Where do they stand?

With just a week to go before the election we thought we should share the Candidates answers to your questions. Not a great response unfortunetly, would have thought the candidates would have been more keen to let us know what they believe. Its hard to vote for someone if you know nothing about them.

Have a read and see what you think and maybe later we'll post a short poll to see which party the majority of Readers are going for. 

Please see below the list of parties standing in each area. The ones in BLUE underlined have responded to your questions and a PDF of their responses will open if you click them. We are still awaiting responses from the rest though a few have been in touch to say they will respond soon.

The party which currently holds each area is indicated in bold.

CENTRAL		SOUTH		SOUTH WEST
Greens		Solidarity		SNP
Labour		Conservatives		BNP
Lib Dems		SNP		Labour
Pirate		Green		Lib Dem
BNP		BNP		Conservatives
SSP		Lib Dem		Solidarity
Conservatives		Labour
SNP
UKIP

We're not the only people the Candidates have not got back to yet. The "Democracy Club" set up a national survey of questions and sent to all candidates but sadly again the Glasgow Candidates responses have been very low.  If you want them to tell you where they stand then click the link and give them a nudge.

http://www.democracyclub.org.uk/aboutus/

To see the answers Candidates have provided so far to The Democracy Club then click the links below-

Central / South / South West

Streetland Festival 30 April - 2 May 2010

This weekend hosts Streetland, a festival of the community and the street, held in and around Westmoreland Street in Govanhill. The event forms part of the Glasgow International Art Festival's programme of events.

The Festival launches on Friday night at 6.30pm at the Streetland Information point at 126 Calder Street - for some tea and cakes. Performances start at 7pm.

On Saturday there are more than twenty events organised including The Asian Bazaar, 'Dear Sir Daniel' Lucie Potter's audio project based on stories about Govanhill baths, Ganghut an exhibition and installation by Dundee-based art collective at the Southside Studios and The Chalet Invitational, a group show curated by Seth Orion Schwaiger ar 18 Dixon Avenue.

Again on Sunday there are a whole host of events including Govanhill Grand Prix, The mess we made impromptu sculptural interventions by Skye Loneragan, a guided walk of Govanhill Victorian architecture by the Alexander 'Greek' Thomson society and outdoor film screenings from 9.15pm 

Streetlands is a great example of an event that includes the whole community. It's a festival that celebrates both the community and the street. For more informationon events - have a look on the main Streetland website, for a map of events click here

Albert Drive Open Studios and Exhibition

On the 16th of May, Albert Drive Studios are throwing open their doors and inviting you in to have a look through the studios, chat to the artists, browse the exhibition of work and view the new installation piece, situated in their garden.

We were fortunate a few months back to meet Hilary, who set up and runs the studios and had a tour of the studios and garden. This is a fantastic opportunity to have a look around these studios and talk to some really interesting artists and designers; like the textile artists, Mouse and Bean  and Sans Facon. The studios are open from 11am - 4pm and it's free

We will have a public art piece from artists 'Sans Farcons', which will be out in the garden. We also have work by 'Mouse and Bean', textile designers. Jewellery by Nicola Green.And Patricia Berry, who is a Milliner. Also an Installation piece ' Bodego Bay', from Hilary Nicoll and Mickey O'Connor.

Most areas of the House will be open for visitors to wander around.

There is also going to be a Vintage Clothes Sale from Zoe and Shantha. If its a nice day, we will have the clothes sale in the garden, but if its raining, then that will be up in the Attic space with Homemade Lemonade and Cookies.

To read our previous post on the studios click here

Southside Hustings

We just received an email from the Green Candidate for Glasgow South to tell us that a public hustings is happening this evening.
David Cargill Centre on Ledard Rd, Battlefield at 7.30pm and all candidates for Glasgow South will be there to answer questions except BNP candidate.
We won't be able to make it tonight so anyone that does go, let us know how it goes. We'll also be posting the responses from the candidates to your questions early next week.

The Great Skirving Street Giveaway

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Just a reminder that the Great Skirving Street Giveaway will come to an soon, so if you've not entered yet click here and tell us your favourite place in the Southside. There are some great prizes up for grabs.

Barry from Youngs Interesting Bookshop  will be offering all Southside Happening readers 15% discount of any book purchased during April. All you need to do is tell Barry you read Southside Happenings. 

Blossom Festival in Toryglen - 24 April 2010

The Blossom Festival is now in it's third year, held in Toryglen and organised by Urban Roots. The festival is a celebration of their interests, projects and ideals which they promote, through their work in the community. There will be plants and food growing demonstrations, environmental art and drama. All music will be powered by solar energy and wind power. They'll be eco games, apple juice making, wood land crafts and my favourite pedal powered scalectrix. Sound like a really fun event.

