Created in Birmingham

• We Are Fierce – Open Invite to Flatpack & Fierce Festival Launch, Tues 22nd March
  Don’t forget to RSVP
• YouTube – Motionhouse Machine Dance ‘The highlights’
  A dancing digger. Cool
• Culture – Funding opportunities 2010 | EACEA
  Apparently something on this page says that Birmingham Rep have been given some European cash for ‘Four Cities, Four Stories’
• Swede it! :: Become a star on the big screen at Broadway Plaza
  Re-make a movie lo-fi-style for Broadway Plaza, AMC Cinema and Kerrang. Submissions in by 20 March. Proceeds from the screening go to Birmingham Children’s Hospital. There are prizes too
• Moqapi Selassie
  “a Rastafari dub poet, born and raised in Birmingham”, says the Apples & Snakes newsletter
• GET A GRIP – An open call for illustrators, artists and designers
  “We’re looking for enthusiastic designers, illustrators and artists of all different styles and disciplines, who like our ethics and business, and reckon they’d be up for working with us.”
• Inspired Designs
  “Inspired Designs allows users to search the decorative art collections held by museums services within the Black Country region”
• 16 Days
  “For 16 days from April 1st 2011, Tether will be stationed at The Lombard Method in Birmingham. The Nottingham based collective will work towards creating 16 new works that seek to interfere with the Lombard Method and the way people interact and react within it”
• Love Birmingham
  “I will try my hardest not to moan about the state of things as ‘Love Birmingham’ will exist to be a wholly positive collection concerning Birmingham.” Aw, shame – criticism is so hot right now
• YouTube – Kerrang! Radio: Watville Primary School Sing Iron Maiden – Flight Of Icarus
  Kids at a school in Wolverhampton singing Iron Maiden. From the comments, it seems this vid’s very popular with Brazilian metal fans. Fancy

Stirchley Village, St Irchley, Stirchville … Stirchley. It’s quite a hard word to type, but don’t let that put you off. This hitherto un(der)heralded little corner of Birmingham is undergoing something of a renaissance. Largely untouched by the nationals and multi-nationals, Stirchley has become the centre of a grassroots movement with a community focus.

Leading the way is Stirchley Community Market, a monthly gathering of independent food producers and artist/makers from within a 3-mile radius of B30, alongside representatives from high street businesses. Founded by three local organisations – arts group Stirchley Happenings, community bakery Loaf and South Birmingham Food Co-op, with help from Birmingham Town Centre Partnerships – the event has become established as a place to meet and browse, and comes guaranteed with a friendly vibe. The market takes place on the first Tuesday of every month and you can learn more about the story here: www.stirchleycommunitymarket.wordpress.com

As Stirchley Happenings, we have also been doing our bit for the local arts scene with a series of projects including the Travelling Bug House, which (as the name suggests) is a travelling (as the name doesn’t quite suggest) cinema. With the aims of revitalising underused spaces and bringing the moving image back to the area, films are being shown in different locations every couple of months. Check out our blog here: www.stirchleyhappenings.wordpress.com

The most recent Bug House took place at Hybrid’s pop-up art tea shop, which rather incongruously landed on the corner of Ivy Road during January this year. Part of Inhabit, a wider project designed to breathe life back into Birmingham’s high streets, the shop has seen a flurry of activity over the past couple of months, which will culminate in promenade performances along the Pershore Road from Fri 11^th to Sun 13^th March (www.hybridconsulting.org.uk). And, as if one tea shop isn’t enough, Cakes4Life have taken their first steps towards establishing a community café, with the next event scheduled for Saturday 12 March.

If this post has piqued your interest about Stirchleyness, then you can find a list of links here – www.stirchleyhappenings.wordpress.com/links – and you can keep abreast of curious occurrences here – www.fuckyeahstirchley.tumblr.com. And don’t forget, Jack Wooley was a Stirchley boy: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/the-archers/timeline/jack-woolley-at-90

—————

By Tom Cahill-Jones

Blog: www.stirchleyhappenings.wordpress.com

Twitter: @stirchleyhaps

Luke Brookes is an illustrator based in Birmingham. His work has a mythical feel, with a focus of fictional characters, along with short stories to accompany some of his pieces. This a cute one about a bear and a fisherman.

