tn2 Issue 7, 2013-14

ISSUE SEVEN

TWO

ON THE DARKSIDE

NICOLAS JAAR TALKS ABOUT HIS LATEST PROJECT.

FIGHTING THE MAFIA

TN2 EXPLORES THE RECENT RESISTANCE IN SICILY.

CO NTENTS

14 REGULARS OPENERS SEX HOMEGROWN FACES CALENDAR THE END PIECE

4 7 23 24 32 34

FEATURES RAE EARL AMAZON ANTI-MAFIA DARKSIDE BALLET GAMES FOR CHANGE HYPERREALISTIC ART

8 10 12 14 16 18 20

REVIEWS FILM FOOD // GAMES MUSIC FILM TV LITERATURE // THEATRE

26 27 28 29 30 31

Editor Henry Longden Creative Director Atalanta Copeman-Papas Deputy Editor Meadhbh McGrath Copy Editors Lola Boorman & Lily Ní Dhomhnaill Business Manager Sam Dunne Editorial Staff Gabija Purlytė // Issy Thompson // Louise Hynes // Eoin McCague // Sarah Lennon Galavan Cian Clynes // Alex Milne Turner // Chris Rooke // Patrick Cremen // Lily Ní Dhomhnaill // Lola Boorman Tara Joshi // Liam Maher // Katherine Murphy // Kayla Marie Walsh // Ciara Forristal // Eva Short Photo Editor Molly Rowan-Hamilton Illustrator Alice Wilson Special Thanks PJ Moloney, Jennifer McCahill and the Trinity Publications Committee // Elaine McCahill & the Staff of Trinity News Mark Grehan and all at Grehans Printers // Aaron Devine // Melissa Maouris // Kate Shalloe Lily Ní Dhomhnaill // Jed DeMoss // Alice Wilson ISSUE SEVEN // 3

OPENERS

SHOW ME MOORE

FIGHTING TO X-IST

ART Knife-Edge, Henry Moore The memorial to William Butler Yeats in St. Stephen’s Green stands in its own secluded terraced garden — a quiet, contemplative space, when not filled with noisy adolescents killing time on a Saturday afternoon.

Titled Standing Figure — Knife Edge, it belongs to a small edition of identical bronze sculptures, scattered around the world, by internationally-renowned British artist Henry Moore. Erected in 1967, it was notable at the time for celebrating the poet’s vision through an abstracted form, rather than commemorating his life through a portrait. The sculpture is a result of Moore’s lifelong fascination with bones: an early maquette for this work included a real bird’s breastbone with some added modelling clay for the head. The title refers to the “knife-edge” thinness of the bone which infuses the sculpture, and defines its appearance when seen from certain perspectives. The overall impression, however, constantly shifts while walking around the work, at times dominated by its rhythmic curves and angles, and, from another point of view still, the two-dimensional outline of its shape fixed against the surrounding trees. One of the titles used by Moore for this sculpture — Winged Figure — alludes to another source of inspiration: the Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre. In a fascinating twist of mind, classical sculpture is combined with the shape of a bird bone to complete an abstracted allusion to poetic flight.

GABIJA PURLYTĖ

GAMES The transformation that Nokia has undergone over the last three years has been staggering. No longer the juggernaut of the European mobile phone market that it once was, the company has been forced to make radical changes to almost every aspect of its operations.

Under the control of former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop, the company abandoned their archaic Symbian operating system in 2011, opting instead for a new line of Lumia devices powered

by Windows Phone. This collaboration led to Microsoft announcing a purchase of Nokia’s smartphone hardware business at the end of last year.

It was very odd, then, to see Nokia announce a line of Android phones at Mobile World Congress last month — the Nokia X range. These new devices are powered by Google’s operating system, although have been skinned to look more akin to a Windows Phone. With the completion of the Microsoft buyout being only a matter of time, it seems this new range will have a very limited lifespan.

The Lumia devices seemed to herald a renaissance for the company; the Windows Phone software was clean and well-designed (a marked improvement over Symbian) while the devices themselves were stylish, despite their plastic casings. Nokia’s typically strong hardware remained, and the devices were critically well-received and gathered momentum both in Europe and for the first time across the Atlantic. Yet finances continued to run amok, leading to an inevitable sale.

This all means that the Nokia X range could be the very last we see of their own independent creations. For those who grew up with Nokia phones as their first mobiles, it’s somewhat saddening to see that the life raft they clung onto has now taken them to new, less exciting shores.

CHRIS ROOKE

90s FILM FILM Mixing the groundbreaking creativity of New Hollywood in the 1970s and the popularity of event movies that characterised the 80s, the 90s represented the perfect marriage of art and commerce. The Disney Renaissance that began with 1989’s The Little Mermaid grew from strength to strength with 1991’s Beauty and the Beast becoming the first animated film to garner a Best Picture nomination, while The Lion King, Hercules and Tarzan received widespread critical acclaim. Independent cinema, downtrodden and forgotten during the manic franchise-obsessed 80s, was revitalised due to studios such as Miramax, New Line and Lionsgate taking chances on auteur-driven works. These gambles paid off more often than not, with Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh and the Coen brothers becoming household names. The 90s were primarily an American decade in film, with many masters releasing their best works.

Whether it was Scorsese’s Goodfellas, Spielberg’s Schindler’s List or Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, audiences flocked in droves to digest hard-hitting cinema. With the home entertainment industry still a fledgling concept and the sceptical reception of DVDs, the 90s truly represented the final decade where the cinema reigned paramount. With original, thought-provoking and commercially successful films like Being John Malkovich, Fight Club, The Matrix, and Boogie Nights being released; and complete studio faith in visionaries, the decade came to symbolise the best of the two that preceded it.

EOIN McCAGUE 4 // TN2MAGAZINE.IE

OPENERS

FRONT SQUARE FASHION

MOLLY ROWAN HAMITON

Sophia Along, SF German and Chemistry Spring is just around the corner, but there is no need to tell this SF German and Chemistry student, whose outfit anticipates the arrival of the new season with a kaleidoscope of primary colours. Her deep red coat adds a bright splash of colour, whilst her chunky, tasseled scarf complements it with a pop of green. Yet beneath the washed out dungarees and the laced up shoes, this demure outfit is undercut by more than a hint of allure, which comes not from her smouldering eyes or her assertive stance, but her hairstyle. This frau has clearly been paying attention in class. The result? Gwen Stefani meets The Sound of Music. Take note, this outfit is resoundingly and startlingly sexy.

ISSY THOMPSON

LITERARY MILESTONES LITERATURE March 19, 1842 Balzac opens Les Ressources de Quinola to an empty house If anyone has ever experienced that sweat-soaked moment of fear on the day of your 21st, the anxiety that none of the 2,000 friends who have clicked attending are actually going to show up, take comfort in the fact that even Honoré de Balzac had trouble getting his friends along to his plays. The hugely influential French novelist, while forming the basis of modern French literature, the Realist mode and always a ready example for Structuralist critics, was also notoriously unsuccessful at his (thankfully) brief stint in playwriting. Fancying himself rather exclusive, Balzac circulated rumours that his new venture, Les Ressources de Quinola — opening March 19, 1842 — was already completely sold out. The author became the butt of his very own La Comédie humaine underestimating the power of nonchalance over desire. The play opened to an empty house. Balzac toyed with plays and thrillers before eventually finding his ground in the novel form. He was also famous for his failed ventures into industries such as printing, silver, mining, publishing and politics. In addition to his poor commercial judgment, Balzac is famous for his undeniable affirmation of his own genius. Self-confidence is key when you’re trying to be the voice of 19th century realism.

LOLA BOORMAN

BRUNCH OF THE WEEK MAIA

FOOD Nestled amongst the clean exteriors of Ballsbridge is a brunch spot with a little more edge. With only chalk boards to rub against (and yes this includes the walls), Maia offers a playful atmosphere without needing to be eye-catching. The open space, and open kitchen, make it a brilliant place to read or relax; and the menu will settle you even more. I felt spoilt with a range of breakfast items, including omelettes, continental breakfast and fresh

X-RATED COCKTAIL PERUKE & PERIWIG

DRINKS If you do not immediately turn your nose up at the abundance of sweet fruit, you will be pleasantly surprised by the X-RATED. This cocktail, a sea of warm lemon liqueur with a vessel of passion fruit floating on the surface, is everything the title implies.

A fresh aroma highlights the variety of fruits, but the honeyed notes of lychee are most prominent to taste.

Zesty hints of pineapple and apple rest gently in the background, and a spicier, more bitter touch is added by the passion fruit seeds. The vodka is softened by the pear but provides a good kick in the finish. The overall effect is a potent pick-me-up. The sake, served on the side, is of the dry cool variety. It does not complicate the medley of fruits, but opens up the bouquet and provides a backing for their flavours.

juice, as well as an elegant list of thinly made pizzas and tasty pasta. I went for the Norwegian Eggs, and they were poached perfectly, popping succulently over the salmon and sourdough toast.

After lazily watching Ballsbridge pass by while slowly sipping two more coffees, and a bill that stayed the right side of 15 euros, I would encourage spending a morning seduced by Maia’s charm.

49 SHELBOURNE RD., DUBLIN 4 ALEX MILNE TURNER

XANTHE CALDECOTT // ILLSTRATION BY ALICE WILSON

ISSUE SEVEN // 5

OPENERS

SOUNDS OF THE CITY CHICAGO

UPPERS & DOWNERS CHANEL’S SUPERMARCHÉ // ”For me the supermarket is the pop art of today,” Lagerfeld explained, as Stepford Wife-esque models browsed shelves stocked with Chanel-branded groceries and swigged from bottles of cognac.

MUSIC The footwork genre has been creeping into the Europe’s musical consciousness in the past two years, expanding out from its small, underground beginnings in Chicago.

Like hip hop before it, footwork grew up contemporaneously with an accompanying dance, one which emphasises rapidly fast leg and feet movements, lending the genre its name.

There are many important figures involved with the establishment of the genre, but one that stands out above the others is RP Boo. A former footwork dancer himself, his productions have been massively influential both locally in Chicago and also globally. Boo created most of his best known tracks on a display model RX-70 drum machine and it is his drum sounds in particular (many of which were programmed by a previous owner) that so many producers have attempted to replicate. Over these lo-fi, frenetic beats there is often an ominous sub bass frequency that oscillates menacingly in the background while some hip hop vocal samples float over the top, providing a hook and some light relief from the otherwise intense productions. Boo is also credited with the shift from juke music (a faster and harder variant of the Chicago ghetto house sound) to what has become classified as footwork.

From RP Boo’s initial experimentation with the juke genre, a slew of footwork producers achieved international acclaim.

Hyperdub affiliates DJ Spinn and Rashad have come to the fore with their Teklife crew in tow and recent releases on Kode 9’s Hyperdub Records. Rashad’s album Double Cup has made waves in particular, and was regarded as one of the best albums of 2013 in various media. Rashad’s productions (as well as Spinn’s) are quite a bit more melodic than RP Boo’s or some of the harder footwork artists, and incorporate many elements of UK scenes such as jungle, dubstep and bass music lending a breath of fresh air to the genre and leaving grounds open for further sonic experimentation and the development of the genre.

