Had a lovely cultural day out in Liverpool yesterday. Stopped off at the Bluecoat (great lunch upstairs at the Bistro) and the Walker Art Gallery for the John Moores Painting Prize 2010.

Fave images from the John Moores:

Ran out of time, didn’t manage to see any of the Wolfgang Tillman’s at the Walker or A Foundation “New Contemporaries” so another trip over is the only answer.  So much brilliant stuff over in Liverpool at the minute.

Also trivia note, spotted Stuart Maconie (@stuartmaconie on Twitter), recording a segment about the John Moores Prize for the Beeb’s “Inside Out”.  Would imagine that will be on this week or next.

Apologies for the lack of posts of late.  As well as being really busy on my commercial work I have been shooting, editing, processing and prepping this fantastic project “Beards of Manchester”.

The launch of the “Beards of Manchester” calendar will be at Common Bar this Thursday 21st October from 6pm.

It’s a hairy initiative to find the best beards in Manchester and all in the name of charity.  The brainchild of Sam (b & n magazine) and Chris (Oh Digital),  I was delighted to be asked to work on this project and played my part by taking all the photographs featured in the calendar in and around Manchester over the last few weeks.  The sun came out once and not even torrential rain stopped us.

All images featured in the calendar will be exhibited in Common Bar, Northern Quarter, Manchester aswell as a huge framed compilation of all the hairy entries which didn’t make the cut.

The charity calendar will be on sale on the night and at venues around the city after that, I think the guys are also trying to get an online vendor interested for sales further afield.  Will keep you posted.

There may be beer.  Could well be cupcakes.
Would love it if you can join me.  Thanks for reading and hope to see you Thursday.

Gill x

PS   Beards of Manchester has a website and a Facebook page.

It’s been a bit tough fitting everything in, but I’m so glad I did.  The launch is tonight and all the people, beardees et al, have been terrific to work with.  Hopefully all the charity calender’s sell out and we have to have a reprint.  I will write more once I’ve recovered from the launch.

Thanks everyone who has supported this project!   From all who submitted their beards at the start, those who gave their time, equipment, their vocal support, it made a massive difference.  You all made this happen.

I am hoping to take part in this fantastic art project which started in Berlin and now comes to Manchester in September.  I need to find time to print up some of my latest photography work (one print I’m submitting has just been shortlisted for an award but I’m not allowed to announce what just yet).  I am determined to find time to support such a terrific idea.

To get involved you can donate an hour or two and become an art distributer via bicycle or you can create and donate your artistic work.  Or both.  This art can be anything; any subject (within decency realms), any quantity, originals, prints, photos, copies etc. all are welcome.  Details of how to submit are here. Work should be between A4 and A1 in size.  The Deadline is 1st September 2010.

Each distributed art roll will contain several different works, so each one holds a unique combination of works.

The bike bit is designed to mean the art will go to anyone who happens to be in the vicinity of the cycle route at the time, so it’s completely random and without stereotype.  It fits with the quirky nature of the project and allows art to become public art.

All work will be exhibited at Nexus Cafe, Manchester Soup Kitchen, Norther Quarter, Manchester, prior to distribution and some contributors work is being featured over on the Papergirl tumblr site right this minute ….  so get along and have a shufty.

The project is on twitter and facebook and has been featured over at central station creative network and on the Creative Boom website.  You can read more about the original Berlin project here (don’t worry if your German is a little rusty there is an English translation).

Finally, if Ms Papergirl MCR (Janice?) reads this, I have two questions:

1) Can I buy a Papergirl MCR tee-shirt?  I see Berlin had one and it’s lovely.
2) Can cycling boys take part and be Paperboys?

UPDATE:  Sept 8th 2010. Preview Night, all welcome at Soup Kitchen: See the Papergirl Manchester submissions before they are distributed at our exhibition launch night, on Thursday 30th September from 7pm. Papergirl Manchester will showcase artists from Russia, Estonia, Canada, France, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, U.S.A, Sweden, Italy, Germany and the UK. So far we have received almost 700 pieces of work to be distributed. The exhibition will feature at least one piece by each artist.

