Glasgow Detail

Glasgow Airport Car Bomb

2007-07-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

This is the actual live footage of the vehicle burning.
I am saddened that this is my first post after having been away for so long, it is a sad day for the people of Glasgow and Scotland.

Well it looks like the war zone has finally arrived on the outskirts of Glasgow, with nearly devastating effect. I`m sure that for a many Glaswegians, 30/06/07 will be a sort of JFK moment, where were you when the bomb went off.
I suppose as a country Scotland and its people, in retrospect, have maybe been a little bit complacent regarding the way global events have a habit of impacting locally.
I have heard it said by many members of Glasgow`s great diaspora, that it could never happen here, that we are too civilised. We may well be on the whole, but there was an inevitability about the 30/06/07.
We, as do many other cities in the UK and Europe, have a large minority asian population of peoples who practice the religion of Islam. Over the coming days there will no doubt be great discussion and debate by all Glaswegians and Scots as to why this darkness should descend over our City and Country.
There will be the voices of bigotry, which have always been here and they have always found a cause to blindly rant about, whose only reaction will be to rage against anyone who is not exactly like them.
Their language is, and always has been, divisive, short and abbreviated. In the past, and I make no apology for my language, it was "Micks", "Jews", "Proddies", "Chinkie", "Tims", "Gypos", "Darkies", "Niggers", "Kykes" etc, and currently we have such words as, "Pakkies", "Muzzies", "Ragtops", I will not use the expletives that are usually associated with these words, we all know them.
Now this is in fact a universal stance taken about most outsiders who settle in a foreign land, city, town, village or street; the world over.
Its a language and stance inspired by fear and initial lack of understanding, of the strange, the different, the unusual, in fact anything, almost, that is different to you or I.
I think it would only be fair to say that we have all, the world over, had these feelings at one time or another. Its part of our imprinted human nature to sort of herd together as a survival instinct. The fact that its, in relative terms, easier to survive in the white Caucasian western world than most other parts of the planet is by the by, and this applies to all of our peoples who live in this western society.
This is something that the organisers of suicide bombers have known for some time, and they are now working hard to maintain and increase these divisions.
The bomb at the airport was in my opinion, another of many attempts to inspire hatred by the majority population against the minority. To increase the rants of "if they don`t like it here then why don`t they go home".
But this denies blindly the truth of the matter, scratch the surface of virtually any "Jew", "Mick", "Pakki", "Proddie" "Darkie", "Kyke", "Chinkie", etc, in Glasgow and you will generally find a Glaswegian born and bred.
None of us can "go home" easily after generations of distance, whether it be to Ireland, Pakistan, Somalia, Uganda, China, Italy, Russian, Poland, and even England, to name but a few of the homelands that Glasgows past has come from.
We may have a romance of where our roots are, but we would be in many many cases strangers in strange lands if we tried to "go home".
Without these peoples we would not have a Nation, let alone a Glasgow, and this none of us should forget, we were all a minority at one time or another. We were "these peoples", and others from other nations will follow us and they will become "these peoples" for a time.
I think a sharp intake of breath is required by all of us, we were all lucky, no member of the public has died as yet, the attempt to take lives failed.
If we all start building walls to hide behind and trenches to cower in then they will indeed have succeeded in their mission with hardly a drop of blood spilled or a body shattered.

I have been away, but now I`m back, I`m sorry about the delay!

2007-06-16T01:43:00.000-07:00

The final stretch

2005-12-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

nearly out of the park and Fish market clock tower beckons through the gloom, in the foreground on the left is The High Court and snuggled next to it on the right is the famous Glasgow Mortuary

It can`t claim to be one of Glasgow`s finer corner tenements, but Shipbank on the corner of Briggait and Saltmarket is certainly one of the more famous. It still boast an onion dome corner, and an intact wrap around victorian pub exterior!

I pass by and head down Paddies Loan and stop and click fast Eddie

I exit Paddies on Clyde Street and finally capture the south facing side of the fablous Fish market building from the middle of the street, no traffic in sight.

