Vibe Magazine- Issue 02

VIBE

ISSUE 2

March 2012

WELCOME Hello and welcome to the second issue of Vibe. Firstly I’d like to thank everyone who read the first issue, nearly 2000 of you!

This month our magazine has got bigger and better. We have articles ranging from Facebook addiction, a local football match and the PR students working on their project for charity ‘Kind’.

If you want to write an article for Vibe, email me at supresident@edgehill.ac.uk with what you’re interested about writing about and we will try and get your work into the next issue.

This month also sees the voting open for elections. From the 7th until the 14th March you have the opportunity to vote for who you want to be your Vice Presidents and President for academic year 2012/13. It is essential you read the manifestos and vote for who represents your interests best.

Hope you enjoy.

VIBE Colin Gibson

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Contact: Edge Hill Students’ Union St Helens Road Ormskirk L394QP www.edgehillsu.org.uk 01695657301

(c) Edge Hill Students’ Union.

The views expressed by contributers and correspondants are their own and responsibility for the contents rests soley with themselves.

Editor: Colin Gibson (supresident@edgehill.ac.uk) Designer: Dan Lindsay Editorial board: Paul Malone Chief Executive Edge Hill Students’ Union, Andy Tibbs Programme leader in Media.

Contributers: Jack Unwin, Hannah Hayward, Daniel Murphy, Emma-Jane Samworth, Amy Harrison, Claire Unwin, Samantha Williamson, Mark Gould, Aimee Miller, Mark Williams, Colin Munro, Mollie Taylor, Nadia U, Rebecca Panks, Joe Cox, Sian Holmes, Patrick Shield, Alexander Goldsmith, Paul Molloy, Abigail Skinner, Jessica Fox, Peter Hughes, Adam Bond, Michael Stewart, Adam Dean, Alex Chandler, Alex Freeman, Beth Stacey, David Kay, Luke Shoesmith, Marlon Onsongo,

CONTENTS

CONTENTS March 2012

4-5 Facebook Addiction 6-9 What’s On 10-11 Music 12-15 Horoscopes 16-17 Student exchange programme 18-25 Film 26-29 TV 30-33 Games 34-35 Day in the life 36-37 Students Kick Start 38-39 Student Brain 40-41 Student Life 42-43 Grammies 44-47 Fashion 48-51 Sport

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FACEBOOK Facebook: Just how addictive can it be?

M

y Mum and Dad got me a book last Christmas for a laugh, Help! I’m a Facebookaholic.

Finding the funny side, I then realised that ironically that Christmas morning, the first thing I did was check Facebook on my Blackberry to see who was up and about, so the title seemed more fitting to me than I’d first thought. I have also heard of Facebook Addiction

popular social network for people to be on until the recent boom in popularity of Facebook and, to an extent, Twitter took over. It is now incredibly easy to update your status, upload photos and check what your favourite celebrities are up to at a desktop or on the go.

Sounds simple enough, but there are both good and bad points about social networking which will become clear.

So, what’s good about using Facebook? Of course there will be many more good and bad points to using Facebook, but these are just a few notable examples. Obviously, it’s a free and easily accessible way of keeping in touch with others, so you needn’t worry about long and expensive phone bills arriving at the end of the month. Its also definitely an easy way to organise your social life, with events being created

Disorder (FAD), which I thought was a crazy idea at first, but reading further into it proved me completely wrong in the fact that people will go to extreme measures to check their profiles. So, how much is too much?

Social networking is somewhat of a necessity today; everyone has some form of profile or blog.

Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Tumblr are just some of the big examples of social networking sites, where you can create your own personal space and share your thoughts and opinions. Myspace was the long-running

at the click of a button and the opportunity of inviting your Facebook friends. Its incredibly easy now to browse through your news feed daily, with smartphones such as Blackberry and iPhone having a dedicated app, so it can be accessed in seconds.

Facebook also has its flaws, many of these being pointed out in the media recently. Firstly the issue of privacy is still one of the main problems with the site, with one recent Daily Mail article reporting that “Facebook has admitted that it has been watching the web pages its members visit - even when they have logged out”, a definite invasion of privacy. Another problem with Facebook, maybe more personally, is that it is just too time-consuming! A quick check for notifications can turn into a two-hour marathon of scrolling aimlessly through the news feed, nothing gained just two hours lost.

FACEBOOK time-consuming! A quick check for notifications can turn into a two-hour marathon of scrolling aimlessly through the news feed, nothing gained just two hours lost.

With Facebook itself being a relatively new site launching in 2004, the idea of Facebook Addiction Disorder, or FAD, is a brand new concept. It seems hard to even consider that you could become addicted to a website, some people would probably completely dismiss the idea, but there is a relatively large discussion within the media today about the negative effects of Facebook on social life and relationships. The Canadian MSN site posted a story on the idea of FAD, questioning whether it was legitimate or “a psychiatric overreaction”.

Now some people would be happy to sit clicking through profiles all day, but that is definitely something out of the ordinary, right? Like any other source of addiction, when it begins to interfere with your daily life, that’s when you know that something isn’t right. To get an idea of this, one study in Germany even led one journalist to decide that “Facebook is more addictive than sex and cigarettes”, make of that what you will. As Facebook is so vast, and there are other applications involved such as quizzes, games and celebrity profiles, it is easy to find something to latch on to when you’re bored which then becomes a bit of a habit. Then that farm on FarmVille doesn’t just get the occasional visit, it becomes part of your daily routine. There are posts

swarming the Internet with advisory warning signs to establish whether you could be classed as an addict, such as updating your status more than twice a day, or indulging in way too much profile stalking (I’m sure you’ve all done it at least once!). I can hold my hands up and say some of these “signs” would probably apply to my Facebook habits, but its knowing how much is too much that can be the problem for some people. One of the most extreme examples of giving into the Facebook craving is from a recent article in The Huffington Post, where two teenagers broke into a CNN newsroom in America at 3:30am, all to check their Facebook pages. Hopefully alarm bells would ring before you get to that stage, but that is just one example how addictive Facebook can actually be.

With FAD being a new idea, there is not enough research out there to be completely classed as a medical condition, so it is hard to actually understand completely if there’s the possibility of addiction. As it is easily accessible as well, this gives the temptation to have a quick nosey at what other people are up to, but this mentality can lead to a greater need for it. This only leaves the age-old advice for now, when it starts to get in the way too much, switch off!

By Daniel Murphy

WHATS ON IN BRIDGET JONES: THE MUSICAL I

t has been rumoured that Bridget Jones the Musical is looking to open at the Savoy Theatre near the end of this year. Workshops have been held since 2009 and it looks like Sheridan Smith and Michael Xavier (currently touring with Wonderful Town) will star as Bridget and Daniel Cleaver. With a book by Helen Fielding, music and lyrics by Lily Alan and Greg Kurstin and direction and choreography by Billy Elliot team Stephen Daldry and Peter Darling, the show promises to be a hit. The production, however, is facing delays due to set and book revision so although it is scheduled to open in December it might be put back until the New Year.

LIVERPOOL EMPIRE F or one night only, Hormonal Housewives storms into Liverpool this month on Tuesday 5th March

at 7.30pm with Benidorm actress Margi Clarke in the leading role. It’s a show full of laughs centred on the joys of being a girl…weight, wine, PMS, men, chocolate, men, chocolate…etc. and has scored mixed reviews but is billed ‘a hilarious evening of excessive laughter’.

Also coming to the Empire on 12th, 13th and 14th is the Russian State Ballet bringing Giselle and the classic Swan Lake. Alternatively, the opera La Traviata will be performed on 17th March featuring the internationally acclaimed Ukranian National Opera of Kharkiv or you can enjoy the award winning opera Madame Butterfly boasting tremendous sets and Japanese costumes on the 16th March.

Finally, the 60’s holiday romance musical Save The Last Dance For Me is heading to the Empire on Monday 26th running until 31st March with matinees, 2.30pm, on the Wednesday and Saturday.

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EVERYMAN AND PLAYHOUSE THEATRE

T

ennessee Williams’ hard-hitting play A Streetcar Named Desire continues to show at the Everyman and Playhouse Theatre until 10th March.

Then from 13th to the 17th March, Spymonkey present Oedipussy parodying the classic Greek Tragedy.

PRICES

Prices at The Rose can vary between £4 and £11 and concessionary prices are available to students with valid ID. Alternatively you can buy a season ticket for around £20 which provides you with four tickets usable for most of the shows. Tickets can be booked online, by phone or at the Box Office.

Tickets for the Empire Theatre can vary between £10-£50 whilst most tickets for The Everyman and Playhouse Theatre are around £12.

WHATS ON COMING TO THE THEATRES SOON

ROSE THEATRE

here have been plenty of popular musicals based on already well-established commercial successes such as the Lion King, Shrek the Musical, Billy Elliot and Legally Blonde but is there room for any more? Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark, written by U2’s Bono and The Edge, pushed the boundaries of theatre in 2010 and 2011 with complicated sets leading to technical faults and cast injuries; the opening was delayed 6 times but last month broke the Broadway box-office record of highest turnover in one week. British audiences may have to wait to see Spider-man but it won’t be long until Viva Forever, the Spice Girls musical, opens towards the end of this year and The Book of Mormon, written by South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone with Robert Lopez (Avenue Q), is set to move to the Prince of Wales Theatre in early 2013. Bringing well-established properties and turning them into musicals seems to be the in-thing now, and with increasing west end audiences and critical success it seems these new generation musicals will long continue.

Stand-Up Comedy March A night of hilarious comedy featuring Sully Sullivan, Ecuador’s energetic El Purnell, youthful Jay Hampson and Phil Chapman as compere. Not recommended for under 18’s.

Tuesday, 6th March 2012, 8.00pm An Evening with the Novelist, Jane Rogers In collaboration with Edge Hill’s Creative Writing Department.

Thursday, 8th March 2012, 7.30pm The Urban Folk Quartet Returning to the Rose to perform their high-energy show of globally-influenced folk music.

Saturday, 10th March 2012, 8.00pm Black T-shirt Collection Fuel present Nigerian born Inua Ellams’ evocative story about where a t-shirt comes from and what it means.

Monday, 12th March 2012, 7.30pm Gameshow A brand new dance piece featuring Glitz and Glamour.

Watch the game unfold and the sacrifices made in order to win the big.

Wednesday, 14th March 2012, 7.30pm A Dybbuk 2nd year Performing Arts students present this Eastern European symbolist drama exploring heaven and hell, ancient and modern in poetry, dance and song – not to be missed!

Thursday, 22nd March 2012, 7.30pm Saturday, 24th March 2012, 7.30pm The Wedding 2nd year Performing Arts students present the Eastern European symbolist drama exploring heaven and hell, ancient and modern in poetry, dance and song – not to be missed!

Friday, 23rd March 2012, 7.30pm Saturday, 24th March 2012, 2.30pm Snow Play Lyngo Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith present.

For all ages and their families.

Saturday, 31st March 2012, 2.30pm

T

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WHATS ON IN

OMIGOD!

Legally Blonde the Musical Review, 8th February 2012, 2.30pm

I

t was announced in January this year that West Ends’ Legally Blonde will be closing 5 months early after a successful run of around two and a half years. The production opened in December 2009 at the Savoy Theatre and went on to win seven major theatre awards including the Olivier Award for Best Musical.

However, there have been rumours of a Sydney, Australia production and the UK tour is at regional theatres until 25th August with Ray Quinn and Les Dennis in lead roles.

The show, based on the hit movie of the same name starring Reese Witherspoon, follows Elle Woods as she follows her recently-ex-boyfriend to Harvard Law School determined to win him back. The show certainly had a west-end style buzz with an almost perfect cast and one of the best finales I have ever seen. Design wise, it was practically the same as the London one, creating a joyous feel-good atmosphere with its wild pink glitteryness and travelling luminescent border. The sound wasn’t great with most songs click tracked and much of the singing muffled but with such high-energy dance routines, it is no surprise extra voices are needed to boost the ensemble.

I was pleased to see the pit being used for the orchestra which is often left empty with touring shows preferring to use pre-recorded music rather than a live band. Faye Brookes, playing Elle, lacked lustre in the beginning of Act One but soon came into the character with a faultless performance matching Sheridan Smith, the original London ‘Elle’.

