Copy: Easyjet Traveller, January 2011 >> I’m reposting this piece on the matchday experience at FC St Pauli, Hamburg, for no other reason than I fancy blowing my own trumpet. Earlier this afternoon I won a German National Tourist Board award for the story, at a ceremony in London....

Copy: The National 17/11/2011 >> It’s one of the perks of the job – sometimes you come across really talented people who seem on the very cusp of greatness. That’s how it felt when I met RNCM pianist Arsha Kaviani in Manchester this week. In his final year at the...

Copy: The National 15/11/2011 >> It could happen, you know. 20th Century Fox are pushing strongly for Andy Serkis’ motion-captured performance as Caesar the genetically modified chimpanzee in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes to be recognised in the best actor category at next...

Copy: The National 09/11/11 >> It was fantastic to see Daljit Nagra‘s name among the shortlisted poets for the prestigious TS Eliot prize. He has one of those brilliantly fresh voices which periodically shake up the form – new collection Tippoo Sultan’s Incredible White...

Copy: Creative Times 08/11/2011 >> I spotted a retro videogaming night in the Lass O’Gowrie pub in Manchester recently. A good idea – but an event called Get Into Gaming takes the notion of social videogaming one step further. Also in a pub, this time in Leeds, the idea is to...

Copy: The National 9/11/11 >> The Britney Spears’ gig in Manchester last weekend was a really curious experience. Armed with a notebook – she plays in Abu Dhabi in Friday so I was writing a primer for The National – I was sure that the assembled crowd (and there...

Copy: The National, 07/11/11 >> No, not films. Film. The ever-increasing use of digital (take Gareth Edwards brilliant Monsters from last year, entirely shot using a digital camera) means the likes of Panavision aren’t even making film cameras at present. Meanwhile, Tacita...

Copy: The National, 06/11/11 >> So, Shakespeare didn’t write some of the greatest plays ever committed to paper. Well, that’s the conclusion of Roland Emmerich’s new film Anonymous – and it’s caused a right fuss in The Bard’s home of Stratford Upon...