Created in Birmingham

iD is a show by Cirque Eloize, a contemporary circus outfit from Montreal that’s coming over to Birmingham Hippodrome from 2-5 November. I met the company back in May and have explained why here.

The performers in the show are phenomenal (and nice folks too) so as well as doing interviews and things I tried out a bit of trampolining and juggling with them. I also suggested they use me for one of the routines that trial biker Thibault Phillipe performs. We videoed it and the Hippodrome stuck it on their YouTube account the other day.

At the time of typing, the video’s racked up 157,00 views. It’s also been picked up by CBS News, The Huffington Post, The Daily What, ABC Eyewitness News and The Mirror so far.  I’m pretty chuffed with that.

Anyway, here’s a video of me putting myself in peril for your amusement:

I didn’t head down to CoCoMAD in Cotteridge last weekend but I heard a fair amount about it. A good event, by many reports.

TheBrumReaper has some photos from this years festival and from past ones too:

I hadn’t realised this was online and picked up on it while skimming the latest from this / inexplicably / styled website from the Arts Council. I’ll let plan b (not that one) explain:

We are making a living portrait of 24 hours in Birmingham with the people who move through its streets, parks, waste grounds and tow paths on foot for the Fierce Festival and the Midlands Art Centre (MAC) See planbperformance.net/?dayinlife.htm for details

A Day in the Life – The Walkers of Birmingham is much more than just a living map, it is a portrait of a city as experienced at ground level. The animation emphasises walking by filtering faster journeys and making these lines more feint

• Area Culture Guide – The Independent Issue
  Verr noice.
• BE Festival 2011 « More Canals than Venice
  A nice interview here with “Miguel Oyarzun, BE Festival Co-Director about the festival and what to expect in 2011″
• The Stage – O2 to host The Nutcracker at Christmas
  “Birmingham Royal Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker will play at the O2 between Christmas and New Year, and is expected to feature more than 60 dancers, who will be accompanied by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia”
• How Britain is failing its modernist masterpieces
  Birmingham central library gets a nod here (nice pic, Steve)