CUB Issue 555

CUB

ISSUE 555

Issue 555 SECTION GUIDE 2 // Editorial Team 3 // The Editor’s Letter 4 // Arts 10 // London 16 // Style 22 // Features 28 // Music 34 // Film 40 // UniSex 42 // Photography 44 // Columns facebook.com/CUBmagazine // @CUBmagazine // www.cubmagazine.co.uk

Editorial Team THOSE THAT HELPED PUT THIS ISSUE TOGETHER EDITOR IN CHIEF: Becky Hipkiss SUB EDITORS: Isabella Ashford & Becky Hipkiss ARTS: Laura Maw & David Loumgair COLUMNS: Katie Gill & Roya Eslami FEATURES: Lucy Sutcliffe, Nour Kobayter & Mattea Todd FILM: Gemma Holt, Laura Staab & Iman Mohamed LONDON: Frankie Brown & Malachy O’Grady MUSIC: Elly Watson & Sophie Fordham PHOTOGRAPHY: Emily Gillings-Peck STYLE: Raifa Rafiq, Emily Goodman & Claudia Manca UNISEX: Georgia Conlon & Sarah Pinder ONLINE: Ralitsa Peykova & Ruby Kilroy HEAD OF PR & MARKETING: Alissa Veiga-Pestana PR & MARKETING TEAM: Kripa Gurung, Maria Kristiansson & Bella Catling

Editor’s Note A WORD FROM THE BOSS By the time you read this, the CUB team will be gearing up for some of the biggest events of the year: the Student Media Awards and our AGM. Yes, in a few days time we’ll all be hungover messes with the next Editor in Chief (you lucky thing!) elected. For me, the end of March signals just how fast this year has gone, and how amazing it has been.

This is probably the only chance in life I will ever get to give an Oscar-style speech, so please bear with me. I want to use this space to thank every single student who contributed to CUB magazine this year, whether it be online or in print. None of what we do could be possible without your neverending stream of articles. My editorial team in particular have exceeded all expectations this year; forever coming up with amazing, innovative ways to make their sections the very best they can be.

A special mention goes to Jak, for the endless supplies of cookies and sanity when the pressure got too much; my Mum, Dad and my sister, Meg, for being so supportive; and my Gran and Grandad, for always picking up the phone. I couldn’t have done any of this without you.

As both a magazine and a team, we have achieved so much this year - a stunning new website, a square design, keeping our print issue alive by sourcing nearly 5k AND smashing all records with over 190 members, If the past year has taught me anything, it’s the harder the struggle, the more glorious the triumph. You really can achieve anything with a little bit of passion and determination.

And we’re going out with a bang! This issue sees an interview with the Thieves, a sneak peek at graduation style and a debate as to whether Master’s really are the new Bacheler’s. London takes us on a trip to find the city’s hidden gems, whilst we also meet Lish, QM’s hottest photographer (who also captured our spring-inspired cover image!).

Enjoy, laugh out loud and be inspired by the words in this issue. Good luck to all who follow on from here and thank you so much for the support.

The Northern girl finally conquered the city, Becky x

“nothing will ruin your twenties more than thinking you should have your life together already”

Magnificent Obsessions:

The Artist as Collector

t first glance, the Magnificent Obsessions exhibition appears to be more than a little overwhelming. Spread out over a labyrinthine display in the Barbican Gallery, the premise is simple – what do artists themselves view worthy of collection?

After all, when millions at a time are paid for works of art, it’s enthralling to see what stimulates the people behind them.

With a diverse range of artists featured, and an almost limitless amount of different artifacts, at first it might seem like there’s no link between the artist as collector, and the artist as… well, artist.

However, if you look beyond the clutter it starts to become more obvious. Admittedly, with some more than others – Damien Hirst’s obsession with taxidermy is fuelled by a personal collection including dozens of tropical birds, and a giant lion in a glass case. It’s obvious from seeing these alone that his fascination with preserving static moments, so present in his own work, can be traced along back to his own collection.

However, it’s questionable whether the collection inspires the art, or the art inspires the collection.

Other parts of the exhibition feel slightly more arbitrary – it’s hard to see a link between Hanne Darboven’s collection of everything from globes to puppets to a giant horse statue and her work, especially given her connections to minimalism. Her contemporary and renowned minimalist Sol LeWitt’s collection lends more to the minimalist theme, with his work ‘Autobiography’ comprised of hundreds of black and white photographs. With his extensive personal collection of handwritten music scores, it’s easier to see how his mathematical precision was present in his leisure as well as his art.

Martin Parr’s ironic depictions of tourists in his own work link back seamlessly to his collection of bawdy English seaside postcards, as well as a particular favourite from the collection - jet-black postcards with the captions ‘night in [place name]’.

His room is the definition of minimalism, compared to the joint collection of Martin Wong and Danh Vo, with figurines of cats, ducks, geese, a lamp with a hamburger for a stand and an uncomfortable array of dolls with blackface. However, it’s interesting to note that while their collections feel more like labours of love, that of Andy Warhol’s are based around acquisition more than appreciation. With a kitsch range of objects familiar to most American homes, his obsession was based more around ownership as items were discarded almost as soon as they were collected.

There is a slight lack of cohesion between all the exhibits on display in Magnificent Obsessions, but it can be argued that it’s this range and variety that gives the exhibition its character. Confusing at times and captivating at others, it feels on the verge of voyeuristic to see what makes some of the most successful artists of the postwar era tick.

Words: Charlotte Watson

Photo c/o: Barbican

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Whether you’re planning on making a trip to an art gallery, the theatre or a gig, it’s safe to say that you want to get the most out of your experience.

Words: Holly Croft

Theatre: Art Gallery: Timescale is important here. You need to assess your viewing style.

Are you a casual wanderer, or do you like to examine each and every piece of work and its description in detail? If you are the latter then set aside a whole day. It may seem excessive but think about the hours an artist puts into one painting, then times that by the amount of exhibits on show and decide if you can fully absorb that experience in just an hour or two.

If you’re there to wander then make sure you grab a map or gallery guide and have a good idea of what’s available. It’s easier than you’d expect to get lost in corridors and miss out on something major.

Other tips include avoiding half term if you want space to move, bringing a drink and some snacks, setting aside a lunch break, and locating the toilets upon arrival. You’ve got to be strategic here and nobody likes being ‘hangry’ (anger resulting from hunger) whilst trying to admire a serene Monet. It just doesn’t mix.

Never book front row balcony seats. Just don’t do it. It’s most likely that there will be a huge barrier preventing clumsy audience members from tumbling over the edge, which also happens to be great at blocking your view. If you’ve brought snacks then open all of the packaging ahead of the performance so you’re not that annoying person rustling their malteasers and destroying the atmosphere. On a serious note, to truly appreciate the talent of the cast, it’s also often worth reading the play before you attend. It’s intriguing to see how directors adapt a piece, and in the case of musicals, stage the songs.

Gig: It’s England, so it would be wrong not to address the problematic nature of waiting for winter gigs. My top recommendation is to wear the warmest coat or jacket you can find that will also tie around your waist (if you have a standing ticket) as the cloakroom is always a nightmare. A small backpack is also an option as it won’t interfere with dancing. There’s no point in bringing a bottle of water because it WILL get thrown away by security. If you want to get close to the front without arriving stupidly early then weave your way in through the sides of the crowd. The middle zone is rife with elbow shoving and trampling.

ARTS // 5

THE CUB GUIDE TO: getting the MOST out of live art.

THE WRITING ON THE WALL:

GRAFFITI AND

Words: Robyn Cusworth

This month Rich Mix Cultural Foundation hosted an exhibition entitled ‘Democracia real ya!’ - meaning ‘real democracy now!’ - which is a collection of work from Lapiztola Stencil, a group of activists from Oaxaca, Mexico, whose name is a play on the Spanish words for pen and gun. At a talk with Rosario Martinex Llanguno and Roberto Vega, they explained that the government’s oppression of the teachers’ strikes in 2006 inspired the group of young artists to come together. This is not the only problem in the area: poverty, the environment and political corruption are all factors in their work. More recently, in September 2014, Mexico witnessed the disappearance and killing of 48 young teachers who were heading to Iguala to protest about the conditions of their schools.

