I sometimes joke that living in Glasgow is a lot like living in Brooklyn, but with more hipsters and more ridiculous accents. I'm only being semi-facetious when I say this- as far as I can tell, the #1 leisure activity in Glasgow is "attending gigs" (#2 might be "Experiencing Art in Every Form", #3 is "knowing DJs", which is rather derivative of #1, #4 is "Seeing Films", and #5 is "Talking about art, films and music"). And beyond that, every month there's some sort of big festival based around a theme - the current festival is Celtic Connections, which is a 3-week-long folk music festival.
It's like Extreme Brooklyn, I'm telling you. Basically, there is no shortage of things to do here.
There are a million pubs, and almost every pub has gigs; on top of that there are whole bunch of bigger concert venues- no matter what kind of music you like, I imagine you can find something that you'd be interested in - like, this is just SOME music coming up in the next few days - that link lists some of the more popular music venues, and you can see that tickets are generally affordable.
And a lot of it is super indie and interesting! This is the same city that produced Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, and Franz Ferdinand ("wankers", according to all native Glasgwegians), and probably 7 thousand other musicians - this should tell you something about the music scene. As you can imagine, if you don't pay attention you can miss a lot of awesome stuff. You often end up scrambling at the last minute to see stuff, because who can keep track of all of those dates? I know I can't!
What I'm trying to say here is that seeing live music all the time is a totally normal thing to do. Tomorrow I've got tickets to see Ani DiFranco, and originally I was going to go see Sleigh Bells on Saturday night, but I'm going to a conference all day and then out for dinner with the conference-goers, so it looks like I'll miss that. I've actually missed a bunch of gigs because I had prior engagements: I missed Beach House back in November because I was going to a Thanksgiving dinner party - I wonder if that's part of the experience of the Glasgow music scene? Sometimes things just sell out entirely before you're made aware of them to buy tickets (The National, Arcade Fire), or you hear about it too late (Foals). Am I disappointed? A little bit, but then you see something awesome. And that kind of thinking is exactly what's going on in hipsterville: yes, it sucks if you miss a gig, but someone equally as exciting will come along.
The next big gig I'm hoping to go to after this weekend will be Lykke Li, but there's an up & coming riot grrl band playing at a pub near me in early February, and I have tentative plans to go to Sunday Afternoon Jazz and Dubstep Thursday at two other pubs soon. Do you see what I mean about Glasgow being a music town? In the fall I saw a whole ton of local musicians, KT Tunstall, MEN, LCD Soundsystem, among others... and we haven't even covered some of the great guest DJ spots I've heard. Welcome back to Glasgow! Can't stop, won't stop...
Showing posts with label pop culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pop culture. Show all posts
19 January 2011
14 November 2010
meeting people is easy
It would be presumptuous to say that I was a popular person at home. I certainly knew many people, though. If I wanted to do something, there would almost always be someone around. Also, I don't know how to talk about Having Friends without feeling like I'm six years old, but here we go.
If I were to move almost anywhere within the continental US, I am fairly certain that I would know someone (or know a friend-of-a-friend) who lived there too. And if I didn't, the time zone isn't different enough that I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with everyone. It's not like moving a seven-hour plane ride away! I don't like to keep harping on this point, but going from knowing a ton of people on one continent and then moving to a new continent where you don't know a soul is, quite frankly, a terrifying prospect. You have to go out and meet people, and you have to make friends all over again. And it's stressful! You have to remember to call them or text them and invite them to do things and try not to feel like you're bothering them. I spent a lot of time doing things that interested me, like going to art galleries and gigs and such, hoping that I would meet people who also liked these things. Unfortunately some of the things I'm into are not the most accessible things to invite someone to - "hey, do you want to come with me to a minimalist composer's concert?"
The international society has a weekly pub night, where we all converge on a pub and socialize, so of course I go to that - I now have a pretty solid group of international-student-friends who go every week (mostly Germans, they're a lot of fun) and I think I am friends with most of the people in my office (although I feel like I probably come off as a tool most of the time, to be honest; there's a handful of MRes students though, and we all hang out together as The Newbies). Everyone in the office is really nice and we all get along really well - it's a good group of people.
