loved the flyby salute by jets. And the fireworks.

This year the Swiss Top Secret Drum Corps stole the show as they did, I assume, in 2003 and 2006.

I doubt you could find anyone who left the show unhappy. It’s more poignant right now because U.K. soldiers are dying in Afghanistan. Mothers and Grandmothers were protesting on the High Street during the festival.

All that said … in my opinion the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo was better. More variety. More humour. Better.

Edinburgh needs to hire a consultant from Cirque du Soleil. Their show easily be improved. … On the other hand, it’s been sold out for the past 10yrs.

Red Hot Chilli Pipers – Smoke On The Water and Thunderstruck

On August 30, 2009August 29, 2009 By Rick McIn music, product endorsementsLeave a comment

The hottest music in Edinburgh is the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

They call it Bagrock.

Click PLAY or watch them on YouTube.

Bagpipes and electric guitar are quite similar, I think. Both very versatile.

official website – about

attending Edinburgh Military Tattoo tonight

On August 29, 2009 By Rick McIn travelLeave a comment

The Edinburgh Military Tattoo has been sold out for weeks. But on my 5th attempt, I managed to snag a ticket for the 7:30PM show tonight, Saturday. It’s the final evening so I’m hoping for something special at the Castle.

I enjoyed the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo in July. I can now compare it against the most famous Tattoo of all.

Click PLAY or watch a preview video clip on YouTube.

There’s a group from Calgary, Alberta performing. How about that?

edintattoo.co.uk

Apple Snow Leopard – faster and smaller

On August 28, 2009 By Rick McIn Apple, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Brilliant.

I will buy this product ASAP.

Click PLAY or watch David Pogue’s review on YouTube.

The Painted Veil

On August 28, 2009August 27, 2009 By Rick McIn books, movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I finally got around to one of the only W. Somerset Maugham books I had not read:

The Painted Veil (1925)

… Shallow and lost, Kitty marries the intellectual and passionate Walter Fane, a bacteriologist on leave from the Far East who is madly in love with her. She does this purely so that she can be married before her younger sister, Doris, and to get away from her mother. They move to Hong Kong where, bored by the stifling climate and social mores, Kitty quickly starts an affair with the “perfect” Charles Townsend, the handsome assistant colonial secretary.

When Walter finds out about their affair, he gives Kitty an ultimatum. She must either accompany him to the Chinese interior to deal with a cholera epidemic, risking death, or he will divorce her, causing a scandal, unless Townsend will agree to marry her. …

It’s masterful, as always with Maugham.

The guy may have been a jerk, but he could certainly work words.

As I followed the tale I visualized it as the perfect film for Merchant Ivory.

Surprised was I to find out it was made into a movie in 2006, The Painted Veil with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

… Norton considered The Painted Veil to be in the spirit of films like Out of Africa (1985) and The English Patient …

I’ve got to see that movie.

worst political decision ever – Lockerbie bombing release

On August 27, 2009August 28, 2009 By Rick McIn government1 Comment

The tabloids here in Scotland are full of it.

This story:

… On August 20th Scotland’s justice secretary freed Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, convicted of the worst terrorist atrocity in British history, the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in which 270 people (189 of them Americans) were killed. Mr Megrahi is dying of cancer and Scottish law permits release on compassionate grounds. To Mr MacAskill’s surprise, it seems, all hell broke loose. …

Recall that everyone on the flight died. And 11 people in Lockerbie, Scotland killed when the plane wreckage fell on top of them.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty though to this day he has been steadfast in denying the charges.

… served just over 8½ years of his life sentence, was escorted by Strathclyde Police to Glasgow Airport where he boarded a specially chartered Afriqiyah Airways Airbus for Tripoli, Libya. Megrahi arrived back in time to join celebrations to mark 40 years since the country’s revolution. …

Innocent or guilty. Right or wrong. This was a big political mistake.

For Prime Minister Gordon Brown, though it was not his decision to release the man, this plays BAD, BAD, BAD.