Thursday night was the first meeting of BARG (Birmingham Alternative Reality Games) in the Lamp Tavern. It kicked off with board games and I broke my Kerplunk! virginity. Then self-confessed ARG addict Ben Whitehouse gave us an insightful talk about his journeys in game playing (all the way to New York in one case) and the five fundamental elements – creating communities, playing games, telling stories, giving gifts and throwing parties.
Everyone got to introduce themselves and say a little bit about why they were there and what sort of game-playing they’d like to see happening in Birmingham. Of course, with my one-track mind, I’m after a game based on Digbeth and the great people and places within. Me, Nikki Pugh and a few others have been chatting about Journey to the End of the Night and see some serious potential.
BARG promises to be great fun, even if there is an element of work involved – Nikki Pugh’s got the words that prove it. She also has the BARG meet in pictures and film. Midge was also there and has posted his thoughts:
The fascinating thing was to be in a Digbeth backstreet pub room of about 20 people discussing the vague concept of games which appear to not be games (another ARG concept which has to be witnessed first hand) played out within different layers of ‘reality’ (the tangible, the digital, the artistic, the imagined, etc) slowly the fog starts to clear.
Meet the Spotted Dog’s resident DJ The Doctor, so called on account of his stripy scarf. Every Friday afternoon he heads to the Spotted Dog on Warwick Street with his collection of 78′s to play on John Tighe’s vintage record players. Catch him spinning some tunes on Fridays from about 5-ish.
If you fancy a very little run-around try this nifty number in Ashton Engineering on Floodgate Street. Like the sign says, it’s only had one lady owner.
Dance Choreographer Auditions – The talented Toffee will be staging auditions for fresh new choreographers on Saturday 7th February at the Custard Factory.
Just to update you on my progress with finding out what happened to the missed Highgate bus stops – I received a confirmation to my Freedom of Information request today. On Pete Ashton’s advice, I also emailed Birmingham City Council’s press office on Tuesday night asking for a response. I called early yesterday afternoon, and the person I spoke to confirmed it had been received and told me he’d get the guy dealing with it to call me back. As yet he’s not called. Story of my life, that.
What do bloggers look like? – Asks Nick Booth after yesterday’s Social Media Surgery at BVSC. Like anyone really, going from this film (except for Danny Smith, who looks like a Smurf with his blue hair). Great to see Lizzy Piffany of Wrote Under fame was there and has gotten the blogging bug too. She’ll no-doubt be posting all her open-mic shenanigans in the pubs of Digbeth and beyond.
We have a really strong belief in Digital Birmingham in the power of digital technologies to increase civic engagement and Birmingham is really ahead of the game when it comes to having an online community which has come together to do just this.
Birmingham St Patrick’s Festival 2009 – Spaghetti Gazetti announce some ‘subtle changes’ to this year’s St Patick’s Day Parade to ensure it delivers ‘a WOW factor at every turn.’ New things include a Bradford Street live music area and Emerald Village family friendly area in the Custard Factory.
Okay, after all that serious Big City Plan bus stuff it’s time for a spot of fun. You may remember a little while ago I linked to the above photo by Snow Blind, commenting that hunting the rest down could be a good, graffiti art Where’s Wally? So here we have it – a public Google Map. Please insert tags of the stickers’ whereabouts at your leisure, inserting photos if you have them or just their names if you don’t. These are:
Well, it seems I’m on a steep learning curve today with my Freedom of Information request for the reasons behind changing the schedule of the Big City Plan’s consultation bus on Weds 14th Jan, which was reportedly diverted from Highgate to Aston for a photoshoot with Council Leader Mike Whitby.
You see, I’ve never done an FOI request before so really wasn’t sure how it worked. Luckilly, I know some people that do, who’ve been a great help. It seems that asking fror a statement/answer to a question rather than documents/facts held isn’t quite the right way to go about it. Had I left my original request as it was it could have well have been rejected. But after seeking out some great advice from the likes of Matthew Somerville, I’ve sent a follow-up to the original FOI request clarifying exactly what it is that I’m after – the audit trail (emails, letters, memos, etc.) behind the decision to change the route of the bus. Hopefully this means the request will be accepted and the response to it will shed some light on the reasons for the change that day.
