When my mum first saw this statue she asked me if it was a fish! Well, I guess the arms could be mistaken for fins….or maybe not
I believe this statue is called ‘Future’, at least that is what is inscribed underneath it.
However, as much as I have searched online for more information, I just can’t find anything about it. A mystery man with his arm up stretched to the heavens….. Sometimes we don’t have to know everything about everything I guess
So says Simon Rattle and the whole hest of the eighties contingent.
Central TV, the council, GKN (remember them?), and Horizon Travel PLC give you 11 minutes on why Birmingham isn’t as black as it’s painted and life is okay for a displaced executive as long as King Edwards School and the Priory Tennis Club are available.
Less than two hours to fucking Brussels, and theatre where you can park, Birmingham is the ideal place for international jewellery dealers dicing with death car-phoning Françoise while only a lunch away from the centre of Europe. And back again for tea in somewhere that looks suspiciously like no-ones’ home.
There is a Brighter Way – and Birmingham is not as shit as you think.
Oxfam aren’t all about helping people in the developing world, they’re also on a mission to save Birmingham from the pan pipes. On the 28th August for OxjamBrum’s ‘Big Busk’ to raise money the council has turned over all its ‘busk stops’.
“Eight of the city’s home-grown musicians will busk at the following locations:
Centenary Square: at the end of the raised flower bed and in front of the REP
Victoria Square: in front of the phoenix statue which is to the left of the fountain
New Street: outside Pertemps and to the right of the main door
New Street: outside HSBC bank
Edgbaston Street: in front of the side elevation of Wagamama’s
Edgbaston Street: between New Look and Sports World
High Street: in between phone box and circular advertising column in front of Thornton’s and HMV
Cherry Street: near Temple Row and in front of the cash machines which are at a raised level”
Big-Chief-Busks-With-Recoder, won’t be featuring. I don’t think.
They’re building a new library, it’s going to be shorter than they first said (but still contain the same amount of space – how so?). But despite the planning app not having been submitted as yet, digging has commenced.
“Plans held in the Central Library’s Archive already gave us pretty accurate ideas as to what would be uncovered during the excavations, and so far there have been no surprises.
The excavations have revealed a former canal arm and extensive remains of Winfield’s Cambridge Street Works which was built in the 1830s. Robert Winfield was principally a brass manufacturer and the works produced items such as brass bedsteads, but also carried out metal rolling, gas fitting, carpentry and wire manufacture.”
Is there a time delay before “digging” is archeology? Less than a hundred years doesn’t seem worth getting Baldrick and his Time Team involved — especially when you’ve got the plans — I just couldn’t work out what the fuss was about. I’ve searched hard for a conspiracy theory — digging to make the site look in progress before it is? archaeologists cheaper than a JCB? — but I don’t think there is one, maybe just a case of starting the inevitable library publicity machine rolling.
“another team are drilling down towards the Birmingham Aquifer(sic), a potential source of water for heating and cooling systems for the new library.
They are about 75 metres down so far, about halfway, spewing out chocolate coloured water as the borehole proceeds. If we can establish a strong enough flow from the ground water source, this will be a very environmentally friendly way to supply energy to the new library.”
Interesting, but “energy”? They’re going to run a water wheel? Or is it going to be hot water and geothermal energy is going to com into play? I think they might mean “source of some water for heating and cooling systems for the new library”.
So sang Frank Skinner on Fantasy Football, but with “big money men” coming in to buy Blues and promising £5m (about enough to buy Julian Lescott’s haircut) to save the team it’s feeling more and more like Ken Wheldon is about to come back albeit dragging Steve Mcmanamanaman with him.
Good time for the Mirror to open up search of their football archive, not that much stuff there at the moment – but a quick treat for Blues, Villa, or even Albion fans.
The Birmingham Post – weekly or slimmed down daily " nothing has been decided.". The notice period of consultations on redundancy have started – around 60 jobs are rumoured to be being lost across local titles. [link]
Alan Clawley loves Central Library, I do too. He sees the planning process of the "new" library as tied up with the saving of the old building, I'm not sure: but this makes interesting reading. [link]
Despite the odd titling “Will Self with Heather Child” for example that lead a stupid person (er, me) to think that the rapcious wordsmith was appearing at South Birmingham College at half two of an afternoon (primetime!), there’s normally something for most readers of books on during the Birmingham Book Festival.
Going on from the 6th to the 29th of October it includes footy-middleclassing baldy Nick Hornby,George Monbiot and even manages to shoehorn in The Archers.
Birmingham: It's Not Shit loves Birmingham, its people, arts, animals, buildings, parks, grass verges, factories and bus stops. We've even got a soft spot for the Black Country.
BiNS is mostly by Jon Bounds, a Birmingham based social web consultant, producer and writer. You can hire him to work on your stuff, or follow him on twitter. There's also stuff from Danny Smith and Karen Strunks.
