Creative Tourist - Obsessive Collecting Disorder: The Living Room at Chinese Arts Centre

"If the old maxim “Know what you like and like what you know” holds true, then was no way I wasn’t going to like The Living Room at the Chinese Arts Centre. From marbles in the playground to stamps and comic books, collecting has always been a part of my life. If it weren’t for the fear of being recruited for a future episode of Britain’s Biggest Hoarders, I may not be able to keep my OCD (Obsessive Collecting Disorder) in check at all."

Creative Tourist - Obsessive Collecting Disorder: The Living Room at Chinese Arts Centre

Published 04/07/2013

Creative Tourist - All Star Lanes: Retro ten pin bowling arrives in Manchester

"If you’re anything like me, then bowling (ten pin, not crown green) has always been equal shares cool and disappointing; trapped somewhere between a 1950s Happy Days vibe and the industrial estate reality of the Megabowl. Pop-up Pin-Up Bowling Lanes came to Spinningfields a couple of years ago, complete with rock n’ roll American diner and milkshakes, and when it did, I could only think one thing: why can’t bowling be like this all the time?"

Creative Tourist - All Star Lanes: Retro ten pin bowling arrives in Manchester

Published 14/03/2013

Creative Tourist - Things to do in Manchester: life drawing, burlesque & a doctor in the house.

"One of the great things about living in Manchester is that you turn any corner and you’ll stumble upon an evening of art, theatre or music. But what about a night that combines all three? My visit to Dr. Sketchy Manchester on a dark November evening was that rare triptych of entertainment: life drawing and burlesque, set to a punk/alt-pop soundtrack. Organised by local artist Lee Crocker, Doctor Sketchy is the Manchester branch of a self-styled “Anti-Art School” founded in Brooklyn in 2005. The idea rapidly spread to 100 cities across the world, its aim simple (and apparently universally appreciated): to make life drawing fun again by taking it out of the classroom and by replacing traditional life models with burlesque performers."

Creative Tourist - Things to do in Manchester: life drawing, burlesque & a doctor in the house.

Published 13/02/2013

Cornerhouse: Staff Review/ Iron Sky

"In 1945 Nazis sent a secret mission to the Dark Side of the moon. Surviving the fall of the Third Reich, they constructed a base – in the shape of a Swastika, obviously - away from the gaze of their Allied enemies and waited…

In 2018 there is a woman in the White House, one that looks and acts suspiciously like former Republican Vice President nominee Sarah Palin, and she needs to be re-elected. So what’s the best way to achieve this? Put a black man on the moon of course, because that will look good, right? But when the astronaut wanders too close to the Moon fortress, it grants the Nazi army the impetus to begin their return to Earth."

Cornerhouse: Staff Review/ Iron Sky

Published 29/05/2012

P:NM - FILM FEATURE: ODEON Flashbacks 16/04/12 – Clerks

"Dante Hicks not supposed to do a lot of things: he’s not supposed to be working at his minimum-wage job as the local convenience store clerk today, he’s not supposed to play hockey on the roof, he’s not supposed to close the store at 4 o’clock on a Saturday, he’s not supposed to let anyone use the restroom and he’s definitely not supposed to be trying to convince his ex Caitlin not to marry an Asian design major behind his girlfriend Veronica’s back."

P:NM - FILM FEATURE: ODEON Flashbacks 16/04/12 – Clerks

Published 23/04/2012

P:NM - FILM FEATURE: ODEON Flashbacks 09/04/12 – The Matrix

"Thomas Anderson, a disillusioned computer-hacker who goes by the online name of Neo, is contacted by the mysterious Morpheus and offered an escape from his mundane, end of the 20th Century life. What seems like a simple invite into a counter-culture rebellion becomes something much more epic when the world around him is revealed to be an elaborate computer generation in a post-apocalyptic future were machines rule and humans are used as batteries."

P:NM - FILM FEATURE: ODEON Flashbacks 09/04/12 – The Matrix

Published 13/04/2012

Cornerhouse: Staff Review/ Juan de los muertos

"Juan, the 40-year-old self styled survivor, is star of Cuba’s first zombie comedy. His laid-back existence of scrounging, stealing and womanising is threatened when his fellow citizens start to come back from the dead. The government’s explanation is that they are US funded trying to cause civil unrest but Juan knows better; here is an opportunity to make a little money. So like a Cuban version of Del Boy he gathers a little band of locals and starts offering his services to those affected by the dissidents. But when things go bad to worse will he be able to stay in his beloved Havana or be forced to escape to Miami?"

Cornerhouse: Staff Review/ Juan de los muertos
Published 08/03/2012

Cornerhouse - Ace Animation Anyone?

"On Wednesday night I watched four comedies, three features and five musicals here at Cornerhouse. There was even time to fit in a couple of interesting adverts.

No, I didn’t invent time-travel machine nor did I lock myself in for a monster, 24-hour movie marathon. What I did do was watch the first of the British Animation Awards Public Choice screenings, a collection of animated short films that are part of this year’s competition."

Cornerhouse - Ace Animation Anyone?

Published 03/02/2012

Cornerhouse: Staff Recommendation/ It’s a Wonderful Life

"Everyone knows the film right? The black and white, Christmassy one from the TV, were Jimmy Stewart attempts suicide but an angel shows him what life would be like if he was never born.

So if we have all seen it and know how it ends what is the point of braving the cold rain of a Manchester winter to watch it again at the cinema? Well, spare me a little festive goodwill and a few minutes between your online present shopping and I’ll explain why this film is for life and not just for Christmas."

Cornerhouse: Staff Recommendation/ It’s a Wonderful Life
Published 16/12/2011