VENUE
ISSUE 290 Jamie Freeman
concrete.venue@uea.ac.uk
www.concrete-online.co.uk
03.12.2013
VENUE
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contents
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4 MUSIC
MOUNT KIMBIE INTERVIEW
FASHION
KEEP WARM THIS WINTER
make up for the lack of cheer with some cracking Christmasthemed content. Our editors have even come together for some collaborative efforts – see television’s Christmas picks and The Christmas lights are fashion’s wishlist. Wether you’re well and truly up in both our sitting round the television in Fine City and in the office; this familial hostility or just lying down production weekend has seen the to digest christmas dinner like an senior editors united in adoration engorged python, be sure to make for Michael Bublé. Surprisingly, the most of the festive season with his Christmas album is amazingly Venue. good for morale. On behalf of everyone from With that being said, we would Venue, we hope you all have have appreciated a sprinkling of a brilliant holiday period, no snow on campus as Christmas matter what or with whom you’re draws nearer. We’ve tried to tempt celebrating. fate with our back cover, so if the streets of Norwich become a touch Stay cute, whiter in the next couple of weeks, Ciara and Hayden then you have us to thank. Either way, we’ve tried to Hi guys, welcome to the last Venue of the semester! We’re not sure how it’s December already, but like it or not, it’s certainly here.
17 TELEVISION the best & worst ads
Editor-in-Chief | Sidonie Chaffer-Melley Venue Editors | Hayden East and Ciara Jack Music | Editors | Jack Enright and Alex Flood Music Contributors: Will Collins, Myles Earle, Becca Oram, Mike Vinti Fashion | Editors | Madz Abbasi and Ella Sharp Fashion Contributors: Madz Abbasi, Gemma Carter, Ella Sharp Arts | Editor | Callum Graham Arts Contributors: Callum Graham, Harriet Norman, Beth Ryan Creative Writing | Editor | Holly McDede Creative Writing Contributors: Eve Aimée, Silvia Sheehan, Peter Thorn Gaming | Editor | Sam Emsley Gaming Contributors: Sam Emsley, Joe Fitzsimmons Television | Editor | Robert Drury Television Contributors: Jess Brown, Dominic Burchnall, Adam Dawson, Myles Earle, Melissa Haggar, Lara Jayne-Ellis, Katie Mann, Phil Turtle, Holly Wade, Sophie Wiits Film | Editors | Holly Wade and Adam White Film Contributors: Melissa Haggar, Thomas Hall, Joseph Holness, Ha Nguyen, Alice Rodgers, Silvia Rose, Freddie Van Der Velde Competitions/Listings | Editor | Saul Holmes
Issue 290
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03.12.2013
MUSIC
www.concrete-online.co.uk
concrete.music@uea.ac.uk
INTERVIEW
Will Collins sat down with electronic duo Mount Kimbie
“Yeah that’s good,” Kai Campos yells as the sound check draws to a close. The Norwich Arts Centre is empty apart from the admiring support acts, sound engineers and Venue’s own lucky reporter. Later on this evening, the room will play host to 290 admirers of the electronic duo as their UK tour draws to a close with another sold out show. After entertaining 1400 eager fans in London the night before with collaborator King Krule in tow, the platform may be slightly less auspicious but the anticipation is certainly no less fervent. Upstairs in the cramped dressing room, Kai Campos and Dom Maker are relaxing. Following on from their debut album Crooks and Lovers the duo are enjoying touring with the new album, Cold Spring Fault Less Youth. “Last night was pretty spectacular,” says Kai, “it would be really hard to top. Dublin was excellent as well; really nice venue, but somebody nicked my guitar pedal.” Their live set up has increased significantly for this tour, with the addition of vocals from King Krule (aka Archy Marshall) who has made occasional guest appearances, and the presence of a live drummer. Mount Kimbie seem to
be taking a slightly more conventional appearance on stage. But only slightly. The collaboration with King Krule has been exciting for a lot of fans, with his own debut album proving to be a success. “The collaboration came about through mutual admiration - he asked if he could come and listen to what we were doing really early on, and there were a few loops that he was into. He lived pretty close to our studio, so it was fairly ad-hoc. He worked on stuff, and we built songs around his vocals,” explains Kai. Involving other artists was a new concept to the duo, who were used to working with just each other, but it is a concept that Dom seems eager to continue with. “We definitely have more work to do with Archy, and were supported by a rapper called Jon Wayne in America; and he was out there for the full five weeks. He’s a very inspirational person and someone that we are keen to work with in the future.” This comes as great news for fans already looking forward to the next record. At the minute, it seems that anything these two touch invariably turns to gold, and the possibility of more of King Krule’s grouchy teenage angst represents an exciting prospect.
His addition seemed to signify a distinct change from the first album, and musical direction is something Dom and Kai are constantly asked about. “We haven’t really thought about it too much” Dom responds, “we don’t plan what we write but I think the only thing we’ve discussed is to try and make something quite ‘dancey’. Maybe an EP or something.” The quality of their live show is an aspect that they are very proud of, “It’s taken a long time to get to the place where we feel like we are getting close to achieving what we want to do on stage” Kai explains, “There was probably a year of being genuinely terrible and then another year of being a bit shit then getting a bit better, but it’s a constant process.” The interview is momentarily interrupted when drummer Toby strolls in wearing only a towel. Whilst laughing, Kai tells him to get out, and it is obvious that after being crammed in a studio, they are enjoying their time on tour. Originally working on musical projects independently, Dom and Kai combined in 2008 whilst studying at Southbank University. Despite that being
5 years ago, they still write their music in a similar fashion. “We work quite separately, and that’s something that has always been the case. When we started we were both individually writing stuff, totally separate. For example on the last record we were working separately even in the same studio space,” Dom explains, “and then towards the last few months of it we sat down and decided what to pursue and then work through the full direction of the songs. But we also did a bit more playing around with ideas in a recording studio, which is something we’ve never done before.” Playing six nights in a row means that there isn’t really time to enjoy many of the towns and cities on tour, but Norwich sticks in the mind for Kai. “Last time we played it was actually really great. It was the last show of a year of touring; I remember it having a really good vibe.” With the tour now continuing into Europe after completing a completely sold out UK tour, a lot will be expected from Mount Kimbie’s next venture. However for the time being fans can sit back and enjoy this current offering from the London duo with no urgency placed on their next efforts.
MUSIC concrete.music@uea.ac.uk
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03.12.2013
A YEAR IN NEWCOMERS
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Venue’s Myles Earle points to the young talent set to make waves in the new year after a successful twelve months iamshakka.com
2013 has been a brilliant year for up and coming artists to hit the music industry. When we think of a young artist today, we tend to imagine the same regurgitated style of an artist from five years ago, but just with Dre Beats Headphones on and instead of lyric the use of auto-tune is abused for the sake of talent. However, what we can see from the artists of today is a progressive step in music, breaking the mould and trends of musical style and creating their own. Three newcomers to the music scene have definitely made their mark already which, being less than 25 years-old, has made a statement for their drive and their passions. These rising stars consist of 17 year-old Lorde, 21 year-old Sam Smith, and 24 year-old Shakka. What can be said about these young musical talents? The success of the New Zealand-born singer/songwriter Ella Yenich-O’Connor, also known as Lorde, has taken the world by storm, and all at the tender age of 17 years old. From the age of 13, Lorde had been part of the music industry; signed to Universal, she began song writing at 14 and has ever since dominated radios and charts worldwide, all whilst being
in Year 12. One chart that has propelled Lorde’s career into the sky was Billboard’s ‘The Hot 100.’ Her hit single ‘Royals’ has, at the time of publishing, celebratde its 21st week on the top of the US Billboard charts, towering over the likes of Eminem and One Direction and bringing her new style and sound to the public. Her lyrics in the track are ones that prompt a personal and story-like invitation into a world of obsessed with the material, commenting on the place of the “luxe”, that she sings about in society. If you mix this with the sultry and deep tones in her voice, you really do get the makings of a young star. Her music isn’t the conventional type for a young person; she breaks boundaries with her politically and emotionally charged songs and her voice is one that hasn’t been heard before. She has definitely booted down the doors for teenagers to make a statement in the music industry. Moving on to the tender age of 21, Sam Smith is a force to be reckoned with. His vocal range is out of this world, reaching high altitude falsettos and coming back down to earth with deep tones. Making his first public debut on Disclosure’s track ‘Latch’, he made his mark on the
song and to the people listening to it. Born and raised in Bishop’s Stortford near Hertfordshire, Smith made his decision to get into music during his teenage years and stood out from the crowd of young artists. Catching the attention of producer Naughty Boy, he released a collaboration entitled ‘La La La’ in which he is the main attraction. Not only did this song grab the listeners, but also the MOBO committee members who got the likes of Sam Smith to perform at the MOBO Awards. This big year for Sam Smith has put him in the lime light, particularly through live acoustic renditions of his songs, such as ‘Nirvana’ and ‘Lay Me Down.’ There is something about Smith’s voice that is so subtle and emotional that you can’t help but listen to him. It seems to have hypnotic qualities that are soulful and entice people to listen to his lyrics. Once you’ve listened to Sam Smith, you won’t be able to get enough, and that’s a fact. Three years onwards, and we get to 24: the age of Shakka Philip (pictured). From just having a mixtape on his SoundCloud account and several hits on YouTube for his “Shakkappellas”, covers of songs which he makes his own by beat boxing,
singing and rapping, he has finally made it to the television screen. Born and bred in London’s vibrant Notting Hill, this reggae and RnB-influenced artist has collaborated with the likes of Wretch 32 on his track ‘Blackout’, where Shakka’s vocals are unparalleled. This was also recognised by the MOBO committee, and their track was in the nominations of Best Song and Best Newcomer. Now, having his own individuality in the music industry, he has recently released his single ‘Just Want to See You’ which showcases his terrific voice and amazing arrangements. His voice seems to tell stories so well; he has a tone that is inviting and soulful, even when he reaches louder notes. He is an artist to which you could just sit back, listen and even sing along to his heavy North London accent, which brings such a personal experience to his music; Shakka is an act to watch out for in 2014. From such a young age, they have really raised the bar for the quality of music. With these three risings stars, it is safe to say that the future of music is in great hands; we can expect new music, new sound and even new boundaries broken by these musicians.
