Posts Tagged ‘ Birmingham ’

This shit just got local

Birmingham City Council (one third of seats, remember, very unlikely to see any change of control) count starts at 3pm today. There’s an ‘information pack’ here with some the previous data, results will appear here and there’s meant to be a live broadcast too… will link that up as soon as it surfaces. Local bloggers are being invited to the count (at the NIA) — contact head of comms Debra Davis for details. Bounville‘s Dave Harte is going to be there, follow his Twitter stream for the quick updates. He was very good at the General stuff overnight:

Eastside dragged into the Seventies

It now has a cashpoint (during shop opening hours).

Sarah Jane Lynch (on twitter) is s putting together a project on Moseley, its history and community over the last 100 years — she started by interviewing Pete the Feet… Pete Mckenzie, better known as Pete the Feet, aged 64 has been propping up the bars of Moseley, Birmingham since the hedonistic days of the sixties. His resilience against the norm of wearing footwear, the fact he has created his own merchandise in form of homemade lighters and purses which he carries everywhere, and not least his warm and friendly nature have made him into something of a local legend. For many Pete is an iconic figure. He isn’t one of the many millions on the social networking site, Facebook, but a group set up in his honour has attracted over 1000 members. He has had a song written about him by local band ‘Katlama’ and was even voted the ‘most famous Midlander who isn’t actually famous’ in a radio poll. I caught up with Pete to unveil the real man behind the legend and to discuss his love of Moseley, the corner of Birmingham he is synonymous with. “ I came here I was about 20, I’d travelled...

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:

Maybe it’s a map?

On a 61 in Selly Oak.

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...

Anyone got photos of 70s/80s Brum venues?

A plea from Jez: I’m making a film about Reggae, Punk and Bhangra in Birmingham around how communities and individuals express themselves through music. I received a small amount of funding for this with a condition I used 75% (roughly 45 mins) of archive material. The completed film will be shown as part of the re-opening of the Midlands Arts Centre from May- Sept which expected to attract 20,000+ visitors. It is a non-commercial film and is part of the Birmingham Popular Music Archive http://birminghammusicarchive.co.uk. I really need some visuals of the following venues from the 70′s/80′s: Fighting Cocks, Rebeccas, Cedar Club, Hare & Hounds, Santa Rosa/Rialto, Elite cinema Handsworth, Star Club, Red Lion Balsall Heath, International Small Heath, Odean New St,Locarno, Romulus, Jug of Ale,Mermaid I don’t have money to pay for use but would obviously give you a full credit/thanks. I’m on an incredibly tight deadline now (I was let down on getting some images of the above hence the urgent nature) so it would be hugely appreciated if you can help that you get jpgs to me before Wednesday of this week! Thanks in advance Jez Collins Birmingham Popular Music Archive

Packs of four BiNS badges — including the never seen before BRUTAL Central Library badge — now available from the Created in Birmingham shop in the Bull Ring. It’s sort of opposite the Apple shop, top level — towards Debenhams if going in from by the bull. Top value:

After years of calls for Birmingham to appoint a ‘Creative Director’ — similar to Manchester’s Peter Saville, it seems the City Council have finally got the message. A source close the the cabinet revealed that they’ve even identified their man — Hollywood maverick Tim Burton. It may be that a replacement for regeneration chief Clive Dutton has been so hard to come by as officials have been shooting for the top and trawling the film world for someone with real vision, and big curly goth hair. With Dutton now working in that London it would be a coup for Birmingham to get such a creative talent to come in the opposite direction — it’s hoped that Burton would move to Brum from his current home in Notting Hill. Burton could be in place to oversea Birmingham’s year as UK City of Culture, and it would be expected to be coloured by his very particular view of the World. Plans to sell sponsorship on Council workers’ uniforms could be shelved and current hi-vis tabbards replaced with slightly down-at-heel Victorian formal dress, while the Birmingham Anchor and similar underground sites would be opened to the public. A creative director would also...

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Posts Tagged ‘ Birmingham ’

This shit just got local

Eastside dragged into the Seventies

Pete the Feet Exclusive

Spit and Sauce, Us

Maybe it’s a map?

What ‘culture’ do you do?

Anyone got photos of 70s/80s Brum venues?

Buy Brutal, Be Brutal

Gone for a Burton

Get more Brum:

Is Brum Happy?

Birmingham's emotional wellbeing* on Thursday 17th of May 2012 09:20: 57.6 % (average)