Scottish Republican Burns Night

Firstly I need to point out one thing. My Vivitar Vivicam camera which costs £30 was a great investment. Except for the miniscule detail that it's scared of the dark and takes horrible pictures in dark areas. Otherwise it's fan-flippin' tastic.

The Burns Night itself should have been a complete disaster: Albannach failed to show until literally the last minute and none of the other musicians turned up. That being said though, the two tunes they DID do were worth waiting for and the food and speakers were great. This was a fantastic night, and certainly memorable for all the right reasons, and a few of the wrong ones as well.

Patrick Scott Hogg took us through the Republican Burns, the one the establishment would much rather we all pretended didn't exist, but the one through whom we glimpse a Scotland through deeply philosophical and intelligent eyes. It's ironic, but some of the most genius pieces of Burns are the very ones the Burns Establishment wants us to write out of history.

The weapons you can see in one of the photos were part of a talk given by David R Ross, all round good egg and one of the best historians you're likely to read. I was tempted to post the one of me with his Claymore, but we'll leave that to another time...

The bottom-most picture you can see is a rather artsy shot of Albannach. This was one of the worst photos I was experimenting on with Paint Shop Pro in an attempt to get a "Max Payne 2" Graphic Novel shot.