Category archive for: Links

Items of interest found about the place

• Patrick “The Mighty” Quinn vs Dangerous Dale - You be familiar with concerts, gigs and club night taking place is Space2 but did you know it occasionally hosts boxing? Here’s a video of the sport in action.
• Social Media Surgery for Voluntary Organisations - Last month a bunch of bloggers ran a surgery for charities and the like at the BVSC centre in Digbeth. It was a tremendous success so we’re doing it again. Any charities or similar are more than welcome to come along and see how blogging, etc can help you achieve your aims. No charge and there’ll be refreshments.
• A Creative Masterclass with Michael Wolff - Rescheduled from last month, this Creative Republic event sees branding expert Wolff (who was the keynote speaker at the Plus design expo last year) lead a masterclass developing a brief for the, currently fantasy, role of a Creative Director for Birmingham.
• Substrakt have moved to Fazeley Studios - and welcome all visitors. They have a pool table aparently.
• Gigbeth Links Round-up - Jon Bounds started gathering the online collective memory from Gigbeth. I’m sure there’s more out there so feel free to add links in his comments.
• Fireloop Creative won an award - Bronze at the Cream 2008 awards for the steakandbyday.co.uk site. They also have a blog, which I’ve added to the blogroll here.
• The Antiques Diva loves the Custard Factory Flea Market - “Stalls range from the bizarre to the truly wonderful. Japanese baby clothes, vintage and handmade garments, rare records, original photography and art, crepe suzettes, pottery, kitsch collectables and homemade fudge are a small taste of what’s available.”
• Rumble Rumble - Penumbra reviews Saturday’s Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip gig at the Factory Club.

Items of interest found around the Internets

• New Birmingham Studios to offer homes to creative firms. - Lots of information in this Birmingham Post article about Fazeley Studios.
• City councillor wants Birmingham to celebrate creative communities - Birmingham Post - With the Creative City Awards coming up Councilor Neville Summerfield bigs up the creative industries:

  “As a civic leader Birmingham City Council has to establish and nurture progressive partnerships with all sectors of industry, within its city walls and outside them. It is our duty and our proud responsibility to create a culture of communication, recognition and mutual respect from which a healthy marriage of the private and the public sectors can be free to build the roads to future successes.”

• Plus+ Roundup - Who said what about the design festival.
• Birmingham Creative City Awards finalists - The contenders for the council’s annual awards are up featuring a number of Custard Factory and Big Peg tenants. The ceremony is on Saturday November 29th.
• Time for Birmingham to support the independent arts - Helga Henry of Fierce Earth and Creative Republic, calls on Birmingham to extend the support given to the CBSO et al to smaller independent outfits. It does sound like she’s talking about Digbeth here…

Items of interest found around the Internets

• Public Enemy Officially Custard Fans - Short piece on the PE gig on December 3rd which confirms it’s their only UK appearance this year.
• Another Social Media Surgery for Voluntary Organisations in Birmingham - Last month a bunch of Us Who Blog came together to help voluntary organisations learn about the Social Internet and how they might make use of it more effectively, or even at all. It was a massive success so we’re doing it again. Any charities or similar organisations at the Custard Factory are more than welcome to come along.
• Release The Bats review - on the Right Where You Are Sitting Now site.
• Hospitality, Valve & Andy C @ Custard Factory - Many photos and a review of the 17th October night on the What’s On In Brum blog.
• CID Music - Consider It Done. - One of John Mostyn’s music companies has a blog. Current post is an attempt to list all the Birmingham artists who have had Top 40 records.
• Fleet Foxes impress at Space 2 - Kenny from Big Cat reviews the gig and pronounces it a good one, something I’ve been hearing from many sources. Rather annoyed I missed to to be honest.

Items of interest found around the Internets

• Walkit.com blog - Walkit, a tenant, have a new blog as part of a site overhaul by Substrakt, a tenant. Nice.
• Type Tours with Ben Waddington - Part of the Plus+ Expo again this year is Ben’s wonderful walking tours around the city pointing out the typography that surrounds us. There are Digbeth walks every day from noon and I’d urge you to go along on one if you’re free. Great stuff.
• Home Of Metal in Wolverhampton - Loads of photos reporting on Capsule’s first Home of Metal event in Wolverhampton. 970 people came “from small kids, to teenagers right through to the more distinguished older gentlemen.” Next one is in Walsall on November 6th.
• Full schedule for the Plus+ International Design Expo - Starts on Wednesday 5th November at 1pm, ends at 5pm on Saturday.
• Organic Eastside: regeneration by maniacs - Nicky Getgood draws some interesting threads from the Organic Eastside meeting on Tuesday (which I’m annoyed I missed…) and Bennie Gray’s manifesto, particularly George Ferguson call to “identify the maniacs” who will drive interesting regeneration. I also liked this bit:
  

  He had a very interesting take on the credit crunch, that it may actually be a blessing in disguise. It’ll stop the building of blinkered, one-use projects in their tracks for a start. It could instead leave room for ’slow architecture’ of more flexible, mixed-use buildings, which develop organically over time, adapting to economic and environmental change as they grow.

