100 blogs... plus two

Cough. Sniff. Sneeze. This is me limping into bank holiday weekend with a terrible cold, missing work and surviving on a diet of tea and toast. At least the weather is crappy so I don't feel as though I'm missing out on anything special, like our camping plans. But, because I'm always thinking of others, I have pulled myself out of my feverish lethargy to add a few new blogs to the blogroll ... nudging us past our 100-blog benchmark.

The first is McBlog, written by I.Mc, who has put down Aberdeen/Manchester as hometown. Quite a combination. What will you find there? Bad chimp jokes, musings about the proliferation of St. George's Cross flags, and a mini-review of the Da Vinci Code.

Then we have Mark is Taking the Plunge, a writing blog by an aspiring novelist. Recent topics include short stories, and a sneaky peak behind closed doors at the Carcanet offices. Apparently they give tours to the public.... who knew?

Finally we have The World of Mistrust, the blog of Mistrust, a downtempo chillout musician, who writes about the music he makes at home. That's all for now, I'm running out of strepcils.

The Night Museum

Going to look at some art or artifacts often seems a lot more enticing when there's a social element to things. I imagine this is part of the reason why private views are so popular (though the free booze undoubtedly helps too) - you can catch up with your friends and meet people while checking out an exhibition.

In the past couple of years after-hours gallery events have become a bigger thing. Art galleries in the world's urbs have started periodically opening their doors for late-night perusing, often accompanied by a musical performance, live art gig or other entertainment. This seems like a win-win to me... the museums get a much-needed injection of hipness and a way to attract more customers; we get more opportunities to see those exhibitions we'd end up missing otherwise. Museums and galleries are mostly open during the work day, and our weekends are already packed with other culturally-edifying activities (lolling around outside the pub drinking beer, lolling around on the couch watching T4, etc.) And looking at art or other exhibitions in these settings just seems more relaxed, less intimidating and, somehow, not such a big deal.

Over in NYC, the Brooklyn Museum's First Saturdays have been an enormous hit, and down south they've got Late at Tate and The V&A's much-heralded Friday Late programme. I haven't heard about anything like this in Manc, except for a few one-offs like the birthday Live Art events in the Cornerhouse galleries last October. The Manchester Art Gallery did have one late night event like this a year or two ago. It was some cocktail and looking at art thingy put on by an outside events company, I think - but it was invite only (like most of the private views in town ... which i think is really too bad. Why should these things be closed to all but the self-appointed cultural elite? If opening them up to the public means they have to charge for drinks, so be it.)

So I was delighted to hear about The Social at Urbis, a series of different music nights, live lit readings and performances. Unfortunately, the galleries close at 8pm Th-S so you can't look at art while the events are going on (they're held in that long, thin cafe down the side) but they have a new menu so at least you can get some dinner and enjoy a drink.

And, right on cue, it's Nuit des Musees across Europe this Saturday, May 20. In Paris this is a big deal, with practically every museum staying open til the wee hours. Here in Manchester, we get the Manchester Museum staying open til...gasp! 9 o'clock. Oh, and the Hat Works in Stockport is also open later than usual. Yup, it's all going on in the 24-hour city.

(purple urbis shot from pictures of england)

Manchester Media cat fight: MEN v. MCR Confidential

There's nothing like a good old-fashioned catfight to liven up a party, as long as you're not one of the cats. Advertorial site Manchester Confidential's Mark Garner (aka Gordo) pissed off the MEN, and promptly got disinvited to their annual diary booze-fest. You can read Gordo's account of the spat, the snippy letter from MEN Editor Paul Horrocks un-inviting him, and the reader responses to all of this (which seem about split between rubbishing the MEN and rubbishing Gordo)here:

But Gordo didn't provide links to the copy that annoyed the MEN so much. I've dug it out. The main culprit, I suspect, was some text accompanying a contest sponsored by the Enquirer:

"We believe there must have been some divine intervention for the arrival of The North West Enquirer to save us from the drudgery of the MEN and bottom-burping Metro....with the explosion of urbanites and professionals in Manchester, it was about time there was a newspaper to match the North West’s IQ...Editorially led, you can actually flick through without Shane Ward or equally tiresome C-list celebrities' mugshots dominating 90 percent of the pages. Radical, we know....Where newspapers like the MEN, or the ‘evil empire’ as Gordo affectionately refers to it, dumb down their copy and insult the intelligence of their readers, The North West Enquirer injects the brain cells with rocket fuel and reassures the reader that journalism covers more then cats up trees and pie eating competitions. We may be northerners but we’re not stupid....Will you stand firm with us and join the North West’s finest in support of the biggest thing to hit Manchester since the IRA bombing, or sink into early retirement, play puzzles and nod off in front of the MEN." Meow!

Here, in an earlier piece, MC called the MEN "shit-scared of any competition that can actually commission interesting stories," and said they didn't want to be "The Guardian's catamite." (Excellent word that.)

This interesting tale came via Manchester_Clubbing, a new blog apparently run by those silly boys over at What Happened Last Night. Yes, that's another new blog. We're getting very close to our Manchester blogroll century.

(Cat-tastic picture courtesy of on-no.net Want to see more pictures of cats? You know you do. Go here. Or here. Or here)

Open Guide to Manchester

It can be difficult trying to find new places to go in the city; we all get stuck in our own little grooves. In the past, the livejournal community Manchester's Journal has been good for the odd restaurant, pub or night out tip, and I've just learned about another place to look: The Open Guide to Manchester. This is in the wiki format, so the idea is that it gets better the more people contribute. I found the way it was set up not so user-friendly, but if you noodle around with it for a while you can find some interesting things. Let the wiki-ing begin. They especially need help with city centre restaurant reccs - one of the few listed now is the Wetherspoons in Piccadilly.

I found out about the Open Guide on Criminally Vulgar, the newest addition (number 98, in fact) to our Manchester area blogroll. CV is written by an expat yank who works in IT and lives in Wigan. Scroll down for a fascinating tale of gypsies in Leigh, a handy guide to charity shops in the Wigan area, and The Da Vinci Code translated into livejournalese.

97 and counting...

Just noticed that all these new additions means we're up to 97 blogs on the manchester blogroll. Pretty cool. Maybe we should have a door prize for the hundredth blog.

More new blogs

Here's the rest of the new Manchester-area blogs I didn't get a chance to add yesterday:

Great Blue World is Peter's blog about arts, culture and politics from a gay perspective. Recent posts cover the perplexing appointment of Ruth Kelly as equality minister, Paris Hilton's desire for a gay boyfriend, and the "new abs" of the Tories.


The Life of Baz offers "a study of girls, god, geekdom and life in general," written by Baza, "a 19 year old stuck in a dead-end job with no prospects for the future, struggling to write a book in my spare time." There's a post - with picture - of the city's new outdoor urinals, which don't sound very private at all. Eeek, how bizarre.


I am Banno is the personal blog of, erm, Paul Banno, a maths student who works in a cinema, writes about movies and telly and other stuff, and is a budding fiction blogger. He lives in "what sounds like the geekiest house in Manchester" - and I suspect some of his roomies may already be on the blogroll. You guys definitely win in the blogs-per-house stakes.


I love this one. Martial Arts! A journal by Kit Lok features weekly reports and lesssons from the world of Martial Arts (yes, it goes into a bit more detail than 'wax on, wax off...') With bone-crunching action pics and, somewhat randomly, a picture of the guy who played Cat on Red Dwarf, whom Kit recently spotted at a martial arts event. Dude looks exactly the same.


Louisa is a Canadian woman who moved to Manchester. Her blog is called Canadian in Manchester - and she's certainly not the only one, eh C? It appears to be mainly a personal blog.


