End of Glasgow’s Red Road as final towers set to fall
After more than 40 years piercing Glasgow’s skyline, the city’s remaining Red Road flats are about to be brought down. When they were first built, the blocks housed more than 5,000 people and were an important part of the city’s plan to improve housing after the Second World War. The move was meant to grant …
Edinburgh Tattoo descends on Glasgow
The streets of Glasgow thrummed to the sound of pipes and drums on Tuesday as the Edinburgh Military Tattoo descended on the city. The Scottish capital’s showpiece military event sent more than 600 performers westward to wow the Glasgow public with everything from colourful flying water dragons to a Bollywood dance troupe with a tartan …
#LoveWins
In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court announced on June 26, 2015 that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage. Within the hour, #LoveWins was trending across the globe. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the celebrations took to the streets as the news landed on the day of the city’s annual street party.
Thirty before Thirty
Oh my giddy aunt, I’m 30. What the heck happened to my 20’s?! I’ve now reached that dreaded milestone that my mates insist on calling the ‘Voldemort’ year – so horrific and feared you have to whisper its name rather than say it out loud in public. 365 days ago, my approach to this most …
How Glasgow came to love the man they called ‘Madiba’
It rained the day Nelson Mandela danced on the streets of Glasgow. The paving slabs of the city’s George Square were damp under the feet of the crowd that had flocked to meet him, but as a report in the Herald later noted: “He did not smile: he positively beamed. His eyes, no longer haunted …
Photo tips: how to photograph smoke
So, I am still a super newbie to photography but during my merry romp around the realms of lens caps and wobbly tripods, I’ve been making some progress through simple trial and much, much error. My latest venture has been to try and capture smoke using a digital camera. Chances are, if you’ve been skimming through the …
30 Things to do before I’m 30
So, it has finally happened. The last year of my twenties. Ahead lies the prospect of dodgy knees, weak ankles and an increasing penchant for gin. Behind me lies a glorious decade of champagne, adventure and the beautiful memories which come from meeting good people. Because that’s what my years on this earth have been …
3,2,1…lift off! Google Galactic Gala is out of this world
From the farthest reaches of time and space they came to throw the ultimate galactic party. And when Google, lord of the online realms decides to host a shindig, you know it’s going to be a good ‘un. Last night, the Google guys put on a Galactic Gala at Edinburgh’s Summerhall for more than 200 …
When 23-year-old Nathan Sullivan stepped up to speak before a crowded room in Edinburgh this week, he had a mountain of unspoken voices behind him. More than 15,000 children are currently living in care in Scotland. Nathan was one of them. It’s why he’s here now, in this campus room in a corner of the …
∞Song for my sister
It’s Friday morning in the Beattie family household. Judith is curled up on the living room chair, wrapped up like a fluffy burrito in a fleecy dressing gown. Her twin sister Katie and brother Ross sit closely beside her, watching as she drops her head tiredly onto the armrest. It’s the day after another round …
Undead bands and pumpkin heads rock creative hub
In a derelict looking building in the city’s west side, where trains grumble by on iron girders and Glasgow’s elite elderly shoppers take their tea, Michael Collin is creating a band of the undead. “This larger one is the drummer and this guy is sort of headless,” he says, pointing to an empty space on …
Donations flood in for Syrian refugee appeal
There’s a place near the Syrian border in the vast Jordanian desert that the children call Dream Land. A small, unobtrusive building in a sea of plastic tents, inside its walls are covered in bright paper butterflies. Small hands scratch rainbows of crayon onto paper with green strokes of grass and pink petaled flowers. The …
Five years in exile: Iranian reporter Nazila Fathi
Night time on the streets of Tehran. A car drives swiftly, yet carefully, to the nearest airport. In the backseat three pairs of anxious eyes gaze out of the passenger car windows. Nazila Fathi sits between her father and her mother-in-law, her young son and daughter perched on her lap. Beneath them the streets roll …
Twitter Tips for Journalists
It’s hard to remember a time when our phones didn’t beep, jingle or vibrate like a miniature pocket earthquake at us 24 hours a day. First it was just a text or phone call. Now it’s an alert for Facebook, Twitter, email, Google or a gazillion other ways for people to reach us. Twitter flew …
Two Boys in a Boat become youngest rowers to cross the Atlantic
On a dark vast ocean under a sky strewn with stars two boys in a boat sat and gazed upward. Beneath them lay endless miles of darkness. Between them lay a friendship tested only by the weight of the great Atlantic’s waves. Thousands of miles from home, their skin weathered by the salt in the …
Mammoths of the Ice Age
It’s winter on the tundra. Temperatures have plunged to 30 degrees below zero while harsh winds cut like a thousand knives across the stark landscape. On a May morning in 2007, on the Yamal Peninsula in north-western Siberia, three young boys are standing with their father in the bitter cold. Despite growing up in this …
Community band together in search for Mikaeel Kular
“We didn’t even know we were a community until today. Mikaeel has brought us together.”
Tata Madiba: July 18, 1918 – December 5, 2013
Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning’s hush I am the swift uplifting …
Nelson Mandela: Father to a nation inspiration to the world
Nelson Mandela: Father to a nation inspiration to the world In Africa, when a great Chieftain dies, his people smear their windows with ash to keep out the light and warmth of the day. Pictures are turned to face the wall, radios are silenced and slowly, in harmony, the women begin to wail. Today, as …
Ice ice baby
Presenting, Boston’s Frost Ice Bar – hand crafted cocktails served in glasses made of ice, from a bar made of ice, to your table made of…well, you get the picture. A bit like the Ice Hotels of the North (but with more alcohol), this year round cocktail bar features magnificent ice swan booths, chandeliers, seats, …
Fire in the Rain: The Samhuinn Festival
As fine rain fell from darkening skies, the old cobbled stones of the city once again became a swirling parade of fire. Dancers gathered in the dark, torches were lit, and the Beltane Fire Society emerged whirling from the shadows to share their winter celebrations with the city. Banned by the local church for over …
Exploding skulls with Chef Mark Greenaway
Halloween is here and that means ghouls, ghosts and that maestro of the dessert realms himself- Chef Mark Greenaway. With a well-established reputation for deconstructing our most popular puddings and serving them back to us as the edible equivalent of a Picasso, for Mark, Halloween is the candy Christmas of dessert days. This year, the …
Laura Piper 