LIAM MAHER

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

@tn2magazine facebook.com/ tn2magazine 6 // TN2MAGAZINE.IE

RUPAUL TROLLS PIRATES // Released on Pirate Bay, the bootleg of Born Naked features Ru interrupting tracks to berate his listeners, “Girl, you done stole my album!”.

NIGELLA’S VOGUE COVER // Abandoning her usual 60s siren make-up, the domestic goddess smoulders in a stunning, stripped-down photo-shoot.

At 54, Nigella is the oldest woman to appear on the cover of the British edition.

T-SHIRTS OVER LONG SLEEVES // Prada and Kenzo co-opted the 90s grunge look in their Spring Menswear shows. Miuccia offered moody Hawaiian tropical prints, while Kenzo played it cool with graphic prints in navy and white.

CROISSANT SHOES // These hideous slipper-like oddities debuted at JW Anderson’s AW14 show. We’re praying this trend never takes off.

CALLING EVERYTHING “NORMCORE” // FInspired by unlikely style icons Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, the latest new youth subculture involves the “anti-fashion” trend of “stylised blandness”.

IGGY AZALEA’S FANCY VIDEO // Despite Clueless being aggressively over-referenced at this point, Iggy and Charlie XCX dared to create a painfully tacky homage to the classic teen film.

CATCH THE THRONE // HBO plans to attract an “urban” audience by enlisting Big Boi, Common and Wale (in what is surely the low point of their careers) to craft fantasy-inspired raps for an “authentic” — and undeniably crass — Game of Thrones mixtape.

MEADHBH McGRATH

SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPES.

S

E

X

“AS TECHNOLOGY HAS OFFERED US NEW WAYS TO SHARE OUR BODIES AND OUR SEXUALITIES WITH EACH OTHER, NUDES AND SEX TAPES HAVE BEEN DESCRIBED AS THE LOVE LETTERS OF THE 21ST CENTURY.” What would you do if you found out that someone had posted naked photos or videos of you online, without your consent?

It’s called “revenge porn”, and in the age of smartphones, Snapchat and sexting, more and more people are becoming victims. In January, Israel became the first country to classify revenge porn as a sex crime, and although several states in the US are making moves to criminalise revenge porn, in Ireland and the UK it is extremely difficult to prosecute.

In 2010, Hunter Moore, dubbed “the most hated man on the internet”, started the (now defunct) revenge porn website IsAnyoneUp.com. The notorious site featured user-submitted content, and encouraged aggressively misogynistic attitudes towards female victims. Men and women face vastly different social, emotional and professional consequences if their photos or videos are leaked — at least two women have killed themselves over revenge porn, and the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative studies show that 47% of female victims contemplate suicide.

Being naked on the Internet, as a woman, means that you will always be used in ways that you may not intend and definitely cannot control. Moore’s site maintained that the women were sluts who deserved to be abused and humiliated, describing them as “gnargoyles”. In the site’s FAQ, Moore defined a “gnargoyle” as “a disgusting female who’s had the misfortune of getting her n00dz posted... for the internet world to see and criticize. Typically gnargoyles are overweight and are, but not limited to, hairy, ugly, and tattooed, with sloppy vaginas. These beasts have the grave misconception that someone would actually want to see them naked”. Revenge porn is not about titillation; it’s about ridiculing and sabotaging others.

The unanimous response to revenge porn has been “If you don’t take nudes, you

won’t have a problem”. Such a response suggests that men can’t be held responsible for their own sexual behaviour, and so the responsibility is entirely on women to protect themselves from exploitative use of their images — if you take your clothes off for a picture, or allow yourself to be filmed

having sex, you’re “asking for it”, and you have nobody but yourself to blame.

As technology has offered us new ways to share our bodies and our sexualities with each other, nudes and sex tapes have been described as the love letters of the 21st century. And although we’ve all heard stories about revenge porn, it’s unlikely they’re going to discourage people from taking naked photos and videos. Of course, making a sex tape is a subtle art. Most couples attempt to imitate what they have seen in porn, but obviously, sex tapes are not as well lit, well mic’d, well-focused or well-angled as porn, and are obviously lacking in the artful editing and scene transitioning (not to mention the meticulous grooming adult film stars undergo) that makes porn effective. Magazine tips on “making the perfect sex tape” suggest the rather dubious advice to “turn on the night-vision feature — it obscures imperfections and creates a funky, sci-fi look”. However, some couples find watching their own sex tapes is much more intimate than watching porn with their partners. Others consider the process of making a sex tape as more important than the end result, and often erase all incriminating evidence afterwards.

Ultimately, telling people to stop taking pictures and videos is an incredibly unenlightened response to what is essentially a sex crime and one that is becoming more and more prevalent. Revenge porn sites operate by condemning people, overwhelmingly women, for expressing their sexuality, and the solution is not to shame women into keeping their blouses firmly buttoned, but to hold the Hunter Moores of the world accountable for their actions.

WORDS BY MEADHBH McGRATH

ISSUE SEVEN // 7

TV

IT’S A MAD, FAT WORLD CIARA FORRISTAL TALKS TO AUTHOR RAE EARL ABOUT HER TEENAGE DIARIES, WHICH FORMED THE BASIS FOR THE E4 SERIES MY MAD FAT DIARY. 8 // TN2MAGAZINE.IE

“I don’t think I could do this if I wasn’t able to separate my teenage self from me now… So I can kind of let her go out there and do her own thing.” For many people, looking back on their adolescence can be excruciatingly painful, filled with embarrassment and angst, and intermingled with nostalgia and new forays into the adult world. For writer Rae Earl, her teenage self occupies the spotlight in the form of the central protagonist in the television series My Mad Fat Diary, based upon Earl’s personal diaries published in 2007 and 2014. The television series written by Tom Bidwell is a fictionalised account of Earl’s diaries and even though the fictional Rae undertakes and undergoes different experiences than the real Rae, Earl stated, “the fictional Rae does things that I haven’t done but she never does anything I wouldn’t have considered doing or wouldn’t have done in the parallel universe… She never strays from anything that I wouldn’t have con-

TV

“IN A DIARY YOU CAN JUST SLAM IT DOWN, IT’S FOR YOU, IT’S A PERSONAL THING, NOBODY IS GOING TO SEE IT… YOU CAN BE TOTALLY HONEST AND NOT ALWAYS NICE AND NOT ALWAYS PALATABLE.” sidered doing and I think that’s very very important.”

The series includes typical teenage angst and drama, to say the least, in the increasingly changing dynamics within her circle of friends and her sexual trepidations. However, these tribulations are coupled with Earl’s struggle to gain a sense of normalcy having been released from a psychiatric ward at the tender age of sixteen. The diaries and series chart Earl’s continuous and tortuous battle with extreme anxiety, self-harm and obsessive-compulsive disorder, which Earl believed “reflects the reality of where I was at the time”.

Like most diaries, it is their confessional nature that resonates with audiences, providing a glimpse into the mindset and emotions of the individual in question and their relationship with the world at a particular moment in time.

In Earl’s published diaries, it is noticeable that she feared a breach of privacy of her inner most thoughts. She provides food-related pseudonyms (Haddock, Battered Sausage) for the main players in her social sphere which highlights Earl’s struggle and her reliance on food as a source of comfort in difficult situations. Considering the cautious nature Earl displayed in her teens, was she at all apprehensive about the reaction of these people when her diaries were published?

“I didn’t want to cause anybody any distress, so there’s a huge editing process and moral process involved in picking what goes in, and there’s some great stories I’ve left out.” The stories that are included, however, are extremely selfaware and painfully honest accounts of Earl’s perception of herself at a time when her relationship and food was crucially arresting her development and sense of self-worth. It is her candidness which makes these diaries a refreshing and memorable read, and as Earl stated, “a lot of people would have experienced the same thing, or been in the same position then… They would probably get a lot from it”.

Tom Bidwell’s television adaptation of Earl’s diaries retains the focus on Earl coming to terms with the stigma and

perception of mental health in the adolescent realm where insecurity and difference are mercilessly exploited. Earl believes that the treatment of mental health and the stigma surrounding it still exists and she mentions her horror at a recent report that adolescents still get put in adult psychiatric wards like she herself experienced in the 80s. The importance of family and friends is something Earl could not emphasise strongly enough, especially the support of her mother, with whom Earl has a tumultuous relationship, “You need the support of your family and friends at a time like that, it’s vital.” Earl credited Sharon Rooney who plays teenage Rae and Claire Rushbrook who plays her mother, for bringing this complex and nuanced relationship to the screen in such a realistic manner, “I think the way they got that love in that relationship, the antipathy, that love, it’s very hard to get the balance but they get it spot.”

The show is set in 1996 at the height of Cool Britannia instead of the 80s in which Earl grew up. Earl believed that the show could be set in any era due to the universality of the issues at play, however the advent of the internet and mobile phones would inevitably alter the problems with which individuals like Earl would have to contend. The element of an audience is something which Earl believes affects one’s personal writings, and she dispels notions that blogs have replaced or will replace the diary as a confessional outlet.

“In a diary you can just slam it down, it’s for you, it’s a personal thing, nobody is going to see it… You can be totally honest and not always nice and not always palatable.”

Moreover, particularly in the second series, a key message is the importance of self-love and confidence and Earl stated that this is something that she and Bidwell believe is extremely vital, particularly when romantic relationships are involved. “I think you’ve got to sort yourself out before you think about getting into a relationship. You can’t expect someone else to fix you, no matter how much they love you, they can’t, you have to fix yourself.” This is par-

ticularly evident in the constant bombardment Rae faces on a daily basis in the form of media campaigns such as the “Hello Boys” Wonderbra campaign which increases Rae’s already negative impression about her weight and bodily perception. Earl recounted seeing these ads in her youth and thinking “if I looked like that my life would be perfect and, of course, you know, many of these models, their lives are everything but perfect but we never get to see that, we just get to see what the advertisers want us to see.” It is Rae’s reaction to these images and their ability to release her deeper insecurities which poignantly highlight the deep-seated neuroses present with teenage girls, and the impact that such propagated perceptions can have on our mental health.

Earl herself consulted fully with Bidwell on the direction and writing of the show and praised Bidwell for understanding the emotions, mentality and essence of Rae in this formative period of her life. The series, Earl believes, is carried on the great acting talent of Sharon Rooney who plays fictional Rae, and Earl expressed no surprise that Rooney had been bestowed the honour of being named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit. This accolade is even more impressive considering that Earl and Rooney had never met prior to the show being filmed, and Rooney was able to brilliantly and uncannily capture the mannerisms of Earl.

Although Earl stopped writing diaries in 1991 and has only recently recommenced, she believes that these diaries will be of no interest to the public as they chart the growth of her son Harry and “who wants to read that except his family and his mum?” However, following the publication of her latest diary installment, My Madder Fatter Diaries and the second series of My Mad Fat Diary, Earl’s teenage self will continue to remain a comforting and refreshing presence to countless individuals, providing a voice to those whose experiences have yet to be told in such an honest, hilarious and poignant manner.

MY MAD FAT DIARY CAN BE SEEN ON MONDAYS AT 10PM ON E4.

