John Garghan, exhibition in the new year
The guy who takes the fasinating photos of torched cars. He’s getting ready for an exhibition at the Solihull Arts Complex at the Touchwood Centre, Solihull. 19 Jan to 7 March
Screen WM – Annual Review
You can get Screen WM’s annual report for 07/08 (and the past couple of years) here
Dressing-the-Pooh | Crescent Theatre Blog
Interesting from the Crescent Theatre – they’ve got a production of Winnie-the-Pooh coming in the new year. A comment on a previous blog asked whether Pooh would be played in full, semi or no costume. Here’s the answer (maybe drop them a comment on your thoughts)
Still Waiting
Not sure what this is, but it’s to do with Antonio Roberts so it’ll probably be interesting
I’ve been thinking ‘bloody hell, the Custard Factory’s busier than usual’. I suspect it’s not, it’s just that all the great stuff going on there is now getting posted on the blog.
At the risk of labouring the oft-repeated point, blogging can help get you noticed.
Anyway, hot on the heels of a recent wodge of CF events, here are the flyers for three more taking place in the Vaad Theatre:
Connecting Routes is an interactive exhibition presented by a group of young people who’ve been exploring Birmingham’s links and role within slavery. On 13/14 December, call or email to reserve places (details on the flyer).
Lost in Space 2 is a ‘trade and business exhibition’ featuring those operating at the Custard Factory. In case you can’t read the lurid green writing on pink background, 5-7pm on 15 December then 10am – 6pm daily until 19 December.
Sorry, I’ve hacked the flyer for PILOT Nights in half to fit it on the page. This looks really good, with 6 theatrical shorts being presented in one evening for a bargain £5. On Thurs 18 December, first act at 7.30pm.
Birmingham based indie label promoting hip-hoppers The Custodians and Barrowclough, singer/song-writers Bethan Marshall and Selina Blakeney, and electronic-folk rappers Greybeard, Benjamin Blower and University of the King
Anywho, the reason I’ve encountered Zang is because they’ve put together a Christmas album and have put it out as a free download. I’m listening to it now and can vouch for its festiveness.
The Custard Factory has a few new bloggers and Jonathan, who books the Gallery and Theatre and is, appropriately, covering event news, has taken to it with gusto. Here’s a few of the upcoming theatrical events:
Script are a registered charity based in the Custard Factory and are:
dedicated to developing and promoting new dramatic writing in the West Midlands
For their new project they’re:
inviting writers to submit a short (10 minute) play in response to the “Beijing Map Games†exhibition at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Images from the exhibition will appear shortly on www.scriptonline.net. Writers are asked to select an image and write a 10 minute play in response to its themes. Five plays will be selected and performed at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, in front of the exhibition, on Saturday 22nd November 2008
The deadline for submissions is 24 October.
Additionally, Script are:
offering free 2½ hour writing workshops for writers in the Chinese community to provide an introduction to playwriting. The two workshops will utilize the images from the Beijing Map Games exhibition and explore the ways in which they could be interpreted dramatically
Beaten Tracks and Peaceful Paths
A devised theatre production inspired by Birmingham’s people and places. Two people can look upon the same picture or hear the same story and interpret it in completely different ways. But what do we have in common, what unites us all?
Tuesday, 19th August – 7 pm
The Custard Factory Theatre
Tickets £1, available on The Door
Ads On Walls round-up
Another quality, well-attended Animation Forum West Mids event – here’s the list of screenings and contact details for everyone involved
The Book for Birmingham
“To celebrate the National Year of Reading, we want to capture the city’s reading choices and ultimately find the The Book for Birmingham… You can nominate a book any time up to 17 August 2008″ Voting begins on 1 September. Winner to be announced during October’s Birmingham Book Festival
St Patrick’s Day Festival – update
Spaghetti Gazetti report on July’s public meeting discussing feedback from the 2008 Festival & Parade.
Any wax fondlers out there (or fans thereof) might be interested in this DJ competition, running into it’s third year and with the Midlands heats taking place at the Custard Factory.
The first heat is on Saturday 9 August, which it might be a bit late to register/practice for (worth getting in touch maybe). The second heat is on Saturday 6 September.
Exciting news on the Rhubarb Radio front is best summed up by this photo:
This is in the Custard Factory unit just opposite reception. From taking the keys on Monday to getting a makeshift studio installed yesterday, things are moving quickly. The Rhubarb Radio blog has more details but reports that:
we’re waiting the IT & Telephone sockets to be fitted and made live, so very soon after that, we’ll be able to point the master outgoing feed to a beta website, and run some test transmissions
There’s still more than enough time for people to get involved and help shape the development of the station. There might be a meeting at The Kitchen tomorrow (31 July) at 6pm to discuss programme schedules, availability, training and so on. It’s perhaps worth checking the blog or contacting Paul Hadley at Dynamics Arts (who are managing the station) for confirmation on that.
Walking round to grab some food at Rootys earlier, I was surprised to see this floating about:
I’ve tried to find some infomation about it but, other than rumours of a flyer (no pun intended) knocking about, the sole font of knowledge is Pete Ashton’s post from the other week on the Custard Factory blog. From that I learn that it’s an installation by artist Vika Verb:
a challenging reminder of where we are and how we got here – is in the form of poetry inspired graffitti which will float above the Custard Factory in Birmingham. It is the first of a series of similar installations at the Custard Factory.
and it’ll be properly unveiled at 5pm today.
I assume that’s what it is anyway – what are the odds of their being two big inflatables floating round the Custard Factory today?
The next PILOT Night takes place on Thurs 28 August 2008 at the Custard Factory and a call has gone out for submissions. You’ll have to be quick though – the closing date is Thurs 31 July.
PILOT Nights are a motley assortment of new, untested shorts from some of the UK’s most exciting theatre companies. Each last between 10 and 20 minutes and together present a glorious mix of comic, touching and peculiar performance. The bar is open all night and musicians play in the intervals. The audience are invited to get a drink, enjoy the show and stick around to let the performers know exactly what they thought.
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.
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.
