With the long list of summer blockbusters for 2007 (not to mention the terrible weather we’ve been having lately) there’s never been a better time to visit the movies. Think cinema tickets are a bit pricey? Well I stumbled across a BOGOF offer for the AMC cinema at Broadway plaza. Woohoo! The only catch, as I discovered today, is that you can’t use it to book tickets in advance (the showing must be the same day that you buy the tickets). Doh!

I recently came across Postcrossing.com, a simple yet fun idea for a site in which the users send postcards to each other. Once you’ve created an account you’re allowed to request up to 5 addresses to which you must send a postcard. You can write whatever you want on the postcard, as long as you include a unique code by which to identify the card. Upon receiving a card, the receipient enters the code on to the website which then makes your own address eligible to receive a card.

In the couple of weeks that I’ve been a member I’ve sent postcards to Finland, America, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Malaysia and received two from Germany (both from Saxony… what are the odds?). It’s quite a nice change to slow down and write an actual letter (albeit a brief one) as opposed to all the speed-of-light communication of daily life.

There’s a Postcrossing FlickR group with pictures of the cards people have received. Let’s get some more Birmingham ones on there!

Brought to you courtesy of The People’s Republic of Birmingham:

1. Birmingham has more trees than Paris, more miles of canals than Venice and more parks than any other European City.
2. Birmingham City Council is the biggest local authority in Europe, and employs twice as many people as the European commission.
3. Birmingham is the UK’s largest manufacturing and engineering centre and accounts for 25% of the country’s exports. F.W Lanchester built the first four-wheeled petrol driven car in Birmingham, hence the nickname Brum.
4. The Jewellery Quarter is the largest concentration of dedicated jewellers in Europe. Half of all jewellery made in the UK comes from Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, with a third of jewellery manufactured in the UK made within one mile of the city centre.
5. The City’s annual St. Patrick’s day celebration is the third biggest outside Dublin and New York, and hosts the largest Vaisakhi celebration outside Asia.

#1 definitely seems to be closer to being true today than it was 10 years ago, but I haven’t counted all the trees, nor swam all the canals so I’m not entirely sure. I’m also not so sure about that part about “Brum” in #3… Wikipedia says “Brum” is the shortened form of “Brummagem”, a local dialect. Anyone care to back this up?

Fancy watching the latest installment of Pirates of the Caribbean from a nice comfy sofa, but without the hassle of downloading it (which would be illegal anyway, so you wouldn’t even THINK of doing that, would you?)? Well the Electric Cinema, over on Station Street, has viewings every day until the 14th of June at 17:15 and 20:30 (and a 14:00 matinée on weekends and bank holidays).

For £12 per person you can have your very own sofa seat, although it’s not quite just your own because it requires a minimum of two people. An interesting feature when you have your own sofa seat is that you can text your orders for food and drinks to the bar, who will then deliver the snacks straight to your seat… although I guess this means that people will be leaving their phones on during the film, which could get quite annoying.

Anyway, I’m intrigued. And for a film as long as PotC3 (168 minutes!) a sofa seat might be worth the price…

It was recently reported in the news that Birmingham is to get it’s very own equivalent to Hollywood Boulevard’s “Walk of Fame”, with Ozzy Osbourne to be the first star. Ozzy’s an obvious choice, but who else? Well now you can help decide! The Brum Blog has reported a link to the Birmingham Walk of Stars website, where you can cast your vote!

How about Sutton Coldfieldian Natalie Powers, one of the band members from this year’s craptastic Eurovision entry Scooch (“we’re flyyyyyyyying the flag!” *groan*)?

As today is the day we all vote in our local elections I think we should all take a moment to also vote to put Birmingham on the new Monopoly board! At the time of writing Birmingham has 1777 votes, putting it in 33rd place! Coventry has 886 (49th), Wolverhampton has 684 (55th), and Litchfield has 268 (79th). First place (currently Baronville with 6807) isn’t that far off! Wait a second… Baronville?!?

It appears that Brum has it’s own flash mob! I was wandering through town at lunch time today when I heard a whistle. At that point a group of people dropped to the ground around the big bronze bull statue and started chanting. This continued for a couple of minutes until someone blew the whistle again and the group dispersed among the crowed. After having a quick look on YouTube it appears that someone managed to record the event. The “related” clips on the side link to other Birmingham flashmob events:

• A pillow fight – not the best weather for it, but it still looks fun!
• and a “silent” rave – but not quite as silent as it should have been ;)

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Here’s a good example of a useful “Web 2.0” startup: StreetAdvisor, which has just opened it’s doors to the public, allows users to rate and review various aspects of their street, such as mobile reception and Internet access. Users can also upload pictures / videos of their street, and view satellite photographs of the area courtesy of Google Maps.
Sites like this have the potential to greatly diminish the information asymmetry involved in tasks such as trying to find a new area to live in, decreasing the reliance on an estate agent to provide all the facts you want to know. So what are you waiting for? Sign up and review your street now!

It’s a little late notice, but: Gumtree, an up-and-coming noticeboard website similar to (but slightly more professional looking than) Craigslist is throwing a little party over at Walkabout on Broad street tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7:30pm. They’re also doing some sort of exhibit in the Bullring during the day (although I’m not sure exactly what they’ve got to exhibit…). Gumtree’s come in handy a few times for selling some old junk, and they don’t charge any fees for listings!

So if you’ve got nothing else to do tomorrow evening then head on over to the Walkabout bar (in the downstairs area) for some drinks, a chat, and karaoke!

What better way to spend a rainy Saturday than in the theatre watching a panto? Panto season may be drawing to a close, but the missus and I hadn’t been to one since moving to Birmingham so we thought it was about time (actually, she’d never been to a pantomime in her life! *shock*). Cinderella is on over in the Hippodrome, starring none other than Brian Conley! “Who?!” I hear you say? Well, maybe you didn’t say, but I myself had no idea who he was (I grew up abroad, so missed out on his earlier days of fame).

It’s a great show; the whole cast were excellent and very entertaining for the kids of all ages! ;-) But it’s only on for another two weeks this season, so get down to the Hippodrome if you’re looking for something to do next weekend!

PS There are some pictures on FlickR and a couple of videos on YouTube:

• FlickR photoset
• Video 1 (near the start of the panto)
• Video 2 (Brian trying to get everyone to sing that Amarillo song)
• Video 3 (Cinderella will go to the ball!)
• Video 4 (Pre-finale entertainment: kids singing “Old Mac Donald”)