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The Glasgow Guardian •

100 years of Jaconelli's

In conversation with James Evans, owner of Cafe D’Jaconelli, only 5 minutes from Murano Street and 15 minutes from campus. We chat ice cream, Trainspotting, Billy Connolly and World War Two.

Go to 570 Maryhill Road and you’ll enter a time warp. “Since 1924”, a ribbon-laced sign says. It’s in front of a huge plastic ice cream cone, a 99, sitting in the window of Jaconelli’s, which last year turned 99 years old. Inside the art deco cafe are semi-circular leather booths, a jukebox, a fish tank, ja
The Glasgow Guardian •

Simon Murphy’s Govanhill: a bold photographic portrait

Simon Murphy’s new exhibition Govanhill captures a transient snapshot of the Glasgow Southside area.

Framed on the wall of Street Level Photoworks is a photograph of a young girl, she is around 11 or 12 years old. School uniform on, cigarette in hand, head cocked to the side, she poses, defiantly, outside the entrance to one of the Southside’s tightly packed tenement flats. I want to know her name.

She’s just one of hundreds of Glaswegians—more specifically, inhabitants of the Govanhill area—w
The Glasgow Guardian •

Glasgow deserved better from COP26

Two years since COP26. Two years since Prince Charles turned up at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Joe Biden was chauffeur driven past my halls of residence to a VIP-dinner, and John Kerry was spotted outside The Dirty Duchess in Finnieston. Two years since 100,000 of us took the streets and crammed around George Square for hours, craning our necks to catch a glimpse of Greta Thunberg (who, despite many rumours, unfortunately failed to turn up to Polo Wednesday the following week).
The Glasgow Guardian •

University spends millions on rooms sitting empty

Data seen by The Glasgow Guardian suggests there to be over 500 empty rooms in University-owned accommodation.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request obtained by The Glasgow Guardian has revealed substantial decreases in the overall occupancy rates of student accommodation available to University of Glasgow (UofG) students compared with the previous academic year.

The occupancy rate of beds within student accommodation owned by the University of Glasgow stands, as of 12 October 2023, at 85.35%
The Glasgow Guardian •

Experimental dance and chronic pain: In conversation with Sarah Hopfinger

Living with invisible pain can be debilitating, but artist and Royal Conservatoire researcher, Sarah Hopfinger, endeavours to turn her pain into art through her autobiographical show, Pain and I, performed at Tramway on November 8 and 9.

Sarah Hopfinger has lived with chronic back pain since she was 14. In the script for her immersive autobiographical performance, Pain and I, she admits feeling “embarrassed” by her pain, and wishing it would “disappear for good”. Because she “can’t always sit f
The Glasgow Guardian •

Instagram and me; Instagram is me

By adopting the perspective of the Instagram version of himself, can our Editor-in-Chief better understand his toxic relationship with social media?

Sometimes I think about the Instagram version of myself, as if they were sentient, like me. As I watch them grow and develop, I feel like I’ve created and nurtured them, like a parent does with their child. What would they perceive of the things they do, the places they go, the people they interact with? Would they be satisfied with the existence t
The Glasgow Guardian •

Room 223, Cairncross House

Don’t obsess over making your halls a home away from home: embrace its eccentricites.

Someone else is in my room. A few days ago they hauled bags past reception, up two flights of stairs, through a door, left turn, right turn, zig zag, zig zag again. No time to get a first impression when they finally arrive because there’s six more boxes of stuff waiting outside on the pavement and what if someone steals the one with their collection of houseplants which will probably die anyway because they w
The Glasgow Guardian •

Ten Years since Sheryl Sandberg told women to Lean In

Since Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In topped bestseller lists, we have entered the fourth wave of feminism. This has been, in part, defined by the #metoo movement which challenged sexual harassment in the workplace, as well as a renewed focus on intersectionality. Neither of these two issues are addressed by Lean In, and Sandberg’s supposedly feminist manifesto has largely failed on its own terms - the number of female tech leaders has fallen. Sandberg herself called it quits in June last year, taking
The Glasgow Guardian •

Cheryl is still viable

Cheryl Tweedy Cole Fernandez-Versini. Several articles about the former Girls Aloud member, who is now known as “just Cheryl”, commence with a bricolage of the last names she has accumulated over the years, and why shouldn’t they? It’s an etymological masterpiece - Kimberley Gail Ratcliff (née Marsh, previously Ryder and Lomas) just doesn’t hit the sweet spot! - and a reminder of the chaotic love life that, among other reasons, induces a very British affection for her. Following a long period in
Glasgow University Magazine •

How To Build A Tenement

Turn right off Byres Road and onto White Street, you’ll stumble upon row after row of sandstone tenements, in all their Victorian glory. For many students, a fine aesthetic, aptly complementing your post-lecture autumnal playlist. The ceilings are high, the rooms are huge, and there are traces of art nouveau in the tiles and railings, but the struggle to physically get inside renders tenement living impossible for a sizable number of Glasgow’s citizens, with women, the elderly and disabled peopl
The Glasgow Guardian •

David Cameron is still the worst Prime Minister of the 21st Century

David Cameron was the worst prime minister in living memory. Worse than Liz Truss, worse than Boris Johnson, worse than Theresa May.

Liz Truss and Boris Johnson were only elected Prime Minister after being promoted to foreign secretary by their predecessors. Boris Johnson caused Liz Truss, Theresa May caused Boris Johnson, and David Cameron caused Theresa May. Cameron did a runner after his big Brexit gamble, because he was too scared to face the consequences; instead leaving them to a chain of
The Glasgow Guardian •

A quintessential guide to Glasgow’s queer spaces

Congratulations on becoming a glas-gay. If you’re reading this in freshers’ week, you will probably find yourself in Colourfest at Hive, expecting Paris is Burning but instead grooving to Ne-Yo and Usher. It is a rite of passage.

What freshers’ week easily overlooks is that University Avenue is essentially a city within a city; there is an entire Glasgow ready and waiting for your exploration. So, whether you’re from a village still at least 25 years away from its first Pride parade, or you fin
Ed Fringe Review •

Review: Tokyo Fugue

Johann Sebastian Bach is turning in his grave. His Prelude and Fugue in D minor has been completely deconstructed and its structure reapplied, becoming the backbone of an enthralling production with just three bodies and three chairs. Directors Kentaro Suyama and Tania Coke are joined by Toshihiko Nishimura on stage, as they present a philosophical exploration of the repetitive, dehumanising and overwhelming nature of the commute. Through this,
The Glasgow Guardian •

Licence to trill: should films use licensed music or original scores?

It’s the intricacy of original film scores that makes them so satisfying. Meticulously crafted with utmost precision, any Danny Elfman or John Williams creation is overanalysis galore as their sudden staccatos and cautious crescendos interact seamlessly with the action on-screen. In King Kong, Max Steiner famously utilises the technique of mickeymousing as he deploys a descending scale in complete synchronisation with the heavy and deliberate footsteps of the sacrificial dance. Alas, the golden
The Glasgow Guardian •

Review: Amartey Golding’s Bring Me To Heal @ Tramway

It’s our ability to heal, or lack thereof, that determines our ability to forge human connection. Amartey Golding underlines this in his exhibition Bring Me To Heal, elaborating upon Joy DeGruy’s thesis of post-traumatic slave syndrome to explore the impact of intergenerational trauma on the political injustice and interpersonal hatred that bubbles underneath 21st century race relations.

A cavernous and dimly lit room in Glasgow’s Tramway hosts a bricolage of Golding’s work. This includes a gar