The “Page 56″ Meme
(Idea yoinked from Culture And Anarchy).
1) Grab the nearest book;
2) Open it to page 56;
3) Find the fifth sentence; and,
4) Post the text of the sentence along with these instructions.
The nearest book was Linsey Hanley’s “Estates” (borrowed from Our Louise and resting in the pocket of my coat on the back of my chair), which I’m glad indeed to have read (well… very very nearly finished. The bus tonight will do for it). It’s an exploration of the world of council housing in Britain: of the stigma now attached to what was once (briefly) one of this country’s prouder achievements, and of the ‘walls in the head’ that arise from shutting people off in an isolated and un-mantained area before going on to tell them that they’re some kind of failure for having to live there.
The definition of ‘sentence’ in the instructions is perhaps more ambiguous than one might have expected: I’d have assumed it meant ‘the fifth sentence on the page”, but the abovelinked post that I got this from appears to read it as the fifth line down the page (I say ‘appears’ – theirs is a Tolkein book, so who bleedin’ well knows). (EDIT: Woah there Nelly, it’s been all a-changed).
If, then, the former:
“The LCC’s actions would still have lasting significance in that it was the first example of the state, operating at a local level, stepping in to do what once only charities, The Church and philanthropists had been prepared to do.”
Although if the latter:
“…slum had been demolished, never to be replaced.”
These may not be the most spectacular excerpts (it’s not dryly written at all, nor is it a purely historical account. There’s a lot of personal material about her own experiences in Chelmsley Wood and Tower Hamlets) but it is nevertheless an amazing book that everyone should read.
Everyone should also do this meme. This is my idea of fun.
Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: October 2009
It’d really make a lot more sense if October was the eight month rather than the tenth, wouldn’t it? Oh well.
Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works. (EDIT: This paragraph is not some obscure joke. It actually means what it says. By all means add me to your mailing list or whatever-have-you, but sending me a message that specifically asks for your function to be posted on here will not lead to it being posted on here).
Thursday the 1st – An Evening With Joan Baez @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – The evening they drove ol’ Dixie down.
Friday the 2nd till Sunday the 11th – Birmingham Comedy Festival @ various venues in Brum – Part of the grand Birmingham tradition of grouping together a bunch of events that would most likely have happened anyway and calling it a festival. There are still, no doubt, many chuckles and guffaws to be had – checky here for the line-up.
Friday the 2nd – Zu @ The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham – I-talian jazzy metally… I dunno, just bloody lunacy. They were ace at Supersonic.
Saturday the 3rd – Boxing (Warrior Promotions) @ The Holiday Inn, Birmingham – Presumably a dinner show (boo hiss etc). The latest chapter in the ongoing Birmingham vs Black Country derby takes place here, with Eddie McIntosh vs Quinton “Greatest Name Ever” Hillocks.
Sunday the 4th – Kickboxing and MMA (Eclipse) @ Oceana, Wolverhampton – FC kickboxing and amateur MMA, I believe.
Sunday the 4th – Frank Carson @ The Town Hall, Birmingham – It’s the way he tells ‘em.
Monday the 4th – Boxing (Pat Cowdell) @ The Holiday Inn, Birmingham – Another dinner show (boo hiss etc).
Tuesday the 6th till Thursday the 29th – The Birmingham Book Festival @ various venues in Birmingham – This one actually isn’t as per the description of the comedy festival as above. The line-up can be seen here; there are plenty of highlights, including a discussion with the Tindall Street Press Booker Prize nominees on the 8th, talks about David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” (timely. More soon) and Will Self on the 17th, a thing about J.B. Priestley’s “English Journey” (with his son and, erm, Stuart Maconie. Isn’t he the fella from all of those Channel Four “I Love The Whatsit”/”Top One Hundred Whatsitcalled” programmes?) on the 23rd, and Karen Armstrong speaking about her new “The Case For God” on the 29th.
Wednesday the 7th till Sunday the 11th – Horse Of The Year Show @ The LG Arena, Marston Green, Birmingham – Neigh, neigh and thrice neigh.
Thursday the 8th – Lethal Bizzle @ The Academy 2, Birmingham – Bring some beef you lose some teef POW POW.
Friday the 9th – Boxing (First Team Promotions) @ The Venue, Dudley – I still have no idea where “The Venue” is.
Sunday the 11th – An Afternoon With Pam Ayres @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – The afternoon they drove ol’ SouthofEngland down.
Sunday the 11th – The Destroyers / The Old Dance School / The Toy Hearts @ The Town Hall, Birmingham – Three of the finest local fun-folk/trad sorts, playing as part of The Town Hall’s 175th anniversary. The Destroyers are obviously the best band ever and you mustn’t say otherwise.
Monday the 12th – Echo & The Bunnymen @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – The band that actually could cut the mustard.
Friday the 16th and Saturday the 17th – “The Idiot Colony” (Red Cape Theatre) @ The Rep Door, Birmingham – A group of women are offered some respite from their confinement in a brutal asylum when they get to talk to each other in the hair salon. Based on true accounts.
Friday the 16th – “Revenger’s Tragedy” (Jadis Shadows theatre company) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – With murder and incest and scandal in general. Also on at The Old Rep in Brum the following night and Hall Green Little Theatre (new to me) on the 23rd and 24th.
Saturday the 17th – Dizzee Rascal @ The Academy, Birmingham – There really is very little that’s more fun than saying “bonkers” in a deep voice. Try it right now and you’ll see what I mean.
Tuesday the 20th till Saturday the 31st – “The Grapes Of Wrath” (English Touring Theatre/Chichester Festival Theatre) @ The Rep Theatre, Birmingham – Waitin’ on the ghost of Tom Joad.
