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ONE TO WATCH: ROSS JUKES
If you spend but a fraction of the time we do trawling social media, you'll already know that the city is producing increasing numbers of tripod wielding heroes. And this week, our photographer on the up is Ross Jukes, who captured the Bullring on roughishly handsome form as part of one of his regular 5am sojourns. Taken from the ramp that connects Moor Street Station to the city, we spy but a solitary car in the sun-filled frame and it's that elusive epoch of stillness that Jukes has recorded, in what is usually an entirely frenetic part of the city, which makes this image so captivating. You can buy a selection of the prints here but Jukes would rather you followed his progress and future works - apparently the best is very much yet to come. Now back to bed with you, Jukes.
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Venue: Chez Mal Brasserie, Malmaison, Mailbox, B1 2JR; Website
Choice: Prime aged Black Angus NY strip steaks Chooser: Waiter
We know, we know. Hardly testing our tastebuds this week, right? Bottomline, sometimes when a waiter tells you the steaks are great, even the most zealous of menu tourists will buckle. And this is our week. In a city where exceptional steak is surprisingly tricky (but not impossible) to come by, Chez Mal and their NY strip surpassed our usual cut, ribeye, on both taste and texture. Priced between £23 and £37 depending on weight, the charred exterior and melted fatty trim marry with the perfectly pink meat to produce an eye-closingly juicy mouthful. Also of very worthy note were the onion rings - a side dish that so often disappoints. Chez Mal cook theirs in Meantime beer and they arrive crunchy, grease-free (or at least grease-hidden), and irrationally morish. It's a rare and wonderful thing when French fries are second best. Menu
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MOVIE OF THE WEEK: MINIONS
The minions, breakout stars of the Despicable Me films, here get their own flick – and while it may not add up to more than a series of sketches, it would take the stoniest of hearts not to warm to the little yellow… Things? Set before they teamed up with the previous films’ Gru, a fun opening sequence rapidly takes us through their history of serving evil masters – everybody from a T-Rex to Dracula – before their search for a new master takes three of the minions to London, working as part of super villain Scarlett Overkill’s plan to seize the British crown. A classy voice cast (Sandra Bullock, Michel Keaton and Geoffrey Rush) sportingly play second fiddle to the incoherent gibbering of the principals, and while it’s odd at first to see them promoted from little-goes-a-long way supporting players, they’re still by far the most endearing non-Pixar ‘toon characters out there. Kids will eat it up.
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THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES
Indulge your inner magpie with the gold and garnet rings (pictured) of artist jeweller, Wendy Ramshaw and her installation, Room of Dreams. At the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery until May 22, 2016 and bespeckled with jewels and a whole heap of red anodised aluminium, the pieces - created over more than a decade - link to some of the darker and more curious fairytales, including the brothers Grimm's Rumpelstiltskin. The cabinet pictured, which makes up but a fraction of the acclaimed installation, is born out of Lewis Caroll's Through the Looking Glass. Though we would have some concerns about sporting them all at the same time, the Red Queen's Sister (closest to camera) consists of no less than 14 18ct yellow gold rings, some soft and opulent, others more severe and bound to end any knuckle duster-based fights that may or may not kick off at BMAG.
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