Tune of the day...

A lil' bit of Cage the Elephant (Shake me Down) on this slightly grey hum dum of a Tuesday:

Tune of the day...

...from fab Manchester band Everything Everything - "Photoshop Handsome". Enjoy on this sunny spring afternoon.

PS - WEEKEND FEVER!!!!!!!!

Ouch... Manchester brand Henleys shows us how not to use social media

You may have heard the news this week that Manchester-based fashion brand Henleys is shutting all of its 18 stores across the UK and closing its retail arm with more than 200 job losses. The company, which in the past has been a firm favourite with chavs (am I allowed to say “chavs”? Is that derogatory? Ah well.), quite clearly thought social media could be part of its reputation management with its consumers.

On Tuesday, Henleys posted this on its Facebook page:

Well, that’s alright isn’t it? The chavs can still buy their luminous garments online.

Hang on a minute... Henleys – you did tell all your staff about what was happening and think about how they might have reacted to that status update, right?

Oh.

Perhaps some of your staff might have taken it alright though? Appreciated the fact you were using Facebook to tell the world where your at? What’s a-happening? What’s the 411? Yo yo. Keepin it real. Always look on the bright side of the Beetham Tower?

Ah.

Well, um, perhaps your staff can reflect on the good old days, the fun times they’ve had?

Hmmm. Not doing so well here.

At least you can still sell your quality garments to your customers.

Bugger.

Tune of the day...

...hearting this from the Pigeon Detectives ("Done in Secret"):

Jameson Cult Film Club comes to Manchester

A big (belated) thank you to Jameson Cult Film Club (and also Noel 'Filmrant' Mellor for taking me as his plus one!) for putting on a great evening at Manchester Academy 2 last Thursday. It really was a double decker of a Manchester entertainment sandwich. The bread and butter was the plentiful Jamesons cocktails that were in sweet (very sweet... almost sickly?) abundance (but I'm not complaining, I heart sickly abundance booze). The juicy filling started with a thin layer of Manchester band 1913 (think a moody, Editor-esque, Joy Division-inspired quintet...if they were a sandwich filling, they'd probably be tuna paste), followed by a screening of Anton Corbijn's Control (big fat slabs of good old cheddar cheese) finished off with a dashing off Clint Boon playing all your Manchester favourites (the pickle). Overall, a really enjoyable night - made even better because it was all free (recession proof fun!)! And a winning formula from the Jameson's Cult Film Club gang - they definitely know that Mancs are always hungry for Manchester-filled goodness.

Manchester International Festival line-up announced

So Manchester International Festival line-up was announced today – and wowza is it good! Björk will be gracing the city with her presence for three weeks for the world premiere of her Biophilia live show. There will be six shows taking place at Campfield Market Hall with audiences of 1,800. Expect homemade instruments, choirs, unusual use of technology and no doubt a fantastic light show to give a weird, wonderful and atmospheric ambience.

The lovely Damon Albarn will be showcasing his new project Doctor Dee, which is directed by Rufus Norris. According to the MIF site “Doctor Dee explores ritual and symbolism in this country, past and present, using John Dee – one of England’s greatest but largely forgotten men – as a catalyst.” Not sure what to expect here... opera? Accessible? Fun? Who knows... but will no doubt be more than interesting.

Snoop Daaawg is also hitting the Capital of the North to perform his debut album Doggystyle in its entirety. With special guests due to be Warren G, Daz Dillinger, RBX and Joe Cool, expect all the wannabe ghetto kids to come out of their wannabe slums (i.e. Chorlton) and pretend to be all gangster for the night. Now pull your pants up young boys.

No doubt tickets are going to be sold before I’ve had time to pick up the phone when they go on sale at 10am tomorrow. GUTTED that it’s a week until pay day and I won’t be able to buy tickets for all of the shows I want to go to (which is all of them).

Johnny Vegas, Sinead O’Connor and Victoria Wood are just some of the other acts confirmed for this year’s event. See the MIF website for full details.

Foursquare finds Manchester is the F*@king rudest city

 

So Manchester is the rudest city in the world eh?

 

F*@k off!

Location-based social network gadget gizmo thingy Foursquare has imported a load of numbers into some big fat virtual online calculator and out of the end came a screaming foul mouthed Mancunian.

According to Foursquare’s engineering blog, Manchester folk are the most like to swear when checking-in at their chosen destination (i.e. the pub).

Foursquare says: “It’s good to see that the Mancunians truly are not only the rudest people in the UK, but the rudest people globally, only El Paso comes close.”

So every other sh*t city in the world – you must try harder.