Location: set your location

Issue 603

Sorted by date / most viewed. Showing 25, 50, 100 per page.

Summer Film Special - Shia LaBeouf - Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull - Shia LaBeouf interview

22 May 2008

When Shia LaBeouf describes himself as ‘president of the lucky club’ he’s not kidding. Even by Hollywood standards, the 21-year-old’s rise has been meteoric. Having shone as the child lead in 2003’s little-seen Holes LaBeouf spent the next four years…

Black Kids

Black Kids

22 May 2008

INDIE King Tut’s, Glasgow, Wed 4 Jun They’re not going to teach your boyfriend how to dance with you, but tipped-for-greatness combo Black Kids are hellbent on entertaining the Tut’s crowd as part of their UK and Europe-wide tour. Speaking from…

Audrey Tautou

Summer Film Special - Audrey Tautou - Priceless

22 May 2008

She scurries into the opulent embrace of the Grand Hotel in Paris, leaving behind the hubbub of the city, and plonks herself down in a capacious settee, legs decorously crossed, for a morning of interviews. The arresting brown eyes still exude a…

Terror’s Advocate

Terror’s Advocate

(4 stars)22 May 2008

DOCUMENTARY (12A) 137min Filmmaker Barbet Schroeder starts his engrossing documentary with a written statement claiming that this is his view of Jacques Vergès and that the opinion of those interviewed may be different. He then proceeds to show an…

I Served The King of England

I Served The King of England

(4 stars)22 May 2008

COMEDY/WAR (15) 119min Czech writer/director Jirí Menzel’s adaptation of Bohumil Hrabal’s novel depicts the life of aspiring hotelier Jan Díte (Ivan Barnev) as a non-stop cavalcade of good food and even-better sex enjoyed under the darkening shadow of…

Mongol

Mongol

(3 stars)22 May 2008

EPIC/DRAMA/HISTORY (15) 125min Life’s hard when you’re a Mongol. For Genghis Khan, starting life in 1192 as nine-year-old Temudjin (Odnyam Odsuren), the problems start when his selection of a bride is interrupted by the assassination of his father by…

La Antena

The Aerial (La Antena)

(3 stars)22 May 2008

SILENT/SATIRE (12A) 90min Argentinean writer and director Esteban Sapir utilises the syntax of classic silent cinema to winning effect in this amusing and inventive futuristic adventure. Set in some Orwellian style future city where words and language…

Le Weekend

Le Weekend

22 May 2008

JAZZ Tolbooth, Stirling, Fri 23–Sun 25 May With Triptych now but a memory, the eclecticism of Le Weekend is brought into even sharper focus as an important vehicle for music that eludes the attention of more conventional mainstream events. This year’s…

Sex and the City - Sarah Jessica Parker interview

Sex and the City - Sarah Jessica Parker interview

22 May 2008

Carrie would not be impressed. She may be decked out in stylish Versace threads, and clutching a Fendi bag, but Sarah Jessica Parker is struggling to remember who designed her shoes. ‘Um, I can’t pronounce the name correctly...’ She might not have…

the Dark Knight

Summer Film Special - Best of the rest

22 May 2008

The Incredible Hulk The big angry green killing machine gets another bite at the superhero film franchise cherry (after the box office disaster of Ang Lee’s Hulk). This version is adapted by the folk behind the X-Men films, directed by Louis Leterrier…

Summer Film Special - Shia LaBeouf - Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

(3 stars)22 May 2008

ADVENTURE (12A) 122min Seventeen years after his Last Crusade, Harrison Ford picks up his fedora hat and returns for his most ambitious and outlandish adventure yet. It’s 1957 and the Soviets have replaced the Nazis as the biggest set of thugs on the…

Three Harbours Arts Festival

Three Harbours Arts Festival

22 May 2008

We’re all about the community arts festivals this week, it seems. Summer is finally coming, and we can’t think of a nicer way to spend a sunny weekend than tracking down art in unusual places. So, in East Lothian, the main premise behind the Three…

