Tn2 - January 2017

2017 JANUARY 2016

ART/ FASHION/ FILM/ FOOD/ GAMES/ LITERATURE/ MUSIC/ THEATRE/ TV

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CONTENTS 04 07 25 34

JUMBLE COMMUNITY REVIEWS SEX

Head editor RACHEL GRAHAM Deputy Editor SARAH MOREL online editor jack maguire assistant editor sorcha ni cheallaigh Art siun mcsweeney ALEXANDRA DAY fashion FIONNUALA EGAN LOUISE HYNES FILM LEE JONES OISIN MCELHINNEY FOOD Roise Ni Mhaonaigh alden MATHIEU SORCHA JUDGE GAMES & TECH CAHAL SWEENEY DERMOT DAVERN LITERATURE MICHAEL MULLOOLY SARAH UPTON music DARRAGH KELLY KEVIN BIRD THEATRE AMELIA MCCONVILLE AMYROSE FORDER tv SORCHA NI CHEALLAIGH JACK MAGUIRE

TELEVISION:

Representations of the working class on TV

FASHION:

Interview with Lucy’s Lounge, Temple Bar’s oldest thrift store

FILM:

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The evolution of the posthuman in film

THEATRE:

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Lazarus: a Bowie musical 15

MUSIC:

Invigorating Dublin’s club scene: Interview with Essential Sounds

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ART:

Reponding to the paintings of Mark Rothko

FOOD:

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Forecasting the biggest culinary trends of 2017 22

DRINK:

The best places for fancy drinks on a budget 24

DESIGN & layout by Eoin Moore, Rachel graham, SARAH MOREL & LEE JONES copy-edited by LEE JONES, NIAMH MORIARTY & ELLEN ORCHARD FRONT & BACK COVER by ANNA HARDSTAFF PRINTED BY GREHAN PRINTERS 3

ART Art On Campus: Countermovement Not unlike many students, the sculpture Countermovement by Michael Warren cuts a lonely figure reclining on the grass by the rugby pitch. Donated to Trinity in 1985 by the American Irish Foundation, it appears to have been lost over the years amidst new building projects and an increasing number of fences.

The twisting, angular form of the piece is in marked contrast to the flowing, natural boughs of the copse which encircles it. Whereas the trees rise ever upwards on the vertical plane, Countermovement tumbles outwards below eye level, reminding viewers of a hunk of lumber.

Nevertheless, the sculpture is connected to

the site through its untreated wooden form.

Leaving the material in its natural state allows the piece to blend in with the landscape whilst retaining its unique character. This approach towards material is perhaps not suited to the wet Irish climate, which has weathered the sculpture significantly. A relationship between site, object and human is crucial to the work of Warren. The grand scale of the piece endows it with a distinctive physical presence, inviting interaction and confrontation from individuals occupying a shared space. At least it would were viewers not kept a generous distance away from the sculpture by uninviting metal railing and signs demanding that the grass be left untouched.

Despite being intrinsically linked to its location at the centre of the copse, Countermovement is isolated by the current state of the site. The artist

FILM Defining the Decade - 1960s: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly If one genre of film is entirely of the 1960’s, it’s the Spaghetti-Western. If one man embodies Spaghetti-Westerns, it’s Sergio Leone. And if one film of his stands above the rest, it’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Leone’s masterwork, the thematically linked Dollars trilogy, simultaneously laid out the groundwork, expanded the ethos, and perfected the Spaghetti Western. A Fistful of Dollars (1964) started the trend with huge commercial success, and created a new Hollywood leading man: Clint Eastwood. For A Few Dollars More (1967) was darker in tone, and more ambitious with its narrative. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the final installment, the best known and perhaps most influential, introduces a new motif which has been a staple of Hollywood ever since: revenge.

A simple premise - three outlaws compete to find a Confederate gold-stash - is spun out into cinematic gold. Each character introduction is unique, shockingly direct, and serves to establish the titular outlaws as some of the most memorable characters in film history. From

has remarked that the meaning of his work is rooted in paradox and mystery. This ambiguity allows viewers to form their own conclusions about the sculpture, should they take a moment to look.

WORDS BY ALEXANDRA DAY

Clint Eastwood’s arrogant yet charming Blondie, and Lee Van Cleef ’s menacing Angel Eyes, to Eli Wallach’s morally repugnant Tucho, we learn that none can really be described as good - all are equally evil.

Shown through Leone’s trademark unflinching style of extremely close and extremely distant shots, every scene is drawn out, heightening tension to excruciating levels. Perhaps the true legacy of this film, however, is the soundtrack.

Ennio Morricone’s main theme is truly iconic.

The climactic “The Ecstasy of Gold” is heart stoppingly beautiful. Everything works together to create a true masterpiece. All its elements, from the visuals, and the sound, to the performances, make The Good, the Bad and the Ugly a film that is not only genre-defining, but decade-defining too.

WORDS BY ANDREW CONNOLLY

FOOD Food for Thought: The Avocado Avocados were one of the hottest nutrition trends in 2016, adorned on every breakfast menu and foodie Instagram account. Originally enjoyed as a tasty guacamole dip, the creamy fruit is now best known for the infamous avocado on toast combination. The death of the trendy avocado, it would seem, is not quite upon us yet.

Although high in calories, avocados are recognised for their ‘good’ fats, also known as monounsaturated fats. These monounsaturated fats are essential in lowering cholesterol levels, preventing the hardening of your blood vessels.

This ensures a healthy blood flow, which in turn means a healthy brain.

High blood pressure and hypertension can pose risks on your overall cognitive function and your chances of a stroke. Potassium plays a large role in ensuring healthy blood pressure.

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One avocado is loaded with roughly 690 mg of potassium, and with the recommended intake at 4,700 mg, this makes avocados one of the best fruits to regulate your blood pressure.

Avocados are also a great source of folate containing roughly 122 mg, with the recommended dietary allowance at 400 mg.

Sufficient levels of folate are crucial for a healthy brain and the maintenance of cognitive function, including memory. A deficiency in folate can lead to cognitive decline and has been proven to increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Not only are avocados aesthetically pleasing for your next Instagram post, but more importantly, they are also one of the best superfruits around, perfect for helping you get your study on!

WORDS BY ROISE NI MHAONAIGH

GAMES Free to Play of the Month: Smite

LIT Stranger Than Fiction: Between Silk and Cyanide

WORDS BY DERMOT DAVERN

Readers won’t be surprised to see Smite featuring in our free-to-play section this month. Due to the rampant success of League of Legends, which pioneered top down MOBA mechanics and a free-to-play model, the raft of copycats was to be expected. Needless to say, most of these failed, save for a handful of the best which managed to improve on the formula and add their own unique twists. Smite is one such game. Firstly, the game changes the camera perspective to an ‘over the shoulder’ third-person style. With this minor tweak, the game comes closer to an ‘Action-RPG’ rhythm than a strategy one. This blends well with the dynamic powers and abilities the heroes exhibit.

The heroes of Smite’s pantheon are picked from several existing pantheons.

Mythical figures from ancient Asia to South America are lifted from their respective mythos and tweaked. This helps players get to grips with the game a lot quicker. You are familiar with the names, so it’s easy to guess their roles. Thor wields a mighty hammer, Cupid flutters around with a bow and arrow whilst Hercules is your straight forward melee fighter. One of Smite’s most appealing features is the fact it’s truly free-to-play. Every hero and item can be unlocked purely through playing. When you start, you are given a roster of five heroes, then access to a secondary roster which rotates every Tuesday. Naturally, you can buy ‘Gems’, the in-game currency, using real money but the game possesses no pay walls. In short, Smite is a quirky take on the MOBA game style which doesn’t abuse the free-to-play model. It’s definitely worth a download once the essays are handed in.

Published just before the turn of the millennium, Between Silk and Cyanide is the wartime memoir of Special Operations Executive agent Leo Marks. It details the three and a half years he spent collaborating with field agents in Nazi-occupied countries across Europe, deciphering their messages and doing his best to ensure their safety. This memoir is every bit as surreal, dark and emotionally turbulent as any fictional war novel, rising to the heights of novels such as The Naked and the Dead and Catch 22. The light, almost flippant tone Marks narrates with only serves to add to the incredulity of this true tale. This is a book that manages to show the relationship between the intellectual — the cold mathematical world of cryptography — and the human elements of war; Marks’ stories and anecdotes about various spies he trained and worked with lend a much needed brevity to the dark world of the early 1940s. It’s this human element, especially the little moments of interaction between people, that brings home again and again the jaw-dropping realisation to a reader that these people and these conditions actually existed. This is a nonfiction story at once more incredible, unbelievable and emotional than most fiction.

WORDS BY MICHAEL MULLOOLY

FASHION Front Square Fashion Name: Alexandra Day Studying: History and History of Art & Architecture Jacket: a Christmas present!

Jeans: Penney’s Shoes: Topshop What was your inspiration for this outfit?

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.

What made you choose this outfit today?

Coordination with my hair and warmth are always key.

You’re giving me pink vibes. Why pink?

To make the boys wink.

What is the main motivation behind your style?

To be as colourful as possible.

Who are your fashion icons or style influences?

Twiggy and mod fashion.

WORDS & PHOTOS

BY SADHBH LITTLE

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THEATRE Graduate Spotlight

Name: Roo Studying: Ancient and Medieval History and Culture Age: 19 Spotify username: Roo Hon Best playlist: Mixpak Selections If you were a song: Not Nice by Partynextdoor If Trinity were a song: Evil by Popcaan Song for Freshers: Topper Top by Sir Spyro Song no one has heard of that you love: Free Up by J Hus

WORDS BY AMYROSE FORDER

MUSIC Sounds of Front Square

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROO

Every now and then, a voice comes along which demands to be heard.

Emmet Kirwan, a TCD Theatre Studies graduate, has carved his voice into the Irish psyche over the past few years, representing us on a stage even bigger than the ones in theatre. As a writer and actor, Kirwan has excelled. His first full-length play Dublin Oldschool, inspired by his formative experiences growing-up in Tallaght, won the prestigious Stewart Parker award in 2014, and is currently touring Ireland before a stint at the National Theatre in London. While theatre is where he is most prolific, his recent short films in collaboration with director Dave Tynan (who worked on We Face This Land, a 2016 short film made for REPEAL project) have been making waves online. Just Saying speaks for all 20-somethings living in Dublin, while Heartbreak, released this month, chronicles the life of a single mother in contemporary Ireland, ending with a plea for the state to Repeal the 8th, and treat “all mná” with respect, dignity and autonomy.

Heartbreak was commissioned as part of Riot!, the Thisispopbaby show which received acclaim at the 2016 Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival. His use of spoken-word poetry is captivating, comforting, and feels like a catalyst for the change in this country which so many of us crave. Kirwan’s voice is honest, real, brave and one to look out for as it projects into 2017.

TV My Life is Like: The Walking Dead

(B) I’d put on some relaxing tunes (Sigur Rós) and try to get some meditation going in the meantime. Let’s get to the bottom of all this anger!

Q2. Your zombie apocalypse gang have set up camp in a prison. But the place soon gets invaded by zombies. Just to make things worse, your pregnant friend Lori has just gone into labour. Do you: (A) Go help the group fight the zombies; the post apocalyptic world is no place for children!

(B) Perform an emergency C-section. Children are important to rebuild society!

Has anyone ever told you how much you look like Maggie from The Walking Dead?

Yeah I’ve been told once or twice by TWD fans, I think it’s the hair!

Honestly, I get called Velma, from Scooby Doo more often.

But are you like her in personality too? Here’s a series of multiple choice questions: Q1. The world’s population are becoming zombies. You live on a farm, with your family, confused by the hordes of corpses approaching every day. What would you do?

(A) Grab a machete, it’s zombie killing time!

(B) Bring the poor things into your barn, surely a cure will be made soon!

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(B) I definitely would try to help my friend and her baby out here, even though I wouldn’t have a clue! (Can’t we just go to the Winchester and wait for this all to blow over, Shaun of the Dead style?)

Q3. Whilst mourning the death of your husband Glenn, zombies invade your new community. Do you: (A) Stay inside, you’re not ready for this now (B) Climb out onto a sunroof, rob a tractor and plough through a huge swarm of walkers (B) Sometimes a John Deere is your only man for the job.

Turns out you and Maggie are alike in personality too. 3/3: exactly how Maggie responded in these situations. Congrats Molly!

WORDS BY JACK MAGUIRE

community.

Humans of Dublin P

eter Varga came to Dublin from Hungary ten years ago, for a summer job. Three months later, he liked it so much that he decided to stay, and convinced his best friend to join him here. After meeting his fiance at work in Subway on Grafton Street - “the most horrible job I ever had” - he eventually began the Humans of Dublin project before completing a photography course at the Institute of Photography. Humans of Dublin is a project that documents the stories of our city’s inhabitants through random encounters on the street. The resulting portraits and interviews are collected in a website and book. He took some time out on his birthday to talk to me about his work.

