14TH OCT 2013/ ISSUE 05 FREE
MANCHESTER’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Interview: You Me at Six
Syria: Teaching in a War Zone
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Top 5: 90s Film Fashion
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Burglar in bedroom • Girl returns home to find thief locked in bedroom • ‘I felt like it was a personal attack’
Pippa Allen-Kinross News Editor
A man locked himself in the bedroom of a student house he was trying to steal from in Fallowfield. Third year University of Manchester student Naa Acquah came home from a night out to find her front door wide open and bedroom door locked on Sunday, October 6. “I felt violated. I felt like it was a personal attack,” Acquah, who is studying Religions and Theology, told The Mancunion. Her housemates had mistaken the intruder for Acquah, returning home earlier. “[Naa] started shouting, asking why the door was wide open,” said housemate Immy Burgess. “Me and my other housemate came out and said we’d heard her come in about five minutes ago really loudly. “We were worrying someone had got in even though the door had been locked.” It was at this point that Acquah’s bedroom
door handle started to shake. “Her bedroom door handle started moving up and down,” said Burgess, a third year English Literature student. “Like he was warning us he was in the house.” Acquah ran outside to phone the police and get help from their neighbours when the unidentified man appeared at her front door, he proceeded to shut himself inside their house with Burgess and fellow housemate Frankie Twynam, who had locked themselves in their bedrooms. Acquah told The Mancunion that from looking at the man she thought he was under the influence of drugs. Locked in their rooms, Twynam and Burgess listened as the burglar walked around their house and into the two empty bedrooms, passing by their doors.
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Photo: Sean MacEntee @Flickr
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ISSUE 05 / 14h OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Highlights
Arts, Talking about... Nudity
Former NBA player John Amaechi (second from right) from Stockport poses with fans as part of the NBA World Tour’s stop in Manchester Photo: NBA/Getty
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Picture of the week
Film, Biopics: The Curse of Cinema?
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Restaurant review: The Cornerhouse
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continued from page one... Although most of the windows in the house have bars on, it seems the man managed to escape out of the upstairs bathroom window and avoid being seen by anyone in the street. When the police arrived they checked the house was safe before the girls came out of their rooms, but despite searching the street they were unable to find the culprit. “It was a really scary situation as we are all really careful to lock the door and always shut windows to avoid this kind of thing,” Burgess said. “Unfortunately this man had the tools to break in through a locked door, so we were just really lucky that someone came back to the house when they did, otherwise he would’ve gotten away with a lot more.” The girls also did not have the key to the deadlock on their front door, and said they were frustrated at their estate agents for not giving it to
them, because it could have stopped the intruder from getting in. This year, the Complete University Guide ranked Manchester as the most unsafe town or city with more than one university, in the country. When ranked on their own, the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University were both in the top three for the universities where students experience the highest levels of crime. A total of 5983 crimes were reported in Fallowfield and Withington from September 2012 to June 2013, according to statistics from official website police.uk - an average of 598 incidences every month during term time. This included 792 reported burglaries, 684 incidences of theft – including theft from person - and 458 reports of violent or sexual crime. The area opposite Oak House halls or residences – the corner of Moseley Road
and Wilmslow Road - consistently had the highest reported number of crimes during the time period in question. Although they did not suffer any physical harm, the fear of having an intruder in their bedrooms at night is something that remains with the girls. “It’s so scary to think he could’ve been in our rooms when we were sleeping if we hadn’t realised what was going on,” said Burgess, who added that from now on she will always lock her bedroom door at night. Acquah also said, “I don’t really feel comfortable being in my room in the dark now, but I’m trying to overcome that fear because I can’t let him stop me getting on with my life.”
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RAG Week this year is getting heated as the not only bring a Fire Walk straight to your doorstep, but also serve up their match-making expertise to help you find a date. For starters the week is kicking off with a Take Me Out special this Friday at the Student’s Union, and to follow, they have also got Blind Date – a new feature to RAG this year. What is Blind Date? Well it starts with a form, which can be bought from one of the following three receptions: Student’s Activities, Owens Park and Dalton-Ellis – or alternatively look out for them at your hall’s dining room or download a form from our website. Once you’ve filled it in, hand it back to one of the above receptions or a RAG Rep. Applications must be in by the 20th October!. Then, on Wednesday 23rd October (once our team of cupids have carefully calculated your
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love interests) rock up to the Activities Space (first floor of the SU) at 7pm to meet your Date! Exploit the drinks deals that have been sourced across the Oxford Road, and look your fanciest as Fuse TV will be there to capture all of the best moments. If Blind Date isn’t fiery enough for you, there will also be a Fire Walk on Thursday 24th October, outside of the George Kenyon building. Defy nature in that awkward break between your morning and afternoon lectures for just the small sponsorship fee of £75. Want to get involved by volunteering during RAG Week? For information on volunteering and the full RAG Week line up (complete with tickets, links to facebook events and sign up forms) visit www.manchesterrag.com.
Sport Editors: Andrew Georgeson, Thomas Dowler & Thomas Turner Sports Reporters: James Eatwell & Jonathan Roberts sport@mancunion.com Theatre Editor: Josephine Lane theatre@mancunion.com Web Editor: Jennifer Ho webed@mancunion.com Photography Editor: Peter Chinnock photography@mancunion.com Photography team: Patrycja Marczewska, Joshua Brown & Cil Barnett-Neefs
ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
NEWS : 03
‘Lad bible’ tweet lands Careers service in hot water - “Misogynist website” job advert posted on Media Club Twitter Michael Williams News Editor The University of Manchester Careers service were embroiled in controversy last week after posting a tweet advertising writing opportunities for the ‘LAD bible’. The tweet, sent from the Careers Service’s ‘Manchester Media Club’ account, invited potential contributors to email samples of their work to a member of staff at the LAD bible. A screenshot of the tweet was posted on Facebook by Women’s Officer Tabz O’Brien-Butcher, prompting comments labeling the tweet an “absolute disgrace” and “unbelievable”. “Was going to leave work at a reasonable hour today,” said Tabz, “and then the University Careers department tweeted this.” Tabz later told The Mancunion she was “shocked” to see the tweet posted. “[The LAD bible] is a a well known misogynistic website which trivialises sexual assault, demeans women students and encourages the bullying of young men who do not adhere to their sexist standards”, Tabz said. The tweet was later deleted by the Manchester Media Club, and an apology was posted.
“We apologise for inadvertently posting a tweet yesterday re: writing opportunities for an apparently misogynistic website”, Manchester Media Club tweeted. The decision to delete the tweet was made “to stop any unintentional offence caused to our students/graduates, with immediate effect”, said Andrew Whitmore, Head of Careers Information, Advice and Guidance. “It contravened our policies [regarding] advertising opportunities.” The Careers service’s policies, available online, state that the Careers service “reserve the right not to advertise vacancies or voluntary opportunities which in our sole opinion are not suitable for advertising through our service, or which we feel are not in the best interests of our students and graduates”. Vacancies that “are associated with adult content” fall under this definition, according to the website. Posts on the LAD bible website are frequently sexual in nature: one current post wonders “whether it is my destiny to turn a lesbian back into a meat lover”. “We take these matters very seriously”, said Andrew Whitmore. “It was re-tweeted from MediaMuppet [a media job aggregator] in error.”
The tweet promoted a vacancy at the “well known misogynistic website” LAD bible. Photo: Twitter The tweet was posted four days removed from Tabz’s call to “bring on the campus wide ‘Lad Culture’ Campaign” via Facebook. After receiving official complaints from women students about sexism on campus, Tabz stated that she was “absolutely disgusted and appalled”. “I’m also angry, but not shocked. Angry that women students have to deal with this. Unsurprised be-
cause unfortunately, as Women’s Officer, I hear about similar incidences all of the time.” A recent NUS survey revealed that 50% of students had experienced some form of ‘laddism’ on campus. The first Women’s Campaign Forum of the year is set to take place next week, and is entitled “We’re bored of the BANTER!: Tackling Lad Culture on Campus”.
It invites women students to “share experiences of Lad Culture on campus” and “discuss the impact of this culture”. The event description continues: “Together, we will look at how we can challenge this culture and start to develop a creative campus wide campaign that will call out Lad Culture at Manchester and make the change you want to see on campus!” “It sometimes feels as though
‘Lad Culture’ is weaved into the fabric of campus life,” Tabz said. “But working together, we can unpick these harmful threads and start to weave a new more inclusive culture in our Universities!” The LAD bible refused to comment.
Man charged over Syrian President wins jogger stalking ‘Nob’ prize for “obtuseness” Aidan Gregory News Editor
Inez Dawoodjee News Reporter Syrian President Bashar alAssad has been announced as the winner of this year’s inaugral Notorious Belligerent (Nob) Prize. According to Birte Vogal, a PhD candidate at the University of Manchester’s Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute, the Prize serves as a “gentle way of mocking the Nobel Peace Prize.” The Nob Prize was launched for the first time in 2013, where nominations for various candidates were
received via social media. The winning candidate was decided through the collaborative efforts of peace and conflict scholars. Runner up was Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, which was active in northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. Vogal added, “President Assad is embroiled in a bloody civil war that is of his own making. As part of a ruling dynasty, he has placed his own power before the lives of his citizens. In July 2013, the United Nations estimated that the war had cost over 100,000 lives, while
up to six million people are thought to have been displaced. “There are also persistent reports of arrests, torture, and disappearances carried out by state forces. The destruction caused by Assad’s regime has been enormous, with many urban areas razed to the ground by the indiscriminate use of weapons. “President Assad has runs a political system that only he can lead. He has created a situation in which there can be no legitimate political opposition to his rule. As a result, when people began to protest
against his autocratic rule, his first instinct was to have a security-led crack-down on opposition. This has escalated into a full-scale civil war that has caused instability and suffering across the region.” She explained why the Nob Prize was awarded to him. “He deserves the Nob Prize for his spectacular obtuseness and refusal to put anything or anyone before his personalised rule. Syria has now become host to such a complex range of militant organisations that a swift end to the civil war seems impossible.”
After several appeals for information by Greater Manchester Police, and a report by The Mancunion, a 28 year old man has been charged with “stalking, sexual assault and assault with intent to commit a sexual offence”. Robert Blake, of Gloucester Avenue, Levenshulme, appeared before M a n c h e s t e r Magistrates Court on Tuesday 8 October
2013. The charges against him have been made in connection with nine separate instances which were reported to the police. Most occurred in Disdsbury between the hours of 6pm and 8pm, but some have taken place in the area surrounding Sainsbury’s on Wilmslow Road between the hours of 10pm and 1am. All the incidents reported took place between the 21st and 29th August. Lone female joggers
were followed by a man on a bicycle, stared at, and made the subject of lewd sexual comments. GMP said that “In every case the women have been caused genuine harassment and distress” They further added that “Anyone who has been a victim of this kind of offence is encouraged to come forward and make contact with the investigation team by calling 101”.
ISSUE 05 / 14TH OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
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Man arrested after body found in canal -Man arrested on suspicion of murder -Body of 39 year old man found Sunday Gawain Owen News Reporter A 27-year-old man the body floating has been arrested in the canal. Police on suspicion of were on the scene murder following the late afternoon and discovery of a body in cornered off the area the city centre canal. around the GAY bar The body of Sean and the junction with Michael Markey, a Princess Street. 39 year old from Crowds gathered as Newton Heath was the police partially found on Sunday 6th drained the canal and October in the Canal divers were sent in to within the Gay Village retrieve the body. in Manchester city The post mortem centre. into the cause of Police were Sean’s death was called to the scene inconclusive and the after a couple on a police are waiting for narrowboat spotted further1 tests to be Advice.Doctor.Ad2.pdf 11/10/2013
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carried out. Witnesses had reported that the body was concealed within a bag, however Greater Manchester Police were quick to deny this saying that the body may have become tangled or been next to a bag in the water. Whilst the cause of death is still undetermined, this is not the first body to be found in this particular canal. The body of Simon Brass, a 46 year-old from Salford was found in the same canal on the 5th of June this year. He fell victim to a callous crime in which he was killed during a mobile phone mugging. Whilst the gang who committed this crime 12:52 have been sentenced
to jail, this incident highlights the dangers and problems in the city centre and the gay village its self. A postmorem into the cause of death proved inconclusive and the police are carrying out further tests. Detective Inspector Brian Morley of Greater Manchester Police said, “It is not yet clear how or when Sean died so we are urging anyone who may have seen or spoken to him since he was last seen in the early hours on Wednesday, to get in touch with the police and help us piece together his final movements”.
Nobel Prize winner to receive Honorary Degree Sean Doherty News Editor Football legend Sir Bobby Charlton and physics Professor Peter Higgs are among those due to receive Honorary Degrees from the University of Manchester. Frances O’Grady, General Secretary of the British Trades Union Congress, and Professor Mario Molina, who became the first Mexican-born citizen to receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995, will also be receiving Honorary Degrees at a ceremony as part of the University’s Foundation Day celebrations on Wednesday 16th October at 6.15pm in Whitworth Hall. Professor Higgs has attracted attention recently after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics. The Edinburgh-born Professor won the award, along with Belgian Scientist Francois Englert, for their work in creating the theory of the Higgs Boson particle and their proposal of the mechanism which explains why the most basic building
blocks of the universe have mass. The Higgs boson, nicknamed the “God particle”, was first theorised in 1964 and confirmed in March 2013 by those working on the Large Hadron Collider. Higgs, an atheist notorious for shunning fame, has shown dislike for both the God Particle nickname as well as its Higgs Boson title, preferring to call it the “scalar boson”. Sir Bobby Charlton, member
of England’s 1966 World Cup winning side and England and Manchester United’s top scoring player, has previously worked with the University of Manchester as part of his Find A Better Way charity, an organisation which researches new ways of detecting and clearing landmines.
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ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
NEWS : 05
Student loans insufficient, claims new NUS study
The rising cost of living means students are increasingly facing money issues. Photo: Images_of_Money@Flickr
-NUS states that student loans and grants are not enough to cover the cost of living. Sean Doherty News Editor Student loans and grants are not in line with the rising cost of rent and bills, according to a study by the NUS. The NUS found that the average student’s cost of living and studying in the 2013-14 academic year would amount to over £7,600 more than that student would receive from government loans and grants.
For the average student living outside of London, the union believes that the combined cost of tuition fees, books, rent, bills, travel and other living costs would be about £21,440. However, even a student who comes from a family on an average or low income would only receive up to £13,740 when tuition loans and maintenance loans and grants are added up. The union draws attention to the fact that whilst rent and bills
continue to rise above the level of inflation, grant and loan rates have been frozen this year and shall only rise 1% next year. To add to this, the NUS claims that some students from poorer families are facing additional financial challenges. The household income level at which students may claim the highest grant support has remained fixed at £25,000 since 2008. NUS president Toni Pearce said, “Those who do not have the rare luxury of resorting to the ‘bank of mum and dad’ are increasingly being driven to work full-time alongside study where jobs can be found, or worse still, into the arms of
predatory pay day lenders just to make ends meet. “We need a financial support system that ensures students get the support they need, when they need it.” The Mancunion talked to some who are facing the stress of juggling their studies with maintaining employment. Peadar Ó Raifeartaigh, thirdyear neuroscience student, said, “Once I’ve paid the rent on my accommodation, its leaves me with just about enough to cover food costs. I came to Uni for the student experience, not just to eat, sleep and study. I’ve had to get a job in my final year to cover travel fees, to pay for books, and to have some left over to socialise. “Finding time to complete my final year assignments and working late nights in a local bar is putting unfair stress on me as a student, and something needs to change.” Maths student Elliot Thompson-Marshall told us, “My loan doesn’t cover the cost of living. With no other source of income, I’ve had to get a job and it’s pretty hard trying to manage my studies alongside it.” A spokesperson for the Department for Business Innovation said that student loans and grants aimed to help those who most needed financial assistance. “This year, students from the lowest income households can access over £7,100 of living-cost support, of which over £3,350 does not have to be repaid. “The government also provides additional, nonrepayable support to students
Rainy Manchester myth debunked Inez Dawoodjee News Reporter
A rain map, found in a council report from 1926, may have been integral in contributing to Manchester’s rainy reputation. There are eight other reports in the collection, which detail 40 years of Manchester’s history. The report was recently published by Manchester
Corporation and subsequently digitised by Dr Martin Dodge and his team. The 1926 report emerged from the collection as being the most detailed record of the area to date. It was originally published by the “Manchester and District Joint Planning Advisory Committee.” The rain map, included in the report, showed Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham receiving copious amounts of rainfall.
Dr Martin Dodge said, “We take for granted that the British have always seen Manchester as its rainiest city, but in the 1920s this wasn’t necessarily the case. He debunked the myth that Manchester is the UK’s rainiest city.“In fact, this is clearly a myth: just this January, the Met Office showed that far from being the UK’s rainiest city, our city is one of the driest. “So the perception must have come from somewhere and
this compelling map might at least partly explain it, though its intention was merely to describe the physical landscape of the region as part of a survey.” Councillor Rosa Battle, Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Culture and Leisure, said, “We’re always mystified when people make the strange claim that it always rains here. Of course the truth is that our annual rainfall is below the UK average - and always has
in specific circumstances, such as students with children and disabled students. “Scholarships and bursaries are also available from most universities, and students in hardship can apply for additional support through the Access to Learning Fund.” The Student Loans Company faced criticism in 2009 after an estimated 116,000 students began term without receiving financial aid due largely to administrative errors. There are some who feel that Student Finance is still failing to adequately help those who need it most. Rochelle Silverstein, thirdyear Geography student, told us that although she applied for Student Finance in early August, the same time as many of her friends, she was told that her application was sent too late and thus she is still waiting on receiving her funding. This is despite the fact that the friends who applied at the same time as her have already received their loans. Rochelle was told that the reason for the delay was that her loan was income-assessed and that she would receive her loan and grant on the 5th of October. However, when 5th October arrived and her loan still hadn’t come through, she was told that her application had been processed but not validated by the final assessors and so she would have to wait for another 30 working days. “It’s a case of them making those who need the money most wait the longest for it.”
been.” In an unprecedented move, The University of Manchester, in collaboration with the Manchester City Council and the Manchester Statistical Society, have made the reports available online for the public. The documents consist of survey maps and scheme plans. They recorded the local authorities’ attempts to deal with industrialisation and rocketing urban growth rates. Councillor Battle added, “Digitising this rich collection of maps and reports so that people can view them for free online is a great way of bringing the city’s rich history to life.”
Young woman burned at Northern Quarter bar as flaming Sambuca explodes Aidan Gregory & Sean Doherty News Editors An unidentified 24 year old woman suffered burns to her face and chest, after a flaming Sambuca exploded. The incident took place in the early hours of Sunday morning at Lola’s Cocktail Lounge. Paramedics were called to the Northern Quarter at around 2am, and she was rushed to Wythenshawe Hospital’s burns unit. Staff called emergency services, telling them that a customer’s ‘face is on fire’. Initial reports from witnesses suggest that the drink had ‘exploded’ in her face, setting her hair on fire as she sat at the bar with her friend. A spokesperson for the ambulance service confirmed that “a female suffered significant facial burns.” Greater Manchester Police have stated that although they are investigating to find out what exactly happened on the night in question, they do not believe that a crime had been committed but rather are treating it as an accident. They did, however, suggest that they may refer the case to Manchester’s council licensing bosses. In response to the incident, Lola’s Cocktail Lounge issued the following statement. “Following the recent event in our venue resulting in injury to one of our customers, we sincerely offer our sympathies for her injuries sustained. “We have been trading for many years and have never had another incident such as this. “We have revisited our health and safety procedures once again to prevent this type of freak accident from happening again.”
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ISSUE 05 / 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
NEWS : 07
England’s youth falling behind in maths and literacy -England’s 16-24 year olds near bottom of list of 24 countries -Higher qualifications don’t indicate higher skill level, study suggests Sean Doherty News Editor
England’s young people are among the worst in the developed world for literacy and numeracy rates, according to a significant new study. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) tested the skills of 166,000 people aged 16 to 65 in 24 countries. When results were adjusted to account for socio-economic factors, England was the only country in the study where participants from the older generation outperformed young people in both literacy and numeracy. The study also claims that there are about 8.5 million adults in England and Northern Ireland with the numeracy ability of a 10-year-old. A recent OFSTED report found that if a young person had not achieved proficiency in literacy and numeracy by the time they were 16 then there was only a one in seven chance of them achieving it by the time they were 18. Whilst 55 to 65-year-olds in
England scored 11th highest in numeracy and 3rd highest in literacy, 16 to 24-yearolds only ranked 21st out of 24 countries for numeracy and 22nd for literacy. Northern Ireland scored higher than England but it still only ranked 18th for numeracy and 19th for literacy. Government spending on education rose from £35.8 billion in 2000 to £63.9 billion in 2009 yet this study would suggest that this extra spending has not translated to an improvement in academic ability and performance. Interestingly, despite spending the most out of all the nations involved on higher education programmes, the United States was ranked bottom of the list for numeracy and second bottom for literacy. In both categories, Japan and Finland were ranked within the top three. The study suggests that despite the continual rise of exam scores of students in England and the large increase of English young people going to university, there
Man jailed for hoax bomb calls Rory Troupe Contributor
James Anthony Black has been sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison for making hoax bomb calls in Manchester in February. Black, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to three counts of communicating false information with intent, having instigated three bomb alerts in the city centre. Manchester Crown Court heard how Irish-born Black, 39, caused anxiety and distress to the public when he used public phone boxes to make the calls, the first of which lead to a largescale emergency response, with
Black telling the operator, “There is a bomb at Picadilly station. It will go off in five minutes.” Resulting disruption was widespread, with Picadilly Station evacuated, travellers and commuters’ plans disrupted, and all emergency services alerted. Picadilly Station is a central part of the Manchester public transport system and with the Universities accessible by bus from Picadilly, many students will have been effected. Detective Inspector Brian Morley (North Manchester Division) stressed that hoax bomb threats are a serious offence, “Making bomb threats
has been no improvement in terms of actual skill levels of people aged 16 to 24. Andreas Schleicher, Division Head and Co-ordinator of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, mentioned the possibility of grade inflation and the error of equating higher qualifications with higher skill levels, pointing to the fact that many Japanese secondary school pupils scored higher than English graduates in both tests. He stated that, whilst a degree is important, “what’s really important is where you got it and how you got it.” He also stated that “more education doesn’t automatically translate to better skills, better jobs, better lives.” However, despite Mr. Schleicher’s assertion that more education doesn’t necessarily lead to better jobs, the study did find that the correlation between adults’ skill levels and their chances of being employed and earning a higher wage is higher in England than in other industrialised countries. is not a prank. Robert Black’s actions caused a huge amount of disruption to the community and wasted police time and public money.” Less than six hours after making his first hoax call, Black made another on the evening of Thursday February 14, from a telephone box in Picadilly gardens. Officers were deployed to Picadilly amusement arcade after he claimed there was a bomb there. Black made his final call the following Sunday (17th), to the Arndale Centre, resulting in the evacuation of 13,000 shoppers and staff who were described by Charlotte Crangle, prosecuting, to have “feared for their lives”. Following review of CCTV footage, Black was arrested on Monday February 18, in Picadilly Gardens, just yards from where he had made the calls.
