The Event - Issue 180

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Art Fashion Film Music Television

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Contents Features TV Â 4

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TV Â 14

Fashion  12  &  13

Art  15

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Regulars

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Creative  Writing  8 Listings  6 Horoscopes  8

Music  18  &  19

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Hello The  grand  claims  I  made  in  last  issue’s  editorial  seem  even  more  foolish  now  than  they  did  when  I  was  making  them.  I’m  afraid  this  little  section  will  continue  to  be Â ďŹ lled  with  the  meandering  of  my  mind  rather  than  a  well-­crafted  intel-­ lectual  summary  of  this  fortnight’s  current  events.  Please  check  back  in  the  next  Event  with  the  highest  of  hopes.  I  promise  to  sit  down  with  a  particularly  strong  espresso  and  pore  over  the  broadsheets  for  inspiration  before  attempting  any  such  writing  in  the  future.

Now,  on  to  matters  at  hand.  Concrete  (and  The  Event)  has  seen  its  extended  journo-­family  grow  to  never  before  dreamed  of  numbers.  This  is  a  happy  occurence  indeed  and  should  be  celebrated.   As  a  reader  of  this Â ďŹ ne  publica-­ tion,  you  should  think  of  yourself  as  an  essential  part  of  this  acheivement.   After  all,  nobody  wants  to  write  for  a  paper  that  no-­one  is  going  to  read  -­  it’s  the  long  hours  you  spend  dragging  your  already  baggy  eyes  over  line  after  line  of  our  scribblings  that  makes  things  all  worth  while.  Put  an  extra  big  spoon  of  sugar  into  your  coffee  for  being  so  damned  dedicated.  You  deserve  it.  If  you  want  to  earn  yourself  an  even  more  sugary  coffee  you  could  let  us  know  the  thoughts  that  gurgle  through  your  bonce  and  you  read  our  pages.  We’d  just  love  to  have  some  letters  from  you,  even  if  the  things  they  said  weren’t  all  about  how  wonderful  we  were.  Don’t  feel  unoriginal  if  that’s  what  you  want  to  write  though,  after  all,  its  the  thought  that  counts  -­  perhaps  you  could  use  a  coloured  envelope  to  individualise  your  efforts?

To  all  of  you  who  have  already  decided  you  want  to  take  a  more  active  role  in  Concrete,  and  signed  yourself  up  -­  a  warm  handshake  and  a  big  smile  for  you.  Please  get  involved  in  any  way  you  can,  even  if  it’s  just  coming  up  to  the  ofďŹ ce  and  asking  if  there’s  anything  you  can  do.  You  see,  there’s  a  rather  nasty  new  presence  in  the  ofďŹ ce  that  I’m  eager  to  be  rid  of.  There  would  be  no  better  way  to  forge  yourself  a  spe-­ cial  place  in  the  hearts  of  all  the  editorial  team  than  to  help Â

us  remove  this  problem.  Some  hideous  person  has  made  coffee  in  the  Concrete  coffee  maker  thing,  and  the  remnants  have  been  left  to  stew  for  some  days  now.  Whilst  at Â ďŹ rst  cheerful  remarks  were  made  and  funny  faces  were  pulled,  it  has  become  a  battle  of  wills,  that  could  cause  serious  impli-­ cations  for  the  relaxed  Concrete  atmos.  As  new  Concretins  it  is  your  purpose  to  aid  us  in  this  time  of  need,  and  I  will  personally  purchase  a  drink  of  your  choice  (during  happy  hour)  for  you  if  thou  art  big  enough  to  take  on  this  duty.    If  you’ve  happened  upon  this  page  whilst  icking  through  Concrete,  then  you’ll  probably  be  reading  these  words  at  great  speed  as  you  ing  the  paper  into  the  near-­ est  recycle  bin  in  your  new  found  appreciation  of  all  things  green.  Good  for  you!  Although  I  hope  you  take  the  time  to  read  our  celebration  of  all  things  The  Good  Life  in  our  Clas-­ sic  Telly  section  on  page  14.  A  true  gem  of  British  comedy.  Please  don’t  think  us  superďŹ cial!  All  us  at  The  Event  are  very  green,  and  always  remember  to  brush  our  teeth  in  a  single  cup  of  water  and  often  take  communal  shows  to  conserve  water.     Before  I  say  goodbye  for  another  14  long  days,  there’s  my  evergrowing  list  of  thankyous  to  dish  out  whilst  they’re  still  piping  hot.  Obviously  the  editorial  staff  have  all  earned  more  stripes  than  an  especially  stripey  zebra  this  issue.  Thumbs  jutted  skyward  folks.  There  are  also  the  tens  of  new  faces  milling  around  the  ofďŹ ce  who  have  all  written  for  The  Event.  Its  a  big  and  nervewracking  achievement  that  they  should  all  be  proud  of,  if  I  had  a  gold  star  system  going  on  in  the  ofďŹ ce  I’d  have  a  very  sparkly  wall  this  week.  Enjoy  The  Event,      Â

Kate

Editor-in-chief  4BSBI &EXBSEFT

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Deputy  Editor "OOB 4UFXBSE

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f  you  were  to  watch  a  single  day’s  programming  for  all  of  the  channels  available  in  the  UK  back  to  back  in  one  sitting,  you  would  be  on  your  sofa  more  than  a  week.  You’d  be  there Â ďŹ Â ve  days  just  for  the  terrestrial  channels.  Into  this  static  ocean  of  almost  endless  choice  Channel  4  are  releasing  the  only  thing  they  possibly  can  –  more.  More  4  to  be  precise,  a  new  digital  channel  much  in  the  same  mould  as  its  daddy,  with  news,  documentaries,  comedy,  drama  and  all  the  rest  that  you  might  expect.  With  a  budget  that  equals  BBC  FOUR’s  at  its  launch,  a  whopping  £33  million-­ish,  £20  million  of  which  has  been  allotted  to  original  programming,  this  is  not  a  project  Channel  4  can  afford  to  let  slide  off  track.  In  fact  with  such  a  handsome  slice  of  Channel  4’s  cash  being  devoted  to  the  new  channel,  it  must  be  assumed  that  they  have  very  special  plans  indeed  for  their  new  venture.  The  BBC,  paddling  in  the  shallow  end  of  digital  entertainment,  has  used  its  sprogs  (BBCs  THREE,  FOUR  and  a  number  of  other,  more  niche  channels)  to  repeat  its  best  bits  and  to  test  drive  it’s  more  risky  output.  If  something  makes  waves,  it  is  sometimes  upgraded  to  a  shiny  slot  somewhere  in  BBC  2’s  schedule,  recent  examples  in-­ cluding  The  Smoking  Room  and  Nighty  Night;Íž  but  on  the  whole,  if  it’s  good  enough  to  get  tongues  wagging  then  it’ll  be  earmarked  for  the  Beeb’s  two  big  hitters.  ITV  made  even  more  tentative  steps  with  the  creatively  named  ITV2,  which  lists  The  Xtra  Factor  amongst  its  most  innovative  original  programming  and  can  often  be  counted  on  to  be  showing  repeats  or  some  vacuous  exposĂŠ  on  Jordan.  The  one  common  feature  to  all  these  channels  is  their  constant  sidelining  in  favour  of  their  terrestrial  alternatives.  Although  More  4  will  also  be  a  forum  for  repeating  some  of  Channel  4’s  most  popular  shows, Â

including  the  second  series  of  David  Starkey’s  Monarchy,  The  Un-­ teachables  and  Jamie’s  Great  Escape,  it  will  ultimately  offer  audi-­ ences  an  alternative  array  of  programming  all  its  own.  It  seems  that  More  4  is  envisioned  by  Channel  4  as  a  partner  channel  rather  than  an  underling,  an  earnest  investment  in  multi-­channel  viewing  that  might  just  pay  off.

Part  media  suicide,  part  well  calculated  marketing  tactic,  Chan-­ nel  4  decided  to  kick  off  the  advertising  campaign  for  More  4  with  ambiguous  teasers,  boasting  of  a  new  “Adult  Entertainment  Chan-­ nelâ€?  in  racy  neon  writing.  These  were  soon  replaced  with  more  il-­ lustrative  ads  featuring  some  of  the  channel’s  mainstays  including  a  rather  presidential  looking  Martin  Sheen.  Nonetheless  a  moment  in  television  history  remained  where  a  small  number  truly  believed  that  Channel  4  was  about  to  launch  its  very  own  pornography  net-­ work.  This  may  at Â ďŹ Â rst  seem  an  unorthodox  approach  to  attracting  the  discerning,  high-­brow,  erudite  audiences  that  Channel  4  likes  to  call  its  own,  but  now  seems  typical  of  the  controversial,  culturally  aware  spin  More  4  likes  to  place  on  itself.  You  simply  get  the  joke  or  you  don’t.       One  of  the  most  talked  about  shows  premiering  on  More  4  is  US  import  30  Days,  reality  telly  in  which  an  individual  lives  30  days  immersed  in  a  particular  way  of  life  and  re  ecting  on  its  con-­ notations  for  American  society  as  a  whole.  Hosted  by  Super  Size  Me’s  Morgan  Spurlock,  the  show  operates  on  a  similar  basis  to  the  Mcdocumentary,  with  each  week’s  participant  having  to  obey  certain  rules  to  ensure  they  fully  embrace  their  lifestyle  shift.   One  episode  focuses  on  Muslims  in  America  and  sees  Dave  Stacy,  a  de-­ vout  Christian,  spending  30  days  living  with  a  Muslim  family.   Dave  must  read  the  Qur’an  every  day  and  act  at  all  times  according  to Â

Muslim  traditions,  which  he  seems  decidedly  awkward  and  wary  about.  Other  episodes  include  a  straight  man  plunged  into  a  gay  world  and  a  mother  living  the  life  of  a  binge-­drinking  college  stu-­ dent.  The  show  veers  from  hilarious  to  enlightening,  and  is  perhaps  only  comfortable  viewing  because  it  is  set  in  the  US,  the  prejudice  it  unearths  at  times  would  be  difďŹ Â cult  to  swallow  with  a  pinch  of  salt  if  they  resided  closer  to  home.

Staying  the  other  side  of  the  pond,  More  4  will  be  home  to  several  other  US  imports.  The  Daily  Show  with  Jon  Stewart,  very Â

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Much  as  More  4  has  eagerly  paraded  its  worth  and  value  to  audiences,  boasting  of  original  and  ground-­breaking  programming,  it  cannot  transcend  its  most  basic  character    aw.  More  4  does  of-­ fer  some  top  quality  entertainment,  that  Channel  4  has  sunken  a  great  deal  of  cash  into,  yet  this  only  ever  adds  to  the  ever-­increas-­ ing  barrage  of  choice  that  already  exists.  Channel  4  is  keeping  true  to  its  role  as  the  channel  for  the  more  open  minded,  but  it  has  to  be  questioned  whether  investing  so  heavily  in  multi-­channel  view-­ ing  is  smarter  than  simply  following  suit  and  launching  a  repeats  channel.   Â

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he  beneďŹ Â ciary  of  some  canny  marketing  at  the  hands  of  Twentieth  Century  Fox,  Night  Watch  looks  to  have  secured  a  fairly  big  British  audience  for  its  cinema  re-­ lease  on  7th  October  –  a  fairly  big  audience  that  may  well  express  surprise  at  the  presence  of  subtitles,  dis-­ tinctly  dense  plotting,  and  a  narrative  that  deliberately  puts  a  lid  on  its  own  most  spectacular  elements.  Night  Watch  is  a  Russian Â ďŹ Â lm,  released  as  Nochnoy  dozor  in  Russia  in  2004.   Following  a  mighty  performance  at  the  domestic  box-­ofďŹ Â ce  (brie  y  becoming  Rus-­ sia’s  all-­time  bestseller,  until  Turkish  Gambit  took  over  the  record),  picked  up  by  Fox  for  international  distribution.  Its  pre-­release  pro-­ gramme  here  has  included  prime-­time  trailers  and  special  preview  events  framing  the Â ďŹ Â lm  as  the Â ďŹ Â rst  entry  in  an  ‘epic  horror  trilogy’,  with  a  general  visual  emphasis  on  Anton,  the  dark  and  moody  hero  of  the  piece,  posed  in  Matrix-­style  black  cloak  and  sunglasses.   That  Night  Watch  clearly  does  take  inspiration  from  a  whole  range  of  high-­octane  US  action-­movie  hits  –  from  Star  Wars  to  The  Matrix  to  X-­Men  –  is  something  that  has,  no  doubt,  greatly  con-­ tributed  to  its  crossover  potential.  But  the Â ďŹ Â lm’s  in  uences  range  beyond  blockbuster  territory,  and  on  into  expressionist  gothic  hor-­ ror  (Nosferatu),  and  grungy  sci-Â­ďŹ Â Â (Jean-­Pierre  Jeunet’s  The  City  of  Lost  Children,  for  example).  The  whole  concoction  is  run  through  an  art Â ďŹ Â lm  mode  which,  despite  making  no  immediate  reference  to  the  ‘Russian  art  cinema’  we  recognise  in  The  Return  and  Russian  Ark.   Night  Watch  is  both  non-­Hollywood  in  style  and  speciďŹ Â cally  Russian  in  content,  from  the  Moscow  setting  with  its  crumbling  apartment  blocks,  to  the  Russian  maďŹ Â a  overtones  that  colour  the  underground  activities  of  the Â ďŹ Â lm.

Our  entry-­point  into  the  world  of  Night  Watch  is  Anton  (Kon-­ stantin  Khabensky),  who  we Â ďŹ Â rst  meet  as  a  civilian.  Bitter  and  des-­ perate,  Anton  is  at  the    at  of  a  witch,  where  he  hopes  to Â ďŹ Â nd  a  way  to  recover  his  pregnant  girlfriend  from  the  clutches  of  another  man:   The  witch  tells  him  the  only  way  is  to  take  the  unborn  baby  from  her  so  that  she  will  no  longer  need  the  other  man  as  a  father.  Anton  agrees  to  the  terrible  ‘assassination’,  but  as  the  witch  begins  a  spell  to  induce  the  miscarriage  (the  spell  is  intercut  with  its  effects,  as  the  pregnant  woman  falls  to  the    oor,  writhing  in  agony),  chaos  erupts  within  the    at  as  it Â ďŹ Â lls  with  strange  beings  –  these  are  the Â

Night  Watch  who  arrest  the  witch  as  an  evil  ‘Dark  Other’.  Under-­ standably  confused,  Anton  subsequently  learns  that  Moscow  is  full  of  ‘Others’  –  supernatural  beings  like  vampires,  shape-­shifters,  and  witches  –  some  of  which  belong  to  the  good  side  of  Light,  others  to  the  bad  Dark  side.  The  good  guys  form  the  Night  Watch,  who  police  behaviour  of  the  bad  guys  at  night;Íž  the  dark  warriors  form  the  Day  Watch,  who  do  the  inverse  during  the  day.  As  an  Other  himself,  Anton  chooses  to  sign  up  to  the  Night  Watch,  and  so  becomes  the Â ďŹ Â lm’s  shady  hero.   Much  of  Night  Watch’s  peculiar  storytelling  technique  is  staked  out  in  this  scene.  Characters  are  introduced  but  not  delineated,  ac-­ tion  proceeds  at  a  hectic  and  sometimes  incomprehensible  rate;Íž  grimy  domestic  settings  house  powerful  supernatural  creatures  and  the  camera  glides,  zooms,  and  swerves  with  a  strange,  rapid  precision,  one  moment  lurking  quietly  at  the  edge  of  dimly-­lit  room,  another  whooshing  through  an  artiďŹ Â cial  web  of  blood-­red Â ďŹ Â bres  and Â

(Night  Watch  is  director  Timur  Bekmambetov’s  debut  feature,  after  a  career  in  commercials  and  pop-­videos),  but  the  sheer  density  of  effects  can  be  quite  startling.  One  pleasingly  innovative  formal  fea-­ ture  sees  the  subtitles  fade,  jump  around,  and  dissolve  into  trails  of  blood,  sometimes  seeming  to  mesh  into  the Â ďŹ Â lm  world  itself.

