Created in Birmingham

A neat day for film-types at the MAC on November 3rd when Terence Davies introduces his films Distant Voices, Still Lives and The House Of Mirth along with an audience Q&A run by Roger Shannon.

It all runs from 2-7pm and a combined ticket for the whole thing costs £8. More details on the MAC site.

Substrakt has posted an update of their activities which includes the announcement of the new Jibbering website for the Moseley-based record shop and cafe.

The latter has been keenly anticipated in these parts as Jibbering is an interesting and vital force on the local music scene, something which until now hadn’t been reflected online. The site now opens up all their activities to view including their regular events (frequently at the Hare and Hounds but also all over the place) and services like equipment hire and event management. And, of course, the record shop itself. If you were wondering how an indie music store can survive these days this is a good model to watch.

Some bits of the site are still being padded out, as you’d expect for something that will evolve and grow over time, including the Gallery section but I picked up a flyer the other day informing that Sami Green is the current exhibitee with a show running from Nov 1st to Dec 5th. I don’t know exactly what’ll be exhibited (and, more importantly, for sale) but she does these wonderful sculptures:

Paperjam reports that Taylor John’s House has won the best live venue Godiva Award. Taylor John’s is in Coventry, so outside the remit of this blog, but from what I hear they’re doing good work worthy of support in difficult circumstances. So if you find yourself there do check them out.

Digital Central’s Music Box is complete. A three booklet series of resources and advice for the music industry it’ll be distributed to delegates at the Gigbeth conference or you can get a copy direct from DC. There are also PDFs available to download from these links:

Box 1: Making Money out of Music.
Box 2: 20 things you must know about music online.
Box 3: Music Matters - a regional profile.

The MAC has gotten an £800,000 grant for a new studio theatre, according to The Stirrer, which will be the new home for Sampad amongst others.

A bit of local web buzz for Careless Talk, the new novel by Michael Richardson published by Tindal Street. Birmingham Words gave notice of the launch (which I missed telling you about - sorry), BiNS has a review and The Stirrer has a video interview:

The Birmingham Post’s interview with designer Michael Wolff (who did a very interesting Q&A at the Plus festival) appeared online on Monday. The hook is his opinions on Birmingham’s branding which he describes as “like a bus stop without the details of the bus service”. The article goes on to get responses from Debra Davis at the council and Dave Hodgson from Marketing Birmingham.

An irregular but always enlightening trawl of the Birmingham Flickr pool.

from ambientbuzzsaw

from Stephen D Harper

from nikonmule

from suselstahl

I’m liking the Audiences Central news feed as it ably covers the sort of city and funding related stuff that’s important but which I don’t want to clog this blog up with. If it’s not already on your daily reading list subscribe now.

Four reviews (so far) of Birmingham Opera’s La Traviata in the national press. The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Independent all pronounce it a good thing. The Times, however, not so impressed. (Who knew opera critics could be such bitches!)

I also found a nice Guardian piece on the 10 teenagers who took part in the opera with no prior experience as part of BOC’s legendary outreach program.

Noted: Script - “the West Midlands agency for dramatic writers”. They give advice, run workshops and are based in the Custard Factory.

The lineup for Project X has been confirmed.

Improvise and Socialise is a “participatory Improvisation Skills workshop” being run as part of Gigbeth on Thursday, November 1st from 9:00pm at the Old Library in the Custard Factory. The only details I can find online are on Facebook (that link should work if you’re registered) but here’s the blurb and contact details.

The ideal opportunity to meet other music leaders and musicians informally, whilst learning new or improving on existing improvisation skills. Models can be taken away and used in sessions with young people.

You will need to bring your own instrument, preferably acoustic, although there will be some amplification available if required (enquire for more details). All instruments, voices and musical styles welcomed - the more diverse the better.
For further details contact Kate Adams on 0121 236 7978 or west-midlands@musicleader.net.

If you could drop me an email stating what instrument/voice you will be bringing, that would help the proceedings.

Reality Estate took place last night at Five Ways. It was, well, I found it rather indescribable. I think the highlight for me was standing in the middle of the estate while the singers moved around me. But I’m at a loss to put the experience into words. They don’t seem worthy enough.

Well done to Lee and Sandra and the huge team involved. A magnificent achievement on so many levels. Birmingham should be proud.

Those three photos are by myself. More are trickling onto Flickr and given the number of cameras around I’m sure videos will be appearing on the Reality Estate site once everyone’s recovered.

Most importantly I understand this is just the start of a whole year of work with the Five Ways estate. The organizers are keen that this isn’t just a blink and you miss it community arts project. They’re in the for the long haul.

Marc Reck went to the International Mask Festival and tells all. His blog is turning into a pretty good place for cultural reports these days.

Russ L’s invaluable Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: November 2007 is up.

Nicky Getgood is blogging again which is great to see.

Marc Reck has a bunch of photos from La Traviata from the performance and the after-show party.

Not a huge number of blog posts found so far.

Marc Reck (with photos)

Nadeem Shabir (with photos)

Andy Pryke

Charlotte Carey

The Stirrer

Birmingham Post review

Any more, leave a link in the comments.

There’s an ongoing debate as to the role of public money in the creation of art. Some say it’s essential and a natural continuation of the patronage system of days gone by while others question the strings attached to taking money from vested interests, especially when the government is involved.

Artist Jan Bowman is in the latter camp and has written an impassioned article on why artists shouldn’t accept state funding on Spiked.

Artists have always had to work around their patrons’ whims and political agendas. However, New Labour’s social agenda is more intrusive than the most autocratic client could ever be.

[…]

Were we living in a society where the arts were under attack and artists starved in garrets, there might be a case for artists to claw as much as they can out of the state. Today, there is no justification for it financially; even less from the viewpoint of artistic survival.

A comparison between the work of designers and artists is useful here. A designer only gets state support because the fundamental value of their work can be judged objectively. With fine artists this is impossible, since art deals with individual feelings and emotions and its direct value is unquantifiable. The state can only judge artists’ work in terms of how it fits in with government agendas. This is like trying to measure how blue something is with a ruler.

The result is a burgeoning fellowship of ‘artists’ and ‘arts practitioners’ who owe their careers entirely to the state and who survive by ticking the right boxes in return for accommodating to the government’s propaganda requirements. For all Tessa Jowell’s fine words about the unique, transcendent value of art, New Labour will accept an awful lot of rubbish from artists so long as the results send the right ‘message’ about smoking, drinking, child abuse, internet porn, recycling, or any other current government obsession - even better if the process involves sufficient members of the public, from nursery upwards.

I’m not sure where I stand on this, and admittedly as someone who isn’t a working artist my opinion isn’t all that relavent. On the one hand I think it’s useful to have a financially secure environment for artists to work in - doing compromised work is better than doing no work at all - but on the other hand most of the great artists I admire don’t work for the government. They’re too independent in vision for that.

With Jan’s thoughts in mind this piece on Digital Central was amusing.

Culture West Midlands are holding a symposium to address the lack of attention cultural agencies and organisations have given to the issue of climate change.

I’m sure the people involved with Culture West Midlands have everyone’s best interests at heart but there’s certainly something prescriptive about that sentence. Hmm.

Dunc of Autumn Store on how to promote gigs.

It turned out that bands I liked weren’t playing in Birmingham because I hadn’t booked them yet. I’m hoping to demystify the booking-and-promoting process a little bit, in the hope that more people will put bands that they like on in Birmingham too, because – as previously stated – it’s genuinely easier than you think.

He starts off with a guide to getting your gigs in the listings press with more to follow. Invaluable.