I was intrigued to see Ray Quinn acting as the heartthrob Warner since he does not match the physique of previous actors like Duncan James and Richard Fleeshman; whilst his acting and singing were good, he didn’t live up to the part. Les Dennis and Claire Sweeney, both Liverpool born, gave flawless portrayals of Professor Callaghan and Paulette which were well received by the audience. However, the highlight of the show, for me, was Charlotte Harwood who played a flawless Vivienne with exhilarating, envious singing in the finale.

The cast were a delight to watch with hundreds of dazzling costumes. Giving their all in every song and scene with high energy routines and a beaming smile, I could watch it over and over.

By Beth Stacey

WHATS ON COULD YOU BE JESUS?

L

ord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest search is asking just this. The search is on for the lead in the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar set for an arena tour later this year. Lloyd Webber previously found stars for The Sound of Music, Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat, Oliver! and The Wizard of Oz with the BBC but the latest show ‘Superstar’ will be airing on ITV every night for three weeks during June and July. Sir Tim Rice, who wrote the shows’ original lyrics, is firmly against the idea of the television show saying ‘I really don’t think Superstar needs that tasteless reality television treatment’ nevertheless the show will be going ahead with regional auditions beginning this month.

MUSIC

Album Review: Lana Del Rey – Born To Die L

“Off To The Races” utilises ana Del Rey, the self-proclaimed a hip hop beat with children ‘gangsta Nancy Sinatra’ has been doing the rounds on blogs ever since shouting and jeering in the her ‘buzz’ single Video Games hit the background, reminiscent of a internet in mid-2011, placing her on couple of MGMT’s hits and is quite countless ‘one to watch’ lists for 2012, different to the previous track. Lana receiving a Brit Award nomination for almost raps about her ‘old man’; the lyrics pour out like water “light ‘Best International Newcomer’ and of his life/fire of my loins” exposes the runaway, worldwide success of Video Games, caused the hype built Lana’s personality, and a sort of dry up about her to reach astronomical humour. The song brings to mind a sort of cat and mouse chase, an heights. energetic and experimental song,

Has she lived up to the which doesn’t sound like anything hype? The answer is yes. Brought at the moment. up on a diet of MTV and hip-hop,

Blue Jeans follows, and the debut album from Lana Del is a bluesy love ballad, utilising Rey reflects this, the hip-hop beats complement with her sultry vocals, the twang of a guitar and a hiphop beat and was the B-side to which are accompanied with some melancholic melodies creating a very her debut single “Video Games”.

The song stands out amongst the interesting style of music, imagine album in its own right, “you fit me Amy Winehouse’s “Back To Black”, Lady Gaga’s “The Fame” and Adele’s better/than my favourite sweater”.

“21”, put in a blender. “Born To Die” is While the song is throwback 60s, it the end result: it is as epic Hollywood manages to sound fresh, modern Blockbuster, and often as touching, it and classic at the same time.

The debut single from the is a very impressive, albeit a slightly album, “Video Games”, is the stand samey debut album. out track. A dreamy, glittering

The title track and second ballad, with just a harp and a single, “Born To Die”, has a classic piano to accompany Lana’s sultry opening, with soaring strings, sounding like the opening credits of vocals, before building a drum a 1940’s Hollywood movie. The lyrics into the composition towards the tell of a doomed relationship, which end, creating a gorgeous classic. accompanied with the very eccentric Like “Born To Die”, the track feels extremely nostalgic, sounding like video, is really quite profound. The track feels extremely nostalgic, playingsomething you heard long ago, and suddenly hitting you as though you on your emotions and with Lana’s slightly dry delivery “keep making me remember.

Other album highlights laugh/let’s go get high”; the song is a dynamic, explosive opening to the include “National Anthem”, a sort of dark version of Jessie J’s “Price album.

Tag”, with an opening reminiscent 10

of Verve’s “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, but with added fireworks, “Million Dollar Man” is like a classic Bond theme from the 60s, while “Summertime Sadness” is a glorious, tragic sounding ballad, in a similar vein to “Video Games”, sounding melancholic and haunting, yet at the same time, sounding warm and lush, and would do well as a single (obviously in summer). The closing track, “This Is What Makes Us Girls”, is a solid pop song, in true Lana style, singing “this is what makes us girls/we all look for heaven and we put love first”.

All in all, the album is extremely strong, and is definitely worth a few listens.

A strong set of songs, with almost no filler, “Carmen” is probably the only song to avoid. At first, the album does seem samey, repetitive and might bore you, but Lana’s talent shines through and will grab you in the end, and if you like Adele’s “21” or Amy Winehouse’s “Back To Black”, you are sure to like this.

MUSIC Single Review: Emeli Sandé – Next To Me T

he Brits Critics Choice, Emeli Sandé has been hidden in the background for years, featuring on tracks by Chipmunk, Wiley and Tinie Tempah, and writing songs for Cheryl Cole, Leona Lewis and even Susan Boyle, before bursting onto the scene in her own right with one of the best singles of last year, the 90s tinged, “Heaven”, reaching #2 last summer, and then went one better with her #1 duet with Professor Green “Read All About It” last November.

Her new single, Next To Me, is a Gospel flavoured, head bopping hit in the waiting, in a similar vein to Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” and Aloe Blacc’s “I Need A Dollar”, so expect the radio airwaves to lap it up. Emeli boasts of the pride she has for the man in her life, which is a very nice change from the likes of Adele complaining all the time, “you won’t

find him be unfaithful/ you will find him next to me”. The simple, chorus consists only of the title of the song and some extremely delightful “whoo hoo”s, which will get stuck in your head for hours after listening. Emeli’s voice is shown off to great effect, with some lovely harmonies and melodies, while the song has a driving drum beat which will get your toe tapping.

While the song isn’t as good as “Heaven”, it is a really pleasant and uplifting offering which should be a chart and radio smash, leaving you wanting more from Sandé.

Big things are expected of Ms Sandé, and with a line-up of hit

Single Review: Chris Brown - Turn Up The Music C

hris Brown returns with a Breezy produced track, “Turn Up The Music”, the first single from his forthcoming album “Fortune”. The track follows on from last year’s club hits, “Yeah 3x” and “Beautiful People”, and while those two managed to stand out amongst the endless dross that was the “generic club banger” category of 2011, this song sadly falls into that category. It is more or less the same as every other current club song, with inspired lyrics such as “turn up the music/fill your cup and drink it up”. While the

lyrics are not covering any new ground, the production saves the song, albeit only slightly.

The house inspired thumping beat, and post chorus breakdown will definitely get you moving, but only after a drink. It is clear that a similar evolution to Rihanna’s “We Found Love” being preceded by “Only Girl (In The World)” was the initial goal, but falls flat in comparison.

It is doubtful whether the song will be remembered this time next year, like his hits from last year were, but it is sure to please the current club goers either way, and will probably do well on the charts.

Album and Single reviews done by David Kay

Horoscopes

By Abigail Skinner

ARIES

Adventurous, outgoing, dynamic, competitive, impulsive, naïve Element – Fire Ruling Planet – Mars Symbol – The Ram Things are looking good this month, especially in your social sector. Your confidence is high and friends just can’t get enough of you.

Try to avoid arguments at home. Confrontation is possible with a sibling or close relative and there may be a nagging home problem on your mind. Don’t let your hot head get the better of you.

Try and take a step back from over working. It won’t help if you stress yourself out too much this month and it may be a good time to focus on your relationships.

Communication is vital for success and it may be easier to get your feelings across now.

TAURUS

Calm exterior, dislike change, sensual, stubborn, determined Element – Earth Ruling Planet – Venus Symbol – The Bull Money shouldn’t be too much of an issue for you this month. If you’ve been having trouble recently then you may come into some cash through a new job or opportunity. You may discover a secret as well but try your best to keep things to yourself and avoid the urge to gossip.

Energy levels could be quite low at the beginning of the month but they should soon pick up. Avoid staying in, you’re encouraged to get out there this month just avoid getting worked up over little things. Aggression could be an issue for you so take a deep breath and stay in control.

GEMINI

Curious, mischievous, incessant talkers, adventurous, indecisive Element – Air Ruling Planet – Mercury Symbol – The Twins You’re certainly going to be feeling good about yourself this month, Gemini and don’t be surprised if you receive many compliments as your own self confidence shines through. Now may be the time to attract that special someone.

If you’re in a relationship there may be issues which require you to take a step back and look in the mirror. Are you doing everything you can to make the relationship work or are you contributing to the issues as well? Avoid being egotistical as well; it could be taken the wrong way.

Horoscopes CANCER

Personality – Compassionate, ever-changing mood, eccentric, insecure, sensitive, romantic Element – Water Ruling Planet – The Moon Symbol – The Crab Things are looking good in the work area this month, Cancer, but it’s a time to slow down and take it easy especially if you’ve been over working or stressing. You may be feeling split, like part of you wants to go one way while the other half wants to go in the opposite direction. Just try not to over commit yourself or dive in to something with too much responsibility, things may not go to plan.

A good way to get around work issues is to remember, two heads are better than one! All in all keep up the good work; your public image is looking good!

LEO

Personality – Charismatic, stylish, leaders, adventurers, proud Element – Fire Ruling Planet – The Sun Symbol – The Lion There may be unwanted friction between friends this month, Leo. Whether you are directly involved or not try not to jump to any conclusions until you have all the facts.

Be patient as well. You don’t like being rubbed up the wrong way but then again no one else does either!

This may also be a good time to isolate yourself from the outside world just to recharge your batteries and reflect on your emotions away from outside distractions.

Avoid unnecessary resentment towards anyone; you have enough going on without little problems weighing you down.

VIRGO

Personality – Kind-hearted, creative, generous, good companions, stubborn.

Element – Earth Ruling Planet – Mercury Symbol - The Virgin Things are looking good for your career this month, Virgo. You’ll certainly be standing out from the crowd with your teacher or employer as your hard work is really noticed.

Now is the time to take hold of this opportunity and excel even further.

Towards the end of the month there will be more emphasis on your friendships, if there are any issues here then this is the perfect time to work on them. It’s a good time for meeting new people as well.

Horoscopes LIBRA

Personality – Happy-go-lucky, charming, creative, always have their head in the clouds.

Element – Air Ruling Planet – Venus Symbol - The Scales Stress may be getting to you this month, Libra, so now may be a good time to take a step back and take a break. Try getting away for a day, see new scenery, take in some fresh air; you’ll feel all the better for it after how hectic your life has been feeling recently. New opportunities could be there for you once you have a clearer head.

Single scales, keep your eyes open as the sun will be shining onto randy Aries, the weight of new love may be at hand. If you’re in a relationship there will be a much greater balance. Confidence will be high!

SCORPIO

Personality – Passionate, secretive, faithful, strong willed, critical Element – Water Ruling Planet – Pluto Symbol – The Scorpion Try not to make too many big decisions at the start of March, Scorpio. Any issues that arise will need some deep thought so try to be very critical about what you commit yourself to. Towards the very end of the month Mars moves into your career house so it will be easier to make big decisions.

Instead of worrying about these issues take this month as an opportunity to relax and enjoy the light hearted company of your friends before you need to turn all of your attention and devotion to your work.

Those in a relationship may find unwanted issues but for all you single pringles there could well be love in the air.

SAGITTARIUS

Personality – Optimistic, Adventurous, generous, honest, bored easily Element - Fire Ruling planets - Jupiter Symbol - The Archer This is the month, Sagittarians, that relationships will be put to the test. You’ll be sailing along fine in the beginning of the month but from the 12th onwards you may not like what you see in your partner. The issues may lie within, though, so it is a good time to step back and take a look in the mirror. Holding your tongue may be a good idea if things get heated.

You start to feel more creative towards the end of the month and your ego is feeling mighty big! You can’t stay in one place for too long so now may be a good time to get out there and meet new people!

CAPRICORN

Horoscopes Personality – Ambitious, conservative, cautious, romantic, sensitive Your element - Earth Your ruling planets - Saturn Symbol - The Goat New opportunities await you this month, Capricorn. Keep note of new ideas you think of, they will be well received by others. Money has been a stress for you lately but there will be less of a strain on your finances up until the 10th when you will want to splash out on some new idea or work outing. It may be wise to keep to your budget, now more than ever!

Patience is the answer for your love sector but it’s the second half of the month that will be less of a strain on your energy levels. To start with things may seem like a hassle or feel like they need extra effort but towards the end of March your happiness will rise and you may start to feel luckier!

AQUARIUS

Personality – Deep thinkers, outgoing, loyal, mysterious, caring, innovative.