And then a really strange small-world twist of fate, I ran into a girl whom i had had been introduced to briefly once at a gig a few weeks ago - it turns out she is my advisor's wife's student over at Glasgow university, studying sociolinguistics. She runs something called Lock Up Your Daughters, which is a magazine & monthly club night - I met her girlfriend and bunch of her friends and they've been great. (Though I am definitely comfortable with my international friends and my office friends, I did need some gay friends. Sometimes international groups of people are not the best places to be out, loud & proud, you know? I live near a whole bunch of gay clubs but would never go to them alone, and I'd feel weird asking a straight person to come with me.) But yeah - I've been hanging out with the LUYD crew and getting involved in that, which has been fun; they're exactly the sort of liberalminded queermos I was looking for when I first arrived.
So there's that! YOU GUYS I HAVE FRIENDS.
(On a mostly unrelated sidenote, this is how I am apparently going to a party on Tuesday for the BBC tv show Lip Service, which is like The L Word but set in Glasgow. It's pretty terrible- seriously, check it out. LUYD has been asked to be there to do a DJ set, as they are a "staple of Glasgow's lesbian scene"... I'm starting to get involved with promotional stuff like flyering, so I'm apparently going with them. You guys, these are my friends!)
If I were to move almost anywhere within the continental US, I am fairly certain that I would know someone (or know a friend-of-a-friend) who lived there too. And if I didn't, the time zone isn't different enough that I wouldn't be able to keep in touch with everyone. It's not like moving a seven-hour plane ride away! I don't like to keep harping on this point, but going from knowing a ton of people on one continent and then moving to a new continent where you don't know a soul is, quite frankly, a terrifying prospect. You have to go out and meet people, and you have to make friends all over again. And it's stressful! You have to remember to call them or text them and invite them to do things and try not to feel like you're bothering them. I spent a lot of time doing things that interested me, like going to art galleries and gigs and such, hoping that I would meet people who also liked these things. Unfortunately some of the things I'm into are not the most accessible things to invite someone to - "hey, do you want to come with me to a minimalist composer's concert?"
The international society has a weekly pub night, where we all converge on a pub and socialize, so of course I go to that - I now have a pretty solid group of international-student-friends who go every week (mostly Germans, they're a lot of fun) and I think I am friends with most of the people in my office (although I feel like I probably come off as a tool most of the time, to be honest; there's a handful of MRes students though, and we all hang out together as The Newbies). Everyone in the office is really nice and we all get along really well - it's a good group of people.
And then a really strange small-world twist of fate, I ran into a girl whom i had had been introduced to briefly once at a gig a few weeks ago - it turns out she is my advisor's wife's student over at Glasgow university, studying sociolinguistics. She runs something called Lock Up Your Daughters, which is a magazine & monthly club night - I met her girlfriend and bunch of her friends and they've been great. (Though I am definitely comfortable with my international friends and my office friends, I did need some gay friends. Sometimes international groups of people are not the best places to be out, loud & proud, you know? I live near a whole bunch of gay clubs but would never go to them alone, and I'd feel weird asking a straight person to come with me.) But yeah - I've been hanging out with the LUYD crew and getting involved in that, which has been fun; they're exactly the sort of liberalminded queermos I was looking for when I first arrived.
So there's that! YOU GUYS I HAVE FRIENDS.
(On a mostly unrelated sidenote, this is how I am apparently going to a party on Tuesday for the BBC tv show Lip Service, which is like The L Word but set in Glasgow. It's pretty terrible- seriously, check it out. LUYD has been asked to be there to do a DJ set, as they are a "staple of Glasgow's lesbian scene"... I'm starting to get involved with promotional stuff like flyering, so I'm apparently going with them. You guys, these are my friends!)
02 October 2010
I still love you, New York
One of the first questions people ask me when I open my mouth here is "Where in the States are you from?" I'm not particularly upset by this question - while I certainly don't sound like I could be remotely native to the United Kingdom or even any other part of Europe, maybe it means I am temporarily fooling them by looking kind of European, and I will accept that. (This is very unlikely, however; more to come on this topic, stay tuned.) I usually say Boston, and I either get a bit of a blank stare while they try to recall where that is, or an excited "Oh, BOSTON! My friend/sister (choose one) lives there, I was just there a few years ago!"
