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The Safer Sex Ball 2011: Acts exclusively revealed inside on page 3
Monday 21 November 2011 • Issue 586 • www.exepose.com • Twitter: @Exepose
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Students occupy Exeter Cathedral Photo: Hannah Walker
Hannah Mawdsley
OCCUPY EXETER protestors have erected tents around Exeter Cathedral following a march through the city centre on Saturday 12 November. A total of 22 tents are now erected on the Cathedral green in an act inspired by the Occupy London protest outside St Paul’s Cathedral. A growing number of students from the University of Exeter have taken an active role in the occupation. Tom Ormiston, a third year History student and media representative for Occupy Exeter, said: “The Occupy Exeter campaign has been established not only in solidarity of occupations across the world, but also as a reminder of what peaceful protest can achieve.”
“The Occupy movement is not expressly anticapitalist; instead we’re looking to create a more equal society” Tom Ormiston, third year History student
He added: “The Occupy movement is distinctive from previous grassroots movements in that it is not expressly anti-capitalist; instead, we’re looking to create a more equal society. We’re also an open occupation: anyone can join us and contribute ideas on how we can achieve financial equality, since we don’t quite know how to achieve this yet.” Dr. Ian Cook, Associate Professor of Geography at Exeter University, delivered a joint lecture on campus in partnership with Occupy Exeter on Friday 18 November. Geography students have been invited to participate in a free university lecture on Friday 25 November at the Cathedral Green.
The Occupy Movement claims that up to 2,000 cities across the world are taking part including: London, New York, Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome, Sydney, Hong Kong, and now Exeter
Andrew Duncan, currently undertaking a PhD in Computer Science, stated: “What we’re trying to do is rediscover democracy from a grassroots level, and that can be for everybody, not just students.” He continued: “We’re getting new people arriving every day, as well as spontaneous acts of support. We’ve had over £400 worth of donations from people just passing by. Ben Bradshaw [Exeter MP] has made a personal visit to show his support.” The group has not yet received any official support from the University of Exeter.
The Cathedral has supported the campaigners’ right to protest. The Dean of the Cathedral, Reverend Carl Turner, said: “Cathedrals have always been gathering places and the Church believes that it is a human right for people to peacefully protest. Some of the concerns of the protestors are shared by many people, inside and outside the Church.” The Bishop, the Right Reverend Michael Langrish, was concerned that protestors were “not going about it in the right way.” He said: “Looking around the Green, where are the financial institutions?”
“Some of the concerns of the protestors are shared by many people inside and outside the Church” Reverend Carl Turner, Dean of Exeter Cathedral
Abdulla AlShamataan, a student at the University of Exeter, spoke on behalf of the Occupy Movement at a recent debate on campus titled ‘This House Believes Capitalism Is Immoral’ in opposition to speakers such as Mark
Wallace, former Campaigns Director for the Taxpayers Alliance. Ed Taylor, a History student, said: “I respect them for actually doing something, and I believe that their aims of raising attention, engaging with the locals, and showing solidarity with other camps are obtainable. I don’t think they fully understand the situation, but very few people do, and even they disagree over the correct course of action.” The Occupy Exeter protest follows the establishment of a similar camp at Jigsaw Gardens in Plymouth this month. The movement claims that up to 2,000 cities across the world are taking part.
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Comment
P7
Students respond to the talk held by controversial speaker Gilad Atzmon
Features
P 11
Features interview Tindyebwa Agaba, an Exeter alumnus, about his recent trip to Burma and the future of the country
Lifestyle P 18-19 Sex-On-The-Exe returns with a double page special spilling all the latest sexual tales
Sport
News
21 November 2011
Aaron Porter fights for students
Joe Johnston & Hannah Sweet - news@exepose.com
Editors Ellie Busby & Henry White editors@exepose.com
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Picketers boycott discussion Photo: Hannah Walker
P 38-40 Read the full match report covering Exeter’s clash with Bath
Exeposé
The Guild is currently reviewing its policies on how events are legally approved
Alex Wynick APPROXIMATELY 30 activists picketed a discussion held by political activist, jazz musician and writer Gilad Atzmon at the Peter Chalk Centre on Tuesday 8 November. The protest was led by members of the Exeter University Jewish Society (JSoc), who were holding signs and distributing leaflets detailing alleged quotations from Gilad Atzmon.
Atzmon approached the picketers before the talk began and inquired whether any of the protesters had read the book being discussed that evening. He said: “If you take yourselves seriously the minimum you should do is read the whole work, not read quotes by an Israeli propaganda unit.” Ben Salamon, President of JSoc, stated: “I’m so proud of what we did, and certainly feel that our point was made.” He continued: “I thought [Atzmon]
was using the tactics of a school-yard bully. He came out with all his supporters, who were applauding him and hanging on his every word, and he picked on one woman who had the courage to stand up to him.” Zain Beseiso, President of Friends of Palestine Society, responded stating: “I do not understand how any students at the University of Exeter still do not grasp the idea of a valid argument, or that labelling someone as a racist should not be used so loosely, as it is a serious matter.” Nick Davis, Guild President, said the Guild had to remain impartial towards both the talk and the protest, but added: “The event raised questions about how our events are assessed and legally scrutinised and we are working with a number of students to help develop new policies.”
“The event raised questions about how our events are legally scrutinised” Nick Davis, Guild President
Friends of Palestine Society continued their series of talks with a discussion titled “Britain and Palestine” that was delivered by former MP George Galloway on Monday 14 November. See Comment page 7 for full debate
15,000 protest against fees
Mike Stanton THOUSANDS of students marched through the streets of London in a protest against increased university tuition fees on Wednesday 9 November. Some 4,000 police officers were on duty as an estimated 15,000 protesters marched peacefully through the streets of London led by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts. Although the protests were largely peaceful, after the violence of last year’s fees protest, the police were armed with plastic bullets to be used in “extreme circumstances.” As the protesters made their way through the city there were sporadic incidents, resulting in 24 arrests, most for breaches of the peace. At noon, activists attempted to erect 20 tents at the foot of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square. Nick Davis, President of Exeter University Students’ Guild, commented: “Whilst the Guild supports the actions of the NUS and of the Students’ Unions around the country who participated in the protest, as previously stated we did not feel obligated by our students to facilitate an Exeter attendance. “We heard very little enthusiasm from our students to attend the protest and the fact that our students were not a significant presence does not worry the Guild.”
£4,800 worth of iMacs stolen from Thornlea Helen Carrington THREE Apple i-Macs collectively worth £4,800 were stolen from Thornlea building at around 20:30 on Thursday 10 November. The building was being used by several societies, and it is thought that the door to the building was propped open, or that the culprit followed a student in. The lock to the multimedia studio had been broken for several weeks. The Macs were in constant use throughout the year for video editing and media production. The department is looking into insurance claims to replace the laptops as soon as possible, particularly because of imminent deadlines for Drama students. Following the investigation the damaged lock has been replaced, addi-
tional CCTV cameras are being added, of a male that we are interested in loand extra precautions are being put in cating. Please do not hesitate to contact If you think you can assist in the inthe police even if you think that your vestigation please contact DC Louise place. James Fox, VP Participation and information is minor. Your information Davies by either calling 101 and quotCampuses, commented: “It is important could be the key to solving this crime.” ing DE/11/10950 or by email at louPhotos: Devon Police Press Office that students and staff are constantly vigilant with who they are letting into University buildings and if they see anything suspicious to get in contact with Estate Patrol on 01392 263999. This was an isolated incident that the police are now dealing with.” Jon Primrose, Technical Manager of the Drama Department commented: “Security of the University is everyone’s responsibility. University buildings are vulnerable to theft, and it is important for students to be cautious and learn to recognise members of their department.” Devon & Cornwall Police has stated: “CCTV has been checked at the premises and we have isolated images The police have collected images of the suspect and are appealing for witnesses
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Exeposé WEEK eight
News
Safer Sex Ball acts revealed Gaming paused
by campus IT Luke Graham Screen Editor
Ellie Busby Editor THE Safer Sex Ball acts have been announced exclusively to Exeposé. The main act is currently DJ Jaguar Skills. He will be returning for his third year at the SSB. On Monday 14 November, one of the music acts booked for the event had to pull out. Gemma Webb, SSB Committee member, said: “It was especially disappointing when last week one of the artists pulled out due to unforseen circumstances. Thus we are waiting to confirm the final act, but do have
something in the pipeline!” Faith SFX, Plan B’s beatboxer, and Girls Roc, burlesque dance troupe and semi-finalists of Britain’s Got Talent, are the other main acts confirmed for the evening. Gemma Webb added: “I am really excited about the three acts we have performing as they are all so very different, giving the SSB a variety of performances. “Our aim regarding acts for SSB this year was to try and have three to four performances from artists of a high calibre rather than focusing on having one main act. It has been a lot of hard work finding artists within our
budget who are well known/recognisable to the students.”
“We are waiting to confirm the final act, but do have something in the pipeline”
Gemma Webb, SSB Committee member
There will also be student acts performing throughout the night, with sets from Exeter University Jazz Orchestra, Exeter University Pole Dancing Society and various student DJs.
Exeter 12th in Drinking League Photo: Henry White
Beans found the average Exeter University student drinks 20.8 units per week. The results were taken from a sample group of 2,197 university students from 68 universities across the UK who were questioned about their drinking habits.
“Half of those surveyed admitted they had missed a lecture because they drank too much the night before”
The Student Drinking Survey 2011
Exeter was ranked 12th out of 68 UK Universities on average weekly alcohol intake
Joe Johnston News Editor THE University of Exeter has been
ranked 12th in the Student Drinking University League Table 2011, a national review of drinking habits amongst students. Research conducted by Student
Leeds Metropolitan University were ranked the highest with an average weekly unit intake of 26.7, and University of Salford scored the lowest with 5.9. The study found over half of those surveyed had missed a lecture because they drank too much the night before. A total of 59 per cent admitted they had experienced memory loss on a night out, and a further 37 per cent said they have no recollection of the journey home. A quarter of those surveyed said they have got into a taxi without knowing it was licensed after a night out. Nick Davis, Guild President, assured students that everything is being done to promote a safe and responsible drinking policy at Exeter University. He said: “Our primary aim is the safety of our students and this includes their physical wellbeing, which, at times, can be affected by their drinking habits. Our bars hold many prestigious awards surrounding the issue of safe drinking and we will continue to strive for excellence in this field.”
ONLINE gaming on campus was temporarily banned by Exeter University IT on Tuesday 8 November. Increased traffic, that coincided with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, caused issues with the speed of internet access across campus. Exeter IT was forced to block all online gaming activities during the working hours of 9:00 to 17:00 in order to restore internet speeds. Campus residents were informed about the ban via email on. The email also requested students to “respectively limit all non-academic use of sites such as the BBC iPlayer during core business hours.”
“Gaming has now been set as a ‘lower priority’” University spokesperson
However, Exeter IT reinstated access on Friday 11 November, and circulated an email stating that they “were working on an alternative solution.” The statement continued: “Gaming has now been set as a ‘lower priority’ over other forms of internet access, such as standard web browsing and Skype.” Exeter IT justified the block by using Section 3 of the ResNet Terms and
Conditions, which states: “[The] ResNet connection is primarily provided to help with academic work. Academic services reserve the right to block, ban or rate limit applications or protocols as required.”
“We are glad plans have been put in place which will not adversely affect students in halls” James Eales, VP Academic Affairs
James Eales, VP Academic Affairs, said: “The Students’ Guild were deeply disappointed with the decision to disable ‘gaming’ access in halls of residence, something we made known to the IT team. We are glad that alternative plans have now been put in place which will not adversely affect the experience of students in halls.” When told about the gaming ban, a third year History student commented: “Considering the amount students pay for campus accommodation, it is unreasonable to restrict access, especially as you can’t choose your internet provider.” Exeter IT have stated they are planning to carry out a large upgrade to the network over the Christmas break, which they claim will “add significant capacity to the network.”
Promote your society here. Email editors@exepose.com
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News
Tributes paid to student TRIBUTES have been paid to Toby Goaman-Dodson, an Exeter University student, after his body was found in the River Thames. The 29-year-old was a PhD Geography student based at Exeter University’s Cornwall Campus. His body was identified on Monday 31 October. The police are not treating his death as suspicious. Goaman-Dodson started his undergraduate course at Exeter University in 2004 and graduated in 2007 with a degree in History and Classical Studies. He was also known for playing guitar as part of the band The Velociraptors! and performed at many venues in Exeter. A University spokesperson said: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Toby Goaman-Dodson. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
Stark climate forecast
TARGETS of limiting global warming to safe levels are only achievable if carbon dioxide emissions begin to fall within the next two decades and eventually decrease to zero, research by an international team of scientists, led by the University of Exeter, has found. The research, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, focuses on the scale of carbon emission reduction needed to keep future global warming at no more than two degrees Celsius over average temperatures prior to the Industrial Revolution. Lead author Professor Pierre Friedlingstein of Exeter University said: “When I analysed these results, I was surprised to see so few options available to us. Our research really emphasises the urgency of the situation.”
21 november 2011
Xpression FM wins Gold Award Antonia Hawken EXETER University’s student radio station, Xpression FM, has won a Gold Award for Best Student Radio Chart Show 2011 at the National Student Radio Awards. The award is presented to the station which best hosts the Student Radio Chart Show, taken to a different university each week by the Student Radio Association. Although guidelines are given, the majority of the shows content is up to the station. The awards ceremony was hosted by Radio 1, and judges commended Xpression FM for the show’s innovative structure and use of live, local music including Soiree For The Buskers and Lindsay Smith. Xpression FM Station Manager
Photo: Xpression FM
Olli Whittle collected the award on behalf of presenters Tom Collins and James Tyndall, remarking how the pair “worked tirelessly” to produce something of winning calibre.
“This year we’ll be continuing to innovate and improve so we can win more awards” Olli Whittle, XpressionFM Station Manager
He continued: “This year we’ll be continuing to innovate and improve so we can win more awards and show that the University of Exeter Students’ Guild radio station is producing the broadcasts of the future.” James Fox, VP Participation &
Members of Xpression FM collected their award at the ceromony hosted by Radio 1
“To be nationally recognised really demonstrates the outstanding work that they do” James Fox, VP Participation & Campuses
CA paint homeless shelter
Photo: Grace Brownfield
Campuses, commented: “Winning was a fantastic achievement for XpressionFM, and to be nationally recognised really demonstrates the outstanding work that they do.” Xpression FM presenter Jack D’Arcy added: “We’re working towards winning when it’s our turn next year!”
First years guaranteed ten hours contact Lorna Miller
IT Student Focus Groups EXETER UNIVERSITY students have been invited to take part in a series of IT Student Focus Groups. A University spokesperson stated: “The aim is to give students the chance to give their views and opinions to help shape the future of IT provision. Volunteering in these Focus Groups will count towards the Exeter Award.” The focus groups will take place on Wednesday 23 November and Wednesday 6 December at 13:00 in Mardon Hall Training Suite. Sessions will last up to two hours. To register your interest, please call Jacqueline Maughan on: 01392 725479 or email: focusgroup@ exeter.ac.uk.
Exeposé
Community Action volunteers brightened up Exeter’s largest voluntary sector accommodation provider on ‘Make a Difference Day’
Hannah Sweet News Editor ON Saturday 12 November a group of Community Action volunteers redecorated Gabriel House Homeless Shelter in Exeter. The group painted a mural and put up some of their own paintings as part of ‘Make a Difference Day’ organised by the charity Community Service Volunteers.
Grace Brownfield, Community Action’s Special Projects Rep, said: “All the walls were really white and a bit dirty so we just wanted to do something to brighten up the place for the residents a bit.” She continued: “One resident in particular stood out to me because he said that it wasn’t even what we had done, as nice as that was, but the fact we cared enough about them to come and do something for them – made all the
organising of it very worthwhile!” Gabriel House is a resettlement project for men and couples between the ages of 18 and 65 who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. We would like to formally apologise to Devika Pandit whose name was misprinted in Mike Stanton’s article, ‘Diwali celebration lights up campus’ (Issue 585).
THE Guild have successfully guaranteed that as of the next academic year all first year students will have at least ten contact hours per week. Students studying STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) will receive a weekly minimum of 15 hours contact time. James Eales, VP Academic Affairs, told Exeposé that the decision had been made due to evidence from NSS results, students surveys and in SSLC meetings that students have felt that they have not received a sufficient amount of contact time. Future targets include the elimination of hidden course costs, and it is hoped that by 2016 the student staff ratio will be improved to 15:1. Despite the fact that Exeter is ranked 11th overall in the 2012 Guardian League Table, the University currently has the worst student staff ratio of the top 40 institutions, at 20:1. It is hoped that improvements will enable students to have smaller learning groups and receive quicker feedback. Students are feeling positive about these changes. Cat Hicks, second year student, said: “I am aiming for a first in my degree – quicker feedback will allow me to put in the work needed for me to reach this goal.”
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Exeposé WEEK eight
Guild grow for Movember Car insurance scam targets Chinese students Photo: Henry White
Tom Kelly AN insurance scam targeting international students, mainly Chinese nationals, at the University of Exeter has been exposed. The scam exploited students attempting to use a Chinese speaking agency to organise car insurance. The agency would take the student’s money before using a stolen credit card to purchase the insurance from an established insurance company. Despite the fraudulent nature of the insurance, under the Road Traffic Act the insurers are responsible for claims, so when the insurers uncovered the scam they tracked down students and issued proceedings. Katherine King, third year law student and student co-ordinator for Student-Law, the free legal advice service, said: “We have been contacted by Exeter Students who are in a terrible state because out of the blue they’ve received Court papers and they really don’t know what’s going on.”
Students affected are not being held responsible by the insurers, and have been advised that as long as Court papers issued by the insurers are answered within 14 days, no costs will be sought by insurers. Despite this, the affected students are unable to retrieve the money they have lost, and may be liable for any accidents which took place whilst using the scammed insurance. Some students may have lost up to £1500. James McNally, Partner at Slee Blackwell Solicitors, said: “If students have received Court papers and aren’t sure what to do then we would urge them to get in touch with StudentLaw as soon as possible so they can be pointed in the right direction.” For the future, Sarah Hoyle, Media Relations Manager at the University of Exeter, said: “Check with the Financial Services Authority before buying insurance cover to confirm that the insurer and agent (also known as a broker) they are dealing with is a registered firm.”
National Student News
Provocative notice at St Andrews a ‘student prank’
Nick Davis, James Fox and James Eales make up team ‘Exeter Guild’
Eco-print campaign turns over new leaf Photo: Brianda Mugge-Mahrt
Rebecca Smyth FOUR Exeter University students are running a campaign to promote doublesided printing on campus. This is part of an undergraduate competition run by Npower to encourage sustainability. Exeter’s team have already been placed in the top eight in the country following the presentation of their proposal, and at a recent team-building event on Dartmoor the group came second out of 12 teams.
NOTICES forbidding students to masturbate in the library toilets at the University of St Andrews were a hoax by students, the university has confirmed. The University responded to a Freedom of Information request made by a student to ascertain the legitimacy of the posters. A spokesperson at St Andrews said: “The notice to which you refer is not an official university notice. It was a student prank. “A strong clue that the notice is fake is the line: ‘Please go home and masturbate if you are bored.’ As a matter of policy, the University would never encourage students to go home during term time. “I understand that two copies of the notice were attached, with chewing gum, to doors of the male toilets in the University of St Andrews Main Library. The notices were removed by Library staff shortly afterwards. “Far from having a policy on masturbation or outlawing the practice, as the bogus notice alleged, the University encourages the study of it, academically at least. Among the titles in the University Library is ‘Solitary Sex : A Cultural History of Masturbation’ by Thomas Walter Laqueur.”
English unis have ‘most freedom’ in Europe
“I expect to see great change from these students” Nick Davis, Guild President
The university teams taking part will be judged on how successfully they implement their energy-saving initiatives. The team has contacted colleges to encourage them to alter the preferred format for coursework to ‘eco printing’. The Business School has already changed the default mode on printers to double-sided printing. The Students’ Guild is very supportive of the initiative. Nick Davis, Guild President, said: “When this group of students first approached me a couple of months back, I couldn’t believe just how organised and resolute they were. They had clear goals and were determined not only to gain the funding they needed to start up the campaign but to
News
The team consists of undegraduates Alexandra De-Mand, Nihara McCormack, Niklas Bargstedt, and Brianda Bugge-Mahrt
make a real difference here in Exeter and in turn around the world. “The Guild was incredibly keen to get involved and provided the group with the time and resources to get their campaign off the ground. I expect to see great change from these students.” In November the team plans to spread awareness further by putting up posters and hosting a giveaway of recycled pens. The team will continue to cooperate with the Students’ Guild to en-
“If the students welcome our initiative, we can halve the paper consumption on campus”
Brianda Mugge-Mahrt, a member of the campaign team
courage widespread inter-departmental participation. Brianda Mugge-Mahrt, a team member, has expressed her enthusiasm for the project: “Sustainability is not a hard thing - it is not a geeky thing either. It is just implementing little things and making them a habit from the very first day you try. “If the students welcome our initiative, we can halve the paper consumption on campus!”
ENGLISH universities enjoy the most freedom from state interference in Europe, a study has found. The research conducted by the European University Associated indicated high levels of academic freedom, financial independence and decentralised admissions procedures in England. The report assessed freedom in the areas of governance, finance, employment practices and academic matters. England was the only nation to achieve a top-three finish in every category. Estonia, Finland, Denmark and Ireland also score well in several categories, while the highly centralised systems in France and Greece are bottom for both academic freedom and staff autonomy. In particular the freedom of individual English universities to choose their vice-chancellors and governing board, set staff salaries, manage their finances and create new courses without the approval of ministers or civil servants were cited as examples of strong autonomy.
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Comment Exeposé
The Exeter Student Newspaper
Occupy Exeter
Following on from global protests, a small band of campaigners have taken up residence on the Cathedral Green, including a tent from the University which is manned by lecturers and students. The Occupy Exeter encampment follows in the footsteps of Occupy Wall Street, Occupy London and many other camps around the world. The movement aims to stop corporate and financial greed, often using the slogan: “We are the 99 per cent” - a reference to the one per cent of the population that has evaded the economic woes of recent years whilst the remaining 99 per cent are left to shoulder the burden. There has been criticism about the location of the occupation, with com-
plaints aimed at the fact the Cathedral has little to do with corporate greed or financial institutions and that it is ruining the green. The counter argument to this emphasises the occupation of St Paul’s Square in London as a similar location, and the overall message is the same, regardless of location. The campaign aims to highlight the situation for many of the world’s population, whilst joining Exeter to a growing number of occupations around the world in a show of solidarity and support. It may look ugly to some, but to others it is a symbol of unity, that people won’t accept exploitation and corruption.
Exeter ranks high in drinking survey EXETER has been ranked 12th out of 68 universities surveyed across the UK in the 2011 Student Drinking University League Table. This result raises the question: Why do Exeter students drink more than students at the 56 universities below us?
“Exeter students are drinking four times more than students at the lowest ranked university” Given the small number of clubs here, and the size of Exeter compared to many much larger universities and cities, it is concerning that we have been ranked so highly. However, the statistics show that the average number of units drunk by an Exeter student per week is 20.8 units, which is still under the recommended weekly allowance for men; yet, we are drinking four times more than the lowest ranked
university. Some of the results raise serious issues, with over half of the students surveyed missing lectures due to hangovers. This highlights a certain double-standard from many students, who readily complain of limited contact hours for the £3,000+ a year fees. Given that some students have as little as six hours of contact time a week, and with fees tripling next year, wasting this precious time because of a hangover undermines the concerns students have previously raised. Another worrying statistic from the survey was that 37 per cent of the students said they had absolutely no recollection of the journey home, with 48 per cent stating they walked home alone. With the possibility of the council turning streetlights off in the early hours of the morning, this seems a foolish decision, especially whilst inebriated. The results are alarming, as many students are clearly willing to put their own safety at risk.
