Issue 644

Koyaanisqatsi screening in Glasgow with live score by Urban Farm Hand

19 Nov 2009

Organised by Take One Action to mark the lead up to the global climate change talks in Copenhagen and the national climate change march in Glasgow on Saturday 5 December this screening of Godfrey Reggio’s still prescient 1982 film collage will be scored…

Wasabi Disco

Raw like sushi

19 Nov 2009

‘I left Edinburgh to live in Glasgow about four years ago,’ says Kris Walker, promoter and resident DJ at Sneaky Pete’s Wasabi Disco, ‘and the Edinburgh I see now is completely different to the one I left behind. The club scene in the city’s really…

Gary Lightbody Interview

First word

19 Nov 2009

First record you ever bought Michael Jackson – Thriller. On tape. Last time you were chatted up Ha. Doesn’t happen very often. Honestly don’t know. Actually, have I been? First movie you ever went on a date to Reservoir Dogs Last time…

Social Science at Glasgow Science Centre

Let’s get physics, y'all!

19 Nov 2009

There are certain ‘childish’ ways of being that we’re encouraged to leave behind when we grow up. Throwing tantrums in the street, for example, or scratching yourself there in public. Unfortunately, just simply playing, and indulging a wide-eyed sense…

Zadie Smith - Changing My Mind

19 Nov 2009

(Hamish Hamilton) As she notes in her foreword, Zadie Smith had written her latest book without even knowing it. All it took was one person to point out that since she burst onto the scene brandishing her White Teeth, Smith has committed thousands of…

We Will Rock You

19 Nov 2009

Regardless of how unsure or cynical you may be walking into this musical, by the time the eponymous song comes around, if your hands aren’t clapping and your voice isn’t belting out ‘we will, we will rock you!’, then check your pulse, for you may well…

Michael Crichton - Pirate Latitudes

19 Nov 2009

(HarperCollins) The first of two books to be published posthumously, Pirate Latitudes was found as a complete manuscript after Michael Crichton’s death in November 2008. Set in the volatile colonial Caribbean in 1665, it details British privateer…

Homecoming Final Fling - ditch cynical, think musical

19 Nov 2009

You know the big speech by Renton in Trainspotting where he goes on about how it’s ‘shite being Scottish’? Well, he was only half right. His defeatist rant is a quintessential example of that under-a-dreich-cloud Scottish pessimism, rubbishing…

Leanne Shapton - Important Artifacts …

19 Nov 2009

In this empty literary age of celebrity autobiographies written by someone else, increasingly desperate misery memoirs and Dan Brown, the notion of an original novel making its way onto our shelves seems a crazy one. Yet, just when you thought there…

What You See Is Where You’re At

19 Nov 2009

A new exhibition launches a year of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, as Neil Cooper discovers

Pantomine in Scotland

19 Nov 2009

As the panto season gets underway a new exhibition celebrating Scotland’s other national theatre embarks on a nationwide tour. Allan Radcliffe investigates

End of year film magazines round-up 2009

19 Nov 2009

It’s time to drop into the wonderful world of film magazines. December is a crucial month for these cinephile glossies – it’s the time when readers decide whether to renew their loyalty for another year – so let’s have a look at what you are really…

Rumpelstiltskin

19 Nov 2009

If any art form can claim a familiarity and a relevance that crosses all boundaries of age, class, education and even culture, it may well be the fairy tale. And if there’s a form of art that suffers most from a reputation for being elitist, obscure and…

Karla Black: Sculptures

19 Nov 2009

While these new sculptures comprise Karla Black’s now familiar array of nebulous materials – chalk dust, eye shadow, sugar paper – they command a more distinct level of authority than has previously been seen. Her impermanent sculptures transcend…

Scottish Matthew Bourne showcase given go-ahead

19 Nov 2009

A new piece of work by dance legend Matthew Bourne will be staged as a result of National Lottery Funding. The King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal have been awarded £265,905 by the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) as part of a £2.5million National Lottery…

Pippa Evans

19 Nov 2009

Going along to a show featuring Pippa Evans generally means confronting some fears of many a comedy-goer. Audience participation has been her thing since she arrived on the Fringe in 2008 with an if.comedy Best Newcomer-nominated debut which revolved…

Edinburgh's Christmas

19 Nov 2009

‘Christmas is a time for families to be together, so we wanted to make Edinburgh’s Christmas suitable for all ages,’ says Nickie Gott, of She’s Gott It, the company charged with putting smiles on faces in the capital this Christmas. Gott and her company…

