- Would the recall of the
; Scottish parliament be a ' significant step towards
self-determination or an
a elaborate publicity stunt?
'1 OK.
Are Grant Lee Buffalo the business? Is Wild Palms any good? Tell us your views on these or any other subjects and you could win a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila and a baseball cap.
Gunned down 1 Seven guns in a recent issue of The List ; (213)! Is this a record? Probably not. though the average is only about three.
Can you explain this fascination with guns? ls the idea of people slaughtering each other in this way fun or uplifting or satisfying? Is it a desirable form of population control? Do you think we are more likely to buy The List? Well some of us are not; I feel increasingly reluctant to buy a magazine which I know is going to show me pictures of people pointing guns at other people.
In the same issue is a letter lamenting your concentration on violence. And your review of an especially unpleasant looking film whose ‘stylish violence seduces the audience into complicity‘. So that’s it — as long as it's stylish it's
But we have a knife this time too; is this a new trend? Knives are more fashionable here; there is something more intimate. more personal, about
1 Background information
; Has anyone noticed what must be the
‘ surfer’s paradise that is North Fife.
using a knife. The gun is more
cowardly — it works from a safe distance. with less risk of nasty blood on your clothes. You might ask someone who‘s been carved up. or if
f unavailable. their relatives. whether the ;
attack was done with sufficient ‘stylc' to make them feel better.
lain Oughtred
Gonon House Cottage
Lasswade
You may have a point but we have to take issue with your arithmetic. We only i made it five guns, not counting the plunger-like device sticking out ofa
[)alek and a shark being handled in an ' admittedly menacing manner. The gun
lobby is not particularly strong on The
List. it's simply that a lot ofjilms with
guns are released. we review them and need an illustration. Surprise. surprise. the stills supplied by thefilm companies ' feature guns.
most surreal ad of the 90s? Under the catchy headline: ‘Getaway Car‘. the billboard shows a rugged 4W1) car complete with surlboards escaping the high-rise. hi-tech pressures of some fancy city or other.
But wait. It's a picture of Dundee with ' a few skyscrapers cut out and pasted on to create an illusion. Lucky photographer to get such an exotic location shoot. I must check out the
Imagine; maybe one of those office blocks yanked from a US city houses the HQ of Timex. It doesn't bear thinking about.
' David Ford
Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh
Getting personal
Glasgow is finally starting to feel like home. But. wow. I have to say that lefty-trendy looks a lot different over here. but then you all have a whole different game to play.
You have outdone even Village Voice and the Chicago Reader by self- consciously treading where no other widely distributed publication dares to tread. with the box at the end of the personal ads that states possible reasons for refusal. Doesn't it take all the fun out of reading the personals. though? Anyone who has ever read ‘BDGM seeks WB/GJM for 8&1). but no S&M. and definitely no SHSUMA‘ might be a little disappointed. And that bit about no ads accepted from gay men who aren‘t over 21? How many forms of 11) do you need? You people are wild. Party on Gawayne.
Robert Popper Scarrell Terrace Glasgow
We haven 't a clue what halfyour letter
means but you sound like a guy who
knows his way round the personal ads page. We won 't bother with any
‘popper' jokes -— we are sure you Re
heard them all. So step into the
Glasgow office one weekday morning ' to collect your prize and tell us who the :
hell (Iawayne is.
Sent packing
Anyway. do I win or what? Gary Nelson
Brighton Street
Edinburgh
Naked aggression
I‘ve always liked the idea of his films better than the actual watching but still held out hope that he would repeat the success of his masterpiece Meantime. Judging from what the critics were saying. Naked sounded as if he'd finally done it.
So what a massive disappointment. David Thewlis aside. the film turned out to be. It is beyond me how the man that helped create the compelling character oflobnny and coaxed such a brilliant performance from Thewlis. can throw the whole film away with a series of preposterous encounters with
the female characters.
Surely his method of writing scripts.
: where the actors develop their own characters. should ensure that Leigh
? doesn’t fall into the usual traps of men I trying to write about women's
sexuality. For some reason the opposite happens and we see a display of
passive. cardboard cutouts with easily ; removed clothes standing in for female i characters. It is beyond me how this is 1 allowed to happen. but Leigh should be i pinned down for an explanation before
he makes another film. Sue MacLean Lauderdale Gardens
5 Glasgow
Postscript
Address your letters to The List Letters at:
So Tindersticks are the ‘travel agents of
the mind‘ are they? (The List 114) Well
' I heard them on Radio 1 and before I
knew it. I found myself in a tiny cockroach-infested room on the 18th
floor ofa half-built hotel. 16 miles east ’ of Fuengirola. I was throwing up after 5 some shellfish-related incident. my
'_ girlfriend sloped off with a tapas bar
waiter called Juan and then someone nicked my travellers‘ cheques. I guess I
won’t be buying the album and I‘m . thinking of writing to Judith Chalmers.
NEXT ISSUE OUT THURSDAY 2 DECEMBER
1-1 High Street Edinburgh EH1 lTE
Of
Old Athenaeum Theatre 179 Buchanan Street
‘ Glasgow CI 212 or
Fax them to: ()31 557 8500 We will not print yourjttll address or
phone number but you must include ’ them. Deadline is the Friday before
publication. Keep them pithy. as ot‘et‘long letters may be cut. The best
letter next issue will win a bottle of f Jose ('uervo tequila and a natty baseball cap.
Aladdin: Stop rubbing your lamps and pay attention to Disney’s latest animated classic.
Meatloa/t left )2 He‘s fat. he‘s round and he makes a helluva sound. The Bat ()ut ()fHe/l ll tour rumbles round your way with ‘everything louder than everything else”.
Spend spend spend: ()ur illustrious List guide to where to shop in the unavoidable consumerism lest that is (‘Itii‘i‘i‘i‘inas. ’
PLUS: An all—blcating. all beeping guide to the phenomenon that is ambient. Pantos. Addams l'innily lit/ties. Ben Elton‘s Stark is adapted for TV, The The. 4 Non Blondes. More pantos and Blodwyn Pig! Oh. yes it is!
ORDER YOUR COPY NOW!
92 The List 19 November—2 December 1993
Printed by Scottish County Press. Sherwood Industrial Estate. Bonnyrigg. Midlothian. Tel: ()31 663 2404.