It’s competition time again! Well, if a first-come-first-served grab can count as a competition.
Camille O’Sullivan is currently at the Edinburgh Festival and her show, La Fille Du Cirque, is collecting 5 star reviews like they’re going out of fashion. She sings songs by Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Jacques Brel and Kirsty MacColl and generally looks to be a very interesting proposition.
There’s no particular Birmingham link here, in case you’re looking, other than the fact she’s performing at the Town Hall on 5 September and I’ve got 2 tickets to give away.
So, the rules are the same as last time:
Two tickets will go to the first (non-CiB-related) person to shout up in the comments
Use a proper email address so I can confirm everything
If the person claiming the tickets doesn’t’ respond to an email then I’ll go to the next commenter
My decision on any/everything is final
Go for it…
Oh, and here she is doing Tom Waits’ ‘A Good Man (is Hard to Find)’:
**Update** Competition closed – congrats to Alex Hughes!
Three White Walls Art Gallery in the Mailbox in Birmingham will be displaying photographs by renowned artist, photographer and filmmaker Pogus Caesar, 28th August until 7th October 2008.
I was agonising about how much I can say about this without giving too much away (given police intervention with recent Birmingham flash mobs) but I’ve just noticed all the info’s now up on the B-VAC blog anyway, so…
Tomorrow, Saturday 16 August, members of the Birmingham Visual Arts Coalition will be exhibiting pieces of their art to an unsuspecting public:
These ‘exhibitions’ will last for a very short period of time (ie. a matter of minutes) and if the public choose to view or ignore it they do so at their own discretion. They will appear to be completely random and the members of B-VAC will not make themselves known to the audience until the point at which the exhibition begins.
This will happen between 1-2pm and the list of venues (in no particular order) is:
an online music magazine about the West Midlands. This is a fledgling project and we are hoping to grow in the coming months and years. Cul-de-Sac is designed to be a one-stop resource for music fans in the region, as well as being a vital source of information for people regardless of their geographical position
Cul-de-Sac has the sort of news, album reviews, gig reviews and so on that you’d expect from this sort of music site but with a West Mids slant.
I’m dead pleased to see this spring up, partly because I’m hoping it’ll take a weight off CiB. When I get emails with local bands’ MySpace pages or gigs/nights/etc listings I’m wary that if I mention one I’d have no reason (other than my own bias) for not mentioning them all. There are a bunch of sites doing that job better than I ever could.
Isaac – a man of many talents who redefined the word legend
Roger Shannon pays tribute to the late Isaac Hayes in an article most remarkable for the idea of a band consisting of Isaac Hayes, Huggy Bear and Taurean Blacque with Lovejoy as their manager. Oh, scrap that – I just got to the bit where Roger auctioned Hayes’ boxer shorts…
Birmingham pubs Google Map
Tom Scotney’s putting together a map of Birmingham pubs. Check it out and maybe give him a hand – it only takes a sec to add your local/fave
Animation Forum WM research report
“The Animation Forum West Midlands’ research report is now online for all to see. The report looks at the region’s ever-growing animation sector, and the role Animation Forum WM has played, and has to play in the process”
Death Cassettes
A new cassette (not record) label – “Limited to 100 copies.. On One of Four Coloured Cassettes, Hand made Artwork and Covers, And free digital downloads of the tracks tooooo for yr ipodz” (Spotted by Dunc at Autumn Store)
Finally, if you’ve not had a chuckle at the council yet…
They went and used a picture of Birmingham, Alabama’s skyline on a leaflet. They seem to have used the first pic that came up when they searched ‘Birmingham skyline’ with Google – not that they were prepared to admit that at first, which is probably why every man and their blog has written about this now. Ah well.
If you spot a review, some photos, film or whatever (or produce something yourself) then let me know in the comments. I’ll be searching out what I can and hopefully we’ll collect together some interestingness.
Beaten Tracks and Peaceful Paths
A devised theatre production inspired by Birmingham’s people and places. Two people can look upon the same picture or hear the same story and interpret it in completely different ways. But what do we have in common, what unites us all?
Tuesday, 19th August – 7 pm
The Custard Factory Theatre
Tickets £1, available on The Door
I must admit I slept on this one a bit. With the Custard Factory-based Rhubarb Radio conducting their development out in public (on the Rhubarb Radio blog) and edging closer to launch, I almost missed South Birmingham Community Radio which launched on 9 August.
Broadcasting from Druids Heath on 87.7FM and online (although that wasn’t working when I tried it) the station is staffed by a mix of volunteers and experienced pros with Chris Gee (ex-Kerrang), Pat de Whalley (ex-BBC WM) and Ranking Roger all presenting shows.
