New blogs: The calm before the storm edition

First of all: no, I haven't had my baby yet. You'll be the first to know. I promise. Apparently, a due date is not like an appointment that your kid knows about. And no, that is not my belly.

Since blogging could be tough for a while, I'm going to try to clear the decks of all the new blogs I've been saving up for, oh, ages. Too long, I know. Blogging is hard to squeeze in when you've been forbidden to sit too long at the computer (bad positioning for el fetus) and you're much too busy anyway scrubbing that mysteriously gummy corner of the kitchen counter that never bothered you before but now, for some reason, you must obliterate.

So what have we got today? First up is Manhattanchester, a personal blog written by Gregling, a NYC-loving Mancunian that features some graffiti art photos, cautionary stag do tales and thoughts about the rising cost of higher education. Greg also mentioned Overheard in Manchester as a fun place to play - I'd heard of the New York version but didn't realise we had our own one here.

Another personal blog: Middle Man, which is the sometimes irreverent ramblings and observations of a middle-aged, Midlands-born middle manager. Nice.

And another one: Gay/Thinking is the diary of a twentysomething gay student in Manchester.

Et in Ribbletonia Ego is a blog about the adventures of a new mother and pigeon racing hopeful who lives in Preston.

A new writerly blog: Extracts Von is Manchester-based writer Jack Burston's blog "collecting extracts, chapters and episodes from my writing as well as a few photographs etc. etc"

Shoplifters is a new mp3 blog from Manc DJs (Black Country) Grammar and Jon Claude, linked to their Bay Horse clubnight of the same name. It's basically all the latest remixes, for a limited time only.

Still on the music... Ugly Talented is a Manchester-based music blog written by Tom and Haydn. Nice eclectic mix of stuff on there, new and old both. And if you're in the mood for a total mindfuck, watch that Garfield and Odie do the Theme from Taxi clip they linked to. Whaaa?

The PR Media Blog is written by PR dude Mark Hanson, who recently returned to his native NW from the big smoke, and colleagues Toto Ellis and Michael Cooper. Some interesting posts on there concerned with the overlapping ground where PR, politics and media intersect, locally and globally (though Mark has questionable taste in US Presidential candidates. Hee hee.)

And a departure on the old blogroll: The Console, that ambitious and appealingly-designed dual pronged music and visual art blog, pulled the plug a couple of months ago. Sorry to see it go.

Also, as the literary types among ye may know, the blogs-to-books publisher The Friday Project has come a cropper. I'm not going to join the debate about whether their list was any good in the first place, whether blogs naturally make good books or not, or whether the whole idea was half baked/prescient but under-resourced, etc. etc., because other folks have already commented on this much more eloquently than I could hope to in my current state.

But I will say that local author and blogger Caroline Smailes (who spoke/read at last year's Manchester Blog Awards, you may remember) is one of the lucky few TFP authors whose books were picked up by HarperCollins, and so last year's In Search of Adam and her forthcoming Black Boxes are comparatively safe.

New blogs: The moany edition

Oh my god. I have been feverishly ill now for two weeks, and being ill is apparently much worse than normal when you're super pregnant. For one thing, your immune system is not so effective. I have drunk gallons of vitamin C drink, inhaled more steam than a sauna attendant and ingested such radioactive levels of antibiotics that I can curdle pots of bio-live yoghurt with a single glance. And for all that I feel a little better, but not much. In fact, I have to go lie down for a bit.

That's better, not so dizzy now. Okay. (Cough.) Sigh. So I guess I have some new blogs to tell you about.

Last year Susie started a pregnancy blog called Oscar or Isabelle. And then she had her baby and it turned out to be neither an Oscar nor an Isabelle, but a Milo. So she's unveiled a new wordpressy blog in which she will record her adventures with the new man in her life: Travels with my Baby.

Lovely Gill Moore, Manchester photographer and graduate of one of our blogging workshops, has started an excellent blog that features photos she admires as well as her own work, news and thoughts about photography, exhibitions and other random things. Scatterdrum: Ramblings from inside a photographer's head.

