Kirstin Innes

Big Man Tea brings quality brew to Glasgow

Hoi. Big man. Like specialised Japanese tea? Like Glasgow? Then boy, have we got the right product for you. We’re always suckers for a quirky, locally run wee business, and Big Man Tea, producing fine Japanese teas (white, green, black and blue, of all…

Louise Gray, Holly Fulton and Jonathan Saunders in new ASOS collaboration

Thanks to local fashion experts The Coveted Mag (whoworewhatwhen.typepad.co.uk) for alerting us to a new ASOS collaboration with some of our favourite emergent Scottish designers. The designs are, in true ASOS style, cheap, bright and on-trend: we…

Doodles Ceramics marks tenth birthday with some cracking offers

Finally, Edinburgh make-your-own-pottery institution Doodles Ceramics has turned ten this year, and they’re celebrating with a bargain-barmy load of offers. As well as specialised half-term workshops (running until Fri 19 Feb) and activities around…

Valentine's Day: A night at One Devonshire Gardens

I’ve always been suspicious of Valentine’s Day. It’s not that I’m not romantic, I just object to being told how, with what colours, and on what day I ought to be expressing my love. All that pink. All that expense. All that expectation. While I can see…

NTS history and Gutter magazine latest National Library of Scotland events

Eagle-eyed readers of the Around Town listings may have already noticed that change is afoot at the National Library of Scotland. Over the last few months, there have been an increasing number of interesting, well thought-out, exciting and downright…

It’s Only A Movie - An Evening with Mark Kermode launches his autobiography

The Exorcist-obsessed, leather-clad and utterly iconic film critic is in (both) town(s) this fortnight, to discuss his autobiography, It’s Only A Movie, probably in a sardonic and slightly sarcastic fashion. Little-known Kermode fact: he plays double…

The Government Inspector

Back in the 1980s, Scottish theatre audiences could count on the likes of Communicado, Wildcat and 7:84 to maintain a live, lively commentary on contemporary events, often by drawing analogies sourced from Scottish history. It’s perhaps a force that’s…

Doctor Who Exhibition

All good things must come to an end, my dears: David Tennant locks up the Tardis for the last time over Christmas, and Kelvingrove bids farewell to its long-running and hugely successful Doctor Who Exhibition. It’s your last chance to swot up on all…

2010 preview: Fashion

Fashion, with its strictly observed seasons marked by the various equinoxes of London/New York/Paris/Milan Fashion Weeks, is a cyclical beast. It likes to understand a decade as a fixed unit of time with a distinctive identity, defined sharply against…

Have meat, can eat

Just when you thought it was safe to crack open your haggis... BURNS IS BACK. Yes, no sooner has the Year of Homecoming been safely consigned to the tartan time capsule than Burns Night 2010 rolls around, with the usual mix of traditional suppers…

Why independent shopping is cheaper than the high street

Small, local independent shops are just as keen to reward regular customers for loyalty as their big-corp bretheren, and none of the offers below will leave you with the anticlimax of realising your three years’ worth of Boots points only entitle you to…

News from the shop front - January 2010

We usually concentrate on independent shops here at List Towers, but we’re genuinely saddened to hear that Borders UK are going into administration. The Glasgow store in particular has been a real gem, with a dedicated and knowledgeable staff always…

Panel Event discusses The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black Black Oil

We’re really looking forward to this one, folks, we won’t lie to you. Tying in with the National Library of Scotland’s utterly great exhibition Curtain Up: 40 Years of Scottish Theatre (exhibits from which are modelled by the equally great John Byrne…

Piano Masterclass with Jean-Phillipe Collard

Always fancied yourself a bit of a Liberace? Or maybe you’re more of a Scott Joplin type. Ivory-tinklers of all levels of ability are welcome at this open event – allow the internationally acclaimed French pianist to right all your keyboard-based…

Hot 100 2009 - Carol Ann Duffy profile

In one year as Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy has made more of an impression than Andrew Motion managed in a decade in the job. Her appointment in itself was pretty iconoclastic, and we all dutifully reeled off the reasons why it was a historic event…

Aladdin

It’s almost as though there are two shows in the King’s latest panto, both representing enormously popular forms of light entertainment. Front and centre are regulars Gerard Kelly (celebrating, as the programme notes, 20 years of togetherness with that…

Ya Beauty and the Beast

What’s that? You want a coherent plot? In a Christmas show? Get with the programme, granddad. Ya Beauty and the Beast is panto for the AHD generation. There’s a mysterious heatwave, a sombre principal girl who grows a beard and eventually turns into…

Cinderella

From the sumptuous decoration around the foyer (yes, they’ve even painted the pink elephants silver — don’t worry, it’s only temporary) to the gorgeous, delicate Baroque set, the Citz’ first original commissioned Christmas production in years announces…

Corstorphine Road Nativity

Playwright Tim Firth has scored huge hits with Calendar Girls and Kinky Boots. Now he’s bringing his comic talents to the Corstorphine Road. Kirstin Innes meets him

My Fabulous Tartan Frock

It’s difficult to know exactly how to explain My Fabulous Tartan Frock, an event performance taking place over three days at the Arches as part of the annual 16 Days of Action to End Violence Against Women campaign. On publicity materials, where…

Popping to the shops

Who needs permanent premises? Shopping Editor Kirstin Innes profiles the newest trends in pop-up boutiques

Undercover shopping in Edinburgh

Last fortnight we did a round up of the unusual quirky markets springing up in Glasgow to make this heady season of consumerism that little bit more bearable. Now Edinburgh’s getting its shopping quirk on, starting off with the return of an old…

Cryptic Nights

It’s the first anniversary of the multi-artform night celebrating the possibilities of the CCA, and they’re commemorating with a feast. The first 25 people to book tickets will be offered a free Cryptic Nights banquet (everyone else can eat too, it’s…

Best of a decade: Respectable in the Noughties

Much of the most powerful art produced in Scotland in the 1980s–1990s developed in angry reaction to the political situation and tapped into our radical, left-wing and egalitarian traditions – it’s no accident that the most popular works of that period…

Best of a decade: Black Watch premieres in Edinburgh

Every decade, there seems to be one cultural event that shifts the way we Scots look at ourselves, and the way the world looks at us. In the 1990s, there was the Trainspotting juggernaut: book, play, film, tie-in-soundtrack, poster. In the 2000s, what…