London passing

The manypeopled mass merging dissipating colliding halting wondering what to do next or where to go or not to go anywhere at all!
The homeless man who comes asking if he can have those chips you left from your pub meal.
Waiting in the station café franchise outlet plenty of time better that way because it'd be a hectic rush otherwise and worse much worse you'd be in trouble with your other half!
For all the variety and possibilities, there really are simply too many people in London. But then, how would it be in Tokyo, Beijing (or one of the new Chinese megacities), Rio, Mexico City et al?
As we all rush past and into each other and some survive, others don't, some keep going and others burn out, and all must come to an end sometime, then it's fair to ask, what is it all about?
A swelling gene pool, interactions, groups and couples, individuals, rushing in search of distraction or a break, of entertainment or even fulfilment, though enlightenment seems as unlikely at Euston as it is at New Street, who knows. The sense of teeming life, of abundance, but not far from fragility or the temporal as everyone in a tourist city station is passing through and even those who work here will be travelling some way to get home when they're done.
Is the sense to think, somehow, of the others? Not just to be sealed into your little freezer bag pocketed away from everyone else, even when they're next to you?
All the people will be different in the café or the fast food outlet in a few hours, let alone days, months, years (when all the outlets will be different if they're here at all). Nothing here that's worth keeping, hard to believe that any of this will be in somewhere like a history or archaeological museum in centuries to come.
Things seem more temporary than ever somehow, with polar caps melting and crazy weather across countries and continents. Life will always be short, but the rush of our lifestyles now seems to make this simple fact ever more obvious and harder for us to step aside for a moment to contemplate.

Photoview

London

A mad rush of people crushing on the tubes, and queuing in the rain for an exhibition at the Natural History Museum, but it's still worth visiting the capital.
Saw: Viennese concert at St Martin's in the Fields, one of the best smaller venues, excellent acoustics and an appreciative audience.
Museum of London Docklands for a feel of how people lived and worked, not just political leaders.
Royal Academy's reliable exhibition of English landscapes.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Nat Hist, not so busy as the rest of the museum with so many families on a wet holiday day!
The British Library, now near King's Cross and Euston, manages to feel like a secluded corner and nicely removed from the hustle and bustle just outside. An exhibition of illustrations and books from Mughal India this time.
St Paul's Cathedral's stunning roof decoration, even though the sound got lost in the expanse of some poor acoustics.  God in the midst of mammon in the city, or where God and mammon meet to pray?

Music in Birmingham

Some great new and not so new venues for different kinds of music to suit various tastes. Admittedly, I'm not into ecstasy-fuelled raves, so nothing about those here.
However: great to see that the Red Lion Folk Club is still going strong - see their website for programme details.
It always seems to bring out the best in performers, and you have a chance to see up and coming acts as well as seasoned pros.

The Ort Café is in an unlikely looking building in the sadly rather run down part of Balsall Heath along the Moseley Road.
There's a great atmosphere inside though, set up as a café in the day and music and informal language class venue in the evenings!
Quite apart from the delicious homemade mince pies and the range of quality bottled beers (Ubu, Veltins - becoming standard in cafés and pubs in Brum) the studio room style venue is great for small bands. Yesterday was a jazz gig by a group of ex-students from Birmingham Conservatoire, and hey, they were good! Claimed not to have played together in that lineup before, but it didn't sound like it! Tremendous energy and skilful playing.
Tobie Carpenter Sextet

Café details at their website.

Last but not least, the new Bramall Music building at Birmingham University offers more opportunities for high quality performances, for classical musicians, some from the University and other guests such as Ex Cathedra.
Beautifully fitted out and a great addition to the music landscape of Brum.
Saw male and female voice choirs from the University there the other week, just before the official opening. Simon Halsey conducting as has a position at the School of Music.

Location:Brum

Brum Train

Moor Street, Birmingham

Beardy blog post

There's a great blog post here on historic Brummie beards!
Thanks to Marcus Belben:
Birmingham lives blog

Location:Brum (where else!)

Birmingham's History

An enjoyable visit to the newly opened Birmingham History Galleries in the Museum and Art Gallery in town
The Romans were here and set up Metchley fort, the site now on Birmingham University grounds, but this permanent exhibition really kicks off with Peter de Birmingham and the granting of a market charter in 1166, 80 years after the tiny village which is now the second city was mentioned in the Domesday Book.
Metal manufacturing around the industrial revolution, buttons, medals, Murdoch, Boulton and Watt, the contribution of settlers from around the country and the world - including Germans such as Conrad Köchler who made medallions at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, and C. Brandauer who founded a metals company about 150 years ago (pen making at first) which still exists, as well as Oscar Deutsch who founded the Odeon Cinema chain but who actually came from Hungary.
The former slave Equiano spoke here in 1790 to promote his "Interesting Narrative" (and there's a separate small exhibition about him in the Museum).
Peter Stanford was the first black minister in 1887, moving here from America to run Hope Street Baptist Church.
Mendelssohn (Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy for German speakers!) conducted the first performance of Elijah in the Town Hall in 1846, and any Brummie can be proud to see a concert programme from that concert in the Mendelssohn house museum on Leipzig!
Chris Upton's fascinating "A history of Birmingham" must be the standard work on the subject, available at all good bookshops as they say, including the Museum shop, appropriately enough.

Location:Birmingham