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you may turn over your paper and begin

 Exam is a project being co-ordinating by the Ultimate Holding Company as part of this year’s Queer Up North festival, and they are looking for volunteers to join their examination board. If you are interested in art and performance this is the perfect opportunity to participate in a unique interactive art project and piece of social research – focused on queer history and culture. The main event premiering to the public on the 23rd of May 2010. The board meets weekly on Wednesdays at a city centre art studio. For further information contact: Joe Richardson | E: joe@uhc.org.uk c/o jackhynes licensed under Creative Commons.

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happy new year… yes, again!

 14th of February, a day for lovers right? Think again as this year it also coincides with the first day of the Chinese New Year (which for astrology fans out there is the year of the tiger… grrr!) In Manchester you can join in the celebrations between 11am – 7pm in Chinatown as well as Albert Square. There will be a range of activities going on throughout the day including traditional dragon dance, Shaolin martial arts demostrations, street stalls all topped off with a firework display at 6pm. After all that excitement you’ll be in need of some nibbles so why not check out one of the following: Sweet Mandarin…

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rainy city cardboard kid

 Have you met the Cardboard Kid? Not sure if he’s any relative to the Milky Bar Kid or the Seldom Seen Kid but he certainly is Manchester’s coolest little dude. Cardboard Kid is the brain child of Manchester based freelance photographer and artist Gareth Hacking. This year Gareth is taking the Kid to the next level by blogging his exploits everyday in 2010. In addition to getting the word out there on Twitter and starting his very own Facebook fan club – it’s going to a busy old year for him. Cool eh? That’s why I was rather chuffed when the Cardboard Kid honoured the Rainy City and why he…

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down south

 Can you remember what it was like to be 15? Unfortunately I still can… and there is no way I want to go back there. Yet one Manchester institution this year is celebrating their 15th birthday (just without the homework, heartbreak and spots!) Amazingly in 2010 South nightclub are celebrating their 15th year of helping the good folk of Manchester get their groove thing on – somewhat a novelty in clubland. In order to mark the occasion South will be holding a number of special events throughout the year. The first of these is ‘South’s Got the Love’ especially for Valentines Day, on the 13th of February 2010. South will…

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a blog to remember

 As mentioned in earlier posts as part of the MA Social Media programme we have been undertaking community projects with organisations within Greater Manchester. In this case this has meant working closely with the St Ann’s Hospice in order to promote their major fundraising event of the year, the Manchester Midnight Walk. As part of this ongoing project we have started a blog to chronicle the run up to the event on the 2nd of July 2010. The platform chosen to do this is Posterous. This helps provide a simple and easy to use blogging platform, and a system that can be used to maintain the blog once our involvement…

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turn on, tune in and walk about

 Think you know Manchester? Think again? How many bells are in the peel of Manchester Town Hall? How much did it cost to covert the Manchester Central station into the Greater Manchester Exhibition & Events Centre (G-MEX) in the 1980’s? Who was Manchester’s first millionaire? Which building caused the President of Sony Computer Entertainment to send a letter of apology, which was published in the Manchester Evening News? You can find all the answers and much more by taking yourself on a Walk Talk Tours ‘Manchester Now & Then’ personal audio tour of the city. Listen to the dulcet tones of Jonathan Keeble as he guides you around the streets of…

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it’s all academic

 As some of you may know I am spending a lot of time at the moment with my head stuck inside journal papers and text books. But what else does academia in Manchester have to offer over the next month? University of Manchester – The University’s Manchester Museum will be celebrating Darwin’s 201st Birthday Bash with a party, special talks and in an ideal world jelly and ice cream *hint hint* University of Salford – The launch of LGBT History Month at the University of Salford sees the third in a series of public lectures taking place. Dr Eleanor Casella (University of Manchester) will be talking about the Ross Female Factory –…

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a blue monday for the world cup

 Today the English FA announced that there will be no official World Cup song for England this year. The focus is to be on the football… so not the WAGS this time around. Rumours have been circulating that Manchester’s New Order will be re-working ‘World in Motion’ (originally released for the Italia ’90 campaign) as the unofficial anthem  – minus the John Barnes rap one would hope! Then… as it’s the way my mind works… it got me thinking could other Manchester bands or artists release their songs in support of other major sporting events? So the results so far; What Took You So Long? – The Courteeners, The London Marathon Pounding –…

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a right royal mobile phone fail

 New Year, time for a new mobile phone or so I thought instead today I endured my own Carol Beer moment. Being the cautious type I have always mitigated the risk of huge mobile phone bills by sticking to pay as you go. However looking to upgrade my handset this time around I have decided to take the plunge and get hooked up to a contract – I must start to realise I am no longer in my improvised student days. My trip to the 02 store however was less than fruitful and all because of one address, two computer systems and two postcodes. The size of my apartment building means…

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