‘Don’t you just hate the way all this sales-speak has divvied up the city into Quarters - as if we lived in fucking Paris.’ The quote’s taken Penny Feeny’s Between Hope and Paradise, a short story in Naked City, an excellent book I picked up from Route’s stall at Manchester Literature Festival’s Independents Day.

It’s actually about Leeds, though the same could be said for Manchester, with the property developer-coined Green Quarter and - worse still - the Southern Quarter, which seems to incorporate anything that’s cool between the university and Portland Street. I spotted that one in Itchy Manchester, for your information.

Anyway, today BBC Manchester is reporting that the Museum of Science and Industry - or MOSI, to give it a cooler name - is getting a �54m revamp. MOSI, the Beeb says, will form part of a so-called ‘Museum Quarter’ in the city. So get out your OS maps and marker pens:

The museum quarter will stretch nearly a kilometre from the River Irwell to the Hilton tower.

Here’s MOSI director Ian Griffin with some more:

‘The newly-redeveloped MOSI would create a modern, environmentally sustainable museum while transforming an under-appreciated area of the city into a vibrant new quarter with its own distinct character.’

Which got me thinking about other areas of the city and what they might eventually become: Castlefield as the Quiet Quarter, Cathedral Gardens as the Kids’ Quarter, Chorlton as the Over-friendly Quarter and… well, leave a comment with your own suggestions.

The first Saturday in ages that I haven’t bought a Guardian and I end up being featured in it! Well, by featured I mean a five-line mention in the Guide’s blog column - but it’s much better than nothing. I think I’ll continue not to buy it in the hope of further recognition.

So a warm welcome to my fellow Guardian readers - feel free to subscribe by email or leave a comment if you like the place. And regular Mancubist readers, check out the other sites to be blogrolled here.

Meanwhile, back to the usual Manchester miscellany: someone on urban exporation website 28dayslater.co.uk has done a recce of what they call ‘Manchester Underground’ - a series of air raid shelters under the city, accord to this poster:

There are 17 shelters in all and most of them have sub sections A. B. C etc… these are joined by one long corridor… there are numerous blocked up exits and stair wells… but the most jaw dropping feature was the toilets, the whole place was maze of small wonders…

Check out the rest of these excellent photos here.

I’ve just been in a two-hour workshop session at Manchester Museum. It was set up by Creative Concern to debate ‘Manchester: the brand’ and the concept of ‘original modern’, as the saying goes.

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why I was invited. I was sitting next to MEN editor Paul Horrocks, opposite design guru Peter Saville and surrounded by people whose titles all included either ‘director’ or ‘editor’. Strangely a few had heard of Mancubist; some even said they were fans.

The intimate debate centred around the aspirations and future of Manchester and its people: its strengths and weaknesses; how it compared to other cities; what areas it should specialise in; whether it needs a slogan/nickname (’the rainy city’, surely); and how to retain the talented individuals who see Manchester as little more than a stepping stone to the cultural hub of London.

I didn’t contribute much myself - just personal experience that tells me that music, for all the cockiness and history, isn’t supported in Manchester as much as it should be. We need guides, resources, experts, schemes, encouragement, financing… very little of which currently exists. This must be one of the most risky cities in the country to promote a gig in, with crowd sizes consistently below both expectation and potential.

I can’t remember the last time I listened to an Oasis/Stone Roses/Happy Mondays/Joy Division record either - because I’m much more interested in today’s music. Much of the city - and the city’s media - is still stuck in the boring past, however. Today Manchester’s music scene is full of interesting little cliques and niches but it feels incredibly factured because no one is unifying them.

… which led indirectly onto my ‘knuckle rap’: that the city has had no comprehensive listings guide since CityLife’s demise. By luck of the draw, Paul Horrocks was charged with raising this particular issue after the workshop. Let’s see if anything comes of it…

Back in January I wrote that no funding for the Salford Film Festival spells the end. Organisers had pulled the plug, you may recall, after a no one was found to plug a �20,000 funding hole.

Thankfully, Ciara Leeming in yesterday’s MEN reported that Salford Council had, begrudgingly, agreed to stump up the money and that the festival is now back on track:

Salford council leader John Merry said he would be sitting on the management board to ensure this year’s festival was a successful one.

He said: “We can’t win. If we hadn’t have given the money we would be accused of not listening to people. Because we have, we’re being told we’ve been shamed into it. That’s simply not true.

“We were quite satisfied once we examined the business plan that this was an event we would be happy to support. Encouraging learning and creativity is one of the council’s key pledges and the Salford Film Festival certainly fits with that.”

Elsewhere, however, the future of Afflecks Palace still hangs in the balance.

Over 5,500 people have now signed an online petition to keep it open and, as the MEN reported last month, the two sides are currently engaged in talks. Interestingly, someone claiming to be Manchester councillor Pat Karney has been posting comments on that MEN story.

With just five weeks left before the lease expires on June 14, much of Manchester awaits further news with bated breath.

Someone else’s words, posted on Myspace:

Subject: Manchester is officially the worst music city ever

Body: I went to see the Jai-Alai Savant last night at the Night and Day. They have just released on Gold Standard Labs, which is run by Omar Rodruiguez of Mars Volta/At The Drive in fame.

Despite this, the band played to 3 paying customers, one guest and door staff. The gig was booked by SJM who didn’t put any other bands on and The Jai Alai Sevant played a 40 minite set to 7 or 8 people.

I spoke to the tour manager who lives in Berlin and does tour management for the Gossip as well as hundreds of other bands over the years. He’s been all around the world and everyone has mentioned that Manchester is the shittest city to play.

Did SJM drop a bollock, was it somthing to do with the Sunshine Underground gig or the football being on? It doesnt matter - what the answer is, I’m going to move to Berlin and set fire to Manchester as I leave this godforsaken music-hating city.

I’ll not be too judgemental here, because promoters SJM are about 100 more professional than anything I could ever do. But about the wider point: is Manchester in 2007, despite all the hype and rhetoric, a bad city for music?