Venue 306

venue #306

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January 13 / #306

editors Holly J. McDede Adam White

art & design director Ana Dukakis cover art Taseen Rahman illustrators Ana Dukakis

Music 04-07 editors Myles Earle Mike Vinti

Venue is all about art. Art that inspires, art that disgusts, art that makes you screw up your face and ponder. Everything in these pages is reflective of expressions of creativity, expressed on bits of film or on fabrics, on canvases or via tiny pixels on a computer screen.

Venue itself looks a little different this week -- that January freshness, that burst of sudden, exciting inspiration splashed across our pages in blues and pinks and visual weirdness. It is

Fashion 08-09 editors Gemma Carter

Helena Urquhart

an experiment. Some of it might be appealing to your eyes. Maybe you’ll find it so damn sexy that you want to literally lick these pages until the ink runs off in your mouth. Maybe that metaphor was so crass you’ll just stop reading and throw this whole thing in the trash.

But creativity, the juicy fibres of this bit of newspaper in your hands, is all about random experiments. Messy, potentially horrible, maybe brilliant, ever-changing experimentation. It’s

January, that time of year where we set goals and look out over the next twelve months and try and figure out our next steps. Stagnancy is boring. Safety is creatively barren. Take that and run with it, kids.

Do something different this week. We did.

Keep it real, kids Adam

Arts 10-11 editor

Creative Writing 12-13 editor

Katie Kemp

Jake Reynolds

contributors

contributors

contributors

contributors

Myles Earle, Daniel Jeakins, Faith Ridler, Jay Stonestreet, Mike Vinti, Adam White

Gemma Carter, Alice Short, Lindsay Stark

Will Cockram, Megan Haynes, Alice Rodgers

Kate Greenlee, Elliot Gudge, Jay Stonestreet

Gaming & Tech 15 editor

Television 16-17 editor

Film 18-21 editors

Fun & Listings 22-23 editor

Joe Fitzsimmons

Adam Dawson

Neven Devies Silvia Rose

Daisy Jones

contributors

contributors

contributors

contributors

Josh Patterson, Alexander Smith

George Barker, Nour Ibrahim, Jay Slayton-Joslin, Dan Struthers

George Barker, Neven Devies, Flo Lacey, Will Hunter, Louis Pigeon-Owen, Dan Struthers, Adam White

Charlie Methven, Adam White

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hip-hop through the white face

Primark plimsoll.

Macklemore recently acknowledged his own privilege as a white hip-hop artist, asking Hot 97 soon after Banks’ interview, “Why am I safe? Why can I cuss on a record, have a parental advisory sticker on the cover of my album, and yet parents are still like, ‘You’re the only rap album I let my kids listen to?’”

It was a welcome response to the controversy, yet its wide reporting in itself reflected a larger problem. Macklemore’s statement is rooted in the same message Azealia Banks has been conveying throughout her social media for the past month, yet it is treated as considerably more respectable or admirable as a moment of social reflection. The only thing missing from Macklemore’s words that was present in Banks’ own is a sense of rage, the anger that Banks herself feels as a young black woman. A rage Macklemore is fortunate enough to not share, and the one thing Azealia Banks can’t afford to be, as a young black woman, is angry. Or particularly complex. Or even challenging and polarising as a cultural figure. The media needs to ask itself why it’s reducing a woman’s pleas for self-awareness and reparations to nothing but bitter, jealous ranting. Whether you believe she’s right or wrong, Banks deserves kudos for speaking out about cultural inequalities with passion. The least we could do is listen.

FLICKR (JUSTIN HIGUCHI)

Banks’ thoughts aren’t rooted in some kind of so-called ‘reverse racism’, like her slightly confused Instagram follower seems to think.

Nor is the problem Iggy Azalea herself, as much

as the mainstream media narrative describing of... it hadn’t.

Banks’ ‘angry, jealous, black woman rants’ But while the media in the United States determined to paint the situation as some kind place the black American experience under of trashy girlfight. What is problematic is the the microscope, the hip-hop historically climate that allows black culture to flourish, responsible for challenging social norms but only via white faces. Azalea is the most and tackling subjects of importance is high-profile example of what slowly phased out from Banks refers to as “cultural circles, “What is problematic is the mainstream smudging”, a consistent leaving mainstream climate that allows black rewarding and glorification hip-hop in the hands of white artists appropriating culture to flourish, but only of fiercely heralded but black culture at the expense lyrically sanitised artists via white faces.” of young, black talent. picking and choosing Azalea, with her affected Atlanta drawl, is the less painful parts of the African-American deigned the queen of hip-hop and nominated experience they wish to emulate. In effect, a for multiple Grammys. Macklemore and Ryan genre designed to be anti-Middle America Lewis mash hip-hop together with themes of quickly becomes its own ‘edgy’ soundtrack. social tolerance and are practically deified for Which isn’t to say that white people are by their efforts. Miley Cyrus invents twerking. their nature diminishing the artistry created The problem is especially pronounced at and nurtured by a minority group, and this point in time because of the high-profile therefore shouldn’t enjoy, partake in or emulate deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, and it. But what needs to be evident is an element the subsequent spotlight shone on the racial of respect and understanding of the genre itself discrimination and inequalities seemingly just and its historic and socio-political roots. By as prevalent as it ever has been in American reducing a traditionally complex and socially society. After a brief insistance following Barack challenging genre to a barrel of tics, wardrobe Obama’s initial 2008 presidential victory that choices and surface characteristics, hip-hop, the country was entering some kind of post- and therefore a fundamental part of black racial utopia, suddenly it was brought to culture and artistry is crassly undermined, as collective attention that just maybe, just sort if it can all just be slipped on like some cheap

WIKI

Azealia Banks’ Instagram is plastered with the familiar comments section prerequisites for any young, attractive female with a record deal. “QUEEN!!!”, yells one. “Yaaaaas bitch!”, screams another. Then there are fellow Instagram users like ilumi_boy, whose response to a photograph of Banks holding a coconut reads, “If I’m white can I listen to your music?

Or am I taking something away from you by doing that?”

Potty-mouthed club banger 212, Banks’ magnum opus and signature single, propelled her into the spotlight back in 2012, but few things have kept her there during the preceding years outside of a well-documented record label fallout and crude, uproarious Twitter beefs with other celebrities.

This has given a kind of collective permission to disregard Banks as being nothing but crude and uproarious, meaning the moment of vulnerability showcased in a December interview with New York’s Hot 97 radio, in which she was asked about recent tweets discussing cultural appropriation and Iggy Azalea’s involvement with it, was largely dismissed by most mainstream media.

Through tears, Banks explained, “I feel like in this country, whenever it comes to our things, like black issues or black politics or black music or whatever, there’s always this undercurrent of kind of like a ‘fuck you.’

There’s always a ‘fuck y’all niggas. Y’all don’t really own shit. Y’all don’t have shit.’ She continued, “When they give these Grammys out, all it says to white kids is, ‘oh yeah, you’re great, you’re amazing, you can do whatever you put your mind to’. And it says to black kids, ‘you don’t have shit. You don’t own shit, not even the shit you created for yourself, and it makes me upset.”

WIKI

Venue editor Adam White brings us into the discussion of hip-hop’s cultural appropriation

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so, what’s new?

Daniel Jeakins brings us the low down on the albums to watch out for in 2015

WIKI

Bet My Life almost sounds like a scathing and single Your Body Is A Weapon suggests parody of the band’s needlessly ‘epic’ sound the third record will be no different. and surely won’t enjoy Ones to watch for the same chart success 2015 include Spanish “Anthemic Vegas band Radioactive and indie-band Deers, who Imagine Dragons’ return seems a have set the internet Demons did. lot less promising...”

It’s difficult to hold abuzz with their singles much hope for a new Bamboo and Trippy Gum. Akon record, but the return of Kendrick The all-female indie group has drawn Lamar will surely have hip-hop heads comparisons with Warpaint, and have drooling – and if his latest is half as strong already impressed with their exhilarating as good kid, m.A.A.d city we’re surely in for live show. You can also count on the BBC The roll call of records scheduled for release albums in 2015 in what surely promises to a treat. 2015 may also be the year we finally Sound of 2015 winner James Bay to set the in 2015 is already brimming with high- be the year’s biggest see the return of 50 Cent, charts alight with his Ben Howard-esque “The return of Kendrick Lamar whose profile names, with everyone from pop high-profile flop. long-delayed folk-pop. super-producer Mark Ronson to hip-hop Big names in the The band superseding my anticipation will surely have hip-hop heads sixth album Street King misogynist Akon, all eyeing big returns in rock world are also Immortal is surely in for everything else, however, is The drooling” the next 12 months. due returns over the danger of crumbling Prodigy, who has promised 2015 will Early reviews of Ronson’s latest full- next 12 months. Noel Gallagher’s second under the weight of anticipation. mark the year they release their followlength suggest it is set to become the club solo effort Chasing Yesterday (due in March) As ever in the world of indie it’s the up to 2009’s brilliant Invaders Must Die. soundtrack of 2015, and with Uptown Funk sounds promising on the strength of lead breakthrough artists that get surrounded The Essex-based ravers have one of the smashing streaming single In The Heat Of The in excitement, but for fans of sickly-sweet best discography’s in dance music history, records and Moment, and may be the guitar-pop the third full-length from The with Fat Of The Land and Music For The “Ones to watch for 2015 continuing disco’s record that transforms Wombats should be one to mark on the Jilted Generation enjoying classic status. include Spanish indie band Deers, triumphant return the former Oasis calendar. The famously slow-working With a headline slot at Isle Of Wight and to the charts that’s who have set the internet abuzz” guitarist into a festival Liverpudlians have only released two a new, supposedly hard-hitting single due not hard to believe. headliner.

Anthemic albums in the last eight years, but both this January, Liam Howlett and co. look On the opposite end of the spectrum, Akon Vegas band Imagine Dragons’ return seems their debut and follow-up This Modern set to restore past glories over the next 12 laughably intends to release five studio a lot less promising – the new single I Glitch have been full of indie-disco classics, months.

venue’s artist of the month

Faith Ridler presents to us January’s artist to watch... Fall Out Boy

FLICKR (CHLOE CHAPLIN)

The kings of early millennium pop-punk, Fall Out Boy, have been blasting their way through the charts since their resurrection in 2013. The aftermath of their hiatus gave them a new type of popularity, pulling new, much younger fans into the scarce remains of a scene that peaked in 2005.

Their 2013 release Save Rock and Roll had much to do with this second wave popularity explosion; it saw the end of their poetic, largely irrelevant, song titles in favour of something much more “this band saved my life” is thrown around shared comfort throughout their audience. 7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen), is a commercially viable. Fall Out Boy have a bunch concerning them and, considering But that’s another astounding thing about musical narration of Wentz’s own suicide smashed back this is the mental health Fall Out Boy: their attempt.

Another, into the music issue, we can’t really ignore music has brought I’ve Got a Dark Alley “Fall Out Boy have smashed back “This album largely has industry, all guns it. The idea of music saving together a community and a Bad Idea That into the music industry, mental health as its subject, blazing, and this lives is tabooed constantly to support each other.

