February 2010

Duke Special and Tim Minchin duetting live in Belfast. Strangely disturbing.

I could drive, I suppose, using the not-so-mighty (chassis condemned by local garage)Isuzu, which is still working fine, if now a little wandery when it comes to steering. It’s a bit like guiding a boat into harbour on a very stormy day. However, the £2.70 bus ride is a no-brainer in weather like this. Over…

If I’d had access to this at university it would have transformed my (lack of) appreciation of Finnegans Wake. “Me back! Me back! Me back!”

A still and very cold but beautiful night for Da Nort Up Helly Aa, the galley burnt on the water (once the ice had been broken) and a great time had by all. The picture shows The Two Sandy Nelsons and The Two (heavily swaddled) David Nelsons (one technically a Seoras), Elaine and Caroline Nelson.…

The galley Baresark is in position at the Hillswick seafront, there are vikings in the vicinity, the weather is cold and clear, with the occasional flurry of snow. All is set for a day and night of revelry, polite waving of axes and general good behaviour…all the best to Brydon Anderson and his merry men…

The usual Saturday morning trip to Lerwick for Music Club, which leaves me with space for my usual fruit scone and cappuccino at The Peerie Shop Cafe. I’m never there at the right time for the legendary strawberry cheesecake or even one of the cataclysmic sandwiches, which is weighing heavily on me. I must adjust…

Thanks to Lindsay Hutton for sending this through. Proof positive that it really happened!

I’ve seen Steve Earle play live several times, and met him just the once, in the embrocation-heavy atmosphere of the Clickimin Leisure Centre’s concrete corridors. That was in Lerwick, in 2003, and I was as nervous as a kitten. I interviewed him for the radio show, and for The Shetland Times, stumbling over words, gulping…

I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode of Simon King’s Shetland Diaries, despite the fakery and the wide-eyed southern wonderment at things we tend to take for granted here in The Great Bog. First, let me say that it is fantastic to see what a professional filming team (and it was a team; there was a…