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First Tuesday current affairs discussion - Tuesday 3 September 7:00pm start
Manchester lifestyle reviews
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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland

at Event City, Trafford Park

Reviewed by Katie Leicester December 2017

 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… well this is certainly true at Event City in Trafford Park. Winter Wonderland is back for its fifth year with live theatre, a circus, fairground stalls, arcade attractions, gifts stalls, fairground rides and of course with the one and only Father Christmas and his glittering elf helpers there is literally something for all ages. For the thirsty adults, there is a well-stocked bar, which has a great range of wines, spirits and beers and of course the infamous hot mulled wine to enjoy whilst soaking up the Christmas atmosphere. There is also an abundance of stalls selling some fantastic foods and sweet treats to satisfy most palates This is the fourth year I have visited Winter Wonderland with my family, and this year the ‘Kingpin Events’ have excelled themselves with plenty of new attractions and fantastic performances.

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Engels’ Beard

Engels’ Beard

and daring to believe in the social transformation of society

at University of Salford

Reviewed by Mark Iddon September 2016

 

The New Adelphi building at the University of Salford was completed over the summer 2016 and has celebrated its opening with the launch of a specially commissioned sculpture / bouldering wall, adjacent the new building, called Engels’ Beard. The piece was created by Jai Redman of Engine Arts Production Company which is based in Salford. The sculpture is almost 5m high and is made of fibre glass and there is a small exhibition in the new building which features a video of the making of the sculpture.

 

The launch event featured a brass band, flag bearers, the participation of a local primary school (Clarendon Road Primary, Eccles), and the University of Salford Chancellor and Writer in Residence, Jackie Kay, giving the first public performance of her poem ‘Thinker’ inspired by the artwork.

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Sean Lock: Keep It LightSean Lock: Keep it Light

at The Lowry Theatre, Salford

Reviewed by Matthew Dougall May 2016

 

Nearing the end of his four month tour, 53 year old comedian Sean Lock (8 Out Of 10 Cats / QI etc), played to a capacity audience last night at Salford's massive 1700-seat Lyric theatre.

 

He has a rather unique style - a style which really works for him - a style that never really takes himself too seriously, which says, 'take-me-or-leave-me-as-I-am-I-really-don't-care'. Acerbic, acidic, slightly arrogant, loud, brash, deeply cynical and sarcastic, he commanded the stage; standing alone on that vast stage with nothing to hide behind, he performed his routines - finding comedy in things no other comedian has ever done, or dared to do - with an almost Wagnerian majesty.

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Sick Festival On the couch at Contact Theatre, Manchester

Reviewed by Stephen Bowler March 2016

 

On the couch was a one day event comprising three round-table discussions and debates under the general umbrella of ‘Sick Lab: A collaborative exploration of identity and trauma’. A variety of speakers, from the arts, academia and medicine, explored themes including ‘the other’, loneliness, the self, neighbourliness and gender, as well as identity and trauma.

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Looking North at Contemporary Six

Looking North at Contemporary Six

Revealed Landscapes of the North West

To be reviewed by Simon Belt May 2014

 

Contemporary Six is proud to present “Looking North – Revealed Landscapes of the North West,” a group exhibition with over 30 works by four Northern landscape artists: John Eastwood, Louise Jannetta, Sandra Orme and Matthew Bourne. The exhibition is free and open to the public, and runs until May 21st.

 

Featuring original paintings, mixed media pieces, charcoal drawings as well as limited edition photographic prints, the exhibition sets out to capture the dramatic, atmospheric, bold and timeless landscapes which inspire the artists.

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Turning FACT Inside Out

Turning FACT Inside Out

at the FACT, Liverpool until 15th September 2013

Reviewed by Denis Joe July 2013

 

FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) in Liverpool celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The centre houses three galleries, three cinemas, including the most uncomfortable cinema I have ever been in: The Box, where they show the more interesting films. Over the decade the galleries have housed some interesting and provocative exhibits including the excellent Nam June Paik exhibition, which was the subject of my first review for the Manchester Salon web site.

 

To celebrate, FACT have put on an exhibition which they describe as turning FACT ‘inside out’, testing the way in ‘which the cultural centre will extend beyond the walls of the physical container, moving outside and online’.

 

The first work that one encounters is Nina Edge’s Ten Intentions. The work is a communications experiment that attempts to discover what people will say to a robot that turns talking into writing. The work uses Apple’s voice recognition technology, Siri, which allows writing to be produced at the speed of speech. It also ‘mishears’ speech, producing misunderstandings.

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Exhibition entrance, photo by Sara Porter

Iraq: Photographs by Sean Smith

at the Imperial War Museum North

Reviewed by Sara Porter April 2013

 

This year sees the tenth anniversary of IWM North and also ten years since the 2003 Iraq War started, so it is quite apt that the museum has a new photographic display by award-winning British photographer Sean Smith. Smith documented the war in Iraq for The Guardian and was in Baghdad when the British and American coalition forces invaded, returning to the country several times to document the lives of the military and civilians.

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

A Lecture upon the Shadow

A Lecture upon the Shadow

Liverpool's Open Eye Gallery, Mann Island

Reviewed by Denis Joe December 2012

 

A Lecture upon the Shadow is an exhibition that looks at the work of six artists: three from the North West region and three from Singapore. The works have already been exhibited at the ShanghART H-Space in Shanghai, with the exception of David Jacques’ piece, which the authorities took exception to (more of that later).

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

Goodbye City Life, hello what exactly?

Mad for IT: Manchester listings and reviews online

Reviewed by Simon Belt December 2012

 

I moved to Manchester when it was a buzzing place, in the early 1980's when being Northern meant doing it for yourself, and the likes of The Fall had put it on the cultural map as proper independent. To find out where to go, what to see and what to do, meant asking for recommendations from those with their finger on the pulse.

 

Ed Glinert (now of Manchester Walks), Andy Spinoza (now of PR Agency SKV), and Chris Paul (now a Labour councillor for Withington) were a few of those people with their finger on the pulse and helped pull together a mixed bag of hippies, aspiring journalists, and above all doers to produce the City Life magazine, that established a strong reputation across the city and beyond. Some of the cultural landmarks from those heady days may still be around, but alongside the broader demise of radical politics around the millennium, culture has become safer, packaged and generally stripped of its independent spirit.

 

Here I take a look at what's filling the space vacated by the demise of City Life.

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Manchester lifestyle reviews

The Sunny Side of the Street (The Portico Library)

Clare Allan: Burnt Wood and Paper

at The Portico Library, Moseley Street

Reviewed by Simon Belt November 2012

 

I first saw Clare Allan's fabulous drawings earlier this year at the opening exhibition of the Spring Bank Arts Centre in her native New Mills, Derbyshire. Clare's talent for drawing what she feels rather than literally sees, expresses warmth and grit, grandeur yet grounding, so that her subject's personality talks to us more than her technique.

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