A Cool Noise is another music blog, linked to the author's indie music website by the same name. He writes this week about Last.Fm (which I am a big fan of - my user name is Yankunian; if anyone else is on there give me a shout.) A little further down there's a useful guide to going to gigs, clearly gleaned from longtime personal experience.

Now with more blog goodness than before

Holy shniekies, I just checked out Britblogs and there are an unbelievable number of new-to-me Manchester blogs on there. All those statistics you read in the newspapers about someone starting a blog every 1.7 nanoseconds must be true. I'm going to be adding these new finds to the Manchester blogroll in bite-sized chunks over the next few weeks. By the way, I do try to contact everyone to make sure it's cool to add their blog, but sometimes (in cases of no email/enabled comments/undeveloped psychic abilities/general Yankunian ineptness) it's just not possible. So, if you're here because you're wondering who linked to your blog and you don't want to be on the blogroll, email me at themanchizzle at gmail dot com and I'll return you to the mists of obscurity.

With no further ado, here they are:

Comprehension Dawns is written by Rebecca, a Manchester student and musician with a commendably candid writing style. She is also disabled, and has written an enlightening post about her experiences with inclusion, which I have excerpted a bit of here. This was in response to Blogging Against Disablism Day which was on May 3:

"Feeling safe and wanted and welcomed is something truly universal, and all too often people seem to forget it, in their rush to assess (at a glance, in the queue in Withington post office) someone's quality of life. Those poor fools pity me. I pity them - they are so narrow and shallow and ignorant that they're missing out on all sorts of life's wonders and should they through chance or misadventure join the varied, bickering ranks of disabled people, they will be so busy thinking their lives over that they'll miss out on even more."

First there was New Labour, now there's Newer Labour, written by Tom, a law student from the Whitworth Park environs. Looking at all of the links to political activism groups he's involved in both fills me with respect and makes me tired. Tom, what do you run on? The blog is mostly about politics, though you probably would have figured that out.

Malcom is the man behind Everything's Eventual, which is the personal blog of a twentysomething Geordie living in Manchester.


The intriguingly-monikered Cakesniffers Beware! is the personal/humor blog of Tina, who lives in Manchester but whose toothbrushes live all over the UK (she travels a lot.)


More later....

Out for a drink

The summer is nearly upon us, and the hour of outdoor drinking is nigh. Nearly every village, no matter how remote, has thoughtfully been equipped with a pub, and warm afternoons now find people installed in benches out front, enjoying a leisurely pint or seventeen while frying their fishbelly white hides.

Topping the list in Manchester are usually Dukes 92, The Ox and the other perenially popular bars along the canal in Castlefield, as well as those with outdoor tables in the village. But I'm also partial to The Moon in Piccadilly Basin, which is maybe the most hidden bar in the city (I love that strange reflecting pool.) And doesn't the brilliant Fringe Bar have a beer garden overlooking scenic Ancoats? You've gotta love that.

To assist your planning, some of our bloggers have put a lot of thought into the best places for an al fresco cocktail. Flew From the Fylde Coast (yup, this is a new blogger, to be added to the blogroll shortly) has a top 5 summary of quality outdoor joints in the city. But Salford is not to be overlooked. Mike of Where cranes connect the sky has been on a quest to find Salford's most idyllically located boozer. Contenders so far are The Old Pint Pot by the university and The Mark Addy, on the banks of the mighty Irwell. Anyone else got outdoor drinking reccomendations?

(Photo by Aidan O'Rourke, from Manchester Online)

Spring comes to The Manchizzle (UPDATED)

It's a glorious day at the end of a glorious week of real warm spring sunshine - and of course, I'm stuck inside glued to a computer. But if I get tired of gazing out the window at the pastoral beauty that is the Fulwood Industrial Estate in spring (unlikely as that sounds), I can take heart by admiring the work of some of our own photobloggers. Island Monkey and slow|afternoon, and Roy at Mantex have posted the most gorgeous pictures of blossoming trees, fresh trembling leaves and springing turf. This photo above is one from Island Monkey. Anyone else got good spring snaps?


Enjoy it now, because the weekend is going to be crappy. Sigh. Of course it is.

Manchester Media Gossip: Time Out....Liverpool?

In today's NWE - way back in the business section - there's a story about Time Out considering a new edition up north. But it's not a Manchester edition that's mentioned, or even a Northwest one (thank god) - It's all about Liverpool. You can read it here:

http://www.nw-enquirer.co.uk/

Apparently they're looking to make the most of the capital of culture "synergy" - though Time Out Liverpool could be launching as early as this autumn. What isn't clear is whether there's the advertising market needed to make a publication like this sustainable.

Don't forget to vote!

And whilst you do, think of me, who can't - at least not in the country where I live. What was that? Taxation without representation? Ring a bell?

Just kidding. I don't understand the parliamentary system, so I'd make a lousy British voter anyway...

Moues Colbert

For his jaw-dropping performance at the typically cosy, self-congratulatory White House correspondents dinner, comedian Stephen Colbert is being called "the Edward R. Murrow of his day." I think that's a tad overblown, but there's no denying he made a big impression. In fact, he "left the clueless DC press corps gaping," according to Michael Scherer in online mag Salon:

“….It’s not just that Colbert’s jokes were hitting their mark. We already know that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that the generals hate Rumsfeld, or that Fox News lists to the right. Those cracks are old and boring. What Colbert did was expose the whole official, patriotic, right-wing, press-bashing discourse as a sham, as more ‘truthiness’ than truth.”

You can watch the video of his speech at Crooks and Liars. And then, if you're so inclined, you can say thank you...

North West Enquirer arrives

Yesterday saw the launch of the North West Enquirer, the new regional weekly paper. Though its server seems to be having problems at this particular moment, I'm delighted to see that they've put some content online (though not, sadly, the piece I wrote about the Derek Williams exhibition in Preston, which is in the arts section.) Stu at Feeling Listless has a very in-depth post about his thoughts on the new issue, and raises some good points, I think, especially about its lack of listings. What does anyone else think of it? I'm curious.

Fresh blogs

First we had The Art of Fiction, now there's The Tart of Fiction. I wondered at first if this was Bournemouth Runner showing us a saucy new feminine side, but I think after some consideration that it must in fact be another person. "Fiction Bitch" looks to be writing about literature and the writerly life in Manchester and beyond.

Weeelll, this one isn't actually a new blog. It's new to the blogroll, but I was alerted to its existence awhile back, and then just completely forgot to add it to the blogroll. Shame on me. It's called Where cranes connect the sky, and it's written by Mike, who blogs about life in Manchester and takes quite nice pictures, many of which you can see here.

Rich, Lord of the Aggregator, was kind enough to let me know I'd missed out Just Words a personal blog by one SL. He also maintains an interesting blog called First Drafts, which is "a collaborative blog aimed at providing writers with a place to share their work on any subject they like.(Near-)daily writing prompts are emailed to you to provide guidance or inspiration." Pretty cool, no?

Sabrina's Book of Hours is a personal blog by - who else? - Sabrina, who lives in Manchester, but may or may not be accepting a very special invitation to go to Taiwan. You'll have to read her blog to find out... (Thanks Stuart for the tip)

And last but certainly not least, we have Fee-Fy-Fo-Fum, a Welsh girl in Manchester (and other places). FFFF's most recent post is about an upcoming street theatre perfomance in London that looks marvelous. Croeso!

new blog roundup

I'm fixing to do another roundup of new blogs this week, so if anyone knows of a new Manc-area blog that needs to be added to the blogroll, let me know.