He also has a really fun website, complete with rainbows, clouds and a hot air balloon. There’s also plenty more pieces on his blog.

Being a classical musician, I have often found that contemporary music is met with extreme unnecessary prejudice from most audiences, and even from the musicians themselves. However, we have come a long way since Arnold Schoenberg and his band of merry Serialist pranksters.

We are lucky to live in city so diverse that there is music and art of all types so readily available to us. In the music scene, some artists aren’t just available, they are begging for audiences to experience their music. I have sourced some excellent music that is being performed in Birmingham in the next month, alone. This is just a tiny snapshot into the world of music and performance that is not achieving quite the audience members that it rightly deserves.

With the news of the cuts happening in the next few years in Birmingham, it is now that we should be celebrating what we, as artists, have to offer. The best way, I feel, to do this, is to see everything. Go to concerts and experience what has been provided to us, show the people in charge of money in this city what, we, as music fans need.

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring – contemporary, classical, dance, technology

One of the the CBSO’s (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) biggest projects of the 2010/2011 is it’s performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. A formidable and excellent piece in it’s own right, the creators at the CBSO and Symphony Hall have fused together music, dance and technology :

Experience an astonishing interplay between reality and fantasy as dancer Julia Mach’s extraordinary live performance interacts, through the magic of digital wizardry, with real-time, computer generated stereoscopic projections, translated into a virtual reality space with the aid of 3D spectacles for the audience.

- THSH

The 30-minutes piece is preceded by Varese’s Tuning Up and Ligeti’s Lontano for large orchestra, a distant and warm piece which plays with with the make-up of unconventional diatonic harmony.

For more info and for the special Rite of Spring micro-site, please visit http://riteofspring3d.thsh.co.uk

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group – contemporary, classical

The BCMG is the city’s orchestra dedicated entirely to the performance of contemporary and new music. Made up of players from the CBSO, the flexible organisation has grown in the one of the world’s most fore-thinking ensembles of new music. They play regular concerts at the CBSO Centre on Berkley Street, B1, as well as touring all over the city.

The percussion players are performing what promises to be an excellent concert of Varese and Xenakis on the 25th March at Yardley Old Church as well as this Sunday (13th March).

Oliver Knussen conducts his own memorial work Requiem – Songs for Sue as well as pieces by Morton Feldman and Harrison Birtwistle

Steve Reich and Thomas Ades. – contemporary, classical

This week, Friday 11th March, Symphony Hall have also included another excellent performance of contemporary. The London Sinfonietta, one of the world’s leading orchestra for contemporary classical music are visiting Birmingham, performing Steve
Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, complete with 4 grand pianos and 5 marimbas. The minimalist style of Steve Reich is used in many sources of media, films, adverts and television, purely for the fact it is accessible to both musician and audience alike. Conductor Thomas Ades? starts the concert with his own In Seven Days, a collaborative project with filmmaker Tal Rosner and is based on the Creation.

Tickets start from £10 (or £5 on the day for U25s)

The Irrepressibles: Mirror Mirror – contemporary pop, performance art, collaboration, crossover

Another gig at the heart of Birmingham, the Town Hall, The Irrepressibles are a 10-piece orchestra committed to stretching the boundaries of conventional performance. Lead by singer, Jamie McDermot, they perform hearty indie music with a set up of orchestral musicians as accompaniment.

This show is in conjunction with Fierce Festival and is at Town Hall, 22nd March, £15

SOUNDkitchen – contemporary, sound, experimental, collaboration

SOUNDkitchen is a new group made up of music graduates from the University of Birmingham. Their “STONEsoup” concert at the MAC was met with rave reviews and are following up with a collaborative event with Balkanic Eruption, promoters of Klezmer and Balkan music within the city. Playing at the Hare and Hounds, B14, the concert focuses on expanding sound using technology and live instruments, it will be followed by a live laptop performance from Garfield Benjamin.

