Issue 4 - Hilary Term 2015

Volume 72 Issue 4

Thursday 5th February 3rd Week

oxfordstudent.com

Activists to protest at OSFL event

Oxford in the snow, p. 4 »

• Exeter students to protest against Oxford Students for Life LUKE MINTZ NEWS EDITOR

Students at Exeter College have organised a demonstration against an event planned by anti-abortion group Oxford Students for Life.

Exeter students Alice Nutting and Ella Richards have arranged a “peaceful, quiet demonstration” to take place on Wednesday evening in order to “show support for reproductive rights of people with uteruses”.

The OSFL event, scheduled to take place in Exeter College’s Saskatchewan room, has been described as a panel discussion on pro-life feminism, and will feature a number of female speakers including doctor and campaigner Rahael Gabrasadig and charity fundraiser Emily Watson.

On the demonstration’s Facebook page, organisers Nutting and Richards state: “While OSFL are perfectly PHOTO/ Philip Babcock

Continued on page 5 »

Union stands firm as Marine Le Pen controversy builds

• OUSU Council considers condemning Union for inviting Front National leader to speak • Spiked Free Speech Rankings claim that Oxford has “actively censored” ideas on campus LAURA WHETHERLY NEWS EDITOR

An officer of the Oxford Union has confirmed that Marine Le Pen will be speaking on Thursday evening, despite potential opposition from OUSU. In the same week that Oxford University comes under fire for “actively censoring ideas on campus”, OUSU will vote on whether to condemn nationalist

politician Marine Le Pen’s invitation to the Oxford Union.

On Wednesday evening, OUSU Council considered a motion mandating a letter to the Oxford Union, criticising them for inviting Front National President Marine Le Pen to speak. Whilst not necessarily a “no platform” motion, the letter states OUSU’s disagreement with the Union’s invitation to Le Pen. The agenda for the meeting, held on

Wednesday evening, states the belief that: “Freedom of speech includes the right of everyone to protest, but not the right of fascists to a platform for their views.”

If passed, OUSU Council would mandate a letter to be signed by OUSU Executives and sent to the Oxford Union standing committee. The letter will express “disappointment” over the Union’s invitation, and ask the Union to refrain

from “inviting speakers with racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic and homophobic views in the future”.

Le Pen has been criticised for comparing the Islamic call to prayer in French cities to the Nazi occupation. Front National has also faced controversy due to its honorary president and Le Pen’s father, Jean Le Pen, being convicted for racial hatred and Holocaust denial.

The proposed letter continues: “Disa-

Profile, p.29

Sport, p.39

Rising star Amma Asante on costume drama and diversity in film

Rugby legend Will Greenwood talks World Cup and Six Nations

greeing with someone’s views is not a sufficient reason to stop listening to them, or even to refuse them a platform: but the views of people such as Marine Le Pen are so troubling, so dangerous and so extreme that we believe that in giving them a platform the Oxford Union, far from aiding the cause of free speech, in fact harms it by contributing to the intimidation of oppressed groups”.

Continued on page 5 »

EDITORIAL

2 Editorial

A

s a university that has produced 26 British Prime Ministers, and whose alumni continue to dominate the political and academic realms, it’s impossible to deny that Oxford has an enormous symbolic position in the United Kingdom.

As students it is something that we can hardly avoid, whether it’s Brendan O’Neill’s Spiked magazine criticising our attitude to free speech, or worrying that a visit to Oxford can legitimize a politican like Marine Le Pen. One view about this can be seen on page 9. Our front page stories show how concerned students are by what is being discussed here, and the way it impacts the world.

However, it’s easy to get caught up in seeing Oxford as a symbol and forget the great research that’s going on behind the ancient walls (or not-so-ancient in St Catz’s case). A happy reminder of this can be found on page 7, where preliminary trials of an Ebola vaccine have got off to a really positive start. The student press is mainly run by undergraduates, so it can sometimes escape our notice when things are happening in the wider university. It is, however, important to stay informed, hence our attention to the developments of Castle Mill and wider issues in the Oxford community, such as homelessness (both page 3).

Sometimes it can be good to reflect on what exactly it is that makes this such a prestigious university, as well as what it means to be a student here.

We try to include a range of stories in the paper, as well as all our culture pages, which we hope allows our readers to feel like they’re engaging with different aspects of Oxford.

5th February 2015

On last week’s issue Last week we published an interview with Julie Bindel entitled ‘Julie Bindel on pornos and platforming’, to which many people responded with shock.

Firstly, thank you to anyone who emailed us to bring attention to their grievances with the article.

We always encourage you to send us your feedback by email to editor@ oxfordstudent.com.

Many felt that we should have challenged Bindel on her opinions about trans people. This is certainly a fair critcism, and in hindsight we should have considered this. We would like to offer our apologies to anyone who was affected by our decision to run the interview with what was arguably very uncritical wording.

Our thoughts when checking over the piece were less concerned with challenging Bindel, and more with the welfare of our readers. The absence of any mention of trans issues is, in retrospect, an oversight.

Yet we would have been faced with a different problem had the subject been touched upon, as we then would have had to decide whether to print views which many consider harmful.

It is for this reason that the piece went ahead with no reference to her previous comments on the trans community.

We are very sorry to anyone who has lost confidence in us as a result of this piece, and hope that we can regain your trust in the newspaper. We are of course committed to supporting

trans welfare in the university and beyond.

We would also like to briefly note that last week’s issue featured an article about the Reverend Al Sharpton refusing to speak at the Union. In an oversight, we did not include a comment from Mr Charlie Wolf. His response can now be found in the online version of the article.

Two Eds are better than one This week, we welcome Sachin Croker to his new role as Editor in Chief. Already a key part of the team, Sachin has kindly taken on the role mid-term. We’re sure he’ll do a great job.

As ever, a lot of work has gone into this issue. We have some exciting interviews with screenwriter and director Amma Assante (page 13), opera and ballet director Ellen Kent (OXII, page 14), rugby star Will Greenwood (page 23) and producer Greg Brennan (OXII page 12. We may be nearly halfway through the term, but have no plans to slow down, even as 5th-week blues loom.

If you want to get involved, or have any comments or questions, email editor@ oxfordstudent.com

News 3

5th February 2015

Vice Chancellor defends Castle Mill accomodation

• Concerned environmental groups aim to protect Port Meadow by demolishing parts of development LAURA WHETHERLY NEWS EDITOR

Andrew Hamilton, Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, has published a statement condemning a proposal to demolish the top floor of controversial student housing development, Castle Mill.

Since its conception, the site has been a focus of challenge from environmental groups such as Campaign to Protect Rural England, who claim that Castle Mill has a detrimental effect on the surrounding area, particularly Port Meadow.

A recent Environmental Impact Assessment proposed several options to combat the issues surrounding Castle Mill, the most radical of which is to entirely remove the top floor of the buildings, at an estimated cost of £30 million.

On 10th February, the Congregation will vote on a motion deciding whether to follow through with this plan.

Hamilton’s statement said: “As the resolution submitted by some members of Congregation involves a great deal of University money - an estimated £30 million - and as Council opposes it, I wanted to share with you some thoughts on the subject.

“No university, not even one as beautiful as Oxford, should put buildings before its students. To go down the route demanded by the resolution would be a serious disservice to our students, but also in my judgement to the University’s public standing”.

Some college JCRs, including St John’s, have voted to oppose the removal of the top floor. OUSU Council are also opposing the motion.

OUSU VP for Charities and

Community, Ruth Meredith, commented: “We are really concerned that if the University is forced to pursue option three [to remove the top floor of Castle Mill], that 300 postgraduates will be moved into private housing, putting unnecessary pressure on rents and residents primarily in East Oxford.

“This pressure would be particularly acute due to the significant proportion of accommodation in Castle Mill which is for student families.

We recognise that a very small minority of Oxford residents have legitimate grievances about the process leading to the completion of Castle Mill, but pressuring the University to spend £30 million on a project which would not address the flaws in that process is a mistake.”

A protest against the motion is also planned for 10th February outside the Sheldonian, urging students to: “join us to show that we, the students of Oxford, will not standby quietly whilst the University uses our money to remove family accommodation, push rents up, and jeopardise graduate scholarships”.

Several campaign groups have expressed their support for the removal of Castle Mill’s top floor, claiming that 98 per cent of respondents to a recent survey agreed. The Save Port Meadow Campaign have also published a response to Hamilton’s letter.

Save Port Meadow’s response said: “Campaigners recognise that there are no good choices facing members of the Congregation on February 10th. There are no bad people on any side of this debacle, no bad intent.

Just exceptionally bad buildings, a bad consultation exercise, which has led to the very bad choices you face.

PHOTO/Winky

“The Castle Mill scandal and indeed the Save Port Meadow campaign is a problem in great part of

Wellington Square’s own making. It is time the University started acting like the world-leading institution

that it is, and take responsibility for properly rectifying the harm caused by these dreadful buildings”.

Most beggars in Oxford are “not homeless”, claims senior police officer • Chair of OUSU homeless charity agrees with senior officer’s statistics, but warns against conflating begging with homelessness

NEWS TEAM

A senior Oxford police officer has urged members of the public to avoid giving money to beggars, claiming that “in many of the cases those who beg are not homeless”.

Responding to an investigation published by The Oxford Student last month, Inspector Andrew Thompson stated: “With such a large number of visitors to the city centre […], there is an opportunity to make money from those visitors, or the vulnerable, by putting themselves in a position to beg.

“In many of the cases those who beg are not homeless and often have homes or accommodation in the city, but they still continue to beg, presenting themselves to the public as homeless.”

When asked to provide evidence for his statement, Thompson continued: “My claim is based on our 16 most persistent beggars in the City. Of the 16, three have homes, 11 have accommodation and only two are

actually homeless.”

Thompson used the claim to justify the 96 begging arrests made by police in Oxford over 2013 and 2014.

Thompson’s claim was supported by local homelessness charity Oxford Homeless Pathways.

Chief Executive Lesley Dewhurst said: “I am afraid that it is true that some people beg when they are not actually homeless. They may have been homeless in the past.

“It is also true that people who are technically homeless (i.e. they are staying with us at O’Hanlon House) sometimes beg by claiming to need the money for their rent, when in fact this is not the case.”

Freya Turner, Chair of OUSU’s homelessness charity On Your Doorstep, urged Oxford residents to avoid negative treatment of beggars in light of Thompson’s claim: “Homeless people are just people; their accommodation shouldn’t have to define them and they deserve the same respect and kindness from students and residents that any other

citizen of Oxford does.”

Commenting on Thompson’s initial claim, second-year history student Turner stated: “Essentially he is right, national statistics show that there are many beggars who aren’t homeless/ sleeping rough; but equally there are many homeless people who do not beg. The problem is that many people conflate the two in their understanding of the word ‘homeless’.

“I would advise concerned students to investigate the facts behind the begging/homelessness issue themselves before making judgements as it is a complex issue; if you’re concerned that the money you give to those on the street may not be helping those who need it most, you could always give to a local charity instead.”

Oxford City Council’s ‘Your Kindness Can Kill’ campaign has urged individuals to avoid giving money to beggars since 2012, claiming that donated money is often used on drugs, alcohol, and other harmful substances.

PHOTO/Garry Knight

4 News

5th February 2015

Councillor criticises Oxford's free speech record Let it snow - winter briefly arrives • Labour councillor expresses "concern" over cancellation of debates LUKE MINTZ NEWS EDITOR

A local Oxford councillor has criticised Oxford University’s apparent lack of enthusiasm for freedom of speech and open debate.

Labour councillor Mary Clarkson, representing the ward of Marston, told The Oxford Student: “My view is that universities have for centuries been the places where debate, freedom of expression and thinking the unthinkable have been permitted to a much greater degree than in the societies outside their walls.

“I am always concerned when I read that debates on controversial subjects are cancelled for fear of causing upset.”

Clarkson made clear that she was speaking in a personal capacity, and not in her capacity as a councillor.

She continued: “I am always

concerned when I read that debates on controversial subjects are cancelled for fear of causing upset. Provided that there is no incitement to hatred or violence then no subject should be off limits for debate in my opinion.

“I accept that the price I pay for living in a democratic and free society where I can practice my faith and engage openly in politics, is the risk I will be offended by others’ criticism of my views and beliefs. I think it’s a price worth paying.”

Writing on Twitter, Clarkson also made specific reference to last term’s cancellation of an abortion debate at Christ Church College: “Out of respect for #CharlieHebdo and free speech, will Oxford University now allow November’s cancelled abortion debate to take place?”

The debate, hosted by anti-abortion group Oxford Students for Life,

PHOTO/Oxford Labour

aimed to discuss Britain’s ‘abortion culture’, but was cancelled following considerable pressure from Christ Church JCR and the wider student feminist community.

Christ Church student Will Neaverson, one of those originally involved in the JCR’s opposition to the debate, disagreed with the councillor’s comments: “I stand by our decision to protect our students […] No Free Speech advocate would state that everyone has the responsibility to allow anyone into their home. [Christ Church] is our home, it is where we live, and it is not a public forum.”

Tim Squirrel, ex-President of the Cambridge University Union, also defended the record of university campuses against Clarkson’s claims: “I don’t think that Oxford or Cambridge or anywhere else have become ‘unsafe’ for speech or expression. As students we’ve begun to take account of the safety and wellbeing of our fellow students, and many of us value that wellbeing over and above the claims of bigots to have the right to speak using whatever platform they wish.”

Squirrel, who despite attending Cambridge University has become well-known among Oxford’s activist and feminist communities, added: “We don’t want to further legitimate views which are damaging and threatening to vulnerable members of society by granting those views a prestigious platform.

“It’s not about free speech. It’s about privileged speech, and common human empathy.”

PHOTOs/Stephanie Kelley

Ferguson Solidarity Tour reaches Oxford

• Students continue to protest against American case six months after fatal shooting of Mike Brown CONOR HAMILTON DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR

The Ferguson Solidarity Tour reached Oxford on Tuesday, with Damon Turner, founder of GREEDY city collective, giving a talk at Wadham.

As well as protesting against racism and police violence, the event sought to demonstrate solidarity with those whose families or loved ones have been “killed by police in the US”.

According to the event’s description, the talk aimed to “amplify the voices of families and protesters making a stand in Ferguson and across the US. We seek to use this moment to build a movement for those fighting injustice here.”

Over 240 students said that they were planning on attending.

The Oxford event was the penultimate talk given in the Solidarity Tour which has already visited London, Manchester and Brighton.

Hosting the Oxford branch of the tour was Oxford rs21, a group aiming to bring “revolutionary socialism into the 21st century”. Other groups involved in the tour included Defend the Right to Protest, United Families and Friends, and the National Union of Student’s Black Student’s Campaign.

Following the withdrawl of Reverend Osagyefo Sekou due to illness,Turner was announced as a speaker shortly before the event took place.

First-year history student Alice Skinner commented: "The event was fantastic and incredibly refeshing as Damon talked about the campaign Black Lives Matter as a person about the lives of real people, instead of angling the debate in political terms and statistics."

"Damon was a wonderful speaker and was immensely comfortable in his own lyrical language as a spoken word artist, and this self-belief created a sense of hope for the future in the room".

"I was particularly moved when he was questioned about the slogan and how it is interpreted. He responded that if all black lives did matter, we wouldn't need the campaign".

The talk follows a 250-strong Ferguson protest rally outside the Radcliffe Camera last year, one of the largest Ferguson protests in the UK. The event page on Facebook quotes the Ferguson protesters: ““We march on with purpose. The work continues.

This is not a moment but a movement. The movement lives”.

PHOTO/otto-yamamoto

5th February 2015

Pressure builds on Union to cancel Le Pen invitation

News 5

‘Reg to Vote’: OUSU • Front National leader Le Pen a risk to marginalised groups, says opposition to the Union event uses Tinder to boost • But Oxford University comes under fire from online magazine Spiked over freedom of speech voter registration LAURA WHETHERLY News Editor

OUSU has made a renewed attempt to boost student voter registration before this year’s General Election, with President Louis Trup and VP for Charities and Community Ruth Meredith using social media platforms Facebook and Tinder to reach out to potentially unregistered students. The strategy follows a shift in voter registration laws, whereby universities no longer register their students en masse, a policy that has brought a significant decline in student registration. Louis Trup commented: “On Tinder, people have generally been receptive. Some have even shown their affection for what we are doing by swiping right and offering to ejaculate “into our ballot bin”. Others have been genuinely surprised by the fact that colleges can’t automatically register students any more, or that Commonwealth citizens can also register to vote. I can also confirm that ‘Reg To Vote’ receives more matches than my personal Tinder. I have since signed up for RAG blind date.”

» Continued from front page The Council Motion also notes that “Marine Le Pen’s speaking at the Oxford Union will be upsetting to many students and others in Oxford, in particular those from marginalised groups”.

Aliya Yule, the student who seconded the OUSU motion, commented: “I am extremely disappointed that the Union has chosen yet again to prioritise inviting controversial speakers over considering the well-being of students and basic social justice." She also asserted that Le Pen's "words contribute to the stigmatisation of already marginalised groups.”

Yule, who serves as Vice President of Wadham’s SU, continued: “Whilst freedom of speech is important, the Union does not have to give a platform to such views." She elaborated that Le Pen's invite to the Union sends "a damaging message about the priorities of its committee. It is important that we, as a student union, speak out against these attacks on our communities, and send a strong message to the Union that we find their behaviour completely unacceptable.”

In the Free Speech University Rankings (FSUR) published by Spiked Online, Oxford has been categorised as ‘red’, meaning that the University “has banned and actively censored ideas on

PHOTO/Remijdn

campus”.

Tom Slater, co-ordinator of the rankings, called the actions of anti-fascist groups protesting Le Pen's invitation as“illiberal and patronising”.

He continued: “The students and professors who signed the open letter calling for Le Pen to be banned clearly think little of their peers.

“The idea that students need to be shielded from the invective of Marine Le Pen is patronising in the extreme.

Oxford students should put more energy into tackling ideas, rather than silencing them.”

Spiked Online is edited by journalist Brendan O'Neill, who in 2014 wrote a piece in the Spectator accusing Oxford

students of stifling free speech following the cancelation of a debate in which he was participating.

To date, over 300 people have signed an open petition against Le Pen’s appearance at the Union and local councillors also expressed disapproval.

The Oxford Union did not respond to our request for comment.

"Peaceful, quiet demonstration" called against OSFL

• OSFL say abortion "should be discussed sensibly, responsibly, and with special attention to women's voices" LUKE MINTZ News Editor

» Continued from front page entitled to hold their discussion, we believe that Exeter College has a duty, especially during term time, to not make its students, staff, or fellows feel unsafe or uncomfortable.”

The planned protest comes two months after an OSFL debate on ‘abortion culture’ was cancelled last term, following considerable student criticism of its all-male speakers.

OSFL defended its decision to host Wednesday evening’s planned event, commenting: “Abortion is a major social issue, and the question is not whether to discuss it, but how to discuss it. [We] believe that it should be discussed sensibly, responsibly, and with special attention to women’s voices.

“Anyone who wants to hear five of those voices is very warmly invited to join us on Wednesday night – whether or not you agree with our stance.”

The anti-abortion group went on to thank the protesters for their “respectful tone”, and added: “To be clear, none of us would ever judge a woman for having an abortion, and we know that it is one of the most difficult decisions a woman will ever have to make.”

English student Alice Nutting described Wednesday’s scheduled demonstration as a “peaceful show of soli-

darity for anyone who may feel unsafe in college as a result of the discussion”.

Nutting, an administrator of the feminist Facebook group Cuntry Living, continued: “I decided to organise the protest because I was really uncomfortable about the prospect of an anti-abortion group holding a meeting at a place which is ultimately home for a lot of people. 1 in 3 women in the UK will have an abortion before they are 45; statistically there will be students, staff and fellows who have been personally affected by abortion in some way.

“OSFL have the right to hold their discussion but I feel that Exeter is not an appropriate venue. Students in college have been really supportive of the idea of the protest and we’re hoping for a reasonably good turnout.”

An anonymous Exter student also commented on the college's decision to allow the debate to take place.

"As someone who has had an abortion and not felt like they could tell many people, but went to college at the time for support, I personally feel very uncomfortable and very unhappy about a one-sided pro-life ‘discussion’ occurring in the place that I call home.

"I know college considered cancelling the event when they were made aware and the fact that they have decided that it should go ahead makes me feel deeply unsupported and alone.

I am lucky enough that I have a supportive network of friends, however

statistically there may well be other students who are feeling much more isolated and in this case it feels although the college welfare system has failed them."

At the time of writing, 57 people have clicked ‘Attending’ on the protest’s Facebook event.

Last term, an OSFL debate featuring journalists Brendan O’Neill and

Timothy Stanley, scheduled to take place in Christ Church College’s Blue Boar Lecture Theatre, was cancelled following opposition from Christ Church JCR and the university’s wider feminist community.

The incident gained national news coverage and provoked considerable student discussion across the university.

PHOTO/ALYS KEY

Students celebrate ‘winter wonderland’ Oxford students awoke on Tuesday morning to find a blanket of snow covering their colleges. Temperatures fell to -2C, with the Met Office issuing a severe weather warning for ice and snow.

Hundreds of pictures of the new winter wonderland were uploaded to Facebook and Instagram by the seemingly disbelieving students. Many also enjoyed a spontaneous midnight snowball fight at the Radcliffe Camera on Monday evening. The occasion was particularly joyous for Corpus Christi international student Vandana Venkatesh who, having grown up in Kuwait, had never before seen snow. She simply commented: “It was magical.”

