Brutalissima

It's unfashionable, I know, but I'm going to miss the St. James Centre when it's gone. Demolition preparation has begun, and it is closing for good next month, when the long process of dismantling it will begin.  

In (soon-to-be-only-a) memory of it, and of Edinburgh's postwar utopian concrete dream, I have been looking through some of my brutalist/modernist photo frenzies of the past few years (random selections on a crappy phone camera). Apart from the sheer orgiastic authenticity of these concrete monoliths, I don't know quite why I love it all so much - perhaps because I think of postwar concrete buildings as a kind of marker for what was lost in the war (often literally, as replacements for bombed buildings - hence London being uglier than Paris, etc.) and for the egalitarian, civic-minded hopes of those postwar decades. Glassy, sandstone, privatised cubes (or spirals) don't really cut it as markers of either memory or hope; the best that can be said of the replacement is that it will no doubt be replaced itself within a decade or two (such is the cynical, short-termist modus operandi of investment groups behind developments like this) - hopefully by that point, it will be a case of "come back state/council-led concrete building projects, all is forgiven".

Devilled Dogs at the Traverse

Is this the cutest Traverse news ever?

I absolutely can't wait for Iain Finlay Macleod's The Devil Masters - it sounds like just the kind of dark insight into the city's middle classes which Edinburgh specialises in (think Shallow Grave, Filth, etc.), and the perfect antidote to sentimental Yuletime slodge - but am slightly concerned about the super-cute casting call recently issued by the Traverse. Less than a month to train a terrier?? They'll be lucky! - though perhaps the chance to see badly behaved canine thesps is just another reason that this is a must see....

Opinions in the bookshop

Agree:

 

 - with the right garden and the right library I could be blissfully content for ever more.

Couldn't agree less:

SACRILEGE!!! - have these people READ (the sublime, hilarious, utterly perfect and different in every way to the twee dirge-secreter "Sandy" McCall Smith) Maupin??? - or perhaps every city gets the chronicler it deserves.... poor Edinburgh.

"Tramway to Hell" Extreme Crocheting - Only in Edinburgh...

Well - the tram fiasco has given us one thing to be grateful for: militant knitting has hit Edinburgh. This "Tramway to Hell" crochet spent a few days adorning the roadwork barriers near the Scott monument before being removed by contractors (sparking the parochial-even-for-Edinburgh headline, "Tram Protest Crochet Taken Down").

RIP Leith FM

I have just heard about the re-branding of Leith FM and can't help but feel a bit sad - another one bites the sellout dust.

As its name suggested, Leith FM was set up as a radio station for Leith and the surrounding areas (I could still pick it up a few miles from Leith...) - and it had an authentic community-run feel, quite reminiscent of those Highland radio stations, like Lochbroom FM and Cuilin FM, that I love so much. It was properly local (and by this I don't necessarily mean "Scottish" - it was rightly reflective of Leith's multiculturalism) - it took itself and local issues seriously, as a local radio station should, but it was also lots of fun to listen to. It made an effort to involve the local community - with "open evenings" to bring in new people, and with Leith FM staff tutoring courses at the local school, and in this sense was also very accessible. 

Well, as of the 22nd March this year, Leith FM is no more, and if you tune in to 98.8 FM, you will pick up "Castle FM". The new name alone shows just how strong the commitment is to keeping the station's local empahasis, and recognising its roots: i.e. nil - where is the castle in Leith??!

There are so many questions I want to ask about this, and it is typical of the abysmal state of print media in Edinburgh that the Evening News has not taken this up.

The reason given for the re-branding is that Leith FM had "developed a 'bad reputation' in the local community" - well, if this is the case, it is the first I've heard of it. And how is basically re-figuring the station as a commercial competitor to Forth FM going to improve anything other than the station employees' pay cheques, let alone the station's reputation?

Apparently, Tom Farmer (of Kwikfit fame) is involved - as is his cash no doubt. Now, Tom Farmer makes a lot of his Leith childhood, which is all well and good, but he is as distant from the realities of life in Leith nowadays as it is possible to be, and is no part of its current community. Why, then, has he chosen to get involved with this community radio station?

It makes me deeply uncomfortable: he owns 90% of Hibs footballl club, he is a major donor to the SNP; in 2004 (when Leith FM was still a twinkle in Mary Moriarty's eye) he tried to set up a commmercial Edinburgh radio station called... Castle FM. 

This document on the Ofcom website makes for depressing reading. The list of those involved in the original Castle FM license bid reads like a roll call of Edinburgh finance, media and local government usual suspects: Angus Grossart, Andrew Neil, Eric Milligan, etc., etc, - and, of course, Tom Farmer. If the diversity of this group is anything to go by, then Leith FM (which was once truly local, and without a commercial agenda) has been handed over to same individuals who already have  the Edinburgh media scene entirely sewn up. Well done.

Tom Farmer has done many good things for Edinburgh, and for Scotland, but he clearly has  an idelogical and commmerical agenda alongside his philanthropic one - and where better to begin to play this out than in a small, cheap radio station (good value for money, less financial risk if it doesn't work out, and yet with the potential to wield a lot of influence - an Edinburgh Telemilano...)?

This story, and this picture, make me feel slightly queasy (cheerleaders?! - why?? where is the vibrancy, the diversity of Leith? - maybe they are there to disguise the fact that over 80% of the non-cheerleading participants in this photograph are male?):

Animal Art

As I may have already mentioned, I love animal art. I am sure that there is a lot that can be said about what this means, anthropomorphism, the projecting of emotions onto animals, and seeing some answering emotion there (Grizzly Man anyone?), etc. - but while I mull this over, here are two of my favourites... Edinburghers both.

And - if you're in the market, I should add that I think they are both amazingly cheap- so grab them now, before they realise how good they are...!

Zaza Shelley is something of a Renaissance woman - from lecturing at the National Gallery, coming up with some very lovely, very funny cards, to creating utterly adorable teacup jewellery, and making the most beautiful Christmas decorations you've ever seen, she does it all. But mostly what she does is draw and paint like heaven... (and my reproductions of her images do her no justice - go to her wesbite to see them properly: http://www.zazashelley.com/)

Hares are a new obsession of mine - joining the pre-existing bird obession.

Caroline Hepburne Scott is from the Borders, although she now lives in Edinburgh (and is currently travelling in South America). She has the most amazing draughtsmanship which enables her to capture her subjects in an extraordinary way. Look and wonder....

As well as through her own website, Caroline's work can also be found on Caroline Hay's Art Amatoria.