Storm in Buchanan Street

On Saturday I was on my way into town to meet Kari for lunch. I popped up to the Royal Concert Hall to collect some tickets and met a ten metre high figure making her way down Buchanan Street. Her name is Storm and she was representing the Coastal Connections festival (part of Celtic Connections). Made of recycled and natural materials which looked a bit like driftwood and seaweed, she was held up by a crane and operated by people hauling on ropes. Her arms, legs, head and bright blue eyes all moved and it was very effective. After a lovely lunch and good chat with Kari I did a wee bit of shopping in the sales and just as I was about to head home I got a phone call from James. He had walked all the way into town and was only a few yards away from where I was near St Enoch Station. It was such a nice surprise.
We spontaneously continued our recent cinema trend by going to see Jojo Rabbit at Cineworld. I am in two minds about it. I liked the characters and the story was interesting. The way that the little boy’s feelings changed towards his imaginary friend (a bizarre and initially good-natured Hitler) was a good idea that showed the situation from a child’s perspective. However some of the facts were wrong and that annoys me in a film. Just one example - the Hitler Youth leaders wouldn’t have been slouching around and joking, they would have been far too frightened of being reported. James disagreed with me and said that it was just for comic effect. Another film that I felt this about was Inglourious Basterds; in my view it’s fine to dramatise history but it’s not fine to change it, no matter how much you wish it had been like that. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh; there were a lot of good things about it. The director (who also played Hitler) is Taika Waititi, who we saw for the first time only a few days ago in a comedy-horror film called What We Do in the Shadows. He is from New Zealand and is extremely talented, I look forward to seeing what he directs next. We rounded off our evening with a delicious curry at Dakhin in Candleriggs.