by Jon Bounds January 29th, 2008
11:37 am
Interesting interview on journalism.co.uk with Steve Dyson, editor of the Birmingham Mail, where he makes some points about the future of local journalism – more of that later I’m sure – but the main thrust for us now is the launch of a new Mail website BirminghamMail.net. So, set AdBlock to stun, and let’s go and have a look:
I think it’s universally accepted that the icbirmingham (and other ic.. sites) are pretty poor, for navigation and layout at least, even if the content is there – so it’s nice to see a fresh screen layout with obvious catergories and – which comes as a shock – pictures!
Yes, there are quite large banner ads, but so far I’ve not seen any that pop-up over the text – that’s admirable restraint, far more than The Guardian, for example, shows. Good going.
One problem that illustrates the peculiarity and the difference about content online is the journalists/subs use of “today”, “tomorrow” etc. in headlines – we don’t have the context online that we have with the physical copies “is that today’s Mail?”. Use of airy times online, where content can stay on a page for longer, means that “FOUR unsigned Midland bands are battling it out in Birmingham tonight” can’t work.
There are RSS feeds, loads of them, in sensible catergories – they’re not publishing full content tho’, which is dissapointing. It needs to be a very catchy headline/summary to pull me to the main site, but we can understand how it can be difficult for a print-based business to think of monetarising feeds from the off. Columnists’ feeds in full would be a nice easy way to break them in gently – an ad at the bottom of feed content isn’t obtrusive, and can be really targeted.
Not even publishing full content on the site is a little more of a mistake: “For more on this story, read today’s Birmingham Mail.” is a dreadful phrase that appears at the bottom of some of the news items. This is quite a big omission, particualrly as the web becomes this huge searchable archive. People hitting old pages need to see the full text – imagine the google searches that will bring you to the Mail site, but if you find precious little content you’re not going to click – bye bye long tail ad revenue. A compromise would perhaps be to flesh out with the full story the next day?
There’s use of tags, which is good, and good tag and related tags pages as a way of browsing. I’m not sure everyone’s quite got it yet, a page about a sausage tasting is tagged “sausage tasting” – is this going to be a regular one? (As an aside the tag page for sausague tasting doesn’t have any stories on it – a technical issue to solve I think.).
The blogs are quite hidden – not in the main navigation, only at the bottom. So far there’s no commenting on stories, but there are forums.
One hell of an improvement overall, go have a look and tell us what you think.
by Jon Bounds January 28th, 2008
1:40 pm
Vale Mail reports on the criterion for becoming Birmingham’s best bar – in the “pub oscars”, Best Bar None – “Birmingham organisers are setting their entrants an extra task… landlords have to explain, in no more than 250 words, how their establishment contributes to Birmingham’s vision of being ‘a global city with a local heart’.”
What an awful lot of shite, guaranteed to produce all entries with some variation on “welcoming to everyone, beers from around the globe, we watch villa when they’re on sky”.
Applicants will also be assessed on “door and security policies, first aid, how they deal with abusive customers and how they deal with alcohol related crime”, be nice if there was an award for cleaning their pipes too.
by Jon Bounds January 28th, 2008
12:39 pm
On Wednesday Feb 13th at the Library Theatre (more details at the end) there’s a fantastic double bill of our favourite Brum films of the seventies – Take Me High and Telly Savalas Looks At Birmingham:
TAKE ME HIGH gives us a glimpse of Birmingham when it was booming in the
1970s. New buildings were springing up all about and there was a
confidence in the air. Even though Birmingham had the reputation for
being the “workshop of the world” and therefore a dirty and
industrial city, in the film TAKE ME HIGH we see Birmingham as an
improving and booming place – a place to stay and enjoy. The film is
also a hilarious romantic comedy!
The showing will be preceded by the short cinema feature TELLY SAVALAS
LOOKS AT BIRMINGHAM, which has proved popular with audiences not only
for its now ironically funny commentary by the great American actor –
but also for showing Birmingham as a clean bright sunny place.
But that’s not the best bit – a special message will be announced before the screening
of ‘Take Me High’ for the event sent direct from Sir Cliff Richard
himself!
And even more – BBC Radio 4 will also be attending the screening to interview any members of the audience who wish to contribute to the forthcoming radio documentary – “Telly Savalas & the Quota Quickies” – Transmission date: Saturday 26th April 10.30 R4 -
Drinks and networking from 6.30p.m. – films start from approximately
7.30p.m. (Subject to change) Free event & licensed bar. 7.30pm ‘Telly
Savalas Looks at Birmingham’ – 8pm Intermission 8.30pm ‘Take Me
High’ – Films finish at 10pm – bar closes at 10.30pm. Due to the
popularity of this event please arrive on time for your film to avoid
any disappointment as the venue may refuse admission once full.
by Jon Bounds January 28th, 2008
10:43 am
I always feel a little sorry for Bearwood (despite its European-style-cafe-bar), it sits a little uneasily between the Black Country and Birmingham, and I definitely feel sorry for Dexy’s Midnight Runners – who seem to slip down the cracks of music history despite being one of the most wonderfully constructed bands ever.
