Halloween fun at our friend Verities’ beatuful and suitably spooky mansion in the East End. Premier of Loki’s Gate from Reddeddog Productions – a friend of a friend and suitably shlock horroresque.
Tag: glasgow
yeasayer at abc
Fun gig with our band of the summer. They were patchy in parts especially at the start but had the crowd in the palm of their hand by the end of the set.
camflava
We are just back from checking out on of the newest editions to Glasgow’s dining scene – a pan African ‘cabaret’ number called Camflava, tucked discretely in the Pollockshaws area of the south side.
While they are still finding their feet a little, and there wasn’t any cabaret to be seen, the food was fantastic and the staff very enthusiastic.The place did suffer from the usual Glasgow bugbear of being far too large and I suspect unless it is packed to the gills it will always feel a little souless.
On to the food, with our household of 3+1 all in attendance we shared fried plantain, ribs and chicken wings for starters which were all delicious. The main courses that followed were equally as good. Pete’s Black Bean & Pumpkin stew was thankfully tasty as it was the only vegetarian main on the menu. The rest of us tucked into grilled fish, a great chicken casserole type dish and the intriguing Ndolé – a beef dish made using shrimp paste and bitter leaves that was certainly an acquired taste!
Glasgow seems to be experiencing a mini boom in African cuisine (about time) with an Abyssian restaurant called the Queen of Sheba soon to be opening next door to our favourite haunt Asia Style.
doors open day
Mum and Dad had a suitably impressive introduction to Glasgow with Doors Open Day being held just after they arrived. We arranged a leisurely wander into town popping into series of ever more impressive historic buildings and churches culminating in the absolutely phenomenal City Chambers. If find it difficult to believe that hadn’t discovered this totally over the top edifice before – especially as we work just around the corner. It is full of stone and marble lining and the grand ballroom has the dimensions of an aircraft hanger with vast murals and gilt everywhere. It is a truly impressive building and gives an insight into the astounding wealth that Glasgow once possessed.
stereo sounds
A couple of comments on gigs we attended at stereo in August.
First up was a bit of a punt on Crystal Stilts with Veronica Falls in support. They were actually a bit crap, quite messy and not as good as their studio work – cool brooklyn kids who weren’t that interested.
A couple of days later, in a vindicated a spur of the moment decision we went to see Israeli punks Monotonix. They were totally mental and it was absolute madness madness with four hairy sweaty guys in speedos traipsing all over the venue, playing on the bar, getting audience members to support their drum kit and stool above their heads while they played! As well as (or perhaps in spite of) their great show they also happened to be good musicians.
some australia nostalgia
We dragged a bunch of our mates along to The Luckmiths farewell gig at Stereo. Chhay met up with them before the gig (they were pretty impressed with Stereo’s location right next to Central station and tasty selection of vegan food) before we headed down to catch the very twee supports.
Their set included all the classics and their typical high quality banter – they left our friends suitably impressed and a little sad that this was the only time that they would see them.
Chhay & I really appreciated the chance to see them before they disband, I think the Australian shows would have been amazing. See if you can spot us in the photo below!
i heart hiroshima
Way back in the dark ages we popped in to the twisted wheel to catch Brisbane pop rockers I Heart Hiroshima. We were incredibly tight and played an entertaining set to a tiny audience. Their drummer was as incredible and hypnotic as ever.
On their tour blog they noted this show as the best of the tour – I hope they at least got a few more people to see them at the other venues!
biting critique of zaha's gleegie shed
“In this case, the baroquely difficult solution to the five-second long design process is a perfect example of the dead end; of the arbitrariness and bankruptcy of cultural architecture, a seductive design moment, achingly contingent (should that squiggle be 500mm to the left or not?) followed by an interminable slog of realisation, keeping everybody busy. The fact that the buildings that occupied the site previously were sheds of about the same size, albeit of a less wow-factor shape is hilarious, making this an exercise in architectural futility.”
From our friend Jamie Flett
“Me and my bro recorded a bunch of tunes as our studio side project ‘Feltt.’ We actually did it ages ago and a few of you maybe have a copy of some or all of them already. BUT if you don’t, then we’ve put them together as an album – ‘Bipolar’ – and this is available to download for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING right here: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/48493 You can listen to the tracks there before downloading anything.
We occasionally play one or two of these tunes live but otherwise we didn’t know what to do with them because we haven’t really had time to actually go out and promote them.
So we’re giving them to you, our friends. And we’d be delighted if you pass the link onto your friends. With instructions to pass it on to their friends.. oh dear, I’ve made this sound like one of those soul-sapping chain e-mails which I’m thankful I don’t see so much of these days.”
Defintely worth a listen, less structured than Jamie’s own stuff but with some interesting electronic overlays.