Items of interest found around the Internets

• Gig in A Halfpipe - Midge reports, with photos, on a band playing in Ideal’s skate ramp while the skaters bombed around them. Sounds in the spirit of Lightning Bolt’s gigs (who, if you’ll excuse the segue, are playing Space 2 this Saturday.) Edit: Here’s some more of Midge’s photos on the Doom Patrol blog.
• Punch Records are on Twitter - Early days but they’re currently using it for alerts about gigs and events related to their artists. Worth keeping tabs on.
• Flatpack 2009 Internships - 7 Inch Cinema are looking for two interns for the Flatpack Film Festival next year, one for Festival Organiser and one Web Editor / Blogger. Details at the link.

Items of interest found around the Internets

• 7 days is too long but a month is appalling! - Mostyn’s back blogging after a wee break with a roundup of things that have caught his attention.
• Plus+ 2008 - call for help… - Interesting request from Stereographic who are exhibiting at the Plus+ Expo next month. They’re looking for a full size mannequin, should you have one lying around you could lend, and any discarded design - “demo prints / failed pitch designs / overruns on brochures etc…” More details at the link.
• Bacardi Custard - Very enthusiastic but also refreshingly level headed review of the Eclectricity: Boutique Autumn Festival that happened at the Custard Factory on the 18th.
  

  For the uninitiated, the Custard Factory is an urban regeneration project in industrial Digbeth on the site of – and you’ll like this – the old Bird’s Custard Factory. While by day it’s home to various Nathan Barley-style “meeja” creative outfits, by night it’s one of the best venues in Britain. When the large pool outside the main club space is drained and full of punters, you can count the amount of venues on one hand that even get close.

• Pip of 7Inch in Pick Me Up magazine - I wasn’t going to mention this but Pip McKnight from 7inch Cinema is reportedly very embarrassed so it seems worth bringing this to a wider audience.

Items of interest found around the Internets

• Rescue Geography - Digbeth is Good brings news of a project to gather stories from Digbeth pre and post the onset of redevelopment. There’s also a photography exhibition connected with the project running at MADE on Fazeley Street from October 27th.
• Birmingham Photospace - A blog dedicated to creating a photospace in Birmingham and a place to celebrate photography.” I suspect a number of Custard Factory tenants might be interested in getting involved with this.
• Feastside - A project, just begun, to “plan and plant a city centre vegetable patch in Birmingham’s Eastside.” They’re looking for some wasted space to cultivate and more people to join in and help. There’s a meeting on Wednesday at the Woodman pub to take things forward.

Items of interest found around the Internets

• CMYKern on the Jibbering Shambala show - Lots of photos too.
• Created in Birmingham’s Gigbeth roundup - Lots and lots of links to Gigbeth news which Chris at CiB has kindly put in one place and added an interview with Clare Edwards to boot.
• Capsule’s Autumn gig lineup - has the usual eclectic mix of the experimental and the dirty including Clinic at the Factory club on November 20th.
• Bookings for the Plus Design Festival are open - Register at the link

Items of interest found around the Internets

• Tindal Street in The Bookseller - Scan of an article in the publishing industry trade magazine last week featuring photography by CF tenant Richard Battye.
• Plus+ Design Expo is looking for volunteers - Folk wanted to help with setup, running and breakdown of the event from November 3rd - 9th. Details at the bottom of the page.
• Capsule went to London - along with numerous other Birmingham arty types for the opening of The Joyful Bewilderment in Brick Lane.
• Job vacancy at Punch Records - They’re looking for a Project / Office Administrator, 3 days a week
• Gigbeth 2008 set to bring welcome boost to Birmingham’s economy - Press release from Big Cat for next month’s big shindig.
• Digbeth is Good reports on the Shambala Art Exhibition - I intend to check this out later in the week. It runs until Friday.

Items of interest found around the Internets

• Search for the stars - It looks like part of the Creative City Awards this year will be a “Birmingham’s Got Talent” competition. “Undiscovered singers, groups, comedians, magicians, acrobats, dancers and other acts can sign up for the Birmingham City Council-backed Search for a Star contest” with auditions taking place at Custard Factory later this month. I am unable to comment for fear of making a scene.
• Athletico Tortured Artists FC - A football team made up of local artists. I believe they’re welcoming new members. Entertaining blog too.