Monday 14 October 2024

It’s For the Love of Horror Week

 


This weekend movie convention For the Love of Horror returns to Bowlers Exhibition Centre. This year, expect cast members from The Devil’s Rejects, Saw, Friday the 13th and Halloween. I’ll be meeting the cast of the original Evil Dead, and also Katherine from Silence of the Lambs, Brooke Smith. It’s going to be great. There are still tickets! 

If you’re looking for company at the event, I threw up a meetup on Manc Mates. I’m there Saturday. 

Also on Saturday: house music collective Dissociate run their night in Off the Square, tucked down the side of Stevenson Square in the Northern Quarter. Expect high energy beats and pulsing basslines. I’ve not been to one of these before, but I’ve attended other house music nights at the same venue. It’s a perfect little den for dirty house and tech.  

Manchester Nightlife is headed there this week, starting in nearby Pen and Pencil. Tickets are £6.50 but they will go up! 


 

Sunday 13 October 2024

Jam Packed Week

What a week. 

Tuesday: American TV studio AMC came to Oldham of all places to film Talamasca, based on an Ann Rice book (author of Interview with the Vampire). I had a look around the Mumps / Liquid and Envy area of Oldham. I wrote this up in this blog post and showed it to a few local news outlets; The Oldham Times picked it up, used my photos and credited me. That’s a win. 

Thursday: I got food in Cooper’s Yard with the family and met Bob the Skeleton from Wellnorth, a physio and wellbeing company.

 

Later that night the Aurora Borealis returned after being visible a month or so ago. I’d missed it that time, so when it was mentioned in a family WhatsApp chat I made sure I hauled my ass out of bed and drove up to Hartshead Pike, on a hill between Tameside and Oldham, to get away from the street lights. My parents were in on that chat and made the same decision as me, which was a surprise. Bucket List opportunity completed.

 

Friday night, Manchester Nightlife Meetup group went to Spinningfields. Or at least, we started there. 

I’ve mentioned this a few times: trying to get people on Meetup to come to Spinningfields is incredibly difficult. Not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t suit it. People on Meetup – massive generalisation here – just do not read instructions. I’ll explain the dress code clearly, but people will just not follow it. Then we’ll get turned away. We managed to get into Oast House and Alchemist, but Sexy Fish claimed to be at capacity. They obviously weren’t. I wanted to stay out there, but we were only going to have the same problem again in any other Spinningfields bar, so we tried Peaky Blinders instead. I was a bit reluctant, but it ended up being a decent night. I didn’t stay late.

Out with the family the next afternoon for a birthday meal. 

 

 

Ran another meetup that night, this time to Ashton on the outskirts of Greater Manchester. House music collective Hype Drive, ran by a good friend of mine, were set up in Chute Bar. One group member made it out. 

Brilliant music, good night introducing people to each other… but I was shattered. I forget I’m 42 sometimes. 

At least 2 meetups next week. Updates to come tomorrow.

Tuesday 8 October 2024

Talamasca Filming in Oldham

Netflix themselves descended on our humble town of Oldham this week – or AMC, at least, the studio behind Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Filming has begun for Talamasca, a fantasy series about a community of vampires and the people watching over them. 

My understanding is they’re filming inside nightclub Liquid and Envy. Perhaps the whole thing is set in the 90s, and they needed somewhere that hasn’t been updated in a few decades. Oldham is the perfect town! 

I had a scout around tonight after work.

Monday 7 October 2024

Filming in Oldham, Drinking in Manchester, Dancing in Ashton

Netflix Royalty will be dropping into our humble town of Oldham this week. 

Filming takes place for AMC+ (responsible for crime series Breaking Bad and zombie show The Walking Dead). Vigilamus Productions tell us ‘The series is called Talamasca and is part of Ann Rice’s Immortal universe, set in the same TV world as Interview with the Vampire and Mayfair Witches. The Talamasca are a secret society that monitors fantastical creatures like vampires, werewolves and the like.’ 

Vigilamus will be filming at Liquid / Envy nightclub, Tuesday 8th, 8am-8pm. ‘In order to transform it into a space ready for filming we will be preparing the club a couple of days before, as well as reinstating the venue after filming is completed.’ Wrap up looks like it’ll be complete by the end of Weds 9th. 

IMDb lists William Fitchner from Heat and Elizabeth McGovern from Once Upon a Time in America as cast members. That’s not to say they’ll be in the Manchester area, but who knows. I’ll stick my nose around after work and see what’s happening. 

Friday night: Join Manchester Nightlife in Spinningfields for a few cocktails. We're trying out a ferw bars that as of yet we haven't visited as a group. 

