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Metro
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
I got a massive tattoo of this UK city to prove my love
Every morning when I look in the mirror, I see my full tattoo sleeve. It runs from knee to ankle on my right leg, filled with parts of my favourite city in the UK that mean a lot to me. I can spot Castlefield's bridges, the Beetham Tower, red brick buildings, even the doorway to Mulligans, my favourite pub. There's a bus number, some Oasis sheet music, and a bee. Each part reminds me of moments I've spent in a place that feels like a second home – Manchester. It all started back in 1994, when my interest in English football began. Living in Switzerland, the only match broadcast on TV every year was the FA Cup final. Between 1994 and 1999, Manchester United won the Cup three of the four times they played it. Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro's Football Newsletter. Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link so we can send you football news tailored to you. I loved watching that team play. It didn't look like the football I knew in Switzerland. Then came that amazing period with the 1999 treble – first Man United won the Premier League, then the FA Cup, followed by the Champions League mere days later. My first visit to the city in 2010 was all about Old Trafford. Aged 35, I came from Lausanne in Switzerland – where I was born and still live – to see a match. I barely knew the city beyond the stadium and centre, but something about the atmosphere stayed with me. I liked the people, the energy. I knew I'd come back. And I did, later in 2010 and again in 2012. Always for football, but each time I explored more. I found places that felt more local. Mulligans was one of the first – an Irish pub just off Deansgate. I still remember walking in and loving it instantly. The music, the Guinness, the atmosphere. It felt like a place where real Mancunians go, not just tourists. Since then, I've been to Manchester over 50 times. Sometimes just for a night out, other times for weekends. I even lived there for three months in 2022 when my wife and I separated. I wasn't doing very well and needed to take a break, step back and have some time for myself. I had already often come to Manchester for weekends and I wanted to take this opportunity to explore the city in more detail and take some English lessons. I loved spending those three months in Manchester and was able to discover a large part of the city and its history. During this stay, I also met some extraordinary people at bars and pubs whom I continue to see as often as possible. This changed everything. I wasn't just visiting — I was properly living in the city day to day. I took the number 43 bus often, went to museums like the People's History Museum and IWM North, wandered through Castlefield and the Northern Quarter, and watched the city evolve. One thing that stood out was how creative the city is – especially the music. You hear it everywhere, in pubs, shops, even on the street. Oasis obviously means a lot to me – I grew up with this band until their split in 2004 and have never stopped listening to their music. I have seen the brothers perform separately – Liam Gallagher in 2024 and Noel Gallagher in 2023. But I've also seen other brilliant musicians in Manchester like Primal Scream (2023) and New Order (2024). It's part of why I love Manchester, it feels like it's always expressing something. The people have always been a big part of my love for the city. Over time, I've made real friends there. I've had great conversations in bars and been welcomed like a regular in places I'd only visited a few times. The Generation Gallery on New York Street is one example – I stopped in one day and ended up chatting with the team for ages. Now I always go back and have bought several pieces. There have been emotional moments too. I watched the One Love Manchester concert in a bar after the Manchester Arena bombing. I watched the Queen's funeral on the big screen in Exchange Square. I've stood in silence on Remembrance Day with strangers. Those moments stay with you. So when I turned 50 this year, I wanted to do something personal to mark it. A tattoo felt right. You can find Stéphane Chevalier on Instagram here Manchester was the obvious theme. But I didn't want something generic – not just the stadium or the skyline. I wanted something that reflected the little details that made the city matter to me. I found my tattoo artist, Bex Mavo on Instagram. She's brilliant. She immediately understood the idea and brought her own creativity. We worked together on a design that blended landmarks with personal memories – Castlefield, Beetham Tower, the bricks, Mulligans, Oasis lyrics, the number 43 bus, even some Lowry-style matchstick men. All connected in one flowing piece. It took four sessions between December last year and May, which was about 18 hours in total. Some parts were painful, especially over bone, but Bex was great. She'd give me a heads-up when it was going to sting. 'Sorry love,' she'd say – always calm, always professional. The healing went well. I moisturised, followed the care instructions, and now it feels like it's always been there. My friends and family in Switzerland loved it. They know how much Manchester means to me, so they understood. My friends in Manchester were touched, too. Some were surprised by how much was included, but they appreciated the detail. It's sparked lots of conversations. People recognise things, point them out, and we swap stories. Some, not knowing Manchester, try to understand the meaning of the different parts. The whole experience reminded me how deep my connection to the city runs. Manchester made me more open-minded, more curious. It gave me new perspectives and made me feel at home in a place that isn't mine by birth, but feels like mine in every other way. I know I'll keep coming back and have dreams tied to the city. I'd love to see United lift the Premier League trophy again. More Trending Maybe one day I'll buy a small flat to make visits easier. And I've even thought about writing a French travel guide to Manchester or running French-language tours. For now, I share what I love through my Instagram. I post in French, mostly about culture, music, and the city's atmosphere. Later this year, I'm finally going to see Oasis live again – at Heaton Park, of course. Whatever happens, the city's part of me now. And I don't just carry the memories, I wear them on my skin. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. 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Japan Times