The Work Foundation think tank’s director Ian Brinkley believes that the study shows the “relative decline in the economy’s skills base” in the UK and that the nation is facing “a major generational challenge”. Professor Christ Husbands, director of the Institute of Education said, “We have never – culturally, politically – thought about what we want our education system to be like for all our children.
That, for me, is the big historic failure. We have to get it right and time is running out.” Skills Minister Matthew Hancock called the report “shocking”. He said, “These are Labour’s children, educated under a Labour government and force-fed a diet of dumbing down and low expectations.” Chris Husbands argues that the poor results are sign of a longer-running issue.
“It’s not a problem of the last five years. It’s not a problem of the last 15 years. It’s not a problem of the coalition government. It’s not a problem of New Labour. It’s not a problem of the Thatcher government. It’s a problem of consistent and persistent failure over 30 years to address skill development at the lower end of the attainment range.”
16-24-year-olds in England are falling behind the rest of the world for reading, writing and maths. Photo: nonpartizan@flick
Scientists find fizzy drink hangover cure Oscar Watkins Contributor Scientists in China are claiming that drinking Sprite can reduce the effects of hangovers. According to a research group from Sun Yat-Sen University, in Guangzhou China, hangovers could be a thing of the past. By working on the premise that the symptoms of a hangover are not caused by alcohol itself but by the body attempting to break it down; the scientists tested the effects of 57 beverages, from herbal teas to fizzy soft drinks.
Surprisingly, they found that Sprite (or Xue bi) was most effective in enabling the liver to metabolise ethanol. By speeding up the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), sprite allows the body to process alcohol into harmless acetate faster, thus shortening the effects of a hangover. Edzard Ernst, Professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, told Chemistry World: “These results are a reminder that herbal and other supplements can have pharmacological activities that
can both harm and benefit our health.” It is important to note that while Sprite can help alleviate your hangover, it will not cure it entirely. However, using Sprite as a mixer, or drink it before and after sleeping could just help shake that headache. The results published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Food and Function, will be available to students via the University Library.
08 : Feature
ISSUE 05 / 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Syria: Teaching law in a warzone Student Ibrahim Olabi talks to Jonathan Breen about his work this summer in Syria Jonathan Breen Editor-in-chief
Academics at the University of Manchester awarded Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with the Notorious Belligerent Prize last week. He won the award for his “spectacular obtuseness and refusal to put anyone or anything before his personalised rule.” The accolade is intended as a “gentle way of mocking” the Nobel Peace Prize. But, with new atrocities reported every day, for many the situation in Syria is deadly serious, including for one University of Manchester student who spent his summer on the frontlines of the civil war ravaging the country. While most students were likely on holiday, or at home, Ibrahim Olabi was in Syria teaching law to militant fighters – or non-state actors, as they are legally defined. “I studied last year something called public international law,” said Olabi, a third year law student. “So I came across something called international humanitarian law, or known as the law of armed conflict, which regulates or tries to reduce the consequences of any war. “Being from Syria I constantly think how I can apply this knowledge to my home country and how I can use this knowledge to its benefit.” And apply it is exactly what he did. At the end of the last academic year, Ibrahim departed for Turkey, where he would cross the border into Syria and head for the northern city of Aleppo. During his nearly three month stay in the country he lived in an area under constant threat of attack, with next-to-no electricity, and suffering from severe food shortages, in order to establish what is the first organisation inside Syria training nongovernment fighters in the laws of war. “It started with the idea of doing faceto-face seminars, so I would go speak to some leader in the Free Syrian army, explain the idea, and then ask him to get other brigades and battalions that may be
interested,” Ibrahim told The Mancunion during an interview last week. “So a couple of days later we arrange a time and here I am giving a seminar to a group of fighters who are the ones taking decisions on the
Ibrahim is providing to rebels the training soldiers in regular armies might get... This is a good thing because the more people understand these laws the more likely they are to comply with them.
ground. Some were directly frontline people who had been called back for this training - I was impressed that the leader did that. He said ‘it is important for you guys to know these laws.’” After his exams in June, Ibrahim visited a friend at Amnesty International in London and they identified the key topics he would need to cover in the IHL training in Syria; the treatment of detainees, summary executions (executions without a trial), child soldiers, and targeting civilians. A research team of friends based in Manchester gathered material on the relevant laws and then worked to simplify them. “There is no point for example in going into Navy warfare or warplanes, because the rebels, or non-state actors, do not have this kind of weaponry. So we identified the kind of laws that are relevant to the Syrian fighters, we’ve translated them and
Syrian student Ibrahim wants a better future for his country Photo: Peter Chinnock
made them a lot more simplified,” he said. “Because there is no point in me going to a fighter and saying the ‘third Geneva convention clause number one states…’ and reading it like this, because it is a bit complicated. “So we’ve simplified them into simple flowcharts of dos and don’ts and put them into a PowerPoint presentation. We sat with a couple of Muslim scholars so that we can focus on the overlap between international humanitarian law and sharia law, because that’s the way that you will be able to convince a lot of fighters.” As well as straightforward classes, Ibrahim and associates in Syria developed short videos to help visually demonstrate the laws, which are currently being edited with the goal of broadcasting them on local television networks. “For us to reach more people we created videos,” he said. “One-minute sketches that reflect these humanitarian principles. These videos are acted out, so we’ve got people in military costumes, real guns, real locations, real ambulances, real tanks, areas that were ‘missiled’ – real destruction – things that Hollywood would pay millions to get. The scenarios are either drama or action – at the peak of the drama or action the video stops and the relevant laws are read out on screen by someone.”
Ibrahim and his group, called the Syria Legal Development Programme, have also received help from academics in England, including University of Manchester law professor Mark Reiff, who praised Ibrahim’s work. “He is really pretty amazing in what he is doing and the amount of effort he has been putting in,” said Reiff. “He is trying to help provide the rebels guidance on how to comply with the laws of way in a way that they trust more than with other more traditional international organisations. “Most regular armies give their soldiers training in these laws, but as rebel groups are not regular armies they have to look elsewhere. The Red Cross and other international organisations have traditionally been the people who have done this. “Ibrahim is providing to rebels the training soldiers in regular armies might get. And this is a good thing because the more people understand these laws the more likely they are to comply with them. It is in everybody’s interest.” Ibrahim has been working in Syria since the uprising started working initially as a “media activist, so I would usually take CNN, BBC journalists, German newspaper journalists around to the frontline so they could get what they want, which they can’t do on their own due to the language
barrier and they don’t know where to go.” Having been travelling back and forth to Syria since the outbreak of war in 2011, Ibrahim has seen harrowing things he will never forget. One of the hardest experiences for him was when enemy snipers opened fire on a group of rebel fighters and he was powerless to help. “I was on the frontline with a journalist and about fifteen fighters were running to storm a building,” said Ibrahim. “Sadly they didn’t know there were snipers on the other side and they crossed thinking it was clear and when they crossed they shot them all down. They didn’t all die, but they had to stay down. “It is one of the most horrific things I have seen, because we can’t go out and get them because we will be shot at. There was fifteen or twenty of them, initially about only six died. By the end of the day they had all died, they bled out to death, because we couldn’t reach them. “We tried everything, we tried burning tires to create smoke so the sniper wouldn’t see, but they would just fire randomly. So that was one of the most difficult scenes, because I could see them they were like one hundred metres away and one, he was looking directly at me and I was unable to do anything. It is a bit emotional. That was one of the most difficult things I’ve seen.”
ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Ibrahim teaching in a seminar to militants in Syria Photo: courtesy of Ibrahim Olabi
Feature : 09
MONDAYS
TUESDAYS The Assad regime continues to run a relentless bombing campaign against rebels, using fighter jets to attack at will. The constant threat has led Ibrahim to always be on alert when he hears the sound of a plane flying overhead, which is a habit that has been hard to shake, even back in Manchester. “When I hear a plane I automatically go into cover, or at least check out what is going on. At Manchester Airport, I know I am at an airport so logically I will hear planes, but even though, I step out, I hear a plane and I go to cover. Its what happens if I hear fireworks or anything like that, there is an initial shock,” he said. But, things in Syria have changed since the outbreak of fighting, when governmetn jets would fly day and night. Rebels began shooting planes down - now they only fly at night. This presents its own problems to deal with. “[They] shoot at anything that has its lights on,” Ibrahim said. “You can’t see them and they have night vision. You can travel by care but you have to focus a lot; turn on the light, turn off the light, turn on the light, turn off the light so that if you get bombed there is a little bit of a margin of error – you might a escape.
I’m with them at the frontline, we can get b o m b e d together at the same moment and they appreciate that “Also, there are lots of checkpoints in the city and they tell you to turn off your lights long before you reach the checkpoint because if they
see a car stopping with lights on they will know there is a checkpoint down there and it will get bombed. Even at night, in the houses we try to dim the lights, if you had electricity of course.” The next step for Ibrahim and the Syria Legal Development Programme is to try and register as a charity with the UK government and then start working on funding. The organisation has already has already received numerous emails from lawyers, law students, and other organisations looking to collaborate with them. Among the former is UNICEF, “they wanted to know more about what we were doing for child protection and how I was focusing on this issue,” said Ibrahim. “I told them about the program and they said they were happy to send me any materials they had, materials on laws. And they’ve got a lot of presentations they could send and were happy to offer legal consultation when it comes to questions that relate to children.” “We also got approached by an organisation called Geneva core, which is one of the largest organisations that deals with the legal training of non-state actors, it is made for this purpose. They have trained people in Palestine, Lebanon, and now they are trying to train people in Syria but it is difficult because they can’t get into the country easily because of bureaucracy or safety of staff and so on. So they got in touch with us and said how can we help, how can we cooperate.” Ibrahim added that his teaching in Syria put pressure on him because the fighters take his what he says to be accurate, and that he was warned not to judge his students. He said, “everything I say they take for granted, which puts huge pressure on me. “Before I did this I consulted a group called Libyan lawyers for justice – I asked them about the psychology of tackling such seminars, because you need to be very careful and the most important thing that they told me was don’t judge them. Don’t ask them to tell you something that they’ve done, don’t give examples of breaches their comrades have made. Don’t make them feel judged...If they remember something they have done – a breach they have made – they will keep quiet about, but they will not do it again. “I’m not taking their names, I don’t know who they are. It’s just me knowing one person who knows the rest and I’m speaking to them, and I’m with them at the frontline, we can get bombed together at the same moment and they appreciate that. So they were like ‘yeah sure, give us whatever knowledge you’ve got.’”
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Opinion
10
ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
‘Mental patient’ stigmas and Psycho-ward killers Wit h m aj or b ra n d s Te s co, As d a a n d T he S u n m i re d i n co nt rove rsy ove r t he i r t re at me nt o f me nt a l he a lt h i s s ue s, L au re n Wi l l s a s ks why me nt a l he a lt h p at i e nt s a re st i l l t re ate d a s a n a no m a l ly i n s o c i e ty to d ay. - “the truth is people with mental health problems are more likely to be victims of crime, NOT perpetrators of crime”. It is obvious that the stigma around mental health patients has been prominent at least since the 1990s when headlines such as ‘mad psycho killers’ abounded. It is within the media’s power to take certain facts and manipulate readers into believing something contrary to the truth, hence the contrast of these headlines with what we find when we actually look at official mental health statistics. According to the Mental Health Foundation, people with mental health problems say that the “social stigma attached to mental ill health and the discrimination they experience can make their difficulties worse and make it harder to recover”. Indeed, in light of this evidence, perhaps we should be devoting more time to the prevention of mental illness, giving victims of the illness the help
Gabrielle Giffords campaigning. Photo: Oregon Live
My Political Hero... Gabrielle Giffords With public confidence in politics at new lows, it is not often that politicians are presented in a good light. Gabrielle Giffords is the survivor of an attempted assassination. Giffords began her political career in 2000 in the Arizona House of Representatives, later moving to the state senate. She eventually won a seat in the US House of Representatives. She sat in congress from 2007-2012 winning three elections in the process and creating a large political following, especially in Arizona. Rep. Giffords showed unyielding support for universal health care and economic equality for the lower and middles classes in the United States. She always made an effort to involve the citizens of Arizona in her policies, regularly reaching out to the people of her state.
they need, rather than creating a stigma around them. Students are one of the demographics in the population where mental health issues flourish. Indeed, the cultural adjustments required of international students only exacerbate
the
stressful
conditions
already experienced by the wider student
The Sun front page on Monday. Photo: The Sun
population. It is vital that there is no fear
negative, violent image of mental
of stigma amongst students when this
have thought the recent headline ‘1200
health patients through the sale of their
stress turns into a deeper issue, requiring
Killed by Mental Patients’ was your
Halloween
prove
intervention from an outside source so
average twisted output from The Sun.
that conditions such as mixed anxiety
that they seek this before any problems get
However, combined with the news of Asda
and
awfully
worse. Ultimately, an unaddressed mental
and Tesco selling and then withdrawing
common
in
health problem can unnecessarily ruin
their ‘mental patient’ and ‘psycho ward’
United Kingdom. It is reassuring that both
Halloween costumes, the wider issue of
Asda and Tesco, alongside withdrawing
Anyone can be subject to mental health
the stigma surrounding individuals with
these particular halloween costumes, are
issues and Manchester offers various
mental health problems has arisen.
Some
may
costumes,
depression
are
amongst
statistics actually
individuals
the
lives.
making donations to Mind, a mental health
different methods of help to people who
Whilst it is encouraging that Asda and
charity dedicated to giving advice to and
believe they may need it. The university
Tesco have realised they have caused
supporting those with mental illness,
provides a confidential counseling service
offence and subsequently withdrawn their
ensuring they do not have to face their
on the fifth floor of Crawford House for
offensive costumes, has the controversial
problem alone.
all students. The Union also has a Mental
episode brought to light a deeper issue,
However, for The Sun to seemingly fuel
Health campaign, which is a student-led
rooted in our ideologies about mental
the stigma in its headline so soon after the
group that aims to promote good mental
illness? During a recent BBC interview,
costume incident seems callous. Sue Baker,
health and wellbeing throughout campus
Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind
Director of Time to Change commented
and beyond. The group is fairly new and
asked the obvious question concerning
“It’s incredibly disappointing to see a
aims to hold a series of events throughout
how the costumes actually got into stores
leading newspaper splash with such a
the term, including film nights.
in the first place, describing them as ‘crude
sensational
and extraordinary’.
Despite the content of the article being
If you’d like to find out more, visit
fuel
more balanced than its title, the headline
manchesterstudentsunion.com/
individuals’ already worrying perceptions
infuriated mental health campaigners. The
studentvoice/mentalhealth.
of the realities of mental illness. The
article emphasises the power of the media
costumes
Indeed,
these
costumes
could
and
damaging
headline”.
The
University
of
Manchester’s
clearly
to twist the facts - however small they
counselling service is open 5 days a week
designed with a misperception in mind.
may be - to give a particular impression
and appointments can be booked by
Statistically, 1 in 4 people will experience
or viewpoint to the reader, particularly
calling 0161 275 2864.
some kind of mental health problem in
as many will see the headline but not buy
the course of a year. Whilst Asda and
or read the newspaper. Paul Burstow MP
Tesco have been portraying a particularly
added a valid, key point to the discussion
themselves
were
Giffords’ Congressional career came to a dramatic halt on the 8th January 2011. Twenty-two year old Jared Lee Loughner targeted Giffords in an apparently unmotivated shooting as she was leading a “Congress on Your Corner” meeting in a supermarket car park. The incident saw 13 people injured and six killed - including a nine year old girl. Despite being shot directly in the head, Giffords survived and was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Emergency surgery was performed to stop her brain from swelling. Over the next few weeks, Giffords started to make a strong recovery and was able to start basic physical therapy just two weeks after the attack. She was transferred to a rehabilitation institute where she spent the next few months recovering and her speech and motor functions. In April 2011, after months of gruelling rehabilitation, Giffords was deemed strong enough to travel to Florida to witness her husband take the role of commander on the final mission of the space shuttle Endeavour. Upon her return to House of Congress in August Giffords received a standing ovation. However, the following January she resigned from her seat in an effort to focus on her recovery, making an emotional promise to return to public service. Gabrielle Giffords strength, resilience and courage have earned her wide spread accolades from politicians across the international community. The incident reignited the debate on gun control, once again polarising opinions. The shooting of Rep. Gifford was not an isolated attack; in the same year approximately 11,000 Americans died as a result of gun crime. The 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary became another heart-breaking tragedy in the long list. Two years after the attempt on her life in 2013, Giffords teamed up with her husband to start her work on gun control and responsible ownership, launching the website Americans for Responsible Solutions. Both husband and wife appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to give a rousing speech on the topic. Working tirelessly, Giffords then made a special appearance in the legislative advert Let’s Get This Done that ran on TV stations across the US in February 2013, a direct response to the events at Sandy Hook. To this day, Giffords is still recovering from the attack and is dedicated to tackling the this day, Giffords is still recovering from the attack and is dedicated to tackling the issue of gun control in America with the support of her husband.
Lauren Wills Emily Thomas
Opinion
ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
11
Nagging the NEETs might not be such a bad idea... Last week, the Conservative Party’s annual conference opened a huge debate for the young people of Great Britain. The Conservative leader David Cameron has suggested the removal of benefits for the under 25s. We have all wondered about David Cameron’s attempts to divert attention away from the real problem right now, the cost of living for English families still suffering from the recession. However, are we calling his bluff or is he actually onto something with this proposal? Mr Cameron plans on creating what he himself calls “a land of opportunity” for the generations to come and he might just be spot on with this one. The National Insurance Act 1911 was implemented nearly a century ago to provide social welfare benefits to the sick, to the disabled and to the unemployed. In 2013, unemployment has reached 7.7% under Mr Cameron’s leadership. One of the ways Cameron has attempted to get the country’s economy back on track is reassessing the role of the welfare state. The first group he has taken aside for consideration is the ‘Neets’, who are people between the age of 16-25 who are not in education, employment
or training. Those people are living off unemployment benefits and the Conservatives want to put an end to that. The current state of affairs allows a youngster to leave school, move out, find a flat and start claiming their “rightful” life on benefits. More than being the fault of the youngsters or their parents or their environment, Mr Cameron believes it is a failing of the State to give them a choice between a life of employment and a life off benefits. The welfare state has led a to a lazy generation that would rather stay at home during an economic boom and collect benefits. “Think about it: with your children, would you dream of just leaving them to their own devices, not getting a job, not training, nothing? No – you’d nag and push and guide and do anything to get them on their way… and so must we” belted out Mr Cameron during his party’s conference in Manchester last week. When we consider this dilemma simply on the basis of choice, Mr Cameron is probably right in wanting
off the average income earner’s tax contribution and subsequently improve standard of living. Even more than that, the Conservatives have a vision of a brighter England with a higher graduate influx and higher employment rate. It has also been assumed that many of those youngsters living off the dole are willing to go to school, Photo: BBC News to have an apprenticeship or to go to work. For them, the transition will be seamless to lead them towards employment in the and the increased prospect of having short-run or even the long-run rather than employment will come as a relief. “We can just living off the dole. achieve great things if we can get people to Nevertheless, it is obvious that the proposal work. Languishing on benefits from 16 is to remove state benefits for the under 25s no way to realise your full potential. It is a does not stem simply from a vague idea national scandal. There are some people to improve the way of living of the young for whom you need not so much a ‘nudge’ British. This is after all a tory government, as a ‘dunt’ towards the workplace” retorted for all intents and purposes, and thus the Michael Gove, education secretary, when reduction of taxes always remains a priority. asked about the proposal. Despite the slightly better current economic Moreover, some of the basic criticism that state, the obliteration of state benefits for has been thrown onto the Conservative the ‘Neets’ would be more than welcome proposal can easily be dealt with. The and would considerably ease the burden
case of young single parents with housing benefits comes to mind. Senior Tories have moved to quash reports that the benefits for those parents will be taken away. Moreover, the idea that the Government is piling on the pressure on the less fortunate during a time of economic recovery is based only on a vague idea of a concept. This transition towards no benefits for the youngsters will not be a brutal one. It will take time. Time for many youngsters to get off the couch and do something with any skill that they are blessed with, be it manual labour or academics. The country is at a crossroad of ideology between the Conservative party and Labour party. Nonetheless, from the time Tony Blair’s Labour party took over power to 2009 when Labour finally gave up power, they made a promise to reduce the ‘Neets’ by reinvesting the money they obtained from privatisation. However, over the years, the ‘Neets’ have continued to grow in number even during the years of economic boom. Is it not time to give in to this Conservative approach? It might just be. Shanda Moorghen
Wait for the drop...
