Round-Up of the Blogs: Weather, Books, City, Gigs & Rolling Back the Time
- 27 Oct 06, 10:46 AM
The weekend is upon us and, although it looks like the unseasonably warm weather will continue for a bit longer, we're also likely to get some rain on Saturday.
If you find yourself stuck indoors, you could always cozy up with a book which I reckon is something that Keris Stainton, shortlisted in the Manchester Blog Awards, spends a lot of time doing. She's on a quest to review 52 books in a year, or at least that's what I gather from her blog (she's also addicted to America's Next Top Model if you prefer a bit of telly). Her most recent review, of Lani Diane Rich's The Comeback Kiss has been posted on the book review site, Trashionista, and says:
"I don't want to spoil it, but what I will tell you is that, like Lani's other novels, The Comeback Kiss is great fun with laugh out loud moments, romance and, um, good lovin' (I'm feeling coy today). Finn is gorgeous, Tessa is another strong female character (this author excels in strong female characters) and Babs is just fabulous, I love her. And I haven't even mentioned the talking dog. No, really. The Comeback Kiss is the perfect book to curl up with on a cold Autumn night."
Keris isn't the only local blogger who does books. Ready Steady Book, another blog shortlisted in the the recent Manchester Blog Awards, is a more weighty read. Take this excerpt of a short original piece on Walter Benjamin's Berlin Childhood:
"In beautiful, compact, stand-alone paragraphs, Benjamin becomes again the flaneur of his own bourgeois childhood. He finds a city in which he can lose himself. Losing oneself (as one does when reading) being the beginning of discovery (learning to get lost is a vertiginous skill). And writing, almost in fragments, he disturbs the teleology of autobiography. Today, perhaps more than ever, we need Benjamin's nuanced radicalism."
Speaking of radical, Bitter and Blue (yes, another blog on that shortlist), reckons radical changes might be afoot at City following their shambolic 0-4 loss against Wigan last week. Bitter and Blue, who posted a follow-up to comment on a statement made by City Chairman John Wardle, didn't - initially - think there was much possibility that management changes could come soon:
"One thing Wardle didn't touch on was Stuart Pearce - giving neither a vote of confidence or laying out what was expected of him for this season...For all the furore which was raised, and there were a lot of genuine questions raised about Pearce - namely his tactics and motivation abilities, I don't think the board at this stage are seriously considering making a managerial change - for above all alse there aren't any serious 'available' candidates out there (that we know of) who could come in and make a difference."
But now Bitter and Blue has changed his tune a bit, having spotted an article in the Independent suggesting that - well, you can go read for yourself - there might be someone available to take over the reigns as City afterall.
Man City takes on Middlesbrough at 8pm on Monday in Manchester which, coincidently, will probably seem like just 7pm to most of us because Sunday the clocks roll back an hour from British Summer Time (BST) to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
In a recent post, political blogger Skipper asks "Why in God's name Do We Insist on Putting the Clocks Back?". He cites research findings that, if we didn't put the clocks back, there would be a "net saving of 140 lives" as one of several reasons that Britain shouldn't put it's clocks backs. Why do we do it? Skipper blames the Scots:
"The case against reversing the measure is summed up in the two words: Scottish farmers. They would face much darker mornings as the sun would not rise until 10.0am."
If you'd rather roll back the years than one measly hour, Mancubist has spotted an ace video of Joy Division playing in an Altrincham pub back in 1979. Which, speaking of gigs, In The City 2006 kicks off this weekend and Mancubist has the low-down on what you shouldn't miss.
Manchester Blog Awards - On BBC 5 Live Tonight
- 23 Oct 06, 05:06 PM
Those of you who were at the Manchester Blog Awards a week ago today will have noticed that I spent much of the evening wandering around with a large microphone and minidisc recorder.
I recorded the entire awards ceremony, which featured readings from The 43, who went on to win Blog of the Year, and The Airport Exile. I also managed to spend a few minutes speaking with the winner of the Personal Blog category, A Free Man in Preston, Kate "Manchizzle" Feld who organised the event, Craig McGinty and a handful of others.
