Christmas Craft Fair @ Langside Halls

The Scottish Crafts fair are holding a Christmas Craft Event at Langside Halls, on Saturday from 10-4pm. They have an interesting line up of exhibitors and it's a good opportunity to support Scottish art and crafts. We've actually managed to miss this everytime it's been at Langside Halls, but we're here this weekend and I'll go over and have a browse.

Farmers Market - 21st November 2009

As it's the third Saturday of the month the Farmers market will be taking place as usual in Queens Park tomorrow. Time to stock up on seasonal food and other tasty goods.

Victoria Road Entrance 10am - 2pm

The Little Cake Parlour, Pollokshaws Road

Well I tried to write a post about The Little Cake Parlour last week but hit a snag when we managed to eat both cakes before taking any photos of them. This should give you a good indication that the cakes are very tasty. That night we had a rich chocolate brownie and a gooey chocolate cupcake. Lisa (who owns and runs the shop) advised that the brownie was a new recipe she was trying out and that she preferred her own recipe. I'm looking forward to trying the old recipe then as the new one was v good indeed. With a wee bit of Brooklyn Cafe Ice cream, it would make an excellent desert to serve up to guests.

Actually, this what we intended to do at the weekend. We'd invited friends round for dinner on Sunday night so on Saturday I went along to The Little Cake Parlour to buy some cakes for serving up after the meal. This time, as a precaution I took all my photos, before I'd even purchased the cakes, preventing any eating mishaps robbing us of photos.

I decided to go for two lemon cupcakes, which have gooey lemon centres and very tasty iced tops, two chocolate chip Oreo cupcakes which come with tiny Oreos on top and two raspberry cupcakes with fresh raspberry icing and two real raspberries on top. (Un)fortunately, our guests had to cancel at the last minute and so I've been eating cupcakes after dinner the last three nights. I can't quite decide on my favourite - I'm usually quite a big lemon cake fan, as it has quite a light taste but the raspberry filling was also pretty tip top.

The shop doesn't just do single cupcakes though, you can order big batches for special events - like the MOBO awards recently did and you can also get larger cakes for any occasion made in any flavour you choose. With a changing selection of cakes each week and with your own flavour choice available to special order I think I might need to start doing more exercise while I think of something I'd like made. Mmmm cinemon flavour cupcakes . . . or mayple syrup flavour . . .

The Little Cake Parlour
1002 Pollokshaws Road, Shawlands, G41 2HG
0141 636 0808

Heres the link to their site. The Little Cake Parlour

Pigeon Man

As promised many months ago, here is the footage of the pigeon hunter in action.

Be warned that while this may be an edited down version, it is still just a video of a man standing for a long, long time in a park, in the rain, trying to catch a pigeon. Its strangely hypnotic though.

[For those wondering what this is all about click here for the earlier story]

Art Talk - Govan/ Govanhill

Today sees the official launch of Central Station - a new creative collaboration site. To mark the launch they have organised a host of interesting events across the city. There are not too many taking place in the Southside but one very interesting sounding one - see below. The other is a talk by Tom Warren at Sloanes (just off Buchanan Street) about the work at the Govanhill Baths.

Central Station Event - Savalas
WHAT? Exclusive tour of the UK's first Dolby Premier Mix Theatre, Film City, Govan

WHEN? 5.45pm Saturday 14th November

WHERE? Savalas, post production sound facility

Giles Lamb, Composer and Sound Designer, takes us for an exclusive tour around Savalas, Scotland's largest sound-post facility with the UK's first Dolby Premier mix theatre.
The tour will include an exclusive peek at the sound design for some recent major projects mixed in the studio.
Your chance to ask questions about sound design for feature films, video games, television & commercials and to find out how a low budget filmmaker can benefit from such an amazing resource.

Please note that there are limited spaces available for this tour and RSVP is a must.

Please RSVP to Genny by putting "Savalas" in the subject line of your message.

*if you require any special assistance please let us know when you RSVP**children welcome

Laura Hudson Mackay Photography sale - 18 November 2009

© Laura Hudson Mackay

Laura Hudson Mackay, southside photographer and Director of Hudson Mackay Artist Collective is hosting an exhibition of her black and white, fine art photographs, at her home in Strathbungo. Laura's photography has depth and perplexity, often with a mystical aura. Critics have said her photography captures a restlessness of spirit whilst at the same time bringing a sense of calm and peace.

