Venue 356

GUS EDGAR-CHAN Venue Editor Back in first year, I emailed UEA’s security to see if I could set off fireworks on campus. I was to create a spectacle between the zigs and light up the night sky amid mid-semester summatives. Alas, I was turned down. It would be “a risk to rabbits”, they said. So in the end, my housemates and I set off a few limp, soggy bottle rockets in our back garden. At the time, I thought ‘screw the rabbits, fireworks are more important.’ Now, two years on, with Bonfire Night wrapped up, I’ve come to my senses.

Cue an excellent, absolutely-not-contrived segue into our eco issue! There are even better ways to save the environment than to not blow up a bunch of rabbits on UEA property - this issue, for one.

To save stacks of paper everywhere (and trees, I suppose), Issue 356 is online-only, making this one of the rare instances where not making it to print is a good thing. I’ve given a few more suggestions to go green on page 30, but along the way, why not have a look at Grace Curtis’ podcast recommendations on page 7, or read all about the London Film Festival in our double spread feature?

Leave the rabbits to me - and I’ll leave the sudoku to you.

Johanne Elster Hanson

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Shelby Cooke

Gabriela Williams

Rabbit: Fay Austen; Icons: Vecteezy

Nick Mason

Jordan Hunnisett

Jodie Bailey

Rebecca McDonnell

Review: Ballet Black The first thing that jumps out at you when watching a Ballet Black performance is how there is not a single white dancer on stage. The ballet industry is one of the least ethnically diverse art sectors and it is common to see almost all-white companies in theatres. Seeing seven incredibly talented people of either Asian or black descent dominate the stage was uplifting and empowering; the narrative of ballet being an exclusively white art form is reversed as soon as one lays eyes on the company.

However, the first act quickly takes your attention away from the racialised implications of the company and immediately draws you into the world of “The Suit”, a piece choreographed by Cathy Marston. It tells the story of a couple in South Africa in the early 1950s. Matilda has cheated on her loving, doting husband, Philemon, and the plot revolves around Philemon’s reaction to her affair; he makes her carry around the suit that her lover had left in their room until she cannot bear the humiliation any longer. Sayaka Ichikawa, who plays Matilda, is an expert at emoting with every single part of her body. She immerses the audience in Matilda’s chaotic emotional process right till the end. Her partner work with both José Alves, who plays Philemon, and Mthuthuzeli November, who plays her lover, is flawless and heart stopping. Alves has beautiful technique and is stunning as well. The tension in his movements brought the angry husband to life.

One of the most interesting aspects of that piece was the use of the set. There was a sheet and three chairs that were constantly moved around to create a bed, a dinner table, and even positioned to imitate the layout of a bar. The use of space was incredibly creative as well, especially when Philemon was walking about in town while Matilda was at the side of the stage, at home with her lover. It was an altogether artistically brilliant piece, with a slightly eerie and dark vibe owing to the ominous presence of “The Suit”.

The second piece was a lighter comedic piece. It was Arthur Pita’s “A Dream Within A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, a story

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Image: Norwich Theatre Royal

loosely based on the Shakespearean play. It is about Puck enchanting six dancers and causing them to fall in love with the wrong people, or, in Titania’s case, with a donkey. Puck turns one of the male dancers into a donkey and makes Titania fall for him. The other two pairs were wondrously gay; the two girls did a fun ballet duet together to the saucy tunes of rumba and walked off the stage holding hands, while the two men danced a beautiful, contemporary style duet and ended up falling asleep holding each other. However, the queer representation in this piece was questionable. At times, it felt a bit as if the two same-sex couples were being compared to the interspecies couple, and at other times, it felt as if queerness was used as a punch line.

Nevertheless, the piece was fun, dreamy and wonderful. I particularly enjoyed Isabela Coracy’s Puck, who pranced around the stage with an air of mischief and confidence.

The lighting complemented the fantastical setting beautifully, with hues of purples and greens contributing to the magic of the performance. One of the most creative parts was when the dancers were made to run across the stage with thin coloured sheets covering their faces and flowing out gracefully behind them to signify Puck’s spells.

Ballet Black got many standing ovations at the Norwich Theatre Royal when the performances were finished, and they were well deserved. The company is incredibly talented and each dancer contributed something unique to the whole performance. Both Martson and Pita incorporated different styles into their pieces — there was a significant amount of contemporary as well as a hint of ballroom — and the dancers pulled them off beautifully. These versatile dancers of colour continue to transform the ballet world one performance at a time.

Beverly Devakishen

Smart Caption Glasses at the NT The National Theatre’s introduction of Smart Caption Glasses is a momentous change in the world of theatre; performances are now accessible to a much wider audience than before. The National Theatre claims that users can experience performances from any seat in any production for the first time due to the introduction of these Smart Caption Glasses.

These steps in improving accessibility have led to the theatre becoming more user-friendly. The obstacle of not hearing the dialogue of the show has been erased; those who have a hearing impairment can now enjoy a variety of performances without missing out on the overall experience. The wearers of these glasses will see a transcript of the dialogue and other descriptions about the performance on the lens. The Smart Caption Glasses are designed to fit over your own pair of glasses and can be ordered when purchasing your tickets.

This revolutionary piece of equipment is the result of a four-year collaboration between the National Theatre and speech and language specialists. This improved level of access joins many schemes the National Theatre already

has in place, such as captioned and audio-described performances. Touch tours are also offered to those who are blind or visually impaired in order for them to familiarise themselves with the set before the performance begins.

The National Theatre are also leading the way in improving their facilities for all types of disabilities, including those with learning disabilities or those on the autistic spectrum.

Noisy and crowded venues are found to be overwhelming, and so the theatre also offers ‘relaxed performances’; chill out areas are provided if you need a break from the performance, strobe lights are removed and the audience is allowed to make noise during the performance.

Hopefully now that the prestigious National Theatre has taken further initiatives to improve their level of accessibility, other theatres across the country will follow in their footsteps and provide Smart Caption Glasses and begin other initiatives to help improve audience experience.

Jess Barrett

Concrete Book Review

Milkman by Anna Burns The Man Booker prize is one of the world’s leading literature awards, awarded to a novel in English (and published in Britain) that the panel of acclaimed judges deem fit. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the original prize and the winning book is as deserving as any that have come before it.

At the time of shortlist publication, Milkman had sold only 797 copies in Ireland (one of three Irish books to have made the longlist) but this hasn’t prevented it from becoming the winner of such a prestigious prize. The subject matter is delicate, relevant, and harrowing, but the protagonist often lifts the mood with her cynicism, wit, and deadpan comments about the time in which she lives.

Set at the time of the Irish Troubles, our unnamed town and unnamed character – titled only ‘middle-sister’ – take on an almost timeless quality. We never see any direct violence, but the fear is always present. It is not the aggression itself that affects middle-sister, but the conformist, patriarchal oppression that she is forced to live with, as she muses, ‘how could you be under attack by something that wasn’t there?’ Burns ensures that this novel shows the very worst of a militant backdrop and the devastating consequences

this has on the general population, applicable not just to the troubles, but to any conflict zone.

This novel is relevant. In the wake of communities controlled through fear and threat, and the snowballing success of the #metoo movement, Burns’ unconventionally beautiful prose breaks through the physical and gets straight to the affects at hand. By naming everyone through their relationship with the protagonist, these relationships immediately become the most important thing within the novel. This isn’t a story about violence; it is a story about people and how they affect each other simply by existing.

There is only truth and feeling and a blunt telling of the world in which middle-sister occupies that we as readers need no more information. We can understand that a park is a park, without being told reems of unnecessary information. We understand what it means to be scared walking home from work at night. We are humans and we have a shared experience of the world, and Burns uses this to her full advantage. Her simple, unloquacious language ensures that the people are at the very forefront; their actions hide behind nothing.

Abi Steer

Image: Public Domain Pictures

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Exodus: Third year productions

Each year, graduating students from UEA’s drama degree put on two productions at the end of the first semester.

This year’s double bill is concerned with “exodus”, a “mass departure of people”, and consists of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath directed by Michael Bernardin, and Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle in a translation by Frank McGuinnes, directed by Pema Bishop-Clark. Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel was adapted in 2006 by Tim Baker for the Clwyd Theatr Cymru in Wales, and chronicles the migration of American workers and their families during the Great Depression. Caucasian Chalk Circle was written while Brecht lived in America in 1944, and tells the story of the peasant girl Grusha who rescues a baby in the Caucasus towards the end of the Second World War. Immi Lea, who is assistant director on The Grapes of Wrath, tells Concrete that “there’s something very magical about having these two very different but also complimentary plays taking over the studio space”. She thinks Brexit and the Calais jungle are some of the reasons for why main directors Bernardin and Bishop-Clark chose these plays for the third year productions. Freya Bennett, assistant director for Caucasian Chalk Circle, agrees: “They both concern people who are thrown into a state of flux. No one really has any control of what’s happening to them, so they just have to go with it.”

The third year productions are the biggest event of the year in the drama department. Students spend the entire autumn term working almost exclusively on one or both of the chosen plays, taking on all the roles both onstage and backstage. The actors and assistant directors agree that it is the extended rehearsal process that makes the third year productions special. While most undergraduate plays take around three weeks to rehearse and stage, the thirdyears have a whole term to work on the two productions.

This allows them to go more in-depth with the actual material, and as Rohan Gotobed, who is part of

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Photo: Liam Pursehouse

the marketing team whilst also acting in both plays, explains it: “You have time for thoughts to come to you during rehearsals.”The students also have weekly seminars with UEA lecturer Kirstin Smith on the topic “theatre and immigration”. “It’s like a whole creative process for us, because we are not just learning about the plays but also about the historical and political context behind these plays”, says Ella Dorman-Gajic, who plays Grusha in Caucasian Chalk Circle and is part of the marketing team..

