It seems Adam Crossley, when he’s not busy chairing Digbeth Residents’ Association, is amusing himself creating contemporary art pieces for the Spotted Dog’s garden. And giving them imaginative titles.
I wasn’t the only one to express some surprise at Adam’s new hobby.
Digbeth Residents’ Association is meeting tonight at 7pm in The Paragon Hotel. Below are the minutes from the last meeting. All are welcome to come this evening – please come along. Items up for discussion are:
The Rainbow’s Noise Abatement Order from Birmingham Council. Both Kent Davis (Rainbow) and John Tighe (Spotted Dog) will be in attendance and will be happy to discuss the issue.
Work has commenced on the children’s play area, Highgate park. Plans were presented last meeting.
Bradford street improvements have now been given the go-ahead. Belated work to start 2010.
Next time you’re around the Custard Factory pop into Rooty’s and pick up a copy of The Night Times October issue, which has a disturbing prediction of Digbeth’s future on the front page.
‘It’s been a couple of years now since all the pubs and clubs in Digbeth have been forced to shut down…Digbeth is now cold, with the only atmosphere being a dank dark distant ghost of good times that looms all over the once vibrant epicentre of Birmingham.’
No sooner do I blog about the Digbeth Olympics and the film pops up on YouTube. The water really was filthy. “Oh look,” said Adam as he climbed out, “a used tampon.”
Here’s John Mostyn launching the Digbeth Olympics with artist Bryn Tranter, the only man brave enough to hold the broken barstool-leg doused in turps that was the Olympic flame.
It was a great day that started off with John Mostyn, Adam Crossley and his friend Matt travelling down the River Rea from the Highgate Middleway to Fazeley Street on rubber dingies. All assured me they’d had a Tetanus jab in the last 5 years.
Next up was the cardboard coracle building workshop, in preparation for the race across the filthy Custard Factory pool, which caused some surprise. I was on the girls’ team, which had drawn-out plans from the internet and everything. After much discussion, team-work and gaffa tape we ended up with a big cardboard tray.
Thankfully John Mostyn’s assistant Claire was appointed Captain under threat of the sack. Someone really should talk to her about union membership. She got soaked and had to scoop out the papier mush the boat became whilst Adam and Matt paddled to glory in their ‘Tighe-Tanic’ creation.
Phwoar. In the Pico Prix Adam again raced home to victory in ‘Outatime’. He was closeley followed by John Tighe, who is obscured by teammate Seamus McPringu living every penguin’s dream to fly.
Seamus had a great day, the little ones loved him. He likes kids and it turns out he can actually eat a whole one.
Luckily this little girl managed to escape his belly in time to squelch to victory in the custard wellie race. No adults were willing to wear boots filled to the brim with the rankest, lumpiest custard I’ve ever seen.
Other highlights included the Snail Race, which ended in a nail-biting photo-finish between Ireland and Germany (the little winner).
All snails were later released back into the wild, although I don’t think the ones who got their shells painted with nail varnish were too happy.
I spoke to a very happy Bryn the following day, who thought there should be more mental community events round here like this. I know that this one was dreamed up by John Mostyn and Adam Crossley over a pint so go on, get drinking and get thinking.
Well, if this little lot doesn’t whet your appetite for the Digbeth Olympics tomorrow I don’t know what will.
Organiser Adam Crossley is not only intending to travel through the Digbeth streets in the Pico Prix, but also through time. Him and his team-mate pointed out the inbuilt flux capacitor that will enable time travel:
I really hope this little kid isn’t the driver, he’s his whole life ahead of him:
This 1970′s NHS bathchair is the perfect fit for Spotted Dog landlord John Tighe:
Once Craic magazine editor John McMahon has re-affixed the wheels to this bad Ben Hur chariot, he’s letting his son drive it. I don’t think he likes him very much:
The fun starts in The Spotted Dog at 12 noon tomorrow.
UPDATE OF 2ND FEB 2010: I SPOKE TO THE MANAGER OF CHERISH HOUSE YESTERDAY WHO ASSURES ME TRIDENT HOUSING ASSOCIATION HAVE NOT PREVENTED THE RESIDENTS OF CHERISH HOUSE FROM GARDENING. IT SEEMS THERE WAS A DISPUTE BETWEEN A COUPLE OF RESIDENTS OVER THE PATCH OF LAND, AND THE RESIDENTS’ COMMITTEE DECREED THAT THEY DOWN TOOLS UNTIL THEY CAME TO A MUTUAL AGREEMENT. AS YET, THEY HAVE NOT COME TO A MUTUAL AGREEMENT.
At the last Digbeth Residents’ Association meeting on 1st September the issue of the gardens in Cherish House, owned by Trident Housing Association, was raised. It seems that the green-fingured residents have been told to down tools, cease gardening and have had to watch as their well-tended patches of green have become overgrown with weeds.
No one’s really sure why they’ve been prevented from gardening, something they obviously got a great deal of satisfaction from doing. Residents’ Association Chair and rebel heart Adam Crossley suggested donning balaclavas and doing a spot of late-night guerilla gardening, which sounds like fun.
The next Residents’ Association meeting is at 7pm on Monday 6th October in the Paragon Hotel.
View Larger Map
Good grief. A google map like this can only be the drunken trail for the Digbeth Olympics on 21st September, which now has an Events List!
Covert filming of preparations for the Digbeth Olympics’ Pico Prix in the back garden of The Spotted Dog, featuring their lovely barmaid Aswalia and Seamus the penguin.
Organiser Adam Crossley has advised all attending to book the following Monday off work, so you’ve been warned!
Today I was emailed the minutes from the last Digbeth Residents’ Association meeting on 4th August and learnt about mydigbeth, a new residents’ website built by Adam Crossley. The site’s in its preliminary stages so is still quite basic, but will be developed. As ever, Adam is open to suggestions and requests on this.
As well as building websites, Adam’s also on the case to finding out why work hasn’t started on making Bradford Street look less like a rubbish-strewn bus route and more like the tree-lined boulevard property developers promised us, which was apparently meant to commence in January 2008.
I won’t hold my breath. In fact, it looks like Digbeth will be looking more like this for the forseeable future:
This shell of a building on Cheapside will remain just that indefinately because ‘the site has been closed due to lack of money to move forward.’ The credit crunch hits Digbeth, and the view from my bedroom window, hard.
It’s all a bit galling after my recent posts about lovely older buildings being demolished to make way for the new. Is it just me or are we knocking down local history to build new developments there might not actually be any buyers for?
The next Digbeth Residents’ Association meeting is on 1st September in The Paragon Hotel.