Photographs will be on display from 7pm on Wednesday 18 November 2009, in the basement at 22 Queen Square Strathbungo. They're all for sale and prices start around £25. They would make excellent Christmas presents or just a wee treat.

Click the links for more information on Laura's work or Hudson Mackay Artist Collective

Shawlands Regeneration?

Thought you all might find the below interesting. We decided to find out more about the Town Centre survery that was carried out earlier this year so did a bit of looking on the council's site and found the email address for David Dunlop, the area planner who is coordinating the review. We sent David a quick email asking about the progress and he sent us back the below information and part of the bid document. What do you guys make of it?

"Following the set up of a Town Centre Steering Group last year, the Council have been gathering information about Shawlands which will feed into a Town Centre Action Plan. As part of this in May this year the Council launched a customer survey to find who uses Shawlands Town Centre, why, and what people feel are the main issues. With the help of Glasgow South East Regeneration Agency the Council also hope to commence a survey of businesses in the centre to find their perspective on what the issues are and how they can improve and attract more customers.

As at 1st October the survey resulted in 1196 responses and I am presently in the process of analysing the results of these and hope to publish them later in the year.

People told us for example, the things they liked about Shawlands are its:-

• Good pubs, restaurants, coffee shops, deli’s, clubs and its warm relaxed feel
• pleasant environment, community atmosphere, social life
• independent and specialist shops
• Good transport links to Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, M8 & M77
• Diverse population
• Beautiful parks, greenery and amenities

However they also told us they did not like:-

• Vacant shops and the Arcade
• poor shop fronts and lack of lighting
• Safety and Security
• crossing the road
• Lack of public toilets
• difficulty in parking

On 28 August, on behalf of the Steering Group, the Council also submitted a bid to the Scottish Government Town Centre Regeneration Fund. This fund was launched in May for one year only, and is intended to assist projects which help improve and protect town centres throughout Scotland during the economic downturn. The bid towards a Shawlands Public Realm and Lighting Project is for £680000, and is aimed at carrying out initial improvements towards lighting, footways, street furniture. It is also intended illuminate historic buildings, for example back lighting stained glass in three local churches, provide a lighting installation in Langside Hall, two illuminated fountains in Queens Park boating pond to help connect Shawlands to Strathbungo better, tree management along the western edge of Queens Park and the development of a Shawlands Café Quarter.

As part of the bid we also have a commitment of 100% match funding from private and public sector agencies which would take our overall spend to over £1.5 M. This includes for example the opening of an office of the Glasgow South East Regeneration Agency within the Arcade to directly assist busineses in the centre, advise new starts and help local residents access employment and training opportunities The announcement of successful bids will be on 2nd November. If we are fortunate in securing the funding, the project will be the first stage in delivering a detailed Town Centre Action Plan for the centre, providing early action on some of the key points of feedback residents have given by ‘brightening centre by improved lighting’ and helping to improve Safety and Security.

The proposed Shawlands Public Realm and Lighting Project will also aim to:-

• Build on the unique aspects of Shawlands by using light and key buildings to attract people back to the centre from its traditional catchment.
• Capitalise on a range of major attractions located on the Cathcart Circle e.g.; Hampden (1 m visitors each year), Pollok Park (700000+ a year), the Tramway (25000+), Queens Park (75k)
• Help ‘reposition the centre’ as the City approaches the 2014 Commonwealth Games, to become a leisure and social retail destination providing a specialised quality food, drink and a retail offering which is able compete against larger centres. "

As David mentioned they should have heard the results at the beginning of November so we'll send him another email to find out if they have been successful. While I don't agree with all their proposals, for instance I'm sceptical about fountains in the pond, but the fact that some plans are progressing is a positive sign and it looks like things are moving in the right direction. (In the comments below lets here what you think would be good for the area.)

While the survey has now been processed and an application made, the survey is probably still the best way to let the Council and the Steering group directly know your thoughts on what you'd like to see happen, so click below and fill it in.

Here are the links.

Quick Survey
Customer Survery (longer)

The Little Cake Parlour

Other opening news of the day is the shutters rolling up on The Little Cake Parlour on Pollokshaws Road which opens for business at 10am this morning. We've been peaking in the windows for the last few weeks and are extremely interested in getting our teeth into some of the very tasty looking treats inside. Gutted we are in town all day and are going to miss out on the first batch of cupcakes.

