EPIGRAM 304

Fortnightly 17th October 2016 Issue 304

University of Bristol’s Award Winning Independent Student Newspaper

www.epigram.org.uk

UoB could sacrifice reputation for fee rise Mairead Finlay Deputy News Editor Despite the Times Higher Education reporting that the University of Bristol were going ahead with the second stage of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) at the beginning of September, concerns have been raised about the damages this could cause to Bristol’s reputation.

The second stage of the TEF involves universities being assessed on their graduate employment, retention and student satisfaction, then subsequently being rated bronze, silver or gold.

The appeal is that this stage allows universities

to make inflationary fee increases. Stage one of TEF, only allows fees to be increased to a maximum of £9,250 - which Bristol will do from 2017 onwards for incoming students- based upon Quality Assurance Agency reviews. Stage two allows an even higher increase.

During the very first NUS Regional Networks event held at the Students’ Union, Zoe Backhouse, Undergraduate Education Officer, said that the Times Higher Education article had been misinformed.

‘The University hasn’t actually committed one way or another. We do really badly on the metrics for stage two, particularly on the graduate employment which would affect our

standing in the league tables... Bristol is getting worse and worse every year on it’, Backhouse said.

The fear of going forward with the second stage it seems, is largely related to the damage this could have for Bristol’s reputation, even not participating could affect Bristol’s international standing.

Whilst participating in the second stage is optional for universities, Home Secretary Amber Rudd has stated that universities with low quality courses shouldn’t be able to recruit international students.

‘If it implicates whether we are allowed to recruit international students, it’s likely we

would have to go along with it anyway. But there is a chance that Bristol might not even qualify for the “silver medal” which could determine this’, Backhouse said.

At the time of writing the university had yet to decide whether they would go ahead with the second stage of TEF. ‘The Government has just set out its plans for the TEF2 and we only received information about this two weeks ago. We will be working through the proposals with a view to deciding how best to respond by January 2017’, a University of Bristol spokesperson said.

Continued on page 3

Disaffiliate means... don’t disaffiliate?

Ben Parr Editor in Chief

Epigram/ Ajantha Abey Bristol’s Quidditch team, Brizzlepuffs, are starting the first ever league system for the Muggle’s version of the iconic sport from Harry Potter. Full story on page 4.

Features From Bristol to the BBC: Amy Stewart talks to Stephen Dunleavy

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Music Ellen Kemp interviews Elena Tonra from Daughter about their new album

@EpigramPaper

Katie Raison and Scarlett Sherriff debate the NUS

Comment Highly Commended for Best Publication and Best Use of Digital Media 2016

It seems that Brexit does not actually mean Brexit. That is if you are talking about Bristol’s exit from the NUS anyway.

Epigram can reveal that Bristol students voted to disaffiliate from the National Union of Students (NUS) in 2004, suggesting that whatever the result of the current referendum, a vote overturning the decision is likely to be had, raising questions over how productive the referendum really is.

In fact, Lincoln University, one of the universities that voted to disaffiliate from the NUS earlier this year, have already voted to rejoin it just five months later.

The current NUS referendum in Bristol was announced after a petition with 355 signatures calling for it was delivered to the SU on the 13th May. Bristol SU currently holds a referendum on their membership of the NUS every three years at their Annual Members Meeting, with the most recent vote supporting membership, winning with 308 votes to 168.

The 2004 vote to disaffiliate was won with 227 votes to 145 at the SU’s AGM. It was reported at the time that following the vote a petition was promptly started calling for a second referendum on the result.

Continued on page 5

Sport Nicky Withers talks to UBWRFC about rugby in Bristol and team GB

Epigram

17.10.2016

Editorial Inside Epigram

2 Editor: Ben Parr: editor@epigram.org.uk Online Editor: Hannah Price: hannah.price@epigram.org.uk Deputies: Caitlin Butler; Stefan Rollnick

Online Deputies: Sophie Hunter; Phoebe Jordan

A note from the editor...

A sad day...

Features Page 7 - 1:1 the worst 2:1 the best?

Letters Page 16 - A reply in defence of grammar schools.

Living Page 19 - Breakfast means breakfast, and we’re going to make a success of it.

It was one of those moments that for years to come people will still remember where they were and what they were doing the moment they found out. For me it was the Clifton Waitrose. I was on my way to a nine AM. I was trying to get a free coffee.

Free Waitrose coffee has a special significance for me that most people won’t understand. For many years I worked at Waitrose, and I remember my excitement the day they introduced the coffee machines to our branch. Only, that delight soon turned to despair.

You see, whilst customers burst through the doors brandishing their My Waitrose cards like they had just won the lottery, us ‘partners’ were told that we were not eligible for free coffee on days on which we were working. Oh the bitter irony, I served free coffee yet I was forced to pay for it myself.

When I finally left my job and I was allowed to have free coffees for the first time, the feeling of elation I got from that first free coffee, and every subsequent one since, wasn’t just the kick of the caffeine. No. It was a feeling of liberation.

What’s all this about a referendum?

There’s a referendum on Bristol SU’s membership of the NUS. You might not have noticed it, but there is. So, here are a few thoughts to consider.

Firstly, the reason you don’t pay council tax as a student is in

a large part due to NUS lobbying. In a recent interview with Richard Brooks, the NUS Vice President, I asked him what he thought was the single biggest issue for students.

He said the cost of living. The point is that the NUS have benefitted students in the past and some of them still have a decent understanding of the problems students face today.

Secondly, there are a significant number within the organisation who do waste a heck of a lot of time debating international politics, talking about safe spaces and trying to cancel harmless parties for some very odd reasons. They are really annoying, a lot of them dislike free speech and clearly don’t represent most students, nor do they do them any favours.

Thirdly, given there are votes on our membership of the NUS so often, it’s likely that within a few months of voting to disaffiliate there will be another vote at the AMM where people will vote to re-affiliate. So is voting to disaffiliate worth the hassle?

Coffee or NUS? Bringing all this together, why is it that most students care much more about Waitrose ending free coffees than the NUS referendum?

The answer to this is very simple, students feel like the end of Waitrose free coffee will change their day to day lives and that whether we are in or out of the NUS simply won’t. Showing this isn’t true is the task the NUS will need to overcome to show that there is a point to them.

Ben Parr, Editor in Chief

Write for Epigram: join our writers Facebook groups or email getinvolved@epigram.org.uk

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From the archives... ‘Queer off’

13 years ago Epigram reported on the still popular nightclub, Lizard Lounge, throwing out two male students for kissing ‘One of Bristol’s most popular nightclubs has been accused of homophobia in the latest in a long line of complaints against the establishment ‘On November 25, Alex Sutton, a male music student, was thrown out of the Lizard Lounge, along with a male student from the University of Hull for allegedly kissing one another’, Epigram’s front page in January 2003 read.

The story claims that Mr Sutton who was at Lounge to celebrate a friend’s 22nd birthday was kissing another male student when a bouncer confronted him saying ‘we’ll have none of that here’ before pushing the pair out of the nightclub.

When Mr Sutton told the bouncer that they had coats checked into the cloakroom the bouncer reportedly said ‘I don’t care- get out’.

‘it was only when they were doing it on the dance floor that it was becoming a bit outrageous’ John Nussbaun, who owned the nightclub until he died of cancer last year, told Epigram at the time that the behaviour of the two students had got a ‘little bit too heavy’.

Mr Nussbaun, commonly known as John Lounge, was reported as saying that ‘in the first instance we thought they were just messing about… they were told to calm it earlier on’.

Epigram/ Ben Parr

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DOWN 1. Fruit of coniferous tree (4,4) 2. Move out of the country (8) 3. Close (4) 4. Peg to balance golf ball on (3) 6. Picasso, for example (6) 9. The day before (3)

Students will be met with disappointment on their morning walk to university, as the Clifton Waitrose are now forcing caffeine craving customers to purchase something in order to qualify for their free coffee.

‘It feels like a day of mourning. I am undecided at this point in time as to whether I will continue to shop there’, Mairead, a fourth year French and Politics student and Deputy News Editor told Epigram.

She continued: ‘I didn’t cry, but I was forced to buy a banana and that’s not okay.’

Not all Waitrose stores have moved to the new policy of asking customers to buy something in order to qualify for a free coffee, so those keen to keep it free could walk to an alternative store in order to get their fix of caffeine.

A full analysis of student reactions to the end of free Waitrose coffee can be found at www.epigram.org.uk.

Top 5 European coffee drinkers

He continued to say that ‘It was only when they were doing it on the dance floor that it was becoming a bit outrageous and we had complaints from customers’ that the pair were asked to leave.

‘My club is excellent for students. We’re not sexist or whatever they call it’, he is reported as saying in an attempt to reassure potential customers.

A 3rd year drama student, Pippa Duffy, who was said to witness the event said that ‘the bouncers were laughing, they were mocking them.’

Following the incident, Epigram reported that UBU passed a motion prohibiting Lizard Lounge from advertising within the union.

Original story was published in on the 20th January 2003

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Epigram 17.10.2016

News

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@epigramnews

News Editor: Emily Faint news@epigram.org.uk Online News Editor: Malik Ouiza newsonline@epigram.org.uk Deputy News Editors: Mairead Finlay; Noa Leach; Ellen Jones; Amy Finch

TEF falls on deaf ears Mairead Finlay Deputy News Editor

NUS Vice President of Higher Education, Sorana Vieru reiterated the potential negative impact at the event, saying that the rating system would be ‘very bad’ for Bristol.

To put things into perspective, in an analysis

by Times Higher Education using these TEF metrics, the University of Cambridge is the highest ranking Russell Group institution in 12th place, whilst the University of Oxford takes a lowly 28th position.

In the government’s eyes, ‘education is a commodity’

However, Vieru added that ‘the unknown risks in not taking part are bigger’ adding that there is a belief circulating that ‘if you’re not on the table, you’re on the menu’.

Vieru went on further to say that ‘only places like Oxbridge, LSE and Imperial who can just thrive off their reputation and just think that their recruitment would not be affected in not taking part’.

What is the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)?

The Teaching Excellence Framework are a set of criteria which aim to increase teaching quality.

It has come under criticism however for its linkage to university fees rising with inflation .

Alex Sheppard

“ “

Continued from front page

The Teaching Excellence Framework has been widely criticised. During the Regional Networks event, Vieru commented that universities minister Jo Johnson, who put forward the proposal, had ‘essentially handed over a weapon of mass destruction.’

Much of the criticism has been related to the way in which TEF distinguishes teaching quality limiting access, and the consequences it can have for research strength universities.

NUS president Malia Bouattia, also present at the event in Bristol aimed at discussing local and national issues affecting students, said in her opening statement that it appeared that in the government’s eyes ‘education is a commodity to be managed within a market-led by competition in the search for profit’.

The University of Bristol are yet to decide how to respond to the Government’s proposals.

Most Bristol students working for nothing, survey suggests Amy Finch Deputy News Editor

An Epigram online survey investigating student experiences in work has suggested that a majority of students have undertaken unpaid work in their time at university. The 70 self-selecting respondents also generally believed that all work should be paid a fair wage.

Those working unpaid are losing £330 a week

The legal definitions of work experience and interns, and how and why their rights differ from formal employees are rather murky. Generally, internships commonly represent a first step on the ladder towards a professional career in the most competitive sectors, according to the Sutton Trust.

Many employers now require work experience for entry-level positions, and this is reflected in our respondents - 80 per cent of whom had

undertaken it in their time at university.

Worryingly, 82 per cent of this group had performed work for less than the minimum wage, with over 71 per cent working for nothing. 52 per cent of these had done over one month’s work unpaid or underpaid.

The figures place Bristol students firmly in what is a national phenomenon - with one in five of the UK’s 70,000 interns working unpaid according to the government.

OOur results indicated that the journalism sector was the worst offender, making up 24 per cent of underpaid work. This matches national figures that show that 75 per cent of new journalists undertake an unpaid internship.

Close behind was the scientific or research sector at 22 per cent.

One student, Lola, told Epigram: ‘I worked for two months unpaid for a charity over summer.

I appreciate that it might be difficult for the non-profit sector to pay their staff but I ended summer at the bottom of my overdraft - which seems pretty unfair too.’

The survey also reflected high student support for the living wage for all placements - at 69 per cent of all respondents.

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Unpaid internships are hindering social mobility

One respondent, however, noted that the University cafe was an exception, saying: ‘I get paid just above living wage and I’m happy with that.’

For those of us working unpaid in internships and work experience, they are each missing £330 per week outside of London, and £376 inside London according to this figure.

The Sutton Trust has calculated that an independent living intern will have outgoings of £800-£1000 per month, meaning to maintain them individuals will have to rely on savings or subsidy.

Charities and survey respondent alike argue that this is divisive and hinders social mobility.

One respondent said: ‘The ability to undertake unpaid work experience is a barrier that stops many low income students from getting the same experience as those who come from better off families, placing them at a distinct disadvantage.’

This is reflected in our survey results: 81 per cent of respondents believe their financial status affects their ability to do unpaid work, with 13 per

cent finding it completely prohibitive.

For many, the problem doesn’t end on graduation, with the Sutton Trust estimating in 2014 that 1 in 3 graduate interns were unpaid.

The Sutton Trust points out that employment legislation clearly marks anyone required to work for a minimum number of hours, set tasks and adds value to a business is defined as a worker.

They are thus entitled to the national minimum wage.

Dedicated campaign groups ‘Intern Aware’ and ‘Graduate Fog’ are working to name and shame employers and push for national minimum wage enforcement.

An NUS campaign launched last year called for unpaid internships over 4 weeks to be eliminated.

Infogram / Malik Ouzia

Epigram/ Anna Lewis Infogram / Malik Ouzia

AMost largeofmajority believed that financial would affectbetheir to take on unpaid work the respondents believed thatstatus all work should paidability the living wage.

The UK living wage is a figure set by the independent Living Wage Foundation, calculated according to the basic cost of living. It is voluntary rather than legally binding and currently stands at £8.25 an hour outside of London, and £9.40 an hour inside London.

23 per cent of students have always been paid the living wage in their student job.

Some respondents had done substantial lengths of unpaid work.

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Epigram 17.10.2016

University of Bristol’s ‘Brizzlepuffs’ form first Quidditch league in England Noa Leach Deputy News Editor The University of Bristol’s ‘Brizzlepuffs’ have introduced the first ever league system for Quidditch, a sport created by J.K. Rowling in her Harry Potter series.

The new league is called the ‘South West League’ and was created by Tom Ower, who was a founding member of the Brizzlepuffs.

So far Quidditch has only ever been a tournament-based sport, with events being held over various weekends throughout the year.

There will now be one round of matches every month from October to April.

“

Team coach Josh Blannin thinks that ‘the new league is a big progression for Quidditch, and it’s something that’s in its trial stage. We are very hopeful though, and we want it to bring teams closer together and make the Quidditch season even more exciting!’

‘It puts us at the forefront of gender equality in sport’

The news is also significant for social development. As the fastest growing full

contact mixed gender sport in the world, Blannin was proud to announce that it ‘puts [them] at the forefront of gender equality in sport, which is something really amazing.’

Brizzlepuffs consists of two teams, the Brizzlebears and the Brizzlebees. Both teams will be competing. The league also hosts five other teams based in the South West: Bath Quidditch Club; Falmouth Falcons; The Swansea Seven Swans; The Exeter Eagles; and The Worcester Sorcerers.

The first round of matches for the Brizzlepuffs will be on the 15th of October at 10am on the Durdham Downs. The Brizzlebears will play the Bath Quidditch club, and the Brizzlebees the Exeter Eagles.

‘We are hoping that the league system works well and that it can provide basis for a possible national league in the future,’ says Blannin.

‘We’re excited to be pioneering this system’

‘This would allow more Quidditch teams to play more matches throughout the year, and we’re excited to be pioneering this system.’

Brizzlepuffs / Ajantha Abey

The Brizzlepuffs practice on the Durdam Downs on a regular basis

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Non-British academics to be excluded?

“

Emily Faint News Editor

There has been an uproar from key legal academics questioning the legality of the alleged UK government’s recent announcement that leading foreign academics at LSE would ‘not be asked’ to contribute to government work and analysis on Brexit, due to their nonBritish nationality.

The University of Bristol’s Senior Lecturer in Law, Dr Albert Sanchez-Graells, was among one of the prominent academics featured in a recent Guardian article condemning such a move.

Three Illegal Implimentations of the Policy If the government tender contracts open only to universities or companies that solely employed UK nationals in Brexit advisory services, it would breach EU public procurement regulations. Even if it did not tender contracts formally covered by the EU rules, it would still breach the general principle of nondiscrimination in public procurement.

‘the exclusion from the provision of Brexit related advisory services could become a reality’

If the government tried to modify preexisting contracts for advisory services or simply require/invite that only UK passport holders could participate, this would breach the principle of nondiscrimination under EU law and the free movement of workers.

In an exclusive statement to Epigram, Dr Sanchez-Graells said: ‘The Government has since denied the reports coming out of LSE about the exclusion of non-nationals and, at this point, it is hard to determine whether this was in fact a Government policy or not.’

‘In any case, the debate is worrying because the mere suggestion that non-UK passport

If the government tried to avoid having relationships with foreign third parties and created an in-house team of UK-only employees, the act of advertising these jobs only to UK applicants would infringe upon EU law and the principle of non-discrimination of EU citizens.

holders would be excluded from advisory work surrounding Brexit can have very deep implications for academics and the university community more generally.’

If such a policy were to be implemented, it ‘would not only be extremely unwise, but illegal’.

He outlined ‘at least three key ways in which’ such an exclusionary policy could be implemented, ‘and all of them would breach EU Law’.

It was reported that the concerns over foreign academics working on Brexit-related analysis were allegedly founded on the handling of ‘sensitive information’ by non-British nationals.

To this, Dr Sanchez-Graells responded: ‘The jobs that have started being advertised seem to really be of a very general nature and unlikely to actually require access to sensitive information.’ ‘…Any need to access sensitive information could be managed in a less restrictive way via contractual confidentiality agreements, which are a regular element in this type of contracts.’

He questioned whether, even if universities or other bodies protested such a change in policy, such a challenge ‘could result in effective injunctions’. If this were to be the case, ‘the exclusion of EU academics and professionals from the provision of Brexit related advisory services could become a reality.’

The University of Bristol’s academic and student body would be ‘negatively affected’, he confirmed.

‘The University, as an employer, would be in a very difficult position to ensure that it complies

with Government policy, and with EU, and domestic employment and equality law.’

‘The University and its academics would be severely disadvantaged in the context of the research quality / impact agenda (REF). As is well-known, there is increasing pressure for academics to carry on research that is relevant for policy makers.’

‘The University and its academics would be severely disadvantaged

As for the student body itself, Dr SanchezGraells forecasted yet more bad news should such a direction come into effect.

‘Not only because of the indirect negative effects of the exclusion of non-UK academics from Brexit related research on the University’s influence and standing that this could trigger, but also due to the unavoidable restrictions on research-led teaching, particularly in policyoriented subjects.’

He concluded that such a policy ‘should be resisted in the strongest possible terms’ by all in the university community. ‘Only by holding the line as a true community we have a chance of preventing these undesirable developments.’

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Epigram 17.10.2016

55

There is such a thing as free lunch Ellen Jones Deputy News Editor A little known fact amongst students is that the university will pay them, and other willing volunteers, to partake in a wide range of research projects.

The school of Experimental Psychology frequently publicises its desire for volunteers to take part in an extensive range of experiments to aid its research.

Volunteers can partake in experiments carried out by various sub-sections of the school, with its research activity organised into three themes: Cognitive Processes; Brain, Behaviour and Health, and Decision-making and Rationality.

The school pays its volunteers between £7 and £12 for their time, exceeding National Minimum Wage requirements considerably.

Some of the experiments conducted by the

A one-off, quick moneyearning exercise is exactly what students need

One upcoming volunteering opportunity is the school’s Word Processing Study, in which participants are rewarded £20 for the completion of a 30-35-minute computerised task.

Volunteers with all kinds of habits are requested for the experiments, including smokers, the abstinent and those with known reading disorders. A variety of ages is also requested in many of the projects.

The school of Experimental Psychology claims to ‘take a multi-disciplinary approach to research’, aiming ‘to advance thinking in the context of industry, healthcare, education

and society’.

Helena Brown, a 2nd Year German and Spanish student at the University of Bristol claimed to be ‘surprised’ that the university offered these opportunities, and that they were so well paid.

‘I’m often feeling squeezed for cash, but equally feel as though I can’t commit to a regular job due to my studies and extracurricular activities.

‘I wish I’d heard about these opportunities sooner, as a one-off, quick money-earning exercise is exactly what students need!’.

To find out more about these opportunities and register your interest, visit http://www. bris.ac.uk/expsych/experiments/.

Different Opportunities • Participants can aid the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group in studying the effects of smoking a drinking in nicotine challenges, cigarette packing studies and word-search tasks.

• The Neuropsychology and Neuroimaging group asks for volunteers to aid their Word Processing study and Colour Reading experiment.

• The Nutrition and Behaviour unit focuses its studies on volunteers’ eating habits and food choices.

Flickr/ Phillip_MN

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‘I wish I’d heard about these opportunities sooner’

Nutrition and Behaviour unit even involve the consumption of complimentary food and drinks.

Students with a variety of habits and conditions can earn money helping researchers.

Why October is the breast The NUS ‘neverendum’ month of the year Ben Parr Editor in Chief

Continued from the front page

Coppafeel

The main criticism of the NUS from the reports at the time was that they were undemocratic and were unable to reform, an argument that continues to be made today.

Craig Woodhouse, the former Chief Political Correspondent at The Sun, and Epigram editor at the time of the vote, described the AGM as ‘the most exciting anyone can remember in years’.

He continued: ‘The Union disaffiliated from the NUS, blacklisted the Lizard Lounge, and decided to continue selling the Daily Mail in the Union shop… the other things were an almost total waste of time’.

A number of SUs held referendums on membership of the NUS earlier this year following controversy with debates within the NUS and accusations of antisemitism of the newly elected NUS president Malia Bouattia.

However, pro NUS campaigners argue that the NUS is essential for representing the rights of students on a national level, citing their achievements including winning students an exemption from council tax.

The campaigning society, Bristol Reclaim Education, who support remaining in the NUS, have spoken out against the ‘mainstream NUS campaigns’, arguing ‘we have to get back to the core of student unions- a vehicle for social change and resistance’.

Students at Bristol are able to vote on Bristol SU’s membership of the NUS between the 17th and 20th October.

The Boob Team are going to hold bake sales, a quiz night, and even a sports night takeover this October.

Emily Faint News Editor

Epigram/ Ben Parr

Breast cancer awareness charity, CoppaFeel!, are due to host a variety of fundraising and awareness events at the University of Bristol throughout the breast cancer awareness month of October to encourage students to learn about the signs of developing breast cancer.

University of Bristol students can enjoy bake sales, a Brass Pig quiz night, a month-long raffle, and even a CoppaFeel! sports night takeover at Analogue on Wednesday 19th October. There is also expected to be a pop up salon on campus in the upcoming weeks.

The Bristol University Boob Team spoke to Epigram about how the movement began.

‘The charity was set up by Kris Hallenga who was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer aged 23. It is her aim to get as many young people both men and women - to check themselves regularly for the signs and symptoms of breast cancer in order to prevent late diagnoses and maximise survival rates.’

CoppaFeel! will be screening BBC3 documentary ‘Kris: Dying to Live’ of the charity’s founding member’s experience with breast

cancer on the 25th and 27th October.

‘It is also all about dispelling the ‘myth’ that young people can’t get breast cancer.’

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in the UK, with around 60,000 people being diagnosed each year. Even though approximately 340 of these 60,000 annual diagnoses are in men, it is vital to educate men on the possibility of developing breast cancer too.

Although 8 out of 10 cases of breast cancer are found in women over the age of 50, it is still important that students are educated in spotting symptoms from an early age in order to get into a habit of checking themselves.

The Bristol Uni Boob Team will be on hand to give out free advice to students of all genders on how to check for early warning signs.

A spokesperson told Epigram: ‘As a Uni Boob Team, our aim is to spread this message to as many students as possible, especially with CoppaFeel!’s new campaign #getitoffyourchest.’

‘All in all, we hope to gain a positive response from students. We want to empower young people to know their bodies and to check themselves regularly. We also want breast cancer to not be a topic people shy away from and to be something that can be discussed openly with respect.’

Epigram reported on the decision to disaffiliate from the NUS in 2004.

Epigram

17.10.2016

Features

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Editor: Amy Stewart- Deputy Editor: Bea Gentilli

Online Editor: Adele Momoko Fraser

features@epigram.org.uk

adele.momokofraser@epigram.org.uk

bea.gentilli@epigram.org.uk

From Hiatt Baker to the BBC

Bristol graduate Stephen Dunleavy speaks to Epigram about life as a wildlife filmmaker and working with Attenborough Amy Stewart Features Editor What do you think about when you think of your time at Bristol University?

“ If you’re following a passion you have to just give it time

Where did you end up once you’d finished university, and how did you end up where you are now?

While I was at university I took part in an expedition to an island called Tioman Island, off the coast of Malaysia.

A group of us spent three months on the island at the end of second year. We planned for about a year raising money so we could do a scientific natural history analysis of the island and we found three new species of vertebrates while we were there. Whilst we were on that expedition I took part in making a film with a friend of mine who was a camera man – we begged, borrowed and stole equipment from all sorts of places. I just helped with the sound recording for it and did the narration; I look back and it was a terrible film but it gave us the inspiration to think about what we wanted to do and how to make contacts with regards to wildlife filming.

My friend is still today a wildlife camera man, and I realised that I wanted to stay on in Bristol and work at the BBC. So I began the long process of trying to find work. I graduated in ’89 and there was a recession at that point so

Humble Bee Films

I suppose it’s that thing about looking back, you often remember the really good bits and forget the bad bits. Like any other student arriving, it’s the freedom you have being away from your family home for the first time and I think it’s that excitement of thinking you really are an adult and being able to do what you want to do.

I first stayed in Hiatt Baker hall so I’d have to do the long walk from the halls to the university. There was a bus then but they weren’t very reliable. So I have experience of the downs and I love the downs because I had to walk across it every day, and my first feeling was that Bristol was such a beautiful place. Also there’s the experience of making friends who are still friends that I still have. We met in halls and we moved out and lived together in rented accommodation and had a tight friendship. Even though we’re all dispersed now we all still meet up regularly. I just fell in love with the place straight away. I remember one year there was a really heavy snowfall and all the buses stopped running so you’d have to go through two feet of snow, trudging across the downs!

Stephen whilst filming ‘David Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities’

I did temp work for ages, then all the temp work dried up and I had nothing.

So I actually volunteered to work at Radio Bristol and they had a Sunday morning show called ‘The Wild Wild West Show’ which was a crazy mix between conservation issues and really crap pop music. I would go out and take a tape recorder with me to do interviews with people – I got paid nothing actually and I did this for months. I thought it was a really exciting radio show because not many shows were doing environmental issues on a local regional scale. I did that for about six months and I started to get paid about ten pounds per interview.

