LIFE OF PI at CINEWORLD

After reading the Book i wasnt confident it could cross over to the screen , a few years back i recall reading the film rights were brought by a company with a connection to Brad Pitt.I didnt think much would come of it , forgetting all about it.

So it was a pleasant surprise to see a film was being made with a solid budget and big name director.

Before you come to reviewing the film you have to admire the courage and conviction of Ang Lee in an attempt to transfer a philosophical morality tale based on the readers vivid senses being awakened by Animals behaving as Human Characters allied with a Childs wondrous lively imagination into a cinematic setting.

The video below interviews not only the director , but also the author Yann Martel about getting this film from page to screen.





All things considered the film has a large aftertaste of underwhelming feelings both intellectually and metaphorically.  

It is always a bad sign when the quality of Computer Generated Graphics take precedent over the plot and substance of the story.Therefore this Guardian review is about accurate even though the critic had not read the Book previously. .Though it is worth noting , as one of the comments points out , The Guardian voted Pussy Riot the Band of the Year.

Strangely , The Daily Mail gives it a 5-Star rating , but even that is in praise of  the CGI , whilst being a lot less impressed with the telling of the fable.

ZOHA IS 4 TODAY

Zoha engages in some huffing and puffing.

One slice gone already , as the cavalry appears in the nick of time. 

RUNRIG at the BARROWLANDS

I always enjoyed watching them on the Telly , Gaelic fuckers singing rock songs and loud whining guitars to boot.I never got round to seeing them in those early days , hearing they are performing at the Barrowlands i wasnt going to miss a glorious chance to see a band comfortable in large stadiums playing in a compact indoor rock club setting.

The band , post Donnie Munro , have a very professional rockband with a lot of valuable things to say feel about them , any fears they are a version of shortbread tartan or riverdance armless dancing prancers are quickly , effectively dispelled.

They quickly get cracking with a magisterial intro and straight into business.



There loyal dedicated fans , of all ages , seem to know every lyric and nuances of even the newest previously never performed material.These are interspersed with anthemnic classics like this.



This review captures sentiments exactly of any new and old comers experience of a Runrig Concert.

 Runrig set a storming pace and are clearly a band at ease with themselves and enjoying playing live. This comes across in the music and with a fanbase as passionate as theirs it’s not difficult to see why they find playing live such good fun.

A brilliant evening was rounded of in a perfect and fitting way.

GLASGOW FOR GAZA BENEFIT at THE STAND

The comedians were local and the cause is good.

 Glasgow for Gaza saw seven of the city’s finest comedians joining forces to raise money for those affected by the recent violence in Gaza. Arranged at incredibly short notice, Glasgow for Gaza headlined  comics Raymond Mearns, Bruce Morton, Stu Who, Gary Little, Mark Nelson, Viv Gee and Billy Kirkwood all giving their services free to stage a hilarious night of entertainment.

Money raised at the event will be split between the three charities currently organising appeals through the Disasters Emergency Committee: Islamic Relief, Christian Aid and Save The Children.

To ensure all the money raised from ticket sales went to the charities there was no advance payment for this show, but you were encouraged to reserve tickets and pay cash on the door.

A Fine gesture from Glasgow Comic Scene to the great cause of alleviating the suffering of the People of Gaza.

IMAMZADEH YAHYA MAUSOLEUM TILES at the BURRELL COLLECTION

There is said by some sources to be only about 155 Tiles from the Mausoleum of Imamzadeh Yayha in Veramin on various private collections and Museums in existence today.Out of this lot there is some in the Hermitage Museum ( The Russians stole them when Occupying Iran in their very own Elgin Marbles moment) and some in the Victoria & Albert Museum acquired ( our very own euphemism for stolen ) by us Brits.

 "This 14th century mausoleum had once one of the most magnificent tile works of Persian Architecture and even the world. Few of these tiles still remain there and most of them are stolen or purchased from local authorities during the 19th and 20th century and now are in various foreign museums and private collections." says a local Iranian tourist website.

The Curator of Islamic Civilisations for Glasgow , i , and about 7 other People know of the existence of 5 more tiles , they are not usually on public display and are not registered among the 155 known to exist.

Imamzadeh is a title given by Shias to direct descendants to the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) bloodline.Imamzadeh Yahya was around at the time Iran was asserting itself from Sunni rulers occupied by events in other spheres.A process that was further cemented under his authority.

According to the Scottish National Museums website the Tile featured above

is a " ceramic wall tile was made in Kashan, Iran between 1261 and 1263. It comes from Veramin in north-western Iran, where it originally formed part of the tile decoration in the mausoleum of Yahya, a local Muslim holy man. The tile would have been combined with other star-and cross-tiles.
The tile is made of a paste composed of a little quantity of white clay, ground quartz and ground clear glass. The tile was fired with a colourless glaze before the decoration was applied in the form of metal pigments. The tile was then fired again at a lower temperature and in a reducing atmosphere. This process resulted in the metallic lustre sheen of the decoration. The tile is decorated with floral ornamentation in the centre and a border of Koranic inscriptions, including Sura 1 Al-Fatiha and Sura 112 al-Ikhlas.
This tile was made in Kashan, which had been a centre famed for its high-quality, ceramic wares since the early 12th century. Tiles were used throughout the Muslim world to decorate buildings. In a religious context, their decoration would be mainly floral or geometric, but in secular buildings figural imagery can sometimes be found."

