Southside Quiz

There is a great quiz by G.Blaikie on a page of his excellant Scotcities site which has tons of interesting facts hidden away in the questions which we'll have to read up on and do posts on in the future - like which southside school did Stan Laurel go to, what street did John Buchan live on and which in the US is Cathcart?

Let us know how you get on. I just did it and I only got 15 out of 30 - doh. Can you beat me?

Link to the quiz

Gorbals Highlights

Saw this and thought people might find it interesting. Here's what the creator has to say about it.

"This is a project I organised in 2004 in one of the derelict high rise buildings in the Gorbals, where I used to live.The aim was to celebrate the relatively short life of the building before it disappeared forever. I feel that it is wrong that these buildings are demolished without a trace, like so many of the homes that have been part of Gorbals' heritage. The lamps in each room were connected to a computer which I programmed to generate the animations, some of them designed by local children who lived in the tower blocks.I am organising a similar project, but bigger and better, multicoloured and interactive. See www.multicolours.org"

Spooky Wood

I had a very nice walk in the park on Sunday, taking pictures of all the spookiness. Not only could you not see very far but the sound was deadened too, it felt like I was the only person in the place, but that was far from the case, you just couldn't see anyone.

I like how odd weather somehow breaks down the normal social barriers we usually have in place and gets perfect strangers chatting.

During my wander I ended up chatting to many different people including; a very happy woman about how amazing all the spiders webs looked, a man walking his dog and reading his book, about the dangers inherent in doing both at the same time, a very smartly dressed elderlylady about the fogs of olden days and a man covered in paint about the problems with network rail and his idea for a movie. A nice way to spend an afternoon even if it did mean my one hour walk lasted nearly three.

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]

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.

There he blows!!

According to an article on the BBC website there is a whale in the Clyde - spotted beneath the Clyde Arc Bridge. I wonder if this will spark the same whalemania as the one that swam up the Thames a couple of years ago. Probably not as I don't think we get quite as many tourists as London.

Not much is known about Mr Whale though the Sun has drawn a funny little map that shows you the expert's guess at the whales route. (I like the fact their article was written by a Miss Otter. Maybe thats how they know the actual journey.)

Sadly all the articles seem to suggest that a happy fate is not likely for Glasgow's newest resident. Even if they can get him back out to sea, without his parents he won't know how to feed. Maybe with all the building work down on the Clyde we should instead quickly knock up a Seaworld type home and allow him to stay.

Anyone got a good Glasgow whale name suggestion?

Watch the skies

Doooo doooo deee doooooo
Quite a few Southsiders have posted messages about seeing spooky sites in the nights sky over the last month or so. Scott Young posts on uk-ufo of seeing orange lights flying over Queens Park "Looking through my binoculars I could only make out a solid spherical shape with a point of bright orange light at the base." and another person on another ufo site reports that "Multiple people reported seeing orange balls of light flying in formation."

Did anyone here see these?

Will the Southside be the first place to be visited by visitors from Mars or has someone been playing about with helium balloons, string and some torches?

Baked the Pigeon?

His favourite bit is the pigeons in the title sequence of coronation street.

And so the pigeon story rolls on.

I had thought contacting the Police would have done the trick and that a visit from the boys in blue would make Pigeon Man retire.

Either he is made of sterner stuff or the Police didn't follow it up because at the weekend our friend Alan informed us that early on Saturday morning he too had seen the Pigeon Man up to his old tricks and this time he had an assistant.

I'm not too sure what the Pigeon Assistants job would be - maybe he is going to dress up as a lady pigeon with big eye lashes and lip gloss and entice the amorous male pigeons.

Thankfully this time no pigeons were hurt and Alan kept a careful watch of the Pigeon Gang and once they noticed him watching they packed up and drove away scowling at Alan the whole time.

While I'm glad they didn't manage to get any more pigeons the real thing that bothers me is the unknown answer of why he is catching them in the first place? Is it really to eat, as so many people keeping suggesting? Even the Beeb has Pigeon recipes on its menu - the idea of eating a mangy urban pigeon is disgusting.

I prefer the idea that he is training them as pets like this crazy lady. What do you all think - have a vote.

I've contacted the Park to let them know about it and they are going to keep their eyes out. A lot of people have posted saying that pigeons are vermin so catching/ killing them is allowed. The only piece of legal speak I can find on the subject however seems to say that hunting is strictly forbidden unless you have a license.