Birmingham Conservatoire – classical contemporary, premieres, fusion

Like the Uni of Birmingham, the Conservatoire has one of the most developed composition departments in the country. The students are exceptionally talented and lucky for us the concerts are generally very cheap and on a regular basis. This month as well as a student showcase of new music (held on the 18th March and conducted by the great Edwin Roxburgh) we see the Frontiers department of Conservatoire play host to world-renowned electronic violinist, Barbara Luneberg. This young talent has worked with some of the world’s best contemporary composers. On the 14th March, Luneberg is to perform works written for her by young composers from all over Europe, this will also include a premiere of work by VT of the Conservatoire, Ed Bennett.

For more info on any of the above please visit
www.thsh.co.uk
www.bcmg.org.uk
www.soundkitchenuk.org
www.theirrepressibles.com
www.bcu.ac.uk/pme/conservatoire/events-calendar

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As a musician, I love reading autobiographies and biographies of rock stars. As an unsigned musician, I’m always left disappointed that there isn’t more in these books about their time before they were famous.

I don’t mean stuff like their Dad working in a factory and their cat being called Tiddles, or whatever. I mean that period of time between deciding they want to be a musician and starting a band, to the time when they get signed and start having commercial success. It always seems a bit vague, covered in a chapter or two, and makes getting signed look very, very easy. It reminds me of that South Park episode with Underpants Gnomes whose business plan is:

• Phase 1: Collect underpants
• Phase 2: ?
• Phase 3: Profit

It could be translated in this context to:

• Phase 1: Start band
• Phase 2: ?
• Phase 3: Profit

In reality, Phase 2 for musicians is a lot of work, a lot of expense, a lot of playing to eight people in a backstreet pub, and probably not making it as far as Phase 3. Personally, I could write a whole book of my time as an unsigned musician. It’s far from glamorous, there are no drugs or girls, but the banter is immense, and the characters you encounter can be surreal.

The consequence of this is that people who are not involved with music in any capacity beyond reading somebody’s autobiography or biography feel the need to tell unsigned musicians just how easy it is to get signed and what they need to do. They hear you are in a band and have no idea that you need them to get up off their behinds, come to your gigs, and buy your music and merchandise, just to see Phase 3 on the distant horizon. That’s not in the books.

There is of course the chance that I’m the one who has got it completely wrong. Maybe it’s not supposed to be as much fun? Maybe I’m not supposed to be enjoying my time as an unsigned musician so much, and enjoying reflecting on the stories that come out of it. Maybe I’m making a point of enjoying it and cherishing the adventures because of the high improbability of making it to Phase 3.

So why do successful musicians largely ignore their unsigned roots? Is it the lack of glamour and drugs and girls, or did they just not have enough fun to have anything to say about it?

Either way, it would be great to hear more unsigned stories from successful musicians. It could act as a beacon of hope for those in Phase 1 or at least clarify what Phase 2 actually is.

—————

By Ronan Fitzgerald

Ronan Fitzgerald plays in a band called Nerve Centre and has lots of opinions about unsigned music.

Peter Watkins is a freelance Midlands based photographer. Over the last few years, he’s had a both group and solo exhibitions at various venues, including the Custard Factory, The Public and Light House.

He’s also been awarded with an Honorable Mention at the International Photography Awards, in the Architecture: Buildings, Fine Art: Landscapes and Fine Art: Nudes categories.

Take a look at his portfolio and keep up with his work on tumblr.

A contemporary creative practice needs to be a problem solver, fund raiser, facilitator and business collaborator. While anyone experienced in cultural and community based areas would be ignorant to ignore the realizations that the current economics demand better value for investments and any funding, do our creative industry graduates know what they need to do to succeed?

It’s not new that during times of economic austerity, graduates will take different routes into employment, finding work in areas that differ from their educational field. This coupled with the sometimes abstract services that the design industry provides, the intangible tasks a client needs to be convinced to pay for prior to seeing the end result; adds up to a tricky over-subscribed recruitment situation.
What’s different now is a cross-pollination of skills in creative industries, architects working in construction, product designers working in kitchen installation and design.

Graduates coming into the Built Environment industry for example are, with an ongoing complex, passionate politik. Fear for the industry’s survival, a whirlwind of legalities, employment ethics and pay rates have been news in the Built Environment for over 12months, especially within Architecture; whose students read for longer than a Doctor or Lawyer, but will rarely expect to earn the levels of their contemporaries, despite it’s regulation and representation by a chartered professional body, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
We are seeing a rule-change for established professions, supported only last week by RIBA, who said in in order to take advantage of opportunities, architects “need to develop greater financial nous and commercial acumen.”

