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graeme-from-it · 8 years ago

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Scotland - May 2017- non “main” party council candidates

Aberdeen City Council Dyce/Bucksburn/Danestone Ward Coral DUTHIE Independent Bridge of Don Ward Simon MCLEAN Independent Bridge of Don Ward John Michael REYNOLDS Independent Bridge of Don Ward George SAUNDERS Independent Northfield/Mastrick North Ward Faith Jason ROBERTSON-FOY Independent Hilton/Woodside/Stockethill Ward David Page HENDERSON Independent Midstocket/Rosemount Ward Dustin MACDONALD Independent Midstocket/Rosemount Ward Bill ROBB Independent Lower Deeside Ward Marie BOULTON Independent Lower Deeside Ward Kenneth Raymond PRATT Independent Torry/Ferryhill Ward David FRYER Independent Kincorth/Nigg/Cove Ward Finlay CROSSAN Independent Kincorth/Nigg/Cove Ward Andy FINLAYSON Independent --- --- --- --- Aberdeenshire Council Banff and District Ward John COX Independent Troup Ward Hamish PARTRIDGE Independent Fraserburgh and District Ward Doreen MAIR Independent Fraserburgh and District Ward Charlie REID Independent Fraserburgh and District Ward Ian TAIT Independent Fraserburgh and District Ward MICHAEL WATT Independent Central Buchan Ward Norman SMITH Independent Peterhead North and Rattray Ward Alan S BUCHAN Independent Peterhead North and Rattray Ward Iain SUTHERLAND Independent Peterhead South and Cruden Ward Stephen William CALDER Independent Peterhead South and Cruden Ward Sam COULL Independent Turriff and District Ward Sandy DUNCAN Independent Turriff and District Ward Mike RAWLINS Independent Mid Formartine Ward Jeff GOODHALL Independent Mid Formartine Ward Paul JOHNSTON Independent Stonehaven and Lower Deeside Ward Philip BISHOP Independent Mearns Ward Dave STEWART Independent Inverurie and District Judy Margaret WHYTE Others Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Anne REID Others --- --- --- --- Angus Council Brechin and Edzell Ward Bob MYLES Independent Brechin and Edzell Ward Jill SCOTT Independent Brechin and Edzell Ward Paul (Paula) Wilkins (Honey Rose) Independent Forfar and District Ward Colin BROWN Independent Forfar and District Ward Ian MCLAREN Independent Forfar and District Ward Ian WHYTE Independent Carnoustie and District Ward Bill BOWLES Independent Carnoustie and District Ward Brian David BOYD Independent Carnoustie and District Ward David CHEAPE Independent Arbroath East and Lunan Ward Lois SPEED Independent Arbroath East and Lunan Ward Ian WATSON Independent Montrose and District Ward Mark SALMOND Independent Montrose and District Ward Tommy STEWART Independent Arbroath West, Letham and Friockheim Ward David FAIRWEATHER Independent Arbroath East and Lunan Ward KEVIN SMITH Independent --- --- --- --- Argyll & Bute Council Ward 2 - Kintyre and the Islands John MCALPINE Independent Ward 3 - Mid Argyll Donnie MACMILLAN Independent Ward 3 - Mid Argyll Jane MCCURDIE Independent Ward 3 - Mid Argyll Douglas Trevor PHILAND Independent Ward 4 - Oban South and the Isles Mary-Jean DEVON Independent Ward 4 - Oban South and the Isles Alistair MACDOUGALL Independent Ward 4 - Oban South and the Isles Roddy MCCUISH Independent Ward 5 - Oban North and Lorn Brian BURNETT Independent Ward 5 - Oban North and Lorn Kieron GREEN Independent Ward 5 - Oban North and Lorn Neil MACKAY Independent Ward 5 - Oban North and Lorn Allan MCKIE Independent Ward 5 - Oban North and Lorn Grant NICHOLSON Independent Ward 5 - Oban North and Lorn Elaine ROBERTSON Independent Ward 6 - Cowal Alex MCNAUGHTON Independent Ward 7 - Dunoon John ALLISON Independent Ward 7 - Dunoon Jim ANDERSON Independent Ward 7 - Dunoon Brian LOGAN Independent Ward 7 - Dunoon Gordon MCKINVEN Independent Ward 7 - Dunoon Jimmy MCQUEEN Independent Ward 8 - Isle of Bute Fraser GILLIES Independent Ward 8 - Isle of Bute John MCCALLUM Independent Ward 8 - Isle of Bute Jean Murray MOFFAT Independent Ward 8 - Isle of Bute Len SCOULLAR Independent Ward 9 - Lomond North Fiona BAKER Independent Ward 9 - Lomond North George FREEMAN Independent Ward 9 - Lomond North Robert MACINTYRE Independent Ward 10 - Helensburgh Central James ROBB Independent Ward 11 - Helensburgh and Lomond South Mike CROWE Independent Ward 11 - Helensburgh and Lomond South Ian MACQUIRE Independent --- --- --- --- City Of Edinburgh Council Ward 1 - Almond John LONGSTAFF Independent Ward 4 - Forth Nicola ROSS Independent Ward 5 - Inverleith Tina WOOLNOUGH Independent Ward 6 - Corstorphine/Murrayfield John Ferguson SCOTT Independent Ward 9 - Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart Rojan SUBRAMANI Independent Ward 12 - Leith Walk Alan Gordon MELVILLE Independent Ward 12 - Leith Walk Harald TOBERMANN Independent --- --- --- --- Clackmannanshire Council Ward 1 Clackmannanshire West Thomas Joshua HARRISON Independent --- --- --- --- Dumfries & Galloway Council Ward 1 - Stranraer and the Rhins Tracy DAVIDSON Independent Ward 1 - Stranraer and the Rhins Robert MCCRAE Independent Ward 1 - Stranraer and the Rhins Marion MCCUTCHEON Independent Ward 2 - Mid Galloway and Wigtown West Jim MCCOLM Independent Ward 2 - Mid Galloway and Wigtown West John MCCUTCHEON Independent Ward 2 - Mid Galloway and Wigtown West Richard OXLEY Independent Ward 3 - Dee and Glenkens Andi HOLMES Independent Ward 3 - Dee and Glenkens Jane MAITLAND Independent Ward 3 - Dee and Glenkens Douglas SWAN Independent Ward 4 - Castle Douglas and Crocketford Iain HOWIE Independent Ward 4 - Castle Douglas and Crocketford George PRENTICE Independent Ward 5 - Abbey Belle DOYLE Independent Ward 8 - Lochar Yen HONGMEI JIN Independent Ward 8 - Lochar Maureen JOHNSTONE Independent Ward 9 - Nith Niall COWAN Independent Ward 9 - Nith Andrew CROSBIE Independent Ward 9 - Nith John DENNIS Independent Ward 9 - Nith David Robert SLATER Independent Ward 10 - Annandale South Allan WEILD Independent Ward 12 - Annandale East and Eskdale Craig PEACOCK Independent Ward 1 - Stranraer and the Rhins Willie SCOBIE Others Ward 3 - Dee and Glenkens John THOM Others Ward 5 - Abbey Tom MCAUGHTRIE Others Ward 6 - North West Dumfries Billy FARRIES Others Ward 7 - Mid and Upper Nithsdale Graham WATSON Others Ward 12 - Annandale East and Eskdale Denis MALE Others --- --- --- --- Dundee City Council Ward 1 - Strathmartine Ian BORTHWICK Independent Ward 2 - Lochee Tom FERGUSON Independent Ward 3 - West End Bradley BOOTH Independent Ward 6 - North East Alan BEDDOWS Independent Ward 7 - East End Darryl GUTHRIE Independent Ward 3 - West End Andrew MCBRIDE Local parties --- --- --- --- East Ayrshire Council Ward 1 - Annick Ellen FREEL Independent Ward 1 - Annick Gordon WALKER Independent Ward 4 - Kilmarnock East and Hurlford Raymond PATTISON Independent Ward 6 - Irvine Valley Ian KING Independent Ward 8 - Cumnock and New Cumnock Jessie OWENS Independent Ward 9 - Doon Valley Drew FILSON Independent Ward 9 - Doon Valley John YOUNG Independent Ward 6 - Irvine Valley Sally COGLEY Others Ward 6 - Irvine Valley David R GARTLAND Others Ward 7 - Ballochmyle David SHAW Others --- --- --- --- East Dunbartonshire Council Ward 2 - Bearsden North Duncan CUMMING Independent Ward 3 - Bearsden South Alan OLIVER Independent Ward 4 - Bishopbriggs North & Campsie Brian REID Independent Ward 6 - Lenzie & Kirkintilloch South Sandy TAYLOR Independent Ward 6 - Lenzie & Kirkintilloch South Alisdair SINCLAIR Independent Ward 7 - Kirkintilloch East & North & Twechar Willie PATERSON Independent --- --- --- --- East Lothian Council Ward 1 - Musselburgh John Murray CALDWELL Independent Ward 1 - Musselburgh Theresa SIVES Independent --- --- --- --- East Renfrewshire Council Ward 1 - Barrhead, Liboside and Uplawmoor Danny DEVLIN Independent Ward 2 - Newton Mearns North and Neilston Kirsteen ALLAN Independent Ward 3 - Giffnock and Thornliebank Paul DRURY Independent Ward 3 - Giffnock and Thornliebank Gordon MCCASKILL Independent Ward 3 - Giffnock and Thornliebank Savio Andrew D'SOUZA Independent Ward 4 - Clarkston, Netherlee and Williamwood David MACDONALD Independent Ward 4 - Clarkston, Netherlee and Williamwood Ralph ROBERTSON Independent Ward 5 - Newton Mearns South and Eaglesham Bev BROWN Independent Ward 2 - Newton Mearns North and Neilston David JESNER Others --- --- --- --- Falkirk Council Ward 2 - Grangemouth Robert SPEARS Independent Ward 3 - Denny and Banknock Brian MCCABE Independent Ward 3 - Denny and Banknock Anne MONTGOMERY Independent Ward 3 - Denny and Banknock Alexander John WADDELL Independent Ward 4 - Carse, Kinnaird and Tryst Safia ALI Independent Ward 5 - Bonnybridge and Larbert Janine Danielle RENNIE Independent Ward 5 - Bonnybridge and Larbert Billy BUCHANAN Independent Ward 8 - Lower Braes Ricky WILSON Independent Ward 8 - Lower Braes Steven JACKSON Independent Ward 8 - Lower Braes Sam HEMPLE Independent Ward 9 - Upper Braes Jim ROBERTSON Independent Ward 9 - Upper Braes Neil DURNING Independent --- --- --- --- Fife Council Ward 1 - West Fife & Coastal Villages Martin KEATINGS Independent Ward 3 - Dunfermline Central Doug HAY Independent Ward 3 - Dunfermline Central Deek JACKSON Independent Ward 5 - Rosyth Steven LECKIE Independent Ward 5 - Rosyth Alastair MACINTYRE Independent Ward 5 - Rosyth Mike SHIRKIE Independent Ward 6 - Inverkeithing & Dalgety Bay Helen CANNON-TODD Independent Ward 8 - Lochgelly Cardenden & Benarty James GLEN Independent Ward 9 - Burntisland Kinghorn & Western Kirkcaldy Peter GEORGE Independent Ward 9 - Burntisland Kinghorn & Western Kirkcaldy Roy William MACKIE Independent Ward 11 - Kirkcaldy Central Daniel PENMAN Independent Ward 12 - Kirkcaldy East Marie PENMAN Independent Ward 12 - Kirkcaldy East Matthew RITCHIE Independent Ward 13 - Glenrothes West & Kinglassie Bill BROWN Independent Ward 14 - Glenrothes North Leslie & Markinch Kyle MACKIE Independent Ward 15 - Glenrothes Central & Thornton Ian CRICHTON Independent Ward 15 - Glenrothes Central & Thornton Ian ROBERTSON Independent Ward 15 - Glenrothes Central & Thornton Bert THOMSON Independent Ward 16 - Howe of Fife & Tay Coast Jane FREER Independent Ward 18 - St. Andrews Clare FISHER Independent Ward 18 - St. Andrews Christopher MCKINLAY Independent Ward 18 - St. Andrews Dorothea MORRISON Independent Ward 22 - Buckhaven Methil & Wemyss Villages Eunice CAMERON Independent Ward 22 - Buckhaven Methil & Wemyss Villages Ronald HUNTER Independent Ward 14 - Glenrothes North Leslie & Markinch Jamie DONALDSON Others --- --- --- --- Glasgow City Council Ward 1 Linn Cathy MILLIGAN Independent Ward 1 Linn Bobby POLLOCK Independent Ward 3 Greater Pollok Dean WARD Independent Ward 3 Greater Pollok George LAIRD Independent Ward 8 Southside Central Mark FIDDY Independent Ward 10 Anderston/City/Yorkhill Gerry CREECHAN Independent Ward 10 Anderston/City/Yorkhill Gordon KEANE Independent Ward 16 Canal Billy MCALLISTER Independent Ward 16 Canal Amjad MIRZA Independent Ward 18 East Centre Andrew MCCULLAGH Independent Ward 19 Shettleston Paul CORRAN Independent Ward 21 North East Gerry BOYLE Independent Ward 23 Partick East/Kelvindale Tom MUIRHEAD Independent Ward 9 Calton Kris MCGURK Others Ward 11 Hillhead Douglas TIMMINS Others --- --- --- --- Highland Council Ward 1 - North, West and Central Sutherland Malcolm BANGOR-JONES Independent Ward 1 - North, West and Central Sutherland Hugh MORRISON Independent Ward 1 - North, West and Central Sutherland Brendan O'HANRAHAN Independent Ward 1 - North, West and Central Sutherland Michael SIMPSON Independent Ward 2 - Thurso and Northwest Caithness Gillian COGHILL Independent Ward 2 - Thurso and Northwest Caithness Tommy FARMER Independent Ward 2 - Thurso and Northwest Caithness Donnie MACKAY Independent Ward 2 - Thurso and Northwest Caithness Matthew REISS Independent Ward 3 - Wick and East Caithness Bill FERNIE Independent Ward 3 - Wick and East Caithness A.I. Willie MACKAY Independent Ward 3 - Wick and East Caithness Linda MALIK Independent Ward 3 - Wick and East Caithness Catherine PATTERSON Independent Ward 3 - Wick and East Caithness NICOLA SINCLAIR Independent Ward 4 - East Sutherland and Edderton Jim MCGILLIVRAY Independent Ward 5 - Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh Biz CAMPBELL Independent Ward 5 - Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh Richard GREENE Independent Ward 6 - Cromarty Firth Mike FINLAYSON Independent Ward 6 - Cromarty Firth Sheila FLETCHER Independent Ward 6 - Cromarty Firth Martin RATTRAY Independent Ward 6 - Cromarty Firth Carolyn WILSON Independent Ward 7 - Tain and Easter Ross Alasdair RHIND Independent Ward 7 - Tain and Easter Ross Fiona ROBERTSON Independent Ward 7 - Tain and Easter Ross Sandra SKINNER Independent Ward 8 - Dingwall and Seaforth Alister MACKINNON Independent Ward 8 - Dingwall and Seaforth Margaret PATERSON Independent Ward 9 - Black Isle Jennifer BARCLAY Independent Ward 9 - Black Isle BEV SMITH Independent Ward 10 - Eilean a' CheÃ² Campbell DICKSON Independent Ward 10 - Eilean a' CheÃ² John FINLAYSON Independent Ward 10 - Eilean a' CheÃ² Hamish FRASER Independent Ward 10 - Eilean a' CheÃ² Drew MILLAR Independent Ward 10 - Eilean a' CheÃ² Moira Elisobeth SCOBBIE Independent Ward 10 - Eilean a' CheÃ² John GORDON Independent Ward 10 - Eilean a' CheÃ² Ronald MACDONALD Independent Ward 11 - Caol and Mallaig Allan HENDERSON Independent Ward 11 - Caol and Mallaig Liam SIMMONDS Independent Ward 11 - Caol and Mallaig Ben THOMPSON Independent Ward 12 - Aird and Loch Ness Helen CARMICHAEL Independent Ward 12 - Aird and Loch Ness Margaret DAVIDSON Independent Ward 13 - Inverness West Allan DUFFY Independent Ward 13 - Inverness West Graham ROSS Independent Ward 14 - Inverness Central Janet CAMPBELL Independent Ward 14 - Inverness Central DONNIE KERR Independent Ward 14 - Inverness Central Diane WILKINSON Independent Ward 15 - Inverness Ness-side Jean SLATER Independent Ward 16 - Inverness Millburn Zosia FRASER Independent Ward 17 - Culloden and Ardersier Roddy BALFOUR Independent Ward 17 - Culloden and Ardersier Thomas LAMONT Independent Ward 18 - Nairn and Cawdor Laurie FRASER Independent Ward 18 - Nairn and Cawdor Michael GREEN Independent Ward 18 - Nairn and Cawdor Tom HEGGIE Independent Ward 18 - Nairn and Cawdor Paul MCIVOR Independent Ward 19 - Inverness South Jim CRAWFORD Independent Ward 19 - Inverness South Duncan MACPHERSON Independent Ward 20 - Badenoch and Strathspey Stewart DICK Independent Ward 20 - Badenoch and Strathspey Bill LOBBAN Independent Ward 20 - Badenoch and Strathspey Donald Gunn MACDONALD Independent Ward 21 - Fort William and Ardnamurchan Andrew Phillip BAXTER Independent Ward 21 - Fort William and Ardnamurchan Joanne Elizabeth MATHESON Independent Ward 4 - East Sutherland and Edderton George GUNN Others Ward 8 - Dingwall and Seaforth Dave ALLISON Others --- --- --- --- Inverclyde Council Ward 1 - Inverclyde East Jim BOYLAND Independent Ward 2 - Inverclyde East Central Drew MCKENZIE Independent Ward 4 - Inverclyde North Eddie MCELENY Independent Ward 5 - Inverclyde West Ronald AHLFELD Independent Ward 5 - Inverclyde West Lynne QUINN Independent Ward 6 - Inverclyde South West Gary PURDON Independent Ward 6 - Inverclyde South West J B HOUSTON Independent Ward 7 - Inverclyde South