Thursday, 12 October 2017
Monday, 9 October 2017
Wolf of Wall Street
Not
much happening in terms of meetups in the upcoming week- I'll be
sticking a few up in November, so keep your eyes peeled for them.
We're
over a week into Excess Month: Research,
a month of films and books with an indulgence theme. As an example,
I've just watched Wolf of Wall Street for the first time, Martin
Scorsese's adaptation of Jordan Belfort's yuppie autobiography.
Terence Winter's screenplay perfectly cuts out the dross of the
novel, which was overlong, slow, self-absorbed and very heavy on
finance detail. Great fun, easy to follow and never felt like the
three hours it runs for.
I
have many more films of a similar ilk to watch, so expect a few
reviews.
Sunday, 8 October 2017
Anthony Crolla's Afterparty WENT OFF
Who
saw Mancunian Anthony Crolla's fight
against Scotsman Ricky Burns last
night? If you missed it...
I
caught up with it this morning, but had previously set up a meetup
for the afterparty in new Deansgate Locks bar El Diablo,
and secured guestlist from promoter and Love Island competitor Scott Thomas.
He'd suggested it would be £10 on the door, but as my name was down
the girl at the entrance let me straight in.
The
club's décor was quite unique, with brown couches and backlit mesh
covers to the arches that make up the Locks, a set of bars built into
the arches of a viaduct. The club's music was refreshingly dancier
than most, but what made it more unique was the luminous
stilt-walking robot men. Obviously.
@scottyspecial tearing up the dance floor @Eldiablobarmcr last night #HeGotTheMovesLikeJagger 🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻 Brilliant night 🥊👏🏻 #CrollaBurns pic.twitter.com/KwD1GcpqFU— Martine (@martine_marty) October 8, 2017
The
club still has a few growing pains- a couple of plasma screens froze,
and there was a strange smell at times that I couldn't define.
The
clientele seemed pretty chilled out, friendly and with a good mix of
ages. One guy could have passed for a very drunk Michael Fassbender, but I'm
pretty sure the guy who's hand I shook was Love Island season 2
winner Nathan Massey.
Someone in there looked like season 3's Tyne-Lexi Clarson, and she promoted it over
her Twitter a few days ago, so I'm guessing it was her. I didn't
quite ask in time.
As
the night drew to a close I managed to say hi to Anthony Crolla
himself. We'd both been at a youth boxing event in Oldham
a few years ago. A good guy, he remembered the event.
Good
fun. The bar's worth going back to!
Saturday, 7 October 2017
Don't Be an Idiot and Keep Your Phone in Your Bedroom at Night: Review
Admittedly,
I've occasionally been an idiot in the last month. I've tried to keep
my phone out of my bedroom,
but it seems, like for one in three of us, that's easier said than done.
I've tried taking the charge lead out of my bedroom, but I
occasionally put it back in. That's when you know you're addicted:
you're reversing the actions you put in place to stop your heavy use.
But I'd say I kept the phone out of the bedroom on more nights than
it was in.
And
what has happened in the last month? What have been the benefits?
Well, it's difficult to tell.
I
was hoping for some improvements at the gym. I've been using the same
notebook since 2011, and it's showing- the hardback cover fell off
long ago, the outside sheets have fallen away and records have been
lost. I thought I'd beat a PB on dips- it seems, checking old blog
posts about workouts, I haven't. Getting flu certainly didn't help.
That knocked a week or so out of my schedule, and left me feeling
weak. I also put on some weight whilst sat on my arse.
I've
probably slept better, marginally.
I'm
feeling much stronger now, though, and plan to stick to keeping the
phone in the lounge.
Thursday, 5 October 2017
#tbt RIP Hugh Hefner: My Unlikely Connection
The original playboy himself is dead. Long live the
king.
A
strange story about the Playboy mogul: back in 2007 I met this girl
in a bar. We'll call her SL. She was incredible- blonde hair, great
body, gorgeous face, superb fashion sense. From how she held herself
I thought if I ever approached her she'd bite my head off, so I never
bothered. Besides, I'd heard she was going out with some huge
meathead steroid abuser.