ISSUE SEVEN // 9

JUNGLE FEVER LILY NÍ DHOMHNAILL DISCUSSES THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST BOOK MARKETPLACE ON THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF AMAZON.COM

Monumental shifts in publishing history are often labeled after those commercially involved — think Gutenberg’s Revolution, The Penguin Era. In years to come, when the present book market is periodised it will be, surely, the Age of Amazon. Romantics may dismiss this statement as apocalyptic, but the fact is that Amazon is synonymous with modern book culture, and has changed the way we think about reading.

As the company celebrates its 20th birthday, debate about its merits is intensifying, starting in the US and spreading worldwide. For those in the traditional publishing business, Amazon is a ruthless tycoon with a market monopoly. For the increasing wave of self-publishing authors, the company is seen as a liberator, enlightening traditionalists to ebooks, self-publication and the way of the future. But what exactly is Amazon’s role in this particular cycle of technological change? And should we condone it?

Hugh Howey certainly thinks so. Last month the self-publishing success story (and author of the sci-fi Wool trilogy) published a report that made controversial claims about the “publication revolution”.

Howey is a long-time critic of the low share of profits given to authors in the traditional publishing model; his own novels were published through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing system. Using data from Amazon’s ebook sales in the genres of thriller, science fiction and romance, his research proposes that indie authors are outselling contemporaries published by the “big five” (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Random House). In his call-to-arms against traditional publishers, Howey sees Amazon as a fairer alternative. Speaking to The Guardian, he outlined what he sees as Amazon’s “guiding philosophy”: “They view writers as both partners and customers, not as acquisitions… That philosophy can go a very long way. This should be a happy and bloodless revolution. It can be."

One can certainly see where Howey is coming from. Anyone can become a published author thanks to Amazon Publish-

ing; the process is free, and writers keep up to 70% royalties. And for readers, buying books has never been easier. Thanks to the website’s “1-Click” purchase option, it takes the same amount of effort to purchase a book as it does to “like” a photo on Facebook. And of course, most significantly, ebooks are cheap — many sell for a couple of euros. The extremely low cost, however, is where the idyllic image starts to waver. According to the website, Direct Publishing authors decide the “list price” for their books, but Amazon retains “sole and complete discretion to set the retail customer price at which… Digital Books are sold through the Program”. And, given that they call themselves “Earth’s most customer-centric company”, those prices will doubtlessly be low. Writers are free to put their work out there, but they must subject to Amazon’s authority. This seems reasonable enough; they are a business after all— but it reminds us of exactly that. Amazon is a corporation, not a selfless facilitator of a symbiotic reader-writer relationship.

On the same day George Packer released a 12,000-word study of Amazon in the New Yorker, and appeared to be describing a totally different corporation. Instead of the liberating platform for the circulation of ideas that Howey depicts, Packer’s Amazon is a mercenary operation. They make up 65% of the ebook sales, and sell at extremely low prices to maintain a market monopoly, forcing other booksellers out of business. Their efforts to satisfy the customer by providing them with as many products as possible, as quickly and as cheaply as possible, have devalued writing itself. “Readers,” he declares, “are being conditioned to think that books are worth as little as a sandwich.”

There is much to be gleaned from Packer’s fascinating 12,000-word report. It reminds us that, although their marketing would have us believe otherwise, Amazon is not merely a helpful service provider.

Inspired by the piece, John Naughton noted in The Observer that we distrust offline business tycoons, but when it comes to Google, Facebook and Amazon, their seem-

ingly friendly online equivalents, “it seems that we cannot get enough of the ‘free’ services that they offer.” In fact, he went on, “they are as hostile to trade unions, taxation and regulation as John D Rockefeller, JP Morgan and Andrew Carnegie ever were in their day.”

When it comes to self-publishing Packer’s most alarming point is that, for Amazon, editing and publishing are one and the same, both equally dispensable. “Disintermediation” (the industry term for their philosophy) denotes the elimination of editors, publishers, and all processing between writer and reader — the removal of the middle man, which is just what Howey calls for. However, whether writers like it or not, either in print or digital media, it cannot be denied that even good writing benefits from good editing. In fact Howey acknowledges this, and says he is not looking for a “permanent break” from the publishing industry, just a reshaping of the publisher-writer relationship.

Editorial involvement is even more important in the world of ebooks. Walking into a bookshop, customers can know that the products on offer are at least worth enough to have been printed, bound and shipped. When almost any book in existence is literally one click away, readers want a bit of guidance. In theory, self-publishing could well be a positive step, but only if readers can still be sure that someone besides the author can vouch for what they are about to buy. If at least a certain degree of editing cannot be guaranteed, readers will be forced to think of ebooks as manuscripts. And indeed, if a self-published ebook is successful it is often picked up and reissued by a publisher; this turns the ebook readership sort of pilot audience for submissions. Customers want some critical direction — not condescending Bloomsbury-types to tell them what they should read, but someone who will sift through the myriads of manuscripts so that they don’t have to. This assurance — exactly what Amazon’s free-for-all model is lacking — is the most valuable kind of customer service.

ISSUE SIX // 11

AN OFFER YOU CAN REFUSE OLLY RHODE DESCRIBES THE INTRICATE, HISTORICAL IMPACT OF MAFIA HEGEMONY IN SICILY AND HOW ITS COMMUNITY IS FIGHTING BACK. Sicily is one of the poorest, most chaotic and least visited regions in Italy. People have been living on the island since 8000BC, and it has been invaded and fought over so many times, for so many different reasons, that its architecture, language and even its food are a bewildering amalgamation of various cultures.

I was staying in the African quarter of Palermo, in a hostel that turned out to be a converted Catholic convent, complete with crumbling mosaics and an adjoining cathedral. On my first day I met up with a friend who had organised for us to do some work at Addiopizzo, an anti-mafia organisation based in Palermo. After walking through hectic street markets, stopping 12 // TN2MAGAZINE.IE

for a very black 40 cents espresso and munching on a cannolo — a delicious Sicilian pastry filled with sweet ricotta — we arrived at Addiopizzo. We knew nothing about the organisation, only that it worked against the mafia. Thankfully a friendly man called Edo collected us, took us into a large room that looked like a comprehensive museum of Sicily’s mafia history, and started explaining that their organisation campaigned against the mafia by fighting the pizzo.

“Pizzo is something cultural, something fundamental, almost like a tax but one that we pay to criminal organisations, not to the government. It’s more than protection money or extortion; it is how the

mafia marks its territory, how they assert their dominance over ordinary people.”

Edo went on to tell us how, back in 2004, some friends in their 20s had tried to open a shop but immediately came up against people trying to extort money from them.

This made them realize how integrated paying pizzo was in society — the amount was even factored into the business plan.

And it was the same for everyone in the city. One of them had an idea for a slogan, which roughly translates as “A people who pay pizzo are a people without dignity”. The slogan was soon being graffitied all over the city or scrawled on sheets and hung from motorway bridges.

I asked what they’d been doing in the nine

years since then and he smiled, suggesting we go get lunch so he could show me. We walked through the streets, us two foreigners panting slightly in the sun, and re-entered the maze of little lanes, every now and then seeing another rickety church. After passing Bar Garibaldi (where you get plied with Sicilian wine by cheerful communists) we reached our destination, the Antica foccaceria San Francesca. Edo told us how this eatery had been one of the first places to sign up to Addiopizzo’s collective. The idea is to have businesses publicly declare that they do not and will not pay pizzo. The public in turn is encouraged to support these businesses through a campaign of ethical consumerism, therefore depriving the mafia of influence and rewarding the enterprises which are brave enough to take a stand.

By making the businesses part of a larger collective, Addiopizzo makes sure they are not alone and isolated in their defiance; the network gives them a support system. Edo pointed out a house next to the focacceria where, about 80 years previously, “Lucky” Luciano had had his shop. From this base he exported confetti to the United States, with a fortune in cocaine smuggled through in each shipment.

When I asked how effective Addiopizzo’s network has been, Edo reeled off what the organisation had achieved: they now have over 500 businesses on their network in

Palermo, a tourism arm and parallel organisations in other cities. Even the office I had visited was an apartment confiscated from the Mafia by the government and given to Addiopizzo to use. And all based on the concept of ethical consumerism.

Over the next week we worked at Addiopizzo, translating the website for their tourism section which lets people travel around Sicily pizzo free. It was a bizarre feeling, working in an apartment confiscated from Toto Riina, one of the bloodiest Mafia bosses in Sicily’s history, surrounded by laughing Addiopizzo volunteers who would blare the Godfather theme tune over the office speakers to shock us newcomers.

On our fourth day one of the volunteers, Pico, decided he was going to take us on a field trip. He whisked us off to was Corleone, a small but infamous town located an hour and a half drive inland. The town’s richest family became the biggest Mafia syndicate in Sicily in the early 20th century.

Not without reason did Coppola choose this name for The Godfather. Sitting in the middle of the arid and undulating plains the town hugs a small hill and certainly looks like it belongs in a movie. Whilst there we attended a debate, chaired by Pico, about the way Sicilians should approach the role of the Mafia in tourism and whether or not it is ethical to use the romance of its history to attract tourists.

The next day Pico took us to Cinisi, a town just outside Palermo where one of the first anti-mafia activists, Peppino Impastato, came from. He was killed in the 70s, tied to a railway track with two sticks of dynamite stuffed in his mouth. We met Peppino’s brother in his old house, which has become a museum dedicated to his memory. Pico turned to me on the balcony and pointed at the stunning Sicilian coast in front of us, and then to the ugly developments that scar the landscape: the unnecessary motorways, abandoned hotels and misplaced airport — all products of Mafia bribery, which ensured that construction contracts went to their companies. In an uncharacteristically serious voice he told me that you have to confront the problem and try to understand it in order to fight it. Avoiding the issue is no use; and it does seem that the resentment and outrage of people in Sicily about this ongoing and debilitating part of their culture has been growing steadily for years, for decades even, and is manifesting itself in organisations like Addiopizzo. Considering that the Mafia is widely accepted to be the biggest business in Italy their defiance is all the more impressive.

EDOARDO ZAFFUTO, COFOUNDER OF GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT ADDIOPIZZO, WILL SPEAK ON "ADDIOPIZZO. AN ETHICAL CONSUMERISM CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE MAFIA" ON MARCH 12 AT 7.00PM IN THE SYNGE THEATRE.

ISSUE SEVEN // 13

COME TO THE DARKSIDE

DARKSIDE’S NICOLAS JAAR SPEAKS TO tn2 ABOUT HIS EXCITING COLLABORATION WITH DAVE HARRINGTON AHEAD OF THEIR UPCOMING GIG IN THE BUTTON FACTORY.

For most people the name of American-Chilean musician Nicolas “Nico” Jaar is one that brings to mind his solo career as wunderkind producer extraordinaire; creating strange, slow, minimalist beats on releases such as his critically acclaimed 2011 debut, Space Is Only Noise. The phrase “side-project” has therefore been bandied about in regards to Darkside, the sublime astral, ambient musical duo consisting of Jaar and multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington. For Jaar, however, such a label detracts from the reality of the project: “Darkside is my band,” he states, matter-of-factly, highlighting the notion that — for the foreseeable future at least — it is really his solo work that one might consider as Jaar’s “side-project”.

