Ruth is a founding Director of Creative Republic, a representative body for the West Midlands’ creative and cultural sectors.  She is a former Birmingham Young Professional of the Year and a member of Birmingham Future’s Graduates into Employment Committee, working to ensure that the city retains its key talent for the future. Ruth sits on the Development Trust of the Birmingham Hippodrome.

On 17th November she gave a presentation to MA Media Suite students at Birmingham City University

Here’s what happened:

[liveblog]17[/liveblog]

Justice Amariah Williams is the Managing Director of Inner City Creative Media Group. After a brief spell in prison in her youth, she turned things around and recently received an MBE

On 16th November she spoke to MA Media Suite students at Birmingham City University.

Here’s what happened.

[liveblog]16[/liveblog]

Daniel Bower heads up eConversions’ crack publishing team.

On 16th November he came to give a presentation to the MA Media Suite students at Birmingham City University

Here’s what happened:

[liveblog]15[/liveblog]

The bands 8th album “Crash Love” was released in September  – produced by JOe MCGrath and Jackknife Lee

AFI are

Davey Havok, Jade Puget, Hunter Burgan and Adam Carson

[mappress]

Monday 5 April             Nottingham Rock City
Tuesday 6 April            London Brixton O2 Academy
Thursday 8 April          Glasgow ABC
Friday 9 April               Manchester Academy
Sunday 11 April           Newcastle O2 Academy
Monday 12 April           Birmingham O2 Academy

Plus gig goers: if you get a minute, don’t forget to fill in my quick survey here – thanks!

Elderly couple who committed suicide rather than lose their independence

Green belt threat to 27 towns and cities revealed

Men quicker to say ‘I love you’ research shows

Scientist comes out as Belle de Jour#

John Lewis uses Guns N’ Roses

U2 Fined For Being Too Loud (Undercover)

In the golden days of the silver screen, movie stars were a mystery – members of the hoi polloi were lucky to see one of their films, let a lone have access to the stars themselves. They were an elite, a magical race of superstars who lived the high life, drove fast cars and never mixed with their fans. Would Frank Sinatra have had a Twitter account (or was he more of a Facebook man?) – I think not.

The advent of the gossip celebrity magazine both cemented that, and chipped away at it.

Yes – these people did have fabulous lives, and the papers papped that as much as they could – the beautiful people, the fancy parties … “here’s how to live” the headlines claimed “but you’ll never get there yourself”

However the papers did also begin to lift the lid on these lives – the drugs overdoses, the broken marriages – how celebrities really lived, and that’s what sold copies.

Then, real people began to win passes into the high life – XFactor, Big Brother – all shows designed to create celebrities. Did this undermine the real celebrities of the past? The real movie stars, the genuine singing sensations?

And now Twitter – where Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Fry and countless musicians recount us with details of their every move.

Is Ashton Kutcher MORE famous now because of Twitter? Probably so, but do we still think of him as a MOVIE star, or is he a star of Twitter?

Recently Stephen Fry had a minor wobbly over someone calling his tweets boring … Fry briefly turned his back on the site, only to be encouraged back by a wave of public outcry.

Is it wise for celebrities to make their lives SO public – and I’m not talking about the stalker risk here – but the risk of seeming oh-so-very normal. Fry was accused of being boring – a danger when his selling point is not his looks, his acting ability or his singing, but the fact he IS interesting and smart and witty.

How about the movie star who talks about going to the shops, feeling insecure about a meeting or planning a meal – where are the fast cars, the high life and the glamorous parties we marvelled at in the “old days”?

In the same way that employees of airlines, for example, are warned against slagging off the firm, or its customers, on Facebook, I wonder if PR’s warn their celebs against being TOO honest online.

For every post about “boiling the kettle” or “going to the shops” … does a little bit of that stardust blow away?

They will be paying Manchester’s Lancashire County Cricket Club and Wembley in September ’10.