This attention to detail is also present within the costume department and among the set constructors. Rohan explains how they have productions meetings every week “where the whole company or representatives for each production team get together and talk about what needs to happen in terms of lighting and sound. It feels like a more professional atmosphere.”

Given the scale of the third year productions, they are the only performances for which the UEA Drama Studio will reconfigure the actual space; this year they are turning it into the round. Immi and Freya are both acting in smaller roles whilst shadowing the main directors. Freya sees her dual roles as an advantage, and claims that as a director, “you feel more engaged with what is happening on stage when you also have to act in it at the same time.” Both actors and assistant directors feel like this is a special way to round off their degree. “You graduate having a really solid understanding of how theatre as a whole works”, Freya adds. Their work will culminate in two public productions, and Rohan explains that “to be able to do something that we can invite our friends and family to at the end, is also an excellent thing to finish on.”

The Grapes of Wrath plays on Wednesday 5th, Thursday 6th and Saturday 8th December at 7:30pm. The Caucasian Chalk Circle plays on Tuesday 4th and Friday 7th December at 7:30pm, and Saturday 8th December at 2:00pm.

Johanne Elster Hanson

Soundbite Selections Grace Curtis’ podcast recommendations...

CULTURE: THE READ Multi-talented bloggers/writers/performers Kid Fury and Crissle West discuss TV, news, celebrities and whatever else they fancy each week. It’s easy to see (or hear) why The Read has become a smash hit since its debut in 2013: West and Fury can transition from a hysterical breakdown of the week’s hip-hop shenanigans, to a razor sharp commentary on how government policy helps strengthen everyday prejudice, to a heartfelt discussion about mental health, all without losing their natural chemistry. And they’re funny. Not dry smirk, blow air out of your nose funny, but real funny, the kind that will make you gasp with laughter on a crowded bus. Brutal honesty is a big part of what makes The Read so hilarious – and so important.

On top of everything else, the show also serves as a celebration of black and gay culture in a time when both those identities are under threat from a White House administration that is at best apathetic and at worse actively hateful.

In the current political climate, the very act of these two people existing and enjoying themselves feels like a minor act of political rebellion. Long may it continue.

NEWS: PAGE 94: THE PRIVATE EYE PODCAST Private Eye is something of a miracle. In an era where even the most established newspapers are struggling to adapt to the fickle whims of the internet, the Eye has managed to scrape by almost completely unchanged. They have made but one concession to the digital age: The Private Eye Podcast. And what a good choice that was.

Each short episode is themed around a different story, giving the Eye’s anonymous authors a chance to shine in behind-the-scenes interviews where they show the kind of understanding that can only come from dedicated research. Vital but convoluted topics such as school closures and the doctor’s strike are explained in engaging, accessible ways. While the issues discussed can be depressing (corruption and incompetence in the British elite for instance), there is a surprising level of optimism on display. The Eye is skeptical, but it isn’t cynical. For every dodgy businessman or feckless MP, there’s someone willing to stand up to them. Small charities, local councils, grassroots campaigners; admirable effort is made to showcase the heroes, as well as the villains, in modern British politics. A perfect antithesis to the confusing merry-go-round that is the modern news cycle.

MUSIC: I ONLY LISTEN TO THE MOUNTAIN GOATS Podcasting don Joseph Fink sits down with John Darnielle, lead singer of cult band The Mountain Goats, in a song by song discussion of his album All Hail West Texas. Guest artists produce their own versions of the song which are played at the end of the episode. This podcast may test your patience for self-satisfied American arty types (everyone is just so thrilled to be in a room together) but Darnielle’s down-to-earth personality and fascinating life story make this well worth a listen. It starts with the basics: Darnielle, alone, stuck in the house on a summers evening in 1999, keeping himself busy with a guitar and a boombox. Those songs become a fourteen track album released to immense critical acclaim. Fink clearly wanted this same low budget atmosphere for his podcast, often reiterating how they are recording in a basement, or with just one microphone, or over a bad skype connection. Seeing him try to manufacture authenticity in this way is interesting in itself, and lends itself the larger more abstract themes of art and artistry that the podcast explores. But the main pull remains Darnielle: the honesty and gentle humour with which he pulls apart his own work keeps the conversations consistently interesting. You don’t need to be a Mountain Goats fan to enjoy it, but you might become one by the end.

Photo: Vecteezy

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Saturday Night, Sunday Morning Like many British films in its day, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) features an angry young man - but this one doesn’t know where to throw his kitchen sink.

Bored of his job as a factory worker, Arthur (Albert Finney) tries to own the streets of Nottingham through heavy drinking and love affairs. And as you might imagine, he becomes tied up in all sorts of un-unravelable knots.

If you know of the film’s two realist heavyweights (Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson) behind the film, you’ll know to expect plenty of gritty drama.

This film has a keen eye and a hardened core. It examines the difficulties faced by non-conformists like Arthur, building him up as our working-class hero. Arthur and his mates mess around and get themselves into trouble to show a middle finger to the oppressive system of their elders. They’re defiant colourful sparks, trying to clear the grimy atmosphere and mood of working-class despair in England at the time.

But the film refuses to provide them with an easy escape from society’s oppressive thumb. In fact, their rebellious actions expose their own tragic inability to escape their circumstances. They fish, drink and get thrown out of bars because it’s all they can do, and they’re the ones who lose at the end of it all. This heightens the anger levels of Arthur and his mates, even more, completing the vicious cycle of the non-conformist youth – performed to perfection by Albert Finney.

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Image: Geography.co.uk

It captures perfectly the distinction between the ‘World War II-generation’ and their children, as well as the mood of the times. The younger generation is obsessed with themselves, wanting to leave their role as ‘slaves to society’ behind. But they shoot themselves in the foot: they don’t consider that, in order to move on, they must understand what lies behind the way of life they strive to avoid. As Arthur proclaims, he “doesn’t want to be taught” the difference between right and wrong.

The film presents the anger of the youth as the cause of their entrapment: for as long as they refuse to cooperate with others, they will remain bound to the role in which they were born. It directs a blunt message to the youthful viewers of the 1960s, struggling to carve and maintain their own identity: while their ‘rebellion’ may be sincerely felt, it won’t necessarily have traction to change their lives for the better. While they shouldn’t do what Arthur does, they should listen to what he says: “don’t let the bastards grind you down”.

This film’s intelligence is seldom matched. Its examination of working-class society still appears as sharp as it did in 1960 when few films even attempted such things.

And, unlike Tony Richardson’s subsequent films, none of the film’s messages feels forced, allowing fans of classic British cinema to enjoy the defined characters and authentic details that bring this film to life, without having to care one bit about its social critique.

Charlie Hunt

Pride: a moving revolution Pride, a 2014 adaptation of the true story of UK gay activists supporting the miners’ strike in 1984, follows LGSM – lesbians and gays support the miners- as they raise money for the strike, yet struggle to find a union to accept the money due to rampant homophobia. The film manages to explore two major revolutions of modern Britain: the miners’ strike and the gay rights movement.

In March of 1984, miners went on strike over the closure of multiple pits, which threatened thousands of jobs, as well as whole communities entirely dependent on the mines. The strikes were punctuated with battles between miners and the police, with forces being brought in from around the country to key areas, often inciting violence as a means to stop picketers and protestors.

Mark (Ben Schnetzer), one of the film’s protagonist, draws a comparison between his experience of being marginalised by the police as a member of the LGBT community and the strikers being marginalised for their protests. He asks his friends to put aside any anger they feel towards the miners, from whom several characters had received homophobic actions, to support them in their cause. For some, it’s too personal and, quite understandably, too much.

But the LGSM is formed and funds are raised, much of it coming from the LGBT community.

Whilst

the

film’s

initial

focus

is

the miner strike, the issues within the gay rights movement are also thoroughly explored. Through the relationships the LGSM group forms with the small Welsh mining town, we see the dedication the group has for struggling people, despite those people not thoroughly accepting them; we see the difficulties they face in their own lives and the challenges of being gay in a homophobic community; the difficulties of being in the closet, of not being accepted, of being hated and feared and beaten up. But also of AIDS and HIV, something new, frightening and unknown in 1984.

governments were forced to recognise gay support organisations that were previously ignored (for example, the Thatcher government helped fund the Terrence Higgins Trust which provided care and information for AIDS). If this disease could only affect gay men, then the community knew that they would have to fight for themselves, as others would not. Unfortunately, in 1980s Britain, an illness that would wipe out ‘the gays’ was not necessarily seen as a bad thing to all. But people spoke up more and more, as the silence from the LGBT community became less optional; it soon became clear that silence equals death.

The discussion of AIDS, a very prevalent fear for the LGBT community in the late-1900s, becomes more frequent as the film goes on; it’s an undercurrent that is always there, becoming more and more obvious and impactful. One conversation between Jonathan (Dominic West) and Sian (Jessica Gunning) highlights the uncertainty and anxiety of an HIV positive status on a person’s life (the real Jonathan Blake was on the brink of committing suicide because of it). In moments, it can be seen how it was used as an excuse, or perhaps a cause, of homophobia.

Which to myself begs the question, was it worth it? If AIDS was the defining factor in the development of the LGBT rights that exist in Britain today, was it worth all the pain and death? Did the immense suffering of one generation reduce the suffering of the generations to come? I cannot answer this question, and I would imagine everyone would have a different answer. I can’t justify a damaging illness on the basis of social revolution, especially given the long-lived consequences it still has today and will have into the future.