John COOKE Independent Ward 7 - Inverclyde South Vaughan JONES Independent Ward 7 - Inverclyde South Tommy MCVEY Independent Ward 2 - Bonnyrigg George MCINTYRE Independent Ward 3 - Dalkeith Jim BRYANT Independent --- --- --- --- Midlothian Council Ward 4 - Midlothian West Andrew COVENTRY Independent Ward 6 - Midlothian South Jason FERRY Independent Ward 5 - Midlothian East Robert HOGG Independent --- --- --- --- Moray Council Ward 1 - Speyside Glenlivet Derek ROSS Independent Ward 2 - Keith and Cullen Rob BARSBY Independent Ward 2 - Keith and Cullen Ron SHEPHERD Independent Ward 3 - Buckie Gordon COWIE Independent Ward 4 - Fochabers Lhanbryde Kenneth John GILLESPIE Independent Ward 4 - Fochabers Lhanbryde Ian TAYLOR Independent Ward 5 - Heldon and Laich John COWE Independent Ward 5 - Heldon and Laich Ryan John EDWARDS Independent Ward 5 - Heldon and Laich Dennis SLATER Independent Ward 6 - Elgin City North Billy ADAMS Independent Ward 7 - Elgin City South Sean MALONE Independent Ward 8 - Forres George ALEXANDER Independent Ward 8 - Forres Lorna CRESWELL Independent Ward 8 - Forres Jeff HAMILTON Independent Ward 8 - Forres Terry MONAGHAN Independent Ward 4 - Fochabers Lhanbryde Sean Murray MORTON Others Ward 6 - Elgin City North Sandy COOPER Others --- --- --- --- Na h-Eileanan Siar Ward 1 Barraigh, Bhatarsaigh, Eirisgeigh agus Uibhist a Deas David BLANEY Independent Ward 1 Barraigh, Bhatarsaigh, Eirisgeigh agus Uibhist a Deas Ronald Joseph MACKINNON Independent Ward 1 Barraigh, Bhatarsaigh, Eirisgeigh agus Uibhist a Deas Gerry MACLEOD Independent Ward 1 Barraigh, Bhatarsaigh, Eirisgeigh agus Uibhist a Deas Iain Archie MACNEIL Independent Ward 1 Barraigh, Bhatarsaigh, Eirisgeigh agus Uibhist a Deas DONNIE STEELE Independent Ward 2 Beinn na Foghla agus Uibhist a Tuath Neil Macdonald BEATON Independent Ward 2 Beinn na Foghla agus Uibhist a Tuath Roddy MACKAY Independent Ward 2 Beinn na Foghla agus Uibhist a Tuath IAIN MURDOCH MACLEOD Independent Ward 2 Beinn na Foghla agus Uibhist a Tuath Uisdean ROBERTSON Independent Ward 2 Beinn na Foghla agus Uibhist a Tuath Andrew WALKER Independent Ward 2 Beinn na Foghla agus Uibhist a Tuath JOHN MACLEOD Independent Ward 3 Na Hearadh agus Ceann a Deas nan Loch Finlay CUNNINGHAM Independent Ward 3 Na Hearadh agus Ceann a Deas nan Loch Paul Anthony FINNEGAN Independent Ward 3 Na Hearadh agus Ceann a Deas nan Loch Catherine MACDONALD Independent Ward 3 Na Hearadh agus Ceann a Deas nan Loch DJ MACRAE Independent Ward 3 Na Hearadh agus Ceann a Deas nan Loch Alex Dan SMITH Independent Ward 3 Na Hearadh agus Ceann a Deas nan Loch Denise WILSON Independent Ward 3 Na Hearadh agus Ceann a Deas nan Loch SHEENA MACLEOD Independent Ward 4 Sgir' Uige agus Ceann a Tuath nan Loch Norman Alexander MACDONALD Independent Ward 4 Sgir' Uige agus Ceann a Tuath nan Loch Donald Cudig MACLEOD Independent Ward 4 Sgir' Uige agus Ceann a Tuath nan Loch Angus MORRISON Independent Ward 5 Sgire an Rubha NORRIE TOMSH MACDONALD Independent Ward 5 Sgire an Rubha Alasdair MACLEOD Independent Ward 5 Sgire an Rubha John Murdo MACMILLAN Independent Ward 5 Sgire an Rubha Tony ROBSON Independent Ward 5 Sgire an Rubha Finlay Mackenzie STEWART Independent Ward 6 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Deas Caroline Linda BRICK Independent Ward 6 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Deas Keith DODSON Independent Ward 6 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Deas Shonnie Beag MACRITCHIE Independent Ward 6 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Deas Angus MCCORMACK Independent Ward 6 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Deas Campbell MCKENZIE Independent Ward 6 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Deas Derek MCPHERSON Independent Ward 6 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Deas Charlie NICOLSON Independent Ward 7 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Tuath Iain Maclean MACAULAY Independent Ward 7 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Tuath NEIL MACKAY Independent Ward 7 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Tuath RODDIE MACKAY Independent Ward 7 SteÃ²rnabhagh a Tuath Lesley MCKENZIE Independent Ward 8 Loch a Tuath Donald Finlayson CRICHTON Independent Ward 8 Loch a Tuath Ruaraidh FERGUSON Independent Ward 8 Loch a Tuath IAIN C MACIVER Independent Ward 8 Loch a Tuath Calum MACLEAN Independent Ward 8 Loch a Tuath Allan Cameron MACLACHLAN Independent Ward 9 An Taobh Siar agus Nis John MACKAY Independent Ward 9 An Taobh Siar agus Nis Alistair MACLENNAN Independent Ward 9 An Taobh Siar agus Nis JOHN NORMAN MACLEOD Independent Ward 9 An Taobh Siar agus Nis KENNY JOHN MACLEOD Independent Ward 9 An Taobh Siar agus Nis Malcolm Ivor MCTAGGART Independent Ward 1 Barraigh, Bhatarsaigh, Eirisgeigh agus Uibhist a Deas PAUL FRANCIS STEELE Others --- --- --- --- North Ayrshire Council Ward 04 - Stevenston Alan MUNRO Independent Ward 04 - Stevenston Gerard POLLOCK Independent Ward 04 - Stevenston David HIGGINS Independent Ward 05 - Ardrossan and Arran John HUNTER Independent Ward 06 - Dalry and West Kilbride Kay HALL Independent Ward 06 - Dalry and West Kilbride Sheena WOODSIDE Independent Ward 06 - Dalry and West Kilbride Robert BARR Independent Ward 06 - Dalry and West Kilbride Elizabeth MCLARDY Independent Ward 06 - Dalry and West Kilbride John WILLIS Independent Ward 07 - Kilbirnie and Beith James SMITH Independent Ward 07 - Kilbirnie and Beith Donald L REID Independent Ward 08 - North Coast and Cumbraes Johnny MCCLOSKEY Independent Ward 08 - North Coast and Cumbraes Ian MURDOCH Independent Ward 09 - Saltcoats Ronnie MCNICOL Independent Ward 10 - Irvine South Audrey HYND-GAW Independent Ward 05 - Ardrossan and Arran Gordon ALLISON Others --- --- --- --- North Lanarkshire Council Ward 2 - Cumbernauld North Alan O'BRIEN Independent Ward 2 - Cumbernauld North Fraser MORRISON Independent Ward 3 - Cumbernauld South William HOMER Independent Ward 5 - Stepps, Chryston and Muirhead Frances MCGLINCHEY Independent Ward 6 - Gartcosh, Glenboig and Moodiesburn John Gordon WILSON Independent Ward 7 - Coatbridge North Martin MCWILLIAMS Independent Ward 7 - Coatbridge North Julie Patricia MCANULTY Independent Ward 8 - Airdrie North Alan BEVERIDGE Independent Ward 9 - Airdrie Central George DEVINE Independent Ward 11 - Coatbridge South Gerry SOMERS Independent Ward 12 - Airdrie South Peter OWENS Independent Ward 13 - Fortissat Charlie CEFFERTY Independent Ward 15 - Bellshill John DEVLIN Independent Ward 19 - Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig Ian GLENNY Independent Ward 19 - Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig Ian KELLY Independent Ward 19 - Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig Deryck BEAUMONT Independent Ward 20 - Murdostoun Robert MCKENDRICK Independent Ward 20 - Murdostoun John TAGGART Independent Ward 20 - Murdostoun Robert ARTHUR Independent Ward 9 - Airdrie Central Peter SULLIVAN Local parties Ward 11 - Coatbridge South James BROOKS Local parties Ward 11 - Coatbridge South John HIGGINS Local parties Ward 17 - Motherwell West Elaine MCSPADDEN Local parties Ward 18 - Motherwell North Helen MCKENNA Local parties Ward 19 - Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig Gary O'RORKE Local parties Ward 21 - Wishaw Sam LOVE Local parties Ward 21 - Wishaw Frank MCKAY Local parties Ward 13 - Fortissat Jeffrey MCDONALD Others Ward 12 - Airdrie South AGNES COYLE Others --- --- --- --- Orkney Islands Council Kirkwall East Ward Gwenda SHEARER Independent Kirkwall East Ward PAUL DAWSON Independent Kirkwall