Venue 304

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#304 / doctor who-done it / interstellar / a hot, hot events guide get your hats on / writing lessons / music to puke to

NOVEMBER

THE CROOKES

+ LAUREL CANYONS + MONTAGUES & CAPULETS Wednesday 26th

WHOLE LOTTA LED (A LED ZEPPELIN TRIBUTE) Thursday 27th

EMBRACE Friday 28th

TURBOWOLF

+ EMPRESS + GOD DAMN Monday 8th

THE LAST CARNIVAL Tuesday 9th

CASH

(A JOHNNY CASH TRIBUTE) Thursday 11th

FISH

THE MOVEABLE FEAST TOUR Thursday 11th

SABATON

RUTS DC

Friday 28th

RUMBLE 20TH ANNIVERSARY

BATTLE OF BRITAIN TOUR + KORPIKLAANI + TYR

TTSF TAKEOVER

Friday 12th

Friday 12th

JANUARY

MARCH

HAYSEED DIXIE

JUNGLE

Sunday 18th

Friday 6th

AMON AMARTH

STIFF LITTLE FINGERS Tuesday 10th

+ HUNTRESS + SAVAGE MESSIAH Wednesday 21st

ENRAGED

(A RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE TRIBUTE) + SILENCED BY SHADOWS Saturday 24th

FIRST AID KIT Sunday 25th

FEBRUARY

ANDY C Friday 13th

MIKE PETERS Friday 13th

WEDNESDAY 13 Tuesday 17th

EUROPE & BLACK STAR RIDERS + THE AMORETTES Thursday 19th

FT. BIG ALABAMA + DELAY + LITTLE RED KINGS

UK SUBS

KING CHARLES

BEARDYMAN

Saturday 13th

NECK DEEP

TRAGEDY: A METAL TRIBUTE TO THE BEE GEES AND BEYOND

Wednesday 4th

REEF

Saturday 29th Sunday 30th

DECEMBER

+ THE MARKSMEN + DOGTOWN REBELS

POUT AT THE DEVIL + WALKWAY + THE INTENT Saturday 13th

TEMPLES

RAVENEYE FT. OLI BROWN

RAGING SPEEDHORN

RIVAL SONS

Tuesday 2nd

Tuesday 16th

Monday 1st

+ SWORN TO OATH

THE XCERTS

Monday 15th

+ BLUES PILLS

+ KAGOULE + CLAWS

MICHAEL SCHENKER’S TEMPLE OF ROCK

Wednesday 3rd

Wednesday 17th

GBH

CHINA DRUM

+ BACK DOWN OR DIE + ZIPLOCK + THE DOUGHYS Thursday 4th

+ 4FT FINGERS + SPOT + GRAVEDALE HIGH Wednesday 17th

Monday 2nd

+ KNUCKLE PUCK + TROPHY EYES + SEAWAY

THE KERRANG! TOUR 2015

FT. DON BROCO + WE ARE THE IN CROWD + BURY TOMORROW Friday 6th

CROWN THE EMPIRE

Wednesday 11th

TOXIC TWINS

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY Wednesday 18th

Thursday 4th

THE BEAT

THE BURNING CROWS

Thursday 19th

Friday 19th

SUBMOTION ORCHESTRA Friday 5th

HELLS BELLS

(AN AC/DC TRIBUTE) Saturday 6th

PROFESSOR GREEN Sunday 7th

WINTER WONDERLAND XMAS PARTY Saturday 20th

3 DAFT MONKEYS

+ LONGSHOREDRIFT + JACK POUT Saturday 20th

WATERFRONT NEW YEARS EVE PARTY Wednesday 31st

APRIL UFO

+ GRANT LEY

Wednesday 17th

Friday 5th

Sunday 29th

LEWIS MURPHY

8:58 (LIVE)

+ NO MERCY + TRUESCAPE

SLEEPING WITH SIRENS VS. PIERCE THE VEIL

THE SUBWAYS

Friday 6th

THE GAME + THE RPMS

Friday 27th

+ SET IT OFF + DANGERKIDS + ALIVE LIKE ME

COASTS

+ RACING GLACIERS + SECRET FROM RICHARD

Friday 20th

THE NEW BAND FROM PAUL HARTNOLL (ORBITAL)

THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN Saturday 21st

GUNS N ROSES EXPERIENCE + BAD TOUCH Saturday 21st

Wednesday 1st Thursday 16th

(AN AEROSMITH TRIBUTE) + BLIND TIGER Saturday 19th

SIMPLE MINDS Wednesday 22nd

DUKE SPECIAL Wednesday 22nd

WHILE SHE SLEEPS & CANCER BATS Friday 24th

MAY

ENTER SHIKARI

SKINNY LISTER

GRANT NICHOLAS

SLEAFORD MODS

Wednesday 25th Wednesday 25th

Friday 8th

Thursday 14th

EVERY TUESDAY 10-2

THEMED FOR YOUR CLUBBING PLEASURE THE LCR, UEA

FOR OUR FULL LISTINGS & TO BOOK TICKETS ONLINE GO TO UEATICKETBOOKINGS.CO.UK

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November 25 / #304

Editors Holly J. McDede and Adam White Art & Design Director Ana Dukakis Cover Art Ellie Green Illustrators Tess Castella, Scarlet Dawson, Ana Dukakis, Aliyah Rawat

music 04-07

fashion 08-09

arts 10-11

creative writing 12-13

Editors Myles Earle and Mike Vinti

Editors Gemma Carter and Helena Urquhart

Editor Katie Kemp

Editor Jake Reynolds

Contributors Myles Earle, Oliver Hughes, Beth Piggott, Murray Roy, Mike Vinti

Contributors Ed Jones, Joe Jones, Lindsay Stark, Katie Wadsworth

Contributors Katie Kemp, Ellen Morris, Brett Motram

Contributors Hazel Compton, Scarlet Dawson, Jenny Moroney, Rachel Sammons, Nathaniel Woo

gaming + tech 15

television 16-17

film 18-21

the page of fun 22

Editor Joe Fitzsimmons

Editor Adam Dawson

Editors Neven Devies and Silvia Rose

listings 23

Contributors James Freimuller, Joe Fitzsimmons

Contributors Hannah Ford, Josh Patterson, Dan Struthers, Emily Walker

Contributors George Barker, Isis Billing, Adam Dawson, Neven Devies, Emma Holbrook, Will Hunter, Martha Julier, Chris Rogers, Jay Stonestreet

Editor Daisy Jones Contributors Holly J. McDede

Someone told me recently that I look like I’m constantly on the verge of bursting into tears.

Like, facially. And it got me wondering about how much our faces translate feelings that usually aren’t there. Like I don’t intend to look like I’m about to burst into tears, I assure you.

And that’s pretty true of most people, right?

Like you can be completely stone-faced, but a generally happy, fun person. Or you could look like you’re moodily staring off into the distance, like you’re thinking intense, brooding

thoughts about space or time or philosophy or something similarly lofty. When in fact you’re just massively tired and being unintentionally hypnotised by somebody’s weird hat. We always tend to judge ourselves on our characters, how internally joyous we are, or alternatively how ugly we’re being at hopefully rare junctures. But if we’re constantly projecting feelings through unconscious facial distortions or whatever, how do people actually judge us? Are they deciding if you’re a good person through your behaviour?

Or instead shining metaphorical torches straight up in our stupid, stupid faces, deciding through that instead? Is that just how the world works?

Then again, maybe it’s good? Maybe it works, ultimately, as a kind of social short-hand - all the intriguing, stone-faced people congregating in a mass of accidental facial misery? Those people always seem to be cooler, anyway.

Keep it real, kids Adam

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music concrete.music@uea.ac.uk

What Are You REALLY Listening To? Music Editor Myles Earle delves into how music has been used as a propagandist tool. Illustration by Ana Dukakis.

Even if they are part of your regular LCR pre-drink playlist, forget the silly sounds of Nicki Minaj’s Stupid Hoe, or the cheery tones of Pharrell’s Fun,Fun,Fun; music of any genre isn’t always considered ‘fun and games’. In fact, it is our close relationship to music that

“We completely allow ourselves to be infiltrated by music with political influence whether we know it or not; look at North Korea” can affect us in the inner most recesses of our mind, let alone our emotions. Music can not only access you on a psychological level, it has the ability to manipulate, and this makes it one of the most dangerous tools to mankind.

Though the anarchism and ‘fuck the rules’ ideology of the Sex Pistols, The Clash and other 70’s Punk Rock bands revolutionised music, leaving a rebellious mark on its listeners and stimulated a culture, its messages were outright and conspicuous.

There was no hidden agenda for Punk Rock; everything was laid out on a smorgasbord for listeners to choose and indulge in, allowing music to be something more than just sound, but nourishment for the soul. It is the evil twin of this that we are truly afraid of.

Music’s capability, in any form, to control

and influence our thought processes on a subliminal level questions our ability of free will; what do we actually think for ourselves and what is thought for us?

Take a look at Germany in the 1930’s; Entartete Musik, or Degenerate Music, a well-known campaign during the Nazi regime, saw to the discrediting of artists and musicians, silencing their music and classing them as harmful by the Third Reich. Nazi sympathiser and Hitler’s preferred composer, Wilhelm Richard Wagner is just one example of someone who was assigned to create operas and music that walked the same path of the Nazi ideology. This anti-Semetic composer presented German mythology in his operas in a way that portrayed the Nazi ideals as heroic, all whilst the music of black Jazz artists were banned on the radio during 1933. It comes

“In an age where the artist is placed on a diamondencrusted pedestal, music has so much power...” as no surprise then that Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, saw this as an opportunity to enrich the Nazi state, an opportunity that remains unforgivable. This manipulation of music in the commercial

sense helped to sprout such misguided hatred, but in a way that the masses knew nothing of.

Underlying messages and ideologies flurried the radio waves of the regime, and the music helped to get into the minds and hearts of the German people.

“Auditory cheesecake” - a statement by Canadian psychologist Steven Pinker is an apt way of describing music’s effect on us as listeners. It is indulging, full and rich, something we allow our bodies to be a subject to, becoming an open barrier in this complex osmosis. We completely allow ourselves to be infiltrated by music with political influence whether we know it or not; look at North Korea. A state where the political system rules with an iron fist appropriately regulates the music produced to serve some political gain.

The 1980’s saw the rise of the Taejung Kayo, a patriotic-style of music that is used to lift up the spirits of the state with optimism and positivity. Ironically, in a state where men and women are heavily oppressed by the next dictator, this style of music is a way to keep the people in check, quelling any ideas of rebellion and capping the thoughts of the masses with a public declaration of Juche or self-reliance. Music by The Korean People’s Army State Merited Chorus plays a huge part in the propagandist nature of the state. Defend The Headquaters Of Revolution gives off an air of pride in the nation, with its upbeat tempo,

choric voice and heavy orchestral backing, which make it difficult to refuse such music.

It’s this kind of energy that affects the minds of the oppressed in a state where thoughts are fed through music.

“What do we actually think for ourselves and what is thought for us?”

Think about how easy it is to remember those old children’s songs. Heck, it’s unlikely that you would be able to forget those rhymes. The past has shown us that the power of music malleable, having the ability to change and influence on a whim. This, being both a curse and a blessing in one form, presents a lot of issues with music’s political influence. With Fuse ODG’s recent refusal to take part in the Band Aid 30 track, due to its negative portrayal of West Africa, it is only understandable that we question what we are actually listening to. Especially in this age where the artist is placed on a diamond-encrusted pedestal, music has so much power that we may not know what we have consumed, or been influenced to do through music. Sometimes, in such moments of lyrical relaxation, you’ve got to keep a guard up because you never know what you are really listening to.

music

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concrete.music@uea.ac.uk

Blacknois / Punk singer GG Allin is one of the most controversial figures in punk, and enjoyed defecating on stagege

Controversy at its Finest

Oliver Hughes gets knee deep in the importance of provoking and shocking music Jesse Jackson, in response to a misunderstood vandalising of an art installation featuring a whitewashed version of himself, said that “sometimes art provokes; sometimes it angers.

That is a measure of its success”. When art is controversial, everyone is talking about it, and everyone goes to see it. Picasso, Duchamp, Manzoni, Mapplethorpe – all of them greatly offended and polarised with their art, and enjoyed great success because of it.

The same is not always said about music.

Some of the most conventionally controversial music (if such a term can be used) is some of the least well known, for obvious reasons.

Music is not put on in a gallery and displayed.

The more commercially viable it is, the wider its reach. Controversial music tends not to be commercially viable, and consequently doesn’t receive as much attention in the public eye. Or at least, that would hold true until the power of social media took hold, and contemporary musicians feed off controversy to sell their records.

“When their singer shot himself, they served parts of his skull at a gig...”

The 1970s were the breeding ground for true experimentation and moving away from the norm in music. The Beatles took acid and got weird. Lou Reed made Transformer, then took a real walk on the wild side and made Metal Machine Music. Reed’s album, released in 1975, has no conventional songs or structure. It

is just over an hour of droning modulated guitar feedback. Reed claimed it was the conclusion to heavy metal as a genre. And everyone hated it. It was described “as displeasing as spending a night in a bus shelter” and yet, people kept coming back to it. It made the cover of Punk magazine, championing a campaign against the status quo.

Metal Machine Music is a good place to start, because it inspired one of the most controversial acts of all time, industrial group Throbbing Gristle. Their name tells you enough about them – Hull slang for an erection – and their group motto was “entertainment through pain”.

