It’s the BrumNotes/This Is Tmrw Christmas Party at The Victoria tonight. Click the link or ogle the poster below (sidenote: are Lewes Herriot‘s gig posters the best around town at the moment? Answers on a postcard).
Birmingham Hippodrome have Cinderella on until the end of January and has already picked up some really good reviews from the Birmingham Mail and The Stage. I went along to the press night last night (disclosure: that means they gave me free tickets) and liked the lovely horsey best.
Meanwhile, down in that London, Birmingham Royal Ballet are seeing out the year performing The Nutcracker at the O2, which sounds like a pretty big deal to me.
There’s loads of other stuff too, obviously. If you’ve got any other good suggestions then bung them in the comments.
And then the website, which was built by Made Media (which is where I work, full disclosure fans).
Also, blimey – I’ve just noticed that next year they’ve got a show called The Infernal Comedy:
John Malkovich stars in a stage play for baroque orchestra, singers and actor, based on the real-life story of convicted serial killer Jack Unterweger.
Yes, that John Malkovich. I’m a bit impressed by that.
The film was commissioned by THSH, with the support of the DMC McDonald Foundation, and was created by animator Chris Randall at Second Home Studios to a poem by Symphony Hall’s poet-in-residence Julie Boden.
Flip Festival – Call For Submissions – We’re back!!
“This years festival will be held, on Thursday 27 to Saturday 29 October (2011 of course) and we’re already looking for animators to submit films of up to 15 minutes in length.”
Sonya Russell and Chris Clinton are seeking like minded artists
“We are seeking like minded artists to form an experimental art group […] Suitable for most disciplines. The group includes a curator and we aim to use the space for exhibitionsand events.”
Physical. | lukehalliley
“Just done some interesting work for Birmingham based designer Physical Novel. He designs wonderful unisex clothes, which are being currently sported by JLS”
London 2012 Open Weekend, 22-24 July 2011
“Marking one year until the start of the Olympic and Paralympic Games” Quite a few events happening – Jamaica Live, Circus in the City, Breathe the Beat and more
Birmingham Central: Spinning spiceal surprise
“a new planning application, 2011/04345/PA, has been submitted for a piece of public art sitting nearby designed by Wolfgang Buttress”
Earlier in the day (in fact from 12pm to 7pm) head over to Lombard Street in Digbeth for PST’s street party. This here flyer says there’s going to be food, live art and heavy bass. And face painting.
Capsule have got an event at Kings Heath’s Hare and Hounds on Saturday night called Wedlock. Dunno what that’s a reference to but I like the pretty picture.
There’s loads of other stuff happening too. Have a look at Live Brum for listings.
Birmingham music groups urged to share facilities and staff
BCMG and Birmingham Jazz: “following concerted lobbying, the two music groups will be given an extra six months funding if they make moves to join a cost-saving music hub with the Symphony Hall, CBSO, Town Hall, Ex-Cathedra and other groups”
Creative England
First glimpse of Creative England – the new configuration of the regional screen agencies. Sign up to their mailing list to keep up with news/opportunities/etc
SOUNDkitchen | Feed your ears!
This is “an organisation dedicated to the promotion of composers and artists working in the field of sound”
Matt Edgar – Green Sand and Subterfuge
A story about Matthew Murray from Leeds and his battles with Boulton & Watt of Birmingham – dirty tricks in business during the Industrial Revolution
Michelin Guide recognises West Midlands restaurants
“Birmingham’s trio of Purnell’s, Simpsons and Turners all retained their one-star rating in the guide, as did La Bécasse and Mr Underhill’s in south Shropshire”
Folk for free is a new monthly event to be held in the Symphony Hall foyer by Moseley Folk starting today at 5.30pm. As the name suggests, it’s free, and welcomes passers by to drop at any time throughout the performance which runs until 7pm.
The first bit of folky treats will come from Boat to Row, who appeared on the Bohemian Jukebox Stage at Moseley Folk Festival last month, with their ‘romantic acoustic sound that is brimming with delicate honesty’.
Playing from next month onwards is as follows;
18 November: Contact. This acoustic duo team sparse acoustic guitar with rhythmic bass lines and melodic vocals.
16 December: Friends of the Stars. Emerging from the ashes of John Peel favourites, The Toques, Friends of the Stars mix looping guitar spirals with country ballads.
20 January: Rob Fellows. “A multi-instrumentalist, Rob Fellows’ brand of acoustic mash-ups and collaborations offers something a little different to the traditional singer/songwriter.”
A bit more news in the follow-up of Artsfest, this time on the musical front. Over the weekend BBC Radio 3 recorded two homegrown jazz performances for the Jazz Line Up programme, which was broadcast last weekend, on Sunday 26 September.
Recorded at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham bands led by Ben Markland and Percy Pursglove played at the special edition of Rush Hour Blues. The show is currently still available to listen to on BBC iPlayer.
Leading contemporary video artist Bill Viola is currently exhibiting ‘The Fall into Paradise’ at The Public, which runs until 17 October.
