New blogs: Chock full o'writers

One of the cool side benefits of running the Rainy City Stories project is getting to find out about a lot of writer's blogs. Gosh, just look at all of them:

Fictionmaker

It's Alrite, Ma (I'm Only Writing)

Gill's Blog

Broughton Writing Lives

Spooky Action, Spooky Aiden

Natalie Uninterrupted

No Chance: A Quarter to One

Jockey Full of Bourbon

Atomised Amnesia

Writing because I have to

Santiago's Dead Wasp

I am going to continue to add blogs I get tipped off to through the site to the blogroll. I am assuming here that if you write a blog that's live on the internet and are putting it forward as a link with something you submit to be published online, you're quite happy for people to find out about it and maybe go read your writing. However, I've been wrong about this before, so if I post a link to your blog and you didn't want me to, just get in touch and it will be stricken from the record. I will, however, advise you to stop writing a blog and go buy yourself a moleskine.

Over in the realm of personal blogs, we have new additions in the blogs by mothers who write about their kids but also write interesting things about themselves subcategory: My Shitty Twenties and my neighbour Adventures of a Sleepless Toddler.

Another American expat blogger in Manchester? Yup, check it out: Uncouth American

He's cynical, and his name is Ben. He's Cynical Ben

Image: Will Freeborn's Girl in White Jacket, part of the Moleskine Project

Inauguration Day

It's hard being an expat today, thinking of all my friends in DC for the inauguration celebrations and wishing I was there. I feel cut off over here, but I guess that this is payment for all those times I smugly joked about hating Bush so much that I had actually left the country, like some pinko draft dodger who made a run for the border. And bragged about having universal healthcare and state maternity pay.

But it's a wonderful day.

After years, decades, of the American people being so down on their country and so resigned to disappointment in politics and government it's delightfully weird to see everyone so gaga, so starry-eyed and hopeful about the future and drunk on goodwill to all men.

My country has turned into a Frank Capra movie. And I wish I was there to experience it, because the milk of human kindness has a short shelf-life. The same press that lionized Obama could turn on him at the first shaky decision or PR gaffe. He's won a questionable prize: leadership of a country with problems that would take the ablest of leaders years to begin to fix. How long will people give him?

Still, I'm going to try to put these worries aside and just relish the joy while it's here. Sometimes the good guys win, and sometimes they get the chance to make things better. Let's be hopeful while we can.

Lovely Levenshulme

In the Manchester neighbourhood standings, Levenshulme seems to get more than its fair share of love. I've only been there a few times myself and didn't really spend enough time to get a real sense of the place, so I've always wondered: what is it about Levenshulme that inspires such devotion?

The newest manifestation of this good vibe emanating from South Manchester is Love Levenshulme. It's a project that invites L-hulme residents to write the things they love about living there on a special postcard, which they can give or send to people or businesses they want to show their appreciation to.

Project organiser Matt Clements describes it on the Love Levenshulme blog as "a kind of underground viral appreciation marketing."

He explains it thusly: “It all started off as a little homespun idea to try to show some appreciation for people in the community who do the little everyday things that make a big difference. I’d be strolling round Levenshulme with my children, pointing out gardens where people had made a real effort, or meeting friendly people in shops, and I wanted to find a way of saying ‘thanks.’” What a lovely idea. Visit LL HQ to find out where to get the postcards, and to read what some Levenshulme-based bloggers have to say about their hood.

(Image - which is NOT one of the Love Levenshulme postcards, Matt would like me to point out - sourced from Lady Levenshulme. Who else?)

Seven things

Okay, so I just read Follow the Yellow Brick Road and am now infected with this meme and I need to write seven things about myself here on this blog.

1. I have just joined the Ramsbottom Choral Society. I may be the youngest person there by a good few years. Nearly everyone I spoke to had been singing in the choir for 15, 20 or 25 years. I wonder if I will still be singing in this choir in 25 years. It may take me that long to learn how to sing Mozart's Requiem, which is hard, especially if you were never that good at reading music in the first place and haven't been singing for a long time.

2. I had pneumonia twice when I was three and I was seriously ill. One of my first memories is being delirious with fever and seeing pink and purple rabbits on the ceiling. I also remember that I was sick over Halloween and I was very put out about missing the trick or treating. My mom let me wear my Donald Duck mask in bed.

