Created in Birmingham

Rob Peters at Highbury Studio

Chris Unitt — Sun, 27 May 2012 08:25:11 +0000

Rob Peters, the engineer at Highbury Studio, showing John Mostyn how all their analogue equipment works:

Warning: contains talk of reverb, patch bays, channels and all sorts of other things.

To be filed alongside the behind the scenes vids from The Electric

Birmingham film locations: a walking tour

Chris Unitt — Sat, 26 May 2012 09:36:54 +0000

If you missed the walking tour of Birmingham film locations during the Flatpack and Still Walking festivals then it’s being re-run (in conjunction with Film Birmingham this time) on Saturday 16 June. Includes bonus extra indoor location.

Grab a ticket here.

Hollywood Waist

Chris Unitt — Sat, 26 May 2012 09:08:03 +0000

Hearty congratulations to the winners of the public vote in the 2 Weeks 2 Make It Midlands 2012 music video competition – Rage Arts (who did the filming) and Drag (who did the music). The track’s called Hollywood Waist and here’s the video (just be aware there are some naughty words and scenes of self-harming and such):

All the other winners and entrants are up on the 2 Weeks 2 Make It Midlands 2012 website. I’d link directly to the page but the stupid website won’t let me. Some info about/links to the participants wouldn’t have gone amiss either. Ach well.

Links for 25 May 2012

Chris Unitt — Fri, 25 May 2012 07:05:50 +0000

Goldie Speaking after the final performance of Wings of Desire – IDFB 2012
Nice little interview this.
The Golden Age of silver.mp4 – YouTube
“A BBC Production with the Birmingham Assay office as a Key Contributor”
Celebrating Sanctuary Birmingham – Home of Birmingham’s World Music Festival.
Showcasing the UK’s refugee musical culture, both traditional and contemporary, alongside music from across the world
Supersonic Festival – 10th anniversary | WeFund project
Capsule are doing the crowdfunding thing for Supersonic this year
Jewellery Quarter Popup Art Exhibition at The Spectacle Works June 2012
Midland`s artists are invited to submit artwork for inclusion in a selling exhibition to be located at the heart of the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham in June 2012
Birmingham Council garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Birmingham City Council is the only local authority in the UK to have a stand at this year’s flower show
Participant Call Out: If Only I Could
“a basic level of physical fitness and awareness of your own body is an advantage”. Sorry, but that bit made me laugh.
Radio To Go: Reggae City. This year, they got The Beat
Yet another good post by Robin Valk – this time talking to Jon Walsh and Ranking Roger about the Reggae City festival (2 June at the Rainbow in Digbeth)
The Voyage rehearsals at Birmingham NEC – a set on Flickr
A sneak peek at the upcoming show

A postcard from Flatpack 6

Chris Unitt — Thu, 24 May 2012 07:26:37 +0000

In case memories of this year’s Flatpack festival were starting to recede, here’s a video of some of the highlights.

It seems to be quite a festival-heavy week on CiB this week, not that that’s a bad thing.

Buy The Bench’s sofa

Chris Unitt — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:26:13 +0000

Digbeth is Good have pointed out that the graffiti supplies shop in the Custard Factory, The Bench 504, have put their sofa up on eBay.

Here’s the listing.

Capital Theatre and BE Festival

Chris Unitt — Tue, 22 May 2012 07:25:14 +0000

A couple of theatre festivals for your consideration – one kicking off this week and the other taking place in early July.

Capital Theatre Festival

This one kicks off this week, running from 24-27 May, The festival’s director, Catherine Edwards, has sent me this quick summary of what’s on:

A play about vampires that’s nothing like Twilight
A chance to chat about theatre over several pots of tea
On Call sessions with the Arts Council and BE Festival about artistic development
A play in the upstairs toilets
Input from Stan’s Cafe, Birmingham Rep, Soho Theatre, 24:7 Festival, Theatre 503, Ovalhouse, RSC
A Polarbear that’s not a bear at all
An Olympic extravaganza from Talking Birds
A journey from the Tyne Bridge to the Isle of Scilly

…and some other things. The website is at capitalplays.co.uk and the full brochure is here.

BE Festival 2012

The third (I think) incarnation of this festival, which presents performances from companies drawn from all over Europe, has just announced it’s programme for this year. This one’s happening the first week of July.

Photos from Wings of Desire

Chris Unitt — Mon, 21 May 2012 07:24:45 +0000

It was a close run thing but, having been excited about it for a while, I finally got the chance to get down to Victoria Sq on Saturday night for the final performance of Wings of Desire, the big, public, outdoor show as part of International Dance Festival Birmingham 2012.

It was good too – the bit where the Town Hall crumbled was pretty spectacular and I’m a big fan of Circa from when they performed as part of the 2010 festival. Of the videos on YouTube, this one of the building projections is alright and gives you an idea at least. In fact it makes it look darker than it was – Birmingham has a serious light pollution problem.

Katja Ogrin probably has the best collection of photos from the event that I’ve seen so definitely check those out. The IDFB blog has collected together some of the various reactions and photos from audience members. I’ve just been trawling Flickr for some more pics – here are some choice ones:

Wings of Desire // Victoria Square Preparation by IDFB

Wings of Desire. Birmingham. by Imagine Bill

Wings of Desire by Imagine Bill

Wings of Desire by Peter Reynolds3636

Angel by fatedsnowfox

Wings of Desire by Peter Reynolds3636

Wings of Desire by fatedsnowfox

Links for 18 May 2012

Chris Unitt — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:46:53 +0000

Birmingham-made film NFA to premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival – News
“not only was it filmed on location but also stars Birmingham-born actor Patrick Baladi, who played Ricky Gervais’s boss in The Office, and was produced by 104 Films, a production company co-founded by acclaimed Sutton Coldfield filmmaker Justin Edgar”
Cultural Entrepreneurship
Annette Naudin’s students have been interviewing James Yarker (Stan’s Cafe), Rosie Kay, Dorothy Wilson (MAC), Emma Chetcuti (Multistory) and many others
The Chamberlain Files = Sport and culture to “take centre stage” under Labour
“Giving details about how the new cabinet system would work, Sir Albert explained that deputy council leader Ian Ward will oversee the city’s arts, culture and sport budget, with the cabinet Member for Commissioning, Contracting & Improvement, Stewart Stacey, ensuring that the arts and sport budget is effectively used by organisations receiving council grants.”

Eastside Projects User’s Manual

Chris Unitt — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:32:33 +0000

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I’ve been sent a copy of the user’s manual for Eastside Projects. It’s the fifth one they’ve produced and it’s quite a lovely thing – part guide to the gallery, part document of their work and part choose-your-own-adventure book.

My favourite bit is an explanation of what they call ‘dog-whistling’:

As a contribution to the exhibition ‘This is the Gallery and the Gallery is Many Things’ (September to November 2008), Kelly Large instigated a perverse social ritual in the gallery. Each morning, following the opening of the building, the alarm was left to sound until a passerby or neighbour entered the building to complain. This process forced our immediate neighbours – a taxi repair workshop and a limousine hire company – to enter the gallery, where they were prompted to look around.