Things seem a little sketchy at the moment – there’s no programme schedule or any indication of whether they’ll major on music, talk or both -Â but then they’ve only been going a few days.
Here’s a mission statement of sorts:
Made by the People For The People
With news and views from the people of South Birmingham
Sports reports from local matches
Music and song from local talent
Information on local services and agencies
Information from local business
Plus gossip competitions and a chance to get involved
The station has funding from the Community Network South West scheme that aims to support communities affected by the closure of MG Rover, so there’s some emphasis on the training and experience that the station can give to people looking to boost their CVs.
There are bound to be loads of ways to get involved with the station if you’d like to help out. I imagine the best way to do that would be to call Peni Whelan, station manager, on 07828 797 467 or use the contact form.
the UK’s top contemporary glass showcase featuring 82 of the country’s leading glass artists with £14,000 in prize money being awarded. This is a rare opportunity to see a huge variety of work in a selling exhibition, from finely crafted vessels to potent political installations. A special student section is included for the first time so you can spot up and coming talent
Which is really very prestigious indeed – I’ve heard the phrase ‘the Turner Prize for glass’ used.
Stourbridge’s International Festival of Glass can seriously claim to be the most internationally significant visual arts event taking place in the West Midlands this year
Do you work in the arts in Birmingham and were born outside of the UK?
We want to hear your views on the city and its creative industries for a major EU research project being undertaken by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) at the University of Birmingham.
Accommodating Creative Knowledge – Competitiveness of European Metropolitan Regions (ACRE) is a research project involving researchers, creative practitioners and policy-makers in 13 countries across Europe.
Aimed at examining the factors that attract highly skilled, creative people to certain locations, we are interested in obtaining the views of those who have come to work in Birmingham from overseas on the following:
Is Birmingham a good place to live and work?
Is Birmingham a socially inclusive and tolerant city?
Is Birmingham a vibrant and creative city?
If you are currently living and working in Birmingham, and would like to take part in this research, please email Rosalie White, ACRE research assistant, r.c.white@bham.ac.uk, or call 0121 414 2237.
Ads On Walls round-up
Another quality, well-attended Animation Forum West Mids event – here’s the list of screenings and contact details for everyone involved
The Book for Birmingham
“To celebrate the National Year of Reading, we want to capture the city’s reading choices and ultimately find the The Book for Birmingham… You can nominate a book any time up to 17 August 2008″ Voting begins on 1 September. Winner to be announced during October’s Birmingham Book Festival
St Patrick’s Day Festival – update
Spaghetti Gazetti report on July’s public meeting discussing feedback from the 2008 Festival & Parade.
I went to the full dress rehearsal of Birmingham Opera Company’s King Idomeneo on Sunday night and loved it. What’s not to like about an abandoned factory stuffed with shipping containers, opera singers, dirt and orange trees?
Anyway, I have two tickets for tonight’s proper opening show to give away to the first person who shouts up for them in the comments.
Here are some guidelines:
No-one associated with CiB (that includes Creative Republic types) can claim the tickets
First to claim the tickets in the comments wins
But feel free to stake a claim after the first post, just in case (see below)
I need to give your real name to the ticket-giving people. If you post under a pseudonym then remember to use a real email address. If I you don’t reply to a confirmatory email quick enough and/or I think you’re messing about I’ll work my way down the list of commenters
Tickets are to be collected on the door no later than 6.30pm today, 12 August 2008 – don’t claim them if you can’t make it (it sounds obvious but…)
My decision on anything and everything is final
If whoever goes would be good enough to blog about the show or send me a review to post on CiB that’d be great. Not essential or anything but it’d be nice.
If you don’t win the tickets then maybe consider buying one and going along anyway. You’re not likely to get the chance to see anything like this for a while.
The current Exhibition In The Window at Birmingham Library on Chamberlain Square is of Janice Rider‘s work and will be in place until 12 September 2008.
Inspired by Degas’ Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer, Janice Rider examines her own evolving identity through a series of poignant, often humourous photographs, metaphorically encapsulating the fear and anxiety of the ageing process and physical desire and longing for unattainable lost dreams of youth
I’ve added a couple of things to Created in Birmingham that you might not have noticed, especially if you don’t tend to visit the site itself because of the genius that is RSS.
Calendar/Listings
On the listings page (there’s a link below the title of the blog too) I’ve embedded a calendar from my own GCal account.
I use that calendar to keep track of the various events covered on CiB, plus a few added extras. If you use Google Calendar (and possibly several others, like iCal and maybe Outlook) then you can subscribe to the CiB calendar too.
The listings page also pulls in a feed from Live Brum showing the day’s events.