East Ward Ingirid Windwick JOLLY Independent Kirkwall East Ward Mike BERSTON Independent Kirkwall East Ward Rikki LIDDERDALE Independent Kirkwall West and Orphir Ward Leslie MANSON Independent Kirkwall West and Orphir Ward Max THOMAS Independent Kirkwall West and Orphir Ward Alastair MACLEOD Independent West Mainland Ward Duncan Allan TULLOCK Independent West Mainland Ward Owen TIERNEY Independent West Mainland Ward Harvey JOHNSTON Independent West Mainland Ward Sean Michael LEWIS Independent East Mainland, South Ronaldsay and Burray Ward John Stanley GROUNDWATER Independent East Mainland, South Ronaldsay and Burray Ward Andrew DREVER Independent East Mainland, South Ronaldsay and Burray Ward Jim FOUBISTER Independent North Isles Ward Stuart Roy McIVOR Independent North Isles Ward Graham SINCLAIR Independent North Isles Ward Stephen CLACKSON Independent North Isles Ward Billy MUIR Independent North Isles Ward Ralph STEVENSON Independent North Isles Ward Simon TARRY Independent North Isles Ward George Arthur MOWAT-BROWN Independent Kirkwall West and Orphir Ward John RICHARDS Local parties West Mainland Ward Rachael KING Local parties Kirkwall East Ward Steven HEDDLE Others Kirkwall East Ward John Ross SCOTT Others Kirkwall East Ward DAVID DAWSON Others Kirkwall West and Orphir Ward Barbara FOULKES Others Kirkwall West and Orphir Ward Sandy COWIE Others Kirkwall West and Orphir Ward Barbara LESLIE Others Stromness and South Isles Robin William CRICHTON Others Stromness and South Isles James STOCKAN Others Stromness and South Isles Magnus Olaf THOMSON Others West Mainland Ward Jo JONES Others East Mainland, South Ronaldsay and Burray Ward Norman Rae CRAIGIE Others North Isles Ward Kevin WOODBRIDGE Others --- --- --- --- Perth & Kinross Council Ward 2 - Strathmore Alan LIVINGSTONE Independent Ward 4 - Highland Xander MCDADE Independent Ward 6 - Strathearn Rhona BROCK Independent Ward 6 - Strathearn Craig FINLAY Independent Ward 7 - Strathallan Ron ROSE Independent Ward 8 - Kinross-Shire Dave CUTHBERT Independent Ward 8 - Kinross-Shire Mike BARNACLE Independent Ward 10 - Perth City South Susan BATHGATE Independent Ward 10 - Perth City South Damian HOUSTON Independent Ward 11 - Perth City North Sam FINLAYSON Independent Ward 11 - Perth City North Elspeth MACLACHLAN Independent Ward 11 - Perth City North Arthur Alexander FRATER Independent Ward 12 - Perth City Centre David William WEST Independent Ward 12 - Perth City Centre Ian THOMSON Local parties --- --- --- --- Renfrewshire Council Ward 1 - Renfrew North and Braehead Peter MORTON Independent Ward 3 - Paisley Northeast and Ralston Billy CARLIN Independent Ward 4 - Paisley Northwest JOHN GOUDIE MCINTYRE Independent Ward 6 - Paisley Southeast Paul MACK Independent Ward 9 - Johnstone North, Kilbarchan, Howwood and Lochwinnoch Andy DOIG Independent Ward 12 - Erskine and Inchinnan Andy CAMERON Independent Ward 4 - Paisley Northwest Andy DOYLE Others Ward 8 - Johnstone South and Elderslie John CALDWELL Others --- --- --- --- Scottish Borders Council Ward 1 - Tweeddale West Michael NEEDHAM Independent Ward 1 - Tweeddale West Tommy DAVIDSON Independent Ward 2 - Tweeddale East Robin TATLER Independent Ward 3 - Galashiels & District Bill WHITE Independent Ward 3 - Galashiels & District Sandy AITCHISON Independent Ward 3 - Galashiels & District Harry SCOTT Independent Ward 4 - Selkirkshire David BLACK Independent Ward 4 - Selkirkshire Gordon EDGAR Independent Ward 4 - Selkirkshire Kenneth GUNN Independent Ward 5 - Leaderdale & Melrose Iain GILLESPIE Independent Ward 5 - Leaderdale & Melrose Rebecca FRASER Independent Ward 5 - Leaderdale & Melrose David PARKER Independent Ward 7 - East Berwickshire Michael CLIFT Independent Ward 8 - Kelso & District Ian H AITCHISON Independent Ward 8 - Kelso & District Colin MCGRATH Independent Ward 9 - Jedburgh & District Rory STEWART Independent Ward 9 - Jedburgh & District Harvey OLIVER Independent Ward 10 - Hawick & Denholm Stuart MARSHALL Independent Ward 11 - Hawick & Hermitage Watson MCATEER Independent Ward 11 - Hawick & Hermitage Davie PATERSON Independent --- --- --- --- Shetland Islands Council Ward 1 - North Isles Lynsay Anne CUNNINGHAM Independent Ward 1 - North Isles Cecil HUGHSON Independent Ward 1 - North Isles Duncan SIMPSON Independent Ward 1 - North Isles Ryan James Andrew THOMSON Independent Ward 2 - Shetland North Alastair Thomas James COOPER Independent Ward 2 - Shetland North Emma Louise MACDONALD Independent Ward 3 - Shetland West Steven COUTTS Independent Ward 3 - Shetland West Catherine HUGHSON Independent Ward 3 - Shetland West Debra Jane NICOLSON Independent Ward 3 - Shetland West Theo SMITH Independent Ward 4 - Shetland Central Julie Jemima BUCHAN Independent Ward 4 - Shetland Central Davie SANDISON Independent Ward 5 - Shetland South Allison George Leslie DUNCAN Independent Ward 5 - Shetland South George SMITH Independent Ward 6 - Lerwick North John Finlay Sinclair FRASER Independent Ward 6 - Lerwick North Stephen Arthur LEASK Independent Ward 7 - Lerwick South Peter CAMPBELL Independent Ward 7 - Lerwick South Cecil Laing SMITH Independent Ward 7 - Lerwick South Frances VALENTE Independent Ward 7 - Lerwick South Amanda WESTLAKE Independent Ward 7 - Lerwick South Beatrice WISHART Independent Ward 1 - North Isles Alec George PRIEST Others Ward 2 - Shetland North Andrea Isabel MANSON Others Ward 3 - Shetland West Gary ROBINSON Others Ward 3 - Shetland West Ian TINKLER Others Ward 4 - Shetland Central Brian NUGENT Others Ward 4 - Shetland Central Ian SCOTT Others Ward 4 - Shetland Central Mark Robert BURGESS Others Ward 6 - Lerwick North Malcolm John BELL Others --- --- --- --- South Ayrshire Council Ward 2 - Prestwick Alasdair John MALCOLM Independent Ward 3 - Ayr North Jamie MCGEECHAN Independent Ward 4 - Ayr East Andrew BRYDEN Independent Ward 5 - Ayr West Chic BRODIE Independent Ward 7 - Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton Brian CONNOLLY Independent Ward 7 - Maybole, North Carrick and Coylton Gordon MCFADZEAN Independent Ward 8 - Girvan and South Carrick Alec CLARK Independent Ward 8 - Girvan and South Carrick Karen CLARK-MCCARTNEY Independent Ward 8 - Girvan and South Carrick Gavin SCOTT Independent --- --- --- --- South Lanarkshire Council Ward 2 - Clydesdale North Ed ARCHER Independent Ward 2 - Clydesdale North Ronald LOGAN Independent Ward 3 - Clydesdale East Bev GAULD Independent Ward 3 - Clydesdale East Andrew Jackson MCCALLUM Independent Ward 5 - Avondale and Stonehouse Alister HENDRY Independent Ward 10 - East Kilbride East John CAIRNEY Independent Ward 13 - Cambuslang West Don FERGUSON Independent Ward 17 - Hamilton North and East Balarabe BABA Independent Ward 14 - Cambuslang East James MOORE Others Ward 4 - Clydesdale South Danny MEIKLE Others --- --- --- --- Stirling Council Ward 2 - Forth and Endrick Evan MCLEAN Independent Ward 4 - Stirling North James MCDONALD Independent --- --- --- --- West Dunbartonshire Council Ward 1 - Lomond George RICE Independent Ward 3 - Dumbarton Andrew MUIR Independent Ward 5 - Clydebank Central Denis AGNEW Independent Ward 6 - Clydebank Waterfront Locky CAMERON Independent Ward 6 - Clydebank Waterfront Joe HENRY Independent Ward 6 - Clydebank Waterfront Brian MURRAY Independent Ward 1 - Lomond Louise ROBERTSON Local parties Ward 2 - Leven Jim BOLLAN Local parties Ward 3 - Dumbarton George BLACK Local parties Ward 5 - Clydebank Central Dean ALLARDICE Local parties --- --- --- --- West Lothian Council Ward 8 - Bathgate Jim WALKER Independent Ward 9 - Armadale and Blackridge Stuart BORROWMAN Independent