Emily Thomas discusses how drug-taking has become endemic at Warehouse Project, with tragic consquences Since its establishment in 2006 The Warehouse Project’s reputation has been in steady decline. The use of hard drugs such as ecstasy and MDMA have tainted the party atmosphere, with the event and drug use going hand in hand in most peoples minds. The Project has a capacity for five thousand entrants with tickets costing around £20 each. The approximate £100,000 gross profit helps WHP to employ their own private security team that consists of security guards, sniffer dogs and they even go to the lengths of having medical personal on stand by in case of any emergencies. Despite these efforts, attendees have reported there is still a heavy drug presence on site and things took a tragic turn at this years opening event, when a 30 year old man died after taking tainted ecstasy. Another 15 people were admitted to the Manchester Royal Infirmary that weekend, all linked to the same dose of ecstasy. Although the involvement of drugs in previous incidents at The Warehouse Project has been undetermined, the incidents in September were most definitely caused by drugs being consumed before or during the event. One of the timeless problems of using any drugs is the uncertainty of exactly what the substance is made up of. All kinds of things, from rat poison to household baking flour, have been found in samples of drugs. In the case of the ecstasy taken at WHP, it is thought that instead of containing MDMA, the drug was made up from PMA (para-methoyxamphetamine). The chemical has shown to give off similar physiological effects to MDMA but is far stronger and more toxic. While one of the side effects is a dramatic increase in body temperature, PMA also takes longer for any
Furthermore, there is no evidence to suggest that the warnings will be acknowledged by users, given the variety of drugs in circulation. If a warning about a batch of MDMA went out at a particular event, how would one know if it was linked to the substance that they had in their possession? Alongside the risk of an ‘ignorance is bliss’ culture developing at the Project, this extra warning system may only have a very little impact. There is also a challenge in judging the effectiveness of the system, as there has only been one death directly linked to WHP and drug use. For anyone to argue that drug use is not a problem at WHP would be naïve on their part. For there to be only one tragic incident in the Project’s seven-year history seems to be nothing but a stroke of luck. The owners would claim other wise and would say that the security operation is highly efficient. If this is the case, why are so many people able to enter the venue under the influence of drugs or even purchase illegal substances when inside the event as some reports have suggested? Of course, it would be unfair to put the entirety of the blame on the organisers, but a certain degree of responsibility must lie on their shoulders.
Photo: Gary Richards noticeable effects to take hold. In response to recent events, Sacha Lord, one of the owners of the WHP called for the government to have an on-site testing facility to try and reduce the use of potentially deadly substances. Any drugs confiscated will be tested and any warnings resulting from this sent out on WHP’s social media networks. Although in theory this is a great scheme that deals with many of the issues at hand, it throws up questions about both
practicality and ethics. There is a clear argument for suggesting that the testing of drugs seized legitimises their use to a certain extent. For example, if there are no warnings sent out to the attendee’s on a particular night then the use will continue and could expand due to an atmosphere of false security. Similarly, by externally addressing the safety of drug users at the event, the organisers seem to condone their use to a degree.
Naturally, it is impossible for the security services at the WHP to be aware and in control of every single case of drug use at each event and it is safe to say that a strong effort is made to protect the people who attend. However, is enough being done to limit drug use in the first place? And will the new system be of any use? Time will tell with the on-site testing coming into place from the 12th October.
ISSUE 05/14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Opinion
Editors: Phoebe Clarke, Patrick Hinton, Tom Ingham Interview: You Me At Six
the
MUSIC OPINION
Matthew Byrne
Are The Libertines languishing?
Back in August 2010 The Libertines were busy giving chaotic, sweat-filled and action packed performances to energized crowds at Leeds and Reading. The anticipation for these performances was high, with the prospect of seeing Pete Doherty and Carl Barat reunite on stage being mouth watering for many. The Libertines, reliable for once, delivered on all fronts and fans went home happy, hoping that the aftermath of this would be some new music or at least a tour. It appeared though that Pete Doherty was too busy with his acting and so Carl and Pete went their separate ways. What’s clear to me is that the band members’ musical endeavours after splitting have lacked the spark and dynamism that once made The Libertines so loved. On the Wednesday of Freshers’ week Carl Barat and Gary Powell (ex drummer and guitarist of the band) played, what I would describe as, a dismal DJ set at one of Manchester’s grottiest venues. Recently they have been dragging themselves to all ends of the country to give this half-arsed set of predictable indie pop songs. Who would have thought two years ago that two members of the band would be jumping up and down to ‘First Love’ by The Maccabees, in front of a crowd of university freshers, at Fifth Avenue? It felt like a desperate attempt to recoup every penny they could by relying on during the glories of yesteryear. There were some similarities to their set at Reading, in terms of the copious amounts of sweat, and the struggle to stand up - but the optimism of fresh creative
output seemed to have faded. Previously when The Libertines had split up, Carl and Gary formed the band Dirty Pretty Things with Anthony Rossomando. The band’s first album Waterloo to Anywhere was a moderate success, and received a warm critical reception. The album really gave Carl the chance to unleash his frustration at the erratic nature of the Libertines and a chance to write, without the bitter spats between him and Doherty getting in the way. However Carl’s only solo album is tinged with adolescence about ‘running with the boys, night after night’. Whilst Doherty’s solo effort did provide a glimmer of his song writing talent, his career has been on the downturn since writing ‘Fuck Forever’. The positive for Doherty is that he will always be an entertaining live act to watch - his recent show at the Academy with Babyshambles confirmed this. The question on everyone’s lips used to be when will The Libertines release a new album? But now this has changed to is there a space for The Libertines in contemporary music? The most commercially successful British guitar band of the moment Arctic Monkeys, seem to have constantly developed their sound with each album leading to a heavier, smoother finish. Can the Libertines following the same path? One last hurrah for the Libertines seems inevitable at some point, but would a return be worth it? At this moment, I’d suggest not.
the MUSIC INTERVIEW
From the bunk of a coach crossing America, Matt Barnes talks to Fin Murphy about chart succes and the evolution of the band and their fanbase. old days. Despite seeming perpetually fresh-
Fin Murphy
faced, it’s easy to forget that You Me At Six
It’s just after 5PM and Matt Barnes has been awake for 20 minutes, still in his bunk. Youthful laziness? Debauched hangover? Somewhere in between. His band, You Me at Six, has been busy touring America. “It’s been really good for us so far, the shows have been fun and we haven’t properly headlined the US before so it’s just great seeing so many people come out,” he animatedly tells me over the phone. “I really enjoy doing club tours.” This smaller scale overseas is something Barnes takes to heart. “I’d say we’re pretty firmly established in the rock world in the
got a lot more to give.” I enquire about how he feels about the response to new track Lived A Lie. “It accomplished what we wanted it
sounds the same! It’s good to get some rock
In contrast to the dark tone You Me At Six’s last album, 2011’s Sinners Never Sleep, Barnes informs me that ‘Lived A Lie’ and new album Cavalier Youth represents the band transitioning into a “straight up rock” he compares to the likes of Foo Fighters. “Our producer, Neal Avron, definitely pushed up to do something different. We knew we had to up it and he helped us a long way, he’s recorded bands like Linkin’ Park and Fall Out Boy so we knew we had to up our shit. We’ve
with samples Lowell Clarke
the times we used to have when we’d have a day off and just get absolutely wasted for just 10 hours, roll up and down the bus doing rolypolies! Now we just wake up, have a few beers, go back to bed, get up again and back in the day, I don’t want to say it was more fun, but when you’re younger everything’s just much more fresh,” he remarks thoughtfully. However, Barnes insists that You Me At Six always intend to move forward. “We never want to stop until we’ve made it, other bands continue, our music will change, until we’ve
have a lot of time to prove ourselves. We’ve
Rihanna, quite a cool accomplishment really.”
Songs
misty-eyed recollections? “We look back at
reach a stage and they get happy, we’ll always
band from Surrey into the top 20 next to
TOP5
It’s good to get some rock band from Surrey into the Top 20 next to Rihanna, quite a cool accomplishment really.
In a wider sense, we’re still small fish but we
between loads of shitty pop music that all
He started his career producing beats for Jay-Z and producing is still his strongest point. Still. who else would think to put classics ‘21st Schizoid Man’ and ‘Afromerica’ together?
have been around for nearly a decade. Any
UK, outside of that we’re definitely growing.
to, it charted well and now it’s sandwiched
1. Kayne West - Power
You Me At Six
done a lot better and he pushed us to try new,
genuinely peaked.” Cavalier youth indeed.
better things. “ With this experimentation, and for a band
You can catch You Me At Six (supporting
that has for so long identified with a chiefly
30 Seconds to Mars) at the Phones4U Arena
young, female audience, does he think his
on the 24h November whilst album ‘Cavalier
band has left their fanbase behind? Barnes is
Youth’ is out in January 2014.
quick to respond. “I definitely think they’ve grown up with us, there are a lot of familiar faces that turn up to our concerts but luckily we still manage to draw new fans. It’s a lot of fun.” As his band has a fair degree of clout, I ask Barnes which up-and-coming acts he recommends. “I really like our friends in Don Broco, Deaf Havana’s new album is amazing and I’m glad we’re able to give them attention when the industry or labels don’t. The new The 1975 album is great, we played shows with their old band years ago.” I ask him about the
2. Washed Out - Feel It All Around
3. Puff Daddy - Come With Me
Ernest Greene singing over slowed down 80s songs helped kick start the chillwave genre and made some of the chillest songs imaginable in the process.
The butchering of Led Zep’s ‘Kashmir’ might make your Dad cry, but there’s no denying the epic size and intensity of this beat.
4. Four Tet - Kool FM From the newly released Beautiful Rewind, this is a stopstart jungle beat affair. A tribute to pirate radio, complete with compressed MC “HEY HEY HEY” samples.
5. DJ Shadow - Midnight In A Perfect World For any of you who still doubt that sampling is an art form, look no further. This track is sublimely beautiful. Just give it a listen.
ISSUE 05/ 14TH OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
: @MancunionMusic : / TheMancunionMusicSection
Music
13
Feature: Opinion
the
MUSIC OPINION Professional Vandalism – Let’s Talk Sampling Lowell Clarke It started with avant-garde composers starting working with magnetic tapes to record and manipulate sound in the 1950s. With notable exceptions, such as some of the Beatles’ psychedelic work, it wasn’t until the 80s that sampling became part of the popular musical vocabulary. Following on from underground DJs in Harlem and the Bronx in the 70s, rappers began to record their rhymes over DJs creating break beats from RnB, funk and blues loops. Today, sampling is everywhere. The vast majority of modern songs you hear contain samples. Nearly all pop and hiphop relies on them, as do most dance producers. Sampling is obviously very different to playing an instrument and it challenges the core ideas of creativity. It’s not easy either – those who think anyone can make a song from samples should think again. Look at it as the musical equivalent of collage. It’s a hard and incredibly time-consuming process to find multiple pieces of music that work together. If there’s one album that shows the pure virtuosic nature of this sort of music, it’s DJ Shadow’s seminal 1996 album Endtroducing. That album is one of instrumental hip-hop’s (AKA Trip-Hop) landmark pieces. Even with a strangely eclectic mix of hip-hop, jazz, metal,
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lounge, and classical music, it might not make a huge impression on first listen. Listen again, but keep in mind that none of this album has been recorded. Every drum fill, every bass line, voice over or organ riff has been delicately lifted from tracks by other musicians and pieced together to create totally new and wildly different songs. There’s a good reason why the album cover shows people browsing vinyl in a record store: DJ Shadow must’ve spent so much time in places like that looking for that perfect sample. And it was worth it. Whilst DJ Shadow is seen as one of the sampling scene’s greatest pioneers, few can doubt the dominating influence of Daft Punk in taking sampling forwards and onto the dance floor. Their 1997 debut album, Homework, is also comprised entirely of samples. Not that it really matters, because whenever those songs come on everyone is too busy dancing to care. Classics like ‘Da Funk’, ‘One More Time’ and ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ are all just combinations of older tracks sliced up and rearranged to create some of the 90s’ most memorable and upbeat tunes. Sampling works best when it draws from little known sources and puts a new and interesting spin on them. When it draws upon a well-known song, the effect tends to be underwhelming. Puff Daddy notoriously shelled out vast amounts of money
through the 90s to pay for famous tunes and hooks to make his rap songs into pop hits. Yes, it has made him the richest man in hip-hop, but musically he will never be remembered like rap titan Notorious B.I.G. (who P.D. actually made his first mountain of cash from signing in 1993). In Diddy’s defence, Andy Warhol did a similar thing throughout the 60s. He barely lifted a finger, simply having workers make stylised copies of images and making millions of dollars for himself. He’s respected as one of the 20th century’s greatest visual artists, so maybe Diddy deserves some merit. At least P Diddy gave credit and money to the artists he sampled. Will.I.Am, in contrast, has spent the last decade sampling and outright taking tracks without permission or paying royalties to the original artists. Yet, it would be unfair to blame his actions on sampling. There are plenty of musicians in all areas of music all too keen to take the praise for someone else’s hard work. Queen’s famous bass line to ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ is clearly (and to be fair, openly acknowledged) from Chic’s
‘Good Times’, which you’ll probably know better as the bass line to The Sugar Hill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’. Some people prefer ‘original’ music created completely from scratch. That’s fine, but there’s no need to pretend that music has ever truly been about originality. All music recycles old music – every musician has their influences and a combination of sounds that they make their own. But there’s no need to hide those by recording and subtly changing them so they’re somehow your ideas. When you find a funky bass line and think it works well with a majestic, slow choral piece, there’s no need to re-record them both. Why go through all that time, energy and cost when sampling and putting them together creates the song you want to hear and share? It’s a no brainer. And yet there’s still more to it than just a shortcut to making music. Sampling directly celebrates musical heritage. It may scream out unoriginality, but that has always been a fundamental and essential part of what music is.
Mancunion Music Meetings Every Thursday, 5pm
Student Activities Office, 1st Floor of SU
Live
Johnny Borrell Ruby Lounge - 4th October 2013 594 album sales in its first week, universal mockery over the unashamedly pretentious track names (the single released as a precursor to the album was called ‘Pan-European Supermodel Song (Oh Gina!)’) as well as a distinct lack of reviewers willing to give the album more than a lowly five out of ten, has highlighted the decline of Johnny Borrell, Razorlight’s indie superstar. We all remember Johnny Borrell, right? A man whose career was born and moulded completely from the early 2000s indie resurgence, someone who along with Pete Doherty and Carl
Barat typified the hedonism of that musical era. Despite their arguably more destructive paths however, Borrell, rather than being lovingly pitied like Doherty was, seemed to be always treated with more disdain, often being depicted in the press as the rock star who led a glitzy celebrity lifestyle yet needed to come back down to earth. Furthermore, his overreaching self-assurance was viewed as the main reason for the decline of Razorlight. I was one of a half full crowd to see the return of the indie Messiah at Ruby Lounge last Friday, where he was supported
Fat Freddy’s Drop 2/10 by his band ‘Zazou’. Songs such as ‘Cyrano Masochiste’, were not only ridiculous in name but strangely and tackily performed with the band ending up all whacking away on percussive instruments – a method which can be fruitful when used at the climax of a powerful song. Yet in the context of the jangly indie-ska which preceded the band’s attempts at percussive improvisation, the effect was a meek one and drew the feeling that although they were busting a gut, their songs lacked enough punch to penetrate a rather distracted audience. In fact, saying that the songs lacked punch is generous. The band’s gimmicky, elaborate costumes (all of them wore some sort of extravagant hat apart from Johnny) and their hyperactive stage presence, failed to mask that the quality of the song writing is truly dreadful. Having played to 200,000 people at Live8 in London in 2005, here Johnny Borrell was; 150 people or so witnessing the painful decline of one of our generation’s most controversial rock stars. Casper Hughes
Academy 1 - 4th October 2013 Fat Freddy’s Drop have created a unique sound that has carved them a niche among the descendants of reggae. While the improvised instrumentals have obvious reggae roots, the band is more soulful and orchestral than traditional reggae. It is completely distinct from its cousin dubstep, and the sound definitely has some elements of pop, but I am reluctant to use that word due to Boney M connotations. The 7-man outfit is completely characterized by their live performances. Studio albums are born from improvisations on stage. Having seen the band two years ago at Outlook festival to the perfect backdrop of idyllic Croatian sunset over a crowded beach, I had high personal expectations. But I was curious as to how well their soulful reggae instrumental experiment would translate to a sweaty dark room in Manchester. The simultaneous cult and mainstream appeal of the group is apparent in the mix of people that formed the audience. The only shared trait was enthusiasm and attempted soulful dancing (some better than others). This
enthusiasm was exciting, but did create an unwelcome parallel with my Croatian experience, a dense sweaty heat generated from wriggling bodies. The length of a Fat Freddy’s song (9 minutes, standard) makes for a short setlist, but the total of the show is so much more than the sum of its constituent parts. Each song flows seamlessly into the next with an interlude of partly improvised solos, so that each track is different with each performance. The live result is undersold by the studio recordings. Particular solo credit must be given to saxophonist Hopepa for tight riffs and tighter vests, and for his dancing - some of the worst and best on show for
8/10 the evening, and a good reason in itself to buy a ticket. This tour celebrates the release of Blackbird, out June, and the setlist was a pleasant surprise. Rather than leaning on material from Based on A True Story, the show featured mainly new songs and due to the magnetic delivery, new releases ‘Blackbird’ and ‘Mother Mother’, gained as appreciative a response as established hit ‘Cay’s Crays’. To describe the performance as a gig is to completely undersell it, the evening was a musical experiment and the atmosphere created surpassed the venue. Rachel Connolly
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Music
ISSUE 05/14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Mancunion Recommends
Now: Johnny Flynn - Country Mile Transgressive. Release Date, 30th September 2013
It may have been three years since Johnny Flynn’s last studio album, 2010’s spectacular Been Listening, but life certainly hasn’t been quiet for the Sussex Wit frontman. More accustomed to the theatre stage of late, his performance in hit-play Jerusalem was considered worthy of an Olivier Award nomination, whilst he’s channelled his Shakespearean influences in Richard the Third and Twelfth Night. He’s been cast in a new film alongside Anne Hathaway, and recorded a full soundtrack to the film A Bag of Hammers. A true chameleon of the arts. Oh and he’s become a father, making it all the more remarkable that Country Mile ever saw the light of day. Those hoping for an album cut from the same cloth as A Larum and Been Listening will be pleased to know that the follow-up doesn’t stray far from their folk-rock formula. The quality of Flynn’s songwriting and the poetic beauty of his lyrics shine as bright as ever, setting this record alight with an earnest delivery and an authenticity that fellow ‘folk’ bands
7/10
like Mumford & Sons can only dream of. The title-track’s thrashy opening chords spark the album to life; it’s an electric-infused number where the rich quality of Flynn’s voice blends perfectly with a fierce guitar-led chorus. At the other end of the scale, the stripped-down ‘Gypsy Hymn’ brings the harmonising Flynn siblings to the forefront, where Lillie delivers falsetto vocals that astonish with a beautiful fragility. Underpinned with a warm piano ballad from Johnny, it evokes memories of the similarly-heartfelt ‘Amazon Love’ from Been Listening. This isn’t the only track with an air of familiarity, however. As a consequence of its position firmly inside the safety zone, some of Country Mile’s songs feel almost self-derivative, though at least they’re derived from the most exciting and captivating folk-rock sound in years. ‘The Lady is Risen’ employs the full range of Flynn’s vocals, and the whole spectrum of instruments he lends his hand to, being credited with guitar, vocals, trumpets, organ and piano on the liner notes (presumably not all at the same time, though that would be impressive). His quavering high-notes are nothing short of sumptuous and the crescendos roar with energy. It’s more of a careful step sideways than a country mile forward, but the heart of the album never strays far from the surface. Imbued with traditional English charm and wit, tales of journeys and countryside, it further cements Johnny Flynn as the real heart and soul of Britain’s nu-folk scene. George Bailey
Then: Bruce Springsteen - The River Columbia; 1980 Released in 1980, The River is Bruce Springsteen’s fifth studio album; much like its predecessor Darkness On the Edge of Town it unsettled some fans who wanted Springsteen to return to his more theatrical and grandiose styling’s heard on Born to Run. By this time his status as an iconic American songwriter was already fairly established, but regardless of the spotlight, the Boss (unlike so many of his contemporaries) managed to stay grounded in the roots which made him the great blue collar hero we all know and love. If ‘Born to Run’ was the romantic story of two people escaping and striving for that place “where we really want to go” then ‘The River’ is its polar opposite. Inspired by Bruce’s sister and brother in law, it’s the realisation of unfulfilled dreams and a bleak future “That sends me down to the river, Though I know, the river is dry. It sends me down to the river, tonight”. Despite the feeling of complete hopelessness it’s this sought of personal and relatable writing that has turned Springsteen into a spiritual figure for so many of his fans. The River is a double album crammed full of material that could easily have appeared on Darkness On the Edge Of Town which shares a similarly serious tone, Springsteen’s song writing ranges from the upbeat and playful ‘Hungry Heart’ (written initially for The Ramones) to the anguished and down trodden ‘Fade Away’, all of which are interspersed with classic New Jersey, Bar room Rock tracks like ‘You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)’ and ‘Cadillac Ranch’. It’s advisable to split the record into two; with
part one displaying classic pop sensibilities and a frivolous approach to love and relationships (‘Sherry Darling’ being a great example), and then there’s the second half where the fun and games come to an abrupt end. The River can be an intimidating listen at the best of times, exposing those on the edge of adulthood to the harshness of reality in a pretty cold world. However, it is also a masterpiece of emotion and craftsmanship showing why Bruce Springsteen connects with his audience in a way that no other artist has ever come close to. The Boss himself says that Rock n Roll is a journey of highs and lows so sit yourself down with Mr. Jim Beam and face it like a man. Thomas Ingham, Music Editor
Book now: 0161 832 1111 For full listings visit:
manchesteracademy.net OCTOBER The Quireboys Tuesday 15th Sebadoh Tuesday 15th Goo Goo Dolls Wednesday 16th The Answer Thursday 17th Volbeat Friday 18th Kate Nash Saturday 19th UK Foo Fighters Saturday 19th Toyah Saturday 19th Orange Sunday 20th AlunaGeorge Monday 21st Baroness Tuesday 22nd Roachford Tuesday 22nd The Feeling Wednesday 23rd Skid Row/Ugly Kid Joe Thursday 24th Markey Ramone’s Blitzkrieg with Andrew WK Thursday 24th HIM Thursday 24th The Cult – Electric 13 Friday 25th The Pigeon Detectives Friday 25th John Power (Cast) Friday 25th Sham 69 Friday 25th Real Radio XS Saturday 26th North Mississippi Allstars Saturday 26th The Blackout Saturday 26th Warpaint Tuesday 29th Birdy Wednesday 30th Tyler Hilton Wednesday 30th Suede Wednesday 30th
NOVEMBER Boomtown Rats Friday 1st IllumiNaughty Saturday 2nd 10pm – 5.30am Deserts Xuan Saturday 2nd Blood On The Dancefloor Sunday 3rd Joseph Whelan Monday 3rd Watsky Tuesday 5th Deap Vally Tuesday 5th Dillinger Escape Plan Wednesday 6th KAL & Satellite State Disko Wednesday 6th 36 Crazyfists Thursday 7th PublicServiceBroadcasting Thursday 7th Marillion Friday 8th The Union Friday 8th Unknown Mortal Orchestra Friday 8th Whole Lotta Led Saturday 9th Satyricon Sunday 10th Defenders Of The Faith ft Amon Amarth Wednesday 13th The Wonder Years Wednesday 13th Stephen Lynch Live Thursday 14th Gary Numan Thursday 14th Laura Veirs Friday 15th Road To Warped Tour Friday 15th Naughty Boy Saturday 16th Vice Squad Saturday 16th Mallory Knox Sunday 17th Television Sunday 17th Blue October Monday 18th Hayseed Dixie Tuesday 19th
They Might Be Giants Wednesday 20th The Rifles Thursday 21st The Backhanders Friday 22nd The Virginmarys Friday 22nd Absolute Bowie Saturday 23rd Lee Nelson Saturday 23rd MSMR Sunday 24th Vuvuvultures Sunday 24th The Passengers perform the songs of Iggy Pop Sunday 24th Barenaked Ladies Monday 25th The Fratellis Wednesday 27th Hudson Taylor Thursday 28th Dan Baird Friday 29th Flux Pavilion Saturday 30th The Complete Stone Roses Saturday 30th The Doors Alive Saturday 30th
DECEMBER Capercaille Sunday 1st Papa Roach Thursday 5th Watain Thursday 5th White Lies Friday 6th Electric Six Friday 6th Dutch Uncles Friday 6th For Those About To Rock: Livewire The AC/DC Show Saturday 7th The Word Alive Sunday 8th TheMenTheyCouldn’tHang Thursday12th Alabama 3 Friday 13th Kurt Vile Saturday 14th Gogol Bordello Saturday 14th Primal Scream Sunday 15th Levellers Friday 20th
JANUARY 2014 The 1975 Tuesday 7th Lamb of God Sunday 19th dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip Sunday 19th Julia Sheer Wednesday 29th London Grammar Wednesday 29th RX Bandits Friday 31st
FEBRUARY 2014 Ron Pope + Wakey! Wakey! Thursday 6th Little Comets Wednesday 5th Protest The Hero Thursday 6th August Burns Red Monday 10th Mikill Pane Friday 14th Kerrang! Tour 2014 Monday 17th twenty one pilots Friday 21st Room 94 Saturday 22nd
MARCH 2014 The Dear Hunter And Anthony Green Saturday 1st Haim Saturday 8th Heaven 17 Saturday 15th Kodaline Wednesday 5th Ian Prowse & Amsterdam Friday 21st OneRepublic Friday 21st Franz Ferdinand Saturday 22nd The Stranglers Saturday 29th
Games
ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
15
Editor: Alasdair Preson Review
Retro Corner
review:Kerbal Space
Program
Damien Trinh causes several space disasters in the hottest new indie game Squad • RRP: £17.99 • Available on PC, Mac & Linux The final frontier is yours to explore and planets yours to claim in Kerbal Space Program. You’re in charge and failure is an option! In fact, it’s probably going to be the outcome of the majority of your missions. As the name suggests, you’re in charge of a space program. Everything from the design of the rocket, to where to land on a distant world is your decision. However, this isn’t a game where you purely manage and oversee; Kerbal Space Program lets you control the ships you build, drive the rovers you send and ultimately explore the solar system as a Kerbal, the natives of the planet analogous to Earth. You start off in a hangar with a large number of parts at your disposal. First objective is to build a space worthy rocket and no doubt lose many brave Kerbals along the way, the latter part being more of an inevitability than an objective. After you can sustain a stable orbit your choice is wide open, which is the game’s largest appeal. Aside from the majestic home planet of Kerbin, there are six other planets to journey to, as well as their associated moons. The game also allows multiple flights to happen at the same time, so you can send up multiple objects up into space and build a space station or moon base. The choice is yours. Despite the cartoon graphics, the physics behind the game are pretty solid. If you know how, then aerobraking and gravity assists are possible with the help of a fairly detailed flight planner. Getting into orbit or heading to another planet isn’t
just a simple point and fly. Everything from orbit inclination to relative speed needs to be taken into account to make sure you reach your destination at the desired point and time. Heading straight for a crash into a moon? Make a correcting Image credit: KerbalSpaceProgram.com manoeuvre, with just the research tree, giving the game an extra right amount of thrust. As in real life, fuel dimension which I am thoroughly looking needs to be taken into consideration; too forward to. little and you’ll be stranded in space, but too much and you’ll be too heavy to get Kerbal Space Program is currently anywhere. available on Steam and through their The game is currently in beta and website. unfinished, which is very promising Damien Trinh considering how well done it is already. Updates are being released frequently, which unfortunately can cause your space empire to become outdated and no longer work with old parts. Thankfully, they’ve brought in an option allowing you to play on previous releases if you wish to continue with your old saves. Planned features include a career mode and
Alasdair Preston looks at one of the most signifcant games of the past decade After not even showing up on the Nintendo 64, space bounty hunter Samus Aran returned with a bang in her first 3D adventure for the Gamecube, Metroid Prime. At the time, it was a bold new direction for the series that had previously been firmly planted in the 2D platformer camp. Developer Retro Studios had a real job on their hands trying to bring the exploration, combat and tone the franchise was loved for into a new dimension. Despite the pressure, they pulled it off in true style creating one of the series’ most famous and revered instalments. To this day, it still sits comfortably inside GameRanking’s all-time best top 20, ahead of certain GTA:Vs and Resident Evil 4s. Why is it there? It does so many things so well. The player has to explore a vast and varied planet, conquering challenging and imaginative enemies whilst also delving into the rich lore hidden all around. Not to mention the many weapon and armour upgrades that unlock new paths and give previously seen areas a new lease of life. It came out at a time in gaming history when the big budget blockbuster was on the rise, and longer, more difficult games were fading into obscurity. As a result, it featured a compelling story, amazing graphical detail and was still tough and rewarding. And that’s without even going into just how long it takes to complete the thing.
