Meet me in St Louis...

I've just returned from St Louis - the cafe, not the city tucked away on the eastern border of Missouri. A very nice little find!

Located at the very end of Dumbarton Road, St Louis is unassuming from the outside but a treat on entry. Shabby chic decor, good tunes on the stereo and very friendly staff means a visit could well become a Sunday morning ritual.

I feel well and truly set up for the day :)

Margins Book and Music Festival

Margins Book and Music Festival is returning to Glasgow this February having experienced much success during its début run at the city's Stereo bar last year. The festival has found a new, and much larger, home at The Arches and runs 24-26 February.

Margins is a festival for fans of the spoken, sung and written word and the programme offers a diverse range of events. The list of attending writers and musicians presents a who's who of Scotland's literary and arts scene - William McIllvanney, Chris Brookmyre, Roddy Woomble and Malcolm Middleton to name but a few. Definitely worth taking a look!

http://www.marginsfestival.com/

Celtic Connections

Celtic Connections is in full swing and last week I wandered along to the Mitchell Library to see Irish troubadour James Vincent McMorrow.

His debut album, Early in the Morning, was released in 2010 and has drawn comparisons to the likes of Bon Iver's For Emma. Interestingly both chaps opted for total seclusion when recording their debut's - Justin Vernon escaped to a Wisconsin log cabin while McMorrow opted for an Irish beach house. Their isolation is very much apparent in their respective sounds.

The Mitchell Theatre proved the perfect venue, accompanied by only a guitar (and a bottle of red - a man after my own heart) McMorrow gave a beautiful stripped back performance. Good honest song writing, lyrics scattered with personal sorrow and an endearing sense of humour made McMorrow instantly likeable. Certainly the kind of guy you could quite happily enjoy a couple of pints with.

His set largely consisted of the carefully crafted songs off his first album. We Don't Eat was a particular highlight and we were also treated to an absolutely haunting rendition of Chris Issac's Wicked Game - you can check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxn0-KNyAZU

I also purchased tickets for Madison Violet at the O2 ABC. Very good indeed! Madison Violet are a Canadian duo made up of of singer songwriters - Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac. Really great harmonies, delicate and touching lyrics and a friendly banter with the crowd proved a winning combination.

Celtic Connections is getting bigger and bigger each year, and rightly so, roll on 2013!

Dame about the 'dam

Continuing my winter travels I arrived in Amsterdam, I've never been to The Netherlands before and had heard many a good thing - I was not disappointed.

It's almost like a toy town with it's winding canals, quirky narrow houses and precarious staircases, very picturesque!

I have never seen so many bikes in my entire life - not a bike helmet in sight right enough!

Bird about Barca

I was lucky enough to take a second trip to Barcelona in October, muy bien!

I love this city, it has everything, rolling hills, sandy beaches and a cosmopolitan city feel. The architecture is magnificent, Gaudi's gothic-fairytale-tinged genius can be seen throughout the city, Sagrada Familia is a masterpiece, attention to detail was Gaudi's forte, the design is so intricate it is still not complete some 120 years after construction started, manana...

Many cervezas were consumed and tapas tasted. Can't wait to go back!

Car crashes, wisdom tooth extraction and other summer pursuits...

Dear, dear, dear, it's been a while.

I've been somewhat distracted over the past month or so - mild car crashes and wisdom tooth dilemmas...for much of July I took on the persona, and face, of Desperate Dan. Hot.

I returned to Glasgow to find Brad Pitt milling about George Square filming his new movie World War Z. Glasgow morphed into Philadelphia for a fortnight, it looked great! Philadelphia cops and firefighters were spotted nipping into Greggs for a quick steak bake...when in Rome.

Glasgow is becoming a bit of a hub for filming, Cloud Atlas with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry starts filming at the end of September, very exciting and great for the city.

In other news, today I have mostly been listening to

The Decemberists - Rise to Me

Bon Iver - Beth/Rest

Portishead - Roads

Cheerful rainy day listening eh?

Perhaps I'll kick off tomorrow with a bit of Easy Lover!

A rose tinted sky

Hola!

I've been neglecting the old blogging over the last week or so - shame on me. In my defence I was off for a week and normal service will resume. In the mean time here's a picture taken while dangling precariously out of my window...pretty cool sky eh?