Wednesday the 21st – Therapy? @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – I’m still no closer to figuring it out: how many question marks does one use if asking a question in which the last word is the band name Therapy??
Wednesday the 21st – The Tennessee Three @ The Jam House, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – Not actually backing Johnny Cash here, for obvious reasons. Luther probably won’t be playing the boogie woogie here either, for similarly obvious reasons.
Friday the 23rd – Morrissey @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – I don’t think he’s miserable at all, I reckon it’s all just a show.
Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th – Spandau Ballet @ The LG Arena, Marston Green, Birmingham – No, they are playing there. It’s (wait for it, wait for it) TRUE.
Sunday the 25th – Editors @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – I still think “Snowfield” was a better name for them, but there you go.
Monday the 26th – The Proclaimers @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – I don’t think they’re Scottish at all, I reckon it’s all just a show.
Tuesday the 27th – ZZ Top @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Ah come on now. You’re looking at me as though this needs explaining.
Tuesday the 27th – Billy Talent @ The Academy, Birmingham – Good quality Canadian melodic punk/emo types, and I just now see that apparently they were originally called “Pezz”. Do you remember those “Pez” sweeties, with their own little dispenser-type-things? They were ace. I recall having one with Goofy’s head on. So, anyway, Billy Talent.
Wednesday the 28th till Saturday the 31st – “Dreams Of Violence” (Out Of Joint/Soho Theatre) @ The Rep Door, Birmingham – Political activism (I can’t help but think of the “blowing up a panda” joke from ‘The Young Ones’ every time I hear that phrase) comes easier than a messy homelife for the main character of this play.
Thursday the 29th – Efterklang @ The Asylum, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – A Danish band who make music that sounds more beautiful live than you can imagine, and I’m assuming you’re someone with a fantastic imagination. Go to this.
Thursday the 29th – Marc Almond @ The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham – Probably the best pop star named after a nut since Johnny Cashew. Or Slipknut.
Friday the 30th and Saturday the 31st – “The Houdini Exposure” (Little Earthquake theatre) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – Know what I mean, ‘Arry. A dramatised version of his mission to expose séance Daniel Home as a fraud.
Supervisual
Supersonic was over a month ago and so I suppose I really had better get on with posting something about it. A brief few words first, however, about what might be considered the Supersonic Fringe Art Festival. Or something. There are always a few exhibitions/installations dotted around that are connected-to but not-actually-part-of the festival; there are also always completely unrelated exhibitions/installations dotted around, as with every other week of the year. Johnny Supersonic Punter could, if he so wished, head out (with, perhaps, his mom and his rabbity friend) on the Saturday before the actual festival and have a look at some of them. Let me warn you, JSP – it’s interesting but it makes for a long day.
Larks started, then, with the Matthew Boulton exhibition at BMAG, which was quite interesting. The thought occurs that the fact he isn’t widely and nationally celebrated to the same degree as many of the other 19th century industrial figures we all know and love is possibly yet another result of the ridiculously Southern+Manchester-centric tendencies of the media in this country, but that’s a separate rant.
Travelling hence to Digbeth, we skipped Participation at Vivid (it was advertised as being free, but upon arriving there was a sign on the door with the price listed. This is very, very annoying) and I have no idea at all what the Tatham & O’ Sullivan at Eastside projects was trying to get across to me. Raqs Media Collective’s “When The Scales Fall From Your Eyes at Ikon eastside spoke a little bit more: the room was filled with busts that in place of heads had scales filled with sundry objects, attempting to lead one to wonder about the spurious significance (‘weight’) we afford to our prosaic everyday crapola. That link there suggests the artists wonder about the value of measurements and quantification in general, which I’m not sure I like. “Try doing without it, then watch the buildings collapse and the planes fall out of the sky” seems to be the obvious response. I know that’s a bit flip, but the emotional/psychic-wellbeing types of things that can’t/shouldn’t generally, y’know, aren’t. Having said all this, though, I do think that the validity of IQ tests (“I am ten more intelligent than you”) is quite possibly the stupidest meme to have gained common currency. And there are some pretty bloody stupid memes to have gained common currency.
The other one actually linked to Supersonic was There Are No Others, There Are Only Us by Marc Frost, at Moor Street Station. I really liked this. A little curtained-off enclave contained beanbags and a screen, onto which was projected a film of an enormous flock of birds, filmed in Denmark. It appeared more like a swarm than a flock – there was definitely something insectoid about the way they arranged into patterns before dissolving into chaos. The really spectacular and captivating images were married to various soundtracks, and played one after the other – we, happily, arrived during an Einstellung (I like them) one.
I nearly fell asleep between the comfy beanbags and darkness, though. I actually did briefly consider popping back in later for a nap.
After that it was time to head back out of the city centre, over to Perrot’s Folly in Edgbaston for Yukio Fujimoto’s “The Tower Of Time”. Yukio, as you may recall, was the chappy who played choooons on pocket calculaters at S’Sonic last year. This (aside from being a nice chance to see the inside of the tower, which I never have before. Is it open in normal circumstances? I don’t think so but I’m not sure) consisted of 1,111 clocks (well…little plastic boxes with one ticking rotating hand) arranged in the rooms adjoining to the spiral staircase as you ascend – one in the first, then ten, then 100, then a thousand. Collectively the sound of them ticking towards the top created an unusual hiss – an overall sound like white noise, but one in which you could make out each individual click. The sight of them all moving out of kilter was interesting, as well: for the second time in the day the adjective ‘insectoid’, came to mind, as the arms jerked forward before stopping like individual limbs in a huge swarm of locusts. I have no idea what big idea any of this was trying to convey, but it was a really fun combination of sights and sound.
