Created in Birmingham

• Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: October 2009
  I should’ve linked to this earlier in the month but there’s plenty of recommendations left
• The Electric’s Children’s Cinema Club
  Screen WM has the listings for this month’s kiddies club at the Electric with films and creative workshops
• Shop « Polarbear, spoken word artist
  Polarbear has a download shop. It took me about 30s between hearing this and buying his album. Highly recommended
• Paul Murphy Sings Songs
  Paul Murpy from The Destroyers and Songwriters Cafe has a blog

I’m still getting up to speed on what’s happening around town but thought it’d make sense to go through some of the main sources of arts/culture/ents info out there. Next up: listings websites. There are loads of em and theoretically they should all have the same information on them. Here’s the ones I know of:

• All Brum / Art Brum / Live Brum – there’s a whole family of these sites now, all feeding into All Brum which tends to be my first port of call if I’m at a loose end. Stuffed with nice features too.
• Birmingham Alive
• Birmingham City Council
• Birmingham Gig Guide
• Birmingham Listings
• MyVillage – they’ve gone for a social network flavour but
• Scene Central – Audiences Central’s offering with a West Mids-wide scope
• Skiddle – as you might expect from Skiddle there’s a greater number of club nights than on many other sites but there’s a fair amount of other stuff too
• Visit Birmingham – the official tourist information visitor website
• What’s On In Brum

NB – The following aren’t really listings, just good sources of info:

There’s also Russ L‘s monthly ‘Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands’ series which tends to feature theatre, gigs, the main festivals and boxing/mixed martial arts (NB – don’t try and submit stuff to him or you’ll find yourself excluded).  The 7 Inch Cinema newsletter is always stuffed with interesting local events too – sign up for that on the 7 Inch website.

Have I missed anything decent from that list? What do you tend to use?

• Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: October 2008
  Russ L’s ever-useful round-up with loads of stuff happening this month. I’d like to add my own Film Dash 48-hour film challenge to the list (happening 17-19 Oct short film fans!)
• Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource | TAK! Design & Art Direction. Birmingham. UK. +44 (0) 121 288 2528
  The nice folk at Tak! are “very excited to announce a new working partnership with the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery to design & develop an online educational resource for public, students and professionals”
• Wheatley Fellowship 2008/09
  News from BIAD – Juneau Projects have been selected as the Wheatley Fellow based in the School of Art 2008/09
• Support the Castle Vale Community Awards – aCtiVe arts
  “Castle Vale will proudly celebrate the achievements of a number of its residents at the second annual Community Awards on Friday 24th October”
• It’s fun to play at the M A C E | Birmingham: It’s Not Shit
  Jon Bounds has found the Media Archive for Central England and does some delving around
• Birmingham Conservation Trust – new futures for Birmingham’s historic buildings
  “Birmingham Conservation Trust is a charity created ‘to preserve and enhance Birmingham’s threatened architectural heritage” and it has a shiny new website

• Digbeth Is Good – ACE dance and music’s classes
  “ACE dance and music’s classes for all ages resume in September. All are based at their studio on Floodgate Street.” Nicky points to the details
• Donald Savage Says….: Final announcement before disappearing on 28th August 2008
  “Blog formally disappeared on the 28th August 2008.
  Birmingham in the United Kingdom remains changed.”
  Class.
• Project X Presents – Welcome support from the Arts Council
  Some good news for the PXP people and a nice fillip just a couple of weeks before their next event (at BUSK on Saturday 13 September – tickets are a just a tenner)
• Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands
  After declaring August to be a bit pants (my words, not his) Russ L rounds up a lot more fun activities for September. He likes Travis though, so take it with a pinch of salt (joke!)
• thejazzbreakfast
  Peter Bacon has just overhauled his blog and would like to say hi – he writes about jazz for the Birmingham Post and is also an arts administrator and saxomophone player
• Commercially Inviable Records – Moseley Folk Festival, Special Offer
  “To celebrate the festival we are offering both the Friends of the Stars and James Summerfield albums for a special, one-off festival price of £12 (including postage).” Or a tenner at the Polar Bear stall at the festival itself. James plays on Friday, FOTS play on Sunday
• Welcome to 4mations
  The city’s animation talent might be interested in this – it’s in beta (ie a pre-release version) at the moment but you can upload your films (and games) already
• Hunt Emerson’s “The Owl and The Pussycat” online
  Hunt Emerson’s adaptation of Edward Lear’s nonsense poem was featured in the Beano and can now be seen online. Apparently it’s success means further adaptations are in the pipeline (via D’Log)

• Bass Festival 2008 highlights video
  With interviews with Ammo himself, Faith 47 & Ursula Rucker and footage from the opening party at Woom Gallery and MCs For Life at the Custard Factory.
• Fewer things to see and do in the West Midlands: August 2008
  Russ L still manages to find a few things worth doing  this month (and I’ve added a couple more suggestions in the comments)
• Crowded Gallery – An Update…
  Last year Craig Holmes won the photography contract to market Birmingham.  He’s just started the contract to market the whole of the West Midlands region to an international market
• Suggestions for Supersonic Festival 09
  Yours are requested. Also, videos of a small dog and a cat playing theramins/thermamii/whatever.
• Jibbering have a podcast
  This was recorded live at Jibbering Sessions at the Hare and Hounds and features a blinding set from the Sheffield Ska monsters, Bison