California Dreamin’ (Endless)

California Dreamin’ (Endless)

(4 stars)22 May 2008

DRAMA/COMEDY (15) 154min Tragically Cristian Nemescu, the 27 year-old writer-director of California Dreamin’ died in a car crash whilst working on the post-production of this richly ambitious film (together with his sound designer Andrei Toncu), hence…

Rev Obadiah

D.A.M. Fine Comedy

22 May 2008

NEW COMEDY NIGHT Gramofon Bistro, Glasgow, Thu 22 May & 5 Jun New comedy nights emerge and disappear in Scotland every year, but to acknowledge a mea culpa, few are noticed by the media. Regardless, undeterred comics are increasingly becoming comedy…

AL Kennedy

5 Things you might not know about - AL Kennedy

22 May 2008

The A stands for Alison, the L for Louise. She chose to go with the initials as she was keen on a certain degree of anonymity when starting out as a writer and her favourite authors as a kid were JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and EE Nesbitt. She doesn’t come…

Little Otik - Sandy Grierson

Little Otik - Sandy Grierson

22 May 2008

‘It’s a bit of wood!’ ‘That’s my baby!’ ‘It’s a bit of wood!’ ‘My BABY!’ The air in the Citizens’ Theatre is thick with the smell of peat, spread all over the stage where actors Sandy Grierson and Louisa Ludgate are rehearsing what, taken out of…

Liar

Liar

22 May 2008

CHILDREN'S THEATRE TAG at the Citizens’ Theatre, Sat 24 May–Sat 7 June Children’s theatre is relatively uncharted territory for Davey Anderson. The young Glasgow playwright is best known for Snuff and Rupture, jet-black, heavily political pieces set…

Roy of the Rovers

The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s

22 May 2008

Forget Teddy Sheringham or Craig Brewster. Each would have to play on for almost another 20 years to match the footballing career of Roy Race, who turned out for and then player-managed the famous Melchester Rovers from 1954 to 1993 (with a brief…

Lucy Skaer

Lucy Skaer

22 May 2008

As an artist who once claimed to have secreted moth and butterfly larvae into the Old Bailey and reportedly left a scorpion and a diamond lying side by side on an Amsterdam pavement, convention is not something we would expect of Lucy Skaer. While the…

Peer Gynt

Nominees revealed for 2008 Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland

22 May 2008

Dundee Rep has been hailed as the frontrunner for the 2008 Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS). The Rep heads the bill with 13 nominations across 9 categories, including Best Performance in both the male and female categories, Best Ensemble…

Peter Liversidge and Fischli Weiss

Peter Liversidge and Fischli + Weiss

22 May 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Sat 31 May–Sat 7 Jun If you notice smoke coming out of Edinburgh’s Ingleby Gallery towards the end of the month, you should probably investigate before you phone the fire brigade: it might just be…

Neil Astley

Neil Astley & Pamela Robertson-Pearce - In Person: 30 Poets

(3 stars)22 May 2008

POETRY DVD/BOOK (Bloodaxe) Tucked inside the book of the same name comes a smart pair of DVDs which platform the depth and range which poetry publisher Bloodaxe have been offering us for three decades. In Person is a celebration of the intimacy that…

Michael Bond

Michael Bond - Paddington Here and Now

(4 stars)22 May 2008

KIDS COLLECTION (HarperCollins) When a book series returns from a long absence to mark its main character’s anniversary, it can often feel too much like a rushed job created purely to ensure that the keynote guest isn’t late for their own party.

