‘Digbeth police station evacuated,’ reads the Birmingham Mail, ‘after suspicious package was discovered inside…A cordon was placed around the station and a number of roads were closed off.’
However to Twitter addicts such as myself this news was, like, so last hour. We’d been discussing the road blocks, traffic jams, suspicious package and bomb squad for hours. So much so that, after viewing the search results, Pete Ashton went and wondered aloud if Digbeth could become top-rating, trending Twitter topic for the day.
It was like a red rag to a bull. If you tweeted, you simply had to mention Digbeth. Even if, like Antonio Gould, it was to say you weren’t sure what to say about Digbeth.
Pete Ashton’s blogged about the internetty aspects of today’s little exercise, so let’s get on with the important stuff:
But if you’re sticking to strict anagramming like Shona McQuillan you get THE BIG D, which is still pretty cool.
There are Killer Badgers in Digbeth according to Emma Jones. In the Police Station, apparently. Part of the Anti-Terrorism Act, I think. They’re better at extracting intelligence than bog-standard dogs. I shall be risking life and limb David Attenborough-style to get pictures of them for the Faunography trail.
Me and that bloke down the pub aren’t the only ones who think Digbeth is derived from DUCK BATH. Andy Mabbett says so too, so it must be true.
As you can see, our efforts weren’t in vain and it all left me rather distracted and excited this afternoon. Oh yeah, there was some stuff on Winterval as well, which made Simon Gray wonder if that could be a trending topic too. Go on, Tweethearts: you know what to do.
Written by Nicky Getgood on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 ( 2 responses )
This cut-price Ginsters goodness lies unopened outside the abandoned building opposite Abacus on Alcester St, if anyone fancies a snack whilst they’re waiting for the 50.
So Bennie Gray’s been in the paper saying Birmingham needs a few more Custard Factories. George Ferguson, who spoke at the Organic Eastside seminar held by MADE* and Digbeth Business Association in South Birmingham College last night, would heartilly agree. He feels that creative hubs are part of a pattern that make up ‘complex cities’.
George’s philosophy of looking beyond architecture in regeneration, planing change and bringing the best out of places rather than rebuilding, went down a storm.
He had a very interesting take on the credit crunch, that it may actually be a blessing in disguise. It’ll stop the building of blinkered, one-use projects in their tracks for a start. It could instead leave room for ‘slow architecture’ of more flexible, mixed-use buildings, which develop organically over time, adapting to economic and environmental change as they grow.
George later said that we need to ‘identify the maniacs’ who’ll make exciting places by sympathetically utilising their environments rather than flattening and rebuilding them. Bennie Gray is one such maniac, and Birmingham is blessed to have him.
Jonathan Bore’s less popular presentation of the Big City Plan wasn’t exactly new information – expand the concrete collar in building a bigger and better city centre. Some felt he had too many questions (for which he’s had the time to find answers) rather than solutions and others felt the means being used to achieve the goal were questionable, with talk of areas such as Highgate undergoing ‘social cleansing’.
Other highlights were the Rescue Geography presentation, Richard Trengrouse’s Digbeth wisdom and the presence of the men behind the planned Horton Project opposite Selfridges – a ‘city within a city’ that will transform Digbeth Cold Storage and surrounding buildings. Let’s hope they move those bus stops, which are as restrictive as that concrete collar, whilst they’re at it.
Birmingham Gay Symphony Orchestra to be based at Custard Factory – ‘The start of November sees the launch of the BGSO – Birmingham Gay Symphony Orchestra. The Orchestra…will give lgbt people & their friends the chance to perform wonderful music, meet new people and socialise together in a welcoming and supportive environment.’
Custard Factory – Bennie Gray’s manifesto to avoid Detroitification of Birmingham – ‘What Birmingham needs right now is dozens of informal Custard Factory-type organisations helping to unleash the multitude of small enterprises which, given the right backing, are ready to spring forth from the garages, spare bedrooms, colleges and sheds where they have been honing their nascent skills and ideas and waiting for the right opportunity for too long.’
Custard Factory – Rhubarb ready to harvest – ‘Rhubarb Radio, the community radio station based at the Custard Factory, has quietly been pulling the pieces together over the last few weeks and is pretty much live.’
Plus+ Touring the city with the Walking Tours – Ben Waddington is ‘a Birmingham-based historian with an especial interest in architecture, industrial history and typography’. He’s giving guided typography tours for this year’s Plus festival including a ‘Digbeth Type Tour: Exploring use of typography and handwritten letterforms in industrial Digbeth side streets. The area’s history revealed through its use of type.’ These will take place 12.00-1.30pm Weds 5th-Fri 7th Nov. Other tours are Baskerville’s Birmingham, Blue Plaques tour and City Type Tour.
