AROUND TOWN

Soak up some Chinese culture with HelloArt’s Chinese Lunar New Year Market (Saturday 1 February) at Edinburgh’s Out Of The Blue Drill Hall this weekend. This festive gathering features treats for art lovers and foodies, alongside fun activities.

Over at Edinburgh’s Lauriston Agroecology Farm they’ll be throwing an Orchard Wassailing (Saturday 1 February) complete with folk songs, soup, hot apple drinks and some merry music-making. It’s a chance to show your appreciation for nature and make some community connections.

Following its winter closure, Dundee Museum Of Transport (from Saturday 1 February) is reopening its doors with new and refreshed exhibitions, including 70 Years of Fords, and a photography exhibition from Dundee Photographic Society.

MUSIC

Brit Award-winning folk-popster James Bay (Saturday 1 & Sunday 2 February) will be swinging by Glasgow and Edinburgh’s O2 Academies this weekend. Expect tracks from his four studio albums, including the most recent, Changes All The Time.

The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra (Friday 31 January – Sunday 2 February) will be playing a programme of specially commissioned music from some of Scottish jazz’s most exciting young stars, including corto.alto, Anoushka Nanguy, kitti and Fergus McCreadie in their concert Nu-Age Sounds – Planet World. Catch it at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, Dundee Rep and Glasgow’s Old Fruitmarket.

Perth singer-songwriter Beth Malcolm (until Saturday 1 February) will be launching her second album, FOLKMOSIS, in a performance that unfolds over three acts, and embraces new and traditional songs, film and the spoken word. Perth Theatre and Barony Hall in Glasgow play host.

STAGE

Paula Hawkins’s smash-hit crime novel The Girl On The Train (until Saturday 1 February) has been reimagined as a nail-biting new stage production, which pulls into the Theatre Royal Glasgow this week.

Taskmaster favourite Sophie Duker (Saturday 1 February) is back with stand-up show But Daddy I Love Her. In an intentionally unhinged hour, she’ll be arguing we should choose silliness over common sense, and fantasy over reality. The Stand, Glasgow, is the setting.

Over at Perth Theatre they’ll be bringing an evening of spine-tingling supernatural stories to the stage in Night Terrors (Saturday 1 February). This trio of terrifying tales are from the pen of EF Benson and will be eerily told by the award-winning actor Gerard Logan.

SCREEN

A family of Black Londoners are under Mike Leigh’s microscope in the excellent Hard Truths, which provides a platform for a showstopping performance from the BAFTA-nominated Marianne Jean-Baptiste, playing a housewife in a permanent state of rage. Michele Austin is wonderful too as her sweet hairdresser sister.

The chaotic debut of TV comedy staple Saturday Night Live is affectionately recreated in Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night. It features The Maze Runner’s Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, alongside the likes of the excellent Rachel Sennott and rising British star Ella Hunt.

Returning to Netflix this week for its second and final season is MO, the superb comedy drama following a Palestinian refugee living in Houston who has to hustle to get by, co-created by star Mo Amer and Ramy Youssef.

PODCASTS

In new podcast Mad, Sad And Bad With Paloma Faith the singer invites a succession of celebrity guests to discuss the extremes of their emotions, kicking off with the always good value Alan Carr.

In a moving one-off episode of fun podcast Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Conan and his co-hosts Sona and Matt discuss the Los Angeles wildfires from a poignantly personal perspective. Another recent episode involves Conan chatting to returning guest Ben Stiller.

In four-part podcast Eras: Bob Marley, Trevor Nelson tells the fascinating story of the reggae superstar, from his early days in Jamaica to global success.

VISUAL ART

At Glasgow’s Platform this weekend as part of their Easterhouse Living Archive Project (Saturday 1 February) you can hear from and chat to artists Keira McLean and Joey Simons, who will be working on a new project to create a stained glass window. There will also be opportunities to check out their materials and tools and have a go at some glass-cutting yourself.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh’s Morningside Gallery are wrapping up their eleventh exhibition of Small Paintings (until Saturday 1 February) this weekend, featuring more than 400 original paintings which can be viewed online and in person.

Finally, Edinburgh’s Coburg House Art Gallery presents a celebration of ceramics in group exhibition Coburg Kiln (until Sunday 2 February) which features a variety of styles and approaches to the artform and opportunities to purchase pieces.

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