A source of fascination are those couples who manage to shop together without ending up in the divorce courts. One man decided to photograph his peers instead of spending the time sleeping or constantly looking at his mobile phone and the result is a very popular Instagram, ‘Miserable men that went shopping. I felt their pain’.
Let’s ease our way gently in to Monday morning shall we with this crowd pleasing Joni Mitchell cover by rising Scottish star Siobhan Wilson performing at Roddy Hart’s recent Roaming Roots Revue – a sell out Celtic Connections show Avocado Sweet was lucky enough to attend. The night was a paean to the wordy, gentle and summery sounds of the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1970s – Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills
It’s a pity that the reputation of Robert Burns, a prolific and uniformly brilliant poet, is consistently condensed into the same few poems, quoted and misquoted over and over again. He wrote on diverse topics – money and politics among them – but on ly a few of his works are widely known. A recurrent theme was his love for and lack of shame in babies born in unconventional cirncumstances.
The charms of Scottish men proved irresistible for two Canadian sisters and explains why ‘Georgia Rose‘, a furniture upcycling company happens to be based in Dunfermline, Fife instead of Prince Edward Island, Canada. Two days after missing her flight back to Canada, Natasha Gallant Marr, who had been visiting her sister Carrie in Edinburgh, was in Wester Hailes when she met Charlie, her future husband. Several years have passed since then
Between 1959 and 1963 artist Saul Steinberg and the photographer Inge Morath – who married Arthur Miller in 1962 – photographed friends wearing paper bags and cardboard masks decorated by Steinberg. It is not clear why they embarked on this project, nor why they stopped. The masks are fantastic but what strikes most is how elegantly everyone is dressed. There are some great outfits and poses – not to mention
Californian artist Yumi Sakugawa‘s hit comic strip about friend love is now available as a book. A one-eyed formless protagonist reaches out to someone she feels is a perfect match as a friend in a story that is both touching and perceptive about connections in a technological age. Sakugawa, 29, says the book does come from an autobigraphical place, ‘I was a freshman in college when Facebook first came out.
The Poetry of Sex, an anthology, edited by Sophie Hannah is published by Penguin on 30 January. Not all the poems are about Daniel Craig, only two appear alongside poems by Catullus and Andrew Marvell’s 17th century plea To His Coy Mistress. Message by Wendy Cope, below, is a funny plea to her lover to hurry up and get on with it while they still have their own teeth. Pick up
Very sad to hear of the death, at 90, of the brilliant Elizabeth Jane Howard and irritated that obituaries are focusing on her lovers and marriages. The woman was a genius as anyone deeply touched by The Beautiful Visit, The Sea Change or the mighty Cazalet Chronicles will attest. Seriously – Kingsley who? RIP Ms Howard and thanks.