Have you noticed anything distinctive about people in Dublin?

How did the project start?

A lot of the people you photograph talk about social issues. Did you set out to address these things?

I was working in Butler’s on Chatham Street and after a very busy day I just decided I didn’t want to make coffees anymore. On the same day I went out and decided to start Humans of Dublin. That was before the [photography] course started. In a way I risked it. For about six months I didn’t have any income. But I knew that this was what I wanted to make a living from. That was two years ago. This year I had so many opportunities that I had to turn some of them down, because my place is on the street photographing people.

What motivates you to do this?

I was curious about different realities, you know? For example when you are working in an office, you are experiencing only a very thin layer of reality around you. But when you go out on the street and randomly approach people, you can get inside the head of a homeless person, or a successful businessman. What I learned from Humans Of Dublin is that I have the same amount of respect for both. Their realities are different.

But they are both struggling every day; in different ways obviously. When I was working with the Ana Liffey Drug Project, I was talking to a guy who first tried heroin when he was nine years old. Can you imagine? His parents were dealers - it was just left there on the kitchen table. People are making bad decisions every day, but the results are different because the circumstances are different. Anyone could end up in a very bad place if they started in a tough situation and made one or two bad decisions.

How did you develop your interview skills?

I think I really developed my interview skills on the streets. When you approach strangers, you always have a kind of script in your brain, but it never works. Before I approached the first person I walked around the block three or four times, collecting enough courage. Probably people were terrified of me because I was terrified of them, you know? When you practice it, it becomes your second nature.

Irish people are especially into small talk. But when you skip that, you can make really deep connections with them. I find people here very open. I think in my home country [Hungary], it would be much harder to do this project. Or in New York. Brandon Stanton [Humans of New York] says maybe three people out of ten actually answer his questions. For me in Dublin, it’s eight out of every ten. So many nationalities are living here.

Those people decided that they were going to step out of their comfort zone. They already have in mind, to be open to conversations, to be open to new people. I think Irish people became more open because of that.

If you were able to talk to whoever you want, what kind of subject would you go for? It’s obvious that this is out of your comfort zone: homeless people, rich people, sick people. You’re probably not gonna seek out these people to talk to by yourself. In the first year, I was planning to go home to Hungary and I wanted to keep posting when I was there. I wanted to do a project on a theme, so I could collect the interviews and present them as a collection. That was a project on homelessness. It got a lot of interest.

This was when I realised I have the ability to talk to people about these issues, and people want to hear about them, even if they might not feel comfortable having these conversations themselves.

How has the work affected your relationship with the city?

I know Dublin ten times better than Budapest, the city I’m from. You are always walking the streets, looking for new locations and new types of people. I know the whole of Dublin, from Dun Laoghaire to Ballymun. It has made me connected with the city more, because of the people I’ve met doing it. I’m friends with the former Lord Mayor of Dublin, I’m friends with Mattress Mick.

What are your favourite interviews?

My favourite interviews are when I ask a very short question, and they have a perfect answer for it. I was talking to a band called Mutefish, and asked how they met. They said they met in a sex shop while they were doing their shopping! Since then they’ve been playing together. These funny things are happening in your life, but you don’t broadcast it. Humans of Dublin is exactly for that. The most uninteresting people have the most interesting stories. You can ask a punk who has blue hair for a story, but you might get something much more special from someone who looks completely ordinary. I like to think that I’m able to open these little windows on the street.

WORDS BY RACHEL GRAHAM PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PETER VARGA

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LIFE ACCORDING TO THE SMALL SCREEN

inter is the season associated with binge-watching shows and avoiding tasks that you know would only bring pain and suffering, such as cleaning your room and studying for exams — and considering how traumatic and terrifying 2016 was, this Christmas break was no different. But as I sat down with my cat, Ginny, to indulge in some omnibus action, I began to question exactly what I was watching and more importantly, who was I watching? If I did not feel like embracing Dorothy Gale’s southern charm and Wonka’s dodgy business practices for the nineteenth year running, the only television I could even vaguely relate to as a semi-realistic portrayal of contemporary life was Hollyoaks, a soap opera which has a murder rate higher than Ripper Street. As I flicked through my options, I began to notice the lack of depictions of working class people beyond TV3’s poverty-porn staples such as Benefits Street.

This has not always been the case. Up until the 90’s, it was a given to see some sort of televised class struggle going on; be it the Trotters in Only Fools and Horses grafting in order to find somewhere larger than their crowded council flat, or Ken Barlow in Coronation Street struggling with his family’s frugal lifestyle after winning a university scholarship.

Despite calls from former BBC controller Danny Cohen for more ‘bluecollar’ sitcoms, the decline of working class culture on television has gone relatively unnoticed in the larger sphere — amongst critics and sociologists alike. However, there have been numerous papers published that discuss the specific relevance of television as a recreational activity amongst working class people, including a 1989 report by psychologists Karl Rosengren and Sven Windahl which concluded that working class

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boys watched TV more than their middle class counterparts. Which begs the question: isn’t it important to show all creeds and classes on national TV? It is not easy for the working class to hold positions of influence in the television industry. John Sullivan, the man behind Only Fools and Horses, proved how difficult it was for the son of a plumber and house-cleaner to get a foot in the door. After leaving school at fifteen with no qualifications, Sullivan worked a variety of low-paid jobs for over fifteen years while continuously submitting scripts to the BBC. In November 1974, Sullivan realised that getting a job in the BBC was the way to make contacts in the television industry and rise up the ranks. He took a job in the props department. With this humble foothold, Sullivan had the opportunity to approach influential television producer Dennis Main Wilson with a script about a young Marxist. Citizen Smith (1977) was a success and, along with ITV shows based on the London lower classes such as Minder (2009), a window was opened for the south London working-class in the competitive creative industry. This opportunity would pave the way for Sullivan’s hit show Only Fools and Horses (1981). As Only Fools and Horses proved a success with a strong basis on John Sullivan’s own experiences, TV stations tried to capitalise on this achievement. Bridging the gap between the lower and upper class at this time was The Young Ones (1982) written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer. Both Only Fools and Horses and The Young Ones are BBC originals depicting the residents of flats in London, but The Young Ones is clearly intended to be a slapstick comedy with the students almost proving a pastiche of the lower class while attending the

those in their teens and early twenties — without dumbing them down.

The most poignant of these revolved around the LGBTQ+ community, with Ste’s HIV diagnosis and Sally St. Claire opening up to her students about her transition. The character that has addressed the harrowing issues of today’s society, however, is undoubtedly John Paul McQueen.

After eventually accepting and coming to terms with his sexuality, John Paul leaves the show with Craig Dean in 2008’s ‘sunset ending’. However, in 2012 John Paul McQueen returns heartbroken, and is raped by one of his students less than two years later. The difficulties he faced as a result — the reporting to the police, the stigma, and the harsh reality of how destructive these trials can be for the victim and their career — illustrates an exceptionally three dimensional focus on characters of working class background.

But these moments are becoming less frequent, and Hollyoaks appears to be reverting to its early days, at least if the last two series are anything to go by. The introduction of the achingly middle-class Nightingales make Nancy Osbourne’s kitsch clothing and finely maintained pixie bob seem modest. The well-groomed, well-dressed Nightingales waltzed into this troubled suburb in 2015 and within a few months had purchased The Dog in the Pond pub from the debt-riddled Osbournes. Marnie, the matriarch, eradicated the originality and earnestness of the pub by setting up a Wetherspoon’s more suited to Soho.

“Much of the material for Only Fools and Horses came from real life experiences.” fictional “Scumbag College” a constituent of University of London. In hindsight, it serves as little more than a romanticised view of poverty. As the years went on and the TV executives and target audience of Only Fools and Horses aged, it became increasingly clear that any trace of the working class voice was primarily being written by a Young Ones style pen.

This decline of working class representation is characterised by the gentrification of characters and the exclusion of class issues from the main plot of many TV shows. The clearest example of this is in the progression of Phil Redmond’s Hollyoaks. Redmond claims Hollyoaks tells ‘ordinary stories’ but that hallmark has begun to fade.

Hollyoaks first aired on Channel 4 in 1995, as a soap revolving around the everyday lives of the residents of a fictional suburb to the city of Chester.

While some of the families it focused on could be placed in the category of petit bourgeois, with Tony Hutchinson and Cindy Cunningham running from one business venture to the next, the introduction of the McQueen family in 2006 changed the class dimensions of the programme and thus the focus of the plot-lines. As the show matured, Redmond seemed to refocus on the class dimensions of Hollyoaks and the McQueens took on a growing central role.

The McQueen family brought common issues to the foreground, bringing heart to an otherwise ridiculous and arguably cursed neighbourhood. In 2014, the main plot for an entire week of episodes revolved around the McQueen’s precarious living situation. Three months behind in rent and facing eviction from the council, Myra and her extended family had the viewers in tears as they fought to make the money in time. It revealed an ugly truth in British and Irish society, that no matter how much you “look after your own” (the catchphrase that Nana McQueen repeated on a weekly basis), there is always a greater power that could bring you down. Through the McQueen family and their friends, Redmond made important but difficult issues accessible to its young audience — primarily

Now a major character in the show, Marnie’s main function is to remind her neighbours that they are beneath her. She is frequently seen making remarks about off-brand clothing and false insurance claims, many addressed to the McQueens in particular. The plot now seems to revolve around her offspring’s romantic tiffs and the Osbourne’s drug feuds, with the working-class McQueen’s reduced to minor characters who mainly have affairs and hunt for the latest scam. They remain as poor as they were when they were first introduced, but their financial situation is now only mentioned when they wish to have a holiday or throw a lavish wedding reception.

Some may argue that Hollyoaks is trying to depict the step-by-step process of gentrification, as soap operas attempt to be as current as possible in their storylines. That still is no excuse for the widely exaggerated stereotypes and slapstick adventures to which this once powerful and engaging family are now subjected. One clip of the latest McQueen addition, Goldie, and her “party-hard-and-look-after-my-children-I-had-when-I-wasunderage-later” attitude is more than enough evidence that the depiction of the working class on TV has become nothing more than a caricature.

No longer are they people with real feelings and issues, they are clowns for our amusement, fulfilling the needs of the middle and upper classes by asserting their social dominance on a regular basis.

Although John Sullivan was also part of this gentrification inadvertently when he accepted an OBE and an Honorary Fellowship from Goldsmiths University London, much of Sullivan’s material for the Only Fools and Horses scripts came from real-life experiences. This is why it resonated with so many people and became cherished by the British and Irish public.

It was a reflection of a recognisable life being shown on the screen, but with added excitement, which Rosengren and Windahl cited as one of the main gratifications from this pastime. It was not a theatrical version of the working-class; the kind that can be seen in Hollyoaks today where the only thing evident of a working class family is the more material aspects such as accent and dress sense, which themselves are problematic and highly subjective. Hollyoaks is not innocent, but it should not be ignored as another piece of ‘trash TV’ as many critics may claim it to be. The class centred Hollyoaks and its subsequent shift towards the representation of the upper class defines the decline of working class culture in television.

Neither will change unless greater diversity, and the McQueen heyday, is encouraged in television once again.

WORDS BY STACEY WRENN 9

I LOVE LUCY Fionnuala Egan speaks to the owner of stalwart Temple Bar thrift store, Lucy’s Lounge

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he bright pink building at 11 Fownes Street, Temple Bar, is a shock beside its neutral, brick neighbours. The basement houses Lucy’s Lounge, “a vintage wonderland” just five minutes walk away from Trinity’s Front Arch. Venturing down into this treasure trove is always a treat. There are two large rooms – a thrift room and a trend led vintage room – each packed to bursting with an eclectic mix of unique clothing and accessories.

Here, clothes are upcycled to give them a new life and you can expect to find everything from pastel coloured flouncy dresses and glamorous animal print fur coats to the perfect pair of round shades.

February 2009. They have a strong following on social media and often feature chic customers on their Instagram. A recent Facebook post, however, strikes a more serious note. The founder of the store, Dee, states that she has decided to close on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. She doesn’t want to “become a tax collector working [her] heart out just to pay even more taxes” though emphasising her love for the shop, the clothes and her customers. She ends the post by promising that the “wonderful delights” that Lucy’s Lounge is famed for are not going anywhere. The post racked up over 630 likes.

The shop’s mission is to create a “relaxed and friendly atmosphere” where customers can make new friends and find “wonderful and affordable clothes”. Indeed, the one-off pieces can often come in at as little as €10, making this an ideal destination for students. Senior Freshman European Studies student Áine Clarke agrees, paying homage to their cool leather bags and slouchy flannel shirts. For her, Lucy’s Lounge has “everything you’d ever need to release your inner festival hippie”. The lavish flower crowns which popped up over the summer are a case in point, as are the shimmering sequined crop tops.

Tn2 caught up with Dee, who will celebrate 30 years trading this year, to find out a little bit more about this intriguing shop.