Says You Should Shut all guns blazing, month the saga exposing Wentz’s own struggles” on social media, but it is The start of 2015 Your Mouth (Summer continues with the impossible to deny it can also marks the ten-year and this month the saga continues” Song), is described as worldwide release of their sixth studio be therapeutic for the listener. anniversary of Fall “looking in the mirror album, American Beauty / American Psycho, Fall Out Boy identified this within the Out Boy’s iconic release From Under The and not feeling safe in your own skin”. on January 20th. But before that, the band lyrics of Sophomore Slump or Comeback of Cork Tree. This album largely has mental Fall Out Boy’s writing is openly inspired is headed to Islington Assembly Hall to the Year: “We’re the therapists pumping health as its subject, exposing Wentz’s own by their struggles with mental illness, play an exclusive release show. January will through your speakers, delivering just what struggles with anxiety, depression, and bi- and whilst these images could hail the be a crucial month for the Chicago-born you need”. The band’s polar disorder. Wentz, derogatory “emo” label, for much of their four-piece and, with promising new singles bassist Pete Wentz is “They aren’t afraid to take risks” speaking about the audience the band embodies the complete already on the airwaves, Venue is proud to an esteemed lyricist, lyrical content of the opposite. They aren’t afraid to take risks, announce them as our artist of the month. renowned for writing introspective, album, commented that they dealt with and by sharing their experiences, they offer It’s no secret that Fall Out Boy are an brutally honest verses. It is these lyrics that “the anxiety and depression that goes along comfort to fans struggling with similar, extremely influential band. The phrase their fans connect with so deeply, creating a with looking at your own life”. One track, difficult conditions.

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musically minded Jay Stonestreet explores the complex relationship between music and mental illness It is a truth universally acknowledged – as a historical point of view, there is often little well as scientifically suggested – that there concrete evidence to go by, but the music of is often a correlation between artistic genius these composers opens a window through and mental illness. Many masters of art, which, many years later, we can gain a clearer literature and music have long been heralded insight into the instability of the minds that as paragons of this correlation, able to created it. convey a deep inner turmoil through work Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude, a devilishly that is both skilful and stirring. Owing to difficult pianistic tongue twister that makes the increasing success of singer-songwriters use of rapid, consistent C minor scale runs (as well as the highly publicised lifestyles of in the left hand and crashing five-note musicians) over the last fifty years, mental chords in the right, is known for being the illness has gained a composer’s despairing “the music of these high profile through response to the news the fame of those composers opens a window through that his homeland of who have suffered.

Poland had failed in their which we gain a clearer insight uprising against Russia Immediately, examples into the minds that such as Kurt Cobain in 1831. He said of it ‘all and Ian Curtis come this has caused me much created it” to mind as part of pain’, and reports that a sad trope of famous rock musicians who Chopin was known to have fits of mania, have committed suicide after suffering from seem to be supported by the sheer chaotic depression. sound of the notes as they run into one Unsurprisingly, however, the presence another over a huge range. of mental illness within great musical works Similarly, the fourth movement of reaches back to a time before our current Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, now known as widespread awareness of such issues, and the Tragic, is seen by some as a mirror of as a result there were many who suffered in the composer’s difficult personal life and his relative silence. long periods of depression. Not known for It is not as widely known, for example, his brevity, the final movement can stretch that composers like Frederic Chopin, Gustav on for some 30 minutes, but is best known Mahler or Sergei Rachmaninov suffered for the three very loud and unexpected from depression and bipolar disorder. From hammer blows at the conclusion after the

music begins to settle at a quiet volume; the acoustic singer-songwriter Nick Drake was final of which the composer said ‘fells a man only 26 when he died of an anti-depressant like a tree’. Mahler’s wife Alma often likened overdose in 1973. His crippling shyness and the three hammer blows to the three tragic depression led him to become increasingly events that devastated his life: the death of insular in the last years of his life, and as his daughter, the diagnosis of a fatal heart a result he rarely played live and did not condition and his forced resignation from achieve any great commercial success during his job at the opera in Vienna. his lifetime. Posthumously, however, his Despite Mahler’s personal tragedy, work saw a revival and he is now recognised in some cases the immense pressures of as a staple of British folk music, with many the creative process for composers like of his previously unreleased songs being Rachmaninov became too much and led made available to a large audience. to a period of mental illness and stagnancy. More famously perhaps, Syd Barrett of Pink After his first symphony premiered in 1897 Floyd retreated into obscurity after suffering and was universally panned by critics (which a mental breakdown strongly influenced by may have been due to the conductor being his heavy use of hallucinogenic drugs in the intoxicated for the entire performance), late 1960s. Despite receiving royalties from Rachmaninov sank into a deep and lengthy the band until his death in 2006, he had no depression. As a young composer, his contact with any other members after 1975 confidence was shattered completely and he and refused any invitations back into the did not write any music for another three spotlight. years, after which Mental illness has “even in more modern times, his family persuaded cast a long shadow him to seek hypnotic many musicians still suffer in silence over the lives of therapy to overcome many highly regarded and obscurity” his mental block. musical figures. The Though these pre-20th century examples question remains though as to whether are cases in which mental illness was not the quality and emotional scope of the art widely recognised until after the death of the created by the musician is affected or even composer, it should still be said that even in increased by suffering of such a kind – an more contemporary times, many musicians unfortunate twist of irony in the cruelly still suffer in silence and obscurity. Notably, competitive world of music.

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The Pinkprint - Nicki Minaj Myles Earle Two years have passed since the Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-up was released, and we are now met with the next instalment

Black Messiah D’Angelo and the Vanguard Mike Vinti As the fuzzy guitars of the opening track Ain’t That Easy wobble into life it becomes clear that a lot has happened to D’Angelo over the fourteen years since Voodoo. The slick, early 2000s production is gone in favour of grubby,

of this female rapper’s career. The Pinkprint, released on December 12, is the third album of female rapper pioneer, Nicki Minaj, which was met by significant acclaim around the world.

Having been in the rap game for some time, The Pinkprint shows off Minaj as a more mature artist and writer. Her themes throughout this record are a lot more dark, emotional and introspective; she explores her experiences and seems to put much more of herself in the public eye. The track All Things Go digs deep into some of Minaj’s difficult memories. From her cousin’s murder and the effect of her success on her family life, to the abortion of her child that she describes as an “angel”, Minaj seems to rap directly to anyone who listens over soft synths and a deep, heavy bassline. In its simplicity, and its positioning as the first track on the album, All Things Go sets up the tone of the album to take a completely different perspective than that of Pink Friday

and Roman Reloaded. Her other tracks, like The Crying Game, I Lied and the single, Bed of Lies, all follow in the same path of the expressing of the internal, of dysfunctional love and lies.

There is a flurry of artists that have made appearances on the album this, debuted No. 2 on Billboard 200. Other than her Young Money label-mates, Jeremih, Ariana Grandé and Skylar Grey are just some of names that crop on the credits of this album. Nicki’s collab with Beyoncé on the Flawless Remix was repaid with the legend featuring on the track Feeling Myself. With the traditional masturbatory lyrics over a slow synth progression and hard beat, the track is one that shows off Minaj’s writing ability. We also get the vocals of Queen B herself in the chorus, and the occasional rap where she “Stop the World”.

Meek Mill also makes an appearance on this album, supplying vocals and spitting over a hard-hitting drum driving beats and a subtle synthy undertone. Buy a Heart tells

the story of a complicated love story, which is surprising to find Meek on. The collab in itself is quite prominent in showing two established rappers, rapping about problematic love, on one track.

Although, the album isn’t all about darkness and expressing emotion; the infamous Anaconda has found its way on to the record, as well as The Night Is Still Young, with pop and R&B elements, which give the album some variety. The album as a collective piece is cohesive, and we at Venue applaud Nicki Minaj’s exploration of her experiences as a new theme throughout her record. However, The Pinkprint as a whole is not jaw-droppingly amazing, the explorations of feelings isn’t exactly new, though it may be new to her fans.

live sounding instrumentation. The overarching sexual themes of his previous work yield to a more conscious, political focus. This makes sense given both the title Black Messiah, and its sudden release, in the midst of protests surrounding the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

D’Angelo established himself as a master of experimental, yet classic, soul and Black Messiah sees him push the boat out further than ever before; with backing musicians including The Roots’ Questlove, taking up the mantle of ‘the Vanguard’.

The guitars are fuzzier than ever before, distorted to a tone reminiscent of St.Vincent’s patent sound. This is most apparent on 1,000 Deaths a jittering, rubbling track that starts with a triumphant sample of a preacher laying down what could well be Black Messiah’s mission statement and ends with an equally victorious, blistering guitar solo. The following track The Charade cools things down a little with its Prince-esque opening giving way to a bouncing bassline, cementing the live feel of the preceding tracks. Next up is lead single and

stand out track Suggah Daddy, dropped mere hours before the album itself, it serves as the perfect reintroduction of D’Angelo to the world.

D’Angelo’s pitch-shifted, re-layered vocals take on the lead melody over creeping pianos and random squeaks in the background.

Really Love moves the album onto a series of more conventional but equally incredibly well put together tracks. Opening with velvety violins worthy of any classic romance, it purrs its way into a Spanish-guitar led slow jam, undercut with brooding, hushed vocal samples and tinged with melancholy. When D’Angelo sighs “I’m in really love with you” over the chorus, you believe it.

Back To The Future (Part 1) carries on in a similar vein, picking up the pace a little with an OutKast style grove. ‘I used to get real high now i’m just gettin’ buzzed’ D’Angelo sings reflecting both on some past love and his infamous history of substance abuse. Moving into the second half of Black Messiah, Prayer is a soulful masterpiece filled to the brim with soaring, heavy guitars and fittingly punctuated with church bells.

The Door is a cheery warning to an ex-lover,

D’Angelo finding positivity in removing someone from his life. The instrumentation is playful, opening with an upbeat, whistled melody, as are the lyrics: “I told you once, but twice, you wasn’t very nice” D’Angelo quips, tongue in cheek. Back To The Future (Part II) picks up where its predecessor left off, fading straight into a joyfully, funky hook. The track takes the listener back to the deconstructed, jittery instrumentation of Black Messiah’s opening songs, reaffirming the overall experimental and winky tone of the album.

Album closer Another Life ties together the off kilter production of the first half of the album with the smooth, more traditional instrumentation of its second to s t e a d y results. The sexiest track on the album, rivalled only by Really Love, this is a slow jam for 2015. Brooding and instrumentally complex, it’s six minutes of pure and progressive D’Angelo, ending with high notes only he could hit.

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Recognise anyone?

Tweet us @conc_fashion

Tobi Arawole First Year - Business

flashback to the 70s Alice Short tells us why this decade is making a comeback Fashionistas and designers have been dabbling in and reviving elements of 1970s style for the past few years. Now, Vogue predicts this trend will go through the roof in 2015. How can a fashion conscious UEA student replicate this style?

Before you rush out to the High Street (where there will be an abundance of 70s gems!) do make sure that your Mum hasn’t got anything lurking at the back of her wardrobe that fits the bill. Also, be sure to check out the local charity shops for details such as lace-up bodices, heavy embroidery, flowery prints and ethereal fabrics as these are all key to the 70s vibe.

An easy place to start channelling the era is with hairstyling. Models in all of the Spring/ Summer shows had a central parting, some teamed with plaits, shaggy curls and even crimping. A simple way to achieve this look is to braid two small plaits from the top of your head and to tie them together at the back.

When applying make-up, there should be an emphasis on the eyes. They should be smoky and dramatic, whilst you should underplay your lips and cheeks in neutral shades such as soft pink or peach.

Moving on to the most important element - clothes! The top half of your outfit should be folksy, blouses with delicate lace-up fronts

and shirts with art-nouveau prints. Bolero fur jackets were seen on the Saint Laurent catwalks and are a good edition to these flimsier fabrics for a winter look. Missguided have this shaggy faux fur jacket that complements the image (£30).

MISS GUIDED

Best Dressed at UEA

Culottes were a big thing at Milan’s Fashion Week for SS15 and are a trend that should not be overlooked. Their beauty lies in that they are half trouser, half skirt but are fully fashionable.

