Martin ThomassonI couldn’t swear that the The Patience of Trees is the best thing at this year’s Manchester International Festival; I haven’t seen everything on offer. But, as an event, it has that necessary sprinkling of magic that will make it the experience I...
Simon A. Morrison“It’s such a privilege being back on a stage,” says Damon Albarn, half way through tonight’s show. “And extra super lovely for me, being back in Manchester. At the festival.” Indeed, Damon Albarn has become something akin to the spiritual heart of...
Do you have one of those brains that comes pre-equipped with an internal jukebox? Personally, every morning, I wake up and my mind immediately fires up that jukebox, flips in a dime, and on comes some track; a soundtrack as I fix my breakfast and...
It is a not-quite-paradox of human life that we are all the same and yet each is so unique. One way or another, these two facts underpin all of human joy and suffering. Take, for example, grief: so universal an experience for humanity, yet so...
Paul ThomasonThe Geomag Supercolor Panels set is a vibrant addition to the Geomag range of magnetic construction toys. There are two storage boxes contained within this set, which house the magnetic rods and metallic spheres that can be used to create all manner...
Kitchen play sets are a toy all young children should have access to, given that they help strengthen social and fine-motor skills, improve hand eye co-ordination and trigger their imagination. To meet this need, Danish toy manufacturers, Dantoy...
The nice woman working security at the Lowry approaches me with her metal-detecting device.“Do you have a pacemaker,” she asks. “I don’t think so.” This is not to be found on anyone’s list of Sensible Answers. What was I thinking? That some rogue...
I posted a photograph on social media last night, showing the musicians starting to take their seats on stage at the Lowry’s Lyric theatre. You can also make out how thinly populated the auditorium is. “Sparse,” a friend of mine commented. Indeed...
Cards on the table, I am somewhat unsettled in both my bones and my city as it is. For parts of this last year, living in the city was like existing in some dystopian Alex Garland movie. Free to walk down the middle of Deansgate, hardly...
Even without the masks (which most of us are wearing) and the deliberate, careful spacing of the audience, the metallic click and breathy “gasp” of cans of cider being opened around the auditorium (there’s no bar tonight), would tell you this is not...