3. I am a science fiction and fantasy geek, though these days its much cooler to call it speculative fiction. I worship Ursula Le Guin, Diana Wynne Jones, Neil Gaiman, Robin McKinley, Kelly Link, David Mitchell and Roger Zelazny. When I was 14 I joined the Doctor Who Appreciation Society and they sent me an "intergalactic passport." I still have it. Haven't used it yet.

4. I am partial to polar bears. Also, otters. Not so sure about the ferrets.

5. I have two scars. A crescent shaped one on my knee is from New Year's Eve, um... 2005, I think, when I was dancing somewhat creatively at a party at Islington Mill and fell down on a grate. The other is a fingertip-sized depression on my ankle, my souvenir of a motorcycle accident in Taiwan in 1997. The doctor said I didn't need stitches, which was totally wrong, but what did I know?

6. Today I am obsessed with the song Safety Dance by Men Without Hats. I forgot about this song for a long time and need to make up for that by playing it a lot until I get tired of it and move on to a different song, like Jenny (867-5309) by Tommmy Tutone.

7. I take milk and honey in my tea, which British people seem to find bizarre.

There. If you've read this and you have a blog, you've caught the meme. You are so infected. The only cure is to go write seven things about yourself on your blog and link back to this post, if you feel like it and you have the time. Don't feel compelled to. But you should. I think it's interesting to learn random things about people. The trick is to do it fast and not think too hard about what you're writing.

Mules, soup and other literary matters

Did I say I had a billion things to blog about? Make that a billion and ten. No, wait, twelve. Two more very important things just winged their way into my inbox. Here's some literary things...

Tim Woodall writes to us from Chorlton to tell us that he and Joe Patrick will be managing a writers and artists blog by the name of SOUP.They're seeking submissions, but no old farts of 27 or 34 need apply: "To submit, you need to be between the ages of 20 and 25 and currently live in Greater Manchester. It might seem strange that we are only accepting submissions from people within this age bracket, but... as practicing young artists it is much easier to find established publications with strict submission guidelines and stiff competition than it is to stumble across platforms more suited to our most recent creative efforts."

M. from Manchester indymedia wrote to let us know about The Mule Magazine, a collaborative, UK-wide grassroots news site for justice and peace. They're not big on bylines, but they have a smattering of stuff excerpted from speeches and znet articles as well as other pieces presumably written by members of the collective. And they have a pretty interesting Manchester page which is strong on local activism news, though it could use some updating. Anyway, check it out.

Peter Hartey of Poetica has passed on news of an online poetry competition designed to raise awareness of Mines Advisory Group, an NGO based in Manchester. The MAG Poetry Prize has an interesting setup - the entrants are the judges, and their entry fees add up to the prize money. The prize is being run by Poetic Republic, an offshoot of Poetica, the writer's group based at the Central Library which has been going for yonks. Nice website, great cause.

Rainy City Love Stories contest

Welcome to 2009, our shiny new year. I have about a billion things to blog about, but they will all have to wait 'til tomorrow. I can tell you this, though: We're running a Valentine's day themed contest on Rainy City Stories. Yeah, I know the holiday was created by the greeting card industry and is just an excuse for hapless couples to be overcharged for bad food served on pink doilies once a year. We're celebrating with writing. See below (and apologies if you've already gotten this in another format since I'm cutting and pasting here. You people can stop reading now.)

Rainy City Stories wants your love. We also want your love stories and poems. In honour of Valentine’s Day, we’re offering a wonderful prize for the best Rainy City Love Story we receive in the next month.

Whether you're an old romantic or a cynic, we invite you to tell us your tales (real or imagined) of falling in, out, or over love in our city. But don’t restrict yourselves to traditional romances; we’re willing to interpret “love story” in a wider sense. The winning submission could be about a more abstract kind of love. It could even be an anti-love poem, or a rant against all things loved-up
The winning piece of writing will be published on our website on the eve of Valentine’s Day amid a shower of cupids and lace bows and twinkly-eyed kittens. And the winner will receive a big fat £50 Borders gift voucher (the kind of thing that really makes us writer-types swoon), kindly donated by our friends at the Manchester Literature Festival.

Here’s the lowdown: Entries must be submitted by close of business on Tuesday, February 10. Please submit short stories or poems through the cunning mechanism on our website and put the words “love contest entrant” at the top of the story. Entrants should only submit their own original work, and writing that has not previously been published. Also, by entering the competition you grant RCS the right to publish the piece online.