Thanks to all those who helped proof this issue:
James Crouch, Imogen Crookes, Fiona Lally, Oliver Conway, Lizzie Lucas, Amelia Jenkinson, George Graham, Callum Mclean, Thomas Ling, William O’Rourke, Elli Christie, Alex Balcigil, James Dyson, Calum Baker, Tom Bond, Emily Lunn, Joshua Irwandi, Joanna Clifford, Ben Winsor, Bronwen Moore, Matt Bevan, Ella Williams, Anna Béar and members of the Exeposé Editorial team
21 November 2011 Exeposé
Editors: Ellie Busby & Henry White Deputy Editors: Ellie Bothwell & Rosie Scudder editors@exepose.com
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To Exeter, with love
Amy Dicketts
EVERY time I read Exeposé I can’t help thinking that people are far too harsh about Exeter. Sure, someone may well have a heart attack on Cardiac Hill one day, but they definitely won’t die from obesity. No, we may not have huge, Oceanastyle multi-storey clubs, but who doesn’t love the fact that by standing on a stage at one end of Rococos you can see your drunken housemate making a massive error at the other. Yes, the Lemmy may resemble a school disco, but if it was transformed into something half-decent then it wouldn’t be the Lemmy. We might not have a bookstore soon, but that just leaves more room on campus for shops selling Pot Noodle and bacon, and we all know which is more important to student life. Okay, the library may be unreasonably loud from the building works but at least it drowns out the sound of the mouth-breather sitting next to you. Our housing costs may price many people
out of the market but each year Battle of the Halls still provides a note-worthy study of Britain’s class wars condensed into a single, sweaty club. Which other university can offer all these things and more? We have a Quay, a beach, a Primark close enough to meet all your fancy dress needs every Monday night, bouncers who actually remember you week after week, a steady supply of friends willing to make drunken fools out of themselves on a regular basis for your entertainment, a beer garden on campus, The Impy (enough said), The Golden Horn (again, need I say more?)
and the best people I’ve ever met, all in a top ten University. Perhaps being away for a semester has made me realise what a fantastic place Exeter is. Reminiscing with the other Exeter students studying with me here just makes me so excited to get back to what is genuinely the best university on earth. So next time you catch a whiff of cheesy feet in Arena, or go to sit at your computer and write another tirade against some short-coming of Exeter, spare a thought for those of us who are away and missing that odd, cheesy smell more than we can say. Photo: Henry White
Lemmy queue chaos James Crouch A NIGHT out can be treacherous at the best of times, and no-one needs to be told that things can always go wrong when you’ve had a drink or four. But I usually feel safe when I finally get to my destination, be it Arena, Timepiece... but the Lemmy? Saturday Lemmy wouldn’t be the same without a rowdy crowd to follow you in would it? But there’s a difference between a rowdy queue and a downright dangerous situation! The worst it’s ever been was the Saturday at the end of Fresher’s Week, after the Welcome Team was released to have a good time (which they thoroughly deserved). Once they’d gone, the nature of those waiting just degenerated. The queue-front resembled more the crush at the front of a gig, than an orderly file of people waiting their turn! Projectiles were thrown, feet were crushed and every last breath pushed out of my lungs by the weight of hundreds of too-keenfor-their-own-good students behind me. And the same is true for gigs where
the primary attendees are locals rather than students. Just the behaviour is worse, and rather than being characteristic of a minority of the queue, is endemic of most of it. To my memory not a single person was refused entry. And how could they be? As hard as those bouncers could have worked, there simply were not enough of them to enforce rules. The best example of a working system I
can think of is the Arena queue, where a team of bouncers manage the whole thing, highlighting problem-spots in the queue and those that jump in, and then sort it. The Welcome Team performed this task successfully at the first Saturday Lemmy of term, just because there was a whole team. This small change could make so much of a difference to possibly one of the scariest situations you can be in at Exeter!
Letters to the Editors
Send your letters to editors@exepose.com Re: Anonymous letter (Comment, p8, Issue 585) Exeposé I was amused to read last week the hysterical tirade directed against my article ‘Fox Hunted’ in Letters to the Editors. Perhaps I might seek to calm the maniacal disposition of this most infuriated reader. Let me say that I did not seek to dismiss what Dr Fox did, any more than I sought to condone it. I merely hoped that I might provide some deeper insight into the long-standing consequences of a move towards the political mediatisation of government.
It is most unfortunate that some more extreme individuals will always interpret simple critique as total hostility. I would suggest that if we are to have the free, healthy and investigative press that we all desire, we should first be free to investigate and analyse it ourselves. I hope this will calm the fraught nerves of my ‘Anonymous’ critic. Perhaps, if transparency of information in the press is their desire, they might in future not hide behind lurking, veiled and faceless anonymity? I am sure that they would hate to be compared to Mr Werrity. James Roberts
Exeposé WEEK eight
Comment
Gilad Atzmon talk: the reactions
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Photos: Hannah Walker
No platform for racism Speakers like Atzmon spark debate Benjamin Salamon
President of Jewish Society Last week’s protest against guest speaker Gilad Atzmon had excellent support from the student community and I’m very proud that we made our stand against hate speech on campus. Even if you had not previously read a word of Atzmon’s hateful writings, full justification for the protest was to be found directly in the talk that followed. It was painfully clear that this was not just a critique of Zionism; this talk was anti-Semitic. Despite the claim that Atzmon never criticises Jews as a group of people, he repeatedly made hateful and abhorrent comments, even causing some students to walk out in disgust. The audience was told that the Jewish people have “invented their history”, that all Jews who support the state of Israel are “complicit” in its actions and that Jewish lobby groups are “running America.” The historical legitimacy of the Holocaust was openly questioned, implying that the Jewish people have exaggerated the full extent of what occurred to further
their own causes. When challenged on whether Atzmon believed that the Holocaust took place, his response was simply “that’s completely irrelevant.” The anti-Semitic intent was clear. He went on to say that in the future some people will be able to legitimately argue Hitler was right. To make matters worse, he stated in no uncertain terms that Israel should be “de-Jewdified.”
“Atzmon repeatedly made hateful and abhorrent comments”
My disgust was soon replaced with utter disbelief, as Atzmon boldly claimed that “Anti-Semitism is not important at all... because it doesn’t exist.” When confronted with a clear example from an audience member his reaction was merely: “This is not nice.” Anti-Semitism does exist. It was heard loud and clear on our campus. After such a disgusting talk, surely the Guild needs to reconsider its position on racist guest speakers.
Calum Humphreys Exeter University has strong ties to the Palestinian cause, by providing a base for the Exeter Friends of Palestine, a home to leading academics on the issue, and offering the unique MA in Palestinian Studies. Therefore, it is no surprise that Palestine’s most vocal supporters are welcomed by many at the university. However, the visible security at these events shows that not everyone is happy with the presence of firebrands like Gilad Atzmon and George Galloway. Some argue that they should not be allowed to speak at all, actively picketing outside the Atzmon talk. Were we supposed to read their fluorescent flyers and simply walk out of the lecture theatre? I think most attendees felt that seeing Atzmon in person would provide a better insight than a few inflammatory quotations on some brightly coloured paper. It is only natural to be uncom-
Atzmon should not have been invited Rachel Bayne Sports Editor
The University of Exeter and the world of academia should be a place that fosters well-informed, peaceful and instructive debate. This notion was catastrophically undermined by Gilad Atzmon in a debate at the Peter Chalk Centre on Tuesday 8 November. Gilad Atzmon aggressively and vocally challenged a group of peaceful protestors before his speech, undermining the system of fair-play which was upheld by the Jewish Society. He walked up to a line of protestors, who were not impeding the entrance of spectators, singling out one individually and actively questioning her right to protest.
He then hypocritically accused her of hostility, when he himself chose to undermine the protest in a cowardly way with one protestor, rather than leaving his views to the public forum. The debate itself featured many controversial remarks from Atzmon who commented that anti-semitism did not exist in the Israel-Palestine debate and that Hezbollah and Hamas were “beautiful” organisations. These remarks are successors of comments in his academic work where he commented that he thought it to be a rational argument for Synagogues to be burnt down. It is understandable that someone can be anti the Israeli Government’s actions in the Israel-Palestine issue and it is great to see the Friends of Palestine Committee inviting guest speakers to inform us on this issue. But for them to categorically ignore the feelings and
beliefs of the Jewish Society in inviting a bullish and anti-Semitic speaker to talk on our campus is ridiculous. There are plenty of academics who speak on this issue but do not marginalise and offend a significant religious and cultural group. Friends of Palestine Society need to take a good hard look at their actions and apologise – Exeter University should be a place that accepts everyone’s religious and cultural beliefs, not a place which invites bullies and racists to speak in a public forum.
We would like to formally apologise to Abi Jenkins whose article ‘Ottery St Mary: Playing With Fire?’ (Issue 585) was altered during editing. We would like to clarify that it is “St John Ambulance” and not “St John’s Ambulance” as was printed.
fortable whilst listening to people with views that are so different from your own, but to seek to silence them is wrong. Free speech and open debate can only ever be a good thing. That means digesting extreme, unbalanced and offensive views, which in the IsraeliPalestine debate are not hard to find. I believe that the most effective way to formulate a view on a subject is to listen to the extreme ends of the argument, and that is what Atzmon and Galloway provide. I praise the Friends of Palestine for inviting them despite the difficulties. Although, herein lies the problem; they both talked about the Palestinian side of the argument in front of a mostly homogeneous pro-Palestinian audience, which is unsurprising. Despite enjoying the two talks, I want another extreme,
more variety. I would like to see more cooperation between the Friends of Palestine Society and the Jewish Society regarding the organisation and promotion of talks, so that the talks are more like debates rather than rallies. It is in the Jewish Society’s interest to endorse speakers like Atzmon and Galloway in order to engage directly with key proponents of differing views to their own. This idea has wider implications; once we learn to accept the extremes of an argument and end the hostility surrounding the arrival of controversial speakers, the easier it becomes to co-exist. And if some of those involved in the debate at this University go on to become protagonists in the wider discussion then this attitude will be constructive for the conflict as a whole.
Freedom of speech brings about change Elizabeth Lumb
Whilst I disagree entirely with Gilad Atzmon’s views regarding Jewish identity politics, I believe he had the right to speak to the Friends of Palestine Society and the wider student population about his book ‘The Wandering Who?’ earlier this month. The outrage provoked by his notoriously anti-Semitic opinions regarding issues including the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestine conflict is entirely warranted and it certainly isn’t surprising that his presence on campus enraged so many, particularly the Jewish Society who actively campaigned against the event. However, I would like to think that as university students, we have not only the intelligence to discern ignorant, racist propaganda from historical evidence, but also the tolerance to listen to other individuals voice opinions that may not necessarily match our own.
Freedom of speech is a fundamental human right and censorship is a very dangerous thing. What would have been achieved by preventing Atzmon from speaking? People would not have been angered and upset, but these are the very emotions we need to incite in order to fight prejudice head on. If anything, he has made the University and community as a whole more aware of, and more willing to contest, his racist views.
“What would have been achieved by preventing Atzmon from speaking?” Suppressing the controversial opinions of certain minorities only makes us ignorant of what is going on in the wider world. If we refuse to acknowledge beliefs we disagree with, we cannot expect to change them or make a difference to the world in which we live. Gilad Atzmon’s speech has ultimately prompted widespread debate and increasing awareness of anti-Semitic issues. Surely, if anything, this is a positive outcome?
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21 november 2011 Exeposé
Comment
The build up to the Safer Sex Ball 2011 RAG explains ticket mishap The SSB Committee
Charlie O’Flaherty, Gemma Webb, Jennie Jones, Tamanna Gandecha, Will Carter RAG’s Safer Sex Ball 2011 has sold out! Second time lucky... The SSB Committee would like to apologise for any inconvenience the events of last Thursday caused for our fellow students, but would like to reiterate that the matter was completely out of our control. Reassurances and guarantees had been provided to RAG, the SSB Committee and the Students’ Guild by our chosen provider that the system could handle the pressure. Stress tests were done and everything looked good. However, what was not anticipated was the sheer volume of hits from around the world which the system experienced and so caused it to stop working. We understand it was a frustrating period, so decisions were made to make alternative arrangements to sell tickets online this past Thursday using Ticketmaster, and to increase capacity at Westpoint as much as possible in order to account for the tickets that were successfully sold the first time around. The feedback we have had from that has been very positive and tickets were sold out in less than one hour! The reason the decision was made by RAG and the
Students’ Guild not to use Ticketmaster in the first instance is relatively simple: the higher ticket booking fee – which would have meant the Eddystone Trust and RAG’s nominated charities losing out on vital money – and an inability to validate that those purchasing tickets were Exeter students (although they are, of course, welcome to bring guests).
“Reassurances had been provided to RAG. However, what was not anticipated was the sheer volume of hits from around the world”
The SSB Committee and RAG would like to thank you for your patience. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Students’ Guild staff for their support in rectifying this situation, which nobody had foreseen – even after the ten months of planning. Lessons will most certainly be learnt for next year, but, in the meantime, roll on December 8th for what we hope will be a fantastic night to remember in the 20th year of the Safer Sex Ball! Cartoon by Megan Revell
SSB isn’t worth the money a vomit-covered coach to and from West Point Arena, and part with 40 quid on the ticket alone.
Alex Wynick THERE are many reasons why one can get riled about the Safer Sex Ball – phrases like “degrading”, “sexualisation”, “misogynistic” and “slut” can be so easily bandied about. However, as far as I’m concerned, if you want to prance about in the freezing cold like a wannabe Playboy Bunny for one evening of the year, feel free. Nor is my issue that it makes girls who don’t have a size 6 figure feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. My real gripe with the Safer Sex Ball is that it just looks rubbish. I knew many people who attended the SSB last year, and even more this year. All ready and willing to grapple with queues, refresh crashing websites, agonise over corsets, mull over whether the red suspenders were just a little too slutty in comparison to the class of black garters, brave the cold, be gawped at by bemused locals, ride
“I can’t help but wonder if everyone is exaggerating to themselves and others to make their extraordinary effort worthwhile?” This would all be well and good if any of them seemed to have much fun; most people I know said that Westpoint was too big and too cold, the drinks too expensive, that they lost everyone they knew within minutes, that the cloakroom system was a shambles, that the acts were unimpressive, and that, all in all, it wasn’t worth the money. Even those who came back saying that it was a really good night seemed unenthused; I’ve seen more excited reports about a decent Cheesy Tuesday Arena or an average Friday night Timepiece. I can’t help but wonder if everyone is
exaggerating to themselves and others to make their extraordinary effort worthwhile? Bafflingly, despite this, everyone seems to be going again anyway. I’m happy to let the experience of the Safer Sex Ball pass me by and let everyone else waste their money.
Photo: Henry White
MAKE CHANGE HAPPEN
exeterguild.com/haveyoursay
JCR GUILD AGM
12 PM
The Annual General Meeting of the Students’ Guild will
EXETERGUILD.COM/AGM2011
8 DEC 2011
be held in the Junior Common Room (first floor,
Devonshire House) on Thursday 8 December 2011 at 12pm until 2pm. The AGM is required
– it’s an opportunity to have your say on the management of the Guild. To get involved you can either attend in by law for person (go students to to the url approve the above) or sign Guild annual your proxy accounts, vote over affiliations to another and reports student.
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Exeposé week eight
Features
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Sam Lambert & Clare Mullins - features@exepose.com
INTERVIEW: A time of change in Burma
Sam Lambert, Features Editor, talks to Tindyebwa Agaba, Exeter alumnus, about his visit to the country Photo: ActionAid
Tindyebwa Agaba and Emma Thompson meet Aung San Suu Kyi
BURMA
When President Thein Sein was brought into government in March it hailed a new civilian government in Burma and ended the military oppression in place since 1962, when General Ne Win took power in a military coup. Sein’s promotion from prime minister is just one of many changes currently occurring in Burmese politics at the moment. Exeter alumni Tindyebwa Agaba, or Tindy for short, and his adoptive mother, actress Emma Thompson, made a recent trip to Burma to see the work of charity ActionAid there. “I was invited by ActionAid to a specific project but I particularly wanted to see and understand the youth participatory model for devolvement. Young people are working with and energising villagers to take responsibility of their own communities. I was interested in young men and women and how they work in that type of model because I am working with young men at the moment in West
Africa.” This reference is to Liberia, where Tindy works with men affected by war. “They are, I hate to use this phrase, excombatants, guys who were affected by war, who used to fight in the long civil war in Liberia. They are now mainly late 20s and I am trying to talk to them to find ways they can become more productive in society. I learnt that they wanted to do many things; they want to have stability, to earn a wage as they try and recover from their past. They will be learning communicative and marketing skills and the discipline of work. I want to expand the model to Sierra Leone.” We move on to discuss his visit to Burma. When I speak of it as a country facing great change he agrees immediately. “I’d been reading a lot of the Western press. It gave me this picture that is so wrong, so different from what I saw. I was fascinated by how beautiful and graceful people were. I saw a street vendor selling a magazine called The Future with a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi on the cover. I said to myself: ‘How can this be possible when I keep reading newspapers back in London?’” Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel laurete, is one of many political prisoners to be released in recent times. Her release was significant. As General Secretary of the
National League of Democracy (NLD) and a key opposition politician to the oppressive military Junta, she has spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest. “We were there at a time of unprecedented change. A few days after our arrival, when I was talking to released prisoners, the government was announcing that it was releasing more prisoners and I was saying ‘Ah!’ This was a society becoming more positive; it was changing, transforming.”
“Aung San Suu Kyi values the youth as a national resource and wants them at the heart of the transition to democracy ” Tindy describes the experience of meeting political prisoners as emotional. “When I saw how grateful those guys were and their forgiveness, it was extraordinary; their sanity and their courage. I just couldn’t understand what they had gone through, it took me a long while to understand. One of the guys had been imprisoned for over 20 years, five of which were in solitary confinement. He was still sane, he was not preaching
hate and revenge, he was just so grateful. His wife had also been constantly imprisoned, over a ten year period, because of her political awareness programmes in her village. They were cautiously positive about what was going on, about how genuine President Thein was and what his reforms were about. But they really believed he was quite genuine, things were going to change in a positive way.” Tindy had the chance to meet Aung San Suu Kyi. “It was such a privilege to meet her and speak with her at length. My first impressions of her were a rare embodiment of power. She knows how to delegate it; when anyone is speaking to her she doesn’t want the focus to be on her. She still wants to learn more about what you have to say and what you have to offer; she said to me ‘I love the youth and I want them to be the engineers of transformation in society, especially in the rule of law’. She was curious to learn something new, about how I work with young people, especially young people affected by conflict because her country has similar problems. To her, delegating is spreading out her power; it’s a good quality to have in a leader and very unusual. The world leaders at the moment are so self-interested and trying to be grand all the time. They don’t make a difference to young people. Her curiosity and the way she embodies and delegates power, left its mark on me. We talked about the youth and how they could be more productive for society because she values the youth as a national resource and wants them to be at the heart of the transition to democracy. She was cautious but wanted to imply that the present reforms with the President shouldn’t surprise people because among the military people, Sein has been really one of the more open-minded and the more trust-worthy and she believes in him. He was one of the reformists.” He pauses briefly: “She doesn’t want us to get ahead of ourselves and say everything is going to be fine, she was very careful about that.” I ask him if he will take any of the things he’s seen and apply them in his project work in Africa. He is quick to respond: “Yes! I took a lot of things that I would love to apply in the African context, although I would have to apply them quite differently. I loved how spirituality shapes the response to adversity and how it makes people more forgiving and hopeful in society. Also, from speaking to Aung San Suu Kyi, I saw in her that the more you give power out, the more re-
spect people give you. I would love to apply that when I go back to West Africa.” We move on to talk about the young people who are part of ActionAid’s Fellow programme. “I was impressed by how young they were and how quickly they have adapted to the developing situation of their country. I worked with a great chap, Aung Min Naing, who described the activism that developed from having both a spiritual influence and a yearning for development. Their society is so greatly shaken by Buddhism and they believe that people should live simply, anything more they consider to be greed. He had to find a way of trying to reconcile that with telling them that they might need to have a well in their village or have proper waste lands, but that can be considered greed because you are developing the person. A lot of the young guys have lost eight, ten members of their families, yet here they were telling me how enthusiastic they were about their country. They spoke of how they appreciated the environmental problems affecting their country and how it affected them. It was admirable seeing them and working with them. That’s how the Fellow Program came about. Young guys going into the villages and working with them. I was fortunate to have met them.” As Exeposé goes to press it has been announced that the NLD will register legally as a political party. Aung San Suu Kyi has said she will stand for election to parliament. At ActionAid, a handful of groups started up at UK universities last year. Find out more about getting involved with ActionAid’s work and the global Activista network at www.actionaid. org.uk/bollockstopoverty. Photo: ActionAid
Tindy enjoying the Burmese hospitality
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21 November 2011 Exeposé
INTERNATIONAL PROFILE
Features
Bettino, Bunga-Bunga, Berlusconi ... and Me
Flora Derounian reflects on her time in Italy and the political upheaval that is gripping the country
ITALY
HAVING lived in Italy, and spent time with its modern, cultured and welcoming population, I often ask myself why Italy, as a world power, gets such a bad press. Italians themselves (particularly those in the North) often told me gloomily “non cambia mai niente” – “Nothing ever changes.” This always struck me as a rather amusing analysis of a country which, in the last 200 years has seen warfare, fascism, revolution, and unification. However, no one can deny that Italy in 2011 is changing, and with great international implications. To understand Italy, many have looked to make an analysis of its infamous, and now recently resigned Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Why, they have asked, would one of the largest European powers choose an ex cruise ship crooner, television media tycoon, host to many a notorious ‘Bunga-Bunga’ party, to lead the country to political and economic success? ‘Bella domanda’, our Italian compatriots would say with irony
Name: Flora Derounian
– ‘Good question’, because to understand this, one must recognise the many cultural and political subtleties which led to Berlusconi’s 17 year reign over Italian politics. Silvio Berlusconi, or Il Cavaliere (‘The Knight’) as I frequently heard Italians call him, handed in his resignation on the evening of 12 November, heckled by a crowd which called him “Gangster” and “Buffoon”. “Buffoon” he may be, but his resignation marked an end to his stay as Italy’s longest governing post-war prime minister. His time in government was one tarnished by scandal and accusation. To name just a few of the controversies borne against Berlusconi, in 2004, Italy’s freedom of the press status was downgraded from ‘Free’ to ‘Partly Free’ by The Freedom of the Press 2004 Global Survey, as a result of Berlusconi’s media empire Mediaset, which is estimated to control 90 per cent of the national media. He maintains a public friendship with Bettino Craxi, who was convicted in 1994 for corruption. Finally, and perhaps most damningly come the ‘Bunga-Bunga’ tales: young, female, attractive candidates with little political experience standing in the 2009 European Parliamentary Elections, reports by ex-wife Veronica Lario of his consorting with minors, and accounts of his hosting orgy-like parties, with belly dancers, naked African dancing and unHow did you come to spend time in Italy? I spent my Erasmus year in Ferrara. I chose it because of it’s medieval walls (for running on), it’s bicycle culture and it’s pumpkin filled pasta. How was living in Italy compared to England? Living in Italy was everything I had
derage prostitutes. Yet, in my experience in Italy, Italians would shake their heads disapprovingly at Berlusconi’s behaviour but did not seem to see it as contradictory to his competence as prime minister. The repercussions of Berlusconi’s personal behaviour which most irked Italians I spoke to was the effect that it had on national identity, rendering Italy ridiculous in the eyes of other European nations. Berlusconi’s rapid ascent to the highest social and monetary echelons in 1987 during the ‘Economic Miracle’, at a time when Italy’s GDP rose by 18 per cent in one year, demonstrates the changes Italian society has undergone since the end of Fascism. With democracy came renewed hopes of fair representation, international repute and social mobility for Italian citizens. When the Italian budget first went into deficit in the 1960s, it stimulated public spending, improved infrastructure and the redistribution of wealth. However, this deficit now stands at 120 per cent, and is the pivotal factor in Italy’s economic precariousness, and the reason for its disputed role in the European Union. After the Eurozone bailout of Greece, foreign markets consider Italian debt, with its abysmal 0.75 per cent growth over the last 15 years, to be too risky. On the other hand, unlike Greece, Italy is already a fairly financially prudent economy, with low expenditure on public services and benefits. Despite this fact, the next Prime hoped it would be. The city was beautiful in an unintimidating, classically Italian way and the people were incredibly warm and welcoming. Would you like to go back? Yes, definitely. Going to live a stone’s throw from Venice and Lake Garda is an appealing graduation prospect. The only thing that would concern
Minister of Italy will have the task of implementing harsh austerity measures. Berlusconi’s successor, Mr Mario Monti, responded to a BBC reporter’s question of how optimistic he felt for Italy’s future with a handshake and the words “I love the BBC!” Whether the comment was based in sarcasm or enthusiasm is ambiguous, however when I spoke to one of my friends in Ferrara, Italy, about how optimistic he felt for Italy’s future, his attitude was clear: “I believe this changing of politicians is giving an exaggerated sense of optimism to Italian citizens. We have this habit of thinking that to resolve our problems it’s enough to shake up old
institutions and their human components, when actually it would be better to intervene at the heart of what is a social issue”. “I remain pessimistic. As long as corruption rots at our political system, the expulsion of one individual will clearly not be enough to solve our problems.” Italy’s future then, remains indefinite. Despite the tendency towards political defeatism I occasionally observed in Italians, we can at least hope that the new Prime Minister will improve EU relations, and that unlike Silvio Berlusconi, references to the size of German Prime Minister Angela Merkel’s behind will be absent from future meetings. Photo: Reuters
Former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, in the Senate House, Rome
me about returning to Italy to find work would be the current level of unemployment (which is high). However, as an English speaker I have the advantage that English tutoring and teaching is fairly in demand.
What was the best part of your time in Italy? A friend and I took part in the an-
nual ‘Corsa di Babbo Natale’ (‘Father Christmas Run’) through the cobbled streets of Ferrara in December. Rushing around the crowded course with beard, hat, trousers, padded jacket and five hundred other ‘Father Christmas’s’ was one of the funniest moments of my life.
