Bear in front (of Millennium Point) – Birmingham: It’s Not Shit – Can’t stand Children in Need on the tellybox? No, neither can Jon Bounds, which is why he suggests going to the Children in Need live event at Millennium Point instead to watch ‘legendary bhangra artist Malkit Singh and ascending star Jaz Dhami head the star studded line up for the ‘Pudsey Does Bhangra’ appeal show’. It’s on 6pm to 11pm on Friday 20th November at Millennium Point.
Creative Networks – Pitch your idea – Created in Birmingham’s new Kate Spragg (welcome!) spots the next Creative Networks event Land of Promise: BFI National Archive on Thursday 29th January 6.00pm -10.00pm at tic at Millennium Point.
This month’s guest speaker is Jan Faull, Archive Producer at the British Film Institute (BFI) who will introduce and explore highlights from key documentary projects made possible through the BFI National Archive. It is free to attend…
At each event their is an opportunity to pitch your business, project idea or to just introduce yourself to the audience. Your details then go on to a rather handsome newsletter and the website. If you would like to pitch at the next CN event please contact Dave Taylor on 07989 498 550 or email creative.networks@tic.ac.uk.
How do vegetarians get fat? – By eating like pigs, but not pigs, in the Friends of the Earth Warehouse Cafe on Allison Street, according to Paul Fulford in the Evening Mail.
Digbeth Olympics Ridiculous River Rea Raft Race – John Mostyn, Adam Crossley and some unconvincing-sounding Welsh guy travel down the River Rea in rubber dingies and manage to emerge with all their skin intact.
Gigbeth competition – This competition for free weekend tickets is such a fantastic idea: ‘Gigbeth is looking for entrants to create their own version of The Sugarhill Gang classic ‘Rappers Delight’ and post them on a specially created You Tube page. Entrants are invited to come up with the best and most original alternative music video to the ground breaking hit, or to produce their very own recorded performance of the song.’ If like me, you just fancy giggling at the entries rather than making one, all entries will be posted on Gigbeth’s YouTube.
Pub Crawl – The Final Leg – Bull Ring and Digbeth – A guy and his camera in the Bull Ring and ‘Digbeth, dusty, dirty, noisy Digbeth’. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, his camera died as soon soon as he hit The Dubliner. This may be a good time to tell you that me and Antonio Gould are planning to do a repeat of last year’s Digbeth pub crawl for our birthdays on Saturday 10th January 2009. We plan to make it bigger, better and bloggier, photographing and twittering our locations and drunkeness levels. All are welcome, especially if you’re wearing a flat cap – stick it in your diaries!
Digbeth Coach Station the Progress so Far in 2008 – A YouTube video by R Deloyde of what looks like a dank and desolate building site with the soundtrack of a car alarm. This feast for the eyes unfortunately can’t be embedded – is the filmmaker worried every site will want one?
Not long til Gigbeth – So Created in Birmingham’s done a useful Gigbeth links post, which features an interview with organiser Clare Edwards. Today’s the last day to get hold of those early bird tickets, so hurry. Meanwhile Big Cat Kenny posts about the new headliners announced for Gigbeth Fabio and Kano.
CABE slams Eastside Locks masterplan – “In the absence of a concept, the design lacks rigour and is a weak response to [the] valuable assets of the canal and the park…Overall, the masterplan misses many vital opportunities to make this a meaningful place and requires a fundamental rethink.” Oo-er.
Hello World – Big Cat Kenny posts about the conference running alongside the Hello Digital festival, and also Film Dash this weekend.
Search for the stars – A Birmingham City Council-backed ‘Birmingham’s Got Talent’ competition. It’s part of the Creative City Awards and finalists will have the chance to perform at the 2008 Creative City Awards ceremony on Nov 29 at the ICC. Auditions will be held at the Custard Factory at the end of October.
Big Cat Group originally marketed this as an X Factor style contest but after the feedback this received on Created in Birmingham they decided it was the ‘wrong approach’ and changed tack to……another Simon Cowell-fronted, bad, reality telly contest. And sent the press release out with this simply gorgeous picture of Councillor Neville Summerfield. Really went back to the drawing board and thought outside the box there, then.
Other, less maddening, news is:
Plus Design venue – I do so love being right. The confirmed venue for Plus International Design Expo 5-8 November is Fazeley Studios.
Koganecho Bazaar and Digbeth – A fantastic article by Nikki Pugh about Koganecho Bazaar in Japan and how it ‘resonates strongly with various conversations going on here regarding the regeneration of Digbeth’.