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
Stop-motion sci-fi saga ‘Junk World' expands its bizarre universe
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, one of the bright spots was a film set in the dark. The stop-motion animation feature "Junk Head" followed a hapless, amnesic cyborg as he traversed a series of underground caverns populated by grotesque (yet somehow cute) monsters and made friends with a zany cadre of artificial lifeforms called Mulligans. The film's blend of horror and humor helped bring in ¥130 million at the Japanese box office. Not bad for a feature made almost entirely by one person: interior designer Takahide Hori, who had decided to try his hand at filmmaking for the first time at age 40. Hori, born in 1971, had always harbored artistic aspirations, he tells The Japan Times, producing work in fields like illustration, sculpture and manga, but despite winning some awards, he never felt there was much of a future in it for him. "I didn't want to be confined to one genre," Hori says. "I wanted to do something bigger." The inspiration for what form that 'something' might take came when Hori discovered animator Makoto Shinkai's ("Your Name.") 2002 short "Voices of a Distant Star," which Shinkai wrote and produced entirely by himself. Hori realized he might be able to do something similar. He chose stop-motion animation as his medium, combining his previous experience as a sculptor of marionettes with his interior design skills, which enabled him to create elaborate sets. "It really looked like my marionettes had come alive on screen," says Hori. "It was as if all the skills I'd built up until then had come together." Following his marionette experiments, Hori spent four years animating the 30-minute short "Junk Head I," which he finished in 2013, then expanded it into "Junk Head," his full-length debut. That film, which took Hori a total of seven years to complete, was the first chapter in a planned "Junk" trilogy. Now, Hori is back with "Junk World," his second entry in the series, which hits theaters in Japan Friday. And this time, it took him a mere three-and-a-half years. "Junk World," set over 1,000 years before "Junk Head," kicks off with a meeting between humans and Mulligans, who maintain an uneasy truce after a brutal war centuries earlier. Among the humans is Triss, a soldier with an eyepatch, a take-no-prisoners attitude and a robot companion named Robin whose sole purpose is to keep Triss safe. The Mulligan leader is Dante, whose guarded trust of humans isn't shared by all the members of his race — as evidenced by an attack on the meeting by rogue Mulligan forces mere moments after it begins. Triss, Robin and Dante are forced to flee and, during their escape, discover strange portals that allow them to travel in time. The battle then turns temporal as the varying factions begin to use time travel to outfox each other, going further and further back in time to influence the present. After years of harboring artistic aspirations, Takahide Hori tried his hand at filmmaking for the first time at age 40. His first feature, 'Junk Head,' brought in ¥130 million at the Japanese box office. | Matt Schley One of Hori's goals for "Junk World" was to expand the Junkverse's narrative and visual scope. While the first film largely takes place in subterranean hallways (essentially a single set which Hori could rearrange to create new locations), "Junk World" unfolds above ground, with some computer-generated elements — a new addition to Hori's toolkit — helping fill out the wider horizons. Another upgrade was the addition of 3D-printed models, allowing for multiple copies of the same characters to be filmed across different sets at the same time. But because "Junk World" was still an independent, low-budget production, Hori had to figure out a way to stretch the use of his new, more expansive sets, eventually hitting on the idea of time loops as a plausible way to reuse the same locations. "My budget for 'World' was about double that of 'Head,' but still very low," says Hori with a laugh. "The budget for the first film allowed a staff of three to barely get by, and this time, it allowed for a staff of six to barely get by." In many ways, Hori's "Junk" films embody the well-worn notion that limitations breed creativity. The entire concept of the underground world and its malformed creatures, for example, were initially born from budgetary constraints. "I realized that if it were set underground, I wouldn't have to worry about animating the landscape," says Hori. "And if the characters didn't have eyes, it would cut down on parts I needed to build and animate. When I put all that together, including research into real underground organisms, the 'Junk' world slowly came into view." Another example is the language the characters speak in the first film — gibberish, subtitled in Japanese, done to hide the fact that Hori was voicing almost every character himself. "Junk World," on the other hand, is voiced in Japanese, in part because it's a more dialogue-heavy film than "Junk Head," and the complicated story might be hard to track in subtitled form. However, after realizing how many fans were charmed by his invented language, Hori