Matt Tuckey is a writer from Oldham, England. He covers celebrities, night life, Manchester, fitness, creative writing, social media, psychology and events. Some of this may, in some way, help others. Or maybe it'll just entertain you for a while.
I'll
be watching this in Genting Casino on Portland St, on a joint meetup
with Manchester Cool Bars and Clubs
and
Manchester Social Group. If you fancy staying up late, come join us. We're meeting just before
3am. The fight takes place in Vegas, so it's a bit of an odd time,
but it'll be worth it. You can practically have a night out before
the card begins if you want.
Dropped
into Spinningfields' Neighbourhood bar on Thursday- one of the only
busy Thursday night bars you'll find- where I successfully schooled
some drunk bloke in a dance-off before heading to LIV
for their Socialite event. Pics are
here.
Japanese-themed
Bamboo returned to LIV on Friday for
their monthly event. Actual bamboo attached to walls; kimono-clad dancers; giant panda-head outfit being passed around. Great vibes. Pics here
A few of my own:
This was a joint meetup incorporating both Manchester Social Group
and Manchester Cool Bars.
Just a reminder if you're going to LIV whether it be with these
meetup groups or not: ALWAYS bring ID. A driver's license ideally. It
doesn't matter how old you are- they treat everyone equally and
always require it. If you forget, you can fill in a form on the door.
But generally speaking, if you go out to bars you should always have
ID whether the club require it or not. You never know when it will
come in handy.
Top
top evening. Keep your eyes on these meetup groups for similar nights
out!
Wowsers.
House music producer Rui da Silva follows me on Twitter! Remember the
absolute banger that is Touch Me?
What's
happening in the city? Friday night: Bamboo returns to Club LIV. I was at their last superb Bamboo night
on Mad Friday.
House and RnB with stunning kimono-clad podium dancers. Will be good
to see it back. If you fancy getting involved, join us on Manchester Cool Bars and Clubs' meetup.
We're starting in Sakana at 9, as are a
lot of people who'll move on to LIV next door. A good deal if you're a lady!
Clashing
with this is Manchester Social Group's monthly meetup
in cosy Wetherspoons' The Waterhouse near the Town Hall. If you like
things a little more relaxed and peaceful, this one's for you.
Also
clashing with this is an RnB sensation revived by The Milton Club.
Damage will be performing an
intimate gig at the members' venue as part of the club's monthly Soul
Purpose roster. No meetup for this as yet.
That's
your Friday, what about Saturday?
Manchester Cool Bars
are again in town, this time for Ark
Saturdays on Deansgate Locks.
They're starting in nearby Sugar Buddha and heading to Ark for a
charity event featuring the cast of MTV's Ex on the Beach.
Fight
fans: Anderson “The Spider” Silva fights Michael “The Count” Bisping in UFC Fight Night 84.
I was going to put a meetup on for this but it's a little late at
night- I've got 8pm as the start time, but these things fluctuate and
times aren't properly advertised on the UFC site. I've got Writers Connect
that Sunday, so I can't have a late one. If you fancy giving me
feedback on my fiction, and on other people's writing, and perhaps
getting some suggestions on your own work, get involved. We're at
Nexus Art Cafe on Oldham st from 1pm.
Who
goes out on a Thursday? Well, I do on occasion, and there are a
handful of places in Manchester that still pop off.
Neighbourhood was busy at half ten,
where the photographers were clustered around a group of people-
included it seems were Queen of the Jungle and Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattison. I didn't recognise her but I
did spot former Eastender Dean Gaffney and former WBO
light-welterweight champ Ricky Hatton
(who wasn't bowled over when I told him I'd read his autobiography.
Banter.) The M.E.N writeup has more.
There
are a few familiar faces there now having been on a few
Spinningfields nights out. Friendly
bar.
Sakana was dead at half eleven so I dived
straight into celeb hangout LIV for
their new Thursday night Socialite
event, where Hatton bought copious
amounts of Moet and hung out with a guy who looked like Chochise from The Warriors.
Pretty much all the aforementioned ended up in LIV. Pics from the
night are here.
With a slightly younger clientele Socialite is a great night, and
only £7 instead of the Saturday night £10 door charge.
