(Photo is Endeavour Space Shuttle Blastoff by jurvetson)

Thankfully Heath Mill Studios have written up 3/4 of it already, so here’s a digest:

Digbeth triple launch

At 5pm, Heath Mill Studios are opening their doors for the first time and Bay Leaf, a new Bangladeshi restaurant in the Custard Factory, are providing the food – I think this counts as their launch too.

At 8pm everyone’s going to leg it over to The Rainbow for the BASS Festival launch. Ghostpoet‘s performing and he’s meant to be good.

BE at the mac**

If theatre’s your thing then the BE Festival is launching at the MAC tonight with various things and stuff happening there. The festival itself doesn’t start for a good few weeks, but you can’t knock the enthusiasm to get started.

On top of all of that

They’re not launching anything, but Yo La Tengo, Welsh National Opera and Doc Brown are all in town (not all on the same bill, more’s the pity). Aren’t we lucky to live somewhere with so much stuff going on? Yes, we are.

(* not everything)
(** see what I did there?)

On Saturday Electric Carnival is taking over half of Digbeth – the HMV Institute, Custard Factory, Air, Heath Mill Lane car park and the Rainbow venues – and they’ve got space for 9,000 people (1,500 more than last year). That’s kinda big.

Via Digbeth is Good, who also have a map of road closures for the more logistically minded.

Face is first up on 23 April at The Rainbow in Digbeth.

Heducation‘s will be on 3 June at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath.

On 23 February, Mostly Jazz were set to launch their 2011 Festival at The Rainbow, with a performance from a trio of contemporary Jazz performers; local, world class drummer, Tony Levin (above), saxophonist Paul Dunmall and young bass player Nick Jurd.

Sadly, Tony Levin passed away earlier this month, and so the gig is now set to go ahead in tribute to him, featuring the musicians originally booked to play alongside the legendary drummer.

The first set at 9pm will feature the Nick Jurd Quartet with Rachel Cohen on saxophone, Sam Wooster on trumpet, Nick on bass and Jim Bashford on drums. The second set will feature Paul Dunmall on saxophone, Mark Sanders and Tony’s son, Miles Levin on drums and Nick Jurd who Tony had personally chosen for the original gig.

Tickets for this event are £5, for more information, visit Birmingham Jazz, where they’ve also posted a tribute piece.

All proceeds will be donated to Blue Chairs: Shropshire Blood Trust Fund  http://www.justgiving.com/bluechairs2

The Eastern Electronic Festival is a new six day festival, taking place from 28 February – 5 March, featuring music, film screenings, art exhibitions, panel debates and world premieres of visual-artworks.

The festival will celebrate progressive Asian music and multimedia art, spreading itself across the city, with events taking place at venues including The Custard Factory, The Rainbow and The Hockley.

They’ll also be showcasing the work of four emerging South Asian artists in online exhibition “M-V Future”. From 28 Feb, the exhibition with feature work from film director Mandeep Singh Jutla, live-music photographer Gobinder Jhitta, VJ-visual artist Coco Edwards and contemporary conceptual artist Kulwinder Bajar, .

There’s plenty of free events going on, including a film and karaoke night, with the premier screening of Sholay flip-animation (1 March),  a panel discussion entitled “Is it time to stop calling is Asian music?” (2 March), and Unplugged with Sanchita Farruque (2 March).

For a full line-up of performers, exhibitions and events, take a look at the online programme.

Events from 28 Feb – 3 Mar are free entry, but should be pre-booked, and tickets are £10 a day for Fri 4/ Sat 5, or £18 for both. Visit the website for information on how and where to book.

The CiB Shop window was jazzed up with the help of Birmingham Royal Ballet, Art Detection Services set up their workshop in store and Shady Bird popped by to play a set. In other CiB news, CiBmail was launched.

The Rainbow announced their plans for developments and expansion both upstairs and below, we said goodbye to more independent record shops and sampad celebrated their 20th anniversary.

Trove showed some science, we had a nosey at CBSO’s summer programme and some behind the scenes footage from The Electric showed up.

Not My Type brought together “a veritable who’s who of Brum talent” (to quote myself) and, in other illustration-related news, the Love To Print crowd released Patterns #1.

