The LRM

Last few tickets left for Bata-ville Film Screening 26th Jan

2012-01-16T07:17:00.000-08:00

woop! just 15 (free) tickets left for Bata-ville: We are not afraid of the future screening with a special bonus film Hush. Please join The LRM and our friends at manchester modernist society and mmu for a night of utopian shoes, coach trips, lively discussion and more.... Book your place here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/2594823186/efblike?ebtv=C

January scavanger hunt is go

2012-01-06T03:06:00.001-08:00

Howdy folks.... this sunday is the first ever lrm scavenger hunt, something silly and wonderful to welcome in the new year. We'll be gathering 12 noon in the downstairs cafe of the cornerhouse (oxford road) this sunday 8th january 2012. We'll be on the streets by 12.20 and it might be a bit tricky to find us so please try and make the start....we hope to see you there, who knows what treasures we will find? x

hello

2011-12-30T23:15:00.000-08:00

The LRM (Loiterers Resistance Movement) is a Manchester based collective of artists and activists interested in psychogeography, public space and the hidden stories of the city.

We can’t agree on what psychogeography means but we all like plants growing out of the side of buildings, looking at things from new angles, radical history, drinking tea and getting lost; having fun and feeling like a tourist in your home town. Gentrification, advertising and blandness make us sad. We believe there is magic in the mancunian rain.

Our city is wonderful and made for more than shopping. We want to reclaim it for play and revolutionary fun….

On the first Sunday of every month we go for a wander of some sort and we also organise occasional festivals, exhibitions, shows, spectacles, silliness and other random shenanigans. Please come and join us; everyone is welcome.

Please accept our apologies for the rather shabby nature of the blog at the moment; I am in the process of making it lovelier but I keep getting distracted, I'd so much rather be on the street than staring at a screen. I promise it will be sorted soon. In the meantime if you fancy a blether or a beer or just want to find out about what loitering can do for you please get in touch:
Email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk
Twitter @thelrm
Facebook group the loiterers resistance movement

We hope to see you playing out with us soon xx

January's shenanigans

2011-12-15T02:57:00.000-08:00

howdy folks
i've had a few enquiries from loiterers who have noticed januarys first sunday is, well, the first of january and so to clarify for all sorts of reasons our first sunday is shifting.

to make up for and inconvenience we have not one but two top notch events for your delight. The first ever LRM scavenger hunt will be happening on January 8th and on thursday january 26th we have a real treat. In conjunction with our friends at manchester modernist society and with a little help from steve millington at mmu we have arranged a screening of Bata-ville we are not afraid of the future.

The film night is free but tickets HAVE TO BE BOOKED IN ADVANCE to make sure there is enough room for everyone.

The link to do so is here http://bata-ville-manchester-esearch.eventbrite.com/?srnk=1 and I have to say i am very, very excited about this happening; i've been planning it for ages (well, since i fell in love with a beautiful but delapidated building in east tilbury and discovered it was part of one mans utopian vision to shoe the world)

More details of both events soon, i hope this clears up any confusion
love and tinsel
morag xx

womens design group walk tomorrow

2011-12-13T01:47:00.000-08:00

This week I am really pleased to be setting off on another expedition with Manchester Women's Design Group on a very sociable Night Walk Wednesday December 14th 6.30pm, meet in Picadilly Gardens, by Queen Victoria's Statue in between Lever Street and Oldham Street. The walk will last no longer than an hour and will finish at Albert Square around 7.30pm so we can get a hot drink to warm us up!...

We are going on a short walk around Manchester City Centre to identify places which women might not feel comfortable, and also places where they do feel comfortable. We are doing this at Night to highlight the difference between daytime uses of the city and the night time. We want to look at lighting, buildings' uses and the street design. During the walk we will add our thoughts on to a map, this will help develop ideas for how to make Manchester a more gender friendly city.

December Activity

2011-12-02T04:29:00.000-08:00

It's the always inspiring Anarchist Bookfair Saturday 3rd December (TOMORROW) at a new venue - The People's History Museum. Loads of good stuff going on http://www.underthepavement.org/bookfair/

Here's what we'll be up to: 4pm meet inside the main entrance to PHM "change life! change society! these precepts mean nothing without the production of an appropriate space" lefebvre A stroll around spinningfields looking at issues around power..., surveillance, public/private space and the construction of the neo-liberal city. How is the city designed to control and limit is and how can we resist this through" the revolution of every day life."?

Sunday is of course Decembers First Sunday; it's going to be one of our more random and whimsical game playing expeditions so don't come expecting Facts. We'll be meeting 2pm at The Britons Protection, Great Bridegewater Street and we'll be setting off by 2.20 (given the nature of this derive i have no idea where we'll end up)

Everyone is welcome to join us

glittery love
Morag xx

November's First Sunday

2011-11-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

what is psychogeography? find out what it means to The LRM this sunday, 6th November 2pm at the rather wonderful OK café. We’ll be having a friendly blether about disorienteering, the Situationist legacy, public/ private space, walking as radical practice and the idea of loitering as a way to reclaim the city for fun instead of shopping etc and after the talking we will go for some sort of walk. Everyone is welcome and we hope to offer you a view of the city that will surprise & delight how to find the rather wonderful OK cafe http://okcafe.wordpress.com/ please come and play out on the streets with us xx

Octobers First Sunday

2011-09-30T04:31:00.001-07:00

The LRM, in collaboration with The Mule, present "The architecture of fear" a wander exploring how the city is designed to make us scared.

We'll be asking questions about risk, barriers, crime, defense and trust in the shadow of the ring of s...teelStarts promptly 10am Sunday 2nd (so folk can get involved in the many fine welcoming events for the tory conference: some loiterers will be joining the TUC march and Occupy Manchester so please stay with us for the duration of the day if you wish)

I realise the early morning may be an issue so the tour will be repeated - in slightly longer, slightly darker, ending in pub for debate manner on Tuesday 4th October 7pm, Meet outside the cornerhouse both days.

All welcome, and of course the fun is free. Don't be scared, come and play - the streets belong to us all xxx

Septembers action: music, merriment and hating to love machester

2011-08-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

My dear lovers, loiterers, flaneurs, fairies, scoundrels and unclassifiable others

I hope this email finds you in good spirits despite the times. I should know better than to let it get to me but I am feeling sad and angry that I write this on “I love Manchester” Day. As you know loiterers love Manchester passionately EVERY day and I don’t want to be snarky but our home deserves better placemakers than profit making corporations pretending to care; those big red hearts are callous and want your cash, not your cuddles.

The LRM believe shopping is boring; I can think of a million more fun things to do on the streets than consume and a million better and fairer ways to spend cash than on marketing. Surely materialism, advertisements and capitalism are problems not solutions? We can't buy our way to a fairer, more equal place. We undeniably have a lot of problems to deal with but how can shopping tackle inequality? This gorgeous city is too diverse to be encapsulated in a throwaway logo that excludes so many; Manchester is a glorious mess that we should all work to turn into the city of our multiple dreams and not a shiny, shallow brand
To take an alternative view from the narrowminded marketing hype, and to meet some of the most interesting and open minded folk it is my honour to take a stroll with, please come and join The LRM on one of our derives; we will show you the city in a different light. We can’t promise answers but you can be assured of many new questions… All our expeditions on the streets are free (of course; it’s a public space and belongs to us all). Anyone and everyone is welcome.

Drinking in the City September's First Sunday is the first of our collaborations with Manchester Mule. This tour looks at the impact of alcohol on the streets, telling tales of Manchester's lost pubs, prohibition, moral panics, class struggles, casualties, criminals, romantic liaisons and comedy encounters facilitated by booze. It’s no secret I am fascinated by pubs there is a darker side to the romance. Although the walk will be dry it will end in a pub, of course! Starts Sunday September 2nd, 2pm at Piccadilly Gardens. We are looking for memories, myths, anecdotes and facts about your experience of Manchester’s pubs, past and present. These will be woven into the walk so please get in touch if you would like to contribute; we will reward you with a beverage of your choice.

October’s walk will also be a wander with The Mule, focusing on security, freedom fear and fun. We will be exploring what makes us feel safe; what features have been designed into the city to keep us secure and whether the price we pay for this is too high - what are the real threats to Manchester and what limits should be set on freedom? This feels more timely than ever; we need to remember the streets belong to us all and we can make of them what we wish.

Also in September will be a remapped version of The Manchester Modernist Heroines Tour; our ten inspiring women and their secret histories will be transposed to Platt Fields and Rusholme as part of the DIY Feminist Festival. The whole weekend sounds excellent and we are very proud to supporting it https://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=142096775871204 The Modernist Heroines project, The LRM’s partnership with Manchester Modernist Society and Shrieking Violet fanzine can be found here http://www.heroines.manchestermodernistsociety.org/#home

Finally, and rather unpsycho-geographically I’d like to invite you to what promises to be a very special gig. At times like these music, fun and comradeship seems to matter more than ever. I am delighted one of my favourite songwriters Chris Mills from Brooklyn is making a rare visit to Manchester to play an intimate show celebrating ten years of splendid songs at The Britons Protection on Friday September 9th. Support comes from the always excellent Liam Dullaghan and Quiet Loner. There will also be free cake and random delights as you would expect from The LRM. Tickets are just £5 in advance from https://www.wegottickets.com/event/128109 or direct from me if you want to avoid a booking fee – all the money goes to the artists so they can afford to go home! I do hope lots of loiterers will be able to join us as those that have done so before will vouch for the quality of our occasional forays into the entertainment world

With love and golden apples
Morag x

PS My apologies for the erratic nature of LRM updates in recent months, I shan’t bore you with the details but I have been a tad poorly. Everything is shipshape again now and hopefully the closest we ever get to normal service is now resumed. If you do ever have any questions, comments or ideas for The LRM please do feel free to get in touch; the email address is loiter@hepzombie, twitter is @thelrm or you can call our hotline on 07974929589. That’s also the best way to get hold of advance tickets for the Chris Mills gig

drinking in the city and a rare musical treat

2011-08-18T04:52:00.000-07:00

Drinking in the City

Septembers First Sunday is a collaboration with Manchester Mule. This tour looks at the impact of alcohol on the streets, telling tales of Manchester's lost pubs, prohibition, moral panics, class struggles, casualties, criminals, romantic liaisons, famous raconteurs and comedy encounters facilitated by booze. Will end in a pub, of course! Starts Sunday September 2nd, 2pm at Piccadilly Gardens

We are looking for memories, myths, anecdotes and facts about your experience of Manchester’s pubs, past and present. These will be woven into the walk so please get in touch if you would like to contribute

Chris Mills Live at The Britons Protection Friday 9th September

Ok, this isn’t psychogeographic but it will be wonderful and I do hope lots of Loiterers can come; those who have been to previous gigs will know they are always very special.

I'm really excited as the wonderful Chris Mills from Brooklyn will be making a rare visit to Manchester to play an intimate show celebrating ten years of splendid songs. Support comes from the always excellent Liam Dullaghan and Quiet Loner. There will also be free cake and random delights as you would expect from The LRM. Tickets are just £5 in advance from https://www.wegottickets.com/event/128109 or contact me to avoid a booking fee

Press Quotes
"His hidden elegance lies in the twist of lovesick metaphor, the wistful chord, the revisionist take on the slamming door” –NME
“ Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’ is a gem of pop grandeur that showcases Mills’ emotional vocal delivery.” – Chicago Sun Times
“ Over the last few years (Mills) has quietly assembled an immensely impressive catalogue. His songs are literate, funny and endearingly hang dog …. . ” - The Independent, UK
“… an artist finally, fully realizing his remarkable talents as a singer, songwriter and performer.” –No Depression

Forthcoming Events

2011-06-30T00:23:00.000-07:00

Ahoy there my lovelies

The LRM will be setting sail to magical lands this Sunday - July 3rd - as it's first Sunday of course. That's no surprise (although our destination will be). One of the things I love about The LRM is the way it ebbs and flows; people free to come and go and still being a treasured part of the collective.

In an unprecedented move due to popular demand (a phrase I have never, ever been able truthfully to type before) I have done a wee bit of forward planning and can publish our first ever events diary. It also features another first; a repeat of a previous expedition due to the amazing response to our modernist heroines tour.

July's First Sunday Derive - one of our regular explorations of the city, playing out on the street and looking at Manchester in a different way. This month we will be focusing on music, sound and memory. This Sunday, July 3rd 3pm meeting at the memorial tree in Piccadilly Gardens. (Don't forget the awesome ancoats peeps tours happening all weekend too)

Manchester Modernist Heroines - this walk celebrates the stories of ten inspiration women who shaped the 20th century city but whose achievements are overlooked by the history books. Saturday July 23rd 2pm; unlike our other events this one is ticketed so please book your ticket here http://manchesterheroines2.eventbrite.com/ If its full please register anyway or leave a comment so I can gauge the appetite for another walk. This is a repeat of the previous event which is - thrillingly and- back by popular demand. Part of an ongoing project with our friends at http://www.manchestermodernistsociety.org.uk%20and/and http://www.shriekingviolets.blogspot.com/ where you can download a copy of the accompanying 'zine which collates work from a range of contributors

Drinking in the City - this tour looks at the impact of alchohol on the streets, telling tales of Manchester's lost pubs, prohibition, moral panics, class struggles, romantic liasions, famous raconteurs and comedy encounters facilitated by booze. Will end in a pub, of course! Starts Sunday September 2nd, 2pm at Piccadilly Gardens

Chris Mills - hooray! one of our very favourite musicians is back in manchester for a very special gig. With special guests and copious amounts of cake. September 9th at The Britons Protection tickets £5

Security, Freedom and Fun - this walk will focus on what makes us feel safe; what features have been designed into the city to keep us secure and whether the price we pay for this is too high - what are the real threats to Manchester and what limits should be set on freedom? October Sunday 2nd, time tbc

The September and October events are a collaboration with the rather wonderful Manchester Mule www.manchestermule.com

I hope to see you playing on the streets with us, everyone is welcome and all our walks are free (how could we put a price on wandering the streets?)

For more details please email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or follow us on twitter @thelrm

Love and golden apples

Morag xx

ps pictures used are mostly random snaps from my wanderings

archive #3 what is psychogeography

2011-06-29T02:10:00.000-07:00

This is the introduction to Where are You? Manchesters First Accidental International Festival of Psychogeography. I've resisted the urge to edit or amend....

View subject to change but this is what we can see now. It’s a few hours before the festival starts so please excuse our poor grammar and giddy bewilderment

When I first heard the word psychogeography I had a wonderful turnaround moment of clarity, a little epiphany. It encompasses lots of things I’m fascinated by but I still find the best way to explain it to you is with a picture.

Names have such power – they give life and strength and meaning although that’s something different to everybody of course. But they limit too and it’s the same with maps – its hard not to be seduced by boundaries, Perhaps I like making maps because I’m useless at following them, A straight a-z misses out all the splendid wonkiness of life.

If you asked 20 people to draw a map of the basement they would all make something different and I bet none of them would resemble the ordinance survey or a fire plan.I’ve always loved aimless wandering and exploring, my favourite pastimes include catching random trains and finding secret passages across town and (best of all) watching urban wildlife… but hey! I’m not just an idler, I’m a flaneur and this is a derive… disorientation as experiment, play as an artistic statement…

The Loiterers Resistance Movement is about this and more. We got our name from Phaedra who was lamenting the lack of uncommercial public space in Manchester; she said having fun in Brisbane gives you a suntan but in Manchester all you get is as ASBO.

Sometimes it feels like its all about money and power in our post bomb nirvana. Every space has an advert on it and why is Canal Street the way it is? Why aren’t there any nurseries or greengrocers or haberdashers in the village? Who made gay a business opportunity? How does that make you feel and what if it’s meant to be your space but you don’t feel welcome?

But there’s still magick too if you want to find it.Did you know the grass mounds by Urbis are designed to make you want to play – but are deliberately to small to hide behind? I like that bit of town, all the kids making it their own territory. Legend has it there’s a medieval street somewhere underneath the triangle – its where the great Elizabethan alchemist John Dee lived when he was sort of banished to Manchester. I imagine his ghost finds the museums shiny glass surface an excellent scrying stone. (You can see the arse mark of a devil conjured by Mr Dee on a chair in Chethams but that is another story)

Anyway, I was thinking about all this on Sunday. We were taking pictures for the launch night quiz. The autumn light was glorious, everything was glowing and a friend and I were rushing about showing each other favourite haunts before the sun set… I’d love to tell you what we saw but then you’ll know all the answers and the quiz will be no fun… there’s some great prizes by the way, all treasure I’ve found on the city’s pavement… its amazing what you can find when you’re looking but I really ought to stop. Too much stuff is suffocating.

We walked home through the park, eating falafel and laughing at how beautiful it was and how peaceful – mostly because everyone’s too scared to go there at night. I would be too if I was on my own (that’s another map I want to draw, a collaborative one about street harassment but I can’t quite figure out how to make it work, what do you think?)

It felt like the only place in town the modern panoptican couldn’t see us – cameras everywhere these days and don’t get me started about the beetham tower, there’s not room. We discovered new constellations amongst the stars whilst a fox watched us trespass on his land. Back on the street halogen glowed and litter blew around us as we passed the old factory and a roadside shrine. There was some barbed wire on the kerb – a morag trap – I fell and cut my leg.

As above, so below

I hope you like the exhibition (mmm.maps are sexy) and enjoy the accidental festival. It should evolve over time, there’s some great work coming to us soon from 56a via Italy that I’m very excited about, plus reports from the various expeditions and explorations. Please add your own embellishments, stories, maps and musings.

The LRM are planning further actions and some point soon we might even publish our manifesto.Its central tenet will probably be that we like flowers growing out of the side of buildings and yuppification makes us sad.

Glittery love and golden apples

The Loiterers Resistance Movement, December 2006 xxx

funny but in some ways i feel we've travelled so far but in a different light it's all still the same.

archive #6 what is a derive?

2011-06-29T01:18:00.001-07:00

Dear friends, lovers and loiterers

I hope you are keeping warm, positive and open minded in the current challenging conditions. Apologies this email is out of sync with First Sunday but there a few things I wanted to share

Recently I have been questioning the relevance of the derive and been fearful it has become commodified and recuperated by so many that as a tactic is has become meaningless . When the dark times are upon us how can walking help? Have we become nothing more than social ramblers? It is true the term has been misinterpreted, misused and devalued by some utter tosh, much of if very expensive and flashy.

I was feeling sad about this but then, of course, i went for a wander and felt again the rush of excitement at an unexpected view, a serendipitous collision with the path of a friend and then I paused to hear the whispers beneath the roar of Christmas shopping.

Yes! The derive is still a relevant and beautiful tactic but it must be only one of many if we are to create our fantasy city. David Wilkinson made me cheer when he wrote to me “we are never too late, recuperation is never total or infinite. History is a process – (it was said) history was over, capitalism was smooth and efficient and people had forgotten how to fight back, And look where we are now! Student occupations and Len McCluskey make me do silly happy dances. There’s lots of places you can stand within a fundamentally contradictory society, both metaphorically and physically”

Psychogeography is an evolving and rich tradition; it has changed over time and will doubtless change again. The Situationist Internationale still holds an abiding fascination for me. Of course their true power is contested and accessibility, openness and co-operation (which The LRMN strive for) were perhaps not their strongest points. However their echoes resonate, perhaps now stronger than ever with student occupations, the return of the Okasional Café to Manchester (hooray) and roving protests disrupting the spectacle of christmas consumption whist striving to avoid kettles – such protests are nothing if not psychogeographic albeit on an unconscious level amongst the participants.

Possibly my favourite SI work deals with what, for me, is key to true social change – the integration of ideas into a "Revolution of Everyday Life" where everything we do is meaningful; a separate activist class is as damaging as being ruled by a cabinet of millionaires. “People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouths” Raoul Vaneigem.

One of the most elegant descriptions of the derive I have found is by Greil Marcus who says “The point (is) to encounter the unknown as a facet of the known, astonishment on the terrain of boredom, innocence in the face of experience. ..the physical town replaced by an imaginary city” He is clearly a wise man, and not just because he has also eulogised the best (well, my favourite) band in the world

Builing on this The LRM have identified 5 key characteristics that derives have that make them different to a commute or suchlike.

