Two Trinity News
Film
Music
Theatre
Come at the King by Alex Towers
Art
FooD
TV
Fashion
issue 1 20 September 2011
Books
Games & Reviews
Fresh Mexican Grill
Burritos & Blues
BurritosBlues
2 Wexford Street, Dublin www.burritos.ie 2
#1
Editorial & COntents
may contain traces of:
That’s How It starts
20 September 2011 Alex Towers ith the start of another Trinity College year, comes another issue of Tn2 Magazine to bring you its own unique cultural insight and analysis. Some students may know what our ambit is at Tn2, but for the ones who don’t I feel I should offer this: Any given issue of Tn2 is liable to wander far and wide through the cosmopolitan worlds of film, music, art, fashion, television, theatre, games, literature, food and drinks. This issue is no exception. On one page you can read an enlightening guide through the current Dublin Contemporary art exhibits featuring artist interviews, on another you can read an account of how artisan chocolate makers The Mast Brothers chartered a schooner to the Dominican Republic. We also have Dan Taylor of Grizzly Bear and TV on the Radio talking to Gheorghe Rusu about his new solo album (just don’t call it a ‘solo album’ to his face) and Róise Goan revealing to Liza Cox what it’s like to be in charge of the Dublin Fringe Festival for the third year in a row. Elsewhere we have an exclusive interview with Edith Zimmerman (who tells Annelise Berghenti the “secret” of her adorable food sculptures), an in-the-field report from Andy Kavanagh from games convention @rcadecon and Stephen Moloney has some sage sartorial tips for looking your best in this year. Finally we have interviews with Trinity graduate Belinda McKeon who tells Kevin Breathnach about the pressures of the follow-up novel and actor Michael K. Williams, whom I recently talked to about the KKK, 2pac, twitter and inevitably, a television show called The Wire. Whether it’s students talking over pints about which of the latest albums are worth their time, or journalists critiquing and comparing Presidential candidates respective tastes in television shows, culture, for lack of a better word, ‘matters’. How much it matters or why it matters is hard to determine, but you can see it with the people who can name all the members of Odd Future but are not being able to point out Libya on a map. Some of us just care about music and films and art more than we probably should. Is this lamentable? I don’t know. What I do know is that for anyone seeking opinions, features and interviews about the latest cultural happenings, Tn2 Magazine is here to deliver. Enjoy the issue. Sentence of the Issue: “Sounds roughly like someone trying to vigorously unjam a caught zipper, while also seeming to propose that a Semisonic revival wouldn’t be entirely without merit.” -Michael Barry, Strange Mercy Review, page 23 Special Thanks To: Aoife Crowley, Tom Lowe, Karl McDonald, Fuschia Macaree, Caitriona Murphy, Liz Sachs, Monica Cullinane, Damien Carr, Terry Richardson (images originally published in Vice Magazine), Greg Spencer, Clíona de Paor, HBO Inc., Michael Armstrong & Aisling Deng.
3: The Openers Dublin Recommendations, Hitchcock Posters, Cats, Crucifixions, Cocktails and the launch of Trinity Street Style.
6: INto the Void Róisín Lacey-McCormac examines the Dublin Contemporary Exhbition and talks to some of the artists about what it means to them.
8: Putting the Art in Artisan Clare Kealey talks to artisan food enthusiasts about the difficulties of doing it yourself.
9: Putting the Food in Feminism Annelise Berghenti interviews the editor of the Hairpin, about her writing, tours of duty as a sniper during the Gulf War and ‘food art’. One of those was a lie.
10: Day at a time, I s’pose Alex Towers talks to Michael K. Williams about Obama, the lack of roles for black actors in Hollywood and Twitter.
13: Tread the broads
Liza Cox interviews Róise Goan as she celebrates her third year as director of the Dublin Fringe Festival.
14: Tinker, Taylor Gheorghe Rusu chats to Matthew Taylor about his new solo album, his work with Grizzly Bear & TV On the Radio and what it feels like to count Jay-Z and Radiohead as fans.
17: I tried not to call it ‘Quantum of Solace’ Kevin Breathnach tracks down Belinda McKeon and talks to her about her recent novel, Solace.
18: How to stand out
Stephen Moloney offers fashion tips and Andy Kavanagh reports from @rcade Con.
20: reviews TN2’s squadron of crack reviewers look at Drive, Queen of Tarts, Man of Valor and more.
