People Take Pictures of Each Other #5 - Buzzcocks - Why She's A Girl From The Chain Store

More Mancunian 80s interiors and exteriors. This time round, it's the old Lewis's Department Store that takes centre stage. This video was filmed in 1980 at the time when the TV and Hi-Fi department was in the basement. Some of the video was filmed on the ground floor as you can see a bus go past outside on Market Street where Market Street tram stop is now. There's some filming outside in that same area. Best of all though are the stairs into the basement; still as bold as brass in those days. Not had the chance to look in there since TK Maxx moved out of the basement. That's Linder Sterling 'behind the till', btw, and does anybody know which nightclub they end up in?

MacArthur Park.

So bye bye Central Library for the next four years (or so). Probably the last big refurbishment to get under the funding gate for a few years. And while we're at it, au revoir for the same time period to The Library Theatre who are also (logically) moving out.  First to take up an itinerant position at The Lowry and then on to the only opportunity better than moving into a scrubbed-up Central Library. Their very own space at another (if not THE) Grand Dame of Manchester theatre taking advantage of a heritage make-over, The Theatre Royal on Peter Street; better known these days as the avoid-at-all-costs Discotheque Royale. It's good to see one of Manchester's 'survivor' buildings, having avoided the 60s and 70s bulldozer-fest, buck the recent trend for turning everything into mal-shaped flats or unaffordable, cloned-from-head office hotel rooms. That the same dignity could not be afforded to The Free Trade Hall or The Old Fire Station is a real shame and, in terms of the former, two fingers from Manchester city Council to the historical and political importance of a building built on the bloodied fields of Peterloo.

Playground Twist.

Playground Twist., originally uploaded by mithering.

The video above is the view from inside this:


The oft-photographed Giant Slide in Heaton Park.

Up Against The Wall XVIII - Suck on Ya titties.

Up Against The Wall XVIII - Suck on Ya titties., originally uploaded by mithering.

Not had an Up Against The Wall for a couple of months. This one is from Spear Street in Manchester. There's also a great piece of street art just down from it, in a vacant lot, which I'll post soon.

Parking Lot Blues.

Parking Lot Blues., originally uploaded by mithering.

Spotted outside Salford Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday morning. Described by Maria Who Sits In Front Of Me as "The last bastion of respect". The parking space had been left empty.

Kicker Conspiracy - Day Sixteen.

We came across this fella on the way back from our post-Doctor Who visit to Heaton Park on Saturday night. It was in the grounds of the St. Margaret's Community Centre on St. Margaret's Road in Prestwich.  Going to the park so late with the kids wasn't something I'd done before and only happened because I was in such a jolly mood following Doctor Who that when The Youngest suggested it, I bit.  Based on previous early-morning archaeological experience of the kind of stuff that got left in the playground I anticipated a late visit would yield an army of sullen teens, and primed the kids to expect it. Instead, there was a healthy number of families still using the site.

We left the playground bit at nine and, at The Youngest's prompting headed off down towards the (closed) Farm Centre and beyond that, The Haunted Passage. On the way back up The Wobbly Path I suggested to the kids that if they stopped screaming and yelping they might see something special, like a fox or a hedgehog or, at worse, some rabbits. They duly obliged, but we saw nothing until, skirting The Commonwealth Games Bowling Green, The Eldest spotted five baby rabbits on the bank at the edge of the supposed community facility.  We doubled back from the way we were going and, through some expert creeping, got as near as we could to the little fellas.

Kicker Conspiracy Day Fifteeen

Yesterday, Heywood Road, Prestwich.

Park Life (Nights)

Heaton Park right now. Join us.