1 It should be spontaneous, directionless, aimless (obviously sometimes we have interpreted this flexibly or we would miss the story telling bit at the end… but we never know how we will get from a to b…we follow the flow and are open to digression, diversion and serendipity)

2 Loitering with us is participatory and everyone has a collective responsibility to look after themselves and each other . It would be disingenuous to say we are non hierarchical but we are open to everyone and anyone can become involved, we are always up for collaboration and will never claim to be offering a definitive version of the city (how could we?)

3 Our walks are non commercial; no one makes a monetary profit. We will never charge because the streets are free and belong to everyone.

4 And yes, this may contradict point one a little bit but so what? We aim to disrupt the banal and find new views; to glimpse the magick in the Mancunian rain and the parallel universes swirling around the city. We want to see remarkable sights and with the right frame of mind we can do so frequently

5 First Sundays are for fun and we want to bring pleasure and convivial company. Stop if you are not happy (some walks of course investigate uncanny or dark atmospheres but still should be a positive experience)

I am not idealistic enough to think this is all it takes to change the world but I do believe loitering makes a contribution on the side of good. I must also stress it is a state of mind and you don’t need the LRM to show you how to derive, we don’t know any more than you do - many of us disagree with much of the above - and in fact actually the most wonderful walks are often solitary.

I should also clarify there is a warm place in my heart for expeditions such as guided walks, especially those borne of passion that tell new stories about the streets, complicate official narratives and help us look afresh at the mundane. For examples of inspiring walks like this just think about Manchester modernist society walking the Mancunian way or Steve Millington reconnecting with Hulme. (there are others too of course)

If you have read this far I am grateful and I also want to send a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has helped make this such a splendid year for The LRM whether by joining us on the streets or sending virtual inspiration. I wish you all a glorious solstice and whatever you wish the festive season to be.

First Sundays carry on regardless of Yuletide, and I wanted to confirm we will be gathering on January 2nd – more details to follow. we will as ever be marking seasonal changes and abandoning the official path to create new desire lines across the city.

With love and light
Morag xx

PS I just got this email from a first time loiterer who joined after Alan and I spoke to the uni philospophy society about psychogeography ( a talk we hope to reprise for a general audience some time soon) “We had an amazing time. We found a hundred hidden delights and realised that half an hour later we were still only really just behind the pub” above all the derive is an action, a practice, not just a theory so please do come and join us next year

archive #5 diggers, dreamers, fools

2011-06-29T01:16:00.001-07:00

April first sunday - fools and diggers and dreamers and planters

Merry fools day one and all!

I trust you are spinning yarns and causing creative mischief; remember there is much wisdom in foolishness. Everyone is so busy I sometimes fear the art of play may vanish and so it is every loiterers sacred duty to make merry and enjoy the things that please us as long as it harm none. Smiling, walking, talking to strangers, taking things slowly – these activities should not be subversive. Truly the world turned upside down remains an idea to relish.

Today also marks an important anniversary; that of the Diggers occupying St George’s Hill and planting the land for the common good (Ok so 361 might not be an officially significant number of years to commemorate an event but our arbitrary obsession with certain numbers always strikes me as daft)

There is an oft repeated cliché that contains much truth (well, don’t they all) when it states we must learn from history or be condemned to repeat its mistakes. Lets also try and learn from its dreamers and wanderers and artists and visionaries; small, everyday triumphs that might not appear in official histories but echo through time if only we care to listen through the static. I wish I had been taught about the diggers in school. A favourite day dream of mine is to imagine if they had won and made the earth a common treasury for all…

Its another cliché but we need to say thank you more often. And we need to make sure we exercise the rights others fought for lest we loose them, including the freedom to roam and play and use the streets for more than shopping. We can, and will, go forth and explore and we should be able to do so without harassment, surveillance and random hecklers. There’s a Reclaim The Night march on April 23rd for those who want to make the point louder and with placards.

April 24 marks 76 years since another pivotal moment in the history of public space; namely the Kinder Trespass (and yes, once again we are partying a little later than everyone else but we think it deservers celebrating all the time) It still puzzles me why radical voices are so rare these days, why more people aren’t moved to action over injustice and why compassion needs to be justified so often. My every day experience is most people are good, and kind, and honest and full of far better ideas than the people in power.

Therefore this First Sunday, April 4th The LRM will doff our collective caps and salute all those who went before and have inspired us, whether we have met them or not. Please insert your own heroes name here ----------------- and if you like please send me an email telling me who inspired you and why. I’ll put it on the website if you wish too.

I’m thinking of my grandmother right now; her life didn’t have a grand metanarrative and she does not have a Wikipedia entry but she did a million kind things, taught me much (including a love of nature, how to look confident when you are scared and the secret to a perfect trifle) She also got me out of trouble countless times and its fair to say without her love, strength and idiosyncrasies there would be no LRM. I am just sad she never joined us on an expedition; she would have enchanted you I am sure. It would have been her birthday on Saturday (90th if you must know) It’s the first time I’ve not had a place to send a card to and I have been thinking of how to honour her memory.

The destination of this months derive is still a mystery – we can decide on the day depending on what we fancy doing – but its purpose is clear. We will not be dwelling on sadness and frustration but celebrating, remembering, plotting and well… planting seeds. Specifically native wild flower seeds. It will be rather more ramshackle and low key than last month’s barnstorming Hulme spectacular but all are welcome to join us.

We will be gathering at 2pm in The Britons Protection, Great Bridgewater Street and will set off soon afterwards. I do hope you can join us

Much love and foxgloves
Morag

PS blimey! a whole email without the word shenanigans xx

archive # 4 new years resolutions

2011-06-29T01:14:00.000-07:00

How can we, as citizens, influence the development of our city and create space for art, creativity and conversation? There are other battles being fought for public space to at the moment; loiterers are active in campaigning over Birley Fields, Chorlton Meadows, Swallows Wood, Woodbank Park and more so that is more than a rhetorical question.

I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions and the LRM operates on our own time scale but it feels like the right time to reiterate some of what we stand for, in 2010 and beyond the LRM pledges to
• Stay interesting and resist the grind of commercialisation and recouperation
• Keep finding new ways of looking at the city and collecting the myriad mysteries it holds – there is not one Manchester but many layers…
• Remember the streets are ours for play, fun and creative mischief
• To offer anyone with an open mind a chance to wander with us in an atmosphere of tolerance, discovery and respect for all

We shall carry on building the city of our dreams with every step and finding treasure in the Mancunian rain – please join us for a walk and a brew; you never know where it might lead….

Love and power to you

Morag xx

Archive #2 the metaphysical treasure hunt

2011-06-29T01:08:00.000-07:00

It feels a little wrong to have a favourite first sunday but the metaphysical treasure hunt was surely one of the most fun and insightful i can recall. A report will appear sometime soon but in the meantime here are the instructions so you can play it yourselves (pictures are some amusing signs I've seen recently and not related to the text)
Thanks to Alan for collating, and indeed creating most of, the clues. He truly is a loiterer of distinction
[Image]Ask someone not playing the game to print off the instructions, cut them into separate strips, fold them and put them in an envelope.

Make groups of no more than 5 or 6 people.

There are 20 instructions in your envelope – take them out one at a time over the next 2 hours – some of the instructions will take 10 minutes to complete, others can go on for the rest of the walk. You don’t have to complete one instruction before you pick another – it’s good to combine them.
The instructions are open to interpretation – be creative, have fun and play
[Image]UMBRA(GE)
Follow your shadow – if you don’t have a shadow try to find some

MEMORIALS
Cities mark their history in stone – once the names have been carved they are rarely heard again. Find a memorial and read aloud the silent words and names.

ROADWORKS
Find a hole in [Image]the ground – instead of thinking of it as an inconvenience, look at it as an impromptu open-air exhibition or archaeological dig.

SIMULACRA
Unintended images are everywhere. Look out for simulacra, they are eruptions of secret history. They mean things...

CIRCUIT
Walk between two arbitrary points or around a block for the next 10 minutes – note what you discover on each circuit. Walk until the streets themselves are taking you for a walk.

NO U-TURN
Find a way to get to where you want to go by walking in the opposite direction.

DANGER
Push to the edge of your comfort zone. Notice, if you reach it, the point at which you no longer feel safe. Then take one more step...

DAY OF THE DEAD
The streets are filled with zombies. Move through the crowds without giving yourself away. Observe the dead and their places covertly. Make sure you always have an escape route. Survive by moving.

NATURE WALK
Look for the non-human. Maps drawn by snails. Birds nesting in alcoves. Spiders decorating windows. Trees on rooftops...

ON REFLECTION
Use the big plate glass windows of your city as cinema screens. Watch them like a movie-goer. Or be a director and call the shots.

EDGES
Identify and explore edges, where one place becomes another. Travel along a boundary – if you think it’s safe enough, leap across it. Are the edges clear cut? Or are there transitional zones? Enjoy the blurred liminal territories.

THE HEART OF THE CITY
Ask as many people as possible for directions to the heart of the city. Keep asking...

PUBLIC/PRIVATE
Fin somewhere to be private in a public space.

WINDOW ART
For this week only there is a citywide exhibition of art displays in the windows of the city’s homes. How many can you find?

READ THE CITY
The pavements and streets are a book. Look for the writing on the city – on posters, on rubbish, on graffiti, on manhole covers, on bins, on drains, on street furniture. Use this to guide your drift and rename the streets.

STOP!
Stand still, stay exactly where you are for the next 10 minutes and watch the human traffic ebb and flow around your island of calm.

QUIET!
For the next 10 minutes do not speak or use any sign language. Observe how the dynamics of the group affect the drift when you don’t communicate verbally.

DID YOU JUST HEAR THAT?
Follow your ears – let the sounds around you guide your drift. Hunt for places of quiet or noise – listen out for accidental music and the mutterings of the ghosts under the pavements...

SAFARI
You are now on the hunt – track down as many lions, horses, elephants and ducks as you can find.

EVEN A STOPPED CLOCK TELLS THE RIGHT TIME TWICE A DAY
Look out for clocks on buildings and in windows. How does the city run like clockwork? How does time affect the use and meaning of a place?

from the archives #1 solo loitering

2011-06-29T01:03:00.000-07:00

welcome to new readers, I am so delighted you have stumbled across The LRM. I'm rather sad I haven't had time to sort the place out properly i hope you will forgive the next few posts which are basically highlights from the archive

solstice communique from the LRM 2007

The LRM recently thought about celebrating our first birthday but we decided to build a space rocket and play our melodica instead.

It didn't feel like a birthday because we're still not quite sure we exist. But it's a year since the Accidental International Festival of Psychogeography, which is when we were given a name and started the first Sunday shenanigans (how long does something have to go on before it's a tradition?)

Our manifesto is disgracefully over due; we keep getting distracted by the beauty of flowers growing out of the side of buildings and the tragedy of commercialisation. It will appear one day, when you least expect it, but generally we like chaos more than rules.

We are becoming afraid that some people think psychogoegraphy is just for first Sundays or special occasions and one must be taught how to drift or heed expert directions. This is anathema to the LRM. the greatest derives are spontaneous and often solo; there is joy in comraderie but the true flaneur is content to drift alone.

Don't listen to us! We like DIY (but we're scared of power tools) and we never, ever want people to think we are custodians of some secret knowledge.

Symbols, maps and anniversaries matter because we invest them with power. The solstices have always been an important time for the LRM; we like to melt time and blur the boundaries between the worlds of myth and materialism. Last year we collaborated with The Shaping to dematerialise the gruesome Beetham Tower which for us represents much that is rotten within our glorious city but we won't dwell on past glories.

This solstice practicalities mean many LRM collaborators are spreading magick and mischief outside Mancunia but still we wanted to join together to celebrate both the sacred and profane so we politely ask you, whoever, whatever and wherever you are, to join us in a great experiment and help answer the eternal question 'but what is psychogeography?'

We invite you to play a game with us at a time and place of your choosing on 22nd December 2007.

These are the rules for you to ignore:

1 Stop what you're doing and tap your heels together. Spin around if you feel like it. (the LRM accept no liability for any accidents that may occur due to over zealous spinning so please take care)

2 Head off in whichever direction takes your fancy and wander at will until you want to stop.

3 As you traverse, aim to discover something new and marvellous and look for something you have never seen, felt or listened to before (we bet there will be something)

4 Repeat as desired at intervals through out the day 5 Or don't. If you think this is pointless you may be right. But we think it will be fun and we can create something beautiful from it.

6 If you do have a solstice adventure please send us a few notes, observations, random words or pictures. We will weave them together into a virtual derive, and thus create a psychogeographical dot-to-dot linking freelance flanauers into a unique and amazing work of art (trust us, we will)

Friends and comrades, this Solstice reclaim your footsteps, invent your environment and discover your own psychogeography.

We don't know what it is.

With glittery love and golden apples fromThe Loiterers Resistance Movement

PS The LRM would like to thank everyone who has inspired, frustrated, bumped into, walked, talked and raised a glass with us this year, whether you consider yourself a loiterer or not. You have changed our course and bought new ideas, joy and mischief. We thank you all whole heartedly for this and hope to get lost with you again in the new year

2011-06-16T09:07:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone

Massive apologies for the shabby state of the blog - normal service will be resumed soon - but just had a couple of things to share.

The Manchester Modernist Heroines walk is being reprised as part of the RIBA Architecture Festival, it's next Saturday - 25th June - and of course it is free but places are limited so please book here http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1815555375 No ticket is needed if you just want to join the discussion at 4pm(ish)

Also, there's an article about The LRM in this months Red Pepper Magazine, a version of which also appears here in The Mule. http://manchestermule.com/article/when-are-we

love and solidarity
Morag x

may day, may day

2011-04-30T04:27:00.001-07:00

hello my lovelies

massive apologies for the lateness and brevity of this email, some rather exciting news coming very soon but first i hope it is not too late for you to join us for a wander around the many resonances of may day. As our lovely friend and loiterer of distinction marie said its the time of year to celebrate workers solidarity and ducklings; two very splendid and important phenomena, and so we shall be doing just that.

we'll be meeting 3pm tomorrow (May 1st) at the britons protection pub great bridgewater street. all welcome (there should be time for the modernist mile first if you want to make a day of it) also if you can please do go and support the very wonderful OK cafe in castlefield while you can

glittery love

morag x

April's First Sunday: It's smoking

2011-04-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

Dear friends, flaneurs and freedom fighters

April's First Sunday is nigh – my apologies for late notification of this months shenanigans. I have been distracted by the heady combination of daffodils and demonstrations. I love Spring; it's my favourite time of year. I feel the blossoms have been especially glorious this year; bright little beacons of resistance and joy to help us defeat the darkness that seems to be descending.

We must all, in our own ways, keep fighting boredom and heartlessness and cruelty. Playing out on the streets should not be subversive; it upsets me a little it is but I do hope in our own small way we challenge the notion money is all that matters. Many amazing people contribute to the lrm and are involved in personal,political and professional struggles for justice and peace: love and solidarity to you all and if we can help please ask.

This month, partly as a response to the heaviness in the air we are embarking on a wispy, whimsical and somewhat abstract walk. We will all be looking up, to study the skyline and read smoke signals. Our focus will be on chimneys and fresh air and how the atmosphere of Manchester has evolved.

During the Industrial Revolution the sun was seldom seen; the city was shrouded in smog and the skyline dominated by an array of chimneys belching forth fumes. Now we live somewhere little is made except noise and tobacco is so vilified it has been banished by much of polite society. How did we get there from here?

Chimneys are our starting point then; we will be commemorating those long gone, celebrating outstanding survivors and imagining what they may look like in the future. We will also, as we are prone to do, explore yesterdays utopia that never materialised; in this case the audacious meta-chimney of which Alan has splendid tales to tell.

The nature of the derive means digression and tangential explorations too; expect debate on civil liberties, public health, clean air, the nature of work, class and capitalism. What resonances do the mills have on our lives today, how does work influence our identity; and what rights do we have to a safe environment, self destruction and freedom on the streets? These questions are horribly relevant now when so many of us feel threatened and insecure in our labour.

Many loiterers (myself included) have a secret admiration for the art of pipe smoking; doubtless Bob Dobbs will be with us tomorrow in spirit if not in person. Bonus points will be awarded in recognition of the most crass phallic symbolism, best double entendre and most ridiculous comment about chem trails.

Please join us if you can, but be warned this is a random adventure not a heritage trail – we really don't know where it will lead although we can promise conviviality and a view of the city you probably won't have seen before.

We will be meeting tomorrow, April 3^rd at Fringe Bar, Swan Street (opposite Band on The Wall) at 2pm. All welcome, if you need any more information please feel free to call/ text 07974929589

Finally, in case you haven't seen this here is a retweet from Manchester Libraries: this is a truly splendid website (although proceed with caution if you have any work to do) "Map mania! Compare old street maps of Manchester from 1772-2010 on the Historical Maps beta web sitehttp://ow.ly/4nAH4"

With love and bluebells

Morag x

april first sunday

2011-04-01T08:44:00.000-07:00

we'll be meeting 2pm at the fringe bar for a rather wispy, abstract walk this sunday april 3rd - more details soon (yes, i know i'm cutting it fine this month, sorry xx)

WAAAH! save the trees in whalley range

2011-03-13T06:35:00.000-07:00

On Monday the council are returning to Whalley Range to start the cull of healthy and much loved trees. There is a gathering outside the tescos on whalley range/ dudley road to challenge the chainsaws, meeting 10am tomorrow morning (14th March) I live in whalley range and the trees give much of the character to the neighbourhood as well as providing havens of biodiversity in the city. The reasons for the massacre seem spurious at best, and actually the closer you look (and the more you consider current budget issues) damn illogical. It's yet another example of crap community consultation. Sadly i am down south at the moment but much love and power to all those doing something - please join them if you can xx

The following is from the campaign group (sorry this wasnt clear before hence my editing, as usual i'm in a rush) xx

On March 7th 2011 a brave local resident faced and blocked the Manchester City Council's chainsaw contractors (short filmhttp://vimeo.com/20840682). While elsewhere another resident challenged why another half grown apparently healthy tree was being cut down. The tree had its crown removed and another tree with no obvious sign of decay lost several branches before contractors called in David Davidson the councils green space manager.
A face-to-face stand off with the resident followed and the resident reported climbing on a second contractor’s truck to prevent further cutting. "I don't usually do this sort of thing the resident said, but hearing the chainsaw I had to do something". A subsequent phone call to the MP Sir Gerald Kaufman generated a call to the council to halt work and send the contractors and there trucks home.
Both residents are part of the Whalley Range Tree Group a large group of concerned residents, that has been petitioning and dialoguing with the council for months to get a mutually agreed plan. They see the action as highly out of line with a democratic process that is still in process to find an agreeable way forward. Regretfully, despite additional representation, Sir Gerald Kaufman has advised residents that the Chief Executive of Manchester City Council is insisting that the Council will go ahead with the tree cuttings on Monday of next week.
The concerned local residents do not feel the council has addressed their specific concerns for more detailed scientific proof to warrant cutting of the individual trees targeted by the council which create a special natural environment in their local community of Manchester. "I don't understand what all the rush is about to cut these trees" said another local resident who lives next to the tree that survived Mondays incidents.
The last 2 mins of the film summarise the Whalley Range Tree Group request- who they are, their concerns regarding the proposed timescale and rate of felling and replacement of 473 trees (half the Whalley Range Tree stock) and their request to the Manchester City Council to delay the felling for one year to allow time to develop a mutually acceptable plan which meets the needs of Council and residents alike.

This Sunday: modernist heroines and more

2011-03-03T05:46:00.000-08:00

Dear loiterers of all genders and none

March’s First Sunday see’s two really special walks coinciding with the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. This is an event I have tended to avoid for a variety of reasons but I have been lured out of my ambivalence by these irresistible ideas which I am really proud to be involved in.

My apologies for simply cutting and pasting text you may have already recieved this week by other means, I have been plagued by technical issues. Expect a more personal rant from me on why feminism matters more than ever to appear on the blog very soon.

The Modernist Heroines Project,
Sunday March 6 at Manchester Town Hall,
Venue - Women of Achievement Room, 1-4pm, LRM walk 3-5pm (meet at the MMS stall)

Manchester Modernist Society, The LRM (Loiterers Resistance Movement) and The Shrieking Violet Zine have teamed up for a collaborative project exploring the stories of ten fabulous North West women spanning the fields of invention, aviation, media, science, design and architecture throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty first. Manchester’s Feminist history did not stop with the Suffragettes!