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03.12.2013
DEATH GRIPS GOVERNMENT PLATES Mike Vinti
Death Grips have never been a predictable band but they surprised everyone when they released their new album Government Plates without any warning, and
MIA MATANGI Mike Vinti
There are very few artists recording at the minute that draw from as many musical styles as MIA, and with Matangi she has surpassed herself. Equal parts hip hop, UK Bass, punk and Bhangra, this is an album that isn’t afraid to wear its influences on its sleeve - and all for good reason, because MIA pulls of this amalgamation incredibly well. The lyrics throughout are both dripping in irony
MUSIC
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ALBUM REVIEWS completely for free, on their brand new label Third World Records. The album itself marks a shift in the group’s sound and a maturing in terms of production. Unlike previous album No Love Deep Web, here frontman MC Ride’s vocals are not the main focus, and while their still as aggressive and loud as any other Death Grips’ release, as the album progresses they play a much less prominent role. Government Plates’ overall sound takes elements of all three previous Grips’ releases - the smooth production of The Money Store, the fearless experimentalism of Ex-Military and the sheer anarchy of No Love Deep Web - and mixes it with an exploration of the underground ‘beats’ scene, incorporating house style drum loops and glitch synths into its manic hip-hop framework. Like all Death Grips’ releases since debut Ex Military, this latest offering can only really be explained within the framework of their earlier work. Opening track ‘You Might Think He Loves You For Your Money But I Know What He Really
Loves You For It’s Your New Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat’ sets the tone pretty well for the rest of the album. Kicking off with the sound of glass breaking, MC Ride screeches “it’s so fucking dark in here” before Zach Hill’s erratic drums and Andy Morin’s heavy, distorted bass hits you square in the frontal lobe. Every track on Government Plates was released with an accompanying music video of sorts, most of which are 3D style animations, all of which are terrifying. The highlight of the album is undeniably ‘Two Heavens’ – relatively stripped back and minimal for a Death Grips’ track, it chops and layers Ride’s vocals while a dainty yet creepy synth line floats on top. The contrast between the high, chimelike synth and Ride’s deep, low raps gives the track a haunting, almost foreboding quality, something which is added to by Ride’s repeated proclamation of “I’m on my way up.” In the latter half of the album Death Grips’ experimentation with electronic music, particularly Burial-esque post-
dubstep, becomes more apparent and MC Ride’s vocals become another layer within the production rather than the focal point of the tracks. This is most apparent of ‘Feels Like A Wheel’ and ‘Big House’ – the latter of which opens with an almost cartoonish drum and bass loop before being stripped back to a beat that wouldn’t sound amiss on a Four Tet record. The title track draws obvious influence from producers such as Hudson Mohawke and Rustie with its videogamesound-effect style samples and near total lack of lyrics. On Government Plates Death Grips push their sound in a slightly new direction, exploring elements of electronic music previous untouched on previous releases. With an album announced for spring time 2014, speculation is rife as to where their sound will go in future.
and sharp with political awareness and the production (handled by an all-star cast including former Major Lazer beatmaster Switch) is some of the best to come out this year. Short but sweet album opener ‘Karmageddon’ layers traditional eastern-influenced choral samples over a dubstep-esque bass line, setting the tone perfectly for the rest of the album. Meanwhile the record’s title track showcases MIA’s trademark irony at its best, demanding “if you’re gonna be me need a manifesto/if you ain’t got one you better get one presto.” It simultaneously manages to undercut the hip-hop tradition of putting down ‘haters’ and demand that those who feel compelled to emulate her to have substance behind their work. Matangi is an album without clear highlights; the beats on every track are infectious and experimental yet manage to work in harmony with Maya’s vocals rather than outshine them. Whilst undoubtedly loud and boisterous, the production on tracks like ‘Only 1 U’ remain subtle, blending traditional Sri Lankan style melodic hooks with contemporary trap and hip-hop oriented percussion and samples.
As on previous work MIA’s lyrics are simple yet effective, communicating both her Sri Lankan heritage and her London upbringing in her use of slang and colloquial English. This is best executed on ‘Y.A.L.A,’ which references both Drake and reincarnation in the space of a few minutes and features the lyric “I drink some Cointreau, keep it in my Poncho.” ‘Y.A.L.A’ is preceded by the shuffling, dub style juggernaut ‘Double Bubble Trouble’, the sister track to lead single ‘Bad Girls’ in terms of braggadocio and swaggering beats. However, Matangi isn’t all brash beats and spat vocals. Tracks like ‘Exodus’ and partner tune ‘Sexodus’, both featuring everyone’s favourite leftfield R&B star The Weeknd give listeners’ ears a break and demonstrate MIA’s more delicate singing style. Matangi is as in your face and
controversial as any other piece of work MIA has in her four-album discography. ‘Boom Skit’ mocks the American media’s backlash at MIA’s now infamous superbowl performance (“let you into superbowl/try to steal Madonna’s crown”) as well as the negative attention given to her music in light of the scandal “brown girl, brown girl turn your shit down”. MIA is an artist that the mainstream pop world isn’t quite sure what do with - adored by some but railed against and dismissed as a shock jockey by others, with Matangi she has forced her way onto twerkingobsessed radio stations as a strong female voice in popular music, paving the way for upcoming stars to follow.
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NEXT ISSUE...
THE ALBUMS OF THE YEAR VENUE SHOWCASE THE TOP RELEASES OF 2013
MUSIC concrete.music@uea.ac.uk
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03.12.2013
CHRISTMAS SONGS - VENUE’S TOP 5
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When it comes to getting in to that festive spirit, a good soundtrack is essential. Becca Oram counts down the top 5 christmas tunes ‘Tis the season to be jolly and this means hearing an endless stream of Christmas songs wherever you go. No matter how hard you try to dodge these festive favourites, they’re going to inevitably creep up on you like a bad hangover after a few too many mulled wines. So, why not ditch the downbeat attitude and embrace the alltime classics that we secretly (or in some cases, not so secretly) all love. 5. Wizzard - ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day’ Yes it’s cheesy but it’s just so damn jovial it’s like sticking your head into a pile of tinsel and coming out covered in glitter. This is one of those songs that once it gets into your head, slapping you in the face with Christmas cheer. With the combination of sleigh bells, the sax and a choir of children, if this doesn’t get you in the Christmas mood we don’t know what will.
4. Slade - ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’
3. Wham - ‘Last Christmas’
Number one in the charts in 1973, 40 years on we’re still looking to Noddy Holder’s deafening screech of ‘It’s Christmaaaas’ to remind us what time of the year it is and frankly it wouldn’t be the same without it. With an almost euphoric rock ‘n’ roll party vibe, Holder’s gritty vocals and a mashup of electric guitars, no wonder this still remains a seasonal favourite.
This song is surely a staple of everyone’s Christmas playlist. With the twinkling of bells and George Michael’s sultry and wistful lyrics that dwell on heartbreak, it is this sweet nostalgic pop song that finds its way into our hearts every year and this is what makes it so special (special).
The Guardian
2. Mariah Carey - ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ This tune has just about everything you want in a Christmas track. Schmaltz, sleigh bells and a dog dressed as a reindeer in the video. Not one person can say they haven’t attempted the near impossible feat of matching Carey’s note at the end and no matter how many times you hear it, you still find yourself stopping everything to sing along. It’s catchier than festive flu and makes us all want to snuggle up with that special someone at Christmas (cue tears).
