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Friday 28th December 2007

Best of Blog 2007

It's that time of year again, and I've looked back over all my blog entries for 2007 to pick out some of my favourite things. You can find them in my Best of Blog 2007

Friday 21st December 2007

Birmingham's Water Supply - Elan Valley Dams and Aqueduct

I ran across this interesting site on the Elan Valley Dams and Aqueduct which supply my drinking water (and very fine water it is too).

The water travels all the way from Wales (73 miles) under gravity, without any pumping and takes a day and a half to get here.

You can see a scale model of the Elan Valley in Cannon Hill Park - I always thought they should construct a scale model of Brum at the other end to give an idea of the distance.

Thurs 20th December 2007

Kate Goes... and Betty and the ID

I came in half way through the first support they sounded good but I didn't catch their name. They were considerably younger than the members of Betty and the ID (MySpace ) though - who have many years of playing and performance behind their multi-guitar based sound.

Betty and the ID

Where did Kate go? This time it was Kate Goes... to a family function with Joe and Beth as grandparents, Bird as dad, and Suzzie as little sister aged 4. Kate herself was nine. The gig was accompanied by a intriguing slide show of family photos. One of the things I like about Kate Goes... is that they seem to have lots of fun on stage, and that was certainly true at this gig. You can check them out on MySpace -my favourite song is Heartbeat.

Kate Goes... to a Family Function

Kate Goes... and Opens Some Bucks-Fizz

Art Stalking Ana has also written about this gig

Weds 19th December 2007

Bleach & Orange Range

I recently watched the first two episodes of the anime Bleach, on YouTube. A friend told me you can see the whole 150+ episodes on there (in 7 minute segments). It's got quite a cool theme tune by Orange Range which seems somehow familiar. You can get the episodes with English subtitles (preferred) or dubbed (pretty good voices).

I'm currently half way through watching Witch Hunter Robin which I'm really enjoying - it also has an excellent theme tune, which you'll find about 1/3rd of the way through the link above.

Saturday 15th December 2007

Mingling and Mistletoe

Plenty of mingling here, but I didn't spot the Mistletoe, this was Crowd 6 Gallery's seasonal gathering bringing together artists (and hangers on like myself) for an exhibition of Christmas cards (or other work of small dimension) and performance.

AAS Presented what I will call "Christmas is Humming..." a neo-pagan performance in which four strangely dressed figures circle a fir tree whilst chanting, and begin decorating it with tinsel which emerged from their robes. As they pulled out more and more, it began to drip with sickly sweet scented blood, oozing off the tree and onto the ground and filling the space with its smell. Art Stalking Ana, who is part of AAS also wrote about this . You can also see video on YouTube.

Christmas is humming...

We also had a communication from time traveller Philip (forgot his surname) who could not be "with us in place" as his is still perfecting his "fleshy time machine". Next some Christmas story telling from a pirate and a mermaid, juxtaposing their strange stories:

Pirate and Mermaid

Wednesday 12th December

M.R. James and The Divine Edgar

This was my first visit to Highbury Hall, I'd seen it from inside Highbury Park, but never quite worked out where the entrance was. It's not a particularly imposing building from the outside, but inside it rocks! (note: I don't usually use the phrase "it rocks" but what the hell). Tonight I made sure I found the entrance, so I could go see a 7 Inch Cinema special featuring Christmas Ghost Stories.

The two main films (and I think the two audio stories I heard) were by M.R.James - an author whose name rings a bell but I couldn't really tell you anything about (except I've just read his Wikipedia Entry and am now what the modern world refers to as an "expert"). Whistle and I'll Come to You featured Michael Hordern as an absent minded professor was genius! He really portrayed the character well, and it strongly reminded me of people I've met

The Divide Edgar made a welcome re-appearance. I'd tried to see it at the Ikon's Halloween Party but unfortunately a police raid put paid to it! Now it was back, with the offending wet leaves removed (apparently they were a safety risk!) As well as writing some quite scary stories, Edgar Allan Poe had a fear of being buried alive, and this performance/installation allowed a single audience member to spend 5 minutes in his world, confronting his terrors. This time there was a signing in book which eliminated the need to queue, and seemed to work well. I enjoyed it and I hope it will re-emerge at other times and places - perhaps a goth night?

Highbury Hall's Ceiling!

The Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Room

Divine Edgar (with ghosts visible at the edge)

Thursday 6th December 2007

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

I saw these guys back at the Big Chill in August 2006

Tonight, they're at the Town Hall in Birmingham, or Frankfurt as they initially mistake it for (due to the adjacent German market). When I heard they were playing here, I was so please I booked tickets for 15 other people to come too!

A stunning show, and even my friend's who'd never heard them before loved it. The music is good, and the humour fantastic! Highlights for me were a great version of Shaft, with some lovely word play; Wuthering Heights ; Teenage Dirtbag (A Christmas themed song we were reminded, just before the first line... "Her name is Noel" groan!); and of course their world famous Smells Like Teen Spirit , a song also covered by popular beat combo Nirvana. So much good stuff!

Verdict: If you get the chance, go see them, otherwise have a gander on YouTube then buy MP3s and DVDs on their website.

Happy Feet, The Video

Happy Feet by Kermit the Frog - probably one of the most talented frogs of our generation.

Makes me happy anyway!

Yet more Incredible Music...

I ran across this MP3 blog with lots of old and unusual recordings . You'll find something worth a listen for sure!

Tuesday 4th December 2007

A Trip I'd Like to Make

Paul Willis writes about his trip to Japan by train. It's a 13 day journey, but I'd be tempted to stop off on the way a little more than he did. Another one for my list of things I'd like to do. The question is: what is the CO2 output compared to flying? It's got to be less surely.

Last December I did the journeys from Birmingham to Munich to Berlin and back by train - shorter but still fun. The food on the train from Munchen to Berlin was fantastic!

Prev: BlogNovember2007 1 Year Ago: BlogDecember2006 Next: BlogJanuary2008

See Also: WebChanges for other recent updates, AllBlogPages for previous blogs. You might also want to read other BirminghamBloggers

This is my blogchalk: United Kingdom, West Midlands, Birmingham, Moseley

Prev: BlogOctober2007 1 Year Ago: BlogNovember2006 Next: BlogDecember2007

Tuesday 27th November 2007

Ikon Opening

Visited the Ikon Gallery for the opening of their latest exhibition. Julian Opie has curated woodcut pictures by 19th Century Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige. They're in that classic Japanese style, lots of beautiful landscapes, rocks and sea but incredibly diverse. I found some of the city scenes fascinating.

Alice Cattaneo is an Italian artist based in Milano, her "stabiles" (think "mobiles" that don't move) seem simple but tense, and she's also got some interesting and amusing video work.