At  the  same  time,  the Â ďŹ Â lm  veils  or  elides  elements  within  the  story  that  other  action  and  horror Â ďŹ Â lms  make  their  fetishistic  cen-­ tre-­pieces.  The  shape-­shifter  characters,  for  example,  represent  a  tantalising  spectacle-­in-­waiting,  and  Tiger  Cub  does  assume  her  animal  shape  for  a  moment  in  an  early  scene.  But  where  a  werewolf Â ďŹ Â lm  would  eek  maximum  spectacle  out  of  both  the  change  and  the  new  beast,  and  even  an  ensemble Â ďŹ Â lm  like  X-­Men  takes  advantage  of  a  special  fascination  around  the  morphing  body  of  Mystique,  Night  Watch  allows  almost  no  screen  time  to  the  transformation  process.  The  absence  is  emphasised  to  almost  comical  effect  when  two  shape-­shifters,  Bear  and  Tiger  Cub,  are  approached  by  a  child  who  –  just  like  us  –  wants  to  see  them  change  into  their  animal  forms.  They  reluctantly  agree,  only  to  be  distracted  at  the  last  with  the  spectacle  left  uncompleted.  The  conscious  use  of  anti-­climax,  coupled  with  an  intricate  plot  that  weaves  together  a  large  number  of  characters  and  events,  can  make  viewing  Night  Watch  a  difďŹ Â cult  prospect  at  times.  It  also  takes  a  while  to  settle  into  the  mythical  terminology,  although  the  basics  are  sketched  out  via  voice-­over  in  a  (slightly  cheesy)  opening  battle  sequence.  But  after  a  time  it  really  does  feel  like  an  epic,  a  world  where  there  are  obviously  far  darker  things  afoot  than  simply  the  con  icts  in  front  of  us,  and  even  an  apocalypse  seems  like  just  the  tip  of  the  iceberg.  The  smallest  of  incidents  help  contribute  to  the  intensifying  air  of  doom.  In  one  dazzling  sequence,  a  plane  is  caught  in  a  storm  and  we  watch  in  close-­up  as  a  screw  works  loose  and  falls  earthwards,  through  the  rain,  down  onto  a  building,  and  into  a  vent.  We  follow  the  screw  through  the  vent  until  it  exits  via  a  grate  and Â ďŹ Â nally  plonks  into  a  cup  of  coffee  –  held  by  Svetlana,  the Â

rating  visuals  is  pretty  much  unique  in  current  action  cinema,  and  though  it  occasionally  threatens  to  indulge  too  heavily  in  the  grave  clichĂŠs  of  prophetic  melodrama,  there  are  also  moments  of  touching  –  and  frightening  –  human  ordeal  (credit  for  this  to  the  bank  of  splen-­ did  Russian  actors,  particularly  Maria  Poroshina  as  Svetlana  and  Al-­ exander  Samoilenko  as  Bear),  and  even  a  spot  of  humour.   “What  am  I  going  to  tell  my  Mum  if  she Â ďŹ Â nds  you  here?â€?,  a  young  boy  asks  of  his  two  hefty  supernatural  guardians,  as  they  wait  round  the  kitchen  table.   “Say  we’re  electriciansâ€?,  comes  the  reply.  It’s  funny,  and  with Â

into  another  space  entirely.  The  majority  of  the  editing  operations  will  be  familiar  to  viewers  from  sci-Â­ďŹ Â /action Â ďŹ Â lms  and  TV  adverts Â

cursed  woman  who  is  unknowingly  causing  the  storm  above.   Night  Watch’s  blend  of  ragged,  demanding  fantasy  and  exhila-­

two  sequels  on  the  cards,  who’s  to  say  that  Night  Watch  won’t  soon  add  comedy  to  its  brilliant  horror-­action-­fantasy  genre  hybrid.

/JHIU 8BUDI JT B XPSME XIFSF FWFO BO BQPDBMZQTF TFFNT MJLF KVTU UIF UJQ PG UIF JDFCFSH

Event The

5

Listings

What’s  On 12/10/05

17/10/05

5IF $PSBM

3PZLTPQQ

-$3 QN 40-% 065

-$3 QN 5JDLFUT b BEW

13/10/05

18/10/05

6OJPO 'JMNT ,VOH 'V )VTUMF

"VEJP #VMMJFT

-5 QN 5JDLFUT b BEW

5IF 8BUFSGSPOU QN 5JDLFUT b BEW

5IF 4VCXBZT 5IF 8BUFSGSPOU QN 40-% 065

20/10/05 5IF 0SEJOBSZ #PZT

16/10/05

-$3 QN 5JDLFUT b

5IF .BHJD /VNCFST -$3 QN 40-% 065

21/10/05 4VQFSHSBTT -$3 QN 5JDLFUT b BEW

22/10/05 6OJPO 'JMNT 4UFXJF (SJGmO 5IF 6OUPME 4UPSZ -5 QN 5JDLFUT b BEW

23/10/05 5VSJO #SBLFT -$3 QN 5JDLFUT b BEW

26/10/05 &DIP BOE UIF #VOOZNFO -$3 QN 5JDLFUT b BEW

(P UP

XXX VFBUJDLFUCPPLJOHT DP VL

GPS UJDLFUT BOE EFUBJMT

6

Event The

Feature

What  you  CKY  ain’t  always  what  you  get

$,: SFUVSO UP &OHMBOE BGUFS UIF SFMFBTF PG UIFJS OFX BMCVN CVU EP XF SFBMMZ DBSF BCPVU UIFN XJUIPVU UIF TVQQPSU PG UIFJS +BDLBTT NBUFT BOE TLBUJOH BOUJDT $IBSMFT 3VNTFZ BOE 4BN 8BMMBN FYQMPSF UIF CBOE PVUTJEF PG UIFJS BDDVTUPNFE TDFOBSJP

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f*ckin’  hate  England,â€?  exclaims  Chad  Gins-­ burg,  CKY’s  guitarist.   “You  say  that  about  everything  and  then  you  end  up  lovin’  it  man,â€?  replies  his  rather  more  sober  headed  band  mate;Íž  drummer  Jess  Margera.   That  name  rings  a  bell,  so  CKY  got  big  through  the  fame  of  Jess’  brother’s  wild  antics  and  skate-­ boarding  air,  big  deal.   “Yeh,  we  missed  out  all  that  normal  crap  bands  do,â€?  Jess  says,  proud  to  have  proved  the  shallowness  of  the  music  industry.   In  fact  the  successes  of  the  CKY  skating  DVDs  caught  them  a  slot  on  the  Warped  Tour  in  1999  and  2000.   They  were  later  hand  picked  by  Axl  himself  to  play  with  the  reconstructed  Guns  and  Roses,  not  bad  at  all.   This  popularity  was  certainly  a  far  cry  from  Jess  and  Deron’s  (guitar  and  vocals)  “neo-­ technical  death  metalâ€?  band,  Foreign  Objects,  but  was  of  course  welcomed  by  them  all  the  same.   These  high  regards  of  CKY  have  lead  them  into  their  third  UK  tour.

The  maze  that  is  the  backstage  area  of  the  LCR  grounded  a  rise  in  anticipation;͞  stories  of  the  band  are  few  and  far  between,  this  was  practically  the  unknown.   The  LCR  labyrinth  was  also  the  cul-­ prit  to  give  rise  to  Chad’s  rather  sweeping  statement  earlier.   “It’s  like  playing  a  canteen,�  adds  Jess,  the  baseball  clad  Bam  look-­a-­ like.   Of  course  this  isn’t  really  an  interview,  sat  there  like  roadies  in  the  rather  resonant  changing  room  with  a  beer  and  a  distinct  lack  of  tape  recorder  or  notepad,  great  journalism,  or  so  lead  singer  and  vocalist  Deron  Miller  seemed  to  think  [don’t  try  this  at  home  budding  writers].   It  sparked  a  rather  relaxed  atmosphere,  the  band  freely  bantered  and  indeed  abused  each  other,  oh  and  then  started  downloading  porn  -­  rock  and  roll  dude.   A  beer  fridge,  an  ice  bucket  full  of  beer  and  a  computer  station  where  the  band  keep  in  contact  with  the  devotees  is  basically  the  extent  of  CKY’s  life  on  the  road.   What  more  could  they  need?

So  the  American  version  of  Pete  Doherty  perches  there  on  the  edge  of  a  desk,  swaying  slightly,  hurling  his  soggy  chicken  and  chips  towards  the  bin  in  disgust  at  that  less  attractive  side  of  English  cui-­ sine.   Chad  Ginsburg  is  of  course  one  hell  of  a  character,  to  the  point  that  one  wonders  whether  he’s  just  putting  it  on.   Regardless  of  the  stoned  rocker  stereotype  he  comes  up  with  some  gems  of  conversation  and  thankfully  holds  the  proceedings  together  with  his  own  unique  style  of  grace.   “F*ckin’  trendiesâ€?  he  says,  “I  hate  school  gigsâ€?.   Dramatic  irony  in  all  its  glory,  as  he  was  later  forced  to  admit.   The  chat  had  already  strayed  from  the  point  with  Chad  searching  through  American  idiosyncrasies  for  the  Brit  equivalent.   Luckily  Jess  was  eager  to  enlighten  us  on  the  true  intentions  of  CKY  as  a  band,  their  successes  through  the  skateboarding  industry  with  a  cameo  song  slot  on  Tony  Hawkes  3  and  the  sensation  of  the  early  DVDs  has  almost  had  a  pigeon-­holing  affect  on  the  group  as  skate  rockers.   The  response  is  that  the  avant-­garde  nature  of  the  skate  scene  entwines  with  the  philosophy  of  the  band.  It  becomes  appar-­ ent  that  their  disillusion  with  the  music  industry  is  what  spawned  CKY  into  the  band  that  it  is:   “Ya’  know  I’d  rather  hang  around  with  people  who  skate  and  have  fun  than  force  myself  into  a  phoney  business  just  to  make  moneyâ€?.   In  reality  the  impression  is  more  that  CKY  hate  being  grouped  in  a  genre  and  have  a  special  hate  for  stereotypes  and  lack  of  desire  for  originality  in  the  scene.   Year  after  year  the  music  corporations  churn  out  another  copy  act  which  everyone  recognises  as  just  that,  but  what  CKY  do  is  to  clear  the  smoke  screen  on  all  the  other  bands  who  claim  to  be  ‘in  it  for  the  music  and  fans’.   This  is  an  underlining  honesty,  which  at Â ďŹ rst  is  very  disconcerting,  as  Guitarist  Chad  Ginsburg  yells  of  his  discon-­ tent  at  playing  in  the  UK.   Hard  to  understand  but  this  displeasure Â

isn’t  so  misplaced  after  all:   “I  hate  these  bigger  venues,  I  think  I’d  much  rather  play  in  a  basement  that  can  only  take  a  few  hundredâ€?  he Â ďŹ nally  stated,  a  pity  the  band  wasn’t  at  all  familiar  with  the  Wa-­ terfront.   CKY  do  not  lie  about  their  fan  base,  it  isn’t  the  biggest  but  their  principles  of  honesty  and  rectitude  don’t  demand  it  to  be.   However,  it  is  clear  that  the  thrill  of  playing  small  venues  can  never  be  a  reality  for  headlining  bands  from  the  US:   Chad  goes  further  to  say  that  “every  UK  tour  we  go  back  brokeâ€?.   Yet  his  concern  only  seems  to  be  with  the  intentions  of  fans  waiting  outside  (as  he  gazes  out  the  window).  Seeing  this  it  becomes  evident  that  this  bands  honesty  stretches  further  than  we Â ďŹ rst  thought,  they  may  have  no  message,  no  cares,  no  allegiances  but  this  means  they  aren’t  self-­ righteousness  in  any  way.   When  a  bands  preach  about  their  beliefs  and  inuences  there  is  always  that  air  of  self-­assured  smugness.  Â

$,: DMFBS UIF TNPLF TDSFFO PO BMM UIF PUIFS CBOET XIP DMBJN UP CF AJO JU GPS UIF NV TJD BOE GBOT Deron  claims  that  “the  only  good  thing  about  music  is  playing  itâ€?  and  Chad’s  utter  contempt  for  everything  that  doesn’t  impress  him  greatly  shows  the  authority  for  his  assumption  that  the  majority  of  gig  goers  tonight  don’t  know  the Â ďŹ rst  thing  about  CKY‌ The  sound  of  classic  American  rock  blasts  into  the  dressing  room  as  the  second  support  act  Clutch  takes  the  stage  following  the  motorhead-­esque  performance  of  loyal  openers  Viking  Skull.  Jess  hand  picked  the  supports  himself;Íž  “I’m  thrilled  at  Clutch  playing  alongside  us,  I  used  to  listen  to  them  when  I  was Â ďŹ fteen.  Â

They’re  from  near  West  Chester  so  we’ve  known  them  for  years’.   This  band  continues  to  surprise  with  their  love  for  the  music,  albeit  unad-­ mitted,   yet  it’s  still  clear  for  all  to  see.   The  gathering  ends  as  diluted  as  it  began,  absolute  attention  focuses  on  the  stage  for  the  head-­ liners.   Acknowledged  for  their  feverish  riffs  and  bass-­treble  sound  it’s  a  shame  that  the Â ďŹ erce  and  overpowering  rhythm  section  rules  supreme  over  their  live  performance.   Songs  blend  into  one  and  as  a  result  the  popular  tracks  “96  Quite  Bitter  Beingsâ€?  and  “Triple  Manic  Stateâ€?  would  be  virtually  indistinguishable  if  it  weren’t  for  the  lyrics  and  rhythm.   There  was  no  lack  of  energy  however,  the  relatively  short  set  was  subsidised  by  an  unyielding  vigour  as  would  be  expected  from  the  hype  of  the  Jackass  and  CKY  crew.

As  far  as  inadequacies  are  concerned,  a  heavy  black  shadow  hung  over  the  evening.   Jess  had  previously  expressed  his  disgust  for  Brit-­ ish  rock  venues  “the  security  guys  are  mean,  there’s  no  crowd  surďŹ ng  allowed,  people  get  kicked  out  for  jumping  too  hard,  you  just  gotta  pogo  or  something?   It’s  f*ckin’  stupid,  people  should  be  able  to  do  what  they  want  at  our  gigsâ€?.   Crowd  surfers  can  be  annoying  but  to-­ night  the  security  staff  were  indeed  somewhat  harsh,  predominantly  in  their  selectiveness  of  whom  they  chose  to  eject  without  explana-­ tion  from  the  venue.   It’s  both  their  duty  and  responsibility  to  ensure  the  safety  of  gig  goers  but  Jess  and  Chad’s  words  of  distaste  for  Brit-­ ish  venues  rang  clear.   Being  only  human,  the  doorman  allowed  all  the  14  year  old  troublemakers  to  return  for  the  encore,  only  to  watch  a  veritable  ood  of  adolescents  stream  over  the  barrier.   But  as  CKY  left  the  stage  in  a  cacophony  of  piercing  feed-­back  Chad  I  Ginsburg  was  at  last  forced  to  eat  his  words  “I’ve  been  pleasantly  surprised  by  you  Norwich,  thanksâ€?.   So  maybe  these  university  venues  do  look  awfully  big  and  unwelcoming  but  the  warm  and  accommodating  clientele  proves  Chad’s  preconceptions  wrong.

Event The

7

Creative  Writing A  Poem

White  Noise  At  Maximum  Decibels

TAXI  Cabby’s  Corner

@

Cabby’s  corner  is  a  new  addition  to  the  creative  writing  section,  it  is  dedicated  to  the  taxi  drivers  of  Norwich  with  their  endless  facts,  stories  and  anecdotes.  I  had  this  couple  in  the  other  day  from  the  States,  nice  and  everything  y’know  but  they....they  were  asking  about  the  tube.  I’m  thinking  ‘what  do  I  know  about  the  tube,  I’ve  lived  in  Costessey  for  the  last  thirty  odd  years,  but  I’m  -­  what’s  this  bloke  doing,  in  my  ruddy  blind  spot  -­  yeah  I’m  telling  them  about  the  delays  and  that.  Anyway,  they’re  saying  they  don’t  wanna  go  on  it,  but  they’ve  got  to  get  to  er  Kings  Cross  the  next  morning.  You  from  London?  They’re  asking  me  if  I  can  drive  them  in  the  morning  to  Kings  Cross  so  they  can  get  to  Devon.  Nice  down  there,  my  brother  and  his  kids  live  there.  Gor-­ geous.  Just  think  how  much  I’d  get  driving  those  two  down  to  Kings  Cross.  Should’ve  done  it.  Left  here?

Sun-­shine  hidden  and  we  sit  in  a  bookstore:  noses  parallel,  mouths opening  and  shutting  to  let  in  air,  but  eyes  dart-­ ing  from  the  street to  the  oor  to  an  arm  to  the  table  to  the  eyes. recollections  of  the  earlier  freewaytrafďŹ c  view  from  my  resting  spot (where  I Â ďŹ t  so  nicely  cupped  in  your  arm’s  pit)  come  and  go,  when  you grew  a  second  pair  of  eyes  on  your  face  when  mine  was  too  close.

Lamely,  I  use  my  index  and  middle  to Â ďŹ nger  the  fabric  of  your trousers,  as  if  to  memorize  the  texture,  and  save  for  when  I  leave.

You  purse  your  lips  onto  my  cheek  so  I  don’t  feel  so  foolish,  at  least recognized,  not  embarrassed  of  the  other  eyes  in  the  room,  not  like how  I  get  nervous  in  trafďŹ c.