They are widely available on the High Street from New Look’s plain black pleated pair (£17.99), to Missguided’s dogtooth print pair (£20), Topshop have even brought out a culotte jumpsuit as a twist on the 70’s classic and a perfect outfit for hitting the town (£60).

Flare trousers are also bang on trend. Whilst some may be put off by the idea of this cut of trouser, they are undoubtedly flattering for all shapes and sizes. River Island have embraced this style and have a pair of dark wash kick flare jeans (£45), a purchase you will not regret!

To be perfectly in sync, shoes should be platform and metallic and these are not hard to track down. Topshop have a pair (£56) which could have come straight off the major catwalks for Spring/Summer. If platforms feel like a step too high for you, then metallic flats will do, which New Look have in several different shades from electric blue to bright pink (£9.99 each).

Look out for long, thin silk scarfs, characteristically worn with one length behind the shoulder, and delicate strings of beads.

Tan leather handbags with chunky straps or bags with fringing are very much of the era.

Your sunglasses should be large, round and tortoiseshell brown - the bigger the better to capture that 70s in the sun feel.

fashion has feelings Gemma Carter explains the effect our wardrobes have on our minds

Charlie Beech Third Year - Economics

For some it’s a pair of heels, others a little black dress or a lipstick – we all have that go-to item in our wardrobe or make up bag that picks us up. On the flip side there are also THAT pair of joggers or baggy jumper we turn to when we just want to wallow. The power that clothes and cosmetics have over our mental state is often underestimated, but there is an undeniable connection.

“Clothes and beauty products act as a second skin, an armour, to either express or shield our feelings”.

Even during those days when you “can’t be bothered”, you’re subconsciously making the choice to reach for your hoodie rather than that tailored Topshop blazer. You’ll find certain items in your wardrobe have become the comfort blankets of the adult world, except they aren’t covered in dribble and felt tip scribbles – hopefully! However, sat on the sofa in your sweats with your two best friends Ben and Jerry won’t do you, or your waistline, any good.

Laurence Hung Third Year - Economics Photography Leah Omonya

“We’ve all been there. Even though it’s probably the last thing you want to do when you’re feeling a little low step away from the elasticated waistband and put down that hoodie”.

Put on something that makes you feel special, that

turns your frown upside down. “Shoes transform your body language and attitude. They lift you physically and emotionally” says the king of the heel, Christian Louboutin. We aren’t saying you should slip on a pair of killer heels in the library, but wear something that’s going to pick you up.

If you look good you’ll feel good and in the words of everyone’s favourite little redheaded orphan, ‘You’re never fully dressed without a smile!”

Make-up works in a similar way to clothing.

It allows you to hide imperfections and emphasise your features, making your eyes pop and lashes double in length. Some prefer to keep it minimal whilst others favour a more dramatic look.

“A layer of foundation instantly makes me feel more confident, hiding any spots or blemishes that I’m worried about. Or, a smoky eye or dark red lip on a night partnered with a LBD can make you feel like a superstar after a rubbish day”.

Nurse, humanitarian and writer Roberta Gately once said “Lipstick is really magical. It holds more than a waxy bit of color - it holds the promise of a brilliant smile, a brilliant day, both literally and figuratively”. There’s something about putting on some slap that can transform how you’re feeling on the inside, just as much as the change on the outside.

Wearing no make-up in this day and age has

many negative connotations due to the strong influence of the media, making us feel that we should appear picture perfect at all times.

Daring to leave the house without any makeup is seen as an act of bravery and celebrities are often shamed for how different they look without it.

“People shouldn’t be judged on the amount of make-up that they wear or how they’re slightly unrecognisable without it”.

It might be hiding scars or give them the confidence they need to leave the security of their home. Wearing make-up doesn’t make you fake or a liar, it works on a much deeper level.

“Fashion isn’t only about looking beautiful, it’s about feeling beautiful too.

Your clothes should reassure you that you are wonderful and as long as you feel confident in them then that’s all that matters”.

Everyone should have something in their wardrobe that gives them a confidence boost.

Be it a chunky, oversized jumper that feels like a big warm hug every time you put it on. Or, that special dress that always makes you feel red carpet-ready on a night out. As long as it makes YOU feel amazing then that’s all that matters.

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military matters Lindsay Stark brings one of this year’s hottest trends to attention Photographer Luke Keleher As we head into a new year, it seems fitting more recently, a number of khaki items that we introduce some of the newest trends such as skirts, jackets and jumpsuits. The to hit the fashion Kardashian-Jenner clan world.

Military “The great thing about khaki is are well-known fans themed items have that it is complimentary to all skin of Balmain and are been popular for a frequently seen with tones and hair colours, which number of years now, the Creative Director however it is only of the company, Olivier makes it super easy to wear.” recently that they Rousteing, and can have been cast into the spotlight. With an regularly be seen wearing his designs. abundance of khaki pieces adorning our Kim Kardashian wears the military trend high streets it makes it that little bit easier to especially well, mixing classic pieces with incorporate this trend into your day-to-day statement military detailing to create an onwardrobe. trend and stylish look.

Balmain is one of the main fashion houses High Street stores are now jumping on that has championed the military trend, with the military bandwagon, recreating high end a number of high street stores using their designs at much more affordable prices, and pieces as inspiration. Balmain incorporates in much more wearable ways. The simplest a number of military-esque features into way to incorporate military pieces into your their collections, including gold detailing wardrobe if you’re not completely sold on and embellishment, power shoulders, and the trend is a simple khaki jumper, t-shirt

Model and Stylist Lindsay Stark

or jacket. accompaniment to the military trend, and New Look have a huge collection of River Island offer the perfect combination in khaki knitwear, including khaki roll-necks, the shape of a khaki faux-leather midi skirt: allowing you to nail a number of trends sexy AND stylish – what more could you ask in just one outfit! These simple items are for! incredibly wearable too, and paired with a If you’re really not sure about khaki, as simple pair of jeans are perfect for a seminar, some people aren’t, then a black jumpsuit or or an afternoon in the library. playsuit is a great alternative – just remember Military-style shirts are also incredibly to accessorise, as this is the key to a militaryeasy to get your hands on, especially if you inspired outfit. know your way around the charity shops of Chunky gold jewellery will never go out Norwich! If you’re not a fan of second-hand, of fashion, and is the perfect partner for then Topshop or New these items. Also look out Look are the places to for details such as buckles, “Gold detailing, such as zips, be. Team your shirt pockets and buttons which with a pair of black chains and embellishments are a add a flawless utilitarian great way of doing this.” leather trousers for a finish, helping you achieve night out, or if you that military look. Beautyprefer a dressier look, then tucking your shirt wise, it is best to stick to a smoky eye and into a pencil skirt will always ensure that you nude lip combo for the ultimate in military look glam and chic! Leather is the perfect glamour.

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in conversation with Rubyetc Will Cockram sits down with Ruby Elliot to talk art and mental health You’ve probably seen her work before on “I’ve found there are far more people Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and that go ‘Yeah! Me too!’ … I also get an a multitude of other social media sites; her overwhelming amount of lovely and artwork is as distinctive as it is honest and thoughtful messages both of support and revealing. people saying my art has cheered them up or Ruby, 21, has been making art since she inspired them to write and draw about their dropped out of school at 17. She started a own mental health issues”. blog talking about “...Therapists, failing my It’s clear that bipolar disorder heavily driving test and my sister’s bloody hamster… influences her artwork but she’s keen to I was just writing about my mental point out that, although she draws on her health problems on a blog and thought experience, it’s important not to be defined accompanying them with illustrations might by it. be fun”.

“I want to view myself as an artist, or In that time she’s gained a significant writer, or person who makes stuff and also following. Her blog, Oh be shh now, happens to suffer from mental illness”. documents her It doesn’t take a “I found myself getting more and experiences with long look at Ruby’s bipolar disorder more into the art, drawing every day work to see the and how is has potential for a book. A and using it as another context to sort affected her life.

Roald Dahl-Quentin of ‘exist in’ because I didn’t have one Blake style book, With, of course, a generous helping perhaps? at the time.” of amusing comics “I think I’m way and illustrations. She isn’t afraid to talk too much of an amateur to be commissioned openly about mental health issues. as a professional illustrator! It’s a lovely “I hope that by talking about my illness thought though, I secretly really hope that in my own context, and mixed in with the one day I’ll be able to publish a book of my frustrations and fears we all experience as own writing and cartoons. people I might possibly help close the gap “I’ve always been drawn to illustrators between ‘illness’ and ‘wellness’ in my own like Quentin Blake and more recently those mind and maybe the mind of others”.

I’ve discovered online like Anne Emond and Whilst making illustrations and comics Stephen Collins. It feels more accessible to to go along with her writing she discovered me in the same way I enjoy impressionist/ that by using art to give her feelings context post-impressionist painters like Matisse and it went someway to helping her cope.

Van Gogh”.

When asked if she finds it hard opening Throughout the hard, raw, and sometimes up about her health and feelings on the alarming art, there’s also a sense of silliness internet, she admits that there are always and humour that truly encapsulates Ruby’s trolls and those with stigmatised views, but breadth of work and talent. doesn’t really find it difficult. Fearlessness Maybe that in itself is an honesty rarely and perhaps a small dose of luck. shown.

“I think because I talk about everything You can find Ruby online at: so candidly and without fear of rebuke people don’t have the guts to question it a lot rubyetc.tumblr.com of the time? I’m not sure if that’s the case or society6.com/rubyetc whether I’ve just been lucky”.

On the flip side, the vast majority of beshhnow.blogspot.com people are positive and supportive.

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alcoholic - or secret genius?

Megan Baynes explores the inevitable pull of the bottle for many of our great writers

red wine whilst he carried on writing. their fathers were and what a much more For some, this allowed them to tap into a enjoyable time we had. But there you are; we creative well unable to be reached when sober. were and we did”. Although this suggests a Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote Kubla Khan in positive consumption of the alcohol, this was 1816 after he experienced an opium influenced not translated into his personal life. He was a dream. Yet, it could not be completed perceptive writer who used his own experiences according to its 200-300 line plan, as multiple to humourous effect, but such was his interruptions caused him to detachment within his own forget, and it thus remains “He acquired a reputation... writing that he was able to unfinished. The use of the fictionalise his own mental a roistering, drunken narcotic was able to spark breakdown in the 1950s. and doomed poet” some previously untapped Similarly, almost a genius that Coleridge was century after his birth, the never again able to reach again and complete. myths of Dylan Thomas’s life still eclipse his Yet, for many, alcohol simply masked work. However forced, the image of him as deeper signs of mental illness. Prolific writer a tortured, alcoholic genius is one that still and journalist, Evelyn Waugh, in his essay endures today, and it is arguably the legend, ‘Drinking’ wrote “At one time, I used to drink rather than the literature that captivates so a tankard of beer for breakfast. But I was alone many. He acquired a reputation, which he in that… It is tedious for the young to be encouraged as a “roistering, drunken and constantly reminded what much finer fellows doomed poet”.

Thomas’ binges characterised a large part of his life and his wife’s, leading Caitlin to write: “But ours was a drink story, not a love story, just like millions of others. Our one and only true love was drink”.

It is the familiar tune of another high profile star that lost their promise to alcohol, and is one that continues throughout the centuries.

From Jack Kerouac to Truman Capote, many young writers sacrificed their talent, and in a few cases their lives, for alcohol.

But why? Alcohol is used as a moderator for stress for people who are highly driven, and often hugely talented. It can be used to help them switch off from their talent. Although it is a depressant, it is not always used for that instead it slows the metabolic rate, in order to stop you thinking and to allow you to switch off. Perhaps this is why alcohol is so entwined in literature: with great talent, comes great responsibility and a huge amount of pressure.