25: how-to/guilty pleasures Cormac Cassidy teaches us cards, while Aaron Devine tries to defend The Eagles.
26: Getting Jiggy with it Karl McDonald considers the origins of ghetto slang while not actually resorting to using any himself. I lied again. He does. Frequently. Editor: Alex Towers Art Editor: Rosa Abbott Deputy Art Editor: Róisín Lacey-McCormac Books & Literature Editor: Patrick Reevell Deputy Books & Literature Editor: Annelise Berghenti Copy Editor: Sinead Nugent Fashion Editor: Stephen Moloney Deputy Fashion Editor: Hannah Little Film Editor: Robert O’ Reilly Deputy Film Editor: Nicholas Maltby Food & Drinks Editor: Clare Kealey Food & Drinks Editor: Aaron Devine
Games Editor: Andy Kavanagh Deputy Games Editor: Neil Fitzpatrick Music Editor: Michael Barry Music Editor: Gheorghe Rusu Online Editor: Keith Grehan Socities Editor: Cormac Cassidy Theatre Editor: Henry Longden Deputy Theatre Editor: Liza Cox TV Editor Laura McLoughlin Deputy TV Editor: Emma Jayne Corcoran Design: Gearóid O’Rourke & Martin McKenna
3
openers
Things to do in Dublin #1
Look on the BrighT Side ArT in d u blin
Live- M usic
Ültrakugel: On Saturday the 23rd, The Workman’s Club will play host to a mysterious art/trash music collaboration project between Anworth Kirk & Demdike Stare. The duo will perform a live set with Twinkranes, Dublin’s delayed response to Neu! and Silver Apples, whose debut Spektrumtheatresnakes earned them positive attention. Ghostpoet: Expect experimental Hip Hop from this rising London scenester when he plays his new album Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam at Whelan’s on Monday, 26th of September at 8pm. Tickets are €12.50 Cu ltu re- night On Friday September 23rd Arts and cultural organisations across the country open their doors until late with hundreds of free events, tours, talks and performances for you to enjoy. Planning is key however, so log onto www.culutrenight.ie to see what’s happening. Arth u rs - Day Although a shameless, corporate-sponsered “cultural celebration” fueled primarily by Diageo’s desire to see us all buy their precious black stuff, most people will inevitably end up drinking Guinness at some stage on the 22nd of September.
Lamentation Over the Dead Christ,(1495) by Pietro Perugino The National Gallery of Ireland, Due to the renovations currently being carried out in the National Gallery of Ireland, now is a great time to revisit old favourites or discover new treasures. The gallery’s permanent display has been severely curtailed for renovations and so its reduced capacity means that the visitor is given an excellent opportunity to take in the collections’ greatest hits at a glance. This 15th century altarpiece, for example, is by a Florentine painter named Perugino. The central group in this painting represents the Virgin, with the dead Christ lying across her lap. The main figures in this painting are placed within a fictional architectural framework, a standard renaissance convention for creating the illusion of space. Although Perugino may not be as widely known as the likes of Michelangelo and Donatello, he is extremely significant in terms of his influence over later renaissance artistsnotably the artist and draftsman extraordinaire Raphael- which manifests itself primarily in Perugino’s figure’s cherubic heads. On of the most striking aspects of this specific painting is its sense of beauty and grace, which is transmitted through the geometrical perfection of these heads- a result of many preparatory drawings. In fact, during the Renaissance, artists were categorically defined according to their preference of disegnowhereby the artist’s chief means of expression
tn2magazine.com
Pyscho Killer FILM Some years ago, Tony Nourmand, co-
founder of London’s Reel Poster Gallery, observed that posters featuring Alfred Hitchcock were unusually popular. So why is it that this forgettably unattractive Englishman offers such a penetrating sell? In this 1960 poster for Hitchcock’s Psycho, his star value is undeniable. The film was initially advertised with a warning: no latecomers would gain admission. “Any spurious attempts to enter by side doors, fire escapes, or ventilating ducts will be met by force.” (What Hitchcock meant by ‘spurious attempts’ is unclear). Modern posters of Psycho tend to focus on the palpably horrific shots of Janet Leigh in a shower, moments before she is stabbed. It’s interesting to note the more subtle beckoning towards dread that Hitchcock
4
