blog awards venue change

Newsflash: The Manchester Blog Awards will be happening at Matt and Phred's Jazz Club on Tib Street in the Northern Quarter. NOT at MOHO Live, which isn't done yet.

The good thing about the new venue is that, if you're so inclined, you can stay on and groove on some live jazz after the blog awards wrap up.

Same bat time: Wednesday, Oct. 10 at 7pm.

Random cool stuff

Sorry, I realize I've been all business lately at The Manchizzle. With the festival almost upon us, and the blogstory project going strong (chapter 4 is up now) there are so many important things I have to blog about.

So here are some things I don't have to blog about. They don't have anything to do with Manchester, but whatever.

This is weasel and ferret week at the Manchizzle. Why? They seem to keep popping up in conversation for some reason. And any discussion of ferrets always reminds me of Rudy Giuliani's insane ferret rant on the radio, during his time as NYC mayor. Anyone who thinks he might make a good president should listen to this.
Actually, everyone should listen to it.

As nutty as Rudy clearly is, I have to admit there is something distasteful about ferrets. I'm sure the pro-ferret brigade would set me straight. Sure, maybe ferrets get a bad rap, and bad press. But they also get lots of good press. In fact, there's a magazine called Ferrets, and they publish centerfolds every month that look like this:


I just thought you might enjoy that one.

I've gotten really into this web comic called Achewood. It describes itself as a cartoon of modern life as lived by a retarded otter, an alcoholic tiger, and two bears. But it's so much more than that, really. The characters also have their own blogs. You can read what Ray Smuckles, the thong-wearing, potty-mouthed cat has to say here.


I've also gotten really into this band called Vampire Weekend. They're from New York, and in addition to having a great name, they make amazingly catchy and smart afrobeat-inflected indie music. Kind of like if Jonathan Richman was in The Shins and they got knocked up by Orchestra Baobab. Yeah, I know that's a horrible description, that's why I'm not a music reviewer. Just go listen to them. If there's any justice in the world, they're going to be HUGE. And when I was putting the link to their site in, I just now saw that their first ever Eurotour stops at Manchester Academy Nov 8. With... wow. The Shins? Am I psychic or what.

Independents Day

I'm going to be taking part in a discussion about alternative publishing at the MLF's Independents' Day event, a one-day conference for non-mainstream publishers, editors, writers, readers and their ilk at the Lowry on Saturday 6th October, 11am – 7pm. So I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that MLF has just announced a special two-for-one deal on advance tickets (full prices are £8/6).

Here's all the wondrous details from festival HQ:

Independents Day is a great networking event for all budding writers, publishers and
fans of cutting-edge contemporary literature, with opportunities to:

MEET the editors of some of the UK's most innovative small presses and magazines,
including representatives of Comma, Route, Templar and Suitcase.

DISCOVER hot-off-the-press talent with performances by Elizabeth Baines, Ian Clayton,
Shamshad Khan, Janet McDermott, Chloe Poems, Jane Weir, Chris Woods
and contributors to Rain Dog (Pat Winslow), Match Box (James Davies & Alex
Middleton) and Libertine magazines.

CREATE your own publication in our DIY Workshop facilitated by 'zine queen Michelle
Green, yes SHE IS AWESOME - sorry, that was me interrupting the press release. I'll stop. (Please note there is a limited capacity for this workshop so please reserve a space at the time of booking).

GEN UP on imaginative and viable ways to publish and disseminate work in our
Alternative Publishing Seminar chaired by Ra Page. Speakers include Ian Daley
(Route), Kate Feld (Manchizzle and Manchester Blog Awards) and Paul Williams
(Lightning Source).

JOIN the Inpress Debate about the future of independent publishing, chaired by the
writer and critic, DJ Taylor. Speakers include Simon Thirsk (Bloodaxe) and Jeremy
Page (Frogmore Papers).

DISCUSS the role of MA writing courses in the nurturing of new writers and editors in our Out of School presentation featuring representatives of Transmission, Matter and
Textyle magazines.

