Monthly Archives: January 2008

A weblog updated daily by Chris Unitt.

(Previously run by Pete Ashton until he stepped down in April)

Joint-winner of the Media Guardian Innovation Award for Independent Blog 2008. "An entrepot for the cultural chaos of Birmingham"

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Eastside info needs a home

Andy at Substrakt wonders, what’s up with Eastiside? Considering he works there and has friends who live there he’s surprised to realise he doesn’t know exactly what’s going to happen with the redevelopment. So he digs around online and finds… not much really.
On the one hand this isn’t too surprising. The Eastside development is […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 31, 2008 in Architecture, Birmingham, Internet | Comments (8)

Moseley Folk videos

A batch of video from last years (rather fabulous) Moseley Folk Festival has emerged on YouTube. Here’s part of one of my favourite sets from Voice of the Seven Woods.

More videos here, and stick August 30th / 31st in your diary for this years event.
ta Jez

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 31, 2008 in Events, Music | Comments (3)

The Art of Postering

Another very handy post from Autumn Store Dunc on putting posters up for gigs in Birmingham in which he goes through the methodology (”If you’ve got blu-tac then offer to put it up there and then and save them a bit of time, I say this because there have been times when I’ve handed posters […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 30, 2008 in Birmingham, Music, Resources | Comments (1)

Rubina Bibi

Rubina Bibi got in touch to say she’s looking for somewhere to exhibit her paintings in Birmingham. Since she’s got them online I’m only happy to oblige and spread the word. Here’s a couple:

More here along with an email address.

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 30, 2008 in Art | Comments (0)

We Are Birmingham

[Update: My mistake - it’s running until Feb 29th.]

Model Cities was a neat sounding exhibition currently on at M.A.D.E. of photos from the Model Buildings project run by Stans Cafe at St Albans School last year before it was rebuilt. The children were encouraged to imagine “that small details of the old school were architectural […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 30, 2008 in Architecture, Education, Film | Comments (3)

Heralded as the New Black

Heralded as the New Black by Ryan Gander is currently exhibiting at the Ikon Gallery until March 24th. As an introduction to the show there’s a really nice 10 minute documentary interview with Gander that also shows the setting up of the exhibition.
I also note he’s doing a performance related to the work at […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 29, 2008 in Art, Events | Comments (0)

Introducing the News River

Inspired, it must be said, by Dubber’s Newswire I’ve been working on a new service on Created in Birmingham - the News River. For want of a better name. You can find it in the menu bat at the top of each page.
This should hopefully mitigate a few of issues. Firstly it’ll allow me […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 29, 2008 in CiB news | Comments (0)

Spreading the love a bit

Sure, CiB got the award thing and that’s all lovely and stuff, but no blog is an island, especially one like this which employs the via credit liberally. So here’s a quick run down in no particular order of some of the Birmingham blogs I like to think of as Rather Good.
(Not a comprehensive […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 29, 2008 in Birmingham, Blogging | Comments (16)

Created in Birmingham joint-wins award

I’ve been sitting on this for a week or so (well, that’s a slight exaggeration - it’s become something of a worst kept secret, though I did try) but with the publication of the shortlist for the Media Guardian Innovation Awards it can be spoken of loudly and proudly.
Created in Birmingham has been shortlisted […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 28, 2008 in CiB news | Comments (41)

Amok

Simon Peplow has produced the 18th issue of Amok, “a series of zines produced purely to showcase the work of artists, illustrators and designers who’s work excites us.” Available here for £3.00.

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 27, 2008 in Art, Illustration, Publishing | Comments (0)

Fierce Wikifest call for submissions

This year’s Fierce Festival has something of an audience participation angle to it in that the public will decide what acts get put on. They’re calling it Wikifest. From the email:
We have reserved a whole range of spaces at Birmingham Hippodrome, Patrick Centre and Warwick Arts Centre, from studios to conventional performance spaces, to foyers, […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 25, 2008 in Art, Events | Comments (0)

BM&AG and photography

Missed this while I was away but it seems Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is cracking down on photos of their collection appearing on Flickr and, presumably, other online venues. You can get permission to take photos there if you sign a waiver that says the copyright remains with them. Presumably this policy was put […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 25, 2008 in Photography | Comments (0)

Architecture talks scheduled

The Birmingham Architecture Association are running a monthly series of six talks at the Old Joint Stock Theatre on the theme of “What does it mean to be a Second City?”
Is it important to be second? The BAA lecture series seeks to explore the different aspects of ’second city’ and how this affects the […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 25, 2008 in Architecture, Events | Comments (0)

New Street Station

Above is one of the photos from John Davies show, The British Landscape, which has been shortlisted for the prestigious Deutsche Borse Photography Prize. The Birmingham shots were commissioned by Birmingham Central Library in 2000.
The Birmingham photographs form part of Davies’ larger project, Metropoli, which documented the changing face of the post-industrial city scape in […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 24, 2008 in Awards, Photography | Comments (0)

Hole in the Wall

Click on the above to get a massive high resolution copy of Chu’s Hole in the Wall mural on Goodall St in Walsall, a record breaking attempt made last September. Here’s photos of its creation and there’s a Flickr group for you to add your own.
via D’log who informs it works with 3D glasses!

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 24, 2008 in Art, Graffiti, Walsall | Comments (5)

BASS poster compo

Punch Records are running a competition for desginers to create an advert for this year’s BASS Festival “highlighting this year’s theme of The Four Elements of Hip Hop - BBoying, DJing, graffiti, and MCing.”
There will be a cash prize of £500 and the winning design will receive huge exposure by appearing for six weeks on […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 24, 2008 in Competitions, Dance, Design, Events, Graffiti, Music | Comments (0)

Keyhole to The Canal

From kate&drew
Photos are posted here from the Birmingham Flickr community. Click on the image for more details.

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 24, 2008 in Misc | Comments (0)

Design Pavilion

Missed this one, but then I don’t go up to Victoria Square very often these days. Design City 08 is a “celebration of design focussed experiences, bringing alive the rich culture of Birmingham to demonstrate British talent and place the region firmly on the map of national design excellence” that’s been running this week - […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 24, 2008 in Design, Events | Comments (3)

Bhangra Book

Spotted on the Punch Records site - a new-ish book about Bhangra by Birmingham-born academic Dr Rajinder Dudrah, senior lecturer in Film and Media Studies at the University of Manchester.
Bhangra music is a genre that comes from the Indian subcontinent and sung in Punjabi. Bhangra: Birmingham and Beyond traces its birth in the UK to […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 24, 2008 in History, Music, Publishing | Comments (0)

TAK get Visit Birmingham job

A press release through from Marketing Birmingham tells us that TAK! have gotten the tender for the new Visit Birmingham website. I wouldn’t normally blog about such things but this is, I feel, pretty interesting.
1) TAK! is a relatively small web design company, not the sort of operation you’d expect a major City project […]

By Pete Ashton | Posted January 24, 2008 in Birmingham, Design, Internet | Comments (1)
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