The centre’s popular live screenings from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York return, kicking off with Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. Renowned Russian soprano Anna Netrebko plays the determined Englishwoman with her sights on the throne.

Jack Whitehall headlines the comedy stakes, while musical highlights will include The Fallows, an up-and-coming folk group from nearby Coventry.

See the full events schedule here

Digbeth v the JQ (via @EleanorWi)

Ooh, good one – the battle of the so called ‘creative quarters’ – this could be fun. I’ve just moved from working in Digbeth to working in the Jewellery Quarter and Eleanor knows this, hence the request. FIGHT!

I shall now go on to disappoint with a bland appraisal of the two taken from my own point of view. Your experiences of the places may vary.

I’m enjoying the Jewellery Quarter. It’s nearer my house so cycling in is easier, there are useful amenities (there’s no need to get excited about cash machines around these parts) and there are some decent enough places to grab a drink after work.

The nightlife thing’s interesting. I’ve never been keen on St Paul’s Square as a place to go out but, with UAB book-ending things (with The Red Lion at one end, The Lord Cliffden at the other) and places like Vertu, The Vaults, The Drop Forge and soon The Rose Villa Tavern in between, I reckon we could start to see more people around here of a weekend. There are restaurants here too.

As for the creativity/arts/culture angle, there’s a bigger emphasis on heritage over this side of town, while a a lot of the current activity feels hidden away and goes on behind closed studio and workshop doors. Other than AE Harris (which I love) there isn’t much by way of a decent venue – there’s The Asylum and The Blue Orange Theatre but neither currently has a schedule of events that grabs me. Also, everything over this side of town seems quite managed and smoothly polished (which isn’t necessarily praise but is definitely a contrast).

Digbeth is rougher round the edges but it wears its distinctiveness quite proudly on its sleeve. It’s more performative. It feels like the art and creativity spills out of Eastside Projects, Grand Union, Vivid, Boxxed, Fazeley Studios and onto the streets. It’s a place for music and visual arts to tumble towards. If you want a night out and you like your music then Digbeth, with the Institute, Air, Space 2, The Rainbow, Irish Centre, Adam & Eve and others, can’t be beat.

Space must be cheaper there. That brings in the artist collectives, the gallery spaces and the graduates looking for their first studio space. It’s a shame a shame the developers have made such a mess of the place over the past few years though – too many decent places bulldozed leaving large swathes of cleared, fenced off land.

For a while, the Custard Factory drifted into becoming a nightclub which I’m not sure was a good idea, but maybe that was a result of trying to pack lots of activity into a fairly small area. It seems to be moving away from that again. Besides, Digbeth is sprawling away from the Custard Factory these days and that’s no bad thing.

Both sides of town suffer from a bit of a visibility problem – directing people to either from the city centre is no easy task.

So, to ramble to a conclusion – horses for courses, innit.

Comedy in Birmingham (via @RosieHighlight)

I’m going to duck this one slightly and refer back to the post I wrote a few months back about comedy in Birmingham. Although I’ve asked Ian and he’s reminded me about the Fat Penguin, Cheeky Monkey and Laughing Cows nights in Kings Heath/Moseley that are often overlooked. I’m not sure I mentioned The Drum as another venue for that sort of thing either.

The upshot of that previous conversation was that there’s a reasonable amount of stuff going on although we’re not quite world-beaters, there could be more and it could do with being more visible. Couldn’t that apply to pretty much anything we do here?

Burning Ham (via @LouisHudson)

Louis is presumably referring to EXYZT’s contribution to this year’s Fierce Festival. I wasn’t around Birmingham when most of the events were going on down there and this round-up made me a bit regretful of that. It’s good to see that they’ll be back to work on a new site for the next festival.

Bunnies (via @Ravonski)

With the whole arts funding situation having settled down somewhat and no more cuts looming in the immediate future, I haven’t had much cause to lighten a gloomy post by finishing with a picture of a bunny.

