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Issue 252
Issue 262
Tuesday 7th May 2013 www.epigram.org.uk 25 years of Epigram Bristol University’s Independent Student Newspaper Flickr: J. McGuire
Sherlock detected in Goldney
Students at Goldney Hall returned from the Easter break to find their halls transformed into a BBC film set for the latest series of Sherlock. The usual groups of students wandering around the Goldney grounds have been joined by a cast of extras and occasionally Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, who play Sherlock and Watson in the hit BBC series. The filming has provided a welcome break from revision and essay writing during exam season, with students emerging from their rooms to be on ‘Cumberwatch’ and see scenes being shot in their hall’s back garden. continued on page 3
Big Cheese on Campus: Cheese Soc take on the Eggheads page 5
Uni spending millions on library refurbishment Katy Barney News Reporter This summer, several University of Bristol (UoB) libraries will undergo refurbishment as part of an ongoing £4 million project to improve study space provision for students. Notable changes will be made to the Chemistry, Physics and Medical libraries, as well as the development of 24/7 study spaces in Senate House. The refurbishments are part of a capital programme to modernise UoB and reflect the growing number of students. Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor David Clarke, told Epigram: ‘We are responding to the needs of our students, in light of the growth of numbers, by putting in place a refurbishment of libraries programme in which the provision of more space in those libraries is a key factor.’ Refurbishments began in 2011 with the remodelling of the Arts and Social Sciences
Marek Allen
Chemistry, Physics and Medical libraries all to be developed Library and last summer the Hawthorns was redeveloped to include 300 study spaces. The Wills Memorial Library, housing the Law and Earth Sciences collections, is the current major project. The first phase of development is now complete and the second phase of work is due to be carried out over the summer in order to minimise disruption to students. Professor Clarke has also announced that there will be a brand new Biological Sciences Library, including various group and private study spaces, in the new Life Sciences Building when it opens later next academic year. The works on the Physics and Chemistry libraries will focus on modernisation. Both will receive new lighting and power will be extended to all desks to enable students to use laptops whilst they study. The Chemistry library will have 26 more quiet work spaces. Medical library capacity will also grow by 20. Rebecca Rose, Library Development Officer for the university, told Epigram about the
funding for the projects, which ‘represents in excess of £3 million pounds with an additional £1 million being raised or pledged by supporters of the library.’ As well as IT improvements, new flooring and furniture, and more stock, the self-service option will be upgraded in the Wills and ASS libraries. Rose stresses that this will make the borrowing process faster, saying ‘Self-service facilitates the efficient borrowing of library material and allows the processing of multiple items simultaneously.’ Another major project will be the basement of Senate House. The renovation of the union has meant that some offices are moving out of Senate House, leaving space for a 24/7 area with 100 desks, 70 of which will be silent study. The Victoria Rooms auditorium will have its seating and audio projection improved. The University also applied for planning permission for a new lecture theatre in Priory Road. continued on page 3
Head Warden involved in latest AMM row University of Bristol’s Head Warden asked hall JCRs to consider voting down an attempt to increase the accountability of the decisions that they make. Dr. Martin Crossley Evans, also Warden of Manor Hall, requested that his JCR look into opposing a motion - which was aimed at making sure there is sufficient training for JCR leaders - at the Students’ Union’s Annual Members’ Meeting (AMM). The motion resolved ‘to make UBU responsible for overseeing JCR training, supporting JCR members and for making final decisions on any issues that need resolution’. It was felt by some JCR members that it would threaten their independence. continued on page 3
Varsity: the results so far page 33
07.05.2013
News
Editor: Jemma Buckley
Deputy Editor: Zaki Dogliani
Deputy Editor: Josephine McConville
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zdogliani@epigram.org.uk
jmcconville@epigram.org.uk
Staying sane this term
Editorial team Editor
Style Deputy Editor
Pippa Shawley
Alice Johnston
editor@epigram.org.uk
deputystyle@epigram.org.uk
Deputy Editors
Arts Editor
Patrick Baker
Rosemary Wagg
patrick@epigram.org.uk
arts@epigram.org.uk
Imogen Rowley
Deputy Arts Editor
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Rachel Schraer
e2 Editor
deputyarts@epigram.org.uk
Ant Adeane
Music Editor
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Eliot Brammer
News Editor
music@epigram.org.uk
Jemma Buckley
Deputy Music Editor
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Phil Gwyn
Deputy News Editors
deputymusic@epigram. org.uk
Zaki Dogliani Josephine McConville deputynews@epigram.org.uk Features Editor Nahema Marchal features@epigram.org.uk Deputy Features Editor Helena Blackstone deputyfeatures@epigram.org.uk Comment Editor Joe Kavanagh comment@epigram.org.uk Deputy Comment Editor Nat Meyers deputycomment@epigram.co.uk Letters Editor Lucy De Greeff letters@epigram.org.uk Living Editor Imogen Hope Carter living@epigram.org.uk Deputy Living
FIlm & TV Editor Jasper Jolly filmandtv@epigram.org.uk
Travel Editor Alicia Queiro travel@epigram.org.uk
days of October, dinner would be the
disappeared with the appearance of the
quickest thing you could microwave
sun, just as students across Bristol succumb before rushing to Lounge. Now, you have to weeks spent waking up at the crack of
Kate Samuelson deputyfilmandtv@epigram.org.uk Science Editor Mary Melville
dawn to find a seat in the library. Inside the that remind you of gap year dishes. You library, the hum of vibrating mobile phones dwell on the old adage that ‘a watched and the tapping on Macbook keyboards lull pot never boils’ as you make your 27th you into a dream-like state. Words swim on
cup of tea that day. On the bright side,
the page, while your doodling capabilities
exam season allows you to leave the
make you wonder why you’re not studying
lecture theatres behind for pastures
Fine Art at a trendy art college, instead of
new, namely the exam hall at UWE. What
trying to remember the scientific name for
seemed to many to be a sick joke played
the collar bone in a building that resembles out by Bristol’s exam timetablers will in an East German interrogation unit. It’s
fact be an opportunity to see how the
amazing to think what you can achieve
other half live. And if that is too bleak to
during this period of doom. In the heady
comprehend, just hide behind your copy
science@epigram.org.uk Deputy Science Editor Erik Müürsepp deputyscience@epigram.org Sport Editor David Stone
Meetings
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News - Tues 7th May, 12.15pm, White Bear
Deputy Sport Editor
Features - email features@epigram.org.uk
Laura Lambert deputysport@epigram.org.uk Proof Readers Anna Collier Jessica Easton Rupert Hill
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Epigram is the independent student newspaper of the University of Bristol. The views expressed in this publication are not those of the University or the Students’ Union. The design, text and photographs are copyright of Epigram and its individual contributors and may not be reproduced without permission.
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Travel Deputy Editor Alex Bradbrook
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If you can’t attend a meeting but still want to contribute to Epigram, email the editorial team (see left hand column for details)
Style Editor Lizi Woolgar style@epigram.org.uk
gone gourmet, whipping up marinades
Deputy Film & TV Editor
Josephine Franks Mona Tabbara
The seemingly endless winter has finally
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of Epigram. Flickr: NinJA999
Epigram
Epigram
07.05.2013
33
Bristol holds graduation ceremony in China Over 200 graduates marked their academic achievements in style earlier this month, a little bit closer to home, as the University of Bristol held its first ever graduation ceremony in China. The ceremony took place on Saturday April 20th at the China World hotel in Beijing, and allowed Chinese students the opportunity to celebrate their graduation with friends and family, many of whom might otherwise have struggled to attend the event in Bristol. A total of 650 alumni, their guests and representatives from the university were also present. With 1,340 Chinese students currently enrolled at the University it is easy to see the demand for, and benefits of, holding such an event.
The traditional British ceremony also gave students a chance to relive their experiences of Bristol, and share them with their guests. A giant image of the Clifton Suspension Bridge formed a fitting backdrop to proceedings, whilst the iconic landmarks of Wills Memorial Building and the Victoria Rooms towered over guests
1340
Chinese students are currently enrolled at Bristol in the form of four-metre tall photo boards. The students, donning traditional gowns and caps, were congratulated by Professor Eric Thomas - the Vice
Chancellor of the University of Bristol - who was among the privileged representatives from the university to attend. ‘Our first graduation in China was a fantastic occasion. The atmosphere was full of excitement and it was brilliant to hear how pleased all our students were that it was being held in Beijing so that their friends and family could share in the celebrations. We hope the event has created even more happy memories of their time at Bristol’, commented Professor Thomas, who is also President of Higher Education group Universities UK. Two more events are already planned to be held in Shanghai and Beijing for hundreds more alumni who previously studied at Bristol. These alumni receptions, as well as the recent graduation ceremony, are hoped to further cement relations between China and the city of Bristol.
Bristol University Press Office
Emma Leedham News Reporter
“
Over 200 graduates went with friends and family who may not have been able to travel all the way to Bristol
‘Cumberwatch’ at Goldney
Warden in latest AMM controversy
Laura Jacklin News Reporter
Zaki Dogliani Deputy News Editor
Continued from page 1
Benedict Cumberbatch was papped by students whilst filming at Goldney Hall in Clifton
to the list of productions that have used Goldney as a location, including Skins, the BBC version of The Chronicles of Narnia and last year’s television film The Best of Men. As yet there are no definitive transmission dates for the third series of Sherlock, although the Radio Times has reported that it could air around Christmas time.
Sophie Burge
A student resident of Goldney who has been watching some of the filming said ‘We’re so lucky to be able to watch Sherlock being filmed in our hall grounds. We’ve had a few waves and hellos from Benedict and Martin, but it’s nice to see them joking around and having fun on set. I look forward to seeing Goldney grounds on screen.’ Asked to refrain from taking photographs by security, groups of students could be seen getting as close as they dared to the red tape sectioning off the set to catch a glimpse of the stars. As well as Cumberbatch and Freeman, others spotted included actor Rupert Graves, actresses Una Stubbs and Louise Brealey, actor and writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat. However, with security tight and the BBC keen for details not to be leaked, most students have had to settle for a fleeting glimpse of the actors from a distance and craning their necks to see through the windows of the Orangery. With extras in wedding outfits and Moffat’s wife tweeting ‘Lovely day for a wedding #sherlock’ along with a picture of a name card reading ‘Sherlock Holmes’ on a decorated table, there has been much speculation about the episode being filmed, by students and online fans. Goldney is no stranger fame, with Sherlock the latest addition
Library refurbishments Continued from page 1
Rose said ‘Inevitably over the summer months there will be some disruption, however, these, where possible, will be kept to a minimum and communicated in advance through library web pages and through schools. Updates will give details regarding access to stock, progress of works, possible
noise disruption, temporary closure of and alternative study space.’ The plans will come as welcome news to students worried about growing numbers adversely affecting their studies. Branch libraries are often full early in the morning. The university hopes these developments will ease the pressure on libraries in coming years.
Continued from page 1 This episode was not the only involvement of a senior university official in issues raised at the meeting following Director of Sport, Exercise and Health, Simon Hinks, asking elite sports club captains to vote down a motion aimed at improving accessibility to facilities. While that motion passed comfortably, this failed by under 10 votes, and it is believed that the intervention may have swung the outcome. An email circulated by Manor’s Student Support Administrator, containing a message from Dr. Crossley Evans, said ‘While it is likely that what is proposed is beyond the powers of the Students’ Union, the Warden thought you might like to be aware of the motion and to be given an opportunity to defend the current independence of JCR Committees if that is your view.’ It is also understood that Dr. Crossley Evans communicated with other JCRs with a similar request. Julia Bush, who wrote the motion, told Epigram ‘JCRs aren’t democratic if their final decisions are made by university officials who weren’t elected. I don’t take issue with the result or their views on the matter. My worry is, concerning a motion proposing to make JCRs independent of the single, seemingly all-powerful university official that runs them, the same man felt it
appropriate to have an email sent propagating a personal and misleading view of what the motion entailed (and thus how JCRs should rightfully vote!). When the university staff whose power you challenge use their influence to unfairly intervene in union politics, then we have a serious problem with how we function as a democratic body.’ Speaking to Epigram, Dr. Crossley Evans said ‘We quite routinely remind residents of the Students’ Union AMM as we do other events around the University. On this occasion, a number of past and present residents of Manor had expressed concern at the ambiguous wording of this motion and it was important that the current JCR should have an opportunity to seek clarification and take a view of the proposal before exercising their democratic rights. I am sure you will agree that it is in the interests of the Union that motions which affect the residences should receive the widest airing amongst the student residents as possible’. UBU President-elect Rob Griffiths also spoke at AMM in favour of some of the motion’s ideas. He told Epigram ‘There’s certainly room for more JCR engagement with UBU and I will be working hard next year to address the valid problems raised in this motion whilst embracing and encouraging JCR independence.’ JCRs, whose budgets often exceed £10000, organise a range of activities for students.
Epigram
07.05.2013
4
University term structure set to change Tom Flynn told Epigram: ‘I wasn’t aware myself of the changes being proposed at the time they were agreed in 2011, and I think that year’s officer team should certainly have consulted more’. Sabbatical offices have been limited to making sure the university are aware of how the new structure will impact on students. Flynn is confident that the changes will benefit the student body, but admits he has ‘concerns about the combination of a shorter Christmas vacation and more examinations in January making this period more stressful, but this will also reduce the burden on students in May and June, and means there is an extra week of teaching at no additional cost.’ Students on courses that do not follow the current conventional term structure, such as Medicine and Dentistry, will continue to operate separately, although in the announcement to students, Lieven and Charlton said that ‘attempts will be made to make them consistent with the new structure where possible’. Students have been urged to consult the new term dates on the university website, and contact their personal tutor if they foresee any problems.
New NUS President is first not to have attended Uni NUS/Will Bunce
Toni Pearce was elected NUS President at National Conference in Sheffield with 57% of the vote
Joseph Quinlan News Reporter Toni Pearce is set to become the first President of the National Union of Students to have not attended a university, but instead a further education college. She will succeed Liam Burns as the head of the Union which represents students across the country after being elected
with 424 of the 732 valid votes cast at the National Conference, which was held in Sheffield and attended by a team of NUS representatives from the University of Bristol. Following her election, Pearce said she was ‘really proud to have been given the opportunity to build the student movement around a vision for public education, and to be leading NUS as we build it towards the next general election’.
Having studied at Cornwall College, Pearce served as President of Cornwall College Students’ Union from 2009 to 2011. She was subsequently elected NUS Vice-President (Further Education) in 2011 and then re-elected for another term the following year. Central to Pearce’s campaign forthePresidencywashervision to link college and university students’ unions together, as well as creating a single central admissions system to link the
Joshua Davis
The university has announced plans to change the structure of the academic year. In a joint statement sent to students, the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education Nick Lieven, and UBU President Paul Charlton, said that they hoped the restructuring of the academic year would improve the educational experience for students. Currently there is not a clear divide between teaching time and assessment periods, something that the new structure will address. Two dedicated assessment periods have been constructed to allow for exams at the end of both teaching blocks, with two weeks given over to exams in January and three weeks in May/June. A dedicated revision week will also be introduced in May, offering a clear break between teaching time and the commencement of exams. The shake-up will mean that the Christmas and Easter vacations are reduced from four weeks to three weeks each, while Freshers Week will start a week earlier than it currently does, allowing for teaching
to commence a week earlier than previously. The Christmas 2013 vacation will now start on Monday 23rd December. The fact that teaching ends only days before Christmas means that students planning to travel abroad will be forced into paying peak fairs. As Epigram went to press, flight comparison website Skyscanner showed that flights from Bristol to Beijing that departed on the 23rd December started at £508, £85 more than flights the previous week would have cost, while the price of a flight to Madrid nearly doubled in the same period. This could be yet another blow for the university’s international students, who have already spent the year lobbying the university for better treatment. The extended autumn term means that it is unlikely that the Snowsports Club’s annual ski trip will be able to take place before Christmas. Plans for restructuring the academic year have been discussed for some time, and the proposals announced this year were agreed back in 2011. This has meant that the current sabbatical team have had less input than they would have desired, as VP for Education
CREDIT
Pippa Shawley Editor
Changes to the university’s vacation dates will force students to pay peak travel prices
two institutions. In addition, the Presidentelect has set her sights on dealing with financial problems that students suffer as a result of soaring tuition fees and living costs, as well as emphasising the need to create jobs and apprenticeships for those in higher education. Speaking to Epigram, Bristol’s Vice-President for Education, Tom Flynn, who attended the conference in Sheffield, said he was confident that ‘Toni is going to be a fantastic NUS President and [is] proud not just to have voted for her, but campaigned for her’. Flynn insisted that ‘Toni has a fantastic perspective on post-compulsory education as a whole, and the barriers that prevent people from accessing Further and Higher Education’. Pearce has suggested that to best further the Union’s interests, it has to become a constructive voice. Indeed, Flynn highlights her ‘vision of education that students fight for, rather than what we should campaign against’ as ‘something that NUS really needs to get right over the coming year’. Away from the elections, the NUS National Conference became the scene of much controversy after the news of Margaret Thatcher’s death was met with cheers by some segments of Sheffield City Hall. Liam Burns, the current NUS President, swiftly called for ‘respect’ from the gathered delegates in the aftermath of the incident which attracted national media attention.
Guardian editor talks to students about Middle East Laura Webb News Reporter Ian Black, the Guardian’s Middle East editor, gave a talk at Bristol University on politics in the Middle East and his career as a journalist, organised by the Bristol International Affairs Society. His talk focussed on the ‘Arab Spring’ and developments in the Middle East over the past two years in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and Syria, which he describes as ‘the saddest chapter of all’. He also discussed the impact of technological changes and new social media on journalism. While each country is experiencing its own, specific dynamic of changes,he stressed the importance of young people in influencing this change across the region. They have experienced a huge shift from living in countries unable to affect political change, to playing an instrumental part in the overthrow of corrupt, dictatorial governments. Having just returned from Syria, Black reflected on the tragic and ongoing civil war there, explaining ‘It’s scary, you can hear bombs going off, you hear countless terrible stories’.
It is difficult to obtain a visa to get into Syria and once you are there it is highly oppressive, movement is restricted, reporters get imprisoned and some have died - ‘it’s a war zone’. He said ‘Syrians produce thousands of YouTube videos to get across their story’, indicating that although there are protesters with guns, the most striking observation is that ‘everybody has a camera’ to film the demonstrations and upload them to YouTube. He said ‘Twitter is very important’ and sometimes more useful than being there in person, because it allows you to receive information from areas where it is too dangerous to get to. ‘User generated content’ is now a key buzzword in the world of media; however Black defended the role of foreign correspondents, saying that they play a vital role in critically analysing and making sense of information in a broader context. He advised aspiring foreign correspondents to learn languages: if you want to report in the Middle East you need to be able to speak Arabic to understand what the mood is and what is happening on the ground.
Epigram
07.05.2013
5
Manon-Elen Stokes News Reporter The Bristol Cheese Society has ended a successful year by being chosen to appear on the BBC’s quiz show Eggheads. Forgetting the pressure of approaching exams, the Bristol students travelled up to Glasgow during the Easter holidays to put their brains to the test. The team consisted of Captain Ellie Lloyd and team members Laura Powell, James Bogie, Harrison Carter and Adam Hodges, with Archie Bowden in reserve. The opportunity arose when one of the show’s researchers contacted Cheese Soc after hearing about such a quaint society. ‘I mean, what’s not to like about cheese, right? After such a compliment, it would have been rude not to form a team and audition for the show,’ said Laura Powell, the society’s secretary. After the team proved that we learn more at Bristol than how to spend our student loans on toffee shots in Lounge, a date for filming was set. The team had prepared thoroughly, planning their tactics for the multiple choice rounds, and agreeing on each person’s speciality. The Bristol Cheese Society certainly weren’t going to be beaten easily. Each team member took four different outfits and spent
Bristol’s Cheese Society to battle it out on BBC quiz show Eggheads
Cheese Society members, from left to right, Archie Bowden, Ellie Lloyd, Laura Powell, James Bogie, Harrison Carter and Adam Hodges with the Eggheads
several hours in the dressing rooms, and it was the male members who revelled most in this experience. After being selected for the show, the Cheese Society is more confident than ever that
the next few months will be full of success. It is already one of Bristol’s biggest societies, boasting over 120 members. This year alone they have hosted cheese pub quizzes, cheesecake
conventions and ‘name that cheese’ events, all with the aim of proving that cheese really is a social icebreaker. Their television debut is in a few months’ time, and these passionate cheese eaters want
to celebrate in style. Other Bristol societies tend to have ‘big nights’ after varsity matches or fashion shows, so the Cheese Society has decided their events should be on the student social calendar too.
So, how does a mega cheese festival sound? Move over Glastonbury, Reading and Outlook, Bristol Cheese Society means business.
Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives
Zoology student made ‘Big Cat’ discovery on work experience
The Canadian lynx correctly identified by former Zoology student Max Blake was shot in the UK
Laura Webb News Reporter A Bristol University student helped to make a groundbreaking historical discovery by finding the remains of a Big Cat in a museum store room whilst studying for his undergraduate degree in Zoology. Max Blake, who is now a PhD student at Aberystwyth University, discovered the specimen in an underground store room at the Bristol Museum, where he was volunteering during his studies. A team of researchers from different universities discovered it was a Canadian lynx, a predator over twice the size of the domestic cat. Research published in the academic journal Historical Biology has concluded that the animal is the earliest example of an ‘alien big cat’ at large in the British countryside. Blake told Epigram, ‘The specimen was sat on display in the store room behind a glass window, it really wasn’t hidden at all.’ ‘What was hidden was the
tag which mentioned that the lynx was shot in Britain, and this only came to light after the curator mentioned that a lynx which had been shot in Britain wasn’t a Eurasian lynx, as a tag suggested, but was actually a
If you want “ to differentiate
yourself then you need to do something extra
”
Canadian lynx according to its skull morphology.’ Blake explained that he has an interest in obscure animals which turn up from time to time in Britain. ‘I knew of the specimens of exotic cats that had been found, and to my knowledge, this Canadian lynx wasn’t one of them. One thing lead to another, and eventually this paper [in the journal Historical Biology] was the result,’ he said. The discovery provides further evidence for debunking a popular theory that wild
cats only entered the British countryside following the introduction of the 1976 Wild Animals Act, designed to deal with an increasing fashion for exotic – and potentially dangerous – pets. Blake highly recommends that other students follow in his footsteps and volunteer in work related placements during their studies. ‘I started volunteering in the Natural History section of the museum at the end of my first year, and stayed there volunteering until late in my third year’. During this time he worked on many different projects, from assisting scientists to film crews. ‘In my year at Bristol, there were around 150 other students who were all excellent. Combined with other Biology students from other universities across the country, there are a lot of students being ‘released’ into the workforce to apply for a finite number of jobs. If you want to differentiate yourself from the rest of the crowd, then you need to do something extra. One of the best ways to do this is via volunteering somewhere on-topic.’
Are sex strikes women’s best political weapon? page 9
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Interview with Marina & The Blumenthal Diamonds on a budget page 23 Issue 252
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No more tears
Jewish Mum of the Year
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Palma Violets interviewed
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Issue 253 Monday 22nd October 2012
Monday 8th October 2012
Timetabling problems next Less thanWant to run Epigram cause havoc for students half of year? students www.epigram.org.uk
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Bristol student found dead at recycling facility
Bristol University’s Independent Student Newspaper
Bristol University’s Independent Student Newspaper
Harry Engels
A University of Bristol student has tragically died in ambiguous circumstances that may have resulted in him being crushed inside a bin lorry after a night out with a friend. Garrett Elsey - a 22 year old from Sherwood Park, Canada - had enrolled to start his Masters in International Security in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies and had been in the UK just one day when the incident happened. Elsey’s body was found by workers at around 10.20am on Thursday 27th September at the New Earth Solutions centre - a recycling plant in Avonmouth. Police cordoned off communal bins in nine areas across Bristol whilst investigations were conducted into how his body could have ended up at the site. It is now believed he was picked continued on page 3
Katharine Barney News Reporter
Students in departments across the University have faced ongoing timetable clashes and changes throughout the first few weeks of term with the School of Modern Languages suffering the most. Many found that units were still missing during the third week of term, leading to much confusion and anger as students were unable to attend all of their lectures. Students in the School of Modern Languages were warned prior to
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Week 0 that: ‘Due to technical issues, timetables will be ready to view from Week 0.’ Most students found that this was not the case, and a series of emails followed which explained that these technical issues remained unresolved. Robert Vilain, Head of the School of Modern Languages, said that as he understood it, the issue was not specific to Modern Languages and that other departments had also had technical difficulties. A second year French student told Epigram that she still had units lacking from her timetable and stated that she felt the Modern
Languages department was ‘assuming no responsibility.’ Problems ranged from unresolved clashes within the same module, doubling up of classes and entire units missing from timetables. Robert Vilain also said: ‘I would like to stress again how hard academic and administrative staff worked - from August on - to try to solve the problems that arose, and how frustrating it was for staff as well as students to find that problems identified, addressed and apparently solved then suddenly resurfaced.’ Problems for some students are ongoing and seminars are still
satisfied Epigram is looking for a new leadership with for next year. Gym pass heroes: Students win back pay as you go Sports pass Union
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being rescheduled. However, Robert Vilian added that ‘the University is conducting a review of timetabling with a brief to make sure the problems don’t happen again’. Students have received emails from senior members of the University, apologising for the problems. Undergraduates and staff members of the Faculties of Arts, Medical and Veterinary Sciences and Science received an email from Professor David Clarke, Deputy ViceChancellor to further apologise and reassure the student body that measures are being taken to prevent this happening again.