It really is a low energy festival. It takes place on the 24 April at Glenmore Avenue 11am - 4pm

Mini Film Festival at Pollokshaws Burgh Hall

As part of this years Southside Festival, Pollokshaws Burgh Hall  and the Scottish Cinema Organ Trust will be hosting a mini film festival, during the month of May. The festival opens on the 2nd of May with the silent movie Hunch back of Notre Dame, accompanied by the SCOT Wurlitzer cinema organ.  Last years silent film, The General, was a sell out and it was a really unique experience watching the film along with the cinema organ, it's a very different sound to the church organ. Tickets are £5 and the film starts at 2.45pm

Also showing as part of the festival is a series of David Lean films.
9 May - Brief encounter, the 1945 film about a woman who meets a man in a railway station and is tempted to cheat on her husband
23 May - Great Expectations, the oscar winning film about a humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor. 
6 June - Doctor ZhiVago, the 1965 film about the life of a Russian doctor/poet who, although married, falls for a political activist's wife and experiences hardships during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Tickets for the David Lean Films are £4 or a trilogy ticket is £10. Tickets can be booked by calling Pollokshaws Burgh Hall 0141 632 5811

This Weekend 16-18 April

Hoping for a sunny weekend similar to the last one, so what's on this weekend? It seems like a busy creative and grassroots few days, in the Southside.

Saturday morning plays host to the Farmers Market in Queens Park from 10am till 2pm. If you're there why don't you go for a stroll along Victoria Road the Swim Local, Shop Local event is taking place on Saturday, with the aim to promote local shops and encourage people to shop local and support independent businesses.

Also on Saturday is Yaaard Sale, selling vintage, craft and pre loved goodies from 12pm - 6pm at 41 Nithsdale Road.

As part of the Glasgow International Art Festival, GANGHUT is developing a site specific structure that will take over the Southside Studios. GANGHUT’s musical leg, Gangband, will also develop a musical performance for the Southside Studios during GI. The Preview is on Saturday night from 7pm and the studios are open all day Sunday.

The Tramway also has several GI Events on this weekend including Photography is easy and the voice is language and 24 Hour Psycho Back and Forth and To and Fro and also Christoph Buchel

You could take a walk along to Skirving Street and have a look around some of the shops and cafe's we've been writing about. Remember to tell us what's your favourite place in the Southside and you could win some of the Great Skirving Street Giveaway goodies.

Alternatively buy some ice cream, sit in the park and enjoy the sunshine. Wander around and explore the city.

Leave a comment below if you know of any events on in Southside or a suggestion for somewhere to go.

Support your local shops

We are sad to confirm that one of our favourite little quirky southside shops has closed its doors for the last time. Raw Vintage was a brilliant little clothing shop on Abbot Street which sold retro and refashioned clothing for men and women. They had a great range of unusual clothing and could quickly alter and adjust the style to suit you if you wanted. It was a really unique little shop, not just for the area but in Glasgow as a whole. The fact it has now closed highlights just how difficult it is for small independant shops in the current recession and why we should all be trying to help support them.

The Q+A on the Larkfield bus depot/ supermarket proposals touched lightly on this issue. It was a more sedate affair than expected, as it was really only a small part of a normal Community Council meeting. There were again mixed opinions and questions, both for and against. My favourite quote of the night was when the developers said they had been looking at a housing scheme but had now moved onto a "commercial employment development" which I thought was a fun way to describe a Supermarket. (We'll leave an update on the Q+A questions in the comments on the original Larkfield Depot post.) The next public presentation will be taking place at the Daisy St centre in Govanhill on Mon 26 Apr from 11am until 8pm if anyone hasn't seen the revised scheme yet and wants to give their thoughts to the developers pop along.

A while ago we started a use "them or lose them" campaign to get people to support their local shops, its one of the reasons we do the blog and its the reason that we've started running the Giveaway's. There are loads of great wee places in the Southside and with the support of the local community they can really thrive and grow turning our high streets into bustling, interesting and fun places to be.

In an attempt to try and focus attention on this Local Counciller Danny Alderslowe has organised a "Swim Local, Shop Local" event this Saturday on Victoria Road. The idea is just to get as many people as possible to take a wander round the array of shops.

How does this sound for a Saturday morning in the sunshine? Breakfast at one of the many cafes on Victoria Road, a stroll round the local shops, a visit to the Farmers Market then a walk through the Queens Park and a rummage through the shops we've highlighted on Skirving Street. Sounds pretty good to us.

