30th November 2009
Anna Murray Student Loans Company (SLC) staff shared almost £2 million in bonuses between 2008 and 2009. A total of £1,893,500 was paid out, with 1603 of 1876 SLC staff members reported to have received bonuses. The five heads of the company received rewards of between £15,000 and £21,000 each. The figures, revealed on November ...
30th November 2009
Craig MacLellan November 14 saw thousands of people, including University of Glasgow students, march through the streets of Glasgow in opposition to the Scottish Defence League’s (SDL) presence in the city. Around 2,000 people from a range of student organisations, Scottish political parties, faith organisations and trade unions gathered under the banner of “Scotland United” ...
30th November 2009
James Maxwell James Kelman possesses a spectacular talent for provocation and controversy. When his novel How Late It Was, How Late was awarded the Booker Prize in 1994, one judge, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, erupted in fuming protest, describing the decision as “a disgrace”. He was once branded an “illiterate savage” by the journalist Simon Jenkins, ...
30th November 2009
Nick Biggs Live albums are all too often ham-fisted affairs hashed together as the result of an over-inflated ego or an under-inflated bank balance. Such albums tend to contain little of value and nothing original. This live album however, is more than just an after thought, and can be considered essential listening for all Waits ...
30th November 2009
Nick Biggs New Jersey newcomers Real Estate are a beach-pop quartet that fuse playful guitar riffs with drowsy vocals. Their eponymous debut album fizzes, gurgles and splashes for nearly forty sun-drenched minutes, whilst hinting at greater depth behind the sea, sand and sunshine facade. The guitar riff to album opener Beach Comber meanders in as ...
30th November 2009
Oisín Kealy … checks in with punk pioneer Toyah Willcox! Does it feel like thirty years since It’s a Mystery? No, because I performed it six weeks ago to thirty thousand people, it’s remained completely constant. I don’t really think back, I’ve got too much going on. I feel absolutely no connection to the eighties ...
30th November 2009
Glasgow University hosts malaria conference The University of Glasgow has hosted a successful meeting of the European Virtual Institute for Malaria Research, (EVIMalaR) which saw the University welcome some of the world’s leading malaria research scientists. EVIMalaR consists of 42 of the EU’s malaria research groups, from 11 countries and 33 institutes. Those in attendance ...
30th November 2009
Jean-Xavier Boucherat Perhaps it has been a decade now since you last handled an audio cassette, unless of course you’re a fan of the numerous genres still thriving on the format. The grainy texture unique to analogue recordings is the perfect vessel for several DIY styles, from noise and power-electronics, to ambience and kosmische. Merch ...
30th November 2009
Luke James The Box, directed by Richard Kelly (best known for cult film Donnie Darko), stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple who receive a visit from a strange, disfigured man known as Mr. Steward (Frank Langella) who offers them a million dollars if they press a button on a box. The catch: ...
30th November 2009
Lucia Hodgson Anyone fortunate enough to have avoided their local cinema on November 20 did so for one good reason: TwiHards. Easily identifiable by their inextinguishable teenage energy, black attire, and choice of slogan t-shirt – Team Edward or Bite Me are popular choices – they are the new wave of girl fandom. For those ...