Join us for an afternoon exploring 'Manchester's Modernist Heroines’, launching a special edition of the Shrieking Violet fanzine, a collection of essays, interviews, artworks and links to events which aim to commemorate their achievements, uncover many more via your own favourites, and who knows – inspire some Heroines of tomorrow.

At 3pm The LRM will be curating a walk inspired by the work of our Modernist Heroine, Professor Doreen Massey. We will focus on flow, energy, gender and why we love exploring space. Our wander will uncover some of the hidden histories and power relationships which have shaped the city; Manchester is made up of myriad stories and we will tell some about our marvellous modernist heroines that are absent from the official narrative.

Find out more – and download a copy of the zine from Sunday onwards – by visiting: Manchester Modernist Society http://www.manchestermodernistsociety.org/ or
The Shrieking Violet http://theshriekingviolets.blogspot.com/

This is the start of an ongoing project; please tell us about your heroines - pop along on the day or add your favourite 20th or 21st century female to our webpage, coming very soon.
At 12noon, also leaving from the Town Hall, there will be another collaborative walk, this one between collaboration the Manchester Women´s Design Group and the Loiterers Resistance Movement;

This leisurely stroll will be guided by the results of emotion mapping by Manchester Women’s Design Group; this focuses on architecture, access and the way women feel about the city as well as the stories of women who have had an impact on the city http://womensdesign.blogspot.com/

During 2010, Manchester Women´s Design Group carried out research to explore how women react emotionally to urban spaces. These maps have highlighted spaces in the city centre which women love as they feel happy, relaxed, contented, and proud, as well as feared spaces that women say make them feel worried, anxious, angry and confused. This walk is a continuation of our process of research, analysis and evaluation, in which we invite you to participate.

I really hope to see you Sunday

Love and rage
Morag x

february delights: blackburn and dumplington ahoy

2011-02-02T05:50:00.000-08:00

Dear friends, flaneurs, fantasies and fairies

Welcome to February, I hope you are fine and dandy. I am delighted to spot early signs of Spring…no daffodils yet of course but my heart leaps at the first snowdrops…and the wider changes heralded by people realising their power and reclaiming streets around the world.
Remarkably I think this weekend is the fourth birthday of First Sundays, although dates don't really matter this gives me a warm glow and an excuse for a beer. Heartfelt thanks, as ever, to all who contribute to our derives and those who join us in imagination if not in person. We will be celebrating by setting off in new, and contradictory directions; facing fear (and possibly ridicule, but as we know that’s nothing to be scared of) as we explore territories as yet unmapped by The LRM. Here be dragons? Maybe; we like to encounter mythological phenomena….

This Saturday, February 5th, please join us in Blackburn. It’s your last chance to see Jane Samuels wondrous abandoned shop of curiosities, an instillation exploring urban exploration, mundane hauntings and the places lurking at the edge of reason. The shop has hosted several LRM workshops focusing on people’s memories, feelings and personal maps of Blackburn.

We have collected a plethora of fascinating stories and The LRM are curating a tour based on what we have learnt. From loombreaking, to acid house via contraband bikinis and public art it offers a beguilling mix of personal histories, social context and entertainment. Plus, fans of twentieth century architecture should note Blackburn’s 1960s market is due for demolition soon so this is a final opportunity to revel in its faded glories.

The shop is at LET Shop, 65 King William St, opposite the town hall, about 15minutes from the station (there are hourly trains from Victoria and regular buses from North Manchester. The tour will start at 2pm. Many thanks to Jane, the LETS project and everyone who has generously shared their thoughts with us. More information here: http://www.milliondollaryack.com/GhostStations/

On Sunday 6th we are setting off on an expedition to The Trafford Centre. We have always avoided shopping areas, preferring back alleys and canal sides where we are free of the relentless consumer bombardment – and yet, this is a little remiss if we want to see all sides of our city.

The Dumplington Mecca is one of the north west’s top attractions and is sure to yield some secrets up to those who look. Will we encounter a palace of delights or a den of inequity? Is there anything authentic or liminal to be discovered beneath its bright lights? Is the sense of horror it instils in me justified or am I missing beauty and a retail epiphany? Please note this is NOT a shopping trip and for the duration of our visit handling the merchandise will be strictly forbidden.

We will catch the X50 bus from Manchester Piccadilly at 13:19 (it goes from the main bus station area) which is due to arrive at 13.55. The route map is here http://www.gmpte.com/upload/routemaps/250_X50_Web_only_1110.pdf If you are making your own way there please be at the Trafford Centre bus stop area for 2pm.

If you need more information or fancy a natter about the use and abuse of public space, the nature of contemporary psychogoegraphy or owt else really please contact us at loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or on 07974929589. Email access is a bit wobbly at the moment so please be patient if it takes me a while to respond; I prefer playing out to admin

With glittery love and golden apples
Morag x

just 10 of many remarkable women

2011-01-24T07:35:00.000-08:00

We are in the process of building a super swanky newfangled website; for now i must apologise this isnt great.

Anyhow, here is a wee bit more information on our ten modernist heroines....

Mitzi Solomon Cunliffe (January 1, 1918 – December 30, 2006) was an American sculptor who was a long resident in Didsbury. She was most famous for designing the golden trophy in the shape of a theatrical mask that would go on to represent the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and be presented as the BAFTA award. She also designed the mural on the Heaton Park Pumping Station.

Winifred Brown, Salfordian Flyer and in her early 20’s was winner of the Kings Cup (air race) in 1930.

Rachel Haugh co-established the architectural practice Ian Simpson Associates. She was born and brought up in Manchester and studied at Bath University School of Architecture. She is a founding partner and co-director of Ian Simpson Architects, a design-led architectural practice established in 1987 and employing around 50 people in offices in Manchester and London.

Susan Sutherland Isaacs (1885–1948) was a Bolton born educational psychologist and psychoanalyst. Educated at Manchester and Cambridge Universities, she published pioneer studies on the intellectual and social development of children and promoted the nursery school movement. For Isaacs developing a child’s independence, which is best achieved through play, was the best way for children to learn and the role of adults and early educators was to guide children's play. She was awarded a CBE in 1948.

Marie Stopes (15 October 1880 – 2 October 1958) was a noted palaeobotanist, campaigner for women's rights and pioneer in the field of family planning. She was the first woman member of faculty at Manchester University.

Professor Rosalie David is the world's leading expert on Egyptian mummies. She is Director of the Centre for Biomedical and Forensic Egyptology at the University of Manchester and has directed the Manchester Egyptian Mummy Research Project since 1973. This project has pioneered the 'Manchester Method' - the use of medical and scientific techniques to investigate ancient Egyptian mummies to detect evidence of disease and information about everyday life in ancient Egypt. She was the first woman professor in Egyptology in Britain, and the first to receive an OBE in recognition of her services in Egyptology.

Olive Shapley, British radio producer and broadcaster (10 April 1910– 13 March 1999) was a British radio producer and broadcaster. In 1934 she began her career with the BBC as Children's Hour organiser with the responsibility of producing five hour-long programmes every week. These included at least two full-length live plays a week. After the war she became the third presenter of ‘Woman's Hour’, a programme with which she was associated for over twenty years, producing the programme between 1949 and 1953. Meanwhile, she began to develop a career as a presenter in the new television medium. In the mid-1960s her Manchester home became a refuge (as a charitable trust) for single mothers and later, in the late 1970s, for Vietnamese boat people.

Professor Doreen Massey is a Manchester born contemporary British social scientist and geographer, devoting her life to the subject, speaking passionately about the significance of geography and the 'politics of place' in a globalised world. Her work has had a profound influence on theorising around space and place and has taken the study of geography into new inter-disciplinary directions.

Mary Stott (18 July 1907 – 16 September 2002) was a British feminist and journalist, the first - and longest-serving - editor of the Guardian women's page. One of the great campaigning journalists of the 20th century, in her 15-year tenure from 1957 to 1972 she invented a platform for women's voices and concerns and used it to further such causes.

Linder Sterling studied Art at the Manchester School of Art from 1974-77 and played a vital part in the 1970s punk scene in Manchester, designing graphics for the Buzzcocks, Magazine and Factory Records. She remains a pivotal visual artist, performance artist and musician, whose work has been selected for the Tate Triennial.

News Extra: Blackburn adventures and modernist heroines. Please get involved

2011-01-24T07:32:00.000-08:00

Ahoy there my lovelies

The city often feels less of a physical entity and more of a flow of energies, ideas and creativity; sometimes when we are drifting around we collide with some amazing people and The LRM are delighted to be able to share news of a couple of exciting collaborations we are involved in and hope you can join us for

The abandoned shop of curiosities – A Blackburn Adventure

We’ve raved before about the glory of Jane Samuels art; focusing on urban exploration, forgotten and forbidden places and the ghosts that linger, curiously, in our midst it is right up our (derelict and eerily beautiful) street. Jane currently has a residency in Blackburn and we have used her installation as a base to collect personal histories, memories and yarns about the town; these will form the basis of a heritage tour with a twist. Please join us if you can on Saturday January 29th or February 5th (the latter date will be the full, final work so I would encourage coming to that one) 2pm starting at LET Shop 1 65 King William Street, Blackburn. For more details please see http://www.milliondollaryack.com/GhostStations

Also – if you have a favourite spot in Blackburn, or any memories connected to the city, please get in touch as soon as possible

Modernist Heroines – A Collaborative Call out

The LRM are teaming up with our good friends at The Manchester Modernist Society and The Shrieking Violet to invite you to join us in a collaborative project promoting a century of Modernist women to coincide with the hundredth birthday celebrations of International Women's Day on March 8.

We are currently looking for expressions of interest around the theme of ten fabulous females strongly associated with the North West spanning the fields of invention, aviation, media, science, design and architecture in the twentieth century.

We aim to produce a publication and range of activities centred around the lives and careers of our ten local heroines in early March, and are looking for your creative responses. This can be (but is not limited to) an event, performance, piece of creative writing, interview or journalism. Our only stipulation is that the work be about one of our ten local heroines.

Deadline for expression of interest is Friday 28 January — simply indicate your chosen Heroine and an outline of the type of work likely to be submitted. Deadline for final submission of work is Friday 18 February, to allow print and publicity in time for a March event on Sunday 6 March i.e First Sunday)

Please email info@manchestermodernistsociety.org in the first instance with your choice of Fabulous Female and a short summary of the idea you might wish to pursue. Please pass the details onto anyone you think might be interested.

Our ten modernist heroines are as follows (more information about them all can be found at www.nowhere-fest .blogspot.com oh and yes, I know there are myriad other wonderful women who need celebrating every day but please trust us this will be good)
Mitzi Solomon Cunliffe, sculptorWinifred Brown, aviatorRachel Haugh, architectSusan Sutherland Isaacs, educational psychologist and psychoanalyst. Marie Stopes, family planning pioneer and palaeobotanist.Professor Rosalie David Egyptologist.Olive Shapley, radio producer and broadcaster. Professor Doreen Massey, social scientist and geographerMary Stott, journalistLinder Sterling, artist

Also, we bring news of two excellent endeavours which we are whole heartedly supporting. This is a time to connect, stand together and create the future we want….

Open Manchester have organised a debate on 5pm Monday 31st January Open Mic gives you an opportunity to speak your mind about the cuts and reforms to higher education.As well as an open forum for opinions there will be talks from people representing all sides of the debate. All are welcome. More details at http://manchesteropen.wordpress.com/

Queer Riot at the Contact on 12 February offers three hours of outrageous and outraged feminist and queer performers, discussion, workshops and networking. It’s a chance to think about fighting back against the cuts and help create queer culture in a time of austerity. The LRM will be facilitating some kind of workshop around safe/unsafe spaces (more details nearer the time) http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=178453632185388

News of February’s First Sunday will be imminent; expect a derive boldly going where The LRM have never been before.

I hope to see you on the streets soon, for more information on The LRM or any of the above please email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or call/ text 07974929589

With love, power and early snowdrops
Morag x

2010-12-31T08:13:00.001-08:00

Dear friends and comrades in flaneurie

I hope Yuletide has been what you wished and you have enjoyed yourself despite all the consumerist clichés and strange pressures

Please join The LRM on our first First Sunday on 2011 – January 2nd – we’ll be gathering at The Britons Protection Great Bridgewater Street at 2pm. We’ll set off about 2.30 (by which time I hope everyone will have already broken any resolutions borne of guilt and obligation rather than desire and enlightenment) We’ll be utilizing creative cartography to see if we can chart the waters ahead…. Please do join us if you can, it’s a great way to start the year, shake of hangovers and experience the city in new ways with convivial companions.

As the end of year clock ticks it may be a cliché but I can not help but reflect on the period just gone. It has been full of enlightening, inspiring and entertaining encounters on the streets and I want to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who makes the LRM happen. It is truly a collective endeavor and I feel in awe of so many of the amazing people who contribute in a myriad ways. I raise a glass to you all, it would be a ridiculously long toast to name everyone but you know who you are and I hope you know you have a place in my heart. I will contradict myself, as usual, by adding an extra cheer for Alan – if The LRM believed in such things he would surely be knighted by now.

I’ve always found it boring to talk about the weather but please indulge me a moment. We can’t change what the sky throws at us (climate chaos not withstanding; clearly we have some responsibility here) and I’ve had an epiphany this snowy season. Earlier in the year I let myself become isolated and fearful, all the things I am so fond of condemning at the arrival of the white stuff – but in December I tried embracing the new topography revealed by concealment and derives enforced by drifts. The near became strangely far away as neurological conditions and ice pavements make a terrible mix but I have so many books i want to read and music to listen to i reveled in the hibernation. It felt like a test of whether the loitering philosophy – of going with the flow, celebrating the extraordinary in the everyday and finding the magick in the manunian rain – could be applied to all aspects of life and I truly feel like it can, also my cellar is as disorientating a netherworld as the darkest of engels alleyways…. Staying in is not the new going out but it does have its own rewards!

The flipside to new year nostalgia is of course aspirations for the future and 2011 is already promising to bring new and delightful adventures. February will take us where no loiterers have dared to go before, there are plans afoot for an improved website (we will continue to champion the ephemeral of course but we have gathered many resources to share) and there will be more s with like minded friends….

First up in January we are delighted to have been invited to contribute to a wonderful new project by one of our favourite artists Jane Samuels. The Abandoned Shop of Curiosities is an “ emporium which manifests in abandoned shops; and offers you a window into other, forbidden and unseen abandoned places. The shop invites visitors to interact and explore, to discover strange narratives, and furtive creatures from The Abandoned Buildings Project.

Jane will be holding an open studio throughout the residency, and inviting visitors to contribute to the production and development of new work. The interactive exhibition also invites visitors to share their memories of Blackburn’s now lost or abandoned places, using maps, written notes, drawings or by bringing in objects or photographs.
The LRM will be be making several appearances throughout the residency, exploring the relationship between Blackburn’s official histories, and the personal histories of the people who live there. The LRM will be running mapping workshops on January 15 and 22nd and using the information gained to create two walking tours of the town on 29th January and 5th February”

The shop, exhibition and open studio will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday 13th Jan – 5th Februray. I am really excited to enter the magical realm Jane will be conjuring up and urge you to visit if you can. More details are on http://www.milliondollaryack.com/GhostStations/

As ever if you have any comments, suggestions or just fancy a natter do please get in touch via email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or the LRM hotline 07974929589

Thanks again for your support and I wish you all a 2011 full of joy, creative mischief and happy wanderings. I’m off to crack open the sloe gin

Love and golden satsumas
Morag x

Solstice Communique: What is a derive?

2010-12-21T06:56:00.000-08:00

racists not welcome here

2010-12-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

this is in response to something on facebook, and i dont really like cross posting, but it feels too important not to.

**********************************************************************************

I feel sick and angry but have to share this. I have just banned someone from the group for the first (and I hope only) time. This is because they were spouting poisonous racist EDL shite.

I want to clarify something lest anyone is in doubt: When we say the streets belong to us we mean ALL of us - we the people - regardless of colour, sexuality, gender, class, ability, age, faith and anything else any fuckwit wants to make narrow minded judgements against.

Diversity - and tolerance - is what makes our cities great and racism is just stupid. We have NEVER and will never tolerate narrowminded shite. It has no place in the LRM and if anyone wants to have a go at me for stifling of free speech they can piss off too.

Sorry I had to do that as i have to stress all the loiterers i have ever met in the real world, and have corresponded with online over the years have been lovely, intelligent, openminded folk and we welcome ANYONE who treats others with respect.

much love to you all xxx

december's first sunday

2010-12-03T11:50:00.000-08:00

please join us 2pm sunday december 5th at john rylands library cafe, from where we shall embark on a spot of disorienteering. Please bring a compass if you have one x

velvet, corduroy and more: the city is alive!

2010-11-22T08:24:00.001-08:00

Dear friends

There is so much happening at the moment please forgive this extra email but I wanted to share some exciting events with you.
The Velvet and Corduroy Club is a salon for wonderful ideas and interesting debate. It opened for the first time last month and fascinating thoughts flowed with the sherry on an intriguing derive of the mind. Thank you so much to everyone who generously shared their wisdom and experiences, it felt like a really special space and I am excited by its potential. Entry is free and open to all and I urge you, if you can, to join us this Thursday, 25th November 6.00-8.30pm at Manchester Modernist Society (MMS) HQ, Chapel Street, Salford (it’s very near Salford Central Station and The Kings Arms).

MMS are also currently hosting Latitude, an exhibition of artists maps. The LRM have always loved creative cartography and this is well worth a visit, as is Cube Open 2010 where Blind Spots by Urban Col(laboratory) is being screened. This is a rather marvelous and insightful film looking at (and dancing in) Piccadilly Gardens. We are delighted at another chance to view the work that was created as part of Get Lost and urge you to go and have a look. I’ve not been to the rest of the show yet so don’t know what other delights there maybe.

Cube is also hosting a wine tasting by our friend dale on Friday 26th, tickets are £7.50 or £10 for two (everything else in this bulletin is FREE) We are not, and never will, be taking advertising or sponsorship but we do like to support our friends so tickets must be bought in advance from a branch of Oddbins – Cooper St in town or various other places.

On Wednesday 24th there is a screening of a documentary looking at the Okasional Café in its various manifestations, 6.30pm at Earth, Turner Street. I’m not sure who is organising this but perhaps it will provide inspiration on creative resistance to the class war that seems to be brewing. The Mule http://manchestermule.com/ is a good source of local information on the theme.

The Urbis Research Forum are celebrating Engels birthday a day late but in fine style with a discussion examining how the city is reflected in Engel’s work and how his Mancunian insights continue to be relevant in the 21st century. Its on Monday 29th, 6pm at the Renolds building, Altrincham Street. They are also presenting a series of interactive walks imagining Oxford Road exploring the architectural, literary and audio imaginary of one of Manchester’s busiest streets.http://urbisresearchforum.wordpress.com/

Finally a reminder The LRM are curating an Ancoats Amble in conjunction with MERCi as part of their Future Manchester festival. The guided walk will focus on regeneration, accidental nature, urban wildlife and play – please bring any favourite street games. More details and a full programme here http://www.merci.org.uk/drupal/node/2135 We are meeting 2pm sharp outside the Crown and Kettle, Oldham Road (top of Oldham Street) this Sunday, 28th November.

News on Decembers first Sunday will be with you soon,as well as information on some very exciting january shenanigans. In the meantime please keep warm. I’m all aglow with pride at knowing so many lovely loiterers creating a city full of interesting things

Much love and golden apples
Morag x

Novembers First Sunday: The dark is rising

2010-11-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

My dear friends, lovers and loiterers

It’s no secret The LRM are conducting a long and passionate love affair with Manchester. I must confess however that occasionally I daydream about fleeing to hibernate in a cocoon full of books and records and comfortable treats.

