lETI'ERS
Carry on Ceilidh
As one of the thousands of Celtic music enthusiasts who will be heading Glasgow Green-ward on May 24 for the Scottish Fleadh, I am writing to complain about the discriminatory conditions for admission imposed by the organisers. Having forked out twenty quid for a ticket which, while representing excellent value for money, is a far from insignificant sum, I am informed by the accompanying blurb that: ‘No food or drink is to be brought into the arena’, and that: ‘All alcohol will be confiscated’; the excuse for this being that there will be ‘plenty of shops on site selling food and drink‘. As anyone who has ever attended a concert or festival knows. on-site catering is invariably extortionately over-priced, and usually necessitates standing in queues for long periods, thereby missing a sizeable proportion of the bands you‘ve paid to see. My main objection is that since the ticket is such a good deal, a lot of people without much spare cash (those on the dole, for instance) will have gone all-out to scrape together the money to get in, and will then have their day at least partly spoilt by the fact that they can't afford to buy anything to eat or drink. There’s no readmission, either, so you can’t even nip out for a cheap snack. I know this set-up means that the organisers can charge the concessions-stalls holders more by guaranteeing a captive market. but it‘s extremely unfair on less well-heeled music fans and is also highly ironic, given that the right-on, left-wing Workers Beer Company are co-promoters for the event. Katherine Turner Stirling.
JOSE
The ban applies only to glass bottles. flasks and large plastic bottles which could be used as missile material, according to the Scottish promoters: Regular Music. 50 don 't worry Katherine, you can take your lovingly prepared Marmalade and Stilton sarnies and small size cartons of
i l
If you’ve sussed out which the real Madonna of the Yarnwinder is, been Flung into Spring or are
-' just Fleadh out, don’t keep it to yourself. There are 63,000 Letters page readers want to know the reason why! Tell them all through a letter to The List. The best one wins a bottle of the
incredibly wonderful and tasty Jose Cuervo Gold Tequila.
drink. Have a bottle of Special Gold Jose C uervo Tequila for your pains — but don ’t bother taking any to the
3 Fleadh, as allalcoholwill be
confiscated at the door.
Sex and psychopathy
In response to the feature on My Own Private Idaho in The List 172, I would like to say how good it was to see an article which dealt in a positive way with gay people in films, the true minority in the film industry. Alan Morrison‘s potted history of lesbian and gay cinema was thoughtful and refreshingly open-minded, ifsadly short.
The mainstream film industry seldom features as a subject, or as integral characters. homosexual and/or bisexual people. On the rare occasions when they do, such as in Silence ofthe Lambs of the more recent Basic Instinct, the negative stereotype of non-heterosexual people is reiterated a societal ‘norm’. The current equation of ‘deviant’ sex with psychopathic tendencies is detrimental, to say the least, to the bisexual, lesbian and gay members of our society. It is unclear which is the primary threat to the filmmakers norms- the ‘deviant’ sex or the psychopathy - and which for that matter comes first.
An additional aspect ofconcern in Basic Instinct is the way it panders to the heterosexual male fantasy of female bisexuality. The female lead is allowed to be sexually aggressive, however this aspect of her character is seen as detrimental and adds to her identification as the ‘evil woman' — she is sexual in her own right therefore she is a threat to men and thus society at large.
I do not agree with censorship and
would not wish to see the films mentioned withdrawn; however, because of the limited visibility of lesbian, gay and bisexual characters within films, a more positive approach is vital.
Mother Russia and Sister Cyn.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (Scottish Order)
Edinburgh.
Moving
Well. its a good job I don’t rely totally on The List for televisual recommendations, or I would have missed the best documentary to be transmitted for ages: that is. Viewpoint ‘92, Dalai Lama: Compassion in Exile. In part poetic. extremely moving and informative on a subject almost totally ignored by the West. A far better choice, may I say, than the suggested Boys from the Bush. an Australian ‘Comedy’. Get political please. not all ofus turn on the telly to turn off our brains.
Gill Young
Broughton Street
Edinburgh.
Byte straits
It is excusable for you to annex to Glasgow all lands of Hillhead in 1872, instead of the limited area of the University, as you did in the Byres Road feature in The List 173. However, one cannot allow the suggestion that the city unreasonably rejected the talent ofCharles Rennie Mackintosh for the design of the new building itself.
It appears that there was some local bye-law or other that precluded architectural submissions from infants under six months of age!
C. R. M. was certainly a genius. but it was beyond even him to be considered for the design of a major university building at that time. The Prince and Princess of Wales laid the foundation stones on Gilmorehill on October 81868. C. R. M. was born in Dennistoun on June 7.
While Glasgow acquired some
landward West End areas in 1872,
Byres Road remained free for much longer. The top part. east of Byres Road. was absorbed when the burgh of Hillhead ceased in November 1891, while the lower halfsurvived until the burgh of Partick was annexed in November 1912.
Stanley K Hunter
Gray Street
Glasgow.
Bad smell
Am I the only person to have been afflicted by the noxious stench in ScotRail’s tunnel just outside Queen Street station? It fills the carriage every time I take a train to or from Edinburgh. inducing waves of nausea and forcing me to hold my breadth until the train emerges from one side or other ofthe tunnel. On the not so rare occasions when the train is brought to a halt in the tunnel itself, the ordeal is almost unbearable.
Has this rotten ordure an accidental origin? Or is it part ofa dastardly plot to dissuade Edinburghers from visiting our fair city? Or even perhaps part of a campaign to prevent us from getting out? I think we should be told. David Anderson Polwarth Street Glasgow
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NEXT ISSUE OUT ON THURSDAY 4 JUNE
Deviation: I)V8 does the Strange Fish Simulation: virtual reality in The Lawnmower Man Standing ovation: .loan Armatrading squares the circle
" [AND FOR YOUR ADDITIONAL READING PLEASURE. . . the wonder of Wenders, the wizard of Izzard and the enigma
of Ruby . . .
and that's just for starters.
72 The List 22 May — 4 June 1992
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