Saturday 28 December 2013

The Girl on the Stairs

Between October and November (and between my university readings) I read Louise Welsh's The Girl on the Stairs, a novel which was recommended to me by a Scottish Literature academic at Glasgow University.


I haven't read any reviews, but I'm sure the most frequent word in them is either "disturbing" or "disquieting", and if not, anything beginning with "dis-". Because that is what this novel is. It reminded me a little of Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger, in the sense that, as a reader, you keep looking for clues that can help you rationalize what is going on, clues for an explanation that "makes sense". And, as Waters's novel, The Girl on the Stairs leaves you with nothing. 

The two novels also have in common the unreliable narrator and a steady build-up of the tension. Welsh's novel gives it a further twist with a demolishing epilogue in which "normality" is reinstated, but just superficially. Under the layer of unnatural normality lie creepiness, distrust, even disgust (See the "dis-" words making their appearance again?).

The two major elements that contribute to the uneasiness present throughout the novel are the fact that the main character, Jane, has just entered two unexplored territories (for her, that is) at once: Berlin (she's from Glasgow) and pregnancy. Being a stranger and speaking little German, as well as the possibility of hormone-induced paranoia all play a part in the development of the events the book narrates. 

This book also deserves a mention for dealing in a straightforward way with a mature lesbian relationship (not just the romance/falling-in-love stages) and the changes pregnancy brings into the couple's situation. 

Have you read anything by Louise Welsh? Do you have any recommendations? =)

Capercaillie + NE3 Folk

I know it's been a while since the last time I wrote, things just keep piling up in my mind!

I have since been to two folk music concerts, so get ready for some music! =)

Capercaillie (11th October)

Venue: Paisley Abbey (Paisley)
Price: £16

I don't know how to begin to introduce this fantastic band to you, so I thought I'd better leave you to their own words! What I can tell you is that they have done a great deal to put Celtic music back on the scene, mixing tradition and modernity. I have been a Capercaillie fan since 2004, and I had already been to another of their concerts (during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2010). I have to say that they kept up to my very high expectations! The venue did a great deal for the superb atmosphere too. The whole band had a wonderful attitude, and they moved us all! I can say "us" because two girls and a man in the front row just got up and danced to the last song... haha. 


This concert was part of the Spree festival, Paisley's national arts festival. I'll leave you to some of Capercaillie's music, so that you can enjoy a bit of it too!


NE3 Folk (27th October)

Venue: The Royal Oak (Edinburgh)

Price: £5

The members of this band define themselves as a "progressive Scottish folk trio playing contemporary, original and traditional tunes". If I'm not mistaken, they have been playing together since 2012, but this info might be wrong. In any case, they are a fairly new band, but they are certainly very promising. As their website indicates, "NE3 Folk are a band on a mission. Intricate rhythms and dissonance intertwine in subtle and detailed arrangements to sensitively deliver a wide array of traditional and original tunes. Combining Shetland and Scandinavian fiddle with delicate accordion, driving guitar and eclectic influences, they are dragging traditional music kicking, tapping and soaring in to the modern era". I have to say that, grandiloquent as this definition might sound, they really do justice to it. 

Their youth, dynamism and enthusiasm certainly showed during the evening, and their passion for music and experimenting with it did too. This really feels like an ongoing project that is constantly changing before your very eyes, and it just goes to new and amazing levels. I wish there was a YouTube video of their song "Monstrosity" (called that way, as they said, because of how difficult to play it is). It was really very impressive, like nothing I've heard before. I'll leave you to their song "The Other Man" (you can listen to more of their music on their website):


I almost forgot! A special mention to our host, the owner (I assume) of The Royal Oak, a small but well-kept pub in Edinburgh's Infirmary Street (a stone's throw away from the Royal Mile). He had a ton of personality and this was just the icing on the cake of our evening!