Often to counter this question, I ask people where they would like to visit in the States - not because I especially love America but I think it tells me a lot about what other people know about my (our) country. I think it also says a lot about the person I am talking to! I could ask them where in the UK or Europe they would want to go, but most of the time, they have already been everywhere they would have wanted to go, which sort of ruins the fun in that. At least the States are comparatively exotic and/or harder to get to!
Almost everyone I talk to wants to go to New York City and San Francisco. A lot of people seem be really interested in Las Vegas and Florida, too, though I am vehemently trying to talk them out of this, as I think both of these places are miserable. Texas is a pretty popular place, too.
It's really interesting to see that everyone sort of romanticizes the same parts of a country - how many people in the States dream of moving to NYC or San Fran? And everyone tells me that Las Vegas looks inviting because it is "so shiny and magical looking". (I still don't understand Florida.) Part of the draw, I've been told, is the intriguing vastness of American cities. European cities are so compact - I was so surprised to hear that I could walk from one side of Glasgow to the other in under an hour! Occasionally I get someone who says they want to see some nature - they want to see the Grand Canyon or the Rockies and the northeast in the fall, but even they want to see NYC. Washington DC may be the capital of the United States, but everyone loves New York.
Often to counter this question, I ask people where they would like to visit in the States - not because I especially love America but I think it tells me a lot about what other people know about my (our) country. I think it also says a lot about the person I am talking to! I could ask them where in the UK or Europe they would want to go, but most of the time, they have already been everywhere they would have wanted to go, which sort of ruins the fun in that. At least the States are comparatively exotic and/or harder to get to!
Almost everyone I talk to wants to go to New York City and San Francisco. A lot of people seem be really interested in Las Vegas and Florida, too, though I am vehemently trying to talk them out of this, as I think both of these places are miserable. Texas is a pretty popular place, too.
It's really interesting to see that everyone sort of romanticizes the same parts of a country - how many people in the States dream of moving to NYC or San Fran? And everyone tells me that Las Vegas looks inviting because it is "so shiny and magical looking". (I still don't understand Florida.) Part of the draw, I've been told, is the intriguing vastness of American cities. European cities are so compact - I was so surprised to hear that I could walk from one side of Glasgow to the other in under an hour! Occasionally I get someone who says they want to see some nature - they want to see the Grand Canyon or the Rockies and the northeast in the fall, but even they want to see NYC. Washington DC may be the capital of the United States, but everyone loves New York.
08 July 2010
Greetings loved ones, let's take a journey!
I have spent a lot of time this summer thinking about gender performativity. Gender roles are fairly simply defined by culture, but performativity is a little more specific: it requires the individual to embody society's prescribed gender roles for them. At job interviews I've been observing gender and hiring practices; when going shopping, I've been carefully noting what is marketed to men and women separately. I haven't reached any big conclusions yet, and I don't know if I ever will, but it's certainly been fun.
In the midst of all that, I happened upon a parody of the song California Gurls. I hate this song, mostly because Katy Perry needs to hire better lyricists, and because "gurls" disgusts me...but i digress. I can't stop watching this, because it presents so many opportunities to think about gender and media. By putting men in the position of scantily-clad women, they are hyper-sexualized and objectified in ways that men usually aren't. Imagine a woman dancing like this - we wouldn't think twice about it. I appreciate that "Katy Perry" is the only woman in the video - but she's not inherently voyeuristic towards these men. Crotch shots suddenly are no different than the male gaze-focused tits & ass of film-based media (TV, movies, video games, photography, etc). Girls licking popsicles - hot, right? Guys licking popsicles? GAY. But - that's the point. And I love it.