Throbbing Gristle had no desire to please with their sound. They wanted to unsettle, upset, distress. Their songs feature tales of murder, rape and death in the most horrible ways. Their sound is raucous, not harsh, but distorted and eerie. They also birthed modern synthpop… seriously. Their magnum opus, 20 Jazz Funk Greats – called such to deceive people into buying it – features a track Walkabout. It comes just after the monumentally sinister Persuasion.

Walkabout is a playful synth melody on top of a synthesised bass line. It bounces along; it could fit on any pop record. And here it is so unsettling because you are fearful of what will happen next.

Throbbing Gristle’s controversy is born in moments like this. Something accessible, something that draws you in, and then you are torn apart by a song like Slugbait or Hamburger Lady. Their members were controversial in their own right – Cosey Fanni Tutti starred in a porn film and exhibited naked pictures of herself at

their shows. Societally, they reflected a form of protest against Thatcher’s Britain perfectly. And people still come back to their music and herald it as some of the best; controversy at its finest.

“Their songs feature tales of murder, rape and death in the most horrible ways.”

There were a multitude of acts across the 80’s that were even weirder, but they never reached the same level of renown – or infamy.

Whitehouse and Merzbow both bear looking into, if your ears can take it. Varg Vikernes – better known as Burzum – was part of Norwegian black metal group Mayhem. When their singer shot himself, they served parts of his skull at a gig, and used a picture of his corpse as an album cover. Controversial in its own right, but not quite to the large impact. GG Allin would bleed and defecate on stage – but only ever to small crowds. The Scorpions, more popular, caused enough with the cover of Virgin Killer – but the music itself wasn’t particularly polarising. That was left to the present day, and three big artists in particular.

Kanye West is undoubtedly the most controversial man in music. He is never afraid to speak his mind. His lyrics might not be as aggressive as Eminem or Wu Tang Clan, for example, but his personality has been the subject of his two most recent albums, the latter being described by none other than Lou Reed as “majestic and inspiring” because of Kanye’s ability to unbalance, to fuck with us, the listener.

On My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, he made the perfect album to atone for the Taylor Swift thing. On Yeezus, he says it best himself: “as soon as they like you/make them unlike you/ cause kissing people’s ass is so unlike you”. He plays the media so hard – it is ‘cool’ to hate Kanye West in the media, and he basks in the limelight of every controversy.

Then we have two women, Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj. The former is accused of selling herself, being exploited and sexualised by others to sell her records – yet she insists it is all in good fun, that she enjoys it. With every performance, every music video, she causes another furore, one that, like the artists of yesteryear, only serves to put her name on everyone’s lips. That same idea is taken by Nicki Minaj, who laughs at the men who only see her sexually – Anaconda literally features the line “look at her butt” – because she knows full well that is all some people will do. And she is more than happy to use the controversy it generates to take their money. She is fully aware of being in the male gaze, and fully aware of exploiting it.

“There is little similarity between Picasso and Nicki Minaj” In this age, controversy is not used just to shock and protest. It is used to spread the word, to generate attention, and to sell the art. In that way, there is little similarity between Picasso and Nicki Minaj. In terms of the art itself, well, that’s for you to judge.

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music concrete.music@uea.ac.uk

The Guardian

Past-Punk: The Modern Sound of Dissent Mike Vinti wonders why the protest fell out of music, and explores those determined to bring it back Politics and music have always had something of a convoluted relationship and for every artist out there wearing their political heart on their sleeve there are ten more making songs about partying - not that the two are mutually exclusive. There’s near constant debate in the media over the politics of the music industry, be it Taylor Swift pulling her album from Spotify or Thom Yorke releasing his latest album on Megaupload, but many artists doing something explicitly political with their work continue to fall on deaf ears. As generation after generation falls into a state of disillusionment with the political order it’s only natural some of this resentment is going to filter into the music they make.

“There’s near constant debate in the media over the politics of the music industry but many explicitly political artists continue to fall on deaf ears ” Since the death of Punk, no genre has encapsulated the relationship between politics and music as well as Hip Hop, from the cutting social commentary of Nas to the Communist revolutionary beats of Dead Prez, rap has

provided an outlet to the disenfranchised voices of (mostly) black America since its inception. The last ten years or so has seen the political fall somewhat out of fashion within the more mainstream circles of Hip-Hop, however with artists such as Ratking and Run The Jewels receiving huge critical acclaim the genre may be well on its way back to its more political roots.

Run the Jewels released their second album Run the Jewels 2 to unbelievable hype a few weeks back, and for good reason. The groups two members, ATL legend Killer Mike and New York pioneer EL-P, are both highly respected as artists’ in their own right but together are unstoppable. RTJ2 is an angry, high octane, millions bars a minute behemoth of an album, filled from cover to cover with fierce social commentary and brutal attacks on the establishment and its figureheads.

Take the Zach De La Rocha, of Rage Against the Machine fame, featuring Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck) which sees Killer Mike compare his bars to the Anarchist’s Cookbook and closes with the line ‘The only thing that close quicker than our caskets be the factories’. Run the Jewels aren’t afraid of causing a stir with their work, Killer Mike has always been outspoken about police brutality and government corruption while EL-P’s latest solo effort jittered with paranoid rhymes about

“drones over Brooklyn” and violent revolution.

Even the production on this album sounds political, EL-P crafts broken, aggressive beats out of warped synths and distorted drums, perfectly complimenting the no-holds-barred braggadocio and anti-establishment tone.

“Hip-hop may well be on its way back to its political roots” Run the Jewels aren’t the only artists stateside making interesting, explicitly political music. Ratking’s distinct brand of New York Hip-Hop is reliant on their surly, tongue in cheek take on life as a wayward yout’. Their debut album featured samples of police officers harassing them on the street and the groups’ de facto leader Wiki is open about their political stance. Standout track Snow Beach is an exploration of gentrification in the groups native New York, tackling everything from the privilege of NYU students to the blight of ‘tourists [that] came, try to escape, admire the place, visit the empire state’ mocking the disparity between the version of New York that exists in the public consciousness and the realities of ‘stoops and fire-escapes’.

Back on this side of the Atlantic, Sleaford Mods are quietly grafting their way into the public eye, championed by Vice’s musical

offshoot Noisey. Hailing from Nottingham, this bordering middle-aged pair reflect on the somewhat grim realities of working class existence in austerity era England over driving post punk instrumentals. Jobseeker is a hilarious, if depressing, ode to life on the dole ‘it’s anyone’s guess how I got here, anyone’s guess how I’ll go’ laments the songs semifictional protagonist Mr Williamson before telling the Job Centre lady ‘you’ve got a till full of twenties staring at you all day I’m only gonna fucking bank it, I’ve got drugs to take’.

“It’s got an arseful of good tunes, mate, but it’s all so fucking boring” The Mods’ come from a long line of cynical, regionally accented national anti-heroes, owing as much to John Cooper Clarke as they do to Ian Drury, yet their talent to capture the drudgery of modern life is unrivalled. Their work is unashamedly honest and unrefined; Williamson’s vocal style is half spoken word, half rap and full of swearing. Take Tied Up in Nottz (with a zed, you cunt) a gobby look back over nights out and ‘the lonely life that is touring’ complete with ideology defining line ‘I’ve got an arseful of good tunes mate, but it’s all so fucking borrringgg’.

music

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concrete.music@uea.ac.uk

Hypetrak

Azealia Banks Broke With Expensive Taste Beth Piggott

Sitting down for the first time to listen to what feels like the longest awaited album of the twenty-first century is comparative to my five year old self come Christmas day.

And, I have to say, it does not disappoint!

Azealia Banks’ burst onto the music

scene back in 2012, which kicked off with her punchy single, 212; a song that was to become the soundtrack of the summer to many urban dwellers, clubbers and hip-hop fans. The expletive lyrics were the stimulant for what felt like a mini musical revolution.

Had anyone ever heard the word ‘cunt’ rapped so many times in one three-minute track? This sense of rebellion is prominent in Banks’s debut album Broke with Expensive Taste, as the rapper-come-vocalist perfectly mixes the urban grit of the New York City hip-hop scene with Spanish, Latin and Jazz vibes, whilst jarred beats refuse to abide by any predictable rhythm. Here we have a musical demonstration of the rebellious attitude she became so well known for.

Reportedly sacking her record label before letting the album loose on iTunes, Banks is the Ice Princess, demonstrating power both over the sound she wants to promote and in her feisty lyrics: “competition I’ma beat ‘em so relentless / I’ma be legendary when I end this / They rise when I arrive in this / All

hail the supreme Ice Princess!”

The writing and production team lays a beautiful web of the freshest and most current names in house, including Britain’s own MJ Cole, Pearson Sound and Boddika; incorporating a distinctly house-orientated undercurrent to the LP. But, aside from the electronic foundations of this record, Banks incorporates a wealth of genres, using her voice as an instrument as much as any of her notable instrumental elements. When asked in interview, Banks has admitted she prefers singing to rapping. However, the ease with which her poetry flows, skips and dances to its own untamable rhythm gives none of that away.

The blend of Banks’ wide-ranged and incredibly varied voices is perfectly exhibited in Miss Amor, with its contrast of Spanish vocals and Harlem rap. Nude Beach A-Go-Go is extremely nostalgic in its psychedelic Beach Boys-esque feel, while Chasing Time is refreshingly modern in comparison (and a suitably safe choice for

her latest single). While some may take the mix of genres as a loss of cohesion, it establishes the diverse talent that Banks holds under that seemingly unthinking, Twitter-feud attitude. Stand out tracks are Wallace with its rhythmic percussion, flutes and stylistically beautiful blend of hard and hypnotic vocals; Desperado and its garage tones, with haunting wind instrumentals that drift over Banks’ pulsing lyrical-flow; and the electro-come-soul-come-Latin track Gimme a Chance that’s perfect to dance to. Like the woman herself, Broke with Expensive Taste will split the crowds, but I firmly believe Azealia Banks has succeeded in producing a debut collection that is impressive, versatile, and a delight to listen to. If two years is the waiting time for an album this good, I’m not complaining!

Manchester-based 9-piece live hip-hop band The Mouse Outfit step up to show their mettle, returning to Norwich just eight months since their sold out show in the Open club room.

The show is once again a sell-out. The Norwich Arts Centre gets packed to the rafters in anticipation for the band fronted by longtime UK hip-hop stalwart Dr Syntax alongside

Manchester MC and heavy collaborator on the band’s debut album Escape Music, Dubbul O. Syntax completely holds down the show with his magnetic persona and distinctive laid-back vocal tone. He effortlessly whips up the sweat-soaked mass of bodies in the middle of the centuries-old church into a storm.

Dubbul O’s fast-fire spitting punctuates and accentuates this, showcasing the immeasurable talent one has come to expect from the booming Manchester hip-hop scene. With complete control they flip the rowdiness back and forth with smooth, jazz-tinged calmness, reminding us that, with shows like this, UK hip-hop is something that shouldn’t be slept on.

It would be easy for those having not seen The Mouse Outfit live before to assume that they are simply a backing-band for the rappers, but make no mistake - the band alone make for a killer ensemble that’s never overshadowed, bringing with them the classic funk, soul and boom-bap sound that formed the foundations of hip-hop.

Tracks off Escape Music, new Mouse Outfit

material and numbers from Syntax’s back catalogue were interspersed with old-school hip-hop breaks and funk medleys, taking us for an enthralling ride way back in time to the musical moments that inspired their influences: channelling James Brown, The Winstons, Kool and the Gang and Eric B & Rakim, and back to the present - from Manchester to Norwich via Harlem and New Orleans.

I don’t know about anybody else in the room, but I’ve personally never been to a hip-hop show in which a guitar solo has brought the house down before, and it will probably be a long time before I witness something like that again.

By the time fan favourite - dub reggaeflavoured stomper - Who Gwan Test, gets dropped, it’s impossible to even attempt to stand still as bodies ricochet all over the shop, prompting Dubbul O to dive into the crowd to get a piece of the madness that they evoked.

Closing the night on another showstopping funk and hip-hop medley, The Mouse Outfit prove their place alongside the greats of the genre that have made stops in Norwich in recent weeks.

The Mouse Outfit Norwich Arts Centre - 08/11/14 Murray Roy

Mothertunes

It is definitely an exciting time to be a hip-hop fan living in Norwich. This side of the New Year the city has played host to a staggering array of the genre’s legends, with the likes of Grandmaster Flash, The Jungle Brothers, Dead Prez and Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na and DJ Nu-Mark all making intimate appearances in our favourite venues across town. It is in this company that

fashion

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concrete.fashion@uea.ac.uk

Best Dressed at UEA Recognise anyone?

Tweet us @conc_fashion

Jungong Zhong First Year - Management

Hats Off!

Lindsay Stark gives us the heads up on this seasons’ must-have Hats are a huge trend all year round, however now it’s AW they have really come into their own. So many different styles are available across the High Street. With such a huge range to choose from how do you know which to opt for? Don’t worry – Venue are here to help to ensure you look fabulous this season

worn with pretty much anything from dresses to jeans. Black and burgundy are great colours that are perfect during the autumnal months. These can be extremely expensive so my best tip would be to look on eBay. A floppy hat is a great partner to a cosy faux fur gilet. You’ll both look glamorous and won’t catch a cold

Fedora These hats are a super cool way of staying warm this winter – just don’t wear them when it’s windy! Everyone from Millie Mackintosh to Johnny Depp to Beyonce have been spotted in one of these, and it’s easy to see why! The wide brim is much more forgiving on all face shapes than the small roller bowler hats that have been popular in recent years, and they are a super stylish way of glamming up any outfit.

These hats look best with a simple pair of jeans, some cute ankle boots and an oversized shirt – perfect for an early morning lecture Le Fashion Image

Floppy Hat Floppy hats are HUGE this winter, and I don’t just mean in size. These hats are perfect for giving your outfit a cool 70s vibe, and can be

Beanie I have never been able to nail that cool, hipster-y vibe that goes hand in hand with wearing a beanie, and I don’t think I ever will.