was through lines and drawings. Alternatively, artists such as Titian chose colore- or the use of varieties of tones and shades as their primary means of expression. However, artists rarely limited themselves to one or the other exclusively and, here, the master of disegno also exploits colour as a means of creating the illusion of depth. Through blending the colours of the landscape in the background to produce a ‘fading out’ type of effect, Perugino creates the illusion of receding space and draws the eye towards the horizon and beyond. Róisín Lacey-McCormac
offers in this poster. He looks like a villain himself, especially with his sinister dictatorial emphasis on time-keeping. He is controlling the viewer, even before they have decided to buy a ticket. Nicholas Maltby
T wit ter Follow us on Twitter. We will say this every issue. We usually will follow you back, have competition giveaways and occasionally will even say interesting and relevant stuff. Do it now: @tn2magazine website Hopefully our new tn2magazine.com website will be up and running. If it isn’t just read this actual magazine again. If it is then hopefully you can find reviews, features, events and maybe even the odd mix tape. Hopefully. P od cast Keep an eye on the twitter and website page for the return of the Tn2 podcast- which will again offer in depth cultural analysis from people who think they know what they are talking about. Ge t- INvolved We at Tn2 Magazine are always looking for enthusiastic new writers to contribute reviews, features, interviews and whatever else you might want to write about. Contact us at “firstname.lastname@trinitynews.ie” (e.g john.smith@ trinitynews.ie) or “section@trinitynews. ie” (e.g art@trinitynews.ie).
What we’re listening to
trinity Street Style
M usic Aaron Devine – Cut Copy, Zonoscope: “This record reinforces the possibility that Cut Copy is the most effective band when it comes to blending the elements of rock and electro. This is very much an album for the summer, full of catchy choruses and soaring crescendos. ‘Corner of the Sky’ is the highlight for me, and I’m looking forward to hearing it live in Button Factory on 25th October.”
Rosa Abbott- The Weeknd, Thursday: “It’s not as hooky as House of Balloons, with its delicious RnB reworking of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ ‘Happy House’, but Thursday features more depth and structure - and Abel Tesfaye’s neurotic, noctural whimpers are even spookier and sleazier this time round, especially on standout track ‘Life of the Party’.” Hannah Little- Lecs Luther, Dia Dhuit: “Irish rap that isn’t cringe-inducing! Impressive video as well.” Stephen Moloney- El Guincho, Alegranza: “It’s one of the happiest, worry-free albums I’ve heard in a while, and is a nice little transporting injection of summer to perpetually grey Dublin. Definitive ‘Mmmm’ from me.” Henry Longden: Shlohmo, Bad Vibes: “I’m enjoying its ‘Sunday afternoon’ electronic feel. Refreshing for those who liked, and then royally exhausted Mount Kimbie and Flying Lotus.” Compiled by Michael Barry
Catastrophic Game s Once in a while an online flash game comes along that is so perfect, so beautifully simple that it has to be played to be fully understood. While so many developers needlessly overcomplicate their games, precious few are confident enough to keep their game from becoming cluttered and confusing. Chat Noir (also know as the infinitely more descriptive Trap the Cat) avoids this, and delivers a game that is as challenging as it is furiously addictive. You move, the cat moves, repeat. The game is smart enough to pose a real challenge, and win or lose the screen fades to white and it all begins again. There are no points, no bonus rounds and no high scores; you aren’t even congratulated for winning. Despite this, Chat Noir is among the best online flash games you can play, and an excellent way of completely obliterating your productivity. Proceed with caution. Chat Noir - http://bit.ly/4ZGNt Neil Fitzpatrick
Fashion For each issue of this magazine, Fashion Editor Stephen Moloney and Deputy Fashion Editor Hannah Little will be stalking some of the best-dressed on campus and snapping their photo to feature in this street-style column. ‘Best-dressed’ notwithstanding, we thought we would use this first issue to introduce our Fashion editor Stephen. He is JF Art History and Sociology after throwing in the Business and French towel after two years, and is wearing a shirt and jeans from H&M, vintage specs, shoes by Loake, a coat by Burberry, and is looking particularly disheveled in the wind. Stephen also runs the blog Stitches | Fabric | and Soul. So if you fancy appearing here in future issues, look out for him and his camera. Also, try and dress well.
