Manchester International Festival: Day 13

• Richard Fair
• 10 Jul 07, 08:57 AM

Apparently the quietest thing you can eat in a cinema is a prawn sandwich. This reliable piece of cinema etiquette comes to me from If you're sad and like beer... and she should know as she spends a lot of time eating prawn sandwiches or in the cinema, or both.

If you're sad and like beer... was just one of over twenty Manchester Bloggers who came to the BBC Manchester Blog Meet in the International Festival Pavilion. All huddled round various laptops like striking workers around braziers, we were somewhat conspicuous with only a couple of late comers asking if we were the bloggers. I'm not really sure who they thought we may have been sat there with more gadgets than Curry’s on the table.

It’s not the first meet-up we've had so it was nice to see so many new faces. “I like to put a face to a blog”, as Stephen Newton put it just before a myriad of camera flashes went off as bloggers took pictures of bloggers while other bloggers took pictures of bloggers taking pictures. And then they do that thing that people with digital cameras do. They come and show you the picture they just took.

“That’s you”. “Is it? Me? Gosh, I look just like I do in the mirror, only you managed to capture by bad side and my mouth looks like I’m hiding a gerbil in it. And this is going on Flickr? Oh, it’s already there. How fantastic is that”. But that’s technology for you. Gone are the days of grabbing the camera off them, opening the back and exposing all the film.

People blog for different reasons. You get those hardened bloggers - the ones that turned up with their laptops and passed free WiFi passwords round like Russian spies (sorry Julia) - the ‘If it moves, blog it’ type. Some don’t actually know why it is they blog - and some don’t admit to blogging as though it’s some kind of social disease – “I don’t blog myself, but I blog for others”. For some it’s a hobby, for some it’s a diary, for some it’s their work, for some it’s a way of networking, for some it’s a way of making money, for some it’s exhibitionism, for some it’s none of the above. They just do it because.

Thanks to all those that turned up. I must admit at being slightly worried about the picture of the cup that was left behind (see below). Nuts and bolts? Perhaps there’s a need for a blog about things people leave behind after blog meets.

Festival Pavilion
I had the offer of tasting some of Heston Blumenthal’s Chilled Summer Treats last night, but I decided to stay with the Bloggers and instead sampled the slightly warmer Mushroom Stroganoff in the Festival Pavilion. A good portion of mushrooms in a creamy sauce on a bed of rice with extra vegetables and salad served on a stylish plastic plate. All that and change from a tenner.

Under the canvas of the Pavilion with the rain outside I felt like I was on holiday in North Wales, the only difference being that Mum and Dad never had a live band playing folk music from around the world. The band was called “Muhumphamum” I think, or it could have been “Medhomemonth”. I made a proper effort to listen to their name when they were thanked at the end, “Mphftplumb”, I think the MC said but I may have been wrong.

Tonight
I’m off to see The Pianist. It’s had rave reviews so I can’t wait. I may even take a prawn sandwich with me for company.

Blogs
Those that blogged about last night’s meet are as follows (I will update this as more appear):

Notebooks
Cybersoc
Spinneyhead
Paul Hurst on Flickr
Mersey Basin Campaign Blog
It's a Blog Not a Log
Craig McGinty
Mamucium
More pictures on Flickr