Then I joined a society that represented all wildlife filmmakers and I met someone who put me in contact with this guy called Chris Parsons who was in fact one of the founding members of the BBC natural history unit and he was the grandfather of natural history TV really. He executively produced ‘Life on Earth’ with David Attenborough and he’d formed his own company and was making an IMAX film. So I met him and he asked me if I would work on the IMAX film with him about animal plant interactions. That was my first step, and I worked with him for eighteen months. Because he was so well connected, after that I went into the BBC and worked with someone called Nigel Marvin. I stayed at the BBC and I was on weekly contracts, so I would get a weekly call from HR asking me to come in again. But then I stayed

with the BBC for about twelve years. So that’s how it all started.

If you could re-do your degree would you have done anything differently?

I wish I’d relaxed a little bit more; I worked really hard in first year and funnily enough I probably relaxed more in my third year and I think it should probably be the other way round. I came out with a first and I was so pleased, but in retrospect when you look back it’s important to enjoy yourself and enjoy your course but not to get overly worried about it. I had some friends that at the end of third year they were so drugged up on coffee that they looked so ill. As an employer now I look at people’s degrees it’s as much about what people do around their degrees as well as their grades. So, doing that expedition opened up doors for me, my degree did too but the fact that we had the enthusiasm to fund our own project made the difference. If I was to do it again I love Biology but I would love to do something like English, just for the interest point of view. As you get older you change interests.

Do you have any advice for final year students about life after university?

I think if you have a passion to do something then you shouldn’t really give up. It’s very competitive nowadays

and if you’re following a passion you have to just give it time. I came out during a recession so it really took a year before I got paid properly and that’s long time, my parents kept asking ‘what are you doing with your life’ but now they’re very proud. You have to make yourself quite distinctive and stand out a bit so it’s about building up a good CV – whether that’s doing voluntary work or work experience it’s all quite important. I suppose while it’s important to have something that gets your foot in the door, being able to be adaptable is important as well, so don’t narrow down your skills too much.

doing ‘Natural Curiosities’ has been a very rewarding thing as well because it’s a series I dreamt up and spoke to David about. We did the first series thinking that was it but now we’ve just finished our fourth series. For me, that’s probably one of the most rewarding things because I just enjoy the stories.

I have a very low boredom threshold and find I just want to move on with projects but the good thing about this one is that, unlike a lot of series, each episode is different so it means I’m not getting bored.

Anything to do with David Attenborough is always rewarding, just spending time with him always is.

Well I’ve been here thirty years now so my favourite thing is just its really clear identity. It’s not too big and there’s a lot going on culturally which you have easy access to. The thing about London is if you want to do anything you have to plan in advance, so what I love about Bristol is that you can just cycle or walk and everything’s so accessible. I probably live in a bit of a bubble but there’s a lot of like-minded people about. Bristol does have its problems which as a student you don’t really see but they are there, but people feel very positive about Bristol and are, I think, very proud of Bristol.

”

What’s the most rewarding documentary project you’ve taken part in?

Anything to do with David Attenborough is always rewarding, just spending time with him always is. You feel slightly elated when you’re working with him and slightly on edge. I did a series called ‘Life in the Undergrowth’ for the BBC; I love insects so that was a really rewarding project for me.

For my company Humble Bee Films,

What’s your favourite thing about living in Bristol?

‘David Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities’ airs on UKTV Eden Channel and BBC.

Epigram

17.10.2016

7

Is Bristol as good as we think?

Bea Gentilli Deputy Features Editor In recent years, the University of Bristol has been seen tumbling down in national university league tables.

According to the Guardian, Bristol has dropped from 18 in 2013 to 38 in 2017. The Complete University Guide corroborates this pattern, showing the University of Bristol down 13 places from 11 in 2013, to 24 in 2017.

Bristol, however, despite this general decline in the league tables,still maintains a very strong reputation amongst the general public and employers. It is still regarded as one of the most sought after university places by reputable heads of university admissions – clearly reflected in its high entry requirements. Its entry requirements were ranked tenth highest in the UK according to the 2017 Complete University Guide, coming in at 476 putting Bristol quite significantly above KCL, York and Exeter.

This discrepancy between Bristol’s reputation nationally, and comparatively, internationally, is due to the factors which league tables rank their universities by.

Internationally, Bristol boasts a strong

to worry about. He told Epigram: ‘[That the] Rising or falling of a few positions in a given year is all part of the ebb and flow of international rankings, and indeed several UK higher education institutions have dropped this year.

The University of Bristol remains ninth in the UK in the The World Rankings, and is clearly in very good company at 41 in the QS rankings, in close proximity to

institutions like LSE, Peking University and the University of California (San Diego). Therefore, Bristol should be justifiably proud of our standing in global higher education.’

Finally, he added: ‘Bristol is extremely well regarded by employers. According to research conducted this year by High Fliers, the University is the fourth most targeted in the UK by the UK’s

top employers. We know that leading employers actively target those campuses where they know they’ll find the best candidates for their roles.’

Should one therefore read the university league tables with a pinch of salt? Or is the university’s response an attempt to conceal the real catalyst behind Bristol’s diminishing position – the University’s negative student satisfaction.

It seems this discrepancy boils down to one crucial differentiating element.

Whilst the national league tables like The Complete University Guide and The Guardian’s guide take into account a broad spectrum of aspects such as student satisfaction and entry requirements; the QS World Rankings are based entirely on academic reputation, employer reputation and impact of research.

On this basis,a university spokesperson reassured Epigram of Bristol’s worldwide ranking as being most important: ‘In 2016/17, QS World University Rankings has placed University of Bristol as one of the top 50 universities in the world, and as one of the top 10 universities in the UK. The QS system is considered to be the most rigorous of its type and has consistently ranked the University of Bristol as one of the best universities in the world.’

Moreover, Dr Erik Lithander, the Pro Vice Chancellor of International and Student Recruitment, also gave a statement showing how the fluctuation of Bristol in the league tables is nothing

Bristol is ranked in the top 70 in the World according to the QS Worldwide Guide

Flikckr/diamondgeeer

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‘Bristol is extremely well regarded by employers... the fourth most targeted in the UK’

international reputation, being ranked in the top 70 Worldwide Universities this year with only 10 other British universities, according to the Telegraph.

Bristol’s position of 69, an improvement of five places from 2014, therefore comes as quite contradictory to the national rankings of 24 in the UK. So why is there this discrepancy? What do these league tables really mean?

1:1 the worst, 2:1 the best? What about the rest?

Caroline Lamb Features Writer

The elusive first class degree, as the highest possible grade, is justifiably considered the ultimate achievement of any university career. However, often this achievement cannot be detached from its associations with huge stress, anxiety, strain and ruthless hard work.

For those who managed to gain a first class degree, it became evident they obtained it through a healthy balance of work, passion and enjoyment. Livi Anne Salter gained a first studying History at Bristol University told Epigram that it was hard work and ‘stressful from the start’, but despite this, she maintained that ‘final year was the best year’. When I asked how she managed it, she put simply, ‘we socialised a lot but we definitely allowed ourselves to have down time.’

Interestingly, it appears that occasionally sheer good luck or circumstance can play a significant role, as reflected when Professor of Sociology Gregor McLennan told me ‘I’m not saying you’re just lucky if you get a first, although one or two people do just get lucky; similarly there are students who just get a bit unlucky’. Furthermore, he posited that ‘obviously we want people to strive, but not getting a first doesn’t mean you’re no good’.

“ Employers often emphasise the need for interpersonal and other skills alongside academic achievement.

Professor McLennan felt that making one number the driving force behind work was ‘putting the cart before the horse; the people who get firsts are the people who really love their subject, and it comes that way round’.

On average 2/10 Bristol students receive a 1:1 in a Social Science degree Bristol is ranked in the top 70 in the World according to the QS Worldwide Guide

A first class degree can be viewed as the crucial and paramount means to achieving a job or graduate scheme, but it may also be important to consider the other opportunities university has to offer, that can further employability.

It is no secret that employers often emphasize the need for interpersonal and other skills alongside academic achievement, and that forgoing these in pursuit of one

number can be to some students’detriment.

Professor Catherine Nobes of the School of Biochemistry stated, ‘I do worry about students beating themselves up over exams. University is not just about getting one hundred per cent in exams, it is a lot more than that. It is those kind of key skill developments that, in a way, you cannot measure, and are vital for employability.

We aim to develop the individual, to have

Jason Howie Flikr/ KevBow

According to the Higher Education Statisticsagency,recordnumbersofstudents are being awarded first class degrees and upon speaking to students, Epigram found there to be a fairly widespread feeling of pressure to attain an exceptionally high mark. On the back of this, Epigram decided to speak to those who achieved first class degrees, to examine where they achieved their strongest and weakest marks, as well as university professors to discover their advice on how to achieve the best degrees.

Another Geology graduate awarded a large amount of his success to suitability to his chosen field, stating ‘it was the perfect subject for me regarding my A-Levels’.

However, he also went on to add that without the ‘valuable support from his significant other’ he was ‘seriously skeptical [he] would’ve got the first he did’.

a deeper knowledge and a wider range of skills’.

A first is undeniably a remarkable, outstanding achievement. However, student’s anxiety towards their work can often stagnate their progress; a more rational outlook suggests that if we always do our best it will, in eventuality,trulybegoodenough.Sowhatever the outcome students; relax, enjoy, work hard - but let the chips fall where they may.

Epigram

8

17.10.2016

FareShare: Waste not want not?

Ruby Cardona Features Writer

“ Around 1/3 of the food purchased in the UK is never eaten.

It’s also the abundance of choice which Peter, from FareShare Bristol, believes is a fundamental reason so much food is destined never to be eaten. Supermarkets are under huge pressure to put out a huge selection of produce not only to compete with one another but to meet the demands of the twentyfirst century consumer who expects to find everything and more when they shop. Only a generation ago, empty shelves in supermarkets were a common sight; once a product was gone, it was gone. Today, this would be deemed unacceptable and the customer would take their custom elsewhere. With so much competition between the major supermarkets they won’t run the risk of losing customers, so they overproduce to ensure the shelves are always full of all our favourite

Flickr / Starr

Enter any of the major UK supermarkets and you will be greeted with a familiar sight: thousands upon thousands of products. It was a similar sight at Bristol’s FareShare warehouse - the main difference is that none of these products will ever touch the supermarket shelves. FareShare Bristol has been working since 2006 to redistribute the excessive amounts of food wasted by overproduction at UK supermarket factories. As part of a national network which began in London in 1994, FareShare has made huge strides. In 2015, FareShare saved 9,070 tonnes of food from being wasted nationally and used it to provide 18.3 million meals for various charities and organisations, ranging from breakfast clubs for primary- school children to refuges for victims of domestic abuse.

So where does all this food come from? Well, industries which are based on constantly producing a high volume of ‘perfect’ goods are inherently wasteful. Take, for example, an entire batch of packaged bacon strips printed with the wrong barcode. With production lines moving so fast, the mistake may not be noticed until later, and then the bacon cannot be sold. In some cases, the supermarkets just

don’t have the storage space for the produce, and with more and more constantly arriving they have little choice but to send it for incineration - or to groups like FareShare.

brands.

Supermarkets have made some moves to reduce their wasteful output. In 2016 Tesco launched its ‘perfectly imperfect’ range of fruit and vegetables, which enabled people to buy produce that usually would have been discarded based on physical appearance, before even arriving at the supermarket.

Many of the major food brands are making an effort too: Kingsmill launched smaller loaves of bread in 2009 so that their products could be kept for longer. However, remedying this situation is not simple. The

problem lies largely with the nature of the food industry.

So what are the solutions? Having only one brand of baked beans?

Accepting rows of empty shelves in our supermarkets? Both of these seem unlikely. It appears that a more fundamental shift in the way we view our food is needed. Changing consumption habits would have to come from the consumers especially since around 1/3 of the food purchased in the UK is never eaten. As customers, we would also have to become more aware of the food we are buying – perhaps

shopping with specific meals in mind to reduce waste and to avoid getting sucked in by all the offers which supermarkets bombard us with. At a point in history when we are incredibly aware of our environmental impact on the planet, solving this food crisis makes a lot of sense. The impetus for change must come partly from us – the customers – and our spending power. If people change their mentality towards food, the supermarkets will have to respond.

Are we losing faith in referendums? us, raped, bombed, killed and now we should pay taxes to reward them?

‘It’s like negotiating with ISIS.’ ‘Now we’re on the same boat of uncertainty,’ said Carlos, linking Colombians and Brits together in a statement that summarizes the unstable future of both countries.

Noa Leach & Marco Barbato Deputy Online News Editor and Features Writer

”

With this insecurity also comes an emerging fear of the referendum system

immigration and Syrian refugees.’

The outcomes of the referenda were similarly affected by geography, according to student Carlos Noriega.

In the rural areas where the FARC performed ‘really atrocious [acts] and displaced more people than in Syria, the Yes won with 80 per cent or higher.’

The result, as in Britain, might have been different if more people had voted: ‘we were 60,000 votes away,’ said Carlos, ‘and we probably would’ve gotten there if the other 20

million people in the country voted’.

Jessica’s long term residency in the UK meant the outcome had ‘no real practical implication’ on student life, but that ‘emotionally it has caused a lot of disappointment and worry that the peace process which seemed so close is now not as close as we thought.’

Carlos was shocked by the outcome of both results: ‘I feel like the world is not going in the right direction.

How does the Nobel peace prize go from Nelson Mandela and Malala

Yousafzai to Juan Manuel Santos?’

However, like Brexit, the electorate was completely divided. Half-Colombian politics student Anne-Lise was concerned about the prospect of the FARC members becoming politicians: ‘The peace deal agreed to let the FARC be an official political party.

The members of the FARC would’ve been paid three times an average Colombian wage. People think, so they tortured us for years, kidnapped

Ironically we are all united in a common theme of division.

In a time of global uncertainty these close referenda only further the uneasiness which feeds and is fed by extremist groups. With this insecurity also comes an emerging fear of the referendum system – and a worsening positive feedback loop. So what does this mean for the upcoming Italian referendum – or even on the local scale, the NUS referendum?

‘I can imagine you were as passionate about the [EU] referendum as I am for peace,’ says Carlos. ‘Now we can only hope for the best outcome.’

Flickr / Sangudo

Flickr Flickr / Sangudo / NatalieMaynor

What happens if there is an opportunity to end a war that has costed the lives of 220,000 people, and it is rejected? After 52 years of brutal conflict and almost six years of negotiations, the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (or FARC) reached a peace deal.

On the 3rd of October, the deal was rejected by 50.25 per cent of the Colombian population. This made it an even narrower decision than the famously tight Brexit vote, which saw 52 per cent of British voters controversially deciding to leave the EU. We spoke to Colombian students in Bristol to see how the referendum has affected them, at home or as an international student, and if they saw parallels with the EU referendum.

Dentistry student Jessica Gaviria spoke about voters’ discontent with their current president, Juan Manuel Santos. As with Cameron, several votes were cast against the president rather than the deal itself – except Cameron resigned and Santos was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

Certain claims were also sensationalized by the opposition says Jessica, ‘so a lot of people voted based on claims that had no truth or evidence.’ The Leave campaign in the British referendum similarly ‘played on fears based around

Comment

Epigram 17.10.2016

@epigramcomment Editor: Abbie Scott

Deputy Editor: Ed Fernyhough

Online Editor: Sarah Williams

comment@epigram.org.uk

ed.fernyhough@epigram.org.uk

sarah.williams@epigram.org.uk

Shoddy halls bedevil freshers

Max Lewthwaite reflects on the underlying issues revealed by the evacutation of 800 students from halls.

Max Lewthwaite Comment writer

Epigram Flickr / Mairead / Roger Finlay Blackwell Flickr / Richard Harrison

Freshers at Unite Halls have had a string of problems with their accomodation. of this scale: the predictable next step, as was laid out in an email to all Unite residents: ‘From 12pm - 2pm tomorrow 21st September, we will be carrying out a full diagnostic test of the main incoming supply which means a complete building power shut down. This work is essential to understand what permanent solutions can be implemented to remove the risk of an internal power outage in the future.’

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such an array of problems would not have been allowed to ferment were these university owned halls

In other words, to prevent a power cut in the future, we need to have a power cut. The irony cannot be lost on anyone. And in fact, what most aren’t aware of is that there have been several shorter power failures subsequently (no, these were not planned), mostly during the night or early morning. Irritating though these are, I suppose if there is a time to have a power cut, it’s when most people are asleep.

This aside, the more important issue, which this sequence of smaller incidents deftly raises, is whether the main power failure at Unite House should be seen as an ‘accidents happen/one of those things’ incident, perhaps in the tradition of

Colston House, or whether it does actually point to a wider problem within the university. From within Unite itself, I know of drainage issues - because of which one of my friends’ floors was drenched – issues with the laundry services, issues with the parcel delivery system, to mention but a few.

Indeed, the front page of the most recent Epigram talks of students’ grievances with Unite itself over alleged ‘fabricated charges’ at Orchard Heights, the ‘rude and dismissive’ nature of certain Unite staff, further problems with hot water, elevator provision – the list goes on.

Now I am not in a position to comment on the quality of pastoral care at other halls of residence.

But I find it difficult not to come to the view that such an array of problems would not have been allowed to ferment were these university owned halls. Is it because they are externally provided

by Unite that such issues are not addressed in an expedite manner, or indeed that they arise at all?

Such questions have no satisfactory answers, but it is clear as day that this power cut debacle is clearly not a ‘one-off’ incident. I am no experienced traveller in the logistical minefield of universitystudent care. In fact, I don’t really know what I’m talking about - I am merely a fresher who finds himself quite taken aback by the number of accommodation issues he has encountered in the short time he has been at university. ‘Goodwill payments’ are little recompense for an enduring, might I say mounting, list of such concerns, none of which can be ignored.

Epigram

I found myself in the unfortunate position of being one of those evacuated from Unite House on the evening of Sunday 18th. Having only arrived at my new place of residence two nights before, one can imagine the upheaval such an event caused, not just for myself, but for all the freshers in Unite, with questions and concerns abound: ‘Will my valuables be safe?’, ‘Will I have to chuck out food from the fridge and freezer?’ and ‘Where on earth am I going to stay?!’.

Over the course of no less than 12 hours, all such questions invariably found an answer. The particular fortune of myself and many others was that, having not gone out ‘on a big one’, I spent the night - what was left of it - resting my head on several fluffy pillows on a double bed in a rather congenial hotel, with a full breakfast in the morning - not to mention an absence of any form of electrical failure. For those who had ventured out clubbing and partying, a paltry degree of floor space in Orchard Heights or some other hall of residence was as agreeable as it got.

When I eventually returned to my room, all was thankfully as it had been, indicating that a posse of drunken blockheads hadn’t gone racing around the vacant corridors raiding people’s rooms. Sadly, the dairy did have to go, though Unite claimed they would compensate us individually for any food items we had to dispose. Whether they actually did, I am unsure of. We were provided with ‘goodwill payments’ of around £70 to be credited against our first instalment of rent, which was nice. Suffice to say, the amount of money it must have cost Unite to pay for travel and accommodation for the vast majority of its residents would have been enormous. I have heard numbers reaching five figures through the grapevine, and such an eye-watering amount really doesn’t seem that implausible.

The reason I bring up the dosh is that it’s clearly in Unite’s interest never to allow such a catastrophic balls-up to occur again. Not that any of the students were conducting midnight prayers in their incensefilled rooms to Imhotep to cast down further power cuts either. The point is that nobody wants this to happen again, which brings me neatly onto what always bemuses me about electrical power failures

Epislam weekly* Epislam interrupts its fortnightly breaking news coverage to announce that as of today, we will be hiring moles to infiltrate The Bristol Tab. The Tab is a website of great stature, producing serious hard-hitting content that Epislam could barely dream of. This needs to change.

There’s no way we could simply beat them to news stories, because we aren’t competent enough, so instead we will be hiring someone to provide us with intel on their breaking news stories.

Candidates will require stealth, initiative, a complete lack of self-respect and a punchy down-to-earth writing style that people can enjoy whilst taking a shit.

Please send applications to a.real.newspaper@epislam. com - Thank you. *Epislam is a fictional publication

Caption competition: Twenty-first century tyrants This week, Epigram delves into the nature of today’s tyrants with punchy concision.

@BenjaminJParr

Think you can navigate your way around a good meme better than us? You probably can. Send your best captions to @EpigramComment and we’ll be posting our favourites online!

Flickr Flickr / Justin / Davao Trudeau Today

Kremlin.ru

Flickr / Conservatives Flickr / European Parliament

@StefanRollnick

Flickr / JDLasica

Stephen Harper

Flickr Flickr / The / Gage People Skidmore Speak!

Wikimedia commons

Flickr / Gage Skidmore

@EdFernyhough

Epigram

17.10.2016

10

The NUS is the laughing stock of students everywhere

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Scarlett Sherriff argues that in order for Bristol to progress, we must vote to leave the NUS in the referendum Scarlett Sherriff Comment writer

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Currently the National Union of Students is governed by an offensive laughing stock

For the record, disaffiliation from the NUS is, for me, little to do with the pro-Brexit soundbite, ‘Take back control’; self-governance is not a priority for me. Of course we need a nationwide union for students, but right now we have no choice but to leave the NUS and start one from scratch with other disaffiliated universities. The main factors of my rage being the union’s hypocrisy about it’s uncalled for, naïve identity politics and about the fact it fails to talk about education beyond what job prospects one can get with their 2:1 (ironically, it’s a lot fewer than it should be).

We have no choice but to leave the NUS and start one from scratch with other disaffiliated universities

Worse still, it should definitely not be a platform for her terrifyingly anti-semitic language. When she described Birmingham University as ‘a Zionist outpost’, it sounded exactly like she was suggesting that every member of their J-soc was a Zionist.

Generalisation is the first stage of racism, and this message understandably enraged and frightened many Jewish students. This was made clear in a letter signed by members of Jewish Societies across the country, including the President of Bristol’s own J-soc, Ella Bazini. Surely, enough is enough.

It’s telling that even The Guardian journalist who interviewed Bouattia ended up shouting at her in despair.

No wonder, as amongst all of this controversy, the NUS is doing nothing functional about some of the most important issues students face.

Where are the posters about tuition fees? In its statement, Bristol Reclaim Education, which

NUS President FlickrMalia / Nilsfor Sautterl

Disaffiliation from the NUS is the only way to change student politics from effectively defunct, to functional. We need a union that speaks for all and fearlessly tackles relevant issues.

Currently the National Union of Students is governed by an offensive laughing stock. It carries out vague campaigns without properly tackling issues like inequality, passively accepting the fast-paced commercialisation of education. The Independent noted that NUS placards at one of its demos read ‘Educate, Empower, Employ’. That message is, put simply: pay so that you get a good job. Surely, students are at university for more than that.

Malia Bouattia, the current leader of the NUS, instead chooses to discuss her views on Israel and Palestine, an issue that is controversial from whichever angle you tackle it. Sheis not a diplomat; her realm is the National Union of Students,in Britain.

This discussion does not have a place in a union that is supposed to be supportive of all students regardless of their political stance or background.

The election of Malia Bouattia, contraversial president of NUS, was one of the things that triggered the referndum

fights against everything it feels is counter to the idea of education as a right, justifiably called the NUS Remain campaign out on its use of the NUS discount and council tax exemption as tools.

My only disagreement: BRE argue that we can change the NUS from within. Certainly not for a long while; currently it looks like the National Union of Students will continue to pay lip-service to those they claim to fight for. With Bouattia busy making ridiculous anti-semitic statements about J Socs and Megan Dunn, previous president of the NUS, busy debating whether we should celebrate Holocaust Memorial Day, it looks like the NUS will

try and buy us in with the merits of their discount card, and will have a policy of all words no action to issues like tuition fees.

So, no thank you NUS. I am not a passive consumer. I can think for myself, and I won’t support you. Most definitely not until Malia Bouattia goes. Not until I see huge mass protests, involving students from every single university, called against performance-based fees. Not until I see a message that university is a place for the development of critical thought, and not until I see a call for, especially in the light of Brexit, much more government funding.

Walking away won’t change the NUS: vote remain Kate Raison insists that leaving the NUS isn’t the solution for Bristol; working together from the inside is Kate Raison

Comment writer

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system of the NUS, the planned reform for 2017 shows constant work for improvement. Hope is not lost, change can still happen.

This referendum on affiliation with the NUS has brought up some uncomfortable and worrying questions, but it does not mean we should give up

on a union that has the potential to do so much more good for students than it already has. The problems cannot be denied, but they also cannot be ignored. They need to be addressed, changes need to be made and we need to move forward together.

We cannot do that from outside the NUS.

You can’t be a part of change you feel passionate about if you leave the organisation that makes that change possible

However, this does lead to questions about antiSemitism in the organisation as a whole. Recently, the motion at the national conference to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day was met with resistance from some in the union, leading to a wave of criticism from the Jewish community and politicians.

The Memorial Day is an incredibly important part of respecting the victims and educating many about the Holocaust and other genocides. Changing the direction of the NUS to better accept and respect events such as these can only happen if those inside the union act. If we leave now, we have no power over the course of such a big organisation with such a potential to be a force for good.

Claims of lack of representation and democracy in the NUS are weak. If you do not like the direction of the union, change it. It is there for you, so exercise your right as a member. And as for the democratic

Facebook / Yes to NUS Bristol Flickr / DFID

‘We should be defending our education from marketisation - together. ‘ - Becky Howe, quoted in The Independent.

The Oxford University Student Union president summed it up – you cannot be a part of change you feel passionate about, if you leave the organisation that makes that change possible. There is more to consider in a 94-year-old union than its current president. With seven million students behind it, there is huge potential for change both within and outside the organisation.

Although the election of Malia Bouattia in April was the last straw for many, with universities across the country calling for referendums, those who have voted so far predominately come down on the side to stay, including Oxbridge and our neighbours Bath and Exeter. And with good reason too.

No one can ignore the power of a national union, especially given the NUS’ affiliation with over 500 universities and sixth forms. No individual SU could carry the same clout as an organisation of that size, even Bristol. With Tory cuts and threats to raise fees further, we need to keep united and fight for the debt-free education we believe in. The NUS helps us do this, from the successful 1992 council tax exemption for students campaign to the national demonstration planned for November this year.

“The Conservatives will never listen!” I hear you cry. Fear not, they already have. In 2015, the NUS successfully secured post-graduate tuition loans for over-30s through their #capsoff campaign. If that doesn’t fill you with just a glimmer of hope in these dark, grantless, debt-filled days, I do not know what will.

As fantastic as many parts of the NUS are, recent controversies need to be addressed, particularly the anti-Semitism debate. There is outrage surrounding Bouattia’s claim in 2011 that Birmingham was a ‘Zionist outpost’, leading to accusations of antiSemitism. I do not agree with and nor do I condone Bouattia’s conduct, but I do believe the union is not just who leads them. The sheer size of the NUS and the frequently changing face from annual presidential elections, leads me to think that leaving over Bouattia is rash.