Saba’s Pineapple & Ginger Caipirinha Drinks Saba on Claredon Street is famous for its cocktails, and this is just one example from an extensive drinks menu. As part of their ‘Twists and Turns’ cocktail list, this Asian take on the classic Brazilian drink perfectly emulates the flavours of the delicious Thai and Vietnamese cuisine on offer here. Trained by the renowned mixologist Paul L a m b e r t , French bartender Karim Mehdi insists that even though they “are very proud of all the cocktails”, the menu is just the beginning. Customers are free to request other cocktails and tailor their choices to their own taste. Mehdi also enjoys experimenting and encouraging diners to try something new. It may not be cheap, but it does provide an indulgent and tasty way of getting the night off to a great start. Aaron Devine
5
Art
Change of Perception by Róisín Lacey-McCormac
D
ublin Contemporary is the name given to the spectacular exhibition of contemporary visual art which has recently been launched at Earlsfort Terrace, The Hugh Lane, the National Gallery of Ireland and Trinity’s own Douglas Hyde. The theme of the exhibition- ‘Terrible Beauty: Art, Crisis, Change and the Office of Non-Compliance’ takes its inspiration from W.B. Yeats’ Easter 1916, wherein Yeats addresses the under-exploited potential for the arts engaged with the social issues that shape our society. No doubt, one of the more bewildering experiences which one can go through in the 21st century is to visit a contemporary art gallery or exhibition. This art historian included. I may go to all the openings and drink all of the wine but, more often than not, I am left feeling absolutely flummoxed by what it is I’m supposed to be responding to. Whether you regard the spiralling of modern and contemporary art into further states of abstraction and subjectivity as its ascent or descent, one thing is sure: the majority of contemporary art in our society is damn near inaccessible and antithetical to what’s actually going on in the world, and so it’s high time an exhibition which aims to bring relationship between art 6
and society to the fore is held in Dublin. The beating heart of this exhibition is located in Earlsfort Terrace. The original layout and architectural features of this site have been preserved as a labyrinth of former classrooms, lecture halls and corridors. Engaging the casual visitor through irony and satire, William Powhida’s spoofs on art world machinations complement Guy Richards Smit’s sitcom-style parody on art world stereotypes nicely. Bridging the gap between irony and sincerity is Wang Du’s bizarre installation Le berceau (The Cradle). A tangled mass of televisions are suspended above a cot measuring 6 x 13m in an installation which mirrors our responses to the issues which plague our society- engaging with the stories we hear on the news with the same sense of indifference felt towards the bedtime stories which we distract ourselves with, half-consciously, before rolling over and drifting off.
“We’re kind of prisoners in our own language”
More suggestive perhaps is how the installation simultaneously highlights how the media and its crafty manipulation of facts actually propagates our child-like state of ignorance. It all makes you wonder; is there any way of transcending this hopeless state? Can art communicate the truths we need to hear? Irish photographer Richard Mosse seems to think so: “You have activists and then you can have people who try to change how we see the world. The only way for that to change is through art and that’s the ‘terrible beauty’ Yeats was talking about.” Encountering the artist’s latest series of photographs ‘Infra’ recently provided me with one of those rare instances in which a work of art piqued my curiosity and got me excited for the first time in a while- which counts for something considering I spent the entire summer working in a gallery full of art. What Mosse referred to as his “pink photographs” when we recently sat down together are both visually arresting and thought provoking. The photographer used infrared film to photograph those caught in the endless warfare in Eastern Congo, and in doing so develops a side to this story which is not perceived by the naked eye: the dense foliage which surround the scenes taking place are rendered in bright pink thanks to the use of infrared film. “We’re kind of prisoners in
“The only way to change how we see the world is through art’” our own language and in the conventions of the way we see things. We struggle for new ways to articulate things”. There’s certainly truth in that, but what you will see when you walk into his exhibition is a room full of photographs that challenge the clichéd photojournalistic style of conveying such epic stories and through his use of infrared, it appears as though the artist has found a new way to communicate the extraordinary reality behind these stories. Through re-inventing his language- that of photography- Mosse highlights for us what lies beyond the limits of our perception Irish artist Brian Maguire can also be seen to seize the capacity of art to engender social change through his latest series of works Seed Corn is not for Harvesting. In this series of portraits, Maguire takes as his subject the young victims of the ongoing gang warfare on the
