isadub is…

Posted on August 24, 2006
Filed Under Glasgow, Outside Ireland, architecture, art, blog, culture, history, pub, work | 1 Comment

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Today, Peter, Bjorn and John’s new CD, Writer’s Block, arrived. I’d ordered it ages ago on pre-order and wasn’t really expecting it for another couple of weeks. They have a growing reputation and you’ve probably heard their recent single on the radio. It’s called Young Folk and you’ll definitely remember the whistling in it. I think they’re Swedish and, hopefully, they’re as good as The Sugarcubes (who were from ‘up that way‘) rather than the Cardigans, who really are Swedish. My first listen to the CD is positive.

Normally, only people with no life (cough, cough) get excited about a new cd but the real news is I’m going to Glasgow tomorrow! I mentioned last week that a co-worker in our Scottish office left suddenly on gardening leave as he was going to a rival company. His going-away party is tomorrow night and we’re starting in Bar Soba , a cafe bar that serves Thai food. It looks really nice and they even do veggie food, although it has tofu in it! There’s twenty people confirmed and, because of our group size, we’re getting our own room. Nobody from senior management is going so it-should-be-fun. I’m generally a believer in the ‘what goes stays on tour stays on tour‘ rule so I may have to heavily edit my blog on what happened.

After ‘Glasgow’, there’s an after-party in Stirling. And I definitely won’t be writing about that. I don’t have anywhere to stay yet – there isn’t a single hotel room to be had in Glasgow as there’s a Rolling Stones concert on. Having said that, I may not need one. For a country where it’s gets dark really early, it’s kinda weird the Scots are leaders in ‘all-night’ partying. Edinburgh, a city I don’t really like, has/had 24-hour drinking while Glasgow has/had clubs that lasted until 4am or later. I lived in Glasgow in the ’90′s and, even now, I still get a bit ‘affected‘ if I’m awake when the birds start singing at dawn.

Glasgow is an odd place. It’s a beautiful city but full of contradictions. One contradiction that most people don’t mention is the architecture. Unlike Edinburgh, historical Glaswegian buildings look quite plain. Until you look up! It probably has something to do with their religious backgrounds and the fact that Glasgow was a hard place; a hard place to work and a hard place to live in the 18/19th century. On the surface, Glasgow is tough, plain and hardy with it’s granite veneers. But dig a bit deeper (i.e., look up) and you’ll see they have a playful side with their gargoyles and other grotesques decorating their buildings.

The people are tough, plain, and hardy as well. But they do have their playful side. I went to a party once in the Gorbals, which is a dog-rough neighbourhood in Glasgow. It’s probably fair to say the Glasgow Smile started here. The Glasgow Smile involved someone cutting/slashing you from the mouth to the ear with two blades, each blade separated by a matchstick! You would end up with two cuts, a fraction apart, from your mouth to your ear. Of course, you’d get stitched up in the hospital. But…every time you smiled or laughed, the stitches would re-open!! Anyway, on the way out to the party, I was really impressed by the efficiency of the taxi-driver. I admired his dedication in getting us there as quickly as possible. The party was in a flat about 10 stories up in a local authority housing block. A concierge let us in and personally walked us to the lifts. Wow, what service. The flat was pretty nice, and roomy too. The neighbours didn’t mind the loud music and the view… the views across night-time Glasgow were fantastic. Being a fairly egalitarian fellow, I wasn’t too sniffy about where I lived so I wanted to know how I could get a flat like this. I wasn’t getting any joy from the housing trusts in my then neighbourhood so I was looking at all options. ‘Hey pal, it’s fucking easy‘, was the advice, ‘just declare yerself homeless te de cancil and go live in a homeless hostel fer tea weaks. Then yer’ll get a flat like this‘. Then he stabbed me in the chest with his finger. For emphasis. All-in-all, I was really impressed with the concierge service and the view, and I thought to myself, at dawn with the birds singing, how bad can the Gorbals be.

Well, let me tell you daylight was a revelation! The dedicated taxi driver drove that fast because he feared for his life. The concierge was a security guard. He escorted us to the lift to make sure we didn’t start injecting. The lifts had cameras (to stop people injecting). And the Gorbals was a bombsite – think The Lebanon. It was really, really bad. And bleak. If I lived there, I could understand how people would start injecting. But the night-time view! Sadlu, taxis wouldn’t collect from the area as they feared being robbed for their cash. Similarly the pizza shops. So I had to get a bus into back into town. And that made my mind up. I may be an egalitarian fellow but I’m also a bit lazy. And life without taxi’s and pizza deliveries was not the life I wanted.

Don’t get me wrong, Glasgow is a great place to live in, and visit. I’ve been reluctant to go back for a decade because I don’t want to soil or sully the memories from that part of my life. The Glasgow wiki brings back sooo many memories. Here’s just one alternative to what I’ve written. The St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art has the original Christ of St John of the Cross by Salvador Dali. If you have any vague interest in religion, or art for that matter, seeing it for real is simply stunning.

Edit: I’m looking at this picture and it brings back memories. In all sincerity, it really, really doesn’t convey how mind-blowing this painting is. The museum have hung it really well (stop sniggering down the back) and there’s lots of room to just…look…and…marvel…and contemplate.

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