Saturday 24th November 2007

Buy Nothing Day

Santas gathered for the 6th Annual Birmingham Buy Nothing Day Santa Parade. Great fun!

Four Santas

Santas at Selfridges

Happy Christmas Birmingham!

Friday 23rd November 2007

Asobi Seksu and Scanners

Popped into the BarFly to see Asobi Seksu a New York band with a Japanese name, and discovered Scanners who were supporting. Scanners have got a great stage presence, dominated by their female lead singers/guitarist and were to my mind the better of the two bands.

Asobi Seksu seemed a little tired, as if they'd been touring too long and this was just another gig for them. Maybe that's a little unfair, but the spark did seem to be lacking for most of the set, and I had the impression that this wasn't their best gig. Having said that, the vocals were great (there's something about singing in Japanese) and the finale where they swapped instruments and the drummer roamed the stage carrying part of the drum kit was great.

Anyway, check both bands out in recorded form, they sound great!

Wednesday 21st November 2007

Mount Fuji Bento

There's a new Japanese cafe opened in the Bull Ring, just up from the Costa(or is it Starbucks) "seashell" near St Martin's church. It appears to be an offshoot from the Mount Fuji mailorder food company who I've bought pickles, odd snacks and sencha tea from in the past and highly recommend.

The food wasn't quite as interesting as I'd hoped, my Agedashi Tofu bento was quite good, but lacked a little sparkle. One of the dishes contained lotus root, and various other things in a light brown sauce but I had the impression that it was pre-prepared, or at least that they had been sitting together there for long enough to lose their individuality. However, I'm certainly going back, and had to restrain myself from popping back the very next day! The plan is for the menu to expand, to include noodles and sushi and it's great to see more Japanese food in Brum. Let's just hope it doesn't get too busy for me to pop in regularly.

Oh! Almost forgot - they also have some take away Japanese snacks, sweets and soft drinks (including Pocari Sweat) and they sell very good Sencha tea.

Friday 9th November 2007

Fiery Furnaces

Headed down to Barfly to see the Fiery Furnaces with Ben and Kenny , who can doubtless fill you in on the musical complexities, though I have to correct Kenny's reporting of my conversation with Eleanor - I recall telling her she could have a copy of the photo if she'd like - it's obviously me who's famous My verdict: "jolly good" - strong, musical and exciting.

Browsing for FF videos, I ran across this great fan video for My Dog Was Lost but Now He's Found , which made me smile

The Furnaces are from New York, and this set me thinking: Why is it that so many New York bands choose to visit Brum? Is it just that there's a lot of bands in New York? But surely the rest of the world has bands too. We get the odd Icelandic or Japanese band but where are the French or the Germans? What about the Polish? When do we get to hear their impact on the local music scene? Hmmm...

Thursday 8th November 2007

Photos of Birmingham Old and New

Ran across these photos of Birmingham then and now by Leonard Stace. Interesting to see how the city has changed. There's a whole load more by D J Norton too.

Saturday 3rd November 2007

Misty's Big Adventure and Shady Bard

Nice to see Misty's and Shady Bard at the Sanctuary as part of Gigbeth. They seemed to be running a little early, so I missed the very beginning of Shady Bard's set. They were excellent - they've got a great dynamic range, going from very quiet, soft guitar to wild, loud and crazy (but still tuneful) exuberance. One to watch for definite!

Misty's started off with a very nice instrumental track, then launched into a set including: Serious Thing, She Fills the Spaces and Fashion Parade. Gareth (lead singer / "band leader") seemed not to like the acoustic in the room but it sounded fine from out in the audience. Erotic Volvo did his crazy dancing on stage, and launched off into the audience, going round and dancing right in front of some people and then crawling through the audience like a blue-glove covered dog! It was great to see the audience reaction from our vantage point up in the circle, though I couldn't resist going down to dance myself for the last few songs. Go Misty's!

Project X

The culmination of about a year's worth of planning, Project X presented their multi-faceted box of delights tonight. I caught some of the dress rehearsal yesterday, so some of the photos are from then.

Chillout Zone

Performance and Dance

Brazilian Dance

Richard Batsford

Other artist and performers included: Kindle Theatre , meeting, greeting and performing in the crowd; Top stand-up comedian and lovely man Reginald D Hunter ; a great qawwali group, Aashiq al-Rasul (soon to be seen at the Town Hall ); Einstellung doing both an acoustic and electric set; and Marc Reck DJing.

Prev: BlogOctober2007 1 Year Ago: BlogNovember2006 Next: BlogDecember2007

See Also: WebChanges for other recent updates, AllBlogPages for previous blogs. You might also want to read other BirminghamBloggers

This is my blogchalk: United Kingdom, West Midlands, Birmingham, Moseley

Prev: BlogSeptember2007 1 Year Ago: BlogOctober2006 Next: BlogNovember2007

Wednesday 31st October 2007

Ikon Eastide Halloween Party

After um-ing and err-ing about what I could wear as a costume, I finally grabbed something and headed down to Ikon Eastside. The venue is closing for the winter, being a big cold I guess seeing as it's basically a big empty warehouse. However, tonight was a halloween themed party, with 7" cinema, a ghastly Edgar Allan Poe themed performance and of course, apple bobbing!

The performance was for a single person at a time, and took around 5 minutes. I spent a long time queueing, but very pleasantly as there were lots of lovely people around to chat to. Normally I play the butterfly, but it was nice to be a flower for once (if I'm not stretching that metaphor too far!) Unfortunately, as I'd got to about 8th from the front (it was a very long queue), the licensing people turned up and decided that it couldn't go on. Scott Johnston who'd derived the installation did give me a sneaky look at what could have been, and it looked excellent. I won't say too much as they are planning to repeat it, but suffice to say that Mr Poe had a longstanding horror of being buried alive....

Overall an excellent night, though I never did get round to bobbing for apples.

Pete Ashton and Joanna Geary were also about so look out for reports from them.

Apple Bobbing

Divine Edgar

Tuesday 30th October 2007

Better Browsing with Firefox

The LifeHacker website threw up an article on getting more screenspace in Firefox. I like to see the webpage taking up most of the screen when browsing, and although fullscreen mode (try function key F11 to toggle) is good, I want to be able to see some menus too.

1. I followed a few of the tips in the article - namely Combine the menu and navigation bar which gave me an extra line of space at the top.
2. I removed the search bar, as I realised I can type "g giant screaming bats" in the URL bar to google for "giant screaming bats". To do this, right click on it, choose "customise" and drag it on to the pallet of tools which appears.
3. I added a similar facility to search Wikipedia by going to the main page, right clicking on the search box and choosing add a keyword for this search with "w" as my keyword. I can now press ctrl-l to jump to the location bar, then "w fish" and I'm searching Wikipedia for fish. This is a lot quicker than how I used to do it.
4. I installed the Stop or Reload Extension which combines the stop and reload buttons - you can only use stop when a page is loading and you generally have to stop loading a page before you reload it, so this give a bit more space on the top menu.

