Issue 612

Sean Connery & Murray Grigor - Being a Scot

4 Sep 2008

Many Scots cynics, upon seeing the title of this new coffee table volume by our most famous actor, might be inspired to enquire just how much research on the subject can be done by an ex-pat who hasn't lived in the country for decades. It's an…

Slipknot - All Hope is Gone

4 Sep 2008

Slipknot - All Hope is Gone (Roadrunner) Slipknot could so easily have been a gimmick. Nine masked men in boiler suits battering out heavy metal. But from first single (‘Wait and Bleed’ back in 1999) they have constantly proved their musical…

RocknRolla

4 Sep 2008

Is there a filmmaker in Britain who’s been more derided than Mr Madonna? A bit unfair all this criticism is too: it’s not Guy Ritchie’s fault that the competent, very watchable gangster flicks Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch were some of…

Scottish Ballet

4 Sep 2008

Since its reinvention five years ago, Scottish Ballet has embraced a wide variety of dance styles, the full gamut of which it's managed to squeeze into one diverse mixed bill. Featuring works by the mother of American postmodern dance, Trisha Brown, New…

Peak Practice

4 Sep 2008

'The Lighthouse Architecture Series is a new five-year series celebrating a range of Scottish architectural practices, which have delivered nationally, and now deserve recognition in the international market,' says Leonie Bell, programme director at…

New film & DVD releases

4 Sep 2008

Witness the fitness of this autumn's movie schedule.

Slick

4 Sep 2008

Another chance to see Vox Motus' daft satire on cruelty, greed and casual violence, in which a Glasgow family discovers oil spurting from their toilet, fresh from its premiere at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Expect some funny gags and a novel…

Stuart Braithwaite and Aidan Moffat to release vinyl

4 Sep 2008

Two of Scotland's top musos, Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite and Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat are set to release occasional vinyl via a selection of labels. Chemikal Underground will release the first, a 10" single 'Towns On The Moon' b/w 'I've Been Bad For…

Jack Vettriano sketch auctioned for almost £40k

4 Sep 2008

A sketch of Jack Vettriano's 'The Singing Butler' drawn during a one-hour masterclass has fetched £39,650 at auction. Vettriano gave the iconic piece to the University of St Andrews, and proceeds will go to St Andrews Students Charities Campaign.

The Banishment

4 Sep 2008

Fledgling master Russian filmmaker Andrei The Return Zvyagintsev’s flawed second feature is a nonetheless interesting fusion of British gangster flick Sexy Beast, Ingmar Bergman’s Persona and (thematically at least) Scenes from a Marriage as created by…

DVD roundup

4 Sep 2008

We start this horror round-up with a trio of box sets. The John Carpenter Collection, The Roger Corman Collection, Blacula

The Mighty Book of Boosh

4 Sep 2008

Ever wanted to dance like Bob Fossil, express 'polish guilt' like Howard Moon or paint watercolours like Ol' Greg? Of course you have! All these insider secrets, including Vince Noir's genius excuses for being late (revealed here), are packed into the…

Janice Galloway - A Selfless Act

Interview

4 Sep 2008

After an absence of six years, Janice Galloway has returned with a memoir rather than a novel. Her fans won't be disappointed, though. Kirstin Innes meets her

Ziauddin Sardar - Balti Britain

4 Sep 2008

Ziauddin Sardar - Balti Britain (Granta) Balti Britain is a comprehensive and startling exploration into how Britain and India have shaped each other's fates. Ziauddin Sardar, an academic and cultural commentator, admits to his own ignorance of…

Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 10

4 Sep 2008

Judge Dredd is surely the greatest British comic character. He's graced the pages of 2000AD since in 1977, and in 2008 his maxim 'I Am the Law' still rings true. The ultimate judge, jury and executioner. It's a distopian future where the radioactive…

List picks: Days out

4 Sep 2008

Licence Pending Reliably good spoken word/ performance/music/live art/cabaret night run by a troupe of young Glasgow-based spoken word artists. This month, Martin O'Connor muses on masculinity, and live art duo Molly & Me make an appearance. Tron…

Amy Thomas

4 Sep 2008

Sultry songstress Amy Thomas started off as a classical singer but is now more at home dipping into the Great American Songbook for some classic jazz vocals. And while she'll be performing jazz at the Jam House she's also fronts a band that mashes…

Tropic Thunder

Reality bites

4 Sep 2008

Shaping up as this season’s most riotous comedy, Tropic Thunder casts Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr as three self-important actors making a movie in a real war zone. They talk to Miles Fielder about satirising Hollywood and scandalising…

Don Juan

Juan for the ladies

4 Sep 2008

Misogynist, sex god or libertine? Don Juan is all this and more, as theatre director Jeremy Raison tells Mark Fisher

Fleeto

4 Sep 2008

The perceived increase in knife crimes on the streets of Scotland is steadily raising awareness of a deadly culture creeping through the nation's young population. Knives continue to be used only in around eight percent of violent crimes, but it's the…

The Pope's Toilet (El Baño del Papa)

4 Sep 2008

DRAMA (EL BANO DEL PAPA) (15) 98min Like the recent Couscous, The Pope’s Toilet works up a great deal of narrative tension out of what are very believable anxieties. Its strength is that it generates a plot out of real life and real concerns.

Take three: Outposts of the Gaeltacht

4 Sep 2008

Three top restaurants with Gaelic names.

Botched

4 Sep 2008

An inept jewel thief (Stephen Dorff) is given one last chance by Russian Mafiosa with a heist from an apartment block. Our robber and his Russian cohorts inevitably screw up, and are the pursued, along with an eccentric group of hostages, through a…

Bon Iver - Lone justice

4 Sep 2008

The breathtaking debut album from Bon Iver is evidence that isolation can produce something truly special. Colin McKean revels in this most singular of musical visions Disillusioned and frustrated by the disintegration of DeYarmond Edison, the band…

Only the brave

Arches Live!

4 Sep 2008

As Arches Live! returns to Glasgow for its sixth year, David Pollock talks to new artistic director Jackie Wylie about her vision for the annual celebration of experimental theatre and performance art