Are you a fan of folk music? What do you think of both Capercaillie and NE3 Folk? Do you know any other bands I might be interested in? I'm always looking for recommendations! =)

Saturday 12 October 2013

Greig + Greig + Dinner + Greig

Ladies and gentlemen,

This evening is going to be a very special one. Mainly because we'll travel through time and space, and we'll enjoy 3 evenings in one. Tonight's thematic menu's main ingredient is David Greig. To help you digest the theatre load, we'll have an interlude after the starter and the main dish for a dinner performance. I hope you enjoy yourselves.

L'arquitecte (The Architect) (February 2012)

Venue: Teatre Lliure
Play: L'arquitecte (The Architect)
Playwright: David Greig
Director: Julio Manrique

On the right, a well-off household and a deserted city roof. On the center, a building ground and a whole close about to be demolished because it makes its inhabitants unhappy. Left, a truck, a nightclub, an entrance hall and a high-up flat in the same building. The walls between those spaces are made of the difference between intense light and stark darkness.

The city ants that inhabit these spaces have lost the track of the ant in front of them and wander lost. The scarce dry crumbs they can collect from the gray pavement bring them depression, rape, rupture, loneliness, anxiety, Freudian needs, betrayal, destruction and failure. One, two, three... demolition. How soon is now?


Dunsinane (13 September 2013)

Venue: Theatre Royal Glasgow
Play: Dunsinane
Playwright: David Greig
Company: National Theatre of Scotland

Macbeth is dead. But his wife, Gruach, is still very much alive. Can a foreign English general's black-and-white simplicity work in a Scotland divided between a coward king whose (fake?) cowardice keeps him in power and a blazing queen whose look melts the snow? Will there ever be a "settling solution" as long as people are still alive? Is the power of words greater than the power of the sword?

Dinner interlude (21 September 2013)

Venue: The Butterfly and the Pig
Play: Dinner Interlude
Playwright: Chef and kitchen staff
Company: Waiters

A charming basement restaurant, with mismatched decorations that go well together for no apparent reason.

WAITER. Come this way, I'll show you to your table.

The lights are low. The table is set for two people, the candles are alight and there's a jar of ice-cold water and two glasses. The crochet mantelpiece gives the table a vintage look.

WAITER. Can I get you something to drink?

YOUR PARTNER. Yes, a pint of beer, please.

YOU. I'll have just water, thank you.

The WAITER leaves the stage and comes back with a pint and the menus. After a silent scene where YOU and YOUR PARTNER order their food, the WAITER comes back with the plates. 

Menu reads: "Cilla black is back in black in a pudding, with salad, apples,bacon and Parmesan, 
contains black pudden and a wee fried quail egg on top"

  Menu reads: "Fish cakes, but not as you know them, open in a pan made with smoked fish, haddock, trout and meltid leeks, potato and baked eggs. We do our best to remove all bones but some may be lurking"

Menu reads: "ATTENTION PLEASE!!! 
An old fave is back with gusto, Gammon Steak with a baked pineapple, fried egg and of course chips.
It simply doesn’t get any better, trust me."

After YOU and YOUR PARTNER have failed at eating the amount of food that has been served to them, they are brought the remains in a box with a lid with a handwritten message that reads "Love, Butterfly & the Pig" and the bill, on top of which are two rosy coconut sweets. 

WAITER: Thanks very much, come back soon!

YOU and YOUR PARTNER leave the stage with full stomachs and happy faces.


The Events (21 September 2013)

Venue: Tron Theatre
Play: The Events
Playwright: David Greig
Company: Actors Touring Company

Screams mixed with a motley-crew community chorus. A serene terrorist that has simply accepted the void, a tormented victim that compulsively needs to fill the void. "Humanity's obsession and destructive desire to fathom the unfathomable." Rudi Dharmalingam, the actor, possessed, by turns, by the souls of a dozen characters.



Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you've had a really good time tonight, and I hope to see you again. Any queries or complaints about the menu or the interlude will be answered by the "Comments" bar staff. Thank you very much. ;)

Thursday 10 October 2013

China and Glasgow

On the 24th and 26th of September, I attended two events the main focus of which was the sharing of Chinese culture. 

On the 24th, the event in question was a series of short performances by the UESTC (University of Electronic Science and Technology of China) Student Art Troupe, at the Mitchell Library Theatre. These included Highland Dance, traditional Chinese music and dance/theatre, Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up", etc.

Some of the songs and instruments I could track down are the following:






The last performance was, of course, "Auld Lang Syne". ;)

Actually, I found a video where the actual UESTC performers appear. It's just little bits of their performances, but you'll get a glimpse of their costumes, at least. =)

The second event was a celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival, hosted by the Confucius Institute at the University of Glasgow.

There were several speeches about Chinese culture, then we enjoyed the performance of a magician, a prize draw (at which I won a Chinese paper lantern, haha) and, to round off the evening, a taste of canapés which included the traditional "mooncake". These are made of pastry, lotus seed paste filling and duck's egg yolk, and the tradition says that they bring longevity and harmony.


I had lots of fun! This is yet another example of how Glasgow is a welcoming melting pot of cultures and traditions. =)

Sunday 15 September 2013

A Painting is Worth a Thousand Words

In three days' time, it will be a month since I came to Glasgow. In that time, I've visited some of the many museums there are in this city, and I've chosen some of the paintings I've seen to share them with you. I like art, though I'm no art critic, so I wouldn't be able to say much more of the paintings below than that I like them for some reason or other (mainly aesthetic pleasure or because they make me think/feel). That is why this won't be a wordy post =) All the info about the titles, dates, techniques and authors is from the museums' webpages.


Hunterian Gallery



"Le Voile Persan" 1909
Oil on board
John Duncan Fergusson (Scottish; 1874-1961)


"Salmon Nets and the Sea" 1960
Oil on board
Joan Eardley (Scottish; 1921-1963)


"Moniaive" 1885
Oil on canvas
James Paterson (Scottish; 1854-1932)


"The Gypsy Fires are Burning for Daylight's Past and Gone" 1881
Oil on canvas
James Guthrie (Scottish; 1859-1930)


Cartoon for "The Fighting Peacocks" 1876
Chalk and wash on brown paper pricked for transfer
James McNeil Whistler (American; 1834-1903)


"A Goldfinch on the Branch of a Cherry Tree" c. 1881
Oil, pencioil, pencil and gold paint on cream card
Beatrix Whistler (English; 1857-1896)


"Still Life and Rosechatel" 1924
Oil on canvas
Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell (Scottish; 1883-1937)


Kelvingrove Museum



"The Scotsman" 1987
Photograph installation
Ron O'Donnell

Gallery of Modern Art



"Representational Error" 2013
Tony Swain (Irish; 1967-)


"Setting" 2012
Pencil, correction fluid and ink on catalogue page
Louise Hopkins (English; 1965-)




What do you think about the paintings I've chosen? Do you like any of them in particular? =)

Wednesday 4 September 2013

Glasgow and Unthank

Now I finally have a place I can call 'home' here in Glasgow, I thought I'd write about my first impressions about this city.

I happened to be reading Alasdair Gray's Lanark back in Spain, and I brought it with me and I finished it here. Gray's fictional Glasgow and its hellish version, Unthank, have proven to be a great picture against which I could try my own thoughts about the actual city.

For those of you who haven't read Gray's most famous novel, I'll tell you a bit of what I grasped of his fictional double city. But first of all, obviously, I'd recommend you read the book itself. Although you have to be aware that this isn't an objective recommendation, coming as it does from a hopeless fan of Gray's work, his literary and visual witty games, and a very enjoyable mixture of erudition and pop culture as well as of his take on sexual fantasising and politics. I enjoy very much having to think deeply at one point, then immediately after that just crack laughing or feel physical (or moral?) repulsion. 