RW Stevens - Skirving Street

For over sixty years, RW Stevens & co has been located on the corner of Skirving Street and Deanston Drive. Throughout this time this family run business has provided the surrounding communities with school and club uniforms carrying uniforms for 28 schools including Hutchesons' Grammar, St Aloysius and Fernhill.

We've been in a couple of times now and they've been incredibly friendly and helpful each time and Mr Davie who runs the place is a mine of local knowledge. He talked me through a selection of old photographs on the wall showing how the street look nearly a hundred years ago. It looked hugely wide thanks to an abscence of cars.

Along with Kilts, jackets and shirts they also carry good selection of kilt accessories, such as sporrans, kilt pins, belts etc which make really good gifts. If you've not got your own kilt they also hire full highland dress, as well as dinner suits and morning suits.

On top of all that they also offer a valet service for your kilts and suits and a repair and alteration service.

The company displays the original signage which was used back in the 50's and is well worth a trip just to have a look. It's become an iconic image, often photographed and seen on blogs, photography websites and flickr accounts.

http://www.rwstevensandco.com/
Mon - 9.00-13.00 & 2.30-18.00

Tues - Closed

Wed - 9.00-13.00 & 2.30-18.00
Thursday - 9.00-13.00 & 2.30-18.00
Friday - 9.00-18.00
Saturday - 9.00-17.00
Sun - Closed

Free White Bikes at the GI Art's Festival

The Witte Fietsenplan, was an anarchic free transport programme and the most famous manifesto of the Provos, the Dutch counter culture movement of the 1960’s.  They infamously released 50 or so, free to use, specially painted white bikes which were scattered across the city of Amsterdam. The event was a statement against the rise of consumerism, pollution and congestion caused by the privately owned vehicle.

As part of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art [GI], NVA have paid homage to this event by introducing 50 white bikes into Glasgow. The bikes will be located outside GI participating venues, allowing the public to borrow a bike to cycle to any of the GI venue's/events. Keep an eye out for the bikes outside the Tramway. The universal combination lock code for the bikes is 6510.

The project will be launched  in a mass Ride Out at 11.30am from Kelvingrove Park to George Sq on Thurs 15th April. If you have a bike then the GI, NVA and Central Station invite you to join them.* You don't have to have a white bike any colour will do!

Central Station are also asking people to film the ride out, bike cams, videos, mobiles, if you up-load your footage they'll edit it altogether into one big crowd-sourced film, and put it online. They've also got 5 White Bikes for Central Station members to pitch to ride out on, and be a part of the artwork on the day. Details on how to get on one of these click here

Hope to see lots of white bikes in and around the Tramway over the next few weeks.

The Tramway Host's Pecha Kucha - 22 April 2010

Tramway are launching a new series of Pecha Kucha nights, the first evening will take place on the 22nd April 2010, coinciding with the GI Festival.  I've been to a few Pecha Kucha nights, including one where Alburt presented, as part of Hole in my Pocket. I've always found them really fun evenings. Honestly, what's really good about them is that they are short presentations, so if you're not finding one interesting, you know there is another one coming along shortly!

Pecha Kucha was devised in Tokyo in 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for chitchat, it rests on a concise presentation format based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds.

The Neil Bickerton, Martin Clark, Thea Stevens, Luke Collins, Kendall Koppe, Muscles of Joy, Torsten Lauschmann, Fiona Jardine, Scott Myles & Darren Rhymes, Erica Eyres and David Shrigley will be presenting at the event.
Tickets are £2 .....call the Tramway box office to book

Where do you stand?

As proposed previously we have now taken all your questions and emailed them to the Southside Electoral Candidates listed for Central, South, South West Glasgow. (A list of all the questions sent are in the comments on this post.)

We will put together a post listing the Candidates responses to these questions to help us all find out where they stand on various issues.

Proposed Superstore in Govanhill - Question and Answer session

As you might remember, we posted a couple of weeks ago about the proposed plans to build a Superstore on the site of the Larkfield Bus Depot. We've just learn't that the developers will be attending the Govanhill/Crosshill Community Council meeting for a question and answers session; on Monday night at 7pm, Samaritan House, Coplaw Street.

The actual planning application will be submitted in May/June and so there will be another community consultation meeting on April 26 2010 from 10am-8pm

To read previous post and comments click here

Gin Palace

Ok, so this is not happening in the southside, but it has been organised by three southsiders, it will be showing the work of a huge number fellow southsiders and it is being held on a street which has South in its name, so I think it manages to sneak in. Plus it looks really cool.

