Coffee-Table Notes

' Stranded at the Drive-In / Branded a Fool / What Will They Say / Monday at School?’ So sobbed poor Danny Zuko, the horny high school himbo played by a be-quiffed and seriously over-age John Travolta in Grease, the smash-hit 1978 big-screen adaptation of Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s stage musical. Danny’s wailings came after Olivia Newton John’s goody-two-shoes Sandy walks out on him after wriggling free from his uninvited advances in the open-topped jalopy at the drive-in where they go on their date. “Sandy!”, Danny calls after she frees herself from his clutches in what she damningly calls his ‘sin wagon’ before storming off into the night. “You just can’t walk out of a drive-in …” These are words that those behind plans for the forthcoming Sound & Vision Drive-In event might wish to pay some heed. A collaboration between Glasgow Film Festival and the Electric Frog electronic music festival, this large-scale in-car experience looks set to take place at the Riversi...

The cancellation of 2020 degree shows by all four of Scotland’s art schools due to the Covid 19/Coronavirus pandemic has curtailed a rites of passage that ordinarily makes for one of the liveliest weeks in the summer artistic calendar. With input from students and lecturers alike, all four main art schools in Scotland are attempting to plug the gap with an online presence that showcases the work of graduating students as best they can. Glasgow School of Art has already launched its  online showcase , while Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, Edinburgh College of Art and Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen will all be hosting virtual shows between now and July. While all four schools emphasise the involvement of graduating students in the showcases, a nationwide ‘pause or pay’ campaign has called into question the wisdom of art schools going ahead with them while charging full tuition fees.   Pause or Pay UK   is calling for the guarantee of a physical degr...