With Manchester International Festival just three weeks away, Mancubist’s comprehensive (read: fairly haphazard) coverage is gearing up. First off, here’s a tip-off about one of your last chances to get tickets to possiby the festival’s biggest event:

Thought you’d be interested to know that the good people at Boosey & Hawkes are giving away 2 tickets to the sold out Kraftwerk/Steve Reich gig, complete with hotel, dinner and… backstage passes!

And in fact the prize includes two nights at the Radisson Edwardian, dinner at The Market Restaurant – plus a chance to meet Reich. To win, you need a Twitter account and then to visit @SteveReich for a series of questions. Check out the latest answers here, and get your own answers in by Friday.

The American composer (a bit of a hero of mine) will be having his new work 2×5 premiered by Bang on a Can at the Manchester Velodrome on 2 July. I’m sure you know what Kraftwerk are all about, but for an introduction to Reich’s music, visit his Myspace. Or if you fancy splashing out, I highly recommend this album by Powerplant, which features music by both.

Finally, I hear that a handful of tickets might be released nearer show time – so keep checking the MIF site if you don’t win.

Ear to the Ground, organisers of events such as D:Percussion, have been in touch about a launch party for Manchester’s bloggers. Here’s what they say:

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.

Everybody’s favourite Mancunian literature/drinking event, No Point In Not Being Friends, is taking a hard-earned break I’ve just discovered:

In part, to concentrate on planning a couple of big summer/autumn events we’ve got coming up (Camp Bestival and the Manchester Literature Festival) but also, because No Point is going to have a bit of a format change when it emerges from its spring cocoon, we think.

Chris and Sally go on to warn that a new No Point ‘may not be monthly anymore, and it might not even be in the same place’, which would be a pity as the Deaf Institute has a lot of fans – myself included. We await its future direction with bated breath!

In the meantime, Manchester’s literary scene continues to develop. CityLife devoted a double-page spread to it on Friday – and the website is chock full of news and features, such as Carol Ann Duffy being named as Manchester’s first female poet laureate and a preview of Paper Planes, a creative writing workshop that takes place in Fuel in Withington this coming Saturday. Katie Popperwell and her writers there doing a great job of giving editorial coverage to things that may otherwise pass us by, so long may that continue.

Tonight, meanwhile, there’s another literature event happening: the eighth instalment of The Other Room, which features Matt Dalby, Alex Davies and Allen Fisher, takes place at The Old Abbey Inn on Manchester Science Park from 7pm.

And finally, the Writing School at Man Met has launched this year’s Manchester Fiction Prize, with £10,000 up for grabs and a deadline of 7 August set. Visit the Manchester Writing Competition website for more information on that.

One new thing and one old to tell you about today…

The former is An Apathetical Reader, which is ‘a creative community site that hopes to give a voice to the vast numbers of unsupported, disillusioned young people in the city and question why individuals feel apathy towards their own work’. It’ll achieve this through local news, national political comment, features of Manchester, music journalism and artist’s profiles.

The latter is The Chapel on the edge of Platt Fields in Rusholme/Fallowfield. This building, which dates back to 1790, was used as a meeting place for Manchester Amateur Photographic Society (itself founded in 1885) and the Russell Leite Theatre School until it was purchased a couple of years back.

Now, however, it’s being run by the same ambitious group of ex-students who launched Platt Fields’ Mad Ferret festival last year and who took over the (now closed) Ram & Shackle pub. Their aims, according to a post on Indymedia.org.uk, are  to provide an autonomous space for performing arts, learning, access to the arts and local campaigners. I’m hearing lots of grand ideas coming out of this unusual building, so best of luck to them.

And the link between these two? AAR will be holding an open meeting at The Chapel this coming Wednesday from 7pm. If you fancy getting involved, email Alice or join the AAR Facebook group.

Nope, not of the soppy variety. And in fact I’m bypassing the whole event myself by heading out to Hebden Bridge to see Denis Jones play at the launch a new quarterly folk night. If you’re in Manchester, however, there are a couple of interesting things going on tomorrow…

The first is at the Royal Exchange, where Brad Fraser’s True Love Lies is in the middle of its world premiere run. The play – ‘think Six Feet Under meets My Family’ – is gaining nothing but very favourable reviews. It’s on until 21 February and tickets are priced £8.50 to £29.

The other is taking place at Nexus Art Cafe on Dale Street in the Northern Quarter. From 10am right through to 7pm, the place is being transformed into a ‘Wagamama-esque banquet hall’ in order to create ‘a space to meet brand spanking new people and make brand spanking new friends’. I read somewhere that they’re also getting a piano in, for one night only.

The other hugely important Valentine’s Day-related news is that over at Rainy City Stories we’ve picked a winner for our love story contest! It’s called The Shortest, The Coldest and it’s written by first-time writer Craig Melville. There were five finalists in total – and I’m very pleased because my three favourites (from the 56 stories and poems submitted) made that shortlist. Check them out here.

[Lovely badges courtesy of www.koolbadges.co.uk]