"P.5.2. The bird pest species which may be killed or taken under licence are: crow, jackdaw, magpie, rook, jay, house sparrow, starling, woodpigeon, feral pigeon, collared dove, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull and greater black-backed gull. The general licence permits these birds to be killed only for the purposes of preventing serious damage to agricultural concerns or for public health and safety. For any other purposes an individual licence must be obtained. "

So what now? I think I might stick up some wanted posters in the park with the guys picture to see if we can track him down, though this might scare him into moving hunting ground, so keep your eyes peeled everyone - he might move to a park near you.

Ate the pigeon?

So still no news from the Police - you don't suppose they never followed it up? Surely a crack squad of commandos should be investigating this right now? I guess we'll never find out what he was up to but I shall keep an eye out just in case he returns. Below are a list of our favourites of your suggestions for what the pigonnappers motives were. What do you think?

Image by David Shrigley

Weird love letter?

Hmmm, I'm really not sure about this one. Either it is a very, very strange tactic for trying to win someones heart or its a callous attempt to promote a pub.

If its true then why on earth does he think his girlfriend will take him back on the basis of peer group pressure from a bunch of folk she has never met?

If it is just a marketing ploy - then it should be commended for its originality but if it is fake then it works as an anti-promotion in my opinion, it kinda puts me off going. Being so shallow as to try and generate a vast mailing list based on appealing to peoples good will just seems a bit wrong.

Anyways have a read and let us know if you think its fake or just pretty weird.

Link to the Southside Social Managers Blog

If it is true, then good luck to you Paul.

Caught the Pigeon

Oh no - you will never believe me - but he came back.

In what is fast becoming the most popular story to ever feature on Southside Happenings (how sad is that?) the pigeon man returned.

Again I was just quietly getting on with some work when I glanced out the window and there he was, dressed far more appropriately and this time with a newly design trap. It was like watching a live action version of Wile E Coyote trying to catch the road runner.

The modified trap consisted of the tried and tested stick, an old shopping basket instead of a plastic box and . . . . a piece of string. I suddenly feel guilty - maybe he reads Southside Happenings and we tipped him off or else he was up all last night redesigning it.

Humorously the bit of string wasn't very long meaning the hunter had to kneel down right beside the basket - with the result that none of the pigeons should any interest in the mountain of bread that he had laid as bait.

Our humour was short lived - as showing far more patience than yesterday the hunter stayed still long enough to entice the pigeons to enter his lair. He waited, and waited and waited then . . . pounce he made his move - two pigeons in the basket.

Suddenly the humour of the situation vanished and the gravitas of the unknown fate of the pigeons raised its head. As the hunter scrabbled underneath basket one of the pigeons made a break for it - sadly the other wasn't so lucky and was soon in what appeared to be quite expert hands.

Within seconds he had the pigeon huddled against him, his trap packed up and he was heading for the car - not even shouts from the nearby bus stop did anything to stop him.

We were perplexed - "eh maybe we should have called the police instead of just sitting back and filming him."

After some debate we did call the police which started with me having to say "Hi yes, eh bit of a strange one, I'd like to report the kidnapping of a pigeon."

We have handed over his registration plate and we await the police report into what happens - watch this space.

If I have to go to a police interview about a pigeon-napping I will not be pleased.

Stop the Pigeon

OK this is one of the oddest posts I've had the pleasure of writing.

Yesterday I was just sitting quietly getting on with work when I looked across and what should I see in the park but a man trying to catch a pigeon in a homemade trap. Armed with a plastic box, a stick and a box of bread crumbs he spent 45 long minutes unsuccessfully trying to entice them to enter his trap.

His technique was seriously flawed though, as he had forgotten a key component of the trap - a bit of string tied to the stick. He got plenty of pigeons going into the box but none of them knocked the stick causing the box to fall. All that happened was the pigeons happily tucked into the free breadcrumbs under a little shelter while our hunter stood about at the edges looking increasingly glum while the rain poured down upon his head. (We managed to capture the whole thing on film and might upload it here someday - it is quite fascinating.)

Why he was trying to catch pigeons - we have no idea. Maybe the credit crunch is hitting people even harder than I thought? Eventually, he just gave up, despite the pigeons showing more interest than ever before and he stormed over grabbed up his box and walked off.

Not sure why this makes it seem even weirder but he walked over and put all the equipment in the boot of a car and then drove off. That meant he had specifically driven there to carry out this odd behaviour.