The city is vulgar and horrible; too cold and wet (or hot and sticky). It’s crowded, noisy, full of people talking shit and smelling horrible and behaving in a vexatious manner. Danger, tragedy and moral panics lurk everywhere; traffic, pollution, hoodies (or where they last years baddie?) anger, chaos and dog shit. Advertising pollutes our minds whilst the detritus of consumer culture suffocates and we are crushed by beaurocratic nonsense, planning that puts commerce above community, ugly design, constant surveillance, suspicion and petty restrictions on our civil liberties. My legs ache, my pockets are empty and I fell weary to my bones…

But still I go out walking and gather with my comrades in loitering. Why do I do this? The answer lies in the streets themselves, there is gorgeousness too if you look for it; buddleia grows on the most forlorn building, beauty can be glimpsed around every corner, energy, ideas, creativity makes the atmosphere buzz, stories swirl all around us, and, of course, sous les pave, la plage. Perhaps most inspiring of all are the people to be encountered and I feel truly privileged to have met so many amazing individuals. You just can’t get the same tingle looking out of (or at) the window. I’ll endure the crap for the thrills every time and as i type i get an urge to wander into the arms of the great mass of contradictions that we call home

When we loiter, we are free: that should not be a subversive statement but somehow it feels like it is. I also believe passionately as the divine Ms Smith says ‘the people have the power’ and we can create the Manchester of our wildest dreams; if Hell is a city so too is Shangri La and my only regret is too little time, too much work and wonky legs stop me from walking all day every day.

Please, come and join us re-connecting and re-discovering our city. A stroll in convivial company is a tonic for even the most jaded soul. As well as being fun, and revealing hidden delights, it also helps combat fear and suspicion, such corrosive forces that feel to be increasing exponentially at the moment.

This Sunday, November 7th, we will be gathering from 6.30 at The Britons Protection, Great Bridgewater Street to set out at 7.00pm on a star lit adventure. I am mindful it’s a school night so we will have retired for refreshments by 9pm. Noone is sure quite what form it will take yet but it will see a return to traditional tactics – using an old map, spinning a fish, throwing a dice – that sort of shenanigan.
I asked on twitter (we are @thelrm) what psychogeography meant and our friend Bon said it’s the practice of experiencing space differently. Practicing space so as to reveal its hidden, non-hegemonic, denaturalised qualities. Derives in the dark are great because there is an instant sense of the uncanny and an emphasis on senses beyond sight.

During the day on Sunday I will be in Liverpool supporting The Cake Liberation Front on its debut action at The Bluecoat. With a mission (and name) like that how could I resist? See http://www.cakeliberationfront.com/ to find out about the campaign for compassionate and delicious baked goods. Their first Manchester cake swap/scoff/celebration is on Sunday 21st at The Friends Meeting House.

We love it when our friends become successful and the very marvellous Quiet Loner is hosting a special concert on 18th November at Sacred Trinity Salford to celebrate the (very) long awaited arrival of his new long player. I know the mainstream press is full of tosh and corrupt lies but occasionally it speaks the truth and we are delighted Uncut gave Spectrology four stars http://quietloner.com/

The Velvet and Corduroy Club – that fledging salon of wonders for interesting folk – will be convening again on November 25th at MMS HQ Chapel Street Salford (very near Salford Central railway station) The theme will probably be heritage and we daresay sherry and beguiling erudition will be freely flowing once more. More details on this derive of the mind will be forthcoming but suffice to say books are sexy and last month was very pleasurable

The LRM are also hosting an Ancoats Amble with MERCI as part of their week of Earth Rights events. It is scheduled for 2pm on November 28th, meeting outside The Crown and Kettle (on the corner of Great Ancoats Street/ Oldham Road). If anyone fancies helping me curate a guided walk looking at accidental nature, heritage, play and the impact of re/de/regeneration on this most fascinating neighbourhood please do get in touch. There will be marbles and marvels galore.

I hope that some of this makes you want to get away from your computer and out onto the streets, life is there and it is good. As ever if you want more information please email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or call 07974929589

With glittery love and light
Morag x

The Velvet and Corduroy Club opens its doors to a salon of interesting things...

2010-10-19T05:53:00.000-07:00

My dear loiterers

I trust you don’t mind me sharing news of a rather splendid new endeavor to offer a derive of the mind; it is brought to you by various friends of The LRM and promises to develop in unexpected and rather delightful ways becuase talking can be as enlightening as walking

The Velvet and Corduroy Club is a salon for wonderful ideas and interesting debate. It opens its doors on 28th October, 6.00-8.30pm at Manchester Modernist Society HQ, Chapel Street, Salford (it’s very near Salford Central Station and The Kings Arms)

We are inspired by myriad others including bluestockings, the hilaries and certain other esoteric societies, the much missed Owenite Hall of science (“Sacred to the Investigation of Truth” and demolished after the weight of books became too great), free schools (in the original DIY sense not the current government silliness) and most of all the amazing passions, thoughts and ideas we hear every day wandering the streets – and so we want to create a space to talk, learn, and share thoughts with each other.

Each month there will be a theme and a short introduction; then we shall see where the salon takes us. The first event will focus on Class, what it means today in our society and the appropriation of upper class tropes by . Everyone of all persuasions is welcome, as long as they are open minded and as eager to listen as to speak; we want to celebrate conversation, creativity and constructive debate.

Entrance, like the speech, is free and our club does not require a membership card. Tea, coffee and cake will be available and a complementary nip of sherry will be served to all who wear either eponymous fabric.

Please join us in this new endeavor, also do please get in touch if you are interested in presenting a future topic or are able to help us create a presence on the web. We have an email address velvetandcorduroy@gmail.com and a facebook group that is currently in pristine condition so it would be lovely if you could be a pioneer... http://www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_163139433714110

With love and excitement

The Velvet and Corduroy Club

Octobers First Sunday - Crime, carousing and direct action

2010-10-01T05:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends, fantasies and comrades

It’s an exciting weekend ahead for loiterers as we celebrate the removal of the ring of steel from the city centre. I do not like all those guns and gates and paranoid scaremongerers. Much as I love music I dislike ipods mostly because of the alienation they encourage – and because you miss many wonderful overheard quotes when lost in your own world – but occasionally they have their uses as I enjoyed singing along to Mr Richard Hawley as I avoided those hideous yellow gates
“Those people they got nothing in their souls
And they make our tvs blind us from our visions and our goals
Oh the trigger of time it tricks you so you have no way to grow
Do you know that tonight the streets are ours
Tonight the street are ours
These lights in our eyes tell no lies”

How can we build the city of our dreams? I daresay a few ideas insurrectionary and imaginative ideas (and probably a bit of fascinating nonsense) will be bubbling up from under the pavements this Saturday October 2nd, at the always splendid Anarchist Book Fair. It’s at The Dancehouse Theatre, Oxford Road. The LRM are facilitating a radical history walk starting there at 3.30pm It’s a mini expedition because within an hour or so we can only begin to untangle a few of the tales that make up the rich and exciting history of dissent, direct action and social change in our very fine City. As ever debate is encouraged and all are welcome

Then on Sunday 3rd I am delighted Alan is treating us to the final part of his criminal trilogy. Join us at 1pm at the main entrance (Albert Square) of Manchester Town Hall for an exploration of Manchester's dark and disturbing Victorian underworld. A world of rookeries, pubs, pawnshops and lodging houses populated by cracksmen, fences, prize fighters, garotters, pimps, prostitutes and thieves. Tales of super-criminals, legendary police detectives and dark satanic mills are sure to change your image of the world's first industrial city

Please join us if you can for our next splendid adventures and stay tuned for more information about the manifestation of the velvet and corduroy club

Much glittery love and conkers
Morag x

Local history workshop

2010-09-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

Free Session on Local History Projects with REELmcr

Wednesday 29th Sept Session on Local History with Reel MCR :
Free - 6-8 pm Venue: Yard Theatre, Old Birley St, Hulme (near Kim by the Sea) - please be on time!

This session is lead by Jaqcui Carrol and other Reel MCR tutors. The aims are to to share knowledge about our local history, create a buzz about a local history project and how the Green Zone project could help, share ideas of how an exciting local history project could work and possibly help convene a group to look for funding to do this.

Contact Mick or Kate on greenzone@redbricks.org to book on – or just turn up. Or contact us if you want more info. This project is open to all.

its not just streets that should be free....

2010-09-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

Software Freedom Day is an annual global celebration of software freedom. Software Freedom Day 2010 in Manchester will be held at Madlab on Saturday, 18th September from 10am to 4pm.

There will be Moodle demonstrations, Ubuntu for Beginners Workshops, demonstrations and install help, Robots and Arduinos on Free Software, Purchasable Recycled Computers with Free Software and Support, Wordpress demonstrations, PCs running Free Software for you to try, Ubuntu Linux and Free Software CDs, Linux Magazines, Free Software Books, Stickers and Badges, Creative Commons Licensed Music CDs and more!

See the website for more details
http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2010/Europe/United%20Kingdom/Manchester

Septembers First Sunday: Monsters, mushrooms and mirth

2010-09-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

Dear friends, flanuers, faeires and fans of Gef the talking mongoose

Merry September. As a child I used to hate this time of year, associating it with uncomfortable new uniforms and the end of independent loitering. A joy of getting older is a love of the late summer treasury of colours and crops and sunshine; I even find pleasure in stationery items these days but perhaps best not to dwell on the gorgeous scent of fresh paper!

This Sunday the LRM invite you to join us as we celebrate the exquisite pleasure of the day trip. There is always somewhere interesting to explore a stones throw from home, whether it’s a new discovery, an ‘always meant to go there but never quite did’ affair or an old favourite haunt that takes on a different appearance with the changing seasons.

I love day trips for the sense of adventure, occasion, escape and of course the picnic eaten on the bus before you even arrive. It may sound perverse but I’m not so keen on bank holidays; these are forced upon us and I want pleasure when I desire it, not when I’m told. An ideal day trip is cheap, cheerful and veers off in unexpected ways – like the very best derive – and has none of the pressure or pretentions so many of the experiences we are sold as authentic and essential and corporate fun do.

I do hope you will join us as we set off on a voyage of discovery to Boggart Hall Clough. It’s a splendid place, with ancient woodland and some wonderful geography as well as its own legendary eponymous pooka. (what was it called before the Boggart? I got told off at school for being silly when I asked a similar question about battle and Normans bay) The LRM love cryptozoology but there is more to the cloughs history than the gremlin; it also played a pivotal role in the battle for free speech and public assembly in Manchester. I suspect we may also find some delights foraging in natures larder too – its that time of year – and goodness knows what else too.

We will be catching the 118 bus from Oldham Street (The Piccadilly Garden end, bus stop b) at 1.28pm precisely (bus company willing of course) this Sunday, 5th September. It is due to arrive at the Charlestown Road side of the Clough at 1.50. Please try and make this bus if you can but if you are lost or late please call The LRM hotline on 07974929589 and we will try to find you. Obviously we’ll be out of our usual urban territory so please wear sensible shoes and bring sunblock/ waterproofs as appropriate.

There’s a few more exciting LRM events coming up too, although of course loitering is more a state of mind and can be practised anytime, anywhere, alone or in convivial company. On September 15th I’ll be facilitating an Ardwick Green Amble as part of GMCVOs A to B less CO2 Sustainable Transport Event. The wander will encompass anarchists, tiny tim, ancient glaciers and more. It’s free but places need to be booked please see www.gmcvo.org.uk for more details. There is also going to be – due to popular demand (I always wanted to say that) - another Places Women Love Walk with The Women’s Design Group for Urban Design Week details from mwdg@live.com In October there will be tales of Victorian crime and the launch of a new venture: The Velvet and Corduroy Club, a salon for interesting people of all flavours but more of that nearer the time; I don't want to be inside staring at a screen on a day like this when the streets belong to us....

I hope our paths cross soon
Love and perfectly ripe plums
Morag x

Peterloo Memorial

2010-08-14T00:52:00.000-07:00

This monday is the anniversary of Peterloo and tomorrow (Sunday) there are a series of walks retracing the routes of demonstraters and ending at the gmex for a rally. See peterloomassacre.org

Good stuff

stop, look, listen

2010-08-12T05:16:00.000-07:00

The latest edition of The Mule is especially loiterer friendly featuring an interview with our favourite CCTV chronicler David Dunnico, articles on radical history (we've mentioned it before but always worth mentioning again http://radicalmanchester.wordpress.com/) and on the back page some mancunian highlights many of which were suggested by loiterers

The print version of Shrieking Violet is one year old - congratulations Natalie - and the anniversary issue is a food special, it includes an article on wild food and foraging by alan and a review of the giant cake map of manchester http://theshriekingviolets.blogspot.com/

www.sharingthecity.org.uk has some really interesting ideas from Architecture students at Manchester University and Merci are currently hosting an exhibtion of their work (I was at Bridge 5 Mill to hatch a very exciting plan.... details soon...)

There's still a few days left to 'listen again' to radio fours recent documentaty on creative Hulme, with a soundtrack including our friends at single cell . http://beta.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00t83y/The_Archive_Hour_The_Peoples_Republic_of_Hulme

August First Sunday: Crime in the city and love on the streets

2010-07-30T08:17:00.001-07:00

Dear friends, comrades, flaneurs and flibbertygibbets

I trust you are enjoying summer, I’ve spent much of the last month sitting in fields, listening to music, drinking mojitos and grinning – sometimes all at the same time. Bliss! However I’ve also been getting increasingly angry at the nonsense so called newspapers see fit to print; it reminds me how important it is to actually talk to folk, look around, question authority, create alternatives and try to engage with the real world, not a mediated spectacle.

I truly believe walking is one of the most beautiful ways to do this; personally it’s how I learn best and also of course its free and uncommodified. Never really having much money I feel rather distanced from talk of the age of austerity; make do and mend is nothing new here. I’m also getting bloody frustrated at this big society nonsense; I already live in a world where people take responsibility, action and care for each other despite getting screwed by those allegedly in charge. And I’m rather fond of The NHS and the notion people are all equal and equally valued. Grrr

Anyhow, back to the streets. I am delighted that this month’s First Sunday will see the second installment of Alan’s glorious crime spree. He really does make a splendid host so please do join us if you can.

Following on from last months look at the Scuttlers, we will concentrate on the decidedly nastier gangsters of the Gunchester era. For over 20 years Manchester has been famed for its bars and nightclubs, most famously the Hacienda, but the good times had a sinister side that almost brought the city to its knees. Meet us at Knott Bar (under the railway arch at the Castlefield end of Deansgate) at 2pm on Sunday 1st August for a walk along the sometimes bloodstained streets of the Mancunian criminal underworld.

The following Saturday The LRM will be collaborating with Manchester Womens Design Group on a Places Women Love’ Walk which starts at the pebble in front of the Bridgewater Hall on Saturday 7 August at 11.00am and will explore issues around gender and urban space.

As part of their research into how women respond to the design of the built environment, Manchester Women’s Design Group has been asking women, through workshops and an Emotions’ Map of the city centre, which parts of central Manchester make them feel worried and anxious, and which places they love because they make them feel happy and relaxed. This guided walk will present some of their findings so far – and will encourage debate to further their walk

Numbers for this walk (unlike First Sunday) be limited so if you would like to join please email mwdg@live.com to reserve your place. More details can be found at http://womensdesign.blogspot.com/

Finally a few messages from our friends:

O Please take a few moments to support Rabar Hamad www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=138558076173602

O Watch out for a Free shop springing up somewhere in town tomorrow afternoon thanks to lovely folk working towards a new social centre in Manchester http://www.manchestersocialcentre.org/

O Hulme Community Garden Centre has loads of good stuff coming up, including a party tomorrow http://www.hulmegardencentre.org.uk/

O as ever there are lots of items of interest in The Mule and at http://manchestermule.com/ (not all journalism is bad!)

I hope to see you Sunday or some day soon, as ever please do get in touch should you have psychogeographic thoughts to share email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or call the hotline on 079 749 29589

Much love and magick rum

Morag x

july: crime, flowers, friends, music

2010-07-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

Dear friends, flaneurs, mischief, merry and magick makers

I am delighted that Alan is in curating the LRM’s next expeditions.
Join us on Sunday for a trip into the criminal underworld of Victorian Manchester. Explore the haunts of crooks, villains, scuttlers, cracksmen, fences, pimps, prostitutes, conmen, garroters and bareknuckle prizefighters. From the first modern youth cult to a real-life Sherlock Holmes, taking in super-criminals and murderous ruffians along the way. Following a route from Deansgate to Ancoats via Salford, Strangeways, Angel Meadow and New Cross we will be mapping the exciting and frightening world of Victorian Manchester's slums and its inhabitants.

"The greatest stream of human industry flows out to fertilise the whole world. From this filthy sewer pure gold flows. Here humanity attains its most complete development and its most brutish; here civilisation works its miracles, and civilised man is turned back into savage." Alexis de Tocqueville on Manchester

Meet us in the Barton Arcade on Deansgate at 1pm on Sunday. Please keep your truncheons at home.

There are plenty of other treats lined up this month too….

The Scratch and Sniff Cinema hosted by occasional loiterer Bren is back as part of the Hazard festival and will be showing my beautiful launderette for free in a cardboard launderette on 16th / 17th July http://scratchnsnifflaundrette.eventbrite.com/

As well as providing news with a kick The Mule are looking to produce a treasury of Manchester’s highlights; I’m sure loiterers will have something to add (and can get inspiration from other people’s thoughts) www.manchestermule.com (not sure if the relevant article is live yet but it will be soon)

I’ve got a couple of questions which I would really appreciate your thoughts on for future projects…. How do you deal with abuse / hassle on the street if you have experienced it? And, more cheerfully Which are you favourite wild flowers in unexpected places? The LRM have long been champions of the buddlia, patron plant of Manchester, but this year I have found myself transfixed by so many blooms…. Poppies on castlefield rubble, lillies by an abandoned car on the A6, a mystery purple delight brightening a dark alley…. I am still sad at the destruction (in the name of decency and progress) of our beloved hanging gardens of Pomona but somehow nature will still find a way to show us who is boss.

Finally The LRM are hosting one of our occasional musical extravaganzas / social events, those of you who have come in the past will know we only put on gigs for bands we love and always lay on cakes and random surprises too, so please do come along on Friday 9th July 7.30pm onwards at the Britons Protection.

There will be a rare whole band show for the amazing Case Hardin, with high quality support from The Tao of Steve and Phil Davies. Case Hardin play ace americana with a twist; many of their songs were written whilst Pete was in Iraq. There will be songs to make you cry, laugh and want to dance and it would be lovely to see you there. Tickets are £4 which all goes to the bands.

I hope to see you on Sunday 4th, Friday 9th or someone on the streets very soon. As ever if you need more information please email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or call 07974929589.

There’s also a bit of a summary of some of our adventures so far in the rather good Things Happen zine: http://issuu.com/mmdc/docs/things_happen_issuu_one

With love and foxgloves
Morag x

a musical extravaganza

2010-06-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone

Merry day after solstice!

I’ve had lots of requests for an LRM social (not that the derives are entirely ant-soc ial really) and whilst this isn’t psychogeographic it does combine two of my favourite things in the world – great music and a decent, proper pub – and thus has got to be worth sharing with you lovely loiterers too
So: please come along to a night of top tunes at the Britons Protection on Friday July 9th from 7.30pm

I am delighted Case Hardin will be playing a rare Manchester gig as a full band, bringing top notch Americana with a twist; subject matter covers not just love and whiskey but Iraq too; Pete has spent time there as a journalist and I challenge anyone to hear him sing ‘The Letter’ and not feel moved. They really are a splendid band.
Thanks to Jonathan at Single Cell collective the support acts are ace too. Steve Roberts and Phil Davies are both splendid. There will be cakes and a few surprises thrown in as well.

Tickets cost £4 on the door (all money goes towards the bands expenses) a bargain for a Friday night of top quality entertainment.

I hope to see lots of loiterers there; I think it will be really special. For advance tickets or more details please email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or call me on 07974929589

Glittery love and wildflowers
Morag xx

PS More details soon about July and August First Sunday which will be Alan’s crime tour in two halves (that sounds a wee bit wrong written down but Alan’s walks are always wonderful)

june 's first sunday

2010-06-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

hello all, this sunday june 6th we'll be meeting at the knott bar for a lucky dip derive, more details soon yep i know its late notice, i have been sorting a few things out including a special gig on july 9th x

foxy fun this weekend

2010-05-10T08:04:00.001-07:00

The LRM Urban Fox Hunt is a large scale game of hide and seek with added twists. Hunters must use tactics and luck to try to catch a (human) fox – please note: we are not scum, no animals will be harmed.

