About Brum

With the temporary return of the Birmingham Big Wheel (hopefully without the Parisian commentary which made it all the more quirky the first time around), are we going to perhaps see a return of the Birmingham Big Screen?

For what seems like almost two years now, the Big Screen has remained resolutely dark, with nothing but a test pixel lit to show that it’s still got mains power. This is a real shame, as the screen’s a definite asset to the city centre; when I moved to the city in 2005 I enjoyed walking past it every day. I watched the news on it in the evening, I caught some short films and sometimes it even threw a few curveballs my way. As well as that, it screened the football and other major sporting events (drawing major crowds, not always without their own minor crowd control problems, but all in all well managed).

But then, one day, it went dark… Read the rest of this entry »

Can you name all the cities Birmingham’s twinned with? I could probably name one or two (Frankfurt springs to mind – if you’ve not been to the German Market at Christmas, you’re missing out!) Other cities include Johannesburg, Frankfurt, Milan, Lyon and, of all the places you’d never guess, Ramallah (intriguing choice, no?)… But Brum’s also been twinned with Chicago, the Windy City, since 1993.

How many did you get from that list? I’m somewhat reluctant to admit I didn’t even score three.

Every so often, there’s a bit of inter-city mingling, as one does when one is twinned with another city overseas, and this year Chicago’s come over to promote itself a little to the Brummagem population. They’re going stealth mode with this – and if you’re lucky, you might get a nice little treat to round off your weekend’s shopping There’s ten taxis (marked with special stickers and logos) that are pootling around the city centre for the next two weeks. The promotion’s been going on since the 15th of October, and it ends on the 15th of November – this last day is important, as on the 15th one of the ten taxis will be giving out free journeys to every passenger! The 15th is a Sunday, so if you’re lucky you might find yourself travelling home from a day of shopping at the Bullring for gratis – much nicer than the Number 11, no?

If you chance upon one of the ten marked taxis, there’s some paraphernalia inside on how to win two round trip airline tickets to Chicago. If you’re feeling lucky, you can enter a competition to stay at a four star hotel and also win a shopping trip which I would imagine works out at quite a decent value given the current £/$ conversion rate. Feeling lucky yet?

The cabs look like this, so keep your eye open for one…

And best of luck with the competition!

A sight you won’t see again… Over 130 years of history was obliterated yesterday due to an horrendous fire which swept through the former  premises of Langley Maltings Brewery in Oldbury.

The Express & Star reports that “More than 60 firefighters from stations across the Black Country and Birmingham battled through the night” after security guards first spotted the blaze catching hold inside the building at around 22:30 on the evening of the 8th. From there, it was more containment than prevention for the WMFS as the flames quickly spread to the entirety of the structure, causing massive damage and also causing its three characteristic towers to collapse into the structure.

Fortunately, the hobby of Urbexing (aka Urban Exploration; exploring buildings and the urban landscape, taking photos as you go for documentary purposes) is alive and well in the Midlands, and some good photosets have already been taken – in one case, less than a week before it was destroyed in the blaze. The photoset from adders0121 on flickr shows you what the Brewery was like inside prior to the blaze.

All this provides further evidence as to why Urbexing should become an officially-endorsed practice, supported by the local Government and associations like English Heritage! As a form of documenting the region’s past and its plethora of historical landmarks and buildings, it is almost unique in that just about everyone who Urbexes shares a similar attitude – do no damage, always be careful and be very thorough. Some people’s dedication verges on the obsessive, and I’ve seen people travel for hours just to visit a derelict building!

The saddest thing is that, aside from people who actively go exploring, the region’s industrial past is all around us yet much of it is simply being left to ruin, destruction or redeveloped into boring luxury apartments or offices… and most of us never even realise until it’s all gone. You may be surprised as to just how much you can see by simply opening your eyes and studying your surroundings a little more, so give it a try next time you’re out and about around the Midlands.