The pair met back in 2011 when Jaar was looking for a musician to join his live band to tour the newly-released Space Is Only Noise. Harrington had graduated from Brown University the year that Jaar first got there, but mutual friends meant that they were brought together, “I asked my best friend Will [Epstein] if he wanted to be in the band — he’s a saxophone player… And because he knew about the music scene at Brown, I asked him, ‘who’s the best musician here at Brown or anywhere, really?’ and he said it was Dave.”

From there, the two seem to have gelled beautifully, and Jaar speaks with marked fondness of his experiences collaborating with Harrington so far: “Dave and I have a personal, special relationship where we really let each other speak and let each other do our own thing. Like, I can trust him with my work and he can trust me with his. It’s something that’s beyond music, it’s something about… you know, the fact that we’re both Capricorns, the fact that we’re both born in New York, the fact that we both like each other as human beings.” He pauses, then adds, “For me, a collaboration starts with a human process and that’s what makes it so beautiful and sacred.”

Certainly, when listening to Psychic, the band’s debut album, there is no denying there is something quite beautiful and organic about the whole thing. It is an odd, genre-defying listen quite unlike anything else, with gorgeous brushes of funk, elements of tribal beats and hints of spacey psychedelia all interspersing the layers of Jaar’s signature slow, mesmerising dance stylings.

“For me, it was very much about, you know, ‘oh, here are some things I’ve never done before’,” Jaar explains regarding the conception of the album, “I’d never worked with someone else, I’d never worked with a guitar player, never worked with a bass player. I’d never worked with someone who has an experimental jazz and experimental noise upbringing. All of those things were exciting to me, as a producer — because that’s what I primarily am, not necessarily a singer-songwriter — it was an exciting colour combination.”

This almost whimsical means of musical experimentation and production was also seen when the pair went down a slightly different route last year, releasing Random Access Memories Memories, a fun yet surprisingly dark remix of the Daft Punk album done under the pseudonym, DaftSide. “That came about after the record [Psychic] was completely finished and we, for the first time in two years, had absolutely nothing to do and we were touring maybe, like, a month later. And so, one day, we were just sitting down in the studio and we’re listening to Get Lucky and I asked Dave, ‘How come this song is playing everywhere?’. I didn’t really understand back then why it was so catchy… And Dave said that he thought it was because of the Nile Rodgers part, and he said that no one can play the guitar like Nile Rodgers can.” Jaar’s candid admission of his ignorance of a genre is surprising, perhaps, but there was something quite refreshing about his sense of musical curiosity when he continued. He describes how he took the

song apart in the studio, attempting to glean the exact reasons behind what was so good about the Get Lucky riff: “I really wanted to know, and get deep in it.”

There is such a palpable sense of passion when Jaar is talking about the creative process of Darkside. On the one hand, he laughingly speaks of the more amusing anecdotes of creating DaftSide, “The day that Random Access Memories came out, I didn’t even listen to the record — just, you know, five seconds of each song and I remixed one of them and sent it to Dave as a joke — like ‘haha, look, I’ve done another one’... and then he sent me one back. After a week we had six songs and the album has twelve, and I was just like ‘wow Dave, let’s just fucking finish this’.” But on the other hand he speaks more seriously about the workings behind Psychic, “I guess it was me having this vision of ‘Wow, I wonder what my music would sound like if it was a little noisier, a little dirtier. If it had more references to rock’n’roll than it does to…’”, he hesitates before continuing somewhat wryly, “You know, whatever I reference.” It seems there was never a concrete plan to Darkside’s sound, but rather a sense of desire to find out what the music the two of them made together would sound like.

The future is already fairly mapped out for Darkside, as the duo have some songs ready and are waiting for the tour to end so they can get recording album number two. “We’re very excited to start putting it together,” Jaar said with enthusiasm.

What this means for his solo work, he was more hesitant to say — he tends to produce a song a day and put anything he thinks is good up on the internet, but he was less willing to expand beyond this, “I’d rather not talk about that.” His solo career ultimately seems a little irrelevant — with his own disarmingly slow sounds on the side for now, Jaar can focus with Harrington on the project that seems to have him captivated: his band.

WORDS BY TARA JOSHI

ISSUE SEVEN // 15

MUSIC

RAISING THE BARRE THEATRE EDITOR KAYLA WALSH SPEAKS TO STEPHEN BRENNAN, EDUCATION OFFICER FOR BALLET IRELAND AND FORMER PROFESSIONAL DANCER, ABOUT THE IRELAND’S BALLET SCENE. Stephen Brennan’s story is strikingly reminiscent of Billy Elliot. Ever since he was a child, he dreamt of being a ballet dancer.

But growing up in a single-parent family in the 80s and attending an all-boys grammar school in Liverpool, he was never going to have it easy. “There were six hundred students in my school, and five hundred and ninety-nine of them wanted to be footballers,” Brennan confided.

“I wanted to be a dancer, and they all knew. Luckily, I was quick and could get out the way at the first sign of a threat.”

Rising above the abuse from his peers, Brennan never lost sight of his go a ls .

When his mother struggled to pay for his ballet tuition, he picked up a paper round. Through his hard work and dedication, he won numerous scholarships and a place at the Central School of Ballet in London. He went on to enjoy an extremely prestigious dancing career, performing everywhere from Switzerland to Russia.

Now, as Education Officer for Ballet Ireland, Brennan’s job is to inform the public about ballet and

16 // TN2MAGAZINE.IE

encourage an interest in the art form. As he put it, “People think ballet is just Russian or French fancy dancing. It’s a lot more than that. People don’t understand the physicality of it and the work that goes in. The best thing to do is to go in as young as possible so there is a generation growing up aware of what ballet is, with a clear idea of what it could be.”

According to Brennan, Ireland was exposed to a much greater range of dance performances in the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Since the onset of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, however, foreign companies have been less willing to travel to the country.

“We’ve had 40 years of nothing substantial coming here,” he observed. “All we’ve done is brought over the Russians for Swan Lake, over and over again. That’s all people have seen, so audiences equate ballet with that.” Brennan pointed out most Irish people wouldn’t be able to name many ballets apart from the aforementioned Swan Lake and the Nutcracker. Unless more Irish companies are prepared to take risks with what they produce, and more international companies decide to bring their work over here on tour, we will continue to suffer from a death of variety.

Though most ballerinas retire in their mid-thirties, Brennan appeared onstage until the age of 42. “I was an actor as well as a dancer, so later on I got roles that relied more heavily on the dramatic side of things,” he explained. This extension of his career was not without its disadvantages: “You reach your physical peak at around 27 years old. When I got into my thirties and I was still dancing, I noticed that my body recovery period wasn’t happening within twenty-four hours. The idea of the dancer plunging his or her feet into a bucket of ice after a show is overdramatised, but there is some truth in it.”

MUSIC

Being a ballet dancer is psychologically demanding as well as physically. Brennan likened his honing of the craft to a violinist sitting in a room for hours on end, scratching away until they get their perfect A flat minor. “A dancer does the same thing… But you can put down your violin and walk away from it. You can’t walk away from your body. You’ve got to get your mind over the fact that your body is worn out.”

For younger dancers, there is also the stress of juggling schoolwork with training. Ballet schools expect pupils to apply themselves to academic courses during the day and ballet classes in the evenings.

Students at university level practise for up to eight hours a day. On top of that, there is a fierce competitiveness in the market.

Brennan warned that many teachers in Ireland are reluctant to allow their students to progress to bigger and better things: “There are several good teachers in Ireland, but a lot of teachers are just holding on to their territory.”

Brennan maintained an optimistic outlook, however. He noted that, for male ballet dancers at least, conditions are improving: “People are far more accepting of others being individual than they were in the 70s and 80s. Back then, ballet would have been perceived as sissy, or for girls, but I think that has changed. It’s acknowledged these days that it’s extremely athletic. Jokes about men in tights have become old hat.”

He was also surprisingly positive when asked about the difficulties of pursuing a career in the arts during times of austerity. “People become very creative during a recession,” he commented, “You become more imaginative, and you find ways of making limited resources go further.”

He described how people flock to the arts to find relief and distraction when times are hard. “We go back to the arts during

“ALL WE’VE DONE IS BROUGHT OVER THE RUSSIANS FOR SWAN LAKE, OVER AND OVER AGAIN. THAT’S ALL PEOPLE HAVE SEEN, SO AUDIENCES EQUATE BALLET WITH THAT.” a recession. We have more quality time.

When you’re not running after the second house, or the third car, or the next holiday that year… The money game is over, so what quality of life have you got?” He explained how, in London during the Second World War, a motion to close down the West End theatres was met with out-

rage and Churchill’s alleged exclamation, “Then what are we fighting for?”, Brennan elaborated: “That’s our culture, that’s who we are as a nation. The idea applies to Ireland as well. If you close the theatres, close the libraries, close the art galleries, who are we?”

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALICE WILSON

ISSUE SIX // 17

GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME PADDY CREMEN EXPLORES A NEW MOVEMENT DEDICATED TO INSPIRING SOCIAL CHANGE THROUGH VIDEO GAMES, PIONEERED BY THE NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION GAMES FOR CHANGE Movies, books and other forms of entertainment have long been responsible for reshaping our beliefs and inspiring social movements. For these types of media, it’s not only allowed but applauded to address uncomfortable issues ranging from slavery to mental health. These themes, however, are often thought to be outside the realm of video games. Games are at best seen as a form of escapism, and at worst a social plague turning children into mindless violent drones.

Games for Change seek to counteract this, and to realise the positive potential inherent in games.

The non-profit organisation seeks to promote what have been called “social impact games”.

Games for Change’s Meghan Ventura described the product as games “that address real world issues or experiences that really range from the documentary style games to the more autobiographical where people just talk about their own experiences”. One such game places you in the shoes of a reporter in Darfur, forcing the player to face the same challenges as the real world reporters who developed the game. Another uses a series of mini games to display the challenges confronting those who undergo hormone replacement therapy.

It’s an innovative concept, and Ventura is honest about how most people view video games. When it comes to trying to demonstrate how effective 18 // TN2MAGAZINE.IE

these games can be, Ventura said, “It’s definitely a problem.”

However, Games for Change have made some impressive strides in this uphill battle.

This year’s annual festival, the highlight of the Games for Change calendar, will be held as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s a monumental moment not just for social impact games, but for the industry as a whole.

At the same time, social impact games are becoming an increasingly prevalent part of the gaming ecosystem, with more games reaching popular platforms such as Steam. One such game, Depression Quest, serves as an excellent example of how effective games can be in trying to help players understand complex issues. The text-based, chooseyour-own-adventure style game deals with its subject matter with a maturity and frankness that is rarely seen in the industry. Placing the player in the position of a young adult suffering

from depression, the game tasks you with making choices that in turn affect your depression level. The more depressed the player is, the less choices are available to them.