We first played this game last year and it was great fun (final score was one each to the foxes and the hunters) and we have been invited to run it again at Hide and Seeks Sandpit this Saturday - a large and very splendid collection of pervasive games which is part of Futureeverything.

To make it happen we need a bit of help from folk who like being silly and would be willing to take on a secret mission to make the game more exciting for everyone. Of course you are welcome to just turn up and play but I would be very grateful for your help turning this into something very special.

If you are up for the challenge shhhh don’t tell anyone (that would spoil the surprise) but please email the lrm at loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or call / text 07974929589 as soon as possible so I can arrange to give you the necessary information and buy you a beverage in exchange for your time.

The game itself runs 7.00pm sharp until 8.00pm this Saturday 15th May, starting at The Contact Theatre (best arrive early to be sure of a place)

Hope to see you playing out on the streets….

Love and joy
Morag x

Ps Images from The LRMs secret Manchester photo expedition are now part of an exhibition at Salford Art Gallery (below Stairs Gallery) which runs at least until 25th May, possibly till July

May 2010: rebels, revolutionaries and the return of the fox

2010-04-30T07:56:00.001-07:00

My dear friends, flanuers and foxcubs

I hope spring is springing up nicely where you are, I saw my first
ducklings of the year on the canal yesterday which is always a cause for celebration and every time I walk down the street something new is blossoming… I love the colours, much as I love this place it can tend to the drab in places and I want frivolity, prettiness and joy…. Let’s celebrate the so called weeds which spring up amongst the broken paving slabs and raise a glass to buddlia, patron plant of the peoples republic of mancunia.

Thank you so much to everyone who got in touch after last months mailing, I really appreciate your comments, not least because hurtling words into cyberspace one can never be sure of their impact. It delights me the diggers resonate so loudly and it was a joy to hear from so many people with a passion for radical history.

Mays first Sunday is going to be rather unusual (I don’t know quite what to expect myself, but then I never do) It will be curated by Tim and he plans to tell tales of Rebels, Revolutionaries, and Independent Thinkers He says “My plan includes the following: John Bradford, John Dee, Fredrick Engels & Karl Marx, the Pankhursts, the English Civil War Siege of Manchester, Elizabeth Gaskell, the Jacobites and Bonnie Prince Charlie, Jerome Caminada, Annie Horniman and the Peterloo Massacre and hopefully others. As this will be an LRM event, I am anticipating our usual interactive style, which makes our explorings so very enjoyable!”

The meeting point is at the front of the Duke of Wellington pub in the Shambles at 2:00pm. Afterwards doubtless some will share a beverage and banter in a convivial pub but several of us will be hotfooting it across the river to enjoy Sounds of the Other City Salford’s musical extravaganza

Mayday is possibly my favourite bank holiday of the year being a heady mix of Beltaine, dancing and workers solidarity. Some of you may recall last year’s inaugural LRM Fox Hunt; a giant game of tactical hide and seek with high vis jackets and much silliness on the streets. I have heard the impatient cries of tally ho and bow to demand for another round – but this year the game will be bigger, trickster-ier and even more ridiculous.

I am delighted The LRM Fox Hunt will manifest itself again as part of The HideandSeek Sandpit at Contact Theatre on Saturday 15th May 7pm-ish as part of the always interesting Futureeverything. http://www.futureeverything.org/assets/files/FE10_Brochure.pdf
More details as soon as we have them but be assured: glorious shenanigans will result. And of course not a single real fox will be troubled; we are not scum and barbarity is never sporting.

If you can keep a secret and want to play a special role in the game please get in touch with me as soon as possible, but don’t tell anyone you are doing so. The LRM: like M15 but with more glitter and a nicer mission

Our friends are also up to all kinds of exciting things this week (hence the lack of another mini-fest: we want collaboration not competition between interesting people: there is more than enough energy and imagination to go round. And we like not having to do all the organising) The following all come heartily recommended:

Manchester No Borders are hosting a community barbeque in Hulme tomorrow http://nobordersmanchester.blogspot.com/ The LRM will never tell you how or if to vote but we will say loud and proud: everyone is welcome here. Fuck off racists, no pasaran!

The Manchester Municipal Design Corporation and Manchester Modernist Society invite everyone to meet at the Odeon Oxford Road on Tuesday to celebrate a cultural landmark by projecting images onto its façade. They promise there will be popcorn and a seminar afterwards. Action starts 9.30pm prompt. The Manchester Modernist Map is being launched on Friday too http://www.manchestermodernistsociety.org/map.html

A call has been issued for events to form part of Hazard, Manchester’s biennial festival of intervention and mischief, the deadline for ideas is May 17th and if anyone has any thoughts on this and whether The LRM should get involved please do holler http://www.hazardmcr.org

And finally, on a more ongoing basis the gardening group at Platt Fields are looking for people who want to join with them to grow vegetables on a shared plot, no experience needed and a very warm welcome is promised http://www.plattfields.org

I hope something here appeals and you never get bored with our city; there is magick everywhere if you look hard enough

Much love
Morag x

PS I have re-entered the modern age: yes, I now have a working phone, tv and internet connection (fingers crossed) and can only apologise for all cross at my elusiveness when they were not working. Truthfully it was quite nice to be silent for a bit but now there are adventures to be had and contacts to be made. If you are new to loitering or just want some information or a chat please do feel free to call the once again hot hotline on 079 749 29589 or email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk I will also be striving to blog more now at www.nowhere-fest.blogspot.com but suspect the streets will continue to tempt me away from the screen

the secret manchester photo day results....

2010-04-12T07:59:00.000-07:00

sorry for short notice (for once not my fault as I only just got this info) but this is whats happened to the photos we took on the exploration of secret manchester...

the launch event for the exhibition will take place at Salford Art Gallery (Ble Stairs Gallery) on Wednesday 14th April 2.45pm-4.25pm, directions to the venue available at http://www.salford.gov.uk/salfordmuseum-planning.htm. Family and friends are all welcome. The exhibition runs til 25th May

dont forget

2010-04-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

http://af-north.org/?q=anarcha-feminist

lots of inspiring people, ides and debates, all genders welcome xx

PS

2010-04-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

i forgot to mention this rather ace blog http://radicalmanchester.wordpress.com/ when alluding to radical history. bugger. more haste, less speed etc. also, next months May Day events will elaborate on the theme x

April first sunday - fools and diggers and dreamers and planters

2010-04-01T08:43:00.000-07:00

Merry fools day one and all!

I trust you are spinning yarns and causing creative mischief; remember there is much wisdom in foolishness. Everyone is so busy I sometimes fear the art of play may vanish and so it is every loiterers sacred duty to make merry and enjoy the things that please us as long as it harm none. Smiling, walking, talking to strangers, taking things slowly – these activities should not be subversive. Truly the world turned upside down remains an idea to relish.

Today also marks an important anniversary; that of the Diggers occupying St George’s Hill and planting the land for the common good (Ok so 361 might not be an officially significant number of years to commemorate an event but our arbitrary obsession with certain numbers always strikes me as daft)

There is an oft repeated cliché that contains much truth (well, don’t they all) when it states we must learn from history or be condemned to repeat its mistakes. Lets also try and learn from its dreamers and wanderers and artists and visionaries; small, everyday triumphs that might not appear in official histories but echo through time if only we care to listen through the static. I wish I had been taught about the diggers in school. A favourite day dream of mine is to imagine if they had won and made the earth a common treasury for all…

Its another cliché but we need to say thank you more often. And we need to make sure we exercise the rights others fought for lest we loose them, including the freedom to roam and play and use the streets for more than shopping. We can, and will, go forth and explore and we should be able to do so without harassment, surveillance and random hecklers. There’s a Reclaim The Night march on April 23rd for those who want to make the point louder and with placards.

April 24 marks 76 years since another pivotal moment in the history of public space; namely the Kinder Trespass (and yes, once again we are partying a little later than everyone else but we think it deservers celebrating all the time) It still puzzles me why radical voices are so rare these days, why more people aren’t moved to action over injustice and why compassion needs to be justified so often. My every day experience is most people are good, and kind, and honest and full of far better ideas than the people in power.

Therefore this First Sunday, April 4th The LRM will doff our collective caps and salute all those who went before and have inspired us, whether we have met them or not. Please insert your own heroes name here ----------------- and if you like please send me an email telling me who inspired you and why. I’ll put it on the website if you wish too.

I’m thinking of my grandmother right now; her life didn’t have a grand metanarrative and she does not have a Wikipedia entry but she did a million kind things, taught me much (including a love of nature, how to look confident when you are scared and the secret to a perfect trifle) She also got me out of trouble countless times and its fair to say without her love, strength and idiosyncrasies there would be no LRM. I am just sad she never joined us on an expedition; she would have enchanted you I am sure. It would have been her birthday on Saturday (90th if you must know) It’s the first time I’ve not had a place to send a card to and I have been thinking of how to honour her memory.

The destination of this months derive is still a mystery – we can decide on the day depending on what we fancy doing – but its purpose is clear. We will not be dwelling on sadness and frustration but celebrating, remembering, plotting and well… planting seeds. Specifically native wild flower seeds. It will be rather more ramshackle and low key than last month’s barnstorming Hulme spectacular but all are welcome to join us.

We will be gathering at 2pm in The Britons Protection, Great Bridgewater Street and will set off soon afterwards. I do hope you can join us

Much love and foxgloves
Morag

PS blimey! a whole email without the word shenanigans xx

april genius is the new fool

2010-04-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

doubts this will be bettered today http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4973591&id=677497914 the revolution will be televised. very fine work indeed!

lots of stuff and springiness

2010-03-25T09:50:00.001-07:00

Dear friends and fellow loiterers

I hope spring is springing up nicely for you. Daffodils always make me smile and I think the first days of sunshine are perfect for loitering.

This is an almost unprecedented extra mid month email but there is so much to say and it can’t all wait until logistics have been sorted for the April first Sunday. I can however confirm, in response to many enquiries THERE WILL BE AN LRM WANDER ON EASTER SUNDAY. We won’t let any festival stop us celebrating our streets, although I understand some of our gang will be otherwise engaged; one of the joys of The LRM is the way folk drift in and out of our orbit; there is never any obligation to turn up and so it is always a delight to welcome new friends and returning wanderers.

That reminds me: special greetings to everyone who joined us with us to explore The Peoples History of Hulme. It was a truly splendid afternoon with an unprecedented turnout (as you may have spotted I was slightly overwhelmed by the sheer magnificence of the crowd) Thanks to everyone who made it happen. The crowds were treated to tales of lost trees and sleeping bees, multiple regenerations and time travelling friendships, pop protests, community action, comedy flipcharts and (of course) drunk aliens.

There are lots of pictures of the event here http://www.photoshelter.com/c/muoo/invite/g/U000089RB01WgHl8/G0000GIVdR0yAzfM/ and a review here http://www.brenocallaghan.co.uk/2010/03/peoples-history-of-hulme

As LRM interventions tend to be ephemeral it’s a pleasant change to have so much documentation (although our flker group has some treats at http://www.flickr.com/groups/816115@N22) Aprils shenanigans will be rather more low key; details will be revealed soon, my inspirations this week have been the diggers, Johnny Appleseed and Patti Smith so we’ll see where that leads…

In the meantime many of our friends are doing fine things so there is no excuse for boredom (this is, as ever, an incomplete list of interesting things so please forgive any omissions)

The Peoples History was part of Single Cells Finding Zion Festival which ends on Saturday in fine style with guerrilla busking; I hope to see you dancing in the streets http://www.singlecell.co.uk/findingzion5.html

Madlab has a programme full of interesting stuff and they describe themselves as an autonomous R&D laboratory and a release valve for Manchester's creative communities… how could we not love them? Keep an eye out for collaborations… http://madlab.org.uk/

The always gorgeous and engaging folk at MMS (Manchester Modernist Society) http://www.manchestermodernistsociety.org/news.html have issued a rallying cry to save The Odeon and will be taking part in Manchester Architecture and Design Festival in April http://www.madf.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1

April 10thand 11th sees Manchester hosting a weekend of anarcho-feminism http://af-north.org/?q=anarcha-feminist The programme looks really inspiring and I would like to salute everyone who is making it happen. There is still help needed and of course lots of great stuff happening during the weekend so I urge you to give it a look. I am proud to say the LRM will be hosting a session on gender and public space; more on this soon.

The Royal Exchange is hosting Reality TV, an exhibition of David Dunnicos stunning and downright sinister images of CCTV. It finishes on Saturday and is well worth a look. You may have seen his work accompanying Quiet Loner at the CCTV cabaret http://www.royalexchangetheatre.org.uk/event.aspx?id=314

I hope to see you playing out on the streets soon

With love and daffodils
Morag x

People's History of Hulme - this Sunday

2010-03-04T08:01:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone

Its the shortest ever LRM email to celebrate our most spectacular First Sunday event so far...

We are curating a Peoples History of Hulme extravaganza as part of Single Cell Collectives Finding Zion Festival.

There won't be a set route or official history guide; thats not the loiterers way. Travellers will embark on a metaphysical treasure hunt discovering secrets, story tellers and random surprises that will help unravel the multiple layers of history, politics, regeneration, myths and daydreams that add up to make Hulme.

It’s a tale that stars Roman temples, UFO landing pads, modernist masterpieces, pop heroes, social housing experiments, squalor, revolutionary art and more. Oh and one of my favourite ever mancunian curiosities bingo jesus will be resurrected for the day.

We will finish with short films, a small exhibition, beverages and of course cake.Please do come and play with us, all welcome.

We will be starting at 1pm at Kim By The Sea on Old Birley Street Hulme - you can catch the no 86 bus from Piccadilly or Oxford Road and get off at the (rather lovely) Community Garden Centre.

Many thanks to the many lovely folk who are helping make this possible, please do join us for some splendid shenanigans if you can and although we usually celebrate the ephemeral if anyone fancies documenting the day photos would be very welcome

glittery love
Morag

Bingo Jesus will rise again

2010-03-01T04:58:00.000-08:00

Bingo Jesus - and his much maligned friend Scrabble Satan - will be resurrected this Sunday as part of the peoples history of hulme walk.... more details soon and if you want to get involved in the organising (we still need a few more presenters, stewards etc) please join us for a drink in the sandbar 6pm tuesday 2nd march

2010-02-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

Had a splendid loitering filled weekend; thanks to all who came along, great to meet so many new and interesting people. Next Saturday there is more Larkin About - no 'official' LRM presence (what a ridiculous notion that would be) but we do urge you to go out and play 7-11pm at the greenroom. If you are interested in the pro urbis football match please email dandidthis@live.com

This Weekend: secret photographs and plotting

2010-02-17T02:59:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to let you know about a couple of things happening at the weekend which promise to be rather splendid. Be lovely to see you there

Loiterers and friends are invited to take pictures that capture Secret Manchester this Saturday 20th February. Our work will contribute to an exhibition and archive created for Re-Imaging The North West, a project of New Mornings Old Streets – a collaborative media venture exploring what community media means and how the region should be portrayed. see www.new-mornings.co.uk

Everyone is welcome to contribute, regardless of your experience or ability and whatever you want to document. We’ll be meeting in the Cornerhouse café at 12 noon this Saturday before setting off to take pictures. There will be an opportunity to borrow a camera and pick up technical tips and ideas if you need them, and we’ll be back at the Cornerhouse about 3pm if you would like to join us later. If you can’t make it into town but still fancy sharing some photographs please email high res jpegs as soon as possible. If you need a bit of inspiration there are some wonderful images on the LRM flickr group.

The LRM are also creating a Peoples History of Hulme walk as part of Single Cell’s Finding Zion residency. The event will happen on Sunday 7th March and we are looking for help to create something truly spectacular

Do you have any memories, stories, theories or thoughts that you think should be woven into our walking tapestry? Or are you a performer, artist, poet ranter or raver of any kind that would like to be part of the performance? We also need people help make props, rally troops and or act as a steward. You don’t need to be from Hulme and you don’t have to speak in front of anyone if that’s not your cup of tea.

We’ll be meeting to plot the Hulme shenanigans in The Britons Protection on Sunday (21st February) at 3pm, afterwards beer permitting we’ll go on the rather intriguing Hulme Art Trail that I’ve been leant a rather confusing map of. Please do come along and share your thoughts on Hulme and how we can make March’s first Sunday our most marvellous ever.

For more information or to share your thoughts on any of the above please email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or call 07974929589. Be warned my keyboard is broken so if you text i apologise for replying with a game of hangman.

Take care and hope to see you soon

Love
Morag

the peoples history of hulme - get involved

2010-02-08T07:35:00.001-08:00

The LRM are curating a Peoples History of Hulme as part of Single Cell Collectives ‘In Search of Zion’ festival on March 7th. We will create a fantasy map and guide time travellers on a metaphysical treasure hunt discovering performers, musicians, story tellers and random surprises that will help unravel the multiple layers of history, politics, regeneration, myths and daydreams that add up to make Hulme. It’s a tale that stars Roman temples, UFO landing pads, modernist masterpieces, pop heroes, social housing experiments, revolutionary art and more – and we need your help to tell it now, before everything changes again with the advent of MMUs super campus

Do you have any memories, stories, theories or thoughts that you think should be woven into our walking tapestry? Or are you a performer, artist, ranter or raver of any kind that would like to be part of the performance? Perhaps you would like to help make props, rally troops and or act as a steward? If so please don’t be shy and join our merry band. We will be having a meeting for anyone interested at The Zion Centre. Stretford Road, Hulme 6pm on Tuesday 9th February (ie tomorrow) – we need to move sharpish on this) If you can’t come but would still like to be involved in please get in touch as soon as possible by email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or call 07974929589.

Emotion mapping with manchester womens design group

2010-02-08T04:49:00.000-08:00

We are going to be creating an emotion map for manchester city centre with women who live and work in greater manchester. The aim is to identify places which provoke positive or negative responses in women so that in the future we can explore these spaces in more detail to identify if there are ways that positive emotional responses can be designed into spaces.

We have a stall booked for International Women´s Day at the Town Hall - this is Sunday March 7th.
We also have a workshop and lunch with the women at the Pankhurst Centre on Thursday 25th February 12-2pm.
If you are willing to come along as a volunteer to help at either of these events please let me know. We will need to be about 9/10 for IWD and 3/4 for the Pankhurst Centre.
We are also looking at the possibility of taking part in the Manchester Architecture and Design Festival - if you are keen to be involved with this also please let me know.

Our next meeting to finalise where we are with things for the Pankhurst Centre workshop will be this Thursday at Kro2 starting at 6pm, I look forward to seeing you there.
Following that meeting we are meeting again on 25th February at 6pm - venue to be confirmed.

More information from http://womensdesign.blogspot.com/

February News: a celebration, secret pictures and new adventures in Hulme

2010-02-04T06:37:00.000-08:00

Dear friends, fairies, flaneurs and threats to civilised society

I hope this finds you in happy times, this month we have a celebration and news of twoother rather splendid events so without further ado….

Please join the LRM this weekend for the third anniversary of our First Sunday Shenanigans

We’ll be meeting on the balcony at Piccadilly station at 1.00pm this Sunday, 7th February and shall start with a celebratory picnic. It would be lovely if you could bring some food to share if you feel like it. Then we’ll go for mooch around Mayfield, relatively unchartered territory for us and the proposed site of a major new regeneration scheme that will bring Whitehall to the oh so lucky North. For now it’s home to abandoned railway stations, urban wildlife, post industrial squalor and – of course – a luxury spa.

Doubtless we’ll conclude with beverages and banter and as we raise an almost birthday glass I shall express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed to the continual success of The LRM. Our (not uncritical) love for the city and the many comrades who have added to the richness of our derives continues to be deeply satisfying and brings new surprises every month. So thank you all - but there is no time to wallow in nostalgia. The city shall never be finished and our quest is about to evolve in marvellous ways.