THE PROCLAIMERS live at CARLING GLASGOW

It is hard to believe a quarter of a century has passed since the Proclaimers hit the charts with a Letter From America.Since then they have built of a steadily increasing and ever-loyal base of fans of all ages.

The secret is how good they are live , whether performing a rock set ( as this time) or an acoustic one.

They still have a lot to say and will be around for a very long time yet.

The songs that really got me this time around were Born Innocent:



And a very poignant version of Sunshine On Leith:

CHRISTY MOORE at the ROYAL CONCERT HALL GLASGOW

After the bristling energy of the Barrowlands we can to the sedate understated pace of the Royal Concert hall.From the rowdy passions of the Ballroom we see an older more Family set of fans.

Christy started with this great song about the universal immigrant missing the home of their birth.



A favourite of mine is the song Allende , about the democratically elected leader of Chile who was killed in his Presidential Palace and the great musical poet Victor Jara who was tortured to death in the National Football Stadium in Santiago.The irony is both died with bombs and bullets made in the USA , as this brilliant tribute song explains:





The crowd , to their credit , was as emotionally involved and immersed in the mood of the evening as any orchestral music audience could be.

The night was perfectly rounded of by this brilliant version of a song any person who have suffered even an iota of unjust treatment can relate to:

 
 

CHRISTY MOORE at the BARROWLANDS

A representative of the oppressed , a champion of the downtrodden and , quite simply , the best folk singer in the world perfroming at his favourite all time venue.A magical night was a given.

This has been a great week for the Celtic People , and was rounded of in the best possible way one could wish for.

Every song is an immersion in a narrative that seems to capture a whole life experience which translates to all present with an emotional depth only music can bring. 

Ordinary Man is a classic example , a story of a worker getting laid-off whilst the owners get richer.



Missing You is a story of love and longing.



Beeswing is a Richard Thompson song about "the price you pay for the chains you refuse"




Sacco and Vanzetti is a Woody Guthrie song about two Italian immigrants to the US who devoted their lives to the Labour Union Cause , paying with theyre lives after being sentenced to death on trumped up charges , the introduction tells the tragic  story that was only partiallly rectified fifty years after their death.

I TOMMY , THE RISE AND FALL OF TOMMY SHERIDAN at the KINGS THEATRE GLASGOW

Hell hath no fury than a socialist scorned.This is a play about Socialism , Sex and Erjurypi , as they say in Pollok.

This play came to stage not to Praise Sheridan , but rip the pish out of him.

When i first heard Tommy Sheridan he gave a soapbox speech at a protest against the JNF about his most detested aspect of politicians - Hypocrisy.

I once sat behind him and his Mother at a comedy fundraiser evening at the Pavilion Theatre , an evening i saw Mark Thomas and Mark Steel for the first time.The event was also attended by Trade Union leaders Bob Crow and Mark Serwotka , who enthused an inspirational rare achievement  of an unified Left was , and how they would marvel if it could be replicated in England.It is odd that nearly a decade later there was no unification of the Left block down South and the very Unions still give political levies to New Labour despite the horrendous unnecessary Wars , not one of Thatchers Trade union Laws being repealed and new Leader Milibrand publicly disowning calls for Trade union strikes over cuts.

In the subsequent elections for the Scottish Parliament the SSP had a lot of goodwill from the mainstream public for their anti-war stance and concern for social welfare issues such as providing a costed , attainable programme to provide a free nutritious meal for every child in Scotland.A fairly unambitious programme that was to be ultimately scuppered by an alliance of the ruling Labour party ( who could support the war but drew the line to feeding Scotland Children) and the opposition Conservative party.

In the space of one parliament the SSP went from an astonishing 6 members to a more manageable  None.This play is sourced from the material of the party election co-ordinator Alan McCombes which yielded the Book Downfall as to why that very Left style implosion happened.According to the Book a prime reason being the court cases and the resultant divisiveness caused within the party from Sheridan suing for libel , a case won then lost on the basis that either several members of the SSP committed perjury , or Sheridan did in the testimony in the earlier trial.Calling his colleagues scabs after winning the initial case , then forming a separate party called Solidarity , nice name for a breakaway group did not help matters , leaving absolutely no room for compromise.

The denouement was the Golden Goose of the socialism turned to rust giving birth to a still born dead duck that killed the parents.And Thats Socialism.

The play stars comedian Des Mclean , a man with a face that makes you howl with laughter before he even says a word. 

The rest of the cast background details can be found in this website  blog entry.

You can get more background of the play and the story behind it from its dedicated website.

And below you can see the BBC documentary by Investigative Journalist Mark Daly which exposed filmed evidence that led to a second trial which went against Sheridan and the quite horrendous treatment of his Wife who was found to be innocent of all charges and at no point violated her rights which should have been respected.

ALEXEI SAYLE at the STAND GLASGOW

Typecast to death , some would say , by the overtly histrionic performances on 80s TV and Pop chart shows the avant garde founder of the Alternative Comedy scene has come back to roadtest new material after a 16 year break from live stand-up comedy.