PENGUIN

“Write drunk, edit sober” is often misattributed to Ernest Hemmingway. Yet, whilst the American author was notoriously fond of drinking, he refrained from doing so whilst writing.

When asked in an interview if the rumours of him taking a pitcher of martinis to work every morning were true, he answered: “Jeezus Christ! Have you ever heard of anyone who drank while he worked? You’re thinking of Faulkner. He does sometimes - and I can tell right in the middle of a page when he’s had his first one”.

However, there seems to be a correlation between many popular writers and alcohol.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s spirit of choice was gin, poet Dylan Thomas’s last words were allegedly “I’ve had eighteen straight whiskies; I think that’s the record”, and the poet John Berryman ultimately decided that drinking alone in his room was best, allowing him to down crates of

parallel entities: stepping into Ali Smith’s latest novel Alice Rodgers delves into the enchanting worlds of Ali Smith’s ‘How to Be Both’ Ali Smith’s new novel, How To Be Both, explores the lives of two characters: a 21st century teenage girl struggling to deal with the loss of her mother, and a 15th century Italian painter narrating posthumously.

Throughout the novel, parallels are drawn between the lives of the two characters and their similarities are accentuated throughout the beautiful and compelling narrative. It is Ali Smith’s second novel to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

How To Be Both is beautifully written, in language that can only be described as poetic.

Both characters, Georgia and Francesco, are relatable and their stories grip you from the very beginning. The combination of Georgia’s grief and the ordinary teenage crises she has to deal with at the same time creates a character with almost child-like charm, but with a deep

emotional journey that sucks the reader in.

Francesco’s narrative paints the picture of a beautiful 15th century world and the romantic relationships within it. Both narratives leave you wanting more, wishing that you could stay with the characters and learn what will become of them both.

Both halves of the book deal, very subtly, with issues of gender and sexuality. The novel gradually makes the reader sympathetic with the characters’ situations without overtly shoving any political agenda down the reader’s throat.

The parallels drawn between the two characters serve to emphasise both the similarities and differences between 15th century and 21st century society. It is a story of love and identity that draws attention to societal issues that have existed throughout history.

Everything about this book seems to be

designed to make sure the reader is paying attention. From the absence of speech marks and constant jumps in chronology, to the sudden and unsettling switch of narration, to the stream of consciousness of a deceased fifteenth century painter halfway through, the novel assures that the reader must be fully focused to understand the story.

However, the shortage of page breaks and chapters makes it very difficult for anyone with a busy life to keep track. For most people it would be difficult to the find time to read the 80 page chapters in one sitting.

Yet, if you do not, you find yourself picking up the book in the middle of a flashback or internal monologue and struggling to remember how it fits in with what you read last time.

Furthermore, Francesco, the 15th century painter narrating, one assumes, from some

ghostly plain while watching Georgia live her life, talks in a way that one would expect from a modern speaker rather than one that has been dead for 600 years. Of course, Ali Smith could not have written in 15th century Italian but a little more authenticity might have been welcome.

However, if you get past the fact that your narrator is dead and speaking in a very modern way, Francesco’s narrative is one of the most beautiful and captivating reads around.

Georgia’s narrative is almost as beautiful and tells a story that it would be hard not to become emotionally invested in.

Overall, despite the overly long chapters and the occasionally confusing narration, How To Be Both is a gorgeous read that should be highly recommended, if only to those with a lot of spare time on their hands.

creative

121 “He suddenly felt nothing, or rather Nothing, a pre-tornadic stillness of zero sensation, as if he were the very space he occupied.”

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Submit your own t @miniaturestory on T

I think I am married but I’ve been wrong abou think the crying man is my husban

The Empty Table

- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest Welcome to 2015, and welcome to The Empty Table. I wanted to start the year with a slightly more abstract theme than usual, which led to a wonderful set of submissions responding to the theme as a prompt of sorts. So here are three courses for you, laid out on the empty table. Except the courses aren’t really there. Because the table is empty. Or maybe they are there, but the table still feels empty. What springs to mind when we read the words ‘empty table’? I don’t even know any more. Even the words ‘empty’ and ‘table’ make the table full of associations and images that immediately come to mind. Can a table ever be empty? Can we think of one? I’m scared of sounding like a try-hard creative writing student who is aware of current trends and writes scripts in coffee shops, so I’ll hand over to the chefs who are going to serve you the meal. Or not. Tuck in. Or don’t...

- Jake Reynolds

Parakeet Kate Greenlee There is one live bird in the cage and it looks out over a front yard. Two flower pots of wilted rose bushes are pushed to one corner, beside a rotten chair. The old lady doesn’t get out much anymore, to water and trim the shrubs, or to sit and read as the sun goes down, neighbours wandering by. It’s a tiny garden, really, barely three feet across, but it has a bird table that falls over sometimes in the wind - as it rattles down the suburb street, between the rows of attached houses, their front doors extending both ways down the street, as far as can be seen from the front window of 92.

The old lady has been sitting on the sofa for a long long time.

The parakeet edges sideways down the perch, head bobbing and twisting as it watches the glass. He doesn’t turn to face the old lady, or the painted fake bird she put in there, six months back. It’s just a little smaller than the live parakeet, and the glossy finish provides its eyes with a menacing shine. The old woman shouts if he pecks at it. He watches the bird table instead.

It was a gift, the parakeet remembers, made by a grandson in woodshop at school. Not that the bird knows that, but he remembers when it first showed up, when the old lady could still walk pretty well, and she would put a bowl of water and little slices of apple in there, and croon over the sparrows or robins that would fly by to feed on them. She would sit there, deadly still, so they would come up close and steal pieces of her sandwiches right off her lap. The parakeet remembers.

It was always the same birds too. He remembers them coming up to the window sill. The parakeet stayed dead still, just like the old lady, just like the painted parakeet does now, and he’d watch them hopping up and down the fence, stretching out one wing and then the other in a mirrored dance. It was a mating ritual, but a life in captivity meant a lonely parakeet didn’t know what that was.

Nowadays, the table was pretty empty. Mould had blossomed from a particularly damp winter and it tilted to one side, creaking and whining whenever the wind let up enough for it to be heard. The parakeet imitated the bird song it had heard from before, ruffled its feathers, jogged up and down on its perch.

The old lady’s son calls round and he sighs, deep and heavy, when he sees the old lady. He puts bird seed in the budgie cage and makes a phone call. An ambulance arrives later, sirens off. The old woman is lifted off the sofa, her head rolling, her arms limp. Then a sheet is put on the cage, to shut the parakeet up, and he can’t see any more.

He comes to, facing a blank wall. The sheet is gone and the room he is in has no windows. A small boy has his eye pressed up to the bars of the cage and his fingers hooked against them. The parakeet struts over. The fake budgie is gone too, its shiney pale eyes no longer haunting the dark corners of the cage. The little boy sticks his finger in and pets the parakeet, tapping his head with the pad of his forefinger. It’s not unpleasant.

The bird table gets recycled and put out to waste in a dumpster, out of sight and out of mind.

Jay Stonestreet With a keen eye, the tanned man in the tattered flannel shirt placed the items one by one on the table before him. It was a lovely table, he had often remarked: unvarnished walnut, sanded and smoothed, given as a gift to him many years ago by a long-dead relative. Today, it had been covered with a red and white square-patterned tablecloth, affording the room a café-esque quality reminiscent of the pretty little tourist towns on the coast.

The table stood against the wall below the open shutters. Through them a precious Provençal summer breeze eased in, curling the curtains in soft shapes that nudged the edges of the table. Outside, the manic cicadas scratched their legs in the heat and the cypress trees stood still and dark against the Riviera sun. The view through the window was perfect on this clear day, and if you looked close enough you could just catch a glimpse of the bright azure horizon beyond the forested hills of Les Alpes-Maritimes.

That wasn’t important now, though. The arrangement had to be just right.

In the centre there was a fruit bowl from which overflowed a cascade of grapes on the vine. A few vivid citrus fruits lay scattered here and there, and the scene was set with the addition of a fine long baguette bought fresh that morning from down in the village.

The artist plucked a single orange from the table and set it aside. He lay his chin on the wood, kneeling down, and surveyed the new landscape. His brow furrowed and he squinted again at the view. It was a while before he noticed he was the subject of a fond gaze from the woman on the other side of the room.

He turned, newly aware of his unusual position.

‘Too much fruit?’ She laughed and glided across to the table, laying a gentle hand on her husband’s shoulder. He opened his mouth in explanation and closed it.

Pausing, he tried again.

‘I can’t quite seem to get it right. I want the view and the trees and the sun… but I want the light on the table and the

softness of the cloth and the skin of the fruits and the hard crust of the bread. B it’s all too… crowded. It’ll never do.’ He sighed. It was a hard life deciding where to put your fruit.

The woman in her cool white linen dres smiled affectionately, running a hand through his tousled hair. She gazed out the day through the window and breath deeply, inhaling scents of far-off lavende fields and the dry musk of the baked ground outside.

‘I think,’ she announced, ‘you should st it all off.’

The painter looked up as if she were absurd.

She nodded firmly. ‘Yes, that’s what I think you should do. It’s a darling of a table underneath: it’d be a travesty to ignore it in favour of a few wrinkled old figs.’ She said this casting a dismissive hand over the whole set. Before he had time to object, she plucked the bowl an baguette from the table and set them away back into the shade.

‘Come on, help me move it all. You can credit me in the corner of this one when it becomes a masterpiece.’ There was always a faint sting of sarcasm in her vo that he didn’t like, but now he decided to go along with it. Perhaps it would improve things.

‘And now,’ she said after the table had been cleared, ‘I think you ought to peel this back halfway.’ Taking hold of the patterned cloth, she folded it carefully, t way one does with a freshly ironed shirt back on itself to reveal one half of the table. The man stood back and let his w sculpt the scene.

‘There. I think it’s a vast improvement.’

Stepping back, the visionary surveyed h work.

Three months later, in a gallery in nearb Antibes, the sharp-suited art dealer did the same. ‘It’s… sublime, Monsieur de Ferrers.’ The Frenchman spoke his heav accented English in flamboyant gasps, li a caricature.

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‘I have seen many a still life à la Provençal, in the style of our most famous painters, ah, Picasso, Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse...’

He paused for a great breath that filled the belly bursting from his shirt. ‘But this…’ The unfinished sentence hung in the air between the artist standing awkwardly beside his finished work and the fat man gazing up in wonder.

A quiet sigh. Sarah’s eyes reluctantly meet mine. ‘Why did you do that?’ she asks.

The artist almost shrank back in fright - a fleck of the dealer’s spittle had caught him on the nose. He had seen another land on the canvas just above the table’s right leg.

‘Such a beautiful wood… it is enough.’

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With all the ceremony necessary of such a demand, the dealer turned to the painter of the new masterpiece and said, ‘I will buy it. How about fifty thousand Euros?’

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I check my watch and then tilt my head slightly. ‘What’s going on?’

‘You have captured the true beauty of the moment here. The simple cloth, it is, ah, how do you say, almost… seductive.

What many of these… artists… these days do not understand is that we, the dealers, are not looking for, ah, fruits… figs and oranges and grapes and… and… bread.’ The last word accompanied a scornful grimace and extravagant doublehanded gesture of disdain.

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The restaurant is already half-empty as Sarah and I enter and are shown to a window side table by a waiter with shining, slicked-back hair. Whilst he routinely recites the specials menu I try to make eye contact with Sarah, but her gaze remains firmly fixed on something invisible outside of the window. Even when I order a Long Island Iced Tea, all she musters is a slight roll of her eyes before she absently asks the waiter for a glass of water. I consider offering Sarah my hand across the table but soon dismiss the idea as she briefly rummages in her handbag for something she never finds, bites her lip, lets her stare drift back to the darkened street outside.