March’s First Sunday is going to be our most spectacular ever. The LRM are curating an exploration of the seven wonders of Hulme as part of Single Cell Collectives ‘In Search of Zion’ residency. We will create a fantasy map and guide time travellers on a metaphysical treasure hunt discovering performers, musicians, story tellers and random surprises that will help unravel the multiple layers of history, politics, regeneration, myths and daydreams that add up to make Hulme. It’s a tale that stars Roman temples, UFO landing pads, modernist masterpieces, pop heroes, social housing experiments, revolutionary art and more – and we need your help to tell it now, before everything changes again with the advent of MMUs super campus

Do you have any memories, stories, theories or thoughts that you think should be woven into our walking tapestry? Or are you a performer, artist, ranter or raver of any kind that would like to be part of the performance? Perhaps you would like to help make props, rally troops and or act as a steward? If so please don’t be shy and join our merry band. We will be having a meeting for anyone interested at The Zion Centre. Stretford Road, Hulme 6pm on Tuesday 9th February (ie next week – we need to move sharpish on this) If you can’t come but would still like to be involved in please get in touch as soon as possible.

Finally The LRM are taking part in Re-Imaging The North West, a project that forms part of New Mornings Old Streets – a collaborative media venture exploring what community media means and how the region should be portrayed . Loiterers are invited to take pictures that capture Secret Manchester on 20th February 2010. Our work will then form part of an exhibition and archive. Many friends are keen and talented photographers as our flicker group shows, others may wish to document their view of our city but feel they need a little technological knowhow – all are welcome to contribute. There will be a drop-in workshop in the Cornerhouse café at 12 noon on the 20th if you want some guidance or to borrow a camera. More details soon, in the meantime see www.new-mornings.co.uk

For more information or to share your thoughts on any of the the above please email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or call 07974929589. Be warned my keyborad is broken so if you text i apologise for replying with a game of hangman. Updates will also be posted on www.nowhere-fest.blogspot.com

I hope you can drift into the LRMs orbit soon

Love and thrilling prospects

Morag x

things to do this week

2010-01-26T07:10:00.000-08:00

on thursday i'll be going to see thishttp://www.librarytheatre.com/whatson/whatson_details.php/7/2010/1220/no-wonder%3Cbr%3E/ which is directed by a friend of the lrm, be ace if anyone else fancies it

manchester cathedral visitor centre is currently displaying a couple of interesting bits of paper relating to everyones favourite elizabethan alchemist mr john dee; its a small display but great to see him in polite company and it inspired a trip to the cathedral to have a close look at the misericords

and at piccadilly station you can view plans for the redevelopment of mayfield and the area around our dearly beloved star and garter

i'm also finalising plans for some special collaborations... details of new adventures for the lrm coming soon.... xx

Capture the flag Manchester

2010-01-07T03:44:00.000-08:00

Capture the Flag - possibly the greatest street game in the world - is coming to Manchester. The (dis)organisers have been in touch asking if the LRM are interested in playing and I daresay it will appeal to many of you

all the info is only on facebook at the moment so apologies if you are wise enough not to have succumbed but more information is promised soon
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=250503249488&ref=mf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_the_flag

thanks

2010-01-07T03:40:00.000-08:00

to everyone who joined us on the first first sunday of the decade, an outstanding turnout expecially considering the (sorry to mention it) weather. My world has shrunk a slittle since then and I cant wait to get back out when the earth under my feet feels more substantial... i am getting a little cross that people confuse 'disabled' with 'spoilsport'... i do hope everyone is keeping warm and safe and enjoying exploring new dimensions and perspectives weather brings us... xx

Urban earth twitter day Saturday

2010-01-07T03:35:00.000-08:00

A message from URBAN EARTH

Just a few hours now until it is Saturday in the Pacific and URBAN TWEET DAY begins. We've got a Tweet Day Tracker on the Ning.. all we need now is lots of people to tweet about their urban experiences on Saturday including #utday in each tweet. If you know anyone with an interest in things urban.. please pass on this message!

Very best,

Daniel
Twitter name: urbanearth

The LRM are on twitter - name (surprise) thelrm although (confusingly) our twitters about The Bench project can be found at spaceplace09

If you havent come across Urban Earth yet they are awesome. I've taken this directly from their website http://www.urbanearth.co.uk/ Information about their visit to Manchester is here http://www.urbanearth.co.uk/manchester/

URBAN EARTH is a project to (re)present our habitat by walking across some of Earth's biggest urban areas.

Central to URBAN EARTH is (re)presenting cities to show what they are really like for the people who live there - a direct challenge to the media that distort the reality of the places in which most of us now live.

The people who come on URBAN EARTH walks capture whatever interests them - places of play, dogs, sounds of fear, pavement rubbings - but contextualised by a route that reveals levels of spatial inequality and deprivation. Each walk includes taking thousands of unbiased photographs that are used to create the URBAN EARTH films. Presenting a rare insight into our increasingly urban lives the films give an alternative take on urban life.

A short documentary about the project will be launched in the next few weeks by SUSO. To follow the adventure visit the URBAN EARTH blog. If you want to collaborate with URBAN EARTH by doing a walk join our Ning. Anyone can join an URBAN EARTH walk...

“In 2008, the world reaches an invisible but momentous milestone: For the first time in history, more than half its human population, 3.3 billion people, will be living in urban areas. By 2030, this is expected to swell to almost 5 billion. Many of the new urbanites will be poor. Their future, the future of cities in developing countries, the future of humanity itself, all depend very much on decisions made now in preparation for this growth.” STATE OF THE WORLD POPULATION REPORT 2007

Celebrate the First Sunday of the new decade with The LRM

2009-12-29T14:30:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends, faeries, flanuers and fellow loiterers

I write this far away from home but I wish I was there. I found the ice redefined the city – forcing me to find new routes with a focus on texture to preserve my tenuous sense of balance. Shiny new paving slabs are bad, grass and gravel better.

I hope the season is bringing you what you desire, and that you found some genuine sparkles of magick amongst the tawdry tat. For me all that glitters is friendship and I would like to thank everyone who made 2009 such an inspiring and fun one for the LRM. A review of the year will appear on the blog sometime in January – I can’t bear to write it yet for who knows what adventures await in the next few days? The loiterer never stops looking…

In the meantime my applause and love goes to many - I hope you know who you are – and especially Alan whose beautifully curated derives this year have been a revelation. I eagerly await the marvels 2010 may bring us all – we have some new tricks and yes, there will be an expedition on the First Sunday in January.

Of course as we greet the new year we must also say farewell to those who have gone to loiter in the great beyond (no, I don’t know what I mean by that either; forgive me I have the lurgy and have overindulged on medicinal whiskey, but I know I am not the only person who misses loved ones at this time of year when advertisements implore us to merely buy and be happy) May the Circle be Unbroken indeed…

In keeping with a time for celebrating and commemorating we’ll be meeting in the café in Urbis at 2pm on Sunday 3rd January – I suggest you get there early and enjoy the fascinating exhibitions whilst you can. Our derive will reprise the tactics of the metaphysical treasure hunt with a few twists – please do join us. I promise despite my maudlin ranting there will convivial company, much pleasure and fun to be had.

It’s true The LRM have had run-ins with Urbis in the past; it hasn’t always lived up to its potential – but it has bought many glorious sights and important debates to our city and is a Good Thing we don’t want to see close. My personal highlights were the Emory Douglas retrospective, zinefest two, that beautiful syd barrett lightbox I spent so long staring at and of course their support for TRIP. I’m not mentioning Reification: The Tony Wilson Experience

It is a sad day indeed when money speaks so much louder than art. What does culture mean in Manchester today? So much for original and modern. We have wrapping paper but precious few public venues for challenging art and debate. No, I am not saying football isn’t culture; the LRM have always celebrated the vernacular but this, like so many of the official ‘visions’ for redevelopment of our city show a total lack of imagination which borders on criminal negligence I think.

Some poor souls have asked what’s the point of a museum of the city; it’s true the secrets of the metropolis do lie all around us every day and goodness knows exploring by doing is at the very heart of the LRM. The streets can tell many stories – and so what better object for study? The city is the heart of modern life. We need wider perspectives, room for pondering, arguing, daydreaming, learning through the work of others. Galleries, museums, libraries, social/community centres; these places are sexy, necessary, cauldrons to inspire and conspire and create. Plus I remember being sad and poor and lonely and free access to these things saved my sanity and possibly my life.

I fear too for the future of community work and all those charming emo* kids who colonised cathedral gardens and made their own special place in the city. *apologies if this is the wrong term, I am old and have no right understanding the vagaries of youth fashion but my they look glorious

How can we, as citizens, influence the development of our city and create space for art, creativity and conversation? There are other battles being fought for public space to at the moment; loiterers are active in campaigning over Birley Fields, Chorlton Meadows, Swallows Wood, Woodbank Park and more so that is more than a rhetorical question.

I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions and the LRM operates on our own time scale but it feels like the right time to reiterate some of what we stand for, in 2010 and beyond the LRM pledges to
• Stay interesting and resist the grind of commercialisation and recouperation
• Keep finding new ways of looking at the city and collecting the myriad mysteries it holds – there is not one Manchester but many layers…
• Remember the streets are ours for play, fun and creative mischief
• To offer anyone with an open mind a chance to wander with us in an atmosphere of tolerance, discovery and respect for all

We shall carry on building the city of our dreams with every step and finding treasure in the Mancunian rain – please join us for a walk and a brew; you never know where it might lead….

Love and power to you

Morag xx

larkin about and decembers derive

2009-12-03T08:17:00.001-08:00

dearest friends and flaneurs

forgive the brevity of this communique (some may breathe a sigh of relief of course) but my internet is broken and (not connected) i am about to bury myself in flour and chocolate

the lrm are delighted to be taking part in larkin about this saturday (december 5th) at the green room - a day dedicated to turning the streets into a playground see http://www.greenroomarts.org/archive/events/larkin%E2%80%99-about/ or the rather more up to date facebook group. they still need volunteers to help with some of the games others have designed so please let them know if you would like to take on that role.

for our contribution the lrm have combined three of our greatest loves - manchester, cartography and vegan cake - to create, yes, a giant cake map of manchester. please come and visit us in the bar area from 12 noon until we've discovered the edible heart of our city. although tickets are required for the rest of the festival it is free to pop in and enjoy a sweet treat with us

our scrumptious diorama is also an almost scientific consultation tool: we want folk to tell us why the scoff the buildings they do - is it love and a desire to consume glory or hate and a drive to destroy. Perhaps its just your curious about what urbis tastes like....

these shenanigans will shape this months first sunday derive. we will be exploring the passions that shape our city and the relationship between psychogeography and cake. we'll be meeting 2pm on sunday (december 6th) in the downstairs bar of the cornerhouse on oxford road and it would be splendid to see you there

if you need any more information about any of the above, or want to join our creative bakeathon tomorrow night please DON'T email (due to those unforeseen technical problems but please call / text 07974929589

glittery love and frosting
morag xx

ps we will be unveiling a new, prizewinning version of our favourite CCTV bingo at larkin about on saturday too

The LRM's Giant Cake Map Needs You!

2009-11-23T08:42:00.001-08:00

Dear friends, faeries and fellow loiterers

I’m delighted to say The LRM will be Larkin’ About at The Green Room on Saturday 5th December during their rather splendid festival of play http://www.greenroomarts.org/archive/events/larkin%E2%80%99-about/ (there's a facebook page too)

Contrary to our usual shenanigans we will actually be staying in as the city fills with frolics… imagine Manchester as a giant game board…a hidden world of splendid silliness materializing on the streets… we will be sat in the bar conducting a very important piece of cake erm public consultation via our giant cake map.

The LRM create the city of our dreams with every step; now we’ve combined three of our greatest loves – Manchester, cartography and vegan cake – to create a DIY map where you can truly shape redevelopment. Please come along and play with us; devour the buildings you dislike and help us find the edible heart of our world.

We would love you to get involved (and actually really need a hand if this is going to happen) . There are a few ways you can help:

1) Are you feeling arty? We need someone to draw a large scale map for us to make sue the cakes are in the right place
2) Fancy a bakeathon? If you want to help make 300 cakes – or can make some to bring on the day – please get in touch
3) What building would you like to eat? Ideas needed for your most loved and loathed buildings in Manchester – suggestions very welcome as are picture you have taken of them
4) Help out on the day – spend a bit of time talking to folk, explaining the game, distributing cakes and cards (or just pop over and say hi and let us know how the games are going)
5) If you have a car then a lift on Saturday with all the cakes would be wonderful

Volunteers get free tickets for the whole festival and any expenses paid plus my adoration and, well, lots of lovely cake and a chance to be part of loitering history.

If you can help with any of the above – or have an idea that you think would make the Cake Map even more wonderful – please email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or call 07974929589

There will also be a new version of an old favourite specially commissioned for Larkin About: yep, CCTV bingo is back – and with the proliferation of friendly neighbourhood cameras your chances of winning a prize and out staring the evil eye has never been greater.

Glittery love and mischief baking
Morag

PS There will still be a First Sunday expedition on 6th December – more details to follow

stoats rock

2009-11-04T03:50:00.000-08:00

http://bit.ly/109ddZ i do love a mustelidae (no, its not psychogeography but a love of urban wildife and americana music are key to my personal ethos. and it made me laugh)

November's First Sunday

2009-10-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

This Sunday (1st November) meet us at 1pm outside Manchester Central Library (St. Peter's Square) for a seasonally themed walk involving a hunt for hidden treasure, Guy Fawkes and Norse gods... We'll be taking a tram to the starting point (2 stops away) so please bring some loose change.

this sunday, 18th october

2009-10-17T02:28:00.000-07:00

we'll be meeting 1pm by the electronic destination boards at piccadilly station for robyn's australian adventure. Apologies for lack of paragraphs in the previous email

This sunday: manchester to perth and beyond

2009-10-15T09:50:00.001-07:00

Dear friends, leaf lovers and loiterers

I hope you are basking in the gorgeous glow of autumn, it’s taken me many years to appreciate this time of year (a long time for the back to school September dread to fade) but my love of it now was surely inspired by the quality of light, the colours are so vivid I’m sure something extra terrestrial was occurring over the rooftops last night, just stunning. It seems like a season of revelation; as leaves fall so do barriers and new vistas are revealed all across town. Have you seen what’s happening at the back of Cheethams or on Miller Street? Time travel indeed.

Massive thanks to Alan for his inspiring and inspired curating of the previous two first Sundays, any derive incorporating haunted houses, rose hips, and occult smoking paraphernalia has got to go down in LRM history as a rare treat. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for November. On a personal note I have relished the opportunity to take time out. Going away meant my heart could leap with joy coming home. I’ve been rekindling my love of music and sitting on trains and plotting some delightful new shenanigans (of which more soon). I’ve also discovered the joy of proper cider but that is another story.

Anyhow I promised an October triple whammy and now I break the one email a month rule to bring details of parts two and three, both collaborations which remind me there are myriad ways to walk the city and that kindred spirits abound, often loitering in unexpected places
The LRM have received a postcard from a friend which you can see at http://www.postcards4perth.org/ It reads "Hi Everyone, I'll be up in Manchester on the 18th. Can you pick me up from Piccalilly Station at 1pm? We cam make our way on foot from there, right? See you soon. x robyn."

Robyn (who made an excellent hunt sab during the fox hunt) elaborates “What do Manchester England and Perth Australia have to say to each other? You might be surprised. Come on homeward bound walk from the re-branded centre out to towards the protagonist's suburban Salford family history. This will be a walking conversation where the narrative flow has been dreamt up by a tourist, so who knows, you might become the guide...

This walk will form part of the research I'm conducting for my PhD project. I'm examining Perth's relationships to other cities within lived experience. I'd be delighted if the LRM or anyone interested would like to come along to share stories of their Manchester and co-construct this trans-urban journey” Please do join us on this continent crossing adventure, I for one am very excited.

Our comrades at The Escape Committee are plotting a minor cultural revolution on the last Sunday of every month; they want to banish boredom something The LRM wholeheartedly endorse. I actually find boredom really hard to empathise with as an adult: so many books and pavements and hills and songs to explore. Anyhow, they have invited us to join their crusade and we rarely turn down an invitation so here’s the plan (in the loosest sense of the word. No bullet points will be used)
Sunday October 25th we will be ensconced upstairs at The Britons Protection (aka my favourite pub in Manchester) from 4pm. An open invitation is extended to anyone who wants to find out more about The LRM, who we are and what we do. If we can procure a projector (can anyone help?) it would be splendid to show some films at this point too.

At 5pm there will be a short introduction to The LRM and psychogeography, no powerpoint I promise, and then an open discussion about future plans, so many inspiring people have half whispered ideas at the moment it would be splendid to see if collectively we can make them happen. Please don’t be shy, if you have been dreaming of a derive or some subversive shenanigans come along and share in a supportive space. At 7pm ish we’ll set off to explore the secrets of the city… all will be revealed on the night but it will be dark and probably daft.

NOTE: anyone being disparaging, lacking an open mind or blatantly ripping decent folk off during the roundtable will be dealt with. I am still reeling at the amount of ugly, nasty, narrow minded people who invaded our beloved city last week. They challenged my belief in the streets being a place for everyone: I don’t want fascists on the march anywhere and the LRM has a zero tolerance policy for racists, misogynists, homophobes and any fuckwit who seeks to curtail another’s freedom. I’m sorry if you think that conflicts with our treasured freedom to play where we choose and do what we wilt, maybe it does, but we are all contradictions and I am bloody angry that such evil exists.

Constructive ways to transform hurt into creative resistance are especially welcome, but so too is anyone who wants to help build the city of our dreams one step at a time or who just simply wants to play out and discover magic that thrives in the mancunian rain.

Please stay safe, look around you and enjoy the view. It can be a beautiful day

With love and pumpkin pie

morag xx

cctv analysis

2009-10-14T02:01:00.000-07:00

in the times, not another leftycommiehippypinkoparanoid rant!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6871833.ece

this weekend

2009-10-09T05:47:00.000-07:00

interesting open archeology in manchester this weekend http://www.manchesterconfidential.com/index.asp?sessionx=IpqiNwY6JWTrKHqiNwF6IHqi#18430375

plus the mancunian way is closed and makes a delighful place for a nighttime stroll.

on the down side the fascists are coming to town tomorrow and we will not be welcoming them. Our streets are for everyone, except those who spread hate and vile racism

“Maybe I should talk to you about fascism. It is a big word and it hides in some pretty little places. And it is nothing in the world but greed for profit and greed for the power to hurt and make slaves out of the people. Fascism and freedom are the only two sides battling.” Woody Guthrie

October's First Sunday

2009-10-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends,

This month we will be entering the "Gates of Hell" in search of ghosts and Celtic water spirits - a true life MR James tale revealed... Join us for a supernatural exploration of the Fletcher Moss parsonage gardens in Didsbury followed by a wild food forage around the Mersey flood basin. A refreshing change from our usual urban escapades - time to breath some fresh air and get your shoes muddy!

Meet outside "The Didsbury Inn" (M20 2SG) at 2pm on Sunday 4th October - for those who have never visited this suburban idyll, it's just past the centre of Didsbury village on the 42/142 bus route and not far from East Didsbury railway station.

Further news on some more exciting psychogeographic events happening this month to follow...

dancing in the streets

2009-10-01T03:59:00.000-07:00

This was written by Nathan Payne and shared here (with permission) because it illustrates how public space is under threat everywhere and our dear red caps are not the only petty beurocrats at work. and becuase it made me laugh

an interesting thing happened the other day, Andrew & i were playing on the street in Brooklyn, on Bedford & N. 7th streets, and we got a few songs off before the cops showed up, and while Andrew was playing "Cure For Pain" the cop summoned me to his car, and i walked over and he asked a couple questions, and no we didn't have a permit (do they ever get bored, asking the obvious?), then he said we could continue if we turned off the amp, and went on to explain that if he allowed us to play with amps, then pretty soon other people would show up with amps, then he went on to describe this really utopian-sounding situation in which people of all types and styles and genres would start coming out of the woodwork to perform on the street, except he used this utopian ideal as a justification for shutting us down.

as he was describing the situation i kept thinking, that sounds great! but he was taking the other track. if we let you guys bring some melody and beauty to the street, the normal garbage-truck and ambulance sounds would soon be drowned out by infinite varieties of street performers cultivating an interesting cultural center right in the middle of everybody, for its own sake and at no cost whatsoever to the surrounding community, bringing in thousands of dollars a year in added revenue and fostering a culture of artistic support, a situation as un-American as Castro. now come on guys, GET REAL, don't you have to GO TO WORK?

yes i do, officer, because these aren't skills you're witnessing here, anybody can do this, and why should i employ my personal skills at the service of my own hunger, when i can sit on a telephone for 40 hours a week or push boxes around in a warehouse? o yeah that's right, cuz you can't tax cash in my hand for work in your face.

