Popular culture
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Right, let’s get it over with. Oh no it isn’t and it’s behind you. I’m doing that for both my sake and yours, to remove any temptation to pepper the blog post with panto puns throughout, and so that we can get to the crux of the matter. Rumplestiltskin from The Big Tiny theatre company
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It’s been an emotional week. I don’t think I’m alone in having an unconditional love for animals, whereas my love or actual like for humans is (with exceptions) deeply conditional. Having had more trips to the vet that one would like this week (although an amazing vet – shout-out to MCR vets on The Quays),
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Where shall we start. I had a really lovely, enlightening, informative, heart-warming and entertaining afternoon last Friday in Stockport. Less a frequent flyer than I used to be, this was my first time at the impressive Stockroom, the shared community-focused space which offers up areas for reading, studying, meeting, coffee-drinking, eating, exhibitions and, that day,
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Right I’m going to hang myself out to dry here. But it’s for the greater good. I don’t know why, I don’t know how. But I missed IDEAL the first time around…. Johnny Vegas stars as Moz, Manchester’s longest serving weed dealer, in a dope opera of epic proportions. Starring some of the hit BBC
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It was really really really really really really good! That’s 6 reallys from a 5 year old. And in a world with much competing for little ones’ attention, that’s no mean feat. Get ready to sing, dance, and celebrate with your favourite CBeebies stars – the ultimate CBeebies House Party Live! is coming to Lowry, Salford… and you’re
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Diana, Princess of Wales, punctuates my memories on occasion. Sporadically, but meaningfully. Occasion 1 – one of my earliest memories is of a humble plastic flag. A Union Jack plastic little flag on a plastic white stick, provided to me in 1981 to fervently and obediently wave inside my childhood home. 2 and a few
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Love me a short film. So I was happy to receive an invite to the premiere screening of new short, held at Salford University at MediaCity. Know what else I love? Connect 4. The 14-minute comedy-drama, set in the traditional social clubs of the North West of England, joins young Connect 4 star “Frank” as
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I think if we were asked to write a list of our triggers, well apart from the very act being very triggering, I bet we wouldn’t automatically be able to put a comprehensive list together. The thing with triggers, is that we don’t always know what our personal ones are. Until they pop up and
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There was a point where I was attending film preview screenings on the regular. On one occasion, Sony brought out the big guns and took our phones off us until after the screening had finished, lest we use them for nefarious reasons. Last night wasn’t quite that extreme, but we were asked to put our
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Imagine me starting a blog post on a dark note. Well now you don’t have to. But when I lost my Dad, I had what was I’m sure a very common reaction to the life event and, indeed, my perspective on what we’re all doing here. What it’s all about and all that jazz. Part
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There’s something exceptionally special about stepping into the artist’s studio. In 2023, the exhibition, ‘From Moss Side to Marseille: The Art of Michael Brown and Eric Cantona’ launched at the National Football Museum. Whilst paying a visit, I was enthralled to discover that artist Michael Browne was in residence throughout, creating a new piece as
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Or Aviva Studios. But Factory International above all else. So I’m going to go in on this straight off, as I tried it out, once. Wizard of Oz and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. The gig is that there’s an incredible synchronicity in theme, tone, tempo and narrative if player out simultaneously. Completed
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I hope Nathaniel Hall won’t mind me adding in those brackets. But it’s quite integral to my blog post, because you see I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Toxic before. It premiered at HOME in the October of 2023, and I went, I saw, I felt and I duly did write. But when I was
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No shame, long-time lover of this classic piece here. That had potential for issues. I’m so in love with it, can I possibly see anyone else in the roles? Will it bring with it, an interpretation that I’m blind to the benefits of because I love the televised Play for Today 1977 version so terribly
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If something comes to under the banner of ‘winner of the Shelagh Delaney new writing award’, you know that it has to be something special. Rayla Clay (and the following day), written by Drayla Kasheen, and directed by Roni Ellis, is something special. I have to remind myself that this is new writing, which has
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I start off by by damning the very brilliant Manchester Film Festival. Damn you very brilliant Manchester Film Festival ,for opening your 11th edition with a feature that was guaranteed to leave me a blubbering mess, but that I knew I’d have to bear witness to as I’m ‘doing it for the blog’. See also
honorary manc 