So today is the last day of June and I’ve ticked…four items off of my Summer Bucket List.  Not quite the 8-9 I was hoping for, but better than nothing in any case!  Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Watch The Bucket List

I put this on the list because it felt rude to create a Bucket List without actually knowing where the idea came from in the first place (now I realise that it essentially means a list of things to do before you, uh, “kick the bucket”.  That’s not my plan with this list.  Just, y’know, fyi).

This film couldn’t really fail, what with the small matter of its having Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicolson in the starring roles.  It’s funny, touching and more than just a bit life affirming, although some of it is perhaps to be taken with a pinch of salt and a dose of light-heartedness.  In my case, it was perfect viewing for a Friday night where the rain was pouring down outside and there wasn’t much else happening.

Go to a gig by a band I’ve never heard before

What started off as the classic “fancy going for one?” Friday evening a couple of weeks ago culminated in some hot and sweaty shape cutting in Edinburgh’s Jazz Bar until the very wee small hours.  The soundtrack was provided live by a band I can’t for the life of me now track down on the internet anywhere.  They were fantastic, however, and I had also never heard of them before.  That totally counts, right?

Attend an event at the Edinburgh Film Festival

Despite having lived in Edinburgh for nearly 8 years (??!), I’d never been to an event at the annual film festival until last Saturday.  Shameful, but also proof that this whole making lists thing works, right?  The film I saw is called Life Just Is, and it centres around a group of recent graduates each one of whom is struggling independently with various aspects of post-university life.

Now I’ll be honest.  The film?  It didn’t do it for me.  Despite my readiness to relate to the storyline I felt as though the whole thing was just trying a little too hard.  Too much was left unexplained, and the whole thing was achingly slow in places.  But I’m no film buff, I just like to be entertained, transported, swept away.  So it’s entirely possible that I “just didn’t get it”.  Which is fine!  The one great thing about the experience was that the director of the film as well as some of the cast members were there in the screening with us, and there was a Q&A session afterwards.  Now that never happens with your average Hollywood blockbuster, does it?

Pick an official “Summer 2012” song and play it until my neighbours threaten to call the police

So I wrote about Noah and the Whale a couple of months ago, but I can’t think of a better Summer soundtrack than this.  I don’t know what to say really, apart from this feels like the Summer where everything could change. In the interests of full disclosure, my neighbours have not yet threatened to call the police over my playing this yet.  There are, however, more than two whole months to go…

So that’s where I’m at.  Four activities down, 21 to go.  Over the next couple of weeks I’m hoping to get the list ticking well underway by cycling to the Falkirk Wheel, attending a dance class, getting a pedicure and reading Sunset Song.  You can view the full Bucket List here, and please, let me know what you’re doing with your own Summer!

Image above from here.