LIBREZINE LRC NEW RELEASES
Spring Edition april 2017 LTD ED 3D Cover
Wellcome Book Prize
SPRING REVIEWS Games, Film Books & Theatre
ANCESTRAL ROOTS
Who do you think you are?
BECKY’S RECIPE
A dish with diversity
WE ARE NOT ALONE
The Awakening Convention
PIXEL ART All you need to know
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ontents
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Wellcome Book Prize Puzzle Page ANCESTRAL ROOTS BeckY’s curried goat pixel art book review/game review theatre review WE are not alone film review creative corner
hat’s on in the Library
nrichment sessions
Book Club - 2nd May 4 - 5pm - 1st Floor rotunda Apps for Gaps - 11th May 12pm - 1pm - 1st floor rotunda
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RC opening times
1st Floor LRC MonDAY - ThursDAY FriDAY
8.30am - 7.30pm 8.30am - 4pm
2nd Floor LRC MonDAY - ThursDAY FriDAY
8.30am - 7.30pm 9am - 4pm
art portfolio Review - 18th may 5pm - 6pm - 2nd floor LRC
Arts & Construction MonDAY - ThursDAy 8.30am - 4.30pm FriDAY 8.30am - 4pm
mindfulness & wellbeing - 24th May 12pm - 1pm - 1st floor rotunda
THE LRC staff are now opening:MAC room A2.15 Thursdays 12.15pm - 1.30pm 3
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RC new releases ellcome Book prize shortlist 2017 Reviews by Rachel Webb
‘I Contain Multitudes’ by Ed Yong non-fiction invites us to marvel at ourselves, less as individuals and more as thriving ecosystems. An exciting and genre-busting book on microbes, which will radically change how you think about the natural world, and how you see ‘Mend the Living’ by Maylis de Kerangal Jessica Moore is a novel which depicts the agonizing journey from fatal crash to life-saving operation: a 24-hour whirlwind of death and life. ‘The Gene’ by Siddhartha Mukherjee provides an intimate history of the gene and heredity, envisioning both humanity’s past and future.
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‘The Tidal Zone’ by Sarah Moss is an exceptionally courageous and unflinching novel of unbearable sadness, but also hope. It explores the parental love, overwhelming fear, illness and recovery of a 15-year-old school girl. ‘When Breath Becomes Air’ reflects on the writer’s own transition between Doctor and patient. Neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi’s powerful book studies questions of mortality, as he faced with inoperable lung cancer. ‘How to Survive a Plague’ by David France is a well-documented account of the early years of the AIDS epidemic and the radical campaign for accessible treatment, which changed the way that medical science is practised worldwide.
Available now at the LRC
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uzzle page
earning resources Word search
Graphic Novels Podcast Online Catalogue
Easy Reads Audio Books Enrichment Sessions
E books Book Club Reading Ahead Blog (please note there is no space seperating the words on the puzzle)
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AG
ncestral Roots
etting started with family history
Building a family tree is a fascinating journey into the past and a perfect way to record your discoveries. It can lead you to connections you never knew you had, from distant relatives around the world to records of direct ancestors fighting in the Napoleonic war. In my experience, researching family history has been enticing and addictive, taking up a lot of my spare time! I’d love to show others how interesting building a family tree can be, so here are a few tips on how to get started. The cost of building a family tree online can be quite steep, with genealogy record providers such as Ancestry and Find My Past charging up to £19.99 per month. However, there are ways around these fees; all public libraries in Greater Manchester provide free access to both Ancestry and Find My Past on their in-house computers, although you may have to pay a small fee to use the computer facilities after one hour. Alternatively, both Ancestry and Find My Past provide 14 day free trials, but
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remember to cancel your membership before your 14 days are up or you will be charged the full subscription fee. You can also access a lot of information through www.freebmd.org.uk which provides free access to some census data, parish registers and Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales. If you are willing to spend a bit of money on your exploration and are stuck with a certain area or ancestor, you can order birth, death and marriage certificates online which costs around £9 each from www. gro.gov.uk. I have only done this once; ordering the birth certificate of an illegitimate ancestor of mine. This proved to be fruitless as the father’s name is not listed. However, I have been able to trace the identities of this particular ancestor’s parents by finding his WW1 enlistment which thankfully stated the name and address of his biological parents. While both Ancestry and Find My Past are similar in their online services, there are benefits