The images in ‘Democracia real ya!’ are not just beautiful images, they are packed with political symbolism against their oppression. Rosario explained:

‘The images can be there for a day or weeks before the government takes them down, but the rise of social media allows them to be eternalized.’

I can’t help but feel that this is not the case with the graffiti hotbeds of London; the profound meaning that can be contemplated in Mexican street art is no longer apt.

Rather, London’s street art is trivialised by the public, for

example with an Instagram post with no explanation other than ‘#BrickLane #Graffiti’. The increase of costly street art tours also tells me that there is a business investment in areas such as Shoreditch. One example of this is the proposed development of a 48 storey high-rise building in Bishopsgate, a length to rival Canary Wharf. This will provide ‘luxury flats’, of which only 35 percent is described as ‘affordable’. This leaves room for more ghost properties, where the rich buy property as novelty over necessity. This is an area on the border of Tower Hamlets, the poorest borough in London, where half of children grow up in poverty.

In discussion with Rosario and Roberto, the artist Peter Kennard spoke about Coca Cola hiring artists to provide street art for advertisement purposes. Kennard states that these practices are furthering gentrification and privatisation: street art and graffiti exists on the street because there is no other platform. He joked how his own work, a photomontage of the earth inside the Virgin Mary was rejected by a Christmas project organised by Bob Geldof and Orange. Their reason? ‘It would frighten grandmothers and children.’

This month it has been revealed that Banksy has travelled along secret tunnels in Gaza in order to get his message on the walls on the Gaza Strip for a new documentary, reminding us that street art is a revolutionary medium. One of the tropes that Lapiztola Stencil use is that of a Rooster.

Proudly wearing it on his T-Shirt, Roberto explained the significance: ‘We hear the Rooster calling in the morning to the people, he cries wake up!’. I hope that London wakes up soon, recognises graffiti as important social commentary and confronts the injustice in our city.

Photo c/o: lapiztola // blogspot

After living in East London for over a year, street art has become an everyday sight. Whether I’m strolling along Brick Lane or cycling down Regent’s Canal, I’m likely to see colourful juxtapositions against a gloomy London horizon.

But has this familiarity caused me to overlook the message behind these images? Are we becoming ignorant to the social commentary of street art?

ARTS // 7

GENTRIFICATION

IMAGINATION

& REPRESSION

SOVIET ART AT THE TATE MODERN

M

ost of us who live in London have an ambivalent relationship with the Tate Modern. It’s an interesting building and a visit there almost always makes for an Instagram opportunity. But what about the art? Some love it, some hate it, some interpret it and some pretend to understand it. Regardless of your opinion, the Tate Modern always manages to make you feel something.

My most recent visit involved the free ‘Poetry and Dream’ gallery and two particular artists captured my attention. Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin are two former Soviet artists who excel in pen drawings, with an eye to intricate detail. Together they have managed to create incredible illusions, versions of reality that are distorted or enlarged. It’s a blend between imagination and reality and the future and the past. Their pieces are straightforward in the sense that it is easy to visually see what they illustrate but harder to understand what they mean by it.

The images are dream landscapes and odd architectural feats in cities and worlds that seem eerily similar to our own.

and the buildings it chose to construct. The drawings have an eerie quality to them, often making stark predictions about the future and illustrating what it meant to live under some of the Soviet Unions repressions. That can be seen in some pieces, where wild and imaginative visions are surrounded by dark and looming buildings.

Indeed, one of their most beautiful pieces exhibited at the Tate Modern pictures a library of sorts, but houses are being displayed rather than books. The houses

are life-sized, picturesque and encaged on large bookshelves while people walk around underneath, looking at them as if they were animals in a zoo. The drawing is entitled Columbarium Habitabile. ‘Columbarium’ generally refers to a public storage of the urns; a place to honour the dead. ‘Habitabile’ refers to, as the name suggests, houses. The drawing of these houses in a library-like environment portrays how there’s no room for the old and the quaint in the modern Soviet society.

Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin make a heady political statement: that the rich culture and history of the country is not acceptable to the Soviet government.

Indeed, the text under the drawing describes in depth the world they have created in the sketch. They state that there is no room for houses like that anymore, and if the owner wants to preserve it he must agree to move it and the inhabitants to the Columbarium.

If he disagrees, the house is destroyed.

This drawing is only one of the roughly ten pieces exhibited at the Tate; all have poignant remarks to make and in most cases they can be applied to our modern society. These beautiful and interesting drawings are well worth a visit, regardless of whether you enjoy the political statement behind them or not (if nothing else, yes, they’ll make for a cultivated Instagram moment).

The two artists met in Moscow in 1972 at the Institute of Architecture. Together they created the extraordinary architectural drawings that seem so much more like art than blueprints. Many of their pieces provide a reminder of the austerity of Soviet society

Words: Mathilda Strobel

HACKNEY PICTUREHOUSE

So when I walked into the Hackney Picturehouse last week and was greeted by a bar area with...you guessed it... a sofa, I was sold. There were other things I liked, obviously. I liked the way the staff didn’t mind that we’d turned up too late for our film and were friendly enough to engage us in a chat. I liked the fact that the ticket-seller actually knew enough about the films to recommend something. I really liked the fact that there was a bar area that served proper food, proper drinks and wasn’t just an array of pic-n-mix. But mainly I liked the sofas.

The Picturehouse is part of a chain of independent cinemas – with other branches in central London, York, Edinburgh and pretty much all over the country - and each one is slightly different. They’re meant to be designed according to the area they’re in, which makes a nice change from the standard Odeon experience where everything is exactly. the. same.

The screens are spread over three floors, with seating dotted around each level, so there’s always somewhere to sit and relax - and because it’s not all crammed together, you’ve always got a bit of space. The top floor is known as ‘the attic’, and it’s a bit more interactive - they have

Photos c/o: RussianCulture & Wikimedia Commons

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regular events like a spoken word evening, a poetry slam, live musicians and a private bar.

So, all in all, I was sold on the place before the film even started. When it did start, though, and we made our way to our screen, things got even better. Maybe I should have guessed from the name - ‘The Lounge Screen’ is a bit of a giveaway - but it wasn’t your regular ‘let’s-see-howmany-people-we-can-squeeze-into-one-screen’ experience.

There was no awkward clambering over people’s legs to get to your seat. No, the Lounge Screen was made for... well... lounging; there were maybe six or seven low sofas and that was it. They’re all on their own level, too, so that you avoid awkwardly watching the couple next to you while you’re sitting with your dad or something.

I feel like I’m cheating on Genesis for telling you all this, but in case you ever need a break from Mile End Road, or if you ever find yourself in York and wanting to watch a film, I’d 100% recommend the Picturehouse. Obviously I can’t vouch for the quality of each individual cinema, but if the one in Hackney is anything to go by, they’ll all be pretty worthwhile. It was slightly more expensive than your average Odeon ticket - £12.60 rather than £8, but you can get a yearly Student Membership for £15 – and that also gets you discounts at places like Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Hotel Chocolate and Pages Bookshop. And there are no sofas in the Odeon. Just saying…

ARTS // 9

If you’re anything like me, then the bane of your student existence will be the lack of a sofa. I can cope with the 3am fire alarms (just about). I can deal with the toaster that doesn’t really work, and the kitchen door that won’t really close. But what I really, really miss is not having a sofa.

Photos c/o: Gary Knight, Jazmin Segui, Stu WP // Flickr

The Flask in Hampstead 14 Flask Walk, London NW3 1HE

MEATLiquor 74 Welbeck St, London W1G 0BA

Hay’s Galleria 14 Flask Walk, London NW3 1HE

Walking down charmingly quirky Flask Walk, you hit The Flask, built in 1874. It is the perfect place to tuck into a delicious Sunday Lunch or enjoy a chilled pint. With the flames lighting up the fireplace in the winter, fresh flowers on the tables and outside seating all year around, it feels a little like home.

We may not be in America, but we still flip some gorgeously juicy burgers here in London. If you’re ever in Oxford Circus and hungry for some beef after six horrendous hours of shopping, head down to MEATLiquor.

Less queues, more booze (there’s a bar) and jukebox vibes. Tell yo mama, Five Guys is sooooo 2014.

Craving Covent Garden but can’t quite face the tourists? Check out the Hay’s Galleria near London Bridge. As well as having a really cool roof (it’s the little things!), it’s home to various retailers, market stalls and a year round Christmas Shop. Oh, and a Starbucks.