1. The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl‘Fairytale of New York’ A bittersweet folk ensemble that perhaps captures the Christmas spirit more than any other. Even at the hardest of times there’s still hope, this 4 minute narrative seems to say. MacGowan’s raspy vocals lamenting lost youth is complimented perfectly by MacColl’s pleasing tones. Backed by a series of uplifting strings, this song feels more emotionally real than most. Charming, edgy and with profanities galore, there’s no other Christmas song quite like it and it is exactly this that makes it one of the greatest if not the best of all time. These timeless classics put newer Christmas releases to shame and after hearing Lil’ Chris’ (of Checking It Out fame) woeful effort for number one this year, one can only ponder whether any Christmas songs of the future will ever match-up. We can only hope…
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Christmas Wishlist... We hope the fashion gods are listening Editor-in-chief Sidonie ChafferMelley is hankering after a pair of high-waisted shorts
UEA Pride president Harry Jones is after Thierry Mugler’s ‘Alien’ eau de parfum
Fashion contributor Anna Walker wants to find a fluffy jumper under the tree this year
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FASHION
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Sugar and Spice
Madz Abbasi reviews The Body Shop’s Ginger Sparkle range In this wintry month counting down to the holidays is inevitable. We welcome any Christmassy things with our open, coated arms, and what says Christmas like gingerbread and glitter? The Body Shop’s Ginger Sparkle range may just be your perfect stocking-filler. Launched last year, the collection is back by popular demand and contains a variety of bath and body products, from lip balm to sparkling lotion. In addition to this, the range includes reed diffusers and fragrance oil so that you can infuse your room with spicy ginger scents without having to bake one bit. One of the most appealing aspects of the Ginger Sparkle range is that the ingredients, a selection of which is community fair traded, are sourced worldwide, but the majority of the production occurs in the U.K. Venue visited The Body Shop to learn more about the Ginger Sparkle collection. In all the products, it was initially disappointing to find out that the products don’t literally smell like sweet gingerbread. The website describes the smell as “zingy ginger” and the products do contain ginger root extract, yet they smell surprisingly of citrus and cola. However, the more we tried the products the more we realised the smell
is still spicy and musky, like gingerbread, and still very appealing. mydish.co.uk
Here are more details on the top four products, tried and tested: Shower Gel It is a transparent yellow and slightly sparkly. The smell is stronger than in the other products but that just makes it all the more enchanting when used in a steamy shower. The shower gel lathers really well, which makes it economical as well as effective. After trying it out, it’s no wonder why this is such a popular choice. Body Butter The Body Shop’s body butter is one of its most renowned products and Venue are not surprised that it is featured in the collection. According to the website, the body butter promises 24 hour hydration. Upon
opening the container, the colour is a light peach and the body butter is very thick. It is a highly effective moisturiser and skin still feels smooth the next day after application. However the heavy texture makes it more difficult to glide over the skin unlike other body lotions, but this is the nature of body butter over a lotion. Hand Cream The packaging of the hand cream is very festive with the gold lid and brown sheen tube and The Body Shop promises hands will be “feeling softer and smoother” after its use. As a hand cream it is quickly absorbed into the skin and does nourish the hands. The spice-like scent leaves the hands not only feeling but smelling fresh. Shimmer Lotion This is a peach shade and the zesty smell is similar to that of the body butter and hand cream. The lotion is a lot thinner in texture, which makes it easy to spread over the body but not as effective as a moisturiser compared to the hand cream and body butter. Nonetheless, the subtle silver shimmer on the skin is beautiful and makes it a great Christmas product.
Sequins, Glitter and Fireworks Ella Sharp talks New Year’s Eve
Venue Editor Hayden East wants some fierce leather Timberlands
Film Editor and Fashion contributor Holly Wade hopes for a Cambridge Satchel company bag
Don’t let us frighten you, but New Year’s Eve is only a few weeks away. For those of you who have had a New Year plan since June, you should be set for an outfit. But if you’re like us and still have no idea whether you’ll be out partying, or tucked up in bed come midnight, have no fear! Venue has compiled the definitive list of what you should be wearing whether your plans involve drunken singing, or a night in with Sex and the City. Go all out And we mean it. If you’re headed for a big night out on the town your outfit should be screaming “IT’S NEW YEARS” from head to toe. We’re thinking sparkles, and a hell of a lot of them. There’s no such thing as too much sparkle on New Year’s Eve. Go for false lashes, 6-inch heels and a sequin dress. If you’ll be trawling from bar to club, a leather jack will be your new best friend.
A clutch bag might seem a great idea, but a cute strappy bag will be a saving grace by 2am when you need assistance to walk. Remember that red lipstick, and if you know you’ll end up bare-foot by the end of the night, don’t forget to bring some foldaway flats to walk home in.
An Evening In Grab some friends, or maybe your mum, and go for the cheap option and stay in. Avoid the freezing weather and overpriced drinks – order a pizza and watch the fireworks from the warmth of your front room. We all know this kind of New Smart casual Year calls for a onesie. Perhaps a cute pub is more your Yes, we said it. This scene but casual does not necessarily New Year season will mean jeans and T-shirt. New Year’s be the year of the is all about that special effort so onesie, so rather smarten up that look. Boyfriend than being a Grinch jeans rolled up at the bottom with about it, embrace the some cute heels is perfect for casual fad and buy the cosiest chic. Skinny jeans and heeled one you can find. Don boots also work if you want to keep the slippers, grab a covered up. If heels aren’t your thing blanket and, if you (and we don’t blame you if they aren’t!) really want to, indulge go for some glittery flats. If you don’t in face masks and fancy making a huge effort with your pedicures. Rather wardrobe, why not try out some cute than starting the New jewellery? A pair of dangly earrings will Year hungover, you’ll be just the right trick to add some New be facing your resolutions Year glamour without breaking the bank. with beautiful skin – what more could you want from onesiewarehouse.co.uk New Year style? ebay.co.uk
FASHION concrete.fashion@uea.ac.uk
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03.12.2013
Photographer: Moji Adegbile, Stylist: Rachel Hayllor, Model: Helena Bradbury
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
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Gemma Carter It’s that time of year again where the crisp East Anglian winds dominate our wardrobe choices. A winter coat is a staple piece for anyone and this year on the high street we are spoilt for choice. Walking along the cobbled streets of Norwich City Centre it’s plain to see that the shops are overwhelmed with wonderful winter outerwear. From classic styles to statement pieces you’re sure to find the perfect winter coat for you this season! The boyfriend coat has taken the British high street and catwalk by storm adding a smart, chic edge to any outfit. Coming in a wide range of styles ranging from leather sleeves to fur there’s something for everyone. The sharp cut of the boyfriend jacket guarantees campus cool and also would look great over a LBD - a perfect day to night piece. The oversized design also means that you can layer up underneath and keep warm this winter – stylish
and practical, what more could a girl wish for? Venue loves the tartan trend this A/W season. Plaid isn’t for the faint hearted, but paired with the right outfit it can be an instant fashion masterpiece. Not feeling brave enough to go all out? Don’t worry! Try tartan patterns in more subtle shades of navy, burgundy or forest green for a more understated look. Or, keep an eye out for coats with tartan embellishment or lining, particularly on collars and cuffs. It’s often easy to choose a winter coat that’s black or navy but why not mix up your traditional winter colour palette by choosing a pastel or brightly coloured coat? With pinks, corals and different pastel shades on the rails this season it would definitely add a ray of light to any cold, grey winter morning. So be bold and try something different.
A classic winter coat that makes an appearance pretty much every winter is the parka. With a big hood lined with faux fur you’re bound to be warm and toasty. A unisex favourite that never seems to go out of fashion, it’s a definite investment piece. Parkas are a sure favourite here at Venue especially for those cold, rainy days on campus. and they look good with pretty much every outfit. A faux fur coat is a great winter investment for years to come as, like the parka, it just doesn’t seem to go out of style. Try looking in charity and vintage shops around Norwich for a bargain buy as a fur coat on a student budget may seem ambitious, especially in these last few weeks of term. You could even try looking on eBay – there are some real bargains on there at the moment, place a bid and you never know, you might get lucky!
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03.12.2013
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The Arcadian Project - Preview Arts Editor Callum Graham meets the Cast and Crew
The Arcadian Project
Beginning tonight with a unique adaptation of Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, UEA’s third year drama students present The Arcadian Project. A combination of Arcadia and As You Like It playing on alternate nights until this Saturday. Venue caught up with members of the cast and crew Ali Dunk, Poppy Pedder, Michael Clarke, and Jemima Richichi to see what the project was all about. At first it doesn’t seem like an obvious choice to feature these two pastoral plays alongside one another, yet as Ali Dunk explains: “Arcadia is believed by academic Tony Gash to be one of the most unknown, as well as one of the strongest, influences on Shakespeare’s As You Like It.” It is hoped that opening with Arcadia will shed some new light on one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies. So what are the plays about? “Upon arriving to the utopian shores of Arcadia, two young princes, Pyrocles and
Musidorus, disguise themselves as an Amazon and a shepherd to gain access to the Arcadian Princesses, who have been imprisoned by their father to avoid the dangers foretold by a mysterious oracle.” “In As You Like It, having been banished from the oppressive court, Rosalind and Orlando are forced to flee into the wild depths of the forest of Arden. Within this strange and wild realm, the story of their love unfolds as their newfound freedom begins to blossom. The Arcadian Project uses a large ensemble cast to explore original live music and Elizabethan dance.” Adapting Arcadia from book to stage brought some unique challenges in itself; “We had to look at the book Arcadia [1590] and adapt it, so that came with its obstacles. We’ve had to work on many different versions of the script, we’ve had a lot of action to put to paper and then bring to the stage, so cutting it down and editing it until we were happy was a long
process.” The fact that these plays are so heavily steeped in Elizabethan culture has presented a challenge for the drama students to overcome, particularly when it came to the set design: “We’ve transformed the whole studio in to a genuine replica of an Elizabethan theatre, with the audience on three sides, so watching a fight scene – or any intense scene – from all sides is going to feel really immersive and it genuinely feels like you’re part of the action.” Sword fighting, or fighting of any kind can sometime look tame or even clumsy in theatre, in a search for realism professional fight instructors have been used: “It’s taken a lot of time to choreograph, but we’ve had a professional fight director come in and it looks really good. We’ve had a fight director in for both plays, so in As You Like It for the wrestling scene there was professional input and it really shows.”
