Archive
The art of wine
Arrels de Vi, the annual St Marti wine fair is now under way, until it closes tomorrow evening, Sunday June 8.
Go if you can, and when you do don’t miss out on a range of unique painted ceramic wine coolers, the work of the celebrated Spanish artist, Manolo Sierra; I’m lucky enough to be able to call him a friend.
Betrayal
Until tonight, I was a big Obama fan.
Tomorrow, I burn the T-shirt. I never had him down as an Imperialist, as another Bush, but he is.
However, his betrayal of democracy will have a silver lining. In doing his chum Dave a favour, he has misunderstood one thing, that Scotland as a nation, the place where the Polaris nuclear subs were dumped, until the US made Tridents replaced them, is anti-American and anti-Imperialist in its soul, a position that will be underlined by his interference in our affairs.
Hear this, Mr President: ‘Yes, we will!’
Ta
Thanks to Shirl and David for a very nice evening. Down the hill next time.
Happy return
Sunny day in L’Escala with a touch of Tramuntana, but nothing too bad. Today we went up to St Marti, which is not quite the same now that the wine shop isn’t there any more, but still the nicest place I know. We may go back to eat this evening.
Up themselves
This is classic. I called my bank today to discuss a piece of potential business, and spoke to what they call these days ‘a relationship manager.’ (Bank Managers used to be important people; now they’re sat at desks in call centres.) He told me that before we could go any further, he would have to obtain ‘cross border authority’ to talk to me, since I was calling from Spain. Still trying to get my head round that one.
Still I rise
Two Americans born in the same year, 1928, died yesterday: Dr Maya Angelou and Malcolm Glazer. I know which one I’ll miss.
Music while I laze
Caustic Love : Paolo Nutini. I’ve been waiting around five years for young Mr Nutini to make a great album. He has now.
Liberation
Back in L’Escala for a few weeks, I join a band of Brits dismayed by the disappearance of UK Freesat TV, after a recent satellite move to one with a smaller footprint. Sky is still there, but BBC, ITV1 etc are gone from that platform too.
Sure, there’s a school of thought that says, if you move to another country you should embrace all of it, and leave your former culture behind you. There’s an alternative school of thought that says, bugger that for a game of soldiers. And there’s another, one that I intend to promote actively, that poses a question. If citizens of European Union nations can move freely across its internal borders, where is the logic that denies the same flexibility to television signals?
Vale of tears
Last weekend, Olivia Colman picked up a merited best actress TV BAFTA for Broadchurch. You’d get very short odds on Sarah Lancashire picking up the same gong in 2015 for Happy Valley. I know, it’s violent, too violent for many; even I find myself thinking about it well into the night. I know also that British TV drama stands accused of being infected by the wave of ‘Scandi-noir’ that has swept across our screen in the last few years. However an actor can only do their best with the script that he or she is given.
Of all its virtues, I’m most impressed by the fact that it is the work of Sally Wainwright. The same mind that gave us Last Tango in Halifax also created Happy Valley, a diametrically different vision of the same location: astonishing.
Political incorrectness
I have been following, from a distance, the Richard Scudamore affair, in which the chief exec of the English Premier League has been pilloried for forwarding allegedly sexist emails.
Here’s my take on the MPs and others who have been stirring this: Get a ******* life.
The Street
Thanks to Marina, and everyone else who turned out at Waterstone’s Sauchiehall Street today. Glasgow’s changing; needs a dose of Skinner.
Same bookstore different town tomorrow evening. Almondvale, Livingston, 6:30pm. There may be refreshments!
Wild west
Quiet Monday, then tomorrow I’m looking forward to a visit to Waterstone’s in Sauchiehall Street, 12:30pm.
PC DC
I heard Dave Cameron quoted as morning as expressing his support for a woman as the next chair of the BBC Trust.
Would that be any woman? I hope that the choice will be the best person for the job, regardless of gender.
Location location location
Halfway through the Hour of Darkness tour, I’d like to thank all the kind people who have turned out at my events . . . even the lady in WHS at the Gyle who was grumpy about Skinner’s move to Glasgow. As I told her I don’t do tourist manuals; my books are about people first and places second.
Googly
A few people have told me of problems with cancelled transactions on pre-orders of Hour of Darkness on the Google Play ebook platform. We’ve been on to Google, to be told that these were the result of a glitch in its system. It’s fixed and the book is back up there for sale (at a giveaway offer of £4.68), but customers whose pre-orders fell into the hole will have to purchase again . . . the original transaction will not have been debited.
It’s out!
Yes, I know some shops have been selling it early, but this is the official publication day of Hour of Darkness, the twenty-fourth Bob Skinner novel.
Absolutely no spoilers, but this is a very significant chapter in the life of the guy who lives inside my head for half the year. I’ll be signing copies today in Costco, Edinburgh, at 2pm, and in Waterstone, Kirkcaldy from 7pm. Somewhere along the line I’ll get to eat too, or not, as the case may be.
Music while I work
Stacey Kent : The Changing Lights. Another pitch perfect performance from one of my favourite singers.
Question
What’s the difference between a street artist and a vandal?
Could it be that a street artist is good at it?
Stormy weather for the No fleet
Sorry I’m a little late this morning. I had to rush down to the beach count the number of British naval vessels out in the Forth protecting the Scottish coastline. Know what? I looked as hard as I could, through my best binoculars. yet I couldn’t see a single one.
The First Sea Lord . . . a title that could have come straight from Gilbert and Sullivan . . . tells us this morning, on the instructions of the people who appointed him, that Scotland’s defence would be weakened if we could no longer rely on his navy. I wonder if he would tell us, in support of his claim, how many of those vessels other than nuclear Trident submarines are deployed currently in Scottish waters. No, I didn’t think so .
As the referendum draws closer, we can expect a scare story every day, orchestrated by the Westminster machine, with the help of its cronies in the London press, who are, lest we forget, currently living in fear of post-Leveson regulation and looking on with a degree of trepidation as the Brooks/Coulson trial unfolds. Will we be frightened into voting No? I rather think not.
YES for Scotland.
Music while I work
Jim Tomlinson: The Lyric. Jim’s a decent sax player, but his main asset is his his wife, Stacey Kent; this album is all about her.
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