So the Albert Square flash mob pillow fight took place at 2pm today. IckleWeb has a great set of photos and this video, which is already on YouTube:

There are also plenty of photos appearing on Flickr. The fight spilled out to around Urbis, where the kids were still at it well into the early evening.

UPDATE: Just one arrest, apparently, for hitting a policeman with a beanbag.

Walls: they’re what surround us. They’re also, if you think about it, very large canvases.

Manchester seems to be noticing this lately, with local artist Matt Sewell doing a great job of painting various walls. The Whitworth Art Gallery is embracing walls too, with its new Featured Walls exhibition beginning tomorrow.

Personally, my favourite Manchester wall is this one on derelict land on New Wakefield Street (just off Oxford Road):

It wasn’t until I read about him on LiveJournal that I started noticing Mr WWW Sabi Rock.

I’ve seen him four times in the last week – including yesterday, under a bridge in the middle of a dual carraigeway. Other sightings: outside the Palace Hotel, Oxford Road and in Piccadilly Gardens.

Stephen Newton’s spotted him too, but there’s been surprisingly little said about his appearance otherwise. Stephen’s blurry photographs make him look like some sort of enigmatic Loch Ness Monster figure:

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In The City – the highlight of Manchester’s musical calendar – is back later this year: from Saturday October 28 until Tuesday October 31 to be precise.

It usually falls on a conventional weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun), but this year there’s a Labour Party Conference in town.

I’ve been involved with every ITC since coming to Manchester – from watching 30 bands in three days in 2003, to reporting on the conference itself last year. This year I hope to be promoting ITC events myself – more to follow on that.

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