I
managed to get hold of a membership card a decade ago at a gym called
Holmes Place, now Virgin Active, in the Printworks. I was going to
use this card this week to get into Tiger Tiger's student night, which I
always remembered being on a Monday. Just a few years ago, and YEARS
after graduating, I'd dropped in on that night and it'd been great
fun.
I
swung by last night hoping the membership card would get me past the
doormen, but there was no queue anyway. Was I too early?
I
talked to a barman who said the student night had been moved to a
Tuesday. Oh well. I mentioned I was last in the club at New Year
when rapper Fat Man Scoop was
performing, and that I'd seen a huge kickoff in the Boogie Wonderland
room. The barman mentioned that the group fighting was in fact
gypsies and that one of the managers got beat up in the process. The
trouble-causers spent loads of money, though, so were pretty much let
off.
Take
a look at the pictures from the night: gypsy fashion normally includes lace, bright colours
and dotted patterns for the women and 1993 trends for the men. You
can spot them.
The
barman also mentioned that Deansgate Locks is a busy night on a
Monday (as it was back in my student day).
I may put something on Meetup for a Monday night- stay tuned to
Manchester Social Group and Manchester Cool Bars if
you're free those nights.
I've
just finished reading the first of three SF novels by Peter F
Hamilton, the UK's leading science fiction writer. The Dreaming Void
follows three young men on very different journeys in 3580 in the
Intersolar Commonwealth: Inigo, whose dreams are transmitted through
the ether and experienced by billions, inspiring them to pilgrimage,
Aaron, a man with serious amnesia who knows only his name and that he
must stop Inigo and the pilgrimage, and Edeard, a junior constable- a
police figure- trying to bring about order to his city. His psychic
powers put him a cut above his peers.
I
found the plot very heavy and technical, which is fair for a “hard
SF” novel like this. The predictions of future tech and
lifestyles were fascinating. I'd love for my calendar to be in my
head permanently, and for this- plus the internet- to be accessible
through instant mind-control. It's a little cheesy, it's
action-packed, and massively inventive and engaging. Looking forward
to the (much larger) second and third parts.
You
press the power button on your CPU, and nothing happens. You press it
again. You wait a bit, then press it again. It seems your computer
has finally flatlined... or has it? Before scrapping it and heading
to PC World, try this technique:
Unplug
the power lead from the CPU. Not the plug at the wall, but the
thickest plug in the back of the actual computer.
Press
the power button on the front of your CPU. Yes, it's ridiculous. It
won't power the computer to life, but it apparently resets something
in the computer's memory while it is inactive.
Wait
10 seconds.
Plug
the power lead back in and press the power switch again.
This
technique has worked for me a few times. Let me know if it works for
you.
Valentine's
week is upon us, and the only plans I have as of yet for Sunday 14th
is Writers Connect, my
twice-monthly feedback group. I need your advice on part 3 of my
screenplay. I'll recap the story so far before I read it out so you
won't be in the dark.
Valentine's
Day is bollocks anyway; let's not pretend.
I
don't see these prospective posts lasting much longer to be honest:
the point of them was to encourage people to get involved with the
events that I was putting on through Meetup. I've advertised other
people's events with no feedback as to whether what I was doing was
having an effect. The roundup posts I usually put up on Sunday nights
detail some of the events that have taken place: these offer links to
the Meetup groups, so as intelligent people you're more than capable
of checking the upcoming events that any group might be holding.
Check the “All Meetups” tab on the right of the homepage and
you'll find plenty of dating-type groups as well as everything else:
food, drinks, sports, museum trips... the list goes on. It's up to
you to make the decision to attend though, I can only show you. Don't
stay in!
Oh, also, has anyone noticed that the Meetup app on Windows phones doesn't allow you to read private messages? Apparently Android phones are fine for this aspect. I used to have an android phone; I don't remember there being a problem but then I don't remember checking PMs. I also tried the Clique app, which is offers very similar access to your Meetup account. I couldn't see the advantage of this over the original Meetup app: neither allows you to see inbox messages.
