Brum Blog #3

Originally published 17/11/06 here.

TODAY'S PHOTO


Cold Water by Rob Gillespie ©.

SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND

Music
On Saturday I'll be popping along to see Una Corda, Mothertrucker, upcdowncleftcrightcabc+start and Haxan at Chapter 11 at a gig put on by It's Just Noise. Where's Chapter 11? Good question. It's in, or maybe even is, the King Edwards Inn by Aston University. Here's a photo and here's a map. The flyer promises variations on the theme of post-rock with a stoner edge. And some other stuff. Plenty of quiet-loud-quiet instrumental soundscapes and noodling guitar-based noise I'd imagine. Personally, and as someone who's not really a rock/metal kinda guy, I've thoroughly enjoyed the Una Corda and Mothertrucker gigs I've been to and am intrigued by upcdownc, so for Four Pounds this is a no brainer. Doors open at 7.30pm.

Food
The annual Frankfurt Christmas Market starts this weekend in Victoria Square. Here's hoping they have that giant ugly Santa again this year.

Art


Patrick Hughes' Superduperspective is currently on show at the Waterhall in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. You'll know his work if you've ever been there before - one has been on display in the entrance for years now. From his website:

Reverspectives are three-dimensional paintings that when viewed from the front initially give the impression of viewing a painted flat surface that shows a perspective view. However as soon as the viewer moves their head even slightly the three dimensional surface that supports the perspective view accentuates the depth of the image and accelerates the shifting perspective far more than the brain normally allows. This provides a powerful and often disorienting impression of depth and movement... The illusion is made possible by painting the view in reverse to the relief of the surface, that is, the bits that stick furthest out from the painting are painted with the most distant part of the scene. This is where the term reverse perspective or Reverspective comes from.

This is apparently "the largest ever UK exhibition of his three-dimensional paintings and prints" and it runs until 11th Feb.

Film
Outside of the multiplexes, The MAC has the fascinating looking Cinema of Prayoga, an exhibition of experimental Indian film from 1913 to 2006, split over 3 programmes starting at 12.30pm. This actually looks pretty unmissable, especially the 4.15 show "Indian Video Art: Between Myth and History".

CREATIVE INDEX

An ongoing attempt to catalogue the various organisations, collectives and ramshackle groupings in Birmingham that are dedicated to pursuing and promoting the interesting. Starting with the blindingly obvious...

Capsule - music gigs, mainly at the Custard Factory, with an experimental / metal bias. Producers of the annual Supersonic Festival.

7 Inch Cinema - dedicated to underground, low budget, independent or just plain different moving pictures, they do regular nights at the Rainbow in Digbeth along with the annual Flatpack Festival, the next one being in February. They also have a What's On page "in the absence of a sparky listings zine/website for the West Mids." We're working on it...

Ten4 Magazine is based in the West Midlands and covers the creative industries along with giving advice to aspiring artists such as grant applications and so on. Alongside this they have a blog which I've found pretty useful.

More, much much more, to come (and let me know of anything relevant to this section in the comments below or by email.)

UPDATES

BBC Birmingham has more on Mark "Dead Soldier" McGowan with some nice reactions from the public and links to radio interviews.