Written by Nicky Getgood on Saturday, June 6th, 2009 ( Start discussion )
Tags: nickbooth, podnosh, twitter
If you did, it looks like you may have been in a minority.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Monday, May 11th, 2009 ( 3 responses )
Tags: annablackaby, birminghampost, creativerepublic, fazeleystudios, helgahenry, iantaylor, jonbounds, karenstrunks, lylebignon, marketingbirmingham, Marverine Cole, mis-guidetoanywhere, skynews, thsh, twitter
On 21st April I went to Creative Republic’s Media Skills Masterclass at Fazeley Studios. Birmingham creatives were given tips in getting publicity for their work by guest speakers Ian Taylor (Marketing Birmingham), Anna Blackaby (Creative industries editor, Birmingham Post), Marverine Cole (Sky News) and Jon Bounds, who gave a lovely speech about how we should listen and converse with the people we want to notice us.
We were then set the task of drafting a press release about something we’d like a bit of buzz about. Here’s my effort, inspired by the book A Mis-Guide to Anywhere. Big up to the lovely Karen Strunks for her great help and choice words.
Wake up in someone else’s bed.
Birmingham and Black Country bloggers, twitterers, photographers and writers will swap homes for one night only, and talk about their change of scene and routine.
Nicky Getgood, author of the Digbeth is Good blog [that's me!], will be encouraging people from the West Midlands to take a mini-holiday by swapping homes with like-minded locals. Participants will be invited to blog, tweet and record online how they settle into their new homes.
A list of odd jobs such as nipping to the shops for a pint of milk, borrowing a cup of sugar from a neighbour and walking the dog/feeding the cat will force people to explore and interact with their new surroundings and should make for some interesting observations.
Recording these experiences online will hopefully create an archive of a fresh pair of eyes on West Midlands areas.
And that’s as far as I got. THSH PR Manager Lyle Bignon has since very kindly offered to help create some publicity around this so I guess I need to know before I accept – are people up for this? Would you like to spend the night in an unfamiliar part of town and let someone else sleep in your bed, walk your dog and harass your neighbours for demerara? Let me know!
Creative Republic Chair Helga Henry ended the evening by telling us we’re exciting, courageous, inspiring, funny and clever. And we should shout about this more loudly. All brilliantly rousing stuff.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 ( 5 responses )
Tags: anotherbyteofbanality, bigcityplan, birminghamcitycouncil, Digbethisgood, fiddleandbone, links, midgediabolik, TheRainbow, toblog, twitter
The Birmingham Post today featured the problems faced by The Rainbow, who have been threatened with a Noise Abatement Order by Birmingham City Council after complaints from just one Abacus tenant.
Mr Davis said this would signal the end of the venue, as it would not be able to afford the work necessary to prevent the sound of music escaping from the pub. “At the conclusion of the noise survey we will have to look at how we can mitigate the volumes and that will involve structural work which will run into tens of thousands of pounds that we just haven’t got. We will end up with a noise abatement order which we will contest but ultimately the cost of doing that will mean that a great institution in Digbeth will be lost – it’s a tragedy.”
Birmingham City Council has identified Digbeth as a creative quarter for the city, and most local residents are in favour of venues which they say enhance the character of the area and provide a space to nurture the much-vaunted creativity the council is striving for.
Too right, this whole thing is ridiculous. To threaten something that brings culture and colour to the ‘creative quarter’ on the strength of one complainant, rather than work constructively with the venue to tackle the issue, is just madness. Digbeth Slacker Midge agrees, calling the drama Fiddle and Bone Round 2:
It’s baffling that someone would buy a residence that was sold to them as being in a ‘vibrant city centre location’ and then bitch when they realise the vibrancy doesn’t work 9 to 5 hours!. Birmingham regulars will have seen this depressing tale unfold before in the late 90’s with Jazz/Blues live venue The Fiddle and Bone, unfortunately many letters to MP’s and the press came to nought and now that place now stands like some beer themed Marie Celeste. The Rainbow story could be more devastating as it sets a presidence for the whole of Digbeth’s future in The Big City Plan. Watch This Space!!.
Birmingham’s Twitter community was also very vocal in its support for the pub. Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the many tweets:
Written by Nicky Getgood on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 ( 3 responses )
Tags: beormaquarter, Digbethisgood, eastsideblog, links, toblog, twitter
Digbeth to get Birmingham’s tallest office building – Eastside blog announces the plans for Digbeth’s Beorma Quarter, which have been released today. Includes pictures. The mixed-use developmet (is there any other kind?) features what would be the city’s tallest building, an office building 27 storeys (107m) in height. I’m really not sure what I think of this. Nor were a lot of other people. Here are some Twitter reactions:
Written by Nicky Getgood on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 ( Start discussion )
Tags: andymabbett, antoniogould, big city plan, birminghamitsnotshit, birminghammail, catnip, duck bath, dykepools, editorialgirl, emmajones, faunography, graphiquillan, jonbounds, julia gilbert, peteashton, pigsonthewing, shonamcquillan, simon gray, twitter, winterval
‘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:
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.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Saturday, August 16th, 2008 ( One response )
Tags: brumbloggers, dark knight, imax, Millennium Point, thinktank, twitter
Right now I’m in my dressing gown at the tail-end of a ludicrously lazy day, thinking about getting dressed and out of the house to make it on time for the evening screening of The Dark Knight at The Imax Cinema in Millennium Point. I felt I had to book myself a ticket after all the Twitter posts about watching it on the huge screen. If you live and blog in Birmingham, it seems you simply must go and watch the latest Batman film at The Imax and tweeting about it is compulsory:
First off comes the moaning about The Imax’s crap website:
This makes booking tickets hard to do:
I can vouch for this. Booking my ticket online took several attempts and their ‘ticket hotline’ had no-one to answer it. But once tickets were booked excited anticipation followed:
High spirits have often been dampened by bloody great big queues at The Imax:
The screenings have been sold out, which caused nostalgia in some:
So I’d really better get dressed and get there early to avoid front-row seating and a sore neck:
45 minutes early, to be precise, which means I haven’t got that long:
Because the cinema really will be rammed:
Which has often meant that although people have enjoyed the film:
They haven’t always enjoyed the venue:
I really hope it’s worth the effort of getting dressed and Heath’s last stand is indeed, lush:
Watch my twitter account to see how I enjoyed it!
Birmingham Post: Digbeth articles We Are Eastside – arts and culture