If it sounds dreary and intense that’s because it is. Unsurprisingly, those looking for a traditional video game adventure won’t find it in a game titled Depression Quest. Unlike most games, the goal is not to provide the player with a sense of accomplishment, or even to tell a story. For creator Zoe Quinn, the game is designed as both an attempt to help people try to understand the challenges facing those with depression, while also trying to help those who do suffer realise they are not alone.

It’s a sharp contrast to the traditional video game archetype of empowering the player. As Ventura puts it, the strength of social impact games is not only “the amount of agency they give the player, but also the lack of agency”. Depression Quest places you in ordinary situations, and demonstrates how depression can take away your ability to make everyday choices.

It seems much harder to find a way of justifying popular Facebook games like Farmville as anything but a massive waste of time. But these games are a critical part of the social impact gaming network. One such game, Safari Challenge, boldly claims to “redeem the entire field of wasting time”.

The game itself feels a lot like Farmville, but with one major difference. Instead of earning money, energy and other gameplay elements, the player earns “impact” points that can be used to invest wells, schools and other African aid projects.

As with most social games , you either pay to

accelerate your progress, or progress for free, either slowly overtime or by spamming your Facebook friends with invites until they block you. On the other hand, no matter how you progress, you still earn impact points. So even if you never spend a cent, you can nevertheless contribute toward these projects. It’s impressive that River Island Games could make such a model work, even if they are lending a hazardous amount of legitimacy to those prone to procrastination.

However, it’s also clear that social impact games are still in their infancy. Many of the games could perhaps be better classified as promising experiments as opposed to fully fledged experiences. The most successful of the games often last under an hour, allowing their statement to be made without dwelling long enough to reveal the often rudimentary game mechanics that lie beneath.

It’s clear that Games For Change are really starting to gather momentum. Some of the most prominent figures in social activision are now lending their support to the project. “When former vice president Al Gore came to our festival and keynoted, and talked about how games are the new normal, that was really exciting.” At the same time, the games are rapidly progressing in both quality and popularity. Last March, the company developed their own Facebook game: Half the Sky, which became a breakout success. The game, launched in March, has already reached one million subscribers and raised over half a million dollars for various causes.

Games for Change now has international chapters spanning everywhere from South Korea to Israel. Through events like Tribeca Film Festival they are penetrating the mainstream, and through platforms like Steam they are forging their mark in gaming culture. It’s becoming increasingly evident that this is a new, unique, and rapidly evolving medium that allows people to channel their creativity in ways never before possible . Books, movies and other forms of entertainment have long since used their unique tools to address some of society’s most important issues. Now, with games, there is a whole new set of tools available.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALICE WILSON

ISSUE SEVEN // 19

STRANGER THAN FICTION tn2 ART EDITOR GABIJA PURLYTE EXAMINES THE HYPERREALIST MOVEMENT, WHERE SCULPTORS STRIVE TO CREATE INCREDIBLY DETAILED RENDERINGS OF THE HUMAN BODY “I could have done that myself!”. This phrase, by now canonical, encapsulates the core of the argument for many lay critics of Modern and contemporary art. It is true, of course, that since the “conceptual turn” in the art world — traced back to Marcel Duschamp's urinal in 1917 — the display of technical skill has stopped being a necessary element of an art work. It is also true that the central narrative in twentieth-century painting and sculpture was the progression towards ever purer abstraction, mythologised by Clement Greenberg as the movement towards “the truth” of the media, which marginalised and devalued figurative art. Yet, beginning with Photorealist painting in the late 1960s, representation has come back with a vengeance. Today, a whole generation of hyperrealist sculptors have redefined the limits of life-likeness that can be achieved by the work of the human hand. You thought Michelangelo was the master of depicting the human figure? These artists could legitimately laugh in your face.

Many of them have come to the art world through film, advertising, or robot animatronics, including Jamie Salmon, Sam Jinks, Thomas Kuebler, Lisa Lichtenfels, and Ron Mueck (whose exhibition was shown in the Fondation Cartier in Paris this summer). Some of them, astonishingly, are self-trained, like Jamie Salmon and his wife and colleague, Jackie K. Seo. A similar story recurs in many of their biographies — having realised the

potentialities of their craft while doing commercial work, they moved into fine art to make something more of it.

Each artist, it seems, has developed an individual technical approach to achieve their mind-bending effects. Mueck, Salmon, Seo and Jinks begin by making a clay model, from which moulds are created. Silicone layers are then built up

inside, or the figure is cast in silicone, and then details are refined, colour is added, individual hairs — in some cases, of human provenance — are implanted.

Marc Sijan also begins with a clay model to produce a plaster mould, which is then sculpted from the interior with a magnifying glass and precision tools; the final figure is cast in polyester resin, and finished with up to 25 coats of paint and varnish.

Carole Feuerman, too, works with resin, but also with the traditional sculptural media of marble and bronze, achieving amazing degrees of realism in her painted

bronze figures. Lisa Lichtenfels employs soft fabrics, using multiple layers of translucent coloured nylon to create subtle flesh tones, and “needle modelling” to sculpt out the minutest facial features. In all cases, however, the impact of the end result relies on the traditional notion of rendering form by hand, no matter how cutting-edge the materials and techniques are: it all comes down to good old-fashioned sculptor's skill.

Although the closeness to life is mind-boggling, it is not an end in itself, which is the essential difference between art and special effects. As Jamie Salmon said, “The most important part of the artistic process for me is the initial idea behind the work. If it isn’t as strong as possible, then the lengthy process of sculpting, moulding, painting etc., no matter how well done, will be for nothing and the work will fall flat.” The realism of these sculptures is a tool for captivating the viewer's attention and sparking their interest in the story which lies beyond that moment frozen in time.

A variety of approaches, once again, characterises the means by which the sculptors fire up our imaginations: Sijan's lifesize figures, for instance, could easily be mistaken for the living people on which they are modelled. Jinks' and Mueck's sculptures, on the other hand, are usually larger or smaller than life, and combine features from a number of people, familiar and not. Sometimes, they focus our attention on the most banal and unexceptional moments of life, making them curious and wonderful; other times, they

ISSUE SEVEN // 21

seem to belong to the realm of myth, or to the surreal world of dreams and fantasies. Lisa Lichtenfels’ creations may be inspired by celebrities as well as people spotted on the street. “I saw the Trixie and Rocky figure outside my car window as my husband and I were driving into New York City,” she told tn2. “I could not believe a tough guy on a hog would have such a cute little dog! When I see an interesting character like that it sticks in my head, and in this case I couldn't wait to do the drawing and begin a sculpture.” Invariably, the sculptures compel us to fill in the blanks of the narratives for which only a limited number of clues are provided, and remind us of the endless depth, richness and complexity of each

22 // TN2MAGAZINE.IE

individual's inner life.

Another feature all these works have in common is the way they compel us to focus on every detail of the human body.

Indeed, as one critic has put it, they provide an opportunity for our voyeurism to appear as studied contemplation.

For once, every blemish, wrinkle, body hair and cellulite grain, which we either despise or try to overlook in real life, is truly interesting and genuinely beautiful. The surprise which comes with seeing these details reproduced is a telling testimony to how used we have become to the airbrushed, blurred, and enhanced representations which surround us in the media.

Unlike much of contemporary art,

hyperrealist sculpture is immediately and universally appealing, and its impact does not rely on obscure philosophical concepts or long, jargon-laden catalogue introductions. Despite this, they are far from empty-minded entertainment — they leave us deeply moved by the wonder and mystery of human life.

PREVIOUS PAGE (L-R): "DRIFT", 2009 AND "MASK II", 2001 PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANTHONY D'OFFAY, LONDON AND HAUSER & WIRTH THIS PAGE (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP): "COUPLE UNDER AN UMBRELLA" PHOTO © THOMAS SALVA / TAKEN FOR LA FONDATION CARTIER FOR L’ART CONTEMPORAIN, 2013; "ATELIER RON MUECK, JANUARY 2013" PHOTO © GAUTIER DEBLONDE; "MONTAGE DE L'EXPOSITION", PHOTO © THOMAS SALVA TAKEN FOR LA FONDATION CARTIER FOR L’ART CONTEMPORAIN., 2013

You can see why The Notas have charmed the Dublin scene pretty much since they started out back in 2010. Dulcet guitar notes fuse with lead singer Maurice Han’s dramatic vocals in tightly controlled crescendos, contributing to the appeal of this five piece heavy indie band from North Dublin. They have come a long way since the band’s genesis in a freezing, damp, and occasionally electricity-less shed in Balbriggan — “We have had some dark times, literally” Hans muses— which produced Rosemary, a superb track of longing and raw emotion. But they have stuck it out from their school day beginnings, despite the fact that all of them have had to juggle college or work alongside the music. On top of that, guitarist Kain Devine on guitar adds, “We are poor. Really poor”; “Trinity sponsors welcome”, Princess Siwela the drummer chimes in.

Their recent move into a new rehearsal space, alongside the departure of member Paul Morgan and the upcoming release of single Cafune, has given rise to an undeniable sense of a new chapter for The Notas.

Their first gig of 2014 is in The Workman’s on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, and is definitely one to catch. The Notas have a

HOM EGR OWN great dynamic on stage, interchanging instruments during a set, something that became a definitive part of their live performance last year. This collaborative approach is very much part of the band’s ethos. For the most part they learnt how to play their respective instruments together — initially no one, not even Hans, knew he could sing — a journey which has seen their music mature as they have, taking on a richer and more interesting scope.

The Notas are part of a close-knit array of Dublin bands; Meltybrains?, Princess, Otherkin and Spies are a few that they enjoy playing with most, though the list goes on. They cite their peers as being an important an influence as the big names they have been likened to, such as Foals, Wu Lyf, and Wild Beasts. Gigs are a key source of inspiration, as guitarist Mubbashir Ali Sultan puts it: “we see something we like, something we want to make our own”. Other influences? Classical music, psychology and feminism are recent topics of discussion, in conversa-

tions that mainly take place in the early hours of the morning in Hans and Sultan’s apartment. Who are they listening to at the moment? This question, Bassist Alice Jacquire protests, will provoke an argument, as they all have such different music tastes. Among the listed are Mount Kimbie, Cymbals, Shlomho, Andy Stott, and Beyoncé’s — an eclectic range, which translates into the band’s creative process, where everyone brings their own style into the mix.

2013 was a great year, featuring stints at Camden Crawl, Hard Working Class Heroes, and Castlepalooza, the last unanimously decreed as the highlight, especially, Siwela recounted, “When Maurice raised his euphoric hand, screamed ‘Castlepalooza!’ and the crowd lost its mind?”.

2014 looks to be just as productive; it will be interesting to see how they develop, if the already promising tracks Vvalentina and Cultured Vultures are anything to go by. The Notas have all the foundations of a powerful indie force, and there is every reason for us to be just as excited as they are about what their future holds.