Food For Thought: Jonathan Wilkes

Food For Thought: Jonathan Wilkes

22 May 2008

My eating routine when I’m working is shocking. When I’m on tour, I grab what I can when I can. For breakfast I’ll have a bacon sandwich, followed by a club sandwich for lunch, so it’s bread after bread after bread. As much as I love my bread there’s…

Jason Ringenberg

Jason Lutes - Jar of Fools

(4 stars)22 May 2008

TRAGEDY/NOIR (Faber) First serialised in Seattle’s alternative newspaper The Stranger back in 1993, and anthologised in the US in 2003, Lutes’ remarkable graphic novel is long overdue a decent European release. Jar of Fools tells the story of…

Buddy Guy

Glasgow International Jazz Festival lineup announced

22 May 2008

Grammy–award winner Buddy Guy will headline this year's Glasgow International Jazz Festival. Guy will be joined on the bill by Birth of the Cool alto sax player Lee Konitz and Mari Wilson, best known for 80s hit 'Just What I've Always Wanted'.

Ellipsis

Ellipsis

(5 stars)22 May 2008

PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM DCA, Dundee, until Sun 22 Jun That these works by three defining female artists form such an easy fit is testament to the expert touch of Lynne Cooke, curator of New York’s Dia Center for the Arts. In terms of style, intention…

Award for Annie Lennox

Award for Annie Lennox

22 May 2008

Annie Lennox has been honoured by The British Red Cross for her outstanding humanitarian work for families affected by HIV and AIDS. The singer will receive the British Red Cross Services to Humanity Award at a Royal Charity Gala Evening on Thursday 12…

Edinburgh Marathon

Edinburgh Marathon

22 May 2008

‘I’ve run a marathon every year since 2004, mainly just to keep healthy. The first time I crossed the finish line I swore I was never, ever, ever going to do that to myself again, but after about a week I forgot all the pain and decided to make it an…

Leith Festival

Leith Festival

22 May 2008

To commemorate the annual clamjamfry of community celebration way down dockward, we thought we’d treat you to a picture of everyone’s favourite Leither. Okay, everyone’s favourite fictional Leither. We’re not just gratuitously posting pictures of…

Carbon/Silicon

Carbon/Silicon, Hard Fi and BMRC rock the JD Set Legendary Mash

22 May 2008

Paul Dale reports from the JD Set Legendary Mash, a very special, intimate music event at the Jack Daniel's distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Jason Ringenberg

Glasgow Americana Festival - Jason Ringenberg

22 May 2008

If there was ever a singer who fits the dewy-eyed, British notion of Americana as thinking man’s country music, it would be Jason Ringenberg. With the social conscience of Steve Earle, the cheekbones of (a young) Johnny Cash, the punk aesthetic of Joey…

Santogold

Santogold

22 May 2008

‘I’m trying to fix pop,’ proclaims Santi White (aka Santogold) with an impish laugh. ‘It’s broken.’ If anyone is qualified to take their toolkit to the genre, it probably is White. A music industry veteran of over ten years, she’s seen the business…

Reality

Reality

22 May 2008

REVIVAL Tron, Glasgow, Thu 29–Sat 31 May A good three decades have passed since the talking heads of the media first declared masculinity to be in crisis. If at times this idea has been overplayed, there can be little doubt that the role of men in our…

Public Enemy

Public Enemy

22 May 2008

HIP HOP ABC, Glasgow, Tue 27 May Do you know the one about the ahead-of-his-time internet entrepreneur, the clock-obsessed reality TV star, and the boyish looking, alleged anti-Semite? No punch line here, just excerpts from the long and vivid history…

Akram Khan Dance Company and National Ballet of China: Bahok

Akram Khan Dance Company and National Ballet of China: Bahok

22 May 2008

INDIAN/CONTEMPORARY/CHINESE DANCE Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 22 & Sat 23 May Bringing different cultures together has always been one of Akram Khan’s strengths. For the past ten years, the acclaimed dancer/choreographer has created an entirely new form of…

Profile - Booka Shade

Profile - Booka Shade

22 May 2008

Name Booka Shade Also known as Walter Merziger and Arno Kammermeier. Occupation Ever-increasingly fashionable Frankfurt electro-house duo, who wrap a measure of typically Teutonic electronic austerity in an often glossy disco-house sheen.

