New balls please

Have you still got the Wimbildon bug? With Mr Murray about to come back on court in the third round of the Montreal Masters in five minutes I thought it was a good time to mention the family tennis weekend taking place on the 29 and 30 August.

We also thought it worth a reminder that the lawn bowling, tennis and pitch and putt in the park are all free and are open all day until 9pm seven days a week in August. (Closing time will change to 8pm in September.)

If you fancy having a go, and we highly recomend it, give them a call first to double check they are open and to book a space in the highly popular tennis courts.

The telephone number is 07827305385

Things to do this weekend

Running annually for over thirty years, Pollok Family Day has long since become a key feature in Glasgow’s events calendar. Featuring a host of entertainment acts, displays and activities to satisfy even the most demanding family members, and best of all… it’s free!!!With its extensive woodlands, picturesque gardens and a host of wildlife, Pollok Country Park allows Glasgow’s residents to sample a taste of rural life without leaving the city boundaries and provides the ideal venue for a relaxed, family day out. Come along and enjoy the FUN!
4 Entertainment ArenasWith four entertainment areas around the park acts and entertainment includes:
Music Stage
Football Zone
Countryside Rangers celebrate the Dear Green Place
Martial Arts Display
Music & Dance on the Lawns
Arts & Crafts
Street Theatre
Falconry Displays
Children's Entertainment
Garden Zone
Craft Fair
Zest Outdoor Adventure Zone
Clydesdale Horses and Farrier
Highland Cattle
Children's Farm
Food Stalls
Charity Stalls
Police Dog Display
Inflatables and Children's Rides
and lots, lots more...!

VenuePollok Country ParkDate Saturday 8th August 2009, 10am – 5p
How to get there:
Vehicular access to Pollok Country Park is from 2060 Pollokshaws Road. Better still, reduce your carbon footprint and leave your car at home and use public transport. Travel by train from Glasgow Central to Pollokshaws West station. Regular bus services are available to Pollokshaws Road entrance.Travel line Scotland: 0871 200 2233

What to do this weekend - 26th - 28th June 2009

So we don't have any major events on this weekend, which is a bit of a relief, as last weekend was pretty hectic. With the weather due to be nice it is definitely a weekend to stroll around outside, relax in the park and perhaps have a BBQ.

How about Lawn bowls or Tennis in the park, it's free and its great fun. A wander round Pollok house and the Burrell collection, or a trip to Holmwood House and a post visit drink in Clockwork.

If you didn't manage down to the Southside Studios new exhibition last weekend, then why not call in, the gallery is open all weekend. Saturday and Sunday are the last two days of the MFA Exhibition at the Tramway and the Hidden Gardens would be a great place to sit in the sun.

On Sunday, The Tramway are launching their 'Outside Art' Project at the St. Andrew's Drive flats in Pollokshields from 1-4pm. They have Team Extreme the BMX and skateboarding org building a temp half pipe and putting on a show- you can even have a go if you dare! Street dance, graffiti art and fun! * thanks to Lisa for this info

How about finishing off the weekend with some free comedy? Ha Ha comedy are holding their weekly Raw Comedy event, on Sunday night, at the Ivory Hotel. This week featuring Keir McAllister and some new acts.

Southside Studios Exhibition Opening - 20th June 2009

The preview/opening of the Southside Artist Studios new show is being held on Saturday night at 7pm, in the Gallery, on Westmoreland street in Govanhill.

The Gallery will be showcasing work by Carol Rhodes, John Robertson and Michael white from the 22nd of June until the 19th of July. The gallery is open every Saturday and Sunday and during the week by appointment.

MFA Degree Show @ The Tramway 18 - 28th June

This years Master of Fine Art degree show will again be held at the Tramway. The exhibition opens on Thursday 18th June and will be on until Sunday 28th June. We have been several times in the last few years and have really enjoyed it. There is always a wide range of work and it's definetly worth a look around.

For more info click here

Castlemilk Family Day

With all this talk of the Southside Festival, we almost forgot to tell you about another important day in the Southside Calender. On Saturday [16th May] Castlemilk are holding their annual family day. There are event's all over Castlemilk on Saturday so if your in the area, stop by and see what's going on. I really like the fact that the Southside has so many community events happening through out the summer..like Bungo in the Lanes, Govanhill festival, and Govan Fair - to name just a few. We have put most of these events in our calender but if we've missed any let us know.