I already have the All-in-One Gestures extension (see slightly bizzare but well communicated demo here ) which speeds things up as I can go forward, back, close a window etc all by moving the mouse and holding down the right button.

What else. Oh yeah for reading text I tend to sit back, and make the text bigger by pressing ctrl-+. You can always shrink it again with ctrl-- (control-minus) or reset it to standard size with ctrl-0 (control-zero).

Sunday 27th October 2007

Seven Inch Cinema

Nice Seven Inch Cinema at the Hare and Hounds. I missed the first section, but arrived in time for a live set by Broadcast to a couple of the Vertical Features Remake films, which show lots of, erm... well, vertical features. Thing's like rugby posts and fences and young street trees tied to stakes. Broadcast don't seem to perform live very often, so it was great to hear them in action with these specially composed works.

After this, we had a series of 1930's jazz / cartoon films, with a lot of Cab Calloway, including this Betty Boop classic (best bit from about 3 1/2 mins in) which I wrote about back in August 2005. Some of the animation was created by tracing round Mr Calloway, which gives his character some very elegant moves. Also included in this section was a great short showing black Americans (dressed as "house boys" and maids) doing some amazing dance moves, the kind of thing I associate with early rock and roll dance, you know the sort of thing; people swinging each other round, over their heads, through their legs. Interestingly, the passive part wasn't always taken by the woman, which is how I recall the R'N'R version.

Learning Japanese

I'm not learning Japanese, I just wish I had learnt a bit before I went to Japan. I was wondering if I could pick up anything from watching Anime. I'm watching Witch Hunter Robin at the moment, an anime series a little like Buffy. The theme tune has the Japanese text in Karaoke style, along with English subtitles. The only word I've remembered so far is Oshiete which was translated as "tell me". Maybe this site on Learning Japanese using Anime will help...

Another BirminghamBlogger

Added local journalist Joanna Geary's Blog to the list of BirminghamBloggers.

If you'd like to be added, just let me know - it's kind of "West Midlands Conurbation Bloggers" but that doesn't sound so snappy

Saturday 27th October 2007

StrangeTime Halloween Party

StrangeTime hosted an (optional) fancy dress party at the Actress and Bishop near St Paul's Sq. with Sub-Rosa and cellardoor. Great music, great costumes, and I'm hoping that Dead Kenny will describe it in a bit more detail!

More BirminghamBloggers

Added walker, environmentalist and commentator Tim Weller's Blog and the musical The Autumn Store Blog to the list of BirminghamBloggers.

Friday 26th October 2007

Cut-up RSS feed

Hmm. Using Page2RSS is great, but as it works by sampling the page at an undetermined time, it can catch me half way through an edit. Also, I've a tendency to re-edit entries to add details and links, so I'm not sure what it will make of this. Time will tell...

Thursday 25th October 2007

Birmingham Opera - La Traviata

Birmingham Opera put on just one performance a year, generally in an unusual venue. This year, it's the National Indoor Arena, last year it was at a beautiful 1930's bank on Broad St.

After a lot of messing about with tickets, having first one too few, then one too many, then just right, then two spare then just right, then, about 20mins before the performance, two spare again, I took my seat in the lower tier, relatively close to the front. A couple of friends who occupied some of the further away, upstairs seats complained of the noise of people talking, eating pop-corn and coughing, but it was relatively quiet where we were! Others in similar seats said it was fine, so maybe they just had a bad spot.

The set was big, which is what you need for that sort of space, and as (part of) the performance had transferred from Verona (where I saw Carmen from just behind the emperor's box!) At the start, a very large foot could be seen protruding from the back of the stage, part of a gigantic doll - think something which godzilla would fight as it attempted to squash Tokyo whilst plaintively repeating "mama". She later appeared on stage in her full glory, forming the basis of a staircase from which our leads descended, and during the second act her piercing blue eyes stared right at our seats from behind the main set.

As we're on set and staging, we also had a giant fan of cards for the nightclub/brothel/ in the 3rd, and the stage floor opened up to form an enormous heart as part of the 1st act. I think I liked the act 2 set for the house in the countryside best - played on a relatively bare floor decorated as a dollar bill, with dolls house which the performers could hug to represent their love of the country, and a bed on which they could show their love for each other

Sound-wise, it was a little hard to hear some of the vocals at some points, but mostly it was pretty clear though you did have to pay attention. I'm not sure how those further away would have fared.

Oh! and of course, there was the cast of thousands. Well, not thousands, but, according to the posters, 240 local singers. The majority of these arrived quite spectacularly, right at the beginning, rushing down through the audience wearing tails and frantically waving tickets in a wonderful bit of organised confusion. At one stage they donned strange yellowy-green stocking masks with short mohicans, and still managed to sing through them. No idea what this mean at all, but they looked a bit like a Fungus the Bogeyman convention!

A great event, and I'd recommend looking out for the next Birmingham Opera performance.

Wednesday 24rd October 2007

Christy Moore

Down to the Symphony Hall for the first time in a while to catch long-serving Irish singer-songwriter Christy Moore. He's got a wonderful voice, for both speaking and singing, and some nice between song banter. He mentioned that he first played in Birmingham back in 1967, when he was 22, at The Old Contemptibles - still there on Ludgate Hill off Colmore Row.

The place was packed, with many an Irish accent to be heard, and quite a bit of clapping and singing along (mainly when encouraged by the man himself). I was surprised how many of the songs I recognised, my faves included Black is the Colour (of my true love's eyes), Lisdoonvarna and the fantastic Ride On (YouTube ) which made the hair on my arms stand on end. He came back twice for encores of one or two songs, and the crowd loved it.

Sound quality was fantastic - clear as a bell, and volume just right. In fact, I got the first decent recording ever on my mobile phone - normally they're full of distortion and noise, and good only for working out the playlist.

Incidently, Christy has a blog of sorts, updated at fairly spare intervals but with one for today.

My resolution: to see more people who've been playing for 20 or 30 or 40 years, before I've missed them for good. If that's yours too, he's playing Warwick Arts Centre on Sunday the 18th of November.

International Mask Festival

I'd no idea that there was an International Mask Festival in Stourbridge until someone pointed it out to me. It runs till this Sat, and looks to have some interesting performances too.

Upcoming at the Town Hall / Symphony Hall - Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - once you've heard their covers of Teenage Kicks and Smells Like Teen Spirit , you'll realise you've got to see them. They played at the Big Chill the year before last and the crowd just wouldn't stop shouting for more - even when the next band came on!