Facing it across the river is The Glasgow Mosque, with its eye of a needle minarate. It looks almost ok in the fog. But I know that when the fog clears so will my mind. It is one of my least favourite buildings in the city.
It looks like a cross between a B & Q shed and a sixties RAF aerodrome control tower. It was apparently donated to the local Muslim community by a Sheik from Saudi Arabia. I can only imagine that at the time he must have been wearing darker glasses than those guys tended to wear in those days!
I dont know if it adheres to islamic geometry, it certainly dosen`t look like it.
The glazed dome is to say the least unfortunate and looks as if it were glazed in polycarbonate.
Suggestion: tear it down, find another Sheik, maybey that guy who is building the tallest building in the world in downtown Dubai, and a really good architect who understands the disipline of Islamic Design.

A view doon the water Calton Place on the left Carrick Quay on the right before it dissapears and in the misty distance the suspension foot bridge, romantic or what!

A view up the toon of the romantic sun gilded mansions of commerce, education and power. The Stockwell never looked prettier than it did this morning!, no traffic and virtually no people, what more could you want!!!

Past the boathouse and back to the studio

2005-12-25T10:29:00.000-08:00

Still the home of Glasgow`s rowing club and remarkably untagged at the moment the building makes a romantic statement at the riverside.

However I think it needs jazzed up a bit, mabey take a chance and finish off the tagger magnet white finish and dare I say commission us to do some contemporary glass for those round windows, and or move the building up to the Peoples Palace to benefit from the magnificant security.
Now that would give these rower chappies the opportunity to walk down to the river with their boats over their heads as they love to do.
Look how popular penguin walk is at Edinburgh Zoo.
Is Glasgow City Council missing an opportunity here!

The tree lined river walk

2005-12-25T10:07:00.000-08:00

Time to head back, west along the river side.
I get a misty view of The Gorbals, Donald MacBean once asked me what a Gorbal was, I am not misty eyed about a tower block though the mist romances it!

Heres an unusal site, a life ring in place, like the Doulton fountain people are always throwing these into the river Clyde for sport.
Well I suppose its better than football violence, yes it does still go on, or mugging old women, and yes that still goes on too!
Yes we are becoming more civilised and kinder and less racist and even more cultured, but lets face it if you fall into the river these days the only thing that may save you is this

or this

and with George Parsonage retiring and no one replacing him as yet, I think the second option may be the only one in future.
But a word of caution, they are like the busses, you can wait for one all day and then theres a whole flock of them.

A bit of Gothic treescape

and the big stump, the boathouse looms in the distance!

Big Stump detail, will it grow again?

Up the Misty Mountain

2005-12-25T09:49:00.000-08:00

I have been dying to fit the above title in all day.
Glasgow City Councils new money spinning venture (what you thought it was moved for its own safety!) is as they say "fair coining it in".
The apparent miracelous recovery and trancendental movement (I mean who actually saw it move from its previous location to where it is now) is driving people from all corners of the globe desperate to chuck hard earned cash into the fountain for good luck.
It has been rumoured that a three legged woman from Mongolia, spontaniously grew a fourth after throwing in a ten pence piece.
It has got to such a fever pitch, as you can see, that the council have installed security to keep an eye on the dosh that gets chucked in.
I can verify its efficency, a voice boomed out requesting that I get out of the fountain outer perimeter, that I had been captured on camera and I was only taking photos!
What would have happened if I had tried to grab a handful of wet dosh, would a death ray have emanated from the rather sinister Cupola dome at the top of the Peoples Palace and fried me to a crisp.
All I can say is watch out Lourdes!

Pan Plays

2005-12-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

Pan plays his mischevious tune and probably mischeviously designed the yellow thingy in the background. Dont`t ask me what its meant to be.
I was going to wait till it was finished and go back and have a look, to see how it fitted in.
But you know me! a mouth crammed with feet.
Could it be?
1. a structure
2. a homage to the song`s "Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree" or that wonderful old John Wayne standard that we all sang in the back courts many years ago "She wore! She wore! She wore a yellow ribbon"
3. Built in the wrong place
4. a replacement bright yellow doulton fountain thats screams to the tagger, paint me! paint me! I like this one.

Its meaning is bound to be filled with architectural irony, it is after all quite an old architectural idea which seems to be getting pummeled to death these days for want of better ideas.
I hold my baited breath!

Doulton Details. The trappings of Empire

2005-12-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

First we have South Africa, land of the free or was it voor!

Next we have Canada, full of those pesky French and disenfranshised Scots, well those that survived the crossing.

