A project that has been taking shape for the past year is just coming to completion with a film, book and exhibition. The project

records the personal life of Birmingham’s most iconic building, unveiling the many human stories that have influenced and shaped its existence.

The exhibition can be seen at:

• the Central Library (6th floor) from 2 June to 5 July
• Three White Walls Gallery, The Mailbox 14 June to 15 July

The book includes a DVD of the film and is available at The Art Lounge in the Mailbox and at the RIBA Book Shop.

Jon Bounds has covered this in more depth than I could both on BiNS and on his Birmingham Post blog, both of which deserve your attention.

In chronological order:

International Dance Festival Birmingham
Now – 25 May. Various venues in Birmingham.
A month of world class live performance from every corner of the globe with performers from Taiwan, Australia, South Africa, Cuba and Russia.

Fierce Festival
21 May to 1 June. Various venues in Birmingham and West Mids.
In it’s 11th year, the award-winning contemporary performing arts festival has let the audience curate a sizeable chunk of the line-up.

Birmingham Pride 2008
24 – 25 May. Hurst Street and surrounding roads.
The roads will be closed to traffic for street performers and dancers, market stalls and a fairground. The main stage will feature Samantha Mumba and Gabrielle among many others.

The Flyover Show
31 May. Hockley flyover.
A free event to celebrate the very best from the city’s urban communities and reclaim derelict spaces taking place in a ‘forgotten corner of Birmingham’. Line-up includes Soweto Kinch, Bashy and Ty.

BASS Festival 2008
31 May – 29 June. Various venues Birmingham and West Mids.
Short for British Art and Street Sounds, the BASS Festival is a month-long festival celebrating the best of the streets around this year’s theme ‘the elements of hip hop’.

New Generation Arts Festival
5 – 20 June. Various venues in Birmingham.
Focusing on developing and showcasing up and coming graduates alongside rising artistic stars who have studied or live in Birmingham.

Integra
5 – 7 June. Various venues in Birmingham.
The goal of the festival is “to create a software-based open source environment for composing and performing music with live electronics, and test it in real life thanks to new commissions and a big modernisation effort of existing repertoire using obsolete technology.”

Pritchattsbury Free Music Festival 2008
7 June, Pritchatts Park, Edgbaston.
A free student festival held to celebrate the end of exams and is open for anyone. Line-up includes The Holloways, Plan B, Envy & Other Sins, The Anomalies.

Flux
25 June – 13 July. Various venues in Birmingham.
A season of events celebrating the spirit of Fluxus, featuring rare films, publications, music, performances and Fluxus miscellany. Presented by VIVID.

Birmingham Jazz Festival
4 – 13 July. Various venues in Birmingham.
Information to come…

Supersonic
11 – 13 July. Custard Factory, Digbeth.
A musical melting pot described as ‘the nexus where metal, folk and noise meet’. Last year it was also described as ‘Festival of the year’ by Plan B magazine. The line-up includes Battles, Harmonia, Efterklang and Julian Cope. Presented by Capsule.

Moseley Folk Festival
29 – 31 August. Moseley Park.
Featuring a selection of the finest in traditional and contemporary folk, the headliners this year are Morcheeba, Jose Gonzalez and Seth Lakeman.

Computer games and individual bands are outside the traditional remit of CiB but this is a bit too cool to not warrant a mention. According to their bio on the SXSW website, local band Deluka have somehow managed to get their song ‘Sleep Is Impossible’ featured on the next installment of the Grand Theft Auto series.

For those that don’t spend their days complaining about their parents and/or hiding in their bedrooms, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has sold 70 million units to date – making it as popular as Tetris but much more controverisal. GTA 4 is due out imminently and likely to be one of the biggest-selling computer games released this year.

So congrats to Deluka. You can check out their obligatory MySpace page and you can also go see them at The Barfly on 29 April supporting another rather decent local band, Envy & Other Sins. I understand the gig will be reviewed and photographed by the guys at Birmingham Live! too.

Thanks to Antonio for the heads up.

I’ll also introduce myself properly later but for now, here’s a round-up:

• “aCtiVe arts is a steering group, made up of committed residents and local professionals, dedicated to providing quality arts experiences and opportunities for the Castle Vale community of North-East Birmingham”. They have a blog and you are advised to see what they’re doing.

• The next Drop Beats Not Bombs runs from Friday 2 to Monday 5 May (the bank holiday) and tickets are available. That’s at The Rainbow (and the warehouse and arches) in Digbeth. There should be more info on their website but it was having bandwidth issues last I checked.

• The people at the People shop in Kings Heath are having a party with drinks and canapés at their store on Saturday 26th April from 10am until 5:30pm. It’s in aid of Macmillan, there’s a raffle for a luxury goodie bag and visitors can have their photo taken by Emily Quinton. Get all the info here.  **UPDATE** It was a big success with £430 raised on the day.  More events will follow.

• Simon has started a blog called Birmingham Central. He says he’s “been inspired by the recent blogging epidemic sweeping Birmingham and the value of a good blog to share news and information”.

• Speaking of bloggers, the next Birmingham Bloggers meet-up will be on Tuesday 29 April at Rooty Frooty in the Custard Factory. Nick Booth has more info but I refer you also to the Facebook event and the Upcoming page.

Whether or not you actually make short films, Shorts on Walls is a great chance for animators to meet and network after work with other freelancers, animation companies and professionals over a mid-week beverage.

It’s free to attend but please let them know if you’ll be going down. There are contact details and more info on the Animation Forum West Midlands website.

Incidentally, props to AFWM for showing how this web promotion lark should be done – the news page of their site has an RSS feed and features a map of the venue. There’s also a Facebook group (with a list of participating animators/studios) to join as well as a newly-minted YouTube group.