Issue 616

Gerhard Richter

Man for all seasons

30 Oct 2008

When Sonic Youth toured their 1988 Daydream Nation album in 2007 on the back of the same year's two-CD deluxe edition of what had originally been the New York art rock pioneers' final independent release, the original LP cover art was probably the last…

Hunger

Protest picture

30 Oct 2008

'Were you out last night my friend?' 'Is it that obvious?' I say pulling down a wrinkled lower eyelid to expose an eye as bloodshot as those of the two men opposite me. They are hot young actor Michael Fassbender - all fair brown hair, blue eyes, slight…

The Big Picture - Solange Knowles

30 Oct 2008

Solange Knowles is shaking off her sisterly ties (she’s Beyonce’s wee sis) with a touch of old school Motown and collaborations with every well-known producer in the hip hop world. Already making waves in the US, she’s now taking on the UK with the…

Jean Muir

Absolutely fabulous

30 Oct 2008

Jean Muir didn't invent the little black dress, but she made it her own. The trailblazing designer, who established her own label Jane & Jane in 1962 before branching out under her own name in 1966, was loved not for her catwalk extravagance or her…

The Bollywood Lounge & Indian Restaurant

Movie smoothie

30 Oct 2008

The gaudy glamour of the Indian film industry seems a parallel universe away as you button up on a dreich Glasgow night and stride past Sauchiehall Street's greasy takeaways and booze-addled hordes down by Charing Cross. Yet, just on the other side of…

Scottish Opera - La Traviata

30 Oct 2008

‘Born to die’ seems a bit of an extreme expression to describe a singer, but for Carmen Giannattasio it appears to fit the bill. Star of tragic opera after tragic opera, the Italian soprano says it’s unfortunate, but, ‘I have died so much in the last…

The St Kilda Tapes

30 Oct 2008

St Andrew’s Day is marked in Glasgow this year by this multimedia and live music event about the evacuation of St Kilda. Rare archive footage, testimonies from surviving evacuees and music from guitarist David Allison (whose previous work includes the…

James Bond - Killer Tracks

30 Oct 2008

When Bond's latest music maker, Jack White, told Rolling Stone magazine recently that he wanted to 'join the family of Barry, Bassey, Connery and Craig', he cleverly omitted any reference to the occasional black sheep of the 007 family. After all…

Alexander McCall Smith - La's Orchestra Saves the World

30 Oct 2008

When a master of storytelling such as Alexander McCall Smith puts pen to paper, we have come to expect great things. And he doesn't disappoint with this latest stand-alone title, a warm and captivating tale of strength, passion and friendship set in…

W.

30 Oct 2008

The American aphorism that suggests 'any boy can grow up to be president' is blandly dramatised in Oliver Stone's outrageously timed film, the first biopic to consider the life story of a sitting US president. Fresh from his deadly pursuit by Anton…

Hannah and Harvey

Young people's theatre

30 Oct 2008

Mental illness isn’t something you see on the stage very often, and certainly not in a show aimed at children. But given that one in four of us will experience it at some point in our lives, we’re as well to find out about it sooner rather than…

5 Things you might not know about - Tina C

30 Oct 2008

Despite appearances to the contrary, Tina C is not a genteel C&W dame from Tennessee but is in fact a strapping gentleman by the name of Christopher Green, a bloke from Derbyshire. To be more map-specific, Green hails from Matlock, a true hotbed of…

A History of Scotland

BBC1, Sun 9 Nov, 9pm

30 Oct 2008

Following recent criticism about the lack of native history being taught in Scottish schools and widespread whinging about BBC Scotland spending increasingly less cash on home-grown fare, the corporation has risen to both challenges with this ambitious…

Screen bites

30 Oct 2008

When a 1970s Indian journalist labelled populist Bollywood films as 'masala movies' - a dollop of drama, pinch of comedy, stirred in with some song and dance - Indian cinema's association with food became firmly established. While the masala movies…

Valerio Zurlini

Italian Stallion

30 Oct 2008

In one of his last-ever interviews, Italian director Valerio Zurlini discussed his life-long passion for Leo Tolstoy. 'What I find extraordinary in his work,' Zurlini observed, 'is the remarkable fusion between public and private history'. Zurlini never…

Slayer, Trivium, Mastodon & Amon Amarth

30 Oct 2008

When it comes to metal they don’t get any more influential than the founding fathers of thrash: Slayer. While pretenders to the throne may go heavier and faster you can’t match the peerless Reign in Blood and in particular the blueprint for thrash metal…

Aaloo Tikki aur Pudine ki Chutney

Potato cutlets with mint chutney

30 Oct 2008

This is Abhishek Bachchan's favourite dish, and it's very popular with the whole family. Across India, there are variations on the stuffing, from mashed peas to spice blends, but the Bachchans prefer it simple and don't stuff theirs. Mint chutney is…

Soldier Blue

30 Oct 2008

Originally released in 1970 at the tail end of a period of huge social, political and psychological change and based on the massacre of Cheyenne Indians at Sand Creek in 1864, Soldier Blue is as relevant today as it ever was. Predominantly a love story…

The Romance of Astrea and Celadon

30 Oct 2008

For the first and possibly last chance to see Eric Rohmer’s new film at the cinema you may have to skive off work as these screenings are matinees only. Veteran arch romanticist and post New Wave legend Rohmer is not everyone’s cup of tea and his newest…

Stephen Petronio Dance Company

30 Oct 2008

As the enfant terrible of the dance world Stephen Petronio has worked with some of the world’s most recognisable names. Kelly Apter meets the man behind the stage magic

Quantum of Solace

30 Oct 2008

Director Marc Forster has said in interviews that he agreed to do Bond because the producers asked him to make an art house version. Well, if this is art house then the Pope is atheist, Quantum of Solace starts with a trademark action sequence involving…

Jazzie B

Keep on movin'

30 Oct 2008

'I never made house music, mate! You've got the wrong bloke.' He's got a point actually, maybe I have. Is this the same Jazzie B whose band Soul II Soul produced a genre defining album entitled Club Classics Vol. 1 just as house music was breaking…

Circuit training

30 Oct 2008

‘Tangerine Dream,’ Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hutter said to Lester Bangs in a 1975 interview, ‘although they are German they have an English name, so they create onstage an Anglo-American identity, which we completely deny. We cannot deny we are from Germany…

Dylan Moran

Good stock

30 Oct 2008

Despite the current economic doom and gloom, or more likely because of it, live comedy is booming, with a host of big names currently touring the UK. And while luminaries like the Mighty Boosh, Sarah Silverman, Steve Coogan and Lee Evans have recently…

Slava’s Snowshow

30 Oct 2008

After well over a decade on the road, Slava’s Snowshow continues to pack ‘em in. Steve Cramer reckons this is about childishness, love and pain