It’s dark days for democracy in Europe
Alex Carden puts democracy in the dock and asks whether direct representation has had its day
IT’S been a bad fortnight for democracy, specifically that of the direct kind. First, in the UK, Tory rebels were defeated in the calls for a referendum on our membership of the European Union after David Cameron imposed a threeline whip to enforce party loyalty. And then, more recently, the now ex-Greek Prime Minister’s decision to allow the Greek people a referendum on the new bailout package being offered was swiftly swept under the carpet, with the Prime Minister himself being forced to step down over the issue. Inevitably, this brings rending of hair and gnashing of teeth. To deny citizens their right to decide on important issues is surely a horrific crime against democracy, the basis of the western world. It suggests a return to autocracy, in both of these cases seemingly directed by unelected European officials applying pressure to stop these noble efforts toward allowing the people a voice in their tracks – certainly as Nigel Farage seemed to imply in his speech to the Politics Society, here at our univer-
sity. But let’s be serious here. In neither case would a referendum have been a good idea. Greece neither had the time, money, or infrastructure available to ask the populace how they felt on a highly complex bailout deal. With the circumstances changing daily, by the time a Photo: ABC News
Former Greek PM, George Papandreou
referendum had been conducted in November or December as planned, the point might be moot, with the bailout no longer on the table, or Greece too far gone in economic decline for it to even retain significance. Not to mention the fact that any uncertainty at all, such as trying to predict the outcome of a referendum, might terrify the markets still further. The same reasoning applies to the British referendum – at this juncture, even to appear to be entertaining the notion that the UK might withdraw from Europe was a move almost guaranteed to undermine already shaky confidence in the EU, nudging the dominoes still further and increasing the rate at which confidence is fleeing from Italy, Ireland, and Portugal, to name but a few. In addition to both these referenda being badly timed, there are intrinsic flaws with direct democracy itself that give even more compelling arguments to not only avoiding a referendum now, but in the future too. They are highly emotive; it is possible that the bailout
deal could have been voted down just because of ill-defined hatred towards the Euro, towards the government, or toward anything else that might explain the terrible situation that many Greek people find themselves in. As a result of this, such referenda are open to exploitation by the different sides – who can forget the childish and venomous propaganda by the ‘No’ campaign in the recent referendum on AV. This reduces the vote still further from a consideration of the pros and cons toward a knee-jerk, emotional response fuelled by soundbites and slogans. Such a response could have produced ‘no’ votes both to membership of the EU and to the bailout based entirely on sentiment. Such a result would have truly revealed the paradox of democracy; that the popular choice is not necessarily the right one. For nations that appear to be enamoured with democracy, let us not forget that participation in democracy has been falling across the board. Turnout in the last Greek election was just under
53 per cent. Turnout in our referendum on AV was 42 per cent, the previous election around 65 per cent. Would having an important decision made by just over half the population really grant the popular mandate that a referendum is supposed to achieve? Would it not suggest that the whole exercise has pretty much been in vain? Might it not be better to leave these crucial and sensitive decisions to the ‘men [and women] in the room’, with the information and the actual working experience that grants them a far better understanding of the issues they are facing, to deal with serious crises like the one all of Europe is facing? I don’t argue for an abandonment of democracy, of course, but suggest that sometimes, some decisions have to be made by those most able to make them. In periods of relative calm there may be time for direct democracy, but when a decision needs to be made quickly, we should not blame the leaders we elected to make it.
Exeposé WEEK EIGHT
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Features
Wearing a poppy is not enough Do poppies really bring peace, asks Megan Drewett
11/11/11 came and went this past week harbouring two significant events. The first was a palindromic moment – the clock struck the 11th second of the 11th minute, on the 11th day of the 11th month in the 11th year of the century, something which can only occur once in those 100 years. An interesting fact, though rather unimportant when compared to the other event that took place last Friday. That other event was Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the end of World War One. Across the country, thousands of people paused at 11 o’clock for the annual two minute silence in tribute to the fallen of not just that conflict, but of the many others that Britain has since fought as well. Thousands donated to the Royal British Legions Poppy Appeal and sported the red flower pins all weekend in respect of the nation’s lost soldiers. This was undoubtedly a sign of great national pride that so many paid their respects to those that fought and died for generations they were yet to know. But, after the 93 years that have passed since the guns silenced on the Western Front, how far have we come in truly paying our respects to those soldiers? This year’s Remembrance Day was steeped in controversy. Arguments flared over FIFA’s ridiculous decision to stop the England team wearing poppies on their kit during their friendly with Spain. Debate ran riot over how appropriate it was to wear ‘blinged-up’ poppies, as were displayed on the X-Factor, and there was disagreement over whether
it was right for the Government to ban the extremist Muslims Against Crusades group, who spent last year’s Remembrance Day burning poppies, rather than wearing them. The common thread in all these arguments is how we show our respect to our servicemen and women. As a country, we are obsessed, and rightly so, with how this must be done properly. Yet with all this obsessing, it seems that we have rather forgotten the most important way of going about it.
“How long will it be until our Army is once again sent to fight in the name of the politicians?” World War One was supposed to be the war to end all wars. It was deemed a conflict of such magnitude that no conflict would ever come after it, because mankind had seen too much death and were certain to have learnt their lesson. Yet in the century that has nearly passed since then, Britain has been involved in countless conflicts, from the Falklands to Kosovo and back. Most students will know of at least two, Iraq and Afghanistan. These wars in themselves have been highly controversial, seeing mass protest on the streets of London, an ever more cynical approach to our motives for going to war and most significantly, the deaths of over 550 British soldiers.
This considered, it does seem that in the last decade, Britain has been pushed into war far too quickly, by politicians who have failed to consider the full consequences for both our country and our Armed Forces. As a nation, we have developed a reputation for simply following the USA in our foreign policy, for not acknowledging the sanctity of national sovereignty, and for having more concern for our oil sources, rather than actual human rights abuses in the world. We have made enemies, not friends, around the globe, and worst of all, our Armed Forces have taken the brunt of the anger and the resentment that really should be directed towards our politicians in government. Critics and extremists do not bother to differentiate between the Army and Westminster when it comes to criticising where the policies that British soldiers enforce come from. Under our coalition government, we have already seen British involvement in Libya, and with what seems to be a growing threat from Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, how long will be it until our Army is once again sent to fight in the name of the politicians, not the people, and be criticised and killed for it? By failing to consistently challenge the actions of our government on international conflict, we are failing to respect the memories of those soldiers that died in the hope that war would never again come to Britain. Of course, we should continue to wear our poppies and participate in the
The Cenotaph at Whitehall, London, on Remembrance Sunday.
two minute silence in honour of our war dead, but we must, as the next generation, strive to do better. We must remember that there is a crucial difference between the soldiers that fight our wars and the politicians that orchestrate them, and that remembering those soldiers on
Britain’s role in the Libyan revolution
Hugh Blackstaffe praises the military’s response to the events in North Africa
BRITAIN’S military prowess is under threat. The war in Afghanistan is costing billions a day, the continuing naval presence across the world has stretched the Royal Navy more than ever, and the Ministry of Defence finds itself having to cut millions of pounds from its budgets. Whilst the intervention in Libya wasn’t a conflict Britain could afford to get involved with, it was a conflict that Britain could not morally afford to ignore. Muammar Gaddafi’s campaign of violent oppression against his own people, who sought to end his 34 year dictatorship, resulted in a nine month civil war. NATO’s role was clear and outlined by Resolution 1973, but what was the British contribution? How did Britain prevent Libya from becoming another Iraq? On the 17 March 2011, the United Nations Security Council sanctioned Resolution 1973, which implemented a “no-fly” zone over Libyan territory, with the intention of safeguarding the Libyan people from the Gaddafi regime whilst simultaneously seeking the removal of the long standing dictator from power. Resolution 1973 was enforced by several NATO nations as well as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Britain deployed both naval and air assets to Libya in Operation Ellamy as well as ‘on-the-ground’ Special Forces (Special Air Service, Special Boat Service and Special Reconnais-
sance Regiment) in partnership with the British foreign intelligence agency MI6. Within an hour of Resolution 1973 being signed, French aircraft had already penetrated Libyan airspace on a reconnaissance mission, and NATO began to map out its initial targets.
“I am proud that Britain can endeavour to help people fight for basic human rights and liberties” The primary concern for the NATO forces was the protection of civilians through the ultimate destruction of Gaddafi’s armed forces. The goal was to remove Gaddafi from power and destroy his ability to counter-attack whilst reducing the risk to the civilian populace as much as possible. One only has to look at the situation in Iraq, where the invasion and subsequent occupation resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties through poor tactical coordination, a deep mistrust of the local populace and a mentality geared towards total control of every facet of government in the reconstruction of the nation. With Libya, the plan was different. There would be no occupation, there
would be extensive support of the National Transitional Government without overt meddling and there would be an emphasis on limiting use of tactical military force in order to reduce the possibility of collateral damage. The other key factor was working with the Libyan rebels who were the catalyst for the entire uprising. Training, funding and advising them every step of the way was a challenge taken up covertly, but it was a crucial factor in the overall victory. Britain has a fine heritage in covert training and ‘on-the-ground’ assistance on behalf of foreign nations, and Libya presented a unique opportunity for Britain to both show the Libyan people its commitment to securing their democratic future and also improve its relations with a country that had for a long time been a source of concern for the UK. It was no secret that Gaddafi had been supplying and training the IRA during their insurrection in Ireland and it was a Libyan who had been responsible for the Lockerbie bombing. Also the killing of the Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher at the Libyan embassy had further damaged relations with Gaddafi’s regime. Clearly the UK had alternative reasons to help push Gaddafi from power, but insisted putting all effort into its NATO objectives, namely the evacuation of British nationals, the safeguarding of
Libyan civilians through tactical air and naval strikes on military targets of Gaddafi’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the training and assistance of Libyan rebels and National Transitional Government and avoiding the situation becoming another Iraq-esque fiasco. The Navy took responsibility for aiding the evacuation of refugees while destroying the regime’s costal defences through surface bombardments and submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. They also provided insertion and extraction capabilities for Special Forces. The Army Air Corps attack helicopPhoto: IBTimes
Fighters in Tripoli recieved NATO support.
11 November is not enough. We need to ensure that they are not fighting wars where they can be killed in the first place, because whilst it is honourable that we remember their sacrifice, it is a sacrifice that we should not allow our politicians to force them to make.
ters primarily attacked targets in urban environments, like Tripoli, where precision was crucial to protecting the civilian populace. The RAF provided the heavy air support and was vital for achieving first strike capacity with its Typhoon and Tornado fighter-bombers. British Special Forces infiltrated Libya to provide intelligence on the ground as well as mentoring the Libyan rebels. They also provided surveillance that resulted in the capture or killing of many senior Regime figures and assisted in the evacuation of British nationals. The British Armed Forces proved themselves outstanding in conflict resolution after the debacle of Iraq and the on-going predicament in Afghanistan. Libya is still in the process of massive change, but due to the overt and covert assistance from NATO forces and their Arab Colleagues, Libya has achieved freedom from tyranny. In this modern age, where war is waged over resources or to suit politicians’ hidden agendas, it is noteworthy that nations will go to war purely to help an oppressed people fighting to reclaim their country. And I for one am proud that Britain, despite its financial problems and its military stretched to breaking point, can endeavour to help people fight for basic human rights and liberties.
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21 November 2011 Exeposé
Features
Private vs. State: The Great Education Divide? Is private school worth the money, asks Mark Carvell Photo: Amanda Eliasch
Boys from Harrow School, one of the oldest independent schools in England
FOR parents, sending a child to private school costs, on average, £3, 655 per term, a high price tag that immediately rules it out for some and makes it unappealing for others. Yet, this summer 52 per cent of A Level submissions from the independent sector achieved at least an A grade, compared with just 27 per cent in the public sector, so there is an undeniable correlation between good results and private schools. The question is could those students have achieved such outstanding grades for free at a normal comprehensive school? If not: why not? If yes: why did they choose the private route instead? To understand the answers to these questions we need to look beyond the world of grades and exam analysis. According to statistics published in 2011 by the ISC (Independent Schools Council), there are currently 506,500 students in private school being taught by 46,109 full time teachers. This gives a ratio of one teacher to between ten and eleven
students. This allows teachers to give individual support to those who need it, which unfortunately state school classrooms, containing 25 to 30 students of extremely mixed abilities, do not always allow.
“The top students in state schools take the initiative, work hard and get involved”
Smaller teaching groups make it easier to group students according to their needs and then give additional help to those who struggle with certain topics until the whole group is at the same level. Sadly, having larger teaching groups in state schools often results in the cleverest pupils not being pushed to their potential and the less able being left at the back of the pack in a cloud of dust. It is widely believed that private schools deliver a more rounded educa-
tion; as opposed to purely coaching for exams they coach for life. For James Ford, a second year at Exeter, lessons were only a small part of education: “A huge element of private school is made up of sport and extra curricular opportunities,” he says: “There was an expectation for everyone to either take up a sport or another activity and only a minority of people didn’t.” Although such opportunities do exist in state schools, the difference in the independent sector is the expectation and pressure put upon pupils to take part in them. A further issue that may sway parents when making decisions about their children’s educations is the stigma against high achievers and hard workers that exists amongst pupils in the majority of comprehensive schools. Pupils that work hard in comprehensive schools are often (especially in younger year groups) labeled as “geeks” or “teacher’s pets” by others who aren’t achieving as highly. Josh Spector, another second year student, states that this derision does not exist as much in the independent system: “Most of the parents of private school students are wealthy and have become wealthy by working hard. This means that most of the students inherit this hard work ethic and want to be successful too.” The combination of pressure, competition and, frequently, selective admissions produces an atmosphere conducive to high achievement. Comprehensive schools just do not have the teaching resources to ensure that every individual is motivated and is being pushed to their full capacity. This is not at all a discredit to the teachers themselves, for some of the best teachers in the country are employed in the
public sector. Yet because their parents are not directly paying for a position at the school, students in the public sector sometimes lack the extra motivation from home. Of course this is a generalization, and not true for everyone.
“It is widely believed that private schools deliver a more rounded education”
School is what you, as a pupil, make it. There is a lot more freedom and choice involved in state education, for instance you are not pressured to join the rugby team or play the piano, you are not automatically coached for Oxbridge interviews, and the academic expectations upon you are less intense. Yet that is not to say that the opportunities to do all these things do not exist, because they do; teachers encourage keen students to get involved in every aspect of school life. The top students in state schools take the initiative, work hard and get involved in the extra curricular programs they are offered. They take responsibilities upon themselves and become an integral part of the school, but they need to be selfmotivated. James goes so far as to say, “Someone who has come from a state school and got the same grades as me has probably had to work harder for them.” Whereas, in private schools, pupils have decisions made for them and are almost spoon-fed a way of life, in comprehensive schools pupils have to make a conscious choice as to whether they work hard in lessons, do homework and get involved with music, sport, or drama.
There is not a vast chasm between state and private education, for many state schools provide an excellent education and an enriched programme of extra curricular activities and trips in the same way as their independent counterparts. However, all private schools provide this high quality of service, whereas not all state schools do. Despite this, Josh was ready to admit that, “private education is not a golden ticket to a good university.” If you don’t put effort into studying then there is still the potential to fail. Yes, the private sector is better – but there are many state schools that could be just as good for a student with the right mentality.
KEY STATISTICS
The independent sector educates around 6.5% of the total number of schoolchildren in the UK. Over the age of 16, this rises to 18%. GCSE - 95.3% achieved grades A* to C, up from 95.1% in 2009. (In state schools, 69.1% were graded A* to C, compared with 67.1% in 2009). A-Level - 91.5% of sixth-form leavers continued to higher education in 2009, over double the national average. Higher Education - 97% get at least one offer from university. 46.1% of the Oxbridge undergraduate intake in 2009/10 was from independent schools. Source: The Independent Schools Council
The key to happiness is to set your sights low
Pascale Davies looks at the perils of over ambition and the need to stand out from the crowd
WITH the world population now over seven billion, one can’t help but wonder where one fits into this figure. The BBC website will even assign you as a number. I am the 5,224,337,629th person. A number my mind refuses to compute and my tongue speechlessly collapses along to. Being allocated into a series of digits doesn’t make me feel particularly special and why should I expect it to? Instead of thinking my place in this world as anything relevant, wouldn’t it be better to just happily reside into an aloof acceptance of low self-worth?
“Solving minor depression in young adulthood could in turn help us to understand chronic depression”
The answer to my own question is quite simply, ‘yes’. Perhaps it sounds too blunt and bleak to give up on ones ambitions, but a study has suggested that the ability to realise an ambition as unattain-
able may actually reduce depression. Randolph Nesse, a psychologist and researcher in evolutionary medicine at the University of Michigan believes that just as pain stops us from damaging physical things, ‘low mood’ prevents us from developing destructive mental thoughts. So, a mechanism in the brain will stop processing unfeasible goals and use the energy instead to focus on new reachable ones. A study done in 2009 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Carsten Wrosch from Concordia University in Montreal and Gregory Miller of the University of British Columbia proved this theory. Over a 19 month period 97 teenage girls aged from 15-19 were questioned on their experiences with depression and on their ability to renounce unreachable objectives and target new likely goals. Not only was Dr Nesse’s hypothesis proved in this case, as the study concluded that those that suffered mild forms of depression could re-focus on new ambitions more easily, but the most interesting point raised was that the girls who could disengage from unattainable goals proved less likely to suffer from more se-
rious depression later on in life. As this study suggests, mild depression in teenage years could be an internal process to help cope with failure. As a goal is identified as unreachable and low motivation fills the void, energy is saved and new attainable goals can then be found. However, the theory goes, if this mechanism doesn’t register a target as unattainable then severe depression may result. This means that solving minor depression in young adulthood could in turn help us to understand chronic depression. Dr Wrosch also discovered that those girls who could diminish overly ambitious goals had a lower concentration of C-reactive protein in their bodies; a substance associated with causing a higher risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. If this theory were true then it would be a very simple solution to a complicated and misunderstood diagnosis. Dr Nesse has stated that more research needs to be done. He believes that the problem in society is “persistence.” According to him, in America which is said to have one of the highest rate of clinical depression “persistence is part of the American way of life… People here are often driven to
pursue overly ambitious goals, which then can lead to depression.” In British education system, most children are brought up with the idea that high GCSE grades followed by fancy A levels and a good degree at one of Britain’s finest university will eventually lead you to a successful career and pay packet. But with the rise in university tuition fees and university no longer becoming a viable option for some students, does this mean that as some students are brutally
cut off from a privileged education that depression in the UK will decrease? The answer to this question will be ready in a generation’s time. And I sincerely hope that more research is carried out into this theory as it logically brings sense to an illogical and under researched mental illness. So, how does it feel to be number 5,224,337,629 and now in the belief that my high ambitions are wasted? If I’m honest, I feel as though I’ve been dragged down to zero. Photo: Kristen Paulsen
EastEr 2012 This Easter vacation, spend time in China developing an understanding of its culture, business and daily life. www.studychina.org.uk
Visit our website for further information about scholarships and eligibility. www.exeter.ac.uk/international/ abroad/summerschoolscholarships
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Lifestyle
Zoe Dickens & Cyan Turan - lifestyle@exepose.com
Fur: fair or foul?
Dominic McInerney, discusses the effect of Origin Assured
FOR many people, the idea of an animal being slaughtered for the sake of a coat is something that cannot be reconciled. For those who are unsure, the fur industry is helping to put their minds at ease. Origin Assured is a watchdog that works with fur companies and auction houses to guarantee that fur farms conform with industry standards and animal welfare regulations. Only organisations that are approved by the OA movement can have their label printed on a product. Monitored by an independent trade inspection company called Cotecna, Origin Assured can trace a yard of fabric from a boutique in London all the way back to a farm in Illinois. Saga Furs, who first pioneered this traceability system, say it ‘offers a comprehensive means of documenting the integrity of their product,’ and allows OA to make a judgement on whether or not the animals were farmed humanely. It also can be used to find out if the animal in question was killed specifically for its pelt, or whether it was bred for food, as in the case of cows and leather. Many prominent fashion designers
have come out in support of its work: Oscar de la Renta himself commented that it ‘removes a lot of questions for a customer. It allows them to buy with confidence.’ OA couldn’t have come at a better time for the fur industry, whose supporters are forever targeted by antifur protesters. Anna Wintour, Editor-inChief of U.S Vogue, once had a dead raccoon tossed onto her plate in a restaurant – she responded by having rare steaks delivered to the demonstrators waiting outside to heckle her. The initiative works in the same way as free-range eggs: people feel better knowing they aren’t battery farmed. It should come as no surprise then, that one in five consumers said they were more likely to buy a fur with the OA emblem stitched to the inside. However for the morally conflicted, animal husbandry raises a lot of difficult questions. Crocodile leather is used for wallets, shoes and other accessories, but the farms in which they are bred actually protect species from extinction by preventing poaching. In some countries they are also bred for food, where their
meat is considered a delicacy, which adds another layer to the argument: are they being used for sustenance and their skins simply being recycled? Of course fur advocates will be forever dodging the basic fact that they are raising animals for slaughter. Nevertheless the work of OA may usher in a new era of consumer awareness that extends far beyond the skin trade.
Putting the boot in
Ben Murphie puts his best (Williot shod) foot forward THIS summer saw the tragic end of a brief but passionate affair. I the intrepid student, preparing to stride about Madrid on my year abroad, saw myself cruelly scorned by a sporty low slung pair of navy Fred Perry’s. The wanton betrayal of their recent purchase was confirmed with cracked soles and blister inducing holes in the heels that first appeared after a mere few weeks of wear. After recovering from the rebuff, and considerable foot pain, I was understandably on the look-out for an altogether more loyal replacement. Legendary industrial designer Richard Seymour says that upon seeing a
new product for the first time, “we are slaves to the first few fractions of a second.” As I set eyes on the pair of Williot shoes that I now own in the shop window, I was instantly struck by the simplistic design, free from flashy logos or excessive colouring. Their understated continental attitude was bolstered by sturdy looking materials in a marriage that made me feel it was time to risk my sole once more after its literal bruising. A price tag of 69 Euros (roughly £60) prompted me to enquire of the sales woman whether she thought they were of sufficient value to stand up to an Englishman’s hearty and constant stride. She replied that the shoes were made of genuine leather and that the soles were strong enough to last for a long period, a perfect match for what I had intended. After some consideration I decided on the sueded leather high-top that comes with both a green and tartan stripe on the side. Whilst this may initially sound garish, the colours are muted enough that they fit nicely with the rest of the shoe and the feeling of leather around the ankle gives welcome support when bounding. Upon reading the leaflet inside the box I realised that Williot is in fact a Spanish brand, masquerading as a proponent of rural British style. This may explain the brand’s mascot, a proud English hunting dog. Although why he is dressed as a human in huntsman’s attire is slightly more unclear. Detailed in the package leaflet is
the hefty promise from the designer, in the form of a letter to his late Grandfather, that the shoe was designed to “honour your memory through the two things that said the most to me about you when I was a child: That old pair of trainers you wore and your faithful dog Williot.” It appears that the creators of Williot seek to include them along with as many stereo-typically British ideas they can as part of a single package. This European conception of British style is something that will work for those looking to buy into the image of Britain as an eccentric rustic paradise but might make it harder for the brand to be taken seriously in the UK. The faux-aristocratic edge also suggests something of the haughty elitism propagated by brands such as Jack Wills, who proudly demand a large bank balance and a gentrified attitude as requirements for purchase. Thankfully, the design and functionality of the shoes outshines their publicity image and confirms them as a worthwhile alternative to loud high street brands currently saturating the market. The reasonable price also means that they are worth taking a chance on, a sentiment echoed by the designer when he talks of the “pride of having developed a suitable range of footwear for such discerning, independent and perhaps bohemian people as you Grandpa.” Although it may still be early days with my own pair, I am confident we will soon hit our stride.
21 november 2011
Exeposé
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The F word Elizabeth Lumb, tells us what everyone is wearing this season
IT’S that time of year again. The days are getting colder, the nights are drawing in and you can’t bear to take off your old pyjamas and fluffy dressing gown and face a day on campus. If the drab weather is getting you down its time to brighten up your wardrobe and treat yourself to this season’s most invogue trends. These top five wardrobe staples are guaranteed to add a touch of style to any outfit and make you ready to welcome winter with a smile. Combine these high-street trends or pick your favourite and create your own winter wonders for a magical and individual style this season. Faux fur coat This classic must-have comes in all shapes, sizes, prints and colours; there’s one out there for everyone. Definitely the most comfortable, yet chic way to keep warm this winter.
Camel-coloured skinnies This is an easy to wear trend and a quirky alternative to jeans that is neutral enough to tone well with the rest of your wardrobe. Wear with black knee high riding boots for the ultimate contrast or reincarnate springs colour blocking trend with a colourful top and funky trainers - the sky is the limit with this piece. Shoe-boots Can’t decide whether to wear shoes or boots? Shoe-boots are the stylish solution, combining the two to bring you a practical, yet fashionable footwear staple. Wear with bare legs and add a cute pair of ankle socks if you dare or play it safe with jeans or tights for a sophisticated winter look.
Midi-skirt A cross between a mini and a maxi, the midi is this season’s hottest skirt. The perfect length for daytime, this item can be dressed down with flats or glammed-up with heels. The midi is great for all sizes – flattering and floaty – it gives any outfit an instant edge.
Shift Dress A 60’s or 70’s style shift dress is the ultimate hard-working piece for this season. Choose one in a block colour; you can wear it with almost anything and it will add a splash of colour to your winter wardrobe. Dress it up with some glam jewellery, bare legs and heels for the evening or tone it down for daytime with tights and a warm winter coat.
Vintage lace shirt The elegant piece is essential for the smart/casual outfit this winter. Team with jeans for a more relaxed look, perfect for a seminar or shopping trip. Keep it simple with either black or white lace, adding brick red lipstick for that statement look.
Exeposé week eight
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“The unnecessary problems with...Sport” Lifestyle’s columnist, Thomas Ling, shares his experience of the Saturday sport saga and the people who take part in it WILL this football game ever end?! My house is so close to St James Park that I hear “The referee’s a wanker!” every few seconds. It’s a bit like owning an ASBO parrot. Haven’t the crowd got their strategy wrong anyway? Surely it would be ten times more threatening if the same chant was whispered by a few thousand fans to make the referee think he had accidently signed himself up as the crowd’s human sacrifice in some satanic ritual. All decisions would then go the crowd’s way out of fear. They’d win every time. It’s a flawless tactic.
