• What am I listening to?

    Oh, thank you for asking.

    Well, the days of listening to CDs seem to be long over, don’t they? I’ve not ditched all the CDs like Chris Pinnock has, but wonder how long I’ll go on with a cupboard full of little boxes.

    • Firstly and most splendidly there’s the Gyndebourne summer online opera festival. Oh yes, you can watch and listen to half a dozen or so glorious Glyndebourne productions. Like all opera should be, they are free at the point of delivery.
    • I briefly got sucked into the gay-country-pap of Steve Grand’s All American Boy the other day until I realised it was just like most representations of gay people in America – doomed to end in tears. (Cheyenne Jackson’s Don’t Wanna Know made me laugh, but it is more of the same – all American gay boys don’t get happy endings to their stories much in America).
    • Then something I saw somewhere reminded me of Alan Price’s O Lucky Man so I had a good listen to that.
    • I also came across Tom Gilfellon’s album In the Middle of the Tune on Spotify – something I’ve not heard since I ditched vinyl – here’s the first track The Banks of Red Roses.
    • Whilst I was getting stuff ready for Pride the other week, I needed some music to cheer me on my way so listened to Holly Near and sang along with Singing for our Lives.
    • Christy Moore’s Before the Deluge doesn’t get tired, does it?
    • Neither does Martin Simpson’s Prodigal Son album.
    • And did you know you can hear Frank Weir’s monumental 20th Century Folk Mass on spotify?  It is really a big band mass, but there you do.

    Spotify tried to get me to listen to Val Doonican the other day. I’m not letting on as to whether I did or not though.

     

7 responses to “Pollokshields – These are our neighbours”

  1. Marjorie Wilson Avatar
    Marjorie Wilson

    Local people foiled yesterday’s attempt by immigration enforcers; next time they will come at night in an unmarked van. We have no chance of improving the immigration system in what you call “this country”, meaning the UK. When Scotland becomes independent, we will be able to have our own immigration policy, which will be fair, just and compassionate, in line with Christian values, and with the views of most Scottish people. Don’t you agree?

    1. Kelvin Avatar

      No, I don’t agree. I think that the current policy is unjust and unfair and is just as unjust if it is applied in Carlisle as in Glasgow. The whole country needs a better system, not just Scotland.

      I find the idea of a country set up on “Christian” values quite chilling.

      If we do have a new country, it needs to have a secular constitution not a Christian one.

      1. Revd Kenny Macaulay Avatar
        Revd Kenny Macaulay

        However, the people south of Carlisle have already indicated what sort of government they want and it is very different to what the majority of Scottish people consistently vote for. The only way we will get a fairer system is in an independent Scotland with your secular constitution.

        1. Kelvin Avatar

          We have no idea what the immigration policy of a Tory government would be in an independent Scotland.

        2. Keith Barber Avatar
          Keith Barber

          On the contrary, us folk south of Carlisle have been saddled with a government the majority of us don’t like by the defects of our electoral system and the machinations of a far-right anti-EU obsessive so-called politician.

  2. Sue Matthew Avatar

    thank you Kelvin for your comments. The scenes were heartening, that a community valued the men and were determined that they should be treated fairly and heard from. Gave me a little glimmer of hope, but then thats Scotland, here in Blue heaven, may not go that way, I am 84 now and have never felt so despondent, maybe the lockdown, I am not confident so a real ray of light from Pollockshields

  3. Catherine Avatar
    Catherine

    Hurrah for Pollokshields. We need more of that sort of thing- all over the UK.

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