EPIGRAM 309

Fortnightly 30th January 2017 Issue 309

University of Bristol’s Award Winning Independent Student Newspaper

www.epigram.org.uk

Uni: your NSS boycott is futile Ben Parr Editor in Chief

Trump burns on the streets of Bristol

Boycotting the National Student Survey (NSS) will not affect the implementation of the latest Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and the move to raise fees, according to Pro ViceChancellor Professor Judith Squires.

Prof Squires’ comments were made in an interview with Epigram following Bristol Student’s Union urging students to boycott the NSS in order to sabotage the implementation of the TEF. Shortly after the interview Bristol, Cut the Rent announced that they would be going on rent strike explicitly citing the University dropping its continuation with the TEF as one of their demands. Bristol, Cut the Rent have since postponed their rent strike.

The TEF is a government policy which aims to fulfil a Conservative manifesto promise to ‘introduce a framework to recognise universities offering the highest teaching quality… and require more data to be openly available to potential students’.

Bristol Student’s Union along with many other student’s unions have criticised the TEF as a way of introducing higher tuition fees, as the framework allows universities whose teaching quality is ranked high enough to raise fees in line with inflation.

‘It will mean higher tuition for students, and… it will mean that different universities will be able to charge different fees which will send out a message that certain students only deserve to get this type of education if they can afford it’, said SU Undergraduate Education Officer Zoe Backhouse.

The way the teaching quality of universities is determined in the TEF is by using six different data sets, two of which come from questions in the National Student Survey (NSS), a survey of all final year undergraduates at universities in the UK. Bristol SU are encouraging students to boycott the NSS as a way of sabotaging the implementation of TEF. If under 50 per cent of students take the survey then the data from that year cannot be used.

The University have stated that students should still take the survey, despite numerous concerns they have over the way the NSS is being linked to teaching quality.

Full coverage on page 3

Epigram

Continued on page 4

Essays for sale! Ruby Cardona looks at the rising industry - page 10

Features

Sci & Tech Living Louis Flirt tells us about finding ‘the one’whilst doing a number two - page 15

Facebook.com/EpigramPaper

@EpigramPaper

Comment Twin troubles and messaging mishaps - page 19

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

Ed Fernyhough on Millennials’ relationship with technology - page 13

Epigram | 30.01.2017

Editorial

Editor: Ben Parr: editor@epigram.org.uk Online Editor: Hannah Price: hannah.price@epigram.org.uk

Inside Epigram

Make Epigram Great Again!

Travel Why volunteering in Tanzania might be the place to escape once you graduate - page 27

Film & TV Alex Ritchie gives a review of La La Land page 36

A note from the editor...

Can someone please explain to me why abolishing library fines is a good thing?

Yes I know it’s not completely abolished, and yes I know it must be lovely for all those people who have had three years’ worth of library fines accumulating, but what about us rule abiding library users?

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Comedian Jack Whitehall was spotted in LoLa Lo’s- apparently he had a ‘craving’ for it after his performance at Colston Hall 9

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Ben Parr, Editor in Chief

Bristol, Cut the Rent said they needed to go on rent strike.

4 - The number of days between

releasing a statement pledging to strike and another (temporarily) calling it off.

From the archives... ‘Russians want their pteosaur back’

Threats of legal action against Bristol Uni from Moscow Institute over dinosaur fossils ACROSS 1. Indian food (5) 3. A metal (3) 6. Evenly (9) 7. Offensive (9) 9. Fill up (4) 11. Messy (6) 12. Olden times (4) DOWN 1. Vitally (9) 2. Horse-riding kit (5) 4. Aligned (2,4) 5. Rallies (8) 8. Not called for (5) 10. A cereal (3) Webmaster Josh Jones Chief Proofreader Lowri Daniels Sub-editors Anna Lezard, Zuzanna Needham Jess Cselko, Lucy Thompson Sarah Roller, Elly Brett, Samuel Wong, Daisy Dowding, Megan Frost Managing Director James O’Hara Director of Communications Issy Bull Head of Finance Alfie Smith Business Team Calli Keane Amelia McWhirter Ellie Elstub Aravin Skantha Lucy Ellis-Keeler Megan Aldridge Helen Salter Joe Jones Lucy Roe

Dodgy dossiers and icy remarks from Putin might make it feel like relations between the West and Russia have never been worse. However, the University of Bristol had its own scandal with the nation back in the 90s.

‘Bristol University is in a row with Russian scientists over a pile of dinosaur bones’, said Epigram’s front page from May of 1997.

The article claimed that the Moscow Palaeontological Institute had lent the University a specimen of the pre-historic pterosaur ‘The Hairy Devil’ two years previous, but were then claiming that the University was refusing to give it back. The row had even reached the point of threats of legal action against the University of Bristol.

‘This is a deliberate detention of a borrowed collection’, commented the then Institute director Yuri Rosanov.

Despite the threats, Bristol rejected the claims from the Russians, arguing that they had an agreed loan extension.

Dr David Unwin, a researcher in the Bristol Geology department at the time, described the Russians’ claims as ‘ridiculous rubbish’.

He added that he was ‘shocked, not to say a bit upset, to hear of these massive attacks from Moscow’.

Dr Unwin suggested at the time that the reason Bristol were receiving these accusations was actually because the accusers may be crooks.

He described how since the early 1990s a huge number of fossils had gone missing from the Institute in Moscow and ‘there’s a small group who looked at this material and saw dollar signs’.

He also claimed that there had been documents which clearly implicated people in the Institute.

Epigram/ Ben Parr

Printed by: CN Newsprint Cumbrian Newsprint, Newspaper House, Dalston Road, Carlisle CA2 5UA

Our Living section have put together a great little selection of New Year mishaps (page 19).

Personally, I’ve always found New Year to be a fairly tame sort of occasion. My worst mishap happened in the middle of the summer of 2013. After one of the many nights at the pub we justified as ‘celebrating A-level results’, I fell into the back of a taxi, thrust a tenner onto the passenger seat and slurred the name of my village.

After a look of confusion the taxi driver set off. It was only when his son called him to ask why he wasn’t waiting in the car park to pick him up that I realised it wasn’t a taxi at all, and I’d just climbed into a strangers car. I presume he felt sorry for me, as he did end up driving me home. He kept the £10 though.

3 - The additional number of people

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www.epigram.org.uk

New Year disasters

News in numbers!

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When I get a book out I feel like I’m carrying around a live explosive that’s on a timer, and the only way I can defuse it is by reading the book as quickly as possible so that I can return it before it explodes (becomes overdue). This fear is so great I avoid getting a library book out unless I have no other options left.

In fact, I don’t think I’ve got a library book out in about two years and I can count on my hands the number of books I’ve taken out over my entire degree (it’s in the single digits). But by God, when I do take one out I bloody follow the rules. Clearly the University has descended into some sort of post-apocalyptic anarchy where you can just ‘borrow’ books indefinitely with no consequences. I fear for humanity.

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

Epigram/ Noa Leach

Quick Crossword

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Online Deputies: Sophie Hunter; Phoebe Jordan

Library fines

Lots more puzzles on page 45!

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Deputies: Caitlin Butler; Stefan Rollnick

Epigram - really great paper, by the way, really the best, probably hot when she was younger (straight off the press) - is back! It’s 48 great pages, probably the best in the history of the world. It’s also the biggest ever. I know we did a 56 page one last term. Just an alternative fact. Period. Only a lying flaming pile of garbage would think otherwise. Fake news!

Anyway, we’re going to do so much winning this term. We’re gonna win bigly. We’ve updated some of our designs. For example, Comment (page 11) has a new feature which, this week, is called ‘what Tom Watson is reading’.

Tom Watson probably, I don’t know but I’m assuming, did read it, and if his lawyer- great guy actually, really good friend of minesays otherwise he’s lying. Probably here illegally. SAD! Either way it’s an ‘honer’ to return for another term editing the newspaper, and, as always, we’ll do our best to continue to make Epigram as great as it can be. (I really hope these Trump references aren’t Putin too many people off...)

Wellbeing Ed Southgate discusses male anorexia - page 22

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‘Other people in the Institute have been saying “for God’s sake don’t bring the stuff back otherwise people here will sell it the week it gets back in the Institute it will be gone’.

Then again, maybe it’s all a flaming pile of garbage and fake news that the Epigram editor that year was trying to pedal.

Sad! First published in Epigram on 1st May 1997

Epigram 30.01.2017

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

Bristol matches best ever University Challenge display Malik Ouzia Online News Editor The University of Bristol’s University Challenege team have reached the quarter final of this year’s show, equalling their best ever performance.

Whilst they lost their opening quarter final match against Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in an episode shown on 23rd January, they can still advance to the semi-finals by winning their two remaining quarter final matches.

The team, which consists of captain Alice Clarke, Michael Tomsett, Claire Jackson and Joe Rolleston, as well as reserve David Dewar, began the series with a comfortable 210-130 win over the University of Sheffield. ‘My observation was that, in the green room, our team was significantly more relaxed than the Sheffield team,’ said Dewar. ‘I’m sure that helped.’

‘At the time the Sheffield win didn’t

feel that big – I think because right until the end it was still possible for them to come back,’ said Tomsett, an organic chemistry PhD student. ‘When there’s a potential 25 points available if you get the right questions things can definitely turn around fast.’

In the second round Bristol beat Oriel College, Oxford, scoring 265 points, the highest of any team in this series so far and Tomsett is more enthusiastic about this win.

‘I do definitely remember thinking ‘we’re doing pretty well here’. The BBC rescheduled it at the last minute – I’d planned on having friends over in Bristol to watch it, but as it happened I nearly missed it myself!’

He also told Epigram that unlike some quiz shows, the final broadcasted version is almost identical to what actually takes place in the studio. ‘It is almost exactly as you see it on TV. People ask me what [Jeremy] Paxman’s like

and I always disappoint by saying he’s exactly as you’d expect but it’s true!’

George Ferzoco, a Research and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Religion and Theology, was charged with helping the team prepare for the competition and comes with his own quiz show experience. ‘‘Six or seven years ago, on a whim I sent in an application to appear on Mastermind. Much to my surprise, I was chosen to appear, and even more shockingly, I won.’

‘I had noticed that Bristol seems to have underperformed in University Challenge, and I had read that there are excellent students who would choose to study elsewhere because those universities did better on University Challenge than we did; so, I was determined to help change that state of affairs, and I volunteered to help with the team.’

Having worked with the SU to put

together a rigorous selection system, Ferzoco helped to plug any gaps in the team’s collective knowledge by organising ‘special meetings’ with experts in areas such as art history.

However, he insisted that the team was already extremely well balanced.

‘This particular team has been outstanding, primarily because they got on particularly well amongst themselves, and they are extraordinarily bright. Each possesses outstanding general knowledge, while having their own areas of specialization, none of which overlapping too much.’

He also singled out Dewar for special praise. Dewar, a mature student, attended ‘every weekly practice session’, despite not appearing on the show, and was crucial for his ability to ‘lend a sympathetic ear and to provide valuable advice to one and all.’

Dewar, an avid fan of the show since the ‘Bamber Gascoigne days’, claims to

bring a wealth of knowledge in ‘music, (serious music), some physics, some medicine, some history and geography’, and admits he found it difficult to resist shouting answers to his teammates during the show.

‘The reserve members of each team occupy two adjacent seats on stage right of the front row – I was surprised how much determination had to be put into not shouting the answers when knowing them myself!’

Ferzoco hopes that the performance of this year’s team will inspire a new wave of Bristol quizzers. ‘I hope their example will spur other students to be more active in quizzing, and to form a Quiz Society (which, oddly — given the popularity of the weekly quizzes in the Balloon Bar — doesn’t presently exist in the University!).’

Bristol’s quarter final match against Corpus Christi College is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer.

Twitter

The University of Bristol team reached the quarter final of this year’s University Challenge series, the BBC quiz show hosted by Jeremy Paxman.

Bristol students march against Trump’s inauguration Scarlett Sherrif News Reporter

Bristol/London Bristol: 400+ protesters Bristol city centre march against Trump London: 100,000 + protesters March from Grosvenor Square to Trafalgar Square Over 600 protests worldwide

Sorcha Bradley News Reporter Traffic jams formed around central London yesterday - the first official day of Trump’s presidency in the US - as more than 100,000 women and men marched from the US Embassy to Trafalgar Square. They marched in support of women’s rights, and in solidarity with hundreds of similar marches taking place across the US and the world - the biggest of which took place in Washington DC. ‘London has come to a standstill!’ cried Sandi Toksvig on stage at Trafalgar Square, the official end point of the Women’s March on London - and it had.

Despite freezing temperatures there was a carnival atmosphere amongst the crowd. Many protesters held banners poking fun at the new US President and the first family – ‘Trump is a fart’ said one, ‘Free Melania’ said another.

Others quoted feminist icons from Beyoncé (‘Okay ladies, now let’s get in formation’) to Maya Angelou (‘And still

Students from Bristol attended marches in both London and Bristol protesting Trump’s inauguration.

Epigram/ Sorcha Bradley

Friday 20th January saw over a hundred people gather in Bristol to protest the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump in the United States, which was happening at the same time.

The event took place from 5pm, to align with the inauguration ceremony, across the road from the Bristol Hippodrome in the city centre.

There was a wide variety of protestors, including members of ‘Stop the War Coalition’ and ‘CND’ .

Speakers for both organisations spoke vehemently against what they anticipate as Trump’s catastrophically dangerous foreign policies that will have negative reverberations around the world.

Vala Biggart, a student at the University of Bristol, was carrying a banner saying ‘Pussy Grabs Back’. She told Epigram that she believed that Trump’s racism and sexism would ‘spread and have a global impact’.

Another student and her companion told Epigram they believed it was ‘important to get involved with things like this’ and to express solidarity with people in the United States suffering from the impacts of the policies they believe that Trump will implement.

Marching commenced a little before 6pm and participants included some small children and a man carrying a

dramatic burning wooden rendition of Donald Trump.

Two marchers told Epigram that they did not like the police, but were ‘happy that they had let the protest happen’ and surprised ‘they hadn’t already stopped it’.

Overall the protest was peaceful, in spite of a couple of men briefly blocking cars from going by.

A member of the National Union of Teachers told Epigram that he was concerned that the new President elect’s policies might impact education negatively in the United States, giving the example of increased ‘computer use’ – saying ‘that’s not proper education’. He also expressed deep concern about cuts in both the United States and Britain.

Across the United Kingdom people question what Trump might mean globally.

Two men handing out leaflets mentioned to Epigram the threat Marine Le Pen could pose.

Evidently, many fear a global pattern of nationalism in the wake of President Trump’s election.

I rise’)..

Yet despite the bright colours, creative banners and bass heavy sound systems, a serious message lay at the heart of this protest: the new Trump administration - and the wave of far right populism President Trump has ridden to power on - is not just a threat to women’s rights in America, but to the rights of women around the world.

This was underlined by a speech from Labour MP Yvette Cooper, one of the many politicians, activists and celebrities who spoke at the rally in Trafalgar Square.

She stated, ‘We are here because we want to take a stand against Donald Trump… we are here because we will not let the clock be turned back.’

Similar sentiments were echoed by others in the diverse crowd, which included many Americans.

One protester, originally from the US but now a student in the UK, said, ‘As someone who voted against Trump in November, I wanted to show my solidarity for all the people Trump’s administration seeks to attack and disenfranchise. The majority of American’s do believe in women’s rights - we have to protect those rights.’

Another 23 year old woman, currently studying at Bristol University said, ‘I’m here to show solidarity with the women in America protesting today. Women’s voices are going to be heard.’

Epigram 30.01.2017

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BME attainment gap to be tackled Emily Faint News Editor

Epigram

Bristol SU officers, spearheaded by the Equality, Liberation and Access (ELA) officer, Hannah Dualeh, have secured funding from the University of Bristol’s Widening Participation department to research and address the ‘institutional-wide issue’ of the BME (Black & Minority Ethnic) attainment gap at the University.

‘The black and minority ethnic (BME) attainment gap is an undergraduate degree attainment gap between BME students and their white classmates,’ said Hannah Dualeh, Bristol SU’s Equality, Liberation and Access Officer.

She highlighted that, although the BME attainment gap is ‘a national issue’ which affects higher education institutions across the country, the disparity at the University of Bristol is even more pronounced in some aspects.

‘BME students are 20 per cent less likely to achieve a first or upper second class honours degree despite having the same entry level grades and qualifications as their white counterparts.

‘The University of Bristol only has 11 per cent home BME students. This startlingly less than the average (20.6 per cent) of home BME students attending other Russell Group universities.’

This new funding will be used to investigate the causes of this disparity at the University.

‘We thought the best way the University could address the attainment gap was through both quantitative data and students’ narratives’, said Dualah.

‘It’s important to state that Bristol University has an obligation to break down institutional barriers that impact BME students. The University must be held to account for the BME attainment gap and has a responsibility in tackling this inequality.’

The research project will be led primarily by student researchers and supported by Bristol SU staff members, with the aim of completing the project by June 2017. Its findings and recommendations will be given to the University and embedded in its strategy to tackle the attainment gap.

Dualeh said, ‘As a union, we’ll be championing those recommendations for change. BME students must be central in leading this change. However, this must be a long term commitment from the University.’

The ELA officer also credited the ‘student activism from students of colour’ at Bristol, including campaigns such as ‘Why Is My Curriculum White’, as part of the ‘collective effort’ to secure this pivotal research funding.

While University of Bristol staff have been supportive of the motion, the process of securing the funding has highlighted an institutional lack of awareness about the issues affecting BME students.

‘For instance, some University staff didn’t know about the BME attainment gap, or the term ‘BME’,’ Dualeh said.

‘However, there have been key staff members passionate about the issue who have directed us through this process. The world of University

committees is tricky to navigate, but we had particular support from staff in the WP department and the Academic Quality and Partnerships Office, as well as from the PVC Education and Students, in working out how to secure it.’

Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Nishan Canagarajah, Chair of the University’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, said: ‘The BME attainment gap is a well-known issue within the sector and, although Bristol does consistently better than the national average, we’re committed to ensuring that our student experience and curricula provides an opportunity for all to engage and succeed.

‘We are working closely with the Students’ Union, in particular the Equality, Liberation and Access Officer, to better understand and reduce the BME attainment gap.

‘We aim to identify factors which might be detrimental to the experience of these students and will be making recommendations for how these can be addressed in the future’.

Dualah told Epigram that of the most important points that the research seeks to highlight is that University staff members are made aware of the fact that ‘the BME attainment gap was not a result of BME students not being smart enough’, but due to institutional structures.

Hannah Dualeh went on to outline some ways in which White students can actively engage in these issues.

‘White students must first and foremost listen to BME students and believe the experiences they describe.

‘Much of what we go through at University is difficult to explain and isn’t necessarily represented in data, nor able to be evidenced in ways that are expected of us.’

‘White students and staff can also help our campaigns and challenge the curricula, behaviour and attitudes that tell BME students that University is not for us.

‘In this way, white students and staff can be instrumental in holding the University to account for tackling the attainment gap.’

The University’s £205,000 marketing campaign appears at Bristol Temple Meads station

Uni’s Brexit fears calmed

Ben Parr Editor in Chief

The University of Bristol is likely to be in a stronger position when the UK leaves the European Union than previously feared, according to the Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Judith Squires.

According to Prof Squires the country’s vote to leave the EU in June has not affected the University’s research grants from EU sources, and with the government confirming that it does not have plans to cap the number of students to come to the UK for studying many of the University’s concerns have been calmed.

Prof Squires’ comments were made in an interview with Epigram shortly after Theresa May made a speech announcing that the UK will be leaving the single market, a move many commentators interpreted as Britain aiming for a ‘hard Brexit’.

‘There’s no doubt that we are living in uncertain times and we do take some of those challenges very seriously and we have been reviewing the newly launched student sustainability strategy very carefully to make sure we can still deliver on our ambitions in the

new context post Brexit vote’, said Prof Squires.

The University currently receives approximately £140 million in research income per year of which about 11 per cent is from EU sources. Since the referendum there have been a number of reports of universities losing out on grants with the referendum result being cited as the primary reason.

Despite the concerns Prof Squires said that since the vote to leave the University’s funding from the EU actually increased and since the end of July they have received 14 grants from the EU, worth just under 11 million euros in total.

One of the key concerns the University still has is not just retaining funding, but also research networks and international interaction.

Prof Squires also spoke of the value of experts and described it as ‘regrettable’ that some of the campaigning from Leave supporters questioned it with Michael Gove famously saying that ‘people in this country have had enough of experts’.

Prof Squires commented: ‘I think he did that because some of the prevailing orthodoxies didn’t seem to take into account some of the lived

realities that people were experiencing as a manifestation of some aspects of globalisation. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t look to experts to provide good strong evidence based policy making’, ‘I have never doubted the value of expertise and I take the role of universities to be crucially important, particularly at times when we are going through huge significant change.

‘I just think universities will continue to have an ever more important role and the fact that we do ground-breaking research and that we’re committed to research with impact… to make sure our research really makes a difference means that [expertise] is more important now than it ever has been’.

A University spokesperson commented: ‘The University is continuing the monitor the impact of Brexit and is reassuring EU staff and students that it will continue to campaign for free movement – something which all universities say is vital in order to attract international talent and to maintain the research collaborations which are essential for cutting-edge research.

The government is expected to begin the formal procees of Brexit in March.

Fee rise won’t be stopped, says Uni Ben Parr Editor in Chief Continued from front page...

‘We have concerns about using NSS as a measure of teaching quality because it’s a measure of student satisfaction and student satisfaction is not the same thing as teaching quality’, said Prof Squires.

‘We have very bright students… and we want to continue challenge the students so that they are best equipped to succeed once they leave.

‘Now if you are explicitly challenging your students then there may be points in which they feel stretched and unsettled and therefore don’t feel satisfied if you simply ask how satisfied they were’.

Prof Squires argued that despite the problems with the current metrics, the government have a mandate to

implement the TEF and the job for the University isn’t to oppose a greater scrutiny of teaching quality, but rather to work with the government to improve the effectiveness of the way it is measured.

‘We really want students to engage in the National Student Survey, it’s a really important tool for us for hearing what students feel about their experience at University and we’ve got a lot of processes that we’ve developed to work with our staff and our students to really interpret our student survey data to inform our action plan’, said Prof Squires.

The SU commented: ‘There are currently no plans for the government to introduce new metrics… ‘Lobbying from the inside’ has failed. This is our last chance to show the government that we are categorically against the TEF. The University agrees that the TEF is flawed, surely they should stand with

us’.

The disagreement between the University and the SU over the TEF is largely over the potential of a tuition fee rise. The SU have a policy of opposing any rise in fees, whereas the University want to secure their resources.

‘For me, tuition fees have been set at a maximum of £9,000 since 2012, and because of inflation that means that that same £9,000 fee is now worth about £8,200 in real terms, so when we’re trying to run our university it means we have a declining level of tuition fee income from students each year. ‘[this] will impact directly on the level of course resources that we at Bristol have to invest in our students education and provide student support… so I am not averse to raising tuition fees in line with inflation because I want to ensure we

can deliver our high quality education and I know that we need resource at an appropriate level in order to be able to deliver on that’, said Prof Squires.

The SU have argued that the funding gap should be met by the government, not by raising tuition fees.

‘When the ministers who made this policy went to University, their education was free and publicly funded’, the SU commented.

What’s TEF?

The newest Teaching Excellence Framework is a government policy that aims to rank universities by teaching quality.

It will also allow universities who rank highly to increase tuition fees.

Epigram 30.01.2017

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Bristol beats Oxbridge for employment Emily Faint News Editor A study into graduate recruitment has ranked Bristol as the third most targeted university by Britain’s top graduate employers.

The report confirmed that that top ten universities most-often targeted

by Britain’s top graduate employers in 2015-2016 were: Warwick, Manchester, Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Oxford, Durham and Bath.

The study, conducted by High Fliers Research in December, accounted for graduate vacancies, starting salaries and undergraduate work experience programmes at the UK’s 100 leading employers.

Stuart Johnson, Director of Careers Service at the University of Bristol, said: ‘Bristol has for a long time

been a university heavily targeted by top employers but it is particularly gratifying to be at our highest position in the report since High Fliers began their Graduate Market Review in 2004.’

‘Bristol attracts some of the best students and produces some of the most employable graduates, something that as an institution and as a careers service we are tremendously proud of.’

Holly McNaught, a final year Classics student commented: ‘I would expect most top employers to target Oxbridge and let everyone else come to them.’

‘I honestly don’t know how much it would affect me because I assume the people this statistic is picking up on is our wide range of science and engineering students. As a classicist, people aren’t really trying that hard to sell to me.’

Adam Stapleton, a third year Aerospace Engineering student, said:

‘I applied to Bristol originally knowing that it was well connected, especially in the aerospace industry.’

Despite the report naming some of the top employers as Google, Apple, the BBC, Amazon and the Bank of England, the findings also revealed that the biggest growth in vacancies is expected in public sector organisations and high street & online retailers.

Combined, these sectors are expected to recruit over 1,200 extra graduates in 2017.

University of Bristol students who are anxious about their graduate plans will also be cheered to know that the UK’s top employers plan to increase their graduate recruitment by a further 4.3 per cent in 2017, despite Brexitrelated concerns regarding economic growth.

Only eight of the UK’s leading graduate employers have chosen to

reduce their graduate recruitment quota for 2017 as a result of the Brexit vote.

Graduate recruitment would have been even higher in 2016, however over 800 graduate positions were left unfilled by graduates that either rejected their offers or changed their mind about job offers accepted before graduation.

Dalia Abu Yassien, a recent Bristol English Literature graduate spoke to Epigram about how a Bristol degree was a ‘great asset’ for postgraduate opportunities too.

‘I was surprised by the fact that I got accepted into the London School of Economics doing a somewhat unrelated Masters degree,’ she said.

‘I think going to Bristol was an asset for that – not only academically, but also in terms of the extracurricular opportunities.’

The rankings 1- Warwick 2- Manchester 3- Bristol 4- Cambridge 5- Leeds 6- Birmingham 7- Nottingham 8- Oxford 9- Durham 10- Bath Source: The Graduate Market in 2017

Professor Andy Nix

A picturesque sunset over Bristol on January 18th 2017

National award for PhD student Ellen Jones Deputy News Editor University of Bristol SWBio DTP PhD student Katy Sutcliffe has been awarded a British Pharmacology Society award for Oral Communication at their annual convention in London, last month.

Pharmacology 2016 is the annual meeting oragnisaed by the National Pharmacology Society. The Convention had more than 1,000 attendees from across the world, many of whom were young researchers like Katy.

The meeting consisted of lectures, poster sessions and oral communitions, the latter of which Katy contributed to.

Katy’s talk focussed on the findings of the first year of

her PhD, in which she has focussed on the molecular function of the mu opioid receptor.

Katy explained to Epigram, ‘This is the receptor targeted by morphine, heroin and other opioid drugs, so is important both clinically for pain management and also in drug use and addiction’.