(Picture by Gregoire Chabrol.)

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

The Ramchizzle

I'm moving.

At any moment now, the folks at BT are going to cut the cord and I will have no internets until they see fit to connect me up in my new place - and based on my long and wearisome experience with BT I fear that may take, oh, a few weeks on the outside. Factor in Christmas-related inertia and we may be well into 2009 before I'm online again.

But the good news is I'm moving to a place with many nicknames. Ramsbottom is also known as Rammy, Rambo and, my favorite, Tup's Arse (Tup is old slang for a ram, oh American readers). It's a Pennine mill town just a hair inside the Greater Manchester border. Which will make me, like, an actual Mancunian. Or something.

Good things about Ramsbottom I've found out about so far include the delicious Ramsons, a steam train, the lovely Nuttall Park and an eerie chippie called The Wayward Tyke.

Anyone in Ramsbottom? Give us a shout.

(Ramsbottom photo from Flickr user topdogdjstew.

To do: red dust from space, social media and dough

A few cool things to squeeze in before we roll out the advent calendars.

Jackie Kay has written seven new songs on the theme of HIV, and seven different composers (David Horne, Bechara el Khoury, Colin Matthews, Craig Urquhart, Niel van der Watt, Errollyn Wallen and Marc Yeats) have composed music to go with them.
The result is a secular requiem called "Walking along the red-dust road," which will premiere at the Bridgewater Hall at 8pm on Dec. 1, World Aids Day. Mark Elder and the Halle will also perform Faure's Requiem, one of my most favourite pieces of music ever. And tickets will raise money for international charity ActionAid's Mission Malawi. Tickets: £15/ £25 from The Bridgewater Hall Box Office, 0161 907 9000 or online here.

Those crafty Islington Mill folk have put together a smorgasboard of christmas present possibilities at an impromptu shop at 142 Chapel Street, near Salford central train station. 'FROM SPACE' is a temporary art and fashion store selling one off pieces made at t'mill and further afield. Products on sale including fashion, accessories, clothing and t-shirts, large scale photographs, handmade clothes, ceramics, fine art prints, hand-crafted furniture, etc. Go between 3-7 for the launch this Thursday and you might get some mulled wine or something.

Also, the craft and design centre is packed to the rafters with gorgeousness this year. And the cafe there is making some tasty sandwiches. They're having Sunday shopping launch day from 1-4 this weekend. Go for a 10 percent discount, music from Manchester Community Choir and Dr Butlers Hatstand Medicine Band, and the obligatory mulled wine.

The Northern Quarter has a brand spanking new pizza place on High Street: Dough. Haven't been yet but planning on making a trip soon; a family-friendly place for chow in the area is much needed. There's a pharmacy-themed bar next door called Apotheca as well.

And last but not least, Social Media Cafe Manchester has gotten off to a strong start. I couldn't make last month's inaugural event but I hear it was overrun with people merrily tweeting, yelping, blogging and pinging. If you know what those things are or do them yourself you might want to head to the next one, which is Monday 8th December - 6pm to 9pm at The Northern. FACT curator Heather Corcoran will be the guest speaker. For future reference, Social Media cafe lives here.

Theft! Intellectual Theft!

I thought last week's Blog Lab event at MDDA went well. But today I'm amazed to learn that it may have been the site of a heinous literary heist. Over at The Case-Book of Desiderus, the shadowy Shoscomber investigates a most mysterious chain of events:

"I have to be smart, keep my ears and eyes open, approach this like a detective. This town is a small one. I will get to the bottom of this!"

New blogs: The hallelujah edition

Ahhh....Now that I've stopped levitating, and the choirs of jubilant angels have settled down a little bit, I can finally get back to the business of blogging. Time to introduce some new characters for the blogroll.

A few writerly blogs: Nice Big Shiny Teeth , Maladjusted and Making Eggs.

A photo blog: Native Photography.

A couple of music blogs: New ears and A boy like Thom.

A personal blog: Sometimes funny is all I have

And Tillerpop, where comedy songman Matt Tiller (who I met at last weekend's Blog Lab) has a whole bunch of videos and podcasts up, as well as writings about various things. Enjoy.

The storm is passing over

We did it!