We  look  at  an  art  book  and  I  wonder  if  you’re  trying  to  tell  me something  with  a  painting.  The  art  book.  You  stole  me.

Oh  electrical  Baby,  fuzzy like  a  wrestler’s  backside or  the  peaches in  my  brain,  with  which I  am  currently  engaging in  baguetelle and  winning  big.

All  I  need is  your  soundtrack.  Crackling like  a  matchame or  a  plastic  bag  or  really anything  plastic.  Yeah.

It  all  rustles like  a  dancer’s  skirts.

I  need sex,  not  sleep.  Need 600  bars  of  soap and  something  cumbersome, a  grapefruit,  maybe, to  carry  like  a  proud  mother and  guard  like  a  pitbull.

I  need  socks

"MFYBOESB /BVHIUPO

or  maybe  some  more of  whatever made  me  love  you.

Embrace

In  your  eyes  I  see  my  soul, In  your  heart  I  found  my  voice, In  your  arms  a  loving  embrace, For  in  your  hands  I  place  my  life.

Crackle  on,  sweetness.

I’m  almost  awake.

,JSTUZ *SWJOH

$ISJT $MBSF

The  War  of  the  Roses A  theatrical Â ďŹ ction  that  reads  blindly Into  the  prose  of  a  rose  at  war.

With  eyes  wide  shut  along  an  opening  of  senses, Where  the  future  reads  into  the  three  tenses.

One  eye  outstares  the  oblivious  dark, Whilst  the  other  is  outstared  by  a  dark  oblivion.

A  thorny  third  eye  pricks  my  memory;͞ A  bitter  sweetness  that  sets  me  free. *NBO 4JE

Disappearing  Act

The  engine  revs, The  car  jerks, The  wheels  spin, Look  at  it  GO! You  smell  burning And  you  smirk, Your  speed-­greedy  eyes  aame.

And  left And  right, You  swish And  swerve.

Streetlamps A  yellow  streak  in  your  eye. “I’m  the  Showman!� “I’m  the  Ringmaster!� “The  greatest  magician!�

Hear  everyone  cry. “More  speed,  MORE!�

Foot  to  the  oor.

Out  with  a  bang.

There  will  be  no  encore.

1PMMZ -FXJT

HOROSCOPES Aquarius:  Jan  20  -  Feb  18 Several  of  your  nearest  and  dearest  will  ask  for  favours.  You  can’t  say  ‘yes’  to  everybody  -­  instead  take  this  as  an  opportunity  to Â ďŹ nd  out  what  (and  who)  is  really  important  to  you.  Â

A  crisis  of  conďŹ dence  makes  you  question  what  you’re  working  so  hard  for.   Weather  this  storm  and  things  will  look  better  in  coming  weeks.

Sagittarius:  Nov  22  -  Dec  21 Your  hectic  schedule  has  made  you  neglectful  of  your  social  duties.  A  movie  and  carefully  timed  trip  to  the  pub  will  solve  this  problem,  but  may  seem  arduous  at  the  time.

Aries:  Mar  21  -  Apr  19

Leo:  Jul  23  -  Aug  22

Scorpio:  Oct  24  -  Nov  21

As  the  stress  of  uni  life  really  kicks  in  during  the  next  couple  of  weeks,  you Â ďŹ nd  an  inner  strength  you  never  knew  you  had.  Beware  of  authority Â ďŹ gures  who  want  to  be  your  pal.  Â

A  good  deed  you  do  this  fortnight  will  pay  off  generously  in  the  future.  Keep  an  eye  out  for  the  chance  to  help  others  as  much  as  possible,  but  don’t  forget  to  put  your  heart  into  it.

Learning  a  new  skill  this  fortnight  will  bring  out  the  most  competitive  in  you,  and  give  new  friends  the  wrong  impression.  Make  an  effort  to  show  people  the  more  caring  you.

Cancer:  Jun  22  -  Jul  22

Libra:  Sept  23  -  Oct  23

Taurus:  Apr  20  -  May  20 Â

A  little  faith  goes  a  long  way.  Al-­ though  you Â ďŹ nd  it  hard  to  place  trust  in  others,  doing  so  this  fortnight  will  really  pay  off  -­ Â ďŹ nacially  and  perhaps  ro-­ mantically  too.

Your  recent  apathy  has  led  to  friends  and  family  thinking  of  you  as  a  bro-­ ken  record.  Rather  than  wallow,  over-­ come  this  rut  by  letting  them  bend  your  ear  from  time  to  time.

Capricorn:  Dec  22  -  Jan  19 Arguments  that  spring  up  unexpect-­ edly  over  trivial  matters  are  really  a  sign  that  its  time  to  move  on.  Take  this  chance  to  broaden  your  horizons  and  dont  look  back!

8

Gemini:  May  21  -  Jun  21

Event The

Pisces:  Feb  19  -  Mar  20 Old  friends  paying  an  unwanted  visit  make  you  realise  how  happy  you  are  with  your  current  lifestyle.  Embrace  this  realisation,  but  be  wary  of  old  ames  still  ickering.

More  haste  and  less  speed  this  fort-­ night  will  help  you  to  realise  that  your  plate  might  not  have  been  so  full  as  you Â ďŹ rst  thought.  Complaining  won’t  get  things  done  any  faster. Â

Virgo:  Aug  23  -  Sept  22 Horrendous  memories  of  drunken  nights  will  help  you  to  bite  your  tongue  when  others  act  irresponsibly.  Keep  up  this  less  judgemental  attitude  to  be  let  in  on  juicy  secrets.

Feature

Christopher  Hampton

5IF SFOPXOFE ESBNBUJTU BOE QMBZXSJHIU UBMLT UP 5IF &WFOU T PXO %BJTZ #PXJF 4FMM BCPVU IJT MJGF IJT XPSL BOE CFJOH UIF ZPVOHFTU FWFS QFSTPO UP IBWF B QMBZ QFSGPSNFE JO UIF 8FTU &OE

H

ere  sits  the  man  who  was  the  youngest  ever  playwright  to  have  one  of  his  plays  performed  in  the  West  End.  At  the  tender  age  of  twenty,  two  years  into  his  Oxford  degree,  Christopher  Hampton’s  When  Did  You  Last  See  My  Moth-­ er?  was  snapped  up  by  the  Royal  Court  theatre  in  London,  to  an  impressively  successful  run.  So  here  he  is,  forty  years  on,  having  directed Â ďŹ lms,  written  numerous  plays  and  screenplays,  and  still  as  successful  and  impressive  as  ever.

Hampton’s  early  years  are  both  interesting  and  vital  in  under-­ standing  the  man  behind  such  plays  as  The  Philanthropist,  Total  Eclipse,  Savages,  and  Les  Liasons  Dangereueses.   He  spent  his  “formative  yearsâ€?  in  Aden  in  the  Middle  East,  and  from  between  the  ages  of Â ďŹ ve  to  ten  he  lived  in  Alexandria  in  Egypt.  His  father  was  a  radio  engineer  and  was  posted  to  various  exotic  places,  depending  on  where  the  work  was.  He  says  himself  these  early  years  inuence  much  of  his  work:   “First  of  all  I’m  very  interested  in  the  whole  question  of  the  ÊmigrĂŠ,  exile,  or  outsider.  Also,  I’m  interested  in  the  thing  which  ended  our  stay  in  Egypt;Íž  the  Suez  Crisis.  It  was  very  bewildering  at  the  time,  because  we  had  suffered  a  sort  of  persecution  at  school  in  Egypt  for  being  English.  When  we  came  back  to  England  and  I  put  forward  the  view  which  my  father  had  felt  very  strongly  that  the  Suez  invasion  was  wrong,  I  got  into  terrible  trouble  in  this  country.â€?

He  admits  that  due  to  these  early  political  inuences  he  has  always  felt  a  little  bit  like  an  outsider.   However,  when  he Â ďŹ rst  began  to  be  successful  in  this  country  with  his  writing,  he  was  never  in-­ timidated  by  the  terrifying  world  of  the  theatre.  “They  were  very  nice  to  me;Íž  I  didn’t  quite  realize  how  extraor-­ dinary  it  was  at  the  time.  The  really  fortunate  break  was  that  they  of-­ fered  me  a  job  at  the  Royal  Court,  straight  out  of  Oxford.  I  was  their  resident  dramatist.  So  I  went  there  for  two  years  after  I Â ďŹ nished  at  Oxford  and  that  was  really  wonderful;Íž  being  on  the  staff  of  a  very  successful,  very  stimulating  theatre  was  great.â€?

Not  a  bad  break  if  you  can  get  it.  Although  Hampton  is  never  unrealistic  about  his Â ďŹ rst  job,  deeming  it  essentially  to  be  the  work  of  a  “dogsbodyâ€?,  Hampton  realizes  that  his  job  offer  was  extreme-­ ly  lucky,  as  when  he  started:   “New  plays  were  done  by  the  Royal  Court  and  Hampstead  Theatre  Club,  and  that’s  that.  Nowadays  everywhere  does  them.â€?   He  does  see  that  young  people  forty  years  on  have  almost  a  harder  time  staying  at  the  top,  as  he  believes:  “In  those  days,  if  they  picked  you,  they  stuck  by  it  and  were  good  to  you,  and  they  helped  you  through.  Nowadays,  I  think  it’s  much  more  ruthless.â€?

The  Philanthropist  is  currently  being  performed  in  London  and  Concrete  asked  him  if  he  liked  to  be  involved  in  the  production  of  plays  and  scripts  which  he  is  not  directing.  He  replied,  “I  like  to  be  there,  but  I  can  see  that  it  unsettles  some  directors.  They  have  to  be  very  conďŹ dent,  to  collaborate  all  the  way  down  the  lineâ€?.   It  seems  that  he  had  problems  of  a  sort  when  giving  up  his  script  of  Total  Eclipse,  originally  a  play  based  on  the  lives  of  Arthur  Rimbaud  and  Paul  Verlaine,  to  be  directed  as  a Â ďŹ lm  by  Agnieszka  Holland:  “She  had  directed  David  Thewlis  to  be  mean  and  vicious.  Ver-­ laine  wasn’t  a  very  nice  character,  but  he  was  charming,  and  people  liked  him  as  he  was  amusing,  and  he  got  through  being  a  terrible  person  on  charm.  I  couldn’t  somehow  convey  that  to  the  director.  Though  that  was  the  way  she  wanted  to  do  it.  It  made  it  slightly  bewildering  as  to  why  Rimbaud  had  to  stay  with  this  man.  You  couldn’t  see  why  he  was  attracted  to  him.â€?

Writing  a  play  on  the  lives  of  two  of  the  most  interesting  and  complicated  writers  of  the  century  is  not  a  light  task,  especially  when  it  comes  to  the  romantic  and  idealistic  character  of  Rimbaud. Â

Most  see  Rimbaud  as  a  genius  and,  like  Hampton,  he  started  ex-­ tremely  early  in  his  life,  writing  his  most  exceptional  pieces  before  he  was  twenty-­one.  Hampton  must  have  felt  some  sort  of  afďŹ nity  with  Rimbaud’s  success,  being  a  person  who  also  achieved  much  at  a  very  early  age.  “I  wrote  the  play  to  see  what  the  implications  of  being  a  writer  might  be.  One  particular  aspect  of  it  which  was  interesting  was  that  they  were  both  such  different  sorts  of  writers.  I  started  off  identi-­ fying  with  Rimbaud,  but  by  the  time  I  had Â ďŹ nished,  it  seemed  to Â

Peace  to  somehow  make  a  movie  out  of  which  is  two  hours  long.

It’s  concision  and  compression;͞  working  out  what’s  really  at  the  heart  of  the  book.�

Hampton’s  book  is  out  at  the  moment,  called  Hampton  on  Hampton,  and  The  Philanthropist  is  currently  being  shown  at  the  Donmar  Theatre  in  London.  DeďŹ nitely  worth  a  look  at,  if  only  to  wit-­ ness  the  work  of  a  writer  who  has  achieved  a  huge  amount  in  the  last  forty  years  he  has  been  writing,  and  who  will  undoubtedly  go  on  to  achieve  a  lot  more.

i*U PDDVSSFE UP NF BT * DBNF PVU UIF PUIFS FOE PG UIF QMBZ UIBU UIBU JT XIBU ZPV IBE UP EP LFFQ XPSLJOH w me  he  was  a  sort  of  amateur  because  he  had  unrealistic  notions  of  what  his  writing  might  achieve.  When  it  didn’t  achieve  what  he  thought  it  might  he  said  “Oh  ****  it�  and  gave  the  whole  thing  up.  Verlaine,  however,  kept  working.  He  didn’t  necessarily  do  good  work  all  the  time  but  he  did  keep  working.  It  occurred  to  me  as  I  came  out  the  other  end  of  the  play  that  that  is  what  you  had  to  do;͞  keep  working.�

Hampton’s  success  lies  not  only  in  his  ability  to  write  com-­ pletely  new  plays  but  to  be  able  to  adapt  novels  into  scripts  as  well.  His  adaptation  of  Les  Liasons  Dangereuses  won  him,  amongst  other  awards,  an  Oscar  for  Best  Writing  for  Screenplay  Based  on  Another  Medium,  and  a  BAFTA  for  Best  Adapted  Screenplay.  He Â ďŹ nds  it  easier  to  adapt  a  novel  to  a Â ďŹ lm,  rather  than  a  play  into  a  screenplay. “I  think  novels  are  closer  to Â ďŹ lm  form  than  plays  are  in  some  ways.  Plays  require  more  adaptation,  because  theatre  is  artiďŹ cial  in  a  way  that  cinema  isn’t,  and  somehow  if  you  take  plays  and  make  a  movie  out  of  them  it  always  smells  of  the  theatre.  A  novel  is  organ-­ ized  more  like  a Â ďŹ lm.  What  you  have  to  decide  is  how  to  retain  the  essence,  and  that  might  require  some  quite  rad-­ ical  changes  or  additions,  but  mostly  it  requires  enormous  cuts.â€?

He  adds  however,  that  cutting  can  sometimes  be  the  largest  part  of  writ-­ ing  a  screenplay,  as  he  has  just  adapted  a  book  for Â ďŹ lm  called  Jonathan  Strange  and  Mr  Norrell,  by  Susannah  Clarke.  “It’s  850  pages  and  I  was  hired  to  do  the  screen-­ play.  Suddenly  you’re  con-­ fronted  with  a  novel  the  size  of  War  and Â

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Feature

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Norwich  International  Animation  Festival

8JUI UIF DVSSFOU RVFTUJPOT UIBU IPWFS PWFS NBJOTUSFBN DJOFNB BOJNBUJPO BOE JUT BCJMJUZ UP SF NBJO USVMZ JOOPWBUJWF UIF XFBMUI PG QSPWPDBUJWF FYQFSJNFOUBM NBUFSJBM BU UIJT ZFBS T GFTUJWBM QSP WJEFT B XFMDPNF SFNJOEFS PG BOJNBUJPO T VOJRVF DIBSNT 4FC .BOMFZ BOUJDJQBUFT B HSFBU EBZT