north side of the city. Maguire’s concern with these young victims is not so much with the injustice of their deaths or with issues of right and wrong. It has more to do with the way in which we relegate the stories of these victims to somewhere beyond the peripheries of the world which we inhabit and understandboth in the media and in our own consciousness- as a means of distancing ourselves. Three portraits hang opposite a piece entitled Scribblestown Lane, the location where many of the victims bodies have been found. On another wall, a blackboard has been preserved. Through Maguire’s art, which takes on the dimensions of an installation, the artist firmly relocates the young men in his portraits back into the more neutral territory of the classroom and in doing so manages to change the way we see the human beings immortalized in his portraits- not as ‘Other’ but as contemporary. Teresa Margolles’ work can also be seen to challenge the way in which victims of civil warfare and conflict in Cuidada Juarez, Mexico, can be marginalized by society. Siobhan McGibbon’s work is made up out of a variety of materials including found objects, human hair, and a type of wax which bears a sinister resemblance to human flesh. Her primary interest is in “questioning the future of normal” through her work. With
Congenital Hypertrichosis Languoniosa, a piece which can only be described as a hairy breast, McGibbon addresses the duality in our perception towards the human anatomy, and how it can elicit opposing reactions. Talking about her work, McGibbon explains “there’s a fine line between the grotesque and the beautiful. “Hair…is fine on someone’s head but we’re grossed out when it’s on the floor. We’re grossed out but it’s based on the human anatomy and is that really right?”. I found McGibbon’s work really engaging. My interpretation of works such as Congenital… is that through her constructions of such grotesque abnormalities, McGibbon’s work actually desensitizes the collective fear which we feel towards such grotesque physical anomalies, encouraging us to re-assess what we consider acceptable. Before this feature delves too deep into the murky depths of the afterschool special, however, and in a last ditch effort to sell this sensational exhibition, I asked Mosse to give his opinion on what makes experiencing art in the context of this sensational exhibition so unique: “Across from me is a fucking giant squid! Across from the pink photographs that I make? It totally opens it up”. There you have it: pink photographs. Giant squids. Hairy flesh. What more could you ask for? 7
Food
A Kitchen and A Bit of Ambition by Clare Kealey
rtisan food is defined by its commitment to food making, resulting in the most superior of tastes. Artisan enthusiasts have a real sense of community and traditional methodology, many going into business with family members. The Mast Brothers, a successful Brooklyn, New York based chocolate factory, did just that. “We question everything we do, from the ingredients we use, to hand wrapping our bars.” The heavily bearded brothers were made famous after hiring a 70-foot schooner ship and travelling (using only wind as their guide) to the Dominican Republic. After collecting 20 metric tones of cocoa beans from their growers, whom they consider family and thanking them “with an excellent price and ample beer”, they set sail for home. Upon their return to Brooklyn, the two brothers were informed that it was the first time a sailing ship had unloaded commercial cargo in New York since 1939. A mighty achievement, but it doesn’t stop there. Their signature chocolate bars take 37 days to make, a process that isn’t practiced by any other chocolatier. Rather than drum rollers, they use small convention ovens and roast the organic beans on trays the size of a home cookie sheet. This combined with careful winnowing, stone grinding and tempering creates a mouth-watering $8 chocolate bar. “We don’t consider our chocolate to really be a candy” Rick Mast says, “it’s a cavier”. It seems people are willing to pay a price for perfection, especially when they are exposed to the magic of the entire process. “To be into food is to do it yourself, to get your hands dirty, to roll up your sleeves. You want to peek in the kitchen in the back, as opposed to being served in the front.” 8
Even with a dedicated fan-base and perfected produce, how do these small and extremely specialist businesses compete against major conglomerates? Colin, the owner of 3FE in Dublin’s city centre tells me he doesn’t worry too much about competition. “I’m a firm believer that you keep your own shop in order before looking to someone else’s. What we do isn’t reinventing the wheel, it’s just making great coffee and being friendly. We can improve this every week without worrying about what are competitors are doing.”
“To be into food is to do it yourself. We don’t consider Our Chocolate to really be a candy... its cavier” He does admit however that it was difficult getting started. “When the banks and enterprise boards didn’t consider it an idea worth buying into, I went looking for an alternative”. Trevor O’Shea, owner of the “asleep by day” nightclub The Twisted Pepper, welcomed 3FE rent-free at first in order for Colin to get settled. And settled he certainly is. 3FE now supplies coffee to the likes of Fallon & Byrne, Mommas Place and Murphy’s Ice Cream and they recently opened their first stand-alone space on Lower Grand Canal Street, proving there is still a market for artisan produce.
