For a list of the current Friends of the Scottish Review, click here
Michael Marra
When I imagine Dundee, I find that I often do so through the voice of the singer/songwriter, Michael Marra. His warm, humorous songs brought Dundee humour out into the wider world in an unforgettable way. When I heard that he had died at the age of 60, I was stunned. It’s such a loss to Scottish music, as well as to all those who knew and loved him.
I want to commemorate him by reminding folk of his song about the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. She had died and gone to heaven but because Saint Peter was busy, she was asked to wait for a while in the Taybridge Bar on the Perth Road; presumably she went into the Walnut Lounge and there she met the artist, James Howie, who had once been a student at Dundee’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.
And she says, ‘Buenos dias, boys, this looks like the place
To make my re-entry to the human race
Here I am and here I’ll stay
Till it’s Hasta La Vista and I’m on my way’.
She said she’d never been so happy in a long long time
Her mind as relaxed and her body felt fine
She said, ‘Put on “Perdido”, tonight’s the night
I want to dance with Jimmy Howie in the pale moonlight’.
Hasta la vista, Michael Marra.
Bob Cant
Alasdair McKillop (24 October) hopes that events designed to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the first world war will be free of triumphalism and gratuitous political posturing. It may be timely to remind SR readers of the reason why battalions of conifers, resembling to the imaginative eye troops assembled for battle, parade on Scottish hillsides.
This emergency led directly to the foundation of the Forestry Commission after the war by Lord Lovat, the officer who had been in charge of timber supplies to the Western Front. Strategic quantities of commercial softwood apart, I live in one of these ‘tree farms’ and can assure your readers that, far from being the sterile plantations of caricature, these stern guardians marshalled on our hillsides provide welcome cover for teeming wildlife including otters, newts, deer, stoats, rabbits, dozens of bird species, mosses, bryophytes, funghi and wild flowers including orchids. Grey hens fly in in the spring to feed on the Japanese larch buds and there is a leck on the neighbouring hillside.
Perhaps SR readers can think of a way this very visible legacy in our countryside could be used to commemorate the centenary?
Elizabeth Roberts
It has been reported that Alex Salmond has written to the chief constable of Grampian Police asking for an explanation surrounding the circumstances as to why film-makers Anthony Baxter and Richard Phinney were arrested while making the award-winning documentary ‘You’ve Been Trumped’.
This begs the question – Why has it taken Mr Salmond more than two years to ask this question? After all he would have been well aware at the time of the circumstances surrounding the arrests. Mr Salmond then goes on to suggest that the film was made from a certain point of view. The film portrayed situations which very few, if any, other media outlets were making available to the general public. However Mr Salmond neglects to mention that in the documentary he does in fact get the opportunity to reflect his views about the development.
I am not a ‘political animal’ so have no axe to grind over Mr Salmond or the Scottish Government but it is my belief that the first minister chose only to act after the widespread public condemnation, following BBC2’s showing of the documentary, of the Trump Organisation, Grampian Police, local and national governments, and the local press.
Robert Smith
Before I get too serious about this, let me say that I do not adhere to the Shankly maxim that football is more important than life and death. With that preface, I will assure Jim Bauld (18 October) that I am no kin of Craig Levein. I’m not even a Jambo, although I did see the great Willie Bauld play. Related, by any chance, Jim? That, I would be proud of.
I note everything he asserts. I’ve read it all before. Most of it is his opinion, and I will respect it, even though he doesn’t appear to respect mine. However he would have more authority if he was able to nominate a potential successor with a track record that marks him out as worthy.
Jim questions my doubts about Gordon Strachan. Okay, I’ll elaborate. Apart from his stint at Celtic, a club in a league of two, and the other was in turmoil for much of his tenure, his management record is not distinguished, and I’m being kind. Furthermore, as Scotland manager he would be subject to the same reality as his predecessors; the transfer market would be closed to him.
As for Owen Coyle, come off it, Jim. Read again, then engage brain before keyboard; nowhere do I say that he should not be chosen because he is ‘foreign’. I merely suggest that he might be a more viable candidate for Trapattoni’s job as a former Republic player. For the record, if Martin O’Neill was appointed to the Hampden job, I would personally hold the door open for him, so I will tolerate no accusation of xenophobia, if one was implied.
I note that Pep Guardiola is currently available, but I doubt that even he would survive the short-term mentality with which we are cursed. In any event, if we are to have top-level aspirations, I would appreciate someone telling me when the World Cup was last won by a side whose manager was not a native of that country, and how many times a ‘foreign’ manager has lifted the European Championship trophy.
Quintin Jardine
The Cafe is our readers’ forum. Send your contribution to islay@scottishreview.net
