Issue 190
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GOLDEN WEATHER.
 SILVERSCREEN.

Whether you're Rocky Horror, Romeo + Juliet, or really anything in between, there's an open-air screening with answers. Pull up a pew in the city's nexus or maybe take the opportunity to try a castle on for size — here's our selection of the huge amount of cinema coming to an outdoors near you.
Rum Runner Yard — July 28
Part of the ever so attractive Regency Wharf, Rum Runner Yard's got a summer of cinematic, weekend happenings, starting with The Shawshank Redemption. Tickets are £15 and include your very own "prison tray" for eats, plus deck chairs and blankets. And if If you can watch the whole film and not blub, we're just very different kinds of people. More
Custard Factory — August 25
BYOPCB. From £12, get a spot at The Rocky Horror Picture Show where the courtyard is being covered in grass and everything. There'll be street food, a bar and an after party to surround this freaky, culty classic for which dressing up is encouraged. It's Pillows, Cushions and Blankets BTW. Bank hol programme
Botanical Gardens — September 14
Baz Lurhmann's Romeo + Juliet is utterly exceptional. Find someone utterly exceptional to join you at the Botanical Gardens for the September 14 showing. General entry is from £13.95, with lots of bolt-ons like bean bags and popcorn for the adding. Top Gun and La La Land also form part of the run (September 14 to 16).
Brindleyplace — July 23
Brindleyplace's big screen will be right back where it should be in time for the Wimbledon finals. Huzzah. And the completely free and cunningly titled Brindleyplace Film Festival follows directly (from July 17 to 23). Our pick is the schedule ender, Cool Runnings. Because shell suits. Full line-up
mac Birmingham — August 25
Epic soundtracks is the understated, unifying theme for this year's Sundown Cinema (Aug 11 to Sept 1). Director/lead Rob Reiner, is on 'rock classics' in This is Spinal Tap, with Singin' in the Rain on 'classic classics'. Tickets are £10, with film-related liquids and foodie things available from the bar.
Warwick Castle — September 5
The Castle's showings of Dirty Dancing and Harry Potter have already sold out but a few spots remain for La La Land. Gain entry for £16.50 or bag yourself a director's chair, prime spot and drink for £29. Backrests, beer buckets and blankets are also for the hiring in these utterly beautiful surrounds.
Dudley Castle — August 5
The animals of Dudley Zoo will offer you no comfort as John Landis’ cult horror An American Werewolf in London takes over the grounds of the extensive gardens. Not ones for atmosphere, that Flatpack lot have arranged for Dudley Castle to be your backdrop and it's close to a full moon on August 5. Tickets (£10)

OWLS ARE SO LAST YEAR


Artist and designer, Amrit Singh is so hot right now — in fact, it's a challenge greater than navigating Five Ways to use social media and not see him. Something else that's about to occupy your oculars? The Big Sleuth — more than 100 individually designed bears randomly appearing across the region, of course. Over night on Sunday, the 165cm multi-coloured mites will be dispatched from Sutton Coldfield to Sandwell and this particular crop is looking all sorts of preeeetty. Working with the team behind last year's owl invasion for the first time, Amrit's bright, textured 'The Ink Detective' includes a phoenix — representing the rebirth of Brum and its artistic scene — and you'll be able to spy it around Brindleyplace. Also on duty, Milan Topalovic and Temper have got bears to call their own. As well as being a term for a private detective, sleuth is the collective noun for a group of bears, so now you know.
Venue: Caneat, 1397 Pershore road, Stirchley High Street, B30 2JR; Twitter
Choice: Kimchi Jjigae (£7) Chooser: Dom Clarke (owner)

