I <3 MCR

Tuesday 31 March 2009

As part of my internship at Cornerhouse in Manchester I had to mooch around the Northern Quarter for the best part of today, putting up posters for their exciting new Chinese photography exhibition, State Legacy.

I set out at about ten-thirty this morning with a small grainy map freshly printed off of Google, a pile of posters and leaflets, a wadge of blu-tac and a list of the places I needed to visit. I'd never experienced the Northern Quarter before and had a lovely time (when I stopped panicking that Thomas Street was nowhere to be found and that I was lost in an alleyway full of sex shops). This part of Manchester rivals London for the sheer amount of kooky independent coffee shops and clothes and music stores. I popped into a little vinyl shop and sheepishly asked the uber cool looking blokes at the counter if I could stick my poster to their desk and they were lovely! I met some really interesting people and decided that this was my new favourite place in the north west (closely followed by the abandoned insane asylum in Clitheroe).

I also discovered new coffee delights in Coffee Republic which was lurking on the corner of Oldham Street... or maybe Hilton Street, they all became a blur after a while... But it was great and had a hippy slash rocky vibe with pipes all over the ceiling and hearts painted everywhere.

Highlight of the day had to be in Chinatown when I walked into a little Chinese restaurant, thinking it was deserted at first but then noticing a tiny old Chinese man sitting in the dark shadows at the very back of the room. I tried to ask him if I could put a poster up and he looked fairly intrigued to start with, but didn't say much. I was about to give up on the idea and go and rest my weary feet somewhere comfortable but then a very lively and camp young Chinese man came downstairs and told me, in the most enthusiastically expressive way, that of course I could put the poster up, daarrrling, and don't worry about him, he doesn't understand English. The whole episode was fairly ridiculous and when I stepped outside the restaurant I had to pinch myself to check I was still on planet earth.

1 comments:

Steph 1 April 2009 at 16:41  

That sounds like one interesting day! I love the part about the camp Chinese guy...and the other one sitting in the dark. It made me chuckle heartily.

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