A Few New Posts...

A short one this one. 

I had an idea recently of something relatively creative and, I think, quite interesting.

The idea is a blog post about each emotion, and how each emotion affects my own life. You know, love, hate, fear, angst, sadness etc.

I'm sure it's been done before but I'm going to do it anyway, sporadically of course, so not every single post but just whenever I feel like it. I thought I'd let you know in advance so that you don't think I'm going mad.

I might as well do it alphabetically, so we'll start with Affection...at some point.

Oh and Happy Easter!


Loui

Manchester International Festival

Bit of a long plug this one.

Many of you will have never heard of the Manchester International Festival, especially if you're not from the north. The festival is relatively new, running only since 2007 for a couple of weeks biennially, usually in June or July. The festival is by no means a music festival (there's too many of them around!) but a kind of arts/cultural festival with various theatre productions, operas, art installations, and one off musical performances. Part of the appeal is that most of these productions are brand new and debut at the festival with a lot of them not continuing anywhere else after the festival has ended.

Before the festival became what it is today Manchester commissioned 3 different projects to showcase that Manchester is significant culturally as a city (seeing as it is often overlooked as the 2nd city of the country to the very exciting and important city of Birmingham). Sarcasm doesn't come across well in the written word.

These commissions included performances by virtual band Gorillaz (i.e. Damon Albarn), Ennio Morricone (composer of very famous film scores such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) and an art installation by Steve Mcqueen (artist, not the actor) in response the invasion of Iraq.

The 2007 festival was relatively low key, featuring only a handful of commissions. Gorillaz creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett returned, as well as a new production of the Pianist.

2009

The 2009 festival, however, is where it really came into it's own. That year saw the debut performance of Rufus Wainwright's opera Prima Donna, a co-production by Damon Albarn and Adam Curtis named It Felt Like A Kiss, performances by Lou Reed, and a unique installation by Zaha Hadid architects, which personally took my fancy. In total there were 20 commissions over the festival period.

One Setup

2011

This festival I personally visited a couple of times. One thing I haven't mentioned is that during all of these productions Manchester, or certain areas of it, is teeming with life. There are various bands on in bars, pubs, clubs as well as parades and exhibitions. If you're in Manchester but aren't visiting anything in particular there's still a certain mardi gras spirit about the place. This festival saw the return (yet again) of Damon Albarn (right) with his new opera Dr. Dee, performances by Bjorn, Snoop Dogg (yes really), Victoria Wood, Sinead O'Connor and even Willem  Dafoe (yes even Hollywood comes to Manchester!) among others. 

2013

This year's lineup includes Kenneth Branagh (right) portraying Macbeth in a broken down church (sounds good, no?), a unique production by Massive Attack, a reappearance by Willem Dafoe, the xx, and Goldfrapp and more to be announced. If you're interested then visit the official website for a full lineup of events. I urge you all to have a pop over and take a look!

http://www.mif.co.uk/




Loui



P.S. I would have written a full review of Dr. Dee but it'd be a post in itself!

Social Media...

A bit different this one.

I never used to be a fan of social media. I used to think it was for people who had very little else to do with their time and/or didn't really have a life. Don't get me wrong, it used to have it's uses even when I disliked it. The quick sharing of work between groups at uni, the faster and cheaper alternative than phoning or texting anyone to organize a meet up etc.

But then I got a job.

I value my time off a lot more than I've ever done. Weekends seem to come and go quicker than weeknights, free time (after chores like eating and cleaning) are out of the way there's little time to do anything worthwhile. It's not as bad now as the nights are lighter and there seems to be more time in the evening to actually do things but during winter it seems that there isn't much more to do than sit in and watch films, TV or mess around on the old laptop. Yes I know there's the 'live today like it's your last' and 'make the most of the time you've got' crap but that's easier said than done, as I'm sure we all know. Since I've had a job I've found it more difficult to catch up with friends, family etc due to the lack of free time, so social media actually comes in handy. Anyway I digress.

To the point. 

I was determined for this blog to be about a lot more things than diabetes, but seeing as I've had a serious lack of creativity of late and social media was in my mind, I may as well give it a mention.

I am still very new to Diabetes. Although I've had it for a few months it's not long in the grand scheme of things considering that it's a life sentence. Without social media I'd be pretty stuck in all honesty. The nurses and consultants are good (most of the time) and they help me with certain things but none of them actually have the experience of diabetes. The amount of people on social media (mainly twitter in fact) who are helpful and happy to give advice is actually quite shocking, especially to someone who, if I'm honest, has a tendency to ignore what other people think and has a wayward opinion on things. It's great that there's people out there, whether around my age or above/below, that are willing to help others in a similar situation.

I've learnt far more practical things from people on social media than I think I ever will from white coats. There's discussions, arguments, blogs, docs, all sorts really and it's all for a common cause. If only there was as much awareness and help for other conditions as there is for Diabetes.


Loui