I first realised there is much more to Alexei Sayle than cringeworthy pop jingles when i heard a radio programme he made about the history of the UK communist party , especially the pro-Stalinist bitter-enders.He had excellent unimpeachable primary sources for his research as his parents were very much staunch members all through his childhood and well into his post-graduate years.

Alexei was not sitting in the meantime on his laurels , he has spent a most productive energetic seam in the world of literature with such titles as " How Stalin tole My Childhood".A Book that aroused great passionate denunciations from old style Communists , no less his Mum as this Guardian review tells. 

Another admirable quality was Alexei being a signatory of the Jews For Justice For Palestinians group along with Stephen Fry.Alexei is a patron of Medical Aid for Palestinians  as well as The Palestine Solidarity Campaign and one of the motivations to get back and doing political comedy live has been some recent appearances for those generous social justice supporters

Alexei explains more in this in-depth interview for the local Skinny Magazine..

This review of a gig he did in Birmingham captures his current routine. though it has to be said it was the understated elements of his act that had the deeper, longer-lasting penetration giving his set an accomplished sharp , refreshing edge.

ULYSSES at the TRON

"What the fuck have i just read" is the usual honest reaction of those that glance , yet alone read , James Joyce Ulysses.So it is no surprise the response "What the fuck have i just watched" is the stock reaction from those who have just seen the stage adaptation of the Novel.

Reading Ulysses  is a tough shift.

More famous for its experimental groundbreaking tryouts than actual substance.Joyce dictated a lot of his work to a third party later in his life , so if you get bogged down a bit then try reading it out loud until you find the rhythm again.

 If its any consolation the last hundred , well 50 pages, are very free flowing.
I may be wrong but i wouldnt be surprised if the later pages contain the longest unbroken sentence in literature , there is no punctuation at all your eyes read the words faster than you can catch them in the brain which makes for quite an effect.

In saying that the novel is a bit experimental topheavy and is generally only appreciated by career writers for its innovations rather than being a rewarding read in its own right.You would be hard pressed to find anyone who actually enjoys it , rather than most who "appreciate" it.

You could say it is the Citizen Kane of novels with the same type of cult likers and loathers.

One admirer of the work states  "Once you get used to the rhythms of the prose and the weird technique Joyce uses it's laugh-out-loud funny in parts, and just jaw-droppingly good for the rest of the time.

The first 50 pages are tough going right enough. In fact, the first 4 chapters (which are all Stephen Dedalus's interior monologue) are dull and difficult, but then they're supposed to be because Stephen's supposed to be a bit of a prig.

Stick with it, though, and in ch. 5 the action switches to Bloom who is much better company."

Optimists call it , euphemistically , "experimental" with such devices as Wagnerian musical notation formatted to the written word canvass and things like stream of consciousness , but even regarding that this novel was the first sustained attempt at it , it is not by any means a particularly good example and has been surpassed by many better attempts since.

Its what you might call a pioneering work and has its place in literature as the inspiration of many Authors afterwards.

It is always a sign of bad art when one has to read several articles to get a grip on what the artist is trying to say not because the subject metaphor is deep and complicated but rather the method of technical delivery is such , it takes some other party to explain what the artist is trying to say.

All in all one could say the Book dogmatises itself into self-worshipping needless complicated complexity.What we might call Elitist Art for Arts sake.

Anyway , the play itself takes advantage of copyright expiry which will allow Ulysses to be brought out into other artistic formats.The Play version was actually written way back in 1994 but can only now be given a theatrical staging.You can find out the whole story background from a brilliantly detailed dedicated bl;og for this production. 

As one can imagine a staging of such a complex book is no easy task , this article tells of the adapters challenges and dilemmas in this staging whose every word is taking from the Book itself.

This review by the writer for the Scotsman Newspaper  and  this one from the Stage are fairly accurate  and give the playwright a backhanded compliment of sticking to Joyces own words in handling of the script.

To help with the narrative the blog also gives a short synopsis of the scenes of the play and their relation to the Book.It is best followed by reading it from the bottom up.

And the second portion , again read from the bottom up corresponds to the second part of the play after the interval.  