Top names flock to the Meadows for Taste of Edinburgh

Top names flock to the Meadows for Taste of Edinburgh

22 May 2008

Just one week before it sets out its culinary stall in Edinburgh's Meadows, the organisers of Taste of Edinburgh have announced four new features to this year's programme. The new trimmings have been added to a festival which already promises to boast…

Supermayer

Supermayer

22 May 2008

TECHNO The Black Rabbit Whorehouse, The Sub Club, Glasgow, Fri 23 May Michael Mayer and Aksel Schaufler have both achieved more over the past decade than most producers and DJs will in their entire career. Mayer’s Kompakt Records has become one of the…

The Sauchiehall Crawl

Exposure - The Sauchiehall Crawl

22 May 2008

For most of us, spending a night crawling down Sauchiehall Street is not an entirely new concept, but add 11 bands in three different venues for the price of one ticket to the equation, and you’ve got something pretty special. Created by Rooftop…

Fabio

Street Knowledge

22 May 2008

DRUM & BASS Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Sat 24 May Exactly how do you follow Manga? The much-loved night was perhaps the prime mover in establishing the Scottish drum & bass scene and has left a solid legacy on the world of clubbing. DJ Kid, the…

The First to Go

The First to Go

22 May 2008

NEW WRITING Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, Fri 23 & Sat 24 May then touring British audiences nearly got to see The First to Go in 2002. Actor and playwright Nabil Shaban had the commission from Battersea Arts Centre and the government had pledged £50,000…

Ida Maria

Ida Maria

22 May 2008

How do you solve a problem like Maria? Don’t worry, we’re not talking about any scary Saturday night television show featuring melty-face Andrew Lloyd Webber. No, this is a much nicer problem, in fact, this Maria isn’t really a problem at all, she’s a…

Art School Degree Shows

Art School Degree Shows

22 May 2008

GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART Ragnar Jonasson Painter Originally from Iceland, Ragnar Jonasson paints, but not using brushes or canvas. ‘I’m pouring paint,’ he explains, ‘from saucepans. I pour it onto plastic, then peel it off, so there’s nothing…

Kyle XY

Remote Control

22 May 2008

Flicking through the TV schedules can often give the impression that we are living life like the eponymous character in big kids sci-fi series Kyle XY (BBC2, Sat 24 May, noon •••) Not only can we not quite understand what is in front of us, we probably…

Last Word - Tina Malone

Last Word - Tina Malone

22 May 2008

First record you ever bought ‘Build me Up Buttercup’ by The Temptations. Last time you were chatted up Oh, every day! (laughs) Usually by guys who are younger than me, strangely enough, and I end up saying I’ve got bras older than you, and if I…

Barbet Schroeder

Barbet Schroeder

22 May 2008

‘I don’t like being called an auteur’, explains the 67-year-old maverick filmmaker Barbet Schroeder. ‘I just like jumping between different projects.’ Certainly the Iranian-born Schroeder has enjoyed a richly varied cinematic career, starting out in the…

Imaginate Festival

Bank of Scotland Imaginate Festival

22 May 2008

For years, the Bank of Scotland Children’s International Theatre Festival was something of a tongue-twister. Getting the words in the right order was no mean feat – even for Festival director, Tony Reekie. ‘I always got Children’s and International…

North of Bondi

22 May 2008

Nik Biok disgorges the word with evident distaste. ‘It’s not fusion,’ he insists. To the chef-proprietor of new Glasgow venture North of Bondi, the distinction is clear: fusion is a euphemism for ingredients that don’t go together; his place is an…

Made in the Shade @ The Lighthouse

22 May 2008

She wears a frilly apron and teases her hair into a rock-hard bee-hive. She spends her days baking fresh cupcakes and her nights stitching patchwork quilts. According to Carrie Maclennan, she’s ‘the American 1950s housewife mother you never had’, and…

Cannes Diary

Cannes Diary

22 May 2008

The start of the Cannes 2008 film festival was dominated by two films that delve into the recent past to raise pertinent and timely questions about how the State deals with those they consider terrorists. Billed as cinema’s first animated documentary…

