Watch how the city consumes us.........

Sunday afternoon at Barfly for Emma Pollock's solo show.

http://www.barflyclub.com/whatson/default.asp?vn=6

http://www.4ad.com/emmapollock/

1st support act were very good, 5 piece with piano, trumpet, guitar, bass and a singing drummer. Good, big sound, Squeezeish with Foreigner moments. Other singing drummers - Phil Collins, Levon Helm out of the band and him out of the eagles, Glenn Frey? Corrections / further suggestions welcome.

2nd act started with 2 girls singing and playing guitar. Sounded good at first but they became a bit monotonous. Minor key miserable folk. For their last song they brought on guitarist and one of the girls played violin, much better.

Emma Pollock was fantastic, fair belting it out so she was. Had much more of a stage presence than she did with the Delgados. One of the things I disliked about them was their lack of presence, they would just shamble on-stage apologetically and start, they never had any vigour or excitement about them. However, Emma commanded the stage, ably supported on a couple of tracks by a pianist who looked about 12. New songs sounded great, typically cryptic lyrical complexity. Try saying that with a mouthful of space dust.

Went round to the Bastille Taverne afterwards for some food, great spot, bit of an oasis in that otherwise rubbish bit of town.

http://www.bastille-taverne.com/

Blissful afternoon in Cafe Hula

Lunch on Saturday at Cafe Hula. They warned me when I phoned to book that they were short staffed. You had to serve yourself, but it was fine, the atmospehere in the place is lovely, worth the (minor) inconvenience.

http://www.cafehula.co.uk/

Off round to Universal for a tea-time pint and burger. What other pub could you go to where the proprieter will play their national anthem in honour of your pal? Absolutely outstanding.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=G2+4JD,+uk&iwloc=A&iwstate2=savedloc%3A1&hl=en

Co-worker interface scenario

Friday night started at the Arches with a wee gathering for newbies at work like me to meet the gang. Felt a little sheepish at first but soon found my wolf suit. Chatted to loads of folk, seems to be a decent standard of human being in the new job. Thence to Cafe India for a cramped, hot, loud, poor quality Indian meal. Thankfully the company was good. On to Coopers to meet the West End gang, finished at my lovely neighbours flat for beer and blethering. Great night.

Ain't no love then there ain't no use.........

DOVES @ BARROWLANDS 15 DEC

Quite a good show, usual epic bombast, but they sounded great. Warm up drinks in McChuill's, met a few folk there and at the Barras. Hit the TB afterwards and foolishly ended up in Campus w. the TB crew. Great laugh with them but the place is awful.

It all comes crashing down....

Photos of Mitchelhill flats in Castlemilk being demolished a couple of weeks ago. This was where we lived until I was about 8 years old. 7 / 82 Mitchelhill Road. Five 1960's tower blocks on the brow of a hill on the southernmost tip of Glasgow. The views were amazing, I remember that. You could hear the Hampden roar from our flat on the 8th floor on matchdays. The towers used to sway in the wind. Apparently they were supposed to. The flats were bookended to the East by St.Martin's RC church, and to the West by St.Martin's RC primary school. Behind them was a little swing park, the Cathkin Braes park and bluebell woods. Heaven for a wean. Altogether now 'I'm a skyscraper wean and I live on the nineteenth floor...........' Link to the full lyrics.....

http://www.roblightbody.com/scotland/scotlandjeely.htm

I thought this event might regurgitate some juicy emotional phlegm......but nah, it just looked dead wee compared to how I remember it.

Waiting for the moon

Photies of the (apparently) full moon as viewed from my flat at about 7.30am this morning. Set the digi on night mode, enabled the timer and just rested on the window ledge. Could've dug out the tripod but was too busy eating my porridge.