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I’m just back from a long weekend in Birmingham. Lots to blog about once I recover from jet train lag and all the excitement and social whirl of the big city.
River Street, Digbeth
It’s true and it is also the name of a bloguide to the Digbeth district of Birmingham, UK, encompassing the emerging arts and cultural scenes, the older Irish Quarter and new neighbourhoods of luxury apartments, brought to us by host Nicky Getgood.
I’ve been giving Digbeth is Good a lot of my attention lately to glean some nuggets from the chock full o’ insider info and links to some happening stuff in the area. I admit that I am smitten, so much so that I am going back for a few days next week to explore some more of the real and quirky Digbeth – Friday afterwork Pimm’s O’Clock at the Spotted Dog, Ikon Eastside Gallery, bacon bap & cuppa at the Moseley Street Cafe, stay in a Japanese-style pod bedroom and who knows what else I’ll come across?
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Satisfied customers
I’m always on the lookout for graffiti and Digbeth did not disappoint. There were no smearcats here. Pascal Wyse defines ’smearcats’ as posh, pretentious graffiti artists who go to work in parts of town that were previously edgy, but are now swarming with hipster geeks. A big cartoon cock and balls, or a spot of tagging, will no longer do, and walls become daubed with philosophical turdlets such as, ‘Solid configuration of chance events’
My first port o’ call was the back wall of a building site next door to the Custard Factory. I felt a bit shy at first, but then just walked past a couple arguing near the entrance and the huddle of youths smoking weed in the corner. One of the Irish scaffies came down for a chat and told me that they’re gutting the original Bird’s office premises but keeping the facade.
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Under the arches
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The Grand Union Canal runs behind the warehouses and factories in Digbeth.
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Canal Lock
It’s a lonely, atmospheric place. Many of the factories are still in use and I could hear the clanging and whirring of machinery as I walked past. But it was dead quiet on the outside of the walls. This was the only time I felt a bit nervous on my travels around Digbeth.
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Discarded
This place reminded me of the railroad yard in Charlotte, NC where I photographed boxcar graffiti last summer. Real lonesome and empty, somehow echo-ey even though it was wide open. The feeling of people being around, but just out of sight.
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Grand Union Canal and Buiding Site Graffiti Album
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My last stop was a graffiti covered house at the corner of Andover and Fazely Streets. I don’t know who tagged this building but it was cool to get up close to and see all of the different sections, colours and styles.
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I really liked the far right hand panel which was stenciled Brasilian newspapers and posters flyposted and collaged onto the walls.
Digbeth Graffiti House Album
PS I promise, promise, promise that I will write a post real soon telling how to embed a Picasa slideshow into a WordPress blog. I’m exahusted after doing two of them in one!
During my final day in Digbeth last Monday, I spent some quiet moments along the Grand Union Canal, just chilling out and watching the water flow. Bring your headphones.
L’art du déplacement also known as parkour is the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. Parkour is a non-competitive sport/activity that encompasses the art of movement, overcoming obstacles, freedom and human reclamation of urban environments. It’s like a fluid urban ballet.
A picture tells a thousand words. Here is a video of traceuses or female parkour practitioners with some great shots in and around London’s Southbank.
I recently came across a little gem of a book called ‘A mis- GUIDE to Anywhere‘ published in 2006 by Wrights & Sites. This is like no other guide you have ever used before. Rather than telling you where to go and what to see, it gives you the ways to see your city or environment that no one else has found yet. It suggests a series of walks and points of observation and contemplation within any town, city or landscape of your own choosing. Unlike an ordinary guide book, it is guided by the practice of mythogeography, which places the fictional, fanciful, fragile and personal on equal terms with ‘factual’, municipal history. Author and walker become partners in ascribing significance to place.
BLOCK: Choose one small block of streets and walk them again and again in every possible direction until it seems that the streets themselves are taking you for a walk.
NATURE WALK: Look for the non-human. Maps drawn by slugs. Foxes cutting through gardens. Cats winking from car roofs. Birds nesting on porches. Hedgehogs halting traffic. Spiders redecorating empty houses. A continent in mildew.
So, check out A Mis-Guide To Anywhere. It’ll re-open your world.
I also got An Exeter Mis-Guide (2003), already a teeny bit out of date because of the new Princesshay development. But it’ll be fun to explore and re-explore Exeter in new ways.
Paul Street, Exeter
The street I can neither walk down nor up. Don’t ask me why, but I’ll make a 5 minute detour to avoid this street. It’s a long city block of bleak, dreary, awfulness. This one gets filed under ‘Dread Places’.