Theatre accolade for Keble alumnus A former student of Keble College has been awarded the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright. Barnes Norris was given the award for his play Visitors, which launched a successful tour in spring 2014, as well as a stint at the Arcola Theatre. The play tells the story of an elderly couple in their last few weeks of marriage. “It’s a story about ageing and care, about rural life in England now, and about the silences and distances within families; but above all, it’s a hymn to a life-long love,” Norris told The Independent. Norris claims that he was motivated by political concerns, with the financial crash of 2008 showing him the “need to organise our society around something other than the pursuit of growth alone”. Norris has also been nominated for the Evening Standard’s Charles Wintour Award for the Most Promising Playwright.

Take Part in The National Student Survey go to www.thestudentsurvey.com The National Student Survey is one of the best ways for you to give feedback on your student experience while at Oxford. If you are in your final year you will have received an email asking you to take part.

News 7

12wth February 2015

New seizes student fridges

• PeelMount chief denies decision is a “product recall”

Access events explode around Oxford • Numerous colleges welcome prospective students SAMANTHA LISLE NEWS REPORTER

PHOTO/BLACK ROCK QUARRY

CONOR HAMILTON DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR

STAFF

New College has removed 150 fridges from the college after overheating and leaking problems.

After coming into contact with the leaked refrigerant, some New College students claim to have displayed symptoms of mild ammonia poisoning, including rapid skin irritation and mild chemical burns.

In an email to students, New College said that fridge supplier PeelMount had accepted there was an “endemic fault” in the batch and that the “only option” was to “remove them from college”.

Students were given four days notice to empty and turn off their fridges before they were removed.

New College apologised to students for “the inconvenience the intrusions and loss of your fridge will inevitably cause”, but insisted that “the decision to remove the entire batch of fridges was not taken lightly” and “was a safety precaution”.

The College has not yet provided Editors Deputy Editors Creative Director Online Editor Broadcast Editor News Editors Comment Editors Features Editors Fashion Editors Arts and Lit Editors Music Editors

replacements as they want “independently verified assurances” that a “like-for-like replacement won’t have exactly the same fault”.

In an email to students, Home Bursar Caroline Thomas noted that “getting the company to admit there was a problem was initially a bit of a struggle”.

Tim Wallis, a New College firstyear, said: “Obviously the lack of a fridge has affected me, and I’m not best pleased that it’s been left unresolved for nearly a week. It has been known for quite some time that the fridges were, at best, dysfunctional. Even when they were supposedly working the majority of them either failed to cool anything to much below room temperature, or froze everything and pumped out heat like a radiator in the process.”

He added that he thought “college had the right idea, but they could have performed better” in dealing with the situation.

Richard Eagleton, Group Marketing Director for the parent company of PeelMount apologised Alys Key and Sachin Croker Nasim Asl, Asya Likhtman, Rupert Tottman, Alice Troy-Donovan and Sid Venkataramakrishnan Thomas Barnett Ed Roberts Nasim Asl Luke Mintz and Laura Whetherly Richard Higson and Hugh McHale Maughan Marcus Li and William Shaw Augustine Cerf and Demie Kim Alice Jaffe and Stephanie Kelley Kate Bickerton and Henry Holmes

Throughout Oxford University, access teams have been busily welcoming a new year’s worth of potential future undergraduates.

Numerous colleges have been running access events and tours for secondary school students wishing to get a glimpse of what studying at Oxford is like. JCR Access and Admissions officer for Oriel, Emma Williams described a typical secondary school visit: ‘On the average school visit, we eat lunch in Hall, have a College tour and then an open ended student Q&A.” She went on to explain: “I really enjoy hosting access visits to Oriel and think they are a great way to shed light on what Oriel and Oxford is really like.”

However Sophie Corke, a first year Law student who runs access tours in Hertford College, expressed her view that access visits presented a danger of portraying a rose-tinted view of Oxford, when in fact “in lots of ways Oxford is a bit weird, has particular hoops to jump through, and I think there should be openness about ways the university

for the inconvenience caused to New College students from this “really unfortunate event”.

He stressed it was not a “product recall”, because while “the product has failed,” PeelMount “haven’t identified an endemic fault yet”.

It will be “a few weeks” before replacements come of the new fridges but Eagleton added that they are “trying to expedite that”.

Eagleton said that he couldn’t give assurances it wouldn’t happen again, but “I can give you the same assurance we give everybody.

We buy reputable products from reputable people. We pride ourselves on getting it right”.

Robert Harris, a second-year New College student, said: “It might just be an attempt by New College to go back to its roots; to remind everyone that we are actually a very old College, and that electric fridges would not have been available when we were founded.

“It’s a pretty cold move in my opinion.”

New College was unavalible for comment.

Laura Hartley and Srishti Nirula Amelia Brown and Harriet Fry David Barker and Alexandra Vryzakis Philip Babcock, Yuki Numata Philip Babcock Bertram Beor-Roberts, Matthew Coulter and Conor Hamilton Deputy Comment Editors Kate Plummer and Kathryn Welsh Felicity Blackburn Deputy Features Editor Ella Harding and Charlotte Lanning Deputy Fashion Editors Eleanor Trend Deputy Arts Editor Alex Bragg and Naomi Southwell Deputy Music Editors Thomas Bannatyne and Robert Selth Deputy Screen Editors Deputy Stage Editors Anthony Maskell and Charanpreet Khaira Screen Editors Stage Editors Sport Editors Deputy Online Editors Deputy Broadcast Editor Deputy News Editors

should improve as well as presenting the unified shiny front of saying Oxford is all wonderful.”

Despite this danger, Corke echoed Williams in valuing the way in which access visits provide an opportunity to correct false impressions of Oxford: “I guess there’s always going to be particular ideas of what Oxford is like that are in lots of ways not like the reality … like no, we don’t wear robes ALL the time. Just on special occasions ... or in some colleges every night at dinner ... So those perceptions are hard to tackle because in many ways they’re true.”

Alys Key, who recently showed an access group from Visit University (an organisation which gives international students a chance to visit top universities) around The Oxford Student offices, described one instance in which a student appeared to have misconceptions of the University: “When taking questions, one of them asked if they would find true love. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen here is the “wall of shame/fame” which charted who had got with each other at socials.”

PHOTO/NICK MUTCH PHOTO/OOTB Facebook

Chief Sub-Editor Sub-Editors Associate Editors Creative Team

Elle Tait Jae-Young Park, Daniel Haynes, Jennifer Allan, Sam Sykes Jack Myers, Jessica Sinyor and Rosalind Brody Harriet Bourhill, Hannah Ross, Alice Troy-Donovan, Megan Thomas, Natalie Harney, Srishti Nirula, Anna Bellettato,

Editors can be contacted at editor@oxfordstudent.com and section editors can be contacted at the emails listed above each individual section.

We follow the code of practices and conduct outlined by the Press Complaints Commission.

Address complaints to The Editors, 2 Worcester Street, Oxford, OX1

8 News

5h February 2015

"Tour de Frambo" tricycle ride set to raise thousands for charity

• Francis Delaney plans to ride 220 miles from the Kite Inn, Mill Street to Paris over six days with four friends • Team "Tour de Frambo" has found support from members of the university in its fundraising for Yellow Submarine BERTRAM BEOR-ROBERTS Deputy News Editor

A disabled man from Oxford is set to raise thousands of pounds for a local charity when he rides a tricycle from Oxford to Paris in May. Francis Delaney, who has cerebral palsy, will spend six days covering the distance of 220 miles with four of his friends, and hopes to arrive in Paris in time to celebrate his 40th birthday on 9th May. In the process, the team hope to raise a significant amount of money for Yellow Submarine, a charity that works to help those with learning disabilities and autism.

Mr. Delaney will complete the whole trip on his Pashley Tri-1 tricycle, heading south through Reading and Guildford to Newhaven harbour on the South coast. Having taken a ferry across the channel, the “Tour de Frambo” team of Mr. Delaney and teammates Derek, Jason, Pete, and Ellen, will complete the second half of the route from Dieppe to Paris.

Mr. Delaney told the Oxford Mail: “It will be hard but it will be fun. It will be a challenge for me to do it. I’m feeling nervous but I’m looking forward to it.” Mr. Delaney

is not averse to challenge, and has a record of successful fundraising.

In March of last year he raised over seven hundred pounds for Yellow Submarine, in a sponsored swim at Ferry Leisure Centre in North Oxford. For the upcoming event, the team have already raised a similar sum during an event at the Kite Inn in West Oxford.

Mr Delaney notes that he does not let his disability dominate him: “I am disabled but I am more independent than some disabled people. I want to just put back in the local community.” Yellow Submarine combines activities and support for those with learning disabilities with employment opportunities at their café on Park End Street.

Ranking as the third best café in Oxford on Trip Advisor, Mr. Delaney is a regular amongst the 30,000 visitors to the Yellow Submarine café each year, and Activity Leader Kate Sankey said: “Francis is an inspiration and a real character - he's always popping into our cafe, and we're so grateful that he's chosen to take on this amazing challenge in support of Yellow Submarine. As a small charity it means so much! Francis’ continued support of our work has been just

fantastic; we often see him out and about on his bike so we know he's been training hard - we'll be there to cheer him and the rest of team Frambo off come May!” The fundraiser has also received support from those at the University. Dr. Rhiannon Ash, Classics fellow at Merton College,

has been involved in organising the event: “As a college tutor and fellow, it's all too easy to develop tunnel vision and only focus on your next tutorial, conference paper, or committee meeting. When I heard about Francis Delaney's ambitious challenge, I wanted to contribute in any way I could and help to make

his inspirational tricycle ride a reality.

“As members of the University, we should all try to give something back to the vibrant and diverse local community which year in and year out generously welcomes into its midst so many students from around the globe.”

PHOTO/Mike Magee

IntoUniversity programme launched to help local children in Oxford

• Christ Church working in partnership with centre to “significantly improve the life chances” of Oxford children • Blackbird Leys centre joins national network offering around 16,000 students a chance to participate in the programme ALEXANDER HILL News Reporter

900 young people a year are going to be supported by a new learning centre opening in Oxford.

Run by charity IntoUndersity in collapboration with Oxford University and Christ Church, up to 80 student volunteers will assist with mentoring and after school support programmes for students in South and East Oxford. Members of Oxford outreach staff will also be assisting.

The centre in Blackbird Leys opened in November, but was officially launched on 3rd February, with IntoUniversity Tweeting that they were, “excited to celebrate with our students, staff and supporters”.

The Dean of Christ Church, the Very Revd. Prof Martyn Percy, said: “Christ Church is delighted to have initiated the setting up of the centre in Blackbird Leys.

Christ Church and its students are supporting the centre through student mentoring, visits and events at our main site and financial contributions.

“We believe that the centre will significantly improve the life chances of some of Oxford’s least advantaged children”.

As well as after school academic support, the centre aims to of-

fer mentoring programmes and a focused programmes designed to help young people to realise their aspirations.

IntoUniversity in Oxford will work with children and young people aged seven and older, in partnership with local schools and community organisations.

The centre in Blackbird Leys is the 18th established by IntoUniversity, and the first in Oxford.

Other centres serve areas including London, Nottingham and Bristol, with around 16,000 young people participating in their programmes. In 2013, 82% of IntoUniversity school leavers attained a university place.

Dr Samina Khan, Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach at Oxford University, said: “Oxford is delighted to be working with Christ Church and IntoUniversity on a sustained programme targeting children early in their educational careers right through to applying for university, apprenticeships or further training and education.

“Support for this programme from the local primary and secondary schools has been great and we look forward to working with them as this programme goes from strength to strength”.

PHOTO/ScarlettWang

5th February 2015

COMMENT

Comment 9

CARTOON/ Harriet Bourhill

Le Pen deserves a platform, not a protest A large group of students wants to express their disagreement with the fact that the Union is hosting Marine Le Pen, MEP this week, by organising a protest outside the chamber during the event. One of them stated on Facebook that she “wants to heckle her more than [she] can say.”

I must admit, I have never been very keen on protests in general.

They make events which are clearly going to happen anyway less safe, and cause a completely unnecessary waste of money. In this case, the Union’s funds – money which belongs to all members of the society – will have to be used to pay for security. I often feel they serve more to raise the political profile of those organising them, but perhaps that is an unfair judgement.

What frustrates me most in this particular instance, however, is the ingenuity and staggering hypocrisy of those protesters. Despite having done a paper in French politics, I must confess I don’t really know a great deal about contemporary politics in France. For that reason, I would rather rely on facts than my personal opinions. The Front

National is currently topping the polls in France, and if there were an election tomorrow, Le Pen would most probably become President.

Her party won the European Parliament elections last May. How can we possibly argue that the most popular politician in a major European power should not be given platform to express her views? She can speak freely in the European Parliament, on French national TV, but not at the Oxford Union?

This is not a fringe extremist being given the oxygen of publicity, but a major figure in European politics – no matter how unpalatable her views are.

I do wonder how many of those who are planning on protesting actually know enough about Le Pen’s views to be able to use this very emotionally-charged word to describe her. Have they all really been following her speeches in the European Parliament? Have they all really studied the Front National’s electoral manifestos? Have they all really been watching the French political scene so attentively?

Labelling others, of course, is the easiest way to avoid argument. By

saying that Le Pen is a fascist, we completely discredit her and make sure that we don’t have to engage in a rational exchange of views and opinions with her. The only thing we then need is a few quotes taken out of context, and the narrative of a completely deplorable Le Pen develops.

Labelling others, of course, is the easiest way to avoid argument

What, however, I find most mindblowing, are the double standards which so many of my fellow students seem to hold. Whilst they mobilize against alleged fascism, no-one raises a finger when the other great ideological evil of the 20th century, Communism, is brought up. Last term, I was absolutely shocked to see a picture on Facebook of a fellow student wrapped up in the flag of the USSR (supposedly his bop costume). The flag of a regime which is responsible for the mass killings of more people than all other

dictatorships in history combined.

Can you imagine the reaction if I were to go to a bop wrapped up in a swastika?

Yes, I disagree with the protesters fundamentally, but I do – of course – fully respect their right to express their views, irrespective of who they are (it’s called ‘freedom of expression’ – not a very popular value in Oxford nowadays, I give you that).

But where were they when Robert Griffiths, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain, effectively defended Stalin’s actions in 1950s at the Union’s socialism debate last year? Where were they when the Oxford University Marxist Society – a society which promotes militant methods to fight the Communist cause on its website – were signing up members at Freshers’ fair?

I have always been taught that feelings should be left out when making an argument, and I always try to stick to that. But can I ask you to imagine how people like myself, people from Eastern Europe, whose families suffered directly under Soviet rule, feel about this? And can you understand

JAN NEDVIDEK

Christ Church College that the fact you’re labelling a 21st century elected politician a fascist diminishes the original meaning of the word? Are you not aware of how grossly historically inaccurate and inconsiderate it is to compare Le Pen to the people who murdered hundreds of thousands of people in my country, Czechoslovakia, including two of my ancestors?

To be honest with you, I don’t know Le Pen and her views very well, but I do have a feeling I will probably disagree with most of what she will say on Thursday. However, I would much rather form my opinion of her based on what she says, than on a few banners and some Facebook statuses.

We attend one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world: it is founded upon the principle of illumination and enlightenment through debate, discussion and dispute. To myopically reject an opportunity to learn about, and engage with, someone who is likely to become one of the most influential and important politicians in Europe would be perverse.

For this reason, I will be in the chamber, rather than outside.

10 Comment

U

YES

nderstand this – the West faces an existential threat from ISIS. This is a brutal, sadistic, and militarily capable organisation, dedicated to coming over here, killing us and destroying our way of life. This is why the debate on military intervention is so frustrating: for our own safety and security, and the liberty of those who live under its abhorrent regime, we simply have no choice other than to confront and defeat the Islamic State.

Two points are particularly salient.

Firstly, we must act with a greater confidence. The West has a military capability the likes of which has never been seen before; our ability to project total and devastating force is unparalleled. Secondly, we must join the dots and recognise that across the globe, a thread of radical Islam is forming. There are many different theatres of operation (Boko Haram in Nigeria; AQAP, the Yemen; ISIS and AQIM, the Middle East) but there is a real and relevant link between all of them, in their aggressively sectarian and perverse interpretation of the Quran. We have to see the big picture, and seek out and destroy militant Islamism wherever and whenever we encounter it.

There are several important points to make. The fight against ISIS is radically different to that against al-Qaeda or the Taliban. ISIS is not a group of insurgents or extremists ensconced within a broader society; they are a protean state and heavily-armed occupying force. This makes the battle longer, certainly, but also easier; it is clear where and what ISIS is, and which targets we must degrade and destroy. This is why the campaign is so radically different to previous operations the West has launched against radical Islam: for the first time in many years, we face a quasi-conventional struggle against an occupying force, armed with traditional weaponry and with identifi-

JOHN PATTERSON

St Hugh’s College

F

rom Tuesday to Saturday of fourth week, the Christian Union will host ‘Uncover’. Uncover is a series of events which will explore how the Christian faith responds to some of life’s biggest questions. It would be easy to caricature this as a week of ‘Bible-bashing’, but I’d like to invite you to consider it as a conversation starter.

I want to begin by issuing an apology.

I want to apologize that so often, Christians have communicated their faith in a matter that is incompatible with the faith itself. Whenever we’ve been rude, crass, violent or unthoughtful, we’ve not been living in line with the faith we profess – a belief system which says that God is a God of love and has called each of us to love our neighbour in the same way that we love ourselves. I hope that this hypocrisy on the part of Christians does not tarnish your view of what Christianity is, or prejudice you against exploring it further.

The reason I make this point is because I am convinced that Christianity offers something unique to add to our conversations about life, something that it would be a shame to ignore.

Each of us has a world view, a way of seeing life that makes sense to us, shaped by culture, evidence and experience. Our

5th February 2015

RICHARD HIGSON

HUGH MCHALE-MAUGHAN

Somerville College

Brasenose College

able headquarters. Our efforts against ISIS have enjoyed success recently, both by saving the Yazidis from unimaginable violence and by liberating the strategically important town of Kobane. But we must do much more. With the parochial factionalism of the al-Maliki regime at an end, our chances of success are radically improved. Now is our time to act.

So the three points of my argument are simple. Firstly, ISIS is a morally repugnant organisation; the stories of beheadings, crucifixions and hurling homosexuals from hundreds of feet are nauseating.

We have a duty to aid the Syrians who live under this regime, and the Kurds who are threatened by them. Secondly, by funding and inspiring terrorism, and publicly stating their aim is to wipe the West off the map, they pose a real and serious threat to our way of life and our security. Any one of us could have been Charlie. Finally, we have credible and effective military options to deploy, both in airstrikes and significant numbers of troops on the ground.

Non-intervention is also a choice. Not acting means permitting the development of a Caliphate dedicated to the destruction of our secular and tolerant values, and willing to visit unimaginable cruelty and violence upon the people whom it rules. Not acting means stating that ISIS can televise the murders of our citizens with impunity. This is wholly unacceptable.

War is a bloody and nasty business; collateral damage is almost inevitable. But there are also inevitable and unimaginable consequences to not escalating the conflict against ISIS. As a group of civilised, progressive and enlightened nations, we are beneficiaries of extraordinary fortune.

But with this fortune comes the heavy responsibility not only of preserving the precious flame of liberty in our own nations, but spreading it to light the world.

SHOULD WE ESCALATE THE CONFLICT AGAINST ISIS? PHOTO/US Air Force

N

ATO is the most powerful military organisation ever; in the last year, the alliance spent more than $1 trillion on defence, more than the rest of the world combined. It makes intuitive sense that all these expensive weapons should allow us to defeat poorlyequipped groups like ISIS with ease.

But that belief fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the conflict.

The fight against ISIS, and radical Islam more generally, cannot be won by force of arms in any meaningful sense. It is all-but-impossible to militarily defeat an insurgent group without support from ordinary people on the ground.

ISIS is not an army, nor is it a state; it is a movement, an idea. Insurgencies are hydras; for every militant killed, two more will take up arms. It is foolish to imagine that ISIS fighters, few in number and poorly-equipped, could effectively control large swathes of Iraq and Syria without some degree of popular support.

It can be hard to believe people could support such an abhorrent group, but northern Iraq’s majority Sunni population has little reason to love the Shiadominated Iraqi government, from which they have been excluded. Likewise in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly used chemical weapons against civilians, people have little reason to support the regime. ISIS has maintained a semblance of order in the areas under their control and provides a compelling narrative of struggle against the West. We cannot pretend that this is a small group of extremists and that Western troops will be welcomed with open arms by everyone.

Talk of winning ‘hearts and minds’ sounds clichéd, but it is the only way to achieve any kind of lasting resolution to the conflict. Lasting peace can only come from the establishment of a genuinely inclusive Iraq; that is not something that

NO

can be installed by British and American troops.

Indeed, a military return to Iraq can easily do more harm than good. No matter how precise precision weapons are, there will always be collateral damage; there will always be civilian casualties. Killing Iraqi and Syrian children will not diminish support for ISIS, nor spread love for the West. Giving ISIS a clear external enemy to fight against will boost support for the group, who can then claim to be struggling against Western ‘imperialism’.

If faced with a choice between America occupiers and ISIS, we should not be surprised if many people choose ISIS. American bombs are the best recruiting sergeant the group could wish for.

Despite our great military strength, the West cannot defeat groups like ISIS by force, or impose freedom at the barrel of a gun. Overcoming this false intuition is one of the greatest challenges facing Western policy makers – it makes so little sense that we can be at once so powerful and yet also so powerless.

Failure to understand this paradox is what led George W. Bush into Iraq in the first place – it was easy to defeat Saddam Hussein, but building a new Iraq has proven next to impossible. Eight years of occupation following the 2003 invasion has quite plainly failed to create a stable, liberal, democratic regime that can stand up to threats like ISIS. There is little reason to believe that the return of Western troops can achieve better results now.