Obviously.

Ida Djursaa

Sophie Hollis

Julia Margetts

The Lake in Kensington Gardens London W2 2UH

Vintage Pop-Up Shop 66 Commercial St, London E1 6LT

St Magnus the Martyr Church London EC3R 6DN

When the water is shimmering in the sunlight, despite the buzzing chatter of the lively crowd around you, it still feels peaceful and secluded when you watch the graceful swans float by. Soft, green grass rolling into the distance results in a perfectly crafted escape from the high-street.

Situated in the Crisis Skylight Café on Commercial Street, this nifty little shop pops up every other Sunday, offering a wide range of second hand high street and designer coats, all for around £20 or under! Apparently shoes, accessories, and more will soon also feature.

Take a visit to the Scale Model of Old London Bridge that rests in the Church St Magnus the Martyr. It depicts how the bridge would have looked in the 1400s and quite fittingly the Church lies next to the New London Bridge.

With over 900 people depicted on the Bridge amongst the buildings, this fascinating model is what makes St Magnus famous to date.

Holly Croft

Mary Carter

Jessica Clot

LONDON // 11

LONDON’S Hidden Gems

ALE TRAIL.

We all know what a pain it is to make the long journey home after a night out (the journey that always results a takeaway that was definitely against the diet you promised would begin that day). Our solution? Drink a little closer to home. London editor, Frankie Brown, gives you five pubs in five minutes walking distance of campus...

TheHalfMoon,MileEndRoad It is admittedly nearly Stepney, but with the soaring prices of alcohol in London, nothing beats a Wetherspoons. Whilst still maintaining a little of that old school pub feel (the corporate truth still remains unavoidable unfortunately), you get the comfort of knowing exactly what they have and don’t have. There’s little we can say that you don’t already know about The Half Moon (we ALL stock up on those vouchers in Freshers Week), but it certainly deserves a spot on this list for being the most reliable haunt on Mile End Road.

DrapersBar,QMUL Okay, you can call us out here, we are slightly cheating as the bar is ON campus, but come on, it couldn’t go without a mention. Drapers is every QM students first real introduction to the drinking of the area, a place that feels home to us. Yes, it may not be the fanciest, and it may not be the most surprising, but after a long week, it pays to drink where a pint starts at only £2.30 (pun intended).

LONDON // 13

ThePalmTree,GroveRoad If you want to feel tucked away in a place that I’m not sure even takes card, and you’re able to walk back to campus without trying to swim there, then The Palm Tree is for you. Nestled away, this little place has everything you imagine in a pub of its size and style, from the old school dart board on the walls, to the slightly confused look you receive when you ask for more description than just the usual house white. For beer drinkers, this is a quiet and delightful evening out with quite the selection.

TheVictoria,GroveRoad For a lighter environment and atmosphere, and if you’re willing to push the five minute walk boundary to six minutes, try The Victoria.

Recently refurbished, this place has real atmosphere and a lively feel to it. By day, it is filled with strong coffee and scrummy pastries; by night, a warm-hearted crowd, full glasses and delicious scents of food. It is perhaps slightly pricier than the options closest to home, however it’s worth every penny for this nearby treasure.

TheNewGlobe,MileEndRoad Yes, it’s ‘new’ and ‘different’ now, and we’re all still weeping about the loss of Fur Coat No Knickers, however The New Globe is still a fantastic place to go for a drink, particularly when you’re next lecture is only in Bancroft (kidding!).

As the designated student bar (off campus) for QM students, The New Globe offers a relatively decent price range, and music that, whilst it may make you cringe at points, may still get you dancing after a few. If you can forget about that one time in first year, it’s a good night waiting to happen.

LONDON // 15

CHANGING LONDON

Now obviously, I understand – this is London, companies that can afford the rent are the ones that stay in business. Hell, just take a look at Billionaire’s Row: houses that are bought and then stand empty.

London is a city that is fragmenting at such a rate that even the areas some of us, as QMUL students, live in will soon be too expensive. Bethnal Green is going to be the next place, and it is happening now.

Rents are sky-rocketing, properties are becoming buy to lets. It’s disappearing, becoming the London that exists beyond the means of your average wage, leaving us to watch places like Shoreditch and Soho jump further and further out of our price bracket.

There is this golden moment when there are amazing places that aren’t too expensive, where pretty much anyone can have a taste of a good night. But then it’s gone; it’ll have gone from Shoreditch soon if it hasn’t already. And has anyone walked through Soho recently? And looked, and I mean really looked.

In first year, when I thought the lights of Soho were so much brighter than those of Canal Street, I walked

through the area and walked past Madame Jojo’s, ManBar, Candy Bar – but they’re all gone now. Pushed out in some attempt to kill off Soho. Be At One have opened a new bar, the Green Carnation is renovating so that it can charge even more for its drinks and the only bars that really won’t be threatened are part of the commercialist extortionate G-A-Y group (all the pretty people to the front and can anyone who doesn’t adhere to the stereotype please leave?).

Whatever it was that made Soho has disappeared – it just doesn’t exist anymore. The Box is amazing, and it’s truly unique among the streets of Soho. But it’s elite, far too elite to act as a compensation prize for what is being lost.

Grayson Perry said that rich people don’t make culture, that we need the poor, those who struggle for their rent (I’m sure some of you reading this fall into that category) are the ones who make everything worthwhile. I for one cannot fathom why the powers aren’t making the city brighter and cleaner and more family friendly – it’s not like families, apart from the superrich, can live in the newly gentrified areas. Oh… but… that’s it isn’t it? We’re losing London; it is no longer a city of real people. I’m late joining the call to fight against gentrification, I know I should have got here sooner. We all came to London to dream… but if we don’t join the fight to save even the smallest corner of this city, of our city, then even those dreams will cost more than we can afford.

To join the fight to save Soho, sign the petition @ www.savesoho.com Words: Malachy O’Grady

Photo c/o: hsaphhh // Flickr

The Sunday of the Valentines weekend, I was lay in bed in a five star hotel in Brussels with a boyfriend who had not had the best reaction to the dirty shots of Lord-knows what we’d been drinking the night before. Thankfully, being Brussels, there were still BBC stations and, what started out as a hilarious glimpse into the world of the superrich of Mayfair, ended with me feeling all too bitter. It was a TV programme highlighting how awful it was that corporate interests were taking over Mayfair, as the place was slowly becoming overrun with Starbucks, Itsu and [insert generic coffee/sushi brand here].

Is fashion all about Remember the traditional ‘girl next door’ who advertised all of your current must-have products? Well, forget her. Now there’s a whole world revolving around collaborations between fashion houses and make-up brands and celebrities. The new holy grail of celebrities most present in the fashion scene are models, bloggers and musicians, making them increasingly present in ad campaigns - Lady Gaga for Versace and Miley Cyrus for Marc Jacobs to name a few, with both superstars, along with Rihanna, each designing a Viva Glam lipstick collection for MAC. However, is it causing brands to lose focus on the actual product, and instead devote more time in finding a famous face for the next campaign? Are marketing strategies causing a race for brands to see who can spend more money and get the newest, hottest celebrity to be their new ‘face’? There’s no denying that Jennifer Lawrence looks stunning in her Dior campaign, but it seems slightly unreasonable to expect most of her fans to be able to afford their clothes.

Many people want to be seen wearing or using the same thing as the person they idolise, even more so if that same person designed the product. One of the most controversial celebrity collaborations was the Kanye West x Adidas presentation unveiled at New York Fashion Week. Whilst the clothing itself caused many debates and generated numerous strong opinions, everyone who was anyone was present. Kanye seduced a massive audience with worldwide media coverage, which Adidas would probably have struggled with had they put on a show themselves.

People are often quick to argue that celebrities are not creative

STYLE // 21

who’s wearing who?

Words: Jenny Pastakia

directors and that they mainly build a brand around their name and let someone else take over the design and creative process, as ghost creators of a collection. However, two of the most currently successful womenswear brands are run by celebrities - Victoria Beckham and her eponymous line, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen with The Row and Elizabeth + James. Even though they aren’t professionally trained in fashion, they manage to present seasonal collections of brilliant pieces that are snapped up by buyers everywhere. They certainly have an excellent team of people executing the actual clothes, but there’s no doubt that they are heavily involved in the integral design process.