BROWSE our Indie book market and sample the best in independent literature
production from around the region and beyond.

For further information please visit: www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk
To book tickets please tel: 0870 4280785 and quote 'Indie Day 241'.

(Provocative illustration courtesy of Being lady lucy.)

Blogging workshops at MDDA (UPDATED)

UPDATE: Gadzooks! These are now full, I'm told. There has been such a robust demand that I may try to organise some more blogging workshops after the festival. If you want a heads up about those, leave a comment with your email, or send me a message at themanchizzle at gmail. Sorry to those who missed out this time around.


Just wanted to say that there are still a couple of spaces left in the two blogging workshops we're running Saturday, Sept. 29.

Blogging for Writers will go over the basics of blogging as a tool to market your work, experiment with different styles and get projects off the ground. And have fun writing! It'll be led by myself and the amazing Elizabeth Baines (Tart of Fiction/Fictionbitch), an author who has made excellent use of blogging both professionally and creatively.

So You Wanna Be a Blogstar? is a general blogging workshop ideal for anyone setting up a blog, or anyone who has been blogging for a while but needs a little inspiration. It'll be from 2-4pm, and will be led by myself and the awesome Chris from Mancubist, which is shortlisted in the arts and culture category at this year's MBAs.

Both are just £2, and take place at MDDA headquarters on Portland Street. We will have computers available for those who need them, but the place has wireless so you can bring laptops if you like. Book here at the MLF site.

Manchester Blogstory chapter three

The third riveting chapter of our interactive Manchester blogstory, What Would You Do?, has just been posted. I have to say, I didn't see the story going this way at all, so it's a neat surprise. I also enjoyed Elizabeth's descriptions of stuff we see all the time around Manchester - the goths in Cathedral Gardens, the dancers performing in front of M&S, the crowds of drinkers outside Sinclair's Oyster bar. It's both unnerving and cool to see these familiar scenes become part of a fictional work. And I'm dying to know more about the mystery man! Go read it and vote already.

There was a major problem with the blog poll last week (and incidentally, why do blog poll tools suck so much?)Aaaanyway, we're back with the one that worked best, Blog Flux Polls, which has a very neat map function which shows where all the votes are coming from on a map of the world.

By the way, I added about a hundred new blogs to the Great Manc Blogroll late last week - okay, er, maybe it was only 12 or so. But I'm not going to have time to introduce them politely here, so y'all will just have to introduce yourselves.

2007 Manchester Blog Awards: Shortlist

Here's the shortlist for the 2007 Manchester Blog Awards - it's now with the other judges, Richard Fair of BBC Manchester and Dave Carter of MDDA.

Many thanks to everyone who nominated and was nominated; we had well over a hundred nominations this year, many of them very strong, and it was really difficult to choose. The winners will be announced October 10 at the awards event, so if you've been shortlisted you may want to reserve tickets and save the date. More details on that event as we get closer to the time.

The shortlists (in no particular order:)
Best writing on a blog:
Untitled Supermarket Nightmare/Day of Moustaches
Airport Diaries
A Free Man in Preston
Community Fair

Best political blog:
The Asparagus
Normblog
Politaholic
Skipper

Best personal blog:
Gooseania
Notebooks
Single Mother on the Verge
Crinklybee

Best arts and culture blog:
Fictionbitch (aka The Tart of Fiction)
Mancubist
The Ring Modulator
The Console (music and visual)

Best new blog:
The Shoe Project
Get Weird Turn Pro
Words Dept.
Renter Girl

Manchester blogstory chapter two

...has just been posted here. Please read this week's chapter and vote on what you think should happen next.

Now off to look at blogs, blogs and more blogs. The shortlist for the blog awards should be up in the next couple of days.

Act now!

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow is the deadline for submitting your picks for the 2007 Manchester Blog Awards. We've had more than 80 separate nominations, which is a scorching hot response! But if you haven't sent yours in yet, email 'em to mancblogawards AT googlemail.com by midnight tomorrow.