It was the painter’s turn to gasp.

He clutched his heart and thought immediately of his wife.

When the formalities had been settled, the dealer reached for a small notebook and scribbled down the sale. ‘Fini. Sold.

By Monsieur de Ferrers… to me. And the title of this work is, please?’

The proud painter, for all his aesthetic talents, did not have an imagination for words, or for that matter grand titles for works of art. He’d imagined this moment for so long, but never quite in this way.

The fact that his magnum opus had been a pure accident more attributable to his wife than him seemed suddenly ridiculous, and he started to laugh.

The Frenchman raised an eyebrow.

‘It’s called The Empty Table.’

‘Do what?’

barely containing a yawn.

forever.’

‘Because it’s’ - I pause - ‘interesting?’

‘There’s still enough of who you were for me to hope.’

‘Right,’ Sarah’s saying, taking a timid sip of her water.

I rub my eyes and then let my hands slowly run down my face as I look over at a couple just a few tables away. The man is a yuppie type, all hair and teeth, and he’s wildly gesturing, enthused, as he delivers an anecdote I can’t quite hear. Across the table, his girlfriend - blonde, stylish black bodycon - listens intently, both hands delicately placed under her chin. Over the speaker system, Art Garfunkel is gently crooning, ‘When evening falls so hard, I will comfort you.’

I finish my Long Island Iced Tea and then finally say, ‘Maybe we should get out of town for a while.’

‘You know what, Lucien. Why are you drinking?’

‘Please,’ Sarah says, sighs really, readjusting her hair, ‘you know that wouldn’t work out.’

‘Because we’re at a restaurant,’ I say. ‘That’s what people at restaurants do.’

‘Right,’ I slowly exhale. ‘Of course. Forget I said anything.’

Sarah’s eyes gradually narrow. ‘So you wouldn’t be drinking if we’d stayed at home?’

‘It was a nice idea,’ Sarah considers, her lips almost curling into a smile.

‘I wouldn’t be drinking a Long Island Iced Tea,’ I offer, trying to muster a slight smile.

‘That’s such a shitty answer,’ Sarah says, indolent, shaking her head.

I instinctively shrug and then the waiter returns to our table, places our drinks in front of us, asks if we’re ready to order. I look over at Sarah as if we’re making some kind of tacit agreement and then nod, gesturing for her to order first. Tucking her dark hair behind her ear, she smiles and asks for a scallop dish before I hand our menus back, mumble something about cooking my cheeseburger rare. The waiter nods and Sarah’s eyes follow him as he strolls back to the restaurant’s kitchen.

Nobody says anything for about thirty seconds and then I say, ‘Fifty percent of death-row inmates in America choose Coca-Cola as their final drink.’

‘What?’

‘Twenty percent of those choose Diet Coke.’

‘Why are you telling me this?’ Sarah asks,

I’m offering a half-smile in response when I clock the waiter leaving the kitchen with our two dishes before he glides past the couple (still deep in conversation) a few tables away and then lays our meals out before us. Sarah quietly thanks him and then I order a double vodka and lemonade, another water for Sarah. I start rubbing my chin, my eyes downcast, desperately fighting the desire to go outside for a cigarette.

Sarah’s lightly stabbing at a scallop when she suddenly asks, ‘Why do you stay with me?’

‘What?’

‘You heard me,’ she says, not taking her eyes away from her plate. ‘Why do you stay with me?’

I pause, consider my options, and then, ‘Why do you stay with me?’

Sarah places her cutlery down, takes a sip of water. ‘I know you can do better. I know you can be better.’

‘All I do is hurt you,’ I say. ‘You can’t wait

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I’m saying, my eyes darting between Sarah and the door to the kitchen.

‘There was a time when you were everything I ever wanted,’ Sarah shrugs.

‘You were kind to me when no one else was there. You understood me.’

I’m staring into Sarah’s eyes and she’s just as beautiful as she ever was but I’m suddenly realising her beauty is no longer real to me. She’s attractive like a model or a movie star, just an empty construct rather than someone tangible. ‘I never understood you,’ I eventually say, my eyes focusing on my cheeseburger. ‘Not really. Not in the true sense of the word.’

A pause. ‘I think I’m only just starting to understand that.’

We sit in silence for a moment and then the waiter returns with our drinks and tells us that the restaurant will be closing in half an hour. Silently nodding, I absently chew on a chip and then down about half my vodka. After hesitating, I finally extend my hand across the table and, after also hesitating, Sarah grasps it. Her hand is damp and cold.

‘You’ve never been able to resolve anything,’ Sarah’s saying, and I notice that she’s actually starting to cry. ‘You make conclusions impossible.’

‘Because I never want anything to end,’ I say. ‘I never want things to be how they were before. I don’t want to be -’ ‘- alone,’ Sarah says, finishing my sentence.

‘Right,’ I mumble, vaguely nodding.

‘Lucien,’ she says, shaking her head, her eyes soft and glistening, ‘you’re already alone.’

‘I know,’ I murmur as I pull my hand away from Sarah’s. The light-toned walls of the restaurant suddenly seem to grow even paler, until they’re ethereal, shimmering, white, and I realise no-one is sitting at this table. There is just something unidentifiable. Something unhuman.

Something sad and desperate blindly writhing against the prospect of solitude.

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gaming + tech concrete.gamingtech@uea.ac.uk

year of discontent

Josh Patterson recounts the year’s most disappointing games

2014 was a landmark year in videogames.

As the first full year with the current generation consoles of the Xbox One and Playstation 4 on the market, the ‘nextgen’ is becoming the norm in the release schedule. Despite the promise that this new generation will descend from the heavens and save us all, 2014 has seen more than its fair share of disappointing, lacking, and out right bad titles. Without further ado, the most disappointing titles of the year, ripped apart for your enjoyment.

Far Cry 4 So what can we expect from Far Cry 4, the follow up to 2012’s runaway success?

More repetitive and arduous missions?

Even more uninteresting protagonists?

And instead of Vaas we have Pagan Min, whose personality (disorder) just can’t match up to his predecessors. The game suffers majorly from the Fallout: New Vegas syndrome of essentially consisting of a DLC package for the previous game.

All the same mechanics, tons of re-used animations, no real new innovations whatsoever. Well, except the elephants.

Hacking, the game’s real selling point, actually became tedious rather quickly, and then what were we left with? Terrible AI, repetitive missions, and cars that handled like wheelchairs on ice. Well, at least there was the super-interesting and nuanced protagonist to keep us going! If only.

The Elder Scrolls: Online Elder Scrolls, with your friends. It was what every Skyrim player was clamouring for. What was delivered though, left a lot to be desired. ESO possessed a lacking story, unsatisfying mechanics and poor animations, all for nine pounds a month plus the upfront cost for the game. Great stuff. But the worst thing about it is how difficult it makes matchmaking and playing with your friends, how hard it tries to force a single-player experience down your throat. Because if you were going to do that anyway, couldn’t you have just given us Elder Scrolls VI?

151

some you win...

Alexander Smith looks at the winners and losers in 2014 At the end of every year we look back on where technology has taken us... and then immediately turn our eyes to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January to get a glimpse of what 2015 has to offer. Held this year in Las Vegas, the CES attracts over 50,000 exhibitors showcasing some of the latest technology hoping to break into the mainstream in the coming year.

The show also offers a look back to the moments of the previous year, and a reflection on the success and losses in the tech industry. From the Apple watch to the Sony hack, consumer tech certainly had a rocky year. Presented here is a reflection on some of the winners and losers from 2014.

Winner Apple The aluminium steam train that is Ap p l e d i d n’t s l ow d ow n f o r a n yo n e i n 2 0 1 4 . T h i s ye a r s a w t h e m l a u n c h a new phone, a new payment method a n d a n e xc i t i n g n e w 5 K ‘ Re t i n a’

Loser Sony Although Sony entered 2014 having won the next-gen console war against the Xbox One, the rest of 2014 has left them bitter. They dropped their laptop business and sales of their phone and tablet products are less than promising. To top it all off, their movie entertainment business was hacked

by North Korea, leaking movies and spewing private information all over Hollywood. The resulting controversy surrounding their release of The Interview may have generated a lot of hype for the release, but overall trust in Sony as a stable company still remains uncertain.

Winner Microsoft

Destiny

Perhaps a late entry for the title, as 2014 saw Microsoft still struggling to win over disgruntled Windows 8 users. But Microsoft has actually done plenty this year to turn themselves around. They teased Windows 10, which promises to patch up Windows 8’s inconsistencies. They also launched a cheaper Xbox One without Kinect and pushed some exclusives that saw it start to out-sell the Playstation 4.

With the Surface Pro 3, a revolutionary laptop/tablet hybrid that was much better than their previous attempts, they proved a perfect example of the mantra ‘third time lucky’. Microsoft were also successful in pushing forward improvements in mobile and cloud computing, launching Office for iPad and iPhone as well as giving every subscriber to Office 365 unlimited cloud storage via OneDrive.

Destiny had potential it could never hope to live up to. Despite it actually being a fun enough little shooter with solid gunplay and nice graphics, it was the hype train that really brought it down. With every expectation that it was going to be revolutionary, when it launched it was quickly discovered that it had about as much depth as the kiddie pool at Center Parcs. The story was paper-thin and the environments quickly grew tiresome. Not even Peter Dinklage’s dulcet tones could seem to spice it up after a while.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity It was buggy, it crashed, and there was more than just minor frame-rate issues.

All of these things could probably have been fixed if Ubisoft had delayed Unity a month or so, but as it was, they released it in a decidedly unpolished state. Which is sad, because it’s not a terrible game at its core. It’s just that the good elements were overshadowed by all the assassins falling over while their targets’ heads turned invisible.

Loser Ubisoft

Watchdogs It was a great premise. Hack the city, mess with bad guys, fun all around. The disappointments came in the execution.

i Ma c . Ap p l e a l s o t a n t a l i s i n g l y t e a s e d their smart watch to launch in Qu a r t e r 1 2 0 1 5 . On e s t a t i s t i c s u m s u p t h e i r s u c c e s s : Mo re t h a n 5 0 % o f p h o n e a c t i va t i o n s i n t h e h o l i d a y s e a s o n we re i Ph o n e s .

ANA DUKAKIS

In 2014 Ubisoft showed their true colours: a flagrant disregard for PC gamers and a lax attitude to quality control.

Watchdogs was heavily downgraded on the PC and Assassins Creed: Unity was released with a laughable assortment of bugs, from skin-less faces to characters falling out of the world. There’s a growing sense of distrust around Ubisoft and this could have implications for their success in 2015.

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cop struggling through a tough case, but is only The best line in True Detective comes from the truly defined by the actions that happen to her mouth of Jan the prostitute to a holier-than-thou rather than her own actions. Maggie’s actions Marty in the second episode: are defined by her physical interactions - in that “Girls walk this earth all the time screwin’ for she sleeps with people who aren’t her husband. free. Why is it you add business to the mix and More often than not, she is portrayed as an boys like you can’t stand the thought? I’ll tell you: angry housewife, always wagging her finger it’s cause suddenly you don’t own it the way you disappointedly at the actions of her husband, thought you did”. and this becomes annoying in the same way This is the relationship of men and women some viewers grew tired of Skylar in Breaking in the South in a nutshell, at least the way True Bad. Detective is portraying it. Women inevitably are There is no seen not only as doubt that True broken, but they’re Detective is a work portrayed as of art. While it having something doesn’t necessarily to break in the first appeal to just place. Repairing men, it doesn’t broken things is exactly challenge not the realm of Jay Slayton-Joslin and Nour gender roles in men, especially Ibrahim think through ways that other cops, on this shows do, or show. They’re busy True Detective’s (possibly) feature a variety protecting women fascinating,controversial of ethnicities like from being broken women.