3FDJ 3FDJ 3FDJ .JDIBFMB 1BWMBUPWB

Tim  Macmillan,  whose  ‘time  slice’  photography  technique  was  lifted  by  brothers  Wachowski  for  their  Matrix  opus.  The  symposium  speakers  take  a  look  at  the  hybrid  processes  that  join  animation  with  sculpture  and  painting,  and  discuss  whether Â ďŹ ne  art  can  ad-­ vance  animation  –  or  does  it  simply  make  it  ‘not-­animation’?     Another  special  programme,  ‘Illumina’,  screens  such  art-­ani-­ mation Â ďŹ lms,  under  themed  groups  ranging  from  propaganda  to  interior  architecture.  Some  of  these Â ďŹ lms  rarely  see  the  light  of  day  now,  and  any  cinema  where  you  can  see  work  from  Jan  Lenica  and  Walerian  Borowczyk  is  a  good  place  to  be.  (The  Polish  directors’  joint  work,  House,  a  nightmarish Â ďŹ lm-­collage  from  1958,  is  playing  at  10pm  on  October  19,  as  part  of  a  collection  of  uncanny  shorts  from  the  likes  of  German  animator  Anja  Struck  and  British  anima-­ tor  George  Barber.)  As  a  reply  to  the  common  contention  that  ani-­ mation  is  somehow  ‘sealed’  in  its  own  world  of  either  art  or  juvenile  entertainment,  the  ‘Obey!  Propaganda  in  animation’  section  looks  at  the  long  history  of  animation’s  interaction  with  social  and  politi-­ cal  policy-­making,  from  WW1  ‘information’ Â ďŹ lms,  to  the  Protect  and  Survive  nuclear  attack  warning Â ďŹ lms  made  by  the  Central  OfďŹ ce  of  Information.    Alongside  the  themed  programmes,  the  festival  runs  a  mam-­ moth  selection  of  the  best Â ďŹ lms  from  the  last  year,  divided  into  the  In  Competition  collection  of  short,  student,  television,  and  com-­ mercial Â ďŹ lms,  and  the  Out  of  Competition  collections.  The  range  of  styles  here  is  understandably  great,  and  the  preview  material  made  available  to  The  Event  points  to  a  disparate  –  though  con-­ sistently  engaging  –  assortment  of  colourful  fantasy,  deadpan  gags,  pointed  allegory,  and  avant-­garde  provocation  –  with  a  recurring  theme  of  the  place  of  the  individual  in  a  community.  Gaelle  Denis’  City  Paradise,  for  example,  tells  the  enchanting  tale  of  a  Japanese  girl,  Tomoko,  who  arrives  in  the  new  and  unfamiliar  cityscape  of  London  and  must  learn  to  cope  with  a  new  set  of  conventions  and  possibilities.  London  from  this  perspective  is  grey  and  rainy  terrain  punctuated  by  bright  red  buses  and  telephone  boxes,  where  grey-­

suited Â ďŹ gures  walk  with  a  strange  bandy  motion,  and  all  anyone  talks  about  is  the  weather  (the  hilarious  ‘English  for  beginners’  tape  that  Tomoko  listens  to  offers  useful  phrases  like  ‘The  wind  blew  off  my  hat’,  and  ‘Today  the  rain  was  torrential’).  The Â ďŹ lm,  with  its  expressive  palette  and  exaggerated  sense  of  ‘Englishness’,  makes  a  wry  comment  on  how  stereotypes  shape  our  perception  of  the  world,  but  it  is  also  a  paean  to  the  power  of  imagination,  and  To-­ moko’s  swimming  sequence,  through  an  underground  waterworld  of  giant  jellyďŹ sh  and  tube  trains,  is  the  supreme  example  of  the  mix  of  fantasy  and  reality  made  possible  by  animation  techniques.  In  contrast,  Xavier  Marquis’  Somebody  Exceptional  is  a  self-­ conscious  doodle,  drawn  in  simple  wavy  lines  and  blocked  in  with  bright  colours.  Our  hero  here  is  what  might  be  described  as  a  yel-­ low  jellybean,  and  he  is  worried  about  mass  conformity:  a  crowd  of  yellow  beans  follow  him  everywhere,  copying  him  ‘without  asking  questions’  and  making  no  effort  to  become  individuals  -­  they  even  blink  in  perfect  synchronisation.  Somebody  Exceptional  is  short  and  fairly  jokey  (while  the  crowd  tip  a  cow  in  time-­honoured  fash-­ ion,  the  hero-­bean  chooses  to  proceed  in  a  ‘new  way’,  and  kicks  the  cow  in  the  shins),  but  it  ends  with  a  nicely  playful  reection  on  the  limits  of  social  conformity.   Flatlife  by  Jonas  Geirnaert,  running  a  similarly  simple  anima-­ tion  style,  splits  its  action  Timecode-­style  into  four  ‘screens’  –  four  rooms  on  the  upper  oors  of  an  apartment  block.  The  characters  in Â

5IF GFTUJWBM T PGmDJBM TFMFD UJPO CPBTUT BO BTTPSUNFOU PG DPMPVSGVM GBOUBTZ EFBEQBO HBHT QPJOUFE BMMFHPSZ BOE BWBOU HBSEF QSPWPDBUJPO each  room  go  about  their  daily  lives,  and  we  watch  whichever  room  we  think  most  interesting  (although  action  usually  slows  in  some  rooms  as  it  heats  up  in  others).  As  one  man  hammers  a  nail  to  hang  a  painting  on  upstairs,  the  man  downstairs  bangs  the  ceiling  with  a  broom  in  annoyance,  causing  the  painting  to  fall  and  break.  A  woman  downstairs  hangs  up  her  cloud-­patterned  sheet,  which  immediately  attracts  a  bird  that  smashes  into  the  window  and  she  then  calls  the  artist  upstairs  to  paint  a  bird  on  the  window  to  scare  other  birds  away.     The  most  ambitious  work  on  show,  Overtime,  directed  by  Oury  Atlan,  Thibaut  Berland  and  Damien  Ferrie,  is  a  wistful  mood-­piece,  peopled  by  a  troupe  of  Kermit-­like  puppets.  Bathed  in  an  expres-­ sionistic  black-­and-­white  light  and  the  evocative  crackle  of  early Â ďŹ lm Â

Jan  Svankmajer

B

roadly  speaking,  animation  in  cinema  today  is  a  three-­faced  presence:  that  of  hyper-­styl-­ ised  anime,  mostly  originating  from  Japan,  but  also  from  South  Korea  in  recent  years;Íž  that  of  CGI  cartoon  features,  from  Dream  Works  and  Pixar;Íž  and  that  of  traditional,  cell-­drawn  works  that  used  to  be  the  forte  of  Disney.   However  since  the  demise  of  the  2D  animation  wing  there,  these  have  been  successfully  produced  only  by  Japanese  director  Hayao  Miyazaki  and  a  few  others.  Around  all  of  these  areas  there  is  a  feeling  that  certain  limits  have  been  reached,  and  animation  is  becoming  more  of  a  set  template  than  a  tool  for  innovation.  Recent  anime  releases,  though  attempting  to  mix  styles  –  cell  drawings  with  CGI  for  example  –  have  upped  the  visual  air  without  much  thought  for  emotional  or  intellectual  complexity  (see  Sky  Blue,  and  Appleseed),  and  many  recent  American  CGI Â ďŹ lms  have  come  under Â ďŹ re  for  coasting  in  terms  of  narrative  and  thematics  –  Pix-­ ar’s  The  Incredibles  being  the  honourable  exception.  Even  Miyazaki  himself,  long  seen  as  ‘the  Japanese  Disney’  and  so  recently  hailed  by Â

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Event The

'MBUMJGF +POBT (FJSOBFSU

Westerners  as  the  new  way  for  animation-­as-­art  with  the  release  of  Spirited  Away,  was  at  the  centre  of  some  criticism  recently  regard-­ ing  Howl’s  Moving  Castle  and  its  perceived  lack  of  ‘clarity’  and  plot  failings.      In  television  there  has  been  nothing  produced  in  recent  years  to  match  the  creative  revolution  that  The  Simpsons  represented  in  1989,  though  a  series  of  that  tradition  continue  to  air  (and  Family  Guy  has  made  the  move  into Â ďŹ lm  format,  with  Stewie  GrifďŹ n:  The  Untold  Story).  Cultier  fare  though,  such  as  Stephen  Hillenburg’s  ‘SpongeBob  Squarepants’  cartoons  and  John  Kricfalusi’s  Ren  and  Stimpy  show,  is  often  championed  by  animation  fans  as  a  true  site  of  surreal,  anarchic  invention.  Recent  developments  in  digital  art  have  also  made  a  splash,  and  Channel  4’s  six-­year-­old  Mesh  scheme,  which  proclaims  to  ‘nurture  new  talent  within  the Â ďŹ eld  of  computer-­generated  animation,  with  an  emphasis  on  developing  storytelling  skills’,  is  currently  delivering  intriguing  animated  shorts  in  prime-­time  slots.  This  is  a  move  in  the  (or  a)  right  direction,  in  that  it  gets  work  shown  that  would  otherwise  remain  underground,  and  should  result  in  increased  dialogue  around  different  types  of Â

animation.  But  TV  has  a  limited  amount  of  room  for  cutting-­edge  cartoons,  and  the  best  place  to  see  a  properly  wide  range  of  ani-­ mated  artwork  is  at  a  festival  –  one  of  which,  the  esteemed  Norwich  International  Animation  Festival,  is  running  next  week.       Now  in  its  fourth  outing,  and  following  a  two-­year  break,  the  festival  showcases  a  dizzying  array  of Â ďŹ lms  from  animators  around  the  world,  taking  in  work  from  45  countries  from  Czechoslovakia  to  America  to  Israel  to  the  UK,  from  students  to  multi-­media  artists  to  internationally  acclaimed Â ďŹ lmmakers,  and  from  2D  cel  animation  to  graphic  cut-­outs  to  puppet-­work.  Despite  the  spirit  of  inclusively,  there  is  a  distinctly  confrontational  avour  to  events,  with  a  series  of  debates  to  be  held  in  the  ‘Offscreen’  programme  that  pitch  de-­ fenders  of  2D  animation  against  their  3D  counterparts  (under  the  right-­down-­to-­it  title  of  ‘Is  2D  Dead?’),  and  ask  whether  new  tech-­ nologies  are  helping  the  ow  of  creativity,  or  just Â ďŹ xing  animation  into  a  mechanical  process  (‘Straight  Ahead’).  However  the  main  attraction  comes  in  the  form  of  a  one-­day  symposium,  which  is  graced  by  renowned  animator-­turned-­painter  Caroline  Leaf,  avant-­ garde  short Â ďŹ lmmaker  Jerzy  Kucia,  and  animator  and  photographer Â

Though  more  readily  available  than  the Â ďŹ lms  by  Lenica  and  Borowc-­ zyk  (both  screened  at  the  festival),  Czech  animator  Jan  Svanmajer’s  similarly  uncanny  works  make  no  concession  to  mainstream  conven-­ tionality,  featuring  both  live  action  and  animated  objects  caught  in  a  bizarre  world  of  myth,  fairytale,  and  urban  modernity.  Svankmajer,  a  self-­confessed  ‘militant  Surrealist’,  has  long  understood  that  anima-­ tion  can  do  things  other  art  simply  cannot,  and  while  he  continually Â ďŹ nds  inspiration  in  the  writings  of  Edgar  Allen  Poe  and  Lewis  Car-­ roll,  the  resulting Â ďŹ lms  are  vigorously  visual,  even  in  cinematic  terms.  Alice  (1988),  for  example,  his  dark  and  macabre  retelling  of  Alice  in  Wonderland,  is  largely  silent,  excepting  one  seemingly  banal  line  that  is  repeated  at  steady  intervals,  to  the  bizarre  image  of  Alice’s  mouth  in  extreme  close-­up.  The  grand  populace  of  Svankmajer’s  wonder-­ land  include  sock-­monsters,  lizard  skeletons,  and  glistening  hunks  of  meat  –  all  animated  in  sinister  jerky  motion.  Since  Alice  and  the  pre-­ ceding  series  of  short Â ďŹ lms,  Svankmajer’s  features  have  turned  to  the  Faust  legend  (in  the  puppet-­epic  Faust),  and  the  Eastern  European  fairytale  of  Otesanek,  or  Greedyguts,  whose  giant  living  tree-­stump  monster  provides  the  only  instance  of  animation  in  Little  Otik.  Some  viewers  see  the  reduced  use  of  stop-­motion  as  a  sad  shift  towards  ‘pure’ Â ďŹ lm  –  but  fans  of  the  art-Â­ďŹ lm-­animation  hybrid  works  on  dis-­ play  at  the  festival  may  relish  Svankmajer’s  new  approach.

sound,  the  short  conjures  a  powerful  fairytale  atmosphere  as  it  ex-­ plains  the  sad  situation  of  a  group  of  puppets  –  the  Kermit  creatures  –  whose  maker  has  died.  The  Kermits  desperately  try  to  re-­animate  the  old  man,  sitting  him  at  the  table  as  they  eat,  and  screening  old  footage  of  him  operating  his  creations.  Finally,  now  moving  the  old  man  with  puppeteers’  strings  and  sticks,  they  have  him  drink  one  last  glass  of  wine  and  lay  him  to  rest  on  a  bed,  gently  closing  his  eyes.  It’s  an  almost  unbearably  sad  tale,  haunted  by  the  ghost  of  early  Disney  and  Tim  Burton  –  particularly  in  the  magical  orchestral  score  and  eerie  choir  –  and  somehow  both  familiar  and  mysteriously  alien.  And  the  sight  of  row-­upon-­row  of  Kermits,  decked  out  in  3D-­glasses  in  order  to  watch  a  movie  they’re  projecting,  is  something  to  be  treas-­ ured.      For  cinema  and  TV  audiences,  the  Norwich  International  Ani-­ mation  Festival  offers  a  chance  to  see  things  that  simply  aren’t  at-­ tempted  by  full-­length  features  or  ongoing  series,  where  demands  such  as  narrative  and  the  need  for  a  widely  appealing  aesthetic  take  precedent  over  experimentation,  in  form  and  in  content.  There  will  be  a  lot  shown  at  the  festival  that  you  may  never  be  able  to  see  again,  but  there  are  also  signs  that  innovative,  personal  animation  is  begin-­ ning  to  claim  a  space  in  mainstream  culture.  Channel  4  looks  to  be  leading  the  way,  and  six  new  groundbreaking  animated Â ďŹ lms,  soon  to  be  screened  on  Channel  4,  will  be  premiered  at  the  festival.  The  four  days  of  animation  programmed  here  will  no  doubt  contain  some  luminaries-­to-­be,  and  the  thrill  of  the  new  is  to  matched  by  a  mag-­ niďŹ cent  selection  of  rarely-­screened  and  classic  work.  Animation  fan, Â ďŹ lm  buff,  art  enthusiast,  cultural  sceptic,  bored  civilian  –  whatever  your  temper  on  19-­22  October,  see  that  you  take  advantage  of  a  festi-­ val  brimming  with  the  most  exciting  animation  around. Â

Diary

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Saturday  22/10 1SFTFOUBUJPO $SPTTJOH %JTDJQMJOFT -JUUMF 0UJL

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Event 11 The

Fashion

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5

Charitable  Shopping

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Although  you’d  never  let  her  babysit  your  little  sister  or  invite  her  to  your  birthday  party,  when  it  comes  to  outďŹ Â t  balance,  Kate  Moss  wrote  the  book.  The Â ďŹ Â rst  lady  of  fashion  was  at  the  forefront  of  style  years  ago,  when  she  discovered  that  wearing  two  totally  opposing  pieces  can  look  effortlessly  stylish.  Back  in  her  nineties  heyday,  Kate  was  often  seen  in  pretty,  dainty  dresses,  cloaked  in  heavy  denim  jackets,  or  scruffy  leather  bombers.  Her  notion  of  style  always  created  a  far  more  eye  catching  look  than  it  would  if  the  two  pieces  were  perfectly  matched.  Nowadays  Kate’s  still  mixing  her  textures  and  fabrics,  and  her  style  is  just  as  eclectically  beautiful.  Believe  it  or  not,  charity  shops  are  the  perfect  place  to  emulate  Kate’s  contradictory  concept  of  chic.  The  shops  are  stocked  with  styles  as  diverse  and  unusual  as  the  togs  Moss  loves.  But  if  your  not  keen  on  imitating  Kate’s  take,  second  hand  shops  are  still  the  places  to  visit  if  you  want  a  look  that  no  one  else  will  be  wearing.  Guaranteed.

Most  charity  shops  divide  their  clothes  categorically  by  colour.  But  before  you  charge  in  desperate  for  designer  knock  offs,  think  out-­ side  the  box.

First  head  to  men’s  wear.  Look  for  old  school  ties  in  thick,  wo-­ ven  tweed.  Take  three  or  four  and  they  can  sit  on  your  hips  in  an  individual  style  belt  to  be  paired  with  some  well  worn  jeans.  Or  tie  them  through  the  loops  of  your  bags Ties  also  add  kitsch  chic  to  a  simple  top,  like  a  silky  camisole  (charity  shops  are  perfect  for  these,  you’ll Â ďŹ Â nd  them  in  nightware,  just  give  it  a  good  wash  before  you  wear  it!).  Check  out  the  boys  sec-­ tion,  for  tight  tees  with  ironic  slogans  splashed  across  them  (think  Teenage  Mutant  Ninga  turtles  rather  than  Gap  Kids)  which  also Â

2

3 I  headed  to  my  local  charity  shop,  Break,  on  Colman  Road.  Break  raises  valuable  funds  for  disabled  people  and  those  caring  for  them.  The  money  made  by  the  shops  provides  treats  like  holidays  and  days  out  for  underprivileged  children.

Run  by  a  group  of  mostly  volunteers,  Break  is  packed  with  exactly  the  sort  of  styles  perfectly  suited  for  this  season.  When  it  comes  to  clothing,  I  was  not  expecting  to Â ďŹ Â nd  items  which  were  overtly  autumn  ‘05,  and  rather  than  tracing  the  latest  looks,  was Â

12

Event The

keen  to  search  for  things  which  were  individual  and  timeless  in  trend.  However,  I  was  pleasantly  proved  wrong.  This  month  Break  was  having  a  “Velvet  Eventâ€?,  and  the  rails  were  overrun  with  gar-­ ments  made  of  the  sumptuous  stuff,  which  is  the  fabric  for  Fall.  I  found  hoards  of  fake  fur  coats,  lots  of  pretty  tops,  some  rounded  toe  heels,  a  pair  of  cowboy  boots  and  ropes  of  pretty  beads.  The  staff  could  not  have  been  more  helpful  and  every  item  was  under  £5  –  which  is  very  ethical  indeed.

look  great  with  ties.  Wear  your  tie  round  your  neck,  with  the  knot  looped  low,  schoolboy  rebel  style.