to using both providers. For instance, subscription to Find My Past includes access to the 1939 Register, which was taken throughout the UK during the outbreak of war. It includes the following information of all UK residents at the time: date of birth, occupation, address and marital status. I have found this service to be the most useful aspect of using Find My Past. I have mostly used Ancestry during the leading genealogy website. I have enjoyed the opportunity to link with other members; I found the shared family trees to be very useful when discovering ancestors and connecting with distant relatives alive today. Ancestry also provides a DNA test service which costs between £70-90. The test takes around 4-6 weeks to produce a report which shows what nationalities can be traced in the individual’s DNA, out of a possibility of 700,000 genetic locations. It can also be linked to your family tree on Ancestry and connects you with people who share elements of DNA. While some may find their results to be not much of a surprise, I found my DNA test to be a valuable experience; I discovered I had a greater percentage of Irish characteristics in my genes than I
had expected and the test successfully demonstrated that most of my ancestry stems from the Midlands and the Northern parts of Ireland. Another great resource is www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com. This is a great place to start when looking for guidance and specialist advice on how to conquer some of the mysteries of your family history. Wherever you are there is likely to be a family history group who meet regularly. The Bolton Family History Society meet every month and hold talks from experts on range of family history topics, often of local interest. Article by Rachel Webb
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BA
ecky’s Curried Goat Dish with Diversity
The first thing you have to do is make sure that everyone is out of the kitchen. This is going to take some time and you don’t want anyone getting under your feet, especially THE HUSBAND! Also beware once the word gets out that you are cooking this dish the whole family, their friends and the neighbours will descend on you like a plague of locusts so think big or they will starve.
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Ingredients you will need: 1kg of lean goat meat ½ of a lime 2tbsp of all-purpose seasoning 2tbsp curry powder 4tbsp sunflower oil 425ml chicken stock (jumbo is a good one) 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped2cm piece of ginger finely chopped 1 red pepper deseeded and chopped 1 green pepper deseeded and chopped 1 stick celery chopped 1 scotch bonnet (I keep it whole and remove at the end of cooking think of the kids)
10 allspice berries (also remove at the end of the cooking) 3 spring onions roughly chopped 2 tbsp chopped parsley 2tbsp chopped fresh coriander salt and pepper to taste handful of new potatoes peeled and cut into chunks. 1. Preferably first thing in the morning or the night before (unless you eat at midnight like we do in our house) you need to get the meat marinated. Wash the meat, put into a large bowl. Don’t be scared of any bony pieces they have all the flavour in them. Squeeze the lime juice onto the meat add the curry powder and all-purpose seasoning, mix it in well using your hands, then put into the fridge and leave to marinade for at least 4 hours.
2. After what seems like an eternity, take the meat out of the fridge. Heat the oil in a large pan and when the oil is hot add the meat. Using a wooden spoon, stir the meat so that it all gets coated in the oil. Cover the pan with a lid, turn the heat right down and let it simmer leaving the meat to cook in its own juices for about 45mins. This helps to lock in the flavours and gives you time to have a beer. (Occasionally check on the pot to make sure the bottom of the pan does not burn.) 3. After 45mins add about 200ml of the stock, bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer again for another 45mins. Use this time to prep the rest of the ingredients, (and have another beer). 4. At the end of the 45mins, add the rest of the ingredients, including the stock, hold back on the potatoes for now, and add a scotch bonnet (usually just the one for the sake of the children) but if you like it hotter, two is better. Turn the heat right down and simmer now for another 1½ hour, adding the potatoes for the last 20mins. Keep checking the pan and add extra stock if needed.
5. Finally, it’s ready to serve and it goes nice with spicy spring greens, rice and peas. (oh and of course, another beer) 9
P
IXEL ART
The rise, fall and rise of Pixels, in games, films and art.
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Article by Jon Hart In the area of computer generated imagery, pixels used to be seen as something that people couldn’t wait to get rid of. Pixels, in the broad definition of the term, are what make up a bitmapped, also called a raster graphics, screen. This is generally a rectangular grid of pixels, or points of colour, viewable via a monitor or other display medium. A screen of the past could have been the 320 x 240 pixels of a cathode-ray TV displaying a game from a Spectrum home computer. In the present, however, it could be the 640 x 1136 pixels on an iPhone screen, or the +4000 pixel screens used in cinemas that use digital projection. To see the pixels on a screen at the cinema you have to get very close, but they are there, as they are with any other screen. Within both video game and film (not to mention tech) industries, the trend has steadily been towards an ideal of objective photorealism and a visible eradication of pixels. This trend accelerated once the development of software that could generate imagery in true three dimensions started to appear.