What Metroid Prime did best of all was create atmosphere. It never let you forget that you were all alone. Samus never has anyone to speak to; the only communications come from her computer system. When something bright explodes nearby, her face illuminates in her visor. The soundtrack was perfectly tuned to create tension and adrenaline at the right moments. Prime’s impact has since echoed through gaming and can be felt in games such as Dead Space, which further perfected the art of creating atmosphere in the genre. After the series closed with Prime 3 on Wii, a special edition trilogy released that featured remastered versions of the first two GameCube instalments. While this game is hard to come by, it is worth digging up just to experience what has come to be known as one of the greatest games of all time.
Alasdair Preston
Image credit: ToTheGame.
Feature
the
GAMES INTERVIEW
Mike Geelan: Squad Developer We recently had the chance to talk to Mike Geelan, a developer at Kerbal Space Program maestros Squad and a former UoM student about his time here, his path to developing and his experiences. First of all, what did you study at Manchester? I studied, in a very loose sense of the word, Computer Sciences.
For me, games are the pinnacle of computing. During your time here, where was your favourite place to go with friends? The Student Union on Oxford Street was always close and very cheap, two key factors when you’re a student. There used to be a funky little sci-fi themed bar on Portland Road, the name escapes me, which was always fun to wind down in.
Did you always want to develop games?
And your least favourite?
I always did develop games! I got a ZX Spectrum when I was 6-7 and loved to spend my time knocking up games in BASIC.
It’s been so long I can’t think of any. Had a few bad nights but not sure they were the fault of the venue.
How did you get into development after university?
games
It took me a long time to become a professional game developer. Straight after university I worked with a company installing wireless networks, which were very new and radical at the time. Then I got a job at a call center and ended up programming management applications for them. Many years later I decided to try follow my dreams and I made a post on the Unity forums asking if anyone wanted a willing programmer. The offers flooded in and I haven’t looked back since.
the best! impressive
How much has changed about KSP as a result of player feedback?
Being part of the project is, in itself, a great thing. We’ve got a great team and everybody contributes, which is part of what makes it such a fun project. I wrote the planetary rendering system we use, which is the one everyone notices, but behind the scenes I greatly expanded the modding tools and have recently completed a tune-up of the entire game: all of which I’m proud of.
There’s no question if Squad had just launched a game, it would look drastically different from how the game will look when we complete it. We didn’t know how much realism to include, especially since it can be quite scientific, but our community supported and asked for more realism during testing. That was a significant piece of feedback for us. It enabled us to move forward and build the game people are enjoying today.
What’s your most accomplishment on KSP?
How did you get involved with Kerbal Space Program? Well I played the demo in December 2011 and loved it. It really is my kind of game. So I decided to check the Squad website to see if they had any jobs and, lo, there was a job for a programmer. I applied and by January, I was an official Squad programmer. The old ways are sometimes
What’s next after KSP? A; We’re a small team and our entire community is counting on us to deliver a completed KSP. We do have a few interesting ideas up our sleeves that we’ll put work into when the time is right. Thanks for talking to us Mike, and best of luck with the future of Kerbal Space Program.
Damien Trinh Image credit: KerbalSpaceProgram.com
ISSUE 05/14TH OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Editors: Susie Coen, Marie ClareYates, Halee Wells (Beauty) Top 5
in film TOP
90’S Fashion
5
By Natalie Clark
1. 1990 Pretty Woman No iconic fashion-movie list could ever be completed without including Pretty Woman. Though Julia Roberts’ pre-hooker style may be a tad less wearable (unless you’re on Geordie Shore) her post-transformation wardrobe made the film what it was. From the brown polka dot ensemble at the Polo to that sophisticated outfit shopping on Rodeo Drive, Julia, you got it so right. 2. 1990 The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air The Fresh Prince’s original style is still resonating 20 years after the first episode aired. Rocking vibrant colours, Air Jordans and crazy patterns, Will’s cult-like fashion following is still ever present today. Let’s not forget spoilt, ditzy, hat-loving Hilary Banks. She stole the show with her smart suits, cutout minis and bold accessories, because the only thing that matters is fashion, duhh. 3. 1994 Friends The 90s would not have been complete without Friends, and of course, Rachel Green’s style. Despite Jennifer Anniston HATING IT, ‘The Rachel’ haircut sparked a locks-chopping phenomenon, and hersartorial influence continued to grow; cropped shirts, dungarees, sundresses and of course her statement LBD. Effortless, chic and fabulous, no wonder everybody wanted to be Rachel.
The 90’s issue
/TheMancunion: Fashion & Beauty @MancunionFash
Princess Diana: A celebration of style Anna Sopel discusses the evolution of a fashion princess. Love her, loathe her, or feel mildly indifferent to her, Princess Diana’s status as a style icon of the 1980’s and 1990’s is indisputable. Yes, there was scandal surrounding her marriage, and yes she did a lot of good, but Princess Diana will also be remembered as one of the most influential women in fashion in the twentieth century. However, her evolution into one of the most fashionable women in the world was by no means immediate or effortless. Lady Diana Spencer was a tender nineteen years old when she got engaged to a future King . Most of us are trying to navigate our own sense of style at this age, without having to deal with perhaps the scariest in-laws in the world and millions of onlookers. So the People’s Princess can be forgiven for a few frumpy outfits in her early days. As her former stylist Anna Harvey said ‘Diana started off being really safe with her style, it was all very Laura Ashley’. It wasn’t long before the Laura Ashley look was replaced by something all together more risqué. As her confidence grew, her style developed into that of an international celebrity, she was elegant, sophisticated and completely in control of her image. She was also sexy. Sure, there were no bum-cheek revealing hot pants, or midriff bearing crop tops that you might see on a twenty something these days, but this was the 80’s and 90’s and she was a royal. Princess Diana
often wore more traditional royal get up, such as velvet and feathers, but with a more modern twist of a one shouldered style, or
message to the press, the public and the royal family. In 1994 Princess Diana wore a now iconic, off the shoulder, figure hugging little black dress to the Serpentine Gallery benefit. This was on the same evening that an explosive documentary about her husband’s infidelities was airing. The next day every paper did not have the Prince of Wales’ confession on their front page, but rather a stunning, confident looking Princess. It became known as ‘the revenge dress’. However, in keeping with her philanthropic nature, Diana auctioned off that and many of her other dresses for charity just two months before she died.
a dress with a completely open back. In the later years of her life she was known for wearing killer cocktail dresses, often designed by her good friend Gianni Versace.
Although her life came to an abrupt early end, her legacy lives on in a multitude of ways, perhaps most frivolously in the world of fashion. It was only last week that a very modern style princess, by the name of Rihanna proclaimed Princess Diana to be her style inspiration and that she was ‘gangsta’ – a title, you can imagine, the real Princess might have smiled at!
Charlie Daniels on how to source the nineties-tastic mini-backpack on both ends of the economic spectrum
4. 1995 Clueless
5. 1998 Sex and the City Two words: Carrie Bradshaw. Yes, many a time the outfits were questionable, but more times than not, she, along with the other ladies, started trends. Making designers like Manolo Blahnik household names, the power of SATC inspired women to challenge their fashion boundaries. Who else but Carrie could get away with pigtails and stilettos in one go?
picture: http://www.saksfifthavenue. com
To knot or not to knot? Thinking of braving the top knot trend? Emmanuel Demuren gives us his opinion on the controversial hairstyle of today If you’ve attended any festival, art gallery or been around pretty much anywhere on our glorious Island over the last couple of months you’ll definitely have encountered the “top knot” in some form, whether you’ve noticed or not. For those of you unsure of what I’m rambling on about, I’ll start by clarifying what I mean by a top knot. A top knot is a style which involves growing hair longer on the top, with the sides significantly shorter/shaved. The top is then tied into a knot. So there you have it (the name leaves little to the imagination, no marks for guessing I’m afraid). It’s a knot that goes on top of your head. Now, independent ladies have been donning the top knot for years so what’s the big deal some of you might be inclined to ask? Well, boys have crashed the party and they’ve got no plans to leave anytime soon. The top knot is everywhere. Everyone brave enough to don the style tends to be slim, tall and bears at least some slight resemblance to Proudlock from Made in Chelsea. You know exactly what I’m talking about; the Shoreditch look.
Marks
CORNER
17
Millie Kershaw discusses which 90s beauty trends made it through the era Photos by Millie Kershaw
The evolution of 90s beauty... Whether you look back on the 90s with nostalgia or nausea, it can’t be denied that the style has already done a full cycle and returned with vengeance this year. Turning a thought away from the crop tops and baggy jeans to all things beauty, some looks are certainly more wearable than others. Here are a few trends that characterised the decade with some post-millennium adaptations.
So, what’s my verdict? Yeah, it’s alright I guess. As it goes, I like Proudlock, he’s pretty jokes. However, I will say that if you are donning the top knot, then you should be prepared for haters to hate… but that’s what they do right? If they don’t, Tumblr I’m suing you.
Lip liner
Dark, deliberate and downright awful, the infamous brown lip liner surrounding a matte (or sometimes metallic, interesting...) nude lipstick wins the most memorable award. However, it hasn’t really stood the test of time. In fact, lip liner has arguably gone out of fashion since its notorious 90s heyday. To achieve a more muted 90s lip, pair a neutral lipstick a few shades darker than your skin tone with a matching lip liner. This will create the polished, oh-so 90s shape without that garish outline. Blotting with a tissue, or even dusting with a small amount of powder, will give that authentic, matte finish.
Instagram users from left to right: rikkitheodosi, matthewmillions, and braduk Care to challenge them to a hair-off? Yes, in some cases top knots are incredibly ambitious but so are a lot of fashion trends. Do your thing. One more comment on the big man himself… last one I promise; a little birdy tells me that he’s got a new barnet lined up for the upcoming series, care to hazard a guess?
Princess Diana was also incredibly shrewd in understanding the impact of what she wore and using this to her advantage to send a
Craving & Saving
Need I say more? Cher and Dionne of the almighty Clueless (movie or extended fashion show? You decide…) brought us out of the grunge era sweeping the 90s with their sleek silhouettes and classy ensembles. Plaid suits, chunky wedges, collared dresses and the white-shirt-knitsweater-look; the Clueless nostalgia has even cropped up on the Autumn/Winter 2013 catwalks. And that white mini-dress? “A dress, says who? “ “Calvin Klein.”
BEAUTY
Opinion
Princess Diana was always a great supporter of the British fashion industry, through wearing designers like Catherine Walker and Zandra Rhodes, she always aimed to promote British business, something we can see her Daughterin- law Katherine Middleton has replicated. Photo: wikimedia commons
Fashion
Craving: Prada Vela Backpack £520.39
Saving: Spencer
and £29.50
Taking fashion inspiration from the iconic 90s flick ‘10 Things I Hate About You’ comes this week’s craving: the Vela Backpack. “…there’s a difference between like and love. Because, I like my Sketchers, but I love my Prada backpack.” – Bianca 10TIHAY. While others lust over Heath and Joseph, ‘10 Things’ reminds us why the 90s was a truly memorable decade. From layering jumpers over shirts, to crop tops and mood rings, the 90s introduced many things we still love today. We have been basking in the 90s revival for a while now thanks to Rihanna and Rita Ora- yet recent collections on the runway have definitely confirmed the comeback is here to stay.
Bianca’s Prada backpack combines high fashion with functionality, but most of us can only dream of putting our loan to such a worthy cause. So here’s an ‘account-friendly’ version that won’t break the bank and is still oh so stylish. This backpack is a very practical uptake on the trend as its drawstring, flap and buckle fastening promise to keep things safe inside. Together with an inner zip pocket and compartments that make for easy organising, the ‘MockCroc’ design is also right on trend for A/W13. Plus the gold features on the buckle make it easy to take this bag from day to night.
Put a spin on it Sean Gleeson explains how to embrace the 90s trend without looking like a bellend You only have to take a quick walk around campus to see that a 90’s fashion revival is well and truly upon us. Whilst many are already channelling the look pretty successfully, there’s the inevitable risk we could all end up dressing not dissimilarly to the way we did aged 7. Let us not forget the 90’s was dubbed by many as the ‘era style forgot’, and although that may be open to debate, the general consensus is that when championing the look you’re safest putting a modern spin on some old school classics. Flannel shirts are probably the easiest and quickest way to start adding some 90’s flavour to your wardrobe, preferably loose fitting in line with the relaxed silhouette of the era.
Sculpted skin
Excluding maybe the Spice Girls, the 1990s on the whole saw the replacement of 80s neons with a more earthy, sophisticated palette. Away with the blue eyeshadows and really dazzling blusher, the 90s look is synonymous with a natural base and polished contouring of the cheeks, jaw and temples to add definition. Anyone who has heard of Kim Kardashian will know that contouring is very much “in”, but it’s not the easiest skill to perfect. Instead of accentuating a fierce pair of cheekbones, slapdash application and the wrong colour choice will give a more orange stripy effect not dissimilar to a tiger. Opt for an ashy brown colour instead of a terracotta shade. Apply lightly and build it up in the hollows of the cheeks, the hairline and jaw to create something more like a subtle shadow and less like war paint.
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Grungy eyes All images from urbanoutfitters.com picture: http://www.marksandspencer.com
Your denim should also follow suit, with looser cuts and lighter washes (I’d suggest Levis 501’s) replacing the skinny fit that defined the noughties. If you haven’t already, it’s also probably time you invested in a few pieces of sportswear, whilst for footwear look to the likes of New Balance and Doc Marten. If none of the above suggestions are getting you inspired and nostalgic, or you’re looking for extra way to embody the era, then there’s also the option of smelling like people did back then. And no, I’m not suggesting you hold off washing your latest vintage purchase; instead, pick up a bottle of CK One, the unisex fragrance of choice for the 90’s masses.
Made famous by Kate Moss and the copied by everyone, this effortless 90s eye look is supposed to say “I love Nirvana and I’m far too edgy to take time over my makeup” and not “I got embroiled in a fight outside Tiger Tiger last night”. There’s a lot of natural charm in imperfect makeup. Smudgy, smoky grunge looks are a good 90s ancestor in my eyes; and a welcomed antidote to the “Essex” makeup of our decade. The trick is to keep it warm-toned, avoiding the resemblance of a black eye, and darkest around the lash line for definition. To keep your face looking a bit more 21st century, cream eyeshadow products are filling the shelves and have the added benefits of colour intensity and greater staying power.
ISSUE 05/14th October 2013
Editors: Sophie James, Robbie Davidson, Angus Harrison Top 5
Feature
TOP
Movie Robots
5
This week, Lloyd Hammett gives us his top 5 machines with movie magic.
5. Wall-E - Wall-E (2008) Left alone on earth Wall-E has the impossible task of bringing life back to the planet the humans destroyed. He barely talks in the film but his personality rings through with his longing for company and how he never gives up on his beloved EVE.
4. The Machines - The Matrix Trilogy They were produced by humans, waged war on humans, defeated humans and then used humans as an energy source. The Machines can take on any necessary form they want, sentinels and agents, and are relentless in their pursuit of any resistance.
