Issue 643

Interview with Sum author David Eagleman

4 Nov 2009

Brian Eno composed a score for it. Stephen Fry sent sales rocketing when he mentioned it on Twitter and Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker and Miranda Richardson have been recorded reading from it. Kirstin Innes meets David Eagleman, author of Sum, one of 2009’s…

Noel Fielding interview

4 Nov 2009

First record you ever bought It was Motörhead and it was an album called Bomber. I was quite a weird kid. Last time you were chatted up Probably last night. Last lie you told Probably last night as well. I lie every day. First movie you ever…

Michael Haneke interview

4 Nov 2009

‘I’m a control freak,’ says Michael Haneke, the current holder of the Palme d’Or. The Cannes prize-winning director is talking in a London hotel room, wearing a black shirt and trousers, German words spouting through his Santa Claus-esque white hair and…

The Scottish Café and Restaurant opens at the National Gallery of Scotland

4 Nov 2009

When the concession to run the 120-cover café and restaurant in the National Gallery of Scotland on the Mound in Edinburgh came up for renewal this year a predictable array of contract caterers, many based in England, came forward to bid. They were…

The White Ribbon (Das Weiße Band)

4 Nov 2009

(15) 143min Writer/director Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher, Hidden) mainlines the sentiments of fellow Austrians Alfred Adler (the psychiatrist who first formulated ideas of the inferiority complex) and novelist Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach (who…

Chris Packham - Wild thing

30 Oct 2009

Chris Packham recently suggested that we should just let the giant panda die out. As he comes to Glasgow, Kirstin Innes talks to the controversial conservationist.

Labels of love: Numbers

29 Oct 2009

Based in: Glasgow Roster: The first three releases will be by Lazer Sword, Redinho and Taz Buckfaster, with more artists to follow. Bosses: Jack ‘Jackmaster’ Revill, Calum and Neil Morton, Richard Chater and Adam Rodgers. Sounds…

Othello

Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, until Sat 21 Nov

10 Nov 2009

Guy Hollands’ production of the Bard’s tragedy of racial hatred, jealousy and betrayal is a stripped-back version, starkly lit, with minimal staging, that returns the focus squarely to Shakespeare’s language. Thus, the most successful moments come about…

Sue Townsend - Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years

30 Oct 2009

(Michael Joseph) Reneging on her statement that 2004’s Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction would be the final Mole book, Sue Townsend has returned to her most enduring creation in his 39th (and a quarter) year. That he’s back at all is…

McIntosh Ross

29 Oct 2009

The piano hook on UK hip hop urchin Chipmunk’s new single, ‘Oopsy Daisy’, is curious. By ‘curious’ we mean ‘hugely akin to “Wages Day”’ by Deacon Blue’. And by ‘Deacon Blue’, we mean ‘superb’. History has been unjust to Scotland’s abiding social-pop…

1 Day

29 Oct 2009

(15) 101min Billed as ‘Britain’s first hip-hop musical, on paper 1 Day sounds like a do-gooder Guardian-reader’s community play, dramatising social issues to a soundtrack of urban beats and songs delivered in a semi-operatic style. That the result…

James Ellroy interview

4 Nov 2009

The final part in James Ellroy’s Underworld USA trilogy comes as a hefty, rewarding brick of a book and is already being hailed as his masterpiece. Following up American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand, Blood’s a Rover is a blazing, epic 650-page…

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno

4 Nov 2009

(15) 100min Movie history is littered with the foetus corpses of abandoned projects and unrealised masterworks from Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis to Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon, John Waters’ The Confederacy of Dunces and (arguably most tragic of…

Faithless

30 Oct 2009

Faithless have played the main stage at Glastonbury and T in the Park, sold out the SECC and headlined Creamfields, Global Gathering, Live at Loch Lomond and countless other festivals around the world. All five of their studio albums have gone gold in…

Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young

29 Oct 2009

(Rough Trade) The List is quite frankly gagging for a new Strokes record … it’s been three years ferchrissakes. But until we get one, Julian Casablancas’ debut (easily the Strokes-iest sounding of each member’s solo projects so far) will do nicely.

Natura Morte brings theatre companies Derevo and Akhe together

5 Nov 2009

As partnerships go, it couldn’t be more perfect. One of Scotland’s most unusual and atmospheric venues effectively handing over the keys to two of the world’s most unconventional theatre companies. What the performance will look like is still anyone’s…

Christmas and Hogmanay 2009 in Edinburgh

4 Nov 2009

It’s been all go for the last few weeks, as those in the know ponder how to bring you the best of times this Christmas and Hogmanay. In the capital, Edinburgh City Council is reportedly already looking to shindigs in 2010 and beyond, with early…

IP Man

4 Nov 2009

(15) 106min (Showboat Blu-ray/DVD retail/rental) Wilson Yip’s historically revisionist action film takes martial arts back to basics with the story of the titular grand master of the ‘wing chun’ fighting style and mentor of screen legend Bruce Lee.

Charity Couture

30 Oct 2009

While many charity shops take orders from centralised offices, meaning that all the clothes that come in have to be colour-coded or prescriptively arranged, Edinburgh’s five St Columba’s Hospices have always had a bit of individual spirit. ‘I work in…

Frankie Boyle

30 Oct 2009

Everyone’s favourite Glasgow ginger shock comic has been in the news for quitting Mock the Week and blasting the BBC’s ‘don’t frighten the horses’ policy. Here, he’ll be merrily signing copies of his few-holds barred memoir, My Shit Life So Far.

Profile: Dylan Duffus from 1 Day

29 Oct 2009

Name Dylan Duffus Background For his first acting gig, Birmingham barber Duffus started his career at the top, playing the central role in Penny Woolcock’s hip-hop musical drama about gang-life in the Handsworth area. Despite a lack of formal…

Richard Alston Dance Company

29 Oct 2009

It’s not often that Richard Alston embraces a narrative, but when he does, you know you’re in for something special – as witnessed by his excellent Carmen with Scottish Ballet earlier this year. Now, to celebrate the centenary of Sergei Diaghilev’s…

Lara Favaretto

29 Oct 2009

Kids wriggle out of their parents’ hands and run around to imitate the colourful carwash brushes spinning like whirling dervishes. Choreographed by Italian artist Lara Favaretto, these large kaleidoscopic objects have been installed around the…

Traverse Theatre autumn festival 2009

Why the Edinburgh Theatre is ready for battle

10 Nov 2009

Dominic Hill tells Mark Fisher why the Traverse is still on a festival footing

Taste test: The Scottish Café and Restaurant

10 Nov 2009

Porridge with berries and heather honey Porridge needn’t be grey wallpaper paste served as punishment. Salt should be included judiciously when cooking (as with bread), but John Knox doesn’t birl in his grave if you put sugar on it – though berries…