GB's top team sold to highest bidder

All over the world cyclists out training are shouting at their mates: “Slow down! What do you think I am – a Mancunian!”
Manchester has become to track cycling what Kenya is to distance running.
The spiritual home. The setter of standards.
The cycling world cup gave GB’s phenomenally successful Olympic team the chance to show off their skills in their home velodrome.
Next to Asda, in Manchester’s Sports City.
The medallists were competing together but they weren’t Great Britain. They were team Sky HD.
When they won – which they usually did – God Save The Queen was played.
Surely it should have been the theme from The Simpsons.
Flags and patriotism could have turned the event into a sporting Nuremburg rally.
But thankfully cycling fans don’t sing the national anthem. They must be bored with it.
And when the Germans won the 40km tag race – called, confusingly, the madison – their flag was treated with as much respect as it used to be when Uwe Rosler played for Manchester City.
The music was good. Nena’s cold war anthem 99 Red Balloons greeting that German victory.
The Skids’ The Saints are Coming, Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up, The Vapours Turning Japanese, and the Speedy Gonzales music backed some of the heats in the keiran
That’s the race where a man on a little moped leads the bikes round for three laps before they fly past him and race to the finsh.
It’s exciting – but it’s contrived.
And that’s the problem with track cycling. Many races are a bit too complicated.
This was a great three-day event. Sold out with a friendly atmosphere.
But world beating athletes, pulling in new crowds, need a world championship standard tannoy to explain what’s going on. Not a bloke who sounds like he’s shouting across a field on a windy day.
UCI Cycling World Cup Classics, Manchester Velodrome, Stuart Street. Weekend ticket £35.

A photographer's tale of two cities

Photographer Jan Chlebik lives in Manchester and loves New York.
His exhibition of black and white pictures puts both cities in the same - slightly dreamy - world.
His aim is to make us think about the millions of normal things going on in the great buildings.
The 21 photos on show in Artland - Manchester's newest gallery - use light, focussing tricks, and natural mist to give us an unexpected view.
Manchester's gothic town hall looks great from these angles - a gem most citizens take for granted.
New York's moody riverscapes tell us that the Hudson is foggier than the Irwell.
And the motorways and jammed-in buildings bring home the similarities of city life.
Setting up the shot is a key skill - and Jan has climbed high and lay low to enhance the experience of the viewer.
The exhibition is well worth a look - a reminder that photography is more than a zillion identical snaps on Facebook or Myspace.
Manchester & New York is the first show at the Artland Gallery, Friends Meeting House, Bootle Street entrance, Manchester, from October 6 to December 13 2008. Opening times 11am to 4pm Monday to Friday, 1pm to 4pm Saturday.

Sketch: Convention of the Left

The star turn was absent but more than 200 people turned out for Left Question Time - the finale of the Convention of the Left, which ran alongside the Labour Party conference.
Perhaps Big Brother and Talk Radio’s George Galloway would have felt uncomfortable down amongst the common people. Because the convention had no platforms.
Well-known panellists - like would-be Labour leader John McDonnell and trade union baron Mark Serwotka – sat at ground level with the audience around them.
Galloway was replaced by Manchester Respect Renewal activist Clive Searle who held his own with the revolutionary elite - despite never having been the victim of a tabloid sting.
Derek Wall of the bourgeois Green Party was easily the most left wing.
He repeatedly called himself a Marxist and gave a clenched fist salute as he left the hall to catch his train to leafy London.
Lindsey German was easily the most reformist – despite representing the Socialist Workers Party, the most prominent far left group in England.
After other panellists had been applauded for demanding free public transport Lindsey struck a blow for moderation by calling for a £15 train fare between London and Manchester.
Robert Griffiths, from the Communist Party of Britain, made everyone laugh with a story about trying to sell Geoff Hoon the Morning Star.
But the anarchists from Ashton howled with derision as he denounced repressive state machinery.
The wounds of the Spanish Civil War are still raw in Tameside.
Red Peppers Hilary Wainwright - a ‘60s-style spaced-out academic – won the prize for practicality by saying the movement should stop making unreasonable demands on people’s time.
And Colin Fox, from the Scottish Socialist Party, sent everyone home inspired when he recounted just how successful his organisation had been. Before the split.
Getting these people in the same room was a massive achievement.
The recall conference is on November 29.
Left Question Time, Friends Meeting House, Manchester, admission £5.

The Glee Club, Manchester Library Theatre

The gasping of middle aged ladies filled the theatre as the first male character walked naked out of the shower and onto the stage.
Pulses raced as gradually every cast member (six men) stripped down to full frontal nudity.
The casual nakedness of the pitheads baths is a vital symbol of the intimacy of these characters.
The six - five miners and a mining engineer - perform together as a popular amateur singing group called The Glee Club.
Their humour can be brutal.
But their love is strong too. They talk intimately about relationships, health, and money problems.
Underground they rely on each other for safety. And everyday after work they get naked together.
But their traditional way of life is under threat. Billy Fury is knocking Mario Lanza off the top of the charts.
And attitudes to homosexuality, women, and abortion are changing.
The union is a constant - but can't always help.
Despite the comradeship they all face lonely choices.
This production is funny, moving, well-performed social history.
The Glee Club, Library Theatre, St Peter's Square, Manchester, until October 18. Adult ticket £7.50.

Top Lebanese food in Manchester

The Bawadi Café, just a couple of minutes walk down Cheetham Hill Road from the MEN Arena, is one of Manchester’s hidden culinary gems.
It serves Lebanese and Mediterranean delights in a pleasant contemporary wood-panelled environment.
Hot and cold starters in decent portions are good for sharing.
The humus (£3.80) is particularly tasty – creamy, not too bitter or too sweet, and served with warm flat bread.
The falafel (£3.80) is a little dry but accompanied by a minty dip and salad.
Old-fashioned iceberg makes a delightful change from the plate of weeds served up in most restaurants as lettuce.
Main courses come with rice and a spicy tomato-based sauce.
The cubed chicken (£7.95) is extraordinary. Tender and flavoursome it really does melt in your mouth.
Za’atar is the secret ingredient.
The mixed grill (£9.50) features the remarkable cubed chicken, well-done lamb chops, and lamb kebab.
The Bawadi is not licensed – but there is an off-license less than 50 yards away.
From next week it will open at lunchtime as well as in the evening – but with a different menu.
The only bad thing is that they take ages to greet customers on entry. It’s annoying – but worth the wait.