WORDS BY SORCHA GANNON

F A C E S

BY MOLLY ROWANHAMILTON

FOOD & D RI N K // GA ME S // MU S I C FIL M // T V // L I T E R AT U R E // T H E AT R E

REVIEWS

FEATURING THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

BY PETER MAHAFFEY

REVIEWS

T H E G R A N D B U DA P E ST HOTEL

WESANDERSON FILM Wes Anderson may just be the most distinctive filmmaker alive, and The Grand Budapest Hotel may just be his most delightful film to date. Drawing inspiration from film director Ernst Lubitsch and novelist Stefan Zweig, Anderson’s new film follows concierge, M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and his lobby boy, Zero (Tony Revolori), as they fight for what is rightfully theirs: a painting bequeathed to them by the late Madame D (Tilda Swinton). Events are relayed through several narrative frames. An unnamed girl reads a book written by an unnamed author (who is played by Tom Wilkinson and Jude Law at different ages) as he listens to a story told by an older Zero (F Murray Abraham) about his adventures and misadventures as a young lobby boy. Anderson establishes the different time periods by use of different aspect ratios, the main one being the classic Academy ratio. Anderson masterfully assembles his largest all-star cast to date in this mad, mad, mad, mad movie.

But enough about the plot. Although this may be Anderson’s most complex storyline, he treats the plot as a device to develop his characters. Beneath the surface of the film is an interesting look at facets of the European mindset. The relationship between Zero and Gustave serves as a comic, and sometimes melancholy, allegory of race relations between native Europeans and Middle Eastern immigrants. While looking forward towards progress, the film also looks back (literally) and basks in nostalgia. The 1932 version of the Hotel is grand and marvelous, juxtaposed with the dreariness of the same building in the 1960s. The nostalgia, as well as the tone of the film, is bittersweet.

The most striking element of The Grand Budapest Hotel is its

visual style, which is reminiscent of Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Life Aquatic. Anderson does not strive for any sort of aesthetic realism.

Every scene takes place unmistakably on a set — prisons, bakeries, and grand hotels alike. The actors also speak in their native accents, rather than try to conform to the accents of their fictional country, Zubrowka, while the political factions going to war in the (not so distant) background are lampoons of the Communists and the Nazis. Much to his critics’ anguish, Wes Anderson establishes a new high for the level of artifice in his films.

Above all, though, the film is hilarious. It may be Anderson’s darkest, with visual and verbal jokes about dismemberment and violence, set against a typically whimsical Andersonian world.

The film progresses without a downbeat. Anderson packs as much depth, comedy and intrigue as he possibly can into a period of only 100 minutes. Fiennes gives an excellent performance as the poetry-reciting, old woman-seducing Gustave H, and Tony Revolori makes a name for himself with his performance of Zero Mustafa.

Adrien Brody and Willem Dafoe pull off the roles of the sinister antagonists, but just talking about them excludes the rest of the cast: Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Lea Seydoux, Saoirse Ronan, Owen Wilson, Jude Law, Tom Wilkinson, Mathieu Amalric, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, and Jeff Goldblum. The Grand Budapest Hotel is 100 minutes of guaranteed bittersweet delight, and is sure to please his fans but may still alienate his critics.

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WORDS BY PETER MAHAFFEY

ILLUSTRATION BY ALICE WILSON

REVIEWS

FA AT B A AT DAWSON STREET FOOD & DRINK Hidden under the boutique Dawson Hotel is Faat Baat, an Asian restaurant and home to the impressive Gogo Bar. The candlelit descent leads to what is, in fact, a hotel restaurant, but one which is trying very hard not to be. It is also the location of the latest Students’ Union Deal of the Week, with 20% off food bills from now until June.

Having made it just in time for the early bird (17.00-19.00 Monday to Friday), we each had two courses for €18.95. There seemed to be only two waiting staff, who were quick to take our order. I opted for Vegetable Spring Rolls and then Chicken Cashew Nut in oyster sauce, served with rice, while my dining partner chose Satay Chicken and Pad Thai, which turned out to be the better choice.

The spring rolls were good and chunky, if a little bland, and the chicken skewers for the satay were juicy and tender, though the small side salad was tired and the cucumber had completely dried out. The chicken was dry and the oyster sauce had an overtly fishy aftertaste that hit the back of the mouth; the chunky cashew nuts were the highlight of the dish. The Pad Thai, however, was very fresh and tasty.

The dim lights and volume of the musak set a comfortable atmosphere although we had to wait for half an hour for our starters, and another 45 minutes for the main. During the long wait between the courses, both waiting staff apologised and just before the food arrived, offered us a complimentary drink. We politely accepted (and perhaps abused) their offer. I opted for a Strawberry Elderflower Collins, €9.50, which was deliciously sharp and ended all too quickly once you got past all the ice. Channelling an inner Bond, he

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P L A N T S Vs Z O M B I E S GARDEN WARFARE

ordered a Golden Martini, which turned out to be the highlight of the meal — worth waiting an hour for — and would have cost €9. It was a concoction of vanilla vodka, Kahlua, espresso and a tiny bit of fresh cream, topped with three coffee beans. Even as a non-coffee drinker, I knew this one was good. Unfortunately they incorrectly added a €4.95 bottle of sparkling water to our bill, so that when it finally came, we had to send it back. Though the staff ’s apologies suggest that it was a rare occurrence to have to wait so long, the quality of the food was a little too inconsistent on the night to warrant two and a half hours of an evening. All in all, I would return, but only for a drink.

WORDS BY KERRY BRENNAN den from the advancing hordes of zombies until Crazy Dave comes in his hover van. Basic Multiplayer is split up into five playlists, which amount to just two modes with a “customisation-disabled” version of each, along with a beginner playlist. These modes feature a large scale war where the zombies must capture several points to advance to the final, epic showdown at the Plant’s mansion; along with a basic Team Deathmatch. All of these are fun and well-balanced, with each individual Plant and Zombie having an essential role and their own abilities, advantages and disadvantages which require knowledge and experience to fully master.

The addictive hook of the game lies in its card and customisation system. There are an obscene amount of customisation options and the only way to unlock them is through the card system. This works through purchasing packs: the player builds up coins by playing the game and buys packs of cards with varying levels of rarity based on price. All of this allows the player to feel like the avatar being controlled is unique and personal, rather than simply being generic, as you play through the beautiful and surprisingly massive maps.

The game is far from perfect, however: it won’t take long before the five maps have been played twice over; and the split screen mode, simply being an endless Garden Ops variant, leaves much to be desired. None of these are serious, game-breaking issues though, and all could be fixed with DLC or a generous update.

Overall, the game is a fun, addictive shooter, and in the current environment of the Xbox One’s releases, it is far and away the best multiplayer on the console. We certainly won’t be putting it down for a while.

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GAMES When EA announced Plants Vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare at E3 last year, there was some apprehension about the nature of the title: would any publisher in their right mind be willing to back a multiplayer-only shooter based on the hugely successful Plants Vs. Zombies franchise? Particularly when the last title was not financially successful despite receiving positive reviews. Thankfully though, EA saw potential in the idea and has blessed us with just that.

The gameplay is split into two modes. Garden Ops, a wave-based cooperative survival mode, requires the plants to defend their gar-

PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES: GARDEN WARFARE IS AVAILABLE ON XBOX 360, XBOX ONE, WITH A PC VERSION FOLLOWING LATER THIS SPRING. THE XBOX ONE VERSION WAS FEATURED FOR THIS REVIEW.

WORDS BY EOIN MOORE

ISSUE SEVEN // 27

REVIEWS

S C H O O L B OY Q OXYMORON MUSIC To say people have been waiting for ScHoolboy Q’s OxyMoron is an understatement. The hype surrounding the artist’s first major label album has been steadily building since fans got word of it in late 2012. The trickle of singles has been slow, and the pressure is on, particularly as ScHoolboy Q’s affiliation with the talented TDE collective sets high expectations.

Those unfamiliar with ScHoolboy Q’s rapping will be taken aback by his unique style and sound. Q is the clown, the semi-deranged gangbanger who unashamedly tells you about his hedonistic lifestyle in his guttural, hazy voice.

The album demonstrates what sets Q apart from other rappers today. His defining characteristics are on full display, as he ad-libs and barks his way

the Bank (courtesy of hip-hop legend The Alchemist) and singles Collard Greens and Man of the Year stand out as being exceptionally bouncy. On Blind Threats Q does some of the most insightful, layered rapping of his career over a fantastic instrumental. The features are dependently stellar, with excellent verses by Raekwon, Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Suga Free.

Some songs miss the mark. The Purge, produced by Tyler, The Creator, sounds like a half-finished Odd Future mixtape beat. What They Want has a generic mainstream feel, while the hook of the song seems to hint at a tongue-in-cheek self-awareness of the general public gobbling up anything that features 2 Chainz on it (whose verse is not great, but better than his usual fare). Hell of a Night has an

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patten // ESTOILE NAIANT Cryptically entitled ESTOILE NAIANT, patten’s second LP is much like its name: a mass jumble of singular sounds that risk misinterpretation when pronounced as a whole.

Opening track Golden arc reveals much about patten’s compositional approach. Timed layers of sound gradually accumulate to produce glimpses of polyrhythmic intrigue. The beauty of patten’s complex design is best heard in the tracks Drift, Softer and Key embedded.

Opposingly, Here always and Pathways present the problematic issues of patten’s scheme.

For all the chaos created, tracks often lack development. patten’s garbled textures and melodies can quickly become tiresome and dull. It’s not that the music is very difficult to comprehend, it’s just slightly boring.

Nevertheless, patten’s sonic palette is rich with novel sounds, which aim to reach beyond the confines of club culture. Conceptually, the album is exciting and fresh, even against the legacy of Warp Record’s respectable archive.

AODHAGAN O'FLAHERTY

BUZ LUDZHA // LOVE REPETITIVE RHYTHMICS through tracks, adding quirky noises to his pitched vocals. The subject matter is what we’ve come to expect: drugs, explicit sex and braggadocio self-hype are omnipresent, but Q makes it feel fresh and different with his unique delivery. Like previous record Habits & Contradictions, the album is full of paradoxes as he shows you the real-life consequences of his lifestyle — most notably on Prescription/Oxymoron, where he portrays failing as a father due to a dependence on prescription medication. The oxymoron of the album refers to the questionable methods he uses to be able to provide for his daughter.

Where this album truly shines is in the production. Q has crafted some hugely energetic modern hip-hop with the help of excellent producers. Break 28 // TN2MAGAZINE.IE

infectious beat and good verses, but the chorus tries too hard to be commercially viable, as the thumping kickdrums, airhorn and uninspired lyrics seem to have just been thrown in for wider appeal. Pharrell has produced a divisive track in Los Awesome, which is catchy but sounds chaotic and overthe-top.

The album can feel disjointed. The majority of the songs stand tall and proud individually, but together they lack cohesiveness. However, it still is a collection of finely crafted bangers and reflective introspections that showcase what Q is capable of. Newcomers might be intimidated by his abrasiveness, but once you get on board with his caricature of an unhinged rascal, it’s hard not to be enamoured by him.

WORDS BY ROELAND DOHERTY

Arriving courtesy of All City Records’ alias series, Buz Ludzha’s Love Repetitive Rhythmics single adds to the usual high standard for which the label is renowned. Known for his previous work under The Cyclist moniker, Derry native Andrew Morrison made waves with his Bones in Motion release. His latest 12” sees his sound progressing from the album and is now much more dancefloor friendly: Basslines For Death owes a lot to the tape-distorted house and techno that has been released recently by labels such as The Trilogy Tapes and L.I.E.S. With an added melodic sensibility, the song’s chords warp and slither around the drum beat which at times seem at risk of being completely crushed under the weight of the song’s other elements. Rave With Love is another delight, with its heightened melodic sensibilities and upbeat hook adding a euphoric atmosphere that works just as well for bedroom listening as it does on a club soundsystem.