Literary magazine madness

New literary magazines are springing up like mushrooms all over the Northwest (last week Mancubist tipped me off to two more I didn't know about.) But there are plenty of established mags still out there doing their thing, like ... uh, really big mushrooms. Sorry, it's early and I'm out of coffee.

Anyway, check this out: Succour Magazine will be hosting an evening of reading and drinks in Manchester to mark the launch of its eighth issue, 'Icons,' featuring new fiction and poetry from both established and unsung writers. It's at the Briton's Protection pub on November 28 at 8. Anyone welcome to attend or read. They're also calling for submissions for the next issue on the theme of Fantasies. More info here.

Swings and Roundabouts (creative saviours of the northwest) have a shiny new website where you can download all of the stuff from their first six issues. It's been on a bit of a hiatus for the last year, but is still very much alive and kicking and looking to publish new stuff.

Transmission no. 12 is out and looking good - I really enjoyed this issue, especially the profile of Joe Stretch and Chris Killen's piece on Richard Brautigan. Editor Graham Foster says the magazine will be making a pit stop for a while to rest on its laurels and ponder the future before it returns to us looking tanned, rested and ten years younger.

Blogging workshops: Autumn 2008

Non-bloggers: Were you so inspired by the awesome display of blogging might Wednesday night that you're determined to start your own blog? If so, you're in luck: Chris of Mancubist and I are running two blogging workshops aimed at total beginners*.

(*You should know how to use a computer. You should know how to use a mouse and how to navigate the internet with it. But that's about it.)

Two sessions:
Saturday 22 November, 10-12am Gorton Library
Saturday 29 November 10-12am Crumpsall Library


And... we're doing something new this year: a blog lab. It's an open surgery for people who are already blogging but want some help making their blog all shiny and exciting. Drop in and we'll show you how to pimp it up with the freshest widgets, and also give you some ideas for new and startling things you can do with your content.

Saturday 8 November, 1-3pm
Manchester Digital Development Agency, Portland Street
(drop in whenever you like during the session, but please let us know you’re coming.)

The workshops and blog lab are free, but numbers are limited so please book. You can ring the Literature Festival office at 0161 236 5555 or email admin AT manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk. Please let us know when booking if you have any accessibility needs.

2008 Manchester Blog Awards: The Winners

What a great night! Thanks to our talented readers, to everyone who came and packed out Matt and Phred's, and to those who helped make it happen in other ways, either by blogging about it or otherwise helping us spread the love.

And the winners are...

Best New Blog:
Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Judges: "It seems honest, and charming. The personality of the blogger comes across well, and I like how varied it is."

Best Writing on a Blog:
Every Day I Lie a Little

Judges: "Beautifully written and a pleasure on the eyes. I really like Jenn's style, sense of perspective and humour."

Best Arts and Culture Blog:
Winner: Northernights

Judges:"Very Manchester. Gives Mancubist a run for its money."

Best Personal Blog:
Travels with my baby

Judges: "The personality really comes across, and, considering it's subject, it really isn't very 'twee' and is engaging even if you’ve never held a baby."

Best City or Neighbourhood blog:
Manchester Buses

Judges: "Blogging is about passion and information. No one could ever accuse Manchester Buses of not believing in what they write. I've also used this site to gather news!"

CityLife.co.uk Manchester Blog of the Year:

Travels with my Baby

I'll try to link to all of the (sure to be many) accounts of what happened last night here: Check out The Mancunian Way

Leave a comment with your link if you want me to add yours. And if you have photos to share, Alan at MDDA has created a Flickr group here. The picture above is from Sam Easterby-Smith, who has many lovely pictures of the night up on his site.

One week 'til the Manchester Blog Awards

So why should you come to the blog awards on Wednesday night?

You should come because we'll have all four of this year's best writing nominees in the hizzouse to give us a sampling of their wordy wares: Sally Cook (Nine Chains to the Moon), Socrates Adams-Florou (Chicken and Pies), Jenn Ashworth (Every day I lie a little) and Maureen Ward, ameneusis to Miss EP Niblock (Diary of a Bluestocking) will all read.

Maria Roberts, last year's personal blog winner for Single Mother on the Verge, will read from her forthcoming book based on her blog. It's due out in the spring from Penguin and we're beaming with pride.

Literary dynamo and cat fancier Chris Killen, whose blog Day of Moustaches won last year's coveted best writing award, will be reading from his new book The Bird Room (Canongate). Then I'll ask him some pertinent questions, and we'll have a Q&A so you can ask him some impertinent ones.

