3rd NOV 2014/ ISSUE 07 FREE
MANCHESTER’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER
WWW.MANCUNION.COM
What Black History Month means to me P8-9
UKIP could embarrass the political elite in 2015
P11
Student raped walking home through Fallowfield
P3
believable! - The News International publication targeted a variety of student newspapers on the lookout for photos of students wearing offensive costumes, with a financial reward offered for particular photos. - The University of Manchester Students’ Union has condemned this practice, describing it as “disgusting that the Sun would seek to deliberately exploit recent tragic events.” - In a call on Wednesday, the reporter mentioned the British IS fighter known as ‘Jihadi John’ alongside Alan Henning, the murdered Mancunian aid worker. Charlie Spargo Deputy Editor-in-chief
pounds if a photo of any students dressed up as the executioner and his victim was submitted. The reporter’s LinkedIn profile states that
with them.
For The Sun to purposefully have students
The Executive of the University of Man-
out witch-hunting for this minority in order to
chester Students’ Union are united in their
completely misrepresent students as a whole
condemnation of The Sun ’s behaviour.
is disgraceful.”
she attended the University of Manchester
Activities Officer, Joel Smith, said, “it’s dis-
There are concerns for the safety of any stu-
financial rewards to student media sources
and used to write for Student Direct—the Uni-
gusting that The Sun would seek to so delib-
dents identifiable in photos published, after
for incendiary photographs of students wear-
versity of Manchester’s student newspaper
erately exploit recent tragic events to unfair-
a girl who last year dressed as Boston bomb-
before rebranding as The Mancunion.
ly represent students and young people at a
ings victim received multiple death threats.
National tabloid The Sun has been offering
ing offensive costumes on Halloween.
The Sun made probing calls to a number of
This follows from last year when The Sun
student newspapers across the country, in-
broke the story of two students from the Uni-
“We strongly condemn this journalistic ap-
club had held an Ebola-themed Halloween
cluding Bath student newspaper bathimpact,
versity of Chester who were photographed
proach which sought to damage the integrity
party, admitting later it had made a “huge er-
and Leeds University’s The Gryphon , for pho-
dressed as the Twin Towers, destroyed in the
of both our Union and The Mancunion .
ror” in holding the event.
tos of any inappropriate costumes they might
terrorist attacks on September the 11th, 2001.
“The reputational damage to any individu-
Last year, The Sun was banned from the
The two 19-year-olds attended a Halloween
al who does end up on the cover of The Sun
University of Manchester Students’ Union,
In a phonecall on Wednesday, Aidan Greg-
night out in Chester and won a fancy dress
could really affect [them] and the paper is
after the paper’s refusal to remove the con-
ory, Editor-in-chief of The Mancunion , was
competition, but later apologised for any of-
showing blatant disregard for this.
troversial page three. The move was champi-
directly asked by a Sun reporter for photo-
fence caused after the widespread coverage
“This only serves to further damage rela-
graphs of any students dressed up as ‘Jihadi
and outrage expressed by their university
tions between The Sun and students with the
John’, the British man who appeared in the re-
and Students’ Union.
ongoing ‘No More Page 3’ campaign.”
see this Halloween.
national level.
Last week, it arose that a Birmingham night-
oned by The Mancunion’s own Fashion Editor, Gráinne Morrison. The University of Manchester is one of 15
cent Islamic State-released videos of the bru-
Bath University newspaper bathimpact was
General Secretary, Charlotte Cook, said, “we
universities across the country, including
tal executions of US journalists James Foley
also apparently asked for “Ebola costumes,”
have a zero-tolerance approach towards of-
four Oxford colleges, who have implemented
and Stephen Sotloff, and also those of British
which could be used in a similar way to those
fensive outfits at the Union to ensure we are
this ban.
aid workers David Haines, and the Manches-
controversial photos released last year.
maintaining a safe space for all our members.
ter-born Alan Henning. The reporter offered a potential front-page spot and financial reward of thousands of
The editor of Bristol University’s student
“However, undoubtedly somewhere across
newspaper Epigram was also contacted by
the country people will choose to wear inap-
The Sun on the same day but did not speak
propriate costumes around this time of year
02 : NEWS
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Highlights P12
Music – Independent Manchester Students protest sexual harrasment on campus in light of recent news of a student raped in Fallowfield. Photo: Jess Lishak @ Facebook.
P17
Fashion – Is the future of fashion here?
P18
Film – Review: Fury
P27
Picture of the week - ‘Vandalism for Feminism’
Bad “vibes” professor suspended Charlie Spargo Deputy Editor-in-chief
A professor from the University of Warwick accused of “inappropriate sighing” and “making ironic comments” is to be cleared of all allegations against him, after a nine-month suspension for this behaviour came to an end last month. Thomas Docherty, a professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies, was alleged to be undermining the authority of the former head of his department, Catherine Bates. He was suspended in January, and last month the suspension was lifted and he could return to work. During this time he was banned from the campus and forbidden from writing students references, returning students’ work and providing guidance on PhDs. Docherty is a strong critic of the perceived marketisation of education and describes the Russell Group as a “self-declared elite.” The University of Warwick earlier in the year denied that Professor Docherty’s suspension was a result of his outspoken objections to reforms of the university system. The “negative” behaviour of Professor Docherty during interviews, including body language, sarcasm and sighing, was seen to be disrespectful to candidates for a departmental position. A Facebook page set up by students expressing
Lifestyle – Blind Date is back!
Visit Our Website www.mancunion.com
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
their disbelief and outrage at the professor’s suspension has gained over 1000 likes. On this page Professor Docherty expressed his appreciation for the support, saying he was “deeply moved and touched by the level of support that [he has] received. “Thanks again to you all — and, with luck, I’ll see
some of you in class.” Anne O’Sullivan from the University and College Union, said, “It beggars belief that an academic can be suspended with no contact with students or colleagues for almost a year while charges are finalised.”
Sub-Editors: Morgan Hollet, Gemma Sowerby, James Jackman & Charlotte Pangraz.
Beauty Editor: Nikki Patel beauty@mancunion.com
News Editors: Anna Phillips, Lauren Gorton, Helen Chapman & Jenny Sterne news@mancunion.com
Food & Drink Editors: Elena Gibbs & Adam Fearn
Science & Technology Editor: Andy van den Bent-Kelly
Film Editors: James Moules, Thomas Bruce, Martin Solibakke, & Andriana Hambi film@mancunion.com
Features Editors: Haider Saleem & Roberta Rofman
foodanddrink@mancunion.com
features@mancunion.com
Books Editors: Leonie Dunn & Ali Pearson books@mancunion.com
Editor-in-chief : Aidan Gregory editor@mancunion.com
Opinion Editors: Morris Seifert & Marcus Johns
Games Editors: James Thursfield & Matt Cole games@mancunion.com
Deputy Editor-in-chief : Charlie Spargo deputyeditor.mancunion@gmail.com
opinion@mancunion.com
Lifestyle Editors: Robert Firth lifestyle@mancunion.com
Facebook: The Mancunion Twitter: @THEMANCUNION
Postal address: Univerity of Manchester Students’ Union, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PR Phone (0161) 275 2933
Fashion Editors: Aimée Grant Cumberbatch & Gráinne Morrison fashion@mancunion.com
Music Editors: Patrick Hinton, Samuel Ward, Lowell Clarke, and Daniel Whiteley music@mancunion.com
Sport Editors: Andrew Georgeson & Will Kelly Sports Reporter: Liam Kelly sport@mancunion.com Theatre Editor: Nicole Tamer theatre@mancunion.com Arts Editor - Holly Smith arts@mancunion.com Societies editor - Evie Hull societies.mancunion@gmail.com Interested in photo journalism, with an eye for colour and detail? The Mancunion are looking for photographers ! If you would like to get involved, contact Aidan Gregory at editor@mancunion.com
NEWS : 03
ISSUE 09/ 17th NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Manchester-born student stabbed to death in Stoke Elena Losavio News Reporter
arrived
Eni Mevish, a student at Staf-
her
breathing
was
ereton, from Stoke’s Central
very weak. I told them what
Local Policing Team, asserted:
had happened and moved so I
“Detectives, supported by local
didn’t get in their way.
officers have conducted house
fordshire University, died on
“It was surreal, after being in
to house enquiries in the area
the 9th of November. She was
direct contact with that kind
but are still urging anyone who
stabbed in a residential area
of situation it’s hard to concen-
might have seen or heard any-
near the university campus.
trate on anything else.”
thing which could be connect-
The
20-year-old
student
In addition, he observed:
was injured in the stomach,
“When you learn first aid you
when she was at her home on
never expect to have to put it
“We are working to support
Cauldon Road, Stoke-on Trent.
into practice, especially in such
the family of the woman and
While the attack happened,
a serious situation. I want to of-
the injured male at this very
other students were inside the
fer my condolences to her fam-
difficult time with specially-
accommodation.
ily, and thanks to all the people
trained family liaison officers.”
Another
person,
who
is
who tried to save her.”
ed to the incident to contact them.
A 68-year-old man has been
thought to be her boyfriend,
Outside her home, a lot of
charged with murder and also
was also stabbed. In spite of his
people left tributes. As de-
of wounding. He was request-
injuries, the 22-year-old man
clared by Professor Andrew
ed to turn up at Stafford Crown
has recovered and he is no
Jackson, Eni’s tutor, everybody
Court via video link on Thurs-
longer at the hospital.
at Staffordshire University is
day, November 13.
Student Thomas Barnes tried
shocked by this event.
to help Eni Mavish, after hav-
He said: “We are greatly sad-
ing heard someone shouting
dened by the news of the death
nearby in the street.
of Eni Mevish. This is a tragic
He said: “A man came in with
loss and we offer our sincere
blood on his jeans shouting
condolences to her family and
that a girl had been stabbed.
friends.
She had blood pouring from
“Eni was a warm-hearted per-
a stab wound in her stomach,
son and an able, enthusiastic
and cuts all up her arm.
and conscientious student. She
“I made a makeshift tourni-
was a very popular member of
quet, checked for a pulse and
her cohort. There is no doubt
kept her arm lifted high until
that she will be truly missed by
the ambulance arrived.
all who knew her.”
“By the time the ambulance
Chief Inspector Martin Br-
20-year-old Mevish sadly died from her wounds after an attack ather home in Stoke-on-Trent. Photo: Facebook
Satisfaction with economics course falls drastically Jenny Sterne News Editor
According to the 2014 National Student Survey, overall satisfaction with economics at The University of Manchester has slipped. The survey’s found the main issue was with the Bachelor of Economic Science programme, described by the University as its “flagship degree programme in modern, quantitative economics”. Satisfaction for this programme has dropped by 21 per cent. Economics courses at Manchester are now twelve percentage points lower than Russell Group averages. The Manchester Post-Crash Economics Society (PCES), a student-led pressure group that campaigns for changes to
The Post-Crash Economics Society has campaigned for heterodox economics education at theuniversity. Photo: PCES
economics education, said in a statement to Times Higher Education (THE) that the results demonstrated how students were disappointed with the university’s decision not to offer a
see included. As reported by THE, many of the comments made in the National Student Survey explicitly reflected this disappointment. One student wrote, “there have
my and agents behave outside of mathematical models.” “Thinking outside of the box is not encouraged,” wrote another, with a third saying: “The University has merely taught
module entitled “Bubbles, Panics and Crashes”, which the society felt would have incorporated the alternative economic perspectives that they wish to
been no instances of alternative economic theories being presented other than neoclassical. This means I feel unable to understand the way the econo-
me how to take exams.” One said they were “very disappointed in the way the university has dealt with requests from students to change the
way economic science is taught at university”, another adding that they “do not appreciate… such a broad subject being taught in such a mind-numbing and narrow way”, adding: “To put it simply, I used to really enjoy economics before I came to university and now I do not.” One student described the university’s decision not to offer the Bubbles module as “breath-taking arrogance and ignorance”, while another said it demonstrated “that it is not listening to my voice on the matter of teaching alternative schools of economic thought”. A Manchester spokesman in a statement to THE said the results were “a concern and a puzzle” as other programmes that shared many of its modules had improved levels of student satisfaction. He said that it was disappoint-
ing that PCES had campaigned for students to use the National Student Survey “strategically”. He added that the university has responded by working with current students “to understand their real concerns so that we can improve the student experience” and that the economics department is taking “a number of steps to enhance its curriculum”, including introducing new modules in economic policy and behavioural economics, and that the university was conducting a “wide-ranging curriculum review of our core economics programmes”.
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
NEWS : 04
Universities are prioritising recruitment numbers over standards, say academics Charlie Spargo Deputy Editor-in-chief
One-third of academics believe that educational standards are being compromised in favour of recruiting a higher number of students to overcrowded universities, a study has shown. Furthermore, there are allegations of grade inflation encouraged in order to manipulate league table results, which many blame on a profit-focussed, targetbased model of management. The data was collected by the Times Higher Education magazine, which polled over 1000 staff at universities across the country. 38 per cent of academics say that the “pressure to give better marks” by managers at universities “has risen” in the past few years. This means that more and more students are graduating with first and upper second class degrees, in an attempt by universities to increase funding. 32 per cent believe their university has “compromised on students quality in order to maintain or boost student numbers.” A engineering and technology lecturer at a southern university blamed the culture of “rack ‘em, pack ‘em and stack ‘em” amongst greedy managers encouraging “unethical and immoral recruitment.” Since the government lifted the cap on
Chancellor George Osborne has said that all caps on admission numbers will be lifted next year. Photo:
the number of high-achieving students— those who receive AAB or higher in their A-levels—that universities may recruit in early 2012, there have been concerns about the move’s consequences. Many top-tier universities took advantage of this reform to allow greater numbers of students into their establishments, at some places leading to overcrowding and a shortage of accommodation.
And in 2015, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced last year, the cap will be eliminated for students of all standards, which has been cause for concern for academics putting priority on quality of education rather than quantity. An academic from a university in the north-east of England told the Times Higher Education guide, “students on science degrees are barely numerate and
don’t always leave much better off.” 256990 students, more than twothirds of all graduates, received an upper second class degree or higher last year upon graduating. The percentage of students leaving with a first class degree was 7.4 per cent higher last year, at 18.4 per cent, than it was ten years ago. A Russell Group biosciences professor said marking is “not hard enough. Too
many students are getting a first—33 per cent in my subject.” Another lecturer from a British university said, “it is not sensible for 50 per cent of students to graduate with first or upper-second class degrees. “Forty years ago it was about 10 per cent. Senior management do not openly admit to that change, but frontline staff more or less passively fall into line.”
UCU marking boycott to go ahead Jailbreak Victors reach Croatia Charlie Spargo Deputy Editor-in-chief Following the recent ballot for academic staff from 69 institutions across the country, the University and College Union (UCU) has announced that its freeze on setting and marking coursework and exams is to go ahead. More than three-quarters of those polled agreed that walkouts should go ahead, while 87 per cent were in support of the assessment boycott alone. The action will take place starting on the 6th of November for an indefinite period of time. It will be lifted when the dispute is resolved, said the UCU. Representatives from the union are set to meet with employers for negotiations on the 7th of November. The dispute arose recently over changes made to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the principal pension scheme offered by universities and other higher educa-
Lauren Gorton News Editor
tion establishments. The reform would see academics lose out on a substantial chunk of their promised allowance after retirement, with a 40-year-old professor currently earning £75000 per year losing out the most, seeing a 27 per cent cut in prospective income. Staff from all Russell Group universities, as well as a number of other institutions established before 1992, will take part in the boycott. Those from post-1992 universities have pension plans under a different scheme, the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme (TPS) and so will not lose out by these reforms. There are reforms planned for the TPS as well, but even with those taken into account, academics from newer universities could still receive up to £20000 more per year than those from pre-1992 universities after retirement.
Universities UK has expressed its disappointment at the “damaging course of industrial action aimed directly at disrupting students’ education. “The employers’ proposals for reform offer the best possible deal for employees within the constraints that the USS Trustees have set.” Talks between UCU and employers’ representatives last week came to nothing, with the union stating they could not be guaranteed that employers would protect the pensions of those staff covered by the USS. Sally Hunt, general secretary, said, “The employers failed to convince us of the need for their dramatic changes or the reasons behind the methodology for its deficit reduction plan. “Their proposals remain full of holes and the information they are apparently relying on to back them
The industrial action will stop any planned exams going ahead, see no coursework being set, or work being marked by academics.
up keeps being exposed as mislead- Previous Manchester University contestants have managed to reach as far as New York ing.” and Hong Kong during the 30 hour time limit. For the past 10 years all money raised by
At 4pm on Thursday 24th October the RAG event Jailbreak began for University of Manchester students. Participating teams had until 10pm on Friday 25th to get the farthest away from Manchester, in the sponsored event intended to raise money for the children cancer charity Kidscan. For those unfamiliar with the RAG Jailbreak tradition, participating teams compete against one another to travel as far away from Manchester as possible within a 30 hour time limit. However the participants cannot spend any of their own money and instead must rely on hitching or generous donations, such as cash or plane tickets, to try to win the competition. Each team, typically made up of two to three members, is expected to raise a minimum of £120 for Kidscan, who also receive donations for Jailbreak from Salford, Newcastle, Hull and Hertfordshire University.
Manchester students from the Jailbreak event has gone to Kidscan, a children cancer charity. Kidscan works with the specific aim of finding and improving cancer treatments to be more suitable for children who suffer from the traditional and typically more aggressive cancer treatments such as Chemotherapy, in some instances developing secondary cancer in later life as a result of earlier treatment. The winning team for this year’s Jailbreak, known as Jack and Joe, reached Croatia within the 30 hour time limit; hitching from Manchester to Heathrow, were they camped the night to raise some £220 in donations which they used to buy plane tickets to Croatia. However, whilst Jack and Joe have won the Jailbreak event specifically, the competition is still on going for any RAG team to raise the most money. So far “Team Battle Toad” are heading the leader board with over £700 in donations. RAG have also organised a money raising event over the reading week weekend at Piccadilly Train Station and the RAG competition will not close until 7th December, with new teams still able to sign up.
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
NEWS : 05
Warning: University will have a serious effect on your health! Elena Losavio News Reporter According to a new YouGov survey, 81 per cent of students believe that their health is seriously influenced by their university accommodations. YouGov Consumer Survey (2014) Air Quality reveals that full-time students are of the opinion that they are the most in danger of ‘Toxic Home Syndrome’. Due to ’Toxic Home Syndrome’, people that are living in houses with poor air quality due to harmful airborne pollutant are very likely to incur respiratory and dermatological diseases. The most common pollutants, that students should be aware of are biological pollutants, such as mould spores, volatile
organic compounds (VOCs), gas and building materials. It was reported by YouGov that 37 per cent of student respondents assert that they were afflicted by breathing problems such as asthma, and another 23 per cent said to have had eczema. Both of them can be caused by inadequate indoor air ventilation. Allergy experts encourage students to be more aware that living in these conditions puts their health in danger, as, on average, 33 per cent of students have had mould growing in their bathrooms or bedrooms. Peter Howarth, Professor of Allergy and Respiratory medicine at Southampton University, said: “It is imperative that students are alert to the gravity of
household air pollution as they typically spend long periods of time in their university homes. “As well as mould, other air pollutants found in the student home include everyday household items such as air fresheners, cleaning products and detergents. As students rarely have access to a garden and therefore dry their laundry indoors, they are at risk of unknowingly polluting the indoor environment with the harmful compounds released from the detergent. “This indoor ‘pollutant soup’ can be particularly hazardous in the winter months when homes get little natural ventilation and are most prone to condensation and mould. I would urge students to take steps to significantly
improve their home’s ventilation in winter to minimise their risk of Toxic Home Syndrome. “ Students from the University of Manchester believe that there is poor indoor air quality in halls. Speaking to The Mancunion, Kanae Koike, who lives in Whitworth Park, said ”I agree with the survey’s results. In university halls it’s easy to catch a cold and difficult to recover from it. “As we share the kitchen and the living room, and due to a bad ventilation and lack of fresh air, if someone has a cold, it’s very likely that also the other flatmates get ill. Furthermore, sometimes I’ve found mould in my kitchen.” She added “My room has a window that can be opened, but other rooms
that don’t have might have problems of stagnant air.” In a statement to The Mancunion, a student who lives in Canterbury Court and asked to remain anonymous, commented, “I think that the accommodation is not worth the amount we pay for it considering the size of the room, the awful carpets, the ugly curtains and the brick walls make some flats feel like prison. “I think this will have a negative impact on students’ life and how they view the city of Manchester and the university.” More information about Toxic Home Syndrome can be found at www. myhealthmyhome.com .
Oak House, likened to a prison by many students. Photo : Iris Chase @Flickr
YOU DECIDE... On May 07 2015, the country will turn out to decide who governs for the next five years. With around 100,000 students in Manchester, we could finally make our concerns heard over poor housing, high crime, extortionate tuition fees and more. Even if you were registered last time, you must register to vote for these elections.
HOW WILL WE USE THEM?
