Alvar Aalto
Alvar Aalto’s work looks like a cheese-seeker’s dream. His unabashed use of brown, a timber fetish and the open-plan living-areas all hint at some 705 doomsday scenario. Yet, don’t be fooled; Finlander Aalto is one of the most respected modernist architects of his day, which ended in I976. And for the record, he was also responsible for a new form of laminated bent plywood furniture in the 30s A time when the Finns were crying out for the stuff. Alvar Aa/to in Seven Buildings is at Glasgow Gallery Of Modern Art from Fri 30 Jul until Sun 70 Oct. See Art listings, page 87.
i J ’3 I. Bollywood Superstars
India produces more films for larger audiences than any other country in the world, even America. India’s Bombay-based filmmaking equivalent
of Hollywood, Bollywood produces an endless stream of immensely popular movies — both at home and abroad — most notable for their glamorous (and cheesy) song and dance routines. Top Asian film stars Akshay Kumar, Raveena Tandon,
Karisma Kapoor, Chandrachur Singh and Sonu Nigam re-enact routines
from their films in association with
Scottish Screen and Glasgow’s dedicated Asian station Radio Kranti.
Bollywood Superstars is at SE C C, Glasgow on Sun 7 Aug. See Glasgow Life, page 88
Frontlines
I hate holidays, As far as I'm concerned, they were thought up by a misanthrope wrth failed world domination plans and an axe the size of Strathclyde to grind. So distraught was he (and it would have been a heI at his continurng failure to enslave the entire human race, he hit upon the then radical idea of getting someone else to do it for him The MiSSion -- one nation stuck in a miserable groove, And thus the package tour was born.
Go wrth me on this. It must have been a dark and satanic mind to come up wrth the notion of encouraging the entire country to pack all of its belongings into a too small bag and enter the public transport fray all at the same time. Like workers to the drone, hundreds of thousands of sun-seekers swarm into arrivals lounges giddy at the prospect of third degree burns, possible typhoid and chronic alcohol porsoning. Checking into their Chernobyl Legoland resorts, they are then
I L doesn't want a holiday in the sun
ILLS
people to spend £1,000 on a fortnight in a choleric cesspit With only Germans and mosquitoes for company must be up there With the one behind William Hague’s Big Push. QLiite why everyone is compelled to take their holidays en masse in a month when there is the glimmer of a chance of some sunshine in this c0untry is beyond me But then I speak With the zeal of the converted Last year, as I discovered that a dollar c0uld buy you 90 seconds of screaming at a Visa call centre in Kilmarnock and settled down for my second hungry night in New York, I resolved to holiday at home in future. I then took the rather radical step of choosing to take my holidays in long weekend chunks, and base them around the festivals. While friends laughed and clubbed together to buy me waterproofs, I remained resolute and kicked off the festival season at a holiday camp in Hastings. The sun shone, the music played and I slept in clean sheets every night Friends looked slightly subdued, but reclined in comfort on sofas fashioned from cries of 'fluke' Returning from Glastonbury With a tan to rival that of Judith Chalmers on a desert special, my so-called friends were beginning to finger their tickets for two weeks of sun and
Like workers to the drone, hundreds of thousands of sun-seekers swarm into arrivals lounges giddy at the prospect of third degree burns, possible typhoid and chronic alcohol poisoning.
herded onto charabancs and bussed through the seven rings of national-themed hell for the next fortnight. As nights spent smashing plates/walking on fire/drinking bulls’ urine merge into the days of touring slums/tasting insects/buying pomtless Wicker, the hapless holidaymakers stumble from one bar to another in search of the wonderful experience Valhalla promised in the pamphlets. Meanwhile, a distant Blofeld figure picks up Best Mass HypnOSIS Cover Up Award for his masterly Job on the travel brochures and overall concept. For these and many other reasons more numerous than Mel Gibson’s spawn, I fear organised fun. Especrally when it comes in the form of McHoIidays and all their accompanying tawdriness. The reasoning that leads some
Sickness in the Costa Del A Lot rather nervously, After a glorious T in the Park and the sharp upswmg in burn cream sales, they are finally beginning to admit that, whilst the powers above clearly do not want me to travel abroad, they seem perfectly happy to squander a few rays on my attempts to snub the great package conspiracy.
And whilst that continues, you'll find me summering at the mixmg desk in various fields around the nations. See you there.
Gill Mills co-presents Radio 1 ’5 Evening Session opt-out, Session In Scotland, every Thu, 8-10pm; co-hosts The Loafers on BBC Choice, Tue—Fri, 10pm; and presents Hot Pursuits on BBC Knowledge, Radio Scotland.