‘The talk covered our results from the first year of my PhD where we have been looking at the molecular action of the drug buprenorphine at this receptor.’

Katy stated ‘I was very surprised to receive the prize, as it was my first conference presentation and I was very nervous’.

‘There were many young researchers from all over the world presenting some very interesting data’.

‘Hostile climate’ for international students Amy Finch Deputy News Editor

A growing movement at over 100 universities in the USA are calling for their schools to become ‘sanctuary campuses’ for students without residency rights following the election of Donald Trump. The status is a commitment to protect undocumented students from threats of legal action where possible in anticipation of the revokement of a law which protected young people who entered the country as minors.

Here in the UK, Movement for Justice, a grassroots activist group is also protesting a ‘hostile climate’ for international students and staff that has been described by the international officer for the NUS Mostafa Rajaai as one of the ‘toughest and least welcoming in the world’. Demonstrations in Bristol

and across the country on the 25th January marked the start of 2 weeks of action against mass deportations and to establish ‘Sanctuary Campuses’ here in the UK for staff and students.

Since becoming Prime Minister, Theresa May has promised to slash international student visas by half as part of an immigration crackdown.

International student numbers fell for the first time in 30 years in Theresa May’s time as Home Secretary and new more stringent criteria is looking to target what she describes as ‘Mickey Mouse’ courses at low-ranking institutions.

Students from several poorer countries have been hit particularly hard by changes to the student visa process. The number of Indian students at UK universities has fallen by 44 per cent in the last five years.

Deportations to former colonies are

also becoming increasingly common, with May allegedly wrongfully deporting almost 50,000 students due to faulty evidence.

Movement for Justice in Bristol and nationally plan to continue working with international students to raise awareness of the threats and harassment faced by international students and the implications.

They want to pressure universities to refuse to cooperate with Home Office requests for ‘sting operations’ targeting undocumented staff, with migrant workers an essential part of the university framework.

The group plans to use direct action such as strikes, demonstrations, occupations and accompanying threatened students to classes to interfere with advancing policies that they describe as xenophobic and racist.

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Epigram 30.01.2017

75 Professor at UoB wins an OBE Bristol professor, Gene Feder, has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List for services to healthcare and victims of domestic abuse.

Professor Feder has worked at the University of Bristol since 2008 and is Professor of Primary Care at the University’s Centre for Academic Primary Care. He is also practising GP at the Helios Medical Centre in Bristol.

‘I hope that this honour helps highlight the need for health services to respond to the needs of domestic violence survivors, said Prof Feder.

Life expectancy is overestimated

University of Bristol

Sir Paul Nurse takes over as Chancellor of the University of Bristol from Baroness Hale. Baroness Hales described Sir Paul as ‘a really nice man’ and ‘good fun’.

Sir Paul Nurse takes over as Uni Chancellor Ben Parr Editor in Chief Sir Paul Nurse, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and former President of the Royal Society, will today begin his term as Chancellor of the University of Bristol.

He takes over as Chancellor from The Right Honourable the Baroness Hale of Richmond, who has held the role since 2004.

Sir Paul is a leading geneticist and cell biologist. His work on the control of cell division underpins current research into treatments for cancer and other serious diseases. Over the last 30 years, Sir Paul has held many senior research leadership roles. His contributions to science were recognised with a

knighthood in 1999.

In addition, Sir Paul’s endeavours relating to the discovery of molecules that regulate the cell cycle saw him jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2001.

‘I felt very honoured to be asked to Chancellor of the University of Bristol.

It is one of the UK’s great universities, both in terms of its world-leading research and also its teaching’, said Sir Paul.

‘With the recent announcements about its new campus and ambitious plans outlined in its new strategy, it’s an exciting time to be involved’.

As Chancellor of the University of Bristol, Sir Paul will be the ceremonial head of the institution and play an important ambassadorial role,

nationally and internationally.

Sir Paul will be installed as Chancellor on 22 March 2017, during a special ceremony in the Wills Memorial Building.

Bristol’s outgoing Chancellor Baroness Hale, recently told Epigram in an interview that Sir Paul ‘He’s an incredibly able and distinguished scientist, but he’s also a really nice man and good fun. I’m sure he’ll also create a very similar atmosphere to the one that I’ve tried to create, especially on graduation days’.

Previous Chancellors include former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Jeremy Morse, who provided the inspiration for Inspector Morse, and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Professor Dorothy Hodgkin.

Uni warns students after mugging Ben Parr Editor in Chief University Accommodation services have warned students to stay alert after two University of Bristol students were attacked and mugged at Brandon Hill.

The incident occurred at around 8pm on Tuesday the 10th January while the students were out training. Police have said that they are unaware of any other muggings taking place in the area over the past six months, despite anti-social behaviour and drug use in the area.

‘Regarding burglaries, the message put out is a general message because

burglars are aware that students will be returning for the new term with new electronic items’, Nick Boyce, Community Beat Manager of the University’s Security Services, said.

‘Student address are easily spotted in the street and if there are windows or doors left insecure they are there to take that opportunity.’

The Head of Student Residential Life, Caroline Court, sent an email to students on the 13th January reassuring students that the University takes the safety of students very seriously. She also warned students against being alone outside at night and wearing headphones.

‘In terms of looking after your personal safety across the city, do try to avoid walking alone in the dark, walking with headphones in, or using your phone whilst out and about, as they can distract you from your surroundings - be alert,’ she said ‘The University has a range of safety advice on the Security webpages, and we would like to remind all students that you can obtain a personal attack alarm and security wrist band free of charge from University Security.’

She reiterated that, despite the warnings, Bristol is generally a very safe city and these types of incidents are rare.

In numbers: why people complain about rent prices... £6,964.86 - the cost per year for the cheapest room in Churchill £3,821 - the minimum maintenance loan for students £3,143.86 - the extra money they have to find elsewhere

A review of studies, co-authored by a University of Bristol student doctor, examining perceived life expectancy among people with long term health conditions has found patients may overestimate their life expectancy.

In a review of more than 700 patients from the UK, Netherlands and the USA with heart, kidney or lung disease, it was found that patients were around three times more likely to die in the next year than they expected.

‘Patients may overestimate their life expectancy for a number of reasons,’ said University of Bristol student doctor Joseph Salem, who co-authored the BMJ paper.

Low expectations for student wages UK students now graduate with far lower wage expectations than their parents, with more than three quarters expecting to earn less than the national average salary in their first year after graduating, according to research from Endsleigh, a student insurance provider.

The survey of 1,872 students revealed that only two per cent of students expect to earn over £30,000 or more in their first year after graduating, less than three per cent of students who expect to earn nothing at all.

The research also claimed that 15 per cent of students are paid less than £12,000 per annum. The national average salary is £26,500.

16 bus service to improve after 800 sign petition Malik Ouzia Online News Editor The Wessex 16 bus service is set to increase its frequency after a petition signed by 878 people called for the university to look into its ‘substandard’ service, it was announced today.

The improvements will see buses run every 12 minutes during the day, rather than every 20 minutes as was previously the case, meaning students can expect an extra two buses per hour.

The petition, which was launched by Senior Resident Alex Cocker, attracted almost 700 signatures in its first three days, with students expressing anger at late and infrequent buses. After a campaign led by Bristol SU officers the service increase was agreed and

the university has pledged to continue looking for further ways to improve the service.

First year student Toby Thomas was ecstatic at the news. ‘The shorter wait time is nothing short of a miracle’.

‘It’s pragmatic when trying to make a lecture on time, beneficial when returning home from a night out.’

James Byrne, a fellow first year student, who had previously called the service ‘abysmal’, remained sceptical.

‘I’m unsure how they’ll be able to stick to 12 minute bus runs when they couldn’t ever manage to be punctual with 20 minute runs,’ he said. ‘It’ll be so hit and miss, rat piss service.’

Others, such as Thomas Buckler, worried about whether the increased service would benefit all students, or just those living in Stoke Bishop.

Epigram

30.01.2017

Features

@epigramfeatures

Editor: Amy Stewart

Deputy Editor: Bea Gentilli

Online Editor: Adele Momoko Fraser

features@epigram.org.uk

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Is the pill harming our mental health?

In January 1970, a senate hearing was called to investigate the potential dangers of the combined oral contraceptive pill, as proposed in a book by activist Barbara Seaman. She cited these namely to be weight gain, heart problems and blood clots, in addition to mental health issues such as depression and decreased sex drive. What struck Seaman at the hearings was that no woman who had taken the pill, or for that matter any woman at all, was called on to testify. Instead, it was only men who testified for the safety of the drug.

Fortunately, the outrage caused by the hearing led to the U.S. government requiring the pharmaceutical industry to include a complete side effect sheet with each product sold. Yet, even 40 years

“ It made me so anxious, I wasn’t able to even get on a train without feeling sick

on, the most severe psychological side effect described is often limited to ‘mood swings’. Having myself experienced bouts of endless crying and drastic mood changes which I believed to be related to the pill, I spoke to students and the Student Health Service to shed some light on whether negative mental health issues may indeed be associated with hormonal contraception.

Taking the contraceptive pill is something that is part of many women’s daily lives as much as brushing their teeth or getting dressed. Of the population using some form of contraception in the USA in 2012, 25 per cent of those relied on the pill, with just 15 per cent using condoms as their primary mode of contraception. There are two different types: the combined pill, such as Microgynon and Rigevidon, which contains artificial versions of the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, and the progesteroneonly pill (or POP) like Cerazette. The combined pill works by preventing ovulation, so no egg is released, and thickening the mucus in the neck of the womb, making it more difficult for the sperm to reach the egg; the POP does only the latter, although some brands may also stop ovulation.

It is thus an easy and effective way of preventing pregnancy. The tiny sugar-coated pill can be used to treat PSM (premenstrual syndrome), lighten heavy periods and is 99 per cent effective at preventing pregnancy; overall a supposed ‘wonder drug’ for the regulation of women’s hormones. Moreover, the side effects are apparently minimal - the NHS website reports that ‘it can

cause temporary side effects at first, such as headaches, nausea, breast tenderness and mood swings’; a seemingly small price to pay for near complete effectiveness against pregnancy and light periods. It can even offer some protection against ovarian and colon cancer.

While it is perhaps common knowledge that the pill can cause an increase in blood pressure and in rare cases lead to blood clots, it is almost universally regarded that the benefits (largely the prevention of an unwanted pregnancy) vastly outweigh the potential risks. If we were to understand the risks differently, however - that is to look at the potential harm the pill can have on our mental health - our perception of it may dramatically alter. I decided to ask other students to see if they believed they had been affected by the pill as I had.

Initially, I was shocked about the amount of students who told me they had experienced some form of mental health issue, from mild mood swings to full-blown anxiety attacks, with nearly all of them reporting some negative side effect they believed related to hormonal contraception.

One first year law student I spoke to who was on the combined pill said ‘it made me so anxious, I wasn’t able to even get on a train without feeling sick, there’s no way I could fly on holiday anywhere because my emotions were all over the place.

Before I went on a family holiday I had to stop the pill a month before to ensure I was feeling ok.’

Similarly, another first year student on the progesterone-only pill noticed that she’s ‘definitely not as mentally stable as she used to be’ and ‘more prone to seeing the negative side of things’ although whether this is due to the new environment of university, the pill, or both, is debatable, she says.

It’s not just the pill either; one third year student I spoke to who had the hormonal implant (a small tube that’s inserted under the skin of the arm that releases progesterone regularly) said she had it ‘removed after 7 months because the effect it had on [her] mood was unbearable.’ Initially, she felt it gave her a ‘sense of control over the contraception situation’ due to the difficulty of remembering to take the pill daily, but this soon changed.

She said: ‘I became overly sensitive to everything and if I didn’t cry or breakdown at least once every few days it was a miracle, so for me it was very impractical’. She is now on the pill, and ‘although [she] still has overly sensitive episodes being on the pill it is a much better alternative to what [she] dealt with on the implant.’

Overall, it was clear to me that my case wasn’t a one off, but also that different people responded variously to different hormonal contraceptives.

For a decisive answer as to whether it really was these contraceptives causing such issues, I turned to the student health service.

“

Amelia Edgell-Cole Features Writer

Taking the contraceptive pill is something that is part of many women’s daily lives as much as brushing their teeth.

They stated that ‘large numbers of the female population are using hormonal contraception at any one time. It is also known that large numbers of the population are also experiencing mental health difficulties such as depression, anxiety and panic disorder. It therefore stands to reason that some people will experience both of these simultaneously.’

It is not recognised that the pill directly causes mental health issues

Indeed, correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation. They also directed me to the The Clinical Effectiveness Unit of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (CEU), which states that ‘[...] there is no clear evidence that hormonal contraception causes depression.

It is recognised that some women report that they experience mood changes associated with hormonal contraception. Clinical experience is that women who find their mood adversely affected by a specific hormonal contraceptive preparation may not have the same problem with a different hormonal contraceptive’.

Thus, it is not recognised that the pill directly causes mental health issues, but it is suggested that if women feel they are reacting negatively to their contraception they should try an alternative.

Despite this, recent research may suggest otherwise. In November 2016, the journal JAMA Psychiatry published a study undertaken by scientists at The University of

Copenhagen who looked at the medical records of over one million women over sixteen years. They found that those on hormonal contraception were more likely to be prescribed antidepressants, particularly those on the progesterone only pill, and those who were adolescents. This may suggest that a combination of the pill and hormonal changes during puberty may result in mental health issues - perhaps what I and fellow students had experienced.

While we are still largely unsure as to whether there is a direct causation between the two, Student Health Services insist that women who believe their contraception may be

“

Whilst some may feel fantastic [using the pill], it takes others several tries before finding one they feel comfortable with.

affecting their mental health ‘should not simply stop this method as this may leave them at risk of unplanned pregnancy.’

According to research from the national guidelines UKMEC2016, this risk is vastly reduced for those on LARC (Long Acting Reversible Contraception) such as the progesterone-only implant. The percentage of those falling pregnant from the use of the male condom is 18 per cent, compared to just 6 per cent when using the progestogenonly injectable or a mere 0.05 per cent when using the progestogenonly implant. Whilst the combined pill and progesterone-only pill are

not LARC, they still both proved to be more effective at preventing an unexpected pregnancy compared to other contraceptive methods with just 9 per cent of women becoming pregnant.

So, I myself believe I have experienced negative mental health effects from the pill - it took me three different brands before I found one that suited me - and the students I spoke to reported similar outcomes. Indeed, there is even scientific evidence that suggests there is a direct causation between the two.

Yet, this must be taken with a pinch of salt. As of yet, medical guidelines state that ‘depressive disorders are not a contraindication to the use of both the progestogen only (POP), or combined hormonal contraception’ and there is also extensive research to support this side of the argument. It must also be considered that hormonal contraceptives can have vastly different effects on different women. Whilst some may feel fantastic, it takes others several tries before finding one they feel comfortable with.

What is clear is that if it is taking so long for so many women to find a contraceptive that suits them, more should be done to make this more practical. No woman should have to feel emotionally drained because of their birth-control.

Perhaps more research needs to be done to see if there is indeed a direct causation. As to whether the pill really could be the cause of mental health issues, the jury is still out.

Epigram

30.01.2017

9

Speaking Out against domestic abuse Epigram chats to Chlo Winfield, founder of the ‘Speak Out Project’ university they’ve tried consent workshops, but they have proven quite unpopular so how can you get that message across?

Could you tell me about what the Speak Out Project is and what it aims to do in Bristol?

The project aims to raise awareness of abuse in unhealthy relationships of young people - when abuse and control can happen between teenagers in a relationship. So, we raise awareness of that and try to prevent it. Also, we try to make sure there is support out there for people who may be experiencing these kinds of issues. We do that by working with young people themselves to educate them from secondary school upwards about what a healthy relationship looks like and what the early signs of control are.

Also we work with professionals and training professionals, like teachers, mental health supporters, so they know what to look out for in young people’s relationships and how to support someone who might be experiencing these sorts of controlling relationships.

So how did you start the project and what made you want to get involved with such an important issue?

Why do you target young people specifically because there’s obviously abusive relationship among every age group?

I think if you target it earlier, the knowledge will stay with people, and I think it’s quite important to get people involved before they even get into a relationship. If those first relationships are abusive, then it is going to become normal and a normal way to be treated in a relationship, which will affect you for the rest of your life. If young people have a clearer idea of what a healthy relationship is, then hopefully there will be less of these relationships.

Also, young people are especially at risk of not recognising this, because they don’t know what to look out for.

When I talk to adults who have been

“

Why do you think there’s a lot of taboos about speaking out about emotional and physical abuse, especially emotional abuse?

With emotional abuse it’s much harder to speak out about because it’s not obvious and it’s not as easy to show that someone is doing something wrong; how are you going to show that they’re actually abusing you? Some people say, ‘no one will believe you if you say that’.

Often I think that the person in the relationship often doesn’t see it as abuse themselves. It’s quite hard to distinguish - there’s a fine line between what is a normal argument and what’s more a sign of control.

I think it isn’t easier to talk but there are things like the new coercive control law. Although the number of people that actually need to use that law are quite small, it does send a real clear message that actually emotional and physical abuse should both be taken seriously and that hopefully breaks down some of the taboos making it easier to talk about.

How do you think we can engage with lots of young people? At the

Often I think that the person in the relationship often doesn’t see it as abuse themselves.

lots of students to be ambassadors for this kind of topic and to spread it within the school. It’s also good to engage with the new technologies and finding out the key ways that young people communicate. But the easiest thing to do, I suppose, is just to make it compulsory. If this was the case in all schools, then everyone would have to engage with this in the classroom. But it’s quite a difficult situation.

What are the most important signs to look out for in an abusive relationship?

I think it’s about looking for signs early on, like someone getting more jealous and possessive, not wanting them to see certain people, getting suspicious of who they’re going out with, checking up on them and needing to know where they are all the time. Maybe asking for pictures to prove what you’re doing as well.

Often getting angry over smaller

How successful have you been so far with the Speak Out project and how do you plan to reach out further in Bristol?

I haven’t managed to do as much so far as it’s just me running it, I set it up on my own and worked on it alongside GCSEs and A Levels so I haven’t really had that much time. I think I have managed to do something in terms of working in schools and training lots of teachers and working with lots of organisations.

I’ve been in touch with lots of organisations nationally, asking about what they are doing and what they’re trying to do about this issue and to link them to our campaigns.

I think in terms of taking it forward I have a lot of time this year and I’d like to get it out to more schools in Bristol and working with students, doing workshops and to train teachers to look out for warning signs. I think this is the best way to reach lots of young people, working with them face to face and I would just like to do that more widely in Bristol.

It’s quite important to get people involved before they even get into a relationship

in these relationships, they always say that the thing that needs to be worked on is education. Like in sex education, this isn’t always taught well or compulsory and if it is done it doesn’t often go into more detail, it’s often more about basic contraception rather than what a healthy relationship is. It’s important that all young people are learning about that.

Speak Out Project

I started off by applying for funding in around March 2014 with Starbucks Youth Action. They give money to 16-25 year olds carrying out social action projects. They gave me more money than I asked for, actually; they gave me £2000. I just said I wanted to raise awareness of this issue and that was kind of it. I used about half of it for awareness launch events in July 2014 and it’s built up from there really. I’ve done lots of different things, mostly what people have suggested I do really, whether it’s working with schools, training people, or giving talks, conferences, events and campaigns.

I’ve been doing a lot with Cotham school recently as well.

I think, what made me want to start it was going through quite an abusive relationship when I was a teenager. My boyfriend who I’d

met when I was thirteen, I’d been with on and off until I was sixteen, ended up actually being convicted for harassment. During that time, he had got very abusive and controlling.

It made me think that young people don’t think that that sort of thing is going to happen to them and that it would affect people that young. Once you get into that kind of relationship it’s often quite hard to spot that sort of thing and then gradually the control becomes more and more and it’s harder to see. So that’s what made me want to do it, to stop it happening to anyone else.

“

Flickr / Matthew Fearnley

Amy Stewart Features Editor

It is quite difficult. From working in schools, what I’ve found is that the people that come along to the talks already really believe in what we’re talking about, but the people that probably need the advice don’t tend to be so interested in coming.

So, I suppose one thing is that you can work with people who are enthusiastic and get them to get the message out to other people they know and their wider circles.

That applies quite a lot to the Speak Out project, especially in the sixth form at Cotham. We trained

things like what you wear, criticising how you look, calling you names.

Sometimes I think being very intense can often be a warning sign.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but a relationship that’s too intense, and stopping you from doing other things that you want to do, can be.

Just these smaller things that try to control and change who you are and what you do or making you lose confidence in what you are normally very confident about doing are normally warning signs. Whilst they might be ok on their own, it’s good if you can try and stop that early on whether you see that happening to a friend or a friend doing that to their partner, but if you can point that out and that it’s something they shouldn’t have to put up with, then that it’s less likely that it could go any further.

‘I think if you target it earlier the knowledge will stay with people’.

Epigram

30.01.2016

10

Essays for sale: the students paying to cheat Epigram looks into the notorious rise in ‘black-market degrees’ Ruby Cardona

Features writer We have all had that feeling of a deadline looming and wanting to do anything to avoid writing an assignment. Instead of relying on copious amounts of coffee and endless hours in the library, a small portion of students across the country are turning instead to online services which offer to write your paper for you.

A google search for essay help returns pages and pages of websites which claim that they can write any assignment at a price. More and more evidence of students using these websites in the UK is being uncovered – in January 2017 it was revealed that over 20,000 students are paying for professionally written essays every year, over one third of whom are attending Oxbridge or Russell Group universities.

Last year, 50,000 instances of students cheating were discovered across a three-year period throughout British universities – this amounts to 0.7% of the country’s entire student population. The real figure of those engaged in contract cheating could be far higher.

are for ‘research purposes’ only.

Many claim that they do not support students submitting the work for an assignment.

Websites often claim that they exist because students are finding it increasingly hard to get help from their tutors – the head of ‘UK Essays’ suggested in 2016 that students were not getting enough one-to-one time with their subject tutor. Desperate students, perhaps preoccupied with family or personal crisis, bereavement or just prone to poor time keeping, might turn to one of these services.

Ella Lamprell, a second-year student, says that these sort of websites reinforce privilege. ‘It just shows that certain people can pay their way out of hard work. There is an element of elitism because for some education is just something which can be paid for.’ The idea that education can be commoditised is hardly new to students – the burden of tuition fees is all too familiar.

Why do students cheat? Pure laziness, of course, can be credited, but research into the issue has found that a disproportionately high number of foreign students are involved. On an online forum, a user named ‘Randal’ argues that universities adopt a ‘take the money and run’ attitude to their international students. ‘At the lowest level this is admitting foreign students at the undergraduate level who do not have a strong enough grasp of English…at the upper end it is outrageous neglect…The services are simply too poor.’

“” Last year 50’000 instances of student cheating were discovered

‘Fully qualified experts’ claim that they can produce any piece of work required, and anything goes – from 200-word project proposals to full third-year dissertations. A recent investigation found that the most expensive piece of work paid for was a £6,000 English PhD. The lowest was just £15 for a dissertation outline – both at different British universities.

‘Essay Empire’ even offers a 15% student discount on its services. At an extra cost of just £3.95 the writing can be read-over by an ‘editor’ at the company.

Over at ‘Oxbridge Essay’ their price list is laid out in a calendar system – the sooner the deadline, the higher the price. A 2,000-word essay requested on the Friday for the following Monday would cost you £320. Prices also vary between grades – an upper 2:1 (65 – 69%) is worth around £340 whereas a lower first (70 – 74%) is valued at over £500.

According to a spokesperson for the University of Bristol, ‘this would be considered plagiarism as it constitutes submitting someone else’s work as your own. A student suspected of paying for coursework would be interviewed by a panel which would make the final decision as to penalty’.

Yet these websites insist that they have a valuable role in supporting students’ education. Ostensibly, their objective is to provide ‘model answers’ and assert that assignments

It could have something to do with increasing pressure on students

To justify their services, these websites claim to make up for the inadequacy of the resources provided by universities. Daniel Deheney, the chief operating officer of UK Essays, which offers online ‘academic writing services’, argues that university courses fail to give enough writing support to their students and tutors are under increasing pressure to fit in one-toones with students. Perhaps there is some truth to this, but far too often this is cited as the rationalisation for these dubious websites when in reality they are mainly motivated by profit. UK Essays generated £5 million in 2016, and the boss of ‘Essay Writer’ believes that the entire industry is worth around £100 million.

It could also have something to do with the increasing pressure on students to achieve a top-class degree and enter the competitive job market.

It is often claimed that cheating is a victimless crime. But take for example two candidates at a job interview, one of whom has cheated their way to get there. The more ‘qualified’ might get a job they do

Would you pay someone halfway across the world to do your dissertation for you?

not deserve and are actually less qualified to do.

Harold Pearson, a second-year student, says ‘this kind of cheating is particularly pointless at university where you are meant to be proving yourself, and that you don’t need to rely on other people. It really defeats the point’ he argues, ‘since university work is about independence.’

“

Plagarism software [...] cannot pick up on these pieces of work

Aside from the question of morality, a number of issues can arise when using these services. Students may receive a different grade on a piece of work than the one they paid for, or miss their deadline because it was not sent to them in time. One Bristol student spoke to Epigram about an experience one of their friends had in college: ‘he used a programme online to write his essay for him. He asked for the best grade possible but

only ended up with a B.’ The quality of their writing is also debatable. The tagline for UK Best Essays – ‘We provide piece of mind’ – is not exactly reassuring.

How might ‘contract cheating’ be tackled? A Bristol University spokesperson says ‘if contract cheating were made illegal it might help to reinforce the University’s wish to combat this form of cheating, but the fact remains that using purchased coursework can be difficult to detect’. The problem is that the plagiarism software used by universities cannot pick up on these pieces of work. Technically, they are original pieces of writing – some sites guarantee ‘100% originality’ to lower the risk of the student being caught plagiarising. However, tutors are well qualified to detect unusual writing style, and any students found to be using these services would be expelled and possibly have their degree stripped.

In the UK, these services are fully legal. Using the law to clamp down on these websites would be tough since most are either registered abroad or anonymously. Many operate abroad where labour costs are cheaper, such as India, and many of the UK

websites are based in the US. The UK will be under increasing pressure to ban these websites in the next few years. However, with the high numbers of international students at prestigious British universities and the increasing pressure on all students to impress prospective employers with firstclass honours, it is possible that the use of these services might just grow and grow.

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Comment

Epigram 30.01.2017

@epigramcomment Editor: Abbie Scott

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Hate exams? Get over it.

The Weekly Angry Takedown

This week Ellie Chesshire argues that we should all stop moaning about exams and get on with them - page 12

Flickr / Roger Blackwell Flickr / Richard Harrison

‘Oh my god, Asian people walk so slowly’, ‘Why do they always hang out together?’, ‘They always go to that weird kareoke bar’... These are just a few of the silly, inconsiderate comments I have heard from friends and others around campus about the large number of overseas students.

Really? They walk too slowly? That really bothers you? Half of you are too lazy to go lectures anyway, don’t blame it on some poor overseas student trying to navigate their way around a new city.