“By the time the match got into full flow the experience was downright weird - like everyone was on a bizarre Derren Brown show”
Inciting cannibalism isn’t the only reason I can’t partake in any sporting activity. I’m hideously ignorant. School sport lessons were a wasted education; all my effort was put into convincing my teacher not to shout “DING-ALING!” in my face whenever he saw me. This sport ignorance climaxed during the Rugby World Cup as I had to pretend for a month that I had a half a clue what was going on. I didn’t. To me it all looked like a brutal human robot war with the occasional rubber egg flung in. Even the sheer aggression of the competition confused me. I haven’t seen as many massively brooding men
chasing a small odd shaped object since Cheryl Cole announced she was single. But as much as I’m left perplexed by rugby, I’ve learnt it’s safer to watch than football. Recently I treated myself to a Saturday pub lunch, but ended up hiding in a corner after being surrounded by a flock of angry bald men. When they weren’t pointlessly shouting at the TV, they were sharing views on ‘the bloody economy’ that laid on the political spectrum somewhere between Robert Mugabe and the emperor from Star Wars. By the time the match got into full flow the experience was downright weird. Everybody in the pub seemed to be taking part in a bizarre Derren Brown show in which they had been hypnotised to react to different stimuli. For instance, when the referee pulled out a yellow card this was the signal to be moderately angry and if a red was shown this was the sign that the referee had signalled the start of the apocalypse. I just was waiting for the referee to wave about a shiny green card and tell everybody they were feeling very sleepy indeed. As my lunch went on, the amount of shouting at the TV built up like a Jenga tower made from idiot bricks. Finally this escalated to the dreaded “I could do better than that!” claim, which like always, was made by the best Mr. Blobby look-a-like by the bar. There’s only one possible way to show these people the error of their ways and prevent them from reoffending. Any time the infamous words are bellowed the football game in question
should be immediately paused. The entire crowd would then be forced to wait as the guilty chanter gets airlifted like an endangered rhino onto the pitch. After being pulled upright, he’ll be asked to fulfil his athletic proposal, leaving everyone to watch Chubby McBaldy waddle about for a few minutes, hopelessly trying to find the ball over his Neptune size beer belly. Eventually he’ll keel over from exhaustion and everybody at home will watch his stomach ripple against the grass in glorious HD slow-motion. He’ll blub and say he’s so sorry, but the crowd will never forgive him. Nobody will ever forgive him. He’ll be too emotionally scarred to rejoin society so he’ll flee to South America in self-exile. Don’t feel sorry for him. It’s the only way he’s going to learn.
“Inciting cannibalism isn’t the only reason I can’t partake in any sporting activity”
If you are one of those ‘I could do better than that’ kind of people then I should really congratulate you on making it this far into the paper; most of your fellow chanters have lost limbs by way of terrible paper cuts in an attempt to turn the first page. Like other newspapers we’ve followed the required health and safety guidelines to make the sports section easily accessible at the back, just for you.
Lifestyle
Your problems solved Aunty Lucy and Uncle Ian are here to help
“Dear Lifestyle, I got together with a guy from halls last year and we spent most of the year coupled up. Now we’re in second year we’re sharing a house. I’m finding it really intense and difficult to deal with. It seemed alright in halls as we both still had our space but now I’m finding our relationship really claustrophobic. All the little things he does get on my nerves and I’m not sure that I really want to be with him anymore but it would be a nightmare living with him if we broke up. That said, I don’t want to be trapped in a house and a relationship next year as well. What should I do? Yours, Trapped Second Year”
Lucy Sargeant
BEING ‘coupled up’ from the offset can cause alienation. Branch out and make other friends, or reconnect with those that fell by the wayside during your honeymoon period. If you have other housemates make more of an effort with them. Encourage him to do the same; if you are out of the house more often, there will be less time to grate on each other. You may appreciate the time you do spend together more. Remember you have not been living together long. The way you are feeling may just be adjustment pains. Have a completely honest chat with him about things you like about living together (sex on tap) and those that need to be addressed (bad aim in the bathroom.) It sounds like he is really into you, so should be keen to try anything that saves the relationship. If all this fails, you will have to end it. Be thoughtful to his feelings afterwards, for your sake if not his, living with an irate ex for a whole year is going to be uncomfortable. Maybe don’t bring a guy back for an all night rebound sesh; it could appear a little insensitive.
Ian Whittaker
ANY relationship where you are living together is going to be intense. It may take some time to find the right balance between spending time together and giving each other space. If you’re feeling smothered by him then try and get out of the house a bit more. This doesn’t mean hiding, just get busy doing other things; societies, other friends or work. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and seeing less of your boyfriend may help you to rekindle your love. If you give yourself more space and still have doubts about your relationship then you need to talk to him. Breaking up with him would make your life very difficult, but if you’re unhappy you shouldn’t be afraid to do it and to move on. Meanwhile, if you feel that your relationship doesn’t work as well when you are living together, suggest living apart next year. Explain you want to spend more quality time together but on a less regular basis. Less can be more with relationships as it will keep things fresh.
Campus Style Spotter: Winter Accessories OUR roving photographer and style aficionado, George Connor, brings you the best style on campus! Winter is upon us and it’s time to hide away bare flesh and cover up. But that is no reason to grab the nearest pair of Jack Wills trackies and your old Uggs. Winter can be the best time of year for great accessories and stylish layering. This week we were looking for the best knitwear you had to offer. Rachel’s hooded scarf from River Island is all about the fun, who said scarves had to be dull? Claire’s snood from H&M shows that the hybrid scarf/hood is still very much on trend. While Elle’s Primark cardigan is a great chunky knit to whack on that warms you up and doesn’t make you look like an Occupy Exeter protester. So dig out those jumpers, gloves and scarves and you’ll be well on your way to the perfect winter. Left-right: Rachel, Elle and Claire.
21 November 2011 Exeposé
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Sex-on-the-Exe Special: Lifestyle
Five students wax lyrical about the euro-popping, traffic stopping,
An Anonymous Student experiments with the world of online dating GONE are the days of 40-something divorcees owning exclusive rights to dating websites. More and more young people are turning to it as an option. This summer I decided I was going to find a boyfriend, and the first move could be made from my sofa, in my dressing gown, with no need for chewing gum and copious amounts of mirror-time. I joined the www.plentyoffish.com after watching a friend receive more interest in minutes than she’d had in months. I even caught another friend of mine logging in, she’d been on it for ages!
“I was going to find a boyfriend, and the first move could be made from my sofa, in my dressing gown”
The site isn’t match.com, it’s free and full of young people- over 30s were hard to find (if that’s the kind of thing that floats your boat, look elsewhere). The site’s a bit like Facebook, but with the possibility of so much more, from romantic dates to, more likely, a naughty encounter too raunchy to publically reveal, especially in print. I created a profile that I thought sounded roughly like me, then changed
it about thirty times, selected photos that were ‘natural’ and smugly entered the by-line, “we met on the tube”. Feeling satisfied I began a summer of late-night jaunts and secret dates. I became wary quickly. People I chatted to would disappear off the face of the planet, seemingly baffled by it all, or, more likely, they’d simply found a profile they liked better. You had to be quick to keep up. The first guy was an actor in Birmingham who fell in love with me over Skype during a three day period and then wouldn’t leave me alone, despite my refusal to meet him nearly 200 miles away. Downside number one: creepy people who fall in love with personas over the internet. The next one I did meet. We met in London, that city of never-ending possibilities. The attractive profile turned into the real life equivalent of a successful intern at a firm, with a company account. He was attractive, funny and a born-and-bred Londoner with plenty of know-how on the big smoke. Despite spilling red wine all over his shoes we hit it off and ended up in his riverside flat where sleep was most certainly not the order of the day. The next day he drove me the hour home and all was dandy. Then the slow
responses started, before he completely vanished. I saw him online on the dating site a few days later. Downside number two: you can see when you’ve been rejected by a simple green button and the infamous word ‘online’. In true online spirit, however, I picked myself up and got to meeting more people. Now thoroughly addicted, I regularly signed-in and got to finding dates. The next man was a lovely Scottish gentleman living in London. I quickly learnt downside number three: people can make themselves look three stone lighter in pictures. Despite the larger than expected appearance he was the true gem of the summer and an absolutely brilliant guy. Things didn’t work out but there was potential and it showed online dating might just do the trick, sometimes. My online dating life ended with the season and by Autumn I was more than ready to return to Exeter, single and happy. Online dating may seem great on the surface, but it’s confusing, demoralising and full of not-sogreat surprises. It can work, but it’s mostly time-consuming and addictive. I still want to find a man but instead I’ll do what we students do so well, put on my dancing shoes, and head out. Photo: Henry White
Charlotte Mason talks sex and double standards WITH SSB back and bigger than ever before, it’s got pretty much every Exeter student thinking about sex. So what have I been considering? Well, in this day and age, almost a century after Emily Pankhurst and her suffragettes chained themselves to railings in order to fight for women’s rights, why is it that boys are congratulated on sleeping around whereas a girl is condemned as a slut? When attempting to investigate, a (male) friend candidly replied: “Look at it this way, a key that fits many locks is a master key, but a lock that accepts any key, is just a rubbish lock.” Charming! I don’t know about you, but I’m not overly keen on my vagina being referred to as a ‘lock’. Or, perhaps he merely meant that while it may be sexy for a guy to have experience, a girl is traditionally portrayed as innocent and virginal? Hence, the white wedding dress. Exploring the idea further, this gendered double standard could be seen as a hangover from the days when men had several wives and women were committed to staying at home with thousands of babies. But, today with the development of paternity leave, it’s clear that such a lifestyle is just not everyone’s cup of tea. ‘It’s Darwinism!’ another (male) friend told me. Maybe this double standard must be seen as a result of evolution and the subconscious desire
to spread one’s seed and populate the world? Funnily enough, I don’t ever recollect overhearing any guy asking another: ‘So how many children do you reckon you’ve made this week?’ whilst sitting in the pub. In our day and age, it just isn’t and shouldn’t be something one is immediately concerned with. Imagine bringing a pram (complete with baby) to your lectures. Biblical teachings highlight woman’s link to the Fall of Man – how irritating of Eve to have been tempted to eat that bloody apple! Not only did it result in God’s punishment of women with the pains of childbirth, while boys merely gain lad points and high status for sleeping around, but now women were to be linked with sexual deviance as well. And the reputation has stuck today. Be careful, girls, dress too promiscuously on a night out and you may be labelled a prostitute! To be fair, as Belle de Jour, takes the attitude in The Secret Diary of A Call Girl, why do for free what you could be paid for?! Perhaps that’s taking the argument a little too far, but either way, the genders are far from equal in this respect. Perhaps, the moral argument would be that neither sex should be overtly promiscuous. However, among students fuelled by alcohol, it’s probably going to happen… once, twice, (let’s face it) several times. I just hope they use protection.
Exeposé week eight
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Double page bed spread Lifestyle
world of sexual intercourse
An Anonymous Student enjoys an energetic evening in the bedroom consequences I’D be lying if I said that I hadn’t anticipated that at some point in my university career, I would find myself stumbling back from a remote corner of Exeter in the same clothes as the night before, with only a vague recollection of what on earth had happened. What I hadn’t anticipated was that this inevitable eventuality would happen on the third day of Freshers’ week, and that the “remote corner” would actually be the house of a predatory second year. From what I can remember, after a long night of tequila shots in Rococos, I had found myself wandering handin-hand with said predator through the city centre, pausing at regular intervals in order for him to slam me up against a shop window and attempt, it seemed at the time, to consume my entire face. He continued in this vein when we arrived back at his, and indeed for the
endless hours that followed – subjecting me to what can only be described as an acrobatic marathon which left no corner of the bedroom floor and no surface of the house untainted. It’s a wonder that I survived it. There’s a lot to be said for alcohol’s ability to lower one’s pain threshold; if the bite marks, scratch marks and bruises I woke up with all over my body the next morning are anything to go by, I withstood a whole lot of pain. On my return back to halls after what must be the longest walk of shame anyone has ever done, one friend remarked that I looked like I’d been savaged by a bear. Initially I thought that I would have preferred this to what actually happened. And then, a week later, I found myself in exactly the same situation, with exactly the same person. I think I need to stop drinking.
George Graham sees a striking resemblance between his prowess in the bedroom and his progress behind the wheel MY relationship with sex over the past few years draws a lot of parallels with my relationship with driving. At first a lot of theory is involved and it is more about reading the signs correctly to know whether or not you are going to be able to drive, and what the rules are you are going to have to follow. Misreading these signs and signals could get you into a lot of trouble. This is also coupled with the social pressure of how long after you are of age will it take you to go for your first ride. You begin to hear rumours and stories as you enter Sixth Form of all your friends already going around the block whilst you are still intimidated at the idea of sitting in the drivers seat. After some experienced advice you begin to learn a few basic manoeuvres. These are not incredible feats of skill like those you can see in certain films merely expected positions you should be able to switch between without disturbing the pleasure
of the ride. Although if you do at some point manage to successfully reverse into a tight spot you will most certainly be socially awarded by your very impressed, and more commonly male, friends.
“I had to do an emergency stop because someone interrupted me whilst speeding”
Of course it is common to fail the first couple times but eventually you improve with practice. You start by only going to first but before long you will move into second which allows for a little more momentum. It becomes second nature when you should move your gearstick up into third or fourth and there are clues of when to shift given by the soft whine of the engine; you can tell when it sounds happy
or when it wants to take things faster. One of the scariest moments in my experience with it was when I had to do an emergency stop because someone interrupted me whilst speeding along. That gets your heart pumping I can tell you. The first time you try and do it abroad you get a completely new experience. When I went to Gümbet, Turkey for my end-of-school mates holiday I found they have a seemingly mental system out there. Everyone seems out of control and you don’t know where you’ll end up once you go for a foreign ride. Although the thought of it at first seems daunting, over time you begin to appreciate going for a nice ride and it becomes amusing to imagine one day you may get to enter a flashy Italian model. I don’t know what it means that I’ve worked as a delivery driver for the past year, but I wouldn’t worry if you don’t get your license until university.
An Anonymous Year-Abroad Student recounts a night of passion that never was A YEAR abroad is an opportunity for new and exciting experiences. Having packed my bags before brazenly descending into the unknown, one can appreciate that I was slightly less than ecstatic at finding myself in an Irish bar severely lacking in European exoticism with too few tables and a penchant for boisterous Europop. Yet the proximity of the venue worked well to encourage conversation and I found myself suddenly next to an outgoing French girl from Nantes. Her manner was assured and her speech loud as we yelled across the table at each other in a broken mix of both of our languages. As the alcohol flowed she did her best English accent and I quickly reeled off all the half remembered French movie titles I could think of. Her casual invite to accompany her gaggle of friends to the next bar led me to think that I had gone some small way in replicating the bumbling English charm that has seen messrs Grant and Firth stumble their way into many hearts and undoubtedly bedrooms over the years. Before long I was cutting a dash on the dance floor of a student club, flailing wildly to the pounding bass and throbbing beats of the latest in questionable European DJs. Her friends disappeared and beer turned to shots and shots to kissing as bright lights flashed in my eyes. Yet after a goodly amount of disco romance I found my dancing feet clamouring for rest and my lips dryer than a camel’s hoof. Seeking respite I excused myself briefly to take a cigarette outside with a friend for time to regroup. Needless to say I was surprised to see my amorous dancing partner walk past me with
another man in tow less than five minutes after I had left her. At first I thought they might be merely friendly acquaintances, neither had seen me and could potentially be seeking some quiet doorway to discuss how best to lay laminate flooring or what the most effective method for removing wine stains from curtains was. Urged on by my cigarette associate to quickly insert myself into this
coupling should I miss out on any opportunity, I hastened round the corner to engage in conversation. To my surprise, my French dance partner was indeed already merrily flapping her gums, albeit at waist height, with her new friend. My expression must have betrayed the surprise on my face as the usurpent raconteur in question attempted to alleviate my condition with a smile and a thumbs up.
At first I wondered whether this was a case of mistaken identity. Perhaps she had bounded back onto the dance floor and seized an arm she believed to be mine in pursuit of the activity she was currently engaged in? His beard (I don’t have one) and Hispanic appearance (I enjoy astoundingly pale Irish skin) swiftly lead me to believe that this was not the case. Needless to say I made a hasty exit without
returning the thumbs up and toddled home to a cold bed on tired feet. After some consideration I came to the conclusion that I had actually dodged a bullet. Alleyway liaisons after a first meeting hardly seem like the kind of thing Hugh and Colin would engage in, no matter how good the conversation.
Photo: Henry White
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Exeposé week eight
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The Meaning of Fyfe
Amy Weller, Music Editor, chats to Guillemots frontman, Fyfe Dangerfield
24/11 - Crazy Arm, Cavern
26/11 - Lau, Exeter Corn Exchange 27/11 - Marcus Foster, Bristol Thekla 27/11 - Beverly Knight, Bristol Colston Hall 27/11 ExTunes Live! The Old Firehouse 02/12 - The Magic Hatstand, Cavern 03/12 - Show of Hands, The Great Hall 04/12 - ExTunes Live! The Old Firehouse 06/12 - The Saw Doctors, The Lemon Grove 06/12 - Sion Russell Jones, Exeter Phoenix 10/12 - Dreadzone, Exeter Phoenix 12/12 - Seth Lakeman, The Lemon Grove
HANGING around in the car park of Bristol’s nightclub Thekla, I received a call from the Guillemots tour manager, informing us that they’d be waiting in a silver van at the back of the car park. Not only was this an entirely ominous proposition, it felt like something more appropriate for a scene from Die Hard. Eventually, we found the van, minus Bruce Willis, with a reclining front man Fyfe Dangerfield and percussionist Greig Stewart inside. Upon climbing aboard, fully aware of the novelty of casually hanging out in the back of a Mercury Prize nominated band’s tour bus, it was at once striking how happy they were to be back on the road. “We’ve really been enjoying the gigs, having a gap makes you appreciate how lovely a thing it is to be performing live, y’know.” So what can audiences expect from this return to the live circuit? The tour follows the release of the band’s third record Walk the River but Fyfe insists that their approach to producing new material is to consider each record as a separate thing rather than an obvious progression. “It has never been a case of refining certain elements to progress, all three
records are quite different. We don’t want to be schizophrenic when making music. Who knows what we’ll be doing next.” This is a concept that Fyfe is pretty passionate about: “You do start to become aware of certain things that do sound quite Guillemots-y but we don’t want to become a sort of parody, using a typical guitar sound but at the same time I think I’m getting less afraid of repeating stuff. I used to be terrified of doing the same thing twice.” It is fair to say that there is an undeniably “Guillemots-y” trademark sound across the three records.
“I sampled a bee dying in our sink”
Over the years they have succeeded in channelling a unique, avant-garde, indie-pop sound, however having seen them perform live three times, they consistently prove a tremendous skill at delivering a set that is not only different in set list, but different in sound, style and dynamic. Their inventive methods are infused with eccentricity, soaring vocals and euphoric energy. Perhaps one of the reasons for this
ever changing potential could be attributed to their experimental approach to instruments and sampling. “We love sound, it’s fun and has a fascination.” So what is the weirdest sound featured on a Guillemots record? “I sampled a bee dying in a sink of our studio.” Right. “I think it’s beautiful that you can record something like that and five minutes later you can be playing with it in a track.” The weirdness doesn’t stop there, both begin to reminisce about “McGrow’s samurai pheromone stuff” back when they were performing in 2007, “that was a strange phase for him.” I’m still not really sure who McGrow is or what the sound of samurai pheromones could possibly involve but it sounds more than a little odd. Other bonkers sounds include a recording of a motorbike that drove past whilst Fyfe was experimenting with backing vocals outside their studio which now features on the track ‘Tigers’ from the latest album. Such disparate elements contribute to their signature cacophony of noise that seems to effortlessly deliver a rich sound of multiple rhythms. Still, Fyfe expresses that they are aware of the dangers faced in doing this:
“In the beginning we received a lot of attention for using something like the sound of a typewriter. It made us seem like we were trying really hard to sound wacky.” Fyfe is keen to emphasise that this is not the case, the band genuinely strive to create music that is anything but self-conscious. This principle can be seen when I ask Fyfe to list his influences. “Everything you experience influences what you make. I think you are the sum of everything you experience and anything will come out of your music.” The relatively silent Greig shows his agreement to this deeply philosophical statement with a meaningful nod of his head. Guillemots have always succeeded in retaining their own instincts in what music they want to create without being influenced by the opinions of others. “I am having a renewed realisation of what it is I love in music. We want to be uninhibited and have fun. Those are our only big plans.” Perhaps this is why they have never been sucked up into the hub of commercial chart success. “We wouldn’t want to alter our way of music to reach that level.” Wise words, Fyfe.
21 November 2011 Exeposé
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Music
Last notes before the media storm Andy Smith, Music Editor, gets spiritual with Benjamin Francis Leftwich
BENJAMIN FRANCIS LEFTWICH has recently emerged as one of the UKʼs most interesting up and-coming acoustic artists. Arising from the same creed as Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard, Leftwichʼs soft tones and acoustic sound really cut
through the stress of modern life and order the listener to stop and think. Catching up with Ben on the 20th date of his UK tour, The Cavern, a typically hectic venue, had a definite calm settled over it, and Ben came across as relaxed, the soft Northern lilt of his ac-
cent adding a subtle charm to his personality. Despite being a relative newcomer to the mainstream music scene, Ben has done several tours before, but he points out: “This is my longest tour. It has been really cool on the road, Iʼm really enjoying it. Cambridge got a bit out of hand, falling asleep before I should have, if you know what I mean!” Ben’s nonchalant attitude put us immediately at ease in talking to him, and this definitely comes across in the live show. He decided to do this tour without a backing band, putting him on the stage by himself, but stands unfazed and confident in his songs, while still humble. He has great rapport with the audience, chatting and making jokes, while also showing genuine gratitude for the audience’s appreciation of his music. The edges and creases of his music are tinged with influences from varied musical genres: “Sound wise I am a big fan of Sigur Rós and Kate Bush... I learnt a couple of lessons from them, how to enhance a song,” while he also confides: “Springsteen is my hero, as a songwriter he is the best, from acoustic lo-fi guitar to epic stadium rock.”
It may be the recent release of Leftwichʼs debut album, Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm, which has caused his rise to fame, as a lot of work and time went into it: “We recorded the album in the studio over a year, the total time recording was about three months, while we also spent a lot of time experimenting with the sound.” Understandably, Ben comments: “Iʼm really proud of it, it turned out exactly like I wanted it to. Itʼs very chilled.”
“The room was more often than not reduced to complete silence by the songwriter’s haunting and poignant melodies” Whichever source his rise may be attributed to, Ben is still reeling, admitting: “I didn’t expect any of this, itʼs really cool, but it just seemed natural. I never thought of it as trying to get into a
career, itʼs just what I love doing.” Despite this, he still admits to being “terrified” by the business side of music: “Music is a semi-spiritual thing, and I think music and industry are two very separate things.” This idea of spirituality certainly underscored Leftwichʼs performance, the audience becoming entranced, and the room more often than not being reduced to complete silence by the lone songwriterʼs haunting and poignant melodies. My only worry coming into this gig was that the music would become repetitive, knowing it was just a solo acoustic set. However, Leftwich managed to enchant the audience, and the entire gig had such a great atmosphere of captivation, the silent spectators hanging off his every line. While saving fan favourite ʻAtlas Handsʼ until last in the set, met with great applause, Ben gave a strong, powerful and moving performance. However, the real strength of this gig was the young artistʼs ability to show the true power of a man, a voice, a guitar and simply nothing more.
feature
R.E.M.: A Retrospective
David Johnson examines the past triumphs and pitfalls of a lifelong musical legacy ON 21 September R.E.M. announced that they were splitting up, after 31 years together as a band. The decision was completely amicable, and is decisive: the band will not be getting back together. Long-time fans of the band, myself included, were sad to hear this news, but other responses were more cynical, in the vein of: “Didn’t they split up years ago?” or: “About time!” Such cynicism is perhaps understandable, as in recent years R.E.M. were much less of a dominant musical presence, with their glory years behind them. But they were still a presence nonetheless, and they continued to produce music of a high standard right up until the very end. It is a shame that such an influential, and unique band have ceased to be, but nobody - whether a fan or not - can deny the impact that they had on the world of music. Music in the 1980s had a very typical
sound, but R.E.M. defied the given conventions of the decade, and made music unlike what every other band was doing. As a result the band’s debut album Murmur was awarded Rolling Stone Magazine’s album of the year. Despite this recognition, their success did not come overnight. They became an underground hit, especially on American college radio, but it wasn’t until around the release of their fifth album Document, which contained the hit singles ‘The One I Love’ and ‘It’s The End Of The World As We Know It’, that mainstream audiences really began to take notice. The years that followed saw the band’s popularity increase dramatically; they were signed up by Warner Bros. Records, and the first album under that label, Green, received an extensive tour. Things continued to get better for the group and for a short while they were even
called “the biggest band in the world”. During this time their most famous and recognisable songs were released; the iconic ‘Losing My Religion’, ‘Everybody Hurts’ and ‘Man on the Moon’ to name but a few. The band’s most famous and successful album Automatic for the People would be the pinnacle of their success, whilst the follow-up: Monster was doomed to live in its shadow. 1996 saw the release of New Adventures in Hi-Fi, which many think of as the band’s last great record, partly due to the departure of the band’s drummer (Bill Berry) which occurred shortly after. The trio of albums that followed: Up, Reveal, and Around The Sun are much disputed by music critics and fans alike, with some calling them a severe decline in quality, whilst others praised the way the band had adapted to the change in dynamic. Although by this time the band was fad-
ing on people’s radars, they continued to produce classic songs that would not be easily forgotten: the Beach Boys-inspired, ‘At My Most Beautiful’, the unashamedly upbeat ‘Imitation of Life’ (one of my own personal favourites) and the second-home love song, ‘Leaving New York’. Then, rather than fading into nothingness, the band reinvented themselves in a major way, by rediscovering everything that had made them great in the first place. They performed five open rehearsals at the Olympia in Dublin, in which they performed songs from their entire back catalogue, some of which hadn’t been performed on stage in over twenty-five years! These shows were also used to debut new material, which would eventually appear on 2008’s Accelerate, which was called a return-to-form by many critics, for it contained what had been missing for so long; Peter Buck’s jangling guitar, Mike Mills’
backing vocals, and a real sense of purpose and direction. Collapse Into Now came next, and it continued to expand upon the foundations of its predecessor. The album was more varied than Accelerate and really felt like the band’s most well rounded album since the early 90s. Unfortunately, within the same year of that album’s release, the band announced that they were calling it a day. Despite this they released their final album on November 15th, entitled Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, which covers their entire recordingcareer from 1982-2011. Such a modest and self-effacing title seems befitting for a band who never intended to become superstars. For them it was always about the music, which Michael Stipe summed up best when he said: “We are R.E.M. and this is what we do!”
