Media Skills are running a three day seminar with Andrew Dubber based around his New Music Strategies blog held at the Screen Media Lab in Digbeth from August 29th – 31st.
Explore the impact of the Internet on the music industry through this unique seminar delivered by Andrew Dubber. Focusing on social networking, new distribution opportunities and targeting niche markets globally, this seminar examines how new media technologies can be exploited for success.
Costs: £238 excl. vat per person (£340 excl. vat with accomodation). To book now call 0121 204 9883 or email info@mediaskills.org.uk.
Ian Reynold’s Nodding at the Back photography exhibition gets another airing at Light House in Wolverhampton with a launch this Wednesday where Ian will be talking about his work at 6.30pm.
Punch Records were inspired to commission Ian Reynolds, one of Birmingham’s maverick image purveyors and a fan of hip-hop culture, to produce this collection of images: to capture live performance, represent the true meaning of hip-hop and re-create moments in history. These images of local, national and international artists represent Ian’s style and his charismatic approach, and give the audience a glimpse of some of the most influential musical artists to have graced Birmingham.
You might remember the exhibition when it was on display at Birmingham’s Central Library last year, as reported in this BBC interview. The Light House show runs until September 14th and there’s an additional “free drop-in DJ workshop on Thursday 9 August, 1-4pm provided by Punch Records. Children, young people and adults welcome.” Email kathryn@light-house.co.uk for more details.
Stereographic is a new design house run by Sam Underwood and George Benson that’s moving to Birmingham soon having run a company called Elektonika in Nottingham for seven years. They’re currently looking to connect with Birmingham’s design community (so the Plus+ festival should come in handy) and are building up a portfolio of small low-cost jobs, should anyone fancy a bargin in return for giving them some creative freedom.
There’s a lot of examples of their work on their website including graphics showing their search for a logo, featured above.
Keep Digbeth Vibrant is a new site set up, I believe, by a resident of the infamous Abacus building next to the Spotted Dog.
Digbeth is renowned in Birmingham, the Midlands region and throughout the world a diverse and vibrant area encompassing a unique mix of industry, entertainment and residential developments. Part of the massive ‘Eastside’ Development Area of Birmingham, Digbeth is undergoing continued and exciting change. This website aims to support the continuing developments in Digbeth and take an active role in allowing the voices of those who live, work and relax in Digbeth be heard.
The website is expected to develop significantly over time but to start off they’ve launched a petition.
Also of interest is this thread on Skyscraper City, a forum populated by developers by the looks of things which gives another perspective. Forums are noisy places though, aren’t they?
And The Stirrer has a brief interview with Spotted Dog landlord John Tighe on his appeal against the Noise Abatement Order.
Poppy And The Jezebels are moving fast, or maybe I’m just too old to keep up. They’ve got an album out (pictured above) which you can buy in shops or from Amazon and there’s a wee feature on BBC Birmingham including a short video report.
Tickets for Gigbeth have gone on sale. It’s a three day festival taking place in most of the venues in Digbeth and a three day pass for all of them will cost you just £15, or if you just want to dip in for a day it’ll set you back £6.50. Here’s the ordering page which is a little unclear. Just select any day and you’ll be given an option for the weekend pass.
Mark Badger has news of Musoplex, a “new West Midlands-based venture created by specialists from several music and multimedia backgrounds.” They offer studio recordings, photography, videography, live recording, rehearsals, PA and engineer hire and promotion and are based in Rowley Regis, just off the M5.
Filum Night is another cinema-related event at The Rainbow (they’ve got a good niche thing developing there). It’s “a celebration of Irish writing in film” and next monday 30th they have a discussion of James Joyce’s The Dead preceding a showing of John Huston’s 1997 film adaptation.
Recordings of the last two Pub Conversations (previously blogged here) have been added to their podcast, being a chat between Ryan Gander and Bedwyr Williams and another between Becky Shaw and Steven Eastwood. I attended the latter and found it to be very good brain food so I recommend giving them a listen.
Gary Dring is a comedy writer who’s been using his podcast, Clever Little Pod, to distribute and promote his wares since 2005. I’ll hopefully be having a chat with Gary about his experiences with the medium soon.
Blogger Hydragenic waxes lyrical about the Editors album cover. “I draw your attention to the brooding, ominous colouring, the minimal stateliness of the typeface and the spectral, otherworldly image of the gasometer, the delicacy of its filigree structure contrasting with its vast industrial blankness.”
