Paradise Circus – Page 43 – A Birmingham Miscellany

Notes from the Underworld

Old punks never die- they just smell that way.

Costers is closed and part of my adolescence disappeared. I’m sitting in its cultural replacement which by all accounts is exactly the same but better. It’s brighter, louder, bigger with comfyer seats, two TV screens and a pinball machine. The Costers crowd have made the migration of 100 yards to another underground bar and first impressions are good. Personally it should feel like a fresh start but I cant help but miss the ghosts. Costers was a dark run down shit hole but it had a cobweb of personal history hanging from every corner. My connection to the Birmingham alternative scene it seems was the shared fetish stick of that shit hole. I’m young enough to generate new memories – but too old to invest heavily in this scene.

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Harry Palmer: Darknosis scientific think-tank laboratory investigations at the PhD show.

Day One (24hrs) 18th Sept 2009 starting 7pm.

Inspired by the statement below, the PhD show’s mythological think-tank investigation, conducted by Harry Palmer, seeks to discover the relationship between the banana plantation and lost civilisation concerning the Hawaiian Mauna Loa tribesmen and women. Mythological hoaxes have been reported suggesting that banana worship and ecological disaster were aligned to the Indian rope trick in which the Darknosis Scientific team sought to define and clarify on their 1917 expedition to this Pacific Ocean Island.

Previous investigations lead by Japanese scientists in 1994.

Statement by Edward Percival N. Spoonhandle – geologist prior to the 1917 expedition:

‘Painting, drawing – that is, the process of meditation and the ability of transmutational story telling, time and space alteration – seen and heard through the senses – is a primitive and ancient instinct.

I do believe that the Mauna Loa cave painters and sand drawers employed the use of colour and lines via the mobilisation of arms, feet, hands, mouth spray (wind power) – sticks, fingers, dyes and animal inks – the rattle of drums, voice, dancing and chanting creates the psychedelic hypnotism, enchantment. The Illumination of fire….Ghostly apparitions appeared. Gods were formed – some stayed for a few seconds, an hour, others for thousands of years. Their demons haunted themselves! Superstition emerged and as the short supply of consumable vegetation severely decreased (why, we are unsure) – the last substantial evidence of human subsistence purports to an increased intake of banana and high intakes of potassium.

The Mauna Loa divided experiences into pockets of memory time. The Darknosis team believe that this significant civilisation witnessed disturbing solar movement, tide changes, thermal alteration and temperature fluctuation. A departure of flight and fantasy, we are unsure.’

PhD think tank investigation from inside the think tank

Find out more at The PhD show: On until 25th Sept at The Edge, Birmingham. Please visit website for details and directions: www.phdshow.com

About Harry Palmer

Continue reading “Harry Palmer: Darknosis scientific think-tank laboratory investigations at the PhD show.”

Harry Palmer: Oneself, a bedroom and a pulsating unit

Besides unexpected in-situ encounters that stimulate criticism, my journey as an eccentric archaeologist continues to present contradictions and hypocrisy. This is not surprising. Curiously a recent doppelganger experience occurred in which I was identified by several people as being someone else….

Either way, I was delighted to have had such a number of simultaneous (mis)representations and encounters. It must have been at least ten years ago when I approached a person as mistaken identity. It made me question my motives and reasons for making snap observations mixed with rash excitement. Judgements have no absolute hold on what appears to be the truth of course…..

This leads me nicely onto the latest eccentric investigation into The Darknosis Project, a project that takes place as part of a mythological environment at The Edge starting this Friday for one week. The imminent PhD Show (Pete Hadfield, Harry Palmer and Diane Taylor) – have spent several months formulating vintage accounts of socio – environmental and biological ancestor hood in which previous incantations of lost tribes and civilisations have shaped our current condition as humans (and the PhD show). Myths, of course, are not merely roamers or absolute fact – they are stories which have arisen from an ongoing narrative shared via our individual interactions between each other; as necessary strategies to enable evolutionary (human) development – the evident weaving of our sentient worldwidewebness.

The PhD show is more than a walkabout form of entertainment (indeed we indulge a joyful sense of humour to elicit curiosity of course). Locating our current HQ at The Edge in Birmingham, I can now reveal a little slice of installation, a personal introduction by way of invitation.

