Brum Blog #4

Originally published 19/11/06 here

In which I give bullet points a try...

• The musician, artist and accidental superstar blogger Momus held a lecture in Birmingham recently and, naturally, presented his impressions of the city on his blog Click Opera in two posts, Breakfast in Brum and Panspermingham.
  

  The church that stands opposite the blob, for instance, what is its spire but a long stone finger pointing out into space in the vague direction of a supernatural deity? And me, I've arrived in a plane to give a lecture here. I'm from space too. When you think about it, even the industrial revolution which gave this town its core identity was really a series of tools falling from the sky, rather like the bone the monkeys in "2001: A Space Odyssey" threw up in the air -- and which came down as waltzing spacecraft. The spinning jenny, the steam engine, they must have seemed like spores when they arrived, changing everything.




• The 24 Hour Museum's Birmingham City Guide is a bit of a gem, bringing together museum, gallery and general heritage information with some original material of its own like city trails. It's also nice to see a site like this that understands the important of linking - browsing through their pages leads to all manner of interesting stuff. such as...



• Digital Handsworth is one of many slick online local history resources produced by a variety of individuals and organisations under the auspices of the Council's culture departments and the Lottery people, leveraging the expertise of the city archives department and the knowledge of the actual people of the city. It's a wonderful resource, going from the 14th century to the present day, and contains many gems such as the extensive galleries of Vanley Burke who's been photographing the people of Handsworth since 1967.
  
  
  
  There are a number of online initiatives like Digital Handsworth which deserve wider awareness and which I'll be bringing to your attention over time.



• I popped past the burnt out shell of Edwards (see Brum Blog #1) on Saturday to grab some pictures before the somewhat inevitable demolition and noticed this stuck to the railings:
  
  
  
  Bunches of flowers like this usually signify the site of a road accident or murder, but these were for the club. Obviously this (along with the makeshift memorial plaque) don't constitute a public outpouring of grief but I did find it significant. While I'm generally positive about the rapid redevelopment of the centre of town (which I touch on in this thread) it's notable how people can get attached to areas of the city that, in town planning eyes, are a blight.
  
  Finally, I neglected to check the Edwards forum where, amongst the expected reminiscences, I found news of a Deposit Fund to raise money for the "rebuild" of the club.



• Do you want to go see Misty's Big Adventure and the "anthemic nerdcore" of the ZX Spectrum Orchestra at the Glee Club on December 6th? For free? Since it's being broadcast on Radio 6's Freak Zone they ain't charging but the Glee Club isn't huge so get there quick. While Misty's play regularly in Birmingham (there's a gig at the Jug of Ale on Wednesday) a set from the ZX Spectrum Orchestra is a rare treat indeed.



• BBC Brum has details of a mass Sleep Out in a Digbeth car park on Friday November 24th, organised by St Basils to raise money and awareness of youth homelessness in the city.



• BiNS link of the week: Made in Birmingham - one man's attempt to record every company based in the city. It's somewhat mad but does contain some real gems. I particularly liked the entry for Coronet cameras as I'd picked up one of their models (a Twelve 20 Box) for a couple of quid purely because I liked the typeface. Turns out it was made here.



• Later in the week I want to do a Birmingham Blog roundup to start building a list of the quality end of the local blogosphere, so consider this a call for submissions. The comment box is below.