Friday

I think I have just about recovered...

First port of call for me after eating some Spaghetti on Toast for breakfast was the Flatpack Palais or the room at the back of the reception area in the Custard Factory for some...er...interesting...films. Mostly abstract stuff funny shapes on the screen and wierdo soundscape music which I quite like but after an hour or so they get a bit samey. There was short documentary film about Urban Explorers who came across as being quite annoying.

I wandered over to the other side of town popping into Cafe Costes along the way to see the nostalgia fest of films about the old Bull Ring, I still think it was better than cathedral of bland like what we have got now. Four o'clock is when the staff of West Midlands Police ICT Services run out of the office making a bee line for the Shakespeare. I meet up with Gary, Paul, Rebecca and Grumpy Liz and have a few beers. About six o'clock they've all left to do other stuff apart from Gaz who is hinting that he wants to stay out but only if I bully him into doing so that he can blame me when he gets moaned at by his missus for arriving home pissed as a fart at three, four or later. I however am not playing that game today.

Gary heads off home and I go to Tesco and buy a four pack of Tesco's premium lager for £2.24 then walk down to Digbeth for Art. Art at Grand Union is normally quite interesting but its quite a small venue and there's not all that much of it, today was no exception, there was some work on the surveillance culture we have now. Art at the Eastside Projects is generally bollocks and tonight was no disappointment, they had a pavilion structure and in the middle was a group of people eating a Chinese meal while everyone else stood on the top of the pavilion watching them. The performative piece is called After Dinner Shu Fa at Cricket Pavilion, apparently the structure is going to be moved to a cricket ground in Coniston. They also had a video in the other part of the gallery which was of the river that goes underneath Digbeth. Like I said bollocks.

I had a quick pint in the Crown whilst waiting for a few persons to turn up at Vivid for the Bring Your Own Beamer night. I enjoyed this quite a lot, there were twenty one artists covering every part of the walls with projected pieces of artwork, some of it was obviously knocked up in a few minutes but that didn't matter because as a whole it looked great. There was music from one of the members of the Higher Intelligence Agency and it fit very nicely.

This is the point where I should have probably caught a bus home.

After the BYOB night there was a showing of esoteric films at The Edge, lots of wierdness, not that I saw much of the films as I seemed to spend most of the evening standing outside talking to smokers Leon, Sarah and Jim, Marie, Sandra and Nerys. I was quite drunk by this point but people kept buying me cans of Red Stripe.

The films finished at half three and I was dragged kicking and screaming - I did try to make good my escape but was unsuccessful, if only I'd had a bicycle like Leon - to Subside by Nerys who was looking for more booze which she certainly didn't need, we got there and she passed out so I woke her up with the help of one of the bouncers and put her in a taxi home. At this pint my brother arrived for somewhere and I made him buy me a pint. Another couple of drinks later and it was light and the first, second, third and forth buses had already gone. Time to go home.

What time do bloody newsagents open, I wanted some milk but everywhere was shut at seven?

Flatpack Fursday

Quite an interesting day, went to Urban Coffee but it was too busy to sit down and watch the films about Birmingham so I popped around the corner to Cafe Costes where they were showing a film about kids messing around in the school holidays which was so so, then a great film about a really shitty bar in New York, this is a follow on to that film about some of the more salubrious customers:



After this I headed around the corner to the Birmingham and Midland Institute to see the Charles Dickens silent movies, which I rather enjoyed, the lavish production (for its time) of Nicholas Nickleby I think was the best. There was of course the obligatory Scrooge:



Popping over the road into the BIAD who were showing some arty bollocks, not very impressive, I did see a Rachel Riley look-a-like which more than made up for the pretentious rubbish. Then I went to the Joint Stock to watch the funny films they were showing, this was my favourite:



I didn't buy any beer in the pub because it cost me £4.10 for a Carlsberg the last time I went there which is an utter rip off. Anyway I left half way through the funny films to grab a bite to eat, I was starving. Satiated, I head down to the Mailbox to catch the very noisy Mothwasp who I have written about in these pages before, they were OK, I had a couple of cans and ran into a lad who knows me but I don't know him, which is odd. After this I met Phil in the White Horse and drank a few too many pints of Budvar. I did intend on walking home but it started to rain and I though fuck it and flagged down a black cab, glad I did, I hit my bed and dropped off straight away.

I'm just about to go out for round two, if anyone fancies meeting me in town tonight, give us a bell.