SCO Homecoming Concert

19 Nov 2009

As Scotland’s Year of Homecoming draws to a close, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra pays tribute to three of the country’s finest composers with a special focus on Edward Harper who died earlier this year. In the world premiere performance of the complete…

Arctic Monkeys

Preview

19 Nov 2009

On the title of a 2006 EP, these Sheffield boys asked the question Who the Fuck are Arctic Monkeys? They were being a bit ironic, we can only presume, considering you’d need to have been hiding in a subterranean bunker, wearing earmuffs and a thick…

Fortified

Preview

19 Nov 2009

Hessle Audio is a dubstep label, and its origins were in the most dubstep of locations. The queue for seminal, scene-defining night FWD>> at London’s Velvet Rooms (which currently lives at the city’s Plastic People) was where Ben Thomson and David…

Rain Man

19 Nov 2009

It’s a pleasant surprise to see how successfully Dan Gordon’s theatre adaptation of the screen classic starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman translates to the stage. The tale of city slicker Charlie Babbitt’s relationship with his long-lost…

Exposure: Burnt Island

19 Nov 2009

Burnt Island are a richly melodic and understated folky five-piece from Glasgow. Singer Rodge Glass – a regular renaissance man who counts novelist, biographer, academic and occasional List contributor amongst his lengthy CV – spills the beans. How…

Anna Sikorska: Exchange and Harbour

19 Nov 2009

It was a while ago now that the European surrealists were drawn to the marvel of surprise juxtapositions – Lautréamont’s poetic proclamation about the chance meeting on a dissecting table of an umbrella with a sewing machine, sparked something pretty…

Charlie Hammond: The New Improvement Scheme

19 Nov 2009

Glasgow-based painter, Charlie Hammond, exhibits a new body of work under the banner The New Improvement Scheme. His canvasses have been altered, added to, taken from, layered with impasto ceramic-laced paint and sheets of raw linen dressed in shades of…

The Slow Club

19 Nov 2009

As the name suggests, The Slow Club doesn’t go for furious beats and sweaty dancefloors. ‘It’s the dark candlelit bar at the end of the world where everything is not quite right, yet perfect, somewhere to get lost in, immerse yourself in,’ explains…

Luke Fowler: A Grammar For Listening

19 Nov 2009

Ever noticed the after-effect of sound rustling through a cityscape? What happens when images recede to the backdrop and sound takes on the leading role? Luke Fowler – in collaboration with Eric La Casa, Lee Patterson and Toshiya Tsunoda – creates field…

The End of the Line: Attitudes in Drawing

19 Nov 2009

The End of the Line may just be the beginning of a resurgence in interest to the humbled medium of drawing. The 11 international artists take ownership of the space with skill and innovation – especially in the case of Monika Gryzmala who has created a…

The Collector's Art

19 Nov 2009

This exhibition showcases works from two private collections featuring prints, drawings and paintings of British and German art of the late 19th and 20th centuries, including works by Joan Eardley, J.D. Fergusson, Ian Fleming, Emil Orlik, Barbara Rae…

Charan Gill opens Slumdog Bar and kitchen

19 Nov 2009

Having sold the Harlequin Group of restaurants four years ago for a cool £8 million, Charan Gill’s re-entry into the Glasgow scene was always going to stir up interest. From getting hold of the Slumdog name to tapping into the energetic zeitgeist of…

Dancing in the street

19 Nov 2009

Not for nothing is Edinburgh’s Hogmanay thought to be one of the best in the world; four days of festivities jam-packed around one of the biggest street parties in the world. Now, after a lacklustre start, it seems the names are coming thick and fast.

Glasgow Craft Mafia Handmade Haven

Girlie Glaswegian glory-hunting

19 Nov 2009

Between indie craft markets, vintage magazine auction sales and full on fancy frock-swaps there are loads of ways to get your consumerist kicks in Glasgow without having to brave the high street this fortnight. The Glasgow Craft Mafia, long-time…

Salt of the Earth

19 Nov 2009

There are a few surprises at what might have been a straightforward showcase of some of Scotland’s famous faces by Craig Mackay. The first revelation is that not all the usual suspects are present, and the second is the inclusion of a few famous faces…

Glasgow PodcART

Classic Grand, Glasgow, Sun 1 Nov

19 Nov 2009

On a rainy Sunday night in the west, a respectable crowd of open-minded Glaswegians have turned out for Glasgow PodcART’s showcase of musicians hailing from – gasp! – the exotic east. Of Scotland, that is. Panda Su is a Fife lass who creates an aura…

Shields Up

Bar Bloc, Glasgow, Thu 29 Oct

19 Nov 2009

Bloc has never seemed liked the most conventional setting for live music. Its close-knit tables and chairs obscure most of the floor, making it awkward to view – to say the least – and even more so to play. However, there’s an odd charm to being packed…