Register at: www.votebooster.org/register/umsu
2014
06 : News
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Central Library catalogues Manchester’s gay history
- In collaboration with the Manchester based Lesbian and Gay Foundation, Manchester Central Library will host an archive of Manchester’s gay history, including prominent magazine publications and historical documents. Lauren Gorton News Editor
Manchester Libraries and The Lesbian and Gay Foundation (The LGF) are collaborating to make an important archive accessible to the public at Manchester Central Library. The LGF is based in Manchester and provides a wider range of support and advocacy services for LGB people than any other UK based charity. The collection from The LGF has been deposited with the Archives Centre at Central Library and includes a comprehensive catalogue of local and national gay and lesbian magazines, including The Mancunian Gay, Outnorthwest, Gay Times, Diva, plus many other smaller and often short-lived grass-roots publications. The archives also include historical documents and reports about a variety of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) issues, including Manchester’s Pride celebrations, culture and health issues, such as HIV and AIDS. Selected items from The LGF’s collection are now on view at the Archives Centre.
Advice.DLY.Manc.Full.pdf
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Alongside the library’s existing LGBT History collections—including the Queer Up North Theatre archive, the Manchester City Council’s Equalities Team archive and the Allan Horsfall collection—the new LGF archive enables Mancunions to trace the development of the Village and LGBT politics, culture and services in the city region from the 1960s to the present day. Heather Williams, Policy & Research Manager at the LGF said: “We are delighted to be working with Manchester Central Library to make our archives accessible to the public. These archives contain valuable records of the development of LGBT rights and changing attitudes in society, and now the people of Manchester will be able to discover and celebrate the history of the North West’s LGBT communities.” Executive Member for Culture and Leisure, Councillor Rosa Battle, said: “Manchester City Council has a proud history of working with Manchester’s LGBT community and the Central Library’s Archives Centre is the perfect place to store, care for and exhibit these important archive materials to the public.”
LGF volunteers are working alongside librarians to improve access to the collection by adding to the online catalogue. Volunteer David Allinson said, “Volunteering on the archive project has changed my life in so many ways. I have met so many wonderful people and I have a positive focus in my life now. “It’s helped me to give something back to The LGF, who supported me and turned my life around and helped me become the person I am today.” On Valentine’s Day next year, the first National Festival of LGBT History, ‘Manchester in Love’, will be held at Central Library’s Performance Space. Ahead of this event, archive opening days will be held in November and January. For those wishing to find out more about researching LGBT history visit lgbthistoryfestival.org for more information.
As part of Manchester Central’s new archive copies of the Gay Times and other prominent gay publications will showcased. Photo: CharlesFred @ Flickr. NUS.Delegate.Stand.Manc.Quart.pdf 1 be 30/10/2014 13:28
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Stop to think before rushing into looking for a house for the following academic year and signing a tenancy agreement in the first semester. As part of the Don’t Let Yet campaign, Community Officer Ellen will be hosting a ‘House of Horrors’ event in the Students’ Union on Friday 31 October. To get involved, join Ellen for two creative campaign sessions to make banners and signs for the event:
Wednesday 22 October, 10:00-14:00, Room 2, Students’ Union Thursday 23 October, 12:00-15:00, Room 8, Students’ Union All materials will be provided, so just bring yourselves and your creativity.
manchesterstudentsunion.com/adviceservice
Stand until 13 November 5pm
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
NEWS : 07
“From Gradgrind to Graphene” Andy van den Bent-Kelly Science and Technology Editor
“Manchester is bolshie. Manchester’s noisy, opinionated, tough.” Professor Jeanette Winterson could easily have been talking about herself rather than the city in which she was born. Her passionate, fiery and strongly thought-provoking Foundation Day Lecture was fitting of a place that has always encouraged boldness and self-assurance. A Mancunian by birth, but, based on this talk, also by spirit, mentality and values. ‘Manchester: from Gradgrind to Graphene’ was the name of the lecture. Two words, both beginning with the letter ‘g’—one that represents everything the city stands for, the other the complete opposite. Prof. Winterson delivered a captivating talk, taking the audience on a whirlwind tour of the radical history of both the city and the university. This was a powerful lesson on what defines Manchester. Not United or City. Not Oasis or the Stone Roses. Manchester is about imagination and creativity. Manchester is about equality and freedom. And perhaps most importantly, Manchester is about values and vision. Prior to calling Professor Winterson to the stage, Dame Nancy Rothwell opened proceedings. She proudly spoke of how far the university has come since its formation in its current form ten years ago. A short video followed, in which various members of the academic community here at Manchester spoke about what the university means to them. Professor Brian Cox described it as “a place where you can wander through knowledge”. “It’s progressive, egalitarian, humanistic and inventive” said Manchester-born Professor and TV personality Michael Wood. Finally, it was Professor Winterson’s turn to take to the stage. She began by stating that she was going to time travel, “to see where we were, to think about where we are, and to imagine where we might be.” Her first destination was the year 1824, the location being the Bridgewater Arms, a pub in the city centre. It was here that a meeting of a group of local businessmen resulted in the formation of a mechanics institute. It proved to be a huge success. Prof. Winterson moved onto the next key moment in the University of Manchester’s history. It came in 1846, when a cotton merchant named John Owens left a sum of roughly £100,000 to set up a college in his name. This college would have no religious affiliation, nor would it be exclusive to the very wealthy. No attention was paid to anyone’s place on the social ladder. “That’s the Manchester egalitarian spirit at work” stated Winterson. But this wasn’t the first time such a thing had occurred in the city. Three centuries earlier, Manchester Grammar School had been founded on the same principles. Pupils were admitted based on their academic ability, regardless of their rank in society. This is the Manchester way. In this university, and indeed this city, everyone is encouraged to learn. People are given the freedom to discover their own place in the world, rather than be told it. Dreaming big is another Mancunian characteristic and Owens College epitomised this when they sought university status in the 1870s. They were widely mocked and ridiculed throughout the country for this, with The Times concluding that “anyone educated in Manchester would certainly be dull and probably vicious!” Looking at where the University of Manchester is now, I think we can all afford a wry smile. Then, it was time to bring the first titular ‘g’ word into
Photo: The Mancunion
the equation. Mr Thomas Gradgrind—the archetypal Dickensian villain. The notorious headmaster is the main antagonist in Charles Dickens’ tenth novel, Hard Times. In the book, Gradgrind is a keen advocate of the factory-line model of education. He views his pupils as nothing more than pitchers that he can fill up with facts and statistics, then send out into the world to make money. In his eyes, finance comes first, and any form of imagination is a direct hindrance to this pursuit of profit. Prof. Winterson described him as a “reverse Rumpelstiltskin, spinning the reckless and unknown golden possibilities of his pupils into the same old useful straw.” The ethos of Manchester couldn’t be further from the values and beliefs that Gradgrind tries to instil into his students. “Creativity is a way of life,” said Prof. Winterson, “it’s the human condition. “Play is how every child starts in life and how every
Winterson. He was both disgusted and mesmerised by the endless rows of mills, bellowing vapours out high above the city’s skyline. Although he may have found it hard to believe when he first visited, Dickens shared the suppressed values held by every Mancunian. “He believed in the soul of the working man and woman, the imagination of the working man and woman,” explained Prof. Winterson. In the same way, Manchester believes in the soul of every resident. The university believes in the soul of every student. Manchester is a city of firsts. The first true canal in England opened here in 1761. The first passenger railway terminal at Liverpool Road allowed workers to travel. The first steam-powered mill. The first free school. The first public library for scholars. The list goes on. “We’re still carbon-based humans in a silicon world,” said Prof. Winterson, “and soon, a graphene world.”
good idea is born.” The second ‘g’ word was then introduced. Graphene—Manchester’s favourite and most famous super-material, which saw Professors Geim and Novoselov awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. Unlike Gradgrind, graphene is a perfect illustration of Mancunian ingenuity and inventiveness. It was discovered, by Geim and Novoselov’s own admission, as a result of “mucking around in a lab.” It was a triumph for imagination. A triumph for curiosity. And a triumph for the values that define Manchester. “If you can’t play, you can’t imagine,” said Prof. Winterson, “and if you can’t imagine, you can’t create. Creativity, in different doses and dilutions, belongs to us all.” Perhaps the most important part of Manchester’s history was the Industrial Revolution, and this was the topic that Prof. Winterson turned to next. From an economic perspective, it transformed the city into the modern powerhouse that it is today. But in social terms, the effects weren’t quite so glorious. “It made humans miserable in an entirely new way,” explained Prof. Winterson, “by taking away their humanity.” People were simply viewed as hands that could operate machines. In Gradgrind’s eyes, a utopian paradise. The mills and factories propelled the city to the forefront of modern Britain, but repressed the iconic Mancunian spirit. People worked for up to 14 hours a day, six days a week. There was no room for creativity or thinking, just the same procedure of mind-numbing activity in a bid to produce as much cotton as possible. Charles Dickens had a love/hate relationship with Manchester. “That’s normal,” remarked Prof.
Moving back onto the second ‘g’ word, she said, “Manchester is on the cusp of a new identity. Graphene will alter the fortunes of this restless, changing city once again.” It appears that a second Industrial Revolution is on its way. And what a revolution it promises to be. Prof. Winterson then journeyed further back in time, to 1301, when the town received its charter. Even back then, Manchester was at the forefront of equality. Most medieval settlements had restrictions on upstart entrepreneurs, but not this town. Here, anyone was allowed to do business. More of Manchester’s radical history was brought to the attention of the captivated audience. She spoke about the infamous Peterloo massacre of 1819, when Tory militia charged into a huge crowd of people demanding the reform of parliamentary representation, killing 15 people. The creation of the Free Trade Hall, which, in the words of Prof. Winterson, is “the only building in England to be named after a principle,” was another important moment in the city’s rich history. The Guardian was founded here, and the values that it still holds today remain synonymous with those of the city. “The Guardian has always been a campaigning newspaper,” she emphasised. “Whatever your politics, you should be proud that Manchester, and only Manchester, has produced a world-class news media that has never been bought out or bought off.” Perhaps the truest embodiment of the Mancunian spirit was displayed during the height of the slave trade in the United States. Manchester workers deeply opposed slavery, despite the fact that their living and working conditions during the Industrial
Revolution were no better. The mill owners weren’t particularly bothered about all this. Through their Gradgrind-tinted glasses, all that mattered was that they got their cotton. They weren’t true Mancunians though. The real Mancunians were the workers. In 1862, they staged a huge anti-slavery demonstration at the Free Trade Hall. The protest struck a chord with our friends across the Atlantic. Lincoln himself wrote a letter to the people of Manchester, thanking them for their efforts. Politics formed a key part of both the talk and the Q&A session that followed. At times it almost felt like a rally, with Professor Winterson delivering a passionate warning against austerity and the far-right. She spoke of her fear that her beloved North West might fall into the hands of UKIP and throughout the lecture she slipped in a few clever digs at the likes of Farage. “We can’t give up on politics, especially not here, in Manchester, with our history,” she warned. “Manchester is a fighting town.” As a native of a Labour stronghold, Professor Winterson didn’t hold back with her views of Conservatism. A few less than complimentary remarks about the Thatcher years were included in the lecture, most of them deliberately unsubtle. There was a moment in the Q&A session where someone suggested that Manchester should identify itself with more capitalistic views, in addition to its traditional left-wing values. Her response was fiery, mesmerising and nothing short of majestic—it was almost a rallying cry for a new socialism. Lastly, Professor Winterson spoke about the role of universities in Britain’s future. “Universities are places of inquiry,” she stated. “Universities do much more than supply the labour market with graduates. “Universities are in the business of creating futures, all kinds of possible futures, through innovation and human capital.” Her stirring words were a stark reminder of the university’s responsibility to encourage its students to think for themselves. “Politics is too important to be left to politicians,” she stated. Professor Winterson concluded her outstanding talk by declaring that Manchester could and should be at the forefront of, but only if it stuck to its core values. “Don’t let it just be about money,” she warned. “Let it be about values. Manchester’s always been about values and vision.” I left the room proud to be studying at this great university and living in this great city. Although not a Mancunian by birth, I’d like to think that I share the beliefs and values that make this place so special.
08 : Feature
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
What Black History Month means to me
Martin Luther King Jr. Photo: Penn State Special Collect @Flickr
- Black History Month 2014 has come to an end but its impact is not just felt in the month of October. Here, students share what the movement means to them. Introduction by Tanisha Douglas, BME Student Officer:
B
lack History Month UK is held in October to empower students at the beginning of each academic year. This year, with the help of some fantastic students, we were able to do just that. We were not only able to connect students on campus but also the people within the Manchester community. This year’s theme was to empower, enlighten and celebrate, and this is what we achieved through our events. October may now be over, but that does not mean we should wait until next year—every day we should continue to empower, enlighten and celebrate the diversity of each and everyone’s cultures for each is worth celebrating. Here are some articles from students on campus to share with us what Black History Month means to them. Chris Humba: Black history month is a time when society takes time to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions and achievements that black people
have given to the world. It’s a time to learn new facts, discuss important issues, look at ways forward and educate others and myself about black history and racism that still exists, either in an in-your-face fashion or in a hidden, closeted way. Black history, to me, is much more than just one month a year, it’s part of an identity that impacts on us on a daily basis, for example in social situations—how others react to you—first impressions (i.e. if I wear a hoodie because it’s cold and wet, others may think that I am doing it for negative reasons), the educational system, employment, criminal justice, and accessing services and the media. So the issue of race and racism are important factors because of the historical context that certain words and events have had and still do have, permeating into today’s attitudes and stereotypes, e.g. “the angry black man/ woman,” “all black people are good at sports,” “all black people love chicken,” “all black men are womanizers.” We need to discuss the issues around societal and institutional racism that still exists. Why is it that if the UK’s population is
around 60012456 and the black population is 1521400, which at a rough estimate makes up 3.01%, Black or Black British people make up 13.4 per cent of the prison population? This illustrates a huge overrepresentation and yet only four senior judges, out of 161, were known to be from a BME community. One senior civil servant out of 52 working for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) was known to be from a BME community. And three per cent of the senior police officers in England and Wales were from a BME community. In regards to the education we need to ask how come in Liverpool, only 22 out of 4192 teachers were from an African or African-Caribbean background. As recently as 2010, there are just 85 black professors out of a total of 18510 in the UK, making up 1.6%. We need to learn from the past, however uncomfortable it is, as to grow and learn you need to first move out from a position of comfort, which will allow open discussion. It’s not about bashing people and making them feel bad, it’s about looking at statistics and facts and then working together on both sides
to make positive differences. I think we can all start the process even if its just by reading one book on black history of figures, attending one event taking place at the university or in the city in general, or having proper open discussion to see the true experiences of your black friend who will most probably not
As recently as 2010, there are just 85 black professors out of a total of 18510 in the UK, making up 1.6%.
be offended, just to get an insight. We can then continue to make progress. Don’t get me wrong, we are in a better place than we were in the 1950s and 1960s, and I am grateful for that, but there is still progress to be made. As Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Benjamina E. Dadzie: Black History Month should be every month. We should talk about Black History every month of every year, because we need to understand and to learn. As young people is our responsibility to educate, empower and celebrate our multicultural society, embracing our differences and making the most out of it, in order to do better than how our great-grandfathers did; or to do what they didn’t have the knowledge, means and authority to do. Although Black History Month is not every month of the year, I’m glad we have one out of twelve: one to understand, to talk and to share those burning issues we avoid voicing out and that are consuming our social relationships. This month is to inspire and to educate, and as such, it is our duty as community of people who know better, to bring to the table the things we do not feel comfortable with.
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Feature : 09
This is the moment to talk about race, to enlighten about stereotypes and demonise ignorance. It’s a chance to share and to try to understand what is and where the line between racism, ignorance and curiosity can be found and what we, as people who struggle every day to change the conversation, can do to make the difference. It’s the moment to educate those who often fall into racist/ ignorant situations, transforming
This month is the time to learn how we can coexist, how we can stop defining ourselves according to our appearance but in accord with our being and doing. what could be an angry and unproductive confrontation, into a moment to learn and to correct one’s social manner. We live in a multicultural society and while one would gladly notice what brings and shapes us in togetherness, sometimes we are
Photo: Kriddick1908 @Flickr
reminded with uncomfortable truth the similarities we will never have. So it happens that there’s a constant battle within, a battle that eats up the good in us and transforms us into categories rather than people. This month is the time to learn how we can coexist, how we can stop defining ourselves according to our appearance, but in accord with our being and doing.
Anisa Rashid: Ask anyone about influential figures in Black History, and there’s a good chance that the names Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Malcolm X will pop up. Many would be hard pushed to name anymore. Most of my knowledge of Black History is usually based around civil rights activists from mid 20th Century America, and I suspect that it’s probably the same for
anyone who went to school in the UK. While African American civil rights activists should definitely make up part of the curriculum, growing up as Black Londoner, this small slice of black history we learn about has always felt a little distant. It’s only through my own recent research that I’ve learned more about influential black Britons. For example, Paul Stephenson, a prominent Bristolian civil rights
campaigner, who led a 60-day boycott of the Bristol Omnibus Company, after they refused to hire any BME drivers or conductors in 1963. Olaudah Equiano, a formerly enslaved Nigerian, who alongside other African Londoners campaigned to end slavery in the 1780s. Mary Prince, who was the first black woman to write and publish an autobiography in the UK, wrote a book titled ‘The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave’ detailing her experience of slavery. Black British individuals making history today are also often overlooked. Baroness Doreen Lawrence set up the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust (a trust set up in memory of her son who was murdered in a racially motivated attack), which aims to campaign against social injustice. Malorie Blackman, current Children’s Laureate, is working to highlight the lack of diversity in children’s book. Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, space scientist and mechanical engineer, often tours inner city schools giving talks on how she became a scientist while overcoming dyslexia and challenging stereotypes. As Black History Month 2014 comes to a close, it’s important that we think beyond this month, and focus on how we can make improvements to the black history that currently makes up the curriculum. Given the contributions a lot of these black Britons have made to society, it’s a shame that many people have never heard of them before.
Female student self-defence at the university
Self-defence is an important skill to know, particularly at university. The University of Manchester has recognised such a necessity and has actively sought to improve self defence among students Abbie Piazza
F
rom an early age, young females are constantly reminded of the dangers that they may face in their lifetime. This has caused girls to regularly acknowledge their own supposed vulnerability and therefore, they will take the appropriate precautions to prevent becoming a victim of an attack. Women are forever being reminded to never walk home alone, not to get too drunk, try to go home with a friend, never leave a drink unattended, and so on. Although this advice is well intended, it has resulted in many young females merely avoiding situations in which they could meet potential danger. However women are rarely informed about how they should
The Huffington Post quoted that roughly 20 per cent of women will be sexually assaulted throughout their time at university
Photo: Will Stotler @Flickr
react if they are confronted with a dangerous situation. The Huffington Post quoted that roughly 20 per cent of women will be sexually assaulted throughout their time at university; however I’m sure if you ask the majority of female university students they would not know how to react in a sexual assault situation. I’m sure that many girls share the same mentality as I do and think “it will never happen to me,” and continue to avoid certain areas or doing certain things as opposed to actually learning to defend themselves.
At this year’s Welcome Fair, a stall advertising a free women’s self-defence class caught my eye and caused me to question my own abilities at being able to defend myself and then it dawned on me that I would probably be absolutely useless. The following week I went along to one of the classes and what took place in that hour and a half truly did impress me. The vast amount of girls who had opted to learn self-defence was astounding, however what really amazed me was the people who ran the class.
Not only had they given up their free time for no payment to ensure that girls felt more confident but they also seemed to genuinely care about the girls having effective defence skills and they even showed how to project those skills to a real life situation. I am proud to be a student of a university that is actually taking proactive measures to ensure their students remain safe and a huge thank you to those individuals of Smart Martial Arts who have already made me feel more confident in my ability to defend myself.
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Opinion
Editors’ Foreword Marcus Johns Morris Seifert
Do you disagree with something that’s been said? Tweet us with your thoughts and comments: @MancunionOp. If you would like to contribute tweet us or like our page on Facebook at facebook.com/MancunionOp and drop us a post. Next week we will be featuring articles discussing the state of literature in the modern world. If this interests you, then please come along to our weekly ideas meetings.