Element - Air Ruling planets - Uranus Symbol - The Water Bearer It seems there is going to be a rollercoaster of a ride in love for you this month, Aquarius! A confrontation could be on the cards and a revelation will be discovered either about someone else or you. Look out for those little clues.

Being the deep thinkers you are there’s no doubt you’ve been worrying over your future and career. You’ve almost been feeling torn between different options. Be patient until the 24th when things will fall into place and you will find more comfort in the matter.

This is the month to take action with something that’s been bothering you as well.

Better to do it sooner rather than later when you can find more motivation with your creative ideas.

PISCES

Personality – Mysterious, multi-talented, adaptable, sensitive, obsessive, romantic.

Element - Water Ruling planets - Neptune Symbol - The Fish This month it’s a great time for some good spring cleaning, sort through your belongings and throw away objects which hold negative memories, it’ll make you feel good on the inside too, helping your mind to function more clearly while ideas continue to flow.

Popularity with friends is also on the list as you feel more confident, people will certainly notice the positive attitude in you! Get your name out there you have great potential to make connections with high up people.

Keep your eyes on your money, investing in a lottery ticket or two may not be such a waste of time while luck is on your side this March.

Cherrmany

P

icture it, a perfect late summer day, emperatures pushing 30, not a cloud blemishing the tartlingly blue sky. You’re sat on the banks of the Rhine n state capital Düsseldorf, basking in the afternoon sun, leasantly surprised at this unseasonal weather. The oaring behemoth of the 240m tall Rhine Tower to the left, he sprawling, pristine ‘Old Town’ to your right, nothing ould spoil your day. But then you hear it, a curious yet amiliar rumbling seemingly dragged up from somewhere eep within your childhood, you look up, gasp. You’ve een ripped from the glory of the day, torn asunder from he pristine tranquillity of summer stretching it’s merciful mbs into usually uncharted territory. And why? For what? Are your eyes deceiving you? Can it be? You better elieve it! That’s right, it’s a troupe of roller bladders out or a Sunday skate, 5, 6, 7, too many to count. Fully grown dults, resplendent in knee pads and crash helmets, afety always comes first when you’re hitting the dizzying eights of 10MPH. Always.

Why am I in Germany? Am I a German? No. Have I been xiled by some unfortunate circumstance resulting in my being forced to live here? Wrong again. I am here obviously) to study English. That’s right, laugh it up, I’m sed to it. It’s a common thing in Germany that after ntroducing yourself, you proceed to enquire about the tudies of the other person. In recent weeks this has oused within me a cynical smile, a knowing laugh. I know what’s coming.

Herr Klinsmann: “So hey, Shaun, what are you studying?”

Me: “English Linguistics” Herr Klinsmann: “hahaha, no really, what are you tudying?”

his is always greeted with a protestation of my eriousness, yes I do indeed study English linguistics in Germany which in turn is greeted by the remark that well you must be the best in the class” as if the only equirement of being a good linguist was to be a native peaker!!! can assure that it is most definitely not! should explain, I don’t actually live in bustling Düsseldorf, or the equally appealing Cologne, not even Aachen with its wonderful medieval cathedral. I live n Essen, coal mining central of Germany and every

bit as beautiful as the rock on which it was built. Heavily bombed during World War 2, Essen, and the majority of the surrounding towns, were rebuilt in a bland monotonous style. Where are the buildings Germany is famous for? This could be a city in any country in the world.

And yet, having said that, I don’t dislike my adopted home. I don’t dislike eating sausage on a regular basis. I don’t dislike beer at 80 cents a pint. And most importantly, above all else, I can honestly say that nothing in Germany brings me more pleasure than the humble double cheeseburger being renamed as the all conquering, world beating, face melting delight that is the Mc**** Double.

In addition to opening my eyes to the wonder of living in a different country, waking up every day in a different time zone and learning a new language, Germany has given me a new found appreciation for my home city, Liverpool.

For me it is easy to draw comparisons between the 2 industrial cities of Essen and Liverpool, both based on famous rivers. There is however, no doubt in my mind which one is king.

Even now as I write, gazing up I can see a postcard of Liverpool’s famous 3 graces, perfectly offset against a backdrop of dazzlingly blue sky, straddled below by the Liverpool-Leeds canal. When I was home over Christmas, stepping off the train at Lime Street, setting my first foot on Scouse soil for 3 months I was greeted with a sound that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, a sound that said I’m home. What was that sound? The raucous crys from a flock of Seagulls? A timeless classic from The Beatles droning in the station? Not quite, one young Scouser to another “ey lad, you gorra ***** bifta?”

It was good to be back. The city itself left me in awe, never had I truly appreciated the grandeur and majesty of Liverpool’s historic city centre. Just to stop for a second and crane your head upwards is to catch sight of an out of the way marvel.

I am aware that this has descended into a kind of AngloGermanic ramble about my past 5 months. I’ll sum it up. I’m an exchange student living in Germany and I like Liverpool but I never used to.

I prefer to think of myself as Edge Hill’s ambassador to the world. Maybe.

By Shaun Hughes

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The Artist Y

es, The Artist is that silent, black and white film. Which in a way is kind of oddly refreshing, in an age where most Hollywood films are in 3-D it’s unusual to see a film shun modern technology and revert to those of Classical Hollywood. The Artist is a very clever film, it knows that you’re probably watching it because it’s a silent film. So it plays with it in many different, intriguing ways none of which I will spoil here but, for me, it was worth the price of admission on its own.

The film, set in 1927, follows George Valentin a silent film artist on top of the world, outside a film premiere an over-enthusiastic fan, Peppy Miller, bumps into him. Our star is gracious and as they pose for the worlds press, a new style of cinema, “The talkies” rears its ugly head. Can the most famous and successful actor of the time adapt to it, or will his world be turned upside down? It sounds promising sure, but essentially it steals its premise from “Singin’ in the rain” from 1952 just a few gender swaps and hey presto, you basically have “The Artist”. But it seems everyone raving about this film cannot look past all the gleaming charm of the film to the flaws within, and there are a few.

The pacing of the film is slightly off between the middle and the final act, it seems as if the filmmakers had a very brilliant beginning middle and an end, but the lulls between these acts is too obvious and uninteresting. Compared to the rest of the film it mars an otherwise superb example of the power of cinema. Almost everything else is impeccable, the lead character played by Jean Dujardin could actually be a time traveller he plays a silent film artist that well.

You can’t help but be charmed by him throughout the whole film and that goes for the whole cast, Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), Clifton (James Cromwell) and The Dog (yes that’s his actual name) played amazingly by Uggie the dog. That’s pretty much how the whole film plays out, depending on how charmed you are by all the tap dancing, cute dog tricks and dazzling smiles then you’ll love this film, and I’m sure you will be. You don’t have to view the film with nostalgia goggles to appreciate it, you can let it stand as it is, on its own two feet.

The filmmakers probably meant it as a loveletter to the silent era of cinema, but the brilliance in the film and one of its many astounding features is that it appeals to everybody. Even if you’ve never been a fan of silent films, or haven’t seen many of them then I assure you, this will change your mind. Walking out of the cinema that’s exactly what I and many other people said, “I want to go and see another silent film now.” The Artist makes you fall in love with that bygone era of film, and many, many people have in fact fallen in love with it. As of writing this it has won a staggering 52 awards including 7 BAFTAs and the much coveted “best dog in a theatrical film” at the Golden Collar awards and is in the standings for 10 Oscars and looks to probably clean up there as well. In summation, whether or not the multitude of awards persuades you to see the film, I would highly recommend this film again and again.

By Adam Dean

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It’s The Muppet Show!

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ermit the Frog returns, leading the gang of memorable characters that we all grew up loving. Released on Friday 10th February 2012, I was surprised to see the cinema almost empty on the Sunday afternoon two days after release. However the movie itself was amazing. Cheesy but good fun, the ending was predictable once you knew the plot line, and the staggering 30 songs with accompanied dance routines blew me away, but when looking round the room most of the audience had smiles on their faces. If I tell you the plot, you’ll work out the ending so I’m going to leave you to see for yourself. One face I didn’t expect to see was Jack Black. His name had been kept quiet from the list of stars within the film but his face wasn’t the only one I didn’t know had been cast. Selena Gomez, Whoopi Goldberg, Neil Harris are just a few of the stars who played themselves amongst the Muppets within the film. With the human actors of Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), there is a sense of you being there with them and sharing their surreal experience of being surrounded by numerous Muppets. Speaking of the Muppets not only do we have the favourites of Swedish chef, Animal, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great, Kermit, Miss Piggy and Camilla with her chicken friends, there is a new addition to the Muppets bunch, who I absolutely loved and his name is Walter. He is kind, caring, and a Muppet with his original never seen before talent. Even with the predictable ending, I still shed a tear for characters that I grew up with, well, wouldn’t you, when they get what they have been fighting for?

By Siân Holmes

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The Rise and Fall of Eric Cartman D

o not jump to conclusions and think that I am saying Cartman isn’t what he used to be. If anything he has only got better. From the get go of South Park, Cartman was always going to be the character you just loved to hate. Starting with small feats such as naming a Ethiopian boy Starvin’ Marvin and opting to put his grandmother in a care home, claiming she is senile because she didn’t buy him the right gift, it was clear Cartman was different to everyone else in South Park.

He has no real friends, unless you include his stuffed toys with who he has frequent tea parties and it’s because of his views on, well, everything. He is an outsider, even more so than Butters is. As the seasons went on Cartman only become more and more evil, rapidly becoming the deranged boy he is today. He is an evil genius but like all evil genius’, they succeed and succeed but eventually fail and nothing truer could be said about Cartman. But for those of you who are not familiar with Eric Cartman, let me tell you how evil I actually mean. Lets start small

shall we? How about when Cartman put a sleeping Butters’ penis in his mouth so everybody at school would think Butters was a homosexual? And yes that is small in comparison of what’s to come. He once gave Kyle the AIDS virus, on purpose and he also pretended to be mentally challenged so he could compete in a special athletics event for a cash prize. Not evil enough? Then how about tricking an enemy into eating their own parents or trying to bring on the next holocaust of the Jewish community?

Pretty evil right? But don’t worry because where Cartman succeeds he has always failed by the end of each scheme but for those who haven’t seen I won’t spoil for you how these evil deeds backfire. Although this is not the only aspect of South Park it does play a big part and we as the audience must love it because South Park is back, starting with the 16th season this month. So tune in March 16th at 10.00 PM on Comedy Central to see what Eric Cartman has in store for the world next.

By Dean Morris

The Woman in Black H

ammer Horrors latest turnout provides a strong post-Potter performance for Daniel Radcliffe and shows just how terrifying a rocking chair can be.

The story follows widowed solicitor Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe) as he leaves his four year old son for a few days to attend to the papers of recently deceased Mrs Drablow, the last remaining occupant of Eel Marsh House -or so he thinks. After arriving in the small town of Crythin Gifford, Kipps is made less than welcome, with the locals suspiciously pulling out every stop to get him to him leave. He presses on however, and after securing transport to the remote house find himself surrounded by shadowy figures, doors that open by themselves and the world’s largest collection of monkey figurines.

Locked up in the old house for hours at a time Kipps finds himself hearing strange sounds echoing throughout the old rooms, and despite being told point blank to not go ‘chasing shadows’ he eagerly trots after the first three that crop up. Eventually he discovers that the reasoning behind the locals’ hostility is their superstitious fears about a menacing spirit that occupies the house he is visiting, and the fatal events which follow a sighting of her. Unfortunately, Kipps has already seen this figure roaming the manors grounds, and sure enough, another tragedy befalls the village. Instead of taking the hint and heading back to London like any rational person, our protagonist takes it upon himself to try and bring an end to the ghostly occurrences.

The film, an adaptation of Susan Hills 1983 novel, relies on numerous classics of the ghost story subgenre to set up its endless selection of scares, long, dark corridors, misty gave yards and even the occasional ‘face appearing in a window’ trick. But for all its clichés the film does deliver some genuine jump out of your seat moments, one of the most successful being an intensely long sequence featuring the previously mentioned rocking chair. The Woman in Black herself pops up, sometimes expectedly, around almost any corner she can find, and this is one of the films downfalls, in that the more we see of her, the less terrifying she becomes, save for her final appearance. Anyone going into this film with a pre-existing fear of children’s toys may also want

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to reassess their visit, as the film throws unsettling close ups of creepy porcelain faces at the viewer left, right and centre.