This project is, for many of the cast and crew, the final and most important part of their three year degree. To put on such a challenging performance at this stage has been made possible by the work of the previous two years, as Michael Clarke explains. “It’s nice to really apply all the stuff we’ve learned over these three years in to one big final production. Not just with the acting, everyone has had their own individual production role. Everyone has been working really hard on the set and the costumes, we have proper Elizabethan costumes which is lovely.” It’s clear from talking to the cast and crew members that everyone is committed whole-heartedly to the project, and that they feel comfortable taking on these challenging Elizabethan works. With performances full of “sex, embroidery and sword fighting” Venue can’t wait to see the finished result! Get yourself down to the Drama studios tonight!
ARTS
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03.12.2013
UEA Creative Writing Anthologies
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Beth Ryan and Harriet Norman Review Non Fiction and Prose Fiction CargoCollective
Beth Ryan - Non Fiction Nine writers’ musings on family life. The premise of the anthology is potentially uninviting – are we in store for a mildly entertaining account of nine unfamiliar family trees? Fifty-seven charming pages later, we find the answer to be a firm no. We understand why from page one. Catherine Coldstream’s piece on her father, artist William Coldstream, opens the collection with distinctive energy. There is no dull chronology here, but instead a playground for our senses, each smell and sight infused with the character of William Coldstream. The highlight of this piece is perhaps the descriptive exactitude which builds an environment from details as precise as “the sticky-sweet viscosity of linseed oil.” But there is also unarguable merit in the clear-eyed balance of Coldstream’s account of the artist, whom she knew both as acclaimed painter and as her loving father. She speaks, therefore, with unequivocal authority. The piece sits somewhere between memoir and biography, where Coldstream can channel the warmth of her memories into a thoughtful portrait of her father as an artist of his time. The scope of the collection is impressively large and it is clear that these writers are imaginatively openminded. Caroline Pearce looks back at 1930s London to tell us the story of a Dr Barnardo’s child, synthesising this tender real life tale with a documentation of post-war poverty. Meanwhile, Lyndsey Jenkins takes us to Ghana, exposing a kind of modern day witch-hunting practise.
The prey? The “Spirit children,” infants whose families believe them to hold latent demonic qualities. Like Pearce, Jenkins places behind the narrative a commentary on the impact of inescapable poverty, making for a piece which is sad and chilling in equal measure. Collectively, the works offer a tentative consideration on the nature of loss. Sometimes this is explicit; the foremost example being the penultimate contribution, Naomi Spicer’s ‘The Lie Behind the Beauty of Death.’ Spicer’s piece stands out, if initially only because of the way she establishes her argument prior to her narrative. “Have you ever seen someone die?” she begins, entering into a slightly confrontational polemic which feels more suited to stage than page. The shift, though, from this dramatic opening to the softly treaded story which follows makes for an utterly compelling piece of writing. She documents her memories of watching her father fade away, leaving her and her family distraught. The piece is a delicate evocation of the inevitable sequence of decline, underpinned by a heartfelt assertion of the unforgettable, haunting reality of death. If you are thinking of completing the Biography and Creative non-fiction MA at UEA, read the anthology for an inspiring foresight into what you may achieve therein. If you work or study at UEA, read it to commend the talent of the nine writers graduating from the course this year. If you are either of the above or anybody else, read the anthology for a small but captivating education in familial love, loss, and essentially, family life.
Harriet Norman - Prose This year’s prose fiction anthology contains twenty-eight broadly ranging stories from a Princess who wishes to be a Private Detective to a man who is beyond this world imagining how his ashes will be cremated and cast across the sea. The reader is taken on a journey around the world, introduced to different places, different cultures and very different characters. It is this diverse way of perceiving the world and the expression of these different perspectives through the imaginative creative writing process that makes for an outstanding collection of stories. Something which is wonderful about an anthology is the changing style of voice from writer to writer. ‘The Thaw’ by Jess Lowry tells the tale of a farmer who loses one hundred sheep in a snow storm. The reader is kept back throughout the story, never fully knowing the interior of Faustus Smith, the closest the reader gets is in sharing his flashbacks of a memory where he hits a deer while driving. Yet the narrator leaves us wondering if there was more to this story and character than we are told, through Smith’s conviction of repeating “It was a deer...It was only a deer.” As an anthology by writers who are studying the creative writing process many of the stories touch upon this process and the formation of art. One very clever and unusual story in its style is ‘How to begin a Short Story/Garage Sell’. It begins with the first line of the story and then the critical taking apart by the writer who changes it and then changes it again. The
chatty witty style of the analysis makes for a fascinating insight into the writer’s thought process of reaching that point of ‘good literature’, “The Writer knows this is a good usage of metaphor” to scrapping it completely and “The Writer also now hates the snow metaphor”. One of the most overwhelming themes of the anthology is change, how characters experience change in their lives and how others deal with change. One such story that expresses this is ‘The Inhabitants’ by Collete Sensier. A feral child is being observed by a doctor and others, she is wild and those round her fail to understand her, seeing her as practically unhuman, “I’m sure she is a demon”. The interesting point made with this story is that although she has been taken from her world and is in a new environment, she won’t change but continues to be animalistic, whooping “like monkeys calling to each other” while “dancing a jig on the roof ” and then escaping. This story points to the idea of accepting change as a very developed attitude that only some master in life, whereas this child, the furthest from reasoning, refuses to change. The refreshing thing about this anthology is that the writers don’t shy away from events that really happen in people’s lives. This collection of stories are about life and the immense experiences everyone faces, ordinary or extraordinary, both equally as powerful. The satisfying thing about this anthology is that it doesn’t just demonstrate good writing complemented by clever techniques, it is also most definitely an easily enjoyable read.
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CREATIVE WRITING
03.12.2013
www.concrete-online.co.uk
The Eclectic Winter Fun Edition One Man...Against a Deadline Peter Thorn Queuing for my son’s “Mighty Morphin’” Power Ranger on a central-heated, conglomerate December evening, I idly speculate on how utterly I hate the festive season now that my children have become involved. Don’t get me wrong; it isn’t my children I hate. Far from it, I love the little buggers, that’s why I’m in here, sweating myself sordid in a fleece-and-jumper combo that seemed just right for the weather outside. I just get jumped-up about the way time with the family is being sold to them, through the little green sweetener of money and all it can buy. The shopping centre is crammed full of us; the devout parents from the Church of the Latter-Day Shopping Trip, each one out buying some lovely little knick-knack for their offspring. The Boxing Day Eucharist of cramming the batteries into every Mighty Morphin’ orifice of their child’s plaything is already turning them sour. We shamble forward, tiredly to-and-froing beneath the shade of an imposingly jolly Father Christmas that looms in the centre of the lobby. Of course, this isn’t the traditional Saint Nicholas, that kindly old Gothic pilgrim robed in green and white, but a newer and altogether more sinister offering; a pudgy, cartoonish red bastard of the Cola franchise demanding our capital for capitalism. “That’ll be five-forty,” yawns the cashier to the woman two heads down from me as she shoves some pink furry thing into a bag. I look down at what’s under my other arm. The lifeless, God-hating eyes of my daughter’s future dolly stare back. “Daddy, I’d really love one of those for Christmas, it does just what it says on the advert!” she’d pleaded to me a few weeks back, with the naïve intonations of brainwashing that all little girls seem to exert over their daddies. Apparently, Miss Trixie-Jane was a very special doll; she could piss herself, do the laundry and many other domestic manoeuvres, feminism be damned. I didn’t see the appeal. To me, Trixie Jane had the demented, dead smile of a serial killer. Nonetheless, here I am buying it, shuffling forward like an emperor penguin to the gaping maw of the till. “Shouldn’t be too long, d’you think?” asks some anxious specky fellow behind me. His chin is blue with stubble, and his tired eyes suggest lack of sleep; perhaps he went to an office party, had a few too many and ended up fumbling a co-worker in the store-room, their paper party hats shredded in passion and falling like adulterous confetti to the floor. God, where did that thought come from? I’m on the sour side of thirty, I suppose, but somehow I was expecting cynicism to be a slow and gradual process, like when wine spoils to vinegar, not this instantaneous rush of home-spun presumption. I notice he’s carrying a train-set with both hands. He is looking at me with the heart of someone pleading for conviviality. Some rousing sympathy comes from out of me, and I oblige. “Oh, I think there’s two more before me,” I tell him light-heartedly, all the while thinking you poor bastard, let me come here and hug you. I want to keep you safe from all these nasty salespeople with their neon lights and faded smiles and fucking ridiculous costumes. “Fair enough,” he looks around him at the various Christmas commuters as the pop up a la Whack-a-Mole from each store-face. Can’t say I remember queues being this long when I was a kid.” He grins. “Still, it’s all for the little ‘uns, isn’t it?” He gives a resigned shrug of his shoulders, and stares wistfully over to the roast-chestnut counter, where some excellent young woman is doling out steamy sustenance to the tired mothers and fathers. By ‘it’, I realise, he means Christmas, the whole thing. And maybe a bit of me isn’t wholly sick to death of it, because I feel pretty offended by that. “Well, I think this bit is,” “Which bit?” he asks, perplexed. “For kids. I mean the presents and all that, that’s just the showy part of it. But then you’ve Flickr: got theChapendra other stuff, like being with the family, the friends, the parties.” I’m thinking back to the Christmases of my twenties, my thirties, when it was just me and Linda and
a few of our closest and best. Now those were some good times, all champagne and free spirits, in both senses of the word. You never had to worry about whether the batteries fit or who was allergic to what. And I think that stands, even with children around, you can still come together and have a laugh with whoever you like in celebration. In fact, I’m quite offended by my companion’s fatuous statement. How dare he? My companion is unconvinced. “If you ask me the whole thing’s gone rotten. The father-in-law’s gone round the bend a bit, so we’ll spend half the time looking after him, and my wife’s already stressed-out from having to baste that bloody turkey all yesterday evening.” He stops himself before he can commit more treason. “Sorry, I don’t mean to whinge. It’s just been a long week, you know?” “Yeah, tell me about it,” I smile faintly, and look up to that great idol behind us. The visage of Santa seems to ripple. Is that my imagination, or can I see a sneer plastered across that broad, chubby face? The God of the Supermarket is mocking me; despite all my outward disgust at his punishing, greedy nature, despite my inner wistfulness and earnest desire for a warm and happy Christmas with my family, he can see that I am still walking forward to worship at his altar. Not that I matter much to him. All that concerns him is the voices of my children, of a million children, all asking their parents in pleading hymnals to buy, buy, buy.
