While looking for something completely different the other day, I stumbled across a set of photos on BMAG’s Flickr account called ‘Behind the Scenes at BMAG‘.
Very interesting it was too – fashion shoots, roof works (with views across the city) and the conservation studio. Here’s the slideshow:
I popped in to the launch of the Preclusion exhibition at the derelict/occupied Whitmarley building in Stirchley last night. For something that had come together so quickly (and a big well done to Harry for managing that) it was great to see a decent crowd down there (not quite shown in the photo below).
It was lovely to meet Tom from Loaf Online, the Stirchley Happenings folks and most of the admin team from the 28 Days Later forum.
Fiona Cullinan has been quick on the draw, getting her photos up asap (including some from the nearby Arvin Merritor site:
Videos for the first half of Birmingham’s street theatre season, Six Summer Saturdays, are up online on the Hippodrome’s Vimeo account. Here’s week three:
And you can follow these links for week two and week one.
Listings for all the craziness happening around the city centre are on sixsummersaturday.com.
UPDATE: I’m planning to be down in the Arcadian/outside the Hippodrome at 5pm this afternoon for music, queueing and speed portraiture. Say hi if you’re down there – I’ll be the tall guy who looks like me.
The Birmingham Post have reported on the plans to rename the ‘Gun Quarter‘. I’m with Sir Albert Bore on this one (except on the political correctness bit – not sure I get that):
Like it or not, and I am not into the arms trade myself, the Gun Quarter has a historical connection with this city. This is just political correctness.
We haven’t got a big vision for this area, we haven’t got it right and we are not going to get it right if we call it St George and St Chad because it doesn’t mean anything, it doesn’t convey anything.
Which seems fair enough, but on the other hand there is precedent for seemingly arbitrary renaming of areas around the city. What do you reckon?
Jon, Danny and Midge – friends of CiB all – are off on a road trip and are trying to raise £500 to make it happen. Here’s the plan:
Two of Birmingham’s most committed journaleers and artists of human experience—a bi-polar working class warrior with a romantic streak you could drown a fascist in, and a cheerful nihilist in love with his own legend—are willing to take on the challenge. The challenge of visiting every one of England and Wales’s 56 surviving pleasure piers in two weeks, because two weeks is as long as it’s possible to get off work.
Chuck them a few quid here then check out the Pier Review site.
Realtime, generative Audio Visual performance presented in the MAC’s best kept secret – a gem of 1960s architecture – the HEXAGON theatre, originally the Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre
SCREE are DJ Sir Real from the House of God and VJ Catweasel who does visuals for artists like Stevie Wonder. Modulate are an AV collective who grew out of electronic ambient pioneers Higher Intelligence Agency. FREECODE are an AV collective of tweakers featuring:
Happening on Friday 19 August. Head to Facebook for info. Brown Paper Tickets for even more info and tickets.
Incidentally, more info on the Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre here.
No, it’s not a very original title. Sorry. Still, Birmingham Rep are continuing their wanderings around the city while building work continues in Centenary Square. Their next show is The Owl and The Pussycat at Birmingham Library Theatre.
After that is something extra interesting. They’ll be setting themselves up at their old home, The Old Rep Theatre, and the same cast will perform two plays whose runs overlap. The first (and longer running) show is Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest (9 Sept – 22 Oct) which is joined by a new production of Tom Stoppard’s Wilde-referencing play Travesties (17 Sept – 22 Oct).
There’s a bunch of other stuff happening around these two plays too:
As well as our usual post show discussions with the cast, there will also be readings of plays by Mark Ravenhill, W.S. Gilbert, Neil Bartlett and Carl Miller; pre-show talks from experts on the Dada movement, the life of Oscar Wilde and Lenin in theatre and literature; two curtain raiser events inspired by the shows and a youth theatre performance of an Anthony Horowitz play by The Young REP.
Ah, so this must be what the whispering was about.
No Venue : No Permission : No Money
A genuinely guerilla experience, Preclusion is a totally unsupported spontaneous art exhibition.