Daniel Radcliffe himself puts in a terrific performance as the haunted lawyer trying to unravel the towns’ secrets. Complete with an ever-present stubble and Mr Darcy sideburns, proof that he is old enough to have a toddler and dead wife, he plays the wide-eyed victim of these terrifying encounters particularly well.

The imprint of Harry Potter is still present, the more hardcore Potter fans may find themselves restraining the urge to shout out ‘Alohamora’ during one sequence with a particularly uncooperative door, however Radcliffe pulls out a confident performance that is a sure sign of his staying power in the business. Strong support comes from performances by Ciarán Hinds as Sam Daily, the only local who doesn’t believe in the superstitions, and his wife, played by Janet McTeer, who may just give the spectre a run for her money in eeriness.

In all, the film delivers a genuinely scary experience, albeit sometimes predictable. The story itself is both brilliant and tragic, although it does alter the original plot of the book, and successfully delivers shovel-loads of atmosphere. If for nothing else, you should see it to witness what may be the single most chilling use of the maracas in a film ever. 4/5

By Dan Carter

21

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n the 21st Dec this year the world will end, or so the Mayan prediction goes. Dramatized in the 2009 film 2012 (and a strangely depressing Lynx advert) the world as we know it will end. The apocalyptic prediction can be seen as one of the more bleak Science Fiction predictions of recent times. But if Sci-Fi has taught us anything (and it has) it is that often, many of the absurd, irrational predictions of by-gone Sci-Fi films have become eerily relevant or in some cases just plain true. Advances in technology have given birth to many of the gadgets and gizmos of the big screen. Whilst yet to market (much to many middle aged man’s disappointment) a working hover board as seen in the 1985 classic Back to the Future the same film does show Marty McFly playing with his multi-screen TV a set up recognizable in many living rooms and offices today. Remember the full body scanners in total recall? Revealing every detail right down to the bones of the Mars-bound travelers, sympathized today with any recent airport traveler.

Anybody who thought Jim Carrey in The Truman Show was a fearful prediction of the ever increasing intrusive

1.

Prometheus Directed. Ridley Scott, Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbinder, Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron. Out 8th June 2012 In space no one can hear you scream and they certainly can’t hear the amount of geek’s blogging about this film.

After a 32 year wait Ridley Scott returns to answer every fans burning question ‘’Who the hell is space jockey?’’

Fans of Scotts original wait in anticipation to find out who the mysterious character found in the cockpit in the 1979 original Alien film is. Set as a prequel taking place around 30 years before the arrival of Ripley the film promises to deliver the suspense and seat removing jumps of the original with a contemporary twist. With a great cast and the master at the helm I really hope this film can deliver at least half of its potential.

nature of our society, and a critique of our voyeuristic tendency’s only needs to look at the boom of Reality TV shows in recent times. Our computer screens are regularly bombarded with ‘personalized’ pop-up adverts claiming to know our most intimate desires and consumer needs, as experienced by Tom Cruise in the 2002 movie Minority Report and although not quite reaching the genetic modification and DNA selectiveness of Gattaca we are certainly developing substantially in these areas. Thankfully though not all Science Fiction predictions have come true and we are yet to experience the artificial intelligence revolution of IRobot. We continue to avoid the dystopian futures of classics such as Escape from New York and Soylent Green and although our computers continue to grow almost at an expediential rate, we have not yet built a Nexus 6 replicant or HAL, although I don’t count it out. With these examples in mind I have decided to do a rundown of my most anticipated Sci-Fi films of the coming year. So keep in mind, the crazy idea your laughing at today might just be coming to a high street near you in the not so distant future, probably with an apple on the back of it.

2. Lockout Directed. James Mather + Stephen St Leger Starring: Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Peter Stormare.

Out 13th April A prison floats 50 miles above the earth, keeping the violent inmates in a state of sleep using sophisticated techniques, but not for long. Guy Pearce’s character wrongly convicted of espionage is given a chance of redemption, when the prisoners riot taking the president’s daughter captive. Co-written and produced

by Luc Besson and given it’s R rating this film looks to be one of the darker space shoot-em-ups to look forward to.

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3.

Looper Directed. Rian Johnson Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt. Out Sept. 28th In the near future the mob has discovered a simple way of getting rid of unwanted characters. Just send them back in time and have them executed by hired killers ‘loopers’. A smooth running operation is soon disrupted as one of the loopers recognizes the victim most recently sent as his future self. Things get complicated from here on in. With Bruce Willis playing the future Joseph Gordon-Levitt this looks like one for the purists with plenty of explosions and action.

4.

Gravity Directed. Alfonso Cuaron Starring: George Clooney, Sandra Bullock From the director who brought us children of men comes a film less of the blow-em-up, Human vs Alien style and hopefully something a little more thought provoking and story led. George Clooney and Sandra Bullock star as a pair of astronauts who find themselves trapped on a broken down space station after a collision with some debris. With Cuarón’s talent for constructing mind-blowing set-pieces and unforgettable images, this slight race-against-time thriller template could bring us a stylish and psychological Science Fiction film. I just hope it’s not all style and no substance.

5.

El Cosmonauta (the cosmonaut) Directed. Nicolas Alcala Starring: Leon Ockenden, Katrine De Candole, Max Wrottesley After the first ever Russian cosmonaut goes missing and is declared MIA it’s not long before his friend and colleague begins receiving strange radio signals. Not so amazing you would think apart from the fact that the messages, from the missing cosmonaut, claim that he has returned home and there is nobody there, not a single other living human being. An indie movie produced with the help of a collection of backers and made on the miniscule budget of £740,000 EST. This may be one of the less advertised and hyped up SciFi films of 2012, and may not even be released at the cinema, but this straight to DVD Sci-Fi psychological thriller is definitely one to look out for.

2012 promises to be a bumper year for Science Fiction and these are only a few of the films due for release.

Others of note you might want to check out are the Michael Bay-esque ‘’Transformers at sea’’ film Battleship, the Nazis on the moon destruction of Iron Sky or even one of the other re-makes out this year Total Recall and Dredd. Either way make sure you check out at least a few of my choices above before the 21st December because it might be the last chance you get.

By Alex Chandler 23

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he movie industry, particularly Hollywood, has always been met with criticism and scrutiny.

From it’s earlier days when it wasn’t taken seriously as an art form to its current predicament of unfair condemnation for releasing terrible recycled movies and other 2012 congress related scandals. But the truth is, the industry can only honestly be looked at from one perspective, that at the end of the day it’s still a business.

Granted, a hugely successful business, with last year’s box office receipts coming in at a colossal $14.2billion (this doesn’t include DVD sales), but still a business that relies on finance as much as your next door cafe. The difference being the movie industry takes a risk with producing every movie, average costs of a big film comes in at over $40 million and any film you’ve probably seen, independent or not, has cost more than a million to make, big money no matter what way you look at it, producers are putting a lot on the line. So it’s easier to recycle stories that you’ll see over and over (Look up ‘Friends with Benefits’ which was practically a remake of ‘No Strings Attached’ which was a remake of every sex buddy film ever made, ever: they were released six months between each other and made a cool $140 million each) or produce lacklustre blockbusters (we’re looking at you Transformers 3, which wasn’t as much as a sequel but more a retelling of Transformers 1 & 2, for shame Hollywood). Enter Sherlock Holmes 2.

To clarify, it was not the best film released in 2011: far from it as a complete lack of nominations will tell you as well as not the strongest of box office receipts. It wasn’t even the best blockbuster release of the year, that’d fall to either the brilliant Thor or

X-Men First Class, which excelled both critically and commercially in their fields. What it was however, was an excellent attempt at the system Hollywood has been trying to throw at us for the past 30 years wherein they release a big dumb action flick with big Hollywood names, market it to us and try and squeeze two sequels out of it and in a few years release the already expected remake.

You’ve seen it everywhere, chances are you’ve probably been to a couple and more so you’re sick of it. It’s been done over and over and makes you curse and wonder why Hollywood doesn’t spend all its resources on funding Christopher Nolan clone research technology (which this writer personally hopes occurs). The problem with blockbusters is their repetitive lack of quality, choosing to insert 7 over the top action sequences or high blown car chases (am I talking about Fast and The Furious 1,2,3,4 or 5? No I’m talking about 6 & 7 which are currently in production) over a good storylines or hell even just good dialogue (which as Mean Girls proved, can make a pretty popular film). Except that’s where Sherlock Holmes 2 comes in, it was a word for word description of the archetype blockbuster, all the way down to it being a sequel and contained everything: train action sequences, a chase scene, explosions and two asbig-as-you-can-get-without-being-Brad-Pitt-or-TomCruise Hollywood stars.

The difference was; it was brilliant. The dialogue was top notch and clever to the point a fair few audiences will have definitely missed the absolute gems (‘They’re dangerous at both ends and crafty in the middle’ should have been a film on it’s own), the story was brilliant, lacking in the twists or mystery of the first film but absolutely riveting and moving at a

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fast enough pace to keep you glued to your seat, and the action sequences were superb, they outdid the first film and were of a level not matched since the works of Zach Snyder (he was the 300 and Watchmen guy, with the sad addition of Sucker Punch...which did have great action scenes to be fair).

There wasn’t a different formula applied, it should be noted, from this blockbuster to others, there was just one difference. Hollywood actually made an effort. It had sufficient faith in the intelligence of its audience and despite it even being a tent pole project (with the books and the film preceding it) they didn’t dumb it down for the audience to make sure it had the broadest reach possible. This, it should be pointed out happens a lot. Hollywood’s big and rich enough to make sure it procures the best scripts from the best writers (Look up The Black List, just to see how many good screenwriters actually exist, then look at The Darkest Hour and sigh), being a director in Hollywood is another challenge of it’s own and just look at how many amateur filmmakers you know or you’ve heard about, so you know Hollywood has a wealth of selection to choose from, they can pick the best of the best. So why are there still bad movies circulating?

And with worrying regularity.

As much as I’d love to sit here and do elimination process game of the director, the screenwriter or the producer (Stop making Twilight films!), the true fault is, it lays with us, the audience. I really have no problem with us flocking in in numbers to see the bad movies, everyone has different tastes and it’s acceptable, I mean the majority of big movies are released to be compatible with family audiences (and we all had awful taste in films as children, admit

it. Except me, my childhood favourite was Citizen Kane and I had an Alfred Hitchcock tattoo). The problem is when we don’t go to see the good films.

It’s why I said Sherlock Holmes 2, didn’t have the best of box office stints, its made $404 million as of the time of writing this, which granted is a lot and enough to command a threequel, but in comparison Transformers 3 made a billion and Fast Five broke the $600 million mark. Meaning there’ll be a lot more investment into the dumbed down recycled material you see every year and less into the original brilliant film pieces. Or have you forgotten Scott Pilgrim vs.

The World, you’ll never see a film like it again because films like Clash of The Titans, took it to the cleaners with box office numbers (and now it has a sequel, or if the trailer’s any hint, a remake, but this time there’ll actually be Titans! And they’ll be Clashing or Wrathing if the title’s to be believed).

And that becomes my point on what Sherlock Holmes 2 stood for in 2011, Hollywood is more than capable of releasing an actual good blockbuster, all we have to do as an audience is stand up and reaffirm their faith in us everytime they actually try, hopefully let that be your attitude to 2012, whether or not you’re a regular filmgoer, make it you’re own personal mission to go see a film your friends told you was good (I don’t trust critics, ever. Not since they all collectively lied to me about Fast Five) and stomp out all Hollywood garbage before 2015. Also let’s help The Dark Knight Rises rewrite Hollywood like never before, because if anyone’s going to do it, it’s going to be Batman.