Substitute the word Architect with Designer/Craftsperson/Art maker/Curator and most can see how this situation can be applied throughout the creative industries. Read more.

A multi-disciplinary practice allows for a flexible approach.

Collaborative collectives are emerging as necessary alternatives: A design practice isn’t going to have a whole project under their remit; a sharing mentality is an emerging theme for tackling cuts in a cold climate. Read more.

Rita Semedo, graduate of Interior Design from BCU has struck out entrepreneurially with partners Thomas Slack and Carla Imbimbo. Since setting up a studio at Zellig, Custard Factory in October 2010, projects have been steadily setting up for the trio of interior, product and graphics designers trading under the name Cubed3.

They didn’t consider basing their new creative business elsewhere; and it hasn’t proved a problem so far.

We know the West Midlands, are graduates of it’s universities and have connections that have helped us start out. While we understand there is risk in starting any business, we saw a gap in the design market to represent the region in enterprising, fresh product and interior design.

-Rita Semedo.

Rita told me they are building collaborative partnerships with fellow creatives in Digbeth, coming together with a graphic designer to complete a children’s nursery project most recently. Projects on Cubed3’s order books include work refurbishing a 75 bedroom hotel and bar, and work with Birmingham Community Healthcare, refurbishing a secure healthcare environment in one of her majesty’s prisons!

At the Interiors show, Birmingham earlier this year, Cubed3 exhibited their furniture range in a stand of their own design. ‘Stack’, which was designed by to utilize off-cuts from the timber trade; by using multiples of the same section shape. The stool has a brightly printed cushion and by applying graphics to the ends, the piece becomes more than a typical birch plywood piece. Exhibiting was collaborative; Cubed3 invited students from BCU to exhibit work from an elective textile design module; accessorizing the space with printed and embroidered t-shirts.

Certainly with such a variety of projects underway, it will be interesting to see this team develop; after exhibiting at the Interiors show in January at NEC, where the designer’s were invited to attend both Grand Designs Live and Tent London (part of London Design Week), it’s going to be a busy 2011.

Read the rest of this entry »

To your right, you see glorious Cheapside. Factories and warehouses to let with flexible terms.They say that this area will eventually be regenerated, and this street, being closer to the main drag may be ripe for the pickings. Already, the café at the post office hosts storytelling and poetry evenings, serving drinks, snacks and light refreshments; further up the road is the Edge, for arts and artists to congregate and further on, The Fountain, open to the residents and the workers within the area. A cosy pub, no nonsense. Trespassers arrive and the doors shut behind them. The regulars turn and observe, and the trespasser can cheerfully order a pint of lager and some cheese and onion crisps. You begin to walk up the hill in wonderment, but decide to stop and sit on a bollard to roll a fag. The building to your left looks like a possible bathhouse. A swimming pool in Cheapside maybe not, but a Turkish Baths? Rather like the Ford Meteor Garage in Moseley or the disused dance hall in King’s Heath, both possible venues, cinemas, gig venues, arts centers? Up Cheapside there’s already plenty of offices and warehouses, it more recently boasts a Costcutter, a chippy and a cornershop. No need for another Tescos or more flats. No. There needs to be something new, something different, something for the residents and the outsiders to get their teeth into. Maybe even they’ll get used to the diagetic sounds that come from the quiet area. As you start walking again, a skipyard belches smoke. Wooden pallets ablaze, its firestarters stand around, warming themselves against the chill February afternoon. A half demolished building cries from your right, the smoke and soot cry out, face torn in two, locked in perpetual agony. Else Francis Bacon is alive and full of distemper and living in Cheapside.