In Lanark, two worlds are combined, and the linking points between them are mainly the protagonist (Thaw/Lanark) and the city they live in (Glasgow/Unthank). The first (books 1&2) is a more 'realistic' depiction of Glasgow and a fictionalised version of Gray's own young years, whereas the second (books 3&4) is Gray's version of a descent into hell. His Glasgow is a city full of corners and closed spaces, full of unsatisfactory relationships between human beings, full of cold despair or, at best, of surgical neutrality. Unthank is more emotionally active (in the sense that the city seems to be a reflection of Lanark's distress), though the emotions the city evokes are mainly negative or disturbingly confusing. This also shows in physical but psychologically prompted diseases ('mouths' and 'dragonhide').

I have so far seen the 'bright' side of the Glasgow Gray describes. Obviously, I'll have to wait for the bulk of winter's snowfall to put it against this impression. However, the city I've walked through these last three weeks has been vast but welcoming, warm though it was cloudy, and full of smiling people (though that might have been their natural reaction to my smiling at everyone out of sheer happiness). The city seems to have so much to offer, not least an opportunity for me to study and live here (I'll never thank enough the Stevenson Exchange Scholarship scheme and the University of Glasgow, as well as everyone who has helped me reach this point of my life, for this). I've heard many more languages spoken on the streets other than English, I've smelled food from several corners of the world, and I know of more cultural events than I can physically attend.

I can, at least now, only relate to the feeling of Gray's character at the end of the book: I know I'll only be here (for sure) until September 2014, but my time until then looks as promising and as full of possibilities as it could.


I'll leave you with what might be my favourite passage of the book (or at least, one of the many I enjoyed a lot):

"   The cross was a place where several broad streets met and they could see down two of them, though the dark had made it difficult to see far. And now, about a mile away, where the streets reached the crest of a wide shallow hill, each was silhouetted against a pearly paleness. Most of the sky was still black for the paleness did not reach above the tenement roofs, so it seemed that two little days were starting, one at the end of each street. Rima said again, "Look at what?"

"Can't you see it? Can't you see that... what's the word? There was once a special word for it..."
Rima looked in the direction of his forefinger and said coldly, "Are you talking about the light in the sky?"
"Dawn. That's what it was called. Dawn."
"Isn't that a rather sentimental word? It's fading already."
The wind had fallen. Lanark stepped onto the pavement and stood leaning forward and staring along each street in turn, as if wanting to jump to the end of one but unable to decide which. Rima's indifference to his excitement had made him forget her for the moment. She said with slight distaste, "I didn't know you were keen on that kind of thing," then, after a pause, "Good, here's my tram."
She went past him into the road. An antique-looking almost-empty tramcar came groaning along the track and stopped between Lanark and the view. It would have taken him to his lodgings. Rima boarded it. He took a step to follow her, then hesitated and said, "Look, I'll see you again, won't I?"
As the tram started moving Rima waved offhandedly from the platform. He watched her settle in an upstairs seat, hoping she would turn and wave again. She didn't. He looked along the two streets. The wan watery light was perceptibly fading from the ends of them. He abruptly crossed over to the broadest and started running up the middle of it.

He ran with his gaze on the skyline, having an obscure idea that the day would last longer if he reached it before the light completely faded. The wind rose. Great gusts shoved at his back making it easier to run that walk. This race with the wind toward a fading dawn was the finest thing he had done since coming to that city.When the sky had grown altogether black he stopped, rested up a close mouth to recover his breath, then trudged back to the trampstop at the cross.  

[Gray, Alasdair. Lanark, Edinburgh: Canongate, 1981 (2007), p. 11-12]


If you pick up the book, I'd also recommend the end of Chapter 11 & the Prologue immediately following it, and the Epilogue (four chapters before the end of the book).


Have you read Lanark or any of Gray's works? Have you lived in Glasgow? I'd love to hear from you! =)