Alex Smoke - aka Fool

Singles & Downloads

22 May 2008

It may be happy coincidence, or just a refusal to write about the new Rascals single, but there’s only good stuff left in the pile this issue, meaning everyone deserves a big sloppy one on the lips for their efforts. Dead or American have run at…

Taste Test - Chicken sandwiches

Taste Test - Chicken sandwiches

22 May 2008

Fresssh 51–53 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, £2.80 •• Sweet chilli sauce gives this sandwich a bit of oomph – something it probably needed given the bland cubed chicken and plain bread. The fire in the chilli is under control, which is probably sensible…

The Drawer Boy

The Drawer Boy

(4 stars)22 May 2008

SCOTTISH PREMIERE Tron, Glasgow, until Sat 24 May All of us live by personal myths; stories we tell ourselves about our own past actions that justify the present. It seems easy enough to uncover these in others, but much harder to identify our own…

Ben Affleck

Gone Baby Gone - Ben Affleck interview

22 May 2008

Ben Affleck returns to his childhood stomping ground for his directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone. It focuses on the story of a child who gets kidnapped with the mother a prime suspect and, like Mystic River, it is adapted from a work by Dennis Lehane.

Painted Eggs

Painted Eggs

22 May 2008

THEATRE St Bride’s Centre, Edinburgh, Thu 29–Sat 31 May Gay-themed theatre is a rare beast, but drama based around the experience of transsexuals is even more exceptional. This fortnight, The Luvvies, Scotland’s LGBT community theatre company, are set…

Opera Circus: Differences in Demolitions

Opera Circus: Differences in Demolitions

22 May 2008

OPERA Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 27 & Thu 28 May; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 31 May Think of Bosnia and Herzogovina and the chances are that ethnic cleansing and bloodshed spring to mind. Yet, this Balkan country, where east meets west, has a rich…

Also Released - Film

22 May 2008

Cassandra’s Dream (12A) 108min •• Cockney brothers Ian (Ewan McGregor) and Terry (Colin Farrell) find themselves in serious financial difficulty. Their solution is kill a man for money but the repercussions of the act soon overcome their close…

La Jetee

Playlist

22 May 2008

The latest PlayList invites you to investigate the past, present and future through the remarkable reality tunnels detailed in the work of French film artist Chris Marker. Marker is due to celebrate his 87th birthday this year. If you recognise the…

13 Kids and Wanting More

13 Kids and Wanting More

(3 stars)22 May 2008

DOCUMENTARY Channel 4, Thu 22 May, 9pm When is enough really quite enough? The subjects of this film clearly don’t believe in the concept, as they churn out child after baby after offspring, some for reasons of faith, others simply because they love…

Also Released - Music

22 May 2008

The Futureheads - This is Not the World (Nul) Much underrated Mackem quartet unfurl this, their third album, showing considerable depth to their harmonious fevered guitar pop. Highly recommended. Radiohead - Best Of (Parlophone) Despite being…

Shotgun Stories

Shotgun Stories

(4 stars)22 May 2008

REVENGE/TRAGEDY (12A) 90min Poverty and hope are the currencies traded in the southeastern part of Arkansas that is the stage for Jeff Nichol’s feature debut. This is a land of downriver people whose luckless lives are tied to the Mississippi-enriched…

Rigmarole

Rigmarole

22 May 2008

DEVISED THEATRE Arches, Glasgow, Wed 28–Fri 30 May, Ah, the youth of today. They skulk around at bus stops, they commit acts of arson... they devise experimental theatre pieces structured around Pirandello farces... Phil Spencer, one member of the…

Janice McNab

Janice McNab

(3 stars)22 May 2008

PAINTING Doggerfisher, Edinburgh, until Sat 12 Jul In recent years the work of Aberfeldy-born, Amsterdam-based painter Janice McNab has lent itself towards a series she calls her ‘Chocolate Box Paintings’. While that term has developed from…

Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead

Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead

(3 stars)22 May 2008

DOCUMENTARY (15) 83 min Back in 1980, a Polish-born Jewish doctor Garri Urban published an autobiographical account Tovarisch, I Am Not Dead of his remarkable experiences in Eastern Europe during World War Two. Having fled the Nazis, who massacred…

Sleuth

Sleuth

22 May 2008

REVIVAL Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Mon 26–Sat 31 May Since Anthony Shaffer’s Sleuth first appeared in 1970, its countless revivals and two film versions attest to its capacity to intrigue audiences. But will the much-hyped, though ultimately slightly…

Kirsty Whiten

X (Group Show)

22 May 2008

MIXED MEDIA Recoat Gallery, Glasgow, Sat 31 May–Wed 2 Jul Life can be tough for a young gallery, particularly when it comes to finding its niche. Yet, this has not been a problem for the team at Recoat Gallery, who are gearing up for their tenth…

Catherine Yass: High Wire

Catherine Yass: High Wire

(3 stars)22 May 2008

FILM AND PHOTOGRAPHY INSTALLATION CCA, Glasgow, until Sat 24 May In July 2007 French high wire artist Didier Pasquette attempted to walk between three of Glasgow’s Red Road high rise tower blocks. The event turned out to be somewhat anti-climatic with…

Bob Mould

5 Reasons To Go See - Bob Mould

22 May 2008

Hüsker Dü - Mould was singer and guitarist with seminal American hardcore outfit Hüsker Dü. Throughout the 80s they released a string of hugely influential records including Zen Arcade and New Day Rising. Their unique blend of thrashy punk, melody and…

Scottish Ballet's Romeo and Juliet

Scottish Ballet's Romeo and Juliet

(4 stars)22 May 2008

NARRATIVE BALLET Theatre Royal Glasgow, Wed 4–Sat 7 Jun Big narrative ballets are filled with opulent sets and long drawn-out scenes – right? Not this time. Scottish Ballet has taken a different approach to Shakespeare’s tragic love story. Gone is the…

Michael Stumpf: Glöckchen Whiplash

22 May 2008

SCULPTURE Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow, Sat 31 May–Thu 5 Jun Following his 2005 exhibition at Sorcha Dallas, Once, Michael Stumpf returns to the Glasgow venue with Glöckchen Whiplash, a series of new sculptural works produced at the Scottish Sculpture…

Doctor Dolittle

Doctor Dolittle

22 May 2008

MUSICAL Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Tue 20–Sat 31 May With a Hollywood pedigree that includes The Happiest Millionaire, Finian’s Rainbow and Half a Sixpence, Tommy Steele needs no lessons in how to turn in a charismatic lead performance in a musical.

Change of Address

Change of Address

(2 stars)22 May 2008

French horn teacher David (Emmanuel Mouret) is improbably picked up by impulsive Anne (Frédérique Bel). She convinces him to come and live in her small Parisian flat. These oddballs are obviously perfect for each other but in denial of this fact they…

Various - Sub Club: 20 Years Underground

Various - Sub Club: 20 Years Underground

(4 stars)22 May 2008

ELECTRONICA (Soma) To continue the Sub Club’s 20th birthday celebrations, Subculture’s Harri and Domenic and Optimo’s Twitch and Wilkes (the Subbie’s longest-serving residents) have been invited to compile an album which reflects the music policy that…

JD Set Legendary Mash

JD Set Legendary Mash

(5 stars)22 May 2008

COMPETITION WINNERS Various venues, Tennessee, Thu 10–Sun 13 Apr Friday night’s shenanigans began with dinner at BB King’s before moving onto the Mercy Lounge for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. It was an amazing set in an intimate venue. On Saturday…

Scottish Opera: A Night at the Chinese Opera

Scottish Opera: A Night at the Chinese Opera

(4 stars)22 May 2008

OPERA Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Sat 19 May An afternoon at Scottish Opera was the setting for Judith Weir’s delightful A Night at the Chinese Opera. First performed in 1987 but amazingly only now receiving its premiere north of the border, the opera is…

Take Three: Antipodean Advances

22 May 2008

Tapa Coffee & Bakehouse 21 Whitehill Street, Dennistoun, Glasgow, 0141 554 9981, www.tapabakehouse.co.uk Kiwi Robert Winters is an evangelist for real bread and good coffee, and spreads the word by baking great loaves and brewing a fine cup of joe.