Epigram

17.10.2016

11

Political correctness has no place at university Ed Southgate demands that we fight for free speech in an age of increasingly restrictive political correctness Ed Southgate

Comment writer It is a familiar scene. At 11:00 on November 11th we stand silent to remember those who fought for our freedom. Those who disrupt the silence are often shamed and told to ‘show some respect’.

Is it not ironic, though, that those same people who shame others for not adopting one minute’s silence, are actually the ones to show the most disrespect and disregard to the freedoms that were fought for us?

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Those same people who shame others for not adopting one minute’s silence are actually the ones to show the most direspect...to the freedoms that were fought for us

When I say freedom, I refer to the freedoms in the European Convention of Human Rights; the freedom from slavery, of religion, the freedom of expression and the freedom of speech, to name a few. The latter two hold particular significance; everyone has the right to hold an opinion and should be able to express it without interference by public authority.

These particular rights are vital for students to flourish and experiment with ideas. University is a time to experiment and debate opinions, so any individual’s opinions must be respected if we are to respect the freedoms we enjoy. So why, why, why

are we insistent on throwing about terms like ‘racist’, ‘sexist’, ‘homophobic’ or ‘xenophobic’ in an attempt to supress any opinion which conflicts our own?

Recently, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry claimed sexism when she could not answer relevant interview questions. Erm? No. It is this ludicrous misuse of serious terminology that is resulting in word-inflation; terms are being carelessly thrown around, whilst real cases of prejudice, such as FGM, in need of tackling are lost.

Britain, and British universities, have always proudly had a long tradition of democracy and debate; it is this democratic, debating flair which allows us as student to grow. As our culture, however, moves towards rigid political correctness, where is our opportunity to truly debate these issues anymore?

With the world of Twitter at our disposal, essentially anything posted is ‘offensive’ and ought to be deleted. Furthermore, it seems that our social media savvy generation are more likely to accuse others of prejudices, not least because most students are statistically left-wing - the political side more vocal with these terms, as demonstrated by Thornberry.

It seems, therefore, that the UK, and Western Culture, is demanding that freedom of speech must only be free if we agree with what is said. Never before has Orwell’s dystopian 1984 seemed more relevant, as ‘thought-control’ rises.

We have resorted to public shaming and control of opinions. If anyone expresses a slight concern about immigration levels, of gay marriage, or of anything else, then apparently they are nothing more than a ‘disgusting, racist, homophobic, xenophobic bigot” with no value in our society and a voice not worth listening to.

Many newspapers mistook the story to be about the classic Verdi opera rather than the Elton John musical

Coronation Street star, Marc Anwar, was recently fired for ambiguous comments which received our traditional Twitter labelling of ‘racism’. Did we debate or challenge what he said? Nope. We fired him. We controlled him based on whether his views were the ‘right’ views, whether his words were the ‘right’ words.

Some universities have introduced ‘safe spaces’, where certain things are forbidden from being said on the off-chance that someone may be offended.

The University of Bristol was forced to cancel their performance of ‘Aida’ following protests against ‘white-washing’ the cast.

This is all wrong. The irony is that those protestors encourage discrimination, and discourage meritocracy. I say cast the better actor! Ignore skin colour and cast the best actor!

I say offence is always taken, never given. If you are ‘offended’ by something, challenge it. The best way to undermine someone is not to label and to control them, but to prove them wrong with facts and figures.

Now, before I get labelled for writing this, I should mention that I fully support issues such

as gay marriage, gender equality, and controlled immigration, but I also respect conflicting opinion.

I will not agree, but I will respect. Indeed, there is a distinct difference between respecting and agreeing with a view. They can be mutually exclusive. Not everything must be agreed on. But everything must be heard, respected, debated. Nothing should be buried and shamed.

Is one of the reasons I will vote Bristol out of the NUS because of Bouattia’s ‘anti-Semitic’ comments?

No. I will vote out because her views on the Jewish community conflict with my own.

If someone agreed with her views, however, I will never just tweet calling them a ‘disgusting anti-Semite’; I will ask why they have formed their opinion, and I will state the reasons why I disagree.

We may still disagree by the end of the discussion.

We may not. But we will have had a discussion.

We must never sacrifice democracy for the sake of political correctness. We do not have to agree with an opinion, but an opinion must be respected and heard. Debate is where our opinions as students thrive. Debate is where democracy succeeds. Debate is where we respect the freedoms fought for us.

Memoirs of a(nother) disgruntled student tenant Hope Carpenter shares her experience of student lettings and offers advice on how to avoid similar issues Hope Carpenter Comment writer

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your landlord immediately, keeping copies of your correspondence.’

Although this takes time initially, it is really important. Last year, after being extortionately charged for cleaning and maintenance bills, eating massively into our deposit, we duly sent over the pictures we took when we moved in. The underside of the living room rug was lined with house party debris and there were loads of chipped surfaces.

We were then reimbursed almost all of the deposit.

Students: 1, Letting Agency: nil.

When moving out students, understandably, try as hard as they can to prevent being charged for breakages but these are often not spotted by the estate agent making the charges. This year my wardrobe and shower were cleverly disguised to look fully-functioning. It was only when I put my clothes away and my wardrobe fell on top of me, and took a shower and the head burst off, did I realise the wardrobe only had three legs and the

shower-head was placed to look as if it was actually fixed to the pipe.

‘Insurance: It’s important you take out insurance to cover your possessions.’

Not many of us actually take out this insurance but the average student brings £3,375 worth of possessions with them. It is very easy to leave windows and back-doors open before heading out at night, especially when there are lots of housemates. In the first week you hear many stories of stolen laptops, TVs and even cars…

There are plenty of other pieces of advice, but I would add a few of my own. Firstly, ensure your loan comes in before your rent is due. Secondly, you shouldn’t be afraid to go into the agencies and do what students do best - stage a demonstration (they hate the bad press). Finally, like myself, tell other students about your past experiences so we can all learn from each other’s mistakes and love one another. Xoxo

It cuts deep to hear that your landlord or private student letting agency doesn’t have time for you anymore

So, here’s a snippet of information posted on the university website. The advice may seem mundane but will genuinely prove to be useful.

‘Inventory: Ensuring you document exactly what is in your property and any existing damage or issues will help towards getting your deposit back. If your landlord has not provided one, you can download a blank inventory template (PDF) and complete it yourself. Take dated photos of existing damage and report and problems to

Jordan Kelly-Linden

‘Sorry, [insert your ever-changing, supposedly personal, probably trainee property manager’s name here] is on her lunch break. I’ll make sure she gets back to you as soon as possible’.

‘But it’s 3pm and I’m the third member of this property to call today…’

‘Oh, I apologise, I’ll make sure she gets back to you as soon as possible. Have a nice day.’ *The call flat-lines* For every similar lunch-break, there is a student heart-break. It cuts deep to hear that your landlord or private student letting agency doesn’t have time for you anymore. It’s a real shame; you have had such a good relationship ever since signing on the dotted line last Christmas. He or she would not stop emailing you. All those months of pursuit… they were even starting to get clingy. Sadly, those persistent honeymoon-period emails are long gone - even if they were demanding payment, card details or another signature. Now here you are: wearing the trousers, making all the effort. You might even consider yourself dumped.

I hear countless similar break-up stories. If only these kind of destructive relationships could be avoided, or at least some advice could be offered before entering into them. Well, in fact, in the process of researching how to advise avoiding such messy breakups I stumbled across some useful information.

Although it is not widely known, or rarely ever sought-after ex ante, the university does have a student accommodation service which offers some potentially very useful online and face-toface advice. By the time Bristol students reach their final year they tend to become dumpees of the T-Swift scale, so many wish they’d received similar tips to dodge the bullet themselves.

We all know how pesky some student letting agencies can get away with being. Of course, they

have the upper hand and take advantage of this position. We end up looking around a handful of properties in Redland or Clifton - or that other place near that boat - and rush into making a decision in a climate of scaremongering that ‘all the best properties have gone’ or that ‘around fifteen other groups have viewed this one today, all very keen’.

This is despite the obvious damp, mould and even the odd slug. This is all fine though of course; you’ll get a de-humidifier thrown in, the mould will not be there next year because ‘it’s being re-done in 2016’, and you get those slugs everywhere in Bristol - Clifton’s like the countryside isn’t it, duh.

No sensible property-seeking adult would accept the standards some student houses are handed over in. Yet due to the laws of supply and demand, they tend to get a far better deal as well.

What student has the time, money or even correct information to properly complain or resort to court action?

Student Jordan Kelly-Linden can relate to Hope’s experience of shoddy student accomodation.

Epigram

17.10.2016

Science & Tech

@EpigramSciTech Editor: Matt Davis Deputy Editor: Katie Coates Online Editor: Gina Degtyareva

mdavis@epigram.org.uk katie.coates@epigram.org.uk gina@epigram.org.uk

Immigrant vote could have stopped the Tories

electorate is old fashioned, and does not have a place in the modern society.

The researchers argue that the electorate would be better determined on the grounds of residency - that is, if the person in question spends more than 180 days per year on UK soil, as per the requirements to obtain a UK work visa.

By allowing all who meet this criteria to vote, not only could we make our system more democratic, it would also mean that constituency boundaries would need to

be redrawn, giving urban areas a larger number of MPs, allowing the electorate in general to enjoy a more proportional representation.

One of the most significant arguments that the paper puts forward is that by allowing adult migrants to vote, the central parties would have to temper the anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become a vital part of modern politics.

It also may allow ‘marginal parties or new political entrepreneurs’ to ‘target

urban areas with large immigrant voting blocs. In closely fought elections, these parties could hold the balance of power if a coalition were necessary’.

The paper uses data from the 2015 general election,where due to immigrant population in certain constituencies, up to 95 could be considered swing seats, which would have put the result of the election into question.

This is particularly significant to the immigrant population in the UK, as a

large proportion hail from EU member states, and the conservative policy of holding a referendum of Britain’s EU membership casts their future in the UK under doubt.

2.15 million EU nationals resident in the UK were excluded from the vote.

Had they been allowed to vote they could have easily overturned the 1.27 million vote majority that the leave campaign won by.

As the paper states; ‘the rapid expansion of the UK’s immigrant population since 1997 has resulted in an increasingly distorted political system in which a sizeable share of the adult population lacks political voice. This lack of voice has created a vulnerable population that is increasingly treated as a universal scapegoat for social, economic and security concerns.’

This goes directly against the principles of equality that the current generation strives for. While the study cannot say whether the 2015 election results would have been different had immigrants been allowed to vote, we could be looking at a very different political reality than the one we now find ourselves confronted with.

With the current mistrust of immigrants that has been fostered by the government and the press, electoral reform seems an unlikely immediate step for the current administration.

However, it is a necessary one to preserve the integrity of the British democracy, and to ensure that everyone who lives and works in the UK has a say over its future.

expert John Sileo argues that the use of webmail (and web-based software like Facebook) is akin to leaving your valuables in a hotel room. Though still definitely yours, and ostensibly safe, you have much less control over how they are accessed. The proliferation of Cloud based systems – which hackers deem a ‘fruit-bearing jackpot’ - is also unnerving. There has been a sharp rise in attacks on such systems, so attractive because while mass amounts of data are kept in one place, standard installation procedures are often inadequate

and leave businesses vulnerable. The University of Bristol uses Google Drive and One Drive - the supposed security of each is contended and prompts continual debate.

The new age of social media is markedly altering the way that cyber criminals operate. Zeus Trojan, a malware initially employed to steal credit card data, is now used to generate artificial Instagram likes and followers which can be purchased online. Though predominantly used by businesses for marketing purposes, a simple Google

search – ‘who buys bogus instagram likes’ -- brought some interesting results. The top hit was a post by a female blogger, who reports buying fake Instagram followers and likes to improve her image. She describes the ease with which she purchased 1500 likes for $15 (interestingly, this is much more expensive than 1000 credit card numbers, which the RSA report cost around $6). The post contained not the slightest consideration of the illegality of such actions. Neither did the author question whose photos were used in the fake accounts generated.

The boundaries of cybercrime become blurred. As well as being targeted, it seems average citizens are also unintentionally participating in this growing problem.

Beyond social media, the new payment methods that have sprung up leave us more vulnerable to cybercrime.

Contactless payments and Apple pay have meant online or cashless payments have overtaken actual cash transactions for the first time.

Fraudsters have developed mobile card readers to ‘steal’ card details remotely (from much greater distances than previously anticipated) – which are then used in combination with fake names and addresses to make online purchases.

Cybercrime should be viewed in light of a changing political climate.

Terrorism and cybercrime, for example, are increasingly intertwined. The Daily

Dot reports how shootings attributed to the Islamic State in France have ‘routinely been followed by attacks online’. Online newspapers were targeted - their sites ‘defaced’ with ‘extremist propaganda …even while Montrouge shooter Amedy Coulibaly was still carrying out a killing spree’.

The future of cybercrime in Britain in particular becomes uncertain when the potential implications of leaving the European Union are considered. Around 87 per cent of the senior members in London’s tech industry opposed Brexit amid fears of the negative impact on their workforce, so crucial at this point in time. On exit, Britain is unlikely to be bound to any developments in the European Data Protection Act. Will British citizens be more at risk than their European counterparts?

There seems to be a growing sense of doom regarding cybercrime, made particularly clear by articles such as the Guardian’s, titled ‘The State of Cyber Security: we’re all screwed’. However, the government has pledged to spend £860 million on an improved cyber security plan and initiatives are appearing across the country. Nearby Aztec West in Bristol holds workshops encouraging young tech enthusiasts to don ‘white’ rather than ‘black’ caps – working legally to spot holes in security systems, instead of maliciously attacking them.

Perhaps it is the students of today who hold the solutions to these menacing problems.

Emma Isle Science Writer

Flickr: UK Houses of Parliament

In a time of political turmoil, both in the UK and overseas, a new study from the University of Bristol has revealed that national election results could have appeared vastly different if all immigrants were granted the right to vote.

The study, which was published by Dr Sean Fox, Professor Ron Johnston and Dr David Manly of the school of geographical sciences, states: if all the estimated 2.3 million immigrants in England and Wales had been allowed to vote in the 2015 parliamentary election, then up to 95 seats could have been won by a different party.

The researchers argue strongly that all immigrants who contribute to the UK economy, and who would be directly affected by the actions of the British government, should be allowed to vote in parliamentary elections. Selective exclusion from the electorate based on citizenship is a violation of democratic principles.

The inequality expressed by the current system means that while some immigrants are able to vote in all elections, others are only able to vote in local elections and some are not able to vote at all. The study argues that this system is ‘a confused relic of empire and geopolitical negotiation rather than a logical extension of underlying democratic principles’; put simply, our current system of who makes up the

Have you been a victim of cyber crime?

Rumer Ramsey Science Writer Cybercrime is a pressing threat which we should all, as students, be aware of. 18 to 24 year olds are the most likely to be successfully targeted by online criminals and one in every four people (27.3 per cent) in this age group have endured a cyber attack. Internetheavy lifestyles leave young people at constant risk, and popular services like WhatsApp aren’t necessarily as secure as one might expect. Identity theft

Flickr/Ti Flickr/Blue Coat Photos

Epigram 17.10.2016

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Never judge a brain by its planet Georgia Myers Science Writer How we think, what we do, what we feel -- everything that makes us who we are can be attributed to one crucially important organ: the brain. With recent research highlighting distinct anatomical differences between the brains of men and women it seems there may be evidence to support the idea that gender behaviour differences are hardwired. However, we should be very careful in making such generalisations, scientists warn.

A recent study, in which the brains of nearly 1000 adolescents were imaged, revealed some interesting distinctions between genders, with males showing far more connections within hemispheres (the right and left subdivisions of the brain) and females with more interconnectivity between hemispheres. This pattern, the researchers claim, could help to explain some behavioural differences between

men and women. Since the back of the brain is generally concerned more with processing sensory information like sights and sounds, and the front more involved in decision-making and planning actions, the increased connectivity between front and back in men could support the view that men tend to outshine women at motor

scientific community. Since connectivity changes throughout a lifetime, it’s hard to say whether such differences are the product of our genetics or whether in fact they come back to a sort of selffulfilling prophecy of the old ‘sugar

Less than 8% of people’s brains appear to fit into a gender category

and spice’ stereotypes. Studies have shown that adults react differently to the same young baby, dressed the same way, depending on whether they are told it is a girl or a boy. So this

stuff starts very young, and you can blame your parents for a lot of it! With an average of 700 new neural connections formed each second throughout the first few years of life, the environment we’re exposed to as children has a huge impact on the way our brain moulds itself. If a young boy, for instance, is encouraged to play and build with bricks over his female counterpart, it’s hardly surprising that he rapidly develops more elaborate spatial processing connections.

Alternatively she may have dolls thrust upon her, giving her the edge when it comes to social, verbal and emotional connections. Just like any skill, the more you practise, the more you improve, and these improvements are largely down to the changes occurring within your brain. So it is more of a two-way street - our brains influence what we do and

how well we do it, but what we do, and how often, helps to shape our brains, and this continues throughout our lives as we learn new skills and practise old ones.

Nevertheless, certain structural features within the brain can be classed as more typically male or female and, regardless of what’s driving these differences, such discrepancies are important to realise. They may prove to be the secret to understanding why women are twice as likely to suffer from depression, or men five times more likely to suffer from autism. But perhaps we should question the impact of raising a child in a specific gender, in line with specific stereotypes, or to go one step further and ask whether there is really such a necessity for gender as a social category at all.

Flickr-Adeel Anwer

“ Nearly 1000 adolscents were imaged revealing some ineresting distinctions between genders

tasks such as throwing and catching.

Meanwhile the inter-hemisphere connections in women may lend themselves to better intuitive thinking and multi-tasking.

Additionally, men and women seem to have more of their cerebral cortex, the bumpy surface of the brain where our most sophisticated processing occurs - dedicated to different functions. For men, a larger region of cortex is defined for processing spatial information while women have a larger area for verbal function. Perhaps this explains the old cliché that men don’t like asking for directions - they’d prefer to leave the task up to their better developed ‘spatial brain’ or, in other words, to fixate on a map in front of them. The differences don’t stop there; women also have a larger hippocampus, where memory, including verbal memory, is primarily housed, providing them with better vocabularies and writing skills at an early age. They also produce more of two chemicals oxytocin and serotonin, leading them to be generally calmer and more engaged with emotional connection. This suggests that boys may learn more efficiently through visual and spatial activities while girls learn better through verbal communication; perhaps then there is a biological basis for the apparent male attraction to so-called STEM subjects and female preference for the arts.

But can such a black-and-white distinction really be made? An extensive study involving 1400 subjects showed that in fact less than 8% of people appear to fit neatly into a gender category when it comes to their brain structure. While it does seem that some sort of spectrum exists for male and female brain attributes, there is certainly no clear cut division, sparking a ‘nature versus nurture’ type debate in the

Under the Microscope...head transplants, obesity and three person babies...

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Callum MC

first The has baby gg n o rs e p to an e e s k re n al a th matern e US th e th th in th rn o o b cleus b u e n n bee us of th the maternal le c u n sperm. , The d with moved l donor. fertilise were re s n the fata g e g g th e n r ti d ri n no ided of inhe r egg a and do v o e c n ro n o p a d r h o hc ith the he don d a hig t of the fused w rome. T hild ha per cen ’s Synd e, the c .1 h s 0 a ig c p e L u is s r, e e ailable k v a rd a In th o w m is o d h n A whic dure is ondrial N e h c D c netic l o ro e a it p g ri l m ond eadly uccessfu mitoch other d e. This s ay it y s n m s a o healthy c n ti m e ri move verall g wever, c could re child’s o ture. Ho y. What UK and bryos in the fu this wa e in th A N in D m e h feel it m ld w s fro ou wou tamper disease think y sible to u n o le o y p p o o s e d is irre How three p think? e up of do you re mad e w u o ? if y of two instead

Katie Coates

Aoife Hannon

explains head transplants

explains obesity research

the first successful three person baby has been born!

Flickr/thellr

Flickr/thellr

Flickr/thellr

Epigram 17.10.2016

14

Research: it’s not just for postgrads!

If you’re an undergraduate interested in dipping your toe into the endlessly fascinating world of research, you’ll want to take a look at Bristol’s Interdisciplinary Research Internship scheme.

Every year, the University Research Committee offers eight-week summer internships to undergraduates for research projects that bring together two different disciplines. The projects are co-supervised by two academics, one from each field.

The 2016 recipients – 23 undergraduates from across all faculties – recently presented the results of their work at Clifton Hill House, to an audience that included Vice-Chancellor Professor Hugh Brady, Professor Nishan Canagarajah, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) and the faculty Deans.

From the biophysics of the eye to teachers’ experience of transgender issues in schools to acoustic levitation, the projects ran the full gamut of research topics, and opened up new possibilities for future work.

Crossing disciplines ‘This scheme is about giving our students an opportunity to pursue real research with our staff,’ said Professor Canagarajah. ‘The majority of our undergraduate degrees include a final-year project, but with this we’re offering something different: an opportunity for them to engage with another discipline.’

Each student’s presentation was limited to two minutes and two slides, with only one question from the audience. Each also produced a poster on their project, with a prize for the two posters judged the best.

The winners were Zinnia Siddiqi (‘Phase

change material used in window blinds for energy storage’) and Maximilian Kloucek (‘Detecting metabolic activity of living bacteria using evanescent waves’).

Thinking outside the box Zinnia Siddiqi said of the project: ‘Being able to do this research has been an amazing experience – it gave me the time and the support to look at how we can use simple thermodynamic materials to improve our lives.’

Her co-supervisor, Dr Hind Saidani-Scott, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, said: ‘Zinnia is an excellent student and she worked very hard on the project. The internship is a great opportunity for students to see if an idea is feasible and to investigate it.’

Interested? Look out for the next round being advertised later this year, or contact: interdisciplinary-internships@bristol. ac.uk.

Zinnia Siddiqi, whose poster on window blinds was judged the best in this year’s scheme

What others involved said about the project...

‘This is the first time I was able to do something so independently for such a long period. I want to thank my supervisors – I really enjoyed the experience and I’d thoroughly recommend students to apply for it.’

Katie Barnes-Monaghan, Law student (‘Regulation of hydraulic fracturing in the context of Brexit’)

‘I think the interdisciplinary nature of it encourages students to think outside the box, and you can see that in the quality of the projects. And for both students and staff, it helps you to build new links, and opens up possibilities for more collaborations.’

Dr James Verdon, Katie’s cosupervisor from the School of Earth Sciences

‘It gave me the chance to really investigate research, to advance my veterinary knowledge, and to collaborate with a different department. It’s been so useful to be able to branch out into the field of engineering and learn some new programming languages.’

Alex Chan, Veterinary Science student (‘Kinematic characterisation of locomotor recovery in dogs with acute spinal cord injury’)

Autumn Art Lectures at the University This Autumn, the University of Bristol will once again host its annual series of public lectures on the arts.

The lectures will seek to show how theatre is one of the most ephemeral of art forms, but the visual arts can offer new ways of capturing and understanding the theatrical world.

The lectures this year will host a range of distinguished speakers, who will explore forms of theatrical representation in art and demonstrate how theatre can be rediscovered through different creative forms. The series will cover aspects of art from the Ancient world to the present day, offering unique insights into rarely seen material, from the use of art by an actor as he develops his role to the translation of theatre design into other art forms.

A variety of topics will be considered throughout the series. Art and theatre historian Marcus Risdell will examine what happens when artist and actor collide, while Thomas Messell looks at the influence of his uncle, theatrical and set designer Oliver Messell.

History of theatre will be discussed, from 18th-century Japanese drama to Ancient Greek plays. Professor Adrian Heathfield will close the series with a lecture entitled ‘Spirited Affinities’; he asks how we might rethink the temporality of performance and the relations that sustain it.

“

“The visual arts can offer new ways of capturing and understanding the theatrical world.”

The free lectures take place on six consecutive Tuesdays starting with Laurence Olivier Award winning actor Sir Antony Sher on 25 October, 6.15pm. They will take place in the Wills Memorial Building and at the Priory Road lecture theatre in the Priory Road complex.

Visit bristol.ac.uk/autumn-artlectures for more information or to book a place.

University Sponsored Content

Epigram 17.10.2016

15

Black History Month at Bristol Black History Month is an annual commemoration throughout October, which celebrates the culture, history and achievement of Britain’s African and Caribbean communities.

The University, the SU and the city all have events on, including dance, music, film, theatre, talks and workshops, so take your pick and come along.

‘Close to the Bone’ is an opportunity to listen to readings and performances on the lives of enslaved people in a sugar plantation owner’s former home.

Inspired by archaeological evidence, five writers will read extracts from their work simultaneously in different rooms.

The event is part of the University’s Literary Archaeology project, which is spearheaded by Dr Josie Gill, a lecturer in Black British Writing. This project aims to bring together archaeological scientists, writers and literary scholars to explore what it was like to be enslaved.

More info can be found on our website: bristol.ac.uk /arts/research / literaryarchaeology.

We recently featured Josie talking about the project as one of our Bristol Faces – here’s an excerpt: Tell us about the Literary Archaeology project.

We don’t know much about how enslaved people experienced their lives.

We only have fragments of information: fragments of the bodies of slaves themselves, which archaeologists examine to see what they can tell us about their diet, their health, their origins and so on; and historical fragments, which writers and literary scholars use to build imaginative narratives. So what happens if we bring these two groups of people together? That’s the idea of the project.

Who’s involved and what are they doing?

Doctor Josie Gill, lecturer in Black British writing, who is spearheading the University’s Literary Archaeology project

We have two scientific archaeologists and seven creative writers, and so far we’ve held two workshops with them, where we looked at human remains from two sites, a burial ground in Gran Canaria and one in Barbados. Both groups had questions and perspectives that the others hadn’t thought of, and the writers used the scientific information as a starting point to create new pieces

of work.

archaeology.

How’s it going?

Really well. These two groups of people have different ways of working and using language, so we all had to come with open minds and open hearts. We’ve had some really interesting reflections: about what the archaeology can tell us, about the tensions between these disciplines, about the ethics of human

What’s been most interesting to you so far?

One of the most interesting things that we’ve talked about is the role of emotion in science. The writers have been very interested in the emotions of the archaeologists: how did it feel to handle these bones and to deal with this material?

What are you enjoying most about the project?

It’s really taken me out of my comfort zone. I’m used to being in the library, reading and writing on my own; working with scientists and writers is new to me.

I’ve enjoyed hearing different people’s perspectives, seeing different ways of working, and that’s opened up the way I approach my own work.

You can read the full interview and lots of others in the #BristolFaces album on the University’s Facebook page (www. facebook.com/bristoluniversity).

Close to the Bone Date: 22 October Place: The Georgian House Museum, 7 Great George Street Time: 2pm–3pm Cost: FREE More events on & off campus SU events: search Black History Month at www.bristolsu.org. uk/events or tinyurl.com/BEMBHM2016

The Georgian House museum, where the University’s ‘Close to the Bone’ event will be happening on 22nd October

Bristol City Council programme: www.bristol.gov. uk/people-communities/blackhistory-month

University Sponsored Content

Epigram 17.10.2016

Letters

@EpigramLetters

Editor: Claire Hargreaves letters@epigram.org.uk

In defence of grammar schools...