* As far as I know there will be no balloon performances like the one in the photo...sorry

Bowling Tennis and Pitch and Putt Open

For me the sign that summer has arrived, is when the bowling opens in Queens Park. While walking through the park yesterday, we took a quick wander down to see when the bowling was due to open.....to our delight the bowling was already open, in fact it was the first day of the summer season...this was possibly the reason why the greens were empty apart from a Magpie which was happily hopping about.

The greens, tennis and pitch and putt will be open from 10am till 6pm 7 days a week. For anyone that doesn't know the council greens and equipment hire is free.

So I am already planning on a trip to the park next weekend to perfect my bowling technique...looking forward to many summer afternoons of triumph...

* There's also free bowling in Bellahouston Park

Southside Festival

Short film we put together capturing a bit of the fun from last year's Festival. Looking forward to this years festival, should be a lot of fun.

Hope they get the duck herding guy this year - he was great when he took part in the Queens Park funday a couple of years ago. So too was the falcon guy though his turkey vulture did peck a woman on the head.

All greek

Gav and I went along to the Burrel on Wednesday to check out the British Musuem touring exhibiton of ancient Greek artefacts. Its a small exhibition but very nicely laid out and it focuses on the most popular and fun aspects of Ancient Greece - Athletes, Warriors and Heroes.

There's a collection of stone sculptures and a great collection of old pottery with that wonderful old black and orange colouring. The best thing about the exhibition is the number of interactive games to play with explain are set up to teach children but in a fun way.

Luckily there was only one of two kids in attendance so we were able to shove them off and play with the toys ourselves. Above is a plate Gav designed.

You could also build your own Wooden horse - complete with hidden compartment for the Greeks to hide in.

There was also a pile of costumes to try and on and masks to wear. As you may notice - the costumes look to be adult size so I think that means we were allowed to play with them.

Ancient greek vase.

Star of the show was an olympic themed board game. We were able to compete in five sports - the javlin, running, long jump, discus and wrestling. The games were played using a combination of cards and a spinner. It was a hard fought battle but I'm glad to say I emerged as the champion and won a bottle of olive oil and a laurel wreath.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the special themed guided tours taking place at the Burrel.

Tuesday 24 Feb, 2.30pm - Iconography: How to read meanings in Art with Mrs Elizabeth Black
Tuesday 10 Mar, 2.30pm - The Rules of Art? with Mr Jim Turle
Monday 23 Mar. @ 11.30am - Christianity through the Arts at the Burrell with Mrs Margaret Anderson

24 Fragments

Ive just received an e-mail from our friend Stephen, about an event being performed at the Hidden Gardens, this Saturday. Sounds like a really interesting event.

24 hours of music, neuroscience and performance at 24 sites across the UK

The Fragmented Orchestra is a huge distributed musical structure modelled on the firing of the human brain's neurons. Twenty-four sites around the UK are connected to each other to form a “neural” network. The sonic information captured at these sites is transmitted over the internet, causing other sites to “fire”.

Alasdair Roberts will be performing at the Glasgow ‘neuron’ at the Hidden Gardens, Tramway on Saturday 21st February at noon.

Intimate acoustic performance from fine Scottish folk singer Alasdair Roberts and invited guests. Roberts is noted for both his own compositions and recitations of traditional songs. 'Roberts effortlessly makes explicit the shared vocabulary of folk's natural weirdness and experimental music's studied strangeness.' The Times


For more information www.thefragmentedorchestra.com/

Free Comedy Night at the Ivory Hotel

The Ha Ha Raw Comedy night at the Ivory Hotel has become a regular event over the last year or so. We've been along a few times, but not for a while. ....so when I walked passed the Ivory hotel the other day, I was pleased to see it's still going strong and attracting quite a crowd.

I am a bit of a coward when it comes to comedy nights, I am always a little scared I am going to be picked on, but I have to say I really enjoyed it. It's a bit of a mixed bag, there are a round ten acts on the Sunday night ranging from professional comedians, to people who are just starting out.

It's on every Sunday from 8.30pm

The good news it's a free event, so if you don't like it you can just leave..

More details can be found here

Exhibition Opening

On Saturday night, 31st January 2009, there is an exhibition opening at the Southside Studios, starts at 7 o clock.

The exhibition will contain work by artists David Shrigley, Billy Teasdale and Alan Stanners. If you can't make it along on Saturday night, don't worry you still have plenty time, as the exhibition runs until the 22nd of March.