UPDATE: Sept 8th 2010.  Papergirl still accepting late submissions: “We have a few late submissions coming in so if you haven’t submitted anything but want to, get in touch http://bit.ly/dcg2ik“

One of my favourite all time albums is Fear of Music by Talking Heads and it triggered a fun post over on Blake Andrews’s blog.  Blake decided to match images with each of the tracks.  Above are a few of the images plus the original cover which is the one on the far left.  I think my favourite is “I Zimbra”, middle image above, it fits the mood of the track perfectly with a hint of the tribal about it.

His blog is a great one to bookmark; delving into the photographic sphere and featuring loads of interesting, thoughtful and inspiring posts and interviews.

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Post-Springwatch I get lots of visitors reading the blog who have searched via the keywords Manchester and Peregrines.  I thought it about time I updated the blog post I did last year as things have moved on.  Yes quite literally!  The pair, which previously nested under the installed webcam at a secret location in the centre of Manchester, decided they needed a change of scene.

Being birds of a certain taste they plumped for the penthouse floor on the Grade II-listed CIS Tower owned by the Co-operative Society.  A very sound choice by the wise pair, being the second tallest building in the city centre at 387ft (opened in 2007 Hilton Tower/Beetham Tower became the highest at 554ft).  Snowdon may well be ten times the height of the CIS Tower but this Manchester landmark building is more than adequate height-wise and provides a healthy and perpetual pigeon diet right on the doorstep.

The Co-op are chuffed to bits the birds are nesting on their building and using the nestbox they built, rather hopefully, four years ago.  They released a  news update on their blog and this is the place to go if you want to get in touch with any questions.

Sadly, the switch of nesting site by the peregrine pair caught everyone on the hop a bit and though there was a webcam on the CIS near the nest site, it was found not to work and needed replacing.  The birds could not be disturbed once the nest was built so a team was tasked from the RSPB Peregrine Project to allow Manchester’s residents and visitors to gain terrific views.  Most Saturday’s the RSPB have a high-powered telescope or two trained on the nest and the bird’s popular posing spots.  Check the RSPB site to find out more details.  They should be at Exchange Square (outside the Triangle/Corn Exchange) until mid-July but do check the website before heading out.

Previously the Manchester peregrine pair have raised four chicks.  2010 has been less successful with two chicks being born.  That could be a result of the long, harsh cold winter and a resulting poor diet, no-one really knows.  The new chicks were ringed at the end of May which will allow further monitoring and tracking.  There’s a short piece featuring the very vocal chick above on the BBC Manchester website.  I am not sure whether they have fledged yet, but the male bird has been reported hunting and bringing food back to the nest only last week so my guess is they haven’t gone exploring just yet.  Do let me know and send a comment if you have any further information.

Nice to know the Manchester peregrine pair are back and the city once again has a fantastic chance to catch an intimate glimpse of one of the avian world’s star performers.

To read my previous post on the birds return to Manchester in 2009 (featuring some great still images taken from the webcam) click here.

• UPDATE. July 2010. I am afraid I have some sad news to report.  One of the two peregrine chicks did not make it past it’s maiden flight.  Eyewitness accounts seem to be pointing to the demise being due to the young bird flying into an office window.  This does seem to tally up with the fact that the new nest site is next to the mirrored glass/solar panels of the CIS offices, who knows.  The second young chick also had a near catastrophe in the early days of learning to fly.  It hit the window of the nearby Crown Plaza Hotel and was rescued in a dazed condition.  After treatment and recuperation at the Animals in Distress centre in Irlam the bird was re-united with its parents and now seems to be doing really well.  Thanks goodness, one happy ending at least.

• UPDATE. June 2011. Click here to go to a further post on what has happened to the Manchester pair for 2011 who returned to raise more chicks this summer in Manchester.