That said, I expect there’s still bad news to come as the effect of the earlier cuts comes to be felt. There’ll be a few more leaving parties, closed signs, permanently-out-of-office messages and euphemistic talk of ‘transitioning’.

So on that downbeat note, cue bunnies:

(Photo by captainsubtle)

James Cook has joined this cohort with a post titled ‘Why the Birmingham comedy scene repeatedly dies on its hole…‘. His gripes are that (and I apologise for paraphrasing):

• research shows that residents of Birmingham are the most risk averse in the country. We have a drinking culture, but not much of a ‘going out’ culture. This makes things difficult for promoters
• there are too many poor quality comedy night charging people good money to see new, unpaid acts. These nights are rubbish and will put people off ever going to a comedy night again

I don’t claim to know too much about this – I go to the occasional stand-up show, but I don’t have James’s experience of the local comedy scene and he’s not the first to have made this complaint. However, from a lay punter’s point of view, I was under the impression that if comedy’s your thing then Birmingham caters for you pretty well. We’ve got:

• the NIA and LG Arena for the big, mainstream touring shows
• Town Hall and Alexandra Theatre for other biggish touring shows
• two main stand-up venues – The Glee Club and Highlight
• other occasional shows at The Public and the MAC. Warwick Arts Centre and various places in Wolverhampton are fairly close too
• some smaller, regular nights bringing in some decent national names (Comedy Junction and Popcorn Comedy)
• there’s a proliferation of other, smaller nights at pubs and bars around over the city too

In terms of general promotion, we’ve got a dedicated comedy website and (almost?) every year the Birmingham Comedy Festival draws a ring around a load of shows happening over the space of a month and shouts about them.

That seems like a pretty healthy spread to me. Certainly a good deal more than many other towns and cities can claim. Does it constitute a ‘scene’? If not, is it just the audiences for the smaller gigs that are missing, or something else?

I’d be interested in hearing what people think. Or, seeing as how he started the discussion, leave a comment on James’s post.

After its Brum debut at the Birmingham Comedy Festival last year, cult London comedy night Popcorn Comedy is back, this time at The Victoria on Thursday 25th March 2010.

Popcorn Comedy showcases the funniest comedy videos from around the internet, combined with live stand ups and character comedians, who mix in their own comedy videos for good measure.

This time, Popcorn has live performances from Rob Rouse (8 out of 10 Cats, Grown Ups) and Brian Gittins (described by Ricky Gervais as “One of the best comedy characters of the decade”). I’ll be hosting the night along with my Dice Productions cronies, so I’ll see you there.

It’s a fiver in (and less for students), so follow this link and book your tickets for Popcorn Comedy.

]]> http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/2010/01/12/anyone-for-kipple/ Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:00:13 +0000 http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/?p=4799 [Read more...]]]> Kipple is the result of carefully mashing together choice cuts of found VHS footage to produce new, wonderfully odd and generally hilarious films. It’s the work of video mash-up artists Eagle & Feather.

Here’s one of my personal favourite Kipple clips, called ‘Tony Robinson’s Running Tales‘:

You can find much more Kipple on Eagle & Feather’s criminally-undersubscribed Youtube channel here.

You can download the audio from the website and play it via a Garmin or TomTom satnav thingy or a GPS-enabled smartphone or PDA. It’ll play on your computer too if you want a taster.

In case you’re interested in creating something similar yourself then have a look at Geovative for the tech behind the scenes.

There’s a bit of a review here from The Guardian and I’ve downloaded them for the next time I’m out and about. If anyone else has a go I’d be interested to hear what you think.

• Tuesday 15 July – Glenn Wool & Carey Marx
• Thursday 17 July – Zoe Lyons & Scott Capurro
• Friday 18 July – Reginald D Hunter & Jason Scott

I’ve even heard of a couple of those – Scott Capurro, for example, is fantastically offensive and worth checking out if you’re thick-skinned enough.

Tickets are a tenner each and booking info is on the left of this page.