Andy Sewina has started posting a work-in-progress-novel blog, called "Space Invaders!"

Tom writes Book of the Future, which deals in technology, society and geekery. "Been going since November 2006 and though I haven't managed to keep up my intended blogging schedule over that time I'm still approaching my 90th post," he says.

Ian Hough is the author of a book called Perry Boys about Manc football and culture in the 70s and 80s. He also writes a blog called The Nameless Thing, at which you can read about his theory of The Four Quadrants of Manchester.*

"The 4 quadrants are sectors, regions in Greater Manchester County, which possess definite identity and character, fault-lines in the ancient crust of our city. Just as Paris’ arrondissements are arrayed as a gigantic snailshell, in a tight clockwise spiral around the central core, so are Manchester’s degrees of suchness concentrically packed, like jam roly-poly about its lively heart..."

(*Unless you're from Partington, in which case you should not read it. It'll just make you angry.)

Finally, Manchester socialite Miss Coco LaVerne has arrived to pretty up our general area of the blogosphere. In her own words, Coco is "an enigma, a spectacular incarnation of beauty and grace." Welcome Coco. Now I'm going back to bed.

New blogs: the dyspeptic edition

Three days later, I am still recovering from judging the North West Fine Food awards. Judging food awards seems like a great gig until you find yourself facing 19 varieties of sausages with additives at 9 o'clock in the morning, and then realise you have to eat steadily until 4:30. Eeek.

But there's no cause for indigestion to be found in this week's heaping plate of new blogs (do you see what I did there?) Which is good, cause my hoard of imported Tums is dwindling fast. First up we got Mini Manchester, which is a blog about kids' activities in the region by Manc journo and mum Ruth Allan. She's asking for like-minded parents to share news of interesting kid-friendly outings around the city.

Another new music blog: Just Press Play has lots of samples to taste.

nine chains to the moon is the blog of Sally, a Manchester writer, who uses it as a place to post a mix of fiction, poetry and random musings. She has this to say about it:

"It is weird that someone left a comment because it made me realise people other than my friends might read this blog. I wonder how anyone would find it. I am sorry to anyone who was excited by the title and thought it might be about geodesic domes or something. I feel peculiar when I imagine strangers reading it. When I think of it I get a kind of creeping shivery excited sick feeling. But that is the point isn't it? Is it very narcissistic to want to write a blog? I feel more vulnerable than gratified at the moment. But I think it will be good to Toughen Me Up and get some bits of writing that I do out into the open, and also gathered in one place where I can keep an eye on them."

I think that's a really apt summary of how many people feel about their blogs.

Does Christopher Walken like hotdogs? You can find out at manc dj and pubquizmeister Elliot Eastwick's new World Famous Blog.

And an interesting take on a personal blog is Cotton and Coal, subtitled "The adventures of a bachelor cotton trader, his friends, lovers and carrier pigeons in a Manchester steaming towards boom or bust." Writer Batson Bargreaves adapts events from his life into the voice of the narrative, which is decidedly old-school.

Eurekak, flacks and .... Aidan.

A few new blogs for you this week: The first is Eurekak!, a themed blog that collects moments of dodgy inspiration (that's one there, that picture). It might go like this: One night, in the throes of drunkenness, you have an idea and are immediately convinced it's genius. You frantically write a few key words on your arm with a ball-point pen, chuckling at your own ineffable brilliance, before passing out. In the cold light of day, however, your idea doesn't seem so brilliant. All you can do, really, is take a photograph of your arm and send it, along with the whole sordid tale, to the shadowy Dr. Whom, who will post it on his wall of shame and you can thenceforth pretend the whole thing never happened.

HackFlack is a blog about PR and media matters, written by Chris Marritt, a former hack (journo) who is now a flack (PR professional). I've always liked the word flack, and use it whenever I can, but people over here don't seem familiar with it. Flack! It's kind of fun to say.