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In our modern day society, there is such an abundance of choice and products on the market, that it makes sense for brands to want to be seen as on trend and relevant, and as long as their sales reflect it then why not have Alexa Chung exclusively promote one brand of mascara?

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Looking back on the progress of the fashion world, it is clear that marketing and branding has reached the same level of importance as the clothes themselves. Supermodels were a select few of the most elite women, namely Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell. Front rows of fashion shows were reserved for big clients, buyers and editors, whereas now it seems as though each week there is a new ‘It girl’ about town that has to be seen at each show. Brands rely on such backing as a sort of seal of approval from the model, actress, blogger promoting them, knowing that such advertising is often more successful than print advertisements in magazines or on billboards.

RISE OF THE

INSTA-BLOGGER It comes as no surprise that the enormous, and ever expanding, world of social media websites is nothing if not a heaven for the fashion trendsetters among us.

Showing off latest purchases, their ‘ootd’ and offering advice to hundreds of followers has become a regular site on my Instagram feed. Of course, fashion bloggers have always existed, but seeing as I jumped on the Instagram band-wagon only a few months ago (I’m always one step behind...), I’ve suddenly recognised just how seriously this new generation of fashion Insta-bloggers take their pictures, pages and blogs.

But what is the point of everyday people sharing images of their clothes? Some of them even go one step further with the latest photography trend known as ‘flat lay’ (n) aka ‘classic, simple and chic ways to show off your favourite objects and current addictions in a pretty way’ – at least according to Vogue. Is this just another narcissistic feature of social media today, being clouded over with an excuse in the name of fashion? Does the number of likes on a picture of their clothes act as a nod of approval? Or does it really give fashion inspired bloggers the entrance into the bizarre world of fashionland they long to be part of?

Take Leandre Medine for example. Or you’ll probably recognise her fashion blogger alter-ego, ‘The Man Repeller.’ She has used all forms of social media to become one of the world’s most influential bloggers to date, and just as most wish for, her blogging has led to collaborations with designers including Michael Kors and Superga. There probably isn’t a better example of what could happen if you start fashion blogging, and posting on

Instagram and most importantly, succeed in doing it well.

It’s a shame though, that so many insta-bloggers today are pseudo-celebrities; the so-called fashion designers from Made in Chelsea. Do they really deserve the recognition they get for their ‘outfit of the day?’ While standing outside Somerset House during London Fashion Week, my sight was blinded by an incredible amount of selfie-takers, fashion bloggers and general people craving attention from their Fashion Week outfit choice. Seems to be much more centred on attention, rather than a passion for fashion (excuse the cliché) if you ask me.

There is, however, no use in undermining the power of social media and the fashion world. A close friend of mine, ticks all the boxes as a successful Insta-blogger.

She has mastered the ‘flat-lay’, always tags the designer or brand that she is showing off, so they repeatedly recognise her name on their page, and advertises the Australian brand she works for with her ‘ootd’. At only 21 years old, she already has close to 1000 followers on Instagram, and always receives comments from fellow bloggers, or friends who generally love her elegant and sophisticated style.

I can only hope that Sara has the same success as some of the most popular and now famous faces of the fashion blog world. It’s time people search for the genuine fashion lovers of the online universe, rather than support the pseudo-celebs who are having a go at a fashion career, before they get a little bored.

Words: Emily Goodman

STYLE // 23

Instagram: @saraveneris

GRADUATION STYLE Words: Raifa Rafiq

Can your outfit choice for your graduation ceremony hinder or progress your future prospects? Discuss in relation to two CUB style articles you have previously read.

Let’s talk snaps. Your graduation picture will hold an important place on the mantel of your home for all to see: grandparents, aunts and uncles, that older cousin you don’t like. Everyone. Your graduation picture will also probably be the photo they use on BBC News if ever you go missing. Not to mention the fact that your graduation selfie and #OOTD will garner the most likes in the history of your Facebook/Instagram existence.

And of course, your graduation picture will be your profile picture on LinkedIn for the next three years of your unemployed life so it needs to be amazing to attract future employers. Good aesthetics attract

people so let’s not pretend that this is a shallow topic - this is actually very philosophical.

Now that you understand just how crucial this outfit is, it is very important you get it right and not completely screw up on the day. The following guidelines should help you achieve a guaranteed ‘first’ in your graduation style. Wear heels you can actually walk across the stage in. Simple black heels should suffice, no one is looking at your feet anyway - unless you’re me and are saving up to buy Louboutins. Go for a beautiful fitted shift dress in any block colour (except neon green) that passes the knee (your mother will be watching).

However, if you want to go all-out, a professional jumpsuit will be perfect – unless you’re me. I’m going in a maxi dress to float across the stage like Queen of Sheba herself. You definitely want to keep jewellery to a minimum or wear one statement piece. And of course your choice of make-up is the most important thing.

There is no room for errors so please binge-watch as many YouTube make up tutorials as possible.

Finally, the best accessory you can possibly wear on your graduation is a flawless smile. Remember, you should be genuinely proud of yourself on this day, as you’ve most definitely worked your ass off to get there.

However knowing my luck, the camera will run out of battery.

Photos c/o: Pixabay

Amidst the hassle to finish, or should I say, to actually start your dissertation, whilst also hurrying to reference final essays and hack psychometric tests for graduate schemes, third years often forget the most important decision they will ever make in their years at university: whether to wear 4-inch heels or 6 inch heels to cross the stage when receiving the graduation certificate from the very important stranger you’ve probably never met before in your time at Queen Mary. Planning your graduation outfit needs as much time and energy as the fervour you’ve put in your last minute essays.

Yes, many will laugh and not recognise the importance this single outfit will have on your life, but the following will put into perspective just how important what you choose to wear will become.

s e e r g e d s ’ r e t s a M ? s ’ Are r o l e h c a B w e n e th The surge in popularity of Master’s degrees can be illustrated by using the recent research conducted by LSE that shows that whilst in 1996 only 4% of employed people aged between 26 and 60 had a postgraduate degree, the percentage rose to 11% by 2013, amounting to around 2.1 million people. A staggering increase in the amount of postgraduate degrees awarded has resulted in a growing demand for postgraduates in the workforce, or as economists prefer to describe it: an ‘academic inflation’.

It seems unsurprising that given the recent surge in demand for Master’s degree programmes that we would be now debating whether or not they’re replacing bachelor degrees as the standard job requirement. With more and more people applying and securing postgraduate qualifications it seems like a no-brainer for employers to start looking for more specialised prospective employees. Students are increasingly faced with the dilemma of whether or not to undertake a Master’s degree, and the fine line between undergraduate and high school education is being blurred by the recent popularity of postgraduate study. With more and more people applying to study for a Master’s, employers are reacting to the increasing number of postgraduates available in the work force, and thus change their criteria from ‘Master’s preferred’ to ‘Master’s required’. It’s a vicious circle on a seemingly endless repeat, but what does this mean for the student? Is the demand for Master’s degrees unreasonably matched by the availability of securing postgraduate qualifications?

I think we should move away from considering the implications of replacing the importance of a Bachelor’s degree with a Master’s, towards considering the more important problem of the availability and ease of obtaining such qualifications. And, more importantly, whether or not this will transcend into including even more advanced education, such as PhD’s. Whilst Master’s degrees not only offer the student the opportunity to further their skills and knowledge, it comes with a heavy price. Unfortunately, funding for students wishing to undertake a Master’s but cannot afford to do so on their own is being seriously cut back. Research councils are no longer supporting postgraduate taught courses; this has amounted to a 47% drop of numbers of students being supported during their Master’s degree.

To me, this seems to be the bigger issue: rather than downplay the rise of Master’s degrees as a replacement for Bachelor’s, we should accept and address it. Only then can we make it possible for students to increase their chances of getting a better job after they graduate. The attractiveness of a Master’s degree is increasingly influencing employers, and its time the government allowed for them to be more attainable. Master’s degrees are soaring, and it’s only a matter of time before they get replaced by even more advanced education.

Words: Nour Kobayter

FEATURES // 23

We’ve all heard the stories. People who finish their degrees with a 2:1, or even a first, and then spend months living with their parents, waitressing or working behind a bar, wondering what it is that they need to do to gain the elusive graduate placements at the big companies that will kick-start careers. And honestly, they’re probably true. Because big shock- it’s hard to get a job. So logically, it would make sense that if you really want to stand out in the job market, a Bachelor’s degree might not cut it, you’ll need a Master’s degree to get the same level of work.