America is a cop utopia.

MAP Archives online

2009-10-01T03:49:00.000-07:00

The MAP (Manchester Area Psychogeographic) archive IS now back online and some mighty fine reading can be found there. Cheers Alan. Any chance of the forum rememerging?

http://www.twentythree.plus.com/MAP/index.html

If anyone ever fancies helping sort The LRM out a more coherant online presense I would be very greatful, i know we celebrate the ephemeral but be nice if our flotsam and jetsam were not all strewn in a corner of my bedroom, theres a fair bit of material I've amassed now despite myself

In town this weekend

2009-09-24T05:39:00.001-07:00

Manchester anarchist bookfair on Saturday
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/manchester/2009/09/438091.html
No official LRM literature but I will be contributing cake and i'm especially interested in the anarchy and archeology workshop.

Music, words, good people, games and more cake on Sunday
Its Dales extravaganza at The Britons Protection 4pm - 9pm and its the start of something big. this is what he says

For some time now I've been meaning to organise something for that period on a
Sunday afternoon/early evening when the horrible dread of Monday descends and
the prospect of being plugged back into the work machine for 5 days seems to
suck the air out of the world (if stuck here, remind yourself of what Sunday
evening felt like as a teenager!). I also promised a very fine local band that
I'd put on a gig for them after they played an acoustic set at a charity wine
tasting I put on last year. They are Ivan Campo and have a really good
reputation and following (they've also been picked more than once as a support
act for the mighty Liverpool band Shack).

Date: Sunday 27th September

Time: 4pm till 9pm. Wow, you can have a lie-in, do lunch(might I suggest, as
always, Cafe ModPop) AND get off early if you wish! How user-friendly is that?

Venue: Britons Protection, Great Bridgewater Street. Follow the tram lines along
the side of GMex (or whatever the f*** corporate name it has now) and you're
there.

Ivan Campo plus Black Jack Barnet plus other acts tbc and DJ the Magnificent
Martin the Mod. Joke competition and a raffle(fantastic prizes-ish..) and vegan
cake/sweets/stuff (although please be aware I am not putting this on as a
strictly vegan event). Compered by a wanker(that'll be me then). Does it get any
better?

Three quid on the door. Loads of beautiful warm friendly human people on the
other side of that door.

This is the first in a series of events. Be in at the start.

Make Sunday History.

If you're at either please dont be shy, come and say hello xx

the madness of cityco

2009-09-09T09:31:00.001-07:00

There still paper copies of the rather ace latest edition of The Mule newspaper floating about town, it includes an article looking at the issues of public space highlighted by The LRM whilst getting lost last year

http://themule.info/article/the-madness-of-cityco

the same page (on print, sorry couldnt find it online) also features a peice by Alex aka bored in the city about psychogeography. Most welcome and interesting reading, whatever psychogeography is a key strength is how it has evolved to be interpreted by diverse voices although i do think a total lack of reference to the situationists is a little remiss. I'd love a wider public debate about what 'community engagement' means within an academic/artistic context... hmmm... watch this space.

useful mapping

2009-09-09T09:28:00.000-07:00

although its the last day of DSEI its salutory to ponder on what goes on in our name and neighbourhood
https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/manchester/2009/08/436864.html

i love radio

2009-09-09T04:59:00.000-07:00

and this looks (sounds?) like a really interesting programme and a great site of wonders
http://www.speechification.com/
and yes, there will be a review of Iain Sinclair in Manchester soon too

September First Sunday

2009-09-04T12:04:00.000-07:00

Hi all.
Here's a message from our (temporary) fearless leader, Alan for this month's first Sunday dérive:

God Save King James the Third!

This Sunday the LRM will be recreating the sights and sounds of the Manchester of 1745 when we rediscover the fabled events surrounding Bonnie Prince Charlie's brief sojourn in our fair town. Join us outside Sinclair's Oyster Bar / The Wellington Inn in the Shambles (opposite Selfridge's) at 2pm on Sunday for a tour of Jacobite Manchester from the Old Salford Bridge to St. Ann's Square and finally to Scotland! Show your support for the Young Pretender by wearing a white cockade or your finest tartan.

See y'all there (the noo, etc)
Love,
Seán

September's First Sunday Walk

2009-09-04T09:30:00.000-07:00

God Save King James the Third!

This Sunday (September 6th) the LRM will be recreating the sights and sounds of the Manchester of 1745 when we rediscover the fabled events surrounding Bonnie Prince Charlie's brief sojourn in our fair town. Join us outside Sinclair's Oyster Bar / The Wellington Inn in the Shambles (opposite Selfridge's) at 2pm on Sunday for a tour of Jacobite Manchester from the Old Salford Bridge to St. Ann's Square and finally to Scotland! Show your support for the Young Pretender by wearing a white cockade or your finest tartan.

Morag will be taking a well earned break this weekend so please don't call the LRM hotline.

the bench project

2009-09-03T06:12:00.000-07:00

Things I learnt during the bench project
There are more cleaners working in piccadilly gardens than i imagined
Ditto evangalists with home made leaflets about salvation
Women were happier to talk to me but much unhappier about being photographed

Things I knew already but it was good to be reminded of
Pigeons are ace
Manchester is full of lovely people who respond to a smile
The surreal is everywhere and folk are full of interesting stories

Questions raised
About public space,surveillance and voyeurism
Am I art?
How can we fix a social care system that fails many vulnerable people

Highlights
The many wonderful, random overheard quotes
Tom the free hug guy
Adele who was celebrating her MA
The portable pasty picnic table
Many inspired outfits (don't know how many were inspired by pride)
Messages from people watching the tweets unfurl - gillibobs said it was 'like watching an audio book slowly unfurl

Conclusion
Essentially I proved, and thoroughly enjoyed, that one can explore the city by sitting still. At the end of the day I felt elated and totally knackered but would love to do it again - any takers for a 24 hour shift?

Thanks
to everyone who helped made the day so special and especially to tom, alan, sean, dale and maureen for their support, conor and all at the space is the place, and of course the pigeons for sharing their city with me

Relive the action (and see photos) at www.twitter.com/spaceplace09

Septembers first Sunday is going to be a timetravelling spectacular with multisensory treats... Alan and Sean are organising something truly spectacular. I'm really sorry to say I will miss it but I must be elsewhere. Watch this space for details of when/where to meet xx

art shenanigans this weekend

2009-08-27T02:06:00.000-07:00

get off the streets and onto the bench...

the lrm have been asked to participate in 'the space is the place' which is being organised by conor who some of you will recall from TRIP (and the pub!) last year. http://www.ncad.ie/gallery/space_place.shtml

Its rather short notice but the plan is to re-materialise the bench project for at least the duration of the gallery opening but probably 12 hours on saturday (for logistical reasons i am not up for a 24hour stint this weekend) and twitter reports and pictures so they can be exhibited in dublin in real time.

here's the blurb from last year:

The Bench Project
A day in the life of street furniture of How to Explore the City Whilst Sitting Still… Morag was trying to deal with the contradictions inherent with organising a festival of walking whilst it hurts to stand up and decided to take loitering to its limit and make a city centre bench her home for 24 hours. Well, the view is bound to be better than the telly. Please come and say hello, have some cake

i'm taking some fairy lights and cushions and a picnic and a portable blackborad to make the bench more hospitable but looking for other ways to make it more interesting,(aside from the inevitable debate about public space and surveillance) i quite fancy making it the premise for other interventions. The problem is i can't think of any.... thoughts much appreciated....

and if you arent shambala-ing/AR gathering/prideisaprotesting/climate camping/bank holidaying please stop by... its not as exciting as all those other lovely things happening on saturday - but i am dead nervous and don't just want to be a random bitter eccentric sat on a bench all day!

for the location of the bench please text 07974929589 or you can follow the action via the all new (and probably temporary) lrm twitter feed, imaginatively found under thelrm

the lrm: an apology

2009-08-27T02:01:00.000-07:00

to everyone waiting for a reply to an email or text or comment and to all the blog posts pending. i really appreciate everyones queries and comments but i've not been terribly well of late and its proved a bit tricky juggling everything. as many of you may be aware i have a full time job and a serious music habit to juggle as well... normal (ha!) service will be resumed shortly. If anyone does fancy helping with admin stuff or giving me lots of money* so i can loiter full time please don't be shy (*not lots really but i do have to pay rent)

there are some exciting things brewing: a new LRM era is about to begin with a bench... xx

sexy geography

2009-08-27T01:52:00.000-07:00

Don't forget today is the day for concrete alchemy... i do love the mancunian way

there is also many other public events around the royal geographical society conference, i've been putting posters up but not sure i have remembered to blog...i went to the session People’s Plans: opportunities for radical planning in the 21st Century yesterday and it was really interesting, met some very inspiring people...

upcoming events at Ida Kinsey Village Centre
17 Guide Post Rd., Ardwick, Manchester, M13 9HP

as part of the Royal Geographical Society annual conference, 2009 -
the participatory geographies working group (see www.pygywg.org) are organising the following sessions outside academic conference space, to encourage wider public debate on issues of critical geographical relevance ~ everyone is welcome to come along!

Thur. 27th August: 2.30 – 4.20

Inconvenient Truth: the imperative for Geography to do something urgent about climate change
for more info contact Sophie svw05@aber.ac.uk

4.50 – 6.30

Fuller Geographies: a session of radical, bold, brash, perhaps blunt, but bloody inspiring public geography!
for more info contact Kelvin kelvin.mason@cat.org.uk

6.45 for about an hour (?!) followed by refreshments

pygywg AGM ~ members discuss the future of the group
NB membership is open to all and free!

Fri. 28th August: 11.10 – 12.50 then 2.40 – 6.30

The right to stay put: contesting displacement in urban regeneration / development schemes, sessions 1- 3
for more info contact Chris c.allen@mmu.ac.uk or Lee l.crookes@sheffield.ac.uk
or Stuart S.N.Hodkinson@leeds.ac.uk or Tom tom.slater@ed.ac.uk

Sat 29 th August: 10.00 – 12.30 then 1.15 - 6.00
The right to stay put, session 4: roundtable, field-trip, films and evening social

details of the Royal Geographic Society and the wider conference can be found at www.rgs.org

more on the right to stay put

2009-08-27T01:43:00.000-07:00

This is a general invitation to all those interested or active in urban resistance to gentrification, displacement, mega-developments and privatisation to participate in our event - The Right to Stay Put:
Contesting Displacement to Urban Regeneration and Development Schemes - as part of this year's RSG-IBG Conference in Manchester in August.

The Right to Stay Put: Contesting Displacement in Urban Regeneration

Friday 28th and Saturday 29th August

Venue: Ida Kinsley Village Centre, 17 Guide Post Road, Grove Village, Manchester M13 9HP

A Participatory Geographies Working Group event as part of the Royal Geographical Society / Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference - see www.rgs.org

Free admission / open to public

Description of event:
It is now 25 years since Chester Hartman first advanced the notion of the 'right to stay put' for lower income group struggles against gentrification. Since then, gentrification and related processes of privatisation and marketisation have become integral to neoliberal urban strategies across the world. Despite this proliferation, academics have generally responded poorly to Hartman's call to arms. Rather, as Slater observes (2006, 2008), gentrification research has generally lost its critical edge, and from some quarters gentrification has even been celebrated as beneficial to incumbent low-income groups (Freeman, 2006; Vigdor, 2002). This is not our experience and with this session we seek to restore Hartman's principle to the heart of gentrification research by inviting contributions from activist geographers in the widest sense of the term (academics, teachers, housing professionals, campaigners, trade unionists and ordinary residents) to share and exchange their experiences, insights and methods to better defend people's 'right to stay put'. In the spirit of making geography 'relevant' beyond the policy-academy complex, the session will have a practical orientation and will offer reflections, stories, tactics, lessons and strategies for developing successful urban resistances. The aims are to: (1) share experiences and develop practical knowledges about what works in urban resistance; (2) create an educational space for encounter and dialogue between those involved in similar critical work and activism; and (3) start to develop an action research network and a knowledge/resource base for wider dissemination.

A variety of speakers will recount stories of regeneration and resistance from around the world, including London, Berlin, Zurich, Mumbai, Istanbul, Toronto, Dublin, Chicago, Glasgow, Melbourne, South Africa, Möllevången as well as addressing questions of building (un)successful local and global networks of opposition and creating alternatives.

The event will have 4 main sessions:

Sessions 1-3 will take place on 28th August. Session 4 will happen on 29 August.

Session 1 (11am-1.40pm) explores gentrification and displacement in action.

Sessions 2 (2.40pm-4.20pm) and 3 (4.50pm-6.30pm) explore resistance in action.

Session 4 (10.30am-lunch-3pm) explores how we can develop local to global strategies, networks and alternatives and will be split between papers and an open roundtable 'working' discussion. It will be followed by a tour of Manchester's urban development and struggles, and then a social-benefit event in the evening with films.

Full details, including venue directions and programme, on www.autonomousgeographies.org/righttostayput

Details of the other amazing Participatory Geographies events being put on at the Ida Kinsley Village Centre during the RGS-IBG conference can be found here: http://www.pygywg.org/news/rgsibg2009.htm

Session Organisers:
Chris Allen (Manchester Metropolitan University), c.allen@mmu.ac.uk Lee Crookes (University of Sheffield), l.crookes@sheffield.ac.uk Stuart Hodkinson (University of Leeds), s.n.hodkinson@leeds.ac.uk Tom Slater (University of Edinburgh), tom.slater@ed.ac.uk

Dr Stuart Hodkinson
School of Geography
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
0113-343-1820
s.n.hodkinson@leeds.ac.uk

August Communique: A summer of rage, rain and concrete alchemy

2009-07-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and fellow loiterers

I trust this finds you in fine fettle. Thank you to everyone who took the time to get in touch after last months communiqué to say how much they supported the idea of unity amongst those who love the city and the need to redefine risk.

I also appreciate those who criticised me for idealism; yes The LRM does have unrealistic aims but at the risk of sounding like a bumper sticker (ah recuperation! If only the bards of Paris 68 copyrighted their work) “Be realistic, demand the impossible….I take my desires for reality because I believe in the reality of my desires” but we are not a band of naïve hippies: far from it.

A basic tenet of The LRM manifesto is of course that webelieve there is magick in the (increasingly apocalyptic) Mancunian rain but also that advertising, blandness, commercialisation and gentrifiication make us sad. And frankly, recently I have been crying many tears of rage for what is happening. To quote a friend ‘sometimes this city needs a slap, not a hug’. Truly I believe direct action gets results and we ignore the dark side of the force at our peril.

For all its regenerated glories Manchester has many areas full of social deprivation and retains a woeful record on public health. I’ll get round to putting some statistics up on the website soon: suffice to say the post bomb nirvana never materialised for most residents but I guess you know that already. If you can’t wait for the synopsis email me and I’ll send you links for some jolly reading.

On a personal level this has also been a time of pestilence and heartbreak for many loiterers myself included. I have been reminded once again that there is strength in comraderie and just, well, doing stuff. I truly believe most things are better after a cup of tea and a wander across town. With the modern plagues of home entertainment and cars and headphones we increase alienation and become weaker and ever more isolated. One of the things I love most about First Sunday is the way it brings together so many disparate people, all inspiring in different ways and creating new connections, new ways of travelling which subtly changes the synapses of the city.

August will see a different kind of derive: one based not just on creation but also on destruction, on the metaphorical level at least. Often one requires the other and we should not be scared to acknowledge hurt, anger, sadness and fear: this is the first step to transformation and joy. Politics is in the streets and change is in our footsteps.

Please join me on a cathartic stomp this Sunday, August 2nd. We shall go abanishing and vanishing and conquering – afterwards when we have our traditional post walk pint we can discuss what we can do to improve things. Self pity and whining is NOT the loiterers way: anger is an energy and we will harness it somehow….

We’ll be meeting at 1pm in The Britons Protection, Great Bridgewater Street (its child friendly) probably in the back room or beer garden if it’s sunny. A fortifying drink is recommended as we may well enter alien territory for The LRM: 3 years of exploration and we have never once ventured into the dreaded Arndale Centre.

If you’re new just look for the short lass with pink hair. We’ll be off about 1.30; the route will be devised using arcane methods: please get in touch or arrive promptly if there is a site you especially want to visit or rant about and we’ll try and include it. I would love to know what (and where) you hate in and about Manchester, although of course no-one is obliged to share,

Please note I am not advocating any form violence, damage, disrespect or criminal activity: The LRM has always been and remains a law abiding and peaceful group. Everyone is welcome as long as they respect this and the rights of other loiterers. Remember also you are responsible for your own safety; please look out for everyone else too. This shouldn’t need saying: there have never been any problems with any loiterers but of course I am aware this email gets forwarded far and wide and I want to make this absolutely clear.

I hope you can join us, it would be splendid to see you. If you can’t make it on Sunday some kindreds also have some interesting events coming up this month. There are more Street Training sessions at Cube – see their website for booking details - and the wonderfully titled walk The Mancunian Way: The Alchemy of Concrete takes place on 27th August.

This walking tour offers an unconventional perspective on the geographical and cultural impact of the Mancunian Way on the city and its people. It starts with a short introductory presentation at Manchester Metropolitan University at 3pm, followed by the tour itself which lasts approximately 2 1/2 hours. At 6pm, as part of the URBIS Urban Research Forum, there will a public debate about the Mancunian Way and the impact of postwar Modernist planning and architecture in Manchester.

Email Steve Millington (s.millington@mmu.ac.uk) for further details. The event is designed to coincide with the annual Royal Geographical Society Conference which is taking place in the last week of August; there is some other great stuff happening around then too so do keep a look out.

I am starting to think about dropping the psycho – its meaningless – because geography is quite sexy and sensational enough. Oh yes.

With glittery love and creative rage

Morag x

a message from hulme community garden centre

2009-07-23T04:26:00.000-07:00

we have two upcoming important events at HCGC.

First up is a consultation event this Friday between 2.00pm and 4.00pm, here at the Centre, with Manchester Metropolitan University in regard to the proposed new campus development of Birley Fields.

This is YOUR opportunity to find out exactly what’s going on and a platform to engage with the University and Manchester Council and get your views heard. We’re hosting this event because we want to provide a forum for debate and we urge anyone and everyone to turn up here on Friday and get your point of view across.

HCGC has obvious concerns about the environmental impact of this development so I know we have a few issues to raise but there will also be a wider impact on the area and we want as many people as possible to have their say and get the answers they need. This is our opportunity to get involved in what’s happening in our area. Please forward this to all your networks and let’s make sure local communities have a voice.

Secondly, we have a FREE event about CODEX. What is Codex. I hear you splutter? Well, it affects the food we eat and could have a massive impact on our lives very soon. Run in conjunction with Alternative Answers this event will feature talks and a film about Codex before going on to learn what individuals and communities can do about it. The event is on Saturday 8th August from 1.00pm until 4.00pm.

a picnictastic artarama of a weekend

2009-07-17T02:53:00.000-07:00

It is boring to talk about the weather but forgive me just this once if I say I am hoping for a sunny weekend. A couple of our favourite co-conspiratoprs have organised events that sound splendid and will be so regardless of the rain, but there’s no denying they will be most delightful if soggy sandwiches can be avoided…

First up on Saturday those lovely land girls and single cell are hosting Picnic “showcasing the talent of Manchester’s rising stars and highlighting the lonely plight of forgotten wasteland, inspiring public recalamation of urban green space" Hooray for that we say.

Look for the bunting in Hulme between Bonsall Street and Rolls Crescent (near Old Birley St) between 3 – 5pm. I believe the 1940s theme means costumes are encouraged and plan b in case of emergency (or torrential storms) is decamping to The Yard Theatre.

Wear your socks and sandals with pride, prepare to extol upon the virtue of scones. There will be cakes and lemonade galore, acoustic music, comedy and poetry from Julie E Gordon, Quiet Loner, Paul Leeming, Dominic Berry Aidan Jolly and band plus art activities, rounders and more... Fundraisind for the Swat Valley Crisis Appeal

On Sunday we are thrilled to be accepting an invite to the first Manchester modernist society tea party

“being a most cordial invitation to luncheon in the grass, in the shadow of Gustav Metzger’s Flailing Trees, Manchester Peace Gardens, St Peter’s Square, Sunday 19 July from 2pm, and then on to Procession: An exhibition at Cornerhouse, 4pm- 6pm.