What Tom Watson* is reading this week After the recent muggings, are students reallly safe? - Page 13 Are degrees really worth anything anymore? - Page 12 It’s time to have a conversation about millenials... - Page 13

What the #editors are saying...

You’d think for £9,000 a year they could work out there’s a mistake in the exam BEFORE we started it @hanhanprice Anyone know of any grad schemes recruiting for ‘ladies of leisure’?? @sophiejhunter *Googles: ‘Will my life be over with a 2:2?’* @StefanRollnick The Uni spent £23,400 renting out Coombe Dingle for exams in Jan 2015. So, you know, appreciate that if you’re there this week... @benjaminjparr

And also, how would you feel if you went to Bejing University? You’d be clinging to any British person you could find... because you’re a human being who likes the comfort of familiarity.

So why don’t you lay off these hard-working, homesick students, and focus on your own degree?

*Tom Watson may or may not have actually read this week’s issue.

OVERHEARD ON THE 16 BUS “But Nathan, have you really taken into account what effect technology will have on the act of coitus?”

“Do you not take Oyster cards?”

“Maybe I can shag him to see how big he is then report back to you?”

Epigram

30.01.2016

12

Testing times: suck ‘em up, they’re here to stay Ellie Chesshire decides that despite their drawbacks, exams cannot be eradicated from our education

Most of us would agree writing exams sucks.

Particularly January exams when you’ve had to watch the Christmas period go by from the inside of your text books. But does our unanimous hatred of them justify getting rid of them for good?

I would be inclined to argue that the usefulness of exams is very subject dependent.

When chatting to a good friend of mine who also studies at Bristol, she argued that revising for exams shows commitment and motivation

which many employers look favourably upon.

This is certainly true, for subjects like Medicine, Chemistry, and Biology exams are probably essential. After all, they allow employers to gauge who really knows their stuff, and for degrees like Medicine it’s vital that you know your stuff.

Things become a little trickier with degrees like History and other humanities. Everyone would agree that the best History or the best English

because their short term memory is not up to scratch.

The question of whether we should ditch exams is a tricky one. They are certainly more useful for some subjects than others. Science students probably benefit more from exams for example.

However, as a general rule putting people under

an immense amount of pressure for a couple of hours will not produce their best work. While getting rid of exams would be great for some people, the difficultly lies with what you replace them with. Until a suitable alternative has been suggested exams will, unfortunately, probably have to stay.

A bit nicer than Coombe Dingle: The Great Hall in Wills Memorial Building set up for exam

Flickr/Robert Cutts Eu Gov.uk / Official

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‘All the the progress you’ve made throughout the term is out the window in just one hour’

essay is written when you have the time and resources to write them. Frantically writing an essay with no notes or extra reading produces a completely different level of work. It doesn’t necessarily show what the student is capable of.

The difficulty is if you get rid of exams how then do you judge people’s work? There isn’t really another way to ensure that the work is completely the student’s own and that the only work they’re using is their own. After all, you can’t keep 250 English students penned into one room for three weeks! A-Levels, GCSEs and degrees are all recognised exams that employers respect and which allow them to choose who would be best for whatever role it is that their advertising. Doing this without exam results would be fairly tricky.

That is not to say that there aren’t many flaws to exams, because there are. Even for science degrees where the use of exams is probably greater, it is still a one shot situation. If you are having a bad day or just not feeling too well then that result reflects on you for a long time to come.

All the other grades and the progress you’ve made throughout the term is out the window in sometimes just one hour. For people who just might not do very well under the stressful exam conditions then this can be devastating and does not reflect the ability they actually have. A lot of the skill of writing an exam comes from how good your short term memory is and how much information you can remember. This often means that very intelligent, capable students suffer

“

Ellie Chesshire Comment writer

How can employers choose between all the 2:1s?

Ed Southgate argues that too many students are awarded top degrees making their worth unclear Ed Southgate Comment writer Britain and British Universities pride themselves in their aspiration. We strive to be better than we were yesterday, we strive to be leaders in innovation and research, and we strive to be successful. But in a society increasingly demanding equality in every possible sense, we are creating a culture which disallows one individual from academically prospering more than another. We want equal success for everyone, which in turn results in meaningless, uninspiring success.

It is because of our cultural aspiration that universities are renowned for being challenging; First and Upper-Second Class degrees are renowned for supposedly being difficult to achieve. It is this difficulty which drives academic curiosity further. This should not be belittled.

Recently, The Telegraph reported that the number of university students receiving top honours has tripled in the past decade; in 2016, 104,000 students graduated with a First or Upper-Second, signifying a five-fold increase from 1999.

The direct cause of this dramatic increase

is unclear. It could simply be down to a record-number of students entering higher education; Full Fact, the UK’s independent fact checking charity, recorded that 235,000 students in England and Wales entered higher education in 2015 – record levels. With such

students. Having attended a poor state-sixth form myself, set to close this year, I know all too well the limited opportunities it offers; an immensely capable graduate may therefore miss out due to an upbringing bleak of opportunity, to a less capable graduate with

‘As a nation out attainment is increasing, this is certainly to be celebrated’

a background rich with opportunity. This for the sake of the façade of equal academic success.

I am by no means damning widespread achievement. If as a nation our attainment is increasing, this is certainly to be celebrated.

What I am advocating, however, is to raise the

bar in line with this to aspire to even greater things, and to reconsider the grading system to accommodate this and any over-generous marking.

Whereas the difference between getting a 2:1 (60 per cent) and a 1st (70 per cent) is 10 per cent, a first-class degree covers 30 per cent (70-100 per cent). If more students are achieving this top grade, is it not right that this 30 per cent is split narrower to alert employers to who sits where within the grade?

Should we narrow the 2:1 boundary to be 6569 percent, with a 2:2 being 60-64 per cent, a 3rd being 55-59 per cent, introduce 3:1 as 50-54 per cent, and a pass as 40-49 per cent?

By narrowing the boundaries, employers gain clarity, achievement is measured more accurately, and attainment’s value can rise.

With over 50 per cent of gradates landing in non-graduate jobs, it is becoming increasingly essential to measure everyone’s performance accurately and proportionately.

If not, we succeed in ways which lead us nowhere.

Facebook/ Adam Becket

“

‘Employers no longer truly know who are the most academically suited for a job position.’

an increase, it should be inevitable that the number of students being awarded with top honours would increase.

But this could only be true if the top grades are proportionately the same and the lowerclass degrees awarded increase at similar rates.

This is not so. In 2012, 66 per cent of students were awarded a 1st class or 2:1 degree, up five per cent from 2007 and a trend which presumably has continued.

Additionally, lower-class degrees, to the best of my knowledge, are not increasing at the same rate, signifying that this top-grade crescendo is a result of more than simply the student-number crescendo.

As Martin Birchall, recruitment expert for High Fliers Research, says: ‘It is very hard to understand why more and more students are getting these top grades’. With little evidence to suggest this is simply an increase in the nation’s intellectualism, especially as these grades are not regulated by a national benchmark and competition between universities is rife, there is reason to be suspicious of over-generous grading; either way, however, it has resulted in grade inflation.

With so many students getting these top grades, they do not carry as much value in the real world now as they used to; it seems that anyone could get an Upper-Second or First nowadays. What is so special about the individual that obtains that classification?

This, The Telegraph reports, is precisely the issue facing employers today.

With at least 66 per cent of students receiving a 2:1 or higher, employers no longer truly know who are the most academically suited for a job position. Because of this, resulting in the grades becoming unhelpful and thus meaningless, employers take little interest in a graduate’s grade, rather their relevant experience.

This is in danger of returning a starker divide between privately and state educated

Familiar faces- the 2015/16 Epigram Editor and Deputy Editors at graduation, all receiving a 2:1 and above!

Epigram

30.01.2016

13

The University can’t always keep you safe Jessica Cripps reminds students that we are not invincible and must take care of ourselves in the city

After the recent attack on students walking in Brandon Hill on the evening of the 10th of January, students have been urged to exercise caution when walking late at night. However, muggings, violence and sexual attacks against students are unfortunately fairly frequent. Are we doing enough to ensure our safety?

Bristol has the seventh highest rate of student-related crime when compared with

other English and Welsh university cities. Four per cent of Bristol residents experienced a violent or sexual offence in 2016, according to data by the Complete University Guide. There was even a sharp increase in violent or sexual offences committed in Bristol between January 2015 and 2016, the Bristol Post reported.

With so much evidence of a trend for violent attacks in Bristol, is the University doing enough to ensure the safety of their students? Or is this simply a question of taking responsibility to protect ourselves?

The official advice from the University of Bristol security services is to avoid walking alone, stick to well-lit, busy streets, and remain alert. This means no absent-minded scrolling through Facebook, or plugging in headphones

‘Projecting confidence while walking and exercising discretion with valuables may also help to prevent an attack’

(inevitably) gets set off in the middle of a lecture, having something that will emit a loud noise when you feel threatened may prove an effective measure at deterring an attacker.

Linda BaILEY

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‘Muggings, violence and sexual attacks against students are unfortunately frequent. Are we doing enough to ensure our safety?’

to block out the monotony of the walk of shame.

The University also advises that the security services phone number should be handy in your phone (0117 112233).

However, there is only so much the university can do. If you do end up being part of that unfortunate four per cent, what is the likelihood that there will be the opportunity to make a call, even to the police?

Knowing the risks is one part of the battle.

Actually taking preventative measures to protect ourselves is another ballpark entirely.

The first step is to be aware of the hotspots for violence. Areas with a density of clubs, such as the Triangle and Park Street, are a common area for attacks and antisocial behaviour. Brandon Hill and the Durdham Downs are also hotspots, while the Bearpit subway has long had a reputation for muggings.

Find yourself walking alone in these areas late at night? Perhaps it would be better to fork out the money for a cab.

Free personal rape alarms are available from Royal Fort House, along with security wristbands too. While the alarm can be a nuisance when it

“

Jessica Cripps Comment writer

Cabot Tower in Brandon Hill Park near where two students were mugged - see News page 7

Many students now also opt to share their location with friends and housemates via FindFriends. While it is helpful to force a housemate to track you from the comfort of their own beds, there is very little they can do if trouble does arise.

Projecting confidence while walking and exercising discretion with valuables may also help to prevent an attack. However, if someone does threaten you, be prepared to give up your

valuables. Although it may seem crazy to hand over your iPhone - something that contains your whole life! – it is replaceable.

Coming to university is an exciting taste of independence, but sometimes that does mean we take risks without properly considering the consequences of our actions. With a few more months of long, dark winter nights, perhaps it is time to take a step back and re-evaluate how we ensure our personal safety.

Outside the bubble... by Ed Fernyhough

Millennials must be wary of technology dependency

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et al. have driven us to become impatient and thus dissatisfied with our prospective and current careers, effectively folding after looking at our hand but before seeing the flop. He accurately illustrates a typical scenario where we might

Sinek lists that millennials have endured increased rates in high school drop-outs, those afflicted by depression, and suicides.’

endlessly scroll rather than begin conversation with a person beside us.

The impatience and dissatisfaction caused by the instant gratification technology can provide, combined with, to put it cynically, the envy our generation experiences when observing the lot of others, has had severe ramifications. Sinek lists that millennials have endured increased rates in school drop-outs, those afflicted by depression, and suicides. The connections between each of these areas are as hazy as you would expect from a short presentation delivered for a YouTube channel.

Sinek then states that, should nothing be done about these problems, ‘you’ll have an entire generation never finding joy, never finding fulfilment…how’s your job? It’s fine. How’s your relationship? It’s fine…’ Is he seriously suggesting that this phenomenon is isolated to us, that this apathy emerges as a result of factors unique to the constitution of a millennial? What? He concludes with the point that millennials’ attitudes are

worsened by being thrust into a ‘corporate environment’ which they are unprepared for, a world utterly indifferent to the narcissism and self-interest of the young individual, exacerbated solely by ‘poor leadership’ in the workplace.

There are blazing problems with the argument as a whole. In his view, the incompatibility between the millennial and the corporate world is a more pressing issue than the attitudes and realities created by the corporate world.

This suggestion omits the fact that the present millennial is to a significant extent a product of this corporate world, overlooking also the incontrovertible damage the corporate world is wreaking upon the environment beyond the one Sinek identifies.

That said, the connection he spots between technology, impatience and dissatisfaction is his most pertinent observation. Generally

speaking our generation does spend a lot of time in front of screens. If we waste this time, then our relationship with technology could damage our social relationships, capacity for patience and ultimate ambitions. Whether we allow these consequences to materialise depends firstly on our awareness of these issues, and secondly upon our inclination to discipline ourselves in defence of them.

My initial perception of Sinek’s argument as a tirade against millennials before listening to everything he had to say is indicative of the problematic restlessness and impatience some of us might occasionally be guilty of. There are problems with his assessment of the causes and potential solutions for our oddly collective defects, but emotional, pre-figured responses to any criticism can be obstructive in identifying them.

Epigram

At first I was going to lambaste Simon Sinek’s assessment of ‘millennials’. This feeling arose about eight minutes into his 15 minute speech, by which point I thought I had already found several problems with his argument. I resisted the urge to launch into my retort, instead listening until the end. It was perhaps recognition of this initial urge within me to begin arguing before hearing the speaker out that picked up, underlined and emphatically highlighted his point. There are issues with his expression and the observation he makes is not unique, but nonetheless the gist is important.

Sinek begins his argument with the typical criticisms of millennials (people born 1994 and after, apparently), rattling off the buzzwords ‘entitled, narcissistic, self-interested, lazy’, and concluding that ‘they’re tough to manage.’ He then identifies four areas which have, in his view, led to such character flaws. These are misguided parenting, technology, impatience, and environment.

He then briefly explores each area. Our parents apparently told us that ‘we are special, that…[we] could have anything [we] wanted, just because [we] wanted it.’ This would explain our hypothetical entitlement if it weren’t for his sweeping generalisations. He then moves onto technology and impatience, the line between them fairly blurred. He essentially argues that we are all addicted to our screens, explicable by the rush of dopamine we receive from online social approval.

He suggests that technology can be beneficial but that our over-reliance upon it has led to a deterioration in our ‘social mechanisms’. He also argues the apparently perfect appearances and perfect lives we see on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat

Millennials have grown up with smartphones with some arguing this has caused unhealthy dependencies

Epigram

30.01.2016

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

The Facebook bias: the changing world of news

“ Almost 62 per cent of Americans now get their news from social media

It may sound over-simplistic, but I remember reading a status the day after Brexit, which involved someone complaining they could not understand how this had happened seeing as everyone they knew was voting remain. However, everyone’s friends list is biased relating to where they grew up, where they went to school and numerous other factors.

I am sure that my friends list has far more university students on it than one of my friends from home that has not attended university. By not thinking about the inherent bias associated by choosing who we are friends with and who we follow on Twitter, we lose sight of the bigger picture and other people’s opinions are drowned by ones similar to ours.

The difference between this digital bias and the one you face when deciding whether to buy the Daily Mail

or The Guardian is that although both are forms of bias, social media bias is harder to detect. With more people than ever before getting their news online, it is more important to realise that it is not just the platforms that are different, you are in fact far more vulnerable to targeted marketing and bias online than you ever were from full page advertisements in a newspaper.

Social media platforms do have a “hands off” strategy to the content that users are able to post on their sites (as long as the content agrees with their code of conduct). However, let us not forget that 2016 was the year that Facebook faced a barrage of criticism after it took down the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph of

children fleeing from a Napalm attack during the Vietnam War. With one of the children naked, the photo was said to breach Facebooks code of conduct.

Social media platforms have a “hands off” strategy to user generated content

Although it was eventually reinstated, one newspaper claimed that Mark Zuckerberg (the CEO of Facebook) had become ‘the world’s most powerful editor’.

As students, we are very likely to have dabbled in censorship since

AJ Cann - Flickr

Well that was unexpected. I mean, I never in a million years thought I would live through a year where Leicester FC won the premier league… or one where Toblerone changed the size of their bar. Brexit and Donald Trump were pretty mad too, but while people argue about the role of the disenfranchised masses and how populism has infected the political system, how much of a role did technology play in blindsiding pundits and the public throughout much of 2016?

Whilst social media has become indispensable in everyday life, it may actually have contributed to the unexpectedness of some of the results last year. Many sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, have submitted to online advertising and nowadays this advertising is tailored to suit you personally with websites storing information on the sites you visit as cookies (small chunks of information) on your web browser. This in itself is neither good nor bad, but a recent survey suggested that 62 per cent of Americans now get their news from social media and 18 per cent do so regularly. This tailoring of news and information may be resulting in a skewing of people’s perceptions, stopping them from assimilating a full and balanced picture of the facts.

Facebook may be stopping people from getting balanced information by its most intrinsic function - it allows you to choose the people that you are friends with and the groups that you follow/like.

“

Matt Davis Science Editor

coming to university. Many of us are familiar with the ‘unfollow’ option on Facebook, perhaps utilised to silence that annoying person that we friended during fresher’s without a clue that they like to consistently post pictures of their food! As we all may be contributing to the problem just as much as the websites, it is difficult to come up with a strategy that tackles it.

Boycotting social media is not a viable solution, nor is following and friending people that you do not like. Instead, the answer probably lies in awareness and the realisation that we need to take a step back from our newsfeeds and engage. We need to look at people we do not agree with, directly in the eyes, and to not simply ignore them.

One small step for students - a giant leap for tech The university rolling out Mediasite to all courses last year might have seemed like the greatest technological advance conceivable. No longer would you have to stumble up to uni in your onesie, seriously regretting the actions of last night. Instead, you could get a lie in and watch the lecture online once you had sobered up.

Indeed, it has not only made it easier to catch up on missed lectures. A case study run by the Bristol’s technology enhanced learning and education development department, for the

“

course of Dr Claire Shaw, found that since starting to use Mediasite not only were her students more responsive in lectures, actually listening to her rather than furiously scribbling notes,

No longer would you have to stumble into lectures in your onesie

the emails that were sent to her asked more important questions on the subject matter rather than asking for clarification of what was said in the

lecture. However, there are a multitude of other ways that technology can be used to enhance and improve the university experience.

One of the many innovations that could be introduced to accompany lectures is interactive forums and feedback forms where you can post queries during lectures and have them either addressed by the lecturers at the end, or answered and explained by another student during the lecture.

Not only can this allow students to engage with the lecturer better, but it may especially help students that would not ordinarily ask questions.

This technological approach can

help to enhance everyone’s learning experience, and allow other perspectives and explanations that the lecturer may not have thought of.

Online notes pages and discussions can also be a great way to collate notes between students in order to ensure that nobody misses any important points. They work via a program such as Google Docs, where everyone can edit a document with their thoughts and ideas. This kind of platform can be a great way to develop ideas between students, and allow everyone to be able to see what others view as important points that they may have otherwise glossed over.

“

Emma Isle Science Writer

Interactive forums allow students to ask questions online that are answered when the lecture ends

Sean MacEntee-Flickr

Virtual worlds and game based learning environments (gamification) could seem a little childish to many university students, and yet such tools can be harnessed by professors to engage students in their learning more.

By making a game out of education, it allows the student to engage with learning in their own way, as well as giving us a different means of gaining information, perhaps so that it suits us more. An alternative learning method is always useful for those who, like me, find lectures a little boring and not the

best method of learning.

Interactive presentations can help lecturers transform their lectures from something boring to fairly interesting, by including elements such as videos and animations, as well as quizzes, such as the turning point quizzes currently used in biomedical sciences. They break up the monotony of lectures and allow the lecturer to find out if the students are keeping up or if they need to revisit some areas.

Websites that allow collaboration between universities could also be beneficial, as different methods of teaching the same information and sharing of projects would allow a wider variety of ways to access the same information. This type of program was trialled last year by the neuroscience course between Bristol and Cardiff University. We were able to share methods of revision, as well as project work and hints and tips on a platform accessible from both universities.

This collaboration also had a group of students that evaluated course elements of both university courses in order to improve the learning experience for both sets of students.

Of course, some lecturers are more adventurous than others, so I cannot guarantee that you will be seeing all (or any) of these within your lecture theatres, but they are certainly ideas that could improve your learning experience for the future, some of which, such as note sharing documents, can be implemented by you.

Epigram 30.01.2016

15

Love at first swipe: finding ‘the one’ on Tinder Louis Flert Science Writer It all started on a warm summer evening in mid-May. Our eyes locked.

I remembered her from a module we shared this term, but I was not sure if she would remember me. She was beautiful and I was shitting myself.

I felt like my stomach was about to drop right through the floor. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath… and I swiped right.

Yep – hardly romantic is it? I met my girlfriend when I was literally playing tinder on the toilet in the middle of a ten-minute revision break. I was in the

midst of a string of boredom-fuelled casual flings and I felt like love was as far away as that first class degree my Mum keeps insisting I am capable of achieving.

But like that first class degree, I am not of the opinion that love comes about by destiny. It is earnt through hard work, committing lots of time and learning the chemical pathways involved in respiration. Maybe that analogy is a bit of a stretch.

There is obviously a diversity of opinion within the student community as to whether these apps actually ‘work’; of course the definition of ‘work’ completely depends on what

you are looking for. I would like to address the naysayers, the cynics, the Charlie Brooker-s of this world who believe that Tinder is the first sign of the apocalypse.

One of the main criticisms of Tinder is its superficial nature. The way the app is set up is designed to rule people out based on the way that they look.

Of course, I’m not saying that’s a good thing. What I am saying, however, is that Tinder is not unique in that respect.

As with many technology debates, people believe the source of the problem is with the technology itself, instead of the flawed sack of cells operating it.

Tinder is not what made our species superficial, we are inherently superficial: we are designed to make first impressions as quickly as possible by evolutionary necessity.

In his book Evolutionary Basis of First Impressions, Mark Schaller argues that as animals designed to try to fit in and survive, when forming social interactions, we need to quickly be able to judge whether people present a threat or whether interactions with them could be beneficial.

People are always forming quick first impressions of potential romances based on the way they look – why do people strike up conversations in bars?

d26b73 Flickr/ d26b73

Could you find ‘the one’ whilst doing a number two?

Or ask for people’s numbers on the tube? It’s the same motivation. If you think you are too superficial, deleting Tinder will not solve your problem.

So what was my Tinder date like?

I’ll admit it was not Romeo and Juliet, but after texting her for the previous few days I was almost certain she was a) who she said she was and b) not inherently boring or mean; that felt like a decent start. She seemed funny and kind so I decided to pursue it, invest time in it – and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. That was not Tinder’s decision, that was my decision.

“ People confuse the source of the problem as the technology itself rather than the flawed sack of cells operating it

I haven’t made any huge affirming statements about how great Tinder is, though I may never have met my girlfriend without it (this may change if I need them to pay for a wedding). I would not recommend Tinder for you for the same reason that I would not recommend going to clubs all the time if I had met my girlfriend in Bunker.

So feel free to download and use Tinder if you want – feel free not to.

Feel free to use Tinder as something to pass the time on the toilet – feel free to use it as a way to find ‘the one’.

Because let’s face it, whether you put your faith in mathematical algorithms to find love, or you put your faith in fate – they are both as ridiculous as each other.

There is no inevitability when it comes to love. It is simply a mixture of great timing and great commitment… and having good wi-fi from the toilet.

Under the microscope...Growing blood? The problem with Pugs and climate change u Y o pints 8 ly to the ough carry r d, according e donors re s mor ou an inside y S always need nate). There a AB o H d d N n a ads, the f those eligibleups A, B, O (sugars), o ns gro (only 4% ferent blood ifferent antige o changes d ls if a d h s it l u a w s r seve iated we just d Rhe re assoc protein calle So why don’t mistry a h ic h w e fa d. e bioch sence o ur bloo the pre position of yo niversity in th ying to grow U tr the com od? At Bristol arch group is ifferentiated grow blo ent, one rese pes from und the end departm rent blood ty is could herald ated the diffe successful th and contamin cells; if od shortages able donors. of blo d from unsuit bloo

are They ions, on cush over the re e h everyw nd memes all ped a soft lo cups, a e have deve Pug. Though coffee ems w uishy faced e West se It t. n to th g interne rable, sq ed’s migratio g a protrudin o d a e gs. bre r th ckin spot fo in China, the lean build la eir surroundin ur less ed o ting re th origina d in a smaller, on to explo we condemn have lte rely ugs ave has resu h most dogs ompanion, h faces mean P d poor an t hic te c snout w ving for a cu suffering? Fla g difficulties rt snout of thin stri sho a fe A in re li . b t g a u n n, B to nti s in additio friends which result ugh pa puggy re thro ye injuries. In a seen to ys tu a ra w e ir p a e si smaller n of body tem en result in in hip dyspla o oft lts eed to regulati e eyes can ps we n cket resu a so rh e ip rg P h s. g u ate P and la ation of the f im lf o re inan over ha malform they we in well if e s le a b re s a g d e h c e en some d toy bre e unqu odifying e up th stop m d ‘the n and giv ie s fr e ri st o ur be access make o desire to cutest’.

Matt Davis

d in g Accor e oks lik 6 at 01 lo while th erts, 2 p d x n e a , to rd o c g bills n re ti n a he ro s at re our est yea e h rm w a w h p Scientist the a trium thing? n d phase e o e g o b g in a rm have n (a wa lly such ate might o a ti re la it il l sc is ba clim ces glo l Niño O cerned, egrees h the E influen d are con g h u 7 ic o .0 h 0 th w at c the port th year al Pacifi role in Nasa re quatori ortant warmest in the e an imp revious le g p y n e la ra ti h p e a (t 5 sid b origin emed to d to 201 s a con ompare ill leave effect se And c . st e s) re n d id o tu n x ti e a tr dio mpera the equ arbon rise in te house ch as c it from Celsius d, green gases su moving se re a se le ), u o re rd e nh b e ord c re to g re t on reco te om s ye a clima ution fr 2016 ha e 2016 to contrib ata on d d a n r e m e k h e ta furt ill hav s are though ould st measure ow lone w rastic uld foll d o c gases a 7 ss 1 le 0 2 Un ely that k li breaker. is it ne, . interve e trend the sam

Katie Coates

Explains Bristol’s research into growing blood

Katie Coates

Discusses the problem with Pugs

why 2016 was the warmest year on record

Flickr/thellr

Flickr/thellr

Flickr/thellr

Epigram

30.01.2017

Letters

Editor: Claire Hargreaves letters@epigram.org.uk

Contextual offers are only one battle in the war on social inequality

“ ‘Why do privately educated students make up 40 per cent of this university?’

Lowering contextual offers is a welcomed move and an example of positive affirmative action, making universities more accessible at entry point. However, to truly democratise our education system, we need an educational revolution that destroys even the need for private education.

Russell Group universities, especially in the humanities, must reach out and not allow students to feel isolated by disparities in knowledge and understanding of their subject; they must support comprehensive schools to academically challenge

Flickr / Jenny Tabrum

The announcement last month that Bristol would be lowering their contextual offers for students from lower performing schools and disadvantaged backgrounds is encouraging. Not least for myself, as someone who attained their place at the university through a contextual offer. However, although this may help balance the current disproportionate ratio of state and private school students, it only represents a symptom and not a root of a problem in our education system.