Thirdly, Eye on Manchester is now Aidan.co.uk, which is similar in focus but with more of a portfolio setup. Several people emailed to tell me they saw the recent Guardian Tech section article about regional blogging which mentioned this blog and Aidan's. In case anyone missed it, you can read it here.

Welcome back, number 43

In among this week's crop of new blogs, some of you might recognise an old friend. The 43 was a beautifully written blog based on writer Geoff's musings while riding on the number 43 bus. It captured our hearts and won the blog of the year award at the first Manchester Blog Awards 2 years ago. And then, Geoff stopped writing. But now he's back with 40three, a brand new wordpress blog that's subtitled "Faith, Philosophy and Life:"

"It’s been nearly a year but I have finally decided to get back into the world of blogging! Some of you may remember my previous blogging adventure, from which this blog takes its name (to give the whole thing a pleasing sense of continuity) but not its theme. I doubt this present jaunt will be as sensitive, amusing, or fortunate in stumbling across a friendly award, but it may well satisfy my current appetite to write," he says.

Then there's a new blog called How do you do? which bills itself as "Lifestyle Guides for the 21st Century of Time." Jolly Roger has helpfully given us instructions on how to be a human - and, rather enterprisingly, is already flogging t-shirts and mugs with the blog's name on. Goodness. Upcoming topics include how to be a temp and how to be a gay... Oh, I can't wait to read that one. (via Manchester is Online, Sarah from the MEN's blog formerly known as The Mancunian Way.)
UPDATE: Have now read the promised post on how to be gay, and will be removing this blog from the blogroll and any links to it, as it's unbelievably offensive.

Also in the business of helping people - at least made up ones - is Dear Kitty... It's a fictional agony aunt column, updated every Friday.

Photoblog words fail has some nice snaps up. That's one of them up there. (Thanks to northernights for the tip. He has just posted an excellent round-up of Manc musicbloggers' Best of 2007 lists, btw.)

In the sports category, United Road is "concerned, as the name suggests, with Manchester United, primarily with the political and business stuff that swirls around off the pitch, rather than doings on it." Has an interesting post on there about XFM's commentary on Man U games, and the station in general.

Ambition and distraction

Here's a whole family-size tin's worth of new Manchester blogs for our blogroll. Tasty.

Manchester Libraries have entered the blogging action with The Manchester Lit List, full of news about readings and events, book groups and mini author profiles.

Another foodie blog! This one features the culinary adventures of GastroGrrl... restaurant reviews and meditations on food, cooking and eating.

Mel's Bog Blog is the blog of Manc artist Melanie Warner of the aformentioned Bog Standard Gallery.

Still on the artistic tip, Paw Quality Comics is the blog of comic artist Jim Medway. As you'd expect, lots of great illustrations as well as news about openings and workshops and discussions of the comic art.

Manchester Photography is a blog about photography and Manchester, from Mark Page. For Frock's Sake! is a blog about fashion and styling from Zo, a stylist based in the city.

Equine Obesity is not about fat horses. It's a personal blog written by Fathorse, a student who lives in the city.

Where's Wigan? is the personal blog of Robin, a New Yorker who recently moved to deepest Lancashire. God, can you imagine how crazy a transition that must be? Ho ho ho...Who is that girl? is another personal blog. The Thirsty Gargoyle is another personal blog, and at the moment it seems to be mostly about the work of Alan Moore, the best comic book writer to ever worship a snake-headed Roman sock puppet. Also possibly the best comic book writer ever.

As we giveth, so we taketh away: I am going to be doing a clear-out of blogs that haven't been updated in the last few months or have ceased to exist. If yours is removed but your new year's resolution is to blog more in 2008, just let me know and I'll put you back on the blogroll.

Scary new blogs

Boo! We have spine-tingling music blogs, a ghoulish food blog, and even a blood-curdling new home for Cheshire blogs. Yes, I know. I'm about to carve up a pumpkin with a big sharp knife, and am very excited about Halloween. Always loved Halloween. Dressing up and looking scary! Black nail polish! Bela Lugosi's Dead! It's the favorite holiday of lapsed goths the world over.