Boys’  t-­shirts  can  also  be  teamed  with  a  slashed  denim  skirt,  thick,  opaque  tights  and  funky  boots.

It’s  even  worth  trying  on  some  men’s  jeans  for  a  loose,  laid  back  look.  When  adorning  skater  style,  Gwen  Stefani  loves  to  wear  her  boyfriend’s  jeans.  Choose  a  baggy  pair,  which  are  long  in  the  leg  and  weave  a  tight,  elasticated  belt  through  the  hooks  to  keep  them  up.  Then  add  something  heavily  feminine  in  lace  or  silk,  if  you  want  to  maintain  the  much  longed  for  Moss  equilibrium.

1

Fashion

Fashion  with  a  Clean  Conscience

I

n  a  commonly  accepted  meaning,  ethical  goods  or  services  should  not  have  a  negative  environmental  im-­ pact  on  the  planet  or  be  produced  under  conditions  that  harm  animals.  The  reality  is  however,  that  cruelty  exists  in  our  very  own  make-­up  bags  and  wardrobes.  Yes,  the  fashion  industries  are  pressing  its  consumers  to  shop  with  an  ethical  conscience‌as  there  really  are  skeletons  hiding  in  those  wardrobes!  But  can  these  la-­ bels  that  are  all  for  fairly-­traded  organic  materials  and  the  impor-­ tance  of  sustainable  design  turn  our  everyday  clothing  into  state-­ ment-­making  fashion‌and  we  all  ask,  look  good?

It  is  surprising  that  being  more  ethically  conscious  when  shopping  is  a  new  concept  to  many  fashion  addicts.  Many  do  not  consider  that  the  soles  of  their  shoes  they  walk  in  everyday  actually  were  liv-­ ing  souls  and  that  the  make-­up  they  apply  in  the  morning  actually  means  getting  face  to  face  with  dead  animals!  But  with  cruelty-­free  versions  of  fabulously  fashionable  clothes  and  accessories  there’s  hope  for  us  yet.  Some  would  agree  that  ethical  interest  is  the  very  essence  of  what  it  means  to  be  ‘fashionable’.  And  with  inspiration  from  fashion  de-­ signer  Gabriel  Scarvelli,  ethical  products  can  be  green  and  gorgeous.  Although  once  homeless  in  the  streets  of  Sydney  with  nothing  but  the  clothes  he  was  wearing,  Scarvelli  then  survived  the  onset  of  liver  cancer,  suffering  a  10%  chance  of  recovering.  No  wonder  he  felt  he  had  a  second  chance  to  improve  his  life  and  also  eventually  con-­ tribute  to  making  fashion  ethical.  Scarvelli  only  uses  natural Â ďŹ bres  and  the  dyes  he  uses  to  colour  his  fabrics  are  98%  organic.  It  seems  Scarvelli’s  naturally  stylish  beliefs  are  something  to  look  up  to  in  the  fashion  world.  He  is  also  setting  up  an  independent  organic  cot-­ ton  plantation,  he  recycles  leftover  resources  as  much  as  possible  and  employs  12  Indians  in  a  small  factory  for  two  hours  in  Calcutta  to  do  beadwork.  His  passionate  drive  and  the  effect  he  must  have  in  protecting  the  environment  is  remarkable.  The  only  drawback  is  that  he  uses  nylon  zippers,  which  is  hardly  anything  to  complain Â

about  because  there  is  not  another  option  available  yet  it’s  amazing  how  using  fairly-­traded  organic  materials,  choosing  positive  envi-­ ronmental  clothing  and  buying  cosmetics  that  are  against  animal  testing  and  mistreatment  promises  admiring  glances,  just  like  the  high  street  contemporary  fashion  does.  The  fashion  industries  are  beginning  to  offer  a  wider  selection  of  clothes  and  cosmetics  that  are  fashionable  as  well  as  ethical.  The  aim  lies  in  raising  awareness  that  it  is  not  only  the  cruelties  fun-­ damental  to  the  fur  and  leather  industries  that  fashion  is  battling  against  but  also  the  way  clothing Â ďŹ bres  and  ingredients  in  many  cosmetics  actually  involve  harm  to  animals  also.  Charlie  Lock,  Dep-­ uty  Manager  of  The  Body  Shop  in  Norwich  says  every  one  of  their  customers  leaves  an  ethical  footprint  as  they  leave  with  a  handful  of  products  that  will  protect  our  planet  and  support  Community  Trade.  The  Body  Shop,  Charlie  comments,  gives  you  the  chance  to  spend  your  money  where  it  will  make  the  most  difference.  By  trad-­ ing  with  disadvantaged  communities  around  the  world,  money  is Â

The  Body  Shop  claim  to  use  alternatives,  making  the  ingredients  of  their  products  ethical.  The  disappointing  fact  was  that  many  consum-­ ers  are  unaware  of  the  advantages  of  ethical  shopping,  which  is  why  The  Body  Shop’s  priority  is  promoting  such  values  as  Fair  Trade  and  Against  Animal  Testing.  The  Body  Shop,  based  globally,  is  considered  to  be  one  of  the  stronger  leading  ethical  businesses  in  the  trend  to-­ wards  maintaining  positive  social  and  environmental  change.

The  fashion  of  wearing  animal  skins  as  clothes  is  actually  rooted  in  history,  when  animal  coats  offered  protection  from  the  climate.  But  in  modern  times,  we  get  the  beneďŹ t  of  freedom  of  choice  because  there  is  technology  development  of  synthetics  and  a  range  of  non-­animal  testing  cosmetic  methods  to  our  advantage.  For  example,  there  is  cell  toxicological,  test  tube  techniques  and  sophisticated  computer  and  mathematical  modelling  which  are  at  this  minute  helping  to  make  tests  more  humane  and  therefore  lessening  the  gap  between  fashion  and  an  ethical  conscience.

Others,  however,  will  be  shocked  to  learn  about  the  invention  of  alter-­ native  cosmetic  ingredients.  Although  ethically-­minded  individuals  can  ease  the  damage  to  the  environment  and  help  reduce  the  risk  to  animals,  their  help  cannot  outweigh  the  suffering  caused  because  of  cosmetic  testing.  Only  new  ingredients  need  testing,  and  there  are  already  8-­10,000  ingredients  on  the  market.  Likewise  Scarvelli  under-­ stands  that  while  we  probably  will  never  be  able  to  eliminate  synthet-­ ics,  we  can  pull  back  on  how  much  we  use  and  make  clothes  last  better,  helping  to  create  an  ethical  conscience  that  can  also  impact  positively  on  the  wider  scope  of  the  world  and  our  future.  Therefore,  there  are  still  urgent  measures  to  develop  and  validate  alternatives  as  people  are  beginning  to  see  sense  in  ethical  and  sustainable  con-­ sumerism.  Most  believe  that  ethical  buying  will  help  in  some  way  and  that  an  ease  in  social  and  environmental  damage,  (although  not  a  complete  halt)  is  better  than  having  no  conscious  at  all.  Scarvel-­ li’s  labour  of  love  proves  that  fashion  and  consumerism  is  not  just  about  looking  good  but  an  opportunity  for  everyone  to  direct  it  into  a  more  ethically-­conscious  future,  where  beauty  can  be  more  than  skin  deep.

8JUI DSVFMUZ GSFF WFSTJPOT PG GBCVMPVTMZ GBTIJPOBCMF DMPUIFT BOE BDDFTTPSJFT UIFSF T IPQF GPS VT ZFU put  back  into  the  community,  where  the  aim  is  to  change  the  lives  of  thousands  of  people.  Charlie  explained  that  the  principles  of  The  Body  Shop  are  about  supporting  and  aiming  to  meet  wider  com-­ munity  goals,  and  that  we  should  not  forget  money  once  it  is  spent  on  a  product,  but  think  about  how  it  goes  on  to  affect  the  world,  and  people’s  lives.  We  all  want  the  freedom  of  choice,  but  Charlie  explained  choice  over  what  you  buy  and  where  you  shop  is  also  a  responsibility  in  improving  ethical  values  and  connections  between  customers  and  producers.  Firmly  against  cosmetic  animal  testing, Â

Event 13 The

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Primetime

Spoons $IBOOFM QN 'SJEBZ Spoons  is  a  brand  spanking  new  off  the  wall  comedy  sketch  show  from  Channel  4.  Created  by  the  team  responsible  for  Jimmy  Carr’s  quiz  show  ‘8  out  of  10  cats’  and  partially  written  by  Charlie  Brooker  (responsible  for  Nathan  Barley),  it  is  an  attempt  at  a  comedy  show  to  suit  the  twenty  and  thirty  something  love  scene  featuring  the  talents  of  Rob  Rouse,  Kevin  Bishop  and  Josie  D’arby  to  name  a  few  of  the  many  comedians  in  the  programme.  The  basic  premise  is  that  it  shows  the  viewer  the  lives  and  loves  of  a  group  of  urbanites  as  they  date,  mate  and  ditch  one  another,  providing  a  few  laughs  along  the  way.  The  opening  episode  introduced  us  to  the  woman  who,  at  every  inopportune  moment,  informs  her  partner  in  a  very  un-­Brit-­ ish  manner  that  all  she  wants  is  a  ‘f***ing  baby’,  as  well  as  the  guy  whose  idea  of  an  early  night  involves  getting  a  few  hours  in  on  his  Playstation  and  the  husband  who  offers  to  cook  dinner  as  a  ‘one  off  treat’  after  his  wife  has  given  birth.  The  fast  pacing  of  the  sketches  holds  the  viewer’s  attention  by  cutting  from  one  scene  to  another  without  leaving  time  for  jokes  to  get  stale.

Suds

:PVS EPTF PG TPBQ OFXT )PMMZPBLT   As  another  year  begins,  along  with  it  comes  a  fresh  new  set  of  stu-­ dents  to  the  village.  They  have  not  featured  much  so  far,  but  Jessica  and  Olivia  (who  are  living  in  the  student  at)  will  be  making  a  big  im-­ pact  -­  especially  in  the  fresher’s  week  celebrations.  The  Hunters  are  all Â ďŹ nally  set  to  leave  for  Cyprus,  leaving  Lee  and  Bombhead  behind  and  making  way  for  the  arrival  of  the  new  family.

The  Chester  police  force  are  out  in  their  strength  around  the  village  with  one  ofďŹ cer  permanently  stationed  outside  Becca’s,  causing  much  stress  and  gossip  for  all  the  residents.  Steph  tried  a  man-­free  phase  of  her  life,  but  she  begins  a  secret  relationship  with  Cameron  (of  all  people)  this  week  after  they  wake  up  in  each  other’s  arms.  There  are  yet  more  arguments  with  Mandy  and  Tony  over  Dominic’s  help  with  The  Loft  opening  party,  which  is  set  to  be  a  dramatic  night  as  the  new  characters  mix  with  the  old  and  a  series  of  surprising  events  unfold.  #FDLZ 3VUU

/FJHICPVST Erinsborough  hospital  has  certainly  seen  a  lot  of  action  recently,  what  with  Darcy  waking  up  from  his  coma  with  forged  memory  loss  and  a  dodgy  hair  do,  Paul  having  his  leg  amputated  and  Kayla  giving  birth  to  the  Hoyland’s  baby.  This  all  occurred  under  the  supervision  of  the  only  doctor  in  Australia,  the  trusty  Karl  Kennedy.  However,  instead  of  caring  for  all  of  Ramsay  Street,  perhaps  Karl  should  have  been  waking  up  to  smell  the  coffee  at  home  as  Izzy’s Â ďŹ endish  ways  landed  her  in  hot  water  when  she  was  blackmailed  into  defending  Darcy  in  court.          Humour  was  added  as  Conner  aka  Father  O’Neill  who  was  roped  into  a  meeting  with  Stuart,  Sindi  and  Stuart’s Â ďŹ ercely  religious  aunt.  However,  Conner’s  cover  was  blown  when  said  aunt  spotted  him  helping  a  busty  blonde  fasten  the  straps  of  her  bikini  in  his  and  Toad-­ ie’s  new  swimwear  shop.   On  top  of  this,  Neighbours  really  heated  up  when  Susan  gave  Izzy  twenty  four  hours  to  tell  Karl  that  he  was  not  the  father  of  her  child.

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Event The

Despite  this  rapid-Â­ďŹ re  nature  of  the  comedy,  Spoons  is  hardly  a  breath  of  fresh  air  and  fails  to  add  anything  original  to  the  comedy  arena.  However,  it  does  provide  its  audience  with  situations  that  most  of  us  can  relate  to,  such  as  having  the  ‘it’s  not  you  it’s  me’  talk  with  a  uncooperative  partner  and  the  obligatory  meet  the  par-­ ents  session.  Additionally,  it  is  nice  to  have  a  completely  new  pro-­ gramme  with  fresh  faces  on  Channel  4’s  supposed  Friday  comedy  night,  which  usually  consists  of  ‘The  Simpsons’  and  ‘Friends’.  It  is  also  pleasing  to  see  some  home  grown  entertainment  on  a  chan-­ nel  that  is  heavily  dominated  by  huge  budget  American  shows.  Although  the  over-­hyped  Spoons  is  fairly  amusing,  it  will  not  have  you  splitting  your  sides  and  you  will  most  likely  be  left  feeling  disappointed  that  you  have  already  seen  most  of  the  funny  bits  in  the  promotional  adverts.  Perhaps  the  urban  relationship  theme  has  proved  too  narrow  for  the  writers  or  –  more  plausibly  -­  maybe  the  show  just  lacks  a  certain  spark.  A  good  comparison  to  make  is  that  it’s  style  is  similar  to  Smack  The  Pony,  but  with  none  of  that  show’s  comedy  or  brilliance.

The  overall  verdict  is  that  Spoons  is  a  good  but  not  great  com-­ edy  show.  If  you’re  stuck  in  on  a  Friday  night  when  everyone  else  has  gone  out,  then  there  are  far  worse  programmes  to  watch,but  don’t  bother  to  set  the  tape  recorder  if  you’re  joining  them.  A  far  better  idea  is  to  use  your  Friday  night  to  take  a  trip  to  the  real  ‘Spoons’  and  make  your  own  relationship  faux  pas  for  your  mates  to  laugh  at.  The  potential  for  humour  there  is  far  greater  and  much  closer  to  the  mark  than  Spoons  could  ever  hope  to  be.

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/BUIBO #BSMFZ b 3FMFBTFE Nathan  Barley  is  the  media  obsessed  creator  of  the  “out-­thereâ€?  website  www.trashbat.co.uk.  In  his  own  words,  the  website  is  an  “online  urban  culture  dispatch,â€?  which  basically  means  it  is Â ďŹ lled  with  vacuous  rubbish  such  as  cheap  animations  of  masturbating  monkeys,  strange  anti-­Bush  videos  and  clips  of  Barley  “prankingâ€?  his  at-­mate  Pingu  by  electrocuting  him  with  car  batteries.  “Welcome  to  the  age  of  stupidity,â€?  states  Dan  Ashcroft  in  the  introduction  to  episode  one,  “and  hail  the  rise  of  the  idiotâ€?.  Ash-­ croft  is  the  scruffy  looking  champion  of  sense  in  Nathan  Barley.  He  is  a  small  time  journalist  who  works  for  a  similarly  vacuous  publica-­ tion  called  “Sugar  Ape;Ížâ€?  a  magazine  containing  highlights  such  as  reducing  its  title  to  “Rapeâ€?  to  cause  controversy  for  controversy’s  sake.  Ashcroft’s  sister,  Claire,  also  features.  She  is  a  serious Â ďŹ lm-­ maker  struggling  to  get  her  documentary  made  about  the  down  and  outs  of  London  amidst  the  dross  producing  companies  and  publi-­ cations  that  surround  her.  She  is  lured  into  the  world  of  Barley  when  he  offers  her  all  the  editing  facilities  of  the  trashbat.co.ck  ofďŹ ce.  Each  episode  features  Dan  Ashcroft  attempting  (in  vain)  to  beat  the  dross  wielding  media  junkies  of  the  world  of  Nathan  Bar-­ ley.  In  the Â ďŹ rst  episode  he  writes  an  article  titled  “The  Rise  of  the Â

Idiots�  in  which  he  attacks  everyone  he  works  with.  This  is  soon  turned  around  and  used  by  these  idiots,  who  are  so  blind  as  to  not  see  that  the  article  is  aimed  at  them.  By  episode  two,  Ashcroft  is  dubbed  the  “preacher-­man�  by  his  colleagues;͞  a  title  that  he  des-­ perately  tries  to  shake  off.  He  is  pictured  on  the  front  cover  of  Sugar  Ape  “slaughtering  the  pigs  of  ignorance�  and  is  forced  to  wear  a  full  preacher  man  costume  to  a  gig  that  Barley  is  hosting.