It's just been confirmed that a good ten to 15 minutes of that audio will be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live's Pods and Blogs tonight (technically it will be Tuesday morning) between 2-3am. Unless you're like me and find yourself blogging away into the wee hours, you'll probably want to use the listen again feature that let's you - as it says on the tin - listen to the program again anytime during the next week. You'll find the link at the top of the Pods and Blogs blog.
Update: the audio from pods and blogs is here. The blog awards section of the program appears between 12.19 - 22.00 and includes readings from The 43 and A Free Man in Preston as well as an interview with Manchizzle who organised the event.
At the Manchester Blog Awards
- 16 Oct 06, 07:07 PM
As advertised, we're at Urbis right now, waiting for the Manchester Blog Awards to kick off.
Manchizzle, who is standing behind me busily trying to deny that she organised tonight's event - something that seems to happen at most of the blog related events I get to these days - has explained on her blog that the awards kick off properly at 8pm and will be proceeded by music, which is on now, and poetry, which must be coming next.
As things get warmed up I'll return to this post...
20.05: The third perfomance poet, Conor Aylward, is still on but he admitted, at the start of his turn, that he's blogged his entire piece so I guess the overlap is forgiveable. Sadly, my mobile, which I'm using to access the internet, is nearly out of juice.
22.10: We're in the pub, which is where most good blog meets, at least in my experience, tend to end. I managed to record a podcast of the entire award ceremony, which included readings by Geoff who blogs about his travels on the 43 bus and the anonymous blogger behind The Airport Diaries, both of whom were nominated for the blog of the year award which Geoff won.
In the other categories, A Free Man in Preston, who also blogs anonymously, won best personal blog, and best arts and culture blog was won by Yer Mam!. Political blogging, recently the focus of another blogging event held at Urbis and much in the news, had it's own category, with Norman Geras's Normblog winning.
I did some audio interviews with the organiser of tonight's event and some of the winners which, with any luck, will be aired on BBC 5 Live's Pods and Blogs next week.
The 43 goes to Salford Quays
- 10 Oct 06, 10:34 AM
There's no hiding the fact that the BBC Manchester Blog has close ties with BBC Manchester's website and BBC Radio Manchester.
The bigger plan is that all of these - and hopefully TV too - will feed into each other sharing ideas, contacts and stories giving you direct access to the programme makers and them ears and eyes on the ground.
BBC Radio Manchester has already featured a number of Manchester bloggers including, yesterday, Geoff who writes 43.
We were down at Salford Quays with Studio 6 (on-air Monday to Friday 2-4pm - you can listen online if not in Manchester). Geoff came and spoke to me about 43 and his short listing for the Manchester Blog Awards and read out one of his postings as an example of what he writes.
Hopefully in return Geoff will get increased traffic and interest and encouragement to continue blogging Manchester.
Manchester Blog Awards: 16 October
- 9 Oct 06, 04:41 PM
The awards ceremony for the first ever Manchester Blog Awards will take place at Urbis next Monday (16 October) starting at 7pm.
The selection process, we're told, was difficult but there's now a shortlist of blogs vying for awards in each of the four categories: political, personal, arts and culture, and blog of the year.
The BBC Manchester Blog team will be there to cover the event for the BBC Manchester website and to record interviews for both BBC Radio Manchester and BBC 5 Live's Pods and Blogs.
More importantly, we're hoping to meet with people who are already creating, or want to create, great web content so we can discuss how we might be able to work together. To encourage you to walk over and introduce yourself, we'll be bringing a limited number of BBC t-shirts to hand out at the event. Do come say hello!
The event, organised by Manchizzle as part of the Manchester Literature Festival, is free, open to all and will be followed by drinks (the only thing you have to pay for) and live entertainment from Verberate. Andrew Wilshere at Newfred Rebooted created the blog awards logo above.
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