Cirque Du Burlesque at Cirque; Lost in Tokyo

The SatNav takes me to a side street on the outskirts of the city, somewhere near Harpurhey and Collyhurst- hardly bastions of public safety- where I find a side street and find my friend getting out of a taxi next to a new-build block of flats and a college. There's hardly any other buildings around. A shifty-looking guy with a heavy Manc accent asks us where Manchester is. We need to find this club quickly.

There's a pub up ahead with minimal signing and a doorman- it's the only place nearby likely to be accommodating a burlesque night. And it is! We have found Cirque.

We're welcomed into the reception area- which is caged off and reminds me of a sheriff's office in a western movie- and our names are checked off the guest list. We're led into the prohibition-style bar area where there are leather-clad seats available and a stage set up, with Nu-Jazz playing in the background and a steadily-building crowd of people.

The compare introduces the burlesque act.

The closest I've come to a night like this is The Birdcage in Manchester, but this was much more friendly, intimate and fun. The dancers were talented and had time for the guests, and the performances were spot on and close to the audience.

After this we hit new Northern Quarter bar Lost in Tokyo, a small but busy Japanese-themed bar with good looking clientele and impressive wall murals. Spoke to a 1980s Kim Basinger lookalike who had never heard of Kim Basinger. Well. How old did I feel. Also spotted a Peter Sutcliffe lookalike, so there was a range of appearances, shall we say. I didn't let him know who he reminded me of, just in case. People were very drunk by the end of the night. Nice place though. I'd go back.

I went to this night out with Manchester Cool Bars and Clubs, their first event since Silvia took over. More events to come- get involved!

Meeting Shola Ama

Last night Manchester's Milton Club held their monthly Soul Purpose live talent event, this time with RnB and Garage star Shola Ama.

She put in a superb performance, capturing the attention of the (mostly female) audience. Ms Ama looked great and made time for her fans, shaking hands during the singing and posing for selfies after coming off stage.

I managed to grab a quick selfie.

A fun night. I put the event on Manchester Social Group. There will be other Soul Purpose events appearing on the site in future- keep your eye on it!

Reading and Planking Record Breaker: Result!

I am planking at 5 minutes! It's like being 28 again- only I weigh more and I'm more bitter. Anyway. Superb news. I've been combining planking- holding your body weight on your forearms and toes, keeping your body straight like a plank- and reading for some months now. The most recent project was to break my record of 4 minutes 40 seconds.

I started on the 6^th January getting 2:17. I pushed it up a day at a time to a frustratingly-close 4:31 on the 25^th. Yesterday I managed 5:00 exactly. I've done it through eating chicken and pepper fajitas, tuna sandwiches, early nights, plenty of gym sessions and straight-up persistence.

The book: The Dreaming Void by Peter F Hamilton. I'm 300 pages in, towards the halfway point- it's fantastic so far. I think I'll be able to read it a little faster now that I'm not working out at the same time.

Pass it Around Again

Take a look at this group writing exercise about football. This, as mentioned, was an exercise produced by a team of writers who would write for one minute solid before passing the sheet on to the next writer for them to continue. There are as many sheets as there are writers so we all write at the same time.

What I have here, which group member Gail typed up, is another of these sheets which describes another version of the same theme. Gail's gone one step further than me and remembered which member wrote which section. Dedication!

Football

Garry: The game of football has been usurped by people with money. They have taken the game out of local communities by constantly building on pitches. Football is for all people, men and women. It is a social game.

Michael: Yes, for all people not that, Paul, all people should play football. You always say that you don’t like the game and would rather read a book, but what’s not liking it got to do with anything? Do you like having to go to school? No? But does that mean you don’t have to go? Well then, you should damned well play football

John Morris: “But sir, football is nothing more than twenty two men running around a wide expanse of grass space trying to put a ball into the other person’s net. Surely to God there are better ways to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Matt: “Wrong” said the teacher, “There’s 22, 11 per team, 23 with the ref, more with your substitutions”

“Sir, I’ve got to ask you” I took a breath. “You teach us basketball, rugby and rounders, when we see these other sports on television, we never see shirt pulling, fights, spitting and dirty tackles”.