First up is Northernights, which is the blog that goes along with the Manchester-oriented clubbing and music site run by Manc journalist and diamond geezer Danny McFadden. Recent posts include a recap of the Ting Tings' recent single launch gig at Islington Mill, something I meant to get to but was overcome with inertia and lassitude. Now it's like I was there!

Danny was kind enough to send another music blog my way: Well plastic yeah?


I love it when people get organised. Liverpool Blogs is going strong, and now we have inspired another regional bloghub neighbour: The Deva Station is "A roll call of Cheshire blogs" started by Chester-based journalist Louise Bolotin. And now I'm curious: what is the Deva Station? Is it a secret place only people in Cheshire know about?

A new (mainly) political blog: The Obscurer, which is written by Quinn, who also sent word of Occupied Country, a photo blog by Steve from Oldham. Some really lovely shots of Manc on there.

And we have a new food blog again this week. Around the world in 80 dinners is Robert Hamilton eating in different city restaurants, complete with pictures - recent forays include Luso, Fatoosh and the excellent-sounding Jati. I'm always happy to find another independent restaurant blogger, since many of the local sites out there that cover Manc restaurants are also selling websites or ads, and it's hard to trust them not to be influenced by that. And anyone interested in food and restaurants should check out the UK messageboard on Chowhound - lots of good Manchester reccs on there if you search.

Attack of the new blogs

Now that the frenzy of the MLF and blog awards has dissipated, and I'm starting to claw my way back to something resembling normal life, here's a whole bunch of new blogs I've been meaning to add to the blogroll for some time:

Almost Witty is the "anecdotes of a reluctant thirty-something UK man in Manchester mildly obsessed by all things film, comedy, media, music, dating, the internet world and this thing we call life."


T'blog is the personal blog of a shadowy "Lancashire Lad."

Epicly Carnage is the personal photoblog of Gil Swerts.

Geekinetics is Fee Plumley's (formerly of Fee Fi Fo Fum) new blog about "evolving forms of theatricality & digital scenographies through internationally collaborative creative praxis." The word praxis sounds kind of scary, doesn't it?

The dictionary of Oscar Macsweeny is a Manchester-based fiction blog. Apparently no relation to Timothy McSweeney.

Secret Lunch is described by its author as "a manchester-
restaurant-review-spouse-abuse-rant-blog." Definitely the first one of those we've had.

Belinda Webb wrote in to say hello. She's a writer and Manchester native (now living in That London.) She says: "I have my first novel, A Clockwork Apple, due out in April 08 which is about a raging girl gang who traipse the streets of Manchester! It is, in part, hommage to that other Mancunian, Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange!" You can check our her blog here, in which she weighs in on the Amis/Eagleton cat fight.

I'm also adding a link to the MEN's stable of blogs. Many thanks to online editor Sarah Hartley for reminding me. She writes the "Life Through Food" blog which, since we now have two food and drink blogs, joins a shiny new category. Any more?

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.

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.

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.

Wednesday is art day

I've been terrible at the posting. Really, what kind of example am I to young bloggers? But I've been recovering from a week at Arvon's Science Fiction and Fantasy writing course (which I highly recommend) along with a bunch of lovely people including Graham Joyce and Liz Williams. Go buy their books! Though I've now let my alter-ego as an SF/Fantasy writer out of the bag. Shit. My alter ego has its own blog, and I may even start posting on it one day. Finishing novel more important, though.

To make amends for being a bad blogger I bring you some arty, Manchester-specific news:

This Friday there's a pretty cool gig at Greenroom. In connection with the launch of Castlefield Gallery's show To The Left of the Rising Sun, Iceland-based artist and composer Ben Frost performs work from his latest album. They say: "Influenced by the stark natural environment of his new home country and the contrasting abysmal winter darkness and endless summer light, Frost’s soundscape references the Baroque and the sublime and carries its audience into unexplored territories."

Next door same night, it's the opening of the Cornerhouse's ArtRadio project, which looks interesting.

