Features
Edinburgh Film Festival: The story of ‘Dummy Jim’
In 1951 a deaf factory worker from Aberdeenshire embarked on a solo cycling trip from his home to the Arctic Circle – 3000 miles away. Now the story of his remarkable journey has been made into a film set for its UK premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival tomorrow.
Gig review: Bruce Springsteen, Glasgow
Thanks to Glasgow’s summer weather for playing a part, because a three-hour epic of a stadium set from Bruce Springsteen wouldn’t be complete without a glowing orange sunset bleeding into dusk in the background.
Scottish word of the week: Bawbee
Appropriately enough, for a term originally used to denote a Scottish halfpenny first introduced in the 16th century, bawbee (sometimes baw bee) has offered rich pickings for traditional Scots literature.
Piper Alpha documentary set for Edinburgh premiere
SURVIVORS of the Piper Alpha Tragedy relive the full horror of the disaster in a searing new documentary set to get a high-profile world premiere this week at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
100 Weeks of Scotland: Ladies Day, Musselburgh Races
HAVING reached the one-third milestone of my ‘One Hundred Weeks’ project I thought I would reward myself with a jaunt to the races.
Motoring
Volkswagen Golf GTD: A GTI for grown-ups
THE hot hatch genre has had more comebacks in recent years than the Rolling Stones, although increases in power, running costs and asking prices have seen some cars move away from their previously broad customer base and into the hands of dyed-in-the-wool enthusiasts.
Mitsubishi Outlander: new family contender
THE Mitsubishi Outlander has often been viewed as a 4x4 that never quite got the success it warranted. Will the third generation car change all that?
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Lexus IS: Built for comfort
LEXUS could have badged its third-generation IS executive saloon the “Diesel Schmiesel”. For, try as you might, you still won’t find an oil-burning IS in the range. Not now, not ever, say company chiefs. Instead, the IS comes with a choice of petrol or petrol-electric hybrid motors, which seems a bit odd for a car that’s built to stick it to the BMW 3-Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes C Class. All of these cars, it won’t have escaped your notice, do a very nice line in diesels.
Mitsubishi: Yes, it is a Mirage
Honestly, you couldn’t make it up. I thought I was seeing things the day I got the latest offering from Mitsubishi to try out on some local roads. The diminutive but fully five-door supermini is the successor to the Colt and is a surprisingly nippy little three-cylinder job. I arrived home to a surprise because parked there was not the solitary one I’d expected, but two of them – a sparkling metallic Pop Green and an equally bright solid Polar White.
Seat Toledo wins the space race
THERE are no bargains any more, at least conventional wisdom would have you believe. For whatever reason – maybe branding, possibly rules and regulations – the notion of a properly inexpensive product is completely loaded with the baggage of poverty. It seems idiotic that us consumers would pay more in order that we can feel better about ourselves.
Food and Drink
Restaurant review: The Adamson, St Andrews
IF BEING full is the mark of a good restaurant, the Adamson must be fan-bloody-tastic. Seriously, it would be difficult for an establishment to be more popular if Ma Belle herself turned up for work in a bikini and began pouring free pints for freshers in the first week of term.
1 commentWine: Paul Hobbs wines
WHAT is such a joy about talking to Californian winemaker Paul Hobbs is his ability to discuss non-geeky aspects of wine science. In a single chat, he can tell you why Mendoza has bigger hailstones than other regions and what makes pinot noir paler than other wines when its grapes have similar pigmentation.
Tom Kitchin: Rum Baba recipe
I FELL in love with rum when I first visited the Caribbean. It was the moment when I realised how specialist rum can be and, indeed, how many varieties you can find. Most of the world’s production occurs in the Caribbean or in Latin America.
Restaurant review: Henderson’s Bistro, Thistle Street
My impending midlife crisis is mapped out. It will involve a quad bike, toy boy, dachshund, tattoo and a total meltdown. Probably in that order.
Restaurant review: Cafe Andaluz, George Street
George Street’s Café Andaluz seemed the perfect venue to catch up with a friend who’d just returned from surfing on the Costa Daurada. In an attempt to forestall her post-holiday Spanish blues we popped in for the early evening menu, offering three tapas for £14.95.
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Outdoors
Danny MacAskill’s new video inspired by childhood
WITH a colossal copy of a Dandy annual, a vast Rubik’s Cube, and a scattering of playing cards, pencils that dwarf all around them, it could easily pass for the playroom of a giant’s children.
Win over £200 of camping equipment for the festival season
WITH the festival season of 2013 now firmly at our doorstep, it is time to start preparing for some of the best and most exciting weekends of the summer!