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Exeposé week eight
live reviews Bon Iver Colston Hall Bristol 11 November BON IVER’S Justin Vernon – the poster child of hipster chic – whose genesis infamously lies in his lovelorn retreat to an isolated cabin in his native Wisconsin, to pen the heartbreakingly intimate and desperate songs that made up For Emma, Forever Ago – is the stuff of legend. Live, Vernon et al do not disappoint. Surrounded by a supporting family of extremely talented multi-instrumentalists (for anyone who likes Bon Iver go search now for drummer Sean Carey’s solo work) Justin Vernon is taking his emotive, indie howl to the masses – and the masses are listening, singing his beautiful and often cryptic lyrics right back towards the stage in some beautiful drama between artist and audience. That was certainly the mood in Bristol’s cavernous Colston Hall last week, everyone drenched to the bone from the
The King Blues The Lemon Grove Exeter 8 November LIGHTS out and crowd cheering, Jonny ‘Itch’ Fox leaps on stage to deliver the first song of the last gig of The King Blues’ Punk & Poetry Tour. The song in question is the perfect choice - a completely acapella version of ‘What If Punk Never Happened?’, a tale of an alternative reality showing what the country would be like without the influence of The Sex Pistols, Poison Ivy, The Buzzcocks… (basically all of those commemorated in the song). Those who know it sing along, those who don’t get involved anyway, and the tone for the evening is set - raise your fist and join in. It’s hard to pin The King Blues down to a particular genre. One minute they’ve got the entire crowd skanking along to ‘Mr
dramatic weather that played havoc with my trip to the venue - yet smiling, loving, singing, screaming and worshipping throughout, despite the damp.
“The lone frontman was bathed in an almost angelic spotlight to capture the attention of the room... it was mesmerising” Opening with the roaring epic that is ‘Perth’, from the outfit’s second album Bon Iver, with all its thunderous, military-like percussion, atmospheric melodies and trademark Vernon falsetto that confidently asserts “Still alive for you, love”, the group authoritatively dominated its surroundings, marching through tracks from both albums and the Blood Bank EP to much applause from the crowd. Bon Iver’s brilliance is undoubtedly in their ability to communicate on a bare-bones intimate level, Music Man’ with an electric ukulele, next everyone’s shoving each other around to a song that wouldn’t be out of place as the backing to a riot. One thing that is constant is that everything they write has a meaning, proper feeling and thought behind each lyric. The anger and resistance that comes through from just listening to their album really comes out on stage. Jonny Fox bounds about the stage, hurling each word into the microphone, and you can really tell that they mean what they say and won’t stop until you’ve listened - when they performed ‘We Are F**king Angry’, they really were. Their sound is so much more intense than on record to the point that it felt like the very seams of the Lemon Grove would rip, just from their performance. With sheer fervour and some modest pyrotechnics, they really made use of the limited space on the stage, though to be honest, their energy can make any stage
Music
whilst delivering an onslaught of instrumentation that rises far above the insipidly bland limitations of the generic indie three-piece sound. Bon Iver – equals atmosphere on an intensely vast scope – and songs like ‘Holocene’, ‘Calgary’ and ‘Towers’, all featuring on the second album, are a testament to this fact. It’s when, perhaps, the set list calls for some of the comparatively barer tracks from For Emma, Forever Ago which Vernon recorded almost entirely by himself with little other instrumentation - such as one of my favourites, ‘Flume’, that shows how the sound can transcend the unfortunate passivity of some contemporaries. The discreet ‘Re: Stacks’, for example, saw the rest of the group exit the stage for a brief interlude to allow the lone frontman, bathed in an almost angelic spotlight to capture the attention of everyone in the room, which was so effortless it was mesmerising. Of course the highlight of the night was the behemoth – ‘Skinny Love’ – that prompted a frenzy of emotion and awe from the audience as soon as Vernon picked up his iconic, vintage resonator acoustic, which has been intricately
bound to the singer-songwriter for so many years it is clearly an extension of his body – the lifeblood and tone of his musical creation. With him at centre stage, Carey and McCaughan maintaining drumming duties and the rest of the collective joining in with assorted claps and harmonies, ‘Skinny Love’ immedi-
ately evolved into a mass audience singalong - what can aptly be described as Vernon’s army of broken hearts, that triumphed as a profound cry of sentimental passion in the midst of a rainy November evening.
seem small in comparison. Giving the crowd a mix of the more well-known and less so, the jaunty and anarchistic, they truly played for the crowd, including songs off their current album, Punk and Poetry, the previous two and previewing some songs from a new album out in December. It wasn’t all music though. During a bit of chat in-between they told of how they sent a copy of one their singles to ‘The Daily Wail’ just for the ironic humor and the amusing result of them being inevitably banished from the archives, the intention of the band’s irreverence. Crowns and Cerebral Ballzy both accompanied the band for the Punk and Poetry Tour. Before even most of the audience had turned up, Cornwall boys Crowns came on, starting with immediate energy to transfer to the crowd. With a punky/ folky sound recognisable to fans of Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun that is largely influenced by their home county, they soon got the crowd linking into a can-can line to their version of a Cornish folk-song. The music got a bit too repetitive after a while, but as a young band you could tell they certainly could progress. However, the main support act Cerebral Ballzy left a bit more to desire. Although the shamelessly drunk lead singer got five people to create their own circle pit, the songs about pizza, skateboarding and not going to school did make me wonder if they were either trying to be ironic (they weren’t) or just boys that sat in a garage getting angry, playing guitar and growing their hair. With the air hanging with sweat and the bouncers struggling to hold those seams together, Jonny Fox brings the tour to a close. But will the crowd take this? No. After a lengthy demand for encore Jonny Fox strides back on stage to give the crowd what they want – another King Blues rap accapella anthem, this time ‘Five Bottles of Shampoo’, then the whole band return for one last go at rounding it off. Until next time.
Wretch 32 02 Academy Bristol 26 October
– the expectant press even went so far as to have him ponder hip hop’s future alongside the legendary Rakim. Which isn’t to say that Wretch didn’t make good on his boasts once he did swagger onstage. His style stretched fluently from the hoarse immediacy of his pained pleads on ‘Don’t Go’ to the kick back stride trailing behind the beat on ‘Traktor’. However, for all the substance of his flow, the former track suffered from an awkward over-simplicity made explicit by hand-clapping repetition and a Coldplay sample. It was this discord between arrangements and vocal that seemed to let the rapper down overall. The full live backing with double drum kits, numerous onstage guests and strobe lights were rendered seemingly empty theatrics and failed to hide an overdependence on bland American R&B production, that on the album suffers Wretch’s otherwise heartfelt lyrics to stoop to unconvincing sentimentality. Flag bearers for the Nottingham rapper would argue that these props are vital for his noble aim of bringing the streets of his hometown to the fore. Riding on a number of top ten singles, it was certainly heartening to see the effect of packing out his tour’s biggest venue on the MC, who devoted much of his set to impassioned commentary on having “made it”. However, there was something in the arbitrary sing-along of the audience that stirred doubts that Wretch would ever transcend the hype to something lasting, an unsettling feeling that in climbing the mainstream ladder he’d somewhere let go of his roots. Opening April single ‘Unorthadox’, he claims “I got a good heart/I was born on beat that’s a good start”. A seemingly genuine claim, it remains to be seen how his future plays out.
IZZY CAPEL-TIMMS
ANYONE expecting zesty grimeroots idiosyncrasy from Nottingham’s chief chart-botherer last month at Bristol’s O2 Academy may have been disappointed by a show more tawdry than Tempah, British quirk often losing out to a-cultural schmaltz. The muddled cohort of support foreshadowing Wretch’s eventual appearance was certainly more doner kebab than pie and mash (sadly it seems DELS and Roots Manuva own the individual rights to bakewells and bitter): Sincere & Scorcher provided club-tunes and crowd-checking galore (‘oggy oggy oggy!’) while the Pacha-redolent four-to-the-floor jump chants remained entirely Teezy’s and the slicked-back slow jams gratefully unique to final opener Loick Essien. Food not for thought but for jagerbomb-ridden high street lingerers. This is not the introduction anyone would have expected a year ago of a rapper continually noted for erudite wordplay and thoughtful sincerity
CHRIS GROSVENOR
CALLUM MCLEAN
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Music
ALBUM REVIEW At Your Inconvenience Professor Green
21 November 2011
you get instead is a direct reproduction of Eminem’s early work – the riveting and oh-so-original accounts of his childhood and how he got to the top, for example the leading track, ‘Read All About It’. This tells of how he regretted never having a proper relationship with his father who was in and out of his life, which without the Slim Shady-esque sadism in ‘How Many Moons’ and clear Eminem sway of ‘Nightmares’ would be a lot more effective.
classic album review Origin of Symmetry Muse
“What you get is a direct reproduction of Eminem’s early work”
Professor Green’s second album with the tongue-in-cheek title of At Your Inconvenience was anticipated to be darker and more heartfelt than his previous album, abandoning his arrogance and bravado for a sound more meaningful. Bringing in the talents of The Heritage Orchestra, who’ve performed with the likes of Anthony and the Johnsons and Tim Minchin, and the fierce vocals of Emili Sandé, you’d have a bit of hope for this album. This hope is unfortunately broken down by the very first song. The song in question, ‘At Your Inconvenience’, sums up the very reason many people dislike rap. With lyrics that never seem to connect, changing between weak football references and lines like “I just took a shit and now I can’t find any loo roll,” I lost the will to listen about thirty seconds in, which is never all that encouraging. Nevertheless, I persevered through the whole thing… Hackney born and bred, you’d expect his sound to ooze the influence of the North London music scene. What
However, saying all of this, there are some tracks that put in some effort to redeem the rest. ‘Astronaut’, a heartrending tale of an innocent rape victim’s descent into drug addiction, shows that he does have the ability to write something that is meant to move you without dishing out penis metaphors. But it is the awkward juxtaposition of this and the sexual aggression of ‘Into The Ground’ - containing the lyric “A dimwit with a dick covered in lipstick on the prowl, walking around zipper down” - that really brings this to a crushing disillusionment. All in all I found it painful to listen to, asides from the few tracks that serve to regain some dignity. Though even by keeping these and getting rid of all the songs involving puerile humour, cliché urban beats and ones that sound like That Rapper We All Know, there would be barely enough songs to fill the listener’s disappointed silence. IZZY CAPEL-TIMMS
single reviews Hello Sadness Los Campesinos
IT takes a few listens to work out exactly what’s wrong with Los Campesinos!’ new lead single, ‘Hello Sadness’, from their recently released album of the same name. Elements of the song are still very much reminiscent of what we’ve come to expect from this young, exciting, and even ground-breaking seven-piece. The lyrics are as quirky and clever as ever. Gareth’s vocals are still cutting and unforgettable. The song as a whole works on the almost paradoxical level that makes some of their other songs so memorable (especially the more melancholic); it relies on a strong re-
petitive rhythm yet remains unsettling and disharmonious, it eerily combines sadness with happiness, it at once feels unknown and uncomfortable but strangely known and familiar too. And there the problem lies. It is clearly a Los Campesinos! song, and it does some of the things that make some of their songs outstanding, but not nearly to the same extent. It is not as shamelessly experimental as before, almost a mix between generic and groundbreaking. Far too often the song slips into something boring; a problem that one couldn’t have ever raised, or even believed would ever be raised, at Los Campesinos! before. And the song isn’t even a particularly bad one; it just isn’t as good as the band could have made it. And with a band that so often displays talent, mediocre is a bitter pill to swallow. That’s not a reason for undue panic, though. The band have shown outside this song that they are capable of producing quality in the form of ‘By Your Hand’, the only other song previewed from Hello Sadness so far. The band may reach the levels expected of them, then, but not with efforts as painfully and unfortunately average as this. CHRIS THOMAS
ON the train back from this summer’s Reading Festival, I asked a muddy girl sitting opposite me if she had had the privilege of seeing Muse on the closing night. No, she replied, the crowd was too large for her to distinguish Matt Bellamy and Co. as anything other than small dots. Pity, I thought, stealing a smile as I realised my friends and I were some of the lucky few able to jostle our way into the front-centre rows to witness Devon’s finest tear through their breakthrough album Origin of Symmetry in its entirety. The performance marked Origin’s tenth anniversary, and the trio was sure to reflect the wonderfully ambitious, intemperate nature of its music with a truly spectacular set. With gigantic pylons on stage soaring almost as high as Bellamy’s impressive vocals, pyrotechnics rivalling a Hollywood action movie and colossal inflated eyeballs propelling themselves into the crowd, the gig was a musical indulgence of epic proportions. As onlookers eagerly watched
Monarchy of Roses Red Hot Chilli Peppers
the curtain rise to reveal Bellamy ripping into the riff of ‘New Born,’ they should perhaps have taken a moment amongst the madness to remember that this album heralded the band’s status as prog-rock’s hottest prospect and set its members firmly on their way to unprecedented levels of stardom. A series of audacious musical experiments highlights the band’s grandiosity. Bellamy uses a pipe organ in the slow-boiling ‘Megalomania,’ a song which for obvious practical reasons is not frequently performed. It was, of course, played in their Reading set. ‘Space Dementia’ is maybe the album’s most elaborate track, boasting elements of classical music, electronic rock and heavy guitar. Based on the theory that looking at earth from space drives one mad, Bellamy stated it to be “about being intensely engrossed so that you become obsessive and almost nasty.” When I first heard Origin, I was engrossed, an engrossment which led into obsessiveness about Muse’s music. Let’s hope the nastiness does not follow. ‘Plug in Baby’ was the standout choice for the album’s first single, released on the same day as ‘New Born’ a whole three months before Origin debuted at number three in the charts. The track’s electric guitar riff now frequently appears in the top 50 of all time. Atrociously underrated in the charts, ‘Citizen Erased,’ must, however, be the album’s most impressive track, highlighting Bellamy’s extraordinary vocal range and lyrical genius. Many fans have suggested that the song points to a touchy subject matter; its name infers unreported death or imprisonment, a theme which Bellamy would later explore in greater depth in the anti-totali-
of funky bass and cop-show themetune guitar. It’s an irresistibly upbeat sound and continues playing in your head long after the track has finished – you’re pursued by the urge to dance for about two hours.
“The listener is thrown back in time to a world of funky bass and cop-show theme tune guitar”
THE Red Hot Chili Peppers are well and truly back, with the second single from thier chart-topping album I’m With You. The departure of guitarist John Frusciante has resulted in a big change to the band’s sound, but this song is arguably proof that it’s a change for the better. ‘Monarchy of Roses’ opens with a distorted jumble of guitar and drums, before settling into a menacing, rumbling beat on the toms. Singer Antony Kiedis asks: ‘Do you like it rough?’ through the sinister sound of an old radio, his words punctuated by gravelly guitar. The dark verse suddenly explodes into life in the chorus, and the listener is thrown back in time to a world
It all ends on a trademark RHCP high, with strident chords and soaring vocals. It’s proof that new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer will be comfortable with playing the band’s back catalogue. Klinghoffer is far more than a mere replacement, however; his playing doesn’t dominate the track as Frusciante’s did, but threads the vocals, bass and drums together in a way that’s entirely new to RHCP. His singing is also brilliant, as he provides the spinetingling harmonies in the chorus. ‘Monarchy of Roses’ is a new song with a new sound, but produces that same old feeling: the slightly frenzied joy from listening to the world’s greatest funk rock band.
JONATHON JENNER
Exeposé
tarian album The Resistance. The frontman publicly stated, nevertheless, that the song was “an expression of what it feels like to be questioned,” undoubtedly a concern of many celebrities struggling to deal with their fame. Muse have not struggled to deal with their fast-developed fame. Just in case the musical excesses of their subsequent albums and live shows were not enough, they quite unsurprisingly plan to play a gig in space. JOE SHAW-ROBERTS
2001 in music 1 February – Jennifer Lopez becomes the first female artist to have both a number one album, J.Lo, and a number one movie, The Wedding Planner, in the same week. 1 May – Huey Lewis and the News make a comeback with their album Plan B, their first album of new material in a decade. 12 June – Electric Light Orchestra release their first album in 15 years, entitled Zoom 28 August – Slipknot release their second studio album Iowa 11 September - Gerard Way witnesses the 9/11 attacks and is inspired to start a band, which later becomes My Chemical Romance. 1 December - Backstreet Boys release hit album, The Hits: Chapter One
Terrible Angels EP Charlotte Gainsborough IN advance of an upcoming doublealbum, Gainsbourg Jr. marks her return to music with a tantalisingly listenable pre-release. The album, Stage Whisper, will feature seven new songs (again written and produced by Beck) as well as a live set; Terrible Angels is a solid taster, split into two halves: two of the new tracks, two of the live. All four are excellent. Opener, ‘Terrible Angels’ itself, is another ‘IRM’-style electro piece. Immediately slinkier, and more dirty, 40-yearold Gainsbourg sounds younger as she gets older. The overarching style of the upcoming LP is evident here: the following track ‘Memoir’ is much quieter and more lovingly instrumented. As usual with Gainsbourg, the styles are deliberately opposed but no less cohesive. The theme is continued on the live tracks: ‘IRM’ is represented in all its exuberant glory whilst ‘Just Like A Woman’, the Dylan standard covered by Gainsbourg for the I’m Not There film, rounds things off in gloriously European style. Loud meets quiet, live meets studio. These four tracks are so repeatedlylistenable it’s immediately safe to assume that Stage Whisper will be more than worth the effort. CALUM BAKER
Exeposé week eight
Screen
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Tori Brazier & Luke Graham - screen@exepose.com
NEWSREEL
ESSAY stress getting you down? Well here’s Newsreel to bring sunshine and happiness* into your life! (*neither sunshine nor happiness is guaranteed or even likely - Ed). Eddie Murphy has pulled out of hosting the 2012 Oscars because this year’s producer (and Murphy’s director for Tower Heist) Brett Ratner resigned after saying homophobic statements at a publicity event. I recommend the Muppets as a replacement. Twilight: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 has been released and is already receiving universal panning from critics and lots of money from fans. Look out for our opinion next issue. Here are some intriguing trailers to check out online. First, Pixar have released the full trailer for their Scottish epic Brave, featuring the voice talents of Billy Connolly and it looks amazing. There are also two trailers for two new versions of the Snow White story. In Snow White and The Huntsman, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth fight style monsters and battle in a Lord of The Rings-style fantasy world, while the artistic visionary director, Tarsem Singh, presents the more light hearted and campy Mirror Mirror. My personal favourite is the trailer for the next Aardman stop-motion adventure, The Pirates! It stars Hugh Grant as, well, a pirate! The Immortals, the arty, Greek myth action flick, has topped the UK box office. People just love Gods in gold hotpants... And finally, XTV have released the first episode of a new season of Cameo, their long-running film show. It’s very insightful, funny and polished. Check it out using tinyurl bov8kbn...
Spotlight: Aaron Sorkin
Owen Keating delves into the career of both small and silver screen’s most enduring writer
CHANCES are you’ve seen something written by Aaron Sorkin and you probably enjoyed it. This enigmatic screenwriter, director and playwright has created some of the most memorable cinematic and televisual successes of recent times, successes that have been recognised with both awards and high box-office earnings. Sorkin started writing plays in the late 1980s, and triumphed with A Few Good Men, managing to sell its film rights before the play even premiered. He then cemented his reputation in television with Sports Night, followed by his seminal creation, the multiple awardwinning The West Wing, a show about politics that captured the hearts of a nation. For many, this is Sorkin’s defin-
ing work: it showcased the workings of the White House, and did so by creating characters that continually inspired with their verve and vigour. The performances given by Martin Sheen, Bradley Whitford, John Spencer and Co. are stellar, but Sorkin’s scripts held all these great performances together. The scripts are masterpieces of wit and emotion that
TO me, Friends remains one of the greatest mysteries of life. It described the lives of six almost painfully ordinary people (four of which I found actively annoying), used
fairly safe and occasionally bland comedy, and rambled on for 10 extremely longwinded series. Oh, and it’s American. Nonetheless, I, and virtually everyone I’ve ever met, enjoy watching it, and continue to enjoy watching it having seen each episode several times already. I guess this is why Coupling, the “boozier, smokier, more shag-infested series” British version of Friends, is such a success. According to popular legend, men think about sex once every seven seconds.
drag the audience through policy decisions and national crises one week at a time. The show deservedly gained cult status almost immediately: each episode made the spectacular out of the seemingly mundane, and enlightened its audience on subjects they’d previously only seen on the news.
“The West Wing gained cult status almost immediately”
After these successes, Sorkin broke into the world of film, penning Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), and The Social Network (2009), one of the most talked about films of recent years. The Social Network, as well as winning Sorkin the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, portrays the disputed creation of Facebook. Sorkin’s acerbic dialogue accentuates the grating person-
What I’ve been watching: Coupling
Coupling uses this theme to explore the sexual politics between three men and three women. The storyline is built around awkward, irritable and sarcastic Steve (modelled on the show’s writer Steven Moffat and played by Jack Davenport) and his relationship with organised, fiery and promiscuous Susan (based on the show’s producer Sue Vertue and played by Sarah Alexander). Susan’s best friend Sally is a neurotic and obsessive mess and, slightly bizarrely, the pair frequently meet up for cocktails with Jane, Steve’s desperate, bisexual and possibly psychotic ex. Steve’s best friend Jeff is incredibly socially awkward, tells completely irrelevant stories, and is prone to mentioning breasts at inappropriate moments, whilst Patrick, Susan’s extremely dense woman-magnet of an ex-boyfriend (the Joey equivalent) is described as being “like a tripod” and as
Films to see before you graduate: The Fifth Element (1997)
Director: Luc Besson Cast: Milla Jovovich, Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman (PG) 126mins
THE FIFTH ELEMENT is one of those cult classics which you either love or have never heard of. Earth is under threat from evil itself, and there is only one way to stop it: the Fifth Element, also known as Leeloo (Jovovich). Leeloo is a flawlessly divine creature, the definition of perfection. Although a difficult feat for any actress to pull off, Jovovich brings the exact beauty and innocence to the
role that is needed.
“Honour? Huh! Honour’s killed millions of people, it hasn’t saved a single one”
With the help of ex-special forces, now cab driver, Korben Dallas (Willis), she is Earth’s only hope. Naturally though, this will be no easy task, with the ridiculously and delightfully evil Zorg (Oldman) doing all he can to stop them. The real attraction of The Fifth Element, however, is its pure style. The
costumes are designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, the special effects (Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA Awardwinning) are spectacular and the sharp direction is perfect for a film which is both a fast-paced action sci-fi and a moving piece of cinematic work.
“Everything you create, you use to destroy”
The film is comedic, creating a strange, but well-done, mix of lightheartedness and deep philosophical musings. The movie explores man’s propensity for destruction, as we watch
Leeloo break down in tears when learning the history of man and the nature of war, which in her childlike innocence she simply cannot understand. However, the most memorable feature of the film is the superb use of music, notably the ‘Diva Dance’; a beautiful piece of opera performed by Inva Mula-Tchako which transforms into an epic trance piece, to which the fight scene was specifically choreographed. The impact of this monumental piece of music on the film is the finishing touch in creating a masterpiece of cinema.
