James Bond and Rock Stars

I went out to meet my mum in Princes Street today. We went up to the City Art Centre to see an exhibition called Bond Bound: Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design which focussed mainly on the cover designs of Ian Fleming's James Bond books from the 1950s and 60s to the present. It also had exhibits of some of the film posters, some of the prelimenary sketches and memos, along with one of Fleming's manuscripts for a book, with his notes. It was good, but it could have done with a bit of analysis about the art work and what aspects of the books different covers focussed on. Some really focus on the sex appeal, some on the exotic locations and some on the action. After the exhibition I had a look in the gift shop and bought a book called Major Works by John Keats (it cost £4 reduced from £11.99).

After that we went along to Pizza Express and I had a Four Season pizza (basically it's a pizza divided into quarters with olives: One quarter is plain cheese and tomato, one is mushroom, one is pepperoni and one is anchovies and capers). For dessert I had a Chocolate Glory (vanilla ice-cream with squares of chocolate fudge cake and chocolate sauce).

After eating, we went along to the Edinburgh Book Festival and saw Rick Wakeman. in the 1970s, Rick Wakeman was a pretty big rock star in bands like The Strawbs and Yes. These days he does quite a lot of TV shows. He was really, really funny. With some hilarious anecdotes especially about his days as a session musician working with people like David Bowie and Lou Reed.