But I’m not sure this is true. I am in no way disputing the difficulty of even gaining work experience; we’ve all spent months applying, and will still probably spend this summer working in shops to keep up with rent. Whichever way I look at it though, what really matters is your CV. Showing that you got involved with all aspects of life at university, proving that you are a hardworking person who has attempted to gain experience. Sure, candidates with a Master’s degree are going to stand out, but that’s nothing new. It has always been a sign of further education, just as your Bachelor’s degree is a sign of education past school. The fact is, a Master’s degree can’t become the new baseline for getting a job that you love, because it’s not available to everyone. Most of us won’t be able to afford to do one, and for that matter, most of us shouldn’t do one. Commitment to a Master’s degree is like saying- I’ve realised that academic work is the line I want to go down. If you finish

the year and change your mind then fine, but no one should be undertaking that amount of work in the hope it’ll make you eligible for an entry level job, the evidence just doesn’t support it.

For the year 2012/13, 184,730 graduates went straight into work, up 9.5% on the year before. This compared to the 35,620 who went on to further study, an increase of just 0.1%. The numbers speak for themselves, making it clear that a Bachelor’s degree still serves its purpose, a chance to further explore a subject you love, and make yourself more employable. A Master’s degree remains what it always has been, a chance to further that interest. Not a compulsory key into employment, but an undertaking that shows passion and skill for a subject. The way it should be.

With the government announcing £10,000 postgraduate loans in 2016 -17 the situation may change. We might start to see more people undertaking Master’s degrees in the hope of improving their job prospects. But they shouldn’t. Another £10,000 worth of debt is only worth it if you are genuinely passionate about your subject, get good grades and are actually interested in pursuing research into the field. Let’s not undermine the hard work of a Bachelor’s degree by pretending that even more education is the only way to get that dream job.

Words: Mattea Todd

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FEATURES // 25

In the final days of February the Take Back Our World Conference organised by Global Justice Now, took place at Rich Mix Cultural Foundation. It was a chance to witness a stirring of political buzz within our own community. Having listened to an array of environment and democratic organisations, speakers and leaders- this got me thinking about what linked them all, our future.

The timetable oozed with urgent discussions such as the problem of TTIP, capitalism, solidarity with Greece and how to build a global movement. Speakers included Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party, Jeremy Corbyn, the Islington Labour MP, Peter Kennard, the activist/artist, and Paul Mason, the Channel Four economics editor. After some deliberation on which talks would be best (shock, horror- the economic talk clashed) I listened to; ‘People versus corporate power: how we beat TTIP’, ‘Another Democracy is Possible’ and ‘Art, Capitalism and Social Change.’ Though the conference was almost a month ago, and despite the diversity of these topics, I felt there was something underlying, unifying them. Something that has stayed with me and is imperative. This underlying aspect is the need for emotion and attention when it comes to our political and global environment.

This is a difficult aspiration. Especially when there is a lack of governmental aid in promoting the revival of creativity and emotion in today’s youth. Recently, Milliband honed in on this idea and called for a change, stating: “Arts is an area where Britain still leads the world” and “If you believe in social justice, if you believe in a more equal society, then access to the arts

and culture is not an optional extra, it is essential”. This is what was made clear by the Take Back Our World conference. When facing issues such as the privatisation of the welfare state, we need people with compassion and vivacity to fight against it. Cultural enrichment or the confidence to use creativity in a career appears to be becoming more confined to those in private education. For example, in the Arts Council, there has been a further 13% cut for 2015/2016, whilst the Warwick Commission has expressed a deep concern to the government’s apathetic outlook to the arts.

Without this, those from working class backgrounds and under-funded communities become alienated from the arts and from culture, possible contributions to our future is numbed by working for corporate and capitalistic companies.

Simultaneously, politics is robotic, elitist and intangible from the people. This is why controversial figures like Russell Brand are creating such a stir amongst the public, his warmth and human understanding is affecting people. Similarly, the Green Party has seen massive surge in membership, their policies and outlook promising a refreshed and rejuvenated government.

When discussing the word ‘democracy’ and what it means today, David Graeber, activist and professor of anthropology at LSE, stressed the importance of emotion in people. When talking about a transformation in democracy, he exclaimed: ‘We need emotion in order to be reasonable, as over rational people oppress emotion.’ Our political sphere is at a stalemate, and this is something that must be considered come May 2015. Now is the time to take these matters to heart.

l l i P s u i n e G The

ODIL ATASHA F WORDS: N

At the time of writing, four of my past seven days have been spent tearing through a blister pack of modafinil and two late essays. It’s my second attempt at a degree and my biggest insecurity is this: I have never had the motivation to fulfil my potential.

And it somewhat aches to digest that I’m not alone in necking back these pills. Modafinil – more commonly used to treat narcolepsy – is one of various ‘study drugs’ hitting headlines and has been used by one in five students according to a survey

by The Tab. Alarmingly, one in ten of these admit to everyday use. The others include ADHD medications, such as Ritalin and Adderall, which have similarly soared in popularity. Hailed as a miracle cure and supposedly rife throughout universities, study drugs are effective in making lazy people like me focus on their work for impressive lengths of time.

My first experience with Modafinil arrived last week after years of procrastination and underachievement.

I was dubious when I first heard about it, but the prospect of a magic pill which would force hard work became difficult to ignore and I anxiously delved into the web. Ten 200mg tablets set me back around twenty quid (or 0.12771392 Bitcoins; sorry, Mum) and arrived the next day. I became unusually alert and near impossible to distract around an hour after taking one. Five hours on, the essay I’d been putting off for weeks was complete – and respectably decent. I was overjoyed. It was unfamiliar to be content with how well I’d worked.

But is it safe? Whilst Ritalin and Adderall have potential for dependence, no one is really sure of how modafinil works or what its long-term effects are. Most report a loss of appetite, frequent toilet trips and difficulties in sleeping after taking it; some experience headaches, nausea and mood swings.

My week of use has taught me that moderation is vital and confirmed that stimulants will never be a substitute for sleep (you will eventually crash – always). At times I felt frighteningly awake and out of sync with a clouded mentality that struggled to produce work competently and crimson-tinted eyes.

Whilst Modafinil seemed to be the answer to my problems – and I know that I’ll reach for it again - it hasn’t been the one I’ll permanently chase. A natural motivation and the ability to manage time conscientiously will always be more desirable and a reliance on prescription medication to any degree is something most would hope to avoid.

In an ideal world, I’d be comfortable with my laxness, and less pressures would exist. It seems unsurprising that young people are reaching out for a boost in efficiency: this year’s graduates will be the first victims of the Tory-Lib Dem coalition’s hike in tuition fees, leaving university with an average debt of £44,000 and studying with a greater need to make the most out of their money. Although study drugs have been around for years, I assume it’s the bleak prospects and fierce competition which are pushing students into the arms of increased use. Whether they’re fair is something which can only be debated, but I think these seemingly magic pills are here to stay.

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ower Hamlets has the highest rate of child poverty in London. It is the second most deprived borough in London. It is the third most deprived borough nationally. Glancing at these gloomy statistics alone, one could summarise the area as simply “lack of opportunity”.

And yet - whilst significant - this quantitive data tends to whitewash the creativity, innovation and community spirit that exists at the heart of what Tower Hamlets is all about.

Grime, as we all know, is an internationally recognised musical genre defined - in the beginning - by TH residents: Bow E3, to be exact. One of the borough’s other institutions of innovation is, of course, our very own Russell Group university - a university which prides itself on its diversity.

But what do these two collectives share in common?

Susanna Mollah is an English student at QMUL, hailing from Croydon. She, along with Navaid Ghouri and Alex Bolly, has spearheaded the recent campaign to get QM’s new graduate centre named after the Godfather of Grime himself, Wiley.

Mollah - who speaks inspiringly on the subject - believes that music is an essential educating force. “Art unites people!” she exclaims with a passion that is admirably infectious, as we begin to discuss the motives behind their campaign. It is the form, she argues, which is the “significant factor” to the success of the absorption of knowledge.

“Some people don’t feel like reading sometimes, or may feel that certain texts are out of their reach, as I once did. Reading a book about politics and hearing music that discusses politics are two different experiences, because the form is different, as is the consequence - music can unite the masses in a way that standard politics can’t, especially for young people.”