Adding outdoor adventure to the family mix
NOW summer’s finally here, it’s time to take your whole brood outdoors and create some lasting memories.
Lisa Salmon is inspired by two adventure experts who have written The Family Guide to the Great Outdoors
Roger Cox: Think small with a microadventure?
Alastair Humphreys has nothing against big adventures – he’s cycled around the world, rowed across the Atlantic and pulled a glorified shopping cart for 1,000 miles across the Rub’ al Khali desert on the Arabian Peninsular, a giant, ludicrously inhospitable sandpit.
Stunt cyclist Danny MacAskill ‘leaps’ over castle
STUNT cyclist Danny MacAskill was back in Edinburgh today with Cycling Scotland to help promote Bike Week.
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Travel
Travel: Antigua
THEY say you need patience to fish. And it turns out they’re right. Half an hour into my Antiguan deep-sea fishing trip and I’m considering throwing in the towel. We’re about three miles off the coast of Curtain Bluff, on the south coast of the Caribbean island, dragging five baited lines behind us, and nothing has happening. Not even a nibble.
Travel: The long and winding road to St Fillans
I’m not quite sure how a copy of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band ended up in my CD collection, but it seemed like the perfect soundtrack for the drive to the Four Seasons Hotel in St Fillans on the banks of Loch Earn.
Travel: Peru’s natural and archaeological wonders
Bored out of my mind en route from Paris to Lima, I was flicking through Air France’s film library and stumbled upon Prometheus.
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Travel: Revisting the real roaring Twenties in Berlin
A CHORUS line of 32 stunning girls, high-kicking on a vast Berlin stage, prove to me that the city’s 1920s theatrical traditions are still alive and blooming.
Scottish golf tourism initiative to be expanded
A MAJOR golf tourism initiative, launched two years ago to bring more golfers to the North east of Scotland - home to the Trump golf resort - is to be expanded to meet the demand from visitors and operators.
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Music
Gig review: Ron Sexsmith, Glasgow
Two years ago, Ron Sexsmith suffered a health scare which inspired a lot of soul-searching on his subsequent album, Forever Endeavour – the rich irony being that Sexsmith has never been short on soul in the 20-plus years he has been releasing music.
Glasgow Hydro will open on time say organisers
The fire-damaged Hydro entertainment venue remains scheduled to open at the end of September, operators have said.
Fan dies at Stone Roses’ Glasgow Green gig
A SPECTATOR who collapsed at a major rock concert in Glasgow at the weekend has died, police confirmed.
Tiffany Jenkins: Guerilla opera unexpected and special
FOLLOWING a suggestion from a woman handing out chocolate love hearts on the street, at the weekend a friend and I wandered into the foyer of the City Art Centre; an Edinburgh gallery with a strong collection of Scottish art and a rather nice exhibition of fashion photography.
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Gig review: Elvis Costello and the Imposters
ELVIS’ army has gathered from far and wide. Well, quite a lot from Glasgow anyway and, as he thunders on past the last train witching hour in a packed nearly three-hour set, chances are a few of them ended up here to stay.
Books
Iain Gray: Iain Banks a writer of the first rank
I was deeply saddened at news of Iain Banks’s death.
Iain Banks’s ‘bucket list’ wish for final book
THE Quarry may have been Iain Banks’s last novel, but there could be one more book to come from the late writer – a collection of poetry.
Book review: Investment in Blood: The True Costs Of Britain’s Afghan War, by Frank Ledwidge
BY THE time British troops start coming home for good some time towards the end of next year, the 12-year campaign in Afghanistan will have cost UK taxpayers at least £40 billion – probably more.
Book review: Here And Now: Letters 2008-2011, by Paul Auster and JM Coetzee
THIS could have been, and at times very nearly is, a most touching book: a correspondence between two men, one in his sixties, the other turning 70, both highly regarded novelists (one having won the ultimate accolade, the Nobel Prize), striking sparks off each other, shedding light on their work and becoming friends in the process.
Book reviews: Sisterland, by Curtis Sittenfeld
CURTIS Sittenfeld came to prominence on both sides of the Atlantic with her daring and provocative 2008 novel American Wife, which was loosely based on the life of Laura Bush but was really a study of the marriage of opposites.
Comedy
Karen Koren: When one show closes another one opens . . .
The Festival is creeping up fast and we are really pleased to say that tickets are selling tremendously well.
Comedy review: Judah Friedlander, Edinburgh
HE MAY claim to be the world champion in karate, athletics, soccer and love-making, but when it comes to stand-up comedy, Judah Friedlander is a mere contender.