But if the consequence of it was to reduce the emotional and physical pain of my friends and others, then I can at least be grateful to those who used it as a basis to fight. As I can be grateful to the miners and LGSM, whose friendship forged the basis for enshrining LGBT rights in law.

But some say the AIDS crisis was the much-needed spark in the LGBT movement in the UK that galvanised people into speaking out; without it, we wouldn’t have the LGBT rights and freedoms that exist today. And it certainly did have a big impact, as

Evlyn Forsyth-Muris

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Hunger: strength in revolt Steve McQueen’s Hunger tells the tale of the Provisional IRA members imprisoned in Maze Prison, who protested their status as nonpolitical prisoners. Starting in 1976 as a ‘blanket protest’ (a refusal to wear prison clothes), before morphing into a dirty protest (the prisoners smeared excrement on the walls and refused to wash), it finally ended in a hunger strike.

The film removes itself from the exact politics of the situation, instead focusing on the men battling against an awful situation, and the strength of will it took to resist simple needs like clothing or food, and instead of sacrificing their humanity, and eventually their lives, in order to stand up for their beliefs.

In the stunning 24-minute long dialogue between strike leader Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) and Father Moran (Liam Cunningham), the two discuss the implications of the strike, with Sands bringing up a story from his childhood. The young Sands was on a trip with some friends when they came upon a foal by a stream who had broken its back legs.

Sands drowned the horse, accepting the punishment that would come with it, to put it out of its misery. Showing that he believes that sometimes you must make a personal sacrifice in order to achieve what’s right, even if achieving it won’t benefit you.

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Photo: Icon Film

During the hunger strike, his condition deteriorates, showing the brutality of what Sands is putting himself through for his cause: “gradual deterioration of the liver, kidney and pancreatic function… eventually cardiac failure… gastrointestinal ulcers”. The agonising shots of the

last few days of Sands life are a tapestry of pain, ending only with his death. One particular part of this sequence that makes Sands’ will so impressive is his resiliency, as a new meal is placed before him multiple times a day and he never capitulates to something which must be more alluring than literally anything else he could have seen in his whole life.

The peak of his martyrdom is captured when Sands’ normal, caring orderly is switched out for a loyalist U.D.A. (Ulster Defence Association) one who refuses to help Sands out the bath. Sands, despite being weak and close to death, somehow manages to stand up one last time, showing his enduring spirit, remaining unwilling

to acquiesce to the expectations of those who hate him and his ideas.

The opening murder of Prison Officer Lohan (Stuart Graham), who is assassinated in front of his catatonic mother, is pointless; his death essentially means nothing. He doesn’t seem to believe in the cause, being indifferent to it beyond having a little Union Flag keychain. So when he dies, it’s all pretty needless.

The opposite is true for Sands, who by creating purpose with what he’s doing, actually achieves something with his death.

In death, Sands would not have known that his strike helped the prisoners to achieve their goals in all but name. He wouldn’t have known that 100,000 people would attend his funeral. He wouldn’t have known that while the Provisional IRA didn’t achieve exactly what they wanted ( a united Ireland), achieving instead peace and a stop to the horrors of the Troubles.

Sands couldn’t have known any of this because he gave his life for his cause, through intense pain, intense pressure, intense persecution. He gave literally everything he had to give his cause a chance of succeeding. In the end though, maybe it’s just about finding something worth fighting for that gives you the strength to persevere.

Matthew Branston

Top ten must haves for this winter

1. Teddy Coat – these coats are possibly the best trend to arrive this season. Not only do they look cute with almost any outfit, but the comfort level challenges that of your favourite dressing gown.

These coats are available in virtually every colour but we’d recommend those of the brown/beige category.

shield your neck from the breeze all day long whilst making you look like you put a bit of effort into the overall look.

We’d recommend having this essential in a range of colours because they will quickly become a staple in your winter wardrobe.

2. Knee High Boots – this trend has been a winter essential for the past few years now and this year is no different. A knee-high boot holds the power to turn any dull or boring outfit into a statement look without fail.

Throw them together with a pair of skinny jeans or an A-line skirt and you are good to go.

5. Fluffy socks – it’s common knowledge that 90% of the time students would rather freeze than up the bill for heating, so a nice pair of fluffy socks will be sure to make it all seem somewhat bearable.

3. Sweatshirt – an easy option. A simple sweatshirt is a sure way to make sure you’re comfy and cosy all day long while achieving a nice laid-back look.

4.Turtle necks – it wouldn’t be winter without the return of the turtleneck (unless you’re an arts student, in which case it never left). The best thing about

this particular item is that they will

6.Ear Muffs – arguably the most adorable, and practical, accessory to own this winter. A fluffy pair of muffs are exactly what you need to avoid the trauma of hat hair whilst still fighting off that pesky threat of frostbite.

7. Gloves – this one is so obvious it almost doesn’t need to be said. Keep those hands toasty with a warm pair of gloves but avoid mittens at all costs.

No one has time to keep taking them on and off and they’re entirely more

hassle than they’re worth.

8. Bobble hat – Again, this almost goes without saying. Keep that head nice and warm with a classic bobble hat.

They were in style when we were five, they’re still in style now. Practicality can be fashionable too apparently.

9. Oversized scarf – because just any old scarf won’t do. The oversized scarf trend is one we wholeheartedly get behind because it offers a huge amount of versatility. Cold face? Cover it with your huge scarf. Cold shoulders?

Your scarf can double as a blanket.

Unimaginable fear over upcoming deadlines? Get under your scarf and it will all be okay.

10. The classic ugly Christmas jumper – it wouldn’t be winter without at least borderline hideous Christmas jumper making an appearance in your wardrobe. Would it really be christmas without them?

Abbey Hancock Image: Flickr

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Face masks: are they worth the fuss?

Face masks, for me, have always been a sociable skin treatment option. I wash my face every morning and night with whatever sensitive face wash was last on offer in Boots. I make sure to cleanse after with some facial toner. And, when my face is feeling oilier than normal, I will sit over a bowl of hot water to steam my pores to oblivion whilst listening to the latest Desert Island Disc.

Face masks are a way to pamper yourself when you’re feeling stressed and overworked. However, I always feel a bit silly having a ‘homemade spa day’ by myself. So, I have always a way around this, whilst living up to the slumber party dreams of my childhood self. I invite around a group of my favourite girlfriends and buy a batch of one-use sheet masks.

The newest ‘miracle’ ingredients at the moment is charcoal and algae and Garnier make a Hydrating Face Sheet Mask with both. But I find Garnier’s product very drying.

So, if you already find your skin a little flaky, I would steer well clear of their products. Then again, if you have a skintype like that I would avoid anything containing charcoal.

My latest money and plastic saving discovery has been

homemade face masks. I usually begin by exfoliating my skin with a little honey and sea salt. This removes any dirt or dead skin trapped in my pours. I usually let that sit on my face while I make my mask – mainly because when I’m on holiday my skin always feels great and I have begun to associate that with the salt from the sea.

Urban Decay’s Naked Palette has been about for years.

Back in high school the only makeup I owned was a mascara, concealer, and the Urban Decay Naked 1. With autumn in full swing, the current colour palette for any makeup enthusiast is rusty oranges and plum reds.

I recently bought the Urban Decay Naked Cherry Palette and it has allowed me to create that spooky burgundy vibe I have been trying to craft since I realised Halloween was just around the corner. Pinks and oranges really bring out blue eyes, and so this palette really makes my eyes pop.

The only complaint I have is that the metallic shades tend to be quite powdery, so throughout the day the glitter will slowly fall down your face and you might be told you’ve gone a bit over the top with the highlighter!

One of my favourite experiments with make-up is to see where I can interchange the use of each product. For example, I will often use the ‘Half-baked’ shade, on my Naked Palette 1, to brush over dark red lipstick and create a festive gold over-tone. With the Naked Cherry Palette, it

for blush, depending on your skin tone.

However, it is also possible to create similar pink and peach-coloured eyelids without forking out £35.70. Before the Naked Cherry Palette, I would use Rimmel London Natural Bronzer (£5.99) to contour and create some depth to my eyelids. I would then use one of NYX’s many High Definition Blush (£6) shades to provide that pop of red, orange, or pink. And, finally, I would highlight the corners of my eyes and my brow bone with Sleek’s Precious Metals Highlighting Palette (£9.99).

All of these items I already owned, and so not only did I save money, but I also matched my cheeks to my eyes, which really completes the look.

So, although now that I have got the Naked Cherry Palette I am, of course, going to keep using it. And, I have had my Naked 1 Palette for over 5 years and it is still going strong, so Urban Decay products do last for a long time. However, I wouldn’t go out of my way to splurge on any more Naked Palettes, if not only because it is more fun to be inventive with my make-up and try to multipurpose it!

For one face mask I: mash up an avocado, whisk one raw egg, combine a handful of oats, and stir in a tablespoon of honey. The protein in the egg is supposed to have repairing properties. I used to use oats to treat sunburn, as a child, and so these also heal the skin. The avocado is difficult not to eat, but most high street face masks contain avo, so I felt I couldn’t leave it out. And, finally, honey aids to reduce redness and inflammation.

I’ve read quite a bit about face masks online and have often think they are just a way for the beauty industry to sell products that don’t actually benefit the consumer.

This may be true. However, homemade face masks are cheap and if you’re relaxed and enjoying a calming girl’s night in, then surely placebo can sometimes be just as effective as the real deal?