‘Drugs are bad’ Morris Seifert Opinion Editor Recently David Cameron stood firmly once again under pressure to reform his antiquated drug policy. This time in the face of Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat Crime Prevention Minister, who pointed to a Home-Office commissioned report finding “no obvious” link between the tough laws and levels of drug use, continuing the trend of Liberal Democrats waving their arms about the “misplaced, antiquated” drug policy as Cameron tells them once again to ‘be quiet, I’m busy!’ This continues on Cameron’s trend of total ignorance to the facts, in 2011 claiming decriminalisation would “make them [drugs] even more prevalent and increase use levels even more than they are” – a notion that the Czech Republic and Portugal have both proven to be incorrect. In one of Cameron’s most disliked YouTube videos of all time, he calls Marijuana, “incredibly damaging, very toxic and leading to huge mental health problems.” In the same video, after a well backed appeal to consider Marijuana for its medicinal use, Cameron asserts that it is a “matter for the science and medical authorities to determine and they are free to make independent determinations.” However the hypocrisy of this drips like a bear climbing out of a vat of oil, after David Nutt was sacked by the Home Secretary under Gordon Brown, Alan Johnson, for publishing a study that claimed LSD and MDMA were less dangerous than alcohol. He was dismissed because, officially, “he cannot be both a government advisor and a campaigner about government policy.” All of this is compounded by a recent debate about UK drug policy in the House of Commons, where a shocking 25 out of the 650 MPs showed up. The debate looked favourable upon legislation and regulation of ‘soft drugs’, found that the 1971 drug act was in serious need of review, and that the general public viewed ministers as “Dinosaurs” in terms of drug policy. Now, I’m not writing this to help out the myriad of people who have to loosely tie a condom around their ball sack to get their drugs into Warehouse Project or because £20 for a few grams of dry, crushed weed is extortionate. I’m writing this because right now, illegality causes deaths, encourages criminality and if the US are any example, with a Marijuana industry estimated at a value of $10-$40 billion, we are losing serious money. We need proper policy and Cameron once again, is not acting on the interests of the people.
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
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Bring Back Our Girls Bruce Tang Contributor What ever happened to ‘our girls’? People around the world flocked to media outlets to tweet or post status updates pressing governments to ‘Bring Back Our Girls’. Even Michelle Obama posted a picture of herself with the slogan on a placard. But this was six months ago. So what has happened since then? What we’re experiencing is a growing trend that I and probably most of you have realised already, the ‘Issue of the Week.’ I understand that some of these issues are of obvious importance to us. And I understand that there is a need to raise awareness and that this can greatly help. But does this justify our waning interests once attention has been raised? And are we even justified in moving on to another pressing world issue? The Bring Back Our Girls campaign is a major news story that I recall gaining huge traction. What I struggle with, though, is finding people who know what’s happening now. Six months on, 276 of the 300 girls remain captured. This means that 92 per cent of them are still held in captivity—if not traded on to other groups. In addition to this, Boko Haram are currently in talks with the Nigerian government to attempt a hostage swap—students for senior commanders in prison. But while this has been reported, this hasn’t seemed to gain as much attention as it originally did. In addition to this, I struggled to find reliable sources in my two weeks of writing this
article. Obviously this is a concern. It’s no less an issue than it was to begin with, but are we at fault? The first point to address would be that day to day we experience our own problems, in addition to other issues and news that are reported as well. I understand that it is difficult to maintain interest in an issue like this for as long as it’s been going on, especially one that is of such a great distance away from us. Often it seems more like we’re awarded for raising awareness and being charitable, but we’re not punished for doing nothing. As bad as this may sound, I truly believe that this is natural. We’re personally affected by issues that we can see unfold before us—the Scottish Independence referendum was one such case, mainly because it was inescapable. It affected us personally, and if not that, then it at least affected someone we know. It’s natural for us to be more concerned about affairs that are closer to home than those abroad, issues that are far away are harder to keep track of and our interests will wane. This is not a reflection of political apathy; it’s human nature. It is inherent that we prioritise issues that affect us more. We are rational beings, we do what is beneficial to ourselves even if this means that we prioritise certain issues over others. But the question remains, is this justified? I would argue no. It is natural for us to forget and it is natural for us to prioritise, but this does not undermine what is at stake. Yes, it’s fine to move
on and tweet about the horrors of the Islamic State, and to post status updates on Hong Kong
Why have we forgotten the 276 girls who are still hostages of Boko Haram
protests for greater democracy. But it wouldn’t hurt to check in with ‘Our Girls’ now and then.
We need to make sure that the Chibok secondary school students are not forgotten.
Photos: Xavier J. Peg @Flickr
The Weird Phenomenon of the Hood Prank Daniel Goodman Contributor Pranks have changed. A word that used to bring to mind a harmless trick such as taping a sleeping relative’s lips together or dropping a chicken wing into a friend’s drink has come to have much more serious connotations. A new wave of internet celebrity, mainly from YouTube, have changed the face of the prank. It’s moved from Bart Simpson-esque horseplay into a more dangerous, morally dubious and oddly masochistic phenomenon. Take OckTv, for example, two young New Yorkers at the forefront of a new style of prank. They are prominent YouTubers who go into the hood and provoke people until attacked. Their videos are mainly filmed in rougher parts of Brooklyn and include tactics such as asking strangers to fight, yanking phones out of their owners’ hands, and pulling up people’s sagging jeans. Now, I’m not going to pretend that these videos are not fun to watch; indeed, there’s an innate sense of fascination seeing someone getting beaten up in a scenario where they are seemingly deserving of it for having literally asked to be attacked. People love to talk about the courage of Sacha Baron Cohen when he has mocked middleaged women at pro-life rallies but this is in stark comparison to the ilk of YouTubers, OckTv. These people are genuinely put-
ting their lives at risk for internet stardom. They’re not merely being punched in the hood, people are pulling knives and guns upon them. This isn’t the first Internet trend that has amounted to competing to hurt yourself the most. Phenomena such as NekNominate, which though maybe stupid, is the kind of thing that has been going on at universities for years, saw five people die. Jonny Byrne from Ireland, for example, jumped into a freezing river whilst drinking his drink, which ultimately resulted in his death. There is the sense that this is a natural culmination of a fame-obsessed society; people simply do not care if their death is impending, if it will clinch them more views. It leads to wondering how deep this mindset runs. If the Romans were still throwing Christians to the lions, then the public would be queuing up to be eaten. When watching these videos it is easy to think that they’re victimless but they are really not. According to OckTv and a similar YouTube channel DennisceeT, they often film for days to try and get the right response. So whilst the viewer sees a steady flow of unfortunate people immediately jump to assault, in reality a stream of people have been accosted going about their daily lives and walked off—most likely feeling intimidated. Amongst the highest rated comments on the videos are invari-
able things like: “J ham: I have to ask, why is it that black ppl [sic] throw the first punch before thinking and not just laugh it off?” Other vitriolic and racist comments become products of videos likes these: “VitalityEnergyGrowth: god i [sic] hate how blacks are so aggressive. makes [sic] me sick.” The whole thing has the air of a poverty safari; it’s merely a way for suburbanites to peak into the ghetto and confirm their wrongly held beliefs that urban black people are a bunch of animals that will kill you over nothing. It’s clear though that if you spent an afternoon provoking people in any poor ghettoised American area—or even a British council estate—regardless of race, then you would likely be attacked. People in areas of high crime and high poverty are used to violence on a daily basis. Between January 1st and May 18th of 2014 in the Brownsville area of Brooklyn, where many of the videos are recorded, there were 35 shootings. That is higher than the whole of Manhattan in the same period. It’s not just specific to areas of high crime and poverty though. Even in these areas statisticians taking surveys are unlikely to be mauled, whereas provocateurs are likely to find reaction wherever they go. A lot of these videos don’t even attempt to pretend they’re doing anything other than trying to exploit the fear of people living in violent neighbourhoods.
The extreme side of goading the underprivileged into violence on tape is known as Bumfights. This is an Internet series that ran originally in the early 2000s; homeless people were paid in California—unfortunately, often in drugs and alcohol—to fight each other. This phenomenon is not that. The pranks aren’t made maliciously and I’m sure that the guys making them are not racists. Etayyim from OckTv has said that they had done similar stuff in Manhattan but changed it to the hood because they “wanted to take [their] pranks to a higher level.” Bumfights on the converse explicitly exploit people for entertainment. The showing of these
savages on YouTube are just vehicles used to raise the profiles of the online stars. Something I believe is somehow worse. At least Bumfights does not look like it might be fun to try for anyone who isn’t a violent sociopath. Yet due to the popularity of the initial hood pranks, a legion of copycat pranksters have been giving it a go for themselves. These are normal kids who think they have found a way to rapidly become online heroes, and I guess they have. I know I’ll still be watching but there’s still something inherently wrong about it.
Photo: Carles Corbi Verge
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ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
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11
UKIP won’t be Kingmakers
UKIP can’t, and won’t, win the General Election in 2015 but they’re certain to embarrass the political elite. Isaac Atwal Contributor None of the UK parties have begot the results that were expected or even that they promised in recent memory. For the ruling coalition, five years of austerity and increased borrowing have left neither party in a good light whilst Labour have appeared limp and impotent with their inability to offer a strong alternative after 2015. People are being forced to tighten their belts as real terms pay cuts start to bite and prices continue rising. Despite UK legislators being modestly paid compared to their European counterparts, an above-inflation pay rise for what many perceive to be an elitist group of people has only served to increase disenchantment with the system. These feelings in certain constituencies could give UKIP enough votes to wake Westminster from its slumber; they won’t have their own bench in the Commons but a few close seconds to the big parties will set alarm bells ringing. UKIP have so far been able to exploit the disaffected and Nigel Farage will hope his party can use this to make an impact on the 2015 general election. He knows that the main parties need to do more to retain swing voters and these are who he will look to target, particularly Conservatives who may feel they have been let down by David Cameron. If his government wins the upcoming vote on intervention in Iraq, which they likely will, he will then have the uneasy task of juggling a fractious party and promoting a military intervention that currently divides the country and brings back painful memories (37 per cent for vs. 36 per cent
against, according to YouGov). Expect an anti-war stance from UKIP. UKIP have been consistently polling around the same level or just above the Liberal Democrats for over 18 months and the latest voting intention YouGov poll places them on 16 per cent, a full nine points higher than the Lib Dems. It is unlikely that the vote will mirror these polls but if they can take enough swing voters in targeted constituencies then they could severely embarrass all three parties by gaining second or third place.
“They will still be a thorn in the side of the establishment; what remains to be seen is how big that thorn will be.” After getting the highest share of the vote in the recent 2014 European elections, UKIP could be forgiven for being confident going into 2015. However, their core support remains small and their full manifesto lacks real credibility. Moreover, the ugly spectre of racist and homophobic councillors and candidates refuses to go away, giving the impression that other UKIP members privately hold such views. Many people hear the name UKIP and either roll their eyes or shudder. As long as credibility is an issue it will be enough to dissuade disillusioned voters from taking the plunge and voting UKIP at the ballot box. As long as they remain a fringe party, respectability will continue to elude them. A poll or a European election, especially in Britain, is one thing but in a
Photo:Euro Realist Newsletter@Flickr. Front page photo: jenniferjanemills @Flickr
general election most people revert to type. Nigel Farage knows he needs to improve his party’s image; he has been trying hard to sweep his party of the racists and sexists of obscure middle England. The damage is done, however—people hear of UKIP and they already have an opinion. It is then that small pockets of respectability will be key for Farage. UKIP’s credibility benefitted hugely from the defection of ex-Tory MP Douglas Carswell. The headline-making campaign in Clacton for the 9th October by-election was a test for a Conservative party that has not delivered on promises such as reducing migration and controlling the cost of living. Carswell, wellknown and with the credibility of serving the area as a Conservative MP, made the people more comfortable voting UKIP. In addition to this remarkable coup, the announcement that Farage himself will be fighting for a seat will revive the intense media attention that UKIP had in the recent European elections.
This will be key to UKIP’s success, as the very nature of their vote winning strategy relies on publicity and exposure to voters whom they can then hope to sway. UKIP won’t be kingmakers after next year’s general election. Their core support is not large enough and too many questions remain about their ability to behave like an established political party and take part in government responsibly. On the other hand, it would not be unreasonable to think that Douglas Carswell or even Farage himself has a fair chance of gaining a seat in 2015. There have been a few close calls in safe middle England Tory seats that may have the potential to push Labour or the Liberal Democrats into second or third in some places and thus 2015 could be the year that UKIP makes the leap to legitimacy. Whatever happens they will still be a thorn in the side of the establishment; what remains to be seen is how big that thorn will be.
Some are more equal than others
We can’t keep sweeping it under the carpet, we need to talk about race. Joe Evans Contributor Race and examples of discrimination still dominate our media. This is widely considered to be a good thing. Issues of differentiation by race are highlighted and brought to the public’s attention on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. We imagine then, with the fear of exposure so high, the risks of being “outed” as racist would deter even the most ardent bigot. Recent revelations regarding the admissions processes at Oxford University, however, would suggest otherwise. Statistics gained through the Freedoms of Information act recently revealed that the selection process for one of the world’s most famous universities showed frightening and unusual bias against ethnic minorities. Statistics such as 43% of white applicants with three or more A* grades gaining entrance versus just 22.1% of ethnic minority applicants with the same grades highlight discriminatory practice permeating one of the United Kingdom’s most championed institutions.
“The truth is that not talking about race, isn’t going to eliminate racial tension at all.” The response to these statistics was, rightfully, outrage. Further assessment of the admission statistics bring to light that just one British black Caribbean undergraduate student was admitted to the university in 2009. Furthermore, with the University of Cambridge refusing to release their statistics despite a Freedom of Information request, the question of why a white student has twice as much a chance of success as one from an
Photo: I Too Am Oxford @Tumblr
ethic minority background highlights a huge issue. Institutional racism, or at the very least cultural elitism, seems to have remained untouched by social evolution in the example of the highest castes of British institutions. The response to the revelations, inspired by the ‘I, too, Am Havard’ campaign, can be seen in the ‘I, too, Am Oxford’ campaign. Students of the university from ethnically diverse cultures were invited to share their experiences at the university ranging from being asked ‘So do you like speak ‘Nigerian’?’ to being forced to answer ‘But, what is your African name?’ The most powerful of the campaign’s statements directly addresses the scandal, ‘If you “don’t see race” how come we don’t see that in the admissions statistics?’ The success of this campaign seems to illuminate a greater issue at the centre of racial assimilation
Come to our meetings: Mondays 5pm first floor of the Students’ Union
in the United Kingdom. I think it is safe to assume that the experiences of these students were not imposed upon them by ‘racist’ peers. It is more than likely that the questions they were forced to answer were merely misguided attempts at attempting to understand someone different, in this case, different due to their race. The issue highlighted is that for all we are bombarded with examples of what it is to be a racist, many people still feel disparity between races. The awkward and heavy handed response to ‘I too, Am Oxford’, titled ‘We Are All Oxford’ serves as an example that racial relations in the United Kingdom, for many, is still a confusing issue. The campaign, albeit well-meaning in its attempts at uniting cultures, actually only negates the concerns of the ethnic minority students featured in the ‘I too, Am Oxford’ campaign. The truth is that
not talking about race, isn’t going to eliminate racial tension at all. Racial difference being the elephant in the room has made communicating with somebody clearly of a different culture an awkward experience for fear of being labelled a racist. Similarly attempting to ignore the differences entirely through ‘we are all one, let’s forget that sometimes we say ridiculous things’ style campaigns is a patronising approach to take towards somebody proud of their culture but not wishing to be solely defined by it. Racial discrimination, at both micro-level in our day to day exchanged and also institutionally, will only go away through dialogue. Not awkward dialogue, but a dialogue that attempts to make race a non-issue. Race should be something with which a person can identify if they choose, but not be defined by. People should not be cast in the mould of their racial identity, stereotypes should not be enforced, and these preconceived ideologies will only disintegrate given the opportunity to engage with a person rather than a cultural identity. One issue that must be addressed in order for a dialogue to be opened is to stop the hijacking of racial integration by high profile cases of perceived racism. The BNP branding David Cameron racist for his admission that Oxford’s practices are untoward for example, or the hounding of John Terry (who isn’t a racist lets be fair) for an abhorrent mistake in the heat of the moment do nothing for breaking down barriers. The media’s love for providing a platform for the radicalists they supposedly wish to defeat and the sensationalising of cases such as John Terry’s set back any chance of race becoming something we don’t see. Instead it places it in the forefront of our minds. It becomes the first thing we assess. And in these conditions the fear of being racist on a daily basis will underpin our consciousness so strongly that institutions will still slip under the radar, perpetuating cultural bias in our society.
12
Music
Editors: Patrick Hinton, Lowell Clarke Samuel Ward, Dan Whiteley
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Special
the Samuel Ward Music Editor
SPECIAL
INDEPENDENT MANCHESTER
Music editor Samuel Ward speaks to the brains behind some of Manchester’s most interesting collaborator-led events and organisations S o u n d s From The Other City Launched in 2005, the event was conceived by Maurice and Mark Carlin who wanted to create a platform for the best young independent promoters presenting the most exciting new music from Manchester and beyond. After being blown away by the sheer variety and outright craziness of 2014’s incarnation, I had to chat to Mark about the festival. “I think it’s really just a simple one-day event that unites the energy of independent music and Manchester and gives it a reason to celebrate! “The original idea was a very simple one. My brother and I had just moved our recording studio base at the time to Islington Mill in Salford around where SFTOC now circulates. What we found there was a combination of really positive energies, really great people and the feeling of opportunity and anything being possible. At the same time we couldn’t help but notice the myriad of really interesting and unusual spaces in and around the area. We’d always been interested and involved in the music scene but more on the peripheries at that point so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to start something new. We essentially borrowed the idea for the format from earlier art events at the Mill (in 2001 and 2002, when Sho1 and Chapel St Open happened) – this was a festival of art exhibitions and installations that spilled out of the Mill and across Chapel St. We took that idea and applied it to the independent promoters and club nights from across the city that we felt where doing really interesting events and bringing the most exciting artists from across the world to the city. So in the first year we invited along four promoters and staged four simultaneous gigs in four pubs along lower Chapel Street. There was no real intention of making it a festival and in some ways i think that
Photo: Sounds from the Other City
term is a bit of a misnomer - I think it’s really just a simple one-day event that unites the energy of independent music and Manchester and gives it a reason to celebrate! “It’s special because it’s genuinely democratic. There is no one person who makes all the decisions or choices in the programming, rather a large group of people all representing their individual tastes and opinions, this is also a developing group of people and doesn’t remain the same each year. “The other key factor I think is the location - Chapel St. Although now fast developing, it still remains a largely unvisited area for many city dwellers so even though a lot of people have journeyed less than a mile or two, everyone still has the spirit of adventure and holidaying about them. Maybe that’s what allows people to really just soak up all the action without worrying too much about what they are encountering.” As for students? “I think the entire scene depends on new blood, new energy and new ideas to flow through it – I imagine for early year students it can be quite daunting to get involved with these types of events but we’d like to think that we are really open to new people becoming involved. We run a volunteer programme every year and a lot students get involved in this. We are also really proud of the fact that almost everyone that now works on the festival began as a volunteer – so it’s a good way to get involved in the independent grass roots scene.” If you want to get involved as a volunteer you can email info@ soundsfromtheothercity.com
O t h e r S o u n d s S o c i e t y Other Sounds are a studentrun music society within the Unviersity of Manchester. I spoke to committee member Alyssa Vongapai about who they are and what they do exactly.
Photo: Helena Ross - Other Sounds
“We’re an informal group of music fans who encourage people both within and outside the student community to get involved in Manchester’s music scene. The backbone of what we do are DIY gigs showcasing small acts (predominantly from the north), but we also organise music-related documentary screenings and creative events to accommodate and involve people who are passionate about music regardless of their ability.” It’s not hard to get involved – “Just turn up to an event! We host monthly gigs at Fuel in Withington but we make sure to have more social events throughout the year - ranging from simple drinks to mixtape swaps and workshop sessions so people can get to know each other better. “We really try to provide something for everyone with an active interest in music, whether they’re creators or just listeners. There’s no one genre we limit ourselves to and that really shows up looking at the range you get at our mixtape swaps. We try to be as welcoming as possible in other senses too alternative music fandom can so often be an elitist, hostile boy’s club and we really resist that. What makes Other Sounds really Other Sounds is having a diverse membership and leadership and. at the end of the day, having a bit of a sense of humour about ourselves.”
Rotation P o l i c y Rotation Policy is a night based at Koh Tao bar (formerly Wahl Bar) in Fallowfield. Its aims are to offer people the chance to DJ in a club environment, whilst looking to bring down the best DJs that live in the Manchester area. Past guests include Jon K, Ciaran Hansen, Dan Hampson, Ste Spandex and Tom Boogizm. Creator Calum Carey says “our musical focus is not specific; we’re just looking to bring the best of all dance genres
Photo: Rotation Policy
to Fallowfield – whether it be house, disco, garage, techno, funk etc…” “The most unique thing about Rotation Policy is the emphasis on giving as many people the opportunity and experience of DJ’ing in a club. Most nights are quite fixed on the residents they allow to play alongside their headliners so it’s actually quite difficult to get in a position of DJ’ing in the city regularly. The response we’ve had from people of all ages getting in touch about wanting to play at our event has been much greater than we could have anticipated, so it’s quite satisfying to see that our concept is resonating with so many people. “With the emphasis on local talent as well it’s been great to see the community that’s been building around the night since we started in February. Everyone who comes down is either a DJ/promoter or just has a keen interest in the music so it’s created a really musically
focused crowd which has made the nights a lot of fun to put on. “Regarding the structure of the nights, we’re looking to broaden the variety of music we showcase. When can get ourselves round to it we’d love to incorporate people playing live sets that step away from the standard mixer/ dj decks setup. We’ve had interest from a few people who are looking to do this already so it’s looking good. “We also have plans to host a real night at a club in the town centre at some point next year. All of us having varying ideas on what our dream lineup would be so I guess the biggest challenge will be how far were willing to compromise them for each other. If we ever manage that we’ll look to have it set for late February/early March! “Anyone looking to get involved with the night just needs to send a mix to rotationpolicy@gmail. com. We look at all the mixes sent in, pick our favourites and invite them down to our future events.” The next rotation policy happens on Thursday the 20th of November
Manchester International Fe s t iv a l Occuring once every two years across the city centre, Manchester International Festival is “as an artist-led, commissioning festival presenting new works from across the spectrum of performing arts, visual arts and popular culture.” Previous artists and productions to grace MIF’s stage include Björk and her biophilia production, Damon Albarn’s theatrical production of Monkey: Journey to the West, and the xx’s residency underneath Victoria train station. Not only does the festival hold incredible audio-visual events but independent films, plays and art exhibitions. MIF happens 2 – 19 July 2015.
