25/10/16, The Girl on the Train + My Scientology Movie A bleak film which, with so much of importance stacked right at the end, is tricky to review without giving everything away. The murders aside (sorry!), The Girl on the Train casts an interesting look at middle-age singledom and the bitterness and loneliness that can develop. In this respect, I...

Gina's Trans Diary, 23.10.16: entry 11 When the Mirror Lies It was in The Matrix that I first heard of residual self-image, the picture of ourselves that we carry around with us in our heads. It's the perfect us, the 'Dorian Gray' portrait that never ages. It affects us all to some degree, at least in the West, where our faces are so important to u...

Gina's Trans Diary, 22.10.16: entry 10 On Lady Gaga Lady Gaga's new album, Joanne , was released yesterday. It's not the album I needed it to be. Admittedly I've been listening to it without headphones on a tinny computer, but I can tell it's not the sumptuous, lush, melodic orgasm I needed. It sounds raw. Gaga doing her own thing, not giving a fuc...

What's on? 21/10/16 It's received middling reviews, but My Scientology Movie at the Cameo cinema at least looks interesting. One of my favourite 'what-the-hell-is-this?' movies was The Sound of My Voice , the film that got me hooked on the genius of actress/writer Brit Marling. I will write about Marling another time, she's worth an article by...

Gina's Trans Diary, 16.10.16: entry 9 On Taking Hormones (I) Notice the 'I' in the heading: I'm sure there will be updates on this subject. I hope to God there will be a need for updates on this subject. I've been on hormones since late June and so far the effect is minimal. Still, this is something to record in a diary, to let any reader out there...

16/10/16, American Honey Aldous Huxley said the most difficult part of a story is the ending; it's invariably unconvincing because in real life, there is no real ending, life just keeps going on. I thought about this as I left the Filmhouse cinema on snazzy Lothian Road yesterday, having watched American Honey . I even heard people leaving the cine...

What's On? 13/10/16 I really don't want to watch Shia LaBeouf this weekend. He's intense and he means well, but he's also annoying and devoid of charisma. And yet, he's in this weekend's most intriguing movie, American Honey . This is a road trip movie – and when American road trip movies are done well, they're something special. America, seen by h...

Gina's Trans Diary, 09.10.16: entry 8 These Doubts I Have I could have written about several things with this entry. In the end, I've decided to opt for what I think could be the source of a general period of psychological malaise. I think I'm feeling low at the moment because everything seems so normal, to the point where I wonder what it would be...

What's on? 06/10/16 So, to a review of what went on before; I watched Deepwater Horizon . In Cineworld , it was effective, the cinema's giant high-tech screens ideal for this kind of disaster movie. It was a little unsettling that they so comprehensively ignored the damage to the sea life (we see one floundering pelican crash into a boat as a porte...

Gina's Trans Diary, 01.10.16: entry 7 On Self-Pity and Bitterness I was at a dinner party the other evening. Nice people, great food, delicious wine. The kind of night that should send you to sleep with a smile on your face. I woke up at five in the morning, feeling sad about my life. When you're 41, it can be strange, sitting in the company of tho...

What's on? 29/09/16 Following my spending debacle at the Festival Theatre last week – in which I blew my budget on a follow-up cinema visit, on ice-cream, cider and crisps, I have decided that I shall go to the cinema this weekend, whatever happens. Nothing much can happen, to be honest. I've no plans to return to the glories of the Festival Theatr...

26.09.16: Marjorie Garber's Vested Interests One of the most significant studies of transgender identity in popular fiction, Vested Interests is a treasure trove of information about pop culture's various depictions of transgender identity. Much more than Gilbert and Gubar's essay on cross-dressing, Garber spotlights not only transvestism but also ...

26.09.16: Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Cross-dressing and Re-dressing Within the second volume of No Man's Land is this essay, an intensively researched investigation by Gilbert and Gubar (G&G) on the history of gender switching in English literature. Most useful is the sheer depth and detail of the history of cross-dressing in literature, t...

Gina's Trans Diary, 25.09.16: entry 6 On Finding Work I won't pretend that coming out hasn't hurt me financially. I used to be an EFL teacher, working abroad, and by the end of my career, I was a very well-qualified academic manager. In Edinburgh, I focused on my Masters, but when my MA was winding down this summer, I needed to start thinking about...

23/09/16, The Richard Alston Dance Company at the Festival Theatre Modern dance is a new passion of mine. I came to Edinburgh in the autumn of 2015 and signed up to watch a series of shows at the Festival Theatre. The modern dance acts all through the year swept me away, so much more than ballet – which sticks to a story you kind-of have to follow....

​Reviewed 23/09/2016 How to categorize this story? It has moments of magical realism, as well as gritty darkness: bullying, racism, homophobia and rape. It's about a protagonist who becomes a prostitute and turns to gold, and whose sexual contact allows people to see heaven. It is only a novella, but has resonated with me since I first read it back...

What's on? 22/09/16 I have a much better idea of what I'd like to do over the coming weekend, no David Bowie uncertainties for me this time. Speaking of which, following last week's entry for 'What's On?', I didn't follow it up with a review of the Bowie film The Man Who Fell to Earth because – although I did go and watch it at the Cameo cinema – I...

James Miranda Barry, by Patricia Duncker, 22.09.16 History has few transgender stories of reliable information, with as much myth as there is fact. Might this be due to the influence of religion on the written word before the twentieth century? Historical accounts have little to say about pregnant popes and cross-dressing royalty, not just in relat...

Transgender identity in the twenty-first century is a fragmented thing. Is your gender identity something you're born with, or something you acquire? Is it a bit of both? It's interesting to look at literature from different periods to see whether the depiction is more ​ essentialist ​  or its theoretical opposite,  social construction ,&...

21/09/16, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week I didn't think the Cameo cinema would be near full on a Monday night, but then, I hadn't bargained for the enduring popularity of The Beatles. In a cinema culture where so many people want to see superheroes, from Batman to Avengers to the Justice League, here was an opportunity to see the real thing: four y...