Bacon would have been proud of the free art gallery on Bradford Street. Take a look…

Artists unknown but the quality speaks for itself. A cyber-lady, face obscured, pvc legs akimbo. Super-cool. Is that meant to be Corey Feldman as Golden Boy? Resplendent in spectacles and monochrome? So good it speaks for itself twice. An alien baldhead? And a Judge Great helmet, together with a motif that has been placed there by the forthcoming robot destructors, ready to obliterate Birmingham’s human populace. All there. A few tags screaming for recognition amongst poetry and quotations make you think of the putter-therer; ‘Keep my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds’ and better still;

But one of the finest free art collections in the city obviously is. The Kid dangled himself about for a bit in his ill-fitting school uniform that looked crap anyway. He knew it, the teachers knew it, his peers knew it, and his parents knew it. Everybody knew it. He got his fags out, and stood on for a while on Bradford Street, swigging his energy drink. Observing all around him, the creator of his own destiny, for the while. Blowing smoke out. Tomorrow, another day, back to face the consequences. He got his marker pen out and created. ‘Classroom’s not for me’. He’s a bright lad, the apostrophe is in its right place, as if that matters in the Great Scheme of Things. No, The Kid knew. Looking down the road, at the White Swan and beyond, The Anchor. Up the road, The Adam and Eve. Another swig. This city’s mine, he thought. He knew it. ‘Classroom’s not for me.’ In his few years, he’d seen it all. Nothing they could teach him. Ducking round the corner, he saw the prime minister’s face staring up at him.

Weather-beaten and worn, slashed with knives, torn from side to side. The Kid wondered; ‘Is this what I’m here for? Is this all there is?’ ‘Stop the cuts’ the poster pleaded. The Kid drank, and soaked in the image for a minute. He chucked his milkshake on the floor, spat, and got the 50 back into Balsall Heath. But the journey doesn’t stop there.

The Abacus Apartments stand erect on Alcester Street. But you’d think they’d be proud of their position, facing the derelict building and the Spotted Dog pub, but they’re not. Instead, they stand ashamed. Abashed. The bricks and mortar know that the pub used to be a thriving epicenter of Irish tradition and punk rock in-the-garden, but a few of its inhabitants had better ideas. And the apartments looked on in horror, as noise-abatement orders were issued, and the street sang not no more, but a little quietly, like poor church mice. The apartments thought;

‘No, this is not what our intention was. We wanted our lot to be vibrant, sexy, hip to new ideas and existing avenues. Look at the building opposite, with its smashed in windows, and weed strewn floors. I told you we shouldn’t have mocked, as we were being loaded out of the pallets. I told you. Now look at us. Standing proud, but everybody hates us. We’re pariahs. It’s not our fault.’

If you listen carefully on a still day, you can hear the low cry of the Abacus apartments, wishing they could invert themselves like the house in Poltergeist, but they know they shouldn’t. They just stand there, doomed to mockery and snide comments, whilst the pub opposite proudly boasts the name of the landlord and the landlord’s mantra, ‘Licensed to sell all intoxicating liquors for consumption on and off the premises.’ The Abacus Apartments also look glumly over the road, at the Rainbow pub. Monday afternoon, the pub should be swarming with hipsters and haircuts, munching on fish finger ciabattas and posing about.

No such luck. A bare floor, well swept. The upmarket lights and fans dangle lifelessly, not really doing anything at all. Bare. There should be bare people in here. But there’s nothing. The games machine doesn’t even bleep. Nobody’s been in here today. The chairs cold, waiting despondantly for the snug warmth of bottoms. The room sighs. The Big Bulls Head down the road was doing a roaring trade today, the air thick with burly chatter and chip grease. Friends and family locked in garrulous chatter, the women swigging manfully from their pints of Carling Cold, and the debate of another one for the road is answered easily with money changing hands over the bar. For a moment, the front bar of the Rainbow feels irritated, and annoyed. But the feeling dissipates as it considers the love and attention that has been tattooed on the bricks of its swaggering cousin, the Rainbow Warehouse…

—————

By James Kennedy

James Kennedy is a multimedia artist living in Birmingham’s city centre. The below piece is adapted from his forthcoming full length project ‘The Wind’, about re-imagining the city centre as a place of utopia and beauty.
Blog – www.jameskennedycentral.wordpress.com // Links to all the photos taken for this project can be found at; www.flickr.com/photos/james1kennedy

