The six new shortlisted designs for the revamp of Glasgow’s George Square have been unveiled and I’m almost speechless at how terrible and charmless they all are. ALL of them.
Luckily, I’m not completely speechless and I’d just like to take this opportunity to say this:
George Square Is OUR Rectangle! Leave those Victorian statues EXACTLY where they are!
The moving of Glasgow’s many Victorian statues like gigantic chess pieces is nothing new and it’s not that I or the many other people who live close to the square are against change. As a matter of fact, everybody I’ve personally spoken to is all for a revitalisation of George Square but, and listen carefully, as a PUBLIC and VERY GREEN space!
The statues that surround George Square have been discreetly moved over the years more than once but c’mon! They look so settled where they stand today. And everybody knows it except for the people in charge who very shortly are about to completely ruin George Square as we have come to know it.
Let’s take a look at the six new shortlisted designs for the Square and as always, click on the images to enlarge them.
Design One:
Design Two:
Design Three:
Design Four:
Design Five:
Design Six:
Design Six is apparently the current “most popular” design with Glaswegians. The best of a bad bunch I’d say.
I’m not very good expressing myself when I’m angry without using extreme profanities so here are some photos of how George Square has looked in the past…
1878:
1880:
1929:
1975:
Fireworks Night 2012:
…and here are two panoramic shots of how George Square currently looks today…
Don’t tell me what you think.
Write to Glasgow City Council and/or a decent Glasgow Newspaper you trust.
So not The Daily Record.
An elderly woman has destroyed a 19th-century Spanish fresco in a botched restoration conducted without permission.
Three separate photos show the extent of the damage done by the unnamed (Cecilia Gimenez) woman to Elias Garcia Martinez’s work ‘Ecce Homo’.
The damage was discovered after Martinez’s granddaughter made a donation to the Centro de Estudios Borjanos which holds an archive of local religious artworks, a couple of weeks ago.
Staff then went to check on the work at the Santuario de Misericodia church in Borja, near Zaragoza in north eastern Spain, only to find it dramatically altered.
The three photographs show the changing face of the artwork over the last two years.
In the first photograph, taken in 2010, slight speckling is apparent. In the second photograph, taken just last month, large patches of white dominate the picture. One theory is that the elderly woman had already begun her work on the painting at this point, and the white marks are the result of her scraping away the paint.
The third photograph shows the image transformed beyond recognition, with a childlike reworking of Jesus’ face, broad brush strokes removing any subtlety from the clothing and thick layers of red and brown paint covering several key details, including the crown of thorns.
Despite the terrible results, the restoration, which was completed without permission, is not thought to have been malicious; rather the work of an enthusiastic, if somewhat misguided, amateur who lived near to the church and simply wanted to repair the ageing artwork.
Culture councillor Juan Maria de Ojeda was quoted in the Spanish newspaper El Pais taking a somewhat sympathetic tone, saying the elderly perpetrator had undertaken the project “with good intentions” and had reported and admitted causing the damage when she realised it had “gotten out of hand”.
Despite being a work of little artistic importance, and not part of any painting or altarpiece, it did have some local sentimental value.
“The family used to come here to spend the holidays. One summer the artist made the portrait and bequeathed it to the people,” Ojeda said.
The damage is currently being assessed in an attempt to work out exactly what materials the amateur restorer used. The long-term hope is that a professional may be able to remove the layers of paint and restore the work to some semblance of its former state.
I don’t sleep a lot and a few months ago I found myself watching a Coldplay concert which was on the TV at 4am.
I don’t like Coldplay. They don’t do anything for me but I’ll always watch any band play live (even if it’s only once) and when you’re up at 4am anyway, you don’t care what you’re watching.
The concert was just about to bore me to sleep when I noticed something which…saddened me.
That’s it, it saddened me. It put a little light out in my heart.
Coldplay were nearing the end of their set and as they were playing their last songs, the TV cameras panned around the front row of the audience who were all slightly awkward looking middle aged guys who looked like they’d given up a long time ago and were now content with their wives buying their clothes from the GAP Store for them.
You know the type…
All the way through Coldplay’s last song, the entire front row were checking their watches and I eventually figured out why.
- They all planned to make the last train home.
It was unbelievable.
When the hell did this happen folks?
When did people become so…BEIGE?
Coldplay’s music really depresses me but it’s nowhere near as depressing as the beige behaviour from their fans. - Which, in turn, is nowhere near as beige and depressing as this BBC News story….