And I think he senses too, that we want to destroy him, me and this fellow non-believer who like me has seen through the sham, this cheap and tacky façade of goodwill and peace to all men with a fat bank account and a working credit card. We could be revolutionary. We’ll start by making them stop adding cinnamon to coffee in Starbucks and calling it ‘seasonal’, because the spice makes it slightly different from the usual scalding dreck. There’ll be no more mince-pies in September, lying cold and uneaten on shelves while people outside starve on the freezing pavement. We’ll free all those poor bastards that have to work on Boxing Day, any seasonal day, and kick their managers out so they can all have a party. And to finish, as a final defining symbol, we’ll haul down that big fucking Father Christmas, drag him out into the car-park, and liberate our children in a big warm bonfire that might breathe a little more life into this deadened thing we call the Yule Season. The woman at the till calls me forward. She looks vacant, miserable, her muscles probably aching from hours of sorting, scanning, and smiling. There’s a cheerful-looking reindeer perched on her head. “That’ll be fifty pounds please.” I hand it over. It’s still not too late. I resolve to make this Christmas with the family one to really remember, one where we’ll have none of the show, none of the stupid pomp, where it’ll be just us and the kids and the toys be damned until after Boxing Day. Somehow, though, I know that fate will break off a Mighty Morphin’ foot in my arse, and I’ll spend my holiday trying to work out which part goes where. I exchange glances with my fellow father as he steps up to the offering board. The Hornby set is held up in front of him patiently. I hope his kid enjoys it. I walk away towards the centre of the room, trying to find the exit. It’s Christmas Eve, and Linda will want help with the turkey. In front of me, the great deity-the great bastard -Santa Claus stands laughing, spreads his arms in faux plastic joy at all his loyal subjects as they pay homage to him with their money. And I want to lash out at him, want to stomp him out and stop him forever so that the real Saint Nick can step forward. Our eyes meet. After a while, mine sink to the floor, and I make my way out of there in slow steady steps to my waiting family. And the Red Claus holds sway over all.
Wr a p my head round my heart round my scarf Eve Aimée Days coming, chill still I want to breathe, live still. Fearful for weeks, I want to return Home in warm arms, and forget
ACROSS FOUR COLUMNS Flickr: Paul McGreevy
Winter is here.
concrete.creativewriting@uea.ac.uk
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zazzle.com
Free Writing Silvia Sheehan What colour would the moon be if you saw it on a Saturday? Would its feeble light shine a skimmed milk hue with powder blue, dangling sneezes of moonshine, each handful of moon rocks and moon stones an aftermath of rags and bones No astronaut could find or discover all the forgotten satellites that roam around the craters and through the gaps that the space buggies made through the cheese fields and the absent gardens Your mother said you should have found somewhere cheaper to go on your Valentine’s Weekend you stared her right in the face huge doe-eyed resentment and without blinking you spat on the floor let it dribble nonchalantly down your chin and oh how your mother screams how it does pierce through the tiles she says she says what to do with a maniac like you and she leaves and you lick your chin dry All your friends ask you what was it like truth be told you can’t remember you slept during most of your trip so you gathered bits of information and fused and moulded them together with a blowtorch, even, and constructed a collage of memories which you remember forever And now its a Sunday you sit solitarily and sanitized all prim on a patchwork your bum fidgeting and wriggling where is the cat? has she gone to feed? So you light a gas lamp and turn the TV on to sound only and you pour yourself a drink and you siiiiiigh were you rich? you can’t remember The room looks as if it was reserved for you all your favourite snow fur colours and pictures of you and that ghastly woman (a kidnapper you suspect) who seethes and represents all those tensions you embody in yourself and how did you survive in a bland baby bottle You forget so you sigh and find solace in silence
GAMING concrete.gaming@uea.ac.uk
www.concrete-online.co.uk
The State of Gaming
Wikimedia.org
Sam Emsley The landscape of gaming has changed dramatically since consoles first started to dominate living rooms. The days of picking up the latest N64 release from Game or renting an old favourite from BlockBuster are long, long gone. Now the console market is flooded with dozens of new attractions to entice consumers, the gaming aspect seems almost superfluous to the various online marketplace. Things such as streaming, social networking and TV dominate the focus of modern consoles. Anybody watching the reveal for the Xbox One cannot have failed to notice that the event had already lasted a significant amount of time before the topic of gaming was even mentioned. Instead, Microsoft chose to spend their time selling the new TV streaming service on Xbox One as well as the plethora of privacy invading voice and video monitoring features provided by the now infamous Kinect mandate. It seems aeons ago when gaming was the sole focus of these consoles, when the only available internet was dialup which provided a lethargic 0.06 MB/s – barely adequate for loading pictures, let alone streaming full HDTV (which didn’t actually exist at the time). Gaming was the be all and end all of consoles: there was no dashboard to provide you with adverts for movies to download or DLC to purchase; if there was no game inserted, the console would just instruct you to insert one. Gaming consoles have now become full
“The market needs something to provide the core experience” entertainment systems which encompass a whole host of different things for their owners to use. This is not necessarily a bad thing though; the transformation of the console into a multi-purpose device does give a great deal more for players to do when they aren’t playing games, and provides the owner with great value for money. This also allows those who don’t buy dozens of games a year to use their purchase to do other things and maximise the utility they recieve from it. In terms of gaming, the extra content and full games available for quick and easy download directly to the device provide even easier ways to play more games, especially with the thousands of Indie titles now cheaply available. But the market needs something which will look past all of this and provide gamers with the core experience: something which prioritises gaming above all else and eschews unnecessary extras. Hopefully the Steam Machines from Valve, set to be released next year, will be our answer to this problem and force the big console companies to return their focus to what their machines were designed to do, although it is unfortunately yet to be seen.
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03.12.2013
Christmas Releases
Joe Fitzsimmons
Once upon a time, the holiday season was a publisher’s favorite time of year. Eager to cash in on the gift giving season, companies would put out their big hitters in the holidays, hoping for the huge sales. Although recent years have seen a shift away from this paradigm, with some of the major publishers opting to hold back their big releases until the spring. Some blame recent economic downturn for this, some cite the rise of online shopping;. One reason that seems to be often overlooked though is the continued success of the Call of Duty and Battlefield franchises. Since 2009, sales of the latest Call of Duty instalment have vastly outstripped every other title and the latest release of Call of Duty: Ghosts appears to show no signs of this trend changing. Knowing that millions of gamers will want this at Christmas, publishers hold back their sales to avoid the competition. Pushing back to next year ensures more units are shifted and consequently looks far better on annual fiscal report released around March. Gamers were once treated to a glut of big names at Christmas, but now titles are often spread more evenly throughout the year to account for the CoD effect. The release schedule this Christmas makes this theory a startling reality. Given the big thrill of this year is the release of the new console generation, one would expect huge names releasing constantly over
the holidays on the back of these systems. With Nintendo’s early entry, the Wii U sinking quickly, the Xbox One and Playstation 4 are sure to be the big names of the season. Launch line up leaves much to be desired, however. Some franchises, such as Dead Rising, Killzone and Assassins Creed have managed to get their latest instalments out for the launches, but none of these seem to be generating much hype. In terms of exclusives and original IP, there is little to be excited about. Xbox One exclusive Ryse was much hyped as a winning holiday title, but emerging reviews are less than promising. Titanfall and Destiny are shaping up to be genuinely incredible games but partial to the CoD effect they are releasing next year. We of course have the double hitter of EA sports to look forward to. Madden and FIFA are season standards by this point, with the yearly sporting installments guaranteed to be snapped up by millions of players. The company with the biggest games this holiday season seems to be Nintendo, in spite of the Wii U’s relative failure. For those too young for the relentless violence of the military shooter, a new Mario or Zelda game would appear to be the perfect gift. Facing little competition in their core demographic then, it may just be possible that The Legend Of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and Super Mario 3D World will provide some support to their respecting ailing systems and provide some kind of competition to CoD.