Senior Sophister European Studies student Brian Donnelly describes himself as “a big fan” of the store. He frequently goes in to browse and finds the staff to be “so lovely and helpful”. This definitely rings true. The staff at Lucy’s Lounge are always friendly and enthusiastic in their mission to ensure every customer finds something great. Donnelly’s favourite is “a gorgeous antique and druid inspired cape”, a staple of his wardrobe.

The shop was originally known as SeSi and was founded in 1987. It moved to its current location, just around the corner from the Central Bank, in 10

Can you tell me about the founding of Lucy’s Lounge, or SeSi as it was then known?

SeSi was set up on 13 November, 1987. It was Friday the 13th, lucky or what? It was born from love and obsession; seeking and finding a place to belong. After spending many years in London with various market stalls I decided to come home to nasty Dublin: a place with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Dublin was not as it is now. It was like a garden where nothing grew and all the young just left or wanted to leave. No one tended the garden and if a poppy grew, it was quickly neglected and torn out. The culture was closed, there was no encouragement for new ideas. I was the weirdo wearing the mad clothes in the crazy shop. I was often asked why I didn’t get a proper job or go on the dole.

How have things changed over the years?

Where do you source your clothes?

I became very ambitious and ended up with 5 shops, one in London, and events on a weekly basis in nightclubs. Dublin changed and the new generation had more influence. Now at 51, I am trying to slow down. I just have one shop. It is a labour of love. It is still about the constant search for that one perfect dress.

Constantly traveling, searching and hunting. I travel the world and the seven seas. I’m off to London and Berlin in the next few weeks.

Is social media a good tool for the brand?

I love social media. It is perfect for a small business and I talk to people from all over the world. I do Instagram and Facebook. It is very time consuming and addictive though, and I’m not great at the technical side of things.

Who is Lucy?

A friendly name.

What kind of customers shop in Lucy’s Lounge?

Very very very special people.

Can you walk us through the sections of Lucy’s Lounge?

Lucy’s is the inside of a pleasantly disturbed mind. There are sections but mainly a lot of madness - that’s where the magic is.

Who works here now – what is the team like?

Mainly Dandelion and me. I love Dandelion. She is a queen; beautiful inside and out, full of love and delightfulness. Just looking at her is my pleasure. She’s funny too. Then there’s Jenny, a Saturday girl who always looks amazing. Max who works on Sundays; he is our media guiding light.

Plus my husband Rory who’s a real nark and moans when we ask him to do repairs. It takes him 3 months to do it. He does the sewing as well.

He really should be in a museum. Then there’s people we occasionally commission to do art work or other things.

Tell me about the up-cycling process and the crafts you do?

I hate waste. Why throw out beautiful garments just because the design is bad? At the moment we are just making headbands because I have about fifty items that I want upcycled and we don’t have the time for anything else. Our clothes are one-off pieces made for “peacock dressers”. They sell well with tourists, often those in the performance industry. I bring items to my favorite shop in Hackney, London for them to sell as well.

What makes your clothes so special?

I am a rag dealer. I sell the things people don’t want anymore and there lies the fascination. Something that someone discards and abandons is someone else’s treasure.

I’ve noticed you offer work experience here – what has that experience been like?

I love the work experience kids, especially Transition Year students. What a magical time of life, full of innocence and enthusiasm. They give a lot and we give a lot. We listen to them and they learn from us. A fair exchange.

Sometimes they come back years later and we hear how they got on.

What would you love to see for Lucy’s Lounge in the future?

To keep finding beautiful things. To keep going [despite having] a government that is against micro=business and has turned into [a group of] tax collectors. We are coming into a world of no work for some people.

They should be supporting micro-business. Instead, they hinder us. Mostly though, to enjoy every day more and more.

“I am a rag

dealer. I sell the things people don’t want anymore and there lies the fascination.

WORDS BY FIONNUAL EGAN PHOTOS BY RACHEL GRAHAM 11

Are we Human or are we Android?

Lee Jones traces the evolution of the posthuman in film and asks what it says about our attitudes to technology.

“Replicants are like any other machine, they’re either a benefit or a hazard.

If they’re a benefit, it’s not my problem.” These famous words spoken by Harrison Ford in Ridley Scott’s atmospheric masterpiece, Blade Runner (1982), tell us a lot about the way in which machines are treated in cinema.

They are created, often in the image of human beings, and are servants to our race. But what happens when these machines start to challenge their prescribed roles? What happens when posthuman figures begin to forge their own identities, going beyond our control? Cinema attempts to answer these questions, that are becoming increasingly relevant in our contemporary world.

Metropolis (1927) is usually credited as being the first film to feature a robot character. It is a German expressionist science fiction film that is seen by many as a pioneering experiment in the dystopian genre. The nameless robot’s sole purpose is to “resurrect” the woman its inventor was in love with, Hel, before her tragic demise. After this, robotic figures in cinema took a backseat until Forbidden Planet in 1956 re-established 12

them as central motifs of the fear of impending industrialisation. In the eyes of the film critic Alexander Orneila, in the post-war era film depicted machines as wholly mechanical; their lack of a human body served as a marker of their inherent difference to humanity.

This slowly began to change in the decades following the 50’s. Three distinct posthuman symbols emerged from the 60’s onwards in cinema. These were the android, a machine that looked like a human, a cyborg, a hybrid between a robot and a human, and thirdly, forms of digital sentience.

In 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), HAL became an iconic representative of a digital sentient gone haywire. “I can’t do that, Dave” instills instant terror in the viewer to this day. HAL’s red eye, his only physical embodiment onscreen, rapidly became an emblem of our misuse of technology. Once completely dependent on its human creators, HAL now controls the entire spaceship Discovery, and to an extent, the daily lives of the astronauts onboard. The mechanical creature soon realises that it is in fact the humans

that are completely dependent on him. The horror of the film emerges from the digital consciousness of HAL himself and his manipulation of the men. However, as HAL is shut down, he confesses to Dave that he’s afraid.

“Dave, Dave. My mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it.” The film, for the critics Michael P. Nofz and Phil Vendy, postulates the negative effects of these computer-human interactions. HAL is a machine, programmed to respond to human behaviour - but by the close of 2001, Dave feels guilt for shutting him down, for putting an end to his murderous rampage. As early as 1968 the boundaries between human and robot were beginning to blur.

In the 80’s, the posthuman underwent a dramatic revision. The Terminator (1984) is the first of these films to tackle the cyborg figure. Unlike HAL, this hybrid creature is wholly villainous and seemingly unequipped with emotion. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the eponymous cyborg here on a mission to assassinate the human leader of a future rebellion against the rise of the machines. For Rys Owain Thomas, in his essay “Terminated: The Life and Death of the Cyborg In Film”, the cyborg that features in The Terminator represents the fear of “corporeal corruption, perverting the harmonious and synergistic relationship between mind and body.”

Cyborg narratives cropped up everywhere during this period, with Robocop (1987) in the film world and The Bionic Woman popularising the character in television.

It would seem that the late twentieth century was riddled with science fiction films that warned against our growing fascination with artificial intelligence. However, by the late 90’s and into the early 2000’s, writers began to experiment with the posthuman story. The first film that springs to mind is A.I Artificial Intelligence (2001) directed by the always reliable Stephen Spielberg and starring that creepy kid from The Sixth Sense (Joel Osment). Set centuries into the future, Spielberg’s film describes the journey of a couple who purchase an android with the uncanny likeness of a ten year old boy. His name is David and in the same vein as Disney’s Pinocchio, he develops the desire to become a “real” boy so that he can fit into society and feel accepted by his family. In one pivotal scene, David’s brother takes a kitchen knife and in front of his friends, he slices down the forearm of his android sibling. To his dismay, he bleeds. And while it is not real plasma and real blood cells, the shock of the crimson colour on screen is overpowering. It is a heartrending examination of the lingering question: what separates us from them?

Posthuman characters in cinema have slowly begun to evolve to transcend narratives of revolution and apocalypse. Rosi Braidotti is considered the

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there is a festering interest in depicting a more positive attitude towards the posthuman experience leading expert on the area of posthumanism in literature and film. In his opinion, the movement allows for an “eco-sophical unity” between machines and humans. Her (2013) is a perfect example of this communion between the two. Directed by Spike Jonze and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Her follows a man who lives in a world in which technology has become an indispensable part of life. Theodore works as a writer at Beautiful Handwritten Letters, a company that specialises in forging personal letters.

There is no intimacy in this future, Jonze implies. Having purchased a new Operating System, Theodore slowly but surely falls in love with the voice of Samantha (the oh-so-sexy Scarlett Johansson). The most interesting aspect of this film is the fact that this digital sentience bears no semblance to an archetypal mechanic being. She laughs, and cries and feels pleasure and sadness. And as their relationship deepens, so too does Theodore begin to feel a spectrum of emotion that he thought was unavailable to him. The film ends on a thoughtful note: Samantha the OS transcends Theodore’s level of reality and goes to join the other OS’s, somewhere “between the spaces of the words”, as she terms it. Her is as much a story about Theodore as it is about Samantha and in this light, it is apparent that there is a festering interest in depicting a more positive attitude towards the posthuman

Metropolis (1927)

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experience and demonstrating that our interactions with the non-human are just as crucial to our identity as interactions with each other.

Disney’s Wall-E (2008) also attempts to re-align our perception of the posthuman. Instead of the terrifying hordes of machines that we see in the likes of I, Robot (2004) or Terminator Salvation (2009), we have the wide-eyed, innocuous robot named Wall-E. He inhabits a version of Earth that has been abandoned by the human race, left in a heap of rubble and polluted smog. Despite his mechanic origins, Wall-E proves to be the most humane of all the characters in this film. He falls in love with Eve, another robot sent to Earth to retrieve any viable signs of life and he eagerly follows her back onto a spaceship of colonising humans. Wall-E, by its conclusion, attempts to reconfigure the image of robot as servant. Alongside Eve, the little robot is integrated into the human society and his bravery and determination is acknowledged by all on board the ship. For a society to be “posthuman”, Bradotti says, is not for it to become dehumanised, but rather to recognise the possibility of combining ethical values in a wider community and deconstructing species supremacy.

The posthuman figure can also extend to include what is described as “organic cyborgs”. Never Let Me Go, released in 2010, is the perfect example of this in film. Based on the Ishiguro novel of the same name, Never Let Me Go centres on Kathy H., a biological machine of sorts. She is a clone, created from the DNA of another human being. Her sole purpose in life is to provide for humans by donating her vital organs until her death. The film is bleak and unapologetic in its condemnation of genetic cloning and replication in today’s world. Organic cyborgs are particularly fascinating

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It is precisely because of their self-conscious attitudes towards their own lives that these organic cyborgs are placed as Other because, unlike androids and digital sentience, they are made from human flesh and blood. From a young age, Kathy and her classmates are made aware of their destiny as organ donors and their paradoxical separate/ united identity with human beings. Kathy’s sense of selfhood is very much based on her physical body, from the organs that she will inevitably give up, to the way in which she attempts to mimic the body language of the humans around her. It is precisely because of their self-conscious attitudes towards their own lives, that these organic cyborgs are completely placed as Other. Their exiled status makes the audience uncomfortable because it is impossible to ignore how completely human Kathy and the other clones otherwise appear to be.

However, for me at least, the most curious question that the posthuman poses to us is articulated in Prometheus (2012), the somewhat misguided prequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien. Michael Fassbender plays an android called David, whose curiosity and innocence, at times, makes him seem more human than his creators. In a conversation with Charlie, the female scientist on the ship, David asks: “Why do you think your people made me?” To which she replies: “We made you because we could.” David’s final line in this scene is disquieting: “Can you imagine how disappointing it would be for you to hear the same thing from your creator?” For all its flaws, Prometheus effectively ponders humans as god-like figures.

It debates the extent to which we should develop technology and our ingenuity and prompts us to ask if we are crossing a line here.

Machines, in all their shapes and forms, are used in cinema to articulate our fears of and hopes for technology. They represent the state of the future and whether it may be Utopian or Dystopian in nature. There is a sense that the posthuman has evolved from its first appearance in 1927, with its depiction in film moving from cautionary narratives to a more promising look at our future. The rejuvenated interest in the Star Wars world has also led to the creation of robot characters that in many ways, have improved upon the original series’ characters. Although R2D2 remains a fan favourite, Star Wars: A Force Awakens (2015) introduced an arguably more advanced and more involved character, BB-8 and a year later, Rogue One’s K-2SO brought more nuance to the sidekick role. With many more of these spin-offs in the pipelines and with the highly-anticipated Blade Runner 2049 out at the end of this year, it will be interesting to see where the posthuman takes us next.

