Issue 625

Doctor Who - Space Oddity

19 Mar 2009

In four years time Doctor Who will be 50 years old, but still it remains one of the most popular and imagination-grabbing shows on television. While the best of British actors and television writers are lining up to work on it, the series’ first…

In a League of Their Own - the best sports movies ever

19 Mar 2009

The release this month of controversial documentary Tyson and Michael Sheen football drama The Damned Utd reminded us just how unreliable the sports movie can be. So here, in no particular order, are some gold medal contenders and some first round exits

Own Goal - the worst sports movies ever

19 Mar 2009

Legolas the boxer? Sexing up carpet bowls? You’ve got to be kidding. Herein lie some of the worst sports movies ever.

Tyson

19 Mar 2009

James Toback’s friendship with Mike Tyson first surfaced publicly when in 1999 the former heavyweight champion of the world made an unintentionally hilarious cameo in the director’s 1999 race drama Black and White. This appearance came a long time after…

Ross Noble - Things Change

19 Mar 2009

Despite just losing his farm in Australia to the recent bush fires and flying into the UK on the morning of this interview, Ross Noble maintains he’s completely primed for questioning. ‘Oh, wait, I’ve put too much pressure on myself,’ the Geordie comic…

Milton Jackson

19 Mar 2009

He’s a young Scottish producer signed to a respectable national label, who’s getting attention in the pages of Mixmag and on dancefloors around the world, but just don’t, whatever you do, go proclaiming Milton Jackson to be ‘the new Mylo’. Or ‘the new…

Benjamin Obler - Javascotia

19 Mar 2009

It may be hard to recall now, but there was a time when coffee shops weren’t over-running the world, and certainly hadn’t even gained a foothold in Scotland. When Benjamin Obler travelled from his native Minnesota in 1994 to study Scottish Literature on…

Be Near Me

19 Mar 2009

The story of a priest who stirs up a riot of anti-Catholic feeling in a Protestant Ayrshire town after a drunken fumble with a teenage boy might not instantly sound like it would travel well outside the west of Scotland or Ireland. But, since its…

Turner & Italy

19 Mar 2009

An exhibition of paintings by JMW Turner may seem a time-worn prospect, but the National Galleries are offering a new take on the man and his work. ‘Turner came to Scotland six times, but he visited Italy on seven occasions,’ says Christopher Baker…

Genova - Crosstown traffic

19 Mar 2009

Let’s talk about cities. Those Rousseau-ian abysses, those human zoos, those deserts of loneliness. The modern city and cinema have always had a special relationship, one that after years of abuse has been reduced to hand gestures and cliché. The…

Spotify - Electric dreams

19 Mar 2009

When users’ initial response to a new piece of software is a disbelieving ‘This is free?’, it’s worth installing. Although Spotify launched last year, it was invitation only until last month. Now everyone’s free to join, and they have been, with the…

Pet Shop Boys

19 Mar 2009

‘I was quite surprised, really,’ remarks pop’s greatest deadpan front-man, Neil Tennant, a propos the Pet Shop Boys’ recent Outstanding Contribution to Music Brit Award. ‘I thought it was nice of the industry to give it to us,’ he concurs with a shrug.

Place Project

19 Mar 2009

The biggest difference between Edinburgh and Glasgow’s cultural scenes can be located right down at the grassroots. While Glasgow has a plethora of places like Mono, The Arches, CCA and the Art School – centralised hubs where emergent artists, musicians…

Il Divo

19 Mar 2009

BIOPIC/DRAMA With Il Divo, the Italian writer-director Paolo Sorrentino (The Consequences of Love, The Family Friend) has spectacularly reinvented the genre of the political biopic. The subject of this darkly amusing and often exhilarating film is…

Instal 09

19 Mar 2009

PREVIEW A church organ sounding the course of the stars, a cello being turned to dust, a sound poet voicing typewriter symbols, long stretches of almost nothing … Instal has been expanding the way we listen since its inception in 2002, building a…

The Age of Stupid

19 Mar 2009

DRAMA/REPORTAGE Marrying Britain’s honourable tradition of dystopian sci-fi (The War of the Worlds, Brave New World, 1984) with the eco documentary form (A Crude Awakening, An Inconvenient Truth, The 11th Hour), Franny McLibel Armstrong’s film is an…

The Red Well

19 Mar 2009

PREVIEW Loud or quiet, why choose? The best rock bands manage to combine ear-shredding wig-outs with moments of blissful acoustic gentility – and so it is with The Red Well. The Edinburgh-based quartet are part of Fife’s Fence Collective, but stand…