But why Wiley? “[It is] important for Queen Mary to acknowledge Wiley’s contribution to the area, particularly as the university is located within the borough. It all boils down to the local students. They are at the centre of all this […] Wiley was born in Bow and has never forgotten his roots despite being a leader in his field.

important for our eyes to remain open and to build stronger connections with the people of the area who have the potential but just need the opportunities.”

Young Tower Hamlets residents are, indeed, the future.

Relating to an artist who has worked hard to see through his dream is, she says, “something that has been missing in the borough for a long time.”

“The students see higher education as something that isn’t for them, because they might not have any role models in their family who have gone to university, for example. I want the local students to recognise that there are people from their backgrounds in higher education and that they are not excluded because of circumstances beyond their control.”

“Change in society needs to start from the bottom upwards in order for the needs of everyone to be accommodated.

I have risen into this wonderful institution but I don’t want to bring up the ladder that got me here. It needs to be strengthened and extended to those who want to climb, too. If this campaign succeeds, it will hopefully prove to all the naysayers that it was never about lack of ability in the first place - just a problem with the structure and a lack of opportunity to begin with.”

#EducationForAll Support the campaign by signing the petition @ change.org

“Queen Mary could pave the way for a broader change in education,” she urges. “The attainment gap is real and very much there. Sometimes being behind the gates can make you feel a little shut off from the outside world but it’s

VIP Photo c/o:

Music

The Piano Guys:

Photos c/o: ThePianoGuys & Wikimedia Commons

WHO ARE THEY? YouTube sensation The Piano Guys are a musical group of men that happened to stumble across each other in 2010 sharing the same desire: to make an impact on people’s lives through creating music videos. Their beliefs, as stated on their website, is that a person who only listens to the same type of music parallels someone insisting on living in only one room of their home for the entirety of their life.

helicopter! By experimenting with different cultures and collaborating with a range of artists, their work constantly feels fresh, as it keeps changing direction. Having expectations is unrealistic because there is not a Piano Guys set style. Through utilising classical music and altering it, they have managed to effectively mix contrasting music genres together.

The team consists of Jon Schmidt both pianist and songwriter, Steven Sharp Nelson cellist and songwriter, Paul Anderson, videographer and producer, and Al Van Der Beek, music producer and songwriter. Their success rocketed from their Youtube videos and in all four albums they have hit number 1 on Billboard New Age Albums and Classical Album Charts. The Piano Guys began touring, performing in America and shortly expanded, travelling to Tokoyo, Paris, Canada and all across England.

Their instrumental versions of popular music can only enhance your love for a mainstream song such as their rendition of Christina Perri’s A Thousand Years. It is a hard task to bring classical music to life, luring classical novices in and it is arguable that their endeavours are successful. Conversely, from a musician’s perspective, The Piano Guys are highly irritating. Between the pianist’s rapid octave jumps and the cellist’s complex fingering, none of their pieces are technically easy.

Schmidt trained as a classical musician therefore gaining control and precision over his fingers. When observing his playing it is as if his hands are gliding over the piano like water. Nevertheless, aspiring musicians must recognise that he has had twenty years of practise during his solo career before The Piano Guys was created.

So who really are they? The Piano Guys travel to iconic locations such as the Great Wall of China to shoot their music videos. Wherever they go, the instruments go with. They do not simply hire a green screen, shoot close ups of faces and sing at the camera. Instead they stamp their mark by the videos locations, just as they devised an African styled version of Coldplay’s Paradise featuring guest artist Alex Boyle. African percussion instruments were involved as well as transporting their grand piano to the top of a cliff using a

So if you fancy delving into a new musical experience, then go and explore the wonders of The Piano Guys.

Words: Jessica Clot

MUSIC // 31

“ Would you just shut up about

Björk already Words: Daniel Crewe

I’ll level with you here; Björk’s latest record is neither what I expected nor what I wanted. I wanted Biophilia’s eclectic sense of scale with Homogenic’s raw energy.

I wanted Arca’s stamp all over the production. I wanted something shiny to show off whenever people say “Would you just shut up about Björk already?”. What I’ve instead received is essentially, albeit in typical avant-garde fashion, a heartbreak album. Each song was written at a different point in the disintegration of her relationship (5 months before, 3 months before, 2 months after, so on and so forth), and every song is directed towards a singular audience of ‘You’ (the ex in question), with only an ephemeral reference to their daughter with an occasional ‘We’ or ‘Her’. It’s a deeply personal, almost voyeuristic thing to listen to at first, but regardless of whether this was what I wanted, this is the album I have. Now that the dust has been given a chance to settle it’s time to re-assess the situation.

First mention is of course the album leak. It was particularly bad with Vulnicura, with the release pushed two months ahead of schedule. I doubt it was ever the plan to go up against Uptown Funk in the charts, and the digital-exclusivity definitely had a negative effect on the commercial performance. Not that this matters of course; the fact that it performed well despite this is one of the reasons why critics have called it her ‘most accessible project in years’, something also down to the universal fetish for heartbreak music listeners have. Lyrics that might evoke cynical reactions from anyone else somehow manage to sound fresh and original.

?”

When Björk sings:

“What is it that I have that makes me feel your pain?”

- that’s when you know some serious shit has gone down in her universe. The one song maybe constituting something a little more uplifting, Atom Dance with Antony Hegarty, in my opinion lowers the tone. If I had to choose a fault then this would be it.

Haxan Cloak, who mixed the album, also had his work cut out in playing the diplomat between Arca’s sporadic spasms of percussion and the melancholic string arrangements that formed Björk’s initial sketches. It’s an unsatisfying thing to listen to, as track after track merges each other, but in hindsight it occupies its niche profoundly well; documenting a journey through naïve optimism, anguish, anger and finally a kind of Zen redemption. The final track Mouth Mantra concludes:

“Now I sacrifice this scar, can you cut it off?”

And you really realise how instrumental the recording process was in Björk’s rehabilitation. Vulnicura will be remembered as a defining point in her career.

Hattie Long met up with Queen Mary’s very own Luke Shield, guitarist and lead singer from East London four-piece Thieves, to find out a bit more about their up and coming band. Taking their influences largely from 60s beat music and psychedelic rock and roll, theirs is “a vintage sound remodelled around our generation”

What made you want to start the band?

I was always good friends with Mike (lead guitar), our tastes in music were quite different at the start but we jammed and recorded some demos and stuff and gradually it just came closer and closer. Now we listen to basically the exact same music whereas before there was a big dichotomy between what we were actually listening to. It’s translated into the music we’re doing now, I think, where we’ve found our own little thing; it’s still evolving, but it’s getting closer to what we both have in our minds.

In your sound you can hear a strong influence from The Rolling Stones and The Libertines, do you think there is anything that particularly draws you to those sort of bands?

Photo c/o: Bread and Shutter Photography

With The Stones especially, it’s the legacy they’ve created where it wasn’t just about the band it was about this whole different world that they created. I think The Smiths did that, The Sex Pistols did that. Just counterculture bands really.

Tough acts to follow! And you were in the studio this weekend - what did you get up to?

Basically, ‘I Want You’ which is the single from the EP was about 4 minutes long so we thought we’d do a re-edit of it. We did the vocals again, put two more guitars on and cut a load of stuff to make it about 3 1/4 minutes just so it’s more radio friendly. We have had a few radio plays but a lot of people won’t even take a look at it if it’s over 3 1/2 minutes and it was just a bit of fun really, gave us a chance to experiment in the studio a bit.

Are there any new bands that you’re listening to at the minute?

Last time we played at Purple Turtle we played with a band called Hidden Charms and they’re a part of this revival at the minute. They’re really good, very British Beats movement kind of style but they’ve also got an American West Coast psychedelic thing happening. The TWurning too.

We’re going to get a gig all together hopefully in May at The Borderline in Soho; it’s just gonna be us three bands.

Our music is all down the same kind of vein.

What gigs have you got coming up if anyone wants to come check you out?

Our next gig is at Purple Turtle in Camden on 7th March. Hopefully we’ll be headlining that one as it’s a really good venue. Then we have Dublin Castle on 13th March then 11th April we’re playing the Garage in Islington.