Also, while we're on the subject of deadlines, reader voting on what happens next in What Would You Do, our Manchester Blogstory, closes at 8pm tonight. Eeek! Tune in on Tuesday morning for the next installment.

What would you do?

Check it out... The first chapter of Manchester Blogstories went live this morning. The story is called "What Would You Do?" and starts out in a Chorlton apartment building. I'm really excited about the way its coming together.

I think I've posted about it before, but the idea behind this project was to set up an interactive fiction blog, set in real time Manchester. Every Tuesday for the next six weeks the writer Elizabeth Baines will be posting a new mini-chapter, and readers will have two days to vote on what should happen next. The final chapter will be performed live at the Manchester Blog Awards on Wednesday 10th October.

So please go read and vote! It is VERY short, and won't take long. The link is here:

http://manchesterblogstories.blogspot.com/

And check back next Tuesday...

Under construction

Here are some pictures from the New Islington Festival on Saturday:

Versifier Martin Stannage getting things started in the literature tent.


This is Seb Clarke bring the horns, while the security guy looks bored.


There were these two crazy performance artists dressed like medics, clowning and dancing all over the place.


I love how this one looks like an L.S. Lowry painting. You can see that the festival was basically a party on a muddy building site.


Before and after?

I had a good time, though I took a stupid route to the site and was menaced by a marauding band of scallies haunting the canal. Spent most of my time in the literature tent, where I heard David Barnett read his great short story "What Would Nite Owl Do?". It had been published in the sadly departed All Saints No Sinners but I missed it somehow. Anyway, I'm reading the amazing Watchmen for the first time right now, so it was weirdly serendipitous to hear a story that referenced those characters. I also admired the insanely cool cover for the Pulp Fiction-themed editon of Transmission which should be out soon.

Later I saw 2 Days in Paris at Cornerhouse, which really is funny despite often being a huge Woody Allen rip-off (or should I say tribute?) It has this great scene with a cat... I was actually howling with laughter.

Time Out Manchester... it's alive?!?

Missed this little piece on Time Out Manchester from way back in July on How Do. Not much information in it, but the folks in London are saying the project isn't dead, and the TOM website has been updated with a wee bit of content. So I'll certainly let you know if I hear anything more than this. But I suspect there are some among this blog's readers who actually do know something more than this. Ahem. Hello?

Incidentally, if you scroll down to the comments on that How-Do article there's a cringe-inducing catfight between two local media folk that makes for pretty funny reading.

New blogs: The shoegazer edition

A bunch of new additions to the Manchester blogroll:

The Shoe Project is Chris Shen's new site - he's taken down his multimedia blog Supashen and is focusing all his energies on this. The site features pictures of people's shoes with their handwritten notes about what they think their shoes say about them. You can download a form on the blog to make your shoes part of the project (see above.)

Manchester Dead Souls is about all kinds of things, lately Mancunian driving style and how it differs from the way people drive in France and Sheffield.

Rent Girl lives in Salford and writes about landlord and tenant issues, the perils of renting and her adventures in Dovecot Towers.

Lady Levenshulme is "all about things she likes and things she doesn’t like, things she’s done, places she’s been to, the neighbour who has stolen 3 of her wheelie bins, books she’s read and anything else that takes her fancy. And why Lady Levenshulme? Because she lives and works in Levenshulme and you wouldn’t believe the stuff that goes on there."

Wiggers World is Tom Wigley's personal blog, which features writing about various places, flora and fauna as well as some lovely pictures. Here's a cool post on the Hawthorn plant and its uses.

Single Mother on the Verge is the personal blog of a mother and writer in South Manchester who recently had a play in the Edinburgh Fringe.

A couple of new music blogs: hip young gunslinger "is a blog that 'deals with' pop music, electro music and indie music you can dance to. It is basically an 'indiepop electro' blog, whatever one of those is." Fucking Dance is Jamila Scott's "music blog from a bored girl."