Salford vs. Manchester

Last night on television I happened to catch a programme called Dispatches: Yobs Are Scaring the Crap Out of us Posh Middle Aged Folk, or something like that. Of course where did it open but Salford, amid a hail of bone-chilling crime statistics and several minutes of grainy footage in which hoodie-clad scallies (and their wee brothers and sisters, aka the scallions) ran riot. Actually, they were mostly just standing around looking bored, drinking cans of Carling and occasionally lobbing a rock at a storefront. Every now and then the Dispatches reporter would approach them, shove a big camera in their faces without so much as a by-your-leave, and ask them inane questions like "Do you know why people are scared of you?" and "Does your mother know where you are right now?" I would have told her to fuck off as well.

I amused myself by imagining the poor BBC employees in London who were also watching Dispatches, colour draining from their carefully buffed faces as they realised that Salford is where their jobs might be heading! The BBC has narrowed it down to two sites for its massive expansion up norf, one at Salford Quays and the other in Manchester's "Central Spine" off Whitworth Street (I've never heard of that part of the city, but it sounds painful, doesn't it?) The winner will be announced in June. A poll of BBC employees back in January came out in favour of Manchester. Ya think? And calling the Salford site "Media City" hardly makes it any less hyperventilatingly scary for the northbound Beebers.

But they really shouldn't be that worried. Salford is nothing to be afraid of. Sure, there are bits of it you will basically want to avoid, like, forever. But other bits are quite nice. And there are quite a few excellent pubs there. A good excuse to see all of them in one day is coming up this Sunday, when Sounds From The Other City brings its swirly multi-location local music shindig to town. Book now, it sold out last year.

XFM Cometh.... and disappointeth

The indie credential, who were really cheerleadering XFM's move to Manchester on their blog, have become sorely disenchanted with the new XFM Manchester on account of their playlist. And they're not the only ones. I've read more than a few bloggers grumbling about it, and take a gander at the XFM messageboard - the criticisms are all the same: too much dad rock, MOR, old baggy anthems and mid-table indie rock from the 90s, not enough of the new, edgy indie bands and quirkily selected mix of old tunes we all heard from London on DAB or the internet. And what's up with the repetitive bangin' techno on a Saturday night? - you might as well be listening to Key 103.

I'm listening right now, and as I've been writing this we've had Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus, which they seem to play a lot( if they want to play DM, there are much better, less-mainstream choices...) That muzak-like Groove Armada song about sand dunes and salty air. A Muse song. Some crappy late REM (see DM comment). Some Madchester band so boring I've forgotten their name. Radiohead. Nirvana. Joss Stone. I think that's a fairly representative sampling.

So in response, Indie Credential have created a my space site where people can register their displeasure with the new station. It's called XFM Manchester Sucks. Manchester will not sit back and listen to David Gray. Manchester deserves better. Thems fightin' words.

Manc media stories

A nice big feature in today's Media Guardian about how Manchester's media landscape is undergoing a revolution, what with the BBC coming, Google opening their first regional offices here (wha? first I've heard of that. What do they want with offices here?) Etc. etc. etc. Having been here a few years I only have to see the words Manchester and Revival in the same headline and my eyes start glazing over with boredom, but I guess it's nice that they're bothering to write anything at all.

Also got the news this weekend that the MEN is going to be distributed free in the city centre. Here's a thought - how about actually improving the dismal product instead of trying to give it away for nothing? Maybe?

World Gone Mad

Forgot to say I went to a really wonderful exhibition last night - World Gone Mad: Surrealist Returns in British Modern Art at the Castlefield Gallery. It's on until June 4, so you've got loads of time if you want to go check it out.
(Image courtesy Castlefield Gallery)

media/art/film next week

Holy cow, check out Cornerhouse's glorious new website! What an improvement. I may return frequently just to hear those cool sound effects ... no wait, I just got sick of them. Oh well, that's what the mute button is for. I happened by because Bournemouth Runner tipped me off about an event that's happening over there in conjunction with the Tijuana Organic exhibition that opened last night.

It's called BULBO BROADCAST: ALTERNATIVE MEDIA AS SOCIAL SPACE
and is going down Thursday 27 April at 6. "An informal discussion on collaborative and alternative media projects. The event will feature participants in person and online, from multimedia projects, artist's groups and communities in Tijuana, Manchester and the North West. This one-off multi-channel broadcast will also be streamed live by Trafford based Let's Go Global as part of their regular Thursday show. Drop by in person, or join in online via iChat."

Next week promises to be a busy one for arty folk as the Commonwealth Film Festival opens Friday night. (I never understand what they're talking about when people call it ComFest, which sounds to me like it might be a computer programmer's conference circa 1983). Haven't had a chance to look at the programme yet, but there's always some winners in there.

The blues

The unhappy lot of the City supporter right now is covered thoroughly in this heartfelt letter posted on Bitter and Blue. It's sincere, detailed and to the point, and I hope someone up there takes notice.
http://bitterandblue.blogspot.com/2006/04/points-of-view.html
(yeah, my links aren't working again.)

ipod of death

After a year and a half, my ipod has kicked the bucket. Yup, my green, first generation ipod mini has died, leaving me with a hollow ache inside. Yeah, I do think it's dumb how people have fetishized this piece of electronic hardware, and I'm sure it sounds ridiculously overwrought, but it's hard for me not to be upset at losing a very expensive piece of equipment that added so much enjoyment to my everyday life - I used it every day while excercising, commuting and racing around Manchester.

Although, lately, things had been less fun. I had to replace the battery ($$) after playing time dwindled to an hour. The clickwheel started acting up, and then it became harder to upload songs. But the end came when I simply updated my itunes, as Apple repeatedly encouraged me to do. You wouldn't think a company's own firmware could actually kill their device, but that's exactly what happened to me and, I found after searching around the internet, a whole bunch of other ipod suckas. The crazy thing is that Apple has shrugged off any responsibility. It discontinued the mini several months ago, even though they were selling like hotcakes. Now I think we know why.

You might expect a piece of equipment that you paid that kind of money for to last longer than a year and a half, and to at least, I don't know, be repairable when it does break. I won't bother to detail my fruitless efforts to get some kind of satisfaction from Apple (15 minutes on the phone with the clueless Hassan at call centre tech support and 30 headbangingly infuriating minutes chatting with Stuart at customer relations in Ireland. The upshot is that it's a few months out of warranty, so it would cost more to fix than it would to buy a new ipod, and there are no guarantees the repaired device would last anyway. There's a good New York Times article here that details exactly how insane this is.

So, at some point I'm going to need to buy another mp3 player, and given Apple's poor design, bad value and appallingly arrogant approach to customer service, I'm not really jazzed about shelling out for another ipod. The only problem is that itunes really is the best music-managing program I've ever used (I had a Samsung yepp a couple years ago, and the software sucked.) So, if any ur-geek has read this far and knows of an mp3 player with ipod-comparable specs and good software, please speak up.

There is a burgeoning anti-ipod movement online, though it isn't, as I'd hoped, an expression of outrage at Apple's rapacious business tactics but a tirade against the ipod as an instrument of social isolation. Truthfully, I'm kind of okay with the social isolation. But I'm waiting for the day that people wake up and realize that we've all been duped by clever marketing, and that the ipod isn't all that. Bring on the insurrection.

Yankunian wants to be your friend

Okay, so I set up a myspace account. I did this mainly because we don't have a listings magazine anymore (though apparently Time Out were up here "prospecting" last week), and I was having a hard time with the old forward planning. I mean, Roy Ayers played at the Mint Lounge, for chrissakes, and I didn't know until it was too late. And there are also some artist collectives/events organizers/interesting folks who don't send out press releases, but do all of their promotion and dissemination through myspace. Plus, I was curious.

Anyway, it doesn't matter how good my reasons for setting up an account are. My friend Chris still snickered at me and called me a "cool chaser." And, it also doesn't matter how lame myspace actually is (which, um, it is by the way. For one accustomed to the clean Habitatesque Minima-lism of blogger, a visit to myspace is like a trolley dash round Walmart on a muggy Saturday afternoon,) I am now inextricably bound up in the life cycle of a trend, rather than standing on the sidelines rolling my eyes and making wisecracks. It feels cold, and a little scary.

