NORTHINGS takes a first plunge into the increasingly popular world of podcasting this month, and for our debut we have turned to one of the most intriguing articles that we have carried in the journal.

Back in mid-2007, Gaelic poet Rody Gorman suggested that I might like to publish a rather long but fascinating piece on his translations into Gaelic of the song lyrics of Bob Dylan. The article – posted in August 2007 and still available as a PDF – not only attracted a lot of visitors, but also drew a bit of press attention.

Now we have gone a step further. We can’t magically allow you to understand the Gaelic if you don’t speak it, but you can now hear an audio version of the article in which Rody reads and explains his work on the Dylan translations, adding a significant extra dimension to the experience. Our thanks go to Rody, to John Burns and John Saich, who have worked on the preparation with HI-Arts’s Marcus Wilson, and to Argyll piper Tony Higgins for the theme tune.

The Podcast can be downloaded from Northings, and is also available by the usual subscription process from iTunes, My Yahoo and Google Reader. We hope you enjoy the results.

On a less happy note, the decision by Highland Council at their special budget meeting in February to axe the three Assistant posts originally appointed to work with the Cultural Officers under the reconstruction described by Judi Menabney on our October interview has left the new strategy looking, to say the least, threadbare.

The three assistants are apparently being encouraged to apply for the posts of Cultural Coordinator funded by the Scottish Executive, but they are currently set to run for no more than a year, and cannot be said to provide long-term stability to what now looks like decidedly inadequate provision.

The Cultural Officers work mainly at community level, and as such the axing of the posts will not receive the kind of attention that would follow the closure of a theatre company or venue, but their work is an important cornerstone of arts and culture in the Highlands & Islands. While culture is always a soft target when it comes to budget cuts, and must expect to take its share of pain in hard times, this is a very disappointing and potentially serious development.

The Council also allocated a sum of £600,000 within the Education, Culture and Sport budget to continuing the legacy of Highland 2007, but it is not clear at this stage what that money will be available for. Judi Menabney is currently out of the office, and was not available for comment, but we will seek a response to the new situation when she returns.

We understand that Highland Council will also be discussing the results of the public consultation – already felt to be inadequate in many quarters – on the proposed new gallery space for Inverness this month. As our visual arts correspondent has pointed out, much of the debate to this point has been about where the gallery should go, and alarmingly little about what it should actually attempt to do, a lack that needs to be properly addressed.

Problems also seem to be brewing further north in Shetland, where the proposed development of the cultural quarter in Lerwick that includes the Mareel music and cinema venue is under threat from new rulings by the Health and Safety Executive regarding public buildings near oil storage facilities. Shetland Arts are currently lobbying for more information and increased public awareness of the problem.

Our main interview this month, as it happens, also focuses on the work of a Highland Council-funded post, the Màiri Mhòr Gaelic Song Fellowship held by singer Fiona MacKenzie (not to be confused with the other Fiona MacKenzie, whose new album, Elevate, appeared last month on Linn Records).

When Northings (then simply the Arts Journal) launched back in June 2003, we carried a ‘Venue of the Month’ profile of Eden Court Theatre, the first in a sequence looking at major performance venues around the Highlands & Islands. Five years on, and with major changes at a number of venues around the area, we have decided to run an updated series of Venue Profiles), starting once again with Eden Court, where there have been a few minor developments in recent times ….

Not all venues will have quite as much to report as the Inverness flagship, but we will be giving all of the original participants (and any new venues) an opportunity to revise and update their profile in the coming months in what will be a regular series. As ever, look out for more features and reviews in the course of the month.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

Kenny Mathieson lives and works in Boat of Garten, Strathspey. He studied American and English Literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a BA (First Class) in 1978, and a PhD in 1983. He has been a freelance writer on various arts-related subjects since 1982, and contributes to the Inverness Courier, The Scotsman, The Herald, The List, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.

The content of the Northings Arts Journal does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of HI-Arts, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, any other funder of HI-Arts, or their staff.