Oh Manchester, so much to answer for

I went back to Manchester for one (somewhat eventful) evening and came to an epiphiny about the city I'm apparently proud to call my own.Apart from the fact that it seems to be full of hipsters, yuppies, gallagher brothers clones and wannabe wags (aside from the generic scallies, that is)- Manchester loves itself.
There's nothing wrong with a little municipal pride, as Tony Wilson might have said, but Manchester seems to Market itself upon it's own legend.

Example, the stalls on the corner of Church Street in the Northern Quarter have been "updated" with modern shutters adorned with some shitty collage of "Northern Quarter" images. Church street records was visually amazing. I'm a sucker for shitty cheap design but look at it!

I'm bored of Manchester constantly trading on its past sucesses. In a bar last night I noted how they had pop-art paintings of "Manchester legends". Please. Ian Curtis has been dead 30 years, the Smiths are long gone, as is Madchester and Oasis' heyday.
What I don't understand is all this with this uber-modern regeneration they're still bascially saying "Come to Manchester, home of Joy Division!", when the industrial decline that both Ian Curtis and Morrissey were inspired by has mostly disappeared.



Don't really want Manchester to become another faceless modernist city centre. Sure there's the Northern Quarter but it's becoming increasingly full of overpriced and bars and "retro" shops. Even the new-look Affleck's Palace disappoints. What happened to all the weird shops and why are there so many shitty boutiques staffed by bored looking Japanese guys?
Eugh.


Rant over, for now. I need to rest.