Other things to look back on and go ‘oh yeah, I remember that’ include Such Tweet Sorrow, BAP’s document on Birmingham’s Creative Capital, the Big Culture Blog and a call for “more of the Simon Rattle effect”. Also, In Our Backyard looked interesting and Chris Bates made a video for Munchbreak’s Television:

• Invisible City‘s final event, Media Circus, takes place on 29 Oct at Fazeley Studios. With entertainment, music, drinks, performances and digital displays, along with the winners of the Invisible City categories to be announced. Fancy dress is along the lines of Victorian Circus.
• CBSO’s Friday Night Classics: Nightmare on Broad Street takes place on 29 Oct, 7.30pm at Symphony Hall, with a pre-concert talk at 6.15.
• Town Hall host a Halloween Silent Movie Special with the 1923 classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame on 31 Oct at 7.30pm.
• Black Country Living Museum are holding Halloween at the Museum on 30 & 31 Oct from 6.30pm – 10pm, with opportunities for psychic reading and trick or treating along the cobbled streets.
• Take a guided tour of Aston Hall, exploring the ghosts and legends on 31 Oct at 7.30pm. Full of spooky surprises, this is not suitable for children of a ‘nervous disposition’.
• Halloween Night at the Museum Collections Centre invites you on a spine tingling trail for a chance to see some of the scariest objects not on general display, join the tour on 29 Oct from 6.30pm – 9pm.

Since Halloween falls on a weekend, it would be a crime to let an opportunity to get dressed up go unmentioned. Most weekend club nights will be welcoming heavy eyeliner and fake blood, on the only occasion where you can get away with wearing a bin liner, here’s a few that stand out;

• Jocko Homo will be hosting The Victoria’s Halloween festivities from 9pm with free entry.
• Face present their Halloween Bash at Cellar Door, the Rainbow, with house legend Emerson Todd.
• Hare & Hounds are holding House of God Halloween Party with horror makeup available on the night.
• Eddie’s Rock Club will be dishing out a free shot for the first 100 people through the door, and a £50 prize to the best dressed.
• The fourth Electric City event at HMV Institute is Spectrum’s Halloween Fancy Dress Special, with Sub Focus and Stanton Warriors live.
• The Curates Egg presents a Halloween special at The Old Wharf on 31 Oct, with live music from Nightingales, The Courtesy Group and Black Carrot.

Plus outfit inspiration is provided by this month’s issue of Area for how to pull off a creepy-but-cool costume, with just the right amount of effort to keep your street cred.

Dave Harte pointed out the Aston Triangle Cinema Club, with the website proclaiming:

The Aston Triangle Cinema Club has been created in order to put on high quality and interesting films from around the world for the benefit of Aston staff, students and the public

Screening programme here. Facebook group here.

Dom (from Tak) says of Home of Metal:

Maybe you could feature the new website which has now gone live & ask your audience to dig out any memorabilia they might have – photos, videos or just stories.

Which sounds fair enough. We’ve mentioned this one a few times already, but it’s a good project so what the heck. Go here and get involved:

May 2010 sees the start our most ambitious period of metamorphosis yet.  How do you get more underground than The Rainbow? – only one way – turn the cellar into a venue. The Cellar Door (opening May 28 2010) – is under the very floorboards of the The Rainbow itself.  The original Rainbow now consists of Bar, Courtyard and Cellar each delivering a specific flavour to the overall taste of this unique venue.

July 2010 heralds the arrival of The Mezzanine.

The Rainbow Warehouse has hosted some legendary nights and provided the springboard for some maverick and massively successful brands.  Anyone who promotes here has relished the sense of decadence that comes with partying under the arches or the frisson of danger provided by the imposing industrial ironwork throughout the interior.  There is only one place left to go UP.  Launching in July 2010 The Mezzanine will ensure Summer Daytime parties will be going to new levels as The Rainbow Warehouse installs  an innovative take on The Zoo Project and DC10, and allows for open air partying on tiered levels.

The Arena (opening October 2010) is at the Opposite end of Adderley Street.  Bringing massed ranks of more Victorian railway arches under the over-reaching  curve of The Rainbow’s embrace – The Arena is set to witness musical mayhem and battles reminiscent  of The Coliseum – whose  amphitheatre architecture it mimics.  This massive site alone can cater for a capacity of 5000.

The Rainbow Complex now contains 9 separate venues on the same street that can be utilised for events of 200-5000 in isolation, or combined via a road closures to create a unique self contained Urban complex for 10,000 – licensed until 6am.  This is unprecedented anywhere else in the UK.

Any chance of a proper website or something so we can find out what events are happening down there?

I have merged various art forms creating my own distinctive art style, creating storytelling trends and concepts. I’m enthusiastic and hard working. I’m success driven and enjoy making a difference to my space and environment. My Incentive is driven on the basis of ergonomics, our enviroment and landscape.

You can check out more of his stuff on his portfolio site.