CHALLENGE DAVE: BODA BAR

SquareOne Booze


by Dave Hynes

Wow! I’m impressed…seriously impressed. I think I owe you Leithers an apology; this is amongst the very best bars in Edinburgh - and I mean that. It's an unimposing and most- welcoming little haven resting unobtrusively about midway up Leith Walk and it would surely make any serious shortlist of Scotland’s best pubs.

The Boda is a bohemian little boozer, apparently with a subtle Swedish twist. It serves great beer in a great atmosphere; it’s upbeat, urbane and completely juxtaposed to the s_t which surrounds it. Instead of waving a white flag, surrendering to the overwhelming barrage of dourness present in many Leith pubs, it more than hold it's own. It quite stubbornly refuses to be a s_t pub, refuses so far in fact that it is an absolute gem hidden in the Walk of drinking woe.

The clientele are absolutely great; they seem to be mostly Leithers who refuse the usual serving of Leithness. On entering I overheard a happy-go-lucky young man trying to chat up a real stunner; "yeah we just sound like any other indie band". I knew I’d finally arrived in a Leith pub I could actually look forward to going into, with gorgeous women and only chat lines like that to compete with, Boda is like a great Swedish blond; a joy to be inside.

And talking about aesthetics, there is also an Aussie blonde bombshell barmaid who keeps the laughs going through the night, a true Boadicea but about ten times better looking. The barman is great too, really likeable, doubtless he'll not find employment anywhere else in the area.

The Boda also has the best music in town with chilled out funky tunes to keep your head nodding and your tail wagging throughout the day. But most of all though it’s the attitude of Boda which shines through the most. It’s attitude to being a pub on Leith Walk, its reaction against the homogeneity of its competitors, its ability to run a damn good pub and its ‘make sure you come back’ essence which simply puts the Boda on a pegging all of its own. BODAcious indeed.

CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH?

SquareOne News

by Pere Fornes

The new Public Health Scotland bill which will update health laws dating back to 1889 passed stage one of its ratification yesterday at Holyrood.

Health professionals have been working under rules that date back to the Public Health Act 1897 and the Infectious Diseases Notification Act 1889. The new bill is geared towards dealing with threats which have emerged in recent years.

The bill outlines the duties of health professionals to notify authorities when they suspect that a patient has a contagious disease. Infections cause a quarter of all illnesses in the world and they account for 10% of deaths in the UK. Old threats such as tuberculosis, that were thought to be eradicated, are re-emerging whilst there is a threat of infectious diseases and contamination being spread through terrorist attacks.

The legislation is mainly aimed at addressing individuals who refuse to take measures to avoid contaminating others. Minister Shona Robinson said: “Some contaminated people take measures to avoid contaminating others, but we need legislation on this. Although we recognise that there is to be a balance between our duty to protect the public and the right of people to their rights.” All but the Conservative party agreed on this point, Mary Scanlon Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, said:

“I am not so sure about the balance between the rights of the individual against the rights of society. If there is a threat to public health, the rights of society have to prevail.”

The Law Society of Scotland had been consulted and have said that there are four sections which are not compliant with current Scottish Law. All parties agreed that there was a real need for the law to be updated and overhauled but that some amendments would need to be made before stage two.

Labour MSP Ken McIntosh also made a proposal regarding concerns over the safety and licensing of sun beds. The bill currently only focuses on contagious diseases, but the rest of the groups agreed that such amendment was needed. He recalled the recent case of a 13-year-old boy who, in his hometown, went to an unsupervised tanning shop. He put coins in the tan machine and stayed there for 20 minutes. As a result, he ended up in hospital with serious burns. It is not the first time this has happened, but more worrying is the long-term damage, skin cancer has trebled in the last 20 years as a result of the obsession with looking good and having a ‘healthy tan’.

McIntosh proposed three measures.

1- Outlaw unsupervised saloons.

2- Set a minimum age of 18 years old for tanning beds.

3- Provide information on the risks involved.

He said: “We need one clear message: “Sun beds can kill you.” Why don’t we treat sun beds in the same way that we treat alcohol or tobacco?”

Photo by Son of Groucho

a

b

DON AND OUT

SquareOne Sport

by Chris Hammond

You can’t sit, you’ve not been able to for over an hour. You feel tense, excited and physically drained. It’s cold, there’s rain and a wind which brings the lingering scent of alcohol with it. But for the huddled 22,000 enduring the elements on this December night in the North East the four goals Aberdeen would score against Danish heavyweights Copenhagen will be more than enough comfort from the elements.