also produced a "gibberish version" of the film, which is being released alongside the Japanese version. It's like those big-budget Hollywood movies that get Japanese dubs and subs, except that cinemagoers will be able to choose between Japanese and 'Junkese.' Regardless which version cinemagoers choose, all the characters are voiced by Hori and the film's five other staff members. "We came down to the wire in terms of production, so the voices were recorded right at the end," says Hori. "If I'd hired professional voice actors, it might not have worked out schedule-wise. In any case, we might not be as good as pros, but I think that DIY, hand-made feel is part of the appeal of my films." While 'Junk Head' largely takes place in subterranean hallways, 'Junk World' unfolds aboveground to expand the narrative and visual scope of Hori's "Junk" universe. | © YAMIKEN For all the extra lore in "World," it retains the unique sense of humor on display in the first film, in which serious sci-fi plot points, thrilling action and splattery gore go hand-in-hand with fart jokes. One subplot involves two men who greedily feast on a delicacy that looks just like a man's, well, private parts. Like much of the movie, it's simultaneously cringe-inducing and laugh-out-loud funny. "I always want people to come out thinking, 'That was fun,'" says Hori. "I want the funny parts to surpass the parts that are grotesque or tough to watch." Hori is currently working on the script for the third "Junk" film, tentatively titled "Junk End." Set about 50 years after "Junk Head," it will reunite viewers with the protagonist of the original — and, thanks to the time travel introduced in "World," may feature some of its characters, too. An average day of stop-motion shooting yields just a few seconds of completed footage, Hori says, meaning it will be some time before "Junk End" hits screens. I ask how he stays motivated over long years of painstaking work. "You spend hours moving your models a fraction of an inch, shooting a frame, then doing it over and over again. But when you finish for the day and play back the footage, it really looks like they're moving. Those little moments of joy add up. Then you think to yourself, 'One day, this will be an entire movie, and that will be a great day.'" 'Junk World' is currently screening in cinemas nationwide. For more information, visit
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A pint of Guinness in Manchester has just been handed the 'best score a reviewer has ever given'
One of the UK's most popular pint reviewers has just awarded his highest ever score for a pint of Guinness. Schooner Scorer who posts 60 second snippets scoring the best beers across the land has given a Manchester venue an impressive 9.2 out of 10 - his highest ever score - for their pint of perfectly poured Guinness. Alex Hendy, known online as "Schooner Scorer," has gained popularity by posting videos of himself drinking and reviewing pints of beer, typically outside pubs. READ MORE: Owner of £20 cake slice bakery says 'cost of everything is absolutely unbelievable' as he hits out at backlash READ MORE: The canalside bar with a huge beer garden once owned by a famous singer Known for his honest pint reviews and huge following across social media, Schooner Scorer is 'on the search for the best pint', and this latest outing has seen him put Mulligans in Manchester firmly at the top of the table. Already famous for pouring one of the best pints of Guinness outside of Ireland, this latest endorsement is a further boost to Mulligans' reputation among Guinness lovers. "That is smooth, that is creamy, that is pretty bl**dy good," he tells viewers after splitting the G on one of Mulligans' pints. "I tell you what, that is good. The best outside of Ireland? Potentially, you know. "I've had a lot in London recently that have been top tier but this is bl**dy good, I didn't think they could do Guinness in the north of England," he continues. "Look at the cream on the glass, it's absolutely sensational, and in a venue like this, absolutely top tier. "Smooth, creamy, perfect temperature, fast throughput, it's got to be bl**dy high. It's a 9.2." One of Manchester's oldest Irish pubs, the venue dates back to the 1820s with the Waggon and Horses, a name it held up until the 1990s, its most known of former identities. It took on its Mulligans moniker not long after that. Mulligans pours an average of 13,000 pints of The Black Stuff every week, and Pádraig Brady, owner of the venue and a Guinness expert, keeps the trade secrets to his perfected pour close to his chest. However, he previously told the Manchester Evening News that there's a few key ingredients. "There isn't one. You just have to be consistently consistent", Pádraig told us. "There's five or six things you have to do to keep it consistent. We are also fortunate to have a great team of staff led by Peter and Matt who are very aware that you can lose your reputation over a bad pint. "Our pints are good not just 99% of the time, but 101% of the time. And it's got to be consistent from the keg to the customer. 'We are not reinventing the wheel. But I do serve the pints in a tulip glass, and I bring them over from Ireland. It's about a clean glass and clean lines as well." It's not just Schooner Scorer who reckons it's pint is one of the best though. Last month we tasked M.E.N. readers with telling us their favourite spot for a pint of Guinness and it'll be of little surprise that Mulligans came out as one of the top. 'Best Guinness in town by far,' one reader explained of their admiration for the venue. Another said: 'The atmosphere trumps most other pubs.' One other said: 'Best Guinness, great range of Irish Whisky.' Explaining their reasons for why it's their favourite when it comes to the Irish cold stout, another reader said: 'Smooth, perfectly poured, creamy Guinness.' Similarly, one other said: 'It's a proper creamer!'