Yulia by James Svard
For film, this was expensive, high-level rendering software such as SoftImage and PowerAnimator, used in ground-breaking films such as The Abyss(1989) and Terminator 2(1991). For games, 3D graphics hit the mainstream with games such as Quake(1995). The most significant thing about Quake was not the software that built it, but the hardware it needed to run at home. At around the time Quake came out, the first generation of inexpensive (for the time) graphics cards appeared. These were independent graphics processors that any user could buy and plug in to the inside of their computers. They allowed for additional effects to the image, such as bilinear filtering (which reduces pixelation), improved dynamic lighting and shading, and anti-aliasing (further smoothing the image). The journey from then to now in both film and game is basically the dominance of any technological development that keeps the art forms on a path towards ever increasing photorealism and physical immersion.
might find pixels give a beautiful aesthetic to their art; others might be using visible pixels to communicate an ironic viewpoint or commentary. Despite no longer being the dominant aesthetic in video games, pixel art’s resurgence continues among amateur games design enthusiasts and professional designers alike, especially since the mobile gaming industry took off. Compared to computers and video game consoles, mobile phones still generally have a lower resolution and memory, and any games crafted for these devices require skillful use of memory and space by the designer. Amateur Mona Lisa by Flayh
Interestingly though, as in any art form, technology never gets a complete stranglehold on a medium even if it helped create it. Other, older visions tend to remain, ready to be sneaked back in by artists and makers. In the case of cinema, analogue formats such as 16mm and 35mm film are still being used, which don’t rely on pixels but rather chemicals and light. With video games, a new generation of game makers and artists are harking back to an age when pixels were shown proudly, characters were primary coloured and games could be as abstract as a Kandinsky or Mondrian painting. Pixel Art is not a term that the artists working on Ms Pac Man or Super Metroid would have used, though what they accomplished is now thought of widely as art. At the time pixels were a limitation that had to be creatively worked around to achieve success. In addition to a limit on pixels, colour palettes were also finite in the early days, being as little as 32, 16, sometimes just 4 colours for a game artist to work with. Whilst today these technological limits no longer exist, many artists are continuing to choose a limited number of pixels to emphasise the individual squares and using limited colours, giving a retro quality to their work. Some pixel artists
pixel art enthusiasts have found this to be a great arena to show off their skills in design.There are signs that as phones reach modern console levels of performance that 3D will become dominant on these platforms as well, but there is hope now that the variety and scope of games will continue to involve the creative use of that essential substance, the pixel.
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BM
ook Review ore than this By patrick Ness
Review by Zoe Rothwell
There is quite an unusual start to this book as it begins with the death of a teenage boy called Seth. Seth is drowning and there is a blow by blow account of the sensations, feelings and emotions he experiences as he drowns.
The book is written from the point of view of Seth as he wakes up in another reality and starts to remember what has happened to him. He wakes up in a black coffin placed in the attic room at his old house in England, before the move to America, before the tragedy of his death. Time doesn’t matter the same in this world and the first few days are spent sleeping, remembering and dreaming until he feels well enough to venture out into the unknown. 12
Like himself, England has been abandoned. There is no life in the streets, no cars driving past and no people going about their business. Many of the buildings are falling down and there are huge areas scorched with fire. Seth knows he has just died and thinks that this place must be his own personal hell - an apocalyptic afterlife which he cannot escape. His explorations lead him to an encounter with Regine and Thomasz who have also ended up in this parallel reality. They understand this world better than he does and their survival depends on outsmarting ‘The Driver’ who’s job it is to track them down and kill them. With deep rooted emotions centred upon regret, anger, loneliness, helplessness and utter despair this trio of friends not only share the memories of how they individually died, but also share an extraordinary desire of how they can all somehow survive.
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ideo Game Review
ass Effect: Andromeda (spoiler-free) REview By Hannah Wood
A lot of die-hard Mass Effect fans have been eagerly awaiting this game for five long years. It’s been a bumpy ride, with critics blasting the animations and early footage of the game, and the release date had been pushed forward in a desperate bid by developers to polish the game. So what are the first impressions? Being a big fan of the Mass Effect series, I pre-ordered the game and played it as soon as it had downloaded. You get to design your character, or choose the default character before you get started. The weird facial characteristics and animations could be spotted a mile away, but these things can be ironed out with patches. And besides, what are a few glitches here and there if the story is incredible, and the graphics are otherwise stunning? You start off on a voyage to the Andromeda galaxy, a completely unexplored part of space, millions of light-years from the very familiar Milky Way. You’re part of a pioneering team of exploration experts, hoping to find a new home. It has taken you and your
crew 600 years in suspended animation to reach Andromeda. It’s your duty to chart courses and explore the galaxy and its many, many planets. Along the way you’ll find some deep and unsettling secrets about the galaxy.