By Marlon Onsongo

TV What else is on A

s a student, I find myself watching a disturbingly large amount of TV, therefore I find myself hating a lot of it. Generally the programmes I watch the most are Jeremy Kyle and Top Gear, which is fine seeing as Jeremy Kyle offers more than his fair share of entertainment as he tries to figure out who is the dad of whose baby etc, whilst Top Gear informs me of cars that I will never be able to afford and/ or drive. I’ve found that most of the programmes I watch seem to be on channel ‘Dave’, such as Argumental, Mock The Week and QI and ITV2 which is, of course, the home of Jezza, however I’ve recently developed a hatred for anything ITV related ever since a certain advert informed me that the new series of The Only Way Is Essex will soon be thrust into my eye sockets and forever burned into the back of my brain. There are no words to describe the deep, anger fuelled hatred I feel for ‘TOWIE’ as it has been so affectionately called by those who are lifeless enough to watch it. I fail to see how watching these people prance around in more fake tan than Jodie Marsh and forever taking a trip to the ‘Sugar Hut’ can even be described as being entertaining! These sex-addled meat puppets prance around in their own little worlds, thinking that sun shines out of their backsides and think that everyone watches them in awe when really, I see them and immediately have to control my urge to kick them in the teeth or smash myself in the face with a brick (which would be considerably more fun than watching even a minute of TOWIE!) Mark Wright of TOWIE has described the show as a ‘dramality’, combining ‘drama’ and ‘reality’ in a pathetic attempt to justify why the show actually

exists. There is absolutely nothing dramatic about this show – the only thing that even comes close to perhaps slightly being a bit like a piece of drama is that when I have (been forced against my will) to watch a clip of the show, I have sat in complete suspense as I wait for someone to jump out at the cast and run them over with a jumbo jet. Now, I know that this is all very negative and I know that I should try and find something positive to say about the show....but I can’t. I actually, physically can’t. I tried and for a moment, my own brain decided that I had become too much of an idiot to put up with anymore and tried to escape through my ear. When you think of all the great TV shows that we have today, such as Sherlock, House, Dr Who, Coronation Street, Eastenders etc, you just have to wonder why do the ‘cast’ of TOWIE even bother! I’m not just against the show because I believe that there is absolutely nothing interesting about it, I also dislike it because it sends out a bad body image to their target audience, which consists mainly of young girls who aspire to be like the girls on the show, who look like they got their styling tips from Jordan and put their make-up on with a shovel! Are those girls really what we want the next generation of teenagers to be like? Do we really want our daughters/sisters/nieces/friends to grow up thinking that you have to look like the plastic cousin of Amy Winehouse just so they can be considered pretty? I would be absolutely horrified if any young girl grew up thinking that these women are acceptable role models, and I’d certainly be horrified if any young girl grew up to be like them! I think it’s time that we waved goodbye to TOWIE and focused on the better aspects of television, the more educational aspects of television and most of all, we should focus on whether Jim Moriarty is dead and how Sherlock faked his death! I believe in Sherlock! Moriarty was real! “

By Emma Jane Samworth

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day of the awards. The audience could he 17th annual National still vote for ‘The Best Serial Drama’ Television awards hit our television throughout the programme and the screens on the 25th January 2012 winner was announced at the end with with some of the biggest names ‘Coronation Street’ taking the crown. in British Television winning Corrie had a big year with Carla’s rape awards for their hard work and and relationship with Frank, her affair entertainment over the last year. with Peter, Sophie and Sian’s wedding Hosted by Dermot O’Leary, the and Becky’s departure. Katherine Kelly show kicked off with a performance (who plays Becky) picked up the award from Sir Bruce Forsyth and comedy for ‘Best Serial Drama Performance’. duo Ant and Dec with their version Coronation Street did deserve to win of ‘Let there be love’. As huge ‘Best Serial Drama’, but I still feel a fans of Ant and Dec this unique little gutted for EastEnders who have performance was a fantastic way to won the crown many times over the start the show. last years, as they’ve also had a huge The awards given to the actors year with their storylines including and actresses nominated in the 14 Whitney’s sexual exploitation storyline, categories are special to receive the expansion of the Moon family and because they are voted by the the baby swap storyline. However audience. The audience are able they didn’t go empty handed as the to vote for who they want to win award for ‘Best Newcomer’ was won the National Television Award (or by 19-year-old Jacqueline Jossa who NTA) via a huge poll. The votes are plays Lauren Branning. For me, this counted and announced on the was a well-deserved win as Jacqueline

had taken over the role of Lauren from Madeleine Duggan which is a challenging role to take on. It is difficult to be recast as it takes a while for the audience to get used to it. However she’s done a fantastic job and is one of the top actors in EastEnders. She’s taken on serious storylines such as alcohol problems, family issues and the cancer storyline which is probably her biggest to date. This storyline involves her mother Tanya Branning (played by Jo Joyner) battling cervical cancer, in which Lauren was the only one who knew about it until she admitted it to her dad and the rest of the family. In the recent months we have seen this affect her behaviour and turn to the drink. Definitely the right person to win this award.

The X Factor picked up the award for the ‘Best Talent Show’ after being up against ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, ‘Dancing on Ice’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. Little Mix also performed their 28

TV most famous cover ‘Don’t Let Go’ and also went up to collect the award with some of the X Factor judges.

X Factor judge and Take That member, Gary Barlow won an award for ‘Outstanding Contribution’ due to his charity work. In 2009 he organised the BT Comic Relief Kilimanjaro climb and in 2011 organised the Children In Need Rocks concert held at the MEN arena and raised 6 million for the charity.

David Walliams and Jonathan Ross were the other two celebrities who were rewarded with special awards for their achievements. David Walliams won the ‘Landmark Award’ for his television career and his achievements for Sports Relief whereas Jonathan Ross picked up the ‘Special Recognition’ award for his television career which has lasted for 25 years.

A number of comedy awards were picked up that night including Michael McIntyre’s comedy road show winning the award for ‘Best Entertainment Programme’ and Celebrity Juice winning the ‘Best Panel Game Show’. Ant and Dec won the award for ‘Best Entertainment Presenter’ which they have won every year for over a decade. They were up against Michael McIntyre, Dermet O’Leary and Keith Lemon, which is a tough category as I believe all four of these candidates are fantastic and have entertained us over the last year,

however Ant and Dec deserved to win.

Other awards picked up over the evening included Downton Abbey winning the award for ‘Best Drama’, Outnumbered winning ‘Best Comedy’ and Doctor Who stars Karen Gillan and Matt Smith picking up the awards for ‘Best Drama Performance’. Alan Carr’s Chatty Man also won the award for Best Talk show after being up against Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton and the Loose Women team. ‘This Morning’ also won for ‘Best Factual Television’ and ‘I’m a Celebrity’ who were up against shows such as ‘TOWIE’ won ‘Best Reality Television Programme’. I actually was surprised TOWIE didn’t win, even though I’m not a fan, I thought they would.

So with another successful NTA, many actors and actresses came away with some well-earned awards for their hard work over the last 12 months. The ones that stood out for me were Eastenders’ Jacqueline Jossa and Ant and Dec as they’ve been my favourite in the television in the last year and were the right people to receive the awards for their category. I’m definitely looking forward to next years but here’s hoping EastEnders wins best serial drama and that Ant and Dec win Best Entertainer for another year.

By Amy Harrison

GAMES

Relaying Mass Effect.

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s some of you may know the Dice Gaming Keynote speech was delivered by Todd Howard only a few days ago. His speech was titled “Why We Play, Why We Create.” and he spoke at great length about how his team at Bethesda had approached the design of Skyrim. But the main emphasis of his speech was how we are in the golden age of computer gaming, that it is the greatest media form and has the most potential to grow. He spoke about how the story is the most important part of the game and with Skyrim having sold over ten million copies within two months I am inclined to believe him.

One of the best stories out there, is the story of Mass Effect. The Mass Effect series give you unprecedented control over your end game and complete control over the story you tell. The first game gave you control of Commander Shepard a soldier in the year 2183 in which humanity has been thrust into the universe among species that have dominated space for millennia. Straight from the word go you are given control over your character’s appearance and abilities and you were sent off to fight a rogue spector, who was the main antagonist in the story.

Your character will then become the first human spector, spector’s being the agents of the alliance’s council.

You are the captain of a crew of special individuals and take them into battle with you. As the story progresses you are asked to make decisions which range from total extinction of a species to facing a choice between two crew members the result being one of them dyeing. All these decisions as well as your level of progression will pass over to the second game which took your decisions in the previous game and altered the story to suit your play style. This meant that the next game was suited to you and the story really felt like it was your own.

In the first game the rogue spector agent was being controlled by his ship, he was a thrall to a sentient living machine. In the second game you discover that the living ship from the first game was not alone it was only one of a highly advanced race of super machines called reapers.

A race of warped aliens called the collectors we stealing humans and no one knew to what end, so Commander

Shepard was tasked to find out. You get together a new team of elite individuals working under Cerberus (A pro-human organisation) with whom you must complete loyalty missions for. If you do not then, come the final mission you will have an incomplete crew. If you fail to gain the loyalty of your crew in the final mission every character can die, even yourself.

In the final mission you and your crew blast yourselves through a mass effect relay and find yourself at the heart of galaxy, among burning, crashing stars where a collector ship was waiting building a human Reaper inside. The collector ship dwarfs your ship and you have to land, get inside and destroy it. You lead one half of your crew and appoint a captain to the other half, you split up and pass through a series of problem in which you must appoint the correct crew members otherwise members of your crew will die. When you go out and purchase the third and final instalment in this story in march, you will be given the choice to import your character into the game and with them have the

GAMES and RPG Mode will allow the player to increase the difficulty as they see fit and have the ability to change conversations to be the player they want to be morally.

Mass Effect has always been a game caught between genres, a third person shooter and a role playing game, but in this final instalment the game developers have done their utmost to develop these elements further. They have vastly improved Commander Shepard’s agility and speed with a new cover system allowing him to jump and dive and roll between cover. The role playing elements of the game have been diversified and deepened offering new choices and elements for character expansion. And for the first time the developers have allowed for weapon and armour customisation.

Running with the theme of making the game suitable for everyone, the developers have chosen to exploit the new kinect to entice new video gamers.

With an xbox Kinect you can now make in combat changes quickly without ever having to pause the game. Simply shouting “shotgun� will change your active weapon to the shotgun, for example. This can also be used ability to bring across all of your crew, or the shot on the abilities such as grenades or biotic powers. up remnants that survived.

For the first time the Mass Effect series is incorporating a

Mass Effect 3 due for release on the 6th multilayer game. In which the gamer will play human at first and March will most definitely be one of the biggest begin to work with other players to capture key locations in the games of 2012. The game will pit you against war against the Reapers. As they succeed and do well they will the most formidable foe the galaxy has ever find and unlock new species to play as and new weapons and known, It took two whole games to bring down armour to use allowing the RPG elements of the core game to two reapers and now an entire army has landed featuring hundreds of Reapers. Mass Effect 3 has spill over to the multilayer experience allowing players to show off their skills to their friends. been completely revamped to make it friendly

The Mass Effect series has won countless awards and I for both new comers to the series while still have no doubt it will do so in the future. The well thought out being challenging for the hard core gamers. and deeply diverse universe has a very epic Star Wars feel to

Upon opening the game you have the it with the countless alien species and strong warring themes option to load a character from the previous but there is a scale and grandeur to the game that makes it far game as mentioned above and then given the more exhilarating than the Star Wars series. With epic battles choice of how you would like the game to play and endless tides of enemies and unique powers and a deeply out. You are given three choices, Action Mode, individual play style this game is a must buy. The game will be Story Mode and RPG Mode. In Action Mode conversations will have automatic responses and arriving on my doorstep on march sixth, I recommend you make sure that it does the same for you. the combat difficulty will be fixed at a mediocre setting. The Story Mode will have optional

By Alexander Goldsmith. dialogue and the lowest difficulty setting

GAMES T

MMORPG’s. Wha

hat is a good question to be discussed, as Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Gaming has become something of a trend over the past 5 years. Loads of online games are on the market right now, such as World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI and Star Wars: The Old Republic; which I myself am a subscriber to. The obvious drawing point to these games is the ability to play with other people over the internet, rather than playing alone at home.

But there is more to it than that.

Let’s put it this way, playing singleplayer games can get a bit lonely sometimes.

Some people would welcome the chance to play an online game with thousands of people. It is a different challenge compared to simply playing an offline game with Artificial Intelligence companions and enemies in it. I mean let’s face it; the realism in such games is completely taken away when you are surrounded only by computerised players or bad guys. You want the challenge of playing with or against other people in a fantasy world. It’s different, but can be very rewarding and satisfying at the same time.

Online role playing games encourage you to play with other people, co-operate with them in specific challenges. But what is on offer for the loner? Well the most recent title in the MMORPG world; Star Wars: The Old Republic, offers eight different storylines, and can give the player up to and over 200 hours of single player content, should the player choose to do that, instead of conversing with other players around the world. People shouldn’t detract from doing missions and challenges in a group, that’s what these games are for after all. But if you are like me, and just want a head start before jumping in to group objectives, you should

go through the single player campaign first.

Final Fantasy XI on the other hand, completely encourages you to work in groups.