We'll write a bit more once we've been in and eaten a barrel load of cakes but in the meantime if you want more info on the shop, the people behind it and about how they got involved with the MOBO awards then check out their site.

http://www.cakealicious.com/

Pakistani Cafe to re-open

Tomorrow evening the Pakistani Cafe on Pollokshaws re-opens, after several months of renovation works. As far as we can see the main counter has been removed freeing up more table space but the general decor has remained the same. If you've not been to the Cafe it really is worth a visit, the food is delicious and very reasonably priced.

Art from the heart - 9 November 2009

Now in it's seventh year, Art from the Heart, is an art sale in aid of Epilepsy Scotland. This year it's featuring many well know Scottish artist's such as Denise Findlay, Jock Mcinnes, and Bryan Evans will be displaying in Scotland Street School on the 9th November 2009. There will be an open sale during the evening of paintings, ceramics, jewellery and crafts.

There will be wine and nibbles included in the ticket price. Tickets are £12 and admits 2 people

Call Rachel or Helen on 0141 427 4911 for tickets or e-mail fundraising@epilepsyscotland.org.uk

Autumn/Winter Show at the Tramway

The Tramway will launch their Autumn Winter exhibitions this Friday night with the opening of two major shows. Lara Favaretto, an Italian born artist, sculptor and performer will exhibit new work alongside London based film artist Hilary Lloyd until 20th December.

Lara Favaretto, uses sculpture, photography, film and installation to create artworks that produce a sense of magical fantasy and urgency, forming an immediate bond with the viewer through a sense of play.

For Tramway’s epic main gallery space, Favaretto will create a kinetic sculptural environment with various motor powered elements. These choreographed and durational sculptures will explore Favaretto’s ongoing artistic investigations into the idea of festival in its various incarnations, drawing on its popular forms and associations such as the carnival or circus. These themes often assuming the form of sculptural objects, installations or events united by the careful planning of their collapse, disintegration or corrosion, thus exploring the significance of an artistic gesture that accepts eventual compromise.

Lloyd creates video, film and slide installations which to date have focused on the themes of the modern city, its subcultures and the people that operate at it’s fringes, her gaze articulating both a personal relationship with her subject, and the processes of reconstructing the act of looking. Lloyd creates a form of ‘anti-portraiture’, shooting situations and protagonists with a contrived passivity that allows the viewer to form their own narratives from her rhythmic and highly charged compositions.

For more information click here

Queens Park Performance Project

[Queens Park Bandstand 1920]

Last week we were invited to a presentation by the Queen's Park Performance Project which is a community group, set up by a pilot Government Funding scheme, to explore regenerating the old queens park bandstand space.

The talk by Evelyn Silber and Bob Marshall was very interesting and they discussed the origin of the pilot funding scheme and the works which have been undertaken so far. The project has only been going for about 5 or 6 months but they have already made good head way getting the area surveyed, carrying out a questionnaire with locals and drawing up some rough proposals for basic costing purposes.

[Queens Park Bandstand 1995 by Monkeyiron]

Its been 13 years since the last band stand burned down and I think if done right, this project could be a huge benefit to the park and the local area.

The steering group have identified their aims as

• creating a modified seating area for around 950 people.
• a flat performance space suitable for use with or without staging, canopy projection
• providing an electrical supply for sound and light systems
• performer wc/ changing facilities
• flexible space able to host drama, music, film, children's events and exercise classes
• the capacity to host free and charged events
• possibly a unique space capable of attracting city, national and international performances

All sounds good to me. With the Tramway, the Ballet and the Citizens also all in the Southside now we are building up quite the cultural flare.

In terms of visitors to the park I think it would be a great boost and in turn could result in the park being able to attract for funding for its maintenance and upkeep. Designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, Queens Park is one of the nicest parks in the city and with the Glasshouses, the reptile room and the free sports in the summer it already has a few fun things to get involved with but with a carefully designed and detailed bandstand it could become a real strong tourist attraction. I love wandering through Queens Park but I always feel it could do with something extra- possibly some modern sculptures or art works to give it another layer of interest.

[Queens Park Bandstand 2009 by Monkeyiron]

I guess ultimately the project will succeed or fail on the quality of the design and on the commitment and maintenance of both the finished construction and the programme of events that it stages.

So far only very basic designs have been drawn up by the Council's in house team - examples from the presentation are below. Don't judge them too harshly, I know they are not particularly very inspiring images but they are meant to get you thinking and to assist with costing purposes.

