-
Steep City *or Record Store Day revisited*
The point of Record Store Day isn’t just to keep local businesses alive and thriving, which it does in the same way pantomime keeps your theatre lit and lively the whole year round. The real point, the true reason Record Store Day exists, is to sell records to people who can then show off their… Read more
-
What the hell happened to my Saturday morning television shows?
For schoolkids of every decade, Saturday morning is freedom. For me, it was television too. But then, isn’t television one of the most effective ways of escape? It can take you away from your problems, even for the twenty minutes or so your favourite soap and sitcom lasts. For me, Saturday morning television was as… Read more
-
Lost bookshops of Glasgow (and Cumbernauld)
One of the biggest regrets I have personally is that I didn’t get a publishing deal before Borders or Ottakars closed down. During long afternoons of the years 2000-2002, I walked around Glasgow, peering through windows, headphones in my ears, a thin tangled wire leading down to my bag where I had my portable CD… Read more
-
Cumbernauld Library is my library (and your library too)
Nowhere meant more to me than my local library. It was the only library in the whole world and somehow, over time, that library became my whole world. As a child my concept of distance was limited, with each trip measured in how long it took for the bus to get me where my mother… Read more
-
Adventures in Theatre, Scotland style
Theatre is the most dynamic art form because it makes you feel, think, and experience then and there on your chair. It’s immediate, but also long-lasting. Sometimes, the encounter is a pleasurable one, something that zips past, smooth, and diaphanous. That isn’t a bad thing, of course. We need light entertainment as well as thoughtful,… Read more
-
Version 2.0 by Garbage
Sometimes you find success with the first thing you do, the follow-up often failing to equip itself quite as confidently. There are also times, very rare instances, when an artist or band break out a sequel so boldly confident, it overturns their debut in the affections of fandom. Version 2.0 had a lot to overcome… Read more