At one point he did leave the trap completely and go around other areas of the park picking up other peoples bread, I guess in an attempt to make his trap more alluring. He also went to the shop to buy some juice. I was very tempted to run over the road and put a plastic pigeon that I happen to own inside the box to film his reaction but we chickened out.

If anyone has any clues as to what was going on then please let us know.

Glasgow Now

Interesting wee site I found earlier which is trying to present constant snapshop of how Glasgow is being represented on the net. It grabs all images or articles posted onto Flickr and del.icio.us. The result is quite and odd and changing mix of things - some of which are even not actually about Glasgow at all. The above is the latest image posted to Flickr.

Link to The Glasgow Now

Normal service shall resume

Sorry bout the lack of posts - it has been a busy month, with trips to Riga, London and St Andrews for birthdys, weddings and other assorted adventures. Should be back to normal now in the meantime here is another southside film we found on Youtube. This one is just as random as the cycling gorilla - but none the less enjoyable.

Just had a thought - maybe the gorilla one was a failed cadburys advert?

Gorilla

About a week ago I went into Pearson's on Minard road to purchase some paints etc for doing some DIY. While there I took a ton of photos to do a post aobut some local shops. Unfortunetly I now can't find the memory card on which the photos are supposed to be. So while I go out and take some more photos here is a bit of an oddity I found on Youtube.

Did anyone see this or know what it is all about?

Eilidh's Daily Ukuele Ceilidh

Sadly I have just heard that 4Talent (Channel 4's creative industries wing) has ceased to exist - another victim to the credit crunch. They were a good bunch of people there and will no doubt will be heading off to do more of their interesting stuff else where.

I guess that means I can safely put the above short film online. It was made for 4T earlier this year but never quite managed to get uploaded - and now I guess never will so here it is celebrating southsider (though currently she is an expat) Eilidh's Daily Ukuele Ceildh in all her wonder.

Merry Christmas to all.

Cheers

Alburt and Ann

Nice to be nice

I was having a pretty rubbish day on Tuesday, started by sleeping in for work and therefore not getting a shower. I then had a very busy day at work in a roasting hot office while I felt like a bag of sweaty rubbish sitting in the sun.

Finally home time and I go down the road, get the train back to the Southside and run along to my flat. Just about to get in the shower and my mobile phone rings from a number I don't recognise. I answer and a voice says,

"Hello is that Allistair?"
"Yes"
"Do you own a pen dirve?"
"Yes"
"Is it silver?"
"Yes"
"Is it made by LG?"
"Yes"
"I found it in the street, hope you don't mind but I looked at the files to see if I could identify the owner and found a thing about the southside festival with your name and number."

I was of course delighted, I must have dropped the pen drive out my pocket as I ran across the road. The man invited me to nip round and get the drive so I put back on my shoes and walked round, stopping off at the off license to purchase a nice bottle of wine as a reward. The do-gooder tried to refuse the wine but I insisted pointing out that I had been having a pretty rubbish day and he had restored my faith in the world. Ended up having a nice chat about the Southside Festival and him and his friend will be looking to orginise some kind of outdoor music event in the near future which I have agreed to post about in return for his help. (The flyer above is for one of their previous events.)

Anyway in a week that has seen such nasty things occuring in the Queens Park area, its nice to know that there are still honest people out there doing good deeds.

Well done that man.

Ferreting about

The pet shop downstairs from me has a sign in the window advertising a "lovely" 12 week old ferret looking for a good home. The ferret is described as very friendly, is litter trained and will come when called. Not really big news but it caught my interest on the way to work this morning. I've never known anyone to own a pet ferret and they are rather weird looking but according to the British Ferret Club they make "wondeful" pets.

For info on what is required to look after a pet ferret click here.

Anyone interested should call Ryan on 07960529521

Theres no business like train platform business

I saw a very interesting thing on the way home last night. I was standing on platform 4 of Central Station awaiting the train, when I noticed one of the ticket checkers doing a wee jig across the platform to one of her colleagues. Her colleague laughed and then did a little jig back.

A few of my fellow passengers noticed this and turned to watch. The two ticket collectors then walked over to each other, laughed, chatted a bit and after counting to three they did a perfect bit of synchronised tap dancing. It only lasted 30 seconds but it was very impressive. Not sure if this is a new policy by First Scotrail but I think its a great idea. Waiting for the train can be very boring. Having staff performing various variety acts on the platforms would be an excellent way to pass the time and people wouldn't mind the odd delay now and again as they could watch some more soft shoe shuffling.