Created in Birmingham

I’m continually impressed by the quality of the acts they get down at the Hare & Hounds, usually on the Leftfoot nights – they’re pulling out the stops for their 10th birthday:

Last night they had Greg Wilson (sorry I was slow on the uptake if you missed it). Coming up, they’ve got:

• Fabio on Sat 13feb
• Mr Scruff on Fri 19 Feb
• Steve Cobby (Fila Brazilia) on Fri 5 March (that one’s at the Bulls Head in Moseley); and
• Marlena Shaw on Fri 19 March

Sorry, that’s

MARLENA SHAW!

Heck, it’s Sunday morning. If you’ve not heard of her (which you will have, either via a sample or an advert) then I won’t labour the point, just treat yourself to 6 mins 53 secs of Yu-Ma/Go Away Little Boy. Then buy some tickets.

Sounds like the Writing on the Wall event at The Rep the other night went well – it even created some amusing fuss on the event page’s comments thread.

There’s more Aerosol Arabic action at Bullring this weekend, with Mohammed Ali creating a big mural in the shopping centre.

There’s an online interactive element to this one – he’ll be taking suggestions from Twitter users for words, phrases, thoughts or whatever to influence his piece. Just tweet @lifefeelsbetter during the day.

After a fair amount of globetrotting, Mohammed Ali seems to be doing a fair bit more in his home city at the moment – there’s a snippet of him doing a bus tour of Birmingham mural’s from Midlands Today here too.

• Mucking in : Flatpack Festival
  Volunteers wanted – good opportunity this. “Responsibilities will include front-of-house, venue installation, technical support, marketing and bar work, and all volunteers will have the opportunity to make good use of their festival passes”
• thisisfeed
  Kinda strange I wasn’t already subscribed to this, but I’ve recified that now. It’s the blog for the FEED Studio at Millenium Point. They do seminars and events and things
• D’log :: blogging since 2000 » Screenwriting workshops in Brum
  Animation ones too
• An Endless Supply | Language Films
  “Do you have any suggestions for films (shorts, features, artist’s films, etc.) that could fall under the theme of ‘language’?” If so then click the link and throw a suggestion in the comments box
• Sat Feb 6th – Keith Lawrence and Fat Digester… | Jibbering
  Jibbering’s last gig at the Hare & Hounds for a wee while and the proceeds are going to charity, so doubly worth a visit
• World Music Consortium West Midlands
  Now there’s an interesting thing. I hadn’t come across this before – a list of West Mids companies that do world music-related stuff
• ‘They were all living off one day out of date rare roast beef’ – An interview with James Rea « The Blue Whale Blog
• How effective is typography on mobile devices?
  Nathan from Smile has published his Visual Communications dissertation on Google Docs for all to see

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called Next steps for CiB in which I mentioned a few of the plans I had for this website. Buried in the final paragraph was the line:

A shop’s looking likely too

Now, I meant an online shop. However, pretty soon Created in Birmingham is going to have it’s own unit in the Bullring.

That’s the one in the picture, sandwiched between Faith and Miss Selfridges, opposite H&M. The place is kitted out with most of the backline equipment needed (there’s a till and a staff room and everything!) and all it really needs is a lick of paint and a bit of a clean.

Details are just being finalised but it looks like everything’s going to happen very quickly – I was only offered it on Monday and I could have the keys as soon as tomorrow.

The question everyone asks is…

‘What are you going to sell?’

Well, broadly speaking I want the shop to be kinda like this website – a platform for local artistic and creative talent (although the net will probably be widened a little). Best of all, it’s a chance to put some independent art and craft right in one of the busiest parts of the city centre.

For starters we’ll be looking at illustration, photography, paintings, t-shirts, books and zines. The idea is to get the walls covered with excellent stuff and build from there. Maybe have a few little events to keep things interesting.

Inspiration-wise, the shop will owe a small (and strictly metaphorical) debt to the likes of Grand Opening, Magma, NoiseLab, My Yard, planeshop and more generally the sort of stuff you’ll find in the Space Makers Network.

Want to get involved?

Excellent! Just give me a couple of days to get things sorted first (sign contracts, etc) and I’ll let you know how you can do that.

As a heads up, pretty soon I’m going to need staff to help run the place, volunteers to plug the gaps, furniture, a man with a van, suggestions for events and, of course, stock. I’ll put a post up about that stuff later, maybe shift it onto a dedicated CiB shop website.

I’ll also need some encouraging words and strong coffee.

Thanks

I’d just like to put in an early thank you to the people at the Bullring who are giving us two things – a prime piece of real estate and a fantastic opportunity.

The book of the exhibition, put together by Damian Brown:

96 pages of images and text documenting the artists featured in the Strong Brum project that was commissioned by Birmingham City Council and exhibited between September and December 2009 at The Drum, thanks to Mukhtar Dar.

The book itself is bookstore-quality with a hardcover, professionally printed and featuring a durable matte finish and library binding.