SL
had a gay best friend, a skinny guy called CH who used to flirt with
me. He told me SL liked me, and wanted my number. I didn't believe
him at first, but I got talking to SL and found out she'd dumped her
boyfriend recently. I realised she was everything I'd never have
guessed she was- kind, sweet-natured and timid. We started seeing
each other, but both of us were waiting for the other to make the
first move. We kissed once in a month of dating, then it fizzled out.
We were both quite well known in the town, and gossip had started
flying back and forth between the bars we'd visit, and neither of us
were confident enough to rise above it. After we ended things we kept
in touch, but we both seemed to learn from our respective hesitancy:
before long we were seeing other people and having much more success
with dating.
We
lost touch for a while, but in 2011 SL added me on Facebook. She was
still modelling, and still with the man she'd met after me. (The girl
I'd got with had long since disappeared.) After a few months it
emerged she'd landed the jackpot, as far as her ambitions went: she'd
been invited to LA by Hugh Hefner to visit the Playboy Mansion.
During
her trip she posted pictures on Facebook of her with Hef himself,
with her arm around his shoulder, and with the other girls, sat
watching a movie in his home cinema. It seemed like SL and the rest
of the girls were being treated very well. SL posted later to say
she'd been given a lift to her hotel by Hef's mate Ron, a
scruffy-looking 'actor.' She googled him when she got to her room-
she'd been riding around with porn maestro Ron Jeremy.
SL
dropped off the social media scene a while ago, and I've not had much
contact with her. I gather she's moved on from modelling these days.
I wish her all the best, whatever the case.
Monday, 2 October 2017
I can get you into Anthony Crolla's afterparty
I've
got six spaces at Anthony Crolla's
Afterparty in new bar El Diablo on
Deansgate Locks!
I've
spoken to Love Island's Scott Thomas who's organising the
Saturday night party, and has sorted guestlist for the Manchester Cool Bars in
the downstairs area of the bar. Upstairs is apparently for Crolla and
his guests, but, as Scott tells me, 'it's gonna be a huge night and
I'm sure you will get to meet him!'
It's
just ten pounds on the door, but will be worth it for a big name
after party. It's a standard entry fee for a lot of bars and clubs
these days.
Let's
start in Dog Bowl around the corner, on Witworth St.
In
other news...
Charlotte Dawson liked my tweet
about her show Celebs Go Dating.
Fellow contributor, receptionist Tom Read Wilson also liked a tweet of mine.
From
the same show, dating expert Eden Blackman liked another tweet (which
you'll only get if you're familiar with
James 'Arg' Argent from Towie and his monstrous appetite).
One
of my favourite tweets of the week is this one- I asked Nadia Essex, another Celebs Go Dating
expert, the immortal question from the mind of
Popbitch: who would win in a fight
between a baboon and a badger?
Baboon. They r weapons & much larger than a badger. Even with the stink they are vicious and would pound on the wee man 😂🙌🏼 #CelebsGoDating https://t.co/80XzRrkdP7— Nadia Essex (@LadyNadiaEssex) September 26, 2017
She
sounds surprisingly knowledgeable.
It
gets better. Have you seen Michael Mann thriller Heat? You know Eady,
the girl that Robert DeNiro gets with? That's Amy Brenneman.
Here's
my little exchange with her!
xoxoxox https://t.co/syvofic1kh— Amy Brenneman (@TheAmyBrenneman) September 26, 2017
One
more- you know you're big time when Blazing Squad
likes your blog. I have made it, man. I have fucking made it.
Sunday, 1 October 2017
Excess Month: Research / NaBloPoMo
Excess
noun
1.
the
fact of exceeding
something else in amount or degree:
His
strength is in excess of yours.
2.
the
amount or degree by which one thing exceeds
another:
The
bill showed an excess of several hundred dollars over the estimate.