The Gin Palace: "Details To Follow" - 10+11 April 2010
12-16 South Frederick Street

The Gin Palace is a newly formed company which will establish a new venue in Glasgow, a design hub, for showcasing and selling the conceptual and functional work of selected, emerging and established designers with some connection to Scotland. Once it is established the business will comprise three distinct but integrated strands: a gallery; a shop; and a café/bar. `Details To Follow` is the second pop-up design event presented by The Gin Palace to creat buzz and is basically an exhibition of around 40 designers from across various disciplines.

We went along to their first pop up show in November last year and there was some really great stuff and I ended up buying quite a few Christmas gifts by the designers that showed work there. If you fancy the sound of it and would like to find out more about the show and how to get an invite to the exclusive opening on the Friday night then contact the Gin Palace guys here or pop along this Saturday or Sunday and check it out.

Theatre on Skirving Street - 10 April 2010

We were excited to hear that Beanscene, on Skirving Street, are hosting a performance of  Alan Bennett's Talking Heads by Raincoat & Slippers Theatre, on Saturday 10 April

Talking Heads was a series of dramatic monologues, written by Alan Bennett for the BBC. They have since been performed as radio plays and in live theatre.  Although the plays deal with a variety of subjects, there are certain recurring themes, such as death, illness, guilt and isolation.

Starts at 7pm and food and show costs £16 per person

To Book call Beanscene on 0141 632 8090

The 106 Club: 9 April 2010

After a successful first event the 106 Club returns, to McNeill's Bar, this Friday night with Ming Ming and the Ching Chings: One of Scotland's down-and-dirtiest bands - and DJ's playing punk, rockability, motown, 60s, americana, garage, indie. Entry is £5:00

Friday 9 April at 8:30pm.
more info

The Great Skirving Street Giveaway - Happy Birthday to us

It’s our third birthday this month, and being better than the Queen, we are preparing birthday celebrations for the whole month of April. We’ve also decided that receiving gifts is a bit old hat and have decided, with the help of some Southside businesses to shower birthday gifts on our readers.

As most of you know we love Skirving Street, there’s an interesting bunch of unique shops, café’s and restaurants located there. It’s a street that we should all support because interesting, one off, independent establishments make our cities a more interesting and enjoyable place to live.

So with the help of the Skirving Street shops: Odd Bins, Deli 1901, Blue Lagoon, Cosgrove Care, Biscuit, Girasoil, The Dressers Room, Youngs Interesting Books, Butterfly Kisses, 16 Cosgrove, Altura Restaurant, Beanscene, Skirving Peking and Cantonese, and RW Stevens we’re having the biggest birthday giveaway ever*

So here is the prize list: Lunch for two at the Altura restaurant*, Fish Supper from Blue Lagoon, a beautiful pair of vintage earrings from The Dressers Room, a lovely bottle of wine from Odd Bins, tea and cake or lunch at Biscuit**, a fantastic expresso mocha pot and 1901 coffee from Deli 1901, a very nice chess set from Cosgrove Care, a free hair cut from Girasol, a beautifully designed Earl & Pearl mug and tea towel from the lovely Butterfly Kisses, £20 worth of books at Young's Interesting Books, and last but not least coffee and cake for two from Beanscene.

To enter you must be one of the following; our friend on Facebook, our follower on Twitter, signed up to our RSS email or signed up to our Mailing List.

Then just leave your name and a comment below on the subject "Name your favourite place ie shop, theatre, restaurant in the Southside and why" and you'll be entered into the draw. Please try to make sure it will be easy to identify you. If possible leave a link to your webpage, blog, Facebook or twitter in the little URL option of the comments box.

The competition will run the whole of our birthday month and prizes drawn on 30 April. For all the rules etc  click here.

The Shooting Gallery

The Shooting Gallery are holding their first exhibition at the LA Group’s HQ across from the Springfield Quay, on Tuesday evening. The idea behind this temporary gallery is to increase awareness of the work of  commercial and press photographers and graphic designers in Scotland, who are creating great artistic images for their personal projects, which are are rarely seen or appreciated. The Shooting Gallery has been set up to take exhibitions of this unseen work around various interesting spaces in Glasgow.

The first opening will take place on Tuesday 6 April 6pm – 9pm

LA Group Academy and Offices

Unit 2, 44 Houston Street

Kingston Bridge Trading Estate
Glasgow
G5 8RS

Surreal Collage @ Go Slow Cafe

A new exhibition opens this Friday night at the Go Slow Cafe on Victoria Road. Surreal College is a group show featuring work by Yvonne Chiffon and Lola Dupre. Exhibition opens at 8 o clock.

Go Slow Cafe
452 Victoria Road
8pm-11pm