Come along to the Bay Horse on Thursday to find out more about the Cutting Room Experiment. This is the event which could see hundreds of people bouncing around in the biggest Space Hopper race ever, a huge silent disco and a mass dance routine to Michael Jackson’s Thriller just to name a few. Until votes close on Friday, May 29 anything could happen!

With an interactive website, this event wants the audience to get involved, come up with their own ideas and also vote for their favourites in each stream.

And this is where you come in – bloggers are the new influencers and we want you to get involved. Have a look at the website – www.cuttingroomexperiment.com – there are 12 streams on everything from architecture and design, dance, pop music, art and craft, literature and loads more to make sure there is absolutely something for everyone to enjoy. Get voting or if you have a better idea, then put it down.

And to kick off  ‘the biggest user-generated event ever attempted by the people of Manchester’, they’re offering bloggers a free pint at the Bay Horse on Thomas Street. Head down at 6.30pm tomorrow, Thursday, for a chat and to claim your two complimentary units of alcohol.

This time, the venue’s something of an upgrade: Centro on Tib Street. The place is impossibly busy and loud on the weekend but reasonable enough during the week, and stocks some great beers (though the hand-pulls are usually off). It’s just past Matt & Phreds – but if you reach Big in Amsterdam, you’ve gone too far:

This Manchester blogmeet takes place next Tuesday, 10 March, 7-9pm. If those hours are adhered to, I’ll eat my blog. Leave a comment on the Manchizzle if you fancy attending.

[Photo by Flickr user conspicuous ID]

If I wasn’t there I’d be at the Northern pub on Tib Street where the Social Media Cafe, a new monthly event, will be launching. It’s designed ‘for anyone involved or interested in social media as a means of reaching new audiences, collaboration and sharing skills and experience’.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re just such a person. And, based on Sarah Hartley’s post on her MEN blog, there are plenty of interested individuals – with Mindy from IndieCredential, Dave Carter and Adrian Slatcher from the MDDA, and Black Country Grammar’s Jonthebeef just a few of the recognisable names listed.

Here’s the programme for tomorrow:

18:00 Doors open
18:20 Introductions what we are and who we are
18:30 Panel discussion ‘Is blogging dead?’ (Craig McGinty, Martin Bryant, Chi-Chi Ekweozor (tbc), chair Sarah Hartley)
19:00 Questions
19:30 Networking
20:30 Round up and close

For more information and to register your interest, join the Google Group.

Ladyfest Manchester: Starting tonight, Manchester’s annual celebration of women in the creative and cultural arts is a three-day event based at the much under-used Zion Arts Centre in Hulme. Open to all ages and sexes, it includes cabaret, theatre, cinema, arts, crafts and a particularly strong music strand, with bands including Sophie’s Pigeons, GeEk giRl (try typing that accurately at speed!), Hotpants Romance and Das Wanderlust, plus the event’s two biggest names, the Slits and Manda Rin (she who sang Kandy Pop with Bis). And Amelia Fletcher (of Tallulah Gosh/Heavenly) is a last-minute addition! Friday-Sun. £5-£25.

Manchester blogging workshops: Yes, Kate from the Manchizzle and I are back this month with three of our irregular blogging workshops. The first, tomorrow afternoon at the Manchester Digital Development Agency’s rather swish offices on Portland Street, is a ‘blog lab’ where we’ll aim to solve practical blogging problems (think feeds, stats, platforms, domains…) and discuss style and content. This is a drop-in session, but please let us know that you’re coming down – call 0161 236 5555 or email admin@manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk. Saturday, 1pm-3pm. Free

Timbreland Recordings Showcase: Timbreland is quite simply one of the best record labels in this town, with two of their artists, Nancy Elizabeth (Cunliffe) and Starless & Bible Black, right at the forefront of Manchester’s new folk scene. Pete from Starless will be playing solo tomorrow, alongside the excellent Winter Journey duo and Sally Murray, who I haven’t heard but will apparently appeal to Cat Power fans. This is at the rather lovely Art of Tea cafe (formerly Zero Records) on Barlow Moor Road. Saturday, 7.30pm. £4

[Photo by daresbalat]

BLOG LAB
On Saturday 8 November, 1pm-3pm
At Manchester Digital Development Agency, 117-119 Portland Street, Manchester M1 6ED

Stuck on posting images in Blogger? Need someone to walk you through switching platforms? Want to pimp your blog up with all the latest cool widgets, or just get some feedback on your new site? Two experienced bloggers will be on hand to help solve your practical blogging problems in these open ’surgery’ sessions. Some computers available, or bring your own and use our wireless. Drop in whenever you like during the session, but please let us know you’re coming.

BLOGGING FOR BEGINNERS
On Saturday 22 November, 10am-12pm
At Gorton Library, Garratt Way, Gorton, Manchester M18 8HE

On Saturday 29 November 10am-12pm
At Crumpsall Library, Abraham Moss Centre, Crescent Road, Crumpsall, Manchester M8 5UF

So you think you’d like to create a blog, but you’re not really sure where to start? In this workshop we’ll take you through the basics, and by the end of it you’ll have your own blog.

All three sessions are free – but space is limited and the previous workshops have been packed out, so get in there early if you’re coming. To book, call the Manchester Literature Festival office on 0161 236 5555 or email admin at manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk.

