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Fête better than death

In a display of seasonal awareness to match how Bill Oddie thinks it’s time to watch spring in May, Birmingham City Centre is getting a Summer Fête at the end of August. The Edge in Digbeth will be the venue for Punch & Judy, Splat The Rat, a Tug O’ War, Teddy Bear Bungee, Guess The Weight Of The Cake, and all of the stuff you would expect at a traditional British summer fête — plus music and comedy from some exciting acts. It’s the launch event for new Brum-based magazine Dirty Bristow*. The magazine doesn’t carry adverts, in order to give full freedom to the writers and illustrators — and so each issue will hold fundraising events to offset the cost of production. Issue one is packed with literary musings, essays, fiction and art on the theme of ‘birth’, and the only way to guarantee a copy is to come to the fête. The mayor and vicar of the small fictional hamlet of Dirty Bristow have collected a huge variety of traditional musics, comedy, stalls and games — and have arranged for them to happen: on Saturday 28th August from 6pm ’til Late at The Edge in Digbeth for...

And also a new — actual paper and ink! — magazine that is to “celebrate South Birmingham’s cultural scene”. It’s a beautiful layout and print job and the first issue features Barbara Nice, what could be better. You should be able to pick up a copy for two quid in B12-15′s coolest shops and hang outs (or according to the editorial get it delivered by hand direct to your door…) and you should. There’s a vibe of space throughout it, no articles seem to be too short although it covers a load of stuff. It’s monthly, so in a way it’s a bit of a test for that there ‘cultural scene’ — can it do enough interesting stuff to fill a mag each month. I should think so.

I have just finished Catherine O’Flynn’s new book — it’s a corker. As the acknowledgements page makes very clear this book is not about Midlands Today, nor is it about Nick Owen (despite the theme of poor witticisms in local news bulletins). It’s not a book about Birmingham Central Library, nor its architect John Madin. It’s not a book about Birmingham, despite being set here (brilliantly evocatively without being cliquey). If Catherine O’Flynn’s first novel What Was Lost was about longing, The News Where You Are is about loss. Loss of loved ones, loss of the past, loss of hope for the future — and, more than that, the loss of past hopes for a future that doesn’t materialise. A future of pedestrian walkways and inner (and outer) ring-roads, of clean lines and surface. It’s not bleak, in fact it’s very human — for each loss there’s a new beginning, for each demolition a listing (or at least a stay of execution), for each problem as resolution of sorts. Except the standard of food in the BBC canteen. Frank Allcroft the novel’s ‘unfunniest man on God’s earth’ is a kind of Nick Owen, but he’s also Gordon Burns, Fred Dinage,...

A sign of Dick, and Joan

A superbitch famous for wide-shouldered dresses, those are the qualities that made Leo Morgado the idea person to meet Joan Collins. She’s staring the Hippodrome’s panto this year, y’see: As Birmingham waits to see whether or not it will receive the title of being UK City of Culture 2013, we have already received a much more important honour, and that’s having Joan Collins booked to perform pantomime at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Detractors and cynics say that panto is just giving losing contestants in reality TV shows, and once popular light entertainment stars a reason to exist. All I can say to that is, Goldilocks. Pantomime, like all art (and it is art), has its low and high forms. Low form is the excruciatingly embarrassing spectacle of seeing sub-lebrities trying extremely hard to be liked by an indifferent audience. Truly great and engaging pantomime not only brings out the best actors, but also the best out of an audience. Pantomime allows families to leave their homes and spend time together whilst being lavished with colourful productions. It gives theatres the opportunity to fill auditoriums day after day, night after night and create much needed income. It is also a chance...