Fast forward four months and a team largely consisting of the exact same players as that UEFA Cup glory night are strewn across a soggy Hampden pitch. Here they lie contemplating a 4-3 mauling at the hands of mid-table First Divison no marks Queen Of The South in a the Scottish Cup semi final.

Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood, a mahogany skinned, rotund, gopher-like journalist's wet dream; stands on the touchline watching the players he jettisoned years ago scoring against and celebrating the defeat of a club once considered the best in the world. Red and white scarves rain down on the pitch as the north retreats from their battlefield rout at the hands of the south.

The week following sees Calderwood praise the ageing, decrepit Jackie McNamara, hailing him as the man to turn the club's fortunes round. This is despite the one time Scottish Player of the year being the poorest footballer on the park. Worse yet goal scoring pocket dynamo Barry Nicholson announces he won’t be staying at a club where he shines like a diamond in a morass of footballing faeces. Of course there were sacrificial lambs and noises made about new signings to appease the disgruntled fans. But largely those set for the chop didn’t play in the Cup debacle, and those seen as being the fast fix for the most rapidly declining force in football consist of two ex players who didn’t make a mark the first time round, a leaden footed former Rangers defender and a Dutch goalkeeper famous for a leaked video involving him enjoying bedroom deviance with a former girlfriend.

Before the season ends, Pittodrie an imposing fortress on the coast, prepares itself for three more scheduled raids. Willie Miller, a titanic, gladiatorial captain of former years looks on from his position as football director at a collection of troops which have shipped 8 goals in two semi finals this year, have no hope of a European Campaign come the autumn and are being managed by a man the fans accuse of picking a team through a “tactical tombola”.

Hewn from granite, the city of Aberdeen can merge with the sky on a dull day, leaving things an almost intolerably depressing shade of grey. Yet when the sun appears and the clouds depart, Aberdeen becomes a glistening beacon, a beautiful hub of elegance on a rugged landscape.

As this schizophrenic season of soccer shenanigans trundles to an end and a summer of rebuilding begins, the fans of Aberdeen FC have to ponder whether the next term will be silver or grey – Copenhagen or Queen Of The South. At the moment even the most optimistic would admit it’s grim up north.

ROWLING IN IT

SquareOne News

by Karen Combe

A signed JK Rowling book fetched over £1000 after being auctioned off at Napier University in aid of a clinic based in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

Napier’s Dyslexia Co-ordinator Monica Gibbon and Student Counsellor Frances McColm, along with students and colleagues, organised a fundraising event at the Merchiston Campus to buy medical supplies for the Clinica Esperanza (Clinic of Hope). A total of £2000 was collected through the auction, raffle and bric a brac sale.

Room B40 normally reserved for conferences was transformed into a fair with stalls offering home baking, complementary therapies, handcrafts and a raffle. Organiser Monica Gibbon said, “It’s gone very well this afternoon, I’m really pleased. It just shows how one moment of goodness from people can make a big difference to the lives of others.”

Former Napier student, cardio-thoracic nurse Morag McMahon will take medical equipment to the clinic where she will be working as a volunteer. This follows Napier tourism student Cinta Bravo, who has been working at the clinic for the last six weeks and helped instigate the fundraising.

The clinic was established independently in 2005 by founder Dr Nkomy with assistance from Dr Wright and other family members to provide affordable, quality healthcare for the local people in Malabo. The clinic based in the late founder’s family home relies on fees paid by patients who can afford to pay and from funds raised overseas. Run with limited facilities and supplies, the clinic according to the fundraisers is desperately in need of more resources.

Wendy Palmer a nurse and Masters of Information Systems student volunteered to help the clinic by setting up a web site. “I wanted to help them by offering a sustainable solution to the fundraising and as a resource for the clinic. The web site will hopefully be up and running by this weekend. “

For further information: www.clinic-of-hope.com

PUT A KILT ON IT

SquareOne Entertainment

by Katie Smyth

The Emporer's New Kilt: Review

Hans Christian Anderson's classic fairytale gets the Scottish treatment as Wee Stories Company cleverly transpose The Emperor's New Clothes to the fictitious Isle of Kiltie. The ridiculous Laird of the Isle who owns "all the trees and the hills and even the grass" is in a flummox deciding what to demand for his special birthday surprise. Worse still the man whose wardrobe is replete with a kilt for every day of the year petulantly announces, "I've got nothing to wear!" Enter the scheming Mr Harris and Mr Tweed, producers and purveyors of a cloth so special only clever people can see it. They set about to expose the vain and pompous laird in his birthday suit as the play in turn exposes the oppression of inherited privilege, tenancy and greed.

