Golf Tango Foxtrot

GTF Editor writes; Don't normally do much in the way of fiction.  Here's a wee story that's part of a bigger whole. Brad, Brad Washington speaks.... “ My name is Brad, Brad Washington ” is the line. “ I fly helicopters ”. The man warms to his theme. “ Meaning I earn a lot of money and in the eyes of all the women in the Spirit Level I have a glamourous well paid profession. Being Kenny, a turner from Bellshill just isn't the same attraction. Sending money back to keep the wife and kids and family back home just isn't what my life was meant to be. And so I turned myself into a work of art. I became my own creation. My shagging life as performance art. And why not? If loyalist killer Michael Stone can burst into Stormont while armed to the teeth to assassinate politicians and then in mitigation at his trial claim it to be performance art, why can't I? Like every artist I have my creative eras and periods. The “Brad...

Libertadores String Quartet played Aberdeen's Cowdray Hall on the 4 th of November. The Quartet are all members of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and are products of "El Sistema" the musical education system developed in Venezuela by Maestro Jose Antonio Abreu. In Venezuela currently 300,000 children are being educated in this manner.  The intention being to produce not just musicians but happy adults with skills of teamwork, confidence, pride and aspiration to help them prosper. The charity Sistema Scotland seeks to   replicate this work through its Big Noise project in the Raploch area of Stirling and also in Govanhill in Glasgow. Interest has been expressed in Dundee and Aberdeen (hence the concert) about being the next location in Scotland for this work. There were many reasons to go to the concert, aside from a simple enjoyment of chamber music, or a general interest in musical education. An interest in the Bolivarian revo...