However, that doesn’t stop me being completely envious of everyone else who is able to pull them off. Take Rita Ora or Cara Delevingne for example – they look incredibly effortless whilst wearing a beanie. I absolutely adore the style of beanie that features a cute bobble on the top and New Look has a huge range of these that are definitely worth a look. In comparison to the other hats, these will actually keep you warm, they’re fashionable but also practical - so I would recommend one of these for when the weather starts to worsen.

Headbands This is one of those items that always comes under the hat category, but isn’t really a hat – something that is really useful if you don’t like wearing hats but want to stay warm and stylish during the winter months. These headbands have been popular for a number of years now, and I have to admit, I do own one. They are so cute and a great way of incorporating faux fur into your wardrobe without going for a full on fur look. I’m not so keen on the knitted version if I am honest, they look like something you might wear in a spa, or something you might wear at the gym, so my advice would be to steer clear of those!

We Are Perfect Katie Wadsworth has her say on the ongoing debate concerning body image Sherice Banton Third Year - Law

What is the perfect body? Who has one? Who needs to work on it? These are all questions which we are confronted with on a daily basis. And it’s not just in the glossy magazines, wherever you go people are discussing, debating and gossiping about their size, their friends shape and everyone else’s for that matter. But the honest truth is its all rubbish.

“There is no such thing as THE perfect body as your body is your own”

George Adegbola First Year - Psychology Photography Leah Omonya

It might sound cliché but I honestly believe that everyone is beautiful. The suggestion that there is one body type irks me as every body type is unique.

Victoria’s Secret recently got into a little hot water with their new underwear campaign titled ‘The Perfect Body’. Unsurprisingly many were outraged by this slogan which was plastered over the image of underwear clad models. Now I want to be clear that I am not skinny shaming here, my issue is not with the models themselves, it is the marketing leaders and advertisers who need to understand that people are fed up with the body shaming tactics

deployed to coerce people into buying products in the hope that having the right bra will make them ‘perfect’ in societies’ eyes. At the end of the day this is what it is: a tool for commercialism.

Now I’m not going to get all political activist on ‘consumerist society’ because honestly that is not the issue at stake here, and anyone who knows me will tell you that I love to shop. But what I don’t love is the idea that there is only one version of perfection which is dictated by people who don’t think of the effect that titling a campaign something like ‘The Perfect Body’ can have on body image.

Negative body image is something which most people suffer with to some degree. It can take the form of low self-esteem, eating disorders or simply those long looks in the mirror and frustrated phone calls to friends because you just don’t look right and are having a bad day of it. To whatever degree one may suffer with low self-esteem the issue is still there and I think that in part it is due to both skinny shaming and also plus size shaming.

Whilst there are positive media campaigns encouraging people to love their bodies, such as the CoppaFeel! breast cancer campaign, which uses real women’s breasts on their campaign to show breasts in a non-sexualised way, unfortunately these campaigns are still in

a minority. And more than this, there is a trend of shaming either skinny shapes or plus size bodies to make the other group feel better. But this is just as harmful as it ignores all the shades in-between. Plus, as much as it doesn’t make someone a better person for being skinner than you, it also doesn’t make them a bad person and vice versa. Every body type should be celebrated as wonderful without detriment to or shaming of someone else’s figure.

In the advent of social media consumers have a new power. The #Iamperfect campaign was started by three students from Leeds against the Victoria Secret slogan. The petition against the ad gathered 29,000 signatures and Victoria Secret did change the slogan of their online ad to ‘A Body for Everybody’ but the ‘Perfect Body’ slogan remains on in store posters.”Furthermore, no reason was given by Victoria Secret as to why they changed their slogan but the petition leaders are taking it as a win.

Everybody has down days, we’re human and even the sunniest disposition is bound to have the odd bad day, but what you have to remember on those mornings when you feel that nothing you put on is right is that you are perfect and it is confidence which radiates through, no matter what your size.

fashion

09

concrete.fashion@uea.ac.uk

Photography Hugo Douglas-Deane

Models & Stylists Ed Jones and Joe Jones

Jones Squared2 Ed Jones and Joe Jones let us in on their timeless wardrobe staples The hazy days of summer are long gone and with them must follow your short shorts and snapbacks. But as the nights get longer you can take solace in the warm embrace of autumn winter fashion. We’re here to talk you through AW staples.

The Boot

A strong pair of boots is the perfect basis for any outfit this winter. If you’re looking for something smarter to pair with suits and chinos, then invest in a pair of leather chukkas or a tanned brogue boot. For the more rugged among you consider a sturdy pair of hiking boots, anything from Red Wing or Wolverine look great with denim. Our personal favourite however is the brown Chelsea boot that gives a contemporary twist to wintry tailoring and effortlessly upgrades your lazy black-jeanswhite-shirt combo, to sartorial suave. A look that will certainly never go out of fashion.

The Jean

Our mantra is ‘new season, new jeans-in’ but try to avoid false economy when it comes to denim. A quality pair in the ballpark of £50 will most likely give you a better cut, fit and undoubtedly last the unforgiving winter months. A few rules to remember: skinny is dead. Long live the straight cut. And the darker the denim, the wider your options.

Levi’s 501 is still the benchmark but for an alternative option try a forest green corduroy or herringbone trouser to add a slice of sophistication to your wardrobe.

The Jumper

Now bear with us on this one. Usually associated with weekend golfing, Bluetooth drivelling, middle aged computer analysts of the world, Argyle is swinging back into fashion this season. For the purists, try a round neck

with a neutral base (either grey or navy) but the more adventurous among you may wish to indulge in something a little more brash and give yellows and purples a go. Partner it with dark denim, a dress shirt and leather jacket and you’re looking at a hole in one.

The Jacket

Winter gives you unprecedented options when it comes to wrapping up and the perfect jacket can keep you sizzling in the sub-zero. Vintage sports jackets are popular with us currently, capturing that Adidas classic style from the 80s. Wear over a hoodie to keep the winter chills at bay. Vintage stores such as Prim and Goldfinches in town stock a fantastic selection, in some wild and wonderful colours. Again, be brave! Don with a pair of Sambas or Stan Smiths if you wanna go full on football factory.

The Coat

Nothing will combat those 9am starts in CD Annex better than a classic pea coat. Sleek, effortlessly stylish and more versatile than you might think, it’s our must have garm this season. The one drawback? Price. A quality one will set you back anywhere between £80 and £150 but we must stress that a pea coat is a long term investment; durable and timelessly fashionable. What’s another 100 quid into the overdraft anyway eh? Go for navy, grey or brown, but dark greens and burgundy’s make a nice change. Whack on your oxford shirt, jeans and desert boots, and you will look sensational. You have our word. With these items you can kiss summer goodbye and snog winter hello. Until next time fashionistas.

For your fortknightly fashion fix keep a look out ono www.concrete-online.co.uk

arts

10

concrete.arts@uea.ac.uk

Looking Over the Latest Draft: an Interview with John Boyne Brett Mottram gets into the mind of bestselling author and UEA lecturer John Boyne feel every head turn towards me!” he said.

I mentioned the stage production of the novel which is now underway, and asked Boyne how much involvement he was going to have with it. “A little bit, probably not as much”, he said. The movie was made soon after the novel came out, and Boyne was on what he called “the Striped Pyjamas Journey” at the time.

Now a number of years later, he feels he has “moved on”, which is easy to understand, given the list of books he has written since, from Mutiny: a Novel of the Bounty to The Absolutist to A History of Loneliness -- to mention only three. The producers of the stage version have sent him material, and he is involved with the process, but he’s “happy enough to keep a further distance at this point”.

Boyne, after reading for his BA at Trinity College, Dublin, studied on UEA’s Creative Writing MA programme, and is currently teaching on the MA course for Prose Fiction.

I asked him what studying here had been like for him. “It was a very different experience than it is now”, he explained. At the time, there was only one writing MA that included 12 students doing prose. Now, there are 3 prose classes, and poetry and biography, too. “Which is great”, he said.

But it also doesn’t make for as intense an experience as those initial 12 students had.

He and his fellow students also knew little about the publishing world, whereas

“Despite the commonly conceived notion that the author needs to learn to trust the filmakers - they need to trust you!” psicosedanina

I had asked John Boyne what had prompted his change in direction from writing historical novels for adults, to writing his most famous book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. He told me, “It wasn’t so much that I said to myself that I wanted to write a book for young people; it was more that the story itself presented itself to me in my mind.”

“You don’t know what your book is when you start it; you only discover that through writing” He explained, “You don’t know what your book is when you start it; you only discover that during the writing of it”, adding “especially if, like me, you don’t plot the novels in advance.

You just start with an idea, and go forward”.

Since the book’s two central characters are nine-year-olds, the story is narrated through the innocent and misunderstanding voice of

one of them, Bruno. Boyne thought it was likely to appeal to readers of a similar age.

Having said that, after writing the book he saw “no reason why adults couldn’t read it as well”.

For those of you who haven’t read it, or seen the Miramax-produced film, I highly urge you to do either of these things. My conversation with Boyne turned to the film. He had “quite a bit” of influence over the making of it, finding out in the process that instead of the commonly-conceived idea that the author needs to learn to trust the filmmakers, it’s the other way around. “They need to learn to trust you”, Boyne said. So he tried to be a positive presence throughout the making of the film.

Overall, he said, it was a fun experience.

“They did a really good adaptation”, he said, though understandably, he also said it felt surreal to see the novel on the big screen. The first time he saw the completed version of the film was at a screening in London. “I was sitting at the back, and the minute the lights went off, I could

nowadays he said students are more “cluedin”, aided in part by the internet, and its information on how agencies and publishing houses work. Agent bursaries and mentoring schemes, products of the university’s more recent outreach programmes, have also contributed to this change.

While it’s more “professional” now than it was in Boyne’s student days, he thinks that the writers are “all at the same stage every year”.

“The standard is higher now, though”, he added, with students working harder because they see how difficult it is to get published. The interview process, also, in Boyne’s opinion, has been refined so that UEA gets the best students on its writing courses, which itself makes the students strive to be as good as each other.

“There is a competitive element, in the best possible way”, he said. “On average, I think it’s about 29 to 30% of the students on the course who end up being published, and most people would like to be within that number!”

I asked if there were any particular techniques which Boyne was using in his teaching. For example, he might suggest

students focus on the short story as a means of developing style and technique within a smaller framework. But he said that most students already know their work and know what they’re interested in. “Some are working on novels, some on stories, and some started out on stories, and are now beginning to present novels”, he said.

“You’d be surprised how many young, aspiring writers don’t read very much, and yet want to be writers.”

He doesn’t feel it is his place to direct them in that way. Tutorials are there to discuss work, so there is that, and he rather likes the idea of students spending a year working on a piece of work, whether it be the draft of a novel, or a collection of around ten stories. At least then, when they are removed from the context of the course, they’ll have something to work on and approach in a disciplined way.

Boyne’s favourite writers change all the time, but his greatest influences are John Irving, John Banville, and Rose Tremain (who interviewed him for his course at UEA around twenty years ago).

He also reads a lot of first novels, and “whatever’s out there that’s new and interesting”. His advice for aspiring writers reminded me of Ian McEwan’s advice: a combination of reading and the discipline of regularly turning up at your desk to write.

“You’d be surprised how many young, aspiring writers don’t read very much, and yet want to be writers, and I find that a bit astonishing at times”, he said.

He also advised writers not to wait for inspiration to strike. “If you wait for that, it’s probably never going to come. I don’t wait for it to strike; I see writing as a discipline, and as like a day-job”, he said. He comes to his office here or in Dublin, sits down at his desk, early in the morning, and starts work.

“Most people, they get up in the morning, they don’t think ‘Will I bother going to work or not’; you just go, you don’t think about it, and I do the same thing”, he said.

After the interview, and Boyne’s subsequent polite enquiries about my own writing and university experiences so far, he looked out at the view from his window, and commented on how uplifting it is to live and work on the UEA campus.

With its lake, and the verdant crispness of its mornings and early evenings, not to mention the fact that this environment is shared by interacting students, academics and writers, this university makes it feel very easy to sit down at your desk, and get on with work. And that’s how I left John Boyne: at his desk, pen in hand, looking over his latest draft.

arts

11

concrete.arts@uea.ac.uk

A Celebration of East Anglia’s literary Prowess Katie Kemp joins the celebration as writers gather for the annual East Anglian Book Awards 2014 The struggles of becoming a writer can often be a strenuous process. There is the toil, rejection and constant battle to overcome self-doubt, not to mention the continual uncertainty of what’s to come. However, there is also a great sense of reward when one comes through the other end with the feeling of having uncovered a new aspect of the world through the shared power of the written word.

It thus seems important that we recognise the significant achievements which come with the creative development of the text.

With such an artistic stronghold in Norwich, what with the highly celebrated MA in Creative Writing at our very own UEA, the city’s honoured title as UNESCO City of Literature and a pool of artistic talent in the imaginative recesses of NUA, it seems appropriate that the city should hold an annual celebration of the many literary voices centred in and around East Anglia.

Last Thursday evening, writers from across Norfolk and further afield gathered for what Chris Gribble (CEO of Writer’s Centre Norwich) describes as “a celebration of the people involved in the business of literature, in the region of East Anglia”.

The event takes place annually, having been founded seven years ago by Trevor Heaton, Features Editor at the Eastern Daily Press.