Game of Thrones. in the first place.

True Detective Those they deem is a powerful and entertaining show, that will worth saving that is: Marty hands the underage be remembered decades after it’s time. After prostitute he is so offended by some money and finishing it though, one can’t help but wonder tells her to ‘do something different’. As if it were why we consider art before we consider women. that easy. Marty probably doesn’t think of himself JSJ as sexist, but that’s because he is a product of a patriarchal society where he has only ever been taught to shoot first, ask questions later, and reflect never. Rust is just as complex, if a more subtle, can of misogynistic worms.

The only female who comes close to being a valid character is Maggie, and she is as strong as a woman from Louisiana with two children can be in the 90’s. When the tables are turned and Maggie cheats on Marty like the countless times he has cheated on her, it ruins him when it doesn’t break her. Really, she needs to see if she can do it. It’s self-affirmation: she’s telling herself that she exists outside of her husband and does not need him. Maggie is expected to try, to forgive her husband his infidelities, and to keep

the trouble with women is

her family together. Marty is expected, and does, avenge himself in every possible way. She tries to make it work with her piece of shit husband, he continues being a piece of shit. She leaves him the only way she knows how. That takes strength.

Maggie has a story we aren’t being exposed to because this is unfortunately not her story. She is a complex character in the snapshots we are allowed of her, but ultimately we don’t care about her. We want to know about the man with the scars, Carcosa, and the Yellow King. Maggie is not a part of any of this.

True Detective is a pseudo-crime show, dabbling in the occult and heavy (handed) on the character study. It’s a show about two men, but it’s also a show all about women. Yes, it may seem like the Marty and Rust Show, like, all the time, but they’re our male protagonist-pawns used to tell a story about women and little girls.

I don’t think this show is ignorant with respect to women, it just doesn’t expend or have time to get to know any of them intimately. The women are forgettable, but they’re supposed to be. That’s what the show was critiquing. Who remembers all the missing girls in the bayou? No one. Who is looking into the murder of prostitutes? No one. Investigating the murder of women? Unless they’re antlered and potentially satanic, no one cares. Socially internalised misogyny is in turn internalised into the narrative of the show. At no point are Rust and Marty free of women, they are haunted by their failures and mistreatment of them. Most of the women on the show are castoff characters or corpses to the detectives, who are too busy trying to get the bad guy instead of helping the little girls. NI

SASQUATCH MEN’S CHOIR

This isn’t about the Bechdel test. This isn’t about groundbreaking narratives, six minute long unedited shots, or how we may be entering the best years ever for quality television. This isn’t about satanic murders in southern America inspired by true events. This is about how one of televisions best shows in years highlights a binary egocentrism that exists in society, and negates to tell the story, or feature any kind of character development or levels of dimension to its female characters.

True Detective follows Rust Cohle and Martin Hart as they investigate rural satanic crimes in southern America. The show is notable not only for great writing which juxtaposes two parallel timelines to form a coherent story, but also for bringing film stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson back to television. Two cops who don’t get along but have to work together is an overused cliché, yet has been the foundation for some of the best films, shows and novels. What makes True Detective so breath-taking, then? Perhaps rather than a group of television writers thrown into a room to create the most gags or the most commercial product possible, True Detective was created by Nic Pizzolato, a novelist and writer by nature, as was Dennis Lehane of The Wire – another critically acclaimed cop drama.

Yet, this begs the question that if we can have a television show that is acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, why do we praise certain aspects of it, but ignore the issues surrounding representation of women characters? Now, this isn’t to suggest that every character has to be fully developed. It’s not as if we expect Harrelson’s cheating Martin Hart to uncover a stripper with a heart of gold with every marital affair that he has, and characters that are featured for a single scene don’t necessarily need the same level of detail in their backstory as recurring characters do. But this isn’t an excuse for True Detective to be exempt from using the male gaze.

Mart’s wife, Maggie, appears in multiple episodes. She’s the wife of an alcoholic, cheating

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George Barker

Sherlock’s resurrection on New Year’s Day, the shocking death of several characters in Westeros, Martin Freeman’s despicable character in Fargo, Matthew McConaughey’s successful move from film to TV in True Detective: it’s certainly been a stellar year for TV in 2014. But amongst these gems there have been shows hyped up so much that they’ve actually fallen flat on their face and made rather an embarrassment of themselves.

To name one show that was billed along with Sherlock and Ripper Street in 2014 BBC Original British Drama, greeted by 9 million viewers all eager to see the new Saturday night drama who were left ultimately disappointed was the dismal BBC adaptation of The Musketeers. The show’s drop of 4 million viewers throughout the series reflected the poor quality of a show that took the Doctor Who Saturday night slot which had been previously filled by the mediocre Merlin and Atlantis, both of which were unable to fill the big shoes of the Time Lord. A show that moves from one sword fight to another is only interesting for a few minutes and appears to have been wrongly aimed at adults in the 9pm slot whilst it is essentially a dressed-up childrens show with bland dialogue, silly plots, and boring characters.

Moving from one Peter Capaldi BBC drama (Capaldi having played menacing Cardinal

Richelieu in The Musketeers) to another. Doctor Who graced our screens back in August with what Moffat claimed would be a change in format from the previous series. Upon Capaldi’s reveal as the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor, many were delighted that such an established actor was cast, hoping it would bring gravitas to the role of a darker Doctor. During Matt Smith’s tenure as the Doctor the show had become a bit over the top with his ‘Timey Wimey’ slightly childish Doctor in comparison to the criminally underrated Christopher Eccleston who back in 2005 brought the show back as a respectable BBC drama. However, Doctor Who stuck to the same formula as previous series with the only noticeable difference in Capaldi’s Doctor was him being a bit more blasé about death.

He remarks of an unimportant character in the second episode “He was dead already, I was saving us.” Upon learning of Danny Pink’s death, he says “And?” Whilst there is no debate that Capaldi is a brilliant actor and can do comedy (look no further than the foul mouthed Malcolm Tucker) and can play the Time Lord, the scripts were very mixed for his debut series ranging from the horrendous In the Forest of the Night (remember that one? No I didn’t think so) to the majestic Mummy on the Orient Express.

As a ‘whovian’ it pains me to ask the question:

is the forgettable eighth season of Doctor Who a sign that Moffat needs to pass on the baton to another writer? Maybe the BBC should step in and attempt to save the Time Lord from a greater enemy than the Daleks: an audience that have given up on the show.

Around Christmas time it was impossible to turn on the TV without seeing a trailer for The Wrong Mans Series 2, which was given prime place on BBC Two in the build up to Christmas.

After a quirky and unexpectedly enjoyable comedy series written by and starring James Corden and the other bloke from Gavin and Stacey (not Matthew Horne, the other one) the question arose whether this second series would be any good. The answer: mediocre at best. Whilst the change of setting from Basildon to America was brave, the two-parter appeared more concerned with satisfying itself and tying up loose ends from series one than telling an interesting and/or funny story. It did have its laugh out loud moments, Sam and Phil’s attempt to convince airport security they played the bongos and guitar in a band for instance, but they were sparse and could not stop the viewer

CULTJER

The Knick

gallery, his words only disturbed by the rattling of a vacuum pump.The medical practices arouse a ghoulish fascination, similar to the feeling when watching certain scenes in Hannibal. Alongside the scenes of surgery, the show is filled with enthralling and intense moments such as Thackery’s self-destructive spiral, only cocaine keeping him wired into his work.

While so much of what we witness in the hospital resembles modern practice, the holes in their knowledge is vast.

Thackery and Edwards pioneer new surgical practices alongside truly bizarre treatments. Patients are given cocaine, and mental illness is treated with teeth removal. The ignorance of the period is often used to ironic effect, providing moments of black humour, including an interesting method for treating addiction, or the ambulances literally fighting to collect patients.

The Knick has to be one of the most interesting new shows on this season.

With its slick composition, inventive soundtrack, and great performances, The Knick could prove to be truly great show.

Despite the core story’s lack of focus, the show is intense and the subplots engaging. Alongside How to Get Away with Murder, The Knick is one of the best new shows this season.

from ultimately feeling disappointed by the anticlimactic finale.

2014 managed to prove that there is one thing worse than a bad TV show: an overrated TV show that is just

mediocre.

2014 in Review

The Musketeers, Doctor Who, & The Wrong Mans Dan Struthers

CINEDRAMAS

2014 in Review

The Knick is quite possibly the most interesting new show to start this autumn.

Despite its good reception by critics and Cinemax’s confidence to renew it before it even aired, it has received relatively little attention. The Knick is centred on two surgeons: Dr John Thackery and Dr Algernon Edwards. The pairare brilliantly juxtaposed. Dr Thackery is an outsider by choice despite accolades from the surgical community while Dr Edwards, a gifted surgeon in his own right, is shunned due to the racism of the period. The Knick tackles the heavy issues of the era, which other period dramas don’t examine as much.

While the show’s story isn’t bad, the central plot is often unclear. The lack of clear overarching plot around which to build numerous other plotlines can leave the show feeling slightly disjointed.

The score, an anachronistic, sci-fi mix of electro-synth is transplanted into 1900 New York, its subtle thrums adding a nuanced layer to the show. The music, like the protagonists, is ahead of its time, distanced from the society it underscores.

While the overall story is good but not exceptional, the show is filled with moments that really make it too good to miss whilst also somehow even fitting in a brief martial arts sequence). The surgery scenes and the medical aspect of the show are engrossing, from the first operation the audience witness: a frantic effort to save a pregnant women via C-section. The shots are beautiful, the stark white of her skin, the room, the uniforms against the blood of the patient. Thackery describes the new process to the sombre faces in the

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Director James Marsh Writer Anthony McCarten Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, David Thewlis Runtime 123 mins Biography/Drama Dan Struthers A biopic about the life of Stephen Hawking can only mean one thing. Oscar bait. It features a person with a life threatening disability, it’s based on a true story, and on top of that it’s about one of Britain’s most prestigious figures, thereby one would assume it was conceived to win as many awards as possible. The Theory of Everything is in fact, as summarised by Eddie Redmayne who portrays Hawking with staggering accuracy, a beautiful love story between Hawking, a shy young Science student and an equally shy Arts student named Jane Wilde, Hawking’s first wife. But more than this, the story is one of inspiration,

Big Eyes Director Tim Burton Writers Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski Starring Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Krysten Ritter Runtime 106 mins Biography/Drama Louis Pigeon-Owen Big Eyes, directed by Tim Burton, is the stunning biopic of Margaret Keane whose husband, Walter, passed off her haunting paintings of big eyed children as his own for ten years. Although the initially brightly lit scenes and lurid colours are uncharacteristic of Burton, the film quickly slides into a darker filter and adopts the macabre edge more typical of his works. On first impression, the characters are charming and endearing but their personas quickly develop Burton’s idiosyncratic blend of quirky and sinister as the couple spiral into deception and degeneration. Unlike Sweeney Todd, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland, which relied heavily upon fantastical worlds, wacky characters and, of course, Johnny Depp in outrageous amounts of make-up, this film focuses almost unflinchingly

with Hawking having been diagnosed with Miserables and the lead in the BBC adaption of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis shortly after his Birdsong after which he appeared to fade into 21st birthday and told he had only two years obscurity. However, Redmayne returns to the left to live, yet he continued with his work screen for this role, and his ability to physically largely due to Jane. A modern audience might and vocally embody Hawking as he is gradually be aware of ALS, particularly due to the recent reduced to crawling up the stairs and slurring ice bucket challenge which has raised millions his words is incredible; a role which could for the ALS association, but this film gives a easily be exaggerated but is dealt with a great deeper insight into the effects of such a terrible deal of sensitivity and respect by Redmayne. disease.