We need to accept that military action cannot solve all the world’s problems.

The trouble is, when you have hundreds of million-dollar laser-guided precision attack hammers, suddenly all problems start looking like nails. We cannot pretend that we can bomb and shoot our way to ideological victory. Our foreign policy must remain the art of the possible.

Christianity is still relevent today world views profoundly shape the way we live, from how we form our opinions and engage with the issues all around us, to how we make decisions, both big and small. Each of these world views requires faith. This is not the blind faith that Dawkins likes to parody; it is a commitment that the evidence we see points to a greater truth about the universe – whether that is its ultimate incomprehensibility or the existence or non-existence of God. As this faith statement has such an impact upon our lives and actions, it is vital that it is based upon a full examination of the evidence, and not just an intuitive hunch or the rhetoric of others.

Are you living an examined life? I have found that as a Christian at Oxford, it is almost impossible not to. Living in a society whose prevailing belief system is a sceptical agnosticism, any unthinking dogma is swiftly given the treatment it deserves. Christians at our university study everything from physics to fine art. We wrestle with the same academic questions as everyone else; we think and struggle with issues like science and faith, or the problem of evil. Yet, in the face of these questions, we’re persuaded that the Christian faith is actually true. We have found that it stands up to thorough historical examination and makes sense

philosophically. We have also found that faith works in our experience. One of the reasons I find the Christian faith so convincing is that I know people whose lives have been transformed: from Oxford students whose anxiety over exams have been quelled to drug addicts who have been set free by what they’ve discovered.

I’ve personally caught glimpses of the ‘inexpressible joy’ described in the New Testament, and have found that there’s nothing better.

We’ve put on the ‘Uncover’ week not as a way of forcing faith on people, but as an invitation into a conversation about a worldview which makes so much sense to us. It is an invitation to hear and engage with two world-class speakers on why they believe Christianity is rational; an invitation to fully examine the evidence, ask questions and begin arguably life’s most important discussion.

We are at a University where we spend most of our lives studying subjects which engage with central questions of meaning, truth and purpose in the world; this is a week of talks on meaning, truth and purpose – presenting a viewpoint which historically and internationally has great power, and yet has been marginalized and often ridiculed in our society. Is it right that this has been the outcome of

our nation’s sceptical historical journey?

Does Christianity have anything left to give? Should it be marginalized in our society, as one anachronistic religion amongst many? Or should we be taking the claims it makes seriously? The Christian narrative is a story of homecoming: of a child running home into the embrace of a perfect Father, a father who sacrificed

everything so that he might have this relationship with his child. If it is true, there is purpose and joy on offer, and a wonderful adventure ahead which goes on for eternity. Such a world view has resonance and relevance to every society, what matters is whether it is true or not.

Have you taken the time to examine it?

Would you like to join the conversation?

PHOTO/David Iliff

5th February 2015

Voluntourism does not help M

any of Oxford’s student development societies which work in Africa need to change. Although these societies mean well and are clearly committed to their work, they need to justify why sending a group of untrained volunteers to do semi-skilled work for only a brief time constitutes ‘doing good’. This is particularly necessary considering the level of resources invested into these programmes, the paternalistic assumptions about Africa, and the value of the volunteers’ contributions that these projects seem to engender. If you have spent even

the briefest time at Freshers’ Fair, the model should sound familiar. Students pay upwards of £800 to join a team of volunteers in an East African country for about two months. These volunteers receive some training, and then are tasked with building usually a school or water-tank, instructing adults how to build more efficient mud stoves, or teaching children about good hygiene.

The tasks are simple enough that one can be trained to do them in a couple of days, and the volunteers need this training. How, then, does it make sense to fly volunteers across

PHOTO/NazareneMissionsInternational

IMOGEN GOSLING

Corpus Christi College

A

s a jockey, my grandfather was a small man. Photographed with Sir Winston Churchill in the paddock before a race, he looks particularly slight. Most people are unaware of Churchill’s connection with the turf, but his horseracing career was an extraordinary one. Most famously, his favourite horse, the grey Colonist, achieved 13 victories and nearly £12,000 in prize money; a record that would be the envy of most race-horse owners.

At the time, it was suggested that Colonist’s success owed to the horse’s being “inspired… by the great spirit of his indefatigable owner”.

A tough stayer, the horse certainly embodied Churchill’s tenacity. What

vere in teaching classes that are often over-crowded and under-resourced, and with little support. In 2013, the average primary school teaching took home only £60 per month – making them the lowest paid civil servants in Uganda. At best, it is naïve and insensitive to imagine that this can be solved simply through motivation.

Moreover, it is plausible that these volunteering programmes may have the opposite effect. Considering that teaching (particularly in primary school), is often regarded as a noble but low-status profession – what

Is poverty really an appropriate classroom for the privileged? unteers is a productive way of doing that. However, it is simply untrue that nothing is being done by people from these regions; unsurprisingly, much like in the UK, people are very involved in improving the livelihoods of themselves and their fellow citizens. Moreover, when people are facing difficulties, it is very rarely the sort of problem that can be solved by a pep talk from a volunteer visiting briefly.

For instance, in a report written in 2010 by Oxford Development Abroad (ODA), volunteers bemoan the laziness and apathy of the teachers at the school in Uganda that they were working at – perhaps an ideal instance of people needing motivation. However, many Ugandan teachers (particularly in rural areas) perse-

kind of message do these programmes send? Perhaps that the work of these teachers is so easy that it can be done by untrained volunteer students from abroad? In the UK and most developed countries, teachers receive specialised training for at least a year; a far cry from the couple of days that are apparently adequate to train these volunteers.

Perhaps these organisations, if they grant that their volunteers’ labour have limited value, will argue that the funds that these organisations provide is valuable for local community development programmes. This is undoubtedly true. However, surely this would have more of an impact if the money was donated directly rather than being spent on unproductive expenses such as flights. The cost

DAVID JEFFERY

St Anne’s College of flying a six person team to Uganda and back for two months is upwards of £6200 – enough to have paid for the salary of a primary school teacher for six years. If the objective is ‘doing good’, this requires explanation.

Lastly, perhaps the point is not the immediate doing of good, but the long-lasting effect that this has on the volunteer and their future relationship with ‘Africa’. However, the evident lack of critical self-reflection on these volunteers’ experiences is worrying. If students volunteer in Africa because they think Africans are helpless, voiceless and in need of direction, and apparently leave with their ignorance not only unchecked but reinforced, these projects may be doing more educational harm than good. Moreover, framing the value of the projects in terms an educational experience for the volunteer should not go un-problematised: is the poverty of others really an appropriate classroom for the privileged?

There are probably productive avenues of engagement for students abroad, but projects like these make unlikely candidates. But the errors may not have been made while answering the question “what can we do?”, but in a failure to examine “why do we want to do this?” The staff and volunteers of these organisations certainly have good intentions, and it is admirable that they are willing to sacrifice so much to help others. But if this is based on the idea of listless, lazy Africans, or omnipotent, angelic volunteers, this needs more thought.

Churchill’s legacy is not shameful

monia, a cavalry charge in the Sudan, acute appendicitis, and a car accident in New York to name a few. Indeed, Churchill first came to prominence not through politics, but by escaping in extraordinary circumstances from a Boer prisoner-of-war camp in 1899.

He came equally close to dying an early political death on multiple occasions – and proved just as adept at evading it. Blamed for the disastrous Dardanelles campaign in 1915, and obliged to resign his post as a result, Churchill still managed to be appointed Minister for Munitions in 1917. Similarly, though the general election of 1922 left him “without an office, without a seat, without a

Churchill was not merely admired, but adored is particularly striking about his purchase of Colonist was that it was the first race-horse Churchill had ever owned. Colonist was bought not on the basis of knowledge, but of the same keen gambler’s instinct that characterised Churchill’s politics.

However, it must be noted that Churchill ultimately only acquired Colonist because he was in the right place at the right time. There is no denying that fortune favoured Churchill. His life was punctuated with close shaves; childhood pneu-

the globe, rather than supporting someone from the region in doing it?

Although these organisations seem to assume otherwise, the reason for underdevelopment in many of these regions is not a lack of people able to learn how to build schools, or mud-stoves. Uganda, for instance, a popular destination for many of these organisations, has a youth unemployment rate estimated between 62% and 80%.

But perhaps these organisations may argue that these people need mobilisation, and that sending vol-

Comment 11

party and without an appendix”, a mere two years later he had been appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. Nor did his failings in the post prevent him clinging onto it until the Conservatives lost power in 1929.

In the 1930s, his fervent opposition to the granting of Dominion status for India and German rearmament made Churchill not only a political fringe figure but a positive liability.

And yet, by the end of the decade, he had been appointed to Cabinet.

The sheer number and extent of

Churchill’s political comebacks means it cannot be denied that he was fortunate. However, there was another factor at play. Ingrained in Churchill’s character was a childish, blinkered yet unique zeal, and it was this that sustained and propelled him through his rocky political life. Crucially, this zeal gave him the remarkable ability to thrive off adversity and, in Britain’s ‘darkest hour’, arguably the most adverse of circumstances in the entire twentieth century, Churchill was never more in his element. It was even noted by his colleagues that Churchill was at his most buoyant during periods of the war when Britain’s prospects looked at their most bleak.

It was not only the force but also the quirks of his personality that made Churchill such a successful war leader. He was not merely inspirational but, with one hand in a victory sign and a cigar in the other, iconic. Churchill outstayed his welcome in British politics. However, that this 77-year-old “walking off-license-cum-pharmacy” was considered capable of leading the country in the 1950s is reflective of the immense popular capital that his wartime premiership had earned him. Rhetorical genius, razor sharp wit and unrepressed idiosyncrasies made Churchill not merely admired but adored.

This is not to say that Churchill

PHOTO/MsSaraKelly

was perfect. It is easy to argue, as many have, that Churchill was a racist. However, he was first and foremost a patriot. Churchill’s racism was not borne out of ideas about Anglo-Saxon supremacy – indeed, he was fascinated by and positively reverent towards Islam. Churchill was a romantic, and deeply committed to imperialist ideals at a time when Britain’s Empire was disintegrating. His description of Mahatma Gandhi as a “half-naked fakir” can be explained (albeit not excused) by the fact that Gandhi, as well as being

a Hindu, was an Indian nationalist.

Fifty years on, then, we should not immortalise Churchill. He had faults, some of them abhorrent to the cosmopolitan Britain of the 21st century, and his success was partly due to luck. But only partly. Churchill recognised the threat of Hitler in the 1930s, assumed the role of Prime Minister at a time of despair for the country and ultimately led Britain to victory in 1945. And he did it with style. So let us celebrate Churchill for what he was; a fighter, a character and our greatest Prime Minister ever.

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your key to understanding access

Why should we work towards an Oxford that opens its door to the best candidates? What are the things that you as students can get involved in during your time at Oxford and after?

Join OUSU at Merton College, on 6th February, for some inspirational talks and workshops on access.

With experienced speakers from the field of access, this is the perfect opportunity for you to learn more and meet other people who feel as passionately about access as you do.

Book your ticket at www.ousu.org

PS. The event is FREE but there is limited availability.

5th February 2015

MUSIC Hannah Lou Clark isn’t the Silent Type

I

receive flurries of emails every day, asking me to download free EPs, watch videos and “check out the next big thing!” .Usually, most are subject to my trigger happy, trash button finger.

But Hannah Lou Clark was different.

Her press release starts: “This EP was written and recorded above a Quaker meeting house.” I’m hooked. I have the feeling that I recognise her from somewhere: after a quick Google search it doesn’t take me long to figure out where from.

Hannah Lou Clark was formerly in duo called Foe, a rough electropop romp of a band, complete with social satire and off colour sounding beats. Think Nirvana meets a haunted house ride at a dilapidated theme park and you’re close. She is described as the girl who was branded a witch by her classmates when aged ten.

Interesting, but disposable, like so much of the music we listen to nowadays. Their only album, Bad Dream Hotline, received favourable reviews but ultimately fizzed out into obscurity.

The pictures from Hannah at this time are startling. A bewitching 20 year old, with a variety of wigs, a plastic princess crown and Lolita esque style. Today, she

sports an ombre blonde bob – looking effortlessly chic in black and white. My curiosity is piqued. How did the bubblegum pink wig wearing musician end up meditating in a shabby flat above a Quaker meeting house?

I’m quite nervous when I call her on the phone, I expected an eccentric artiste who would be challenging to interview.

But actually, she’s softly spoken and just as nervous as I am. She freely admits that she hasn’t done many interviews recently.

She’s on her third coffee of the day and “feeling a little jittery”.

She soon relaxes into the conversation, though. I want to know more about why she would seemingly abandon a project with so much potential and appeal. “Foe was supposed to be a solo project but it became a kind of collaboration – that was its downfall really; it wasn’t really one thing or the other. I started to feel disconnected from it.”

I respect her for starting over again. I think it takes true artistry to know when a project is dead, and to begin again on something new. Her new EP, Silent Type, shows how much she has flourished working on her own. “It felt quite natural to be a solo project, to write and produce

on my own. I found I work better in my own little zone. Although,” she clarifies, “I did work with a drummer because my drumming is no way good enough!”

Silent Type is a stark departure from her previous work. It is unrecognisable from the brash music Foe created. Hannah calls herself a “situational songwriter” and her new music reflects this. It is much more open and honest, deeply personal. Sonically, she is still making uncomfortable sounds and experimenting with instrumentation, but now it feels more genuine.

More mature. “I kind of wanted to avoid using the word mature, but yeah, I sup-

Quakers.” The tone she uses to describe living above a place of worship is one tinged with humour and an awareness of the peculiarity of the situation. I get the impression that they were not your usual landlords.

“It was hard to find landlords who wanted to have musicians as tenants, but the Quakers were really welcoming. Although part of our contract was that we’d have to be silent on Sunday mornings so they can… do their thing basically.”

Although she never went downstairs for a service, Hannah tells me that the whole experience – whist unusual – was actually

pose it is. I’m getting older and losing the gimmick in a way. Not that gimmicks aren’t cool sometimes, but…” she trails off, laughing.

At this point, the elephant in the room is the Quaker meeting house which she lived and recorded her latest work in.

I have to ask her about it. “We were just scouting about online and this one popped up, so we went to have a look at it.

And that’s how we met”, she pauses “the

inspirational to her work. It made her feel calm and safe enough to make music.

She tells me she would sit on her floor and be silent whist straining to hear the act of worship that was happening below.

“I wanted to capture the house in the music.” I find that strangely beautiful.

It’s not just a red brick Victorian building, with dilapidated rooms and empty fireplaces. It has a character of its own. I have to admit, although I am intrigued, I

“I’m getting older and losing the gimmick in a way”

Music 3

KATE BICKERTON

Regent’s Park College don’t think I would have wanted to live there. “A lot of our friends would find it really creepy, but I saw it as the opposite.”

She does this in her music too. She takes heartbreak and emotional trauma and spins something lovely from it.

Making music isn’t the only thing that Hannah has been busying her time with.

She has her own record label - Quatre Femmes Records – which she runs with her two sisters. She even releases her younger sister CeCe’s music. Truly a family affair. What is working with your sisters like? “It’s very simple: we’re close and we trust each other.” She hasn’t become a soulless music exec in a suit, though. “It’s definitely a creative umbrella not a business.” She clarifies.

She might now look polished and well put together, but the child witch is still there. She’s just grown up a bit. She’s figured out how to express herself in her own way. I think that living in the Quaker meeting house, creating in a place which was so full of reflection and peace is what is in the soul of her new work. It allowed her to cleanse and reconstruct something new from the ashes. I look forward to hearing more of Hannah’s renaissance of self in her future music.

PHOTO/HANNAH LOU CLARK

5th February 2015

4 Music

Want a venue with personality? Go independent S

PHOTO/Tomasz Raz

PHOTO/PAUL TIPPING - Courtesy of Nightshift Maagazine

itting at the back of an arena, viewing your favourite artist from a multiscreen rather than the stage is hardly every fan’s realisation of “the perfect gig”. Even in standing arenas, the stage is usually roughly five feet away from you. The lack of personality and experience offered by major venues can leave even the most dedicated music fans feeling a little empty. Independent venues often offer a more personal, intimate experience you’re unlikely to find at your multi-national corporation affair.

This is not to say that corporate venues don’t play a part in the modern music industry; they certainly do. However, if you’re interested in something more distinctive, more raucous and with the feel good factor of supporting local artists, independent is the way to go. Independent Venue Week, running this week, (26th January – 1st February 2015) sees live music showcases at The Cellar and Jericho Tavern. In honour of this, here are some of the best and most distinctive independent venues in Oxford.

First up is the The Cellar, the sweaty underground basement in the back alleys of Cornmarket Street. The Cellar has been owned by the same family, ever since its formative days as the rocker pub, The Dolly. Soon renamed The Cellar, undertaking an extreme club makeover complete with white washed walls and smooth varnished floors, the club also transformed its lineup with Fridays becoming their hip-hop night with a Toby Kidd DJ set and Saturday house night with “Rum Boogie &

Breakaway.”

Continuing to pump up the volume on their club nights, the club hosted the likes of British hip hop duo Task Force, award-winning DJs Scratch Perverts and alternative hip-hop artist Buck 65.

Numerous artists have graced the now darkened walls of the club including Foals, Mumford and Sons, Stornoway, Pulled Apart By Horses, Noah and the Whale, Metronome, Blood Red Shoes, and Women’s Hour amidst many others. Upcoming events include one of Oxford’s best known student nights, Supermarket. The diverse nature of The Cellar is best summed up by Foals’, Walter Gervers: “Long may it continue for all to enjoy real gold shows in the most intimate of settings, just please stop spilling sambuca on my shoes.”

The unique setting of independent music venues is often a major part of their appeal; the Old Fire Station can lay a huge claim to this. In 2011, the historic building reopened as an arts centre run by Arts at the Old Fire Station. The venue hosts Oxford’s emerging music acts with their monthly feature, The Listening Room. Every month, two or three up and coming artists from the local music scene perform, offering an eclectic mix of musical styles and influences. The venue also hosts the Oxford Improvisers on the first Tuesday of every month. Performing new and improvised music, the Improvisers deliver an invigorating performance that abandons the restrictions of formal composition.

Our next venue, the unassuming East

Hozier takes the Oxford O2 Academy to church

O

ften when we talk about musicians with a very rapid move to success, we rely on the same tired, old phrases: stratospheric rise, catapulted to fame, meteoric trajectory, pushed into the limelight. They’re words full of movement, but they’re kind of empty – used so many times that the meaning has been lost.

So how to describe Hozier without recourse to any of these clichés? I’ll stick with a simple nod, instead, to the fact that a year ago, he had an (already growing) select number of fans. This January, he sold out Oxford’s O2 Academy.

The room was packed. Squeezed standing only. Lots of screeches and the odd “we love you” shouted from the crowd.

Some particularly enthusiastic reception of any mention of his home county, Wicklow. Plus the fact that we were all singing along – lyrics word-perfect in song after song. I was quite far back in the crowd, so I wouldn’t want to claim this definitively, but he seemed a little surprised at this level of audience ardour.

We were, after all, the opening night to his first UK tour.

There’s something uniquely special about getting to see an artist who cares deeply about their craft. Hozier’s music is sumptuous, dark, joyful, and thought-

ful. All those qualities were drawn out and held up to the flashing lights in turn, changing rapidly from song to song – Hozier switching moods as easily as he switched guitars. Gorgeous yearning in ‘Run’; brooding, almost resentful, energy on ‘Foreigner’s God’; the deceptively light tones of ‘Someone New’.

It’s frustrating to boil these songs down to a few, choice adjectives – but I guess they’ll have to do.

But although I say ‘Hozier’, the performance wouldn’t have been possible

without his backing band – who he graciously mentioned, each by name, asking for them to be applauded too (as well as making lots of references to the excellent support band Seafret). I mention this for a reason. Hand in hand with the success, there’s the seeming lack of ego, the acknowledgment that anything like this is – to an extent – a collaboration.

Plus, extra points for the fact that most of his fellow musicians were female, and oh-so-cool. Perhaps fitting for an artist whose work often subtly explores gender,

sexuality and politics – whether it’s the mention of “anthems of rape culture loud” in ‘To Be Alone’ or the video for ‘Take me To Church’ with its commentary on LGBTQ+ rights in Russia.

There was an extra layer of interest in charting the audience’s responses too: that completely inevitable rush of excitement when the opening of ‘Take Me to Church’ sounded; the hush for his solo performance of ‘Cherry Wine’ with his tall, skinny figure silhouetted on stage; the raucous screams as ‘From Eden’

PHOTO/ ALEX LAKE

NAOMI SOUTHWELL

Somerville College Oxford Community Centre, on Princes Street off Cowley Road, is home to one of Oxford’s most enviable live music nights: The Catweazle Club. Once inside, you’re transported into a sensual world. Filled with soft lighting from fairy lights and reflections from the glittering curtains and banners, you’re invited to sit down on sofas draped in blankets or throws, or alternatively, to sit on a floor that’s comfortably adorned with cushions.

Catweazle differs from a traditional open mic night, by the fact that there is no mic, just a single spotlight and a chair. The performances whether they be poetry readings, spoken word acts or live music are all performed acoustically, resulting in an electric atmosphere of silent admiration for the brave performers. It averages upwards of 15 acts every Thursday and offers a unique experience at every outing. It’s hard to imagine any corporate venue that would take the risk of allowing anyone to haunt the stage but it’s a formula that works, producing a palpable night of live music and performance.