Not that the target audience were struck by the inadequacies of materialism and the capitalist, semi-feudal system in place on Kiltie. To the kids of the Kings Theatre audience The Emperor's New Kilt was nothing more than a romp complete with singing sporrans, a Big Jessie and a stag with an identity crisis. And while there was surely something rather wrong and unsettling about an auditorium of kids encouraging a "true Scotsman" to strip down to his hand-crafted polar bear fur sporran, much of the other double entendres and dirty jokes were thankfully the strict reserve of the mums and dads.

An outrageously camp Iain Johnstone lorded it up in the titular role demanding a kilt worthy of a king or Queen while co-writer Andy Cannon entertained as Ramsay the ill-fated sheep destined for the Laird's birthday haggis. An imaginative woven set, fast-paced role changes and elements of the pantomime combined to spark a cacophony of hoots, chortles and big belly laughs from kids and grown-ups alike.

The Emperor's New Kilt is showing at Kings Theatre, Edinburgh until Saturday 19 April

Photo by pamelaadam

EDINBORING

SquareOne Opinion

by Dave Hynes

Edinburgh Castle has just been painted pink for the rest of 2008, with a proposed change to deep purple in 2009. Leith Walk will be turned into a blue and yellow Champs Elysee once the tram is finished. Plans to turn the Cowgate a light turquoise are being discussed at Holyrood today. Or maybe not.

I love Edinburgh, I really do. It’s a city that offers so much; culture, entertainment, the arts… battered mars bars. It has some beautiful buildings too, so beautiful in fact the city seems to sparkle with colours of every hue. Well, actually, no it doesn’t because unfortunately Edinburgh is almost uniformly grey. The use of granite may make Scottish buildings practically eternal, but I think the city is in dire need of a facelift.

The architecture of cities often reflects a civic personality and speaks a lot about its citizens and its history. Greyness may say a lot about Edinburgh; hard, proud, no- nonsense, intelligent- even beautiful. But it also says another thing . . . boring! What Edinburgh needs is an Antoni Gaudi to spruce up the place, someone with a vision that goes beyond the dour greyness of Edinburgh’s esteemed edifices. Where is Edinburgh’s imagination? Why do our buildings have to be so serious?

Give me black or give me white, but I’m afraid I’ve had enough of grey. A greyness which in the short winter days kinds of adds to the dourness of the season. Between George IV Bridge and the Royal Mile colour is so scarce it’s as though a grey sheet of architectural fog has descended. Edinburgh has surely one of the greatest cityscapes in the world; Princes St and South Bridge overlook a magnitude of beautiful architecture but my goodness aren’t they mostly grey.

Grey, grey, grey is what Edinburgh is today. Where is Edinburgh’s Pompidou Centre or its Sagrada Familia? Edinburgh’s cityscape needs imprecision and audacity, and most of all it needs humour. In some ways Holyrood Parliament has at least attempted to tickle our funny bone but it’s unfortunately the jokes is a bit s_t.

Colour is light-hearted and I would prefer another architectural catastrophe than a more traditional, sublimely built but dull grey monolith. What Edinburgh needs is a little imagination, and one that goes beyond the trams. We need a facelift, a make-over which looks towards Edinburgh’s future rather than taking pride in its past. We need colour, especially during winter. Edinburgh’s buildings should reflect the vibrancy of life in this city; they should stand out not so much for prestige but for daring and endeavour. Let’s have a bright ochre statue in George St, and a maroon pyramid on Charlotte Square. Let’s turn our theatres bright green and our libraries shining white.

Not everything in life is black and white. But sometimes it should be and in Edinburgh’s case, shades of grey are no compromise at all. Just add colour!

Got any good suggestions for where Edinburgh could do with a lick of paint. Fancy the castle painted like a rainbow during festival time? Should we renovate the Cowgate into deep crimson or how about an ocean blue for Holyrood Palace? Let the SquareOne News team know.

SquareOne - Scottish Cities In A Word

1 Glasgow - mental

2 Edinburgh - grey

3 Aberdeen - cold

4 Dundee - why?

5 Inverness - rural

Photo by absolutwade

EDINBURGH MEADOWS FESTIVAL RETURNS

SquareOne News

by Pere Fornes

SquareOne can reveal that, following a two year absence, the popular Meadows Festival will return this summer.