• Commercially Inviable Records » Here Come The Light Nights
  A free sampler of upcoming releases on the label
• Wanted: Critical friends
  “BiNS is looking for contributors, willing to go out, and then come back, and write good criticism about what they found”. Splendid.
• Why couldn’t I quote Charlotte’s Web on stage?
  Lucy Caldwell on copyright struggles encountered when writing Notes For Future Self
• Nikki Pugh’s Colony Prototype | Hide&Seek
  “On Tuesday I went to Birmingham, to try out a protoype of Nikki Pugh’s developing project Colony.” From Holly at Hide & Seek
• LOCKED OUT | The Abri
  “We need to keep the building, which used to be an old post office but is now privately owned, in the community.  We need a dentist and a GP, the building is ready for both.  We need a place where mothers, fathers, families, friends and local businesses, (who remain or will soon return), can meet, have coffee and relax with a book.” Help needed to take this social enterprise on
• City TV Broadcasting
  “City TV Broadcasting Ltd has announced it will file an application to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, to acquire television licences in a minimum of five cities across the United Kingdom.  It will locate its head of operations in Birmingham”
• {placekitten}
  One for the web designers, courtesy of Mark James from Made. It’s “A quick and simple service for getting pictures of kittens for use as placeholders in your designs or code”
• Where we’re at… « colour
  “After much reflection, we’ve decided to wind down our live activities for the foreseeable future.  We’re still very much interested in collaborations with other organisations, consultancies and guest DJ sets, but we won’t be putting on any of our own shows – only if something truly unmissable comes our way”
• Complaints Choir of Birmingham
  This is from a few years back, but it’s the first I’ve heard of it
• Fifty:Fifty partner announced
  “The Crafts Council and Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (BMAG) will work together to deliver a major contemporary craft exhibition in autumn 2011. The exhibition called Lost in Lace”. BMAG was chosen from a shortlist of three institutions

The second UK Fulldome Film Festival will take place on Sat 12 & Sun 13 March at the Thinktank Planetarium.

The festival examines fulldome as an artistic media, and highlights ‘the creative and experimental applications of immersive environments, beyond the realm of astronomy education most commonly associated with digital planetariums today’.

They’ve got a pretty full programme, with shorts and feature screenings and sessions running from 9am – 9pm on the Sat and 9am – 7pm on Sun.

Sessions will provide discussion, presentations and workshops based around providing an insight into the processes and challenges of Fulldome content production, from both a conceptual and technical view.

There’s also a special schedule of screenings which will be free to Thinktank ticket holders over the weekend.

Tickets are £40 per day / £20 concessions, and can be bought online.

Co-produced by VIVID & Fierce, this Saturday, 5 March, will see a public intervention held by artist Eitan Buchalter, from 11.30am – 3.30pm on Heath Mill Lane.

Buchalter will be expanding on his current body of work exploring how we flow through and interact with public spaces and what happens when aspects of our environment are disrupted

Not revealing what the full nature of this ‘intervention’ will be, he’ll be targeting the pedestrian traffic en route to the local derby between Birmingham City FC and West Bromwich Albion, with vouchers for free beer at a local pub. A quick flick through of his past projects and he seems to do a lot of standing… Perhaps that’s something to look out for?

‘Veer’ will also be broadcast live online at This is Tomorrow, from 11.30am.

As an In Association With … artist at VIVID and a Fierce Festival 2011 artist, he’ll also be featuring at this years Fierce Festival, with a talk, workshop and intervention.

Fairtrade fortnight starts 28th February, the theme’s cotton, and this year Fairtrade Association Birmingham (FAB) are putting on more events than ever!

This week will also witness binning of the last of my dubiously sourced Calvin Classic underwear. About the same time as I bought my last poor quality pants (and first of many fairtrade ones), I started hanging out with FAB, shortly after we had become a fairtrade city in 2005 and before behind the game, and other cotton and slavery related school projects I got involved in.

Team FAB united have outstanding qualities – captain John Boyle (see image), a great all-rounder and cooperative man, never without an anecdote or chocolate, sweeper Paul Birch from Revolver, always there to support, safe hands Lorraine Cookson from the council, never let’s a good promotion opportunity slip by.

Then there’s the likes of Gill, Jane and Sylvia, always there, distributing the goods, academics, international stars who check fairtrade out abroad, me and Sushan making occasional runs down the wing, feeding play to the real stars, the folk who just do fairtrade, and those who want everyone else to. Which reminds me, a quick plea on behalf of small local charity LUCIA (FAB members) – they are looking for school uniforms and a possible school partnership with a school in Ethiopia. It’s a great opportunity and anyone any ideas, contact LUCIA directly.