As a guide here is a ten point plan to get your head round the Book 

1.         Think of it as an A-Z.
Think of it as something more like a map than a novel, like a Dublin A-Z. Some streets, districts, pubs will be more familiar than others at first, but your awareness will increase in ever widening circles. You can follow the wanderings of the characters on Google Maps. (Google ‘The Boston College Guide to Ulysses’). If you’re lucky enough to find yourself in Dublin the people at the James Joyce Centre in North Great George’s St are very helpful.
2.         Think of it as a vocal performance
Read it aloud, alone or with friends, or listen to it. The musicality, humour and pathos come out better that way. There’s a very good recording by Jim Norton (Bishop Brennan in Father Ted) available on iTunes and Audible, and podcasts available of the recent Bloomsday broadcast on BBC.
3.         Think of it as a book of short stories.
Feel free to skip. The second and third chapters in particular can be hard going, and many a would-be reader takes leave of the book when Stephen Dedalus, an intense, difficult young man,  is going on about the Nacheinander and the Nebeneinander and the Ineluctable Modality of the Visible. Go on to chapter 4 where you get to know Leopold Bloom, his curiosity and kindness, and his relish for the extraordinary ordinariness of everyday life. Each of the 18 episodes can be read independently. The ones called Hades and Nausicaa are good places to start. (Annoyingly these titles, though used by everyone, are absent from the text, but they can be found easily enough either in the notes or online.)
4.         Think of it as poetry.
Read it one sentence at a time. Open it at any page and you will find something wonderful going on. Joyce notices everything, and never wrote a bad sentence.
Actually that’s not true: there is one episode, Eumaeus, which is deliberately and some would say perversely composed of nothing but bad sentences. It’s very skippable.
5.         Think of it as a play.
You will be able to see the play at the Tron, but one episode, Circe, is the most brilliantly surrealist cartoon psychodrama ever written, featuring the hilarious trial of Bloom for mostly imagined sexual misdemeanours. Its cast of thousands includes a singing bar of soap, some warbling kisses, and The End of the World, who is (of course) a twoheaded octopus in gillie’s kilts, busby and tartan filibegs.
6          Don’t think of it as a marathon.
Take your time. No one is going to sponsor you. It’s more a morning stroll, and an afternoon stroll, and an evening stroll, and a nighttime stagger, and so to bed.
7.         Don’t think that it’s full of classical allusions.
You are mistaking it for The Waste Land. (Don’t be ashamed of that – T.S.Eliot also mistook it for The Waste Land.) Yes, it’s built round the scaffolding of Homer’s Odyssey, but that needn’t present any difficulty. Many of the allusions in the book are to popular song, or adverts, bits of news or gossip, the ephemera of city life. They are not there to make you feel stupid.
8.         Take a guide.
Harry Blamire’s The New Bloomsday Book is handy for keeping in touch with what is happening in the story beneath all the verbal pyrotechnics, and there are many other resources online, to help you with the bits you’ve skipped for the time being.
9.         Don’t boast about having read Ulysses.
People will know exactly what you’re up to and you’ll end up looking and sounding like a self-satisfied eedjit.
10.       Don’t boast about not having read Ulysses.
People will know exactly what you’re up to and you’ll end up looking and sounding like a self-satisfied eedjit.

ANDY ZALTZMAN at THE STAND GLASGOW

Andy Zaltzman latest round is called the "Armchair Revolutionary Tour"

Nothing was left out in the marathon 2 set performance by Andy zaltzman  tonight , even the kitchen sink was thrown it for good measure.The show had brilliant moments , profoundly funny moments , supreme satire moments , baffling moments and , more than occasionally , cringeworthy embarrassing  moments.But they were always topical and current.

If the material could be cut-down and honed into a 45 minute set then we could have a taut , very funny and superb memorable satire showcase masterclass on our hands.

The video below gives a good synopsis of same of the material in todays show:



Andy Zaltzman has a show called the Bugle The  latest satarical series of shows can be found in this podcast link.

And here is an Andy Zaltzman article for Huffington Post  , featuring a audio link of his Jubilee Special Show.

AFRICAN AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

This years schedule of Glasgow Black History month threw up an intriguing discussion of the little known role of Black Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.The talk was given by Glasgow University lecturer Dave Featherstone.

The figures of just how many volunteers there were are disputed , ranging from about 90 to 250.Given the nature that many American Blacks were not allowed in the US Military allied with the hazardous logistical barriers for the always harassed and harried  US Communist Party of which many, though not all, were members made the journey nearly impossible.

The US contingent formed up as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Compare and Contrast the attitudes and actions of Albert Einstein and Gene Kelly with General Motors ; Texaco and other Corporations in what Historian Paul Preston has rightly described as the actual beginning of WW2 in which Fascism tested the Worlds resolve and found ample grounds to be encouraged and emboldened.

The reaction of Western governments to the war was ambivalent and duplicitous. They agreed to a nonintervention pact and the United States embargoed aid to the Spanish belligerents, policies intended to de-escalate the war but whose selective enforcement undermined the Republic. While Germany and Italy supplied Franco with troops, tanks, submarines, and a modernized air force (the first to bomb open cities, most notably Guernica), the nonintervention policy only prevented arms from reaching the Republic. General Motors, Texaco, and other American corporations further assisted Franco with trucks and fuel. The Soviet Union and Mexico were the only governments to sell armaments to the Republic, although much of them were impounded at the French border. Throughout the war, a vociferous political and cultural movement in America rallied to the Republic by raising money for medical aid and demanding an end to the embargo. Such participants as Albert Einstein, Dorothy Parker, Gene Kelly, Paul Robeson, Helen Keller, A. Philip Randolph, and Gypsy Rose Lee reflected the wide base of support for the Republican cause.

You can find a synopsis of the trials and tribulations of the formation and continuation of the Abe Lincoln Brigade before they even got anywhere near Spanish Soil in this very informative concise piece.

The Lincolns came from all walks of life, all regions of the country, and included seamen, students, the unemployed, miners, fur workers, lumberjacks, teachers, salesmen, athletes, dancers, and artists. They established the first racially integrated military unit in U.S. history and were the first to be led by a black commander. At least 60 percent were members of the Young Communist League or CP. "Wobblies" (members of the Industrial Workers of the World or "IWW"), socialists, and the unaffiliated also joined. The Socialists formed their own [Eugene] Debs Column for Spain, but open recruitment brought on government suppression.