‘The many, many positive aspects of grammar schools were simply glossed over’

However, I couldn’t help but consider the article ‘No Country for Old Schools,’ in the last edition of Epigram as a false portrayal of grammar schools.

The article seemed to be hinged on the notion that these institutions are some kind of oligopoly, while the truly deserving are left to rot in the comprehensive system - consigned to the dust pile forever more after failing the 11+.

Furthermore, the many, many positive aspects of grammar schools were simply glossed over. While the assertion that only three per cent of students at grammar schools are entitled to free school meals, compared to a national average of 13 per cent, is technically correct, it is worth considering the context to this. The vast majority of the 163 grammar schools in the UK are in the South East and South West - the most wealthy areas of the

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As someone who generally identifies as a leftist, it is somewhat alarming to be arguing in favour of a Conservative policy.

country. The North East, the region with the highest child poverty rate according to Barnardos, has zero grammar schools, a result of grammar schools being phased out far more quickly in traditional Labour strongholds than in their Conservative counterparts from the 1960s onwards. Comparing the UK national average is therefore simply misleading.

Instead, a fair comparison would be the number of grammar school students versus the number of comprehensive students in the same area who are eligible for free meals, but these statistics are unavailable.

‘Grammar schools seem to be the scapegoat for a dysfunctional system’

However, even if these statistics were available, and even if they did demonstrate the same levels of inequality, the May government has proposed methods to provide for inclusive admissions such as quotas for pupils from poorer backgrounds, and more opportunities for children to switch to a grammar school throughout secondary school. Other provisions could be made too, such as means tested 11+ tutoring or outreach admissions teams to the poorest areas to assist both teachers and families in

Flickr / Andy Wilkes

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Oliver O’Loughlin Letters Writer

identifying suitable students.

Inequality aside, the author’s complaint with grammar schools seems to be more an indictment of the education system itself. If her claim that students outside of grammar schools are ‘floundering’ and ‘written off’ is true, doesn’t this say more about the standard of comprehensive schools around the country than act as evidence that grammar schools are not working?

It is perplexing that grammar

schools seem to be the scapegoat for a dysfunctional system when, really, all state schools are suffering under debilitating austerity measures imposed by the Cameron government.

Surely, greater investment in quality teaching and facilities would make a more substantial improvement to comprehensive education than the scrapping of grammar schools?

Grammar schools are some of the most successful scholastic institutions in the

country, in many cases rivalling top private schools in terms of GCSE and A-Level results. For many students who can’t afford to pay for private education, grammar schools offer an incredible opportunity.

I went to one myself, and the vast majority of my peers were not from families choosing a cheap alternative to private education; they came from hardworking backgrounds and were keen for their children to achieve their academic potential. My grammar school helped foster an appetite for learning which resulted in success, rather than the success being implicit as part of some ‘binary’ system.

From the schoolwork itself, to the atmosphere in classrooms, to the very ethos of the place, my grammar school identified, nurtured and promoted intellectual thought. It was unlike any other school I attended – all nine others, in fact. My grammar school is certainly largely responsible for where I am today.

In my opinion, the idea of abolishing grammar schools just does not make sense. It would deprive many students similar to myself of something amazing, in the apparent name of fairness.

However, common sense dictates that with more grammar schools, more students would be able to unlock their potential, and share some of the wonderful experiences and opportunities that my fellow grammar school graduates and I enjoyed.

Is smoking really on a par with obesity?

‘Once you start limiting healthcare for certain life style choices, where do you stop?’

This is a very controversial topic: once you start limiting health care for certain life style choices, where do you stop?

The NHS budget of £116 billion is under severe strain with a deficit of £2.45 billion at the end of the financial year in 2016, despite financial protection as agreed by the government. The demand for healthcare increases insatiably with the ageing population and also a general increase in population. Without continuing huge increases in funding, the deficit is set to balloon. Therefore, cuts are made which will require some form of rationing. It has been suggested that conditions significantly contributed to by lifestyle choices should be subject to this rationing.

It is fair to say that there is a huge difference between smoking and obesity, particularly within the student population.

‘Putting on weight as a student may be easier to do’

However, in 2016, the dangers of smoking are very well known: just look at the packaging. Students are among the most likely groups in society to smoke, drink and take drugs. Whereas obesity can sometimes be out of the individual’s control due to finance or other factors, smoking is often a conscious decision made with the knowledge that it will negatively affect your health. It is also a decision that many students take.

Smoking costs the NHS on average £2 billion annually. It causes 90% of lung cancer cases and is a significant contributing factor in many other cancers as well as many cardiovascular diseases. Of course, the NHS is not suggesting that for these lifethreatening diseases smokers should be pushed further down the list. However, it is important to note just how negative the effects of smoking can be. Not only is the habit expensive, it is also one that can be easily avoided; obesity perhaps cannot be avoided as easily. Smoking is known to slow the healing process and increase the risk of infection so it could be argued that smokers having nonurgent procedures should be made to wait until smoking cessation has been achieved.

In an ideal world, the NHS would have enough financial resources to ensure that no-one has to wait longer than others for non-essential surgery.

Some non-essential surgery can be

economically efficient if it enables productive work in an otherwise sick individual whether or not they smoke or are obese. Therefore, the savings released by rationing may not ultimately benefit society.

However, with regards to smoking and obesity, particularly among students, if cuts have to be made then I do not think they should be made to obese

people. This is an illness that is often out of many people’s control. Smoking, however, is a conscious decision made by many young people.

The NHS should be encouraged to find other ways of saving money,but if rationing of healthcare services is on the agenda, then they should look very carefully at the lifestyle choices they are trying to restrict and the causes behind them.

Flickr / Leni Tuschen

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Epigram recently published an article discussing the NHS’s recent decision to limit health care for smokers and obese people. In order to target the NHS’s problem of overspending, these people may have to wait longer for nonessential surgery than those people who do not smoke and who are not obese.

On average, students only have between £20 and £40 a week to spend on food. Unfortunately, cheaper food is likely to be unhealthier and this inevitably has an effect on one’s diet. Indeed, a 2015 student survey found that budgeting affects 63% of a student’s diet’s. Therefore, putting on weight as a student may be easier to do. In the same way that lower income households often struggle with obesity, so too do students. The NHS should take care limiting health care in this instance as this can be out of the student’s control.

Smoking, on the other hand, I see as a different issue. Perhaps thirty or forty years ago, when the dangers of smoking were less well known, then we could argue that the decision to smoke was ill-informed.

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Ellie Chesshire Letters Writer

Tweets of the fortnight: @OliviaMarcus

‘Just overheard a Fresher saying “I don’t know if I wanna go to Motion 3 nights in a row but also I do” #firstworldproblems #BristolUni’

@GeorgeRitson98

‘Uni might as well just have full access to my bank account at this rate’

@Lorelei_Bowman

‘The only way to describe how I feel today is by consistently saying the word no as I down litres of coffee. #studentproblems’

Living Well Being Travel Style Food What’s On

Christy Nunns

Wild

Editor Johnny Thalassites

Online Editor Erin Beesley

Deputy Editor

living@epigram.org.uk

erin.beesley@epigram.org.uk

saskia.hume@epigram.org.uk

@e2living

17.10.2016

Saskia Hume

Epigram Living Section 2016/17

How to sort out your student bills Living Deputy Editor Saskia Hume shares her top tips for making student money hassles a thing of the past.

Flikr: Nikki Buitendijk flickr / Sandro Maggi

It will have been a few weeks now since you moved into your student house, and already the honeymoon period is probably over. The dirty plates are piled high in the sink and everyone’s trying desperately to avoid being the one who takes out the bins - never has so much rubbish been squashed into one bag.

Living in a student house is both one of the best and worst things about being at university, and with new responsibilities coming at you from every direction, it’s easy to become a bit overwhelmed.

Some of these responsibilities - like washing up and emptying the bins - are, although irritating, not particularly serious.

However there are some, like paying the bills,that are. The fact that you now have to pay for EVERYTHING you do to live can take a while to get your head round. But there’s no escaping the fact that every time you turn on the tap it’s not just water but money that’s washing away down the plug.

What’s more, if you don’t pay your bills bad things will probably happen. A missed payment can result in a poor credit rating which will go on to affect your chances of taking out a loan or a mortgage later on in life - scary stuff.

At first glance, the world of bill paying is undoubtedly a confusing one, with so many different companies, forms of payment and protocols to follow. So, here are some tips and ideas that will hopefully make the process a little easier and a little less painful.

Nominate a bill payer If you’ve got somebody in your house who is super organised and happy to take on such a responsibility this can work well. It’s pretty easy to divide each bill equally, but what’s more difficult is chasing up people for the money if you’re the nominee. Even if it’s a few pounds and there, everything adds up, making the whole affair pretty stressful for whoever’s in charge.

Set up a joint bank account

This seems to be the fairest course of action when splitting your household bills. With a bank account in everyone’s name, each person is responsible for paying -or not paying- their way.

This method works well for bills such as internet and television, because they’re a set amount each month. However, the cost of water and electricity is constantly changing, making it difficult to estimate how much money you’ll each need to put in each month. As well as this, if someone forgets to pay you’re all in

trouble, so you need to be sure you can completely rely on the people you live with.

Everyone pays for a different bill

This works best in a smaller house, because its unlikely you’ll have more than 4 different bills to pay regularly. Assign each person a bill which is in their name and they are responsible for paying. It’s not always the fairest method though, with some payments being far higher than others and thus some people carrying a bigger responsibility on their shoulders

Use a bill splitting app

There are plenty of free bill splitting apps available to download on your phone, which means you’re easily able to

divide the cost of everything - not just bills- between your household. This seems a pretty foolproof way of doing things, but there’s a sense that it could all get a bit tedious if someone asks you to split the cost of every £2 packet of kitchen roll they buy.

So...

So there you have it - four different ways in which to approach the delicate matter that is bill paying. It seems that each has its positive and negative aspects, and it might be a process of trial and error to see which one best suites your house. Hopefully, sorting this out will mean there’s one less thing to worry about on your unwashed Ikea plate.

Why I love Circomedia Living Writer Jasmin Perry gets off the trapeze long enough to tell us about her favourite new hobby.

Junction Festival

University is always described as a place where you meet a bunch of new people, try some new things and end up with some stories to tell your grandchildren – or at least your mates at the pub. Yet, I’m sure if I said the phrase ‘circus trapeze’, you wouldn’t immediately come to the conclusion that this could be the topic of your next thrilling anecdote.

Over the summer I decided that I wanted a more interesting and challenging hobby to occupy myself with and learning trapeze seemed to fit the bill. I ended up doing a three hour circus taster session at Circomedia and loved it. The classes take place in a cool converted church venue, a mere two minute walk from Cabot Circus.

We did hat juggling, partner acrobatics, trapeze, aerial silks and rope which, although difficult, are not as hard as you might initially think.

I particularly enjoyed the partner acrobatics – it’s really fun to do something which you probably haven’t done since primary school gym sessions. As exercise methods go, it’s definitely preferable to spending hours at machines in a gym. My upper body strength has increased tenfold, especially from the aerial work, as you’re constantly lifting and holding your own body weight. It doesn’t matter if you can’t do this to start with, as the teachers are

really supportive and can help with getting you up into the air if you can’t manage it straight away.

I’m now doing a mixed aerial class, which means every week you get to try out a different bit of equipment. After a short warm-up, usually consisting of some stretching and jogging, we work through the basics of the apparatus, like how to get onto it properly. You also learn poses such as the mermaid and stag which have great Instagram potential.

I continuously achieve things I never thought I’d be able to do, overcoming fears I never knew I had – heights seem a lot scarier when you’re hanging, eight feet above the floor, on a bar that’s attached to the ceiling by some ropes. I’m always exhausted after a class, because as well as being physically challenging, they push you mentally as well. It’s worth it for the humble brag to your coursemates before lectures though!

Circomedia run a huge array of various circus classes every week, including mixed aerial, acrobatics and trapeze – all suitable for absolute beginners, and starting from just £6 a class. I’d definitely recommend giving it a go if you’re interested – for the story, if nothing else.

To find out more, visit: http://www.circomedia.com

17.10.2016

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In defence of: daytime drinking Daytime drinking is sometimes frowned upon. No more should this be so, belligerently claims Epigram Living.

But, in fact, daytime drinking serves a crucial function in our society.

Well, perhaps, if to find better is possible, it would be to sit down around lunchtime, or in the afternoon, with a wintry breeze and a warming Rekorderlig.

To drink in the day is to look the abyss of the daily grind dead in the eyes and to laugh. It is a playful slap to routine and a thrilling riposte to boredom. It is calming and visceral, to feel that tanned, bronzed beer jetting smoothly down your gullet.

Without some of us taking on this sacred mantle and drinking in the daytime, our pubs would die and our greens would wither.

Indeed, were it not so, our livers would thrive and our hearts would go a-flitter.

Just think what might be lost to our green and pleasant land without it. Think of the shame we would feel at seeing our village locals and country pubs, emptied and decaying. It is in these last, great bastions of insouciant British defiance, village locals and country pubs, that we find a very specific joy.

There is truly little as pure as a daytime drink or three – go out, go wild, try it and see.

What better feeling is there than to sit down around lunchtime, or in the afternoon, with a warm sun and a cold Thatcher’s.

Johnny Thalassites

And be under no illusions, the urbane gastropubs that line our metropolitan high streets are similarly reliant on this peculiarly British custom.

If not for Britain’s half-drunk daytime drinking dwellers, our pubs would lose enormous profits, our wallets would be inordinately and onerously heavy, whilst our waistlines would look emaciated. All these three consequences would be disastrous. Each more so than the last.

Johnny Thalassites

You know, sometimes, people have to do things that they might not want to do. Things that, really, they might forsake given half a chance, but that for the wider public good they persist with.

These are the things without which the fabric of our society might fray. A way of life, a community or a relationship could be felled without their gentle (and, indeed, genteel) upkeep.

In these moments, it is those most British of traits - a quiet resolve and a stiff upper lip - that sees one through.

For some students, a cross to bear might be meeting a deadline or submitting an essay. For others, gurning at Motion might have long ago lost its novelty. Still, though, these few - these brave few - muddle through, soldiering on with tasks, hobbies and activities that simply need doing.

These are special responsibilities that befall only a chosen few – and one of these very activities is daytime drinking.

Often seen as a preserve of two types of people; the nauseatingly energetic young fresher and the lonely, old pub bore.

My Bristol top spot Living Editor, Johnny Thalassites, takes a walk on the wild side in this week’s Top Spot, brunching at the Primrose Cafe in Clifton.

Johnny Thalassites

There comes a time in every man’s life when he reaches a crossroads. In my case, this fateful moment came on Queens Road at the junction besides local cougar-club, Luna. I could either boldly go where few students have gone before, deep into the recesses of the Clifton Arcade, where I might find a table at the Primrose Café – or I could demur and prostrate myself again at the altar of the SU’s ungodly little Balloon bar.

I am sure that Redland residents and Cotham cottage-dwellers are not interested in the microcosmographica of this dilemma. To them, my deliberations are verbal popcorn; lovingly doled out, deliciously phrased, but really, just full of air.

All you, my readers, need to know is that I chose the less-trodden path into suburbia - and there can be no going back now.

The Primrose Cafe is a lovely little place.

Tucked away in quaint Clifton, it is, indeed, an inordinately charming place to sit down to eat.

On a bright autumnal day, I decided that only a walk past the arch that leads into Clifton Village could kick-start my day. Primrose Cafe is invariably busy and I had heard good things - and more important than that, I had woken up so late that I had skipped breakfast. So lunch was definitely on the cards.

The place, itself, is an elegant cafe with outdoor seating. Its menu is varied, too, with brunch, lunch and snacks all served.

I have been back twice now already; once ordering Eggs Benedict and another time, a Belgian waffle topped with hot chocolate sauce. Those two choices alone hint at the impressive range of options available in this little corner of Clifton.

Frankly – and to be honest with you - in no time, I was hooked on the stuff. Addictive little dashes of flavour were peppered across my dishes (pun intended, because a hearty brunch can even improve one’s chat).

I took a risk when I sauntered into Clifton this week. But what drove me on was the knowledge that: breakfast means breakfast, and we are going to make a success of it. Those words ring true now more than ever, and I would encourage all of you to take a walk on the wild side – to venture into the mean streets of Clifton for lunch.

Maybe it’ll be a weekend treat, perhaps it’ll cap off a morning of lectures. Either way, it’ll be the highlight of your day – I guarantee it.

Editor Tianna Graham tianna.graham@epigram.org.uk

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@EpigramWB

Need some help?

Student counselling service: 0117 954 6655 CALM men’s suicide hotline: 0800 58 58 58

Online Editor Flora Doble flora.doble@epigram.org.uk

17/10/2016

Epigram Wellbeing

Bro-vado: Men’s Mental Health Week freedomofmind.org.uk

Scuttling scares and anxious arachnids

Spiders scare the hell out of me. Ever since I was a little kid I’ve been wary of the eight-legged miniature monstrosities; forever being alert of any small movements from the corner of my eye or an irregular tickle on my arm or neck.

Anyone reading this and feeling that little bit of paranoia or itchiness that comes with the phobia knows exactly what I’m talking about.

It’s a little unfounded I’ll admit. ‘They’re more scared of you than you are of them’ has been the soothing call of those unaware of the menace that crawls on eight feet. But I’ve been bitten by a spider not once but twice and that is enough of a declaration of war for me.

Fool me once…

For the past two years I’ve been medicated for a triple threat of mental health issues and luckily for me the initial intake provided next to no side effects.

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‘actively allowing yourself to be vulnerable is a…daunting prospect’ Those little pills have worked wonders for my day-to-day life be it with the university workload or just the daily trudge of everyday life (Mondays, am I right people?).

For all intents and purposes, I, a stocky bearded Yorkshireman, am healthy. So what do spiders, mental health, and the broadness of my build have to do with each other? Perception.

If you rationally look at the fear of spiders, especially at the everyday variety within the UK, being afraid of them makes little to no sense. They’re tiny, unobtrusive fly-killers who do more good than harm.

So I’ve been bitten, so what? I’ve been stung by bees before and they don’t bother me. Bees are, after all, awesome. But spiders, at least in the minds of those afraid of them, are all spikes and hair with alien eyes and terrifying mandibles dripping with venom.

And so when a casual observer looks at me and sees a talkative, laughing soul with a luxurious beard and imposing shoulder width, they probably doubt that I flee in terror from tiny arachnids or sometimes struggle to leave the house or even set foot in the kitchen if there are strangers present.

Peculiarly enough, telling someone you’re afraid of spiders, moths, bees (we really have a thing about insects and the like), or what have you is likely easier than admitting a mental health issue. For men the hurdle of appearing strong or, harder still, not weak, and there is a difference, is a big one.

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‘For someone like me who was raised working-class in a small North England city and is big enough to play rugby, weakness is a big no-no.’

Learning how to take care of your wellbeing Geraldine Taylor (Student Counselling) This is blog post number 2 from the Student Counselling Service. The first was an overview of looking after your wellbeing, this one (and subsequent offerings each month) follow the theme of 10 ways of wellbeing. This month, as the academic year begins, we turn to…learn.

Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

An active, engaged brain is a mind fully alive – feels great and is brilliant for wellbeing, purpose and resilience. Being at university is an opportunity beyond price to learn how you want to live and learn. Experiment, network, give your mind new experiences. Up your game in the way you learn.

Kid Cudi speaks out about his suicidal thoughts and life-long depression Tianna Graham (Wellbeing Editor) The rapper, actor and Grammy winner, Kid Cudi, revealed on October 4th, via Facebook, that he had gone to rehab on the 3rd after struggling with anxiety and depression throughout his life, which was now leading him to suicidal urges.

Epigram Wellbeing feel as though this brave act of speaking out, especially for a black man in the hypermasculine rap industry, is incredibly important and we wish to bring it to the attention of young men from all walks of life, especially those in university under a lot of pressure.

Despite the exterior life of many male role models in society, mental illness does not discriminate and it is important to seek help. His bravery has created the hashtag #YouGoodMan, where men from around the world are currently opening up about their mental health and how hiding their emotions affects them in life, especially in the black community.

Now that there is finally an open dialogue around men’s mental health, it should be a comfort to know that you are addressing any issues along with thousands of others. You are not alone.

If you wish to learn how to seek help for any struggles you may be going through, this page shall provide an article on how to seek counselling. Furthermore, I would recommend that you read ‘Pride before a fall: let’s talk men’s mental health’, which is currently on the online version of Epigram, under Living. Here, there are helpful web links to men’s mental health sites and helplines. Also, provided at the top of this page are suicide hotlines if you feel as though reaching out would be in your best interest. Best of luck to all those men in university who realise that nothing should come before their own wellbeing.

His Facebook post reads:

‘Its been difficult for me to find the words to what Im about to share with you because I feel ashamed. Ashamed to be a leader and hero to so many while admitting I’ve been living a lie. It took me a while to get to this place of commitment, but it is something I have to do for myself, my family, my best friend/daughter and all of you, my fans.

‘Yesterday I checked myself into rehab for depression and suicidal urges.’

I am not at peace. I haven’t been since you’ve known me. If I didn’t come here, I wouldve done something to myself. I simply am a damaged human swimming in a pool of emotions everyday of my life. Theres a ragin violent storm inside of my heart at all times. Idk what peace feels like. Idk how to relax. My anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember and I never leave the house because of it. I cant make new friends because of it. I dont trust anyone because of it and Im tired of being held back in my life. I deserve to have peace. I deserve to be happy and smiling. Why not me? I guess I give so much of myself to others I forgot that I need to show myself some love too. I think I never really knew how. Im scared, im sad, I feel like I let a lot of people down and again, I’m sorry.

‘Its time I fix me. Im nervous but ima get through this.’

I wont be around to promote much, but the good folks at Republic and my manager Dennis will inform you about upcoming releases. The music videos, album release date etc. The album is still on the way. Promise. I wanted to square away all the business before I got here so I could focus on my recovery.

If all goes well ill be out in time for Complexcon and ill be lookin forward to seeing you all there for high fives and hugs.

Love and light to everyone who has love for me and I am sorry if I let anyone down. I really am sorry. Ill be back, stronger, better.

Reborn. I feel like shit, I feel so ashamed. Im sorry.

I love you, Scott Mescudi’ [sic] Flickr / Dejan Pralica

Weakness would get you beat up in some bars or streets at night.

Weakness made you a target. Ask a man why he’s limping and he’ll tell you he sprained his ankle. Ask a man why he’s crying and he’ll likely tell you he isn’t and get angry.

It’s easy enough to say it’s okay to be vulnerable or words to that effect, but actively allowing yourself to be vulnerable is a far more daunting prospect.

Since seeking help with my mental health I’ve become far more open to discussing when and why I’m vulnerable.

Unfortunately so many people aren’t as talkative about what should be as simple a subject as saying what creature you’re afraid of.

Mental health comes with its own social stigma well before identity is brought into the mix.

I will openly discuss such things in hope that it shows other people it isn’t something to be afraid of. Just like spiders. Funny thing is since being medicated the fear of spiders has lessened somewhat.

Anxiety, fear, and stress all share the same apartment and helping to lighten the load of one helps the others in turn.

So appearing weak isn’t so terrible anymore. Small spiders aren’t so terrible anymore. The big ones are, and that’s fine, I’m not a superhero after all. Indiana Jones for all his amazing heroic feats is still scared of snakes.

So maybe being afraid, being vulnerable, is par for the course. Just because it has eight legs doesn’t mean I should run away all the time.

Don’t get me started on octopuses though. *shudder*

Flickr / Matthew Venn

Liam Brown (Third Year)

These are a few simple moves towards that mix of imagination and knowledge that drove Einstein. Curiosity is the strongest drive in learning: always follow up a curiosity and take it as far as you can. Be a learning person - it’s a rock solid identity. Gives you lots to talk about, too.

Ask your friends who study a different subject what they love about it and what they are learning now. You’ll benefit, and so will they, because folk taking an interest in what we do is a huge boost to motivation.

What skills have you brought with you to university? Anything from cooking to driving. What skills and sport would you like to learn? What musical instrument? How can you go about it?

Someone can help - people will be glad to welcome you into their society. As Primo Levi said, if not now, then when?

Skill learning travels a journey of feeling clumsy and a bit hopeless to the point at which you can do it almost without thinking, and demonstrate how to do it to others. Persist because competence is beautiful. It raises confidence and pleasure in life and is the backbone of our sense of safety and wellbeing.

Check out what’s involved in a thought experiment – the mixture of learning through knowledge and imagination beloved of Einstein.

Thought experiments aren’t the exclusive province of science: the legendary novel Lord of the Flies is a thought experiment about human nature.

Learning all the time? Possibly not learning in the traditional sense. For wellbeing and learning we need fallow periods, chilling time. So many important breakthroughs come after a walk, doing something creative.

When Sherlock Holmes wanted to think, to make sense of what he had learned, to find the solution needed to solve the whole – what did he do?

He went off on his own and played the violin – badly.

This article was informed by ideas about study and learning attitudes discussed in Study Strategy Group Drop in sessions at Student Counselling Service.

Editor Ellie Donnell

Deputy Editor Hugo Lebus

Online Editor Jane Cowie

edonnell@epigram.org.uk

hlebus@epigram.org.uk

jcowie@epigram.org.uk

Join us at: Epigram Food Section 2016/17

17.10.2016

Follow us at: epigram_eats_out

Review: Bakesmiths Food Editor Ellie Donnell samples and reviews Bakesmiths on Whiteladies Road, a new cafe that does brunch, sweet treats and sourdough exceptionally well Epigram: Ellie Donnell

For two years the space at the end of Aberdeen Road has struggled to maintain any sort of livelihood. Granted, there have been invariable stints of various eateries during my time at Bristol - the odd American diner popping up for a couple of months – but nothing able to attract a regular clientele, most likely due to their overpriced pancakes.

I was surprised, therefore, when walking past the usually vacant joint, to see a brimming buzz of customers queueing for, as I am now aware, something most likely served on sourdough.

As the name suggests, Bakesmiths does bread - and it does bread well. Almost the entire menu is served on a thick slice of soft sourdough, the toppings of which vary depending on whether you’re there for breakfast or lunch. I opted for a combination of both – I think they call it brunch?

– with a classic breakfast favourite: avocado and poached eggs on sourdough toast.

No matter how many times I order it, ‘avo and

Flickr: welr thru a lens

Flickr: Sales

Epigram: Ellie Donnell

Epigram: Ellie Donnell

eggs’ never fails to please. Every café does it a little bit differently and Bakesmiths is no exception. I was presented with a majestic mountain of wilted spinach, soft grilled peppers, chunky slices of avocado and a perfectly poached egg all sitting on top of a single doorstep of griddled and slightly charred sourdough.

In fact, the real spin on this classic dish was the light dusting of Dukkah scattered across my plate, an aromatically spiced seed and nut mix that was a surprising but more than welcome addition.