In the midst of all that, I happened upon a parody of the song California Gurls. I hate this song, mostly because Katy Perry needs to hire better lyricists, and because "gurls" disgusts me...but i digress. I can't stop watching this, because it presents so many opportunities to think about gender and media. By putting men in the position of scantily-clad women, they are hyper-sexualized and objectified in ways that men usually aren't. Imagine a woman dancing like this - we wouldn't think twice about it. I appreciate that "Katy Perry" is the only woman in the video - but she's not inherently voyeuristic towards these men. Crotch shots suddenly are no different than the male gaze-focused tits & ass of film-based media (TV, movies, video games, photography, etc). Girls licking popsicles - hot, right? Guys licking popsicles? GAY. But - that's the point. And I love it.
13 March 2010
I unabashedly love Lady Gaga.
She's great. She's crazy - mixing Bowie and Madonna and pure pop sensibility into the catchiest, most ridiculous cultural sensation in a very long time (I would argue my lifetime, at least.) She's a smart lady. She knows precisely what she is doing. AND she can sing.
To the best of my knowledge, I have yet to meet a single person who does not respect her, at the very least for her conceptualization of fame. (Are you that person? Let's talk.)
I feel like we all got hooked on Bad Romance. I mean, Just Dance? Okay. I remember first hearing it and kind of brushing it off: it was catchy, but whatever. Poker Face? Yeah, alright. It's clever. and then -- BAD ROMANCE. Anyone with fully functional eardrums in the past few months knows this song.
So needless to say, I was more than a bit disappointed when she fell off everyone's radar for a while. The Paparazzi video was cool - Gaga rocks disabledness! - but all things considered it was kind of normal (at least for her). There was a sheer shortage of asymmetrical glittery things and certainly no comically oversized hats. I was getting worried. Nothing strange had happened in a while!
But then the Telephone video happened. And all was right with the world yet again.
Things to notice:
- "I told you she didn't have a dick!"
- Gaga's symbolic commentaries on the prison system and the hypersexualization of women (by other women too!)
- CIGARETTE GLASSES! Diet Coke Curlers! WHAT
- Is that pre-(f/F)ame Gaga in the sunglasses?!
- new crazy arm flailings!
- Beyonce! With Bangs! / Gaga & Beyonce do Tarantino
>> (see also: references to Jackie Brown and the Paparazzi video)
- Telephone Hat
- Madonna reference! -- hair, choreography...
(EDIT 3/16, Upon Further Deconstruction)
erin: i feel like nothing can be more gay than this video
heather: sleeping with women is more gay than that video.
erin: i don't know about that!
WELCOME BACK LADY GAGA
i have missed you
To the best of my knowledge, I have yet to meet a single person who does not respect her, at the very least for her conceptualization of fame. (Are you that person? Let's talk.)
I feel like we all got hooked on Bad Romance. I mean, Just Dance? Okay. I remember first hearing it and kind of brushing it off: it was catchy, but whatever. Poker Face? Yeah, alright. It's clever. and then -- BAD ROMANCE. Anyone with fully functional eardrums in the past few months knows this song.
So needless to say, I was more than a bit disappointed when she fell off everyone's radar for a while. The Paparazzi video was cool - Gaga rocks disabledness! - but all things considered it was kind of normal (at least for her). There was a sheer shortage of asymmetrical glittery things and certainly no comically oversized hats. I was getting worried. Nothing strange had happened in a while!
But then the Telephone video happened. And all was right with the world yet again.
Things to notice:
- "I told you she didn't have a dick!"
- Gaga's symbolic commentaries on the prison system and the hypersexualization of women (by other women too!)
- CIGARETTE GLASSES! Diet Coke Curlers! WHAT
- Is that pre-(f/F)ame Gaga in the sunglasses?!
- new crazy arm flailings!
- Beyonce! With Bangs! / Gaga & Beyonce do Tarantino
>> (see also: references to Jackie Brown and the Paparazzi video)
- Telephone Hat
- Madonna reference! -- hair, choreography...
(EDIT 3/16, Upon Further Deconstruction)
erin: i feel like nothing can be more gay than this video
heather: sleeping with women is more gay than that video.
erin: i don't know about that!
WELCOME BACK LADY GAGA
i have missed you
21 February 2010
Re: Twilight
The Twilight phenomenon never fails to utterly baffle me. How was this book/franchise SO POPULAR?!
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