Blogging about blogging
- 28 Mar 07, 04:32 PM
What do bloggers love to write about more than anything else? Blogging. Yep, blogging about blogging. How meta can you get, right? And Mancunian bloggers are no different, so it's no surprise that a few of them wrote responses to suggesting that blogging is in decline.
Norman Geras of agrees that the blogging frenzy has lost a little of its momentum:
鈥淪ome of the earlier enthusiasm of both bloggers and readers of blogs seems to have cooled; several debates that occupied the political blogosphere have been gone over so many ways there's less life in them now, even if they haven't fully run their course; the very abundance of online comment may well discourage potential participants by suggesting that their voices are lost in the crowd.
, however, believes that online readers have developed higher standards for blogs, producing not a decline but an evolution, as less-than-fascinating sites are weeded out. He writes:
鈥淭oday, there is much more professionalisation of blogging 鈥 people earning their money through writing blogs. These sites attract large readerships and leave smaller, more personal sites looking inferior. People have got wise to what bad blogs are, and they don't read them any more. This isn't such a bad thing, I think. We have complex sites for ranking, indexing, and finding information, so there is less incentive to "surf" the net as we used to 鈥 we can go straight to information hubs and find what we're looking for much more easily now.鈥
鈥淚n other words, I suggest there has been a shift over the last ten years, that the blogosphere has established for itself a set of aesthetics, or a standard by which to judge the quality of content. Inevitably, this will result in the falling-away of a large number of bad and poorly maintained blogs (this one, one day, you may pray), but this is surely no bad thing.鈥
One area where blogging definitely seems to be in no danger of decline is among students 鈥 new student blogs seem to be cropping up in Manchester all the time. Want to read 鈥榚m? Blogger may be able to help:
鈥淎 couple of years ago I bought the domain name studentblogs.co.uk with the intent of creating a aggregator for Manchester students鈥he domain has sat there gathering dust, so I thought I鈥檇 finally put it to use and aggregate some of my friends blogs. An aggregator basically compiles the blog posts from loads of blogs into one pages, making it easier to keep up to date with what everybody is doing.鈥
Readers or Manchester student bloggers who want to be added should head to The current blogroll includes , , , .
Since I鈥檝e been called away to the states, James of has kindly picked up the slack in organizing the Manchester spring blogmeet. He鈥檚 calling for a gathering of the blogging clans at the Hare and Hounds on Shudehill at 3pm on Saturday April 7. As usual, all are welcome鈥 seasoned bloggers, novices and blog enthusiasts of all kinds.
Manchester City... Airport?
- 26 Mar 07, 11:13 AM
Aidan O鈥橰ourke's has been going since January 1997, making it one of, and possibly the, first blogs in Manchester. Aidan Eye On Manchester "provides an independent and dissenting view: opinionated but constructive, radical but apolitical, critical but idealistic."
The blog, which includes many original photos of Manchester, covers issues such as the demolition of an about which he writes, "The mills along the Ashton Canal formed a historic ensemble of building, unique in their own way and symbolic of the industrial greatness of Manchester... Will future generations look back and question why so much of Manchester鈥檚 heritage, which survived intact up to the year 2000, was allowed to disappear in the years that followed?"
What caught our attention this time was Barton Aerodrome's name is set to be changed to "City of Manchester Airport". Whilst, as Aidan points out, the airport is actually within the limites of the City of Salford rather than the City of Manchester, "there are good commercial reasons why an airport should be known by the conurbation it serves, not by one district of it."
We're guessing that won't mind the change - afterall, what other football club has a whole airport which shares it's name?! And speaking of Airport, if you're looking for the other one, you can catch up on what's been happening on the Airport Exile's .
It's a Small World
- 23 Mar 07, 03:49 PM
I was looking through the blog feeds today and stumbled across a post by Mancubist that made me have one of those "it's a really small world, isn't it?!" moments.
Mancubist had been to one of the development seminars, events that bring together people from all walks of the media world to discuss the changing shape of media in a more technology driven landscape. I made that line up by the way.
Speaking at this particular event was none other than my former 大象传媒 colleague, , who occupied my desk at the helm of the 大象传媒 blogs trial before me.
Anyway, if you are interested in this type of event but missed this particular one, Mancubist has distilled the day down to worth of good tips. See, reading blogs actually SAVES time...
Culture Vultures
- 23 Mar 07, 02:24 PM
In this week's look at the Mancunian blogosphere, it's all about culture - people who are blogging in order to tell us about the best things in arts, entertainment and the like.