Just a quickie to remind you: the Moseley Folk Festival begins on Friday the 4th of September and runs over the course over the weekend. With a lineup including Beth Orton, Jethro Tull, Saint Etienne and El Perro del Mar (amongst many others), why aren’t you there already queueing up to get in?

I was recently reminded about this – on October the 3rd, the Town Hall is hosting a performance of Handel’s Messiah, which is also its official Birthday Concert. The piece will be performed by the Sixteen Choir and Orchestra along with what are billed as ‘world-class soloists’ (maybe we have to guess who they are? – Classic FM’s still running their competition to win tickets for the performance (competition closes 7th of September).

Along with other events surrounding the date, the Town Hall’s actual 175th birthday – the 4th of October – is marked with what the Stirrer describes as “a free, fun packed day of music and dance for all the family and a truly carnival atmosphere.” And if it’s free, where’s the harm in popping along? I’ll most certainly be going to the Handel concert regardless – I love the Messiah. I was also lucky enough to be able to sing Handel’s Messiah in a choir (at the Royal Albert Hall no less!) a few years ago, and it was truly exhilarating. It’s almost as fun to just sit and watch! The concert’s scheduled to begin at 7pm, and tickets are available (either online or via 0121 780 3333) from the Town Hall Box Office priced between £5 and £40. But act fast, they’re almost completely sold out!

With the next Brum Twestival fast approaching in September this year, the organisers have decided to hold a vote to find out which local charity is the favourite of the twestival-goers – and which will be supported at this year’s event. All the candidates are excellent charities in their own right, and I strongly urge everyone to vote for the local charity of their choice.

This year’s candidates are:

• Acorn Hospice
• Kidney Kids Appeal
• Birmingham YMCA
• The Conservation Trust
• SIFA Fireside Day Centre in Digbeth
• St Mary’s Hospice in Selly Oak

There’s more info on each of these charities on the Brum Twestival site.

Having had a good friend who died from advanced stage lung cancer spend his last weeks at the BSMH, I’m especially grateful to them for the wonderful care, attention and compassion they give to their residents and their families on a daily basis. They’re entirely funded by donations and the odd benefactor; to lose St. Mary’s Hospice - or indeed, any other Hospice – would be a tragic thing to happen and would drastically decrease the availability of quality palliative care in the West Midlands. Besides that, it would put an even greater strain on the NHS to provide the same level of extraordinary care.

So, please support your local Hospice – and indeed, support all of your local charities. If you can’t afford to donate to all of them at once, set up a rota system or donate to a number in turn, changing every couple of months. What’s £10 or £20 a month? It’s not much to you, but to them it means the world. Thank you

See you at the Twestival in September!

I’m currently upgrading About Brum to the latest stable Wordpress – I’ve left it too long without updating and it was becoming dangerously obsolete, so I took the plunge a little earlier today.

There will be some temporary ugliness but fortunately the WP coders have made upgrading to a new point release wonderfully simple – one click to update the database, step-by-step instructions that cover even non-standard installations, and just about all of my pre-existing settings, plus all my previous posts and categories have been carried over without a problem.

The last thing to be  completed is a transition to a new theme; I should have this finished by this evening so please bear with the temporary ugliness or occasionally distorted page layout as I tweak the final design.

Cheers!
Christopher

For all folk lovers (and I know there’s a few of you out there, I’m partial to a little of it from time to time) TheTicketSellers just announced that they’ll be “releasing the full lineup at the Tunng & Tinariwen gig at the Rainbow Warehouse on Adderley Street, Digbeth on Saturday 28th March.” The festival itself gets underway on the 4th of September, 2009 (running through until the 6th).

 With previous artists including Kate Rusby, José González, Fairport Convention, Morcheeba and Tunng, odds are on that this year’s lineup will be just as diverse.

