October 2009

The Buzz Launch

October kick started with The Buzz launching their new magazine to a packed out Bijou. (I think it was packed, I spent most of the evening in the super fun photo booth). The dinky handbag sized magazine potentially could do very well, targeting fashion savvy women in Manchester. Let’s hope they get their distribution right, as so many Manchester magazines have tried and failed in recent years.

Beaver of Bolton

Beaver most definitely deserves its own post which will follow shortly. Suffice to say, we popped over to this hidden gem in Bolton and were amazed by the beautiful tweed tailoring. Gentleman hunting gear is definitely going to get even more popular over the coming seasons.

Show Me You’re Funny

Our favourite ‘find’ of the month. SMYF is a twice monthly comedy night held on Friday evenings in the Town Hall Tavern. An array of comedians try their stand up acts out in front of an intimate room of approx 30-40 people. Massively good fun, the night is free and you very much get the good, the bad and the ugly.

More details here – SMYF

Loft Party

"It was basically a rent party. Private: by invitation only. It was NOT a club - not a membership - none of that stuff. I made it very clear; this was an invitation and you made a contribution.” David Mancuso, The Loft, NYC

A stealth group of individuals in Mancunia are recreating a little bit of Mancuso magic. We went along, it was brilliant. Shame they’re not allowed more people in the venue, well strict H&S numbers. Want to go next time?... Find it for yourself, we had to cos it’s like a secret yeah, that’s what makes it cool. Peace and fucking. Keep it foolish. It's gonna be total fucking Mexico.

Home Grown: The Story of UK Hip Hop

At the Urbis October 2009 - March 2010
Check it out before they fill the place with football.

Park Inn Launch

Dave Haslam entertained guests at the launch of Manchester’s newest hotel with dad dancing and reggae versions of The Cure. Only joking.

More pictures and information on Manchester Confidential





Mrs Boons Tea Party

Fresh cakes, acoustic sets, free tea, and loads of small children running around. You never know who you’re going to be listening to at Mrs Boons Tea Party, but for a measly £3 you’re guaranteed a good afternoon out. Rumour has it Ian Brown is set to make an appearance. We ventured down when Franz Ferdinand played, video above.


Brennan Green – Cutloose Club

Once again another brilliant night was had at Cutloose Club with the tasty Brennan Green. Next up is Robert Johnson and RBMA resident Gerd Janson.

You can buy tickets online at cutlooseclub.com and also from the lovely people in Junk and Piccadilly Records. £5 in advance, more on the door. Be quick though, it's on tonight. Next month, we're super excited about the return of Mark E for festive frivolities at Cutloose.

Manchester Blog Awards

I went down to check what the Manchester Blog Awards were all about and unfortunately was rather dissappointed. Categories consist of Best City and Neighbourhood Blog, Best Personal Blog, Best New Blog, Best Writing Blog, Best Arts and Culture Blog, and Blog of the Year. All potentially good categories, unfortunately due to them being ruled by the Manchester Literature Festival there is a definite pattern to those considered. Where is the Best Political Blog Award? Business Blog Award? Food, Drink, Digital, Fashion, News, etc .etc. Blog Awards?? I would like to see more variation on who stands a chance, which in turn might create more diversity to attendees. There are so many interesting people out there talking about this great city from very different angles.

That said, we had a very entertaining night with Bloggerpalooza providing musical treats, which sadly largely fell on deaf ears. I’m not really into controversial ranty posts because there are too many good positive things to talk about out there, which is why I won’t delve any further into the Blog Awards or the closely comparable Social Media Cafe for that matter. Apart from to say please stop putting that rude remarkably unfunny host on the stage. *Note to smc_mcr: Brief your guest speakers. Don’t publicly hurry them to finish their presentations* FAIL

I got the wave this month so smc_mcr gets one last chance on the 1st of Dec as they’ll be discussing it there. (I’m determined to make Google Wave work for me and find some point to it.) You can join in the “fun” by adding your name here - #smc_mcr
Jimmy Choo for H&M

Warehouse Project is going strong this year with the majority of nights all selling out well in advance. A large majority of people I know in Manchester made it down for the ‘Curated by Friendly Fires’ evening, not that I saw any of them, it was so busy. I slinked off to dance with about 7 other people to Horse Meat Disco while the majority battled it out in the main room trying to catch a glimse of the Friendly Fires live set. Sadly I missed Prins Thomas because I had to go home and grab some sleep before Sample Sale the next day.