Opening times: Sat / Sun 11am - 7pm

Or by appointment 07792739788info@southsidestudios.org

Southside Gallery, 17 Westmoreland Street, G42 8LLBus No: 66, 44, 5, 12
http://www.southsidestudios.org/

The Glasgow Park Run - Pollok Park

The Glasgow parkrun is a fun, free, weekly, 5km timed run taking place in Glasgow's Pollok Park each Saturday morning.

It's for runners of all abilities, and has a strong social emphasis: Coffee and cake in the Burrell cafe afterwards!

The Glasgow parkrun joins the 10 other UK parkrun events, and is the first parkrun in Scotland. parkruns are organised entirely by volunteers. We start at 9.30am every Saturday, so arrive a bit before to get warmed up. There's plenty more at: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/glasgow/Home.aspx  - It's entirely free, but wthey do ask that participants register before their first run.

So if you've recently taken up running, are looking for a great way to measure your progress, fancy meeting other runners in a friendly and supportive environment, or just fancy trying something different, we really hope the Glasgow parkrun will appeal.

Thanks to Richard Leyton for the above info.

Model life

This Sunday 10 August is the annual regatta of the Glasgow South Ship Modellers Society. It is on from 12 - 4pm and is usually really good fun, with lots to see and do. Event takes place around the large pond in Queens Park.

Ha Ha Comedy at the Ivory

The Ivory Hotel presents the HA HA Comedy night on Saturday night. It's part of the Southside Festival, starts at 8.30pm and is free.

Govan Fair Parade

With all the talk of the Southside Festival, we almost forgot about Govan fair.
This years Govan Fair Procession will start at 7:45pm this Friday.

It will start from Copland Road proceed along Summertown Road, Broomload Road, Govan Road through Govan Town Centre, Drive road, finishing on Langlands Road at Arklet Road.Over 35 entries are expected this year including Pipe Bands, Dancers and Floats. Elder Park also has a Fun Fair.

It's the oldest Fair/festival in the city. For more information on the fair click here

Glasgow Subway Festival

SPT introduces Glasgow's first Subway Festival SPT and DADA team up for groundbreaking celebration Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) has joined forces with leading Glasgow marketing company DADA to introduce the UK’s first ever underground Festival.
The unique ‘Glasgow Subway Festival’ runs over four days from Thursday, 10 April to Sunday, 13 April. It will involve an array of exciting and fun events, performances and fantastic competitions and will highlight just how quick, easy, enjoyable and cost effective it is to reach any of Glasgow’s great parks, museums, art galleries, cinemas, restaurants and bars just by hopping on the Subway.
The Subway Festival will also remind families what a fun day out they can have using public transport to get around the city. The festival will feature an incredible line up of activities and performances from Scottish talent. The programme will involve events both below and above ground, including:
A Treasure Hunt to win a holiday for four in New York Musical and theatrical performances Fashion shows, Falconry, Poetry readings, Tango dancing, Food demonstrations and Art shows.

All Glasgow Subway Festival events and performances in and around stations will be free over the four-day festival, with Subway tickets also allowing the city’s passengers to benefit from a variety of discounts from a whole host of venues surrounding the Subway stations for the duration of the festival.

From Monday, 31 March, Subway Festival staff will be selling ‘Glasgow Subway Festival’ badges, with all profits going to the Yorkhill Children’s Foundation. By wearing their badges during the festival, Subway travellers are in with a chance of winning some fantastic ‘on the spot’ prizes, ranging from free Subway tickets to meals at some of Glasgow’s top restaurants.

Passengers will also have the chance to take part in an exciting Subway Festival Treasure Hunt which will take place on the last day of the festival - Sunday, 13 April. The ‘treasure’ found by one very lucky traveller will be an incredible trip for four to New York City – home of one of the world’s most famous subway systems.