Nathan  Barley  is  directed  and  co-­written  by  Chris  Morris  (of  Brass  Eye  and  The  Day  Today  fame)  and  Charlie  Brooker  (writer  of  an  acerbic  TV  column  in  the  Guardian).  It  shares  the  same  sharp  satirical  edge  of  Morris’  earlier  programmes  and  is  very  funny  in  places.  Where  the  series  falls  down,  however,  is  the  severe  cringe-­ worthiness  of  its  characters,  who  can  be  even  more  wince-­inducing  than  David  Brent.  It  also  satirises  a  world  which  not  many  view-­ ers  will  be  familiar  with;Íž  a  small-­knit  group  of  media-­junkies  in  and  around  London.  Despite  these  drawbacks,  Nathan  Barley  takes  a  very  funny  and  clever  look  at  the  pretentious  side  of  the  world  of  art  and  media.  Though  not  as  hard-­hitting  as  Brass  Eye,  Morris  fans  will  undoubtedly Â ďŹ nd  something  here  to  enjoy. &XBO "OEFSTPO

Telly  Classics 5IF (PPE -JGF Far  more  than  just  a  telly  classic,  “The  Good  Lifeâ€?  highlighted  the  issues  involved  in  becoming  self-­sufďŹ cient  in  suburbia  whilst  also  emphasising  the  eccentricities  of  the  middle  class.  Tom  and  Bar-­ bara  Good  (played  excellently  by  Richard  Briers  and  Felicity  Kendal)  give  up  their  luxurious  lifestyles  in  order  to  quit  the  rat  race  and  shunning  everything  other  families  expect  of  a  20th  Century  society.  This  sacriďŹ ce  is  made  clear  by  virtue  of  the  Good’s  neighbours,  Mar-­ got  and  Jerry  Leadbetter  (Penelope  Keith  and  Paul  Eddington).  This  is  especially  true  of  Margot,  who  is  the  ultimate  representation  of  middle  class  snobbery  and  cannot  survive  without  home  comforts.  Although  these  two  families  almost  certainly  hold  different  values  close  to  heart,  their  friendship  is  eminent  and  a  focal  point  of  the  series;Íž  their  differing  stances  on  life,  instead  of  provoking  conict, Â

bind  them  closer  together.  Tom  and  Barbara’s  efforts  are  fraught  with  difďŹ culty  and,  despite  there  being  times  when  they  could  easily  give  up,  their  persistence  is  well  received  by  the  audience  as  they  resist  the  temptation  to  succumb  to  the  pleasures  put  before  them. “The  Good  Lifeâ€?  ran  for  3  years,  encompassing  28  half  hour  episodes  and  2  specials  and  was  one  of  the  BBC’s  most  popular  comedy  series  in  the  late  70s,  with  even  the  Queen  being  proud  to  be  one  of  the  series’  most  dedicated  fans.  It  has  stood  the  test  of  time  and  deďŹ ed  the  anarchy  of  “alternativeâ€?  comedies  that  emerged  in  the  1980s,  such  as  “The  Young  Onesâ€?  which  stepped  away  from  the  traditional  family  appeal  in  favour  of  the  growing  youth  move-­ ment. #FO 4QBSTIPU

Art

Theatre

Purgatory and Footfalls 6&" %SBNB 4UVEJP 'SJEBZ UI 4FQUFNCFS If you were looking for an evening of theatre designed to lift you out of your melancholy post-­fresher’s week daze, you would have done well to steer clear of the double bill on offer at the UEA studio on Friday 30th September and Saturday 1st October. However, the Yeats/Beckett pairing of two equally morbid plays worked well, with the male dominated ‘Purgatory’ by Yeats proceeding a more feminine ‘Footfalls’.

Both plays were directed by MA director Mhari Gallagher with an almost slavish attention to the text;; the words dictat-­ ing the actors’ physicality. The ability of Ben Henson (Boy), Ed Birch (Old Man), Suzie Edgeley (Voice) and Charlotte Slater (May), to give us each word almost on a plate allowed the audience to mull over each consonant and syllable as we were drawn into the characters’ dark worlds.

Ed Birch gave a stunning performance as the Old Man in Yeats’ ‘Purgatory’ proving that he is a truly versatile actor.

He was strongly supported by Ben Henson’s convincing performance as his bewildered and inquisitive son.

The language in ‘Footfalls’ had a lyrical quality with Suzie Edgeley and Charlotte Slater giving wonderful and challeng-­ ing vocal performances. Suzie Edgeley as the voice of the mother offstage was hauntingly sombre, each word echoing in the studio space with a kind of eerie constancy. As an introduction to Beckett’s abstract, discordant language, it

was both revealing and enchanting.

Neither play demanded elaborate visual presentation, there-­ fore the attention to the dress, hair and make-­up of the char-­ acter of May in ‘Footfalls’ seemed almost too carefully con-­ structed. The lighting lent a sense of limited space on an otherwise large and barren stage. The intricate detail in the costume design sometimes detracted from the character’s own words, which were few and far between.

‘Purgatory’ had a sparse but effective set consisting of a stylised barren tree and rock, however, it was the lighting design that truly contributed to the piece. The lights were made up of cold, eerie blues and greens, lending a macabre ambience to the play’s unsettling proceedings.

Despite the two main characters being masculine, the re-­ peated image of the crazed mother both at the start and again at the end of the play lent a sense of female domina-­ tion to Ed Birch’s obsessed and unstable character, ending finally in an act of desperation that seemed hopelessly futile against the eternal repetition of his mind’s hallucinations.

Both pieces were ultimately successes, showcasing the tal-­ ent of UEA’s drama students and the directing ability of its MA scholars. A wonderful way to start the year, and a prom-­ ising premiere for all involved!

(MPSJB 4BOEFST BOE 1IJMJQQB 0 4IBVHIOFTTZ

Bestsellers 1 +POBUIBO 4USBOHF BOE .S /PSSFMM Susanna Clarke £7.99 Bloomsbury

2 5IF %B 7JODJ $PEF Dan Brown £6.99 Corgi Adult

3 4DPUMBOE 4USFFU Alexander McCall Smith £6.99 Abacus

4 5IF 8PSME "DDPSEJOH UP $MBSLTPO Jeremy Clarkson £6.99 Penguin

5 "OHFMT BOE %FNPOT Dan Brown £6.99 Corgi Adult

6 5IF 'JWF 1FPQMF :PV .FFU JO )FBWFO Mitch Alborn £7.99 Vintage

7 5IF 5JNF 5SBWFMMFS T 8JGF Audrey Niffeneger £6.99 Time Warner Paperbacks

8 "VTDIXJU[ Laurence Rees, £12.00 Ebury Press

9 %FDFQUJPO 1PJOU Dan Brown £7.99 Vintage

10 %JHJUBM 'PSUSFTT Dan Brown £8.99 BBC Books =

Books

-BVHIJOH .BUUFST 4UFWF +BDPCJ When you pick up a book there is usually some-­ thing you want to gain from reading it, to learn more about a subject, to be entertained, to be made to think. Rarely do you read something you don’t want to. This thought presents itself almost immediately upon reading the back cov-­ er of Radio 4 contributor Steven Jacobi’s third book, which is a recent memoir of his three month foray into stand up comedy.

He begins with a scanty justification of his innate comedic abilities, using an old school report, dropping in a few funny anecdotes, and his father’s genetic influence to settle the case.

The rest of the book then goes through his few gigs on the open mic circuit in Britain, and de-­ tails his travels to the states. It turns out that his gigs are not spectacular successes, prob-­ ably because, as he sees it, his heart wasn’t in it, and rather than doing well he was merely

‘getting away with it’.

These are hardly the musings of a comedic genius, but they don’t pretend to be. Jaco-­ bi’s idea was to see if he could turn a strong, though introverted, belief that laughter is im-­ portant to people into a written act. Through-­ out the text are theoretical justifications of the cultural value of comedy used by Jacobi to jus-­ tify his actions, and the book. So the answer to the obvious question is that it is a demonstra-­ tion of the importance of comedy, especially in Britain. However, there is something troubling about an unknown comedian, who has only done stand-­up rather dispassionately for three months, writing an account of the virtues of laughter. It is an interesting read, but there is no newness here, only repetition, although it is repetition that can be sympathised with.

"MFY 'MVY

4NBTIFE ,PSFO ;BJMDLBT Koren Zailckas’ memoir will strike a chord with anyone who has woken up three-­and-­a-­ half minutes before a nine o’clock lecture con-­ vinced that they must have been drinking pure paraffin the previous night. The story charts Koren’s drinking from the tender age of fourteen, through to her eventual realisation at the age of twenty-­three that her habit has evolved into abuse. Black-­ outs, vomiting, assaults and near death experiences are described with a brutal honesty and regularity that shocks.

Although the recurrence of so many nights spent in the gutter grows tiring

after a while, the book serves as a moral warn-­ ing and the repetition only serves to emphasise the excess. Koren’s drunken antics will be rec-­ ognisable to many, especially during her time spent at university where the combination of cheap drink and no parental supervi-­ sion rings true.

At a time when female bing-­ ing is rivalling, if not equalling, male drinking, this book conveys the caution that it’s not just alco-­ holics who abuse alcohol. #SFOEBO "QQMFUPO

Event 15 The

Film

Main  Feature

A  History  of  Violence %JS %BWJE $SPOFOCFSH 3FMFBTFE %BUF

With  its  enthusiastic  absorption  and  redeployment  of  the  most  American  of Â ďŹ lm  genres  and  motifs,  from Â ďŹ lm  noir  to  the  lone  Western  renegade,  A  History  of  Violence  sounds  a  ring  of  familiarity  that  Hollywood  has  been  listening  out  for  from  David  Cronenberg  since  the  (relative)  commercial  success  of  his  1980s  ‘body  horror’  spectaculars,  Scanners  and  The  Fly.  A  History  of  Violence  sports  a  $32  million  budget,  courtesy  of  New  Line,  and  has  certainly  made  a  good  opening  here:  after  its Â ďŹ rst  weekend  it  stood  second  only  to  Pride  &  Prejudice  at  the  box  ofďŹ ce.  But  what  kind  of  a  Cronenberg Â ďŹ lm  is  it  that  comes  face-­to-­face  with  mainstream  audiences?

One  answer  is,  a Â ďŹ lm  without  car-­crash  sex-­fetishes,  without  giant  jism-­secreting  reptiles,  and  without  the  seductive  throb  of Â

newly  opened  abdominal  slit;Íž  another  answer  is  a Â ďŹ lm  that,  at  least  superďŹ cially,  takes  place  on  one  unchanging  level  of  reality.  After  Spider  and  eXistenZ,  A  History  of  Violence  does  come  as  a  kind  of  relief,  a  release  from  the  claustrophobic  and  unstable  mindscapes  of  the  protagonists  there,  and  into  a  recognisable  world  of  small-­ town  diners,  high  school,  and  good  American  coffee.  The  homeli-­ ness  is  of  a  disquieting,  Lynchian  nature  though,  and  we  sense  that  the  idyllic  rural  life  of  Tom  and  his  family  is  under  threat,  partly  because  it  basks  in  a  too-­perfect  light  of  contentment,  and  partly  because  there  are  bad  men  on  the  loose.

Cronenberg’s Â ďŹ lm  is  about  bad  men,  heroes,  and  the  differ-­ ence  there  might  be  between  the  two.  After  meeting  two  ruthless  hitmen  for  whom  violence  is  a  day-­to-­day  duty,  we  move  into  the  Stall  household,  where  decent  working  father  Tom  heads  a  loving  family:  wife  Edie,  teenage  son  Jack  and  six-­year-­old  daughter  Sarah.  A  cloud  rolls  over  their  domestic  happiness  when  Tom  is  held  up  at  his  diner  by  the  hitmen;Íž  he  dispatches  them  with  suspicious  and  vicious  ease,  and  his  family-­man  identity  is  subsequently  called  into  question  by  menacing  gangster  Ed  Harris.  The  echoes  of  Hol-­ lywood  Westerns  sound  through  the  early  parts  of  the Â ďŹ lm,  as  Tom  defends  his  territory  with  a  mixture  of  upright  gallantry  and  near-­ superhuman  force.  The  violence  itself,  which  allows  for  the  odd  ash  of  Cronen-­ bergian  gloopy  gore,  acts  as  both  a  relief  from  the  unbearable  Cape  Fear-­inected  tension,  and  as  a  disturbing  reminder  of  the  pleasure Â

we  take  from  violent  movies.  In  one  scene,  Tom’s  mild-­mannered  son  Jack  (Ashton  Holmes)  is  being  ribbed  once  again  by  the  school  bully;Íž  when  he  snaps  and  delivers  a  retaliatory  punch  we  cheer  him  on  as  a Â ďŹ nally  turned  worm.  But  as  his  aggression  escalates  into  a  psychotic  rage,  all  thoughts  of  heroic  justice  are  forgotten,  and  the  violence  becomes  its  own  alarming  spectacle  –  with  Jack  lost  in  the  centre.   Elsewhere,  A  History  of  Violence  plays  on  the  inherent  absurd-­ ity  of  screen  violence,  running  sequences  to  the  tune  of  Chaplin’s  deadpan  slapstick.  Mortensen’s  performance  is  riveting  precisely  because  of  his  stonefaced  restraint,  and  his  ‘mutation’  from  whole-­ some  father  to  cold-­blooded  killer,  with  barely  a  change  in  expres-­ sion,  is  an  astonishing  thing  to  watch.  Ashton  Holmes’  Jack,  as  a  sort  of  twinned  extension  of  Tom,  is  a  brilliantly  intense  study  of  a  son  at  once  betrayed  and  empowered  by  his  newly  violent  fa-­ ther,  and  he  also  delivers  the  funniest  lines,  bitterly  asking  Tom,  ‘if  I  went  and  told  Sam  [the  town  sheriff ]  about  you,  would  you  have  me  whacked?’  In  a Â ďŹ lm  concerned  with  the  human  capacity  for  fantastic  deception  (of  self  as  much  as  of  others),  the  acting  appropriately Â ďŹ ne.  And  in  a Â ďŹ lm  centred  on  a  two-­level  identity,  Cronenberg’s  narrative  performs  an  apt  double-­act  that  includes  both  a  superbly  tense  thriller  and  a  disturbing  fantasy  of  masculine  superpower.  4FC .BOMFZ

Other  screens 4FSFOJUZ %JS +PTT 8IFEPO 3FMFBTFE

/JHIU 8BUDI %JS :JNVS #FLNBNCFUPW 3FMFBTFE

Normally,  one  wouldn’t  expect  much  from  a Â ďŹ lm  based  on  a  TV  series,  especially  one  cancelled  in  its Â ďŹ rst  season.  However,  Joss  Whedon’s  sci-Â­ďŹ /western  hybrid  is  fun,  thrilling  and  exciting.  We  follow  the  crew  of  the  Serenity  as  they  are  chased  by  the  devious  Alliance  and  canni-­ balistic  (and  scary)  Reavers,  and  our  affection  for  this  motley  bunch  grows  throughout.  Of  particular  note  is  Captain  Malcolm  Reynolds  (Nathan  Fillion),  a  rugged,  tough  cowboy  who  commands  genuine  admiration.  The  middle  section  feels  slightly  lost,  after  the  fast-­paced  beginning,  and  the  story  seems  to  wander.  But  it  picks  itself  up  for  a  climactic  ending,  which  is  infused  with  a  constant  feeling  of  peril.  When  Whedon  brings  out  the  CGI  guns,  the  sense  of  awe  builds,  with  no  loss  in  story  thanks  to  the  witty  dialogue  and  the  cast,  who  give  their  parts  everything.  Even  if  you’re  not  a  fan  of  sci-Â­ďŹ ,  come  for  the  action,  suspense  and  humour.  This Â ďŹ lm  really  does  have  it  all,  and  even  has  the  promise  of  a  sequel.

