Tattoo Tea Party

 

There’s already the gentle buzzing of several tattoo guns overlapping each other as I walk through the entrance of Manchester Central, what was the GMEX, as the building fills up with visitors. It’s Saturday 29th, and I’m at the Tattoo Tea Party, an annual convention held under the domed roof of the former train station. Hundreds of tattoo artists have set up stall already and have clients in sitting or lying positions, adorning them with ink. It’s my first tattoo convention. (I shot this in landscape and my Samsung Galaxy A55 annoyingly chose to capture in portrait. 

 

Throughout the day: tattooing, fire performers, jugglers (one of whom bore a striking resemblance to Howard off Better Call Saul, or Patrick Fabian), stilt walkers, dodgems, a Ferris wheel and body paint displays. 

The patrons roll in, mostly dressed in clingy black and tattooed already – not unlike myself, to be fair. My local tattooists Amanda (who did my dopamine and serotonin tattoos a couple of years ago) and Mike from Inkin have a stall, although it takes me hours of methodical wondering around to find them. Some of the stalls were numbered, some not. They were right near the door, too. A busy stall. I didn’t get a chance to say hi. I thought I might get one, but I guess that’s for another day.

 

Will Frow

 

 Fuel Girls. 

 

 

 

 

  A unique experience. Tattoo Tea Party will more than likely be back next year.

The geisha is Aurora Chen

Will Frow

Psychology, Pizza, House Music: this week on Meetup

On the blog this week: A piece on smartphones and memory, something about the government and a tattoo convention. 

Thursday night: I really wanted to run another Psychology Social meetup. I think the topic I’ve picked – a specific book about modern science and traditional eastern practices – hasn’t gone down well as I’ve tried to run it twice and got no RSVPs both times. But who knows. It might pick up over 4 days. I have other ideas. 

Friday night: who fancies free pizza? Meetup group WeRoad are providing at their Taphouse Social event in Circle Square. 

Saturday night: my mate Paul Smith is once again DJing in Ashton’s Nico Ditch for Connect, a night of house music. There’s a meetup too! 

 

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Halina Rice in New Century

Meta – Facebook and Instagram – were determined for me to go to see Halina Rice, a London-based house music producer and DJ. I’d never heard of her until a few months ago when the adverts were popping up continuously. Very electronic tracks accompany trippy, journey-like CGI visuals behind the stage. Rice herself responded to my request of a track ID, which turned out to be the progressive, haunting Terrain. 

A few other of her productions were right up my street, so I put together a meetup on Manchester Nightlife. 

A group of 4 of us – 3 new members – bought tickets early and met in the bar in New Century, then got into the adjoining club for 8pm. 

A strangely early event for a club, but the atmos and music were so on point that you forget what time it is. New Century Hall is a little like if Oldham’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and the old Sankeys Soap nightclub had a baby: 70s retro chic – wood panelling and grids of bulbs mixed with pulsing strobe lights and a raw, dingy club setting. Appropriately, the clientele were of all ages too – some older than me, some younger. 

Halina’s set began at 10 to 9, til close at 11. A great meetup. 

 

 

 

Rainbow Tabbouleh

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Next up in Rukmini Iyer’s The Green Roasting Tin, this blend of roast and salad from the Levantine region of Lebanon and Syria. 

It turned out I had exactly the right amount of bulgar wheat left from previous recipes. Instead of 6 small vine tomatoes, I found a box of Piccolo (cherry) toms. That sufficed. I also bunged in a whole pack of radishes, not just the 6 required. They were all sliced thin anyway so it blended right in. When else would I use them? It for some reason took me 1hr 25, not the 35 mins suggested. Hulling and chopping the radishes was a factor. The pomegranate also took forever to cut open, scoop out, and segregate the white bits. 

Tasted good hot and, later, cold. Wouldn’t say it was a favourite, but that’s veganism (this was actually done in January) and me: I’m doing it for health reasons.

House Music on Friday - Book Now

Friday night sees tech house producer Halina Rice play at New Century, the new music venue in Manchester centre. Manchester Nightlife has a meetup running there. Expect electronic vibes, trippy CGI visuals and your regular warm Manchester house music crowds including, at present, 4 of us from the Meetup group. It’s an early one, starting at 6:30pm. 

We still need a meeting point. Any suggestions?

UFC in Brotherhood

I left that Adopted Family group chat. Not my kind of people, plus have my own group to develop. 

Still haven’t met with the original Manchester Social group that they left. 

Ran my own meetup to Brotherhood bar near the Town Hall, to watch UFC. Taking place in London, this time the main card was on at a reasonable hour and a handful from Manchester Nightlife showed up to watch the fights. Disappointing night for Brits as both Leon Edwards and Molly McCann were beat. The latter retired. Good venue and crowd. Some familiar and new faces from the meetup group. 

In other news, Katrina Bowen from Tucker & Dale vs Evil liked my photo of her.

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I just spent a month learning nunchucks

What are nunchucks? They’re an eastern martial arts weapon predominantly used in kung fu and karate. They’re ‘two sticks (traditionally made of wood), connected to each other at their ends by a short metal chain or a rope. It is approximately 30 cm or 12 inches (sticks) and 2.5 cm or 1 inch (rope). A person who has practiced using this weapon is referred to in Japanese as nunchakuka (ヌンチャク家, nunchakuka).’ - Wiki. 

I guess I’m a nunchakuka now. 

A month ago I explained I was going to practice the basics, and upload a video of the results. I’ve dug out a pair of Decathlon foam covered training nunchucks and spent a month dabbling around with them, following Youtube instruction mostly from Florida-based sensei Matt Pasquillini. 

I’ve learned a few basic moves like the Outer Orbital, Down and Up, the Bruce Lee Triangle, the Hand Pass, Figure 8, Underhand Pass, Deflecting Strike, Rip Roll, Under Arm Catch and a combination of a few of these. I made a demo of the things I learned, in which I predictably forget several of the moves because I for some reason didn’t copy them all down. The ones I missed out are basically warm-up moves. What’s included are the things I needed time to develop. 

Also, I followed a few healthy recipes and did cut out a lot of junk. Went from 78kg to 76.2. Sigh. Fighting cravings, learning and focussing on a new task, learning new recipes… all of these tie into psychology, hence this post goes up on #psychologysaturday. 

An interesting, fun and utterly pointless project. Looks good though.