Joel Frahm & Michael Janisch Quintet

19 Mar 2009

This quintet is led by two Americans, one of whom is likely to be more familiar than the other to audiences in these parts. Bassist Michael Janisch has been based in London for a while now, and has collaborated with a number of Scottish musicians…

Genova

19 Mar 2009

MYSTERY/DRAMA With his latest work, filmmaker Michael Winterbottom doffs his cap to the literature of mystery, coincidence and suggestion exemplified in the short stories of WW Jacobs (The Monkey’s Paw), Saki and Daphne Du Maurier. Following the…

The Country Teasers

19 Mar 2009

ART NOISE The gig finishes with a note of despondent appreciation. ‘Thank you,’ says Ben Wallers, also known as The Rebel, one third of The Teasers and a son of St Albans who settled in Edinburgh for a few years way back when. ‘Thank you. That’s the…

The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love

19 Mar 2009

FOLK ROCK When Anglophile Oregon native Colin Meloy bills his band’s fifth album as ‘an odd bond between the music of British folk revival and classic metal’ he’s only telling half the story. Sonically, The Hazards of Love rocks like Sabbath and…

Boombox

19 Mar 2009

Rather appropriately to celebrate two years supplying upfront house and trance Boombox are celebrating with two parties for their second birthday. On 20 Mar three man production team Above & Beyond (pictured) supply the uplifting trance followed a week…

Profile - Harmonic 313 aka Mark Pritchard

19 Mar 2009

Name: Harmonic 313, aka Mark Pritchard. Where have I heard that name? In the credits on any of two-dozen different electronic projects during the last 20 years. However, Pritchard always records under aliases (he’s had a whopping 23 at the last…

Musika Downtown

19 Mar 2009

HOUSE Musika step it up a notch this month as they spread their love over Ocean Terminal. Usually found in the Liquid Room until the recent fire ousted them (and currently making a home at Faith on a monthly basis), once in a while Musika ups sticks…

Riddim Tuffa

19 Mar 2009

DRUM & BASS/DUBSTEP/REGGAE Riddim Tuffa has been steadily gathering momentum since moving to the GRV in 2008. Their music policy has its roots in reggae but happily embraces all the myriad forms it has inspired, with ragga, jungle and dubstep…

Carl Craig

19 Mar 2009

It’s fair to say that Carl Craig helped shaped modern dance music. Without his input in the early days of electronica coupled with his expansive approach to music (especially with his Innerzone Orchestra and Paperclip People projects), house and techno…

Gut feeling

19 Mar 2009

This may sound strange, but for as long as I can remember I have always wanted colonic irrigation. Colon cleansing, or colon hydrotherapy, uses water and/or herb enemas to remove accumulations of waste from the walls of the intestine. As a middle-aged…

Doctor Who - The making of a time lord

19 Mar 2009

TIMELINE Nov 1963 Doctor Who is devised as an educational science fiction show to appeal to viewers of all ages and is given an evening time slot. The screening of the first episode is overshadowed by a power cut in parts of the country and the…

Tony's Table

19 Mar 2009

Tony Singh likes to keep it local. From the front door of Tony’s Table (the site of the old Cosmo restaurant, more recently Circus Wine Bar & Grill) you can see the outdoor terrace of Oloroso, a place of heady views, sharp suits, clever cocktails and…

Taste Test - Sandwiches

19 Mar 2009

Pret a Manger www.pret.com for info Although they did once make the mistake of marketing a tongue sandwich for Valentine’s Day, Simon Hargraves, Pret’s Director of Food and Communication, admits that the classics always sell the best, with their…

Horror DVD roundup

19 Mar 2009

Saw reshaped the landscape of modern horror, and you can relive it all with The Saw Goreology (Lionsgate) ●●●. The first two are refreshingly brutal, but parts IV and V (pictured) become bogged down in their own mythology. However, you can always rely…

Toby Paterson: Ever Growing Never Old

19 Mar 2009

MIXED MEDIA For anyone who’s ever stood in front of a piece of work by Toby Paterson and thought, ‘It’s nice … but I just don’t get it’, then this exhibition is for you. Ever Growing Never Old is a clear statement of how Paterson works, what inspires…

Retro Rebels

19 Mar 2009

This week’s shopping pages were inspired by Margaret Thatcher. Bear with us, here. This is not a dubious excuse to tie the current vogue for padded shoulders back into some monstrous 1980s power-dressing aesthetic, as fashion editors always do whenever…

