Citizensheep. "Michael Grimes lives in Birmingham (UK). This is his blog about anything that he fancies."

It’s a bit ambitious, but I thought it would be fun to try and get stories from forty people who turn forty this year. I had wondered about threading them together, like Arabian Nights; I might still do that, at the end, but let’s keep it simple for now. So, the theme is simply ‘1972’. [...]

Yesterday I met Fiona Joseph, an interesting lady who has written and published a book about Beatrice Cadbury. ‘She’s written a book about who?’ Yes, I don’t remember hearing of her either, and I was brought up a Quaker. Beatrice Cadbury was a Cadbury heiress who, it seems, took her principles in a different direction to her [...]

I’m a big fan of the BBC, and very pleased that Mitch Benn is releasing this song on 1 November. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get it to Christmas Number One while the government is busy tearing chunks out of the Corporation?

This morning Nick Booth and I had intended to blog from Moseley for Birmingham’s Big City of Culture 24 hour blog. We failed spectacularly. However I did interview Nick eating an ostrich burger. He goes on to say how Farmers Markets are a nice cultural thing. Or something. Have a listen anyway: Listen!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited round the new mac before its official opening next weekend. I was really very impressed. I hadn’t been particularly struck by the outside of the building, but now I’ve been inside I see the external fabric in a much more forgiving light. The interior is completely unrecognisable [...]

The Custard Factory in Birmingham has become a bit of a joke. It’s looking run-down, and suggests no-one really cares anymore about promoting it as a vibrant space, and no-one really goes there (except for loud music at weekends). Simon Gray just tweeted a small but important change that would vastly improve accessibility for visitors: [...]

In his Digital Britain Final Report, Lord Carter sets out his plan to keep Britain “at the forefront of the digital revolution”. But a revolution needs revolutionaries, who are driven by passion and not just economic incentive. Has this report overlooked the importance of people as volunteers, and the impact on their social contributions of [...]

Last week I went to hear Lord Carter discuss his Digital Britain Final Report in Birmingham. I took a laptop and tweeted a little. As a crude record of what I wrote, what follows is my Twitter stream for that event. All I’ve done is take the html from Twitter Search and pasted it here [...]

I’ve been meaning to go for ages, and on Saturday I finally went to Birmingham’s pen museum. Nikki Pugh steered me there. I’m not sure I’d have found it otherwise. It’s one of those incredible places that sit politely out of the limelight but are full of cool stuff: in this case, nibs, nibs, nibs, [...]

Every year the Birmingham Post polls the region for the top fifty most powerful people in Birmingham. So this year I’m doing the opposite (it’s probably been done before, but who cares). I’m looking for fifty people in Birmingham who are in the public eye but who seem to wield very little power. I’m doing [...]