The ship and planets are absolutely stunning, very well designed and breathtakingly beautiful. The story is thrilling and exciting; you’re lost in space, with interesting colleagues and friends, looking for a new place to call home. But of course, you’re not the only life forms in Andromeda. And for the first time, you’re the aliens. I’d definitely recommend playing this game. It’s pricey, but for such a huge game, with many fantastic settings to explore, it’s almost certainly worth the price if you’re willing to splash out and treat yourself!
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TGD
heatre Review
rease - The Musical (10/3/17 - 25/3/17, palace theatre, manchester) irected by David Gilmore
You will be hand jiving and toe tapping from the onset with this touring stage production of the 1978 film. Originally produced in London by Robert Sigwood, Paul Nicholas and David Ian, it starts with an orchestral medley of songs from the show, giving a preview of what you can look forward to which instantly lifts your spirits. However, if you want to dance along in your seat with moves from the original choreography you will be disappointed as the dancing is all new, very good, but not the original. Danielle Hope, ‘Over the Rainbow’ winner, played the female lead of Sandy. Her vocals were exquisite and her performance had energy and enthusiasm. She accurately portrayed the innocence and naivety of Sandy. Tom Parker, ‘The Wanted’ boy band member, played the male lead Danny. He was not the most talented cast member and his performance was a little lacklustre.
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However, he improved in the the second half with the Drive-in scene. This show mainly attracts an audience who were teenagers when the film was released, but Tom’s casting attracts a younger generation to the show. Louisa Lytton, Eastenders and Strictly Come Dancing star, played Rizzo. Her performance was exceptional. She portrayed the character of promiscuous Rizzo perfectly and sang ‘There Are Worse Things I Could Do’ beautifully.
The sets are imaginative, giving an authentic 50’s feel to all scenes. You will be delighted with bonus scenes and songs not in the original film, particularly the male shower scene choreography! There is plenty of eye candy for both males and females. However, anyone who is light sensitive must be warned, as there are quite a few scenes with intense flashing lights.
THE CAST
Do you enjoy musicals? This high energy, “electrifying” and feel good show will not disappoint. Review by Janette Davies
Darren Day, actor, singer and presenter, played Vince and Teen Angel. He only had small parts in the first half, but came into his own in the second half when he performed ‘Beauty School Dropout’. His nod to The Mask and Austin Powers had a brilliant comic effect. No expense has been spared in the wardrobe department. The costumes for the show’s highlights are perfect for the songs and appropriately over the top. You will not be out of place if you wear a 1950’s outfit - there were lots of Pink Ladies in the audience. 15
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e are not alone.
wakening Conference - Manchester
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For the first time in Manchester the Science-fiction and spiritual world met on Sat 4th March for the Awakening Conference - Europe’s largest UFO and Conscious Life Expo. Fans came from all over the country to experience an exploration into UFO’s, spirituality and consciousness with many influential speakers taking centre stage. Erich Von Danken and Linda Moulton Howe packed out auditoriums with their controversial and stimulating talks on “unsolved mysteries of the past” and “high strangeness symbols”, leaving fans asking “is there any other life out there in the universe”? There was plenty of props to amuse the Sci- Fi geeks such as a the robot crane which was used in the making of Alien and fans lined up to have their picture taken in order to experience a piece of the film’s history. Throughout the day the predatory Xenomorph terrified anyone who dared to get in her way and with the possibility of Alien’s blood, potentially capable of corroding almost any substance on
Review by Janina Kaye
contact, fans were understandingly wary. ET arrived to great earthlings and people had the opportunity “to phone home” and look round his spaceship to search for “Elliot”. Alien incubation pods filled with pink light and were the base for healers and lightworkers and crowds were eager to catch a glimpse of the weird and wonderful things going
on inside. Fans had the opportunity to join in guided mediations which helped people to relax bringing them an inner peace and tranquillity. Many experienced the ‘Reiki of Atlantis’ treatments for past life regression, as well as gaining a glimpse into their past, present and future by means of powerful Angel and Tarot card readings. Shamanic healing rituals intrigued bystanders who had never seen the like and it was if the spirits of Native American Indians had suddenly decided to descend on Manchester as the energy was so powerful. Stalls had a vast array of things to buy, from crystals, through to science fiction magazines as every eclectic taste was catered for. UFO fans wandered through a myriad of stalls which were effectively decorated using interesting props to entice the public so as to share
information on various therapies and other events. People talked enthusiastically to stallholders about what had brought them to the conference and what had interested them on the day. You could literally feel the buzz from the crowds as fans came out of the auditorium, still talking about the exciting presentations they had just been involved in. All in all, the conference was a real “Awakening” for most and it gave attendees the opportunity to experience both earthly and planetary worlds. The “Awakening” international conference in 2017 was a massive success and the next one is planned for March 2018 which will be even bigger and “Out of this world”.
