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.
Some interesting things have come to my attention that are beyond the Digbeth borders (yes, I do occasionally look beyond them). Here are a few:
Oubliette
Above is Pete Ashton’s lovely ‘Through the Viewfinder’ picture of the sad, neglected Curzon Street Station, which as Pete rightly says, ’seems such a waste, sitting there in the middle of nowhere like an old man abandoned by the next generation, or something.’ Pete’s post touches on the whys and wherefores of the council seeing fit to watch their pennies and board the place up rather than allowing interesting things to happen there and concludes that ’something needs to be done’.
Too right, and if the current owners don’t have the means to do anything with it or allow others do so….how’s about just moving in and taking things over in the style of Dan Simon’s London Oubliette? This isn’t squatting, mind. Oh no: ‘They are using the enormous empty space to run what they refer to as an “artshouse”, an independent cultural organisation called the Oubliette (“the dungeon” in French), which aims to support the arts without the need for public or private sector funding.’ Right then, where did I leave my crowbar…?
Dumbo
No, not the big-eared baby elephant. Helga Henry has flagged up the rather brilliant dumbonyc.com, a site for the New York neighbourhood where ‘these old factories have been converted into luxury lofts and old warehouses into art galleries and theaters….Dumbo is not quite Brooklyn brownstone and not quite Manhattan glass condo. With its exposed Belgian block streets anchored by massive bridge structures, Dumbo has a unique character all its own.’
Sound familiar? Yep, Helga thought so too and already has ‘a whole Birmingham/Brooklyn and Digbeth/Dumbo comparison thing going on in my head.’ By far the best thing about Dumbo is, of course, its name, which ‘was conceived by resident artists as a way to make the area sound silly and unattractive to people looking to buy real estate here.’ Is that all we need to do to guard against the over-gentrification of Digbeth? Give it a slightly silly name? Suggestions in the comments box, please…
Grand Opening
Chris Unitt discovered Grand Opening, I’m guessing whilst doing some research for the now-open Created in Birmingham shop in The Bullring. Grand Opening, another one from New York, ‘create interactive stores and events that get public attention and engage the community’. They take over stores for about 6 weeks and theme them up beyond recognition, turning them into environments that range from a wedding chapel to a drive-in cinema. Let’s face it, the empty shell of the now-closed Cocoon store on the High Street will need something pretty spectacular to fill the latex shoes they left behind. Perhaps we take a leaf out of Grand Opening’s book and turn it into something extra special.
Proof, if any be needed, that Digbeth does these things in style. None of your crap bits of cardboard with ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY’ scrawled over it in poster paint, oh no. We get top quality, beautifully intricate artwork by Beat 13’s Lucy McLauchlan on the Bradford Street/Rea Street junction, captured in this picture by Pete Ashton. Only question is: whose birthday was it? What lucky birthday boy or girl got this for their special day? Anyone know?
After having a very long, marathon sleeping session I think I’ve just about recovered from my 12-hour New Year sit-in in the new Birmingham Coach Station. It was a great night and surprisingly good fun – I cannot recommend enough that everyone spends a little time watching the world go by in the nearest coach or train station, to experience where you live as a traveler. You’ll see a truly different side to your area and get to talk to some very interesting people passing through it, who all have their own stories to tell.
Midge passes through before going to a Sheldon house party
I’ll be writing up some of the stories I got to hear here under the heading NYE Express, a title thought up by Midge, who kindly popped by to see me with a little something to see me through the night. He wasn’t the only one:
Ben Mabbett was at the station waiting for me when I arrived with a little bottle of bubbly in a brown paper bag, which was ever so thoughtful.
On the morning of New Year’s Eve I was on BBC Radio WM chatting to Daz Hale – you can listen again here for one week (I’m at the tail-end of the show, roughly 2:18 in).
Roughly twenty-two hours later I was back in Radio WM studio chatting to Brett Birks about the experience. The programme is not available to listen again but Alan Colson took a sneaky audioboo:
I managed to collect quite a few stories during the night. Watch this space for future NYE Express posts to read all about them.
On Monday 7th December I went to see Birmingham Opera Company’s production of Othello at the Argyll warehouse on Great Barr Street street. I would have written about it immediately afterwards urging everyone go to see it if it wasn’t already completely sold out for the rest of the run. And it was easy to see why – BOC’s productions are always unusual, often taking over disused places to create a really immersive performance that the audience become players within.
This was no exception – looking for the entrance to the old industrial unit in a pretty deserted part of Digbeth reminded me of looking for illegal parties as a youngster. As I walked into the warehouse, past the Morris dancers into the performance space, I soon noticed that some of the people milling around appeared to be praying. After a quick discussion with one about the meaning of his rosary beads, they soon burst into song and started the show around us, getting us all involved in some strange, operatic hokey-cokey. And it all went wonderfully on from there.