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Are boobs news? The Page Three Debate
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Marek Allen
Student numbers increased by 600 A campaign spearheaded by the Students’ Union and the Underwater Society has forced the Whilst many top universities across the country have struggledto bring back Pay As You Go access to the sports halls and swimming pool University to fill places on their courses this
University of Bristol’s Student Union - which is currently undergoing renovation work - has received one of the lowest satisfaction ratings in the UK.
The results from the most recent National Student Survey (NSS) – released just before the start of term - show that only 45% of final year students are satisfied with the University of Bristol Students Union (UBU).
George Galloway disinvited after rape comments
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Jemma Buckley News Editor
year, Epigram has learned that the University of Bristol has been successful in increasing student Zaki Dogliani numbers by over 600, bringing the News Editor total number Deputy of places available to undergraduates to 4400. The increaseFollowing follows changes in and petition a campaign regulatory arrangements, permitting spearheaded by the University of universities to increase the number of (UBU) and a Bristol Students’ Union places available for students achieving number of sports clubs – primarily A-level grades the of University AAB or of above. Bristol Underwater According to reported has partially Clubfigures – the university by The Telegraph, seven out of 24 reversed its decision to abolish the institutions in the elite Russell Group Pay As You Go (PAYG) system for continued on page 3 the sports hall and swimming pool. Students can now use facilities on Exclusive a Pay Asinterview You Go basis at off-peak with Chairman times – weekdaysof until 3.30pm and any timeOlympic at weekends. British Simon Hinks, Director of Sport and Association Lynn Robinson, Deputy Registrar, announced they would ‘Reinstate
The survey – which has been taken by over 1.5m students since it launched in 2005 – is used to compile statistics relating to student satisfaction in eight areas: teaching, assessment and feedback, academic support, organisation and management, learning resources, personal development and overall satisfaction. This year the survey
Is feminism dead? page 10
also asked students to rate their satisfaction with their union or guild. 260 universities and further education colleges across the UK took part in the survey and student satisfaction with UBU ranked in the bottom five, with just 45% of students agreeing that they were ‘very satisfied’ or ‘mostly satisfied’
with their union. Oxford University’s Student Union came joint last in the survey with their neighbour Oxford Brookes. ‘We are dedicated to ensuring that the [UBU satisfaction] score improves over the next few years. Unfortunately, students tend to focus on the building when they think of the Students’ Union and it
the availability of the ‘pay and play’ option for the coming year at the pool and sports hall. We will review the impact of this throughout the year in discussion with the student sabbaticals and sports club representatives.’ Underwater Club’s Joe Hawksworth welcomed the decision ‘This is clearly fantastic news for all societies affected by the changes and students wishing to use facilities on a casual basis,’ he told Epigram. According to an online petition set up by the Students’ Union and the Underwater Club - which received 1497 signatures before the decision was revised - scrapping Pay As You Go and requiring students to purchase gym membership for £250
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– peak – or £150 – off-peak – to use the facilities would ‘Stand against the claims of affordability and accessibility put forward by the university, marginalising casual users and threatening the existence of many of Bristol’s longest standing sports clubs.’ Hannah Pollak, UBU’s Vice President of Sport and Health, told Epigram that the U-turn ‘Demonstrates the power of the student voice and willingness of the university to listen. This is a really positive start [...] however, continued efforts will be made by elected officers to ensure that all students have equal access to sports facilities’, Pollak added. Read more on page 35
Travel’s Hidden treasures of Kashmir
The Big Debate
The University of Bristol’s International Affairs Society (IAS) has cancelled a talk from Respect MP George Galloway after his controversial comments about what constitutes rape. Galloway defended Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a video uploaded to YouTube in which he says that the rape allegations levelled at Assange have no basis because having sex with a woman whilst she is sleeping does not constitute rape. ‘Not everybody needs to be asked prior to each insertion.
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Should some companies be banned from sponsorships?
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The editor and deputy editors oversee the editorial content of the main newspaper, and manage and support the rest of the editorial team. Organ donation campaigner Will Festive events in Bristol
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Should Britain legalize marijuana?
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Bristol University’s Independent Student Newspaper
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The Queen visits Bristol as part of Jubilee celebrations
International students protest against new university monitoring
Alex Bradbrook
Around 30 students descended on Senate House last week to rally against the University’s monitoring of international students. The demonstration - which was part of a week of protests leading up the NUS National Demonstration this Wednesday - highlighted the concerns of Bristol’s international students who have been made to check in with their faculty on a monthly basis. Organisers of the event said the monitoring of international students was a ‘violation of these students’basichumanrights,aninsulttotheirhuman dignity, and an intrusion on their private lives’. The United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) makes universities such as Bristol - which have been granted the right to sponsor visas for international students - monitor the attendance of their non-EU students to make sure they are actively participating in their studies.
Pope has NYE heart transplant
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Bristol for the first time in seven years on the 22nd November and spent a whole day touring the South West. The visit was one of the final public engagements as part of the royal Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The couple travelled in the royal train and arrived in Bristol Temple Meads where they were driven to Ashton Vale for a visit to the Bailey caravan factory. While at the caravan manufacturers the Queen and Prince Philip were driven very briefly in one of the motorhomes produced by the company. One worker, Craig Dudbridge, spoke to the monarch and said, ‘She seemed very interested and asked us all lots of questions’.
Alex Bradbrook Senior News Reporter
Katie Jones
Jemma Buckley
Bristol’s Mayor: ‘I am your slave’ Floody hell: Rain and wind disrupts Bristol Jemma Buckley News Editor
Britain’s big issue
Three cheers for the Jets page 34
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Bristol University’s Independent Student Newspaper
The e2 editor is in charge of e2, Epigram’s lifestyle supplement. Pulling the ‘green wool’ over our eyes: the truth behind ‘environmentally friendly’ companies
Navigating mud pits and boys: Bristol students take part in the Sodbury Slog
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Strong winds knocked over a tree on a student’s driveway on Elmdale Rd
Marek Allen
A Bristol student’s wait for a new heart has finally ended after receiving a transplant on New Year’s Eve. Will Pope, 20, whose story has captured the attention of the nation after featuring in an ITV ‘Tonight’ documentary in November, had been on the urgent transplant list since early September. Until the operation his health had been deteriorating with doctors saying that, without a transplant, he would have just weeks to live. According to Will Pope’s mother, Rosie Pope, he is ‘taking steps in the right direction’. The situation remains positive, despite several setbacks and nervous moments for his family and friends since the operation. Will suffered a cardiac arrest on 5th January. On a blog set up to raise awareness for organ donation, Rosie Pope wrote that ‘Will had to be defibrillated and his heart massaged for half an hour. They pulled him back and put him on bypass.’ Will gradually took steps in the right direction and on 10th January he awoke to find he was the beneficiary of a new heart. His mother wrote that ‘Will has been through much. There is one certainty, which is that the transplant is just the beginning. He has been lucky enough to be given this chance. There will be battles ahead but we intend to hold on. We have the utmost confidence in the doctors, nurses, surgeons and all supporting staff at Harefield [Hospital]. And in Will.’ Will first started experiencing heart problems in 2009, but doctors were not able to identify the cause, though it is thought to have been caused by a virus. He was fitted with a Left Ventricle Assist Device (LVAD) which, combined with drug therapy, enabled his heart to rest and sufficiently recover for the device to be removed later in the year. However, upon returning from a trip to Mongolia this summer - after participating in the Mongol Rally - Will’s health began to worsen and he returned to hospital for crucial heart surgery. From September to December, he had a series of operations to fit devices to support his heart, and he was becoming increasingly weak, lacking the energy to even read a book.
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Will Pope’s wait for a new heart prompted his family to start the WillPower campaign, to raise awareness about the shortage of organ donors in the UK.
Independent candidate George Ferguson has been voted Bristol’s first directly elected Mayor.
Campaigners from controversial pro-life group Abort67 brought their graphic displays of dead babies and aborted foetuses to the University of Bristol precinct at lunchtime on Friday 9th November. Their demonstration and use of imagery prompted complaints to the University from disgusted students. In retaliation, sabbatical officers from UBU launched a counter-protest, using a sign stating ‘This Union is pro-choice’ in an attempt to cover up the large graphic images that were erected on the pavement opposite Senate House. Student unions in Nottingham, Cambridge and Sussex have used similar tactics to limit the impact of Abort67 demonstrations, following visits to their campuses during the same week. continued on page 4
Can one Not everyone Bristolian drag needs snooker into the deodorant 21st century? page 5 page 35
Marek Allen
The managing director will be responsible for creating and managing a team who will look after marketing, distribution and budgeting. Pro-Life campaigners parade photos of dead babies on campus
Marek Allen
George Ferguson has secured a surprise victory in the race to become Bristol’s first ever directly elected mayor. An architect with a penchant for red trousers, Ferguson is also a University of Bristol alumnus and trustee of the Students’ Union. He beat 14 other contenders to the position and left Labour candidate and favourite Marvin Rees trailing behind in second place. Bristol demonstrated its independent spirit by rejecting candidates from the main political parties. In his mayoral victory speech Ferguson said that the vote represented ‘A new way of doing things’ and that he did not see it as a vote for himself, but as a ‘Vote for Bristol’. Ferguson is clear that he wants to make Bristol a city that will be recognised across the world. ‘I am fed up with explaining that Bristol is somewhere near Bath,’ he joked, before declaring himself Bristol’s ‘Servant’ and saying that people of all convictions and beliefs are equal in the city and should unite to improve it. There was rapturous applause when Ferguson talked about his desire to knock on the door of No. 10 to ask the Prime Minister for more powers and resources for Bristol. ‘We’ve delivered what they wanted, now they’ve got to deliver what we want,’ he said. Ferguson explained that he will give his formal acceptance speech on Monday at Brunel’s Temple Meads station, taking the same oath as young men of Athens once did – ‘I shall not leave this city any less, but rather greater than I found it’. The result was a bitter disappointment for the Labour Party who had been confident that their candidate Marvin Rees could win the election. If elected, he would have been the first Mayor of Afro-Caribbean descent in Europe. Rees was gracious in defeat, saying of the result ‘This is just democracy. This is just the way it works.’ During his heartfelt and engaging speech he joked that his loosing speech was better than any winning speech could have been. The result was also disappointing for Conservative candidate Geoff Gollop and Lib Dem candidate Jon Rogers who came third and fourth respectively. It appears their votes collapsed as voters who would usually support those parties looked elsewhere. continued on page 3
Can students and locals co-exist?
Alex Bradbrook Senior News Reporter
Bristol is recovering after several days of severe weather struck the southwest of the country. At the peak of the adverse weather, gale force winds of over 60mph were recorded in the city centre and over a month’s worth of rain fell in just two days, causing chaos in many areas. At times, some parts of Whiteladies Road were completely submerged by fast-moving torrents of water flowing across the road and pavements, inconveniencing lots of students commuting between Stoke Bishop and Redland and the main university precinct, as well as slowing traffic. Somerset was one of the worst-affected counties nationwide, with many villages in the Mendips reporting floods several feet deep, and local farmers claiming that the weather was ‘the worst [they had] seen in 40 years’.
Africa reviewed
Extensive flooding on the Downs led to many sports fixtures and training sessions scheduled throughout the week being cancelled. The downpours also caused havoc for students attempting to get home for the weekend, with rail services experiencing heavy delays due to railway tracks being flooded, and other disruption caused by the deluges. Services between Bristol, Swindon and Exeter were particularly badly affected, leading to cancellations, lengthy delays and inconvenience for passengers. Sub-par student houses also suffered during the bad weather, with one student reporting that water was seeping through the walls in her bedroom, whilst many others documented leakages and various other problems with their accommodation due to the wind and rain. On Elmdale Road, a tree was uprooted in the driveway of one student property: third-year geography student and resident James CrosbyGayler remarked, ‘It was strange to wake up
Do letting agencies get away with murder?
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to see the tree’s branches pressed right up against my window, when they’re normally on the other side of the driveway’. Even though the Environment Agency had issued 58 flood warnings for the south-west, none were issued for Bristol itself due to the way in which the Floating Harbour protects the city against flooding. Liz Stephens, an academic from Bristol’s Geography Department who specialises in modelling flooding, told Epigram ‘During the last 8 days we have seen rainfall totals that have exceeded what we might normally expect over the course of the whole month. This rainfall is falling on already saturated ground following a very wet few months, therefore generating large amounts of surface run-off that has caused the flooding that we have seen.’ Long-range weather forecasters predict that early December will be dryer than the past few weeks, allowing the city - and its residents - to get back to normal.
Satsuma thrown at NUS President during rally in London
A contingent of 36 students and officials from University of Bristol Union (UBU) joined other universities across the country at the NUS Demonstration in London, which ended abruptly when hecklers stormed the stage at the final rally in Kennington Park and threw eggs and a satsuma at NUS President Liam Burns. According to NUS estimates about 10000 students all across England came to protest government cuts in university funding on the 21st November. Shouting chants such as ‘No ifs! No buts! No Education cuts!’ - protesters battled through bitter rain and blasting winds for two miles, along a route which took them past the Houses of Parliament and onto a final rally in Kennington Park, South London. The rallying, however, was brought to an continued on page 3
The rise of the video game
Atomic Burger challenge
Best household gadgets page 31
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Since Will returned to hospital, the Pope family have been keeping well-wishers up to date via Twitter (@PopePower), Facebook and the Will Pope website (www.willpope.co.uk). They have also set up the WillPower campaign to raise awareness about the shortage of organ donors in this country. Will’s university friends have been highly praised by the Pope family for their role in publicising the campaign, with Rosie Pope, Will’s mother, describing them as ‘amazing’. The students have used a variety of initiatives to encourage more students to sign up to the Organ Donor Register, including setting up a Facebook group, which now has over 5000 members, publicising the cause via student media and setting up the WillPower Tree in the ASS Library in December. They have also
e2 Living
managed to get high-profile figures - such as Steven Fry and ITV journalist Alastair Stewart - to tweet information about the campaign to their thousands of followers, in order to publicise the cause nationally. Though it will take a long time for Will to adjust to having a donor heart, he still hopes to be well enough to come back to Bristol this autumn to continue his studies, starting his second year in Classics. The WillPower campaign is continuing to gain momentum and has been very successful in spreading much-needed awareness amongst the student body about organ donation. Currently, one in five people awaiting heart transplants die due to the shortage of organ donors in the UK. To sign up to the Organ Donor Register, and to help people like Will Pope, log onto www.organdonation.nhs.uk.
Epigram meets the sound of 2013: HAIM page 25
Life without Facebook
Intramural football
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To apply for an editorial role, send your CV, three examples of your writing, an ideas sheet outlining your vision for ‘Come on!’ : Bristol petition calls for Hiatt Baker residents end to overseas student monitoring Epigram and a covering letter to editor@epigram.org.uk. demand fee reduction page 11
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Monday 4th March 2013
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Georgina Winney
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A University of Bristol student has tragically died after falling more than 300 feet whilst climbing Ben Nevis in the Scottish Highlands. An experienced climber and member of the University Officer Training Corps (UOTC), Ben St Joseph was planning to join the Royal Army Medical Corps after completing his Medical degree at Bristol. On Saturday 26th January, the 22-year-old was over half way up Tower Ridge – a popular route for climbers – when he plummeted to his death. It is believed St Joseph was climbing
to compensate for work
Controversy as sports head secretly lobbies ‘elite’ teams
Sports clubs have reacted angrily after the university’s Director of Sport, Exercise and Health (SEH), Simon Hinks, circulated an email requesting captains of Bristol’s elite sports clubs to vote down an attempt to make sports more accessible. The motion at the students’ union’s Annual Members’ Meeting (AMM) aimed at reintroducing the pay as you go option for sports facilities at all times passed with 88% voting in favour. The pay as you go option was scrapped at the beginning of the year but reintroduced following a petition that attracted over 1500 signatures. continued on page 3
University to look again at international student monitoring
Student leaders have welcomed signs that universities’ monitoring of international students’ attendance to a greater degree than that of UK students is to be altered. In a press release, the National Union of Students (NUS) ‘welcomed firm clarification from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) that universities do not need to have more onerous monitoring procedures in place for international students than for domestic students’. The petition against the monitoring (Epigram, 04/02) of international students at Bristol University was raised at Senate
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that Bristol does not have to pass on its monthly attendance records to the UKBA, and would only need to contact the agency if a student had missed 10 consecutive registration sessions. continued on page 3
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Applica Adam Bushnell News Reporter
Student Housing Special
A motion was passed at this year’s students’ union AMM (Annual Members’ Meeting) to compensate the residents of Hiatt Baker Hall for the misery caused to them by ongoing construction work. The motion demanded a reduction in fees and improvement of living conditions for the hall’s students.
A large contingency of Hiatt Baker residents attended the AMM – in which the motion to compensate them was voted first in the priority ballot – only to leave as soon as it was passed with 85% voting in favour. Construction work for a new transport hub for all Stoke Bishop residents and the creation of an additional 339 bedrooms at Hiatt Baker Hall is well underway and is due for completion for the 2014 intake. But current Hiatt Baker residents are unhappy with their accommodation. In a letter of complaint to the university, Claudia
Summers, who proposed the motion, expressed her dissatisfaction. She described how the building works are ‘literally surrounding ABC blocks with a sea of mud, fences, metal barriers and diggers.’ ‘As you can imagine, this is not only aesthetically displeasing, it is also extremely claustrophobic and is not a place where anyone would want to live.’ She also said that advertised facilities such as the library, hairdressers, common room and bike storage have been closed and access to the hall has been restricted. continued on page 3
h t of mice in medical 7 1 y a d i r experiments F n o
‘Meat-Free Mondays’ motion passed at AMM
UBU wins award in Parliament
A motion to ban the sale of meat on campus on Mondays was narrowly passed at the students snion’s AMM (Annual Members’ Meeting). Many were disappointed that the motion was carried, with only 50% of students present voting in favour. The motion was designed to reduce the university’s environmental impact, with the proposer arguing that the world’s cattle consume enough food to sustain 9 billion people. But a student who had grown up in a family of sheep farmers argued against the proposal, claiming that we should instead concentrate on sourcing fresh, local meat.
Representatives of University of Bristol Union (UBU) travelled to the Houses of Parliament to receive an award which recognises its improved services and activities for students. The award forms part of the Student Union Evaluation Initiative (SUEI) - a national programme organised in partnership with NUS. UBU received a bronze award from the initiative, which is designed to encourage students’ unions to focus on finding out what their members want and delivering this within the resources available to them.
se o l c s n tio
Students are unhappy with noise levels and the closure of facilities.
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See page 3 for a summary of motions.
Ethical fashion fur better or worse?
Style, e2
Marek Allen
Petition demands UoB to clarify their agenda remains uncertainty over how stringent the regulations set by the UKBA are and to what extent the current monitoring programme is a self-imposed measure. The university’s Director of Communications and Marketing, David Alder, has told Epigram
In defence of the gap yah
Marek Allen
Bus fares to be reviewed
First has announced that it is to undertake a public consultation on bus fares in Bristol. At a press conference attended by Epigram, First added that the consultation will include a third party ‘to ensure that the process is comprehensive’. The decision follows a petition, started by Daniel Farr, that has attracted nearly 3000 signatures and states that ‘First fares are among the most expensive continued on page 3
continued on page 3
Fishy ethics: do animals feel pain too?
What can you buy for the price of a pint?
continued on page 3
Marek Allen
An open letter calling on the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Eric Thomas, to hold an open meeting about the university’s controversial monitoring of international students has attracted over 150 signatures. Since last autumn, non-EU students have been obliged to report to their department each month to show ‘engagement’ in their studies. The measure, imposed by the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA), is a condition on the right held by universities such as Bristol to sponsor visas for international students. The tightening of regulation came after the UKBA withdrew London Metropolitan University’s right to sponsor students in August 2012. In this instance, the authorities cited a lack of monitoring, insisting that revoking the university’s licence was ‘the right course of action’. Professor Thomas wrote in The Times Higher Education supplement last autumn that ‘We need to ensure that what happened to London Met can never happen again’, criticising UKBA’s decision as sending ‘an extremely damaging message to the world’. Yet some international students feel that the university’s leadership could do more. Cerelia Athanassiou, a Postgraduate Senate Rep and the petition’s founder, told Epigram ‘I don’t buy that “there is no alternative”. The more I keep asking questions, the more I see varied practices on this policy across this university – let alone across the country – and so I would like to find a space where can discuss and compare best practice on this issue, as well as deliberate on how to formally keep challenging this destructive policy at national level.’ We are gathering signatures on this important issue as we recognise that many international students (and staff!) would feel too intimidated to take action on their own. The letter expresses unease that ‘no consultation with the students or their representatives was taken and claims that the monitoring, which is refers to as ‘intimidating, humiliating and unnecessary’, could have ‘serious implications for the university’s ability to recruit prospective international students’. For many, the measure is shrouded in ambiguity; something the sought open meeting will aim to address. For example, there
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Bristol University’s Independent Student Newspaper
Bristol University’s Independent Student Newspaper
Bristol student dies in Ben Nevis tragedy
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Joseph Quinlan News Reporter
Issue 252
Issue 259
Monday 18th February 2013
Animal Aid protest against Bristol University’s medical testing procedures
Josephine McConville Deputy News Editor An investigation carried out by an animal rights group has condemned the University of Bristol for its use of genetically modified (GM) mice in experiments that are ‘both cruel’ and ‘medically useless’. Procedures used by the university on GM mice are designed to understand the mechanics of pain reception and have been described by the Director of Animal Aid, Andrew Tyler, as ‘typically disgusting’. They involve injecting
chilli pepper into mice cheeks or crushing nerves in their back legs, leaving the rodents’ hypersensitive to pain, according to the animal rights organisation. A briefing compiled by Animal Aid claims that research based in the School of Medicine’s Physiology and Pharmacology Department has failed to show any medical benefit despite receiving 15 years of public funding. On Wednesday 27th March - as part of a twoday tour of the city to expose the University’s treatment of GM mice - Animal Aid visited the University precinct in an ambulance with the aim of raising awareness amongst students,
using distressing footage of experiments to represent those conducted at Bristol University. The accusations against the university stem from research originally gathered by Animal Aid for a report entitled ‘Science Corrupted: the nightmare world of GM mice’, and draws on a vast number of sources including medical journals, university minutes and reports from the head researcher of the GM mice experiments. The Animal Aid briefing states that for every GM mouse used, hundreds are ‘judged to be failures’ and killed. The report also claims that these publicly funded experiments – which continued on page 3
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The women who are changing the world page 10
Epigram
Students to vote in Teaching Awards George Chamberlain News Reporter Is there a member of staff at the University who truly inspires you? Is there someone whose door you know you have been able to knock on whenever you have had a problem? Now is the time to show them how much they have meant to you during your time at Bristol by nominating them for a Bristol Teaching Award. Previously members of staff were selected by the Dean of their faculty and then chosen for an award by a committee under the banner of the University Teaching and Learning Award.’ For 2013, the University has linked up with the Student Union, giving students a voice in the selection process for the first time. Voting opened on 22nd April and continues through to 17th May. You can vote online at bristol.ac.uk/ bristolteachingawards. The awards are not just for lecturers, anyone you encounter in your life at Bristol can be nominated - be it someone at the Faculty of Law
Office or a technician in the Languages Multimedia Centre - anyone who you feel deserves to be rewarded for the help and support they have given you. There is also an added incentive for students to vote - everyone who nominates a member of staff is entered into a draw to win one of two iPad Minis. Students are able to vote for one Student Award for Outstanding Teaching per faculty and one Student Award for Outstanding Support for any member of staff across the University. These awards run parallel to the peer-led Teaching awards which has also been modified to allow any member of staff at the University to have a say in who receives one of the Dean’s Awards for Education. A further Registrar’s Awards for Supporting Education is to be awarded to a member of staff of the University’s central services. Of the winners of the awards, one is further selected to receive the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Education. So now is the time to show your appreciation for your favourite member of staff at the University.