Music Blogger has been pleasantly surprised by Nick Cave鈥檚 new project Grinderman, which he calls 鈥渁 simple reminder of the primal power of Rock and Roll.鈥
The album 鈥渂egins with Get It On (no, not the famous one) and Nick鈥檚 voice shouting down the cellar: 鈥榢ick those black dogs and baboons out鈥. And then it starts - a noise so distorted it could be either a guitar or organ but it is low down and dirty and that is all that matters鈥 These are not songs written by a man in his artistic solitude but instead music forged in the claustrophobia of a small studio when given some electric instruments and a few ideas to try out. This is a great album and the best thing Mr Nick Cave has done for many years. It has an immediacy and earthiness his other (often magnificent) work doesn鈥檛 have.鈥
has been watching documentaries this week, including This Film is Not Yet Rated, which she says is鈥
鈥滱 doc from 2006 about the weird ratings systems in the US. As well as showing lots of rude sex scenes that were rated a seemingly dreaded NC17 (that鈥檚 18 to UK folk) and scenes that were ultimately cut, this documentary also digs its way in to issues like 鈥榳ho has the right to decide the morals of others鈥, 鈥榳hy is female pleasure so offensive to watch鈥, 鈥榟ow come sex is much worse than violence鈥, and 鈥榳hat鈥檚 with all the prejudice against gay sex, when stuff like violence to women is ok?鈥
Though a little one-sided, this doc is amusing, enlightening and brings up plenty for debate. It鈥檚 rated 18 in the UK.鈥
Moving from the big screen to the small, is a new blog that covers telly, written by James of Yer Mam! He provides his own slightly schizophrenic preview of the week's programmes. For tomorrow, he recommends watching football. But if you鈥檙e not a sports fan鈥
"Well there's TV Burp (6.10pm, ITV1), which is still the most consistently funny show on TV. David Quantick really earns his money on that one. Also, The Arcade Fire, Rowan Atkinson and violinist, Maxim Venegrov are all on The Culture Show (7.10pm, 大象传媒2), though not all at the same time, I hope, Channel 4 are showing The Shawshank Redemption (9.25pm) for what seems like the millionth time (maybe this time we find out just how Tim Robbins managed to put that poster back up from inside the tunnel) and Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy For The Devil - a mesmerising yet didactic audio-visual collage of those turbulent late-60s, intercut with The Rolling Stones recording the title track in the studio - is on Sky Arts (10.25pm, Sky Channel 267), for those with their minds on higher things.
Finally on to the world of books鈥olouring books, of course. Author Claire Dudman writes on her blog of her latest obsession:
"The Human Brain Colouring Book - which is exactly as described. Every day I colour in a page and in the process learn how the brain works. The most surprising thing I've learnt so far is that along the neurons there are bud-like things called 'dendritic spines' and these buds are 'plastic' in that they can grow, change shape and size and probably (one thing I like about this science is there is so much that is not known for certain) disappear altogether. The spines allow communication between neurons and so this is the way we make connections and think."
A human brain colouring book... what will they think of next?
The meaning of life = 43
- 21 Mar 07, 11:41 AM
Geoff has had plenty of time on his hands (and mind) this week while he waits for the bus into Manchester.
He's been contemplating .
"Do you ever look around you at the city - at the cars and roads; at the houses and power cables and telephone lines; at the manhole covers and pelican crossings - and feel wonder for what humanity has managed to put together?"
So is the meaning of life to be found on the bus? You'll have to for yourself.
Funny Old Town
- 16 Mar 07, 04:02 PM
Sure, Manchester is a funny place in a lot of ways, but it鈥檚 also just funny; Everyone鈥檚 a comedian, and that famous Mancunian wit shines through nowhere better than online. So it should come as no surprise then that a group of Manchester Bloggers including and are contributing to a book showcasing the funniest writing from the British Blogosphere to raise money for comic relief.
'Shaggy Blog Stories- a collection of amusing tales from the UK Blogosphere' is out now. Jonathan from Crinklybee describes it thusly:
鈥淥ne hundred and one bite-sized treats from the cream of the blogosphere, including, in at number 34, one from these very pages. Which one? Well you will just have to buy the book to find out, won't you.鈥
MB of has a different view, however. In a post titled, 鈥淒o Not Buy This Book,鈥 he writes -
鈥淚 know what you鈥檙e thinking 鈥淭his is just jealousy and bitterness because you鈥檙e not in the book鈥. And you鈥檇 be right. I am upset and I am bitter. I am bitterer than the Manchester City supporting Berite Magoo the Bitter Blue. I am bitterer than 85% dark chocolate. I am bitterer than freshly squeezed lemon juice.鈥
Hmm鈥 okay, that鈥檚 pretty funny. So how come he鈥檚 not in the book?
In other news, blogger is unhappy about plans to demolish the Art Deco-ish Odeon building on Oxford Street and replace it with a steel-and-glass office building. (newsblogger Aidan O'Rourke has also published a piece about it on his Eye on Manchester site, written by Michael Savage. It's .)
