Links for January 8th

• Nominated for a Weblog Award – Chris Unitt – Created in Birmingham has been nominated for the 2008 Weblog Awards in the category of Best UK Blog. Please support this fantastic local arts blog by following the link and voting, which you can do once every day. CiB is thoroughly deserving of this award, it’s done a brilliant job of covering the arts and creative output of Birmingham and has been a true inspiration to others interested in blogging. I’m pretty certain Digbeth is Good wouldn’t have been born without it. Plus it’d be one in the eye for the bilious Melanie Philips of the Daily Mail, who is currently in a narrow and very beatable lead.
• Chris Barber Media Blog: Shooting “Fiddy” – It’s 50 Cent in the Custard Factory! Except it’s not.
• Happy New Year Birmingham! – Sunday Mercury – Diva Diaries – Sarah Morris talks about how Birmingham compares to other cities, using the unfulfilled potential of Digbeth as an example:

This, the oldest part of Birmingham, has the beginnings of a brilliant and bustling Bohemian ‘Quarter’…. But it just isn’t visible enough. It hosts a top 10 UK venue in the Old Library, but how many visitors know this? I know it’s great – I held my graduate fashion show there in 2005. We have the Sunday Flea, which, if more people could be drawn, could have the potential to be much bigger. We have the boutiques, small businesses and the arty roots, the nightlife… and the Creative Launchpad. But we need something more. I’d love to see Digbeth turn into this wonderful, arty, popular community from the top to the bottom of the high street. But, what, particularly in this climate, can we do to create it?