Nae local punters at the Bandstand opening ceremony?

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crowd

“Some at the meeting called for a discount on their council tax and questioned why local residents were not offered free tickets for the opening ceremony.” From article in Games Monitor 2014 Angry scenes as residents attack Games disruption (Herald) A connected topic was the opening of the Kelvingrove Bandstand after a twenty five year campaign by local people. It saw very few of them enjoying bacon rolls at the  proceedings. The event was all tickets, and held at 9:30 on a Thursday morning? If it wasn’t for the school kids that are used to bulk out these occasions, and the suits, the place would have looked empty. Yet when extra tickets were applied for folk were told that they had run out. The real legacy of the games will start to unfold from now till they are finished. Who has an opening ceremony at 9:30 in the morning? Business folk while everybody else is at work. Whose bandstand is this? We will soon find out as the  £40 tickets for the first gigs are sold. How will they stop people listening for free. Raising the fences, so you can’t see, blocking off the streets, banning folk from that end of the park. We shall soon see what happens to a DIY performance space when it is sanitised with corporate fairy dust and renders another opportunity for business in community space. If you think I am being cynical  read the Games Monitor2014 the Games Monitor2012 or the history of these mega events, you soon get the picture.

The fight for the bandstand may not be over till we see the councils user policy is for this well respected public space. Can those who made it possible us it? Or afford to use it?

Intercept?

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By Michael Albert
Source Z Communications

Some months back I interviewed Glenn Greenwald to appear on both ZNet and New Left Project –  just as this article is appearing on both. The interview was substantive instead of an interviewer attacking and Greenwald parrying. The goal was for it to spur constructive discussion about journalism and the First Look project and Intercept component of it. It didn’t happen.

Greenwald is as quick, succinct, and clear in conversation as he appears in videos. He stuck me as likeable and certainly not the harsh fellow he is often made out to be. But some of his interview answers were troubling.

Greenwald understands the coercive possibilities of capitalist owners or the state curtailing adversarial journalism from above. That is the danger Greenwald believes will not overtake First Look/Intercept because he feels the owner, Pierre Omidyar, is sincerely committed to never imposing restrictions and, more positively, to actively establishing a journalism-friendly workplace.
Keep reading article INTERCEPT?

The Future of ZCommunications

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znetZ’s Future

Times are hard for all media, and particularly for alternative media. This is due to a combination of factors including but not limited to a growing audience disinclination to pay for information. If you couple that with alternative media being unable, in many cases, to get foundation or large donor funding, and with its commitment to not selling its audience to advertisers, which would likely yield little revenue in any event, the situation becomes dire.

In the face of such trends, only a few avenues, other than surrender and dissolution, exist.

  • A project can seek to generate new income from new channels, to pay its bills.
  • A project can severely reduce its costs.
  • A project can convince its audiences that support is desirable and worth their attention.

Z is following all these paths.
Keep Reading article The Future of ZCommunications

Ian McHarg 1920-2001 Scottish landscape architect Design with nature

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Ian McHarg died this day in 2001 (NY Times obituary). He was a Scottish landscape architect who made his name in the University of Pennsylvania where he founded the world famous Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning in1955.

He was born in Clydebank in 1920 and (for those with an interest in the history of mountaineering in Scotland), was one of the Craigallian Fire men.

Arguably his most famous legacy is his 1969 book, Design with Nature. One of his pupils and collaborators in the project was the Scottish landscape architect, Mark Turnbull, who is still practising in Scotland today. His book sat on the shelves of my Dad’s study when I was growing up. He was an architect and, as a student, I thought it would make an interesting contribution to the forestry course I was doing at Aberdeen University. However, so dismal was the outlook of the staff there (there were a few honourable exceptions), that the notion of even reading such a book was regarded as too radical. I read it though and recommend it to anyone with an interest in environmental and spatial planning (McHarg invented the sieve mapping technique now standard in GIS – the European Geosciences Union awards a medal in his honour).
Keep reading article Ian McHarg 1920-2001 Scottish landscape architect Design with nature