From Songthrush to Telephone

Here’s some great things coming up in the next few days and weeks that Bella thought it was essential you should know about  …

First up the wonder that is Hanna Tuuliki …

Hear more from Hanna at Soundcloud here.

ART WITH CYCLE-POWERED DISCO Unexpected Item in Bagging Area is an art show with music, stories, photography, painting, performances and a Cycle- Powered Disco Machine. The show runs from 3-11 May 2013 (10am- 8pm daily) in The Art’s Complex Gallery 3- 151 London Road in Edinburgh EH7 6AE.

Featuring Work by: Uma Rebecca Nada-Rajah, Tilly Gifford, Tim Vincent- Smith, Rebecca Green, Arturo Huerta Lopez, Lara Luna Bartley, Alastair Cook, Mat King, Dana MacPherson, Michael Firesinger, Emma Brierley, Rory Tisdale, Lucy McGreal, Mark Traynor and Sarah Alice Natalia.

GOVANHILL COMMUNITY FESTIVAL Streetland 2013 is just around the corner – 4th May, Govanhill: ‘a festival of creativity, community and the street’.

Organisers say: “We’ve got music, storytelling and dancing performances, pop-up art works, sewing doctors and musicians around the streets, workshops in drumming, signing, animation and much more. There is something for all ages and interests.

As usual the Govanhill Baths, Westmoreland Street Garden and the Chalet will be key locations for activity and where you’ll find Streetland stewards to help you with directions, programme and times of events.

Download the full programme for 2013 here.

STRANGETOWN TAKE YOUTH THEATRE TO NEW LEVELS Uniquely, Strangetown offers young people the chance to create their own theatre, not just to act but to write and direct it to. Sam Siggs is a young Edinburgh based playwright who has written extensively for Strange Town including co-writing the the 2011 Fringe hit ‘Hex’ which was revived in 2012 and played to sold out and enthusiastic audiences at The Traverse Theatre.

In “Small Creatures” two alien scientists question and examine the humans need for love – is it a need for love, sex or procreation? The results are both, comic and tragic.

That title comes from a Carl Sagan quote – “For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” Book now for their latest show ‘Small Creatures’ which launches this month.

FORTY YEARS OF TOM LEONARD Tom Leonard’s new book of prose Definite Articles covers forty years of essays, articles, reviews, and a personal journal. The launch is at the CCA, Glasgow Friday 10 May 2013 at 7.30pm Admission Free! All Welcome!

“Even the surliest of readers will find it hard to resist the blend of subtlety, honesty and emotion that pervades his work…. a testament to the many voices and stylistic bravura of Tom Leonard, all of which confirm his importance as a writer, both within Scotland and far beyond”.
– Matt Maguire, Scottish Studies Review

SCOTTISH LEFT REVIEW BENEFIT GIG Next day there’s a fund-raiser for the Scottish Left Review at the Stand Comedy Club on Woodlands Road, with funny-folks Elaine C Smith, Vladimir McTavish, Susan Morrison, John Gillick and Andrew Learmonth.

101 uses for a Spare Bedroom get’s belly-laughs at the absurdity of the Tories latest wheeze. If you think the media is dominated by a corporate agenda then support SLR – one of the best quality alt media outlets we have.

Get your ticket here. (£12 & £7 conc)

AMAZING AUDIO HISTORY Alexander Graham Bell (1885): “The inventions of Alexander Graham Bell—most famously the telephone but also methods of recording sound—have allowed people to hear each other’s voices for more than 130 years. Until now, no one knew what the inventor himself sounded like.”

Read the full amazing story here and listen to his voice below…