Flickr: Javier Dominguez Ferreirio
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03.12.2013
www.concrete-online.co.uk
TELEVISION
concrete.television@uea.ac.uk
Christmas TV: the argument
We take a For and Against look at the Seasonal TV situations Phil Turtle
FOR Christmas is a time for being with friends and family, giving and receiving presents and eating and drinking a bit too much. Yet often the biggest debate surrounds just what to watch on TV over the festive period. Some fanatics spend all year looking forward to the day when the Christmas edition of the Radio Times is published, anxious to plan their holiday period around what’s on the box. It’s easy to picture the scene as each family member takes it in turns with the marker pen to highlight the shows they want to watch, and in this modern era of catchup television, which shows will need to be caught at a later date. Once Christmas dinner is cleared away it’s time to retire to the sofa ready for the Queen’s Speech at 3PM and then doze off in front of a film or two before the evening’s entertainment begins. The likely highlights this Christmas include Doctor Who undergoing regeneration into Peter Capaldi, as well as the usual specials from the likes of Downton Abbey (although viewers will no doubt be hoping for a slightly more optimistic outcome last year’s shocking death to concude the episode). Open All Hours is also back, with David Jason’s Granville now in charge; expect nice gentle humour suitable for a family audience. And if you are going to be surrounded by kids this year, make sure they get to see the adaptation of David Walliams’ book Gangsta Granny, filled with an all-star cast. Elsewhere, viewers will finally be put out of their misery as Sherlock returns on somewhat of a cliffhanger, with fans discovering quite how Benedict
Cumberbatch’s character managed to pull through the seemingly fatal fall from a building that he suffered the last time we saw him on screen. On the comedy front, BBC Three’s Bad Education starring Jack Whitehall will make a welcome appearance, in addition to a festive episode of Mrs Brown’s Boys. In soapland, Danny Dyer makes his first appearance in the Queen Vic on Christmas Day, which has to be worth
Myles Earle
AGAINST
Let’s set the scene for Christmas Day; imagine an over-crowded room (filled with family members you see once in a blue moon) huddled in front of the TV after having Christmas lunch or dinner. The power of the remote control lies in everyone’s hand and there doesn’t seem to be a general consensus with the choice of channel, so the fighting seems to begin. There are screaming children, agitated parents and wrapping paper everywhere,
Regista-Blog
a watch, if only to see how on earth his acting skills will cope with playing a typical East End bloke. Elsewhere, Coronation Street stars were spotted filming a wedding recently, but will it be a happy ever after for the blushing bride? The usual movie line up is in place, with the terrestrial channels choosing to go with established franchises such as Toy Story and Pirates of the Caribbean. And if all else fails, there’s always the inevitable gift of a television box set to fall back on. Anyone else up for a Blackadder marathon?
but somehow you manage to block that out and find yourself finally with the TV, what could be better? That is, of course, if you are not horribly disappointed with the schedule lined up for the day, be it on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and so on and so forth. For some reason, it seems to be acceptable to show episodes of Holby City, Eastenders and Coronation Street where someone always seems to die or something horribly tragic happens on a day normally associated with joy. What a brilliant way to end Christmas Day!
Also, we can’t forget the black and white vintage films with actors who speak like Katherine Hepburn. Not to mention the same showing of John Favreau’s Elf, with Will Ferrell playing the over-sized elf, and the over-used Home Alone on Channel 4 every year. But that’s not it; we are then bombarded with the pre-recorded reality specials like Strictly Come Dancing, where we are subjected to the blatant abuse of a national holiday to get viewer ratings up. What can we expect with the TV lineup this Christmas? Well, there’s bound to be a return of programmes that have been away from our screens for what seems like a year or so, like Sherlock and Call the Midwife on the BBC, where we are only given one episode to satisfy us for another few months. It’s safe to assume that Doctor Who will prove to be a disappointment this year, not only with the departure of the 11th Doctor, but that his replacement was already a character on the The Fires of Pompeii episode. As well as this, we are provided with even more tedious TV specials from The Great British Bake Off, The Great British Sewing Bee and a mindnumbing 2-hour special of Downton Abbey to return to the screens. What could be any duller than knitwear, colourless mansions and period dress sense? Overall, it seems that TV this Christmas, as well as Christmas TV in general, doesn’t live up to the hype created earlier in winter. Is there really any point to it, or has it unwittingly become a part of the Christmas culture? If so, we must prepare for even more television nonsense and overly-publicised TV specials for years to come.
Our Christmas TV Thoughts
Concrete and Venue writers tell us what they like (and dislike) about festive T.V. Digital Spy
Holly Wade “Christmas is typically a time full of stress and arguments and the Eastenders special is always one to make you forget the drama of your own life. As you stuff your face with chocolate, watch the drama unfold on the telly and be thankful that your Christmas has not been wrought with such disaster.”
The Guardian
Dominic Burchnall “My favourite thing about the Christmas TV schedule is all the James Bond movies that get put on over the holidays; the worst is the endless reruns of musicals. A man can only hear the words, ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ so many times.”
TELEVISION concrete.television@uea.ac.uk
www.concrete-online.co.uk
Geeks - Review
A Blizzard of Christmas Adverts
Daily Mail
Melissa Haggar It’s that time of the year again, when big name brands and companies are churning out their Christmas TV Adverts in a bid to get their name out there and persuade viewers to do their shopping at their stores. It has been recently known to mark the occasion of Christmas itself in a way; when you see the (usually) funfilled festive adverts on TV, you know it must be near. We’ve come to expect pretty big things from the providers of these adverts, and when they disappoint, you know you’ll hear about it for weeks. Adverts on show from major retailers this season include an advert featuring a sentimental tale from John Lewis, entitled The Bear and The Hare. This sees a hare wake his hibernating bear friend with an alarm clock gift in order for him to enjoy his first Christmas with all the other animals, in front of large tree in a snow-covered field. The advert is accompanied by music from Lily Allen, covering Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know, and has proved to be a hit amongst eager Christmas viewers. The John Lewis Advert is one of the better ones out there, possessing quite a sweet nature to it, if only to sell their overpriced goods.
03.12.2013
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Channel 4 The recent popularity of these adverts has seen a surge in companies booking well-known celebrities to appear in their ads. For example, the M&S Christmas advert Believe in Magic and Sparkle features actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who falls down a man-hole and ends up in a whimsical Alice In Wonderland themed affair with David Gandy. The advert also contains mash-ups of various other fairytales including Red Riding Hood and The Wizard of Oz, where Helena BonhamCarter appears as a ghostly emerald lady. This particular advert certainly focuses heavily on the idea of fantasy in festivity, and their use of celebrities will no doubt make their advert memorable. Some of the not-so-impressive Christmas adverts come courtesy of companies such as Asda, who try to put across just how much money they’ve saved you by providing a particularly dull and dodgy advert featuring a few simple snowmen. Let’s just say it doesn’t quite pack the same punch as a heart-felt tale between a bear, a hare and a very first christmas. Whether you love them or hate them, the Christmas Adverts are back in full force this festive season and there’s relatively no escape. The Guardian
Jess Brown The first episode of E4’s latest reality television show, Geeks, aired on Monday 25th. Its premise is this: “awkwardness on a grand scale ensues as groups of nerdy boys and geeky girls jet off to one of the world’s most notorious party destinations.” It sounds awful. Really awful. Putting together two groups of socially awkward people (because that, really, is what E4 has defined as ‘geeky’) and then shoving them inside a club sounds a lot like televised bullying. In the first episode, we are introduced to a group of girls - and what makes them geeks? Well, they’re members of UEA’s own Quidditch team, obviously. Their opposites are three male physics students from York. They’re flown to Marbella and get to experience the party lifestyle, including a club with a hot tub in it. Jesselyn sums it up perfectly saying, “I thought clubs like this only existed on The Sims!” As far as reality TV goes, it was fairly entertaining, but what was entertaining about Geeks was the utterly ridiculous Marbella lifestyle and the group’s reaction to the people they met. One of the girls, Amy, experiences the biggest culture shock of all when she encounters some
lads who don’t know what folk music is. The set-up of the show is obviously designed to try and get some sexual tension going; and it falls short completely. At one point, the narrator (who was the real villain of the show) asks “Could romance be blossoming between Stevie and Sam?” to which Stevie says, “Sam’s kind of like the big brother I always wanted.” The friendships that develop between the guys and girls are really sweet, resulting in a very heartfelt goodbye at the end of the program. Now, of course, the people on Geeks know what they’ve signed up for; the point of reality television isn’t to make people look good and editing can make any situation worse. The format of the show makes you think before watching that someone is going to come off really badly, but really everyone on the show (Marbella crew included) seems like alright human beings. We asked Ellie (founder and last year’s President of the UEA Quidditch Society) how she felt about their representation, to which she stated “Pleasantly surprised. I think the boys came off worse.” Another member, Stevie, was also fine with how they were portrayed, dubbing the episode “just the right level of weird without being humiliating.”
George’s Journal
I Am Roseberry
QI Universe
Lara-Jayne Ellice
Adam Dawson
Katie Mann
Sophie Witts
“My favourite thing about Christmas telly is falling asleep in front of the QI Christmas Special as a result of a turkeyinduced food coma. What more could you want on Christmas Day?”
“‘The snow fell fast, the wind blew wild. ‘I’m not scared!’ said the Gruffalo’s Child.’ Christmas was made for a heartwarming animation about an adorable baby monster wandering in the woods with her stickman best friend!
“I like that it gets me in the Christmas spirit, you’ve always got the classics on! I love sitting down with the family in front of the fire, cosying up and watching repeats of our old favourites.”
“The best thing about Christmas telly is that it’s the only time of year where it’s perfectly acceptable to watch re-runs of Love Actually, Elf, and The Holiday several times a week.”