Because the State Department banned all travel to Spain for any potential recruits a lot of volunteers ended up in Britain before taking underground roundabout trails into Spain to join up with the Brigades.

This is a picture of an unidentified Black soldier who the Spanish Authorities were trying to trace prior to a visit by Barack Obama to Spain. "All we know is that he arrived with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of American volunteers and that he died in the battle at Brunete [in July 1937]," said Sergi Centelles, whose father, Agustí, took the picture.".As far as i know the soldier has not been identified yet, though some authorities have narrowed it down to two possible candidates."The photograph remained hidden for four decades after Agustí Centelles, known as the "Spanish Robert Capa", fled Spain as Franco's forces looked set to win the civil war in 1939."

You can get the full story in this excellent Guardian Article.

And here is a very disturbing tale about the highly disputed accounts of Oliver Law ( pictured at the top of the post) , who became for a short while the only Black Commander of a Company of mixed Black and White US personnel at a time when the Official US Army had segregated units , some of whom were not even recognised or decorated for service in WW2 until the 1990s and in some cases only in the 21st Century.

The brilliant hard hitting in-depth documentary traces the History of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in its brave fight to aid the democratically elected Spanish Government and against the Mussolini and Hitler supported Franco Military Uprising.(It comes in 12 parts and features the legendary Salaria Kea ).

ZOMBIES ON A HOT TIN ROOF

Zombies have been in the news of late , The only guarantee in life is Death and Taxes , unless you are the Former People.

Fans show solidarity with the undead

Zombies gather at their favourite festering hole

They show their loyalty and Patriotism , just dont ask them to pay the Queen her Tax

They are back from the dead and promise to haunt us

Will the dead invest in the Sevco issue?

BILLY BRAGG & KT TUNSTALL perform WOODY GUTHRIE 100TH CELEBRATION

Woody Guthrie was born 100 years ago.His Family has Scottish roots so it was fitting Glasgow would be amongst a few set venues for this celebratory tour.

Billy Braggs first connection with the work of Guthrie was when he was invited by Woody Guthries Daughter Nora.Out of an archive of over 3,000 songs Woody barely recorded a single digit percentage of them , none of them to a musical score.This presents problems and opportunities to would be ressurecters , Bragg resolved this very early on by intimating , with Noras blessing, his own style based mostly of Brit punk and independent acoustic traditions.

The event started with some wonderful songs from an upcoming KT Tunstall Album of which the best was an evocative piece called Invisible Empire:( give it about 30 seconds to kick-in).



The night was designed to showcase the totality of Woodys themes as well as his influences of which Leadbelly was a major inspiration.Paul Robeson also gave Woody many gigs leading to public exposure in the days when there was no such thing like  touring as we know today.Almost all of Woodys gigs were free performances at pickets and Strikes in an age when even being suspected Socialist was a blacklisted across the states offence in legal and cultural circuits.

Woody hated Fascists , here is a typical Bragg version of battle cry against the Nazis and their supporters at home and abroad:




In the video below Bragg gives an American audience a British style speech on the NHS and Twitter:



Woody spent some time in Glasgow when having been shipwrecked during the D-Day Landing he awaited transportation back to the US.Bragg performed a World premiere of the song Woody Guthrie wrote about the city and the clyde.You can see it performed in this link

Billy Bragg finished proceedings with an updated version of the perennial Great Leap Forward:




You can get a lot more details of the life times and legacy of Woody Guthrie from his dedicated website.

SCOTLAND v MACEDONIA

The Tartan Army , of which i was a lowly foot soldier tonight, pride themselves on supporting you ever more.But , in the case of Craig Levein they are more than willing to make an exception.The Tartan Army have split into two camps concerning the current Manager , the "Flower of Scotland" brigade ( known to us Glaswegians as Tcheuchters) hate him , the Urban(e) populace despise him , whenever his face appeared on the Big Screens there was a searing cacophony of booos reverberating on two sides of the stadium ( the other sides were empty with a crowd of only 32,000) , the admixture of gruff gravely Glasgow accent booing in unison with the Gaelic adolescent high pitched lilting made for a very unholy parody of impotent petty venom.

"What the fuck are they saying" was what we Unbanities said to each other with quizzical bemused looks as the Tcheuchters started a massive chant , after a lot of hit and miss translations , de-coding and other linguistic real-time deciphering we made out they were chanted "Bring on the Subs" , there were only 8 minutes gone!.Though , to be fair , the quality of defending as the Macedonians ripped the defence apart at will on several occasions did seem to suggest immediate emergency surgery was required to avoid what people in the Balkans call a "Catastropht".Two minutes later the Catastropht happened.More slicing apart, a beautiful run , two step-overs while on full speed run from the brilliant Pandev , a quick corner, a deft pass , a stroke , bulging net , and that most famous of anti-Hampden roars....two seconds of silence.Realisation.32,000 Scots sober.