So there we are. A post about the festival itself will follow soon-ish.
Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: September 2009
There wasn’t an August, but it really doesn’t seem like there’s never much that’s particularly exciting in August. This particular list is even less exhaustive than usual, and also even more music-dominated than usual, but that’s what I’ve managed to come up with. Sorry. The comments box is as open as ever for the awesome stuff I’ve missed, if you feel like using it.
Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.
Wednesday the 2nd until Saturday the 19th – ‘Cabaret’ (Birmingham Rep Theatre Company) @ The Rep Theatre, Birmingham – Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome, c’mon in. Or similar. We saw this production last year and it was quite good. Certainly less afraid of facing up to the nasty side of it all than a lot of big-budget touring musicals would probably be. I’m not sure about the extent to which the cast is the same as that one, but Wayne Sleep is definitely still playing The MC.
Wednesday the 2nd – Seasick Steve @ JB’s, Dudley – One of these occasions when the booking at JB’s really surprises you. Apparently it’s their 40th anniversary do and proceeds will be going to cancer charity ’The Proton Effect’. Scott Matthews is also on the bill, in proper Black Country fashion.
Thursday the 3rd – Maths @ The Flapper, Birmingham – Chaotic metally punk, or even screamo if you feel the need. They’re quite good from the bits and bobs I’ve heard, but more importantly than that they call themselves ‘Maths’ rather than ‘Math’. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that, in these times of everyone wanting to pretend to be an American.
Friday the 4th till Sunday the 6th – The Moseley Folk Festival @ Moseley Park, Moseley, Birmingham – Headlined by Saint Etienne (folk you say?), Beth Orton and Jethro Tull, whilst also featuring Swarbrick:Carthy, Ade Edmondson’s band, Keli Ali, Cara Dillon and a load of others. Bert Jansch won’t be there as originally advertised, due to ill-health.
Friday the 4th till Sunday the 6th – Birmingham Punks Picnic @ a few places in Brum – Cannon Hill Park on Saturday afternoon for cheap cider (no doubt), then gigs in the evening: The New Inn in Balsall Heath has Drongos For Europe and more on Friday then GBH, Runnin’ Riot and others on Saturday, whilst The Wagon & Horses in Digbeth has a line-up that includes Assert on Sunday.
Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th – “Off The Cuff” music event @ The Flapper, Birmingham – On the one hand it doesn’t look like Rolo Tomassi are doing this anymore (unfortunate) and their MySpace page doesn’t actually tell you which bands are playing on which day (stupid), but on the other hand some of the acts will be playing on a docked barge on the canal outside (brilliant).
Monday the 7th – Tori Amos @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – She’s ace, although she wasn’t that good when I saw her live a few years ago. But she is ace.
Thursday the 10th – The Drifters @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – To repeat what I said in a previous LOTTSADITWM: “Or a version thereof, at least. No Ben E. King or Clyde McPhatter, for obvious reasons.”
Thursday the 10th till Sunday the 13th – the opening of the new version of the Birmingham Academy @ The, erm, new version of the Academy, Birmingham – The previous toss-hut has closed its doors to be demolished (well, good) and a new ‘un is due to open. Let’s be positive – while it’d be outright stupid to hope that most of the problems with the old place will be rectified, perhaps the new place will be a better building and so perhaps some of the structure-related stuff will be better. Any sort of improvement would be a blessing, really. The opening doings involve four days o’ gigs headlined by Birmingham bands who have achieved fame (relatively) recently: Editors on Thursday, The Twang on Friday (apparently with nine other bands, although obviously it’d make life far too easy if the Academy website were to tell us who they are), The Streets on Saturday, and Ocean Colour Scene (bless) on Sunday. Lovely to see ‘em showing their commitment to the full ethnic make-up of Birmingham’s music so early on.
Friday the 11th till Sunday the 13th – Artsfest @ all over Birmingham – Annual free-family-fun-weekend that everyone bar me seems to hate. Typically there’s no sign of a line-up/timetable yet, but there is a list of ‘themes’, including the anniversaries of the death of Matthew Boulton, the birth of Charles Darwin, and the creation of… Barbie. I’m not making this up. (EDIT: The leaflets are out now, got one through the door today. Still nothing on the website, though). (EDIT EDIT: The timetable is on the website now. See comments below, too).
Friday the 11th – Electric Wizard @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Dooooooooooom.
Sunday the 13th – The Men They Couldn’t Hang @ The Robin 2, Bilston – They really should get TMTCH on at the Moseley Folk Festival, now that I think about it.
Friday the 18th – Boxing (First Team) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Steve Saville has a go at Scott Lawton for the English lightweight title, and if you’re into slebriteez then Angel McKenzie from ‘Big Brother’ faces our own local Lyndsey Scragg. I am completely confident that Lyndsey will absolutely wreck her, so let me know if you can find anyone running a book on it.
Sunday the 20th – The Digbeth O’Lympics @ various pubs in Digbeth – Although the website just shows you a flyer and doesn’t tell you what the events are (‘not wanting to let on about the line-up’ seems to be the theme this month, doesn’t it? Event promoters, you’re all rubbish. All of you), but in this case I don’t suppose it matters that much. Have a pint instead.
Tuesday the 22nd – Massive Attack @ The Academy, Birmingham – Currently running back at two members, I think. Possibly.
Tuesday the 22nd – Theo @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Fantastic loop-pedallin’ maths-rock one-man-band who rocked both your socks and mine at Supersonic this year. He’s first on the bill, with Fook Boottons headlining.
