JAMES BLUHT This Sandhurst educated posh army boy has become Britain's best-selling boy balladeer. Now he brings his gtiitar to Stirling Castle.
T IN THE PARK With no Glastonbury this year. the annual Balado bonanza looks a racing certainty to be voted the Best Festival of the Year by its p; ssionate fans for the second year running.
Keep a keen eye on www.tinthepark.(:om to find out when tickets go on sale. last year they sold out Within four days. and 25,000 of this year's allocation have already been snapped up.
EDINBURGH FESTIVAL The Film Festival celebrates its (30th anniversary with the promise of major stars to share the champagne. It remains to be seen who
ivide and misrule
The Executive’s policies on cultural funding will cast a long shadow over the year, and could lead to a parting of various ways, fears Nick
his will be a year of divisions for visual art in Scotland. For a start. the haves will be forced to compete against the have- nots. as Patricia Ferguson delivers a withering dismissal of the Cultural Commission this week. There’s no chance of her coughing up the £l()() million a year extra it claimed was needed to adequately fund the country‘s cultural activities (the Scottish Arts Council currently receives
roughly £67 million). A so she will tinker with
the funding bodies instead. If she does. then as SAC chair
Richard Holloway recently admitted. sortie organisations
will have to die in order that others can ART- limp on.
As a first sign of what the rumbling storm clouds might
bring. the currently directoriess CCA in
(ilasgow has no exhibition to stage after its current show closes. Thankfully. it should reopen again in April with Ross Sinclair's exhibition for the second year of the Glasgow International. In the realms of comparative wealth. the National (ialleries will wave farewell to retiring director general Timothy Clifford in March. The abominable showman hands over to John Leighton. leaving the eagerly-awaited newcomer to make his excuses for an exhibition that will certainly pack in the crowds and fill the coffers. but will probably leave many critics and local artists stone cold. The exhibition features the work of Ron Mueck — formerly a puppetmaker for children's television — whose eerily lifelike figures (slightly larger. or slightly smaller than life size) are certainly the work of a skilled
restaurants for delicious leftovers. It might sound unappetising, but freeganism has a growing following in Scotland.
DEIFICA‘I’ION Richard Pryor. Casanova, Johnny Cash. Jack the Ripper,
27:2 FREEMNISM Raking the bins of posh
Edie Sedgwick. George Best. Margaret Thatcher: prepare for the onslaught.
while smoking — almost certainly while shivering in ' the back yard outside
craftsman. But are they any more than a flimsy visual joke'.’ Alongside this. the Dean Gallery will cash in on a touring exhibition of Van Gogh. featuring work borrowed from Scottish and linglish collectors which should have visitors queuing round the block even if it doesn‘t include the artist‘s best known work. Meanwhile. there will be another. much deeper. division between the populist tendency and the hardcore art world. ‘The art world dances to Vettriano's tune.‘ claimed The Scotsman late last year. as one of the Fife-born artist‘s paintings was predicted to break his own £75().()()() sales
SMIRTING Flirting your favourite bar. club. theatre or restaurant. You might find the odd
comedian out there too.
‘ FREECYCLING Giving away stuff on the internet for nothing. or swapping it for something better. Like all those unwanted Catwoman dolls that someone didn't sell.
will be popping the Perrier bottles at the Fringe. but Simon Rattle will be among the stars of Brian McMaster's last International Festival. And the Book Festival grows ever stronger, too.
ROLLING STONES The Rolling Stones still show no signs ot slowing as their ‘A Bigger Bang' tour comes to Glasgow with a state- ot-the-an set and an explosive performance.
record at auction this spring. Such populist tendencies will rear their heads again in CowParade. an exhibition of l()() life-sized cows — each decorated by a different artist — which will arrive on the streets of Edinburgh during May. It’s the kind of ‘happcning‘ that will hit the newspaper front pages thanks to its wacky appeal. while the critics will wince.
Over in Glasgow. there‘s a growing backlash among artists against the tabloid and art dealer- dominated climate that has held sway in London recently. The result? We'll see a further move into deeply serious territory at innovative galleries like the Modern Institute, Sorcha Dallas and Mary Mary. Critics will rail against what they see as impenetrable intellectualism.
A few exhibitions look set to bridge divides. with the taut-twined space-slicing simplicity of classic American modernist Fred Sandback likely to unite critics and the general public at the Fruitmarket in Edinburgh. And Scotland‘s most successful artist. Douglas Gordon. has a retrospective at the RSA building in November which promises to be both popular and intellectually tight. Ironically. the subject of much of Gordon's work is the divided self. . .
Grudge 2, Fantastic Four 2, Big Momma '3 House 2, Garfield 2, Ice Age 2.
£35 KIDULTS Entertainment that both kids and adults can enjoy. Not exactly new, but looks set to hit the
it" CINESEQUELISM Sin City 2. Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Jackass 2,
mainstream now that there's a film called
Kidu/thood. 5—19 Jan 2006 THE LIST 21