Live from the CCA

These days, my blog is mostly being written at the CCA. As I have mentioned before, my house is so untidy,

Wrong logo, Vile

the thought of writing there during daylight hours makes me despair. At night, most of the bulbs have blown out, so I wander Glasgow's arts hubs, seeking internet and human connections.

However, I am also on a grand adventure, touring the country in search of Giants. Then the Fringe, meaning I escape to Edinburgh and eat bacon sandwiches for a month, watching forty shows a week and getting annoyed at Japanese tourists who walk too slow and I am trying to get to a show and the last one was late out and...

The CCA is a cool hub, though. I liked it down the Briggait in my old job, mainly because Mischief La Bas were next door and Conflux on the other side of the balcony. Here, there are more events and the man who makes the coffee for the upstairs bar is utterly charming. As a tip of the hat to the CCA, I am going to give them some play on the blog, for a bunch of stuff I am going to miss. 


Press Release Begins
Playwright’s Studio: Stage to Page

Mon 29 July/ 7pm – 9.30pm / £3 / Ages 16+

These exciting monthly workshops explore play scenes, with an opportunity for informal networking. Playwrights are invited to submit 5-10 minute scenes, which will be matched to directors and actors and worked on in small groups before being performed at the end of the evening.

Dance House: Contact Jams

Sat 10 August / 2pm – 5pm / £3 / ages 14+

A creative session for dancers, musicians, writers and visual artists to work together. React, respond, explore and contribute in an open and informal environment.

I did some Contact once: I liked it, too. My friend Penny is involved in this, and it has been growing over the past year. It's a bit like a multi-art event, with no audience and a chance for dance to be at the centre but not necessarily the only art form on the stage... although there is no stage and no division between performer and observer.

Infinity Pool DJ Set

Fri 2 August / 9pm / FREE / Saramago Terrace Bar

Steev and Simon (Errors) broadcast the results of their entire 20s spent in dark rooms gathering digital audio files from across the blogosphere and beyond, with an emphasis on electronic composition, Acid, 90s, RnB and synthesised library music.

Get the Records On!

Sat 3 August / 9pm / FREE / Saramago Terrace Bar

DJs Craig Reece and Aitor Zair dig deep into the vaults with a selection of psychedelic rock, rhythm n’ blues, garage and soul, with a touch of latin, ska and jazz. The duo invites a guest along every month.

I like to hang out in this bar on a Friday, because I once saw the former members of Arab Strap having a quiet drink here. I am not sure they appreciated my twitter hashtag #GETTOGETHERAIDENMALCOLM

Robert Beavers screening in conversation with Luke Fowler

Fri 3 August / 8pm / FREE

CCA is pleased to announce an evening of three screenings, a talk and conversation around American filmmaker Robert Beavers, who is considered as one of the most influential avant-garde filmmakers of the second half of the 20th century. Three of Beavers’ most crucial 16mm works - From the Notebook…, the Stoas and The Suppliant - are shown in order to provide insight in the personal motivations of filmmaking and life. Followed by a short talk on his own work, Robert Beavers engages in a conversation with Glasgow based filmmaker Luke Fowler who shares his personal relation to the the oeuvre of Beavers. The evening concludes with a Q&A.

I Have Known All Along and Pretended Not To Only Out of Weakness

It's clear. It's clear. It's clear. It's clear. It's clear and true. It's clear and true and true and clear that the critic is artist as every attempt to define the gap between art and response will end up lost... the critic responds and are we supposed to believe that the artist is responding to nothing but life itself is not generating the art and the critic comes from the same place... and considerations of form make the haiku and review and the poem all equal...

Another day another we'll look at what political and social considerations are at play that keeps me down, thinks Criticulous. But now we see the true and clear and good and holy even holy urge that strives both in Luke Sutherland as he trembles the strings of his guitar and Robin Masson as he rolls deep oceans through the cello's bow and the sweat of Tony Mills, and Chris Devaney's final loving swerve... the last thing we hear is laughter as the child spins...

Heading home

Shorts...

It's cooler in the corner. Criticulous can command a better view of the room. Mills is like a giraffe over there... tall, elegant. Emma has been dancing with a young child so long it is as if they are a symbol of a young woman still in touch with her childhood. The girl laughs as she chases Emma in circles. Beautiful doppler effect.

Daphne has another question... and the contact improvisation is working... she talks through Facebook... she responds to my responses...

I have a question though... your next post is titled 'meaninglessness and being'

but in life, as in art and criticism, all of us (intentionally or unintentionally) look for a purpose/meaning

so is art for the sake of art meaningless?