To quench your thirst for folk in the meantime, the Moseley Folk Festival web site has an excellent archive of past performances (including a bunch of them on YouTube) plus plenty of photos to accompany. Tickets for this year’s MFF go on sale on the 1st of April, and will probably be around the £55 mark – bookmark their Shop and check back then

… Or slides into a row of parked cars, as I saw earlier this evening. (Turns out that this white powder can also be extremely costly for some people.)

Yes, in case you haven’t noticed, Birmingham has once again been swathed in snow. Local Highways Agency gritter depots run out of rock salt, more salt is brought over on boats from Spain and Italy (but won’t arrive until several days after the worst weather has passed) and people are once again reminded that no, you can’t just put the car into first gear and off you go. High gears low revs, people! And if you have a rear wheel drive car… Just stay at home, it’s best for everyone.

And of course, time for some customary pictures, courtesy of local publications the Brummagem Mail and the Sunday Mercury (here’s their offering). A little word of advice from the Met Office as well, via the Mail’s web site:

A low pressure system from the south is due to hit the region on Monday, bringing with it up to 15cms of snow. And with no thaw on the horizon, any snow is likely to stick and remain on the roads for days.

Flippin’ eck, that means I’m going to have to pack the table salt in the rucksack this week. The Mail’s report continues;

“We’ve got a band of sleet and snow in the north Midlands on Sunday which clears as the day goes on,” a Met Office spokesman said last night, “but the main complication is a low pressure system in the south bringing snow and sleet, which may or may not reach the Midlands. It’s more likely to stick if it does come and then we’re looking at between 10 and 15 centimetres of snow. There’s no sign of a thaw so it could well be more serious than last week. Even if it (heavy snow) doesn’t hit the region, it’s still another wintery week and the hardest hit area will probably be Warwickshire.”

Prepare for some more sledging days telecommuting days as you unfortunately can’t make it to work! For shame.

Moving on to this little corner of the web: I’d like to proffer the excuse that AboutBrum’s not received any updates due to my Internet connection being snowed in for a few weeks, but unfortunately real life has taken precedence. I’m currently almost finished in my final year at University (at BCU/UCE/BBC/whatever they call themselves these days), and projects, coursework and sleep seem to be soaking up more and more of my free time. However, at the last Birmingham Blogger’s Meet I attended I managed to snatch a few minutes of Mr. Booth’s time to run a few ideas past him for this humble web site - and as he didn’t immediately snap back that my ideas were a load of old codswallop, I think my ideas may have a little potential

(Note to readers: if you see a slightly crazed-looking bloke wandering around Brum town centre with a portable audio recorder, don’t approach him. He will, no doubt, be me.)

I have a sneaky redesign planned for this web site too, so watch out for that. Anyway, safe travels and try not to fall over walking to the shops (like I already have once or twice.) Ta-ra a bit!

This sounds like fun – a shame I’m 80 miles away from Birmingham this weekend, this gig sounds exactly like the kind of thing which could keep me entertained for hours.

As LiveBrum explains;

Project X Presents invites you on a journey into the heart of Digital Dystopia.

A carefully sequenced evening during which many performers combine to present a seamless 7 hour show of sound, light and interaction…an “omnimedia experience”. Three stages and multiple projection screens will allow the presentation of a seamless flow of multi genre entertainment, including bands, performers, comedians, VJs, DJs, dancers, poets.

A few of the Headline acts: 360, Subsource, Marc Reck, Reginald D Hunter, Rich Batsford, Shana Tova. Tickets are £10. www.projectxpresents.com/eflyer/index.html

UPDATE: The excellent Radio To Go podcast has produced a show dedicated to the Project X Presents event on Sept 13 and featuring a great selection of tasters of the music. Check it out for a listen here: http://radiotogo.blogspot.com/2008/08/project-x-presents-4.html

This sounds really quite fascinating – so if you like your alternative music and fancy some stimulation of several senses at once (maybe more if you drink alcohol!) then trip along to BUSK tomorrow evening. Smashing.