After that distraction the Crowd got back to the game of loathing Levein with fresh added ire.Leveins problems began when he came up with a masterstroke after the Spain game in Autumn 2010 ( which we won 2-3).In the midweek after we were playing the Czech Republic , who had lost at home to Lithuania earlier in the tournament , at a low ebb of form and morale.With the high of a good performance against the deserved World Champions the Tartan Army was on for catching the Czechs at just the right time to consolidate a position in the group that could have made Scotland unassailable as co-qualifiers along with Spain.But , Leveins masterstroke was not to press home the advantage and strike when the iron was hot.He went for a 6-2-2-0-0 formation , learned from the likes of Dundee Utd and Hearts , and go for a 0-0 draw.The hopelessly out of touch and disjointed Czechs ambled , shuffled and struggled to find any sort of form for a whole 70 minutes whilst the Scots sat back with no concern to score at the other end.Ironically , the Czechs scored from a British type set-piece goal late in the game.The points went to the home side.The advantage was lost.And the Czechs finished the job from which a more positive Scottish performance that night would never have allowed them.

Thereafter the Tartan Army has  gone seriously out of love with the 6-2-2-0-0 , as Levein has stubbornly stuck to it , citing , among other things , that Del-Bosque has also come round the Leveins way of thinking.The fact that del-Bosque has said this formation without a striker allows him to get 5 men into the last third when attacking , and Leveins allows the grand total of none , with the "striker" pressing in midfield, does seem to suggest divergence on the practical ethos of utilisation of the system.Considering last saturdays opponents Serbia beat Wales 6-1 suggests Levein was not wrong to start off in a cautious manner.Leaving tactical substitutions until very late into the day seems to be the issue of most concern.Though one must bear in mind Miller and Naismith could have done everyone a favour by being more professional with the golden chances that fell their way.Had scotland won the pressure on tuesday would have allowed the team to patiently probe the opposition with the crowd being a genuine 12th man.

Sitting near the dug-out i got to see quite a lot of Levein, he has the gait of a man who has a contract in which he would be better-off getting a severance payment by getting sacked than resigning and giving up on a bumper golden handshake.He will tough it out until told not to do so.In fact he has entered the Taking-The-Piss-Zone , stating we can win all our games just before getting two tame home draws , mainly due to a defend when in doubt postures.

One has to be fair and point out the current Scottish , despite what the MSM say,squad is not up to standard for an expansive system.Technically Macedonia were far superior to the Scottish players.It was no surprise goalkeeper McGregor was man of the match.

PATTI SMITH at the GLASGOW CARLING ABC

Patti Smith last night was superb! Stunning voice , a lot of New York Punk scene vibes about , a dynamic performance full of raw emotion and sincerity you just cant find in the corporate rock age.

This was the song that captured everything about a special night those who were lucky enough to be there will live again and again.



The Independent has a considered review of this sold out concert that very few would have expected to be the closest artist to the age of punk when her accomplished band got going.

There is a lot of confusion that the song "Because The Night" is a Springsteen song covered by Patti.The song was actually a joint collaboration with pieces written by both Patti and Bruce.The version of the concert had a typically rocky raw edge not seen for many years.



The night was rounded of by a version of Gloria with tributes to all those still fighting the good fights of social justice the world over.

VAN GOGH TO KANDINSKY at the SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY

This exhibition examines Expressionism, symbolism, impressionism and finally leads to the early cubist movements.

The entrance has an optical illusion which features two of the paintings on display.




70 paintings by 54 artists are featured , with the majority being from Scandinavia including an uncharacteristic display of colour by Munch.There is much Poetry and Music coming at you with most of the Finnish works connecting the natural landscape as a metaphor for the Finns to resist encroaching bordering on blatant Russian attempts at expansionist domination in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The exhibition is about the inner attitudes of the dominated or excluded towards the forces of expansion,colonisation and ideas of the era in which Darwinian might is right was seen as a virtue in the age of stronger replacing the weaker under the veneer of civilising missions and road towards natural secular progress.

Major stand out attraction is the sower by Van Gogh 

This interesting analysis gives an indication of Van Gogh articulation of the painting through the course of the years he painted the theme.

"Perhaps prescient of what was impending, in November of 1888 Van Gogh produced a second canvas of The Sower which showed an even more dramatic use of color [painting above]. But in this image, an enormous sun is setting in “a very low yellow-green sky-- just as Vincent had described it---with a few streaks of pink cloud...” (Gayford, 2006, p.186). Gayford goes on to describe this second portrait as melancholic. In both instances, the color and mood that Van Gogh was personally experiencing came to dominate the painting."

The exhibition  closes with the blurred lines becoming defined the bordered colours, shapes and symbols of Kandinsky ushering in the age of abstract and cubes.

This painting is called "The Cossacks", an analysis of it reveals a musical symphony of shapes and colours representing emotions and spiritual themes.

Kandinsky style delineated shapes and colours to provide a mood for engendering a deep emotional philosophical response.

Black and  Violet has rich colours inspired by the work of Gauguin and Matisse , it is an example of his concept of Spiritual Art.This analysis gives an indication of his theories and what he was trying to achieve with his chromatic concert theatre. 

You can see some works of Kandinsky set to Music in the vid below:

EDVARD MUNCH at the SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART

In Glasgow we like to call a spade a spade , a hun a hun and a woman a dug.On a trip to Edinburgh we had to mind our p's and q's and pronounce Munch not as it is spelt but as Moonk , it took us a lot of getting used to.