Saturday Night: house music collective Hype/Drive take over Chute bar in Ashton for a night of electronic beats. One of the people running it is a good friend of mine. If you want to meet new people and sample some house, Manchester Nightlife meetup group are heading there. It’s obviously off the beaten track out of the centre, but you’re still welcome. And I’m obviously drumming up a bit of support for a mate.

Sunday 6 October 2024

No, I Did Not Meet Danny DeVito

Last week of blowout before prepping for the annual Santa Dash in early December. Last bit of heavy weight training before focussing on endurance. Managed to get 6 reps on dumbbell shoulder press with 2x 28kg dumbbells.  

Mick Blue liked my insta comment – it seems he’s worked with Carlo Rota, who was chemist Benicio Fuentes in Breaking Bad. This was, if I’m reading right, on an episode of General Hospital on US TV channel ABC. Anyway, Mick liked my comment. Aviana Violet also liked a comment. 

Got pissed in the Northern Quarter with a couple of mates. Early doors. First Rewind then Tiki Hideaway, the latter of which had no internet coverage but some great 00s era hip hop. Finished early enough to get the bus back. 

Now the hard work begins.

Saturday 5 October 2024

Get Fit for the Santa Dash

Last night I had a well-earned few drinks in the Northern Quarter with a couple of mates. 

 

 

Steaming. 

Anyway, on Thursday night I was 80.6kg. I ballooned up to 81.2kg by this morning. Target weight: 72.2kg. Target date is 7th December, the date of the Santa Dash. 

A family tradition now, the Saddleworth Santa Dash is a 5km race through the hills of Saddleworth with an expected 2200 other Father Christmases, culminating in an afternoon of food and drinks stalls and a live DJ in Uppermill. 

 

Prior to that, film convention For the Love of Horror takes place 2 weeks away, and I’ll be getting photographed with a few cast members from certain horror movies. I’d quite like to not be fat as fuck on the pictures! 

How to do this: no junk food, limited bread, lots of porridge, tons of Aldi Super 6 soup, some occasional veg smoothies, some meals from recipes (I have a routine of cooking these on Saturdays) and tons of exercise, particularly running. 

9 weeks to lose 9 kilos. Shouldn’t be that difficult. Just, again, avoiding junk food cravings is the biggest challenge.

Thursday 3 October 2024

Meeting Peter F Hamilton Again! Part 2

See Part 1 of the event

The roaming mic goes out into the audience for some questions. 

AUDIENCE QUESTION: Exodus was a collaboration. Were you about to work on something else? 

PETER F HAMILTON: I have about 4 or 5 ideas, and I left things hanging. I have made plans to stop writing. 

AQ: Would you write Exodus differently? 

PFH: No, this is where I wanted it to be. If I changed earlier work, I’d change the style. I’d put it in a drawer, and come back in 2 years. In reality, you can’t do that. 

COMPARE DAVID BRENT: An editor just fainted somewhere. 

PFH: These days I take a take a little bit more attention to what others understand, and how I describe it. 

An audience member asks about the fact that Exodus is a duology. 

PFH: I’m writing number 2, and the game will have more stories. But I know how Exodus ends. 

DB: Is it a collaborative process? 

PFH: Writing the book wasn’t collaborative; with books I know what fits into the universe. 

It transpires that Hamilton has already collaborated with Netflix. One of his short stories, Sonnie’s Edge, was adapted into a short animated film of the same name and was included in the first anthology of SF series Love, Death and Robots, which I saw. 

DB: People are now making more SF TV shows. Which of yours would you like to see on the big screen? 

PFH: Game of Thrones (originally written by George RR Martin) changed things. I think (2004 novel) Pandora’s Star would make good TV. I say if it’s gotta be done, get a professional screenwriter to write it. 

AQ: Have you played the computer game? 

PFH: Absolutely. I’m not a big gamer, but I’ve seen scenes. The great thing about the book is I get so much amazing artwork of something I described before I’ve even finished writing it. 

An audience question asks about which books got him into SF writing. 

PFH: I thought, some kids’ books are not good. I could do better. (James Bond author) Ian Fleming was once in hospital, and asked the kids there what they liked. They said, Beatrix Potter. Ian hated it, and then went and wrote (the original novel) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 

AQ: You mentioned you revise as you go. What is the process at the editing stage? 

Hamilton admits he gets carried away with the writing sometimes. 

PFH: I wrote a 30 page scene about a party. After 5 pages, the editor said, ‘yes, we get it.’ 

DB: How far are you into the next one? 

PFH: Oh, almost there! My publisher is in the audience! You can’t ask that! 



During the signing I whip out a picture from 2010, when Hamilton was touring with The Evolutionary Void. He says he still has the waistcoat!