Scotland’s biggest free anime convention, March 6th-7th
Free. Fun. For Everyone. D-Con Scotland is the only free manga/anime art exhibition of its kind to be held in Scotland. Now in its second year, this accessible anime convention is attracting more attention and high profile exhibitors and sponsors. This year’s hotly anticipated gathering is taking place on Sat 6th- Sun 7th March in the Dundee University Students Union. Held across four floors, the weekend long event will contain guest speakers, tutorials, stalls of artwork, anime screenings, cosplay, competitions, games tournaments, live entertainment and much, much more. Read the rest of this entry »
‘The V&A at Dundee’, a new centre of 21st century design for Scotland and the world, will occupy a prime site at the heart of Dundee’s redeveloped waterfront, it is announced today (Monday January 11th).
An international architectural competition is being launched to deliver a landmark building for the centre, which will sit just to the south of Craig Harbour on a site to be created out into the River Tay. Read the rest of this entry »
After a lot of hype and promotion and a lot of excitement over announced speakers NEoN fest finally got underway today. The festival is taking part over various venues in Dundee but the main talks are based at the new Dalhousie building at the University of Dundee. This was the first time I’d visited the building.
Chris van der Kuyl got the ball rolling and introduced the speakers throughout the day as well as delivering the Welcome introduction. It was the first time I’ve seen Chris talk, indeed today was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to meet him.

DD8 Music, a collective based in Forfar, Scotland, are holding their annual Live in the Den festival on Saturday 15th August.
DD8music are a non exclusive organisation, formed in 2005, dedicated to promoting the involvement in musical activities such as writing, organising and performing, to young people in the area.
More information: http://www.dd8music.com

The Doogie MacLean Festival.
October 30 – November 8 2009
EventScotland, the national events agency, is set to invest £12K in the annual Perthshire Amber Festival. Now in its fifth year, the festival, dubbed the Dougie Maclean Festival, will take place from October 30th to November 8th and will celebrate music and the arts amid stunning Perthshire scenery. EventScotland’s funding will help to increase the event’s audience this year bringing more people to enjoy the performers and the area.
More info: http://www.perthshireamber.com/ and http://www.eventscotland.org
Glasgow has been named a United Nations City of Music. The award has prompted the creation of a new group called Glasgow City of Music to help the city’s music community reach greater heights. Glasgow becomes only the 11th city to become part of the Creative Cities Network which was launched by the UN in 2004.
Seville and Bologna are the only two other European cities to share the title. Scotland now has two world cities, with Edinburgh being the other after being named as the first UNESCO City of Literature, in 2004.
You either love him or you hate. I’m in the latter group. Jeremy Paxman is at it again. Not only is he infuriatingly annoying on TV but he’s just as bad in print. This time having a sly dig [2] at Scotland’s most famous bard, Robert Burns.
Although I am afraid I find the Scottish national poet no more than a king of sentimental doggerel, one might as well have used his ramfeezled to describe our state.
Cyberpunks rule the roost in a futuristic post apocalyptic Scotland. Well, thats the important part anyway, because any other plotline to the movie is heavily overshadowed by these primitive, yet captivating survivors of the Reaper Virus. Yes, Thats right, another day another Virus movie. Major Eden Sinclair leads a team of agents into a quarantined Scotland (by a 30ft wall constructed around the country in it’s entirety) to find a possible cure for it as three decades on the Virus has popped up it’s cheeky beak in the heart of London. They Face a violent struggle against time, the barren land and the people contained within it. Read the rest of this entry »