As I was out with friends, I was lucky enough to see (and sample) a few of their other lunch options. They offer a range of fairly priced sandwiches (£4.40 to takeaway or £5.25 to eat in) served with a polite garnish of green leaves and crisps.

However the sandwiches themselves are hefty, generous with the filling and layered between two thick slices of yes, you guessed it, sourdough. I’m told the lemon, chicken, bacon, smoked cheese and mayonnaise option is quite incredible.

They also offer an extensive range of pastries, savoury and sweet, as well as a salad option which you can easily mix and match with

a slice of frittata or a sweet potato, spinach and feta pastry. The latter was the particular purchase of one of my friends and certainly lived up to expectations.

It literally looked like a pain au chocolat!

A single portion of salad is £3.50 or £5 for two, whilst pastries range from £2 to £2.50. We even finished with a pot of breakfast tea and a decadent slice of their chocolate brownie. The tea was, well, tea, but the brownie was sticky and loaded with chocolate chips, inducing smiles all around.

The décor is chic, understated and simple with wooden floors, tables and chairs lining the expansive space. Regardless of the sheer space they have to fill, Bakesmiths doesn’t feel bare or barren but bright and open. It’s a place where you could easily sit for hours catching up with work, friends or the latest episode of Bake Off! Oh and there’s one final selling point; Students get 10 per cent off. All’s well that ends well and all that.

Ellie Donnell

A fresher’s first impressions Ellie Chesshire gives us her first impressions of Bristol’s famous food scene and explains why her love affair with the city’s cuisine has well and truly begun.

Flickr: Garry Knight

I have only been living in Bristol for a week and a half and already I’ve had a good taste of the wide variety of cuisine choices on offer. Before moving to university I had only ever been to Bristol once, for the open day, so I hadn’t really had much chance to check out where I would be eating for the next three years. However, I don’t know about anyone else but food is very high up on my list of priorities!

My favourite discovery so far would have to be Boulangerie, opposite the Wills Memorial building. For starters their baguettes look eye wateringly delicious and they have a huge range of different fillings to choose from. However, my favourite aspect of the cafe is the student friendly prices with their baguettes on offer for a mere two pounds!

“I like that it is an independent shop and not another chain café; Everything just seems a little bit more personal”

rediscover this hidden gem and when I do, it will become a regular weekend haunt.

So far I’ve had a very positive impression of Bristol’s food scene and it is much more exciting than what I’m used to back home! The independent cafes and shops are welcoming and very friendly - it feels like a lot of love goes into what they produce.

To be totally honest, I hadn’t really thought about food before I moved to university. I was more concerned with surviving freshers’ week! However, having been here for a few days I am having so much fun discovering Bristol’s eclectic range of places to eat.

Hopefully over the next few weeks I will find many more!

Ellie Chesshire Epigram/ Hannah Price

The place itself is very welcoming and its warm interior is inviting enough to lure you inside.

I like that it is a Bristol based shop because everything just seems a little bit more personal.

That’s lunch sorted for the next three years then!

During my second day in Bristol, I spent a couple of hours exploring the city with friends to get our bearings. While we did this we discovered an amazing street-food market filled with delicious stalls selling a huge variety of different foods.

Street food is my all-time favourite option when eating out, so this pretty much ticked all the boxes. While we were there we picked up some amazing falafel and hummus, earning its place as the best I have ever tasted! Plus, it all came in at a very reasonable price.

The market offered a huge variety of cuisines, with the stalls opposite boasting an impressive range of ice-creams and a selection of daringly tempting cakes.

It’s the kind of place you can spend hours wandering around to your heart’s content. Even if you don’t intend to buy anything, everything looks so delicious that it’s just as much fun to browse!

The only problem is that I haven’t been able to find it since. However I am determined to

17.10.2016

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A coffee corner to quell every caffeine craving Being both a student and resident in the city of Bristol means that coffee is an essential part of daily life. Luckily, Sarah Roller is clued up in all the best places to go for the perfect caffeine injection.

Coffee first arrived in Bristol nearly 350 years ago - all slave-grown of course, but that has never stopped the city’s enduring love of coffee houses. Around the same time, the first sleepy-eyed student discovered the potent wake-me-up powers of caffeine, and the rest, as they say, is history. In all seriousness, Bristol is spoilt for choice when it comes to coffee spots and you should never have to find yourself in a Costa or Starbucks.

Boston Tea Party

Tradewind Espresso If you know your Peruvian coffee beans from your Guatemalan, and want to savour the very last of the hazelnut notes of your Saturday morning coffee fix, Tradewind Espresso is your best bet.

If you live in Stoke Bishop, you’ll go past it every day and it’s definitely worth taking time to pop in and see for yourself why it’s always so full.

They pride themselves on their speciality coffee, although they also do a mean brunch, and if you don’t want to take the time to savour it in their minimalist interior (perfect for updating your Instagram), you can buy freshly ground coffee to take away and brew yourself.

BTP (or Boston), as it’s affectionately known, will always have a special place in the heart of Bristol students, and if you haven’t already discovered one of its 5 locations, go today.

It does everything excellently: beautiful brunch, seriously good smoothies and sandwiches, and their range of hot drinks is second to none.

Rosemarino Tucked away near Manor Hall in Clifton, this Italian all-day restaurant serves a mean, and authentic, Italian coffee, and an even better hot chocolate – think rich, frothy and so thick it’s like sipping velvety, molten chocolate.

The upstairs is light and airy, but has a cosy enough feel to make it pleasant to sit and enjoy a coffee on a grey November afternoon. Plus, the slightly hidden location means you can catch up with friends uninterrupted. Worth the effort.

Whilst their coffee is certainly top notch, their extensive range of speciality teas are worth exploring, and the baristas really are pros at latte art. Whatever the occasion, you can rely on Boston to do it well.

Top tip: check out the secret garden on Park Street on a sunny day – it’s an oasis of calm amidst the buzz of Bristol.

Whether you need a pick-me-up before a 9am, a catch up with friends, fancy yourself a bit of a coffee connoisseur or just need somewhere quiet to take notes on this week’s seminar reading, there’s a place for you.

Sarah Roller Epigram: Ellie

Perched atop St Michael’s Hill, Parsons is one of the most conveniently located coffee shops for a busy student, as well as being relatively friendly to the purse strings.

With coffee from the Clifton Coffee Roasters, there is no better place for a quick caffeine pickme-up between lectures or a long day in the ASS. Even better, it’s only £1 if you buy a sandwich with it, and if you don’t fancy heading back to the dismal world of the library, they have some nice outdoor seating where you can enjoy watching the world go by.

Flickr: Cheryl Foong

Epigram/ Matilda Bailey

Parsons Bakery

Whatever the occasion, you can rely on Boston to do it well.

A Student Guide to Store Cupboard Staples Do you find you get home late from a lecture or sports training only to find you have no food for dinner? Well think again, as Georgia Higgins teaches us how to whip up a meal in minutes from just a few simple ingredients.

Chickpeas

Flickr: su-lin

Cooking delicious food quickly and cheaply may seem like a mammoth task to those catering for themselves for the first time.

But it is easier than it first seems!

By simply possessing a few staple store cupboard ingredients, you can whip up a meal in no time and be spared from the sad fate of my flatmate who eats pesto on toast, claiming it to be ‘kind of like bruschetta’. These essentials will also help you save money and ensure you don’t rack up a debt by becoming dangerously dependent on Deliveroo!

Tuna

Pasta

If you’re a fan of tuna it is useful to always keep a couple of tins in the cupboard.

Keep some sweetcorn in the freezer and with a dollop of mayonnaise you can easily achieve this classic combination. It’s great on a regular baked potato – or even a sweet potato - in a sandwich, or as a pasta sauce.

Flickr: Stefan Van Bremen

Pasta, the ultimate student meal, is an obvious place to start.

Everyone likes it, it’s hard to cook wrong and you can have it with pretty much anything. Personally, I think jars of tomato based pasta sauces are unnecessary.

They contain a lot of added salt and sugar and they go off pretty quickly, which is annoying when you’re only cooking for one and don’t want to have the same meal for four straight days.

I would recommend cheap tins of chopped tomatoes or tomato puree and adding your own flavourings.

You can easily add garlic, some mixed herbs and any vegetables you’ve got - think red peppers, courgettes, peas, sweetcorn, broccoli or carrots - and before you know it you’ve made yourself a tasty and nutritious sauce! Bacon is also always a welcome addition to a pasta dish.

Noodles

Flickr: Mallory Dash

Similarly, noodle stir-fry is always a winner and really quick to put together. Packets of dried egg or rice noodles only take about four minutes to cook.

You can buy packets of stir-fry sauces fairly cheaply or just combine soy sauce, garlic and sweet chili sauce, which I think works just as well.

Throw in some vegetables and a protein (chicken, prawns or beef work well) and you’ll have a meal in minutes!

Tinned chickpeas are a great way to bulk out chili con carne or curries and save money by making the meal go further. Chilli con carne is a great meal to prepare in bulk and freeze portions for the future.

It is great to come back after a long day and know you already have something for dinner. I wouldn’t freeze the chickpeas in the chilli though as they tend to go mushy when thawed! Just add them in before serving.

Sriracha or sweet chilli sauce Chilli sauce in all its varieties is my favourite staple. I love it and could possibly eat it on anything! Sriracha upgrades a cheese toasty (especially good if you add chorizo or pepperoni), omelettes, avocado on toast or any meal you feel needs a bit of a kick.

Sweet chilli sauce is great for flavouring a stir-fry. You can also combine it with cream cheese to make a delicious dipping sauce that’s great with tortilla chips, celery or carrots.

I would recommend getting these sauces, and soy sauce too, from an oriental food store or a large supermarket, as they sell bigger bottles for a much cheaper price.

There are numerous essential store cupboard items that are great to have on hand for a meal in moments, but these five will ensure you’re well on your way to cooking a dinner you’ll actually look forward to eating!

Georgia Higgins

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Mob Kitchen: another milestone for the food revolution Hugo Lebus reports on ‘Mob Kitchen’, a new website teaching students how to cook money-saving meals for under £10.

The great conundrum of how to produce something that actually tastes nice without breaking the bank has dumbfounded students for years, and led to numerous disappointing baked bean dinners or ready meals: neither a satisfactory nor a budget friendly alternative. However, one Edinburgh graduate has made this very problem his goal to solve.

And so with that in mind, Benjamin Lebus went about setting up his website Mob Kitchen, which aims to provide students with a variety of choices of simple meals for four that can be done by anybody, and most importantly, always for under £10.

The Mob Kitchen website launched on 10th October, along with its many one minute tutorial videos on how to cook the recipes, and promises to cater for everybody, whether they be ‘the veggies, the health freaks, the meat lovers or the cheese enthusiasts’.

There is no food craze at the centre of his idea, simply the desire to get young people cooking and loving food and to make it truly accessible to everyone.

Benjamin Lebus/ Mob Kitchen

“Simple meals for four that can be done by anybody” While it is no bad thing to indulge in Ottolenghi’s recipes of a hundred obscure ingredients, or to attempt (and most likely fail in my case) to replicate some of Heston Blumenthal’s recipes at home, on a student budget with only one kitchen cabinet to contain all ones ingredients, I don’t think Ottolenghi’s pomegranate molasses or Heston’s liquid nitrogen really fit the criteria of larder essentials.

Mob Kitchen’s recipes and ingredients lists are simple and will, apparently, never assume that you have more than ‘salt, pepper, and olive oil’.

“60 per cent of young people leave home without the ability to cook even the most basic of dishes” So why is it that Benjamin Lebus thinks that the young need help with learning to cook cheaply? According to EBLEX, the representative body for lamb and beef farmers, as many as 60 per

cent of young people leave home without the ability to cook even the most basic dishes.

Culinary illiteracy is widespread and Mob Kitchen wants to join the ranks of figures such as Jamie Oliver in combating this, attempting to reverse the trend that, unfortunately, sees the stereotype of bad English cooking further engrained. Mob Kitchen is just one part of the food revolution that has hit Britain over the last decade and which is arguably more visible in Bristol than any other British city.

I recently wrote an article in the last issue of Epigram about the importance of home cooking from scratch and how it can improve ones lifestyle; Benjamin Lebus delivers a way to do this through Mob Kitchen in a stylish, cheap and easy video-based format.

Next time you feel the urge to order something or to just grab a sandwich at the supermarket, instead take a peek at Mob Kitchen, give one of their video recipes a go and get inspired.

Plus, it’s all for under a tenner!

Hugo Lebus

Breakfast Banana Bread

Cake for breakfast? Yes please. Food Editor Ellie Donnell creates a delicious yet healthy recipe for this classic tea time treat; One that is virtuous enough to kick start your day!

Breakfast Banana Bread Ingredients

Method

125g porridge oats 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda 2 tsp ground cinnamon 50g raisins 50g chocolate chips 50g nuts (of your choice - I like walnuts with banana)

Epigram: Ellie Donnell

50g sunflower or coconut oil 2 tsp vanilla essence 2 eggs 1 tbsp milk 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup or agave syrup 135g or 1 1/2 medium bananas plus 1/2 banana for decorating

1. Whizz the oats in a strong food processor until they resemble a fine flour. Tip into a bowl along with all the other dry ingredients.

2. Whizz together the oil, vanilla essence, eggs, milk, honey and banana in the food processor until you have a smooth liquid.

3. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet batter along with the raisins, nuts and chocolate chips.

5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees (160 fan) for 30 - 35 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer, when inserted in the middle, comes out clean.

6. Serve warm with natural yogurt, honey and nut butter.

Tip: you can easily toast a thick slice of this bread the next day for a warm breakfast!

Epigram: Ellie Donnell

4. Pour into a lined loaf tin, top with sliced banana medallions and drizzle with a little extra honey or whichever sweetener you used.

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26 26

Editor Maya Colwell travel@epigram.org.uk @e2travel

Deputy Editor Nia Price nia.price@epigram.org.uk @epigram_travel

Online Editor Izzie Fernandes izzie.fernandes@epigram.org.uk

17.10.2016

Epigram Travel Section 2016/17

The Peaks and Pits of Central America Travel Online Editor Izzie Fernandes shares an extract from her summer travel journal To my brand new, squeaky clean, sexy blue journal, Let me share with you the peaks and pits of a month spent in Central America...

Pits

Peaks

Antigua, Guatemala: Yes. Rice, avocado, squash, tacos and beans all taste great at the time…Little prepared are we for the stomach storms to follow...

Laguna De Apoyo, Nicuargua: Today is an activity packed day. In spite of our bizarre lunch time encounters in Granada, we resist the overwhelming urge to nap … We have some live lava to attend to… MOUNT MESSIAH - a crater of fire! There are just three places in the world where this can be seen - here, Hawaii and Chile… I’m practically a volcano expert by this point in the trip!

Antigua, Guatemala: Antiguan markets. Could we have acted anymore like total white girls? I think 25 minutes, three head bands, heart palpitations and a fist pump with the eventual shopkeeper of choice answers that one...

Ometepe, Nicuragua: Every cloud has a silver lining and the cancellation of our earlier ferry proves a blessing in disguise. We sit on deck with beers and watch the most beautiful sunset…the top of the volcano becomes visible for the first time since we’ve arrived in Ometepe. So, we got there in the end and, well, here we are with mosquito bites galore and a moped accident under the belt, but we’ve got what we came for at last!

Volcano Pacaya, Guatemala: Today was activity day - time to climb a volcano in the pissing rain. God Bless the kid who sold me a bright yellow poncho - Abi also approved since this yellow bag covered up my ‘Hiking Heidi’ outfit apparently! So if you didn’t know I was a tourist before, the yellow poncho clears that one up - losing me atop the volcano would be a certain impossibility!

Monterverde, Costa Rica: We’re let loose to immerse ourselves in the nature of Costa Rica.

Well, we smash it out and walk most of the trails, never quite getting too irredeemably lost to reconcile our route. Beautiful and enormous green trees surround us…I feel like Mowgli!

Epigram/ Izzie Fernandes

Bocas Del Toro, Panama: Bocas, I’ve been here for five minutes and I feel like I’ve fallen into a book, or indeed a Lego village. The buildings aren’t buildings: they’re all brightly painted cabins along a tiny street. These islands on the Caribbean Coast are utterly idyllic - without trying to sounds like a total cliché, more so than I ever imagined.

Bocas Del Toro, Panama: THE HUNGRY MONKEY - Yum…3 tacos and a free beer… what more could you ask for! I had one veggie, one smoked fish and one lobster (did someone say classy).

Antigua, Guatemala to Lake Atitlan Guatemala: Jo’s left her iPod. We’re still doing hostel pick-ups so she jumps off, runs down the cobbled street and grabs it.

‘Yes, sure, we’ll get the driver to wait’. Or so we think... We clearly spoke too soon for next thing we know, the situation escalates into the minibus driving off with us, without Jo and with Jo’s bag… Much hysteria, heart palpitations and Abi’s courageous leaping from the bus eventually averts this crisis and although a close call, we leave Antigua with Jo on board!

Ometepe, Nicaragua: What do I miss the most about home? Hot showers. This morning is most definitely testament to this. I think calling a shower-head surrounded by a bamboo picket fence and leaves a proper shower would be generous - and that’s from the mouth of a grubby traveller. But the experience is authentic, right...?!

San Huan Del Sur, Nicaragua: What better way to ease you into a hangover than waking up to a totally flooded room…

Ometepe, Nicaragua f.t. mopeds: I brake, albeit not so successfully… Next thing I know, my bike wheels skid right, and guess where I end up? Yes, you’ve guessed it, I’ve gone in totally the opposite direction with a hefty skid on my left side... Damn it, I’ve just fallen off a moped… Ah, the blood and gore to come.

Monteverde, Costa Rica to the Panama Border: I’m in the middle row and so that leaves me victim to a restless two year olds’ kicking and scrambling for seven hours. Thank God for plantain chips - these provide a very welcome past time!

So to my dear, slightly tattered, (yet now very much more sacred), journal…

Thanks for listening!

All photos Epigram/ Izzie Fernandes

An insider’s guide to: Llandeilo

Deputy Travel Editor Nia Price showcases her favourite five spots in her Welsh hometown 4. Shop around: Llandeilo is scattered with an array of small independent shops with many unique one-off items. Chess, the town’s only men’s fashion boutique provides quality clothing and a friendly and personalised service by owner Donna. It stocks a variety of shirts, knitwear, jackets, jeans, polo shirts and much more from a selection of brands such as Crew clothing, Mish Mash, Remus and Guide London shirts.

rice

/ Nia P

Epigram/ Nia Price

Epigram

3. Take a stroll in Dinefwr Park: Dinefwr Park has got to be one of the most tranquil and picturesque places in Carmarthenshire.

I’ve been visiting it since I was a child, but still find plenty of new places to explore, such as Llandyfeisant church buried deep in the woods. Make sure to check out the medieval deer park, lake and seventeenth century Newton House. The steep incline to reach the castle ramparts is worth the effort, giving plenty of panoramic views of the lush green Towy valley.

Epigram/ George Plowman

5. Check out one of Llandeilo’s festivals: The upcoming Festival of the Senses, held at the end of November, is run by a committee of local businesses and organisations. During the three days of the festival expect the full 2. Get merry at the Ginhaus: Situated in the heart of Llandeilo, the Ginhaus is a modern, bustling deli and bar selling an sensory experience – be awestruck at the colourful firework display, enjoy the gastronomical assortment of locally produced Welsh products. Their ever-changing lunch menu offers a delicacies of local and far away produce, listen to live music performed on stage and be wide selection - from frittatas to paninis and baguettes to tortillas. Even more impressive is enticed by the full Christmas shopping experience. the display of more than 140 different gins from around the world, an unrivalled selection not found anywhere else in Wales. My favourite combo is pinkster, a raspberry infused gin perfectly accompanied with elderflower tonic!

Epigram/ Chess Menswear

1. Grab yourself a Heavenly Ice-cream: This place certainly lives up to its name. Heavenly’s shelves are jam-packed with jars of oldfashioned sweets, chocolate delights, desserts and patisseries, extravagant celebration cakes and to-die-for ice-cream. Owner Tracey Kindred and her team use Welsh organic milk and cream to make gelato-style ice cream on the premises with no less than 300 recipes. Give Heavenly some notice and they’ll make any flavour you desire, savoury or sweet - lobster and chips being one of their wackiest to date! Even dogs are catered for with canine-friendly ice cream and treats. By the way, Prince Charles recommends the Sherry Trifle ice cream!

17.10.2016

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Walls and Legacy: from the Second World War until today Assia Shahin reflects on the huge impact of physical barriers both on the populations affected and on foreign visitors

It’s only when I started university that I was taught the importance of legacy and keeping historical memory alive. Or at least, I was taught at school, but it was only later that it really hit me. While I had no clue why my class had to listen to a boring explanation of First World War trenches in Trieste under a boiling sun - a getaway daydream of 14 year-olds, at 21, in Berlin and still under the boiling sun, I was much more struck by the U.S. checkpoint and a massive signal indicating the watershed between the two cities in one.

Entering Berlin by car, the first thing I was told to notice was the bare, prison-looking buildings to the right and the elegant, decorated ones to the left. And a line in-between. This is what people who tried looking out of their window near the wall that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989 saw: a physical, but abstract and hopeless, barrier dividing humans and building up fear and tension. Ironically, today the line displays advertisements of political leaders for the upcoming elections.

Epigram/ Assia Shahin

Berlin is a historical hot spot of continental Europe that will impress you and leave an emotional mark on your travel path.

“

Epigram/ Assia Shahin

“

The first stop was to see some of the scattered pieces of the Wall that have been left.

Next was Checkpoint Charlie, the U.S. checkpoint along the wall. Today, it’s a small, white, empty cubicle, but the signal next to it, warning of the entrance and exit from one sector of the city to another, is rather impressive.

This was indeed a vital action since the future generations must be aware of what the Wall looked like and how it was structured in order to stop people from crossing it in to the American sector.

Epigram/Maya Colwell

Seeing pieces of the wall made me feel pain, but also hope.

Today, a wall double the size of this stands in Palestine, destroying the houses, hopes and dreams of several generations since it was built in 2002.

Epigram/ Maya Colwell

The writings were so confusing and I wondered when they were made and whom by - besides people visiting Berlin today and wanting to leave a sign, which ones were made by enraged people in 1989, straight after the demolition? Or the days, months, years after it? Shivers ran along my spine as I thought of the families that were divided by it, and all the pain it brought. But I also like to imagine the satisfaction of young and old people running towards the wall to destroy it at its end. What a joy it must have been.

Whilst it currently looks stronger than ever, we can’t say that this will always be the case.

In fact, this is what the Berlin Wall must have looked like to the people who saw it being built, and later standing for 28 long years. I dream that one day, I will see the Israeli wall fall down and the Holy Land simply be in peace.

I wonder how many people looked at it before trying to cross the wall and felt dead inside despite being alive.

Opposite the checkpoint, a big double-sided picture has been erected to show what a standard Russian and American soldier would have looked like in his uniform.

I found this another simple but great way to let people know more about those who played an important role in the division.

The souvenir shops selling postcards of an old and new Berlin are, needless to say, sinister. Pictures that oppose the emptiness and tension years back and people casually strolling today in the same street give you goose bumps: it’s strange to think someone would make such content commercial.

But then it’s also a way to contribute to legacy. Same goes for the actors taking pictures with people, dressed as American soldiers opposite the checkpoint.

Not exactly as fun as the Roman gladiators in front of the Coliseum, but still...

Epigram/ Assia Shahins

I am aware that in Berlin, the features I saw were only a small part of a bigger war heritage - but it’s what I got to see from a day of quick sightseeing and exploring.

Despite offering a renovated, vibrant atmosphere, Berlin is still a historical hotspot of continental Europe that will impress you and leave an emotional mark on your travel path.

Check out more reflective travel posts on my blog at www.assiashahin.com

Epigram / @perrikschelatphotography

Another important and necessary stop was the Holocaust Memorial, a structure of grey stones that gets deeper and deeper as you walk inside it. The effect reached is very impressive - I thought of it as representing the graves that were never made for all the innocent victims of concentration camps.

Tag your travel photos with #epitravel to be featured on our account. Each issue we’ll print the photo with the most likes.

17.10.2016

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Editor Online Editor Jessie Onion Alex Boulton style@epigram.org.uk alex.boulton@epigram.org.uk @e2style

@epigramstyle

A review of Bristol Fashion Week Running October.

from Wednesday 28th Jessie Onion reports

Over five days, from Wednesday to Sunday, Bristol Fashion Week showed Bristolians the best trends for AW16 over seventeen separate catwalk shows. Epigram attended the Press Show on Thursday 29th and loved it, especially the complimentary drinks, snacks and goody bag at the end…

September to Sunday 2nd from Bristol Fashion Week

The show certainly caters to a student-friendly budget and included accessories from Accessorize and Pandora, whilst models’ make up was nothing less than the trusted Boots No 7 range.

If you are interested in seeing a catwalk show for the first time or even if you are a devoted attendee, the show is a great alternative to attending London Fashion Week as it’s cheap to get there, and offers a more relaxed atmosphere. Models are even allowed to smile, which makes a welcome change from the stony faces you usually see on the catwalk. Henry Holland revealed that presenting his collection at LFW is as scary as it sounds and that he loves the jelly beans that were in the goody bags. The show was structured into 10 different scenes, each showcasing a different trend. Our favourites were Oversized, Pastels, Animal and Opulence.

Outside of the monumental shopping centre that is Cribbs Causeway (a 30 minute bus journey from Whiteladies road on buses 1, 2, 3 or 4 and well worth the £3 return journey) sat a marquee big enough to fit a giant catwalk.

the show. Whilst we’re on the topic of the goody bag, let’s be frank - it was certainly a pull factor which we couldn’t wait to rummage through after the show had finished. It included a litre of coconut water, bag of Jelly Beans, Cadbury’s Crunchie biscuits and Lancome samples that were a great way to finish the night. Thanks for a fun evening Bristol Fashion Week, we will be seeing you next September.

Fashion designer Henry Holland and television presenter Mark Heyes hosted the 45 minute show which had a great atmosphere, they both interacted with the audience (mostly women) by cracking lots of Prosecco-orientated jokes. All of the trends shown were focused exclusively on the High Street, with models dressed in Jack Wills, John Lewis, Next and River Island.

Opulence…

Leopard print is everywhere at the moment, so make sure to wear this signature print. Models also wore a mix of zebra prints and brightly coloured faux fur coats. Take a walk on the wild side.

Again, a simple way to keep wearing that summer wardrobe. On the catwalk, models wore pale pinks, creams and blues with chunky grey scarves and camel trench coats.

River Island £26

Topshop £35

&otherstories £45

Zara £17.99

Zara £79.99 Zara £69.99

Zara £12

New Look £34.99

Skinnydip £35

Topshop £59

New Look £24.99

Asos £12

Topshop £22

Asos £90

Inspired by Stella McCartney’s puffer jackets, this is such a great trend for us students to wear easily, as all you have to do is layer up in cosy jumpers and invest in a puffa jacket.