Which reminds me of an excellent story I'd like to bring your attention to - the tale of the rise and fall of the Flash Mob, once catnip to hipsters, by Bill Wasik, the man who created them in order to study the life cycle of a trend. Read it and eat your pseudo-ironic trucker hat.

UPDATE: Forgot to say that I did not take this picture. I wish I had, but I pulled it off a news story that has since disappeared.

Looking for creative writing/fiction bloggers

A general appeal:

For a project I am working on, I'm looking for people who are using blogs as an outlet for creative writing. This could be a group of writers who use a blog to house a collectively-written story, a lone fiction blogger or generally anyone doing cool stuff with creative writing through the blog format. If any of you know of someone who's doing this type of thing - either locally or elsewhere on the web - please leave a comment or email me at themanchizzle at gmail dot com. Anonymity assured.

Manchester Media gossip: The Mix RIP

The magazine business is notoriously nut-like, so it may not come as an enormous shock that The Mix Manchester, the fledgling listings mag, has folded like an umbrella after only two issues. The publisher had "financial difficulties." This means the Bloggerel column is homeless, so you Manchester bloggers will just have to find another way of achieving fame/notoriety/mild embarassment with a single post. Special apologies to Dan Flynn of Mad Dan's Blog, whose bit about the genie in the pop bottle was to be featured in the doomed third issue.

It's not all doom and gloom on the media front: We're getting a new newspaper. The North West Enquirer will launch on April 28. It is to be a weekly paper covering the whole ginormous region from North Wales and Cheshire up through the Lakes, with a focus on the cosmopoliitan urbs of Liverpool and Manchester (where it is based.) It'll be interesting to see if this can help fill some of the arts and entertainment coverage gap left by City Life's closure. The website is at http://www.nw-enquirer.co.uk/ but there's nothing up yet.

What's more, I've heard another magazine, the Leicester-based 69-247, is launching a Northwest edition in September (yes, that's really what it's called ... The name just says class, doesn't it?) My links are not working now, but if you want to see the kind of thing you can expect from them, paste this into your browser: http://www.69-247.com/

musical monkey

Island Monkey got creative in honour of Condi's visit. I'm sure John would approve.

Monday curiosities

Bench, our friend on t'other side of the pennines, has provided us with a link to a fascinating online exhibition titled "The Unbearable Sadness of Vegetables" which is just one offering from a great kitsch archive run by an American newspaper columnist called James Lileks. It's called the Insititute of Official Cheer, "where old pop-culture is subjected to our patented re-ironization process." Neat-o.

Dave Maass of Maassive has posted to Manchester is Shit about a local comic artist, Robin Scott, whose mini-comic Every Life I've Ever Lived follows his day-to-day life. I hadn't heard of this guy before.

If you're into art of the digital flavor, hustle your bustle down to the eerily splendid Victoria Baths for Meme Pool, the first show from new Manchester artist collective Interval - it's worth checking out and it's only up this week.

Condi Nasty

Roll out the red carpet! Condi's comin'. I was delighted to hear that my secretary of state will be visting Liverpool and Blackburn this week. When she's in Blackburn, I hope Jack Straw takes her to see the carpark on top of the council building, which has got to be one of the most inexplicably surreal places in Britain. But I imagine they'll tread the well-worn gladhanding trail from school to mosque to successful small business, in between dodging protesters. Yep, seems some people aren't as delighted as I am with Condi's visit. It's not every day we get one of the key players in the Bush administration up here and Northwest protesters are busy dreaming up witty Condi-specific placard slogans.

The highlight of Condi's trip will almost certainly be a Liverpool Philharmonic concert in her honour hosted by Scouser celebs Roger McGough and Cathy Tyson. Except that - oops - McGough, Tyson and some of the musicians have decided to boycott the gig for political reasons. This was a marvelous piece of planning, because considering how well the capital of culture preparations are going, Liverpool could really use some more scandal and bad press. If the musicians won't behave, maybe they could get Condi to play - she is a concert pianist, though I imagine she doesn't get much time for tickling the ivories anymore.

One blog has really gone above and beyond in keeping us up to date on all things Condi. Hats off to our own A Logical Voice, which remains the best place to go for updates about the story as they occur - here is their latest. You can also visit Condiwatch for details of protests Friday and Saturday. Anyone going?

Off the wall

This article in G2 yesterday by UK graffiti art's elder statesman, Banksy, issued a warning to the stencil hounds and spray can wizards of London: The Olympic Games are coming, and a massive rub-out is in your future. This got me thinking about the illicit art decorating Manchester's streets and doorways.

The first time I remember noticing graffiti here was when a walk to my friend's house in Hulme brought me unexpectedly under the Mancunian Way (back in the rookie days before I knew the shortcut to the Redbricks.) The tunnels sport a colourful profusion of stencils and tags, probably because the authorities don't often go there. In fact, no one seems to go there much, except graffiti artists. I snapped a few mobile phone pics before I got too sketched out by the isolation and general dodginess of the place and scurried away. If I was more technologically gifted, I'd post them here. But why bother, when you can see all the local graffiti pics you could ever possibly hope for over at Manchester Marks. The pic above is from this blog, and was taken at Hotspur House off Oxford Road. Manchester is Shit has also been known to post graffiti photgraphs, and is a good place to go for details of upcoming exhibitions, underground parties, and the like. Also the messageboard United Art City is a great way to keep up with street art in Manc and beyond.

Graffiti art gets a bad rap these days - we're right in the middle of the hipster backlash. Self-appointed trendspotters may sneer, "Oh, that's so, like, three years ago." But the medium's higher profile means that, in addition to being co-opted by companies flogging anything from trainers to insurance, it's also a lot easier to actually look at, and galleries are suddenly falling all over themselves to show it.

Grafficionados might want to check out a couple of exhibitions in town now: The C.A.L.M.A. Show over at Contact Theatre until early May features installations from the Brazilian graffiti artist whose work combines allusions to paganism, alchemy, folklore and corporate culture.

Also, the Richard Goodall gallery is busting out of it's rock n'roll pigeonhole for a show by NY street artist and illustrator Dalek, to April 29. And you know Magma practically always has some graffiti art going on at the storefront, which often seems to feature giraffes.

And one more

One new blog got left off the last post. It's Urban Trawling, written by Si. He says: I didn't invent urban trawling, I am just a victim of the trend. Exiled from the "real world" of trendy city-centre bars and coffee shops, we have nowhere to go but the streets.

So what is urban trawling, exactly? Don't know, but I will certainly keep reading to find out more. The most recent post is a passionate rant at the soulessness of the glass n' chrome buildings that seem to be replicating themselves across Manchester at an alarming rate. Si is no fan of Urbis. Si also has the mumps - sheesh, do people actually still get that? Get well soon, Si.

Blog bonanza

Hey, look at that. I moan about having no new blogs to add and you all deliver. As a result we have a bumper crop of fresh, locally grown blogs to enjoy... mmmmm.

Why did I go wrong? is written by Wodge, who says it's "mostly about living in Manchester." There are so many pictures on it, it kinda looks like a photo blog, but maybe not. And one of the pictures is of a bus. What's with the sudden bus fixation, you guys?

Miss Fluff is the author of Trolley Park. She likes roast dinners and cosy nights in and she's quite a talented artist, judging by the sketches. I like this influx of arty bloggers. You can see one of the pictures from her blog above.