Independent music venues it seems, have never been more important. On that note, local Oxford band Stornoway leaves us with the importance of independent music venues: “We played every single place we could get a gig in the early days, and numerous times. If it wasn’t for small, independent venues it would be nigh impossible for a new band to cut their teeth in the live music world.”

ROSALIND JANA

St. Hilda’s College started; the appreciative nods when he duetted with Alanna Henderson (whose solo music, by the way, is ace) for ‘In a Week’.

This latter song yielded a backstory about some hills near his home. “You only hear their name when the bodies have been found… So this song is about two lovers, who go and do what lovers do – like rot and die.” Commentary peppered the other songs too, as well as any number of bashful “thanks” for our rather exuberant, very vocal appreciation – most apparent in the long, loud calls for an encore, which we got with the most brilliant rendition of ‘Angel of Small Death & The Codeine Scene’.

It’s not apparent yet whether Hozier is comfortable with the level of celebrity he’s at, the sudden interest and online adoration. But he deserves it. And there’s obviously a lot of joy in the performances – a kind of infectious jubilance that we carried with us as we left the building.

It made me want to go and do things, to make and create and write and live vividly. My friend and I were buoyed up, fizzing with satisfaction. As we walked back through Cowley, heading home for a final glass of wine, we talked and talked and talked about what we’d just seen. I guess that’s what the best gigs do.

Music 5

5th February 2015

Looking 4 Love OxStu’s 4th Week Playlist

Deep Six Marilyn Manson Hell, etc

Andrew In Drag The Magnetic Fields Domino

Dancing Barefoot Patti Smith Artista Records

Tropical Oceans D. D. Dumbo 4AD

Marching away from the Black Parade G

erard Way may be best known to you as that bloke with the white hair who went to see a marching band that one time and apparently got quite emotional about it. His latest concert at the Brixton Academy, however, demonstrated that he’s moved on from the emo thrills of My Chemical Romance to something bigger and better.

The show opened with a confidence that would come to characterise the entire evening, as the new song ‘Cheap Lights’, a Pulp-esque tune that allowed Way’s distinctive vocal to shine through in a way My Chemical Romance’s music never did. Slipping from track to track with ease, the awkward man who spoke at the Oxford Union the night before was almost unrecognisable from the singer flipping around his shock of grey-blue hair, clutching the microphone stand.

Way was clearly in his element onstage: stage presence radiated from him as he jived to the guitar solo in ‘No Shows’ or strutted to different parts of the audience, holding their gaze without dropping a note.

There was no need to play any My

PHOTO/ POMONA

Chemical Romance-era songs: his new music is just as powerful live. Every hand in the house waved in the air to the chorus of ‘Action Cat’, whose refrain “do you miss me?” felt like a homecoming. Just as I had been almost four years before at a My Chemical Romance concert, I was drawn in by the electricity that seemed to crackle off Way as he sang the sort of choruses you want to tattoo on your heart.

The veracity of feeling in Hesitant Alien’s tracks was viscerally present throughout the evening.

Way’s performance was testament to his maturity as a musician since the end of My Chemical Romance. Sob-fest songs like ‘Cancer’ returned in updated form, in the heart-stopping ‘Piano Jam’: bathed in blue lights, Way crooned a song that could have become maudlin, yet instead updated the melancholy of The Smiths’ ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ to an alt-rock sound. The motivational speeches that marked previous gigs – paeans to friendship and survival – were still present, but now they seemed less

LUCY CLARKE

Regent’s Park College angry, tinged more with hope - a simple declaration of his choice to keep living.

Prefacing the anthemic ‘How It’s Going to Be’, the performance left several rows of fans with eyeliner down their cheeks.

The second, impromptu encore was the final confirmation of his evolution into an artist worth watching. A polished, gutsy rendition of ‘Snakedriver’ by The Jesus and Mary Chain ending a gig that had exceeded all expectations.

It was the same man who wiggled his hips across stages pretending to be in a goth cabaret band, or who exhorted his fans to never give up, but this Gerard Way, two years on from the split of his band, was a man on top of his game. It was uplifting to see the joy in Way’s performance. It was obvious to any observer that the black-clad boy from the back end of New Jersey had grown up and out into a talented musician holding his audience’s attention with consummate ease and a huge smile on his face. Freed from the histrionics of his former band, and armed with accomplished songs that come across even better live, Way is clearly an artist with a bright future.

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH Amanda Palmer Vivian Merritt

Amanda Palmer’s entire career has been based on her relationship with the fanbase. You can tell this from her live shows, which are always so much more than a concert - going to an Amanda Palmer show is an experience, and when she played The Ritz in Manchester, this was clear from the start. When she played an impromptu ukulele cover of ‘Creep’ by Radiohead from the balcony in amongst the seated audience members, I knew that it was going to be special.

After three equally-spectacular support acts, each of whom were either members of her own band or came on to sing guest vocals, she performed songs from throughout her multifaceted career. Dresden Dolls songs such as ‘Girl Anachronism’ seemed made to be performed with a full band, and her covers of ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’

by The Smiths and ‘Common People’ by Pulp filled out performances from her spectacular crowd-funded album, Theatre Is Evil. I think that anyone criticising how she makes her music should go to one of her shows, as the atmosphere is so full of love - every last person in that room came away happier, and with a massive grin on their face.

Arctic Monkeys

Josh Lynbeck Of all the supreme acts playing Reading Festival last year, these guys really stole the show. A substantial set featuring a blend of old and new ensured that every person in the muddy, sweaty crowd heard something to put a smile on their sun-burnt, wind-swept, and rain-battered faces. A particular pleaser was the classic ‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High’, which prompted the obligatory sometimes-tunefulsometimes-not audience involvement. What really made it the stand out set was the atmosphere: 10:00pm, the main stage, lights, and a crowd ready to erupt at the slightest hint of leather or a mere glimpse of that slicked-back hair. This stood in stark contrast to the set by Enter Shikari, played at about 3:00pm. I don’t know whether it was the 3:00pm start or the presence of many hundreds of non-Shikari-ites on a hot summer afternoon, but they just didn’t seem able to match the Monkeys for power and entertainment. I left the Shikari gig wanting more, which the Monkeys were only too happy oblige. Monkeys 1, Shikari 0, unfortunately.

Deafheaven Henry Holmes

Deafheaven’s debut album, Sunbather, was the best reviewed album of 2013, receiving an average review score of 92% on Metacritic. This was totally deserved, as it was one of the most innovative and ground-breaking albums of the last 20 years. So, when they came to the Manchester Gorilla, I had to go. First up was a slightly disappointing co-headling performance from doom-folk queen Chelsea Wolfe: the monolithic atmosphere of her spectacular album Pain is Beauty didn’t map to her minimal performance. However, when Deafheaven arrived, they blew the entire crowd away.

Their unique blend of black metal and shoegaze was perfect for the intimate venue, as the crowd were pushed against the slightly raised platform that constituted a stage.

Singer George Clarke sweated, growled, and crowdsurfed throughout - he had every last person there in the palm of his hand. There was the camaraderie of a metal show and the energy of a punk show. At one point, he grabbed my outstretched hand and roared the lyrics to ‘The Pecan Tree’ staring right into my eyes; it’s moments like that that show case the potential music has to affect you. It was life-changing!

La Roux

Kate Bickerton Picture this: it is the end of the dreaded 5th Week of your first term at Oxford. You’re tired, overworked, and in need a way of celebrating your survival. In her heyday, I was slightly too young to go to gigs on my own. That, or my parents were unwilling to pay money to stand awkwardly in a crowd of screaming fans with me.

I instead had to watch grainy and shaky videos of her on the internet, and hope that she would tour again. The gig was worth waiting for. She sauntered onto the stage and strutted around, stopping to take fan letters that were being held out to her by desperate fans in the front row. The show itself was electric: the strobes danced around the cavernous Oxford O2 Academy and her encouragements to jump and dance were heeded with great gusto from the crowd.

It’s a cliché, but I was literally swept away, dancing with total strangers to a mixture of new songs and old hits. What struck me most was her dedication to her fan base.

After the house lights came up, Elly stood dazed at the barrier and dutifully signed every scrap of paper thrust at her and took selfies with every fan that asked. This is why it was the best gig I’ve ever seen; she has the perfect combination of superstar and humbleness.

6 Fashion

FASHION

Ink big: the rise of celebrity tattoo artists

5th February 2015

AUGUSTINE CERF

St John’s College

A

few years ago, we saw the rise of the celebrity Superchefs – they created a multi-million pound industry that changed the way we eat.

The next chapter in our boundless creation of mythical national characters: the rise of celebrity tattoo artists.

Don’t get me wrong, I still worship Nigella, but I’m simultaneously finding myself increasingly obsessed with who’s tattooing what onto who. My instagram was once an asylum of selfies, artsy fashion shots and healthy eating recipes (because, yes, I’m also a total sucker for the juicing, gyming, quinoa trend, and I’m not afraid to admit it.)

But a plethora of tattoo snaps are slowly taking over my feed.

When Milton wrote “fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise” he clearly didn’t have an iPhone at hand.

Long gone are our notions of virtue and ‘clear spirits’ – now we want our ‘spirits’ inked. These days, it’s becoming almost abnormal not to have a tattoo – our celebrity-worshipping culture is adapting to this change.

The rise of unique celebrity artists is bound up in our social media-fuelled fascinations with the publicly performed lives of our modern-day heroes. We live in an age where a minimal amount of detective work is required to locate the exact whereabouts of the likes of Cara Delevingne, at any given time. Which means, that, obviously, we also know

PHOTO / Instagram user @sashaunisex

where our ‘it’ people get their tattoos.

And they sure as hell get a lot of them.

Everyone knows who Bang Bang NYC is: he bought a tattoo gun at 18 and at 20 tattooed Rihanna. All the ‘it’ people are flocking to his Lower East Side shop, including Rita Ora, Jourdan Dunn, Katy Perry, Chris Brown, Cara Delevingne. The celebrities tattoo him back as they leave: his body is like an incredibly cool autograph book.

But the rise of celebrity tattoo artists isn’t just about pre-established celebrities frequenting the same parlours. Where tattooists were

PHOTO / Instagram user @dr_woo_ssc

once required to tailor their designs to specific demands, they are now developing individual styles. The quest for the perfect tattoo now also means the quest for the perfect artist.

Dr Woo, based at the Shamrock Social Club in L.A., is a perfect example of this. You could recognize his tats anywhere. Don’t get the wrong idea, he’s not low-key: he also just inked Cara (who hasn’t these days?) and he’s booked up until the summer. He uses a single needle, where most artists use seven: it’s notoriously difficult and he’s nailing it.

I must confess – upon seeing Dr Woo’s tattoo’s, I was hooked. I began compulsively researching flights to L.A., I became unable to hold any other topic of conversation – I became plagued by an insurmountable desire to get inked in the signature Woo style. Yes, I’m a wide-eyed idiot when it comes to this kind of thing, but, seriously, check this guy out.

Artists are rising everywhere and the internet has given us instant access to their body of work. Here are just a few places to start: Marla Moon, Madrid, does beautiful intricate stylized designs;

Tattoos hit the catwalk I

PHOTO / PeopleAlerts.net, “Cara Delevingne Tattoo – PeopleAlerts.”

’ve flicked through many-a-page of Elle and yet my first sighting of Rosie Huntington-Whitley’s tattoo in an editorial shot of the magazine took me aback ever so slightly. As an avid reader of ELLE and Vogue (and co) since the tender age of nine, this was the first time, at 15, that I had seen inked skin in a high-fashion magazine.

Why did it take so long for tattoos to enter into the fashion world? They are surely no longer the shameful badges of rebellion they once were, once upon a time when our parents weren’t middleaged and boring. The punks who used to scratch ‘fuck’ along their knuckles with needles, who returned home from madness in Magaluf with a bit more than sun-damaged skin are now entering their thirties, fourties, even fifties.

Who are we kidding: there will always be a few regrettable scribbles born out of teenage anger or drunken holidays, but recently something really has changed. Tattoos are no longer just cool in an “oh my, he has a Harley Davidson and a full sleeve” kind of way: they’ve become cute.

The past few seasons have seen ink spill onto the runway, seeping out of the

wrists and napes of necks of everyone, from Jordan to Freja. The very concept of models as ‘blank canvasses’ is changing. It may even be possible that models are communicating individual personalities through the insignias they elect to mark on their bodies. And perhaps that personality is actually becoming a part of fashion.

It only takes a quick Google search of Angelina Jolie’s magazine covers to notice the dearth of images that feature her illustrated skin. Despite her fabulous figure, they almost always focus

PHOTO / Instagram user @domholmes

Sasha Unisex, Moscow, inks in a way that resembles watercolour paintings; Chaim Machlev, Berlin, creates sleek and complex black geometric tattoos; Xoïl, Paris, has a distinctive Photoshop collage aesthetic; and Dom Holmes, London, designs incredibly elaborate tattoos, inspired by Japanese woodcuts and traditional Tibetan Thangka paintings.

The tattoo industry is changing.

Artists are finally being recognized for unique styles as the art of ink is increasingly appreciated and accepted as a legitimate form of art.

COLETTE SNAPE

St John’s College ‘C.A.T.’ tidily typed onto the nape of her neck. Sam Rollinson revealed a small stick figure on her upper back, and Abbey Lee Kershaw flaunted the owl on her thumb as well as the stars nestling behind her ears. Even more excitingly, the lion living on Cara Delavigne’s index feature landed its first advertising campaign, clinging to the handle of a Burberry handbag. As if the fashion world hadn’t gotten enough of real body art, designers at Marchesa, Henry Holland and Ralph Laurent even gave their models temporary trans-

The very concept of models as ‘blank canvasses’ is changing. on her face. Beautiful and chiselled though her jaw line is, it seems that only ‘Rolling Stone’ ever wanted to publish her punk aesthetic. The only cover which does reveal the lines of text on her forearm is the most recent, ELLE US July 2014. The times they are a changin’.

Among the tattooed ‘ruffians’ of the runway this season was Anja K with ‘meow’ seared into her inner lip and

fers. Tattoos are becoming a part of the mainstream fashion industry and are changing how we conceptualise models’ bodies.

Rosie appeared again on the cover of Elle’s February 2015 publication, wearing her heart on her sleeve proudly in a third of the shots. I wouldn’t suggest being quite so brazen if you’re going for a job interview with Goldman Sachs, but Vogue? Maybe…

Fashion 7

5h February 2015

TATTWHO? The tattoos of these celebrities might

Experience vs. permanence

1. This British actor played a loveable goof in the Harry Potter film series.

He has “XI” tattooed on his forearm because he was eleven years old when he received the role – cute.

2. Channeling her role as a legal princess, this actress has the common white girl tattoo – a flock of birds.

3. This regal actress got drunk as a teenager and had a tiny symbol of interlocking V’s tattooed on her hand becoming “completely mainstream.”

Answers: 1) Matthew Lewis 2) Reese Witherspoon 3) Dame Helen Mirren PHOTO / Flickr user THOR

PHOTO / Instagram user @thefamilybusinesstattoo

T

attoos embody self-expression; they provide a means of communicating an internal sentiment externally, be that an expression of grief or love or a simple desire to have a small lion on your finger. Illma Gore hit the headlines recently for pledging to have someone’s name inked on her body for just $10 in the pursuit of art. This artwork stakes its own significance upon permanence, though I’m not convinced – does the experience and celebrity of having a stranger’s childhood nickname tattooed on your body transcend its quality of permanence?

In the age of Instagram, one can easily access images depicting the timeline of a tattoo: its initial design, its inking, the healing process and finally the finished creation. These photographs document the experience of getting a tattoo; they themselves are visual expressions of creativity and individualism. Yet these photos are surrounded by ‘events’ on your feed; that party to which you weren’t invited to or the time someone met that famous soap star.

Updates on the tattoo cease after a short time, followers have recognised your act of creativity and shared in your experience, and this diary was only a temporary pursuit The notoriety of famous tattoo parlours has crystallised of late, in the customary means of commercial exposure – by starring in reality TV shows. Shows such as Miami Ink point to the emphasis on the experience of receiving a tattoo. Getting inked has become an occasion in which willing customers travel extensively to obtain the designs of a celebrated artist. The likes of

Bang Bang and Kat Von D are entering the ranks of celebrity with their designs disseminating through social media. Instances where famous clients give reciprocal tattoos to their artists undeniably devalue the permanence of a tattoo – for what reason, other than the experience, would you want an illdrawn mouse at the hands of Justin Bieber on your body?

The concept of a trend is defined by its capacity to wade in and out of fashion. Yet a trendy tattoo cannot be forgotten through the same means as a regrettable perm or those neon jelly shoes. Nonetheless, trends do occur in tattooing, as seen in the surge of white ink tattoos last year and the penchant for all things arrow, feather or infinity related that is only recently subsiding. In effect, a tattoo acts as a permanent stamp of entry into an exclusive club, yet your stamp remains long after the doors have shut. A tattoo might represent an act of friendship or display of community but not so much an acknowledgement of permanence.

Tattoos have proved a sticking point for the fashion industry. Many designers favour the blank canvas of an ink-free model, whilst occasionally tattoos become the lynch pin of a look, as in Christian Dior’s SS15 show in Paris this week. When they’re in, they’re in big, with extreme looks being favoured.

For those of us who won’t grace the glossy pages of magazines there has been a long-established preference for the discrete: the ankle, ribcage or torso.

Hence the paradox of tattooing today is that whilst laser removal means that the ink is no longer indelible, the experience remains so.

In with the old? Recycling jewellery L PHOTO / @dsarok

INSTAWORTHY @blacktatooart is the place to discover the perfect tattoo artist for you. Featuring only the best of black ink, scroll through to find a style that suits you.

Follow the link to the artist’s own instagram page to discover where to get one of your own.

There’s a lot of awesome stuff going on out there.

Happy browsing!

New College

In the age of Instagram, one can easily access images depicting the timeline of a tattoo: its initial design, its inking, the healing process and finally the finished creation.

come as something of a shock.

– she reportedly now hates it for

ELIZABETH EVENS

ike all else in fashion, jewellery trends shift quickly. As an “accessory,” jewellery is, by definition, inessential. It’s easy to get by and look classy in a pair of studs and a leather watch.

For those of us who aren’t disposed to frequent accessory purchases, Spring 2015 looks promising. Save your funds and play around with the pieces you already own; if you’re willing to invest, try a bold choker or an intricate pendant necklace. Better yet, go hunting in your mum (or granny’s) treasure box for vintage ornaments that once were – and are now back – in vogue.

1) Chokers: the basic black choker has been back for a while, but consider elegant metal or colorful beaded options for a more regal, less 90s-teen alternative.

2) Mismatched: Purchasing a pair of intentionally mismatched earrings would just be silly (see Augustine’s ‘Ode to try hards’ article from last week). Find a bold drop earring (brass has made several appearances on spring runways) and pair with a simpler jewel or geometric stud.

3) Dangle: Here’s an 80s trend that you could definitely steal from your mum’s collection. For nights out, put on a pair of metallic line drops for old Hollywood glam, bright baubles for

retro fun, or fringe trinkets to go along with your bell bottoms, suede, and flower power sundresses this spring.

4) Minimalist pendants: ideal for day and night. You can pair a long delicate pendant necklace with anything from anything from woolly sweaters to silky dress tops.

5) Rock out: this might be easier to find at grandma’s. Romantic bejeweled drop earrings and chunky, single gem studs add a flash of sparkle to your winter ball ensemble.

PHOTOS / Polyvore

DEMIE KIM

Exeter College

8 Fashion

i n k e d

5th February 2015

Photographer: Sakura Xiaomei | Model: Merri Leston | Concept & Styling: Augustine Cerf & Demie Kim

5th February 2015

Fashion 9

10 Arts & Lit

ARTS & LIT

The uncertain future of the independent bookshop

I

n the current publishing climate, with anxiety over the role of the physical book and the physical bookstore, the literary community is constantly vigilant.

Every week, it seems, brings a new voice to the debate waged in blogs, newspapers, and magazines alike: what is the future of the bookstore? How can the public support them? Authors like Ann Patchett and Mark Forsyth, Jen Campbell and Bill Bryson – all prominent voices in the literary community – have weighed in.

Their answer has been, overwhelmingly

PHOTO/GRAHAM HOLLIDAY

and perhaps against all economic odds, that in the face of industry change, there is still a place for the printed word and its bookshelf-lined marketplace.

While pundits love proclaiming literary doom and gloom, the bookstore is alive and kicking. It can be seen in Buzzfeed clickbait, “16 Bookstores You Have To See Before You Die” in the pages of the Guardian and The Times (of both the London and the New York persuasion), in the social media success of the hilarious @Waterstones and @WstonesOx-

fordSt twitter accounts, and here, in Oxford, with the success of Blackwells, Waterstones, Oxfam, and the multitude of other tiny, independent dives where students can burrow themselves in a corner or else dart in quickly to pick up a used copy of an old favourite.

But under the pressure of budgeting, time management, and the sheer volume of social opportunities, perhaps Oxford students aren’t taking full advantage of these resources. The Oxford community at large absolutely supports its bookstores, but the student body’s interactions with them seem to end with the acquisition of textbooks. It’s not exactly an undergraduate destination, which is a pity. Perhaps the relationship between student and bookstore is worth investigating and reevaluating.

For many students, it’s a matter of thrift. Even with rewards cards and ‘3 for 2’ discounts, there’s little incentive to purchase a book with the Bodleian just a short walk away. With college libraries, faculty libraries, and the whole Bod available, many students feel that we’ve already been given everything we need. But, as essayist and author Mark Forsyth aptly notes, the importance of the bookshop is not that it gives you what you need. It gives you what you didn’t know you needed. Oxford’s libraries are

wonderful, but they are not designed to be browsed for fun. SOLO is not there to tell what novel to read next, or what new article about your field is generating lots of buzz at the moment. SOLO’s only job is to get library books into the hands of the students who need them.