I quickly realised in my first year at Bristol that my privately educated peers had an academic advantage that surpassed A-Level grades. Private schools have the luxury of money and time to provide a holistic academic foundation that state schools simply cannot afford to do.

One example, of many, faux pas I would make in my university career happened in my first Philosophy seminar. Having never needed to pronounce Rene Descartes’ surname before, I naively assumed the philosopher’s name was pronounced to sound more like ‘des-cart-ey’. Although this was highly embarrassing for me and somewhat entertaining for my fellow classmates, it is a typical example of basic gaps in knowledge between privately educated and state educated students. Privately educated students not only have a greater opportunity of achieving As and A*s through smaller class sizes, but they also go beyond the syllabus of GCSES and A-Levels to

provide a History Boys-style education which really challenges their students in a way that unfortunately my state school did not. In a state school, our teachers have not only the pressure of teaching 32 students the core syllabus, but must also simultaneously deal with social issues that do not typically occur in private schools, which from the beginning have a selective process.

In the humanities, especially, state school pupils can feel overwhelmed by a different style of learning that is more native to students who attended prestigious private and grammar schools. My privately educated peers had been equipped with a holistic education to have a far reaching cultural capital that my comprehensive school just could not afford to provide.

“

Sam Napthine Letters Writer

The 93% Club was created by Bristol University students to help local state school students get into University

students. Reaching university made me realise that my A-Level results were not the most important thing, but instead it is having a passion and understanding of academia that goes beyond the syllabus. However, this is also a governmental issue; why is there such a desire for private education in the first place? And why do privately educated students make up 40 per cent of this university?

A start would be to improve comprehensive teaching standards, and follow Finland, a country that treats its teachers with respect and high salaries. Even to be a primary school teacher requires a five years’ masters.

The recent furore about History of Art being removed from the syllabus seemed particularly futile to the state educated. History of Art was only taught in 17 state schools and 90 private ones in 2014. These statistics only reinforce the already acknowledged elitism in the humanities. If these issues are not tackled in primary or secondary education, surely, however much effort universities make, it will pale in comparison to the neglect by the state sector to their most able and intelligent students.

The government’s relaxing of fees, which will mean many universities soon charging over £9000 a year, is not going to help working-class achievement either. Replacing maintenance grants with loans will create debt inequality, increasing the already unequal footing that rich and poor students will start their career on. At this point, lowering entry requirements appears to be only the start of a long road to social equality.

Students do not see the darker side of Bristol Lily Hammond Letters Writer The city of Bristol has been acknowledged in numerous reviews as being a major contender as a world ranking location. The Rough Guide even recently placed Bristol as the fourth best city to visit in the world. For many of the students living in the city, this result remains unsurprising. However, there is undoubtedly a darker side to ‘the

fourth most inspiring city in the world’ of which university students are not necessarily aware.

One of the most noticeable aspects of Bristol’s ‘darker side’ is that of the issue with homelessness.

Ellie Chesshire, a first year history student, commented on this, saying: ‘When I first came to Bristol, I was shocked at the amount of people living on the streets. I’ve seen more homeless people in Bristol than when I was living in London.’ Reports

throughout 2016 have shown that up to 100 people sleep rough in the city centre every night, and this has been increasing since 2010. For a city with such a supposed prosperous reputation, the growing number of homeless people is demonstrative of the wealth disparity in the city.

‘I’ve seen more homeless people in Bristol than when I was living in London.’

This wealth disparity may even be perpetuated by university students.

A government investigation into

deprivation in Bristol in 2015 showed that as a whole almost 72,000 people (17 percent of the population) suffer from income deprivation. It was identified that the proportion of people affected varies greatly throughout the city, but ‘University Halls’ in Stoke Bishop represented only 1% of this. It must be acknowledged therefore that as students in Bristol we are in danger of living in a bubble, unaware of the more negative elements of the place where we live and study.

As recognised by many popular travel guides, Bristol is renowned for being a beautiful and animated city. Yet with its beauty comes a dark past. Some of Bristol’s most

prestigious landmarks are rooted in money generated through the exploitation of the slave trade. The Wills Memorial Building, which many regard as synonymous with the University of Bristol, was built using money donated by the Wills family who gained their wealth through the tobacco industry, heavily dependent on the use of slaves. This is the case for many other Bristol attractions such as the Old Vic and Colston Hall.

This is not to say that Bristol is not deserving of its reputation as a wonderful city to visit and live in; however, it is important to look at the city as a whole and address a darker side to Bristol which sometimes as students we try to ignore.

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Living Well Being Travel Style Food What’s On

Flickr/ Gareth Hughes

Epi New Year!

Editor Johnny Thalassites

18

Online Editor Lucy Thompson

Deputy Editor Saskia Hume

living@epigram.org.uk

@e2living

30.01.2017

saskia.hume@epigram.org.uk

Epigram Living Section 2016/17

Ten things to do in Bristol in 2017

Epigram Living Team encourage you to escape the uni grind and tick a few things off of your Bristol bucket list Bristol Old Vic

When you first started at the University of Bristol, you probably had a extremely long list of activities in the city waiting to be ticked off. We’re all guilty of staying in the university bubble sometimes, but you should definitely make 2017 the year that you go out and explore a city that has been named one of the top ten places to live in the world.

Built between 1764-1766, the Bristol Old Vic - the city’s best-known theatre - is a great local attraction. Refurbished in the noughties, the Old Vic is thriving like never before, with regular and popular productions of both old Shakespearean classics and new, exciting commissions. Daniel Day-Lewis called it “the most beautiful theatre in England.”

Bristol Zoo Gardens

As the fifth oldest zoo in the world, the Zoo Gardens in Clifton should undoubtedly be top of your Bristol bucket list. With inhabitants from Asiatic lions to gorillas to red pandas, there’s a huge range of animals on display. The gardens also hold evening classes if you’re interested in the role the zoo plays in wildlife conservation.

Aquarium

Lido

If you feel like splurging your money and treating yourself, spend the day at the Lido spa in Clifton. It has an outdoor pool, steam room, sauna and hot tub in a charming setting of one of the oldest surviving lidos in the UK. Afterwards, visit the restaurant where the tapas is delicious and the cocktails are decadent.

St Werburghs City Farm

Ashton Court

St Werburghs City Farm calls itself an “inner city oasis.” With green spaces for conservation, food and allotments, it might just, indeed, be the “inner city oasis” we’ve all been looking for. There is a playground and a cafe on site, open to visitors all year round from 9am-4pm. If you’re searching for something different to do with a day off, why not head over to the farm?

Motion

Admittedly this is not strictly a Bristol activity, but the historic city of Bath is only a short and cheap train ride away. Here you can visit the Roman Baths and mooch up and down the long and charming high street. Like Bristol’s Lido, Bath also has a spa with a rooftop pool and various steam rooms.

Take a dip in the Lido’s charming outdoor pool

For a refreshing break from the urban bustle, cross over the suspension bridge and take a walk through the beautiful grounds of Ashton Court. There are plenty of events that take place here, such as the annual Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, and a free 5km fun run which takes place every Saturday.

Day Trip to Bath

For the authentic Bristol clubbing experience, you just have to go to Motion. Named the 19th best club in the world in 2016, there is no place else to be at midnight - either for Itchy Feet, Cirque or any other of night in the West Country’s capital. Drink a Red Stripe and dance the night away with a motley crew of bandana-wearing, top-knot wielding, gurning, guzzling guys and gals.

SS Great Britain

There’s plenty of history around Bristol, and few places are better known on that front than Brunel’s SS Great Britain. Launched in 1843, the ship was called ‘the greatest experiment since the Creation’ for her size and power. From 1845-1933, the SS Great Britain ruled the waves - travelling 8000 miles in its most famous journey.

One of Bristol Zoo Garden’s favourite inhabitants

Wikiopedia/Adrian Pingstone min Perry Epigram/Jas

In the similar vein, take a trip to the Harbourside, where you’ll find the Bristol Aquarium. Although it may not be as impressive as its London rival, it gives you an intimate experience as you wander along the maze of pathways. The stingrays are a particular highlight, although the ‘sharks’ leave a little to be desired.

Flickr/Nick

Airhop

If you’re willing to go a bit further afield, take a trip to Airhop on the outskirts of the city. The main room has over 50 connected wall to wall trampolines, as well as a foam pit and areas to play dodgeball, basketball and wipeout. It’s great fun, but definitely not recommended on a hangover.

In defence of: piping down this New Year Living Writer Chloë Moloney doesn’t want to hear the phrase ‘New Year, new me’ ever again I hate to beat any sort of hopeful optimism to a pulp.

The Guardian claimed the slogan ‘New Year, New Me’ to be ‘preposterous and bad’ – and with this I am somewhat in accordance. I must first establish that I am certainly in favour of revitalisation and resolve, shedding the itchy skin of the past year and emerging as an ameliorated and finer individual.

There is undeniably a constant current to our lives which sways our yearning for change and adjustment, but the manner in which people go about making such changes often gets under my skin.

J.K. Rowling suggested that ‘discussing an idea out loud is often the way to kill it stone dead’. To a degree, she has a point.

The only thing we can assuredly guarantee is the glory of the present moment

Pub landlord Chloë Moloney with some home truths

Flickr/Nicole Beauchamp Flickr/RIchard Sandoval

”

”

Instead of grabbing that megaphone and pronouncing to the world that 2017 is going to be ‘your year’, I advise you to get off your high horse and take a more introspective approach.

There is no need to be a bell-ringer on social media, posting irksome comments that you’re ‘officially giving up carbs for a month!’ or ‘getting a gym membership for the New Year!’.

It is evident that we suffered from a fraught relationship with 2016: Brexit, Trump and a whirlwind of celebrity deaths rightfully sent us into a frenzied tailspin. The hard times of the past year have surely taken a chunk out of our faith in humanity.

It’s undoubtable that, after a tempestuous 2016, we are all

desperate for a breath of fresh air.

It can sometimes appear that there is a tradition of announcing your ventures to the wider world before going through with them - like trying to ice a cake before actually baking one. To me, that seems bizarre. Personally, I would rather slice through all the ornate, priggish decorations and quickly get down to the raw and meaty stuff.

We needn’t sit tight until January 1st to make a change in our lives. The only thing which we can assuredly guarantee is the glory of the present moment: waiting days, weeks or even months to flick that bracing switch in our lives is a particularly shaky way of living.

As a generation, our desire for social reinforcement is fatal.

We are guilty of injecting ourselves with positive stimuli and ‘likes’ in order to keep ourselves on track. We incessantly fish for compliments in an overcrowded pond.

Social attestation has resulted in us looking outside of ourselves when seeking validation for our actions, when instead we should become a little more self-contained and inward-looking. It is much easier to revel in a sense of accomplishment when it is personal and intimate, as interminably searching for external praise can often leave you despondent when it is not received.

Rather than getting hot-headed and exploding with the desire to tell others of your endeavours, I ultimately implore you to be the last bastion of quiet regeneration and renewal.

There is a glimmering chance that you will be far more successful that way.

30.01.2017

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Seven deadly New Year’s resolutions Reece Webster dares you to take a walk on the wild side in 2017 with these dastardly goals for the upcoming year

It’s the end of January. Which could mean that you’ve almost completed a whole month of keeping to New Year’s resolutions.

Perhaps you’ve opened up a gym membership and have managed to get in 3 times a week since the start of January. Or maybe you’ve ripped up the takeaway menus and chucked away your ready meals.; instead, you’ve been prepping salads for lunch and home cooking fresh ingredients for dinner.

If this sounds like you, then this article may not be for you. If it sounds like something you promised yourself at midnight during the early haziness of 2017 then read on. And don’t worry yourself if you did make New Year’s resolutions and didn’t keep to them. In 2013 Forbes magazine quoted research from University of Scranton that suggested ‘just 8% of people achieve their New Year’s goals’.So why not give in to your primal urges, your passions, your anger and your vices? Why not, in fact, turn your virtuous resolutions on their head and instead make 2017 a year to follow the 7 deadly sins?

Flickr/Janet Ramsden

Gluttony

We’ll start with the easiest: Gluttony. You ought not to have any problem with this. All you need do is eat and drink as much as you like. If you buy pizza, get a large. If you want some cake, don’t just get a slice - buy the whole thing! Make every meal out with friends a buffet and challenge each other to how many plates you can eat. If eating makes you happy, then more eating equals more happiness, right?

Sloth

The seven deadly sins - in magic potion form: gluttony, sloth, lust, envy, pride, greed and wrath

Next up is another easy sin: Sloth. All you need to do is relax more. Start your morning by putting your alarm on snooze at least 3 or 4 times. Better still don’t even set an alarm and stay in bed all day. Whilst your try-hard friends are in the gym sweating and hurting, you can have your feet up in front of Netflix. Going in to town? Don’t walk, get a taxi. Your feet and legs will hurt less, you’ll get more precious sleep and you can stay warm and cosy in bed through cold wet months.

Lust

Things start getting a little more interesting now we get to Lust.

Start off by getting Tinder. Swipe right more often. Arrange seedy liaisons more often. If the crush at your club or society is on a night out with you, pluck up some courage and make a move towards them. The vast majority of people think about these things, yet don’t act for wanting to project an image of innocence. Instead, don’t worry about what others think. If there ends up being some kind of spark, take advantage of it and take them home.

Envy

Now instead of falsely pretending to be happy about other people’s fortune, let your true thoughts come out in Envy. Envy the

new car your flatmate’s parents just bought. Envy the house in the country they go back to each summer. Envy their grades. Don’t feel bad about envying someone with a beautiful partner, embrace it. In our world of keeping up with the Jones’ use envy to embrace your desires to have what other people have. You deserve it.

Pride

Start to believe in yourself more and fill yourself with Pride. Use positive affirmations to help. You deserve the world. You are the greatest person to ever grace the city of Bristol with your presence.

You are God’s gift to humanity. You’re good at everything you do and don’t let others tell you otherwise. If you make a decision it is the right one. If you do some work that is poorly appreciated, defend it - you know your ability is great.

Greed

In our capitalist commercialist society, take a leaf out of the high flying billionaires of the world by seeing through eyes of Greed.

You should crave building up your wealth and possessions. Make a weekly trip to Cabot Circus and get yourself another pair of shoes. Go to a casino and gamble for great sums of cash. Ignore the

homeless, you need clothes more than they need food. If you want more jewellery or a nice watch don’t hesitate to ask friends and family to borrow some money for ‘food’. You will of course feel so much better with new stuff in your life and you can avoid lenders for a long time. Maybe even until after university if you’re lucky!

You never know quite how far greed can take you until you try it.

Wrath

Finally, possibly the most important one of your New Year’s resolutions is Wrath or Anger. Here you must not hold back your emotions when someone hurts or challenges you. If someone leaves dirty dishes out in the kitchen, show your annoyance to them. If someone cuts you up on the road give yourself a release by screaming profanities in their direction. If your partner goes out with their friends when you wanted to stay in, then make a point of flexing your most annoyed looks. Maintain your anger for as long as possible and they will surely see the error of their ways and change. At the very least letting your anger flow will rid you of the stress of trying to stay calm and composed when life gets you mad.

New Year’s Tears It’s time to cringe at a few of your most unromantic New Year’s Eve tales As the clock strikes twelve, people around the world take part in the cliché that is the New Year’s kiss. It’s a truly idealised scene, starting the year as you mean to continue - in the arms of a loved one. But not all of us are so lucky. Here are a few New Year’s horror stories to comfort you if you missed out on that midnight embrace.

Messaging Mishaps

I was young and out of love. The year was 2015. It was the first time I’d be spending the night partying with my ex-boyfriend since our break up - always a recipe for disaster. Fast forward 8 hours later, with a banging headache, I woke up with someone’s arms wound tightly around me. Wriggling free, I rolled over to see my exboyfriend far too close for comfort. To make things worse, we had slept in the same room as all of my friends, who had woken up to see this horrifying scene before them. We haven’t been to the same party since. (Disclaimer: the only thing banging on this night was my headache).

Sheepish Snoozer

bewildered revulsion, and I was pushed away across the dance floor.

Confused and ashamed, I had a eureka moment: I had lunged at the wrong twin. Her sister stood nearby, alone and incandescent.

Despite my attempts to right my wrongs, both twins understandably gave me a wide berth for the remainder of the night.

Lord Blunder

Twin Troubles

I once ended up at a New Year’s party with a pair of identical twins.

Spending most of my night getting to know one of these girls, I felt certain that she would be my kiss at midnight. As the countdown began I was stood right next to her (or so I thought), and as the clock struck twelve, I lunged. Yet this action was met with

Wikki/Giotti

There is always the prospect that New Years Eve celebrations might turn sour. The lethal combination of alcohol and high expectations often leads to a disastrous end for those involved.

I will always remember a New Year’s party when I was 14, where almost every single female friend of mine ended up in tears. The most shocking event of the night had to be when a boy from my school (who shall remain unnamed) messaged the wrong girl as it turned midnight. With both girls at the party, the night soon descended into hysteria. Another boy decided the best way to solve the situation was to record the entire scene on his phone. It was definitely an evening to forget.

Gossip Girl

Hang Ups and Hangovers

An even less successful kiss between Judas and Jesus

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20

American Among the Ruins Erasmus student, Troy Worden, meditates on Bristolian architecture, lending fresh perspective to the history that surrounds students.

Lecture theates:

”

Notice the hint of admiration in my voice?

”

Flickr/wildolive

Walking about Bristol is for most students, I suspect, an everyday experience. Depending on what the day’s chores and schedule demands, the average undergraduate might pass a church or two, or perhaps the College Green and its resplendent Cathedral. If he or she is on something of a trek or adventure, they might end up visiting the deer parks about Ashton Manor or lush greenery surrounding Blaise Castle – or even pass St Mary Redcliffe on the way to Temple Meads.

“Otherworldly” Bristol Cathedral and College Green.

Gothic buildings:

Flickr/Joe Dunckley

It’s true, these churches, castles, and manors excite me more than anything else about Bristol. In fact, these sorts of things are what drew me to the United Kingdom – and Europe – when deciding where to study abroad. Coming from America, I’m not accustomed to living side-by-side with history. No, it’s not every day in the States that one passes a building older than the country itself without extending the proper courtesy – a little glance maybe, or something longer than a glance: a stare that stops you in your tracks. Old things are meant to be taken in rather than passed by.

The music department’s Victoria Rooms by night.

Epigram/Hannah Price

In this way I can’t help but feeling like a tourist, ogling with awe at every building with more years under its belt than the American Revolution. The mark of the native is to go about nonplussed by Gothic churches and Georgian manors.

Familiarity breeds nonchalance. I can’t help but feel unsettled when I see what seems to me to be an under-appreciation or lack of respect for history. The crowds of lunching professionals hanging about St Paul’s in London struck me just as vividly as the groups of students spread out on the College Green, eating under the shadow of that otherworldly Cathedral as its bell tolls for no everyone and no one in particular.

However, the most meditative place in all of Bristol is Temple Church: gutted during the Bristol Blitz, it stands – or leans, rather – as a testament to something more enduring and significant than all the concrete parking lots ever built in the New World.

Clifton Suspension Bridge during Bristol’s Balloon Fiesta.

But I would do the city of Bristol, my home abroad, a disservice by neglecting to mention the less romantic aspects of its age.

There’s no getting around it: some of the buildings on campus are dated. The Arts Complex (where all of my classes were held this term) consists of a series of older houses connected by newer additions. The renovations are welcome, but the size of some of these stairwells and rooms leaves a tall-ish American such as myself claustrophobic. In the States – especially my very own California – buildings are constructed for the modern man in the modern era: excessively spacious and far taller than the people who occupy them. An alien race visiting earth after our disappearance and comparing our respective architectures might conclude that a race of giants bestrode America and a set of dwarves, England.

Big, beautiful giants - President Trump might clarify.

Halls: Not even Bristol’s dorms fail to surprise me, though. The amount of fire doors in Clifton Hill House, for instance, boggle the American mind used to more space for thinking; our thoughts need as much space as our bodies to stretch far and wide over all sorts of intellectual labyrinths. Why, we Americans rarely think about fire – we assume sprinkler systems will save the day faster than firefighters, and it’s not as if the States’ concrete and steel structures burn too quickly. I would do well to remember that British buildings are closer to tinder boxes! Every room in my dorm in California sported automatically locking doors; that feature is more a luxury than a commodity in Bristol. Forgetting to lock your room actually has consequences – a thought I’m not used to thinking!

Special relationship: But don’t misinterpret me, dear reader, I’m not complaining.

There’s a certain charm and thoughtfulness to living among reminders of bygone days. I imagine that Europeans, Britons, and even Bristolians can’t find it easy to forget the past when it’s staring right back at you.

No, I can’t complain. I knew exactly what I was signing up for.

After all:– we call the Old World “old” for a reason!

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We are all secretly scanning the interner for our summer holidays

”

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This is why we have quickly jumped back into our gym routine - especially as it’s the perfect counterbalance to our revision hours. Anyone who has ventured into the ASS, and had to scout each floor in search of a seat- to be faced with an insurmountable amount of ‘saved-seats’ (this is not a sun lounger on your holiday. It’s not OK)

– will know that Bristol is finally feeling the stress of exams.

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One main problem with stress is that it can lead to overeating the wrong stuff! Cakes, biscuits,

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It’s January. The sunlight hours are at an alltime low, and we all share that feeling that we have eaten double our body weight in turkey and chocolate over the last three weeks. Exams

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The whole ‘New Year New Me’ fad, whilst being the laughing stock of many ingenious memes, can in fact be the motivational drive that so many of us need to get us into the gym routine. The University Gym is quickly filling up and everyone is keen to keep their energy levels high so they can get the most out of their work-out. After all, we are all secretly scanning the internet for our summer holidays already (anything to avoid the daunting workload).

Getting the motivation to go to the gym can be difficult. But you quickly reap the benefits and recognise the value of it- when you come away feeling fitter, healthier and happier- what could be better?

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Editor Tianna Graham

22

Online Editor Flora Doble

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Eating Disorder Hotline: 01494 793223

‘Anorexia nervosa has the highest morality rate’ Ed Southgate (First Year Student) “Make it stop.”

Three words which dominated my recovery. Exactly what the ‘it’ I wanted to stop was, however, subject to interpretation. To those around me, ‘it’ was the illness. To me, ‘it’ was recovery.

I became but a shell; not living, just about surviving. But survival does not always prevail; studies have shown of all the mental illnesses, anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate, killing roughly 20 percent of its victims. I almost entered that 20 percent. Alongside this, eating disorders carry a multitude of damaging, counterfactual stigmas to which, at least three, my illness did not conform.

Flickr / Luis Reyes The first? I am male.

Anorexia often connotes skinny, fragile females. However, at least 25% of sufferers are male, with the figure probably higher as social stigmas prevent men speaking out. Indeed, I attended an all-boys state secondary school with an atmosphere fuelled by conventional ideas of masculinity; to conform, I could reveal nothing about my disease. But anorexia feeds on secrecy, meaning the social barriers preventing men’s dialogue serves only in its favour. It makes the death of its victims easier.

Secondly, my illness originated not from an obsession over body-image, but over control. With a friendship group making it apparent that with each success I attracted even greater failure, with each day I breathed came another reasons not to, and being in my mid-teens, with intense change occurring, I needed to find control. Something. Anything. So I turned to food.

‘25 percent of sufferers are male’

”

‘Still I told no one. I was male.

I could not tell anyone.’

The final stereotype is that this is equally a physical illness in that you can diagnose from assessing someone’s skinniness.

Indeed, not. Anorexia is a psychologically-destructive illness with physically-destructive effects, not otherwise. Certainly, significant weight loss in short periods of time is cause for serious concern; I grew skinnier, my arms became hairier (my body’s attempt to warm itself), purple rings surrounded my eyes and I became pale. But there is a host of symptoms to be aware of. My symptoms included an obsession with recipes, spending vast amounts of time in supermarkets, rarely eating in public and making excuses to avoid doing so. Symptoms searching for control.

The isolation which came with the illness fuelled further isolation. From my ‘friendship’ group in early secondary school, I never knew what a genuine friend should be or do – I still don’t in many ways which has made Sixth Form and University a struggle, constantly worrying whether I’m ‘doing good’. But through talking, it has become easier.

Without sounding like an over-played record, talking is vital.

This illness feeds on its secrecy. It demands its victim’s silence.

As soon as that silence is broken, as soon as that isolation ends, as soon as it is discovered, it becomes vulnerable.

Often it is the friend, parent or teacher who must intervene.

With anorexia clawing itself around the individual’s mind, their perception distorts significantly. I have purposefully not detailed exactly what I did. Depending on their current severity, a sufferer may focus intensely on how I became so ill or what weight I became, with little focus on the consequences. Such a focus creates a new aim for the sufferer, or a new tactic to achieve that aim – the aim being a further decrease in calorific intake.

But many may find the intensity of the topic somewhat intimidating, not knowing what to say or how to respond. That is fine. Sufferers need both a friend and a doctor, but they need not be the same individual. A friend is a distraction from the anorexic voices, which is as powerful as anything.

By friends being there, and male suffers talking, we can “make it stop”. ‘It’ being both illness and stigma.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR NEW WRITERS! If you are interested in writing about your own personal experiences with mental health, offering advice or writing about current mental health events, join our Facebook Writers’ Group or email us! You can always write anonymously if you would prefer and we accept any topic.

Stop and smell the roses!

Geraldine Taylor (Student Counselling) ‘Go and open the door, Maybe outside there’s A tree, or a wood, Or a garden, Or a magic city’

(Miroslav Holub., ‘The Door’)

Open the door, go outside. Here’s why.

Bristol is a UK wildlife hub, so an open door can be the first step to seeing the fastest creature on earth, (peregrine falcon); meeting the birds with the sharpest minds (ravens, there’s a pair on the Water Tower and another pair around the Physics Building); seeing the rarest orchids (bee-fly and wasp, on the Downs in June).

An open door can take us to badger setts (they steam at this time of year when the badgers’ breath underground meets cold air above ground); and buzzards that nest on the Downs and soar over Royal Fort Gardens.

There are other local treats if we open the door – the pink violets opposite Cafe Gusto in Kingsdown; robins singing in the early morning; rare fritillaries on the BGS banks.

You might catch a rainbow, a Brocken spectre, a cerise sunrise or a shooting star.

Being outside helps us relax, if we let it. I’ve led wildlife walks where everyone has talked about everything but wildlife and marches unseeing past landscapes of amazing beauty. We need to focus to benefit from what’s around us. Mindfulness helps.

Practise looking in levels, look at what is at ground, shrub, tree and sky level, use your eyes to scan.

Learn to distinguish trees as they come into flower. The flowers of trees are exquisite and we miss them by not looking up. Tree flowers are also the source of the most sought after perfumes on earth, including the blossom of lime trees, abundant here.

