Wedding/rock photographer (as well as ex-international DJ, Birmingham Live! creator, etc…) Steve Gerrard has relaunched his website and, put together by Chris Garrett (who also did The Big Picture‘s website), very nice it is too.
Steve’s blogging is sometimes used as an example of how a creative type can use use regular updates to showcase their work effectively. But then why would anyone not want to read a blog that turns out images like this:
I’ve been feeling a bit off-colour the past couple of days, so apols for the lack of decent posting. If anything’s going to raise my spirits it’s the prospect of a sodding great whale and a huge robot both turning up in the city. It’s like Power Rangers or something.
The former comes courtesy of Claudia Losi’s Balena Project as presented by Ikon Gallery (and previously alluded to). A 25ft cashmere whale will be deposited by the escalators in The Mailbox from 24 Sept to 26 Oct. This is what it looks like:
Hmm, so it doesn’t look like a fearsome, city-levelling villain, more like me flopped on my sofa feeling sorry for myself.
Meanwhile, flyers for Hello Digital (a mere 6 weeks away and still no-one knows quite what it is) will apparently be distributed around the Bullring tomorrow by a giant robot. Brilliant!
I’ll write something about Hello Digital when I know what’s going on but details have been trickling out:
So far the Hello Digital blog and Twitter are up and running and the main site is due to go live any minute now. Meanwhile here’s the flyer:
Capsule are after folks to volunteer their time to put together a ‘people’s archive’ celebrating Birmingham and the West Mids as the home of heavy metal:
I spoke to Jenny from Capsule about this last week and she made the point that discussions about the Birmingham music scene (or lack of) tend not to mention Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Godflesh, Napalm Death and Led Zep’s Robert Plant – all of whom had a huge impact on a massive, international musical genre.
If you want to get involved go to Capsule’s Home of Metal page.
Incidentally, Capsule have got a few more events lined up, the next one being Pelican & Torche at the Factory Club on 17 September. See the Capsule event page for details.
CiB’s frequent flyers may know that 2007′s Supersonic collective memory was a thing of rare beauty, pulling together all sorts of mentions of the festival from across the interwires. This is an attempt at replicating that for Supersonic 2008.
[Update, 29 July 2008] I’ve noticed very little new stuff recently so I’m going to stop actively searching and have unsubscribed from my automated updates. However, if you produce/come across any writings/photos/videos/whatever about this year’s festival then please mention them in the comments and I’ll update this post.
On with the good stuff then…
Capsule/Supersonic themselves
Here’s the Supersonic website itself. If you had a good time at the festival you can say thanks to the Capsule ladies, Lisa & Jenny, on this Capsule blog post. Here’s the festival catalogue, digitised.
Previews
Blogs
Other websites/mags
Fora
Social networks
Photos
Video
If you’re interested about the process of pulling together all this info as quickly/easily as possible then I’ll be writing about it at chrisunitt.co.uk shortly. By shortly I probably mean ‘in a month or two’.
Remember if you spot something Supersonic 08-related on the internet (or just want to say what you thought of the festival) then please use the comments below to let me know.
Next weekend Capsule‘s festival of rock and electronic music – Supersonic – is taking place at the Custard Factory. In addition to planning that, Capsule recently took local acts Pram and the ZX Orchestra to Barcelona’s Sonar festival for a well-received showcase.
Frankie sat down with Jenny and Lisa to discuss DIY ethics, council funding, the city’s lack of suitable venues and this year’s Supersonic festival.
Capsule Interview from Created in Birmingham on Vimeo.
If you’re going then you might want to check the timetable for each day and see what talks and presentations have been announced.
If you’re not already going there might be a few e-tickets left, so if you want to see why people are flying in from around the world to visit this then get in quick.
Now this is an impressive line-up of events:
The Saturday night is particularly interesting. It’s a joint Town Hall/Birmingham Jazz production and is billed as a relaxed club night following in the steps of the Town Hall’s all-night jazz sessions of the 50s. The Herbaliser have a new album out on Ninja Tunes and this is the first night of their tour.
Chris Read promoted Substance at the Medicine Bar with Roc 1 and, especially back when it was on every Thursday, there was no better place in town to be. He’s returning to Birmingham after picking up rave reviews for his The Diary mixtape which condenses a 801-track history of hip hop into 70 minutes. It has to be heard to be believed and can be downloaded free from his website.
It’s really good to see the Town Hall being used in this way. Sure, there are plenty of safe, bland acts booked – I expected that – but this weekend they’re putting on one of the most varied leftfield programmes of any venue in the city, and that I didn’t expect. In fact I could quite happily spend my whole weekend down there.
A perfect storm of Birmingham creative scene interestingness is happening on Monday 26 May with Capsule producing an event for the Fierce Festival at the really-rather-good Town Hall (who seem to be widening the scope of the events they’re putting on).
Julian Cope will be presenting his lecture entitled ‘Ancient Worship Of The Gods Beyond Rome’, followed by a screening of ‘Haxan; Witchcraft through the Ages’ with a live soundtrack provided by Bronnt Industries Kapital.
More details and ticket buying info are on the Capsule page.
Julian Cope will be returning with Capsule for the Supersonic Festival, 11 to 13 July. Weekend tickets are available for a bargainous £65 and (limited) day tickets are now on sale too. Check their website for details but don’t dally if you want a ticket.