It was after observing that a form of literary award had existed in the Lake District for several years that Heaton felt compelled to action. “Because we have so many significant writers that are based here or writing about

here, and many great local publishers as well, we should create something which champions that”, Heaton said. “So these books are really all about East Anglia in some

including Children’s Books, General NonFiction, History and Tradition, Biography and Memoir, Poetry, and of course, Fiction. Within each category a specialist judge whittles down

Clifford Harper/Agraphia.co.uk

way, probably more so than the requirement for the authors being based here”.

The award itself consists of six categories, to which writers’ works are submitted, these

the various entries to a shortlist of three, from which a winner is selected and then announced on the evening of the Awards Ceremony.

From this, an overall winner of the East

Anglian Book Award is selected based on content and relevance. Caroline Jarrold, one of the judges of the overall prize says, “choosing book of the year is difficult due to the diversity of categories. For the books to really shine, there has to be some sense of them having been inspired by being written here.”

The winner of the overall prize, Sarah Perry, epitomised just that, with her debut title After Me Comes The Flood. Despite being based within a fictionalised place, those who read her book immediately feel a sense of the mysterious Norfolk landscape as they stepped their way through each page.

“The book haunted me, and the Norfolk landscape haunted me. I couldn’t escape the pull of the Norfolk coast. It’s so haunting, so mysterious, and so eerie”, Sarah Perry said. “There’s something about it that gets under your skin”.

This feeling was most definitely shared amongst finalists. Patrick Barkham, winner of the General Non-Fiction category with his book Badgerlands, explains “There’s a wonderful welsh word called ‘hiraeth’.

There’s no direct English translation, but it means the place of belonging for a person, where they have a real spiritual connection, and you get a kind of sickness if you’re away from this place. And for me that place is Norfolk, that East Anglian landscape”.

In all, the event proved a marvellous display of the literary heritage of East Anglia, and just why this place remains a central pull for artists over the country.

That Creative Feeling

Drama Soc’s “The Laramie Project” Takes on Homophobia in Wyoming Ellen Morris reviews DramaSoc’s latest exploration of the gritty dramatisation of homphobia in 90s America The drama studio’s most recent production, The Laramie Project, is the gritty dramatisation of real events that happened in Laramie, Wyoming in October 1998. The play follows the aftermath of a homophobic hate crime: the beating of Matthew Shepard, resulting in his death.

Here is a play drawn from the interviews and experiences of all those involved in Shepard’s life, from close friends and family, to the barman who saw Shepard leave with his attackers, to the man who found him struggling for his life after the attack.

The actors of the UEA’s Drama Society played the roles of over 60 characters with flawless characterisation.

Not only did they recreate the essence of Wyoming with their thick, western American

accents, but they did it with minimum props. The only thing distinguishing the different characters was the odd jacket, or hat, or bag here and there, and yet still the audience was never confused as to which character was being portrayed.

The excellent production can also be credited to director Linus Wyeth. In the second act of the play (consisting of three acts overall), The Laramie Project showed the media sensation caused by the murder of Matthew Shepard and the associated hate crime.

Wyeth had the actors tightly pulled together to the centre of the stage, shouting over each other and jostling one another to realistically portray the encroachment of the media. The lighting was also important here.

The bright flashing lights of the cameras was authentically intrusive, and when added to the shouting journalists, made the drama all the more immediate. This is, of course, the aim of the performance: to emphasise that the problems of homophobia explored in The Laramie Project are still palpable today.

Since the play intends to educate the audience on the events in Wyoming and the resulting re-evaluation of the laws against hate crimes, the cast successfully deliver realism by including some vital points of view. We see the police officer and the doctor describe to the audience the severity of the attack, and the convincing mental strain it placed upon the emergency services.

At a prominent point in the play, Laramie’s

head doctor is charged with looking after both Matthew Shepard and his attacker. The doctor says, ‘I felt like God,’ wanting to save both patients equally while knowing that one of them had committed a terrible crime.

The Laramie Project focuses on a highly topical, and extremely important issue: that of homophobia. Of course, we would like to think that homosexuals are becoming increasingly protected from prejudice or at least from hate crimes. But this is not always the case as this extraordinary production shows.

UEA’s drama performance does a wonderful job of educating its audience on homophobia, the thinking behind it, and the negative effects of it, in the hope that we can rid ourselves of those prejudices altogether.

12

creative writing

“All we are is eyes looking for the unbroken or the edges where the broken bits might fit each other”

All Her Identities Rachel Sammons

And there was too a method to her madness, a process of sealing the distance with wax, the distance between her separate identities, this, that, ranging from submissive to stubborn, built upon choices made, choices turned down like the tilt of her eyes which confirmed a smile because, now, she grinned, then, her mouth laughed as the heat billowed inside her head, finally, this, over, and was this a new feeling, oh yes, how could his words, these circumstances, her fears, gather together relief, disappointment, no more, no more, but a flutter in the chest, a broken pulse, don’t forget, can’t forget, breaching new territory like a spoon breaking the surface of crème brûlée, crackle, creamy innocence rising to meet the ripe new world, so fresh, so flawed, and she watched the arch of her friend’s brows, there, beside her, to consider it art, to gaze at the paradox and recognise its value, how can she do that, she feels burning behind her cheeks and wishes away her forgetfulness, cannot forget, will not forget, their lips kiss the smoke, remember, this, that, his words, his frown, and then the comfort of her friend, hands braced against the table, bony white wrists ready to snap, as she smiles, she checks in the mirror, fake smile, now real, breaking the skin by her eyes, crinkling like his, soft like hers, and a whisper for all her identities, they gather the insecurities, the jealousies, the heartaches, and pour it all into one identity, only, so that the rest can laugh and smile, a real smile, this time, with the eyes.

Quick-Fire Questions... ...with Rachel Sammons Who on Earth do you think you are?

I think I’m a character in a comedic film.

What course are you on?

English Literature with Creative Writing.

In three words, what have you written?

Multiple Personality Disorder.

How are you finding it?

Very good! I love the people on my course, they’re so passionate!

If you could banish one book forever, what would it be?

Luckily, I haven’t read any books that I would want to erase from existence.

What makes you unique?

Well, I’ve been best friends with the same girl since I was nine, even though I moved far away from her the same year that I met her.

What word do you really hate?

Crisps. I cannot pronounce it.

What is making you happy at the moment?

Facebook. Sometimes it ruins things but at the moment it’s making me laugh so much.

Company

concrete.creativewriting@uea.ac.uk

Scarlet Dawson Occasionally, I run into myself. Like the other day, when I was walking home at 4:30 in the morning.

I had a little black umbrella, which had kindly been lent to me because the crisp, quiet night had donned a veil of rain. Delicate, yet I could still hear a faint pitter-patter against the fabric of the umbrella, and with no cars on the road nor wind in the trees, this was the only sound.

Sagittarius Divide

- Ali Smith, How to Be Both Who do you think you are? That’s the question I asked the writers for this issue’s creative writing pages, tackling the theme of identity. It’s a big one. Read these pieces and ask yourself who you are. Ask yourself in the mirror if you find a visual guide helpful. If you come away with an answer, you haven’t interrogated yourself enough. It’s a trial and error process. Repeat for a lifetime.

- Jake Reynolds

13

Nathaniel Woo

It’s just me in my tea-stained skin, Jaundice like bad teeth, Watching sunnier and paler bodies Huddled in the rain.

Me alone, a class of my own; My gaze bleaches and blemishes.

Aliyah Rawat

The Tape

Jenny Moroney They cast the baby girl off into the blue with a tape. They film it in their dim living room where the wooden floorboards have a burgundy rug thrown over. There’s a small desk in the corner where pens are mixed with pencils in cups and photo frames have been tipped to lie on their fronts.

In the centre, set up on a tripod, is a camera that casts a vague spotlight on the couple sitting on their crumpled pleather sofa. They are holding hands and looking attentively to the light. They say their names straight away and then get lost on what to do next. The woman gets up to pause it; what is there to say to babies and strangers?

Faces can say so much. The woman with her dyed auburn hair and fierce eyes - she never looks afraid. Her grip on the arm of the man next to her seems only in companionship. He keeps his mouth fixed to the side and frowns a little. They begin to wave at the camera and then stop. It’s like they are disregarding a ridiculous thought - maybe the idea that their hands might pass through the lens to the future and pull a bit of the girl back to something she might have been.

In the end they finish the film, leaving it patterned with introductions and goodbyes. They store it in a cassette that they secure to the girl’s front with duct-tape, wrapped all around her so her limbs are bound to her torso. She looks like a tiny stereo.

Then they go outside and bend down by the riverside with the baby in the woman’s arms. They look down at her hair shining and her skin almost translucent in the bright summer light. Her eyelids are shut and thin pink veins quiver as she breathes. The reeds are coarse against their hands so they are careful she does not touch them as they place her in the river.

Tess Castella

It’s just me with wide-eyed insomnia, Stargazing through the window, Meditating on my Sagittarius divide, Calculating my distance through parallax.

And they chase me away with sticks and forks.

Microfictions

Submit your own to @miniaturestory on Twitter

In those rare moments when the world is so quiet and so calm, you really see things. I saw how the street lights hung like tiny suns among the leaves of the darkened trees, their posts in shadow and their light turning the rain and the leaves around them into specks and flecks of gold. I saw the windows of the English houses, black and forbidding, one or two alight with figures moving to and fro, so that I felt I was glimpsing a scene from a play of which I knew neither the beginning nor the end. I also saw the moon, a hazy vision choked by clouds, weaving its way across the sky. I walked into the middle of the road and gazed ahead, through the rain and into the gossamer blanket of emptiness that hung all around me, and there I saw myself.

I should have expected it really. There was no one else to run into. Most of the time, life takes you out of yourself and carries you forward on wave upon wave of its own, overpowering substance. You don’t want to break concentration because you might miss something.

Introspection is a distraction, but when there’s nothing to be distracted from, when you have no external or internal demands, when the people you love and the people you hate and the people you are indifferent to are not present and, perhaps most importantly, when you take out your earphones, all that is left is you.

So there I was, face to face with myself, feeling a little apprehensive. We don’t always get along, but there are moments when we understand each other, perhaps when we realise that we want the same things. In those moments, I couldn’t ask for better company. Particularly that night, when I was far too tired to deal with a stream of self-criticism; I just smiled to myself.

We walked together along that deserted, dimly-lit road, in companionable silence.

I’ve searched for you in every second of the grainy video, studied each pair of eyes and pixel of skin. Are you there?

Please come home. Pa.

Cardiff

Hazel Compton Cardiff, you were created by a Scotsman.

How do you feel about that?

I heard you talking to your cymry Whispers through the arcades, Running down the Queen’s Street and around Hayes.

I looked around you, wondered at your diversity, Finding you wrapped in chains, separated by coffee stains, Your castle a ruin of two thousand years, held static For tourists, looking out over your vast landscape, Audio buzz strapped to their ears.

There she floats like she is caught on an invisible spider web that keeps her from the water. A few ripples tickle her sides but she is silent. Soon a tune starts to play from her chest. It’s something they used to hum in the car. They keep try to remember the words to it as they watch the water slowly pull her out of sight.

What are you reading right now?

Social or Solitary by Polly Roberts.

Scarlet Dawson Aliyah Rawat

12

creative writing

“All we are is eyes looking for the unbroken or the edges where the broken bits might fit each other”

All Her Identities Rachel Sammons

And there was too a method to her madness, a process of sealing the distance with wax, the distance between her separate identities, this, that, ranging from submissive to stubborn, built upon choices made, choices turned down like the tilt of her eyes which confirmed a smile because, now, she grinned, then, her mouth laughed as the heat billowed inside her head, finally, this, over, and was this a new feeling, oh yes, how could his words, these circumstances, her fears, gather together relief, disappointment, no more, no more, but a flutter in the chest, a broken pulse, don’t forget, can’t forget, breaching new territory like a spoon breaking the surface of crème brûlée, crackle, creamy innocence rising to meet the ripe new world, so fresh, so flawed, and she watched the arch of her friend’s brows, there, beside her, to consider it art, to gaze at the paradox and recognise its value, how can she do that, she feels burning behind her cheeks and wishes away her forgetfulness, cannot forget, will not forget, their lips kiss the smoke, remember, this, that, his words, his frown, and then the comfort of her friend, hands braced against the table, bony white wrists ready to snap, as she smiles, she checks in the mirror, fake smile, now real, breaking the skin by her eyes, crinkling like his, soft like hers, and a whisper for all her identities, they gather the insecurities, the jealousies, the heartaches, and pour it all into one identity, only, so that the rest can laugh and smile, a real smile, this time, with the eyes.

Quick-Fire Questions... ...with Rachel Sammons Who on Earth do you think you are?

I think I’m a character in a comedic film.

What course are you on?

English Literature with Creative Writing.

In three words, what have you written?

Multiple Personality Disorder.

How are you finding it?

Very good! I love the people on my course, they’re so passionate!

If you could banish one book forever, what would it be?

Luckily, I haven’t read any books that I would want to erase from existence.

What makes you unique?

Well, I’ve been best friends with the same girl since I was nine, even though I moved far away from her the same year that I met her.

What word do you really hate?

Crisps. I cannot pronounce it.

What is making you happy at the moment?

Facebook. Sometimes it ruins things but at the moment it’s making me laugh so much.

Company

concrete.creativewriting@uea.ac.uk

Scarlet Dawson Occasionally, I run into myself. Like the other day, when I was walking home at 4:30 in the morning.

I had a little black umbrella, which had kindly been lent to me because the crisp, quiet night had donned a veil of rain. Delicate, yet I could still hear a faint pitter-patter against the fabric of the umbrella, and with no cars on the road nor wind in the trees, this was the only sound.