Take learning birdsong slowly: learn one song a week in early spring when they sing the most. Songs will stick in your mind if you see the bird at the same time as you hear it. Seeing a bird open its beak in song is a sight worthy of a Planet Earth Programme.

Flickr / Rachel Andrew

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With my perceived failure eating me up, I began eating less.

Unwittingly, I increasingly relished the control of what I ate. I had a purpose. I had a target. I had found something to ‘succeed’ in. I had found a way to disappear. I had found something to control.

The irony, of course, is that it controlled me. The less I ate, the more it suffocated my mind. But to this I was blind. Anorexia was my friend. My only friend. A comforting voice.

It was when, on 2nd January 2014, my weak body could hold me no longer and I collapsed that I had glimpsed at its lifethreatening reality. A temporary realisation, however. This is an illness which, by starving the brain, refuses its victim any sense of logic or reason. So, I strived for more control, more ‘success’, regardless.

Hearing of my collapse, CAMHS intervened; diagnosing me with severe anorexia, severe depression and severe anxiety, whilst concluding that my organs could fail and I could die within two weeks. They were ready section me.

But I told no one. I was male. So, I could not tell anyone.

It was here that the illness stopped its silent suffocation, and began its attack. With the doctors’ intervention and my parents alert to its severity, the voices in my head were threatened.

Threatened by recovery. Yes, threatened by recovery. It sounds paradoxical to a logical mind, but, to a starved mind, reason was of the past; recovery was synonymous with losing control, which was synonymous with failure.

Mid-way through my recovery, for example, I was told I looked “well” – a compliment, no? My strangled mind interpreted this, however, as: “you have noticeably put on weight therefore you have noticeably lost control, you are noticeably failing”.

Still I told no one. I was male. So, I could not tell anyone.

Food was simply the means to an end. It was what used to feel ‘control’. Without that, without anorexia, what was I living for? Not eating was all I could have success in without the usual accompaniment of failure. But now I was failing even that.

For the subsequent year and a half of treatment, its manifestation became viciously apparent. To my family I was violent, to myself I was destructive. I would sit on the floor, imprisoned in the dark of my barricaded room, for hours. One night I ran out, spending the night in a ditch in the woods. One day my pastoral tutor kept me in her office for four hours, not trusting me with my train journey home.

One night the police hunted me down.

That night I looked out from the top-edge of a multi-storey carpark. Empty.

With anorexia’s strengthening retaliation came the strengthening voices reminding me of my failure, needing to maintain control of me. Sometimes internal, others external.

Sometimes unfamiliar, others familiar. My mother’s voice, for example, would creep up behind me, telling how I’d failed her.

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Male anorexia and its deadly stigma

But it isn’t only the benefits of the green environment. Outside is where people are, and light and energy. It’s a moving landscape, something will happen, something will change our mood, give us food for thought. In my career as a student counsellor here, I’ve learned that life can be a struggle to find somewhere rewarding to put the mind. Maybe it’s more likely to be found outside than in.

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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

30.01.2017

Follow us at: epigram_eats_out

Top 2017 Food Trends From ‘healthified’ coffee to snacking on seaweed, Food Editor, Ellie Donnell, discusses the food trends that are set to define 2017 Purple Reign Forget edamame, avocadoes and kale - green is so 2016. This year we’re set to embrace purple foods including beetroot, purple sweet potatoes, red cabbage and blueberries. Apart from making a delicious topping to a bowl of porridge, we all know that blueberries are deemed a ‘superfood’ and it’s precisely down to their blue hue that they’re so good for us.

Indeed, the power of purple goes beyond the beauty of their deep magenta tones, as each food hosts a wealth of nutritional benefits.

Flickr/ Seeming-Lee Flickr: Sarah Abnett

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We all know that blueberries are deemed a ‘superfood’ and it’s precisely because of their blue hue that they’re so good for us

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Flickr: Sales

Purple foods are bursting with antioxidants which are ‘known to fight disease, keep you looking younger, reduce inflammation and are good for your heart,’ as Matthew Plowman, Nutrition Advisor at Cardiff Sports Nutrition, highlights.

The fact that the pretty power of purple foods will make our Instagram photos all the more picturesque, I’m sure, doesn’t even come into it…

Turn up the turmeric You’re a student. so it’s more than likely that your coffee intake has increased since returning to Uni, particularly in the stressful wake of exams. Worried about what those extra cups are doing to your health?

Don’t be!

Yes, you can even ‘healthify’ your coffee with just a pinch of 2016’s buzzfood: turmeric. The yellow root earned its ‘super’ reputation last year owing to its anti-inflammatory properties and medicinal use, and it’s now set to transform another one of our favourite foods (or drinks): coffee.

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Flickr/ Alpha Flickr: jslander

You can even ‘healthify’ your coffee with just a pinch of 2016’s buzzfood: turmeric

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Typically, turmeric lattes are made by combining a non-dairy milk with turmeric, spices (cinnamon and nutmeg are popular) and a sweetener such as maple syrup or honey. Simmer until piping hot and serve!

The frothy, golden liquid certainly looks enticing and smells like Christmas so it can’t be too bad.

You may not feel quite the same caffeine kick as you would from your usual flat white, but you can feel buzzed on the knowledge that you’re doing your health some good.

It may not be a replacement for your morning wakeup call, but it stands as an excellent option instead of your second, third or even fourth cup of coffee.

Flexitarian

Epigram/ Ellie Donnell

You may not have heard this phrase yet - but you might just be one! A flexitarian is someone who lives a predominantly vegetarian lifestyle but still enjoys meat on the odd occasion.

People are now more aware than ever about the ethical issues and environmental impact of mass producing meat, while the world’s new awareness towards health and wellbeing has encouraged many to move towards an increasingly plant based diet.

It’s a bit like being a vegetarian - except that you’re allowed to cheat!

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Flexitarians sit somewhere in between a meat eater, a vegetarian and going the whole hog (sorry - I mean vegan!). It’s a bit like being a vegetarian except you’re allowed to cheat! It really is a win, win, win situation.

Sushi or Seaweed?

You may be used to seeing this leafy green plant wrapped around your favourite sushi roll, but seaweed is making its debut as the new, healthy way to snack in 2017. High in nutrients such as calcium and iron and low in calories, expect to substitute your usual packet of salt and vinegar Walker’s with the lighter – although not as pretty – option of seaweed crisps.

Flickr/ Angela N

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And it doesn’t stop there. Seaweed flakes can be used instead of salt to flavour your food whilst packing in some extra vitamins, and don’t be surprised if you find your usual lazy pasta bowl replaced with the more nutritious seaweed variety.

Or you could just use this trend as another reason to eat sushi. Your call.

Ellie Donnell

Flickr: rpavich

Expect to substitute your usual packet of salt and vinegar Walker’s with the lighter option of seaweed crisps

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30.01.2017

An Italian Winter Warmer - Butternut Squash Rotolo Food writer, Hannah Keel, shares her recipe for a delicious comforting meal, which won’t break the bank

Flickr: J. Annie. Wang

Ingredients (Serves 4) 1 medium size butternut squash 300g spinach (or as much as you fancy, but a generous amount!)

150g ricotta cheese 1 small red onion 2 teaspoons of dried sage 1 packet of fresh lasagne sheets (6 sheets) Parmesan cheese 700ml of Passata 1 clove of garlic, crushed or finely chopped A small bunch of fresh basil (chopped) or 2 teaspoons of dried Herbes de Provence ½ teaspoon caster sugar Salt and pepper Olive oil

Epigram/ Hannah Keel

Butternut Squash Rotolo

Method: 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cut the squash in half and, without removing the centre, drizzle some olive oil, salt, pepper and the dried sage over the top and bake until soft - around an hour and a half. Leave to cool slightly whilst you make the other components.

5. Have the squash and spinach mixtures ready in bowls, along with a small bowl of boiled water and your lasagne sheets. At this point I like to roughly divide the mixtures into 6 to get an even amount into each lasagne sheet. Just use a spoon and draw lines in the mixture in their bowls.

Flickr/ Marie Kare

Comfort food in the winter is an absolute must to pass the cold, revision filled few months, and winter vegetables are perfect to create warming, nutritious and affordable meals.

Although parsnips are often a firm favourite, butternut squash is also a great ingredient that brings a comforting decadence to a meal. This rotolo (meaning roll in Italian) brings together soft, roasted squash and spinach leaves, mixed with creamy ricotta cheese, all rolled up in pasta and baked in a tomato sauce that is easy and fun to make (or just a great way to procrastinate!).

This recipe roasts the squash whole so needs some extra time, but it will keep in the fridge, so just pop it in the bottom of the oven whilst you’re making something else to make this rotolo the following day.

Another money saving tip for this recipe is to use frozen spinach.

Bags of fresh spinach are pricey and reduce to virtually nothing, so pick up a bag of frozen (preferably leaves rather than chopped which goes mushy) which still tastes great, is economical and you can grab portions as and when you need it. This dish can easily work to be vegan too, just leave out the cheese.

Once you have made each of the components it’s just a case of rolling up the spinach and squash in fresh lasagne sheets, cutting them into rounds and arranging in the tomato sauce to create a beautiful design which reminds me of honeycomb.

With a bit of love and attention this dish is a real winner and a celebration of a great winter ingredient.

6. Pour the tomato sauce into a roughly 20cm ovenproof dish ready for the rotolo. Working quickly and with one sheet at a time, brush the pasta with a small amount of the water, then spread one portion of first the squash and then the spinach on top of that. Roll the sheet snugly along the longer side and slice in half, then again into quarters and place tightly next to each other in the tomato sauce. Repeat with all 6.

2. Start by roughly chopping the onion and frying it gently in a large frying pan with a splash of olive oil until soft, then add the spinach, season and cook until it has just wilted – just a couple of minutes for fresh spinach or around 10 minutes for frozen. Turn off the heat and leave to cool slightly.

3. In another saucepan heat a glug of olive oil, then add the garlic.

As soon as any colour starts to appear add the passata – if you allow the garlic to colour too much it will turn bitter. Add the basil or dried herbs, sugar, salt and pepper and taste, adjusting the flavour until it tastes good – you can throw in anything you fancy!

4. Stir the ricotta and a small amount of Parmesan through the spinach. Then scoop the flesh out of your squash. I find that the roasting has made the squash delicious as it is, but you can taste it and add anything you think it needs.

7. Dust the whole dish generously with Parmesan and bake in the oven for about half an hour until golden and crispy. If it looks like it’s colouring too fast or if lots of the pasta is above the sauce cover the dish with foil for some of the cooking time, but make sure you take it off 5-10 minutes before the end to ensure it crisps up!

Hannah Keel

Flickr/ Isabelle Boucher

Five New Year’s Culinary Resolutions Starting a new year doesn’t have to mean going on a soul destroying diet or detox. Hugo Lebus gives us some more mindful ‘foodie’ resolutions that will do wonders for your health and your happiness

grants me a delicious meal at the end! After some stressful work, I have found cooking to provide the most calming relief whilst also encouraging you to care more about the food that you are making.

Even if you do not have this much time to cook, at least set aside a spare moment to eat. The French and Spanish spend an extra two hours eating every day than us Brits, which is apparently very good for the mind as well as our relationship with those closest to us.

Hugo Lebus Epigram/ Jake Barwood

5 - Set more time aside to eat and cook It can be difficult to set aside time to eat and cook during the day and in the evening. In fact, it is usually the reason people give for not cooking from scratch. However, since the beginning of the year I have been doing just this and it has proved invaluable to my day.

It gives me time to wind down at the end of the day and, of course,

Flickr/Steve Snodgrass

3 - Think about where your food comes from For Bristol students, this sort of thing is everywhere. However,

4 - Cooking more from scratch I have written before on this issue and am still just as passionate about it. If you are still making your first tentative footsteps into the world of cooking, or are still living off food cooked by your parents, then let this be your year to start cooking.

Find five dishes you like and really nail them! From there, more culinary inspiration will follow. If you’re worried about the cost of cooking for yourself from scratch then give Mob Kitchen a go! Their recipes offer quick, easy tutorial videos on how to cook for four people for less than ten pounds. That must be worth a try!

Flickr/ Marie Kare Epigram: Ellie Donnell

2 - Explore some unusual ingredients I am usually more of an advocate for simple cooking and staying away from the kind of obscure ingredient lists that you’ll find in an Ottalenghi cookbook. However, every now and then, it can be quite fun to have a little explore, especially if you want to try a completely new cuisine!

I am currently working my way through the River Cottage Edible Seashore book, which proposes many challenging ingredients.It was definitely worth it, though, for the seaweed and elderflower pannacotta that I made two days ago. Get out there and see what you can find; the culinary world is your oyster.

as this issue becomes more and more conspicuous in modern day life, it becomes unforgivable not to at least to give it some thought.

I am an enthusiastic meat eater. Saying that, I am becoming increasingly conscious of the ethics of being one. If you are tucking into your steak tonight, give a thought about where it came from and your power as a consumer to swing the market towards more ethical production. Perhaps give your local butcher a go for meat that is far more delicious, and you know the animal will have had a much better life.

Epigram: Ellie Donnell

1 - Try something you’ve never tried before A couple of weeks ago my dad came home after having dinner with some friends at a Chinese restaurant. As usual, I asked what he had ordered, to which he responded that he had opted for the ‘fermented baby squid guts’, which apparently came in a small ‘egg cup’ and were like ‘cold, chewy, fishy spaghetti’. Not the most pleasant experience it seems. However, he was pleased that he had tried it.

This year, try something new as well. It doesn’t have to be quite as unusual as squid guts, but the only way to find out what a dish is like is to give it a go. Who knows? Maybe squid guts might turn out to be your favourite dish!

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30.01.2017

Bristol student makes final of cooking award Bristol student, Jake Barwood, makes the ‘Student Cook of the Year’ competition final using a sprinkle of creative ambition and a hefty dollop of culinary prowess. Food editor, Ellie Donnell, uncovers his impressive journey into the world of food.

What’s the story behind your Instagram, @barwoodfood?

My Instagram is actually out of action at the moment! I broke my phone in December and thought the lack of distraction might do me good over exam period! But it’ll be back in action once I get the time to sort it out.

Basically my Instagram account, @barwoodfood, just started out as my personal account, where of course I posted a lot of photos of food anyway. Then a couple of years ago, I deleted the old cringy photos and just started posting food photos and recipes almost daily.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been immensely passionate about food.

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I try to create healthy, affordable and relatively easy dishes, because like any student I feel the pinch too. I love doing it because it keeps me on my toes and gives me the motivation to create something special every night, even if I’m feeling lazy.

What are your views on the new healthy eating trend at the moment?

I’m a big advocate of healthy eating, and most of the dishes I create for my Instagram are veg heavy! At the same time I am, and never will be a calorie counter.

The most important thing is to cook from scratch and know what’s going in your food. I think taking a step back from meat is also really important for your health, let alone the environment and other factors. Food makes a big difference to how I feel so I try to make sure that I eat the right stuff.

The most important thing is to cook from scratch and know what’s going in your food.

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How are you feeling about the final ‘cook off’ in London?

I’m feeling confident for the final but to be honest I’m just going to enjoy it and do my best. I’m totally in the dark about what we’ve got to cook, but I’m looking forward to a challenge and getting creative with whatever ingredients they give us. It’s on my birthday which is an added bit of fun, so hopefully that’s a good sign and I’ll bring back 1st prize!

Ellie Donnell

Epigram/ Jake Barwood

How did you come up with the dishes you created for the competition?

The initial dish I sent to the LoSalt competition was a fillet steak with an Asian style raw salad, using white cabbage, plum and purple cauliflower with a sesame oil, lime and chilli dressing.

I got the inspiration for this dish from the Copenhagen Food and Cooking Festival, which I worked at in the summer. I was blown away by the quality of the vegetables out there and how they were creating amazing raw salads out of every sort of fruit and veg.

The next stage was a recipe similar to one that I published in Epigram a month or so ago: puy lentil ragu stuffed peppers, topped with goat’s cheese and crispy breadcrumbs, served with a fresh potato, rocket and green bean salad.

I’ve basically gone veggie since this year at uni, so have been playing around with pulses a lot. Boiling lentils for 20 mins or

so, and then adding to a vegetable packed tomato sauce creates a really earthy, wholesome Bolognese style sauce, perfect as the base to a shepherd’s pie or served with pasta.

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almost dropped out in the mind of starting my chef-life.

But again, I persevered with it and really glad I have. To be honest, uni life is great and you have a lot of spare time, which has given me the opportunity to cook a lot.

With plenty of freedom and helpfully long summer holidays, in 2015 I set up ‘Barwood Barbecue’, a high-end outdoor catering company specialising in barbecues and hog roasts for weddings, parties and festivals. The feedback has been amazing and I’m hoping for another busy summer this year.

Epigram: Ellie Donnell

Epigram/ Jake Barwood

Have you always been interested in food? Describe your food journey.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been immensely passionate about food. On my first inset day at school at the age of 5 - and with considerable help from my mum I’m sure - I cooked a 3 course meal for my family. Ten years later, through a work experience scheme at my school, I got my first job at ‘Terre a Terre’, an award winning two-rosette vegetarian restaurant in Brighton.

Since then, I’ve worked in a variety of food establishments, from a Michelin starred restaurant in central London to voluntary work at a non-profit waste food cafe serving the homeless, alongside studying at school and university. Most of my cooking is done at home though. My housemates and I are all into our food so we always cook and eat together, which makes eating well so much cheaper!

The decision between school and food came up time and time again, but I’m glad that I’ve found a way to continue doing both. After school, I visited cookery school open-days but, to be honest, was never particularly impressed. So I went on and got my A Levels. Then again, at the start of uni I had a wobble and

Epigram/ Epigram/Jake Jake Barwood Barwood Benjamin Lebus/ Mob Kitchen

Bristol student, Jake Barwood, has made it to the final of LoSalt’s ‘Student Cook of the Year’ competition where he will be in the running for a prize of £1000 worth of food vouchers.

LoSalt, the leading brand of reduced sodium salt, launched their competition at the end of 2016 in response to the growth in awareness amongst students about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Indeed, students at the University of Bristol have been ranked 4th out of the top 10 universities for being the most creative and skilled in the kitchen, as evidenced by entries from the 2015 Student Cook of the Year.

To enter, you simply had to snap a photo of a healthy, nutritious and delicious looking dish you’ve created and post it on Instagram or Twitter with its title and the hashtag #LoSaltStudentCook or #LoSaltSCOTY. Those shortlisted were then set a challenge to create a healthy meal for four on a budget of approximately £20.

Jake, who is now in his 3rd year at Bristol studying Social Policy and Quantitative Research, is one of five selected finalists chosen to attend a ‘cook off’ in London in February.

Each student will be tasked to cook the same dish where they will be judged by a prestigious panel including celebrity chef Sam Stern. The winner will be crowned LoSalt Student Cook of the Year and win £1,000 worth of food vouchers.

Jake is not your average undergraduate cook, however. He has an extensive and ambitious culinary career already under his belt. Indeed, his journey to the final means his place there is utterly well-deserved.

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

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@e2travel

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

@epigram_travel

30.01.2016

Epigram Travel Section 2016/17

The ultimate festival guide

Festival guru Em Shinta Lampard reminisces on summer festivities

Guaranteed sunshine, constant boat parties and a spectacular beach backdrop

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Epigram / Em Shinta Lampard

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Epigram / Em Shinta Lampard

If you are pining after some more assured sunshine and want to make the most of Europe while it is still easily accessible, a Croatian festival might be more suited to you. Among these is Outlook, labelled as Europe’s leading soundsystem culture festival and based in Fort Punta Christo - a fortress ruin on the stunning coast of Pula. Bar the last night, where it rained epically into the moat as Benga completed the weekend with a stellar set, the weather and the setting was paradisiacal. 2017 will mark its 10th birthday so it is set to be a big one!

If you like the sound of guaranteed sunshine, constant boat parties and a spectacular beach backdrop but are searching for a different soundtrack do not fear - there are quite a few other festivals held at the same site. The Garden, Tisno also provides these features in an equalled setting - less than 36km from Krka National Park where house and disco-orientated festivals occupy the dazzling shores. Among these is Love International, recent predecessor of The Garden festival, run by Team Love - the company behind Bristol’s very own Love Saves The Day, aswell as stages at Glastonbury and other top UK festival.

Epigram / Em Shinta Lampard

Epigram / Em Shinta Lampard

The prospect of a few sunny weeks in summer is often the only thing that gets me through these dark months, when nothing of significant excitement is set to happen, bar the distant image of an Easter bunny that never seems to make it to my house…

Memories of warm weekends past whisk me back to Love Supreme, a fairly small yet star studded Jazz festival in the idyllic South Downs, where the likes of De La Soul, Earth, Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan, Van Morrison, Grace Jones and Kelis have graced the stage since it started in 2013. When the families pack up their camping chairs for the day, everyone heads to the woods for a late night boogie. The whole experience is, despite this, enjoyably unintense.

Another small, mellow festival is Samphire- named ‘best small festival 2016’ by the NOEA, it started as a crowdfunding project and is set by the seaside in Somerset.

If you are feeling especially adventurous and continental, we found that Croatia works perfectly as the final stop of an interrail trip

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The UK is home to many, if not most, of the best festivals in the world

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Epigram / Em Shinta Lampard

Epigram / Nia Price

However, the UK is home to many, if not most, of the best festivals in the world; so travelling abroad is by no means a necessity. For underground electronic (techno in particular) lovers, across the bridge there is Gottwood. This Welsh festival is set in a magical forest with its own beach; compact yet complete, it is dedicated to remaining intimate. Nozstock the Hidden Valley also provides a memorable, smaller UK festival with a less exclusive feel. Glastonbury is already sold out, but on brighter news Bestival is moving from its inconvenient perch on the Isle of Wight to Dorset.

But my final and favourite has to be Boomtown; the festival with everything. The dedication of the organisers to create a truly unforgettable weekend is genuinely unbelievable. Every taste of music is accommodated in a separate part of the make-believe town; actors waltz around inviting you to take part in elevated sock wars and mass pillow fights and everyone around you is unwaveringly friendly, content and inviting - we were even blessed with a weekend of completely blue skies and warm rays!

Epigram / Em Shinta Lampard

Epigram / Nia Price

The overall cost will be substantial, but if you extend your trip into a holiday you will find cheaper flights while reaping the obvious benefits of an additional holiday. If you are feeling especially adventurous and continental, we found that Croatia works perfectly as the final stop of an interrail trip. Other festivals to fill this role include Tomorrowland, Belgium: a world famous electronic music festival for ‘the people of tomorrow’ and Exit, Serbia, which started from a student movement in 2000 striving for greater unity, harmony and consciousness within Serbia, the Balkan states and the rest of the world.

30.01.2016

27

‘Britain could learn a lot’: Volunteering in Africa Former Epigram Editor Sarah Newey shares her experiences of volunteering with ICS

Epigram / Sarah Newey

not believe that the local doctors surgery relied on such awful toilets - the doors did not even shut, there was nowhere to wash your hands, and the toilet quite literally was just a hole in the ground.

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When I graduated last summer, I was not quite ready to launch into the world of work; I felt the need to explore the world before settling into a career and taking on bigger responsibilities. So instead, I went off to Africa for three months. Tanzania, to be precise.

Volunteering abroad has always been a dream for me; my Mum fondly remembers me announcing aged 8 that I was going to build a school in Africa one day. I did not quite achieve that, although part of my project was building two toilet blocks. But volunteering was as incredible - if not more - than I ever could have imagined.

I went to Tanzania on a water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) project with Raleigh International, funded through the government’s International Citizenship Service (ICS) scheme. The aim was to improve sanitation and hygiene in rural communities, where a lack of education surrounding basic issues - like hand washing - causes unnecessary illness and deaths regularly. It is estimated that just 1 in 5 people wash their hands before preparing food in Tanzania, and even fewer use soap - even though it can reduce the spread of diseases such as diarrhoea by 47 per cent.

My project was based in a small village called Iyembela, in the Njombe region of Southern Tanzania. I worked and lived there with a team of 16 volunteers, 8 from Tanzania and 8 from the UK. While we were there, we focused both on improving infrastructure and providing knowledge about WASH issues.

In terms of infrastructure, we constructed two new toilet blocks for the local dispensary, which had previously relied on two sub standard keyhole latrines. When we first arrived, I honestly could

I will say that if you do not feel ready for the ‘real’ world yet, think about volunteering abroad

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Epigram / Sarah Newey

Epigram / Sarah Newey

For me, construction was one of the biggest challenges; it was so physical and unlike anything I had done before - not something a History degree can really prepare you for! But laying bricks, making cement and digging foundations turned out to be great fun, and seeing the end result was hugely satisfying.

Especially when the community were so grateful - we had the most incredible opening party. Tanzanians really know how to dance! (I tried in vain to learn how to move my bum the way they all move their bums, but quickly realised my skills are limited to dad dancing!)

Teaching at the primary and secondary schools was another big part of the project, and probably my favourite. I loved being around the children, and the lessons were great fun. As well as passing on basic, but totally essential, information about health and hygiene, we played lots of games to keep the kid’s attention.

This normally involved embarrassing ourselves, but it was a great way to get to know the kids and keep them coming back. One very special moment for me was when a group of young girls saw me in the village, and ran over and showed me the 6 steps of washing hands which we’d taught them the week before.

As well as teaching and construction, we held lots of Action Days and mobile awareness campaigns to spread our messages to the wider community. We also held sessions where we discussed volunteering, how to make a CV, and the Global Development Goals. This was intended to open the minds of young people there to new opportunities. Too many, especially women, do not realise there is an alternative to village life.

Spending three months in Iyembela was an eye opening experience, especially because we lived with local families for the duration of the our time there. My family were fantastic, and saying goodbye was incredibly hard - lots of tears. Tanzanian culture is incredibly welcoming and people are so generous, even though they do not have much. We all felt so welcomed by the community; Britain could learn a lot from their attitudes of valuing what they have, rather than focusing on what they do not have.

I will definitely be returning to Tanzania soon, both to visit friends and to explore more of the beautiful country. I cannot recommend volunteering enough. The ICS scheme is also a really good way to do it; it’s 90 per cent funded by the government, so all you are asked to do is fundraise between £800 and £1500 - which is easier than it sounds. Everything thereafter, including flights and vaccinations, is paid for. So it is ideal for poor students!

There were so many highlights of the trip for me, from my surprise 22nd birthday party, to cooking on a charcoal fire for my team, to singing Christmas songs in the 26 degree heat. I will not list them all, but I will say that if you do not quite feel ready for the ‘real’ world yet, think about volunteering abroad.

A New Year’s fireworks extravaganza Ellie Chesshire tells us why Cape Town was the place to see in 2017

I have been to South Africa a few times, but never for New Year’s Eve. New Year was in the second week of our holiday, so by this point we had become accustomed to the hot lazy days and balmy nights. Very different from New Year’s I am used to! Knowing we were going to be there for New Year’s Eve, we decided to go all out and headed to Cape Town. Cape Town is such a stunning city anyway and the Waterfront was the perfect place to be on the final day of the year.