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mikemortgage · 6 years ago

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How an investment in a botched video game burned a government startup funding agency so badly it changed its rules

On Nov. 14, 2018, Martin Braganza, a Halifax-based account manager at the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), typed up a briefing note as requested by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development’s office in Ottawa.

The minister, Navdeep Bains, who is responsible for ACOA, would soon be travelling to Nova Scotia for an announcement and had to be briefed on “Hot Topics” that might be raised by reporters.

Part of Braganza’s note concerned Orpheus Interactive Inc., a defunct video-game company that owed ACOA nearly $1 million after badly botching an attempt to build a Sons of Anarchy video game. The memo also focused on James Drage, a Halifax businessman and the main figure behind Orpheus.

According to the memo, ACOA was changing the way it funds startups and had pulled away from funding fledgling video-game companies altogether, seemingly embarrassed by its highly questionable funding of Orpheus Interactive.

Federal government gave millions to Irving subsidiary, records reveal

Of government and golf courses: Mulroney's East Coast experiment, 30 years later

Here’s who gets ACOA money

At the very least, ACOA was attempting to improve its processes in part to answer questions about its due diligence and stewardship of public money, but some say it has overreacted based on the failings of one smoothing-talking entrepreneur.

There is no doubt that recent reported revelations about Drage had cast ACOA in a poor light and raised obvious concerns about the agency’s ability to select who gets access to its large supply of funding, including grants and no-interest loans.

Though perhaps not well known elsewhere, ACOA is a prominent federal agency in Atlantic Canada, with two-dozen offices across the four provinces that distributed $284 million in the 2017/18 fiscal year.

In November it was revealed that ACOA gave money to Orpheus and two other companies connected to Drage despite his checkered business record.

Drage’s most egregious dealings involved Mary Wood, a British senior who lost her life savings to Drage through two failed mortgage deals while living in Canada. A 2017 court judgement ordered Drage to repay Wood more than $200,000, but she is still waiting for her money. Now in her early 70s, Wood is back in England, relying on the charity of family and friends, doubtful she’ll ever get her money back.

But, according to court records, Drage filed for bankruptcy in 1996 and has been successfully sued numerous times throughout his career by business partners, investors, banks and even his own lawyers. Court records also show that the Royal Bank of Canada’s fraud-detection group in 2012 investigated Drage for suspected cheque kiting, a form of bank fraud.

Court records also show that the Royal Bank of Canada’s fraud-detection group in 2012 investigated James Drage for suspected cheque kiting, a form of bank fraud

Although RBC ultimately decided not to pursue the matter, the bank lost confidence in Drage and terminated his accounts. He owed the bank $112,000, after Manor Custom Homes — one of his many companies — defaulted on a loan, line of credit and business Visa. Yet he claimed a net worth of $3.8 million at the time.

That history apparently went unnoticed at ACOA. Drage’s associated companies secured nearly $2 million — at least — from ACOA between 2010 and 2015, even though he was facing litigation and a bank fraud investigation.

Internal agency documents, including Braganza’s briefing note, obtained through an Access to Information request, show that ACOA knew that revelations about funding Drage would raise serious questions about the agency’s apparent lack of controls and due diligence.

One document, summarizing the crux of the revelations, asked, “… how did a man with such a questionable legal and business history secure so much money from ACOA?”

Drage, 50, was a known entity at ACOA when he approached the agency in 2013 for money to develop an episodic video game based on the hit cable show Sons of Anarchy, which aired on FX Networks and depicted an outlaw motorcycle club in California.

His company, Orpheus, eventually landed the game’s licensing rights from 21st Century Fox. In August 2013, Drage met with Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter and executives from FX and Fox to sign the contract in Los Angeles.

Braganza served as a point of contact for Drage at ACOA, and recommended him to Duke Mighten, a comic-book artist and video-game developer who quickly became an Orpheus co-founder. Braganza knew Drage from events and conferences. Drage seemed like a well-connected businessman, an “active investor” who’d worked with ACOA on several projects.

ACOA gave Orpheus $50,000 to get started and later added two interest-free loans totalling roughly $1 million. Nova Scotia Business Inc. (NSBI), a provincial funding agency, provided $21,875, even before Orpheus secured the game rights.

The Sons of Anarchy mobile game episodes were supposed to roll out with the show’s final season in September 2014, but the project was months behind schedule. And the funding Drage promised he’d deliver — $4 million — never seemed to arrive, according to former Orpheus employees.

From the beginning, there wasn’t even enough cash to buy computers, and paycheques were often late or didn’t arrive at all.