Photo: Moodyman@flickr
North By North West Hosting parties at Koh Tao on the second Thursday of every month, North By North West (styled as NxNw) like to keep the emphasis on fun. Co-runner Patrick Hinton revealed “At our October event it was Ben’s [co-runner] birthday so we filled a pinata with prizes and bought lots of cakes and 200 party hats to give out to all attendees. We like to add a little something to each of our nights beyond normal clubbing features to improve the experience of those who come down.” NxNw’s maximising of fun intent seems to have fared well with Fallowfield residents with every event this year hitting Koh Tao’s capacity. “We’re delighted to have this Koh Tao residency. Since our demographic is mostly students, it’s great to be situated in Fallowfield. I think people appreciate a clubbing option which they don’t have to trek into town to go to.” What sort of music can punters expect to hear? “It can depend on which DJs are playing that night, but generally we favour great party tune in the realms of upbeat disco, garage and house in the main basement room.” Ticketing works via Facebook guestlist - comment your name on the event wall for reduced entry prices. North By North West’s next event is at Koh Tao on Thursday 13th November. The Facebook guestlist is open now.
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
@ MancunionMusic / TheMancunionMusicSection
Music
13
We Built This AuthentiOpinion City On Rock And Roll
the
Stephen Miller In recent years, authenticity is recognised as imperative in the successful careers of a number of artists in popular music. Due to the problematic and multifaceted nature of the term, does authenticity within popular music actually exist? I think of authenticity as the way in which we seek to understand our existential situation, as well as the freedom to realise our existential possibilities. In a musical sense, it would describe a lucid and truthful awareness of a situation that is accurate in the representation of a genre’s origin. However, is authenticity a goal that can never be fully attained? Is it a futile quest? The idea of authenticity is
Stephen Miller discusses authenticity in music
built deep into my thinking about rock, as I’m sure it is in yours, especially in comparison to pop music. The ideology of rock—the arguments about what rock means and stands for—has always been articulated more clearly by the fans than by the musicians themselves. As a fan of rock music, I am not merely a consumer or part of a passive audience; I am the meaning-maker of the genre. The connotations of rock music are such that generic pop music is regarded as the absolute antithesis of what we perceive to be authentic, in that rock musicians create their own music and identities, whereas pop musicians by contrast, are regarded as the puppets of the music industry, performing
music composed and arranged by others that pander to popular tastes. The very distinction between pop and rock as genres can be said to be founded on whether the expression of the artist is to be trusted or not. The distinction is thus one between what is authentic and what is commercial. A less-common perceived feature of music is the notion of sincerity. To be sincere is to sing truly about feelings, thoughts and desires within the musical discourse. Lyrics do not simply reflect how things are, lyrics make things the way they are. The values wrapped up in the idea of authenticity do not exist in the music itself; instead they exist in the lyrics we hear. Thus, what we perceive to be
Live
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
almost as a form of cultural hegemony, in which the dominant figures (the music industry, in this case) present
their view of authenticity in such a way that is accepted by us, the masses, as the absolute truth.
Live
Lady Gaga
Ed Sheeran
Phones4U Arena - 21st October 2014
8.5/10
Patrick Hinton Music Editor Seeing a ridiculously overblown pop show with an expensive production budget is something I’ve been meaning to scratch off my bucket list. Lady Gaga seems like a safe bet. Despite the tepid response to her latest album ARTPOP, there’s no denying her status as one of the biggest pop stars in the world. Adorned in a sequin dress with golden wings sprouting out the back, Gaga takes to the stage in a blaze of pomp, surrounded by dancers throwing colourful balloons the size of yoga balls to each other with 10 feet high inflatable flowers erupting from various points of the floor around her. The show barely goes ten minutes without Gaga disappearing through a trapdoor and rising out of one of her five stages with a full costume change and new hairdo moments later. The heavy focus on ARTPOP is slightly disappointing but not unexpected – this is an “ARTRAVE” after all, as she and projected visuals frequently remind us. Admittedly, the new songs sound much better live than on record, its EDM stylings suited to the large arena setting. Penultimate track ‘Applause’ even holds its own against monster hits such as ‘Bad Romance’ with a vigorous performance. The mashing of abbreviated versions of ‘Just Dance’, ‘Poker Face’ and ‘Telephone’ into a medley however to allow time for full versions of album tracks such as ‘Manicure’ is pretty unforgivable. Her stage show is at its most enjoyable when not taking itself too seriously. Her entertaining
authentic is actually more in line with the idea of sincerity. We misuse the virtue of what is authentic by applying it to what we mean to be sincere. Sincerity is regarded as a ‘should’ as opposed to authenticity which is regarded as an ‘is’. Sincerity is moving, progressing, and working to improve, whereas authenticity is a stagnate description of the status quo. The idea that authenticity is a musical connection between what artists think and what they sing is a misplaced representation of sincerity. This misrepresentation, however, is what gives authenticity its selling point. It is a precious commodity, and its definition is a way of controlling value,
Phones4U Arena - 28th October 2014 Dinesh Mattu
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
ostentatiousness is typified by the moment she sheds a dress that looks like an inflatable giant squid crossed with a cow and is then lifted 10 metres into the air by a gigantic golden hand. “Don’t you just hate it when your stiletto heels get stuck in your latex?” she jokes whilst attempting to fix a wardrobe malfunction. Indeed, Gaga’s fan interaction is something to behold, at times resembling a religious experience. She is bombarded by gifts and envelopes throughout. Opening one such letter reveals the struggles of a Kazakhstani fan growing up, detailing how important Gaga’s music was in helping him followed by a request to come backstage. As the spotlight finds said fan in the crowd and Gaga declares in a booming tone “You can come backstage” he melts into the floor with joy whilst everyone in his vincinity openly weeps and hugs him. Another touching moment occurs when she invites a fan onstage to successfully propose to his boyfriend. The sincerity
of feeling the audience exude means her actions do not feel like they cross the line into being exploitative. As she serenades the newly engaged couple with a stripped back piano and vocal version of ‘Born This Way’, the strength of her voice and musicianship are also emphasized. Even without the glitz, Gaga’s performance is impressive. Gaga does however overstep the mark in becoming too saccharine at times – e.g ten minute “love yourself” pep talks - but she is charming on the whole. “This one’s for anyone suffering from drug and alcohol addictions” she announces prior to ‘Dope’ to a ripple of appreciation, before playfully continuing “and also for anyone enjoying those addictions” which receives loud whoops. Gaga’s stage show and performance equally reflect the exaggerated popstar brand she embodies and the genuine talent she possesses.
Saint Raymond’s stage presence feels assured and confident, sounding a little like Ben Howard with a few more guitars; it’s no surprise he sits well with Ed Sheeran fans. His music is indie-pop, dancy and synthesised; the Top 40 can only be a matter of months away. Warmed up and ready for the main event, Ed Sheeran leisurely strolls on stage to a sold out arena. He wastes no time in proving his worth; there’s no band, no eccentric stage design, no startling lights, no bullshit. Armed with his guitar and a loop pedal, the gig just seems like another day in the office for him. Unfazed by the twenty
Photo: NRK P3 @Flickr
thousand fans, he launches straight into ‘I’m A Mess,’ the crowd lapping it up in enjoyment. Going through some older material from his first album, including ‘Lego House’ ‘A-Team’ and ‘Drunk’ his setlist ticks off every song you’d expect to see live. He exercises his superb vocal capability in a diverse range of songs; most notably Ed draws on his rap influences on ‘Take It Back’ and an extended version of ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ spitting lyrics and beatboxing his way to the hearts of his admirers. Admirers from Wayne Rooney to Wretch 32 to 12-year old screaming fangirls; it’s inspiring to see how his music spans across such a varied demographic. Ed exposes some vulnerability
7.5/10
in his slower material; ‘Tenerife Sea,’ and ‘Thinking Out Loud’ highlight his tender, textured vocals, his guitar is near-enough mesmerising. In stark contrast, ‘Bloodstream’ is representative of his set: guitar melodies, stomping percussion, and exquisite vocals are layered and looped upon each other; the gradual energy building to intense and frantic climax. He is even better live than on record, creating songs quite literally from scratch; he is an unbelievable talent. It’s difficult not to like such an amicable and seemingly humble character when his music is so powerful, he has every right to be as brash and as snobbish as he can but Ed Sheeran is a magnificently modest little ginger man.
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Music
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
What’s Right... Or Shite....
Mancunion Recommends
This week in Music
Superfood – Don’t Say That Infectious Records; 3rd November 2014
Rights for Young Fathers Congratulations to music label Big Dada for their second Mercury Prize winners. Scottish hip hop group Young Fathers took the award home last week for their debut album, Dead.
8/10
Sam Music Editor
As far as album releases go, the tail end of 2014 has been an incredibly exciting time – there’s been Syro, You’re Dead!, Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, Our Love, High Life, LP1... you get the idea. But it doesn’t take a genius to see that there’s a recurring theme, one which points towards an electronic choke hold on many popular artists’ imaginations at present. So when the spirited Superfood appeared on the Birmingham radar last year, it was exciting to see that guitar music could still sound fresh, even in the era of the DJ. Running deep throughout their debut album, the some-what rebellious lack of care to fit in with the current musical norm, of bass and wannabe psychedelica, skips side by side with a twisted sound palette that instead focuses on high-ends and fuzzy 90’s sass. What’s more, there exists a perfect relationship between the final record and the band’s lifeblood; a juxtaposition of highquality production teasing out a rugged attitude and nonsensical catchiness that acts as the perfect guilty pleasure. And that’s exactly what this album serves to be - an exciting break from the overly serious, a bowl of frosties for your tea. Don’t get me wrong, this album is never trashy or bland; what’s more, it even makes guitar music feel fucking cool again. Between the grungy discordance of ‘Superfood’ or ‘TV’ and the whiney hiphop laden ‘Lily Pad For You To Rest On’ and blurry groove of ‘You Can Believe’, the
Photo: Young Fathers Album Art
Drive (Remix)
entire album is a throwback to the sunny carefree times of the 90’s. Unfortunately, the beefy tracks initially released last year on Soundcloud (‘TV’ and ‘Superfood’), which comprised that first taste which got me hooked, seem to have been on diet on the run-up to the album release. Their re-working, most likely the result of their live renditions, seems to have left the tracks sounding rawer but weaker. Nevertheless, Don’t Say That has, respectfully and seemingly out of nowhere, not only breathed life into my bedroom dance routine but also into a music scene which was left ravaged by the indie shit storm caused by the NME.
Last week saw the premiere of the BBC’s alternative version of Drive, featuring new music from CHVRCHES, Eric Prydz, Bastille and Foals. Lets hope this is the start of many interesting projects. Photo: Courtesy of FilmDistrict
Sankeys Ticket Giveaway We have FIVE pairs of tickets to Music Is Love with Derrick Carter at Sankeys this Saturday. Just email your name to music.articles@gmail.com for a chance to win! See our site for full details.
Annie Lennox - Nostalgia Island Records ; October 27th 2014
5/10
Joe Evans
Pioneer of the new wave scene Annie Lennox could perhaps be forgiven for wanted to produce something a little less experimental. Her latest offering Nostalgia is just that. Lennox takes on the early soul and jazz of the Great American Songbook certainly with style, but ends up producing something that will make a great stocking filler for your Mum. At its best the album is strong, breathing life into songs often covered but rarely covered well. ‘Memphis in June’ the album’s first track immediately exhibits the power of Lennox’s vocal range and ability. Evidencing soul unlike anything she has released before, the vocal soars over an innovative arrangement. The same can be said of the reinvention of ‘Georgia On My Mind’. The arrangement again revokes the songs emotive power while the voice is powerful and dramatic. ‘I Put a Spell on You’ lacks the grit of either Nina Simone or ‘Screamin’’ Jay Hawkins, but again is perfect for your Mum. Easy to listen to but nonetheless impressive. ‘Summertime’ is one of the more interesting songs on the album. Subverting expectation of the Gershwin classic, the song is stripped right back to the bare bones, Lennox accompanied by almost only a piano. It’s a nice twist on a widely performed piece of music, one that I didn’t see coming and one that is a welcome surprise. The main criticism of the album is that in place in seriously lack authenticity. Perhaps
Lord Give Me Shite Bono explained his ‘iconic’ (AKA douchebag) sunglasses are actually for his glaucoma. Finally we can understand how he manages to look himself in the mirror every day. Photo: David Shankbone
To Me, To Poo (Bruv)
it is an unfair critique of the Scottish singer to suggest that her interpretation lacks the soul of Billie Holiday, but listen to ‘Strange Fruit’ and I’m sure you’ll agree. Likewise, the life is somewhat sucked out of ‘I Cover the Waterfront’, a song brilliantly covered by Van Morrison. I’ve no doubt that issues regarding authenticity will be passed off with the argument that ‘it’s just a different interpretation’. This is fine, however it is undermined by the problem it is simply a worse, less gripping retelling of great songs. For me the impression I was left with from Nostalgia was one of wishing I had listened to the songs in their original format, rather than on yet another Great American Songbook album.
Everyone’s favourite joke handymen have teamed up with grime’s favourite joke rapper. That’s right - the Chuckle Brothers made a song with Tinchy Stryder. Oh dear... Oh dear oh dear. Photo: Screen Grab
First Rule of Shite Club.. ...is don’t reform Shite Club - which is exactly what the defining pop group of our pre-teen years are doing. Lets just hope their absence has been kinder to S-Club’s voices than it was to their solo careers. Photo: S Club 7 Album Art
Games
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
15
Editors: James Thursfield, Matthew Cole
Feature The Great FIFA Myth
James Thursfield explores how FIFA has influenced the way we perceive football in the real world
FIFA, with its constant iterations and slight gameplay changes, has over the years become a key component in every football fan’s vernacular. The franchise touts realism and facilitates what fans already know and enjoy about game whilst also portraying a host of teams and players unknown to the gamer. FIFA has become a key contributor, whether subconsciously or not, to how we understand the modern game. In doing so, it has become a source of numerous contrivances and premeditated views that have warped our perceptions of the real game. At present, the ‘FIFA versus reality’ debate is relevant due to the controversy surrounding Mario Balotelli’s recent form for Liverpool FC. Despite the majority of pundits, such as Mark Lawrenson, describing his recent acquisition as “a bargain,” in recent weeks the player has attracted serious criticism. As a result, questions have arisen as to why there were such high expectations of him in the first place. This article advocates that one such reason lies within his excellent FIFA statistics. In FIFA 14 Balotelli possessed a magnificent rating of 84 and even though this fell to 82 in FIFA 15, he still maintained the growth potential to become one of the world’s best players. Assuming that the majority of football watchers also play FIFA, it is likely that some individuals would have caught on to his virtual potential and expected similar dividends in reality. Whilst this article is not suggesting that Liverpool
spent £16 million based on a player’s rating in FIFA, there is the possibility that the game helped to build a positive atmosphere which gave Balotelli’s signing an air of anticipation that was not necessarily warranted. Similar misconceptions can also be applied to what FIFA gamers value in their football players. It is no secret that gamers such as myself prefer having faster defenders to slower ones. This has resulted in FIFA gamers dropping slow defenders who are widely considered excellent in the real world, such as John Terry, in favour of picking faster yet less reliable defenders such as
fans can identify the differences between FIFA and the real game. However, considering that recent FIFA releases are boasting unprecedented levels of realism, it appears that the franchise is trying to make this discrepancy less pronounced. It is also important to note that because the average English football fan is most acquainted with the Premier League, we are less familiar with foreign leagues, teams and players. Consequently, when it comes to our perceptions of foreign players, FIFA has a far greater say in how we view them. Players such as Hulk, a winger who plays
Photo: Luigi Strano
David Luiz. Such views are misleading because they imply, in a subtle manner, that speed in the real world is more important than positioning. It could be argued that such inconsistencies are harmless because gamers and football
for Zenit St. Petersburg in the Russian League, is amazing in FIFA. For many years I was personally enthralled by his amazing pace and strength which he possessed in the game. However, when I watched him play in reality during the
2014 World Cup, I was disappointed and surprised to see him pushed off the ball so easily and have so little resemblance to his virtual counterpart. This shows how FIFA can be harmful to our football understanding, where we have limited knowledge of the real game and subsequently use information garnered from the console to fill the void. Similar issues arise with the ‘potential’ of real-world footballers. Sport simulators such as FIFA Career Mode and Football Manager construct simulations based off statistics that predict the future of young players. Players such as Zakaria Bakkali, who in FIFA 14 had the potential to grow to a rating equal to that of Lionel Messi, has failed to show the meteoric rise he was predicted virtually. In fact, it is likely that nobody would have even heard of him had it not been for his virtual presence. Another significant influence that FIFA has on gamers’ perceptions of the real game, lies on their team preferences. Barcelona, a football side who in the last 5 years have had one of the best teams to ever grace the planet, is inferior to Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in all iterations of the franchise due to their lack of physicality. Similarly, England, a nation who failed to qualify from its group stage in the World Cup, is still considered on a par with Germany, the tournament winners. And considering that the overall football consensus is that Messi has consistently been the best player in the world over a number of years, in FIFA it cannot be disputed that Ronaldo has always been the best.
Feature Leaving the Vault
Is there a more awe-inspiring moment in gaming than the Lone Wanderer emerging into the Capital Wasteland for the first time? It is hard to think of anything that can match the magnitude of that initial encounter with the irradiated ruins of Washington, D.C.; the way the light blinds the player after their imprisonment in the claustrophobic tin confines of Vault 101, and the way the dead expanse then rolls into focus, revealing miles of sun-scorched earth, rock, and broken road. These first ten seconds or so bookmark the beginning of an unparalleled escape into the impossible, the uninhabitable, and for me they constitute a critical interval during which the player is not simply doing, but being. It is easy to slip into superlative soup when writing about the transcendent function of games, and frankly it is embarrassing how often reviewers resort to overstatement in an effort to convey their escapist experiences. Fallout 3, however, offers a legitimate excuse for me to get worked up over that magical power unique to the medium. When I talk about Fallout’s ability to make players ‘be’ rather than ‘do’, I’m alluding to the lens that we, as players, are forced to view games through. In almost every game ever made, we are placed in a world and tasked with an objective. To help us make sense of that
world, the developer superimposes waypoints onto it, litters it with shiny objects, or designs it in such a way as to funnel us in a certain direction. To some degree we ignore our physical surroundings in the world; we fail to see impertinent visual details and stylistic flourishes because they do not facilitate our progression toward an end point. Instead, we are positioned purely in opposition to our environment, which transforms it into something that should not be observed, but conquered. In other words, our gaming eye is trained to reduce everything we see into interactive scaffolding, thereby blotting out the tireless work of a hundred programmers in the process. We would only notice these ‘extra’ visual details in their absence. Fallout 3 is able to foreground these visual details by generating a moment of wonder. In the vault departure sequence described above, the piercing rays from the sun remind the player of the significance of the act they are undertaking; they are leaving their sheltered life behind them and are about to see the apocalyptic world for the first time. Then there is the actual visual impact of the landscape itself — its charred trees, distant towers and watercolour sky. After a fanfare underscores the momentousness of the occasion, everything becomes
strikingly still, strikingly serene. The whistle of the wind accents the calm, imbuing the wasteland with a timeless quality. Having been overwhelmed by the beauty of this image, the player then has to make sense of themselves in relation to their environment: “can I really travel to that faraway hill?” and “can I really scale that tower?” The reason they have difficulty coming to terms with their environment is that they are not given any obvious reference points—it is not clear which objects in the immediate vicinity might be valuable to them, and there is no obvious path for them to follow. The player will then turn around and face another uncertainty;
This piece does not aim to discredit or criticise the FIFA franchise. It remains a very useful tool for learning about new players, formations and just having loads of fun. However, FIFA no longer advertises itself as just being a great game to play with friends. It is also trying to be a football simulator. FIFA now fills the void of what the average gamer or football fan does not know about the real game. In doing so, FIFA provides a portrayal of the world in statistics and animations which, despite being convincing, is also a misleading medium. FIFA is arguably dangerous for this reason because its inaccuracies are only subtle. From discovering the unknown player, to prioritising speed over positioning, FIFA has defined our perception of what we want or expect from a player and has warped our perceptions of the real sport of football. FIFA may hold the most realistic depiction of the beautiful game, but details are lost in the translation and, unfortunately, those are the differences that distinguish myth from reality. (Special thanks to Zachary Owen who was instrumental in the creation of this article)
Matthew Cole relives the magical ten seconds of Fallout 3
behind the overhanging rock face that enshrouds the vault and obscures the player’s view beyond, it is not clear whether an equally epic mass of land awaits them on the other side. Taken together, these factors suspend the gaming impulse to ‘do’, and foster conditions conducive to the player becoming part of the environment. Once I had left the vault on my first play through it was only a couple of minutes before I came across an Eyebot, a spherical robot that glides across the wasteland five feet above ground level whilst blaring out the propaganda of a surviving human faction. I heard the Eyebot before I saw it. It was crackling out some sort of patriotic melody, which
Photo: Pakoe_ @Flickr
grew louder and louder until I saw it appear from behind a rock. I thought it would react to my presence in some way, but it just kept bobbing along on its aimless path, the broadcast diminishing in volume as it disappeared from view again. It made me realise the world was indifferent to my existence; I could easily have missed this occurrence and yet, whether I had followed the robot on its journey or not, the wasteland did not really care. The world would go on without me. In fact, it had been going on without me for all those years I was locked up inside Vault 101. In the same way that Hyrule continues to exist as a place even when I am not playing Ocarina of Time, the Capital Wasteland continues to hum and crackle away in my daydreams. The former does so by creating a fairy talelike world that never sleeps—if you were to enter the windmill of Kakariko village this very instant, you would be certain of seeing Guru-Guru, the creepy bearded character, playing Song of Storms with a mawkish grin on his face. Fallout 3 also achieves this effect by going about its business irrespective of your quest, the only difference being that, in a post-nuclear setting, there are no fairy tales.