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F
ilm Review I Daniel Blake
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director - Ken Loach Review by Rebecca Davison This is a true to life hard hitting portrayal of a 59-year-old carpenter called Dan. After suffering a major heart attack, he finds his life turned upside down when he has to jump through what seem like ridiculous hoops to get access to the benefits he needs to live. Amanda, the health care professional appointed by the Department for Work and Pensions, insists on following protocol to establish his eligibility for ‘Employment Support Allowance’ by asking ridiculous questions, avoiding the obvious and ignoring the doctor’s recommendations. It becomes obvious that a depraved belief exists which gives some the unjust authority to mess about with people’s lives in such a resounding way that can have dire consequences. Deemed fit to return to work, Dan is left with the harsh reality of spending 35 hours a week searching for jobs, that his own medical consultant has said he cannot take. The lack of knowledge of the world of computers becomes a barrier in itself, with an online application continuously timing out and overpriced phone lines which, demonstrating the
flawed system from the offset is is inevitably deemed to fail. Dan finds himself forging an alliance with Katie a single mother of two when circumstances bring the unlikely pair together; with their shared experience of the humiliation of being in the unfortunate predicament of dealing with a
flawed and unjust welfare system. The actor Dave Johns who plays Dan is able to bring humour into situations throughout the film pulling the audience through on an emotional roller-coaster from the comical shots of Dan asking how to “defrost a frozen computer screen” to the harrowing moment of when Katie, out of pure desperation and utter helplessness, finds herself stealing a moment to cram cold baked beans into her mouth at the food bank. The final straw comes when Dan is sanctioned and has his benefits frozen for four weeks for seemingly failing to provide sufficient evidence to prove he has actively been looking for employment. The heart breaking finale shows the stark reality of the world we live in today, when that appeal date finally arrives too late.
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REative orner
and where the best places to peck are. ‘… Spending all day scratching that patch of grass but she didn’t find anything,’ one hen said. ‘I heard she found a shiny thing by Kafka’s Chicken the fence,’ another clucked. By Hannah Wood I gasped and peered at the two birds closest to me. They were two One morning, I found myself strolling along a canal when red birds with yellow, scaly feet. They were talking! I rubbed my I happened to pass a farm. The ears hard. house was a charming little prop‘How silly,’ the first hen huffed, ‘I erty, with red bricks and pretty saw three shiny things only last white window shutters. There week!’ were daffodils in full bloom, and tiny bluebells which swayed in the ‘She’s only saying that to catch the eye of that hunky rooster,’ the springtime breeze. The farm sat second bird chimed, rummaging quite nicely in the very centre of through a patch of long grass. a large, lush green field. Close to the fence bordering the canal were ‘You’re talking!’ I said. Was I going mad? smart blue chicken coops. They stood proud and prim as the farm ‘Well of course we are, we’re not humans you know!’ house, with a fresh coat of paint. A peculiar sensation gripped me, In the field were an array of hens and I felt smaller, and fluffier. I of different colours; red, white, brown and grey. They seemed con- looked at my feet, and there they were, two sets of claws poking betent enough to peck and scratch neath a belly of bright yellow fluff. in the field, clucking amongst I had turned into a chick! themselves. In the distance, some ‘I wasn’t a chicken before,’ I said, starlings were singing, and I felt mostly to myself. The two big red happy with the world. hens laughed. I wondered what the hens were ‘Once a chicken, always a chicksaying to each other, and what en!’ they said, and tottered off to a their little lives were like on the blue chicken coop. I watched them perfect farm on the perfect spring time day. I imagined them chatting go, and pondered to myself about what it all meant. I was, after all, about their peers and their day a spring chicken!
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