In the end, only a single episode of the game was released (Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect), in late January 2015. Gamers who bought season passes, expecting a series of episodes, had to be refunded their money.

A still from the Sons of Anarchy: The Prospect video game by Orpheus.

In an attempt to save Orpheus, Drage secured a new chief executive, Lance Young. Based in Santa Monica, Calif., Young was a Hollywood veteran who, according to his LinkedIn profile, worked as an executive at Paramount, Warner Bros., and DreamWorks Animation, producing movies such as The Hunt for Red October, Fatal Attraction, Days of Thunder and Free Willy.

But Young couldn’t salvage Orpheus. According to ACOA documents, the company couldn’t fund its day-to-day operations and was overwhelmed by debt.

By September 2016, Nova Scotia’s Director of Labour Standards had obtained a judgment against Orpheus for nearly $120,000 in pay owed to Orpheus employees. ACOA also sued Orpheus that month, securing a default judgment ordering Orpheus to repay nearly $1 million.

Other Orpheus creditors include Ottawa-based OneKey Financial, Green Century Investment Ltd. in Toronto, and Duncan McNaughton, president of Ottawa-based Tiree Facility Solutions Inc., a management consulting and professional services company, who invested $500,000.

In the case of ACOA, the agency isn’t just chasing its Orpheus contributions. The agency is owed hundreds of thousands of dollars by two other companies connected to Drage: Email Opened, an email software company where he was a director and investor; and Dartmouth Medical Research, where he served as president.

All told, ACOA has secured judgements totalling $1.9 million against the three Drage companies.

Drage often worked under the banner of Atlantic Venture Capital Partners (AVCP), which he claims was the first private venture-capital firm in Eastern Canada. He’s still listed as managing partner.

Braganza’s briefing note to Minister Bains included the following question: “What are we doing differently as a result of our experience with AVCP/Dradge (sic)?”

The answers to that question were originally redacted, though the department later agreed to release the information.

Braganza outlined four changes, such as retreating from providing game development funding to video-game startups, noting “it’s higher risk than other startups,” and ending the practice of matching funds obtained from outside sources. Instead, ACOA now typically puts up a half or a third of the money already secured from outside investors.

Other changes included less direct “investing” in “pre-revenue” ICT companies, and taking a “phased approach” to funding so that ACOA’s contributions grow as each company grows.

ACOA would only answer questions about the changes on background. Emails and calls made to Minister Bains’s office were not returned. Repeated emails and phone calls to addresses and numbers associated with Drage were not returned.

Despite the wording of the briefing, ACOA said the changes to its funding regime are not directly related to Drage.

“This previously redacted information is not specific to a single event, but rather reflective of the Agency’s natural, on-going evolution of its investment approach,” the agency said when releasing the redacted section.

Regardless, the changes will have an impact on companies seeking funding from ACOA, which is a major source of government money in Atlantic Canada.

“It’s unfortunate to hear. It sounds to me like they’re overreacting a little bit,” said Darryl Wright, who sits on the board of the Interactive Society of Nova Scotia, a video-game industry advocacy group. “It’s kind of wrong-headed, (this) throwing the baby out with the bathwater approach that they seem to be taking.”

Wright was technical director at Orpheus until April 2015, when he quit following four consecutive missed paycheques. He said he was owed about $10,000 and recalls his time at Orpheus as a “harrowing experience.”

Now the managing director at Gogii Lighthouse Studios Inc., he argues the video-game industry is not as volatile as ACOA portrays it to be. Gogii, he notes, has been in business 12 years.

“It’s hard to imagine why (ACOA) would suddenly say we’ve had this one terrible incident so we’re going to curtail a whole industry. It seems off to me,” he added. “Reactionary.”

NSBI chief executive Laurel Broten declined to answer questions about changes her organization could make following its involvement with Drage.

But NSBI noted that its current export and small-business programs require applicants to declare outstanding or pending claims and litigation. The program Drage accessed — the now defunct Global Business Accelerator Program — did not have that requirement at the time.

In 2017, after Orpheus had failed and with creditors still owed money, Drage took part in a delegation — led by NSBI — to a kids’ entertainment summit in Miami, representing a new video-game company, Participant Games. The company, where he was listed as founder, was also part of NSBI delegations to the large Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco in 2017, and the Miami kids’ entertainment summit again in 2018.

Drage also showed up at GDC in San Francisco in 2018, though he wasn’t part of an NSBI delegation. Nevertheless, Wright was astounded. He turned to a colleague and asked: “Oh my god, is that James Drage? What is he doing here?”

Then Wright moved to the other side of the room.

Financial Post

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lizmckague-blog · 7 years ago

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Rimbaud the Son, by Pierre Michon

Translated by Jody Gladding and Elizabeth Deshays

Yale University Press, 2013

If you’re going to single out the agony of “the gift”, the iron in irony, the embodiment of the tormented artist, the lost son of all sons, it would be Rimbaud.

It would be human and masculine.

It would be what is recovered

L’éternité.

It would be what is pure

La mer mêlée au soleil.

“History is all about fathers, sons and whores.”

-Duncan McNaughton

Or the dark well of a single mother who can’t, just can’t- because the farm in Charleville is a daydream surfacing only in the sallow yellow sunbeam that comes out from the attic window like a church bell on Sunday when everything is hideous and you’re supposed to remember.

Remember what?

Infamy and alchemy, perhaps.

Yet the ‘Carabosse’ (mommy) can’t breathe, so fades into the shadow of her dark fingers, like Eurydice, gripping the edge of the bowl of the dark well, lined with wild forget-me-nots.

Whether rebellion is a curse or a blessing, it’s still poetry.

So he walked. Back and forth from the future into the past and back again from 1854 to 1891.

Crossed the Alps on foot. In Italy (if I remember correctly)- walking, walking, walking until his ribs cut into his Siddhartha stomach lining.

Burst!

He wanted to burst from the very first time he watched a spider.

He became a saint behind the closed shutters in Camden Town, perching like a peacock in the presence of a devil.

Drown in the green fairy and rise out of the lake like a Lancelot with a sword wound by violets whose roots are stronger than your thin wrist.

So after the offenses and defenses, after the crime of the enfant terrible, and all along the solitude, the one thing that loved you- solitude, you plunged, like Eurydice, back into the dark, fecund pantomime of the earth below the earth

And in Abyssinia, illegally exported guns.

Maybe once upon a dream you remembered your boyhood with three sisters, an older brother, the haystacks, the color of each letter of the alphabet and the lapis-lazuli chunks of sky blinding the pillows of clouds where you chose to hide

Your wings.

Until the day you took the train

Without a ticket

To the Gods.

Michon thinks you were nervous before the steps to Zeus’s Palace.

I do not.

Zeus doesn’t give a crap about peonies and the prodigal son has eyes like Novalis’ blue flower

and a body protected by thorns.

You were sixteen.

You wanted the hue of that vast, endless sky

Seen from the well of the soul

It’s not a good view.

But it’s focused in a circle that is beyond you.

Was it at nineteen, or in Cypress, or in Africa, when you finally understood how freedom spoiled you? Surrender, surrender to the sands of the line, to the banks of Lethe. And plaster your fasting with a belt made of gold.

She was as black as the country wife’s fingers.

She emerged from the dead cavern of Verlaine and the blood of the lonesome soldier in the meadow and the invisible city of the barracks across oceans.

Once it stopped

There was beauty.

That spider crawling in the attic, in the sallow yellow sunbeam, is a messenger from Izambard, the ferryman, telling you to give him a penny

but instead you knocked on the door and had your photograph taken.

Who gives a fuck about the crooked bow tie? It was brown, the color of shit. Not your own shit, or Paul’s, or Banville’s, or Hugo’s, or your mother’s or father’s or sisters’ or brother’s, or even Monsieur Carjat in the black hood over the plate of silver nitrate�� The bow tie in the black and white photograph is the color of Jesus’s shit.

Carjat wanted to touch it (the crooked bow tie), to adjust it-

But dude, if you were in front of Jesus’s shit would you adjust it?

(Touch it, maybe, but adjust it?)

You were hung over. Then you were drunk and then you were hung over. Fuck Virgil, fuck Dante, fuck Shakespeare, fuck Hugo, fuck Mallarme, fuck Baudelaire…

No, not Baudelaire, he’s my baby.

History is reversed. I’m the first.