Alistair Watson, Chair of SPT, said: “The Glasgow Subway is the quickest and most effective method of transport that the city has to offer. It’s a hugely important resource which carries over 36,000 people every day. During the festival we want to create a lot of extra fun – particularly fun for the family - and we hope it will prove to be one of Scotland’s most popular festivals. This is a perfect way to highlight how effective and quick the Subway is for getting around the city.” Oli Norman, Managing Director of DADA, said: “I’m a regular user of the Subway and always felt that like other subway systems throughout the world, Glasgow should use their network of stations to create an exciting programme of entertainment and activity for passengers. “

“The Glasgow Subway is at the heart of city life and is one of the most effective ways of getting around, whether it’s a visit to Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Hillhead, to visit the pubs and cafes of the West End or to the city centre for shopping. The subways of New York, London and Paris are always brimming with entertainment and activity, and now it is Glasgow’s turn”. He added “The festival is completely integrated into Glasgow’s day-to-day life and with a wealth of competitions, offers and entertainment this is going to be an unforgettable four days for everyone involved.” Going Overground From Thursday, 10 April to Friday, 11 April, most of the events will be taking place above ground, with a focus on some of the exciting Glasgow venues and attractions surrounding the city’s Subway stations. Special events and performances will be taking place at themed stations throughout the week. Confirmation of all Going Overground activity and the themed stations will be released shortly
Going Underground During the weekend of 12 and 13 April, the party atmosphere will move underground as well as overground. Live music in the stations will happily fill the gaps for passengers waiting between trains, with performances to suit every taste spontaneously taking place all across the Subway system. From classic solo musical renditions to poetry performances and even short plays, unexpected and exciting live spectacles will be entertaining travellers all day long. A full programme of weekend performances and events will be released next week.

Programme flyers including a map of the Subway and details of when and where the events will be taking place will be available at all Subway ticket kiosks from Monday, 31 March. More information on the festival can be obtained by calling 0141 222 2266.

Re Shuffle at the Pierce Institute - Govan

An event called Re-Shuffle is on at the Pierce Institute in Govan on Saturday, their seems to be lots of interesting things going on for kids and adults.

The idea of Re-Shuffle is to present a series of activities ranging from things to do with the kids to how to become more active in your community. It will not be dull and boring, it will have interesting things for old and young, to try and do. We will cater for the book people, the film goers, as well as the experimental wean. We will be filling the MacLeod hall and other spaces in the Pearce with stalls and groups of all kinds.

Click here for further information

25 Free Tickets to Performing Rights Glasgow

We received this e-mail from the Vacuum cleaner

25 Free Tickets to Performing Rights Glasgow – a project from the vacuum cleaner
What is Performing Rights Glasgow?

Performing Rights Glasgow (10/02/08, 11 am till late) is a day of performances, presentations, discussions, screenings and interventions around ideas of performance and human rights.
Read more here http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/projects/NRLA

Why are you giving away 25 free tickets?

Last time we made an art piece at Tramway it was for an inclusive art event called Common Work; it cost £100 to get in, which we couldn’t afford. So we decided to raise the ticket cost by begging outside the entrance. See - http://www.vacuum.org.uk/beggingforsocialengagement

This time round we’re performing inside but we thought it important that people on low and no incomes weren’t excluded, thus we’re getting paid in tickets, which you can have.
How do I get a ticket?
You are entitled to a ticket if:
You live locally to the Tramway or live in Glasgow.
You don’t really go to see much art, or have heard modern art is a load of rubbish but want to give it a go.
You wanted to go, but had been put off by the cost.
You think that art has nothing to do with social and ecological change.
You are on a low or no income.
All you have to do is email suck@vacuum.org.uk with ‘A free ticket’ in the subject line and a name, and we’ll put you down on the list. Tickets are on a first come first served basis. Only take a ticket if you are sure you want to come, as the 25 tickets are instead of our fee.
(See further details on your free ticket below)

Help spread the word.

Help us get the message out and forward this to anyone who it maybe of interest to.
Further ticket details.
No one will be made aware that you’ve got a free ticket.
You won’t be expected to see everything or stay all day if it isn’t for you, but you must be prepared to give it a go.
If you would like to have a buddy for the day, so you can have someone to talk to about the art work, we can try and arrange one, so please state in your email if this is the case.
If you have a visual, auditory or mental impairment or difficulty, please also let us know in your email.
The Tramway is wheelchair accessible.

the vacuum cleaner is not responsible if you have a bad experience.

Christmas Night out at the Grand Ole Opry

The Grand Ole Opry is hosting a Christmas Hullabaloo on Friday the 23rd of December. It's a free event and starts at 7.30pm

There's a great mix of music ranging from a traditional Scottish Ceilidh band, Ayawara a traditional West Africa and West Indies music, Kerieva- Eastern European Music and Santa Lucia - a Glasgow based six piece band playing alternative folk and country.

Sounds like a good night and it's free, which is always a bonus at this time of the year.