Where this film excels is allowing us to The film is an adaptation of Jane Wilde’s witness Hawking’s life from Jane’s perspective, book Travelling to Infinity: My Life with enabling us to see her struggle to help him in Stephen which covers their life together his later years when he is entirely dependent until their separation, on her. Jones should marked in the film by receive equal acclaim “There should be no Felicity Jones, who for this role, by showing portrays Jane, delivering boundaries to human endeavour.” Jane’s inner turmoil but a heart-breaking speech also her devoted love to finishing with “I have loved you”. Surely Stephen. Jones is perhaps most familiar from a there can be no greater compliment to Eddie supporting role in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Redmayne’s portrayal than Hawking himself but this film allows her to demonstrate she is commenting that at certain points in the film fully capable of taking the lead. he thought he was watching himself. In 2012, For a film with such a difficult subject it appeared that Eddie Redmayne had reached matter, there is plenty of humour which his career peak with a starring role in Les Redmayne remarked was taken from the realon the protagonists, offering a gritty take on the dark side of the human condition.

The madness in the film is pervasive and infectious and when Walter begins to lie to himself about his “masterpiece” and “reputation”, the audience is almost hoodwinked into believing that he is the actual artist, such is his self-deception. Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of this true story is the extent of Walter’s elaborate lies which not only result in Margaret’s emotional and psychological imprisonment, but also leads her to lying to the people around her. Walter’s cry that people should get Margaret “some psychiatric help”, ironically demonstrates his own delusion and mental decline. Bit by bit, Walter’s shiny façade crumbles to rubble - he is, as Margaret states, the true “Jeckyll and Hyde”. The divide between husband and wife best shown when Margaret, with her peroxide blonde hair and bright dresses, confronts the monochrome face of her husband on the TV, staring unflinchingly back at her as he spins his web of lies for the press.

Christoph Waltz is riveting in his portrayal of the manipulative, domineering Walter Keane, who slips insidiously from charisma and charm into mania and greed. Amy Adams is equally powerful as the humble genius, victimised by a sexist society and domineering husband, whose only true confidant is her

The Guardian

life Stephen Hawking, whom he described as having a formidable sense of humour and mischief. One example of this is seen when Hawking is in his new electric wheelchair moving around his house, cardboard cutout on his head with his computerised voice repeating “EXTERMINATE!”. Gags aside, a stand-out moment is the impossible decision that Jane is forced to make for her husband whilst he is in a coma. She is faced with the decision to either turn off his life support or allow them to proceed with an operation which could potentially save his life, yet deprive him of speech.

Perhaps the greatest compliment to the film overall was Hawking’s nurse having to wipe a tear from his eye after he viewed the film and stating that it was ‘broadly true’, perfectly summarising the profoundness of one of Britain’s greatest minds.

FILM DIVIDER

The Theory of Everything

fluffy white Chihuahua. Both actors have that the eyes are a “window into the soul”, so proved themselves as entirely Tim Burton gives us a glimpse worthy of their Golden Globe “So, who is the artist?” into the innermost nature of nominations. Lana Del Rey his characters through closealso received a Golden Globe nomination up shots of their eyes in mirrors or through nod for her song Big Eyes which gives the film keyholes. Margaret’s degeneration is bitterly a haunting quality through her distinctive, and beautifully captured through people melancholic voice, as indeed does Danny around her beginning to acquire enlarged Elman’s atmospheric music which has become eyes like her paintings, an inseparable ingredient of the Burton films showing her retreat into over the years. imagination and descent Margaret sacrifices all: her art, money, into madness. The film is friends, even her name and identity, in order to in that sense a single ‘big survive and protect her daughter and in doing eye’, offering insight into so wins the hearts of the audience as a fractured the untold story of one of heroine who eventually finds enough courage to the greatest art scandals in stand up to the world. Just as Margaret believes history.

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Birdman Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Writers Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo Starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis Runtime 119 mins Drama George Barker

composition and cinematography that really views and allowed to hear the thoughts and make this film. Director Alejandro Iñárritu voices in Riggans head. and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's The film’s score, intensely simplistic in (the man behind Gravity’s 14 minute opening its use of a single instrument, adds to the shot) direction and camerawork is among the surrealist feel of the film, blurring the lines of best of any film this year. Birdman is presented diegetic sound. As the camera moves in close, as one continuous take, the camera following the sound of the actors’ voices changes relative the characters. The camera constantly moves, to the position of the camera. At the same time only pausing for choice moments. As the the camera often moves to inventively frame camera flows throughout the conversation, adding yet the backstage corridors more layers to the scene.

“Popularity is the slutty of the theatre, every Birdman is easily one little cousin of prestige.” of the best films of 2015. Its movement of both camera and actor are deftly characters are enthralling and choreographed. The audiences view switches the technical work from character to character, never providing an is truly great. objective viewpoint. The film is subtly surreal Birdman will and the constantly changing perspective keeps immerse you in you uncertain of its reality. It creates an intense its meta-satirical intimacy with its characters, the sound of a madness, leaving voice changing with the position of the camera. you with a million For brief moments we are granted first-person ways to interpret it.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Director Peter Jackson Writers Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro Starring Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage Runtime 144 mins Fantasy George Barker The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies is certainly an enjoyable ending to the trilogy, but it is not without some glaring flaws. The film is jammed with action and truly epic moments, which in IMAX 3D at 48fps looks astounding. Smaug’s destruction of Lake Town and the White Council’s showdown with Sauron are worth splashing out on alone. However, because these two opening sequences are so exciting and intense, the bar is set too high, and the rest of the scenes feel less impressive as a result. The titular battle fills the majority of the runtime and does enough to sustain interest. While the combat is exciting, Jackson’s decision to rely on CGI over live actors for the orcs just doesn’t give the action the same quality it had in the LOTR trilogy.

Yet it is outside the action that the film has its biggest flaws. The subplots invented to pad out the film are the main offenders. Kili and Tauriel’s romance feels rushed and forced into the plot, as they go from strangers to madly in love over the course of two or three interactions. Alfred, the Master of Lake Town’s assistant makes a return, however the film wastes numerous scenes on him. His character has little development and almost no bearing on the course of the narrative. It’s baffling as to why Alfred gets so much screentime, yet a fan favourite like Beorn gets literally three seconds. Thankfully, the main protagonists all give solid performances: Martin Freeman once again gives a charming performance as Bilbo, Richard Armitage as Thorin captures his proud arrogance and decline into dragon characters are simply ignored. It is almost as sickness, and Ian Mckellen is Gandalf, enough if the film simply ran out of time; odd then said. that this is the shortest of the trilogy. What In comparison to the Return of the King, happens to Thorin, the Dwarves, Bard and ‘Hobbit: The Quintuple Scuffle’ wraps the Lake Town refugees is a mystery to anyone everything up pretty who hasn’t read the books. Even the quickly and Jackson does “Will you follow me, conclusion of the pentagonal scuffle a great job in linking the is wrapped up swiftly with the one last time?” two trilogies. The ending application of the series’ favourite is moving as Bilbo settles back into Bag ‘get out of jail free card’ (Think Hotel End, starting the decline into the embittered California). The fact that the film wastes time recluse we see in the Fellowship. It speaks on the irrelevant and irksome Alfred, then fails volumes that these last scenes are able to to provide any conclusion for the majority of instill melancholy after almost two hours of main characters is ludicrous. While White epic, fantastical action. While Bilbo’s ending Council facing down Sauron and the Nazghul is excellently handled, many of the other has to be the highpoint of the trilogy, the film

MUNO DVD

THE EPOCH TIMES

Don’t read this review. Watch Birdman. This review won’t spoil anything, but the less you know the better. Go and watch Birdman. The film is a soaring success and yet another feather in cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's cap.

Taking place over a couple of days, Birdman tells the story of an actor in the twilight of his career attempting to open a Broadway play.

Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton), famous for his role as the titular Birdman is our hero.

We follow him and the cast (quite literally) through the mishaps of his play’s previews and opening night. While the plot sounds fairly simple, the real beauty of the film lies in the characters, their interaction and the camerawork.

As well as Keaton, the film stars Emma Stone as his daughter, Edward Norton as an acclaimed actor who joins the cast at the last minute and Zach Galafianakis as his manager.

The performances are outstanding, Keaton's character embittered by the success of more recent superhero stars such as Robert Downey Jr, desperately wants to be known again but lambasts social media, as cynical as the critics he despises. Norton, Stone and the rest of supporting cast command the screen equally well, conveying the stress and insanity of the acting world.

Alongside the stellar acting, it's the

itself is the weakest of the three.

If you’re a fan of the series, go see it, see it in IMAX 3D, you’ll have a blast. With its bombastic opening, ‘Hobbit: Pentamerous Pugilism’ sets out to be the best of the trilogy, but wastes your time with unnecessary side plots, too much CGI and leaves much unanswered. That said, watching elves springboard off a dwarven shield wall is bloody awesome. To sum up with a Haiku: Epic Showdowns A Pentagonal conflict Nothing is conclud

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Adam White brings to life 2014’s best inanimate objects in film Ben Affleck’s chin in Gone Girl

Scarlett Johansson’s cake in Under the Skin

Jonah Hill’s everything in The Wolf of Wall Street

The oven in Life After Beth

In a movie all about blissful romance turning deathly sour, it is Ben Affleck's chin-dimple (or "face-ass" in Chandler Bing lingo) that winds up personifying the major themes of the entire movie, Rosamund Pike's Amy Dunne noting on their first meeting Nick's "villainous chin", an appendage he covers up with a two-finger salute every time he assures her he is telling the truth. What is initially cute and charming soon becomes a sign of distrust and a charming get-out for any argument, setting in motion a series of knifehappy twists.

Under the Skin marked the second of two major Scarlett Johansson performances in 2014 in which she played a barely-there outsider overwhelmed by newfound feelings of humanity.

But, unlike Her's ponderous climax, Under the Skin travels in a more downbeat direction, never exemplified greater than a scene in which Johansson's unnamed extra-terrestrial stares down and anxiously places into her mouth a bite of chocolate cake. But despite her strange aching to feel, she can't quite keep it down, spitting it out back onto her plate. This world is a strange one, and one that sometimes leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street is a toast to gluttony -- a loud, staggering exercise in excess, all about terrible people with endless funds being worshipped like Gods. So it's fitting that its unsung heroes are so small, like the poor goldfish Jonah Hill swallows whole during an office party just because he feels like it, or the close-up shot of his shrivelled, prosthetic peen as he jerks off at the sight of some presumably hired models in bikinis. Or his weird fake teeth.

Practically everything going into or hanging off the guy's body.

It sort of speaks to Life After Beth's cruminess that its aggressively talented cast, among them John C. Reilly, Anna Kendrick, Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines and Aubrey Plaza, ultimately get completely overshadowed by a household appliance. But the oven hapless Dane DeHaan ties his zombified girlfriend to in the final act of the horror comedy makes for a hilarious sight gag, Plaza stumbling around with it strapped to her back, and DeHaan discovering how well it can come in handy when having a romantic heart-to-heart with a snarling, drooling hellbeast.

