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O P I N I O N The shape of things to come
The List’s own soothsayer, Jonny Ensall, suggests that 2012 augurs well for cultural happenings
I t’s 2012, but fear not, things aren’t as bad as they seem. Before you decide to occupy government property, or smash a brick through Dixons, take heart in the folklore of a simpler age. For when times are black, you can always rely on the comfort of superstition.
Thus we begin our predictions for the New Year with some dark things happening in forests. In the middle of our four years of Cultural Olympiad artist Craig Coulthard will be setting up a pristine football pitch in the
middle of a Borders forest, playing two games on it, and never returning to it again – letting nature reclaim the cleared space (forestpitch.org, 12 Jul). Not pagan enough for you? Then look out for The Psychedelic Forest Disco at Kelburn Castle on 12 May.
You can seek shelter from the modern world in the comfort of your
own hermitage. But why not indulge that most anti-social of passions (reading) in a less lonely environment. We predict great things of both Margins (Cargo Publishing’s literary takeover of the Arches in February) and Bloody Scotland (the country’s first dedicated crime fiction fest, 14–16 Sep).
Of course, no set of grand predictions would be complete without the return of a hero. Here’s four for you: Jason Bourne; Batman: Spiderman; Napoleon Dynamite (the latter only in cartoon form on E4, but featuring many of the film actors as voice artists.) And, lo, we will behold their muscular majesty at the grand altar of IMAX. Other travellers from foreign lands (such as London and Manchester) will come to our cities, playing arresting music under indecipherable names. Such as extremely good soaring indie-rock from would-be mountain men (and actual Mancunians) WU LYF (SWG, Glasgow, 17 Mar), or producer SBTRKT who will be bringing a magic music box full of post-dubstep to King Tut’s, Glasgow (26 Feb), and there’s even a new The XX album rumoured to be coming out before summer.
With all of this going on, it’s no wonder that the people will rejoice! New avant garde music festival The House of Constant Song will be happening simultaneously across three cities (witchcraft!) Glasgow, London and Berlin on 6 & 7 Apr. Also in April, FOUND and Aidan Moffat (List Award winners and nominee respectively) will be collaborating on a ‘life in records’ art project for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art. To top it all, he of the famous feet and teeth, Gene Kelly (pictured), will be the subject of the Glasgow Film Festival retrospective in late
Feb. So, come ye wee cowering people of Scotland out from your lairs (or from under your layers), cast out the false idols Little Mix and Michael Bublé and prepare for a new season of firelight, music and carousing . . . and Sherlock starting on BBC1.
See also our preview of the year, starting from
page 16.
ReviewofReviews
THE IRON LADY OUT 6 JAN
10 THE LIST 5 Jan–2 Feb 2012
WHAT WE SAID: ‘The Iron Lady is a film about the cost of power that features a brilliantly convincing lead performance from Meryl Streep, but offers no significant insights on the lady of the title.’ THE LIST WHAT THEY SAID: ‘How people react to The Iron Lady depends on their attitude to her. This is a brave stab at a contemporary life, and even with its flaws it does Margaret Thatcher a certain
grudging justice. Awards should be coming Streep’s way; yet her brilliance rather overshadows the film itself’. THE TELEGRAPH ‘This is Streep's film and she is absolutely remarkable. It is an acting tour-de-force which deserves an Oscar nod. There is much to commend here, including its subtlety, daring and genuine intelligence. Left and right will probably both be enraged. Everyone else will be ever- so-slightly underwhelmed.’ POLITICS.CO.UK