At the presentation someone raised the idea of a design competition and details have been passed on to the Steering group relating to the Glasgow Institute of Architects work with local projects and the RIAS matched funding schemes for getting advice and ideas worked up. I'm sure that this kind of project would be of great interest to local artists and architects etc but it's such an attractive project I could see it attracting interest at a national level.

The Scottish Government Funding £15k runs from April 2009 to March 2010 and will enable preliminary consultation, planning and costing to take place. The next steps will include discussions with potential users and the application for various grant funding based on fully researched and prepared costings - including the various community area committees and to external bodies such as the Lottery. The aim would be to have the work beginning on site in 2011.

There is a fair amount of information on the QPPP website but I understand there might be a public meeting further along the process to present the work and ideas to the wider area so we will let you all know when that is when it is announced.

In the mean time to be kept up to date with whats going on or if you have any questions or just wish to send the group messages of support then you can email chair@qppp.org.uk.

Seedbom

We had meant to mention this ages ago when the product launched back in August but completly forgot.

Seedbom, the brainchild of Darren Wilson an artist based at the Southside Studios in Govanhill is an innovative and eco-friendly guerrilla gardening tool. As the website says-

"Filled with flower seeds and made from recylced materials, Seedboms are ready to explode with life and colour. Join forces with nature and make a visible impact by throwing Seedboms into derelicy land, neglected spaces or even your neighbours garden and watch them grow."

Guerrilla gardening is becoming a bit of a craze at the moment with more and more occurances happenings around Glasgows streets. You can read a bit more about upcoming events here. There can't be any harm in trying to brighten up some of the waste ground sites. The only sad thing is that eventually the developers seem to roll in and all the hard work and flowers get concreted over - like the community garden that was set up just off Pollokshaws Road in the line of the new motorway, but I guess the fragile nature of the guerrilla gardens is also a part of their charm.

Anyways - if you know of a spot of waste ground in need of some brightening up then why not get out your gloves, a trowel a Seedbom and get gardening.

Dresser Room Evening

We have had a message from Jade of the Dresser room about a whole new range of stock in her shop. Given that Ann loved the place last week when she went in, I thought I should pass it on to everyone else in the hope that you buy everything before Ann gets a chance.

Here's Jades message

"The shop is now bursting with all the new stuff and I can honestly say it's the best stock I've ever had in, without a doubt. I'll not be putting photos of the new stuff up until after Thursday night's event, so if you fancy some drinks, chat and first dibs on all the fabulous new stuff, come along! 7pm-9pm, this Thursday (15th) The Dresser's Room, 47 Skirving Stree, Shawlands. Thanks, hope to see you here! Jade x"

This weekend - 02 - 04 0ctober

And another weekend is here.

As it's the first of the month the Farmers Market in Queens Park will be on, we'll be going along to stock up on local veggies and square sausage. Also on Saturday,the first Art and Craft fair at Beanscene, on Skirving Street, will take place between 11am and 3pm. The Patricia Cain exhibition is on at House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park, it's worth making a special trip over to see this.

It's La Roche Rumba night on Saturday night and the Tramway have a new performance piece being shown on Saturday night called An Argument About Sex.
A response to Pierre de Marivaux's comedy, 'La Dispute', writer Pamela Carter and director Stewart Laing's new work examines gendered attitudes towards risk-taking and settling arguments, in the context of relationships, the economy and a sociological experiment involving isolated teenagers. Tickets are £14

Samuel Dow's has a free acoustic gig on Sunday night from 8.30pm and of course there is also the free Ha Ha comedy night at the Ivory Hotel.

If you know of anythig else let us know or leave a comment

Govan Cross Environmental Improvements Community Consultation Event

Recent decisions by various bodies mean that there is a significant amount of funding available for improvements to Govan town centre and a key element of this is the improvement of Govan Cross. A two-session event will take place at the Pearce Institute on 1 October to hear the local community’s views on the project.Central Govan Action Plan are organising the event, and are looking to find out what local people think about the major environmental improvements planned, the types of improvements they would like to see, and the types of design they feel would fit Govan Cross best.There are three main sites at Govan Cross under consideration for improvement work - the square, the shopping centre’s forecourt and the underground / bus station precinct.

To book at a place at one of the consultation sessions on 1 October, please call 0141 445 5044 or email cgap@gswra.co.uk. Tea, coffee and cakes will be provided.

1 Oct 2009
15:30 - 17:30 & 19:00 - 21:00
Pearce Institute, 840 Govan Road, Glasgow