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03.12.2013
Blue Is the Warmest Colour
Director Abdellatif Kechiche Starring Adèle Exarchopoulos, Léa Seydoux Cert 18 Runtime 191mins Ha Nguyen Earlier this year at Cannes, the festival’s jury, lead by Steven Spielberg, were the first to start a wave of buzz for Blue Is the Warmest Colour. Awarded with the Palm d’or, it was decided not only to present director Abdellatif Kechiche with the trophy, but also its main leads, Adèle Exarchopoulous and Léa Seydoux. With its release, Blue has attracted insurmountable attention and controversy surrounding its filming process and content, but the result is instead a piece of work that defies all the press stories outside of it. The 191-minute film begins as a coming-of-age story and is soon an intense, emotional yet convincingly touching film. Despite what seems to be a lesbian love story at its core, Blue does not jump into its central story with alacrity nor
www.concrete-online.co.uk
Director Ridley Scott Starring Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Brad Pitt Cert 18 Runtime 117mins Silvia Rose The Counselor is a film which confuses. It boasts a screenplay written by Cormac McCarthy, the acclaimed and multiawarded American novelist, known for
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At Cinemas Near You exaggerates it for any effect. The film slowly documents the main character of Adèle’s life in detail. A series of close-ups of the protagonist creates an intimacy with the character, whilst also representing the circle of safety she has around herself. It is only later, upon discovering love, that Adèle steps out of this frame of girlfriend gossips and schoolground smoking to receive what the outer world has to give. What she finds is Emma, a bluehaired art student with inexplicable charm, which makes Adèle fall for her from the first moment they meet eyes. She gradually becomes Emma’s friend, lover and flatmate. The film unveils the question of love in its most complex yet simple approach. The view does not shy away from the protagonist’s life, bringing in all the details in her and Emma’s casual talks, their visits to each other’s family and sexual encounters. Some scenes can be difficult to watch, daring and stretched but only to the point of keeping close with its protagonist of Adèle. Throughout the sequences, the audience goes with her on her journey to adulthood. The intimacy gives another layer to the emotion portrayed in the film, making it hard for us not to yearn for Adèle’s happy ending. Yet Blue, in painting its portrait of the protagonist through the years, does
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The Counselor
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his Western and post-apocalyptic themes. It is directed by Sir Ridley Scott who is equally renowned in the film world for classics such as Thelma and Louise. Its posters scream out well-respected names: Fassbender, Cruz, Bardem, Pitt, Diaz. Why, then, are we left feeling so unfulfilled? It has all the dazzle of a gem, yet lacks something vital. Fassbender plays ‘Counselor’, a lawyer who decides to get involved in a one-time cocaine deal with the help of his flamboyant, flashy colleague Reiner (Bardem). He is warned by both Reiner and Westray (Pitt), a middleman
Fact
not make any promises. Its love story, or rather stories, are played out with full beauty and realism, the characters most unique and memorable, but as the film’s original, French title suggests, this is only the first and second chapters of Adèle’s life. What further goes on is up to us to imagine, our own empathy having been poured into her story. Blue is the Warmest Colour is certainly a tour de force, from the acting to storytelling. Seydoux is convincingly mysterious and gives a splendid portrayal of Emma. The star of the film, nevertheless,
is Exarchopoulous. Her natural and committed acting is what renders her character not only a name, but a life lived on-screen. Adèle in the film grows from 15 to her early twenties, and what the actress portrays is a thousand aspects of life itself. Whatever the controversy about Kechiche’s directing method, the crafts he brings together in the film are purely and realistically perfect.
experienced in criminal business deals, that he should not take his new venture lightly. His fiancee Laura (Cruz) is kept on the periphery as the ideal image of his future (‘Life is lying in bed with you, the rest is just waiting’), a purity which is set against dusty scenes of drug trafficking and the threat of shady characters. In contrast, Reiner’s smouldering girlfriend Malkina (Diaz) exudes a captivating, cruel power. Watching her two pet cheetahs chase their prey in the desert, she manifests the savagery of greed and survival. The script is unsurprisingly stunning, verging just on the right side of philosophical. When Reiner asks Malkina if she thinks she is cold-hearted, she replies that ‘truth has no temperature’. McCarthy’s understated wisdom adds a depth to the characters, inch-deep though it may be. They give profound monologues and make bold moves, but any real, believable motives are missing. It’s not that the acting is below par, the performances live up to the names. There is, however, the sense that the story unfolds not as a whole but as a succession
of individual fragments which lead up to an anti-climactic ‘is-that-really-the-end?’ conclusion. It seems that aesthetics are placed above substance. The scenes are beautifully shot; set on the American-Mexican border, the backdrop is one of desert musk and lavish interiors. Pool-parties, sunglasses, skin dripping with precious metals. Perhaps the most memorable scene (for good reasons or not, you can decide) is Malkina’s sexual encounter with a Ferrari. It sums up the narcissistic, materialistic, aggressive quality she embodies with a charming vulgarity. It’s a shame that The Counselor shrinks so much behind its potential. Picking apart its components, its script, its actors, its cinematography, you realise that there are no real flaws in them individually. It shows that just because the pieces of the jigsaw are good in themselves, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will make a satisfying whole.
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Daily Beast
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Director Francis Lawrence Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks Cert 12A Runtime 146mins Alice Rodgers Catching Fire is the second film of the Hunger Games trilogy and has far surpassed all expectations one might
have had after seeing the first film. The dystopian teenage thriller invites the audience into the world of Panem, a totalitarian state in which twelve districts are controlled by the ‘Capitol’ through means of fear and reality TV. Each year the teenage population are subjected to the Capitol’s sadistic ‘Hunger Games’: 24 teenagers – or tributes – fight to the death, only one survives. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is the feisty heroine struggling through the aftermath of her own experience in the Games in the previous film. Whereas in the first film the audience occasionally find themselves experiencing the Games through the eyes of a Capitol citizen,
Catching Fire is much more from the perspective of the tributes and, as a result, we feel more included in the revolutionary spirit of the film. Everything about Catching Fire is superior to The Hunger Games; the script, acting, costumes and effects all surpass the first of the trilogy. Lawrence, despite the middle aged roles she has been seen playing recently, portrays the teenage Katniss perfectly. Even Josh Hutcherson, who disappointed many fans of Suzanne Collins’ original books with his portrayal of Peeta, wins the hearts of the most cynical of them the second time around. The constant suspense and tension throughout Katniss’ experiences has the audience laughing, cringing and crying right up to the end credits. A few interesting details from the novel were neglected in the film adaptation, such as the build-up of the mystery surrounding District 13, which could have added much to the atmosphere of the film had they been included. To the delight of many fans, however, the film is surprisingly true to the book, even with Hollywood’s compulsion to prettify things occasionally taking over, such as when the tributes’ whatshould-have-been-permanent blisters are miraculously cured by the magical
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water in the arena. These occasional moments of Hollywoodisation may distract from the political message of the film in the particularly grisly moments, but it is still prevalent in the film as a whole. Suzanne Collins claims that ‘too much of people’s lives are put on television, and we’re desensitised to actual tragedy unfolding before us’. Her exaggerated scenario in which the population is distracted and controlled by reality television demonstrates her point well. The inequality within the regime is elegantly exemplified in the contrast between the Capitol citizens, who make themselves sick so they can consume more food, and the inhabitants of the districts who barely have enough food to keep them alive. Atlantic Magazine has called Katniss Everdeen ‘the most important female character in recent pop culture history’. This opinion may not be one shared by everyone but it is undoubtable that the Hunger Games trilogy has successfully involved young people in the world of social criticism and political comment.
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Dom Hemingway
Director Richard Shepard Starring Jude Law, Richard E. Grant, Demian Bichir Cert 15 Runtime 93mins Joseph Holness After being released from prison Dom Hemingway (Law), along with his buddy Dickie (E. Grant), head to the south of France to pick up a reward from crime boss Mr. Fontaine (Bichir), whilst also attempting to make up for lost time by reconnecting with his grown up daughter Evelyn (Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke). Opening a film with a lengthy monologue from the central character about the majesty of their manhood is an undeniably bold way to begin a story. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that writer and director Richard Shepard probably thought this was a stroke of Tarantino-esque brilliance when he first thought it up, a brash way to introduce the equally brash titular character to the audience. Unfortunately this isn’t
Red Apple World
the case. Unlike Tarantino, the writing here lacks the style and sophistication needed to elevate seemingly lowbrow and bawdy subject matter into quotable, interesting dialogue. The central problem with Dom Hemingway is simply how unconvincing it is; the dialogue, characters and situations feel caricatured and half-baked where they should be colourful. Jude Law isn’t bad as Hemingway, commiting to the role effectively with his bulging gut and over-the-top Cockney accent. It’s nice to see him deviate so confidently from the bland handsome characters
he has made his name playing, yet it’s easy to feel like his efforts are being squandered in such a sub-par film. The cartoonish nature of his character really grates by the thirty minute mark and the accent is never authentic, eventually feeling almost insulting. The issue here is that we have a film with what should be a secondary character as the primary one; if Hemingway were to pop up in a film centred around a straighter character you’d never have to witness just how inane he really is. Dom Hemingway isn’t a terrible film, it is engaging enough to warrant
its ninety minute run time and the pacing is consistent throughout. It just feels dated, it’s not clever in a way that makes it feel like its sending up the 70’s British crime films it’s clearly inspired by, and it’s not sophisticated enough compared to the relatively recent and far superior Layer Cake. In this postLock Stock world of British cinema it’s a shame that lazy filmmaking such as this gets the attention.