"OEZ +VETPO

Heavy  on  the  good-­versus-­evil  vernacular  but  compelling  nonethe-­ less,  Night  Watch  is  a  Russian  gothic  horror  epic  run  through  the  twin Â ďŹ lters  of  American  sci-Â­ďŹ -­action  and  European  art  cinema.  The  results  are  both  familiar  and  startling  –  occasionally  to  the  point  of  bewilder-­ ment.  As  part  of  an  eventual  trilogy  (to  be  completed  by  Day  Watch  and  Dusk  Watch)  some  loose  ends  are  par  for  the  course,  but  most  viewers  will Â ďŹ nd  the  dense,  bathetic  narration  and  visual  extravaganc-­ es  –  which  include  slow-­  and  fast-­motion,  giddy  camera  movements,  and  a  line  in  jumping,  morphing  subtitles  –  take  some  time  to  ease  in  to.  A  little  patience  is  rewarded  though,  and  the  pleasures  on  offer  are  many  and  varied,  from  the  ghoulish  splendour  of  the  evil  ‘Dark  Other’  ranks,  to  the  teasingly  allegorical  plight  of  our  hero  Anton  (a  saviour?  or  a  Russian  MaďŹ a  boss?),  to  the Â ďŹ ne  performances,  which  steer  clear  of  Matrix-­style  posturing  in  favour  of  a  wry,  mournful  naturalism.  4FC .BOMFZ

(PBM %JS %BOOZ $BOOPO 3FMFBTFE

1SJEF 1SFKVEJDF %JS +PF 8SJHIU 3FMFBTFE

At  a  time  when  a  whole  raft  of  football  related Â ďŹ lms  are  being  pro-­ duced  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  Goal!,  a  classic  rags-­to-­riches  sporting  fairytale,  is  the Â ďŹ rst  to  be  released.  The  basic  premise  follows  Los  Angeles-­based,  Mexico-­born  Santiago  Munez  (Becker),  and  his  rise  from  poverty  stricken  manual  worker  to  Premiership  star,  thanks  to  a  chance  meeting  with  former  professional  Glen  Foy  (Stephen  Dil-­ lane),  Directed  by  Danny  Cannon,  the Â ďŹ lm  gets  no  marks  for  original-­ ity,  but  this  is  not  to  discredit  it.  Historically  the  world’s  premiere  sport  hasn’t  made  a  smooth  transition  to  the  silver  screen,  but  this  is  the  rarest  of  things,  a  decent  football  movie.  Despite  the  occasion-­ ally  sloppy  script,  the Â ďŹ lm  earns  its  stripes  thanks  to  some  excellent  supporting  performances,  a  quality  soundtrack  and  some  genuinely  convincing  on-­pitch  action  scenes.  Watch  out  too  for  some  dubiously  wooden  cameos  from  Alan  Shearer,  David  Beckham,  Zinedine  Zidane  and  Raul! Â

TV  director  Joe  Wright’s  retelling  of  Austen’s  novel  follows  in  well-­re-­ garded  footsteps,  but  this  big-­screen  version  holds  its  own  gracefully  against  the  1995  BBC  series,  excepting  the  presence  of  a  rather  dopey  Matthew  Macfadyen  (of  Spooks  fame)  as  Mr.  Darcy.  The  sparkling  jewel  in  a  crown  of Â ďŹ rst-­rate  actors  is  Kiera  Knightly,  whose  jubilant  Lizzy  is  a  wonder  to  watch;Íž  elsewhere,  Brenda  Blethyn  turns  in  a  per-­ fectly  hennish  Mrs.  Bennet,  Rosamund  Pike  and  Jena  Malone  (Gretch-­ en  from  Donnie  Darko)  make  striking,  smiley  impressions  from  small  roles,  and  Donald  Sutherland’s  white-­haired  patriarch  leads  a  series  of  beautifully  poignant  scenes  with  his  daughter.  Indeed,  the Â ďŹ lm’s Â ďŹ nal  shot  leaves  us  not  with  a  climatic  Lizzy/Mr.  Darcy  embrace,  but  an  image  of  Mr.  Bennet  tearfully  contemplating  Lizzy’s  departure.  It’s  a  sincerely  moving Â ďŹ nale,  and  though  some  fans  have  bemoaned  the  absence  of  a  kiss  between  the  two  suitors,  there  is  no  doubting  Pride  &  Prejudice’s  complex,  near-­Altmanesque  ensemble  scene-­playing,  grand  landscape  photography,  and  general  good-­humour.   Â

#SZBO %BWJFT

4FC .BOMFZ

16

Event The

4FSFOJUZ

DVD  Releases .POTUFS %JS 1BUUZ +FOLJOT 3FMFBTFE CZ 1SJTN -FJTVSF Up  until  now,  it  has  been  very  difďŹ cult  to  take  Charlize  Theron  se-­ riously.  However,  her  intense  and  powerful  performance  as  real-­life  prostitute  turned  serial  killer  Aileen  Wuornos  thoroughly  deserves  its  Oscar.  At  the Â ďŹ lm’s  beginning,  we  are  sympathetic  towards  the  desperate  hooker,  but  when  Wuornos  hooks  up  with  naive  lesbian  Selby  the Â ďŹ lm  takes  a  warm  turn,  as  the  affair  plays  out  like  a  charm-­ ing  romance.  Of  special  note  is  the  scene  where  the  pair  dance  awk-­ wardly  at  a  roller-­disco.  But  the  sweetness  becomes  bitter  as  Wuor-­ nos  turns  to  murder  out  of  self-­defence.  The  feeling  of  empowerment  goes  to  her  head,  and  the  viewer  will  struggle  with  their  feelings  as  we  become  increasingly  sympathetic  towards  Wuornos’  victims,  who  change  from  violent  thugs  to  honest  men.  The  end  is  tragic,  and  this Â ďŹ lm  certainly  cannot  be  watched  lightly.  But  Theron  lives  up  to  the  hype,  and  if  you  can  stomach  the  dark  humour,  then  Monster  is  deďŹ -­ nitely  worth  a  watch.

"OEZ +VETPO

8JUIOBJM * %JS #SVDF 3PCJOTPO 3FMFBTFE CZ "ODIPS #BZ Budget  release  of  the  perennial  student Â ďŹ lm,  based  on  director  Bruce  Robinson’s  experience  of  the  sixties  and  best  known  for  the  highly  quotable,  highly  uproarious  script  (“Scrubbers!â€?)  Richard  E.  Grant  and  Paul  McGann  are  two  permanently  pissed,  unemployed  actors  who  go  on  holiday  by  mistake  and Â ďŹ nd  themselves  at  the  mercy  of  Richard  GrifďŹ ths’  exhubarant,  raving  and  pointedly  gay  Uncle  Monty.  Ralph  Brown  also  makes  an  appearance  as  the  inventor  of  the  Cam-­ berwell  Carrot,  who  believes  that  hair  is  used  to  pick  up  radio  signals  from  the  cosmos.  Performances  are  all  pleasingly  manic,  and  the  ending  lends  an  air  of  gloomy  poignancy  to  the  otherwise  entirely  rumbunctious  proceedings,  as  the  fortunes  of  Withnail  and  Marwood  deviate  sharply  from  one  another.  The  humour  will  not  appeal  to  all,  however,  and  those  wanting  a  satisfying  plot  may  be  disappointed. +PO 4UPOF

&TDBQF 'SPN /FX :PSL 4QFDJBM &EJUJPO %JS +PIO $BSQFOUFS 3FMFBTFE CZ TUVEJP Trying  to  describe  Escape  From  New  York  in  so  little  space  is  a  chal-­ lenge  indeed,  yet  no  amount  of  words  would  be  enough  for  me  to  express  the  hatred  this Â ďŹ lm  deserves.  Directed  by  celebrated  hack  John  Carpenter,  we  are  led  into  a  world  of  double-­cross,  intrigue,  and  gaping  holes  in  this  excuse  for  a  plot  as  Snake  Pliskin  (Kurt  Russell)  and  his  gun  (roughly  the  size  of  Belgium)  are  sent  into  the  maximum  security  island  prison  (which  New  York  will  become  in  the  not-­so-­ distant  future)  to  rescue  the  President  of  the  United  States  from  the  inmates  of  said  establishment  after  his  plane  crash-­lands.  The  acting  and  characters  are  two-­dimensional  without  exception,  the  premise  of  the Â ďŹ lm  itself  is  ridiculous,  and  the  extras  give  singularly  the  worst  performances  ever  witnessed,  coupled  with  the  fact  they  look  like  re-­ jects  from  a  bizarre  hybrid  of  Michael  Jackson  videos  and  the  Disney  version  of  Peter  Pan.  Please,  do  not  watch  this Â ďŹ lm.  Please.  (SBOU )PXJUU

"O "NFSJDBO 8FSFXPMG JO -POEPO %JS +PIO -BOEJT 3FMFBTFE CZ 6OJWFSTBM 1JDUVSFT

This  lavish,  full-­blooded  two-­disc  release  of  John  Landis’  1981  horror  masterwork  packs  a  splendid  set  of  extras,  including  interviews  with  makeup  effects  supervisor  Rick  Baker  and  Landis,  an  actors  commen-­ tary,  and  a  technical  effects  featurette.  The  focus  on  special  effects  is  understandable,  given  the  remarkable  nature  of  the  wolf  transforma-­ tion  scenes,  but  the Â ďŹ lm’s  spectacular  moments  (which  also  include  the  talking,  rotting  corpse)  form  only  part  of  a  tense,  unnervingly  sur-­ real  psychological  thriller.  David’s  horriďŹ c  dreams  –  in  which  he Â ďŹ nds  himself  and  his  hospital  bed  inexplicably  moved  to  a  forest,  where  he  chases,  catches,  and  gorges  himself  on  a  still-­living  deer  –  remain  particularly  vivid,  drawing  as  they  do  on  the  visual  language  of  art  cinema,  and  putting  it  to  nerve-­jangling  use  within  the  horror  genre.  4FC .BOMFZ

Special  Feature Marilyn  Monroe  Screen  Goddesses  Boxset Â

Marilyn  Monroe;Íž  where  to  start  with  Marilyn  Monroe?  Both  dur-­ ing  her  sad  life,  and  after  her  shadowy  death,  Marilyn  Monroe  has  meant  very  different  things  to  different  people.  She  has  been  de-­ ďŹ ned  alternately  as  a  wife,  a  daughter,  a  pin-­up  favourite,  a  drug  ad-­ dict,  an  alcoholic,  an  immensely  talented  screen  actress,  and Â ďŹ nally  a  tragic  example  of  the  pitfalls  of  Hollywood  super-­stardom.  Even  a  brief  glance  at  the  course  of  her  life  can  tell  you  how  she  wasn’t  cut  out  for  the  Hollywood  machine  of  the  50s  and  60s.  She  was  an  orphan  for  her Â ďŹ rst  7  years,  and  afterwards  her  relationship  with  her  mother  was  unstable.  She  pushed  the  young  Monroe  to  wear  make-­ up  and  often  took  her  to  the  movies,  which  may  have  been  where  she  developed  the  fantasy  of  being  a  beautiful  star.  This  dream,  which  created  the  Marilyn  Monroe  we  know,  ultimately  destroyed  her  and  her  second,  and  most  cherished  marriage  with  Joe  DiMag-­ gio,  the  man  she  was  to  marry  two  days  after  she  eventually  died.

More  recently  Monroe  has  been  looked  at  by  sociologists  and  historians  in  terms  of  the  political  culture  she  represented.  S.  Paige  Baty  for  instance  claims  that  Monroe’s  image  endures  because  she  characterised  a  media-­driven  America  where  identity  was  steeped  in  uncertainty  and  thus  deďŹ ned  by  popular  imagery.  Steinem,  on  the  other  hand,  talks  of  Marilyn’s  inability  to  integrate  her  personal  image  with  her  media  one,  and  this  conicting  identity  resulted  in  her  emotional  instability.  Apart  from  the  lessons  to  be  learned  from  her  life,  Monroe’s  main  legacy  is  her Â ďŹ lms.  Over  the  course  of  a  16 Â

year  career  she  appeared  in  29 Â ďŹ lms.  The  collection  under  discus-­ sion  does  not  include  all  of  these,  but  only  four  where  she  has  the  lead  role.  Ladies  of  the  Chorus  (1948)  is  an  interesting  work  simply  because  of  the  innocence  with  which  Marilyn  acts,  though  the  story  itself  is  underdeveloped  and  unrewarding.  The  other Â ďŹ lms,  Home  Town  Story  (1951),  Some  Like  it  Hot  (1959),  and  the  immense  The  MisďŹ ts  (1961),  demonstrate  the  range,  if  not  entirety  of  her  acting  capabilities.  In  The  MisďŹ ts  she  plays  a  recently  divorced  young  woman  named  Rosalyn,  who  has  the  gift  of  life  and  yearns  to  really  live  and  be  free.  However,  her  naivety  is  at  odds  with  the  immoral  and  ever-­changing  world  that  she  sees.  She  wants  to  be  part  of  the  world,  but  only  according  to  her  own  ideal  of  it,  and  is  thrown  into  crisis  when  she  realises  she  can’t  control  other  people’s  actions.  It  is  quite  simply  a  fantastic Â ďŹ lm,  regardless  of  whether  it  relates  to  Marilyn’s  life;Íž  it  breathes  on  its  own  as  a  piece  of  art.

The  other  discs  contain  three  documentaries  that  remember  Marilyn  and  her  importance  to  the Â ďŹ lm  industry.  Overall,  the  col-­ lection,  concise  rather  than  comprehensive,  serves  as  a  valuable  vehicle  through  which  her  memory  is  projected  and  made  available.  So  that  instead  of  trying  to  provide  an  overcomplicated  picture  of  Marilyn  through  all  her Â ďŹ lms,  both  aspects  of  her  identity  are  made  visible;Íž  that  is,  her  human  side,  as  a  conicted  and  doomed  Ameri-­ can  woman,  and  her  media  self,  as  Marilyn.

"MFY 'MVY

Film

Cinefile N o 100 La  Haine .

-B )BJOF 5IBU NFBOT IBUF EPFTO U JU * N HPPE BU 'SFODI NF 8IZ IBUF *T JU B QBSUJDVMBSMZ WPMBUJMF mMN UIFO Yes  and  no.  The  picture  is  by  no  means  overly  violent  or  graphic,  which  was  director  Mathieu  Kassovitz’s  intention.  The  story  focuses  on  a  day  in  the  life  of  three  disillusioned  Paris  teenagers  who  live  in  a  poverty  stricken  suburb  torn  apart  by  rioting  and  a  fractious  relation-­ ship  between  civilians  and  the  police.  The  three  friends  had  seen  their  friend  brutally  attacked  by  police  in  riots  the  night  before.  During  the  riots  Vinz Â ďŹ nds  a  policeman’s  Smith  &  Wesson  44,  and  vows  to  use  it  to  kill  a  cop  if  their  critical  friend  doesn’t  pull  through.

4P UIF IBUF JT BMM TUPSFE VQ JO UIFTF UFFOBHFST Effectively,  yes.  Our  lead  protagonists,  Vinz,  Said  and  Hubert,  are  a  representation  of  all  the  other  kids  on  their  council  estates.  These  youths  live  a  life  of  petty  crime  with  little  opportunity  to  further  them-­ selves.  Feeling  hard  done  by,  they  take  out  their  angst  on  the  overly  zealous  police  force.  The  vicious  attack  of  their  friend  Abdel  is  the  eye  of  the  storm,  turning  their  home  into  a  permanent  battleground. %PFT 7JO[ VTF UIF HVO JO UIF FOE UIFO Well  that  would  be  telling,  but  the  tension  that  builds  and  surrounds  the  will-­he-­won’t-­he  scenario  is  a  key  component  of  the Â ďŹ lm.  Whilst  violence  and  gun  usage  is  marginalised  within  the Â ďŹ lm,  the  power  of  the  gun  and  its  potential  is  emphasised  by  the  way  it  is  glamorised  by  the  three  friends  as  an  object  of  desire.  The Â ďŹ lm Â ďŹ res  a  warning  of  the  dangerous  potential  of  disenchanted  teens  with  access  to  weapons.

4P XBT UIF mMN JOEJDBUJWF PG QSPCMFNT JO 'SFODI DJUJFT BU UIF UJNF Yes.  The Â ďŹ lm  was  an  extremely  important  dramatisation  of  real  prob-­ lems  the  French  police  were  facing.  It  was  seen  as  an  urgent  wake  up  call  to  the  authorities.  Although  the Â ďŹ lm  offers  no  particular  solu-­ tions,  it  raised  awareness  of  the  problems  many  were  facing  in  their  housing  projects.  Whilst  much  of  the Â ďŹ lm  is  good  humoured,  the  power  of  the  message  is  not  lost.  It  is  interesting  to  consider  that  the  most  startling  violence  within  the Â ďŹ lm  comes  in  the  form  of  the  real  life  documentary  footage  of  the  Paris  riots  of  1994/95.  Kassovitz  shot  in  black  and  white  to  add  to  the  documentary  feel  of  the  picture.