I have had one hot New Year’s Eve before, but it was still a shock to the system to be able to wander around in shorts all night with people sipping cocktails on the beach front. A nice shock to the system! I have never seen the fireworks in London but I have seen them in Sydney once before. Those were incredible and to be honest I did not really think anything could top them. Cape Town certainly did give them a serious run for their money!

”

”

”

There was something especially significant about watching the fireworks in Cape Town. Knowing the political and social problems South Africa suffers from, it was inspiring to witness people from every walk of life stop for a couple of hours to come together and celebrate the New Year. The bar that we watched

The fireworks themselves were bigger and more spectacular than I could ever have imagined

Epigram / Ellie Chesshire

It was inspiring to witness people from every walk of life stop for a couple of hours to come together and celebrate

the fireworks from was filled with people from all different backgrounds and there was something so special about that.

The fireworks themselves were bigger and more spectacular than I could ever have imagined. They looked particularly impressive with the background of the waterfront and the silent ocean beyond. I know not everyone would agree, but I definitely prefer being somewhere hot for New Year’s Eve, where you can enjoy the fireworks without running the risk of getting hypothermia!

”

South Africa has come a long way in the last twenty years and the fireworks on New Year’s Eve really expressed this. The atmosphere was amazing and everyone we met was really friendly and excited for the New Year. It was the perfect place to see in 2017 and I was definitely not ready to come home! I would certainly recommend Cape Town for anyone looking for a hot New Year’s with some stunning fireworks.

I know many people are fairly nervous about visiting South Africa, but I have to say I cannot recommend it enough for a holiday destination. 2017 started with a bang in Cape Town and I cannot wait to see where the year takes me!

Editor Jessie Onion style@epigram.org.uk

28 28

Online Editor Alex Boulton alex.boulton@epigram.org.uk

@e2style

30.01.2017

Deputy Editor Mary Richardson

@epigramstyle

Fitness gear for the New Year Hannah Worthington’s guide to the best high street fitness options for students The start of a new year is always a time for resolutions concerning health, and whether you are a fitness guru, a flexible yoga lover, or just love a good pair of comfy sports leggings to make it appear you work out, it’s never been a better time to get fit with the endless high street availability of gym wear. If you were slumped on a sofa for the best part of Christmas eating more food than your body can consume, perhaps trying some of the latest high tech sports apparel in order to burn those horrific calories is the next thing to do.

The fierce competitors Nike and Adidas still prove they are the ones to beat. With ‘Hypercool’ fabrics that provide targeted ventilation and breathability, alongside significant stretch allowing for ease and comfort, these brands do continue to deliver a high quality of performance in their clothing. In both stores, mesh panels in a range of prints have become most popular, and Adidas’ current line with Stella McCartney mixes floral graphics with compression fit tights combining style and sport in one. Though inevitably you’re still going to sweat, these fabrics do prevent that horrible sticky feeling to a considerable degree. With a vast range to choose from per individual sport, and a customise option to suit your colour aesthetic, it’s fair to say they do the job, and can easily be found in stores such as JD Sports or Sports Direct.

Sweaty Betty lies among the pricier end of the high street shops.

However, if you’re feeling surprisingly affluent with a reimbursed student loan, or if your parents are down for the weekend, I’d pay a trip to the store on Queen’s Road. The socks, though a fair amount, are great for keeping your feet cool when working out, due to the coolmax panels that wick away sweat. The tops with built in bras are equally flattering and incredibly supportive, preventing the embarrassing boob spillage on the treadmill. With vibrant colours and the choice between tight or loose fitting wear, you do get what you pay for (thank goodness).

Lower priced high street stores have, however, proven that you don’t have to spend over £60 on a pair of sports tights to look and feel good in the gym. Stores such as H&M, Marks and Spencer, Topshop and New Look have all brought out ranges of fitness items. Marks and Spencer, with model Rosie Huntington-Whitely, have designed active extra high impact clothing, alongside sculpted leggings with mix and match styles for all weather types. Though we may not achieve the supermodel’s steamy complexion as she sultrily works out, the active wear is still affordable enough that we can at least try to achieve her abs. H&M have also succeeded in creating a cross between style/sport; more relaxed wear with medium support and high intensity running gear for serious work out sessions. Yoga mats, hair elastics and backpacks are all popular accessories also offered at lower prices.

H &M Running Tights £24.99 and Sweatshirt £19.99

Epigram/ Giulia Loregian

Sweaty Betty Namaska Yoga Vest £50, Gap Fit Vest £14.99 and H&M Sports Bra £17.99.

Adidas by Stella McCartney Run Tights, £55.96 and Nike Pro half-zip £41.99.

GapFit, which launched in 2012, made an instant hit with customers, particularly with their weather tights that have an in-fleece lining keeping you warm in cold weather. Importantly also, none of these fabrics are so opaque that you see those dreaded sweat patches. They also don’t slide down if you get the sizes correct, avoiding awkward mishaps as you repetitively pull them up each time you squat.

With health and fitness trends becoming global, body bibles flying everywhere, and fashion bloggers detailing their every move on Instagram as they eat clean, fresh bowls of pumpkin seeds and quinoa, there is ever more pressure to join this lifestyle. With packed days full of lectures, getting food and meeting deadlines, this can seem an impossible task, and there is an instant dread when thinking of paying a trip to the gym.

However, there is also a popular trend that if you look good, there is more stimulation to go and show off your new hot pink yoga pants or your snakeskin open backed tank. And even if it’s just the once that you make it out of bed and to the gym – it’s better than not at all.

Hannah Worthington Style Writer

Epigram’s guide to 2017 trends

Deputy Style Editor Mary Richardson breaks down some 2017 trends Pinstripes...

were seen on the catwalks of Burberry and Mulberry S/S17

Vamp Minimalism...

dark, vampy lips were key at DKNY S/S17

Tulle...

Try layering a mix sheer fabrics for a grungy and playful look.

Plaits...

and loose textured hair is perfect for students, as seen in Valentino Vogue/ Indigital

Vogue/ Indigital

Vogue/ Indigital

Vogue/ Indigital

30.01.2017

29

Top Menswear trends for 2017 Jessie Onion shares her top picks and tips for 2017 menswear Here at Epigram Style, we feel that we have somewhat neglected the other half of Bristol’s student population, as many of our articles in the past have been targeted at women’s fashion and beauty trends. Sticking to the whole ‘new year, new me’ motto, we have decided to start off our January edition with this article featuring a selection of high street options of four current trends for all those Bristol guys out there. But what is a ‘trend’ anyway?

Most of these items below many of you will already own and wear regularly, but they have now been monopolised by designers and fashion journalists across the world and will be seen more and more in high street shops and online. So yes, if you regularly wear checked shirts or striped jumpers, keep doing what you are doing. But if you don’t own any of these clothes already, it’s very easy to blend them into your wardrobe.

These are only four trends from hundreds of runway shows and new emerging designers from Fashion weeks in London, New York and Paris. But these are so easy and comfortable to wear (you can literally wear trackies) that we felt you should know about them. Even if your wardrobe is full of this anyway, its nice to feel a sense of smugness that you’re on ‘trend’, without seeming to really try.

1. Stripes - Be it horizontal, vertical, multi-coloured or the typical Parisian navy and white combination, stripes are back in style and featured heavily in Fendi’s runway collection. Again, this is a great trend, so students as you are probably already wearing stripes without realising its nor been classed as a ‘trend’- carry on.

l-r H&M £14.99, River Island £30, Topman £30

3.Checks - Yes, the simple checked shirt has also been classed as a trend. Men everywhere rejoice, in the comfort and smugness you will feel when wearing your favourite comfy shirt, whilst also seeming to follow the new upcoming trends. You can thank Paul Smith for that.

l-r Uniqlo £24.90, Topman £35, Urban Outfitters £20

Vogue/ Indigital

2. Stone- This beigey, grey and neutral colour has been named as ‘stone’ by fashion designers and journalists, and this shade is rapidly filling up shops after its debut on the runway after Valentino and Missoni’s S/S17 shows. We think this is such an easy way to update your wardrobe, as most items are basic t-shirts and jumpers that will fit into your style seamlessly (excuse the pun).

4. Sportswear - Being January, it seems appropriate that brands such as Vetements collection and Comme De Garcons featured hoodies, baggy tracksuits and layers of silky printed fabrics on the runway. Again, this trend couldn’t be simpler for studentsdress for the gym, even though you might just be sat in the ASS all day.

Vogue/ Indigital

l-r Topman £22, Urban Outfitters £75, Uniqlo £12.90

l-r Topman £81, Adidas £25, H&M £29.99

Jessie Onion Style Editor

2016: the good, the bad and the ugly Olivia Cooke gives her opinion on 2016 fashion 2016. Whether you loved it or loathed it, the past year was an exciting twelve months for the fashion industry. Hedi Slimane left Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfield took the Chanel Cruise 2017 collection to Cuba; and the Hadid sisters emerged as the queens of the international catwalk. From ostentatious party pieces to hoodies, the past year created some chic but also downright awful fashion trends.

The Good Bomber Jackets: Comfortable, yet stylish and versatile, bomber jackets came back with a bang in 2016. You could not walk past any high -street shop window without seeing one. I do admit I became quite obsessed with bomber jackets. As my friends can testify, I have a few hanging up in my flat.

Streetwear: Hoodies got a designer upgrade in 2016. Many international catwalks were awash with casual clothing and two-piece jogger sets. Rihanna’s Fenty collection with Puma set the bar high during Paris Fashion Week. Practical and cosy, sweaters and tracksuit bottoms became must-have items for any fashion-lover.

Partywear: 2016 was the year when party power-dressing came back. The Balmain and Gucci catwalks were full of shoulder-pads, sequins, and embroidered and bejewelled garments. The last twelve months saw a splurge in the number of haute couture items being

produced by a multitude of fashion houses. On the high-street, we were treated to a plethora of dazzling party-pieces: from velvet slip dresses, Topshop, £160 to luxurious eveningwear.

Topshop, £70

Adidas, £34.95

Nike, £110

The Bad Adidas Superstars: A controversial choice I know, but to be frank; I have simply seen enough of them across campus. You know your signature ‘cool’ shoes have lost their edginess when you see twelve-year old girls walking around in pairs in the Topshop store in Cabot Circus.

Puffer jackets: Another controversial choice, but like a seasonal cold; it seems every Bristol student has one. I cannot deny that I like puffer jackets: they are practical, comfortable, and they look good. But the humble puffer jacket has lost its original quirkiness now: rather than being ‘edgy’, they are just too ‘mainstream’.

New Look, £13.50

New Look, £79.99

The Ugly Fur slippers: Why these were created in the first place I do not know. Apart from being extremely impractical; these shoes look very weird and have caused further setbacks in getting rid of fur completely from fashion products. If you have the money, why waste it on these monstrosities (I’m looking at you, Kardashians).

Topshop, £25

Boohoo, £20

Olivia Cooke Style Writer

31

Epigram 30.01.2016

Editor Anna Wyn annawyn.epigram@gmail.com

Facebook: Salves Page

Facebook: AKIRA Event Page

Facebook: Bump Roller Disco Event Page

I’ve been a fan of her synthy sound since her self-titled debut album and she returns to Bristol with a sound more explosive than ever. Hailed by The Guardian for its ‘vibrant glam-pop’ feel, her third album will bring an explosion of musical colour to the often grimy and dirty Marble Factory. For fans of Friendly Fires and New Young Pony Club.

MUSIC

Simple Things Presents: Todd Terje Motion,10.02

Norway’s premier poly-genre dance producer (because apparently there is one) is performing at our fair Motion.

Having sold out in seconds, this is bound to be a heavy but boogy-ful evening.

For fans of Lindstrom and Caribou.

FILM

Cabaret (35mm) Cube Cinema, 31.01

Flickr: Two Door Cinema Club

Photograph by Harry Plowden: Rehearsals for A View From The Bridge

Facebook: Cabaret Event Page

LadyHawke Marble Factory, 07.02

Two Door Cinema Club 02 Academy, 07.02

Your 6th Form indie-pop favourites are back. Two Door Cinema Club return to the the O2 Academy with their new album, Gameshow. Though often criticized for their Radio 1 friendly brand of alternative music, they display a never faulting sense of popularity.

Having sold out Ally Pally in a matter of minutes recently, they must be worth a watch. For fans of Everything Everything and The Wombats.

Watch the glamour of 1930’s Berlin offset by the menace of rising Nazism in Fosse’s brilliant, bittersweet musical. Starring Hollywood darling Liza Minelli, this classic movie will be shown in 35 mm in all its original grainy glory. For cinephiles and musical nerds alike this is an experience that’s not to be missed, in one of Bristol’s coolest cinemas.

SOCIETIES An Archangel, The Room Above, 10.02-11.02

A relentless solo show built on music, mask and movement, it explores the tensions between creation and destruction.

Performed at The Room Above, fast becoming one of Bristol’s best performance spaces, see it for the venue alone and support our local stages.

History Society: Harry Bibring, A Testimony of the Holocaust, 02.02

Growing up in 1930s Austria, a survivor of Kristallnacht, and a child of the Kinderstransport, Harry Bibring’s discussion with the History Society is bound to be an eye opener. Co-ordinated by the Holocust Educational Trust, the event is open to both members and non-members of the society. His story is not be missed.

Dramsoc Presents: A View from the Bridge Winston Theatre, 02.02-04.02

Brooklyn, 1950’s. ‘A View from the Bridge’ is a tragic and primal tale of the fall of one’s power and identity.

Performed at The Winston, the University’s biggest stage, ‘A View from the Bridge’ is Dramsoc’s most ambitious production to date. Arthur Miller’s classic tale is being brought to life like no other canonized piece of theatre in the university’s history.

9 Things to do this term AND ONE THING NOT TO DO

why we're boycotting a survey IN PICTURES

the richmond lectures coming up bristolsu.org.uk

WHAT COULD YOU DO?

nominations open for student reps

9 THINGS TO DO IN TERM 2 1. Vote in our elections (or stand yourself!)

Our reps work hard behind the scenes to make sure that we all get the best from the Uni, our accommodation and much more. Vote for the people who will best represent you. Or stand to be a rep yourself! bristolsu.org.uk/elections

2. Watch some sport March sees the launch of Varsity 2017: our annual sporting competition against UWE. 2000 students will compete across 40 sports to claim bragging rights for the year.

Plus: we'll be screening the 6 Nations and the Superbowl in the Balloon Bar.

3. Have a laugh Forget the annual cycle of Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer. We’ve thrown another into the mix. And like Breaking Bad, the 5th season is a belter. It's comedy season: bringing you the hottest acts on the comedy circuit all for under £5.

4. Learn about something other than your degree subject We're working with our academic societies and the Uni to bring you two lecture series this term: The Richmond Lectures, our distinguished speakers series, and Best of Bristol, showcasing the Uni's best lecturers.

5. Celebrate Bristol's cultural diversity Bristol is home to students from across the world. Explore '17 will see our international societies, from Mauritian society to Tamil society, come together in a festival of dance, music, fashion and food. One of the most unforgettable events of the year.

6. Give it a go In term two our sports clubs and societies will be inviting non-members along to beginners' sessions. This is your chance to try before you buy. How many of our 300 + DFWLYLWLHV FDQ \RX ÀW LQWR RQH WHUP"

7. Learn about sustainability Throughout February we will be hosting a huge range of speaker events, covering everything from environmental sustainability, to economic sustainability, to social sustainability. We can guarantee you'll learn something new!

8. Celebrate LGBT+ month February is national LGBT+ History month.

Our LGBT+ Network and LGBT+ Society are teaming up to run a series of events, from an LGBT+ themed story slam to a screening of Pride. Join us to celebrate our LGBT+ community!

9. Volunteer Discover hundreds of volunteering opportunities with over 50 local and national organisations at our Volunteering Fair on 2 February. Work with children, refugees, homeless people, women's charities and much more!

richmond lectures Upcoming speakers

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Walter Kammerling

Nicholas Phillips

Carol Black

Under something called the ‘Teaching Excellence Framework’ (TEF), data from the NSS will be used to rank Universities bronze, silver and gold. Universities will be able to raise fees in line with their ranking. Not only does this mean that students will be paying more across the board, but that if you want to go to the best universities, you will have WR SD\ VLJQLÀFDQWO\ PRUH We believe that the TEF fails to do what it claims, which is to measure teaching quality, and as such is nothing more than a thinly veiled move to marketise higher education and raise fees. We believe that a system which links fees to arbitrary rankings will result in Universities diverting resource into achieving the highest ranking,

rather than focussing on the experiences of actual students. Above all, we believe that students should not have to choose whether or not we get the best education based on how much debt we are willing to take on.

By joining students across the country in UHIXVLQJ WR ÀOO RXW WKH 1DWLRQDO 6WXGHQW Survey, you will be refusing to be complicit in a system which will indebt a further generation of students and cause VLJQLÀFDQW GDPDJH WR 8QLYHUVLWLHV DFURVV the country.

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NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR NEXT YEAR'S STUDENT REPS Roger Scruton

(YHU\ \HDU LQ 0DUFK ZH HOHFW WKH SHRSOH ZKR OHDG WKH 68 DQG UHSUHVHQW XV <RX FRXOG EH RQH RI WKRVH SHRSOH You might see yourself as a sportsperson, an academic, a socialite or a politician.

Whatever youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re into, there is a role out there that will help you to develop your interests and skills.

Michaela Hollywood

Nominations are open until 1 March, so you have plenty of time to take a look at all the different roles and get your nomination in!

5HDVRQV WR 6WDQG WR EH D 5HS 1. Improve student life in Bristol 2. Have the privilege of representing hundreds of students 3. Work with the University to make big decisions 4. Meet lots of new people 5. Stand out to future employers

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WHAT'S ON FEATURED EVENT richmond lectures Will Dean, the Founder and CEO of Tough Mudder and University of Bristol alumnus tells the story of how a stuck wetsuit zip led to a $100M business, and what lessons he learned along the way.

This event is held in collaboration with Enactus Bristol.

Book now: bristolsu.org.uk/willdean

Wednesday 1 February, 12pm, The Balloon. PG Network - coffee & cake Start the New Year right: take a break, meet other postgrad students and enjoy some free coffee and cake with other postgrads. Pop along any time between 2 - 12pm.

Thursday 2 February, 1pm, 1.18, Queens Building. Talk: Will Aviation Destroy The Planet?

This Engineers Without Borders event will cover noise, pollution, fossil fuel depletion and the environment. We all Ă \ PRUH EXW KDYH ZH WKRXJKW WKURXJK the consequences?

Thursday 2 February, 7pm, Winston Theatre, Bristol SU Building.

Dramsoc Presents: A View From The Bridge Dramsoc takes on an Arthur Miller classic. A View from the Bridge is a tragic and primal tale of the fall of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s power and identity.

Monday 6 February, 6pm, Anson Rooms. The Richmond Lectures: Walter Kammerling, Escape to Life.

'Escape to Life' is the story of Holocaust survivor Walter Kammerling, brought to you by Bristol SU's Richmond Lectures series. In 1938, Walter was sent to a camp for refugee children at Dovercourt in Essex. This is his story.

Saturday 4 February, 2.45pm, The Balloon. RBS Six Nations - Week 1.

Come along to The Balloon Bar, grab a drink and root for your favourite team as we kick off six weeks of fantastic rugby with: Scotland v Ireland | 4 Feb | 14:25 England v France | 4 Feb | 16:50 Italy v Wales | 5 Feb | 14:00

Tuesday 7 February, 6pm, Link Room 1 & 2, Arts Complex. A History of LGBT+ identities in Bristol and the UK. As a part of our LGBT+ History Month celebrations, Bristol SU is hosting a panel focusing on national and local LGBT+ History.

Sunday 5 February, 10pm, Balloon Bar. The Superbowl 2017 All-Nighter.

Live from Texas, the New England Patriots take on the Atlanta Falcons in the ultimate all-American showdown.

The Superbowl and its notorious halftime show is one of the year's biggest sporting spectacles.

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

Epigram

30.01.2017

Film & TV

@EpigramFilm Editor: Ella Kemp

Deputy Editor: Josh Spencer

Online Editor: Phoebe Graham

ekemp@epigram.org.uk

josh.spencer@epigram.org.uk

phoebe.graham@epigram.org.uk

@ella_kemp

@_joshjs

@phoebe_elise19

Breaking records, seeing stars and stealing hearts

Truly original filmmakers are, more and more it seems, becoming harder to come by. Such a statement feels a little cliché – but in an industry where public interest has been resolutely rooted to the genre of franchise and remake for the past decade, it is worth questioning whether modern audiences still crave something new. It is possible that, as we head towards an increasingly uncertain future, Hollywood will continue to be dominated by Marvel sequels and 20th century science-fiction re-hashes for years to come. Unsurprisingly, when examining the top-ten highest grossest films of all time, all but one belong to a larger series to some degree (Titanic is the welcome exception to this rule). Clearly, film franchising is big business - who are we to scoff at Iron Man 3’s 1.2 billion dollars?

It would, of course, be both arrogant and inaccurate for us to automatically associate high-grossing film sequels and remakes with a definitive lack of quality. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, for example, was a riot from start to finish. But following the film’s release, many were quick to point out its significant plot mirroring of the original 1977 film. So while the Hollywood elite focuses on the big bucks promised by their proud franchises, it falls largely on the shoulders of independent cinema to push the barriers of cinema for the rest of us. Naturally, however, creative ventures require funding, and without the backing of a major studio, projects often remain permanently grounded. Aspiring filmmakers can find their visions left in tatters, in the pursuit of that one green light. Dreams clash head-on with the cold, hard reality that concession and compromise are begrudgingly chosen in the hope of future success. It is absolutely no coincidence then that Damien Chazelle’s latest release, La La Land – a film that attempts to make sense of the buzzing concoction of ambition, success and loss that makes up the so-called ‘City of Angels’ – deals precisely with these themes.

Chazelle has himself had a remarkably good run these past few years. Making his directorial debut at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival with Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, a film that was included in critics’ polls for best undistributed picture, he went on to sweep awards at Sundance Film Festival in 2014 for his semi-autobiographical, high-intensity jazz drama Whiplash.

Upon general release, the film was met with widespread acclaim, eventually winning three Academy awards, plus a nomination for Best Picture. La La Land has already garnered considerable

media interest and impressive critical attention. The film won a record-breaking seven Golden Globe awards - every single one it was nominated for, and could be nominated for - including Best Director for Chazelle and Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Such an achievement stands La La Land in good stead for Oscar season; at the time of writing, it remains the bookies’ favourite to win Best Picture – indeed, as we saw with The Artist in 2012, the Academy has a soft spot for self-aware romance set in the heart of Hollywood. The fairy-tale, starry-skied enchantment that initially blesses his two protagonists could well be taken as a reflection of Chazelle’s own dazzling career.

What actually makes La La Land quite so brilliant, aside of course from its opulent cinematography, electrifying musical score (courtesy of long-time Chazelle collaborator, Justin Hurwitz) and stunningly choreographed dance features, is the fact that despite its superficial embrace of the glitz and glamour of the city where dreams are made, it finds itself rooted to the restrictions, banality and tribulations of everyday reality.

It is a heady reminder of its cinematic twin, David Lynch’s 2001 masterpiece Mulholland Drive – a film that still stuns critics,

“

Chazelle provides his audience with immense passions fuelled by interests they didn’t even know they had.

as evidenced by its recent topping of BBC Culture’s list of the 21st century’s greatest films – La La Land is able to play with its audience’s expectations of a seemingly simple narrative: girl travels to Hollywood, looking to become a star. Both films juxtapose the sunny cliché of Los Angeles’ soaked fame and fortune with the loss and defeat experienced by those who fail to make it. The difference between the pictures lie in their respective outcomes – whilst Lynch reveals his protagonist to be in total delusion of her Hollywood success, instead living life alone and utterly helpless, Chazelle draws out a more nuanced observation on the nature of the Hollywood phenomena.

La La Land is, at its very core, a film about compromise. Dreams and reality, whilst blended for much of the film, are eventually provided with firm and distinct boundaries as Emma Stone and

“

Alex Ritchie Film & TV Writer

BFI/LFFPRESS

The glittering glory of La La Land

Ryan Gosling’s characters really begin to develop. The real world catches up with them; their mystical waltz among the stars is followed by a gentle, but firm, landing back to Earth. They realise that, despite their intense love for and reliance on one another, their individual ambitions overcome the needs of the relationship itself - therein lies the tragedy.

Emma Stone travels to Paris and becomes a movie star

La La Land finds itself rooted to the restrictions, banality and tribulations of everyday reality.

while Ryan Gosling succeeds in working towards and opening his own jazz bar. Their dreams are achieved, but without each other. During the epilogue, as the two share a silent moment in Gosling’s bustling club, Chazelle teases the audience with a gorgeous fantasy sequence that recovers the events of the film – this time with all of its unpleasant details air-brushed out.

Much like in Mulholland Drive, the viewer could be forgiven for mistaking this mere performance as narrative reality – so is the potency of the Hollywood predilection for happy endings.

Chazelle’s true genius lies in his ability to produce real artistic originality in a field that craves comfort and nostalgia. He takes deeply traditional, and seemingly old-fashioned, elements of popular movie culture and breathes new life into them, whilst all the while defining his own creative genre. La La Land has the same intense but inescapably pleasurable engaging quality that Whiplash will be long remembered for, and an ability to make significant and unconventional observations about the state of Hollywood and the need in art for loss and sacrifice, as seen in the Lynchian masterpiece a decade and a half its senior. Parallels have been drawn with the likes of West Side Story and Grease, and reference is made both overtly and covertly to Casablanca and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. And yet, through this re-interpretation of the Hollywood tradition, Chazelle is able to provide his audience with immense passions fuelled by interests that they didn’t even know that they had. La La Land is both immensely sentimental and stunningly revolutionary, and as the end credits roll in cinemas throughout the world, it leaves us all wondering what Chazelle is dreaming up next.

Epigram 30.01.2017

Epif lix and Chill: Episode 7

cinematography is phenomenal, but the stories of real people with real problems and real pain all over the world - that’s what makes it worth binge watching. It allows you to invest in the world the characters live in and not just the characters themselves. Inevitably, that’s what kept me hooked.

To give any spoilers would be unfair, because the delicate and precise unravelling of the plot is integral to why it’s so good. At the beginning, the viewer is just as clueless as the characters, confused by what their lives are becoming, but gradually we become acquainted with it.

LionWikimedia

At the start of a year which welcomes a divided world, Film & TV Writer Ashley Yonga looks to Sense8 to restore our faith in human connection, regardless of who we are or where we’re from Last year was a difficult time for the world, but a truly remarkable one for film and television. It was the year of trying all the shows that people have been raving about. For me, it began with Poldark – what a brilliant idea that was – and now, it’s Sense8.

Have you ever been so ridiculously invested in a show, to the point where you go every day just thinking about when you can next watch an episode? You wait desperately to see what’s going to happen next and it’s a terrifying yet exciting feeling. This is what Sense8 does to a person, so be prepared for it to take total control of your life.