Wednesday the 23rd – “Under Milk Wood” (Guy Masterson) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – Dylan ‘That’s lovely, you see, isn’t it’ Thomas. This claims to be “perhaps the ultimate rendition” of it, with a very strategically placed ‘perhaps’.
Thursday the 24th – The Wildhearts @ The Academy, Birmingham – Will my unbroken run of failing to attend any Wildhearts and/or Wildhearts-related gigs since June 2001 continue? The sensible money would say ‘yes’.
Saturday the 26th – AMMA @ Banks’ Stadium, Bescott, Walsall – The latest in the always-fantastic series of amateur MMA cards put on by Marc Goddard and co. The most recent bill I can find is here.
Monday the 28th till Saturday the 3rd of October – “Dinnerladies” (The Comedy Theatre Company) @ The Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton – The telly series was one of the greatest telly serieseseses ever, I think (by which I mean that it was really good, and not that I’m trying to damn it with faint praise). Obviously I don’t know how good this is.
Monday the 28th – the live version of “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue” @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – I was really quite overjoyed to walk past Mornington Crescent tube station when I went to London in February.
Wednesday the 30th – ‘Canal Music’ @ outside The Flapper, Birmingham – This is a lovely idea for a tour: Lisa Knapp and Leafcutter John are playing a series of gigs up the length of the Grand Union Canal. It ends in Birmingham (obviously), outside The Flapper. I don’t know if they’re actually playing from the barge or not. If they are that’ll take a bit of the novelty away from the “Off The Cuff” thingy mentioned above.
Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: July 2009
Summer is here, ayit. Blimey it’s hot.
Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.
Wednesday the 1st – Wayside & Woodland night @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – An interesting-looking evening of ambient/electronica/post-rock/kindathing. Features (amongst many other things) a DJ set from Xela, who I was into for a good while before I realized that he was the son of a bloke who worked at our place.
Thursday the 2nd till Saturday the 4th – “The Tiger Who Came To Tea” (Nick Brook & Kenny Way Ltd) @ The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry – I’ve always wanted a tiger to turn up for tea at my house. “Tea time mayhem” and “clumsy chaos” are promised. Tigers are awesome.
Thursday the 2nd – “Pilot” (various theatre companies, hosted by Stan’s Café) @ The A.E. Harris Building, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – Nine short plays, many of them site-specific. Anything touched by the hand of Stan’s Café is usually very good indeed.
Friday the 3rd until Sunday the 12th – The Birmingham International Jazz Festival @ various different venues, mostly in Brum – Featuring such outstandingly named acts as “The Fantabulous Sheepwash Playboys” and “The Shuffling Hungarians”.
Friday the 3rd – The Big Bang @ The Victoria, Birmingham – Album launch gig for the good quality local darkness ‘n’ rollers.
Saturday the 4th till Sunday the 26th – Yukio Fujimoto’s “The Tower Of Time” @ Perrot’s Folly, Edgbaston, Birmingham – The ticking of 1,111 clocks builds as you climb the tower, approaching white noise as you get to the sixth floor up. Yukio’s pocket-calculator music at last year’s Supersonic was ace.
Saturday the 4th – The Jewellery Quarter Festival @ all over The Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – Including a guest appearance from Matthew Boulton, which should be quite the time-travelling spectacle.
Saturday the 4th – The Kings Heath Big Party/York Road Street Party @ Kings Heath Park and York Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham – All sorts of music and fun and laughter, with ‘an old fashioned charabanc’ to transport you between the two sites. A street party in the York Road near me would be an horrific thing to imagine, but I’m sure the one in Kings Heath is lovely.
Saturday the 4th – ‘Fudgestock’ @ The Public, West Bromwich – Various bands play to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. This is undoubtedly a good thing, but dear lord what a rubbish name for an event.
Saturday the 4th – “For You” (Music Theatre Wales) @ The Rep, Birmingham – AKA ‘The Iain McEwan Opera”.
Saturday the 4th – “Goldilocks And How Many Bears?” (Krazy Kat Theatre Company) @ The Rep Door, Birmingham – This one is BYOB: Bring Your Own Bear (if you need to borrow one then make sure you don’t fall victim to ursury usury. Arf).
Sunday the 5th – boxing (First Team & Warrior Promotions) @ The Tower Ballroom, Edgbaston, Birmingham – Including the D. Mitchell vs Martin Concepcion rematch that was meant to be happening last month.
Sunday the 5th – Latin American Festival @ Victoria Square, Birmingham – With salsa, limbo and tango shows, ‘funky feathers’, amigos and American Mercenaries bringing down non-right-wing governments.
Monday the 6th – Prefuse 73 @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Our Louise has trouble distinguishing between Jill Scott and Gil Scott-Heron. Introducing an artist named Guillermo Scott Herren (for that is Prefuse 73’s real name) into the equation seems deliberately unfair.
Wednesday the 8th till Saturday the 11th – “The Importance Of Being Earnest” (Stourbridge Theatre Company) @ Himley Hall, Wombourne – “A HANDBAG?” See also: the 30th of this month.
Friday the 10th – Einstellung / Mothertrucker @ The Flapper, Birmingham – You could see this as a warm-up for Supersonic, I suppose.
Saturday the 11th till Thursday the 18th – “Dad’s Army” (Oldbury Repertory Players) @ The Oldbury Rep, Langley – Don’t tell him your name, Pike.
Saturday the 11th – “The Black Maze” (Stan’s Café) @ Cannon Hill Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham – A maze in the back of a wagon. Stan’s Café are ace.