Available online at : blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1139729

A public forum for debate where ideas are vigorously scrutinised and no topic is off limits

That’s Birmingham Salon, that is. Sponsored by the University of Birmingham (nice to see them get off their campus) and to be held regularly from January 2010 – the first event being on, um, Tues 9 Feb at thestudio* in the city centre.

The first topic up for debate will be ‘Is Childhood in Crisis?’ and will feature contributions from Dr Helene Guldberg.

I like the look of this (although can’t make this one) and it’ll be interesting to see what other topics come up.

Thanks to John Mostyn for forwarding me the link.

* their daft highlighting, not mine.

• Kirsty Davies – Jewellery and Accessories – How to make it, video
  Following up from a post back in Nov, here’s Kirsty showing off the her make it, wear it, love it neoprene jewellery accessory. There’s a flip book too which looks like it was done by i heart joan (http://www.iheartjoan.co.uk/)
• Brummie Women listing « Women in Brum
  Not sure this has been linked to from here – a list of women who have made a significant contribution to Birmingham
• Arts Nation West Midlands
  “The Arts Nation West Midlands project is an Arts Council England West Midlands funded initiative, developed and delivered by Audiences Central, that aims to address the national priority of Public Engagement in 2010/11 and beyond”
• Never Say
  “Being based in Birmingham, I have seen the creation of a genuine music scene being built with many fantastic, hardworking and honest people being at the fundamental heart of it. I will write about shows and events taking place in this city which I feel don’t get credit they deserve”
• Capsule Blog » Capsule zine
  “Ok folks we’re experimenting with this new technology malarky and so as well as finding our latest zine at our shows and in selected places in Brum you can now read it online”
• 10 of the best . . . independent cinemas | Film | The Guardian
  The Electric’s in there at no. 2.

Yesterday, Joanna Geary bought a copy of The Times from 15 April 1876. There’s an article on page 10 called ‘Birmingham Improvements’ which refers to the Artisans’ Dwellings Act:

In case it’s tricky to read, the second paragraph says:

The scheme in respect to which the inquiry was held has already been described in The Times, and it is enough here to say that it involves the sweeping away of nearly a hundred acres of dirty, dilapidated, ill-ventilated, and unhealthy dwellings, chiefly occupied by artisans and the poorer class of tradespeople, to the number of 16,000, and the opening up of a new and more direct communication between the east and centre of Birmingham by carrying a new and spacious thoroughfare through the condemned districts.

WeVee launched last week, having been shown off all over the place since ArtsFest in Sept last year. It’s an online tool described on the intro video:

WeVee gives you the chance to explore the past, create your very own short mash-ups from archive film clips, edit them to music and share them online

Here’s an example of the sort of thing, put together by the folks at Clusta:

I was given access to it a couple of weeks back but, truth be told, I’ve not had much of a chance to have a poke around it until now. I’ve just had a play for 10 minutes (it’s that kind of rigour that CiB is known for) and my initial thoughts are that it’s good… as far as it goes.

Thumbs ups – It’s beautifully made, reasonably intuitive (for what’s potentially a very complicated thing) and there are some good clips, including some stuff that’s apparently never been seen before.

Thumbs downs – It’s hard to search through the archive clips (and the video pop-ups when selecting clips got on my wick), I can’t add my own stuff into the mix, the help section consists of 5 videos when perhaps a little user self-help forum might be nicer and the minimum clip size is too big for what I wanted to do in the vid I was messing about with. Also, you can’t overlay audio from one clip over that from another (which forces you to make quite jumpy edits). Ah, and I’ve just spotted that the raw archive footage can’t be embedded on other sites unless you make it into a WeVee of its own. Still, let’s bear in mind the about page‘s caveat that ‘this is just the start’.

What’s odd about WeVee is how it’s being pitched. As a way to give the public access to the country’s film and video archive I’d say it falls well short by being far too locked down:

• I have to use WeVee to edit the clips
• I can only use content provided by WeVee – I can’t add in my own audio or video
• Once I’ve made something, WeVee keeps hold of it – I can’t download it or put it on other video services like YouTube, etc (although you can embed clips elsewhere)

If it was meant to be an online video library of archive footage it would have been commissioned and designed as one. It’s not though – it’s got other features built in. However, as online video editing tools go, JayCut beats WeVee hands down by letting me edit anything I want. Kaltura‘s worth a mention too as advanced video editing tools go.

WeVee’s a tool for educational use really, it’s just that no-one seems to be saying that. A press release (PDF) says that:

WeVee is targeted particularly at 14 – 25 year olds, an audience typically hard-to-reach with a regional history brief

WeVee’s nice and is a credit to Clusta and Television Junction who’ve built the thing and I imagine it’ll be a slick kinda educational tool (as well as looking great on the everyone’s showreels). It just threw me at first by claiming to be different to what it is.

The River project is a collaborative animated film based on a bespoke piece of contemporary dance, which has been created to represent and reflect the wider and diverse communities in Birmingham. The participants will consist of five groups of around forty people from different ages ranging from 8-78 years old all working collaboratively with lead-artist and director Babis Alexiadis to create the film.

