On Saturday 14th March it’s ‘Outersight’, the psychedelic psynema night, this time with incredible ‘Illusion-o’ and on Sunday Friction are hosting a picnic with film screenings, a unique pub quiz and bingo, all in their usual eccentric style and with tea served by Twinkle Jones.
I’m told the pub quiz is by historian and typography expert Ben Waddington and should be something quite special.
Yay! Outersight now have a web prescence, in their own words:
‘Space Monkeys!
OUTER SIGHT returns on SATURDAY DECEMBER 6th for our fourth outing into Psychedelic Psynema.
This time, the theme for our Super-Secret Speakeasy Cinema Programme is:
RISE OF THE ROBOTS!
To celebrate keeping things going thus far, we have started a YouTube channel, where you will find
- PROMO VIDEOS FOR UPCOMING EVENTS;
- TRAILERS FOR FUTURE PRESENTATIONS;
- PREVIOUSLY SCREENED SHORTS AND VISUAL EPHEMERA;
- AND, HOPEFULLY, A PLACE FOR YOU TO LEAVE COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS!’
‘OUTER SIGHT is set to crash land into a post-apocalyptic digbeth wasteland, for Psychedelic Speakeasy No.4!
The emphasis of our Strictly Secret Psynema Programme this time is on The Rise of the Robots, and we’ll be revealing an Alternate Omniverse of science fiction treats culled from the Outer Spaceways. Our Prime Directive will be, as ever, Lost Movies, Cult Obscurities and Films You Shouldn’t Be Watching!
OS 4 will also feature the usual weapons-grade Dilithium Cocktails, SubAtomic Sounds by TWIGGY AND THE K-MESONS and MICRONORMOUS, and 99.9% probability (and rising…) of an improvised Theremin set!
Entrance available via on-the-night Space-Guild membership – £2.50 with printed invite, or £3 without.
SATURDAY 6th DEC at THE EDGE, 69-71 Cheapside, Digbeth – parallel with Bradford St and halfway up, look for the Question Mark??’
Thought I’d share this freakish and frightening short film The Cat With Hands, which I saw at Outersight in The Edge last night before the main feature Phantasm. I’m not sure what films they’ll be showing at the next one but I don’t doubt they’ll be really fucking weird. Join their mailing list by emailing outersight@live.com to find out.
Galvanized, or How to Embed a Picasa Slideshow into Wordpress – Melinda Schwakhofer does this using her fantastic photos of the derelict Arkinstall Galvanizing Factory in Digbeth. ‘I walked around all three floors, including the catwalk, the spooky boys’ locker room and a lovely skylit room at the very top. This was one of my favourite spaces on the ground floor – a high ceilinged, cathedral-like room with the sun shining through a skylight. So empty and peaceful.’
Memory 1 – Derrick May – Derrick May is playing The Factory 13th Birthday Party tonight, which reminds John Mostyn of ‘my old mate Neil Rushton released Derrick’s ground breaking records in the UK at the very start of Techno when Neil and only a couple of others from the UK saw what Derrick, Kevin Saunderson and Co were doing in Detroit.’
Outer Sight Hallowe’en Horrorshow – Created in Birmingham gives a timely reminder of the frightening films on at The Edge tonight, with an invitation for you to print off for reduced entry price.
Join us on SATURDAY NOV 1ST at The Edge (79-81 Cheapside, Digbeth) for a dread-filled night of Obscure Horrificata, dredged from the Stygian Depths of man’s most primal fears, and cinema’s best-kept secrets!
OUTER SIGHT will be celebrating the ancient druidic festival of Samhain with a lethal blend of demented Psychedelic Psynema, a mouth-watering Monster-Mash of Mood Music courtesy of resident djs and Jim Freakbeat, and the usual deadly hemlock-infused cocktails……all for £3 / £3.50 without invite.
To whet your appetite, for this special occassion we are bending our Striclty-Secret programme rule and present a brief sneak-peak at one of our excitingly demented cult film presentations.
A bizarre, hokey, surreal masterpiece of low-budget 70s horror, packed with thrills, chills and wild imagination!
Building work is well underway at The Edge. I was sorry to see Harry Palmer’s old studio The Hedge be dismantled, a gorgeous Hansel and Gretel style cottage created by artists Pete Hadfield and Martin Humphries with residents Lee and Harry. Pete Hadfield decided in The Edge’s early days that it needed something that declared it was ‘not poncey’ and definitely achieved his aim – I had a real soft spot for it. But as Sandra Hall says, ‘out with the old, in with the new.’ Take a peek at how it’s progressing at the Outersight Halloween Horrorshow there on Saturday 1st November.
I must say The Hedge came to mind when I saw Heater & Ivan Morrison’s Pleasure Island at Eastside Projects. I’m liking these cute and cosy creative spaces in Birmingham.
It’s only the beginning of the month but I’m already in a total tizz over what to do at the end of it.
On Halloween night of Friday 31st October, do I give my posh black dress an airing and make my way to Ikon Eastside, where I can dance and blow my mind with Lucienne Cole & Friends – Here & Now & The Future? It’s apparently ‘a welcoming environment for kooks’, so I’d be amongst my own kind.
On the other hand, it’s no secret I love a good horror film, so maybe Douglas Gordon’s 24 HOUR PSYCHO at VIVID is more my bag. Although with the Hitchcock classic being slowed down to last 24 hours, I might just see Norman Bates coming.
Or do I hang around Eastside Projects to moon over Bill Drummond, who’s giving an artists’ talk before the Strategic Questions #2 book launch at 6pm?
On Saturday 1st November do I go to The Edge for Outersight’s Halloween Horrorshow with ‘whacked-out shorts, spooky psychedelic psynema and obscure oddities…topped off with a blood-drenched feature film’? The ‘witch’s brew of cocktails’ sounds very appealing.
Or do I pair my dancing shoes with some fancy dress for Release The Bats at the Custard Factory? The band line-up looks fantastic and I have fond memories of DJ Andy Weatherall from my raving days, which I’d like to indulge.
Perhaps I’ll be too tired to do either, after not being able to sleep off my late night because of the Barbara Holub & Mithu Sen artists’ talk at Eastside Projects at 1pm.
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.
Only just picked this up in my inbox, so will get dressed and head down in a bit. Text mobile number above or email outersight@live.com for updates on future Outersights.