Gail: “That’s because we want you to be gentlemen and not pigs or dogs” said Sid the trainer. 

“But we love a good punch up” said Sally, “Please sir, as its Christmas can we pretend that we are both pigs and men”

Oz: “Is that what you want then boys? To have a big old fight on the pitch?”

“The reason I’ve taught you rugby is that rugby is a real man’s game. Do you want to be girls?”

“OK then, I’ll give you all a pair of heels, a lipstick and a ball and see what you achieve in the next 90 minutes."

Prospective Mondays

I'm going to keep these posts concise from now on rather than hammer on about other people's events. There are a few things you should get involved with this week.

Friday night: RnB star Shola Ama will be performing in The Milton Club for their monthly Soul Purpose event. I'm taking a crowd from Manchester Social Group, starting in Sakana.

Saturday night: The first outing with Manchester Cool Bars and Clubs since it was saved from closure. This time we're starting in Cirque, on Queens Rd outside the city centre, and then heading into the Northern Quarter then heading into town for Lost in Tokyo, a new Northern Quarter bar with a Far East theme.

I'm really looking forward to it as the venues sound fantastic. Just need to figure out how to get there first! Five spots left at the time of writing. Take them!

Pass It Around: Second Subject

Last month I wrote about a group writing exercise in which we write for 2 minutes on a chosen subject and then pass the writing pad to the next writer for them to continue from where the previous writer left off.

Each person in the group would have their own pad of paper meaning 6 or so stories could be produced at the same time. I've tried to source copies of the other stories with no success so far. The last exercise was about football, which only one person cared about, hence each story devolved into a bitter diatribe about the sport as opposed to an actual story. This time our theme was New Year. Issues with the work: STILL nobody can read each other's handwriting, which means when you continue the story you don't totally know what has already been written. When you're writing to a 2-minute deadline, the temptation is to write as quickly as possible and legibility of writing will be the first thing to go out of the window. Here's what (I think) I've got on my pad:

Mike pulled up the Colornotes app on his Xperia and checked his remaining 2015 goals. Skydive he'd crossed off in June, something he'd not be doing again in a hurry. Of course he had the advantage over me that he knew what it was he'd crossed off, as he could read his own writing so he would be in a better position than me to tell you about it. However, he thought back to those glorious late spring days when he had at last got round to doing it. He remembered clearly, it was pissing it down with rain at the time, and his only objective was not to chicken out- and not to die. The moment on the edge of the plane door was the worst – the earth, vast below, nothing but air all around. The sense of vertigo was all but overhelming. Then a swift shove in the back from the instructor and he was out – on his own, falling.

And the parachute did not open. Whatever on the harness he pulled tugged twisted. He screamed buthis screams were lost in air. There was a lot of it. He looked down- the ground was still so far away.

What to do?

The wind was moving him sideways- not directly down. Was that good? He still He was dropping like a stone or moving sideways. He saw hills, the place he should be landing, but that was way to the right now- there was water.

-

So. That was the exercise, or what we managed of it. It's a tough task, largely because of handwriting- and we were all struggling with reading everyone's work. But this time we did a much better job of continuing the narrative and sticking to the story without going off on wild tangents.

It was my intention to source other versions of both the football story and the new year story, texts that we had contributed to as a group, so that I could upload them here and we could look at the differences and similarities. Still waiting for Writers Connect to email me!

Fittingly, today is National Handwriting Day in America. Parts of the UK have recognised it too- check out The Telegraph's very dubious handwriting quiz.

#tbt Oldham Carnival

Oldham Cyclists Touring Club (CTC) congregate at Oldham Carnival on Union Street, circa 1987. My mum is on the far left with the short dark hair. My sister (who's about 1 in this picture) is in the child seat on the back of her bike. I'm probably just off shot left of her (aged about 5), as is my dad. My parents were (and still are) CTC members.

As you can see, the carnival is in full swing with the excessive use of bunting (note the solitary strip hung from the dilapidated Bingo Social Club). You can actually see someone holding some balloons screen left of the bus. I found this picture buried in a box of my earliest school notebooks.

Were you at the carnival? Are you on this picture? Leave me a comment!