Two reasons then, to mourn the closing of ‘The Little Nibble’ – the café on Bearwood High St – which is given a , ahem, ’shout out’ in “This is What She’s Like” from Don’t Stand Me Down (the name-check even more wonderful when you consider the band were all Wall Street in look by that time).
Independent cafés are being squeezed out by development and chains across the country, but it will be a shame if it is replaced by “mobile ‘phone shop, Poundland or ‘Amusement’ Arcade.”
Photo snaffled from The Hearing Aid, where we first heard the sad news.
by Jon Bounds January 28th, 2008
9:39 am
Destination is a board game based on the idea of being competing black cab drivers around a city. The first , the London version, was pooh-poohed on the first series of Dragons Den – but it’s obviously done well enough to expand as along with Dublin, New York, Paris and erm Norwich comes Destination Birmingham! (their exclamation point).
The makers have done a good job on the box – see Brasso, a TWM bus and I’m assuming that the bizare and dangerous looking flyover was always based on the Queensway. Inside – as for destinations that people may want a taxi to it’s not quite as well done:
Minories Shopping Centre? Caxtongate? not to mention that it’s nigh on impossible to get a taxi anywhere near most of the city centre attractions.
They should have cast the net a little wider, part of the game could of been how to make excuses that you can’t drive over to Great Barr at this time of night, extra points for stifling heat and magic tree air freshener.
I think I’ll hold off for Perry Barr Cars the boardgame – the only taxi firm to ever send me a Christmas card.
D’log spotted it first.
by Jon Bounds January 27th, 2008
11:13 am
by Jon Bounds January 27th, 2008
11:09 am
Brummie of the Year 2005 Babu the red panda is off to Scotland. He’s had his head turned by a woman, Tensing is to be joined at the Nature Centre by a panda called Raka. Sniff.
by Jon Bounds January 27th, 2008
11:02 am
We always thought it was Tony Butler who said “on yer bike”.
Stuck In The Middle starts on The Politics Show, BBC One [Sunday 27th January] and continues throughout the week on Midlands Today – it’s all about how difficult it is to get to work around the midlands – and will feature lots of shots of Nick looking as uncomfortable.
by Jon Bounds January 22nd, 2008
9:12 pm
*obvious headlines dept. This is c’n'p-ed from Cllr Mullaney’s posting to the Moseley Yahoo group:
” An event has been organised, where Birmingham’s graffiti artists will explain the difference between graffiti art and graffiti tagging, and how they as artist can help reduce the level of nuisance graffiti tagging.
Graffiti – is it Art or Vandalism? Event – Thursday 31st January 7pm 9pm.
Venue: Moseley CDT, 149-153 Alcester Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8JP (entrance to the side of Moseley Post Office)
Residents complain about graffiti blighting their neighbourhood, but if we want to tackle this issue we need to understand the modern origins of graffiti, why teenagers graffiti tag, and how we can harness that energy and creativity and move it into something more positive and legal, namely graffiti art.
This event will explain the modern origins of graffiti from the New York hip-hop scene (including the first recorded graffiti tagger Taki 183). It will explain the difference between tagging/vandalism and the legal side of graffiti art.
This will be an opportunity to meet and talk to Birmingham based graffiti artists (both teenagers and older) who want to help reduce the level of tagging by providing ‘managed’ legal graffiti art zones. This will explain what a ‘managed’ graffiti art zone is, in contrast to an ‘unmanaged’ zones.
There will be two presentations:
a) by Birmingham based spiritual-graffiti artist Mohammed Ali ( see http://www.aerosolarabic.com/v2/index.php )- he is internationally renowned and fuses Islamic script with Urban graffiti art. Video film of his Arts and Islam USA Tour can be seen at http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1940291940153551432&hl=en-GB
b) By artists from InACity Arts (Hoakser, Minkz and Mekz) – this is Birmingham’s first dedicated graffiti gallery. Hoakser in particular is held in high esteen amongst Birmingham’s graffiti art community.
Councillor Mullaney is Chairing this meeting. He will be presenting the findings of a Scrutiny Review into tackling nuisance graffiti in Birmingham to the City Council on Tuesday 5th February. The report will be made public on Tuesday 29th January. One of the recommendations in the report is controversial, since it recommends investigating the setting up of ‘managed’ legal graffiti zones. This meeting will describe what this is, how their creation could help reduce graffiti tagging long term and move teenagers into the legal side of graffiti art.
Event has been organised by Cllr Martin Mullaney, InACity Arts and AerosolArabic”
by catnip January 22nd, 2008
11:44 am
Having won the Costa first novel award, Catherine O’Flynn’s What was Lost is now in the running for the Costa Book of the Year award. The winner will be announced later today at a posh do in that London.
This morning, BBC Breakfast had a feature on Catherine, who talked about her inspirations which include growing up in Nechells and a fondness for gas towers; and also a chat with her Birmingham-based publisher, Tindal Street Press.
Fingers crossed for Catherine for tonight’s award!
