The A34 Stratford Road runs from near the centre of Birmingham to Stratford-Upon-Avon. This photo-blog is about the people who can be found between the Sparkbrook and Shirley areas.
The Stratford Road Project is a great photo-portrait thing from Rob Gilbert - definitely go check this one out.
artist Chris Poolman and writer Mark Ellis have been selected to undertake a series of journeys through the region, modelled on three great American literary journeys, producing a documentary film as they go and a collection of short stories and other writings. The great American stories to be followed through West Midlands’ journeys include The Grapes of Wrath and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon, and Mississippi Solo by Eddy L. Harris.
See their planned routes on the Road Trip West Midlands website.
Lewes Herriot has updated his portfolio. I like his work a lot, especially some of the promo stuff for This Is TMRW, and have just noticed he sells bargain-priced prints. Go have a look.
Pointe Blank and Fake Magazine are doing a thing at 6/8 Kafe on Saturday from 2pm. Inkygoodness will be there with their Beermat Character Competition too. I reckon I’ll be popping down for this one, so maybe see you there.
The video for Goodnight Lenin’s new track was done by Chris Keenan and Steven Spencer and was filmed at Second Home Studios.
The latter two were also involved in First Light’s ‘How to’ videos we mentioned a little while back.
Women & Theatre are using crowdfunding website Angel Shares to raise money for Underrated – Birmingham The Musical, which will be:
a multi-voiced theatrical extravaganza celebrating the best bits of Brum through the eyes of its young people. We are interested in exploring their Birmingham; the Birmingham they want to shout about; beyond The Bullring and the Balti Triangle, what the City means to them. What is the Birmingham they would like to see? What are their aspirations for their city, and who should they tell? Underrated will provide a platform for their voices.
So if this comes off then we’ll have have two musicals, what with this and Wallop Mrs Cox.
The other day Supercool’s Katie Parry tweeted about meeting Graham Short. I followed a couple of links, as you do, and was blown away.
If you’ve not encountered Graham before (and in the years I’ve been doing CiB I’m surprised this is the first time I’d heard of him) then check out his website and this short feature on the Discovery Channel.
See also the work of Willard Wigan. Two of these guys in one city? What are the odds?
Ted Hiscock is:
a Birmingham-based artist with a flair for drawing, oil and Gouache.
Wikipedia informs me that Gouache is “a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water”. I bet you knew that. Anyway…
His new exhibition, called ‘Sixty Five and a Half’, features a collection of his most recent paintings and will be on display at Number Nine The Gallery in Brindleyplace from 3 to 9 March.
You can preview the exhibition on his website.
Still Walking is:
A festival of walking taking place across Birmingham, 15th March – 1st April 2012. Artists, architects, historians, ramblers and lovers will show you the city in a new a light
The programme’s now online and features all sorts of tours by all sorts of people across much of the city centre. Very interesting it looks too.
Although I made it along to the Pointe Blank launch on Monday, I missed the launch of The Voyage – a big, public spectacle taking place in Victoria Square over four nights (21 to 24 June) as one of the opening events for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
It’s being produced by the Hippodrome and created by Motionhouse and Legs On The Wall. The latter’s website says:
It involves six performers from Legs, twelve from Motionhouse, a choir of 40, an all women brass band and 140 community performers. It is co-directed by Legs On The Wall’s Artistic Director Patrick Nolan and Motionhouse’s Kevin Finnan.
Sounds impressive.
Incidentally, this is a good example of how to do a website for a project that hasn’t launched yet. None of this ‘watch this space’ or ‘come back when we’re ready’ nonsense. Instead grab a website visitor’s contact details so you can let them know as soon as there’s any news.
Oh, and I’ve also been reminded that Stan’s Cafe are doing a Cultural Olympiad-related project called The Voyage. That one will be on 6 May.
There are three types of people:
Tickets for Life is a Dream are on sale now and I strongly recommend you get yourself in Group 1.
Oh yes, and there’s information about Life Is A Dream here, but that can wait until after you’ve grabbed your tickets.
On Monday I went to the launch of the latest Pointe Blank project which featured illustrators creating posters in response to Birmingham Royal Ballet‘s latest production, Hobson’s Choice. You can tell I was there because I took a horribly grainy pic with my phone. That’s journalism, that is.
It’s the second time they’ve done this (last time it was Coppelia) and the folks behind it are Claire Hartley (who works at Substrakt and is largely responsible for the look of CiB) and Rob Lindsay who works at BRB.
It’s really impressive how they’ve managed to pull together work from some of the best illustrators in Birmingham – the collection’s worth seeing and is available in all it’s glory online at pointeblank.co.uk. Please go check it out.
I’m always surprised that there’s so little in Birmingham that brings illustrators and graphic designers together. There’s some great talent around. Something should be done about it, I reckon.