Sagittarius Divide

- Ali Smith, How to Be Both Who do you think you are? That’s the question I asked the writers for this issue’s creative writing pages, tackling the theme of identity. It’s a big one. Read these pieces and ask yourself who you are. Ask yourself in the mirror if you find a visual guide helpful. If you come away with an answer, you haven’t interrogated yourself enough. It’s a trial and error process. Repeat for a lifetime.

- Jake Reynolds

13

Nathaniel Woo

It’s just me in my tea-stained skin, Jaundice like bad teeth, Watching sunnier and paler bodies Huddled in the rain.

Me alone, a class of my own; My gaze bleaches and blemishes.

Aliyah Rawat

The Tape

Jenny Moroney They cast the baby girl off into the blue with a tape. They film it in their dim living room where the wooden floorboards have a burgundy rug thrown over. There’s a small desk in the corner where pens are mixed with pencils in cups and photo frames have been tipped to lie on their fronts.

In the centre, set up on a tripod, is a camera that casts a vague spotlight on the couple sitting on their crumpled pleather sofa. They are holding hands and looking attentively to the light. They say their names straight away and then get lost on what to do next. The woman gets up to pause it; what is there to say to babies and strangers?

Faces can say so much. The woman with her dyed auburn hair and fierce eyes - she never looks afraid. Her grip on the arm of the man next to her seems only in companionship. He keeps his mouth fixed to the side and frowns a little. They begin to wave at the camera and then stop. It’s like they are disregarding a ridiculous thought - maybe the idea that their hands might pass through the lens to the future and pull a bit of the girl back to something she might have been.

In the end they finish the film, leaving it patterned with introductions and goodbyes. They store it in a cassette that they secure to the girl’s front with duct-tape, wrapped all around her so her limbs are bound to her torso. She looks like a tiny stereo.

Then they go outside and bend down by the riverside with the baby in the woman’s arms. They look down at her hair shining and her skin almost translucent in the bright summer light. Her eyelids are shut and thin pink veins quiver as she breathes. The reeds are coarse against their hands so they are careful she does not touch them as they place her in the river.

Tess Castella

It’s just me with wide-eyed insomnia, Stargazing through the window, Meditating on my Sagittarius divide, Calculating my distance through parallax.

And they chase me away with sticks and forks.

Microfictions

Submit your own to @miniaturestory on Twitter

In those rare moments when the world is so quiet and so calm, you really see things. I saw how the street lights hung like tiny suns among the leaves of the darkened trees, their posts in shadow and their light turning the rain and the leaves around them into specks and flecks of gold. I saw the windows of the English houses, black and forbidding, one or two alight with figures moving to and fro, so that I felt I was glimpsing a scene from a play of which I knew neither the beginning nor the end. I also saw the moon, a hazy vision choked by clouds, weaving its way across the sky. I walked into the middle of the road and gazed ahead, through the rain and into the gossamer blanket of emptiness that hung all around me, and there I saw myself.

I should have expected it really. There was no one else to run into. Most of the time, life takes you out of yourself and carries you forward on wave upon wave of its own, overpowering substance. You don’t want to break concentration because you might miss something.

Introspection is a distraction, but when there’s nothing to be distracted from, when you have no external or internal demands, when the people you love and the people you hate and the people you are indifferent to are not present and, perhaps most importantly, when you take out your earphones, all that is left is you.

So there I was, face to face with myself, feeling a little apprehensive. We don’t always get along, but there are moments when we understand each other, perhaps when we realise that we want the same things. In those moments, I couldn’t ask for better company. Particularly that night, when I was far too tired to deal with a stream of self-criticism; I just smiled to myself.

We walked together along that deserted, dimly-lit road, in companionable silence.

I’ve searched for you in every second of the grainy video, studied each pair of eyes and pixel of skin. Are you there?

Please come home. Pa.

Cardiff

Hazel Compton Cardiff, you were created by a Scotsman.

How do you feel about that?

I heard you talking to your cymry Whispers through the arcades, Running down the Queen’s Street and around Hayes.

I looked around you, wondered at your diversity, Finding you wrapped in chains, separated by coffee stains, Your castle a ruin of two thousand years, held static For tourists, looking out over your vast landscape, Audio buzz strapped to their ears.

There she floats like she is caught on an invisible spider web that keeps her from the water. A few ripples tickle her sides but she is silent. Soon a tune starts to play from her chest. It’s something they used to hum in the car. They keep try to remember the words to it as they watch the water slowly pull her out of sight.

What are you reading right now?

Social or Solitary by Polly Roberts.

Scarlet Dawson Aliyah Rawat

gaming + tech

15

concrete.gamingtech@uea.ac.uk

Gamer Showdown at London’s MCM Joe Fitzsimmons finally has a good time at a game convention

So Say We All

Frequent readers of this section (hi mom) may be aware that last month we ran a piece that had a less than enthusiastic response to this year’s EGX hosted at Earl’s Court. The presence of the event was dominated by some huge names in the game industry, as well as a figurative avalanche of announcements, demos, and trailers. Despite this, the event left this reviewer under whelmed and utterly exhausted. A massive sales pitch passed off as a trade convention, EGX presented a microcosm of every bad practice or unsavoury characteristic of the modern video games industry. All it needed was a small group of bullies going around harassing women in the name of ‘ethics in video games journalism’ or Phil Fish to show up.

How then, does this relate to MCM Comic Con? Well, because despite not being an exclusively video-games centred event, MCM is a trade show done right. Focussing on communities that prop up the videogame market, in addition to unloading products on eager buyers, MCM provides attendants with the feeling that those who care about playing games are as much a part of this convention than those who care about selling them.

As is standard for a trade show, MCM

offered attendees the opportunity to get some hands on experience with upcoming titles, as well as the chance to bag new releases and merchandise. Industry exhibitors include WB Games, Namco Bandia, Capcom, 2K Games, and Konami with a variety of titles available on trade stalls as well as upcoming titles such as Persona Q and Adventure Time: The Secret Of The Nameless Kingdom being demonstrated. The fact that lines to play upcoming titles are vastly shorter than those at EGX is not hard to notice. The majority of time at the convention is spent actually playing games as opposed to killing time on Angry Birds in the line for Sunset Overdrive.

MCM suffers the same problem as EGX in that with most of these games so close to release date it feels cheap to have to pay for the privledge of sampling the game, but this problem is easily remedied by the fact that there is so much more going on at MCM. The added bonuses of independent craft stalls and row after row of comic exhibitors more than makes up the relatively low price of entry.

Perhaps the biggest draw for gamers this year, and covering almost the entire back wall of one floor, the MCM eSports tournament showcases a weekend long League of

LegendsTournament, attracting teams from all over the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland competing for a €5000 cash prize. Taking place on a large, open plan stage, with a spatial seating arrangement, the tournament attracts a constant flow of foot traffic from inquisitive parents and excited preteens, to e-sports enthusiasts and convention patrons looking to rest for ten minutes and take in some competitive entertainment. Announcers are on hand to provide insight to the more confused spectators, although with conversation concerning the status of the game at a general hum throughout, it is hard for someone to get entirely lost. Partnered with MCM eSports with show stands flanking the gaming stage are tech companies XMG and AOC, displaying some of their latest and most powerful products for tech enthusiasts to salivate over.

A less hectic video game related attraction is the Pokemon stall. Situated right in front of the doors in the smaller trade floor, a miniature Pokemon museum stand greets convention attendees just making their way in. Showcasing artwork and game trivia going all the way back to the first generation.

It is nothing spectacular, but the little effort that has been put into celebrating a game that is not currently being pushed forward for consumers to buy is certainly a welcome thing. The fact that staff were on hand to give out free Pokemon trading card booster packs also helps.

Certainly one of the reason for MCM’s much more welcoming and enjoyable atmosphere that other conventions is its location. Earl’s Court is scheduled for demolition in the coming years, and it is easy to see why. The place is rundown, devoid of sunlight, and the layout means lines snake through decrepid underground tunnels. Not the sort of place you want to show off your latest high profile product.

The ExCel Centre on the other hand is what every convention centre should aspire to be. Large hangers facilitating massive show floors are intersected by long, window filled concourses where groups can easily gather,

filled with all the amenities you would expect from a centre hoping to house over one hundred thousand people over the space of two days. Backing out on to the river, it also features an out-of-doors concourse, meaning that if the crowds become too much (trust me, they did) a respite is not far away. Location wise it may be a bit more off the beaten tourist track in East London, but its proximity to the DLR and London City Airport means that getting there is not exactly hard. This also has the benefit of being able to avoid having to explain your life size Gundam costume to American tourists and disgruntled commuters on the Central Line.

Another attraction this year, so big of a draw in fact that it needed its own trade floor, is the YCS, or, Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game Championship Series. Hosted over the weekend, the series provides a competitive play space for Yu-Gi-Oh players (apparently they like to be called duellists) as well as a more casual gaming arena, with the opportunity to network and trade cards.

With random duels taking place all over the trade floor most non-duelling convention goers seem to avoid this area, perhaps to avoid stepping on and ruining someone else’s game.

With all of this running alongside events such as Vidfest UK, showcasing some of the countries’ biggest online video talents, PopAsia, a trade fair celebrating all aspects of Asian popular culture and the Euro Cosplay 2015 championships, as well as a variety of celebrity showings and major Hollywood exclusives, MCM offers less of a specialisation in fan-related conventions, but the broad appeal installs a sense of shared community that ensure that for the whole weekend, the geeks remain happy.

Offering a collective where people can get their hands on niche products they are passionate about is a must for conventiongoers. Here, they are also given somewhere they can actually enjoy the media they are consuming. MCM London 2014 was just as exhaustive for this review as EGX, but this time, for all the right reasons.

Blizzard Tweaks the First Person Shooter James Freimuller gets ready for Overwatch

Blizzard, the gaming giant behind World of Warcraft, recently revealed a new intellectual property called Overwatch. In a Pixar-esque cinematic trailer, Blizzard showcased their team-based shooter featuring a variety of colourful characters. A gameplay trailer shortly followed, which at a first glance makes the game seem very much like a clone of Team Fortress 2.

Wacky characters duke it out, a technique that practically copies both the characteristics of the famous TF2 Engineer and Medic. However, upon closer inspection there is a lot more to the game than meets

the eye and Blizzard have clearly thought about how to find their niche in the market.

It’s nice to see that there is a diverse range of characters with a range of ethnicities and non-sexualised characters. Heck, there’s even a gorilla with glasses.

The 12 characters cover a lot of ground between them and have various ways of tackling the 3D arenas. Flying, free running and use of grappling hooks, all make for interesting use of the map. The futuristic, sci-fi element of the game certainly seems to shine through, with several interesting and visual pleasing magical and futuristic

abilities. Each hero has four abilities, including an “ultimate” ability, adding an element of the massive online battle arena to this shooter.

Whilst this new game looks very engaging, it will be interesting to see how well it lasts in such a competitive online gaming market, particularly if they decide to charge a subscription fee like World of Warcraft had done. It is possible that with this new release Blizzard are stretching themselves too thin.

World of Warcraft is planned to continue for at least another decade, and online card game Hearthstone was a huge success. The

MOBA of Blizzard characters, Heroes of the Storm, sis till in the works. This makes for a glut of current titles.

On the whole, Overwatch looks to be a fun, fast-paced game with an interesting variety of heroes and abilities which overcome the hints of unoriginality that are detected. If you’re a fan of Team Fortress 2, or just fancy a change up from regular shooting games you should definitely be in anticipation for this game. Currently planned for PC release, no date has yet been stated but keep your eye out for the hopefully polished end result somewhere down the pipeline.

television

16 concrete.television@uea.ac.uk Josh Patterson Just as it has been with every new incarnation of the enigmatic time traveller, the expectations for Peter Capaldi’s first series on Doctor Who were high. He had to make us all forget about that floppy-haired fellow who was obsessed with bow ties, and win us round to a decidedly grumpier Doctor with much bushier eyebrows and a distinct penchant for telling people to “shut up.” As such, the recent two-part finale had potential to be the cherry on the cake for him.

It is safe to say that he, at least, nailed it.

Throughout the finale, the twelfth Doctor was on the best form he has been all series, Capaldi relishing his role as a much darker Doctor, but proving a natural at interspersing more comedic elements too (“Can you just hurry up, please, or I’ll hit you with my shoe.”) What really helped him shine, however, was Michelle Gomez’s excellent performance as Missy, whose dry, menacing nature rebounded perfectly off Capaldi. It’s a shame, then, that Steven Moffat places so much emphasis on the decidedly bland

character of Danny Pink in these episodes, whose presence has well and truly plagued the whole season. Furthermore, on other occasions Moffat’s dialogue swings too much the other way, becoming so over-thetop it’s almost cringeworthy. How poor Chris Addison’s face must have fallen when he opened his script to discover that his final line was going to be “squeeee.”

On a more positive note, though, it is refreshing to see Moffat take more of a risk with this story. He presents a darker, edgier tale, with some parts growing genuinely quite unpleasant as talk turns to the ideas surrounding death and how much a body feels after they have passed on. Indeed, he achieves an effective air of mystery and intrigue surrounding the Cybermen and Missy’s identity, although this does give way to a lot more exposition and dialogue in the story’s second part.

Though this was a decent finale, series

eight on the whole has been rather inconsistent in quality.

While Peter Capaldi has effectively distanced himself from his predecessor and firmly asserted his own unique Doctorial style, he all too often seems hampered by the lacklustre writing and plots he is presented with. As a result, it was only in the better episodes of thea series like Listen where he was really able to come into his own. Capaldi’s first series as the Doctor has been far from terrible, but it may actually have been something worse: forgettable. Say what you like about 2006’s laughably bad Love and Monsters, at least we all remember it. But will Robot of Sherwood or Time Heist really be remembered the same way in a few years?

