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:
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.
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.
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 Crowbarwho will be playing/performing on Saturday 27 at A Plasticine Party for Flatpack Festival.
Mystery solved! As a Lee Friction kindly commented, that boarded-up old warehouse on Bradford Street I was wondering about, that suddenly opened its doors, has become a private car park. They can’t all become artists’ studios, I suppose.
The answer to both questions is YES. Belfast does have quarters. Seven of them because, “We’re Irish and we can’t count.” (Titanic Boat Tour Captain Derrick Booker’s words, not mine). The one in line for the biggest overhaul is the Titanic Quarter, which Derrick and Colin Cobbs tell us all about. It kind of reminds me of Eastside – not too much there at the moment but big talk of many ‘mixed-use developments’ (are there any other kind these days?).
It’s even got its own creative community website. It’s not quite not quite Created in Birmingham but the Community Arts Forum gave a fantastic collective response to proposed plans to develop the soul out of the area (sound familiar?). The Cathedral Quarter – Let’s Get It Right campaign ‘aimed to push forward the sensitive and successful development of the area’ by voicing the neighbourhood’s concerns and publishing alternative visions. What’s even more impressive is they succeeded:
In October 2004, in a move that was applauded by the Let’s Get it Right campaign, the Department of Social Development announced that Cathedral Quarter would have its own regeneration masterplan. This would push forward development of the area, while protecting its unique built and cultural heritage.
Go on.
In answer to Michael Grimes’ question, Belfast has The Belfast Metropolitan Area Plan 2015 (BMAP), which is ‘a development plan being prepared under the provisions of Part III of the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991 by the Planning Service, an Agency within the Department of the Environment (DOE)’. I’d tell you more, but attempting to download one of the huge PDF’s the plan is made up of almost killed my computer.
So there we have it – both cities have more than four quarters christened with pet names by city planners and a city plan seemingly written for developers rather than residents, with a website that Could Do Better. It’s just too close to call, I declare this #brumvsbelfast round a draw.
Flickr: Brett Wilde’s stuff tagged with digbeth – This guy has some truly beautiful images of Digbeth. When I read his incredibly honest Flickr profile I found his photography is not just artistic but therapeutic. It’s amazing stuff, I hope I get to meet him someday. Me and Melinda Scwakhofer tried to take a look in the Digbeth Car Wash building pictured above, but the place is so full of tyres not even the workers can get in. Their office seemed to be an old black cab with no wheels stranded in the courtyard.
Digbeth is Good now has a calendar! Let me know if there’s anything you think should be on there.
Rosa’s Cafe Blog – Unfortunately this lovely cafe blog featuring eggs, sausage, beans, chips and a lycra-clad Elvis who looks like he’s eaten the lot, closed when the cafe did. But Rosa Herzberg’s short film about the now boarded-up place can be seen at The Library Theatre at 7pm this Friday as part of ArtsFest. When searching for info about this I found this utterly pointless and bizarre film of a man running towards it along to the Baywatch theme tune. Only on Youtube.
Left Luggage – Visiting artist Melinda Schwakhofer finds some discarded suitcases on River Street. The brown leather one looks suspiciously like Mr Ralph’s, who we spent half of Sunday trawling the local pubs for. Well, that was our excuse.
Longhouse Action Research: Beginning at the Beginning – Anna Francis’ writing about her research project in Stoke-on-Trent actually gives a good insight into the thinking behind the work of Friction Arts, who are doing some very interesting projects around their base of Digbeth and the nearby areas.
Created in Birmingham » VIVID’s Pioneers Series – Meant to post this myself but Chris Unitt beat me to it, rounding things up very nicely indeed. VIVID’s three unmissable film programmes from ICO Essentials: The Secret Masterpieces of Cinema, concentrating on Play, Pop and Modernity. Is it me or are film screenings becoming a thing of Digbeth galleries? Outersight at The Edge, Len Lye and Warhol films at Ikon Eastside, and VIVID continuing their Pioneer Series.
And very good it was too. Whilst the last screening was creepy crawly, this one was cute and cuddly. The theme of ‘French fancies and freaky kid’s flicks’ meant that the sweet shorts were a lot easier on the eye, ear and brain.
The main feature was Jean Tourane’s bizarre Une Fee Pas Commes Des Autres (The Secret of Magic Island), none of which I understood as there were no subtitles but who cares when fluffy ickle animals are being all endearingly human? Watch this extract from his earlier film Saturnin Et La Fee Pas Comme Les Autr and you’ll see what I mean:
I was happily cooing throughout until the grumpy guts sitting beside me suggested some animals may have been harmed during the filming of this programme, which really ruined my fun. Killjoy.
Last night I got chatting to Friction Arts’ Sandra Hall (recently no. 43 in the Birmingham Post’s Power 50). She is mightilly upset that this pre-1950’s back-to-back on Lombard St is soon to be flattened. I had a sneaky look this morning but got caught mid-trespass by some builders preparing it for demolition, so didn’t get much further than the courtyard:
The builders weren’t sure what will be replacing it. “Probably a hotel.” Whatever it is, I doubt it’ll be as beautiful as this building. It’s a crying shame it couldn’t be preserved. The National Trust Birmingham Back to Backs on Hurst St show how lovely these houses can be.
Sandra and others from Friction Arts took some much better photos, which I’m trying to get my paws on.
Last night I went to the first Outer Sight film night at The Edge. It started with a weird and wonderful mish-mash of short film and animation pieces, with 2 small screens with headphones in the corner (Good Trip and Bad Trip) for when the big screen got a bit too much, which for me it kind of did.
The main feature was David L Woper’s The Hellstrom Chronicle. Some say Dr Nils Hellstrom is obsessive. Some say he is delusional. He says he is a scientist (except he’s not, he’s an actor). I say he’s bonkers crazy and it’s very funny.
Man’s greatest threat isn’t nuclear meltdown, it’s insects and Dr Hellstrom spends the film melodramatically explaining why. The close-up shots of creepy crawlies in action through birth, life and death were amazing and after a while I even found myself getting caught up in Dr Hellstrom’s hilarious over-the-top narration.
Outer Sight is set to become a regular monthly fixture at The Edge. To keep yourself in the loop email outersight@live.com.
It’s all happening for Friction Arts at The Edge. Shortly after the above event they’ll be hosting a film night, which Lee Griffiths tells me will consist of ’something culty and underground’ on a big screen, possibly with shorts and live soundtracks to boot. I can’t divulge the night of the first screening as organisers Scott Johnston and Max (Pram?) are keen to keep the event word of mouth, so try asking Friction Arts very nicely (with a cherry on top) if you’re interested.
Fiction Arts have received SITA Trust funding to refurbish The Edge and will start smashing stuff up over the summer. Get in touch with them if you fancy lending a hand, very therapeutic if you’ve got a lost love to get over.
Here’s what’s going on down Digbeth way for the first half of this week:
On Monday pop into The Spotted Dog, Alcester Street from 7.30pm if you fancy free tea and buns with a friendly crowd who enjoy chatting about Irish culture, literature and filum. Stick around and you never know, there might be something special on the goggle-box.
Tuesday sees the launch of Strange Ways’ Cheapside Show at The Edge, Cheapside from 6.00pm. As a member of Cheapside’s new residential community the show is responding to, I’ll be very interested to see this.
As this Wednesday is the first of the month, it’s The Irish Heritage Group’s meeting in The Irish Club at 7.00pm. This month Birmingham artist Sima Gonsai presents Cycle Dialogues in Ireland, covering her cycled trip of the coast of Ireland. Amazingly, she didn’t get one puncture!