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
/mancunionfashionandbeauty @mancunionfash
Editors: Gráinne Morrison, Aimée Grant Cumberbatch, Nikki Patel (Beauty) Trend
Top 5
Foundation of the future
Top 5 Welcome to the future Tech-cessories
The beauty industry has recently been swarmed by claims of ‘super’ foundations that can magically transform your skin. It would seem that foundation can do anything nowadays; from camouflaging all manner of sins to making you look ten years younger - is there anything this product can’t achieve? Earlier this year Yves Saint Laurent launched their Fusion Ink Foundation to a waiting list of around 12000 people, with much of the hype surrounding the claim that it uses NASA-inspired technology. As stated in Vogue, YSL have used the same lipophilic actives that were first used in space to capture stellar dust particles. The Fusion Foundation uses the same technology to keep skin matte for longer, as the honeycomb structure of the particles allows for higher absorption of sebum. To put it simply: your skin stays matte without the dry patches often associated with mattifying foundations. Although the scientific claims of this product seem a little far-fetched, it has received outstanding reviews across beauty blogs and Makeupalley.com, which agree that the texture and coverage meet the impeccable standards expected of a high-end beauty brand - although perhaps not quite the ‘out of this world’ effect one would expect from an association with astronauts. On a more accessible level (both budget-wise and scientifically), the launch of Boots No. 7 Foundation Match Made service saw the introduction of a handheld device to accurately read the colour tones of your skin and closely match them to a No. 7 foundation. By picking up whether you have pink or yellow-toned pigmentation, and the deepness of the shade of these pigments, the device is said to be far more reliable than the eye of the sales assistant or customer. This futuristic device is great for shortening the amount of time spent in Boots pondering over whether you are more ivory than bronze, providing a far less subjective opinion (and meaning you’re not clinging to the summer tan shade that is definitely too orange for winter). So, the future of the foundation is bright (but not orange), with precisely
matched shades for every skin tone, and a constitution compatible with every complexion. Although we may stick to Boots for our personal research and purchasing, the adoption of scientific research into foundation has proved successful and necessary in order to create a foundation fit for every skin type.
Chloe Collingwood teleports into the world of futuristic fashion
Adrienne Galloway is all about the fashionable yet technologically savvy accessories
Photo: cafepress.co.uk
Photo: feelunique.com
‘It would seem that foundation can do anything nowadays’
Feature
Apple’s Smart Watch: strategic innovation, or one bite too many?
Phone case Scratched phones are a thing of the past. Having a case can protect your phone from shock damage, and companies such as LifeProof specialise in keeping your phone protected in extreme weather conditions. The fashion industry has recognised that dropping your phone unexpectedly can hurt a little less if it’s in a case. Almost everyone has invested in this little life-saver. Photo: Selfridges Headphones In this modern age, a lot of time is spent on public transport – to me this means a lot of time spent wearing headphones listening to my favourite tracks. High street outlets such as Urban Outfitters have teamed up with Frends Taylor to sell super comfy, memory foam cushioned headphones. The interchangeable caps are also great to match your mood or outfit.
Emma Victoria Orgill deliberates on the newest addition to the fashion-tech family With technology advancing within every medium, it is unsurprising that fashion is one of the industries that has embraced it with open arms. From the viewing of live catwalk streams to models taking ‘selfies’ on the runway, it is now incredibly uncommon for fashion brands not to use technology to the utmost degree. They are examples of two industries that are inextricably connected and without technological reliance, the fashion industry may just be that little bit mundane. Social media applications, internet shopping and Instagram-ing the latest #OOTD are never far from the touch of our fingers, and there is a constant recognition that this is becoming increasingly apparent as part of our daily lives. This realisation usually originates from a technological game-changer that pleasantly invades our lives – Apple. Since Apple stormed onto the market, they have superiorly embraced innovation, whilst still remaining practical for a wide spectrum of generations. Their products appeal to us all in some shape or form, and one of their newest devices particularly hones in on the fashionconscious crowd. And their decision to target the luxury fashion and tech-savvy sector with their latest masterpiece the ‘Smart Watch’ has created a certain level of fashion-related hype. With fashion consumers being trend and tech-orientated, many would consider this is a smart move from an even smarter brand. This is perhaps the furthest their product diversification strategy has reached as a completely new market is being targeted. The wearable accessory acts as much more than a statement time-teller and the instant brand-recognition due to it being an Apple product is desirable to most. It contains Apple’s recognisable features; elegance, functionality, status and ease of usability . It is visually
appealing as the sleek product arrives in an array of different colours to suit all the crevices of the fussiest modern-day consumer market.
Photo: Apple.com However, the hard work that comes with such a product does not come without a hefty price tag, and cynicism will evidently still be present. Many would ask: who exactly would buy such an item? Apple have recognised this and targeted their marketing campaign at the ‘fashionable’ buyer. The understanding they have of their consumers’ desires is one of their core competencies as a business. Realising that personal identity is now more commonly than not displayed through our choice of unique style, Apple have already gone that extra mile in recognising that a ‘Smart Watch’ needs to appeal to more than the average consumer
browsing through the array of opinionated, price-comparison websites. It is almost therefore redundant as a timetelling device and instead, the fashion world has embraced the latest accessory, recognising it as a status symbol, sprinkled with an essence of elegance. Its first recognition from the industry appeared in Vogue China, where model Liu Wen dons the watch on the cover of the publication, whilst speaking highly of the product. A successful strategic marketing decision many would say, due to the Chinese technological market being the most advanced in the global industry. Being Apple is enough for most consumers, but this doesn’t mean they don’t have to impress their idealistic market. Previous brands have invented similar products but the hysteria has not been as intense as they perhaps anticipated. Thorough research suggests that the capabilities of the Smart Watch have the predicted features and more. With competition already out there, it’s a question of whether they will succeed in their new venture. They have certainly showed their capability in the past, but with the fashion market being highly volatile – have they taken too much of a risk?
Laptop skin and snap cases Itching to personalise your laptop without damaging its casing? Laptop skins are affordable and can be personalised with any photo. Stickers are great when it comes to making your laptop funky and by using a snap case you can protect the shell from scratching and avoid sticker damage.
Photo: Urban Outfitters Laptop sleeve It’s not that attractive lugging round a massive laptop bag. Having your laptop protected can now be savvy and practical. Why not invest in a heavily padded laptop sleeve that is just as effective and can fit cosily into a handbag? Sleeves provide lightweight protection and a little fashionable lift.
Fashion houses of 2014 step aside... Could it be that some of our hottest trends are now being set by the likes of Apple and Google? With the digital revolution as prominent as ever we are seeing the fashion world go technology mad; with the Apple Watch debuting the cover of Vogue China and the Google Goggles stealing the show at New York fashion week, we’re asking: are we really dawning upon a new age of futuristic fashion? And how far are we from the predictions of fashion we have seen over the past century? Over the years many films have tried to depict their vision of what ‘futuristic fashion’ would be. Blockbusters such as The Matrix and Blade Runner projected future visions of shady metallics, edgy vinyl, and grungy dark makeup. While in Back to The Future we saw auto-drying jackets, power lacing shoes and colour shifting hats, and now it seems that some of these fantasy predictions are becoming more and more of a reality. Take Louis Vuitton’s Matrix-esque AW14/15 menswear collection for example; we saw slicked back hair, futuristic shades, dark black leather and trench coats. While popping holographic prints and dishevelled metallics have never been bigger on the high street. We have even seen some impressive advancements in garment technology over the past few years such as ‘wearable solar’ which now means it could be only a matter of time before we can plug our iPhones into our dresses. It certainly seems that the future has never been so ‘now’. Coco Chanel once said: “Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” and in this digital era it seems Coco’s philosophy has prevailed once more; fashion is the new and ever-changing inventions, discoveries and technologies.
So bring on the new advancements, and let’s hope that auto-drying jacket is just around the corner... because we sure could do with one of those here in Manchester!
Adidas #allinformcr street styling session By the editorial team
Over the past few weeks, Adidas’ street style competition has seen Manchester’s students showing off their style skills. After selecting the 5 lucky winners, we headed to the Market Street store for the styling session where they picked their Adidas Originals outfits. We took on the fun role of style advisors for the evening! Check out our snaps from the session.
Winner Marie-Louise Brown looks spoilt for choice!
Photo: Warner Bros.
Shopping
Intergalactic style guide Since we’re officially living in the future, why not rival Marty McFly in the high tech style stakes with these ultra modern garms? One small step for you, one giant leap for your wardrobe.
Sports-luxe never goes out of style., this was one of our favourite picks.
Clockwise from left: Crop top, £45, Urban Outfitters; Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Photo: Cath Kidston
Pur
Couture
Golden
Lustre Lipstick, £25, feelMini speakers Mini speakers are compatible with all iPods, smartphones and mp3 players – which makes them perfect for getting ready on nights out. Lightweight and compact, their small size is ideal for carrying in
Will you be buying Apple’s ‘Smart watch’ or is it just another fashion fad? Tweet us at @mancunionfash.
Photo: Asos.com
17
Event
Beauty
Ellie Howe discusses the futuristic aspirations of our favourite skin saviour
Fashion
unique.com;
Backpack,
£150, American Apparel; Metallic Mac, £60, The Ragged Priest @ Asos. com; Aquarium Nail Effects nail polish, £3.99, Barry M; Silver shoes, £48, Topshop
hand luggage on vacations.
Winners and fashion editors with their goodie bags. They were as heavy as they look!
18
Film
ISSUE 07/ 3rd OCTOBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Editors: Tom Bruce, Andriana Hambi, James Moules, Martin Solibakke Top Five
Feature
Top Five:
Hollywood And Science
Awful Accents
Science Fact or Science Fiction?
Shia LaBeouf`s failed attempt to be British isn`t the worst we have seen on the silver screen, apparently. Here are Luke Sharma`s picks for the worst accents in film.
5) Dick Van Dyke , Mary Poppins (1964) Seeing as Dick Van Dyke’s appearance as Bert the loveable chimney sweep is one of the most iconic Disney roles ever, we can almost forgive him for the butchering of the cockney accent; “Schtep in toime moite!”
4) John Voight, Anaconda (1997) When they were casting this film; who decided it was a good idea to cast a New Yorker, with no real experience with accents, as a Paraguayan hunter? He’s a top-notch actor, but his awful Spanish accent will forever be a blight on his otherwise brilliant career.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
3) Keanu Reeves, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) I wonder whether Keanu Reeves has ever met a real Englishman before… When you close your eyes in some scenes, you feel like you’re watching Stewie Griffin from Family Guy. A great movie, but Keanu didn’t do such a great job.
Nicole Tamer looks at how science has inspired numerous filmmakers. “We look at Hollywood now, I mean, can you imagine Hollywood producing a film with such weight as 2001: A Space Odyssey? I guess we get the cinema we deserve; we’re looking into the mirror. It’s very sad”, argues Anthony Frewin at the ‘Watch the Skies!’ flagship event in the BFI Blockbuster project SCI-FI: Days of Fear and Wonder at the Jodrell Bank Observatory. Those might be strong words, but he was the personal assistant to the director Stanley Kubrick for 20 years and worked on five of his films. Looking at current trends in the film industry, it is apparent that Sci-Fi movies are on the verge again. Recent films such as Prometheus, Gravity and Interstellar, which is premiering this weekend in the UK, show on the Box Offices worldwide that their popularity is high, but the budgets are even higher. The 10.6 Million Budget of 2001: A Space Odyssey was meagre compared to the budget of over 100 Million Dollar for Gravity and Interstellar. To put the budget number into perspective: even the Indian space mission to Mars with a 74 Million Dollar Budget cost less than the making of Gravity. Although it is debatable whether the priorities of human beings are agreeable, it does not mean that there is not any science involved in the making of a film and that they do not inspire more interest and awareness in the field of astronomy or other science. Science and film often go hand in hand; all of the previously mentioned films had prestigious scientists from Harvard or Caltech on set to ensure the accuracy. David A. Kirby, a senior lecturer at the University of Manchester published the popular physics book “Lab Coats in Hollywood – Science, Scientists and Cinema” in which he claims that 2001: A Space Odyssey is perhaps the most scientifically accurate film ever produced. The breathtaking sequences
in space seem so realistic because of the cooperation with two former NASA scientists
Photo: Andfestival
and the more than sixty-five companies, research organizations, and government agencies that offered technical advice. The relation between science and Hollywood is often more complex than initially apparent and a mutual need to close the gap between science fact and science fiction pushes both sides to work together closely. Although it might first seem like that Hollywood profits more from scientists, the depictions of science in popular films can promote research agendas, stimulate technological development, and even stir citizens into political action, writes Kirby. For film makers with a smaller budget, who cannot afford specialists from NASA, should not despair because websites such as hollywoodmaths. com will help to ensure that “the technical details and jargon in your script sound believable, whether they be mathematical, scientific or medical”. The gravity of science (pun intended) does not stop at science fiction movies, science consultants help to give Comic book adaptations, TV shows, such as Fringe and The Big Bang Theory, and video games a more realistic finish. The Science and Entertainment Exchange is a program run by the United States National Academy
of Sciences to increase public awareness, knowledge, and understanding of science through its representation in television, film, and other media in order to rid the public of false perceptions on these topics. Although the aspirations are often high and science fiction films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner and Alien mostly succeeded in being scientifically accurate, it is important to remember that the film industry’s first priority is entertainment. If the scientific accurate portrayal is too complex, the risk that the film might turn out too incomprehensible for an audience is high. Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar for example is based on Einstein’s general relativity equations and might have turned out visually incomprehensible to the audience, but he luckily solved the problem by staying consistent with the camera perspective. Gravity on the other hand is a “piece of fiction” with some inaccuracies, but with a very realistic portrayal of zero gravity. The rise of popularity of Science Fiction films has also a positive aspect on the decreasing numbers of cinema goers. 2001: A Space Odyssey or Gravity have a bigger effect on the audience on a big screen than streamed online on a small laptop screen. At the Watch the Skies! Event, 2001: A Space Odyssey was shown in an open air installation with HAL projected on the Lovell Telescope, the third largest steerable radio telescope in the world. The atmosphere was buzzing and the film got a whole new meaning when being watched outside with stars and a full moon in the background. The vastness of space became more apparent and the science fair and introduction by Stanley Kubrick’s personal assistant made the experience invaluable. Science clearly helps to appreciate films more and its influence hopefully gets more appreciated in the future.
Classic Review 2) Sean Connery, The Hunt For Red October (1990) Sean Connery is undoubtedly a talented actor, but it seems like he didn’t even try to do a Russian accent when he played a Soviet submarine captain in “The Hunt for Red October”. Even Alec Baldwin (playing an American) nailed the accent when the pair were conversing in Russian, leaving Connery’s face as red as the square in Moscow.
Photo: Paramount Pictures
1) Nicolas Cage, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001) Rolling his “r’s” and ending every sentence with “-ah”, Nick Cage delivers one of the most stereotypical, awful Italian accents you’ll ever experience. Who would have thought a guy whose real surname is “Coppola” can’t even do an Italian accent? Then again, it is Nicolas Cage….
Gilda
Director: Charles Vidor Starring: Rita Hayworth Glenn Ford, George Macready Released: 1946
Nadia Cheung There were a lot of films of the film noir genre which were released in the mid 1940s and this reflected a lot of attitudes during and after the Second World War. Filmed in black and white and set in Buenos Aires, Argentina just as World War Two ended, Gilda does not have the typical Hollywood narrative of equilibriumdisequilibrium-equilibrium. In fact, you could even argue that there is not even a narrative structure at all, that some events happen in the film out of nowhere, leading you to surprise or befuddlement. This film stars Rita Hayworth as the central character of Gilda, represented through suggestion that she is the femme fatale character because she is the only female you ever really get to know at all in the film and there is no questioning as to why that is. The femme fatale in this film is represented in a different light because you feel empathy for her. This is unlike most femme fatales which you may have come across, such as Barbara Stanwyck’s character of Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, where you do not see the struggles of the femme fatale - therefore you cannot empathise or experience any
particular emotions for the femme fatale. You become okay with the punishment of the femme fatale because she has done wrong and that is in favour of the male protagonist who has had the wrong done to. In Gilda, you empathise with her, because you see her fall victim to the character of Johnny (Glenn Ford), her love. Gilda gets punished a lot in this film, in a way which makes you truly feel sorry for her. This is however, subjected to opinion. What I have found most intriguing about this film is the relationship between the two central male characters, Johnny and Ballin (George
Macready) which you could somewhat ascribe to as homoerotic. Several scenes are provided with visual innuendos; hinting with the weapon which Ballin had called his “little friend”, the third Photo: Columbia Pictures person in Ballin and Johnny’s relationship when Gilda is not present - leading up to the ideas that this relationship and friendship is especially of the homoerotic kind. You can compare the weapon to possessing similarities to the character of Gilda, who is the object of desire for both of these characters in this film. All in all, I think this film is a must watch, there is a lot that can be read in this film and so many possible interpretations to be found viewing after viewing that it is certainly a classic. And if you haven’t seen it, well, what’s stopping you?