FREE training « Creative Launchpad – ‘Business Planning for a Successful Creative Business’ on Tues 11 Nov in Birmingham, plus other dates elsewhere.
Film Dash: And the winner is… – TTV Team for their film’s ‘charm, humour, the use of non-conventional filming techniques and the use of the city.’ I do hope Thingamagoop found his way home from the Digbeth dustbin he ended the film in. If he did, chances are he’s getting jiggy with the Flip machine the winners were given as I type.
Capsule Blog » Points mean prizes… – A reminder that this Saturday brings the Capsule/ATP Release The Bats Halloween party in Space 2 at the Custard Factory, with an unmissable line up of: SHELLAC / OM / WOODEN SHJIPS / PISSED JEANS / LIGHTNING BOLT + DJ ANDY WEATHERALL
Custard Factory – A Creative Marketplace for Digbeth / Eastside? – There has been investment ‘in the development of Digbeth and Eastside as a Learning and Leisure Quarter and a centre for the creative industries, particularly the digital media sector…One of the project ideas now under discussion is the establishment of a Creative Marketplace.’ Take the short, simple survey to help determine whether or not there will be one and what form it may take. My first thought was ‘what the hell is a creative marketplace?’, so I was grateful to Created in Birmingham for linking to the explanation here.
Another Byte Of Banality: Gig in A Halfpipe – Midge reviews Ramp Jam, a gig on a Skateboard ramp promoted by Digbeth’s A Third Foot and hosted by Ideal Skateboards at the Custard Factory. Featured Leeds Garage rockers The Gentlemans Pistols, supported by Stinky Wizzleteat.
If like me, you couldn’t take a break from your day job to make the Hello Digital fun, copy Pete Ashton and Blog Strakt’s homework instead:
Notes from the 4iP launch | blog.strakt – 4ip is an investment fund for public sector digital media. support web, games, etc to improve the lives of people.
This caught my eye at the launch of the Rescue Geography photography exhibition in MADE* on Friday evening. The exhibition is open daily 12 noon to 2pm until 31st October.
How do vegetarians get fat? – By eating like pigs, but not pigs, in the Friends of the Earth Warehouse Cafe on Allison Street, according to Paul Fulford in the Evening Mail.
Digbeth Olympics Ridiculous River Rea Raft Race – John Mostyn, Adam Crossley and some unconvincing-sounding Welsh guy travel down the River Rea in rubber dingies and manage to emerge with all their skin intact.
Gigbeth competition – This competition for free weekend tickets is such a fantastic idea: ‘Gigbeth is looking for entrants to create their own version of The Sugarhill Gang classic ‘Rappers Delight’ and post them on a specially created You Tube page. Entrants are invited to come up with the best and most original alternative music video to the ground breaking hit, or to produce their very own recorded performance of the song.’ If like me, you just fancy giggling at the entries rather than making one, all entries will be posted on Gigbeth’s YouTube.
Pub Crawl – The Final Leg – Bull Ring and Digbeth – A guy and his camera in the Bull Ring and ‘Digbeth, dusty, dirty, noisy Digbeth’. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, his camera died as soon soon as he hit The Dubliner. This may be a good time to tell you that me and Antonio Gould are planning to do a repeat of last year’s Digbeth pub crawl for our birthdays on Saturday 10th January 2009. We plan to make it bigger, better and bloggier, photographing and twittering our locations and drunkeness levels. All are welcome, especially if you’re wearing a flat cap – stick it in your diaries!
Join us on SATURDAY NOV 1ST at The Edge (79-81 Cheapside, Digbeth) for a dread-filled night of Obscure Horrificata, dredged from the Stygian Depths of man’s most primal fears, and cinema’s best-kept secrets!
OUTER SIGHT will be celebrating the ancient druidic festival of Samhain with a lethal blend of demented Psychedelic Psynema, a mouth-watering Monster-Mash of Mood Music courtesy of resident djs and Jim Freakbeat, and the usual deadly hemlock-infused cocktails……all for £3 / £3.50 without invite.
To whet your appetite, for this special occassion we are bending our Striclty-Secret programme rule and present a brief sneak-peak at one of our excitingly demented cult film presentations.
A bizarre, hokey, surreal masterpiece of low-budget 70s horror, packed with thrills, chills and wild imagination!
The first Feastside meeting is tomorrow at 7pm in The Woodsman pub on Albert Street, just by Millennium Point. The Feastside project plans to create a city centre vegetable patch in Birmingham’s Eastside (and maybe elsewhere in and around the city), possibly utilising the abandoned/dormant building sites in the area. All are welcome – come along if this sounds like your bag!