Here’s a bit more blurb:

The project aims to engage with people from diverse communities in Birmingham; each community represents a river of creative energy; each river embraces its own shape, characteristics, colour and surroundings. As nature commands, the small rivers stream into a bigger river; this culturally and characteristically integrated river is Birmingham.

The project’s completed its first stage of research and development and presented the pilot at the West Midlands Cultural Olympiad launch on 24th July 2009.

There’s a River Project blog here and a website here for more info, and you can also contact Babis Alexiadis via email on alexiadisb@hotmail.com.

You may have noticed a strange and unfamiliar name on your Created in Birmingham posts in recent weeks, so I think it’s about time I emerged from the shadows and said hello…

Hi! I’m Ian Ravenscroft and I’ve joined the CiB team to (hopefully) continue the blog’s sterling work in unearthing Birmingham’s artistic and creative gems.

I was created in Birmingham myself, I’m a former journalist, and I’m now a producer at Meshed Media working with current CiB editor Chris Unitt. I’m also a writer with comedy and animation collective Dice Productions and had a hand in founding and running Film Forum West Midlands too.

That’s me. So, if you see me out and about, do say hello. Or if you have any news, events, places or people you’d like to highlight on CiB, remember to be in touch!

Right, blimey. Seems the free tickets to see Amelie were popular. So much so that they’ve all gone now. Sorry if you missed out but hark, there is good news!

There’s a couple of other film showings earlier in the day with 65 or so tickets left for each. Those filums are:

• 2.30pm – Twenty Four Seven
• 4.30pm – Big Fish

The date is Thurs 28 Jan, the venue is The Electric and the people to thank are those at The Bullring. To grab yourself a ticket you’ll need to RSVP to holly.ryland-jones@bullring.co.uk and say which film you want to see.

Incidentally, thanks to Jez Turner who suggested Twenty Four Seven when I was asking around for suggestions for feelgood films.

A Crafty Beer is a monthly social meet-up devoted to all things craft. If you’re into oil painting, drawing, sewing, knitting, cross-stitching,  or jewellery making, or just fancy being inspired over a pint, you can pop into The Victoria pub on Wednesday 27th January, 7pm-11pm.

In honour of the New Year this month ‘A Crafty Beer’ hosts the ‘Everybody’s Skint Special’ where pub-goers will be trading skills and ideas to help save the pennies, replenish those empty wallets after the Christmas break and beat the recession blues.

The group – which is run by current and former Birmingham City University students Katie Moran and Hannah Hilton – meets every third Wednesday of the month and you can keep up to speed with A Crafty Beer via the Facebook group and Twitter account. Alternatively, send your enquiries to ellie_rance@hotmail.com.

I was having a flick around the Big City Blank Canvas website last night – that’s the website to support the City of Culture bid. Since I last checked in the’ve added to the list of ‘advocates’ for the bid. My eye was drawn to the profile for Apache Indian – he’s one of the few that has actually contributed answers to the questions asked on the site.

Having toured the world and recorded with some of the biggest names going (Wikipedia link here), I think I remember hearing that he spends his time on community projects around Birmingham. His latest project is a venue of his own – Apache’s Bar on Corporation Street. This is his description of the place:

I have had many cultural events at my place from Polish Nights, Reggae, Gospel and Bhangra etc. I have seen how music brings people together all over the world and want to achieve that here in Bham. There were small venues that supported live music in Birmingham, like the Hard Rock Cafe. All gone!! My place provides a platform for music and culture and will continue to promote how great our city is to the people of the city and the many visitors that come here that want to feel Birmingham culture which is unlike anywhere in the world! I dont think that there is anywhere else that can represent Birmingham like Apaches Bar. We also work with the community and hold school events etc. (we have a schools talent competition there this week, thursday). We also work with young offenders on the ISSP. Lots of work going on and lots more to do!! Remember we have set up this place regardless of a cultural bid. I have spent 20 years promoting the culture of Birmingham all over the world.  Apaches Bar will continue that work and many people will come and feel that positive spirit and energy!! My mission will not be complete until people see that Birmingham is the cultural capital of the world!

Still, all this is secondary to the fact that Boom Shack-A-Lak is my absolute, all time happy tune.

Arts Council England has opened a consultation on the priorities for the arts over the coming decade.

They want your views to help form a 10-year strategic framework with long-term goals for each artform and find new ways to help those they fund already. Alan Davey, chief executive of Arts Council England, has this to say:

If we are to succeed in supporting art and artists, creativity and excellence, we must identify the key long-term goals that drive our decision-making, our investment priorities and our relationships with artists and audiences.

This consultation sets out our understanding of the current landscape, celebrates the success of the arts and identifies areas for development over the next ten years.

The consultation closes on 14 April 2010, so if you want your voice to be heard and your input used, you can complete the Arts Council’s questionnaire here. For more information on the process and background to the consultation, take a look at the Arts Council website here.