(Bonus Track: Lou Reed's Satellite of Love )

Tuesday 23nd October 2007

YouTube - It's still there (or "great comedy clips")

Adam Bloom is playing the Old Joint Stock tomorrow, and this clip on YouTube made me wonder what other comedians I could find on there.

I saw Adam at Edinburgh in August, along with Glen Wool (here doing a great set on Religion) , Jim Jefferies (here being punched by a random audience member and here actually doing his, actually quite offensive, set ), and Jamie Kilstein ( talking about the war on drugs).

Saturday 20th October 2007

Jeffrey Lewis and The Jitters

I've seen Jeff Lewis several times, and it was great to see him again at the Hare and Hounds. This time, he was supported by Professor Louie who's a great poet/rapper type.

Professor Louie

This was a particularly excellent gig, with Jeff, his brother Jack, and a keyboardist and drummer I didn't recognise. The music mixed electric and acoustic guitar, with lots of insightful lyrics - I'd vote Jeff for president, if (i) he stood and (ii) I had a vote in these things!

There were quite a lot of projections, a mix of Jeff's own comic stuff and short snippets of film sent in by fans. One of the songs I like the theme of is I Met a Hippy Girl on 8th Avenue, in which Jeff realises that although he's still a hippy, he doesn't wear hippy clothes any more, in fact he doesn't really look much like a hippy. He also changed the lyrics to mention Kate Goes... fans - Pete was wearing a Kate Goes... t-shirt and I must admit that was my plan too - except I couldn't find it...

Jeffrey Lewis - I Saw a Hippy Girl on 8th Ave

Richard Batsford and Pete Ashton were both there and I suspect they will also write about the gig.

Rich mentioned that Jeff reminded him of Jamie Kilstein , a standup we both saw at Spank during the Edinburgh Festival - I thought the same when I wrote about Jamie.

I left clutching yet another Jeff Lewis t-shirt, a CD of City and Eastern Songs, a single and a comic! I like buying stuff right off the band, because I know the money is going to a good cause and that it's what enables them to stay on tour. I also remember chatting to Jeff at another gig once where he gave me a can of beer from his rider!

I also got a free Dufus sampler CD from someone who's promoting their gig on the 9th of November at the Actress and Bishop - they're not a paid promoter, just someone who thinks Dufus are great!

At last... RSS Feed for this blog!

After various requests, I've finally added an RSS Feed for this blog. I've used the Page2RSS service, as I found that the feed generated from TWiki wasn't really right for the Job.

Stop Junk Mail in 1 Minute 36 Seconds

The mailing preference service blocks junk mail in the UK. It really works as companies are legally required to stop bothering you if you're on the list.

Registration took me 1 minute 36 seconds and lasts for 5 years. Just go to: http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/mps_choosetype.html

Click "next", enter your postcode, choose your house number and type in your email - all done, no junk mail for 5 years.

Wasn't that easy!

Post this to your blog and help stop the tidal wave of junk mail!

Friday 19th October 2007

Blink Magazine Launch and Plus Design Festival

A who's who of Birmingham's free drinks/party fans design and arts scene people descended on the Plus Design Festival site (93 Floodgate St, Digbeth) last night for free drinks and music from Poppy and the Jezebels amongst others. Unfortunately, the sound quality for the bands wasn't good , however the festival itself looks greats with lots of nice work on display, and a live pacman game which wasn't running on the night, but hopefully will be over the weekend. Check it out, it's fun and free.

Blink Magazine is the new mag from the people behind the excellent Fused, focussing more exclusively on lifestyle, fashion etc. and aimed at the city living crowd. I had a flick at the launch and it's got the same quality as Fused, but without so much graphic design. Good luck to them, that's what I say!

Tuesday 16th October 2007

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Tribute

Down to the Town Hall again, this time for a Tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, featuring his original band (troupe?) and led by his nephew Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. A torrential downpour led and ensuing traffic chaos led to many of the audience arriving late, but this and the wide mix of ages (from about 2 years old to 90's) gave it a quite a family/festival feel. Quite a few of the songs were from films, and well known to the audience, and some I recognised from Nusrat's recordings.

And the probability is...

Searching Google for "brief encounter rep" to find out when this excellent play finished (Saturday by the way), GoogleAds popped up the following "Right size bra? Are you wearing the wrong size bra? Probability is YES! www.correctbrasize.info". Now I do work in statistics to a degree, I've a PhD in data mining, but I don't think you need one of these to work out that the probability is actually "NO!".

Say the search is done 50:50 by men and women; that not all women are wearing the wrong size of bra; and that very few men are wearing a bra at all, we can approximate the probability of wearing the wrong size bra: Pwsb = 0.5 * ( proportion of women wearing the wrong size bra )

Let's face it, it's going to be less than 50%. The only question left is whether I should contact the Advertising Standards Authority. Hmmm....

Monday 15th October 2007

Pram, Modified Toy Orchestra and Shady Bard

My first time in the main hall of the newly re-opened Town Hall . As you might expect, the venue has allocated seating, and mine was right at the end of the very front row - not ideal as you couldn't see the band well and we were sat right next to what I think was a bass speaker. However, Shady Bard were great - multi instrumentalists, with three different members having a go on the piano, an array of different guitars and a violinist who also played the tuba (at least I think that's what it was).

After the interval, from which we arrived back a little late, not noticing the signal as we were chatting away in the bar, we grabbed seats a bit further back, which were fine. Modified Toy Orchestra did a stonking set, my favourite being Dark Star which plays with repeating sounds which become the almost silence-like background against which music is played out. Doh! You can't really describe the music, but it was great and in places funny - which is always a bonus to me, clever music is often funny as it sets up an expectation which is then broken. Visuals were great, with almost all of the tracks having a synchronised video, with music from the toys and toy-keyboards/fake guitars laid down on top.

Back from the second interval in good time for Pram, it was really good to see them again. They did seem to have some problems with sound balance (in fact this occurred for all of the bands to an extend), but really came together for the louder and more complex parts of the set. More excellent videos, almost like miniature films - quite spooky some of them, particularly with the masked faces which seem to be a Pram theme. Their new album is out now (or very very soon) so I'm looking forward to getting hold of it!

Sunday 14th October 2007

Upcoming: Modified Toy Orchestra and Pram at The New Town Hall

Modified Toy Orchestra (see Guardian Article ) and Pram plus Shady Bard are playing this Monday (15th) at the newly re-opened Town Hall. It's an excellent chance to see the new building and catch local hero's Pram in a rare live performance. Visuals are by filmficciones and should be stunning!

Book here!

Tuesday 8th October 2007

I finally did it...