Wednesday the 15th until Saturday the 19th of September – “Little Shop Of Horrors” @ The Hippodrome, Birmingham – Feeeeeed me, Seymour.
Wednesday the 15th – Carina Round @ The Bar Academy, Birmingham – I’ve probably already said pretty much everything I’ll ever be able to say about ‘Rina.
Friday the 17th – boxing (First Team Promotions) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Apparently dubbed ‘The Summer Slammer’, which sounds like more of an MMA name to me.
Sunday the 19th – Birmingham Eid Mela 2009 @ Kings Heath Park, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Including kabbadi matches! Oh my life that will be awesome.
Tuesday the 21st – The Autumn Store night @ The Victoria, Birmingham – A warm-up indie-pop do for the Indietracks festival in Derbyshire.
Wednesday the 22nd – “The Traveling Picture Show” (7 Inch Cinema) @ The Light House, Wolverhampton – 7 Inch Cinema’s touring film programme for kids and adults. Involves bugs, beasts, magic boxes and red balloons.
Thursday the 23rd till Saturday the 25th – “The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband” (Highbury Theatre Centre) @ The Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham – Adulterous chappy gets munched. “One from the vaults…”
Friday the 24th till Sunday the 26th – Supersonic 2009 @ The Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham – My Favourite Annual Event, headlined this year by Head Of David, Corrupted and Goblin, alongside (of course) many many others. I may or may not write a post on its own about it in the next couple of weeks (it’s probably not likely, in all honesty, although you never know) but for the time being have a little listen to this Soup’n’Sonic themed podcast (disclaimer: I haven’t done so myself yet).
Friday the 24th – Roy Ayers @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – The less famous version of Stevie Wonder, perhaps.
Saturday the 25th – Testament @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – Air guitar on the mic stand in no small amounts (this is a good thing).
Sunday the 26th – Geocaching taster day @ Nimmings Wood Car Park, Clent Hills, Hagley – A ‘high tech treasure hunting game’. You’re given GPS equipment and have to find the hidden containers dotted around the place, by the looks of it.
Tuesday the 28th – Emiliana Torrini @ The Glee Club, Birmingham – Dunka dunka dugga dugga dun dun.
Thursday the 30th till Saturday the 1st of August – “The Importance Of Being Earnest” (Tread The Boards Theatre Company) @ The Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham – “A HANDBAG?” See also: the 8th of this month.
Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands: June 2009
A short one this month, which is more my fault than that of the rest of the world. Having given it a last read-through before posting, I’d also like to note that I’m giving some serious consideration to toning down the stupid commentary henceforth. I probably won’t, though.
Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.
From Monday the 1st and onwards into July – Bass Festival @ various venues in Birmingham and other cites too – This year’s theme is “Inspired by Africa and Africans”. All sorts of things are a-going on, so have a little look at the What’s On page.
Monday the 1st – Manic Street Preachers @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Intermittently worthwhile student-radical Welshers. Must all be about five hundred years old by now.
Tuesday the 2nd – The Horrors @ The Academy 2, Birmingham – Hyped so much that even I’ve noticed, but you can have a listen to their new album here (scroll down a bit, try not to get too distracted by the picture of Rollins needing a wash) and I quite like it. 80s-style indie rock: bit of J&MC, bit of (a much more polite version of) The Birthday Party, derivative but great fun.
Tuesday the 2nd and Wednesday the 3rd – “Tempest In A Tea Cup” (Side By Side Theatre) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – There seem to be a few offshoots of ‘The Tempest’ knocking around the theatrical world lately. This one features dysfunctional MPs and is set in a kitchen and a standard lamp. Apparently.
Friday the 5th till Saturday the 13th of June – “The Government Inspector” (Crescent Theatre Company) @ The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham – Wait for it, wait for it… Corrupt politicians and their cronies are afraid that their embezzling and wrongdoing will be exposed. Also there’s a play by Gogol (hithangyew).
Saturday the 6th – Pritchattsbury Festival @ Pritchatts Park, Edgbaston, Birmingham – Apparently in its sixth year and the biggest festival in Brum, although no-one seems to have heard of it. Those playing include Just Jack, Lethal Bizzle and The Rumblestrips, although I’m getting sick of this “using ‘-bury’ as a general suffix for a festival name” lark. Just as Watergate would now be Watergategate, that thing in the West Country is presumably now Glastonburybury.
Saturday the 6th – Joan Of Arc @ The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham – Featuring ex-members of a pile of those types of bands that everyone else has heard apart from me, but never mind that: they sound like they have an interesting mix of wonky springy indie-rock, twingly-twangly guitar instrumentation that’s probably ala all those aforementioned bands although possibly not, and that kind-of-folksy-but-not-really American half-effort singing that is usually annoying but sometimes endearing, as per here. One day I’ll meet someone to whom my descriptions actually make sense, and it’ll probably bring about the apocalypse or somesuch.
Saturday the 6th – Schostakovich’s Fifth Symphony (CBSO) @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – Nuts to that Stalin character. This’ll learn him.
Monday the 8th – Mark Thomas @ The Town Hall, Birmingham – The selection of policies for a “People’s Manifesto” continues. You can look at the full list here – I particularly like “Margaret Thatcher should pay for her own funeral”, “To replace organ donor cards with an opt out scheme”, “That the 1967 Abortion Act should be introduced to Northern Ireland”, “If MPs want a second job in order to gain a greater understanding of life outside of government, then the constituents should be able to vote and choose which job they think would best expand their MPs horizons”, and “Those who peddle homeopathic remedies should only receive homeopathic medicines when they have major illnesses”.