The story missions are simply too hard to be completed by one person, unless they are strong enough, which means you would have to spend hours and hours of your life levelling up. Believe me, I have done this, and I did not find this enjoyable in the slightest, and I consequently withdrew my subscription. If you are the newcomer to the online role playing game world, or are simple an “alone” person, then Final Fantasy XI, or maybe the whole MMORPG genre may not be for you. However, you may find it more forgiving if you give Star Wars; The Old Republic a try.

As we have established, the ability to play with other people online is one of the things that may draw people into the MMORPG world. However, it can also be the thing that draws people away. Initially, gamers are more used to playing single player games on their PS3, PC or Xbox. The idea of going online and meeting new people and either fighting them or working with them may make them nervous. Take me for example; I am more used to playing offline games alone. I did want to try my hand at online gaming; simply because everybody else was.

But I held back slightly, because the thought of having to play with other people to complete a game scared me a little bit.

My fears were confirmed when I started to play Final Fantasy XI, because there was barely anything that could have been done alone. It all has to be done with other people. My opinions on online gaming have softened a bit with the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic. With a 200+ hour storyline that can be done alone if you so choose. Gamer’s out there who are not used to online role playing games, have never played them at all, or are

GAMES

at’s their appeal? more of a lone wolf preferring to work solo, then I would suggest getting started with The Old Republic, because it is the best one to ease you into the MMORPG world.

The other issue that can draw people away from MMORPG games is the monthly subscription fee. It can be something of a faff paying for the game at the standard retail price, and then being charged a monthly fee to be able to stay in the game. Fortunately, most games offer your first month in the game free, so you can take it easy financially; at least for the first 30 days or so. Many gamers must wonder why they are being charged £9 a month to play a game over the internet.

I have my own theory into this.

The developers who made the game need to keep every single server running at optimal capacity; so that each player will be able to stay online for lengthy periods of time. And maintaining these servers can cost money for the company.

So players who are using the servers to connect to the game pay the £9 monthly subscription fee to keep the servers online and to extend their playing. This is only what I believe the subscription fee is for. I’m not actually sure what it is for, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was actually the case.

Developers will need to periodically take down game servers and update them in several ways; including bug fixes and even brand new content. This is more of an observation than a real issue that can draw people away from MMORPG’s. If you are more of an offline gamer, you will not have to contend with this issue so much. Game patches looks good on paper, and they make a difference in-game. However, many gamers will gripe about their precious gaming time being taken away for a few hours while the game is being needlessly updated.

But the real gamers know that the developers would not take the servers down and update the game if nothing could be done. They want to make sure that their games appeal to a wide variety of players, and that everyone should be playing them.

And so they should. I’ve been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic for about 20 hours so far, and my opinion of MMORPG’s have changed completely. I’ve found a completely new appreciation for them. Other people may have conflicting opinions about the appeal of this genre of gaming. One side may suggest that offline gaming is their cup of tea, while the other side will say that the challenge of playing with other people is too good to refuse.

Think of it this way, if you want the challenge of co-operating or competing with other players, then online games are for you. If you are more of a lone wolf, stick with playing games on your own. Don’t get me wrong, I still prefer to play offline games from time to time.

But I now have to option of playing with other people around the world. And once you get into it, it isn’t as scary as some people make it sound.

By Paul Molloy

A DAY IN THE LIFE

PR STUDENT I

n last month’s article I wrote about how the Edge Hill PR students are running a campaign for the Kind charity based in Liverpool. A lot of progress has been made since last month and things are getting exciting!

With the combined efforts of the Kind PR team we have managed to secure a spot on two radio stations including Radio Merseyside. Students are due to go on the air at the end of February to promote their ‘Book for a Brick campaign’. The team have been working on this campaign since November and is helping to raise awareness for Kind’s up and coming health and wellbeing centre.

The centre recently invested in the building located on its grounds, to keep the place a private and safe place for the children. However, the building is currently derelict and in need of a lot of work and renovation. To help the charities fundraising efforts, the campaign is aiming to promote some Birthday books, which are specific to every day of the year. They are great little books that are a cheap alternative to birthday cards, and more personal too. They cost only £1 each, and each book purchased helps provide a brick for the new Health and Wellbeing centre.

So far a few book stalls have been set up around campus, which

have been very successful and raised over £100- valuable money to help renovate the centre. At the end of February, Desperate Scousewives’ Danny Latimer made an exclusive visit to the university to help promote the books in the Hub building!

As well as running the ‘Book for a Brick’ campaign the team have been working hard to try and get Liverpool businesses involved, including promotion of Kind’s new charity shop. The shop has only just opened and is located at the top of Bold Street in Liverpool; the store sells various new items including the birthday books. If you’re ever

A DAY IN THE LIFE in Liverpool just pop in and grab yourself a book!

My main role within this campaign has been running the Visual Media team which is working to produce a promotional video for the charity. The team is small and only consists of two members- one a 1st year and the other a 2nd year, however the effort shown more than makes up for the small group!

Natalie Holmes is one of the students working on the campaign: “I am one of the second year PR students, working in the visual media group; we are working on creating a promotional video to show people what the KIND charity is all about.

We met Steven Yip the founder of KIND and he is very enthusiastic about the charity and he gave us a great insight into what he expects from the promotional video, this gave us the opportunity to come up with some great ideas. I’ve been working on writing up story boards for the filming crew to give them a better understanding of what we want in the video and how we hope for it to look.

I’m excited about this video, to see our ideas come to life, and to show people the more creative and visual side to public relations”

As well as producing a promotional video for Kind, the group is also focusing on promoting the

charity using posters. Images are being posted around the university to make students aware of the ‘Book for a Brick’ campaign and highlight the charity’s social media websites. Anyone who is intrigued by what the charity does should definitely find them on Face Book @kindliverpool, or follow them on Twitter @KindPR. The charity needs as many followers as possible so just by the click of a button you can help massively.

By Claire Unwin

Below: The centre in its current state

STUDENT LIFE

Students Kick Start Cam

E

dge Hill is the only University which integrates a real life campaign into the student’s compulsory modules. Students partake in this campaign, which provides valuable work experience. Third year students who manage the event, interact with first and second year students, combining those years into an effective PR team and gaining valuable experience in the Public Relations industry.

In previous years PR students at Edge Hill have worked with a plethora of charities such as, Neurosupport, West Lancashire Women’s Refuge, Home Start West Lancashire and National Blood Service.

After two years of helping third year students with their PR campaign, it is finally our turn to manage a campaign of our own, as well as first and second year students. In September we had a number of meetings with various charities; all of whom could have been possible clients.

This in itself was a new area we had to explore, all of which was very exciting. In December where would be told which charity we would be working with, our charity is called Yellow House Liverpool.

Yellow House was founded in 1986 by George McKance

and was named after Vincent Van Goh’s house in Arles, France. Van Gough always made his home feel welcoming and friendly, he wanted people to come and see his art to involve the community.

This has always been the inspiration for Yellow House, working to encourage young people whom have previously been denied access to arts and drams. Quite often due to; class, gender, race, ability or finance the opportunity to participate in aspects of art.

Yellow House is highly respected throughout Liverpool for its innovation, style and vision, but primarily for their passion towards their cause.

Yellow House is celebrating 25 years of its history.

The campaign will be focusing a great deal of its work around this topic, following a; Past, Present and Potential theme.

Our PR Group meets every Tuesday to work on various aspects of the campaign, for example; creating press releases and press opportunities, design and media content, website management and social media.

We recently created a Facebook and Twitter account for Yellow House which has proved to be very successful, for more information follow us: @yellowhouse_liv.

mpaign As Yellow House is celebrating its 25 years of history, we have decided to hold an evening event, the main aim of the event is to raise funds for the charity as well as raise their profile. The Event will be held on the 30th March, which coincides with Van Gogh’s Birthday.

The event will showcase the past, present and future potential of the charity and will have ‘yellow tie’ theme, a play on the conventional black tie event. Attendees can expect a raffle and auction, alongside some noteworthy guest speakers. There will also be performances from Yellow House members, also vocalist Asa Murphy, whom was described by The Times as, ‘Britain’s answer to Michael Bublé’ will also be performing. For more information follow us on Twitter: @yellowhouse_liv.

Our campaign is focusing on raising the profile of Yellow House to both the public and potential donors. Yellow House has recently obtained office space in the business district of Liverpool, the Corn Exchange – Moorfields. We will be launching a ‘Wear

STUDENT LIFE Yellow to Work’ campaign, in which office within Liverpool can show their support by wearing yellow to work.

Whether it’s a bright yellow shirt, yellow socks or a yellow badge, every little helps.

The campaign will also be teaming up with Big Yellow, a storage company in Liverpool whom operate three major storage stores. They have kindly offered to donate storage space for Yellow House to store thousands of photographs, videos and other archive material collected throughout the many years of hard work.

For more information: Michael Murray murray_m384@hotmail.co.uk 07557403081 @yellowhouse_liv

STUDENT LIFE

The Student Brain T

his is one of many unanswerable questions, and the half-hearted attempt at reasoning, that arise everyday in a secondary school. But is this inquisitive mind such a frightening concept that, as teachers and influencing adults, we try and distinguish the flame of curiosity at first appearance? I am an easily definable list-writing, diary-planning, structured person, yet I am quite happy to discuss and encourage freeflowing thought at all ages. Through my small experience of schools thus far, it seems to me that the majority of teachers, organized and disorganized alike, find the prospect of this terrifying.

After spending a term studying various pieces of literature at University, with a lecturer who promotes every aspect of discussion, thought and philosophy, I’ve become very interested in developing these processes in students of every capability and level. This concept is taken up by the Philosophy for Children project, which is beginning to spread through schools, and has proven to have amazing results.

The core idea of this project that is carried out in the classroom is an event called an ‘enquiry’ where the students produce, or are given, a stimulus which they discuss, then create several questions in response to it, which is then narrowed down to one. The students then spend a session discussing and responding to the question that they have chosen.

For example, one teacher was telling

me about a class that she was building up to studying Romeo and Juliet. The students had to bring in anything to do with love, and these objects were the initial stimuli. After discussing them and writing down many different questions, the class, with no encouragement or directions from the teacher, chose the questions ‘Is there such thing as love at first sight’. Well, the teacher was obviously beside herself, as what better question could there be to discuss before studying Romeo and Juliet? Although the teacher was always present in the classroom, and was available to encourage and guide the discussion to the most productive end, this topic, and following debate, was produced solely by the students.

The same teacher that initiated that discussion invited me to join Philosophy Club on lunchtime. I turned up, buzzing and eager, armed with every deep thought that had ever flitted through this ever-open mind of mine, to an empty classroom filled only with said teacher tucking into a tuna salad roll. After a few words of encouragement, emphasized by the tuna that joined them, the teacher finished her roll, grabbed my hand, and whisked me off to the room next door.

This room was filled with students, spending their lunchtime as they will spend the rest of their teenage years, sitting on windowsills and watching their lives play out before them. The excitement was exuding from the teacher who had waltzed in there, as she suddenly yelled ‘So ladies and

gentlemen – WHAT IS LOVE?’ The response was, as obviously expected, silence. However, faster than I have ever seen before, the teacher had set up the projector and displayed three different philosophers and their views of love on the board. After the initial muted response, and with some not-so-gentle verbal prodding, the students gradually began to answer questions and discuss what love really meant to them.

By the end of lunchtime, and with it the end of our invasion, the students had had a really interesting and in-depth discussion about what love was, and how it affected their lives. There were subtle questions and statements that the teacher threw out to be bounced around room and this encouraged the discussion along, but mostly it was the students that produced the ideas and articulated them.

Although there will obviously be many occasions where a teacher has felt at their wits-end because the students aren’t doing what they have asked, and I know there will be benefits to having such a structure in some lessons, I honestly believe that allowing this restraint-free discussion is as beneficial and useful as any prescriptive learning.

The depth of this restrained learning really affected me in a lesson I taught last week. After keeping a food diary for a week as homework, the students in my class were then asked to produce a mock letter from a health advisor, commenting on their diet and general health. I provided

STUDENT LIFE the lower ability students with a template for their letter, but then suggested to the class, as an extension task, that they were to create a mock action plan for themselves.

This action plan could take any form they wanted; it could be exercise regime with calorie/distance targets, an eat-5-a-day target tick chart, a habit breaking list of mantras … anything they could think of. Well, from the looks of utter bewilderment on their faces you would have thought I’d just asked them to work out the origins of Pi. One after another, hands went up – “But how shall I set it out?” , “Do I do it landscape or portrait?” , “How do I begin?” , “Shall I use pen or pencil?”