“The root of it all is simple. Make a good product and look after the people. The rest will look after itself.” He assures me that location is not an issue- “Coffee is something that appeals to most people. They will always travel for a good cup.” I tend to agree with this. Just recently I was speaking to a friend who moved from Colorado to Orange County who travels a total of four hours to his favourite burrito bar. Demographically the Irish population is growing into the 30+ age bracket, an age when aspects of cuisine become more and more important. When I visited The English Market in Cork last year, the place was packed with middle-aged Come Dine With Me enthusiasts searching for specific balsamic vinegars and vintage cheddars. Man of Aran Fudge, one of Ireland’s great artisan food businesses, calls this food haven one of its many homes. Other locations include Meath, Monaghan, The Kilkenny Christmas Fare and even Dublin at times. Tomás Póil, the sweet-toothed founder, set up the company in order to share the twist he has given to the traditional caramelised flavour of fudge. Granny’s Nutty fudge will melt your heart and seasonal flavours like Autumn’s chocolate orange are a must. Like most other specialist business success stories, Man of Aran acknowledges the importance of community involvement. “People enjoy having something sweet to eat and I like meeting my customers and hearing the feedback. We have great craic too, it’s all part of having a fun day out.” Tomás Póil not only makes sweets, he personifies sweetness. His mission is to “make a fudge that tastes just as good but has a slightly longer shelf-life so that everyone can be cheered up by the enjoying Man of Aran Fudge.” What a sweetheart.
the atre
On the Fringe by Liza Cox
he Fringe festival in Dublin is something to be very excited about. Founded in 1995, in response to a Dublin Theatre Festival programme that tended towards the mainstream, it’s been pushing boundaries, expanding expectations, and, most importantly, showcasing the best of emerging acts ever since. The festival’s manifesto has been to embrace nontraditional elements of performance, and from the outset it has been a multi-disciplinary festival, encompassing dance, music, and visual art as well as performance art and theatre. As Róise Goan celebrates her 3rd year at the helm of Dublin Fringe Festival, I got the chance to talk to her about the programme, what to expect and the unique nature of the job. “The Fringe essentially means ‘seeing it here first’; it’s a chance to see the next big things in intimate settings, at a fraction of a normal ticket price,” Goan says. “It showcases new trends; artists who are one step ahead in heralding developments in performance.” There is an existing misconception of Fringe performance as a somewhat inaccessible form; “wacky”, “out-there”, and
“The work is a confrontation ...a sense of moving foward”
“pretentious”. To dismiss it in this way is a mistake. “Many of the shows are experimental, but the programme includes something for everybody.” Her advice for those trying to decide which of the many shows to see at any Fringe festival? “Take a chance. Go and see something you’ve never heard of. You won’t have heard of it because it’s new, and it might just be something really special.” The Dublin Fringe is unusual among fringe festivals in that it is fully curated. In noncurated Fringe festivals, (eg, the Edinburgh Fringe), there is nobody to decide which shows are “good enough” to be included in the programme. Goan explains, “the result of this is nowhere near as democratic as it sounds what can happen is the emergence of a microcapitalist structure, where shows with financial backing and commercial appeal are the ones with the most success, and artists who are less mainstream invariably end up losing out. This may be quite a controversial thing to say, but it can easily become about venues making money.” The festival curators act as a go-between; both artists and audience are taken into consideration. It also means that, although the festival is diverse and large, with over 100 shows this year, it doesn’t become sprawling. The theme of this year’s festival is Brave New World, and each show addresses the theme in its own way, combining a unity of vision with a diversity of approach. The theme is, of course, partly in response to the doom and gloom of the economic situation in Ireland. Fringe performance has proved resilient in the face of the recession, both in terms of creative output and energy,
“It showcases artists who are one step ahead” and the practical aspects of funding a festival. But it’s had anything but a negative impact on the content of the acts. “There’s an urgency present in a lot of emerging acts,” says Goan, “The work is a confrontation, a challenge and there’s a sense of moving forward. I think it’s important to separate the concept of moving forward from that of growth - to learn and expand without the impetus being focused on becoming bigger, better, faster. That’s one way in which the economic crisis has had a positive impact on mindsets since the days of Celtic Tiger Ireland.” Fringe acts tend to be created by independent, emerging artists, who are well used to staging productions on a shoestring. The festival itself has had to make changes in the way it’s run to cope with cuts in funding, but overall this has had a positive effect on the quality of the festival. “It’s stripped the priorities of the Fringe back to basics - we are more focused than ever on the core mission of the festival, which is to showcase the best of emerging Irish and international acts”. For anyone with even a passing interest in theatre, the festival has a huge amount to offer and runs till the end of the week. A full events listing is available on the festival website www.fringefest.com.
