Photographic Portrait Prize 2007 - The Lowry

I went to the Lowry Centre today to catch the Photographic Portrait exhibition, which closes this weekend. And whilst I found it quite enjoyable I do have mixed feelings over whether I enjoyed the exhibition or not, maybe it was my own fault for expecting something slightly grittier than what I saw, my preconceptions being led in particular by this photograph

Portrait Prize winner Joseline Ingabire with her daughter Leah Batamuliza, Rwanda, from the series Intended Consequences: Mothers of Genocide, Children of Rape, by Jonathan Torgovnik © the artist.
I suppose I was expecting portraits that told a story about the subject, but I found many were simply portraits of children who were in some way related to the photographer, that appeared to have been used for the photo as they were readily available.. or again, maybe I read too much/too little from the snippet of information on the descriptions.
The photos I did find very striking included Alex Hurricane Higgins by Michael Donald (albeit displayed in a rather odd position in the gallery) and Alice & Fish By David Stewart. A small sample of the finalists can be found on the National Portrait Gallery website.

Ting Tings, Manchester Academy 3rd October 2008

Went to see the Ting Tings on Friday at Manchester Academy. We met with friends in Jabez Clegg before hand as it's usually cheaper than the academy one, but for some reason 2 pints cost me over £6, which seems a bit extortionate for a student place, might as well go to Kro next door and get a decent pint for that sort of money. Although we did get given a free drink each from the Jim Beam representative in there, shame the only one of us who likes it was driving that night! But on the up side we're all apparently going to receive an email invitation to a survey about Jim Beam which if we complete we'll receive a £10 Amazon voucher...
Anyway, onto the gig, we walked across the road to the academy around 9pm, and it was still busy with people going in, this was my first time since the academy has been fully refurbished - the last time I was there, the toilets were still portable units outside the building. The first thing I noticed was that they hadn't learnt from the last time - the toilets were back to being the same - over flowing, poor layout/design, and they had put the bar back in the old position meaning that there was a huge bottle neck upon entering the venue, although adding an upstairs bit was a nice surprise I suppose (but their was a massive queue to go up there as well). Despite the new lay out there was still minimal bar space, so getting a drink took a good 15 minutes once we got into the venue, and of course we were paying around £3.50 for a can of beer. I think we pretty much missed the support act Fight Like Apes, as they were finishing as we were queueing for the bar.
The ting tings came on stage around half nine, I can't actually remember the first song they played, just that the crowd went wild jumping, dancing and singing along, which set the tone for the rest of the evening. They played the hit singles: that's not my name, great dj, shut up and dance, along with fruit machine, be the one and a couple more off the album, they also played a couple of songs I didn't recognise, so I don't know whether they are new tracks off the much anticipated second album or not, I hope so. It's great when you can see the band really throwing all their energy into the performance and that's what we got with the ting tings, at times they reminded me of blondie, with katie's 80's punky movement.
The crowd was very eclectic and friendly. really good gig in all, shame their next tour is going to be at the apollo though, as it's one of my least favourite venues and the hiked ticket price is making it a no go.

The Kite Runner

I've just finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, such a beautifully written book, I really don't think I could do it justice. The basic premise of the book can be found in the link above. I don't think I've ever been so torn between not wanting to know what comes next and being unable to put a book down, hoping that everything will turn out ok but knowing that my hope for a happy ending is pretty futile and the story is going to have a lot more emotional turmoil, it actually had me holding back the tears in several parts. Not sure whether I will be able to sit through the film when it comes out, but I will definitely be looking out for Hosseini's next book A Thousand Splendid Suns on my next trip into Manchester. But for tonight, my next book is Reading Lolita In Tehran which is a memoir by Azar Nafisi.