The Skinny Current Issue

We thought it’d be fun to try something a bit different this month, a little break from the arts. The Commonwealth Games are returning to Glasgow for some reason, everyone’s very excited about the football, tennis etc, why not turn our hands to sports journalism?

Speaking as someone whose most stressful work day was being left in charge of the SPL live blog for scotsman.com 17 years ago, this is not a skill that comes easily. However, when we threw the concept out to the writers they came back with a load of interesting ideas. It turns out writing about sport and writing about art are not mutually exclusive, and when you think about it in a broader context of culture and identity they’ve got even more in common. 

We start with a thoughtful consideration of Glasgow framed by its twin Commonwealth Games experiences. How has the city changed since 2014? It’s been through a lot – indyref, Brexit, COVID, a litany of cruel Westminster policies and, in more local leadership, campervan embezzlement. We approach community groups including Radical Glasgow Tours for reflection. 

On to personal experiences around sport – one writer shares their experience of learning to skateboard in their mid thirties, and how it brought them back to their body and into a new sense of community. Another considers his love for gymnastics, and what the sport’s complex relationship with gender has revealed. We look at running and music, how the transition from high BPM motivation to a more ambient playlist reflects a growing confidence as a runner. 

Clubs talks Chicago footwork, and looks at how the transatlantic genre has embedded itself in Scottish dancefloors. The Design column talks to a graphic designer on the ground with the Tartan Army to discuss authenticity and cultural sensitivity in football design culture. 

Departing from sport, Film meets Italian filmmaker Daniele Rugo to talk about Life Support, his devastating documentary drawing from medical professionals’ testimony and footage to reveal the humanitarian crisis of Gaza. We also talk to Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie’s Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol about their origins in the wild west of mid-00s no budget online skit comedy.

Music meets actual Lucia from Lucia & the Best Boys to learn about the gestation of new album Picking Petals. Tallah takes a trip out west (and north) to the Black Bay Studio and returns, forever changed. We talk to some of the Scottish artists who’ve retreated to the Highlands and Islands to develop their work, and learn how that natural environment influenced them. 

Art rounds up the degree shows of 2026 with our writers’ picks of Duncan of Jordanstone, Edinburgh College of Art and Glasgow School of Art. We also take a tour of Richard Maguire’s Collective gallery exhibition, an investigation of the surveillance of sexualities under colonialism. Theatre heads to Pitlochry for their new production of King Lear, simple entitled Lear. Our poster spread is a work by Bugarin + Castle, whose Scotland + Venice show we covered in detail last month. 

We finish with The Skinny on… Finnie, this year’s Commonwealth Games mascot, a unicorn developed in consultation with the city’s children. RIP Clyde, 2014’s personified thistle. Gone too soon. 

- Rosamund West