Close Quarters by Angus McAllister

I saw this book in Waterstones the other week and I was intrigued.  I decided to check it out on my Kindle and I'm glad I did.  I got through the book in a couple of days and I very much enjoyed it.

I lived in the west end of Glasgow on and off between 1995 and 2008.   I did the university thing and the young professional thing and the overpriced rent for slums thing.  I also spent time renting elsewhere in the UK and interacting with factors.  I would not repeat any interactions with landlords or factors for fun.

McAllister is a retired solicitor who was a law professor.  He published books on Scottish property law.  He knows the hell of flats in the west end and psychopathic neighbours.  I recognised the geography of the book, the pubs and the characters.

Some of the reviewers online found the mid-section of the book a bit slow but I really appreciated the detail which added emotional weight to the story and fully filled out the details of the hell that Walter Bain subjects his neighbours to.

This book is funny and true to life.  Worth a read.

Kiss at the Glasgow Hydro

It's taken me about a week to get round to writing about this show.  I saw Kiss in 1996 at Donington which was their first gig with the original line-up in many years.  This time I think Kiss were playing Glasgow for the last time.  I don't remember much of the 1996 show (although I can find the setlist online and a video of the whole show on youtube).

I didn't like kiss when I was younger.  I only really got into them after hearing Nirvana cover 'Do you love me?' and Anthrax talking about them.  I remember picking up cassette copies of Destroyer and some of the other early albums (probably Alive!) in Lost in Music in the mid nineties.  Great stupid rock although I've never been a massive fan of the later eighties stuff.

Tonight the show was amazing, from the opening fireworks through the lights, balloons, zip slides, mid crowd stage and cherry pickers.  It looked great and kept me entertained.  The sound was decent and the set list was fairly good.

I realise that a couple of the original members weren't there but the band were tight enough.  I'm glad I made the effort to go.

Sadly I probably won't get to see them again.

Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert

I stumbled across this book as an Amazon Kindle 99p deal of the day.  I liked the title and fancied reading something a bit different.  Michael Gilbert was a crime writer and a lawyer who published books from the 1940s until just after the turn of the century and Smallbone Deceased is his masterpiece.

The crime, the death of the eponymous Smallbone, is discovered in a law firm in the famous Lincoln's Inn, one of the more prestigious addresses in legal London.  I'm not a lawyer but the setting is well drawn with characters that resonate well today, even though the book is 70 years old.  I've only ever spent a couple of months living in London but I could still feel the city in the words of the book.

A bit of internet research taught me that Gilbert published many crime novels, often with recurring characters (some of whom appear in Smallbone Deceased), but sadly few of them are available electronically.  Hundreds of thousands of books have been published in English over the past few centuries and only a small fraction are available electronically.  Hopefully more of Gilbert's work will appear on the Kindle in the future.

Worth a read.

The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Robertson

One of my favourite books isThe Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg and The Testament of Gideon Mack is a modern retelling of that story.  The original was published in 1824 and set in the late 17th and early 18th century.  Gideon Mack is set between the 1950s and 2005.  The best way to enjoy these books is to read both.

I read Justified Sinner at school, possibly for SYS English or higher English and I loved it.  A few years back I saw a play in the Tramway theatre that was an adaption of the book (again modernised) and more recently I have been trying to read other novels that borrow from Hogg.  Gideon Mack is one of the best.

I understand that Robertson won prizes for Gideon Mack and made the long list for the Booker prize. The book should have won in my opinion.  It is well written, readable, thought provoking and sad whilst being funny.

Gideon Mack follows the format of Justified Sinner with an introduction from the 'editor', the main text from the Testament written by Mack, and a fact checking post-script commissioned by the editor.  Taken as a whole, like Justified Sinner, Mack proves to be an unreliable narrator.

The story tackles religion, belief, hypocrisy, happiness, sadness and concepts about truth, self reflection and evil.  The characters are well rounded.  The world portrayed is similar to the Scotland I have grown up in.

I encourage everyone to read this book.  I'm sure it will be a feature of Scottish Literature courses until Scottish Literature courses no longer exists.  It will be constantly compared with it's ancestor and there will be discussion about shared characters and sly nods from Gilmartin.

I intend to read more of Robertson's books.

........

I heard that a friend of mine died yesterday.  He had been fighting suicide for a while and he lost.  He was lovely guy.  I'd known him maybe 8 or 9 years.  We had a shared love of comic books and 90s alternative music.

He had a difficult life.  I didn't know all the details but I knew enough.  There were people he loved and people who loved him but I think he was lonely in a way that he couldn't think how to fix.  He tried to get help and a lot of people helped him but ultimately it wasn't enough.