Tinnitus sufferer Plan B is supporting a charity campaign which urges music fans to protect their hearing.
Tinnitus, a constant buzzing in the ear, is often caused by loud music and is prevelant among musicians and frequent concert-goers.
The Loud Music campaign aims to make people aware of the dangers.
“If you’re listening to music a lot, producing music or performing live, then always wear earplugs,” said Plan B. “You’re not Superman!”
“When I first developed it, I thought it was trains rushing by my house as I live near a railway line – it was really loud and an extremely high-pitched ringing in my ears,” the 28-year-old singer says.
“There’s no doubt it’s been caused by years of being on stage and subjected to very loud decibels of music.”
The Action on Hearing Loss campaign includes adverts and a video featuring people’s ears being attacked by a drill or hammer.
Earplugs will be handed out during London’s Camden Crawl this weekend, which showcases new music talent and is credited with bringing artists such as Amy Winehouse into the limelight.
“Looking after your ears is unfortunately something you don’t think about until there’s a problem,” said Coldplay’s Chris Martin, who is also backing the campaign.
“I’ve had tinnitus for about 10 years, and since I started protecting my ears it hasn’t got any worse. But I wish I’d thought about it earlier.
“Now we always use moulded filter plugs, or in-ear monitors, to try and protect our ears.”
The campaign includes five tips on how music lovers can avoid permanent damage to their ears, including standing back from speakers and using chillout zones in clubs.
Judge Jules, Jazzie B and DJ Smith have added their backing, while 70s chart-topper Gary Numan said he wished he had taken advice earlier.
“I didn’t look after my ears and I’m in trouble,” said Numan, 54. “It’s getting serious, to the point that I can’t mix my music properly anymore, so it’s majorly impacted on my career.
“If I’d just looked after them when I was younger then this would never have happened, so I very much regret it.
“I would often be at gigs, standing at the front next to the speakers, not wearing earplugs, thinking I’m cool and being manly, but that’s just rubbish, it’s stupid.
“So look after your hearing and wear earplugs.”
I’m sorry folks but this is bullshit. It’s bullshit supported by people who write music for TV adverts and coffee shop compilation albums okay?
Chris Martin says: “Now we always use moulded filter plugs, or in-ear monitors, to try and protect our ears” but a monitor is designed to sit at your feet so that you can hear yourself play. It’s generally quite loud because it has to be so why would you bury it in your ear?
I could understand something like this coming from the likes of Neil Young or Ozzy Osbourne but Chris Martin, Gary Numan and a bunch of tinny sounding garage rappers?
Nah. Bullshit.
The only way folk are gonna develop hearing problems is by listening to any music made by those people.
…And as for you Chris Martin, my ears go all the way up to eleven and I like ROCK & ROLL and I like it LOUD!
- You ‘I-Will-Try-To-Fix-You‘ wet wipe-clothes from GAP-elevator tune penning-earplug wearing-safety first idiot you!
Does it say “Remember To Put Your Earplugs In Kids” on David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” album?
No. No it fucking doesn’t. It says…
“TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME“.
Look at this beautiful watercolour painting of a little old row of houses by the seaside:
See how cool and still the water is…
See how carefree the people on the beach are…
See how the seagulls flutter in the sky…
See how the painting is signed by Adolf Hitler…
Let’s now turn our appreciation to this equally lovely scene:
…but…uh-oh…
Looks like good ol’ Adolf has been concentrating too much on art and too little on mass genocide.
What an idiot.
Saying that, I always read about how shit Hitler was as an artist and y’know, I think his work is pretty good.
It’s certainly better than a lot of the self-centred rubbish that passes itself off as art these days if you ask me although, I do look Eddie Izzard’s line about how Hitler couldn’t paint the trees right and so decided to kill EVERYONE!
Have you ever actually looked at Hitler’s artwork?
I looked at a lot of it today and I thought to myself:
“Ah, Hitler…If only you’d put as much effort into your painting as you did with your mass genocide. murder and Worldwide domination. Ah, Hitler…you’ve not only let yourself down, but you’ve let THE WHOLE CLASS DOWN!”
Hitler painted a lot of pieces and I find myself thinking:
“He did all that. What the Hell have I ever done?”
I like Hitler’s artwork!
I also like his haircut and moustache so there!
Here are some of Hitler’s pretty pictures so you can judge for yourself:
