At this time of year, every man and his dog (except this little puppy and, oh, about a billion others who are sitting at home watching the Olympics) is at the Edinburgh Festival. It has a definite antipodean tinge, as the current AD is our very own Jonathan Mills. Local lads Barrie Kosky and Gideon Obarzanek are there flying the flag for Melbourne in the main program, and so far as I can see doing us proud - The Tell-Tale Heart (under the aegis of Malthouse Melbourne, their overseas moniker) has won rave reviews and Chunky Move's spectacular dance piece Mortal Engine is certainly making it big in the pictures department. I think every second independent theatre in Melbourne is over there too, battling it out in the Fringe. Let us know how you're going, guys.

Meanwhile, closer to home, La Mama Theatre is continuing its gargantuan effort to buy its theatre. They're still $500,000 off the mark, having raised an astonishing $1.2 million since May. On September 15, Greg Carroll and Mike Bishop are organising a gala fundraising night at the Athenaeum Theatre, with a glittering line-up of local stars - the list so far includes Gerry Connelly, Judith Lucy, Michael Kieran Harvey, Brian Nankervis, Jane Clifton, Simon Palomares, Vulgargrad (a Russian criminal folk band fronted by one Jacek Koman) and many others. Tickets are $55 and you can book at 9650 1500 or Ticketmaster 1300 136 166.

If you can't make it, you can still donate. Drop in cash /post cheques or gold bars to La Mama, 205 Faraday St, Carlton, P.O.Box 1009. Receipts will be posted and all donations are tax deductible.

In other news, Tom Holloway has won the AWGIE best play award for Beyond the Neck, a play which explores the Port Arthur Massacre. You can get your hands on the script at Playlab, and then, primed for more Holloway, you can get along to Red Stitch from August 29 to see the premiere of Red Sky Morning, Holloway's most recent work, which was developed by the theatre. Bookings 9533 8083 or online.

Here at TN, we proudly stand at the cutting edge of the art of ugly neologism. I guess it goes with an unfortunate passion for awful puns that used to afflict me when, as a lowly sub-editor, I wrote headlines and captions for our esteemed daily newspapers. (Yes, sometimes it was me! I won the Herald Sun's Headline of the Week competition twice! But enough of unseemly boasting...)

Anyway: our northern brethren (the ones near Iceland) are mostly preoccupied with the Edinburgh Festival, Fringe and Main. (There is some local interest - the main bit is, as you'll recall, currently run by homeboy Jonathan Mills, and the fringe as always attracts local talent. Our man Peter Houghton, who's exported The Pitch to Scotland, seems to be keeping his head up amidst the chaos). How anyone can cover an event that includes more than 2000 acts beats me, but the Guardian is doing its best.

Meanwhile in blogland: Chris Goode at Thompson's Bank, who has brought a couple of projects to Edinburgh (you can hear about them on Theatre Voice here), is keeping a diary - so far, here, here and here. He's had a characteristically innovative idea: "Even though I've been in Edinburgh a week now, why, I can still do the previews I intended to do, but after I've seen the shows instead of before. Wait, wait, don't freak out. I'm sure it's possible. I guess we'll just have to call them something other than previews. It's kind of like, instead of writing before I've viewed the shows -- in a pre-viewing mode, you might say -- I'll be, as it were, going over the shows that I've already viewed: revisiting them, in my mind's eye, if you like, or..."

Dan Bye at Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will, who has brought two shows to the fringe, is also logging his experiences, both as artist and audience, and like Mr Goode is complaining about the lack of critical engagement. And Andrew Haydon at Postcards from the Gods has a few previews up as well. I'm sure there's tons more out there, but that should bring you up to speed...

Meanwhile, the US must-read of the week is Qui Nguyen's hilarious and (I hate to use this phrase, it's horrible, but it is) heart-warming post about his family's attitude to his theatrical vocation on his blog Beyond Absurdity.

PS: Statler quite rightly points out that I have neglected the local Edinburgh coverage. He reports: "On Stage Scotland and One4Review have a large number of reviews and I've found both to be fairly reliable. Sadly my own View From The Stalls has only managed 16 reviews so far, but I'd like to think that what it lacks in quantity..."