SOLO retrieves rather than introduces.

This is where the bookshop comes in.

For a population living from one reading

There’s little incentive to purchase a book with the Bod just a short walk away list to the next, the Oxford bookshop community represents the reminder that reading can, and should, be fun as well.

In such an intellectually vibrant town, they remind us that our fields of study are still frontiers. Walk into the cosy, well lit, calming atmosphere of Blackwell’s, and on the table – is it magic, or fate? – is the new novel that will inspire countless student essays in 50 years time.

And, most likely, there’s an author event scheduled as well, offering students access to voices they wouldn’t hear in their weekday lectures.

Last term, Blackwell’s hosted a casual

“I

might be stretching it, but I believe if William Blake were alive he would be a hip-hop rapper,” Christian hip-hop artist and Blake enthusiast Testament told his audience in the depths of Blackwell’s Norrington Room last Friday night.

To be honest, I’m not so sure his audience agreed.

As part of the “Inspired by Blake” festival, this whistlestop tour of the development of hip-hop pointed not only to the influence Blake has had on a number of specific Brit Pop artists (Kate Tempest perhaps the most notable in light of her recent Mercury Prize) but also to the similarities between Blakean and hip-hop innovation.

“I believe if William Blake were alive he would be a hip-hop rapper” It may not be very ‘Oxford’ to acknowledge that education and genius do not always follow the same course, but the most powerful contradiction thrown up by the festival’s events must surely be that fact. Moreover, there is something oddly inappropriate about buying tickets to events celebrating the work of a “visionary” who

Testament & William Blake was almost entirely ignored in his own lifetime, just as the use of Jerusalem as something of a national anthem must surely be one of the most impressive face-palms of all time.

Hip-hop, too, is often discounted; the image of hip-hop presented by the gimmicky dollar-sign jewellery couldn’t be further from the political

criticism and rousing critique found in the lyrics of artists like Testament.

Many artists work other jobs to support their endeavours.

Hip-hop is a form that is “talking directly to someone” and a lot of the time that “someone” doesn’t want to listen. For Testament hip-hop – not all, but the best – finds “discontent

PHOTO/WILLIAM BLAKE; ASHMOLEAN

REBECCA ROUGHAN

Regent’s Park College with this material world and touches through to a spiritual one”. In using new techniques and exploring different ways of creating art and sound to raise questions on the state we could almost be talking of the striking art and poetry of Blake – the “mind forg’d manacles” have not yet disappeared.

5th February 2015

YASHWINA CARTER

Merton College

discussion on ‘Will bookstores exist in 100 years’ time?’ featuring bookshop advocates ranging from publishing executives, booksellers, authors, and cultural critics. The fact that such an event could exist supports the consensus that bookshops will remain. The bookshop, as an alternative to Oxford’s establishment, offers a platform for new voices to be heard, either in author events or in the ‘hand-selling’ of new works.

This exposure to new voices, contemporary innovation creates an atmosphere of joyful exploration, making Oxford’s bookshops vital for students. As both a student and a bookseller myself, and having seen the decline in student visits to bookshops in search of ‘fun reading’ at my bookshop back home, I have seen how important it is to remind students that bookshops exist as cultural centres, as places of fun and excitement rather than just as required reading dispensaries.

At their best, bookshops offer a respite from rigorous curricula and the established classics found on reading lists.

This breath of fresh air, this reminder that great new things are happening, is an incredible motivator. As an antidote to exhaustion and cynicism, Oxford students have a lot to gain from even the shortest visit to these homes of ‘unassigned reading.’

The similarities do not end in challenging the state or innovating art, however, even the imagery can be compared – both genres rely heavily on Christian writings. Compare, for example, 2Pac’s use of the “shadow of death” in ‘So Many Tears’ with Blake’s “Into the Furnaces & into the valleys of the Anvils of Death.” Both artists interrogate and take meaning from a common source.

Blake’s work concerned orphans, “chimney sweeps” and “youthful harlots” in a time when most poetry was gentrified – hip-hop doesn’t shy away from the unglamorous either (“The gods are in the betting shops / the gods are in the caff” states Kate Tempest in Brand New Ancients).

The acknowledgement that not all of life can be idealised, while also presenting an ideal is at the heart of the form and the poet – “I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans”, says Blake.

And this is at the heart, too, of hiphop’s growth from the civil rights movement in America. Facing artistic and worldly fear has never been more important – and Testament’s work creating a hip-hop show (Blake Remixed) around these (ironically) canonised texts shows boldness and openness that I think Blake would have liked more than the academic talks about him. Perhaps he would’ve been a rapper after all…

5th February 2015

Arts & Lit 11

RUSKIN PROFILE: Lucy Gregory Lucy, second-year Fine Artist at the Ruskin, talks about pinhole photography and capturing the moment.

What are you currently working on?

PHOTO/LUCY GREGORY

PHOTO/MEGAN MARY THOMAS

Han Kang: The Vegetarian R eaders and reviewers of The Vegetarian to date appear to be as flummoxed by the events of the novel as the characters themselves.

Indeed, such an innocuous title would never suggest the need for a warning of the novel’s subjects, which include violence, sexual violence, mental illness, and suicide, to name but a few. It represents a stark deviation from most of the fiction we are likely to find on our bookshelves, as much of a rude awakening to us as to the figures it follows.

Amongst all this startling, graphic content, the novel introduces the first of its three acts as deeply ordinary.

Yeong-hye is “completely unremarkable in every way”, her average appearance and sullen passivity rendering her a suitable wife to her distant, superficial husband, Mr. Cheong, for whom she represents merely a cook, a wife, a pawn in his base professional advancement.

Cheong sees her, observes and criticises her appearance but has little interest in empathy. His first-person narrative is chilling for its embodiment of a human being’s willing

ignorance of the needs of another.

It comes as little surprise, then, that Yeong-hye’s moment of initiative is a cause of cataclysm. Yeong-hye’s declaration of her vegetarianism, the emptying of her home’s refrigerator of animal products is met on all fronts with a total lack of consideration.

Her independent choice is a personal one, and yet it is interpreted as a familial affront, purely in the context of its effects on others. The abuse she suffers at the hands of her family culminates in a shocking episode of violent force-feeding and attempted suicide that ultimately dismantles the meaningless suburban relationships around her and sets far more disturbing ones in motion.

The two acts that follow chart Yeong-hye’s deteriorating mental and physical state through the eyes of her brother-in-law, and her sister In-hye, respectively. However, Yeong-hye herself remains entirely elusive. Not only do those around her deny her personhood, but the narrative focus ignores her subjectivity entirely.

Aside from the moments in the stirring, violent dreams in which she

DANIEL AMIR

Wadham College conceives the inspiration for her vegetarianism, the reader is forced to keep at an agonising distance from the single character on which the entire novel hinges.

In The Vegetarian, gender, food, and sexuality present fertile ground for what is a very visceral exploration of personal freedoms and its limitations, where identities are carved from without rather than within the individual. Yeong-hye is powerless in the face of pervasive values and is systematically denied private, personal security. Her struggle may thus be viewed as a strife to secure herself within this system, where her body may be the only space that remains her own.

Han demonstrates a great deal of versatility in this novel. Almost four different narrators with four distinct voices present a challenge that is completed with aplomb.

The mindless Cheong and the purple dream passages are worlds apart yet moments of tenderness and violence are delivered with a sustained intensity and boldness that elicit a complex impact, and much food for thought from a relatively short novel.

I have been experimenting with pinhole photography. The simple process uses a dark container with a pin-sized hole in the side, allowing an inverted (upside down) image of the outside to be projected onto light sensitive paper stuck on the back wall.

This is later taken out of the camera in the darkroom and developed using chemicals to reveal the image – a 1:1 scale ratio of the projection, exactly how it falls onto the paper, is recorded. There are several darkrooms around Oxford but I decided to make my own in a college bathroom!

I’ve spent time wandering round Oxford with a shoebox, covered in tin foil, converted into a camera, looking for the perfect scenario or composition. Each image is precious and time-consuming as you only have one shot before returning to the darkroom and reloading the camera for taking the next picture - a stark contrast to the unlimited and instant images taken on a phone or digital camera.

I’m preoccupied with the idea of a compression of time, from the moment the shutter is opened to the final image. I feel the pinhole photographer has a very exclusive “I experience” during the long exposures of up to a few hours The chemical matrix of paper is slow and sucks up any natural light – encounters, meetings and occurrences play out in front of the pinhole.

The final image shows a strange empty world, like the still of a film that has been playing, that only the photographer can recall or has witnessed. Everyone is rushing, constantly moving, so only occasional ghostly figures can be made out in the final image.

There are substantial chance effects that articulate this method – no

viewfinder, estimated exposure times, and the unpredictable movement of bodies in a space. I’ve also pushed this idea further, currently working on filming the inside of a pinhole camera using digital technology as the image is being immortalised on photographic paper.

What inspired this?

Pinhole photography is a rudimentary process – truthful and untampered; involving no actual camera with man-made mechanisms; merely a dark space with a pinhole to let in light.

One of the first images of a human being ever recorded in history was Louis Daguerre’s Boulevard du

“Pinhole photography is a rudimentary process – truthful and untampered” Temple, Paris, 1838 – a busy street, but due to the ten minute exposure time the moving traffic does not appear. The only figures slow enough to be recorded were a man having his boots polished, and the bootblack polishing them, staying motionless enough for their presence to be captured photographically.

I’m inspired by contemporary artists such as Steven Pippin, who turned mundane objects or architecture such as public toilets, photo booths, bath tubs, washing machines, gallery spaces into pinhole cameras.

In addition, Lindsay Seers used her body as a camera – she would drape her head and upper body in a in a black sack, which acted as a mobile darkroom, insert a small piece of photographic paper into her mouth, and then pull the sack off. Her lips were the shutter and aperture to “let the image in”.

PHOTO/LUCY GREGORY

12 Screen

SCREEN

Why TV is where it’s at: talking to Greg Brenman I

t is easy to see how Greg Brenman stays true to his maxim of being nice to everyone he meets. Warm, confident and in possession of a dry sense of humour, he speaks easily and eloquently about his work as Producer on massive successes like Billy Elliot, Peaky Blinders and Ripper Street, among others, to the audience at the Q&A organized by the Oxford Broadcasting Association.

I caught up with Brenman afterwards to talk to him more about his role as Executive Producer of the critically acclaimed miniseries, The Honourable Woman.

The show follows acting powerhouse Maggie Gyllenhaal in her portrayal of Nessa Stein, an Anglo-Israeli businesswoman who inherits her father’s arms business but repurposes it to lay data cables in the West Bank in her efforts to work towards peace in the Middle East. When the Palestinian businessman who was to take up the contract is killed, and Kasim, the son of a close friend of Nessa’s is kidnapped, she is hurled into a political and emotional storm.

Using the Arab-Israeli conflict as the backdrop to Nessa Stein’s story was a controversial decision, but Brenman asserts that Hugo Blick, the show’s writer/ director was sure of his vision and heavily researched every aspect of the script: “Really, what he wanted to do was two things: tell a very, very particular story

about someone’s internal conflict and find a kind of macro-conflict to mirror that. He was always very clear what he wanted it to be about. How careful were we about the actual material? Very. It was incredibly well researched by him, and by me in hindsight. As we were going along we’d talk to people from there, we’d spent time on the West Bank, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv – didn’t go to Gaza, but spoke to a lot of people who had. I think the fact that it seemed to go down as well as it did is testament to how much work he’d done on it.”

The show does present a very evenhanded account of the conflict, and Brenman credits Blick’s talent and work ethic for this result: “I think it’s because he doesn’t take short-cuts. I think he really marinades himself in the flavours of the area and the flavours of the conflict. He is very bright, very studious and while we were filming he was reading books about acts of terrorism and acts of reconciliation and totally focused on what we were doing.” Yet Brenman asserts that the show never wanted to promote a specific opinion about the conflict or take a side: “I think he didn’t want to be didactic, polemical and kind of shove anything down. I think he feels you have to be humble in that material and feel that you are raising conversation points and promoting debate, I

don’t think you can be tub-thumping about it.”

Last month, Maggie Gyllenhaal was awarded with a Golden Globe for her performance on the show. Hugo Blick has stated previously that before shooting began, Gyllenhaal “still had a bridge to cross in her attitude towards film and towards television.” Brenman confirmed that Gyllenhaal was less than confident ahead of the first day on set: “She flipped when she saw the schedule. In film you would traditionally shoot two to three minutes a day; in TV you would shoot, four to five to six, seven minutes a day and because she is in so many scenes I think she realized she was going to have to keep in her head 8 hours of material and shoot a huge amount. She came to me a couple of days prior to film, and said, ‘I can’t do this – it’s impossible’, and I said, ‘Well, you’ve just got to do it. Be liberated by the fact that you can’t control it.’ Actually, she loved the speed. There’s something quite liberating about working slightly quicker and having momentum.”

The Honourable Woman has been lauded by many for its portrayal of female characters. Not only is Gyllenhaal’s character real and complex, every episode of the show successfully completes the Bechdel test: “If you look at all the main characters really, all the main strong

characters are women. The one guy who did really well slept his way to the top.

So Stephen Rea [his character] got his position of responsibility by allowing himself to be fucked by his boss. He [Blick] was purposefully doing it; he was purposefully flipping it all, all the time because he loved writing for women, and felt he just wanted to give them all the kudos, integrity, power that they deserve and was valid, and not play that kind of stereotypical gender thing that goes on.”

The Honourable Woman has now been picked up by Netflix in the USA, and Brenman believes that there is a lot to be said for platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, and the effect they have on the quality of television: “Netflix is expanding massively and Amazon Prime is expanding massively and everyone is driving business through content. The brilliant thing about Netflix and I’m sure you’re all aware of it is changed narrative structure on TV. So on one night they will release 13 episodes of House of Cards or Orange is the New Black, or whatever else the new show happens to be, and they want everyone to binge, they want to be able to sit down and watch one to thirteen episodes every weekend. That means you don’t want episodic story telling, you want a big story like The Honourable Woman. Now the moment you do that, that’s really exciting for a

5th February 2015

PHOTO/Sundance TV

SRISHTI NIRULA

Somerville College writer, because of the writers you can attract to TV, like Steve Knight [Peaky Blinders, Dirty Pretty Things]. You go to them and say ‘I’m doing a cop show and every episode has got it’s own beginning, middle, end and story, you can shuffle the pack, there’s no real serial development’, they’ll go ‘Sorry, I’m not really interested, thank you.’ But if you say come do Peaky Blinders, it’s six hours in Series 1, you can take a character on this huge journey and maybe come back for more; or on The Honourable Woman, you can tell this one big story over 8 hours and you can go to someone like Maggie Gyllenhaal and say: ‘Read this, you’ll never get offered this’ – well you don’t say it - but she knows that there is not a film that has that kind of character development, that trajectory, that lateral breadth of narrative.”

Indeed, Brenman goes on to describe how platforms like Netflix have stretched the canvas onto which creatives now have room to create their masterpieces: “BBC 2 has adopted this. In the last 18 months they’ve had The Honourable Woman, Peaky Blinders, The Fall, Wolf Hall – these things which are fantastic long-form shows, and that’s why I think TV is where it’s at, and that’s why I don’t do film anymore. It’s way more interesting as a producer, and narrative is just way more interesting.”

5th February 2015

Into The Woods breathes a touch of magic

T

he challenge of adapting any stage musical to film is a significant one. This is obviously true for a well-known hit such as Les Miserables¸ but even a relative rarity such as Into The Woods – a Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine creation from the 80s – comes with its own set of challenges: not least how to attract a cinema audience that would mostly never choose to go to see an off-Broadway deconstruction of the idea of fairy tales.

Into The Woods, however, should manage to please the fans and the uninitiated alike. It’s admittedly not the simplest concept a musical has ever had: mix half a dozen different fairy tales together, stir them around and then destroy their assorted happy endings for the sake of pointing out that real life is much messier and more difficult than any of us would like to believe. This descent into the gloom of reality is made palatable through the inclusion of much ridiculous and selfreferential humour: an early example comes when Little Red Riding Hood,

skipping off into the eponymous woods to see Granny, blithely observes that “for all that I know, she’s already dead!”

The credit for balancing this absurdity against the darker side of fairy tales goes mainly to the truly excellent cast, who can switch from one to the other in the blink of an eye. Johnny Depp disappointingly proves the only exception, yet he thankfully plays a more minor role than the promotional posters

storyline and together ensure that the ending feels earned rather than sappy.

Meryl Streep as the Witch is also a revelation in a role which could easily have descended to maniacal cackling in lesser hands.

Directing and editing choices are also well-judged, making the relatively featureless woods a fascinating setting for over half the film’s running time, tightening the musical up and preventing it from wallowing in either emotion or

The credit for balancing this absurdity against the darker side of fairy tales goes mainly to the truly excellent cast

would have you believe. The entire cast are good singers, good actors and perfectly matched to their roles. Not one of them manages to steal the show, but each claims the limelight completely when they have it, and special mention should go to James Corden and Emily Blunt as the Baker and his wife, who carry the emotional heart of the

its own cleverness too much. A number of songs from the stage version are dropped, but mostly these don’t feel like as much of a loss as one might expect. In particular, the gloriously overthe-top staging of ‘Agony’ – in which two princes emote at each other about how hard life is when your damsel in distress is hard to catch – more than

Screen 13

SUSANNAH COOKE

Brasenose College makes up for the loss of its reprise in favour of maintaining a darker tone in the latter part of the musical. Other vanished songs leave their themes behind as background music, and there is even time for a nod to die-hard musical fans at Cinderella’s ball, where a few bars of ‘Night Waltz’ appear from another Sondheim musical, A Little Night Music. Unfortunately, the same deftness is not displayed in the replacement of the Narrator, an on-stage presence with whom the other characters interact, with rather unengaging voiceover narration from the Baker.

It would probably have been better to drop the concept entirely.

Ultimately, however, the film’s crowning achievement is that in a media landscape that is currently fairly littered with musicals, adaptations and deconstructions of childhood stories, Into The Woods still manages to stand out as something rather special. By taking us just a little way off the welltrodden path, it breathes a touch of magic back into the world.

COUNTDOWN TOP FIVE WORST ATTEMPTS AT BRITISH ACCENTS IN FILM

5

PHOTO/Flickr/Crystian Cruz

Russell Crowe, Robin Hood (2010) Yet again, the accent of the famous outlaw has claimed another victim. Crowe’s Hood switches between a sort of Irish, a kind of Northern, and a few entirely fabricated accents whenever he feels like it.

Mischa Barton, St. Trinian’s (2007) As the former head girl of the eponymous riotous school, Barton’s dreadful mash-up of American and, well, “English”, is shielded by the fact that the character used to live in the US, but there’s no denying that the attempt is dreadful nonetheless.

Shia LaBeouf, Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 and 2 (2013) It’s difficult to tell whether LaBeouf is attempting to mimic a British or South African accent – or is it Australian? Either way, it doesn’t make sexual predator Jerôme any less creepy. Rumour has it LaBeouf wasn’t cast for his acting skills anyway.

Keanu Reeves, Dracula (1992) What was Francis Ford Coppola thinking? Reeves is so deplorably awkward as Jonathan Harker that he looks to be in genuine pain when delivering his lines. Any ounce of respect esteemed actors Gary Oldman or Anthony Hopkins brought to this production is shattered every time Reeves opens his mouth.

Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins (1964) It had to be on here. His infamous “cockney” accent for Bert the chimney sweep is the stuff of legend.

He claims that nobody alerted him to the preposterousness of his English attempt at the time of the shoot (we’ll never forgive Julie Andrews for that). Poor Dick Van Dyke – will he ever live this down?

4 3 2 1

PHOTO/Getty Images

I

THOMAS BANNATYNE

St Hilda’s College

used to like Take Me Out. It was rubbish, but it was the kind of rubbish that has a perverse appeal. It was the sort of cheesy, cheeky entertainment that belongs on a Saturday night. Not anymore. I was surprised, but secretly pleased, when it was brought back for a second run.

Now I’m just waiting for it to die.

It’s partly due to familiarity. The clunky chat-up lines and moronic catchphrases were so bad that they were good. But now we’ve heard it all. The script (don’t expect me to believe that the ‘banter’ between host and contestant isn’t pre-prepared) has plunged new depths this season and there is only so much lower it can go. It wasn’t Shakespeare to begin with, but there was a level of humour to it all. Now we have to go through the motions of a well-tested formula. It’s boring.

You know something is wrong when Paddy McGuinness is holding your show together. But that is what he does, even if it is by a thread.

He can’t hide that he knows that it’s terrible, and he revels in it. There is no one else on TV who could put up with the slew of arrogance, ditziness and screeching that he faces every

It’s the contestants that really get on my nerves. Early in its life, the show developed characters in its female contingent, whose repeated failure allowed them to spend weeks on end in lovelorn chat with Paddy.

No one has that basic level of charisma anymore. And they are all the same. Short skirts, showing cleavage,

TAKE ME OUT week. He still approaches every show with the same enthusiasm. Perhaps he should be praised for that, since he’s not going to get many awards for his incisive questioning. Then again, when your host is also your biggest fan, maybe it’s time for a rethink.

fake-tanned and vacuous. There are occasional anomalies, but they aren’t given the right amount of attention.

There is nothing different enough to keep us coming back.

The men are no different. Those who come down the ‘love lift’ (a

dumb waiter for man-meat) are either muscular and cocky, tall and tidy or unusual and a little bit crazy.

The same things happen every time.

If you live with your mum, you are going to struggle. If you spend too much time in the gym or playing football, you are going to struggle. If you have pet snakes, you are going to struggle. And yet men keep appearing with exactly these problems. And get rejected. You can see everything coming.