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Film 19
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
@mancunionfilm
Review
TV Binge
Fury Tom Bruce awards David Ayer’s Call of Duty with a Medal of Honour. Nobody does gritty action like David Ayer, the former US Navy submariner, writer of Training Day and director of the internationally acclaimed cop drama End of Watch. He’s a serious man. Given his military background was based largely underwater it may have been more apt had he taken on the soon to be released Black Sea, a new film about submarine exploration starring Jude Law. Tanks, however, are much, much badder in the ass department, so Ayer opted to pen and shoot Fury instead. Fury, the painted on namesake of the titular Sherman, is the rambling metallic home of a WWII tank squadron based in Germany during the climatic conflicts of 1945. Led by Sgt. Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier (Brad Pitt, brooding but still enjoying Nazi killin’), Fury’s tight-knit family have seen enough action to last a thousand lifetimes – starting out in Africa and ending up in the heart of the Reichland, they now find themselves ‘out-manned’, ‘outgunned’, and out of fucks with which to give. Their survival up until this point has been a miracle, their brotherly bond now near unbreakable. As close as they may be – and being five alpha males living inside a cramped vehicle, they are very close indeed – there seems little hope for the future; tempers fray and punches fly as they roll ever closer to the barrage imposed by the technologically and numerically superior SS legions, Germany’s last line of defence. Fury avoids over-sentimental American bravura (you wouldn’t see children hanging from telephone poles in The Monuments Men) and political analysis as would a tank crew steer clear of land mine;
instead, it hones in on the unchangeable realities of war, and it spares nothing. As Brad Pitt’s physically and mentally scarred veteran informs conflicted newbie Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), it is ‘his fucking job’ to kill every German soldier, just as it is their job to kill him; the war can’t end well, but the only way it will is if ‘enough people die’. It may
replaced the trench and close ups of Kirk Douglas have been swapped for those of Brad Pitt, but the theme of shattered innocence remains identical. Even more impressive, though, is the blinding power of machine gun fire and the ferocity of ricocheting tank shells. War is scary, and Fury shows you why. Steven Price’s (Gravity composer) mournful score carries the soaring pride of a Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers suite, but manages to remain much more grounded in the blood and guts of the tank’s mechanical workings. After Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf is a surprising standout amongst the fierce male cast. His temperamental gunner possesses an astoundingly believable thousand year stare, and if all the ballyhoo surrounding his ‘unusual’ method acting preparations (he allegedly pulled out a tooth and refused to wash on set) proves true, then it was worth it. Perhaps all the positive feedback LaBeouf is receiving for Fury Photo: Columbia Pictures will convince the ‘not famous’ actor to step into the limelight once more. be cynical, but for men on the frontlines that was all Should you see Fury, get yourself to the front rows they knew – they had to either accept their role or be of the biggest screen you can find and welcome the destroyed by it. boom-tacular immersion of tank warfare with open David Ayer teamed up with End of Watch DoP Roarms. man Vasyanov once again to film Fury, bringing a shocking intensity to the darkness of the battlefield. Their emulation of Stanley Kubrick’s First World War epic Paths of Glory is uncanny; the tank may have
Cornerhouse Pick of the Week
Jimi: All Is By My Side Alice Williams didn’t quite feel like this Jimi Hendrix biopic kissed the sky. material, sit strangely in the initial scene. A commonplace occurrence in rock biopics is an all-too familiar dwelling on childhood trauma – think the chainsaw scene in Walk the Line. In refusing to push that far Photo: Matador Pictures back historically, Ridley makes it clear that he With 12 Years a Slave being director wishes the audience to immerse and writer John Ridley’s last release, themselves in the art itself as opposed this foray into the private life of one of to the artistic intent and inspiration. rock’s most hallowed icons certainly It’s an interesting concept, but perhaps promised to bring something fresh one that is not quite realised. The to the familiar formula of rock biopic. cinematic style points towards this All Is By My Side held promise in it’s idea, with unusual camera focus and decision to focus on such a specific frequent background noise in almost point in Jimi Hendrix’s career, but the every scene which goes some way in glaringly obvious problem here is getting the atmosphere of swinging the complete lack of Hendrix’s music London. due to (in what must have been a However, that’s not to say that the crushing blow) a copyright block. film is without its merits. As hinted at Herein lies the main issue that stops in some of the earlier press release, this biopic being great. Furthermore, Andre 3000 (or, as he’s credited more as with any biopic, the cherry-picked seriously here, ‘Andre Benjamin’) historical events that are included are sets out both an aesthetically and mired with controversial undertones emotionally convincing portrayal of that draw believability away from an a man shrouded in much mystery, otherwise decent performance from and for those who merely fetishize Andre 3000. Beginning in 1966, we the commonplace ‘cool Britannia’ 60s are met with a pre-fame Jimi playing vibe that so many rock biopics feed off, the Cheetah Club in New York. We are this film does little to tarnish the well introduced to the characters (Imogen documented fact that Jimi Hendrix Poots as Linda Keith, Keith Richard’s was a very cool guy. As his film alto girlfriend, Hayley Atwell as Kathy ego says: ‘ we’re broke…but we’re cool. Etchingham) through an unusual Might as well hang out with us and be editing style of freezes that is slightly broke and cool.’ jarring. Additionally, the inclusion of Hendrix quotes, although perhaps seeking to make up for loss of musical
American Horror Story We’ve all heard enough times how morbidly sick with cliché the horror genre is when it comes to the big screen. How many times have we seen a group of promiscuous teenagers being hacked to death by a shady psycho? How many times have we seen filmmakers try—and usually fail— to turn innocent everyday banalities into nightmares? How many times have we seen great ideas wasted on lazy filmmaking? Right now, you can always count on the small screen to provide solutions to the problems on the silver screen. That’s where the wickedly brilliant and brilliantly wicked anthology show that is American Horror Story comes in—but it’s not so much a show that’s defied cliché, no, it’s even better than that. It’s one that makes intelligent use of cliché—if a show were to purposely avoid cliché, it would be come predictable through our constant expectation of the unexpected. In American Horror Story, we truly never know where the plot is going to take us next.
Photo: FX
You Can’t Handle the Truth!
The Lack of Political Movies Dylan Kerlann wants more films to make us think about real world issues. Western society is currently going through tough times. It has to completely rethink its cultural, economical and political system. Yet such turbulences may cause our society to evolve into something less pleasant, indeed it is often easier to turn towards an easy choice, which will ultimately cause more problems than solving them. It is therefore not useful but necessary to see the risks of such evolution in order to catch up with our reality and our common sense. This is achievable through movies. Movies were traditionally the gateway to hidden political messages, which may act as warnings against unwanted changes or may cast our sight towards hidden away flaws of our society. This has been achieved since the dawn of cinema by great film directors, who did not fear to speak out their political beliefs even if might have come with the price of budget cuts, loss of fame, exile and other threats. Lang, for instance, warned the Germans about the rise of Nazism in M as well as addressing the issue of the workers conditions in Metropolis. On the other side of the Rhine, Renoir dared talk against the affirmation of WWI being the last war in La Grande Illusion. However, in contrast to these pioneering times, critical movies nowadays tend to be relocated to the artistic segment of the cinema scenery. These movies should be allocated to the mainstream where they will have a greater impact., and if so should
target specifically and realistically a trait of our society, not displaying an aspect which does not exist or a society which is unlikely to happen, such as in Gilliam’s Brazil, which even in criticising a few ‘common’ aspects, just humoured an over-bureaucratic society which is the least possible scenario of our world’s evolution. Directors should have the courage to directly say “This is where we are heading,” to the masses, be responsible towards them and not Photo: UFA just see their public as mere wallets ready to transfer their content (and time) into their pockets. Cinema is an art and as so should not disregard addressing political and societal problems directly, not just lightly touch them like in Blomkamp’s deceiving Elysium. Cinema feeds on the ever-changing technological evolutions and breakthroughs, and should properly exploit them to offer the viewers enhanced experiences of possible futures. Some have done it before with tight budgets and capacities, which makes the loss of one’s talent and soul for profits, by just displaying ever-lasting special effects and by undermining the plot of the movie, less understandable. We may then draw the conclusion that not only cinema should be responsible to the audience, it should regain the once full critical capabilities it had and become more than mere leisure. It should show us the perils of the future, allowing the people to work in order to keep these scenarios as so. We need more reflective movies.
Season One of American Horror Story, retrospectively subtitled ‘Murder House,’ throws us straight in to the show’s twisted world. With a story featuring infidelity, ghosts, devil-children, teenage suicide and psychiatry, you won’t be able to stop watching. Even at the most skin-deep level imaginable it gives us a look at how warped human nature can be. The next season is subtitled ‘Asylum’. Set back in the 60s, we’re dragged screaming into a mental asylum run by the Catholic Church. With gorgeous period detail, Asylum’s plot provides us with a chilling but thoroughly engrossing story featuring demonic possession, Nazi war criminals in hiding, alien abductions, twisted science experiments and the strangely soothing presence of the Angel of Death. ‘Coven’ is next on the agenda, which puts us into the world of a school for witches that isn’t called Hogwarts. While I’d argue that this season is a slight step down in quality from ‘Asylum,’ it’s still got everything that makes American Horror Story great going for it. With a plot about modern day witch-hunts in the mix, you just can’t say no.
Photo: FX
American Horror Story’s fourth season ‘Freak Show,’ featuring a killer clown and Jessica Lange’s rendition of Life on Mars, is currently being broadcast here in the UK on Fox HD. Those of you yet to watch the show can catch up with the first three seasons on Netflix.
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Books
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
/TheMancunion: Books @MancunionBooks
Editors: Leonie Dunn, Ali Pearson
Profile
Dylan Thomas’ Centenary Celebrations
Following the Centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth, Swansea’s most famous, Books Editor Leonie Dunn looks at his life, works and legacy following his year long celebartions and tributes worldwide.
Image: Reena Mahtani @ Flickr
The 27th of October 2014 marked the centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth in Swansea, Wales. Thomas, who has been coined Swansea’s most famous son, was set to have his life and works celebrated at his birthplace, but the celebrations do not end there. If you were to type in Dylan Thomas into any search engine right now it would be flooded with upcoming events and festivals all marking this one individual man’s life and work. Perhaps the most notorious celebration leading from Thomas’ cen-
tenary is Michael Sheen’s production of Thomas’ own ‘Under Milk Wood’ which made its New York debut on Sunday the 26th of October; it was also widely broadcasted live to both television and radio, and other broadcastings are set to follow. The Hollywood actor stars in the ‘play for voices’ and is the first on the stage where it was originally premièred in 1953. Returning the debut of this infamous play to its home in New York is widely fitting as it was where
much of his first productions were staged and eventually where Thomas himself died. The coinciding live readings and televised viewings will ensure that Swansea’s most famous son will not go amiss in his birthplace. But Swansea has more to offer in the mark of celebration as Swansea will be holding its very own ‘Dylathon’. An event which will see all of his work including his poems, short stories, scripts and broadcasts performed over 36 hours at Swansea’s Grand Theatre. Thus as Sheen said on the centenary it will be widely celebrated “in both New York—a city that became so important to Dylan—and, at the same time, in Wales, his inspiration and home.” As can be denoted from the unprecedented amount of celebrations the world over, Thomas’ impact on both the literary world and the world itself is broad and powerful. While Dylan Marlais Thomas was popular in his life time, his work remained vastly popular and disputed after his premature death from pneumonia aged 39 on the 9th of November 1953 in New York. Whilst Thomas wrote exclusively in the English language he is still recognised as one of the key Welsh poets of the 20th century. His accessibility, in part through the use of the English language, is vital to his place as one of the greatest modern poets but his witty idioms and ingenious imagery continue to give life to his work. Thomas has multiple works under his belt including the poem ‘And death shall have no dominion’, to the play ‘Under Milk Wood’ and into prose ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’. While his work is capacious and compelling, Thomas himself did come under fire in his later
life as a “roistering, drunken and doomed poet,” a reputation which he humorously encouraged, and perhaps this was his downfall in the world of academia. An issue that is often discussed with regards to Thomas in regards to critical study is the cloud of mythology that now surrounds him and his drunken persona. But despite the dismissal of many academic figures on Thomas’ work, it continues to be embraced by readers and he remains an iconic poet and even a public name. While his identity as a popular poet has been and continues to be discussed, it is his work that holds the true legacy. Thomas’ refusal to align to any literary group or movement ensured his work was capacious and innovative. One of his most famous poems ‘And death shall have no dominion’ celebrates the undying eternal strength of human spirit. However, another key focus of this poem is the unifying reality of death. As Thomas’ identity was disputed as a poet and a public figure, the first of the three un-rhymed verses in this poem allows Thomas to tackle human identity and its opponents, (essentially the ‘isms’ of the world today from racism up to sexism and onwards). Thomas states that the process of death unites humanity; “Dead men naked they shall be one.” Even as Dylan brings us face-to-face with death he disarms it. There is beauty and courage behind death and as I see it there is only one appropriate way that any remark on the life of Thomas should end. His death shall have no dominion as his voice remains immortal.
Top 5
Review
Rising Stars: Caoilinn Hughes and Tara Bergin Imogen Durant took to the Manchester Literature Festival for Caoilinn Hughes and Tara Bergin’s Poetry Readings.
Top 5 Horror Works
As last week was Halloween, Books Editor Alister Pearson gives his top 5 horror works of literature.
Image: ABC
1. It – Stephen King Image: Manchester Literature Festival
While perhaps not the most popular event at the Manchester Literature Festival this year, the Caoilinn Hughes and Tara Bergin reading made an impression on its small but responsive audience. Glancing at the festival programme, it is easy to see why these two new poets might be overlooked, both having only just released their debut collections, and contending against big names like Simon Armitage and Martin Amis. However, performances from emerging writers like Hughes and Bergin is one of the most exciting aspects of the festival, and Hughes and Bergin did not disappoint. Hughes performance began with Avalanche, a poem which immediately immersed the audience in the cold, bleak, scientific language that is characteristic of her collection, Gathering Evidence. The measured and controlled pace with which Hughes performed this poem reflected the extended lines that her verse is structured upon. In the Q & A, Hughes attributed this stylistic technique to her influences from fiction writers. The full effect of this technique, however, was not fully conveyed in the reading. The increasing length of both the stanzas of Avalanche, and the lines from which
they are constructed, visually depicts the accumulation of the avalanche being described. This link between form and content could not be represented in the reading, suggesting that Hughes’ verse demands further study. The sense that the meanings were lost to the audience was most noticeable in the two poems focused on the 17th Century astronomer, Johannes Kepler. Despite Hughes’ explanatory introduction to these poems, which included contextual information and an engaging anecdote, the complexity of her verse had a mystifying effect at first hearing. Granted, the reading did provide the opportunity for Hughes to display the auditory effects of her richly textured language, which might seem cold when initially read on the page. However, the audience had the sense that much of the meaning was ultimately lost to anyone who did not have a previous knowledge of Kepler’s theories of the cosmos. Perhaps that was the intention—to portray the mystifying effect of the poetry. Either way, the event did not seem to do the poems justice, but did leave the audience wanting to study them further.
Bergin’s exploration of poetic voices gave her collection, This is Yarrow, a more dramatic style, which lent itself better to performance. The five poems she read varied enormously in tone and displayed the diversity of her skills in characterisation. When asked about her influences, Bergin acknowledged the key role that drama played in her upbringing. The dramatic quality of her verse forms the root of its strength in her performance of Stag-boy, the scene visually unfolds to the audience through the description of its protagonist’s physicality. At Lakes with Roberta and Bridal Song reveal the versatility of her use of monologue to convey a wealth of emotions. Bergin’s success lies in the way in which she conjures highly creative and imaginative scenes and characters through language which renders them familiar to the audience. Despite Bergin’s dramatic style being better suited to the event than Hughes’, both poets’ work was showcased in an energising and interesting way. The reading served as an engaging introduction to the work of two exciting new poets and highlighted the thriving
Stephen King, like Garth Marenghi, seems to have actually written more books than he has read, none scarier than his 1986 horror novel, ‘It’. The titular character causes seven children to confront their fears face-to-face by shape shifting into their worst nightmares. The novel was adapted into a television film starring Tim Curry as Pennywise. King was rewarded the British Fantasy award in 1987 for his efforts. 2. Dracula – Bram Stoker This week marks 167 years since the birth of Bram Stoker and his most renowned work ‘Dracula’ is one of the best horror novels ever to be written. The story follows Count Dracula and his quest to travel to England from Transylvania in order to acquire more victims’ blood. Stoker is credited with defining the modern form of a vampire in this book. 3. The Raven – Edgar Allan Poe One of the most famous poems ever written has moments of horror in. A raven taunts the unnamed narrator who is grieving over his loss of love,
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Lenore. The raven is said to have been inspired by Charles Dickens’ novel “Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty.” The poem saw Poe reach national fame but he never saw this fame converted into monetary wealth. 4. The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka One day a travelling salesman named Gregor Samson wakes up to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect creature. The rest of the novella, published in 1915, deals with Gregor’s attempt to come to terms with his new physical body. Although he quickly gets used to his new appearance, his family slowly learn to at first love him and then doubt whether it really is Gregor anymore. The story ends with Gregor dying from lack of nourishment. 5. The Room – Hubert Selby Jr. After writing this novel, Hubert Selby himself couldn’t read it again for 20 years. Reviewer Chris Mitchell claimed the book made him physically sick. An unnamed insignificant criminal whilst trapped in his cell explores his twisted feelings and fantasises of rancid revenges.
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Societies
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
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Student Action Spotlight
Access To Medicines Georgia Liddle from the Student Stop Aids Campaign asks, “What if the medicines that could save your life cost a hundred times what you earn in a year?”
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Every year 10 million people die simply because they cannot access medicines that already exist. A third of the world’s population does not have access to the most basic essential medicines and in the poorest regions of Africa and Asia this figure rises to one-half. What can we do about this? Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is a coalition of students and faculties across North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, united with the common goal of improving access to medicines in the developing world. Our mission is to promote access to medicines and medical innovations in low and middle-income countries by changing norms and practices around academic patenting and licensing, supported by our own independent research. We aim to ensure that university medical research meets the needs of people worldwide, and that students are empowered to respond to the access and innovation crisis. The 1st – 7th November 2014 marks Access to Medicines (A2M) Week, the week in which Universities Allied for Essential Medicines will be asking the public whether or not access to essential medicines is a luxury or a human right. This upcoming A2M Week is our first campaign to run on university cities and campuses simultaneously throughout Europe. Our goal is to make university students and members of the public ask themselves: “How can I make an impact on the Access to Medicines crisis?” and assess the way their universities manage their policies in research and
East African Playgrounds Info Meeting Tuesday 14 October 5pm, Room 8, Students’ Union
development. UAEM Manchester welcomes you to find out more, and take part in our A2M Week events! We will be hosting a free screening of Fire in the Blood, a film about medicine, monopoly and malice, at 6pm on Thursday 6th November, Samuel Alexander A113.
Build a Playground in Uganda
Here you can find out more about Access to Medicines issues and how you can campaign to make a difference. For further information about the events happening during A2M week visit www.a2mweek.org, email georgia.liddle@student.manches-
ter.ac.uk, or tweet @ uaem Twitter: @uaem Facebook: facebook.com/UAEMpage
volunteer@eastafricanplaygrounds.org
Photo: Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
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Food & Drink
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Editors: Ellie Gibbs, Adam Fearn
Review: Kosmonaut Hester Lonergan reviews Kosmonaut, a popular bar in The Northern Quarter I’ve been to Kosmonaut on various occasions. Primarily, I know it as a great late night weekend hangout—always packed with drinkers. But one Saturday night, I glanced at the food menu and felt surprisingly enticed. I always had the place down exclusively as a popular watering hole and so, intrigued to say the least, I waited only three days before pouncing on the opportunity to have dinner there. My initial prejudice was quashed when we were shown to our table. What I thought was Kosmonaut in its entirety was actually only the first room; turning right past the bar an expansive seating area stretches out ahead, and en route to the bathroom downstairs I spotted another room—this one with a ping pong table. In the dining area, the atmosphere is subdued yet lively, making it pleasantly viable for either dinner or drinks. Sipping on a sweet vermouth, we perused the menu. A few well-chosen starters pre-empt innovatively-filled sandwiches for the lighter diner, fashionably-topped pizzas for the unadventurous, and salads and mains both classic and classy. In traditional research-mode, we decided upon three mains: a gin-cured salmon sandwich, black pepper ribs and buttermilk fried chicken. The service was almost instantaneous, coming before the waiter could bring us a bottle of biodynamic red wine (no chemicals, no compromise on taste). We treated the cold dish as the starter; thickly sliced salmon delicately laced with fruity gin lay on top of toasted
bread, scattered with homemade pickled cucumber and salty capers. I could have eaten it for breakfast, lunch or dinner in equal measure. Actually, scratch that: I would eat it for all three, in one day. The ribs came with a pot of chips and fennel coleslaw—an enticing alternative to cabbage. Thick and juicy and generously coated in a sweet, peppery sauce, the flavour levels of the meat were interestingly complex. The chips were like chips should be: crisp and golden outside, soft and fluffy inside. The fennel coleslaw was a nice touch, but in comparison to its accomplished counterparts, underperformed a little. Encased in crunchy buttermilk batter, the succulent, boneless chicken was a real winner. I am reliably informed that fried chicken is the new pulled pork: expect to see it winging its way onto a restaurant menu near you, covered in syrup or jam or some other counter-
intuitive sickly accompaniment. Refreshingly conservatively, however, ours came with Texas BBQ sauce and chipotle mayo, which spiced up the meat and optimised its mellow flavour. The sweet potato chips that came along for the ride were more seasoned than usual and carried delicious new dimensions of taste. Alas, regular recipe coleslaw saw the same fate as its fennel friend. It seems that no element of the establishment is accidental. In a conversation with the manager, I mentioned the long list of craft beers that they reputedly sell, and he replied with an assured confidence that “I like to think that everything we do is craft.” The staff are proud of the place, and rightly so. Dining at Kosmonaut rendered me surprised, impressed and a little philosophical. There is more to it than meets the eye, even if the first glance was plentiful.
What’s on at Kosmonaut: Happy Hour Mon – Fri 4 – 7pm Special K Pint, £2.80 Sam Adams Pint, £3.80 Bottles of Wine, £11 Bottle of Prosecco, £15
Citta Soul Nuova Every first Friday of the month 21.00 — 02.00 Citta Soul Nuova comes to the basement of Kosmonaut. Citta Soul Nuova embraces new sounds with a tip of the cap to the past, the DJs who play are some of the best vinyl diggers in the land who strive to find new tasty black plastic on the soul tip to crush your heart on the dance floor.
