Wednesday 14 August 2013

Tuesday 13th August - Homages

This was a day rather wonderfully topped and tailed by a certain Ms.
Patti Smith, with whom Fletcher (and a few other people) spent time at
the Hub and the Playhouse Theatre where she paid homage to Allen
Ginsberg and Robert Louis Stevenson, and offered the following
aphorism: "Never worry about the meaning of everything. Sometimes the
experience is enough." Between these two encounters was another varied
menu of butlerial activity. Breakfast was taken with Butlers Newsam
and Jancis, who then accompanied Fletcher to Greyfriars Kirkyard and a
tryst with a Canadian family whose ardent penchant for the Poet
McGonagall made them a perfect audience for an extended recitation in
which Fletcher gave "Grif, of the Bloody Hand" and "The Destroying
Angel, or the Poet's Dream", while Newsam offered "The Moon" and,
controversially, "Glasgow". Focus remained on the Poet as Fletcher
proceeded to the Mile in order to surprise the Fringe Marketing Team
with "Lines in Defence of the Stage", before rest and recooteration at
the Hunt and Darton Cafe with tea and crumpets. A period of mercantile
activity was then called for, so that a young flyerer in Bristo Square
might be provided with an afternoon repast of superior Scottish
cheeses and oatcakes, as well as some less Scottish grapes, a most
pleasant al fresco dining during which Fletcher met a raft of
delightful people. Fletcher's evening performance in the New Town was
followed by a leisurely stroll home through the gathering darkness,
accompanied by the plangent feux d'artifice of the Tattoo, a fittingly
celebratory conclusion to another busy butlerial day.

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