Next up! The Indian sub-continent. They gave us polo and on our way out we gave them a border dispute. Good old Lord Louis Mountbatten and his trusty pen, I bow before a superior map maker!

Last but not least its the biggest island in the world, Australia. We used to send the bad guys there! Nowadays it appears to be becoming a bastion of staunch racism, if you want to learn how to become an even better racist then look no further than Australia. Landless Scots and Irish were also sent there during the potato famines, with a wonderful article in the London Times (of the period) extolling their virtues, still ringing in their ears.

A homage to the gallant troops of empire, the future fodder of the Somme!

Lookin` for a fountain, A Doulton Fountain

2005-12-25T08:49:00.000-08:00

I spy through the gloom! Its the Peoples Palace, cumone Elspeth n`Michael gonnay cum hame, surely all must be forgiven by now!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know! I`m just an old sentimentalist!

A tree being held back by the stalwart fence around the peoples palace, and just as well too!, we dont`t want that sort of riff-raff clogging up our museums, unless its conceptual of course and filled with irony!

Conceptual red path and tree composition next to peoples palace.

I knew it had been moved and figured it had to be at the peoples palace.
It had lain in dissaray for years at the triumphal entrance to the Green.
It had been slowly but shurely chibbed by us glaswegians to within a breath of its very existence. But lets face it, if its still here how could it possibly be a thing of beauty! The attitude permeates everything, Glasgow and Scotland keep their pedestals empty.
Need an architect for a parliament, a glass artist for a light house, a mosicaist for an art gallery, a shop fitter for a pub, there can`t possibly be anyone good enough up here.
Rant over!!!!!

Finally restored and relocated for its own safety the Magnificiant Doulton Fountain

Back on Terra Firma

2005-12-25T08:39:00.000-08:00

safely back in Glasgow Green, I head towards our very own Cleopatras needle, how many of the bloddy things did she have!

I take another misty tree and path shot, they are everywhere screaming take me!, take me!. I am weak willed and click!

But up close to the needle I spy this lovely little family grouping.
Ma, Pa and the wean, but I think a cuckoo has visited this nest!

Oh no! Its the Ushida Findlay Building again!

2005-12-25T08:14:00.000-08:00

Even though from this angle it looks some what like a large art deco surgical boot left behind by a crippled giant, I still sort of like this building.

In stark contrast, across from it is this delicate contemporary town house, reminescent of the victorian redsandstone Italianate mansions that can be found all around Glasgow.

However! Stuck on to the side of it is this rather unfortunate conglomeration of glass, reminiscent of guts spilling out of the building into a cauldron of tripe (sheep stomach).
Could one be forgiven for thinking that the Architect had little understanding of how decorative glass could be used in an architectural scheme.
Or was it just another example of,
"Oh fuck! we still have Percent for Art money to spend! Quick!, somebody get me the Yellow Pages!"

On the way out and back to the green I spot this nice detail in the Ushida Findlay Building. But I still don`t think this building will wear well

A nice view of the cascading gardens of the Ushida Findlay Building.

I spot the misty mansions

2005-12-25T08:02:00.000-08:00

Through the gloom at the northern edge of the park I spy the strutting outline of Homes for the Future. I decide to pay another brief visit!

Now you would think that with the impending oil crisis thats been looming for the past 30 years, that architects and developers would have started making provision for bicycle storage. Seems not!

I head up the staircase and come into this pleasing space.

Through the Ark de triump

2005-12-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

Well thats what its called locally amongst other things.
A magnificant entrance way, into what is still one of the finest publically owned spaces in Europe.

On to the Green

2005-12-25T07:43:00.000-08:00

I claw my way through the fog of Briggait and finally reach Shipbank corner, I cross the Saltmarket in a leisurly fashion, nae traffic!, and head towards the Green.

Sneeking a look at paddies

2005-12-25T07:33:00.000-08:00

The car park is deserted as I stride nimbly through it. If you ever need a parking space in Glasgow then I can thoroughly reccomend it as having plenty of space available all christmas day!
I look across Brigait and paddies market is completly deserted, mabey thats where the barratt building is going, blanket on the ground, "1 appartment block for sale 50p and I`ll throw in the Slaters Building for £ 20 million!"