– What on earth has happened to these students’ brains? They’ve become vessels for facts and the honing of the memory, not the absorbent, flexible, creative organ that I thought existed there.

How are we supposed to encourage our children and young adults to believe that they can aspire to anything, that they can reach the moon and grab a handful of stars on the way, if we can’t encourage them to think for themselves? These students are being stuffed to the brim with exam techniques, facts, figures and quotations.

Whilst this may win them a round at the local pub when the quiz is on, how is this preparing them in any way for the lives they have ahead of them?

I simply wish to ask this of you. If, at any point in the rest of your lives, you come across a human being of any age, willing and interested in anything at all, please, please, expand on that interest. It won’t be global warming or terrorism that destroys this planet, it will be the ignorance of the human brain.

By Hannah Hayward

JACK’S JOURNEY

I

magine being born in the wrong body. All day, every day you get called someone else’s name, wear someone else’s clothes and live someone else’s life.

Through-out school you go to the wrong toilet, play the wrong games in the playground, have the “wrong” set of friends and go into the wrong changing rooms for P.E. When you move out of your parent’s house and get a job, there is always a sense that your colleagues, your friends, your family; don’t really know you. It’s difficult to imagine, I know.

Most of us are so secure in our gender that we hardly think about how much in our lives is dictated by it. Our gender guides us in what we do, how we live, what we wear, how we talk, and who we love.

It comes as no surprise that someone who is born the wrong gender wants to right those wrongs and live the life they have always known they should be living.

Thanks to modern medicine, this is now possible.

One such person is Jack (formerly Jayne) who lives in Southampton and works as an operator on the switchboards for the emergency ambulance services.

Jack, who came out as transgender to his family last year (July 2011) also trains at Oxford Brooks University part time in order to become a paramedic.

Kate, Edge Hill Student and Jack ‘s sister tells us “It was never a massive shock. He’s always known, we’ve always known. I’ve had my suspicions; being a pageboy for our Dad’s wedding, becoming sexually interested in

other girls, always requesting short haircuts, being so private about his sexuality to the rest of the family...”

Jack, it seems is one of the lucky ones, as most transgendered people face bullying, denial and even abuse when they come out. But Jack’s twin sister Jessica, younger sister, cousins and his other family has been hugely accepting.

“We are supportive, none of us have shunned him... we wanted to make sure that that everything.” Kate says.

And this, it seems, is where Jack’s long journey to making his outside match his inside, begins. Jack has found support and acceptance, not only from his family, but also from the wider LGBT community. Finally, Jack can be himself through and through; he has other transgender friends, even a mentor to help him through his journey. Jack has found in the transgender circle a community so understanding and compassionate that he has made some friends for life. Amongst these Lewis Hancox from Channel Four’s My Transsexual Summer.

The show was ground-breaking in communicating to the general public how transsexuals aren’t ‘other’ or ‘freaks’. Jack could be the person who directs an ambulance to your house in an emergency, the person who performs the necessary actions to keep you alive on the way to hospital. Jack could be your sibling, or your friend. To Edge Hill’s LGBT society he’s a friend, one that we think deserves the most basic right; to have the right gender.

This is why on Tuesday 6th March members will be doing a sponsored cross dress and a bake sale to raise money for Jack’s surgery. Jack’s journey has already begun, and after two years of therapy he has finally started hormone treatment. To avoid waiting another three years and being twenty nine by the time he is in the right body, Jack and his family are trying to raise the £5,000 needed to fund the operation privately.

We take our own gender for granted so much that we can hardly imagine what it must be like for Jack, being trapped in the body and the life of someone he isn’t. This is why we, as a society, have organized the cross dress and bake-sale and we would be extremely grateful for support through sponsorship and buying our cakes, from the Hub 11am-3pm on Tuesday 6th March.

More info on Jack- http://www.gofundme.com/bv74c Photo- Jack and his twin, Jessica.

By Pippa Georgeson

E

veryone knows students enjoy learning, parties and drinking alcohol! It’s no secret! It is inevitable that you’re going to be absolutely intoxicated at least once in the time that you study at university. So... a few hints to keep you smart, on top and the only person to wake up and think ‘heck, I remember the whole night!!’ Yes, follow these hints and you will not suffer from the awful, almost unthinkable drunken amnesia (however, sometimes we kind of want the drunken amnesia).

Here goes.... the most important hint is don’t mix your drinks!!! If you mix your drinks they are far more likely to interact with each other faster; which means the affect one drink is having on you has likely doubled!!! This means going out with your friends and three hours later you are either; causing queues in the toilet or having had cut the night short and are fast asleep in your bed.

Prescribed Medication or illegal drugs will interact awfully with the alcohol and in some cases can be extremely FATAL. So don’t do it!!!

Right that one over with, the next is to eat something!!! How many times have you gone out, consumed alcohol and not ate!! If you have a meal before you are most likely to last twice as long this is because food absorbs some of the alcohol, less alcohol in your blood stream... more time to waltz round the dance floor impressing your friends with your dance moves.

Drinking alcohol and feeling incredibly sad is a big NO, NO!!!

Alcohol is a depressant which means if you’re feeling low it won’t make you feel better! In fact, it will cause you more grief and could lead to aggression. Possibly meaning, a police cell and a hefty fine!!! So if you plan on consuming alcohol when your low you should instead take the safer option and get a tub of Ben and Jerrys ice cream and watch Bridget Jones Diary (works every time).

Alcohol affects women more than men (unfortunate, I know) this is because men have a larger volume of body water which enables the alcohol to dilute better. The same goes for people who have lesser body mass than people who have a larger one, this is simply known to be because the alcohol is more concentrated in the bloodstream.

Oh and unfortunately, black coffee, a shower or whichever other method you choose to sober you up doesn’t work. It just makes you feel more awake! Still drunk though!!!

The bubbly alcohol can increase the affects of alcohol than the non bubbly.

Right, well hopefully the above hints may be of some use to you! Enjoy your night out!!

By Samantha Williamson

ALCHOHOL

FASHION

The 54th Grammy Awards T

he 54th Grammy Awards ceremony was held on Sunday the 12th of February 2012, at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. The awards were hosted by LL Cool J and held many highly anticipated performances.

The Awards were a memorable and sombre occasion, after the passing of Whitney Houston on Saturday.

Artists Jennifer Hudson and Chaka Khan honoured the late singer with a performance on the night.

Not only do the Grammys bring us the best in music, they also bring us the best AND worst in fashion. The red carpet attracts just as much attention as the actual award ceremony these days, and 2012 was certainly not a year to disappoint. The awards presented us with certain dazzling starlets, displaying gorgeous chic ensembles, as well as bizarre, outrageous, wacky wardrobe combinations.

Nicki Minaj was one of the main outfit disasters of the night, hitting the red carpet in a red, silk Little Red Riding Hood-inspired ensemble, by Versace. From the enormous hood to the strange face embroidered on the skirt to her matching gloves, this outfit was nothing short of bizarre. If that was not enough, Minaj’s date was dressed up as the Pope and looked disturbingly similar.

Singer Sasha Gradiva was another tragic example of red carpet attire gone wrong. The Russian-born singer, who is an emerging artist on the dance-pop scene, opted for weapons along with her pink prom gown dress. The vulgar accessory was a sight for sore eyes.

Other artists who also missed the style mark included Fergie and Rebecca Black. Fergie, who does get credit for her Haute Couture taste, opted for a completely see-through neon orange lace dress by Jean Paul Gaultier. Though the piece might have looked amazing on the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week runway, it did not translate on the red carpet.

Her dangerous decision to wear black granny pants underneath also raised eyebrows. Rebecca Black opted for an age- appropriate, ruffled, black dress and strappy red shoes, looking ready for a Sunday night full of partying. Unlucky for her the outfit had a similar success rate to her infamous pop video “Friday” back in 2011.

On the other side of the fashion scale, Rihanna, Carrie Underwood and Kelly Osbourne were amongst 42

FASHION the best dressed, bringing their A game to place a mark on the fashion map. Rihanna wore a breath taking Armani, backless, black dress, with a high slit, which she designed herself, she contributed this with standout, chunky, gold accessories, ensuring she turned heads. Carrie Underwood made a stunning appearance in a mesmerising, backless Gomez- Gracia, white shimmering gown. Osbourne went for an extremely elegant gold sequined, floor length, Tony Ward number showing off her extensive slim figure.

Katie Perry and Adele also stepped up to the occasion, sampling delicate, mind blowing outfits.

Newly single Katy Perry rocked out a beautiful, blue, beaded Elie Saab gown with three-quarter sleeves and jewels by Norman Silverman. She pulled this off amazingly with her new blue hair tying in. Adele looked stunning in Giorgio Armani. The black, sequin dress was so elegant and flattering, with her hair and makeup looking flawless too, the contrast between her bright red lips and dress looked really classy. The Awards highlighted the three

ever dominating trends that appeared on the red carpet.

Firstly the high neck lines which were seen on Fergie (Jean Paul Gaultier), Taylor Swift (Zuhair Murad), Alicia Keys (Alexandre Vauthier), Katy Perry (Elie Saab), Carrie Underwood (Gomez-Gracia) and Adele (Giorgio Armani).

Each star giving their own individual diva look. Secondly the sparkling sequins, that seemed to reign supreme, sequins were seen on Taylor Swift (Zuhair Murad), Adele (Giorgio Armani), Carrie Underwood (Gomez-Gracia), Katy Perry (Elie Saab), Kelly Rowland (Alberta Ferreti) and Kelly Osbourne (Tony Ward). Thirdly the classic black dress, however these black gowns were anything but boring.

Starlets wearing black ensembles were Rihanna (Giorgio Armani), Adele (Giorgio Armani), Alicia Keys (Alexandre Vauthier), Giuliana Rancic (Georges Chakra couture), Julianne Hough (Kaufman Franco) and Corinne Bailey Rae (Christian Siriano).

My personal favourite fashion award would go to Carrie Underwood. The twinkle and class of her fine ensemble was enough to blow anyone away.

By Jessica Fox

FASHION Out with the new - in with the OLD H

ow to rock that vintage look for 50 of these bad boys....

Its that time of year when most of us can barely afford to inject our wardrobes with `Primark` specials never mind Christian Diors latest collection. It does not mean we have to be complete Pat Butchers (RIP) though. After researching the best vintage stores around the spectacular city of Liverpool, any student (even the Ugly Betties`) can strut around looking like Karl Lagerfelds new BFF.

Its simple! Don`t go splashing your delightful January loans on every double vodka going; maximize your extra quids by checking out Recycle 2 wear. Situated in the heart of Liverpools student area- Smithdown, it’s one of the best vintage stores for fashion gems that will ensure you can keep up with current trends at mouth - watering prices. I bumped into these Vintage Vixens to see what bargains they grabbed!

Vixen 1 Name: Gemma Gallagher Nationality: Irish Occupation: Student design teacher Vintage Period: 70s Favourite place to shop: Recycle 2 wear, Topshop My style: Mismatched, playful, and edgy.

Green Velvet Pixie dress- £8 (Recycle 2 wear) Floral hair piece- £1 (Primark)

Vixen 2 Name: Paula Maria Nationality: Polish Occupation: Nutrition student Vinatge period: 40s Favourite place to shop: Recycle 2 wear and Ryans Vintage My style: Casual, Bohemian and Elegant

FASHION Mustard netted dress: £10 (Recycle 2 Wear) Brown belt; £5 (Recycle 2 Wear) Headscarf: £4 (Recycle 2 Wear) Black tights: £2 (Asda) Tan ankle boots: £15 (Recycle 2 Wear) Gemma and Paulas Faux fur pieces are just as sleek as the real thing, ensuring to keep consumers hot, hip and guilt free. It`s the hottest biggest trend, following the Prada fall 2011 runway; which included a variety of faux fur jackets during Milan fashion week. Clearly, most vintage stores provide zillions of items that can easily intertwine with current trends, my advice is get on that bus to Liverpool now!

Written by Orla Carlin

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V Star Myleene Klass was out braving the cold last month in Liverpool City Centre.

Myleene, 33, looked young as ever when she arrived at Boots in the city centre to launch her new nail wraps collection to her Northern fans. She showed off her designs on her own nails, as she posed for the cameras. Myleene wore a simple and elegant outfit matched with red lips. Promoting her product, she said: “You can just change your look in an instant, there’s no messing about, you just stick, file and go.” The product officially launched in October but she is now running around the country on a promotional tour. She said: “music tours are of the past. Promotion tours are the future. I love to meet and interact with my fans.”