Music bloggers jonthebeef of Black Country Grammar and James Yer Mam! will be manning the wheels of steel during the evening's musical interludes and have hand-selected rare and strange tunes for your personal delectation.

And of course you get to find out who won this year's six blog awards, including the extra-special CityLife Manchester Blog of the Year award.

If you're coming you don't have to book a ticket in advance, but you can here if you're the sort of person who likes to make extra sure you're going to get in. (We had some problems before with the booking website saying it was sold out. It isn't.) Otherwise, show up with £2 in hand. You should come to Matt and Phred's Jazz Club on Tib Street after 6:30 and before 7pm on Wednesday, Oct. 22.

Pictured above: Ali's bird room.

CityLife Blog of the Year

Holy cats! Stop the presses!

The folks at CityLife.co.uk have stepped in at the eleventh hour and upped the ante for Mancunian blogstars. They're sponsoring a new blog award this year: Manchester Blog of the Year. Our judging panel will pick the winner from among the shortlisted blogs. And the winner gets a big fat £300.

Yeah, £300. I know. It's a lot, isn't it?

The winner will be announced at the blog awards night on the 22nd of October.

I don't know about you, but I'm dead excited.

Rainy City Stories

I'm really delighted to announce the launch of a project that Chris (Mancubist) and I have been cooking up on the sly for some time now:

Rainy City Stories is a website that publishes new writing set in Manchester. It uses a Google map of the city to organise stories or poetry linked to particular places. Readers can click on a place marked by the little cloud icon to read a piece of writing associated with that spot.

Who can write for this site? Anybody can. We're open to all submissions of unpublished work. To get things rolling, we've commissioned pieces from four outstanding Mancunian writers: Jackie Kay, Mike Duff, Nicholas Royle and Rajeev Balasubramanyam. They're up now - go take a look.

But now we want YOU to send us your stories, poems or bits of memoir. If we like them, we'll put them on the map.

We've got big plans for the future, too.

We'll be publishing more commissioned writing in 2009, and expanding our site to include photography, graphics, and audio and video readings to accompany the words. A series of related writing workshops and a live literature event featuring some of the Rainy City Stories writers will be part of the 2009 Manchester Literature Festival. And we're investigating a fantastically exciting new possibility that would involve some of the best writing from the website, but we can't say much more about that yet.

Erm, what else should we tell you? The project is part of the Manchester Literature Festival's Freeplay programme, and it's funded by the good people of Arts Council England. Chris designed the site on Wordpress and is in charge of the techy stuff. I'll be doing the editing. No ferrets were harmed in the making of this website.

I'd love to hear what people think about the site so far - if you have some thoughts, leave a comment or email me at themanchizzle AT gmail DOT com.

The Manchester Review launches

It's always good to see a new literary journal starting up, but to my mind this one couldn't be more exciting. The University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing this week launches The Manchester Review, edited by the Centre's co-directors John McAuliffe and Ian McGuire. Most intriguingly, "it will depart from the medium’s conventions by existing only online, with new issues appearing each spring and autumn. These will often include broadcasts of new music, public debates and video pieces, as well as visual art, fiction and poetry."

The first issue is up now, with work from the likes of Paul Muldoon, Ali Smith, John Banville, Matt Welton and Chris Killen. Some more about the publication, from its website:

“The Manchester Review takes its cue from their proactive promotion of new writing, but uses online media to show and sponsor the interplay of poetry, fiction, music, visual art and essays by new and established practitioners. We hope that it will find new readers and audiences for exciting and innovative creative work, which is steeped in traditional virtues.

“This will be accompanied by the Review’s lively critical blog, which will take the temperature of - and maybe sometimes set the agenda for – the contemporary arts in the UK and beyond.”

Manchester is becoming quite the place for online literary endeavour. It seems like every week or so I add another couple of lit bloggers to the blogroll. We're blessed the with Literature Festival's geek-friendly Freeplay programme, and blogtastic live lit nights like no point in not being friends, with its tech-aided readings, Facebook group and antics on youtube. Even more traditional publishers and publications like Comma Press and Transmission are increasingly doing stuff online.

And new paper publications all seem to all have blogs, often as their main web presence. One such is the lovely Wufniks, started by students at the aforementioned writing school, with a fantastic tagline: "a mishegoss of shiny new words."

