Popular Culture

Scotland as a Magical, Foreign Land: Jonathan Meades Off-Kilter Guide to Scotland Gerry Hassan January 28th 2010 I have just watched the first part of Jonathan Meades three part series on Scotland on BBC Two, late Wednesday night, 11.20-12.20 available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ml5wx/Jonathan_Meades_Off_Kilter_Episode_1/, and was astounded by the sheer brilliance and aplomb of it on every level. Here was an hour-long programme about Aberdeen and its architecture. An hour-long programme about Aberdeen which was compelling, challenging, deeply serious and yet with a rich undertow of humour. An hour about Aberdeen with no Aberdonians, no talking heads, no stupid vox

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The Nation of Imagination: The Slow Birth of Creative Scotland Gerry Hassan The Scotsman, January 28th 2010 Tomorrow a long run Scottish soap opera reaches a new stage. I am not talking about BBC’s ‘River City’, but the appointment of the chief executive of Creative Scotland, the new quango bringing together the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen. It has been a long and painful birth. Creative Scotland was like many things not originally an SNP idea, instead stemming from Scottish Labour with its genesis a concept coming from UK New Labour thinking. Many pinpoint long gone Culture Minister Mike

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Scotland in Cyberspace: New Media, Blogs and Public Conversation Gerry Hassan Open Democracy, January 26^th 2010 The role of the internet and emergence of the blogosphere is much commented upon in the political and media world. Do people such as Guido Fawkes and Iain Dale have a new found political influence? Will a whole host of Labour bloggers emerge out of the ashes of the party’s election defeat? In Scotland, there is the influence of the ‘cybernat’ community who have a huge influence. Its black and white zealotry was recently profiled by the Universality of Cheese run by Mark MacLachlan,

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A Letter to The Spectator on Charles Moore, Jonathan Ross and Rod Liddle Gerry Hassan January 25^th 2010 To the Editor, Am I missing something in my understanding of Spectator coverage? For month after month Charles Moore (Spectator, passim) rightly berated the BBC for employing Jonathan Ross for however million and stated that he would withhold one of his TV licences as a result of the Ross-Brand scandal, inviting readers to do the same. Jonathan Ross then leaves the BBC and not a squeak from Mr. Moore. Has he started paying his TV licence again? And why the strange

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The Times We Live In: George Orwell, Rod Liddle and Me Gerry Hassan January 25^th 2010 I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls, And woke to find it true; I wasn't born for an age like this; Was Smith? Was Jones? Were you? George Orwell, 1935 (1) The influence of Gordon Orwell throws a long shadow and influence on many of us who choose to write, are active politically and define ourselves as ‘left’. I think of it as an impressive, friendly, beneficial shadow: a guide, a set of suggestions and inspiration. Most of all I value Orwell for the

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The Power, Psychology and Problems of Scottish Football Gerry Hassan January 17^th 2010 Scottish football holds a place in the centrestage of Scotland, and even more it has a mythical power and importance over much of our culture: an importance which I believe has increased in the last thirty years as other vessels and phenomena we invested our hopes in: political and social bit the dust. One of the paradoxes of this age has been this move towards a coercive sense of ‘collective joy’ about football as it has become more corporatised and in Scotland in a number of respects,

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The Shame of ‘The Restaurant’: An Everyday Tale of Post-Blair Britain Gerry Hassan December 18^th 2009 I have over the years watched many ‘reality TV’ programmes (at least in their first series) such as ‘Big Brother’, ‘’Strictly’, ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘The Restaurant’. However, there is intrinsically – and increasingly - something in the format which leads it to debase itself from its original premises, and which prevents it from sustaining its often captivating first idea. The Beeb like to think they do these things with more style and subtlety. This brings us to the final of ‘The Restaurant’ screened last

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Gerry's Top Sixty Albums of the Decade Part Six December 18th 2009 Nos. 10-1 Into the final furlong. This has been both exhausting and exhilarating; now I know how much work those boys and girls at ‘NME’ and ‘Uncut’ work on their end of year lists. For me personally it has been an even more varied, stimulating and utterly captivating decade in music than ever before. There are though some interesting (and some ominous signs) in the state of music (and I am not just taking about Cowell and the X Factor). There is the state of pop and plastic

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Gerry's Top Sixty Albums of the Decade Part Five December 17th 2009 Nos. 20-11 Just like the chart of olden days into the Top Twenty. Cue CCS ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and Jimmy Saville with cigar! It is interesting to note what didn’t make my list. So as I said no Sinatra and I kind of feel guilty. The one Frank release which could have made it was ‘Sinatra in Hollywood’, a brilliant and comprehensive collection of all Frank’s film music – which is saying something – and which had for the first time the theme music for the stupendous ‘On

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Gerry's Top Sixty Albums of the Decade Part Four December 16th 2009 Nos. 30-21 30. Post-War, M. Ward, 2006 This sound very old and very modern, fragile and unique and covered in a sepia-toned mood with Ward’s vocals as if they are coming from the past and the future. It all creates a very distinct atmosphere, with the ghost of Dennis Wilson in there alongside a cover of Daniel Johnston. This album follows his ‘Transfiguration of Vincent’ which is also superb, containing an acoustic, spellbinding cover of Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’. 29. The Drift, Scott Walker, 2006 This is music

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