Lingua Franca is a brilliant, now-defunct magazine about ideas, and it's also the name of a language-oriented blog written by Heather Pollitt (cheers to Roy at Mantex for the tip - I see Heather's also guest blogger there this week)

She writes: My blog's about anything to do with language use, seen from an analytical, iconoclastic, historical angle. I'll be commenting on idiosyncracies, shooting down blind prejudice and celebrating the recent developments in technology that have resulted in the democratising of communication. Everyone's passionate about language and that's because it's part of us. Let's explore it's workings and stop being so precious about it. Amen, sister. Recent posts explore road signs and the language of politics.

Lastly, we have The Misapplied Criminal Mind, a personal blog about, among other things, the evilness of cats and how custard is the most disappointing dessert choice ever (isn't it?)

Thanks to Lord Rich, one of the web wizards behind the Manchester Bloggers aggregator, for keeping me up to date on new additions. Sign up, folks. The aggregator is your friend, even though it has a scary name. Really.

Blogger picture problems

Has anyone else been having problems posting pictures on blogger over the last couple of days? I can't do it, and the lack of colourful illustration on here is really starting to pinch my aesthetic sensibilities. Anyone have a clue????

UPDATE: of course, now it's working. Isn't that always the way?

More bus blogging

You wait and wait for one and then two come at the same time. Groaningly trite yet highly appropriate seeing as not one but two bus blogs have arrived in our city within a couple of weeks. Hot on the heels of I Wanna Ride The Bus! comes 43, a record of travels on the 43 bus (goes between Piccadilly and the Airport), which is the means of blogger Geoff's commute. He writes:

I suppose it would be fantastic to travel around the world to amazing places and write about it, like a travel writer, but I can’t do that. What I can do is get the 43 bus to town (and back again), and, you know, waste not want not and all that. Moreover, I think getting the 43 bus can be pretty good.

Geoff has some pretty cool drawings on the blog (one of a folding bike is above)and some of them even move. And the soundtrack has got to be a recording of the background sound on board the 43. In his latest post he waxes lyrical about bus graffiti.

XFM cometh

XFManchester finally started broadcasting last week at 97.7 fm, and already it's hard to imagine how we got along for so long without it. The first thing I noticed was all the Mancunian - or at least Northern - accents on there, which is quite refreshing. I heard a tiny bit of Tony Wilson's first broadcast (I undertand there was some publicity stunt involving Bez and a bunch of folks breaking the world record for largest ensemble shaking maracas ...) and a bit of Clint Boon's "Music Response" last night. He played some good local bands who have probably never been on the radio before but seemed to be plugging his night at South with dismaying frequency. I like the music they're playing so far - a decent mix of new and old, though some of the new veers a little toward the more anodyne side of indie. Ah well, it is commercial radio.

But old Tony must be a busy man these days. Saw this post reporting that the BBC are revamping GMR now that XFM is in town and have secured the services of one Anthony H. Wilson (Dude, have you ever noticed that he has the same middle initial as Jesus Christ? Do you think that's a coincidence?) Rockontop actually says:

Predictably, the BBC are bringing in Tony Wilson and Terry Christian as new presenters. Because there are no other broadcasters in Manchester. Indeed.

No new bloggers?

You know you haven't been blogging frequently enough when people call you and say "I noticed you haven't blogged for a long time, and I just want to make sure everything's okay." A well-deserved kick in the behind. And no, I haven't gotten lost in the mists on the West Pennine Moors or fallen down an old mine shaft, I've just been (sigh ...) kinda busy.

That being said, I would have done my traditional Friday welcome new Manc bloggers post, but there weren't any. Can it be that the flood of new Manchester-area blogs is slowing to a trickle? Surely not. So I'm putting out the call for fresh blood: send 'em in. Those urls. To me at themanchizzle at gmail dot com.

The Mancunian Agreement

The Manchester Council is working on a plan to have all city residents sign a citizenship contract. This reminds me of something a hardboiled old newspaperman I know would say when the local government did anything especially stupid: "You just can't make this shit up." He would love this. I read about it in the MEN on Friday:

The agreements would start as voluntary but over time would become part of formal contracts, covering things like tenancies and truancy - with penalties for those who break the terms. ... The draft version refers to the contracts as "The Mancunian Agreement", claiming the idea is to "support individual and collective self-esteem and mutual respect." ... People could be asked to pledge everything from being a good parent to avoiding dropping litter in the street to trying to live a healthy lifestyle.

Apparently the whole thing originated with a dubious sounding "consultation project". No word yet as to how much this pettifogging malarkey is going to cost us.

Spinneyhead has taken note. And Blood and Treasure definitely isn't having any part of it. Even Shuggy weighed in from up North. Stay tuned.

Inblognito

A couple of things have happened lately that have gotten me thinking about the murky relationship between our online personas and our real-life ones.

When I started out writing my blog, I went to great lengths to keep my blog anonymous, picking a codename and setting up a separate email address. I thought that writing under a nom de plume would free me to be completely honest without fear of personal or professional consequences. It'd protect me from internet nutters. And as a journalist, at least in the states, I could potentially find myself assigned to "objectively" write about a politician, controversial issue or organization. Having an online paper trail of my personal opinions could potentially make things difficult for myself and my paper if someone wanted to be a jerk.

But as time went on and I started meeting some of the people who read my blog, I gradually started using my real name. Introducing myself as Yankunian at a blog meet seemed, I don't know, kind of retarded and precious. Especially when I already knew some of the people there from other things. When I got professionally involved with a blogging project at the MLF, it was essential that my real name be linked to my blog - it was, effectively, my credential. And of course by linking to Norm's profile of me last week I kinda put the final nail in the anonymity coffin.

Some people really don't want to be unmasked. Even more than that, they don't want their anonymous blog pointed out to people even though it doesn't have their real name on it because they think people might be able to figure out it's them from what they're writing about. (whew!) Of course I respect a blogger's personal preferences, but a tiny part of me wonders why they don't get one of those old-fashioned diaries with a lock on it, hide it under their mattress and wear the key around their neck? Why write a blog on the internets, where it's out there for all to see, if you don't want people you know reading your stuff? Because if you're putting it out there, you should assume that someone you know is reading it.

I went by Southern Bird's anonymous blog today and I see that she stopped writing late last month. This is sad, because I liked her blog - it was engaging and she genuinely seemed to enjoy writing it. She explained in her last post that she was giving it up because an ex-boyfriend was, from what I gather, stalking her through her blog. SB alluded to problems she's had in the past with other ex-boyfriends and her blog, and in her comments several others write in with similar tales of woe. Her name isn't on her blog anywhere, but she presumably told her ex about it in happier days. Having an anonymous blog didn't protect her from this situation, because she made it non-anonymous herself, just by telling someone she completely trusted at the time.

What do people think about this? I'd be interested to hear how some of you came up with your own approach - full separation of online/offline identities, some overlap or completely straight-up, firstname lastname blogging? I suspect the Manchester blogroll includes all of the above.

Get on the bus

This week's lone addition to the Manchester blogroll is I Wanna Ride The Bus! by GM Traveller, a shadowy figure who started the blog that(s)he describes as "dedicated to my goings to and from work in Manchester, and maybe the usual something else in between."

As you'd expect, there's lots about particular bus journeys, and discussion of routes, including a lengthy exploration of why the new Shudehill bus station is so woefully underused. But there's also a nice post about the comparative merits of the different markets in the towns around Manchester. GM Traveller's inspirations include The Station Log Book, the musings of a stationmaster on the London Underground.

(Lovely bus image courtesy of the Manc Lomo godlings at Just Shoot)

Hey, I'm famous

I feel sort of embarassed tooting my own horn like this (blushing, looking uncomfortably at feet) but the Friday profile on Normblog this week is me. If you want to read it, go to The Normblog Profile 129: Kate Feld

Genie-us

We all know Manchester is a magical place in the springtime. Dan Flynn has had a fascinating encounter with a foul-mouthed genie in a pop bottle.