3. T-800 - The Terminator (1984) An unstoppable killer sent to earth to kill Sarah Connor with an Arnold Schwarzenegger over coat and the haunting red eyes and metal skull underneath. In T2 the T800 becomes our protective hero for John Connor and instantly wins back our support after terrorising the screen beforehand. 2. R2-D2 - Star Wars Entrusted with the vital message from Leia to Obi-Wan the importance of R2-D2 is instantly shown in the saga. R2-D2 is constantly in the thick of events, despite the reservations of the ever moaning C-3PO, unlocking doors, shooting lightsabers, putting out fires and when necessary he can even fly. 1. Hal 9000 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Perhaps more artificial intelligence than a robot but Hal cannot be missed out due to the effect he leaves all over cinema. It is not a lack of a conscience that makes HAL chilling; it is the embodiment of cold rational thought he represents, as he kills to preserve his own life. The unnerving soothing voice never changes, whether being helpful or turning to a homicidal killer, as HAL’s priorities of life never falter.
the FEATURE:
Our take on events from the world of film and television
Biopics: The Curse of Cinema? Ally Mitchell wonders if there will be any respite from the onsalught of biopics and asks, with the upcoming release of ‘One Chance’, is there no limit to whose life can be given the cinematic treatment? Casually perusing Imdb a few weeks ago, I stumbled across a new film starring James Corden. One Chance tells the story of young Paul Potts (Britain’s Got Talent series 1 winner) and his struggle to follow his dreams as an opera singer in an existence which seems fiercely antagonistic. Downtrodden and defeated, Potts eventually rises up to quash the bullies by entering and (sorry, spoilers) winning Britain’s Got Talent and becoming a superstar. Not that I have anything against Paul Potts; I think he is a very talented singer. Rather it’s the fact that mainstream cinema is now resorting to the biopic of a previous Britain’s Got Talent contestant (and casting a number of well-known actors) which astounds me. Created by Syco Television, the makers of the X Factor, One Chance stands out as a form of Simon Cowell advertisement with very little substance. The trailer follows the structure of the reality TV it is based on, clichéd and over-dramatised, depicting Potts’ Cinderellastory which, if you watch Britain’s Got Talent or not, you know ends happily ever after. Of course, this is a norm for mainstream blockbusters. With their epic music scores and careful editing, big-time filmmakers make sure that our emotions and opinions are constructed for us
whilst we innocently watch the movie before us. Film especially manipulates our minds through biopics. Focused on a famous and/or historical figure, the audience’s emotions are forced to either empathise with or oppose the central constructed character based on the film’s interpretation of them. Paul Potts transforms from the underdog to a hero
within an hour and a half. Something tells me he will be releasing an album in the coming weeks. However, the question remains, why do so many film makers feel the need to inflict their opinion of a person upon worldwide audiences? Within the last year a vast number of biopics have
been made. Jobs (Steve Jobs), Behind the Candelabra (Liberace), The Butler (the White House butler, Cecil Gaines) and Kill Your Darlings (Allen Ginsberg) barely scratch the surface, and currently in cinemas are Diana, Rush and The Fifth Estate. What is the need for so many biopics? Is Hollywood running out of ideas? What does someone have to achieve to have a film made about them? The increasingly technological world is expanding our previous knowledge of people, especially people in the spotlight. Just by Google searching we can learn about a vast number of even vaguely famous people from any era. With this immense scope, film makers can choose anyone with an inspiring life and document it effectively to interest the audience. We must remember that film making is story telling. There is a narrative. There is even narrative within documentaries as we are expected to respond to the constructed image created. Just because a film is about a real person, the actor is not that person. Biopics are an interpretation and therefore can be controversial; The Iron Lady famously sparked debate due to Margaret Thatcher’s modernday depiction. Are biopics therefore just a moneymaker? Does the life story of a famous person pull us in? One Chance certainly fits this description (I’ve written a whole article about it). I just feel sorry for Paul Potts. Let’s hope they don’t make a biopic about Simon Cowell next.
Preview
thePREVIEW: The “star-crossed lovers of District 12” find themselves back in the battling arena only a year after winning the Hunger Games in one of 2013’s most anticipated releases. Hollywood’s sweetheart Jennifer Lawrence (fresh from her Oscar win) returns as Katniss Everdeen, The Girl on Fire, who yet again has to escape the clutches of the Capitol alongside Peeta, played by Josh Hutcherson. This time around, all previous victors are rounded up to fight to their deaths (a devious plan hatched by the malicious President Snow). What’s more, she has to confront her attraction to lifelong companion Gale (Liam Hemsworth) all the while being pressured by her foes to keep up the farce of being devoted to Peeta. Its predecessor earned a place amongst the 20 highest grossing films of all time, and broke a fair number of other box office records along the way. Adapted from Suzanne Collins’ book series, the plot centres around 24 children that are drafted from districts all around a post-American land called Panem every year and are forced to kill till there is only one winner left. Katniss’ wit to ensure a victory for both herself and Peeta sparks a rebellion around the country that the tyrannical rulers are adamant to extinguish. This dystopia created by Collins has garnered millions of devoted fans around the world. Eager to see the universe from the books adapted to screen from the very beginning, the casting of these films has perhaps been the most exciting and frustrating aspect for them. And with several fan-favourite characters making their debut appearance in
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Catching Fire, the final shortlist elicited some strong reactions. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was roped in to play Plutarch Havensbee, while Jena Malone, who has several hits as a child star to her credit, will be seen playing Johanna Mason of District 7. The most awaited casting coup, however, was of course to be of the District 4 hunk Finnick Odair. Anything less than a Greek God would have been a disgrace to his legacy and at last Sam Clafin of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides fame won the role. Other changes are in order too. Gary Ross, director of the first instalment, will be giving up his director’s seat to Francis Lawrence. Ross decided to part with the project during preproduction and the duty was passed on to Lawrence, who has previously directed I Am Legend, Water for Elephants and several music videos for famous names in pop. The trailer promises this venture will be more ominous and beautifully brusque. The good news is that the fans, who call themselves “tributes”, seem to approve wholeheartedly. Parizad Mangi
Director: Francis Lawrence Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson and Philip Seymour Hoffman Released: 21st November
ISSUE 05/ 14th October 2013
Film
/TheMancunion: Film @MancunionFilm
Review
the REVIEW:
How I Live Now
Director: Kevin Macdonald Starring: Saoirse Ronan, George Mackay and Anna Chancellor Released: 7th October
Lucy Gooder is underwhelmed by the adaption of Meg Rosoff’s novel, feeling the magic of the book has been sacrificed in the pursuit of making a darker film
After reading the Meg Rosoff novel How I Live Now as a young teenager I entered the cinema prepared to take a nostalgic trip down memory lane. From what I could remember it was an idyllic story of love, with maybe a little bit of hardship thrown in, as a young American girl hides out with her cousins in the English countryside whilst a mysterious future war goes on around them. As it turns out, my memory appears to have been seriously affected by a few too many nights in the pub. Unremittingly bleak, the film version of How I Live Now loosely follows the premise of the novel. The romantic idyll of total freedom portrayed in the first half only serves to fortify the weight of depression and misery on your shoulders in the second. I should have seen this coming; a film about war is likely to be dark. However there have been many successful films produced in and out of wartime that have managed to create moments of levity or at least a fleeting sense of hope in such dark times. This is an area where How I Live Now seems to fail; yes the first half serves to provide a
counter to just how bad the world becomes, but that does not prevent it becoming somewhat of a slog of grim determination. Each horrific event begins to lack impact, as there are few moments between them to contrast or change the pace. Although creating a genuine sense of unease and fear for the young protagonists, there is little new and unexpected.
of the war. Director Kevin Macdonald manages to create a moment that is both beautiful and terrifying, avoiding the usual mushroom cloud clichés. The performances of the younger members of the cast are also well handled in their charming precociousness. What I had remembered from the novel was that the central
Other than slightly excessively shaky camera work in parts, the film is strikingly shot, using the English countryside to its full advantage, particularly when depicting the impact of a nuclear device, the catalyst
relationship is between two cousins. When I was twelve or thirteen this was exceptionally scandalous, and although I am not quite open minded enough to think of this as normal it was handled well, making it a genuine
CATCH UP
Now that Freshers Week is feeling like an acid trip from years gone by and you’re beginning to realise that that person who you thought was really cool is actually a bit of a dick, you’re likely in need of some televisual therapy. You’re well into Homeland (4oD) but that’s only once a week and there’s only so much of Carrie crying you can take before you feel like breaking down yourself. So if you’re searching for something to fill the empty blackness then Masters of Sex (4oD) might do the trick. From the same channel that brought you Carrie crying week after week, Masters of Sex explores the relationship between pioneering sex researchers, Dr Williams Masters and Virginia Johnson in the 1950s. Starring everyone’s favourite Welshman, Michael Sheen and Lizzie Caplan, with John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) directing the first episode, we can hope for some suitably awkward encounters between the progressive doctors and the uptight 1950s patients. Throw into the mix some astute cultural commentary and the high chance that Tony Blair and Janice from Mean Girls will probably get it on at some point (let that image linger), and this looks like it could have serious potential. But if highbrow cable drama doesn’t appeal then the return of Chelsea’s favourite sloanes will likely be a welcome one. Amidst the growing crop of socalled ‘structured reality’ TV shows like The Valleys and The Only Way is Essex, Made in Chelsea is a nice reminder that the stupidly rich are equally vacuous and repellent. Not so many years ago an edgier Channel 4 might have commissioned MIC as some sort of searing social satire or Marxist propaganda, but these days watching entitled toffs whine about their intolerable lives and enjoy endless lunch time cocktails is now considered entertainment. But it’s on its sixth season so what do I know. Robbie Davidson
Contrary Corner
Cornerhouse Pick of the Week
The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology Faye Broadbent experiences a potent mixtue of cinema and philosophy at the Cornerhouse
Friday night had arrived. I guess on first thought one of the last things many students would want to do would be to spend two hours watching a philosophical documentary. However, when you find out Slavoj Zizek has been hailed as ‘The Borat of Philosophy’, it becomes instantly intriguing. So, it was time for me to rethink. Following Sophie Fiennes 2006 documentary The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, she has returned and reunited with the eccentric, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek to present the follow up, The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. As a slideshow with quotes from the academic played out before the film began, it didn’t take too long to realise Zizek would make this documentary a wacky and unique viewing experience. Zizek’s controversial reputation is kept far from secret in The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology as his views are clearly voiced. The film discusses psychoanalysis and how it can tell us about the effects and meanings of ideology in relation to cinema. I know this all seems a little dry for a Friday night viewing. Not to mention many of us may prefer to see something with a little less brain power. But -and that’s a big ‘but’ - Zizek is a born entertainer. He can’t help but perform to the camera and through relating
relationship rather than a creepy one. Overall the set up of the relationship between all the cousins was done in a quietly joyful manner that made you understand the lengths that were gone to in order to return to the elation and freedom of home. One aspect I did have to call into question was the lack of explanation into the war itself. Although there were clearly reasons behind this, demonstrating that the presence of soldiers had come to be expected, as well as creating a sense of childlike naivety, one would expect some degree of political awareness by the older teenagers to give some sense of context and realism to the audience. Despite feeling totally drained as I left the cinema, How I Live Now was certainly thought-provoking and bold in its portrayal of a war-torn society. The contrast between the two parts of the film is effective enough to keep you contemplating it and the real life possibilities long after the bus ride home. ★★ Lucy Gooder Check out our reviews of Thanks For Sharing and Filth online
TV
19
his theories to a wide variety of films, ranging from Scorsese’s Taxi Driver to Robert Wise’s West Side Story, the film proved to be both insightful and well... funny. It is its humorous approach which makes the film one to watch. Zizek throws himself into the films discussed, quite literally! From explaining psychological matters using a Kinder Egg (Yep, you read that correctly) to dressing as a nun from The Sound of Music whilst discussing erotic underpinnings. You will never look at Maria in quite the same way again. The wacky tone created and maintained by the combination of Zizek’s colourful character and Fiennes’ clever direction and editing is what makes The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology so endearing. Undeniably, the strength of the documentary lies with the presence of the ‘star’ of the show, Slavoj Zizek. However, the interest of the film lies very heavily on the philosophers’ shoulders. Maybe it would be more suitable for the film to be called Zizek’s’ Guide to Ideology. The collaboration of Fiennes’ filmmaking and Zizek’s delivery, switching from deep issues to humour makes The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology a refreshing take on a documentary.
The Hobbit:The Desolation of Tolkien Tom Bruce is a life long fan of the original novel and judging by what’s come so far, has low hopes for the second film in the triology Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is arguably the most important cinematic event of the past twenty years. The script wasn’t perfect, nor the casting, but Jackson managed to capture the scale and wonder of Middle Earth and transfer it to the big screen with masterful confidence. Sure, the story underwent some serious refurbishment but the magic of the books remained. People said that it could not be done, but eleven Oscars and billions of dollars beg to differ. In spite of Jackson’s former feats of direction I feel that forcing a trilogy out of Tolkien’s The Hobbit essentially a 300 page bed time story - is a bridge too far. Jackson’s Middle Earth renaissance is curious to say the least. Reliving past glories? Atoning for critical flops King Kong and The Lovely Bones by returning to more reliable source material? Guillermo Del Toro’s cancelled standalone Hobbit movie – which sounded like an intriguing, darker vision of Bilbo’s adventures- would have been welcome over Jackson’s systematic, nine hour annihilation of my childhood. An Unexpected Journey, the first instalment in the new trilogy, was little more than an overwrought orgy of hollow, self gratifying nonsense. I have seen it twice in the cinema and three times on DVD ( just to make sure) - each viewing makes me feel more bitter and betrayed than the last. It is so unashamedly identical to The Fellowship of the Ring in terms of themes and narrative, yet it carries none of the emotional
weight or Tolkien spirit. Just like Fellowship, the party set out from Bag End, take in the same landmarks (Weathertop, Trollshaw) and encounter minor peril before a bit of well earned R ’n’ R in Rivendell. Then they trundle through a goblin-infested mountain and engage in a final battle. Déjà vu strikes once more during a flashback which re-enacts the Last Alliance blow for blow. Oh, and Thorin is basically just Aragorn. Now the impending middle chapter... A new trailer has just been released for The Desolation of Smaug and it appears worryingly similar in tone. That said, a brief glimpse of the mighty Beorn and a sample of reptilian menace from Smaug the Stupendous can still excite even the most sceptical of fans. Some major concerns remain; Firstly, The White Orc should not be a thing. Secondly, the ill advised return of Orlando Bloom’s Legolas (he does not feature in book whatsoever) has been contrived for a newly invented and unnecessary love interest. Tauriel is her name and copying Arwen is her game. The Hobbit trilogy is the Star Wars ‘prequels’ all over again. If the hubris of George Lucas taught us anything it was this: never go back. As a devout Tolkientie, I truly hope that The Desolation of Smaug redeems the first Hobbit film and more besides. It won’t, but I will still go and watch it five times anyway. Tom Bruce
11th - 18th October Vote for candidates online
ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
/TheMancunion: Books
Editors: Esmé Clifford Astbury, Annie Muir
@MancunionBooks
Feature
Literary daytrip: Hathersage Books Editor Esmé Clifford Astbury invites you to hop on a train to Hathersage and walk in the footsteps of Jane Eyre and Elizabeth Bennet until you reach the road, where you take a right. Then, turn left onto the public footpath and follow it until you reach North Lees Hall. Built in the early 1590s, it is thought that North Lees Hall served as a model for Thornfield, the home of Jane Eyre’s beloved Mr Rochester. It was owned by the Eyre family, whose name, needless to say, Bronte also used. Legend has it that an early mistress of the hall, Agnes Ashurst,
path, which crosses hillside pastures before entering some woods. As you leave the woods behind, you will come to a road. Turn left along the road for a short distance, then right onto a grassy path leading to Stanage Edge. In the 2005 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the famous scene where Elizabeth Bennet stands on a cliff edge was shot on location at Stanage Edge
Books
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TOP 5
FICTIONAL DIARIES
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding Possibly one of the all-time greats, this is the novel that told a generation of single women that it was okay to make an idiot out of yourself and wear huge underwear at the same time. Alongside the humour, the book chronicles the daily stresses of the modern woman: men, men and MEN!
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith Although she is better known for The Hundred and One Dalmatians, this is possibly Smith’s greatest achievement. In it, aspiring author Cassandra Mortmain documents the lives and loves of her eccentric family as they struggle to make ends meet in a cold, crumbling castle. This is a book that you come back to time and time again, wishing that you were a member of that unconventional yet endearing household.
North Lees Hall, thought to be the inspiration Thornfield in Jane Eyre. Photo: Jane Perry
A mere hour’s train journey from Manchester lies Hathersage, a charming village in Derbyshire that is steeped in literary history. Charlotte Bronte stayed here in the mid19th century and used many of its places and people as inspiration for Jane Eyre. More recently, a famous scene in the 2005 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden, was shot on location nearby at Stanage Edge. This walk takes you through the village and across countryside and moors to Stanage Edge. As you leave the train station, turn left and walk down the road (B6001) to the village.
Before you stands The George Hotel, which, when Charlotte Bronte arrived in Hathersage in 1845, was a coaching inn. Bronte named the village of Morton, where Jane Eyre works as a schoolteacher, after the inn’s landlord. Turn right and walk up the main street to the village, then turn left onto Baulk lane, a public footpath. As you approach Cowclose Farm, take the signposted left fork and follow the footpath until you reach Brookfield Manor. Bronte used this large house as inspiration for Vale Hall in Jane Eyre. Vale Hall was owned by Mr Oliver. His daughter, Rosamond Oliver, funds the school where Jane teaches. Continue along the footpath
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky This is not quite a diary but rather a collection of letters from a 15 year old boy to an anonymous stranger. In it, we see Chbosky tussle with the awkwardness surrounding teenagers in love. With lashings of high school drama, including truth or dare, ‘the gay one’ and of course the football team, this is a must read for anyone wanting to relive the best - or worst - seven years of their life.
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Stanage Edge, featured in the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Photo: Esmé Clifford Astbury
was imprisoned in its attic as a madwoman, just like the fictional character of Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. After rounding North Lees Hall, climb the stone steps to your right and follow the
Head back to Hathersage along the same route. If you’re feeling a bit thirsty, grab a pint The George Hotel before getting the train back to Manchester.
Slightly different from the other books here, this novel is a lifetime’s worth of diaries. Boyd decided we should have a warts and all view of the main protagonist, Mountstuart, and so we find ourselves reading about prostitution and masturbation alongside many of the 20th century’s most important events.
Witch Child by Celia Rees After her grandmother is hanged for witchcraft, Mary Newbury is hurried out of the country to escape a similar fate. She sails to the New World with a group of Puritans but finds that, even there, being different is rather dangerous and that she must face incomprehensible choices to survive.
Review
Classics digested: The Picture of Dorian Gray Don’t be put off by literary classics. Paul Reilly provides an introduction to Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray WHO is the author?
WHAT is it about?
and more disfigured.
Flamboyant fop Oscar Wilde was one of the most controversial literary figures of his day.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a hedonistic romp through the opulent high society parlours and seedy opium dens of 19th century London.
However, despite his outward appearance, Dorian realises he cannot prevent the effects of his sins upon his soul, and eventually pays the price.
Inspired by the hilariously decadent Lord Henry Wotton, the handsome young eponymous character sets out on a life of amoral excess safe in the knowledge that, by way of a supernatural twist of fate, it will be a portrait of him, rather than his own body, which will suffer the debilitating effects.
WHY should you read it?
A remarkably eloquent and outspoken aesthete, he claimed to “have made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art.” Before being convicted and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in 1895 for “gross indecency” (legalese for ‘being gay’), Wilde had cemented his reputation as a master of the epigram with his highly popular plays Lady Windermere’s Fan, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest, and only published novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Turning his back on virtue, Dorian spends the next 18 years indulging in every vice, his actual body remaining unchanged and youthful while that of his portrait grows older
At turns deeply philosophical and wickedly funny, The Picture of Dorian Gray is both a thought-provoking and hugely entertaining novel. In the figure of Lord Henry Wotton, Wilde gives us one of the most quotable characters in 19th-century fiction, and it is impossible not to be seduced by his witticisms. Watching the 2009 film adaptation pales in comparison to the experience
of reading the novel, since much of the dialogue is cut, and we miss out on Wilde’s rich and beautiful descriptive language. Despite being a relatively slow reader, it took me a day and a half to finish it. Classic quote
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Penguin, 2000)
ISSUE 03/30th SEPTEMBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Editors: Ben Walker, Maddy Hubbard Recipe of the Week
OF THE recipe WEEK
This week we have something for those either watching the calories or simply wanting to shake things up a little...
Restaurant Review
The Cornerhouse: a culinary highlight Ben Walker spends an evening at The Cornerhouse, a venue staking its claim as the best Oxford Road restaurant, offering a range of stylish and classic dishes on a student budget. There is good beer and incredible cheesecake too ham soft, the Parmesan shavings salty, the rocket peppery and fresh, and the mushroom brought a very deep savoury taste. This is my goto pizza order, so Cornerhouse had to meet high expectations. This was a brilliant example, and given they have an entire menu just dedicated to pizza I’d say that although far more than just a pizzeria, it’s a bit of a speciality here.
Cauliflower Pizza So often the pizza is let down by the soggy or overly doughy base, so why not try something completely different? A recipe for the health conscious, the pizza lover, and the creative cook. Joanne Procter delivers a flavour packed carb-free alternative to the Napoli Style stone baked pizza.
We moved onto dessert. Vanilla cheesecake with a tart raspberry coulis, presented with two Mikado-like chocolate covered sticks (£4.95), was seriously good, one of the best I have had in a long time. Not overpoweringly sweet, you could get a taste of cheese, and the texture was sublime. The base was buttery and crisp — no soggy bottom here - while the sauce balanced the creaminess with sharpness beautifully.
Photo: Joanne Procter
Photo: Ben Walker
After about ten minutes in the oven the sugars in the figs will start to caramalise, the Gorgonzola will begin to melt and bubble, and the Prosciutto will begin to char and curl up on the edges. Beer-wise, a Porter would compliment the strong cheese here, but I know heavy dark beer might not be everyones choice. How about an American Pale Ale such as Sierra Nevada? There is a little sweetness to match to fruit, but is has a rounded dry and hoppy finish too.
I say Cornerhouse, you say cinema? Well maybe, and you’d be right, but there is far more to 70 Oxford Street than just independent film.
Ingredients 1 cauliflower 1 egg Handful of grated Parmesan Salt and pepper 200g tomato purée 4 figs 200g Gorgonzola 1 medium pear (peeled) 100g Prosciutto ham Method 1. Preheat the oven to 180⁰C, and line a baking tray with well-greased-greaseproof paper. Finely grate the cauliflower and place in a microwaveable bowl. Cover with a plate, or you can use cling film and poke a few holes in it. Microwave for 5 minutes, and then remove from the microwave and leave to cool. 2. When it has cooled enough to handle, tip the cauliflower out onto a tea towel, wrap it up and squeeze out all the moisture over the sink. Then place the dried out cauliflower in a bowl, and add the Parmesan, a pinch of salt and pepper, and crack an egg into the mixture. Stir it all together until you develop a dough-like texture. 3. Spread the cauliflower-dough out onto the baking tray so it’s pizza-shaped, and pop it in the oven for about ten minutes until it’s nicely golden-brown on the top. Whilst the pizza base is in the oven, make a start on your toppings: chop the fig into quarters, and chop the pear into 1-2cm cubes. Tear the prosciutto into small pieces and break up the Gorgonzola into little bits. 4. Remove the pizza base from the oven and spread over the tomato purée. Arrange all the toppings, and then return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Et voila, a sophisticated, guilt-free pizza - who said the post-fresher’s detox has to be boring?