07.05.2013
Society lends a hand to local care home
15 volunteers braved sub-zero temperatures to complete the murals in around twenty five hours
Mona Tabbara News Reporter Volunteers from the University of Bristol have lent a helping hand to a local care home, transforming a dreary wall with an eye catching mural. The Painting and Decorating Society took on the challenge after being approached directly by staff at Carlton Mansions on
Apsley Road, which specialise in cares for the elderly and dementia sufferers, and needed a hand to jazz up the wall’s appearance. The project coordinator, Nicola Chivers, told Epigram that ‘It was a great feeling to integrate ourselves into the residential home and interact with the residents. The staff said they wanted something to stimulate the
residents and were pleased with the end result, particularly as we secured all the funding necessary for fulfilling the project and they didn’t have to pay for anything.’ The students worked in conjunction with the residents to come up with the final design. The scene included iconic images of Bristol, such as the SS Great Britain and the
Suspension Bridge Although plagued by snow and freezing conditions, the team of around 15 volunteers completed the mural in 25 hours. The mural painting is one of many projects that get University of Bristol students involved within the local community. Chivers, who is currently in her final year studying anatomy at Bristol, speaks highly of the opportunities available to students to lend a hand within the community. ‘There is great communication between the students and union staff and there is always help on hand if you need it. There is a wide range of projects and always something for everyone to try’ she told Epigram. ‘Sometimes I think that people don’t realise that you don’t have to fully commit to volunteering in a project every week. It’s great if they do and you get regular volunteers but every little helps, even if it is only for a few hours every few months.’ To find out more about UBU volunteering projects, email Jemma Harford at jemma. harford@bristol.ac.uk.
Student will cycle 3,200 miles for charity Jude A’Bear News Reporter
Farnfield, a third year Chemist at Bristol, has already completed the longest cycle track in Britain
Third year Chemistry student Marcus Farnfield will embark on a cycle challenge of a lifetime as he rides for 50 days across North America, covering a distance of 3,200 miles and crossing three mountain ranges. Farnfield and fellow cyclist Nick McCarthy are hoping to raise £5200, which comes to a pound for every kilometre, for Haileybury Youth Trust, a charity that works to improve the lives and prospects of impoverished young people in Uganda. The duo met on their first day of their year abroad at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and after a month discovered their mutual love for cycling. Having completed John O’Groats to Land’s End in 2008, the longest cycle track in Britain, Farnfield swore never to attempt something like that again. However, he said ‘the idea of Vancouver to Washington DC
was always at the back of my mind – it was the next step up really’. Overall the pair will have 35 days of cycling averaging about 90-100 miles a day, with roughly one rest day a week and a bit longer in Chicago when they stop to see family. Despite indicating that they had not done a huge amount
35
days of cycling averaging
90-100 miles a day
of training – dissertations seem to be getting in the way – the Bristol student appeared rather unconcerned. He explained that they would do fewer miles in the first week, and thus that would count as some of their preparation. Farnfield has close connections to his chosen charity; his mother is trustee and he visited in 2005. The
charity works closely with villagers in Uganda, using a technology to make bricks that do not require firing. Not only does this help provide essential buildings to support the community, but it gives the villagers skills to improve their employability. The fundraisers have received sponsorship from their universities, with Bristol and the University of Queensland - teammate Nick McCarthy’s home university both providing specialist kit. They are hoping that custommade jerseys will help spread their message as well as give them more credibility, as their journey partly depends on the hospitality of the American public to take them in from time to time, providing a bed, a shower, and maybe even a wash of their clothes. When asked how he would celebrate his achievement when it was all over, Marcus resolutely replied: ‘not looking at a bike, that’s for sure’. You can follow the pair’s progress at BCtoDC.tumblr. com or donate at justgiving. com/bctodc/.
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Epigram
07.05.2013
Features
Editor: Nahema Marchal Deputy Editor: Helena Blackstone features@epigram.org.uk
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Bodies at work: FEMEN, Beyonce and feminism Beyoncé – the queen of pop, worth $300 million, whose ‘if you like it then u shoulda put a ring on it’, causes me to wave my left hand wildly around in the air, is supposedly the independent woman. Declared as ‘the official face of female empowerment’ by the Evening Standard, she is co-creative director and main headlining act at the Chime for Change concert, taking place in London this summer. Dubbed the ‘Feminist Live Aid’, the concert aims to ‘raise awareness for girls’ and women’s empowerment.’ So far so good. Yet the bold, fearless Beyoncé we have grown to love is perhaps not as bold and fearless as all that. Today, her ‘Sasha Fierce’ alter-ego is nowhere to be seen; her new single: ‘Bow down b*tches’ and ‘The Mrs Carter World Tour’ send out a different message. In an interview for this month’s Vogue, Beyoncé is asked the question she probably dreads
Photo: Euronews
Rosie Goodhart Online Features Editor
the most: are you a feminist? Her answer is annoyingly safe: she finds the word feminism too ‘extreme’ and asks why we must label ourselves at all, before settling with her own label: ‘a modern day feminist’ who is keen to stress that she is
happily married and loves her husband. This is the woman who, in 2011, claimed she wanted to ‘find a new word for feminism… like bootylicious.’ Beyonce’s shying away from the term must not shock us: to assume
that since she sings about girls ruling the world she must be an ardent feminist is more shallow on our part than it is on hers. Beyonce is a brand – she is ‘a people pleasing diva’, the face of Pepsi not feminism. While Beyoncé is peddling a
watered down, compromised feminism, in the Ukraine they’re giving us the real thing. FEMEN have been taking their tops off in a mass attack on patriarchy, the church, the sex industry and pretty much everything in between. Last month saw International Topless Jihad Day: FEMEN activists from around Europe stood outside mosques and embassies waving signs stating: ‘we’re free, we’re naked, it’s our right, it’s our body, it’s our rules.’ There was one problem with this protest: it upset everyone but the men they sought to demonstrate against. Putin chirpily claimed that he ‘liked’ it but ‘did not catch what they were shouting about.’ FEMEN’s belief that women should ‘bear their bodies’ in order to be free has been rightly condemned. The Facebook group: ‘Muslim Women Against FEMEN’ have taken issue with their message; one commenter holds that ‘when you deny me my freedom to cover YOU oppress me.’ They believe that a woman who chooses to wear
a burqa still belongs to herself and is not an object of male honour as members of FEMEN would claim. You could say that Beyoncé and FEMEN have nothing in common. Each is a product of time and place: the Ukraine is half a century behind the west when it comes to bra burning and yet for both, the most direct access to their power is through their sexuality. Both are using their bodies to draw attention to their many causes: FEMEN are attempting to de-emphasize the hypersexualised female form through their protests, while Beyoncé is flaunting her bootyliciousness to draw attention to herself and ad+d to her $300 million. Both, in directly appealing to the feminist cause are arguably also harming it: FEMEN go against the very idea of trying to raise the profile of women’s rights – for much of their audience, their boobs eclipse all else and Beyoncé, in claiming she is a ‘modern day feminist’, is selling something that is entirely empty.
Pulling the plug on cyber-life after death Sam Fishwick Online Comment Editor What happens to us when we die? In the days before the internet, death was a relatively straightforward affair: photos, journals and other physical heirlooms were divided up and distributed between friends and family, a funeral or memorial service was held, and the body was, one way or another, laid to rest. That, as they say, was that. Today, however, the advent of Web 2.0 has started to change the way we think about the afterlife, or, more accurately, our digital lifeafter-death. Social networking profiles, email accounts and online subscriptions have an unnerving propensity to outlive their users, and the reality of our ‘digital legacy’ is one that many of us are now coming to terms with. The average individual in the UK spends 37.3 hours online every month, leaving a data trail of around 45 gigabytes glittering in their wake: a ‘digital footprint’ that constitutes everything from online photo libraries to reading habits, and everything in between. How much of this material might come back to haunt us? ‘People are only just starting to talk about this’, says
Joshy Thomas, an intellectual property lawyer, ‘for example, what happens to our Facebook page when we die? Or our email archive?’ It’s a good question, and one that many registered companies have taken their time clearing up. Facebook now allow for a wall to be ‘memorialised’ which removes features like status updates and permits only confirmed friends to view the profile and post comments on it, whilst Hotmail allows relatives to order a CD of all the messages in a deceased user’s account if they provide a death certificate and proof of power of attorney. The rapid digitalisation of our day-to-day lives has also created a number of other issues for internet users across the board, from the average Joe to the Hollywood A-lister. Last year it was reported that Bruce Willis was allegedly planning an open-assault on the Apple tower after learning he wasn’t legally entitled to bequeath his digital music collection, held on his ‘many, many iPods’ to his children when he died. ‘iHard!’ screamed the tabloids, although they quickly simmered down after Willis’s wife quashed the rumours on Twitter. Nevertheless, the episode helped switched a lot of
people on to the inconvenient truths surrounding legal downloads. ‘A lot of people will get a similar shock when they realise this is the situation,’said Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, which campaigns for digital rights. ‘There will soon be a lot of upset customers, not just for Apple, but also for Amazon and all the other companies selling digital content, such as books, which operate these licence agreements. We have no rights over the digital goods we buy.’ The problem of who-ownswhat on the internet has therefore become a peculiar anomaly for those putting their reputation online and on the line: things that we don’t want to stick around on our digital legacy prove almost impossible to get rid of, whilst those prized record collections we’d like to pass on are summarily snapped back into the ether. Ashes to data caches, and vice versa. Thankfully, new European social media privacy laws are seeking to redress this imbalance, championing citizens’ ‘right to be forgotten’, which would return control of personal data to the user. Viviane Reding, the EU justice commissioner, said: ‘At present a citizen can request deletion only if [data is] incomplete or incorrect.
Photo: Dan Crowe
What happens to your online presence after you die? Sam Fishwick explores the bizarre world of digital legacy in the 21st century.
We want to extend this right to make it stronger in this internet world. The burden of proof shall be on the companies. They will have to show that data is needed.’ Bureaucratic wheels tend to turn slowly, and in the meantime the Guardian have taken it upon themselves to publish a nine point guide on ‘How to delete your digital life’. Eyes front, Paris
Brown. For some social networkers, the end is no longer even an imposition. App tools such as If I Die and DeadSocial allow the more moribund technophiles among us to manage their Facebook and Twitter accounts from beyond the grave. Unnervingly, the posthumous Twitter service
LivesOn aims to replicate users’ tweets by learning their ‘likes, tastes, [and] syntax’ to continue posting similar messages after they’ve passed on, promising: ‘when your heart stops beating, you’ll keep tweeting’ It’s all a little ghoulish, but it’s also good fun. How many years before #itoldyouiwasill starts trending?
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07.05.2012
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‘Imagine having to flee from your home’ What is life like for an asylum seeker? This week, Epigram investigates the plight of refugees and the negative stereotypes surrounding them. Claire Yu Li Lim Gjeta Gjyshinca Features Reporter
the failures of other countries? This is a common question from those who are unfamiliar with the asylum seeker/refugee system. To unravel this complex web, we must first understand the distinction between asylum seekers and refugees; For a refugee, escaping from immediate danger is only the beginning – the journey to a place of asylum is made under horrific conditions, and those crammed onto boats or overcrowded lorries are often subjected to violence. Traumatised by these events, the millions of men, women and children who seek asylum worldwide are desperate for help when they arrive to a safe
Gareth Harper
Imagine having to flee from your home because your life is at threat. Imagine having to leave your family, your friends, your traditions, your culture, and then being forced to adapt to a new and different world before you’ve even caught your breath. Imagine being a refugee. For millions of people around the world, running away from war, persecution, or political enemies and into the unknown is a terrifying reality. In 2011, almost 20,000 asylum
applications were made to the UK alone.. The bulk of them come from countries with poor human rights records or ongoing conflict; some having faced horrors we can’t even begin to imagine. Yet, many of us are uncomfortable with people who look different, speak different and act different. To make matters worse, we’re constantly told that these refugees and asylum seekers are a threat to our domestic employment, increase the crime rate, and generally come to our country to sit on their bums and burden the benefit system which is already straining at the seams. Why should we compensate for
country. With no way to fend for themselves, no English and no knowledge of the complicated legislation, the application for asylum can seem as daunting a task as the journey itself. The most recent introduction to the UKBA is the fast track detention system. Nicknamed ‘fast track to despair’, the short time frame for decisions often compromises on the effectiveness of screening. Asylum seekers experiencing high levels of stress and fear are expected to recount their complete horror stories to a stranger (solicitor) within half an hour. Whatever information gathered is presented to the courts and a decision is made within three days. The detainees have no further access to legal advice. If the UK deems their home country to be safe enough, then they are refused asylum and returned back to it. ‘To be led off to a detention centre – sometimes in handcuffs – as soon as they arrive, is a far from humane way of being treated for persons who did nothing else than ask to be protected,’ says Roland Shilling, UNHCR officer. Why, then, do so many of us see these victims as unwelcome strangers rather than sympathising or offering support? Why is it that so many negative stereotypes of refugees exist? Refugees are often seen as benefit thieves, freeloaders
Asylum seekers are, as their namesake suggests, people who come to the UK to seek asylum for various reasons. These include persecution, trafficking, certain death, rape and torture in their home countries. Once they have put in a claim for asylum, they are no longer “illegal” and are awaiting a decision on their claim. Refugees are successful asylum seekers. This means that their claim for asylum has been approved by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and they have been granted the status of “refugee”. Under international law, governments are obliged to provide protection and asylum to these persecuted individuals. The UK has signed on to these international laws and this is also a part of the UK’s own legislation. Therefore, anyone who is persecuted has a right to asylum in the UK.
or even security threats, and yet, according to the Refugee Council, most know nothing about welfare benefits before they arrive and have no expectations of financial support. Here is something to consider the next time you hear someone claim that refugees and asylum seekers get too many perks and handouts: cash support is set at only £36.62 a week. This works out to about £5.23 a day for food, sanitation and clothing. Another common misconception is that asylum seekers jump the queue for council housing – the reality is that they cannot choose where they live, and almost always end up in ‘hard to let’ properties, where others do not want to live. Finally, on the issue of public expenditure, it
is noteworthy that refugees make huge contributions to the UK economy. Since 1972, an approximate 30,000 jobs have been created in Leicester by Ugandan Asian refugees. Also, immigrants (including refugees) contribute more towards government revenue than your average Brit. The reason is that they pay a higher rate of income tax but tend to have the same expenditure. The least we can do, therefore, is to try to empathise with those who are granted asylum; to keep in mind what they have been through and the struggles they still face in day to day life; to remember that if we were in their position, we would appreciate any gesture of kindness or friendship, and a sense of belonging, of finally being home.
Why we have a duty to protect intellectual freedom Michael Coombs Features Reporter In 2007, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in collaboration with two dozen international universities, issued a statement on Academic Freedom which they defined as ‘the freedom to conduct research, speak and publish, subject to the norms and standards of scholarly inquiry, without interference or penalty, wherever the search for truth and understanding may lead.’ For many international academics this search has led them away from the brutal myopia of their respective regimes but ultimately towards persecution and in too many cases, assassination. The challenges facing academics and students living in oppressive and violent political climates often seem insurmountable, but with support from various organisations such as CARA (Council for Assisting Refugee Academics) and SAR (Scholars
at Risk Network), many disenfranchised academics are able to continue their work overseas to the benefit of all. One particularly pressing example of the struggle for academic freedom is the Syrian conflict. Whilst their home nation is in the grips of a bloody civil war, over 600 Syrian students and academics have come to work in the UK Bristol University is part of the Scholars At Risk UK Universities Network which aims to deflect some of the difficulties that arise from being a disenfranchised academic in exile. Many are female academics - for whom the challenges are often far greater. The network helps with various issues such as the acquisition of visas, fee waivers and living costs. British universities are considered to be among the best in the world and we have a duty within our academic community to protect and export academic freedom, which will help achieve an ultimate goal of spreading
valuable knowledge throughout the world. In Syria, each university is controlled by the Ba’ath Party, which appoints all deans and chairmen as well as having security units within each university that interrogate students and professors who carry out ‘suspicious activities.’ With 75,000 deaths so far, one million refuges and 2.5m internally displaced citizens, the Syrian crisis is a human catastrophe and their needs are abundant. Establishing academic norms within Syria should indeed be a goal, but it is hard to know how to begin in light of the January bombing which killed nearly 100 students and staff at Aleppo University and the struggle for survival that Syrian nationals are facing every day. Leading journalists on Syria such as Charles Glass and Jonathan Steele argue that western military intervention could make the Syrian crisis worse. Perhaps instead we can offer an intellectual safe-haven in which to foster the belief and
In 1933 at one of the first meetings of CARA in the Royal Albert Hall, Albert Einstein implored his audience to ‘resist the powers which threaten to suppress intellectual and individual freedom.’ It’s clear that they have done a pretty brilliant job; a project that began 80 years ago in response to Nazi policy has helped its members go on to win 16 Nobel Prizes, 18 knighthoods and well over a hundred were elected as fellows of The Royal Society and The British Academy. With all the intellectual freedom and wealth that we enjoy here in the UK, it’s reassuring to know that there are still some people intent on sharing it around.
acumen in the young (and old) minds of Syrians who must play an integral part in establishing the future of Syria if it is to emerge from the ongoing horrors with any semblance of freedom and ambition. Syria is not the only troubled nation; there are other ongoing
threats to academic freedom worldwide, with over 400 murdered Iraqi academics since the beginning of the war as just one example. CARA and SAR are trying to provide international hope, hope that mankind can protect one of its most valued assets in the face of adversity.
If you want to read about the organisation’s astonishing successes and ongoing efforts go to: http:// www.academic-refugees. org/about-cara.asp
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Stephanie Rihon Features Reporter On 22nd August 1939, Adolf Hitler, said ‘they have already forgotten the Armenians’ in the same speech he decided to implement the Final Solution. Unfortunately, these words hold great truth for several million people. Every year, on 24th April, Armenians mark the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by holding vigils and rallies to raise awareness. However, the other 80% of the world see it as a day like any other. Last week marked the 98th anniversary, which was commemorated with a poignant march in Times Square. Great controversy accompanies this subject, with debate as to whether it can even be called ‘genocide’. For those unaware of the exact history of the Genocide, here goes. Several Armenians resided within the Ottoman Turkish Empire in the 19th century. The nationalist Sultan targeted Armenians by raising their taxes and creating religious animosity between the Islamic portion of the country and the Christian Armenians. This repressive violence silenced rebellious Armenians, to allow the creation of ‘Turkey for Turks’; the best way to stay alive was to conform to Ottoman Turkish values. The massacre began on 24th April 1915, when 250 intellectuals were killed. This resulted in the Sultan’s emergency decree obliging ‘all Armenians to leave the country’, followed by the
systematic deportation of all villages. Rape was prolific throughout the process, with victims as young as six years old. Most were killed through forced labour in camps or on death marches through Syrian deserts in perishable conditions. Maria Jacobsen, a survivor, saw that ‘not even animals were found in this situation’, they were ‘food for the dogs’. The death toll is estimated at 1.5m Armenians; the Ottoman soldier’s mantra was ‘if you kill a certain number of Armenians, the door to hell will become the door to heaven’. Nevertheless, numerous firsthand accounts and statistics are not enough, as the refusal to accept the term ‘Genocide’ is widespread. Instead, euphemisms have been created such as ‘Medz Yeghern’ (Armenian for Great Crime), used by President Obama during a 2011 commemorative speech. The United Nations defines genocide as ‘any act committed with intent to destroy a racial or religious group’. Indeed, prominent scholars such as Niall Ferguson acknowledge that 1915 saw the first of the modern genocides. Yet, to this day, Turkish officials fiercely reject these claims. Gunduz Aktan, former Turkish ambassador, said in 2000 that ‘Turkey believes that what happened to the Armenians was not genocide [but] relocation to other parts of the Ottoman Empire’. So why does Turkey not accept their part in the Genocide? Acceptance would mean the same Nazi stain would envelop Turkey just as it begins to emerge as a major international player. Political worker Christine Maydossian interprets the
Flickr/ BBrisaH
Armenian genocide: the forgotten holocaust
controversy as a failure of ‘protection of human life’ because ‘as long as the necessity for retribution is overlooked, the path toward a righteous world remains skewed’. Despite the animosity created by the controversy, most Armenians do not place any blame on the new Turkish generation. Jeanette Haritounian, a participant of the annual London marches, merely asks ‘why [one] would falsify history with such ignorance?’ The real tragedy lies in the fact that only 20 countries and 42 American states have recognized the Armenian Genocide. Similarly, the average person on the street is oblivious to
these atrocities. Arguably, the closest Armenians got to receiving closure were with France’s 2011 bill making Genocide denial illegal. Yet, Turkey successfully pressured France to withdraw this. If nothing else comes from reading this article, other than being informed of another pivotal moment in history then so be it. Armenians around the world patiently wait for the time when this subject can be discussed alongside other questions of scholarly truth. Just for one moment, imagine that over half the world did not accept the Jewish Holocaust as the methodical mass killings of 6 million people; imagine
that denying this event was not illegal. This is what the Armenians suffer from: incomplete mourning. As the 100-year anniversary approaches, Armenians hope that Hitler’s chilling words will not be upheld. The Armenians have certainly not forgotten the human tragedy of 1915, the story will be passed onto generations - exemplified by the poetry of William Saroyan – ‘when two Armenians meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia’ - until one day they are given the respect of it being an internationally recognized moment in history.
Jessica McKay Features Reporter The Boston marathon ‘bombers’ have been identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnev. The two brothers - of Chechen origin and Muslim faith - are naturalised U.S citizens. Whilst the arrest of these suspects has been met with joy by the majority of the American population, for the American-Islamic community, this arrest is a bitter-sweet occurrence. Before the dust had settled in Boston, Muslim groups began to urge their members to display an active presence on social media: calling for prayers for victims, promising to provide aid, and vehemently condemning the perpetrators of the crime. On Monday April 16th, Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR), issued the following statement: ‘American Muslims, like Americans of all backgrounds, condemn in the strongest possible terms today’s cowardly bomb attack on participants and spectators of the Boston Marathon’. Meanwhile, the Muslim Public Affairs Council called upon ‘all of us as Americans to work together to bring those responsible to justice.’ Why have Muslim people felt the need to be so vocal regarding their support for justice? After incidents of terrorism, the Muslim community suffer a
John Mottern
Scapegoating? The persecution of Muslim Americans
Young muslim women attending an interfaith prayer service for 9/11 victims in Boston last fall.
recognisably increased level of persecution; this is true even in cases such as the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, when the perpetrator was uncovered to be Timothy McVeigh, a white, American militiaman. On his radio show, conservative host Glenn Beck - seemingly unaware of evidence contrariwise, such as any of the various mass-shootings in American history - declared that ‘no American citizen blows up random people; that’s a Middle Eastern scene, that’s not an American scene’. Before the Tsarnevs were caughed, a Saudi man - who was wounded in the bombing - was falsely accused and taken into custody, causing substantial
tension in the Saudi community. It would seem that when a tragedy such as the Boston bombing occurs, every individual with a Middle Eastern background becomes a suspect. However, speaking last week Naeem Baig, President of the Islamic Circle of North America, said that he had been impressed by the ‘cautious and balanced approach from the media’. Yet, Baig also added that the religion and ethnicity of the criminals proved to be a ‘matter of concern’ for the Muslim community. Now the perpetrators have been found to be Muslim extremists, these concerns have become even more pressing, as politicians themselves begin to talk about racial issues; Steve
King, a congressman from Iowa, talking to the ‘National Review Online’ stated that the nationality of the bombers would almost definitely require the U.S. government to ‘take a look at the picture’, suggesting that if a Middle Eastern national was involved in the bombing, that immigration reforms should be in order. Could Americans be to some extent justified in harbouring suspicions against the Islamic community? A 2011 report by the American National Counterterrorism Centre revealed that seventy percent of terrorism is committed by Muslim terrorist groups. And, as many anti-Islamist Americans might be keen to note, the
9/11 bombings were recognised as the worst terrorist attack in the U.S in recorded history. Some have claimed that Muslims falsely portray investigations into terrorist attacks as religious manhunts. Robert Spencer, of ‘Jihad Watch’ says it is ‘appalling how Muslims frequently attempt to portray such tragedies as attacks against them, rather than against the true victims of the crime’. Rush Limbaugh has gone as far to suggest that some politicians and the media have been terrified of suggesting that the bombers would be Muslim: ‘they’re [the media] frightening people against coming forward with information that might offend people’. One could argue that Limbaugh’s and Spencer’s words are just instances of those who, often under the guise of fear of political incorrectness or (in Spencer’s case) weirdly complicated blame calculations, simply continue to point suspicion in the direction of religious groups. Evidence of growing anti-Muslim bigotry is on the rise; since 9/11 the Justice Department has investigated more than 800 incidents of racial violence, and there has been a 150% increase in workplace discrimination. Fear of persecution by association should be recognised as a real issue that is affecting Muslim Americans (and Muslim people all over the world) on an everyday basis.
Comment
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07.05.2013
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Time to end the six week summer?
“ Under Gove’s reforms, we will end up educating a generation of drones.