Take Me Out was never about love, no matter how many times the word is used on the show. That’s obvious.

But now it has become the shallowest of the shallow. It is so shallow that the women reject the best-looking men so that they stay on television for longer. Forget the sexism issues and just look at the entertainment.

It’s atrocious.

14 Stage

STAGE

5h February 2015

PHOTO/Madame Butterfly Publicity

Director and producer Ellen Kent on “opera for the masses” S

ince 1993, opera director and producer Ellen Kent has been turning the tables on public perceptions of what opera is.

Known and loved for their traditional staging, lavish sets and international cast, over six million people have now seen an Ellen Kent production. Each year, she tours three productions all around the UK and Ireland, and will be returning to Oxford with Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto and La Traviata from 19th to 21st February.

I ask how she came to direct opera and she tells me that the path to “outrageous success” was not so straightforward. Ellen “always wanted to be a performer” and after a Classics degree at Durham University, she trained to be a singer, gaining an offer to study at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music. However, acting was the path she ultimately took; training at the Bristol Old Vic theatre company and then acting in musicals, radio drama and television.

But the streak of a leader was always in her, and Ellen “had never liked being told by directors what to do as an

actress. I’d much rather tell people what to do and have my own ideas”.

In 1984 she created a theatre company and soon started bringing tours of national theatres to Britain. Her first opera tour was with the Romanian National Opera and she has “never looked back”.

Being a director is a high pressure job, but Ellen has the right mindset for it. “I’m the sort of person that likes to live on high adrenaline, I’m an entrepreneur, I take risks. I enjoy risks! These things are very important.”

We discuss public perceptions of opera as being just long and boring and she notes the necessity of keeping art forms such as opera popular in any way possible. “If you have a restricted audience for an art form, it will collapse on itself. You need to open it to the masses because that’s the audience that will keep it alive.”

Ellen is not afraid to flaunt her achievements, saying: “I’m actually sure that I’ve kept opera very much alive in the regions and in London.”

High quality opera is harder to come by outside of London so Kent has re-

ally impacted those who live outside of the capital and want to see a large scale production.

Moving onto her personal tastes, Verdi’s opera Rigoletto is one of her favourites to put on, but she laments that it is not the most popular. “I think people are very conservative with what they see, and they’ll go to the known works. Rigoletto is slightly on the edge, but when you see it, it is simply breathtaking.”

“I’ve kept opera very much alive in the regions and in London.”

So how do you make people want to go and see your operas? “Well, I have my own style, which is basically to make it as near to music theatre as I can, because that’s where the big audiences are.”

Despite saying this, Ellen’s opinions on musicals are not always favourable.

“I don’t like that awful style of acting where the acting is all two-dimensional and the all shout and they’re mic-ed up – that style is too sharp.” For her, opera is a more nuanced form, and of course the music is always beautiful.

The visual aspect of opera is also very important to her. Working under the description of “traditional with a sexy twist”, her productions have fabulous sets and she says her bespoke gowns are so beautiful, “they could be Chanel”.

She certainly doesn’t hold back in her productions to achieve a high visual impact: in Carmen she uses a white stallion and a donkey, and in Rigoletto has a golden eagle and greyhounds.

She wants everything to “look like it should look”. This extends to her cast, and for the chorus she will go for “young looking girls who are beautiful, and handsome boys. I want a filmic version of opera”.

While this attitude to casting and production may not please the purists, it has certainly worked for her.

She acknowledges that “Ellen Kent

LILA CHRISP

Merton College is now a brand name, and I’ve been doing it successfully for many many years now”.

Typically opinionated and direct, when I ask her what she thinks about productions that attempt to update an opera and put it in a modern context she says: “Frankly, I don’t see the point.” She thinks the most important thing is that an opera should be “a visual feast”, and audiences want to be lost in a different world.

“And that’s how I’ve made my audience, because they know that when they come to see an Ellen Kent production, they’re going to get quality, they’re going to get very pretty sets, and they’re going to get leads you can believe in.” What more could you want?

Ellen Kent’s Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto and La Traviata play at the New Theatre Oxford from 19th to 21st February.

For opera fans, Dido and Aeneus will be playing in the St Peter’s Chapel on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of 3rd week.

Stage 15

5th February 2015

A route into directing

PHOTO/Artur Assis

H

ave you ever considered becoming a director? How exactly would you go about it? OxStu spoke to Sian Davila, a Somerville alumna, who is currently on the StoneCrabs Young Directors programme.

Since 2006 the course has been run by StoneCrabs Theatre’s Artistic Directors - Franko Figueiredo-Stow and Kwong Loke. In partnership with The Albany Theatre it aims to nurture directing and theatrical talent in people of all backgrounds. Attempts to break into the theatre industry can often come up against a financial barrier, so the programme is completely free, and these talented individuals are not forced down a different career path. Indeed the course sounds like a fantastic entry-level opportunity; according to their website

90% of their previous participants have gone on to secure employment with UK theatres and 5% have set up their own theatre companies.

For Sian the course has been an excellent way to try out a range of different theatre-related professions. She has been meeting up with her fellow young directors twice a week since October for training sessions at the Albany and at Regent’s University London. “Each week an industry professional comes in who specialises in a certain field in theatre. We have worked with casting directors, choreographers, directors and designers.” She tells us that “One of the many brilliant sessions was working with Greg Eldridge, a director at the Royal Opera House.”

The young directors have been learn-

LUCY OLIVER

by a punchy, fast-paced, often quite bizarre, sequence of scenes. We are swept along with the madness, never lingering long on any one style or train of thought, or worse, the recollection of the disease just outside the door.

Comba and Ibrahim seem to have really captured in this way the awkward proximity of comedy and death to great farcical effect, drawing on the pressing claustrophobia of the national situation to enhance the claustrophobic effect of bad stand-up comedy, set to be brilliantly executed

by Daisy Buzzoni.

The tight-knit cast of four promises to exhibit an ambitious range of contrasting styles, adding song and dance into the mix as well, demonstrating the comic effectiveness of smaller casts and collaboratively devised humour. In rehearsal they appear as a highly slick ensemble already, suggesting an even better show to come. Complete with a hilarious musical scene, as well as talking heads, this catastrophic dystopia looks set to become a comic utopia for audiences.

As the characters beseech us to “catch them before they cough”, you really should catch this play while you can.

A roaring success?

Worcester College

W

elcome to a night at your local pub, or rather community centre, or well, actually a pandemic quarantine…

Great Britain has been beset by a vicious outbreak of disease from which we take refuge in Camberwell’s local, with only the increasingly strained attempts of a nervy landlady to distract our attention from the exterior bacterial onslaught threatening to burst the equally bizarre bubble of the George and Dragon pub.

Co-written by the director, Sami Ibrahim, and producer, Michael Comba, The George and Dragon is an exciting piece of new writing, bringing a nightmarish dystopia of farcical proportions to the Burton Taylor in 4th week.

Originally conceived as a series of sketches, the play is set to showcase a mix of many different dramatic genres, chaotically thrown together, including musical, stand-up, crude farce, silent movie and more, promising some hilariously absurd transitions. The play very much experiments with different types of storytelling in this way, structured

HARRIET FRY Somerville College ing about producing events and advertising them to others. They have clearly been successful in this respect as the group have reached their fundraising goal on IdeasTap’s Accelerator, a fundraising website for creative careers.

The play Sian is directing will be part of a festival held at the Albany where each of the 12 programme participants will showcase the skills they have gained during this course. On directing her own show Sian is understandably excited if nervous as her play, Collected Stories by Donald Margulies, will be the last to run at the festival. Oxford has a very active drama scene so I was surprised to hear that this is her first time directing a play. “I had seen so much theatre in Oxford and in London that I started to feel like I’d love to try it out myself.”

She is former-audience member with a critical eye. Having studied English at Somerville, Sian says that her degree has helped her to really engage with texts and characters. After years of studying literature she feels she has gained a greater “insight into tone and character development.”

The StoneCrabs Young Directors programme sounds like an excellent way to develop ideas and talent: “there is a nurturing sense in the course. They want you to experiment with everything you want to achieve and encourage you in your development, not only as a director, but also as an individual.”

The Gobstoppers StoneCrabs Young Directors festival runs from the 18th – 21st February at the Albany in London, Deptford. Produced by twelve new directors, it promises to be a delicious blend of one-act offerings. 12 plays from the classic to the surreal, exploring the different possibilities of life.

PITCHING A CAPELLA T

he sweeping fame of all male a capella group, Out of the Blue, who were recently retweeted

by Shakira, has put Oxford a capella on the map. With multiple groups around the university, there is something to cater to everyone’s tastes. In The Pink are the female counterparts of Out of the Blue, and along with the all-female group The Oxford Belles and the mixed group The Alternotives, they cover a range of music, from classic favourites to contemporary chart hits. ‘The Oxford Gargoyles’ are another a capella group who offer a jazz alternative to this.

Talking to the musical director of In the Pink, Amelia, and their president, Emily, we learn how to get involved in the a capella world of Oxford. Most auditions take place at the beginning of the academic year, but keep an eye out for auditions happening during the year, and don’t be afraid to email the groups to ask if they might have further spaces.

In general, Emily encourages budding acapella enthusiasts to “just go for it. A lot of people worry about sight-reading and are too scared to audition, but this is something you can definitely learn and work on.”

For those who are less well versed in a capella, the group’s website and YouTube channel is a great way to see what they do and whether you would like to be involved.

Of course it is important not to forget that “a capella can be hard work”, as Amelia adds. As Anna Kendrick conducts people in Pitch Perfect harmony on their first try, it

Plenty of emotion PAIGE TORTORELLI

Mansfield College

PHOTO/Plenty Publicity

Plenty

19:00 - 4th Week O’Reilly Theatre

PHOTO/The George and Dragon Publicity

The George and Dragon 19:30 - 4th Week Burton Taylor Studio

is easy to think that every rehearsal will be just that easy. Though ‘In The Pink’ doesn’t involve any horizontal running cardio sessions, there is a lot of music to learn, alongside new choreography and nuanced harmonies.

Ultimately though, ‘In The Pink’ is all about having fun and enjoying yourself, and with a great social side to it; “We have made some of our best friends in the group,” both girls say.

“We use a variety of different techniques to learn new music”, says Emily, from learning music by ear, to sight-reading new music. The group use arrangements written by others, as well as ones written by their own members. “Recently we have been focusing on jamming together to create new arrangements,” adds Amelia, so that all the members work together, listening to what sounds best and creating the arrangement themselves as they rehearse.

Rehearsals occur twice a week, as well as numerous gigs over the course of term, including balls, charity gigs, and weddings. The group also offers the chance to go to the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival to perform their own show.

They recall a favourite gig in which they were asked to sing the Pitch Perfect mashup of ‘Just the Way You Are’ and ‘Just a Dream’, as the bride, just married, turned down the aisle arm in arm with her new husband, who arranged the performance as a surprise for her. It seems, then, that a capella offers the perfect chance to sing and dance with amazing performance opporutnities thrown in too!ion and

“I

would stop, I would stop, I would stop fucking talking if I ever heard anyone else say anything worth fucking stopping talking for” – Susan Traherne’s hysteric outbreaks reverberate throughout David Hare’s Plenty.

A former Special Operations Executive courier during World War II, Susan’s words encompass the uneasiness of a woman whose promising past proves a stark contrast to her mundane present. While this predicament causes Susan to descend into an abyss of instability and neuroticism, her character retains its enticing, witty, and slightly perverse charms.The play hightlights the poignant transition into a life without obvious meaning or purpose.

Despite being set in the post-war era, the play will be a far cry from a history lesson. Nor is it a traditional narrative, however. Plenty is set in a realm of disillusionment and destruction, with Susan’s story spanning almost two decades, pieced together through an achronological sequence of scenes.

Director Luke Howarth’s ability to transcend the play’s disjointed time

sequence is a small feat in comparison to his ability to create such a thoughtprovoking performance.

The play’s intense realism and believability is undoubtedly what will make it most enticing. It would, however, be impossible to achieve such an effect were it not for the outstanding performance of the actors.

Susan, played by Gráinne O’Mahony, is at the play’s centre, yet the other characters promise equally engaging performances. Every member of the cast and crew has appeared in numerous productions; however, more notable than their long list of credentials is their intense commitment to this production.

Their effort is apparent in the playful interactions between Susan and her friend Alice Park, played by Aoife Cantrill, as well as in the manner in which Susan’s husband, played by Andrew Dickinson, tolerates his wife’s unapologetic remarks.

The production will rely on its actors’ ability to render the sentiments of post-war disillusionment, but it is not entirely without spectacle: gunshots, parachutes, and nudity will all feature.

But, most of all, there is a perfected emotion that overshadows these effects and gives the play a poignancy that is extremely difficult to achieve, but will be brilliant to watch.

5th February 2015

PROFILE

Profile 13

PHOTO/ROGER ASKEW

Amma Asante: "I'm an Austenite to the core"

WILLIAM SHAW Corpus Christi College

mma Asante is a rising star.

She made her first feature in 2004, and was behind last year's critically acclaimed period drama Belle.

Asante took the time to talk to us about Belle's success, and we began by discussing how audiences have received the film.

"We've just been getting really great responses," she says. "Quite emotional responses, I have to say. It's a movie that's definitely crossed over into a lot of different demographics, in a way that lots of costume dramas sometimes aren't expected to."

The film is based on the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed-race woman raised by the Murray family in the late eighteenth century as a free gentlewoman, and the film's central image is that of the famous painting of Belle with her cousin Elizabeth. What attracted Asante to this story?

"I'm somebody who's greatly inspired by all forms of art, and what I found really interesting about this painting

Speaking of the industry's future, the conversation turns to Asante's next project, Unforgettable. "It's a double female lead, and on the surface, it's kind of similar [to her previous films] in its exploration of identity, particularly female identity. It examines a first wife coming to terms with her ex-husband marrying his second wife, and the idea of what happens when you're no longer a Mrs any more, but you've put your whole identity into the concept of marriage. What happens when you feel like you're walking in the shadow of somebody else? And it also looks at the second wife. How do you explore your own identity within that context? But it's an entertaining, rip-roaring thriller."

Belle was an incredible film, marking the arrival of a major new talent in global cinema. If Unforgettable turns out half as good, we're in for a treat, as well as the continued flourishing of one of the most engaging film-makers working today.

A

was that it inspired me to want to know more. It was an unusual painting, of a woman of colour standing next to her white counterpart, where she is painted as an equal. It was very unusual for its time. There's a lot of mystery to her; you wonder who she is, why she's dressed the way she is. But really most importantly it inspired the question of who commissioned the painting?

Somebody would have asked for it. I wanted to know who that person was, and of course now we know it was Lord Mansfield, and that person interested me a great deal, or at least as much as Dido, because I wanted to know why he would do something so unusual for that period. I saw that mixture of art and politics and history all rolled into this one painting, and thought 'Wow, that could be fascinating [as a film]'."

The film also plays with the genre conventions of the Austen-style romance. "I'm a costume drama fiend, I have to say. I'm an Austenite to the very core. And though I love the genre,

one of the things I was always interested in, and possibly a little bit frustrated about, was the idea that while there was this wonderful genteel world going on within Austen, we never had the opportunity to see the other world that was informing this society, the platform this world was laid on: the world

"I think the film industry has a long way to go in terms of diversity"

of slavery. I thought, 'How can I do a costume drama without ever showing that?' And this painting did, of course.

It allowed me to bring these two things together, and tell my story according to my own principles. I wanted all of the traditional cultural elements that you would normally have, but I also wanted to add that extra edge. Hopefully you actually feel the impact of the slave

trade in the film."

Asante has extensive experience in the film industry, which is of course still dominated by white men, exemplified by the most recent Oscar nominations.

"The awards reflect the industry they're rewarding - you're always talking about a very small elite of any demographic within the industry as a whole. I think the industry's got a long way to go, in terms of all kinds of diversity. Audiences have got a part to play in that as well, I don't just think it's Hollywood's problem. It's a holistic problem; we tend to support movies, as an audience, that tell stories about [white] men.

"We need more diversity in the types of stories we tell, and in the end, studios want to make the stories that audiences are going to allow to make money. Ultimately, the people who will benefit from that [increased diversity] are the audiences. At some point you're going to want diversity to bring new blood into the cinema, and I think that ups everybody's game."

They told us to pay £9,000 F EES

r-to-vote www.gov.uk/registe

by Registering to Vote (If you haven’t registered online since June 2014, you won’t be registered).

Find out why the vote is changing

www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

5th February 2015

OXSTUFF

OxStuff 15

COME DINE WITH ME: ST PETER'S THEME

DRINKS

St Peter's LGBTQ* BOP went for the title 'Glitter'. I loved the idea of a glitter BOP - it's a simple enough theme to warrant costumes and effort from everyone, yet there's definitely scope for creativity. Glitter lets anyone look good.

The night started with a Happy HalfHour, and it was nice to see attendees stockpile the drink and make the most of this limited offer. After promising myself I wouldn't drink, I found myself sipping on the college's staple: the St Peter's Cross Keys. It's strong - a good few shots inhabit the plastic pint glass, before soda walker and mango juice join forces and create a fantastic blend.

I love mango juice. Now I love mango juice and vodka.

9/10

VENUE 5/10

It took me a while to get my head around the BOP's venue - although technically the JCR, the boppers spent a large amount of time in the college bar. This was confusing - was it a BOP, or a particularly rowdy evening? Once the drink kicked in and people began to migrate to the JCR, however, the venue filled up nicely, although the JCR furniture did crowd things a little.

Music for Madagascar 7th Feb 4pm Jacqueline du pre Music building

Jam Unplugged 6th Feb 7.30pm East Oxford Community Centre

Skylarkin' Soundsystem 6th Feb, 10pm Cellar

8/10

VIBE 6/10

Upon examination of my intoxicated texts and tweets, I was obviously baffled by the BOP and its progress. Although the bar did a roaring trade, the boppers were split, and the JCR itself wasn't very busy until quite late on,

West Side Story 4th - 7th Feb Oxford Playhouse

which made the first hour or two a bit stilted. Once the second set of the night salvaged the dance floor with some incredible pop classics, I noticed that there was suddenly a large number of topless guys, who took it in turns to crowdsurf. I have no idea why, and I still can't figure it out.

COSTUMES 5/10

With a theme as bold as 'glitter', I hoped there would be more people absolutely doused in the stuff. Glitter made a beautiful make-up addition, but I'd have preferred a Twilight-esque sparkle from everyone.

TOTAL SCORE FOR ST PETER'S: 33/50

International Art Fair 2015 6th-8th Feb Oxford Town Hall

PHOTO/Nasim Asl

Karim Miske 'Arab Jazz' 9th Feb Blackwell's

PICK OF THE WEEK Rae Morris 8th Feb, doors 7pm O2 Academy

Paris Climate Talks 5th Feb, 7pm OxfordTown Hall

Why Wittgenstein Matters 11th Feb, 6pm Ashmolean Museum

Jeeves and Wooster 10th-14th Feb Oxford Playhouse

Alexander Darby, New College

The George and Dragon 10th-14th Feb BT Studio

Simon Amstell 7th Feb Oxford Union

16 OxStuff

CLITERARY THEORY PHOTO/Flickr user Piers Nye PHOTO/RobertoWeedenSanz

It wasn’t long after quitting the prospective 2016 presidential race in the US that Mitt turned his gaze to a more desirable goal: meeting the soon-to-be Union President Roberto Weeden-Sanz. Mitt may have given up on realising The American Dream, but at least he’s managed to achieve his personal dream in meeting this gem of student politics. It’s touching to see such minute emulation of Mitt’s idol in his hair, suit, and pristine smile (and skin?). Running unopposed for the position as he did, it’s a blessing Bertie didn’t follow Romney’s lead in resigning before the election.

MITT ROMNEY

ALYS ‘KEY’ Is Alys’s BNOC masterplan finally coming to fruition? This week has seen her making a paper speech at the Union, presenting an award at the OUSU awards ceremony, and editing the OxStu for an issue all by herself – is she a Key figure, or just too Ke(y)en? An ill-advised comment freely given to a bold Cherwell reporter and liberal use of Tinder to interrogate those who haven’t liked the OxStu Facebook page suggest she holds all the keys but doesn’t know how to wield them. BigWig-wannabes should keep things low-key (not a reference to her height), even if they do have extremely punworthy names.

PHOTO/ Roger Askew

MONA LOTT Sextion Editor

I

’m going out and I’m facing the eternal question.

I’m wearing a tight, seemy-underwear-when-I-bendover dress, and, as I twizzle and twirl in front of my tiny mirror, I realise that it is time to choose my underwear.

Many of you will remember the infamous ‘pants’ scene from Bridget Jones, in which she so eloquently captured the struggle that confronts many of us before we take our steps into the sweaty unknown.

Of course, she said, when you reach the climax of your evening (or at least you find yourself with someone who is going to endeavour to bring it about) you would, without question, choose to be wearing your sexiest, silkiest and laciest undergarments.

They may even vaguely mach your bra, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves; there are only a limited number of combinations of sexy underwear one can find in a drawer full of multicoloured, cotton briefs.

However, as Bridget so wisely points out, the chances of reaching said pre-climactic state are greatly, and I do mean greatly, increased by wearing what she famously calls “scary, stomach holding in pants, very popular with grannies the word over”.

Much like a friend with benefits, these pants may not be pretty, but they’re there when we need them and they deliver sex when present almost without fail. And after all, it is impossible to deny the benefits of any item of clothing that brings you even one step closer to looking and feeling like Jessica Rabbit.