2008 Manchester Blog Awards Shortlist

Here is the 2008 Manchester Blog Awards Shortlist. We had 107 separate nominations this year, coming in from as far away as San Francisco. There was such a wealth of great stuff that it was harder than ever to do the shortlisting, particularly in the Best Writing on a Blog category (by far our most nominated-for.)

The force is strong with you, Manchester bloggers. Many thanks to all those who nominated.


Best New Blog:

Dear Kitty
Coco LaVerne
Follow The Yellow Brick Road
14sandwiches


Best Writing on a Blog:

Diary of a Bluestocking
Every day I lie a little
Nine chains to the moon
Chicken and Pies

Best Arts and Culture Blog:

Scatterdrum
Quit This Pampered Town
Northernights
Max Dunbar

Best Personal Blog:

Travels with my baby
Single Mother on the Verge
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
40three

Best Neighbourhood Blog:

Hyde Daily Photo
Mancubist
Lady Levenshulme
Manchester Bus

This will now go to our panel of judges, which includes Sarah Hartley, blogger and online editor at the Manchester Evening News, Dave Carter of Manchester Digital Development Agency, Richard Fair of BBC Manchester and author Chris Killen, winner of last year's Best Writing on a Blog award.

The winners (who each get £50 and a large metal studded belt that is very heavy) will be announced at the blog awards event Weds Oct 22 at Matt and Phred's Jazz Club.

New blogs: The not from here edition

Here's a whole heap of new blog goodness for your Friday afternoon delectation.

Ken and Belly is the very engaging personal blog of Kelly, an American expat in Mancunia, who like myself wishes you could get Annie’s Organic Mac N Cheese here in the UK. And through this blog I found out about the Expat Blogs network, which has a few blogs right here in Manchester: Canadian expat Britt Breu writes Brittunia in Mancunia, and there's Singaporean Alex's World, as well as blogs written in Japanese and Portuguese. Guess I should add this one to the list, though I feel less and less like an expat these days.

Abbas Ali writes about films over at The Movie Hack Pretty impressive, with lots of Top Five Best... lists and a preview of the London Film Festival. And don't call me Shirley!

Anthony Richardson, who is just starting a Creative Writing MA at Manchester, has set up a lit blog. He writes: "The blog is called Anthony Richardson Writes Stories That Are Funny, which is actually sort of an arrogant title come to think of it. It isn't meant to be that way. I have all my short stories up there, plus I am writing a short story a week for a year, which started this week." He also likes to redo classic album covers using Microsoft Paint, and you can see those on the blog too.

14 sandwiches bills itself as a technology-media-music party for your brain. Martin Bryant writes it, and for the record he has not eaten 14 sandwiches in one sitting.

An intriguing new group blog with a manifesto: "The LRM (Loiterers Resistance Movement)is a Manchester based collective of artists and activists interested in psychogeography. We can’t agree on what that means but we all like plants growing out of the side of buildings, urban exploration, drinking tea and getting lost. Gentrification, advertising and blandness make us sad. We believe there is magic in the mancunian rain. Our city is wonderful and made for more than shopping. We want to reclaim it for play and revolutionary fun…"


Expletive Undeleted is freelance journalist Smith3000's collection of reworked longer versions of published interviews and features. "It’s mainly music stuff at the moment, but that will probably change over time," he says. He also writes about older music at a section of the site called Hip Replacement.

Languishing in Levenshulme is a personal blog written by a resident of what has to be the best-represented nabe on our blogroll. Languishing has lived there for 7 years, and says: "I love it but kind of wish it was Hebden Bridge. I think some residents of Levenshulme would appreciate my point here. I have met some of the most fantastic friends here - but damn it I still live next to a thundering arterial road with a back garden the size of a budgie's tongue; and the closest I get to birds twittering and wildlife is the minging mice that scutter across my floor at 2am and the flying vermin (fattened on dropped Saturday night kebab) that my dog loves to chase around the Fallowfield loop. Despite all that, my heart belongs to Levenshulme." Awww.

Not a new blog, but a new site to link to: Manclopedia. "Manclopedia is a free, open content encyclopedia project operated by Hive Magazine. Launched in September 2008 it attempts to collect and summarize every aspect of Greater Manchester (including its history, culture, politics, people and places) with the aim of becoming the most comprehensive collection of information regarding this great city!" Nice idea, though there's not much on there at the moment. Any takers?