City Daily Photo Theme Day: Silhouette

The City Daily Photo Theme Day for October is Silhouette. This is Sacred Trinity church on Chapel Street, just inside Salford's borders but a stone's throw from the heart of Manchester. Work started on the church in 1635 but most of the current building is more modern (i.e. a mere 250 years old!) dating from 1752.

One of its claims to fame is that William Webb Ellis was christened here. He later went to Rugby School, where in 1823 while playing football he picked up the ball and ran, thus inventing rugby football. (There'll also be something for rugby fans here at Mancunian Wave tomorrow).

These days the church plays host to various concerts, as well as providing a weekly meeting place for the Manchester School of Samba and the Ydalir group of Vikings...

Art for art's sake: Manchester Contemporary Art Fair

The North's biggest contemporary art fair opened yesterday. Now in its fifth year, 65 galleries are exhibiting works by over 500 UK and international artists. It's in a purpose-built marquee on Hardman Square and at the nearby Artzu Gallery.

This year the fair includes a wide range of talks including Beatrice Hodgkin, author of Affordable Contemporary Art (on Saturday). There are some brilliant pieces on display and for sale, and some that I just didn't get at all (nor did I get some of the price tags- e.g £8500).

For what it's worth, I was impressed with work from the Artisan Fine Art Gallery from Bolton, The Art Gallery in Tetbury Glos., Cheshire Art agencies in Knutsford, Curious Duke Gallery in London, Contemporary Six from Manchester, Comme Ca Art Dealers Manchester,  Hepplestone Fine Art in Chorley and Vermilion in in Knutsford.

Hmmm, all but two of those are north-west based. It looks like my living "oop north" for a quarter of a century has influenced and infiltrated my tastes!

Skywatch Friday: Addy on the Irwell

The white modernist office buildings on the River Irwell's west bank give way down to the river's edge and the popular Mark Addy pub on Stanley Street.  It opened in 1981 and the curves and canopies show its age. But it was revamped in 2010 and now also boasts a good range of food and ales. The wharf was built for the packet boats which first ran from here in 1807.

Who was Mark Addy? A local hero who died in 1890 at the age of 51. He was famous for rescuing 50 people from the then dangerous waters of the River Irwell.

If I saw that layered sky in a watercolour painting I'd say it was exaggerated and impossible, but I snapped and the camera isn't lying. Compare it with other Skywatch Friday posts today.

A heads-up that the City Daily Photo Theme Day for October will be Silhouette (entries will open from Sunday 30 September at around 1000 UK time). 

Collecting your thoughts for the day...

Time out at 111 Piccadilly, home to the Polish and Italian consulates and many businesses. A meeting place for people too or a place to prepare the mind for great things in the rest of the day's meetings?...

"Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once a week." - George Bernard Shaw. Shaw knew Manchester well and you will be as surprised as me to learn that in 1894 he described Burnage as the prettiest village in Manchester. How times change? 

Meanwhile my monthly post for Smitten by Britain is now up- all about Mumbles in south Wales.

ABC Wednesday: K is for Kernel King, Manchester's peanut butter

Kernel King is always not easy to find but it is Manchester's peanut butter. The labelling does not tell you what the different colours are but red top is smooth, brown is crunchy and green seems to be crunchier still. 

Kernel King is made by F. Duerr And Sons Ltd, a company trading since 1881 who are based in Floats House in south Manchester. They also make jam, marmalade, mincemeat, mustard and mayonaisse.

As with all manufacturers of glass jars and bottles, I wish they and shops operated a return and reuse scheme, rather than the glass simply getting recycled (at best!), which isn't sensible recycling but is actually smashing up the glass to then expend more energy and resources to merely make more of the same... they did a few decades ago, why can't they now?

The old beer and lemonade bottles, even when I was a child, operated on a deposit basis and dairies collected and reused milk bottles. No wonder the planet is accelerating to environmental disaster with not enough of us applying the brakes...

Today's "K" is linked to ABC Wednesday .

Mcr food & drink festival, Harvey Nicks van

The 15th annual Manchester food and Drink Festival is in full swing until Monday 8th October. But when I passed by yesterday lunchtime the torrential rain had turned it to a ghost town. Like the rest of the UK might agree at the moment, the "about to be flooded" look is rather a forlorn image.

