Birmingham City Council

At least not as we know it.

More Canals Than Venice

Annabel has said that, needing to prioritise paying work, she’s changing her approach to running the site:

I intend to discover the new in the city, but at a more leisurely pace and in more depth

Which doesn’t sound all that bad really.

The Yam Yam

However, The Yam Yam, a Walsall-based aggregator of local news, is shutting up shop completely. Here’s a fuller explanation of what that’s all about. I was aware of the site but, not living in Walsall, had no particular reason for following it very closely – the number and content of the comments tell you how much the site was appreciated though.

Next?

In a few weeks time we’re going to hear about which of the established arts organisations and council services aren’t going to be supported any more. That’s not going to be pleasant. There’ll still be plenty of good stuff for us to write about on CiB, and plenty of individuals doing good things, but we won’t know what we’re missing.

On the web side of things, it’s worth remembering that most of the genuinely interesting websites around are actually quite fragile things and, if they’re run for personal enjoyment, it’s probably best not to assume they’ll be around forever either. See also Jon Bounds’ comments last month when the harmless bit of fun that was Brummie of the Year turned nasty on BiNS:

I’ll continue to ruminate as to whether the site does its job or is best closed.

On the other hand, I’m all for a bit of a shake-up, some new voices and some new ways of doing things. We’ll see how things pan out over the next little while.

UPDATE

I forgot to end this post with some bunnies:

We’ve had 100 submissions, which seems like a good place to draw things to a close and have a look at the results:

Listings/what’s on

70 – Venues’ own websites
49 – CiBmail
30 – Birmingham City Council – What’s On
29 – Live Brum
18 – What’s on in Brum
17 – Ticketmaster
14 – Visit Birmingham
10 – Scene Central
6 – Birmingham Alive
4 – Birmingham Gig Guide
4 – What’s On Midlands (online)

Suggestions left in the ‘other’ box included The Ticketsellers, Last.fm, Songkick, Ents24, Brum Notes, finditinbirmingham.com, More Canals Than Venice, The Wire and Upcoming.

Arts/culture news

80 – Created in Birmingham
76 – Blogs/social network updates from individual artists/organisations
34 – Digbeth is Good
32 – BiNS
32 – More Canals Than Venice
24 – Birmingham Post/Mail (online)
20 – Arts Council England Arts News
15 – Audiences Central

Others included Ryan’s Gig Guide, An Craic, We Are Eastside and Area Magazine.

Who filled out the survey?

We had a roughly 50:50 male/female split, a wide spread of ages (with a slight skew to 18-25 and 26-35) and pretty much everyone has a B postcode, with a smattering of WV and DY’s too.

Any conclusions?

Nothing really concrete, but it was interesting. I’ve got an idea of the level of web traffic of some of the sites listed, so I know that the results certainly doesn’t indicate which are the most popular websites around the city. However, you could say that this shows which other websites overlap with CiB’s readership.

If anything, I was expecting the Post & Mail to come up a bit higher. Nice to see Live Brum up there.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who took the time to fill out and/or forward on the survey.

Just a quick round up of everything going on this weekend, there’s a lot and we wouldn’t want you to forget and miss out on anything!

Cum Clubbing – Hosted by VIVID, this art party does not look like something to be missed (although it’s happening now, so get down quick). From 8pm – late, VIVID’s project space will be taken over by live music, DJs and visual artists who’ll conspire to create an excitingly strange evening of camp disco. Tickets are £5.

To save time I’m going to be both lazy and efficient, and link you to everyone else who’s been talking about this. Take a look at Digbeth is Good, More Canals than Venice, brianduffyhasabigbrain, and Birmingham: It’s Not Shit.

Zine Festival – Not put off by the scale of Artsfest, this niche festival has a weekend full of events for you to get involved in.

• Starting this evening at The Edge is a screening of ‘$100 & A T-Shirt‘, Joe Biel’s documentary on zine culture. Entry is a £1, which also gets you a bag of popcorn, along with a talk from Pete Ashton and Rob Horrocks on the emergence of the small press comics scene and music zine influence in the 80s.
• The Victoria is host to the Zine Fair on Saturday from 12 – 6pm, along with a workshop from 2 – 2.30pm with Peter Lally, as he runs through the history of Alternative Press and curates a Q&A session on running your own zine events.
• At 5 – 6.30pm Island Bar are inviting zine fans to ‘Drop in + Draw’, offering a pencil and paper to unwind with, before the party starts with the Atta Girl Zine Party, 8pm – 2am.
• From 6.30 – 8.30pm, Get A Grip will be guiding guests through the process of making your very own totally unique t-shirt. T-shirt, equipment, inks, images and expertise supplied for £20 per person. If you fancy it, book in advance, more details here.
• Sunday will be a chilled out picnic in Cannon Hill Park at 1 – 4pm. With nothing for sale and free to attend, the party will be meeting at mac.

Artsfest – As already mentioned, the weekend of free arts events kicks off this evening and will continue to entertain through to Sunday night. With live performances coming from Centenary Square and Chamberlain Square, along with short films and animations screened at the Crescent, plus various performances and workshops held at theaters and bars across the city, don’t let the miserable weather deter you from leaving the house!

This time round they’ve got a Commercially Inviable special starring World of Fox with support from James Summerfield, Friends of the Stars and Richard Burke.

Pixie Sixer’s already written all about it on More Canals Than Venice so check that for more info. I’m really posting this for an excuse to post Ruth Green‘s artwork for World of Fox.

Ruth is a recent addition to the Love to Print collective – a project explained on the rather wonderfully named Shoulder to Crayon. Most of that collective are also involved with Girls Who Draw, including Karoline Rerrie and Sarah Ray.

There seems to be quite a tangled web of ladies out there producing pretty, quirky illustrations. See also i heart joan and the Inkygoodness folks.

A particular fave of recent times is More Canals Than Venice, run by the mysterious PixieSixer. Well worth bookmarking/subscribing to if you’ve not already.