It’s going to be our own gig; there will be tickets on sale soon and it’s going to be quite a big one so it would be good if people could come down.

In terms of other projects that we’ve got going on, towards the end of March we’re going to Real World Studios which is Peter Gabriel’s studio near Bath. If you go on Wikipedia you can see all the artists that have recorded there like Jay-Z, Kanye West, Massive Attack, Paul Simon… All these crazy artists. We’ve got the opportunity to go and record another four songs there that are going to be released gradually as singles just to keep things going. I think we’ve got some stronger songs than were on the EP. It’s easier writing now that we’ve been playing together for quite a while... well, it’s only seven months, but it’s getting more and more comfortable by the day.

As a television show that was created by one of the most eminent feminists in the contemporary sphere, Lena Dunham’s Girls needs little introduction. It has split opinion in that some have viewed the show as a profusion of think-pieces with each episode on the complex neo-feminism of the central characters, whilst others are simply getting irritated at fictional girls for being flawed.

In the sixth instalment of the fourth season, entitled ‘Close-Up’, I was pleased to see a flawed boy in Girls once more. It is of no dispute that Hannah’s on/off boyfriend Adam was lousy when we first encountered him, and intermittently since then (his unreciprocated sexual fantasies of male dominance were at best weird, and at worst abusive). But of

GIRLS

late, his character has been stable, successful, and even reasonable. Given that the only other straight male in Girls is Ray – a man who is at least fairly stable and always reasonable, if only recently successful - the instability of modern life has been left exclusively to the show’s female characters.

Hannah’s GBF Elijah perhaps shares this with the girls, although it must be considered as to whether the viewer is really invested in his twentysomething story towards adulthood. Don’t the writers just keep him there for the A* one-liners almost exclusively? The unexplained but delightful ‘I woke up in Harlem smelling like moussaka’, the unwittingly postmodern ‘I realised I got so good at selfies, I was bored. And I was like, what would happen if I turned the camera around?’ or the simple classic ‘It was nice to see you. Your dad is gay.’

Alongside this, I had a sense that Adam had done his share of beginnings, of becomings, and of growing; he was attending AA, he had acted in a Broadway show, and he was being very down to earth about the reality of his and Hannah’s long-distance relationship (even if he wasn’t all that forthcoming about his thoughts on it). But, in ‘Close-Up’, he became a flawed boy once more.

And thank f*ck. I mean, to have the men in the show consistently reasonable is completely unreasonable. IRL men are as flawed as women, and men can be immature boys as much as women can be hysterical girls , sometimes even more so owing to the fascinating nature of equality.

In this episode, Adam’s latest girlfriend Mimi-Rose

Photos c/o: Girls // HBO

informs him, in the most nonchalant of manners, that she cannot join him for a run because she had an abortion yesterday.

To put it mildly, Adam proceeds to act like a child.

First came that stereotypical territorial male anxiety: ‘Was it mine?’ (‘Yes, of course it was yours.’) He then trashes the apartment a little, because acts of aggression are super masculine and that’s super cool. He continues to act incredulous as he learns that a close female friend accompanied and supported Mimi-Rose as she had the abortion, instead of him. At the end of this testosterone rampage, he puts his things in boxes, and packs his bags.

Throughout this, Mimi-Rose is very chill. I know we all wanted to dislike her for her ridiculous name, but after this episode it is pretty much impossible.

Her pro-choice position on the subject (‘It was a ball of cells. … It didn’t have a penis or a vagina’), in addition to her near-laughing at Adam, for thinking he should have had some input on said choice, is applaudable; I want to be the Meryl Streep standing ovation to her Patricia Arquette acceptance speech at the Oscars.

Is it that he had been so used to a girl that needed him (Hannah) that independence took him by surprise? Perhaps. I don’t think this excuses his behaviour, but he appears to realise how awful he had been, to start to listen and to understand, when Mimi-Rose catches him outside her apartment with his boxes and bags. Adam is flawed, Adam can be a boy, and Adam is still growing, just like the girls – and just like most of us.

WORDS: LAURA STAAB

Photo c/o: Veronica Mars // Wiki

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

FILM // 39

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

POWER TO THE PEOPLE Kickstarter, Indiegogo and FundingCircle are all famous internet platforms you may have heard of that give people from across the world an opportunity to make their dreams a reality, with the help of random donations for their projects. Those in the creative arts leapt at this opportunity, and filmmakers were no exception, with the opportunists taking advantage of the direct interaction between creators and their audience, whilst giving the people a choice about what’s on their screen.

One of the most famous crowd-funding projects was the reboot of the cult TV show Veronica Mars starring Kristen Bell. After being cancelled abruptly back in 2007, the screenwriter was desperate to get his playwright to the big screen and turned to the Internet. It took just 11 hours to raise $2 million, showing how their small fan base had not withered over the years. This caused a storm online, hailing it as the new form of funding for future films.

The popularity of crowd funded films seems to not only be in quantity but in quality too. Life Itself, a biopic about film critic Roger Ebert, went on win over 20 awards for best documentary and was exclusively funded by 1,657 backers on Indiegogo.

This complemented the fact that Roger Ebert was a fan of audience interaction and believed that the future relied on online communities such as Twitter, making the production of the film a tribute to his legacy just as much as the film itself. So, with platforms established, the key thing is for the creators to understand their audience, as

the opportunity it creates for those who are less likely to be awarded grants and funding by larger companies is something we should not neglect.

With just 18% of directors being women, highplatform female-directed films have been able to raise enough money for production, thanks to the public. The incredibly powerful horror movie The Babadook directed by Jennifer Kent was able to raise the remaining $30,000 dollars needed to complete the movie, which went on to win worldwide acknowledgement among critics. Those from an ethnic minority background are given a chance to achieve success in a field dominated by white males through online support. Popular satire Dear White People used the power of Twitter shout-outs as an award for pledgers and went on to be a success, whilst Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour directed and wrote A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night with the help of 290 funders, giving her the opportunity to enter a profession she had dreamt about since she was 12.

The alternatives that crowd funding can provide filmmakers are amazing, but what’s even better is the way that in which using this online resource enables them to create an entire mass advertising campaign which reaches their direct audience.

The power of crowd funding lies in giving the audience a sense of democracy in the world of film, rather than relying on big money companies to tell us what it is we want.

Words: Savena Surana

VS.

Words: Krish Raichura

CINEMATIC WARFARE AT ITS FINEST

Photo c/o: Wikimedia Commons

The stage has been set, the gauntlet thrown down. The greatest pop culture war in history has begun. It is safe to say that comic movies have become a cultural phenomenon with both Marvel’s The Avengers and DC’s The Dark Knight grossing more than $1 billon worldwide at the box office.

This not only highlights the way in which superheroes like Captain America and Wonder Woman are becoming household names, but also speaks to something much larger in that they are changing Hollywood and the film industry in general.

Just to give some insight, Sony owned all of Marvel’s Spiderman properties years before Marvel studios came to fruition. This meant only they could make Spiderman movies or have movies in which Spiderman was present.

However, recently due to fan demand, Marvel and Sony struck a deal where Spiderman would appear in the same movie, Captain America: Civil War. Sony would continue to solely produce standalone Spiderman movies, but would lend the character to future Marvel projects. How does this impact Hollywood in the wider scheme of things? This is the first time in history major Hollywood players like Sony and Marvel have come to a mutually beneficial deal and set a precedent for what could possibly happen in the future. Could we see

the X-men appear in any future Marvel movies? This also means that, in the future, we could see films with enormous budgets as studios would be splitting the costs of production and therefore halving the risk of not making their money back.

So we know what Marvel are doing, but what is DC up to? DC has been notoriously tight lipped with most of their projects. Batman Vs. Superman is supposed to hit theatres next year, and we are yet to an official teaser trailer! However, what DC have been quite open with is their upcoming Suicide Squad, which sees a group of notorious Batman villains like The Joker, his lover Harley Quinn and Deadshot being brought together for a covert Government operation, fronted by the mysterious Amanda Waller.