Though his most iconic image is The Scream , Munch was a very early exponent of the  pressures , stresses and strains of Modern Life , this is why his work has a quality of currentness to us Today, giving his pictures an aura of sympathy , empathy and warning as to whether we serve the system or the system should serve us.Alas it is a rhetorical question in the negative which reflects sadly on the issue of progress or regression in the over one hundred years since most of Munch's work has been with us.

Munch himself suffered from many of the ills such as anxiety ( above) and melancholy ( below) which very much made him a suffering artist who points a mirror to society in which it can see what it is doing to our being.

His work is probably more relevant to us that it was to his times as we all are caught in the debt and work off the mortgage trap which exacerbates the very ills he brought out into the public sphere.

This review gives more details of the actual exhibition.

You can see a revealing documentary about The Scream in the video below:

OLYMPIC FOOTBALL AT HAMPDEN

Michael Kelly had a dream to host the Olympics in Glasgow , Michael Kelly is now quite rightly remembered by his affix "disgraced former Celtic director" .He even had a venue fixed for it , Govan. Therefore it has to be said the first Moonbeams were , as always , from an ex-Custodian of the pre-McCann revolution Celtic.Since that time many a shimmering Moonbeam has enshrined that same spot.But , still to this day it is a derelict scrawny shrub land.

Michael Kelly , as Celtic fans say, "talks a lot of shite" and the club is miles better without him , though it has to be said his dream was not completely off the mark as we were graced by having a portion of the Olympic Football tournament at Hampden Park.On the first evening we almost re-ignited the longest continuous war in modern history.Having somewhat resolved that before things got nuclear we came to the second day , what could possibly go wrong.

On asking a Group4S official the exact location of the ticket collection point we were greeted by an incredulous look of "whatever possessed you to ask me a technical detailed question like that" , at that moment we knew we were enjoying the Olympic experience , UK style.We left the official , still with a frozen face of confused bafflement permanently etched on his puzzled face , continuing the treasure hunt for an alleged Eldorado located within some oft spoken off but never seen white portacabins said to be somewhere , no one quite knew where, near the ground.

When we finally found them the ticket selling and collection booths were like a trip to the third world with queues of bewildered undirected patrons four wide clamouring to get an audience with a single window slit.The operation was so streamlined each person took about five minutes the process with prospects of more to come later.For some the experience was an emotional roller-coaster ride as they would negotiate two questions , name and address, only to fall at the third hurdle , booking reference number.The Scots within the ticket booths seemed to take a grim satisfaction in sending people "home to think again".Some skittled off meekly holding bits of paper in a sad lament.Others , desolate they would never see an Olympic event for the rest of their earthly life , decided to make a last stand for economic justice , after all they had paid £20 a ticket , in the vain hope that standing on the spot , shouting loudly , refusing to budge may oil the wheels of bureaucracy and gain then a special dispensation.They were sent home with the ultimate weapon of modern day renaissance contract workers , a shrug of the Shudders ( as we say in Glasgow) accompanied by a polite smile just so they would know they have been dealt  with a ISO9002 company.

All this exciting action took place from us arriving well before the first installment of a double-header package until half time of the opening match.The last dramatic theatre was a real tear-jerker , just ahead of us the rate of processing a customer was comfortably passing the five minute a patron mark , with a Nigerian breaking the seven minute barrier ,every patron at this stage was being dealt with a booth operator joined by a bemused onlooker , no doubt a newly trained supervisor , continually on the phone to some central helpline pulling melodramatic faces and wiping her brow with a pile of ample non-issued tickets.

At last we got to a Family of Four one ahead of us , a lady and three kids.All they seemed to have in their possession from what i could gather was a scribbled set of numbers on post it note taken down from a facebook message , not only did they have difficulty with the name of the original purchaser but also had a problem with the address and the scribbled number appeared to be wrong.Their appeal to use the latest technology to dig out the proper number from the original email from the android cut no ice with the two person team in the booth who only deal in printed matter.At first the middle-aged boy went round the corner to have a whimpering sulk , shortly after his younger sister went round the corner to console him and bring him back , with things getting no nearer to resolution the sister and brother went round the corner together to bulp and gulp in each others hugs.Then it was the turn of the older brother to get al fresco in the emotions department.The final flourish was the mum doing a howling , gulping and bulping in front of the booth window as the impatient queue behind , having long since ran out of sympathy , wished police would take them away in some corner out of the road.

Alas , i happened  to have all my paperwork and credit cards in order , amazingly processed in under three minutes , even then i felt i had left a part of my life and some of my soul in that booth with me.

When we finally got into the ground 54 minutes of the first match had already gone with Morocco 1-up and in control , the Hondurans seemed to be playing like a bunch of women , arguing with each other , trying not to get their gear dirty, hanging about in groups doing something and nothing , given to exuberant affectations of pain and anguish whenever the opportunity arose.All of a sudden they got a goal out of nowhere.

Now it was the turn of the Moroccans to play the role of scorned women.This complete role reversal led to Honduras taking the lead.Thereafter Morocco resorted to horizontal tackles , yielding to a deserved sending off.The Moroccan fans near us were becoming a wee bit hysterical , gesticulating and screaming themselves like shrieking banshees over non-issues.At long last the Moroccan team managed to regain enough composure to get a spectacular equaliser.Both teams them settled for a draw , though Morocco will feel they dropped two points.

