Tag Archives: Manchester

At the back of the Loop gig

Sunday 21st May 2023, 7.50pm (day 4,287)

At the Loop gig, 21/5/23

Attended a gig for the first time in ages. A sign of how it has become, as I have aged: gig behaviour now is to arrive early and grab the seats (or in the case of the Deaf Institute, ‘seats’) at the back, out of the way but with a good view. The guy on the left is reading a book for heaven’s sake. But like me, perhaps he has been waiting some 32 years to see Loop play live. This is a band that last year, released their first studio album in 31 years, so they attract a patient crowd.

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Ballot bin

Friday 5th May 2023, 2.50pm (day 4,271)

Ballot bin, 5/5/23

These have appeared around Canal Street in Manchester, three or four of them with different choices inscribed on each — another reads “I’d rather have true love/megabucks”. This one lent itself best to documentation, however. I notice the ‘half empty’ optional seems to be winning, slightly. Although it always strikes me that the answer to this question in fact depends not on one’s innate optimism level but on whether the glass in question was currently being filled, or drained.

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Innocent enquiry

Friday 28th April 2023, 10.50am (day 4,264)

Communist inquiry, 28/4/23

Am I a Communist….? well, ‘from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs’ always sounded reasonable enough to me. On the other hand, gulags, no freedom of speech, etc. Maybe I should just follow Lila Zing on Spotify instead.

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Tulips and the Corn Exchange, Manchester

Tuesday 25th April 2023, 8.55am (day 4,261)

Tulips, Corn Exchange, 25/4/23

This was one of those shots where the crowning touch was not apparent until I uploaded it — namely the bees. They are not actual insects, of course, but drawn on the doors of the establishment (an ‘aparthotel’ I think) which lies behind these flowers.

Additionally, this looks like it will be the last shot taken with the Canon PowerShot SX740 camera I have been using since 18th August 2021. 20 months is not long for a camera to last, even with the daily usage that I give it: but it never really recovered from the St Helena Tarmac Incident of late January. It limped on for the next three months, and I am grateful for that, but a replacement was becoming urgent. If you’re interested in these things, today I picked up a Panasonic TZ95: let’s see how long that lasts. I think it will be the fifth (and certainly at least the fourth) camera to have supplied the artwork for this blog.

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Lilac, in Manchester

Thursday 13th April 2023, 8.50am (day 4,249)

Lilac, Manchester, 13/4/23

There are some signs of spring, at least. Whether these trees are actually one of the various species known as ‘lilac’ (genus Syringa) I know not for sure, but they certainly can lay claim to the colour. Behind them, the Town Hall gets on with its decade-long restoration.

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The Mellor Cross (and Manchester)

Friday 7th April 2023, 1.00pm (day 4,243)

Mellor Cross, 7/4/23

Seeing as today was Good Friday this seems an entirely appropriate post for the occasion, but I swear that until I came over a rise on Mellor Moor, above Marple, and saw this cross, I had no idea it was there — it wasn’t marked on the map. Apparently it was first erected in 1970. It has a good view of Manchester, you have to say. (Passed on my latest County Top walk — of which there are more pictures on the other blog…)

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The Victoria cake stall, Friday evening

Friday 31st March 2023, 6.10pm (day 4,236)

Victoria cake stalll, 31/3/23

To cake or not to cake, that is the question, at the end of not just a working week but a whole term — I’m on my Easter break. Unless the French air traffic controllers stymie the deal, the next few posts should come from a country that has not yet appeared on this blog.

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Lost flowers, sort of

Tuesday 28th March 2023, 8.25am (day 4,233)

Ceramic roses, 28/3/23

I despise litter, but sometimes there is, if not beauty, at least interest in it: frankly it’s amazing what gets chucked away. What these ceramic roses had been doing somewhere on or near Abingdon Street in Manchester, I have no idea, and whether they were broken first, then disposed of, or whether the breaking happened because they were chucked, who knows. Either way, call it my homage to the cover of the classic New Order albun, Power Corruption and Lies.

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In Affleck’s Palace

Friday 3rd March 2023, 3.30pm (day 4,208)

Affleck's objects, 3/3/23

The independent retail institution that is Affleck’s Palace in Manchester seems, thankfully, to have survived all that virus-related crap and remains the place to go if you want to buy just about anything that is a little off-beat (and see its previous appearance). There are dozens of stalls like this. I wasn’t in the place to pick up a gas mask, however, in case you were wondering.

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Peace, love, anarchy

Friday 24th February 2023, 9.45am (day 4,201)

Peace, love, anarchy, 24/2/23

I don’t know why I at first chose to point my camera at this wall (on Abingdon Street in Manchester). It was only after uploading the shot that I noticed the very evident face on the cigarette bin. Kind of spooky, in fact: an inanimate object with a secret inner life, if ever there was one.

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