Dancing in Othello, photo by Katchooo
During the interval, a friend remarked it was the first non-conventional opera he’d been to, which made me realise Birmingham Opera Company are the only operas I’ve ever been to. That’s what makes them so great – the sheer, all consuming experience that are their productions attract much more than the traditional opera audience. I must mention the fantastic dancing in the second half – I never thought Morris dancing could be sinister until I saw it performed by people in white hooded jumpsuits and black balaclavas. And, of course, the singing was perfect – Stephanie Corley as the put-upon Desdemona seemed to do something special for me.
Anyway, here’s some links:
Index of Reviews from the likes of The Observer, The Times, Birmingham Post, etc. compiled by Pete Ashton
Created in Birmingham’s Chris Unitt thinks we should parade BOC Artistic Director Graham Vick through the Birmingham streets in triumph. He’s not wrong.
Nikki Pugh was struck by how successfully the audience were herded around the space, making her think of a ‘massively multi-player installation.’
There are some interesting photography sets on Flickr from chorus members Pete Ashton, Fiona Cullinan and Antonio Roberts, with some insightful backstage shots.
I don’t know what Birmingham Opera Company are up to next, but you can bet it will be something equally mind-blowing. If there’s a chance of becoming a part of the performance, grab it with both hands.
On Sunday afternoon, after my last stint on Rhubarb Radio’s Sunday Local show, I joined Nikki Pugh and the sizable gang she’d recruited on an Eastside Walk along the area’s boundary, which she’s been wandering repeatedly around with GPS devices for the last few weeks.
But there were no GPS devices this time. This walk was dedicated to taking the time to explore, examine and record our discoveries in whatever way we saw fit. I particularly liked Pete Ashton’s film and photo hybrids (with his homemade Flip/camera contraption). Here he is in action getting the shots in the film above:
I’d been contacted the previous week by Katy, an art student at Birmingham City University working with found objects, so thought I’d collect some items for the DiGpuss shop to pass onto her. Here are the things I found – my favorite item was the double pushchair, which became a useful receptacle to collect and carry the finds in.
Although I’ve given up presenting Sunday Local regularly (I’ve decided to stick with what they taught me in school and make Sunday a much-needed Day of Rest), Michael Grimes is carrying it onwards and upwards and will be presenting it this Sunday with Pete Ashton. So tune into Rhubarb Radio 12-2pm!
Oh no, my mistake. It’s actually the TTV Team’s entry for the Film Dash competition. Thingamagoop explores deepest darkest Digbeth in his own, cute as hell way and gets it on with a carton of orange juice. Aw, bless.
This evening saw the exciting launch of the 48-hour Film Dash in the Custard Factory theatre. Teams of all types are taking part, including employees of Maverick TV, Stickleback Productions, two eight year-old children and one-man team Stefan Lewandowski, who I suspect may offer us a taste of the dark side.
All teams have until Sunday evening to film, edit and submit to organiser Chris Unitt a 1-5 minute film, which must contain a reference to the named Michael Balcon film and one line of dialogue from Whisky Galore! that has been specifically assigned to them.
The films will be judged by Matthew Stanton, Balcon expert Roger Shannon and Cat Bray. The winning entry will be screened at the Michael Balcon: Into The Light event at the Odeon Cinema on New Street as part of Hello Digital. All the completed films will be shown on a loop in the atrium at Millennium Point for the period of the Hello Digital festival, which was bad news for those wanting to include non family friendly content. There was also talk of organising a special screening event of all entries and Chris is open to suggestions of suitable venues for this.
Chris was at pains to stress it was creativity and original ideas Film Dash is after, rather than great cameras or technical excellence. This was great news for Pete Ashton, Rachel Marchant and Danny Smith’s TTV team, which is using a seriously DIY device on their camera. The resulting effect is interesting.
There are plans for this to be the first of many Film Dashes. I’m determined not to miss out on the next one.
Eastside Projects launched last Friday with the new exhibition This is the Gallery and the Gallery is Many Things. The European conflict map was an interesting idea, even if it did look like the police outline of a dead dinosaur’s body, and I really enjoyed Chen Shaoxiong’s Ink City films. But unusually no-one there was talking about the art, but the space housing it. It’s set to evolve over the next 9 weeks to house ‘a layered and complex gathering of artworks, events and processes’. The real highlight for me was the office space, the artwork Pleasure Island created by Heater & Ivan Morrison in this picture by Pete Ashton. It’s like a jagged, angular little house on the prairie and I’m very jealous of the people who get to work within it.
Thanks to Pete Ashton for sending me this. Great images of local graffiti, not so great music. I’ve asked this before but got no answer so I’ll ask again: Who is the artist pasting beautiful paper people around Digbeth?
