Kirstin Innes

Your Healthy Living Show

9 Jul 2009

Ah, the great Scottish diet. (You can make up your own joke involving the words ‘deep’, ‘fried’ and possibly ‘Mars Bar’ here, or just recycle one of the thousands already out there.) People who like to mourn such things will often mourn the fact that we…

Sighthill - The Estate: episode guide

9 Jul 2009

Sifiso Forced to leave Zimbabwe because she opposed Robert Mugabe, Sifiso has been living in Sighthill for four years, watching her children grow up with broad Glasgow accents, and worrying about their sense of identity. Episode 1: My Home. Airs Mon…

Site specifics: Deep Sea World

9 Jul 2009

What is it? Dah-duh. Dah-duh. Dah-duh dah-duh dah-duh … That was a textual rendering of the Jaws theme, right? Right! Because this fortnight we’re focusing on Scotland’s own shark haven, Deep Sea World! You’re chipper today We just really…

Creativity vs Destruction: Stories of Iraqi Art

9 Jul 2009

The closing event of this year’s excellently curated Reel Iraq festival, this exhibition explores not only major artworks coming out of Iraq, but also the tribulations and obstacles that artists from that country have to go through in order to create…

Homeless World Cup Charity 5-a-side Tournament

9 Jul 2009

A charity footie tournament for teams of 5–7 players in aid of The Homeless World Cup Foundation (the cup takes place in Milan this year). Email: info@powerleague.co.uk or call 0141 847 5565 to enter. Powerleague, Kennedy Street, Glasgow, Sun 19 Jul.

West side story

25 Jun 2009

For decades, the West End has meant one thing to non-WEndies: Byres Road, and while that esteemed thoroughfare is still geographically pivotal, its tributary roads have formed little communities of their own, each with an increasingly distinctive…

Burlescape

25 Jun 2009

What is it about burlesque just now? There’s a new club or class popping up every day, hundreds of dancers queuing up for slots at nights like Club Noir and Rockaburley, and now here comes the Glasgow Cabaret Festival, a week-long festival all over the…

Site Specifics: The Falkirk Wheel

25 Jun 2009

Occupation? The world’s only rotating boatlift. There are two canals which run through Falkirk but don’t connect, see? The Wheel lifts boats from one to the other. And commemorates the millennium. Aye, nine years ago it was millenniums as far as the eye…

Jarvis Cocker

25 Jun 2009

One lanky, raised arm appears through a cloud of smoke, and the packed-out ABC goes nuts. I’m struggling to think of another UK performer who commands such instant, indulgent devotion – and naked lust, actually, as the room is thick with sex, and Our…

Cryptic Nights

25 Jun 2009

New Media Scotland celebrates its tenth birthday with an interactive online, visual art and dance game/play/performance. Yes, we know that’s a whole lot of genres. Follow the tales of two lovers on the @mediascot Twitter stream from Wednesday 24 June to…

It’s Funtime

25 Jun 2009

The Bongo is coming over all Roy Walker with a razzmatazz game show/pub quiz hybrid. Compere Wilson and his glamorous assistant Betty are on hand to lead your team through the perilous rounds of Tower of Strength, Make & Do and Filleted Film before the…

Refugee Week Scotland 2009 - Fugee la la

11 Jun 2009

Given the recent increase in profile of the BNP across Scotland, the timing and focus of this year’s country-wide Refugee Week are particularly prescient. This year, the multi-artform festival which aims to raise awareness of the issues facing and…

Fete accomplis - The West End Festival

28 May 2009

The West End Festival, which has been going since 1996, is a community festival in the proper sense of the word, running free workshops and concerts, hosting events that involve local businesses and generally inviting residents to celebrate the various…

Reel Iraq

14 May 2009

The point of Charlie Brooker’s excellent Newswipe series, which ended recently, seemed to be that, far from being an honest and agenda-free information source, the news is just as much a constructed text as, say, a novel or a film. And for most people…

The best medicine

14 May 2009

My sides really do feel like they’re splitting. I am in a room with 15 other adults, none of whom I’d met an hour ago, and we are all rubbing nice big dollops of imaginary ‘laughter face cream’ into our cheeks, chanting ‘ho ho ho,’ ‘ha ha ha,’ ‘hee hee…

In the loop - Glasgow Subway Festival

14 May 2009

It’s every commuter’s nightmare, being stuck in a carriage with a talker. The sort of person who simply won’t respect your need to privacy in a public place; who wants to ask you questions, or worse, tell you all about their life. Or worse. Try and…

Site Specifics: Edinburgh Castle

14 May 2009

What is it? Do I really have to answer this? It’s that gigantic castle thing on a rock dominating your capital city. Yeah, we know Look, it may seem like rather an obvious choice, but really, when was the last time you actually visited? May is the…

Southside Festival

14 May 2009

After a triumphant debut last year, the local festival returns to Queen’s Park for music and festivities, following a Mardi Gras-style parade through the Southside. The programme also features comedy from the local likes of Bruce Morton, live music…

Craft Mafia

30 Apr 2009

Craft. It’s in. You’re thinking of knitting, aren’t you? Tea-stained doilies at bric-a-brac stalls, maybe? Or drippy hippy macramé at earnest rallies. Wrong. Very very wrong. As these pictures show, somewhere along the way, craft got hip and a little…

Cupcakes

30 Apr 2009

As anyone with embarrassing Millenium-era photographs of themselves wearing an ugly corsage the size of their head will testify, Sex and the City launched a lot of strange trends. None, however, is as persistent as the cupcake. The scene in which Carrie…

ECA's Fashion Show

30 Apr 2009

Edinburgh College of Art’s annual fashion degree show has long been a key date in the calendar of fashion-forward ‘Burghers, who know that the innovative designs on display tend to transcend expectations for a student fashion show. ECA graduates have…

Independent Shopping guide: Introduction

16 Apr 2009

In a recession, small businesses are usually hit worst. Shopping Editor Kirstin Innes channels the spirit of the Blitz as she launches our campaign to support local, independent shops

Glasgow - The West End

Independent Shopping Guide

16 Apr 2009

Glasgow - The West End Leafy, artistically inclined, fashionable, but not in a corporate way, dear me no, the West End is one of the most beautiful – and thoroughly self–contained – areas of Glasgow. It is fed into by the students of the nearby…

Edinburgh - Old Town

Independent Shopping Guide

16 Apr 2009

Independent shops in the capital’s historic centre, presided over by Edinburgh Castle, take their aesthetic responsibilities seriously. That’s not to say that they’re all authentically restored and historically preserved properties frozen in time, nor…

Glasgow & Edinburgh - Honourable Mentions

Independent Shopping Guide

16 Apr 2009

In Glasgow’s city centre, Sauchiehall Street, Argyle Street, the Buchanan Galleries and St Enoch Centre are mostly stuffed with high street chains, but we don’t want to overlook the number of excellent record shops in the area: Classics in the City and…