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AROUND TOWN Those ready to banish the winter blues need look no further than Glasgow, as Joyworks laughter workshops roll back into town. Check out Banish the Monday Blues at the Sports Cafe on Sauchiehall Street, on the last Monday of every month, or the Lunchtime Laugh N De-Stress on Wednesday, at the G12 Studios. In food news, gastronomy fans should be happy to hear that Taste festival will make its return to Edinburgh, from 28–30 May.
B O O K S Literature and opera collide as Scottish Opera premiere five original short works at the Word Festival in Aberdeen this May, for the third year of the company’s Five:15 programme. This year’s themes include isolation, the philosophy of Zen, modern morality and the state of the economy, and boasts partnerships between writer Ron Butlin and composer Lyell Cresswell; librettist Peter Davidson and composers Paul Mealor and Pete Stollery; writer Bernard MacLaverty and composer Vitaly Khodosh; poet/writer Alan Spence and composer Miriama Young; and acclaimed author Zoë Strachan and composer Nick Fells.
CLUBS March starts off in suitable style with the re- opening of the Arches on Mon 1 Mar. 2ManyDJs will perform an exclusive DJ set as part of a special shindig on Fri 5 Mar. Elsewhere in the Arches camp, Danny Rampling brings his house offerings to the party, along with Colours residents Jon Mancini & 8 THE LIST 18 Feb–4 Mar 2010
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Channel Hopper
Dispatches from the sofa, with Brian Donaldson
■ A tough, highly trained US operative is chained to a wall soon to be tortured by a nasty European. Even when his captor brings out the jump leads, you just know he won’t talk. No, it’s not the 348th day of 24 but Archer (Fiver, Thu 25 Feb, 10.30pm), an acerbic little animated number from the humble people who helped bring you the Adult Swim cable channel. Seemingly, creator Adam Reed dreamed up the concept while sitting in a café, wondering why he didn’t have the balls to stroll up to a Spanish lady he fancied the look of. But then, who would? A spy, of course. And so Sterling Archer (codename: Duchess) was bo(u)rn(e): a slick drunkard and womanising jackass who, in the opening episode, concocts a mole in the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS) to deflect attention from his flamboyant attitude to the expense account.
ARTS AND CULTURE NEWS COVERED IN TWO MINUTES
Friendly Fires are set to perform live at RockNess and have been announced to DJ at Hinterland festival
Giovanni Ferri. See www.thearches. co.uk for more. C O M E D Y With the Magners Glasgow International Comedy Festival just a month away, Frankie Boyle has added an extra show on Thu 18 Mar, to keep up with the demand. The Shed have also added a second show on Thu 25 Mar, featuring Mark Nelson, Bruce Morton and Des Clarke.
MUSIC The Snow Patrol boys have announced a gig at Bellahouston Park this summer on Sat 12 Jun, alongside Band of Horses and Frightened Rabbit. Elsewhere, Hinterland Festival has revealed its line-up. Confirmed acts include British Sea Power, Jeffrey Lewis, Hot Club de Paris with DJ sets from Friendly Fires and Hot Chip, with more names expected in the coming weeks. Up at RockNess, the lochside festival has confirmed DJ Fatboy Slim for its line-up who will play alongside Leftfield and Friendly Fires. VISUAL ART A sketch drawn by artist Peter Howson when he was a 12-year-old schoolboy is going under the hammer next week. The pencil drawing, named Mr Ness, English Teacher at Prestwick Academy, is thought to be the earliest known work by Howson. In other art news Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth follow their recent Frieze Art Fair project with a commission for the Edinburgh Art Festival. Video installation Staged will showcase stage-managed performances with live events filmed around the city by CCTV cameras.
Sterling Archer is the spy who shagged everyone twice
Intriguingly, each character has been sketched with the voice actor very much in mind, so the brusque phone-sex loving chief executive at ISIS looks exactly like Jessica Walter while Archer’s ex- squeeze, the voluptuous agent Lana Kane, bears more than a passing resemblance to Aisha Tyler. Archer has the feel of a more thrusting King of the Hill with equally subtle comedic sensibilities, while its Cold War 60s chic exudes the whiff of a cartoon Mad Men with less smoking, and more (very funny) jokes about bestiality, erections and Oedipal complexes.