An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
Gastronomes across Edinburgh are rejoicing at news that the café kiosk outside the St James Centre has been granted permission to carry on for another three years (Ref. 11/00268/FUL). Over the two years in which it has operated so far, no complaints about odour or noise have been received, and its continuation is not considered likely to jeopardise redevelopment proposals for the adjacent shopping mall.
Day 2 of Tartan Week for Whisky Kiss had a lot to live up to. Day 1 had seen us jamming with Keifer Sutherland (a surprisingly good guitarist and vocalist, pictured right, sneaking into the photo), mingling with the Trumps, and sharing the bill with Paolo Nutini at Dressed to Kilt.
Alarm bells rang when we read the opening headline 'Shirley-Anne Somerville – A Strong Voice for Leith & North Edinburgh'. We thought the SNP's unsolicited colour newsletter was already repeating recent Lib-Dem muddles over a local constituency name (Breaking news 11.3.11). However, the copywriters put the issue beyond doubt on page 2 with an unambiguously accurate reference to Edinburgh Northern and Leith.
Broughton-based 'ceilidh-vs-DJ band' Whisky Kiss are playing in New York (Breaking news 7.3.11) this month. Bassist Iain McPhail (second from left) gives us the inside news.
A reader informs us that the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act came into force in February, putting responsibility for control on owners and adult supervisors in both public and private places. Beware! Threatening dogs need not bite for sanctions to apply.
Spurtle's regular cartoonist MF predicts unintended consequences.
[img_assist|nid=1651|title=|desc=|link=node|align=middle|width=623|height=640]
Those attending the hustings on 23 March may be forgiven for thinking there was something wrong with the church's central heating. However, the strange noises at the back of the sanctuary in fact emanated from 'Jaundiced of Claremont' – Spurtle's splenetic and impartial correspondent – who was alternately chewing his knuckles and banging his head off the wall.
[img_assist|nid=1639|title=|desc=|link=node|align=middle|width=640|height=531]
The superb painting above is currently on show at the Gallery on the Corner (34 Northumberland Street). It is called Swanning Around (oil and acrylic on canvas) and is one of Claire Brown’s six works in an exhilarating and thought-provoking Spring exhibition.
Claire writes: ‘From an early age I have been a keen artist. I would say my initial love of drawing cartoon characters on paper progressed to my colourful creations on canvas.
April's issue of the Spurtle will be published online on 4 April, and distributed in classic paper and print throughout Broughton's barbers and hair salons, pubs, clubs, galleries, newsagents, libraries, and retailers of gifts, vegetables, fish, beans, books, chocolate and personal requisites. Subscribers' copies will arrive by super-fit messengers in Spandex bearing umbrellas.
A German-based artist plans to complete and install six original works along the Water of Leith sculpture trail this summer. But it is a development which one Broughton critic is already branding an 'affront to the people of Edinburgh'.
O.G. Gonflé – the 42-year-old Swiss post-redactionist and self-styled 'ideo-pole' now resident in Hamburg – has promised to commit up to half his 2010 Prix Oxygène award (€750,000) to the project, on condition that Creative Scotland provide match-funding.
Spring has sprung, which means you’ll want to be out and about rather than cooped up in your homes this month. Fortunately, we have found a few things for you to do so that your good intentions do not end with a vague meander to the newsagents for a choc-ice.