KATY MCINTOSH
alities of Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg), the ruthless virtuoso who takes the credit for inventing the site, and Eduardo Saverin, his naïve copartner in the venture they both started at Harvard University. As well as creating incredibly rich characters, Sorkin evokes genuine emotion from his audience as they reach beyond the impenetrable lines of computer code that seemingly define Zuckerberg and instead see his hidden and incredibly complex personality. The impact of Sorkin’s work is so great that upon being particularly efficient, Obama administration staffers reputedly exclaim: “We’ve just WestWinged it.” Praise indeed. Sorkin’s next project is rumoured to be a biopic about Apple founder, Steve Jobs. I cannot wait! The Social Network and The West Wing are available on DVD
“not having enough blood for both ends of his body.” The separate meetings of the men and women (often in the same bar and at the same time) leads to entertaining, albeit stereotyped, scenes of the two genders discussing the same situation in completely different ways. It’s sexual farce, such as when Susan discovers a questionable videotape in Steve’s collection, and forces him to recount the plotline of Lesbian Spank Inferno in detail to an entire dinner party. Writer Steven Moffat deliberately avoided standard jokes, and instead drew comedy from the absurd and yet plausible scenarios. It’s ridiculous of course, but so much fun. Coupling is available on DVD
HELEN CARRINGTON
26
Screen Arthur Christmas
Director: Sarah Smith Cast: James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy THIS Christmas film (released a tad early?) stars James McAvoy as Arthur, youngest son of the current Santa (Broadbent), a chap who only
wants to help but keeps hindering instead, much to the annoyance of his brother (Hugh Laurie) and the rest of the Christmas team. The film starts off by showing how operations in the North Pole have progressed far beyond the reindeer and sleigh, but even with
all their hi-tech equipment, one present remains undelivered. So Arthur, egged on by his mischievous Grandsanta (humorously played by Nighy) sets out to correct this most grievous of errors. Arthur, Grandsanta and Bryony (a gift-wrapping elf) must then cross oceans, face lions, and even stumble upon aliens in their global adventure. The visuals are stunning, especially the intricate workings o f the craft Santa uses to deliver the presents, and a depiction of the Aurora Borealis. However, the film moves too quickly to fully appreciate all the details - a pause button in order to see
The Rum Diary
Director: Bruce Robinson Cast: Johnny Depp, Aaron Eckhart, Amber Heard (15) 120mins
In Time
Director: Andrew Niccol Cast: Justin Timberlake, Cillian Murphy, Amanda Seyfried (12A) 109mins SET in a future where time is money and humans stop ageing at 25, In Time is a sexy sci-fi adventure. The plot centres on Will Salas (Timberlake), a twentysomething factory worker living in the ghetto and struggling to earn enough time to keep living. When he is given the gift of a century of time, he heads for New Greenwich, home of the rich and immortal. Accused of murder, he takes banker’s daughter Sylvia Weis (Seyfried) hostage in order to escape. What follows is best described as Logan’s Run meets Robin Hood, as together
JOHNNY DEPP has returned from caricature hell to give a sensitive, wellmeaning yet ultimately bloated portrayal of his late friend Hunter S. Thompson. The Rum Diary is based on Thompson’s extended prose debut: a semi-autobiographical novel from the late ‘50s, unpublished until 1998. We open on the young Thompson (here re-named Paul Kemp) arriving, broke and inebriated, in San Juan to pursue his writing career. Alongside the usual Thompsonian japes and wacky characters, Kemp soon experiences the darker side of an increasingly Americanised Puerto Rico, embodied in PR man Hal Sanderson (Eckhart). Rather than the carefree ramblings of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson’s more conventional story has a darkly nihilistic tone: all tension, violence and rape. Much more cinematic, surely. Sadly, while Robinson does a fantastic job of visualising and streamlining Thompson’s material, the novel Will and Sylvia try to liberate time from the rich, whilst continually attempting to evade the Timekeepers, led by Cillian Murphy.
“As the film progresses, the plot remains interesting but the script slowly deteriorates”
The opening scenes of the film are well set up, efficiently explaining the practicalities of time being money. However, as the film progresses, while the plot remains interesting, the script slowly deteriorates. Screenwriter and director Andrew Niccol obviously spent a while writing time-related puns and felt the need to cram every single one into the film. Thanks to the plot allowing for a
21 november 2011
everything would be useful! The characters are mostly fun too, except for Mrs. Santa, who doesn’t really do much, and Santa himself, who is a little boring and annoyingly idiotic at times. There is a surprising, and refreshing, lack of cheesiness in Arthur Christmas. It has the odd moment but they aren’t drawn out and are even touching. There isn’t much adult based humour either but it’s still pretty funny, and there’s a good underlying message: it doesn’t matter how you do the job, it only matters that it gets done. Overall, this is a sweet film with a good adventure, enjoyable characters and a few laughs along the way. You may want to wait until you’re in a more Christmassy mood, but check it out if you want something fun, and to see some very peculiar slippers.
ROSY RAZZELL
ends about two-thirds through the film. While I usually scorn rating a film negatively based on comparisons with its source material, here the better parts of the film correlate inextricably with those of the novel. Two-thirds are four stars, the final 20 minutes no more than two. Despite the gifts of Depp (welldocumented as the production’s driving force) and Robinson, the failings of their interpretation become most apparent when compared directly with those scenes lifted straight from Thompson; it is clear who the superior mind is here. Moreover, while the man is someone to be honoured, the move from his brand of wildly-embellished political allegory to a weird posthumous mythologising is tonally self-contradictory. When the closing text proclaims ‘This is the end of one story…but the beginning of another,’ the film is cemented as some cheesy vision of ‘Hunter: The Origin Story’. This was, for a while, the best of the Thompson adaptations – then it became the worst of the Thompson tributes.
CALUM BAKER young cast, this is a visual treat for all, especially with the sexual tension between Seyfried and Timberlake to fill in slower moments. Olivia Wilde plays the 50-year-old mother of Will, despite being in her mid-20s, and Justin Timberlake is truly bringing sexy back. In Time proves to be a good allrounder, with something to entertain everyone. The poor one-liners are forgivable, and any below par acting is glossed over with chemistry. There is potentially some kind of political statement about the power of banks today, but thankfully, the guns, violence, car chases and general action overshadow that, allowing it to be an enjoyable film for all. Not terrible, but hardly exceptional.
RACHEL BENNETT
The Awakening
Director: Nick Murphy Cast: Rebecca Hall, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West (PG) 107mins THE AWAKENING stars Rebecca Hall as an educated sceptic who, in the years following World War One, reveals supernatural occurrences as hoaxes preying on the nation’s grief. However, when she is lured to a remote country school following the death of a pupil, strange events cause her to doubt her beliefs. A timely release, The Awakening is a stylish British ‘chiller’ driven by solid direction from Nick Murphy and a standout performance by Hall. Strong support comes in the form of Dominic West and Imelda Staunton, who anchor the film as it weaves between murder-mystery, ghost-story and emotional drama. Unlike many recent horror films, The Awakening doesn’t resort to blood or gore to provide shocks. Instead, it invokes more traditional devices through the use of sound, light and location to create tension. Despite its repeated presence in horror and
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Gothic stories, Murphy breathes new life into the ‘old mansion’ setting, which remains surprisingly effective in creating genuine scares. As with Guillermo Del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone, The Awakening rewards viewers by rising above a simple horror film to become a profound and poignant examination of grief and guilt. West’s character is a war veteran tormented by his survival, while Hall’s character has lost her lover in the war. The sense of loneliness and isolation each feels is reflected in the film’s muted use of colour, its small cast and remote location. Bolstered by a sincere script, the ghost story regularly takes a back seat to the characters’ emotional development. It is a shame, therefore, that this is lost in the climax when the film slips into hysterical melodrama. However, there is enough substance in The Awakening as a whole to provide a worthwhile watch; moving, well crafted, superbly acted, scary and beautifully melancholic.
CHRIS DAVIES
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Books
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Esmeralda Castrillo & Tom Payne - books@exepose.com
Worlds of difference Arundhati Roy, the writer-turned-activist, has still yet to produce that great second novel - but her work is still creating shockwaves across the world
Tom Payne, Books Editor, on Arundhati Roy, one of the the world’s greatest literary freedom fighters EVERY few months or so, I often go out of my way to pick up and read a book from one of the great international writers of the literary world. There are plenty of different types of ‘foreign’ writers after all, from the world-weary prose of early African-American slave writers right through to the vibrant immediacy of Téa Obreht’s 2011 Orange Prize-winning debut, The Tiger’s Wife. And of course there are, suffice to say, more than a great deal besides. My favourites – among them, Arundhati Roy, Amy Tan and V.S. Naipaul - invariably provide me with fresh and endearingly different reading experiences, literal kinds of transcendence from the things I usually read (which often involves far too much Joyce and Vonnegut for anyone’s good). In any case – those writers I listed have produced works which have a far greater place on the literary marketplace. They put the weight of the world on their shoulders, and make a change.
“To forge a unique and sympathetic connection with the Western reader requires an admirable degree of excellence as a writer” A case in point would be the Indian-born 1997 Booker Prize winner, Arundhati Roy. These days you could call Roy something of a one-hit-wonder. Her decade-old debut, the muchacclaimed The God of Small Things, has yet to be complemented with a sequel. “It’ll have to wait,” she told The Independent last month. These days Roy is known as more of a political activist, fiercely campaigning against globalisation and neo-imperialism in her home country, and across the globe. But her main agent of change, as
she is often quoted as saying, comes through the power and immediacy of language. In an interview from 2008, she’s quoted as saying: “As I keep saying, fiction is truth. I think fiction is the truest thing there ever was.” This kind of unquestionable conviction in the power of fiction is something that has troubled commentators, and caused a great deal of unease in India. “It’s very important for me to tell politics like a story, to make it real. It’s about using language as a weapon. You need more than just a lot of anger, a lot of research or a lot of hard work to write good fiction,” she says. I think it’s more than refreshing to read and hear of an author whose conviction in fiction as an agent of serious political change remains so pervasive, particularly in an age where the prominence of the typed word submits itself so willingly to the star-studded rhetoric of our leading political figures. Roy’s response to the 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan sharply under-
scores the subliminal hypocrisy of the politicians to whom we willingly submit: “When he announced the air strikes, President George Bush said: ‘We’re a peaceful nation.’ America’s favourite ambassador, Tony Blair echoed him: ‘We’re a peaceful people.’ So now we know. Pigs are horses. Girls are boys. War is peace.” Few contemporary authors are able to manage and sustain such provocative and ultimately dangerous views implicitly through fiction. This is just one example of the important and daunting task of writers from abroad, specifically those writers from op-
pressed and burdened ethnic minorities. To articulate a sense of identity, and to forge a unique and sympathetic connection with the Western reader almost always requires an admirable degree of intellect and excellence as a writer. Most of them aren’t just novelists – they are activists, refugees, outlaws facing death penalties and so on. It’s not just about writing in order to achieve some kind cultural transcendence. It’s about using fiction as a profoundly serious and militant way of combating the principle moral ills of the world.
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Books
review
The Dharma Bums Jack Kerouac
Penguin Classics ISBN: 0141184884
IN this age of uniform middle-class youths gobbling up cultural reference points to prove they own a rebellious, edgy and creative streak, the Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac is often held up as an inspiration, an oft-quoted source of dreamy nonchalance. I should know; I was (and probably still am) one of those youths. Like most people, my first experience of Kerouac was the eclectic madness of On The Road, and although it is undoubtedly a fantastic read, it offers little in the way of fulfilment. However, whereas most read On The Road to tick it off their list of cultural achievements, I wanted to find out more of what Kerouac had to offer, and, by an extremely tenuous comparison, my search for more experience parallels that of Ray Smith in
review
The Tiger’s Wife Téa Obreht
Phoenix ISBN: 0753827409
THE TIGER’S WIFE is the 2011 Orange Fiction winner from the 25 year old Yugoslavian-born writer Téa Obreht. Set in an unnamed Balkan state, the story is presented to us in a non-linear hybrid of present day, flashback and backstory of various interesting sub-characters, as we unravel two folk stories; of the tiger’s wife and the Deathless Man. For such a young writer, Obreht has an excellent way of drawing the reader into her characters’ stories. On one level, we are fascinated by the magical elements, whether it be the love between a deaf-mute girl and a tiger, united by exclusion, or the enigmatic and supernatural Deathless Man. However, there is also an underlying sense of suffering and realism. War is ever present in the novel, and we are sometimes treated to violent descriptions of the physical abuse of the tiger’s wife. Along with numerous victims of the war, several characters are given whole chapters to describe
their tragic backgrounds, enforcing the link between human failed dreams and the fate of the folk story protagonists. Fate and mortality provide the bonds between real and magic, and the novel leaves us contemplating questions about death and the afterlife. The Deathless Man is the most intriguing creation of the story, and his poignant inability to welcome the personified Death contrasts with the inevitability of the mortal individuals caught in a human conflict.
“Obreht has an excellent way of drawing the reader into her characters’ stories” The Tiger’s Wife is a gripping novel that invites you into the plight of both the folk-story characters and the Balkan rural inhabitants, as the essence of human hopes and fears are explored. Obreht rises to the challenge of interweaving the magical and the real, and tactfully employs suspense and foreshadowing to drive the plot through its mysteries. MATTHEW BUGLER
Kerouac’s enchanting novel, The Dharma Bums. Whilst On The Road may offer readers all of America, The Dharma Bums offers a greater insight into the leading Beat Generation figures of Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, and Kerouac himself, through a series of contrasting experiences. The protagonist, Ray Smith, who Kerouac has said represents himself, is a follower of Zen Buddhism, which opens a world of spiritual exploration beyond the frivolous sex, drugs and jazz of On The Road. It’s almost impossible to compare Kerouac as Smith to Kerouac as Sal Paradise. Much of the novel’s action and morals revolve around trips into the Sierra Mountains, led by the influential Japhy Ryder, a devoted Buddhist, who uses their long sojourns in the mountains to awaken Ray to the true meaning of Buddhism. Deep issues of spirituality and mortality are broached in the isolated beauty of the peaks, Ray becoming increasingly questioning of human existence: “Who were all these strange ghosts
rooted to the silly little adventure of earth with me? And who was I?”. The serene Sierras contrast with the grimy Los Angeles rail depot in which we first meet Ray, and the drunken poetry readings and “yabyum” sessions in Alvah Goldbook and Japhy’s wooden shacks, which reinforce Ray’s disillusionment with material reality and indulgence. Ray lambasts colleges as “grooming schools for the middle-class non-identity,” and even learns to shun women, in the famous line “pretty girls make graves.” His characterisation offers us the developmental maturation that we perhaps would have expected from Sal Paradise.
“ Kerouac’s unique prose remains as stylistically radical and impressive” Though the morals have perhaps altered, however, Kerouac’s unique prose remains as stylistically radical and im-
Alice Walker Penguin Classics ISBN: 0704346664
THE COLOR PURPLE was one of the first books that made me realise the gravity and sheer energy that literature can transmit. The form, language and imagery combine to communicate powerful themes and threateningly controversial ideas relating to African Americans, America in the 1930s, and the position of the black woman. Alice Walker’s 1982 novel plays
an important part in postcolonial literature; its significance has been formally recognised in the form of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (she was the first black woman to receive the prize) and the National Book Award. It’s no surprise that the novel has sold over a million copies; Walker is effortless in her ability to captivate the reader through the powerful colloquial language that is characterised by southern American dialect. Immediately one is drawn into the diary of young Celie. The style is tenderly intimate: we are voyeuristically invited into her deeply touching story. It is a story of rape, abuse, relationships and liberation. One of the most striking aspects of the novel is its abil-
pressive. High up on the Matterhorn, at the pinnacle of the novel, Ray reflects on his inability to follow Japhy to its transcendent heights, and observes “the stars were icicles of mockery,” Kerouac showing his innate ability to utilise cosmology to create a wonderfully oxymoronic image. Although far from being a Bildungsroman, The Dharma Bums offers a beautiful representation of maturation and exploration, coupled with Kerouac’s fascinating writing style. Although the other characters in the novel are somewhat one-dimensional, their main function is an audience to the altering relationship between the eager Ray and the sagacious Japhy. Perhaps this relationship that defines the novel is best seen in Japhy’s advice that “you can’t fall off a mountain”, and if one thing can be taken from The Dharma Bums, it is that advice: once you learn the secret of a happy and fulfilling life, you can’t lose it. BEN WINSOR
lives & lit
Tom Bond on Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the embittered existentialist whose works transcend time and place
As much as great writing is the result of a vivid and boundless imagination, there are some things that can be best represented from the horse’s mouth. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novels hold the perfect blend of foreign novelty and universal identification that both intrigues readers and empathises with them. It would be possible, through much research and an impressive feat of imagination, for anyone to render a serviceable likeness of mid nineteenth-century Russian society, but it would never reach the level of realism and authenticity achievable by someone who was actually there. That is why so many books correlate so clearly with their authors’ lives. The futile truth is that the remembered blur and echo of reality is so much more potent than anything a book can tell us. The best writers can draw on their personal observations of life and use their inventiveness to make it more universal. Fyodor Dostoyevsky was most certainly one of those writers. Several of the key events in his life are repeated in his books, and he drew on the heartbreak and pain
he suffered to animate his characters. The most infamous period of Dostoyevsky’s life began in 1849 when he was arrested for being part of a liberal group that discussed banned Western philosophy and literature. Dostoyevsky and his comrades were lead to three stakes, watched by the local citizens. Stripped to their underwear in -20°C cold, they shivered under death’s gaze as the execution order was read out. The soldiers raised their guns. Then a white flag was waved by an official and a new order was read out: the Tsar’s amnesty. Instead of death, Dostoyevsky received four years exile in a Siberian labour camp. Elements of this trauma feature in his later novels The Idiot and Crime and Punishment and serve as both catharsis and a chilling example of impending death. Dostoyevsky’s life suffered devastation in 1864 when both his wife and brother passed away. In the aftermath he selflessly took on his brother’s debts, and provided for his widow and children, as well as his own stepson. This huge financial pressure pushed him into
Epilogue . . . reviews of essential literary classics The Color Purple (1982)
Exeposé
ity to inspire an air of hope despite following the hard plights of young Celie and her female peers. Although many of the female characters are oppressed and consistently treated inhumanely by their male counterparts, Walker nourishes an atmosphere of optimism.
“Walker is effortless in her ability to captivate the reader through the powerful colloquial language that is characterised by Southern American dialect”
Perhaps she is celebrating the achievements of the civil rights movement and the power of education in emancipation, but at the same time encouraging and provoking the reader to comment on the position of Celie as a young black woman in comparison to the black male or the white woman parallel; the reader cannot easily avoid the cruel images of powerless confinement she faces within her step fathers grotesque world. Additionally, the book is important in illuminating the difficulties and complexities of religion and the maintenance of a faith through periods of hardship and unrelenting struggle. In this way Walker writes back to the slave narratives of the mid and
depression and he turned to gambling as the answer. Despite, or perhaps thanks to, this extreme pressure he wrote The Gambler and Crime and Punishment simultaneously. These successes were followed by other acclaimed works, The Idiot and The Devils (or Demons).
“The perfect blend of foreign novelty and universal identification” Dostoyevsky finished his career with arguably his greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov, shortly before his death in 1881. The world had lost one of its greatest writers, someone who explored huge topics like religion, morality and death hand-in-hand with the reader in an inquisitive hunger for answers. The biggest compliment you can pay to any writer is to say that their work feels so universal and empathetic that you forget they are from another time and place, and this is what Dostoyevsky achieves.
late nineteenth century, invoking the reader to think about the paradoxes of the Christian faith not only for African Americans during and after the slave trade, but for all oppressed groups that may use religious faith as reasoning behind the endurance of a repressive system. Although faith is contested, it is also explored as a great motivation behind Celie’s bravest most clever acts. Walker presents an ending where Celie defies all constraints and limitations on her moral and financial freedom; it becomes not a tale of grim inequality but of happiness and the purity of humanity. ELLA WILLIAMS
Exeposé week eight
Arts
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Zoe Bulaitis & Laura Stevens - arts@exepose.com
Interview
Zephaniah: Words as weapons
Laura Stevens, Arts Editor, has a one-to-one with the political activist and dubpoet Benjamin Zephaniah 16 HONORARY doctorates, Professor at Brunel University, rubbing shoulders with Nelson Mandela, on the National English curriculum... not entirely what you would expect from someone who dropped out of school at 13 barely literate after witnessing an abusive home life. Yet, Benjamin Zephaniah is just that, not what you would expect, and determined not to be slotted into a convenient society box and kept quiet on uncomfortable issues. Talking to Zephaniah it becomes clear that his background of fear in his own home honed his moral compass and his empathy for those who were neglected and let down by the government: “I watched my mother being beaten by my father and that’s how I understood that it was wrong.”
“My mission is to take poetry off the bookshelf and give it back to the masses” It was this drive to portray the ‘real stuff’ that led Zephaniah into performance poetry from such a young age; the power of it to change the view that “uneducated people don’t listen to poetry.” It is clearly a heartfelt task as Zephaniah states: “My mission has always been to take it off the bookshelf and give it back to the masses.” This taking out of poetry from its realm in stale academic tomes is not a
THEATRE REview Lost Words @ Claydon House, 6 - 7 November
new idea as Zephaniah is quick to point out: “When people go, that’s so advanced thinking with performance poetry, I’m like nah it’s an ancient art. I’m going back to the first art form; we were using the tongue before we were using the pen.” This revival of the oral tradition from as far back as Homeric times is particularly apt for Zephaniah due to his outspoken viewpoints. This way “it’s much more democratic, it’s much more accessible and it bypasses publishers and governments” and so in countries around the Globe those of the oppressed minority can speak out. The importance of this ability to show the underside of society is apparent through Zephaniah’s self description using the West African word, griot: “It’s a kind of person that goes from village to village, giving you the alternative news, they’re telling it as it is and so that’s how I see myself.” The power of such an ancient art is very much alive in today’s society as Zephaniah himself proves, and also through other’s work, such as during the Egyptian Revolution: “It was poets talking about how things are going to change, all these people who didn’t have a voice before and performing and an idea spread. Look at the grass roots level, I’m not saying poetry caused the revolution but it was part of the whole mix.” This power of the creative is ap-
parent across Zephaniah’s work career which ranges from novels to music to performance poetry. It is clear that he has tapped into a market that was eager to have an accessible and real form of poetry, and this is none more apparent than in his decision to write for children. Talkin’ Turkeys, 1995, went into emergency reprint after a mere six weeks, on which he wryly comments: “Lots of people were writing about fluffy animals but I wrote about them going to slaughter.”
THE cold night air, and dark sky of early winter added to the overall ambience of this voyeuristic production, as a small group of unsuspecting spectators waited outside, before being ushered into a world inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. None of us were completely sure what to expect as we entered the candlelit building as ‘guests’, and were directed to the dining room. Here we had our first proper encounters with some of Poe’s most memorable creations, and were advised by many of them not to trust anyone else.
could even trust anyone at all!) played a major role in making this interactive production so exciting. The performance required its audience to participate, as their decisions would drive the piece onwards. For example, audiences were asked to interrogate a murder suspect and sentence, as a ‘jury,’ the character to his fate. A corridor encounter required decisionmaking on a ‘potion’ to take, assisted by riddles from a deliciously eerie character. The performance required reasoning, strategy and logic through teamwork, as tight-knit audience groups had to make choices to determine characters’ and even their own, destinies. As a spectator, after a climatic banquet with the entire cast, you either left the performance metaphorically ‘dead’ or ‘alive,’ whether you had lost or won the challenge.
“The performance required reasoning, strategy and logic through teamwork”
Not knowing who to trust (or if you
“Zephaniah is determined not to be slotted into a convenient society box and kept quiet on uncomfortable issues” This refusal to accept the norm of what should be written on is acutely realised throughout his work where society’s dark underbelly of racial prejudice is explored through clever word play and defiance of standardised English: ‘I waz whitemailed/By a white witch/Wid white magic’(White 1996). For Zephaniah it is here that his strength lies, his ability to tell his tales through poetry without having to conform: “It’s just my experiences, and that’s my strength, people can identify with me, not in an overly academic style but in the language of everyday people.”
Benjamin Zephaniah is coming to Exeter Corn Exchange on the 29 November for the Exeter’s Christmas Without Cruelty Festival. Free Entry. Go Along!
“You are ushered into a disturbing world inspired by Edgar Allan Poe” The performance took place in Claydon House, one of the campus’ older buildings; whose claustrophobic rooms, dingy lighting and absence of heating, contributed to the chillingly haunting atmosphere. Lost Words perfectly fit this setting, and the performance took full advantage, immersing its audience, whilst simultaneously setting their nerves on edge. One could enter a room, and would hear the sounds of screams, or a loud knocking on the doors from elsewhere in the building. You never felt completely at ease, always certain that somebody would sneak up behind you.
Interactive theatre is currently ‘all the rage’ with companies such as ‘Punch Drunk’, and even tourist attractions like the Dungeon Tours. However, what made this production so rewarding was that each individual spectator had the power to make a difference to every possible outcome, with quick-witted actors ready for the unexpected. This sensational yet intimate performance was full of heart-racing moments provided by a cast of entertainingly sinister actors who really got under the skin of Poe’s characters. Overall, it was a cleverly devised show with innovative direction, strongly capturing the dark tone of the source material. MELISSA BARRETT AND DAVID JOHNSON
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21 November 2011 Exeposé
Arts
ART FEATURE
Graffiti: political or pointless?
Katy McIntosh discusses the function of street art WHAT is the function of street art? Is it enough to be aesthetically pleasing, or should it be something that can also inspire? The trick of good graffiti is that it should be both. A scrawled tag is very different to a Banksy masterpiece. Firstly, because the latter is genuinely pleasing to the eye and secondly, because it makes you think. The Kissing Coppers, the Salute to Tesco, the Little Girl Frisking a Soldier. These are not just pretty pictures. These are political statements.
