LETTERS

lETTERS

Rave oil

I am a regular List reader and am

normally most impressed about the accuracy of the listings. I would like to point out however that on visiting the Amphitheatre on 29 December with my girlfriend. we rushed out to benefit from the cheaper entrance fee that you were suggesting in the current issue that applied before

1 1pm. but were told that this reduced price was not available. Could you please ensure that your information is correct in future as this put a damper on an otherwise enjoyable evening.

Colin Ledlie

Lauderdale Street

Edinburgh

A common enough grouse, but the prices were all checked by telephone with The Amphitheatre before going to press. lfthey decided to change their policy. after that, we can't

be held responsible.

Animal crackers

Being blessed with a smattering of joie de vivre, lam enlightened enough to realise that the Shortlist is intended as a relatively light-hearted. although informative inspection oflife as we know it.

Standards plummeted however. in the Christmas Shortlist (The List l39) as Animal Concern‘s plea to highlight the dangers ofgiving air guns to children was grabbed as an excuse to make a big joke and negate any ounce of seriousness which the message contained.

It maybe of interest to note that the last issue of Animal Concern‘s newspaper carried a substantial and realistic portrayal of air gun abuse. portraying it as the horrific and distressing issue it really is. I realise, ofcourse, that many people do not give a flying ferret about animals, regarding them as dumb, stupid creatures to be owned and abused by the human race. We. ofcourse, are superior. We are clever enough to have invented the nuclear bomb. pollution, Neighbours et al. But for those still not convinced, I say think about the issue. Okay. you may not care about pets being splattered by a kid with a new toy but if a stray air gun pellet can maim next door‘s moggy, what could it do to your child. your nieces and nephews etc. There are two sides to the coin.

Before branding me an extremist. vegan. animal activist hippy, I‘d just like to say that I‘m not. I'm just a person who respects animals and who doesn‘t relish the prospect of waking up one morning to find one of the two cats I choose to live with maimed for life or dead.

I suggest that it may be wise to keep your Shortlist writer on a tighter leash. Or perhaps s/he may enjoy that too much?

Seonaid Holmes Allison Street Glasgow.

l l l i l

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Well, aren’t you sorry that David M. Bennie has gone? No? Then write to us or we’ll bring him back. The best letter next issue will win a Jose Cuervo T-shirt. Write to The List, Old Athenaeum

Theatre, 179 Buchanan Street, Glasgow G1 2] Z, or

14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE.

“APR-\muk

Alcoholic anonymous

I know it’s old hat, but you dragged it up yourselves last issue in your preview of the George Square Hogmanay bash. Robbie Coltrane made a mess of it at the end of 1989. didn’t he? Everyone knows that. Well no, actually, I don’t think he did, and I don‘t think many other people did either until the media went on and on about it because they thought he was pissed. I saw Robbie at the time and sure he was shambolic, but ifyou can’t have a few at New Year when can you?

It seems clear, in fact, that the one solution the TV companies can adopt for their New Year programming is to get as many celebrities as guttered as possible, stick them in front ofa camera and see what happens. It would be far more entertaining and honest than the current Charade, which is either kitsch in the extreme or an equally cringe-inducing parody of kitsch.

Give Stuart Anderson several large voddies then drag him on to Taggart‘s mate‘s party. Make two

football teams who are due to play each other on January 1 or 2 have a Hogmanay drinking contest the winners to be given one or two goals‘ start. It‘s meant to be a time ofyear for outgoing celebration. and all we get at present is either simpering embarrassment or smug sniggers at anyone, like Coltrane, who is actually prepared to enjoy themselves.

Anon

Rotherwood Avenue

Glasgow.

Well you obviously had a good time, as you forgot to sign your letter you daft sod. Write in again with your name and we'll send you the prize for the best letter this issue, a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila.

Posh ladies

Joni Mitchell‘s paintings may or may not have been produced for ‘personal reasons‘, but the fact remains that they are publicly on show at the City Art Centre and it would be helpful to know what they actually look like. Your art reviewer (issue 138) gives a very nice potted history of the thwarted artistic ambitions ofposh ladies, but the only thing she tells us about Joni Mitchell‘s paintings is that she thinks her music is better.

So what colour are they? What form do they take? What techniques does she use? Who is she influenced by? In short, should we go and see this exhibition and if not why not? And ifyou‘re not inclined to tell us. why did I buy your magazine in the first place?

Also, ifit is true that women have suffered by being ‘encouraged to flit from one art form to the other‘. where does this place Captain Beefheart. George Wyllie or Antony Sher - all men who have found it quite profitable to diversify?

Don Van Vliet Leith Walk Edinburgh.

Dirty wee boy

Congratulations on the still from the new Flesh Gordon film which you showed last issue displaying the pneumatic equipment ofone of the Cosmic Cheerleaders. Ijust hOpe you don’t get any squealing letters from Offended of Morningside demanding censorship— or, ifyou do, that you ignore them entirely. You should definitely think about publishing nude photos every issue - and of men as well as women (not that I‘m homosexual. honest). How about starting off with a candid snap ofthat nice Trevor Johnston? Go on. It‘ll get your circulation going. James Mitchell

Woodlands Drive

Glasgow.

No escape

Since most ofyour journalists get lured to Scotland on Sunday anyway, it should be no surprise to you that departed windbag Bennie the Bawl has taken up residence in that paper‘s letters column - with his obsessions, ifnot all his faculties, intact. Readers all over the country can now share his fascination with Taggart‘s ‘deid boadies’. No mention yet of Barry Dubber or the Leith Walk bollocks, but they will come, they will come.

In the main. I‘m happy for you that you’re rid of the pernicious Bennie clan (who was going to be next, his pet chinchilla?), but I have mixed emotions. Who is there to take his place?

Nick Black (reliable and eager) Heriot Row Edinburgh

72 The List 11— 24 January 1991

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