A live webcam relay across the electronic data field (aka the internet) will hopefully pulsate personal mythological investigations from inside my purpose built metal cage. This metal cage will house my bedroom (and myself for one week 24/7), relocated for the purposes of in-situ discovery. Those familiar with my eccentric archaeological approach to date will recognise the trait – to investigate the world on location, in locations. This PhD show is therefore housing myself and my bedroom as a portal of gestating stories – fact and fiction. The Transformative Darknosis Psychic Centre of Research (myself and my metal cage and bedroom) within the PhD show has been designed to alter my consciousness once more – perhaps presenting more misrepresentation and new understanding from previous identifiable traits that have attempted to describe me and my world amongst us. You are invited!
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Danny Smith’s Guide to 2008 Pt12

Danny Smith was writing lots of guides to Brum for the Itchy guide, last year. It never happened, so we present his guide to the past in a number of parts (see all the parts):

Costermongers
5 Dalton Way
(0121) 2363791

Costers is a dinosaur of a rock pub and one of the last in Birmingham that makes up for its unwelcoming atmosphere by having a very loyal set of regulars. It is underground in both the musical and very physical sense of the word but is one of the few pubs not to benefit by the smoking ban because now you can see the shoddy vandalized décor and smell decades of stale beer. Costers is also home of the most uncomfortable seats and ugliest toilets in Birmingham. Treat this place like a historical theme park.
Mon – Wed, 12noon – 11pm Thu, 12noon – 12mn Fri – Sat, 12noon – 1am Sun, 5pm – 10.30pm

The Black Horse
22 Jennens Road,
Aston,
Birmingham,
B7 4EH
Tel, 01213597108
Kurt Cobain delivered the lethal blow to Heavy Metal in the early nineties; by all accounts it was a mercy killing. Just over a decade later every city harbours the refugees in little die hard pockets. One of these last bastions of the Metal subculture in Birmingham is relatively new and despite its unfortunate location – that’s quite a stomp away from the city centre- it’s thriving due to its community atmosphere, friendly staff, cheap prices and ongoing support for local music. For more detail we highly recommend you pop in for a chat.

Check out The Shouting Gypsy – Danny’s ‘wordcast’

Danny Smith’s Guide to 2008 Pt11

Danny Smith was writing lots of guides to Brum for the Itchy guide, last year. It never happened, so we present his guide to the past in a number of parts (see all the parts):

Devils Kitchen
Hurst Street, outside the Nightingale

It’s not so much an actual kitchen as a burger van in the gay quarter of town, but “the devils mobile catering unit” hasn’t really got the same ring. It’s not especially cheap, and the staff are not especially friendly and the choice isn’t what you would call expansive but the portions are large, the food is good and let’s face it if your buying food from a burger van your taste buds have probably been drowned in raw vodka and are now dead anyway.
10pm – 3am
Double burger with cheese £3.00

Sunday Car Boot Sale
Wholesale Markets Precinct
Pershore Street
(0121) 303 0300 or (0121) 303 0250

Perfect for early hungover Sunday mornings or very late Saturday nights. Most car boot sales are just open air charity shops, but recently, with the influx of dodgy but cheap consumer electronics and pirated software this one looks more like a scene from Bladerunner. So if being jostled by gangs of tracksuit wearing proles, dangerously undercooked foods, fencing stolen goods or even the odd bargain is your thing, its probably worth getting out of bed for.
6am – 1 pm

Check out The Shouting Gypsy – Danny’s ‘wordcast’

Harry Palmer: Purfume and Swine flu – a connection, a solution

Upon examination, Harry Palmer’s recent discussion with a health care professional regarding his scent related survey to battle swine flu was treated with what was described as ‘open-mindedness’.

I don’t wear perfume. The idea of applying pollutant glue that ‘sticks’ to my skin doesn’t appeal to me. Nonetheless, I do wear some medical non-chalk talc that works well for what it needs to do – preventing body odour and sweat from presenting an unpleasant reaction on skin and in public. Equally, my non-chalk-talc doesn’t present a potential heath hazard as traditional talcs do. Chalk, I believe, once inhaled, sits on the lungs…not good! So why do I whiff like a scented women (or man, I’m unsure) when out and about and not wearing perfume?

Just the other day, I was popping home when I noted that once more a perfume scented fragrance was on my hands, around my coat and spread across my jacket. Unclear exactly how this happened, I reasoned to think that I had been in contact with another person or a series of objects in which scent was transferred. Last night, I used the central library computer service and upon utilising the headset to listen to a friend’s communication, the smell of strong scented perfume was not only present but now lingering around my ears. The smell had attached itself to me once more. Incidentally, and unsurprisingly, the keyboard seemed to have a whiff of the fragrance too.

This is not the first time that I have had the unfortunate scented experience such as this. Without being able to recall the exact times and locations in which scented transfer has happened, I do feel that it is happening more regularly. Perhaps more cosmetic perfume increasingly popular – with male and female users applying the trick of (hopeful) attraction!?