For Matt, this plan would be one steel-and-glass office building too far, as he wrote last month:
鈥漃ersonally, I'd love this building to remain. One of the things that Manchester is known for is it's wonderful architecture; and whilst there's currently a good mix of older and more modern styles - the bias is probably swinging a bit too far to the more modern style than the public care for. And what's more, it all seems a lame attempt to compete with London.鈥
Sadly for Matt and other fans of the building who mounted a last-minute campaign to save it, the council officially approved the demolition plan this week.
Over in the suburbs, Mathematical blogger Craig Laughton of departed from his usual tales of academic life to do a spot of restaurant reviewing:
鈥淎nnie and I went to Yakisoba in Chorlton with some friends on Friday. It's a restaurant doing authentic-ish Japanese bento box meals. You get soup, pickles, prawn crackers, some fresh fruit and nuts in the box, and it comes with a choice of "main" and rice/noodles. The menu for the main dish is huge, in the end I narrowed my choices down to 17 and just plumped for garlic king prawns, but almost everything sounded great. Unusually large and varied selection for veggies too, and with a flask of hot sake to share it came to a tenner each! Amazing! No sushi, alas, but the food was delicious and we all had a great evening there.鈥
Sounds yummy.
Ickleweb Snaps a Big Bridge
- 15 Mar 07, 03:53 PM
A few years back I worked at Granada, just around the corner from . Although the walk to my then home took me up Castle Street nearly everyday, many months passed before I popped of the buildings to have a look at the Bridgewater Canal.
Manchester has all sorts of bridges - from the little one crossing the almost hidden River Irwell as it runs next to the Starbucks between the 大象传媒 and the Palace Hotel to soaring Viaducts, monuments to the Victorian railroad age.
Ickleweb stopped to photograph some of Castlefield's bridges and the results, which , are worth a gander.
More From You on RSS
- 9 Mar 07, 03:04 PM
No sooner had we about using RSS than we spotted, in there amongst our , some posts you've recently made about RSS. It nearly made us exclaim "Snap!" ;-)
Craig McGinty, a freelance journalist turned blogger, has tracked down some about RSS.
In on Modern Life is Rubbish, Stuart Brown provides "5 tips to help get subscribers, keep subscribers" including 1) offer full feeds rather than excerpts and 2) avoid amendments to feed items once they're posted. You'll have to click through to see the other three tips. Stuart's also recently done an interesting (well, we like it) to the websites of major newspapers and news organisations in the UK, including the 大象传媒.
Still no idea what we're on about? Don't worry, you aren't alone. Today I spotted on YouTube showing the results when people on the streets of Sutton, apparently the most average town in England, were asked "what's RSS?":
Happy Blogiversary to You
- 9 Mar 07, 02:53 PM
These days, everyone's jumping on the blogging bandwagon. But every once in a while you meet one of those grizzled veterans of the blogosphere who can curdle your blood with tales of tapping out posts long before the WYSIWYG interface was just a twinkle in some programmer's eye. Buffy of is one:
鈥淭oday marks my 9 year blogiversary. It started with geocities, a garden in Paris and a first-name-only basis. I practiced html, posted photos of myself and used it as a letter writing medium. I had just moved abroad and every penny mattered - I couldn鈥檛 splurge on airmail. It was cathartic and therapeutic and it helped me work through my homesickness.
Every now and then I find a page or two online somewhere. Cached on some random site. But for the most part it鈥檚 gone. Relegated to one of the hard drives I keep under my bed. Last night, I dug those babies out. It wasn鈥檛 literature. And it wasn鈥檛 creative. But it was me, before I got it in my head to become a writer鈥.鈥
Another blogging writer, Clare over at, has something to get off her chest (and it鈥檚 not a pencil):
鈥淭his has been bugging me for ages. It's the fault of the Typing-Everything-Out-Correctly Police and I would like them to please show up right here right now and EXPLAIN THEMSELVES.
So. OK. I want someone to explain to me what's wrong with LOL.
I often read things on t' internet that make me laugh out loud. And I want the writer to know this. But they can't hear me laugh, can't see me smile. So how do I tell them? Yeah, I could write it out in longhand, "that just made me laugh out loud" but why bother when there's a perfectly acceptable shorthand available?鈥
Meanwhile, could it be curtains for Man City鈥檚 punk rocking, straight-talking Stuart Pearce? Football blogger Danny Pugsley of parses the mood at City of Manchester for us:
鈥淚t is all but two years since Pearce first took on the job amidst the wave of optimism and clamour for his appointment (remember that?) and one thing he has always seemed to do is when the pressure begins to build on him is pull out a result to ease it off for a few more games.