“ formative years of study. As Tricia Kelleher, of the Stephen Perse Foundation states, ‘Children do not stop learning just because of location. With the right mindset, learning is everywhere’. If children don’t learn the capacity of teaching themselves, then how can we expect Britain to become a progressive, intellectually competent place to live? Children are the adults of the future; we need to teach them the virtue of independence, not of blind instruction. It’s important to remember that in their free time children need to be taken care of by adults, beyond the educative sphere; if they aren’t (and it might sound overly vigilant), there is always the possibility of them straying and getting into trouble. Simultaneously, keeping children in a place known for rules, restrictions and regulations is only going
to lead to a rise in pent-up frustration. We all grudgingly appreciate that we were most energetic in our days of youth. Let children play. Whilst Gove might hark back to Scotland’s ‘Tattie holiday’ in mid-October, his views on the effects of longer breaks are incorrect. The Education Secretary warned that the current school timetable is out of date and only fit for the agricultural economy of the 19th century where children had to have long summer holidays to help in the fields. However, this belief is in reality a myth. School summer holidays have nothing to do with the agricultural calendar. By the late 18th century, English farms were largely mechanised. ‘There wasn’t enough work for all the adult men,’ Mr Jacob Middleton, of Birkbeck University said. ‘And the Factory Act in the 1830s put increasing restrictions on children in work. So it’s extremely unlikely that children were working’. Tourists are a major demographic that will suffer as a result of cutting the present six-week holiday to just four. At present, flight prices go through the roof during school holidays, due to demand from families and if this period is made even smaller, then it is inevitable that these fares will rise even higher. Malcolm Bell, the head of Visit Cornwall, believes that ‘if the government wants to hurt hard-working, striving families, this is the best way, as holidays in the UK and overseas would become far more expensive in peak periods’. Ever since schools began to enforce rules over term-time absences, the travel industry saw an even greater increase in demand, which leaves prices vulnerable to even higher inflation. With Gove’s reforms, all that I can see for future is a generation of drones: a people unable to reflect and thus progress intellectually and creatively for sheer lack of instruction on how to do so. How can we commit our children further to a deeply flawed education system without first considering and resolving its shortcomings? Michael Gove may well hope to propel Britain’s future generations towards the Elysian Fields by educating them with an overbearing fist, but at what cost? Think of the queues at Thorpe Park
Insight of an Intern
The tabloids shouted ‘The Holiday Snatcher!’ A certain ‘milk snatcher’ from the 80s comes to mind when reading these labels and there is no doubt that Michael Gove’s reputation as a pantomime villain will be bolstered by his most recent calls for reforms that many argue are justified with little categorical evidence. Education is blessed with finding itself in a digital age. Learning is not a mechanical process that can be forced upon children solely within the physical confines of the schoolroom. So now that almost anything educational can be found online, why is it necessary to spoon-feed children all day, inhibiting their own intellectual and creative curiosities? With so many resources to be found beyond the classroom, it makes more sense to allow children at least some control regarding their
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Ben Nachoom Michael Gove wants to end the six-week summer holiday and lengthen the school day. He claims that it will make children more productive and reform an out-dated school year. It’s not such an outrageous idea but it’s caused such a storm that you’d think he was insisting that children go to school barefoot. Teachers, parents, and (obviously) students themselves are fighting to save their summer, but is there really any cause for concern? The short answer is ‘no’. What he’s proposing isn’t that radical. He wants to reshape school days so that they fit better around the working day, and modernise an academic year that was set in Victorian England. As Gove himself pointed out: ‘The structure of the school term and the school day was designed at a time when we had an agricultural economy. That world no longer exists and we can’t afford to have an education system that was essentially set in the nineteenth century.’ It is tempting to make kneejerk criticisms, but if you resist the temptation you’ll actually find that his proposals make a lot of sense. The school day should be longer, so that it would fit better around the ordinary working day. That way working parents could drop their children off at school or collect them later on, rather than having to pay for childcare or leave work altogether. Those who argue that children can’t focus for such a long time need to think outside the box: why not fill these extra hours with less academically demanding activities? There could be more film clubs, drama rehearsals or sports practices. Kids don’t always want to do what is good for them, but they will look back on those years of activity with greater pride later on. The summer holiday should
“ It’s tempting to make knee-jerk criticisms, but if you resist the temptation Gove’s proposals make a lot of sense.
“
Rob Stuart
No
be shorter – that way, the first two weeks of a new school year won’t be wasted on reminding kids how to write or sit down for longer than five minutes. Ask any teacher and they’ll tell you that September is just ‘damage limitation’; instead of teaching
“
Thanks to the six-week summer, September is just ‘damage limitation’ for teachers.
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Yes
The school day should be longer and the summer should be just four weeks long, according to the Education Secretary Michael Gove. Does he have a point?
from the beginning of the year, teachers are routinely forced to re-train class-loads of restless, suntanned little hedonists. If the summer break were just three or four weeks long, children would get the best of both possibilities: a break which would be long enough to recharge and relax them, but not long enough to turn them into unruly, degenerate mobs. The argument that children need six weeks off is a strange one. Last summer, I spent just one week in Bordeaux, southwest France. And I literally fell in love with the place. It’s an experience that I’ll never forget, and it didn’t last much longer than a few days. Teaching unions are up in arms over Gove’s proposals. Christine Blower, the leader of the NUT (National Union of Teachers), accused Gove of ‘making policy up on the hoof ’. Many teachers argue that the six-week summer break is needed if teachers are to relax properly. But in no other profession is this the case, and you’d certainly have trouble persuading many people that teachers work harder than nurses or police officers. Michael Gove is wrong about some things. For example, he looks back on Britain’s imperial past a bit too fondly, recently arguing in a speech that the British Empire was ‘benign’. Or take his proposal in January 2012 - when unemployment was over 2.5 million - to build the Royal Family a £60 million new yacht. But on this latest scandal, he’s spot on. The school day is too short, the summer holidays are too long, and it’s high time someone did something about it.
Epigram
07.05.2013
12 12
Don’t worry about Ferguson’s wet cappu-chinos
When George Ferguson agreed to a twitter invite to attend Bristol’s Anarchist Bookfair this month I don’t think he was quite expecting the reaction he got. The new mayor confessed he’d felt a bit ‘roughed up’ at the fair after a fellow attendee tackled him to the ground and threw a cup of coffee over his head. Forgive me for not being too outraged by this but when I think of anarchist protests my mind goes immediately to dark streets of burning cars, petrol bombs, millions of Guy Fawkes masks and angry chanting. I don’t naturally think of pouring tepid coffee all over poor Fergie’s bright red jeans- a nightmare for his dry cleaners, sure, but it’s not the sexiest way to show your disapproval, is it? I have no intention of making some spurious link between the actions of this moron and some wider disillusionment with the
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Izzy Obeng
mayor. This man essentially journalist, Muntadar al-Zaidi, to achieved little more than hurl a pair of shoes at President making an old man’s crotch wet. George W. Bush at a press He exercised his democratic conference in December 2008. right to be an idiot and then The President was making his the world returned to business last visit to Iraq as a statesman as usual. I do however wonder and was caught off guard by a if I’m being a bit flippant about projectile pair of shoes thrown it. The amusing practice of by Mr. Al-Zaidi. The practice of throwing things at politicians showing somebody the bottom of your shoes has a long history in this is considered country and an insult in the beyond. After Arab world and Forgive me for not hearing the although this story I thought being too outraged by journalist (and it would be this but when I think of hero) missed, a good idea anarchist protests my he made his to explore mind goes immediately co n d e m n at i o n the custom to dark streets of of the farcical of lobbing policies of burning cars, petrol odd things the Bush at annoying bombs, millions of Guy administration people we don’t Fawkes masks and angry known to the like. Much chanting world. of the time One may recall people have Lord Mandy genuine, sincere reasons for being pelted with a cup of green being disgruntled with the slime in 2009 by an anti-Aviation political establishment and I protester. Leila Dean, from would argue it is healthy for campaign group Plane Stupid, any liberal democracy, for a concealed the dyed custard in a politician to sometimes get a bit coffee cup and launched it at an of egg on their face. There does unsuspecting Mandelson as he come a time however when a moved past her. In all fairness, line has to be drawn between the slightly confused minister legitimate protest and outright quickly cleaned himself up and stupidity though. returned before the cameras. One of my personal favourites An earlier incident that has to be the attempt by Iraqi didn’t end perhaps so gracefully
involved Lord Prescott during the 2001 election campaign. The dairy product in this instance was an egg and Prescott was the target. This event will forever go down in history for what happened next. Prezza- a former boxer- immediately hit protester Craig Evans back with a quick left jab and the whole scene descended into absolute anarchy. When Tony Blair was asked to comment on the incident he simply said: ‘John is John’. The best thing politicians can do is take it on the chin (quite literally in some cases) and accept that they didn’t come into politics to be everything to everyone. Fergie was charming in his response to the lukewarm assault. He told the BBC later that week that he found it ‘surprising’ that such an attempt hadn’t happened sooner. Asking whether such attacks have any place in our society, or whether they undermine any freedoms we have is like asking whether it would be better to keep stupid people locked in boxesessentially, the question is redundant. What I can ask is that for future reference, if anyone wants to pelt a politician with something that they should be more imaginative- what about a guava? A red velvet cake? Crème de cassis? That’d be amusing.
We asked Epigram readers whether Michael Gove was right to shorten school summer holidays? This is how you responded. Get involved in the debates online: For 23%
Against 77%
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Take Twitter with a pinch of salt, it’s not the full story
The world looked on with dismay on the 15th April as what should have been a wholesome, family friendly, feel-good event was turned on its head with the Boston Marathon bombings. At the centre of the breaking of this news story stood the mouthpiece for Joe Public, Twitter. When a big story breaks we no longer sit glued to our television screens for our fix – we turn to our phones and laptops for real time revelation. Rather than watch a suited and booted news reporter digest the information for us, we are turning in our droves to ‘first hand accounts’ online for a more affecting relation of events, as it happens, where it happens. The Boston Police department headed on to Twitter to dispatch information to the public, such as @Boston_Police ‘Suspect in custody. Officers sweeping the area. Stand by for further info.’ CNN reporter Anderson Cooper even halted his live report to turn to his phone and tweet to the world that the suspected
Twitter: @Andersoncooper
ostensibly earnest hash tag. While Twitter is able to rapidly spread information to colossal volumes of people, there are no checks and balances for
insuring that the information is correct. I am by no means advocating censorship of social networks, but implore Twitter followers to tread cautiously.
Twitter is primarily a medium for speculation. As well as keeping us updated concerning developments in the Boston Marathon bombing saga, Twitter also produced droves of unverified drivel. Apparently marathon runners who witnessed the bombing kept running past the finish line and straight to the hospital to do their bit to help the wounded and give blood. It was also instantly assumed by many tweeters that the bombs were an act of Muslim terrorism. However, if you believe everything that you read on the network, it was also pulled off by right wing white supremacists. Some tweeters became embroiled in a witch hunt by wrongly laying the blame at the door of missing person Sunil Tripathi, who has since tragically been found dead after a battle with depression. Another Twitter offender, or ‘twat’ as they are more tenderly referred to, is Sally Bercow. The wife of the Commons speaker has ended up in a libel battle after she decided to use Twitter to link former Tory chairman Lord McAlpine to an allegation of child sex abuse. Her use of an innocent face smiley was no protection against accusations of slander. While journalists are trained in the defamation laws, no such instruction is given when you set up your Twitter
account. Within the confines of 140 characters, tweets can appear to be lucid and definitive. The little blue bird seems so dependable. As cute as he is, he’s not a stringent checker of facts. When put in perspective, Twitter is not a serious challenge to news broadcasting
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Twitter can get information into the public eye that may be otherwise blocked by media channels, however there is a darker side to the ostensibly earnest hash tag.
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Mona Tabarra
bomber was in custody, ‘#Breaking: Boston Police say marathon bombing suspect #2 is in custody. @andersoncooper reports on #CNN with more information’. The Twitter gods appear to be enjoying their status as a news providing network. In 2009 the question asked to users for status updates changed from ‘What are you doing?’ to ‘What’s happening?’, a signal of the shift from the network as a platform for the voicing of private matters to those of public concern. Does Twitter spell the end for good old fashioned news reporting? Can we get all the information we need in 140 character hits? The answer is, most certainly, no. Twitter has proved instrumental in the organisation of protests in recent years, its influence so profound during the 2009-10 Iranian election protests and 2011 Egyptian revolution that the respective governments blocked the service. It is also thanks to Twitter that we found out about Ryan Giggs’s naughty side, in a mark of protest by users disturbed by the impact of injunctions upon freedom of the press. Twitter can get information into the public eye that may be otherwise blocked by media channels, however there is a darker side to the
- remember the top three most popular accounts are held by Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. While one can come across gems of information there is a lot of fluff on there. Behind the comforting invisibility cloak of a computer screen everyone fancies themselves as a highly reputable social commentator/ news reporter. Twitter can offer a tip off at best, but not the full package.
Epigram
07.05.2013
13 13 13
It’s frustrating, yes, but we shouldn’t ‘What are you change our laws to get Qatada out doing after Uni?’ That’s the question we all dread
Rupert Hill
We can’t be so quick to dismiss due process becauseasingledespicable hate-cleric temporarily avoids justice.
“ Keeping faith with the legal system will make eventual victory all the more symbolic.
being sheltered by ‘foreign’ laws. Worse still, this continuously grants Qatada a disgusting media prominence. But Mr Bone was still not yet finished. Questioned whether rival parties would back such an extreme measure, he smugly informed us that the Liberal Democrats and Labour would do the ‘right thing’ rather than object to bending human rights rules. This was simply nonsense; it is not remotely pro-terrorist to adhere to the European Convention on Human Rights and it is an insult to voter intelligence to imply it. Or, as the elderly married couple of Oxford whose family right to live in the same nursing home was protected by the ECHR in 2002 would undoubtedly testify, keeping faith with legal due process makes eventual victory all the more symbolic.
“ The most interesting people I knew, at 22, didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40 year-olds I know still don’t.
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avoid extradition, desperate exemptions for one man would be a shocking precedent. A British Government should not simply be allowed to ‘opt-out’ of inconvenient human rights because the damage could spread far beyond Qatada: after all, how ‘indispensable’ is your verdict by jury, or even your trial, if the Home Office and enough tabloid attention demands your punishment? Worse still for true-blue Conservatives, the rule of law has long been considered something sacred, nonnegotiable, yet if a Tory Home Secretary no longer trusts it to produce the ‘right’ result, then why vote for the party that champions it so vocally? Of course, Qatada’s case is no longer solely about his alleged crimes, but also channels two political agendas. It increasingly looks like Teresa May’s battle has become sadly personal. She has arguably been a successful Home Secretary politically, having outlasted the tenures of all her recent predecessors, but so much of her popularity is now bound up with this case that it is difficult not to see repeated failure as a barrier to Prime Ministerial ambitions. This is also easy ammunition for back-bench Tory MPs to criticise all things Continental, whilst the merits of involvement in Europe can be stifled with pictures on the evening news of scary looking hate-preachers
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Jevon Whitby All options are now ‘on the table’, according to Home Secretary Teresa May last week, as the Government continues trying to extradite alleged terror suspect Abu Qatada to Jordan. Just another stage in a long, depressing cycle of trials and appeals? Business as usual? No, things have now escalated: with the Home Secretary even proposing to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), solely to deport this dangerous individual. This is the desperation point we have now reached. The Prime Minister, as usual acutely aware of public and tabloid outrage, is rapidly running out of well-chosen and endearing synonyms for ‘frustrated:’ Abu Qatada’s case makes David Cameron’s ‘blood boil’, and he has already expressed a wish to ‘put him on a plane...myself.’ As pleasing as this mental image might be, we can’t be so quick to dismiss due process because a single despicable hate-cleric temporarily avoids justice. I’ve tried to avoid the lefty, Guardian readers’ bandwagon of idealistic selfrighteous indignation, but seeing right-wing MPs attempt
to ‘justify’ selectively ignoring the ECHR immediately made this tough. Most appalling perhaps was the post-announcement Tory spin-cycle. Ironically showing the kind of resort to legal technicalities that Qatada’s legal appeal team would be proud of, forward came Peter Bone MP, BBC news’ favourite go-to Conservative back bencher for mild-mannered shameless populism. Mr Bone assured us that after a six month notice period, the UK could temporarily opt-out of the ECHR, and that deporting Qatada to Jordan to be tried based on evidence obtained by torture would become ‘perfectly legal.’ Congratulations Peter, that’s taken the moral highground ‘perfectly.’ However aggravating it is to see Qatada continually
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The question has never sounded quite right. To me, anyway. The continued interrogation from parents/extended family/ anyone who has nothing better to ask has plagued the last year of my life. It rarely ceases and yet a month left until the end of university, I still have absolutely nothing to respond. Unlike the know-it-all career driven nutcases, I can’t handsomely declare that I will soon be a doctor, or dentist, or whatever. The question always seems to encourage a response that is fairly aloof. ‘I have time, I’m only 21’ I answer evasively. Always evasive. Yet, the time has come that I have started quizzing myself. ‘What do you love? What makes you really happy?’ asked one uncle after a couple of glasses of hearty red wine. The truth is, I would have loved to be a sportsman. That’s my dream. I would have woken up every day driven, desperate to succeed. It wouldn’t have mattered too much what sport
either. I just love the theatre of a competitive sporting arena. Alas, I never displayed more than a mild competence. So what do I answer then? I considered sports journalism until I realised quite how hard it was and how it’s the disappointing younger brother of a sportsman. As a career it’s fine. That’s about as enthusiastic as I get. This general apathy never abates. PR suggests my dad? He might as well have plucked ‘DT’ or any other double letter combination out of the air. The generic terms usually associated with reasonably paid jobs and a reasonable lifestyle sound pallid, insipid. So then it comes down to cash, I suppose. I’m not going to lie, a well-paid job does appeal. Why wouldn’t it? My housemate asked his dad why people thought ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’. Amusingly, his father replied: ‘It does. That’s why people don’t bother to say it anymore’. In fairness, I haven’t heard it quoted too much recently. So here I am, in my last article for Epigram, declaring myself as a soulless materialist. This criticism is pervasive; I can’t help thinking that I would have sold my soul if I got attracted by the salary alone. What are my dreams? Where is my passion? Maybe I need to go and save some endangered pandas to find this spirit. That’s what everyone does, right? It’ll probably look good on my CV if I get some volunteering done too. An infinite array of CV possibilities. Baz Luhrman says at the end of his instructive song ‘Sunscreen’, ‘Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I knew, at 22, didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40 yearolds I know, still don’t.’ I reckon Baz may have a point but as a response to an interested relative, I can’t imagine it would sound too good. Yours, jobless.
www.epigram.org.uk
Epigram
07.05.2013
Science & Tech
Editor: Mary Melville
Deputy Editor: Erik Müürsepp
scienceandtech@epigram.org.uk deputyscienceandtech@epigram.org.uk
Bristol mobile app coding marathon Robert Haslam Science Reporter
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Uni Stalk shows you how many friends are at each university and helps you plan journeys
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Winners of the highly commended prize were Uni Stalk and uTimetable. Uni Stalk is an iOS app designed to help you find out which universities your friends are at. Integrating with Facebook, Uni Stalk uses a cluster map with different sized circles to show you how many friends are at each university. It then integrates with rail and bus companies to help you plan journeys making visiting friends that bit easier.
uTimetable is an Android app that plots out where your lectures and seminars are on Google Maps to help get to classes with greater ease. It also pulls information about classes to find out what’s coming up. The winning app, Life Cook, is
an interactive game for Android that could be used in university towns to help new students find their way around town and access offers and discounts. Life Cook utilises QR codes and near field communication (NFC) that unlocks virtual foodstuffs
around a location with the aim of collecting all achievements to win. Players can also trade items with friends and share what they’ve collected via social media platforms. Founded in 2009, Mubaloo is the UKs leading app developer
working with companies such as Hargreaves Lansdown, Argos, the Met Office, RBS, UNITE, Schroders, William Hill and many more. The firm has over 40 staff in Bristol, many of which are University of Bristol alumni.
The path from Keats to the tablet wars Sophie Nehammer Science Reporter
successful and the appeal was dismissed. The Court of Appeal ruled that Apple must publish a notice on their website and in the press that Samsung’s tablet computers don’t infringe Apple’s registered design right. Apple proceeded to publish a website notice that was considered to be ‘misleading’ by the Court of Appeal and it subsequently had to republish the notice and pay extra costs.
As the Apple v Samsung case became increasingly topical in the media, Epigram went to meet a former Bristol student, Tom Hannah, who was part of the Simmons & Simmons legal team representing Samsung. He shared his experiences about working on such a highprofile case and also about his journey from English graduate to trainee lawyer.
What does the MBA involve? Is it something offered by
David Ortez
As a former Bristol student, how was it going from English student to trainee at a top city law firm? I was involved with Simmons & Simmons before starting my GDL (Graduate Diploma in Law) so the firm have supported me since graduating. I did my GDL in Bristol and then had a year off where I worked for six months and then travelled around South East Asia and South America. Simmons were very happy for me to do this and so if you’re hoping to travel after graduation then don’t be afraid to ask if it’s an option. When I returned, I moved to London, completed my LPC (Legal Practice Course) at BPP Law School and then completed the Simmons & Simmons MBA (Masters in Business Administration).
other law firms? This is a unique aspect to training with Simmons, something that other firms don’t typically offer. It provides a real, innovative approach to preparing trainees for a law career. There is clearly a strong emphasis on business, which helps to understand clients’ perspectives before even beginning the training contract. For the Business Research Project you go to a client’s office for a month. I worked for a major pharmaceutical company, which meant I gained a level of exposure to a business that I wouldn’t otherwise have received. It also meant I was able to begin to build a relationship with a
client, a relationship that I have maintained. Why Simmons & Simmons? I was attracted by the size of the firm: large enough to have top quality clients and cuttingedge work but also small enough to retain team culture and a collegiate atmosphere. I completed a summer vacation scheme which was really interesting and I aimed to join the firm as a result; it was the first application I filled out! I discovered the firm’s strengths in finance and IP (Intellectual Property), which I felt were areas that I would be interested in experiencing as a trainee. During the two years of a
Training Contract you have the opportunity to sit in various departments – where have you sat? I started in Financial Services then went on a client secondment at a major bank in the asset management division. My third seat was in IP and for my final seat I am going on another client secondment to GlaxoSmithKline, in their corporate legal team. Usually trainees don’t complete two client secondments; however they are great opportunities with top clients and demonstrate Simmons’ ability to facilitate valuable secondments for trainees. You are usually part of a smaller team, meaning greater exposure and they
allow you the opportunity to understand what clients really want and to see things from another perspective as part of a company’s in-house legal team. You were also part of the team representing Samsung in their legal battle against Apple. How did the case emerge? The case was regarding design law: whether three Samsung tablet computers infringed Apple’s registered design right. Samsung was initially successful in the High Court and then Apple appealed the decision so the case went to the Court of Appeal last September where Samsung was again
This was such a high-profile case so it must have been exciting to be working on it as a trainee. What were you involved in? Obviously it was a fantastic opportunity for a trainee and an extremely interesting area of law. The exposure was really good: I was able to go to court for all of the hearings that fell within my seat and I was generally involved in the dayto-day running of the case. Finally, what advice would you give to students who are hoping to follow on a similar career path? Whether or not you currently study law you have to be committed to the process from an early stage. It is hard work making applications and even harder work professionally when you commence work but it is also fast-paced and exciting. Be dedicated and start to investigate which areas of law appeal to you as soon as possible.
Wisconsin Department
Anyone who has seen the film The Social Network will remember scenes where the coders were working under extreme circumstances or for long periods. Following in this tradition, 30 computer science students from the University of Bristol gathered together on the 2nd to 3rd of March into nine teams to compete in the Mubaloo Appathon to create a new mobile app from scratch in just 28 hours. In the weeks leading up to the event, Mubaloo, a Bristol based mobile app specialist, ran a number of master classes at the university covering planning and management, design, development and testing across iOS, Android and HTML5. The entries were judged by Andrew Calway, Head of Department for Computer Sciences at the University of Bristol and Mubaloo’s CEO, Mark Mason and head of
Android, Scott AlexanderBown. The judges were looking for apps which could be useful to students on an ongoing basis and have broad appeal with a £200 Amazon voucher available to the winning team and two £50 vouchers for the highly commended prize.
Epigram
07.05.2013
15
Communication in the animal kingdom Anastasia Skamarauskas Science Reporter Communication is key throughout all of life, especially in multicellular organisms where there needs to be coordination between cells, tissues and organs. Animals are usually social creatures that live together a lot of the time and need to be able to interact with each other. Wolves for example, have a strict hierarchy and they communicate mostly
using body language. Lying down and exposing vulnerable areas shows submission and standing tall with high tails indicates dominance. In the novel Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver this is explored as a boy that can ‘talk’ to wolves. Bees famously communicate by dancing. They waggle in the direction of the sun, and then in the direction of the flowers. The length of waggle indicates distance and so the rest of the hive can locate the food. However, University of Bristol
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University of Bristol researchers recently discovered that bees can communicate with flowers too
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researchers recently discovered that bees can communicate with flowers too. They are able to detect the weak negative electric charge that flowers possess. Bees themselves gain
Andreas.