... I paid for something on the internet. Not for goods - I've done that for years, bought CDs, camera batteries, memory cards, mugs, t-shirts and more. No, what I paid for today, for the very first time, was a website based service. I've paid for a flickr account!

So what tipped me over the edge? Hmmm... Well, it's relatively cheap (£1/month); I wanted to put up my pictures from Japan (and ran out of space half way through); I realised that flickr is very well supported by other websites (e.g. facebook application); I figured that if I decide not to pay, I've still got the photos on my machine.

My Blog about Japan covers most of my trip, but I've still got a couple of days to add if/when I get time. Similarly, I'm only half way through selecting and uploading photos to flickr.

Saturday 6th October 2007

Infusion

My first visit to the new Town Hall to see a short, free set in the basement bar. Infusion are a Birmingham based band made up of people from all over the globe. They played a mixture of musical styles, blending music from Albania, Kurdistan, Congo and beyond. The band leader was great at interacting with the audience and the whole thing was great fun

I couldn't find a website for the band, but they're connected with Sound It Out and there's some more info about some of the musicians on Home from Home Blog.

Friday 5th October 2007

Diwans

I went for a balti for the first time in ages - I've been kind of avoiding them, having been served some pretty awful stuff, swimming in ghee and lacking in flavour. However, I actually quite liked the food at Diwans. I went for sag paneer with mushrooms and a coriander nan and it was good and tasty and totally lacking the film of oil I'd come to dread. Plus, it was exceedingly cheap!

Thursday 4th October 2007

Written on the Body

My second visit to the planetarium at Millennium Point, this time to see a film by Leon Trimble and Lisa Wetton. Projected on to the dome of the planetarium (or "surround cinema") it completely fills your view. The film mixes a number of techniques, footage Leon's home-grown multi-directional camera made using 5 cctv cameras with 180degree lenses, morphed stills, footage intercut in a ying/yang shape and more. The film features three dancers who intertwine, leap the multi-cam and sway in synchrony. It was funded by the Arts Council, under the Fracture Programme, which united dance and screen. There are still a number of Fracture events / exhibitions running in the midlands.

There's a BBC News article where you can view a clip of the film , though I must admit it didn't work for me.

Tuesday 2nd October 2007

Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Being in Wolverhampton for a meeting, I popped into Wolverhampton Art Gallery. In addition to Richard Billingham's Zoo, videos of repetitive behaviour in captive animals there's work by Vanley Burke on slavery and the sugar trade, Veil work about Northern Ireland by Rita Duffy, made from prison doors and glass tears, and of course the permanent and pop-art collections.

Slave bracelets made of sugar

Veil - Rita Duffy

The Sheepfold, Morning in Autum - James Thomas Linnell

Fun with Graphs (Revisited)

One of the advantages of having a blog is the ability to look back and see what you did in previous years. I was having a look at my blog from one year ago and I wondered how the trends I plotted at the time had progressed.

The rise of internet empires

(live version)

Does Netfame Last?

(live version)

Monday 1st October 2007

Brief Encounter - Kneehigh Theatre

At the beginning of Kneehigh Theatre's Brief Encounter, there's a sign which says "approved for exhibition to an incurably romantic audience", so maybe that's why it appealed to me.

However it wasn't just the plot, the scenery and stage was excellent, and once again Kneehigh blended drama, romance and humour into a cocktail of fantabulous theatre

Lighting (check out the shadow scene), inventive staging (the three or is it four different representations of trains) and some cute (but slightly bizarre) music and balloon acts set off the deeply emotive, calm and clear acting of our two leads.

I've not seen the film, though I thought about getting hold of a copy last week, but I'm glad to have seen the theatre production first - I always like coming to a plot fresh. However, I plan to see it soon and compare.

Kneehigh are one of my favourite theatre companies, and I saw their Cymbeline twice last year, and Tristan and Yseult the year before.

If you'd like to see them in action, and you really should, Brief Encounter is at the Birmingham Rep until the 20th October and then at the West Yorkshire playhouse from the 24th Oct till 10th November.

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Sunday 30th September 2007

Comedy and Improv Night at Atticus

Atticus is a venue I've never visited before, it's in Bearwood, just round the corner from The Bear and on the number 11 bus route, so relatively easy to get to from Moseley. Tonight's line up featured James Cook, Gary Delaney, Mrs Barbara Nice and Okse trying out some new material and playing improv games. If I had to make a pick of the bunch, I'd go for Gary Delaney's new material - he had some great one-liners (and some which weren't so great but which he loved so much he could hardly tell them for laughing).

More Birmingham Bloggers

Added Peter Miller's Blog to the list of Birmingham Bloggers. Peter has just moved to blogspot, and you can find links to his archives in his first post.

Saturday 29th September 2007

Blue Man Group on Global Warming

I went to see the Blue Man Group back in March 2006, and I've just come across this video of them on the topic of global warming. Quite nice.

Thursday 27th September 2007

Beautiful,Touching and Wise

Rich Batsford's Gig at the Old Joint Stock was billed as his first, although he has previously performed in various other bands, and solo at the local Buddhist centre and Church!

The music was a mixture of Rich's haunting piano instrumentals, touching songs about friends and relationships and some Beach Boys covers. You can download his first album (of instrumentals) for free!

Great gig, I just hope he records some of his other work soon, as I'd love to hear it all again.

Rich Batsford at the Old Joint Stock

Wednesday 26th September 2007

Binary Oppositions

Vivid and The Rainbow in the thriving musical and arts quarter of Digbeth provided the venues to launch Binary Oppositions. Matt Price has worked (with many others) to produce a snapshot of some of the most exciting and innovative work coming out of Brum, including a CD featuring 20 artists and an exhibition scheduled to travel to Italy. Music featured on the CD includes some of my favourites: Misty's Big Adventure, Kate Goes, Pram, and many other excellent musicians. It really is a "must have" (or "must listen"?). There are only 500 copies in a limited "gallery edition", so act quickly! It's available on Static Caravan Recordings , though currently listed as "unavailable" - I'm guessing that's because the web-page is still pre-launch.

For those of you in the North of Italy, you can visit the exhibition at the Citric Gallery in Brescia

Micronormous at The Rainbow

Mike in Mono at The Rainbow

Mike in Mono at The Rainbow (Swirled)

Tuesday 25th September 2008

Cornelia Parker and Marjolijn Dijkman

Two great exhibitions at the Ikon Gallery. Majolijn Dijkman's hypnotic video installation Wandering through the Future shows clips from 70 films set in the future and drew quite a crowd. It's an hour long so I'll be heading to the Tower Room at the Ikon to chill out in front of it at some stage.