WORDS BY LEE JONES ILLUSTRATIONS BY SARAH MOREL 14

Theatrical Weather

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azarus is a show that has confounded any and all expectations since its debut in New York Theatre Workshop in the winter of 2015. Its initial announcement was met with equal amounts of incredulity and excitement: David Bowie was writing a musical with Irish playwright Enda Walsh. The project garnered more attention as the details filtered out - renowned Belgian director Ivo Van Hove was on board to direct the piece, which would build upon Walter Tevis’ sci-fi novel The Man Who Fell To Earth. Bowie himself had been cast in the lead role in Nicholas Roeg’s 1976 film adaptation, effortlessly assuming the character of Thomas Jerome Newton, an alien who has left his dying home planet and arrives on Earth with the aim of finding help and eventually returning to his family. Throughout Bowie’s multifaceted acting career, his performance as Newton was frequently touted as one of his best: burnt out artistically and emaciated by a cocaine addiction, he cut a striking figure as an alien who lands on Earth, makes his fortune, falls in love, but in time relinquishes his hope of returning home. By the close of the film, Newton spends his days isolated - holed up in his apartment, succumbing to a gin addiction, being experimented on, perpetually watching a wall of televisions all simultaneously playing different channels. Roeg’s film is a lush and immersive visual experience, exploring its themes with a languid and

abstract ease. This source material proved to be vital fodder nearly forty years later for the plot and characters of Lazarus, which revisits Newton where Roeg’s film left him.

Bowie had always identified with the character of Newton, whose otherworldliness and conflicted status - caught between two planets - aligned itself perfectly with his own mutability as a musician and performer. The multiple characters who seemed to emerge fully formed from his creative consciousness and assimilate into the world through his music chimed in harmony with Newton, an alien who falls twice: to Earth, and then from grace. Bowie had always been interested in writing musicals - his 1974 album Diamond Dogs was the result of what was originally planned as a musical adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen EightyFour. With this in mind, Lazarus arrived as his opportunity to explore ideas and themes that have fascinated him throughout his career, which he could develop and bring in new directions with co-writer Enda Walsh.

Themes of confinement and containment characterise the majority of Walsh’s oeuvre, who has enjoyed international success with his innovative approach to theatre since the 1990s, with world renowned plays such as Disco Pigs (1996), The Walworth Farce (2006) and Penelope (2010). Walsh, 15

whose plays Ballyturk and Arlington are two hotly anticipated upcoming productions in the Abbey Theatre’s new season, was recommended as a collaborator to Bowie by his long time producer Robert Fox. The resultant creative partnership saw the inception of a show that eschews any proper narrative structure for a surreal space where its themes and motifs can be explored over its 110 minute trajectory. Lazarus is not a musical or a play in any traditional sense: it features eighteen of Bowie’s songs embedded in a series of abstract scenes and sequences. An assortment of different characters, some real, some imagined, swirl around the tragic figure of Newton at the centre of the piece: ‘a dying man who can’t die’.

Critical reception of the show’s production in both New York and King’s Cross Theatre in London thus far has been mixed, with most reviewers attesting to the show’s abstract nature and fragmented narrative. The cast all deliver solid performances, with notable standouts including Michael C. Hall in the lead role (best known as the eponymous hero of Showtime’s television series Dexter), and teenage newcomer Sophia Anne Caruso in the role of Girl. Hall’s interpretation of the character takes it in an appropriate new direction: he lends an air of troubled maturity to his portrayal of Newton, and never tries to ape Bowie’s iconic 1976 performance. The cast deliver each song with vitality and despite the staggering number of world famous songs in the show, often manage to add layers of meaning and present them afresh, aided by some new arrangements and the fantastic live band who are integrated into Jan Versweyveld’s stunning set. The opening scene presents the character Elly, who has just been hired as Newton’s new assistant. She lacks a sense of purpose and identity, and her burgeoning attraction to Newton sees her assume the persona of his lost

love, Mary-Lou, whose memory still tortures him. Also given stage time is a murderous outsider called Valentine, as well as a chorus of three teenage girls who supplement the songs as a chorus and occasionally interact with the characters. However, the most memorable and touching dynamic is between the nameless young Girl (Sophia Anne Caruso) who is conjured up by Newton’s imagination and helps him create a plan to escape his plight and achieve peace.

Ivo Van Hove, the famous Belgian director whose recent successes include two off-Broadway runs of Arthur Miller’s plays A View From the Bridge (2014) and The Crucible (2016), was no stranger to Bowie’s music before Lazarus. Van Hove has been a lifelong fan: he once soundtracked a Dutch language production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America using only Bowie’s songs, and as one of the most talented directors working in theatre today, was touted as an apt collaborative choice. His directing style prioritises the actor’s body as the site of action, and his interpretative mark is all over Lazarus: the characters dance, slide, and communicate volumes through their movements alone. Van Hove also incorporated a large televisual screen centre stage which is used throughout to arresting effect.

The set and lighting design, both by Jan Versweyveld, are undoubtedly one of the show’s best features: a beige colour palette reigns supreme while the set itself evokes the inside of a skull, with two large windows that show the live band playing behind the main stage. Video and lighting projections are deployed at crucial moments and transform the set utterly when they suddenly suffuse the walls with colour and images during certain songs.

Live video streams, a device frequently employed by Van Hove, play with the concepts of performance and liveness, whilst granting us new visual

“The show’s strength also lies in its status as a work of art that genuinely doesn’t try to please anyone.”

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“Lazarus flouts all the narrative rules associated with the tradition of the musical.” perspectives on the show’s action, culminating in the show’s beautifully poignant closing image of Newton finally at rest.

The show’s titular song ‘Lazarus’ also featured on Bowie’s last album Blackstar, released on his 69th birthday to universal acclaim, just 3 days before he died unexpectedly after a secret battle with cancer. There is the sense of a dialogue between Blackstar and Lazarus, the former containing cryptic lyrics alluding to death, dying, and transcendence. With all of these connections, Lazarus manifests itself as much more than a cultural icon’s foray into musical theatre, but rather as the culmination and convergence of several of Bowie’s interests, inspirations, emotions and experiences.

Yet none of Lazarus is explicitly autobiographical - instead, little touches allude to the connections between Bowie and Newton, which is undeniably to the show’s credit. Although far from a perfect piece, Lazarus’ greatest strength could also be said to be one of its weaknesses: it flouts all the narrative rules associated with the tradition of the musical. Yet, this innovative approach allows the ideas in it to be fully examined and teased out: for all its themes of confinement, the show itself is utterly unfettered by any sense of an attempt to be what anyone else thinks it ought be.

The show’s strength also lies in its status as a work of art that genuinely doesn’t try to please anyone, which serves as yet another perfect move in the inspirational legacy Bowie left. It is chaotic, fragmented, and at times a mess: sometimes bloated to bursting point with songs whose inclusion seems gratuitous; their relevance tenuous. Yet an irrepressible spark of

joyous recognition surges through the audience at the opening chords of each number, no matter how arbitrary they sometimes seem. To the show’s credit, the songs that work well have a transformative and transportative effect, unfailingly convincing the audience to discover yet another layer to Bowie’s finely nuanced lyrics. Amid all its different devices Lazarus offers up numerous potential interpretations, many of them dependent on the degree of familiarity with Bowie’s music and artistic legacy. There is a huge amount going on, and it leaves itself little space to achieve overarching conclusions or resolutions. Yet, its aim was never to tell a traditional story, but rather to revel in the opportunity to create what Walsh often dubs ‘theatrical weather’ and atmosphere. Both Bowie and Walsh attested that their goal was only ever to ultimately put Newton at rest, and in the poignant final scene, he lies back in a rocket of his own creation, and surrenders to the spiritual peace now granted to him. For Bowie fans, it is hard not to align these final moments of peace with the end of Bowie’s own life: a tragically untimely but ultimately graceful departure after the release of his final brilliant album and the fulfilment of a lifelong aspiration to write and stage a musical. Even without considering the show’s ending in this light, it is hard to deny the core of genuine emotion throughout that is conveyed with such heartfelt authenticity by all its contributors. Lazarus is a beautiful and challenging piece that thoroughly deserves its place in Bowie’s formidable artistic legacy.

WORDS BY AMELIA MCCONVILLE ART BY AISLING CRABBE 17

ELECTRIC SHOCKS F

or fans of electronic music, January 2017 will probably be seen as a landmark month for club culture; namely due to the reopening of Fabric in London. After a long and convoluted legal process, the Islington institution reopened its doors on the 7th of January 2017 to great acclaim, despite the tough new measures agreed upon to curb drug-use within the premises. Outside of this bright spot, things are looking less certain for electronic music, particularly in Dublin. The Sunday Times reported that the owner of the Tivoli theatre, the host venue of District 8, has applied for planning permission to build apartment-hotels on the site. The loss of a larger-scale venue like District 8 is a big blow; last December alone District 8 gave us Ben Klock, Jeff Mills, and Ejeca. This in conjunction with last year’s announcement of Hangar’s forthcoming closure in 2018, understandably leaves electronic music fans somewhat concerned.

Perhaps the people most worried by these changes are the organisers themselves.

Chris K. from Essential Sounds has been surrounded by electronic music from an early age, being introduced to a variety of different styles by his mother. Later on he got involved in the Irish free party scene, before establishing Essential Sounds in 2015. The mission: to organize events

featuring the best in international and domestic talent. Last year, acts included General Levy, High Focus, and the Bug, fantastic coups by any measure. In spite of this, it’s becoming harder to maintain their current level of success.

“The venues are getting smaller, and are closing down” says Chris. This leads to perhaps the main issue with maintaining the scene. “Price,” Chris says. “You could run an event in Dublin for €1000, or you could run an event for €3000. There’s at least 5 different artists I wanna get over, but for the price and the size of the venues in Dublin and what I’d have to charge people, it’s undoable. You need a venue of 2000 people, where you can charge people €5, €10 at the door. A venue of 200, you have to charge €20, €30. You can’t do anything with the numbers and the sizes. It all revolves backwards; we need more venues, and pubs to convert into late night venues in order to make it work.”

Outside of these problems, it can be quite hard for an independent promoter to get their foot in the door. “As an event organizer, there are actually not that many places willing to take you on. There are maybe four venues in Dublin,” Chris explains. “Most of it now is corporate events, and the actual buildings themselves doing it.” This can feel quite restrictive, especially for someone coming from the free party scene.

One additional problem that arises from club closures is rarely discussed: the scene becomes reluctant to take risks. Chris has experienced this problem all too well due to his wide-ranging tastes. “I like how a DJ can mix six different genres and make it work – it’s all about the story rather than what the music is.” He finds it difficult to convince venues to book acts from genres they’re not used to. “The Turks Head, Fibbers, and The Wiley Fox are kinda the only places that book any of them gigs, and it was very hard to get into any of those places in the first place,” says Chris. “If it wasn’t for venues like this, independent organisers would be destroyed.”

When asked what needs to change in Dublin to keep our nightlife vibrant, Chris responds “we need a bit more of a community. We need all of the organizers to stop treating each other as competition, and say maybe

General Levy 18

Monday to Friday everyone have a different event, and everyone working on a calendar themselves.” He gives me an example of where this sort of thinking already exists, a mere three hour drive away. “Over in Galway, the music scene basically goes off their own calendars. There is no elitism over there; it’s basically just the organizers, and they all work with each other, no matter if they don’t like each other, get along, anything. They basically have a map-out, and they all put dates on. So they’re working with each other to create a scene. In Dublin, if we actually stood with each other, there’d be more events with more frequency.”

Establishing our local talent, both home and abroad, is central to maintaining a healthy club scene at home. “The way I was doing it was; if you have an Irish DJ who’s amazing, and he’s reaching 10,000 people, say.

But if you put his name on a poster with another three amazing Irish DJs, and you put someone like General Levy on the line-up, you’re going to reach a much greater platform.”

The exposure is not limited to the night itself. “[The acts are] writing reviews about the nights they come to in Ireland, which are seen by millions, and then your little following of 10,000, which may seem amazing, is getting hit by a million people. So your marketing reach is increased 100 times.”

It’s a strategy that has met some criticism, due to the perceived favoring of international acts over homegrown talent. Regardless, this approach has already proven fruitful, and will be crucial for the next phase of Essential Sound’s development.

“With Essential Sounds, we’re planning on going into France, into Europe eventually, and doing stuff over there. So when we have our Irish names, you don’t even need to have residents”. There’s far too many acts to mention, but Chris highlights Dave Sannen, JMC, Jah Monk, Mad Killah, Drank Williams, Dirty Dubsters, and Rub A Dub as key Irish artists to keep an eye on.

Chris has several highlights from his time with Essential Sounds, but one stood out in particular; “one of the greatest moments was at General Levy.

I had a fifty six year old lady walk up to me and say she hadn’t been out in twenty years, but she’d seen that Levy was coming over to Ireland and had to get to the event!” So, naturally, he let her in for free. This is a perfect example of what motivates Chris; the most important people are always those on the dancefloor.

“We need more of a community. We need the organizers to stop treating each other as competition.”

