If you want to dance your way into 2012, there are plenty of clubs offering NYE nights. Gatecrasher have got 2manydjs, Eric Prydz, AN21 and Max Vangelli, Bigger Than Barry are at The Old Crown, Eclectricity at the HMV Institute with Chase & Status and Annie Mac, Hott Date are doing a thing at Hennesseys and Glas will meet Face at The Rainbow. Everywhere else has got a thing going on though.

If you’d rather keep things slightly more pub-based, then Island Bar and The Victoria are getting together for a joint celebration. Sam Redmore and This is TMRW are looking after the Hare and Hounds and there’s a ‘live fast and die young’ fancy-dress night at The Fighting Cocks in Moseley. Your local will probably be open too.

Not to be outdone, Birmingham City Council are putting on “low level pyrotechnics” in Victoria Square while the Big Screen will show the BBC One New Year Celebrations between 10pm and 12.30am.

Music is covered too, with The Subterraneans at The Jam House, The Father Teds at The Irish Centre, Soul Survivors at Sutton Town Hall, and Symphony Hall’s New Year’s Eve Gala.

And finally if you need a laugh after this long year, there’s comedy at The Glee Club, Highlight and Jongleurs.

Photo: Hotdogs by Matt Cattell

A few festive bits and bobs happening around Birmingham…

The Frankfurt Christmas Market closes on Friday 23 December, as does the Festive Pop Up Bazaar on New Street.

It’s the BrumNotes/This Is Tmrw Christmas Party at The Victoria tonight. Click the link or ogle the poster below (sidenote: are Lewes Herriot‘s gig posters the best around town at the moment? Answers on a postcard).

Birmingham Hippodrome have Cinderella on until the end of January and has already picked up some really good reviews from the Birmingham Mail and The Stage. I went along to the press night last night (disclosure: that means they gave me free tickets) and liked the lovely horsey best.

In other theatre-based offerings:

• The Rep have The Snowman at the ICC and Sleeping Beauty at the Crescent Theatre.
• Blue Orange Theatre in the Jewellery Quarter are doing A Christmas Carol
• The MAC have The Lost Happy Endings

In fact, Area Guide’s December issue has a Christmas theatre round-up from page 26 onwards. Ah, and Visit Birmingham have a Christmas round-up too.

Film-wise, Kino 10 are showing The Nightmare Before Christmas plus some short films at St Columba Church on Friday 23 Dec and The Electric have a smattering of festive films too.

Town Hall & Symphony Hall have a bundle of events going on:

• Polar (this afternoon)
• The CBSO’s Great Big Choral Christmas
• Christmas Eve Classics
• Boxing Day Gala

Meanwhile, down in that London, Birmingham Royal Ballet are seeing out the year performing The Nutcracker at the O2, which sounds like a pretty big deal to me.

There’s loads of other stuff too, obviously. If you’ve got any other good suggestions then bung them in the comments.

Obsessionistas presents an exhibition of personal collections from across the staff and student community at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.

On show are a broad range of items representing twenty five different collectors and their collections, including Japanese guitars, vintage hairdryers, Spirograph sets, English delftware, Mickey Mouse ties and deely boppers

The exhibition’s on now and runs until 16 December. The photo above is of Jo Pond’s collection of brushes.

There’s something really quite nice about this. Obsessionistas is run by Graham and Helen Powell and started back in April. Their aim is to celebrate collectors and their collections, with around 80 highlighted so far – many of them from around the West Mids area.

A public meeting “Crisis in Midlands Journalism” is being held on Thursday, December 8, from 6.30pm-9.30pm, Committee Rooms, Birmingham Council House, Victoria Square

Discussing the horse that bolted a few years back, presumably. Not meaning to be unpleasant about it, but it’s not as if the writing hasn’t been on the wall for long enough. Waiting for another 50 jobs to go before the ‘crisis’ is addressed doesn’t quite seem adequate.

Via both Roy Greenslade and the NUJ.