Four Year Strong, Meg

Four Year Strong, Meg & Dia and The Colour Fred

(3 stars)22 May 2008

ROCK King Tut’s, Glasgow, Thu 15 May In case you missed the memo, pop punk is cool again, and judging by those on this Give It a Name festival spin off tour, beards are too. But the trouble with all four bands being rotating headliners is that…

White Rabbits

White Rabbits

(4 stars)22 May 2008

INDIE Nice’n’Sleazy, Glasgow, Fri 2 May Frightened Rabbit, Fleet Foxes, Sam Sparro – there’s a veritable woodland of new bands and artists out there at the moment, so what sets New Yorkers White Rabbits apart? The fact that they subscribe to the…

Strays

Strays

(2 stars)22 May 2008

ROMANCE/DRAMA (15) 79mins (Revolver) Although a big name now, Vin Diesel couldn’t get work before this film was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize in Sundance back in 1997. Written, directed and produced by the man of muscle himself, this is half…

Also Published - 5 Father's Day Books

22 May 2008

Andrew Clover - Dad Rules Subtitled ‘What I Learned from My Girls’, this book based on the columns from this actor and stand-up is all about being in touch with your feminine side when it comes to fatherhood. Fig Tree. Sarah Brown & Gil McNeil…

Wasted

Alan Grant, Jamie Grant & Various - Wasted No.1

(4 stars)22 May 2008

ANTHOLOGY (Bad Press) Devised by sometime 2000AD writer Alan Grant, and the artists at Glasgow’s Hope Street Studios (which includes the All-Star Superman team of Jamie Grant – no relation to Alan – and cover artist Frank Quitely), Wasted is the…

Various - Chamber Music: James Joyce (1907)

Various - Chamber Music: James Joyce (1907)

(3 stars)22 May 2008

INDIE (Fire Records) As it says on the double-CD, this is a collection of 36 James Joyce love poems from 1907 interpreted by underground rock artists, some familiar – Mercury Rev, Mike Watt, Ed Harcourt or Willy Mason – others still on the fringes.

A Walk with Love and Death

A Walk with Love and Death

(3 stars)22 May 2008

ROMANCE/DRAMA (15) 90min (BFI) Made immediately after his boisterous Scottish historical romp Sinful Davey, this long lost, now cult, 1969 film was a much more personal project for the great John Huston. Based on Dutch writer Hans Koningsberger’s…

Rodge Glass - Hope For Newborns

Rodge Glass - Hope For Newborns

(3 stars)22 May 2008

SOCIAL DRAMA (Faber) After the success of debut No Fireworks, Rodge Glass returns to themes of lapsing Judaism, focusing on what it means to be British in an age where homeland pride is a misty-eyed memory, and an anomaly to third generation…

Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head

Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head

(2 stars)22 May 2008

COUNTRY POP (ATCO) To consider the pedigree of actors turned musicians is to consider a whole bunch of people walking the line between self-indulgence and inpsiration: David Soul, Richard Harris, Billy Bob Thornton, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Robert Downey…

Véronique Ovaldé

Véronique Ovaldé - Kick the Animal Out

(2 stars)22 May 2008

FAMILY DRAMA (Portobello) For this French writer’s fourth novel (but first in translation), we are in the head of 15-year-old Rose, a girl who spends much of her time on her apartment’s roof terrace wearing a cape and playing with her rabbits. Rose…

Susan Greenfield - ID: The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century

Susan Greenfield - ID: The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century

(3 stars)22 May 2008

SOCIAL ANALYSIS (Sceptre) Susan Greenfield, the Oxford-based professor, neuroscientist and broadcaster, is worried that modern living is pushing us towards a more dumbed-down society, where addictive, hedonistic, self-centred behaviour is winning out…