3.
an
extreme or excessive
amount or degree; superabundance:
to
have an excess of energy.
-Dictionary.com
June
2004 was the last time I felt an excess of pressure forced on me- I
was behind on university coursework, under-supported, overworked,
misunderstood and over-matched. I still came out with a 2:1, but I'm
sure the university bent the rules to accommodate me. I remember
having 2 sheets of A1-sized paper pinned up on my wall on my flat,
with a breakdown of everything I needed to finish before the end of
June. It seemed impossible. But after a breakdown of my own- almost
quitting the course, weight loss, sleep loss, some vomiting and a few
fallouts with course members and staff- I handed it all in. It turned
out a minidisc I'd submitted with a radio project was blank. Through
pure fluke this was the only project I'd created of which I'd made a
backup, so I submitted that and passed.
It
was like running off the edge of a cliff into freefall- everything,
then nothing. I went out into the working world and, temporarily, got
a marketing job.
Since
then, I've been under similar levels of pressure but usually due to
support systems- people who were supposed to help me with memory
difficulties- not being up to scratch and not giving me the help I
need, meaning work I was doing and parts of my private life started
to fall apart. But deadlines have not particularly been a part of
this.
On
my 26th birthday it dawned on me that I'd been aiming in
the wrong direction since I was 19- I should have been trying to be a
writer professionally, and not firing aimlessly into general media
qualifications and whatever sales or admin job I could get my hands
on. But I refused to go back into education and blow thousands more
on qualifications, when it was experience that employers craved. So I
started to take blogging more seriously.
The
problem I faced- there was no-one pushing me on. There were no
deadlines, no staff or managers overseeing my blogging or creative
writing. Nobody was paying me for my hobby, nor would there be. I was
craving someone to crack the whip.
I'm
now 35. I've continued blogging, and I'm fast-approaching 11 years of
this hobby. I've had a few bits of fiction and poetry published
online here and there. I've had a couple of letters published in a
couple of local newspapers. One E-newsletter has linked to a blog
post I wrote. Minor successes here and there. There was no-one
pushing me on, though, no-one encouraging me to succeed, and this
exacerbated a depression and feeling of failure. I needed someone to
crack the whip.
In
May, Yorkshire-based support group Andy's Man Club
opened a club in Oldham. I started attending and found a group of men
who were as keen as I was to improve themselves and beat depression.
The last few months have been incredibly successful for the group,
seeing attendance figures rise and new groups open across the
country.
After
a few sessions, I suggested to them that they themselves may be the
people I've needed to give me that push, to provide the impetus to
write something within a time frame. I want to write something that
will help people, probably to do with men's mental health, and I'd
like someone to push me on to do that. AMC have told me, as soon as
you have the idea, let us know and we'll encourage you and keep you
focussed.
For
a while now, I've had an idea for a two-part, two-month-long project
about excess. A month of reading and watching films, about people who
have lived their lives to excess- Hunter S Thompson, who wrote Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas, Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street,
The Dirt, Neil Strauss' biography of The Motley Crue. After this
month, another project- this time of citizen journalism with the
intention of uploading a find every day for the month of November, to
coincide with National Blog Posting Month.
So, a month of research and a month of practical.
NaBloPoMo,
as National Blog Posting Month is also known, is an American project
that takes place every November. The principle is to post a piece to
your blog every day for the month of November: 30 posts in the month.
There'll be optional prompts provided by the site, which I'll take a
look at, but I have ideas of my own in case these suggestions don't
fit my blog. Whether these prompts are helpful or not, there's one
underlying theme that will help push the blog along.
My
blog has always been about action. It has been about things
happening, that either I'm involved in or other people, perhaps you,
could get involved in. Meetup events, book signings, demonstrations
and protests have all found their way into the blog. In order for
these topics to appear here, I've had to go out and find these
things, to be proactive and ready to make things happen myself. I've
been stockpiling ideas for a few months particularly for October and
November's projects- let's hope there's enough!
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