“Graffiti is not the ugly plague that it’s made out to be”
The notion that actions speak louder than words has never been truer. One piece by Banksy will always be a greater inspiration than a speech in the House of Commons. Graffiti speaks to the younger generation; it is a deliberate act of rebellion. Even the less artistic graffiti, such
as Exeter’s own (down Hoopern Lane), ‘Anarchy: Nothing else compares – Except capitalism’ makes you think. Banksy’s work explores war, corruption, consumerism and global warming, to name a few. The strong stencil prints stand out and deliver a powerful message. His work inspires, it invites people to think for themselves and questions the authoritative powers in the world. Nevertheless, the question is whether this is art or just simple vandalism. There is a fine line between the two and the line moves according to the person. However, work by people such as Banksy, Meek and Blek le Rat, in my opinion, have more worth than half of the installations in the Tate Modern (and I’m a fan of modern art). A crude message scribbled in spray paint is not what I would call a work of art, but it cannot be denied that it is still an expression of self. The murals and masterpieces painted on
walls across the world however show the true talent of our street artists. It is an art form, which is sadly overlooked by those who consider it distasteful or ugly. As with all pieces of art, there will be those that do not appeal, even those that are just plain bad, but there are also some true works of genius, and these are the reason that graffiti should not be dismissed. The fact that street art is illegal and that some of its messages are controversial is what makes it special. It is not a carefully hung canvas on a gallery wall; it is displayed in the streets because it speaks to the people. Moreover, it brightens up our grey towns. Graffiti is not the ugly plague that it’s made out to be; good graffiti is an art form, and one which is sadly often destroyed not long after it is created. KATY MCINTOSH
ART ATTACK
WE asked students what they thought of Banksy’s Kissing Coppers and whether graffiti can be seen as art or is it a scrawl on a wall? Nick Vines: Looks like those coppers will be leading on to some serious cop-ulation. Henry White: Graffiti never works as a form of political protest. Unless it ignites a bigger movement on its own it is just graffiti and that’s what people see it as. Ella Williams: I think graffiti can express a political message in a meaningful and more raw way than other art formsmostly because it originates from a form that is essentially illegal. An old friend (who is an ex-graffiti artist) once told me he hated Banksy as any one claiming to use graffiti cannot use stencils! Plus the exhibitions he has subsequently run kind of contradict his original intentions. Laura Stevens: It is too extreme to say that graffiti “never works as a form of political protest” as it is an anonymous way of passing a message in societies that are
repressed and censored in other ways. Sarah Holmes: Surely Facebook comments aren’t any different to graffiti - a message scrawled in a public place. But the influences of a particular, social psyche are evident in the stereotypical example we often find endorsed in them. Every discursive act, however effectually or ineffectually represented, stems from social beliefs and understanding. Rebecca Lodder: I would prefer to look at something that has a message or is at least trying to put across a message than some mindless scribble relating to a gang or crude phrase Jack D’Arcy: Graffiti can be a lot of things. At its worst it can be vandalistic, crude and ugly, but at its best it’s as eye-catching, thought provoking and beautiful as any other artform. I think the line between these two is undoubtedly vague.
Theatre FEATURE
Is a bloodbath appropriate for the stage? “GOOD art cannot be immoral. By good art I mean art that bears true witness, I mean the art that is most precise.” Compare this quote from Ezra Pound with the statements made by audience members at the RSC’s latest production of Marat/Sade, which has experienced record numbers of walk-outs, and you couldn’t have a greater contradiction. The show has been described as ‘warped’, ‘disturbing’ and ‘shocking’ with one reviewer claiming that the show was ‘comprehensively perverse’. Such statements raise an age-old question; at what stage, if ever, does art cross
a line and become morally unacceptable? The answer lies in another hotly debated topic: what is the purpose of art? Is it merely a form of entertainment, or does it go further, acting as a commentary and critique of society. Few people would say that Marat/Sade’s scenes of torture are ‘entertaining’, at least not in the same way as Downton Abbey or Elton John are. I find it undeniable that art is about more than entertainment, as figures ranging from Banksy to Ai Weiwei to Sarah Kane prove – art, whether it takes the form of theatre, sculpture, graf-
fiti or whatever, is about making a statement. Art has the capacity to enthral, to entertain, to enlighten, to shock and to horrify, but at the same time maintaining a barrier between itself and reality. No matter how horrifying events on stage get, the audience knows that it is made up, and that it will end, without real consequences. It is this distinction that is essential. Perspective is incredibly important; it was a sense of morality that drove people to attack works of art such as Michelangelo’s David, and the Mona Lisa, two pieces generally accepted to
epitomise fine art. It is the same sense of morality that causes people to leave Marat/Sade, unable to deal with it’s ‘offensive’ content. However, I believe, for art to stay relevant, it has to be edgy, and sometimes offensive, in order to make an impact. It shouldn’t be the 30 or so people who leave the theatre that matter, but the hundreds who stay, describing the show afterwards as ‘powerful’, ‘interesting’, and ‘uniquely entertaining.’
ALEX HAWKSWORTH-BROOKES VIDEOGAMES EDITOR
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Exeposé week eight
ART ENCOUNTER
TH.2058 @ Tate Modern – Turbine Gallery
MODERN art receives a mixed reception. Generally there can be a negative outlook upon the works of artists experimenting with mediums and more abstract ideas, as their works are termed as ‘things a child could have done’. But to me it is the one kind of art that anyone can connect to if they so wish. The Turbine Hall installation from Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster TH.2058 is probably the first piece of modern art I was drawn to and appreciated. As I entered through a mesh of plastic the sight of hundreds of metal bunk beds greeted me, many with books chained to the frames. Above my head a giant spider towered as a screen on the back wall played out images I cannot recall. At the age of 15 I did not know quite what this was meant to represent but I could make up my own story of apocalyptic disaster and a community stuck down here together with nothing but books and each other for company. The books themselves also raised questions. Were they chained to the beds as part of the piece? Or was this just se-
curity? And why did I see Fahrenheit 911 at least twice? What had happened to the people of the empty beds? All the questions added to the piece and my response as a visitor. It was probably the first time I realised that an audience was really meant to respond to and engage with art. It now transpires that the piece is about 2058 and what the future could hold but for me that is irrelevant. I took from the work a sense that art is not just there to be stared at by intellectuals in grand halls but that art is to be enjoyed and engaged with by anyone and everyone. EMILY TANNER
Arts
ART review Art Society: Member’s Exhibition @ Exeter Phoenix Walkaway Gallery 8 November - 3 December
IT’S often assumed that London is the centre of the art world and therefore work exhibited anywhere else is substandard. Art Society’s new exhibition goes some way to refute this and shows that, in a University where no visual arts are formally taught, there is still a plethora of talent. Tucked away at the back of the Phoenix is a hidden gem waiting to be discovered. Forget village fêtes with hackneyed landscape watercolors, the art on show here wouldn’t be out of place at the White Cube. It is a testament that our University contains young, talented and accomplished artists.
“The art wouldn’t be out of place at the White Cube gallery” Clare Silver and her committee have done well to curate these works linked with a monochrome theme. Jasper Hos-
sack’s “Skeleton” is wonderful in it’s simplicity, a scrawl of black ink that contains the best of artists like Emin, while more detailed works like “Hands” shows Lily Skinners raw artistic talent and skill.
“A member of the public approached me and wanted to buy one of the works” In fact, it’s difficult to find any work in the exhibition, which I wouldn’t want to highlight as particularly outstanding. Whether this is to do with clever curatorship or pure talent in the Society’s members is inconsequential. One member of the public even approached me and want-
ART FEATURE
Viewfinders can’t capture the picture Emily Lunn asks, can we appreciate art through the lens?
ed to buy one of the works, so if you don’t believe my gushing then take it from her. Her desire to hang the piece on her own wall shows how accomplished these artists really are. My one criticism would be that the Walkway Gallery isn’t the most wonderful of spaces. It’s a hybrid between a corridor and a service area and the work could do with more light to show it off, only a minor niggle that could be easily resolved in future exhibitions (of which I hope there will be many). Pop in and have a good look at the creativity that is apparently alive and well in our midst.
GEORGE CONNOR
CREATIVE CORNER As the first signs of autumn’s crest has fallen
Photo: Zoe Bulaitis
WHEN I went to Paris last summer, I was eager to tour the galleries. I like to stand in a gallery, preferably free from the crowds, and stare for a while at an exhibit. There is something therapeutic in the absorption of a good exhibition. However, galleries can fail to achieve this – not due to the art, but due to the people. Nothing illustrates this better than my experience of the Mona Lisa. I stood, in the corner of a dimly-lit room in the Louvre, watching the crowd of tourists eagerly pushing their way to the front. They paused for a second by the barrier, in order to take a photo and move on. Mona Lisa done. One more ticked off the list, the ‘no flash’ sign ignored again. Worse still, people stood from the back of the crowd, craned their necks enough to gauge how much zoom would be necessary, took the coveted picture, and left. The number of people who didn’t have a camera, or who were there to actually look at, and connect with the painting, were depressingly few. A culture of reproducing art has long existed, and to an extent, I understand the necessity of this. By reproducing art, the image can be made widely available: this is the ideal of the aesthetic movement, to make ‘beauty’ available for everyone. But I don’t see the point in travelling to
a gallery, not to see, but to simply reproduce the artwork. Why not just go to the gallery shop, buy a couple of postcards, and save yourself the effort of touring the exhibition? The commercialisation of art has long been an issue, with pieces such as Damien Hirst’s For The Love of God selling for a hideous £50 million. Is this art? Or is it an example of materialist greed, of buying into a ‘label’ of art? These works of art give you status, by flaunting your money, your influence, and your ‘understanding’ of culture. Surely this is how not to engage with art, or have any kind of cultural experience. It is not always possible to visit galleries. But when the image – both the ‘label’ of the piece and the photographic reproduction of the artwork becomes more important, it is a demoralising day for artists. So please, if you are able to visit a gallery, go with the intention of seeing. If you can’t visit the national galleries, then take some time to reflect in a local gallery. Stand before a piece, and actually see it. I think this is the purpose of art, to connect with a beauty that had previously gone unnoticed. You won’t see this through your camera lens, so might as well stay at home and Google the image instead.
And the snow is banked against my imagination On swift and light feet do icy dreams make one shiver And a wind runs through my hands and feet. As the daylight’s hours recede into one another The horizon is all hot, but only for The twilight hours When the truth of winter is not. Oncoming, as swift as its own nightfall Will punish and encourage the cold; But, when all of us are nestled up in a warm, safe place Don’t forget one can play in the snow. JACK FLANAGAN
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St Luke’s Chapel, University of Exeter
CAROLS THURSDAY 8 TH DECEMBER 2011
The St Luke’s Christmas Carol Service
5.30 P.M. ST LUKE’S CHAPEL
Exeposé week eight
Video Games Alex Hawksworth-Brookes & Jessica Leung - games@exepose.com
33
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The Importance of Being Indie
Marcus Beard resists Activision’s Call of Duty and takes up the fight for industry innovation LET me tell you about publishing giant Activision’s humble beginnings. Formed in 1979 by former music industry executive Jim Levy, Activision was the first game developer not to be owned by console manufacturers - the first independent developer. Creating games for the Atari 2600, just one developer would work on each game, creating titles such as ‘Tennis’, ‘Ice Hockey’, and the ground-breaking ‘Fishing Derby’ – each game having mechanics entirely new and different from the last. Levy would ensure a whole page in each manual was dedicated to the developer, in the hope new talent would be attracted to create the best games out there for consumers.
Minecraft
World of Goo
“At some point, video games became all about the dollar” So what happened? Things went the same way as the music industry. Activision grew too large, core developers broke away, lawsuits were started, and smaller publishers were acquired; it became all about the dollar. Activision is now the top publisher in US, and after firing and attempting to sue the co-founder and lead designer that created the series, has just released its eighth Call of Duty game in five years. Almost indistinguishable from its predecessor and using the same stale engine and formula it has been for five years, Modern Warfare 3 is set to break all-time sales revenue records for the entertainment industry. It is the video game industry’s Justin Bieber. It looks as though any hope of finding new, exciting and passionately developed games from the big publishers is gone when we look at EA’s digital
distribution woes, Ubisoft’s overbearing DRM and Activision’s alignment with the evil empire. Yet, there is a glimmer, nay, a beacon of hope in the industry.
“Despite still being in Beta form, Minecraft is the most successful indie game of all time”
Last year I found myself walking around Earl’s Court convention centre at the Eurogamer Expo 2010 feeling completely apathetic towards the glut of sequels and stale franchises that surrounded me. I stumbled upon a corridor filled with desktop PCs and guys wearing programming pun t-shirts – the ‘indie arcade’. These games had the most innovative and new gameplay mechanics I had seen in a while. Hohokum and Tiny & Big were two of my favourites. Where are these games now? Still unreleased and in beta. As indie games lack the funding of big publishers, most of them are created by enthusiasts alongside a day job. With the advent of new community funding programmes like Kickstarter, this is less of a problem. Users can pledge different amounts of money to projects for various bonuses when the project is released, such as a name in the credits or signed merchandise. Think of it as a glorified pre-order. Some developers have orchestrated this process themselves, such as in the Overgrowth Alpha release project. Minecraft is perhaps the most successful indie game of all time, selling over four million units, generating over $70 million in revenue, and a $129-a-ticket Minecraft convention that took place last weekend. The game is
Matt Bevan is poppin’ bottles in the ice... like a Blizzard
BLIZZCON 2011, the sixth annual celebration of all things Blizzard Entertainment, the gaming powerhouse behind the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo universes, was held in glorious Anaheim, California recently. Blizzcon is a community-oriented event, featuring invitational tournaments eagerly eyed by the 26,000 fans who attended this year, the latest and finest of gaming peripherals and prod-
ucts from tech companies, plus being able to interact with the wider Blizzard community. The announcement of the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, coming out first quarter of 2012, ripe for the revision period, attracted some significant attention. This reincarnation will explore the mythology of the ‘pandaern’ - panda-like people (excuse the cynicism but undoubt-
edly attempting to increase their China market share), adding a martial arts monk-style class and increasing the level cap to 90. Also catching eyes was Diablo III, due to appear early 2012. The beta has been floating around the press for a few months now and it appears almost ready for retail release. Fans could play and Blizzard looked to receive feedback on the eagerly anticipated con-
tinuation of the series. Moving to Starcraft II, Blizzcon saw the unveiling of more information regarding the upcoming expansion Heart of the Swarm. The removal and addition of units looks to trigger a dramatic change in multiplayer gameplay, intensifying the usage of support and spell-caster units. Breaking ground was the hosting of the Global Starcraft League outside
still a Beta release. However, just like the big developers that spend millions to combat the problem, indie games are victims of software piracy. A large proportion of people playing games have not paid for them. 2D Boy, developers of World of Goo, were the first to take radical pricing measures with its ‘Pirate Amnesty’, encouraging those who acquired the game through less than honourable means to buy the game – at any price they like. Economic self-interest holding true, the majority of pirates paid $0.01. Yet, any revenue is better than no revenue and some buyers paid in excess of $100.
“Most indie games are made by enthusiasts, alongside a day job” The Humble Indie Bundle programme extended this pricing scheme to packages of less well known indie games, also allowing buyers to make a donation to the ‘Child’s Play’ charity. An economics game theorist’s dream, most recently Indie Royale introduced a minimum price of $1 for their game bundles that rises with demand and lowers when the minimum is significantly exceeded. A quick Google search for ‘indie games’ will return a plethora of resources to find the most enjoyable and best value games around. When you read the review of Skyrim on the opposite page that praises Bethesda for revolutionising RPGs, spare a thought for the independent developers, the real innovators, and support the causes mentioned in this article. Otherwise we’ll have another industry full of Justin Biebers.
of South Korea for the very first time! Competition in E-sports was fierce over the weekend and a prize pool of over $300,000 attracted the best talent the world has to offer. On a smaller scale, Exeter has raised a team to compete against 24 other UK universities in a Starcraft II tournament, a phenomenon well established within universities of the US. Follow the team’s progress by visiting eu.cstarleague.com.
21 November 2011 Exeposé
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Video Games
Jack Flanagan: Playing with the past
ET TU, Sephiroth? If I look back to the birth of the era of video gaming, when Pacman and Digital Tennis roamed wild and proliferated, I see a time when the fathers of our great nation saw that games could only advance if the gates to the past were flung open, and inspiration sought amongst the archives. Jokes! I saw a guy so geeky he loved both video games and history.
historical but is so far from it that it might as well be fiction. As you can see, there are many video games that lift ideas straight from the history books, and the majority add their own twists and intrigue to create dynamic and unexpected plotlines, an example being Assassins Creed, which is based on Richard the Lionheart’s
“Developers who look to the history books will never be short of rich plots” Video gaming has done, and continues to do, what all communicative mediums do: it looks to the past to bring something more than several, tens or even hundreds of people could ever achieve: it brings the thinking power, imagination and scope of generations; as well as genuine twists of fate which add realism and reduce the presence of the clichéd or scoffable. Why, some of the most fantastic, most geeky things out there are inspired by history’s greater moments. The Galactic Republic becoming the dreaded Empire taken after Rome’s own Republic – Imperial switch. Lord of the Rings was inspired by the tragedies of World War II. In video games, history has not only spawned a fantastically popular series of franchises (Civilisation, Total War and Call of Duty), but has also brought us, for instance, Onimusha (Sengoku period, Japan), Final Fantasy 9 (with many touches of European and especially Norse mythology/history) and Dynasty Warriors - which is supposedly
NEws ByTES
HAPPY birthday Xbox! Microsoft’s console turned ten earlier this month and celebrated by, you guessed it, releasing a HD remake of its very first game. Halo: Anniversary is in stores now, adding to the already packed display of blockbuster Autumn titles. Compared to some of gaming’s other great franchises, Halo is still the springiest of chickens. Appearing in what must be his n-thousandth title, Mario is back - this time in 3D! As if Bowser’s wrath wasn’t enough, the Italian plumber has now invoked the wrath of PETA, who have released a parody game, slamming the red-capped hero for being pro-fur. Playing as a skinless raccoon, the player must chase after a gore splattered Mario, attempting to recover their stolen fur. Bloody awful! Meanwhile, Call of Duty has set all new records - taking in excess of $775 million through worldwide sales. It also sets the record for being the longest running series where exactly the same game is released each year with different packaging. If you’ve made it this far through Newsbytes, then congratulations, if not, maybe it’s time to stop playing Skyrim for a while!
Third Crusade against the Sunni Muslim Saladin. The story manipulates the already romantic, alien and epic historical moments to provide a sci-fi underlay, which will either make video gaming historians salivate or simmer with rage. History provides itself as the perfect template in which slight diversions from what actually occurred can give fresh appeal. But why stop there? From the various mutations of history and mythology, a game’s developer can enter a fantastic melting pot of imagination. Dante’s Inferno has spread itself like a molten mass over the gaming world lately, appearing on a range of consoles and expanding with its own animation. Dante’s Inferno is adapted from Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, Inferno; the concept of hell having been drawn from the creative chasm that is Christian mythology. As an aside: Inferno, in reference to hell, entered the English language thanks to Dante’s work.
eyes of literature buffs and, indeed, historians, will soon pull attention towards the truly analysis worthy – such games laden with culture and research as the aforementioned, but also The Legend of Zelda series, Red Dead Redemption and the exceptional Elder Scrolls series.
“All new forms of media suffer a form of fresher’s persecution” Video games are still growing, steadily becoming older, wiser and more mature (much like ourselves, here at uni) and who knows where genres will take us next. Although innovation in technology will lead to new and unpredictable formats for video gaming one thing is for sure: those developers who look to the history books (or even Wikipedia) will never be short of rich plots, natural characters and a location to make the eyes water. And maybe as we begin to amass generational archives of astonishing games, as has been the case with books, artwork and film, we will see games begin to make history, just as history has made games.
“Some of the geekiest, most fantastic things out there are inspired by historical events” What I loved about Visceral Games’ creation was that they threw out the wicked prejudice that games are pixilated, and not printed; a prejudice that has prevented them from being accepted into the wider media world. Of course, all new forms of media suffer a sort of fresher’s persecution: animation, film… something not about Jesus. Perhaps it is that video games have to earn their spots, and hopefully games that attract the
Top 5...
Video Game related SSB costumes
for this – they’d just need to go naked. BONUS ROUND: Kidnap is the way to a girl’s heart.
why Mario never gets lucky – so give him a happy ending for once, let him have that infamous cake and eat it. BONUS ROUND: Tell him Toad was better in bed.
made of computer bits and pure, utter hatred for humanity. Men love that. BONUS ROUND: Scream “THIS WAS A TRIUMPH” at climax.
Slutty Princess Peach. 5 Girls: You’ve always wondered
Boys: Wiimote. You know what I’m talking about. BONUS ROUND: Get a girl to shake it. Slutty Sheik. 4 Girls: Do the Zelda thing and make your
man-target get all confused about his sexuality before revealing yourself as a woman. Then, before he gets a slice of your sexy princess action, get kidnapped. Such a tease. BONUS ROUND: Get him to grunt like Link in bed. Boys: Donkey Kong. Girls love excessive amounts of body hair. And, let’s be honest, there is a large proportion of the male population that wouldn’t even need to buy a costume
Slutty GLaDOS. 3 Girls: She’s a controlling, lying psycho,
Boys: Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Although wearing a cape (and little else) may bring the word “flasher” to mind for most girls, once they hear your sultry Italian accent (oh yeah) and you win them over with your expansive… knowledge of Latin (ooh baby) you can’t fail. BONUS ROUND: Seduce a girl by eagle-diving off the highest point in Westpoint Arena. Slutty Misty. 2 Girls: A wild Boy appears! Misty used
Condom. It’s super effective! Wild Boy used Squirt! Misty avoided the attack! BONUS ROUND: Before your walk of shame in the morning, shout “I choose you, Pikachu” and throw a cat in the general direction of the confused boy.
It should be said that I don’t believe that historical references and cultural nuance are what makes a good game. Spawned from the mind of a genius, or by chance, an idea can be brilliant without the aid of the past. In no way do I encourage a kind of puritanical elitism whereby only well-researched games are justified and praised. In fact, many ideas might suffer if embellished unnecessarily. I do, however, advocate the importance of looking in every crevice for the flighty and rare stroke of inspiration.
Boys: Slippy from Star Fox. The phrase “Do a barrel roll!” just may, for once, come in handy for you. BONUS ROUND: Actually, managing to score while a) painted green and b) being possibly one of the campest characters in VG will be impressive enough. Samus Aran. 1 Girls: Although she was only decided to
be sexy once the suit of space armour came off, Samus is a top VG totty. Can’t go wrong, really. BONUS ROUND: Go to the SSB wearing the space armour – and pull. Boys: Big Daddy. The opportunity for wordplay here is huge. BONUS ROUND: Finding a girl who doesn’t find being called ‘Little Sister’ a bit of a turn-off.
kate gray
n
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Exeposé week eight
review
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim; Bethesda Softworks; 360/PS3/ PC Nov 11 2011
THIS review simply isn’t big enough to describe the scope of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The issue of Exeposé you’re holding isn’t big enough to discuss the game’s incredible attention to detail. In fact, most books you’ll ever read aren’t big enough to explore the magic, the wonder, the sheer spectacle of Skyrim. And I’ve only had it for a weekend. In every possible sense, Skyrim is the most absorbing gameplay experience you’re likely to come across this generation. From the moment you complete the jawdropping prologue, you’re left to your own devices – alone, with a
rocky pass at your back and a living, breathing forest ahead. Feel free to go where you like; the game never forces the main storyline on you, it casually suggests it. By all means, get round to it eventually, as discovering your character’s heritage is a tense and constantly exciting story. But trust me, for the first couple of hours or so… pick a
direction, and walk. There’s an entire world beyond those trees. Admittedly the game won’t win any awards based on graphics, despite Bethesda’s brand new engine ‘Creation’ marking a huge improvement over Oblivion. However, despite the occasional pop up bush, you’re utterly immersed in your surroundings; sunlight dazzles you as it reflects off a nearby stream, butterflies dance around your head and a deer lifts its head and bolts at the sound of you crashing through the undergrowth. Wherever you wander, there’s something waiting for you – a
sense of adventure is always rewarded (although in fairness, sometimes that reward is a giant smashing your face in).
“Pick a direction, and walk. There’s an entire world beyond those trees” Along with an unprecedented level of freedom in terms of where you go and what you do in Skyrim, there’s an equal level of choice regarding your character’s development. The only thing the game forces you to choose is your race; from that point on, your character is entirely under your control. You get two points every time you level up, one for one of your three main attributes, and one for the game’s 18 Skills – each of which has a full perk tree available. The system is refreshingly simple, but still detailed enough to satisfy the RPG hardcore. By far the best expression of individuality, however, is what you do with your character’s hands; each hand is effectively a slot, and can be filled with almost any combination. Sword and shield? Standard. Sword and fire spell? Check. Fire spell and ANOTHER fire spell?! Bad. Ass. Trying to describe Skyrim is nigh on impossible; it really has to be played to be believed. Forget your partner, your degree, the need to eat… Real life doesn’t matter anymore. This is honestly so much more fun. And the main reason? THERE BE DRAGONS. Now go play.
