Created in Birmingham

• Found Objects
  Stick ‘Birmingham’ in the search bar on this blog’s sidebar and prepare to be amazed
• Found Objects: Birmingham Arts Lab
  “Pat also did Dr Who stuff, and greased up the man who played the giant shrimp in “The Invisible Enemy” so he could slide into the costume!”
• Kavanaugh Leaves Rep – News – Whatsonstage.com
  The Rep’s artistic director, Rachel Kavanaugh has announced she’s leaving next year to go freelance
• Black Country Stories | Martin Parr
  The page on Martin Parr’s website talking about the photography project he did in the Black Country with Multistory. Some great images here
• Birmingham Printmakers: Comic Landscape exhibition
  “BPM member Karoline Rerrie is part of the ‘Comic Landscape’ exhibition opening with the launch on Thursday December 2nd (till January 10th) at Solihull Gallery”
• Screen WM – Roger Shannon: From Birmingham to Derry
  Interesting stuff from Roger on the  Birmingham Film / Video Workshop
• Len Lye ~ The Body Electric « More Canals than Venice
  MCTV recommends the Len Lye show that’s on at the moment and so do I – saw it a couple of weekends ago and have been telling everyone about it since
• Rejection. « Stan’s Cafe Theatre Company
  Le chuckle du jour
• Christmas with a German accent – the PR ploy taking Britain’s towns by storm
  “13 years after Frankfurt tourist office sparked Christmas bonanza, Birmingham’s market is bigger than Berlin’s”

• Bright space – Events
  Bright Space have a good list of events, some of which I’d not seen mentioned anywhere else
• Researching cultural entrepreneurship by exploring discourse analysis and semiosis « Annette Naudin’s Blog
  Annette researches Cultural Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Education at BCU. I found this post interesting, although my head’s clearly been away from academic-land for a while – I had to squint at the longer words
• An Endless Supply | Issue 14 Launch, Wednesday 16 June 6–8pm
  This launched the other day. Speaking of whom…
• ARC #5 – curated by An Endless Supply « ARC’s blog
  “join ARC at The Vaults on Wednesday 30 June, 6-8pm, for ‘Peace Out June! (Piece in June)’, an exhibition curated by Robin Kirkham and Harry Blackett, the artists behind publishing collaboration An Endless Supply”
• call for submissions « ARC’s blog
  “I am currently seeking submissions for an exhibition I am developing which explores the physicality of sound”
• Ceramics in Birmingham | Birmingham Conservation Trust
  “Ceramic tiles cover walls and floors, roofs and pavements, furniture and stoves, and can be seen in churches, mosques, pubs, shops, hospitals and homes in Birmingham” Here are some examples…
• genzai·chi » Prototyping games for the whale hat
  On Monday I went to a Pervasive Games Lab at the MAC, organised by Fierce with Hide & Seek. It was interesting and fun. Here’s Nikki Pugh’s write-up
• ‘Rhymes’ Performance Poetry Special
  “After a brief interlude, ‘Rhymes’, Birmingham’s premier platform for Performance Poetry and spoken word is back with a special one-off format to celebrate it’s first year”
• Screen WM – Driving innovation and excellence in screen media : Blogs
  “Professor Roger Shannon, Co – Exec Producer of the new music documentary, MADE IN BIRMINGHAM – Reggae Punk Bhangra”
• Ped Shayer: More from Digbeth
  Some photos from the walls of the most decorated buildings around town

• Guest Blog: The Pharaoh of Film – Khaled El Hagar – profiled by Professor Roger Shannon
  “Acknowledged in his home country Egypt as the most controversial movie maker of his generation, Khaled lives quietly for half of the year in Kings Heath, in Birmingham, where he has established himself as the city’s leading auteur”
• Rhubarb and Apple — two new ways to listen « Rhubarb Radio in progress
  Rhubarb Radio is now listed in Apple’s Internet Radio directory
• 4am Project at the Bodies Revealed Exhibition | Karen Strunks Photographer
  I’m a bit late on this, but Karen’s organising another 4am Project – this one will be this weekend and the focus of the Birmingham activity will be at the Bodies Revealed exhibition. As I type this there are just 22 free tickets left
• Digbeth is Good » The funeral of The Site
  I had an invite to this but couldn’t make it (and, in a fortunate sense now that I think of it, lacked the mourning attire). Nice little write-up by Nicky and there’s still time to go see this before it closes on 13 Dec
• The Endless Descent « More Canals than Venice
  “The Endless Descent brings together artists from Birmingham, Bristol and London to exhibit in the distinctive 1930’s Modernist stairwell, lobby, lift and entrance area of Rea Studios”. Ah, this launched last night – I walked past and wondered what was going on
• Birmingham-based female performers wanted for site-specific show
  “Mem Morrison Company and The REP are looking for up to thirty female volunteers to perform in their current production, Ringside”
• D’log :: blogging since 2000 » Arts attendance has not increased since 2005
  Not only that but… “It now looks as though the same trend is continuing into 2008/9.”
• 100 years of The Electric Cinema – Birmingham: It’s Not Shit
  From the other night – “A cosy evening at The Electric with a ‘This Is Your Life’ of Britain’s oldest working picture house in the company of owner Tom Lawes to celebrate its 100th birthday” Happy birthday Electric Cinema!
• Middlemash
  “This blog, in conjunction with the Mashed Library wiki & Mashed Library Ning, will be used to provide information on the 3rd mashed library event, Middlemash at Birmingham City University on Monday 30th November”. Missed this, but there’s plenty to go rooting through
• Smash Bro’z In San Francisco! Part1 :) « Dancegeek’s Blog
  “we are proud to announce that we have just returned back from the prestigious San Francisco HipHop Dancefest event in San Francisco and successful in repping the UNITED KINGDOM and BIRMINGHAM with honours!!!!”