Photo: The Mancunion
Drink
The Independent Salford Beer Festival
Pub of the Week: The Railway
Sam Joyce and Charlie Filmer-Court visit The Independent Salford Beer Festival
Sam Joyce and Charlie Filmer-Court attend The Railway in West Didsbury
Having managed to be on our bikes by midday we imagined we would be drinking by 12:30. However, a few wrong turnings and some clumsy cycling meant it was closer to 2 o’clock by the time we arrived at the Independent Salford Beer Festival. Run by local beer guru Jim, the two-day event took place in the unassuming venue of Saint Sebastian’s community centre, Charlestown, Salford. Despite the large turnout forcing us to perch by a radiator, and the fact that we were 20 years below the average age of the room, we were made extremely welcome by the assorted beer lovers, brewers and sellers. The friendly atmosphere was topped off by knowing that all the proceeds went towards keeping the community centre going. Here are our picks from the 35-plus cask ales of the festival, showcasing exciting beers being brewed in and around Manchester. Hoppy Lager 5.1% abv – Shindigger Brewing Co., Manchester Shindigger brewing company are a Manchester student success story. They started off brewing their beers in the basement of their student house in Fallowfield and selling it at house parties. Now a much larger operation, they put out a range of hop forward beers from their Deansgate headquarters—a far cry from their humble beginnings. The breweries fourth commercial beer is hoppy lager. A low carbonated cask lager, it has the refreshing, spiky mouth-feel of a lager with a floral, bitter kick from the hops. We could easily drink all night without getting bored of the taste.
Hazelnut Mild 4.2% abv – Brass Castle Brewery, Malton Hailing from Malton, North Yorkshire, this beer comes from slightly further afield than most on offer at the beer festival. Although our focus was on local beers, this one caught our eye and made us change our mind. Hazelnut mild was one of the most enjoyable beers available at the festival. Our initial thoughts were a dessert in a glass. Rich and creamy, this beer reminds us of roasted nuts and mild coffee. Whilst not as full bodied as some of the stouts on offer, it remained malty and moreish until the end. Coffee & Star Anise Porter 5.1% abv – Ticketybrew, Stockport A bit closer to home is Ticketybrew, a husband and wife-run brewery from Stockport who aren’t all about hops. Their Star Anise porter was on offer and was something very different. More full bodied than the other beers, it was warming and contained some pretty bold flavours. The predominant taste was of coffee which was followed by a light star anise aftertaste. The aniseed flavours are not overbearing, making a surprisingly good compliment to the others present.
In comparison to most of the trendy bars in West Didsbury, Joseph Holt pub The Railway is an unpretentious and laid back watering hole. Nothing stands out as being fantastic about this pub, but there is not much you can complain about either. It’s a good place to bring a couple of mates for a quiet pint—especially considering the log fire for those not wanting to fork out on bills during the winter months. The jukebox in the centre adds to the homely atmosphere yet you will do well to break into the huddle of regulars playing the Smiths. Johnny Depp has also been rumoured to visit the Railway on occasion and is said to be a friend of the owners, so a casual pint could end in a celebrity encounter.
Drink: Must try Joseph Holt brewery lagers, Crystal and Diamond. Excellent range of ales, the cheapest being Joseph Holt bitter at £2.69, plus rotating guest ales (currently Chorlton IPA). If you’re looking to get merry they have Old Rosie Scrumpy on tap. What’s on: Quiz night is Tuesday at 9, Trapdoor comedy is on every second Monday of the month—including acts from Mock The Week and QI. Get There: 143 to West Didsbury and walk the length of Lapwing Lane. Alternatively it’s a short cycle down Burton Road. Twitter: @RailwayDidsbury
Psychedelic (APA Matured over Citrus Fruits) 5% abv – Bridgestone’s brewing We found the Psychedelic to be the most refreshing and enjoyable beer of the day. Far from being your standard APA the citrus fruits made the beer stand out and gave the beer a sweet and enjoyable finish.
Photo: Paul Hughes
If you fancy your hand at food and drink journalism, whether it be interviews, recipes, reviews, or some interesting culinary anecdotes, email us at food.mancunion@outlook.com or get in touch via Facebook.
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
/TheMancunion: Food & Drink @MancunionFood
Food & Drink 23
Review: Guerrilla Eats Review
Ellie Gibbs heads to Ancoats to try out what’s on offer The label ‘hipster’ is thrown greasy fast food takeaway convention; around a lot these days, especially in it is a collection of passionate and Manchester. The subculture is said genuine foodies creating quality eats. to typically involve the likes of plaid As I attended as part of a social with shirts, skinny jeans and ‘geek’ glasses. The Mancunion, I only bought two I confess guilty, guilty and guilty (they dishes of my own and had a sneaky taste are prescription, so it’s completely of everyone else’s (their reviews are fine and not pretentious at all). to follow on the website). The first was It must be something about the from trader Mumma Schnitzel, which cobbled streets, the low-hung lighting offered mini brioche burgers for £4 or 2 and the functional/minimal decor of the for £6. Naturally I went for the bargain Northern Quarter that makes people combo of two, choosing the signature in Manchester want to grow a beard twice-fried panko-crumbed chicken and start wearing vintage knitwear. with sweet chilli sauce, and a less fiery As with clothing fashions, food also chicken schnitzel with avocado and moves with the times, keeping up something else that I can’t remember. with trends to satisfy the clientele’s Evidently, the former was the winner current palette. ‘Hipster’ style is as the tangy taste stayed in my mouth reflected in the food we are now and my memory. Crispy fried chicken offered: it is alternative and creatively on soft bread is not a bite one forgets. presented. In my opinion, a great thing. Not to say that the avo-chicken was Halloumi is the plaid shirt of not good; my companion preferred this hipster food, brioche buns the due to the lack of spice, thus proving oversized jumper. Sweet potato fries, that varying tastes were well catered pulled pork and craft beer are the for. Further proof of the mini-burger’s alternative music of the culinary success is my lack of photograph. world. Nonsensical parallels aside, My second choice was the my point is not to criticise, but to delightfully monstrous toastie from congratulate the continuity with Big Grillie Style. ‘The Fresh Prince’ which Manchester churns out was stuffed with pulled pork, mac and these exciting food innovations. cheese (yes, pasta on bread) and extra What better example to illustrate grilled cheese. It is exactly this kind my point than an upcycled of diet-ridiculing fusion that gives warehouse full of independent the event its warfare-inspired name. food vendors: Guerrilla Eats. These guys sabotage the fundamental Every Saturday from 5pm – 12am, a rules of food combinations, and I varying selection of talented street mean that in a completely positive food microbusinesses gather to host an way. This IS a treat; it is not a waste evening filled with cutting-edge dishes of calories like eating a big mac made fresh before your eyes. This is and immediately wanting another WNW8.MANC.QUART.pdf 1 23/10/2014 14:55 not an elaborate way of describing a one. It’s filling, packed with quality
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Recipe: Roasted Vegetable and Halloumi Bake Feeling a bit fragile after a long week of partying? Anna
ingredients and deliciously satisfying. Lawson-Walker offers a quick, easy and cheap recipe Complemented by one of the bar’s German swing-topped Sunday’s hangover persists, you spent all your money on Saturday night bottled lagers, this not-just-aand now you’ve dragged yourself to lectures, probably in the rain... Monsandwich really hit the spot. days can be less than pleasant. How about this meat-free Monday recipe As well as serving great food, the to make it all better? Not only is it inexpensive to make (especially if the atmosphere of the warehouse is ingredients are bought from Lidl or Worldwide), it is also ridiculously simsomething in itself. The long wooden ple. Chop the ingredients, whack them in a dish, then pop it in the oven. tables, live DJ and fully stocked bar mean that this is a great place to Ingredients: spend an evening with friends. We - 1 sweet potato - 1/2 yellow pepper made full use of the £4 cocktails 1 normal potato - A couple of cloves of garlic mixed with scrumpy, rum and juice - 1 red onion - A good glug of olive oil while others celebrated our outing 1/2 large red pepper - Half a pack of halloumi cheese with copious bottles of Prosecco on - 1/2 small lemon - A sprinkling of ground cumin offer for the reasonable price of £16. Eaten anywhere nice reAs there were traders there whose Method: food I did not sample and as Created there cently? something Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. is more to come each week, this We is want to know! delicious? Photo: The Mancunion Cut up all the veg into large bite-sized definitely an event I shall be returning Tell us about it at food.manchunks but make the normal potato to. Hipster food—keep it coming. chunks slightly smaller than the sweet cunion@outlook.com as they take longer to cook. Guerrilla Eats Free Entry Put everything into a roasting tin with Every Sat 5pm – 12am a couple of garlic cloves, unpeeled Blossom St, M4 5AF and bruised with a knife. http://guerrillaeats.com/ Coat with a good glug of olive oil and a generous sprinkling of black pepper. (Don’t put salt on at this point because it will draw all the moisture out of the veg) Cook for around 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked through and have begun to tinge with brown. At this point, salt the vegetables and give them a shake around. Then, turn the oven up to maximum temperature and lay thin slices of halloumi cheese over the roasted veg. Bake for another 10 mins or so, until the cheese has turned brown on the top. Finally, squeeze over a bit of lemon and dust with a sprinkling of ground Skills.Change.Manc.Quart.pdf 1 30/10/2014 13:24 Photo: The Mancunion cumin and eat hot out of the oven.
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A RANGE OF WORKSHOPS TO HELP YOU CAMPAIGN FOR CHANGE. TUESDAY 04 NOVEMBER - GRAPHIC DESIGN TRAINING Good graphic design can really help your campaign, so come along and learn some tips on how to use it to your advantage.
manchesterstudentsunion.com/skills facebook.com/skillsforchangemanchester twitter.com/skills_4_change
24
Arts & Culture
ISSUE 06/ 20th OCTOBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM /TheMancunionArtsCulture @ArtsMancunion
Editor: Holly Smith
Photo of the Week
Spotlight
Turner Prize 2014 Photo Of
Damien Hirst’s Virgin Mother (2005) at Gordon Bunshaft’s Lever House (1952), New York City. Jeff Berman@Flickr
Just around the corner is this year’s announcement of the 2014 Turner Prize, one of the UK’s most prestigious art awards, celebrating a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition or other presentation of their work in the preceding twelve months. The winner will be announced on
1st December 2014 by a panel of four judges and will also receive a prize of £25000. Previous winners include some of the UK’s most wellknown artists. Winning in 1994 was the sculptor Antony Gormley, whose best known works include the infamous The Angel of The North in Gateshead.
His sculptures currently reside throughout the UK, making him one of the most renowned British sculptors. The following year, controversial artist Damien Hirst took the winning prize for his preservation of animals (sometimes dissected) in formaldehyde. However, his work wasn’t welcomed throughout the world. New York public health officials banned one of his exhibitions entitled Two Fucking and Two Watching featuring a rotting cow and bull, because of fears of “vomiting among the visitors.” Last year Laure Prouvost won the Turner Prize for her installation entitled Wantee, a film set at a tea party describing a fictional relationship between Prouvost’s Grandfather and artist Kurt Schwitters. It was considered “outstanding” by the panel of judges and the UK is waiting to see what her next work will be. This year celebrates the 30th anniversary of the prize and with four artists nominated for almost everything, from film to live performance, it will definitely be a year to remember. Photo Holly Smith
GOT ANY
COURSE WORRIES?
The Week
This Photograph is from Antonio Rolo Duarte, a first year Politics and International Relations student.If you would like to enter Photo Of The Week, email us your photographs at mancunion.arts@gmail.com
Exhibiton
If you feel like you’re on the wrong course, the best thing that you can do is give it a bit more time. Don't forget that the course content will be different next term and there may be different tutors, so it’s often worth hanging on to see if things change. Changing course isn't particularly easy, as most courses are already full and have already started. If you really feel that your course isn't right for you, speak to one of our Advisors who can help you with this process and can discuss the possible financial implications of a course change. For further information visit: manchesterstudentsunion.com/adviceservice
Theatre 25
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM /mancuniontheatre @themanctheatre
Editor: Nicole Tamer
Benjamin Monk
Review
Nicole Tamer
What’s On
The Events
Editor’s Choice
5 performances to look out for to light up dreary November days
Jeeves and Wooster Tue 4 Nov – Sat 8 Nov, The Lowry £19.50 – £25.50 Join James Lance as the aristocratic fool Bertie Wooster and John Gordon Sinclair of Gregory’s Girl fame as his dutiful valet Jeeves. When a perfectly delightful trip to the countryside takes a turn for the worse, Bertie is called on to play matchmaker and steal a cow creamer from Totleigh Towers. Of course, the everdependable Jeeves is there to prevent Bertie from making a fool of himself in front of a cast of Wodehouse’s finest characters.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 30 Oct – 29 Nov, Royal Exchange Theatre £7.50 – £15 Maggie the Cat and her husband Brick return to his home of the night of the patriarch Big Daddy’s 65th Birthday. The evening spirals into disaster as the family scramble to secure their futures and renegotiate their relationships. This tense, heartstopping story uncovers a passionate and dangerous world.
Jana and Heidi Sat 8 Nov, The Lowry £12 Jana and her mum Heidi have had a 32-year-long relationship filled with highs and lows, phonecalls, magazine cuttings, and emails about next door’s cat. Together they’ve made a show! Join them for an honest exploration of the relationship between mothers and daughters. Good times are guaranteed, as is motherly advice and a disco dance off! Jana is in Manchester and she got a degree from Manchester University. She has trained in Paris in Bouffon & Clown, and uses both these devices in creating her work. Jana has co-created this show with her real life mother—Heidi.
Shakespeare Schools Festival 2014 Mon 3 Nov – Wed 12 Nov, Contact Theatre £6 / £9
If you are in the mood for Shakespeare, this week is a dream come true. Shakespeare Schools Festival works with secondary, primary and special schools all over the UK, making it possible for them to stage Shakespeare productions in their local professional theatres. Three to four Shakespeare plays will be performed per day from favourites like Romeo and Juliet to The Merchant of Venice, there will be something for every taste.
Robin Ince: Blooming Buzzing Confusion Thur 6 Nov, Dancehouse £11 / £13 Is anyone a freethinker? Looking at Milgram, Mcluhan and experiments into the mind, Robin tries to work out if we can arm ourselves against mass media despots and live life pragmatically or will we always just be clumsy animals justifying each mistake with a well-honed alibi? After meeting Robin Ince at Tedx in Salford and laughing tears, The Mancunion highly recommends his show and there will be a follow-up interview online. A very approachable and funny comedian with a love for vintage books!
Photo: David Levine Photo: David Levine
The Events does not investigate, as widely reported, the Anders Breivik shootings. The farright militant killed 77 people—likewise, this play probes an imagined response to a mass shooting at a church hall. Before this, Scottish playwright David Greig was best known for Dunsinane, an ambitious sequel to Macbeth, and it is unsurprising that a similar theme of clan identity emerges. But The Events goes further, electrifyingly utilising Greig’s fierce intelligence to interrogate society’s sentimental desire to understand a terrorist’s reasoning. It is choirmaster Claire’s (Derbhle Crotty) insatiable pursuit of information over an acceptance of a terrorist’s humanity that drives the piece. She effectively spars with the multi-
The Lodger 1927: The end of silent film is nigh, and the dastardly sound— or ‘talkie’—picture is ready to pounce. In the same year, British fiction-film forefather Alfred Hitchcock released his silent, stunningly shot murder-mystery The Lodger. 1956: A new wave of British drama emerges. “Speaking for a generation who had for so long been silent, they forged a living, adult, vital theatre.” October 2014: The 1956 Theatre Company adapt Hitchcock’s 1927 thriller for the stage, presenting it to a delighted audience at the Salford Arts Theatre. Set in the smoggy suburbs of 1920s London, this adaptation of The Lodger cuts out the complicated, overarching conspiracy at the heart of Hitchcock’s film, placing greater emphasis on the characters than the string of Ripperstyle murders that comprise the whodunnit subplot. The Lodger in question is one Jonathan Drew (Bradley Cross), a peculiar gentleman of unclear origins (“we didn’t decide in the rehearsals...”) who rents a room at the residence of the Buntings, a pleasant family whose need for money overrides their suspicions of his being ‘The Avenger’ serial killer. Apart from an amusing flashback montage we never actually leave the Bunting’s living room, which racks up suspense and comedy as the fam-
roling Clifford Samuel, playing all other characters including the killer, a far-right politician and, most humorously, Sharman Dave from Leeds. Both performers offer deep poignancy against the piece’s intensity, but it is the visceral power of a daily-changing choir that connects the play’s limited fictionalised scope to reality. As non-actors, She Choir gave a honest naïvety to the impending action, becoming an essential device for audience assimilation into the community. Director Ramin Gray, of the Actors Touring Company, didactically has their harmonies reflect both organised religion and a primal, ritualistic ceremony. Fusing the dual perceptions of a unified, all-female choir Tom Bruce
ily struggle to adapt to their new house guest. Having one set also meant that the tiny cast didn’t really have to do anything apart from act, which was something they were all very good at. The vaudeville humour and use of old-school techniques to hark back to the original silent film meant the actors could really go loopy. Graham Eaglesham, who played Arthur Bunting, put his body to especially hilarious use, but Emma Fernell and Julie Hannan—who played his daughter and wife, respectively—were equally effective as they ran rings around the oafish male characters. “Do you mind?! This is a silent film!” Danny Whittle and Lee Lomas’ adapted script—obviously written mostly from scratch due to the absence of vernacular dialogue in the source material—was exactly what minimalist stageplay should be all about; it was funny, self-referential, over the top, but always leaving room for overzealous posing and eye raising, the latter coming courtesy of cast member Danny Whittle, who does a spectacular Jack Black brow dance. The Lodger wasn’t as scary as its film counterpart, but the dodgy-as-hell walk from Salford Gala Bingo to the actual Arts Theatre sure was. If you go, get off at the right stop.
and a tribe, Gray powerfully reflects that a primitive, outsider origin always persists, however acculturating a community acts. As a microcosm of a willingly distracted society that caused the terrorist’s formation, the invitation to join the ‘crazy tribe’ and sing at the conclusion was harrowing. Whilst providing euphoria as a ‘real’ choir outside of The Events, their sustained function was to question the emotionally cathartic indulgences of contemporary society when faced with deceptively anomalous evil. Despite this, astonishingly, audience members still sung along—society, it seems, will never be free of culture’s distracting exhilaration. Benjamin Monk
A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts Relentless buzz has stalked Secret Theatre from the Lyric Hammersmith to the Edinburgh Fringe and beyond, with any expectation of secrecy now lost. Ascending the endless flights of stairs to reach an inauspicious rehearsal room, away from the Royal Exchange’s main site, I did know beforehand that a randomly selected performer would be subjected to ‘impossible acts’. But the emergent ‘acts’ were not simply a presumed spectacle of circus acts, but a multitude of performative interpretations and expressions of the ‘act’ explored: narrative acts, gender acts, enactment of fears and joy— even past acts to be relived. While the detail of each ‘act’ is unique to the day’s performer, the piece’s ultimate strength lies in affecting audience beyond the experience of a chosen participant, evolving into something outstanding—a reminder of our own messy, collective humanity. Out of the nine-strong, gym kit-clad ensemble, the night’s ‘protagonist’ was Hammed. His immediate reframing, from ensemble presence to unique aura, immediately prompts a thought: will he or won’t he achieve the impossible? Within the appearance of an appropriated classroom, eating a lemon and bending a bar becomes an anarchic PE lesson permeated by a failure to achieve. The ensemble ask Hammed eve-
Photo: Birmingham City University @Flickr
Photo:United Agents
Photo: lewishamdreamer @Flickr
Dame Judi Dench The magnificent actress received countless awards for her stage and film peformances and honory doctorates from 7 universities. Although she was born in York, her family later moved to Tyldesley situated in the Borough of Wigan.
Julie Walters Most people know her as Molly Weasley and other charming performances. She received BAFTAs for her role in Educating Rita, Billy Elliot and an Olivier Award for All My Sons, but her career started at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Meera Syal After attending the University of Manchester, she graduated with a double first in English and Drama and won the National Student Drama Award for her performance in One of Us. On screen, she is most famous for ‘Goodness Gracious Me’ and ‘The Kumars at No. 42’.
Olivia Poulet She studied drama at the University of Manchester where she met future boyfriend Benedict Cumberbatch. The actress and comedian is an ambassador for a London theatre and had parts in TV shows such as Sherlock and Outnumbered.
Photo: United Agents
Nicole Tamer Photo: vagueonthehow @Flickr
TOP 5: Actresses who have lived or studied in Greater Manchester
rything, questioning as if a personal Quizoola!, from the story of his first kiss to his greatest fears— that are literally wrestled with on a crash mat. In the most astonishing fragment, Hammed answers questions framed as dialogue from a past, assumingly real relationship. He is heartbreakingly forced to reenact the entire decay, from lovestruck to the inevitable love-loss. Revisiting a mirage of your past in performance, from passion to pity in just two minutes, is devastating for audience and performer. Unsurprisingly, at the performance’s close Hammed, also the youngest of the company, is emotionally and physically drained. Like The Events, these slippages of reality are vital for audience empathy and understanding, but here the pathos is always balanced with innocent joy. The final, emancipatory dance was breathtaking, as if cleansing and celebrating all that came before. I am attempting to not to reveal too much—for this piece particularly, there should be some surprises—but be sure that by the end, completion of the impossible is irrelevant. Hope envelops fear. Humanist comradeship pervades all. This daring, versatile performance group provides pure delight, that must be seen to be believed.
Marsha Thomason This actress scores triple points since she was born in Manchester, lived here and then later studied at Manchester Metropolitan and performed at Oldham Theatre. She has been in dramas across the pond, such as ‘Lost’ and ‘White Collar’.