For
a recent writing exercise, Oz brought in a dictionary. She picked a
random page and asked for a number between 1 and 4. We picked 3,
hence the third column of text. Next she asked for a number between 1
and 10. We picked 5, hence the fifth word down. Our word, fittingly
for a writers' group, was “Publish”. This was our prompt for a
10-minute writing exercise. Here's what I managed:
It
started as a joke blog- just him in the Student Village flat
commenting on what drunk women he'd seen arguing or which road sign
had been stolen. It wasn't an anonymous blog, but he hadn't linked it
to social media so none of the other students knew anything about it.
Then
he started uploading photos, noticing a weird popularity in the
States. He'd named the university, the building, the initials of the
people involved. The time “TS” got arrested for having a bag of
weed on him and the officers thought he'd progress on to coke if he
ever made it into the media industry. The part-time lap dancers on
his course claiming they'd made £500 in a night (their dress sense
backed it up).
He
started to get some intriguing Twitter followers, including the
Student Union and Greater Manchester Police. The comments flowed in,
mostly from other students and sometimes those he knew. Each comment
had a guess in it. Are you this guy? Are you that? Sometimes people
thought he was a girl.
With
each click of the “publish” button, the net closed in.
Who
would it be? How could he keep himself anonymous? He took one more
trip to town with his cameraphone, standing across the street from
PanAsia.
So.
Just as the story was getting somewhere, the timer buzzed. At least I
got the key word included. I was going to have a situation where
something happened that risked his anonymity, but I couldn't think /
write fast enough. I'm planning on learning shorthand soon, which
should combat this.
In
around February 2001, towards the end of my time at Tameside College,
I spotted something unusual in the newsagent round the back of the
Ashton campus. It was a new men's lifestyle magazine, like countless
others that I'd not paid much attention to. This one was different,
however: there were no scantily-clad women on the cover. In fact,
there were no cover pictures at all.
I
gave it a shot and bought on impulse. My mates were confused as to
why I wouldn't just go for FHM like the rest of them, but the answer
to that was simple: if you want porn, man up and go buy some. If you
want to READ a magazine, buy one with some actual journalism in.
Y'know, without the distraction of tits. Time and a place, man.
Subject
magazine was well-rounded with articles on travel and fashion, but also on
upcoming TV shows, comedians and films. Comedian Dave Gorman starting
out on his stand-up career and a trip to Ireland for St Patrick's Day
find their way into the pages. Did you know Leeroy Thornhill from The
Prodigy went solo as Flightcrank? Me neither, although Subject's
2-page spread suggests. It was similar to most other lads' mags, if
you'd filtered out the sex. The publication appeared not to have
lasted long.
Because
the magazine had such an everyday word as a name- as opposed to an
unusual acronym like FHM- it's very difficult to find any evidence of
it online. I've only seen this and this.
It looks like I've got hold of something quite rare.
It's
possible that the publishers: Stable Publications- are now Stable Media, focusing more on trade publications for the building industry.
The
RnB star and singer of In My Head Jason Derulo is
in Manchester this week for his world tour and it looks like there's a cat fight over
him on the Manchester Club scene. There are still tickets available for tomorrow night's performance at The Manchester Arena at £35.
After this Derulo was due to host at The Milton Club as part of their weekly
Marquee event.
However,
due to “A lack of hosting”, things quickly changed. This message
appeared temporarily on the Facebook event page:
"We regret to
announce, that we will no longer be hosting the official Jason Derulo
afterparty at The Milton Club.
We have been
closely reviewing other after parties booked in the UK throughout the
tour, where there have been some negative responses due to a lack of
hosting, therefore after much consideration we have decided it best
to cancel this event and ensure we do what’s best for our
guests/members & venue.
All guests who have
purchased a ticket, please contact us directly for a refund. We will
still be open and hosting a free entry, concert after party with
drinks deals and DJ Stylus playing the best in RnB, Hip hop &
house.
If you have any
questions, please give us a call on 0161 850 2353."
What
I interpret from this is that Derulo just isn't paying attention to
his fans at his after parties across the UK. Not long after this
message appeared, competitor club LIV uploaded this picture.