9
Intervie w
Come at the king by Alex Towers
O
n January 13th 2008, Illinois Senator and Presidential hopeful Barack Obama sat down for a talk about race with some journalists. Hillary Clinton had upped her game and the Obama camp were playing up the exciting possibility of America’s first black President over its first female President. After some typically measured comments about his appeal to Latino voters and urban issues, a journalist brought up the television show The Wire. As anyone who has ever talked to any middle class, white, vaguely-liberal individual will know, The Wire and how it is a “masterpiece” is not a topic that can be avoided. If you’ve seen it, you like to talk about it. If you haven’t, you’re usually sick of people telling you to see it. I won’t even attempt to explain The Wire so will just say it was a television show that chronicled Baltimore’s violent drug culture from the inside out. Also it is a masterpiece. Some of the scope of The Wire could be seen when Senator Obama admitted at the January 13th press conference that it was his “favorite show”. His opponent Senator Clinton had recently announced Grey’s Anatomy was hers. However, questions as to whether Obama’s answer was just another savvy political
10
checkmate his campaign team had engineered were soon answered when he added that his favourite character was “Omar Little”, the gay stick-up artist who robs drug dealers. Of course the Illinois Senator soon realized that professing his admiration for a murderous criminal could be troublesome. “Now that’s not an endorsement” Obama hastily retreated, “he’s not my favorite person…but he’s a fascinating character...he’s the toughest, baddest guy on the show”. The actor who played Omar Little for the shows six-year run was Michael K. Williams, and I recently talked to him about his life, career and partial Presidential endorsements. “When President Obama mentioned that he loved something I was involved in, I was so grateful. That I had warranted the attention of a man of that stature was humbling ” Williams tells me before laughing and making a qualification of his own. “I mean was really grateful that it wasn’t to do with me breaking the law…that there wasn’t a federal charge behind a Senator talking about me”. Most actors have stories about how ‘hard’ it was starting out, but most actors are not Michael Kenneth Williams. Born in Brooklyn, Williams started his career as a hip-hop dancer in music videos after seeing Janet
Jackson’s Rhythm Nation on MTV. “It was a time in New York where if you did the right video you could become a star” Williams says “I was just happy being a background dancer and working with Michael or Janet Jackson”. But the actual inspiration to get into acting came, not from watching a performance, but rather on the set of a George Michael video. “That’s where the first light-bulb went off in my head” Williams remembers “I was working with a director called Marcus Nispel and he kept screaming at me ‘emote Michael!, emote pain!’ and at the time I was like ‘what does emote mean?”, then when I put it together it just started happening. I realized that if I put my words with my actions I could parley this into a career.” However, Williams is also known for the large distinctive scar across his face, the result of a confrontation in Brooklyn on his 25th birthday. Williams has chalked the experience up to “wrong place, wrong time, wrong drink” and eventually embraced it, citing Seal’s similar scar as an inspiration. His new distinctive image helped him get photo-shoots with David LaChapelle and Madonna music videos. His real break though came when Tupac Shakur saw a picture of the actor and demanded he audition for the role of Tupac’s
little brother in Bullet, a film the rapper was making with Mickey Rourke. After a single reading, Williams got the part. Following this stroke of luck, another came when Williams got a call saying that Martin Scorsese wanted to meet him for a role in Bringing Out The Dead with Nicolas Cage. After a hotel room meeting, Scorsese also cast him on the spot and Williams acting career had properly begun.