So here I stand, adrift in a sea of uncertainty, my hopes and prediction all muddling into an overwhelming mass of confusion. Do I bet on my natural charms being enough to get me a suitable companion, no matter how little I resemble Jessica Rabbit? Or do I go in guns blazing, and assume that once clothes are

being hastily torn off, my choice of underwear will no longer be of importance to either party?

In the end, I settle on some rather minimal black silk knickers, and hope that my charms, wit and breasts will work enough in my favour. I decide that, since a night on the town is one of the times I can actually plan what underwear I’ll be wearing when it is to be viewed by someone other than the friend I got ready with, I should take the opportunity to look my absolute best undressed. Just think how proud Gok Wan would be.

This is a lesson I think many, including myself, have learned from experience of various unexpected encounters.

There’s no denying that some out of the blue sex (not necessarily even with a member of Out of the Blue) is something to celebrate. It’s certainly not often in my life that my day is brightened by the sudden presence of a man in my bed and a lack of clothes on my body. However, on the rare occasion that I have welcomed such a surprise encounter, I have found that the one (and probably only) disadvantage has been a lack of preparation.

Being found to be wearing green pants with Shaun the Sheep on them was not my finest moment. Although it still led to some great, and let’s face it, pretty comedic sex, I couldn’t help but wish that I had donned some less disturbing bedroom attire.

Come to think of it, Snoopy has also made an appearance in the sex life of my underwear drawer… Now, I know what you’re thinking. If I don’t want to accidentally be in cartoon underwear when a dashing man appears at my door, why don’t I just stop buying cartoon underwear?

It’s not a bad question; it could solve all of my problems. But then, what would life be without a depiction of Mickey Mouse shouting ‘OH BOY!’ on my bum? And more importantly, is it just me, or do those ones actually sound a bit sexual now?

5th February 2015

ONE TO WATCH

PHOTO/SAIRAH REES

SAIRAH REES

W

hen it comes to Charity fundraising most of us have done something worthwhile and probably slightly humiliating, from the moustachioed heroes of Somerville who spent a month wearing fake moustaches for Movember, to a certain alumnus of this paper who barely managed to make it to Beaconsfield services after raising less than £10 for Jailbreak.

However, Sairah Rees, St Anne’s student and fearsome warriorqueen of the Oxford Dodgeball Society, is planning to go above and beyond the call of duty. At the beginning of 5th week Sairah will shave off every follicle of her waistlength hair for Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension UK, a chronically underfunded condition, and Cancer Research UK. Not only is Sairah raising money for two incredible charities; she’s also providing a real life Samson effect for those who need it the most by providing her selflessly severed locks to the Little Princess Trust, who make real hair wigs for children who have lost theirs due to cancer treatment.

In shaving her head in solidarity with cancer and IIH suffers, who often have their heads shaved for treatment, the St Anne’s Charity Rep looks set to raise a huge amount of money for a couple of amazing causes, all while looking more badass than Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta. Which is an achievement made all the more impressive given the fact that St Anne’s isn’t even part of the University of Oxford.

Still, we’re sure you’d all like to join us in pledging your support for our friend from Brookes Summertown campus, and you can donate through Sairah’s Justgiving account.

OxStuff 17

5th February 2015

CROSSWORD

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PHOTO/Rosie Shennan

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Puzzles by Chuckles

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I

nternships. Love them or hate them, they are the supposed Holy Grail of any student’s life. They are the pathway to that semi-mystical thing known only as ‘experience’, and perhaps that even more fleeting possibility, ‘employment’ and ‘paying off the loan I took out in order to sabotage my liver’. In return for delicious, ohso-important CV points, we give employers our time, energy, and brain power. In the immortal words of Philip J. Fry, “You know what the worst thing about being a slave is? They make you work all day but they don’t pay you or let you go.” I’m pretty sure he just pronounced intern wrong.

Back in secondary school, I alwys thought there was a certain charm to ‘work experience’. It was the ‘world of work’s’ equivalent of dressing-up in your parents’ clothes, and pretending to be a real adult. At worst, you were going to be making coffee for what – a week, a fortnight? At best, you got to live out your fantasy of being a journo/doctor/investment banker without the danger of actually having responsibility, being shouted at, or losing your job (if you genuinely had a dream of being an investment banker before you even left school, I despair for you.)

Now, though, work experience is just a halcyon memory. “You’re an adult now!”, the employers say.

“You should be fine with half a day of orientation, where I point out that setting fire to the workplace is bad. Half of the time for questions will be squandered on the lunch break.” But when you ask them to cough up some dough for services rendered, there’s just some awkward throat-clearing and eyerolling. “You’re just a student, go scrounge off your parents! Look at all the experience we’ve given you!” they say, glaring at you as if you were a dead rat in their salad.

Great, thanks. I did the work you normally pay people for, without getting paid. Sorry, no, I forgot – I got ‘paid’ in experience. Experience, unless its meaning has radically changed since I last checked, can’t be taken to the bank (you can try, but they’ll probably stare at you blankly until you leave). It’s also not a guarantee of a job, no matter how they phrase it. They dangle it above you like a juicy carrot – and then, when you bite in, you find it’s just filled with canker.

Meanwhile, Tarquin and Esmerel-

will have begun to change from ‘working to get paid’ to ‘paying to get work’. Employers will keep up the illusion of ‘paid jobs’ existing somewhere in the distant future, but they’d always be out of reach.

“You’ve nearly got enough experience!” they say, patting your back with one hand, rummaging in your pocket with the other. “Just pay a bit more, and you’ll be hirable for real jobs!”

That day will never come.

Eventually, no-one will even know that jobs used to pay you money. We’ll all just while away our time, watching our bosses buy another goldplated humvee or a solid diamond jet, as the weight of debt on our backs bends our spines out of shape. “We can’t afford to pay you, we’d go bankrupt!” they’ll say, jet-skiing on the back of a cloned Liopleuredon in a sea made of £100 notes.

I don’t want to be alarmist, but do you know who first came up with a scheme to pay workers in feel-good points? Che Guevera. And look at how well he turned out. Next thing you know, our belongings are being distributed to the Inner Circle in return for references; our property given over to monolithic corporations so we can get just one Endorsement on LinkedIn for a skill as banal as ‘Word Processing’.

The future, in short, isn’t bright.

It’s grey, and quite dark, and a bit cold, and quite disappointing (like a day at Southend, really.) There’s going to be more and more of us attempting to climb a rather thin greasy pole, with employers adding liberal lashing of lard every few minutes. The younger and lighter will clamber atop of us, and the only consolation is that one day, they too will end up old(er), disillusioned, and with CVs full of empty references. But hey, you never know - there might just be space for a coffee courier.

Experience, unless its meaning has radically changed since I last checked, can’t be taken to the bank da, whose god father just happens to be Number 2 in Lloyds, are munching on a rarebit with carrot chutney.

Plus, it’s not like you’re even breaking even. Unless you intend to live inside your workplace and eat the scraps co-workers are kind enough to throw away, you’ve literally lost money for some experience. All well and good if mum and dad are willing to spot you the cash, but not great for the rest of us.

Yet the ever-creative employers have found another way to not only rub salt in your wounds but to stick you with rusty nails, just because they can. They are now actually charging us for the pleasure of working for them. Imagine that – for the small sum of SEVERAL THOUSAND POUNDS, you too could work for the HuffPo or Christie’s! Imagine if ‘real workers’ were told that rather than making money, they were going to be handing it over to their employers.

There’d be rioting and looting and boss’ heads on spikes.

But wait - what if this is really just the secret plan for the future?

In a few generations, the whole idea of what a job really means

19

20

ACROSS 1. Scoop out sloppy jam: a solution commonly employed at night-time (7) 4. May contain wayward nuts (3) 6. Strange-ly, Seuss book actually written by 2 (7) 8. A certain variety of mollusc, mixing up Left and Right, decides to study intensively (5) 9. Savour(y)? (6) 10. Ancient god discovered as source of dinosaurs, bizarrely (4) 12, 20. Gin-addled fan was in keen novel by 2 (9, 4) 14. Eat creatively – something that goes with jam and bread (3) 15. Name large ships after collection of short stories by 2 (8) 17. Producers of bullshit often change direction (5) 18. A small idea could often be found in the many old pubs of Oxford (7) 19. A supporter of women around the world at the head of Her Majesty’s Service used to write symphonies (6) 20. See 12.

DOWN 1. Backwards wig with front shaved off is a well-used sexy look amongst fashion models (4) 2. Ecstatic feeling before Common Era is the subject of a celebrated novel by 2 (5) 3. Catholic service I have shortly contains substantial substance (7) 5. The ‘24 hours’ life! A device exemplified by 6 and used by many writers throughout history (1,3,2,3,4) 7. Flip end of page upside-down for a short representation of a distinctively English sound (5) 8. Item of cutlery, part of a pair favoured by beginner pianists (9) 11. Kind of food, e.g. Haggis, eases feelings of discomfort, if well cooked (8) 12. Devoted supporters used to be able to keep cool (4) 13. Never before seen by the feminine French: an insubstantial work of prose (7) 15. Heads of the orthodox Jewish community often support extended versions of this b-side (4) 16. A wee drink of whisky around the start of evening is a convincing imitation of a real night-time experience that doesn’t require you to get out of bed (5)

Last week’s solutions

2 9 3 7 4 1 5 8 6

7 4 6 5 3 8 2 1 9

8 5 1 9 2 6 4 3 7

3 2 8 6 1 7 9 5 4

9 6 4 3 8 5 7 2 1

5 1 7 4 9 2 8 6 3

6 8 2 1 7 4 3 9 5

1 7 9 2 5 3 6 4 8

4 3 5 8 6 9 1 7 2

Chess Solution: 1. Ne6+ Bxb8 2. Rc8#

How do I appeal a disiplinary decision?

:( We are here when you need us!

:) Free, confidential and independent advice from people that care STUDENT

ADVICE SERVICE

01865 288 466 advice@ousu.ox.ac.uk www.ousu.org/advice

5nd February 2014

FEATURES

Features 19

PHOTO/ ROMAIN REGLADE

The Legend of Zelda at TEDx Oxford

O

n Sunday the 18th, the TEDx Oxford Conference returned for the fourth time. The conference is an independently organised branch of the world-famous TED program, and has been rising in popularity since its launch in 2011, with a record 1,800 people in the audience this year. This has made it increasingly attractive for speakers; for the first time, TEDx Oxford was able to bring in speakers from abroad, which resulted in an exceptionally diverse line-up.

One of the most highly anticipated speakers was Zelda la Grange. The former private secretary to Nelson Mandela was one of the international speakers, and had been flown in from South Africa for the event.

Walking on stage, she began with a light-hearted preface apologising for her accent. It was immediately clear, however, that she need not have worried. The entire audience sat enraptured as she delved into stories of her personal experiences work-

ing alongside the late South African president.

La Grange was a junior typist in Mandela’s private offices when they first met. Having grown up in apartheid’s “white bubble,” she had not known what to expect of the man.

She was astonished when he held out his hand and greeted her in Afrikaans – so astonished, in fact, that she burst into tears. Ashamed at her own ignorance, she had then determined to learn as much as she could about the reality of South Africa. This was the beginning of her life as Mandela’s “honorary granddaughter.”

She would, however, learn much more than the history of her country.

Mandela was also to be, in a sense, her life coach. From the most mundane of situations, such as being scolded for not being on time, to the most surreal – she was once made to act as a witness to an informal criminal trial for a shampoo bottle that had gone missing from Mandela’s hotel room – her experiences by his side instilled in her

a strong sense of discipline, integrity, and respect. Considering the depth to which these experiences affected La Grange as a person, perhaps it was to be expected that their stories would resound with the audience on such an emotional level.

This was the beginning of her life as Mandela’s “honorary granddaughter."

Other speakers included Simone Barillari, Armand Leroi and William Latham, who discussed the crossroads of technology and culture, sharing their respective works on collective intelligence, the evolution of music, and computer art. Another popular theme was inspiring change. Sama Dizayee, reflecting on her experience as a journalist, spoke on the importance of social media as a tool for

uniting movements. Kristina Murrin, former Director of Implementation at No 10 Downing Sreet, focused on our inability to see problems that are right in front of us, while Fred Branson, co-director of Amantani UK, raised the importance of finding alternatives to the pity tactics in charity.

Ocean engineer Grace Young spoke of the importance of further undersea exploration, while theoretical physicist Steve Simon delivered a complicated yet enlightening discussion on quantum knots. Alan Watkins, an expert on leadership and human performance, gave what one audience member described as an “invaluable” speech on finding mastery over our emotions.

There were some voices of disappointment among the audience, notably about the screening of videos of older TED talks. “I'm sure many people felt cheated in the sense that they paid money to get here but are now being shown videos which can be easily accessed for free,” said a stu-

YUKI NUMATA St Edmund Hall dent. In response, Campbell appealed for understanding, as the TEDx rules state that “one quarter of the talks must be TED videos.”

Overall, however, the conference was met with a positive response, with particular praise for the diversity of the lineup, both in terms of nationality and professional background.

“I thought the speakers list was fantastic,” said one attendant. “I would definitely go again.”

The successful choice of the speaker lineup can be attributed to the members of the TEDx Oxford 2015 committee, who came up with suggestions of potential candidates, then sent out personalized invitations to each of them.

For those who missed out on this year’s event, or wishing for more of the talks, it has been confirmed that TEDx Oxford will be holding another conference next year. The videos from this year’s conference will be available on the TEDx Oxford website within a few weeks.

20 Features

5th February 2015

How to beat that all night essay

WILLIAM SHAW Corpus Christi College

I

t is a mark of the melodramatic streak running through all Oxford students that when we say ‘essay crisis’, what we really mean is ‘essay’.

I personally go through at least three essay crises a week, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to stop acting like it’s the end of the world every time.

And really, why shouldn’t we allow ourselves to be a little over the top about deadlines? By deliberately referring to ‘crises’ when we know we really mean fairly routine academic work, we acknowledge the absurdity of such things. Of course it’s ridiculous for us to treat the task of knocking out 2,000 words in an evening like some sort of Herculean challenge, but by humorously exaggerating it we can keep things in perspective, and gain a greater sense of achievement when, at last, the work is done. We’re students – if we weren’t grossly overstating the amount of work we had, we wouldn’t be doing it properly.

All of that said, however, it can be difficult to keep the charming idiosyncrasies of student speech patterns in mind when it’s three in the morning and you’re trailing by 500 words and you simply cannot think of anything more to say on the subject of ‘The Semiotic and the Supernatural in the early works of Joseph Conrad’. The haze of panic, self-loathing, and the Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies becomes thicker and more impenetrable, and desperation takes hold – a vacuum in the pit of your stomach, and the crushing, horrible knowledge that you need to offer up your tribute to the academic gods in five hours time. You don’t need me to tell you that’s distressing. With that in mind, I offer my own tips on how to get through an essay crisis with your sanity intact (ish).

Firstly, the obvious advice: Don’t panic. I know it can be hard, but you’re really not going to get anything done by running around like an incredibly academically advanced chicken. Just sit down, take a few deep breaths, keep calm and get to work – if you

PHOTO/ musesyndrome_

don’t feel able to continue working on the essay, get out some notepaper and brainstorm. Play around with your ideas and see which ones stand up in the cold electric light of late evening.

When you feel you’ve worked through whatever’s holding you up, then get back to work.

Dealing with an essay crisis inevitably means that one must battle with personal fatigue – that feeling of filth accumulating behind your eyeballs as you stare at a screen or at your textbooks until the small hours. Fortunately, clever scientists have long since devised a solution to

this problem: sweet, sweet caffeine. I have met a number of people in my student life who say they don’t drink coffee, and I am always flabbergasted when they tell me this. I simply cannot fathom how one can survive student life without it. Coffee is like a magic potion – as Terry Pratchett says, it is “a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to your older self”. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. So if you are facing down a long night’s work, pour yourself a generous measure of the hot brown essay juice (as I like to call it); the cheaper and nastier the better, I find.

Studies have even shown that it can improve your memory, which is just one of the many useful facts my own caffeine addiction has allowed me to store, along with the names of every member of the Spice Girls and the birthday of William Shakespeare. As for those who say they don’t like the taste, I refer you to the wisdom of Brian Andreas: “I don’t really like coffee... but I don’t really like it when my head hits my desk when I fall asleep either. ” And anyway, there’s always milk and sugar (or artificial sweetener if you’re feeling healthconscious).

Distant Voice: a year in Le Havre

A

fter two years of studying French and Spanish, the time had come to start planning my year abroad. I applied to teach English for the British Council in the Academy of Rouen. By and by, I learned that I’d successfully made it onto the program and had been posted to Le Havre.

However, following my initial relief that I was moving to a respectably sized town and not a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, I heard conflicting accounts of the place: most people just grimaced. Being one of the country’s biggest ferry ports, many people I knew had driven through the town and described it as being uniformly grey and grim. Yet at the same time, tourist guides assured me that the city was in fact a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When I looked online, I started to wonder if UNESCO ever awarded heritage status out of pity; I

spent about 20 minutes trying to adjust the contrast on my computer screen before finally accepting that the city was actually that grey.

It wasn’t particularly exotic or farflung, the nearest big city after Rouen being Portsmouth, but this did mean I was able to take a ferry directly into the town. The distance is not too far, but the night crossing is deliberately slowed to eight hours so passengers can arrive well-rested and refreshed at eight in the morning, French time.

Anybody who has ever taken the ferry will know that this is a kind but ultimately futile gesture. Still, things started to look up in the morning when, sleepless and exhausted, I watched the town appear before me and realised that UNESCO aren’t bleeding hearts after all. It was true that as far as the eye could see the buildings were all concrete, square and austere. But

somehow, instead of looking like the Eastern-bloc housing complexes I had been expecting – or worse, Coventry – they caught the morning sun, and gave off a strange golden glow. The place looked as if it was made of Lego, but in a good way – everything seemed to fit together perfectly. I could see why some would write it off as an eyesore, especially in poor weather, but in the late September light it had a sombre charm.

I was looking at the downtown Perret quarter, named after the architect Auguste Perret who rebuilt this city in his own unique style after it was razed to the ground in the Second World War. I had read that this had happened, but it was not until a few days after my arrival that I learned that it was ‘us’ who did it – something for which many older generations in Le Havre still resent the British. I

discovered this when I was told the history of the town by a teacher from the school where I would be working, who was helping me open a bank account in the town centre.

She told me the town fell to German forces early in the war and, although they held a presence here, it was in no way significant enough to justify the extent of the Allies’ bombing campaign. According to him, the destruction was financially motivated; although they were our allies in the war, outside of it France were our main economic rivals. Le Havre, being one of their busiest and most lucrative ports, was where the British went to town. As we waited for our appointment in the bank, he soberly remarked that the destruction was so extensive that from the train station, you could see all the way to the beach.

He then looked at me expectantly to

It’s also important to remember that you are not the only one struggling to meet the deadline. I find it helpful to keep in touch with my fellow students as I write – the odd text message or Facebook chat to whinge about a shoddy textbook or make jokes at a historical figure’s expense is a huge outlet for all that pressure, as well as mutually encouraging. Keeping in touch with your mates as you all struggle to hack out a coherent argument before sunrise can be a huge weight off, as well as helping to keep things in perspective. You are not alone.

BILL WEBB

St Edmund Hall gauge my response to this fact. But, as I had no idea where either of these two things were, I wasn’t sure how I should react. I didn’t want to underplay it and seem cold, but equally I didn’t want to ham it – for all I knew the two places might be right next to one another and the bombs just knocked out a few beach huts blocking the view. In the end I opted for a look I hoped came across as ‘vaguely startled’. Luckily this seemed to do the trick. (I now know the distance was over two kilometres, so vaguely startled doesn’t even scratch the surface.) Marcel also told me the new city was built directly on top of the rubble, two metres higher than the old one. He told me this shaking his head and we lapsed into silence. I didn’t know whether I should apologise or not.

It seemed like the British thing to do, so I did.

Features 21

5yh February 2015

Inside an Oxonian’s room A

Lincoln College

WILLIAM SHAW

a room’s unintentional ornaments.

These items range from the expected and banal, (the black sub fusc gown draped inelegantly over a desk chair and the fat exam regulations guide propping open a door) to the downright weird, such as that of my medic friend, who likes to keep a scalpel in her room to slice fruit. An Oxonian’s room is not much different to that of any student in university accommodation, but the likelihood of an Oxonian’s room to contain an excess of unfinished mugs of coffee and stacks of books seems to be somewhat higher. I know of people whose rooms contain signet rings, mint plants (apparently a must for tea lovers), and vintage crockery, whilst many like to keep remnants of old bop costumes on display as trophies. I have friends outside of Oxford who find the quantity of students owning CDs of classical music (Mozart’s Top 100 being a popular choice) confusing, whilst I myself, as an English student, never cease to be amused by the assortment of Old English sheets scattered across the floor of my own room, resembling runic manuscripts.

Distinctive bedrooms and peculiar trinkets are in no way exclusive to Oxford. However, it is fair to say that what with the intensity of eight week terms, combined with the gruelling nature of tutorials, rooms tend to oscillate between disciplined order and academic mayhem, which makes for an extraordinary sight to behold.

PHOTO/ Loch Fyne

PHOTO/Barbara Fister

n individual’s bedroom is typically an extension of their identity. Its ambience is a reflection of the atmosphere in which they thrive, while the level of tidiness often indicates their personality. It is fascinating to consider what material possessions are found in students’ rooms, and what classifies as ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal.’ Our rooms don’t just house personal belongings; they are a depository for the random detritus we accumulate as part of everyday life. At Oxford in particular, your room often functions as a refuge from the turbulence of tutorials, lectures, and study groups, as well as being a dumping ground for bizarre curios.

