Archive for March, 2008
NGA Blogs Begins
This year’s New Generation Arts festival, run by BCU across the city, is being blogged right on the main website, which is nice to see. Along with general news it’s split into four categories with a dedicated blogger for each one:
Creative Writing (Mike Morrison)
Music (Steve Shaw)
Interactive (Chris Unitt)
Visual Arts (Danny Smith)
Arts Talks at the Hippo
[Update: It seems like this is coming out of the Visual for Business people]
Fused have transcribed a flyer detailing some interesting events at the Hippodrome next week, which I will proceed to copy verbatim:
Culture & Identity The Role of Place in Shaping the Arts
Tuesday 8th April, 6.30pm‐8pmChair: Robert Yates
Speakers: Richard Billingham ‐ Artist, Turner Prize nominee, Catherine O’Flynn ‐ Writer, Costa First Novel Award winner 2007, James Yarker ‐ Director, Stan’s Cafe
Why Should We Care About Creativity In the West Midlands?
Wednesday 9th April, 6.30pm‐8pmChair: Robert Yates
Speakers: Soweto Kinch ‐ Musician, MOBO Award winner & Mercury Award nominee, Stuart Murphy ‐ Creative Director, TwoFour / Former Controller BBC3, Matt Price ‐ Writer / Curator, Gavin Wade ‐ Artist, Founder Eastside Projects
‘Future of Sound’ Birmingham Showcase
Thursday 10th April, 6.30pm‐9pmIncluding: Sykes, Director Cybersonica Martyn Ware, Modified Toy Orchestra, Soweto Kinch, The Sancho Plan, And local Birmingham artists.
Tickets are free and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. To book please contact Arts Co on 020 7723 0285 / info@arts‐co.com
These look to be rather essential.
links for 2008-03-31
-
“One Black Bear is a web design and development agency based in Birmingham UK.”
-
The new Birmingham Music Network website is coming together nicely. Not quite ready for launch but worth a look. This could be rather special…
-
Thomas Moronic takes photos of his creative chums at a party.
-
He works at the TIC (I think - Millennium Point anyway) and is exploring the whole blogging lark by blogging.
-
Nicky Getgood is blogging again. Always a pleasure to read her writings.
-
Now fairly recovered the Fused gang are telling their story from Austin. Two parts up, more to follow.
-
D’log introduces us to the photography of Lara Jade, currently studying at BIAD and set for big things (not just giant birdcages!)
-
A local artist has set up her own craft courses after being made ‘homeless’ by the closure of the Midlands Arts Centre.
-
RussL’s monthly guide. “This month is clearly all about fighting, and orchestral & choral music. Maybe all at the same time.”
-
I’ve been hearing only fantastic things about Stan’s Café’s The Cleansing Of Constance Brown. Here’s RussL’s review.
The Divine Edgar
Missed this at the Ikon Eastside party last year but it’s in the running for Fierce. Here’s a sample video:
via aboutmyarea B13
Muslim Writers Awards
Caption: “Aliya Vaughan, Muslim Writer of the Year 2008, look in awe at the guest of honour Jermaine Jackson as he presents her with her Award. In the background stand the judges who reviewed the 10,000 entries that were received. Aliya is aged 37 and hails from Brixton in South London.”
The Muslim Writer of the Year 2008 awards ceremony took place on Saturday at the ICC, presented by none other than Jermaine Jackson. West Midlands winners were former Guantanamo detainee Moazzem Beg (Published Writer) and Kashif Choudry (Short Story)
Annoyingly the press release I was sent isn’t on the awards site or the council’s page so I’ve popped it online here.
Invigilator: Digbeth
Paul Conneally and Nikki Pugh’s Invigilator: Digbeth took place on Saturday.
This is the fifth in the Invigilator series where a single set of directions has been transposed onto different locations to determine the exact place for watching over; we can choose our significant starting points, but then a pre-determined sequence of lefts, rights and straight-ons takes us on a not-quite-random walk to an unplanned invigilation site.