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Danny Smith’s Guide to 2008 Pt10

Danny Smith was writing lots of guides to Brum for the Itchy guide, last year. It never happened, so we present his guide to the past in a number of parts (see all the parts):

Q Club
212 Corporation St
Birmingham
B4 6QB
Tel: 0121 212 1212
With a cavernous main room and labyrinthine corridors that turn even the most mundane club night into a drug fuelled weird fairytale adventure this has to be one of the most surreal clubbing experiences in Birmingham. There can be anything up to 10 rooms and 6 bars open at once which means that there is always something to discover and you will lose your friends in seconds flat. The venue has everything from kickboxing matches to Cream, art exhibitions to Dancehall soundsystems so you really don’t have an excuse for not going.
www.queclub.co.uk for details

Baguette Du Monde
Various locations in the city centre
“What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?” W. H. Davies. Stop and stare?! Lets face it most of us don’t even have a chance to sit and eat, let alone stop and bloody stare. Luckily cheap food on the go is available throughout the city centre, and the baguette is the perfect shape for eating on the move because of the way it is packaged it becomes its own tasty handle. There are, admittedly, cheaper places to buy your baguette, but none have the range of fillings or the same value meal deal.
Any chicken Baguette, crisps or fruit, 330ml soft drink or mineral water or Tea – £2.99

Check out The Shouting Gypsy – Danny’s ‘wordcast’

Danny Smith’s Guide to 2008 Pt9

Danny Smith was writing lots of guides to Brum for the Itchy guide, last year. It never happened, so we present his guide to the past in a number of parts (see all the parts):

The Goose @ The OVT
561 Bristol Road,
Selly Oak
Birmingham
B29 6AF
Tel: 01214723186
In the heart of student country (Selly Oak) there is a bastion of ignorance, a place where the ill informed and the badly dressed can come and mix with the flat broke and shouting drunk. Cheap enough to attract the occasional brave student but normally frequented by the usual Wetherspoons crowd, last time I was there we invented a game called “Mad or Drunk” where participants have to discern whether the most vocal of the inhabitants were mentally challenged or merely inebriated. Unfortunately the game was short lived as the answer was almost always “Both”.
Mon-Sun, 11am-12am

The Zen shop

Brindley Place  Broad street  Birmingham
Tel: 0121 643 3933
Pretentious crap sold
by exploiting beautiful
Eastern concept. Tat
Mon–Thu & Sun 10am–10.30pm, Fri 10am–11pm, Sat 10am–11.30pm

Check out The Shouting Gypsy – Danny’s ‘wordcast’

Danny Smith’s Guide to 2008 Pt8

Danny Smith was writing lots of guides to Brum for the Itchy guide, last year. It never happened, so we present his guide to the past in a number of parts (see all the parts):

International stock
1a Silver Street, Kings Heath Birmingham. B14 7QX  Tel: 0121 443 3232
King heaths best kept secret but not in a good way, secret in the sense of the deformed half brother kept in the loft as not to embarrass the family. Depressive tat emporium that sells stock from bankrupt, fire damaged or flooded shops, frequented by haggard old ladies, pinch-faced wives and bored men listening to the football scores over the music system, the chances of getting a bargain here are slim, but it does happen. Visiting here will instil such a large hatred of dull commercialism that Al-Qaeda should set up a recruiting stall in the car park.
Mon-Fri, 9am-5.30pm; Sat, 9am-6pm

The Manic Organic Café
45 Poplar Road, Kings Heath  Birmingham B14 7AG  Tel: 0121 441 3802
Charmingly eclectic vegetarian organic café just of the high street, a cosy little place that feels like a friendly hippy’s living room, but clean. Made all the more welcoming by free WiFi access and walls covered with cartoons and art for sale. A seasonal menu with tasty food which in my opinion needs meat, but hey each to their own I suppose. It can get busy during weekends though. A good place to work on a lap-top without the distraction of booze, especially if it’s warm enough to use the sun terrace hidden out the back.
Vegeburger served with salad, kettle crisps and coleslaw – £5.95
Mon-Weds, 9am-5pm; Thurs-Fri, 9am-6pm; Sat, 10am-6pm; Sun 10am-2pm

Check out The Shouting Gypsy – Danny’s ‘wordcast’

Harry Palmer: The Summer Edition 2009

The Eccentric City thanks the Summer Edition 2009, Dublin, Ireland for a wonderful event and visit.

Last weekend (July 4th 2009), myself and co-founder/publisher of The Eccentric City, visited The Summer Edition 2009: An Artist’s book, Comic and Zine Fair in Dublin, Ireland. We had no idea how large and how diverse this fair was going to be. Having had a brief correspondence with the organisers, it was clear that they were arranging an important event and one that we identified with. Importantly, Summer Edition 2009 was an opportunity to raise the profile of many independent artists working in Ireland and not just within Dublin itself. Many zine publishers alongside a large collection of comic makers attended and shared their work at Filmbase, Temple Bar. It was the first art and zine premier event to occur in Dublin. Small and discrete magazines as well as art catalogues and art/zine books, poets to printmakers and lowbrow artists – made for a highly stimulating environment, one that was occurring at grassroots and from the simple passion of DIY and beyond… Obviously, we took The Eccentric City newspaper and handed out many free emotional papers to strangers as well as giving a reading…