There's a call for participants for a performance event as part of the Manchester International Festival. They say:

We are looking to find 90 people by Friday who are willing to share stories about someone who has vanished from their lives (either because of a relationship breakdown, death, relocation, paranormal disappearance, etc.) Artist Michael Mayhew will then use these stories as the basis for his performance piece. If you would like to share your story, please contact ag at michaelmayhew.com to book a slot on June 29th.

Also, Manchester-based artist Paul Harfleet has a great blog where he writes a lot about his practice, which I'm adding to the blogroll. Some of you may know him as one half of the duo behind Apartment, the artist-run exhibition space that happens to also be Paul's council tower block flat.

Fishing for new blogs

Holy cats! What rip-roaringly exciting new blogs I have for you this week.

I've been doing some more work looking at the juxtaposition of creative writing and blogs lately, so I was delighted to find that Manchester writer Chris Killen is writing a novel on his blog, a chapter a day. It's called untitled 'supermarket nightmare'. Go read it. It's ace. He's also running a competition which you should probably know about:

i am starting an untitled 'supermarket nightmare' competition. the competition is titled "write chapter 50". if you would like to enter the competition, please write chapter 50 and post it below as a comment. you have about thirty days or so to enter.
if anyone enters, i will choose the entry i like best and it will be chapter 50.
i don't think anyone will enter the competition.
if you enter the competition it might really fuck up the writing of this novel.
please enter the competition.

Also new to the blogroll is Mount St Helens weeps lava tears. It's the blog of Chadderton-based cartoonist John Allison, who is responsible for the comic Scary Go Round. (Um, how come nobody told me about that. It's really good and it's only been going for five years.)

John recently attended All Tomorrow's Parties and posted a review. Here's a bit:

SUNDAY
SLINT - alas I am making some macaroni at this point ?/10
MICAH P. HINSON - nothing a nice gargle wouldn't fix 7/10
BAT FOR LASHES - were playing crazy golf directly in front of me this morning 7.5/10
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI - it's 5! 7/10
BAND OF HORSES - best band of the weekend 9.5/10
MODEST MOUSE - v.good but Johnny Marr is not going to be in the band for very long because he obviously wants to be in charge 8/10
CAPRICORNS - I had to play darts on my mobile phone to take my mind off this mess 1/10
GRIZZLY BEAR - hippies 6.5/10
DO MAKE SAY THINK - I have never been more tired zzz/10

Sounds about right. Thanks to Sheshark of the newly-revitalised If You're Sad and Like Beer for the tip.

What's with the fish picture? Well, that's Sammy the Salmon. More info at the Mersey Basin Campaign.

New bloggage

I'm limping into Monday, recovering from a nasty virus that for the past week has made me very dizzy after ten minutes in front of the computer screen. Now I'm up to twenty minutes, so I'll hurriedly catch up with some new Manchester blogs:

Supashen is a multimedia extravaganza in the form of a blog; Sitemeister Chris Shen features content in music, video and text flavours, both self-made and externally sourced. That's one of his mind-bending screensavers above, entitled My Dreams Keep me Awake.

Still round the corner there may wait... is a blog from Megan, an Australian, twenty-something psychology graduate "living in Manchester, working in a hotel, wishing I could quit work and walk the earth (you know, like Caine in Kung Fu)."

My anger makes me a modern girl is written by a shadowy Mancunian female known only as notmarcie. It's a personal blog.

Tony Trehy is a curator and writer and the director of the always-intriguing Text Festival in Bury. The blog focuses mainly on art, his own work and what he's been up to.(Thanks to J for the tip).

New blogs to admire

I thought I was sooo clever inventing the word Yankunian to describe myself, but clearly the idea's not that original. Mancypino is the blog of an expat Filipino woman living in Manc. And My Little French Girl could definitely be described as a Frankunian. Photoblogger Anne-Laure describes herself as a "Frenchie dropped in Manchester."

James from Yer Mam! has suddenly turned into a multiblogger, thus ensuring that he has no free time whatsoever. His new blog is called No Flipping! and it's about telly.