Comedy review: Eddie Izzard, Glasgow
Even without an acting career, with his commitment to marathon running and performing in different languages, it’s a genuine wonder that Eddie Izzard has put together such a pleasurable two hours of stand-up.
1 commentComedy review: Wicked Wenches, Edinburgh
When tortured Courtney Love-esque bipolar country rocker Loretta Maine declares that she will happily perform at wedding parties, you just know that she has never been asked to appear at such a function.
Comedian Daniel Sloss on Rock Ness and the Fringe
DANIEL Sloss is prepared for his appearance at Rock Ness, and is now nervously watching the skies over Scotland for a sign that the good weather can last beyond the weekend.
Film
Edinburgh Film Festival review: Breathe In
THE Edinburgh International Film Festival gets off to a disappointingly dreary start tonight with Breathe In, a seen-it-all-before tale of infidelity that does nothing to subvert expectations beyond inadvertently draining any drama out of the situation with its dialled-down approach.
Edinburgh Film Festival: Five to watch
THE 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival opens tomorrow with Breathe In at the Festival Theatre, and if monster-sized sequels, Hollywood heists and Scottish romcoms are your thing, then this one’s for you.
10 things to do in Scotland this week
The pick of the best one-off events and festivals in Scotland this week, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Royal Highland Show, St Magnus International Festival, Insider Festival and Scottish Traditional Boats Festival.
Before Midnight: The latest instalment of a love story
WHEN Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and director Richard Linklater hooked up for Before Sunrise (1995), little did they realise their unassuming tale of an American traveller and a French student who meet on a train, and then spend an impromptu evening together in Vienna, talking, walking and falling in love, would be the start of a project that could well continue for as long as they are still able to work and raise funds for the movies.
Film review: World War Z (15)
Diehards may mourn the lack of entrails but this is more of a suspense movie than a gorefest
TV and Radio
Iain Banks’ final interview reveals a true original
IN 1984, relatively unknown writer Iain Banks seemed to emerge out of nowhere with a tome that left critics dishing out superlatives galore: The Wasp Factory. More than 20 books later, and he was still one of the most original novelists of his generation.
Jo Whiley slates ‘cruel’ television talent shows
DJ JO Whiley has criticised Britain’s Got Talent and The Voice – saying that contestants do not know what they are letting themselves in for.
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TV review: The Fall | Dates | The Returned
TEN minutes before the end of The Fall and I’m pretty sure they’re going to get him.
TV picks: Airport Live shows life at Heathrow
DREAM-TEAM presenters Dan Snow, Anita Rani and Dallas Campbell have been sent on some assignments in their time in telly, but surely this one must by outweigh the rest.
TV previews: The White Queen | Scientologists At War
History is in: then is the new now, or something like that. You can imagine some brash young TV executive pitching this idea, throwing around names like The Borgias, The Tudors, Wolf Hall and Game Of Thrones (which is basically the Wars Of The Roses plus dragons) in a bid to make a historical drama adaptation sound sexy and modern and, like, cool, yeah?
Performing Arts
Theatre review: Paul Bright’s Confessions Of A Justified Sinner, Glasgow
IT’S the famous final line of the journal of Robert Wringhim, the tortured hero of James Hogg’s 1824 novel The Private Memoirs And Confessions of a Justified Sinner.
Theatre review: The Changeling, Glasgow
CONDENSING Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s unsettling English Renaissance tragedy into 45 minutes was always going to demand savage cuts.
10 things to do in Scotland this week
The pick of the best one-off events and festivals in Scotland this week, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Royal Highland Show, St Magnus International Festival, Insider Festival and Scottish Traditional Boats Festival.
Review: Leith Festival, Edinburgh
SOMETIMES, in any city, an area emerges as the hub of creative life for a whole generation of artists; and that’s what’s happening right now around Edinburgh’s old port of Leith.
Dance review: Siobhan Davies Dance: Every Day, Glasgow
“CAN you help me walk across the room, please?” asks dancer Helka Kaski, as I wander past her in the gallery.
Visual Arts
Artists in residence bound for remote St Kilda
TWO artists have beaten off competition from over 100 applicants for residency posts on the remotest outpost in the UK.
1 commentArt review: Gray’s School of Art Degree Show, Aberdeen
GRAY’S School of Art in Aberdeen, now part of Robert Gordon University, is the smallest of Scotland’s four art schools, and the last to enter degree show season.
10 things to do in Scotland this week
The pick of the best one-off events and festivals in Scotland this week, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Royal Highland Show, St Magnus International Festival, Insider Festival and Scottish Traditional Boats Festival.