Succulent pork ribs, generously topped stone baked pizzas, bread made in-house, locally brewed beer and ale, and possibly one of the finest cheesecakes I have had the pleasure of eating - all things one would associate with a very good restaurant. We ate all those and more this week, surrounded by cool music, the buzz of sophisticated conversations, attentive service, and above all excellent food at thoroughly reasonable prices. The Cornerhouse restaurant, far from being just an attachment to the cinema, is a quality gastronomic entity in its own right, a standalone eatery well worth a visit. Having heard of the bread that is baked daily in house, we opted for the artisan bread selection. We were brought olive focaccia that had a substantial but light and springy crumb, but lacked a little flavour, I’d have preferred more of a punch of garlic or black olive or rosemary here. For starters there was albondigas from
my day
ON A
PLATE
American Studies PhD student Katie Myerscough bookends her day with many mugs of tea, but what comes in between? Breakfast: Porridge normally does the trick. I use plain rolled oats mixed with skimmed milk; I then zap this concoction in the microwave for two minutes. I have gradually weaned myself off sprinkling sugar on the top! I have at least two cups of tea as I get ready to leave the house. Coffee Break: Following a few years of trial and error I have discovered that the best place to go on campus
Spain, croque-monsieur from France, wings from the deep south and potted shrimp from Morecambe. Perhaps a little lacking in identity and cohesion, but I’d back them to be executed well (all served as small plates/sharers, nothing exceeds £8). We, however, made a beeline for the mains, as we wanted room for the delights of the patisserie chef. ‘Slow Cooked with our own BBQ sauce, fennel and cola’ and delivering all the depth of flavour, richness and stickiness that you would hope were a very large helping of ribs (£11.25). The sauce had caramel, a tinge of aniseed, a little spice—a nice balance of sweet and savoury. By the end of it my fingers and face were smeared with feral dashes of sauce that had escaped my mouth. The horseradish coleslaw, stylishly decorated with nigella seeds, was a real winner instead of being a sad side; it packed a warm, crunchy punch and was a worthwhile addition. The chips were thin cut fries, crispy, wellseasoned, and definitely not from frozen. We also had the pizza La Reine (£8.25). The base for great pizza is always essential, and the stone bake was authentically thin and crispy. The topping was plentiful and the classic combination of La Reine flavours delivered in spades. The black olives were sharp, the Serrano for a nice coffee is Christie’s Bistro. I go for a cappuccino, because it offers a strong caffeine hit. I sip my brew in the salubrious surroundings, listening to murmured conversations and the tinkling of teacups. Lunch: In an effort to be more organised I have been stockpiling salads. My current go-to is Marks and Spencer’s Orzo Pasta box which has roasted tomatoes in it and comes with a basil vinaigrette. For £2 I think this is a steal. When I am peckish later I have a Satsuma or two and the carrot sticks that I chopped up that morning (told you I am trying to be organised!). Drinks: After a long day in the library I walk up to the Northern Quarter for a few post-work drinks with my boyfriend. We like Odd (on Thomas Street). I sink a few Real Ales (I favour anything with ‘Red’ or ‘Amber’ in its name). As I am feeling peckish I order a bowl of Cajun fries for £2.50, they are quite spicy but they are a good
A word on drinks I think is also appropriate. The beer selection has improved hugely to include local brewery Outstanding (Bury) and the increasingly popular American pale ale Shipyard from Maine. These will no doubt appeal to craft beer drinkers, but there are also some more recognisable labels to fall back on as well. Wines start from £15.50, and for that you can get a soft and fruity Tempranillo/Syrah blend. At the top of the range there is Some Young Punks—both white and red, I guess they are the Brew Dog of wine producers right now— young, cocksure, but really delivering the goods. Both the Riesling and Shiraz are priced at just under £30 if you’re treating yourself. Proceedings, as so often, were rounded off with coffee, which is taken seriously here. We left not just full and satisfied, but happy in the knowledge of unearthing a gem on the Oxford Road corridor.
Photo: Mancunion
accompaniment to the ale. Dinner: When I finally walk through the front door I am pretty famished. I head straight for the kitchen and reheat some of the curry I made the night before. This one was a variation on a Hairy Bikers recipe made from their curry book; I love those guys, their recipes never fail! This one was a dry Keralan beef curry. I serve this alongside mini naans that I popped into the toaster. I wash this down with several more cups of tea!
Photo: Katie Myerscough
/TheMancunion: Food & Drink @MancunionFood
Food & Drink 23
Feature
A survival guide: graduate recruitment drinks receptions Victor Croci finds himself cornered by prospective employers and substandard refreshments, but having lived through the red wine dry-mouth, dill-speckled teeth, and goats-cheese-gate, he is on hand to guide you through these hazardous waters. Welcome back to a somewhat unorthodox wine column. Casting my CV and personal safety aside, I’ll be going undercover and reporting from behind the graduate recruitment lines. With a trumpets’ call, October 1st signals the beginning of the hunting season as global companies, wealthy banks, powerful supra-national organizations and even the civil service descend onto our university-hosting lavish and sumptuous networking events, they lay in wait of unsuspecting students… So how can the average student still enjoy the evening’s culinary delights and drinks and not risk coming across as a gluttonous buffet monopolist with a penchant for alcohol? Firstly, concerning drinks there is a good hint in the name ‘light refreshments’. When you arrive at the venue and are duly invited to help yourself to a drink, try to resist the urge to race towards the minibar as if it were the Titanic’s last lifeboat, apparently it isn’t etiquette. When you do reach it you’ll probably find freshly squeezed and sugarheavy orange juice in a pitcher, chilled beers, glasses of soft white and fruity red wine (rosé is seen as a highly dubious choice), and water. The glasses of red wine are always the last picked, until they are no longer picked at all. Despite being mostly soft, fruity and hardly ever more than 12% ABV, the red wine is ostracised due to a treacherous and somewhat unjust reputation of staining teeth, gums and shirts. In most cases though, small
swift sips can be a remedy providing you don’t accidentally slurp and draw the disapproving, piercing looks of everyone in the room. Spillage is tantamount to blasphemy. Instead bear in mind that the red wine in your glass is sweeter than the average on a supermarket shelf, leaving you thirstier or worse with a dry mouth which could, when you ask a question, make you croak like Kermit the frog. In contrast, the chilled white wine is a highly popular choice of refreshment because it just does exactly that. In the warm surroundings of a networking event where cards are being swapped like shares on Wall Street and everyone in the room has suddenly become a huge fan of LinkedIn, a glass of white keeps you cool headed. More so, the white wine served tends to be less sweet but more crisp, mirroring the career centre’s application advice. Finally there is the question of holding the glass, in the case of white wine, clutching the bowl will not only make a handshake damp, sticky and plainly awkward, it could leave you chewing a wasp in front of a prospective employer as the lukewarm liquid sours your palate. Fortunately for you if this happens then you can quickly improvise and pluck a canapé from one of the numerous waiters circling around, searching for takers. Naturally though, these canapés which have fewer calories than a cream cracker won’t
Taste Test
comfort the lining of your stomach if you reach for a fourth glass. Worse still, anything vaguely baked will sandpaper your mouth horrendously as the pastry breaks, crumbles and sticks to your palate. In my experience there tends to be a particular fiendish anchovy based one which is saltier than Dead Sea water – you’ll be drinking close to a pint of water just to reach a balanced taste. Therefore the salmon is a safer option when it comes to finger food, except if it comes with dill: a deceitful green confetti-like herb which plays hide and seek in between your incisors and canines. Finally there is one canapé of highly dubious nature which always finds itself either on the buffet table or a waiter’s tray: something goat’s cheesy. The consequences could be dire for hot and freshly cooked goats cheese could even scald you – leaving you gasping and wheezing for air. However the coup de grace, the one which will neatly execute your chances of ever impressing your prospective employer are the strong pungent odours, reminiscent of a barn in the middle ages, released as you open your mouth and present yourself. I suppose that is why it is always a good idea to go to one these evenings armed with either fisherman’s friend for the goat cheese amateurs or a packet of tic-tacs for those with a sub-prime level of teeth brushing. The toothpicks will be onsite.
We try these so you don’t have to...
Sainsbury’s Sausages
Sausages, that staple of the student diet, are generally pretty cheap. We were intrigued to find out if spending a little extra would bring any noticable reward, and morbid curiosity also made us wonder what those scarily beige Richmond sausages actually taste like! Here’s what we thought of the different options available to you next time you fancy bangers and mash...
you ANSWER Have the rebranded Hairy Dieters traded flavour for fewer calories? Faye Waterhouse finds out Si King and Dave Myers are The Hairy Bikers, but due to a recent transformation, both their image and cooking reflect their new identity as the Hairy Dieters. Their new book The Hairy Dieters Eat for Life is an extension of the hugely successful Hairy Dieter’s Cookbook. King and Myers have proven you can shed pounds and maintain a healthy diet following these recipes but are the meals actually interesting and inventive enough to justify the rather pricey tag of £14.99? Well, the book is divided into sections such as ‘breakfasts and brunch’, ‘meals with mates’, and ‘something sweet’—useful when looking for what you fancy. Personally, I found being told how to make what they describe as a ‘wakey wakey breakfast salad’, or fruit salad to you and me, slightly patronising. However I quickly understood their aim to create dishes that are fresh and flavoursome. I particularly liked the ‘real food fast’ and ‘meals with mates’ sections, and was surprised to discover that most of the recipes don’t require buying random ingredients you’ll use once then put in the cupboard forever. A lot of the dishes rely heavily on herbs and spices to give flavour so it would be worth stocking up on these. I enjoyed making (and eating) the Chicken Provençal, it took approximately the amount of time they said it would—none of that ’15 minute meal’ nonsense here, and the chicken was tender and satisfying considering its classed as ‘low calorie’. The ‘something sweet’ section of the book is somewhat small as to be expected and they like to ‘rely on the lovely flavour of fruit to supply that hint of sweetness’. I was somewhat dubious. However, curious as ever I set about making the apple and blackberry cornflake crumble. Yes, that’s right - cornflakes, one of many alternatives King and Myers use to create healthier alternatives to the classic recipes. It took no time at all to rustle up and the verdict… a hit! The cornflakes added a nice crunch which went well with the tartness of the fruit, and at a calorific content of 192 per portion (providing you’re not sneaky and delve in for more) not at all naughty!
Sainsburies Taste the Difference Pork Sausages, £2.80 for 6 The most expensive of the bunch, these gave you value for money with their meat content of 97%. Surprisingly our tasters actually weren’t very keen, describing them as “average” and a bit mushy, although they were keen on the herby flavour and lack of grease. Our verdict is they’re probably not worth the extra money. Richmond Sausages, £2.59 for 8
I was pleased to find more traditional dishes such as Tikka Masala, burgers and roasts. You may struggle slightly if you are a vegetarian as most of the dishes are based around meat and fish. Vegetables usually do play a big part in bulking up the meal though. I was a bit disappointed when I realised the majority of the meals are best cooked and eaten fresh and can’t be stored away for another day, but this isn’t too much of a drawback as most of the dishes don’t take long.
Who buys these? More expensive than the own brand, they look very alarming even after cooking - not surprising given they are only 42% pork meat! Our tasters described these as “grimey”, cheap and flavourless, with one complaining that it tasted like instant mash potato - a pretty accurate description as they were wierdly creamy and smooth in texture. Avoid at all costs. Sainsburies British Pork Sausages, £2.15 for 8, and 2 packs for £3.50 Surprisingly these were actually the cheapest of the lot, and for our tasters they were the firm favourite. The meat content leaves something to be desired, at 72%, but once cooked they had a good texture and nice meaty taste. They definitely punch above their weight in flavour for the price - highly recommended!
weASK
(photos: Maddy Hubbard)
Well done Si and Dave, a diet book that not only seems to serves its purpose but also tantalises taste-buds and leaves me feeling rather smug that I know £14.99 was well spent.
24
Arts & Culture
Conversation
Emergency2013 Matilda Roberts visits live art festival Emergency.
Can we justify nudity in today’s media as ‘art’? Or is it just exploitative trash? Hannah Summers and Lena Summers discuss the topic that’s getting everyone up in arms.
Image by Hannah Summers
Is it just me or are images of bare breasted women everywhere? What do you mean? Page 3 is nothing new. You’re right, but the boobs have been set free from the cheap “news”papers onto daytime television. What shows have you been watching?! Music videos… Ahh the old Robin Thicke and the objectification of women controversy. And Thicke is a mere nipple on a nudist beach compared to what’s out there. Hey, but I thought that was a pretty controversial video, even if it was only on YouTube. Well it seems the closing of the summer has brought an onslaught of people baring all. But why? Essentially because of the exploitative nature of the music industry. Do you think that’s what is to blame for Rihanna et al? If you’re talking about that dingy swimming pool and twerking in a crusty bikini for her new video, then yes. Maybe she’s just expressing herself sexually, no one is standing there all suited up perving on her. True, but Britney whipping her female dancers and Miley mimicking second base with a giant foam finger are all examples of the music industry using the nudity of their ‘artists’ as prostitution for more capital gain. So, what you’re saying is that using the naked female body is only degrading if it is for money? And sex sells,evidently. Just look at American Apparel. You mean the advertising? But that’s classy, no? That’s the exact word Thicke used to describe his video. Like using “classy” excused his video That is different though. They are hip and their clothes are all sweat shop free. But being cool isn’t a justification for using overtly sexual images of semi-clad young female models in the mass media. How are these images appropriate for a clothing brand? The line is so fine. Advertising has become a form of art. We don’t censor nudes in art. Art with a capital ‘A’ uses nudes as a platform for greater expression. I don’t dispute that some nudity in art is exploitation, including works from centuries ago, but on the whole the subjects’ bodies are celebrated not sold. You’re limiting what art is. The last century has seen an expansion of its audience. It is no longer simply a privilege of the high-brow upperclassed intellectuals. In a society as consumerist and patriarchal as this one, the use of almost exclusively female bodies creates a commodity of sexualisation in an ‘art’ market forever competing to out-scandal each other. What you are referring to is a product of popular culture. But popular culture is art.
Must see THIS WEEK
14th-20th October
Saturday 19th October – Sunday 2nd March This Saturday, Salford’s Lowry opens its doors to the first exhibition in its new ‘Performer as a Curator’ series. Artwork selected by musician Alison Goldfrapp from collections around the world will be on display, offering a rare insight into the singer’s personal inspirations of various mediums that have shaped her career.
Editors: Abbie Roberts, Matilda Roberts
Festival
Talking about… nudity
Performer as a Curator, Alison Goldfrapp The Lowry
ISSUE 05/ 14th-20th October WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Live art is not a genre of art that I can pretend to know anything about. I also cannot deny that I hold some of the negative and common preconceptions often associated with live or performance art. However after reading Jasper’s ‘What is Live Art?’ article last week I realised that it was not something that I had ever really given a chance or paid any real attention to. Last Saturday’s Emergency festival, I decided, would be the perfect place to broaden my mind and immerse myself in live art. Held over one day at the ‘art spaces’, Z-arts and Blankspace, this festival describes itself as an ‘eclectic performance lucky-dip’- and that it was. All free, meaning you could dip in and out as you wish, there was no way of knowing what it was you might stumble upon. And besides from Frances-Kay’s ‘Scaffold’ in which the artist lay on scaffold wrapped
in bandages and writhed around for 3 hours, there was none of the clichés that are so often associated with this art form. Zimmermann and Singh in their video and sound collaboration perfectly combined poetic imagery with an amazing soundtrack. Beatboxer and vocal sculptor Singh created the sound using his breath, voice and loop pedals in order to recreate sounds of instruments and nature. Other pieces I saw included Chloe Smith’s ‘I’ve been dreaming of this…’ in which she retold the story of her time at Occupy St. Pauls while occupying the space she inhabited. At times it was difficult to grasp the point or the relevance of the point that she was making but, on the whole, the piece was interesting and entertaining to observe. Lucy Hutson’s monologue, ‘Britney Spears custody battle vs…’ drew the biggest
laughs of the day. Opening with chat up lines in order to ‘woo’ the crowd while pulling the heads off My Little Ponies™ and ending with getting naked and offering Macdonald’s burgers and Starbucks coffee to the audience, Hutson’s piece appeared to sporadically jump between her thoughts. Making jokes about Megabus, her charity shop aesthetic and lack of concern for factory shop workers, she managed to capture the audience’s attention using her dry irony and strange sense of humour. She was a great example of live art that was accessible, relevant and did not leave the audience feeling that something had just happened that they were meant to ‘get’ but weren’t quite ‘in the know’ enough. I’m already looking forward to Manchester’s next live art festival ‘Domestic’ this November.
Images by Matilda Roberts
Feature
Before You’re 30 Coordinator of ‘BY30’, Raphaé Memon, welcomes you to his monthly event: ‘Three speakers, each talking for thirty minutes, with an opportunity to meet and chat with them afterwards.’ Photo by Raphaé Memon Before You’re 30 (BY30) is back for the new academic year! Come along to Manchester’s most unique and free art, architecture and design lecture evenings, sponsored by BDP. BY30 holds monthly evening events in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, the home of the city’s most creative industries. Our home is at ‘2022nq’, a basement bar just off Dale Street. Attracting students and professionals alike, our events have become a way of networking and meeting new people and are all centered around three great talks. What do they talk about? Architecture, art, music, design, social issues, the future, the past, the present... whatever they deem to be inspirational. We’ve had a DJ talk about Manchester’s significant musical heritage, an architecture student turned award winning film producer as well as the only Architect to appear on the BBC’s ‘Apprentice’. On Tuesday 1st October we had our first event of the year, with three excellent speakers. Our first speaker was Dave Sedgwick, a graphic designer based up North. He founded ‘BCN:MCR’, an event celebrating Barcelona’s design scene here in Manchester. Growing up near Southport and studying at MMU, Dave mentioned how during his youth
A Carefully Planned Festival Various venues, The Northern Quarter Saturday 19th– Sunday 20th October Carrying on from where other urban festivals such as ‘In The City’ have left off, ‘A Carefully Planned Festival’ is back bringing over a hundred national and international acts to Manchester’s musical hub, the Northern Quarter, for a weekend of live music, art, spoken word and partying - all for the princely sum of £12.50 (weekend wristband).
there was little way of checking out local graphic designers – there was no way of spotting the competition. Nowadays we have various forms of social media that are used by designers to communicate and reach out to their audiences. Whilst showing some of his projects, he stated that “logo design is a lost art” and that his first graphic design task from a client involved designing a logo. Dave is currently involved with the new and innovative initiative ‘PrintandPaste’, which is a curated outdoor art space located on Chester Street just off Oxford Road. Find out more about Dave at www.designbydave. co.uk.
Second up was Vincent Taylor, who has set up ‘The Enchanted Brave’, a health food company with a difference. He started his company when he was 17 years old, and was not satisfied with some of the consumer products in the market and whether they contained exactly what they stated on the packaging. After considerable research, Vincent created and started selling a pack that contained nutritional information and a step-by-step guide to improving overall health and wellbeing. Whilst speaking, he emphasised the importance of doing what you love and displayed samples brought from his company, distributing them amongst
Manchester Marauders, An Exhibition by Air Adam 2022NQ Manchester Thursday 17th October, 6pm-12am ‘Manchester Marauders’ is a new exhibition which portrays the cities Hip-Hop scene through the lense of photographer Air Adam. The opening night will screen a short film on the project by ‘In The Loop’ residents Bedos (NouGold) and Agent J (Groovement), as well as an MC/DJ "cipher", featuring artists from the centrepiece, performing live.
the audience. Find out more about the company at www. enchantedbrave.co.uk.
Our third and final speaker was Javier Castanon, an architect and tutor at the Architectural Association, who spoke about his architectural journey from Madrid to Manchester and then on to London. He spoke about the importance of light in architecture with particular reference to his work on the conservation of St Patrick’s Church in Soho Square, London. Renovation and alteration work involved creating a basement under the existing Roman Catholic Church. An essential component of this basement was to allow natural light to enter using subtle manoeuvres. This would make the space feel less like it was underground. Currently, schools and local community groups use the new multipurpose space. Find out more about Javier at www.castanon.co.uk.
‘Great variety of speakers, looking forward to the next one.’ Rick Raby (Graphic design student) With a fantastic line-up of speakers for this academic year, keep updated by liking us on facebook (facebook.com/beforeyourethirty) and following us on twitter (twitter.com/beforeyoure30). Get there BY30!
Ice-Lab: New Architecture and Science in Antarctica MOSI – The Museum of Science and Industry Monday 21st October – Monday 6th Jan 2014 As part of Manchester Science Festival 2013, Ice-lab is the first exhibition to focus on contemporary architecture in Antarctica. Architectural drawings, models, photographs and film come together to provide a sense of what it is like to work and live in one of the most remote and hostile places in the word.
Theatre
ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Editor: Josephine Lane Reviews
25
What’s on
Educating Rita
Lucy Gooder reviews The Library Theatre Company’s new play at The Lowry Theatre Having never read the play Educating Rita hearing only
Kearney’s Rita. Kearney, in particular shines in her role,
and could even have made a more introspective audi-
its synopsis; two worlds collide as bubbly hairdresser
showing a comfort in the skin of her character. Philip
ence member question their own subconscious.