Absolutely bob-awful photoshop and graphic design job for Paul Henry (yes, Benny) as Tony Hancock at the Alex, for what might well be a good play: Via BCC’s Birmingham Bulletin. (Copy-writing not too crash-hot either, “Modern-day creations such as Alan Partridge and David Brent owe much of their success to Tony Hancock” erm…)

Churn, but good churn… An archivist at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery has uncovered these images showing the aftermath of a 1970s terrorist bomb blast. Dating from 4 January 1974, the images show Ikon’s then-director Simon Chapman clearing up shards of broken glass whilst nervously smoking a cigarette. At this time Ikon was housed in a shop unit in the West Court of the Birmingham Shopping Centre (now the Pallasades), adjacent to an army and navy recruitment office – the likely intended target for the bomb. Jane Morrow, Ikon Gallery’s Archivist, is asking the public for any memories they have of the bombing to help inform an oral history project into the period : “We’re looking for stories from the people of Birmingham who remember Ikon during the 1970s, from stand-out exhibitions to incidents such as the bombing. We have plenty of official records – what I’d love to hear now are your stories and reminiscences.” Contact Jane Morrow on 0121 248 0708 or email j.morrow@ikon-gallery.co.uk The memories will form part of an archive collection to be presented alongside Ikon’s next exhibition, This could happen to you: Ikon in the 1970s. A retrospective of the gallery’s programme from 1970-1978, it will...

Favourite art things

Ikon’s These are a few of my favourite things talks where cultural peoples from Brum get to reveal things that inspire or interest them — they’re short (an hour) and free — and well worth a look. Here’s who’s coming up in the next couple of months: Wednesday 9 June – Ikon Youth Programme participants Wednesday 16 June -Jonathan Coe, author of The Rotters’ Club Wednesday 23 June – Ruth Claxton, Birmingham-based artist Wednesday 30 June – Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison, Joint Artistic Directors of Fierce Festival Wednesday 7 July – James Langdon, designer Wednesday 21 July – Anthony Cartwright, Dudley-born author of The Afterglow Wednesday 28 July – Lynsey Hanley, writer and journalist for The Guardian All 6.30-7.30pm at Ikon Free admission (reserve by calling Ikon on 0121 248 0708)

Got a chance yesterday to pop into the mac (still a week or so before the opening, and work being done all over the building) and taste the catering. Yum. The building re-opens to the public on May 1st, with loads of events, a very much refurbed bar and café and free wifi streaming out into the park. The cinema, theatre and hexagon theatre have all had a spruce up and there’s now extra performance space around the building. Most impressive is the huge new gallery space — a vast room that already looks to be very flexible. The opening exhibition ‘Plug In’ is currently being installed, and features a ton of locally related art, including a sound piece by Peter Cusack, photos by Stuart Whipps and this masterpiece too long out of sight: It’s also got the Brum word cloud in situ — have a quick look on the mac blog. But best of all I found out that the mac had once been the site of Bob Carolgees’s brief foray into the World of architecture:

What ‘culture’ do you do?

Brum is, as you’ll no doubt be aware, is bidding to be UK City of Culture 2013. The final bid has to be in in May and getting a full picture of what culture is for Birmingham is and important part of it. We’ve already had Cliff Richard and heavy metal ballet suggested — but what do people actually get up to? One idea to capture that is to let everyone contribute to a one day celebration of all Birmingham’s cultural activity. For 24 hours from midday on Friday 23rd April to midday on Saturday 24th anyone can blog anything cultural they’re doing on the bid website (it’ll be at http://birminghamculture.org/blog) — you contribute via email. Anything sent to blog@birminghamculture.org will make the site — pictures video or audio included. I think this is the opportunity to show all that stuff that’s going on that doesn’t usually get publicity — culture is a pretty wide thing; are you watching football and singing? In a book club, out doing some parkour? All three at the same time? From the grottiest punk gig to the, er, soppiest punk gig, it’d be good if someone was there and recording it in some...

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Fête better than death

Radar is an object detection system

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A sign of Dick, and Joan

Nice Play, shame about the face

Bomb the Base

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What ‘culture’ do you do?

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