Terry Brodie-Smith: One of Edinburgh’s most flamboyant characters
THE DRESS code for the Edinburgh party, promising “a FAB evening,” was Film, Arty or Bling.
Visual art: Man Ray Portraits
A remarkable story of creative metamorphosis is reflected in Man Ray’s gallery of 20th century greats
Fashion
Fashion: Film style Taylor-made for fashion
IT’S time to unleash your inner leading lady as Edinburgh International Film Festival rolls into town.
Representing Scotland at Graduate Fashion Week
W HEN the world’s fashion insiders look for the next big names – the future Christopher Baileys and heads of haute couture houses – they turn their best sides to Graduate Fashion Week. There is, quite simply, no greater showcase of emerging talent.
Edinburgh Fashion Festival: Style in the city
Brian Ferguson meets the husband-and-wife team who are putting the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival on the map by sidestepping the glitz and the glamour and getting back to the ideas that lie behind great design
Edinburgh Fashion Festival: Style in the city
Brian Ferguson meets the husband-and-wife team who are putting the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival on the map by sidestepping the glitz and the glamour and getting back to the ideas that lie behind great design
Rare fashion photo exhibition set for Edinburgh Picture gallery
Rarely-seen pictures of supermodels Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, Jean Shrimpton and Cindy Crawford have gone on display in a major new exhibition in Edinburgh.
Homes and Gardens
Total package: The Collees‘ Morningside home
This property in Edinburgh’s Morningside has a fantastic location and thanks to a well thought-out renovation the interior is just as impressive
Warm welcome: The Chapman’s home ‘Maplehurst’
This beautifully preserved Arts and Crafts gem has a romantic history and restored charm
Lynn O’Rourke: ‘She put on a brave face and waded in to help’
I HAD been promising my sister for ages that I would venture into our attic to look for some kids summer clothes I had stashed up there that might be handy for my niece.
Gardening: Harvest festival
Make the most of your produce and discover the time-honoured techniques of preserving fruit and vegetables
Lynn McCrossan: ‘So we made a pact not to act in haste’
ARRIVING at the hugely enjoyable Gardening Scotland Show last Friday with my Dad and my youngest, I was full of good intentions to look but not touch.
Health
Feel the burn: Tackling sports injuries
FOR being such a healthy bunch, sports people seem to spend an awful lot of time laid up with injury.
Autism: Unlocking a generation
It has been surrounded by controversy for years, but have we been approaching autism all wrong, asks Ruth Walker
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Technology
Apple exploring bigger, cheaper, colourful iPhones
Apple Inc is exploring launching iPhones with bigger screens, as well as cheaper models in a range of colours, over the next year, said four people with knowledge of the matter, as it takes a cue from rival Samsung Electronics.
Edinburgh Apple shop: Repair rivals open nearby
A new company is offering cut-price repairs to Apple products – on the doorstep of the technology giant’s gleaming new Edinburgh flagship store.
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Glasgow’s Clyde Bridge given ‘apocalypse’ makeover Picture gallery
Some of Britain’s most famous landmarks, including Glasgow’s Clyde Bridge, are shown as smouldering ruins in a series of images released to promote an apocalyptic survival game.
3 commentsBrain study employs cockroaches to act as bluetooth bugs
CYBORG cockroaches that can be controlled with a mobile phone are to go on show today.
PlayStation 4 fightback after Xbox One launch
BILLED as a clash of the titans, Sony and Microsoft’s launches of their seventh generation consoles, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, have been given close scrutiny by the gaming industry.
Heritage
Wind turbine near Prince Charles’ home approved
A controversial wind turbine overlooking the summer Highland home of Prince Charles has been approved.
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Artists in residence bound for remote St Kilda
TWO artists have beaten off competition from over 100 applicants for residency posts on the remotest outpost in the UK.
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Lost Edinburgh: Portobello Power Station
PORTOBELLO Power Station provided the city of Edinburgh with electricity for over half a century. Positioned just a few short strides from Edinburgh’s best-loved seafront, its location is difficult to imagine today.
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Little Sparta to be study centre for art scholars
LITTLE Sparta – the Scottish garden rated one of Britain’s must-see art treasures – has been thrown a financial lifeline which will help safeguard its future.
Loch Ness monster sparks Highlands tourism row
A MONSTER war of words has erupted over how the world-famous Nessie is promoted. The Loch Ness Monster is one of the Highlands’ biggest assets, but the way the legendary monster is portrayed to tourists is threatening to split the business community on the shores she reputedly roams.
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Weather for Edinburgh
Wednesday 19 June 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