Nice article about Tunnel Vision from Jim of Paperjam that’s thoughtful and irreverent. “It is a bit spooky but rather than scary it is all rather dream like and really mysterious. The brief flashes of light don’t illuminate the tunnel at all and stop the eyes from adjusting to the surroundings. We amble towards the light, speculating as to what it is and what might be beyond it. I hatch a plan that we should run straight into it and see what happens on the other side.”
Creatives On The Move is a neat little booklet designed like a tube map to slot in your wallet put together by, I believe, the folks at Light House to show what support organizations exist in the region for the creative sort. This online version is pretty basic but does the job taking you to the relevant website and you can pick up the booklet itself all over the place.
I’ve noticed this blog gets a bit of a traffic spike on Fridays which is not too surprising as nobody wants to work on Fridays. Well, some people do. They’re the ones who make up the other traffic spike on Mondays I guess.
So given there might be a number of hangovers about after the rather surreal Creative City Awards here’s a video for you to enjoy.
Actually, it’s a lesson disguised as a video. I’ve been meeting a lot of people who want to know what this blogging thing is and what it all means. This should hopefully illustrate the rambling nonsense I tend to spew as my answer. In short, it’s not about having a blog. It’s about being part of a bigger conversation. Don’t worry if bits of it don’t make sense (I’d have softened the HTML / XML stuff myself) and feel free to ask questions in the comments.
The Birmingham Post’s Power Fifty was announced yesterday listing those judged to have power and influence in the region. While as a neurotic boy outsider I have an instinctive distain for such enterprises it’s an interesting list given the dominance of the creative sector above the more traditional business and sport. As Stef Lewandowski (number 20) asks, Is Birmingham “getting it”? The “it” being that “a strong creative and cultural sector will be a significant factor in the continuing reinvention of Birmingham.”
But when I thought about it further I realised that there’s a much bigger issue here than my name appearing in this list – it signals a very positive change in the attitudes of opinion-makers about the strength and relevance of the design industry and the creative and cultural industries as a whole.
Stef counts 17 of the 50 as coming from the creative industry and highlights them in his list.
What I find interesting is that these people are now, by definition, the establishment. This is great in that a number of them are serious visionaries and them having a boost to their voices can only be a good thing. But it also gives those coming up behind them a visible target to kick against. You could argue that the establishment in Birmingham has been so deathly dull and impenetrable that fighting it, in words or actions, was a futile endeavour. While that’s obviously still the case with many of our leaders coughwhitbycough this bunch will give as good as they get and often welcome the challenge. Well, some of them will anyway.
I’m just getting the Rhubarb Rhubarb stuff straight in my head. The actual Rhubarb Festival Of The Image runs from July 26th – 29th at Curzon St Station and I wrote about it here. What I didn’t click with is that the Light Sale runs in the same venue for five days before the festival and includes work from:
Luminous: 12 fine art photographers from the West Midlands – premiered last year at Les Rencontres D’Arles. (article)
Otherlands – Creative travellers comment on China, Japan, Norway, Iceland, the East/West European border, Ahmedabad, Iran, fake holiday destinations….
Platform – Whistle stop tour of work by emerging and established artists from the region.
xposed – Final year show by photography students from Hereford College of Art and Design.
You might have noticed Trish Keenan of Broadcast wandering around the Moseley Folk Festival last year with a Super-8 movie camera. Here’s the resulting footage.
Broadcast have a new album out in August, The Future Crayon, on Warp records.
Finally, their spin-off promotion outfit The Hellfire Club is putting on Circulus at the Hare and Hounds on July 27th with support from the Junipers. Ciculus played both the Folk Festival and Supersonic last year and are quite special. Here’s a flyer.
“Essentially what we’re trying to do is create a platform for the song-writing community in Birmingham,” Tom explained.
“Putting it on a Saturday night and getting rid of the standard three-pound cover charge gets people through the door and exposes them to the people we think are very good and they deserve someone to bring an audience to them and show how talented they are.”
Paul took over: “What we’re saying is that there may well be artists in Birmingham who don’t have that following and it’s our responsibility to bring the audience to them.
“We’re helping to develop the artists; we’ll take photographs of them, so they can market themselves better, and record the gig live so they can listen back afterwards.”
I like that idea of building a community around the event. It’s also nice to see they’ve researched the musical history of the pub and work with that rather than just dumping a stage in the middle.
It takes place every Saturday from 8pm and entry is free.
Media Skills are running a three day seminar with Andrew Dubber based around his New Music Strategies blog held at the Screen Media Lab in Digbeth from August 29th – 31st. 
