Created in Birmingham

• Brummie of the Year 2009 – vote now
  The poll’s up on BiNS
• We Live In Public – Private Screening – Eventbrite
  There’s a free screening of We Live In Public at The Electric on Weds 9 December. Not many tickets left for this…
• editorialgirl » Birmingham’s People: How do you represent Birmingham?
  In which Matt Murtagh deals with inaninty from BBC WM’s Loyd Williams in a commendably professional manner
• Critical Mass West Midlands
  “Critical Mass is a free 11-week ‘Introduction to Playwriting’ course for black and minority ethnic writers aged 18+. Workshops will run from January – April 2010, one evening per week (7-9.30pm) at both The Drum Arts Centre in Birmingham and The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry”. Nothing to do with cycling then
• Clusta | The Almanac Zoo
  “The Zoo has an array of new characters to meet. Remember to keep watch as some of our furry friends appear a little shy at first. The Zoo is open morning, noon and night, so be sure to revisit when it gets dark”
• Museums at Night | Culture24
  Bit early on this, but nevermind – “Night owls can look forward to a weekend of ghostly goings on as museums unlock their doors for the annual after-hours celebrations. Museums at Night 2010 will run from Friday 14th May to Sunday 16th May”

• Graft « More Canals than Venice
  “Graft are a curatorial collective based in the Midlands who are looking to find a space for up and coming and newly established artists. On 9th December they launch ARC, a new night at The Vaults… For the launch they are seeking proposals from newly estabished artists working in experimental performance, sound and video in response to The Vaults”
• D’log :: blogging since 2000 » Rea Garden
  An opportunity to take up a residency lasting up to 10 weeks at the Rea Garden from Jan 2010. Applications need to be in by 17 Dec
• Art Deco Buildings in Birmingham | Birmingham Conservation Trust
  The BCT goes in search of the city’s Art Deco buildings
• Digbeth is Good – YouTube – The Event Talks: Digbeth
  “Caroline Beavon of Hashbrum talks to Gavin Wade of Eastside Projects about The Event and Digbeth creative stuff in general”
• Art at Studio Five
  Bryn Tranter has a studio and gallery at the Custard Factory – “At StudioFive, we make art accessible to everyone. Whether you want to buy original pieces, you’re looking to learn or you need art to enliven your office or workplace, StudioFive is the place to start”
• Facebook | Birmingham Irish Film Festival
  Plans for “A film festival devoted to film from or about Ireland or with an identifiable Irish interest/connection” to possibly be expanded into a week-long celebration of Irish culture
• An Early Christmas Present for 14 to 26 Year Olds
  The Rep have just extended their A Night Less Ordinary ticket availability for A Christmas Carol to all evening performances from 19 December to 2 January, which is nice of em
• Brummie of the Year 2009 – Nominations Open
  Early nominees are Chris the handyman at the Barber Institute, Paul Hadley, Justice Williams, the Capsule grannies, the Jibbering crew, Alison Smith, Mr Ralph,Gurcharan Mall and Glyn Purnell

and the winner is…

Johnny Doom from Kerrang Radio! Hoorah!

The final standings for the nominees are as follows:

1. Johnny Doom
2. Paul Murphy
3. Barbara Nice
4. Little Chris
5. Adam Smith/Steve Zacharanda
6. TWM Driver
7. Helga Henry
8. Pogus Caesar
9. Roshan Doug

Head over to Birmingham: it’s Not Shit for all the info and a nice message from Mr Doom himself in the comments.

• Links for November 23rd | daveharte.com
  Dave Harte has a few good links – Self Portrait Birmingham, an RSS feed for the Media Talent Bank blog and the BrumMusicArchive’s YouTube channel
• Film Forum West Midlands − MECHANICAL EYE- Community film project
  The Film Forum WM pick up on Mechanical Eye, a project “to encourage young filmmakers within the region to use their creative tools and minds together and, come up with simple stories to appeal ‘at and to’ the common man through an artistic outlook”
• Birmingham School of Architecture Year 1 Blog
  This is interesting – as the title says, it’s a blog for year 1 architecture students and they seem to be throwing all sorts of bits and pieces at it
• Who is Brummie of the Year 2008? – Birmingham: It’s Not Shit
  The voting has opened
• Harry Palmer: Birmingham’s hedgehog crisis. Why it’s so important.The full story
  A thoroughly interesting explanation/reflection on Saturday’s public speaking event

• Brummie of the Year 2008 – Nominations open
  BiNS are asking for your suggestions. The early frontrunner seems to be the (semi-anonymous) TWMDriver
• D’log – Flogging Brum
  “An overseas student recounts his first-time experience of visiting Birmingham”. There’s a 2nd post too. BMAG fares well, Think Tank less so.
• How to promote your night/gig/event online | Chris Unitt
  My notes from a short talk I did last week. This might be of use to someone. It’s not quite comprehensive and all suggestions for improvements would be welcome
• Quiet time
  BiNS provides an update on the previously mentioned ‘The Eye of the Storm’ project. “One hundred and fifty people from around Brum (including Clare Short) were interviewed to discover each’s individual attempts to “manage the stresses of modern living and find calm within the storm”.” The outdoor installation part will be in Birmingham next year
• Exhibition Now Open! | Heard And Not Seen
  The exhibition launched last week and the show runs daily (including Sundays) until the 28th of November. Looks like an interesting one this
• Digbeth is Good – Blank canvas once more
  Nicky spots a wall that’s ripe for a mural
• Prime Objective Blog :: Special People Screening
  Chris “shot stills for a feature film called Special People” back in March. The film is now touring and coming to the Electric Cinema on 24 Nov
• Eye blog » Type, tart cards, T-shirts and crosses
  The piece on the Plus+ International Design Festival I wrote for Eye Magazine’s blog
• CMYKern – Giveaway
  James collected some stuff from Clusta, 4Talent and BIAD at Plus+ the other day
• Art and public transport – commuter survey
  “part of Transitions – my action research commissioned by Longhouse (www.longhouse.com.uk) that concerns the possibilities for creating and disseminating art in a public transport context” Please do it if you’ve got a sec