And still with the music, here's a new one for the sidebar: Northernights is a pleasantly lo-fi clubbing site for Manchester whose mission is to "bring you independent and accurate nightclub listings with insider knowledge and recommendations from the people who really matter: the clubbers themselves. We won’t hound you with flashing ads and cheap hotels. This is a non-profit service predominantly for the creative and forward-thinking side of the city’s nightlife." It's been really difficult for me to find out what's on since ___(insert rant about Manchester STILL not having its own listings magazine here). This will help.

Weekend: New Islington, Mayflies

Remember last year's New Islington festival? Uh... I remember that there was one... something about a spurting man and a barge? This year its being billed as The Urban Folk Festival for Urban Folk. Urban as in Urban Splash, developers of that rebranded bit of Ancoats, geddit? Anyway, it's 2-8 pm around Old Mill Street, and it's free.

And the music is by (drumroll please) D.percussion, making a "secret return" after saying this year's fest was the last. Not sure this is a real selling point in Manc these days. The list of performers, spread over three stages, doesn't ring a lot of bells for me. Psychedelic outfit the Beep Seals, Magic Arm and a bunch of other local bands and DJs. Contrary to what the "urban folk festival" tagline leads you to expect, there are only a tiny handful of folk performers including Mancunian folkstress Kathryn Edwards. Would've been nice if they actually had given us an urban folk festival, instead of the usual teeth-grinding mix of Manc djs spinning the usual thumpy whatever. Basically, it's going to be D.Percussion with fairy cakes.

Fortunately, there's the indie-tastic Manchester Book Market, where you can meet some of those hardworking literary magazine editors and small press folks. There's readings from Anthony Joseph, Lemn Sissay (though he was a no-show last year) the brilliant flash-fiction writer David Gaffney, Tony Walsh, John Siddique, and a mess of poets and writers you may not necessarily have heard of before but you never know one or two of them might be pretty decent, all compered by Chloe Poems. There's also a series of specially commissioned shorts from local filmmakers.

There's also some twee activities involving vintage cakes, wellies and eek, pedalos on the canal. Yeah, that canal in the picture above. A lot of it sounds harmlessly annoying along the lines of Mr. Scruff's sodding tea tent. But then there's the nu rave sheep pen. "Graffiti artists will spray designs on live sheep while listening in the best in nu-rave club sounds." Oh sweet Jesus, that's wrong in eleven different ways at once.

At the same time, across town in Cornerhouse, Mayflies flits into town to bring us a day of arty hijinks. Between 11 and 5:30, artist BBB Johannes Deimling will perform Don't Hurt Me in the public spaces of the Cornerhouse building. His works often "provoke unconscious fears using an undercurrent of bizarre humour." Scary and funny? Sounds good. Up in the gallery they'll be screening Kleinodtotsod, a video work by John Bock that hints at the malevolent nature of domestic space. Then at 6 there's a screening of the Mayflies film programme, with works by George Barber, Deborah Bower, Wojciech Bruszewski, Michelle Handelman and Ben Rivers. (entry to the films is £3 and includes a drink, booking reccomended.)

Oh, and you can't get in if you've been within ten feet of the nu-rave sheep pen. They'll be checking.

Manchizzle in The Guardian

Holy cats! Today's Guardian Guide did a Blog Roll feature on Manchester, and here's what they had to say about this blog:

"The pick of Manchester culture and hub of blogging goodness."

Couldn't have said it better myself. Cheers, nameless Guardian writer.

Blog Roll also namechecked Mancubist, The Ring Modulator, I Shook My Head, Manchester Looks, Yer Mam!, and Chronicles of Joy Division.

Now off to enjoy the rest of the bank holiday weekend. They said it was supposed to be sunny, didn't they? THEY SAID IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SUNNY.

