This 39 story glass structure can be found on Holloway Circus Queensway and at 122 metres it is the tallest building in Birmingham. Next time you are passing by the Raddison, stand on the pavement and face the building, tilt your head back and look right up at the top of the building – feel the world spinning! If you would like to see more of my photos and read about my photography projects, please visit my blog. See you next Friday!
The Flatpack Festival draws out another gem with a screening of Privilege — on 16mm at Ikon Eastside on Sunday 15 March. The film is a 1967 exploration of the power of fame, and has depth and darkness not quite communicated in the poster: Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch! Steven Shorter is a pop phenomenon, and his management use him to further all sorts of causes. So far so real — but this pop star is from Birmingham. And the film was shot in part in Brum, including at St Andrews. Not to be missed. There’s parallels here with Slade’s master-work Slade in Flame, but that disappointingly was shot oop north as Dudley’s grit wasn’t quite filmic enough.
Long preamble to this, but bear with us, it (like all good things do) ends in a song. Here’s what happened: Some people decided to do a Birmingham Twitter Festival. Craig Friends of the Stars offered the band’s services as cover artistes as a raffle prize. Nicky Getgood won that prize. Nicky is obsessed with all things Irish and Digbeth. So she, rather inevitably, chose a traditional Irish song (her favourite, Black Velvet Band) — but being a Brummie, couldn’t let the opportunity to do something special pass. She “butchered the lyrics to reflect the recent Noise Abatement Order problems suffered by The Spotted Dog and The Rainbow“. (Can you pop them online somewhere please, so we can sing along?) And then Craig et al recorded up a storm. A folky storm. And then Nicky put it online and intends to get copies everywhere for the traditional Birmingham green guinness fest in March. I’m not a Irish music fan normally, but this version isn’t all fiddles and yelping it’s smooth and ragged in just the right places. I suggest you play it loud, with due consideration for others. And go and check out the band’s other stuff too. Friends...
The Convention on Modern Liberty will be holding a half-day satellite event this Saturday, 28th Feb 2009 at Aston University. NO2ID is involved in this major nationwide event.
For the weather presenter fans amongst you, photos that "can be used for everything from web sites to books" – are we going to see shefali.com or an autobiography? Only time will tell.
This is good, but complicated. So take a look at the flyer and read this (copied from editorialgirl): What? Where? When? Photographers of all abilities are invited to bring their work along to exhibit at a spontaneous, free event at the Custard Factory on Saturday 21 March. But there’s a twist. Everything exhibited can be offered as a swap. Whether your photo has been created lovingly in the darkroom, digitally manipulated or just snapped on the run, everyone who brings a print will have the opportunity to swap their work for that of another photographer. It’s a great chance to show your work off to an appreciative audience, as publicly or anonymously as you like – and to pick up some unique, locally produced art for yourself. How Does It Work? Simple. For every print you bring to give away, you will be able to take another from the exhibition in return. To take part, bring your images to the Vaad Gallery in the Custard Factory (next to the Medicine Bar), between 11am and 4pm on Saturday 21 March. Your prints will be exhibited in the Gallery for the whole of Saturday, when you’ll get the chance to meet...
Reg Eccles was chosen out of 100 people as a juror at the Birmingham pub bombings trial in the summer of 1975. Here’s an interview, longer than the version that made it to Radio 4′s PM.
From the Baron: "International soul legend Joss Stone – yes…THE Joss Stone…the 10million album selling Grammy award winning Joss Stone…is playing The Rainbow on Monday 23rd February. This ain't a wind up…it's (as far as I can tell) a low key warm up gig to début tracks from her as yet untitled new album." Tickets still available from TicketWeb her says.
#365 – i’ve discovered where birminghames apostrophes have gone, originally uploaded by star-one. Simon has discovered where Birmingham’s apostrophes have gone.