Cornelia Parker's work has been suspended. Or rather, Cornelia Parker's work is suspended. Pieces which really caught my eye included chunks of earth excavated from under the Leaning Tower of Pisa, suspended in layers and completely occupying a large part of the 1st floor gallery. Another on the 2nd floor is a kind of cross section of a forest fire, with charred wood and pine cones floating silently in the centre of the room. The pic doesn't really do this one justice, but the work is interesting and worth seeing.

Cornelia Parker - Suspended Earth and Wood

Sunday 23rd September 2007

Pantigelli near Abergavenny

Spent the weekend at a bunk barn in Pantigelli, near Abergavenny. Pantigelli (how do you pronounce that?) isn't too far from Pertholey. Hmmmm...

Pertholey

We had a great fire - is it the infra-red that made it look purple?

Someone brought some fire poi.

This tardis like building is The Mission Hall with a "Meeting every Lords Day". There is actually a building behind it but it's so overgrown that this is the only part you can see.

Angel, Cake.

The market hall in Abergavenny had several flying chefs, a left over from the food festival the previous week.

Butcher closed (due to being locked up).

The butcher's shop in the market hall had this sign up. I'm not sure they wrote it all themselves

An oak apple wedded to an acorn

I liked this. Somehow it seemed like a metaphor for humanity - two separate but interacting things (mind and body) welded together. (That makes me sound like a dualist. hmm. my philosophical position on "what the mind is" and "what a human is" is a bit more complex than that. Should get round to writing it up sometime).

Sunday 16th September 2007

City Hall

City Hall was open today as part of the Thames Festival. It has some amazing stairs!

Singing in "The Scoop"

The Heart of London

With the right reflection, The Scoop next to City Hall takes on a special shape. The colours you can see are the school uniforms of children forming a giant choir.

These are some of the 800 people singing together to raise money for Water Aid. The tales of Guinnea Worm and other problems certainly got me to donate.

Tower Bridge

Plighting one's troth on Tower Bridge

Sticker on Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge open for shipping

Millenium Flame

Millenium Flame - lit in 1999 and burning continuously since! This flame resides in City Hall.

No to ID. Buy your ID card here.

Nice display in the window of a newsagent. a "No to ID" sticker rubs shoulders with a notice about 24hr CCTV and advert for "Age Check" cards.

Thu 13th September 2007

A Victory(i)

On the bus today, I noticed an advert for "British Gas Electricity". They were claiming that their electricity has the lowest CO2 emissions of any supplier. If they think this is the criteria that people use to make their choices, then maybe, slowly, we're getting somewhere!

A Victory (ii)

I heard today that the application by Moseley Golf Club to build a practice area on Billesley Lane Allotments had been turned down - because of a clause I got inserted into the Birmingham Unitary Development plan. It was a lot of work for all of us, scrutinising and commenting on a document the size of a telephone directory (3 times), attending the public enquiry and arguing the case, but it shows that the less glamorous side of work at Friends of the Earth does pay off!

I'm not claiming the credit - lots of people have done much more work than me to fight to keep these allotments, but it's so nice to have a payoff from all that work!

On the downside, there's still lots to fight for to ensure this isn't overturned, but let's skip the downside for today

Thu 6th September 2007

Damian Ortega - Ikon Eastside

A fun and well attended opening at Ikon Eastside, Damian Ortega's sculptures transform rolls of sheet copper into waves, mazes and cones, with a great brilliance and colour. It runs till 21st October, though the flyer says "open Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th October" - so might be work checking the opening times/days with Ikon.

Copper Waves - "Being" by Damian Ortega

Weds 5th September 2007

xkcd Comics

Randomly websurfing and I came across xkcd , a comic strip which mixes geekdom and romance, and is both funny and loveable.

Here's a romantic / geeky one

and a couple of geeky ones:

and

A couple of other favourites: "Dream Girl", "Candy Buttons", "Choices(1 of 5)" or you can just go for a Random Cartoon.

Mon 2nd September 2007

Is it art?

I saw this strange "canvas" at the bus stop opposite the Birmingham Coach Station, on the little road where TheAnchor pub is. I liked the look of it.

No. It's a burnt poster.

Sat 1st September 2007

Moseley Folk Festival

Although the cloud's didn't break until sunset, it was still a nice day to sit in the park, having a picnic and listening to music.

When Fairport Convention started, I was quite near the back, and not so impressed, even though I've seen and enjoyed them on previous occasions. Before I left I though I'd wander down to the front, where I'd watched Tungg, and they were so much better close up. You could see the band rivalries and acting up which you get when people have played together for many many years. Great musicians, I'm glad I stayed to catch all their set.

Moseley Folk Festival Sign

Crowd at Moseley Folk

Passwords to 100 Embassies

Swedish hacker DEranged has published login details for 100 embassy email accounts around the world. Apparently they are running software with well known flaws and haven't fixed them. He implies that they have been vulnerable to a simple hack for several years. Who knows how many other people have exploited this flaw to spy on embassy email traffic. His aim in publishing them is to get them and the thousands of other businesses and organisations to sort out their email security.

Classic passwords include Password (The UK Visa Application Centre in Nepal, Hong Kong Democratic Party, Indian Defence Research & Development Organisation), 1234 (Indian Embassies in China and the USA) and kenya (Iranian Embassy in Kenya). There are going to be some mightly p'd off people...

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Friday 31st Aug 2007

Vandalism...

I don't really approve of this, but you can't deny it's kind of funny. Someone has "decorated" one of the heads on the outside of St Martin's in the Bullring.

Head on St Martins Church (with Lipstick)

M.A. Show at Margaret St

The M.A. show at Margaret St School of Art is well worth a visit - nearly 20 artists displaying their work in a beautiful purpose built art school in the heart of Birmingham.

Pieces which stood out to me included:

Lisa Metherell's work using glow sticks and distorting mirrors. She also created these Polari signs dotted about the corridors:

No Smoking in Polari

Jennifer Hankin's distorted body images made from tights and clothing, displayed in a maze of mirrors.

Distorted Body Image

Keir William's video showing glowing dot as he follows flies in his garden with his fingers, and also his videos showing interactions between analog and digital musicians.

There was also an "insectoid" performance in a insect nest made out of paper (which visitors could crawl into), although unfortunately this was interrupted half way through by a loud recording of Rod Stewart from an adjoining piece.

Friday 24th Aug 2007

The Best Festival?

I was having a look at Jeffery Lewis's List of Upcoming gigs , and I saw he was playing the End of the Road Festival . And guess who else is playing? Misty's Big Adventure, Herman Dune, Architecture in Helsinki and Robyn Hitchcock! And they have a cider bus. Pretty good line up in my book!

They have a surprisingly well designed flash website, which played me music from Port O'Brian while I browsed.