Beth Bacon

The new Naked Cherry Palette

is possible to use the ‘Bing’, ‘Bang Bang’, or ‘Juicy’ shades

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Beth Bacon

Double denim: classic, cosy and casual Double denim has an established reputation, the fabric has been a staple for over 100 years. It’s versatility and durability makes it ideal everyday wear. When you see double denim worn you might shudder. But Double Denim has evolved from the faded blue on faded blue, Cowboys or 90’s teenagers into the latest fashion trend.

Denim has adopted a larger variety of colours, straying from its classic blue; you can now buy a piece of denim clothing in any colour you chose.

As well as evolving in colour, denim is no longer just restricted to jeans.

You can now buy skirts, jackets, shirts, shorts and dungarees in funky colours and patterns.

Whether it’s buttercup yellow or a vibrant red, denim now enables you to express your personality and walk the streets in style.

This is vital now we are in autumn and going into winter, expressing yourself whilst keeping cozy and warm has become even more important. We no

longer need to freeze in the name of fashion; the fur-lined denim jacket is at the rescue!

Celebrities such as Kanye West and Rihanna have also been photographed wearing double denim, showing that double denim has become an A-list fashion statement. If it’s on the sidewalks in LA why can’t we see it all over Chancellor’s Drive in UEA? Double Denim doesn’t even need to break the bank, reasonable quality denim is sold from Topshop to Primark and many online only stores - double denim is now accessible to all! The look is suitable from nights out in town, dancing in the LCR, dates and even suitable for going to your seminars.

Whatever you might think, double denim is back in our wardrobes with a vengeance.

Dungarees: comfortable, stylish, practical Dungarees, today visible across every hipster enclave university campus, began life as workwear.

The birth of overalls in the 1890s came about simply for utilitarian purposes: denim’s durability and the practicality of the bib shape made them durable for a hard day’s work.

Although you’re not likely to be slaving away in a factory all day, dungarees nonetheless make for fantastic workwear - if you’re planning on a long day hunched over a desk in the library, why not slip on some comfortable, stylish, and practical dungarees?

You don’t have to go for the countryb o y , ro u g h -

around-the-edges, ‘Come On Eileen’ aesthetic - chic up your look by pairing a classic striped top with some blue denim dungarees for instant and easy style.

Dungarees were long considered an explicitly anti-female trend (despite their use by female factory workers during WWII like the aforementioned fictional feminist icon of the time, Rosie the Riveter) as they were not form fitting. More and more women began to wear overalls thanks to the freedom of movement they allow, and to assert equality with their male contemporaries.

So, whether you want to honour your trendsetting feminist forebears, Channel Dexy’s Midnight Runners, or simply feel cool and comfortable, why not pick up a pair of dungarees today?

Georgie Spillman

Jess Barrett

Image: Pixabay

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BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL Two weeks, 225 films, four recommendations...

THE WHITE CROW Think the Russian Billy Elliot except, instead of miner strikes, Maggie Thatcher and working-class County Durham, there is the cold war, a repressive Khrushchev and a glamorous 1960s Paris.

The White Crow, directed by the legendary Ralph Fiennes, depicts three eras in the life of Russian ballet sensation, Rudolf Nureyev (Oleg Ivenko): his traumatic childhood, his early years in dance school and the tour that led to his defection from Russia. Rudolf, a decisively cruel and pompous dancer, becomes too engaged with Western culture when his dance company begins a tour of the West in Paris in 1961. With his anti-

communist beliefs and his romantic obsession with capitalism, he’s sent back to Russia to face punishment for his disloyalty to the state, forcing him to do whatever he can to survive.

Fiennes’ film feels hyper-relevant: Russian government propaganda; state defection for survival; the collapse of ideologies; dictatorship.

Yet the film isn’t a commentary on modern-day politics, but rather a succinct story that makes the viewer reflect on how our society has evolved (or perhaps hasn’t) in the past 60 years.

Fiennes at no point forces a political message nor does he comment on today’s debates. He serves Rudolf’s story effortless, finding the perfect

balance between a political thriller and a character drama.

But The White Crow finds its soul with its star. Oleg Ivenko, a professionally trained Russian ballet dancer, is groundbreaking in this breakout role.

It’s almost unimaginable that this is his first acting role, as he effortlessly brings to life the many layers and immense depth of Rudolf. He is perfect on screen, giving breathtaking dance performances and still delivering world-class acting. Ivenko, paired with Fiennes’ stylish and thrilling direction, makes The White Crow a sophisticated drama that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

Shelby Cooke

ROMA A dripping tap, laundry suspended on a clothes line, soapy water rushing along tiles, a dog barking from behind a gate. In Gravity, Mexican auteur Alfonso Cuarón took us into the heavens. In Roma, everyday domestic routines are shot with the same reverence. The ordinary is extraordinary.

heartrending climax. But to focus on the narrative events seems superficial.

By reframing his own childhood memories from Cleo’s perspective, Cuarón has crafted a deeply personal film that elevates the unheard voices of domestic servants. It’s momentto-moment storytelling that makes realism spectacular.

Plot-wise, the film is slight. Inspired by his real-life nanny, Cuarón follows young housemaid Cleo, beautifully played by first time actress Yalitza Aparicio, who lives with an upper middle class family in 1970s Mexico City. Cracks begin to form in Cleo’s life whilst the stability of the family is threatened, culminating in a

Cuarón, acting as both cinematographer and director here, portrays his world with extraordinary care. Every scene simultaneously feels meticulously designed and yet totally natural, with every shot possessing an effortless elegance that frames its subject beautifully but never shouts for attention. The film is shot

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Image: Netflix

in black and white and there’s no handheld camera here attempting to convince us of documentary realism.

And yet everything he shows us feels naturalistic, from children bickering at the dinner table, to the strange, ritualistic drama of a forest fire, to violence breaking out in the streets.

All sound is diegetic, bringing this world to life before our eyes and ears.

Roma manages to be both intimate, as emotion simmers beneath the veneer of the everyday, and epic, as a few striking set-pieces give a sense of grandeur. Centred on Yalitza Aparicio’s moving performance, it’s a film in which the mundane is quietly miraculous.

Laura Venning

SUNSET There’s no silence in Sunset. It’s all droning violins and background noise: the baying of a horse; the wheels of a cart; the hushed talk of townsfolk. It lasts right up until the credits finish rolling. It’ll last longer, if the film manages to get into your head. You should let it.

In 1913, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is on the brink of collapse, and Juli Jakab’s Írisz Leiter is there to witness it. Returning to her childhood city, she braves the bustling sepia streets of Budapest to work at the millinery that once belonged to her longdead parents. The current proprietor

initially refuses to have her on board.

The ‘Leiter’ name is stained, you see, by the devilish actions of Írisz’s longlost brother. But she’s adamant to join, and her persistence reaps rewards.

With a group of anarchists looming in the background and rumours of the brother’s return, it also reaps the reaper itself.

And that’s as far as I’ll go with the plot. That’s probably as far as you’ll go, too. Sunset plays out as if Thomas Pynchon set his eyes on a costume drama, all meandering mystery and carefully constructed chaos.

Narrative, meanwhile, is on the back

burner. There’s progression, sure, but it’s difficult to discern the specifics of it all. This chronicle in history is meant to be inhaled and held in until you can’t breathe - it’s the act of storytelling via asphyxiation.

To parse the rich thematic density on display, or convey its sheer cinematic conviction, is impossible in 200 words. So I’ll simply say this: abandon preconceptions of period dramas and go into Sunset without expectations.

You’ll be rewarded with the finest film of the year.

Gus Edgar-Chan

BURNING Some films resist an in-depth review.

With Burning, the sentiment is twofold, for not only is Lee Chang-Dong’s newest feature so crucially dependent upon being viewed with as little prior knowledge as possible, but charged with the sort of visual mastery that pertains solely to cinema. Still, if there’s one film released this year that deserves an attempt, it’s this one.

It encompasses a young part-timer, Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in), who runs into Hae-mi, a childhood friend, while out on a delivery. After an overdue reunion, it transpires that Hae-mi is soon departed for Africa, and needs someone to care for her cat while away. The favour comes amid an intriguing concern with repression and memory. When the young woman recounts the awful things Jong-su said to her in school, the protagonist is presented with aspects of himself he’d conveniently forgotten; a doubt that is - like most things in Burning

- left to smoulder eerily beneath the surface.

The rest of Lee’s endlessly intriguing mystery spawns from this point, with Hae-mi’s shruggish comments haunting Jong-su’s world with an almost magical realist bent.

Cinematographer Hong Gyeong-Pyo captures the ethereal pleasance of the teenager’s daydreams with an airily sun-dappled palette, projecting a fragile warmth onto a lonely South Korean suburbia that saddens as much as it invites.

When with

Hae-mi returns confident, manly

Ben (Steven Yeun), however, the idyllic dream gradually bends to constant, deep-seated paranoia. While Haemi sleeps, Ben confesses to Jongsu a secret pastime of his: every two months, he chooses an abandoned greenhouse to burn to the ground.

What’s more, the next burning will be happening ‘very soon’, and close to Jong-su’s home. “Very close.” Yeun’s Ben smirks, chillingly understated.

For fear of puncturing the magic, suffice it to say that the liberating half-reality girding Jong-su’s existence becomes an unnerving spiral of jealousy, inferiority and desire, unravelling at a pace that sees none of its 148 minutes wasted.