“Nearly every event I’ve done I’ve felt proud getting people onto the lineups, but it was mainly the actual faces of people on the dancefloor, or when they’re leaving and they’re just sweating and they’re not having this simple conversation that you hear in every nightclub. That’s the reward. .

Nearly every event I’ve thrown, it’s just wall to wall people going mad and partying. Not violent, literally just partying. And by the end of it, you just see smiles on their faces.”

I was one of many people crammed into The Wiley Fox to see The Bug last year, and it was without a doubt one of the gigs of the year. Even semifrequent turntable issues couldn’t mar the party atmosphere. So what’s next for Essential Sounds? “We’re going to be taking a break for 6 months.

We’re going to organize a lot of things. Once we come back online there’s going to be a new wave in Dublin of legitimate after-hours events. We’re working with a lot of people around Ireland to create a good scene for 2018. This is gonna be a foundation year for us.”

Watch this space.

WORDS BY WILL ABBOTT IMAGES COURTESY OF ESSENTIAL SOUNDS

19

Mark Rothko

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ot to appear melodramatic or hyperbolic or pretentious, but it was as though I had not existed until I saw Rothko’s work. It was as though a foreign object had sprouted inside of me; the heart I did not know had been missing. I could feel the presence of his paintings internally, as though all of my organs had buoyed up inside of me and were pulsating to the beat of my heart. My infatuation with him had officially germinated, and it has yet to subside. The meditative capacity of his paintings – his ‘dramas’ – was ineffably striking. They have become a permanent fixture in my life. The humanism of Rothko’s creative aspirations is particularly enveloping. It is his ability to speak directly to an observer that makes his work so imperative; and not just a couple of coloured squares that my dad could ‘knock up in the shed.’

Born in 1903 in Dvinsk, Russia, Rothko moved with his family to Portland, Oregon in 1914; thereby escaping anti-semitic persecution and being drafted for the Czarist Army. Following a year studying humanities at Yale University; Rothko dropped out, moved to New York and enrolled in The Parsons School of Design. Inspired by the avant-garde, he became a member of The New York School – a group of Abstract Expressionists whose activities in the latter half of the 20th century revolutionised American artistic expression. Rothko and his contemporaries, who included such artists as Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline, sought to break the monotonous, seemingly moribund cycle of American art. Until the mid 1950s, the American artistic climate had been dominated by traditional motifs and figurative depictions of hard-working pastoral life.

Abstract Expressionism

The Worlds of Rothko I was first introduced to the paintings of Mark Rothko by an art therapist I visited regularly for a few months. During our sessions together, I would map out the oscillation of my thought process on a sheet of paper while we chattered about anything that happened to come up.

One evening, she mentioned the art of Mark Rothko and began to talk about his distinctive depth of colour and the spiritual quality she found so ubiquitous in his work. “Actually, I think you would find his art interesting,” she said. On her recommendation, I googled ‘Mark Rothko’ that evening and experienced something which surpassed mere interest.

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The Abstract Expressionists emphasised emotional expression through the process of creating art rather than fixation on the ultimate visual product. Rothko achieved the effervescent quality of his coruscating colours through an assiduous process of repeatedly layering paint on wet paint with meticulous blending. This brilliantly expressive and nuanced technique transformed a finite canvas into a cosmic plain of luminous colour resulting in a paintings with the ability to mystify and emotionally engulf a viewer.

By disintegrating the physical space between the observer and the painting, Rothko wished to evoke an emotional dialogue. Rothko believed in the ability of this dialogue to create a visceral, transformative encounter which could express the essence of the universal human drama.

The formal tools of his trade served Rothko merely as instruments. For him, the spatiality of colour, or colour fields, held mystical powers which transposed themselves to the viewer. This interplay between the spectator and the painting transcends the chaos of corporeality and offers spiritual edification. As Rothko himself expressed it: “the abstract artist has given material existence to many unseen worlds... For art, to me, is an anecdote of the spirit.”

As one stands in front of a Rothko – he recommended to stand only inches away from the canvas – they project emotion upon the painting, while the painting projects visual and meditative context upon the observer.

The products of this synthesised interplay between a viewer’s psyche and Rothko’s brushstrokes in relation to phenomenology is fascinating.

Phenomenology Phenomenology, founded by Edmund Husserl, is a philosophical school which examines consciousness as an intentional “reaching out” to objects we are presented with, be they physical or mental. It considers the most fundamental philosophical enterprise to be the act of describing those objects precisely as they are presented to us, without theoretical

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the abstract artist has given material existence to many unseen worlds interference. For phenomenologists, this is the method of enquiry that gets us closest to reality. In psychology, the term “phenomenology” has come to denote an approach that centres on individual subjective experience, and rejects reductionism.

Each and every one of us has a unique experience of reality which is beyond the total comprehension of anyone else. I could not possibly understand the reality of my kitten because I cannot inhabit his tiny, furry body. The same goes for myself and Trump, Beyonce and Queen Elizabeth, my mother and your mother, and so on.

We have come across an interesting paradox. Rothko attempted to encapsulate the universal human experience in his paintings, however, a phenomenological approach would seem to imply that there is no universal human experience to be communicated. If one were to ask a collection of people about their experiences of Rothko paintings, it would shed light on their individual phenomenologies, but would not necessarily reveal any single quality inherent in the paintings themselves.

when this painting prompted them to consider the smudged mark which clings on to their arm hours after they wipe off a lipstick swatch.

The second Rothko I presented was ‘Black in Deep Red’. Completed in 1957, this painting observes the dejected ambience and rectangular format which has become synonymous with Rothko.

Upon viewing this image, Subject 1.1’s mind reminisced upon the ominous tranquility involved with rage; the serene disassociation evoked by the build up of a fiery inferno inside of them. Taking a less terrifying approach, subject #1856 thought of drumsticks. Another was reminded of the pervasive knot in their stomach that they experience when arguing with their mum. When Subject R2D2 observed this canvas they thought of survivalism and their ineffable but persistent motivation to not give up despite the nonsense life can throw at them. Personally, this painting immediately made me think of the sound of Daniel Radcliffe mimicking Aragog’s pincers in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Similarly, Subject 3 was reminded of the scene in A Series of Unfortunate Events when Aunt Josephine was ravaged by the Lachrymose leeches. A considerable amount of my subjects associated this painting with nightmares and invisible evils.

I believe this investigation affirms my claim to Rothko’s ability to reflect the phenomena of the world in his paintings. My subjects detailed a myriad of images, noises and sensations which Rothko invoked within them, each as individuated and enchanting as the last. From Spanish bullfighting to pomegranates and sexual liberty, almost every facet of human existence is reflected by Rothko’s intoxicating colours. Having died in 1970, Rothko remains one of the most preeminent artists of abstraction in American history. The critic Bryan Robertson said of Rothko’s work, “We are left with a presence rather than a specific identity.” It is the perennial presence Rothko has which makes his work so significant. I would know, my sister gave me a Mark Rothko calendar for Christmas.

WORDS BY EMMA JANE MEEHAN

Responding to Rothko I introduced a couple of Rothko creations to some of my friends people as a means of further comprehending their individual realities, a kind of Rothko-themed Rorschach test. Can Rothko’s brushstrokes meander into the deepest extremities of our psyches?. I asked the observers to describe their instantaneous reaction to the paintings; be it a sensory experience, a particularly visceral memory, a recollection of a scene in a movie, or everything all at once.

The first Rothko I chose to display is an untitled piece in which the red, yellow and pink hues coalesce into a fusion of radiating warmth.

Having tried my best to clear my mind of any preconceptions, I viewed the piece and was immediately reminded of the unique sense of airlessness I felt when on summer holidays in a humid, Mediterranean country as a young girl. The wholesome taste of perfectly formed mozzarella, beefy tomatoes and the distant smell of chlorine come to mind. One of my subjects who I will name #38, seemed to concur with this notion by using just three words to describe their reaction; ‘Wibbly Wobbly Wonder.’ Another subject, #1856, thought of children’s drawings of traffic lights while Subject 1.1’s mind leapt to images of elephants on pedestals. SUBJECT X was distinctly reminded of a certain pair of pedal pushers they had as a child, of the feeling of gnawing friction one gets when synthetic material rubs against skin. Finally, I got an intriguing glimpse into the experiences of Subject 3

Black in Deep Red, 1957 21

KEEPING UP WITH KOMBUCHA Sorcha Judge brings us up to speed on the culinary trends that are set to catch on in 2017

H

ave you noticed that your burrito devotee friend has started paying Chopped a few more visits this year? You’re not the only one. Healthy eating, and veganism in particular, are forecasted to become more popular food trends than ever before in 2017. Lisa – the manager at health food store Nourish – reckons that this increased interest is down to influencers such as Ella Woodward, Hemsley & Hemsley, our own Roz Purcell and of course, the Happy Pear twins. Increased coverage of the lifestyles of these minor celebrities on social media means that we are being constantly bombarded with snapchats of vegan meals and clean-eating instagrams.

A backlash to this trend is also flourishing, due to outspoken carnivorous ambassadors such as Pitt Bros on Millennium Walkway and My Meat Wagon in Smithfield.

Celebrity Endorsements Interest in healthy eating has become noticeable in the last few years.

2016’s most popular superfood was, without a doubt, coconut oil. This product was heavily endorsed by celebrities such as Sienna Miller for use as a hair conditioner. Health gurus such as Madeleine Shaw, Joe Wicks, and the aforementioned Ella use it in place of oils with a higher saturated fat content and also as an ingredient in sweet dishes. Thanks to these famous fans and the social media coverage they provide, it became a more accessible ingredient. As it became more popular, competing brands ensured that prices dropped and it quickly popped up in mainstream stores. Coconut oil earns its reputation as a superfood. Health benefits include supporting weight loss, boosting metabolism and being packed full of healthy fats.

Sales in Nourish so far this year have indicated that watermelon is set to be the new coconut. While this new-found popularity could be attributed to Beyoncé partnering up with WTRMLN WTR, a brand that produces coldpressed watermelon juice, it could also be argued that this up and coming trend is down to watermelon’s low calorie count and the antioxidants present in the fruit. Watermelon keeps your bones strong and, due to the combination of vitamins B1 and B6, boosts energy. Probably the most relevant nutritional benefit of watermelon water is the high levels of potassium. One bottle of WTRMLN WTR provides double the amount of potassium that a banana does. Why so much enthusiasm about potassium?

Well, it’s a proven hangover cure. So even if you’re not a health nut, try a watermelon water on your next grim Sunday morning and see if this new trend works for you!

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Fermentation Another culinary trick that is set to take off in 2017 is fermentation. The Happy Pear are definitely the driving force behind this one with four recipes on their YouTube channel incorporating fermentation. However, they aren’t the only fermentation enthusiasts pushing this trend in Ireland.

Practically every café now offers a sourdough bread option with kombucha – a fermented drink made with tea, sugar, bacteria and yeast – becoming more and more popular. Kimchi, a Korean dish of fermented vegetables, is predicted to be popular in Ireland this year with Cultured Kitchen – an Irish vegan kimchi range – coming soon to Nourish and already stocked in Urban Health, The Hopsack, and The Happy Pear. Fermentation is the process of keeping foods in brine in order to prevent bad bacteria from growing, while at the same time allowing good bacteria to be present.

Like coconut oil, fermentation isn’t just a fad. The health benefits such as reduced bloating, improved digestion and easier absorption of nutrients are likely to make fermented foods a staple in our stores and homes this year.

A related craze is the fermented milk drink, kefir. Popular brunch haunt The Fumbally have been offering kefir as an option since mid 2015, but the rest of Dublin has been slow to catch up. However, with kefir becoming more accessible in food stores and supermarkets, it will be everywhere in 2017. Health stores such as Nourish and Holland & Barrett are also selling kefir starter cultures to facilitate those who are opting for the homemade choice. This keeps with the overall move towards healthy eating as some people champion kefir as a probiotic and an antibiotic. There is also a claim that, due to the soothing effect kefir has on the nervous system, it also offers a better night’s sleep and has a reductive effect on anxiety.

“Due to the soothing effect kefir has on the nervous system, it also offers a better night’s sleep and has a reductive effect on anxiety.”

“There has been a reactionary backlash to both the healthy-eating craze and the vegan movement.”

Veganism Vegetarianism has been steadily gaining popularity in Ireland for the past few years, but veganism has gotten off to a slow start. However, that is all set to change in 2017 with ‘Veganaury’ establishing itself as a resolution in the same vein as Dry January. Although Dublin has long offered a restricted menu for vegans and vegetarians, 2016 saw a change. From Sova Food Vegan Butcher, Ireland’s first fully vegan restaurant opening on Pleasants Street, to McGuinness’ Traditional Takeaway on Camden Street providing drunk food for vegans and vegetarians looking for a midnight snack.