I cut through the car park and see a monster

2005-12-25T07:23:00.000-08:00

I`m out the door, like a rat out the trap!
it`s about 11.30 AM and its a heavy fog, all thats missing is the snow, or else we would have had a truely winter wonderland!
The air is sharp and theres ice underfoot as I head into King Street Carpark.
I turn around to photograph the studio, but its too depressing, its christmas after all!
But the prow of the Barratt building (Regency Apartments) looms up through the fog like some Monty Pythonesque beast and I notice its got Slaters Building in tow in the background. I wonder where they could be going, and hope its not Glasgow Green!

I walked out one misty morning

2005-12-25T05:08:00.000-08:00

Its Christmas 2005, and so far its gone predictably as usual.
To quote a dear friend, "Hooray!"
Apart, that is, from the mist that greeted me through the window this morning!
A white christmas indeed.
So whats a boy to do?, well go out and photograph it of course.
But where? oh! where?
I took the easy option, Glasgow Green, you can`t go wrong with fog and trees!!
By the way I can sell you Glasgow`s famous public green for a pittance and you can build anything on it that you like, honest guv!

2005-12-25T03:19:00.000-08:00

A Gerry Rafferty Moment

2005-10-30T01:07:00.000-08:00

The Scotia to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am
Stuck in the middle with......................
Right out of Goosedubs and I am in Stockwell Street looking up town, not quite the Reservoir Dogs moment. But as we say in these sunny climes "ahm goan up the toon", north to the Merchant City for all you consigenti out there.
I pass by Power House on the corner of Howard Street, tucked below Slaters Menswear. I heard that`s the place that Glasgow actor Robert Carlyle, got his gym equipment from. If only he had got his energy bars and energy drinks from there, then he may have been a more caring sharing human being in Ravenous. What a performance, Glasgow Hippie meets American Psycho.
I can`t pass Power House these days without thinking about Ravenous, funny how the mind works!
Power walking north up Stockwell I pass on my left the eastern edge of that great carbuncle, The Saint Enoch Centre, a giant glass tent of a shopping centre.
As I get nearer to my destination, a cheap pound shop, I stop outside Millers Art Store and finally get a photo of ReVamp an itsy bitsy little goth fashion shop that had previously been a kiddies clothing store. they always have a great window display.

Oh! Calcutta

2005-10-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

I turn left at the door and within three steps, the studio after all is in the smallest lane in Glasgow, I turn left into Goosedubs Lane.
Oh! What delights await me this sunny afternoon. But! I should have known, I could smell it before I saw it.

As the advert used to proclaim " Ah! Bisto!"

How come they never show this sort of detail on Architects Plans, we would all sleep better at night if we knew that we would be surrounded by the country fresh aroma of meadow hay!

But unperturbed I wade through Goosedubs, like an 18th century "Lazy Boy"

I look back and for a moment I think, "This is where east meets west!". The thought quickly dissolves as I contemplate the task and journey ahead.
Is it a good building? Is it a bad building? I have no opinion. Is it interesting, probably!

I went to buy, Allan Keys

2005-10-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

You know what it`s like!
A workshop full of allan keys, none of them fit that new piece of equipment and you can`t remember where you put the one that does.
A cold sweat breaks out, metric or imperial.
The WFB tells me on the phone that he can bring in an imperial set, so just in case, I will go out and get a metric set. I pull on my Lobbs american prairie boots and head out the door.
Its still summer, and look some plants that the Barratt building site have not managed to destroy are still clinging on to our bit of Barratt damaged pavement.

2005-10-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

2005-09-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

Stained Glass Evening Courses
At Glassartists@GlasgowDetail

Glasgow Detail are pleased to announce the commencement of Stained Glass evening classes.

Our first series of courses will be a 10 week course for beginners.

The course sructure will cover :-

Approaching the design of Stained Glass. Scaling to full size working drawings and templates.
Glass Cutting techniques. Leadworking techniques. Soldering. Cementing, blacking and Polishing.

All students will be provided with comprehensive course notes covering all aspects of the course, including basic colour theory, notes on tools, materials and glasses, glassworking techniques, Health and Safety notes, and a summarised history of Stained Glass.

The course will be both intensive and fun!

Applicants will have a choice of evening, Tuesday or Thursday.

Courses are continious and you can join any time, places permitting

Tuesday 7pm - 9.30pm.
Thursday 7pm - 9.30pm.
And will run all year round

Course fees £ 220.00

Places on the course will be awarded on a first come first served basis.