However, it now seems that patience has run out and a small ripple of vocal displeasure could soon begin to build if the next month continues as recent weeks have done. With the number of fans and build up to the Cup game at Blackburn, I feel that there will be nothing but total support for Pearce and the team on Sunday. However, if we do go out of the Cup and things do not go well next Wednesday against Chelsea he may well be in for a rocky ride.鈥
Moving north, has just heard that Radio One is staging a Big Weekend in Preston in May. 鈥淚 suspect I鈥檓 on the wrong side of the perimeter fence that is Radio One鈥檚 target demographic, but the news has caused a frisson of excitement amongst Company X鈥檚 more youthful inmates.
Stella, my eighties style yuppie witch of a team leader, a woman for whom profile is everything, is pleased too. She鈥檚 always had a vague notion that somebody should, in some unspecified manner, be making more of an effort to put Preston on the map.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a perennially under achieving football team,鈥 she said, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 it. Most people will have no reason to have even heard of Preston.鈥
"You're right. Someone should be doing something," I agreed, before returning to gazing out of the window and drizzling yoghurt down my jumper.鈥
Feed Us To Join Us
- 8 Mar 07, 05:31 PM
At the recent 大象传媒 Manchester blogging workshop we explained that we had set up an RSS feed reader to make it easier for us to keep track of any new posts made by Manchester's bloggers. We reckon there's no harm in you seeing what we're reading so here's a link if you want to .
You don't really need to know what RSS is or how it works to participate in the project, but if you're interested in learning more this is a good starting point.
Do you think we should (or shouldn't) be watching your blog? If so, drop us an email: manchester.blog@bbc.co.uk
If you you should get an email from us in the next couple of days with some excerpts of the 大象传媒's Editorial Policies and our Producers Guidelines. To get a link from us all we ask is:
a) that you take a few minutes to read the guidelines
b) after reading those guidelines, you agree to let us know, preferrably before you hit the publish button, if you intend to or have broken those guidelines so that we can remove the link
c) we request that (although it's not mandatory) that you link back to us from your blogroll and, if possible, some or all of the other participants as well
That's it. In return we'll link to the front page of your Manchester based blog from our blogroll and, whenever we can, we'll highlight and link to the best of the content you post online.
If you don't see your name we're watching, send us an email with your url and a short description so we can have a look.
Around Town
- 2 Mar 07, 03:30 PM
experienced a spooky coincidence this week in Shudehill鈥檚 Paramount Books:
"Like other 2nd hand bookshops I've visited lately, the prices seem to have risen and the range gone down - the unintended consequences of internet selling, I guess. I bought two books, science fiction writer Bob Shaw's "A Wreath of Stars" and Stuart Home's "Tainted Love.鈥
Now what is the likelihood that I could pick up two books, of the many in the shop, which mentioned being 40 on the first page? Never mind that I'm going to be 40 on Sunday. Strange signs indeed - but I always knew that Shude Hill and its bookshops exuded magic鈥 "
bid farewell to a Manchester icon, of sorts.
鈥淲ith the rather ugly building that was home to the Dutch Pancake House on the corner of St. Peter鈥檚 Square cleared for redevelopment, a Manchester institution has bitten the dust. But few will miss it.鈥
鈥淭he Dutch Pancake House was almost a great success. Huge plates of savory pancakes followed by huge plates of sweet pancakes. But the decor seemed unchanged since the 1970s. The menu unimaginative. The giant plates were chipped. The service poor as could be. Some places survive best in affectionate memory.鈥
The music bit of group blogsite featured a post about Manchester band The Generalissimos, who the writer interviewed before a set at The Tiger Lounge:
鈥淥n stage the Generalissimos exude an infectious energy. They鈥檝e got a collection of raw, punky songs driven by rasping guitar and bass riffs that are coated with a pop sensibility鈥 There鈥檚 a more than a nod to the Pixies in their music, especially Tim鈥檚 vocals. You can pick out other musical references ranging from Supergrass to The Super Furry Animals, but what comes out is definitely their own raucous pop songs.鈥
And while was commuting through the country south of Manchester, he noticed some 鈥渕iserable looking sheep.鈥 What?
鈥淵ou know and I know sheep are not known for their personalities but these poor guys didn鈥檛 look like happy campers. It turns out there was no grass and so they were all standing around looking like lost sheep (sorry). Sheep eat grass and lots of it and here they all were with nothing to munch except what was in the trough. It was an unusual sight and I don鈥檛 think Ive seen sheep without grass before. Anyhoo, I thought I鈥檇 share it with you.鈥
You can go to his blog for a picture of said sheep and judge for yourself whether they truly look miserable. Maybe they鈥檙e just mildly annoyed. It鈥檚 hard to tell with sheep, isn鈥檛 it?鈥
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