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A few weeks ago, my friend Chris made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. His comedy troupe, Improv Killed My Dog, were going to parody the trailer for the new film Yesterday. Did I fancy doing the music? I did. In the original, the hero wakes up one day and is the only person who… [more]
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I’ve written before about what appears to be a failure of basic journalism standards at The Times and Sunday Times under editor John Witherow. A new report suggests it’s even worse. The report has the rather unwieldy title Andrew Norfolk, The Times Newspaper and Anti-Muslim Reporting – A Case To Answer, and it makes some… [more]
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I mentioned the gap between firms’ embrace of the Pride rainbow and their actual actions the other day. Here’s a great example. I was in a minor car crash on Friday, and over the weekend various companies – my insurer, the repairer and the car hire firm that’s sorting out the courtesy car – all… [more]
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The photo above was shared on social media yesterday; it’s from the Spice Girls gig in Manchester. Apparently there were similar scenes at last night’s Pink concert in Glasgow, where not one but two security guards were posted outside the gents to stop women from using the cubicles. [more]
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I’m at a bus stop in Glasgow, early on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Two neds stare at me as they swagger past. Ned #1: [unintelligible] Ned #2: That’s no’ a wumman! Ned #1: Ah’d still stick it with ma willy. The neds swagger on, laughing. I’ve been outside for four minutes. [more]
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It was Edinburgh Pride day yesterday. SNP MSP Joan McAlpine spent much of it indulging in the “legitimate debate” she’s so fond of by circulating faked tweets in order to create a social media pile-on against a trans ally and human rights campaigner. At the actual event some anti-trans activists came along to shout their… [more]
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Psychology Today asks a question: what precisely do transgender people threaten? The piece is based on a single study, albeit one that draws on multiple others and widely accepted social phenomena. The short version is that trans people get shot by both sides. transgender individuals can be perceived as simultaneously transgressing the gender norms of… [more]
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Today, the Scottish Government and the SNP effectively threw trans people under the bus. After a lengthy public consultation that found the general public and women’s groups overwhelmingly in favour of its proposals for gender recognition reform, the next step is… to water down the proposals and have another consultation and maybe water them down… [more]
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Music fans of a certain age will recognise the name of Ian Penman, one of the best writers ever to work for NME (the NME of its glory days, not the shallow lifestyle brand of today). Here, the London Review of Books gets him to review two biographies of Prince. It’s an incredible article about… [more]
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Game designer Owen Goss injects a healthy dose of reality into the “if I can do it, you can too!” school of careers advice. As he points out, privilege and luck have a huge role to play. Indie games are a hard thing to make a living at. And yes, I’ve worked very hard to… [more]
Read me in books
My debut memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was a Scotsman book of the year and Damian Barr’s Literary Salon book of the week, and it was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards book of the year in the Discover category.
My latest book, Small Town Joy, is a celebration of queer influences on and queer artists in Scots music and is out now.
I’m also a contributor to the excellent anthology Fierce Salvage, which is also out now.