On the way home though I managed to stay standing long enough to grab this photo for the queue outside H&M for Jimmy Choo shoes... it was 4am. If you weren’t hard core enough to camp out for some yourself, I believe they’re all on ebay now.

Tickets for the remaining nights are available here -The Warehouse Project

#ElectrikWalkClub

I joined a gym in Manchester once. It cost me £40 a month and I drove to and from it. I was with them for about 6 months and went approximately 10 times over that duration. I’m not brilliant at maths but it doesn’t take a genius to realise what a pointless waste of money that was. I’ve learnt from my mistakes. I now recognize that motivation for me to exercise comes in the form of warm cosy friendly surroundings, real ale, sausage and mash, and tunes resonating from a one deck armchair.

Which is why I’m championing the #electrikwalkclub. What better way to end a brisk 6 mile walk than in the Camra Award winning Electrik Bar. Plan is every Sunday bring a load of people together with the power of twitter and walk from the Northern Quarter to Chorlton. Last Sunday the wonderful Eddy gave us full running commentary on the history of the industrial buildings along the canal. Healthy AND educational , GENIUS. To get onboard, follow @lukeunabomber

Christmas Lights and North Pole Bar

We were stood at a funny angle this year but here’s a pic of the fireworks from last year courtesy of @rebeccawho. Afterwards we all headed over to the new location North Pole Bar. We also popped along to the launch there this week, hot cocktails and skating. Dangerous combo if you ask me, but we’re loving the bar this year. Smaller and cosier with Strada catering drinkers with stone baked pizzas in under 10 minutes, I like the location better too.

North Pole Bar will be open 11am – 11pm daily, from 12th November 2009 until 3rd January 2010

New Flat

Lastly, at the beginning of the month I moved in to my new flat. I am now a homeowner. The first week I moved in I was instantly aware of how wonderfully peaceful and quiet it is compared to the last flat. There were squirrels and magpies every morning, all the neighbours came and said hello, I felt like I was moving into a Disney movie. All I needed was the wildlife to start talking to me and come inside to help me do my unpacking. Sadly, reality bites and I couldn’t tempt the squirrels inside to do my washing up. I do now feel a massive sense of achievement though by decorating the living room by myself, including the shiny “always believe in you soul” wall as featured above. Expect lots of wistful posts, drooling over homewares and furnishings I either can’t afford or don’t really need.


Twitter

Lots of other things happened and were attended this month but this post is ridiculously long now.

So finally the real excuse for my lack of posts... Twitter has fully consumed my life now. I no longer speak directly to people, instead I tweet at them from my crappy Blackberry (battery now lasts half a day) whilst they are stood right next to me. It’s clearly the future of communication. Whilst away from my computer or in areas of little or no signal, I experience withdrawal symptoms. It’s probably time for therapy.

On a serious note though, it’s well made life even more fun recently – and massively emptied my purse in the process, due to the influx in social excursions it has provided plus all the awesome new and old “real time” friends that I’ve met.

Big up to, and get following... @rebeccawho @evalicious @jonthebeef @richshaw @annab27 @timberrr @megrw @tristanpw @mrjamestaylor @mattsynthia @gusynthia @sam_haddadi @morninggorgeous @natalie_shaw247 @modernalarms @lukeunabomber @bekkilamb @kimchef @sapnarella @hallowsposters @deshannon @eddyrhead @matthetwat @littleryhsie @mark_webster @cosmicniles @cosmicbaggy @yermam @thecastlehotel @themarkaddy @northpolebar