It is a Netflix Original series about eight strangers, all over the world from America, London, Korea, Kenya and India, who are connected in some unknown and very strange way. The plot unravels slowly and carefully, and deliberate time is spent in the first few episodes allowing us to

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become acquainted with each character; their motives, dreams, faults and weaknesses.

A worry is that with a main cast of eight and just 12 episodes the storylines would not get enough fleshing out. The show, however, manages to accomplish something that even others with

Through all the action, Sense8 is about people and the special bond that can be shared between them

100 episodes fail to achieve. Not only is each character given room to grow – within their own storyline as well as within the group dynamic – but the audience becomes enthralled in the story and desperate for more. The ninth episode which

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focuses on the tragedy of some of them was soulcrushing. Consider this your warning because without any, it’s tremendously painful.

The notion behind Sense8 is so extraordinary; eight random people from all over the world being connected through crazy and unimaginable things. Yet it remains grounded because despite this, each character’s story is quite simple. It’s about human connection. These eight are connected by scientific phenomenon but ultimately what allies them is their care for each other. To feel the pain of someone who suffers from homophobic abuse, whose mother is dying of HIV, someone who has been wrongfully imprisoned. It takes walking a mile in someone else’s shoes to a whole new level and this grounds the show. Through all the action, Sense8 is about people and the special bond that can be shared between them.

Granted, the mystery is amazing and the

What Sense8 has accomplished is the creation of eight well-written, complex and dynamic characters that you fall in love with

The graphic nature of the show adds a feeling of personal connection. Everything between the characters is heightened because it’s being experienced eight times, and through the filming, the audience also experiences this. There is a pretty graphic birth scene that will have even the least squeamish of people averting their eyes.

This is proof that the show does not shy away from anything, from steamy sex scenes to issues of homophobia and gender identity.

What Sense8 has accomplished is the creation of eight incredibly well-written, well-rounded, complex and dynamic characters that you fall in love with. You’re invested in the stories of each of them, and no episode seems wasted or a ‘filler’.

So, since it’s rather cold outside, there’s no better time to stay home, grab you friends and binge watch one of the best shows out there.

While the world gets colder and colder, did Sense8 make you feel all warm inside?

Get in touch @EpigramFilm

Jackie review - The First Lady returns to the White House

As the 45th US President gets inaugarated, Film & TV Writer Oscar Illingworth reviews the topical biopic which sheds light on the life of Jacqueline Kennedy

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Jackie offers a thought-provoking, closeup account of the assassination of JFK and its aftermath, from a perspective that has not been given much Hollywood attention until now: that of his wife, Jacqueline ‘Jackie’ Kennedy. The film is anchored by a commanding and committed, if sometimes uncomfortably mannered,performance

by Natalie Portman in the title role.

This central performance, while supposedly an accurate impersonation, fails to fully penetrate through Jackie’s distractingly idiosyncratic mannerisms to reveal the human being underneath, leaving the audience somewhat cold but for the odd flash of warmth in the film’s most emotional moments. This is a key weakness of the film, as its central theme is not quite achieved: the importance of controlling the perception and legacy of public figures so that people can know the human beyond the icon.

The events of the film unfold out of chronological order, cutting back and forth between a wounded but fiercely defensive Jackie as she is interviewed by a reporter at her post-White House house, and the events surrounding the assassination as she remembers them. A slightly nitpicky criticism is that these exchanges between Jackie and Billy Crudup’s reporter character come across as overly antagonistic from the off. Considering the reporter is interviewing someone who is so recently bereaved, you’d expect him to show a little more sensitivity, and as he is speaking to a former First Lady, a little more respect. While I recognise that the purpose of this conflict is to give us insight into Jackie’s character, and possibly reflect the sexism that Jackie undoubtedly experienced, these scenes don’t ring true, and are really a bit unnecessary.

More generally, the film is solidly crafted.

The excellent Mica Levi composes a more nontraditional (but still orchestral) score. Jackie subtly demonstrates director Pablo Larraín’s taste for the experimental with some poetic visuals. The choice to shoot in an old-school ratio with a grainy,

desaturated look helps to maintain the film’s quasi60s feel, while also elevates it above the level of a bland, cosy and sentimental biopic geared towards the elderly voters of the Academy, usually released at this time of year. It instead has the feel of an arthouse take on history, which I would love to see done more often. The sequences depicting the assassination, while brief, are noteworthy, being given a cinematic and surprisingly gruesome treatment that does a good job of communicating the horror of having your partner die in your arms, without coming across as gratuitous.

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Jackie subtly demonstrates director Pablo Larraín’s taste for the experimental Not being American, and having been born long after the events of the film, I went into this without much of an understanding of the historical context of the events, Jackie’s iconic status, the role that a First Lady plays in the White House administration, and the Kennedys’ place in history. The film explores all these with varying degrees of subtlety throughout. Some of the exchanges between Jackie and her various confidants (Bobby Kennedy, a priest, the underused Greta Gerwig) sometimes come across as a little too neatly written, possibly benefitting a bit too much from 21st-century hindsight, but the themes and questions raised by the film are at least interesting. The supporting cast all look the part, especially the uncannily similar JFK, played by relative unknown Caspar Phillipson, but the focus never really leaves Jackie other than to give RFK a moment in the spotlight.

In all, this is an artistic but dispassionate portrayal of a woman grieving over the loss of her husband and dealing with the fallout. Portman’s performance is showy in a way that will attract awards buzz, but that won’t leave you teary-eyed.

Epigram 30.01.17

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Liam Neeson’s therapeutic tree is anything but wooden - A Monster Calls review

While small in scale, this blockbuster packs a big emotional punch, revealing the monster in all of us - Film & TV Writer Tim Bustin reviews A Monster Calls A masterpiece of quiet poetry, A Monster Calls bleeds raw emotion out of suburban subtleties, almost flawless in its intertwining of epic visuals, a coming of age tale, and a portrayal of a very real-world cancer struggle.

Cinema is surprising; somehow, it constantly finds something new to say on life; on our relationship with cancer; on how we come of age.

If The Fault In Our Stars grabbed attention with larger-than-life characters, pretentious quotes and an outrageous story, A Monster Calls couldn’t be more opposite in scale – despite the ‘monster’ in its title.

into the titular Monster.

Connor admits from the off that the Monster is just a dream; sometimes haunting nightmare, burning with magma, and other times creaking a cracked, wooden smile. He visits after midnight, telling morally-ambiguous stories with messages that are unclear except for being life’s truths.

‘Stories are wild creatures,’ says the Monster, ‘When you let them loose, who knows what havoc they’ll wreck?’

Impressive watercolour animation brings them to life – flings of colour suddenly struck across the film – but the eye-catcher is The Monster himself: an ancient, graveyard yew tree, he’s a blend of CGI and practical effects, with roots that spread like tendrils, and is often shot as no more than a 40-ft jagged outline, lumbering in the darkness.

A Monster Calls delicately considers when to speak and when to stay silent, and a shadow

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A Monster Calls is less about having something new to say, rather than the way its story is told.

Connor is a boy invisible to most, except those who bring him pain: his icy grandmother, his distant father, his school bully or, worst of all, his loving mother, whose cancer treatment isn’t working.

His rough life is drained of all but his imagination and drawing, with a suburban countryside setting that might as well be the 1960’s for its dull colour palette. It’s the subtle nature of this film that allows it to seep under your skin; emotional chasms are glimpsed beneath the A-list cast’s reserved performances and, with a score dealing in subliminal orchestral pieces and well-placed silences, the seemingly everyday events of going to the pier or touching a statue open into fragile moments.

Despite the quiet, A Monster Calls is never slowpaced, instead progressing naturally to let you into Connor’s life and his hidden inner world of pain, rage and longing, before it all manifests

BFI/LFFPRESS

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A Monster Calls delicately considers when to speak and when to stay silent [...] enough to leave the viewer’s imagination free to rule.

combined with creaking and rustling is awesome enough to leave the viewer’s imagination free to rule. Here, Liam Neeson gives a commanding performance, though the aged and wise but still fiery teacher is a role he’s now well-accustomed too.

The emotional wave that’s been invisibly building will sweep you up, pouring out tears that only continue to crescendo until the very last shot The real standout is newcomer Lewis McDougall; plenty child actors ooze confidence, but it’s that much harder to keep a performance under wraps, bleeding out only the right emotions in the right doses and at the right times; its only

What’s On?

Jackie

Lion

T2: Trainspotting

At Watershed until February 3rd

In cinemas now

In cinemas January 27th

It seems apt timing that Natalie Portman fills the shoes of a great lady in US politics, while the White House waves farewell to Michelle Obama. Pablo Larrain directs a film that focuses on the other side of the tragic assassination of JFK, in a psychological portrait of First Lady Jackie Kennedy. It’s looking to be powerful, painful and pink.

Dev Patel continues his remarkable career with the deeply moving film, Lion - seemingly another in the growing line of classics that the Harrow boy has starred in. Based on the incredible true story of a five year old boy separated from his family and brought up in Australia, he uses Google Earth to try to reunite with his parents.

It’s the film we’ve all been waiting for; the one that yanked us through 2016 and out the other end, all to witness the return of everyone’s favourite heroin addicts. It’s not just Renton and the boys who will be high, our anticipation is soaring in the hope that it will live up to its cult classic predecessor.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Frontier

The Graham Norton Show

On Netflix

On Netflix

On BBC1

Don’t you love it when you finish exams and, as if by magic, a whole new Netflix Originals Series is there to see you through your newfound freedom?

I look forward to spending some quality time with NPH and taking a dark trip down memory lane with ASOUE. Review to follow.

This American series has been described as The Revenant meets Game of Thrones, with Jason Momoa starring as a fur trapper in 18th century Canada.

With further comparisons to the BBC series Taboo, it remains to be seen whether it hits the same heights, but certainly seems worth a watch.

At least Graham Norton is safe amidst the turmoil of 2016. Another year, another treasure chest of red chairs and dry wit that epitomises British humour. Returning after a short break since the New Year, it’s sometimes necessary to appreciate the shows that give us a little consistency in our day-to-day lives.

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What did you think of A Monster Calls?

Films to Faces

Editors’ Picks

Ella Editor

real comparison is to Jacob Tremblay in the acclaimed Room.

A blockbuster that cares so much is a rare find; and one that chooses silence over filling a void with modern technology or loud storytelling.

At some point, the emotional wave that’s been invisibly building will sweep you up, pouring out tears that only continue to crescendo until the very last shot.

A Monster Calls is grounded in reality because of its fantastical elements, rather than despite them; we all have to face harsh truths, and sometimes feel a Monster inside of us, and for that A Monster Calls is entirely universal and utterly, undeniably, beautiful.

1. The Godfather Aside from being the youngest ever President, I have also had the best taste in pop-culture.

The Godfather is all about family and it’s a masterpiece of contemporary cinema.

2. Casablanca As time goes by and we look back over my eight years in the Oval Office, I like to evoke a nostalgic atmosphere by heading straight back to Hollywood 1942. And after all, who doesn’t like Casablanca?! It’s an absolute classic!

3. Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas Speaking of classics, as we head into a world where I am no longer POTUS, it’s nice for both myself and Michelle to watch a film that we’re just able to enjoy. This modern classic lets you forget about the current state of political affairs...

Who should we interview next for Films to Faces?

Tweet us @EpigramFilm

Arts

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Editor: Ed Grimble

Deputy Editor: Georgia O’Brien

Online Editor: Helena Raymond-Hayling

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30.01.2017

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‘Pulsing with fire, energy, blood and sex’

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Helena Raymond-Hayling and Jordan Barker plunge into the strange world of the ‘Strange Worlds’ exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy, which pays tribute to writer, poet, playwright and Bristol alumnus, Angela Carter – as well as the Pre-Rafaelite paintings of its characters – captured her imagination and became the subject of a short story Overture and Incidental Music for a Midsummer Night’s Dream and too found itself in her final novel Wise Children. Carter herself revisioned fairy tales to explore worlds that are taboo, hellish, voyeuristic and viciously feminist. Dominic Shepherd’s Season of the Witch reflects Carter’s fascination with spirits and fairy folklore, its explosive colours symbolic of magic and feminine mystique.

Self-described as ‘a social realism of the unconscious’, Carter’s work is unique in bringing to the fore the dark and elusive world of the mind and fear. Angela Lizon’s Grandma’s Footsteps shows a young girl being stalked by a monstrous bear – it resonates with Carter’s

Epigram/ Helena Raymond-Hayling

Ana Maria Pachecho, The Banquet (1985) The quotation resonates within me as I wander through ‘Strange Worlds’ and marvel at the art inspired such fantastically dark literary works. One such piece is The Banquet, by the Brazilian artist Ana Maria Pachecho. The work is in a darkened room, which I initially suspect to be closed off to the public. Upon entering, I am startled by the unsettling scene before me.

Four grotesquely mis-proportioned figures sit down to a cannibal banquet of an unclothed fifth. The macabre spectacle eerily evokes Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, dark and twisted in imitation.

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exploration of the subconscious and inner terror by depicting the male predator as a beast preparing to torment the child.

Carter was intrigued by the boundaries and binaries of love and torture, masculinity and femininity and the inner torment of a misunderstood gender identity. In The Passion of New Eve, the male protagonist is captured by members of a subterranean phallus-hating clan of women, raped by the six-breasted

goddess ‘Mother’, and later surgically fashioned into a woman in order to be impregnated with his own semen.

This subversion of typical ideas about gender and transition is depicted by Wendy Elia in the stunning Maxime: a portrait of a trans woman who sits joylessly, hands folded reticently in her lap and failing to fit her large feet into a pair of glamorous stilettos.

This exhibition has breathed a welcome breath of fresh air into what is often seen as a traditionallyfocused institution

The tape marks beneath her suggest a indicate ‘ladylike’ positioning of the feet – further emphasising how misplaced her purgatorial gender identity makes her feel.

Carter’s work is excessive, pulsing with fire, energy, blood and sex. Commenting on her stylistic choices as an author, she said: ‘I write overblown, purple, self-indulgent prose. So fucking what?’

Her exploration of sexuality and vulgarity stops nothing short of revolutionary. She deemed pornography as ‘a satire on human pretensions’, and is known for exploiting the toxic combination of sex and violence to send her audience hurtling through the realms of the indecorous.

Pornographic themes are subtly incorporated into Paula Rego’s The Artist in Her Studio – with reference to cannibalism – by inclusion of the praying mantis, notorious for devouring its mate during intercourse. Fevvers in Nights at the Circus is tall and curvacious, and is said to dwarf her fellow performers – so too does Rego’s artist. Legs spread and smoking a pipe, she contravenes typically ‘ladylike’ behaviours and imparts a strong statement about empowerment of women through art.

The realm between the dominant and subservient is thrown open in the installation in the centre of the gallery space, Tessa Farmer’s The Forest Assassins. The work is suspended

Epigram/ Helena Raymond-Hayling

One of England’s most treasured writers, Angela Carter has inspired an exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy which opened on 10th December – honouring her work, influences and those who share interest in the themes found in her writing.

Carter spent the 1960s and early 1970s in Bristol, an alumnus of the University where she read English and specialised in Medieval literature. Following this, she wrote her ‘Bristol Trilogy’ (Shadow Dance, Several Perceptions and Love), and went on to have a fruitful and exciting career as a novelist, also penning poetry, plays and screenplays.

‘There is a striking resemblance between the act of love and the ministrations of a torturer.’

So wrote Baudelaire, favourite poet of the nefarious husband in The Bloody Chamber.

Paula Rego, The Artist in Her Studio (1993) from the ceiling and in which flies ride bees and dragonflies wielding sharp pins and butterflies carry crocodile skulls like a trophy.

I leave the exhibition completely in shock and awe. I even purchase a not-so-cheap-but-heyit’s-Christmas copy of the illustrated catalogue, as I do not want to forget the extraordinary collection of works assembled by the curators of Strange Worlds: the artist and writer Fiona Robinson and Dr. Marie Mulvey-Roberts of the University of the West of England. The RWA has really stepped up its game with this exhibition, and this opening has breathed a welcome breath of fresh air into what is often seen as a very traditionally-focused institution. Strange Worlds is harrowing, bewitching and scandalous – Carter and her merry men are sure to haunt your dreams for months to come.

‘Strange Worlds’ runs at the Royal West of England Academy until 19th March 2017. Admission is free for University of Bristol students.

Helena Raymond-Hayling and Jordan Barker

[Carter] explores worlds that are taboo, hellish, voyeuristic and viciously feminist

Epigram/ Helena Raymond-Hayling

Angela Carter’s prose is highly unique, salacious and sadistic. In The Bloody Chamber, Carter gracefully describes the husband’s body, ‘as if it were hovering, disembodied, above the sheets, illuminated from below like a grotesque carnival head’, and her novel Nights at the Circus features Fevvers, a virginal cockney winged aerialiste who is the centre of her circus’s success. The carnival is explored too by Caroline Waite in Join the Circus, which includes dolls’ heads and a clown toy which when shaken changes from smiling to frowning.

These gruesome and tormented sculptural elements are truly in keeping with Carter’s writings. A lover of Freud, Carter’s work has a fervent interest in the nature of dreams and the the ways in which the conscious and unconscious interact. The story of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Sir Joseph Noel Paton, The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania (1846)

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30.01.2017

‘Solve et Coagula’: Art meets alchemy Esther Bancroft gives her thoughts on Robert Foster’s ‘Solve et Coagula’ exhibition at Spike Island’s Test Space

Even the venue of Test Space promises to probe the boundaries of the expected and ordinary, which is particularly suited for Robert Foster’s striking ‘Solve et Coagula’.

Encouraging a decoding of the perceptible world, whilst on residency in Iceland in 2016, Foster developed works revolving around the spiritual and material process of alchemy. This exhibition gathers fragments which collate into a ‘labyrinth’ of clues, stimulating the viewer to engage with and decipher Foster’s meaning. In a lecture given at the beginning of the exhibition, the artist discussed his research, thereby unlocking his state of mind and creative process.

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Foster described his journey as being hindered by contradictions and false terms, such is the esoteric nature of alchemy rejected by western academia. The artist separates himself from stoic schools of thought by transforming his ideas into art which confronts one’s spirituality as much as it offers different ways of perceiving reality. Working as a studio holder at Spike Island 2012-14, Foster has enjoyed success in recent solo exhibitions, such as ‘These Thoughts Form Between Us’, which holds testament to his fascination with the engaging mind.

Although claiming not to be an alchemist himself, there is a sort of alchemy at work within Foster’s art as he holds the imperfect and mundane in isolation in order to extract the precious. Driftwood fixed on the wall, decorated with miniature pillars and buildings, subvert the viewer’s concept of size, whilst locks and keys scattering the exhibition space are indicative of the concealed. Alchemy is a methodical and iterative process, yet Foster’s art is increasingly ambiguous as it is beguiling. A particular favourite is Foster’s

Foster’s exhibition explores the ideas around the aesthetics of alchemy which he developed whilst in Iceland in 2016 fascination with collectables: stamps, antique prints and coffee cards all of which evoke a sense of personal specialism by collating elements of one’s life to better enlighten oneself. Drawing the viewer back to the process of alchemy by way of historical reference, the objects allude to the knowledge hidden within, which, as the artistcum-alchemist, Foster distils. The transformative effect of alchemy is interpreted by Foster as a search for enlightenment and therefore a personal journey to find the divine. Foster wants us to look beyond our perceived existence to the beyond, and his artwork facilitates this.

Revealing himself to be socially conscious, Foster acknowledges the human request for more, for better, for perfection. In his words, his ‘ultimate prize’ is facilitating the viewer’s ability to find new value and meaning.

Visually confusing, yes, but Foster inventively uses the complex architecture of Spike Island to further his installation. The whiteboards which enclose the space act as prompts for the displaying of knowledge, yet the tessellations and warped shapes fixed upon them give a sense of distortion.

Foster addresses the issue of a society more sustained by its news feed than by the tangible world surrounding it

The viewer therefore has to constantly second guess Foster’s meaning. Perhaps tellingly, the only reference to our traditional interpretation of alchemy is in the form of a raw precious stone at the base of one of the whiteboards.

Lost amongst the repetitive prints, the discreetly placed rock reminds us of how marginalised much of Foster’s research actually is. Certainly, Foster appeals to the inquisitive spectator, headlining with Truth Immaterial. Such titling immediately influences the viewer to engage and question their sense of truth beyond the material that they perceive a line of thought which is no different from René Magritte’s arresting ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’.

The continuous thread which runs throughout this artwork is that of accessibility to knowledge, and in turn, accessibility to art. Upon answering my question to elaborate on his link between alchemy and isolationism, Foster explains that, though alchemy represents the search for potential ways of seeing the world, it remains

Stephen King Writer 1947–

‘Solve et Coagula’ runs at Spike Island until 5th February. Entry is free.

Esther Bancroft

His artwork frequemtly makes use of assortments of collectible objects

WHAT Flickr/ Stephanie Lawton

Having been described as ‘the most remarkable storyteller in modern American literature’ (Mark Lawson, The Guardian), author Stephen King has proved to be utterly prolific in his writing. A household name for the horror genre, King has written over 54 novels - all of which have been worldwide bestsellers. With titles such as Carrie, The Shining, IT and Misery under his belt, it cannot be contested that King rightfully enjoys an inordinate amount of success.

polarized. Such cultural beliefs and customs are more vocally discredited and marginalized today, particularly in the tumult of American politics.

Ultimately, Foster addresses the issue of a society more sustained by its news feed than by the tangible world surrounding it. In considering the surrealist idea of representation instead of the material, the exhibition is visually destabilizing, but edifying and relevant.

Although Foster’s work stimulates a decoding of the value of the world around us, the viewer simply does not need clues to understand the value of looking beyond the brushstrokes, and indeed, beyond the screen in front of them.

Epigram/ Esther Bamcroft

Epigram/ Esther Bamcroft

Foster’s artwork examine the aesthetics and effects of bringing together fragments

WHO

Epigram/ Esther Bamcroft

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There is a sort of alchemy at work within Foster’s art as he holds the imperfect and mundane in isolation in order to extract the

Stephen King has written some of the most pertinent contemporary fiction novels to date, with his writing usually falling into the horror, supernatural fiction and suspense genres.

Although best known for his lengthy and epic novels, King has also shown immense proficiency in short story writing (such as Hearts in Atlantis and The Bazaar of Bad Dreams), having written over 200 short stories to date. He has also written a scattering of poems along his literary journey.

Epigram

30.01.2017

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Migration, identity and our shared history Alina Young explores Lubaina Himid’s ‘Navigation Charts’, a new exhibition at Spike Island addressing issues of migration, identity and race narratives Lubaina Himid, a Tanzanian contemporary artist, provocatively encourages us to re-imagine racial history in her latest exhibition ‘Navigation Charts’.

A pioneer of the British Black Art movement in the late 20th century, her work examines, on a personal and cultural level, the themes many are shy to approach: the remnants of the slave trade, the immigrant experience, and ultimately reconciling this past. Himid’s exploration of black identity leads her to fill in the gaps that Western artistic narratives fail to tell - the experience of ordinary black individuals in history. In so doing, she gives back their voice, which everybody ought to hear.

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How, if at all, can the strugges of the undenibale and ineluctable past be reconciled?

the occasional photo-collage face reminds us of the relevance of these feelings to contemporary immigrant experiences. Himid aims in this work to ‘make visible and real a recognition of the rich and complicated contribution to the culture and the economy made by those who have come from somewhere else’. In a time when migration of people, which is commonplace in society.

The work seeks to synthesise the complex range of emotions that go along with migration questions of belonging, of change and identity, but ultimately a celebration of the colourful cultural diversity that migration brings.

Himid revisits migration and movement in much of her work, often through imagery of water and the sea. In the Zanzibar series, this becomes intensely personal. The series was produced in 1999 after her first return to her birthplace, Zanzibar, which she left for England after the death of her father. Zanzibar’s seas nostalgically appear in the visual language of her work, where African colourful patterns are washed with tear-like streaks. The inescapable presence of water evokes a sense of her own story,

WHERE

as well as engaging with it as a metaphor for journeys many migrants have taken from their own birthplace.

How can the struggles of the undeniable and ineluctable past be reconciled? Perhaps such a question does not have an answer, but Himid takes on the challenge. In the Kanga series, she produces four paintings as Kangas, traditional

The issues of race and migration transcend time as well as place; the collectve history we share makes us responsible for illuminating today

cotton cloths intended to be cut in half and worn on the body and the head.

The two earlier works (2011) urge the viewer to ‘Leave the State of Unbelonging’ while the two later works (2016) instruct us to ‘Speed up the Pace of Change’. As with the cloth itself, intended for head and body, the works express the duality

WHEN

Flickr/ Darren

Not only has King resided in Maine for the majority of his life, but a number of his novels take place in this same New England state. Interweaving fictional settings into the Maine map, King crafts an eclectic mix of stories which allow the reader to explore and indulge themselves in the glorious horrors of his imaginative creations.

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Lubaina Himid, Naming the Money (2004)

Epigram/ Alina Young

The most striking exploration of identity is the mammoth Naming the Money (2004) installation, which immerses the viewer in a room of life-size painted figures. The full 100 figures that make up this work have only been exhibited together once before, and together they create a space that is vibrant with colour and activity—there are dancers, musicians, dog trainers, herbalists, makers and vendors of goods. They are arranged in the round, so that when standing in the centre you feel as much a part of this lively scene.

Himid’s background as a set designer is evident in her mastery of creating such a dynamic world.

Walking around, the viewer notices the backdrop of world music above the hum of conversation, and occasionally a voice reading out a few sentences.

Less apparent, however, is the other side— literally—of this experience.

Upon closer inspection, the labels on the backs of the figures are not some practical instruction for their curation. They are five-line summaries of each individual’s imagined life, each in the same poetic format: their name, their anglicized given name, their previous life, their current life, and an attempt at finding the silver lining to their present situation.

Each is a story in the first person, and with each one understands how one-dimensional it was to get caught up in the room’s colour filled gaiety. Reading each story, many poignantly expressing the appropriation of the individuals’ skills as servants, the sense of displacement in ordinary lives is overwhelming. As the crowds slowly leave, the voice-over is at last audible: all along, the individuals’ stories had been read out, and now at last they could be heard. Himid succeeds in ‘Naming’ the ‘Money’: she reclaims their individuality, powerfully reminding the viewer of the names and faces beyond humans as exports and commodity.

Although the obvious reference is to slavery,

Stephen King was born in Maine in 1947, and his first novel Carrie was accepted by Doubleday in 1973. Having previously worked as a caretaker and a petrol pump attendant, his wealth has inevitably skyrocketed, with his prodigious literary gift bringing him a net worth of over $400 million. The author had suffered from a furious alcohol and drug addiction, hitting rock bottom before climbing his way up to the peak of contemporary fiction.

of mind and action needed to progress from the past.

