Issue 560

The Clash

2 Oct 2006

Earlier this year I noticed guerrilla-stickered cartoon bubbles around London that posed the question, ‘What would Joe Strummer do?’ They were trailers, it turned out, for a range of hip babygrows. But this mild absurdity exemplified how, almost four…

Red Road - feature

Red or dead

2 Oct 2006

In these lean times for Scottish film it is women who are at the vanguard of quality, truth and all that should be right in cinema. Think of Lynne Ramsay, who made Morvern Callar, or Shona Auerbach, who was responsible for Dear Frankie, or Alison…

Felicja Blumental - album review

Polish Fantasy (Brana Records)

2 Oct 2006

If your idea of a Polish fantasy stretches as far as smoked sausage washed down by a glass of vodka, then it’s time to listen to Brana Records’ latest release. Despite the recent influx of Poles to these parts, the classical music of their homeland…

Rave - Instal, experimental music

Born free?

2 Oct 2006

Neil Cooper Instal’s now in its sixth year, and has grown considerably since it started. I’m not convinced, though, that bigger is necessarily better.

D'Offay art collection

Sale of the Century

2 Oct 2006

Last week provided an undeniably momentous moment in the history of British art. The landmark joint announcement by Tate and the Scottish National Galleries that Britain’s two largest public collections of contemporary art will join forces to acquire…

Brothers of the Head - interview

I wrote Don Quixote

2 Oct 2006

‘The danger is you mythologise,’ says British screenwriter Tony Grisoni, with reference to promoting his film Brothers of the Head. Prior to its premiere at last August’s Edinburgh International Film Festival Grisoni tells me, ‘During the making of a…

Remote Control

Brian Donaldson never thought he’d see it happen a

2 Oct 2006

Fired up with a blaze of publicity, including the less than mysterious tale of some missing tapes (robbing from rich execs at the BBC to give to the poor public?), the £8m production of Robin Hood (BBC1, Sat 7 Oct, 7.05pm) is not exactly money well…

Paul Carter 4 March 1970-12 August 2006

An appreciation of the Edinburgh-based artist Paul

2 Oct 2006

It was with deep sorrow that we heard on 12 August of the death of artist and dear friend Paul Carter, in a tragic accident. Paul encapsulated all that was dynamic and progressive in the visual arts in Scotland, providing an inspirational catalyst…

Vivid Voodoo

Voodoo, doll

2 Oct 2006

The popular conception of voodoo is that of a dark, vengeful cult, where witch doctors stick pins in dolls, evil priests turn their enemies into zombies, and the possessed writhe and jerk to a relentless drumbeat. World-renowned photojournalist Les…

Glasgay!

A doubling in funding means three new productions

2 Oct 2006

There’s one event in the Glasgay! 2006 programme that doesn’t quite fit. Graffiti Brasil, a series of photographs of spray painting from the South American country, showing ‘fanatical vandalism’ and ‘jaw-droppingly elaborate murals’, doesn’t seem to…

Leech

The Leech

2 Oct 2006

Like the MOBOs, but with fewer heckles and as likely to be attended by Beyoncé, the Scottish Comedian of the Year competition in Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket saw Mark Nelson pip Paul Pirie to the coveted title, a £600 cheque, and the not so coveted trophy…

Spend a Penny

The Arches, Glasgow, until Sat 7 Oct

2 Oct 2006

SITE SPECIFIC I suppose toilets, perhaps particularly public ones, are places where we must confront the truth of the body. A good place then, to set theatre, since this too, at its best, confronts uncomfortable truths. Andy Arnold’s deft, witty…

The Devil Wears Prada

2 Oct 2006

Long before Jimmy Choo or Louis Vuitton, the Romans knew the score on couture. Back in 1AD Roman philosopher Seneca warned of the imperilled dangers of living ‘not according to reason, but according to fashion.’ Not that anyone took any notice. A couple…

The Departed

2 Oct 2006

Ghosts are always a problem for Martin Scorsese. Each film he makes is inevitably compared to his own past masterpieces, so let’s start by saying that The Departed (those ghosts are even in the title now) is not as good as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull or…

The History Boys

2 Oct 2006

It was no surprise to find that Alan Bennett’s biggest West End hit since The Madness of George III should follow it to the silver screen, given the cash it generated, but one wonders whether its producers might have taken into account other factors…

Merchant of Venice, The

The Merchant of Venice

2 Oct 2006

CLASSIC It’s easy enough to see, in Britain’s current climate of religious intolerance, why Mark Thomson should wish to open the Lyceum’s new season with Shakespeare’s tale of money and racism. It is one of Shakespeare’s trickiest pieces. Our 21st…

Tutti Frutti

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 7 Oct. Seen a

2 Oct 2006

ADAPTATION We travel through life inscribed indelibly with the past. All current experience is informed by regret, guilt, nostalgia and joyful recollection, each crowding our minds in our idle moments and subconsciously influencing our actions when…

St Peter’s architects celebrated

Major Gillespie, Kidd & Coia exhibition announced.

2 Oct 2006

The work of two of Scotland’s greatest living architects, Andy MacMillan (pictured) and Isi Metzstein, is to be celebrated in a major exhibition led by The Lighthouse. Gillespie, Kidd & Coia: Architecture 1956-1987 will open at Scotland’s national…

John Pilger - Documentaries That Changed the World

John Pilger - Documentaries That Changed the World

2 Oct 2006

POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY It’s hard not to feel ambivalence towards anyone who insists on partisanship. John Pilger is a case in point. A genuinely crusading print and TV journalist, Pilger has been fighting for the rights of the poor, the put-upon and…

Stage Whispers

Theatre news

2 Oct 2006

There’s so much happening in the theatre at present that Whispers is once again forced to put aside his usual egotistical ravings to flag up some entertainments that we couldn’t find space for amid our rush of reviews.

Brothers of the Head

(18) 93min

2 Oct 2006

MOCKUMENTARY Brothers of the Head This British mock-rock-doc is something of a curate’s egg. It purports to tell the life stories of Tom and Barry Howe, a pair of conjoined twins who were snatched from the obscurity of England’s southern…

Jason and the Argonauts

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 12-14 Oct then tourin

2 Oct 2006

THEATRE SHOW Harpies, fire-breathing bulls, dragons - Jason and the Argonauts has no shortage of combative characters. Add to that Jason, his family, Medea and over 50 Argonauts and you’ll understand the difficulties facing Visible Fictions…

Losing Louis

Touring

2 Oct 2006

SCOTTISH PREMIERE Anyone with a family knows that much of what we do today is dictated by what the previous generations got up to many years before; it’s simple, practical history. Simon Mendes da Costa’s West End hit, here revived by Borderline is…

Grapevine

Plucking fruits from the cultural bush

2 Oct 2006

Rumours of his retirement from the rap game have clearly been exaggerated as Eminem has begun on a new D12 album. Plus, Mr Mathers has a new mixtape entitled Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, due out in December, containing six marvellous new tunes... Jake…

Yellow Moon

Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 14 Oct

2 Oct 2006

NEW WORK We live in a world of constructed realities. So-called reality TV shows flood our screens promising an insight into everyday life, airbrushed ‘beauties’ gaze at us from the pages of glossy magazines. Swamped by the media, society loses sight…