Not everyone likes to personalise their habitat of course; many barely decorate their rooms at all. This is understandable: it avoids clutter and lends the room a minimalistic chic.

Many of the rooms offered to students in Oxford already display plenty of character through their rather uncommon features, such as especially high ceilings, rustic fireplaces, or (if you’re lucky) a precious window seat. But of course, even a standard bedroom will mutate to mirror its owner’s personality. Playing with interior design and ornaments can act as a creative outlet.

Creating a university room that is both comfortable and personal takes patience and an eye for detail. Feng shui aside, a quirky room can be created with quirky items. I have seen an abundance of such objects, forming

Oxford etiquette

NAYRA ZAGHLOUL

THOUGHT FOR FOOD I

f someone were to tell me last week that with a trip just down Walton Street, I could be transported to the beautiful Scottish coast, I would have scarcely believed them. But since visiting Loch Fyne I know this to be true.

The laid-back decor and bracing smell of sea air create an ideal setting for the restaurant’s magnificent and fresh seafood.

Everything was utterly faultless.

The starters, tempura squid and lobster bisque, were divine. The

tempura was perfected by the sweet chilli jam that came with it. Far from the luminous orange sweet chilli sauces I have come to expect, this was dark and rich, adding a deep warming sensation to the squid with a hint of sweetness.

The bisque was also a hit, with peppery undertones complementing perfectly the subtle lobster flavours.

The accompanying granary bread was impeccable for polishing off the small pot of (exquisite) aioli.

We opted for the baked lob-

ster with garlic butter and chips – clearly the dominating feature of the menu. It was as simple as it sounds, but nothing more was needed than the flavour of the lobster. I devoured it, desperately picking it apart to find every last bit of meat. The seafood linguine was also divine. The sauce was moreish, with scallops soft as butter, clams full of tang and salty samphire cutting through the creamy texture to ensure that it was never too heavy.

It was all too good to be true,

and so we lowered our expectations for dessert. But the passionfruit cheesecake wowed us all over again. They didn’t scrimp on the biscuit base. It was punchy, fresh and palate-cleansing.

While a little pricey for everyday student dining, Loch Fyne frequently run deals (on Monday nights two à la carte meals get you a free cinema ticket), and so if you’re looking for somewhere to splash out, look no further. Loch Fyne?

More like ‘Loch Bloody-Fine!’

Corpus Christi College

T

he question of how one becomes a ‘Big Name on Campus’ (or BNOC, an initialism irritatingly reminiscent of a label for prescription medication) is always a fraught one, but especially so at Oxford, which, as part of its characteristic institutional excess, has not one campus but many. As such, it is only the most truly determined and ruthlessly efficient social climber who can safely claim to be a ‘big name’ on all of them. Oxford is a diffuse, multifaceted, maddeningly complexly-arranged establishment, and one would need a kind of superhuman sociability – or at least several clones and/or identical twins – to pull off the insane task of becoming a BN on every college C. Nevertheless, the fact that much of college life is dominated by certain charismatic figures within the student body is undeniable. Everyone has their own equivalents to that superhumanly friendly welfare officer, or that charming (if slightly odd) fellow who hangs around the library at three in the morning, always willing to lend a hand to those experiencing yet another essay crisis, or even that lovely young gentleman who sees it as his duty to provide free condoms to absolutely everyone, societal taboos be damned. They are the glue which holds together the overworked, overstressed, underappreciated mess that is student life. Without them, we would doubtless descend into a pool of over-educated bickering and soulcrushing ennui, and we are all extremely lucky to have them.

So, you may be wondering what the proper etiquette is when dealing with these BNOCs. At least, I hope you are, or it renders the Etiquette column somewhat redundant.

One must bear in mind that, despite their seemingly superior social status, they are ordinary students too, they deal with stress, deadlines, and unsatisfactory faculty canteens, the same as the rest of us, so one must be careful not to make unreasonable demands of them. Beyond that, simply engage with them on a human level as you would any other student, and you won’t go far wrong. Behind every Big Name On Campus, there are a thousand smaller names, just as important.

22 Sport

Somerville extend lead at the top of the table after a testing 3-2 victory A beautiful day up at the Somerville grounds on Friday saw two league heavyweights, Somerville and Hertford, battled it out in front of a capacity crowd of around ten people.

A questionable indirect freekick was awarded in the penalty area when Somerville’s stand-in goalkeeper handled a scuffed clearance, which was handily converted, giving Hertford an early lead. A beautiful strike from 20-yards and some more poor goalkeeping gave Hertford a 2-0 lead towards the end of the first half.

Remarkably, in the space of five minutes, Somerville were able to level the game before the half-time whistle, with smart finishes from Peter Johnstone and Sam Williams.

What can only be described as a cagey second half followed, but Somerville were able to finish off their opponents with a tidy finish to make it 3-2, allowing them to break away at the top of the division.

Oxford Women’s Boat Club eyes up a successful year 2015 will see the team race over the Championship Course on the Tideway for the very first time! Having returned from a highly productive two-week training camp in Italy the team will be racing two eights at Quintin Head for the first time this season. A brilliant opportunity for the team to see what kind of speed our boats are capable of. The squad is looking strong and are excited by what the next 11 weeks have in store.

Dancesport club have success in Birmingham OUDC had success in a competition in Birmingham, sending competitors from our Beginner Team and Main Team. Oxford dancers got some spectacular results including a first in Intermediate Ballroom from Peter Ondrúška and Irina Higgins and firsts in Beginners Waltz and Quickstep from Paul Schinninger and Anya Emmons, and the team coming fourth in the team match. The OxStu wishes luck to those competing at the Sheffield competition on 7th February.

The OxStu sports team wants you!

Want to see your club feature on our new University sports side-bar? We would love to hear from you. Please send in your brief team reports and news updates to oxstu.sport@gmail. com or get in touch with one of our esteemed editors David and Alex at david.barker@some.ox.ac.uk and alexandra.vryzakis@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk.

5th February 2015

Andy Murray: forever the bridesmaid?

• Yet another final defeat to one of tennis’ “Big Three” prompts tough questions for Scottish star It was a familiar sight at the Rod Laver arena on Sunday. A jubilant Novak Djokovic holding the Australian Open trophy aloft, while Andy Murray skulked in the background, the moment of his collapse replaying over and over in his mind.

The unfortunate reality for Murray is that Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Djokovic, who make up the so-called “Big Four” alongside Murray, are still way ahead of him in terms of both trophies and tennis. Djokovic’s win this Sunday was a masterclass in patience, precision and power, and in the end, the number one seed prevailed with ease against a frustrated and scowling Murray. Sadly this is the Murray that fans have come

ponent a moment’s relief. This loss only brought home how tough the tour is at the moment, which is why Murray must work harder, and at the very least learn to control his frustrations on the court.

In the early stages of Djokovic’s career, the Serb was often seen smashing rackets during matches, and getting into feisty debates on court. Recently though, he has abandoned this violent demeanour and begun to allow his tennis to do the talking for him, and has become a far better player for it. Murray would do well to follow Djokovic’s lead, because it seems that losing his temper and smashing rackets as he did during the final only serves to ruin his composure and in turn ruin his play.

After the defeat, Murray’s coach Amelie Mauresmo was keen to emphasise that the last two weeks have represented a big step in the right direction for the 6th seed,

to expect.

The match itself was a closely-fought contest for the most part, but during the third set, cracks began to appear in Murray’s game. Just moments before, both players were exchanging volleys and shots that would have made even the most seasoned professional purr in admiration.

Suddenly though, panic took ahold of Murray and refused to let go. His level dropped dramatically, and by the fourth set he was unable to hold serve even once.

Inevitably, Djokovic seized upon the weakness on show, dispatching of Murray with aplomb, barely allowing his op-

having slipped down the rankings after his surgery in September of 2013. Indeed, the tennis that he exhibited during the tournament was at times titillating, showing a maturity that is not often associated with the young Scot, which is why it is so hard to reconcile the tennis he has played with Sunday’s embarrassing collapse.

Some have pointed to the fact that Djokovic may have made a fuss of a minor injury so as to put Murray off of his game, but if it takes so little to derail the Scot’s concentration, he may have more problems than first thought. Composure is a big part of tennis, because

ALEXANDRA VRYZAKIS SPORTS EDITOR

Djokovic’s win this Sunday was a masterclass against a frustrated and scowling Murray

PHOTO/PA

unlike team sports, it requires a mental strength that can only be acquired by having absolute confidence in your own abilities. Whether Murray has the type of resilience that sets great players apart remains to be seen.

Murray may well be more mature than ever before, with a stronger serve and a better-suited coach, but he still has a long way to go if he wants to be seen as a genuine contender to topple the “Big Three”.

Dodgeball - Oxford’s most casual sport

• Dodgeball cuppers starting Saturday of 4th week is the perfect opportunity to start dodging ROBERT SNELL SPORTS WRITER

You’ve all seen the movie, you’ve all played it at primary school, so why not come down and take part in one of Oxford’s most relaxed sporting societies? With more potential than Raheem Sterling, more enjoyment than what law freshers experience during Trinity of first year, and more drama than an episode of Ex on the Beach, Oxford University Dodgeball Club is the perfect forum to let off some steam in a chilled out and friendly environment. Only ever as intense as you make it, dodgeball combines an element of competition with the chance to pelt friends and foes alike with yellow rubber balls on the field of dreams that is Iffley Road Sports Complex. Games played range from a standard dodgeball format to some fairly wacky variations, and the rules are dead simple. There are two teams of six people and the aim of the game is to throw the ball at a member of the opposing team to get them out. You can also get people out by catching a ball that they’ve thrown, and this also allows a member of your team to come back in. The

PHOTO/OUDC

game continues until every player on one side is out, leaving the other team with the victory and a hearty sense of achievement to boot. In contrast to Nigel Farage’s immigration policy, absolutely everyone is welcome, and it honestly doesn’t matter whether you’ve played so many times in PE that you consider yourself a seasoned pro, or if you’ve never picked up a dodgeball before. There are also opportunities to play in university-wide tournaments, with a special mention

to the upcoming Dodgeball Cuppers event that we’re running. More exciting than the Premier League relegation battle, more frenetic than Harry Redknapp on transfer deadline day, and more unpredictable than Simon Mignolet’s kicking, this really is the cuppers tournament that everyone dreams of winning (apart from croquet cuppers of course). 3 Saturdays. 4th week to 6th week.

5-7pm. Iffley Road. 3 weeks of glorious combat. We have never seen it’s

like before. And we will never see it again (we probably will). Form your teams of six warriors from your colleges (each college may enter as many teams as they like) and either e-mail us at oudodgeball@gmail.com or post on our Facebook group with your team details. Or just come along to the next session and tell us then.

We expect to see each and every one of you upon the field of battle. You can also join up as a member, and at £10 per year; the equivalent of five Balliol Blues or half a sock from Jack Wills, this really is a Diafra Sakho style investment, rather than a Roberto Soldado. Alternatively, many members just opt to turn up on a week-to-week basis and pay £1 for the privilege. Maybe not quite as good a use of a quid as a Jagerbomb from Lola Lo’s, but it runs it a very close second! The society also holds a variety of socials (last year we even watched the film) and it really is a great melting pot of various colleges, subjects and personalities. Whether you’ve got an arm like Tom Brady or pride yourself on having the least amount of physical co-ordination possible, come and give dodgeball a try.

Sport 23

5th February 2015

Pictured here with our very own Dan Smith, Greenwood, having started his senior England career in 1997, won a total of 55 caps for England.

PHOTO/ROGER ASKEW

Will Greenwood: Rugby legend and 2003 World Cup winner • A member of England’s 2003 winning squad, Greenwood spent his career playing for Leicester Tigers and Harlequins • Greenwood now works for the Daily Telegraph as a columnist and provides television analysis for SKY’s rugby coverage

DAN SMITH

SPORTS WRITER

On Thursday of 1st Week, England rugby legend Will Greenwood visited the Oxford Union to talk about his staggeringly successful career.

With three Lions tours under his belt, combined with a World Cup win back in 2003; Greenwood can certainly be regarded as one of England’s greatest ever players.

OxStu Sport’s reporter Dan Smith caught up with him just before he was due to speak.

We have to start with that World Cup victory. What was going through your mind when Jonny Wilkinson put that drop goal over the posts back in 2003?

A tremendous sense of relief. We’d been trying to get in that position ever since 1997 and for a lot of the team, it was their final game so there was certainly a huge sense of emotion. For a long time, I never really understood all the fuss that surrounded that moment to be honest. The way we saw it, we were

Factfile -

Team: England Position: Centre Years: 1997-2004 Caps: 55 Points: 155 Made captain for 2004 Six Nations.

just doing our job.

“The moment it hit home to me was at the City of Manchester stadium when Aguero scored that goal against QPR on the final game of the season to win Man City the league in 2012.

I was there behind the posts with my eight year old son and the stadium literally moved. It was at that moment I thought “ahh, I get it now”. When you’re living it, you’re just doing your job; you have to be a fan to understand that side of it.”

Were you and the players very aware of what the reaction was like back at home?

At the time no, we knew something special was going on but not to that extent. The first time it struck us was when we were back in the hotel watching the other semifinal, Australia vs New Zealand, and all we could hear was Swing Low. We turned to ourselves and said “bloody hell, how many people are here?”

Heathrow at 5am was surreal, Trafalgar Square on the victory parade was mental. We were on the top of the bus just going up Park Lane and Martin Johnson turned round to me and said “I hope there’s more than just a few Japanese tourists” and we look up and see a million people!

One of the coolest things happened in my local deli, four weeks after we’d got back. I was just buying my customary ham and cheese sandwich and an old lady turns round to me and asks; “Can I buy that? My grandson would

be disappointed if I didn’t.” I look back on the things I’ve received in my career and that sandwich will be something I tell my kids about in terms of understanding the impact that World Cup win had and the enjoyment it brought to a lot of people.

You were obviously a World Cup winner with England but you were also a three-series Lion; what do you look back on with most pride?

Lions tours are great and different people will give you different answers. Technically, I can’t actually say I was a series winner though. I was on the tour back in 1997 but I didn’t play in a test match so I don’t really feel the shirt was mine, it was Gibbs’ and Guscott’s. So really, I have to go with England.

Lions tours are very different though. England is all about sport science and four-year plans leading up to a World Cup. The Lions is just pure emotion.

Who are the greatest players you ever played alongside and against?

If I was at the gates of hell and needed to win, it would have to be Mike Tindall. In many ways, it was an unlikely partnership with me and him though; he couldn’t pass and I couldn’t tackle! I still take the mickey out of him saying he only drew a World Cup because he went off at 14-14 in the final, it was Mike Catt who won it 6-3.

In terms of players I played against, it would have to be either Dan Carter, Richie McCaw or

Jonah Lomu.

How do you assess England’s chances in the upcoming Six Nations?

Alright. We’ve got three home games so Twickenham must become a fortress, especially in World Cup year when it’s being hosted in England. Ireland are also a very good side at the moment though so I’d probably go for the outcome to be a point’s difference between England and Ireland.

What have you made of Sam Burgess’ first few months in rugby union, having played alongside one of the greatest league converts Jason Robinson?

He obviously struggled initially having been injured in the NRL’s Grand Final back in October but he was fantastic against Wasps at the Rec a couple of weeks ago. People ask why are they fast-tracking him into the England squad but he’s the best rugby league player on the planet, why wouldn’t you? Young English talent will undoubtedly benefit from his presence and there’s no point finding out in the middle of 2016 he’s world class having not played him in the World Cup. Can England win this year’s World Cup? Host nations traditionally do quite well at World Cups and people certainly aren’t valuing the power of Twickenham yet. It is an unbelievable stadium with 82,000

fans on your side. Home support cannot be underestimated, just look at the London Olympics and Mo Farah etc.

The only top level-side Stuart Lancaster has failed to beat as well is South Africa. That’s not to say they can beat them seven weeks on the bounce but just demonstrates to the players that it is possible for them to go out and beat the best teams.

They really could do with some wins at the likes of Cardiff and Dublin in the next few months though, just to notch up their selfbelief.

PHOTO/BOMBDOG

England’s road to 2003 World Cup glory: Group stage vs. Georgia, 84-6 vs. South Africa, 25-6 vs. Samoa, 35-22 vs. Uruguay, 111-13 Quarter-finals vs. Wales, 28-17 Semi-finals vs. France, 24-7 Final vs. Australia, 20-17

DODGEBALL

Robert Snell introduces Oxford's most casual society

Page 22

SPORT

RUGBY

Interview with England legend Will Greenwood

Page 23

Negotiations stall between Oxford's two Ice Hockey clubs

• To the confusion of many, Oxford currently has two different men's Blues teams following a split in the 2012/2013 season • Inclusion of Brookes players in OUIHC opposed by Oxford Ice Hockey Trust, neither party offered agreeable compromise DAVID BARKER SPORTS EDITOR

To the confusion of many, in 2015 we have two Oxford Men’s Ice Hockey teams - the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club and the Oxford Ice Hockey Trust, also known as the Oxford Blues. Confusing right? As a personal friend of members from both teams and spectator at a thrilling match at the Oxford Ice Rink in a thrilling match, it struck me to hear that there is a rift between the two teams, especially considering the friendly post-match chatter between the two.

During the 2012/2013 ice hockey season, the Men’s Blues team decided to sever its affiliation with Oxford University’s Sports Federation, following a conflict that escalated quickly and heatedly. You may have heard of the Oxford Ice Hockey Trust or the Oxford Blues from their continually publicised issues with the Sports Federation and senior Oxford University Administrative staff, or perhaps from their matches against other teams in the British University Ice Hockey Association’s (BUIHA) Division 1 league.

On the other hand, there has also been a renewal of OUIHC’s men’s team this season, re-joining the women’s Blues to once again establish two university-recognised ice hockey teams. “As a club, we were left in a very difficult position when the men’s team decided to split from the university”, notes the OUIHC men’s co-captain and treasurer Tim Donnison. “OUIHC used to consist of a women’s team, a men’s team, and a second team that competed in the league below the Blues. Following the split, our women’s and second teams were left with few resources and had to scramble to continue their seasons.”

“We want to rebuild OUIHC to its former strength”, states Donnison.

“We have a very strong relationship with the women’s team, who have supported us through a united approach while trying to get back on our feet as a club. Our intention is to have an inclusive Oxford ice hockey community of male and female students that provides realistic accessibility to those who love to play the sport”.

The men’s comeback has experienced its share of challenges this season.

Their last three games have resulted

PHOTO/OUIHC

• Pictured: Oxford University Ice Hockey Club after match in London - club members say the split has resulted in a heavily depleted squad. in heavily lopsided losses, lacking the numbers to put a strong team together. The team is a mishmash of university players, Brookes players, and in several instances women’s players. The struggles have meant that Cambridge will prove a serious challenge to the Trust for this year’s Varsity Match despite the OUIHC Men’s Blues status and the Trust’s lack of University affiliation or Blues status.

Donnison suggests, “At the beginning of the season we struggled to attract players who experienced the midnight or later practice times we’ve been left with, in addition to our shortage of players due to a complete regrouping in our recruiting efforts.

We have definitely struggled to attract a lot of the ice hockey talent coming to Oxford.”

One of the Oxford University students to join OUIHC after playing for the Trust in his first year is Alan Keeso, who had initially decided not to play hockey at all this season. “When I heard that the university had its hockey team back I jumped at the opportunity to join”, says Keeso. “It might be my NCAA hockey experience influencing me,

but there’s something in my values system that aligns with competing for my school in an official capacity.”

One of the arguments that the team faces in opposition to its representation of the university from the Trust is the fact that OUIHC includes Oxford Brookes players. Naeem Bardai is a Brookes law student who co-captains the renewed men’s team. He suggests

The Ice Hockey situation in Oxford does not appear to be close to a resolution

that Brookes’ inclusion has no bearing on his team’s Blues status: “We just want to play high quality hockey like other students that study in Oxford, and when the time comes for my Oxford University teammates to play in the Varsity Match for their Blues, I understand that tradition and honour, and I’ll be supporting them from the stands. We’re very happy to play our own match with

Cambridge’s second team.”

Bardai’s sentiments appear to extend throughout OUIHC. The club has decided to rebuild itself through positivity and appreciation, which at times they find to be a challenge in the face of continuing efforts from the Trust to publicise their stance on the ice hockey situation in Oxford. These efforts have led to individual naming of OUIHC team members on the web, most notably on Wikipedia. The men’s team has also been challenged on whether it can claim the same hockey history and lineage that the Trust claims.

While these issues are an ongoing concern for OUIHC players, the club has recently implemented an informal policy to maintain its spirits, as Donnison describes: “We’ve decided to take a refreshed approach to maintain our positive atmosphere, so each time we see or hear of the negative statements on the web or elsewhere we send a message of encouragement to the women’s team through Twitter or Facebook. They do the same for us.”

Keeso buys into this policy and prefers to look at the situation through a positive lens: “I view this

as progress. OUIHC is part of an 800-plus-year-old institution that is stacked with heritage, prestige, and tradition, but therein the university still evolves and integrates. We’re doing our part by maintaining traditions while further integrating Oxford Brookes students, but more importantly, we have a club where women are welcome to compete with the men, whether that’s due to the need for additional players or their desire to compete based on strong skillsets.”

While the club continues to work its way back to full strength, it maintains that the unity between the men’s and women’s teams will sustain efforts to rebuild. The ice hockey situation at Oxford does not appear to be close to a resolution, and it has yet to be determined whether OUIHC’s positive approach will be enough to fully rebuild the men’s team. For now however, this team seems content to have the wider university simply know that it’s been resurrected. “As a club”, Donnison says, “we hope our values align with the broader university’s student body as something they’ll want to support and encourage.”