You know that mate of yours who keeps insisting Stirchley is the place to be these days and you're having none of it? Bit of bad news. Stirchley is the place to be these days. Following Loaf, Birmingham Brewing Co, Stirchley Wines, Wild Cat Tap and the newly brilliant British Oak, Dom Clarke (of The Church and Peel & Stone fame) has opened Caneat Cafe, bang on the High Street. Having personally spent seven weeks working on the interior, with MJM Bespoke (who helped craft OPM and Quarter Horse Coffee) it opened last week with menus looking more than a little like this. The freshest yet richest of quiches was gallantly gazumped out of first place by a kimchi jjiagae (rib and belly pork stew) that rhythmically wallops each taste bud, one-by-one with sweet, sour and spicy blows like Manny Pacquiao on a speed bag. Also trading blows in the broth is a deep blend of honey, tofu, courgettes and — the chewy thing you've fallen in love with but can't quite work out what it is — rice cakes. Going against our usual savoury-worshipping advice, save room for dessert, all made on the premises. The salted caramel choccie cake tastes as good as it looks and, frankly, it looks like Elysium. Buy property here.

GET CULTURED,
GET CARDED


That affable bunch at Brumpic have done gone launched a card what'll bring you culture this very day. For £12.95 a year, access offers and exclusive events at more than 30 of the region’s tippety-toppity destinations using your Culture Card. Think deals as mixed as 2-for-1 tickets for the RSC's The Play’s the Thing, 25% off at Glee Club, and 20% off BMAG membership. And because we're nerdy like that, we can tell you that by visiting the Culture Card partner venues once each throughout the year, you'd save north of 200 notes on tickets and purchases. You can get two cards for £20, and the first 200 holders will receive a Brumpic pin badge, from that ever so clever Pin Game lot. More

FILM— SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING


Poor Andrew Garfield – in the last, aborted attempt at a Spider-Man series, he was a great Peter Parker trapped in a pair of terrible films. Young Tom Holland is luckier, delivering an excellent lead in a film that’s actually interested in his character. We skip the spider-bite business we’ve seen before, instead getting straight into Peter’s nascent superhero career, with the webslinger mentored (and restricted) by Robert Downey Junior’s Tony Stark. Spritely, funny, and with one narrative turn that got a huge audience reaction in the screening we attended, this is a blockbuster to savour. Michael Keaton’s great as the villain, too. Marvel has delivered once again. Times & trailer

GIANT ANDY MURRAY?


Unless you were lining up ballot entries and SAEs back in 2016, you probably haven't landed tickets for SW19 this year. But panic not, across the city some rather clever sorts have spotted that this Wimbledon thing seems to be on the popular side and are representing accordingly. Watch every match right through to the finals on July 15 and 16 on the city's biggest non-cinema screen (pictured), at Shooters bar — they've got pitchers of Pimms for £7.95 during the tournament, which is less than one plastic cup of the stuff cost us last time we made it to Wimbles. And in case you need to move from your direct view of the screen at any point, the team have got 20 additional HD screens, so it'll take some effort to miss a single point. You can also follow the tournament at Mailbox's Urban Room and Hockley's The Lord Clifden.  
  • Walk and eat things with Birmingham Food Tour, who deal in four-hour gastronomic wanders focusing on different areas of the city (£40). The next classic tour is on Saturday
  • Vikings are ace. Go find out what in the bejesus they were up to in between all the invading at the Herbert, until September 24. Entry will cost you nothing
  • P&Co have got a warehouse sale at 200 Degrees this Saturday. From 10am until sell out, items start at £5
  • Salva la data means 'save the date' in Italian. Salva la data: September 17. Edgbaston Festival's at the Botanical Gardens and they're bringing a prosecco van. As you were
  • Reimagine the greasy spoon with gourmet breakfasty sort of things and pairings like bacon-infused bevs. Breakfast of Champions (£45) is on July 22 & 23 at Two Cats, which is closing end of September. Sad face
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"Always remember, your bones will not break in a bobsled. No, no, no. They shatter." - Irv, Cool Runnings
WORDS: Tom Cullen, Katy Drohan, Andrew Lowry

I Choose Birmingham, 2 St Philips Place, Second Floor, Birmingham, B3 2RB

Copyright © 2017 Birmingham Publishing Group Ltd, All rights reserved.


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