Hello World – Created in Birmingham post the programme of the Hello World international digital media conference at Millennium Point 23-24 October.
Artists at Ltd Edition – I missed the last Ltd Edition art sale at the Custard Factory, but Chris Unitt made it and discovered Designer Art, Shy Mouse Design and the gorgeous Ruth Green Design.
Ticket shop a coming – To the Custard Factory, for events at the Custard Factory, which makes sense.
Last Round! – Melinda Schwakhofer bought a round of drinks with Art Money during her visit here, which got landlord John Tighe into the Birmingham Evening Mail for being the first Birmingham business to accept it as payment. I’m holding the cameraman’s flash for that picture. I’ve a great face for blogging.
IN BIRMINGHAM FREESPACEBRUM PRESENTS – The Common Place in Leeds ‘was recently attacked by authority, its entertainment and alcohol licence revoked in order to damage it financially. In solidarity, Birmingham’s autonomous social centres collective present an evening of radical films on the evening of Tuesday 14th October at The Spotted Dog pub Alcester/Warwick St.’
Birmingham St Patrick’s Festival History project to present a copy of ‘A great day: celebrating St Patrick’s Day in Birmingham ’ to Birmingham community libraries – The presentation will be made on Friday 10th October at 9am at Erdington Library. ‘ The book is a record of the voices of ordinary people in Birmingham , telling their stories, which could easily be disregarded or forgotten. In the course of the research for the project, the Festival discovered that Birmingham held the 1st St Patrick’s Day Parade in England on Sunday 16th March 1952.’ To help with this year’s St Patrick’s Day festival attend the public consultation meeting next Thurs 16th Oct at The Irish Club at 8pm.
Gigbeth Myspace marathon – Just like last year Birmingham it’s Not Shit do a Gigbeth Myspace trawl, ‘having a quick shuftee at the myspace page of every act that was listed, listening to what we found and “reviewing” the bands based on only that. Quickly — no second goes, no in-depth research.’
Animation Galore at Hello Digital festival – Michal Makarewicz, award-winning animator on Pixar features such as The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille and Wall-E will be ‘in conversation’ on 24th October as part of Birmingham’s Hello Digital Festival. The free event takes place at 3.45pm at Think Space at Millennium Point.
Custard Factory – Lost in S.P.A.C.E. – That’s lost in the ‘Society for the Promotion of Artistic and Creative Enterprise’. The first exhibition will be held in the Custard Factory Gallery and runs from Thursday 23rd until Thursday 30th of October and features work from painters, furniture makers, jewellery designers and milliners amongst others. Entry is free, so becoming the next Saatchi and Saatchi art collector needn’t cost the earth.
Make Thursday 9th October an essential date for your diary! – Jibbering is proud to invite you all to the Birmingham leg of The Shambala Art Exhibition Launch, at the incredible Wild Building, 104-108 Floodgate Street, Digbeth, from 7pm til Midnight. The exhibition features the work of 30 heavyweight, cutting edge, internationally acclaimed artists.
Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty – Birmingham does it with a Social Media Surgery for Birmingham community and voluntary groups 5.30-9.00pm on Wednesday 15th October at BVSC, 138 Digbeth B5 6DR. If you’re social media savvy and have the time to spare, get in touch with Nick Booth.
Emilie Autumn at Barfly on 3rd October – bit of a shaky Youtube camera video, but I missed the performance and this makes me think she’s kooky-bonkers-crazy in a kind of good way.
Digbeth/Deritend Conservation Area – ‘Birmingham City Council has prepared a draft Conservation Area Appraisal and draft Supplementary Planning Policies for Digbeth, Deritend and Bordesley High Streets (Digbeth/Deritend) Conservation Area. Public consultation on the document will run for a period of six weeks from Monday 6th October to Friday 14th November 2008. Your comments are welcomed.’
Of Comic Nerds and SteamPunk – The Digbeth Slacker posts his thoughts and photos from the Birmingham International Comics Show at Millennium Point – ‘by far the best graphic novel shindig this side of London’.
Artist Curator Gavin Wade – NP Exclusive Video Interview – Billed as ‘an exclusive video interview with artist curator Gavin Wade at the opening of the new gallery Eastside Projects in the heart of Digbeth the new cultural quarter of Birmingham UK’. It’s actually someone who filmed their brief moment with Gavin on a mobile phone, but what he says is interesting. “There’s a lot of references from…radical exhibitions that have never been carried through.” Eastside Projects intends to do just that.