You can read all about it here


And Crinklybee has embarked on an exhaustive survey of our city's public telephone boxes to bring you The Crinklybee Award for Manchester's Most Splendid Public Telephone Box. It's a sort of swan song for him, as he just got his first mobile phone a couple of weeks ago. Jonathan, welcome to the wonderful world of being always - irritatingly - reachable. You'll never be on time again.

Blook who's talking

When is a book not a book? When it's a blook, apparently - to the uninitiated (which is, like, everyone, since someone just made this up), that's a blog that started life as a book, like Belle de Jour or Julie and Julia. Okay, I get the concept, but the cutesy name is kind of annoying. But apparently it's there because announcing "The Blooker Prize" was just too tempting a proposition for Lulu founder Bob Young.

Alert reader Conscious & Verbal pointed out this article in the Telegraph (via Bookseller):
The founders of the Booker Prize maintained a cautious silence yesterday after a rival organisation unveiled plans for an award with a startlingly similar name, the Blooker Prize, to reward books born on the world wide web...

Interesting stuff.... but I have to wonder whether the Booker's silence was actually a "cautious" one. It might have been a "completely disinterested" one or even, an "I'm sorry, were you saying something just then?" kind of silence.

51 with a bullet ...

Congratulations to our very own Mark Thwaite of the excellent Ready Steady Book. According to the Observer, he's the 51st most important person in British publishing. It's nice to see a literary blogger get some recognition in the mainstream lit media, even if he didn't make the top 50. Mark's name is first among "the ones who nearly made the list:"

Mark Thwaite, founder and editor of www.readysteadybook.com, the UK's largest independent literary website. A librarian by trade, Thwaite writes a regular blog attracting up to 3,000 visitors per day.

Now if we can just take out Mary-Kay Wilmers and David Godwin, he'll have it all wrapped up next time.

Open Music Archive

On Friday I met Eileen Simpson and Ben White, who are running the Open Music Archive project at one of my favourite vintage shops, My Goodniss on Thomas Street, run by the lovely Leyla Nazim. (It was a good day - I also got a delightful dress for a mere £14). Eileen just sent me some more info about their upcoming event at the shop:

On Saturday March 18 at My Goodniss there's going to be an evening of free music and films from the Open Music Archive, which collects and distributes content that has fallen out of copyright, and are thus free for anyone to use. From 6-8pm Eileen and Ben will perform a live DJ & laptop set and digitally project re-mixed 16mm film footage. You can expect to hear long-forgotten blues, folk and jazz tracks transferred from scratchy 78 shellac records - but the OMA folks also strip samples, beats, words and melodies from these tracks to produce brand new music that they license with Creative Commons ShareAlike licences. If you're coming, bring a memory stick or other device to take away the music or download after the event from www.openmusicarchive.org/mygoodniss

Blue period

Just want to point out the pioneering work being done by Mr. Pretzels and friends - since I last checked in they've pushed blue-tack art to even greater heights of innovation. Go here and watch their animated short films.

Last orders

When 24-hour licensing passed, I envisioned happy nights drinking leisurely cocktails, exiting bars and clubs at an hour more compatible with the cosmopolitan vibe one might expect from "the original modern city." I imagined, oh, I don't know, setting off home after a night out without having to fight my way through a drunken herd of yawping, half-naked souls all simultaneously trying to snag a taxi, eat a kebab, be sick, pick a fight and get off with some luckless stranger. Not that there's anything wrong with any of the above - it'd just be nice if everyone didn't get let out at the same (unreasonably early) time.

But official-type people fear change, and my 24-7 dreams have come to diddly-squat. So it was with great interest that I read in Manchester Online this morning that the first 24-hour drinking license has been granted to ... Cornerhouse. Apparently, the police have been opposing every application, no matter where, on the grounds that late opening will disturb residents, increase crime and generally bring about the eve of destruction. But the council approved Cornerhouse, of all places. Why?

A council spokesman said: "The Cornerhouse is one of Manchester's key cultural hubs and its 24-hour license is clearly linked to its function as a cinema and the many other events that are held there.
It is a well-run establishment which recognises that public safety is essential and is very clear about how crime and disorder and public nuisance will be
prevented."

Hmmm.... want me to translate that for ya?: "The Cornerhouse is frequented by a well-educated, affluent older clientele who like to watch movies with subtitles. These people know when to stop drinking and who are unlikely to do anything untoward in the wee hours that might make us regret this decision."

I like the Cornerhouse and go there lots, but something about this seems kind of classist and unfair to me. I can think of many other bars and clubs who would actually benefit a lot more from a 24-hour license. And what's the point of having 24-hour licensing if you're not going to use it? It'll be kinda funny though if word gets around about the late license and the C-house starts getting invaded by likkered-up riot boys looking for a late-night snootful.

Bebo? ...wasn't that a new wave band?

Since I know many of you here at The Manchizzle are big fans of MySpace and other social networking sites, you might want to read this story in The Guardian technology section today. I'm so un-cool I'd never even heard of the SN site they've focused on, Bebo, which is apparently all the rage with those young people. Sheesh, who can keep up?

Show and Tell Online

New blog fiesta. Ole!

We have a few additions to the jelly roll this week -- and two of them are American. I know, but really, it's not that we're secretly taking over, it's just that the few yanks who are here all seem to be blogging. Given the fact that blogging is much more widely established in the states, this makes perfect sense. (Or that's what we want you to think....)

The first is Plain Simple English, written by Buffy Holt, a resident of Cheshire, I believe, who is writing a novel. She's from West Virginia but doesn't intend to move back to the states anytime soon since she loves it here. You can read more about her and the book she's working on at her blog but be warned - absolutely no Buffy The Vampire Slayer jokes will be tolerated.

Dave Maass came over here from hot and dusty Phoenix to study visual anthropology, and is also a writer who's involved in Verberate (nice new site by the way) and other literary/film events around Manc. He also has the best surname-linked blog I've heard in a long time: His blog is called Maassive. Sweet, huh?

But if you don't have a name that can be cleverly worked into the title of your blog, you can always take a different tack and opt for a bold statement like the folks behind the group blog Manchester is Shit. While this blog won't be getting linkage from the Northwest Development Agency anytime soon, it does have some top pictures of and posts about graffiti and sundry other things.

Dave Maass also told me about another couple of Manchester blogs I'd missed:

The first, BrandosHat, is written by Steven Waling, a poet who teaches creative writing. The blog is a place for for discussion of all things related to poetry, religion, and life in general. His latest post considers the different influences that determine how a poet evolves -- interesting stuff.

And Changing Cycles is the work of Salfordian (?) Ben Mellor, a cyclist and performer who recently returned from a three-month bicycle trip around the country, an experience he will be turning into a live act on environmental themes during his current residency at Contact. Three months on a bike around Britain in the winter - damn! Bet there are some stories there ...

The Manolo he love the shoes

Normblog's Friday profiles are consistently interesting reads, but this week's choice is especially super fantastic. The Normblog Profile: Manolo the Shoeblogger

New blogs: Mr. Pretzels, Yer Mam

Blue-tack: It languishes in obscurity, balled into a sad lump collecting dust and odd bits of fluff in the desk drawer among stubby pencils and paperclips. But who knew that inside the heart of the blue-tack lurked the potential for a second life, a more artistic one? Mr. Pretzels, that's who. Please follow the link to see blue-tack -- and timewasting on the job -- elevated to heights of magnificence never before achieved. I think the works completed during the Victorian Easter Island period show special promise. And to think it all happened somewhere in South Manchester ...