The Definitive Iron Man

Various - The Definitive Iron Man

(4 stars)22 May 2008

SUPERHERO (Marvel UK) With Iron Man proving to be the first genuine blockbuster of the summer season (and a fantastic adaptation of the source material) Marvel UK presents the ultimate introduction to ol’ Shellhead. The collection offers slices of…

Bandit Queen

Bandit Queen

(4 stars)22 May 2008

DRAMA (18) 115min (Metrodome) Made in 1994 Shekhar Kapur’s (Elizabeth) brutal retelling of the true story of Phoolan Devi, India’s only modern day female outlaw is still a compellingly tough watch. Jailed in 1983 and released in the year Bandit…

Jade Warrior

Jade Warrior

(2 stars)22 May 2008

MYTH/ROMANCE (12) 100min (Yume) This potentially fascinating attempt to combine two mythologies: ancient Chinese martial arts with Finnish legend, The Kalevala is, as the blurb tell us, ‘the first ever Finnish martial arts film’. May it also be the…

Cluny Brown

Cluny Brown

(4 stars)22 May 2008

SATIRE (PG) 100min (BFI) Ernst Lubitsch’s famous lightness of touch is all over the final film completed by the master of sophisticated wit and classy style. Having skewered American society with a series of punchy Hollywood romantic comedies such as…

Outhouse - Outhouse

Outhouse - Outhouse

(4 stars)22 May 2008

JAZZ (Babel) LOOP collective alumni Outhouse take their name from the garden shed-cum-studio in which they developed their freely improvised approach to contemporary jazz, using compositions as frameworks for free exploration of the musical material.

Kevin MacKenzie - Chiasmus

Kevin MacKenzie - Chiasmus

(4 stars)22 May 2008

JAZZ (Laundry Room Music) Guitarist Kevin MacKenzie’s first set of original compositions since he recorded his nine-piece Creative Scotland Award project in 2004 features a fine quartet with saxophonist Julian Argüelles, bassist Aidan O’Donnell and…

Bart Simpson

Matt Groening & Various - Big Brilliant Book of Bart Simpson

(2 stars)22 May 2008

COMEDY (Titan Books) The boast that The Simpsons is now the longest running animated TV series of all time is a bit of a double-edged sword. For as it rolls out episode after episode, into the multiplexes and beyond, the permutations for new plot…

Drive-By Argument

Drive-By Argument - Drive-By Argument

(4 stars)22 May 2008

INDIE (Lizard King) Who says you don’t get anything out of further education these days? This quintet formed as part of a college course and rather than that eternal sound of compromise, they came up with this: throbbing Altern-8 keyboard riffs…

Alabama

Alabama 3 - Hits And Exit Wounds

(4 stars)22 May 2008

COUNTRY ACID HOUSE (One Little Indian) Most people when thinking of Alabama 3 will come up with one song: ‘Woke Up This Morning’, the theme tune to The Sopranos. This thorough retrospective of their ensemble’s six-album career will hopefully put the…

Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea

(5 stars)22 May 2008

COUNTRY (Drag City) During a recent encounter with David Berman, the frontman of this legendary, cult Nashville-based outfit let slip that this could be his last musical offering. If the notoriously mischievous interviewee is to be believed, then this…

James Pants - Welcome

James Pants - Welcome

(4 stars)22 May 2008

ELECTRONICA (Stones Throw) First things first, this guy isn’t pants, anything but. He is, however, an artist with the ability to cross live and electronics in a very cool way. Welcome draws influence from the likes of Pharrell, Egyptian Lover and even…

The Ting Tings

The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing

(3 stars)22 May 2008

POP (Columbia) Salford duo The Ting Tings have been a buzz band recently, and this debut partially fulfils that potential. Conforming to today’s obligatory itunes-friendly frontloading of the album with hits, they blow their wad early, the insanely…

110 articles.

Sorted by date / most viewed. Showing 25, 50, 100 per page.

RSS feed