Manchester is currently in festival fever with music, exhibitions and activities literally spilling out of the buildings and into the streets. It’s the perfect opportunity for even the most jaded of city dwellers to re-invigorate those humdrum routines, find new nooks and crannies lurking in the familiar and examine the everyday landscape we all too often take for granted with a more curious eye?

What better way we thought to enjoy the dying embers of the festival and reflect on the installation’s poignant message before its removal to the Whitworth Art Gallery than with a spot of afternoon tea under its temporary shade; our own modest celebration echoing the doubtless more lavish Festival Feast taking place round the corner in the Albert Square pavilion!”

See www.manchestermodernistsociety.org for the full text (and erm where we procured the wonderful picture above from)

So – a weekend of inspiring people, subverting public space, first class art (well, apart from those flailing trees of which more later) and scrummy cake. Sounds like heaven in a wild city to me and will hopefully banish my childhood conviction that to picnic meant sitting in a car at the bottom of beachy head looking at the sea and feeling sad.

July Communique: joining the dots and celebrating the city

2009-07-03T05:17:00.001-07:00

Dear friends, foes, faeries and fellow loiterers

Merry July! Apologies for my recent tardiness regarding the blog and late notice of the forthcoming First Sunday. As some of you know June was a tricky month for me; but I have emerged battered and bruised and still breathing (sometimes that is no small triumph) and as ever during the tough times some truths emerge amidst the clichés and the pain.

Very little can’t be relived by a stroll through the city (I can suddenly hear Petula Clarke singing through the ether) and the intergalactic bonds formed by comrades in loitering are a tremendous source of strength and inspiration. Thank you all.

I’ve love to know what’s been happening with you and in particular your thoughts on a few questions I’ve been pondering: Where do you feel safe / unsafe? What is your favourite psychogeographic art? How should The LRM evolve? How is technology helping and hindering your sense of space? Answers on a postcard or in an email please…. Also, massive thanks to the ever inspiring Alan for curating June's splendid adventure. If you have an idea for a First Sunday please do share and we can make it happen.

The LRM will be embarking on something of an art crawl this Sunday, joining the dots between a few of the many exciting creative endeavours lighting up the city at the moment.

We’ll be meeting at John Rylands library café (on Deansgate) at 1.30pm I suggest getting there early to have a look at the splendid sounding Mapping Manchester: Cartographic Stories of the City' http://tinyurl.com/nqczhq Mmmm maps... how they limit and liberate and intrigue….

Then we’ll be (very promptly on this occasion) heading out to enjoy Procession http://www.mif.co.uk/events/procession-2/ which one of the LRMs heroes, Miss Euphemia P Niblock describes as the highlight of the (Manchester International) festival surely...art, the everyday, plus a little bit of flaneurie = an archaeology of now!! perfect...

At 2.30pm we will reconvene under our beloved giant map in Victoria Station. This is one of my favourite places in town; I love the energy of railway stations and the million stories you can glimpse (or invent) in the bustle. We may be a little late so if you are lost or unsure where we are do please ring/text the hotline 079 749 29589 and remember our ramshackleness is part of our charm.

The ensuing derive will be tactile, sensuous and playful: I want to concentrate on the senses that we tend to ignore or repress when traversing the city. And no I am not being perverse: this will be a walk, as ever, suitable for all ages and dispositions. It seems to me society as a whole is becoming over cautious; fear of fear is a dangerous enemy to the loiterer. Chance and chaos and risk can be liberating and beautiful: let’s be delightfully silly and concentrate on touching and feeling and being joyous. Consensual hugging is optional but very welcome.

This is not an official event; we have no corporate sponsorship, no membership fee, no tickets, no exclusions, no copyright notices, no insurance policies and no dogma. Ignore me if you like but please remember advice given by some of our illustrious forbears ‘Forbidding is not allowed’ and ‘As long as it harm none’ between those two sages lies the heart of The LRM.

Our wander will finish at CHIPS so we can be dazzled by Trade City, Contemporary Art Manchester’s launch event. Pedants may note we are not embarking on a true derive because the end point is defined but I say so what. We have no idea of what the travelling will entail and the journey can still be sweet.

I daresay then we shall find somewhere to share stories and imbibe refreshing beverages. Even as we revel in the art there will doubtless be despair at the redevelopment of Ancoats and debate on the contradictions inherent within the LRM; so resolutely embedded and in love with the city and yet hating so much of what is happening to it. It’s a shame The City as Gymnasium exhibition at Cube isn’t open until 9th July; I think there will be much to savour there too especially Lottie Child’s Street Training.

I hope one of the subtexts of a walk between and betwixt spectacles will be a rallying cry for solidarity amongst the many artists, organisations and individuals whose work overlaps with ours.

We may disagree on many things – I am a contrary bugger and lest we forget the LRM is about revolutionary fun and wants nothing less than the city of our dreams - but like a giant Venn diagram at our core we are all exploring and celebrating Manchester in its multifaceted and frustrating and wonderful glory.
The city is big enough for us all and I despise the insidious sense of competition certain quarters encourage; but of course I reserve the right to expel corporate whores and untruthful prophets when The Loiterers Republic of Mancunia is finally established!

Just time to heartily recommend a couple more kindred’s who I can not envisage ever banishing: The fledgling manchester modernist society http://manchestermodernistsociety.org/ is blossoming into a Very Good Thing and the next issue of The Mule newspaper (its full of proper, inspiring, trustworthy journalism) will include an article about The LRM and how playing in the street became subversive. http://www.themule.info/

I do hope to see you Sunday or perhaps in one of the secret grottos I’ve taken to hiding in of late. No of course I’m not revealing where they are - it wouldn’t be a secret network then would it - but there again is the paradox: most sacred LRM spaces may feel private but are very public. The portals are there for anyone to discover if only they are looking the right way….

Glittery love, power and joy

Morag x

World Naked Bike Ride

2009-06-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I'd like to take this chance to give all you lovely loiterers the chance to loiter on bicycles - without your clothes!

Manchester's section Of the World Naked Bike Ride will be on Friday 12th June, at 6pm from Whitworth Park.

All the details you need are here:
http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/index.php?title=Manchester

Be there or be decidedly overdressed!

Love,
Seán

June's First Sunday Walk (and Picnic)

2009-06-03T11:56:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow loiterers!

This month's walk will be a game of two halves - starting with a short tour of Peter Street and Quay Street, taking in some of the most interesting buildings and stories Manchester has to offer, followed by a walk along the old straight track (dare I call it a ley line?!?) from the Central Library to Platt Fields. This half of the walk will take us through various zones - the entertainment, academic and curry zones - each with it's own special ambience. We'll end the walk with a picnic at the Platt Fields FEAST festival: Click Here Keep your eyes peeled along the way - there will be a game of I-Spy with a special prize!

Meet outside the Central Library (St. Peter's Square) at 1pm for the Peter Street and Quay Street tour. If 1pm is too early for you we'll reconvene outside the Central Library at 2pm for the walk to Platt Fields.

See you all on Sunday! A don't forget to bring a picnic (and a bottle or two!)

Mapping Dangerous Spaces

2009-05-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

An interesting symposium in that london on june 1st

flyer: http://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/events/mds/mapping-dangeous-spaces-cpf.pdf
programme: http://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/events/mds/mapping-dangerous-spaces.pdf

yes, its next monday.... and i still havent finished my paper.... here's my abstract....

Getting Lost in Manchester

Abstract by Morag Rose

The LRM (Loiterers Resistance Movement) is a Manchester based collective of artists, academics and activists interested in psychogeography and public space.

In June 2008 we facilitated Get Lost, the de facto fringe festival for MMU’s TRIP (Territories Reimagined: International Perspectives) conference. The month long programme included walks, talks and artistic interventions aimed at engaging communities in exploring Manchester.

This bought us into conflict with Cityco, the quango who manage Manchester City Centre. They claimed we were a health and safety risk to the public and needed £2million insurance to be allowed on the streets. Furthermore they threatened us with arrest for criminal damage, expressed concern we may encourage homeless people into the city, told artists they needed a license to ask questions and warned of the sinister implications of our public critique on CCTV. We challenged their arguments with relish....

This paper explores the obstacles encountered and places them in the context of Manchester’s post bomb neoliberal redevelopment. Increased surveillance and restrictions are imposed as a result of the agenda to create a clean and “safe” city for consumers. It provides a clear and alarming example of the conflicts between civil liberty, state bureaucracy and capitalism as it addresses why playing in the city become so subversive

Theres lots more interesting stuff there too. Please come and say hi if you're in the vicinity. I'm rather amused the programme gives me a totally made up job title - i guess loiterer isnt enough for some folk.

2009-05-19T05:44:00.001-07:00

i went to sheffield yesterday and was struck by how it the most clearly signposted english city i can think of. maps about every five minutes walk apart and many arrows pointing towards the heart of the city. what does this mean for loitering in south yorkshire? hmmm. anyway i was on a quest to see my favourite band in the world - the handsome family - and tonight they will be playing in manchester, at the ruby lounge. its not stricly psychogeographical, although they do conjour up magical realms, but i can't quite put into words how much i love them. come to the gig, it will be ace.... x

SPEAKERS CORNER APPEARS IN MCR

2009-05-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

MAY 15th 8.00pm

Manchester has a fine tradition of orators, thinkers, dreamers, dissidents, mavericks and mischief makers of all sorts – ours is a city full of art and magic and fury and ACTION.
The LRM want to revive our cities proud tradition of street corner revolutionaries and reclaiming public space for discussion and debate

Our speakers corner will be materialising this Friday thanks to Single Cells audacious Guerrilla Busking spectacular (part of Futuresonic and more details can be found here http://www.singlecell.co.uk/ )

Step up and have your say… share a bright idea or a burning desire …demonstrate your mastery of polemic and help us start to set the world to rights

Please come and find us 7.30pm in The Britons Protection – we’ll be moving out in the open for 8.00pm

For more information and to guarantee your voice will be heard please email loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or text 079749 29589

A message from MCC

2009-05-12T07:36:00.001-07:00

MCC Launches On Thurs 14th May with an event as part of the Futuresonic fringe

Their splendid byeline is 'Art and Labour's Cause is One' Walter Crane, The New Era

They say "Collective creative community is both an on-line portal that connects artists and a physical space ‘collective hub’. MCC will exist to encourage collective ideas"

They are meeting Outside Urbis 10.00pm for a "Sky Lantern Lit Recession Procession" to the party venue. R.S.V.P please by email to m.rainey@urbis.org.uk - there's guaranteed entry with food to the launch event on the night for all reserved places.

2009-05-07T06:46:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to everyone who made the bank holiday weekend truly awesome, as ever i am going to say reports will appear soon and mean it sincerley but then get caught up in something else...i had fancied a wee break now as i'm tired but the news that manchester is to be the site of the ID cards pilot is truly insightment not to sleep.

this weekend there is a rather charming pro-capitalist march for anyone who fancies getting dressed up for a bit of situationist inspired mischief - have fun and cheer macdonalds on very loudly for me if you get there http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/manchester/2009/04/428242.html
http://www.beyondtv.org/nato/crap/craps.htm

May Day Minifest: Loiterers of the World Unite!

2009-05-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

Dear friends, faeries and fellow loiterers

I hope this finds you in a good place. I just wanted to send you a quick reminder of our May Day Bank Holiday shennanigans

Tomorrow is the Great Urban Fox Hunt – a giant game of hide and seek – more details are below, please let me know if you want to join in as there is, unusually for The LRM, A Plan. Not a route, of course that would be silly, but we do indeed have A Plan. Incidentally case anyone is in any doubt WE ARE NOT HARMING ANY ANIMALS. Hunters are scum. Loitering hurts noone and leaves no trace save the ephemeral nature of our stories

I am also very excited about Bank Holiday Monday May 4th; One of my all time favourite musicians the wonderful Chris Mills will be playing a special concert live in my living room…. Wooohoooh…. support will come from the splendid Quiet Loner …. High quality entertainment guaranteed The party is on May 4th (Bank Holiday Monday) from 6pm; the music will be done by 10pm because of buses and work and suchlike.

There will, of course, be scrummy cake and lots of tea but please bring your own booze. A proverbial hat will be passed round to pay for the artists so please be generous. If you need the address or more information just holler. Please RSVP if possible so I know how much cake to make

Of course between Saturday and Monday lies the first Sunday of the month, our traditional day to gather. It’s wonderful going for a walk with people; my heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who has ever joined in with one of our derives. It truly wouldn’t be the same without you.
However, loitering is not to be confined to first Sundays and it does not require company; indeed some delicacy and discretion can be lost in the crowd. Sometimes the chatter and the bustle, no matter how inspiring, can drown out the daydream and scare away the imaginary realm. Loitering is truly a state of mind that we can all master; I don’t want to tell you where to go and if I try then please, don’t listen to me.

Bearing all this in mind I humbly suggest this months first Sunday derive should be a DIY affair. Please don’t think me rude or lazy for suggesting this, although to be frank I think I’ll need some solitude and rest in between two amazing and gregarious encounters.

I’m rather taken with the idea of the city, indeed the world (hello Steffi synchronising with us in Bonn) being full of disparate flaneurs all united even in their isolation. The theme I shall be focusing on with my personal meander is nature; it’s so abundant and beautiful at the moment as finally celebrate Beltaine.

The canal seems a good place to start; it’s biodiversity is breathtaking and water always makes me feel calm. If you choose to go on a walk please share a few words for the blog or a picture for flicker. If you don’t fancy a stroll Subversive Spaces finishes its tenure at the Whitworth on Monday; it’s highly recommended.

I hope to see you Monday or Saturday or indeed we may even collide on Sunday; serendipity is a curious thing

With love and guitars

Morag x

THIS WEEKEND minifesto

2009-05-01T03:27:00.000-07:00

Don't forget the amazingly splendid house gig / party extravaganza on monday

sundays derive will be a DIY affair - watch this space for details

Tomorrow is of course the great urban fox hunt, instructions below....

Dear loiterer

Thank you for signing up for the great LRM urban fox hunt. Here are your rules of engagement

If anything is unclear please call / text 07974929589 for clarification, also please use this number if you have to leave the game early or cancel (just so we don’t spend ages looking for you when we never stood a chance!)

At 2pm hunters must be at their designated, unique starting point (this will be sent to you in a separate email to preserve an air of mystery) They should don their high visibility jacket and begin the chase. If possible they should cry tally ho! or alternatively blow a whistle, or kazoo or other small instrument if available, although we do understand that may not be possible without alarming bystanders. Your first task is to find your fellow hunters….

Hunters must stay within the area outlined above and must be careful at all times to stay calm, courteous and mindful of the dangers of the city. Engagement with the public is encouraged but please don’t run, shout, ignore traffic or behave in a vexatious manner.

REMEMBER: If you see the fox you may not apprehend them until you have sufficient other hunters with you; 8 is the magic number when mob rule begins

When you see another hunter – identifiable of course by their jacket – the appropriate greeting is a cry of tally ho! or a note on your instrument/whistle if you have one. If your call is reciprocated you have found a kindred. How you proceed together is up to you of course but remember you can not catch a fox unless you are in a group of 8 hunters.

The fox(es) will be going about their daily business in perfectly reasonable manner. They are of course normal people, albeit sporting fluffy ears and magnificent tails; they don’t deserve persecution and can’t comprehend the hunting mentality. They will be in public view at all times; wandering feely in parks, squares, shops, cafes, galleries and generally enjoying the city. They may not hide away from the gaze eg in changing rooms or toilets.

To catch a fox they must be surrounded by a circle of 8 hunters and one must touch their tail; the fox must then surrender their tail and indeed their liberty.

At 4pm the game is over. If the fox(es) are caught much earlier we may have a second round. If any hunters or foxes are still on their own they should proceed to the library steps where will we gather to decide where to go for our post game celebrations.

I hope this makes sense! If not, or you need to collect a map or jacket please ring the hotline: 07974929589 and I’ll get the stuff to you. This is also the number to call if you get lost or confused or need any help.

Please be surreptitious and don’t wear your jacket before 2pm (unless of course you are cycling into town!) You can’t be sure who’s watching and discretion, as they say, is the best part of valour. Also, and this is very important: PLEASE RESPECT THE SPIRIT OF THE GAME AND DON’T TRY TO CONTACT OTHER HUNTERS TO TRY AND FIND THEIR STARTING POINT OR PLANS. If you know anyone else who wants to play please ask them to get in touch before 1.30pm so they can be given a location of their own.

Please remember this is an experiment and thus The LRM have no idea of the outcome although we anticipate ramshackle beauty and a glorious confusion through out our beloved city…..

I look forward to playing with you tomorrow

Love and giddy excitement

Morag x

PS The game area

Due to technological incompetence I have not been able to create an online map so it’s a DIY job I’m afraid. Here are the boundaries, walking in a clockwise direction. I suggest this map http://www.manchester.com/images/sections/travel/maps/mancmap2.gif but obviously any will do.

The bottom right point is the corner of Mossley Street and Princess Street, the line goes up John Dalton Street and then right along Deansgate till you reach Hunts Bank (nice name, yes that is deliberate) then turn down Todd Street and down Corporation Street then right along Withy Grove, skirting the outside of the Printworks and then go up Shudehill. Cross only at the traffic lights… the northern boundary is Thomas Street which isn’t marked on this map: it has Rambo’s tattoos, The Chinese Arts Centre, Odd bar and the old pink post office on it. It intersects with Oldham Street and this is the easterly edge; go down, through the middle of Piccadilly gardens and back down Mosley Street to the starting point. Perhaps its my imagination but I think the resulting shape is rather foxy, don’t you?

The LRM

Last few tickets left for Bata-ville Film Screening 26th Jan

January scavanger hunt is go

hello

January's shenanigans

womens design group walk tomorrow

December Activity

November's First Sunday

Octobers First Sunday

Septembers action: music, merriment and hating to love machester

drinking in the city and a rare musical treat

Forthcoming Events

archive #3 what is psychogeography

archive #6 what is a derive?

archive #5 diggers, dreamers, fools

archive # 4 new years resolutions

Archive #2 the metaphysical treasure hunt

from the archives #1 solo loitering

may day, may day

April's First Sunday: It's smoking

april first sunday

WAAAH! save the trees in whalley range

This Sunday: modernist heroines and more

february delights: blackburn and dumplington ahoy

just 10 of many remarkable women

News Extra: Blackburn adventures and modernist heroines. Please get involved

Solstice Communique: What is a derive?

racists not welcome here

december's first sunday

velvet, corduroy and more: the city is alive!

Novembers First Sunday: The dark is rising

The Velvet and Corduroy Club opens its doors to a salon of interesting things...

Octobers First Sunday - Crime, carousing and direct action

Local history workshop

its not just streets that should be free....

Septembers First Sunday: Monsters, mushrooms and mirth

Peterloo Memorial

stop, look, listen

August First Sunday: Crime in the city and love on the streets

july: crime, flowers, friends, music

a musical extravaganza

june 's first sunday

foxy fun this weekend

May 2010: rebels, revolutionaries and the return of the fox

the secret manchester photo day results....

dont forget

PS

April first sunday - fools and diggers and dreamers and planters

april genius is the new fool

lots of stuff and springiness

People's History of Hulme - this Sunday

Bingo Jesus will rise again

This Weekend: secret photographs and plotting

the peoples history of hulme - get involved

Emotion mapping with manchester womens design group

February News: a celebration, secret pictures and new adventures in Hulme

things to do this week

Capture the flag Manchester

thanks

Urban earth twitter day Saturday

Celebrate the First Sunday of the new decade with The LRM

larkin about and decembers derive

The LRM's Giant Cake Map Needs You!

stoats rock

November's First Sunday

this sunday, 18th october

This sunday: manchester to perth and beyond

cctv analysis

this weekend

October's First Sunday

more stuff to read

dancing in the streets

MAP Archives online

In town this weekend

more stuff to read

the madness of cityco

useful mapping

i love radio

September First Sunday

September's First Sunday Walk