Scotland Trip Edinburgh
We arrived in Edinburgh after many days of staying in a room on the top floor at the end of several flights of stairs, showers that were difficult to work out get into, and not eating clothes for about 2 weeks. We were very, very happy to be staying in a modern, studio apartment at Eden Locke. Best of all it included a walk-in shower and a washing machine/dryer. Check-in was through a nice, modern cafe. Also in a very nice part of the city.
After settling in and a little lunch at the cafe we went to the Scottish National Gallery. It houses an astoundingly wonderful collection of works. Going through the valley was one of the highlights of being in Scotland.
That night we walked to Henderson’s, www.hendersonsrestaurant.com/, a vegetarian restaurant recommended by staff at Eden Locke. It was super! We each had vegan dishes; Lynn the Henderson Haggis and Chermula Aubergine for me. On the way home we passed the University and also got a good view of the illuminated castle.
The next day was spent going to Calton Hill to get a view of the city and it’s surroundings and,
Starting at the Scottish Parliament building we walked the Royal Mile to the castle. The Parliament building with its modern design is a striking difference to Holyrood Palace across the street. The Royal Mile was jammed with tourists and businesses competing for their attention. We made a quick stop in Giles cathedral, beautiful but too many people to make the visitor anything but a herded mass of people. We did manage to get a table a Makar’s Mash just off the Royal Mile. After putting ‘Ernie’ on a waiting list and coming back after a short while. We asked for a drink of water. Hung around some in the restaurant and they gave us a table sooner than was our turn. It helped using my first name for the list and hanging around, talking with the staff.
After a long walk back to our studio apartment we decided to go to an Indian restaurant for dinner. We never made it to the one picked and went to Mowgli Street Food Edinburgh, https://www.mowglistreetfood.com/restaurants/edinburgh/, instead. What a treat! We loved the food and the restaurant was filled with lights on strings giving it a festive atmosphere, a fun place to eat. The food was great – chat bombs topping the list and a gin and tonic with a ginger slice in it. We also remembered that we had borrowed the cookbook from our local library. We picked it up when we got home and are looking forward to trying recipes from it.
The next morning we packed up, had breakfast at the cafe on the ground floor, got a cab to the rain station and eventually found the plat form for our train. The Edinburgh train station was a lot larger than the others we’d used with two levels and a walking bridge across the tracks.
Tagged Edinburgh, scotland
The World Is What We Make It, So Make it Something Good – article by Oliver Ackermann
An opinion piece by Oliver Ackermann, “The World Is What We Make It, So Make it Something Good“, was recently published in Premier Guitar. It is available online at https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/29723-How-Music-Improves-Your-Life
I wanted to post the text here in case the link goes away.
The World Is What We Make It, So Make it Something Good
I want to live in a colorful, paint-splattered dream world with expressions of community plastered all over everything. I think it’s easy to get disheartened with the work we do and forget how it affects the people around us. I realize every manmade object that I love took conscious effort to design. I take this into consideration all the time in everything I do, and it’s viral.
Walking around New York City, I see so many cool projects punks and artists have forced onto the world, and I love it! Death with a cell phone, “NECKFACE†rollered on the tippy-top of a building … someone would have had to climb on the roof and dangle from their ankles, one slip away from certain death.
I love that someone actually took the time to build a treehouse inside their bar, or tack up thousands of things about pizza, or give up their living room to throw shows where kids of all ages can enjoy live music. The more creative graffiti, mural bombs, makeshift flower boxes, wacky entry ways, and flashing lights I see in a building, the more excited I get.
It’s easy to get discouraged and think that nobody cares when you don’t see the results of what you have done or how it’s directly influenced people. I have to tell you, I am always thankful when a place is organized in a way that’s intuitive and easy to navigate, when something is colorful and exciting, or when someone treats me with genuine interest and compassion. These decisions are made behind the scenes, but the thoughtfulness of design is felt by everyone, even if the person who made it happen works outside the spotlight.
It’s true of negativity as well. If someone pushes me, cuts in front of me, yells at me, etc., and makes me want to lash out at them, that only perpetuates negative feelings and energy. Sometimes we don’t realize that someone is doing something negative to us because something negative happened to them. I find this is usually the case, so I try as much as I can to have a positive impact on the people around me and this usually yields way better results!
I had a teacher in college who told us that we were the ones who are going to make the world what it will be. That really resonated with me. It was up to us to design the world, and so I always took that as a directive to work towards the kind of world that I wanted to live in. It’s easy to forget that every small thing eventually adds up and contributes to my surroundings.
If I am nice to people, they are nice to me back. If I paint a room in fun colors, it is more enjoyable and fun to be in. Sometimes I don’t think about the road I’m driving on or the fork I’m holding in my hand, and that it had to be realized by someone! As a designer, this is a big responsibility, and I always do my best to make sure I’m not contributing to more crap made out of crap just for the goal of making more money—which is crappy.
I always try to run Death By Audio for the people around me and the people who use our products. I want there to be more and more creative music out there, so I do my best to design musical tools that will push people towards realizing their goals, rather than inflate my self-interest.
I think the world will be a better place if we all start working on decorating from our imagination and supporting our neighbors and friends to create the places and spaces and music we all enjoy.
Oliver Ackermann is the founder of Death By Audio and the main man behind noise-rock band A Place To Bury Strangers. He splits his time between designing and destroying circuits with DBA, and being on tour performing interactive space-time experiences.
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