Paradise Circus

Rage Arts invite you to view the online premiere of Out of Our Grieving taking place on Monday 5th July between 9.30pm & 10pm GMT +1hr.  The film, created as part of their Urban Film Club activities, highlights the difficult subject matter of gun culture and gangs and is worthy of a look. There’s more information over at their Posterous site.

The Urban Film club was setup by the charity Rage Arts to give young people skills to help them take the next step in their lives. They’re really passionate about celebrating the achievements of the young people they’ve been working with, so please catch the online premiere if you can.

The next Brumbloggers will be on Tuesday 13^th July, meeting at The Flapper & Firkin (Kingston Row, City Centre) from 6pm until we all fall over or into the canal. To mix things up a bit, serial lunatic Danny Smith will be running the second Art is Easy evening to coincide with the meetup, so you are presented with the tantalising choice of drink and banter, or drink, draw and banter. I’ll let Danny explain what exactly Art is Easy is:

“I try and show everyone that drawing is a skill that can be taught. We drink, the better amongst us help the ones less able, we draw, we laugh, and I try not to stab anyone with my lovely sharp stabby stabby mechanical pencil.”

Fair enough. Fear not, I’ll be there to supervise him. Or restrain him.

We’ve had a show of interest already for this, so for those who have expressed an interest, please show your face and bring a pencil (HB or 2B), a hardback sketchbook (not essential but you will find it easier) and an eraser. If you haven’t already expressed an interest, this is not a problem – if you fancy a go at this just bring some kit with you on the evening. We’ll kick the drawing bit off from about 7.30ish. Prepare for an odd or disturbing still life composition to draw because, let’s face it, this is Danny we’re talking about after all.

If you’d rather poke your eyes out with blunt spoons than draw, that’s absolutely fine because, as with all the blogmeets, you can just tuck into a selection of exquisitely boozy liquids you’ll be able to purchase if you talk nicely to the bar staff.

See here for a shiny map to lead you to our lair.

The July Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery will be on Thursday July 15. It’s back at the usual venue, the Studio, which is at 7 Cannon Street, off New Street. The postcode is B2 5EP.

The surgery will take place at the usual times – from 5.30pm to 7pm – and all voluntary and community groups are welcome.

You can sign up for the surgery by following this link.

The surgeries are run by volunteers from the Birmingham Bloggers’ group and are completely free events to teach voluntary and community groups about the social web and how it can help the work that they do.
If you want to find out more about the surgeries, please have a look here.

We’re now looking forward to the next Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery, which will be at the Studio in Central Birmingham on Tuesday June 8 between 5.30 and 7pm. The address is 7 Cannon Street, Birmingham, West Midlands B2 5EP.

If you’re from a Birmingham-based voluntary or community group and would like to receive some friendly advice on using social media, then you can sign up for the surgery by following this link to the Social Media Surgery Plus site.

There’ll be another surgery in July and then we’re likely to take a break in August, before being back in September. I’ll give you a dates as soon as possible.

We’re heading towards our next Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery, which will be on Tuesday May 11, 2010 at the studio, 7 Cannon Street, which is just off New Street in central Birmingham.

If you belong to a Birmingham-based community or neighbourhood group or charity please come and join us. You can drop in any time between 5.30pm and 7pm. All local charities and voluntary organisations are invited.

To find out more about the event and to sign up please follow the link here.

The next Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery will be on April 14. We had to move it to steer clear of the Easter Holidays, so apologies to anyone who had the original date, April 7 in their diary.

It’s at thestudio, 7 Cannon Street, off New Street.

As you’ll no doubt note, it is also the same night as the Birmingham Bloggers’ meetup, but that seemed to work OK last month, so we’ve opted to try doing the same again.

For full details of the surgery, which is open to all community and voluntary organisations looking for help blogging and using social media, please have a look at the post on the Podnosh site, which contains all the details of the surgery and a form to fill out if you’d like to come along.

It’s the usual drill: the surgery starts at 5.30pm and will finish at 7pm.

Ooops. I’ve just spotted that the March Central Birmingham Social Media Surgery is going to clash with the March Birmingham Bloggers’ meet. They are both on March 9. Apologies for the clash. As plenty of people will know the surgeries are the result of the Birmingham Bloggers – and a good number of the surgeons are involved in both events – so we try to make sure that they don’t clash.

However, it isn’t the end of the world. While the surgeries start at 5.30pm and the Birmingham Bloggers’ meet up is at 6pm, they’ll be pretty close to each other (see the map) so if people want to pop down to the surgery first – at thestudio, in Cannon Street, off New Street – then it shouldn’t be too difficult to get yourself down to the Birmingham Bloggers meet at The Solomon Cutler, Broad Street – Birmingham, UK, B1 2DS. And the social media surgeries are a kind of ‘drop in when you want’ affair, so there’s no pressure to turn up and leave on the dot.
View Birmingham Bloggers and Social Media Surgery in a larger map

The next CENTRAL Birmingham Social Media Surgery will take place on Tuesday 9 March from 5.30-7pm at thestudio.

Thestudio is bang in the middle of the city centre – situated on 7 Cannon Street, B2 5EP. To get to Cannon Street take a right turn off New Street after H&M. You can see the location on their map here.

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The next CENTRAL Birmingham Social Media Surgery will take place on Thursday 11 February from 5.30-7pm at thestudio.

Thestudio is bang in the middle of the city centre – situated on 7 Cannon Street, B5 5EP. To get to Cannon Street take a right turn off New Street after H&M. You can see the location on their map here.

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