This is arguably a more terrible crime for Doctor Who to commit. In a show so boundless, so creative, so offthe-wall mad, it’s a real shame Peter Capaldi’s first series as the Doctor has left us simply thinking “meh.”

Peter Capaldi News

Dan Struthers examines the pleasures of having a Mistress We finally got a female Time Lord, but not the one we anticipated. For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past few weeks, The Master is now The Mistress. The clues were there as usual, Steven Moffat teasing the audience similarly to the whole ‘Silence Will Fall’ arc which stretched over Matt Smith’s tenure as the Doctor. The name Missy was, of course, a clever abbreviation of Mistress.

As Missy puts it “I couldn’t very well keep calling myself the Master, could I?” Michelle Gomez’s first entrance in Deep Breath, dressed like a deranged Mary Poppins and billed as the Gatekeeper of the Nethersphere, encouraged much speculation as to this mysterious woman’s identity, with theories ranging from another incarnation of River Song to my personal favourite: an evil future version of Clara hence the name ‘Miss C’.

Gomez had the near impossible task of taking over the reins of the Master/Mistress from the magnificent John Simm, whose incarnation of the Master was mad, funny and unpredictable; an instant hit when introduced in 2007. Who else could get away with dancing around the room to the tune of the Scissor Sisters’ I Can’t Decide and still have you in tears when he seemingly dies, choosing

not to regenerate just to piss the Doctor off.

Enter Gomez, re-inventing and owning the role with her wide-eyes and manic smile.

Perhaps Missy snogging the face off Capaldi’s Doctor was a step too far, Moffat writing it in purely because the Doctor and Master are now different genders, marking the first ever Master/Doctor kiss (minus the fan fiction.)

John Simm certainly wouldn’t have got away with snogging the face of David Tennant, much to the disappointment of many fangirls, I’m sure. Many greats have played the role of the Master including classic fan favourite Roger Delgado, briefly Sir Derek Jacobi before regenerating into John Simm’s incarnation and in the 1996 TV movie by The Dark Knight’s Eric Roberts, the first American Master (and hopefully the last).

But let’s address the elephant in the room.

That’s the fact that Gomez is the first woman to play the iconic role when the notion of such an idea during Jon Pertwee’s run as the Doctor would be absurd. Yes, it is true that there have been other female Time Lords, most notably the Rani in the 80’s, but none have lived up to the status of the Master. Does this mean that if they bring back the Rani for the next series that she should regenerate into a man, or

would that cause uproar that a female role was given to a male? Many have noted that, like the Master until recently, the Doctor has so far only been played by white men, raising the question of why a woman has not been cast as the Doctor. Whilst the Doctor can, in theory, be played by anyone regardless of ethnicity, orientation or gender, should we be depriving children of such a rare male intellectual hero who hates violence (aside from blowing up the occasional fleet of Daleks, but that’s another debate) and attempts to find the peaceful solution, unlike a lot of Hollywood type heroes who come in all guns blazing. Should the Doctor follow in the Master’s footsteps and regenerate into a woman or would there be too much backlash from the loyal fans who are perhaps not prepared to accept the new?

Would changing the Doctor to a woman be changing the key identity of the Gallifreyan hero or would it just be another interpretation in much the same way that Capaldi is playing a darker Doctor than we’ve seen before, which in itself has alienated some viewers? If Michelle Gomez has taught us anything it’s that a female Time Lord works and it is a refreshing change to mix up the formula of a show that has been running 51 years and counting.

Rise of the Fandoms

Emily Walker

The majority of people in Britain, and sometimes it seems the world, knows about the BBC TV series Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, and most of those people know that the fan following behind the show is astronomical. What is less well known is that the original Sherlock Holmes fans, way back in the late 19th Century, were the very first modern fandom. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off his wildly popular detective (spoilers – he survived) in order to focus on his historical work, the readers of the Strand magazine in which the story was published took to the streets wearing

“Audience response to a show can be instantly gauged” black armbands to symbolise their mourning.

Conan Doyle received hundreds of letters begging for Holmes to return. After ten years – and a massive publishing deal – they got their wish. Even some high-profile writers such as Mark Twain took the chance to write Sherlock Holmes fanfiction. Today, fandom levels have exploded. While it used to be only small dramas that had a devoted fan following, the Internet has revealed there is a fandom for almost every TV show from Big School to The X Factor.

People can now actually watch a popular show almost instantly if they miss it. There are hundreds of TV channels, repeats, DVDs, Netflix and equivalents, catch-up, and even illegal downloads (which I am not condoning, by the way). You don’t have to wait a year to watch the series of Atlantis you missed, or go to America to see Supernatural. The more times it’s played, the more people can see it, and the potential fandom gets bigger and bigger. Incidentally, the Internet itself means that audience response to a show can be instantly gauged before, during and after its slot time. The BBC has recently taken full advantage of this by posting relevant memes and facts seconds after the episode is shown on TV. Want to find out if others agree with your opinion on the Doctor Who finale? There are infinite numbers of polls, reviews and comments online. Not only that, but you can also find others out there who agree with any theory you have, regardless of where you live. Saying you are part of a fandom these days is common – it no longer means you are part of this hidden group of nerds staring at a computer screen fantasizing about Spock and Kirk getting married. Well, you might, but at least if you did then you’re not in the minority, everyone has at least one TV show that they absolutely love. Embrace your inner fandomness and enjoy the show!

television

17

concrete.television@uea.ac.uk

Sanctuary 94

A Series of (Un)fortunate Adaptations Hannah Ford talks about the successes and (mostly) failures of book to TV adaptations Think of some of your favourite TV shows, both home-grown and from across the pond.

No matter what genre you enjoy, using my incredible powers of deduction (watch and learn, Sherlock), I can easily gather that at least one or two of them are based on books.

Maybe even TV shows you had no idea were originally books, for example Orange is the New Black, Dexter, or The Leftovers. And, of course, the more well-known adaptations, such as Game of Thrones, from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and Sherlock, based, of course, on Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories. (I say of course, however I did once see a terrifying post on Tumblr in which teenage fangirls were moaning about some guy named Arthur Colon-or-Something Doyle’s rip-off of their beloved TV show. I despair.)

I’ll be honest: I don’t need the brains of Sherlock to know this.

TV writers and producers have been ripping off – sorry, adapting – books for years. As long as there have been TV adaptations, there have been bibliophiles to slam them. It seems TV writers and producers cannot win: they ruin a much-loved book by casting the wrong actor, or change the book’s plot too much or too little; change and ‘ruin’ the

conclusion – the list is endless. So how, then, would a TV writer go about making the perfect adaptation, both pleasing fans of the original novel, and gaining a wider audience of TV viewers? Like all puzzling questions, I’ll refer this to Sherlock.

“As long as there have been TV adaptations, there have been bibilophiles to slam them” Whilst it’s true that there have been some awful TV adaptations (two words: True Blood) and, as fellow literature students and many others would probably agree, a TV show can never really be as good as the original book, but the quality of adaptations has greatly improved in recent years. Why? Because writers no longer attempt to remake the book exactly, and instead put their own spin on to it. Take Sherlock. Rather than yet another cheesy remake of Doyle’s

stories featuring the original plot and Victorian

setting, Moffat brought the Victorian sleuth into the twenty-first century, creating one of the BBC’S biggest, most successful dramas to date. Based loosely on individual novels or short stories – for example the pilot A Study in Pink is loosely based on the first novel, A Study in Scarlet – and taking certain elements from the plot and modernising them such as the ‘hounds’ in the episode The Hounds of Baskerville being – spoiler alert! – delusional visions induced by drugs, rather than the literal hound in Doyle’s novel. The series becomes unique in its own right, creating its own plot

“It is an affectionate nod to Doyle’s literary classics, not a cheap rip-off” and twists, and developing the characters in accordance with contemporary society, whilst still retaining much of Doyle’s original characterisation and ideas. It is an affectionate nod to Doyle’s literary classics, not a cheap rip-off.

TV Show 4 Mediafire

however,

Many people, believe changing

their beloved original book is a bad thing.

For example, fans of George R. R. Martin’s original novels have criticised Game of Thrones writers for departing too far from the original book in recent seasons. However, if they had stuck completely to the book, would it not become boring for those same fans? By bringing something unique to the script but still maintaining Martin’s original characters, settings, and the majority of plots, the show becomes entertainment in itself rather than an on-screen version of the same story someone has already read. It then appeals to the much wider audience of TV fans across the globe, not just simply book lovers.

With the recent announcement that Netflix is creating an adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s books A Series of Unfortunate Events, books I’m sure most of us loved growing up, the question is what kind of adaptation will it be: good, bad, or ugly? Will it be simply an on-screen version of exactly what happens in the books which will, undoubtedly, have at least some fans kicking up a storm since no adaptation can ever be exactly the same? Or, similarly to one of their biggest adaptations, Orange is the New Black, will the show simply be based on the characters and narrative, but allowed to blossom into an original, highly entertaining drama in itself?

film

18

concrete.film@uea.ac.uk

Nerdist

Interstellar

Director Christopher Nolan Writers Jonathan and Christopher Nolan Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain Runtime 169 mins Adventure/Sci-fi George Barker Interstellar, while not his best work, still shows why Christopher Nolan is one of the best directors of this century. With humanity struggling for survival, Dylan Thomas’s poem

The Babadook

Director and Writer Jennifer Kent Starring Essie Davis, Daniel Henshall, Noah Wiseman Runtime 93 mins Horror Adam Dawson You might not think to look to Australia for a horror movie, however it’s quickly becoming the place to go to if you want to be actually afraid rather than just jump out of your seat once or twice. They gave us Snowtown, Wolf Creek, and The Loved Ones. First time writer/ director Jennifer Kent’s wonderfully creepy The Babadook pushes the booming Australian horror scene even further forward.

Amelia (Essie Davis) is a single mother struggling to raise her little shit of a son Samuel (Noah Wiseman) after her husband/ his father died in a horrific car accident seven years earlier. Sam is so terrified of the monsters under his bed that he can’t sleep, which means Amelia can’t either. His obsession with monsters is ruining their lives, made even worse after Amelia reads him a pop-up book called Mister Babadook, featuring a creature which looks like something Edward Gorey would have nightmares about. Sam becomes convinced the Babadook is coming for him - Amelia doesn’t believe him because parents are sensible.

‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ resonating throughout, a last attempt to find a new home is launched. As much as Interstellar is a space epic, the relationship between Cooper (McConaughey) and his daughter Murph forms a core part of the film.

Cooper, an ex-NASA pilot, leads the mission to find a habitable planet for mankind.

Earth, or at least a small town in the rural US, faces starvation and severe dust storms as humanity struggles to feed itself in the face of a pandemic crop blight (yet beer is still plentiful). The world which Nolan creates is a fascinating one: farmers are a prized profession and the wastefulness and decadence of previous generations is condemned. Though you only get a tiny glimpse of how this is affecting the It’s all on Davis and Wiseman to carry this movie. It’s a good job they clearly have a connection or whatever you’d prefer to call it.

Both mother and son are equally emotionally damaged, and both can equally play it well – this is from a child actor and a woman who’s had bit parts but never had to carry a movie.

Kent dives into the emotional relationship between the two before she puts anything too supernatural on the screen. Before you even know Mister Babadook, you wonder just how far Amelia will go to make her son behave normally. The first third is spent establishing the boundaries and dynamics of the relationship whilst slowly turning up

planet, it leaves you wondering about everyone else. This is to Nolan’s testament as the scenario he creates is so engaging.

Thankfully the film avoids simply presenting Earth’s predicament through walls of text exposition, but rather displays it naturally as we only get to see it through the eyes of Cooper and his family. The film’s exposition is decent for one that has to introduce concepts such as time dilation due to gravity and relative velocity. While it never throws equations directly in your face for you to interpret, it does occasionally get bogged down trying to explain it all. The general science behind parts of the film is one of its best aspects, as Nolan worked closely with Kip Thorne, a colleague of Stephen Hawking and a leading expert on the astrophysical implications of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Knowing that the astounding visual depictions of wormhole travel and black holes is based on pioneering scientific theory elevates the sense of awe, with incredible shots reminiscent of photos produced by deep space telescopes. The sound of the film has been somewhat controversial, some claiming that at times lines are muffled and difficult to hear, to which Nolan responded that this was the intention. For the most part straining to hear a character’s last words adds to the tension and atmosphere of the film. At one or two points though the score does seem to override the lines being delivered which feels a bit odd.

Overall the score work is great, the orchestra swells as dust storms ravage the Midwest, contrasting with the harsh silence of space which accompanies our heroes’ journey into

the unknown.

For all of the science and spectacle of the film, the relationships between its characters are at its core. The moving relationship between Cooper and Murph (weirdly Cooper never mentions trying to get back to earth to see his son) is key to the story and provides a motivation for Cooper and a reason for the audience to care about what’s happening on

the tension. Amelia becomes more and more frustrated, Sam more and more annoying.

It’s obvious she loves her son, but she doesn’t always like him.

and grey; no one smiles, no one laughs.

Instead of making you jump ten feet in the air, the tension keeps on mounting until around twenty minutes before the end of the movie when it’s all lost. When the monster is kept in the mind, the fear is constantly there. A lot of the work up to this point is done through suggesting what might happen, hinting at the Babadook’s power. When the Babadook manifests in an impressive work of stop-motion animation, all the tension is lost – it’s physical, it’s something that can be fought. A fairly standard haunted house story (vomiting black ink, demonic voices) replaces what should be the height of terror.

That’s one of several missteps. The plot can occasionally feel a little too contrived.