Viola’s video installations – submersive environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound – employ state-of-the-art technologies and are distinguished by their precision and direct simplicity. Using the inner language of subjective thoughts and collective memories, his videos communicate to a wide audience, allowing viewers to experience the work directly, and in their own personal way.
English folk music has never had it so good with Town Hall and Symphony Hall providing an annual showcase for the best traditional folk and contemporary singer-songwriters around in English Originals. This year’s folk weekend is 14-16 May and features the likes of Badly Drawn Boy, Beth Orton, Graham Coxon, Scott Matthews, and more.
I saw Mother India: 21st Century Remix in 2008 and it was honestly one of the best things I saw that year. It’s been off on tour since but will be back in Birmingham on Sunday (11 April) to crown Mother India weekend – a bunch of events happening at the Town Hall and Symphony Hall.
This version of Mother India is:
A reinterpretation of the 1957 Indian cinema classic as a 45 minute silent movie with new musical score will be performed live by DJ Tigerstyle, drummer David Shaw and cellist Matt Constantine with Josh Ford as visual editor.
MI21 is a compact, powerful and sensual take on Mehboob Khan’s Hindi masterpiece – a hugely important film in South Asian cinema, known for its iconic imagery and powerful storyline: the common shorthand is to reference it as India’s ‘Gone with the wind’.
The Mid-day Mantra thing sounds quite good – a variant on the Rush Hour Blues series, I guess. That’ll be happening once a month from now on and will be a freebie.
Mother India weekend at Town Hall and Symphony Hall Birmingham will be a journey through the musical heritage of India over 9-11 April, taking in the mystic heights of classical traditions via Anglo-Indian classical fusion to cutting-edge contemporary Asian remixes.
The weekend’s musical journey starts at the pinnacle of Mother India’s classical tradition, with a rare UK recital by santoor maestro and living legend Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Then we encounter a younger generation of Indian musicians, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan. These gifted sarod players come from a distinguished classical lineage, but here they take the ancient classical tradition of Mother India on an East-West cross-cultural journey in collaboration with young British cellist Matthew Barley. Finally, we come right up-to-date in a cutting-edge event when young British-Asian artist DJ Tigerstyle explores his heritage and re-visions Mother India, a classic of Indian cinema, in contemporary idiom.
Best Believe – Inclusion Inspires
“a free conference delivered by MusicLeader West Midlands, Youth Music and Symphony Hall on Monday 16th November”
Loaf Needs YOU! :: Loaf Online
Tom wants to ‘kickstart a social movement around local food in Birmingham’. Get in touch with him if that sounds like fun
Ego Theatre and ITV Fixers
“Leminc has collaborated with ITV Fixers on a unique journey to find nothing but the very BEST of birmingham’s raw, artistic talent. (Actors, Dancers, Singers, Poets, Rappers, Entertainers and any other innnovative production) in order to create a powerful, innovative Musical Theatre with purpose”. At the Library Theatre, 7 Nov
shona mcquillan
Artist Shona McQuillan has revamped her site and now has some prints for purchasing
Birmingham’s Alexandra Theatre sold to ATG in £90m deal
The Ambassador Theatre Group have bought the Alex from Live Nation (along with 15 other venues around the country). No great changes planned, according interviews with folks involved, other than to reduce the amount of time it stands idle – currently around 16 weeks a year
Cut-Out
Not quite sure what the deal is with this one. They’ve got a DIY print studio and are looking for people to submit designs for them to use on T-shirts and so on. A physical shop is apparently coming in summer 09, in the meantime they’re up online with a website (coming soon) and this blog
Birmingham Music
“The Town Hall and Symphony Hall website have launched a new online booking system for their events… Also, as an introductory offer, you can take advantage of free postage on all bookings up to November 30th”
Draft Vision for a Birmingham Photospace
The next meeting about this is on Tues 14 October at 6.30pm in the Library cafe, Birmingham city centre. Seek out the Birmingham Flickr group for how the discussion about this is going; this is a link to the draft vision they’ve prepared
Flip Blog – Grads On Walls Event
The Flip Animation folk put out a reminder for the Animation Forum WM’s Grads on Walls event on Monday (good to see people talking up other people’s events – a very smart thing to do, I’d say)
Birminghams Most Stylish – Style Birmingham
“The 500 people who have made it through this year’s Style Search will be whittled down to just ten this weekend at a special party at Gatecrasher”. Why am I linking to this? Um… just spreading the joy I guess
Script screenwriting course
“Script, in association with Outside Centre, presents an in-depth Introduction to Screenwriting Course” at Wolverhampton’s Light House
Plus+: Fazeley Studios 2008 Plus Venue
Is it me or does the text in the link make no sense. Basically, Fazeley Studios has been chosen as the venue for the 2008 Plus Design Festival. Shame on me for not spotting that they had a blog though, and thanks to Nicky at Digbeth is Good for pointing it out
Facebook group – mid*point
“mid*point is the network for independent theatre companies in the West Midlands” There doesn’t seem to have been any activity on the website for over a year but they’ve just started a Facebook group so something must be going on under the hood