It’s a gorgeous palimpsest of male anxieties, subjectivities and manifold imageries, framed with the languid, spectral air of a memory that is at once nostalgic, and deeply painful. drama that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

Charlie Nicholson

Image: CGV Arthouse

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Featured artists: contributors or marketing feat?

Meaningful

Marketing

There is nothing better than a great combo; turkey and stuffing, strawberries and cream.

Featured artists are the music industry’s way of creating a ready-made hit. They aren’t good for you or your auditory tastes. This may seem a highly pretentious view, but it is well founded.

Artists featuring on each others’ works brings out a unique element in the personalities and musicality that has led to their success. Not only could some classic bangers not have been made without the featured artist, but it would be a sadder world without them. What would Gold Digger

by Kanye West be without Jamie Fox? What would Kendrick Lamar’s Loyalty be without Rihanna? Without the featured artist we would be in a world with not only significantly less variety but also with significantly less Pitbull and Snoop Dogg, that’s a lose, lose situation right there.

Besides, featured tracks give the bigger artists a chance to introduce us to some exceptional smaller artists. Like when Kanye showed us that inexperienced, up-and-comer (if twitter is to be believed) Paul McCartney on his track FourFiveSeconds.

Katy Perry’s hit California Girls gained its chart status by using the fame of Snoop Dogg. And it doesn’t stop there she’s quite the culprit for this behaviour. Her song Dark Horse features the artists Juicy J and she ‘collaborated’ with the band 3OH!3 on the song Starstruck which has since been banished into obscurity.

Katy Perry isn’t the only leading lady of pop to have a string of featured tracks, Jessie J has featured with B.o.B three times in the songs: Nothin’ on You, Airplanes and Price Tag. If these pop artists provide any example at all, they show that we cannot accept a song with a featured artist as an instant hit we must sit back and listen before we claim that it’s the next best pop song.

Chris Grosset

Gabriela Williams

Poorboy Promotions: punk to the masses We talk a lot about Norwich’s music scene here at Venue. From big to small, LCR to Gringos, it’s safe to say we’re a lucky lot. Yet there’s a small, but very important, group of people who constantly work away behind the scenes to make these venues full with sound.

Often getting overlooked, promotion companies are the integral organ of the live music scene; pumping their own blood, sweat, tears and money to the cause, they bridge the gap between the band, venue and us the music hungry people of Norwich.

One of Norwich’s own, POORBOY, have been working hard this last year organizing a whole bunch of fun shows championing local, and not so local, bands. They’ve brought us to places we’d never thought possible.

We all know about tequila Tuesdays, but who’d have thought you could

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Image: Jean-Paul Joudrey

be eating that salt and sucking that lemon in the company of four of our city’s favourite alternative/emo/punk bands! Of course, the bigger venues like Waterfront and LCR bring big names to our small city for which we are eternally grateful, but lest we not forget those who work around the

clock so we can pop into a local pub and see some up-and-coming names for no more than a fiver.

A few weeks back The Steam Packet became home to Redwood, who you may recognize from the Livewire new music playlist, and History and Lore travelling from Cambridge to grace us with their music, all courtesy of the boys at POORBOY. Celebrating their first birthday on the 22nd November, POORBOY will be hosting UEA’s favourite Marigolds and, a very special headliner all the way from across the pond, Saintseneca at the Rabbit. Sounds like a good one.

Remember kids, support your local music venues and those who make everything special, maybe they won’t be such poor boys next time we hear from them.

Zoe Dodge

LGBTQ artists and the scene I remember the moment I first heard Christian Holden, the non-binary singer and bassist of Massachusetts emos The Hotelier, screaming “I felt weak in woman’s wear, genderfucked dilated stuck holding a stare” in the song Life In Drag and the visceral anger behind it, a feeling of being lost and alone in a world that still has yet to accept people like Holden. It’s a song sandwiched between songs about suicide and societal power structures in an album that remains one of my favourite of all time, a hook upon which The Hotelier pinned the personal and societal in a spellbinding song which flirts with hardcore in a way the band hadn’t before.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Tennessee-based artist Julien Baker’s debut album, Sprained Ankle, grappled with religion and

sexuality with a quite maturity far removed from Holden’s biting rage. Instead, Baker presents the apparent conflict with a melancholy surrounding it as two parts of her identity come at loggerheads: her Christianity and her queerness.

The music world is often hostile to LGBTQ musicians. Where it isn’t, it often feels more like marketing than genuine regard for the musicians.

The backlash to the allegations against PWR BTTM involved many lashing out at the LGBTQ community, in a way that was not reflected in the wake of allegations against Brand New and others. It betrayed a hostility to a section of the musical community that is all too apparent much of the time to those it is levelled against.

With

Bohemian

surrounded in controversy for its portrayal of Freddie Mercury’s sexuality, it is all the more vital that LGBTQ musicians are given open and honest coverage. There is no more open and honest coverage than their own music, so I implore you to give LGBT artists a listen. The aforementioned The Hotelier and Julien Baker are great starts, but there are so many more. Queen and Judas Priest hold the classic rock banner, whilst the underground has Worriers and Nervus. And who could ignore the remarkable Against Me, whose frontwoman Laura Jane Grace discussed her gender dysphoria on the remarkable Gender Dysphoria Blues.

Nick Mason

Rhapsody

Black Honey: naturally sweet Brighton-based 4-piece indie rockers Black Honey graced the Norwich Arts Centre, supported by the contemporaries PINS and Russo, as part of their expansive UK autumn tour.

For a band that has not visited Norwich often, as lead singer Izzy B. Phillips remarked in her set, the venue was impressively packed.

The vibe floating through the converted church was pleasantly a far cry from the ‘middle of the working week’ slot that such a set time might have merited. Perhaps this popularity was owed to Black Honey’s recent appearance at Norwich’s Sound + Vision Festival or perhaps the recent release of the bands self-titled debut album had sparked a wave of interest.

As supports Russo took to the stage the catchy tunes begun to infect the crowd. Clearly influenced by artists such as Metronomy, Russo had a playful allure to their songs. I would highly recommend their song Bad Things to anyone interested in a distinguished, fresh and vocals driven sound. Stepping up the intensity second were PINS, the Manchester rock 5-piece bringing a heavier element to the room, amping up the eager crowd for the main act.

Black Honey’s reasoning for their choice of these warm-up acts became obvious soon into their set; the sound of their new album clearly utilises similar elements to these indie rock staples. From the beginning of their set with I Only

Hurt The Ones I Love to the middle with songs like Corrine, Phillips’ vocals were a clear, crisp highlight, falling in and out of harmony with her bands instrumental in all the right places. In other moments, such as on Midnight, the band let the synth take over create gloriously driving waves of noise.

This was a well-honed sound and a setlist clearly designed to show off the band’s latest work.

Overall, Black Honey’s set consisted of an hour of energetic escapism that fell on an eager crowd, keen to see the band bring across the rich, at points slightly country, production of their debut album with an electric elegance.

Chris Grosset

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Head in the game: soundtracking video games The music of gaming is not just an afterthought anymore. The highcalibre games of 2018 possess such detail and finesse in theirs plots, characters and designs that it would be a crime to underscore the whole affair with the repetitive elevator music of old. For one genre in particular, this is of even greater importance – the RPG.

But what of other games?

The cheesy, looping music of yesteryear is still very much alive and kicking in many respects. Nintendo, in particular, began with this form of soundtrack decades ago and appear to have just stuck with it. And to be fair, when it comes to pretty much every Mario game ever, the situation is very

As a format, the RPG has come a long way. Gamers are now treated to the astonishingly accomplished works of art that are Skyrim, Diablo or The Witcher. These are not games that one simply plays, they must be experienced in all of their glory, of which music if no small part. From the great Nordic choirs of Skyrim to the creepy ambience of a Diablo’s dungeons, music turned up to full whack through headphones can move a player to tears or scare the living daylights out of them with equal ease. Where immersion is key, a good soundtrack is an absolute necessity.

much one of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. After all, what might not work on an open-world RPG can become possibly the world’s best known theme tune on a simple platform jumper.

My favourite piece of music from a game though, it has to be said, is from the as-yet-unmentioned Fallout 4. The opening theme tune is, in my opinion, one of the most post-apocalyptically rousing pieces of music I have ever heard. If ever you need to survive the apocalypse, make sure you have that track playing on repeat.

Music is vital to the gaming experience.

It helps to build worlds and fuels us through the story by raising us up and keeping us on our toes. And if you do get a dud of a soundtrack, just remember that regardless of how bad it may be, I think we can all agree that playing alone and in silence would be decidedly worse.

Sean Bennett

ILLUSION: making a scene ILLUSION is a new event night that has burst onto the Norwich scene providing students with what they’ve been searching for. There is never a dull moment with ILLUSION as we set out to be inclusive and vibrant playing R’N’B, House, Grime, POP, Bashment and Afrobeats to name just a few.

Kitchen. After attending different events during our first year; some mediocre, many disappointing we realised that something needed to change. We, ILLUSION Promotions, are here ready to take on the task of transforming Norwich student night life, taking it to a different level.

Our launch night featuring the Lotto Boyz was a smash hit selling out within a week, creating a great buzz within UEA. This same buzz was felt in other universities with word travelling as far as the north to students in DMU (Leicester), UCLAN (Lancashire) and The University of Manchester.

We knew it was going to be a challenge but we took on this adventure with the hope of bringing people from different walks of life together in one Venue.

Keeping our students roots to our core we are providing opportunities for students to be a part of our journey.

The idea of ILLUSION came to us in the most unlikely place: the Campus

There are many openings available for students: photographers,

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Image: HyperSonicFan29, DeviantArt

videographers, graphic designers, promoters and DJ’s are all needed.