Tuesday the 9th – Lady Sovereign @ The Academy 2, Birmingham – Hooray for short people! I don’t know, you lot with your ‘leg room’ and your ‘ow I’ve banged my head’.
Wednesday the 10th – The Drones @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Awesome Australian indie rock’n’roll band who awesomely and Australianly actually use the word ‘daggy’ in this interview. Awesome. And Australian. And also it’s an interesting read outside of that.
Friday the 12th – Boxing (First Team) @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Steve Saville defends his Midlands Area lightweight title against Gary Reid, which is very far from a definite win for him. Lyndsey Scragg, meanwhile, has drawn Ugandan Agnes Adonga in a fight for something called the GBC women’s super-flyweight title, and Dean Harrison is on the card too.
Saturday the 13th and Sunday the 14th – “24 Hour Scalextric Grand Prix” (Stan’s Café) @ The A. E. Harris Building, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham – I always think ‘Scalextric’ sounds like a mispronunciation along the lines of ‘skellington’ or ‘sumbarine’. But it’s not. A 24 hour race, anyway, with running commentary through the whole thing. 7 Inch Cinema will be showing some pictures, too.
Saturday the 13th – The Flyover Show @ Hockley Flyover, Hockley, Birmngham – Urban jazzman Soweto Kinch’s second annual all-dayer under the A-Road, which makes for a really cool venue. Artists on include Ty, Bashy, and even Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Saturday the 13th – ‘Sci-Fi Fete’ @ St Mary’s Church, Castle Bromwich, Birmingham – A science-fiction themed church fete is not something you see every day.
Saturday the 13th – Æthenor / Einstellung @ The Hare And Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Brought to you by Capsule, whose ranks are now (in a way) bolstered by P’Ashton. An example of intertwingling, perhaps.
Tuesday the 16th – Boxing (no bleeding idea) @ The Arden Hotel, Solihull – Sorry about that, but it’s the best link I can find. The world of boxing, yet again, decides that the best way to make sure its shows are full of punters is to make sure everything is a bit more difficult for them than it might otherwise be (although in the name of not being quite so relentlessly negative I’ll say that I am quite happy that this now exists. That has nothing to do with this card, of course). This will apparently feature Kell Brook vs John O’Donnell in a British welterweight title fight and Gary Buckland vs Henry Castle in an eliminator for the British lightweight. Quite why those particular fights would end up happening in Solihull is beyond me, but there we are.
Thursday the 18th – Billy Bragg @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Braggy normally does the Wulfrun when he plays in Wolves, but this one is at The Civic. Climbing the capitalist ladder as ever, tsk.
Friday the 19th – “The War Of The Worlds” @ The NIA, Birmingham – UUULLLAAAAAAAAA.
Friday the 19th – UFO @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – Doctor Doctor, there’s a fly in my soup. You don’t hear those jokes nowadays. I think that’s a shame. This is also quite possibly a very oblique reference.
Friday the 19th – The Sweet @ The Robin 2, Bilston – Or a version thereof, anyway. That’s right. That’s right that’s right.
Sunday the 21st – “The Secret Life Of Bees” @ Clent Hills, Hagley – Beeeeees. This is a walk and talk about bees, I should add, not a play built from the novel of the same name or anything like that.
Monday the 22nd – Shonen Knife @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Japanese girly pop-punkists who were really young when they started but have been going forever and so probably aren’t really young any more, if I understand this ‘chronology’ lark rightly (see also: 1st of the month). My favourite (possibly apocryphal) story about them is that – when they first started – the guitarist couldn’t play her instrument while standing up, having only ever practiced whilst sitting down. I think there’s something really lovely about that.
Tuesday the 23rd till Saturday the 27th – “The BFG” (Fiery Light/Royal & Derngate) @ The Rep, Birmingham – I approve of Roald Dahl as an author for children. I don’t approve of children, obviously, but if they have to exist then Roald Dahl is a good author for them to read. Then when a bit older Rushdie’s “Haroun And The Sea Of Stories” and Gaardner’s “Sophie’s World”. Continue with Alice and Hitchhikers, and then they’re ready for Kafka. I reckon.
Tuesday the 23rd – A Hawk And A Hacksaw @ The Hare And Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Them having a song called “God Bless The Ottoman Empire” gives Johnny Punter a good reason to go to this gig. Them having one of those websites (I’ve linked the MySpace instead there, to spare you) that does the ol’ “resized pop-up window” thing gives a good reason to try and spite them by not going. I thought that crap had died out. Messing about with my screen without asking me is not the best way to endear yourself to me, dunno about you.
Wednesday the 24th – Blur @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – Whoo and also, if you find yourself so inclined, Hoo.
Wednesday the 24th – Hot 8 Brass Band @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – It seems to be an evolving tradition for the H&H to host a hip-hop influenced brass band every month. Not that I disapprove of this.
Thursday the 25th – B.B. King @ The NIA, Birmingham – ‘The legendary bluesman’, as professional music writers would insist you refer to him.
Thursday the 25th – Jeff Beck @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – “So, Jeff Beck pops his head round the corner and mentions that there’s a little sweetshop at the edge of town…”
Friday the 26th till Sunday the 5th of July – Moseley Festival @ sundry locations in Moseley, Birmingham – All sorts of stuff in that there spot with those there people. I’m having trouble picturing a ‘Rocky Horror’ night at The Prince Of Wales, though. Also: it’s a bit of a digression, but Eye On Moseley has made me laugh more than any other blog I’ve seen in quite a long time.
Friday the 26th – Pendulum @ The Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – They display an astonishing ignorance of arachnid physiology, it’s true, but they nevertheless make your body goi stiff an your spine goi numb. Come fe get some.