LIAM MAHER

REVIEWS

UNDER THE SKIN JONATHAN GLAZER

FILM With only his third film in nearly fifteen years, Jonathan Glazer marks his return to the big screen with Under The Skin, an adaptation of Michel Faber’s cult novel of the same name.

Eschewing a clear narrative, the action centres around an alien, ostensibly sent to Earth (well, Glasgow) on a mission to round up and lure lone men to their deaths so their bodies can be used for unclear but seemingly nefarious purposes.

In her best work since Lost In Translation, Scarlett Johansson exudes a quiet charisma and complex vulnerability as the alien protagonist. Indeed there is something alien in itself about Johansson, dressed in a black wig and sporting a plummy English accent, driving a white van through a council estate, her pale iridescence piercing the dark tones of Daniel Landin’s gorgeously underlit cinematography.

Many early scenes are filmed with hidden cameras as Johansson interacts with unwitting citizens, allowing us to get a realistic glimpse of the people and places around the city as we join the extra-terrestrial visitor in observing human society with fresh eyes.

As might be expected, it’s rarely pretty.

From the outset, it is clear that what Glazer lacks in prolificacy he makes up for in ambition, with the visually stunning opening sequence drawing us in with its extraordinary special effects. And it’s no surprise that, as the director of some of the most memorable advertisements and music videos of the past two decades (think Jamiroquai’s Virtual Insanity), Glazer has a keen eye for an arresting image.

What’s remarkable, however, is that this film is much more than just a collection of those stunning images; it manages to transcend

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this and, despite the first act becoming somewhat monotonous, Mica Levi’s disquieting score allows the meandering pace to build with a curious tension.

On the down side, the film trips up in its approach to gender politics, but only because it probably tries to explore sexuality in too many ways. It bares its feminist teeth without having the courage to take a proper bite, instead descending into misandry, with virtually every male character being reduced, often literally, to a walking erection.

Needless to say, Under The Skin isn’t the perfect date movie. It will frustrate those in search of an engrossing story. Instead it provides an all-encompassing sensory experience, with startling visual drama at every turn. Disturbing and uncanny, its troubling depiction of our world in its most beautiful and brutal forms will make you question what you have just seen. And that’s never a bad thing.

WORDS BY AARON DEVINE

N Y M P H O M A N I AC VO LS. 1 & 2

T H E S TA G

FILM Nymphomaniac’s two volumes are the cinematic equivalent of a heavy metal symphony. Lars von Trier’s magnum opus is rude, funny, pretentious, self-indulgent and, of course, sexy. While never quite as salacious as we were promised, the film also never amounts to more than the sum of its numerous trysts. Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is found bleeding and semi-conscious by Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard) in a dark alley and brought back to his apartment to recount her history. Admitting that ever since she “discovered her cunt” when she was two, she has been obsessed with pleasure.

Gainsbourg and Skarsgard give fine performances, but they are not the only ones that pepper the four-hour running time. While much has been made of Shia LeBeouf ’s move into pretentious performance art, that should not distract from his phenomenal work here. At first an annoying greaser who takes Joe’s virginity, by the end of Vol. I it becomes clear that von Trier has gifted LeBeouf his first ever three-dimensional character. Jamie Bell is pitch-perfectly obscure as a nameless S&M maestro. Nymphomaniac does nothing to sully von Trier’s reputation as an enfant terrible; in fact it solidifies his position at the top of the provocateur pile, with sex scenes that will encourage debate for years to come on the fine line between art and porn. For those looking for more than titillation, however, the episodic nature of Nymphomaniac will leave many disappointed.

At times darkly funny, at times repulsive, but never quite as smart as it thinks, the film represents a missed opportunity.

FILM There’s been a bit of a purple patch for Irish comedy of late, what with the warm global reception of intriguing horror-romp Grabbers along with outstanding success of John Martin McDonagh’s The Guard, now the highest-grossing Irish indie of all time. Aiming to bank in on that success is The Stag, John Butler’s bromance detailing the happenings of a makeshift bachelor do in the Wicklow Mountains. Sounds like The Hangover, but don’t let that fool you: that’s as far as comparisons with that US knockout go in this tepid and unsatisfying effort.

For all the ingenuity of wit and humour that trademarks Irish cinema, it’s bizarre to see a comedy so blatantly unoriginal as this, unabashedly borrowing from every decent American comedy of the past few years and inefficiently spinning it with a bit of homegrown charm. Dragging along a stringy and unengaging narrative, The Stag feels less like a feature film and more a series of weak sketches, its superficially liberal agenda (MDMA makes a cameo) desperately trying to conceal its complete lack of invention. You’ve got to feel sorry for the laudable Andrew Scott who makes the most of a woefully mis-hitting script in his role as best man Davin, the only mark of poignancy in a film of heftily-traced emotion. With such an array of talent onboard, Amy Huberman and Peter McDonald among them, one can only wallow in disappointment and wonder what might have been.

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WORDS BY EOIN McCAGUE

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WORDS BY BRIAN WADE

ISSUE SEVEN // 29

REVIEWS

t OOD THE G WIFE MORE4

BABYLON CHANNEL 4 TV Channel 4's latest comedy-drama series, penned by Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, begins with a TED Talk. The show, spearheaded by director Danny Boyle, renowned for his bare-fisted examinations of British society, kicks off with a bright-eyed, blondehaired American spouting platitudes and PR jargon as she waxes lyrical about the modern day's “360 degree communication”.

Liz Garvey (Brit Marling) has been newly appointed as PR manager of the London police force. Hitting the ground running, Liz quickly finds herself embroiled in an unfolding spree of sniper killings which shake the city of London.

Showing that truth really is the first causality of these dangerous situations, Liz attempts to co-operate with police officers and angle-hungry journalists as well as finding her footing amid a fog of half truths, unnamed sources, and off-the-record coordination with tabloids. The pilot jumps between this plot arc and two others stories — the misadventures of a group of officers in the Territorial Support Group as they are recorded by a documentary filmmaker with his ear to the ground; and a group of Armed Forces officers, one of whom is quietly dealing with the aftermath of a raid gone awry.

Comedy is perhaps an odd and misleading choice of words here. Not to say

the show does not have laughs — the wry and well-timed humour adds a levity that somehow does not interfere with the pervading tension; but, far from lighthearted comedy, the show offers acerbic satire, as subtle as it is devastating, which lays bare the workings of one of the most heavily surveilled countries in existence.

With a unique jump cut storytelling that is a hat tip to The Wire, Babylon creates a unique perspective through the lens of CCTV cameras, ordinary citizens recording altercations on their smartphones, and media coverage. It is an interesting and deeply relevant narrative, given the role of media in the surveillance state.

The depictions of police officers’ interaction with the public are profoundly engaging; upon having a determined protester spit in his face, one hot-headed officer pulls a fist back to knock the guy out, only to cast a nervous glance at an iPhone that is one click away from streaming to Youtube. Feeling himself watched, he suddenly recoils, letting the protester pass unharmed.

With a well made 74 minute pilot, and more to come this year on a yet to be announced date, Babylon looks to be a well crafted and culturally relevant satire that will leave you mulling over questions of whether communication really has become symbiotic well after the credits roll.

WORDS BY EVA SHORT

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Deja vu is one way to describe the fifth and final season of legal drama The Good Wife, its creators having skillfully utilised this sensation to poignantly highlight the personal growth and professional development of lawyer Alicia Florrick. Although the past may be doomed to repeat itself, Alicia is no longer willing to remain passive, and her ever-increasing tenacity and ambition in the face of adversity makes for compelling television.

Alicia’s departure from Lockhart-Gardner, the firm which is the focus of the previous four seasons, inevitably burns bridges and divides loyalties. The scramble to secure both Lockhart-Gardner’s and Florrick-Agos’ major clients is thrillingly rendered as jealousies and angers erupt in petty mind-games and all out warfare. The retreats and advances of both firms provides a highly engaging struggle and the unpredictability of whom will emerge on top in each episode heightens the anticipation for further installments.

Although Alicia’s relationship with Peter comes full circle and, like in the first series, he is elected to public office, it becomes increasingly clear that the dynamics of the relationship have changed. What still remains unclear, and what leaves audiences wondering, is whether Alicia is truly invested in saving her marriage and whether now; in the present circumstances, this marriage of convenience might also be used as political leverage against the affronts of Lockhart-Gardner. The uncertainty leaves audiences wondering whether such subtle ambiguity on the part of Alicia will be to the detriment of Peter who uses his position as governor to aid Alicia’s firm, leaving him vulnerable to attack by both external and internal forces.

Having lost its form in the previous season, The Good Wife is back to its best, the legal cases are highly topical, and well explored and the full scale legal and political war raises the stakes for a show determined to make a dramatic exit from our screens.

CIARA FORRISTAL

REVIEWS

U N R AV E L L I N G O L I V E R LIZ NUGENT LITERATURE Deftly rendered and inescapably readable, Liz Nugent’s deconstruction of one man’s character, and the life that leads him to a sudden act of violence, delivers a broad societal assessment in this strong and incisive debut novel.

Centred on the fall from grace of Oliver Ryan, a bestselling children’s author and literary pundit, the novel is recounted episodically, using both his own testimony and that of those closest to him, with regard to the fateful night when he beat his wife into a coma.

What results is a compelling and skillfully weaved narrative that unpacks the roles of repression, deception and shame, not only in the life of the protagonist, but in the very fabric of Irish society.

Of course, these issues are hardly unexplored tropes in Irish writing, and the novel’s edge is blunted somewhat by the reader’s inevitable over-familiarity with tales of priests, absent mothers, institutionalisation and illegitimate children. This said, however, there is a striking, and somewhat unnerving freshness to the way in which Nugent allows these usually distanced, high-octane issues to seep into the recognisable present. Here, traumas are not confined to an evil past, but rather exist as living memories in the present. It is with a sense of almost casual inevitability that the novel connects past wrongs to some of the most predominant themes of Ireland’s cultural present; such as crises of ego and masculinity, intense acts of irrationality or violence, and the unavoidable burden of consequence.

Perhaps what is most odd about this is how strangely new it feels. For a culture and a nation so obsessed with its own past, we

regularly come up short in reconciling it to the reality of our postboom present. Nugent does this with impressive skill, while simultaneously managing to construct a compelling plot. Through the use of a clear-cut structure and sheer word-craft, she keeps every element under tight control, while at the same time facilitating an expansive narrative. Nugent is an author with her finger right on the reader’s pulse, drip-feeding information at exactly the right moments. Her storytelling is nothing if not effective. Granted, there are moments of slight bravado at certain cliffhanger chapter endings in which, perhaps, her soap-opera background can be glimpsed (Nugent has written for RTÉ’s Fair City).

