Watching TV so you don’t have to!
Maysoon Shaladi was the second of the three new housemates to enter the Big Brother House. She seemed bright-ish for a housemate, and just, y’know, nice but Maysoon earned herself an instant booing from the crowd as she went into the BB house by claiming she’s a successful model who works full-time and gets paid for it.
So is Maysoon really a successful model or is she just another wannabe?
Continue reading ‘Big Brother 9: Maysoon Shaladi’
Robin recorded the entire awards ceremony, which featured readings from The 43, who went on to win Blog of the Year, and The Airport Exile. He also managed to spend a few minutes speaking to 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.
So I went down to Urbis for the Manchester Blog Awards. Sadly, there was no red carpet nor any chauffer driven limos outside although there were a few skateboarders and goths loitering with intent to… skateboard and use heavy black eyeliner. I arrived at about half past seven which was just in time to hear some poetry readings, part of the Manchester Literary festival. Oh Joy! One poem contained a line about being covered in shit and another about yanking out tampons which was very deep and meaningful, probably. Another poem was about a cat, I think. The cat, in question, may or may not have been a symbol for the futility of human existance or something. Mind you, I write about crap on the telly so what do I know.
There was a good sized audience including quite a few bloggers; Spinneyhead, Bitter and Blue, Skipper, Mancubist, Craig McGinty, Robin Hamman, Kitchentable, The Art of Fiction, The Tart of Fiction and, of course, the bloggers who had been nominated.
Anyway, the Blog Awards started out with 43 and The Airport Diaries reading selections from their blogs which were rather good. We’ve all been there, haven’t we? On the bus or surrounded by people that look like Anthony Hopkins. In the future, everybody will ride the bus for fifteen minutes whilst being Anthony Hopkins.
And the winners were announced:
Yer Mam! gave what was probably the best acceptance speech of all time, “Uhm, cheers”. Gwyneth Paltrow take note.
I’ve lived in Levenshulme for ages and hadn’t realised there was an Art Gallery just round the corner. It’s called Bankley Studios’ Gallery just off Chapel Street. They’re presenting selected work by studio members this week (14th to 22nd October) to celebrate their tenth anniversary. It’s worth a visit. More details here. The photo below is one of the pieces I liked, Morph contemplates the futility of human existence! Of course, it probably wasn’t called that but it should have been.
Here’s the shortlist for the Manchester 2006 blog awards. There are three shortlisted candidates for each category. They are, in no particular order:
Blog of the Year
Best Personal Blog
Best Arts and Culture Blog
Best Political Blog
There is more information over at Manchizzle. The winners will be announced on Monday, 16th, October at Urbis.
Update: The BBC Manchester blog team will also be attending the ceremony 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.
I decided to take a break from watching TV on Friday and went to the Installation de Feu event at Platt Fields in Fallowfield, Manchester. At the entrance, there was a sign that read “Fire is hot and may burn” which was … uhm … useful advice given the amount of naked flame there was at the event.
There were fire lanterns hung on tree branches and on ropes between trees, machines like little steam engines belching out fire, fire and water sculptures and most spectacular of all three huge globes decked out with even more fire lanterns. The great balls of fire were a bit wobbly according to Spinneyhead although I didn’t get close enough to find out.
There was a band there too who played avant jazz and looked a little like the Blues Brothers.
Everyone at the event seemed to have a camera or a camera phone but then I suppose fire is very photogenic.
Installation de Feu by Compagnie Carabosse (from France) is the final event in the Enchanted Evenings season by Streets Ahead who also organised Theater Titanick at the Castlefield arena earlier this year.
Installation de Feu is not a ‘show’ that you watch, more an ‘environment’ made up of thousands of pots of fire, formed into patterns and sculptures, like Christmas lights, Christmas tree decorations, sculptures and shapes. Every night the artists will stroll around lighting up different areas, working with water as well as fire, and playing music to lure you towards different areas of the park.
September 28 – 30, every evening from 7 – 11pm (last entrance 10pm) in Platt Fields park, Fallowfield, Manchester.
The blog awards nomination period has now officially opened. So send in those nominations for the best of Manchester’s blogs in the following four categories:
One set of nominations per person, please. And yes, you can nominate your own blog, or someone else’s. Only blogs written by someone who lives or works within reasonable commuting distance of Manchester are eligible.
Please email your nominations to: mancblogawards@googlemail.com
The nominating period closes on October 1.
For more information, visit Manchizzle.
There’s going to be a free festival this Saturday over in Ancoats New Islington. There will be music, arts, fireworks and Herbie the Treehead Dinosaur, apparently. Click here for more info.
Manchizzle is organising the First Manchester Blog Awards as part of the brand new Manchester Literature Festival.
So I’m here, at long last, to tell you all about the first annual Manchester Blog Awards. Why have Manchester blog awards? Well, simply because the city’s fast-growing collection of bloggers are doing some really great writing and photography, and it’s high time for them to get some recognition for it. The brand-new Manchester Literature Festival, which has the intersection of literature and technology as one of its main programming themes, is keen to encourage the city’s DIY online talent. MLF has agreed to support and host the awards, which we hope will become an annual event.
Erm … vote for me!
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