Pretty fancy. Doll yourself up in velvet, sparkles, sequins and all that glitters to wear this trend. We loved the mix of sparkly jumpers and velvet dresses on the catwalk, perfect to wear on a night out.

Animal...

Pastels...

Oversized…

Epigram/ Alex Boulton

Epigram/ Alex Boulton

Epigram/ Jessie Onion

The show is a really affordable way to enjoy a fashion-filled evening and inspire some outfit choices: tickets started from £8.95 for a standard ticket, £9.95 for a second row tickets and £13.95 for a front row ticket. All tickets included a complimentary drink and snack on arrival, and a use-again cotton tote goody bag filled with freebies after

Jessie Onion 2016 Style Editor

17.10.2016

29

Your guide to Bristol’s best charity shops Style writer Jessica Curry guides you through Bristol’s best charity shops, all within walking distance from the Triangle In a city as well dressed as Bristol, style inspiration can come from everywhere you look.

The best way to experiment, or to maintain your individual sense of style whilst not breaking the probably already-strained student budget, is to explore the array of charity shops that Bristol has on offer. You don’t have to go far to find fantastic clothes, vinyls, books, CDs, shoes, and more, and all for the added bonus of supporting a wide range of deserving charities in the process.

Clic Sargent, Cotham Hill This one doesn’t have as many clothes as you might want, but still has many reasonably priced items to have a look at. With a wide selection of DVDs, vinyls, jewellery, and a few clothes rails, there are plenty of gems to be found if you want to look for them.

Epigram/ Alex Boulton

St Peter’s Hospice – Cotham Hill Everything is perfectly colour coordinated and organised in here, so immediately it’s a thumbs up from me. Because it’s so ordered it is very easy to find specific items, for example, if you’re looking for a good value coat as it starts to get chilly! Otherwise, it’s great for just a browse and there are all sorts of bargains to be found.

There is often a common misconception that charity shops are dark, dingy places full of motheaten ‘grandma’ clothes that you only enter the realms of if you have no style sense, are yourself a grandma, or both. Hopefully I’ve got you somewhere on track to dispelling this myth, and happy shopping!

Epigram/ Alex Boulton

Epigram/ Alex Boulton

Oxfam Books and Music – Cotham Hill With a very wide range of books, including critical literature, social sciences, children’s books and even collectibles, this one has an impressive array of books for studying as well as for pleasure.

There is also a small section of old vinyls and CDs right by the till.

Oxfam Books – Park Street Being much smaller than most bookshops, it might not seem like much, but many students donate their books when they graduate, and so it’s worth a look. Also, be sure to go upstairs at the back to ensure you have seen everything, and take a look at the small Fairtrade shelves at the front which sell shampoos, soaps and general toiletries from Fairtrade-friendly companies. This one is also right opposite Wills Memorial Building so is really easy to pop into.

Epigram/ Alex Boulton

Cancer Research – the Triangle Perfect for finding some cheap staple items, everything is clearly labelled and there are quite a few high-street brands amongst everything if you want to find them. There are small bookshelves and CD racks towards the back of the shop, where there are also a couple of convenient fitting rooms.

Epigram/ Alex Boulton

To help those that haven’t frequented the treasure troves that are charity shops, or just to give you a heads up on the best ones near you, here’s a guide to your Bristol charity shop experience: enjoy!

Mind, Cotham Hill This one has absolutely everything: clothes, DVDs, some books, electrical items, home ware, cards, shoes, purses, bags. As you can imagine, fitting all this into a small shop means that everything is pretty eclectically mixed up, but it is definitely worth the extra hunt through if you’re looking for a bargain.

Jessica Curry Style Writer

Best Street Style looks at Freshers’ Fair All photographs Epigram/ Jessie Onion

Instagram/ @london

Maria Perry History of Art Year 2

Instagram/ @topshop

Bella Spratley French and Russian Year 1

Instagram/ @britishvogue

Zoe Johnson Politics and Economics Year 1

Instagram/ @topshop

Instagram/ @thefrugality

Instagram/ @alexachung

Marie Bushra Medicine Year 1

Tallulah Nicholls Biology Year 3

Anna Jones Philosophy Year 1

Epigram 17.10.2016

Editor Anna Wyn annawyn.epigram@gmail.com

MUSIC

Goat SWX, 19.10

I will try and describe Goat to you as best as I can, because seeing them without context could potentially quite jarring. Expect masks/costumes, experimental fusion sounds and some acid-afrobeat from these Swedish lunatics. I would recommend that you read their Wikapedia page because they’re origins are somewhat bonkers.

For fans of Flamingods and...to be honest they are literally like no other band you’ll see live. Ever.

Facebook: Dreamgirls Event Page

FacebookGOAT Page

Facebook: Writers in the Caves Event Page

31

The Planiterium Sessions @Bristol, 17.10-19.10

Simple Things Festival is on it’s way, and part of it’s carefully curated selection of acts this year is “ The Planterium Sessions”.

Their forthcoming collaboration with @Bristol is a three night series bringing together electronica and astronomy in what is sure to be trippy.

FOOD

Julia Holter Anson Rooms, 20.11

Her newest album, “Have you in my Wilderness”,might be one of my favourite albums of this year. American singersongwriter Julia Holter is not one to be missed, especially considering that her tour schedule is sadly minescule . Her neo-classical lyrics are spellbinding, and her pop-baroque etherealism is a sound you will never hear anywhere else. For fans of Joanna Newsom and Julianna Barwick.

The Gin Festival The Passanger Shed, 29.10-30.10

Who doesn’t like Gin, ey? Head on down to The Passanger Shed at Temple Meads and tantilise your taste buds with gins from across the globe. From cocktail demos to all the gin samples your drunken heart desires. This indoor-garden party in the heart of the city centre should hopefully be worth the £10 ticket. If not just get plastered and pretend the extorianate amount of money was worth it.

CULTURE

FILM

+ Soul Sister Writers in the Caves Dreamgirls No.1 Party Redcliffe Caves, 25.10 Watershed, 21.10 Titled “Going Underground: Subterranean Tales”, this event features The Bristol Writers Group and friends reading short stories and novel extracts in the manmade red catacombes deep in the Redcliffe Caves. This night of story-telling is guaranteed to be an atmospheric evening, so bring a blanket and a folding chair and do something different this October.

Watershed KNOWS how to throw a post-screening party. Join them in the bar after the film until the early hours for Soul Sister No.1, a celebration of female stardom from Beyonce to Aretha. Some of the finest emerging female voices in Bristol will be stopping by as we ll, so get your glad rags on and embrace your inner Queen!

SuperHans Motion, 26.10

The irreverant and drug addled musican from Peep Show has forged himself a somewhat succesful career in the art of DJing. Comedian Matt King under his “SuperHans” persona promises to bring jokes and tunes to Motion. No guarentees on my end if it’ll be a decent night out, but I’ll go out of morbid curiosity and an unequivocal love of Peep Show.

fresh

TUESD AYS

EVERY TUESDAY Hip Hop, House, Dance, Pop Party and Student Anthems

BLACK

HISTORY MONTH 2016

celebrate with us YOU DECIDE

nus referendum STARTER FOR TEN

university challenge 2016 bristolsu.org.uk

FREE EDUCATION

bristol says tef off

university challenge Is it your turn to meet Paxman?

We're on the hunt for our new University Challenge team! <RX PLJKW KDYH VHHQ RXU WHDP ERVVLQJ WKHLU Ã&#x20AC;UVW URXQG PDWFK DJDLQVW 6KHIÃ&#x20AC;HOG RYHU WKH VXPPHU 2XU WHDP RI $OLFH &ODUNH 0LFKDHO 7RPVHWW -RH 5ROOHVWRQ DQG &ODLUH -DFNVRQ JDYH WKH VWHHO FLW\ D KDPPHULQJ

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&DSWDLQ $OLFH VDLG DW WKH WLPH â&#x20AC;&#x153;While there were some daunting moments, appearing on University Challenge was overall great fun.

"I'll never forget the excitement of entering the set and taking our seats; some of us have watched the programme since we were in junior school and it was a brilliant and strange moment to realise we were really on it."

7R Ã&#x20AC;QG RXW PRUH DQG VLJQ XS YLVLW bristolsu.org.uk/universitychallenge

Voting in term 1 elections: why it matters.

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,Q WKH SDVW \HDU DORQH VWXGHQW UHSV KDYH ZRUNHG RQ FKDQJHV WR VSRUWV SDVVHV LPSURYLQJ PHQWDO KHDOWK ,I DQ\ RI WKHVH DUHDV DUH UHOHYDQW WR \RX WKHQ PDNH VXUH SURYLVLRQV DW WKH 8QLYHUVLW\ LPSURYLQJ WKH SURFHVVHV \RX JR \RX YRWH DW bristolsu.org.uk/elections EHIRUH 2FWREHU WKURXJK LI \RX QHHG HVVD\ H[WHQVLRQV RU PLVV DQ H[DP DQG PXFK PXFK PRUH

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Why bristol su is saying 'tef off' You may have heard over the summer about the Higher Education Bill, DQG VRPHWKLQJ FDOOHG WKH 7HDFKLQJ ([FHOOHQFH )UDPHZRUN RU WKH 7() 7KH 7() PHDVXUHV WKH TXDOLW\ RI WHDFKLQJ at a Uni, and, depending on the Uniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s SHUIRUPDQFH UDLVHV IHHV DV D UHZDUG University of Bristol has not yet decided to participate with the TEF. But surely we should welcome this enforcement on teaching excellence?

Well, do not be fooled by the rosy words of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Teaching Excellenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. In fact, most of the ways the TEF will measure teaching quality have nothing to do with teaching at all.

So why does the TEF have nothing to do with teaching quality? Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the point?

Simply: TEF is a chance to raise fees.

The TEF is a means for them to shift the burden of paying for education off their own shoulders and onto the back of the individual student.

The University of Bristol does not have to participate with TEF. It has had various opportunities to respond individually to criticise the TEF and protect its students.

Bristol SU says TEF Off to the Higher Education Bill and the passive way with which Bristol accepted its changes. We say this in solidarity with 60 other Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Unions, 169 academics, the Trade Union of Colleges and Universities and the National Union of Students.

For more information about the Higher Education Bill and our campaign, head to bristolsu.org.uk/tefoff.

BRISTOL SAYS

TEF OFF

NUS referendum: stay in or leave the NUS? Bristol SU is running a referendum to determine whether or not we UHPDLQ DIĂ&#x20AC;OLDWHG WR WKH 1DWLRQDO 8QLRQ RI 6WXGHQWV 186 7R Ă&#x20AC;QG RXW what this means, the arguments on either side, and how to vote, visit: EULVWROVX RUJ XN UHIHUHQGXP

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The NUS is, quite simply, no longer fit for purpose. Reformists have been unable to change it in the past; they will fail again in the future."

"With the NUS we are stronger, richer and louder. Every single one of us benefits from their work every day."

From Yes to NUS campaign statement

From Bristol Out of NUS press statement Voting is open now, and closes on Thursday.

Undecided? Come to tonight's (Monday) live NUS referendum debate - from 6pm in the Winston Theatre. Book free tickets at EULVWROVX RUJ XN

WHAT'S ON FEATURED EVENT black history month Black History Month 2016 is going to be bigger than ever before. This October %ULVWRO 68 LV SOD\LQJ KRVW WR SUROLĂ&#x20AC;F JXHVW speakers in a series of talks, panel GLVFXVVLRQV Ă&#x20AC;OP VFUHHQLQJV DQG PRUH LQ celebration of Black History.

For more information see: bristolsu.org.uk/blackhistorymonth

Monday 17 October. The Big Fat Bristol SU Pub Quiz Expect obscure facts, near-impossible challenges, general hilarity and extremely cheap beer. By far the best thing to do with your Monday evening!

Saturday 29 October. RAG - Lost 2016.

Teams are blindfolded, dropped off in a mystery location and race back to Bristol. The catch? They can't spend any money on transport.. They have to hitchhike! Think you've got what it takes? Email Sarah at bristoljailbreak@ gmail.com.

Monday 17 October, 6pm, Winston Theatre. NUS Referendum - The Live Debate.

Students will soon vote whether Bristol SU should remain a member of the NUS. Come along to our debate to hear arguments from both campaign teams.

Tuesday 18 October. 8pm, Balloon Bar Takeover - Engineers Without Borders It's 'Bring Your Own Boardgames' night, where members and potentially new members are invited to hang out over a variety of board games!

Tuesday 18 October. Get Active: Pilates.

8am, Carpenter Room ,PSURYH VWUHQJWK Ă H[LELOLW\ DQG EDODQFH energising pilates session. A great way to start the day! Open to all.

Thursday 20 October. PG Quiz Night.

7pm, Anson Rooms Bar. Get quizzical and put your knowledge to the test in the best quiz in town, hosted by our amazing Quizmaster Sam Briggs! ÂŁ1 entry per person, with great prizes up for grabs!

Friday 21 October. Pay It No Mind Screening. 7pm, Winston Theatre.

Pay It No Mind is a documentary about revolutionary trans rights activist Marsha 3 -RKQVRQ 7KH Ă&#x20AC;UVW SHUVRQ WR WKURZ D stone in the Stonewall Riots of 1969, -RKQVRQ LV DQ LFRQLF Ă&#x20AC;JXUH VWLOO WR WKLV day. Snacks will be provided!

For more information on all upcoming events see bristolsu.org.uk/events

“

Epigram 17.10.2016

Deputy Editor: Josh Spencer

ekemp@epigram.org.uk

josh.spencer@epigram.org.uk

pgraham@epigram.org.uk

@ella_kemp

@_joshjs

@phoebe_elise19

any other path available to him.

Meanwhile, the supporting cast hold their own in driving the plot forward, with policewoman Mercedes ‘Misty’ Knight (Simone Missick) also out for Cottonmouth and prone to crime scene flashbacks similar to Hannibal’s Will Graham.

Returning character Claire Temple, played by Rosario Dawson, has more to do this time around and serves to knit the separate strands of Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage together in preparation for the much anticipated Defenders crossover (think TV Avengers).

Turning to Cage himself, Mike Colter shines in the role. He boasts a commanding presence, but also a refreshingly down-to-earth superhero.

Cage frequently expresses mere annoyance at the bullets glancing off him for ruining his clothes; in a moment of pure fan service where he finds himself dressed in the original comic book costume of his character, he can only shake his head and mutter ‘I look like a damn fool’.

Epiflix and Chill: Episode 2 - Luke Cage

Netflix

Film & TV Writer Liam Holmes tells us why Marvel’s new series Luke Cage is the show to watch on Netflix.

Marvel narrowly continues its winning streak with the latest entry to its Netflix universe.

Mike Colter features as the titular Luke Cage: an indestructible man who sets out to clean up Harlem city.

The character of Cage was first introduced in Jessica Jones, the show’s occasionally brilliant predecessor. When we first meet Cage this time around, he’s resolved to lay low working at a local barber shop run by Frankie Faison’s ‘Pop’, the neighbourhood’s local father figure. Before long, Cage finds himself on a collision course with local gangster Cornell ‘Cottonmouth’ Stokes, played superbly by everyone’s House of Cards favourite Mahershala Ali. Ali has his work cut out for him, as he stands in the shadows of the giants of Vincent D’onforio’s Kingpin and David Tennant’s Purple Man, both of whom shone as villains in previous Marvel series.

Marvel’s handling of villains in its TV universe must have been a large part in its success, with more fully realised relationships between hero and villain having been unheard of since Heath Ledger’s turn as the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. It’s good, then, that Ali more than rises to the task.

Cottonmouth is a tragic character - he is untrusted by his suppliers and disrespected by his local partners. The impression is given early on that his position as ‘King’ of Harlem is all too precarious and a takeover of his operations seems imminent. Even at his worst it’s hard not to empathise with Cottonmouth; he appears trapped in an escalating situation which he seems ill-suited to handle. Glimpses of his childhood reinforce this; we see a kind boy more inclined to music than violence, who was simply born into the wrong family, leaving us to wonder if there was ever really

“

The timing of the introduction of a bulletproof black man to the world can be neither ignored nor overstated

Luke Cage continues the trend of Marvel’s televised creations being significantly grittier than their film counterparts; it features fairly graphic violence and must surely be the first Marvel property to drop the N-word (a word which Luke abhors). TV is a medium that is increasingly taking more risks than its cinematic counterpart and Luke Cage capitalises on this to great success.

The timing of the introduction of a bulletproof black man to the world can be neither ignored nor overstated, a sensitive fact that the show runners don’t shy away from. Powerful imagery is employed throughout to evoke memories of all too recent history. In one particularly striking scene, bullets from a nervous cop bounce off of a hoodie-wearing Cage who has been stopped after wandering into an upscale neighbourhood. Elsewhere, a late

season plot line features deteriorating relations between Harlem’s citizens and police; in response to the murder of an officer, the police launch a full stop-and-search offensive to find the culprit.

Luke Cage is well worth your time, with the first seven episodes being as good as anything Marvel has produced

To address the show’s late season, the story can be essentially split into two arcs after a mid season change of direction, but the second arc doesn’t really reach the heights of the first. The more prominent villain here, Diamondback, played by Erik LaRay Harvey, is puzzlingly off the mark; his backstory and motivations seem contrived. This is an issue which Marvel has had with all four of its Netflix shows so far, starting strong but losing momentum mid-season before regaining pace towards the finale. But here, the needed burst of energy is absent completely and the show never returns to its original standard.

Despite this, seeds are well sown for future seasons. In particular, watching Cottonmouth’s cousin Mariah Dillard embrace the family heritage as well as her darker side is an absolute pleasure and simultaneously sets her up as a potential ‘big bad’ in episodes to come.

Luke Cage is a show that is well worth your time, with the first seven episodes being as good as anything Marvel has produced, topped off with a unique tone for the franchise. Now with four consecutive, successful Netflix shows to accompany their box-office devouring film franchise, it really seems that Marvel, like Luke Cage, is unstoppable.

“

Film & TV

Editor: Ella Kemp

@epigramfilm Online Editor: Phoebe Graham

Got an idea for the next installment of Epiflix and Chill?

Get in touch @EpigramFilm

Cranston compensates for an otherwise forgettable thriller in The Infiltrator Film

&

TV

Writer

Max

If you’re at all enthusiastic about film and/or television, you can’t help but notice the present obsession with Latin American drug cartels - the infamous Medellín cartel of Pablo Escobar in particular.

Whether it’s Netflix’s series Narcos depicting the life of Escobar himself, or the superb thriller Sicario channelling the ruthlessness of the cartel through the chilling Benicio Del Toro, you don’t need to search for very long find to find something on the screen involving torpidly generic Latin American accents, 80’s pastel suits and cocaine up the nostrils.

Now we have The Infiltrator to place on the already substantial pile.

Based on true events, the film sees Bryan Cranston in the role of Robert Mazur, an experienced undercover agent working for the United States Customs Service who attempts the most dangerous sting operation of his career in a ‘this is the last job, I promise’ hunt for the lieutenants and money launderers in Pablo Escobar’s operation.

Mazur poses as a dodgy financier, alias Bob Musella, who alongside his fictitious fiancée Kathy Ertz - a rookie agent played by Diane Kruger befriends several figures in Escobar’s fold, most

discusses

the

strikingly

crucially one of his central right-hand men, Roberto Alcaino – ably portrayed by Benjamin Bratt. It is the evolution of Mazur’s relationship with Alcaino to one of genuine yet fundamentally compromised warmth which forms the only considerable emotional thread during the film; a dynamic which invites comparison to the similar relationship between Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner in American Hustle.

Cranston’s performance is frankly the film’s only raison d’être: he makes an appearance in virtually every scene of the two hour duration, but with such quantity comes astounding quality as well.

Embracing the rolewithin-a-role performance, he convincingly renders a picture of a man struggling to retain both the trust and affection of his family as well as his own moral integrity, surrounded by individuals with neither.

In one of the most shocking scenes in the film, which forms part of the main thread of suspense, Mazur, while at an anniversary dinner with his real wife Evelyn - played by Juliet Aubrey

familiar

new

Escobar

- bumps coincidentally into one of the cartel members he has been ‘collaborating’ with. So that his cover is not blown, Mazur pretends that his wife is his secretary and when the waiter comes with the anniversary cake, adopts a quite appalling toughguy persona with faux-outrage that the wrong cake was brought. Evelyn is understandably disgusted and Mazur rightfully ashamed.

Such a moment brings to the fore one of the enduring questions raised by undercover lawenforcement: where do the boundaries of conduct lie?

And yet,a fleeting and rare moment of profundity this remains within the film, one which points quite neatly to one of its main impediments: a lack of originality.

Just as we see much of American Hustle in Mazur’s fatally flawed bond with Alcaino, the worsening marriage with Evelyn mirrors the severe breakdown of Walter’s relationship with Skyler in Breaking Bad, only no way near as profound – ignoring the fact that the latter is a television series.

Coming out of the cinema, I found it very Broad Green Pictures/Liam Daniel

“

All the audience was granted were temporary moments of tension, which in themselves were spoiled by predictability

Lewthwaite

crime

feature

The

Infiltrator

difficult to resist thinking that I really had it seen it all before and quite often better in every department.

You will be dissapointed with how much in The Infiltrator you’ve already seen before

To my mind, the problem was a directorial one: Brad Furman, for whatever reason, seemed so reluctant to allow a scene to go on for more than a few minutes, which meant that intensity and suspense could never mature in any meaningful sense. All the audience was granted were temporary moments of tension, which in themselves were spoiled by predictability - any experienced filmwatcher could see the bullets coming from a long way off. This is really quite a shame, not just of this film, but of so many films in general and indeed Hollywood itself. Speaking of which, what an anticlimactic non-event the ending was – I shan’t reveal what ‘goes down’, not that there is anything to spoil anyway.

Though occasionally gripping and worthwhile for Cranston fans, you will be disappointed with how much in The Infiltrator you’ve already seen before.

What did you think of The Infiltrator?

Find us on Facebook @EpigramFilmAndTV

Epigram 17.10.2016

“

Magnificent or Mediocre? The Magnificent Seven review

38

Film & TV Writer James Turnbull ponders whether the high-budget blockbuster has done the original justice

“

It’s a shame that the action sequences fail to build on the foundations laid in these quieter moments

One strength of The Magnificent Seven (and indeed most ensemble movies) is its characters – specifically the relationships they form. Fuqua’s insistence that there be more ethnic diversity in the cast than most of its genre contemporaries has yielded an intriguing mixture of backgrounds

and ideologies. The little rifts that these differences create makes their interactions just a little bit more interesting. In a way, the characterdriven side of the adventure is reminiscent of The Avengers – a team of talented individuals must put disparities aside to unite against a new enemy, but not without bumps along the way. It’s just a shame that the action scenes fail to build on the foundations laid in these quieter moments.

There’s nothing bigger or more meaningful lurking behind the glossy finish

Many great films continue to tell a story through their action scenes, utilising the change of pace to explore how their characters react to rapidly changing circumstances. The Magnificent Seven simply sticks its stars in a series of barely connected vignettes that lazily show off their ‘special skills’: here’s Byung-hun Lee’s knifewielding assassin stabbing a bad guy, here’s Vincent D’onofrio’s man-mountain hurtling into some poor miscreant at a ridiculous speed, now look, there’s the Comanche warrior sniping someone with a bow and arrow. As the movie patiently cycles through its list of tropes, one can’t help but wonder: is that the best they could do?

The frustrating shortcomings pop up elsewhere too. In a move that almost signals a lack of faith in its audience, many moments of tension – Chisolm’s arrival in a saloon, for example – are robbed of their atmosphere by a wayward shout

Flickr/Bago Games

As words go, ‘magnificent’ is one that must be used wisely. Some things simply have that special something – a magical quality that elevates it beyond ‘good’ or even ‘great’. Alas The Magnificent Seven, despite its title, falls some way short of this lofty pantheon of quality, landing somewhere in the no man’s land of ‘decent’. It’s fine, it’s fun, it’s entertaining - but not much else.

The Magnificent Seven, directed by Antoine Fuqua, is a reimagining of the 1960 film of the same name, which itself was a remake of 1954’s The Seven Samurai. Denzel Washington (star of Training Day and The Equalizer, two more Fuquahelmed features) plays Sam Chisolm, a Kansasbased warrant officer. His life of gunslinging and bounty-hunting is interrupted by the desperate residents of Rose Creek, a town besieged by ruthless industrialist Bartholomew Bogue. With justice and revenge on the table, Chisolm gathers six other cunning warriors and, together with the remaining citizens, confronts Bogue in a deadly showdown to take back this troubled town.

from off-camera, which does nothing but loudly announce what the rest of the scene was working hard to merely imply. We can tell from the silence and the actors’ expressions that Chisolm has some sort of reputation, but ‘what the hell’s he doing here?’ rings out from the background to make the message just a little too loud and clear.

‘Show, don’t tell’ is an important lesson in filmmaking – perhaps a choice few on set didn’t quite get the message.

Other moments of deeper character exploration have far too few seconds in the spotlight, such as the troubled state of Ethan

Hawke’s Confederate veteran, whose plight adds a little light and shade to proceedings before its sadly predictable conclusion. Was there really no room in the 133 minute runtime for something with a little more meat on its bones?

This is by no means a bad film: the production values are excellent, the cast is strong and the gunslinging is remarkably slick. However, there’s nothing bigger or more meaningful lurking behind the glossy finish – nothing to really draw viewers in or make them think. When all is said and done, The Magnificent Seven is a fun ride with plenty to enjoy. Just don’t expect fireworks.

What’s On? Editors’ Picks

The Grim Reaper

BFI/

Josh Deputy Editor

Phoebe Online Editor

Manchester by the Sea

Paterson

Lo and Behold

In cinemas November 18th

In cinemas November 17th

In cinemas October 28th

Making its UK debut at London Film Festival, Lonergan’s latest feature paints a beautiful portrait of grief, family and loneliness. What makes it special is its ability to depict a story that feels real, not sensationalised or trivialised, just told fairly - it’s set to go down a storm.

The Get Down On Netflix

The Get Down seems to encapsulate all of my favourite things: Baz Luhrmann, exciting and uplifting characters and stories, stellar music, and only a handful of episodes. Let’s face it; if it has more episodes than you have contact hours, it’ll fall to the bottom of the list.

Adam Driver stars in this highly acclaimed drama about a bus driver and poet whose repetitive life is thrown into chaos by a small disaster. Having already competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Paterson continued its fine form by showing at London Film Festival.

The past, present and future of the internet are examined through the magnifying glass of renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog and original interviews with the founders of cyberspace. Lift your eyes from your Facebook newsfeed to the silver screen; this is an absolute must see.

Black Mirror

The Apprentice

On Netflix from October 21st

BBC One

The new series of Charlie Brooker’s dark dystopian vision of the future will be released exclusively on Netflix later this month - just in time for Halloween. Will he be able to predict the events of the next few years as accurately as he did last time? We can only hope.