Science behind wrinkly feet
but to prevent the passing on of ideas dangerous to the totalitarian regime. Written and spoken language remains the main form of communication for us. But how language evolved is a big topic of research. We know that mutations in the genes MYH16 and FOXP2 started off the process, allowing facial and jaw movements and
speech patterns necessary for language to develop. It has been the research into our brain and its language centres that has really allowed us to get a grip on why humans are the masters of language. It is often argued that language is what makes us human and why we are the dominating species on our planet.
Infidelity app If you find yourself often wondering whether your partner is faithful or not, now you can use the wonders of modern technology to either breathe a sigh of relief or get hard evidence for their infidelity. Qoqoriqo (prounounced Ko-Ko-Ri-Ko), is a web-based, mobile-enabled app, which allows people to enter the mobile number and email address of their loved one and search for others who have also entered the same details for their partner. If no current information is found, users can set up alerts on their partner’s details, so that they are notified as soon as someone adds details containing the same information that may arouse suspicion. If a search brings back potential connections, those users have
the option to enter a public forum and discuss potential infidelity either directly or via the forum. They can then gather evidence such as photographs, mobile phone bills, email exchanges and more, in order to prove their partner’s infidelity. Qoqoriqo was founded by Mawuna Koutonin, a 39 year-old web entrepreneur from Africa. Mawuna came up with the idea after seeing a friend’s partner out one night with another girl and felt sorry for her being at home completely unaware of what he was up to. He wondered whether the girl who was with him that evening knew either and how different it might be if they were alerted to his infidelity. Mawuna sums up the function of the app as a crowdsourced relationship status update to detect deception.
Bristol’s research into obesity Harrison Carter Science Reporter A British Heart Foundation project carried out by a team of scientists at the University of Bristol has identified that the brain target heavily involved in the brain’s regulation of body weight is also crucially involved in the development of obesityassociated conditions. The mechanism behind the action of this key molecule, known as melanocortin-4-receptor (MC4R), was described recently by the group of researchers. In both human and animal models, mutations of the gene encoding this molecule have shown to cause severe obesity with type 2 diabetes. Activators of molecules which increase MC4R activity have the desirable effect of reducing food intake and insulin secretion from the pancreas. This is important in the suppression of the development of type 2 diabetes. However, MC4R activity also has the undesirable effect of increasing a person’s blood pressure. The team from the University
of Bristol have managed to identify a mechanism for MC4R-mediated regulation of the activity of the autonomic nervous system to maintain appropriate blood pressure and insulin levels. The autonomic nervous system regulates systems in the body that are not under conscious control. It is sub-classified into the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system, commonly exerting opposing influences on the structures they supply with nerves. The research at Bristol demonstrated MC4R activity on the brain stem and spinal cord. Scientists showed how it inhibited the parasympathetic nervous system at the level of the brain stem and activated the sympathetic nervous system at the level of the spinal cord. The team further demonstrated that MC4Rs in these central nervous system (CNS) areas are the causes of obesity-induced increases in blood pressure. This was possible by recording observations in mouse models lacking MCR4. More results confirmed MC4R’s role at these areas of the CNS in maintaining
appropriate insulin levels to stave off type 2 diabetes. It is believed that MCR4 maintains equilibrium of appropriate blood pressure and insulin levels by carefully balancing positive and negative forces on the autonomic nervous system. This is separate to the role MCR4 plays in other areas of the CNS to regulate food intake. The findings made at Bristol may facilitate the development of appropriate, safe therapies to treat obesity and its associated conditions. Dr Nina Balthasar, one of the study’s lead authors and a researcher in the university’s School of
Physiology and Pharmacology, said: ‘Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, with recent statistics showing that obese adults are three to four times more likely to develop high blood pressure. In order to curb the escalating incidence of obesity and obesity-related diseases, a primary prevention goal must be to understand the physiological processes underlying our vulnerability to weight gain — knowledge that is central to the development of novel, effective therapies. Our data illustrate the complexity of the CNS pathways governing
the body’s metabolic balance and highlight the challenges ahead for the development of safe therapies.’ Dr Shannon Amoils, research advisor at the BHF which part-funded the study, added: ‘This research increases our understanding of how the nervous system affects our metabolism, and the development of high blood pressure due to obesity. With further knowledge of this complex area we hope scientists will be able to find safe and effective ways of treating obesity-related heart and circulatory disorders.’
Shannan Muskopf
Ever wondered why you get wrinkly fingers in the bath? Apparently it could be an evolutionary adaption to help us grip to slipper surfaces when in water. Research at Newcastle University shows it is easier to manipulate wet objects when our fingers have wrinkled up in that prune fashion we are all familiar with. This could have given advantage to our ancestors fishing or hunting in water. Participants were asked to move wet marbles and dry marbles. When moving wet marbles wrinkly fingers helped, but when moving dry marbles there was no effect. Originally it was though it was due to the fingers absorbing water and responding, however evidence shows it is actually a nervous response to prolonged exposure to water and is caused by blood vessels constricting. Scientists were tipped off in recent years when they discovered that severed fingers didn’t wrinkle underwater.
a small positive charge during flight and landing on a flower causes the oppositely charged pollen grains to stick to them and changes the plant’s electric field for a short while. This may be how bees can tell which flowers have already been visited. Animals need to communicate to relay basic information including the location of food and approaching danger, the altruistic warning system of meerkats serving as a good example of the latter. But many also create a strict social hierarchy. Lions and apes rely of this system where their social standing dictates food, mates and even survival. Often this is a combination of body language as with wolves, but also vocal sounds like growls. We communicate with each other in a multitude of ways that enable us to convey almost any thought or emotion. All forms of art, from music to photography and fine art to film, are ways of passing on information. And yet language may be the most powerful form of communication in all its forms, sign language to dialect. George Orwell recognised that language is how we humans communicate ideas, something other species don’t rely on. He created Newspeak in his novel 1984 not to limit communication as a whole,
07.05.2013
Letters
Editor: Lucy de Greeff
Misrepresentation of Druids
I am writing to complain about the article in your last edition: ‘The South West, Druids and the occult’. It was “ firstly a poor piece of journalism, filled with unsubstantiated claims (‘Druid use of Glastonbury Tor dates back to 2700BC’- almost certainly false) and simple inaccuracies (The standing stones, captioned ‘Avery’ are actually at Avebury). Far more troublingly, the article presents the modern day Druids’ claims as, if not probable, at least plausible, especially their claim of ‘continuity’ of use of the various sites such as Avebury and Stonehenge. The brief statement: ‘Most Druids do not generally claim to be descended from Druids of old’ does not cancel out the bulk of the article which strongly implies the exact opposite! Modern day Druidism is in fact a relic of Victoriana. The original link between Druids and Stonehenge was made before we had any radiocarbon dating when it was plausible to believe the world was only 6000 years old, due to the Bible.
With that short time frame of human occupation, researchers looked at the ancient sources, found Caesar’s Druids and assumed they had to be the creators of Stonehenge and other monuments. Not unreasonable, considering previous theories involved giants and Merlin as the builders of Stonehenge. However, we now know that Stonehenge is about 5000 years old (original phase 3100BC, continued to be dramatically changed and rebuilt until 1600BC), and Avebury is about 6000 years old (built between 40003500BC). The ancient Druids, at best, were around from about 800BC, but we only have definite evidence of them from 100BC or later. The ancient Druids and these stone monuments, then, were no more linked than we are to the Roman temple at Bath - we may regard it as a curiosity, but we do not worship at the shrine there. In fact, without written records (which prehistoric Britain certainly did not have) we would have no idea what the complex of Bath was for. Modern day
The article presents the modern day Druids’ claims as... Plausible”
photo: flickr: tarotastic
letters@epigram.org.uk
Druids have no idea what made up the rituals or beliefs of either the ancient Druids or the monument builders. Epigram’s article paints the Druids as an essentially benign force. Almost the opposite is true. Druids regularly campaign to curtail the activities of historians and archaeologists, claiming the sites as their own special heritage, and so off limits to the rest of us. The “official statement” from the Orders of British Druids can be read on their website, and articles by Emma Restall Orr adequately summarise their opinions. Suffice to say that if Druids’ wishes were complied with we would know far less about our prehistoric past. And it is not idle speculation: already enshrined in law is the compulsory reburial of all human remains within two years, and with such a vocal pressure group this situation could easily get worse. As a university newspaper, surely Epigram should be supporting researchers, not fringe groups who oppose them?
C Greenwood Archaeology & Ancient History
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Picture it. You are in a big hurry to get to a lecture/seminar/tutorial/meeting. Walking as fast as you can, you hope that you will be able to reach your destination in record time. Much to your chagrin, you come across an obstruction, Pavement Invaders. A row of very slow walking people, who are happily chatting side by side, without realizing that a rushed person is right behind them. You find yourself forced to make baby steps forward, while you feel the anger and frustration boil up inside of you. It does not seem apparent that these oblivious people need to be anywhere soon. Scanning the row, you try to find a gap to get through, so you can continue your fast-paced mission to continue your journey. In drastic measures, sometimes you have take a dangerous risk by walking on the road instead, with hope of not getting hit by a fast-moving piece of transport. These notorious Pavement Invaders, who have a serious lack of spatial awareness, are everywhere: from small places that have tiny pavements, to any megalopolis that attracts more than enough tourists! Apologies for pointing the finger, but such people are also on our own campus. As a busy Masters student, it exasperates me greatly when I run into a group of students, often much younger than myself, walking incredibly slowly down Woodland Road. As always, I have somewhere to be, and I need to get there fast. My desperate desire is slap them hard round the head with a wet fish, loudly shout ‘Excuse me!’, and roughly push past them. Notwithstanding, I am polite, and considerate, so I will restrain myself from doing my highly desirable push and shove. Why do Pavement Invaders take up the whole of the street? What is so
difficult about walking in single file? Why do they have to walk so slowly? To fulminate even further, why do they even need to hang around in groups, chatting away, slap bang in the middle of the street? Okay, we are not exactly London, but our university campus has a high percentage of busy people, who need to get from A to B quickly. Blocking each other’s way should be outlawed! England is a polite society, who does not say what they truly think, because it might appear rude. I am always trying to be considerate by looking around myself, and walking close to the wall, to make sure that anyone can get by me without having their insides boiled with irritation. The university holidays are heaven, because no-one is around to get in my way, and I can get to where I need to be with no problem. I know I am not alone in sharing this feeling. Recently, on the BBC TV programme Room 101, there was an argument about the misuse of umbrellas, claiming that the public do not know how to properly use them. In a following episode, there was a complaint about suitcases with wheels, and those who travel with them. It was contended that signs, on both uses of umbrella and wheeled luggage, should be put up in the street. The same should be created for pedestrian etiquette. The last time I was in London, I saw such signs on the floor of Paddington Station, regarding suitcase etiquette. Finishing on a positive note, I can say that the Pavement Invaders have not been as many, or as bad as last year. Nevertheless, they are still around. Therefore, dear student, think of others, walk in single file, and let others pass.
Andraea Zambakides
Brian Talbot
Epigram
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Puzzles
Crossword
17 13 Brought to you by Lucy Eyers and Anna Griller
Down 1. Queen who reigned for 63 years and 7 months (8) 2. King of the jungle (4) 3. King who was “unready” (8) 4. Recently abdicated queen of Netherlands (7) 5. King who was grandson of 1 down (6) 7. Burger King’s “King of the Day” on Wednesday (7) 8. Current King of Spain (4, 6) 12. Plays the true king of Gondor (5, 9) 13. Queen of the desert (9) 14. Queen sung about by The Libertines (4) 17. “The most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history” (6) 18. Queen who although she had 17 pregnancies, died without surviving children (4) 22. Often referred to as “The King” (4)
Student favourites
Can you name these hotspots on or around the triangle from a close up of their logo?
epAnagram Ryan Bayne
Across 2. Queen who ruled for 9 days and was subsequently executed (4, 4, 4) 6. NOT King but Lord Protector (8) 8. Member of queen (4, 6) 9. First name of the “King of queens” (4) 10. Current King of Norway (6) 11. Queen – (London University) (5) 15. His character said “I’m King of the world” (8, 8) 16. Surname of leader in African American Civil Rights movement (4) 19. Queen in Alice in Wonderland (5, 2, 6) 20. Type of beauty queen sung about by The Thrills (5) 21. King who separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church (5) 23. Queen sung about by ABBA (7) 24. Queen played by Helen Mirren and Cate Blanchett (9)
07.05.13
Can you unscramble the following Pokemon? OZDSPA
YTNOAP OWMWTE
GREEOTUXG LFGFPYGUIJ
OTBVRLO HASRPDIA
YIRLAFEC
RAAIKPGM ELRUSTIQ
Picture puzzles Which common phrases do these puzzles represent?
Daddy Quick quiz 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Which Ken Kesey novel features the characters Randle McMurphy and Nurse Ratched? In Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, what does the title character wear around his neck? What exams do students of Hogwarts take at the end of their fifth year? Whose catchphrase is ‘the sky is falling’? In the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Veruca Salt meets her end falling down a chute designed for what? Traditionally served with pancakes, spring onion and cucumber, the meat of which Chinese dish is carved in front of the diner? Which popular chocolate biscuit has a joke printed on the back of each wrapper? The main character of which Disney Channel show was a psychic teenage girl? In 2010, rapper Wiz Khalifa sang about yellow and which other colour? What connects the answers to all of the previous questions?
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CULTURE Epigram meets British electronic duo Mount Kimbie p25
Music Pick of the Fortnight
Arts Pick of the Fortnight
Phosphorescent Rise Friday 17th May, 7pm
Matthew Bourne completes his beautiful disruption of Tchaicovsky’s three major ballets by turning Sleeping Beauty into a Gothic Romance worthy of Washington Irving and Alice Temperley. Wonderful opportunity to see world-class ballet outside of London.
Muchacho is one of our favourite albums of the year so far. A sun-kissed and rugged modern update of Americana, it’s both joyous and melancholy. Catch Phosphorescent perform as a duo for an intimate instore show at Rise by getting a free wristband when you buy the album.
Simon Annan
Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty Bristol Hippodrome 7th-11th May
Film Pick of the Fortnight I’m So Excited Showing at The Watershed 3rd- 23rd May Pedro Almodovar has become probably the most eminent Spanish director working today. I’m So Excited has its roots in an 80s camp aesthetic, following three air stewards who pass the time in business class flights drugging themselves, passengers, doing cabaret performances, and sleeping with the good-looking pilots. It is a strange mix of sex, drugs and relationships between men and women, one of Almodovar’s perennial themes.
Epigram
07.05.2013
Arts
Editor: Rosemary Wagg
Deputy Editor: Rachel Schraer
arts@epigram.org.uk
deputyarts@epigram.org.uk
@EpigramArts
the sand; dank sticky brown for the banks of the Nile and terracotta brown for the imagined stones of the hot streets. And where is the brown in Bristol Museum? Present, yes, but continually intersected with brilliant flashes of blue faience. The sky and the sea of Egypt are here with the land; the combined elements creating a more complete picture of a world already drowned in the soup of history. This Aegean blue pops up in almost every display cabinet. It is there on a faience and gold tile with the title of Pharaoh Amenhotep III from 1390 – 1352 BCE which shines in deep turquoise and also on a faience shabti of Pharaoh Pinudjem from 1069 – 656 BCE which looks slightly Gauguin-esque with its simplistic, but expressive line markings. This colour brings warmth to the displays and ignites the coldness of stone and papyrus. The stone, it must be said, is in quite remarkably
“She is the reason you dream to spend a Night in the Museum and watch the objects come alive.”
good condition. Even limestone, notorious for decaying – I say, as I sit in a Georgian building, which looks set to disintegrate at any moment – is presented here looking quite new. See, for example, the limestone stela of Tjetji from around 2070 BCE, intricately engraved with the very same hieroglyphs that first had me excited in the Beech Grove library. Here, though, my favourite birds share space with other delicate creatures – a miniscule hare jumping across water and the head of an impala-like animal, posed coquettishly. If British Museum employees could be coerced into taking such good care of Royal York Crescent and the Wills Memorial building there would be
British Museum
little worry of them not being here 3000 years from now. Equally wellpreserved are the delicate examples of jewelry. The gold signet ring with the name of Pharaoh Amenhotep II from 1427 – 1400 BCE looks both surprisingly sturdy and a fine example of sophisticated workmanship. My favourite one, though is the inlaid ornament of a winged scarab holding a sundisc from 1800 – 1874 BCE. The beetle, reminiscent of a dragonfly, is crafted in tiny flecks of brightly coloured filigree-esque metal work. Awareness of the painstaking craftsmanship that went into the production of these objects draws us away from the Horrible Histories version of the Egyptians in which brains are pulled out of noses and towards a history that celebrates human endevour in the arts and notices the importance placed on beauty by societies past. Interestingly, given the exhibition’s title, the overall emphasis of the exhibition is not only on Pharaohs. There are a host of characters present, both male and female who, along with the noted craftsmanship of the delicate objects, ensure that the years between Ancient Egypt and now concertina into almost nothing. Looking at the faces of many figurines, I detect the individuality of those whose image they were created in. Many moments were spent staring at the bronze figurine of a royal consort from 1069 – 656 BCE. Her tiny waist and soft, rounded thighs are closeted in a long skirt which morphs from being metal to fabric and back again. She is beautiful and she is human. She is the reason you dream to spend a Night in the Museum and watch the objects come alive. Again, with a Theban granodiorite statue of Sennefer, from 1479 – 1426 BCE, the shape of knees pulled up to a chest underneath cloth is created out of rock which turns first to liquid and then into fabric. Out of these simple shapes, so much expression emerges. I am reminded of the Persepolis cartoon by Marjane Satrapi in which shapes crafted from a few monochrome lines can bespeak of the most complex of emotions. If nothing else, Pharaoh: King of Egypt is a great opportunity to see a fantastic selection of British Museum exhibits both outside of Bloomsbury and without having to bulldoze your way through legions of school children. The intimacy granted by the setting allows the viewer the necessary time to watch these inanimate objects display signs of the humans whose hands created them and whose images inspired them. British Museum
My first encounter with the Egyptians was in primary school when I sat in the glass-topped part of the library and smiled smugly at the idea of civilizations with glamorous queens as their leaders. I carefully copied hieroglyphs with a sharp pencil and decided the world would be so much better if we all wrote with alphabets that included: birds! cats! Imagine, for instance, if all the full stops on this page were instead teeny parrots. Now wouldn’t that look a whole lot nicer? Departing from papyrus and the flood plains of the Nile, the next time I met with Egypt was as a 10 year old when Cleopatra the – frankly amazing – girl band came about. Fronted by the youngest sister whose name actually was Cleopatra, this time I thought: wouldn’t life be so much better if my name was Cleopatra and I had a head full of black braids instead of mousy brown lankness? Since then, my historical studies have been largely limited to the ‘Modern’ era, and I do not think I am alone in having an awfully romanticized and somewhat promiscuous relationship with Ancient Egypt. Pharoah: King of Egypt, the British Museum touring exhibition currently on show at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery until 21st July, does not, from the title, promise either a roaring celebration of feminism for school children, nor a lesson in how to look cool in the 90s. It is, however, a deceptively soft and aesthetically marvellous exhibition that should be as much of interest to art students as it is to history ones. It usurps assumptions and rough images of Egypt without trumpet-blowing and without elongated text panels. Instead, in a quiet fashion, this lovely collection of items from the British Museum subtly pervades and replaces what we thought we knew of this civilization and its people. One of the best ways in which it does this is with the use of colour. The Ancient Egypt of collective memory is not painted in the red, white and black of Tahrir Square today, but instead is brown. Lots of shades of brown. Such as golden brown for
Rosemary Wagg
Anastasia Reynolds
Cleopatra, Comin’ atcha!
Minty fresh corpses
Anastasia Reynolds stays underground in Brno The winter is drawing to a close: there are rain and crocuses in place of snow and bare branches. Spring is coming, and none too soon, because I have now run out of underground (i.e. hidden from the elements) places to visit in Brno, Czech Republic. The situation was so extreme I even fled abroad (I took a train to Vienna, which is within spitting distance) to seek out caverns new (gawk at dead Hapsburgs). The last piece of the Brno underground is the Mint-Master’s Cellar, dating from the early 1300s. It has none of the morbid fascination afforded by the Capuchin crypt or the ossuary; unlike the Labyrint, you can see it all in about twenty minutes. It’s interesting though. They have a nice little display room, not too heavy on the information, showing Brno’s coin-minting license and little tinny pennies from different times in the city’s history. There’s a brief timeline of how the coins looked under different kings and emperors. The museum room is presided over by a Father Christmas-type patriarch kitted out in a fancy mint-master’s kit: red velvet and big feathery plumes, piratical boots. Then they point out a door at the end of a little passage and leave you to your own devices. That’s the cellar. You go through into another bricked passage – lots of beautiful rosy 14th-century slender bricks –down some vertiginous steps, past a well, round a tight corner and there you are in the cellar. It’s a
“Taste and restraint are most definitely not their watchwords” graciously-proportioned room, with a nice arched ceiling, salvaged fancy stonework adorning the walls, and impressive-looking bits of machinery, presumably minting-related, dotted around like occasional tables. The Hapsburg crypt in Vienna is an entirely different kettle of fish. The family was, and still is – the most recent addition to the crypt, Otto, only died in 2011 – obscenely, stupendously rich. Taste and restraint are most definitely not their watchwords. There are 149 coffins, ranging from tiny children’s ones to a massive structure that towers over you at about twenty feet high, supporting half a dozen full-size angels and saints and things, Holy Grails and large relief depictions of battles and derring-do. Most of them have variations on that theme; there’s a few riffs on skulls wearing silly hats, lots of fancy twiddly bits, knobs and garlands and lots of pedestals and bevelled edges. The notable exception is the one Protestant member of the family, who has a boring, plain, tasteful coffin. Luckily she is surrounded by ostentatious relatives. Interestingly, many of the coffins still have fresh flowers on them, showing that the Hapsburgs still have fans in the former Austria-Hungary. I’m not sure if I left the crypt culturally enlightened, but it was interesting, because I like tombs. And the man at the door let me in free for some reason, which meant I had a spare few euros to spend on kaffee und kuchen afterwards.
Epigram
Who told you you were naked? The naked body. As children we are introduced to it with the plastic shapes of a blonde Barbie or Action-Man figure. As teenagers we are re-introduced to it with the hairless forms of thrusting porn stars, or those alienly beautiful men and women who live within the four-wall fantasy of a magazine cover. Images of idealised nudity are what punctuate the early stages of our relationship with the naked form. However, as our age grows, so does our idea of the body in its unclothed, imperfect, and unapologetic state. Sex allows us to know the body of another as not just something to be seen and admired, but as something which moves and changes and works alongside our own. Art enables us to view the nude in its less than perfect state, as seen through the eyes of artists such as Lucian Freud, Egon Schiele, or Jenny Saville. And now – whether it is Lena Dunham’s shrug-of-the-shoulders nudity, or Femen flashing their slogan-slurred breasts to Putin – the naked female body has gained new significance. The nudes of 16th century Old Masters Titian and Giorgione were women of soft, fleshy curves, with slanting shoulders and dainty breasts. A time before Victoria’s Secret models bared their emaciated limbs to the flashbulbs of the world, western painters idolised those women whose wealth allowed hips to be softened by fat, and limbs to be enlarged by a languid life. These were stomachs of a pre-Dukandiet day, in which fat was not seen as it is today,
but was indicative of a privileged life. However, to idolise these painters as proto-feminists for having depicted the female body as “natural” is, largely, a modern mislabelling. Much like the way in which pale skin was once admired in western culture as a sign of a (literally) sheltered life, whereas today a tan symbolizes the ability to afford exotic holidays, the fleshy female nudes in Titian and Giorgione’s paintings were women just as idolised as those of a more slender figure are today. What’s more, these classical female nudes sow the seed of a problem which today has burgeoned into a monstrous source of oppression: the female body is often not depicted as it really is. It is the very fleshyness that these Old Masters admired in a woman’s body – soft hips (check), slanted shoulders (check), doughy stomach (check) – that also acted as the depiction’s inaccuracy: smooth crotch (errm... check?). Where, dearest Giorgione, is the pubic hair on your ‘Sleeping Venus’? Indeed, female pubic hair has become one of western society’s most hypocritical progressions. Women are classically depicted as being without pubic hair, as female pubic hair – like the penis being depicted as anything larger than a golf-pencil – was thought crass. And yet today, the correlation between a
hairless crotch and the libido is propagated as inextricable. What was once a sign of desexualisation - painting a woman without pubic hair and thus reverting her to a childlike stasis - has, in the 21st century, become a symbol of sexuality. A woman’s body, like the cars of our time, is reduced to a sleek, seamless device for egotistical men to open up, enter, and go very fast in. However, I am not an ‘80s feminist (as my previous sentence may have led you to believe). Indeed, the women/car analogy is only applicable to images of women designed to titillate men of a certain demographic. So although pornhub.com and certain GQ covers (that’s right Lana Del Rey, you sit there naked whilst every other cover of the issue features a tuxedoed man) may revel in the hairless harlot, what of images of the female nude aimed at women? The multi-award-winning-lots-o’-peoplewatch-it TV series Girls may provide us with an answer. For a show whose intended demographic is women in the 20s, we get a white, straight, nonsize-8 woman having awkward sex, or dancing braless in a yellow fishnet vest. Is Lena Dunham simply giving us what we say we want to see? Her nudity has, rather predictably, led to the birth of numerous blog posts/articles congratulating a woman who is not a model on baring her flesh.