LIV appear to have poached
him off the Milton Club. Did the Milton Club willingly give him up as
they claim? Or did Derulo walk and go to LIV? It isn't clear, and The Manchester Evening News article
isn't to clear either.
The Milton Club's advert:
I
put an event on Meetup for
this: as it stands only one other person and me are down as going: around 6 other
people have reversed their RSVP. Do I go to Milton anyway? Marquee is
always a good night. The managers have promised a refund and are
throwing a free-entry party. Do I try on the door at LIV instead? Do
I cancel the Meetup event? I have 24hrs to decide...
What
is ASMR?
ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response,
is a phenomena experienced by some people- including myself- that is
triggered by certain sounds and creates a feeling of relaxation and
“tingles” in the recipient. It's something I've experienced on
occasion my whole life.
In
more recent years I've stumbled upon an entire community of people
who create and listen to videos that are designed to trigger ASMR. I
found this, strangely enough, through watching Youtube clips of Ricky
Roma (Al Pacino) in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. In this film,
salesman Roma coerces a client into buying real estate. One comment I
saw was from a man who claimed he was in “ASMR overload” due to
Pacino's tone.
I
kinda grasped what he meant despite not having heard the phrase
“ASMR” before, so I Youtubed the acronym to see what came up.
Holy
God. So many videos. An entire community of people uploading softly
spoken videos, whispering videos, creating sounds from scratching and
stroking objects near the mic or the mic itself. It's fantastic. You
may understand this. You may not.
We
all have our preferences, but my favourite is GentleWhispering, a
Russian-American lady called Maria. She makes videos in two
languages; sometimes I listen to the Russian versions just for the
sounds. Her channel has over 175 million video views and 562,000 subscribers,
including myself.
I
sometimes listen to these videos- emphasis “listen”- before
sleep. I'll have my phone in bed with WiFi on, and my headphones in,
and I'll turn the screen face down so it isn't illuminating the room.
Listening to Maria's voice always helps, whether she's discussing
women's fashion or she's making a gingerbread house for the first
time. (The latter of those was a recommendation from a fan in the
comments of another video. It was thumbed up so much that Maria acted
on the suggestion. It got a lot of hits.)
I
was wondering if this might have another effect on me. I've done
quite a few projects on here where I've attempted planking- working
the core muscles- whilst reading books. My plank record has gone up
every time I've tried the project (four times so far). I was
wondering if the ASMR triggers can allow me to focus more and hold
the plank for longer. Or whether the relaxing qualities work against
the concentration needed to stay in position.
Well, I tried this with Maria's most
popular video, “*_* Oh such a good 3D-sound ASMR video *_*”
I
quickly realised this was not going to work. Her soothing tone and
gentle voice encouraged me to fall out of plank, meaning I couldn't
stay in position for more than 1 minute 45, way below my 5 minute
record. I kept trying, but the vast majority of it was spend hugging
the carpet letting “the feels” wash over me.
So,
no, planking and ASMR are two things that are completely opposed to
each other as far as I'm concerned. Reading is much better for
planking as it requires concentration, not relaxation. But as an
alternative to meditation, as a technique for combating insomnia and
possibly as an assistive measure for depression, ASMR could be a
useful tool in years to come, and as science begins to recognise it
as more than a phenomena.
Maybe
true, Juvenal: it's a slippery slope, and one we're all sliding down
as far as I'm concerned. So what depraved (read: awesome) activities
can we expect now that we've all failed Dry January?
The
RnB star is hosting the first Marquee event of 2016 this Thursday, at The Milton Club. The weekly cinema-themed party night always entertains.
I've put the event on Manchester Social Group and Silvia put it on Manchester Cool Bars. You might get to meet him.
Ants
Friday:
Ibiza-based dance music outfit ANTS
takes over Albert Hall. The Facebook
event is here.
There's no Meetup event as of yet: there may be soon. I've been
talking about it with my friends and we're keen to take a look as the
lineup- Mya Jane Coles, Nic Fanculli, Steve Lawler- is incredible.
This
Rochdale-based support group will shut
down on February 15th as the organiser has stepped down.
If this is something you think you could take over- if Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder is something you have knowledge or experience of-
give some consideration to leading a group like this.