Keep a eye out for all of our upcoming events landing on a Friday once a month! Follow our Facebook (Illusion Promotions), Instagram (illusion_promotions) or Twitter (Illusionpromot1). For any enquiries to join Taps, Benjamin, Tobi and Temi on our ILLUSION journey feel free to contact us via email illusioneventpromtions@gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next event.

The ILLUSION Team

Is something about your night

Need some help? Or just want to talk to our campus crew about your night out? give us a call or message us on

07754975636

The phone number is to report anything about your student night out and will run on student only events during event times. If you have any problems outside of this time you should contact UEA Security on 01603 592352

changing the culture

Rootin’ tootin’ shootin’: Red Dead Redemption 2 Already being hailed as the ‘game of a generation’, Rockstar’s obsessive fascination with the American dream is realized in unparalleled quality with their latest release, Red Dead Redemption 2. As an avid fan of both the game’s predecessor and the Rockstar’s franchises in general, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the announcement of this game for almost 8 years, and I’m pleased to say that this hasn’t been in vain.

At the beginning of the game, the player finds our hero, Arthur Morgan and his gang, battling through a hellish mountain snowstorm in an attempt to evade the law after a badly botched robbery. The incomparable level of immersion of this title is staggering: sat on the floor of my squalid (yet admittedly warm) living room, the ingame environment was brought to life so convincingly I began to feel cold just watching the characters struggle through the thigh deep snow. From my somewhat brief playthrough of the title, this was in my opinion perhaps Red Dead 2’s the most impressive achievemen. The world feels as one would expect the American Midwest to: dangerous, beautiful, exciting, vast, but above all else truly involving. The quality of storytelling trumps even that of The Witcher, as the script oozes both quotable lines and intelligent observations upon both the American experience at the turn of the century, and the outlandish situation the characters find themselves in.

The snappy exchanges between characters often feel like they’ve been

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Image: Instacodez, Flickr

lifted out of an unreleased Tarantino picture.

As per typical Rockstar style, the attention to detail present verges on the neurotic. Players are encouraged to interact with the world more than ever and consequently the good, bad and ugly cast of NPC’s return this interest. New to Rockstar, the incorporation of RPG and survival elements such as hunger and temperature raises player engagement to an unprecedented level. If the protagonist is dirty, bloodsoaked or otherwise unpleasant to be around, characters respond appropriately. After returning from an only just successful bear hunt, as my housemate decided to turn on the hoover so I didn’t hear the enormous bear charge and blindside me from behind, Arthur was soaked in mud, blood and other less pleasant things.

Upon being refused service at the saloon due to my unfortunate state, other townspeople began jeering and throwing insults.

My patience worn suitably thin, the gun battle that ensued brings me on to another excellent aspect of the game: its gunplay. As layered and considered as GTA V, the action remains frantic and gripping despite the weapons handling very differently to modern weapons present in many other titles.

Bullets achieve a real sense of impact, packing a meaty wallop against anyone unlucky enough to get in your way, and the introduction of a Max-Payne-esque cinematic killcam only heightens the almost filmic quality of an already deeply immersive experience. If mowing down unfortunates isn’t your cup of tea, the game boasts a wealth of enjoyable distractions and mini-games in order to further divert your attention from the already generous 65+ hour story.

However, it is the innumerable tiny details that help this game to be the Rockstar title to date: the dazzling new mechanics, the interaction of characters, the unsettlingly hypnotic animation of horse buttocks, and above all else, a truly beautiful gameworld. Expanding upon all the things that made its predecessor great, this is an experience you owe it yourself to play. Even saddled with the hefty price tag of £60, a game this exciting is worth every penny.

Edward N. L. Hampson

Game Opinions: authenticity and accuracy in video gaming While recommendations for books, articles or occasionally a documentary might be expected on a History course, it was surprising to hear a lecturer say that if you want to get the best feel for what London was like during the Victorian era, I should play Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate.

After all, in their opinion at least, video games are just now gaining more mainstream acceptance as ‘art’. Citing games as a valid learning tool can seem strange to many, but there’s always been an appetite in the community for titles that attempt to recreate the feeling of existing in a certain period or event.

An example, clearly, is Syndicate’s London. Built-up and chaotic, it’s an impressive city with smokestacks and horse-drawn carriages aplenty.

In their design of London, Ubisoft incorporated almost everything that we would expect to see based on popular knowledge of the period.

Now, one of the key questions facing historical games is whether or not it is advisable to try and create a truly educational experience that is completely accurate to the past or if learning is still possible when a push is made for authenticity over full accuracy. Additionally, how far can preconceptions of the past be challenged before historical authenticity is lost as well?

Perhaps the greatest issue when addressing historical accuracy in games is the medium itself. As an interactive product, there will always be compromises made for the sake of gameplay. Something as simple as respawning after death is both historically inaccurate and essential for the game. The effect of the medium on accuracy also depends on

the type of game in question. Strategy games such as Company of Heroes and the Total War franchise are often (and rightly) praised for attention to historical detail and respect for reallife events. However, neither address the numbers of soldiers who would die from disease before even reaching a battle or how a bad storm could render key equipment unusable.

Unlike other visual products such as cinema and television, games place the user in an active role, the purpose of the product rests on the developer realising that ‘true’ historical accuracy is both unattainable and unadvisable.

With that being said, why could a game like Syndicate be held up as a positive example of media that depicts Victorian London? The answer could rest with the idea that when people say they want historical accuracy in a game, they actually mean authenticity.

While 19th century London wasn’t the stage for a secret battle between assassins and templars; it was a hub of the industrial revolution, a city with deep wealth-inequality and a rapidly expanding criminal underground.

When exploring the city, it is obvious that Ubisoft understands how the city worked and how people lived their lives in this time.

Authenticity becomes even more important when there are fewer reliable primary sources from a period or when strong emotions associated with it. Addressing the first point, the most recent Assassin’s Creed game, Odyssey, is set in Ancient Greece, where the idea of recording facts took a different meaning to how we understand the practice today. Greek mythology and wonder is built into many of the sources from the period, so Odyssey creates an authentic

experience by taking what we do know about classical Greece and building up a world by using speculation to fill in the blanks. For instance, we know that Athens was under siege for much of the Peloponnesian War, so Odyssey creates personal stories and adventures based on what life probably was like at the time rather than by slaving over sources for a significantly less interesting experience.

Moving to the idea of emotions forcing authenticity to be placed above accuracy, the Battlefield series is now allowing players to create female soldiers in the multiplayer mode. This has led to accusations of disrespect for the people (largely white men) who fought on the frontlines in the World Wars. However, women did play an integral role in both wars, keeping industry going for the Entente/Allies and acting as partisan fighters for the French and Polish in WWII. While it may not be accurate to show women and minorities on the frontlines, it is authentic to allow players to give optional representation to the groups who did have a key role in the overall war effort.

Ultimately, while it easy to understand why people demand historical precision in games, particularly where it relates to periods of history where respect is essential, authenticity allows for an equally valid exploration of the past while giving representation to the people who may not have had their stories told otherwise.

Harry Routley

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REVIEW: Life is Strange 2 An overturned police car burns in the street beside the bodies of a policeman, a teenage boy, and the victim of a disturbing public shooting.

In a peaceful suburb in Oregon, disaster strikes, leaving two young brothers on the run when they’re accounted for a tragedy that baffles and frights the public during an age of fake news, national chaos and American anxiety. Whether they’re innocent or guilty, however, seems trivial when compared to the dangers they face on the road, as well as an uncontrollable power one of them possesses.

The premise of Life is Strange 2, witnessed in trailers since its announcement earlier in 2018, has set the game to be perhaps one of the most politically daring and emotional graphic-adventures of not just the year, but this century. With the first episode, ‘Roads’, being a hit on release in September, fans of Dontnod Entertainment and Square Enix’s award-winning title Life is Strange are readying themselves for an equally astounding storytelling experience with its sequel. Reviving the franchise’s teenagehood narrative for the third time, the game will explore the survival

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of relationships, family and innocence through the traumas of modern U.S. society for characters like Max, Chloe, Rachel - and now Sean Diaz - as they’re coming of age.

There are some big changes, predominantly in characters and setting. It was back in 2015 when Max Caulfield came to our screens as an isolated photography student studying in her old hometown of Arcadia Bay, who discovers a supernatural ability to bend time when she has to save her troubled best friend, Chloe Price, as her world is transformed by a coming storm. Since its prequel, aptly named Before The Storm, which came out late last year and continued to follow dysfunctional families, friendship and sexuality in the story of Chloe and Rachel, the development team have put Arcadia Bay to rest (for now).

Instead, they’ve moved from one westcoast small-town to another, where laid-back, sixteen year-old Sean, and nerdy but tough nine year-old Daniel, depend on their single father. Their lives are a struggle, considering their financial difficulties and Mexican heritage in the shadow of Trump’s

Image: Videogame Photography, Flickr

America. After the supernatural event which land the family in peril, the player takes control of Sean as his journey with Daniel begins, making decisions that will alter Daniel’s behaviour in addition to the storyline, which features scenes varying from their time in the wilderness to those where they’re at odds with racists.

Inspired by the photography of Mike Brodie and stories such as Into the Wild and Of Mice and Men, the game looks at themes of masculinity, education, race and brotherhood as Sean and Daniel try to clear their name, find safety and understand the powers they’re dealing with.

