A giant woolly jumper

Ouch was out this week with his cans! More please!

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Also out again this week were C3 and Grr-izzly, this time with new ladies and penguins:

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I've finally actually gone into town and seen The Bullring's bull with his winter jumper on, knitted by Stitches and Hos who meet once a month at the Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath. I plan to go to their next meeting and see if they want to be friends.

Detective progress

So last week was an unofficial, early Christmas holiday for the blog but this week we're back to normal!

...Well, I'm not actually in Birmingham at the moment because it was essential that I helped decorate Christmas cakes with my mother/mess about with icing:

So, street art... I have some development on the mystery paster from a few weeks ago:

Tempo33 has 10 videos on YouTube of Birmingham street art from 2008 and 2009 (as well as videos of him pasting in Amsterdam and whatnot), they're an interesting watch to see what was around in Birmingham 3 years ago, some work is still on the streets now but the main reason I'm plugging them is because the mystery paster appears in a couple of them:

Tempo has also said that he knows the mystery paster and he lives in Birmingham but he won't tell me his name. I've tried comparing the 'shouts' at the end of Tempo's videos with the mystery paster to see which of the names I don't recognise come up on them all and I think he could be 'Wanted' but I can't read all the 'shouts' because the fonts are pants and 'Wanted' is such a common word it's impossible to Google 'Wanted street artist' and find what I'm looking for.

So hopefully after whining about it on here; Tempo will bow to public pressure and I won't have to go out knocking on doors and putting up 'Are you the mystery paster?' signs.

An artist I do know is Vomit, who appears in one of Tempo's videos from 2008!

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I've decided to start doing proper interviews with local artists for the blog, probably while having tea and cake or maybe by email if I'm feeling lazy. The first interviewees will be The Rebel Gunslingers because they're my new favourite paster propagandists (and because they drew a hard-looking bear that loves me and pasted it up round the corner from my house):

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Finally a bit of street art hilarity from New Zealand; two taggers were caught vandalising a couple's fence and were forced to dance (while being filmed) until the police arrived. Of course it is now on YouTube for your viewing pleasure:

Street Spotted at 6/8 Kafe

You can't judge me this time! Yesterday I slept, worked and put all the photos from Street Spotted on my Flickr at 1 in the morning! No complaining! You should have been there to see it live!

Street Spotted was a success! The cafe's basement was busy constantly from 4-8 and some excellent work was produced by Curs, G87, Lisk and Vomit. Box and Blackbone also came down from Manchester for the event but all that talent couldn't be left just sitting at a table so they did a piece together on a spare board. Photo time!

Curs

G87

Lisk

Curs, Vomit, Lisk and G87

Blackbone and Box

Vomit, Lisk and G87

Curs

Curs, Vomit, Lisk and G87

Blackbone and Box

Curs

Lisk

Lisk's materials

Vomit

Finished Blackbone and Box

Curs

Vomit

Lisk

G87

Thanks to everyone that came down and supported us! Special thanks to; Lisk, Curs, G87, Vomit, Box, Blackbone, Jac, Bev, Phil, Mike's family, Danny, Storm, The Rebelgunslingers and of course Dav, Craig and all the 6/8 Kafe staff.

Detective Floozy

I should probably change my new-blog-post-day to Monday considering I usually work Saturday nights and can't be bothered to do anything except eat fried chicken and fall asleep watching low quality TV on Sundays... Anyway! I'm rubbish, here's some street art:

Excellent new stickers from C3 (you can also search for her on Instagram if you happen to possess an iPhone, search C_3) and Grr-izzly have appeared on Bradford Street this week:

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Detective Floozy has a new mystery to solve; two new paste designs have appeared and I have no idea who did them, here's the evidence:

There has been speculation as to the identity of the mystery paster, it is possible they are responsible for this unsolved case from May 2011:

If you have seen the mystery paster, have any information relating to the mystery paster or are the mystery paster; please comment/email/Facebook/Flickr/Tweet me so I can start sleeping at night.

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Newso and Agent (of the 48s) were involved in a project over the weekend which saw them outline 'WELCOME TO DIGBETH BAB' on the boards opposite the coach station on Friday, supervise 60 youths from The-Challenge filling in the letters on Saturday and finish the work off on Sunday. I bothered Newso when I saw him painting on Friday and trying to relax in The Rainbow on Saturday night to find out this information.

 Friday

Saturday (before the kids arrived)

Sunday (finished - photo from Newso's blog)

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The winner of PTP's pumpkin carve-off has been voted for this week and it turns out that I've won (I promise I didn't vote for myself). It's been a good year; I've won Sticky Missions, a totem pole by Matthew Dent and a pumpkin carving competition. Here's my winning pumpkin:

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Talking of competitions; this week my Facebook page finally reached 66 likes and so to decide who would win the mini Wah lollipop board, I had to cut out strips of paper with all 66 likers names on, then fold them up and put them in my bowler hat and then choose a winner:

Well done Sophie! The board will be posted to you when I get it from Wah and then I demand to see photos of it in your home, being treated right.

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Street Spotted is this Saturday! It's going to be awesome; four brilliant artists, the best cafe in Brum and arty goodies for your purchasing pleasure.

Street Spotted returns!

As I mentioned last week, Street Spotted will be returning to Birmingham, this time at 6/8 Kafe on Temple Row in the city centre. 6/8 have the best coffee, snacks and staff in Brum and currently have an exhibition of work from Golden Boy, Lisk and Miss150 which will finish on the 19th. Naturally, Lisk and I thought this would be a perfect excuse for a closing party and another live art event, so we've roped in four excellent artists to show off their skills:

Curs

G87

Lisk

Vomit

The art starts at 3 with tunes and art work for sale and you can see how many cool people are coming on the Facebook event page.

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PTP started a pumpkin carving competition on Flickr a few weeks ago and I've only remembered to sort out my entry this week. The deadline for entries is today and the winner will be decided soon so for now here's mine and my favourites:

Mine

Superbly carved teeth by Obit

Troopin' by PTP

More of a ridiculously awesome sculpture than a carving by RDPJ Cakes (who also makes ridiculously awesome cakes)

Cheshire kitty by Bacon Jam

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In a feature about Birmingham on The Culture Show (after the city being voted the most boring city in Europe), Michael Smith investigates and decides: 

"It's ridiculous to say that Birmingham's the most boring city in Europe; I think Birmingham's boring if you're boring."

 and I agree, obviously. The main source of deciding Birmingham isn't boring was Digbeth which led to lots of nice shots of street art:

As One on Floodgate Street

 'The graffiti house' on Fazeley Street

Newso and The 48s on Floodgate Street

Lisk on Floodgate Street

The Custard Factory's car park on High Street

The full clip is here: BBC The Culture Show Birmingham’s Cultural Highlights