&

looking back Daniel Allen Films

looking ahead

Neven Devies looks into his crystal ball and predicts 2015’s screen gems Appropriate Behaviour

It Follows

Goodnight Mommy

The Duke of Burgundy

Written, directed and starring up-and-coming comedian Desiree Akhavan, Appropriate Behaviour will undoubtedly score comparisons to Lena Dunham’s pop culture extravaganza Girls. Akhavan plays the role of Shirin, a selfentitled twenty-something Iranian urbanite struggling to juggle her identity between the perfect Persian daughter and politicallyprogressive bisexual. Shot on location in New York City and featuring an alternating timeline for that postmodernist edge, the narrative screams tragically hip on its surface. However, there’s no denying the commendable power of Arkavan’s biting comedic streak and supported by understated performances, Appropriate Behaviour looks to be the most entertaining indie comedy this year.

David Robert Mitchell’s follow-up to the acclaimed indie The Myth of the American Sleepover, all about a teenage girl haunted by a mysterious presence following a seemingly innocent sexual encounter. It’s been making seismic waves on the festival circuit, with critics heralding it as one of the most startling genre films for recent years. It Follows playfully juxtaposes the typified 1980s horror notion of sexual paranoia with the liberal decoding of the 90s neo-slasher flick, constructing a timeless vision of contemporary Americana. Filtered through a chilly aesthetic pallet, It Follows, once again, seems intent on proving that horror cinema is blossoming within the independent sector and provides a much needed deviation from the generically produced, Hollywood shlock.

Austrian directing duo Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz explore the disordered subconscious of the child in Goodnight Mommy. When their mother returns from cosmetic surgery, her face almost entirely bandaged, a pair of twin brother begin to suspect that the she may be someone else. Told in a sparse, and austere cinematic staging which recalls the works of Michael Haneke, this arthouse horror has gained critical praise for its acerbic use of brutal violence and a methodical, yet almost unbearable building of tension.

Supported by acclaimed director Ulrich Seidl, Goodnight Mommy promises to be grotesque and visceral piece of horror cinema.

Fresh from the critical success of his giallo influenced, Berberian Sound Studio, Peter Strickland returns with an enigmatic fable of desire involving a woman who decides to test the limits of her lover. With the sharpened sounds of crinkling leather, and the oppressive use of location, it’s clear that the certain motifs of the giallo have remained, though Strickland has not created a horror film. Rather these elements transcend into a hypnotic psychosexual drama; a study of control gained and lost, hinted within the licentious use of sexual imagery. Combined with a sumptuous artdirection, The Duke of Burgundy suggests a darker, more daring alternative to upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey.

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mental illness in film

Flo Lacey asks whether mental illness continues to be misrepresented in cinema

Film is a powerful medium. It can inform, entertain, influence: what we experience on screen feeds into our opinions, whether we know it or not. Mental illness is a subject that has long been popular within cinema, however, with this delicate issue that is often stigmatised or misunderstood, it is unsurprising that its representation can cause controversy. When dealing with mental health (something that affects so many people), fictional, dramatised works have an immense power. They can alter the way that people perceive things, for better and for worse.

Take Hitchcock’s famous Psycho (1960) - even the title implies derogatory associations with those that are mentally unwell. Norman Bates, who in modern terms would be described as having multiple personality disorder, is portrayed as a terrifying freak. His psychological problems lead him to brutally murder

the heroine whilst dressed (and genuinely believing himself to be) his dead mother.

A condition that we now see to be an illness is viewed with little sympathy, even by modern viewers. Films like Psycho have gained a cult status, with Bates and other characters (e.g. Jack Torrance in The Shining or Alex in A Clockwork Orange) becoming classic movie psychopaths. However, the lack of attention and sympathy given to the causes of their horrific actions does little for the awareness of mental illness. Films such as these, which use mental illness for dramatic effect, can easily influence common misconceptions. Clearly, they have the motive of creating fear. However, by using characters that have mental health issues, that fear can easily be transferred from and to day to day life.

As fictional, dramatised representations, it is difficult to measure how far any film can do justice to the truth of living with mental

illness. However, two films that deal more explicitly with the issue, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Girl, Interrupted (1999), can be seen to handle the matter with more sensitivity and understanding.

Both are set in mental institutions in the 60s, when the understanding of mental illness was developing but still greatly stigmatised. The protagonists are on the whole relatable, and we are able to sympathise with them and their conditions. While they need help, it is not them that are the problem, but more a lack of understanding. Nonetheless, stereotypes still prevail, and even among the fictional characters there are prejudices of craziness often played out for moments of humor or pity. In being produced and sold for the consumer, it is likely that these stories (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was originally a novel and Girl, Interrupted a true memoir) have lost some of their genuineness.

In David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook (2012) both Pat (Bradley Cooper) and Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) suffer from mental illnesses, with this modern take depicting their issues in a refreshing way.

Being a product of a more understanding attitude towards the mentally ill, the two characters are in no way marginalised.

They are likeable and strong in their own right, their conditions don’t define them.

Of course, like the characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Girl, Interrupted they are still merely representations, and can hardly be seen as accurate of all those that suffer with the same illnesses, but that would be impossible regardless.

In film, stereotypes are often easy to fall back on and the subject of mental illness is no exception. However, with the progression of time and greater understanding, its representation has become considerably more sympathetic.

classic psychopathic villains

Aaron Sampler in Primal Fear

Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart

This Richard Gere vehicle is a forgettable and overblown thriller, with a ludicrous plot and unpleasant anti-Catholic undertones. It does however have one brilliant achievement: an outstanding technical tour de force by Edward Norton in his breakthrough role as an altar boy accused of brutally murdering a Chicago archbishop. With a split-personality disorder that manifests itself as alternately a stuttering wreck and a violent sociopath, Norton, despite his character being incarcerated for most of the film, orchestrates proceedings with Machiavellian cunning. Poor old Richard doesn’t stand a chance.

Willem Dafoe is an actor who has played more than his fair share of creeps and scumbags-with the sort of face that can invoke childhood nightmares, it’s hard not to get typecast. However, few of his characters are so messed up as Bobby Peru, a Texan gangster whose chat up lines are even slimier than his hair. He’s not on screen long but makes a hell of an impression. His scummiest acts include forcing himself on Laura Dern in a motel room and betraying Cage during a bank robbery. He also has teeth that would make British dentists’ wince, and dribbles when he laughs.

Redeeming features? You have to grudgingly admire the ingenuity of Stampler’s scheme to avoid execution. Although carving numbers into his victim’s chest seems a bit excessive.

Redeeming features? Few, but he claims to have been in the US marines and who doesn’t admire a man who fights for his country?

Anton Chigurgh in No Country for Old Men The antagonist in the Coen brothers gripping and sombre meditation on evil, Chigurgh is no tongue-in-cheek thug in the manner of the Coens’ earlier work but a frightening force of nature. He is effectively the angel of death, a homicidal monster who kills with fanboy glee (the look of manic bliss on his face as he throttles a police officer with his handcuffs is genuinely horrible).

With a voice that sounds like its come from the depths of hell and a haircut to match, the role won actor Javier Bardem a hugely deserved Oscar.

Redeeming features? He spares a garage proprietor who guesses a coin toss correctly.

Say what you like about Anton, he sticks to his principles.

WIKI

FLICKR (TOM FRANCIS)

DEVIANT ART

FLICKR (STEVE HOFFMAN)

Cinema may not offer the most realistic portrayal of mental illness, but it has produced some iconic and gloriously unhinged antagonists Will Hunter pays homage to the most twisted of the lot

Johnny in Naked Psychologists will no doubt debate the finer points of whether the motormouthed protagonist of Mike Leigh’s bleak character study constitutes a true psychopath. But he’s certainly a nasty piece of work. Brilliantly portrayed by that great British character actor David Thewlis (best known as Lupin from the Harry Potter films), he’s a rambling, nihilistic philosopher who has an unpleasant habit of seducing vulnerable women and having violent sex with them.

Redeeming features? He does at least have a sense of humour. “Apparently you shouldn’t put anything in your cunt that you can’t put in your mouth.” “Give us that mug.” Oh that Mancunian wit.

the page of fun

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famous friends

To celebrate the arrival of Friends on Netflix, Adam White presents a special Friends-themes crossword.

Paper! Snow! A Ghost!

Across “I Ross...”, “I Ross”, “Take thee Emily...”, “Take thee --” 1 What road does Chandler tell Janice he’s living on once he moves to Yemen?

Who was the first of the gang to discover Chandler and Monica’s affair?

3 To whom is Chandler’s TV Guide famously addressed to?

4 What name did Phoebe assume while pretending to be a Swedish masseuse?

5 7

8 11

famous firsts It’s the first month of a brand new year, so why not decipher the UEA Quiz Society’s Charlie Methven’s special first-themed quiz!

What operation did Joey’s character on Days of Our Lives undergo, turning him into a woman?

How many divorces has Ross had?

How does Joey finish this statement?: “A male nanny? That’s weird, like a woman wanting to be a...”

Joey’s Australian dancer roommate was named – Phoebe inherited a fur coat from her grandmother, what type of animal was it?

What did Joey and Chandler lose while on a public bus?

Who is fine?

1 Who was the first Athlete to run a mile in under 8 What was the Beatle’s first feature film?

4 minutes?

9 Helen Sharman was the first Briton to do what?

2 Who was the first monarch to reside at Buckingham Palace?

10 Who was the first woman to take her seat as a member of parliament?

3 Who was the first person to swim the English Channel?

11 Who was the first president to be assassinated?

4 Who was the first American President to resign 12 Which country was the first to win the World from office?

Cup? 5 Which country’s flag first reached the South Pole? 13 Who was the first Roman Emperor?

6 Who was the first UK Prime Minister?

14 Who were the first to climb Mount Everest?

7 What was the first MTV Video?

15 What was the first film to earn over £1 billion?

Flip and Reveal 1. Sir Roger Bannister 2. Queen Victoria 3. Captain Michael Webb 4. Richard Nixon 5. Norway 6. Sir Robert Walpole 7. Video Killed the Radio Star - The Buggles Famous Firsts

8. A Hard Day’s Night 9. Go into space 10. Nancy Astor 11. Abraham Lincoln 12. Uruguay 13. Augustus Caesar 14. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (1/2

each) [accept Sherpa Tenzing) 15. Titanic

2 6 9 10 12

Down

ACROSS 2. Rachel 6. Yemen Road 9. Joey 10. Miss Chanandler Bong 12. Ikea Famous Friends

DOWN 1. Brain Transplant 3. Three 4. Penis Model 5. Janine 7. Mink 8. Baby 11. Ross

listings

231

concrete.listings@uea.ac.uk

The Waterfront Hayseed Dixie w/ Tom Copson Sun 18 Jan (£15)

Enraged + Silenced by Shadows Sat 24 Jan (£10)

Epic Studios Moose Blood

Fri 16 Jan (£5-6)

Dan Fenster and the Alibis Fri 23 Jan (£5)

The Nick Rayn’s LCR Foolish Fashion Party Tue 13 Jan (£3.50)

Despicable You - Cartoon Party Tue 20 Jan (3.50)

First Aid Kid + Kimberly Anne Sun 25 Jan (Sold Out)

Josh Widdecome + Rob Beckett + MC Mon 26 Jan (£10-12)

The Bicycle Shop

Norwich Arts Centre

Hattie Briggs

Luke Wright & The Tiger’s Bride

Fish & Bird

Caravan

Wed 14 Jan (£5)

Wed 21 Jan (£8-10)

Tue 20 Jan (£6)

Honey & the Bear

Sat 24 Jan (£15)

Wed 21 Jan (£5)

The Playhouse

The Owl Sanctuary

Mark Watson

Nai Harvest

Sat 17 Jan (£5)

14 through 17 Jan (£18.50)

The Reduced Shakespeare Company - The Complete History of Comedy (Abridged) Sat 24 Jan (£12-15)

Open

UEA Drama Studio

Marla - EP Launch Party (Open)

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Sat 24 Jan (£6)

22 through 24 Jan (£5-7)

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