The last post about my uber-busy Digbeth weekend. I started Sunday off in the Rhubarb Radio studio presenting Sunday Local with Michael Grimes. It’s a weekly show we do at 12-2pm every Sunday about all things local, be it news, events, music or whatever takes our fancy. John Mostyn popped by to fill us in on the imminent Digbeth O’Lympics, which cartoonist Alex Hughes, who likes to come in and document the proceedings, captured nicely.
Digbeth O'Lympics by Alex Hughes
Karen Strunks and Shona McQuillan also joined us in the studio. After the show we filled up on a nice big dinner at The Big Bulls Head before facing the games. The slideshow of Pete Ashton‘s photos above documents our day, which was gloriously anarchic.
We missed the Opening Ceremony, so joined the fun at the Cardboard Coracle Race in the Custard Factory pool. Unfortunately, paint had been spilled into the water the day before so it looked like chemical waste, but at least it hid the fag butts, beer bottles and Christ knows what else was floating around in there.
From there we moved onto The Old Crown, where John Tighe was placed in the stocks for Noise Crimes, and pelted with water balloons.
We moved onto the Spotted Dog, where rumour reached us that someone had thrown an egg 60 feet in The Anchor‘s Egg-a-thon and caught it without it breaking. In other news, children were seen running around in custard-filled wellies outside The Wagon and Horses. The Tug-of-War at The Fountain was sadly cancelled due to lack of rope.
Next came the Soapbox Race, which seriously surpassed itself this year for having the sheer gall to take place on Bradford Street, traffic be damned (to listen to their beeping, you’d have thought they were). There were some brilliant creations, such as the Penguin Carrier and a weird Grandad Armchair-Trike hybrid.
After that the children went off to enjoy a Snail Race at The Spotted Dog, whilst the more rebellious amongst us headed to The Rainbow for the Rock ‘n’ Roll triathlon of Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll. I couldn’t resist taking part in this one, which included necking sambucca, blowing up a sex doll and snorting a (legal) line before downing a pint. Unsurprisingly, I was crap. But the humiliation was worth it for the sheer satisfaction that is chucking a telly out of the window.
'Nicky Getgood Housekeeping' says Katchooo
It must of been even more satisfying for those who hit the bullseye target that was Martin Mullaney’s face.
The games ended back at The Spotted Dog with a bizarre Awards Ceremony (I haven’t a clue who won, or why John Tighe drunkenly beat up a penguin) and an extra-special announcement from John Mostyn:
The Free State of Digbeth has no constitution. It has no geographical boundaries. It is the most powerful of all states – a stare of mind.
Oh yes. The Free State of Digbeth is born. We are independent. These streets are ours. We are free. Free to use our roads to race sopaboxes down and throw tellies upon. Free to use our paint-filled pools to sail in boats that sink like lead balloons. Free to wang wellies. Free to lob eggs.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a little girl and her name was Nicky. And she had a shop. Here it is.
It was rather an unsual shop because it didn’t sell anything. You see, everything in that shop window was a thing that somebody had once lost and Nicky had found.
Yes, the random crap I keep finding and photographing on the Digbeth streets can now be seen through the window panes of my very own DiGpuss shop. Please go and take a look. If you hover over the window panes and click on the image within it will take you to the Flickr photo page.
The above image is my favorite find so far – a discarded photo of a biker girl. In my head it was thrown away by the owner of the second helmet, an embittered ex-lover. The truth of how it ended up on Bradford Street is probably a lot more boring than that. Does anyone know who this girl is, and how her photo came to be there? Are you she? Please comment if so.
Many thanks to Shona McQuillan for a grand idea and Michael Grimes for making the magic happen. There are a few browser issues with DiGpuss (it’s a big fan of FireFox and Safari, but doesn’t seem to like Opera very much). But as poor Michael, who put a lot of hard work into it says, ‘please appreciate that all the work here is voluntary and time is scarce; and head-scratching hurts.’
Ben Whitehouse rounded off what was a brilliant WxWM2 at The Spotted Dog on 28th May nicely with a little, reflective, storytelling session. Ben is a lovely, gentle storyteller who has a knack of making you think and feel about things. I think he should be a regular by the Spotted Dog’s fire, telling us tales and making us stop and take stock.
WxWM is back: Sue Ellen’s Almighty Hangover | 28th May 2009 « WxWM – Screen WM’s Postcards from the USA event at Fazeley Studios sadly sold out before any of the WxWM crew were aware of it. So Shona, true to her amazing form, is arranging another great fringe event around the corner in the Spotted Dog pub on Alcester Street. Screen WM’s Jason Hall as been brilliantly supportive:
“Having failed spectacularly at bringing together SXSW and WXWM under one roof, Screen WM is delighted to lend our official support to your defiantly no-approval-necessary-from-the-likes-of-us event in a non-officious way. Let’s continue this thing as it started … Two groups joined in spirit, separated by distance (hundreds of yards instead of thousands of miles) and communing through blogs, tweets, Qik, Flickr or any other means necessary. Heck… May even see you for a pint after. Should be fun!”
Rhubarb Radio will be covering the event, but if you want to experience its live-wireness book your place quickly, as attendees are limted to 45.
Big City Plan Talk – The Big City Plan: the no-jargon, Plain English version. Where you can comment and unlike the official website, know that what you write will actually be published, possibly generating some interesting discussion around the document.
Responses are already coming in, including a very eloquent reaction to the Digbeth section from Shona McQuillan:
I love the refurbishment idea. Making use of existing buildings rather than plundering cash into carbon-copy newbuilds is vital. This shouldn’t be about wiping out what’s there already, rather making the most out of Digbeth’s unique traits and personality.
Yes, yes, YES!
Please get reading and writing on Big City Plan Talk, to make your thoughts and feelings on the future of Birmingham heard.
‘Digbeth police station evacuated,’ reads the Birmingham Mail, ‘after suspicious package was discovered inside…A cordon was placed around the station and a number of roads were closed off.’
However to Twitter addicts such as myself this news was, like, so last hour. We’d been discussing the road blocks, traffic jams, suspicious package and bomb squad for hours. So much so that, after viewing the search results, Pete Ashton went and wondered aloud if Digbeth could become top-rating, trending Twitter topic for the day.
It was like a red rag to a bull. If you tweeted, you simply had to mention Digbeth. Even if, like Antonio Gould, it was to say you weren’t sure what to say about Digbeth.
Pete Ashton’s blogged about the internetty aspects of today’s little exercise, so let’s get on with the important stuff:
But if you’re sticking to strict anagramming like Shona McQuillan you get THE BIG D, which is still pretty cool.
There are Killer Badgers in Digbeth according to Emma Jones. In the Police Station, apparently. Part of the Anti-Terrorism Act, I think. They’re better at extracting intelligence than bog-standard dogs. I shall be risking life and limb David Attenborough-style to get pictures of them for the Faunography trail.
Me and that bloke down the pub aren’t the only ones who think Digbeth is derived from DUCK BATH. Andy Mabbett says so too, so it must be true.
As you can see, our efforts weren’t in vain and it all left me rather distracted and excited this afternoon. Oh yeah, there was some stuff on Winterval as well, which made Simon Gray wonder if that could be a trending topic too. Go on, Tweethearts: you know what to do.