James, author of Yer Mam, kindly wrote in to let me know that I had failed to list him on the roll. And, damn, but haven't we all been missing out on a whole heap of tasty music blogging, complete with mp3s, cover art and humorous pirate references. Anyone who's working their way through a personal top 300 singles 2000-2005 has my deepest respect. Please note that he blogs on MSN Spaces, not to be confused with the much-maligned myspace. (Not that anyone would be daft enough to mix them up just because they sounded similar, ho ho ho.)

UPDATED New Manchester blog column

I’ve mentioned the possibility that we might get a new Manchester listings magazine in this blog before, and, lo and behold, it has actually come to pass. I had inside knowledge, though: I’m now the literature editor of The Mix, a fortnightly mag that’s available from today in newsagents around the city centre for a mere £1.50.

The literature section in every issue will feature a column called Bloggerel, which will shine a spotlight on the sadly-overlooked work of Manchester bloggers. Each Bloggerel will feature an excerpt from a recent blog post, drawn from the sites on the Manc blogroll at right. This isn’t an original idea: I stole it from The Vermont alt-weekly Seven Days and The Guardian does it as well, though their column features blog posts related to big news stories. My hope is that it will make more people want to read blogs.

The inaugural bloggerel is Bar Fiction from Bournemouth Runner’s blog The Art of Fiction.

I was also taken with this funny post from Kitchentable, about a serendipitous experience at Fopp.

If you think you’ve written something that could be in the column, or want to point out a great post on someone else’s blog, feel free to email your bloggerel nominations to themanchizzle at gmail dot com. I’m looking for excerpts or whole posts that are 500 words or less (SEE UPDATE BELOW), are well written, can stand alone in the magazine and will be of interest to pretty much any reader. Because it’s the literature section there may be a slight bias towards literary or “writerly” posts, but it’s open to any topic.

I’ll get in touch with people if I’m putting their post forward (though, unless you have creative commons or explicit copyright protection on your blog, I don’t think I’m required to.) If you want to remain an anonymous blogger, that’s fine – I’m really just going to use blog names/urls, not author names. And please note that there’s no pay involved, except the glow of pleasure that comes with a surge of extra traffic.

UPDATED: Because of space limitations the Bloggerel column will now be limited to excerpts of 200 words. Eeek. Keep 'em short n' sweet, then.

Result: myspace CAN be a blog... but isn't always

Wow, look at all those comments ... while there was a fair amount of humorous slagging off in there, I think the result of the collective musings is this: If you're genuinely blogging, then who cares what platform you're using? You should be on the blogroll.

So that will be The Manchizzle's totally democratic policy henceforth. If you know of anyone in the general vicinity of Manc who's blogging on MSN Spaces, livejournal etc. or social networking thingies like myspace, or Friendster (can you blog on Friendster? Does anyone still use that?) send 'em my way.

myspace: a blog or not a blog? discuss

Most of my "creative" friends are scared of blogs. That might seem weird, but I think it's because they wrongly assume that they're too technologically challenging to run. But somehow, like, in the last five minutes, they've all acquired myspace sites.

Last week I was accosted by a woman I know in the hallway of my Nathan Barley-esque sometime offices on Lever Street. She said breezily, "Hey, what's your myspace, I'll send you an invite to the club night next month." My face fell. "I, um, I don't have one," I told her. She looked so disappointed. I felt, oddly, embarassed. Hoping to recover some sort of cred, I wrote the url for my blog on a scrap of paper. She looked at it as if it were a dirty word in a foreign language.

Then I went and looked at my friends' myspace sites. The template is terrible. It's ugly and it doesn't work right, but there they all were, getting hourly updates on their favourite bands' bowel movements and frantically messaging each other to say nothing much in particular. I don't feel so bad about not being on myspace, because I like blogger a whole lot better, but I think it's cool that the music industry seems to have adopted myspace as THE way to set up a band website on the cheap. And while a lot of the blogs on these sites are feeble, vestigial things, some of them are actually really cool.

So I ask you, Manchester bloggers: should myspace sites be considered blogs and listed in the Manc blogroll? What do you think? My comments box awaits your collective widsom.

Click here to download a video clip of Demetri Martin's very funny piss-take of the whole myspace thing on The Daily Show (courtesy EdTechUk. (The totally appropriate illustration comes from The Chalkboard Manifesto.)

The turn and glare

When did going to the movies stop being a hushed, magical experience where everyone gathered around the miracle of flickering images and become a free-for-all? In the last couple of years, I've noticed a staggering decline in decorum at the cinema. Perhaps I'm just noticing this now because I'm getting older and more curmudgeonly. So curmudgeonly, in fact, that I use phrases like 'a staggering decline of decorum', which makes me sound like my dentures are pinching. But I digress. The last few times I've gone to see a movie (on both sides of the Atlantic) I've encountered some appalling behavior.

There were the two pre-teen girls at 'The Producers' who shared a large tub of popcorn and whispered and giggled so loudly that we had to ask them to be quiet three times. There were the people behind us in '13' at Cornerhouse last night who talked at normal conversation pitch through the ads, trailers, credits and the first bit of the film. I like to watch the trailers, dammit. And don't get me started on the mobile-phone related disturbances. At some movie recently a phone rang loudly, and instead of shutting it off, the person answered it. I almost had a heart attack. Then there was the whole family texting happily away during 'King Kong.' Father and two are-they-really-old-enough-for-mobiles sons, faces bathed in the blue glow of their handsets, seemingly oblivious to the big ape. Why do these people go to movies?

Here's my strategy for dealing with bad behavior at movies:

1. The turn and glare

2. A second turn and a longer, more malevolent glare, perhaps with a raised eyebrow

3. Turn, glare and 'shhhh' meaningfully

4. The same again, but this time with hands raised in the international sign of "what gives?"

5. Getting verbal. This may actually require getting up and walking to another section of seats. "Excuse me, would you mind being more quiet/turning that off/doing that outside? We're trying to watch the film." This makes you feel like a prim librarian from central casting, but it usually works.

6. Another verbal entreaty, with the addition of either a. sarcastic comment or b. threats to fetch management and have them bodily removed. In cases of extreme annoyance, both.

7. Go to manager and demand free tickets (it's never actually come to this, but I would.)

You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many pageloads

Just wanted to pass on the link to this enormously interesting piece about bloggers in New York magazine (It's not from "New York Metro," that's just the way part of their online operation is branded - sorry, I know that's really pedantic, but it's confusing when NY Metro is cited as a news source by clueless bloggers. Who's a journalism geek?) Anyway, people who are interested in the social dynamics of blogging will want to read this. Blogs to Riches: The Haves and Have-Nots of the Blogging Boom.

Hey, look ... new blogs!

You may notice that I've sneakily added some new blogs to the Manchester blogroll:

Kate works in the arts and blogs a lot about film and such on If You're Sad and Like Beer... I believe the title is a reference to that whacked-out, perplexing and gorgeous Guy Maddin movie The Saddest Music in the World, pictured above. Kate hasn't been blogging very much lately but maybe if we all pester her, she will. Pester. Pester pester.

The Airport Diaries is a workblog apparently written by someone who works at Manchester International Airport. The author is listed only as "the airport exile." Interesting stuff.

Half Lived by Truman is a personal sort of blog written by a man who is living between the USA and the UK - A man I can definitely relate to. In his case, he divides his time between Texas and Manchester, which is an interesting combination of places (and one hell of a trip). Haven't I heard of a band around here with some members who lived in Manc and others based in Texas? Was it the Earlies? And then there was another musician from Texas who now lives in Manchester - I forget who. So what's the big Manchester-Texas connection?

The latter two blogs came courtesy of the links on Easy Update, the photoblog of Ms_Understud. Formerly of Manchester, now of Newcastle. Our loss.