2017 is already seeing an increase in people identifying as vegetarians or vegans. Lisa, from Nourish, puts this down to increased accessibility of vegetarian options and the growing vegan activism movement in Ireland. There is a strong Irish movement growing due to both animal rights and environmental awareness groups. Disregarding personal views upon the use of animals in farming, the animal farming industry uses a disproportionate amount of land and water resources compared to plant farming. Choosing meals that are less reliant on animal produce is an easy and hassle free way to reduce the cost of our eating on the planet. It is clear that our food choices are becoming more sustainable. This is the most important food trend of 2017 and, indeed, the foreseeable future.

Backlash There has been a reactionary backlash to both the healthy-eating craze and the vegan movement. Pitt Bros, a BBQ restaurant on George’s Street advocated shunning veganism and opting for the meat option with their window advertisement: ‘Wish this was made from tofu, said no one ever’ followed by ‘#EATMEAT’. The success of restaurants such as Pitt Bros, My Meat Wagon, and Bison Bar & BBQ show that even as the vegan community grows, meat lovers are going nowhere. If anything, a focus on meat and meat grown locally and cooked well, is another food fad that has established itself quietly and is only set to grow. This means that Dublin is providing an abundance of gastronomical options in 2017. If you choose to eat meat, you can have any kind in any style and there are safe havens all over the city in which eating meat is not looked down upon but explicitly encouraged.

If do you choose to opt for the vegan diet, make sure to put it on your tinder profile. It’s a great conversation starter, trust me.

WORDS BY SORCHA JUDGE

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Not Another Can at the Pav

Cheap prices, while not always a deal-breaker, are definitely a factor in the choice of both bar and beverage. Although Tesco cans or a bottle of Revero at the Pav (or in a dodgy flat in Phibsborough) are still a favourite for many before heading out for the night, it can be nice to mix it up with a cocktail or the like in the comfort of one of Dublin’s ever-increasing number of bars. Here’s a list of some of the best places to drink around the city; kind to your Instagram and kind to your bank balance.

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Pyg

South William

777

Home to students, tourists and twentysomethings alike; this Powerscourt-situated bar is a classic choice for midweek cocktails. Grab a sofa on the Coppinger Row terrace and spend the evening (or mid-lecture break) peoplewatching, with two cocktails for €13, MondayThursday.

New home to club-night C.U.N.T on a Tuesday, the South William Bar is no stranger to good drink deals. Mondays are 50% off all drinks (and €5 pizzas!) while cocktails are half-price every Tuesday and Wednesday. Mimosas are also bottomless for €15 on a Sunday. Deals that are often announced last-minute on Facebook.

Sticking to the Mexican theme, this black box bar on South Great George’s Street is one of the best examples of modern Dublin nightlife. With pumping music and two for €12 margaritas on a Monday night, it’s sure to be messy – just be careful of the high stools at the bar. Try it for 777Sundays where brunch dishes and cocktails alike are €7.77 and an ideal recovery for Saturday’s sins.

Fade St. Social

Rustic Stone

You may have thought that this is one to save for a nice dinner when the parents come to visit, but for drinks, this is one that’s worth a visit. Come on a Monday for €5 mojitos as well as €5 tapas in the Gastrobar (just make sure to mention the deal!) or head up to the rooftop bar on a Tuesday for half-price classic cocktails (averaging at around €6 each). Happy hour runs Wednesday to Friday, 4-6pm with half price aperol spritz, Hendrick’s G&Ts and whiskey sours!

Not the most obvious choice, but a hidden gem all the same. Perfect for a late Saturday night drink with a bit of extra class. 2 bottles of prosecco for €50, 5 bottles of Peroni for €18 and classic cocktails are half-price after 11pm in the bar upstairs – just use the side door to get in.

Xico

The Forty Foot Taking us outside of the city centre for this last spot. Part of the Wetherspoons franchise, The Forty Foot is well worth the scenic DART trip.

All through the week, drinks are at consistently low prices – individual drinks all for under a fiver and pitchers of cocktails are around €10.

Take an evening off, enjoy the view; enjoy the prices.

Mondays at ‘Xico are dangerous and irresistible.

Get to the Baggot Street basement early to save disappointment (and avoid a strict over 21s policy) and spend your night indulging in a fantasy fiesta of half-price Mexican food and drink all night from 5pm.

WORDS BY FERGAL O BAOILL-GALLCHOBHAIR

REVIEWS BROWN THOMAS SPRING/SUMMER 2017 12 January ●●●●○

Brown Thomas’ greatest strength is its ability to synthesise disparate trends from the international fashion industry into its own unique sartorial story. It has the rare opportunity to revoke the staleness from clothes that were shown internationally almost four months ago by refashioning them within a new context. In the lofty showroom of Level 2 of the department store, the latest curation of pieces amalgamate household names with emerging designers to unfurl this season’s exclusive narrative.

The idea percolated down to casual daywear, which saw a concentrated effort to rewire the most basic of staple pieces: the shirt.

For Balenciaga, it was a matter easily solved by deconstruction, slicing sleeves from the armpit to the cuff which devised an innovative cape detail. Similar tactics were employed by Jacquemus, a recent addition to Brown Thomas’ directory this season. The Paris-based label’s signature play with proportions subverted the structural qualities of the shirt by transforming it into a sporty dress - a far cry from its masculine, formal origins.

Yeezy was one of the few menswear brands on show this season, which made the mens component feel like an unnecessary footnote in this collection. However it should also be mentioned that within the collection’s large womenswear section, there was a glaring lack of diversity on the runway. This remains to be a contentious issue on an industry-wide level

so it was disappointing to see such a myopic representation on the Irish catwalk. Brown Thomas possesses a uniquely influential platform in Irish fashion and thus has a certain responsibility to uphold. Its line up for Spring/ Summer 2017 fails to represent the diversity of the Brown Thomas customer as eclectically as the clothing did.

While Brown Thomas isn’t setting out to revolutionise the fashion industry, it should at least be commended for it’s ability to coalesce a selection of womenswear and menswear from international designers and present it as an original collection, especially, one that is going to be palpable to the Irish customer. Sartorially this season was both cohesive and diverse, but most impressively it envisioned a romanticised fantasy as a tangible and contemporary aspiration.

WORDS BY LOUISE HYNES

fashion

For Spring/Summer 2017, Brown Thomas proposed a vision of contemporary romanticism. An idealised femininity updated by twists of modern techniques and textiles.

Particularly noteworthy are Victoria Beckham’s impressively precise knitwear cut-outs, the undulating asymmetry of a classic skirt suit

by Proenza Schouler and the rendering of a signature Dior bustier dress in quilted leather and tulle. Aesthetically each designer couldn’t be more different, but within this collection they were unified by their singular aim to reconsider archetypical feminine patterns for a more contemporary lifestyle.

predominantly feminine runway. Despite being firmly grounded in streetwear principles, neither brand skewed the dreamy mood of the show. Certainly, the pieces on display were the most subdued from their respective collections, but it was nonetheless intriguing to see a black denim suit by Vetements adopt a certain romantic nostalgia within the context of Brown Thomas’ narrative. Similarly, the simplification of athleisure forms and earthy palettes, now synonymous with Yeezy, helped define the tranquil mood of the show rather than deduct from it.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEON FARRELL COURTESY OF PHOTOCALL IRELAND

Admittedly, there were moments when Brown Thomas relied on clichéd notions of femininity, such as frills and florals, in order to express its idealistic vision. However, due to the wide breadth of its collection, it avoided falling too far into these sartorial tropes. The kinetic textiles of Dries Van Noten disrupted the lengthy procession of floral prints, while frills were reworked in dishevelled denim by Marques’ Almeida and, in classic J.W. Anderson fashion, were envisioned as strangely erotic elements.

Perhaps most surprising, was the inclusion of Vetements and Yeezy in this season’s 25

theatre

You can think of The Spinning Heart as a oneman show – except with 24 characters played by 12 talented actors. The story unfolds through individual narratives as each character tells their part of the story in turn. The Spinning Heart’s unusual format is carried over from the novel by Donal Ryan, in which each chapter features the first-person perspective of a different inhabitant of the small town that provides the setting.

THE SPINNING HEART Smock Alley Theatre 23-28 January ●●●●●

As the plot becomes tenser and grittier in the second act, the audience grows desperate to hear certain characters speak again; waiting for them to dispel rumours and illuminate clouded waters. However, these characters remain silent, and the story is left in the hands of friends, neighbours and family to piece the narrative together. In a play focused on community and interdependency, it makes for an extremely effective storytelling technique.

The play begins reasonably light-hearted as the audience laughs at the protagonist, Bobby, complaining about his ageing father. However, as the story progresses, it subtly weaves in a darker undertone, one that reflects the state of Irish society. We delve into a range of issues that permeate modern life: unemployment, religion, emigration, family, and particularly mental health (“I’ll be grand in a while” is perhaps the most poignant and representative line in the script). What stands out about how the show tackles these issues is that they almost don’t stand out at all. The play doesn’t take a moralistic or educational approach, but simply portrays the

PARADISE VALLEY Grouper Yellow Electric ●●●●○

daily dilemmas of Irish life with raw, unfiltered honesty.

The set is minimalistic, with the sense of place and time effortlessly established by the characters’ stories and attitudes, not to mention the array of rural-Irish accents captured skilfully by the cast. Killian Coyle, graduate of the Gaiety School of Acting, gives a stellar performance as protagonist Bobby Mahon. His acute portrayal of a redundant builder struggling under the pressure to earn a living and feeling locked inside his own head, unable to express his emotions, constructs what becomes a recurring theme throughout the play – the crippling impact of toxic masculinity. The Spinning Heart explores society’s demand on men to appear strong and withhold emotion in a nuanced and intriguing manner.

Other characters include an excitable but lonely single mother, a young lesbian, an insightful Eastern-European immigrant, and a toddler.

Certain characters occasionally feel caricatureish when first introduced. However, skilful writing and keen performances ensure that each quickly escapes restrictive tropes and flourishes as a unique character in their own right.

PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM MAHER

Only those who were quickest off the mark were able to grab a physical copy of Liz Harris’ first new music in over two years. Paradise Valley was self-released through her Bandcamp page on 21 December, and the 1000 printed 7” singles (plus a few t-shirts) were snapped up almost

The Spinning Heart is a play of love and loss, and above all, community. With its relatable characters, immersive plot and excellent acting, this enticing play certainly has that special something one goes to the theatre in search of.

WORDS BY LAUREN BOLAND

immediately - with good reason. Paradise Valley marks a return to the “classic” Grouper sound after the relative clarity of 2014’s piano-driven Ruins.

These two tracks feature Harris at both her most vulnerable and most comfortable, weaving a blanket with her voice and guitar under a familiar veil of reverb in a way that only she can.

“Why does love keep letting me down?” she asks over Headache’s mournful melody, while gently strumming a guitar so low and deep it may well be fitted with bass strings. “I’m Clean Now” relies less on melody, instead conjuring a dark atmosphere appropriate for its release date on the Winter Solstice.

Harris hinted in her mailing list that this was the first of several smaller-scale releases to come in the near-future. After what has been a challenging year for many, it is some consolation to know that there is still some beauty to be found in the quiet places of the world, shimmering gently over the horizon.

WORDS BY WILL ABBOTT 26

The XX Young Turks ●●●●○

After a five year gap since their 2012 album Coexist, The XX have returned with a dense album filled with rich musical ideas and mature, thoughtful lyrics. I See You appears more collaborative than those previous, embracing Jamie xx more while retaining the authentic melancholic story telling of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim. Perhaps one may criticize The XX for jumping on band member Jamie XX’s recent success following the release of his solo album In Colour. However, a more optimistic view is that the group have managed to combine all of their ideas to create a thoughtful and intricate piece of art.

Given the time gap and also the success of both The XX and Jamie XX, one might imagine that the creation of this third album would be a struggle. On first listen it sounded forced, even bordering on cliché. At times, Romy’s vocals felt false and contrived. However, as I listened further I couldn’t help but notice the maturity and cohesion within this impressive album. The album is bold and expansive, covering a wide range of genres. It begins with a club anthem titled “Dangerous”. This is an upbeat track layered with trumpets and is heavily influenced

by Jamie XX’s work. This is where some fans of the previous albums may question the direction

of their most recent release. However, the album begins to establish a theme and a mood with the second track, “Say Something Loving”. This is where we hear the distinctive harmonies of Oliver and Romy combine to create one of the standout tracks on the album. The listeners are reunited with the familiar vulnerability through use of lyrics such as “I do myself a disservice/ To be this weak, to be this nervous”. Touches of Jamie XX’s sampling combined with misty vocals, echoic drum patterns, and atmospheric swelling guitars settle us into the album and remind us of the band who provided such landmark songs as “Angels” and “Intro”.

The album discusses themes such as letting go of youth, embracing adult life, fame, and maturity.

