Narnia, possibly… My strategy for navigation when out on my bike is pretty much “Oooh… what’s down here?” Today, as usual, I went somewhere I’d never been before and found this secret pond (well, I didn’t know about it) relatively close to my house. Not quite sure how I’ve managed to go this long without [...]
Categories: 365,Birmingham
Tagged: Birmingham, cycle
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on a Music As Culture project with the band UB40. They’re going to be playing a gig at the Rainbow pub in Digbeth on Tuesday to raise money to help the venue pay for a new soundproof roof over the courtyard, so that they don’t get [...]
Categories: Birmingham,Music,University
Tagged: Birmingham, culture, Music, research, UB40
I’ve been travelling a lot in Europe recently, and I’ve come to the conclusion that making a great, vibrant, creative city is really, really simple. What follows is my 5-step plan to better cities. If you get these things right, ALL else will follow.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Bicycle, Birmingham, How to Fix Cities, Idea, Travel
On Saturday, I went around to visit Clutch, who has just become a father in the past week. I got to meet Donnie for the first time and do a bit of a catch-up with his dad. Seems like they’re doing really well – sleeping and eating’s all happening as it should. Well, it is [...]
Categories: Birmingham,Music,Video
Tagged: Birmingham, Music, Personal, Video
Our friend Brendan has returned from his travels and many adventures, and is staying with us at the moment. Really cool to see him again. He arrived on Friday – and in the evening, we all went to the go-kart track for Juliet’s birthday celebration. It’s also Jake and Hannah’s first anniversary as a couple, [...]
Categories: Birmingham
Tagged: Birmingham, Personal
Owen proudly displays his ‘Other radio stations are shit’ bFM t-shirt This weekend was quite a treat. A kiwi friend from mine who lives in Chicago came over to Birmingham, in large part to go and see The Specials play in Birmingham. Owen Harris and I both worked at bFM in the late 80s, and [...]
Categories: Birmingham,Music,New Zealand,Video
Tagged: Birmingham, Music, New Zealand, Video
Click to play Today, I went to Jibbering Records in Moseley for probably the last time. They close in a week – but I’m off to NZ on Monday evening, and unless I get a chance to pop in during the day on Monday for one final cafetiere and a browse through the Funk bin, [...]
Categories: Birmingham,Business,Music,Video
Tagged: Birmingham, Business, Music, Video
Categories: Birmingham,Video
Tagged: Birmingham, Personal, snow, Video
The x-ray reveals no broken jaw Jake was beaten up at school today. Over four and a half years, he’s been able to talk his way out of pretty much every scrape going – but this time, the whole thing was premeditated in a ‘Let’s get him!’ kind of way. He and his friends Omer [...]
Categories: Birmingham
Tagged: Birmingham, Personal
David McInerney, Tom Arnott, Adam Regan and me – after a spectacularly successful DJ gig at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath I often do top 10 or 20 lists (and sometimes even top 100 lists) of music from the year gone by. I generally spend quite a bit of time over this, and then [...]
Categories: Birmingham,Business,Music,New Zealand,Travel,Whisky
Tagged: 2008, Birmingham, Business, Internet, Music, New Zealand, Personal, research, review, Seminar, Travel, University, web, Whisky