Happy Birthday to me

I'm astonished to tell you that today is The Manchizzle's second blogiversary. My first post, way back in 2005, was about how much I love pound shops mixed up with a story about a girl menacing me at Piccadilly Pound World. I had done some blogging before I moved to Manchester, but not much. For the most part I've had a great time doing this blog - it's brought me together with some people I'd never have met any other way, and I feel like it's helped me explore the city, settle in and make it my own.

It's interesting for me to see how the blog's focus has shifted and evolved over time. It's now a rather impersonal site about new blogs and upcoming events in Manchester. While this is pretty much what I intended to create, I feel like I might be changing things around a bit in the future. But not for a while. I am far too busy with blog awards stuff to even think about this now, not to mention social networking (snicker.)

Anyway, thanks for reading, all this time. Awww. Go out and buy yourselves a cupcake or something.

On holiday

Am busy eating maple creemees, swimming in the lake and reading comic books. Normal service will resume in a week or so.

More new blogs

Just like last year, the blog awards nominations are clueing me up to a whole mess of new bloggage. Plus I already had a backlog of new blogs to add on account of me being too busy offscreen to blog much lately (selling house, buying new one, family visiting, grousing about the weather, etc.) So here's the lastest additions to the blogroll:

Manchester DJ and writer Fat Roland has a blog where he talks about his life and music, chiefly electronica "from afx to yokota." And who says bloggers are all arrogant gobshites? His latest post starts out "I am a blithering hypocrite and you should pap me on the nose with the back of a spoon." You just have to read on after that opener, don't you?

On the other side of the musical spectrum is The Ring Modulator, which writer Adrian Stevenson describes as "musings about jazz, Manchester, and anything else that feels right at the time." He's just posted a recap of this year's Manchester Jazz Festival.

Mamucium has started a second blog called I Shook My Head (This is What Fell Out).

Tourista de Mancunia is a personal blog written by a Southerner living in Manchester.

Manchester Blog is concerned with Manchester news, parking, affairs and personalities, and it's open to submissions from Manchester bloggers.

New Ways of Seeing is a blog about digital photography, with lots of pictures as you'd expect. It's actually the Manchester Studio Digital Portrait Photography and Fine Art Pictorial. That's where the image above comes from.

Ear I Am is the personal blog of Nigel Hughes, who lives in Newton-Le-Willows and works in PR in Manchester.

Literary blog Pernickety Hat is the work of writer Viki Lane. It's the place where she posts her flash fiction, short stories, poems and novel extracts. You can also play with her adorable tiger. A blog with a pet? I like it.

Action Without Theory appears to be concerned with left politics and journalism, and it's written by Miles. "The first stop for rebels and renegades on the web."

Finally, Diary of a Bluestocking. "Being the recordings of the day to day ruminations of EP Niblock, Edwardian spinster, flaneuse, adventurer and intrepid explorer, an unfashionable anachronism constantly bewildered by her unexpected navigations into the contemporary post industrial landscape." Marvelous.

Clarification on eligibility for Manchester Blog Awards

After getting a raft of nominations in already from far and wide, I feel like I should clarify the issue of what a Manchester blog is.

The blog awards are meant to recognise great online writing in the Manchester area. In the past "the Manchester area" has been described as anywhere within reasonable commuting distance of the city. But with high speed rail and all that this area could conceivably cover most of England. So I'll clarify further: You're eligible if you live in a place where Manchester is considered the nearest big city. The place that you mean when you say "should we drive into town or take the train?" The place you go when you need to do school shopping, see a concert, or do something annoying involving government offices and forms in triplicate.

In other words, if you live much closer to another fairly big city (like Liverpool, Stoke, Nottingham, Leeds...) than you do to Manchester, you won't qualify unless you work in Manchester, or go to school there, and/or you blog mainly about the city. Yes, I know that's horribly unfair. But it would be great if some of these other places started their own blog awards, wouldn't it? Then bloggers could take over the world.