We were sitting next to some Japan Fans , the Japanese also had a dedicated end heaving with drums and banners.The Spanish Fans were in small groups dotted around the ground.There were also a lot of Plastic Spaniards with spotty local complections and gingeroid hair as unspanish as you can get wearing Spain strips emblazoned with star names.

The Japanese team showed a characteristic tenacity that was just not quelled within 90 minutes of intensity.The Spanish team were, for the first time in many years , outcrowded and outworked in midfield even with the presence of double ( at club level and International) European Champion Mata.

Japanese Goal is in the vid below:




In the second half a very sorry looking Spain were being hit on the break constantly , failing to keep possession in midfield , and having no wide over-lapping play despite the Hero of the recent Euro 2012 Alba being in the team , Japanese forwards squandered a series of scorable chances with finishing reminding the local crowd of Kenny Miller.The 1-0 final result did not do justice to the Japan performance which showed a team with apparent lesser technical ability , but fortified with belief , hardwork, and a well thought out plan can accomplish the seemingly impossible.

WU LEGENDS at the ABC GLASGOW

"Wu Tang Motherfucker.......Wu Tang Motherfucker........Wu Tang Motherfucker...." that sound was blasting out of the speakers just before the Kasabian concert i went to last December , with lyrics like those and a deep thumping bassline who could help but fall in love, and to vow to catch these legends when they are next in town.

Well it took a while but to see them in a small venue was a wonderful experience.

When they came out on stage all the members have an incredible presence.But  they compliment each other in a harmonious enhancing way.

Here is an example of Wu-Tang in action:

Just like the Hippie culture come crashing to earth in the Manson murders , and rock gave way to corporate sponsorship it does seem hip-hop is more about lucre for promoters and not anymore about the voice of the streets.

As a sign of the times they seemed more interesting in directing the crowd to the sales merchandising stalls than appealing to the youths revolutionary free independent spirit.It seems even being a tearaway radical is a short attention span fad these days.

WEANS ON HOLIDAY

                         Last day at school , first place for Maths and English and Gibberish.

                                                      Time for the first summer dress.

Just back from swimming

                                                                 Almost time for siesta   

                                          More Jelly and Ice Cream

                                        All Gone , just like the Huns

                                         A Long Day , Time for bed 

ROBERT CRAY live at GLASGOW ABC

I had the pleasure of seeing Robert Cray at the Barrowlands so long ago i cant even recall the decade , yet alone the year.He performed a blistering set with the Miami Horns.

Many years , and dozens of awards , later Robert still has the look of youth and a sweet honeysuckle fresh voice to match.The only thing that has matured is his songwording skills and extraordinary miraculous finger-picking guitar playing skills.

He never sang any of the songs that were hits from the time i remember , only confirming the vast quality archive he has built over time.

Here is a excellent recording from the concert of my favourite song of the night where is guitar-playing , voice and songwriting are fused brilliantly.

Time Takes Two

THE (former) HUNS ARE DEED

The Huns ceased to exist on 12th June 2012.






This from Reporting Scotland





There is a quandry what to call the unholy ghost of the corpse of the former bigoted club.To call them anything would be confer on them a status they dont deserve,or have.Former player Naismith referred to the non-existent entity as Sevco , as he walked away.

This event has clearly been hard felt by bigot bitter-enders , this is how they are feeling whenever the inevitible more bad news comes their way:

(Please click on images for full size view).

Bigoted bitter-enders are comparing the plight to the holocaust as this FF testifies:

Originally Posted by Earl of Leven


Summed up by Pamplona....some fans sang a song and so men, women and children deserved a beating from riot police.

"Raus, Juden, schnell..."

-------------

Well said, I have just received my non Sponsored Rangers shirt , wearing it now it feels like a ' Yellow Star ' . What next cattle trucks , sad to say they are some that would gladly see them, if they could get away with it .

--------------

Alas Sevco legal experts will notice the writing on the Wall from Godwins Law:

"A term that originated on Usenet, Godwin's Law states that as an online argument grows longer and more heated, it becomes increasingly likely that somebody will bring up Adolf Hitler or the Nazis. When such an event occurs, the person guilty of invoking Godwin's Law has effectively forfeited the argument."

Former-Rangers youth star Rhys McCabe (a.k.a. who?) has taken the senoirs advice and also jumped ship.

This is a pic taken in the good old days ( two weeks ago) with the young starlet posing with Craig Whyte...then The Bloo Nights ( remember them) leader of the Million Hun March Sandy Jardine posing with the Walk Away Cup.

Sevcos have clearly taken the news well:

Below is a story in pictures of the Former Huns in the last few days:

Coming the Hour , cometh the only kind of saviour Rangers could produce , it was never quite clear , to anyone , if he spoke for The Huns Peeples Front or The Peeples Front of Huns.

Here is what Tam Cowan thought of him.

And Sevco Owner Charles Green is coming across better than ever as he wins the respect of previously unconvinced Scottish Football fans:

Alasdair Lamont ‏@BBCAlLamont


Green adds: "It's not right that every two weeks a Mel Gibson appears, delivers a Braveheart statement, then doesn't deliver anything."