Don`t miss out!

For further details and Enrollment contact;

Glassartists@GlasgowDetail.
58-60 Osborne Street,
Glasgow.
G1.5QH.

Telephone:
0141 552 0555
Web site
www.Stained Glass Courses
Email;
glassartists@googlemail.com

Five in the Head

2005-07-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

Apparently this man was held down by two people and it now transpires was shot five times in the head.
Prior to that he was apparently terrorised into panic and ran, his only crime it seems was to run.
A natural reaction under the circumstances?
Should this be considered an act of state sponsored terrorism?
Should we get used to it?
But why five times in the head?
It seems that he was being watched and followed, so was there time to have averted the situation?
Is there a system in place that when a suspect bomber is being followed to a station, that allows the station to be locked on his or her approach. If there is not, then there should be!
It would only take a phone call to lock the station down and exclude the terrorist from his target, it may not stop him setting off his bomb, but it must surely be of help.
We seem to be drifting into an acceptance of an errosion of our liberty.
During the evacuation of Birmingham, we had the spectacle of machine gun weilding police marshalling people away from the suspected danger areas.
Why was it neccessary for duty police men to be armed whilst carrying out a humane act.
We used to have armed response units which were kept in the background until needed
Now we have this tragedy.
Is it a case that if we escalate our response to these satanic muslims, and I am being specific to terrorists here, will that not lead to a further escalatory response from them and will that elicit a similar response from satanic christians eventually.
I deeply resent any act that leads to a restriction of my freedom and liberty, whether in reading, a book watching a film, gathering in a public place to protest and my freedom of movement without fear.
We must not lose sight of the fact that a fundamental detail of any city or nation is liberty and freedom, without them the rich detail of live would be pointless and we might as well just exist in industrial sheds.

At the Edinburgh International festival 2005

2005-07-20T17:02:00.000-07:00

* * *Press Release* * *

Finding the Sacred in the 21st Century: A Transdisciplinary Event

organized & directed by Karen-Claire Voss

24 - 29 August 2005

Church of St John the Evangelist, Princes Street, Edinburgh

Finding the Sacred Art Exhibition (admission free)
August 6-29
Featuring works by

Graham Barbour, Rai Barbour, Jean Bell, Joe Boyle,
Rachel Cowan, Alan Dawson, Richard Demarco, Frank Docherty,
Frank J. Docherty, Andrew Fitzpatrick, Ronnie Ford, Robert Gould,
Charles Hynes, Martin Kane, Peter MacKenna, Joe McLaughlin,
Jack McLean, Craig McMaster, Don McNeil, Boyd McNicol,
Shahin Memishi, Paul Murray, Terry Ann Newman, Avril Paton,
Valentine Petrov, Paul Raine, Jim Rankin, Paul Reeves
Yvonne Smith, Leo Stevenson, Ally Thompson,
George Wyllie

August 24-27
Finding the Sacred in the 21st Century: A Transdisciplinary Event
Speakers (admission free)

Including Andrew Greeen, Lizanne Henderson, Alastair Hulbert, David Lorimer, Murdo MacDonald ,Alastair McIntosh, Karen Ralls Tessa Ransford, Richard Roberts, ,Gordon Strachan, and others.

August 24-27
Finding the Sacred - Musical Offerings (nominal charge) Featuring Flauti Animati Scotica, Frank O`Hagan`s Blues Band Hapax, the Glasgow Phoenix Choir, and Quodlibet.

In some circles in contemporary Scotland the word "sacred" is apparently problematic, usually because it is thought to entail something having to do with religion. However, the "sacred" has little or nothing to do with dogma or doctrine. As human beings we are continually involved in the process of trying to locate our finite selves within infinitude. The process of finding the sacred simply means to be in the process of attempting to gather up the fragments, to bind together the finite with the infinite, so both form one great whole; thus, finding the sacred is a process that touches everyone, whether believer or an atheist. Unlike many of the events on offer at a cultural endeavour like the Edinburgh Arts Festival, it is hoped that this event will actively and explicitly function to help people re-connect with the sacred. All of the talks, images, poetry and music presented will be geared toward forging a connection with what poet Adrienne Rich referred to as "the rockshelf furthering all that is."

For more information and to download a program and order form for tickets, catalogue and brochure , visit our website:

Kempock Digital

* * *END* * *