10/10
jonathan jenner
review
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: Infinity Ward; Activision; PS3/360/PC Nov 08 2011
“DUE to an unprecedented amount of traffic on our Internet connection we have had to make a change to ensure the uninterrupted service of the University’s core business activities.” The recent e-mail concerning the banning of online gaming (now thankfully lifted) undoubtedly caught the attention
of gamers. The excessive traffic is by no means ‘unprecedented’ but simply marks the arrival of the new instalment in the Call of Duty franchise, released just two days prior to the e-mail circulating. Beginning immediately from MW2, Price and Soap’s mission to locate and kill Russian Ultranationalist Vladimir Makarov continues. Things have changed though. World War III has broken-out, and it is, of course, up to you to stop it. While it is not the most sophisticated of stories, it is presented in a very compelling way. The strong voice acting, the diverse locations and the blockbuster-style scripted events all tie together to result in a gripping experience. It is the urban warfare that stands out the most, snapping between fighting in America, Europe, Africa and more as the Russian army advances. At five hours long it is a short thrill yet each mission is distinctly memorable and for those who have followed the story so far, the game’s conclusion will be enormously satisfying. In terms of aesthetics, there has been little to no improvement of the game’s graphics. This is by no means a bad thing however. Even though it is built on an ageing engine, it is still one of the more presentable games on the market and does not hinder the impact of any of the ridiculous set-pieces, all done at a smooth 60fps.
Anyone wanting a reinvention of the series’ insanely popular lone-wolf style multiplayer will be disappointed. It has though, been tweaked considerably, creating a more balanced game overall. While it is still driven by kills, the addition of strike packages which result in a small change to the available killstreaks gives those who want to take a slightly different role, such as support, a greater purpose. New modes such as ‘Kill Confirmed’ and the expansion of MW2’s Spec-Ops, now including a horde style ‘survival mode’, are also welcome additions.
“World War III has broken out, and it’s up to you to stop it” MW3 is arguably the best Call of Duty to date. The campaign is the strongest since MW1 and the new additions to the multiplayer have improved upon the experience and successfully avoids staleness. It may not be the revolution many would have hoped for, but it is unquestionably tremendously good fun.
9/10
robert harris
retro
Crash Team Racing: Naughty Dog; PS1 Oct 20 1999 YOU never forget your first love, and in gaming mine was Crash Team Racing. Just over 12 years old and it hasn’t aged a minute…well, maybe the graphics are showing their years, but for their time, they were excellent. Some may argue that it’s just a cheap Mario Kart rip-off but that just undermines the quality at its core. Yes, it’s a ripoff, but it’s an amazing rip-off. That’s not easy to do. You know why I’ve always preferred Crash to Mario? Because he’s just that little bit more deranged. He lives on the edge. From his psychotic grin as he waits on the start line to his alarmed shrieks of pain when hit by a weapon, here, finally, is a spiky-haired cartoon mammal that will make you believe in the power of go-kart racing to save the world. And who from? An even more unhinged alien octopus that races in a UFO of course.
Video Games
Exeposé Video Games asks ‘What Have YOU Been Playing This Week?’
Let us know on Facebook and Twitter
Tom Wilson: “That-game-that-shallnot-be-named-in-case-anyone-is-avoiding-it-because-of-essays. Aka Skyrim, because I saw a video of a giant launching a bear into orbit” James Hallinan: “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, because I like déjà vu.” Matt Bevan: “Starcraft II, as always, because Exeter has a team in the CSL:EU.” David Rees: “Skyrim, although I’ve been spectating rather than playing. My housemate is honourable, but I just want him to kill people and steal their possessions.” Luke Graham: “Bastion, because listening to a sexy cowboy narrate as I smash things with a big hammer in a floating post-apocalpyse is my idea of fun.” Adam Brunt: “Skyrim, because, let’s face it, it’s awesome!” Alex Hawksworth-Brookes: “Minesweeper, because so long as I’m in front of my computer, I feel like I’m making some progress with my essay.” Oli Whittle: “Monopoly Millionaire because I wish I had that much money in real life!” Dave Stone: “Team Fortress 2, because it allows me to blow off steam (heh) during essay breaks when I don’t have time to commit to Skyrim.”
The replay value is endless, and upon returning to it now in the era of the PS3 and Xbox 360, what’s remarkable is how well it delivers spades of good old-fashioned fun despite its age. The soundtrack is simple but joyous, worming itself into your brain in the most endearing of ways, and the courses are beautifully designed and imaginative, sticking in the memory long after you first play them. The difficulty curve is also brilliantly judged. Easy mode is manageable for literally anyone, whereas 100 per cent completion on hard takes extreme perseverance and skill. Every race has the potential to become legendary. As I was writing this, I fought back from last place to overtake someone literally a kart-length from the finish line and win. When I tried to introduce this game to my housemate she complained, “there aren’t any real cars and the drivers are all stupid cartoon animals.” I’m not speaking to her any more. You can undoubtedly get racing games with better graphics, that try bolder things, but none of them will be quite this fun. Tom bond
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Exeposé week Eight Photo: Hannah Walker
EUTC show spirit Tennis
Antonia Hawken Reporter
Celebrating a year of Unisport
Unisportonline’s founders Matt Brookland and Tom Carrington-Smith celebrate a “rollercoaster” year for student sport.
Exeposé Sport’s Rachel Bayne and Andy Williams chat to Tom Carrington-Smith on Unisportonline’s first year and plans for the future Tom Carrington-Smith effuses charisma and charm. Sitting down in the Long Lounge with the head of Unisportonline is a lesson in dreaming big. Talking to Exeposé, he smiled and said that this year has been the “toughest year of my life so far, but I wouldn’t swap it for anything.” Unisportonline, the sport media website which publishes sport reports from 26 universities nationwide started off as a summer project a year ago. Matt Brookland and Tom Carrington-Smith set up the brand in their final year at Exeter: “When we started, Matt and I were both students. Matt was doing a Masters and writing his dissertation and I was doing mine.” Now, Tom manages his work with the Unisport brand and his job as Student Entrepreneur in Residence. It is a life-lesson in multi-tasking. Carrington-Smith’s job for Unisport overlaps with his role for Exeter University, where he acts as a mentor for business start-ups. He modestly told Exeposé that he feels he has an overly “grand title.” “Unisport is growing really quickly at the moment” but it hasn’t quite made the success Tom and Matt envisage for the student sport brand. He commented that he didn’t yet feel he qualified as an Entrepreneur as “we’re still a start-up company and we’re not there yet.” Tom may be modest, but the website has come on leaps and bounds over the last year. In particular, their live streaming service, which features live commentary and pre and post-match chats, has been used across the recent Exeter Cricket, Football and Rugby varsities. The website had 2000 viewers for the Cricket varsity and their test of the unilive brand and went on to have 8001000 people watch EUAFC’s 3-2 defeat at the hands of Exeter City. For the most recent live streaming of the Rugby varsity, Unisportonline’s website had 800
people click play in 0.15 seconds before the server crashed. Tom was exasperated, but pleased, as he told Exeposé that for the match “we had people from about 25 different countries watching it. We had eight people from Zimbabwe watching it, four or five people in Australia, four people in California, three people in Paris and someone in Moscow, it was like, how did they all find out about this?” Despite this global audience and success, it’s not as easy as it looks. Tom joked that he very nearly had a heartattack on the night of the Varsity as his team did not have internet until 45 minutes before the match and had to work furiously on the day with XTV to make sure the event ran smoothly. “That’s the thing, people see all the perks, like the live screenings, but they don’t see all the work that goes on in the background.” Behind the scenes, Unisport is still a growing business. The company is in talks with other universities about setting up live streaming for varsity matches and developing their AU’s media image. Currently, Oxford and Cambridge are the main universities covered on TV, but Unisport wishes to bring the pinnacle of student sport to a public audience. “Our big dream is to put student sport on the map, show people what it’s all about and give people a chance to watch it.” Unisport acts as the media partner for Redbull in a project called Redbull Highflyers which follows the top 60 student athletes across the UK. Regarding London 2012, unfortunately the deadline for press passes had closed before Unisport was even born. Unisport “have some athletes blogging on our website and we’ll try to cover it from a student perspective. For us, I think Rio 2016 is more of the aim.” Tom also has a meeting with ESPN
this week on a new product they are trying to push out into the student market. Currently, it’s an interesting climate for Unisport to be working in. The University fee hike, which starts next year, forces universities to make themselves more marketable. Tom has been working with universities to look at different revenue streams and different ways to bring in money. As well as student sport, Tom talked about the lack of publicity for amateur sports such as Hockey and Athletics. Unisport did a live broadcast of the EUMHC varsity versus East Grinstead last weekend. “I believe it’s the first time ever that Premiership Hockey is going to be broadcast live or live streamed.” Tom went on to talk about the journalism side of student sport. Unisport have looked into the presenters on Sky Sports and noticed that: “Most of them just fall into it. There’s no real route, but by creating Unisport, we’re trying to create this direct channel where, for example, sports editors of Exeposé work with Unisport and they go and get into a graduate scheme at the Times. “We want to build this sort of unofficial academy for sports journalism.” The ultimate dream for Unisportonline is to take the American model of student sport journalism and bring it to the UK. In America, IMG “broadcast all student and college sport, manage the athletes and they control a lot of the way it works out there.” Tom finished the interview admitting that he is the big dreamer, and Matt is the realist. “The reason Matt and I work well together is that I am the dreamer and Matt is the do-er. Matt will go out and do things and I will dream.” Carrington-Smith is certainly full of ideas and it will be interesting to see in the next decade whether he and Brookland will equal Zuckerberg in their impact on the world of online media.
Sport
The University of Exeter Men’s Tennis teams faced their toughest fixture of the season as the 1st squad played Oxford, whilst the 2nds tackled Bristol. Play began with the Doubles. The 1st team’s first pair, Alex Parry and Chris Gardiner, emphasised how unity and clear communication, combined with a variation of pace, win points. The Oxford opposition found it difficult tostage a stable platform as Parry’s serve disrupted their game-plan, giving a 6-3 win of the first set. The pair attained easy victory 6-3, 3-6, (10-8) CT. Julien Herrison with Ashtey Pauls fought bravely in the next match, losing the first set 4-6. Pauls demonstrated a variety of skilled shots, forcing the Oxford side deep into the base line, for Herrison to gently stroke the ball over the net, winning the point. The thriller ended 4-6, 7-5, (8-10) to Oxford. The 2nds tackled Bristol with Hussan Morad and Will Phillips as the first pair,
who despite opening with fast paced, forceful serves lost in straight sets 2-6, 4-6. The second pairing of Will Strang and Andy Higham provided delightful entertainment, manipulating shots with varied height, depth, speed and power. They cruised to a 6-4, 6-0 victory. In the Singles, Parry demonstrated incredible movement and intelligence to switch tactics when faced with a solid wall of power. He recovered from a 1st set loss to grasp the 2nd, but fell at the final hurdle of the 3rd. Gardiner managed to tap into the crumbling mentality of his Oxford opponent, whilst Julien Herrison, determined not to lose another match at home showed extraordinary resilience. Finally, Pauls raised his levels and proved mental toughness to beat his opponent in three sets. The 2nds achieved a clean sweep in their singles, many sets won 6-0. Coach Tom Lambert commented: “The 2nd team put in a professional performance to beat a spirited Bristol side. The 1sts showed great team spirit and real willingness to dig deep against a team above them in the league.”
EUGC 1sts beat Newport Golf
Tom Thornhill EUGC
EUGC 1sts pulled out a solid 4.5-1.5 victory against Newport on Wednesday 16 November. First out was team captain Laurie Potter. Still yet to hit a good tee shot down the first he soon got back to top form. It was a close match all the way and Laurie was one down going down the last. Desperate to not have a repeat of last week, and after his opponent knocked one onto the wall, Laurie gained a respectable half. Out next was Danny Vallis. With as steady a performance as ever Danny was back to winning ways with a 3 and 2 victory. A round free from shanks was also a definite bonus. Out 3rd was Jack Irwin. Not quite as
accurate as normal, Jack had to scramble to save pars, but the Cornishman sailed to a 3 and 2 victory. Out 4th was Alison Knowles. The first tee shot was arrow straight, usually a sign of a good day, but although her ball striking was on fire her putter was stone cold. She was dormi 2 but after leaving her putt for the win short on 17 it all came down to the last. In the pouring rain and with 3 putts for the win, and no sign of her partner giving her the match, she casually rolled in a nice 10 footer for the win. Out 5th was Chris Young. He was up most of the way round, but then in true Youngy style he lost 5 out of the remaining 6 holes, and unfortunately a 4 on the last wasn’t enough to clinch a half. Tom Thornhill was out in the anchor position, putting together a strong 4 and 3 win.
Exeter City updates Football
Daniel Morrison Reporter ON Saturday 26 November, Exeter City Football Club are hosting a student day for their fixture against Tranmere Rovers. The bar at St. James Park is offering cheap drinking deals for students. Kickoff is at 3pm and tickets are on sale at Devonshire House. Exeter City currently find themselves mired in the lower half of the table and will hope to improve against Tranmere after recent disappointing home draws with Walsall and Carlisle. The FA cup fixture against Walsall saw Exeter perform poorly, but a heroic last minute shot from David Noble, which rifled in from 25 yards out, rescued the tie and ensured a first round replay away
to Walsall on Wednesday 23 November. Meanwhile, last time out in the league, Exeter hosted Carlisle in an unspectacular goalless draw. City’s tactics consisted of hoofing the ball 40 yards forward in the hope that forward Jake Taylor would use his formidable acceleration to reach the ball first. It was a tactic that almost paid off a few times in the early exchanges. On one long ball, booted from deep inside the Exeter half, Taylor left one defender sprawled on the ground and beat another before a last ditch tackle saved a certain goal. However, as the game progressed City’s long balls looked less formidable and Carlisle began to edge the encounter. Tisdale said after the match: “It was one of those games today where either side are thinking, with 15 minutes to go, ‘we could nick this’ but also thinking ‘let’s not give it away at the back’.”
21 november 2011
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Sport
Also in the news...
Exeposé
EURFC RUGBY VARSITY 20
Riflers make Devon team Shooting
Mike Stanton Reporter
TWO members of the Exeter University Rifle Club have been selected for the Devon Small Bore team. Charles Richards and Calum George attended a full bore training day at the Bisley National Shooting Ground where they, and six of their team members had a chance to shoot at a range of 500, 700 and 1000 metres, where the pair were noticed by the Devon U21 championship team. The Rifle club has gone from strength to strength over the past year, with club captain Chris Mitchell completely revamping the club, renovating their range at Clifton Hill Sports Centre
over the summer and getting new rifles which all have made a huge difference to the club as a whole. The club took eight members on a training weekend at Bisley National Shooting Ground, where George and Richards were spotted. Kirsty Balneaves, Publicity Secretary for the Rifle Club said: “The trip was a huge success,” and believes it will help them in their preparation for the season ahead. The rifle club has been very successful over recent years, winning the BUCS full bore short range for the past four years. Calum George, one of the two members selected for the Devon team, said: “The prospect of shooting for Devon is really exciting.” He also felt the experience is “quite a daunting prospect due to the high levels of pressure.”
Polo clean up in Scotland Polo
Lucinda Watson Polo Club ON Saturday 5 November, Exeter’s first Polo team competed in an interuniversity annual tournament at the Edinburgh Polo Club. 15 teams were entered from six different universities, ranging from beginner level right up to the top (open) level polo. Exeter’s open team was comprised of Harold Hodges, Alice Etchells and Kimoi Moi. They competed in a very closely fought match against a much higher handicapped, professional Edinburgh home side.
At the end of the first chukka Exeter were down 3-2, however, due to some fantastic teamwork, good goal scoring by all and an amazing penalty taken by Harold, the score by the end of the third chukka was 4-7 to Exeter. The last chukka was incredibly close, with the score tied up at 8 – 8 ½, but in the last few minutes Exeter managed to pull it out of the bag and scored four quick successive goals, making the final score 12 ½ - 8 to Exeter. Club president Alice Etchells also won the prize for Most Valuable Player of the whole tournament.
EUWBC surge in BUCS Basketball
Ellen Gibbins EUWBC
EXETER WOMEN’S 1st TEAM found their feet in the BUCS Premiership League on Wednesday 16 November with an authoritative win against Brighton 70 – 46. The speed, movement and energy displayed made an impact, with Exeter scoring the first baskets. The team clicked and found a new level of play as shots kept on going in and led the first quarter 26 – 7. In the second quarter Brighton tangibly doubled their effort, which resulted in a slightly sloppier offensive effort from Exeter. Despite this the team were always at the hoop waiting for the rebound. Exeter was constantly sharp when defending, stealing the ball multiple times from Brighton and
rushing up the court for some easy points. The third quarter began with a reassuring 30 point difference in Exeter’s favour, and as a result the second half of the match presented a less precise performance for the team, with Brighton capitalising on this to up their score. A number of three pointers closed the gap between the two teams, but towards the end of the third quarter Brighton seemed to panic, one result of which was a lovely backwards lay-up from Exeter’s Sam Matthews. Exeter replicated their success in the second quarter by gaining sixteen points to Brighton’s twelve. Brighton played their best quarter at the end of the match, but they still couldn’t find a way through Exeter’s defence. Wednesday’s match heralds a turning point for the team, and demonstrated the standard of play that proved elusive in their first matches.
Continued from page 40 After a spell of pressure from the home team, Bath hit back with a counter attack that was only denied by an excellent covering tackle in the corner from Laurence Jullens, who came across from the opposite wing to bundle his man into touch, inches from the line. The following line-out led to a sustained period of pressure from the away side which eventually resulted in Bath Academy player Will Skuse going over from short range. Vinnicombe missed the conversion but Bath went in at half time with a six point advantage, 11-5. After entertainment from the Exeter cheerleaders during the interval, the
teams emerged back onto the field knowing that the following 40 minutes would define their season. Exeter applied pressure from the re-start and with Morgan quickly easing over two penalties, Exeter were soon back on level terms. This spurred the home side on and led by inspirational Captain Matt Chambers, they began to assert their dominance more and more as the half progressed. Exeter were rewarded in the 65th minute when the only fresher in the squad, Richard Sinel, scored after a break from a quickly taken penalty. However Morgan failed to convert. Bath had not given up the ghost and responded quickly, reducing the deficit to two points through a Vinnicombe
drop goal, setting up a nervy finale.
“Exeter were rewarded in the 65th minute when Richard Sinel scored after a break from a penalty” As the 80th minute approached Exeter were forced to defend in their own twenty two, yet they eased the pressure as Bath eventually gave away a penalty. The clock reached full time and all seemed in the bag for Exeter, yet a small error allowed Bath one more chance with a scrum on the halfway line.
EURFC Freshers luck out in the Bath Rugby
Will Kelleher Reporter EXETER’S Freshers were again unlucky not to come away with more from the latest ‘Grand Prix’ of the season at Bath on Saturday 12 November. From the six matches played across two sides, EURFC only managed a
solitary win. In the first match, the ‘A’ XV met UWIC and unfortunately they lacked structure and fluidity. As became the norm for the day the men in green should have produced better with lineouts especially letting them down in a 10-0 defeat. Exeter next faced Birmingham Frustratingly the ‘A’ XV were the better side but could not turn possession into
points. There were encouraging signs in the second period; the team were becoming more familiar with the set plays and eventually put together a fantastic flowing move down the right with Rob Foley crossing the line having connected with Beau Archer’s offload. The match ended in a 13-5 defeat. In the ‘B’ XV’s victory against Bath Bs. Jago Cann was the stand-out performer in a 10-7 victory.
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Exeposé week Eight
11: Exeter 16 - 14 bath Photos: Josh Irwandi and Ronald Liong
Crossword
No. 26 by Clare Mullins
Sport
Across
Down
1. Act suggestively (5) 3. With power to excite (6) 7. Disease passed through specific bodily contact (3) 8. ‘Popular’ 7. across (9) 11. LGBT rights action group (7) 12. Give in (7) 13. Sensitive zone (9) 15. Fund raising group (3) 17. Get together (4,2) 18. Handsome (5)
1. Enjoyable (3) 2. Thin cakes [anag] (2,3,4) 3. Not difficult (4) 4. Drawers (8) 5. Ancient Hindu text (4,5) 6. LXIX (5-4) 9. Cutting tool (8) 10. Restraints (9) 14. Silent, masked figure in Pulp Fiction (4) 16. Falsely modest (3)
Promote your society here. Email editors@exepose.com The crowd held their breath as Exeter scrummaged hard, and a final Bath handling error gave Exeter the victory, with the home team almost scoring with the last move of the match, with the final score being 16-14 in Exeter’s favour. Team Captain Matt Chambers commented that: “Varsity 2011 was an amazing match, it was great to come from behind and win and we have to give a lot of credit to everyone who came to support us and made so much noise in the stands. Its good to see the boys on the pitch starting to achieve their potential.” Club Captain Morgan added: “We as a club are proud to have been able to hold such an excellent event in order
to raise money and awareness for such a good cause, winning the match itself was a massive bonus and something we needed as a team to get our season back on track. We’d like to thank everybody that attended and hope they enjoyed their night! “On the field our two tries came as a result of our forwards’ relentless work going forward, and the pace we have in our back division to create space and exploit it. Our defensive effort in the dying minutes of the game is a testament to how much work the whole squad has put in over pre-season and in training leading up to the match.” The Exeter victory was fully deserved and was greeted by mass celebrations by the home players and
“It was an amazing match and great to come from behind and win. We have to credit everyone who came to support us and made so much noise in the stands”
If aggression was the key to victory then who better to come across than Hartpury. The game was quite a battle with plenty of infringements hindering the college’s progress. An early Hartpury try was cancelled out by a brilliant Tom Baker try on the left wing. Exeter looked threatening every time they managed to ship the ball out wide with Hartpury’s large backs unable
to handle the pace. The second half turned into a battle with the green wall of defence looking seemingly unbreakable- Hartpury had to resort to kicking a penalty to scrape the game 8-5. The ‘B’s then faced UWIC’s second-string team and unfortunately lost 21-14. Jago Cann put in another noticeable performance with a try to cap it off. Unfortunately his effort
was too little too late as they were punished by first half errors. In the final match of the day, a weary ‘A’ XV pitted their wits against the hosts Bath. A lacklustre start contributed to Exeter finding themselves 10-0 down at halftime. Again Exeter showed a lot of promise, but a solitary second half try was not enough to seal the allimportant win.
Rugby Grand Prix
supporters at the full time whistle. As well as moving Exeter off the bottom of the BUCS Premier South A table, the match also raised a vast sum of money for Henry’s Trust and can once again be seen as a massive success.
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MOnday 21 november 2011 Exeposé
Sport
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exeter 16 - 14 Bath
Photo: Henry White
Rugby Varsity 2011
Rugby Varsity
Andy Williams, Sports Editor, & Simon Dewhurst Exeter University Rugby 1st XV upset the odds to win their second successive Varsity at Sandy Park on Wednesday 9 November. Despite having lost their first two
league games of the season, the “Green Machine” came from behind to claim a closely fought 16-14 victory against table-toppers Bath in front of a jubilant home crowd. After a day of persistent rain, Bath started the brighter in the tricky conditions and went ahead after just two minutes through a penalty from fly-half Zak Vinnicombe. However,
Exeter suddenly hit back against the run of play. After putting pressure on the Bath scrum, Exeter broke through Bath’s defences thanks to Jonny Ellis, who offloaded for winger Rob Hockedy to sprint in and score in the corner. Club Captain Rhys Morgan stepped up to take the tough conversion, but his effort fell wide of the mark, yet Exeter took the lead 5-3.
Bath were soon back in front though as the impressive Vinnicombe calmly put the raucous chants of crowd to the back of his mind and stroked another penalty between the uprights. At the other end, Morgan was struggling to find his range and missed an opportunity to put Exeter back in the lead. Continued on page 38
Snowsports sweep at BUDS Snowsports
Rachel Matovu Reporter THE British University Dry Slope championships (BUDS) is the biggest event in the Snowsports calendar and held in Edinburgh on the largest dry slope run in Europe. The whole event comprised of 1,100 competitors from 70 Universities and this year the University of Exeter went there with some of the best teams and freestyle riders ever to walk amongst the Snowsports crowd. On Thursday 10 November, the day kicked off with open practice, course inspection and went into full flow with the two BUCS events: the Ski Slalom and the Snowboard Giant Slalom. There were some amazing results from Harry Hornsby, Rob Fail and Ben Ritsema who all qualified in the top 30. In the afternoon came the Slopestyle freestyle event which links together the famous Hillend kicker with their top selection of rails. There were some remarkable tricks being pulled from the whole team, but in this male dominated event one of Exeter’s lady freestyle competitors came out with silver for the girls. A phenomenal result. On Saturday, Exeter faced the infamous Giant Slalom and the BoarderX competition. Sophie Marshall went big, winning a few of her runs. The male skiers came in with another fantastic result with both Rob Fail and Ben Ritsema qualifying in the top 30 and Harry Hornsby taking it to another level placing in the top ten. To finish up the weekend the Saturday afternoon held the Big Air freestyle event and the team dual slalom for both boarders and skiers. The atmosphere was tense as Exeter had already set the standard so they knew they had a lot to go for. Exeter did not disappoint as the results were again exceptional. The Board Team, made up of Alex Bullock, Sophie Marshall, Nick Jaycock and Jon Coates, qualified for the quarter finals and the Ski Team: Harry Hornsby, Robbie Williams, Isla Campbell, Ben Ritsema and Rob Fail, after a few errors made by the officials, and a huge crash by Ritsema, came in fourth place, a first time top result for the Exeter Snowsports Ski Team. The Big Air freestyle was flawlessly dominated by Sarah Hopwood, who snatched Gold with her signature back flip. All competitors in the freestyle team had outdone themselves with some of the men attempting some new tricks including Rodeos and landing them flawlessly. Harry Hornsby came top 20 in the Giant Slalom and top 10 in the Slalom. Sophie Marshall placed 14th in the individual board slalom.