Sunday the 28th – Boxing (Warrior Promotions, I’m guessing) @ The Tower Ballroom, Edgbaston, Birmingham – One of these afternoon ones, I’m also guessing. Featuring a rematch between Dee Mitchell and Martin Concepcion: trust me when I say that their first fight was fantastic, up there with other four-round classics of our times like Gethin vs Carey and Davies vs Rasani.
Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands – March 2009
Thought you’d seen the last, eh? LOTTSADITWM doesn’t lie down quite so easily, suckah.
Standard disclaimers: I can’t ensure that these events will go ahead, that they’ll be good, or that I will be going to them. This is just a list of things I found that looked like they might be interesting, so please do not contact me to ask for your event to be included. That’s not the way it works.
Sunday the 1st – The Drifters @ The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham – Or a version thereof, at least. No Ben E. King or Clyde McPhatter, for obvious reasons.
Sunday the 1st – Muay Thai (K-Star) @ The Tower Ballroom, Edgbaston, Birmingham – Elbows and knees by the reservoir, in what is quite possibly the most seventies-styled venue I have ever seen.
Monday the 2nd – “These Four Streets” (Birmingham Rep Theatre Company) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – Absolutely excellent play based around last year’s Lozells riots, showing how small frustrations can build and build into bigger tensions in a community. We saw it at The Rep Door a few weeks ago and I really can’t recommend it enough. It’s also at The Drum on the 13th.
Monday the 2nd – The Ting Tings @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton – That is their name, for that is indeed what they are called.
Tuesday the 3rd till Saturday the 7th – “The Jungle Book” (Birmingham Stage Company) @ The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham – Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good anthropomorphic animals.
Thursday the 5th – Half Man Half Biscuit @ The Robin 2, Bilston – Wherein everyone will be doing The Len Ganley Stance.
Thursday the 5th till Sunday the 8th – Crufts @ The NEC, Marston Green, Birmingham – Hounds hounds hounds hounds hounds hounds hounds hounds.
Friday the 6th – Rolo Tomassi @ The Academy 2, Birmingham – Third on the bill of the Rock Sound sponsored (see, how cool is that? Glossy magazines!) “Shred Yr Face” tour. I would like to make it clear that I don’t like “yr” as a diminutive of “your” (rather than “year”). I didn’t like it the first time around in fanzines and now I don’t like it this time round on internets. Hurrumph.
Saturday the 7th – Fairport Convention @ The Town Hall, Birmingham – That would be the folk band Fairport Convention, of course. The Town Hall is not due to be hosting a convention of, erm, fairports.
Saturday the 7th – Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy & Chris Parkinson @ Newhampton Arts Centre, Wolverhampton – Speaking of folk… I bet this and Fairport on the same night will constitute an unfortunate date clash for some punters.
Saturday the 7th – Boxing (Mahesh Mendalia/Dennis Hobbs) @ The New Bingley Hall, Hockley, Birmingham – Featuring the last ever match of local boxing/Kung-Fu/Kickboxing legend Pele Reid (he knocked out Vitali Klitchsko in a light-contact kickboxing match. Just take a second to think about both halves of that sentence) before he retires. It’s at a new venue, too.
Wednesday the 11th till Saturday the 14th – “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?” (Dudley Little Theatre) @ Netherton Arts Centre, Netherton – Classic play and you can pop into Ma Pardoe’s for a swift ‘un after it’s finished.
Wednesday the 11th until Sunday the 15th – Flatpack Film Festival @ Various venues in Birmingham – Very eagerly anticipated by a lot of people, 7 Inch Cinema’s third Flatpack Film Festival is nearly upon us. Their calendar page seems to have been designed with the express intent of making it as awkward as possible to browse what’s going on, but I’m particularly looking forward to the Curzonara event with The Destroyers (natch) and Waller Jeffs’ animated pictures.
Thursday the 12th – “Legends Of The Oche” @ The Concert Hall, Dudley – Darts and comedy from Bobby George, John Lowe, Eric Bristow and – apparently – one Duncan “Chase Me” Norvelle.
Friday the 13th till Tuesday the 17th – St Patrick’s festival @ various venues in Birmingham – Centred, obviously, around what is reported to be the biggest St Paddy’s day parade in the world outside of Dublin and New York. Also of interest looks to be The Craic Was Good In Cricklewood at The Irish Club in Digbeth on the 16th.
Saturday the 14th and intermittently until Saturday the 11th of April – “Terrorism” mini-season @ The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham – Three plays based on matters surrounding terrorism over the course of a few weeks – The Bus (in which a girl is challenged as to why she’s taking a particular journey), Terrorism (wherein various disparate scenes are shown to be somehow similar) and Talking To Terrorists (which relays bits from interviews with an assortment of people who have been involved in or affected by terrorism). Daily Mail styled hurrumphing is probably best left at home.
Saturday the 14th – John Legend @ The Academy, Birmingham – Diminishing qualitative returns of late, obviously, but “Get Lifted” was a fantastic album.
Saturday the 14th – Boxing (Hennessy Sports) @ AVEC, Aston, Birmingham – Second city derby! Macklin vs Elcock for the British middleweight title, and they’re both Zulus so hopefully there shouldn’t be a riot or anything to spoil anyone’s day. The undercard also features Young Mutley vs Adnan Amar for the English welterweight title and this Tyson Fury (what a name) heavyweight prospect that they’re all speaking words about. On the other hand, tickets are £45. Mick Hennessy really is taking the piss.
Tuesday the 17th – “The Maids” (Phizzical Productions) @ The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton – A Bollywood influenced version of a Genet play. That’s not a sentence you get to say every day.