The event, which ran for 30 consecutive years until 2005, will see a variety of stalls, activities and performances run on the weekend of 7 and 8 June, and for the first time will be run by the Meadows Festival Association.

The charity takes over responsibility for the event after the bank account and official documentation for the festival were formally accepted during its AGM in November. At a recent meeting, Linda Hendry, chair of the association said: "The Meadows Festival was run for 20 years by a family that decided to quit in 2005. There was a two-year gap and some people tried to organise it but this couldn’t be done until after November."

There will be different attractions at this year's festival, like stalls selling crafts, second-hand clothing and jewellery. Food will be available and local school children will participate in a football competition. There will also be performances, such as African dancers and a kids' area will offer face painting and story telling sessions.

This year the festival plans to be more environmentally friendly with a power pod being used for the first time to generate electricity.

Community councillors from the surrounding area are involved in the organisation of the event and are looking for volunteers to act as stewards, distribute programs or pick up litter.

A volunteer form can be found at http://meadowsfestival.blogspot.com/ or you can sign up at the Pavilion Cafe on the Meadows.

Applicants for stalls should send a stamped addressed envelope to PO Box 12758, EH8 9YP.

Photo by Daveybot

PICK UP A PICASSO

SquareOne Entertainment

by Atholl Simpson














Ever thought you would be able to buy a Picasso for under 900 pounds, or a work by Dali for under 7000 pounds? A recent auction at Christie's in London was offering art enthusiasts just that.

The Impressionist and Modern Art auction - which took place last week at Christie's South Kensington branch - offered a selection of ceramics and sculptures by the influential artists.

“Dali and Picasso are two of the biggest names when you think of 20th century artists” Deborah Park, Christie's Head of Department at the branch, told SquareOne. “They are instantly recognisable. People can see the piece and know it's by them.”

A Picasso ashtray was sold for 850 pounds while a sculpture representing Dali's Melting Clock auctioned off at 6500 pounds. Other pieces included ceramic plates - one of them representing Picasso's Don Quijote - and bronze sculptures made in the artists respective workshops.

Park said the works of art were made in editions of up to 450, which explains their low auction price. It was a chance for these artists to make their work more accessible to the public, especially for Picasso.

“He wanted to make his work more affordable to the masses,” said Park. “Back then people would pay for them with the money they had in their pockets, sometimes as little as 30 francs (3 pounds)!”

Park said Picasso moved to the South of France in the mid 1940's, where he continued making ceramics in a workshop in the small town of Madoura until his death in 1973. Dali would create a master cast of his sculptures and instruct how many were to be reproduced.

She said that the works of art were very popular among the buyers and are considered collectables: “It would be a good investment, one for the future. The sale price seems to be increasing."

The auction also included works by Jean Cocteau, Marcel Dyf and Marc Chagall. The most expensive piece sold was a painting by George Rouault, "La Sainte Face", which went for 60,500 pounds.

The next edition of this auction is in December, so you better start saving your pennies . . .

Photo AJ Fischler

LUCKY DEVIL?

SquareOne News Feature

by Chris Hammond

After having been tipped off by Kate about the imminent clampdown on the fortune telling industry, SquareOne decided to send me 'deep undercover' in an attempt to expose some so called supernatural shenanigans as a scam.


I'll be honest I was champing at the bit to get stuck into this. I've always viewed the whole spiritualist-psychic world as being dreary, distasteful and openly exploitative. But then cadging cash off some people is fair game, that's how things work yeah? Yeah, but the bereaved, emotionally unstable and irredeemably thick are generally speaking not fair game, despite being predominantly the main custom of clairvoyants, tarot card readers and psychics. Fancy a chat with your dead husband? Insecure enough to believe you'll find true love in 13 days time? Dumb enough to think that everyone born on the same day as you displays the same inherent character traits?


Think I'm being flippant do you? Go and watch Baby Mind Reader, Colin Fry, Have I Been Here Before or any of the psychic television that floods the schedules and judge for yourself. Better yet see the link below for more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xGZnRgfTCo


Anyway, I was very careful to chose a highly respectable tarot reader for my visit, one with glowing references and lots of nice things said about them. Surely they'd give me an accurate forecast? Putting my fair-minded cap on I took a seat in their glorified mystic cupboard to have the next year mapped out for me.