Manchester Blog Awards 2007: details

The nomination period is now open for the 2007 Manchester Blog Awards

Cash prizes will be awarded in five categories: political blog, personal blog, arts and culture blog, best new blog (open to blogs begun since September 1 of 2006) and a new category recognising the best creative writing on a blog.

To nominate blogs, send URLs for one entry in each category to mancblogawards at googlemail.com by Sept. 7. Please also specify where the blogger is based, if you know. I'll draw up a shortlist after the close of the nominating period, and the winners will be selected by a judging panel TBC.

(In order to qualify, writers of the blogs must live within reasonable commuting distance of Manchester. And yes, you can nominate your own blog. Respond in comments with the seventeen questions I haven't anticipated, and I'll do my best.)

Also, save the date, for the winners will be announced here:

Step away from the computer, it’s the MANCHESTER BLOG AWARDS 2007

Moho Live, Oldham Street
7pm Wednesday October 10, free

We’ve organised a star-studded gala affair in the brand new Moho Live venue on Oldham Street (it's the building that used to be a health club, between Sascha's Hotel and Affleck's Palace. Not open yet.) The evening will be a riotous celebration of new and engaging online writing, with readings from Manchester bloggers and music from the city’s mp3 bloggers.

We’re delighted to be able to host a reading from Caroline Smailes, whose debut novel, In Search of Adam, was recently published by Friday Fiction, the new fiction imprint from The Friday Project, the innovative publishing company that specialises in putting blogs in print. Caroline’s blog was hugely instrumental in getting her book published, and we’ll talk to her about that too.

Manchester writer and blogger Elizabeth Baines will be reading the final installment of her Blog Story, What would you do? a tale set in Manchester that she’ll be writing in six sequential posts on a blog – with readers voting on what turn the plot should take. To find out more about this project, visit manchesterblogstories.blogspot.com

Also, the Decemberists suck.

You're not going to believe it

Are you plagued by giant albino alligators in your sewer? Did you go to school with a guy whose cousin tried to drink coke while eating pop rocks and her stomach exploded? This is your lucky day. See below for details of a verrry interesting writing competition that's happening as part of this year's Manchester Literature Festival:

URBAN MYTHS RE-TOLD

Urbis and the Manchester Literature Festival are running a national call for submissions of micro fictions that tell or retell an urban myth.

The micro fiction or flash fiction genre forces writers to dispense with the excessive, superfluous and unnecessary elements to convey a succinct idea or story. This format is particularly suited to the Chinese-whisper characteristic of Urban Myths, where partial truths are laced with fantasy as they pass from teller to teller. We invite you to create your own version of what happens in the dark alleys and night clubs of cities and towns. You can use horror, science fiction or comedy to pack your punch.

You can submit up to five short fiction works of no longer than 250 words each on the theme of Urban Myths. Participants can be any age, and must live in the UK. Entries will be accepted in hard copy by mail only (see details below). All entries must be accompanied by a covering page which details the writer’s name, mobile phone number, email address and mailing address in order to be eligible.

The deadline for entries is Friday August 17th at 5pm. The submissions will then be judged by a literary panel including Katherine Beacon (BBC writersroom) and flash fiction author, David Gaffney, who will select the ten strongest entries.

Students from the Interactive Arts degree at MMU will then interpret the successful ten flash fiction pieces and use the work as inspiration for the creation of new artworks in various genres (i.e.film,photography, sculpture, performance). This will result in a promenade performance installation piece,featuring all of the successful selections of micro-stories as interpreted by the Interactive Arts students.

The event will take place at Urbis on October 11th at 6pm as part of the Manchester Literature Festival 2007. The audience will be led around the Urbis building as darkness falls…. and the Urban Myths are re-told again. The overall winner of the competition will receive a complimentary night for two, including dinner, bed & breakfast, in one of City Inn’s stylish contemporary hotels.

Please post to:

URBAN MYTHS PROJECT
Creative Programmes
Urbis
Cathedral Gardens
Manchester M4 3BG


It's true, man. It really happened. Seriously, I am not making this up.