Here’s some highlights of the lovely garden party at The Spotted Dog last Thursday evening – Muchuu playing their particular brand of loveliness and our very own John Mostyn holding a raffle, ably assisted by the beautiful Claire Burgess.
Now my poor Flip cannot quite capture the sweet sounds of Muchuu, so please check out their website for the full, fantastic effect.
As Digbeth tries to clear it’s collective head after possibly the best St Patrick’s Day ever it is time to look forward once again. Perhaps not only forward but upwards, up 27 stories in fact.
I’ve spent some time reading the BCC release on it’s Mipim site re the proposed Beorma Quarter at the top of Digbeth High St and these couple of paragraphs have caused me to return to this piece again and again:
“In medieval England, enclosed fields extending the confines of a medieval settlement were called burgage plots. The original Birmingham settlement consisted of over 300 burgage plots, of which the seven that remain are all located on the site of Beorma Quarter.
The staggered form of the proposed 27 storey tower has been purposely designed to reflect these remaining burgage plots, with seven defined zones within the building. By extruding in three dimensions, the building is giving a physical form to the original land ownership at the heart of historic Birmingham.”
The Eastside Bloghas some handy impressions of the size of the beast.
I can’t help but ask if there might be a better way to “Give a physical form to the original land ownership at the heart of historic Birmingham?”
Tessa Lowe, the driving force behind the Brainstorm open mic night at The Old Crown, introduces a new open mic night – Spot the Dog at the Spotted Dog. The grand opening is on Sat 24th Jan and will feature John Mostyn‘as his majesty the king’ and a singing fish. It’s set to be a regular thing, on the fourth Saturday of each month.
The Social Media Surgery for Birmingham’s voluntary organisations happened on Wednesday at the BVSC on Digbeth High Street, and again the turn-out was fantastic. In the Birmingham Bloggers Group’s reflections I was listed as a helper but thanks to my crappy laptop being unable to hook up to the wireless, I suspect I’d have been more help giving John Mostyn a hand with the tea. It will be great to see the blogs that are born from it, I’m especially interested in the Birmingham Ramblers’ Association Get Walking Keep Walking project, which is planning urban tours of the city.
I really do think I learnt more than taught at the event. Jon Bounds took me through mysociety and its various projects, my favorite being Fix My Street, where you can report, view or discuss local problems. And I got some gems from wisdom from Stef Lewandowski in a spick and span Hennessey’s pub afterwards, who had some great ideas for Digbeth is Good – watch this space!
I’m hoping these surgeries become a regular fixture, as much for my benefit as for the voluntary organisations!
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.
Whilst in The Spotted Dog last night a guy told me his take on the origins of the name Digbeth. According to him, Digbeth used to be wet marshland ducks loved to wash themselves in. Hence Duck Bath, which became Digbeth. John Mostyn was unconvinced by this explanation, but I’m blogging it anyway because I want it to be true.