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Lifestyle
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Editor: Robert Firth Feature Advice
It’s Back...
ask
Kitty
We may not have Cilla Black but Blind Date is Back! Sit back and shamelessly enjoy this healthy dose of voyeurism.
Molly Allen
Many thanks to Fallow Café, 2A Landcross Road, Fallowfield. As well as serving tasty meals, it also holds free gigs, regular film screenings and club nights. www.fallowcafe.com
Blind Date
Fancy a free meal and a date? Email: mancunion.lifestyle@gmail.com with your name, year and course.
Alex 4th Year Physics
Becky, 4th Year Geography
Photo:: Jetske @Flickr
This week our resident advice guru Kitty Treverton Jones contests with pushy parents and long distance relationships.
Q
A
Q
My boyfriend’s parents are really religious and recently his mum has asked me to check out a church service where I live. She keeps mentioning that I’m “lost” and I think she’s trying to convert me. I don’t want to offend the family but I am not religious in the slightest! What do I do? That’s an awkward situation. I’d recommend going to one service to keep the peace, then talk to her and tell her it’s really not your thing. Hopefully she’ll back off a bit. You never know, you may end up loving it and this time next year you’ll be on the path to becoming a fully-fledged nun. In which case, the whole boyfriend concept will be irrelevant—problem solved. I’m in my first year of uni but my boyfriend is about to go travelling on his gap year for six months. We want to stay together but I’m so worried he’ll meet someone else while he’s away. How can we stay strong from so far apart?
A
I know it’s very tempting to crack out the virtual binoculars and live on his Facebook, see whose photos he’s liking on Instagram and keep an eye on his twitter followers, but to stop yourself going insane you will need to set yourself some limits. Send lots of saucy Snapchats, don’t be opposed to the occasional bit of Skype sex, but most importantly appreciate the fact that you have a boyfriend without having to go home and see him every weekend. Enjoy your first year of uni and let him enjoy his travels, otherwise you’ll just resent each other. The fact you’ve chosen to stay together in spite of being apart is a good sign. Stay strong!
Got a problem? Unsure who to turn to? Just ask Kitty: mancunion.life@gmail.com
First impressions? First impressions?
I thought he was quite cute, he looks like Justin Timberlake circa the Britney Spears era. And he seemed friendly.
Pretty, nice hair and I liked her outfit. Best features?
Best features?
Her hair and her eyes.
Well I used to have a massive thing for Justin Timberlake so probably the fact he looked a bit like him.
What did you have to eat? I had a falafel wrap with fries and a brownie. It was amazing.
What did you have to eat? I’m coeliac so I had a chicken and chorizo thing in a tomato sauce. It was delicious! Oh and I had a Juan Collins cocktail.
Any awkward moments? I spent the first 10 minutes fairly sure I’d once got with her on a night out so that was a bit weird before I realised I was wrong, but other than that not really.
Any awkward moments? There were a few but the worst was when I thought he said urethra. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
How did you say goodbye? We hugged. Did you kiss? I wanted to but I thought it might be a bit soon.
Alex &
How did you say goodbye?
B ec k
y
Any potential plans for the future?
It was awkward. He went in for the kiss; I went in for a hug: in the end we just patted each other on the back
Photo: Images_of_Money @Flickr
Photo: Images of Money @ Flickr
Did you kiss?
TV I got her number so I’ll wait the
No, I was too mortified.
standard 3 days before texting her.
Any potential plans for the future? Well I gave him my number so we’ll have to see. Not sure I can recover from that goodbye, I’m still cringing.
Healthy Living on a Budget Blow away your post-reading week blues with contributor Molly Allen’s top tips to keep yourself healthy and energised on a budget.
Find a (fun) sport and get active for reheating suspicious leftovers. For a long time both my runningmad parents led me to believe this Know the difference between was the only sport that would get physical hunger and boredom you fit. Wrong. ‘Sport’ can be anything Often when you think you’re from daily yoga to dancing around in hungry, you’re actually thirsty. Have your room to power walking to uni (or a big glass of water and if you still feel halfway, who cares?) You don’t need hungry, have some food. This stops to go to the gym to get active: weights unnecessary snacking and is a trick from Amazon or eBay are incredibly as old as time itself. Photo: cheap and allow you to work out in e4 press image the comfort of your own room. Control your cravings When you crave unhealthy food it’ll Try alternative cooking methods be because your body lacks a certain Roast, steam, boil and grill instead of mineral: frying. Some veg roasted with a tiny Chocolate—you need magnesium. splash of olive oil is delicious. You’d be Try: nuts, seeds, bananas, yogurt, amazed how much you can cook in whole grains. a microwave as well—they’re not just Salt—you need sodium/calcium.
Try: milk, nuts, seeds, leafy greens (kale, cabbage, spinach). Fruit and veg are not that expensive Sure, if you’re buying Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference you’ll be paying through the nose for one banana. Shop around: Morrisons and Lidl are both great value for money. If you buy it and eat it the same day you’ll have it as fresh as it comes. Try a few of these techniques and you’ll be amazed how much better you feel! Photo: SweetOnVeg @Flickr
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
/TheMancunion: Lifestyle @MancunionLife
Worst Dates EVER
Lifestyle
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Running in the rain: worth it in the end. Photo: Stuart Grout @ Flickr
All your dates a disaster? A Failure at flirting? Unlucky in love? Don’t worry, you’ll feel like a Don Juan after you’ve read about these first date horror stories contributor Natalie Silver uncovered.
1.
It was my first year of high school, and a cute older student asked me out on a date. On the day, I spent hours getting ready. He picked me up in his car, and took me to a nice restaurant in Washington, D.C. The whole dinner he was sweet, and smiled a lot. I thought of how lucky I was to be out with someone so amazing. Towards the end of the dinner, he took my hand, looked me in the eyes, and asked me the question every girl wants to hear: “Will you give me head in the bathroom?” Health and Wellbeing
2.
My friend went out with a guy who had broken up with his girlfriend days before asking her out. They went to dinner and she liked him so much that she had sex with him right after. During sex, he began to look queasy, and then suddenly threw up all over her. He got up and started putting his clothes on, not apologising or helping her clean up, but telling her how guilty he felt for cheating on his girlfriend. It turned out that they had never really broken up.
3.
He picked me up, we went to a restaurant, and he talked all about how his dad died of cancer. Thenand he talked about his mum having breast cancer. Sex relationships Whenever I tried to chime in or talk, he shot me a look like “Hello! I’m talking.” He talked so much that I had finished my whole meal before he had eaten more than three bites. On the way home, he continued to talk about his mum’s cancer. I tried to change the subject by asking about the picture on his car visor. Turns out it was a picture of him and his running coach, who had also died of cancer. I nearly jumped out of the car and ran to the nearest oncology clinic.
Lifestyle is... Sex, Relationships, Travel, Health, TV AND MORE. To write for us, email: mancunion.life@gmail.com
Briefly Exploring... Chester
This week Robert Firth ventures beyond Manchester and finds himself bored in Chester. This week I was meant to venture into Moss Side. But I chickened out so instead here’s a very brief guide to Manchester’s smaller, not so masculine, slightly southern companion, Chester. (It’s not as atrocious or exciting as Hollyoaks makes it look).
4.
He said he was taking me to a nice restaurant. He pulls up, and I see his friend in the passenger seat. I get in, and he tells me that we’re actually going to a hockey game. On the way he pulls over to “get petrol.” He and his friend come out with a bottle of vodka. They had finished it within fifteen minutes of the hockey game starting. They were completely mortal. I had to drive him and his friend home. Stumbling into the door, he told me he had had a “great time,” and asked me when we were going out again. Before I could respond, he passed out on his couch.
5.
I met him on Tinder so I half-knew it would be disastrous, but was hoping for the best. He told me to meet him at his house. He met me outside, but instead of walking to the car he asked me to come inside with him because he “needed a few things.” When I got inside, his entire family was there. Grandparents, aunts, cousins: all staring at me. I sat down, introduced myself and spoke with them. He disappeared in his room for, whilst his grandparents kept telling me how happy they were that he had found me. When he finally emerged from his room, I got up to leave with him but before I could say anything he proclaimed, “Since you’re having such a great time, why don’t we just stay?” In front of his entire family I felt awful. How could I say no? We ate his grandma’s lasagne. I deleted Tinder on my way home.
Love at first drag Photo: Alijah Villian @Flickr
A photograph of the second most photographed clock in England. Photo: Friar’s Balsam @Flickr
When you leave Chester’s Railway station the first thing you realise is how empty it is. Then you see the Live Rooms which hosts acts such as ‘The Smyths’, and ‘Dirty Dc’, as well as a range of middle aged men and women who were once part of famous bands in the 80s and 90s. Then suddenly you’re in the centre and there are groups of tourists blocking your way taking photos of the Eastgate and Eastgate clock, probably because their guidebook tells them it’s the second most photographed clock in England after Big Ben and that way they’re giving something back to the place they’re visiting. Then you’re down a street and it’s silent again and you probably pass a sex shop with two plastic mannequins handcuffed
A poor substitute for face-to-face action? Photo: Jhaymesisviphotography @ Flickr
together. If you’ve been to York it looks like that, only smaller. There are lots of expensive, chain boutique shops which appear with an expectancy that is usually only reserved for McDonald’s in every former spa/market town in England. There are lots of too small tea rooms selling much more varieties of coffee and Paninis at shocking prices. You can even have a sightseeing tour of Chester on an open top bus, although you could definitely walk it as quickly and it’s probably raining. At night time muscly men wearing smart shirts go out with women wearing faces of makeup and dresses in beige and salmon which mould around their skin. They go to expensive bars which you can go to elsewhere and take lots of pictures and sometimes dance to one song. Or they go to one of the three nightclubs such as Rosie’s where celebrities like Joel Corry DJ and show off their bronze abs and
tweet about being “Buzzing for #Chester 2nite!” because it’s just another “Big start to the weekend!”. Whatever you do, don’t miss the Halloween party though, last year two girls dressed as the twin towers won £150 worth of shopping vouchers. In Chester the possibilities are infinite: Cruise another nightclub offers you six different areas to experience: Manhattan, Bangkok, the Mediterranean and more in one building in the North West of England. If it gets a bit overwhelming there’s no need to panic. Liverpool is just a £4.60 return trip away if you’ve got a railcard and it’s not much more than £10 to get a return trip to Chester’s big bro if you book a week in advance. My top tip is save the money and just get a single out of there: the university may be the 6th safest in the U.K. whilst Manchester is frequently named the worst for crime outside of London but never has YOLO seemed so necessary.
Thursday 6 November, 6PM, Club Academy
PANEL DISCUSSION AND FREE ED PARTY WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 17:00 CLUB ACADEMY
DEMO ON CAMPUS
FRIDAY 14 NOVEMBER 13:00 UNIVERSITY PLACE
NATIONAL DEMO WEDNESDAY 19 NOVEMBER 12:00 LONDON
SUBSIDISED TICKETS CAN BE BOUGHT FROM THE SU FOR £7.50 PLEASE CONTACT FREYA.POTTER@MANCHESTER.AC.UK OR COME INTO THE SU VOICE OFFICE TO FIND OUT MORE.
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ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
NBA Eastern Conference Preview.
Nayeem gives his thoughts on Lebron James and the rest of the teams in the upcoming season. Nayeem Quraishi Sport Reporter
“Return of the King”.
It would be impossible to start a preview of the upcoming NBA season without mentioning LeBron James. After spending four years in Miami and winning two championships, LeBron has decided to take his talents back to Cleveland. He left Cleveland Cavaliers in acrimonious circumstances, the team expected him to sign a new contract and decided not to pursue a trade when he was in the final year of his contract. Instead LeBron went live on national television with ‘The Decision’ and told the franchise that he would be moving to Miami to play alongside Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Four years after ‘The Decision’, Lebron has come back home. This time around LeBron decided to announce his move through an essay in the Sports Illustrated magazine, which was very well received and showed that LeBron had matured. The state of Dwayne Wade’s knees, offensive struggles of Chris Bosh and presence of Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters in Cleveland made LeBron’s decision a lot easier. As soon as the Cavaliers knew that LeBron was on his way, they set in motion a huge trade involving Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers, to bring Kevin Love to Cleveland. In return, Cavs had to give up the number one draft pick from 2014 Andrew Wiggins, the number one draft pick from 2013 Anthony Bennett, Thaddeus Young and their first round draft pick in 2015. Love is one of the best shooting power forwards in the history of NBA and his addition makes Cavaliers an immediate contender for the championship. These are exciting time for the
Photo: Keith Allison
Photo: Sport Manchester
city of Cleveland. Not only is LeBron back but the Cleveland Browns drafted Johnny Manziel in the NFL draft, although, Manziel has yet to start a game for the Browns and is watching Brian Hoyer lead the Browns to a 4-3 start. Rest of the Eastern Conference Miami Heat Many expected the Heat to go into a rebuilding mode after LeBron’s departure but the team has managed to hold onto Wade and Bosh. After offering Bosh a max contract, Heat have signed Luol Deng and Josh McRoberts who will not only add much needed depth to the roster but will also provide an offensive threat. In Deng, Heat have now got one of the best defenders in the league who can play against athletic pointguards. Heat have
also added the exciting point guard Shahbazz Napier through the draft, expect him to lead the Heat offense as the season progresses. Chicago Bulls Derrick Rose is back. After two years out with knee injuries the 2011 MVP is back to full fitness. Before his injuries Rose had established himself as the most explosive scorer in the league and perhaps one of the best point guards, everyone will be waiting to see if he can regain his old form. In Rose’s absence Joakim Noah has become the leader of the team, his insuppressible energy has allowed Bulls to stay competitive with other teams. Pau Gasol has arrived from Los Angeles, bringing with him his skilful low post moves. Pau will be relying on Noah’s energy to forget what was a horrible
summer as Spain were beaten by France in the semi-finals of FIBA World Championship held in Spain. Indiana Pacers Things are not looking good for the Pacers. At one point last season, the Pacers were leading the Eastern Conference and were looking like a complete team but a lot of things have gone wrong for the Pacers since then. The decision to trade underperforming Danny Granger, who was a considered as a locker room leader for Evan Turner proved to be disastrous. Since the trade, the team has struggled with chemistry, Roy Hibbert forgot how to play basketball in the playoffs, Lance Stephenson is now in Charlotte and Paul George is out for four months with the injury he suffered in the FIBA World
Championship camp. Toronto Raptors Raptors were the surprise of last season and will be looking to build on an impressive playoff run. They have managed to keep Kyle Lowry, despite his flirtations with other teams in the free agency. DeMar DeRozan has quietly progressed to become an offensive weapon and Jonas Valunciunas is steadily developing into a dependable centre. Raptors, not only represent Toronto but also the growing influence of Canadian basketball in the NBA. In the last two drafts both first picks have happened to be Canadian. And, Drake will be in the front row seat with his signature lint roller. Milwaukee Bucks The Bucks are one of the smallest markets in the NBA and
rarely feature in the news. This season promises to be quite an exciting one for Bucks fans, they picked Jabari Parker as the number two pick in this year’s draft and signed Jason Kidd to be their headcoach. Jabari Parker has an NBA ready body and his size will create problems if Kidd decides to play him as a point guard. Like all rookies he will have to work on his defence and the mental aspect of the game, in Jason Kidd he has an ideal head coach to guide him through the tough times.
More of a writer than a player? Come to our contributor meetings on Thursday, 5pm, Student’s Union Second Floor. Or tweet @mancunion_sport/email sports.mancunion@googlemail.com. NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED
t
SPORT : 31
ISSUE 07/ 3rd NOVEMBER 2014 WWW.MANCUNION.COM
Footballers of World War I
As Rememberance Day approaches, Andrew Georgeson remembers the lost footballers. Andrew Georgeson Sport Editor
Mulattos’ exercising command as officers, as mentioned in the 1914 Manual of Military Law. He started his career
‘Join the Greater Game.’ So read the
at Tottenham Hostspur. The Football
posters around London in 1915. If ever
Star called him ‘catch of the season.’
an example of macuvelian politics,
An industrious winger with a sharp
here it was. Exploiting mans great-
eye for goal would have appealed to
est fears of cowardice or rejection. It
most, but not the Tottenham fans. He
worked though, they ran to sign up,
was roundly hounded out of the club
hoping it would be done soon.
before signing for Northampton Town,
The war effort attempted to sign
where he became the first player on
the masses in anyway it could. Some,
the team to sign up in 1914. He died in
many in fact, fought with pride- going
1918 during the Spring Offensive near
to smash the hun and be home intime
the village of Favreuil, his body was
for Christmas. Many had to escape the
never recovered. The recent drama-
mundernity that was post-revolution
tization of his life, named ‘Tull’, closes
England. The change has come and
with Herbert Chapman, his manager at
went, and a kind of natural selection
Northampton, talking about the futil-
alienated many of the working class
ity of racism, especially in sport. Sadly,
from all corners of the land.
we still have a long way to go.
Indeed, the difference between the
Posthumous attempts at awarding
gentry, the officers, and the working
Tull a Military Cross were made, to lit-
class, the privates was in cases a good
tle success.
few inches in height due to a poor diet
A memorial outside of Sixfields sta-
and hard labour. The rationing that
dium, home of Northampton Town,
was implemented during the war im-
now stands. Football returned in the 1919-20 sea-
proving the health of both the public
son. Aston Villa won the first FA cup
and soldiers,. Another reason people signed up
after the break, and both division One
was because of grouping. The ‘Pal’s
and Two fielded full divisions. Tull’s
Battallions’ bought many together.
old team Spurs winning the second
War Poet Wilfred Owen had been re-
division, were a new look Braford fin-
jected by Oxford and was teaching
ished 11th in the First. These were no Austerity games, it
in France in 1913. He signed up to the
was an unremarkable year for foot-
Manchester ‘Artist Rifles’ in 1914. The Photo: Haringey Libraries Archives
label ‘artist’ gave this plucky lad from own. The same can be said for football.
contracts, the government knew many
A Wikipedia search for the Manches-
Although, the initial response from
would sign up to fight alongside their
ter United forward William Booth, one
the footballing community was under-
heroes. Many indeed did fight along-
of the original few to sign up, will not
whelming, as clubs were reluctant to
side them, but many also died at their
give you any information about the
let their contracted players go, just as
hands. Players and fans alike were
player past his enlistment, a search on
contracted players were reluctant to
sold the lie that a war could be fought
the War Graves Commission tells you
leave.
with same morality found within Co-
he died in 1918 As with so many of the
rinthian amateurism; best effort, fair
young men who went to the front, all
play and genuine respect.
they are now are white headstones in
Arthur Cohen Doyle said, ‘If a footballer has strength of limb, let them serve
The first battalion was formed soon
France. Similarly little is known about
and march in the field of battle.’ By
after the outbreak of war by William
Oscar Linkson, the Manchester United
March 1915 122 pro footballers joined
Joynson Hicks and England and Man-
full-back who helped United win the
the regiment.
chester United and City centre half
1909 FA Cup and 1911 League title in
Overnight football became more
Frank Buckley. Major Buckley cited
his 59 games for the club. He fell at the
than just a game. It quickly devel-
that of the original 600 who signed up
Somme, like so many of the battalion.
oped into propaganda with pitches
as part of the battalion, 500 would go
Unfortunately, the battalion would
in Northumberland being changed
onto die. Over the entire course of the
see some of the bloodiest conflicts in
for devastating carnage at Tripoli, the
war, however, the 5,000 professional
the war, fighting in Sommes, Messines,
clackers at Elland Road being replaced
footballers in Britain, 2,000 signed up
Ypres and Bapaume.
by machine gun magazines in Belgium
just to the battalion, without includ-
and even worse, the shrill peep of the
ing the number of the Scottish players
referees whistle to start the match was
who joined local battalions.
replaced by the piecing noise of the
There were some names to emerge from the conflict. Walter Tull overcame incredible adversity all his life.
Player’s from all sides of the country
Orphaned at a young age, he went on
faced heavy casualties. A total of sev-
to become the second black profes-
For it wasn’t the case that the foot-
en of Heart’s first team lost their lives,
sional footballer, and the first black
baller’s Battalion was exclusive to
compared to the 9 that Bradford City
Second Lieutenant in the British Army,
those who the FA released from their
lost.
despite the ruling against ‘Negroes/
whistle signaling being sent over the top.
Gerrard Steven Gerrard has hinted that he may be leaving the club this summer after his current deal runs out next year.
Burgess After breaking his cheekbone and playing on in the Australian Super League Final, Doctors have branded him a fool. Another knock may have caused him to lose his eyesight. Burgess has recently joined Bath rugby club in an attempt to make the England squad for the Rugby World Cup in 2015.
ferent, slightly older, wiser. Perhaps
Shropshire a community to call his
This lasted until early 1915 when Sir
ball. All the teams were slightly dif-
News in Brief:
because many of there team were still in France,
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Women A BBC study has shown that men get 30% more prize money than women in sports.
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Clattenburg Banned from refereeing in the weekend’s fixtures after disobeying protocol by taking a phone call from a football manager and driving up to Newcastle on his own to watch an Ed Sheeran concert.