Marvel may have more films out than DC, but DC has the upper hand in terms of their diverse array of characters. Marvel’s current line-up features only one prominent female in Scarlett Johansson, and all the people of colour are supporting characters like Anthony Mackie’s Falcon. However, Marvel have announced films with both an African-American lead and a female protagonist in Black Panther and Captain Marvel, slated for release in 2017 and 2018 respectively. DC, on the other hand, has made diversity a priority from the offset. From

casting an Israeli model/actress as Wonder Woman rather than the brunette-haired all American ingénue, casting Hawaiian/Native American actor Jason Mamoa as Aquaman and openly gay actor Ezra Miller as The Flash. In a world where the lack of diversity in cinema is not only a hotly debated cultural and politicised issue (see 2015, the whitest Oscars ever and Viola Davis’ hair-raising SAG acceptance speech) but also where female and ethnic-driven films are making a massive mark on the box office (see The Fast and Furious franchise and Bridesmaids), it is clear that both DC and Marvel are capitalising on the talent in underrepresented groups - and rightly so. Hopefully, this will transcend genres and Hollywood in general will diversify in the way that comic book movies are.

Comic book movies are making billions for the studios that produce them; actors from every corner of the industry, even Oscar favourites such as Robert Redford, Viola Davis, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are fighting for coveted roles, and winning Oscars for starring them (see the late, great Heath Ledger). Superhero movies are here to stay - that’s ultimately the be all and end all, so while Marvel and DC wage cinematic war on one another, we should all sit back and enjoy.

Here at CUB, we like to showcase real QM talent. And here it is. Introducing Elishama Udorok (or Lish for short), a final year Materials Science student , who takes pictures, makes films and does backflips in his spare time. His inspiration comes from his closest friends, family, parkour, freerunning, grime music and the borough of Hackney where he was born and raised.

To see more of Lish’s photography, check out his Instagram @LishPics or website: www.lish.pics

PHOTOGRAPHY // 41

SHUTTERBUG.

T U O B A _ K L A T LET'S_ KERS,_BABY SEX_WOR

OTTE WATSON WORDS: CHARL

When the predominant social attitude towards a taboo subject is as deeply ingrained as it is with something like sex work, it can be hard to change people’s minds.

With an overwhelmingly negative perception, it’s easy to see why people view sex work in an entirely pejorative manner – think of all the slurs you know that are meant to connote ‘promiscuous’ women. Now think of how many have connections to prostitution... there you go.

However, the results of a new survey from Leeds University and the Wellcome Trust could go some way towards changing these perceptions. Contrary to the undesirable light most people cast sex workers in – the trope of the drug addict from a broken family is all too familiar – it has shown that over 70% of UK sex workers surveyed have previously worked in ‘respectable’ (emphasis on the inverted commas) lines of work such as healthcare, education and charity.

The study of 240 sex workers showed that 38% held undergraduate degrees, whilst 17% had postgraduate qualifications, and in an era when we’re all concerned about how to balance the budget after education, the survey showed that one condition that made many people consider sex work was the financial advantage. One sex worker known as ‘Abbie’ commented that the flexible working hours, combined with high tariffs, made it easier to pay off her mortgage than her previous NHS job.

So what do these results mean? Well, there’s no doubt that they’re not entirely representative – a sample size of 240 can hardly be generalised, and there’s a big issue that only sex workers who actively chose to partake in sex work were interviewed. It is important to remember that the privilege in which you are able to choose sex work is likely to lead to an entirely different experience than that of trafficking, or having no other discernible option. It is also important to note that documenting the experience of only the people that chose sex work is likely to lead to misinformation about the viability of the business – not every sex worker is going to have the Belle du Jour experience, especially when they enter the industry from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Despite this, it does go a long way to dispel some of the more prominent myths about sex workers. It shows that the demographic is not as narrow as commonly thought, and hopefully it will go some way to smashing the stigma attached to those who work in the sex industry. To view sex work as something inherently dirty or taboo shows a lack of understanding of its nuances, and surely the problem is to do with demand as much as it is the supply. Showing sex workers as autonomous individuals with many different characters and reasons for entering the profession can only be a good thing – with more research like this, with any luck the social perception of a booming business can become more realistic.

My point is that unless you’re some kind of super human, the last year of university is an incredibly trying time for most of us students. You’ve probably never been under so much pressure before and are probably psyching yourself out even more through your desire to do well and put on that cap and gown. This pressure affects people differently. Some people hit the gym like maniacs, some people eat their feelings and for some, their sex life goes out the window. The most important thing to know is that this is absolutely acceptable.

Your final year is a time when looking after yourself has never been so important. Too tired to have sex?

Fine. Too stressed to have sex? That’s fine too. You’re literally spending every minute of the day writing, making sex physically impossible? Guess what, that’s fine too - although please try and eat and shower.

One should never feel like sex is an obligation, or a chore. Do not make not having sex another thing to add to your mounting pile of worries.

Words: Sarah Pinder

This has likely nothing to do with how happy you are in your relationship, or with your sex life in general. It’s important, if you have a partner, to talk to them. Explain to them that for you, sex is falling to the bottom of the agenda right now as you have a lot on your plate. They should understand and be there when all you need is a cuddle, or someone to share that Ben and Jerry’s you’ve rewarded yourself with for getting your first chapter done. If they’re in their final year too, they’re probably feeling the exact same way. Just know that after all this is over, it’s more than likely you’ll figuratively want to get right back on that horse again.

You might find however, that it’s not that your libido has disappeared, but has suddenly become highly inappropriate. Middle of a library session? BAM, horny as hell. Revising at home alone?

WHOOSH, in come those sexy feelings. Here, alas, I cannot help. Perhaps, on this occasion, it’s a case of what happens in the library, stays in the library...?

Photo c/o: Books for Keeps

Giving this a quick Google, science says the things that affect someone’s sex life are: stress, tiredness, anxiety and more stress. Well, guess what happens during your final year? You’re so stressed you burst into tears at dog food adverts, all nighters in the library turn you into a zombie and you worry that no one will ever hire you and you’ll have to move back to Cornwall to become a pirate… or maybe that’s just me?

It’s not you, it’s my thesis...

UNISEX // 43

It’s 2015 and another cohort of Queen Mary students are in the throes of the final few months of their degrees and whilst workload has sky-rocketed upwards, speaking to friends feeling the strain of this time, it seems a lot of people’s libidos have taken a very different direction. I for one feel that with the onslaught of a dissertation, what seems like a million essays, and applying for grad schemes, my bed has become a cuddle-only zone.

Words: Katie Gill COLUMNIST

The (Neat and Orderly) Ramblings of an Obsessive Compulsive

‘Superstition ain’t the way...’

Growing up, I was always subjected to my Mum’s superstitions. If we were walking down the street and there was a ladder ahead she would grab me by the shoulders and quickly steer me around it. When I would change into my pyjamas at night and start turning my discarded, inside-out clothes back to their original state she would grab my arm and say ‘Don’t do that, you’ll change your luck!’

Recently I have been struck by the similarities between superstitions and OCD. To this day I still have to take off my clothes without turning them inside out so that I don’t have to turn them back the right way again and risk ‘changing my luck’.

I know it’s irrational, just as I knew that my OCD rituals were irrational.

So what, if any, are the differences between superstitions and OCD? The dictionary defines ‘superstition’ as ‘a widely held but irrational belief in supernatural influences, especially as leading to good or bad luck, or a practice based on such a belief.’ The ‘irrational’ element of superstitions is the same as that of OCD rituals.

In both cases, the sufferer knows that their anxiety is irrational, yet they still feel compelled to carry out the ritual in order to shift their feeling of panic. The ‘supernatural elements’ of superstitious behaviour can also be compared to OCD. OCD sufferers believe that something bad will happen if they don’t

perform their rituals. This implies that there is some omniscient figure waiting to pounce when the ritual is not completed, which is similar to how superstitious people believe that they will receive bad luck for not complying with the rules of the superstition.

Many actors hold such beliefs.

It is widely believed that to say ‘Macbeth’ in a theatre is unlucky, and anyone who utters the name must perform a ritual in order to counteract the ‘curse’. These irrational beliefs are everywhere and seem to be more socially acceptable than OCD. If somebody is superstitious, people generally seem to make light of the situation and move on. This is not the case for OCD sufferers. Perhaps this is because many people share the same superstitions and can therefore openly discuss them. This stresses the importance of talking about things; sharing what makes us anxious so that we can understand each other. After all, superstitions have the same effect on a person that an OCD ritual would have.

The reason we all laugh off superstitious behaviour is because we all talk openly about it, whether or not we are superstitious.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could get to the same stage of talking as casually about mental health issues?