07.05.2013
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But what of women who do not have her body-type, are not of the same ethnicity, or (understandably) despise fishnet vests – is Dunham’s nudity something for them to congratulate? Just as Dunham criticised Oscar presenter Seth MacFarlane’s song of women who have shown their breasts on camera, perhaps the point of Dunham’s seemingly omnipresent nudity is that there is no point. If she gets naked enough, perhaps nudity will no longer be a a talking point, perhaps the blogs posts will stop erupting, and nudity – pubic hair or not – will be nothing to write home about, let alone elevate to the grandeur of ‘Sleeping Venus’. Whether we approach the nude from art or images, from Karl Weschke’s ‘Leda and the Swan’ or The Nu Project, isn’t it just a body? In the objective sense, yes, but human life is, at its core, a neverending sequence of desires. Some are smaller and more easily satisfied – ‘God I want that chocolate Nesquik’ – others are bigger and deeper: the tectonic plates of desire which we struggle to articulate, let alone fulfil. The human body is, and has always been, just such a tectonic plate. Because our bodies are constantly changing, so our wants in relation to it are ever-evolving. We want to look slimmer, younger, more toned. We want our body to run faster. We want to touch another’s body, or want our own to be touched by another. We want our body to be carrying a child. We want our body to be healed. We are obsessed with the body, not only as a source of comparison or vanity, but as the vehicle through which our experiences are created. Can we really, then, go beyond the nude? I think not. Text and Images by Anna Godfrey
Market at the moon Market at the Moon is held on the first Saturday of every month at the Full Moon pub in Stokes Croft. Born in April 2012, the market is both home to and seeks to build awareness of the talent and small trades of Bristol. Current favourites of market manager Rosie McLay include Tusk and Claw, by Rob Ali, who produces upcycled jewelery and handmade woolen crafts reminiscent of the dirty/beautiful British coastline and Seb Reed who hand-makes frames and antiqued mirror glass. Like McLay, the editors of Epigram Arts are also overly fond of the handmade hair feathers made by Amy Woodham for her business, Featherheads. Attached to the wearer’s own hair with a teeny metal bead, the hand-dyed feathers come in an array of colours which, if you go down a pheasant route, blend in with your hair or, if you opt for the peacock look, add a little flash of colour in to the underlayers. Although, as McLay says ‘We have our regulars…who I couldn’t imagine the
market without’, the stallholders do also change each month, meaning it is worth taking a trip down more than once. Additionally, in the near future the market is evolving to be “more than a market”, with an outdoor cinema scheduled from June and plans to showcase local performers, with everyone from firebreathers to seamstresses included. Live gigs will also be happening from this month onwards, potentially turning a quick visit to the market into a full day’s entertainment. Market at the Moon supports St Peter’s Hospice, so far with several successful raffles. With the market continually growing, they hope be able to donate ‘something really great’ to the hospice in the coming year and to continue supporting the various charities and petitions of individual stallholders too. If you are interested in applying to be a stallholder, please email marketatthemoon@gmail.com. Pitches are all £10, with the offer of shelter and tables too.
Rosie McLay
Epigram
07.05.2013
24
It takes Missorts: Art for a digital future
Situations, along with novelist Tony White, painstakingly developed and recorded a series of vividly placed stories by new and existing writers. These recorded stories based around the area, along with a musical sequence ‘Portwall Preludes’ by The Jam’s Jamie Telford, form the basis of the artwork. Once the free Missorts app has been downloaded, the listener can walk around the area with a smartphone—which the technologically challenged can borrow from the Central Library—whilst GPS signal triggers each recording in its allotted spot. The recordings are
Chain Gangs
Mona Tabbara mourns the closure of independent local bookshops
designed to be listened to in any order, so that the listener is able to create their own individual narrative as they wander at their leisure. Which recording will be triggered in each spot has been carefully chosen so that, as Situations director Claire Doherty describes, ‘the city becomes the scenery of the story you’re listening to’. The stories are focalised around the idea of ‘Missorts’, often featuring the loss or reunion of loved ones. This seems an appropriate theme for an area that seems itself to be ‘missorted’, from the derelict sorting office that has misplaced its use, to the poet Thomas Chatterton’s house which nestles behind the façade of a school that has been grafted onto it, to the graveyard of St Mary Redcliffe church whose tombstones have been relocated for a section to make room for a section of now disused tramline. The artwork that the area locates, then, becomes fittingly ‘missorted’ since rather than coming from an artist and being received by a viewer/listener, it becomes a collaboration between the artists, the area, and the listeners themselves for whom, as
“The experience is like ‘conducting an orchestra through which you pick a path” novelist Tony White puts it, the experience is ‘like conducting an orchestra through which you pick a path’. The idea is that the artwork is permanent, existing as long as apps and GPS signals do, and encapsulating the area at a particular moment in time—a poignant aim for an area that is set to experience a period a dramatic change. The project serves at once as a map, a historical record, and an imaginative projection. It not only freezes the city as it exists in the present moment, but acts, too, as a compendium of its past and a benchmark for its future.
Rachel Schraer
Poetry reinvented: Slow dance to my silence The Bristol Poetry Institute held an evening of performances last week, as an introduction to the form of Spoken Word. Three headline acts--Indigo Williams, Bohdan Piasecki and Harry Baker were interspersed with several open mic slots. Anna Symington and Nasheya Peracha talk about their impressions. My expectations on entering the Victoria Rooms for my first ever poetry reading –to be moved and touched—were not only met but exceeded. The turnout of the event was brilliant as the place was jam packed and, to my surprise, not only with English students. The astonishingly powerful Indigo Williams was my personal favourite of the evening. Her verses warned that her words would hit like bullets, and indeed her presence was so powerful that with every word I felt pulled further into her world. It was an unexpected surprise to hear the recitation of a non-English poem so I was very pleased when the next headlining poet Bohdan Piasecki recited his poem ,’cisza,’ (silence) in Polish, his native language. The audience were left in awe of his astonishing delivery, despite not
flickr: Rev Stan
“Situations creates ‘locally embedded’ art that uses its location and moment in time to inform it”
missorts.com
I had few expectations when I arrived at Bristol’s Central Library—the area all but emptied of students slap-bang in the middle of the Easter break—for a talk that had been sold to me as being about ‘digital platforms for writing’. I walked in half-anticipating another sermon on how I might become the next Caitlin Moran/ Charlie Brooker/ *insert favourite quippy journalist here* if only I tweeted enough. Instead, what I was faced with was an intriguing insight into how digital media is being used to create an entirely new category of artwork. If this sounds like tiresome technojargon, bear with me; when it comes to gadgets, I’m comparatively Stone Age and still proudly tote my Nokia brick from circa 2004. But Missorts, the new app that has been developed by Bristolbased visual arts organisation Situations, brings a new dimension to the idea of local art that, even to a technological rookie like me, sounds nothing short of magical. The area of Portwall, between Temple Meads station and Redcliffe Bridge, is undergoing huge regeneration. When development of this kind takes place, the law requires the council to set aside a chunk of money towards a public artwork for the area. They were faced with a challenge: the area is a busy, industrialised public thoroughfare with few obvious sites for anything as conventional as a sculpture or mural. It was at this point that they enlisted Situations, whose bread and butter is creating site-specific, ‘locally embedded’ art that uses its location and moment in time to inform it, integrating it with its surroundings.
novice viewer of Spoken Word, my expectations understanding what the poem meant, due to its were that we would be treated to something powerful rhythm and meter. close to rhyming stand-up comedy; indeed Harry Baker, a current Bristol student some of the open mic performers did just this. contributed a great end to an even However the headline acts saved this greater show through his clever, sort of entertainment for the words humorous and emotive verse. As spoken between each poem, well as some poignant verses appropriating the Spoken reminding us that ‘real men Word form for something “Her presence was so have issues’ too, his poem much more profound. They powerful that with every about desserts set to Ed were undoubtedly amusing Sheeran was as funny as it at times, but their real skill word I felt pulled further was clever, and peppered lay in the way that they into her world” with some phenomenal word moved seamlessly from the play. The line, ‘Meringue, but amusing to the emotional. she never rang back,’ had us The tell tale sign of their talent in laughing fits for a good few is that their words are still in my minutes. head: Indigo Williams urging her Nasheya Peracha friend to ‘move or you’ll rot’; Bohdan Piasecki’s ‘worry that all the problems in your Credit is due to Vanessa Kisuule, the organiser life could be solved with just a little money’; of ‘Upside Down Inside Out: Poetry Reinvented’, and Harry Baker’s tongue-twister (-cum-heartwho opened the event with enough energy for twister): ‘in a pop up paper world problems tend the whole room. She set the tone for a night to pop up too’. The night, for me, wasn’t so much that celebrated spoken word poetry, inviting its a reinvention of poetry as a rediscovery. audience to cheer for it and be moved by it. As a Anna Symington
Upon returning home to south London for the Easter holidays, I experienced a mortifying sense of loss. As an English literature student it will come as no shock to the reader that I like books. They are my friends. The ones with the pretty front covers and gold trimmed pages are like an aesthetically attractive peer – you like to look at them and caress them and if you open them and like the contents then, well, that is an added bonus. There are the books with the coffee stained pages and nibbled edges. Those are the friends with most fascinating personalities. You know that they have seen a lot. It will appear inevitable to the reader that, as books are my friends, I see book shops as a kind of social club. My most beloved book shop, My Back Pages, is situated in Balham and has seen me through my degree’s reading lists with heavily discounted and brimming with character second hand books. I like to open a copy of Tess of the d’Urbervilles and read the pencilled scrawls: ‘To Maggy, I am so sorry, Love Simon’, and wonder who Maggy was and why Simon thought that (spoiler alert) a book about the sexual assault and subsequent death of a young woman would be an appropriate way of saying sorry. You just don’t get that thrill in Waterstones.
“support your local shops before the world turns into one gigantic estate agent” The lovely Irish man who runs my beloved book shop can no longer afford the rent. Like so many other independent retailers, he has had to pack up and sell up. Inevitably he will be replaced by a Foxtons or a cafe called Bumble Bees or something equally as nauseating. My Irish man blames ‘Margaret Thatcher’s free markets catching up with us’. The strength with which he feels this charge is starkly apparent as he made the statement with little sign of remorse for the fact that Mrs. Thatcher had passed away the day before. Whatever one feels about Thatcher’s economic policies, there are a few others who need to be held to account for the plight of the independent book retailers. Amazon does an amazing job of offering cheap books delivered straight to your door. Kindles mean fewer people are buying books full stop. Even high street chains are suffering – who remembers Borders? Without these charming one-off establishments, Britain is at risk of turning into one great barrel of homogeneity. Gloucester Road and Stokes Croft are currently trying to fend off such influences, but if parts of London such as Brixton, and some of the East End, are anything to go by, they won’t last long. In fact, as I write this, the Foxtons in Brixton is being graffitied by a disgruntled local. I implore you not necessarily to graffiti, but to support your local shops before the world turns into one gigantic estate agent. As a wise woman (my mother) once told me, ‘If all the world were flat as sand, and all the sea were gravel, how blank and drab our maps would be, how sad would be to travel’.
Music
Epigram
Editor: Eliot Brammer
Deputy Editor: Phil Gwyn
music@epigram.org.uk
deputymusic@epigram.org.uk
07.05.2013
@epigrammusic
Three years is a lifetime in electronic music. Eliot Brammer talks to Mount Kimbie about unlikely singalongs and getting older. On ‘Home Recording’, the opening track to their new album, Mount Kimbie sing, ‘You can touch four walls in here while standing still’. Mundane enough stuff, and no one’s listening to this band for their lyrical content. But it’s a strangely affecting line. Because Mount Kimbie always seems to be concerned with space: whether it’s by placing tantalising pauses halfway through tracks; or the billowing gap that hangs between rolling sub bass and a high end of clicks, clacks and skewed vocal samples; or the subtle placement of field recordings that evoke the grey cityscapes of their adopted London. That line might also recall the constraints of time and space and equipment, and the unassuming expectations of the duo themselves, that persisted during the making of early EPs and their 2010 debut Crooks and Lovers. Kai Campos and Dominic Maker met at Southbank University and started releasing music on Hotflush in 2009. From working within tight perimeters they forged the sound that came to characterise the label of post-dubstep now impossible to say without reflexively raising your fingers to form inverted commas. Cold Spring Fault Less Youth is the sound of the duo branching out in the studio, testing the reach of their ideas. Campos explains, ‘The working process was fairly similar, I guess the main difference is that we had a bit more time and space to do it, and it felt like if we had an idea that we wanted to try then we were able to have a go at it, the resources were there from working hard for the last two years. Whatever’s in your head you can at least have a go at it.’ The album features a much greater variety of styles and textures than anything they’ve previously put their name to; comeback single ‘Made To Stray’, premiered on Ben UFO’s Rinse FM slot, comes fitted with a radiofriendly 4/4 house kick and ends in a ready-made festival singalong hook. ‘I think it goes back to that thing of having more time and space. It’s stuff we would’ve liked to do on the last record but it just wasn’t conceivable really, and at some level you work with the options you have and try and make the best record you can. We took a bit more advice on this one in terms of things we’d like to try but hadn’t really done before.’ For example, the live drums on ‘So Many Times, So Many Ways’, something of an outlier on the record with its sprightly jazz percussion and the interplay between bass and electric guitar, were recorded at the studio of former Stereolab drummer Andy Ramsay 30 seconds away from Mount Kimbie HQ in South Bermondsey. Similarly, Campos says that with the mixing process, ‘right up to when we went to get it mixed I was fairly adamant that we didn’t need to have someone else to mix the record and then I changed my opinion after about an hour of working with him and realised I was being an idiot’, grateful for the help of ‘another pair of ears’ and more professional gear. The duo also drew on outside help by recruiting the vocals of King Krule,
Made to stray, built to last
Kai Campos and Dominic Maker of Mount Kimbie. his snarling melancholy proving an uncannily snug fit on ‘You Took Your Time’ and ‘Meter, Pale, Tone’. Does collaboration appeal? ‘I think collaboration is great but only in the right circumstances and 80% of the time it’s probably a bad idea,’ says Campos. ‘Generally the most interesting and original ideas tend to come from one person, because if you’re trying to communicate something, especially through words, then it’s not a very relevant vessel for explaining creative ideas. You start compromising just in the use of language and get to talking too much. We certainly didn’t want this record to be the classic second electronic album with a lot of guests phoning in performances over finished tracks. So
anyone that we worked with had to be really involved with it, and there weren’t really that many people we were interested in working with apart from Archy [Marshall, King Krule], and that’s just because I thought his work was brilliant and really enjoyed his delivery, and his compositional style I thought would work actually. He didn’t live too far from the studio so he could pop down for an hour, listen to what we’re doing and take away some bits that were very unfinished. And then he would come back in, with the songs still just 10% done and we’d work on melodic ideas and developed it from there. It was a fairly painless, natural process where there wasn’t too much talking about stuff and more just doing it.’
One of the most noticeable shifts in focus on the new album is the prominence of the duo’s own vocals, moving away from the up-pitched manipulated vocal samples that were their trademark previously. Obviously there’s a potential for audience connection in using their own voices that might not have been immediately possible before; by which I mean, it might be tricky for a crowd to sing a sample back at you. ‘None of the album was considered in terms of how people would react to it live or garnering a bigger audience. I think naturally the human voice is something people relate to because they understand it and they can get to grips with it very quickly. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that but it’s not like I think
we’ve particularly got a voice that would garner a bigger audience’, Campos says. ‘As soon as we finished the first album, even before that we were somewhat hesitant to use vocal samples and it ended up being on there, so we felt like we’d said all we wanted to say in terms of that.’ Although the duo have used their own vocals on previous releases it was always in a much more sparing or subtle way. Campos explains it simply that ‘we were playing the songs live when they were half finished and that was the way they were going. It wasn’t until we actually started putting the record together that I realised there were four or five songs that really had prominent vocals.’ Even if it wasn’t part of any great design, that shift in focus shows the duo working with a heightened conviction in what they’re doing, and a willingness to place themselves at the centre of it. On the reception of their 2010 debut, Campos says ‘Records are a strange thing, you hear some stuff before it comes out that you think is going to be massive and it does nothing, and you hear other things which you don’t think much of and suddenly they gather a lot of momentum. It’s got some stuff to do with music but also a lot of the momentum as to how records go has a lot to do with how they sit in a certain time and place.’ That was certainly true around 2009 and 2010, Mount Kimbie capping an incredibly fertile period in UK electronic music and reshaping it in a whole new, exciting direction. As their sound and ambition has developed, they seem happy enough to attach a parallel narrative of their own maturation. ‘I think now, if and when we receive pissy, scathing comments on Twitter, I just don’t mind because I feel confident enough to back up the record.’ In a year which has also seen diverse and mature second efforts from their postdubstep contemporaries James Blake and Darkstar, Campos sees it as a case of ‘getting older and life changing in general, it left me feeling more like I had to..’ - he forcibly wrenches himself back from the descent into cliché ‘kind of follow whatever it is you really want to do deep down, and believe that if you do that there will be an audience for it because in some way it will be something inherently good.’ Eventually he manages to hammer into words the sensation that’s so much easier for Mount Kimbie to express behind a drum machine: ‘letting go of the feeling of wanting to be in control and in that way taking more control over your own artistic output and believing that will lead to something good.’
Cold Spring Fault Less Youth is out on 27th May on Warp Records.
Epigram
07.05.2013
26
In conversation with Charli XCX Interview by Matt Redley
As a musician, there’s recognition, and then there’s recognition. And in the case of rising starlet Charli XCX, her buddies on tour have been nothing less than mind-bogglingly big, including the likes of Ellie Goulding, Marina and the Diamonds and fast-aging stadium crooners Coldplay. But as the muffled scratches of Charli’s greeting come over the phone, her bright past and brighter future seem to instantly evaporate, as Charli simply comes across as a charming girl of 20 years, embracing stardom with unnerving ease. I’m talking to Charli on the first day of the album release in Ireland. On asking about it, she replies: ‘It’s funny ‘cause somebody said to me today, “Oh congratulations your album’s out,” and I was like “Fuck, is it?” I just completely, totally got the wrong date in my brain, which was kind of embarrassing.’
I saw you’ve got some really cool people following you on Twitter like Azealia Banks... Yeah I’ve done a couple of shows with Azealia; she bought me a dildo!
Does it feel like this release has been a long time coming? Yeah it has. I started releasing EPs from this record in 2011 and I was writing since I was 14, so it’s been a while. But I’m really proud of the record and I’m just proud that it’s out in the world now.
And what’s the best tweet you’ve received? This isn’t that cool, but do you remember that guy called Eamon who sung that song which was like “Fuck you, you hoe, I don’t want you back?” Well one morning I woke up and he was following me on Twitter! I have some cool people following me, but Eamon was the one that put a smile on my face. He wrote one of the best songs in the whole fucking world! Let’s collaborate Eamon!
And in terms of your live shows, it must be an incredible experience to tour with Ellie Goulding and Marina and the Diamonds? Well they’re both great. Marina’s kind of like my big sister… but not in a ‘look-after’ kind of way, just more in a ‘we-cause-trouble’ kind of way. So that tour’s going to be really fun for sure. It must have been incredible to take centre-stage at SXSW. How was that? Yeah! That was really cool; I did 10 shows in five days so it was pretty intense. The shows were great; all really busy, and everyone there’s always so wasted, so everyone’s always really up for it! But even with the support shows, I personally believe that you should play every show like it’s your last ever, and every show should be epic and amazing and beautiful. I don’t care if I play to 10 people or 10,000 – it’s got to be an amazing experience. Otherwise, I’d feel like I’d failed. At SXSW, did you have any surprise appearances at the shows? Yeah I did. It was quite funny – after one of my shows had ended, Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs came in and he was like
I think you know you’re onto something when you’ve got 13 million YouTube views or something ridiculous... do you get people going crazy in the crowd? Yeah, I really want something really big and… dangerous to happen. I would love for someone to break their leg or arm from going too crazy, and then having to stop the song and be like “Oh my god, are you ok!?” And then an ambulance come in and them having to go out on a stretcher. That would be my dream if it got really wild. But I don’t know, maybe I’d get sued or something, I’m not really sure.
So when the craziness of the first album has died down a bit, what are your plans after that? Well I just got a new schedule in from my manager, basically touring until the end of October, so it’s going to be tricky to plan ahead. I think I’ll probably just be boring and hit the studio, but it’s my 21st birthday in August, so I’m going to do something big for that. I’m gonna burn my fake ID as a celebration. That will be a beautiful moment. “Hey! I can’t wait to see your show!” But he’d completely missed it. That was kind of cool. So which track did you get the best crowd response from at your shows? Well I just did a show with Ellie [Goulding] in Amsterdam, and the whole thing was really wild. But Icona Pop and myself played our song together called ‘I Love It’ which is pretty big in Europe. That one always goes crazy. It ended it with a bang, definitely!
True Romance is out now Asylum Records.