The impression the viewer is left with is the relevance, and need, for the continuation of this conversation. Cotton.com (2002) illustrates the power conversation can have; inspired by the solidarity of British mill workers with Lincoln’s abolition of slavery, the work visualises through the language of pattern the transatlantic conversation between the worldwide labour force.

In the same way, the issues of race and migration transcend time as well as place; the collective history we share makes us responsible for illuminate today, in Himid’s words, the ‘narratives of insignificant people… lived as part of monumental and global strategies for power and wealth’.

‘Navigation Charts’ runs at Spike Island until 26th March. Entry is free.

Alina Young

WHY When asked why he writes, King says ‘there was nothing else [he] was made to do.’ With a fecund imagination, Stephen King’s dark and mysterious literary crafting has shaped the lives of many, and continues to have an effect on the most haunting and enigmatic areas of the imagination.

As a reader with a voracious appetite for King’s work, I urge you to plunge your hand into the darkness and see what you can find.

Chloë Moloney

Epigram

30.01.2017

Music An Interview with C Duncan @epigrammusic

Editor: Sam Mason-Jones

Deputy Editor: Ellen Kemp

Online Editor: Georgia Marsh

music@epigram.org.uk

ellen.kemp@epigram.org.uk

musiconline@epigram.org.uk

Back in December, Ellen Kemp spent some time on the phone with electro-maestro Chris, aka C Duncan, between rounds of touring his new album The Midnight Sun.

“

Photo courtesy of Black Arts PR

Many who have heard C Duncan’s music may be surprised, given the orchestral grandeur of his style, to learn that it is all composed and recorded single-handedly. Seeing as working and writing alone is quite different to the collaboration of his live performances, I ask him, when we speak, how he translated his work onto the stage.

‘To begin with, it was very difficult to try and recreate the songs, so we made lots of alternative versions of them to play live. We got away with that for ages - it was never quite the same as the album. The band expanded and expanded and now we’re a five-piece. I’m very lucky with the people I work with, too,’ he says, ‘It’s really nice bringing in different vocal harmonies with different people, rather than just me, it creates a really nice sound for live performances.’

C Duncan’s debut album was Architect, a relatively up-beat record that traverses various genres and includes a lot of experimentation.

By comparison, his latest effort seems slightly more refined, and takes on a noticeably more mysterious tone.

‘It’s really nice bringing in different vocal harmonies with different people’

The record in question is full of subtleties, pacechanges and intensity. Chris is a classically trained musician, which comes across in the intricacies of his work. Though for many, the connection between classical and electronic music may not be evident, C Duncan’s compositions seamlessly merge the two. I asked him about the choice of using electronics to write music.

‘With electronics you can kind of do whatever you want. Certainly with notes that you can’t necessarily make on a guitar or on a piano, you can bend notes and do all sorts of microtonal

stuff which is different to contemporary classical instruments and live instruments, I guess. For me, using electronics feels like I’m just sitting down with a manuscript paper and I can just write whatever I want, because at the end of the day, if I was writing for a violin or for an orchestra, if I couldn’t play it I’m sure a professional violinist could. It means you can leave it up to the synthesizer itself to create the notes.’

‘You can change tones so much on a synthesizer- that’s the other thing that is really exciting. There is only so much you can do with, say, a piano, which has a very specific sound, whereas a synthesizer can sound like anything.

It’s gonna sound electronic, but you can make it sound like anything electronic, it’s such a versatile instrument.’

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‘The Midnight Sun is a lot darker, and it’s a lot more downtempo. With the first record I was finding my feet style-wise and trying out different things; so some songs are quite jazzy, some of them are lo-fi, others are quite electronic. It’s a mish-mash of themes. The new record is heavily influenced by The Twilight Zone, but I was also going through - well - I’d had a slightly tumultuous relationship, so a lot of the record is about that. It has got a darker tone as those kind of things have made their way into the music, which makes the whole thing a bit more brooding.’

“There’s lots to be inspired by, it almost seems like everyone in Glasgow is an artist, or an actor”

Another fascinating aspect of C Duncan’s music is the album artwork, which Chris creates himself. ‘While I was doing Architect I was also doing all the artworks for it, and, to some extent stylistically my artwork does kind of reflect my music. The Architect cover is all bitty and with lots of repetition and lots of intricacies, and that really matches the music I guess, because it’s full of lots of random little things here and there.

And then the new album is much more stark and more clinical in a way, sound-wise, and [the album cover] is a painting of a stairwell. You can’t really get much more clinical than that. The two kind of reflect each other.’

Both the locations of his album covers are urban ones, set in his home town of Glasgow. I asked about some of his influences, artistic and musical, and about his views on the Scottish and Glaswegian art and music scene.

‘Cocteau Twins are my all time favourites, but, I mean, there are so many bands from Scotland and

Glasgow. Art-wise, again there is so much going on. Obviously Macintosh had a huge influence on me, including on the artwork. There’s lots to be inspired by; it almost seems like everyone in Glasgow is an artist, or an actor.’

In terms of the other contemporary music that Chris draws inspiration from, he mentioned the likes of Julia Holter and Dutch Uncles, but also had some exciting recommendations to share.

‘There’s a record label in Glasgow called Night School Records which has some really, really cool artists, all kind of lo-fi, and all really worth checking out. Quite a lot of weird electronic things - they’ve got Molly Nilsson, now, actually.

They’ve just released an album by someone called Ela Orleans. who’s a musician from Warsaw. She makes this weird electro-electronica stuff which is really cool.’

‘I listen to a lot of electronica at the moment. I always listen to things like Nite Jewel and Geneva Jacuzzi and all these lo-fi electronic people, which I draw a lot of influence from,’ he continued.

Finally, I quizzed Chris on the upcoming shows, for which he will be touring with Elbow, as well as independently, and asked what we can expect from the different gigs this winter.

‘Actually, we change our set-list depending on where we are. I guess the stuff from the first album will fit with Elbow’s music more, but the new album is much bigger sounding, so it will sound better in a big place. And then we can make it much smaller for smaller venues, we can play more acoustic ones from the first album while the second album is then made to work in more of an intimate environment,’ he explained.

I mention my excitement for the upcoming show in Bristol, his reply is equally enthusiastic, ‘Bristol’s one of my favourite places to gig, we’re playing back at Thekla which is such a cool venue!’

The notorious boat boards at the beginning February for what is likely to be an outstanding excursion into the atmospheric and highly innovative world of C Duncan’s creation.

Ellen Kemp

Epigram 30.01.2017

43

Bristol by Night Just Jack - Motion, 04.02

With a Sound of 2017 longlist spot and an appearance on Benji B’s radio show just two of the recent stops off on his road into grime’s big leagues, AJ Tracey’s star is well and truly in the ascendant. The London MC (and best friend of Tottenham’s Dele Alli) was last in Bristol at the turn of the new year, when he ripped the roof off Lakota alongside Devlin and ONEMAN. Similarly adept support for this one comes from the bass-heavy stylings of Slimzee and Murlo.

Âme - Motion, 24.02 The folks behind ‘An Evening With’, another local dance authority, have developed an uncanny knack for booking the world’s best names in house and techno for their doorstil-close residencies, with Joy Orbison, Bicep, Ben Klock and Floating Points among their recent guests. Their latest booking, Âme, sits comfortably among this distinguished company, with the German duo and one half of the Innervisions label (which they share with boon companion Dixon) globally renowned for their techno-driven sets and retro house remixes. 12 inches of their luscious rework of Paul Simon’s Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes are amongst the most sought-after vinyls around, and sell for well over £100 on Discogs - a product of the rapturous fervour surrounding them and their all-night-long set at Motion next month.

Mike Skinner and Madam X - Analog, 04.03 In 24 Hour Party People, Steve Coogan as Tony Wilson proclaims that music works as a double helix, meaning that when one artist is in latter reaches of their career, another is in the ascendant. This show represents the meeting of the two strands, as Mike Skinner who, as The Streets, brought us some of the best music of the previous decade, shares a bill with Manchester dubstep upstart Madam X, who has been hotly tipped to do the same with the next. Lock down your aerial.

Motion Bristol / Facebook

Local house moguls Just Jack have accrued a deserved reputation for throwing the best parties in Bristol, period, with recent guest selectors including Ricardo Villalobos, Hunee, Marcel Dettmann, Prins Thomas and Legowelt. And the line-up for their 11th birthday bash, without a sniff of exaggeration, might just be their best yet.

Detroit royalty and Underground Resistancefounder Robert Hood headlines, his set sure to feature some of the highlights from his revered house project Floorplan alongside the techno on which he so sharply cut his teeth. Expect to hear Midland’s Final Credits, the undisputed record of 2016, spun several times throughout the evening, even, most mouth-wateringly, by the man himself who will take over the Marble Factory after a spell from Glaswegian duo Optimo. That the king of the good time, Japanese producer Soichi Terada, is in the lower half of the bill is testament to its absolute quality. An embarrassment of riches.

AJ Tracey / Prez T / Slimzee / Murlo / Commodo - Analog, 11.02

Sam Mason-Jones takes us through some of the best nights on offer in Bristol this winter.

Nightowls, get on your dancing shoes.

TbTunes Madley Croft, during which she tells of the heartbreak of losing a lover’s attention. The xx’s lyrics are often very relatable, conjuring up images of angst and pain within the pitfalls of love. The words of ‘Say Something Loving’ depict common relationship anxieties such as: ‘Am I too needy? Am I too eager?’. Cathartic lyrics aside, a new use of vocal sampling arises on the album in the recently released single ‘On Hold’. With a quicker beat, it has more of a dance influence between the verses. The last track of which stands out is ‘A Violent Noise,’ the echoing electronic build-up demanding the listener’s attention. It is the kind of track which will cause euphoria and introspection for the audiences attending The xx’s upcoming tour.

The xx I See You

The fanfare at the beginning of ‘Dangerous’ by The xx marks the arrival of their 3rd album I See You. It stops and moves in to simple drum beats to calm the listener. Then in come the vocals that make the band so recognisable, giving the track warmth and atmosphere.

Often a band dramatically change up their sound come the third album, sometimes for the better, but often at the detriment of the music.

Instead, The xx come back with a similar format to previous albums. Yet this is by no means a bad thing. Their formula of using uncomplicated instrumentals layered with beautifully eloquent singing really does work.

The album contains a mix of tempos and styles giving us a collage of music to enjoy. A haunting ballad appears in ‘Performance’, featuring the sublime voice of Romy

Reece Webster

Bonobo Migration

A glimmering portfolio of the results of yet more experimentation, yet more unprecedented fusions of different styles and sounds, Bonobo has ushered in the New Year with a delectable treat for the ear drums in the form of his latest LP Migration.

Arguably less dance-oriented than breakthrough Days to Come, the album continues Bonobo’s legacy of subtlety and attention to detail, with a selection of collaborations with interesting new vocalists as well as further expansion into the realm of the orchestral.

While the album has certain tracks which sound like exactly we what we might expect (which is no criticism) such as the eponymous opening track, or ‘Kerala’, others surpass the usual level of finesse and diversity that we have come to associate with Simon Green’s repertoire.

‘Second Sun’ is a particular favourite of mine, following the boldness of vocal sampling on ‘Grains’, it is an orchestral song where the meticulousness of the record’s production really shines through in the crispness of the tones of each instrument, in the perfectly blended transitions, developments, refrains and measured crescendos and in

the intriguing variations in acoustic qualities which further intensify the listening experience.

The track ‘Bambro Koyo Ganda’ mixes the soulfulness of Moroccan vocals over a modest electronic undercurrent, which slowly builds and gathers force before the introduction of smooth strings wash over it all. These are the kind of songs which are made fascinating by the fascination that the artist clearly has for his craft.

Bonobo has gained a reputation for creating ‘intellectual chill-out’ music, meaning that his songs are easy to relax to, to play in the background while you study or to put on to calm down and unwind after the excitement of a night out. While those things still apply, it’s far from a complete assessment in my view. As Migration demonstrates, the closer you listen and the more you allow yourself to be absorbed in the music, the more careful, thoughtful detail reveals itself. Bonobo has created another commendable release of enchanting depth, well worthy of adorning the airwaves of any quiet, winter evening.

Ellen Kemp

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13/01/2017 09:15:09

Epigram

Puzzles

@EpigramPuzzles

Editor: Suzie Brown

Solutions will be posted online at www.epigram.org.uk before the next issue is released.

puzzles@epigram.org.uk

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ACROSS 1. Freddie, for example, gets merry around Christian Union (7) 6. Bird in on steal (5) 7. Stick around, that is, to see womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s underwear (8) 9. Lie with piggy? (5) 10. Strangely, train everyone in initial resistance to movement (7) 11. Confused, search for curved entrances (6) 15. See 8d 16. Journeys to the South and takes clothes off (6) 17. Trio built first house in tree (5) 20. Slime is positive, in short (3) 21. Posing with you instead of me whilst singing (9)

Find the word which can come before each of the three words given, in each case giving a 25 Average common two-word phrase. E.g. CAR park, CAR 30 Good stereo, CAR alarm.

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46

30.01.2017

UoB Sailing Club on fundraising mission Jack Francklin Deputy Sports Editor

Facebook/ UoB / Hetty Garnier Facebook Sailing Club

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Flickr: Alasdair Massle

The University of Bristol Sailing Club are undergoing a fundraising campaign in order to help finance the replacement of their old boats. On the back of a successful campaign in 2016, the club are keen to bolster their resources and with the help of the Alumni Foundation, they are confident in doing so.

Club President Magnus Lee was quick to praise the inflluence of the Alumni Foundation: ‘they have given us great support and we owe a lot to them’. The fundraising scheme hopes to gather money to finalise the club’s plans as they look forward to tackling upcoming headwinds in the New Year. This year, UBSC has seen a record number of beginners to have joined the club, largely thanks to the help of qualified instructors who give lessons down by the harbour side each Wednesday. Indeed, this is part of a three part set up the club uses to accommodate all standards.

Bristol University sailors are a dominating presence on the national and global stage

The second element is the team racing which takes place at Chew Valley Lake and provides the base for four teams to represent the university in BUCS, whilst the yachting are the third and final aspect, as they too take on universities from across the nation in the April Yachting Championships.

On the water, Bristol hosts one of the biggest university national sailing events - the Bristol Brew, which attracts around 120 sailors from different

universities. Despite Bristol coming fourth last time, Lee has high hopes for the coming year: ‘Our teams have set their sights on BUCS team racing finals, and the Yachting championships at Easter’. The club finished the calendar year of 2016 racing against Exeter back in December. A slow build-up of wind on the day made for perfect conditions, as Exeter black and Bristol red both finished unbeaten after the first day of their respective races.

Despite a strong performance from UBSC, Exeter came out victors and have set Bristol a high yet achievable

precedent. Past successes will give them motivation - Bristol took home silver in the British Universities Team Racing Championships in 2014, which mirrored their performance in the BUSA and RYA Ladies Team Racing Nationals, which also saw them finish in second.

This success had great ramifications for UBSC as they were awarded the Innovation of the Year prize of 2014, adding to their trophy cabinet of university prizes, such as the 2012 Club of the Year.

Magnus Lee is aware of the quality at the club’s disposal: ‘Bristol University

sailors are a dominating presence on the national and global stage’. This is epitomised by Hannah Mills, who won silver at the London Olympics in 2012 in the Women’s 470 before going on to win gold at the 2016 Olympics in the same event. Mills was awarded an MBE as a result - a staggering achievement for an ex-Bristolian and one that will no doubt inspire the current group of sailors in the Bristol team. The club currently run a number of weekends in Portsmouth sailing 40ft yachts which sleep eight people, whilst the presence of qualified instructors encourage the

participation of all standards of sailing.

The Club President also highlights the social side of the club which gives it a further dimension, ‘as well as being a high achieving squad, the sailing teams, beginngers and yachters all come together on a weekly basis for a social.

We believe this is an integral part of the club that makes it fun to be a part of as well as creating dedicated and loyal memberswhoworktogethertomaintain the club’. For more information on how to get involved with sailing, visit their website on bristolsailing.wixsite. com/ubusailingclub or on Facebook.

Formidable UBAFC pursue record-breaking season Lewis Tanner Sports Reporter

Facebook / UBAFC

The University of Bristol Football Club start 2017 in a very strong positon after three of their teams top their respective leagues heading into the second half of the season.

The club’s sensational start has led to the strong possibility of a record-breaking BUCS points tally.

With this in mind, club captain Malik Ouzia has high hopes for UBAFC. ‘From the position we’ve put ourselves in, it would be a massive disappointment if we don’t take some silverware’.

Back-to-back wins for the Men’s first team, including a remarkable 3-1 derby-day victory over main promotion rivals Exeter, saw them surge to the summit of Western 2A and into the driving seat for the remaining half of the season.

Solidity has undeniably formed the core of this title-challenging campaign, with the team comfortably boasting the best defensive record in the division.

This is testament to the job done by centre-backs Ouzia and Ollie Woodhouse in marshalling the backline in the absence of Chris Abbott.

Their efforts have been significantly

aided by Jack Haire and Nick Thacker who, in the full back positions, have provided cover in both attack and defence, and set the tone for the high pressure game the team plays.

But perhaps the stand-out player of the season so far has been Al Harlington, whose pace, directness and end product on the left-wing will have left opposition right-backs with recurring

nightmares for the foreseeable future.

Another player worthy of mention is striker Alex Ette, who since stepping up from the second team has led the line superbly, holding the ball up well and scoring some important goals.

They kick-off the New Year with a trip to rivals UWE seconds in the cup, and will look forward to the muchanticipated game against UWE firsts

as part of the Varsity series in May. This will of course take place at the recently expanded 27,000-seater Ashton Gate stadium, home of Bristol City FC - this is a game not to be missed.

Elsewhere at the club, the Men’s seconds and thirds also lead their respective leagues, and the fourth and fifth teams are within three points of first place in their divisions.

It is a big year for the Women’s football club too, and their firstteam will be looking to build on their impressive away victory over title hopefuls Exeter firsts last term.

And finally, the Women’s secondteam know a strong end to the season could yield promotion after a 7-0 mauling of Swansea seconds saw them rise to third place in Western 3A.

Epigram

30.01.2017

47

Bristol to host Taekwondo extravaganza

BUCS Wednesday Wednesday 1st February (select fixtures)

Guy Aglionby Sports Reporter

Men’s Football:

The University of Bristol Taekwondo Club is preparing to host a major interUniversity sparring competition on 4th February at the Coombe Dingle Sports Centre. This is one in a series of match days that comprises the British University Taekwondo League (BUTL), co-founded in 2015 by Bristol Taekwondo Club’s ex-President Alistair Anderson.

The BUTL is the first league-based student Taekwondo competition, and in its debut year Bristol placed third, behind Manchester Met and Swansea. The competition has doubled in size since last year with fourteen clubs now involved, and nine competing here next month.

This time round, armed with a force of 47 competitors and starting the fight on home soil, the Bristol club are confident that they will beat last year’s result.

Men’s Badminton: Bristol 1st vs Exeter 2nd Women’s Basketball: Bristol 1st vs Plymouth 1st Women’s Football: Bristol 1st vs UWE 1st Men’s Basketball: Winchester 1st vs Bristol 1st

Bristol’s fighters will face opponents from one or two other universities, with the rest of the matches to take place at tournaments later in the year.

Fighters are matched with opponents of similar experience, with fights ranging in length from a single minute and a half round for beginners to two twominute rounds for more experienced martial artists. With four rings operating simultaneously, there’s guaranteed to be action throughout the afternoon.

Taekwondo sparring has been an Olympic sport since 2000, and if you have seen any matches you will know that it is fast, tactical, and exhilarating to watch.

Knowing when to attack and when to perform a countermove against one’s opponent is key to success, and

is a skill that can only be developed through committed training. When sparring, protective equipment includes a head guard, gum shield, gloves and foot protectors. It is not all sparring though; Taekwondo has a traditional side too. This art consists of blocks, kicks, and strikes - often practiced in sequence to form complex patterns. These help build leg and core strength and some people train for these benefits alone. Pad work and drills complement both sides of the martial art and help improve general fitness.

The club itself has doubled in size over the past two years, welcoming members of all abilities; in fact, roughly

“

If you have seen any matches you will know that it is fast, tactical, and exhilarating to watch

Come along to see some brilliant fights and indulge in some good old-fashioned University rivalry

half of the members had never trained in Taekwondo before they joined. The club trains up to three times a week at the Students’ Union and around the university campus, and is fortunate enough to be coached by Mr Minh Le Van, a 5th Dan black belt, and Mr Phil

Women’s Volleyball: Bristol 1st vs Bath 1st Men’s Lacrosse: Exeter 1st vs Bristol 1st Epigram / Guy Aglionby

“

Solent 1st vs Bristol 1st

Whitlock, a 4th Dan black belt and England squad member. Of course, training is supplemented by socials such as the infamous graded bar crawl (in which everyone starts as a white belt, and has to drink their way to black belt), trips to Airhop and film nights.

All are welcome to spectate at the match day at Coombe Dingle on 4th February at any time from 12:30 til 17:00, and entry is free. Come along to see some brilliant fights and indulge in some good old-fashioned University rivalry. If it happens to spark your interest, your first training session is always free -- search for University of Bristol Taekwondo on Facebook.

Varsity 2017 to build on key fundraising

Women’s Netball: UWE 1st vs Bristol 1st Men’s Hockey: Bristol 1st vs Cardiff Met 1st Women’s Hockey Bristol 1st vs Cambridge 1st Men’s Rugby Bristol 1st vs UWE 1st Women’s Lacrosse Bristol 1st vs Oxford 1st For a complete list of BUCS fixtures and results, head over to www.epigram.org.uk/sport!

Fantasy Football

Nicky Withers Sports Reporter

Epigram / 1625ip

March 2016 saw a variety of fierce sporting battles between teams from the University of Bristol and UWE, all in the name of Varsity. Behind the rivalry, however, were the fundraising efforts from both Bristol and UWE students all in the name of charity.

For the second consecutive year, that charity was 1625 Independent People (1625ip), which helps young people facing homelessness by providing services such as supported housing, and other projects which give them the help they need to get back on their feet. Through ticket sales and bucket collections (by UWE RAG volunteers), the Varsity series raised a staggering total of £5064.92, last year which 1625ip have put towards their essential work helping young people.

Part of this includes the Independent People Football Club (IPFC), who are affiliated with the University of Bristol. Before the Varsity series began, players from the IPFC participated in

a futsal competition with students, giving them space to show off their skills and test themselves (above).

They were also invited to attend Varsity matches, allowing them to ‘embrace the rivalry’ and experience the event first-hand. With some of the money raised by Varsity, the team have

joined a Monday night league, so they now have somewhere to test the skills they practice at training each week. It has also enabled them to meet more people in the community, helping them to feel like a real part of it.

Now the first semester is over, Varsity 2017 is fast approaching,

bringing with it the opportunity not only beat UWE, but to surpass the 2016 fundraising total and help more young people in the community.

Keep an eye on the Varsity website for announcements of further details of the upcoming events, and look forward to contributing to this amazing cause.

Epigram Sport is running its very own Barclays Fantasy Premier League. Feel free to join!

Liga de Epigram Code: 808585-362510 Good Luck!

Epigram

30.01.2017

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

Bristol look to build on record-breaking year

Epigram / John House

Jonathan Harding Sports Editor Bristol capped off an incredible start to their BUCS campaign by reaching 7th in the overall university league table, representing their highest ever ranking at this stage in the year.

Our teams unsurprisingly went into the Christmas break in a party mood, and with 51% of Bristol teams

currently sitting at 1st or 2nd in the league, there was plenty to celebrate.

With 289 victories to the university’s name, there were so many heroic performances, unprecedented results, and team contributions to mention.

In Surfing, Flora Lawton was in fine fettle, taking home the BUCS Surf 2016 title.

This top form was replicated on the slopes, as the Women’s snowsports team dominated at

the Dryslope Championships.

On the field, Bristol were similarly successful, and the 5th Men’s Rugby team were at times unstoppable. Their first term saw them hammer UWTSD and Aberstywyth 135-0 and 85-0 respectively.

A different shaped ball yet a similar story, as UBAFC start the new year with their top three teams sitting practically at the summit of their leagues, with silverware at the end of the season a very real possibility. This

was reflected by the women’s second team, who peppered USW’s goal in a 9-0 thumping earlier in the year.

There was an epidemic of high scoring fever throughout Bristol’s other teams.

The Men’s Hockey Club had very little trouble putting points on the board, epitomised by their fourth team’s 140 demolition of Southampton Solent.

Not to be outdone, Lacrosse Men’s 1st won by an exhibition scoreline of 17-0 against Southampton. Finally,

who could forget American Football, whose largest win came in the form of an impressive 33-0 beating of local rivals Bath Spa, who were left to rue the prospect of a reverse fixture.

Having won a staggering 61% of matches in the first term, the future looks bright for Bristol Sport. There is still a lot of hard work on the horizon and, with multiple teams going into 2017 at the top of the pile, Bristol Sport has its sights firmly set on silverware.

Careers Service Sponsored Content

How to enjoy your job interview Job interviews tend not to be something we look forward to. A necessary evil to secure employment partnered with intense preparation and stress. Who can blame us for feeling nervous? Going to meet new people who will fire mystery questions from across a desk, assess your answers and rank you against other candidates.

These strangers then decide your fate, based on this artificial encounter.

Hardly sounds like much fun. So how can you make the experience less painful, and is it possible to ever enjoy an interview?

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Plan for interviews like you would your academic work

Knowledge provides confidence in this situation, so thorough research and practice is key. Plan for interviews like you would your academic work. Give it the time it needs and do not expect to become accomplished in one sitting.

Attending an interview can feel like just an extra thing to do when you’re busy, but decent preparation will help banish those nerves and allow you to perform at your best on the day.

The most important preparation is to ensure that any job you apply for is one you truly want to do with an organisation whose values match your own. This may sound obvious, but the pressure of securing employment can lead some individuals to make a series of half hearted applications which fail to make impact with a recruiter, denting their confidence in the process. Careers Service staff meet a range of employers on a regular basis, and all of them stress the importance of knowing yourself and the company values. The purpose of this is not just to

tick boxes in the selection process, but rather guarantee that your enthusiasm and experience is real. If this is true, then discussing your passions and achievements at interview might actually be enjoyable! Happiness at work is a two way dialogue between you and your employer. Interviews are a chance to ensure that you are both well matched.

But what if you are well prepared and still unsuccessful? Rejection is not the same as failure in this context. If you are turned down for a job, thank the recruiter for the opportunity and

ask for detailed feedback. You may have many positive points to take away, and their reasons will not be personal.

Rejection is not the same as failure

Rejection is not always permanent. If you are sure it is somewhere you really want to work, use the opportunity to

build bridges with an employer. You may be more suitable for an alternative upcoming role. Similarly, it is not uncommon to be rejected for one role only to receive an offer from another employer further down the line, which turns out to be a far better match.

The Careers Service is running a series of events during Selection Perfection fortnight from 6th Feb - 17th Feb, where you will have the opportunity to explore more on making that interview enjoyable! Full details can be found on the Careers Service website http://www. bristol.ac.uk/careers