Never a dull moment
- 31 May 07, 02:54 PM
Die hard Manchester City fan Danny Pugsley must be wondering if he'll ever get a chance to have a break from his beloved club this summer. The season may be over, but fans are not being allowed to sleep as there seems to be a constant flow of uncertainty and speculation about the future ownership of the club.
Stick with it Danny! - Bitter and Blue
Meanwhile, never one to shy away from the attention, Boob Pencil's Clare Sudbery's signed up for an Internet version of Big Brother - Big Blogger. Expect strong language, community bathing and shameless attempts to influence the public vote.
I wish I’d gone to Chorlton
- 21 May 07, 03:07 PM
See that down there? That cavernous thing? It’s my naval and I’ve be contemplating it for a couple of days now wondering how on earth to fill in the time between the next two really big events in my diary - a strategy meeting I have in Derby on Thursday and a PTA meeting at school a fortnight later.
Transmission reports that “The Chorlton Arts Festival kicked off in style on Saturday with the fantastic Arts and Crafts Market - even the FA Cup Final didn’t keep the crowds away!“ Well after wasting an hour and a half of my life listening to John Motson saying the words ‘new Wembley’ two hundred and forty three times, I wish I’d gone to Chorlton.
So who’s blogging about the Chorlton Arts Festival then? There’s been a few advance postings – Why Did I Go Wrong, Ready Steady Blog and err, that’s about it. Even the Festival site itself doesn’t appear to have a Blog, which is a shame as legally I’m not allowed to link to them as this is only a blog about blogs. If I post about other stuff I'll get hauled up in front of the Head of BBC Blogs and forced to look after Motty over the summer.
Oh what the heck, I'll take him to Rhyl. There’s loads going on at the Chorlton Arts Festival for the rest of this week and to be honest I’m sick of the sight of my belly so the Chorlton Folk Club Canada Night looks like a great alternative. I was always led to believe that Chorlton was a hot bed of creative media types so can one of you blog about the Festival. Please.
Baby distraction
So I'm sat here trying to write while all around me women are talking about babies. Having them, about to have them, never having them. I politely suggested that they contact Keris Stainton who is thinking about setting up a parenting blog. The looks. I'll get my coat.
I'll put a hex on you
- 6 May 07, 02:56 PM
Look, it’s the Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend and I’m in work. Short straw? Upset the boss? No mates? Nope, none of those. It’s just that once every six weeks or so it comes round to being my go in the office and it just so happens that it’s my turn today, Bank Holiday or not.
So, I get a bit of extra time to gorge myself on Manchester Blogs (extra large latte to the right of me wine gums to the left – he I am stuck in the middle with you).
So what’s caught my eye? Stuart Brown’s Modern Life. “Modern Life is a blog about the web - development, design, search engines and statistics.”
Right. So what’s up first?
“Hexadecimal Colour Mnemonics” - “For a fortunate few, working with hexadecimal colours comes naturally - my experience stems from working with colour palettes whilst programming in BASIC some 15 years ago,” says Stuart.
OK perhaps you have to be interested in this kind of stuff. What about another posting then?
“5 Terrible Fonts You Shouldn't Use in Print Design” – “…Here are five examples which raise my typographical hackles.” Um. Actually, this is one of those subjects that does cause more trouble than it’s worth. I have been accused on more than one occasion of colluding with the Devil when using Comic Sans as my font of choice. (It’s OK, I’m a born-again Verdana now). And going by the amount of comments this particular posting has attracted, it would appear that it’s only a matter of time before talking fonts replaces discussions about the off-side rule in the drinking houses of Manchester.
Finally (I’m running out of latte here), one post on Modern Life that all Bloggers should read is Stuart’s “What's Wrong With My Blog?” - “Creating a blog is easy - but alas, building a readership is somewhat more difficult. So where do nascent bloggers most commonly go wrong?” he asks. Some great content follows with more tips and comment from dozens of readers. Stuart says, “If you have a decent amount of content in your archives, then new readers will be more inclined to stick around and subscribe to your feeds for future material.”
I’m going to top up the coffee now and have a dig around the Modern Life archives.
When an ASBO is a good thing
- 3 May 07, 04:45 PM
The incredible spring weather we've enjoyed up norf this week has definitely been enjoyed by one group – the city’s skaters. There’s a very active skateboarding scene in Manchester, and the SkateMCR blog has it covered. Their latest post shows that skaters definitely have a sense of humour about their often persecuted and misunderstood sport:
“The final competition in ASBO (April Skate Bonanza Ohyeah) was a great success! Over 100 skaters came down to the Projekts Mancunian Way Skatepark to enjoy the weather, the skating and the competition… Congratulations to the TWOmanchester shop team who walked away with the coveted ASBO Ashes Trophy after coming 1st in 3 of the 4 competitions throughout April.”
Sheshark has been enjoying the wildlife in Whalley Range, and has written a vivid description of the surprising animals who seem to peacefully coexist in her urban 'hood. Here’s a bit:
“I was washing up and saw the fox from the kitchen window. It seemed very long and pointy, as if it had been squashed into the wrong aspect ratio and sharpened like a pencil. It prowled first toward and then away from the opposite neighbour's yard…”
Enough already! Stephen Newton is sick and tired of hearing about Manchester’s Sabi Rock guy:
“He’s been featured in an American tourist guide, there’s a Google map tracking his movements and a Flickr group for pics, but sadly no sign of that elusive recording contract. It’s been fun looking out for Sabi Rock Man in the rush hours, but maybe it’s time to call it a day.”
And fashion/design blogger Vic at Bend to Squares is dismayed by the shopping scrum that surrounded the launch of the Kate Moss line this week at Topshop, and the sudden mania for designer plastic bags at Sainsbury’s:
“All of this fuss, the pushing and the sharp-elbowed shoving, makes me wonder if it’s really worth it. At the end of the day, they’re just clothes. In fact, they’re just cheaply made clothes that thousands of other women around the country will be wearing. Sure, they’re affordable clothes with the designer touch but I feel like all this hype does nothing but cheapen them.”
Indeed. It’s hard to believe that people would queue up outside a supermarket at dawn to buy a “statement-making” plastic shopping bag. Is it something in the water?
The Little Picture
- 1 May 07, 05:06 PM
It's often the case that a big story hits the headlines, only to disappear a day or two later leaving all the little stories untold.
Take the big fire in Manchester yesterday. Front page news online and in the papers. Then the morning after, as the smoke clears, and the real stories start to emerge, something else has captured the interest of the media.
The Manchizzle's Kate has posted this: "The fire spread to two nearby buildings which between them house many of the small creative industries in Manchester, 20 Dale Street and 24 Lever Street. I've been working in 24 Lever for years, and if there's any Manchester building I feel a sense of ownership about, this one - with its knackered elevator, East German loos, odd smells and odder people hanging about - is it."
Read the Manchizzle for more details and let us know about any one else blogging about the fires.
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