Amelia was working on a children’s book before her husband died. Come on. It’s like being slapped in the face by an obvious connection which doesn’t seem to serve any purpose other than Kent thinking it would provide a talking point about what it ‘means.’

This isn’t really about being so scared you can’t sleep for a week afterwards. It’s about telling a story of loss and grief in an original way which, despite several missteps elsewhere, The Babadook does very well. It’s ambitious, but that’s not quite matched in execution.

“Bababa-dook-dook-dook” The horror in this ‘horror’ movie won’t make you jump out of your skin in the quietquiet-BANG way Annabelle works (or doesn’t).

Instead, it’s all about the psychological. There’s no gore or brutal murder scenes. Jennifer Kent creeps under your skin by trapping you in the claustrophobic world mother and son find themselves in. Their house is black The Guardian

The Guardian

“Love is the one thing that transcends time and space” Earth. But it’s where the film trades science for sentimentality that it falls down in part, especially at the ending. The supporting cast is a bit hit and miss; a surprise cameo draws you out of the film somewhat. Cooper’s son, though ever present in the film, always feels a bit forgotten (by the writers as well as his father) and maybe an extended cut would fill out his story a bit more. The robotic AI, a homage to the Monoliths of 2001, at times provides some excellent and well-placed comic relief.

Interstellar is good but not great, as by the end it’s all just a bit too sentimental. The film never has that Nolan-esque shot that blows your mind (think Prestige, Memento and the end of Inception).

Even if the plot doesn’t quite hit the greatness of Nolan’s best, the visuals and sound are stunning. If ever there was a reason to splash out on an IMAX ticket, this would be it.

film

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concrete.film@uea.ac.uk

The Imitation Game

Director Morten Tyldum Writer Graham Moore Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode Runtime 114 mins Biography/Drama Isis Billing Joining the ranks of The King’s Speech and The Iron Lady as the latest Oscar-baiting British biopic, The Imitation Game chronicles the life of cryptanalysis and computer forefather, Alan Turing. With a poignant performance from its lead, Benedict Cumberbatch, the film seems almost destined for awards glory.

A carefully calculated sense of urgency lies at the centre of director Morten Tyldum’s tension-packed English language debut, as a team of mathematical mavericks race against the clock to decipher encrypted German radio transmissions and lead the Allies to WW2 victory. With impeccable costumes and archive footage, the film moonlights as a well-dressed period drama, yet at its core is a thrilling recollection of espionage and intellectual conquest.

Turing’s fragile brilliance is explored through flashbacks of his tortured boyhood that are intertwined with a portrait of blossoming homosexuality. The protagonist’s sexual orientation is one of many secrets Cumberbatch juggles while contending with a Soviet spy, a menacing MI6 agent (Mark Strong) and

an intervening Naval commander (Charles Dance). His rigid individuality is a wellconstructed mixture of disdain for authority and grandiose self-belief, which jar wonderfully against the armies’ quintessentially British love of bureaucracy.

Having witnessed his colleages’ ineptitude, Turing begins constructing Christopher; a mechanical masterpiece, named after his childhood crush, designed to break the German’s Enigma code. Further smashing status quo, he hires crossword champion Joan Clarke, played

by Keira Knightley, who reluctantly accepts her place amongst the team of men and develops a deep affection for Turing.

“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine” With Joan’s help, our protagonist bumbles out awkward icebreakers and eventually gains the loyalty of his team of puzzle boffins who begin to see the method behind the machine’s wire-tangled madness. Meanwhile, the pressure mounts as a daily alarm signals the resetting of Enigma code to a new configuration. Despite beckoning rather repetitive outbursts from Matthew Goode’s otherwise slick character, Hugh Alexander, the sound serves as a harrowing reminder of the lives lost in the futility of war.

Having finally cracked the code, the team are faced with the chilling task of calculating how many troops they can covertly save without alerting the enemy. By feeding the Allies the perfect amount of information, the

Beyazperde

war is won and the film lingers in a moment of frothy rejoice until settling into a melancholy denouement as Turing’s homosexuality results in his chemical castration and eventual suicide.

Audiences are left feeling patriotic yet appalled by the cruel fate faced by this brilliant mind, cut short by the prudishness of his own country’s justice system. Turing’s sexuality is subtly handled through his schooldays but one may feel slightly disappointed that it seems a touch under explored in his adulthood.

Turing is constructed as oddly disconnected from all those around him and portrayed as almost asexual. Despite this, one cannot deny Cumberbatch’s performance is Oscar worthy, nuanced with introverted ticks and sensitive in its portrayal of persecuted individualism.

A plethora of home-grown TV talent makes a strong supporting cast but some characters

The Drop

Director Michaël R. Roskam Writer Dennis Lehane Starring Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, Noomi Rapace Runtime 106 mins Thriller Martha Julier Adapted from his own short story Animal Rescue, Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone) trades in his usual haunt of the Boston projects for Brooklyn’s criminal underground ‘drop’ bars. Tom Hardy stars as Bob Saginowski, a good-natured bartender who works in his cousin Marv’s bar that also happens to be an establishment chosen to store local Chechen (“not Chechnyan” he corrects an unappreciative Marv) gangsters’ money as it switches between hands, a.k.a a ‘drop bar’.

However, an ill-planned robbery and an abused (adorable) puppy bring irreversible changes to Bob’s quiet life.

As the English language debut of Belgian director Michaël R. Roskam, The Drop retains much of the gritty tension of his Oscar nominated Bullhead (2011) while also incorporating its excellent lead, Matthias Schoenaerts. As Bob, Hardy leads the tour-deforce cast, with his thick Brooklyn accent and

Reels Guide

‘it is how it is’ attitude. Hardy is fantastic at attributing magnetic warmth to this seemingly simple character, whose scenes with his puppy say more about his caring nature than any dialogue could. The fact alone that you are watching Hardy when Rocco the puppy is on screen is, honestly, a testament to his commanding performance. He manages to tread a difficult line between naïve purity and merciless strength, a line you wouldn’t know existed until you met Bob. Schoenaerts is the subtle but psychotic Eric Deeds, who attempts to reclaim ownership of the said puppy Bob adopts. Schoenaerts’ quiet unpredictability makes every scene he is in viscerally unnerving.

The film also notably contains James Gandolfini’s final feature film performance, and although not his most remarkable character - the has-been tough guy Marv recalls a begrudged Tony Soprano - he gives an

invaluable performance, if slightly melancholic to watch. Noomi Rapace adds vulnerability to the sharp countenance of Nadia, a waitress with a troubled past whom, like Bob, is drawn into dangerous circumstances out of her control.

Lastly, John Ortiz is Detective Torres, who is attempting the unachievable task of doing his job - upholding the law - in a place in which the law has no jurisdiction.

“Are you doing something desperate?”

Roskam’s gritty visual style lends itself well to the Brooklyn backdrop and his unflinching attitude to (only occasional) violence successfully provides an atmosphere of uneasiness and brutality. This is a world in which actions have consequences that, in a tragic manner, people choose to forget.

appear rather one-dimensional in comparison to Cumberbatch’s meticulous portrayal of the eccentric genius. Keira Knightley as Joan Clarke, Turing’s jilted fiancé and fellow cryptologist, doesn’t depart from her usual historical drama typecast and fails to bring anything fresh to the screen. This is an unfortunate predicament considering her character’s curiously platonic affections for Turing. The team of men surrounding Turing do not develop as the plot progresses but rather maintain their stereotypes with great conviction.

Although not perfect, the film remains a thoughtprovoking biopic that offers a strong tribute to one of Britain’s great unsung heroes.

In tradition with his writing, Lehane creates a multi-layered, ruthless criminal landscape and a diverse array of characters to explore the complexity of morality and its enactment. Lehane’s world depicts a diversity of motivations from its merciless gangsters, desperate robbers and bitter civilians that causes you to evaluate the divisions between moral, legal and actual power. Similarly to the other screen adaptations of Lehane’s novels, The Drop includes the presence of the Police as an out-of-place source of legal authority in an illegal world. Also, in true Lehanian manner there is an unpredictable and exciting twist, a transformative plot turn that leaves you reevaluating both what you have just watched and your decided reaction to it.

The Drop was at risk of becoming another forgettable crime drama, but the collaborative effort of its dedicated cast, rich source material and exceptional director elevates it into a provocative and enjoyable film that keeps you thinking after its credits roll. The neo-noir tone is challenged and upturned in a modernising lift that tells a truly Lehanian morality tale, leaving the audience in always welcomed intrigue. A rare, and what will probably become an unfortunately overlooked, genre-piece gem.

film

20

concrete.film@uea.ac.uk

Making Movies Neven Devies chats to award-winning UEA student film-maker Daniel Allen about his work with them, especially if they’re the best for the job.

Looking through your portfolio it seems you haven’t stuck yourself into a specific genre. Was this a conscious decision or do you think you're still trying to find your voice?

I think at first it was just about the stories I wanted to tell, and obviously they lent themselves to a much darker angle without necessarily wanting to make a horror or thriller. Then I realised that’s what I was doing and I didn't want to pigeon-hole myself, so I went out of my way to write a comedy and then a drama. It’s always been about finding my voice and since then, I’ve just made what comes naturally to me. I don’t settle on a genre, I just follow what’s best for the story and it just happens that I like painting things in a darker frame.

There’s always an argument as to whether or not a film should have a separate writer.

Because you tend to write and direct, how do you feel about that statement?

Daniel Allen Films

Why did you decide to make films in the first place?

funding and actually finding people to work with you?

I was really interested in films and the production process itself. I used to watch a lot of behind-the-scenes footage when I was younger and I started making rubbish, kind of experimental films. I also used to play filmmaking with my brother. We used to jump on mattresses and pretend we were stuntmen. Then eventually, after doing a lot of video works, I decided to shoot a narrative film when I was about 14. That's when I wrote and directed my first proper film that had a narrative.

I never starred in them myself! I mostly did all of the production at the very beginning, but I had two or three actors who were friends from school. After one film, people were like ‘oh that’s cool, I wanna help’, and it all kind of grew from there. I had a few people helping me hold the booms and stuff. It was all very much friends and buddies helping me out.

The budgets were super low and my early films cost around £100 which was spent entirely on buying equipment and props for the shoots.

Obviously 14 is a young age but did you have any basic influences or was it just film in general which made you realise that’s what you wanted to do?

I think it was mostly film in general. There was a website actually called videocopilot.net which was behind-the-scenes visual effects stuff. So during my experimental years, I did loads of visual effects and taught myself to edit.

That’s what inspired me to create shots and effects and that’s what led me towards telling stories. There were always stories I had wanted to tell but it took me a while for that to line up with what I was learning, and I was like, oh, actually I can use these to tell my stories.

In terms of directors, in the early days I don’t think I paid that much attention to them.

Because film is such an expensive and collaborative process, how did you go about

Back to the present day, your latest films have seen you work with professional producers and cinematographers, which film brought you to that stage?

I think Husky helped me the most because it was the most filmic thing I had done and it showed people how serious I was about making films so that definitely helped me springboard to where I am now. I mean it was the first film that I had done where I worked with people that I didn’t know - which were the actors - and after that I had a lot more crew working with me. I made a few films in between, but I guess my next big film was Audition. That one had an actual working producer and a professional sound recorder. Since then it’s always been kinda that way but there is a harmony between working with outside crew and people I know.

For bigger projects, there’s always a certain amount of shuffling, but if you know that you and your team work well it’s sensible to stay

I actually didn’t write Audition, and I also directed Fledglings at a film camp this summer which had two writers attached. I’ve done both, and for me, no matter whether I write or not, once I get to the set I’ve typically realised my vision. It's interesting when you have writers on set because sometimes when you interpret things differently you may get a conflict of vision, but usually they’re very much behind you. If you have a producer who tends to be creative I feel that they actually try to exert more control, whereas the ones that are purely interested in the business tend to just let you be, at least from what I’ve experienced.

As long as you’ve got your stuff figured out in pre-production, everything typically goes well.

Have you ever had a conflict with a producer where you've truly battled heads?

I had a recent incident but I can’t talk about because it would be unprofessional and also it happened at UEA. I worked with a producer at the National Youth Film Academy who happened to be a writer/director and he tried to push me into the writing team. That was really, really tough and we also changed half of the script even though some parts had already been shot which is really not supposed to happen. It all worked out for the best but I don't think I'd like to work like that again.

There is a lot more leniency for a more experimental experience within short film, would that be something that you would be willing to try?

I think experimental film is a very interesting medium, but I see myself much more as a

storyteller. I don’t feel like experimental film gives me the leverage to actually tell a fullyfledged story. It’s a lot less restrictive in a sense, but the films I want to make are certainly not for that kind of audience.

You’ve almost finished working on your latest short film, do you have any ideas about where you're heading next?

After university, I plan on either heading off to film school or trying to make a lowbudget feature. The shorts I’m writing have an estimated runtime of around five minutes.

I think my next short will probably have the highest budget yet, but I definitely want to build my portfolio up to feature length.

In terms of people wanting to start making their own shorts, what advice could you My Lawyer Will Call Your Lawyer give them?

I will say this, once you think you’ve written your masterpiece short film, lock it away and come back to it as many months later as you can possibly bear. That way, when you re-read it, it will give you the necessary fresh perspective. It’s easier to spot the shortcomings on someone else's work than it is on yours, so I think it's really important to give it some time before you decide to redraft. Also, just share it with as many people as possible. And don’t be offended when you receive criticism. It’s all constructive and there’s no point in asking for advice if you’re constantly going to go on the defensive. If your planning on writing, read as many screenplays as you can because you'll really start to notice what makes a compelling work.