What's on extra: Gig-a-licious

Truly the gig gods are smiling on Manchester this week. Isobel Campbell(photo above), the sweet-voiced singer late of Belle and Sebastian, has been getting a lot of press recently, mostly for Ballad of the Broken Seas, her unlikely collab with Queens of the Stone Age frontman Mark Lanegan. But she's going to be performing solo Tuesday at Night and Day, with Jenniferever and Superkings warming up. Her album, according to the Guardian, is chock full of “...warm, atmospheric songs... honey-coated whispers...lost in the slow-motion melodies...windswept lullabies....” (That's lot of ellipses, no? I just pulled that blurb off the N+D website, but it makes you wonder why they had to chop the quote up so much.) Anyway, it's gotta be better than sitting through a mediocre, overpriced meal in some joint that's decked out with pink doilies.

On Wednesday, Gothenburg, Sweden's homegrown hero, Jens Lekman plays the King's Arms in Salford, a beautiful old pub with good beer and a smallish performance space upstairs. Jens doesn't seem to have much of a profile around here, but he's getting a lot of rave reviews over in the states; here's the one that turned me onto him. I really dig his music - it's quirky, heartfelt pop - and you've got to respect a man who plays the ukelele. Bill Wells and Vinny Peculiar open. Details here.

If Lekman doesn't appeal, Brad Meldhau is playing the same night over at the Royal Northern College of Music (details here). He's an insanely gifted jazz pianist who delights in obliterating genre boundaries - his versions of some Radiohead songs will make your brain melt. And acoustics-wise, the RNCM is my favourite venue in town - the Magnetic Fields concert I saw here last year had perfect sound.



Friday brings the African Soul Rebels concert to Bridgewater Hall, with Amadou et Mariam, Souad Massi and Emmanuel Jal. I don't know much about the latter two acts - Jal is a rapper, and Massi is an Algerian singer - but Amadou et Mariam should be worth the price of admission alone. They're a blind Malian singing couple who make music that's haunting and funky at the same time. Their album Dimanche a Bamako was produced by the loopy musical genius Manu Chao, and was a massive hit in France.

Am I going to all these gigs? Hell no. But someone should.

Blog meet

The Manchester blog meet was a big hit - about 30 people were there, and everyone seemed to enjoy meeting the faces behind the blogs they read. Chern Jie, a very friendly Engineering student from Malaysia who I met there (and whose eponymous blog I have just added to the manc blogroll) has put up some pictures and a nice long description of the multi-stage event here. That's where the above pic comes from. Chris, Tom, Norm, Spinneyhead and Clare have posted about it as well. Hopefully this will be the first of a series of once-in-a-while blogger social outings. Kro was so busy and, often, loud - maybe next time we can do it in the quiet side room of some old fashioned pub. But I suppose that wouldn't have the wireless.

Weekend: green, zines

There is some pretty cool stuff going on this weekend, and seeing as I got such a positive response to my "what's on" post of last week, I thought I'd make it a regular weekly feature.

If you're coming to the blog meet and have an interest in homemade magazines, while you're in the 'hood you may also want to check out the Manchester Zine Fest, which is going on from high noon into the evening at The Basement, a collectively-run cafe/art/event space at 24 Lever Street. They're going to have workshops, speakers, a zine gallery and all sorts of treats for zine-lovers. (The picture above comes courtesy of Barnard College, home to many fine zines.)

I've been curious about Green Bohemia for a long time. It's a live music night at Greenroom with an appealingly eclectic list of performers. I see that tomorrow night is their second birthday party - the ideal time to check it out; Isobel Heyworth, Gideon Conn and The Shmatte Kid will be playing, with a whole bunch of other folks. Plus, it's free.

The bluest blog in town

Ladies and gentlemen, may I direct your attention to Bitter and Blue? If you're a Man City supporter you'll want to bookmark this blog, because it's all about the boys in baby blue. It's the work of Danny Pugsley, who says: while I do include a bit of news and match reports, I try to keep it more of an opinion based blog as there are many forum and fan sites for news stories etc.

This strategy seems to be paying off, since we see that an excerpt from Bitter and Blue was featured in Sunday's Observer. Well done!

I've actually had Bn'B on the blogroll for a long time, but have been holding off on introducing it until I could also find a Man United blog that was written by a fan based in Manchester. Curiously enough, I couldn't find one ...

Love rides again

Just noticed in Metro today that the Deansgate branch of Love Saves The Day, which has been shuttered since late 2005 due to financial problems, is to reopen on February 14. Yep ... Valentine's Day. The Oldham Street branch has been permanently closed, from what I've heard. Rats.

Flick: King Kong

I may be the last person in the country to have seen King Kong, but it was on its last week in the cinema and the consensus seemed to be that this was one you really had to see on the big screen. I was in the mood for a blockbuster that didn't require strenuous use of the brain, and that's just what we got. KK is perfectly good entertainment - light on character and plot, heavy on gobsmacking special effects.

My favourite parts of the movie were the beginning and the end, which were set in a gorgeous Depression-era New York. As soon as the boat approached Skull Island, the movie basically turned into a Jurassic Park/Indiana Jones style adventure with a triple helping of scary beasties and violent dismemberings: Dinosaurs, check. Big evil fanged bats, check. Tentacles-with-teeth, check. The one creature missing from this movie was the most important (and potentially fearsome) of all - the editor. Just because you can construct seventy-nine distinct species of disgusting overgrown insect-thing doesn't mean you should. I kept imagining Peter Jackson saying, "aww mate, let's just throw this one in, too. Go on."

blogs, meetings, blog meetings

The plotting continues ... Friday I met with Chris Gribble from the Manchester Literature Festival, Lord Rich (who kindly came all the way from Bradford) and Duncan of Stripy T-Shirt to talk about the Manchester bloggers project (Rich and Duncan set up Manchester blogbound - sign up if you haven't already) and we had a good chinwag about what the site might be like.

So far everyone seems to agree that a group Manchester blog linked to an aggregator is a good idea, as well as hooking up blogger posts about the same topic (i.e. linking up blogger reviews of the same movie or gig.) And, of course, a directory of Manchester bloggers grouped by category and locality. We'll be at the blog meet this Saturday, and will be interested to hear about what features/functionalities people would like to see on the site.

On Friday I also met up with Norman Geras of Normblog for tea and a nice chat about blogging, movies, New York and all sorts of things. Mancophiles will want to read the list of great quotations about our city that Norm recently posted about. It's oddly comforting to see that Manchester has been the butt of jokes for at least a couple of centuries.

Updated weekend: art galore, smithsco

What to do this weekend? For starters, the British Art Show 6 is in town, so seize the opportunity to gorge on contemporary art, it only comes around every five years. In particular, I thought the Whitworth Gallery and the Chinese Arts Centre both had a pretty impressive selection of works. Above image courtesy of The Telegraph, where you can see a gallery of images from the exhibition before it arrived in Manc.

And Friday is the monthly Smiths Disco at the Star and Garter, if howling lyrics to little-known Moz tunes in the company of sweaty former teenage misfits is your thing. Get there early...

In totally unrelated other news, it appears that XFM has finally announced a launch date for the Manchester station: March 15. Indie-heads rejoice.

Update: have removed refs to blog meet and zine fest because, erm, that's next weekend. Talk about getting ahead of oneself.

Manchester media gossip, part two

News comes of another contestant in the rush to fill the yawning cultural void left by City Life. We hear that The Mix, a fortnightly culture and listings magazine, is being planned for Manchester. The editor comes from Wideshut Magazine, which has been running some interesting collaborations with local arts organizations, most recently Castlefield Gallery. The publication is to be based in that cultural hub of Salford, Islington Mill. And see what I did there? ... I mentioned a mill without referencing trouble at t'mill, rubble at t'mill or even stubble at t'mill (though admittedly there is a lot of stubble at that particular mill - not exactly a clean-shaven bunch, those creative types.) Oversubscribed puns are the bane of a writer's existence.