Ballet Lorent: Designer Body

19 Mar 2009

CONTEMPORARY DANCE It’s not hyperbole when I say that Liv Lorent is one of the most exciting, dynamic and emotionally engaging choreographers to have worked in Scotland in recent years. The reviews, awards and audience reaction bear it out, and all…

In the City of Sylvia

19 Mar 2009

DRAMA Twenty five years ago the philosopher Gilles Deleuze said that if we see very few things in the image, it’s that we don’t know how to read it properly. Recently, cognitive psychologists have proved the point through rigorous testing: ‘these…

Also Released - Film

19 Mar 2009

Barry Lyndon (PG) 187min ●●●●● Kubrick’s epic adaptation of William Makepeace Thackery’s picaresque novel about the attempts of an Irish upstart to become a member of the English aristocracy in the 18th century re-emerges for re-evaluation on a…

Profile: Guy Pearce

19 Mar 2009

Name: Guy Pearce Born: 1967, Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK. Background: Raised in Australia, Pearce came through the Ramsay Street acting school on long-running soap Neighbours before The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desertpropelled him towards…

Royal Scottish National Orchestra: Springtime in Paris

19 Mar 2009

CLASSICAL MINI FESTIVAL OK, there’s no way that Glasgow and Edinburgh can compete on the romance front, but bringing as much of Paris in the Springtime that is possible to Scotland, the RSNO present a mini-festival of music and events inspired by the…

Jay Lafferty

19 Mar 2009

STAND-UP A competition where the participants are at the mercy of a set of judges is by its very nature a contentious entity. In local stand-up circles, the Scottish Comedian of the Year tournament of 2007 left many people aghast at how the top three…

The Book of Beasts

19 Mar 2009

STAGE ADAPTATION Children’s literature owes a lot to Edith Nesbit. JK Rowling, CS Lewis and Mary Poppins author PL Travers all cite her as an influence. Best known for her 1906 work, The Railway Children, Nesbit wrote an impressive 40 fictional…

LGBT Arts Festival Weekend

19 Mar 2009

CREATIVE FESTIVAL LGBT Centre for Health and Wellbeing, Edinburgh, Fri 20–Sun 22 Mar Scotland’s capital can lay proud boast to being the only city in the UK to have its own dedicated health and wellbeing centre for LGBT folks, which runs…

Site Specifics

19 Mar 2009

This fortnight: Traquair House, Innerleithen What is it? Scotland’s oldest inhabited house, dating back to 1107, so we’ll thank you to be a little more respectful in your tone. Sorry. Pray tell, what manner of house is it? One of the last…

Glasgow Implodes

19 Mar 2009

PREVIEW Nihilism and noise go fist in hand. Just take a look at the line-up of Glasgow Implodes, the fourth annual all-dayer of extreme noise terror organised by cottage industry label At War With False Noise in association with Zero Tolerance…

The Damned United

19 Mar 2009

DRAMA David Peace’s justly acclaimed novel The Damned United allowed us to see the world from the tormented perspective of football manager Brian Clough during his 44 turbulent days in charge of Leeds United in 1974. Paranoid, vengeful, fear-ridden…

Side Dishes - Food News

News to Nibble On

19 Mar 2009

Glasgow Green’s West brewery, Khushi’s Diner, Appetite for Ayrshire & Arran, The Larder a 160-page magazine covering all aspects of the local food scene free in the next issue of The List.

Brian Hewitt: Life Time

19 Mar 2009

INSTALLATION A familiar name at the Corn Exchange Gallery after his appearance in the Open group show in 2007, and also one of the more attention-grabbing graduates at last y ear’s Edinburgh College of Art Degree Show, Brian Hewitt returns to…

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned

19 Mar 2009

The first of two episodic downloads for last year’s console hit is much darker then the core game. Playing as new lead Johnny Klebitz, vice president of biker gang The Lost, it’s up to you to diffuse a violent gang war. Unlike previous episodes, there’s…

PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By

19 Mar 2009

ROCK From topless indie pin-up to tormented folk mythologist, cult pop monarch Polly Jean Harvey has long exposed and scrutinised the predicaments of the human condition. She’s populated copious roles over her swaggering, nigh-on 20-year career…

5 Things you might not know about - Ardal O’Hanlon

19 Mar 2009

1. O’Hanlon’s very first TV role was in Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews’ iconic priestly sitcom as Father Dougal, the doe-eyed buffoon sidekick to the more subtly daft Father Ted. He insists that he played Dougal not as an unreconstructed idiot, but…

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

19 Mar 2009

MODERN CLASSIC Mention Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and most people will recall the 1966 film adaptation starring Taylor and Burton at the peak of their own convoluted marital soap opera. While the movie has achieved iconic status in its own…