Doune Castle (via wikipedia)

Monty Python fans from all over the world are preparing to make a special pilgrimage to Doune Castle in September for the 35th anniversary of cult comedy film, ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’.

Fans of the spoof movie based of the legend of King Arthur have been visiting Doune Castle since it was filmed there; it’s estimated they account for around a third of the 25,000 annual visitors to the 14th century stronghold.

On Sunday 12 September, Historic Scotland’s ‘First Farewell Monty Python Day’ will be the latest special event staged at Doune Castle for Python fans since the first in 2004.

Doune Castle, plans (via wikipedia)

Events manager Nick Finnigan said: “For this year’s Python day, we’re returning to the less structured, more spontaneous format of our early events, and of course, loads of fun and games. We’ve got some of the most popular comic sketches being recreated, prizes for the best costumes, a trail - ‘Monty Python and the Holy Trail’ – highlighting the various filming locations of scenes from the film, a quiz with prizes, singing, and of course, lots of coconut shells!”

Coconut shells have been a fixture at Doune since the Holy Grail film became a cult hit. Visitors use them to mimic horses’ hooves, just as King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his faithful servant, Patsy (Terry Gilliam) did in the film’s opening scene.

In addition to Gilliam and Chapman, who died in 1989, five years after the Pythons made their last film, the other Pythons who starred in the film were Michael Palin, Eric Idle, John Cleese and Terry Jones. Jones made a return to Doune – at least in voice – last year when he recorded the castle’s new audio guide. The tape begins: “Welcome to Doune Castle. I’m Terry Jones, and in 1974 some friends and myself made a very silly film here called Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

Further info here: http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/places/events/event_detail.htm?eventid=26908

A travelling photo exhibition of Mimar Sinan’s work has arrived in Rome and will remain open — at Casa dell’Architettura — until 30th April 2010.

The exhibition, which has until now been displayed in Ankara, Sarajevo, Damascus, Aleppo and Sofia and will then travel to Riyadh, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro and London, consists of 60 photographs and a model of the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul.

In the 16th century, Miman Sinan was not only the chief Ottoman architect and civil engineer under the sultanate of Selim I, Suleyman I, Selim II and Murat III, but also one of the first earthquake engineers.

The Girl Geek Dinners were founded on the 16th August 2005 as a result of one girl geek who got annoyed and frustrated about being one of the only females attending technical events. She was tired of being assumed to be marketing, tired of constantly having to prove herself and decided that she just wanted a change and to be treated just the same as any other geek out there, gender and age aside. After all to be geeky is to be intelligent, have passion for a subject and to know that subject in depth. It’s not at all about being better than others, or about gender, race, religion or anything else. Those things just detract from the real fun stuff, the technology, the innovation and the spread of new ideas.

Girl Geek Dinner #4 in Rome this coming Friday (5th March 2010, h 7.00 PM @ Antù, Via Libetta 15/C) will be about sustainability: renewable energy, recycling and reusing.

Speakers for #ggdroma4 are:

• Marianna Pasquali (EtikaSolar — also main sponsor for the event)
• Simona Falasca (GreenMe)
• Monica Gardellini (Suitecase Magazine)
• Marica Fachin (TiRiciclo-Tetra Pak)
• Viviana Valentini (Legambiente)

More info on GGDRoma.