Now that’s culture.

(Via @Robintheoffice)

The Daily Mail has already called it for Londonderry (you’ll have to excuse the lack of link to that one) but we won’t know for sure until later. Win or not, I think the folks who ran the bid should be applauded for their efforts.

My fave aspect of the whole thing has been the unashamedly promotional posters on the London Underground. Ed Vaizey said of the bid:

I see it on the Tube in London. It is a very entrepreneurial approach to raising the profile of the city across the UK

Which was beautifully put. More of that sort of thing, I say.

Meanwhile, a map’s been drawn up to visualise some of the suggestions that were put forward through the Big Conversation and Talkeoke projects in the run up to the bid:

While we work ourselves into barely-concealed bundles of anticipation, Arts Industry have done a quick round-up of each city’s bid. All much of a muchness, but recent events give the Derry bid a bit of topical oomph.

The Birmingham Post have revealed some of the plans that went into the Birmingham bid. The comments aren’t pretty but some people will never be happy and, until such time as we get the decision or see the whole bid, passing any sort of judgment’s a bit tricky really. I’m still intrigued by the autumn festival and would love to know who the big name guest curators might be (I think I heard preliminary approaches had been made).

Still, haven’t we had promises that, irrespective of the decision, all these events are going to go ahead regardless?

Nice idea this:

Who Wants to Be…? is a spontaneous, democratic, live theatrical experience where the public really do take control. People propose ideas, discuss, and then vote on how to spend the evening’s entire box-office takings: Donate it? Invest it? Gamble it? Waste it? Form a collective and make the best idea happen yourself? You, the audience, decide

It says it’s inspired by Birmingham’s City of Culture bid, rather than being part of it, although the Hippodrome and Fierce (who are putting this together) have been involved in the official thing too.

It’s on 11 June Tickets are a tenner and they’re available here.

What nice, polite boys.

The Birmingham Post’s Jon Walker spotted the above advert at Westminster tube station and this morning the paper (well, website) is reporting ‘MPs sign Commons motion to back Birmingham City of Culture bid‘. So how’s the bid going?

It’s difficult to gauge this. Thing is, we (as in, the people of Birmingham) aren’t going to be the target of much of the promotional stuff because we’re not doing the judging. You’d assume/hope the effort is being spent outside the city (like the poster above).

Btw, I should make it clear that I’m supportive of Birmingham’s City of Culture bid and think it’d be great to get the award.

So far, around Birmingham, I’ve seen a stack of flyers (at the Council House), a few adverts in various brochures and… well that’s been about it. On the plus side, I’ve not seen much of the usual trick of tacking a logo on to anything vaguely within grasp.

It would be interesting to see how the city is being sold to others, though. Which of the city’s strengths are being pushed forward? Bearing in mind the branding looks like it’s been recycled from a luxury watch marketing campaign, I’m guessing the Jewellery Quarter (and by association, the city’s industrial heritage) features in some way. What else?

Most visible from our perspective is the online stuff. Here’s what the various cities are doing:

• Birmingham – website, Facebook, Twitter
• Derry/Londonderry – website (congrats on the cheeky URL), Facebook, Twitter
• Norwich – website, Facebook, Twitter
• Sheffield – website, Facebook, Twitter

The good news there is that Birmingham’s website is as bland, information-free and predictable as all the others. The Facebook/Twitter stuff is being done just as poorly as everyone else’s too. Sad to see the previously quite popular canvasbirmingham.com site was killed off though (with credits for the local folks who developed it removed).

I’ve not seen so much discussion (there’s this on the Stirrer) so has anyone got any thoughts on all of this? Feel free to comment anonymously if you must.