Fresh blogs

Young bloggers rule. Here's one of the youngest I know of: David Wilkinson was born (in Manchester, of course) in 1994. He's also the force behind Techzi, a blog about all things technological that's very highly regarded; The Techzi feed has 199 subscribers.
David describes himself as an "internationally acclaimed weirdo, founder of Zi Media, and general nutter." You rock, David.

The Mersey Basin Campaign blog has moved here, and changed slightly in focus, writes blogmeister Kate. "It's a bit wider in scope - rather than just focusing on 'Mersey Basin Week', it's a blog for the whole campaign. Highlights at the moment are a thread following the progress of the book we are putting together about the River Mersey, and news about the project to redevelop the Radar Tower at Crosby."

Nik Fletcher is a student at RNCM and a bit of a technophile. He's also an observer of Mancunian life, who "noticed this week that yet another Sainsburys Local getting ready to open on March 8th under what is believed to be a hotel (IIRC) on Mosley Street just down from Picadilly. With 4 Sainsbury Locals already in the City Centre, all within easy walking distance of each other, I can't help but wonder who's letting these applications go through."

Red Rose Ramblings is the work of a 30-something Lancastrian - it's Steven, who also writes for the FC United blog MREnders. He has a funny account of just how eager a certain local newspaper seems to shift copies.

On the heels of the Salford Star, here's another community-media venture for you: The Old Trafford News, which comes with a blog called Old Trafford Views, written by editor Ally Fogg.

The MEN weighs in on blogging

The MEN has published an article about blogging today - local blogging superstar Geoff of The 43 is quoted, as well as Robin from the BBC Manchester Blog (Which I'm still writing weekly bits for, by the way.)

Time Out Manchester: Outta Time?

We've all been wondering what's going on with Time Out Manchester, which was supposed to launch this spring, you remember? It's been verrry quiet on that front. But Monday there was another communication from on high, buried down at the bottom of a Media Guardian gossip column. Here's the key bit:

"Elliott scoffs at suggestions that the magazine is being shelved. "We remain completely committed to Manchester and will launch in autumn," he says. "We are still in the process of raising investment. We need about £1m, and we have people working on that. We just do not have the liquidity to set it up on our own, though we have always said we really want to run Manchester ourselves, like we do in Chicago and New York."

Yeah, remember when he swaggered into town and said all that stuff about giving Manchester "the magazine it deserves?" Hmmmmm. The crack team of journalistic guns-for-hire assembled for the launch issue are all wandering away, I hear, to work on other promising "projects." A few were allegedly offered starvation wages to write for the soon-to-be-expanded TOM website, but declined.

It seems money's tight for TOM. Maybe we should start a fundraising drive, hold a few bake sales?

Roller disco, in an undisclosed location

Aww, yeah. I've been waiting so long for this, and someone's finally done it. They're bringing a roller disco to Manchester this Saturday night. And of course I'm buried beneath three feet of snow (really, no joke) in Vermont, and I can't go. How unfair is that? If you want to know how much I love roller disco, read this.

And it's so much more than just a roller disco. This Saturday, Manchester Forbidden Arts is throwing a big party from 2pm til 4am at an "as yet undisclosed venue." They promise us roller disco with skates for hire, art exhibs, film screenings, propaganda distribution stalls etc. from 2-5:30, and something called a "Cabarave" from 6pm-4am, featuring (deep breath): spoken word, film, Cabaret performance, burlesque, fire shows, belly dancers, circus skills, bands and Manchester's finest DJ's playing music. Want to know more, like, erm... where it's gonna be? Email manchestertaa at yahoo.co.uk

The roller skates will help you get away from the police dogs all the faster, right?

(The photograph is of NYC's own Bill Butler, the Godfather of roller disco and a lovely man.)

Manchester Blogggers needs you

Listen up for a special Valentine's Day message from the Manchester Bloggers Aggregator:

It needs some love. It hasn't been working properly, mainly because the guy who was maintaining it, Lord Rich, moved back to Bradford and doesn't have time to do it any more. Poor sad, neglected aggregator. Surely there's a Manchester technogeek out there who can come to the rescue?

If you just read the above and are now scratching your head wondering what the aggregator is, and why you should give a rat's ass about it, I'll tell you. The aggregator grabs all of our blog posts in one big feed and puts them up there on the screen in one easy-to-find place. It's the place to go if you want to see what Manchester bloggers are writing about, but don't want to spend hours visiting blog after blog. If you've signed up, it's brought readers to your blog. It's a good thing for all of us.

Rich writes: "Right now, somebody else taking over working on it sounds good. I'd be happy to hand it over to anybody who has time to spend on it. However, I'd warn you that it needs more than a little maintenance work - I'm thinking starting afresh with some more robust software is the way to go, and I definitely don't have the time to do that."

Won't you help? If you want to help save the aggregator, email me on themanchizzle at gmail dot com and I'll put you in touch with Rich. I'd do it myself except that using blogger is about as far as I go with technology and that.

New blogs that run with the wolves

Don't pay any attention to my silliness. I'm just getting bored with writing "more new Manchester blogs" every week or so and have decided to mix it up a little. These blogs don't really run with the wolves... or do they?

Tin-men is the blog of a 21-year old computer nerd struggling his way through the last part of a degree in Manchester. His latest project is MSG - no, not the dodgy flavour enhancer but something called the Manchester Student Guide. Looks well studenty.

It's high time I added this link to MEN Online Editor Sarah Hartley's Life Through Food, by far the strongest and most consistent of the MEN blogs. I hear they're getting some new ones soon.

Warhead's blog is written by a self-styled Grumpy Old Man. It's also on Six Apart's VOX platform, which I haven't seen much of. Other new personal blogs include Julesy's World and Lewis Henshall's blog.

How did I miss Adele's Labour Blog? Cripes, it's nice to see a political blog written by a woman for a change. This is your spot online for anything relating to Labour politics in Manchester, nationally and even internationally, as one of her recent posts features butt-kicking orator Barack Obama.

Hooray, it's another Mancunian Live Journal community. This one is for activists.

And finally, two veteran Manchester bloggers, Skipper and Mantex, have teamed up for a new Heaton Moor community blog called On The Moor. Roy of Mantex writes: "It's a mix of local gossip, moans about the council, plus the nearest we can get to celebrity news (local writers in our case). And piccies of course." Sounds good.

(Wolf picture from Dance With Shadows. We seem to be doing an animal thing lately with the pictures. Yeah, I have no idea what that's all about.)

A little birdie told me...

We love it here at the Manchizzle when a local boy makes good. You remember our old blogroll comrade and latent twitcher Conscious & Verbal left Manchester some months ago to seek his fortune? Sure you do. Well, he's now the proud owner of a shiny new blog called Flat Out Norwich.

It is, unsurprisingly, about "Norwich - Norfolk - the East of England - and the stuff that happens. Culture. Arts. Chat. People who blog. It's about finding out who is blogging flat out, out there, and compiling a big ol' blog roll so we can all spend more time reading about each other. It's blog love. Blove, if you will..."

Go visit and say hello.

(Brilliant canary picture courtesy of Bird Health.)