Wednesday the 18th till Saturday the 21st – “Can Any Mother Help Me?” (Foursight Theatre) @ The Rep Door, Birmingham – Telling the story of the Co-Operative Correspondence Club, through which otherwise isolated women were able to make themselves heard on everything “From marriage to childbirth, hidden desires to socialism, housework to wartime politics”.
Saturday the 21st – Mono @ The Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham – Japanese post-rock types that I still haven’t got around to having a listen to at the time of writing, but a few people that I’d actually pay heed to recommend them so I’ll stick ‘em in here anyway.
Saturday the 21st – Musiq Soulchild @ The Drum, Newtown, Birmingham – I’d got the idea from somewhere that he’d changed his name to just ‘Musiq’, but apparently that’s not true. Even change doesn’t stay the same these days.
Saturday the 21st – Science Day @ Edgbaston Reservoir, Edgbaston, Birmingham – An astronomically themed morning, apparently. Turn up between 11AM and 1PM.
Tuesday the 24th – Yo Majesty @ The Little Civic, Wolverhampton – Punk-funk-crunk-rap, say some. Like a more raucous Salt’n’Pepper. (EDIT: postponed, apparently. See comments).
Wednesday the 25th – Metallica @ The LG Arena, Marston Green, Birmingham – I do realise that I’m stretching the “things that looked like they might be interesting” bit from the rubric above with this one. They have been interesting at times in the past, however far removed that may be.
Thursday the 26th – Premier League Darts @ The NIA, Birmingham – Arrers thrown by arrerers, including your hero and mine Phil “The Power” Taylor.
Friday the 27th – Lemar @ The NIA, Birmingham – Apparently it’s 50/50, so any odds from 3/1 or better should be snapped up.
Friday the 27th and Saturday the 28th – White Noise Festival @ The Rainbow, Digbeth, Digbeth, Birmingham – It doesn’t look as noisy as the name would immediately suggest (I was expecting some Merzbow styled business), but there is all sorts of varied musical stuff a-happening. Dave Ball from Soft Cell is DJing, for example.
Saturday the 28th – The Beat @ The Academy, Birmingham – It’s their 30th anniversary tour, don’tchaknow.
Saturday the 28th – Tunng / Tinariwen @ The Rainbow Warehouse, Digbeth, Birmingham – A collaboratory tour between my favourite leccy-space-folk types of modern times and the Tuareg desert-blues electric-central-African-music sorts. Definitely sounds like one not to be missed.
Tuesday the 31st – Lionel Richie @ The LG Arena, Marston Green, Birmingham – I’m going to keep saying it until someone agrees with me: the man looks like a crocodile.
Soshul Meedja part #381 (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The ‘Book. Well, not ‘love’, as such…)
Twitter has been in the news lately thanks to sundry celebrities, and so the amount of discussion regarding it has increased. I found myself defending the ‘point’ of it on a messageboard recently – it’s just a way of talking to people, and so the ‘point’ is what you and your cohorts make of it. It’s not any different in that respect to any other social media website or even any other means of communication (and the Grauny seems to agree). Some social media tools are, of course, better in actual use than others (MySpace obviously has a lot of problems, for example), but the ‘point’ of them is down to the users. Or, more specifically, yourself and those you use it with.
I realised, however, that this (fairly self-evident, I would’ve thought) fact conflicts with my actual behaviour in other ways. I’d always steered away from Facebook – I really don’t like the half gated-community-to-keep-the-riff-raff-out / half Schrodinger’s cat feel of having to sign up before you can see anything at all. It doesn’t smell right to me.
Whilst I do genuinely think that’s a bad thing, the thought occurs that it doesn’t behove me to act all superior to FB (it annoys me enough when people do it about other things I like – expressing objections is one thing, it’s the condescension that gets on my wick). Should I try it, if only in the name of consistency? At least have a look? After all, if it’s not outright terrible then it can be given a purpose.
This train of thought alone probably wouldn’t have been enough to sway me, but it turns out that our local union branch have decided to use an FB group as a way of disseminating info. This is in spite of the fact that I helped them set up an actual blog a while ago (admittedly the chap I did that with has since resigned as a rep), which I think would be a far more open-to-all method than hiding things beyond the walls (pun partially intended). Maybe it’s not supposed to be free and open and that’s the point, though. Dunno.
Feeling slightly dirty, then, I signed up to the big Eff Bee. I was a bit disappointed that I had to register as ‘Russell Lowe’ rather than ‘Russ L’ but there we go, I’ll play the game. I was immediately impressed by the fact that it seems to try to steer Johnny User away from MySpace-esque “add more people add more people validate my worth as a human being by commenting on my pics plz”. I approve of this.
That’s about all that seems good so far, though. I’ve found plenty about it to dislike. I don’t find the workings of it to be particularly intuitive, but then again I suppose I rarely do with anything so there’s no point blaming Facebook for my failings. It’s not quite MySpace-esque chaos, but the ‘wall’ page definitely looks like a mess (here and elsewhere there are a tonne of things I would prefer to be in collapsible/removable boxes or tabs). The much vaunted status updates, meanwhile, are basically like a lesser version of Twitter. My main reason for actually joining the whole palava was for that group, meanwhile, but I can’t seem to jump straight to it straight from my ‘home’ or ‘wall’ pages – I have to go home>groups>then to the group page, which seems a bit silly.
There may of course be easy solutions to all of these problems that I just haven’t figured out yet (please feel free to let me know).
I’ll see how I get on, anyway. Never let it be said that I’m not prepared to admit I’m wrong if the circumstances dictate.