Flickr/19melissa68

Flickr/Toby Jagmohan

BFI/LFFPRESS

BFI/LFFPRESS

Ella Editor

Films to Faces

It’s back and bigger than ever. The 12th series of The Apprentice has returned to our screens to once again boast irresistibly sugarcoated candidates with arrogant ambition and pompous personalities. Lord Sugar is as sour as ever; it’s business as usual from the boardroom.

1. Saw As Halloween is quickly approaching (my favourite holiday of the year), there’s only one film that will stay my favourite forever. The first instalment of Saw has everything: the gore, the blood, the death and, of course, the lack of a satisfying storyline.

2. Saw III Miles better than the second, but it could never as good as the first. Saw III brings the trilogy to a delightfully horrific end.

3. Bambi Despite my harsh and gloomy exterior, I always cry when Bambi’s mother dies.

Who would you like to see interviewed next for Films to Faces? Tweet us @EpigramFilm with your suggestions!

Arts

Epigram

@EpigramArts

Editor: Ed Grimble arts@epigram.org.uk

17.10.2016

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Online Editor: Helena Raymond-Hayling Deputy Editors: Myla Lloyd & Georgia O’Brien deputyarts@epigram.org.uk artsonline@epigram.org.uk

‘Humour, familiarity, beauty, guilt, fear, and menace’ Ed Grimble and Zoe Hazan reflect on Arnolfini’s ‘Emotional Archaeology’, showing the work of renowned artist Daphne Wright.

This is a mutilation of far more, however.

Stallion is conspicuously referential; from Stubbs’ Whistlejacket to Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps, the horse is an archetypal image of confidence and potency in art history. Wright’s sculpture demands that we look beyond this artistic legacy and view this death mask for what it is: a once

Wright’s raw materials vary hugely across her works, and all are carefully chosen – form always inextricably bound up with subject matter. The collection of Clay Heads (2014) is composed of unfired clay, a material that is used by children and can produce the effect of a child’s work. The ominous rows of mouthless heads represent the innocence of

Courtesy Frith Street Gallery and Arnolfini

Daphne Wright, Stallion, 2009. Marble dust and resin beautiful animal that has been preserved in a moment of suffering. The viewer inevitably feels the pangs of guilt that this pain is human inflicted.

This suggestion of the preservation of an instant of suffering permeates the other sculptures in the room: a lamb hung from a

She takes a scene of familiarity and comfort and twists it into something unsettling, alien, and even frightening.

beauty, or serendipity, Wright’s processes force culpability onto the viewer. There is no dignity in her animal subjects, and as a viewer we must self-interrogate and ask how as a species we can act so barbarically towards them. Indeed, this transfiguration of animal into art will cause most viewers to do a double take, and reconsider.

Daphne Wright was born in 1963, in Ireland.

In a career spanning some four decades, she has established a much deserved reputation as one of the United Kingdom’s most accomplished visual artists, and her signature anatomical sculptures have been seen the world over. Her highly anticipated Emotional Archaeology opened to the Bristol public earlier this month, and the artist and

Wright continues her human sculpture in Kitchen Table (2014), a work which explores the domestic experience. The striking familial diorama depicts two casts of small boys – revealed to be Wright’s own sons – sat at and on a perfectly mundane kitchen table. Slumped on the tablecloth in that all too familiar pose of ‘mum we’re bored, mum we’re bored!’, there is a wry humour to the work.

Consider the forms for longer, however, and this light-hearted domestic vignette morphs into something far more tragicomic. Cast in deathly pale jesmonite – a material favoured by taxidermists and paleontologists – the

Daphne Wright, Clary Heads

figures are oddly ethereal. They are at once so resolutely solid as physical sculptural forms, yet wraith-like in their pallid, lifeless appearance. Wright has taken a quotidian scene and sucked from it its familiar vibrancy – Kitchen Table is petrifying in every sense of the word.

The exhibition is a multi-sensory experience and pieces are often supported by audio. The strength and power of the gigantic structures in Where Do Broken Hearts Go (2000) is undercut by the despairing yet lilting Irish voice of a heart-broken woman.

There is, here, a profound sense of the uncanny; the taking of a scene of familiarity and comfort and twisting it into something unsettling, alien, and even frightening. It is never far from any of Wright’s further works either. In Domestic Shrubbery, a small room – no more than twelve feet by twelve feet – is decorated on all four walls by plaster casts of entwined leaves and branches. On an aesthetic level the three-dimensional ‘wallpaper’ conjures up images of lavish, decorative William Morris print designs.

Over the speaker system a lone woman sings the call of the cuckoo, and it is this which warps Wright’s otherwise innocuous floral relief into something oppressive and almost threatening: an overgrown cell of matted, intertwined foliage. The cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of other birds; it is an outsider and a menacing invader, and its incessant call in Domestic Shrubbery soon becomes torturous.

The exhibition’s denouement takes the viewer away from the clinical, ivory aestheticism of the art in the preceding rooms and plunges them instead into darkness. A single screen hangs from the ceiling and a stony, geriatric face looks out. In the same way Wright forces the viewer to look – really look – at the world around them through her art, the woman’s unwavering stare forces the viewer to look at her and hear her struggle.

Beginning by soliloquising about breastfeeding her baby, the elderly lady quickly descends into a post-Beckettian spiel.

She pulls words apart, giving us the simple components of a laboured, phonetic jigsaw.

She seems to be trying harder and harder to form language, with each syllable taking a concerted effort. There is something of the cyclical nature of life here; the viewer is brought from birth to death in three minutes of sound. The way the video presents a breakdown of language is a sympathetic and chilling depiction of Alzeimer’s disease

– Wright gives a voice to the marginalised older generation. But life here ends very much with a whimper.

This way in which, whilst appearing superficially simplistic and uncomplicated, her works can offer myriad levels of meaning which drift unpredictably between humour, familiarity, beauty, guilt, fear, and menace, is the real crux of what makes Wright’s art so alluring and fascinating. Through beautiful

Through beautiful craftsmanship, she exposes the ugliness of what it can mean to be human.

craftsmanship, she exposes the ugliness of what it can mean to be human. These revelations are very often disquieting and intrusive, but simultaneously necessary – these darknesses are not things from which we should simply shy away.

Wright is a true ‘emotional archaeologist’, excavating every shard of emotional provocation she can from her varied materials and subject matter. Her artworks demand careful, diligent and repeated viewings – and to do so is endlessly rewarding, if not entirely pleasant.

Courtesy Frith Street Gallery Arnolfini

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steel rod in the wall (Lamb), and a scrawny rhesus monkey on a plinth (Primate). Whilst the majority of portraiture and sculpture tends towards the monumentalising of poise,

abused children – manipulated and voiceless to fight back against their aggressors. There is also a sense of vulnerability and malleability here. Adults like the artist or the viewer can effortlessly shape children, themselves very receptive to the influence of those older.

Contemplating the end of the Waitrose free coffee

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her subject matter will be the focal point of the harbourside museum in the coming months in a programme of tours and talks.

The exhibition is a showcase of Wright’s incredible range of artistic capability; she traverses effortlessly across media with use of film, photography, sculpture, embroidery and watercolour.

Courtesy Frith Street Gallery and Arnolfini

Splayed out on the gallery floor – hooves skyward and tail hair fanned out over the concrete – Daphne Wright’s Stallion is an image first and foremost of pitiful resignation.

The sculpture, made from marble dust and resin, is of a majestic creature made almost pathetic. Closer inspection reveals that this equine edifice is partially flayed.

Daphne Wright, Primate, 2009. Marble dust, onyx, resin, paint and silk embroidery

Emotional Architecture’ runs at the Arnolfini until 31st December. Entry is free. Daphne Wright will also be in conversation with artist Phyllida Barlow on 3rd December at the Arnolfini. Entrance is £8 or £6 for concessions, and can be booked online.

Ed Grimble and Zoe Hazan

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17.10.2016

@EpigramArts

Hedwig Houben: another triumph for Spike Island

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Helena Raymond Hayling scopes out the two new exhibitions that opened recently at Spike Island

‘I think it’s most important to be honest and put yourself in challenging situations even if it’s uncomfortable’

Imitator Being Made (2015) Lofoten International Art Festival: Disappearing Acts, 2015. Video still

Hedwig Houben and Galerie Fons Welters

‘When I graduated it was all very fresh and I had only just found the direction I wanted to take my work in, but I was still building up a fundament and didn’t have enough experience knowing how it is to be a professional artist in practice. When I was no longer in an academic institution getting feedback on my work all the time, I needed to think about all the critiques I’d had and think about what I was doing a bit more clearly.

I then took part in a postgraduate program in Ghent where a group of 20 artists were together in the same building and we had curators, artists and writers come and see our work.

Having that network was really helpful and brought people together from all over the world, and helped to find new ways to develop my work. I think it’s most important to be honest and put yourself in challenging situations even if it’s uncomfortable.’

The many sensory and creative elements which make Houben’s art what it is ensure that you feel a part of her artistic story. This, coupled with the willingness and enthusiasm she has to share her process so plainly and openly is why I loved this exhibition, and would recommend it to anyone.

In the adjacent gallery a feature length film Instructions

The performance element takes the form of an artist talking, discussing the conception and process of creation.

The activator speaks through the different sculptural objects which are characters in the different performances. The characters include The Other which is a 1:1 scale model of a Volkswagen hatchback and I, a model of the head of the performer, which both feature in Personal Matters and Public Affairs (2016).

The two objects interact in such a way to question the identity of the driver of the car, and to stress the futility of The Other without I. The gallery stewards have the opportunity to move the objects around the space at will, and in fact the modular shelving units are themselves a character, The Collector, who offers the other characters a platform to

Hedwig Houben and Galerie Fons Welters

Personal Matters and Public Affairs (2015): Video still, performance lecture

The poems are instructional in form and provide a plethora of ridiculous directions for the reader to complete: ‘Get hold of some typing paper, take one sheet after another and cover everything...until the entire room turns white’. Kolár seems to suggest completing tasks beyond the capacity of human ability which only exist in the imagination. The poems themselves proved rather difficult to translate: Štrtina recalls the translator struggling with words used by Kolár,

Miroslav Buriánek during production for Instructions for use of Jirí Kolár (2016) since he had completely made them up for the purposes of painting a linguistic picture in his works.

During the film Buriánek painstakingly sculpts the performances so that the intonation of the actors perfectly reflects the intensity and meaning of the poetry. These subtleties Buriánek describes as ‘geometric speech’, which is the inspiration for the neon shapes placed before the screen in the exhibition space. Although the poems were recorded, they were never broadcast, since the end goal for Štetina and Buriánek was the perfection of the performances, not their distribution.

WHAT

Artist

For 40 years Viola has created

impressive video installations,

sound environments, electronic music performances and pieces for television broadcast. Viola has been known to turn his creative

1951-

Flickr/ Bill & Hiroshi

Bill Viola (b. 1951) is one of today’s most illustrious artists. His work has proven crucial in the establishment of video as an essential form of contemporary art, and he has been called ‘the Rembrandt of the video age’. Viola’s installations are striking and brazen, and make no apologies for being popular with a mainstream audience. ‘For a time I would despise work that lots of people liked, but I realised that these things were not just for a small esoteric group. I really did want everyone to get at least something out of it’, he says.

The intonation of the actors perfectly reflects the intensity and meaning of the poetry.

Spike Island is a partner of the Tate Plus network, and is open Tuesday-Sunday 12-5pm. Entrance is free. Houben and Štetina’s work will continue to be displayed until 11th December 2016.

The Collector and its Host (2015) Installation view, Galerie Fons Welters. Photography Gert Jan van Rooij

Bill Viola

WHO

for use of Jirí Kolár created by Czech artist Roman Štetina.

This film, created in collaboration with Miroslav Buriánek, shows a long standing radio drama director on Czech Radio. Štetina wanted to pay tribute to Buriánek as he approached retirement by capturing on film the way he works with a script and actors (here hired from Štetina’s childhood ametur dramatics group), and offered him the chance to select a text of his own personal interest to record. The work Instructions for use of Jirí Kolár documents the process of translating the poems of Czech poet, artist and translator Jirí Kolár (19142002) who spoke out against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

Roman Štetina. Miroslav Buriánek and Spike Island, Bristol

Houben’s sculptural work and installations presented at Spike are mediated by scripted parts, which are taken on by 4 guests at different times - a visitor, a collector, a staff member and a studio artist. The scripts contain references to the self and because it is shared around, it brings about questions of overlapping identity and leaves most of these questions unanswered.

Fons

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perform. Tampering with the boundaries between artist, performer, spectator and artwork itself is a very novel way of being inclusive and provoking introspection, which I found utterly compelling.

In conversation with Houben after being shown around her exhibition, I was totally inspired and wanted to know more about her artistic journey and how she found her feet in the creative world. She was very kind and happy to talk about herself and this exhibition, her first solo show in the UK. Hedwig Houben and Galerie Welters

An afternoon visit to Spike Island is always worth the trek.

The location of this gallery is somewhat mysterious, nestled between the River Avon and the SS Great Britain - you’d be unlikely to stumble across it. Nevertheless, it is without a doubt my personal favourite gallery in Bristol and one of the city’s best hubs of contemporary art. Spike is an 80,000 square foot building containing studio space for resident artists, teaching space for UWE as well as a huge exhibition space. Spike try to host young artists at the tipping point of their career, and the work presented is always varied in style and influence. Ahead of its opening, I had a chance to check out the newly opened Hedwig Houben’s Others and I and Roman Štetina and Miroslav Buriánek’s Instructions for use of Jirí Kolár.

attentions to collaborative projects, creating videos to accompany musical compositions (including those of composer Edgard Déserts and the rock group Nine Inch Nails). His creative flair and artistic style again proved to be versatile when he joined with Peter Sellers on reproducing Richard Wagner’s opera, Tristan und Isolde, where Viola’s video backdrop was said to have a “mesmerizing effect”.

Epigram

17.10.2016

Mayor spells out his plans for Bristol Ed Grimble delves into Mayor Marvin Rees’ ‘state of the city’ address to see how the arts fit into his vision for Bristol His aim for Bristol’s artistic provision is founded very much on inclusivity. The issue is that these wonderful projects and performances lose their shine if they are consumed by only a small subsection of the city’s population; when something as potentially unifying as art and culture leads only to further social fragmentation and atomisation.

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Recent statistics from Public Health England state that 23.67 per cent of children under 16 years old are living in poverty

Gone are the infamous red trousers, replaced instead by the red rose of Labour. The cheers and sporadic standing ovations that accompanied Mayor Marvin Rees’ ‘state of the city’ address in the Wills Memorial Great Hall certainly suggested that this shift in Bristol’s political landscape is a welcome one.

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Rees affirmed that, despite his disappointment with the Brexit vote, he will be continuing with Bristol’s bid to become European Capital of Culture. There are also plans in place, as well as works already in progress, to invest heavily to develop the Bristol Old Vic, Colston Hall, and St. George’s. These venues form a triangle at the heart of the city’s cultural programme– the last calendar year alone have seen names from Jeremy Irons to Salman Rushdie to Tony Robinson come to talk and perform. We must ‘embrace [Bristol’s] creative sector’, the mayor urged. It is indeed a reassuring gesture that Rees’ deputy mayor, Estella Tincknell, is also Associate Professor of Film and Culture at the University of the West of England.

Gavin Kelly– on the panel alongside Alexandra Jones of the Centre for Cities, and Marvin Rees himself– made the point that in a number of ways other cities do ‘want what Bristol has got’; there is an awful lot within the city of which we should be proud. However, he was also keen to highlight the sobering statistics regarding the chasm between the most and least well off in our city. Recent statistics from Public Health England state that 23.67 per cent of children under 16 years old are living in poverty, for example.

Mayor Marvin Rees speaking alongside the University’s Vice-Chancellor Hugh Brady The new mayor also has plans for Bristol’s streets and architecture, claiming that the city’s apparent fondness for low level buildings is totally incongruent with the housing and spatial problems facing it. Thrusting, high rise buildings also communicate ambition– think of that what you will.

Time, of course, will be the judge of Rees’ success or failure as mayor of the city, but this address certainly showed him to be a man of mettle and determination. A clear vision for our city, and a desire to utilise the collective strength of Bristol’s creative, economic, and political minds, is certainly a positive way to start.

Ed Grimble

WHEN

WHERE locations. In 1979, he and his wife and longtime collaborator Kira Perov travelled to the Sahara desert to record mirages. In 1987 they travelled throughout the American south-west documenting Native American rock art. Most recently in 2005, they journeyed to India to record a prayer blessing with the Dalai Lama. Perov (executive director of Bill Viola Studio) and Viola now live and work in Long Beach, California.

Flickr/ Canadian Opera Company

Viola has taken inspiration from many

A book I discovered as an undergraduate that has stuck with me since…

Political Shakespeare: Essays in Cultural Materialism Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield Before I went to university, the study of English Literature was all themes, imagery and motifs. This book helped me to realise that to read literature is to be profoundly engaged in politics as well as aesthetics, and I come back to it again and again in my work.

As You Like It William Shakespeare

[Rees’] aim for Bristol’s artistic provision is founded very much on inclusivity

While the Ferguson regime (2012-2016) saw some wonderful public art installations grace the city’s streets and over 450 parks and green spaces, as well as Bristol’s already gleaming cultural reputation grow further, these sorts of projects did perhaps come at the expense of some of the city’s less enthusiastically publicised issues.

Dr. Eleanor Rycroft, lecturer in theatre and performance studies, gives Myla Lloyd her top reads in the first of this regular feature.

A book that inspired me to do what I do today…

Nick Riddle. Courtesy University of Bristol

Rees is, it must be made clear from the off, set to be a very different mayor to his predecessor. George Ferguson, the latter, is an architect, entrepreneur, and champion of urban renewal (Ferguson is responsible for saving what is now the Tobacco Factory, and The Bristol Beer Factory, from demolition). His successor has worked as a BBC radio presenter, and for NHS Bristol as Programme Manager for race equality in mental health issues. On the national stage, Bristol is defined by two things: being a fiercely independent city teeming with the country’s top artistic and creative minds– the Arnolfini was recently shortlisted for the Museum of the Year award– and as being a city tainted by a continually worsening problem of social division.

Lecturers on Literature

Flickr/ AlexBrown

Flickr/ Jordin57

Experts were quick to draw attention to Bristol’s dire housing situation– which is continuing to worsen...

Much the same is true of economic development, in that ‘raw’ growth does not equate to a guaranteed reduction in social inequality. In a city like Bristol, the spectre of gentrification is never far from discussions on economic prosperity and its implications on communities. In its fundamental sense, gentrification does represent increased progress and prosperity in an area; the problems arise when one notes that this prosperity is not inclusive, instead benefitting only a particular societal group. The modern city is continually plagued by issues of atomisation, and the dangers of isolation and loneliness that breed so rapidly in urban spaces.

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We had to study this at A-level and I thought it was archaic, boring and unfunny. Then I went to see Cheek-by-Jowl’s performance with Adrian Lester as Rosalind, and knew instantly that the rest of my life would involve studying or practicing early modern theatre and thinking about gender.

A book that I read when I want to unwind…

The Golden Notebook Doris Lessing I’m not sure that I’m very good at choosing books that help me to unwind! The work of Doris Lessing is a particular pleasure though, and I think that The Golden Notebook is essential reading – especially if you are a woman in her 20s.

The book I most enjoyed writing…

Facial Hair and Masculinity in Early Modern Drama Ellie Rycroft Again, I’m not sure that writing can be described as enjoyable! The precision that characterises academic writing can be painful to achieve. I’m currently writing my first book which explores how facial hair was used to signify particular forms of masculinity on the early modern stage.

It’s a fun topic.

If I could only save one book from a burning library it would be…

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare William Shakespeare A cliché, but an easy choice. This is the richest repository of ideas in our language I believe. Recently I saw Nelson Mandela’s Robben Island copy and he had marked the passage from Julius Caesar: ‘Cowards die many times before their deaths/ The valiant never taste of death but once.’

Myla Lloyd

WHY

‘Tape I’ was Viola’s first work as a student in 1972,

The subject matter and composition of medieval and renaissance

and he began to explore capturing the essence

art have informed much of Viola’s work, exploiting high definition

of emotion through recording extreme display

slow motion video to capture passing moments of intense emotion

in his 1976 work, ‘The Space Between the Teeth’,

and fervour. ‘Nantes Triptych’ featured images of his dying

a video of himself screaming. Three exhibitions

mother and a woman in labour on either side of a man floating in

showcasing Viola’s work are currently ongoing in

water. This is characteristic of his work, which frequently employs

the UK. ‘Artist Rooms’ at The Wilson, Cheltenham

concepts surrounding shared human experiences through the

Art Gallery and Museum, Gloucestershire; ‘Tiny

progression of life from birth, through consciousness, to death.

Deaths’ is at Tate Modern, London;

and ‘Bill

Viola’ at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Yorkshire.

Helena Raymond-Hayling

Epigram

17.10.2016

Music

@epigrammusic Editor: Sam Mason-Jones

Deputy Editor: Ellen Kemp

Online Editor: Georgia Marsh

music@epigram.org.uk

ellen.kemp.epigram@gmail.com

musiconline@epigram.org.uk

An interview with...

Daughter Ahead of their UK tour and Bristol show on the 25th October, Ellen Kemp talks to Daughter’s Elena Tonra about the depths and designs of the new album.

It seems likely that they will, with their success so far. Daughter are scheduled to play some of their biggest shows yet, including the notorious Brixton Academy, and our very own Colston Hall. A daunting proposal perhaps: ‘The more shows I feel like we’re playing the more nervous I am about playing shows! I feel like it should be the reverse.’ She mentions feeling a sense of dread for bigger shows, but adds that it’s not something she lets affect the performance. ‘For me it’s mainly just a fear thing rather than the quality of the show or the connection with an audience. I think actually we have the same connection whether we are in a small room or a big room.’

This is easy to understand: Daughter’s music has a sure-footed focus on the emotional drive of their songs, something difficult for many musicians to embrace on stage. I ask her if this is the case: ‘I like to feel that as soon as the song is written, there’s a sense of personal understanding. A kind of release of whatever that particular feeling was that was obviously stored up in my head before I wrote the song.

And actually, once it’s written it almost feels as if I’ve somehow been able to extract it from within me and make it more of an abstract thing.’

She continues, ‘Most of the time, I feel I’m quite emotionally strong about it. Even though there are some songs where the subject matter is terribly sad and I think if I had a conversation with people about it I would probably get quite upset, I feel that when it’s within a song and when we are playing it live it doesn’t feel... like I’m on the verge of breaking down!’ she laughs, ‘I generally feel like actually when we play it’s a positive thing, enjoying playing music and

The lyrical style on the new album is quite different to their debut: If You Leave is poetic and vulnerable, whereas Not to Disappear has more of a frankness to its lyrics. ‘It wasn’t a conscious decision in terms of “I’m gonna write in a more direct way” or anything,’ she muses. ‘When I started writing songs for the second album, I was quite... freaked out, maybe? Just about the fact that stuff wasn’t coming out of my head in the same way that it had done for the first record or for the three EPs. I was almost like “I can’t write anymore! I don’t know why! I don’t know why things aren’t just like coming out in poems!”’ she adds with a slightly comic intonation. ‘No, they are just

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‘If it’s uncomfortable to listen to then maybe that is weirdly a positive thing.’

conversations and they are direct statements rather than hiding or shadowing things in nature or metaphor.’

She explains a little more, ‘I basically didn’t edit anything out. I just thought “If I’m writing this stuff down, I mean it and I feel it, and this is truthful and it’s the place I’m in and if it’s uncomfortable to listen to then maybe, actually, that is weirdly a positive thing.”’

‘With ‘No Care’ there are some lines which don’t paint me in a particularly great light.

I talk about sex in a really kind of… dark way. It’s not a pleasant way of talking about sex,’ she reflects. ‘It was a song where I was like, “well, I could just not say that,” but then why should I edit that out because it’s uncomfortable to listen to, if at that moment in time I felt like that?’

Tonra goes on to say that the directness of the record could be to do with her personality ‘I think, for many reasons I probably haven’t spoken about things before. But then there’s a way of translating them into what I’m doing that’s kind of getting those strange truths across.’ She mentions how recently conversations with friends have become geared towards new topics: ‘We’re having conversations about stuff that we just wouldn’t as teenagers...now it’s kind of “Nah, fuck that, I’m gonna talk about all

flickr / Justin Higuchi

The latest release, Not To Disappear, is a testament to this: a record with a brilliant refinement crafted whilst on tour with their debut. ‘With every tour there are things where we learn something new and bring it to the next tour and probably to writing the next record... hopefully we’ll make a next record! That’d be nice!’ she laughs.

getting into your own trance-like state while you’re with your friends on stage.’

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Elena Tonra is lovely. She doesn’t say hello, she sings it. Her speech is speckled with laughter and she chats in the friendliest manner imaginable. Daughter are currently rehearsing for their upcoming tour, I ask her how it’s going and her reply is buzzing: she mentions ‘big old production-rehearsal vibes,’ and said ‘I think we are quite weird about that, we want to make it look and sound as good as it possibly can’ when describing how the band have been investing in sound, atmosphere and lights.

manner of things.”’

The first single from Not To Disappear, ‘Doing The Right Thing,’ speaks through the eyes of an Alzheimer’s patient, and is based on Tonra’s own family experience. The heart-wrenching openness of this song is astounding for such an uncomfortable subject. I ask her whether this particular honesty is something she feels we should see more of in songwriting.

‘I don’t think it makes me a stronger woman to pretend to be fine, I think actually I should talk about how sometimes my brain melts and I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing!’

‘I don’t feel comfortable writing things that aren’t truthful from my own perspective,’ she ponders this a little. ‘At the moment I’m feeling really strange about the behaviours of people. Even in terms of social media, this constant trying to be the perfect version of something,’ she grabs hold of this thought.

‘The iPhone updating again to be the best version of itself… everything has to be the most functional, speediest, kind of thing and I just don’t get it.’

‘My head would explode if I had to keep all this stuff in and be the perfect robot lady that doesn’t have any emotions because “showing

emotions is weak”’ she says, ‘I don’t think it makes me a stronger woman to pretend to be fine, I think actually I should talk about how sometimes my brain melts and I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing!’

For my final question I ask how she separates herself from her intense musical world.

‘Actually me and Igor were talking about this yesterday; sometimes we get so consumed by what we are doing in writing and making music and it is kind of our life - like this is what we enjoy doing but it also just takes over and becomes this storm, this tornado-whirlwind.’

‘I’ve just been trying as much as possible to see friends and reconnect with people...and do some yoga, and read some more strange sort of books about psychopaths, and just try and do things I like doing,’ she adds. ‘Things to try and order myself and make things more real. Because I feel like I’ve been living a very surreal life for the past five years, six years, whatever it is!’ she explains.

As I bid goodbye to the delightful Elena Tonra I fleetingly mention the Bristol show – she’s bursting with enthusiasm, ‘It’s gonna be good!’ she trills ‘We’ve got some hopefully exciting plans for Bristol as well!’