Snatched str8 outta Jai Paul’s hands
Who owns music anymore, now that it has been reduced to an imprint on your hard-drive? No doubt a lawyer could give you a concrete answer, but the Jai Paul incident that erupted on 14th April suggested that the answer is far more blurred than some would have you believe. Back in 2010, the maverick Londoner seemingly became the great new hope of every muso via the shuddering future-R&B of ‘BTSTU’, was promptly signed to XL Recordings, and then disappeared, save for the emergence of ‘Jasmine’ a year later. Until April, his average music output was barely above the hardly prodigious figure of one track a year. There were rumours that the loveably off-the-wall artist had actually gone a bit too far off the wall, and quit music completely. And so it seemed more than mysterious when, just days after the prophetic folk over at Vice had published an article suggesting that a Jai Paul album was imminent, a Bandcamp page under his name popped up, distributing a collection of 16 unnamed songs. As it turned out, a benevolent thief had actually decided that Jai Paul was taking far too long to release his debut, and took it upon himself to do it for the elusive artist by stealing his laptop, and uploading all 16 unreleased and unfinished tracks to the internet. Think of him like a modern day hipster Robin Hood, except less well intentioned, and probably more motivated by the £7 that he was charging for each download. Despite the fact that all those who parted with cash have now been refunded, the episode is still covered by a shroud of mystery that has undoubtedly led to some of the best musical conspiracy theories since Lennon got on the wrong side of a bullet. Chief
among the suspicious occurrences is that the Chief Scout of XL Recordings tweeted ‘surprise!’ upon the appearance of the record, rather than rejecting that the label had anything to do with it, as they eventually managed to summon enough strength to do three days later. The culmination of some serious snooping done
“The whole episode
seems a semi-comedic reminder of the much changed nature of the music industry
”
by music website Crack In The Road also confirmed that the Bandcamp account was linked to an e-mail address used to set up a Jai Paul Facebook page in 2010, which now lies defunct. The suggestion has therefore been that the event marks a new low in viral online marketing strategy pursued by XL – but it’s unlikely that we’ll ever actually know. Even more hilarious was the ecstatic reception, with one grounded commenter wisely surmising within minutes of the leak that it was ‘album of the year’, an assertion that seems even more ridiculous now that we know he was referring to a set of unfinished demos. Yet the euphoric reception does bring up some questions about the distribution of music in the 21st Century, especially as even after the initial hyperbole has died down, we’re left with what is a very impressive, if unfinished, album. Regardless of whether Jai Paul intended it or not, there are at this moment thousands of people across the world with what they consider to be a Jai Paul album sat on their hard drive, and as laughable as the reaction above seems, it would be far from surprising if the collection of songs found its way onto many ‘Albums of 2013’ lists. Certainly ‘Str8 Outta Mumbai’, demo or not, is one of the most singular and magical tracks you’re likely to hear this year. The whole shambles seems a semi-comedic reminder of the much changed nature of a music industry in which artists and labels have had economic and creative control wrested from them by the internet. It was evident again a few weeks back, when a clearly frustrated James Blake lamented that his label had revealed about half of his album over the internet before the release, a promotion tactic that devalued the album, in his eyes. But whether we like it or not, that certainly seems to be the way that things are going in a music industry increasingly dominated by the internet and our resultant tendency to demand and expect all the information that we want instantly, and often for free. And as Jai Paul found out, if you don’t give that to people, the internet often finds new, innovative and illegal ways of getting it from you. Phil Gwyn
Epigram
07.05.2013
25 27
Reviews MONOMANIA Deerhunter 4AD 6th May 2013 If there’s one thing Bradford Cox is singularly obsessed with, it’s making music; since 2005 his output has been ceaselessly prolific. However, it’s been almost three years since Halcyon Digest, the last full Deerhunter release, and though Cox recently found time for a solo outing as Atlas Sound on Parallax, Deerhunter’s full return on Monomania is both welcome and long-awaited. They’re back and louder than they’ve been in recent times. Thumping drums cocooned by cavernous thrashing guitars opens up the noise-drenched ‘Neon Junkyard’, thrusting Cox’s shouts to the forefront and submerging the listener into a den of garage-rock. A far cry from the intricate sonic explorations and warbling tones of Halcyon Digest, Monomania begins with a bang and doesn’t ease up, cascading into the even louder ‘Neon Jacket II’, which comes complete with a seductively catchy riff and abrupt midtrack breakdown. Discarding the spectacular astral projections of Halcyon Digest in favour of a rougher direct feel wasn’t what was expected, though given that Cox has the chutzpah to play ‘My Sharona’ on loop for a whole hour during live sets, a slight subversion of expectations isn’t
SOME SAY I SO I SAY LIGHT Ghostpoet Play It Again Sam 6th May as calamitous as it could’ve been. Instead, we’re left with a rare treat, a record that initially shocks, yet grows in strength and ultimately awes. Where Halcyon Digest was a fantastical dream, Monomania is an all too real awakening. A penchant for pop hooks and subtle tracks hasn’t left the Atlanta rockers, with ‘Dream Captain’ and ‘T.H.M’ harking back to some of the finer moments of Deerhunter’s ambient forays. Title track ‘Monomania’ encapsulates the whole record wonderfully; it’s not lacking in classic sensibilities, demonstrating Cox’s unquestionable prowess for a strong hook, yet is shrouded in reverb and descends into a tantalising explosion of noise as Cox’s repeated drawls of ‘Monomania’ refuse to fade or die. Cox’s response to lines of questioning regarding his virtuoso rendition of ‘My Sharona’ was to claim that his ‘job is to simply sodomise mediocrity’. There’s no question over whether or not Cox is ordinary (he clearly isn’t), whether Monomania is evidence that his talent is extraordinary is open to question. One thing’s for sure though – it’s anything but mediocre. Rishi Modha
CHILD OF LOV Child of Lov Double Six 6th May Until the release of his debut album, The Child of Lov has remained somewhat elusive and enigmatic, shying away from interviews and obscuring his face from photos. At a first glance, the album’s elaborate cover art might lead you to believe he’s some sort of hipster deity who enjoys hanging out with a rabble of flamboyant animals. In fact, the man behind the dissonant funk grooves goes by the name of Cole Williams: a travelling producer who regularly moves between London, Paris and Amsterdam. The album, much like its producer, is also constantly moving. It continually shifts between the kind of hazy hip-hop that resembles a downtempo OutKast (‘Call Me Up’) and more energetic tracks, like ‘Heal’, which are bound to have fans rhythmically bouncing beneath a pungent cloud of smoke when he makes his live debut at Glastonbury this year. While Damon Albarn’s contribution on ‘One Day’ goes relatively unnoticed, cult hip-hop hero DOOM provides a refreshing break from Williams’ falsetto croons with a guest appearance on ‘Owl’. The Child of Lov’s bright-eyed, woozy attempt at southern soul might be a little dizzying at times, but it is definitely a worthy contender for your soundtrack to the summer. Sam Rawlings
WISH TO SCREAM Tribes Island 20th May Tribes’ sophomore album Wish to Scream reinforces their sponge-like tendencies. The gritty Camden glamour absorbed during the creation of their debut made it a cheeky-chappy treat for the ears. Sadly, it seems that extensive touring in the States has produced a work saturated with sentimentality for cheesy Americana and rock n’ roll balladry. Where there was once the transsexual awesomeness of ‘Sappho’ there is now the lacklustre boredom of ‘Shangri-La’. How could a band that developed a dedicated fanbase by infecting the crowd from Camden rooftops with contagiously grimy London rock ever think that slide guitar and a choir chanting ‘Shangri-La’ in tropical euphoria could be a good idea? By maturing, not only do they sound middleaged, but they have gone back in time to do so. Even standout tracks ‘Dancehall’ and ‘How the Other Half Live’ could be found on a Top 50 Driving Songs compilation in my dad’s in-car CD-changer. ‘An Englishman on Sunset Boulevard’ sums it up perfectly; they sound like paunchy, pasty tourists enamoured and duped by American kitsch. Why won’t they come home to the backdrop of London buses, grey-skies and the pretentious sixteenyear-olds of Camden where they thrive? George Robb
Ghostpoet has accurately described his music as ‘mumbling over quirky sounds’, but it this rather odd sound that makes him so unique and undefinable. Once you become accustomed to the experimental sounds and the off-beat, somewhat lethargic delivery which characterised the South Londoner’s Mercury Prize nominated debut Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam, you realise you have discovered a gem of an artist. The first three songs occupy the same sonic space as Peanut Butter...’s ghostly minimalist atmospheres, but it is fourth track ‘Plastic Bag Brain’ that brings that to a sudden end, with the introduction of an afro-beat guitar. In fact, depth is often provided by guitar parts snaking their way in and out of what is very much an electronically driven record. The second half of the album continues this development, with the soulful swagger of ‘Sloth Trot’, and ‘Dorsel Morsel’s ambient shuffle, which blossoms into a beautiful synth masterpiece. Unsurprisingly, Ghostpoet has not fiddled too much with 2011’s winning formula, but nonetheless Some Say I So I Say Light sees an expansion of his sound, and an improvement in confidence and flair, which creates a record equally smoky and brooding. Matty Edwards
FAIN Wolf People Jagjaguwar 30th April Richard Thompson riffing with Atomic Rooster. Wishbone Ash backing Martin Carthy. For fans of 70s prog rock and folk, the compound descriptors available to translate Wolf People’s sound are endless. Suffice to say that on Fain the band manage to intertwine head-nodding funkiness with folksy Anglophonic melancholy and playful psychedelia. While the enjoyable debut Steeple could feel suffocated by the weight of its vintage influences, Fain contorts them around highly original and contemporary songs. While able production does much to help the album feel current (those drums are just so goddamn punchy), the band’s musicianship injects energy into these jams. Neanderthal fills are juxtaposed with staggered, almost Dillaesque beats on ‘All Returns’, while woven textures at the end of ‘When the Fire Is Dead’ attest that you don’t have to be a laptop-jockey to make fresh sounds. While Tame Impala have arguably based a career on the tutelage of Swedish psych masters Dungen, Wolf People replace their jazzy exuberance with a thoroughly English heaviness, derived as much from folk ballads as doom metal. While this formula admittedly loses some momentum, on Fain Wolf People competently prove that there’s life in this beast yet. Danny Riley
WE MET AT SEA The Pigeon Detectives Cooking Vinyl 29th April Reflecting on their fourth and latest album, vocalist Matt Bowman called We Met At Sea their most realistic and honest album yet. This may seem to indicate something new and exciting, but unfortunately this album constantly falls short of anything approaching innovation. Early highlight ‘Hold My Gaze’ has promisingly simple lyrics that seem endearingly direct: ‘I don’t call you the one I love/ you’re not the one I’m thinking of ’. However, the scuzzy guitars just sound badly recorded instead of giving the intended ‘live’ feel. The album doesn’t so much go downhill from here, as it does remain mired in this well trodden approach. In almost every song the formula is the same: similar guitar and drum rhythms and tone, accompanied by staccato, monotone vocals. Occasionally a guitar solo rears its head but these variations never even approach a climax, let alone peak interest. It all begins to wear a little thin; the end comes as a shock because there has been absolutely no change in momentum or pace throughout. Ultimately, this is an album to be used as a distraction-free revision soundtrack, rather than for actual entertainment. Emily Quinn
LIMITS OF DESIRE Small Black Jagjaguwar 13th May Small Black have the misfortune of being one of a handful of acts who were hounded into the ‘chillwave’ category by the music media back in 2010, and were then left there as a forgotten relic of summer 2010; never again regarded as part of the present. And so it’s unsurprising that this, their second album, comes with claims that they ‘have moved past the hazy, bedroom-recorded feel of their previous releases.’ Limits of Desire certainly lives up to this billing, in that there can be no doubt that Jagjaguwar have been spending their Bon Iver dollars on allowing Small Black to record with professional equipment. Early moments justify the expense of this approach, too; the sweltering Balearic-disco of ‘Canoe’ sounding like the sun going down on Phoenix, while ‘No Stranger’ finds the band venturing into hook-heavy landscapes that are usually reserved for top 40 radio. There’s a lingering feeling that it, like the rest of the album, is made up of rejected Katy Perry demos that have been seized on by Small Black and wrung until the euphoric melodies are surrounded by their familiar melancholic fog. And that, by the way, is definitely a compliment. Otho de Lagery
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Epigram
Film & TV
Editor: Jasper Jolly
Deputy Editor: Kate Samuelson
filmandtv@epigram.org.uk
deputyfilmandtv@epigram.org.uk
07.05.2013
@epigramfilm
From Badock to the BAFTAs
Kate Samuelson interviews Charlotte Ritchie, star of Fresh Meat and Bristol University graduate
Yes. I had an agent before Bristol and when I was 17 I joined All Angels, a British classical crossover group. This took up all my time; I was basically always busy except when I was studying. All Angels was a good source of income as there were tonnes of rehearsals and concerts. It was difficult though, as I always had to make sure I was free; I couldn’t turn down any shows as that would let the rest of the team down. That’s why I couldn’t commit to being in any plays during my time at Bristol.
just finished my last piece of English coursework when I received the call
‘‘
The Bristol Revunions taught me loads about comedy
’’
saying I had got the part, but I still had my drama dissertation to do! I wanted to make friends with the other cast members when we started filming, but for the first two weeks I was the loser who stayed in the hotel room working during the evenings, when the rest of the cast were getting drunk and making friends. But we were there for three months and I realised it was stupid to mess up my whole degree just to have fun in the first two weeks. Fresh Meat was nominated for three BAFTAs. Did you have any idea the series would so successful?
‘Jack is not how he is on the show, he’s way more down to Earth’. Picture: The Sun.
How did you get involved with the Bristol Revunions? One of the girls who set it up advised me to attend their fortnightly workshops. We had to bring a sketch with us and I was terrified, as I hated writing my own stuff. I went every fortnight from then on, and went to Edinburgh with them, which was the best month of my life. I learnt loads about co m e d y
No, although I knew that Sam and Jess were really talented writers: that was a big drawing point for me. I felt it was a clever and accessible comedy and there was n o t h i n g to compare it to. Everyone experienced a really positive feeling on the set and all the actors were at the top of their game. Although we were quite worried that it was only actually funny for us, like one big private joke, and I remember worrying and thinking ‘what if no one else finds us funny?’. When should we expect Fresh Meat series three? We are starting to film the third series around the end of May. We’re meeting for a read through soon which I’m really excited about.
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in that time, but it was a shame that I didn’t have the time to get involved with other stuff at Bristol. You were offered the part of Oregon in Fresh Meat while you were still a Bristol student. How did it affect your degree? I didn’t know how much my English and Drama degree was ever going to help me with acting. When I got offered the part in Fresh Meat it was right at the end of my final year and I really wanted to finish my course. I had
Are the dynamics of the group on the show similar to the dynamics off the show? Not really. We are all good friends. The actor who plays Howard is the life and soul of the group; he’s very charming and outgoing. He’s a real character actor, very gregarious and good at impressions. Vod and I have a similar relationship in real life. She’s much more experienced than I am. Jack (Whitehall, above left) is not how he is on
the show, he’s way more down to Earth and intelligent - far more relaxed than JP! I really like Jack’s portrayal of JP, as you can see he’s a nice person despite his obnoxious persona. How similar are you to Oregon? We both chose to study English Literature at uni, however I definitely didn’t have We like to think Charlotte’s thinking of the ASS the self-belief in my here. Picture: The Mirror. ability that she has! I also didn’t sleep with any of my English teachers... We have the humour of the show. very different aspirations and goals. Some of our mannerisms are the same, Tell me about your Bristol as that’s very difficult to change! experience. What’s your favourite thing about playing Oregon? I love her make-up and hair. The costume and make-up people on the set have such skills - they’ll change her outfits so often. In one episode, I come out of my room with a full-length medieval gown on, and none of the housemates comment on it. That’s all part of
I was in Badock in first year, and then lived in Redland. I was the messy housemate doing a degree with no contact hours, who was always there when everyone came home! I always left my essays too late. What is your favourite memory from your time at Bristol? I loved halls. Possibly my favourite memory was one evening in a pub in Kingsdown, when a group of old people started playing this Irish music and dancing. There was one old man with his eyes closed, playing guitar. The friend I was with joined in. The whole eccentric evening just summed up Bristol for me. I really love the city. Last time I went back was for Clic, but because I had some medic friends in it, not because I’m a pervert!
Photo: BBC
Did you know from an early age that you wanted to be an actress?
Don’t diss the Doctor Ben Marshall I love Doctor Who, I have always loved Doctor Who. The same is certainly true for this series. Five episodes in and there have been five episodes of quality. We have a new companion, an ever darker Matt Smith, we’re yet to see a traditional Who villain and next week we have an episode written by the cocreator of Sherlock. There are plenty of reasons to be excited about the rest of this series. Clara, the new companion, is seeming an excellent choice. Portrayed by Jenna-Louise Coleman, she is cheeky, fresh faced and a strong enough replacement for Amy (Karen Gillan). Stephen Moffat has provided another suitably complex enigma in this character and, in the words of the Doctor, she is ‘the only mystery worth solving’. So far this has been captivating - but Doctor Who has got lost in twisting story arcs before. In terms of fear factor, the audience have seen a good dose of scary. Yes, the show is undoubtedly for children (especially with Matt Smith as our playful Doctor), but that doesn’t mean there will be no hiding behind the sofa. Last week’s chilling episode could almost be considered Doctor Who does The Women In Black. It was suitably sci-fi but certainly quite an intense experience. Unfortunately, with any BBC show we must of course deal with very weak CGI. Some may argue it is charmingly British, I would say it looks cheap. Doctor Who instead is at its best when it focuses upon excellent scenery and human stories. This is not to say that Doctor Who cannot do villains; the Angels and the Daleks are all superb. It is when they let the monsters get out of hand that it falls apart, as seen in episode two this series. Doctor Who is going strong. The writers aren’t afraid to challenge their audience and it works well. It is a show as easily enjoyed by adults as children, a show with wit and mystery. Doctor Who has a lot of things going for it, not least of all its amazing cast, and one can only hope it continues to perform. Doctor Who BBC, Tuesdays at 6.30pm
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rsvlts.com
“We’re not allowed to like women if they’ve got a flaw”
Dead man dragging us down John Breitenbach
Anna Godfrey speaks to Alice Lowe, writer and star of Sightseers, about violence, comedy, and women in film Director Ben Wheatley’s Kill List that are identifiable...making sure that (2011) led the viewer through an ever- [the characters] felt real”. And indeed, darkening labyrinth of suspicion and it is realness that keeps the film from confusion. The film was unyielding in swinging too strongly in favour of its depiction of violence, forcing us to either violence or comedy. watch barbaric violence unalleviated by Violence in Hollywood blockbusters implication or strategic camera shots. such as Die Hard (either the original or We simply sat on our seats, and watched any of its limping offspring), Marvel’s for minutes on end as a man had his The Avengers, or the entire James head pummelled by the protagonist’s Bond franchise manages to be both hammer. Wheatley’s Sightseers (2012) everywhere and nowhere. The bad persists in the merciless depiction of men get shot, the blood may even violence. Yet this time the film manages spatter so as to arouse dramatic music to be, somehow, a comedy. and fleeting conscience-searching Sightseers, written by and starring moments as the hero later washes Alice Lowe (Tina) and Steve Oram his hands, but the bodies are cleared (Chris), follows the couple’s first holiday by anonymous forces and the dead together through the British Isles. men become nothing but props in the Towing their caravan from Chrich Tram building of the protagonist’s steely Museum to the Ribblehead Viaduct, image. Sightseers, however, is the uncut both the trip’s passengers and itinerary ‘The Coyote and The Roadrunner’ suggest a fairly sedate and uneventful cartoon, in which instead of simply journey. However, the idyllic cross- making a silhouette on the canyon country holiday is quickly tainted by floor, the camera lingers, the body litterers, drunken hen parties, and self- twitches, and our eyes are made to learn righteous environmentalists. Before the incredible shape a man’s head can long, blood boils and the meek Tina assume when continuously smashed and miserable Chris turn murderous. with a rock by a balding, middle-class The fragile hinge upon which man, who enjoys pencil museums. the film swings is the relationship Violence is not, as Lowe says, “flippant” between violence and comedy. What – which may explain why the concept is so surprising, however, is that unlike was rejected as a television series – but black comedy in which the genre because the raw and weighty brutality requires the viewer to experience both is born of characters who see knitting humour and discomfort, Sightseers as a form of self-expression and write shows us two characters so believably their notes of heartbreak with giant funny that the discomfort felt when novelty pencils, the gory affronted with the gore of the killings images do not is largely eclipsed by the comedy resonate that surrounds the murders with us in – “he’s not a person, Tina, the same he’s a Daily Mail reader”. way Kill In conversation with List’s Epigram, Alice Lowe claimed such a delicate balance between Steve Oram and Alice Lowe play the horror and comedy happy couple. Photo: EMFoundation is upheld by “human qualities
darker framework displays them. Although both are propelled by violence, the gore of Kill List is differentiated from that in Sightseers by Sightseers having Tina and Chris control the route of the film, whereas Kill List gives us a situation in which autonomy is continuously questioned. Indeed, Lowe and Oram had been refining their characters for several years, so although Wheatley’s “psychological bamboozlement” (as Lowe phrases it) infuses the film, it is the meticulously
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The fragile hinge upon which the film swings is the relationship between violence and comedy
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authentic characters who linger with the audience afterwards. Tina – a childish 30-year-old woman sheltered by her passive aggressive mother – is somewhat of an anti-heroine, but one whose pink-knitted underwear and tendency to kidnap dogs allows the audience to warm to her as a naive but guileless leading lady. Tina was born of Lowe’s reaction against the flat and flawless characters she has been offered in the past: “The female character just wasn’t good enough. I just really wanted to defy conventions. I wanted there to be an ambiguity. Often there isn’t enough ambiguity in female characters, like we’re not allowed to like them if they’ve got a flaw”. Tina is thus Lowe’s attempt, and a successful one at that, to complicate the female lead, so as to avoid ending up as “the constant, the moral heart of the story, or the emotional heart of the story”. Chris’s bloodlust is revealed early on in the film as he reacts to the first (and only accidental) killing
with a sadistic smile, but it is Tina who undergoes the greatest evolution as she progresses from passive observer to a very active instigator. As the final sight is seen, the height of the Ribblehead Viaduct is paralleled with the peaking of Tina’s autonomy, and deliciously twisted consequences ensue. Lowe speaks of choosing the “temple” of the Viaduct as a way of highlighting the tragedy of the film, whose “tomb-like architecture” enables the film’s finale to transcend the humour which has perpetuated the film thus far and to become something more epic, more like a Greek tragedy so as to “be more memorable, to challenge people and make them think”. Whether we will see the character of Tina again is somewhat ambiguous, as Lowe is keen to “make more films, and play more characters” rather than revisiting a character that – as Sightseers has proven – succeeds with the audience. However, Lowe will continue to play with the relationship between humour and horror having already written her next film, Lily, which will see her working with Warp Films, an independent film company whose productions include Four Lions and Tyrannosaur. Hoping to “transgress some more boundaries”, Lily, though possessing “tonal overlaps” with Sightseers, will dip into the surreal. Whether Lily will survive without the realistic context which allowed Sightseers to thrive is questionable, but that Lowe will continue to challenge the conventions of the female role – particularly in the arena of comedy – is indubitable.
Sightseers is available now on DVD Dir. Ben Wheatley, 88 mins
Dead Man Down can be summed up pretty easily: good acting, bad film. The latest attempt from the director of the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Niels Arden Oplev) does an excellent job of engaging you at times but simply fails to sustain it. The interplay between the sullen Victor, played by Colin Farrell, and reserved Beatrice, played by Naomi Rapace, is often tremendous and really helps the audience sympathise with each of their stories of revenge. Quiet Beatrice, living with her deaf mother in the opposite flat, decides to take the plunge and contact her handsome neighbour. However, she soon reveals the ulterior motive behind her innocence. The girl has been scarred by a horrible accident caused by a drunk driver, and wants the criminal across the hall to get her some payback. The reluctant Victor is motivated by more than the mere fear of prison, however, as he plans his own dose on revenge on a gang that has wronged him. I don’t have a particular problem with unrealistic plot-lines, but not from a film that takes itself so seriously. I understand wanting justice, but it does seem a little absurd that one would have no qualms about contacting your criminal neighbour, especially when the crime you saw them commit was murder! The scenes with Farrell, Rapace and her mother (Isabelle Huppert) are well constructed and intense at times but they were too often interrupted with ridiculously unsubtle segments almost trying to force the audience to feel sorry for them. This is especially the case with Rapace and her local high school bullies who are always shouting “monster” and throwing rocks at her. It would have been easy to blur the line between actually receiving extra attention and excessive self-consciousness but it seems Oplev opted for the easy way out. The theme isn’t exactly unique either; two people brought together by an intense desire for revenge become emotionally involved. Ultimately Dead Man Down is lacking in ideas, coherence and subtlety. I would recommend this film for one reason though – Farrell’s “Hungarian” accent from the little known region of County Dublin.
Dead Man Down Released 3rd May 2013 Dir. Niels Arden Oplev, 118 mins
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Humanity revealed behind the Iron Ben Marshall I’m not sure if it was just me, but the latest Iron Man film was really good. I dared but hope after Iron Man 2 that the third film would be a success. Even the brilliance of The Avengers did little to reassure me. Iron Man 3 works though and delivers everything one could possibly want. My strong sense of doubt was partly fuelled by the seeming despondence of stars Downey Jr and Paltrow. Both leading actors have strongly hinted that this may be their last outing in the franchise casting rumours of rather lacklustre performances and a disappointing overall film. This was not the case. Downey Jr brought his A game. All the arrogance, genius and obnoxiousness of his Tony Stark were to be seen but with a touch of complexity added to the character. We join Iron Man shortly after the events in New York (the Avengers film) and it
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Iron Man has a much more human feel in this film
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seems he is having trouble adjusting. Suffering from anxiety attacks, struggling to deal with monogamy and having too much time on his hands is getting to the self professed ‘billionaire, playboy, philanthropist’ and it creates an interesting change in dynamic. The film is the Iron Man debut for
Don Cheadle returns as Downey Jr’s sidekick, War Machine. Photo:Disney/image.net
Shane Black. As superhero films go, it’s very good. There is less going on than Josh Whedon had to deal with in The Avengers and none of the social question Nolan tries to ask in the Batman series. Instead, Black provides a film loaded with personality. It deals with darker moments at times but never loses sight of its comic roots and carries the one-liners with true humour leading to several laugh-out -loud occasions. Of course, the special effects cannot go without mention and they looked superb. Iron Man has a much more human feel in this film. The armour was less permanent and the removal of this between the character and the audience made for a more invested relationship. This increased both the
tension and allowed for empathy rather than apathy. The Marvel series is still thriving. Room for writers and directors to follow their own initiative has not been hindered whatsoever as a result of the purchase of the Marvel Studio by Disney. The traditional notes fans have come to love remain: there is a thirty-second snippet after the credits and Stan Lee has his brief cameo. This is a fine film. The Marvel Universe is thriving and I hope this summer’s Thor: The Dark World can successfully pick up the reins. Iron Man 3 Released 25th April 2013 Dir. Shane Black, 130 mins
Oblivion: a beautiful, bleak future Gareth Downs Oblivion is another crack at the scifi whip for Joseph Kosinski, whose reboot of the Tron franchise in TRON: Legacy was flawed and not particularly well received. Oblivion is a better film and a step forward for Kosinski, but it is far from perfect. The story was born out of a graphic novel penned by Kosinski himself that he started back in 2005. The rights to turn the novel into a screenplay, having been given up by Disney for its inability to acquire a PG rating, were swiftly acquired by Universal. The film is set in 2077, 60 years after an alien invasion t h a t left Earth uninhabitable. The human race is living in limbo on a space station,
Tom Cruise stars as Jack Harper. Photo: auditoire.ch
preparing to evacuate to a nearby moon. The film centres around two technicians still remaining on Earth, Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough), who have had their memory wiped pre-mission so they will get the job done effectively. The ‘effective team’ maintains the drones protecting the resource-gathering machines that are sucking the earth dry. Shortly before the mission can be accomplished, a spacecraft from before the war crashes. Containing a woman haunting Jack’s dreams (Olga Kurylenko), Jack soon starts to realise that things are not all that they seem to be and that maybe he has been following orders a little too readily. The plot, whilst clever and enjoyable, is actually one of the film’s pitfalls, for it feels very much like major plot points have been ‘copied and pasted’ into the screenplay from classic sci-fi films. Its obvious that Kosinski’s influences have come from cult movies, such as Blade Runner, Silent Running, 2001: A Space Odyssey and there are even traces of Star Wars. It’s so blatant at times that one cannot help but feel Kosinski lost sight of his own story. Nevertheless, it is still an enjoyable ride purely because of its classic influences. It also allows for Tom Cruise to partake in spaceship dogfights and manly interchanges with drones and Scavs (the aliens still on Earth), which
he executes with true Tom Cruise professionalism. Oblivion does lack rich characters, which is a massive shame, and often the relationships between the actors are a little stale. Andrea Riseborough is the one exception to this statement, bringing a real fullness to Victoria, who lives in conscious ignorance of the suspicious nature of their existence on Earth and Riseborough is wholly convincing. Kosinski has created one of the most visually impressive films of recent years. Partially shot in Iceland and coupled with CGI effects, Oblivion looks every bit the alien wasteland it is trying to portray. It’s a majestic visual display and the rumours that Kosinski will be consulted on the upcoming Star Wars reboot are all the more exciting having seen the Lucas-esque visual style that he brought to this film. Oblivion was enjoyable and the visual effects were outstanding. The fairly hollow characters were easy to overlook because of its visual power. Morgan Freeman and Nikolaj CosterWaldau (Game of Thrones) are more than capable of delivering solid supporting performances, and the story was completely acceptable as homage to the classics of the sci-fi genre, even it was slightly over-exuberant.