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Don Jon
Director Joseph Gordon-Levitt Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson Cert 18 Runtime 90mins Melissa Haggar Formidable actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt has turned his hand to feature film directing and screenwriting in Don Jon. Gordon-Levitt also stars in the main role of Jon Martello, an Italian-American with a distinct obsession with pornography, only caring about eight things in his life: ‘my body, my pad, my ride, my family, my church, my boys, my girls, my porn.’ His questionable lifestyle is put under sufficient threat when he meets Scarlett Johansson’s Barbara Sugarman, a fantasist whose love for her romantic movies rivals his commitment to explicit films. Julianne Moore also stars, playing a woman named Esther, one of Jon’s fellow night school classmates. The performances by all three main
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actors are impressive, and there is no denying that the chemistry between Johansson and Gordon-Levitt is sizzling and electrifying. But this sometimes overshadows the role Moore’s character contributes to the whole affair. And this is some of the problem; the ending is a bit clichéd and the film suffers from a few inconsistencies in tone and script. Whilst some may fully appreciate GordonLevitt’s efforts, others will find it all a bit too contrived. More so, the character of Mister Don Juan himself can at times be presented as a little too stereotypical. Essentially, his level of dedication to his ‘fantasy’ and his pornography can become grating. That said, Don Jon does provide a unique take on romantic comedies. Whilst it has substantial humour, wit and flair, it is presented in a distinctive manner that gives the film a refreshing element, which puts it ahead of the pack of so many of its predecessors. Overall, the film is initially promising, but tends to fade in some places. However, Gordon-Levitt has come up with a suitably cheeky and explicit alternative
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to the romantic comedy genre, and his role in this piece differs greatly from any of his more recent roles. If you needed a reason to watch the film then it comes in the form of a very committed Scarlett Johansson. Her performance is lively and energetic and gives an added boost to the film, complimenting Gordon-Levitt’s undeniable acting ability.
While the film may not appeal to a universal audience, its relatively thoughtprovoking plot and the witty charm of its actors make it a relative success for its director and worth a watch.
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Greatest Hits: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Thomas Hall takes a look back at the very best of the hollywood renaissance man
Blue Gartr
Fanpop
Collider
Pop Culture Crusader
Brick (2005)
(500) Days of Summer (2009)
Looper (2012)
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
After appearing in the US sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun for most of his teenage years, Brick was one of GordonLevitt’s first leading roles. Blending the detective noir and high school genres, Rian Johnson’s film is a minor classic and Gordon-Levitt is great as Brendan, a social outcast who investigates his ex-girlfriend’s mysterious death. Combining a flair for hardboiled dialogue with a brooding intensity, the signs are there that Gordon-Levitt would go on to be not just a big star but a great actor as well.
Far from the typical rom-com, (500) Days Of Summer showed that GordonLevitt is as comfortable with comedy as he is drama, making for a very likable romantic lead opposite Zooey Deschanel, who manages to transcend her usual ‘manic pixie dream girl’ status. The film’s non-linear structure and willingness to depict the darker side of a relationship is offset by both leads’ utterly charming performances, and although the film overstays its welcome just a tad, Gordon-Levitt’s charisma is enough to keep you engaged until the final (corny) gag.
2012 saw him reuniting with Rian Johnson for arguably one of the finest science-fiction movies of the last ten years. While Looper dives into all sorts of sci-fi tropes such as time-travel and alternate universes, it never neglects the emotional side of the story, and GordonLevitt capably sells the redemptive arc his character undergoes throughout the film. Despite wearing a silly prosthetic nose, his scenes with Emily Blunt’s hardened single mother are really rather touching, and provide a welcome respite from the whizz-bang, Bruce-Willisshooting-everyone-in-the-face stuff.
After taking part in that breathtaking zero-gravity fight scene in Inception, he reunited with director Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight Rises as John Blake, a rookie cop who serves as the moral centre of the film, persuading Bruce Wayne that he needs to don the Batsuit one last time to protect Gotham City. Gordon-Levitt manages to hold his own against acting heavyweights Christian Bale and Gary Oldman, proving he certainly has a bright future ahead for him.
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It’s Christmaaas!
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Stuck for holiday viewing? Freddie Van Der Velde suggests some festive alternatives With the DVD release of Nativity 2 primed for the stockings (star David Tennant seemingly going down the Michael Caine route of taking all jobs thrown at him), it is not surprising if you feel that Christmas films are becoming more saturated as the years go on. We find ourselves passively watching on, mid- turkey food coma as the film industry scrambles desperately for new ideas involving a snowman or freak reindeer. There are those gems throughout history however which don’t submit to the Christmas movie formula but are still held up on a nostalgic pedestal, putting a unique spin on the holiday season. Die Hard springs to mind; John McClane being unlucky enough to get caught up in a terrorist plot on Christmas Eve and again two years later in the sequel. We can only hope that during the intervening Christmas he didn’t have to kill anybody either, and that Alan
Film School Rejects
Rickman’s face when falling off that flaming tower block was on Brucie’s wish list. Because if so, old St. Nick definitely delivered. The credits of both films even begin with Vaughn Monroe’s Let It Snow, perfectly juxtaposing the chaos surrounding John McClane as he walks into the distance towards three mixed sequels. None occur at Christmas, by the way – maybe that’s where they went wrong? On the subject of holiday chaos, Gremlins is one to mention. The film that struck Furbies off the Christmas list for decades sees an inventor father decide that the best alternative for a puppy is to get his son a pet which multiplies into hundreds of reptilian psychopaths who prefer human hands to Pedigree. A black comedy that toed the line in 1984 due to its scenes of violence and American festive cheer, Gremlins still remains a not-so Christmassy classic, even starting
a huge merchandising campaign for the more sadistic festive shopper. If Gremlins’ twisted Christmas spirit doesn’t do it for you then there are far more extreme and far less subtle (these honestly make Gremlins look subtle) Christmas-themed slasher films to choose for your festive viewing. From Satan-Claus to Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman, most have fallen into obscurity and often for the better, the best probably being 1974’s cult classic Black Christmas, often argued to be the inspiration for more acclaimed films such as Friday the 13th and Halloween. So when the EastEnders Christmas special has aired and you’re feeling thoroughly underwhelmed by other telly options, why not try revisiting those old classics (or not-so-classics) you may have forgotten about, the ones that send a chill down your spine even when the fireplace burns.
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03.12.2013
LISTINGS
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3rd December - 20th December live music 3rd December
Paper Beat Scissors The Bicycle Shop £5
6th December The Filaments Waterfront Studio £8
4th December UEA Choir Christmas Carol Concert St John’s Cathedral £5-8 Chirs Ayer/Matt Simons/Adam Barnes The Bicycle Shop £7 Big Boy Bloater Norwich Arts Centre £8
John Smith Norwich Arts Centre £8-10
The Blockheads Norwich Arts Centre £20
Jenn Bostic Norwich Arts Centre £10
Avosetta EPIC £5
5th December Luke Concannon/Jimmy Davis/Jake Morley OPEN £5
The Magic Band Norwich Arts Centre £20
Gogol Bordello UEA LCR £18.50
Pout At The Devil The Waterfront £5 Midge Ure – Uncovered EPIC £25
Sam Brookes The Bicycle Shop £5
19th December 12th December
Quasi Norwich Arts Centre £8
John Goode & Nigel Ashcroft The Bicycle Shop £3.50
White Lies UEA LCR £20 Who’s Who Norwich Arts Centre £10
SPOT Waterfront Studio £5
8th December
Mostly Autumn The Waterfront £15
The Damned UEA LCR £18 TTNG EPIC £5-6
Touche Amore Waterfront Studio £12
Hecate Enthroned Waterfront Studio £10
The Sharps Waterfront Studio £5 11th December
Gypsy Hill OPEN £10
Drugstore Norwich Arts Centre £8.50 14th December
Peace w/ Drenge The Waterfront £13.50
Flux Pavilion UEA LCR £14.50
13th December Dead Harts Waterfront Studio £6.50
10th December
7th December
Haim UEA LCR SOLD OUT
9th December
The Darkness UEA LCR SOLD OUT
comedy 3rd-7th December The Arcadian Project (Arcadia & As You Like It) UEA Drama Studio £5-7
7th-8th December The Snail and the Whale The Playhouse £11
12th December The LCS Factor UEA Drama Studio £3.50-£5
12th-14th December Miracle of 34th Street: The Musical The Playhouse £12.50-18.50
comedy 4th-5th December Stephen K Amos: The Spokesman The Playhouse £16
6th-7th December Mark Thomas The Playhouse £10-15
9th-11th December Chris Ramsey The Playhouse £16.50
COMPETITIONS the venue crossword 03.12.2013
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Across
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4. Main part of Christmas dinner (6) 5. Jack _____ (5) 6. Centre of the decorations (4) 7. Red nose (7) 10. The night before (3) 11. Santa climbs down it (7) 13. Very very cold (6) 14. Snowman's nose (6)
1. The French word for Christmas (4) 2. Woolly clothes (6) 3. Brick-lined fireplace (6) 8. Wrapped up with a bow (8) 9. _____ Chirstmas (5) 12. Slippery (3)
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Christmas is coming and the lovely folks at The Campus Kitchen are feeling generous. TO WIN A CUP OF MINT HOT CHOCOLATE Tweet us a picture of your own Festive Christmas jumper! Tweet/like & respond to us at:
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