A charcoal sky over Paris, day after day. They all want me. They are hungry. I am not. So I stay. Their soup is spiced with my piss, their lips are parched by my invisible sun. They laugh, imagining how my white ass must be luminous as the moon.

I wanted grace. I didn’t know it then, but I wanted it.

Books were gentle. The pages were silky. The bindings were hard. They smelled like History. They smelled like the well.

I saw the sea, remembered love and learned how to bring it against me.

Wave after wave after wave…

A La Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust

Translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin

Three volumes, 1107 pages, Vintage, New York, 1982

My friend Miles Bellamy’s father, Dick Bellamy, owner of the once rather notorious Oil & Steel art gallery on the Hudson river in New York, died with the first volume of A Le Recherche du Temps Perdu open in his hands. The portrait here being that dear Dick, knowing he was taking his last breaths, remembered that the one thing he had yet to accomplish in life was… well, you get it. Unfortunately poor Dick never read did the whole thing, all 1,267,064 words, but I did. And before I die, I might attempt to do so again.

When I did finish this monumental work, I vowed that it must be the greatest book of time… and then I read Jean Santeuil (see below), yet still say yes, it’s the greatest work of all time. It’s the delicacy of feeling, the stamina of that delicacy, the persistence… days turning into years of sunlight scattered through clouds.

If asked what this novel is about, I’d answer, “The end of the aristocracy in France.” Simple. But it’s about everything not only ending, but spreading out and folding back on itself. It’s about love. It’s about mysticism.

The famous madeleine dipped in tea in the beginning opens up the space for, well, enlightenment really, and when Marcel accidently trips on uneven stones in the path to the Guermantes mansion in the end, that very path is raised into another, higher dimension and you go there too… bursting through clouds, transformed.

It’s hard to say what actually happens in this moment but one is undeniably transformed. *

James, a co-worker of mine at a used bookstore, (way back when- when there was a happy abundance of used bookstores)- came into work one day kind of glowing, radiating and outside of himself, almost floating. He said, “I just finished reading Proust,” then added, “sitting on the stone steps of a church.” I don’t remember where I was when I finished it, probably in my garden in the darkening twilight, unable to move until the end of the last page, or more likely, propped up against pillows in my bed at four in the morning or something, nothing as romantic as the steps of a church, or a chair in a room on the Hudson River in the glow of lamp, but I do remember that when I did finish it, yeah- I was in some kind of nebula, my perspective of the mundane egg (as Blake terms our world)- changed and I was stronger. Inside, there was this new strength of fragility, my own and every one else’s, even strangers, even the dead… perhaps, thinking back on it now, especially the dead…

This has stayed with me, this joy of (at the risk of being cliché)- an inner knowledge that was had, and could only be had, by reading A Le Recherche du Temps Perdu.

Of course I am familiar with a book entitled “How Proust Can Change Your Life”, I’ve never read it and never will because the title alone is so pretentious it makes me nauseous and the fact that someone would write a book for the sole purpose of self-propaganda really makes me want to puke.

Looking for St. Loop

by Elizabeth McKague (1999)

“I thought I saw in his eyes that thirst for more sublime happiness, that un-avowed melancholy which aspires to something better than we can know here below, and which, for the romantic soul, however placed by chance or revolution,

“still prompts the celestial sight,

for which we wish to live, or dare to die.”

(Ultima lettera di Bianca a sua madre. Forli, 1817)

-Stendhal, “On Love”

Looking for St. Loup

The gallant boy ran across the tables

like Holderlin’s comet through a mad sky.

There is no system for this.

Monsieur Melandrine came from the theater

to the Place de Clichy in work pants on a scooter.

We ate oysters and drank champagne

in the same corner where Baudelaire

sank into reverie, after a shoe shine.

The gentlemen arrive, all in black, from the Garden

and wish to enter the dark forest

yet wily nymphs hold them back.

No one believes it, although you were right

about the Minotaur- now he’s using a cane.

It’s time for change when the familiar

becomes a loneliness one can not breathe.

Leopardi said Slyia reached out to her own grave.

His red cloak flying over their heads-

He seemed to be swinging from a garland of bells!

I must find invitations to better dramas.

Philosophy, the kiss, your paint box even

that has been emptied into this night

are lost so quickly, I can’t stand, I can’t walk,

I want to limp.

I gazed over the shoulders of so many others

as he leapt past an orgy of apocalyptic monsters

made by the shadows of coats and hats on racks

behind the French double doors.

He gathered his whole life into his arms to bring,

dashing, that fearless taste of the fruit-

blind to all but Surrender, to the approach

of a movement where feeling becomes a circle of light

drifting you upwards s that your heels

are actually rising from the small,

round, marble faces, arranged for reflection

against the great window, like a sliced up moon.

II.

He wants

the word

one word

from the

beginning

to after

the end.

Some temperance

and arrangement

of the muscles

like flowers

in a vase.

Young Werther spoke of a kind of horse

that would bite open it’s own vein to relieve a fever.

Di te mi dole: Tu me manques.

A posture of Spring time in the cultured rows of sailboats.

The secret gathering is to live

as foreigners forced by the archer

to almost touch the shore.

marked obscura. The phantom swooped into the realm.

I revealed my dream.

“You mean, you actually want them t put you in the ground?”

Bones. Maybe. And daughters leaving azaleas.

My favorite part was when he drove up alone

and stepped out in front of the hotel.

How the sun carried him then, how

he lingered inside it

even as he entered the mulberry carpeted lounge.

Sultry wives, embarrassed by the heat, heaved out loud.

Bellhops hopped and stray men snatched

a second mind from the ice bucket

to place atop their usual, girdles of ennui.

She’ll torture herself with those pink hawthorns

a few hundred years from now.

Some erziehungsroman left in a box unfinished

in the closet and pithoi and stone cellar where

Thomas Aquinas once lived across the street

When once the body, the earth listened and

men walked where ever they found

an arresting feeling waiting in the distance.

It is necessary.

III.

As he watched the fawn

climb from the thicket

through unsteady branches

black with a melting frost

Play of time

the clouds bore down

another spirit upon

his wounded mind.

IV.

I’ll rent a studio where the river

becomes a dragon at the end of May.

Read Giuseppe Ungaretti at the round cafe

in the Piazza Giuseppe Poggi there is

a piece of shade shaped like an angel

from one certain elm.

If I asked you to read the palm on the hill.

You could be anybody reaching

the purple turrets in a limehaze.

I can see a missing chapter

in the prow of your hands,

mouth at the edge of a miracle.

It has been too long now not to know what to believe.

A shock went through the back of his neck.

A marching band stepped on the train.

He sat with a silent

tuba in his ear.

Another espresso in Rome.

Best one he ever had.

She walked through the Piazza della Repubblica

guitar on her back with a

pineapple and an eggplant, one in each arm.

The street musicians wondered,

“Must be some kinda California minestrone.”

She left her letters in the Hotel Vienne, 1814.

The unfinished dawn bleeding through crepe de che curtains and

the boys in stone statues across the Rue Raspail

when everything has happened in the presence of desire

and the Saints came in after kissing the trees-

She knew she could see across the expanse

but how could she scramble such love into the margins?

The sky moved closer, became charcoal and smoked.

They pierced the continual sky with an auger,

threw loops up to heaven

and hung down like acrobats.

Sprung from a doubtless tube of royalty; he owned up

and saw truth as a visible object, a kind of crystal ball

in which nothing was false but the tints

of lavender in the hair and cheeks of so many Duchesses,

Princesses and Marquises’.

St. Loup laughed to cheer others.

In the hearth he burnt only the finest timber

to keep you warmer, longer.

He would soon ride again.

She escaped out under the trellises where

the quiet, gold days waiting for the post

spread out like tea with lemon.

On his own orders, later, after the pride

turned to pain (for no particular reason);

he went to the Front of the Line, crossed

the bloody battlefield in Auverres.

Endymion fought the jackals then rested his sword between her breast.

Tristan turned into Hermes when suddenly

everything on his back moved over his neck like a breeze.

It was always a trust.

In his last years he visited homosexual brothels.

His alienation pulsed. After all the gifts, still it was

like a bonfire all the way down the Champs Elysees,

it was like the dried figs at Christmas-

Perhaps there’d been too many sensations outside of himself,

he could no longer measure the end.

