2009 will be both one of Glasgay!’s best and most troubled years. The programme is stronger than ever, but as Glasgay! has grown in its cultural importance it has attracted new levels of criticism and controversy that now threaten to undermine its…

Not for nothing is the Old Town famed for its tartan tat. From Jimmy hats to bagpipes and ‘I Heart Scotland’ badges to ‘I Love Ewe’ cards, it’s all too easy to write off Auld Reekie’s historical hub as simply a place to partake in the city’s…

France isn’t a country known for its abundant vege sympathy, with non-meat-eaters often having to make do with a half-hearted omelette, a green salad or frîtes for every meal. But in a way the concept of a vege French restaurant shouldn’t seem so…

Erstwhile underground sensation, critical darling and now serial chart-topper Dizzee Rascal, aka Dylan Mills, has just notched up three MOBO Award nominations to complement his three consecutive number one singles. Fame has not phased him, however, and…

A selection of Dizzee’s most colourful moments, available for posterity on YouTube.

Founder of Joy Division, and bassist with New Order, Peter Hook lets off some steam about music piracy. First record you ever bought. ‘Ride a White Swan’ by T Rex. Now that was very, very long time ago. Last time you were chatted up. Tragically, I…

‘You’ve heard of us, even if you don’t know it yet. Remember that boy driving you mad on the bus, playing music on his mobile at full volume? He’s listening to us. So is his sister, his best mate, his best mate’s older brother and his teacher. We make…

Some films come out of nowhere, knock you for six and leave you dazed and elated and wondering where the hell that came from. White Lightnin’ is one such film. It starts as a biopic based on the life of 1970s Appalachian mountain dancer Jesco White…

If this idiosyncratic cinematic self-portrait is indeed Agnes Varda’s final film, it’s an illuminating and poignant adieu. The Belgian-born octogenarian film-maker ‘walks backwards’ through her life, narrating and drawing on clips from her own films and…

This is the first cinematic venture to come out of the newly formed DisneyNature corporation and it certainly boasts all the right credentials: syrupy narrative read by Mariella Frostrup and a trendy soundtrack by The Cinematic Orchestra. What you…

A noisy audience at a children’s show can mean one of two things: the kids are so bored they’re chatting among themselves, or they’re so involved they just can’t keep a lid on it. Happily for Licketyspit theatre company, the latter was true at the…

‘Adaptation’ doesn’t even begin to cover this reworking of John Gay’s 1728 ballad opera that satirised the political morality of the day. Retaining physical remnants of the original – the characters, core plot and a smattering of dialogue – Vanishing…

Polly Stenham’s play That Face left even London’s most codgerly critics struggling to stuff their reviews with enough superlatives. Aged just nineteen and having written only a single play, she found herself hailed as an important new voice in British…

(Faber) Lorrie Moore is a writer who doesn’t exactly believe in rushing things. Not only is A Gate at the Stairs her first book since her 1998 short story collection Birds of America, but it seemingly takes an eternity to get anywhere, steadily and…

There’s little doubt that the information superhighway, as no one calls the internet these days, has revolutionised the way we communicate, think and act. But for each benefit to any seismic social shift, there are a myriad of downsides which need to be…

Ian Rankin isn’t the first author to turn his hand to comics, with names as diverse as Jodi Picoult and Michael Chabon all having had a go. In fact he isn’t even the first Scottish crime writer to script a John Constantine story, with Denise Mina having…

The Bedfords tells the story of English painter Edwin Landseer’s commission to paint a family portrait of the Bedfords at their home in the Scottish Highlands. Like a twenty minute moving painting, the film is a portrait study of Landseer and…

It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees, making us entirely dependent on co-habitation. Klaus Weber’s project develops bio-aesthetic experiments to question the…

Without wishing to play down the significance of Franz Ferdinand’s commercial breakthrough, arguably the real story of Glasgow rock in the ’00s has been the rise of the DIY gig scene. Nuts & Seeds got the ball rolling by booking weird, noisy and fun…