Oblivion Released 10th April 2013 Dir. Joseph Kosinski, 124 mins
Gosling stars as Luke, a stunt motorcyclist. Photo: collider.com
The grim reality of The Place Beyond the Pines Edmund Phillips: Cianfrance’s film is the ‘cinematic equivalent’ of Springsteen’s music It’s a safe bet that the sight of a heavily tattooed Ryan Gosling will be enough to draw punters to his latest film The Place Beyond the Pines. Gosling’s seemingly unparalleled popularity is in a sense a blessing to those seeking to convince others to see Derek Cianfrance’s latest film since 2010’s Blue Valentine. This is in no small part due to the fact that The Place Beyond the Pines at times so boldly rejects certain cinematic expectations that reviewing it requires an exercise in not revealing too much. This is a film that deals in abrupt shifts in narrative focus and time span, and eschews the clearly defined parameters of good or evil in favour of a sense of shady morals that span across generations and communities. It is a sprawling, ambitious film that certainly merits viewing, but with the proviso that it is best viewed with as little prior knowledge as possible. Gosling plays Luke, a stunt motorcycle rider who tours New York state with a county fairground. Returning to Schenectady to perform, he runs into an old flame, Romina, played by Eva Mendes. It is not long before he discovers he is the father of her one year old son and decides to stay in town and help raise the child. Gosling perfectly captures the naive optimism and inherent selfishness with which he forces himself back into their lives. His softly spoken, sharply gazing Luke is simultaneously incapable of understanding the impossibility of the idealistic dream he is in the process of creating. His idealism is at times painful to watch; at one point he sets to building a cot in the house Romina shares with her new partner Kofi (Mahershala Ali), only to violently assault Kofi with a wrench when he rightly points out his grossly invasive behaviour. As each new hindrance befalls him, Luke reacts with an increased tendency towards crime, namely bank robbery. It is through one of these doomed ventures to supply his ‘family’ with
financial support that his world is thrown into a collision with Bradley Cooper’s young police officer Avery Cross. As the film’s stories cross, the classical themes of inheritance, fatherhood and blood debts come to the fore. There is a direct symmetry with Luke in Avery’s all-American idealism, as his attempts to pursue a clearly defined path of good succumb to the realities of moral and institutional corruption within the police force. Just as Luke’s dream of restoring familial harmony is muddied by the crime needed to sustain it, so too Cooper’s police officer must right one wrong with another. This is not the cinema of clearly defined moral boundaries one might expect. No matter which side of the law one treads in Cianfrance’s world, financial or political gain often comes with sacrifice. The Place Beyond the Pines is a modern tale of classical parts, addressing the morally ambiguous reality of inherited duties and debts. It is a film deeply rooted in the disillusioned, grubby world of small-town America, where universal tragedies play out on a minute scale, rippling across generations of shattered families. It is because of this that the ending is perhaps a little trite, but it is a minor blip in what marks a serious statement of intent from a relatively new American filmmaker. This is the cinematic equivalent of Springsteen, whose music receives a knowing nod in the soundtrack, all broken homes and broken dreams. And just as Springsteen was a great chronicler of small-town tragedy, so too Cianfrance marks himself out capable of powerfully, and refreshingly, capturing small-town American misfortune.
The Place Beyond the Pines Released 12th April 2013 Dir. Derek Cianfrance, 140 mins
From your Students’ Union, helping you stay positive.
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Varsity 2013: full list of results With yet another fantastic Varsity series nearly over , Epigram provides a full runthrough of the results so far:
Hockey Men’s 1st: UWE 2-1 Bristol Men’s 2nd: UWE 3-2 Bristol Men’s 3rd: UWE 1-1 Bristol Women’s 1st: UWE 2-2 Bristol Women’s 2nd: UWE 7-1 Bristol
Squash Men’s 1st: UWE 3-2 Bristol Men’s 2nd : UWE 5-0 Bristol Men’s 3rd: UWE 2-3 Bristol Men’s 4th: UWE 3-2 Bristol Women’s 1st: UWE 0-4 Bristol
Rugby League Men’s 1st: UWE 72-0 Bristol
Tae Kwon Do Bristol win
Friday 8th March- Boxing UWE 1-1 Bristol
Lacrosse Women’s 1st: Bristol 19-0 UWE
Waterpolo Men’s 1st: Bristol 19-2 UWE
Monday 18th March- Football Men: Bristol 4-1 UWE Women: Bristol 1-1 UWE (UWE won 4-3 on penalties)
Tennis Men’s 1st: Bristol 9-9 UWE
Swimming Gala Mixed: Bristol win
Cricket Men’s 1st: Draw
Saturday 27th April: Boatrace (events counting to final result)
Netball 1st: Bristol 26-31 UWE 2nd - Bristol 43- 31 UWE 3rd - Bristol 35-17 UWE 5th: Bristol 44-12 UWE 4th: Bristol 50-19 UWE
Bristol Wins: Women’s Novice Eight Senior Women’s First Eight.
Sunday 10th FebruaryAmerican Football UWE Bullets 20 - 6 Bristol Barracuda
Wednesday 20th MarchVarsity Day Badminton Women’s 1st: UWE 5-3 Bristol Mixed 1st: - UWE 7-5 Bristol Men’s 1st: - UWE 370-362 Fencing Men’s 1st - Bristol 115-64 UWE Women 1st - Bristol 133-96 UWE
Basketball Men’s 1st: Bristol 75-65 UWE Men’s 2nd: Bristol 84-78 UWE Women’s 1st: Bristol 50-40 UWE
Trampoline: UWE win Volleyball Men’s 1st: UWE 0-3 Bristol
Football Men’s 2nd - UWE 4-3 Bristol Men’s 3rd - UWE win Men’s 4th - UWE win
Wargames- Mixed: UWE win
Next Up:Polo Sunday 26th May 14.00-18.00 Beaufort Polo Club £5 (includes bus transport to/from venue)
So far UWE have won 22 events/matches, with Bristol closely behind on 20. There have been 5 draws
UWE Wins: Men’s First Eight Novice Men’s Second Eight Senior/Alumni Men’s Eight Monday 29 April: Rugby Men’s: UWE 12-28 Bristol Women’s: UWE 12-5 Bristol
All results taken from varsityseries. com, the official website of the 2013 Varsity Series. Correct at time of going to print
On Varsity Day, Bristol and UWE both Which means that on non-Varsity Day had 16 wins and 4 draws between them events UWE lead Bristol with 6 wins to 4
Bristol Academy reach FA Women’s Cup Final but O’Driscoll unable to launch spring survival for Robins George Starkey-Midha Sports Repoter To say it’s been a mixed season for the football clubs in Bristol would be an understatement to the highest degree. Managerial changes, relegation and a cup final to boot, it’s been quite a year for football in our adopted city. For Bristol City and Bristol
Rovers, the first half of the season was nothing short of a nightmare. Stuck in the relegation zone, Christmas spirit was distinctly lacking for both sides. In mid-December, a 4-1 loss to York City left Rovers no choice but to sack Mark McGhee and, less than a month later, their rivals followed suit, calling time on Derek McInnes’ reign shortly after an abject 4-0 home defeat to Leicester.
Facing the bleak possibility of relegation, both managerial changes led to improved fortunes for the two clubs. A return to the helm for John Ward sparked an upturn in form for the Pirates which saw them drag themselves out of the bottom 3 and climb rapidly up the table, whilst 3 wins in his first 5 games for Sean O’Driscoll gave the City fans grounds for optimism in their team’s efforts
bafc.co.uk
The Vixens are now looking forward to a final against Arsenal
fmscount.com
Despite the positive start under O’Driscoll, Bristol City soon fell into old ways and were relegated
to beat the drop. Parallels to their seasons were to end there. With Rovers quietly hopeful of a late push towards a play-off place, City remained stuck in a losing battle to extend their 6-year stay in the Championship. O’Driscoll’s great start at Ashton Gate turned sour and the club were relegated to League 1 after yet another home defeat, this time against Birmingham - their 11th of the season. Unfortunately the exciting prospect of a first Bristol derby in the league since 2001 did
not materialise as Ward’s men, hampered by their terrible start to the season, finished 9 points off a play-off place and a chance to join their rivals in England’s third tier. For Bristol Academy, the city’s dominant women’s team, 2013 has been excellent so far. Led by their Spanish strike pairing of Natalia and Laura del Rio, the former dubbed the ‘female Michu’, the club have earned a place in the FA Women’s Cup Final against Arsenal. They endured a tough cup run which saw them beat fellow
Women’s Super League sides Doncaster Belles, Everton and Lincoln on their way. A chance at silverware in the final, their second in 3 years, on May 26th, coupled with a positive start to their league campaign, edging Everton 4-3 in a seven goal thriller, has given the club hope for a season to remember. With Rovers and City seemingly stuck in the lower leagues, Bristol is relying on its high-flying women’s team to create the success stories for football in the city.
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There and back again, a Crusaders tale Andrew Stretton Crusaders Squad Member ‘Three years ago, our founders brought forth on this university a new rugby club, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men can play rugby.’ These were the words of Lewis Haynes, Clifton Crusaders RFC Club Captain at the Club’s AGM, just days before they travelled to Poznan on their annual playing tour.
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The short history of the Crusaders has been defined by many great victories, the occasional loss and ambitious Crusades to the exotic western lands of Carmarthen and Cardiff. In what has been a strong season on the pitch, the Crusaders finished the universities intramural league in 3rd place, following a comprehensive win over Tubes RFC in the play-offs. Shortly after claiming the imperious victory that has defined their season on the pitch, William Marment, next year’s Club
A. Stretton
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The team from Bristol met their hosts on a pitch that was cunningly disguised as a field of snow
The Crusaders won deservedly on snow covered fields of Poznan in sub-zero conditions
Captain said ‘We had a point to prove today. We spoke before the game about Tubes boasting in the local media about their near perfect season and we just taught them a lesson. Not only are we better looking, we’re better players and a better team. Sexy rugby was the winner.’ The test provided by Tubes proved a good warm up for the Clifton boys as they prepared to embark on their toughest challenge to date. The Crusaders began their fourday tour on the 22nd March, flying directly from Bristol and arriving in a sub-zero and snow covered Poznan. On the day of the seriesdeciding first and final Test
match, the Crusaders left behind the warmth of their hostel in search of Posnania RFC. After a short journey on the city’s apparently completely free tram network, the team found their hosts in suburban Poznan. Following a quick change, the considerably underdressed team from Bristol stepped back out into the -5 °C elements and met their hosts on a pitch that was cunningly disguised as a field covered in snow. After a series of handshakes, nodding heads and a futile attempt at a warm-up, the fast-paced match was underway. Played in the true spirit of rugby, the game was full of end-to-end action with both sides scoring sublime
tries throughout. However, after having seemingly taken their league form with them to Eastern Europe, the Crusaders prevailed in a deserved 35-20 victory, with Andrew Stretton and two-time player of the year Lewis Haynes both claiming memorable braces.
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We’re better looking, better players and a better team. Sexy rugby was the winner
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Immediately after the match, Team Captain Joseph Snape said ‘We’ve got jazz in our hands
ups before the tour and Wonga. com for providing Sam Clap with emergency cash after he ‘misplaced’ several thousand zloty in a gentleman’s club (disclaimer: only some of which is true). Of a tour that is the undoubted highlight of the Crusaders’ history to date, the final words belonged to Top Tourist award winner, Jack Owens. He simply said, ‘I’ll wear it.’ Many are called, but few are chosen. For a tour that will live long in the memory of the chosen twenty-two, these words aptly depict a trip full of adventure, escalation and above all - friendship.
and fire in our hearts. You can’t stop us.’ In a cruel twist of fate, Snape and his accomplice Jack Whiting were subsequently stopped in the city’s casino by putting it ‘all’ on black. Then losing it ‘all’ on black. Also on their tour, the Bristolians had enough to time to take in the ‘cultural’ side of Poznan. The Crusaders made a considerable contribution to the Polish economy; spread the messages of Gloria Gaynor and Spandau Ballet; visited the Lech brewery; befriended numerous policemen and even managed to visit a museum. The Crusaders would like to thank official tour partners Bath Ales for providing essential warm-
Basketball gains revenge over UWE with 10 point victory Sunny To Sports Reporter continued from back page
Bristol 75 UWE 65
Bristol’s dominance continued throughout the first half, with Joe Scarborough taking control on the offensive end, and every other senior getting on the score sheet as well as playing a suffocating defence against UWE’s forwards. The 18 point lead that Bristol comprehensively held at half time was capped off by a thunderous, base-line alleyoop dunk connection between Bez Tesfayohannes and captain James Throup, which completely silenced the already disheartened UWE crowd. The
Andy Salmon
Bristol’s victory over UWE provided the perfect send off for many of the senior players
Andy Salmon
...Described by some as ‘the biggest sporting event of the year’, the players felt that this match felt so much more than simply obtaining pride and bragging rights. It was not only an opportunity to avenge this
year’s heart-breaking losses against UWE but also the last ever University game for nine graduating players. The pressure was also on after both the Women’s 1sts and Men’s 2nds had secured impressive Varsity victories. The game tipped off at a fanatic pace, with senior Justin Pak scoring 10 consecutive points in the opening minutes to give Bristol a 10-1 lead. The sharpshooter displayed impressive range, scoring two 3-pointers in a row, against a rather lacklustre UWE defence.
start of the second half saw UWE adjust their defence which temporarily disrupted Bristol’s offensive flow. This led to a small comeback, with UWE chipping Bristol’s lead down to just 9 points going into the 4th quarter, setting up for an exciting finish. Bristol were extremely cautious in the last 10 minutes of the game as a lapse in concentration would have undone their dominant first half performance. Spanish
point-guard Alex Peña helped to keep Bristol ahead, but with time winding down, Bristol’s lead was down to just 5 points with 4 minutes left. The prospect of an improbable comeback had the UWE crowd fired up. Their players were clearly feeding off the crowd’s energy as they played some tremendous defence with the game down to its final stretch. However, it would not be enough. Bristol senior Andy Salmon took the game over and answered every
UWE point with a basket of his own, then kept his cool to knock down game-clinching free throws in the dying seconds to seal a 75-65 victory for the Bristol Men’s 1st Team. It was truly a fitting end to the last ever university match for the nine graduating players. Their talent, commitment and effort over the past 3 years should be commended and have left large shoes to fill as the Bristol team looks to rebuild in the coming academic year.
Epigram
07.05.2013
35
Narrow defeat for Bristol in Boat Race
Team GB star also unveils boat in which two UWE students will be crossing Atlantic in to raise money for fantastic causes
David Stone Sport Editor Bristol’s typical Varsity dominance was brought to an abrupt halt last Saturday as UWE narrowly defeated Bristol in the Varsity Boat Race series. Arguably one of the highlights of the Bristol sporting calendar, the event is always attended by many members of the public and this year was no exception. The 1.3 km course goes past several Bristol landmarks including the SS Great Britain and Maritime Museum, as well as finishing opposite the Amphitheatre. Attendees included Bristol Mayor George Ferguson, of red chino fame, who afterwards thanked both Bristol and UWE for their welcoming hospitality,. and a fantastic day.
Out of the nine races which took place, five of them went towards the final result. First up was the Men’s First Eight, in which UWE took advantage of conditions and won by around two lengths. Next up was the Women’s Novice Eight, and Bristol just pipped UWE on the finishing line to tie the score.
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Bristol Mayor George Ferguson, of red chino fame, thanked both Bristol and UWE for their hospitality and a fantastic day
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The Novice Men’s Second Eight saw another dominating
UWE win, only for the Bristol ladies to again bring it level in the Senior Women’s First Eight. This meant that it would come down to the Senior/Alumni Men’s Eight, and after a race which this Editor can only describe as ‘heartbreaking’, UWE came out on top to seal the day 3 wins to 2. The win for UWE was made all the more significant this year as they received the newly created Varsity Challenge Cup, a magnificent silver trophy which was presented to both teams last autumn by the combined USA Universities Touring Crew. The trophy was donated by the Hartley family to mark thirty years and two generations of service to Bristol rowing. Kit Hartley coached Bristol in the 1950’s and his son, Chris, would go on to successfully captain the
Anish Jalaby
Both students and members of the public enjoyed the competitive races and great weather
Bristol Boat Club. The day was rounded off with Team GB star and gold medal winner, Katherine Grainger, unveiling the boat, Sedulous, in which two UWE students, Hannah Lawton and Jess Van Beck, will be using to participating in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Rowing Race which takes place this December. This race is literally known as the ‘World Toughest Rowing Race’ and goes for over 3,000 miles from the Canary Islands to Antigua. It is being carried out in memory of UWE
student Eleanor Rose Ellis who sadly died of cancer in May last year. Eleanor was an active member of the UWE Boat Club, including coxing the Senior Men’s Eight. Hannah had previously explained why Eleanor had inspired her and Jess to compete: ‘She lived life to the full, but realised too late that there were many things she hadn’t had the chance to do. That spurred me on to go and do something I had always wanted to, something that I thought I would never
actually have the chance to do. Fellow team mate Jessie Vanbeck also felt compelled due to the sheer determination, courage and fortitude Elle showed through her illness.’ The money being raised is going to Myton Hospice, who looked after Elle and supported her and her family through Elle’s illness, and also Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust. More information can be found on Hannah and Jess’ website http://www.insfriends.org.uk/.
Cycling engage tough conditions at BUCS Downhill championships Michael Elkington Sports Reporter
gold medallist Eric Eckstein proved he has the skills on the downhill too, qualifying in 179 place, but also missed out on the finals.
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Many of the riders are happy just to get a clean run down the track.
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The event gets more competitive every year, leaving many confident riders having to reluctantly spectate for finals after taking it a little too easy in qualifying. Bristol riders Matt Kovar, Michael Elkington and Oli Bates qualified in the top 100 and advanced to the finals. The course was now packed with the other riders
who had not made it through, and they were armed with Cowbells, megaphones and other homemade contraptions to make a wall of noise to encourage all the riders. Oli Bates unfortunately suffered a mechanical early in his run and it put him out of contention. Mike Elkington knocked 8 second off his qualifying time and ended up in 61st place, just ahead of UWE’s Ben Lyon. Matt Kovar was pushing hard and unfortunately hit a tree in his run, but still came down the hill in an impressive 35th. Overall winner Emir Davies of Cardiff Met, had an amazing run, taking the overall win by over 4 seconds. The Cycling club are now looking forward to the Cross Country event in June, of which they are the defending champions.
M. Elkington
UoBCC competed in the recent BUCS Downhill Mountain biking championships. The venue was Combe Sydenham Country Park in Exmoor, which had held a round of the full national series the weekend before. It provides a high speed, technical course featuring steep terrain, rock, roots and big Jumps, including a 25ft jump over a road which claimed more a few riders and bikes over the weekend. Placing more on an emphasis on bike skill and technique than fitness, the top riders use specialist bikes with over 8 inches of front of a rear suspension, and full face motor bike style Helmets are mandatory. BUCS provides a much more friendly
and relaxed atmosphere than many races, with many of rider happy just to get a clean run down the track. Many riders such as UOBCC Captain Duncan Clark and Louisa Ramsay getting there first ever experience of downhill racing. Louisa, pictured above, was on a borrowed bike having never ridden a proper downhill track and struggled against some of the more experienced girls. Nevertheless, she achieved her personal aim of getting down under 5 minutes, and is already looking forward to going back next year. Duncan, riding a very basic Mountain Bike still managed to beat 35 much better equipped riders. Johnny Sneller had a big crash in race day practise which slowed him a little and was unlucky not to make finals. Cross Country team
Epigram
07.05.2013
Sport
Editor: David Stone
Deputy Editor: Laura Lambert
sport@epigram.org.uk
deputysport@epigram.org.uk
Rugby round off successful season with thorough Varsity victory over UWE
@epigramsport
Inside Sport Basketball batter the opposition The biggest sporting event of the year saw the University of Bristol Men’s 1st Basketball Team travel to take on the newly crowned Western Division 2A champions, UWE, in a highly anticipated matchup...
continued on page 34
Clifton Crusaders do the Poznan in Poznan The Clifton Crusaders travelled to Poznan, Poland, for their annual playing tour. How would their ‘sexy rugby’ fare in arctic conditions? Find out inside...
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A packed stadium celebrates Bristol’s success on the field
David Stone Sport Editor The University of Bristol Rugby 1sts are celebrating a successful end to what has been a fantastic season, after beating UWE 28-12 in the Varsity showdown at the Memorial Ground. This follows them already having been crowned league champions of the BUCS Premier League South B. Furthermore just a few days before this Varsity victory they had agonisingly lost in the BUCS Cup Final to Loughborough 2423 due to a last minute penalty kick. Nevertheless, the team was determined to finish the season on a high. With the sun shining and Bristol experiencing abnormally warm weather, festivities ahead
of the Varsity match began early on the Monday afternoon. Several pubs located near to the stadium apparently boasted the best business they’ve seen for years, as Bristol students were keen to help out the local economy. With the large and partisan crowd warmed up, thanks to a terrific Women’s match which saw Bristol lose by seven points in a 12-5 scoreline, the stage was set for the Men’s 1sts to do battle. In the first half, UWE were unable to match the ferocity of the forward line and soon found themselves 100 down, with Stephen Boatman energetically crossing the line to grab the game’s first try. This was soon followed by another Bristol try, this time Steffan Jones skinning the UWE fullback on his way to the try
line. As the referee blew for half time, Bristol were 17-0 up. After what one can imagine was a strong dose of the hairdryer treatment, UWE came out fighting in the second half and grabbed a quick try. Bristol responded only for UWE to again get the try, this time scoring the conversion to put the score at 22-12. With the Bristol support growing increasingly frustrated with the referee, including what has been described as a ‘dodgy yellow’, and UWE scenting a possible way back into the game there was everything to play for as the game reached its climax. However, Bristol socks were soon pulled up and another try was gained. Final result: Bristol 28-12 UWE. A jubilant crowd erupted at full time and social media
outlets were buzzing with admiration both for the Bristol team and their UWE rivals, who helped make the match a thoroughly entertaining encounter. As any football fan will attest, completing the ‘Double’ or ‘Treble’ is seen as the highest honour in the game. For the Bristol Rugby 1sts to miss out on the latter by just one point portrays just how hard-working and determined they have been. Hopefully next season they will be able to carry on competing at the very highest level of university rugby union. Special mention should also go to Captain Charlie Mortimer, who’s leadership certainly played an important role throughout the year.
Mixed fortunes for Bristol football Bristol Academy reach the FA Women’s Cup Final whilst Bristol City drop out of the Championship
page 33
Plus -Varsity Results: the full list -BUCS Cycling -Boat Race
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