Perhaps it had past.

Perhaps he missed it.

You ask why it is a question of wandering?

Because somewhere the last line contains

a horizon of Nobility.

VI.

I’m in that painting; rushed through the Vatican.

Justine taught me the eye trick how when you focus

on Hell then move slowly up and above

it’s all buoyancy and heavy globes.

I found my ecstatic consciousness on the map.

What a relief. (I was getting weaker from surviving

on the nebula of the dead).

T’was not I who wrote bitterness into the third novel.

Monmartre mattresscake on bare stone and gazing

naked into the long dawn and ashes of Chesterfields.

“Comme un paysage après l’orage, attention a la mélancolie,

c’est la plus belle mélodie de l’amour

c’est aussi la plus cruel et plus difficile.

Soit prudent avec ton coeur et rendre un peu triste.”

Someday, I’m going to the

top of the hill to live

with the Capuchin sisters.

I wanted the stillness to come and last, beside some one.

It speaks when we are children as a form of protection-

to find placement amongst that which is sensual.

Each memory in its own making like a sun

surrounded by a sun, surrounded by a sun... and so on;

if you can believe such a thing.

They say it all began with the Danube,

from the Black Sea to 1001 night’s heads resting on jewels in the great net covering all.

Then Calvalcanti came in with the key and the Pieta, the Pieta and the Pieta danced

all night out back of Hamlet’s Mill. He just wanted to prove that it’s real-

that everything touches it, that it feels like Rouen blue

and haunted by crimson,

corrosive moss

that took the mouths of gargoyles.

He distinguished a solitude far beyond the waves and valleys of reason.

His precipice divided the elliptic and he finally slept when the moon left Paris,

was carried off to Asia where he studied new characters; hieroglyphs of lover’s

limbs.

No, see

MIND Body

is the first

and second half

of attention.

Then habit oppresses

soluble links to the night.

The machinery itself looks dangerous.

I wanted to tell you

how nice it would have been

when it was possible

to escape.

And now, there’s that.

That it affected you so much.

Maybe it could have been more

than these pall books to carry us,

to weave the way in.

VII.

He walked along the shore, throwing each thought that started

in his groin and moved North over his shoulders

back in to the water.

I have married many shepherds.

It was too orange- that light

in his North Beach hotel room.

Now he’s making violins for Carnagie Hall.

We’d watched the sun like we planted it,

even the noise of traffic and Ave Marias

from the laundromat below his rotting window, drowned.

Nobody talks about the Upyia Gallery anymore,

sometimes, a siren brings the needles and trumpets back into your brain.

Then the stranger appears, feeding the birds.

I couldn’t make anything new anymore, I wanted

to give it all away. Forgive me,

the East is precious, but, forgive me.

St. Loup is an archetype

the misunderstood troubadour

and the violence of another world.

Ternion in chains in the Caucasus Mountains,

no one can find you there.

the monsters come, the monsters go...

He’d never say her name in writing.

It meant house. House of peaches.

VIII.

St. Loup surrounded himself with the resistless type.

He liked to tame them. But you were the one

he appreciated. You were the dark self, the delicate solitaire.

Conversation was pure. It was only a favor. So,

he traveled to her hiding place

and learned she had died.

He told you by telegram, “I’m sorry.

She went horse riding in the planets.”

He rarely slept in the barracks.

When the Great War came he went in barefoot

and lonely, following demons for secrets

and no one to save.

He never had a photograph taken of himself.

Leave, was three days in Nueilly-

But you’d been salvaged

into the asylum.

I’m not going to be calm about this.

I believe there’s an answer.

If I could say, “Tonight, my love...”

but my voice is fainter, transient,

like a sliver of ice.

You must be brave. learn to balance

the antiquity of character with laughter.

The shetayan who is wise never returns-

you go there- in the periphery of the campfire.

Each bridge in Prague is like the bow of a violin.

For every two French people there is only one mirror.

Proust and Stendhal differ on the idea of love.

What idea?

Friends have run off to Nederland, Colorado.

Dreadlocks in Switzerland.

The Trenitalia are always right on time, to the second.

and mothers and grooms waving good-bye.

I’m concerned about the lighting (not too dark, not too cold...)

the Byzantine painter, who is eccentric, is coming.

“If you impress them too much they’ll end up thinking

you’re a survivor.”

Gray, gray, the color of storm

and that soft, yellow patch,

and the chimes, and the albatross.

The carriage waited. The shadowy lamplighter alone,

walking down the Boulevard de Batignolles in a mist.

St. Loup entertained his table until midnight.

Who are you looking at?

Let’s have another round.

His red cloak hanging on the back of his chair like Shelley’s ghosts.

The underpainting the color of brown glass

then Mediterranean light and a tiny bottle of arsenic.

Chatterton as Icarus on the bed in the attic.

You were right, about culture, how it’s all about

fathers, sons, and whores.

Monsieur Melandrine had such a fucking

intelligent looking upper lip. He abandoned

everything to position himself between feeling what is illusion and what is manifest.

I pictured his boyhood,

tangerines and linden trees, imagination at Fontainebleau.

It was the last time.

I watched an old man pour soapy water on the steps,

then sweep it away with a broom.

IX.

The sullen wind

cherry blossom snow

it is Spring.

I still have your banjo. I threw away the case.

It looked like Rimbaud’s passport.

She wrapped the souvenirs in the pretty printed paper from the confiserie

and left them in the front zipper pocket of her suitcase

when she got home, unpacking.

Forever that midnight.

He did look a bit surprised when she lay down

on the floor of pine needles in the spreading moonlight,

beyond the red stones, over the wall, out back of someone

unknown’s villa, through the dewy meadow

in an atrium of skinny trees

where Dvorak had the inspiration to compose his-

“So did you get those cool sandals...?”

“At the bazaar, in Cairo.”

Allegro ma non troppo.

St. Loup was killed in battle.

Blown up and scattered.

No one knew, but himself, then-

at that very moment,

that he really wished

for truth and freedom,

that he had plans,

that he wanted to continue

the task that

in this little globe

one can still find

some definition

of virtue.

2005

Jean Santeuil by Marcel Proust,

Translated by Gerald Hopkins

Simon & Shuster, New York, 1956, 2nd printing, first printing 1955

Bernard de Fallios, a young Proust scholar, found several boxes of torn manuscript pages and seventy notebooks in Marcel’s cork-lined room at 102 Boulevard Haussmann. Written, and obviously abandoned, when Proust was around 25, these pages were carefully reassembled by Fallios and published in Paris as the novel, “Jean Santeuil” in 1952.

This probably my foremost favorite novel, although Le Recherche is absolutely a greater work, Jean is… well, it’s like a raindrop. (And the dated, pale pink cover is really cool!)

It is the tender story of a poet. An indulgence in sentimentality. A bath of isolated sensuality. Lonesomeness. Illness. Growth. The humor of adolescence, hypersensitivity, innocence, natural voyeurism, connection points into the center of sexuality, naiveté and intelligence merged by poetic vision into the beauty of windows out onto the ‘health’ of society when one is so young and so ill. Jean Santeuil is the beacon on the lighthouse. Portrait of an artist as a lover alone. (Yet, aren’t all artists lovers alone?) It’s a bout a boy taking the boy into the man no matter what…

From page 369, when Jean’s mother calls him while he is away from her for the first time (if I remember correctly): And also, the telephone is a new invention at this time in history:

“Quickly, he put the receiver to his ear… then, all of a sudden, as if everyone had left the room and he was throwing himself into his mother’s arms- he was aware, close beside him, gentle, fragile, delicate, so clear, so melting, like a tiny scrap of broken ice- of her voice.”

The mature Marcel (see above) finds strength in fragility. Jean Santeuil creates, fashions out of clay, strength out of weakness. Strength to accept death (at such a young age!) and the weakness to love life. Hope.

The tendons of language are bruised.

The sky is grey, the ocean green, girls wear white, boys wear blue and in between, the lover, the lighthouse, fearlessly feels the world through his window, the window of all the lost time of youth that has been emptied into his shining soul.

from page 743:

“For death in a man journeys into the infinite and into nothingness. For no matter how obscure he may be, no matter how limited his intelligence, the thought of death, the coming of death, opens for him a window on the mysteries of eternity.”

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