So far, there’s been no release date for the second episode of the game, to the fear of fans all over - especially considering the recent collapse of Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Final Season, a very similar game from an equally similar franchise. Regardless, there’s a lot of confidence in what the rest of Life is Strange 2 will have in store - likely heartbreak and months of sobbing, if the past is anything to go by...

Jordan Hunnisett

Casting women - power vs reality The BBC’s recent hit drama Bodyguard received mostly praise for its thrilling plot, but there was a significant backlash online over the noticeable number of women cast in roles of power and skill. Some were grateful for the show’s female representation, but most were unhappy, either proclaiming political correctness gone mad or simply stating it was unrealistic. The writer Jed Mercurio said to inews that he felt the backlash was odd as “It doesn’t really occur to [him] that certain jobs and certain roles are male specific or female specific”. Whilst it’s great that he feels no gender bias in casting, does he, as a white male, have the right to be perturbed when women are shocked by seeing themselves represented for once?

What powerful female characters did he write? There was the home secretary, the head of the metropolitan police’s counter terrorism command, the chief superintendent, the explosives expert, and a police markswoman.

Is this so many? Lest we not forget that the lead was male. Yet when watching, it was notable, it did stand out. Perhaps in part because the women playing these roles were older, the age of women in these jobs in reality. They were not leggy 25-year

olds whose characters were all sex appeal and no substance, which may be what we have come to expect.

Their integrity, fullness of character and essentialness to the plot could be what threw people off, rather than their numbers.

Or maybe the response was not purely due to Bodyguard but the rise of truthful powerful female characters elsewhere. In Killing Eve for example, both the heroine and the antagonist are women; the show is ultimately about them, not the males in the supporting cast. Even here we find the ‘head of the Russian desk’ to be female. Or that the new Doctor is a woman and that her female companion is a police officer? Or Line of Duty which features multiple capable women.

But should we be troubled by this change in representation or the backlash it has received? Possibly not. Surely television and media are not just there for entertainment, but also to challenge long held beliefs and to reflect back to the audience previously unnoticed phenomena? If all those characters had been men, would it even have been discussed?

Perhaps by a few but not to this extent. Not because we necessarily believe that men should have these

roles, but because it is what we have come to expect. Though challenging viewers’ expectations, the media might change hiring behaviours and change peoples’ prejudices.

However, arguably the show is a fairly good reflection of reality. We have a female prime minister, our previous two home secretaries were both women, the head of the metropolitan police is a woman, the most recent woman to die in Afghanistan was a bomb disposal expert and over 50% of the Civil Service is female. Sound familiar?

Moreover, in both Bodyguard and Killing Eve, when looking at who sat on board tables, the women made up less than 30%, reflecting what is said anecdotally by real women in these positions. But given the relative accuracy of the show, why were so many people so surprised by it? This could be the saddest point of all, that women are doing these jobs yet going unrecognised and unnoticed.

So, we should thank Bodyguard for its “outrageous” reality and hope that in a year or two, if another show dares to be so realistic again, we are upset that it hasn’t gone further.

Evlyn Forsyth-Muris

Image: BBC America

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The Little Drummer Girl - full of promise Having recently finished reading the novel of ‘The Little Drummer Girl’, I for one am itching to catch the upcoming incarnation on the BBC. Following the success of The Night Manager, another of John le Carré’s nail-biting spy thrillers has been adapted for Sunday evening on the small screen, The Little Drummer Girl, dare I say, looks to be even more gripping than its predecessor. The Little Drummer Girl could well be the next Sunday night obsession.

One of le Carré’s more complex tales, the story tackles themes of betrayal and love of country amid a web of Middle Eastern mystery and espionage. Charlie, a young, English, bohemian actress (Florence Pugh) is sucked into the shadowy world of espionage after discovering that her holiday romance Becker (Alexander Skarsgård) is an Israeli

intelligence officer. The unsuspecting Charlie becomes entangled in a plot to hunt a Palestinian bomb-maker, orchestrated by spymaster, Kurtz (Michael Shannon).The cast looks full of promise: we’ve seen Pugh recently in the BBC film version of King Lear in her role as Cordelia. Also, don’t forget to look out for le Carré himself making a cameo; he has something of a habit of popping up in his adaptations.

As for the characterisation of Charlie, many are asking if we are entering a new era for women in spy fiction.

The centralisation of the female protagonist is interesting; she holds her own. What this approach achieves is a sense of recognition for the female protagonist in the spy genre and a presentation as simultaneously unremarkable yet admirable due to her humanity.

While The Night Manager was brought into the 21st Century for its TV adaptation, The Little Drummer Girl has been kept in its original setting of the 1970s. There is an ineffable quality, a smoke-tinged allure to the slow turn of tape machines and the tap of electronic typewriters, much more palpable than any atmosphere smartphones could ever create. It promises to make watching the show a riveting experience.

Max Pleasance

Reviewing The Cry I love it when Autumn rolls around - it means that the BBC really ups their game on their dramas. The Cry, with Jenna Coleman in its starring role as an emotionally distraught mother coping with the apparent abduction of her new born baby, was sure to draw in some healthy ratings, but how does it compare to the BBC’s recent series?

After hour one of four, I was unconvinced. But it became apparent very quickly in episode two that this a slow burn, a psychological thriller as opposed to the action-packed relative simplicity of the likes of The Bodyguard. Based on Helen Fitzgerald’s 2013 novel of the same name, it is in many ways a poignant character study of what the lethal cocktail of post-natal depression, an unsupportive husband and the

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general pressures of society can do to a new mother. Reading an interview with Fitzgerald, it’s obvious that Coleman has encapsulated the character of Joanna, inspired

by Fitzgerald’s own experiences, perfectly : ‘It’s a common sign of post-natal depression, the feeling that everyone else is coping. I was obsessed with child-rearing books too, desperate to be right…’

In the wake of recent pushes to open up conversations about mental health, it is important to remember that pregnancy related issues are all too real. The opening 10 minutes or so provides us with some uncomfortable viewing: this is obviously a young woman in dire need of help but is trapped in her own home unable to ask for it – a perfect metaphor for the illness itself.

Joanna is not the most likable character. She seems frustratingly cold and absent from events happening around her, and I don’t think that can just be explained away by her underlying mental state. But I’m not sure if this is the point. Joanna finds her own ways to cope with her devastating situation, despite the lack of a strong support system around her. Kirsty, the ever loyal and caring best friend, sticks by Joanna through the whole ordeal. proving just how valuable a friend is.

Joanna stands for much more than just a written character, and it is this that matters over her likability.

I’d highly recommend this easy fourhour binge as a socially relevant and emotionally gripping series.

Becca Allen

The philosophy of...The Letdown

After the showing of the recent BBC drama The Cry, it’s interesting to consider how other dramas approach the struggles of motherhood, such as the upbeat Australian comedydrama The Letdown, written by Alison Bell, and first shown on ABC in 2017.

The Letdown follows the story of new mother, Audrey (Alison Bell), some of the other parents at her new parents’ group, and all the daily struggles that accompany this drastic life change.

The show incites realisations of the rift childbirth can create between partners, due to pregnancy’s strain on the body, resulting in sleep deprivation, and in Audrey’s case, the trauma of a complicated and dangerous birth. But in addition to the rift between partners, is the rift between friends. Social gatherings are instantly a problematic issue, with youth seemingly needing to be left behind once one enters the new phase of parenthood.

Furthermore, I feel that the show also highlights how it still seems to be very much the case that the mother is just that - the mother, with many of the main characters’ partners having little to no involvement with the care of the baby, and almost forcing the

lead parent to be super heroes (quite literally shown during a parents’ careers show-and-tell day at a primary school). Although (thankfully), another prevalent character is a father who embraces his new role as primary caregiver, even if it is at the expense of his career. The show aims to demonstrate that rigid social norms are unjust - men are equally able and that men being the primary caregiver is acceptable too. It does not demean one’s masculinity.

Another drama that links to the show, is the film (also on Netflix) L!fe Happens, first released in 2011, and starring Krysten Ritter as the lead.

Ritter’s character gets pregnant quite young and the film follows a comingof-age story line. Showing that although the adjustment is tough, especially with judging parents and other judgemental people, making motherhood doubly hard; it is doable, and making the leap to find new groups and try new routines, can in fact be the very thing to make parenthood easier. A notion, that I think hit home for me was that finding a partner, whilst being a single mother or parent, can be deemed almost impossible. The stigma attached to the young, lone parent is very much

present; the awful slut-shaming and the stereotype that portrays the baby as baggage. Therefore, as a whole they are seen as too “much” and too heavy to handle, making single parents feel undesirable and afraid of being alone.

Both dramas are highly enjoyable and perspective changing, because both resolve to not sugar coat pregnancy and parenthood to some glamourous new stage in life; but rather that the transition is tricky and messy, and that is completely ok. It’s ok, to want to rip your hair out from stress. It’s ok to feel incredibly lonely. It’s not pleasant, but it’s normal whilst you’re struggling to adjust to new patterns, friends and lifestyles that will fit with this life-altering being.

Finally, these dramas help to remind you that whilst as a new parent you may feel like a complete zombie and social nightmare, your child will still be the most special being in your life, and completely worth it. Not realising this straight away is normal, so we need to stop the guilt and pressures of perfectionism.

Rebekah Woolmer Image: Netflix Australia

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Dead Roots Circuitry Iron sheathed in Aluminium, rust Prevented, grams two thousand and seventy.

Scattered. Photosynthesise steel empty, Burn Circuits into stems, leaves, petals. Dust.

A toaster sprouts, heating coils red hot glows And singes the surrounding air. Jet soot Obscures the sunlight. Despite strong, firm roots, The fruit of circuit boards ruin burnt to toast.