But overall, Nugent’s novel is a solid and satisfying one. The plot is not overly complex, its development is efficient and its delivery quick-fire. In all, it offers considerable food for thought for such an easy read.

Well worth a look.

SNOW ANGELS

human time.

The action relies mostly on stories and memories exchanged by the characters. The dialogue is particularly well written, effectively capturing audience attention. Humour is also cleverly injected to nuance the play’s overall gloom. Stripped bare of their gadgets and of any means of engaging with consumer society, the men can only turn towards — or against — one another. Rivalries are brought to a head as the men, sobering up, are fraught with boredom. Eventually, they dismiss the futile and address deep personal concerns.

Secrets and lies reveal themselves. Loyalties of family and friendship are brought into question, and presented as breaking at the seams.

All notion of time is broken in Snow Angels. It is as though the men’s lives are paused for reflection, a comment on the vacant busyness of modern life. As their discussions turn sour, the writer, pianist and directionless student are overcome by a profound helplessness. Each comes to realise how unemployable and prospectless he is — a condition that rings painfully true to the young Dublin audience.

Projected overhead, snow falls incessantly throughout the performance. Visually effective, this staging enhances their entrapment, casting a natural division between the men and the outside world.

The image is strongly reminiscent of Joyce’s Dubliners, a work that the play echoes compellingly. These men are certainly not angels, but we are asked to question whether this is a fault of their own or of their society. The audience is left to decide whether the falling snow represents eternal entrapment or a fresh start.

However, unintentional overlaps in the actors’ dialogue reveal slight imperfections in the performance. Perhaps the opening night is a little premature. Nevertheless, though a little rough around the edges, Snow Angels is a highly enjoyable performance that engages with its time and invites for serious reflection.

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PROJECTARTSCENTRE THEATRE Written by Christine Dwyer Hickey and directed by Rosemary McKenna, Snow Angels is a bleak and poignant portrayal of contemporary Irish manhood.

Three housemates wake up one morning to find themselves trapped inside the house that they have recently moved into. They are keyless in the dusty house littered with cardboard boxes. The windows are barred, the doors are indestructible, and to make matters worse the pipes have frozen. Nursing the previous night’s hangover and preparing for a party that evening, they find themselves in limbo between hangovers, realising that there is no food or alcohol in the house.

The old-fashioned decor of the house at first seems slightly at odds with the contemporaneity of the action: an iPhone rings from offstage. However, this emphasises the play’s lament of an era dominated by technology rather than simple human interaction. The set creates an overarching sense of nostalgia for a simpler, more

WORDS BY EAVAN GAFFNEY

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UNTIL MARCH 15

WORDS BY MARIA HAGAN

ISSUE SEVEN // 31

7 DAYS FRI 14TH

SAT 1 5TH

S U N 16TH

GBH GRAPHIC DESIGN EXHIBITION

IRISHFEST CHQ BUILDING

LAURENT GARNIER BUTTON FACTORY

Light House Cinema hosts an exhibition of items from the quirky and visually charming sets of Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel. The film takes place in the fictional country of Zubrowka, which means that everything (stamps, flags, banknotes) had to be designed from scratch. To meet Anderson’s obsessive attention to detail, documents were typed on a vintage typewriter, screen-printed cake boxes, and letters handwritten in calligraphy. Lead graphic designer, Annie Atkins, who lives in Dublin, commented on the exhibition: “I’m so proud and happy to have been invited to show this work at Light House Cinema, my local, beautiful cinema. It was a long cold winter in Zubrowka last year.” Titled “A Brief Survey of Graphic Design from the Empire of Zubrowka (1932-1968)”, the exhibition runs from March 7 to March 24.

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Taking place from March 13-17 in the CHQ Building, George’s Dock, The Irish Craft Beer and Food Market is a five day celebration of Irish craft culture. Guests can enjoy sampling the produce of some of Ireland’s best artisan food producers and craft beer companies. Attendees will be entertained with traditional Irish music as well as a series of panel discussions and talks about the renaissance taking place within the Irish craft industry.

The Food Market opens daily from 10am to 8pm and entry is free. The Irish Craft Beer and Whiskey Festival opens on Thursday from 5pm to 10pm, and Friday through to Monday from 12.30pm to 10pm. Admission is €5 after 6pm and all weekend. For further details check out www.irishfest.ie.

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The legendary Laurent Garnier returns to the Button Factory for a four-hour set which will give Dublin a taste of a DJ who has pioneered dance music for the last 25 years. Considered by some to be the top DJ in the world, he found his feet following the Acid House movement in Manchester. Since then he has shaken the French scene, found roots in Detroit techno and globetrotted in his epic search for new and old sounds.

This set will be a great way to kick off your St. Patrick’s Weekend, just one of many great acts which will leave you spoiled for choice.

Garnier will also be playing during the day in Meeting House Square, alongside Mano Le Tough and Cassy.

Tickets €22.50 // €27.50

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DAY: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT IRELAND We Need To Talk About Ireland is a 90 minute creative celebration of Ireland’s past, present and future, which will take place in front of a live audience at 8pm in The Round Room at Dublin’s Mansion House. The event aims to bring together a diverse range of Ireland’s brightest innovators, thinkers, artists, and creative pioneers to discuss and explore what it means to be Irish in 2014. This dynamic platform will feature an evening of TED-style talks as well as spoken word, comedy, poetry, film and musical performances.

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MON

NIGHT: MOODYMANN GRAND SOCIAL If you're still in the mood for celebrating at the end of Paddy’s day, head down to Moodymann (Kenny Dixon Jr.) in The Grand Social. Incessantly grounding electronic music to its origins in America, Moodymann has represented the Detroit music scene ever since he worked in a local record store in the mid90s. His soulful blend of techno, house and jazz has built him a loyal following. Returning to Ireland after a two year absence, he is riding on the back of his acclaimed self-titled album. This will be divine.

Tickets €19.50 HL.

IN DUBLIN TU E S 1 8TH

WE D 1 9TH

TH U R 2 0TH

DRAKE & THE WEEKND 02

CONNEMARA DOROTHY CROSS RHA

BT2 POP ICONS GRAFTON STREET

It’s only taken Drake five years to become one of hip hop’s biggest stars. The Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum-selling recording artist returns to the O2 with support from fellow Canadian and frequent collaborator The Weeknd. Drake’s third studio album, Nothing Was The Same, was among the most critically acclaimed releases of 2013, and featured one of the best pop songs of the year in Hold On, We’re Going Home.

Keenly aware of the space he occupies in popular culture, he maintains an outrageously glam Instagram account, has showed his ability to laugh at himself on SNL, and took the time out of a recent show to ask a couple in the audience “how they’re enjoying the relationship so far” and encourage them to have sex later.

Tickets €59.40 MM.

Connemara is an exhibition of major new commissions as well as existing work by the established Irish artist Dorothy Cross.

Having gained notoriety with works which questioned sexual norms and critiqued social and political structures, especially her famous series of objects incorporating cows' udders, in this exhibition Cross examines the relationship between living beings and the natural world around them. The artist explores the surroundings of Connemara — which have long been an attraction for painters — through sculpture, film and photography, including videos which document a cave near Cross’ home accessible only a few days a year, and Margate’s mysterious Shell Grotto.

Until April 27.

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BT2 recently launched POP Icons, a pop-up shop which aims to celebrate iconic pieces from perennial style favourites ACNE, Kenzo, Isabel Marant and Alexander Wang, to name a few. Many of these items, including ACNE’s Pistol boots and leather biker jacket, sold out when they first hit the marketplace, but now customers have the opportunity to get their hands on these much-coveted items. The store windows and interiors have been given a Pop Art makeover, and customers can shop a handpicked edit of the sought-after, highly collectible pieces such as KENZO’s logo sweatshirts and tiger ring, monochrome wrap dresses by Diane Von Furstenberg, metallic coats and varsity jackets from Opening Ceremony and Converse x Commes des Garcons footwear.

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THE END PIECE

Pa co de Lucía , flamenco guitarist.

Paco de Lucía, one of the greatest guitarists of the 20th century, died on February 26 at the age of 66. He suffered a fatal heart attack when on holiday in the Mexican resort of Playa del Carmen. His long and restless career started in gypsy bars at the age of 12, but hit the mainstream when he popularised flamenco by adapting it with tones of jazz, bossa nova and tango. His insatiable ambition was a joy for his fans but left him emotionally unsatisfied; in 2012 he reflected, “I will die with the grief of not enjoying what I’ve accomplished”.

First and foremost he was a great flamenco guitarist, but his unique ability was to stretch and indulge the genre in a variety of styles. He saw his technique and unmatched skills as little achievement on their own, but a means to reach great heights from within the tradition; “You must have enough technical dominion to forget about it. That is when you can begin to express yourself.”

Born Francisco Sanchez Gomez in Algeciras, Southern Spain, on December 21 1947, he left an impregnable impression on his local area. On news of his death, officials announced three days of mourning and flew flags at half-mast for “the greatest guitarist of all time”.

He was brought up within a gypsy heritage, a community that has been playing flamenco for 5 centuries. At the age of 12 his father, a singer with gypsy origin, was “encouraging” him to practice the guitar for up to 12 hours a day, and play in local tablaos (smoky bars where tragic gypsy

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laments are performed). De Lucía credited these surroundings with bringing the best out of his talents: “The gypsies are better since they listen to music from birth. If I had not been born in my father’s house I would be nobody. I don’t believe in spontaneous genius.”

After winning an international guitar competition at 14, he was able to move with his brothers and father to Madrid. It was here that he found his long time band

“SOMETIMES I SEE THE GUITAR AND I SEE THE DEVIL, I ONLY SEE THE BLEMISH AND THE THINGS THAT NEED TO BE IMPROVED.” partner, Camarón de la Isla. They would play together for 25 years, and afforded a mutual appreciation that would often see them stop playing and admire each other’s talents mid-concert.

Traditional critics scorned de Lucía’s break into bossa nova and jazz, but to him it was a natural progression. From the youngest age he had been soaking up the atmosphere from the cultures surrounding him. With the fall of Franco, the artistic

climate changed in the 80s, and his extensive travelling to South and North America brought him into contact with new sounds.

His greatest skill was to be overwhelmed by the same spirit every time he stooped over his guitar, while constantly evolving his art. He saw Flamenco as a language with a 10-word vocabulary, “I had the theory that this vocabulary could be extended and, instead of 10 words, you could use 1,000, why not? As long as the essence, spirit and idiosyncrasy of flamenco was there.”

His grace and aesthetic matched his proud background. His long brown hair would flow past an unbuttoned shirt, his face was stern yet joyful. One critic commented on the “distinguished air about him that some might misread as haughtiness. He’s proud and majestic, like a regal Arabian steed prancing with grace and elegance, yet able to reveal great power.”

This same haughtiness may be a reflection of his extraordinarily high standards — in an interview in 2012 he explained, “Sometimes I see the guitar and I see the devil, because when I hear myself I only see the blemish and the things that need to be improved.”

His family have commented to Spanish newspapers, “Paco lived as he wished and died playing with his children beside the sea.” De Lucía lived and played with these same standards, a freedom of expression rooted in a respect for those around him.

WORDS BY HENRY LONGDEN

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