Glasgow’s George Square Is OUR Rectangle!

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.

Keep right up to date with everything by visiting: Restore George Square.

You May Also Be Interested In…
* Future Glasgow
* The Glasgow Alphabet By Rosemary Cunningham
* Al Cook’s “Necropolis”

Baa, Baa, Woolly Sheep – By Alan Cook.

The other day, I was shocked to learn from Anna that some nursery schools have re-written the old rhyme “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” because the original was deemed to be racist. I don’t know how somebody came to that conclusion. Can things get any worse?

Anna works with kids in a nursery and whilst I was picking myself up off the floor she also told me that words like ‘idiot’ and ‘stupid’ are edited out of children’s books by the staff so the kids don’t pick up on them and use them towards other kids.
Depressing isn’t it.

If I ever have kids, I’ll take great pride in telling them exactly how things are!
Exactly…

Movie Review: “Grey Gardens” (1975).

Okay, hands in the air,
I’d never heard of “Grey Gardens” until Anna came around telling me that I HAD to see this documentary.

“You HAVE to see this!” she said.

I was sucked right into this film from the start and I’ve been reading up on the history for 2 weeks now.
It maybe has something to do with the fact that I live alone and can be a bit of a shut-away at times but folks,
I am fascinated by this story.

Grey Gardens is a crumbling estate in the Hampton Hills of Long Island occupied by Aunt of Jackie Onassis,
Edith Bouvier Beale (Big Edie) and her Daughter Edith Bouvier Beale (Little Edie).
Once part of New York’s High Society, this documentary catches them in the 1970′s as their money gradually runs out and the once grand mansion is now a crumbling, overgrown ruin filled with tin cans, cats and wild raccoons.

It’s a tragic watch as we see the squalor these two Ladies live in.
Their days consist of sitting on their twin beds beside each other, reminiscing, bickering, talking about missed opportunities and eating ice cream with knives.
Little Edie is nothing short of haunting as we see her wear upside down skirts, turbans and big fur coats as she dances around Grey Gardens like a banshee.
We see Big Edie sing “Tea For Two” in her sweet childlike pitch and can’t help but think of “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?“
Oh yeah, and cats.
They have lots and lots of cats.

With the two Edie’s living off of $300 a Month,
Jackie Onassis eventually steps in with the cash to bring the Grey Gardens Mansion back up to it’s original grand standards but it’s not long before Big Edie and Little Edie neglect it again and it’s soon worse than ever.
With cats peeing everywhere, no running water and Little Edie feeding the wild raccoons in the house, you can only wonder how these Ladies got to this stage.

It’s easy to watch this documentary and write both Women off as crazy but you know what I think?
I think they’re just eccentric and labelled crazy because they’re not like most people.

It’s hard not to love Big Edie and Little Edie.
It’s hard not to feel really sad for them too.

This is one of the most interesting films I’ve seen and I recommend it to you!

Some links:

The Original 1975 “Grey Gardens” Trailer.
The HBO 2009 Film “Grey Gardens” Trailer.
The Grey Gardens Website.

New York Diary: Part V.

New York Diary: Part V.
I Love New York!

Last Day in New York.
The last day in The New Yorker Hotel.

Y’know,
I think if I was to add up all the time I spent in the hotel during the last 5 days it would come to less than 12 hours.
But anyways, there’s no time for all of that.
We gotta get our bags packed and get the hell out of here!

The hotel arranged to keep our bags for us until it was time to go to the airport later.
That gave us most of the day to say our goodbyes to Manhattan.

What to do today?
Maybe I’ll just let some of the photos do the talking.

Y’know,
New York Public Libray is beautiful, it really is but it’s hard to walk around there and not think of yourself as a Ghostbuster.

I didn’t write down much stuff on my last day in New York.
I was too busy trying to make the day last as long as possible.

There are loads of things I haven’t even mentioned in these diary posts but that’s only because they deserve whole posts of their own in the future.

New York is the greatest place on Earth as far as I’m concerned.
There’s always something to do and placs to explore.
You can buy salad at 3am in the morning (That really impressed me) and get drunk at 5am if that’s your thing.
You can walk for 10 minutes and hear 600 different accents,
You can walk down a modern steel city block and suddenly stumble upon an ancient church.
I feel like I fit there and as Sinatra says,
“It’s my kind of town”.

I really miss New York but what the hell,
I’ll get back over there.

…Might even buy a one way ticket next time

Advice For ‘Psychic’ Sally Morgan’s Future.

Dear Sally Morgan,

Although I personally don’t believe in 99% of people who claim to have psychic ability (I can spot a bullshit artist from miles away!), and although I can’t believe that most ‘psychics’ can sleep soundly at night given all the ham theatrics and transparent lies they make up on stage every night, I feel I should point something out to you.

Your Wikipedia Page.

It’s pretty bad but don’t you worry Sally.
By simply clicking on the image below for an enlarged view,
you will see that I have helpfully circled some of the things which I think tarnish the flawless reputation you’ve built up.

You might think to yourself:
“Ach, it’s only Wikipedia. Who cares”.

But you’d be wrong Sally because if you use your psychic ability,
You’ll be able to look into the future and see me pointing this particular line out to everyone I know and meet forever:

As I understand it Sally,
Anyone can update and edit Wikipedia so you should be able to fix it.

Best wishes,
You probably know who.

EDIT: It occured to me that Sally Morgan probably wouldn’t find this generous piece of advice so I sent her a wee link on Twitter.