The website for the Film Forum West Midlands, which I mentioned just the other day, has been spruced up and is looking very nice indeed.  The domain name is now filmforumwm.co.uk and if you subscribed to the earlier version of the blog you’ll need to update to this new one.

With all that said, they have news of a free screening of ‘Festival’ at the Library Theatre on 19 Nov at 7pm.  Our own Roger Shannon produced the film and will be introducing it.  Here’s the flyer:

• Independent Of The Month – Style Birmingham
  Lora Leedham – Studio 6, The Merlin Centre of Contemporary Design, Hockley
• Isaac – a man of many talents who redefined the word legend
  Roger Shannon pays tribute to the late Isaac Hayes in an article most remarkable for the idea of a band consisting of Isaac Hayes, Huggy Bear and Taurean Blacque with Lovejoy as their manager. Oh, scrap that – I just got to the bit where Roger auctioned Hayes’ boxer shorts…
• Birmingham pubs Google Map
  Tom Scotney’s putting together a map of Birmingham pubs. Check it out and maybe give him a hand – it only takes a sec to add your local/fave
• Animation Forum WM research report
  “The Animation Forum West Midlands’ research report is now online for all to see. The report looks at the region’s ever-growing animation sector, and the role Animation Forum WM has played, and has to play in the process”
• Interview with Birmingham Opera Company’s Graham Vick
  Why does Birmingham Opera Company need 2,500 tonnes of mud to stage a Mozart opera? Its director tells all to (The Guardian’s) Erica Jeal
• Home of the Autumn Store Blog – How to Put Bands on and Not Lose Loads of Money
  “The next in my occasional series about how to put on a gig”
• Death Cassettes
  A new cassette (not record) label – “Limited to 100 copies.. On One of Four Coloured Cassettes, Hand made Artwork and Covers, And free digital downloads of the tracks tooooo for yr ipodz” (Spotted by Dunc at Autumn Store)
• Finally, if you’ve not had a chuckle at the council yet…
  They went and used a picture of Birmingham, Alabama’s skyline on a leaflet.  They seem to have used the first pic that came up when they searched ‘Birmingham skyline’ with Google – not that they were prepared to admit that at first, which is probably why every man and their blog has written about this now.  Ah well.

• Midlands sitting pretty at Edinburgh Film Festival – Birmingham Post
  Roger Shannon looks at Birmingham’s representation at the film festival
• Upon further investigation. A site visit to Ludgate Car Park in Birmingham (UK)
  Harry Palmer reports on his investigation/survey of one of the few remaining sites in Birmingham that hasn’t been built on since being bombed in WW2.
• 7inch July listings
  A fine round-up of the area’s goings-on from our recent interview stars

An exhibition currently running at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery showcases the photography of Pogus Caesar, one of Birmingham’s most important visual artists.

The exhibition, That Beautiful Thing, features 43 photographs selected from a portfolio that runs into several thousands taken over a 20 year period both in the UK and abroad.

Putting the breadth and importance of Pogus Caesar’s work in perspective is a tricky thing – he’s well known for his photos of 1985′s Handsworth riots (the pic above being an example) but his experience, travels and areas of work are all incredibly wide. Roger Shannon does a good job of pulling it all together in this Birmingham Post article.

The exhbition runs until 12 July.  In addition, on 3 July from 6-8pm at the Light House, Caesar will celebrate

20 years working in Television and Film with a screening of selected highlights from his award winning career, including work produced and directed for Central TV, BBC, Channel 4 and Carlton Television.

Throughout the screening he’ll be in conversation with Prof Shannon.  Entrance is free.