Rita enters higher education to be taught by jaded,
Bretherton as Frank is a little less at home in his, but
The musical interludes of smooth jazz and eighties pop
downtrodden and somewhat alcoholic professor
the earlier mentioned drunk acting showed he could
classics were a clever and enjoyable technique used by
Frank, I was a little wary that the ‘hilarious comedy’
certainly pull off comedy. The interaction between
director Chris Honer to keep audience energy levels up
would be in danger of tipping into farce. Luckily my
the two shows a genuine chemistry which makes their
between scene changes. It created a sense of time pass-
fears were proven wrong as the play had me chuckling
back and forth banter more intriguing than any great
ing whilst giving a subtle insight into the characters and
out loud throughout, rather than my usual cringe of
speeches.
made me take a mental note to download the playlist.
second hand embarrassment at overzealous attempts
Having only one very specific set can often be restrict-
The irony of reviewing a play about studying plays is
at humour. Some particularly good drunk acting in the
ing, and towards the end of the first half I wondered
not lost on me and it was a non-traumatic way to flash
second half, combined with Willy Russell’s witty script
how they would manage to keep the momentum going.
back to A-level English lessons. Students could certainly
(and an interval glass of wine) had us laughing so long
The last scene or two before the interval almost began
relate to the ideas of learning to define yourself when
and loud the people in front turned around to have a
to head into a repetitive territory, though perhaps this
starting higher education and the opportunities and
look.
was more a fault more of the play than the produc-
insecurities that appear in equal measure. However
Educating Rita is described as a play with ‘big ideas
tion. However a complete tonal shift in the dynamic
what makes Educating Rita so enjoyable is the way
and an even bigger heart’ and as much as I try not to
between the two characters in the second half kept the
potentially intimidating issues are addressed with such
buy into hype the description is certainly apt. Warmth
audience involved and brought about a new emotional
a comforting blend of warmth and humour.
radiates from the production, from the cosy set design
level to the play. The ideas of class-consciousness that
of Frank’s study to the lively Scouse accent of Gillian
had been set up offstage in the first act were deepened,
TOP 4
PLAYS TO CATCH
this week Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Eugene O’Neil’s painfully autobiographical piece looks at the tense family dynamics within his own home growing up. A drugaddicted mother and alcoholdependent father and sons are haunted by the mistakes and ghosts of their past. Runs from the 10th October to the 2nd November at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton
Reviews
Melody Loses Her Mojo Caroline Hailstone reviews 20 Stories High’s contemporary show at the Contact Theatre Melody Loses her Mojo gives a loud
been manipulated by drug dealers his
surrealistic, attitude-filled, kung-fu-but-
voice to children who have gone
whole life, and Blessing, a girl who had
in-heels battle that took place between
through the British social care system.
been sent from Nigeria by her parents
Blessing and Melody, along with an
It follows the stories of three teenagers
to work as a house servant. But Mojo
impressive, yet terrifying routine
who have all ended up in a foster home
was the real star of the show. A mangy
using long spiders arms when during
in the fictional town of Dumpton.
cuddly toy that used to belong to
Melody’s pill-fuelled bad trip.
Honestly, after reading the synopsis I
Harmony, Melody could not let him go.
In spite of the serious issues the play
thought I might be walking in to a bad
Mojo ingeniously came to life through
addressed; prostitution, drug addic-
episode of Tracy Beaker. However, a
beatboxing sound effects, and flew
tion and even human trafficking, the
combination of talented actors, stun-
around the stage at the hands of two
audience were left on a high. It seemed
ning physical theatre and a world-class
impressive puppeteers.
to promote the message that positiv-
beatboxer meant it was far from my
One factor that transformed the show
ity can come out of even the most
preconceptions. We followed the story
from great to truly brilliant was the
unfortunate situations. The characters,
of Melody, a mouthy teenage girl who
music. You’d have thought the musical
in spite of their misfortune, all found
had ended up in foster care due to her
combination of a beat boxer and a
happiness in their strong bonds with
mother’s crack addiction. Her little sis-
cello would be as uncomfortable as the
each other, and all had hope for the
ter Harmony (get it?) had recently been
time Robbie Williams tried to release a
future. This was perfectly epitomized
adopted by a family in the countryside,
rap album. However, they successfully
when Rizla eloquently stated: “Well, we
and so Melody only had one thing
created the atmosphere for each scene;
all have shit days, just gotta get on with
on her mind: getting her sister back.
from woodland animals and windy
it, don’t we?”.
Joining her on her quest was Rizla, a
nights, to club beats and city bustle.
charismatic cheeky chappy who had
My personal highlights included a
FAVOURITE SCENE
In this scene, the caddish and playful Prince Hal and his drunken, disapproved-of friend Falstaff imitate the King’s impending questioning of Hal’s rebellious ways. It is no doubt one of Shakespeare’s best comedy moments and was played wonderfully by Jamie Parker and Roger Allam at The Globe in 2010, with help from a pillowcase as a crown and a tavern full of drunken extras.
All My Sons
Remmie Milner as ‘Melody’ in ‘Melody Loses Her Mojo’
Falstaff. Well, thou wert be horribly chid tomorrow when thou comest to thy father: if thou love me, practise an answer. Henry V. Do thou stand for my father, and examine me
This week, Helen McCarthy tells us about her favourite scene: Henry IV Part 1, Act II Scene IV
upon the particulars of my life. Falstaff. Shall I? content: this chair shall be my state, this dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown. Henry V. Thy state is taken for a joined-stool, thy golden sceptre for a leaden dagger, and thy precious rich crown for a pitiful bald crown! Falstaff. Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now shalt thou be moved. Give me a cup of sack to make my eyes look red, that it may be thought I have wept; for I must speak in passion, and I will do it in King Cambyses’ vein. Henry V. Well, here is my leg.
Mancunian treasures the Library Theatre Company return to the Lowry with Willy Russel’s two-handed play. The piece sees straight-talking hairdresser, Rita, return to education to find herself tutored by Frank, an alcoholfueled, failed poet lecturer. As expected, the unlikely two form a life-changing bond in this touching and life-affirming comedy. Runs from the 26th September to the 12th October at the Quays Theatre, The Lowry
My Favourite Scene
my
Educating Rita
Falstaff. And here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility. Hostess Quickly. O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i’ faith! Falstaff. Weep not, sweet queen; for trickling tears are vain. Hostess Quickly. O, the father, how he holds his countenance! Falstaff. For God’s sake, lords, convey my tristful queen; For tears do stop the flood-gates of her eyes.
Michael Buffong returns to the Royal Exchange to direct Arthur Miller’s first successful plays. All My Sons tells the story of Joe and Kate Keller, an all-American couple dealing trying to deal with their son who, missing in action, is presumed dead by all but his mother. Runs from the 25th September to the 26th October at the Royal Exchange Theatre
Mess Caroline Horton and her Company’s ‘darkly funny’ play deals with anorexia nervosa. An ensemble piece with songs, the performance also looks closely at addiction, obsession, and not wanting to get out of bed. Runs from the 16th to the 17th October at the Contact Theatre
ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Editors: Lauren Arthur, Moya Crockett, Beth Currall, Izzy Dann Ask Izzy
Feature
Warehouse IZZY awareness ask
Following the recent death of one man and the hospitalisation of several others at the Warehouse Project, Beth Currall on why it’s more important than ever for students to be aware of the risks of drug taking
an earnest attempt to cure all your woes. Tweet any burning issues,genital or otherwise, @ izzydann friend’s flat-warming Q My party is coming up and the theme is S&M. What should I wear? these sexually themed A All parties are very tiresome – bondage existed before Fifty Shades, you know. Drape a cream towel round your torso, wrap your limbs in bin liner, and go as sausage and mash.
I sleep in the nude and
Q have done for many
years now. I’m just very comfortable with my body and like to feel free under the covers. However, I now live in a large student house and, consequently, simple things like making naked bathroom dashes at night have caused great affront with my fellow housemates who always seem to catch me when I venture out. So what if I make at lease three trips per night? When you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go. Also they’ve stopped coming into my room at midday to give me hangover hugs. What’s your experience of nude sleeping? You don’t really have a
here, do you? You A problem are simply showing off about your relaxed approach to nocturnal nudity and enviably enormous body confidence. Rather than the current situation, the issue here is the potential: you clearly demonstrate exhibitionist tendencies (believe me, I know that bathroom trick well), and so the possibility remains that nocturnal public nudity may someday no longer be enough or you. If you ever find this to be the case, strip free only at night in your own home out of respect for your (admittedly tedioussounding) housemates but start up a university naturist society for naked daytime activities, such as communal cooking – just be careful of hot heat and watch out for rogue jam. Do you have a story that you’d like to share? Send them to lifestyle@ mancunion.com
Since the Warehouse Project has kicked off this season, the club has been rocked by the death of one club-goer and the illnesses of several other revellers, caused by what has been deemed a ‘bad batch’ of ecstasy circulating the event. Drugs unfortunately have, and always will be, a huge part of student and club culture, and so it is vital that the dangers and risks are highlighted, especially at a time when they are so profound. It is critical to remember that drugs are very rarely sold in their purest form- especially outside or inside club venues- and you simply do not know what you’ve consumed until it is too late. Therefore, authorities urge students to never buy or accept any drugs that are sold nearby or inside the Warehouse Project or similar venues, as the risks are too great. Also, the club will be jam-packed, hot and filled with crowds that are not easy to escape from, which heightens the dangers of drug consummation and makes it difficult for sufferers to find help. Make sure you are fully aware of your surroundings and those near you. In packed-out places it is so easy for drinks to be spiked and for drugs It’s... to be placed on to an unsuspecting person, so it’s important that you keep
your wits about you and also look out for your friends, or others that you suspect may be in danger. If so, report this to medical staff immediately- a person’s health should not be put at risk through doubt, so act quickly. Finally, remember that no one necessarily needs drugs to have a good time- many consume them to stay awake throughout the entire night, but this can be achieved without the aid of stimulants. Getting plenty of rest beforehand and remaining hydrated should leave you feeling alert and in good spirits, without any risks. Drugs may seem like the best option at the time, but what price are you really willing to pay for a ‘good night out’?
PMA: THE FACTS Class: A Form: Crystal/powder, pill Effects: Similar energy buzz and feelings of love to that of MDMA, but causes an intense rise in body temperature, nausea and muscle spasms, Small doses can be fatal.
Time wasting blogs
Lauren Arthur looks at the top tumblrs to scroll through when your productivity is wavering 1. Friends Drew Phillips and Scott ClevePhoto: Scott Cleveland
WHP boss Sacha Lord-Marchionne has been raising the alarm about a recent surge in the sales of PMA, a potentially fatal drug that is being sold in and around the area as MDMA, PMA was responsible for the deaths of 20 people in 2012 and a rising number this year.
land have set up ‘Wingmanning’, a blog and instagram account that has rapidly gone viral. The concept is pretty bizarre (bordering on creepy) and involves Phillips standing in front of a couple engrossed in each other. The embarrassment you feel for the couple, the general feeling of ‘why am I looking at this’ and the brilliantly blank expression of Phillips make this weirdly entertaining. www.thesockcovers. tumblr.com
2. ‘Famous Album Covers Recreated With My Socks’. Quite grim when you think about it but art is art, right? www.thesockcovers. tumblr.com Photo: esPos.de (Flickr)
Photo: Thom Moore
TV
From the Vault: Freaks and Geeks Lifestyle Editor Moya Crockett on why this American high school TV series, first aired in 1999, should be everyone’s new favourite show The opening of the first episode of Freaks and Geeks sets the tone of what’s to follow. The camera pans across a typical American high school soccer field before settling on two blonde teenagers sitting on the bleachers. He’s a football player, she, a cheerleader. “You seem so distant these days, Brad,” the girl says softly. “Is it something I did?” Brad can’t say anything at first, but eventually, he manages to croak a response. “Ashley, it’s just – I love you so much, it scares me.” They embrace tearfully, the music changes, and the camera dips below the bleachers, where the Freaks hang out. Created by Bridesmaids director Paul Feig and co-produced by Judd Apatow, Freaks and Geeks aired from 1999-2000 on NBC. Set in an ordinary Detroit suburb in 1980, the comedydrama series centres around Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini) and her younger brother Sam (John Francis Daley), as they attempt to navigate their way through their teenage years. Lindsay desperately wants to shake off her association with the Mathletes and ingratiate herself with a new group, but in a break from most representations of American high school, she’s not fussed about being one of the popular kids. She’d rather hang out with the “Freaks”, stringy-haired slackers who skip classes, smoke and talk about Led Zeppelin: Nick (Jason Segel), Ken (Seth Rogen), Kim (Busy Phillips) and Daniel (James Franco). Lindsay’s
stumbling transition from very, very good girl to army-jacket-wearing, sortof-but-not-really-rebel is the driving force behind much of the show. Most of all, she wants to impress Daniel, the Freaks’ manipulative but irresistible ringleader, but is petrified at the prospect of helping him cheat on a maths test, hosting a house party or doing anything that might get her into trouble. Meanwhile, 13-year-old Sam has his own issues to deal with, which are – refreshingly – given just as much screen-time as his elder sister’s. He’s in love with a cheerleader, targeted by bullies, and his hilarious best friends are excruciating geeks. If these issues sound rather low-key, that’s because they are – but this is one of Freaks and Geeks’ greatest strengths. The world inhabited by Lindsay, Sam and their friends is completely prosaic and therefore utterly relatable, which is a surprisingly rare quality in a teen TV show. For most of us, our secondary school years resembled the
Photo: NBC Studios
ludicrous glamour of Gossip Girl, or the improbable romantic entanglements of Dawson’s Creek, as much as they did a National Geographic documentary. Our teenage memories are likely to look a lot more like Lindsay and Sam’s: clumsy social navigation, awkward attempts at romance, and the frequent intrusion of embarrassingly normal parents who insist on you sitting down for dinner and doing your homework. That’s not, however, to say that the storylines in Freaks and Geeks come across as trivial or inane. They are treated with all the sincerity that one feels at school, when the fact that you didn’t know who a band were really did feel like the worst thing that could possibly happen. And to top it all, it’s really, really funny. (Sample line, from Lindsay and Sam’s dad: “Everyone’s a Democrat until they get a little money. Then they come to their senses!”) Sadly, as Barbra Streisand sang, “the good things never last,” and NBC cancelled Freaks and Geeks in 2000 after just 12 episodes. While the show has since acquired cult status – and many of its key players gone on to staggering Hollywood success – this does little to ease the pain of never knowing what happens to the Weir kids and their friends. But if you think you can handle the pain of saying goodbye to a pitch-perfect high school series after just one season, I’d advise you to dive in. If nothing else, you get to look at a 21-year-old James Franco – and who doesn’t want that?
Photo: binkyjean (Instagram)
3. In case you aren’t surrounded by enough hipsters in Manchester, ‘Pictures of Hipsters Taking Pictures of Food’ will bombard you with a whole load more. Possibly the epitome of pointless blogs and yet it sums up the crazy world of social networking we seem to be living in. www.pohtpof.tumblr.com
4. The title is self-explanatory but if you ever want to make yourself feel even more insignificant and horribly uncool, have a gander at ‘Awesome People Hanging Out Together’. www.awesomepeoplehangingouttogether.tumblr.com Site: Instagram
Photo: Lauren LoPrete
5. Lauren LoPrete has taken misery to the next level combining old Peanuts comics and Smiths lyrics on ‘This Charming Charlie’. The result? You realise how alike Charlie Brown and Morrissey are and wonder why no one married them sooner. www.thischarmingcharlie. tumblr.com
/TheMancunion: Lifestyle @MancunionLife
Lifestyle
27
Horoscopes
Health & Wellbeing
Illustrations by Cecilia Tricker
Designer dieting
Is king of fashion Karl Lagerfeld’s diet plan as satisfying as his Chanel creations? Beth Currall investigates…
Photo: Siebbi (Flickr)
We’ve lusted after the bags, sprayed on the No.5 and longed for our own tweed jacket, but now we all really can live a little like Karl Lagerfeld ladies and gents- by following his specially-created diet plan, that is. Designed by Dr JeanClaude Houdret when Mr Chanel was experiencing difficulties losing weight, the diet claims to not only physically but mentally prepare followers for rapid weight loss, and Karl managed to shed a staggering
92lbs in little over a year! So how does it actually work? The basic principles are simple: limit calorie and fat intake, ditch the fried foods, and increase your intake of protein and vegetables. Dr Houdret then introduced three phases into the plan, the first being VCLD (Very Low Calorie Diet). He states that for a period of two weeks, dieters should limit their calorie consumption to no more than 900 calories a day, which should be achieved by eating vegetables and drinking protein shakes. This helps to shrink the stomach and mentally prepare the mind for the decreased amount of calories the individual will consume from now. Then, the diet ups your intake to 1200 a day, and allows dieters to introduce lean meats and low fat yoghurts and cheese into the plan, making meals a little more enjoyable! Finally, dieters should enter the maintenance phase and consume up to 1600 calories a day, and can incorporate whole-grain toast and fruit into their diet. If dieters continue with the plan, they could see weight loss results of up to 10lbs a month- très chic! However, there are some downsides to this deceivingly
simple meal plan. For one, it is considered dangerous to eat only 900 calories a day even for the short period, and so medical supervision is recommended. Exercise is difficult to incorporate, because dieters are surviving off such little nutrition a day. Further to this, Lagerfeld has himself described it as a form of punishment, and followers have complained that the plan is too unsatisfying and bland to persevere with. The Lifestyle girls think we’d rather have chocolate in our lives than Chanel-inspired bods, thanks Karl! Photo: ConstructionDealMKting (Flickr)
Travel
Down in the Dutch
LIBRA (24 SEPTEMBER 23 OCTOBER) Libra is represented by the scales, indicating your balanced and even-handed nature. You generally endeavour for impartiality when it comes to taking sides, but hop on down from that fence every now and again. Switzerland is famously neutral – and does anyone really like the Swiss?
SCORPIO (24 OCTOBER 22 NOVEMBER) You’ve been feeling confused and underthe-weather recently. It could be Venus rising – or it could be that you’ve been subsisting on Basics vodka and Kebab King. It’s probably Venus, you know.
Pip Squeak on the trials and tribulations of travelling around Holland Holland’s countryside is surprisingly well-designed for a couple of unprepared bums falling out of the ferry on a Sunday afternoon, armed with little more than bikes and a few euros. The little towns are admittedly crap – Hoek van Holland, where we were deposited, exists as a gateway to the beach with tourist supplies and slightly shabby seafood restaurants, and is completely shut on a Sunday. The beach towns, long strips of cloned beach bars with thin music playing from their wet terraces, can be described as none other than grim. Maassluis, the next town along the shipping canal, is just concrete and plastic low-rise blocks squatting on the outskirts of Rotterdam, separated by scrubland that’s not profitable enough for concrete and plastic low-rise yet. Everywhere was closed, and our plans to buy any sort of map were scuppered. One lonesome
store sold us strong beer and some sad vegetables, providing us with some little comfort for the evening, at least. Once you’re out of these towns, however, the countryside (as far as the term applies) is abundant –separate cycle paths follow every single road and waterway, keeping you away from traffic, and there are maps and signposts at every junction, making it mercifully difficult to get lost. Since every part of this area was reclaimed from the sea, the land is mercilessly organised. Every waterway and wood is geometric, and the little villages, and the massive gateways to the megafarms (kilometres of greenhouse greying out the map) are immaculate and are patrolled and pruned by carefully-groomed goats, sheep or rabbits. The megafarms generously supplement our sad vegetables with fresh-scrumped corn-on-the-cob.
Finding places to sleep is a challenge in such meticulously organised land. We spent one night in a seemingly abandoned building site on the outskirts of grey Maassluis, nested inside a pile of long concrete pipes and watching the bright lights of tankers sliding along the shipping canal outside. In the morning, woken by the sounds of workers in hi-vis vests and diggers outside our pipes, we ghosted quickly away, crawling through pipes and undergrowth along with the sewer rats. But the best place to sleep on a cycle tour of the Netherlands is, of course, the beach. Secluded spots in dunes are perfect for your tent. Make a fire by the sea, watch the sunset, relax and even have a smoke. But be sure to make a fire – the kids with Land Rovers roaring along the dark coastline won’t spot you otherwise (it was a narrow escape).
SAGITTARIUS (23 NOVEMBER - 21 DECEMBER) This week is one of great intellectual progression and academic excitement for you. Great! However, when in a seminar or tutorial, please don’t put your hand up every five minutes. Don’t be that guy. No one likes that guy.
CAPRICORN (22 DECEMBER - 20 JANUARY) Capricorns are notoriously conservative and afraid of taking risks. Push yourself outside of your comfort zone this week. Shave half your head, buy a pair of Doc Martens, and try to develop a predication for hardcore techno house. See how great it feels to be an individual? Photo: Forest Service Northern Region (Flickr)
AQUARIUS (21 JANUARY 19 FEBRUARY) Many people are attracted to your boundless optimism, untiring smile and shiny zeal for life. Others want to shoot you with a tranquiliser dart. Mystic Moya remains undecided, but please, for the love of god, use your inside voice.
PISCES (20 FEBRUARY 20 MARCH) You can’t get an aloof, mysterious acquaintance out of your mind. Their enigmatic nature might seem devastatingly attractive right now, but in reality they’re probably just a bit awkward.
ARIES (21 MARCH - 20 APRIL) Your ditzy, scatter-brained nature endears you to many, but there’s nothing adorable about your house being burgled – which will happen the next time you forget to double-lock the front door. We live in south Manchester, not an Enid Blyton novel.
TAURUS (21 APRIL - 21 MAY) If you play your cards right, Taurus, romance could be on the horizon. All you have to do is lower your ridiculously high standards, and you might be in with a chance.
GEMINI (22 MAY - 21 JUNE) You’ve always thought of yourself as being really, really ridiculously good-looking, and are not in the least surprised by the fact that Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Depp are both Geminis. Try not to be quite so obvious in your self-adoration. The selfies you post on Instagram aren’t ironic, and everyone knows it.
CANCER (22 JUNE - 22 JULY) Your refusal to be limited by your own financial constraints is admirable. Any repercussions from all those nights spent flinging fivers at the barman in Joshua Brooks seem far off in the future. Will your financial recklessness seem as charming in late December? The stars couldn’t possibly say, so far in advance.
LEO (23 JULY - 22 AUGUST) You’ve had a lot on your mind lately, and it’s serving to distract you from your surroundings. Lift your head up, take a deep breath, and engage in the world around you. You’re about to be hit by a bus.
VIRGO (23 AUGUST - 23 SEPTEMBER) You are ambitious, strongminded, and will rely on nobody else to get you where you want to go. You’re also a bit of a dick. Have you ever considered a career in finance?