UPDATE

There’s a Hacks/Hackers Birmingham meet-up the following Thursday (15 Dec). It’s a regular event bringing together journalists, developers and others who are looking for new/better/different ways to find and tell stories.

By going to the right events around Brum, I reckon a determined ligger could score free mince pies every day between now and the 25th

That was after reading about yet another event using the Christmas foodstuff to tempt people along – it’s become the audience development snack of choice.

However, I feel the need to back that up a bit (and you never know, I might even be right) so here are the mince pie-toting events I can recall off the top of my head:

1 Dec – Hotel Chocolat Christmas Shopping event. ‘Alternative’ mince pies – close enough. Obviously it’s too late to make it down now, but I hear they were good
2 Dec – The Art Bus
3 Dec – Open File – Site/Non-site OR How many quarters does Birmingham have?
3 Dec – Tom Baker says he and Jane Baker will be giving out free ones at Northfield Eco Centre

I’ll add to this list as and when I spot anything. If you know of any more (or if you’re organising an event and giving away mince pies) then let me know.

NB: I’m guessing most of the mince pies up for grabs are free, I might be very wrong about that. Take some cash with you just in case.

Creative Times are doing a series of events around the country, with the first being a panel discussion at Fazeley Studios on Wednesday November 30 from 6.30-8pm. It’s titled ‘The Beauty of Digital: New technologies, old aesthetics and where the two meet‘.

Tickets are FREE and available here.

Here’s the info:

A panel of four, chaired by Creative Times editor Chris Sharratt, will share their own experience of the creative interplay between old and new, followed by an audience Q&A and a chance to chat in the bar afterwards.

The panel for the night is:

Pete Ashton, Blogger, photographer, ‘webmonkey’ and trainer (peteashton.com/)
Chris Unitt, Head of Social Media, Made Media Ltd (mademedia.co.uk)
The Brothers McLeod, BAFTA-nominated animators (brothersmcleod.co.uk/)

The event is supported by Hello Culture.

Pete’s making a few appearances this month, and I’m speaking at a bunch of things too. Say hi if you come along.

a four-day celebration of Birmingham’s creative life showcasing the city’s artists, filmmakers and musicians. Ikon’s gallery spaces will exclusively exhibit works created in Birmingham, also hosting some of our best-known music festivals and organisations in a programme of live performances

The list of people involved includes Oliver Beer, Stephen Earl Rogers (below is a painting from his What To Do In An Emergency series of paintings), 7 Inch Cinema, Moseley Folk Festival (presenting Treetop Flyers), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Capsule and others. There’s a PDF press release with more info here.

Internationally renowned visual artist and producer Mohammed Ali will bring together the words of Tshaka Campbell, the sounds of percussionist Daniel Waples together with live-spray painted art.

Breaking Down the Wall is on Saturday 12 November at New Art Gallery Walsall and it’s free. It looks a little similar to the Writing on the Wall event at The Rep last year, which was apparently very good.

BAZ are busy at The Event. They’re hosting Love in the Snug (an alternative festival hub) where you can also buy the in-joke stuffed Mills and Koons, which is:

A Brief Introduction to the Saucy Secrets of the Birmingham Art World

I did and can confirm it’s simultaneously amusing and baffling (I’m pretty sure some of it’s flying way over my head). They’re also hosting Curate Me Out on Saturday, 7pm at the Lamp Tavern:

Shamelessly pilfering the format’s of ITV’s Take Me Out and Blind Date, Curate Me Out will see BAZ setting up three curator-artist ‘dates’. This live performance event complete with a professional compere, bright lights and music jingles acts as a post-performance party for all who have attended The Event

The Birmingham Post have a an interview with Chris Poolman (one half of BAZ) about all of this.

Richard Southall’s exhibition ‘Smethwick’ opens at Calumet on the Hagely Road on Friday 21 October (that’s tomorrow).

And on Saturday 29 October, Friends of Moseley Road Baths will open their Pool of Memories exhibition.

sdsd