"OE KVTU RVJDLMZ UIBU HVZ 7JO[ 7JODFOU $BTTFMM * TXFBS * WF TFFO IJN TPNFXIFSF SFDFOUMZ You  most  probably  have.  Cassell  used  the  art  house  success  of  the Â ďŹ lm  to  boost  his  career.  Contemporary  audiences  will  recognise  him  as  the  ‘Night  Fox’  from  Ocean’s  Twelve,  and  Marcus  in  the  notorious  Irreversible.     #SZBO %BWJFT

Event 17 The

Music

New  Order Golden   Sounds The  Singles /8"

4USBJHIU 0VUUB $PNQUPO If  ever  there  were  an  album  to  be  hailed  as  historical,  as  opposed  to  simply  being  ground  breaking,  it  would  be  NWA’s  Straight  Outta  Compton.   The  release  in  1988  summed  up  the  unapologetic,  violent  and  sexist  group’s  career  as  simply  the  most  notorious  gangsta  rap  posse  around.   NWA  grew  into  the  revolutionary  Public  Enemy  sound  of  social  awareness  with  self  consciously  dangerous  lyrics.   The  re-­ lease  of  the  single  F*ck  Tha  Police  in  1988,  for  instance,  caused  the  FBI  to  send  a  warning  letter  to  Eazy  E’s  record  company  Ruthless.   The  reputations  and  empires  of  NWA  were  rife  with  controversy  and  contradictions,  as  is  typical  of  the  ever-­prevalent  LA  gang  scene  even  now,  but  the  consider-­ ably  notable  careers  of  Ice  Cube,  Dr  Dre  and  MC  Ren  today  highlight  that  their Â ďŹ ghts  against  social  dissonance  were  as  much  a  part  of  the  music  as  the  beats  and  lyrics  themselves;Íž  “we  make  music  to  p*ss  you  off  so  f*ck  you  if  you  don’t  like  itâ€?.

$IBSMFT 3VNTFZ

Singles

In  the  late  70s,  the  English  post-­punk  movement  was  formed  and,  while  it  incorporated  bands  such  as  The  Fall  and  The  Cure,  was  led  by  Joy  Division.  Their  blend  of  mel-­ ancholic  and  alternative  music,  complete  with  haunting  lyr-­ ics,  is  typiďŹ ed  in  the  seminal  release  ‘Parallel  Lines’  (which  can  be  bought  cheaply  from  any  music  shop  now  –  if  you  don’t  have  it,  go  and  buy  it  now).  On  the  cusp  of  getting  big,  their  singer  Ian  Curtis  tragically  killed  himself.  The  three  re-­ maining  band  members  decided  to  carry  on  and,  in  1981  (a  year  after  that  incident),  they  returned  with  comeback  single  ‘Ceremony’  and  a  new  name  –  New  Order.

This  singles  compilation  spreads  31  songs  over  two  CDs  –  every  single  that  the  band  has  ever  released.  One  thing  noteworthy  about  the  compilation  is  that  the  songs  are  in  chronological  order.  This  means  that  the  listener  can  hear  the  band’s  evolution;Íž  from  the Â ďŹ rst  few  songs  as  the  group  tried  to  cope  with  Curtis’  absence  (singer  and  guitarist  Ber-­ nard  Sumner  sounds  notably  nervous  on  these  songs),  to  singles  from  last  year’s  triumphant  electro-­rock  hybrid  al-­ bum  ‘Waiting  for  the  Siren’s  Call’.  This  way  of  organising  the  tracks  is  a  great  way  for  listeners  to  identify  periods  in  the  band’s  development  that  sounded  better  than  others,  and  more  bands  should  do  this  on  their  ‘Best  Of’  albums;Íž  the  only  other  bands  that  this  reviewer  can  think  of  that  did  so  is  Pulp  and  Green  Day. It  features  all  the  classic  songs  that  everyone  knows  and  loves  (“Blue  Mondayâ€?,  “True  Faithâ€?  and  “World  in  Mo-­

#PEZ 3PDLFST 3PVOE BOE 3PVOE

With  the  same  formula  which  brought  the  Anglo-­

1IBSSFMM GFBU (XFO 4UFGBOJ

$BO * )BWF *U -JLF 5IBU Exactly  how  cool  is  Pharrell  Williams?  How  can  one  man  look  that  good,  dance  that  well,  and  be  everywhere  all  at  the  same  time?  How  does  Phar-­ rell  manage  to  have  his  own  band  (N.E.R.D),  his  own  production  group  (The  Neptunes)  and  now Â ďŹ nd  time  to  produce  a  debut  solo  album  -­  the  forthcoming  In  My  Mind?  Maybe  the  man  is  a  god.  Perhaps  his  one  or  two  of  his  A-­list  bossom  buddies,  Justin  and  Britney  for  instance,  will  tes-­ tify.  Surely  Ms  Stefani  will  agree;Íž  she  guests  on  this  single  after  all.

But  wait!  Before  every  man  reading  this  feels  inad-­ equate  -­  have  no  fear  because  his  debut  single  is  dreadful.  It  sticks  in  the  head  in  the  worst  possible  way,  lodging  in  the  same  part  of  the  brain  that’s  reserved  for  The  Cheeky  Girls  or  The  Crazy  Frog,  or  jingles  from  insurance  adverts.  The  chorus  repeats  over  and  over,  and  just  when  you  think  your  mind  will  melt  the  track  ends  and  the  b-­side  begins  -­  but  there’s  no  respite  for  the  listener  it’s  an  a-­capella  version  of  the  same  dreadful  song!  This  man’s  no  god;͞  he’s  the  devil!

5PN 4UFWFOT

18

Event The

Australian  duo  success  with  their Â ďŹ rst  release  I  Like  The  Way,  Body  Rockers  herald  us  with  another  rhythmic  pounding  of  pop.   The  acceptance  they  have  already  achieved,  as  well  as  the  incorporation  of  a  drummer  and  bassist  in  their  performances  suggests  potential  for  progression.  However,  Round  and  Round  nears  a  carbon  copy  of  their  debut,  but  for  a  transferral  of  the  customary  cli-­ chĂŠd  lyrics.  However,  considering  the  widespread  approval  of  I  Like  The  Way  and  the  act’s  swelling  reputation  as  live  performers,  on  tour  around  the  world,  it  seems  likely  that  this  will  also  prove  popu-­ lar  with  club-­goers.                                              Â

,FMWJO ,OJHIU

/PCPEZ

4LJOESFE

Frenetic  and  tight  from  the  start,  ‘Nobody’  is  a  sol-­ id  composition.   There  is  an  interchange  through-­ out  between  different  paces,  tempos  and  vocal  styles,  which  gives  the  record  its  depth  and  quality.   The  vocal  styles  in  fact  vary  so  much  as  to  create  difďŹ culty  in  assigning  this  music  a  genre  (shades  of  Shaggy  and  Slipknot  can  be  heard  in  places),  but  Skindred  label  themselves  ragga  punk  metal  artists.   NME  go  so  far  as  to  describe  the  record  as  ‘righteous  fury  in  a  powerful  new  context’.   Super-­ latives  like  this  are  perhaps  rather  over  the  top  but  put  simply,  ‘Nobody’  is  fun  and  catchy.  Skindred  fans  will  certainly  enjoy  its  intricacy,  but  it  may  not  win  the  band  new  fans.

4BN #VUDIFS

tionâ€?,  for  example),  but  the  rest  of  the  album  is  well  worth  checking  out.  ‘Here  To  Stay’,  a  collaboration  with  The  Chem-­ ical  Brothers,  is  a  deďŹ nite  highlight,  as  is  the  recent  duet  with  Ana  Matronic  (‘Jetstream’)  and  the  brilliant  ‘Tempta-­ tion’  stands  out  from  the  rest  of  the  early  tracks.  The  songs  on  here  are  truly  memorable  and  with  popular  bands  such  as  The  Killers  and  The  Bravery  wearing  their  New  Order  in-­ uences  proudly  on  their  sleeves,  this  compilation  serves  as  a  timely  reminder  of  who  mixed  synthesizers  and  guitars Â ďŹ rst,  and  best.  $ISJT )ZEF

%FQFDIF .PEF 1SFDJPVT

Precious,  the Â ďŹ rst  single  to  be  released  from  the  eagerly  anticipated  new  album,  Playing  the  Angel,  due  for  release  on  17th  October,  and  the Â ďŹ rst  origi-­ nal  work  from  the  synth-­pop  band  in  over  three  years,  has  already  been  described  by  some  as  quintessential  Depeche  Mode,  with  many  rating  it  among  their  best  work  since  Violator,  released  in  1990.  As  he  does  in  those  well  known  classics  such  as  Enjoy  the  Silence,  Martin  Gore  manages  to  convey  poignancy,  largely  the  result  of  Dave  Ga-­ han’s  melancholy  vocals,  despite  a  very  lively  elec-­ tronic  undercurrent  and  bouncy  chorus.   Depeche  Mode  has  returned  without  a  scratch,  much  to  the  merriment  of  fans  across  the  nation.  ,FMWJO ,OJHIU

5IF -JUUM BOT GFBU 1FUF %PIFSUZ

5IFJS 8BZ Whilst  Pete  Doherty  may  have  few  fans  left  on  the  UEA  campus  after  Babyshambles’  gig  cancel-­ lation,  it  is  worth  remembering  that  between  ar-­ rests  the  ex-­Libertines  vocalist  has  a  voice  worth  listening  to.   On  ‘Their  Way’,  Doherty’s  distinctive  vocals  carry  what  is  otherwise  a  modest  offering  and  show  that  on  his  infrequent  visits  to  planet  earth,  the  man  is  a  real  talent.   The  track  itself  is  gentle  with  some  good  hooks  and  if  lacking  in  depth,  could  be  good  to  relax  to.   Whilst  buying  the  record  might  be  inadvisable,  especially  on  stu-­ dents’  budgets,  it  is  certainly  worth  downloading  a  copy.  Â

4BN #VUDIFS

&M 1SFTJEFOUF &M 1SFTJEFOUF It  is  not  hard  to  see  why  El  Presidente  have  been  dubbed  Scotland’s  Scissor  Sisters.  Their  self-­titled  debut  EP  boasts  the  same  sleazy  style  of  glam-­ rock  combined  with  electro  pop  that  has  seen  the  New  York Â ďŹ ve  piece  achieve  international  ac-­ claim.  Lead  singer  Dante  Gizzi  is,  at  times,  undis-­ tinguishable  from  Jake  Shears  in  his  high-­pitched  vocals,  while  the  band’s  dapper  sense  of  dress  is  hardly  original.  However,  their  sound  is  certainly  much  funkier  than  that  of  their  American  prede-­ cessors,  being  largely  founded  on  stomping  beats  and  catchy  melodies.  The  diversity  of  the  album  is  perhaps  best  illustrated  by  a  list  of  inuences  as  long  as  your  arm,  ranging  from  Led  Zeppelin  to  Doctor  Dre,  passing  through  The  Bee  Gees  and  Parliament  on  the  way.  The  result,  as  you  might  expect  is  incredibly  eclectic.  Forthcoming  single  Rocket,  due  for  re-­release  on  10th  October,  is  not  the  explosive  anthem  you  may  expect  from  the  name,  but  the  epitome  of  El  Presidente’s  quirky  disco-­rock  style,  and  is  sure  to  have  huge  dance  oor  appeal.   ,FMWJO ,OJHIU

Music

Live: Â A Â & Â Capdown

-$3

U.E.A  is  treated  to  a  selection  of  the  U.K’s Â ďŹ nest  live  punk  acts  but  My  Awesome  Compilation  opens  to  a  disappointingly  not-­so-­full  LCR  tonight.  They  look  serious  “emoâ€?  business,  but  sadly  end  up  being  far  too  sugary.  As  musicians  they  play  tight,  and  would  be  enjoyed  if  you  were  fourteen  years  old  (fortunately  for  them,  most  of  the  audience  is),  but  their  songs  aren’t  particularly  memorable.  Capdown  however  come  out  hard,  and  send  the  toddler  pit  into  a  skanking  horde.  It’s  not  often  a  support  band  gets  such  a  decent  reception,  and  they  deserve  it.  Whilst  The  Ordinary  Boys  are  killing  ska,  Capdown  continue  to  impress.  It’s  a  shame  their  unusual  ska-­hardcore-­punk  music  could  never  be  marketed  to  the  masses. “What’s  up  Norwich,  we’re  Babyshambles  from  London,  thought  we’d  come  and  try  again  for  you!â€?  Thankfully  it’s  not,  and  we  are  treated  to  an  on  form  A,  with  that  statement  being  an  example  of  the  bands  enjoy-­

able  onstage  humour.  The  local  (hailing  from  North  Suffolk)  veteran  punk-­poppers  instantly  get  people  moving  with  a  near  awless  set.  The  newer,  harder  songs  compliment  the  grooves  and  pop  hooks  of  their  existing  hits,  and  edgy  Capdown  fans  are  won  over.  A’s  songs  are  so  infectious,  many  will  need  to  go  to  the  doctors  for  antibiotics  in  the  morning  (?!).  Front-­man  Jason  Perry  signs  off,  saying,  “Thanks  for  all  the  support  over  the  yearsâ€?,  sadly  a  sign  that  rumours  that  the  end  for  the  band  is  im-­ minent  might  be  true,  despite  singing  in  the  new  song  Art  Of  Making  Sense,  “I’m  gonna  kick  it  till  I’m  50!â€?.  Afterwards  a  tired  Jason  replies  to  questions  about  the  split,  “I  dunno  man-­  it’s  been  a  hard  yearâ€?.  If  this  is  the  last  that  we  all  hear  from  A,  they  should  be  thanked  for  years  of  great  entertainment  and  the  valuable  lesson  that  East  Anglians  can  make  it!

"OESFX 3JMFZ

Goldfrapp

-$3

Goldfrapp’s  third  eagerly  awaited  album Â ďŹ nally  arrived  and  with  it  the  promise  of  an  electro  infected,  glam  injected  live  performance.  Alison  Goldfrapp  strutted  onto  the  scene,  posing  conďŹ dently  on  a  stage  coolly  bathed  in  calm  blue  light  and  a  strong  beam  eclipsing  her  silhouette.  With  her  platinum  blonde  curls  already  dancing,  the  beat  set  in  awaken-­ ing  the  crowd  into  an  immediate  groove.

Alison’s  voice  is  smooth  and  sexy  yet  intense  and  bewitching,  deďŹ nitely  a  Kate  Bush  of  our  time,  she  seems  eccentric  and  deďŹ nitely  sexually  charged.  Unforgettably  the  other  band  members  were  all  willing  to  buy Â

into  the  showpiece,  some  sporting  billowing  seventies  outďŹ ts,  Gold-­ frapp  certainly  put  on  a  display  but  it  was  the  music  that  reigned  over  this Â ďŹ ne  parade.  They  sounded  crisp  and  fresh,  every  song  held  the  audience  captivated.  Encore  tunes  ‘Strict  machine’  and  ‘Ooh  la  la’  were  deďŹ nite  beauties  and  the  album  tracks  were  all  engrossing  enough  to  put  rhythm  into  the  spine  of  even  the  most  pitiful  of  dance  oor  disas-­ ters.  Goldfrapp  were  not  merely  a  glitzy  band  in  sparkly  shoes,  but  an  exhibition  of  some  of  this  moment’s Â ďŹ nest  talent.   &MMFZ 5BZMPS

Albums 4VHBCBCFT 5BMMFS *O .PSF 8BZT

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5IF #MBDL 7FMWFUT 5IF #MBDL 7FMWFUT

'LAM PUNK ROCK OUTlT THE "LACK 6ELVETS HAVE IN THEIR SELF TITLED DEBUT ALBUM MADE A #$ THAT ALL MUSIC COLLECTIONS SHOULD CONTAIN 3UMMER FESTIVAL GOERS INCLUDING THOSE WHO BRAVED THE MONSOON AT 'LASTON BURY WILL KNOW WHY THIS IS THEY ARE EXTREMELY GOOD 4HE lRST TRACK @) WON T LIE DOWN IS A REAL BELTER AND SETS THE TONE FOR AN ACCOMPLISHED AND DIVERSE COL LECTION OF TRACKS WITH @/NCE IN A WHILE AND THE EPIC @9OU RE NOT GIVING IT ALL PROVING THE PICK OF THE REST 4OGETHER WITH THE MUSICAL CONTENT OF THIS RECORD IS THE PRESENCE OF A COCKSURE SWAGGER AN ARROGANCE OF SORTS CAPTURED PARTICULARLY IN @'LAMSTAR 4HIS SELF CONlDENCE COMBINED WITH MUSICAL PROWESS MAKES FOR A DISTINCTIVE SOUND AND IDENTITY BUT MOST SIGNIl CANTLY COMMUNICATES THAT THE "LACK 6ELVETS ENJOY

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Event 19 The