MySpace

Is it just me? Or is MySpace virtually unusable now-a-days? Sometimes the pages take minutes to load - I'm not sure if this is due to the quantity of images (sourced from all over the web) which have to load or what. But I find it very irritating! Grrrr.

I Like Monkeys

Little Howard proudly states I Like Monkeys in this short video. I saw him and Big Howard at SummerSundae last year. I reckon he should go it along and ditch Big Howard (only joking Mr Read!)

Thurs 23rd Aug 2007

Women of Birmingham

Having a look for live music this weekend, I came across Richard Burke and his song Women of Birmingham, a heartfelt plea for said ladies "to give me a chance". Somehow funny but poignant - "I'm asking you please, I've been lonely all these years". Nice bit of guitar work too. Anyway, he's playing at the Sunflower Sessions Sunday afternoon /evening freebie at the Yardbird with a number of other local singer songwriters.

Thurs 16 Aug 2007

Jason Cook

Jason Cook's show My Confessions at The Stand take you through 10 of the worst things he's done in his life, often prompted by that nagging voice which encourages him to play inappropriate practical jokes. However, it's not all comedy, the self-admissions and the stunning finale left me with a tear in my eye. See him - if you can get tickets.

The Smile Off Your Face

An amazing, moving, piece of one-on-one performance which starts with you being blindfolded and being placed in a wheelchair with your hands bound. In this vulnerable position of sensory deprivation, you disappear off into a secret world hidden behind a curtain. Sounds, smells and spoken word combine to generate a series of emotions and revelations which leave you with a depth of insight into yourself and your life. Totally recommended.

The theatre company is called Ontroerend Goed but I'd strongly suggest you don't read any more before you've been to see the performance).

Reginald D Hunter

Reginald D Hunter's show F*ck You in the Age of Consequence plays the largest venue I attended at Edinburgh, and it was sold out. This says something about the practised ease with which he works. You can see some short video clips of previous shows, but you really need to get immersed in his show to appreciate his warm, revelatory style.

Weds 15th August 2007

In My Father's House

Kindle Theatre have already collected a Must See rating from The Stage for this complex, deep, humorous and moving piece. I saw one of the Birmingham performances last month and loved it. Drawing on the interactions between ritual and individuality, questioning who we can put our faith into, it delves deep into the psyche of the four characters and packs an astounding amount of content into it's short hour.

Even having seen the piece before, I was left with my heart in my mouth at certain points, and I'll never hear "The Hokey Cokey" in the same way again.

Don't be fooled by the poster featuring an image of Christ - this is no wishy-washy Christian theatre group. Their previous shows at Edinburgh have also attracted rave reviews. See it.

Adam Bloom

Adam Bloom is an angry man. Or so he tells us. His story revolves around his attempts to deal with his tendency to get angry: when his girlfriend is insulted; when some one slights him in a supermarket; and when his attempts to get anger management don't pan out. Hilarious and engaging, apparently it only puts him in slight danger of a lawsuit for defamation of character.

Glen Wool

Glen likes a drink. Drunk Glen has given him some of the best nights of his life, and days, and 3 day benders. Warm, funny but slightly scary, you wonder just how far he might go, and the answer is pretty far. He's got beautiful stage craft, varying the pace and style of his performance and leaving the audience with face-ache due to laughter.

Tues 14 Aug 2007

More Edinburgh Comedy

Firstly to see Nicole Korkolis's show I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours at Laughing Horse@Berlin, a new venue to me at the far end of Princess St. Bawdy, audience interactive and fun. Oh, and free.

Then Jim Jeffries at the Cow Barn, featuring some of his hit YouTube video of being punched in the face during a previous show. Worth checking out online, but the full version with his commentary added an extra dimension.

Chilled out at the Green Room for a while then on to Spank where we were treated to some excellent work from hairy Australian comic Steve Hughes, Carey Marx and LLoyd Langford, plus a 4 person miming drag act Sound of Music and Jamie Kilstein again doing his humourous rant against religion with hardy a pause for breath.

See also Richard Batsford's account of the day

Mon 13 Aug 2007

Spank at the Underbelly

Jamie Kilstein

See also Richard Batsford's more detailed account of the evening

Sun 12 Aug 2007

Pacific Ocean Fire

Sun 12 Aug 2007

Other Highlights

!!! were great, in a new rave stylee.

Maps were fun, and Martha Wainwright can sing, play guitar and banter well with the audience. Kitty, Daisy and Lewis are about 12 but really got the main stage going.

Think I missed the best bits of The Whip but everyone else seemed to think they were good. Fujiya and Miyagi hale from Brighton not Japan, but made some very musical electronic sounds.

Posted on the move at 20:33

Sun 12 Aug 2007

Milton Jones

Sun 12 Aug 2007

The Lea Shores - Summer Sundae

Sat 11 Aug 2007

Acoustic Vibronics

Sat 11 Aug 2007

Modified Toy Orchestra

Fri 10 Aug 2007

Osama's Blue Balloon

Fri 10 Aug 2007

Any Answers

Tues 7th August 2007

More BirminghamBloggers

I've added new folder blog (ex-Liverpool, now in Smethwick) and Danny Bernardi's From Under the Rotunda blog to the list of BirminghamBloggers.

Sun 5 Aug 2007

Sky Lantern

Sun 5 Aug 2007

John Hegley and The Popticians

Sun 5 Aug 2007

Shaun Hughes

Sat 4 Aug 2007

Zebra People

Sat 4 Aug 2007

Grass Portraits

Thu 2 Aug 2007

Big Chill Radio

Wed 1 Aug 2007

Test Mobile Blog

Weds 1st August 2007

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Sunday 29th July 2007

The Marvellous Mechanical Mouse Mill

I just watched this episode of Bagpuss, in which the mice have a mill, which makes chocolate biscuits out of breadcrumbs and butterbeans. However, and I'm spoiling the plot, so look away now... it turns out that they just put the breadcrumbs and butterbeans down chutes and collect them at the bottom in sacks again, ready to take round the front and haul up to the hoppers. Similarly, there is only one chocolate biscuit which they keep re-using. A factory which produces chocolate biscuits is implausible. As Prof. Yaffle says: "No, no, no, no, no. Ridiculous! Ridiculous! You can't make chocolate biscuits out of breadcrumbs and butterbeans." and he's quite right.

I'm sure there's some analogy here with an economic system which claims to make happiness out of Big Macs and consumer goods.

Wednesday 26th July 2007

Facebook

I've succumbed. I've joined Facebook , and I must say I prefer it to MySpace, at least for the moment. I've been thinking about social network visualisation (and doing some work in this area) for a while, and I'd thought about writing an application which visualised Facebook (or MySpace) networks. I found a couple already. This one from Touchgraph is quite nice, though it seems to run quite slow to me. It took an age load finish loading stuff when I started it the first time, but works quite nicely. Though not of course as nicely as a version I would have written

• Facebook social network (too small for you to see who's in it ):
  

• Network without pictures (intentionally blurred):
  

Tuesday 25th July 2007

CheatNeutral

Those guys at CheatNeutal.com are at it again in this funny YouTube video documenting some of their media appearances and attempts to persude the public to pay other people to offset their infidelity.