The toaster rots yet is soon reborn. In Case of Emergency, utter denial Of the choking smoke serpentine rising.

Mitochondria is the powerhouse Of the cell no longer, salt submerging Bipedal vegetables. Verdict – Guilty.

Head-Cold

Dan Box

My nose, a dripping tap Throat embalmed with phlegm Head hot sticky like a child’s fingers jabbing my brain Body encased in a sea of blankets Distant radio buzz Weight drowning and anchoring me Diving deeper into my humid cave Eyelids falling shu— My parents — both together then — piled together on the couch, Mum, brushing away my scattered pens, Petting my hair and checking my temperature again, Dad spooning me banana medicine, hands leathery against my forehead.

My body whines but I have Dr. Teddy and I didn’t have to see Mr. Jeffrey today.

I open my eyes and it’s snowing again, Just like that first winter, And for a moment My vision clears, Brain no longer having to strain, And my train of thought has finally steered onto the right lane.

Girl Outside Have you seen her eyes?

Searching grass stains Reaching up the bark Of her rough touch, Rough hands Legs like hay, the hairs like needles, Could lose thoughts in them, do you understand?

Oh, have you seen her eyes?

Dancing lily pads, I once tried to catch them in the lake — Silly mistake, oh big mistake Because she can be a swamp, Her pull like sinking sand My golden sun, I tried to climb her like a tree But my foot gets caught in the sticky weed And she just looked down on me, Those eyes like leaves, Lips like those poisonous red berries She pulls me alive, nourishes me like a bulb And when I grow, I notice my roots are grounded in her heels We, like interconnected vine leaves, plait and intermingle She will never be rid of me, I hug her close like the burrs do When I touch her I glow And feel this chill like stone Is she my rock?

The wind running through me — goose bumps — Lights up the branches of my heart: A forest fire in my chest!

In her hold, I am outside Flowers in my hair, Roses on her cheeks She is the countryside.

Alexandra Parapadakis

I turn off the radio and allow myself to sleep, Devoid of need for leaping sheep And I feel my parent’s warmth once more.

Rose Ramsden

Image: National Park Service

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An Alphabetical Floral Companions Guide

Aloe Vera: Short-stemmed succulent with thick and fleshy leaves Serrated edges of small white teeth That smile as he soothes your burns and bruises.

Chamomile: Tiny daisy flowers bloom on long stalks Reaching to the sky with its yellow core surrounded by white rays A sacred herb born of the sun.

Echinacea: Hermaphroditic Purple in the wild; dull in the domestic Pronounced as though one were sneezing.

Forget Me Not: Blue of colour with a little spot of yellow Begs to be remembered— A happily grieving flower.

Hemlock: Hemlock water dropwort poisoning— Hallucinations—delirium— tingling— numbness of skin— A poisonous plant—Endowing its victims with a fatal and eternal smile.

Iris: Ornate Greek rainbow Three upright petals Faith—Valour—Wisdom.

Jasmine: Magickal properties: Prophetic dreams—love— meditation—aura healing— psychic protection—confidence— aphrodisiac.

A sweet lullaby sung under a full moon.

Knotweed:Quick and aggressive; an imperialist crowding out native plants Encouraged by human interaction and water Difficult to eradicate and gain

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Images: Vecteezy

independence.

Lavender: Full of fragrance Enchanting sun-lover and popularly purple friend The gatekeeper to dreamland— Moonflower: Looks as sweet as it sounds With a vine that only blooms at dusk It closes up just after dawn.

Orchid: A powerful aphrodisiac.

Fleshy tubing and phallic resemblance Speaks to the gift of fertility, virility, and sexuality Which oozes from the pulsating petals.

Poppy: Ruby red for remembrance; rough reminder of violence From ruined ground did they spring In Flanders Fields.

Queen of the Meadow:A Native Irishwoman with a stern red body topped with a good Sunday Mass lace hat, Confined to damp meadows and the edge of ditches Strewn on the floor and stood on to smell sweet.

Rose: A deceiving symbol of love with vibrant colour and fragrance Yet trailing a mossy spiked stem Too easy to draw blood and hybridise—fake love.

Sweet Pea: A parting kiss— The first inhale after— Bliss—pleasure—positivity— Thistle: The flower of Scotland; A protector against enemies and ambushes A spikey symbol of survival.

Uva Ursi: Urn-shaped flowers and spherical berries Flushed and blushing pink fairies Eternally green and upright.

Witch Hazel: If one were to ask what the sublime means—tell them it is witch hazel A winter flower that takes its time and crawls out curious spidery displays, One that smells of spices and holds healing powers in its divine body.

Yellow Archangel: Don’t forget about your archangels for they grow aggressively; Lovers of the shade and dark hiding places; Always there, but when trod upon or thought of a faint odour comes to mind.

Zinnia: A late-summer earlyautumn mug of coffee Butterfly lover, hummingbird whisperer The perfect and most supreme.

Frances McGeough

Discovery

A Shadow of Love

Every day is a revelation.

much often do we begin the creation of an end the creation of a shadow of love which is often seen but never felt and much often do we feel that emotion of longing-the longing of brighter days with flowers blooming in full power in raw emotions

Even though the fantastical illusion of youth has been overshadowed by dreary routine, there is still wonder woven into the fabric of life.

Day by day, we roll on like sand dunes on the horizon of a lonely desert — waiting for something to captivate us, like everything seemed to when we were young.

Waiting for the wave of happiness to echo throughout our bodies when that revelation comes.

Reminiscing on what it felt like to experience that moment of discovery.

Like beholding snow for the first time; the enchantment of that white sheet which coats the landscape transforming it into an image of even greater beauty.

The power of the sunrise in the morning as the rays shed light on the day ahead; believing that painting in the sky had been designed just for you.

Feeling as though the overwhelming sense of the unknown that lies ahead is within your grasp.

Why should time affect the way we experience each day?

Turning escapades into regimes in the name of a plan; it should be inspiring, thrilling, to discover something new. To live, another day different to all that preceded it. To love, wholeheartedly. To fall, if only for that moment of exhilaration before being caught. Taught that by falling one can only rise, learning. Yearning to discover something outside of the endless monotonous continuum of time.

We are unconquerable as we venture on; each day a new dawning.

Elena Rodgers

Interlude The sea recedes before the second flood, sucked up into the horizon. Here fish are stranded, searching a dull expanse like eyes to a blank page. It’s pleasant though, for me at least, wading through windows and wrinkles to rest at the shoreline. The calm before the second flood. Take a while to watch the sun stay in place; turn back pages and you can watch it wind up again.

Let the day linger a little longer. Let the ink settle. Don’t think about the second flood—it can be distracting. I can distract you. I can stop time with rhyme. I can use form, and meter, and tricolons. Or I can stop pretending. I know fish need water. I know suns have to wind down eventually. This second flood is only devastating for me. For me it marks an end. For you, an end to a dull expanse. An end to a blank page. Turn the page.

why do you slip away, Ophelia? why do you wish to drown in a river that’s a mile away when the pool of my heart is open + boundless ? and how often do I see the shadow of love brimming like it seeks the manifestation of something beautiful-the manifestation of our person.

Indigo Ife

For Wonu the light that comes in contact with her skin won’t change the fire in her heart light is meant to solidify to beautify but in this situation, it won’t temperate anything.

Indigo Ife

Gus Edgar-Chan Image: Wikimedia Commons

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GOING GREEN Going green isn’t easy. No one person can save an entire planet (though, from the look of things over at The White House, one man can actively try to ruin it). With the crisis of climate change impossible to ignore (though it’s been impossible to ignore for quite some time), we need to act now in order to reverse - or even just slow down - its effects.

Stephen Hawking estimated that humanity has only 100 years left on Earth before we perish. You can’t help but feel that he was being flattering.

With all that doom and gloom out of the way, let’s look at

the positives. Okay, now that that’s over, let’s all just—I kid, I kid. There are ways we can help, and if we all put in a shift, then perhaps the world can be right once more. Wishful thinking, sure, but wishful thinking is all we have right now.

Alas, not everyone has time to actively campaign change, no matter how much it’s needed. That’s not too much of an issue. I’ve come up with a few ways you can make a difference, without it infringing too much on your day-today life. Let’s save the planet, one step at a time.

PEE IN THE SHOWER Okay, okay, let’s start off at the deep end. It sounds disgusting, sure, but a Go With The Flow campaign in 2014 urged UEA students to have their ‘first wee of the day in the

shower’. It saves gallons of water, hundreds of thousands of pounds, and if you happen to wake up with a jellyfish sting, well, you’re in luck.

CUT DOWN ON MEAT Yes, meat is delicious. You know what’s more delicious?

Not having to worry about the future of humanity. There’s ethical concerns over eating meat, but no matter where you lie on that debate, there’s no denying that going for a stuffed pepper over a lamb chop is good for the environment. Due to the sheer amount of wasted bioenergy

in animal farming, avoiding meat and dairy is ‘the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet’, according to new research. Even cutting down on it is huge - and with the supermarket selection of vegetarian produce picking up steam, it’s hardly much of an effort.

CYCLE! It sounds obvious, but not enough people cycle. It uses minimal fossil fuels, is a pollution-free form of travel, and makes you more fit, too. UEA to town

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Image: Rebekah Woolmer

is a ten-minute cycle ride away (or less if you go really, really fast), and if you live in between, then even better.

Only people living in Bowthorpe are missing out. Sorry, Bowthorpe.

Gus Edgar-Chan

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