A space has become available for a limited time and the secretive El Perro Radicale has chosen to take advantage of this opportunity to unveil a collection of locally and nationally produced art.
El Perro Radicale hopes that nothing precludes your attendance.
More confirmed artists including street art, street dance, guerilla poets and the following:
- Jane Baker Photography
- Lucy Grange Photography
- Ryan Hughes Mixed Media Installation
- Matthew Hunt Mixed Media Art
- Lewys Jones Painting
- Lucy Sparrow Felt Art and Street Art
- Luke Thompson Painting
- Martin Pickard Photography
- Lizz Lunney Illustration
- Wesley Wezism Painting
- Pete Grange Photography
- Ben Waddington Drawing
Preclusion will be at the derelict Whitmarley factory on Ivy Road, Stirchley (B30 2NX for the sat nav fiends out there) which is currently playing host to The Birmingham Social Centre.
There’ll be a grand opening on Friday 29th July at 6:30pm and the exhibition will be up until Sunday 7 August.
Ta to Birmingham Loves Photographers for flagging this one up. I like. I’m going to try to get along on Friday.
Are you, or do you know, a person under the age of 18 who’s free from 1-5 August? Then may I present the following:
Young Rewired State is a week long hack event (1-5 August 2011) where young and aspiring web developers across the country build their own web apps, visualisations and projects using government data, mentored by great companies with visits from rockstar geeks.
At the end of the week, all the projects are presented to press, government and industry at a big event in London, where judges will award prizes to the best apps and ideas.
I’ve met the people behind Rewired State and can vouch for how phenomenal they are at what they do.
There’s an event in Birmingham and there’s loads of information on the website. Recommended.
Espirito Brum is the UK edition of Espirito Mundo, a cross cultural celebration bringing together musicians from Brazil and Birmingham, in a three day festival that forms the first stage in a ongoing global exchange.
This’ll run from 14-18 September and will have contributions from an impressive roster of organisations:
Espirito Brum is a collaboration between Espirito Mundo, Instituto Quorum (Espirito Santo, Brazil), Magpie Brown, Friction Arts, Spotted Dog, Oya Batucada, South Birmingham College and PST. It receives creative support from Marketing Birmingham, 7 Inch Cinema, Punch Records and Shakti Women.
On the subject of exotic festivals, I didn’t make it down to Jamaica Live on Saturday but, judging by the photo I’ve been sent by Ammo from Punch, I must’ve been in the minority.
Lewis Maxwell Bloor does photography, design, typography, digital manipulation and post production. He’s on Carbonmade and Tumblr (which is where I spotted a version of the pic above), has accounts on Flickr and Twitter and he’s available for freelance work.
I thought I recognised the name, but I was probably thinking of Simon and Tom Bloor who are from Birmingham too.
Today from 5pm Leaps and Bounds are putting on a performance at the Mushroom Green Chain Shop in the Netherton/Dudley Wood area. And you can watch it HERE! LIVE!
Leaps and Bounds are the ones that did Ballet Hoo (screened on Channel 4 in 2006) and, given that the chain shop is one of the oldest in the country, this could be quite a special thing. Here’s some blurb from the Dancing for the Games website:
Making Links is an exciting new dance project inspired by the industrial heritage of the Black Country. Over 2,000 young people are working with regional artists to explore the history of their local area. In Summer 2011 and 2012 you can see large exciting dance performances in unusual places throughout the Black Country
The livestream will be available below from 5pm. (Hopefully, if not head over to Dancing for the Games).
The order of play is:
The latest from Rosie Kay Dance Company is The Great Train Dance.
On 23 July 2011, The Great Train Dance will transform the Severn Valley Railway into a magical family experience with a puzzle to solve. With dancing at each station and in the train itself by a host of bizarre characters, this totally unique work will reveal all in a finale at the Engine House in Highley.
I’m going to see this on Saturday and if, you’re quick about it, you can win a pair of tickets to it yourself over on the Dancing for the Games website - the deadline for entries is midday today. Or you can book tickets here.
There’s also quite a well-stocked blog about the development of this project.
