Issue 683

Preview: the National Museum of Scotland

A peek inside the museum, plus reminiscences from notable Edinburghers and a guide to coming events

The National Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street is due to reopen this month after a three-year, £46.4 million redevelopment. David Pollock takes an exclusive peak behind closed doors to find out about the new exhibits

Fringe for (around) a fiver: Comedy

The best cheap shows in Edinburgh this August

AAA Stand-Up/Late A trio of dandy comics for much less than the normal price of three in this annual not-late/late line-up. The earlier bill includes Joe Rowntree while the later roster has Matt Price. Pleasance Courtyard, 556 6550, 3–5 Aug…

Travel: top train trips

3 of the best places to ride the rails

Cattle herd queues, hidden fees and draconian baggage restrictions: it seems we’ll put up with anything for a cheap escape, but while the budget airline bubble has yet to burst, you can always opt for a less stressful, more romantic way to go. Train…

Electric Frog

The EF Weekender may have been reduced to one day but it’s still one of the best parties in Glasgow

Disappointment at this year’s second instalment of Glasgow’s hipster warehouse weekender Electric Frog being reduced from two days to one will be tempered by the fact that the single day should still rank among the music events of the summer. Although…

Clubbers' Decktionary: B-more

DJ Hobbes guides us through clubbing's myriad genres

B-more or Bmore, aka B-more Club, adj: Uptempo (120-140 BPM) hip hop/breaks originally from Baltimore, with an 8/4 time signature, using short, repetitive vocal samples – often call-and-response-style raps or chants – over old school drum breaks…

Pilot

Flatrate's podcastable open mic/radio show takes place at CCA, Glasgow, Thu 21 Jul

How to describe Pilot? An open mic night? A live radio show? A arts community get-together? ‘I suppose it’s really just like making a radio show in a rowdy bar,’ says Colin Chaloner of Flatrate (who run open mic night Initial Itch, as well as…

Drama

The LGBT club night promises ‘stylish polysexual clubbing’

There’s something to be said for aspiring to affluence. How else can we explain the success of elite private members clubs or programmes like Gossip Girl and Made in Chelsea? It can’t be the storylines. I’m 97 per cent certain I have seen more…

Surge Family Circus Weekend

A chance for the whole family to pick up some juggling, clowning and trapeze skills

Time was, you had to run away and join the circus if you wanted to experience the thrill of the tightrope and trapeze. These days, you can stay safe in the bosom of your family and still swing through the air and show off your sense of balance. Open…

Fringe for (around) a fiver: Kids

The affordable kids' shows appearing at the Fringe this year

Taking the whole family to a Fringe show can be an expensive business these days. So it pays to get out there early and soak up some previews. Here are just a few of the top shows that are charging £5 for their opening performances on 3-5 Aug.

Fringe news: new venue and programme info

Even for Fringe regulars the idea of cherry-picking from the whopping 41,689 performances and 2,542 shows on this year’s festival line-up can seem daunting. Worry not, help is at hand, as next issue we bring you dozens of previews, top tips and much…

The best Scottish websites

The top 30 websites made for and by Scots

When putting together this list, we weren’t necessarily looking for the biggest or the best-known cultural websites in Scotland. We were looking for unique and interesting ideas, cleverly realised and lovingly maintained on the web. This might mean that…

Interview: Joe Dunthorne - author of Submarine and Wild Abandon

Edinburgh shows with Unbound, Aisle16, Luke Wright and Tim Clare

The day before our phone interview, Joe Dunthorne was on Radio 4, bantering with Tim Key about the perfect opening line. Chatting to him the next day, it appears the Welsh-born poet, short story writer and novelist has worked out a potential strategy.

Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut

Morag Fullerton's stage adaptation is a charmingly chaotic classic

It’s almost impossible to tell that the team behind Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut have not staged their increasingly lauded production in the Tron before tonight. Originating as part of Òran Mór’s Cult Classics series during its pint/pie-filled…

T in the Park - Balado, Kinross, Fri 8–Sun 10 July 2011

Beyonce, Pulp, Lady North and Tom Jones among highlights

A city-sized piss-up spread across seven stages, T in the Park has grown to almost incomprehensible proportions. With the territory comes an obligation to please everybody some of the time, something which inevitably has a habit of leaving fans of…

Dürer’s Fame

Tribute to the German woodcut and engravings master Albrecht Durer

German handball star Pascal Hens gazes out from a black-and-white poster, his torso naked, gaze serious, his pose one of self-deification. This is enhanced further by a tattoo on his stomach of two disembodied hands clasped together as if in prayer.

Gravity's Rainbow

Pynchon-inspired group show explores different representations of colour

The acid house smiley face on the sunny yellow ball of Peter Liversidge’s shelf-load of single-hued detritus speaks volumes about this colour-focused group show of eight artists that takes its title from Thomas Pynchon’s baroque noir. It begins with a…

Breaking the Renaissance Code

Exhibition exploring emblems, taking place at The Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow, until Tue 4 Oct

Depending on whether you are a critic or an avid fan of the bestselling Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown both heralded and slew the art of emblematic thinking. This small yet punchy exhibition puts examples of Dürer, Rembrandt and Holbein’s use of symbolic…

Julian Barnes - The Sense of an Ending

Economically-told novella from the master storyteller

(Jonathan Cape) Imprecise memory, lifelong regrets and the inconsistencies between shared histories are at the heart of Julian Barnes’ short and sharp new novella. As a title, The Sense of an Ending refers to the way in which his characters…

Mark Waid & Jorge Molina - Captain America: Man Out of Time

Marvel's classic character needs to concentrate on plot over patriotism

(Marvel UK) Another month and yet another big-screen movie adaptation. Captain America is a peculiarly old-fashioned character, the US embodied in a patriotic soldier who risked his life taking the ‘Super Soldier Serum’ to become the ultimate…

King Tut’s Summer Nights series of gigs

Local heroes including Song of Return and Meursault line-up for Tut's fortnight-long season of gigs

‘Britain’s Best Small Venue’ – as voted last month by the NME but perhaps better known to Glasgow music-loving punters as plain old ‘King Tut’s’ – continues its successful run of seasonal live programmes with this month’s second annual ‘Summer Nights…

Interview - Imran Yusuf

The comedian brings the thunder to our questionnaire

First record you ever bought Single - ‘Sesame Street Remix’ (1992). Album - Wu-Tang Forever (1997). Last extravagant purchase you made My leather jacket which is a somewhat modest £150. I’m not into extravagant things, as long as I have my video…

Glasgow's niche publications specialist GmbH ready to re-open its doors

Owners Jamie Kenyon and Neil McKie lay out the story so far

A long time ago... Jamie: ‘Neil and I had been friends for a while. We regularly talked, often involving beer, about doing something, or several things – there have always been a lot of ideas floating around, and the publication shop was amongst them.

Profile: Gina Glover

The photographer of military landscapes discusses her background and future

What made you want to be a photographer? I had trained as a painter in the 60s but I found this a very isolating activity. I realised I wished to communicate and collaborate with people. In the 1980s I jointly founded Photo Co Op, which became the…

Interview: Chris McCausland

The comedian discusses his blindness ahead of gigs at Highlight, Glasgow and the Fringe

As Rudi, the ever jovial market-stall owner, Chris McCausland cut a fine dash across CBeebies screens in Me Too! With Big Time, his upcoming Fringe show at the Pleasance Courtyard, he’s back reflecting upon childish things by wondering how time seems to…

Qing Cheng

Epic, millenium-spanning Chinese love story part of the China Fringe Festival

A night at the opera takes on a whole new meaning with Qing Cheng, an elaborate yet moving Chinese musical making its European debut at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall as part of the China Fringe Festival. Top billing in a week of cutting-edge entertainment from…