Ellen Kemp

Epigram 17.010.2016

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The Princess Diaries Georgia Marsh gets the royal treatment from Princess Nokia at her Small Horse Club show, 28.09.16.

‘Being a woman is evolutionary’, Princess Nokia expounds to the sweltering (and female-heavy) crowd at Bristol’s infamous Small Horse Social Club. Endearing, eloquent and electric, the NYC rapper uses her ever-expanding discography, magnetic live shows and post-show pep talk to promote her brand of ‘urban feminism’ – and it is as compelling as it is significant.

Not only can a ticket to one of the female MC’s tour dates gain you access to a high energy hip-hop extravaganza, you may also learn a thing or two about womanhood and intersectionality in the process. Paralleling messages championed recently by the likes of SZA and Solange (whose latest album A Seat at the Table is more-or-less the deliciously soulful version of Princess Nokia’s 1992), the Harlem rapper subverts stereotypes about women in hip-hop by placing them in the driver’s seat. This is their narrative – the entangled identity of the young black woman in America.

To the amplified crash of military drumming, she burst onto the Bristol stage for the very first time to a sold out crowd yelling back the words to her breakout viral hit Tomboy. With the appealing vitality and endurance of an anime character, she repeatedly slams the lyrics ‘my little titties and my fat belly…/my body little, my soul heavy’ condemning and defying patriarchal constructions of and standards for women’s beauty by toying with the idea of the male gaze.

Songs like Brujas and Mine illustrate Princess Nokia – the brainchild of Harlem-born Destiny Frasqueri – in her quest to create safe spaces for sisterhood as their heavy beats rumbled under even heavier messages. These kinds of feminist rally cries exist in a scream-and-shout manner as she declares to the boiler roomesque audience, ‘I step in this bitch and I do what I want / I don’t give a damn and I don’t give a fuck’.

Often she raps over a pre-recorded track, but it doesn’t feel wrong or phony because her flow is consistently slick and her connection with the audience is rife with a very pure authenticity. On at least three occasions she dives into the crowd in an eruption of squealing delight – everyone packed tightly into The Small Horse is having just as much fun as she is.

As Princess Nokia’s set draws to a close, the self-professed Anglophile thanks the crowd for accepting her in ways that she never believed this country would. She tells a final tale of sorority, creating a warm and fuzzy feeling of tight-knight female bonds among the audience. We feel safe, we feel loved, we feel powerful – and we can’t wait to see what our favourite rapper-cum-revolutionary will blow our minds with next.

Georgia Marsh

Long players Danny Brown Atrocity Exhibition

I n a recent interview with NPR, Danny Brown claimed ‘when you’re telling stories and talking about where you’re from, there ain’t no lying in that.’ That’s something Danny Brown has always been good at. He might talk about the subject matter you’d expect to find in most hip-hop songs released in 2016, but it’s never glamorized. The substance abuse and violence that came with growing up in Detroit was a fact of life, not just madeup material to make a cool album.

Similar in style to 2011’s XXX, Atrocity Exhibition sees Brown at his most personal. Tracks like Lost and Downward Spiral explore the depths of his substance abuse and self-destructive attitude. Avoiding the EDM tracks which littered Old, this is an extremely difficult album to listen to. The vocals flit between Brown’s signature high-pitched whines, and a more subdued style which was slightly more common on his earliest mixtapes.

The majority of the tracks are produced by Paul White, the producer responsible for some of the most experimental beats in Brown’s back-catalogue including Adderall Admiral and ODB. The features on the album are fairly infrequent, but well executed. In particular, Rolling Stone which features (and is produced by) Petite Noir is a highly unexpected and surprisingly beautiful song which breaks up the earlier half of the album nicely.

The album ends with a sense of exhaustion with the life he’s been living since gaining fame. He raps “I just wanna make music, fuck being a celebrity coz these songs I write leave behind my legacy.” The fast-paced life isn’t what draws him to rap anymore, it’s the Charlie Gearon music. This sense of priority is what allowed Danny Brown to create such an excellent album.

There is of course a core body of typical Craig David R&B tunes on there too which will please his core supporters. Standing out amongst these is What If, a slow-jam ballad that tells of missing the opportunity to talk to a beautiful woman on the street. This takes you back to the classics he released in the past, such as Fill Me In which leads me on to what is my favourite song on the album: 16.

Originally featured last year on Corrupt FM’s slot on Radio 1xtra, it features the track from Justin Bieber’s Where Are Ü Now? and then layers Fill Me In over the top. Not only does this work in getting your body moving to lyrics you already know the words too; David also adds a 16 bar freestyle in for good measure as if to reinforce the variety of his talents. After a while out he has certainly managed to come back with an album to suit his eclectic mix of fans, suitable for both the club and for the bedroom.

Reece Webster

Craig David Following MyIntuition

After several years out from releasing music, Craig David presents an album bringing his style in to the 21st century. Some of the biggest tracks on Following My Intuition have been produced by electronic DJs; from the clean and funky Got It Good produced by Kaytranada; to the club anthem Nothing Like This released with house aficionados Blonde, a track that many will no doubt have heard played out in clubs and festivals all over the summer.

Epigram

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17.10.2016

Six Picks for Simple Things With hordes of the finest performers in the business playing at myriad venues across Bristol on Saturday 22nd October, negotiating Simple Things can appear more complex than its name would have you believe. Luckily for you, Sam Mason-Jones has plotted a course which takes in the very pink of the weekend’s musical picks. Stay true to it and you will not be disappointed. Simples.

Ben UFO Since founding Hessle Audio in 2007 with Pearson Sound and Pangaea, Ben Thomson has gone stratospheric. Anomalous in the lack of original material to his name, he is instead identifiable as one of the finest selectors ever produced by this country. A mainstage berth at this year’s Dekmantel festival, where he went back-to-back with friend Joy Orbison, is just one of the impressive bookings he has accrued of late.

His headline spot at Simple Things is another, and is not to be missed.

Nina Kraviz One half of dance music’s hottest power couple, Mrs Ben Klock will bring a slice of Siberian cool to proceedings. Fresh from wrapping festival crowds around her little finger this summer with her austere blend of minimal house, expect an altogether sweatier affair in the Firestation, one of the festival’s smaller rooms.

Death Grips No one is safe when renowned hooligans and serial nudists Death Grips are in the building. As intriguing as it is violent, the experimental project pairs a glitchy drum/keys combo with the rambunctious vocal stylings of MC Ride, creating a sound which defies the pigeon hole and baffles critics. It doesn’t disenchant, however: the trio’s five LPs to date have been met with unanimous acclaim. Not for the faint-hearted.

Abra Recent Crack cover-girl and first lady of Awful Records, Abra has risen to prominence on the back of her stylish lacing of ’80s sounding R&B with her own dainty vocal, a formula which has seen her work compared to Janet Jackson’s early demos. Recent EP Princess, which finds her bedroom-pop inner-child drawn out further, has been rinsed by DJs like Benji B and won praise from all corners. Come and see what all the fuss is about.

Twin Peaks A head on collision of ’60s surf-pop and the garage punk of the last decade, Chicago’s Twin Peaks sound like the accidental lovechild of the Beach Boys and Black Lips. Sun-dappled and snarky in equal measure, their three LPs to date have been roundly praised for their youth, punch and their restraint from dropping too many David Lynch references. Joviality isn’t really a word you would associate with Simple Things, so let these peaky blinders inject a bit of fun into your festival.

LICE A significant portion of this year’s line-up is given over to the new vein of feral guitar music opened up by the Fat White Family. Sordid punk finds solid representation with the likes of Bad Breeding, IDLES and Shame popping up across the stages. The most exciting of this cohort are Bristol locals LICE who, without even a demo out, snagged a support slot with the Fall based on the strength of their live shows alone. With recorded material in the pipeline, now is the time to catch one of the city’s most exciting bands.

Epigram

Puzzles

@EpigramPuzzles

Editor: Suzie Brown sbrown.epigram@gmail.com

Solutions will be posted online at epigram.org.uk before the next issue is released.

Cryptic crossword

Quick crossword 1

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TAIL PORT HOP FLU AT COP TAN SOOT FLOW TAP

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DOWN 1. Type of boat (5) 2. Study on effects of a medicine (4,5) 3. Chemical in vinegar (8,4) 4. Diverse (8) 5. Bunch (6) 6. Hateful (10) 12. Breakfast food (6) 14. Acquire knowledge (5) 16. In history (4) 18. Recline (3)

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Find the two letters that can suffix the word on the left or prefix the word on the right, in each case giving a real word.

E.g. HE-AR-MY

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ACROSS 1. Curried fish dish (8) 7. Morsel of bread (5) 8. Young (8) 9. Dingy (3) 10. Japanese sword (6) 11. Spread (6) 12. Emergency (6) 13. Ascend (5) 15. Let go (7) 17. Feasible (6) 19. Garlic mayonnaise (5) 20. Insane (8)

Word links

Sudoku 4

3

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Word grid How many words can you find including the middle letter, with at least four letters per word?

There is a nine-letter word.

26 = Average 34 = Good 42 = Excellent

5

L

R O

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A M T

Fancy contributing to the puzzle page? Get in touch via email or tweet @EpigramPuzzles

DEAL LIES CAPE ACHES PRESS DATE GOT AD GO CERTAIN

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Set by Peter Kay ACROSS 1. Dancing hips alter ions and bonds (13) 8. Marc’s ordered to turn around and head South. He leaves. (6) 9. Not one to play fair with a terrible teacher (7) 11. Old red cups in need of being tidied (7) 12. With energy, Gavin admitted defeat (4,2) 14. “Mr Blue Sky” band may make bullfighter cry (3) 15. Worship one of these.

Pop, perhaps. (4) 16. Inexpensive rotten peach

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CRUST BRINE

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FLANK FLOCK

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DOWN 2. Houdini’s key supporter (12)

Each number represents a letter. Decode the grid to find the words.

BRINK BRICK

3. A SCUBA tank will possibly help with counting (6) 4. Is Dante confused? Rather!

(7) 5. Agreeable French city (4) 6. Ordered chair, Charlie? (12) 7. Funky retro pants. Right for delivery driver (12) 10. Twice the right amount of energy is soothing, say (5,5) 13. Shut headless Rhodes up and clown around (5,4) 18. Spontaneous expert in India misses vaccinations, initially (6) 19. I’m in the clear, possibly, to have chocolate pastry (6) 23. It’s about herpes, perhaps (3)

(5) 17. Set fire to fashionable soldier over by Tennessee (6) 20. Snake-like movement has lit her heart (7) 21. Friend, I’d end looking white (5) 22. Concur on a sin, endlessly (5) 23. Rats! Reverse position on celeb (4) 24. In Verona, does he sing about being out of one’s depth? (2,4,4,4)

0 0 0 0 0 0 Codeword

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FLOCK

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2. Mirror, Tips, Man 3. Works, Blanket, Engine

Can you get from top to bottom, changing only one letter from one rung to the next?

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Find the word which can come before each of the three words given, in each case giving a common two-word phrase. E.g. CAR park, CAR Average stereo, CAR alarm

BRINE

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26 34 Good 1. Pin, End, Screen 42 Very good

Word ladder

9 Z in the L U 32 D F is the M P of W 8 P in a G 52 W K on a P 5 F on a H

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Just a phrase

Numerator Decode the clues to work out what things the numbers represent. E.g. 7 D in a W = 7 days in a week

17.10.2016

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Epigram

46

17.10.2016

Club Captains: The hidden heroes of sport sessions throughout the year, with all the warmups and drills required.’

Grace Youell Sport Reporter

The Year Ahead

Flickr: Alasdair Massle

Running a sports club at university is one of the most challenging yet rewarding things a student can do.

Club captains work tirelessly for little credit to ensure the success of events, matches and competitions. We have been in touch with club captains Ginny Troughton (Women’s Rugby), Erik Li Strandh (Fencing) and Ed Hanton (Ultimate Frisbee), who have all seen unprecedented improvements in the last three years and are collectively carving the path for the future of sport at the University of Bristol.

The Clubs

The Heroes

Rugby. ‘We had a really good club captain in Annabel Malins last year, we became good friends and other people in the committee encouraged me to run.’ Similarly Erik noted, ‘I was on the committee last year as beginners’ fencing rep. Last year’s club captain identified me as a potential captain and he said that the role was a lot of work but that I would enjoy it.’ Ed laughs. ‘I became friends with last year’s club captain but was told the workload was only one hour a week. Luckily we have 5 generations of ex-club captains still playing frisbee, with two still on the committee, so I have lots of backup to rely on.’

“ ‘They are hands down some of the greatest people you will ever meet’

Summer was their first real test as leaders; balancing internships, holidays and committees that were spread out across the world. Erik, who was in Shanghai for part of the summer break did not seem all too phased. ‘Over the summer, it was mostly planning for the new year, planning the beginners fencing course, making sure that we had a good structure to achieve the goals we have set.’ Ginny was away during the summer which can be difficult, ‘I like being back at uni when I can go and talk to someone face to face, so doing it all over email was tough.

Especially when I didn’t know who the staff members were yet and trying to learn everything through email.’

Unforeseen problems also caused a challenge, including the delayed arrival of kit for ultimate frisbee. ‘Our women’s kit still hasn’t arrived and our men’s kit that did arrive was a different shade of maroon. It has been a bit of a nightmare’, Ed commented.

Before they knew it, they were back for preseason, and organising their fresh sport taster sessions which involved answering many emails.

Erik mentioned, ‘My most used app on my phone right now is my gmail app, which is quite telling. It is a lot of emails but it is also a lot of fun.’

Ed agreed that the first two weeks was pretty crazy. ‘At Welcome Fair, we got over 520 signups and we are still getting emails in now. 150 have turned up to our taster sessions so far and we still have more. We have a beginners’ tournament in two weeks and Bath, UWE and Swansea are bringing teams so it is all very exciting.’ Women’s rugby, with an ever growing membership base, has also received a lot of interest from new students. ‘We don’t have trials so all of our sessions up until memberships are due pretty much count as fresh sport. The numbers are growing every session.’

charge of all of that which is great.’

A successful committee is not just an organised machine, but the legacies that they leave behind and the lifelong friendships that are inevitably developed, ‘I have a good friendship group in rugby and we all had positions we wanted to run for. The treasurer and secretary are absolutely amazing and I don’t think a day goes past where I don’t ask them to do something.’

The work and commitment of coaches should also not be understated. Keith, the women’s rugby first team coach, is well known in Bristol, whilst ultimate frisbee relies entirely on student coaches who give up their time to coach and has an infamous training guide created by a previous club captain. ‘We call it the training bible. It was made six or seven years ago and has all the training

The Dream Team Committees Running a successful sports club is certainly not down to one individual, and they were all quick to point out the overwhelming support they receive from their committees.

The fencing club, which includes 16 specialised positions, is impressively organised. ‘The committee are all very helpful and they all do their parts. This helps to reduce the workload for every individual so we will have time for fencing and do our degrees whilst also contributing to the club. I place a lot of faith in my team captains because I have only fenced for two years. They are very experienced and my job is to be there to support whatever needs they have.’ Ultimate frisbee is another club which is efficient and well-run, which is a big part of their successes last season. ‘Our roles are well-defined, well-structured and everyone knows who is doing what. We have a training coordinator in charge of all Wednesday and Sunday beginner sessions and a tournament director who runs the three annual tournaments. They are in

Facebook: UOB Squash Epigram: Grace Youell

The scale of these sporting successes may have been unexpected but by no means were they random.

They had been strategically planned, implemented and achieved by a small number of students like Ginny, Erik and Ed who have devoted their university life to create club cultures which foster brilliance.

John House, Sport and Student Development Officer for the Students’ Union, appreciates their efforts.

‘Being a club captain can often be a thankless task yet I never fail to be impressed every single day by the incredible efforts they put it to their clubs. They are hands down some of the greatest people you will ever meet.’

Ginny talks about her journey to becoming club captain of Women’s

Epigram: Grace Youell

Last season, the fencing teams delivered some unbelievable performances. They achieved a total of 141 BUCS points, up from 59.5 in the previous season, which included impressive individual efforts by Josh Maxwell, Phil Marsh and George Burton. Club captain Erik noted: ‘We had a brilliant year, seeing Josh do his gold medal fight was something special and then the men’s promotion match against Imperial was amazing.

That final hit, a special kind of hit, was nice to finish with.’

The women’s rugby first team gained promotion to the Premiership by winning their league and also won the national sevens tournament, spurred along by the two outstanding England players in the form of Sue Neumann and Tilly Vaughan-Fowler.

When asked about her favourite memory, however, club captain Ginny talks about the 96-0 victory in the Varsity match against UWE. ‘For me it was just amazing. It was such a good day, the whole build-up to it and we filled the Memorial Stadium. It was definitely what made me fall in love with the club even more’.

Ultimate frisbee tripled their BUCS points from the previous year and two of their women’s first team members, Jessica Ridout and Grace Andrews, were selected for GB U20s, whilst Marius Van Laar was selected for the Netherlands men’s U20s. A highlight for Ed was when the club hosted the Southwest Super Cup, ‘we smashed it and beat Bath for the first time that season. It was an event that the whole club could take part in and was just really good fun.’

With the new season having kicked off for most clubs, all three captains seem relaxed and confident to take on the challenge of topping their club performances from last year. ‘Our first team captain set the goal that we should win everything there is to win’, Erik laughs and goes on to say. ‘I think it is definitely possible because we have the strongest Sabre team in the country. For the women’s first team, the goal is promotion to the Premiership.

We would also like promotion for the men’s second team to 1A.’ Ed also has certain aspirations for the frisbee team- ‘Our aim is to win the league, beat Bath and for our second team to have a good first year in BUCS. Our women’s team want to continue their success from last year because they are already really good.’

For the women’s rugby team, Ginny is keen for the firsts to make a definitive splash in the Premiership and for the second team to continue improving.

‘We really want our second team to win the league. We do have a chance because we now have 30 returners, compared to just eight last year.’

It’s often easy to forget that club captains also have to study and get a degree. When asked about their studies, Ginny, a second year zoologist, exclaimed, ‘This week has been a killer.

Suddenly we have so many deadlines for the course and when you sit down and you have ten emails you have to reply to before you can start studying.’ Ed also had to balance his course work with taster sessions, ‘This week has been super busy. I switched course from mechanical engineering to engineering design, so it has been a big step-up in hours.

Hopefully it will all settle down.’

As we all eagerly await to see what the season will bring for sport at UoB, it is important to remember Ginny, Erik and Ed and the 49 other Club Captains who enable it all to happen. Good luck to you all! # m i g h t y m a r o o n

Epigram

Women’s rugby complete conversion a lot of recognition. Many of our premiership matches now are taking place as a double header with the men’s premiership, which is fantastic and giving us a lot of exposure.

How did you get involved with England and Team GB?

Facebook: UoB Women’s Rugby

Nicky Withers Sport Reporter In the last few years, women’s rugby has gained publicity and popularity, which was no doubt boosted by the performance of Team GB’s sevens team at Rio, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal. Closer to home, Bristol Ladies are making a real name for themselves and travelled to the Ricoh Arena in Coventry this summer for the final of the Women’s Premiership sevens competition.

However, the 60 player strong club have more than one string to their bow with impressive performances in the union format. Formerly known as Clifton Ladies RFC, the club became affiliated with the men’s team at Bristol Rugby Club in 2008, increasing their exposure across the media. Their relocation to Portway Rugby Development Centre in 2012 made them the first women’s club to have access to their own training facilities. A new move for this season sees them play at Cleve RFC.

I’ve been involved with the England pathway for a few years now, in both XVs and sevens. I’m lucky enough to be part of the England Sevens Development Squad, and from this an amazing opportunity came up to trial for the GB student squad for the FISU World Championships and I got in.

“ We’ve just finished a really good pre-season and we’ve got a really tight-knit group

between playing outside of university and with UBWRFC?

What was the best thing about playing for Team GB?

Unfortunately, the Ladies lost to Saracens in the aforementioned 7s final, however their only scorer was Tilly Vaughan-Fowler, a University of Bristol student and UBWRFC player.

I spoke to her about her experience with the Ladies and Team GB:

Yes definitely, they are very different environments. At Bristol Ladies you are playing alongside some of the best female rugby players, not just in England, but in the world which is amazing and obviously beneficial to your development as a player. However, I’ve found being part of UBWRFC equally rewarding. There’s a lot less pressure which allows you to give things a go and also push yourself out of your comfort zone. I’m so fortunate to be able to be part of both.

There are so many incredible things about being able to play for GB. For example, simply just the opportunity to play at a World Championship or seeing all your hard work pay off when you get to pull on the shirt is amazing.

However for me it’s definitely the people. Rugby is, at the end of the day, a team sport. The World Championships was naturally an intense week, with loads of ups, downs and mental challenges to overcome, all of which you share as a squad and as friends.

How and when did you get involved with Bristol Ladies?

What’s moment

This season will be my fourth at Bristol Ladies. I knew to progress my rugby I should be involved in premiership rugby.

Bristol was the closest premiership team out of London to my home and I knew after my year out I was going to start Bristol Uni, so it all worked out really well.

Are there any differences

For me it was probably beating Worcester at Ashton Gate at the beginning of last season. This was the first time Bristol Ladies had played at Ashton Gate, and it was a great showcase for women’s rugby. Since then the women’s game has gone from strength to strength and is receiving

Tilly’s experience and incredible progress is a real showcase for the talent we have here, not only at the University, but in Bristol as a whole.

With the women’s game becoming vastly more popular, it will be exciting to see where Bristol Ladies go and what they achieve within the new few years. You can watch them play at Cleve RFC and this season’s fixture list is available at: www.bristolrugby.co.uk

Nevertheless it is their success on the pitch that has arguably had the most impact in promoting not only the club, but the sport as a whole.

The Ladies play in the RFU Women’s Premiership and, as of the October 4th, are top of the league, hinting at another impressive season to come.

your most memorable with Bristol Ladies?

Captains’ Corner: An introduction to Archery Jack Francklin Deputy Editor This week, Epigram spoke with Archery club captain Steve Williams to find out more about the club: people

take

up

Joining our club means becoming part of something special. Whilst competitions have categories to compete under (including ones only for those who have started archery this academic year!), we train, work and have fun together. We’re also a really new club (this is our 4th full year as a club) so there’s lots of chances to get involved and leave something behind that will benefit generations of students at the university.

What is the best thing about archery for you?

I think it’s the way it blends hobbies with sport. You can relax and have fun with it as more of a hobby, or you can push for perfection and get really into

Facebook: UoB Archery

Why should archery?

the sporting challenges it presents. No matter where you place between being relaxed or serious, archery is able to provide it all.

Where does it take place?

We’re up at Coombe Dingle Sports Centre. During the colder months (up to Easter) we shoot indoors- Wednesdays at 19:30-22:30 and Sundays between 10:00-12pm. Once things start warming up we start shooting outdoors (still at Coombe) on an ad-hoc basis; although

we do try and maintain a weekly indoor session. Student coaching is provided year round, with a professional coach also coming in around once a month.

Beginners’ training is provided in batches a couple of times per year.

Do you have any particular highlights from participating in the sport?

I think for me personally it has to be the journey that’s led me to where I am now. Four years ago I took up archery

17.10.2016

47 BUCS Wednesday Wednesday 5th October Men’s Rugby Union: Bristol 1st 27-11 USW 1st Men’s Lacrosse: Bristol 1st 16-4 Cardiff 1st Ladies’ Lacrosse: Bristol 1st 6-11 Exeter 1st Wednesday 19th October (Select Fixtures) Men’s Football: Bristol 1st v Southampton Solent 1st Women’s Football: Bristol 1st v Exeter 1st Men’s Hockey: Bristol 1st v Oxford Brookes 1st Men’s Badminton: Bristol 1st v Bath 2nd Men’s Rugby Union: Exeter 2nd v Bristol 1st Women’s Rugby Union: Bristol 1st v Oxford 1st Women’s Volleyball: Bristol 1st v Southampton 1st Men’s Fencing: UCL 1st v Bristol 1st Women’s Fencing: Bristol 1st v Plymouth 1st

Fantasy Football

for the first time after watching archery on the TV during the London Olympics.

Within months I was representing my club & the university at the national BUCS indoors competition. Now I am captain of the club at the university and I’m organising sessions which will be attended by Larry Godfrey (one of the Olympians I watched on TV as he represented us at London 2012). I can’t think of many other sports where such a journey is possible.

Were you keeping track of the archery over the Olympics and if so what impressed you?

I was, and I was very proud of Team GB- particularly in the Paralympics where we topped the archery table which is a fantastic achievement. I think what impressed me the most was how high the level of competition was. Kim Woojin from South Korea was knocked out in the second round of the men’s recurve competition just two days after helping his nation claim team gold and just three days after he set a world record in the ranking rounds. No one in this sport is untouchable.

Epigram Sport is running its very own Barclays Fantasy Premier League. Feel free to join!

Liga de Epigram Code: 808585-362510 Good Luck!

Epigram

17.10.2016

Sport

@epigramsport Editor: Jonathan Harding Deputy Editor: Jack Francklin

Online Editors: Oscar Beardmore-Gray & Dan Reuben

sport@epigram.org.uk

oscar.beardmoregray@epigram.org.uk dan.reuben@epigram.org.uk

jack.francklin@epigram.org.uk

BUCS Star Team: Men’s Lacrosse crush Cardiff

Facebook: UoB Lacrosse

Jonathan Harding Sport Editor Welcome to BUCS Star Team, the feature that showcases the very best performances from across Bristol’s competitive sports teams.

Every issue, we will cover the heroics of the winning side, who have all been put forward for the honour by the executive sport committees.

This time, the award has gone to

Men’s Lacrosse 1st, as a result of their resounding 16-4 victory against Cardiff 1st in their opening game of the season.

After the heartbreak of their last campaign, which saw the first team narrowly miss out on the title in a league deciding showdown with Bath, a strong start was imperative. Needless to say, they did not disappoint. A seemingly unstoppable offensive display, coupled with brave defending from the likes of man of the match Matt Nadin, saw them leave Cardiff with

an enviable goal difference and more importantly, a valuable three points.

For club captain Harry Rintoul, the game was a massive statement of intent, laying down a marker for other teams: ‘Wednesday’s game against Cardiff was a great start to the season for us.

We had a really successful pre-season; we were looking to build on everything we had done over the last few weeks and take that forward into BUCS. It was also great to see new members of the club taking a leading role in the game,

special mention must go to Freddie Atkins, Charles Steward-Syme and Pip Buckingham - all of whom only joined the club in the last few weeks. The club has a massive chance of BUCS success this year, hopefully we can keep this momentum going for our next fixtures’.

For Rintoul, this victory is a not down to luck, rather, it is a consequence of a number of changes that have been implemented around the club: ‘We are really increasing the professionalism of the team - we have

started using video analysis software for weekly match analysis, as well as introducing weekly strength and conditioning, sports nutrition and injury prevention sessions among others. We had a really successful pre-season and we are now looking to push on and finally win the title’.

With their sights set firmly on the league title, the team’s convincing victory in Cardiff will give them an early boost as they look to move on from the heartbreak of last season and continue to build.