Past Crimes – Historical crime writers Lee Jackson, Andrew Martin and Anne Perry talk about their work in the ’suitably gothic’ surroundings of the John Ryland’s Library. Today, Friday, 7pm. Free

Between the Panels – An illustrated discuss with a panel of three graphic novelists. Whitworth Art Gallery, Sunday 19 October, 3pm. £4/£3

School of Manchester – A demonstration of the city’s strength in literature education, as three graduates – including Joe Stretch – talk about their debut novels. The Deaf Institute, Sunday 19 October, 7.30pm. £5/£3

Portico Prize Preview – Featuring shortlisted authors from the biennial Portico Prize for a book set mainly in northern England. Manchester Central Library (pity it’s not at the Portico library…), Wednesday 22 October, 1pm. Free

Manchester Blog Awards – The third annual blog awards, for which Mancubist is nominated, this year feature a new award, CityLife Blog of the Year. Matt & Phred’s Jazz Club, Wednesday 22 October, 7pm. Tickets £3/£2

Comma Film Premiere – Five new films adapted from short stories published in the North West, plus the film-makers and writers explaining the adaptation process. Cornerhouse, Thursday 23 October, 6.30pm. £4/£3

It looks like you’re writing a letter – Ross Sutherland and Tim Clare give a lecture on the relationship between language and mathematics, bizarrely. Followed by Tony Walsh’s Zeroes and Ones, which ‘compresses 14 billion years of science and philosophy into one byte-sized poem’. Museum of Science and Industry, Sunday 26 October, 2pm. £5/£3

And those are just select highlights! Pick up one of the ridiculously bright brochures – or visit the festival website – for the full programme. Well done to Cathy and Jon for putting such a substantial festival together, and for using more than just the usual venues.

We had 107 separate nominations this year, coming in from as far away as San Francisco. There was such a wealth of great stuff that it was harder than ever to do the shortlisting, particularly in the Best Writing on a Blog category (by far our most nominated-for).

Best New Blog:

Dear Kitty
Coco LaVerne
Follow The Yellow Brick Road
14sandwiches

Best Writing on a Blog:

Diary of a Bluestocking
Every day I lie a little
Nine chains to the moon
Chicken and Pies

Best Arts and Culture Blog:

Scatterdrum
Quit This Pampered Town
Northernnights
Max Dunbar

Best Personal Blog:

Travels with my baby
Single Mother on the Verge
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
40three

Best Neighbourhood Blog:

Hyde Daily Photo
Mancubist
Lady Levenshulme
Manchester Bus

There are plenty of good blogs in the shortlist – and loads of new names too, which is obviously great to see. I’ll be checking out my competition in the new neighbourhood category over the next couple of days… (thanks for the nomination).

Judges this year are the MEN’s online editor Sarah Hartley, MDDA’s Dave Carter and Chris Killen, who writes Days of Moustaches and runs No Point in Not Being Friends.

The Manchester Blog Awards event takes place on Wednesday 22 October, again at Matt & Phred’s on Tib Street. If you like music and literature with just a hint of geekdom, do come down.

Either way, it’s also the fullest name of No Point in Not Being Friends, a monthly literature (that’s poetry and prose) event that takes place at the Deaf Institute. Here’s more about the 23 September event, tomorrow:

The third night is in the Upstairs Music Hall of the Deaf Institute (new Trof), off Oxford Road. Joe Stretch, David Gaffney, John McAuliffe, and Jenn Ashworth will be reading, along with lots of other scheduled and open-mic readers, and the American writer Tao Lin will be doing the ‘video reading’.

Stretch – singer in local electro band Performance and writer-in-residence at Manchester University’s Centre for New Writing – has had plenty of exposure lately, and Lin’s video reading should be interesting.

The event is inspired by New York’s underground literature scene and there’s a big lit-blog connection too – including through organisers Sally Cook and Chris Killen, Ashworth, who reviewed July’s event, and the event’s own dedicated blog. It’s also on MySpace, so practically every base is covered.

No Point in Not Being Friends kicks off at 8pm and is free. Check out Katie Popperwell’s article on the new-look CityLife website for more information and an interview with Cook.

And while we’re on the subject of Manchester lit, today’s Metro flagged up a free showcase of work by the Centre for New Writing’s PhD students, which takes place in the Committee Room of the Central Library at 1pm on Wednesday 24 September.

The event’s format has worked well (I would say that, wouldn’t i?) but this year Kate’s refreshing things a bit by dropping the Best Political Blog category (so 2006/7…) and bringing in Best Neighbourhood Blog, to recognise a growing number of locale-specific blogs such as Mini Manchester and Roblog.

The awards, backed by the Manchester Literature Festival and Manchester Digital Development Agency, will take place on Wednesday 22 October back at Matt & Phreds on Tib Street. There’ll be readings by local bloggers including Chris Killen from Day of Moustaches, plus DJing from Manchester’s music bloggers (full information here).

In the meantime, voting is open until Thursday 18 September – so email mancblogawards AT googlemail.com, clearly stating your name, where you live, the name and url of of the blog(s) you’re nominating and which category or categories you’re nominating for. Check out the Manchizzle post for everything that you need to know, including details of who qualifies.

That’s the question posed by Julie Delvaux over at her Notebooks – Los Cuadernos de Julia blog. A year or two ago there were semi-regular events organised by and for Manchester’s blogging community – but in 2008 not even a quiet pint in a dingy pub (the Castle has shut down, after all).

Julie wants to right that wrong and is therefore appealing for anyone interested in going to a monthly/bi-monthly event to get in touch. Craig McGinty and several other Manchester bloggers have already posted comments in response, and a September date is in the offing.

Sarah Hartley over at the MEN’s The Mancunian Way blog has mentioned it too, in post explaining a new initiative she has just set up. Starting this week, she’s going to be highlighting some of Manchester’s ‘internet stars’ – people who have blogs or websites in some way connected to the city.

The profiles, including of this week’s www.manchester-blog.com, will go online as well as in the Saturday edition’s e-view section – so if you want to nominate yourself or someone else, email Sarah now.