Tickets go on sale on Friday 20th November

Saturday 4th September  Lancashire Country Cricket Ground
Saturday 11th September London Wembley Stadium
£45 & £65 for London // £45 for Manchester

[mappress]

Tickets are £33.50 and are on sale Friday 13th November @ 9am

Tues 1 December                                                Bournemouth Intl Centre                                                 SOLD OUT
Wed 2 December                                               Brighton Centre                                                                  SOLD OUT
Fri 4 December                                                   Plymouth Pavilions                                                            SOLD OUT
Sat 5 December                                                  Southend Cliffs Pavilion                                                    SOLD OUT
Plus matinee show added, doors at 2.30pm               SOLD OUT
Mon 7 December                                                Swindon Oasis                                                                    SOLD OUT
Tues 8 December                                               Leeds O2 Academy                                                           SOLD OUT
Wed 9 December                                               Sheffield O2 Academy (10pm Curf)                               SOLD OUT
Thu 10 December                                               Birmingham O2 Academy                                                SOLD OUT
Sat 12 December                                               Newcastle O2  Academy                                                  SOLD OUT
Plus matinee show added, doors at 230pm                SOLD OUT
Sun 13 December                                              Glasgow O2 Academy                                                       SOLD OUT
Tue 15 December                                               Manchester Apollo                                                             SOLD OUT
Thurs 17 December                                           Wolverhampton Civic Hall                                                NEW DATE!
Friday 18 December                                          London, The O2

If you wanted a useful drink  – well, if you were in the States you had Jolt cola (the official choice of the hacker) – if you were in the UK, you had Lucozade – a pretty poor substitute, because honestly, that was for sports people or people who had flu. And it didn’t really keep you awake.

And then there was Red Bull … this was liquid rocket fuel in a can. The can was small, and that meant it was the the most powerful thing in the world, and only crazy people would drink more than one can.

That is, until someone decided to stick vodka in it. Cue thousands of people all over the UK legally wired, drunk yet unable to sleep it off. Red Bull and vodka became an institution – it would be on special offer in nightclubs (where you would get a third of a can with a shot of vodka) and the world was a happy place, if slightly narky the next morning.

There were reports that it was banned in far flung foreign countries – which kinda made it more appealing. “it’s so powerful” we thought “that other countries can’t handle it”

But small cans weren’t enough for some people.Someone out there decided that bigger was better, and came up with a PINT of energy drink.

WOW we all thought – more energy. Brilliant.

So suddenly a swathe of big can energy drinks came onto the market. Relentless lead the way, but Monster came up very quickly by basically being at every festival you could imagine, with late night banging DJ’s, and enough liquid to keep an entire campsite fuelled for months.

Even Red Bull got in on the pint can act … originally losing out to the “big boys”.

The problem is, as I see it, energy drinks are now knocked back like cola. An office I once worked in had a fridge permanently stocked with energy drinks. Everyone was very dilligent, and energetic until the crash hit a few weeks down the line, and things turned a little crotchety. One individual knocked back 6 cans in one evening an went totally hoop-la.

Have we forgotten how powerful these things are? Have we become immune to caffeine by sheer consumption or do we simply THINK we are? The powerful marketing messages of these drinks takes away the warning – they are fun, the more the better, bigger cans more energy etc etc. Plus with the explosion in coffee shops, I dread to think what our daily caffeine levels are now.

Are we setting ourselves up for a fall? In twenty years will they realise that all this caffeine, taurine and the rest, is incredibly bad for us and leads to who knows what?

Now the new wave of energy altering substances: anti-energy drinks.

A short piece in this months WiredUK magazine mentions something called Slow Cow. From what I can gather it does exactly the opposite to Red Bull It’s packed full of relaxing and calming ingredients to sooth your mind and remove stress

Will this become the drink version of the chill out room? Will crazed caffeine junkies be knocking these back when it’s time for bed?

Their second album ‘Contra’ is released on January 11th on XL Recordings

Tickets for all shows go on sale at 9am on Friday 6th November

[mappress]

Sunday 7th             Cambridge Corn Exchange
Monday 8th             Manchester Apollo
Tuesday 9th           Leeds O2 Academy
Wednesday 10th    Birmingham O2 Academy
Friday 12th            Newcastle O2 Academy
Saturday 13th        Glasgow Barrowlands
Sunday 14th           Edinburgh Picture House
Tuesday 16th         London Brixton O2 Academy