Much as I love being paid for my writing, I do occasionally take part in promotions like the Smashwords Summer Sale. That means you can currently get Leda, Office Life (and Death) and A New Year’s Trio for free as ebooks, as well as Running for Cover, a short story, which is always free.
See all the books, and my author interview, on my Smashwords profile.
By the way, I’ve just had my annual author photo taken, courtesy of Studio Genti, Lushnje, Albania. What do you think?
Another photo post – give the people what they want.
The story behind this is that I was at ‘Hypermarket’ this weekend at SWG3, an arts space behind the railway arches off the Expressway (if you know Glasgow at all). It wasn’t terribly ‘hyper’ – in fact it was a small-to-medium craft fair marooned in an over-large space, with a half-hearted selection of overpriced “street food” outside in the courtyard, under a dull grey sky.
I didn’t stay long, but while I was there I took the opportunity to photograph the one stand-out item of this whole setup: the graffiti art. There were walls and walls of it, freestanding, arranged into a sort of not-very-challenging maze, as you can probably see from this picture.
My favourite was this picture of ?vultures, painted on sheets of metal – appropriate for an old galvanizing yard.
I liked the joke on this Billy Connolly one. There’s a lot of Billy Connolly art around Glasgow at the moment, since he’s just turned 75.
This fish took me a wee moment to work out at first.
And I still haven’t worked this one out.
Or this. It really looks like a word, but I don’t know what it says. Answers on a postcard (or in the comments below).
There were others, if you want to pop along (check the SWG3 website for events) but these were my favourites.
And finally, the credits (I don’t know which name applies to which artwork, but I’m sure you know how search engines work.):
My previous photo post on Glasgow’s grafitti art proved rather popular. As a writer, this leaves me with mixed feelings: happy that people are reading my blog, perturbed that more people read it when there isn’t much actual writing. Hmm. However, stiffening my British lip and trying not to be offended, I have decided to post another lot of photos. (Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.)
Glasgow is, of course, swimming in great architecture. In fact you can barely tell one beautifully proportioned Georgian street from another when you’re in a hurry, and the looming, ornate Victorian piles have a tendancy to blend into one another after a while. (If you’re reading this thinking “Isn’t Glasgow a big industrial dump?”, do your research. Or better yet, come and visit.)
These photos are of some of the nice wee details in Glasgow city centre that often get overlooked – things we ought to appreciate more. For instance, there’s a lovely new piece of artwork in Buchanan Galleries that people don’t tend to see much of as they rush towards the escalators on their way to Boots.
…divine rhythm, wholly at one
With the earth, riding the Heavens with it, as the stones do,
And all soon must.
The central Post Office, on St Vincent Street, is rather impressive if you have the time to stop and appreciate it.
Even Central Station’s not bad. A Dutch friend said it reminded her of Hogwarts! (An aside: Central’s not much like Hogwarts, actually, but the wood-panelled, stained glass dining room of St Salvators Hall in St Andrews really is. If it had been any closer, food would have appeared by magic. And tasted nice.)
To be fair, you probably have noticed Central Station. It’s not exactly a detail (though I like the wrought iron working in this photo). But what about the giant metal peacock in the middle of Buchanan Street (above Princes Square)?
And probably my favourite detail of all: baby dragons outside 200 St Vincent Street. Why? I don’t know, but they’re adorable.
Do you have any favourite overlooked details of Glasgow? Please add a comment!
Unusually for me, a photo blog post. I’ve been meaning for a while to upload photos of the amazing graffiti art on the corner of Argyle Street and York Street in Glasgow city centre. There are billboards advertising shows, but they are surrounded by painted frames as if they are in an art gallery, and they share the walls with clever rip-offs of famous works of art. Below you can see The Great Wave off Kanagawa with an octopus escaping from it, along with The Scream and a Dali clock.
If you look carefully at the scene below you can see a thief trying to steal one of the paintings. If you look even more closely, you can see another one
.
Round the corner, on York Street, a passer-by is startled by a girl climbing out of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, while the Mona Lisa of Glasgow gazes out complacently.
Meanwhile, a tired businessman makes his way to work, ignoring all the mural goings on.
If you liked that, there’s more of this kind of thing in a public Flickr gallery by someone called D7606. (I’m assuming that’s a sort of numerical username. It would be very hard on the person if it was a real name. You’d feel like you were in Les Miserables the whole time.)
K C Murdarasi 