Manc musicblog Get Weird Turn Pro has been in business for a couple of months. It's the work of Croft, who lately writes about Bjork and The Beasties and has made us a nice little mixtape with a song by Kool Moe Dee. Yeah, that's Mr. Moe Dee to you


The Asparagus is a new political blog I've been meaning to mention for a while, by Journalist Richard Jones, that specialises in foreign affairs.

M20 is a newish site from blogger Stuart Brown that covers life in South Manchester, with lots of lovely pictures.

Finally, mmm, pretty is a blog by Chloe, a graphic designer based in Manchester. She says it's "just a collection of visual things that make me happy. I originally started it for myself, but I have a modest amount of regulars now who aren't my friends."

Fresh blogs

Young bloggers rule. Here's one of the youngest I know of: David Wilkinson was born (in Manchester, of course) in 1994. He's also the force behind Techzi, a blog about all things technological that's very highly regarded; The Techzi feed has 199 subscribers.
David describes himself as an "internationally acclaimed weirdo, founder of Zi Media, and general nutter." You rock, David.

The Mersey Basin Campaign blog has moved here, and changed slightly in focus, writes blogmeister Kate. "It's a bit wider in scope - rather than just focusing on 'Mersey Basin Week', it's a blog for the whole campaign. Highlights at the moment are a thread following the progress of the book we are putting together about the River Mersey, and news about the project to redevelop the Radar Tower at Crosby."

Nik Fletcher is a student at RNCM and a bit of a technophile. He's also an observer of Mancunian life, who "noticed this week that yet another Sainsburys Local getting ready to open on March 8th under what is believed to be a hotel (IIRC) on Mosley Street just down from Picadilly. With 4 Sainsbury Locals already in the City Centre, all within easy walking distance of each other, I can't help but wonder who's letting these applications go through."

Red Rose Ramblings is the work of a 30-something Lancastrian - it's Steven, who also writes for the FC United blog MREnders. He has a funny account of just how eager a certain local newspaper seems to shift copies.

On the heels of the Salford Star, here's another community-media venture for you: The Old Trafford News, which comes with a blog called Old Trafford Views, written by editor Ally Fogg.

New blogs that run with the wolves

Don't pay any attention to my silliness. I'm just getting bored with writing "more new Manchester blogs" every week or so and have decided to mix it up a little. These blogs don't really run with the wolves... or do they?

Tin-men is the blog of a 21-year old computer nerd struggling his way through the last part of a degree in Manchester. His latest project is MSG - no, not the dodgy flavour enhancer but something called the Manchester Student Guide. Looks well studenty.

It's high time I added this link to MEN Online Editor Sarah Hartley's Life Through Food, by far the strongest and most consistent of the MEN blogs. I hear they're getting some new ones soon.

Warhead's blog is written by a self-styled Grumpy Old Man. It's also on Six Apart's VOX platform, which I haven't seen much of. Other new personal blogs include Julesy's World and Lewis Henshall's blog.

How did I miss Adele's Labour Blog? Cripes, it's nice to see a political blog written by a woman for a change. This is your spot online for anything relating to Labour politics in Manchester, nationally and even internationally, as one of her recent posts features butt-kicking orator Barack Obama.

Hooray, it's another Mancunian Live Journal community. This one is for activists.

And finally, two veteran Manchester bloggers, Skipper and Mantex, have teamed up for a new Heaton Moor community blog called On The Moor. Roy of Mantex writes: "It's a mix of local gossip, moans about the council, plus the nearest we can get to celebrity news (local writers in our case). And piccies of course." Sounds good.

(Wolf picture from Dance With Shadows. We seem to be doing an animal thing lately with the pictures. Yeah, I have no idea what that's all about.)

They just keep coming...

...those new Manchester blogs, ya know. Makes me think there's something to all this media bleating about how a new blog is created every .08 seconds. Anyway, here's this week's motley crew:

Timothy W. Stanley is a doctoral candidate at the University of Manchester. He doesn't write exclusively on his academic topic, but his well-written, lengthy posts often deal with the intersection of religion/ideology and popular culture - e.g. this post on the eschatology of Betty Suarez ( star of the curiously addictive new telenovela Ugly Betty.) His latest post is a thoughtful look at the very different ideas of justice in the UK and the USA.