This year marks an increase in our support for young people campaigning for fairtrade in Birmingham. Co-op are working hard with children across the city and Kit on for fairtrade events are going on with adults and children. We are organising a network evening to launch our young people’s forum for Fairtrade, and throughout Fairtrade Fortnight the whole of year 8 (around 100 12-13 yr olds) at Holy Trinity Catholic Media College explore ‘Should all trade be fair?’

For Holy Trinity, most of ‘FAB united’ are playing a part on a project of scope and depth I’ve not heard of before. We will run a Fair Dragon’s Den at end of Fairtrade Fortnight, hearing the ideas and concepts of young people which I hope FAB can support and develop.  Holy Trinity are looking to be our first Fairtrade school in Birmingham, and together with our other projects with young people, we will be looking to our future to make fair and ethical trade the norm across our great trading city!

At FAB, we like to think we’re all in it together.  Why not join us?

—————

By Marcus Belben

For all things Fairtrade please contact FAB, contact me, Marcus Belben, or visit my blog.

Dave Piper is a Birmingham based photographer, who works mainly in fashion and portraiture photography. Though they may have been given a glamorous finish, you might recognise something familiar about these two photos, they’re taken from a shoot he did at the Hare & Hounds pub in Kings Heath.

Having also recently shot his first cover for FACE ON magazine (image below), he’s now branching out into hosting nationwide photography workshops.

The Birmingham dates are set for 29 and 30 September, at the Calumet Store, so plenty of time to get a bit of practice in if you’re interested. The two day course ‘What is Digital Light?  – A Theoretical and Practical Digital editing course’, will cover the following;

This workshop will challenge and inspire. There are no rule books, there are no wrong answers – nor right ones. However, there are other theories and other ideas.

This course is not only about Photoshop, it’s about how to pull apart and re-bild your photos using a post-production style designed to really enhance your work.

For this workshop, the confident use of a DSLR and some experience of Photoshop is neccessary. The course will push and explore the ideas to enhance and finish your photography, including a study on the importance of self-critique.

Prices are TBC, and there’s also a beginners course to follow – any questions can go to Dave@davepiper.org.uk

From time to time a disgruntled promoter will write something accusing the people of Birmingham of being an apathetic bunch who’d rather stay at home than go out and have a good time. See this post from a year ago for an example.

James Cook has joined this cohort with a post titled ‘Why the Birmingham comedy scene repeatedly dies on its hole…‘. His gripes are that (and I apologise for paraphrasing):

• research shows that residents of Birmingham are the most risk averse in the country. We have a drinking culture, but not much of a ‘going out’ culture. This makes things difficult for promoters
• there are too many poor quality comedy night charging people good money to see new, unpaid acts. These nights are rubbish and will put people off ever going to a comedy night again

I don’t claim to know too much about this – I go to the occasional stand-up show, but I don’t have James’s experience of the local comedy scene and he’s not the first to have made this complaint. However, from a lay punter’s point of view, I was under the impression that if comedy’s your thing then Birmingham caters for you pretty well. We’ve got:

• the NIA and LG Arena for the big, mainstream touring shows
• Town Hall and Alexandra Theatre for other biggish touring shows
• two main stand-up venues - The Glee Club and Highlight
• other occasional shows at The Public and the MAC. Warwick Arts Centre and various places in Wolverhampton are fairly close too
• some smaller, regular nights bringing in some decent national names (Comedy Junction and Popcorn Comedy)
• there’s a proliferation of other, smaller nights at pubs and bars around over the city too

In terms of general promotion, we’ve got a dedicated comedy website and (almost?) every year the Birmingham Comedy Festival draws a ring around a load of shows happening over the space of a month and shouts about them.

That seems like a pretty healthy spread to me. Certainly a good deal more than many other towns and cities can claim. Does it constitute a ‘scene’? If not, is it just the audiences for the smaller gigs that are missing, or something else?

I’d be interested in hearing what people think. Or, seeing as how he started the discussion, leave a comment on James’s post.