Unpopular opinions about Birmingham
It’s a Twitter thing, where people are challenged to post an ‘unpopular’ opinion for each like a post can get. We had a go… it cost us a few followers.
Search results for: christmas market
What time and when is our new SEO strategy going to pay dividends with pageviews? Everything you need to know
Friend of the show Dave Harte used to do a bit about how the most popular posts on his hyperlocal website was called “When are the supermarkets open over Christmas?”. This is the sort of ‘content’ which successfully remediates the local newspaper onto the web. Forget live-blogging, periscoping, and making things ‘interactive’ — what people … Continue reading “What time and when is our new SEO strategy going to pay dividends with pageviews? Everything you need to know”
Outsiders: back with a vengeance
I’m here in a new bar, but it’s an old bar. The bar that was here before is old and gone, the new old bar is a lot like a bar that used to be in its place years and years ago. It’s dark and humid but the walls are yet to condense into sweat. … Continue reading “Outsiders: back with a vengeance”
The Ruin Under Water — our perfect Birmingham Pub
The latest Birmingham PLC press release — painstakingly recreated as news by the local paper — makes many proud boasts about the planned redevelopment of the Christopher Wray lighting factory. It includes the usual lauding of new shiny buildings and a shameless brag about how much the land has gone up in value since the … Continue reading “The Ruin Under Water — our perfect Birmingham Pub”
No sad songs, an interview with Stephen Duffy
The excuse for talking to Stephen Duffy is the release of the first Lilac Time album in ten years, but that really is just an excuse: we could listen to him forever. Paradise Circus is more named after the Lilac Time album of that name than even the traffic island. That said, No Sad Songs … Continue reading “No sad songs, an interview with Stephen Duffy”
Danny Smith: Disappearing World
This week, Danny writes a eulogy for Birmingham’s last independent bookshop. Some things, like grotty flats, go with a bang: a big showy controlled demolition surrounded by smug men in yellow jackets who pretend that playing with explosives doesn’t give them trouser tents. Some things, like the Central Library, go with a fight: even if … Continue reading “Danny Smith: Disappearing World”
101 Things Birmingham Gave The World. No. 63: TV Box Sets
The TV box set is a thing. It’s so much a thing that it has now detached itself from its own material: a box set is no longer a TV series collected as a set and presented in a box, it is now simply the thing, collected, and placed in a set completely agnostic to … Continue reading “101 Things Birmingham Gave The World. No. 63: TV Box Sets”
101 Things Birmingham Gave The World. No. 50: Panhandling
If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Despite the protests of anyone who’s ever wanted to make it from one end of New Street to the other, asking people for money is profitable and it will continue. Birmingham has some world class panhandling: the girl with the odd voice and dreads who needs 65p to … Continue reading “101 Things Birmingham Gave The World. No. 50: Panhandling”
101 Things Birmingham Gave The World. No. 19: Manchester
Ah, Manchester! Competitive little Manchester! Gutsy, plucky, Manchester! What makes you tick? What makes you worry so much about Birmingham? What makes you enter into dick measuring contests with us all the time? Well, our Psychology 101 training suggests it’s something oedipal. Tell us, people of the North, tell us about your mother. Folksy little … Continue reading “101 Things Birmingham Gave The World. No. 19: Manchester”
Winterval starts here
Last year Birmingham City Council held a Christmas lights ceremony that ended in what most called a ‘fiasco’. Our crap Altamont was down to nobody guessing that one of the biggest bands of the moment giving a free concert would be popular. This year instead of a big fuss there will be a Christmas parade. In … Continue reading “Winterval starts here”