It’s an album which focuses on a movement from self-criticism to self-improvement, and displays methods of coping with change and loss. “Replica” discusses Oliver and Romy’s rise to fame and adulthood, and their desire to avoid becoming a carbon copy of those who came before them. Other songs such as “A Violent Noise” deal with the difficulty involved in letting go of youth, coping with insecurities, and embracing responsibilities, showing a certain vulnerability The next track “Brave For You” is an emotional ode to Romy’s recently deceased parents. Minimal instrumentation is used by the band to give Romy the platform she requires to convey the raw emotion present in this song.

Romy states that she will do them proud in this slow, heartfelt, and ambient ballad. Musically, The XX manage to mirror these themes by using

sparse, slow, atmospheric and unpredictable arrangements in more vulnerable songs such as “Lips” and “Brave For You”. In contrast, upbeat anthems such as “On Hold” and “Dangerous” use driving rhythms and fast tempo samples to keep the listener interested and drive home the overall message of the album: a movement from self-pity and insecurity to embracing identity and change.

music

I SEE YOU

My favorite track from the album is “Performance”, which I believe is the most genuine song on the album. This four minute, six seconds song contains musical depth and creativity, but it is presented in such a pure manner which makes it unforgettable.

Interesting and engaging production are noticeable but stripped back enough to hear the deeply felt vocals. This song lyrically captures what I See You is all about, the journey to maturity and acceptance. Uncertainty is first introduced by way of the unpredictable nature of the music while melancholy and vulnerability are featured through Romy’s melodies. A change of tone can be seen in the second verse where Romy states that she no longer changes for her lover, but she changes for herself. This idea summarizes the entire album, which results in 2017 beginning with a more grown-up and refined version of The XX. Overall this album borders on experimental and bold while still retaining what we love about The XX. It’s the third album we’ve all been waiting for.

WORDS BY ADAM GERAGHTY

27

food

APPETITES

Anthony Bourdain Ecco ●●●●○

Appetites, the latest book from culinary raconteur and chef Anthony Bourdain, is so far from comprehensive it’s almost incoherent.

With recipes for both grilled cheese sandwiches and octopus stock, Asian-American dishes both popular (laksa) and likely not so popular (ma po tripe), old school Escoffier-era French and homestyle Italian dishes, and a single entry for dessert (it’s Stilton -- just Stilton), it’s hard to imagine who might buy the book without knowing Bourdain already. That’s OK -- he admits as much, and if you’re buying cookbooks without knowing Bourdain, you’re the one who’s wrong.

It would be easy to fall for his family if you had accidentally and ignorantly stumbled upon Appetites: his young daughter clearly has Bourdain wrapped so well around her little finger that even his PTSD from years of emotionally grueling brunch shifts hasn’t stopped him from including recipes for her favourite breakfast treats and some hard-won tips for Eggs Benedict. His wife, an Italian-American martial artist, has prompted the notoriously anti-vegan cook to include a recipe for a post-workout açaíberry smoothie bowl that sits incongruously among chopped liver sandwiches and Korean fried chicken. Her knife-wielding, mountaindwelling Sardinian extended family contributed a wild boar ragu that makes me want to be adopted.

Bourdain’s first cookbook, Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook, was essentially impersonal, written from the perspective of a professional chef who still expected to regularly bang out 300 covers during dinner service and following closely on the popularity of Kitchen Confidential, his explosive memoir slash restaurant exposé. Les Halles is filled exclusively with the recipes of the French bistro in New York where Bourdain was executive chef, including loving descriptions of their Europeanstyle in-house butchers and profanity-laden exhortations. If Les Halles represents Bourdain’s professional identity, Appetites is his personal face, the eclectic compilation of what he actually cooks for friends, holidays, family, and to get laid (or to get you laid).

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sounds. I am a fervent missionary for the Gospel of Biscuits and Gravy (scone-like Southern with sausage, not Jammie Dodgers with brown) and while obviously no one will surpass my aunt’s recipe, Bourdain’s is a very respectable take on a classic. He notes, “If you ever get the chance, introduce a Frenchman, preferably one with no cultural understanding of Southern foodways, to sausage gravy with biscuits. Comedy will ensue.” He’s not wrong. And it’s delicious.

There’s your excuse to try it out.

Is Appetites something you’d cook from every day? Probably not unless you’re Bourdain himself, or have a specialist abattoir in your backyard. And while there’s probably few people reading this review who are likely to make his recipe for Poulet “En Vessie”, a riff on chicken gently steamed with a fortune of black summer truffles inside a pig’s bladder (originally) or a Dutch oven (homage), probably everyone can handle Mutant Quesadillas with confit duck or chorizo, or Budae Jjigae, a soupy, noodley Korean mix of chilis, white carbs and American tube meat that looks and eats better than it

Appetites gets 4 out of 5 stars -- Bourdain enthusiasts will appreciate it, as much for the copy and iconic photos as for the actual recipes.

Even Bourdain-haters who fear home cooking, who were passively-aggressively gifted a copy over Christmas and are put off by photos of drunken biker-looking men wielding knives and brandishing the inedible parts of chickens will, I am sure, manage to eke out at least 3 stars of value from well-tested recipes for hollandaise, risotto, meat loaf and pot pie. Read it and eat.

food

The book is broken down into rough categories: Breakfast, Salads (tuna, chicken, potato, not steamed vegetables), Soups, Sandwiches (with prescriptive instructions for the perfect hamburger), Party 101, Pasta, Fish and Seafood, Birds, Thanksgiving (his commanding game plan encompasses an entire chapter; panic over), Meat, Side Dishes, and Stocks, Sauces and 28Dressings. Bobby Fisher’s photos throughout are stunning, like snaps from day three of an

ancient Roman debauch, or a Hieronymous Bosch exhibition at CBGB. Bourdain’s aesthetic has always been a hedonistic and self-destructive mix of sex, drugs and punk rock, and somehow Appetites doesn’t abandon that, while showing how much he’s grown beyond Chef Nihilism.

Just a nice family cookbook from your average responsible, profane, emotionally nurturing, heavily tattooed and regularly bleeding, jiujitsu practicing, neurotically organized, piratical, total dad.

WORDS BY ALDEN MATHIEU

JACKIE

Dir. Pablo Larraín ●●○○○

Jackie reenacts JFK’s assassination in Dallas, 1963 through the eyes of the President’s youthful wife and the United States First Lady, Jackie Kennedy (Natalie Portman). The film focuses on the immediate aftermath of this catastrophic incident in America’s history and more specifically, on the way in which Jackie maintained her elegant stoicism throughout the flurry of national and global interest. Portman is a fine actress and the director, Pablo Larrain, clearly uses that to his advantage. She portrays Mrs Kennedy as a calculated woman, keenly aware of the influence that her behaviour at this time will have on the way this event is conceptualized. It is interesting to watch her facade of passivity crumble and then rearrange as she is interviewed by a journalist for the well-known LIFE piece.

The film is shot in a rather direct fashion, with the speaker in any given scene placed in the very centre of the shot as if they are directing their address to the audience. Larrain’s straight-forward mode of

MANCHESTER

BY THE SEA

Dir. Kenneth Lonergan ●●●●●

The immensely underrated Casey Affleck delivers a subtly sublime performance (surely he will emerge from the shadow of his older brother at last?) as Lee Chandler, a lonely, antisocial janitor with a drinking problem, in a small Massachusetts town. His monotonous life is capsized by the death of his older brother

Jackie simply re-examines a story that we all know too well. And while there are moments of shocking honesty

(one in which Jackie frantically rubs off her husband’s blood from her face and neck hours after she returns on board the plane to DC), these are few and far between. We learn more about Jackie’s process of grieving and her gradual understanding of life beyond the White House and what this means for her children through her conversations with the journalist in frequent flash forwards and through her interactions with a solemn John Hurt, playing a Catholic priest. The latter of these scenes I find rather exasperating to watch as Hurt drones on about the meaning of life. It is all too saccharine.

In defense of Larrain’s directing and Oppenheim’s script, the encompassing theme of the film, that being the idea that the truth is almost impossible to decipher in any form, was profoundly thoughtful and deserved more development, which it unfortunately didn’t receive. The set design, the costumes and the score are all incredibly well crafted.

However, Jackie does not rise above the waves of average biopics of recent years. It feels tired under the weight of JFK’s historic legacy.

WORDS BY LEE JONES Joe (Kyle Chandler). When he is made guardian to Joe’s son, Patrick (played brilliantly by the young Lucas Hedges) his solitary existence collides with a role he never imagines he would experience again: parenthood.

Told in a non-linear narrative where current events flow almost imperceptibly into the darker past, the pain of Lee’s character is revealed with unflinching objectivity. As he drags himself from the drunken, misanthropic routine of his present life, he is forced to connect with Patrick and a whole new teenage generation in the process. Casey and Hedges’ interactions provide some of the most authentic and darkly hilarious dialogue of the film as both struggle to adjust to a new domestic setup characterised by masculine tensions and repressed grief.

performances are superbly supported by Lee’s former wife (Michelle Williams) who is moving and convincing during her time on screen.

The elegiac poignancy is augmented by Lesley Barber’s classical score as well as an impeccably apt soundtrack that mirrors and mocks the misery on-screen. The anachronistic editing gives the film a sense of tragic inevitability and timelessness - this is, after all, a movie about ordinary folks, not grandiose figures. Certainly not the cheeriest in the Academy Award race, but definitely one of the most deserving.

film

Manchester by the Sea is reassuring evidence that Hollywood is still capable of producing great dramatic works along with the seemingly infinite comic book blockbuster franchises. Of all the Oscar contenders this season, Kenneth Lonergan’s latest feature must surely be the most understated, and as a result, the most powerful.

Lonergan, whose screenwriting credentials include Analyze This and Gangs of New York, directs an emotionally visceral and compelling film which has garnered a string of awards and nominations for its outstanding acting and original screenplay.

filming is often difficult to digest, and for me at least, was an attempt to distract from the banal plot.

So much of Manchester by the Sea’s brilliance stems from its meticulous examination of social relations, both of a personal and class nature.

Lee and Joe typify the New England working class, whose pastimes include fishing and blowing off steam drinking with friends, while the destructiveness of alcoholism is also shown with Joe’s wife (Gretchen Mol). The central WORDS BY OISIN MCELHINNEY

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art

(Seán by Gerry Davis -Winner)

HENNESSY PORTRAIT PRIZE 2016 National Gallery of Ireland Until 26 March 2017 ●●●●○

The Hennessy Portrait Prize, running at the National Gallery until the 26th of March, has become a familiar fixture. Now in its third year, the exhibition allows viewers an insight into contemporary Irish portraiture, as selected by a panel of four judges. This year sees the introduction of two new commendation awards in addition to the overall prize. The white walls and clear lighting of the small gallery space invite visitors to judge the paintings for themselves, though they are perhaps somewhat guided by the placards labelling certain pieces ‘winner’ or ‘highly commended’.

an oil painting, this image has more in common with a piece of sculpture through its emphatic use of light and shade. Skilful rendering of deep shadows contrasted with unexpected slashes of vibrant colour give the piece a certain physicality and character. I could not shake the feeling of unease which often accompanies that of being surveyed while viewing this image - in large part due to the artist’s treatment of the sitter’s gaze. It is suggested by two small flecks of white within the dark expanse of greys and blacks which conceal the sitter’s eyes, producing an altogether unsettling effect which is only further reinforced by the jarring, angular strokes of colour bordering the image. Even after stepping away from this painting to view the rest of the exhibition, I was acutely aware of its presence, permanently staring down from the wall and viewing us as much as we view it.

The Hennessy Portrait Prize will likely be something to anticipate for many years to

come. In a gallery which is more frequently used to house portraits of historic figures, it is refreshing to see some faces from our own time.

However, the exhibition could perhaps benefit from greater transparency when it comes to the judges’ selection process. Visitors aren’t given much explanation as to why one painting “wins” over another, merely the assurance that a team of the informed have decided that it should be commended. Competitions of this nature are all too often tainted by a subtle elitism, a sense of ‘your betters knowing better’.

Perhaps in the coming years, the Hennessy Prize could break this mould by allowing greater public participation in the selection process and in doing so, achieve its supposed goal of encouraging interest in and engagement with contemporary Irish portraiture.

WORDS BY ALEXANDRA DAY

The prize is open to artists in all disciplines, though oil painting appears to be the most popular choice. Indeed, both winners of the previous years were completed in this medium, as well as eight of the fourteen shortlisted works. This year’s winning submission, Seán by Gerry Davis, continues the trend. The painting depicts Davis’ friend in close proximity and small scale, showing only the sitter’s head and uncovered shoulders against a plain blue background. This creates a sense of honesty, stripping the image back to the bare essentials of traditional portraiture. However, the lack of direct eye contact with the sitter allows a degree of distance, reminding us that we are viewing a constructed image and not the real person.

The highlight of the exhibition was the visually striking Má under Light by John Lee. Although 30

(Someone’s Mother byLeanne Mullen)

Batman: The Telltale Series Telltale Games ●●●●○

Telltale’s pedigree in Interactive Storytelling is considerable. Having adapted The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones to the gaming medium, they are undoubtedly skilful at telling new stories with familiar characters and environments. As a fan of other titles, and a self-professed comic geek, I was really excited to hop into the game.