I'll say this, she only asked me three direct questions. What is your name, when is your birthday and what do you do? I barely spoke for the ensuing session. So grudgingly I had to put aside all ideas of this being a barrage of confidence tricks; my tarot reader genuinely didn't seem to need my input.


The reading took part in three stages. An assessment of my character, a month by month fortune forecast and the answer to one single question. The first part I couldn't possibly comment on suffice to say it was ambiguous; whilst the second and third points I will document in a fortune diary - the first installment of which will be due at the end of April.


I'll say this despite my initial (and so far continued) scepticism and cynicism about the industry and its practices, it doesn't look like I'll be able to involve trading standards in quite the way I had first hoped. In fact I'd go as far as to say if April continues to pan out the way it has for me my tarot reader will have been eerily accurate . . .

BRITON KAN’T SPEL PROPURLY!

SquareOne News

by Atholl Simpson

The British and the Americans cannot spell basic everyday words such as “definitely" or "calendar", according to a recent survey.

Of the 2,500 native English speakers questioned from both countries, almost a third spelt “liaison” wrong and a further 40% misspelt “questionnaire”.

The survey was commissioned by the software firm WhiteSmoke - specialised in English grammar and writing software - and despite the alarming results, almost a third still believed their spelling was “excellent” whilst just under half claimed it was of a “good standard”.

Mobile phone predictive text-style writing was cited by over two-thirds of the participants as a reason for explaining their poor spelling.

“The poll shows that people are still making fundamental errors,” Ranbir Sahota, spokesperson for WhiteSmoke, told SquareOne. “A lot of them said they still needed another person or a dictionary to check their spelling,” she said. “It shows that people just can't spell. Spelling standards are getting more lax and are deteriorating.”

Sahota said that although their latest spell check software had been specifically designed for non-native English speakers, there had more demand for the product from people that have English as their mother tongue, in other words people like us.

The survey also showed that poor spelling skills are having a direct effect on people's lives, with one in five admitting that they avoided handwriting documents because their spelling is so bad. Almost 60% confessed to relying heavily on spell check programs to avoid mistakes.

The participants were also invited to give little anecdotes involving bad spelling they had come across in their daily life.
One of them mentioned a press advertisement that appeared in their local newspaper for a private school in which they stated that they prided themselves on their “accademic excelence” (for those of who are directly affected by this “bad spelling epidemic”, it should read academic excellence).

Another example, involved a recruitment officer in a large company, who admitted that he had refused applicants job interviews, even if they fitted the job description, because there were spelling mistakes in their CV’s.

Now, what you have all been waiting for, the top 20 most misspelt words:

1. Questionnaire

2. Accommodate

3. Definitely

4. Liaison

5. Existence

6. Occurrence

7. Referring

8. Occurred

9. Millennium

10. Embarrass

11. Calendar

12. Receive

13. Necessary

14. Separate

15. Cemetery

16. Library

17. Accidentally

18. Independent

19. Occasionally

20. Receipt

Photo by Mooganic

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: MATTHEW RYAN

by Chris Hammond

SquareOne Entertainment

Matthew Ryan VS The Silver State (One Little Indian)

Pitching up with his latest effort singer songwriter Matthew Ryan looks to have put together the album which will see him break through to the big time.

Having consistently constructed some of the most well crafted, clever folk-rock songs of the past decade, Ryan has still somehow managed to fly in under the radar at every opportunity here in the UK. And it would be a travesty if things were to repeat themselves and someone with this level of talent was to remain largely unrecognised by press and public alike.

So what’s the deal?

The best way of describing Matthew Ryan’s general style would be to think of Nebraska era Bruce Springsteen (only better) crossed with the best work of Ryan Adams (only better) with a little bit of The Waterboys circa Fishermans Blues thrown in for good measure (only better).

So with this in mind you’ll be expecting an album crammed with impressive tuneage from start to finish. You won’t be disappointed. From the husky grandeur of American Dirt to the poignantly profound It Could’ve Been Worse there is not a second of filler on this lyrically rich, emotionally charged, musically superior eleven track masterpiece.

It’s brilliant. Absolutely, euphorically, unbelievable brilliant and it deserves to be heard by every single man women and child on the planet. Album of the week? Might even be album of the year, or the past two years or even the last five. I don’t know yet, but the more I listen to it the more I am convinced this is a true work of musical genius.

Right that’s me off for a cold shower and a lie down . . .