There are a some other designs in the collection such as white stars, animal prints, polka dots and block colours in plain or sparkle.

When talking about the students she said: “You enjoy your time and you’re all proud of the way you dress.

Many of you are individuals.”

By Ebony Stephen Carey

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dge Hill University men’s Gaelic football competed in the British Universities GAA Division Three Championships in Birmingham at the weekend.

Four groups of four teams played each other once each to try win their group and progress to the semi final, so Edge Hill were under pressure to secure three wins.

They opened against group two favourites University of Edinburgh with many of the side tasting their first competitive football after five months of training for the big occasion.

Edge Hill managed to go in at the break two points up thanks to some inspirational play from recent recruit Kieran Lynam in midfield, who managed to grab one, with the other coming from Daniel Heaney.

The second half was spent keeping out the stronger side boasting 13 Irish players, but Accrington’s Danny

Wilkinson bagged the third point.

The final shot on goal from Edinburgh to level things with the last kick of the game was saved, Edge Hill defending with all 13 in the box.

Following that upset of the tournament, the Ormskirk side stormed to two wins against lesser sides Leeds Trinity (0-5 - 1-0) and University of Birmingham (1-3 0-0) to top the group unbeaten.

Teesside University awaited in the semi final where a far superior side ran out 3-7 to 0-0 winners and Edge Hill’s luck was up.

Teesside went on to win the final by a massive 7-9 to 1-1 against local rivals Sunderland, some consolation in going out to the eventual winners could be taken.

Impressive performances throughout the team yielded the three wins, with special mention to Englishmen Ryan Teggin

(midfield), Alex Stephen (full back), James Shafi (gk) and Aughton lad Sam Bewick (full back) who threw his body to keep a goal out against Leeds and save the match.

The heartbeat of the team Lynam, Heaney and vice captain Paul Carey showed inspiration all day but while battling hard until the final minute, there was no competing with Teesside.

Carey said: “Going down with 11 English lads and just six Irish is never the best balance but those lads fought fierce well. The boys done brilliantly.

“The transition Teggs (Teggin) has made has been immense and Alex (Stephen) didn’t give a sniff to Edinburgh’s star full forward.

“It’s the furthest we’ve progressed in our three years so that’s something to be proud of.”

By Gareth Dowling

back from left: Gregory Toothill, Daniel Heaney, Marc Murray, Ryan Teggin, Sam Bewick, Alex Stephen, James Shafi, Dean Currall, Mathew Waller, Oliver Davy-Day, Mark Byrne, front: Jake Lewis, Chris Moss, Kieran Lynam, Paul Carey (vc), Gareth Dowling (c), Danny Wilkinson

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Give homophobia the boot!

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he Football Association finally released a Sports Charter that all 20 Premier League Clubs signed to show their support to tackle abuse towards gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the stands and on the football pitch. Roughly 5000 football players play professionally in Britain. Do you really believe for one second there is not one gay footballer in that 5000? Well, a lot of people do. They believe that football is simply too ‘macho’ for homosexuals to play.

Brian Clough was one of these people. He could not understand football player Justin Fashanu going to gay bars, so he confronted Justin. In Clough’s autobiography he recounts on this; ‘Where do you go if you want a loaf of bread?’ I asked him. ‘A baker’s, I suppose.’ ‘Where do you go if you want a leg of lamb?’

‘A butcher’s.’ ‘So why do you keep going to that bloody poofs club?’

Fashanu is the only professional footballer in Britain to publically come out as gay. Sadly he committed suicide almost 14 years ago after continued torture and hostility from family, friends and the media. It is not just football, or sport for that matter. Homophobia exists in society; it is brought on many children at an early age. I remember in the playground at school, when two children were arguing a common derogatory term used would be ‘you’re gay’, suggesting being gay is a bad thing. I have even heard adults still using this term around University, which is believed to be a place for the educated.

People say things they simply do not question, therefore

remain careless children. And just follow what they pick up, most likely from Religious dogma or powerful people in our lives such as a guardian or parent.

The most powerful person in world football is the president of FIFA Sepp Blatter. He and his colleagues awarded the 2022 World Cup to Quatar even though Quatar has strict laws against homosexuality. Then he tells gay fans to ‘refrain from any sexual activities during the tournament.’ A footballer cannot be openly gay when the leaders are this ignorant on this issue. Sepp Blatter wants to promote football to as many parts of the globe as possible, but needs to understand the pressing issues still present in football. Taking football to a country against homosexuality, when claiming to fight against homophobia is hypocritical, and this hypocrisy should be illustrated if we’re to once and for all give homophobia the boot.

The charter is a step in the positive direction in Britain. However this is a worldwide issue, it needs to be treated this way. Football is a global sport, and claims to bring global change, however I am finding this notion difficult to believe.

Everyone needs to be in it together, and need to open our minds, show empathy and challenge people in power. We cannot depend on other people to enforce change while we say nothing, this is clearly not working.

If there has been not enough said and done to change the law in Quatar for the 2022 World Cup, and if not more charters are being signed worldwide to tackle homophobia we have all certainly failed.

By Michael Stewart

SPORT Friday night in Southport, not for topclass alcohol but for a top-class football match!

By Peter Hughes Southport 1-2 Grimsby Town, Haig Avenue, Attendance – 1,934, Friday 17th February

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o many people around the country, reguarly attending games in the top division has now become a thing of the past as they feel it is simple to expensive these days. At up to £45 for a game, without the expensive half time refreshment and match programme, just for one seat it can be too much; especially if your taking your family to the match. That is why, AFC Liverpool were formed. The founders felt going to Anfield had become to expensive, and after the new stadium plans entailed a rise in ticket prices to help pay for the it, many became frustrated. I bring this up as recently I went to a lower-league match for the first time in many years. We have many strong non-league teams in the Merseyside/Lancashire area and they are often great days out. I think of AFC Liverpool, Bootle F.C, Burscough F.C, Marine F.C, Vauxhall Motors and the highest ranked of these, Southport.

They are currently in the mix for a playoff spot, and on the verge of the football league which would be an incredible achievement. I decided to give non-league a try, and headed to Southport for their Friday night match up with former football league heavyweights and fellow playoff rivals, Grimsby Town in what promised to be an entertaining showdown. I obviously decided to back our local team, despite being told by the fans that Grimsby were currently on top of the form table and this would be a serious challenge.

However my hopes were high, as just on the half hour mark, Grimsby’s Elding unfortunately put the ball into the back of his own net. As half time went we had seen the Sandgrounders (Southport) put in a strong first half display, testing Grimsby keeper Mckeowen several times. However the visitors made Southport pay for their lack of accuracy as Miller headed in a great cross to draw Grimsby level on the stroke of half-time. Both teams showed commitment in the second half as they both battled for the 3 points, desperate to gain a upper-hand in the race for playoff positions. The game began to turn scrappy, as the two sets of midfield got stuck in, as we hit the final quarter of an hour, Grimsby began to turn the tide. Grimsby threatened several times, and Hearn tested ‘keeper McMillan with a powerful effort, which McMillan parried towards Hearn’s direction for him to poke the ball past the stranded goalkeeper. Southport showed the determination which has got them so high up in the table and pushed for an equaliser against what at times was an 8 man defence; however it was too little too late and the visitors walked away with the points. Grimsby grabbing what proved to be the winner.

Obviously lower-league football lacks the skill and household names of the Premier League, but it is well worth a try and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Even most Championship clubs still charge a reasonable amount for tickets, and have great stadiums.

A friend of mine went to the Sheffield derby earlier in the season and said it actually felt like a top-flight clash, my visit to the coast on Friday night had a special atmosphere. The division consists of teams of similar ability were anyone can beat anyone, indeed the first half of this match was end to end football and by the end of it, despite

the result I had began to develop a slight affection for Southport F.C. Lower-League teams are having difficulty drawing in the big crowds through the turnstiles, so do your bit and support a local team. A cheap hour and a half of action and passion, just a couple of steps below Manchester United and Liverpool.

Hopefully between now and May, Southport F.C can keep up their good work and get themselves in the playoffs. A chilly Friday night in February could be a Summer’s Saturday evening in Wembley in just 3 months....

By Peter Hughes

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Why are the Glaswegians bossin I

f you are planning on going into coaching, then may I suggest adopting a Scottish accent, listening to the Proclaimers and maybe even buying a kilt. Ok maybe you don’t have to be that drastic; but I do say this with caution as the Scots seem to have found the formula and now produce the same dominance as ‘Dr Dre’ does to headphones, no I don’t understand it either.

The premier league currently possesses 7 Scottish managers, and what’s even more astonishing is that they were all born within 13 miles of Glasgow.

The famous seven currently are: Steve Kean, Paul Lambert, David Moyes, Owen Coyle, Alex McLeish, Kenny Dalglish and Sir Alex Ferguson. This list being in comparison to the 4 English managers we currently boast in the Premier League. But why is this?

Well, Since 1986, three Scots – Sir Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalglish and George Graham have won the prestigious league title 17 times between them; while only Howard Kendall, with Everton in 1987, and Howard Wilkinson, with Leeds in 1992, have triumphed in that time among Englishmen, coincidence? I think not.

So why is Scotland, and in particular Glasgow a place that has produced so many greats such as Ferguson, Busby and Shankly? If you spoke to a scot, he may tell you that it was purely down to their background and history. With the Scottish influence steeped in their hardship of coal-minding and ship building, where proud men worked diligently on socialist principles to produce a positive outcome whilst part of a team.

Alternatively you could look at what Craig Brown had to say on the issue, currently the oldest manager in the SPL. He had this to say during a recent interview “Football is not immune to trends, but it also has to be said that Scottish managers have always been a feature of the English game and if you consider how

Scotland regards football, it should not be any great surprise that there will be times when many or most Scottish managers will come from the Glasgow area.

“Football is the unchallenged national sport for Scots.

Cricket has its following but nothing like the impact it has in England, rugby is strongest in Edinburgh and the Borders and although Scotland has many golfers, golf is generally felt to be played by the more affluent.

“On the other hand, football is followed intensely in every part of Scotland, but the heartland is Glasgow.

The people are immersed in it.

“And it is not just the seven managers you have mentioned who come from thereabouts. There are also a lot of highly regarded coaches like Billy McKinlay, Steve Clarke or Gary McAllister who hail from Glasgow or nearby.

“None of them were born with silver spoons in their mouths – more like plastic spoons.”

So, what are the links between all these Glaswegians and what is it about that area in particular that leads them to become such great coaches?

Well, the city itself, Glasgow posses’ three football stadiums all with a capacity of over 50,000 with its only company being Istanbul and even there population is 13 million compared Glasgow’s measly 600,000. Of course, this allowed for Scots to head down to the grounds to watch their team after coal mining or being down at the shipyard and it is that sort of commitment to see their team which oozes out of each coach. You see, Celtic and Rangers are not only seen as a giant clubs with a bitter rivalry but two separate cultures that shape the lives of different individuals and communities.

But, if this was to be the formula of a successful coach then why doesn’t England boast just as many?

Well, this is something that baffles me just as much as the next Englishmen, even if that is the head of the FA. The conclusion that I was able to draw up was based around the history and role models that have inspired this current crop of Glaswegians, and it isn’t a bad 50

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ng the English Premier League? history by all means. No doubt most of our current crop will have looked up to arguably the greatest manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson. There is always one figure of the generation that leads others to follow, and you can’t be surprised by the amount of Glaswegians, all coming from similar backgrounds, trying to emulate the great man.

Well, who might Sir Alex have idolised and looked up to, well I give you none other than Sir Mat Busby and Bill Shankly.

Yes you can go to, Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham and look at their rivalry and tradition along with the great history it is also steeped in, but when you look at Glasgow, it becomes much more. Not just a conversation the morning after, but a way of life; a culture and an identity to live by. England is a country made up of many sports, yes Football by far out weighs any other; but switch on your television on a Saturday and you will see an array of Cricket, Rugby union, Rugby league the list goes on. The thing is with Scotland is that it means so much more than anywhere else, and this is proved not by the amount of great players that they have produced but rather the amount of first class coaches they have boasted over the years.

In terms of English managers, who knows if we will be able to show case our own ‘Sir Alex’ in years to come. I sincerely hope so but in the meantime I am content with knowing that over the border are some of the great coaches in Europe at the moment.

By Adam Bond

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