Five things you might not know about: Pam Ann

19 Nov 2009

1 Nightmare trolley dolly Pam Ann is the creation of Aussie comic Caroline Reid whose first experience of air travel came at the age of eight on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney. Seems that her mum stuck her girl on a plane as an ‘unattended minor…

Five unit shifting books

19 Nov 2009

Andy McNab Exit Wound Mr SAS with his latest Nick Stone thriller in which a raid on Saddam Hussein’s gold stash goes horribly awry and a complex conspiracy slowly reveals itself. Bantam. Karin Slaughter Genesis Medical examiner Sara Linton…

Eduardo Galeano - Mirrors

19 Nov 2009

(Portobello) There are plenty out there who believe the history we are taught in schools and fed to us by the mainstream media is a wretched farce. Even suggesting that there are two sides to every story is falling into the traps of those who seek…

Pieter Waterdrinker - The German Wedding

19 Nov 2009

(Atlantic) Pieter Waterdrinker’s clever wedding farce isn’t the average boy meets girl story. Here, rich girl meets conniving boy; girl fakes pregnancy to trap boy, boy lies through teeth to get hands on her colossal inheritance – and breathtaking…

Them Crooked Vultures

19 Nov 2009

It’d be foolish to try and ignore the pedigree of Them Cooked Vultures – a suitably enticing line-up of Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) – but therein lies the crux of the problem…

Gilbert Shelton - The Fat Freddy’s Cat Omnibus

19 Nov 2009

(Knockabout) While he might come across as a hippy Garfield, Fat Freddy’s Cat actually predates the lasagne-obsessed ginger tom by nine years. Springing from the pages of the ultimate stoner’s comic – The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers – which was…

Eugenics season

19 Nov 2009

Who says scientific theory and cinematic endeavour are mutually exclusive? Certainly not the organisers of this weekend long Biomedical Ethics Film Festival, which delves into the ethically fraught discussion of human perfection and our right to strive…

Bite Harder

19 Nov 2009

(De Wolfe) From deep within the bowels of the De Wolfe music library has been unearthed this bawdy 57 varieties of funk from the late 60s and early 70s. So, we have the Hendrixy funk of Peter Neno’s ‘Street Girl’, the porno-cop funk of Nick Ingram’s…

William McLaren – An Artist Out of Time

19 Nov 2009

Edinburgh based filmmaker Jim Hickey’s fascinating new documentary about the life and times of Scottish painter, commercial illustrator and muralist McLaren is the latest feature to the grace the rightly celebratory Made in Edinburgh screening slot.

Big picture: The Soda Waste - By Paul Smith

Sighthill photography project

19 Nov 2009

Almost a year in the making, this incredible photography project documents the forgotten schemes and families of Glasgow’s Sighthill, before its demolition at the end of this month. Built upon derelict ground in the late-19th century, the area has had a…

The Waltz of the Cold Wind

19 Nov 2009

Following its successful debut last summer as part of the Oran Mor A Play, a Pie and a Pint season, Paddy Cunneen’s enchanting romance, about a woman obsessed with recording and listening to sounds such as Antarctic winds and her own voice, returns for…

DIM set for Glasgow date at Cotton Cake

19 Nov 2009

Signed to Boys Noize, DIM (aka Andreas Meid), has helped shape the label into the all conquering electro beast it’s become today. Famed for his addictive dancefloor cuts such as ‘Is You’, ‘Airbus’ and ‘Sysiphos’ and remixes for the likes of The Presets…

Al Murray

19 Nov 2009

Now, that’s a beautiful, British name. And upon the cover of Think Yourself British is Al Murray splayed. The supreme irony of the Pub Landlord may have bypassed the attentions of some of his more ITV-based fans, but Murray is not caring a jot as he…

Southern Softies

19 Nov 2009

Comic singer/organist makes his film debut in this comedy documentary which takes Shuttleworth and his ever on hand neighbour Ken down to the Channel Islands to find out if it really is ‘soft down south.’ A Q&A with star/director Graham Fellows will…

Eating Raoul

19 Nov 2009

Those cheeky folk from the Monorail Film Club get their teeth into a bit of human flesh with this rare screening of Paul Bartel’s 1982 comic cult gem about sex and cannibalism. Introduced by Lindsay Hutton of The Next Big Thing website…

King Coal

19 Nov 2009

Coal and it’s place in the British landscape and psyche is investigated in this remarkable collection of old films, animation and documentary footage from the 1910-1980s. Part of the British Film Institute’s Industrial Heritage project. Introduced by…