All My Little Words is a blog about The Magnetic Fields, written by a Nick, another Australian living in Manc. Actually, to be precise, he says it's about "grammar, The Magnetic Fields and The Magnetic Fields inspired/related ideas." If you're not familar with Stephin Merritt and his amazing band of musical genius-oddballs, check them out. They performed the one of the best concerts I've seen in Manchester at RNCM a couple of years ago.

Funky Monkey Man is the personal blog of a Mancunian gent who writes mainly about his daily life.

Iconoplex is written by Paul Robinson, who's curious about the world, and wants to enlist readers in his quest to think more. He writes:
"Over the coming months, you'll be asked to contemplate, question, discuss and improve the World in various ways. This is a wonderful place, full of wonderful people, all the more remarkable for the fact we're just a few billion walking pieces of mud on a tiny speck of rock nearby a lovely warm star. The aim of this site is to help you enjoy it a little bit more by thinking." This week he's thinking about why we blog.

Random Thoughts is "just the standard type of blog," written by a Mancunian and cyclist who lives, I believe, in Glossop. Has a nice snow picture up, too.

Scrub-scrub says of her blog: "it's: All about me...well what I think/do on a daily basis! Im 17, live in Manchester and Im studying A levels at Sale Grammar. I've applied to medical school as I really want to study medicine but I doubt Ill be sucessful! the majority of this blog will probably be me moaning!"

Another week, another film-related blog. This one's intriguingly titled Ugly RED Source of all Evil, and it's written by a Scottish projectionist who lives in Manc. And he eats pie sandwiches - also known as "slappies." I thought they only did that in Wigan.

New photo blog fotofacade is the work of Andy Marshall, who is an architectural photographer. As you'd expect, some lovely photos of buildings on there. Walter Menzies is another photoblogger based in Chesire. His latest photo of Macclesfield is entitled "Where would we be without maggots?"... I've pasted it above.

And Forgotten Classics is a literary blog whose main contributor is JdG, a writer and academic who lives in the Northern Quarter. It's linked to the Time Out (London) column of the same name, which bears the slogan "reading neglected writers so you don't have to." He has recently featured Graham Greene's minor novel The Ministry of Fear and - yes - Julie Burchill's first novel, Ambition.

An avalanche of new blogs

Wow, there's like, soooo many blogs to add. Here we go.
Bend to Squares is the quite slick-looking blog of Vic, a copywriter and Australian in exile. It's basically a resource for cute art and crafty things, as well as fashion, photos and other covetable odds and ends... like the unsettling work of Marcel Dzama, which is the subject of her latest post.


StraightTalkingStreetTalkingSweet is a blog of pub poetry written by Danny Wise, aka Andy Sewina. It's not poetry about pubs, at least not mostly. "I call it Pub Poetry 'cos most of it was written after a few beers down the local watering hole." he also has a personal blog at Proper Joe's. And his partner Nicola has a blog called Raw Meat

ysr23 is subtitled "photos and that." It's the work of Thomas Mceldowney, who posts a photo a day. He's responsible for the image above - I'm sure Stretford has never looked so hauntingly beautiful.


Deltaflow is the personal blog of Julian Malik Seidenberg, a Manc student who's had a very interesting life. Really.

Elgey is currently traveling in Prague, where he is presumably drinking absinthe - if you scroll down a bit there are detailed instructions on how to correctly prepare "the green fairy." Never had absinthe myself, but always wanted to try it.


Mamucium is a personal blog - the name comes from the old Roman name for manchester, and there's quite a bit about the city's ancient history in the first post.

There's also another political blog: Politaholic, which has lately focused on close readings of and responses to political coverage in the newspapers.

Postcards from the Manchester Student Scene; That one's self-explanatory, I think. Same goes for Reel Review.

Thanks to the folks who emailed about new bloggage - Nick, Chris, Andy and the rest.