Sunday 23rd July 2007

Seven Inch Cinema

First time for Seven Inch Cinema at the Hare and Hounds in King's Heath. I missed the first half of the programme which was short films, but arrived in time to see Juneau Project performing on their home made instruments and a strange French guy eating a microphone to a backing of loops and feedback! I also got to see Powers of Ten which is one of my favourite films.

Saturday 22nd July 2007

Misty's and Kate Goes...

The Moseley Rd Baths fundraiser down at the Medicine Bar today featured two of my favourite bands, Misty's Big Adventure and Kate Goes.... If that can't save the baths, I don't know what will. There is a dire need for baths amongst some of the Moseley community, although some would benefit from a simple shower instead.

Friday 20th July 2007

Cafe Soya

Went to Cafe Soya with a group of friends. Had my old favourite - Deep Fried Fish and Tofu in Sweet Chilli Sauce mmmmmh, nice.

Tuesday 17th July 2007

Birmingham Artists

Sign the petition to save Birmingham Artists . Apparently their funding has been cancelled at short notice.

I'm on Facebook

I'm now on Facebook. See my Facebook profile .

Thursday 12th July 2007

Kindle Theatre - In My Father's House

Kindle Theatre are a Birmingham based theatre group, so the MAC is home turf for them. Rather bizarrely, the audience included a large group of maths summer school students, but they seemed to enjoy the performance.

Like the previous work I've seen by Kindle, at "Party Like There's No Tomorrow" and the launch event for the Festival of Xtreme Building, In My Father's House involves some audience participation, though not so much as to put off anyone of a nervous disposition Upon entry, we were greeted and seated by the performers, asked to sign a guestbook and given both a plum and a plastic knife!

Our slightly highly strung characters showed us how to make a plum cake, informed us of the meaning of life and revealed some veiled but quite traumatic events in their own lives. Along with this there was group hymn singing, and a performance of the Hockey Cokey.

It's hard to describe the performance as a whole, this isn't a simple narrative work, but it's highly engaging and had the audience on the edge of their seats. I believe it's going to the Edinburgh Festival, so you've a chance to catch it there.

Kraftwerk - Hockey Cokey

Odd but strangely catchy tribute to Kraftwerk's version of the Hockey Cockey .

Tuesday 10th July 2007

Moroccan Food at La Fibule

Amazingly enough I hadn't eaten at the local Moroccan restaurant, La Fibule until today. The place was very busy, especially for a Tuesday night, with virtually all of the tables occupied. Surely this is a sign they're doing something right. Our waiting staff were polite and friendly without being overbearing. There's no drinks license, but Drinksville a couple of doors down supplied some nice organic wine. The food was interesting, well presented and tasty but not over spiced, and we did ask for some harissa to add a bit of heat.

Sun 8th July 2007

Anthony Gormley at the Hayward Gallery

Anthony Gormley's work at the Hayward Gallery has been well publicised, including a specially written Radio 4 play. The most interesting piece for me was a large glass box full of fog, so large that you can get 20 people in it and still get lost. From the outside, you see many people following the glass walls, just their outlines and their hands touching the glass visible. I had to queue for about 10 minutes to get in, and when I did I headed out for the centre of the space. Visibility is around an arms length, and the overall effect is very disorientating. All you can see is an even white light. Staring at this is very strange, looking round and seeing no change, turning my head and the world doesn't move. Soon the capillaries in my eye are visible to me, overlaid on the grey.

View from inside the fog box

Containing Boxes

Rooftop Statues

Rinky Dink

Rinky Dink on the South Bank

South Bank Sheds

Behind the Hayward Gallery there are a number of sheds, each of which has been modified by an artist. One contained a digital coconut shy, another a book swap at which I picked up a copy of The Rotters Club which is set in south Birmingham. A third contained the secret world shown below, but my favourite contained cubicals each with a chair, headphones and a little window overlooking the pavement cafe. The audio told a looped story of the people sitting there.

View into a shed

Sat 7th July 2007

Photographers at the start of the Tour de France

Tour de France - Photographers at the start line

Friday 6th July 2007

Bollard Faces - Near London Bridge

Bollard Faces

Sunday 1st July 2007

The Lives of Others

Saw The Lives of Others at The MAC. Haven't been to the cinema there for a while - they've refurbished, but unfortunately got caught in the flooding so there's a very slight (but not unpleasant) musty smell to the place.

The Lives of Others deals with life in East Berlin prior to the wall coming down, in particular the interaction between the Staasi (secret service) and those they spy on. How accurate is was I don't know, but it does give an intriguing insight into how these things work(ed).

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Sat 30th June 2007

Tunnel Vision

Visited the Fierce Tunnel Vision event today. The tunnel in question runs from The Mailbox across to New St Station and was previously used to transport letters to and from the mail trains.

I'd booked for the 2pm visit, and it was quite busy, with the party of 20 or so being split into two groups. Nipping quickly through a service door and down in a lift brought us to the basement and into the world which is normally hidden.

Inside the tunnel, installations of lights, projections and found objects where accompanied by a varied soundscape which reflected the visuals and the space. The final section was in darkness, illuminated by blinding white flashes of light from the end of the tunnel, silhouetting the other visitors. Well worth a visit, it's free and open Friday 6th to Sunday 8th July. Book on 0121 244 8084 or if you're passing drop in at the desk outside the BBC in the Mailbox.

• Light at the end of the tunnel:
  

Tue 26th June 2007

Birmingham Surveillance Blog

Red Line Surveillance are watching the people of Birmingham. Unlike the other surveillance going on in the city, they put their findings up on the web for us all to see. They're operating from the Festival of Xtreme Building site and various other locations around town.

Sun 24 Jun 2007

In tents

Sat 23 Jun 2007

Seize the Day

Fri 22 Jun 2007

Pentaphant

Fri 22 Jun 2007

Late Shift at the Lock Up

Fri 22 Jun 2007

Use Your Legs

Thu 21 Jun 2007

Dragon Crucified

Wed 20 Jun 2007

Portiso Quartet

Tue 19 Jun 2007

test mobile blogging

Testing..2 This is an Elephant... Posted on the move at 12:07

Monday 18th June 2007

BirminghamBloggers

Another new blogger to add to the list of BirminghamBloggers - Richard Batsford , musician, comedy booker and all round nice guy.

Plans for Project X 2007 are also