Being a visual art, the aesthetics of a film remains important to a lot of people and that’s perhaps a fear as to why many don’t send their works off to festivals. Honestly, how lenient are they?

Obviously, the big festivals like Cannes have a ridiculous amount of technical conditions which need to be followed before they'll even consider judging, but student-run film festivals are very lenient because they understand the limitations imposed. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t try as hard as you can to make your film look visually pleasing but as long as the story is tight, sending your work in should be fine. One factor which I always see neglected is sound. Sound is ridiculously important and bad recordings will usually result in a film not being picked up.

On a final note, do you have any tips for people to take on board?

The main thing is to just be confident and send your film in! You're only gonna get what you get so if you never submit anything in, how do you expect to get anywhere?

film

21

concrete.film@uea.ac.uk

The Changelings Four writers. Four films. Four life-changing experiences.

TV Bomb

Barrel dEM

Into the Wild (2007) The final scene and credits of Sean Penn’s film Into the Wild will always stick with me. In a dark room late at night with a group of close friends, the only sound was a quiet collective sobbing.

The film had an enormous impact on each of us. I would say that this film changed my life by showing me an antihero in the real life figure of Christopher McCandless, played excellently

by Emile Hirsch, who did the unthinkable and gave up his life of privilege to get back to nature on a spiritual and philosophical level unlike any I had seen before.

What resonated with me even more was the fact that the story of McCandless, a talented sportsman who had just graduated from college in 1990, was completely true. His decision to abandon his previous life in favour of a simple nomadic existence (and eventually working towards an ‘Alaskan Odyssey’) is seen by many

Blade Runner (1982)

as reckless, naïve and plain stupid, and there are plenty of arguments to justify why this may have been the case, but to me it was also incredibly brave, especially at a time in my life when I was struggling with personal identity.

It might be typical to assume that the vitriolic condemnation of ‘society’ by Hirsch’s character spoke to me at this point in my life simply because every teenager is expected to experience a ‘fuck society’ phase before growing up and realising the ‘truth’. But, believe it or not, at the heart of the story is a message that many critics of the film seem to miss: happiness is only real when shared, and the fact that this agonising truth only becomes apparent to McCandless after it is too late is a tragedy that will always live on in my mind.

Jay Stonestreet

It took a few years for Blade Runner to really make an impact. I first saw it as a teenager (raised on action blockbusters) and was impressed with the visuals, but a bit ‘weirdedout’ and slightly bored by everything else. But in the following years, the more I watched it, the more I thought about it, I came to love it and regard it as one of the greatest films ever made (in case you wondered, The Empire Strikes Back takes the top spot).

Its vision of the future is probably the most believable of any film I’ve ever seen. There are no sweeping vistas of alien worlds, grand spaceships soaring among the stars, but extensions of the modern age we already live in. Every time I see a city-scape at night, or catch glimpses of factories in the distance, my brain can’t help but play back those opening moments: if I’m in the city and it’s even slightly raining, there’s

a 90% chance I’m listening to Vangelis’ Blade Runner Blues. Even small things like billboard adverts or TV commercials bring to mind the skyscrapers wrapped in Coke ads or the enormous, smoke-belching infomercial barges spouting hollow promises of a better life.

But what has really struck me most about the movie – in the last few viewings – is what I believe the film to really be about: two people who somehow, battling monumental odds, defying death, and questioning their own existence, manage to find love in a world which appears to have none left. It gives me hope that despite the cynicism that we’re all guilty of in this day and age, the human spirit and (at the risk of sounding disgustingly sentimental) love will emerge unscathed.

Chris Rogers

Film Captures

Glamour

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) I will probably never be able to definitively choose my favourite film, answering everything from Dead Poets Society to The Princess Diaries over the years, but the film that changed my life is much easier to define. Every time I watch To Kill a Mockingbird, every time I hear Elmer Bernstein’s modestly resonant score, I am transported back to a vicarious, sepia-toned childhood in 1930s Alabama: I am Scout Finch tire-swinging through a world that makes no sense. But it’s not a romantic picture – I stand when my father, Atticus, passes, having steadfastly defended a black man, Tom Robinson, and then watched an all-white jury unjustly convict him – and the lessons I learn are invaluable.

The film is shot through a lens of childhood naïvety which makes it abundantly clear that intolerance is learned behaviour, and as a kid, weeping over this story first sparked my interest in civil rights. Children are not born hateful; we bring them up to be. When you’re a child, you cry the injustice. When you’re an adult, you FlickatFacts

Withnail & I (1987)

cry because the injustice still exists.

It feels inadequate to name Bruce Robinson’s But To Kill a Mockingbird changed me black comedy as ‘the film that changed my again when I was old enough to acknowledge life’. For a start, it hasn’t and it seems a massive its imperfections. It prioritises the nobility of a cliché, the fashionable answer of every student white man over the full characterisation of Tom (although the one time I watched the film with Robinson, and the black people of the story are students they all thought it was shit- the cliché is relegated to the backbenches of the courtroom clearly utter rubbish). Yet as a student facing the and their own oppression. The flaws of that terrifying precipice of adulthood, Withnail and I time only further indicate the importance of fair remains as meaningful as ever. representation now.

A plot synopsis of the film makes terrible Whenever I start to judge another person, I reading: in 1969, two unemployed actors think of Boo Radley and I hear Gregory Peck’s Withnail (Richard E Grant) and Marwood voice, too, saying “you never really understand a (Paul McGann, although you’d only know the Flick Facts person until you consider things from his point character’s name if you’re like me and are sad of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and enough to read the screenplay online) escape the walk around in it.” Atticus Finch isn’t a great squalor of their Camden Town flat and spend cinematic hero for his ability to fly faster than the weekend in the country cottage belonging a speeding bullet or shoot two guns at the same to Withnail’s flamboyantly gay uncle Monty time: he shows us that compassion is the most (Richard Griffiths). Yet the aimlessness, the heroic trait of all. nostalgia and of course the pungent dialogue of Withnail and I is part of its charm, with an array of Emma Holbrook quotable linesShop ranging from the brilliantly inane tehparadox Coming Soon Movie Poster

ramblings of Danny the dealer “Hairs are your aerials. They pick up signals from the cosmos, and transmit them directly into the brain. This is the reason bald-headed men are uptight” to some classically British swearing “Monty you terrible cunt!” and of course who hasn’t drunkenly stood up in a pub and demanded “the finest wines available to humanity?” (Just me. OK).

However, it is the ending that is most vivid for me. As Marwood departs in the rain, having secured a job, Withnail recites Hamlet’s “What a piece of work is a man” to the wolves, the only audience that will listen. It is an immensely moving portrayal by Grant, as Withnail finally faces the realisation that he will never play the Dane. When you’re young the possibilities seem endless. But reality sets in, people get cut adrift and we settle for mediocrity. Withnail deals with all of these things and our desperate attempts to keep the dream alive.

Film Cine

Will Hunter

The Page of Fun

concrete.competitions@uea.ac.uk b

QuizTime!

Horoscopes for the Miserable Aries

1. This year, one of the Norfolk’s trees was nominated for the first ever Tree of the Year competition. And if that doesn’t give it away, rebel Robert Kett and his followers met at this tree in 1549 to launch an insurrection against wealthy landowners. What was the name of the tree?

2. One pub in Hemsby was named the most dog friendly by the Kennel Club’s Be Dog Friendly Awards. What is the name of this pub?

Taurus

Dingbats!

Decipher the images eans beans b s n a e b 4. s beans ns bean a e b s n bea s beans ns bean a e b s n ns bea ans bea e b s n a e beans b

HOME 3.

EART LUNG H Y E N D I K

5. blowing blowing

6.

One quizzical member of society recently asked on Yahoo answers, “What do you do when you get to an airport? I’m confused.”

Answers included, “Nothing” and “You should check your luggage in.” Others were inappropriate jokes about claiming to have seen a bomb. Now, Aries, next time you’re doubtful of what step to take next, you may be tempted to ask someone on Yahoo Answers, or a friend, for advice. But they don’t know anything, or at least not the right choice to make. This week, try relying on yourself, and see how it goes.

Do

n’ tK

la

t

Bonus Competition Find Calvin Goldspink’s name floating on the pages of Venue, be the first person to tweet us the page number @Concrete_UEA, and win a Gold bar! Wow!

Napoleon Bonaparte isn’t actually short.

He was five feet, seven inches tall, which is slightly taller than the average French person at the time (French people have since shrunk). This week, Taurus, consider that you might be wrong about everything you thought you knew. Have fun!

Gemini

Now, each week when it’s time to give horoscopes for Geminis, I remember that I am a Gemini. I am tempted to say, “Remember, Gemini, you are the smartest person in your current coordinates” and things of that sort. Last week, for instance, I told myself not to fear making loud sex noises. But this week, Gemini, try not to make it about yourself. Think of others first, and it might help yourself out.

Cancer

You might think that flossing is for old people (who still have some teeth left). You might think, “I do not need to bathe now!

I am fresh as a baby!” You might think, “Vegetables are for the dead as they are rotting in the ground.” Slow down there, Cancer. Try to take care of yourself in the upcoming weeks.

Leo

Oysters are known to change once or more during their life time. Leo, it might be time for a change!

Flip and Reveal

Virgo

Apple CEO Tom Cook routinely begins emailing employees at 4:30 in the morning.

Now, when reading facts like this, it might be tempting to think, “Alrighty. So if I send someone an email at 4:30am from now on, I can go back to bed knowing I will be the next CEO of Apple.” But actually, Virgo: no,

no.It’s not that easy. No ‘Get Rich Quick’ short cuts for you. Expect this week to be very, very hard.

Libra

Last Wednesday, the King’s Lynn Aero Modelling Club accidentally landed a plane in a tree, causing firefighters to fetch the plane from a tree. Sometimes, in life, you may find yourself rescuing model planes from trees when you thought you were meant to fight fires. That’s just life. This week, expect life to be particularly, “That’s just life”-ish.

Scorpio

Norfolk County Council just received an extra £250,000 to tackle drug and alcohol issues. But, this week, you might have to tackle all your problems on your own. Take a few minutes today to reflect before taking any action.

Sagittarius

“Their idea of literature is hopeless.

Make them drink their own poetry!

Let them eat their gross novel, full of mud”, writes poet Rosemary Tucks. This week, consider putting your dissertation down and doing something a bit more productive, like anything.

Capricorn

“And fuck you astride anyone who has the bad luck to fuck you, in dank hallways, bathrooms, or kitchens. Fuck you in gasps and whispered benedictions,” writes Amy Gerster in Fuck You Poem #45. She concludes this poem, “And fuck these curses, however heartfelt and true, that bind me, til I forgive you, to you.” This week, Capricorn, write fuck you a few times and then experiment with forgiveness.

Aquarius

According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, emissions of all greenhouse gases must reach net zero between 2080 and 2100 for things to work out sort of okay. What will you be doing in 2080? Start making some plans for your future. 2080 will be here sooner than you think.

Pisces

I gotta tell you, Pisces. I want to say I know what’s going to happen to you this week, but I have no idea. Whoops. Maybe ask Yahoo Answers.

4. Full of beans

2 The Lacon Arms

3. Home is where the heart is

Quiz Time 1. Kett’s Oak

6. Don’t talk back 5. Blowing hot and cold

Listings 24/11 - 7/12

concrete.listings@uea.ac.uk

Whole Lotta Led

Deathcrush + Khan

Sabaton’s ‘The Battle of Britain’ Tour w/ Sabaton, Korpiklaani and Tyr

The David Ford Orchestra

Propaganda

Sun 30 Dec (£6)

TTSF All Rooms Takeover w/ The Big Alabama + Marla + The Little Red Kings + More

Mon 1 Dec (£4-5)

Desolated + Laid Out

Meltdown + Wraith feat. AC/DC Promo Night

Thu 4 Dec (38-10)

Thu 27 Nov (£11-12)

Wed 26 (£4-5)

Sat 29 Nov (£14)

Fri 28 Nov (£16)

Wooden Arms

Fri 28 Nov (£4-5) (on door)

Allusondrugs

Sat 29 Nov (£7.50)

Sat 29 Nov (£3.50-4.50) (on door)

Beardyman

Sun 30 Nov (£12.50)

Tue 2 Dec (£5-7)

Against the Current Bad Manners

Fri 5 Dec (£17.50)

Temples + Superfood + Klaus Johann Grobe Mon 1 Dec (£12.50)

Propaganda

Fri 5 Dec (£4-5) (on door)

Meltdown + Rankus

Sat 6 Dec (£3.50-4.50) (on door)

UB40

Mon 24 Nov (£28.50)

Damn Good presents... EDM UV Rave Tue 25 Nov (£3.50)

Embrace + NGOD Fri 28 Nov (£19.50)

Winter Mountain Tue 25 Nov (£8)

The A List

Sat 29 Nov (£4.50)

Adam Barnes w/ Matt Simons

Damn Good presents... The Gathering of Super Heroes

MJ Hibbett + Gavin Osborn

Passenger

Wed 26 Nov (£6) Mon 1 Dec (£8)

Tue 2 Dec (£3.50) Wed 3 Dec (£20)

Gerard & the Watchmen + Worry Dolls + Alex Bayley

Submotion Orchestra presented by Jolly Productions

Jazz Morley + Rhiannon Mair + Gavin Chappell-Bates

The A List

Tue 2 Dec (£6)

Wed 3 Dec (£8)

Grace Petrie + Tim Ot Sun 7 Dec (£5)

Fri 5 Dec (£10)

Sat 6 Dec (£4.50)

Professor Green (RESCHEDULED) Sun 7 Dec (£18.50)

more listings at concrete-online.co.uk/events