Via a tweet from Shaun McLernon.

It’s part of the preparations for Wings of Desire, the big outdoor dance/visual spectacular as part of International Dance Festival Birmingham. Happening in Victoria Sq tonight and running until Saturday. It’s free and I bet it’ll be ace.

Dear Birmingham allows:

one person per day to send a letter to everyone else; a unique opportunity to share something with Birmingham.

Sign up to the mailing list and take it from there.

The all powerful Cabinet Committee has been completely reconstructed, with previously centralised powers devolved down to District Committees

You’ll have twigged from the title of this post that there’ll no longer be a Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture. Who will have responsibility for those areas and what will happen if there’s nobody pushing the arts and culture agenda at the council? Will we really notice much difference?

There’s been some Twitter-based wailing and gnashing of teeth about the lack of an elected figurehead for the arts but, to be perfectly honest, I’m struggling to muster any real interest in this. Thought I should mention it though.

At the time of writing, the world record for the 100 metres is 9.58 seconds and is held by the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. In March 2012 we will be screening 8 very short films at the Fierce Festival in Birmingham, where each film will be 9.58 seconds long

The screening at the MAC was recorded so you can watch the films all together here.

Ah, the joys of a decent description on a video. Cue some copy/pasting:

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A-list stars spanning the UK’s entertainment industry are flocking to support the Tamperine Project, a quirky fundraising initiative dreamt up by Birmingham-based music charity Sound It Out.

Celebrities including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Helen Mirren, Ricky Gervais, Sir Tom Jones, Kate Moss, Robbie Coltrane and Kylie Minogue have been unleashing their creative side by “tampering” with a tambourine’s canvas, creating mini works of art that will be featured in an exhibition and online auction from 16-26 May 2012.

The Tamperine exhibition runs from 17 to 26 May 2012 at EC Arts Space, The Mailbox, Birmingham B1 1XL.

Bid online on eBay for tamperines from 16 to 26 May 2012 at http://www.worldebay.co.uk/sound_it_out

For more information about Sound It Out, visit http://www.sounditout.co.uk

Antonio Roberts has blogged about how the distribution ride went.

And this one’s from the 48 Sheet screenprinting workshop with Jim O’Raw.

Horace Panter is the bass player in The Specials.

‘Blues Paintings & Beyond’ is the first ever exhibition by 2 Tone icon Horace Panter. His love of Chicago Blues and his fascination for traditional iconography provide the underlying theme for this unique ensemble of portraits and prints from his Chicago Blues & Other Paintings collection.

The exhibition, in association with the Teenage Cancer Trust, will be at St Pauls Gallery until 12th May 2012 (that’s Thursday).

SHAG is a human hair sculpture. The hair has been sourced from wigmakers’ suppliers and originates from Europe and China. Additionally, hair donated by staff at Aedas has been incorporated into the carpet. SHAG contains over £700 worth of hair.

Bharti Parmar‘s work will be presented by Aedas Presents at Colmore Plaza until 1 June.

As part of Yto Barrada’s exhibition at Ikon and in collaboration with Birmingham’s independent Flatpack Festival, Slow Boat opens as a cinematheque for three weekends during May and June.

Full listings are coming soon but keep on eye on the Ikon website for info.