The street food stalls are in various sessions, the first from last Friday until today includes this vintage van at the Harvey Nicholls stall serves up "elegantly styled French food, served with panache." (Is a panache a cross between brioche and a crêpe?)... Hopefully I will return on a drier day and explore further. 

Jackie Kearney's Hungry Gecko vegetarian street food is the one stand that I'd really like to try and it's here from Wednesday 28th to next Sunday 30th Sept. http://foodanddrinkfestival.com

Linking today to the Ruby Tuesday blog.

Monday Murals: Eyes open, shutters down

The side of H Blyth art shop looks quite striking when the shutters are closed as well as when it's open.

Any fellow "anoraks" watching Part 3 of the excellent 1960s period piece Mrs Biggs on ITV1 last week (www.itv.com/mrsbiggs ) may have noticed this was the side street outside the greasy spoon cafe (excellently portrayed by Koffee Shop!) that was featured. Charmian (Sheridan Smith) then sat inside Alan's car chatting in this street.

The Victoria Baths were also used in the first episode as Charmian's place of work and Heaton Park has cropped up a couple of times. Anyone spot any other Mancunian locations?  My absolute favourite was the moonlit night in Paris and the suggestion of a romantic meeting at Notre Dame being portayed by... Manchester Cathedral (the metal red roses of Lancashire on the railings was a giveaway!)

Back to today's photo and a couple of tiny Lego characters can be seen on the red pillar too, as previously seen at this post last autumn: Love, peace & Lego, and below. Tragically Gary Smith, the artist of the Lego art, passed away earlier in 2012. Rest in peace Gary. Some of his work is at www.brickznstonescreative.co.uk

Linked to Monday Murals at the Oakland Daily Photo blog.

I swear I was there, here's the Sex Pistols

Amazing to think it's 35 years since the Sex Pistols Never Mind the Boll***s album hit the streets. It goes against the very spirit of punk that a deluxe version is about to be released....

The Sex Pistols spawned many a Manchester band to form, after their infamous June 1976 gig at the Free Trade Hall. There's even been a book written about that gig and its influences - I swear I was there by David Nolan.

“Alongside Woodstock and Live Aid, the Sex Pistols' performance has been named by critics as one of the most pivotal performances in music history...not necessarily because of the quality of the music - but because of the effect the music had on the audience. The crowd were mesmerized by the power and possibilities of punk - and it inspired them to create their own music that would shape the sound of rock music for decades to come. Members of Joy Division and New Order, the Smiths, the Fall and Buzzcocks were there that night as well as Tony Wilson, a key player in the story of Factory records, the Hacienda, Madchester and beyond. This was truly a gig that changed the world...”

Dog days of summer fade to a dog day in autumn...

Antirrhinum majus is the Latin name for the snapdragon or dog flower. But none of those are on display at David Wayman Flowers on The Avenue in Spinningfields, just a bassett hound...

Skywatch Friday: ДО СВИДАНИЯ, ЛЕТО (Goodbye Summer)

Suburban sunset - taken by a guest photographer today, Tim on his mobile phone.

And so we wave goodbye to summer- which was so often disappointing weatherwise in the U.K but a unique and memorable summer for many other reasons. The sun often seemed to shine when I needed it most.

All the regular Manchester summer festivals went well, but it is the holidays and weekends away of summer 2012 that I'll hold even fonder memories of: A long walking weekend in glorious sunshine on the Gower coast; Tintern Abbey in the sun and a walk along Offa's Dyke; a daytrip to historic York; another day trip and a 9 mile walk to the amazing Llangollen canal viaduct; 10 lovely days in London which included seeing the Olympic cycle road races; and 10 days down Tywyn, in West Wales. Lucky me - I hope your summer was good (or your winter if you are well south of the equator).

ДО СВИДАНИЯ, ЛЕТО, or "Do svidaniya leto", is Russian for "goodbye summer"- such a moving song from the excellent BBC Russian Language and People series from 1980 that I have never been able to forget. Also at the You Tube channel called Russian for All .

Episode 1 of Goodbye summer.

Click to see further Skywatch Friday posts from around the planet.