The Bulletin: Arts & Culture Roundup | 1 November

LOU REED REMEMBERED
The biggest news this week was the passing of rock and roll legend Lou Reed, singer for The Velvet Underground, and one of the most respected and admired songwriters of the twentieth century. The internet flooded with tributes to the singer, who passed away on Sunday 27 October from complications arising from liver disease.

Contemporaries such as David Bowie, Patti Smith and David Byrne paid tribute to the singer. Bowie simply said: "He was a master," and posted a photo of the pair together on his website. Morrissey, via the site True to You, offered some words of mourning: "No words to express the sadness at the death of Lou Reed. He had been there all of my life. He will always be pressed to my heart. Thank God for those, like Lou, who move within their own laws, otherwise imagine how dull the world would be. I knew the Lou of recent years and he was always full of good heart. His music will outlive time itself. We are all timebound, but today, with the loss of liberating Lou, life is a pigsty."

"Two kids have a chance meeting and 47 years later we fight and love the same way – losing either one is incomprehensible," said his former Velvets bandmate John Cale on his Facebook page. "No replacement value, no digital or virtual fill... broken now, for all time. Unlike so many with similar stories – we have the best of our fury laid out on vinyl, for the world to catch a glimpse." Patti Smith, speaking to Rolling Stone, said: "Lou was a very special poet – a New York writer in the way that Walt Whitman was a New York poet. One thing I got from Lou, that never went away, was the process of performing live over a beat, improvising poetry, how he moved over three chords for 14 minutes. That was a revelation to me."

Talking Heads frontman David Byrne also offered some remembrances, telling Rolling Stone: "His work and that of the Velvets was a big reason I moved to NY and I don't think I'm alone there. We wanted to be in a city that nurtured and fed that kind of talent." Perhaps the most moving tribute came from Reed's widow, Laurie Anderson, who told the East Hampton Star: "Lou was a prince and a fighter and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us."

OUTLANDER A THREAT TO SCOTTISH STUDIO PLANS?
In an article by Brian Ferguson in The Scotsman, filmmaker Gillian Berrie has hit out at plans to maintain the temporary film studio in Cumbernauld, currently being used to film long-form US TV drama Outlanders. "Cumbernauld is fine for TV and it’s great that Outlander is there, but we must not forget the down-time when it's in post-production, the sets will be gathering dust and therefore the space won’t be available," Berrie told Ferguson. "It’s not clear how many series they’re planning but potentially the site could be tied up for years. Also, without a guaranteed continuous income stream, this facility is vulnerable should there be gaps in productions using the space. Who will meet this shortfall?" Berrie, who recently spoke about the need for a Scottish soundstage as part of our feature on Scottish film, makes the point that Film City Glasgow could provide a more useful site for a permanent soundstage. "Govan has Film City Glasgow, the major broadcasters, new hotels, post-production facilities, the impending £40m Fastlink transport system, and most importantly, land, existing buildings and opportunity."

Acting head of BAFTA Scotland Alan de Pellette, speaking to The Skinny at the launch of the Scottish BAFTAS, disagrees: "Having a soundstage in Scotland can only be a good thing," he commented. "But I do think people are fixating on that as a kind of solution to the ills of an entire industry. I think that's just one part of it. The obvious example to cite is Northern Ireland, again – they've built a studio and it has attracted a lot of inward investment, and the knock-on effect of that is that there is more money in the economy, crews are getting work, and all the rest of it. But has that had a direct effect on more Northern Irish films getting out into the international market? Well, possibly, but it's not necessarily the case. They are two different things." On the subject of the Outlander studios, he commented: "It's right next to the motorway that leads you to the Highlands. That seems like a sensible project, rather than getting caught up in where a studio has to be."

 Illustration: Kate Copeland

50 BEST SCOTTISH NOVELS OF THE LAST 50 YEARS ANNOUNCED
The Scotsman this week unveiled a list of the 50 best Scottish novels of the past 50 years, with commentary from their literary critic Stuart Kelly. The list offers a few surprises, in amongst fairly obvious (but no less deserving) choices like Alasdair Gray's Lanark and Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. It's refreshing to see Iain Banks recognised not just once but twice, with the inclusion of Excession marking a rare opportunity for the literary fiction world to embrace his wildly popular science fiction novels. Kelly describes Excession as "a science fiction story which asks how far a liberal society will go to defend its liberalism." Ken Macleod's Newton's Wake is also included.

Orkney writer George Mackay Brown is recognised for his 1973 novel Magnus, alongside more modern and genre-driven fare such as Christopher Brookmyre's One Fine Day In The Middle of the Night – more crime fiction makes the cut with the inclusion of novels by Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Denise Mina and William McIllvanney. Debut novelist Jenni Fagan is recognised for The Panopticon, as is the increasingly brilliant Ewan Morrison for Tales From The Mall. Also included are giants of the modern day Scottish literary scene such as AL Kennedy, James Kelman, and Janice Galloway. 

The inclusion of genre fiction in large doses, usually sneered at by the literary establishment, is a testament to the diversirty of the list, which seeks to engage with the modern literary culture not just in terms of achievement and literary worth, but also in terms of popularity and relevance. A refreshing change from the usual function of 'best of' lists, which tend to favour established classics and formal experimentation over modern, popular works. Read the list in full here. What books and writers did The Scotsman miss? Tell us in the comments below.

 Photography: Jassy Earl

FOALS' YANNIS PHILIPPAKIS VS. SPOTIFY
Following on from the comments made by David Byrne and Nigel Godrich (covered in a previous Bulletin), Foals' Yannis Philippakis has hit out at music streaming service Spotify in a rant on Pitchfork. "I’d rather somebody stole the record on vinyl than bought it or streamed it on Spotify," he says. "Because I think you should listen to music on vinyl, and I think basically anything is better than that. It's like going to a restaurant when the chef and all the waiting staff have worked their asses off, and you leave coppers as a tip, and you don't even pay the bill. That's basically what Spotify's like, I think."