Rush Glasgow SECC October 2007

my brothers and i saw the best band in the world a couple of days ago. Rush were playing at the Glasgow SECC, we saw them not so long ago on september 14th 2004, but my first Rush experience was april 15th 1992 on the roll the bones tour (also at the SECC).

here is master drummer Neil Peart doing his thing. his drum solo has been evolving over the years, and this time seems to have been changed quite a lot. it has almost ambient elements but towards the end has more industrial sounding elements. in this yt vid, you can't really make anything out but you can hear the gist. there is also a little solo by Alex Lifeson straight after giving Geddy and Neil a rest.

the intro and outro (after song YYZ) features Geddy Lee as a kind of Mike Myers 'Fat B***ard' character in a kilt talking to himself (Geddy).

he must like Scotland, so hopefully it won't be long before they come back.

Leonardo Da Vinci Painting Recovered in Glasgow

an artist friend of my told me her exciting news a little while ago. yesterday morning she happened to see a chap with a case that seemed one of those heavy duty bombproof types for storing important documents. she had seen lecturers and people holding talks using them before. the chap seemed to be struggling with getting it out of a car, but then went into a building in west regent street, Glasgow.

a little while later undercover police seemed to be all over the place, went into the building and fished out the man, his case and a few other people, one with his head covered with a coat or blanket.

what was in the case? drugs?bombs? firearms? no, apparently some artwork that was made by Leondardo da Vinci. the Madonna of the Yarnwinder turned up in the city centre where it's believed it was going to be sold. this painting was nicked from Drumlanrig castle in Dumfries & Galloway, the thieves pretended to be tourists before stealing the valuable painting. it's not the only Madonna of the Yarnwinder though. there are 2 other versions of this painting in private collections but i'm sure it's still worth a bob or two. well, enough to warrant police from 4 anti-crime agencies working at retreiving the painting for 4 years. it even made it onto the FBI's 10 most wanted art crimes list.


other important art news: wasps studios is opening it's doors this weekend. visit our studios in dennistoun and get artwork that is a little bit more affordable than £37 million.
:)

Audition-Attack of the (Annie) Clones

wandering around Glasgow over the last few days has been a little surreal. it started on monday when a little girl with the most outrageous curly hair passed by with her parents. odd hair, i thought. a few minutes later, it happened again but this time there were 2 of them side by side with their guardians. a double take was necessary, to make sure i wasn't suffering the effects of sleep deprivation. sure enough, they were apparently real. then they seemed to be everywhere. every black taxi that went by seemed to be filled with a clone of the first girl, being shuttled off to her destination.

it crossed my mind that there must be an audition for some stage show of the musical Annie. i hope so, but just about all of the clones had blondish hair, not like the traditional red head of little orphan Annie. the thought then popped into my head: could this be an alien invasion not unlike Invasion of the Bodysnatchers? movies fill our heads with images of 10 ft exoskeletoned, whiplash tail monsters, and blobs, and superbeings. but the perfect way to infiltrate a society is to send an army of curly haired little clones, with their little carrycases on wheels following behind them. goodness knows what advanced weapons technology they can
pack away in there.

or it could just be auditions for Annie. i hope so...
ever feel that you have inadvertently stumbled upon a movie set and don't know where the exit is? :)