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.
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.
We “dig” Digbeth – A great photographic journey through the Digbeth Branch of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal. Every single turn is snapped. I particularly liked this short of boat entering the Curzon Street Tunnel.
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.
As One | Created in Birmingham – “no-one sees past a high vis jacket and a purposeful look….” says street artist As One, who decorates Digbeth rather a lot. I’ll be keeping an eye out for him, then.
I am most interested in hearing from anyone who is familiar with the above location. I am currently redeveloping the three victorian properties which form a substantial part of the main block where Rainbow pub is located. We are recreating old timber framed victorian shopfronts and would love to hear from anyone who has any history on this building. We need some old photos which we can display when the building re-opens as offices in a few months time.
Claudias Final Installation – private view | Behind Closed Doors – Claudia Borgna’s residency at The Rea Garden on Floodgate Street is coming to and end. See Claudia’s final installation at the the open evening on Thurday 11th March 6 – 9pm. The work will be at the site for a further two weeks, open daily 11am – 4pm until 28th March 2010.