Nikki recorded hers using Twitter from her phone, which was nice to see. I wonder how mobile microblogging could be used for other art-related events…
And photos are slowly going up here.
Nice piece of psychogeography people!
Ming Jue - Stuart Whipps
Stuart Whipps is a local independent photographer, who, amongst other things, documented the closing of the Longbridge Rover plant and its subsequent move to China. The exhibition of this work will be at The New Art Gallery Walsall and runs from April 4th to June 1st with the private view on Thursday 3rd April which open to all.
This exhibition brings together photographs of both the Longbridge and Nanjing plants. Though relating to a very specific context, these images speak volumes about the transformation of heavy industry in the 21st century and its wider implications.Taken from flyer
Local Shorts Film Club
Local Shorts Film club is a free semi-regular showcase of locally made short films, which include a Q and A session with the film makers. The closest thing to a web-site I have found is here, but contains all the relevant information, with details how to submit a short film here.
The lack of web-site, ropey flyers and naff names aside, The next night is on April 9th with the title “Super Eclectic Mix Night” and is at the Library Theatre near Central Library.
New Large Cow
After many years of a lovely but slightly out of date website, Hunt Emerson has relaunched Large Cow where he’s selling artwork and archiving cool stuff from the past. Of particular note are pieces from the Birmingham Arts Lab which he was heavily involved with in the 1970’s such as this print:
There’s shockingly little online about the Birmingham Arts Lab other than a few mentions here and there. It’s be good if someone could write a decent history of it, or if one’s already written, stick it online and send me a pointer.
Fierce email issues
All sorted now!
I wouldn’t normally put this sort of thing on the blog but with the Fierce Festival imminent it seems important. Fierce’s email is down for a whole week so if you want to get hold of anyone with a @fierceearth.com address please use fierceearth [at] googlemail [dot] com. That is all.
Happy Birthday Mr Hamilton!
Jazz Saxophonist legend Andy Hamilton turned 90 recently. There was a concert at Town Hall, reported on by Peter Bacon and a feature on Tuesday’s Front Row plus loads more I’m sure.
Update: He’s playing at The Drum on Sunday, starting at 12.30pm. (Thanks Patrick.)
Capsule news
Some bits from Jenny and Lisa Capsule came through the email. In brief…
The Supersonic lineup has expanded including Julian Cope!
They’re releasing Einstellung’s album Wings of Desire in June along with a limited vinyl release of Oxbow Duo’s live set from Supersonic last year.
And, of course, a whole gamut of keen looking gigs bringing oddness from around the world to Birmingham.
My feeds, let me show you them
I’ve spent today ploughing through a month of items in Google Reader from blogs and news sources in Birmingham which I’d not managed to keep on top of this last month and I must confess I gave up when I got back to March 12th with 600 still to go and marked them all as read. This is not ideal for a “blog of record” but I figured best to look to the future.
And, to be honest, there are enough Birmingham blogs out there now that you don’t need to rely on Created in Birmingham to keep on top of everything and I hope there’ll be more emerging as the Summer Of Art kicks off this year.
That said it can take a while to build up a decent list of feeds to monitor and since I’ve got a bloody huge one I figured it would make sense to share it.
This is an OPML file of all my Birmingham feeds. Don’t worry about what OPML means - it’s just a big list. Save that file to your computer and then import it into your favourite feed reader. If you’re using Google Reader click on “Settings” in the top right corner, then “Import/Export”. Follow the instructions and you’ll suddenly have 239 feeds of varying value letting you know what’s going on.
A few of them will be dead and a few of them will seem irrelevant so you might need to do a bit of pruning according to your needs. And of course there’s always more out there to find - I’m adding and removing stuff all the time. But if you want a rocket up your blogging arse this is as good a one as any.
You might also like to try Jon Bounds’ list which he uses for Birmingham It’s Not Shit so it’s got a wider remit. (I’ll confess to not trying it as I have enough to be going on with myself.)
Have fun!