I last saw him a few weeks back when we went to see Avengers Endgame at the cinema.  We had a coffee and a chat.  I can't quite remember now what the last thing we said to each other was.  We hadn't made concrete plans but I certainly hoped to see him again, fairly soon, probably for another coffee and a comic book movie.

He died.  I think he lost his battle against suicide.  We won't get that coffee.

I heard he died on Facebook.  I told my partner and my mum who both knew I was worried about him. He was a lovely bloke who was great to spend time with.  I wish I could see him and talk to him again. I know I couldn't change anything but I will miss him.

RIP

Avengers - Endgame

I finally managed to see this film today.  Avenger - Endgame is, I think, the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series.  That's quite an achievement.

I don't think the film would make sense if you hadn't seen most of the preceding series.  It's entertaining enough for comic book fans.  It's stuffed full of in jokes and hidden references.  It's not a jumping on point by any means.  As a bare minimum you would need to have seen the last Avengers film to follow any of it.

There are lots of flashes and bangs and CGI battles.  It all gets a bit Lord of the Rings at some points but it is all tied together in the end.  I think this is now one of the most popular films ever (not adjusted for inflation).  It's a bit of a mess but as a sequence of films this has been done well.

There are plot holes and many good characters get limited screen time.  I do want to see what happens next.  I am a long term marvel junkie.

Apparently Howard the Duck is in the big fight scene.  Look for him.

weird scenes

sometimes I get a bus to work really early, leaving the house before 7am.  I like the bus at that time as it's quiet and where I get on I get a decent seat.  I usually read my Kindle but sometimes I see odd stuff.

At one stop there is often a young man who gets on, whatever the weather, wearing a t-shirt and no jacket.  I've seen him in the snow and the rain and he never wears a jacket.  At some times I see him get on the subway too.  He looks like a young Steve Albini.  I don't understand what is going on but in Glasgow, when it's cold, dark and snowing, it probably makes sense to wear a jacket.

people are strange.

intermittent gaps in service

just realised i've not been updating this blog much over the past few months.  mainly this is due to work commitments and domestic stuff.  all positive.

I note that there has been an unusually high volume of attempted spam on the account - not sure why that is.

beyond that i'll try and write some more interesting stuff in the near future

Brave in Concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

I had a good day today.  I did some business in the morning then I met my partner and her mum for lunch in town.  We were eating in the cafe at the Royal Concert Hall when my partner noticed an elderly neighbour.  We went over to say 'hi' and a friend of the neighbour appeared and asked us if we wanted to see the show.  We weren't sure what the show was and then we found out that it was the world premiere of a live orchestral version of the Disney Pixar film Brave.

We are very lucky people.

The music to Brave was written by a man from Uddingston named Patrick Doyle.  Our neighbour knows him well.  He wrote the music for many films including Carlito's Way, East/West, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  He even wrote some music for the last Thor film.  When he was asked to do Brave, the producers hadn't even realised he was Scottish but he was a perfect choice.

He gave a short speech at the show, detailing the genesis of his work on Brave.  He also, touchingly, paid tribute to our neighbour and then the Scottish Symphony Orchestra began to play the score for Brave as the film started.

I thought I had seen Brave before.  I hadn't.  I must have watched the first 10 minutes before falling asleep.  Fairly standard for me.  It's a great film, and I loved it.  Billy Connolly is one of the main voice actors and Kelly MacDonald is another.  The story was good with a lot of the Pixar magic.  The live orchestra was amazing.

Again, I have to say, I'm a lucky bloke.  A brilliant unplanned day.

For any Scottish readers, see this if you get a chance.  Well worth it.

The time I met Billy Connolly

I met Billy Connolly once, I think in summer 1997.  I was living in a scummy student flat just off of Great Western Road in Glasgow, near the botanic gardens.  I was with two of my pals, on the way to an immunology exam.  It was a sunny afternoon and as we turned the corner we bumped into Connolly coming out of a local chiropractors office.

We were of course delighted to meet him.  I think he was slightly less chuffed to meet us. We all expressed out affection for him.  I'd actually recently seen him do a show at the King's Theatre in Glasgow and I still had the ticket in my wallet.

I asked for an autograph, and the Big Yin, clearly grumpy and wanting to escape started making excuses about not having a pen.  I promptly pulled out a pen and a ticket and a signature was duly obtained.  I still have that ticket somewhere.  It's a treasured possession.  I feel a bit sorry for the bloke as he can't even walk down a street in Glasgow without being annoyed by a bunch of spotty students.

I really enjoyed the Made In Scotland documentaries that have been on over the past couple of weeks.  I've got a pile of his old vinyl LPs from the seventies and a few of his DVDs somewhere.  He's an inspiring guy.

I saw him live again at the Armadillo a few years back.  He was excellent again.  We are lucky to have lived at the same time as him.