Tweet 2013 was pretty interesting on the work front. Since my last round-up, I’ve been writing much more – a welcome change to the editorial work that is the bulk of my workload at present. I had a nice commission from Best, for example, to puncture the sacred cow known as Great British Bake Off. […]
A means to an end
Published in July 17th, 2013
Tweet The story of influential Manchester band Joy Division has been told to the point of exhaustion, right? So many books, including Hooky’s, two films in the shape of the excellent Control and Steve Coogan’s 24 Hour Party People, not to mention the myriad press coverage. But a play? Well, yes. Why not? The big […]
Street food – from popup to mainstream?
Published in June 26th, 2013
Tweet Unlike other cities that have enjoyed a thriving street food scene for some time, Manchester lacked one until late last year. Guerrilla Eats sought to rectify that, as I wrote last November, and so far their popup strategy is thriving. Every couple of months, the traders licence a pitch for a few days, the […]
Crowdfunding for carrots and kale
Published in June 11th, 2013
Tweet Crowdfunding for new projects is quite the thing these days and it makes a lot of sense to raise money from the very customers you want to buy your product because those customers already have some kind of emotional investment. Look at the success of crowdfunding the Pebble, for example. Raising capital this way […]
The Beast and the Swine – a mighty, meaty Leeds pop-up feast
Published in April 14th, 2013
Tweet Back in the 80s, as an impoverished Leeds student, eating out in the city invariably meant a cheap curry at the legendary (original) Corner Café on Buslingthorpe Lane. Twenty-five years after I moved away, I still revisit friends there but know almost nothing of its current restaurant scene. As I now write a food […]
Some things I’ve been writing
Published in December 2nd, 2012
Tweet I’m a bit embarrassed that these days I don’t get around to updating this blog much. It’s mainly because I’m preoccupied elsewhere, so I though it was time to share where you can read some of the other stuff I’ve written of late. Firstly, there’s the other blog – I started The Lone Gourmet […]
No longer disabled enough: Cameron’s brave new world
Published in May 1st, 2012
Tweet Today it’s Blogging Against Disablism Day, an annual blog carnival in which we take stock of our crip status and our lives. To my shame it’s been three years since I last participated in BADD, and almost two years since I last blogged about how living with epilepsy affects me. Not much has changed, […]
Rainy City hosts hack day for hacks and hackers
Published in September 6th, 2010
Tweet Unlocking the secrets of open data journalism in Manchester As more and more public bodies free their data to the public, and with interpretation of that data set to be increasingly important in journalism, it was only a matter of time before someone had the idea of bringing journalists and computer geeks together to […]
BBC News redesign excludes the disabled
Published in July 14th, 2010
Tweet The BBC rolled out its new-look BBC News website redesign today amid much fanfare. It’s attracted a lot of comment, not just on the site itself but also across the media-reporting media. Taking out all the “if it ain’t broke, why fix it” remarks, of which there were very many, there still seemed to […]
Disability Living Allowance – a personal experience
Published in June 24th, 2010
Tweet Tuesday’s Budget contained the not-entirely-unexpected announcement of cuts to benefits. There was a general expectation that Incapacity Benefit (IB) and its new incarnation, Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), both of which are claimed by many disabled people, would be targeted. IB is frequently in the news for its renown as a benefit that is […]