Batman: The Telltale Series plays like a living comic that puts the player in control. You take on the role of Bruce Wayne (Batman), navigating the politics and intrigue of Gotham City as the former, and clearing the city of crime as the latter. Saying you ‘play’ the game is perhaps a generous description.The player’s input is mainly to respond to the situation presented to you; fight scenes and other dramatic moments take the form of a series of quick time events, and button prompts appear on screen during conversations with options for what to say during conversations. Other characters react to your choices, adding a replay value to each short episode.

The comic-book like art style of the games is a beautiful way of telling an intriguing, though somewhat familiar story. Taking on the role of Bruce Wayne gives the player a surprising amount of freedom to determine the personality that they would like the character to adopt, with other characters responding to you differently depending on how you act: I tended towards creating more of a no-nonsense Batman on my first play, adjusting the game to feel slightly grittier.

As a fan of the Batman lore I feel like the character representations are a mixed bag. Insofar as the game offers the player the option of romancing Catwoman, her character feels nuanced and well developed, especially in the later episodes of the game. Two-Face, similarly, is an excellent tragic villain, with the familiar origin story retold in an emotional and genuinely heart-wrenching way by the developers. Where the game is less successful is in its aims to change the nature of characters significantly: for instance, the Penguin and the Joker differ significantly from their original characteristics. While an interesting idea, this clashes with the otherwise faithful depiction of the world. I’m hopeful that in future episodes the characters will grow into themselves given that ‘Season One’ of the game is predominantly an origin story.

it’s fun and beautiful to watch, if at times a little repetitive. The story told by Telltale is similarly well constructed but flawed; the games feel lacking when they stray from tradition. That being said, they function perfectly when they put the old-fashioned characters in their deep and interesting version of Gotham. With a few improvements, this series could move from good to excellent.

WORDS BY OLLY DONNELLY

Telltale’s Batman has left me hungry to play more of the series. From a gameplay perspective,

games

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TV

DANCING WITH THE STARS: LADIES NIGHT RTE ●●○○○

With the men having performed the week before, it was “Ladies’ Night” on the latest episode of RTE’s Dancing with the Stars [Sunday 15 January]. The initial group performance — set to Adele’s downtrodden but defiant “Set Fire to the Rain” — foreshadowed what was to come.

Our two hosts, Nicky Byrne and Amanda Byram, welcomed us with something that just about resembled enthusiasm. Nicky’s discomfort was infectious, and Amanda’s comedic delivery could only be found funny if we were to laugh at her and not with her. The dancing portion of the show proved to be a dreary affair. More running time is spent on showing household names like Aoibhín Garrihy and Denise McCormack drinking tea in their houses than on any actual dancing. There are occasional touching moments, however, such as when one judge tells Operation Transformation’s Dr. Eva Orsmond that her performance was “difficult to stomach.”

It is always a relief to know that we are not alone in our suffering.

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS Netflix ●●●●○

After a bad beginning, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events found its oddlyshaped footing by the latter half of the series.

Since Netflix announced a reboot of this much loved children’s book series, audiences have been eagerly waiting to binge the streaming giant’s newest original show. The expectations were high; the series is popular worldwide. I wanted to give this show five stars so badly. Why couldn’t it just be perfect, Netflix?

There is a moment of absurd relief when Theresa Mannion dances to a song which samples her immortal “Don’t make unnecessary journeys” weather report. At one point, she teasingly swings a stop sign close to her partner’s neck a decapitation being the only thing that could have brought life to this debacle.

Thankfully, the show ends on an unintentional high when the celebrity men perform a group dance. Hughie Maughan, of Big Brother fame, bafflingly channels Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder by appearing in blackface. To add to a surprising lack of comic timing in the first two to three episodes. Harris proved he could do a great pastiche of Annie’s Miss Hannigan, but not of Count Olaf. I don’t know what Netflix were thinking when they cast the young, charismatic and exceptionally attractive Neil Patrick Harris as the series-defining villain Thankfully, Harris grew with the series and eventually excelled at Olaf ’s character acting, especially as Shirley in episode seven and eight.

Daniel Handler, the man behind Lemony Snicket, wrote a teleplay that captured the dark, sardonic, humorous, clever, and formaware aspects of the books exceptionally well for long-form television. The series seemed to settle into this definitively offbeat style by

the oddity, Des Bishop dances while smiling like he’s been told at machete-point to look happy lest his family be butchered.

The show earns two stars, earning the second star only because of its curious ability to induce a feeling of confusion and unease which can usually only be achieved through the use of hallucinogens.

WORDS BY CONOR FALLON

episode four, before excelling in episode seven with the Will Arnett and Cobie Smulders’ plot twist. The music, drama and macabre humour finally converged as the elder children, Violet and Klaus Baudelaire (Malina Weissman and Louis Hynes) grew into their initially hesitant performances. Weissman in particular provided the emotion required to balance Patrick Warburton's humour as Snicket.

This first series is not perfect but it has the right elements to make a fully realised second season. Unfortunately, this second season is yet to be confirmed. Until then, enjoy the perfectly pitched macabre and calamitous irony of Usman Ally as The Hook-Handed Man.

I am sorry to tell you reader, but the first two episodes of this series did not live up to an avid reader’s expectations. If there was one adjective I would use to describe the beginning of this series, it would be “twee”. “Twee” here means “affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute, or quaint” which is something the Snicket books are not. Adapting Snicket for television was always going to be a difficult task.

Neil Patrick Harris’ Count Olaf over-played nuanced meta-humour and ultimately unveiled 32

WORDS BY SORCHA Ní CHEALLAIGH

literature

THE MUSE Jessie Burton ●●●○○

Back in 2014, Jessie Burton made international waves with her highly- acclaimed debut novel, The Miniaturist. That novel, set in 17th century Amsterdam, tackled themes of self-confidence and creativity set against a period backdrop realised with incredible, painstaking detail and clarity. Once more, in The Muse, Burton tackles these same themes, this time in two separate, but still wholly realised settings: 1960s England, and Spain during the Civil War. While one could criticise the similarity in structure of the two novels, the simultaneous unfolding of the two linked timelines and the interesting characters through which they are revealed provide enough difference from The Miniaturist to make this a book worth judging on its own merit.

The novel follows two women, the more intriguing being Odelle Bastien, an immigrant from Trinidad who came to England to further her writing career. Bastien’s experiences of the English people, of racism and of attempting to forge a career in the 1960s while being both black and female, are by far the more engaging portions of The Muse. Her colourful descriptions of people she meets are self-contained vignettes as detailed as paintings: “The name … conjured up a quintessential, intimidating Englishness, Saville Rowers in Whitehall clubs; eat the steak, hunt the fox. Three piece suit, pomaded hair, great-uncle Henry’s golden watch. I would see him round the corridor, and he would look surprised every time. It was as if I had walked in off the street, naked. We studied men like him at school – protected gentlemen, white gentlemen, who picked up pens and wrote the world for the rest of us to read.” Burton’s beautifully layered and metered prose is easily a highlight of The Muse, carrying the novel when the sometimes haphazardly constructed plot fails to suspend disbelief in a series of coincidental connections that attempt to link the two tales together.

The other half of the novel – centred around the repressed but extremely gifted young artist Olive Schloss – also revolves around the themes of self-worth as an artist, and sexism in the creative industries. Schloss’ father, Harold, is a respected art dealer who refuses to even consider the possibility, despite mounting evidence, that his own daughter is such a gifted artist. “Her father always said that of course, women could pick up a paintbrush and paint, but the fact was, they didn’t make good artists… was the difference between being a workaday painter and being an artist simply other people believing in you, or spending twice as much money on your work?”

Schloss lives in a world where she is surrounded by untalented people filled with false confidence, while she herself struggles to hold her head up and claim her art as her own - despite her huge talent. Schloss’ arc is interesting, and Burton’s

rendering of a Spain teetering on the edge of war and insanity, a country brooding with pregnant agitation, is accurate and powerful.

However, her character is far less engaging than the fiery Bastien, whose inner thoughts reveal a creative passion and a level of innate self-belief that Schloss never comes close to holding. For this reason, whenever to novel travels back in time to the 1930s, it can feel like a drag; a B-side alternative to Bastien’s tale, with the same themes but none of the warmth and likeable personality. While the 1930s arc is competent and descriptive, there is nothing in these sections to make the reader crave more. Apart from a few scenes, they are merely passable.

The one big exception to this, and nod to the overwhelming success of The Miniaturist, is Schloss talking about the restrictive dangers of artistic success and a public image: “I’ve

seen what success does to people, Isaac, how it separates them from their creative impulse, how it paralyses them. They can’t make anything that isn’t a horrible replica of what came before, because everyone has opinions on who they are and how they should be.”

This excerpt, in which Burton’s voice can be heard most clearly, can be applied to a less intense degree to The Muse as a whole. While this isn’t an awful, mutant aberration of a spiritual sequel to The Miniaturist, it does suffer by way of being at times nothing more than a thematic effigy; a faithful, albeit competent, recreation of the formula that made her debut novel such a widespread success. This is a novel that tries too hard to emulate what came before it, and this hangs over the prose, no matter how beautifully it’s written.

WORDS BY MICHAEL MULLOOLY

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be careful what you wish for

sex.

I met my boyfriend in March 2016 on Hornet, a little-known gay dating app for men which is neither as ubiquitous in everyday vernacular as Grindr, nor as historically established as Gaydar. We’ve been dating for almost a year now, and for the entirety of our relationship we’ve been seeing other guys. I say “seeing” other guys, but it would be more accurate to say we’re fucking other guys.

Not only is this my first open relationship, it is my first long-term relationship, full stop. To give a little context (without giving too much away), I’m a mature student on the wrong side of 25. So I have dated a few guys and slept with many more. But I’ve always had trouble committing to other men. Possibly due to repressed Irish-Catholic guilt, who knows. Whatever the cause, whenever I found myself going out with someone for a few weeks, panic would set in. I would often desperately do everything I could to push them away and break off communication. Instead of feeling excited about the prospect of a relationship, I’ve always been put off whenever it became a possibility. I would find myself looking at other guys and wanting to date and sleep with them, feeling resentful of the fact that I couldn’t do this because of their restrictive expectations.

The irony is that I have also, contradictorily, always wanted to have a long-term, committed relationship. It seemed to me that the only way I could achieve both goals was to be in an open relationship. The closest I came to this in the past was during a three year period in which I had casual sex every couple of weeks with one man, a friend-of-a-friend I met in my hometown. While the sex was fantastic and we really enjoyed each other’s company in the bedroom, it lacked the emotional connection which I consider to be the crux of a relationship. And so, when after aboutr a month of dating, my current beau informed me that he wanted to sleep with other guys but still go out with me, I was thrilled. Finally I could have my cake and eat it! Or so I thought.

It hasn’t been the fantastic, sexually liberating experience I hoped it would be. I had ideas of 1960s-esque free love, with cool, interesting, sexy guys. I expected that not only would my being in an open relationship be accepted by others, but that it would somehow cause more men to want to sleep with me. However, I have found that there are many downsides to being in an open relationship.

I don’t necessarily regret how the experience has gone, but I would certainly think twice before committing myself to another open relationship in the future.

Articles and videos about the downsides of open relationships tend to focus on the more stereotypically espoused drawbacks, such as jealousy. This isn’t a problem for my boyfriend and I, as we never discuss when either of us meets someone. The main problem I experience is having to be dishonest in order to be successful in getting someone to have sex with me. I don’t lie - if I’m asked whether I’m currently seeing someone, I answer honestly that yes I am, and that we’re in an open relationship. This has the effect of putting most guys off wanting to meet, as they are looking for a potential boyfriend of their own. So I find myself not bringing it up, and trying to avoid the topic altogether. I know that this lying by omission is a shitty thing to do, and is making me a horrible person. I feel that acting this way is leading guys on, making them think I’m available for a relationship with them, and this causes me to feel very guilty and, sometimes, even repulsed by my own actions. However sometimes honesty leads to more uncomfortable scenarios, such as one man saying he would do his best to make me fall in love with him and break up with my boyfriend. I’m still Ghosting him...

It also requires an extraordinary amount of time to arrange to meet someone. Between working full time and being in College part time, I find that trying to contact, seduce and eventually meet a guy takes up so much of my spare time that it rarely ends up being worth the effort. And sometimes I go through all this effort only to have my boyfriend get in touch, looking to meet up. My dilemma then is whether to cancel the hook-up or to put off my boyfriend for another day.

I always cancel the hook-up, because at the end of the day my boyfriend comes first. I love him. And he loves me. And the relationship we have is more important to me than any amount of casual sex, no matter who with.

I’ve learned a lot from this experience; in future I will be very careful what I wish for.

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WRITE FOR US.

editor@tn2magazine.ie

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