Written by Nicky Getgood on Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: AtsuhiroIto, Capsule, links, peteashton, toblog, Vivid
Atsuhiro Ito | Pete Ashton – A gorgeous set of photos from the Capsule gig at VIVID.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Monday, March 15th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: bbc, flatpack festival, inside out, irish centre, John Tighe, katrice horsley, old crown, paul long, philip donnellan, plongy, spotteddog, st patricks festival, synth eastwood, the electric, the rainbow, the secret of kells
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.’
Written by Nicky Getgood on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: dave harte, st patricks festival
Dave Harte pointed out the St Patrick’s parade map to me. Here it is.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: anna mullins, holy show band, irish centre, john curran, rose of tralee, st patricks festival, St Paul's Girls' School, St Thomas Aquinas, vince thompson
Last night was the launch party of the St Patrick’s Festival at The Irish Centre, and what a grand affair it was. All the bestest people were there, like current Birmingham Rose of Tralee Anna Mullins:
Irish Minister for Integration and Community John Curran:
John says ‘there’s never been a better time to visit Ireland.’ He’s not wrong. Even the top man himself, Oh Glorious St Patrick was there.
Vince Thompson was there, photographing all the dignitary.
Vince gave me some photography tips, telling me to ‘fill the frame’. So I filled the frame with the Holy Show Band
We also enjoyed some Irish dancing from pupils of St Paul’s Girls’ School and St Thomas Aquinas, and some lovely Irish stew.
Whilst St Patrick was busy nomming, Douglas took the opportunity to try on his hat.
It was a great start to the festivities and I can’t wait for the big parade tomorrow!
Written by Nicky Getgood on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: babak salari, Cheapside, cuba, Diana Ivanova, fizzpop, Friction Arts, happy artist, janet 45, Jonathan Kay, Manol Peykov, my street, Nomadic Academy of Fools, The Edge, West Midlands Film Makers
The other week I did my neck and shoulder in. I don’t know what happened, I just stretched in bed and something sort of went. I was in effing agony and couldn’t hobble much further than the end of my street. Luckily all the great stuff going on over that weekend was just down the road at Friction Arts’ The Edge on Cheapside, starting with Happy Artist on the last Friday night of each month.
‘Happy Artist is a joyous celebration, a place where you can really let your hair down and a place where the concept of ‘cool’ is completely banned.’ And let our hair down we did. There was singing:
There was dancing:
There was being utterly charmed by brooding foreign artists on the sofa:
The foreign artists were none other than Diana Ivanova, Babak Salari (no stranger to The Edge) and publisher Manol Peykov of Janet 45, who were here to launch their beautiful new book My Street, Cuban Stories.
As with most beautiful things My Street is a simple idea brilliantly executed. Diana and Babak went to Cuba armed with cameras, which they gave to people asking them to take some pictures and write some words that tell the stories of their street to someone who’s never been there. The results are astounding. Many talk of a very real love they have for their street, almost as if it’s a person:
We loved each other in all possible ways, kissing every detail on our surfaces, smelling our secrets, enjoying our presence. It is a genuine love, true love, love without condoms….
What they’ve achieved with this book really blew me away and thinking about parallels with my talk about local work, I left with my head buzzing and the number of a good chiropractor from Sandra.
But the fun at The Edge doesn’t stop there. On 6th-7th March be packed to the rafters with sold-out fizzPOP workshops, it seems there is a great demand for knowing how to make utterly useless machines. Tonight West Midlands Film Makers are holding a Haiti fundraiser of film screenings.
Next weekend The Edge are hosting Jonathan Kay and the Nomadic Academy of Fools.
They’ll be around right up until the Flatpack Festival weekend, hosting workshops in the art of fooling during the day and performances during the evenings including scratch cabarets, performances of Richard II (not like the RSC, one bit – well worth a look) and some solo performances by Jonathan Kay – if you’ve ever been to one of his amazing Glastonbury shows, you’ll know this is absolutely not to be missed.
Now if Friction say this is ‘not to be missed’ then you’d better believe it – get your arses down there and get your eyes well and truly opened.
By the way it seems Friction Arts have copies of My Street for sale at £9 a pop – well worth the money.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Friday, March 12th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: bbc, insideout, irishheritage, links, spotteddog, toblog
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.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Friday, March 12th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: bcu, birminghamcitycouncil, carl, connaughtsquare, gordonbrown, links, Pete Ashton, skyscrapercity, snowblind, toblog
Consultation is dead, big plans are deader | Pete Ashton – It seems the sad, neglected Curzon Street Station is to get a new lease of life as a high-speed rail link to London. No-one really knew about this until Gordon Brown came and pointed it out to us yesterday (literally, going by the above picture). Pete Ashton shows us how this will work in his neat little diagram:
Pete goes on to explains why, although this may be bad news for BCU, it may be a good thing for Digbeth (a Brummie Southwark?).
He also asks what’s happening to the planned Connaught Square development on Bradford Street/Rea Street, that has failed to materialise into anything more than a sorry pile of rubble. Carl has been keeping an eye on the Skyscrapercity forum thread about this and…er…no-one seems to know, really. The building site looks and acts like Digbeth’s very own Limbo.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: anthony hickey, The Old Crown
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.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 ( 2 responses )
Tags: cowshop, creative open workshops, Custard Factory, francineschokker
The COWshop in the Custard Factory is, not to put too fine a point, a bloody busy place full of arty, crafty people beavering away making pretty things. Here’s some of the stuff going on:
They have two new Handmade Arts & Crafts market dates and would like to hear from artists/designer-makers who would like to hire a stall at £15 a pop.
There are new dates for textile workshops, crochet workshops and indulging weekend workshops in all sorts, from tinplate jewelery to fabric bunting. Email creativeopenworkshops@gmail.com if any of these tickle your fancy.
Keep your kids and yourselves occupied over the Easter weekend with their Easter Break workshops.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: breandan o'neill, flatpack festival, Friction Arts, morecanalsthanvenice, pixiesixer, The Edge
Brendan O’Neill asked me to post up this flyer for the a fundraiser film night for Haiti at the Edge this Saturday 13 March from 8pm until late. According to promoter of all things Brum Pixie Sixer:
The night will feature award winning short films, promos, art films and will be followed by a disco to raise money for the DEC Haiti Appeal. There will be a screening of Oscar short-listed multi award winning short Gone Fishing, Shooting People Short of the Year 2009 A Supermarket Love Story, BAFTA winning short Brown Paper Bag, Bouncer starring Ray Winstone and Paddy Consodine, animation from The Brothers McLeod, as well as great shorts from local film makers. There will also be a series of promos by dub-punk multi-media threesome Jackdaw with Crowbar who will be playing/performing on Saturday 27 at A Plasticine Party for Flatpack Festival.
Birmingham Post: Digbeth articles We Are Eastside – arts and culture