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ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
29
SPORT
/TheMancunion @Mancunion_Sport
Club Profile- Handball The Mancunion talks to club President Tom Hulin 1) Why should people join national competition. The men’s 5) What is the social side of your club? Handball is an exciting, fast paced, high scoring game that is great for keeping fit. The University of Manchester Handball Club is one big family and is an ideal place for both people who wish to learn the game or play at a competitive standard. Within our club we have a men’s team, women’s team and a student team with players from around 20 different countries. This therefore makes it a fantastic place both to meet people and play handball. 2) How successful has your club been over the past few seasons? Our club has been extremely successful over the past few years. Last season both our men’s and women’s teams won their respective leagues. The men’s team reached the final of the EHA plate last year which is a
student team won the national student championships in 2011 and lost in the quarter final last year. 3) Where and how often do your teams train/play? We train at the Sugden Sports Centre between 8pm and 10pm every Monday and Wednesday. We are also currently running beginner’s sessions between 5 and 6 on a Monday. 4) Do you have to be of a high standard to join your club? We welcome people of all abilities at our club. We have a lot of experienced players at our club who are patient and are happy to pass their expertise on to new players. However, for more experienced players, our teams are very competitive and of a high standard so we welcome anyone with experience.
the club like? Socially UMHC are one of the best clubs around to be part of. After every training session we then engage in ‘Pub Training’. This is where all our players get together to have a few drinks and socialise. We also have awesome social events where the club all go out together. 6) Anything else? This year is our 10th anniversary and to celebrate we are having a Handball tournament and a massive party! Come along to be part of this fantastic event! @manunihandball http://universityofmanchesterhandball.com/ Join the University of Manchester Handball Club Facebook group.
Club Profile- Badminton The Mancunion speaks to club Communications Officer Simon Chiverton 1) Why should people join your club? We provide lots of badminton to all standards and at very reasonable rates. 2) How successful has your club been over the past few seasons? Very! Our competitive teams are in the highest divisions they’ve ever been in and all six of the social and taster sessions we run each week are well attended. We also run a national circuit tournament and a couple of friendly competitions throughout the year. 3) Where and how often do your teams train/play? The teams train twice a week.
Club Profile - American Football (Tyrants) The Mancunion speaks to club Media Secretary Ben Heath 1) Why should people join your club? American Football is a sport like no other. Squad sizes of over 40 seen as a necessity and not a luxury. A sport which accommodates all shapes and sizes, and all positions just as important as each other to make sure everything goes smoothly. A quarterback can’t do his job without an offensive line that can block and a unit of wide receivers who can catch. And that’s without mentioning the defence, who are just as important, if not more so, than the offence. The ultimate team sport. 2) How successful has your club been over the past few seasons?
Despite being only 4 seasons old, and despite being in a division full of well-established teams, the Tyrants made the quarter finals of the plate last year, the first time they had made the post-season play-offs. With more than half of that team returning, along with a rookie class full of promising talent, we look to go all the way this year.
3) Where and how often do your teams train/play? We train three times a week. On Tuesdays we train with the guys from AimPhysical at Manchester Grammar School, and on Wednesdays and Sundays we train at the Armitage Centre. We play our matches on Sundays,
with our home ground being Burnage RFC, which we share with the MMU Eagles, our counterparts at Man Met. 4) Do you have to be of a high standard to join your club? All standards are more than welcome. In fact most of the people who come along and try it out have never played American football before. With high-quality coaching and commitment, we get our new players ready for when the season starts in November. 5) What is the social side of the club like? We also have a healthy social scene, with Regular nights out, Sunday socials at 256 watching
the American football games and poker nights at the Grosvenor Casino in Salford. They’re all fantastic nights out and are great for getting to know your
Monday nights are principally for doubles players at the Sugden sports centre, whereas the coaching on Thursday nights at the Armitage is aimed at singles players. There is another session on Sunday evenings at the Armitage for the first team men and ladies to train more intensely as well.
ers, complete beginners, and everything in between!
4) Do you have to be of a high standard to join your club? Of course not. There are so many opportunities to play that whatever your standard, there will be sessions suitable for you. The first team players have mostly represented their county or province, with some national representatives. The social club welcomes these play-
(Club Captain James Kee also contributed to the given answers)
fellow teammates. 6) Anything else? We’ve never lost a varsity game to Manchester Met. We’re 4-0 up
5) What is the social side of the club like? Incestuous! Our socials are pretty varied; there are the classics like AU and bowling, to supporting one of our own in a stand-up comedy night.
against them in the past 4 seasons. Many dismiss our sport, but if you come and watch us train and get involved, you’ll see what it’s really all about.
SPORT : 30
ISSUE 05/ 14th OCTOBER 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Champagne on Ice as UOM seek to retain Varsity crown UoM and MMU take to the ice in the second annual Ice Hockey Varisty encounter members. “You have the opportunity to travel the country, which really brings you together as a team.” The Ice Hockey team welcomes players with all levels of ability and experience. For one night only, supporters can enjoy the classic American University experience with entertainment form cheerleaders, music, a fully-stocked bar and much more. Your ticket also gets you in to the after party for free which will be held at Revolution (Oxford Road).
Lynsey Brownlie Sport Reporter
The Ice Hockey Varsity returns for a second year after the success of last year’s inaugural match. The fixture is set to be the acid-test for both team’s chances the season. Varsity Organiser Ben Brown is anticipating a very competitive match played at a frantic pace. UoM will be hoping to hold on to the Varsity title after last year’s narrow 8-7 victory. However, the game promises to be just as close this season, with both teams training rigorously throughout the summer break. Also, both sides welcome back key players who were away on placements last year. Brown explained how the Manchester Metros Ice Hockey team comprises both UoM and MMU players. The team is split evenly for the Varsity fixture, so it takes on a slightly format compared to the other Manchester derbies. Despite both sets of players knowing one another well, it will be a no-holdsbarred fixture. Brown stressed that a major threat towards the UoM side will come from MMU newcomer, Alex Sharkov, who formerly played in the premier Ice Hockey league in Latvia, before transferring to Manchester. Last season’s top goal scorer for UoM Thomas Hinilica returns to the rink and is hoping to net the decisive score in the closing stages of what should be a very close game. There are some semi-professional players on both sides, and it appears it’s not just the students who are involved in the upcoming fixture, with UoM Life
The second ever Ice Hockey Varsity match takes place on Tuesday 29th October (in reading week) at the Altrincham Ice Dome. Tickets are a steal at just £5 and can be purchased in the Student’s Union Shop, online at www.metroshockey.com or via the ticket hotline on 07935 817267.
Manchester Metros
Sciences lecturer Gino Poulin also taking to the ice. Brown states: “It’s not something you would usually see, but he definitely gets very involved in the match!” Varsity fixtures are significant in any University sporting calendar, and Ice Hockey is no different, with Brown affording it the same importance as “any major fixture or play-off”. Last year’s inaugural match was a huge success, bringing in around 500 people
and this year, the ambitious Ice Hockey society hope to welcome 1,500 spectators rink-side. Brown continued: “Varsity has definitely helped to heighten the profile of our sport, with more and more people contributing and attending trials and training sessions. “It has really been nothing but a positive step forward”. After losing international-standard players last year, squad-strengthening was
critically important. Brown firmly believes that with an improved roster and a more internationally diverse team, the Manchester Metros are in the running to win the league. “With the new players that we have along with the talent we witnessed at Freshers trials… the prospects for the team this season are extremely positive!” Brown insists the Ice Hockey team is always open to new recruits: “We are a close knit group, with around 60 to 70
Are you a part of or going to watch the #MancVarsity? Tweet us @mancunion_sport with your predictions and thoughts before the game.
What a load of kit!
This season Spanish Third Division side La Hoya Lorca’s kit is designed to look like broccoli to advertise the local speciality - vegetables. But they’re not the only ones guilty of questionable kits! James Eatwell explains his five worst kits of all time... England Sevens, 2013-14:
@mirror_pictures
Perhaps inspired by the success of Minecraft, England recently opted for an intriguing pixelated number. Apparently the home kit design is a ‘deconstructed’ image of the classic red rose… Still, it’s better than the change kit, which calls to mind a hellish kaleidoscope. The designers - Canterbury, claimed that the colours demonstrated ‘the fluidity and speed involved in the game’ – truly advertising waffle at its best!
Your 60 second sporting round-up
Stade Français ‘Blanche de Castille Warhol’ Shirt, 2008-09:
@demondwayne
Stade can always be relied upon for a shocking shirt, but this Heineken Cup special takes the biscuit. It is probably not the most downright awful – that title must go to an earlier light brown design, mixed with turquoise stripes and a Hawaiian pattern (kudos to you if you can even imagine what that looked like) – but it is certainly the most surreal. Lurid playing shirts have been a major part of Stade’s marketing drive, which quickly turned them into a powerhouse of European rugby. Football: Manchester United face Southampton at home in the Premier League on Saturday 19th October. David Moyes’ men recovered from back-toback defeats against Man City and West Brom with a brace from youngster Adnan Januzaj, which secured a win against Sunderland last time out. A 3:00pm kick off means it won’t be on TV! Man Utd’s league cup clash against Nor-
Liverpool Away, 2013/14
@LFC
2012 US Olympic Team - Opening Ceremony Uniform:
@EricHumel
Jorge Campos:
@joaoVictp
After a pioneering ‘wetsuit’ away kit last season (just knocking Manchester United’s gingham tablecloth home shirt into second place in the ‘Interesting Use of Alternative Materials for a Football Kit’ competition), Liverpool released this… thing. That bottom half really bears no resemblance to anything ever created by human beings, except, perhaps, a very strange Christmas jumper or Windows 98 when it crashed.
This Ralph Lauren designed uniform sparked major controversy due to the fact it was made in China, but really that’s the last of their problems. It just looks ridiculous. They look like a strange, utopian New England boat club, for some reason wearing French-style berets. If it was any nation other than America I’d suggest it was ironic. As it is, it almost looks biblical.
In the future, when people look back on the 1990s, they won’t bat an eyelid at Tamagotchis or Sister, Sister, but they will cringe at thegoalkeeping kits of Jorge Campos. The 130-cap Mexican goalkeeper designed the nauseating outfits himself, and they are, without doubt, the epitome of the 90s. If someone in the Northern Quarter Set was to see one, they’d probably die of excitement!
wich City is on Tuesday 29th October, tickets are selling for just £16 from the Student Union.
Uni Football: This Wednesday, the 1st XI will be kicking off their season with a home game against The University of Sheffield 1st XI. The match starts at 2:00pm and will be on the 1st XI pitch at the Armitage Site.
Uni Rugby: Likewise the 1st XV are away in York on Wednesday, but will be back in action in Manchester at the Armitage site on 23rd October.
Football: Man City travel to East London to take on West Ham, which is also on Saturday 19th October. They too recovered from defeat to Aston Villa with a win against Everton, leaving them three points from the top. It will be live on Sky Sports 1, Kick off 5:30pm.
Uni Hockey: The women’s 1st XI begin their season away to Birmingham this Wednesay, their first home game takes place on 23rd October.
Best of luck to our sports teams this week. Tweet @mancunion_sport to let us know how you got on. Also, feel free to send match action shots to
sports.mancunion@gmail.com
SPORT : 31
ISSUE 05/ 14th October 2013 WWW.MANCUNION.COM/
Stuttering start for Manchester’s men
Manchester’s men put Sheffied through Hallam and back.
Andrew Georgeson Sport Editor
University of Manchester
18
Sheffield Hallam 8 After the dust settled on Haywood Road, and the jager-bomb distorted memories of Varsity begin to fade, the normality of the BUCS league ensues. Manchester men’s 1st XV took to the pitch against their BUCS Northern Premier B competitors Sheffield Hallam in the regular season’s opening fixture, opening being the operative word as unfortunately, it was a stuttering start from both sides. Manchester did in the end run out victors, but they made hard work of it. Although there were flashes of brilliance, Manchester will know that a better performance will be needed, otherwise it could be a long season ahead. However, as the old cliché goes, you can only beat what’s in front of you, and Manchester will be happy to register a first victory of the season in what were hostile conditions. The wind tunnel of the Armitage centre mixed with the Manchester rain suggested that the so far mild October we have had may be coming to an abrupt end, but also made the kicking game tough on both teams. This was epitomized by Hallam’s fly-half who decided to grubber the ball along the floor from kick off after twice failing to get the ball to travel 10 metres. Although just as one fly half was having trouble finding his feet, Manchester was taking an early lead from the boot. Shaw put the hosts in front from the kicking tee, providing a calming presence in what was a fractious opening few moments.
Another penalty soon followed making the score 6-0, but it was a short lived lead. The ever reliable pack for Manchester, a week after systematically battering MMU, were struggling in the opening stages, and a bizarre moment in a ruck saw the ball hit off a Manchester shoulder straight into Hallam possession. Manchester were then caught offside twice in as many plays. Despite taking the tap penalty first time, the second penalty saw Hallam take the points making it 6-3. Soon after Hallam were reduced to 14 men when their centre saw the bin for entering in the side of a ruck when Manchester were on the prowl in their opponents 22. However, despite the man advantage Manchester developed a case of ‘white line fever,’ and just kept taking the ball into contact to try and force a gap. The gap never came, and eventually the ball was held up. During the resultant scrum, the pack that was so dominant during varsity showed its worth by earning a penalty try. The score, alongside the man advantage gave Manchester the impetus to push forward, and the following ten minutes saw the best play of the game. This started with an excellent team try starting with a break from winger Ward, who played it inside to Blyth who managed to offload it to Secker who steamrolled through the oncoming defense gaining yards in the process. In the time it took for Manchester to secure the ball from the ruck Blyth had already made his way to the other side of the pitch, receiving the ball from along the line, playing a short pass to the bruising Kennedy who drew the winger to put in Akinlotan who strolled in to the corner for his first try of the match.
www.wilkinson-photo.com
Moments later it seemed Akinlotan had a brace of tries, but a dubious decision from the referee, who became an increasingly polarizing figure throughout the match, ruled it out saying there was a foot in touch. This decision continued to be contested well into half time with Manchester’s coach Benard present on the pitch asking the referee to justify his decision. Instead of potentially going into the break 25-3, the score instead read a slightly less-emphatic 18-3. Sheffield came out in the second half like a team with something to prove, scoring two minutes in with an attack straight from kick off. The try was a combination of wonderful line from the loose head prop and a slow reacting Manchester defensive line. The conver-
sion was put wide leaving Manchester in control at 18-8. The match returned to a fractious affair after 10 minutes of pressure from both teams either side of the break, but it seemed as if the disallowed try would prove to be a bigger decision than originally thought, especially when Manchester were reduced to 14 men after a yellow card. Hallam wasted most of their penalty opportunities even with the man advantage, adopting the usual year 7 rugby penalty tactic of doing a tap and go, giving it to the kid who started puberty at five, and watching him run. This seemed to work to an extent, but after the first phase, Hallam chucked away a chance to get a real foothold in the game when from five yards out, the
Sheffield winger chose to go himself with a two man overlap and was bundled into touch. Manchester was reduced to 13 men for five minutes as influential winger Ward disrupted Sheffield from an offside position. Hallam wasted another glorious chance, but by this point it was too late for the visitors to make a comeback. The match ended with one final Hallam attack with their second row breaking through the line, finding himself in acres of space, but with the try line beckoning, he decided to stick to the script and inexplicably dropped the ball. Although it wouldn’t have made any difference overall, it would have earned them a bonus point, instead of leaving the score at 18-8.
Pre-season perfection from Manchester’s women counter-attacking play. They made it 3-2 with considered build-up play, completed by No. 25’s clinical shot.
as she brought the ball around from behind the goal, shimmied past two defenders, and scored. Another goal
their BUCS season opener next week, with the first team playing the University of Nottingham in the Premier North
Women’s Lacrosse stick it to Leeds in final warm-up match before BUCS match. More Claire Balding than Zara Phillips?? Come and join us at Mancunion Sport!
Oli Fenton Sport Reporter University of Manchester
19
Leeds University
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The Manchester women’s Lacrosse team emphatically won their final ‘friendly’ of the season against Leeds University ahead of the BUCS league starting this week. The first quarter was closely-fought, but in the end, UoM ran out winners against UoL at the Armitage centre. In a dominating performance, it took UoM barely a minute to score. Leeds’ goalkeeper cheaply gave away the ball to No. 7, who duly ran back at goal, and shot, possibly thanking the Hard Women’s work inLacrosse pre-season hard seems work toin bepre-season paying off for is paying Manchester’s off. Photo: women. @UofMWomensLaX Photo: UofMwomensLaX keeper in the process, for the simplest of finishes. It quickly became 2-0, as UoM worked Leeds soon drew level next after followed as the captain wearing No. 17 the ball behind the goal, before passing launching a counter-attack following a played a great pass to No. 2 who made over the net, to No. 23, who squeezed missed UoM penalty, with No. 66 finishit 8-4. the shot below the keeper. ing off the move. The match began to look like a route as The early deficit prompted Leeds into However, this was as close as Leeds got before half-time as Manchester made it life as straight from the restart the No. to taking the lead in the match. Follow10-4 at half-time. 66 dribbled towards goal, and then ing the equaliser, Manchester found Unfortunately for Leeds, the score released No. 39, inside the box, with a their stride and started to systematically became more emphatic after half time defence-splitting pass, leaving her with score. First No. 17 netted, followed by 15, with Manchester making it 11-4 straight an easy finish. then 17 and 4 added their own goals. after the break. However, business resumed as usual UoM were better at moving the ball Manchester ended the game with a and it became 3-1 from the next kick quickly, and on the break, No. 24 flurry of goals making the score 15-4. off. UoM again showed their passing quickly made it 6-4. Leeds did manage another goal, but acumen, moving the ball from one side A timeout was called, with 10 minutes it was little more than a consolation. of the pitch, to the other, and back, left in the half, and this proved pivotal as Manchester continued their domination creating space for No. 23 to slot the ball afterwards UoM began to pull away with over their inferior opponents and at full home. several goals without response. time the score was 19-6. Despite this, Leeds began to find their No. 17 made it 7-4, from a move that The scoreline will give the women’s feet, and the game was box-to-box with looked similar to Leeds’ passing play, Lacrose team confidence going into
Contributor meetings every Thursday at 6pm in the SU bar. their BUCS Premier league season. The league will also see them taking on powerhouse Loughborough and Durham. The seconds meanwhile start their campaign against UCLAN 1st in the Northern 2A league. They are only one of two 2nd teams in the league and will face off against the likes of Lancaster, Bangor and MMU first teams. Does your season start next week? Whether you’re on the pristine pitches of the Armitage Centre, or the golf courses of Fyfe Mancunion Sport would love to hear from you. Tweet your resutls and pictures to @Mancunion_sports or email them to sport@mancunion.com!
No previous experience required! Sport@Mancunion. com @mancunion_ sport
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“Time is just a baseline on which things can happen. But only you can actually make them happen” The Mancunion Sport talks to NBA legend John Amaechi about growing up in Manchester, discrimination in sport and turning down a $17 million contract. Thomas Turner. Josh Cook and Jonny Roberts John Amaechi is anything but your run-of-the-mill sporting superstar. Amaechi was in Manchester last week to promote the Oklahoma City Thunder vs Philadelphia 76ers NBA game at the Phones4U arena. In a Mancunion Sport exclusive, we spoke with Amaechi to discuss his upbringing, his career and his life after retirement. After moving to Stockport at a young age and subsequently attending the local grammar school, John developed a strong passion for basketball. However, in the pre-internet era, this was somewhat more difficult than for fans of today, with the sport’s lack of presence in the British culture making dedicated support nigh on impossible. Amaechi explained “It wasn’t always as easy as today. I remember having to flick through teletext to find a short sentence on basketball at the end of the sports pages”. Moving to America in his teens to pursue a basketball career, Amaechi played high school basketball in the hope of one day playing in the NBA. He found success at college level, enjoying three years at Penn State where he became a two-time First Team Academic All-American. He realised his NBA dream in 1995, signing for Cleveland Cavaliers and playing 28 games in the following season. Amaechi enjoyed an illustrious career, with highlights including a Euroleague Championship, Intercontinental cup and also the chance to represent his country in the 2006 Commonwealth games. The NBA legend is however best known for famously turning down a $17 million a year contract offer from the LA Lakers in 2000, choos-
ing instead to stay with Orlando on a $600,000 a year deal - small change in the NBA. With a wry smile Amaechi admitted to the Mancunion Sport that it is something he is regularly pressed
such shock. In February 2007 Amaechi shook the sporting world when he revealed his homosexuality in his critically acclaimed book ‘Man in the middle’.
issue could be more easily managed than in America, claiming homophobia was more easily resolvable in British culture. Amaechi feels that the recent rainbow
NBA/Getty on. “I’m not a Socialist. I am as capitalist as anybody. I love money, and I love having money! But I like to think of myself as a man of principle, and you can not be a part-time man of principle” Amaechi said. “A year before the offer from the Lakers, Orlando were the only team who wanted me - I felt it would have been hypocritical for me to have left”. It is perhaps more a sign of the sporting times we have grown up in that such a principled decision is met with
Amaechi told the Mancunion: “There was never an issue with my sexuality from my teammates and opponents”. However, the player explained that America still has a long way to go in accepting gay people, not only in sport, but society in general, with many states still guilty of practices such as firing employees for displaying the rainbow flag and even for simply being homosexual. When asked about homosexuality in British sport, Amaechi felt that the
laces campaign against homophobia in football represents a move in the right direction. He argued that “Time is just a baseline on which things can happen. But only you can actually make them happen”. The 6 foot 10” star believes that changes need to come from those in positions of authority within the game, for true progress to be made. Amaechi labelled those who run football as ‘wealthy dinosaurs’ with a lack of understanding of modern day issues.
The star also expressed his concern with discrimination in sport more widely, citing the lack of black managers in football. He believes it is no coincidence that white managers dominate the professional leagues, with black players and managers ‘knowing their place’. Amaechi has retired to Manchester again where he is a visiting lecturer of psychology at a number of universities. He also set up the ‘Amaechi Basketball Centre’ in Moss Side which attracts an astonishing 3000 young people a week. The centre is designed around providing kids with the opportunity to play sport, alongside teaching them the moral values which are sadly so often absent within it. The player believes that basketball is growing at a fast pace in Britain with the influx of American popular culture, seen by the similar rise of NFL in recent years. When asked whether he had any words of wisdom for Manchester’s current crop of aspiring NBA stars, Amaechi emphasised the value of quality, and not just quantity of training, along with the need for hard work and determination. The most important lesson to be learned from John Amaechi however, is that in an era dominated by moneygrabbing, self-interested sport stars, there are still some who are prepared to stick by both their principles and their roots. The Mancunion Sport would like to sincerely than John Amaechi for his time, and also Harrison Davies and Amanda Fox from Pitch for their help in setting up the interview.