Monthly Archives: November 2010

Birmingham Airport MAGLEV on eBay “The world’s…

from Brumblr, the scrapbook of Brum web ephemera: Birmingham Airport MAGLEV on eBay “The world’s first commercial automated maglev system was a low-speed maglev shuttle that ran from the airport terminal of Birmingham International Airport to the nearby Birmingham International railway station running at speeds up to 42 km/h (26 mph). Trains “flew” at an altitude of 15 millimeters (0.6 in). The length of the track was 600 meters (1,969 ft). It was in operation for nearly eleven years, but was eventually closed in 1995 due to reliability and design problems. You are bidding for one of the cars, not in working order and with mechanical/electronic parts missing. No warranty whatsoever is provided. Nevertheless, this is an opportunity to donate to Charity whilst at the same time securing a piece of transport history. Since withdrawal in 1995, car No2 has been living a quiet retirement on an obscure part of Birmingham Airport. The vehicle would make an excellent Summer House or Greenhouse – perhaps a perfect Christmas present for your partner – who thinks that you only care about transport. Just imagine their face and the look of envy from your neighbours as you crane the thing into your back garden!” p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px ‘Lucida Grande’}

Danny Smith: Glam Racket

The opinions of Danny Smith do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers of this blog, its affiliates, or any sane adult human beings. He currently lives in your cupboard, watching, always watching. Is it weird to be nostalgic for a period of time you were never part of? Some would argue all nostalgia is this way: that your memory or perception of the events you pine for are rose-tinted by time. But, I yearn for a bygone age where men were men but dressed like women and women had massive lady-bush growlers that would require their own bottle of shampoo. I talk of course about the seventies—era of Glam Rock. I suppose I’ve been thinking about it because one of the godfathers of Glam, Roy Wood, got his own star on the increasingly hilarious and ever-tenuous Birmingham Walk Of Stars. Seriously, if anything symbolises the flaw in Birmingham’s self-perception better than the Broad Street Walk of Stars, I’ve yet to see it. Our struggling middle-child attitude of trying to emulate the success of others by copying what they do, our lack of confidence to trust in the emerging talent this city has in droves, our willingness to be...

The Big Paws 13/11/2010 — Listen Again

Listen to the latest from BiNS’s radio show The Big Paws: Crocodiles, smile: The Big Paws is live every Saturday at 8am on Rhubarb Radio.

What Colour is the 11 route?

From my 111111 explorations: This year I decided to see what colour the outer circle was. I’ve been fascinated with an iPhone app called Color Identifier that does nothing else but read out the colours it detects in the centre of the camera’s sensor — based first on RGB values and then this list of colour names. I sat on the top deck of the bus and angled the camera so the colours it was reading were around eye-level for someone on the pavement. The headphone output of the phone was linked up to a recorder, recording it in real-time. The app reads a new colour about every three seconds. I got on the 11C at around 11:20am, on Vicarage Road in King’s Heath, but it took around one stop to set up the iPhone and Zoom H2 to record. So, the circuit started here, opposite King’s Heath Park. The circuit took around 2 hours 20 min — the driver had a fag break in Ward End and popped in to a house opposite Acock’s Green Garage for a minute or two. So here’s what colour the outer circle is. A beautifully relaxing two-plus hours of spoken word (please feel free to download...

Erdington Councillor gets stick for stones

Erdington Councillor Gareth Compton (Conservative) manages to make the papers this morning for a Tweet he published last night suggesting (jokingly one would hope and assume) that a journalist to be stoned to death: “Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan’t tell Amnesty if you don’t. It would be a blessing, really,” He’s now since deleted it, apologised, and said: “Twitter is a forum for glib comment of the moment. It was a glib comment. Who could possibly think it was serious? ” And no, in the context of the @GarethFCompton twitter account it’d be hard to take it seriously, but each Tweet can be seen on it’s own, without context. Around the election, his un-disguised glee at the result was understandable, but on Twitter at least he was hardly magnanimous in victory. That episode (go read about it) did have it’s comic value though, however much it disappointed those who live in his ward in Birmingham. If brevity (and 140 chars is pretty brief) is the soul of wit, it’s also the saving grace of being able to converse with those of wildly different opinions. It’s why so many people can watch or read the views of...

Animals on the bus – Welsh National Opera

from Brumblr, the scrapbook of Brum web ephemera: Animals on the bus – Welsh National Opera: Welsh National Opera is planning a very special event to mark the 11 performance this season of its production of The Magic Flute in Birmingham this Wednesday – a performance on the city’s iconic number 11 bus route. Singer Carolyn Dobbin,who performs in The Magic Flute, will be singing onboard a special opera bus, which will be travelling around part of the Number 11 route on 10 November. Jump on board at the bus stop at Acocks Green Depot on Fox Hollies Road for the exclusive free performance. Carolyn will be accompanied on the journey by some of the enchanted animals which also appear in the show. This will mark the 11th performance of the production during the Company’s Autumn 2010 tour. Kerry Jukes, Operations Manager for National Express West Midlands, said: “We have dedicated a special ‘Opera bus’ for the performance on 10 November and hope to attract fans from across the city. It will travel along part of the normal outer circle route to provide a special preview before the show officially opens on 11 November.” The special service will pick...

Handsworth Songs , directed by John Akomfrah, was the first…

from Brumblr, the scrapbook of Brum web ephemera: Handsworth Songs , directed by John Akomfrah, was the first major film of the Black Audio Film Collective. It explores the origins of the uprisings by black communities in Handsworth, Birmingham in 1985. Its themes are race, memory, ideology and Britain’s colonial past (via Google Video)

The Big Paws 06/11/2010 — Listen Again

Listen to the latest from BiNS’s radio show The Big Paws: With special guest Danny Smith, and some blatant self-promotion: The Big Paws is live every Saturday at 8am on Rhubarb Radio.

Danny Smith: On the buses

The opinions of Danny Smith do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers of this blog, its affiliates, or any sane adult human beings. He currently lives in your cupboard, watching, always watching. I am thirty years-old (-ish) and have lived in Birmingham all my life (except the times I haven’t) in that time I have never learnt to drive. Consider this my favour to you. Seeing as I’m an notorious booze enthusiast, prone to bad decisions, and have somewhat of an impulse problem giving me a car would be like giving a toddler semi automatic weapon; hilarious but someone would get hurt. So I get around using public transport, more specifically the bus. Now its easy to complain about the bus system in Birmingham, as you’ll see in the next few hundred words. But I, as ever, have a point.

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