(And if anyone else wants to share their OPMLs leave a link in the comments.)
links for 2008-03-25
-
Simon Howes on the Eastside blog is hearing rumours and is looking for clarification.
-
Now there’s a media partner I wasn’t expecting. (ta Jez)
-
covering the whole spectrum of his work. Compliments his blog well.
-
The Fierce Festival blog kicks off with a short interview with the festival’s creative director.
-
Monday March 31, 7pm, Rootys at the Custard Factory. All are welcome.
-
Red Route have five mp3s in a handy zip file for your listening pleasure.
-
Paul Bradshaw rounds up the journalism “unconference” he ran last week.
-
The deadline for the next round is April 1st. Quote: “this is not a joke - we are serious about this!”
-
Seems to me the BullRing are getting wise to these events and the public there have no souls. Try somewhere else next time, pipple.
Demolition
From willgrant
Photos are posted here from the Birmingham Flickr community. Click on the image for more details.
Johnny Foreigner’s tour diary
Johnny Foreigner kept a diary for Drowned in Sound. Here’s a day picked at random.
February 14
Glasgow, King Tut’s. We play Frisbee and listen to Joan of Arc really loud in the car park as the sun sets. Fucking hippies. The venue cooks us (the lowly £50 show support act) a three-course meal. ARE YOU READING THIS BARFLY? Tho these shows are a league above what we’re used to and the audiences are always super receptive, it seems like a lame show after Birmingham. I remember being 18 and reading an interview with James Dean Bradfield where he’d just played to, like, 100,000 people and he couldn’t get into it and thinking, you twat. Tonight I feel like James Dean Bradfield. We stay on the top-floor flat of a complete stranger in Stirling who, on arranging us in her bedroom and cooking us well impressive fajitas, disappears. She plays us a mix CD that is amaze, made by her boyfriend who is in some band we totally forget the name of the next day. Bizarre but undeniably generous. Thanks Tamy!
And here’s a video of them playing in Manchester:
via BiNS
Bearded Four
If you haven’t already, go download issue 4 of Bearded magazine as a free PDF.
Inside you’ll find a load of good stuff including a four page overview of Birmingham’s music scene.
Black + White = Blues
This month Gary Corbett has had a photography exhibition at the Central Library Gallery of his photographs from Rush Hour Blues which he’s been shooting with great consistency for years now. You can see the whole lot in this Flickr collection and it was only a matter of time before something physical came of it.
He’s also running a blog alongside the show giving liner notes and the like. The show runs until March 31st (sorry for the late notice) and is apparently self financed so if you like his work please give him your support.
Shaping the City book
Birmingham: Shaping the City is a new book published by RIBA about our fair city written by Ben Flatman after years of research. The photographic editor was Craig Holmes who took photos at the launch night. Here’s the blurb:
“Birmingham: Shaping the City” is an authoritative and objective assessment of the redevelopment and regeneration of Birmingham. It tells the story of how Joseph Chamberlain’s grand Victorian city was almost obliterated due to an infatuation with the car and how a belated but vital reassessment took place at his home, Highbury in 1988, leading to arguably the most dramatic transformation of any city in the country. It is also the story of hugely ambitious projects, often implemented in the face of great opposition, driven by a rediscovery of Chamberlain’s unique brand of city entrepreneurialism.The book seeks to identify the drivers for change in the renaissance of contemporary Birmingham following its evolution from Victorian times and explores the depth and complexity of the public-private partnerships involved in the delivery structures and their achievements. Using unique case studies that illustrate the processes involved in the major physical change of the city, it assesses their influence on planned future projects. The book articulates and stresses the importance of urban design for successful regeneration in this ever-changing city.
“Birmingham: Shaping the City” will make a lasting contribution to city’s collective consciousness and make available, for the first time, a coherent narrative of where the city has come from and where it may be going in both a written and visual form.
While the credentials of the contributors are impeccable I’d be interested to hear what others think of it. Available soon from Amazon and presumably in the RIBA bookshop on Margaret St.
