Those of you who missed the special screening of the Philip Donnellan piece on BBC1’s Inside Out on 8th March, which featured interviews with Filum fans at the Spotted Dog who’d just watched his documentary film The Irishmen, you can watch it again in the YouTube film above – sorry the sound is a little out.
Fans of Irish film might like to go along to the Spotted Dog tomorrow evening for an Irish Film Night from 6pm onwards as part of St Patrick’s Festival Birmingham. Landlord John Tighe is screening Everlasting Piece, The Informer and Dancing at Lughnasa. I can’t make this one because I’ll be chatting about Patrick McCabe at the St Patrick’s Literary Festival at The Old Crown Inn from 7pm. Go along to hear all about the darkly comic McCabe, poetical W B Yeats, avant-guarde Samuel Beckett, and modernist James Joyce.
Fans of Irish culture might also like to see the Irish storyteller Katrice Horsley weave her magic at The Irish Centre, 7pm this Weds 17th March (St Patrick’s Day), again as part of St Patrick’s Festival Birmingham. Irish film fans in particular would do well to check out the Flatpack Festival in Birmingham later this month. Highlights include:
Synth Eastwood’s Fast Forward Show on Fri 26th March, when Dublin collective Synth Eastwood will host a night of live music, animation and interactivity at The Rainbow.
The Secret of Kells at The Electric Cinema on Sun 28th March, ‘a stunning animation about how the Book of Kells was completed and survived to become one of Ireland’s national treasures.’
BBC One Programmes – Inside Out West Midlands, 08/03/2010 – The episode of Inside Out that features a report on film-maker Philip Donnellan, who bought real life to screen with films such as The Irishmen, which we held a special screening of in The Spotted Dog especially for this programme. It features interviews with members of Birmingham’s Irish community about their responses to the film. Inside Out is available to watch on BBC iPlayer until Monday.
Anthony Hickey, Landlord of The Old Crown Inn, which he managed with his sisters, sadly died of a heart attack on Friday 26th February. His funeral will be held this week at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Hall Green. Anthony was a fantastically lively Landlord who was passionate about the Digbeth community. He will be sorely missed.
Atsuhiro Ito « More Canals than Venice – What looks to be an astounding concert at VIVID this Wednesday 10 March – Capsule present Japanese musician/artist Atsuhiro Ito:
He uses a device he has made called an Optron, fluorescent light tubes with integrated guitar pick-ups which are sent through guitar amp stacks. ‘When a voltage applied to the tubes is altered, the lights flicker and the pick-ups harvest the electromagnetic noise perfectly synchronized with the flickering light. The intense noise creating a visual hallucination and the sounds veering from some kind of extreme techno to outright noise. ‘ Wow.
Spotted Dog barmaid Katie is currently training hard in her bid to run the London Marathon this 25th April. All sponsorship money will be going towards the British Legion charity. If you’d like to sponsor Katie, pop into the Spotted Dog and make your support be known!
Talking of The Spotted Dog, landlord John Tighe asked me very nicely asked for the monthly archive to be put back into the sidebar, so I’ve popped it back in there near the bottom. If you’d like anything added or amended (within reason), let me know by commenting and I’ll try to do it, spare time and my sparse technical ability allowing. I’m hoping to change the template to something more suitable soon but life’s a bit busy and this is a voluntary venture, so please be patient!
BBC News – Does peace and quiet always take priority over loud music? – Problems encountered by the Ministry of Sound nightclub make the BBC look at the bigger British picture, which of course leads them to Digbeth’s The Rainbow and The Spotted Dog. John Tighe has dire warnings about where this might lead:
“They are going to close down Digbeth, the only area of Birmingham where live music is played.”