“The wire is a template for everything that is wrong in our society..it’s not there to entertain you...its there to unplug you’”
This knack for landing parts based on single readings continued to 2001, when he met writer David Simon about a role in a new ‘copshow’ he was making. The character Williams was auditioning for was described as “Omar Little: mid-thirties, African American, a mean, gun-toting gangster motherfucker that doesn’t take any shit who is also openly gay, (and then, in capitals) Absolutely non-effeminate”. Again, Williams got the part after a single reading. The character was only supposed to last seven episodes and ended up lasting into all five seasons, most of which was due to Williams’ stunning performance, the perfect balance of charisma and malice. While The Wire has been hailed as the greatest television series ever made by The Telegraph, Time, Slate and The Guardian to name a few, one of the more interesting commendations came from The Baltimore Sun, who said Omar Little was “arguably the show’s greatest achievement”. “The Wire is a template for everything that is wrong in our society” Williams says, “It’s almost become a textbook for a real, honest and unbiased look at what is wrong with our system on every level. It’s my hope that watching it will make you angry and as long as it does then we’ve done our job.” When I ask if it should even still be classed as
‘television entertainment’ alongside Desperate Housewives and Two and a Half Men Williams answers wryly “It’s not there to entertain you or take you away, it is there to unplug you. It makes you take a real and raw look at what’s going on.” But surely it must be frustrating to be recognised as a feared criminal for the rest of your life? In the show children run through the streets shouting “Omar coming through!” whenever the character takes a walk. But Williams is typically cool about typecasting: “I accept that for the rest of my life there will be people who will always call me ‘Omar’. But I’m fine with that, I’ve been called a lot worse in my life.” But with The Wire ending in 2008, Williams turned his attention to a vast array of other projects. Having starred in R. Kelly’s ‘HipHopera’ Trapped in The Closet, Williams was also hand picked for a role in Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone, John Hillcoat’s The Road as well as taking over the Philip Seymour Hoffman role in Todd Solondz’s Life During Wartime. But when asked if there are any directors he would like to work with in future, Williams is characteristically straightforward. “The first that comes to mind would be the Coen Brothers. I would love to work with them. 11
INtervie w
Also F. Gary Grey. Those guys tend to stand out right now.” In addition Williams has continued to work in television, with smaller roles in The Sopranos and Alias developing into guest starring ones in CSI, Lie To Me and cult-classic Aqua Teen Hunger Force. However the most exciting of all is his upcoming stint as a biology teacher on the third series of NBC’s Community. “I love comedy. But it has to be good comedy. Edgy comedy.” Williams says, “I’m actually really grateful to Dan Harmon the guys at Community to show a side of myself I haven’t been able to before. I’m having a great time with Joel McHale, Ken Jeong and, the legend, Chevy Chase.” But aside from his foray into comedy, Williams is also still very much involved in another excellent HBO crime saga: Boardwalk Empire. Here he plays Chalkey White, de-facto mayor of the black community in
“The KKK scene was interesting to shoot. Coming at with my family’s history and leagacy was very grounding... but also a release” 12
1920’s Atlantic City alongside Steve Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson. “Everything about the series was greatScorsese, Terence Winter, Tim Van Patten, Mark Wahlberg- and I fell in love with the script at first sight” Williams says enthusiastically, “but the main thing that attracted me to Chalkey was his strength and fearlessness in a time where black people weren’t allowed to have that type of mentality”. The character’s strength certainly comes to the fore in a scene where he confronts members of the KKK. “That was interesting to shoot” Williams concedes. “Coming to it with my family’s history and legacy was very grounding. On another level it was a release. It’s rare you get to work on a scene like that.” With the second series starting on September 25th, Williams promises that Chalkey will continue to fascinate viewers. “Chalkey’s main thing this season is that he’s out for justice. And he uses his relationship with Nucky Thompson to pursue that. We also get an insight into his family life and it’s dysfunction.” Recently another Wire alumnus, Idris Elba, told The Guardian that there were still limitations on roles for black actors. When asked his thoughts on Elba’s comments Williams disagrees. “I don’t think it’s a limitation on the amount of roles for black actors because there are still a lot of great stories out there. For me I don’t like to limit myself as a ‘black thespian’. I like to approach and play roles that all races can relate to. But when they do tell ‘black stories’ (he employs air quotation marks here) they generally pick the same type of genre with the same faces and actors. I remember when we were shooting the first season of The
“I don’t like to limit myself as a ‘black thespian... I like to approach and play roles all races can relate to” Wire, I read an article asking ‘Where are all the Black actors in Hollywood?’ and I remember David Simon saying ‘right here!’ So I think it’s not so much as a lack of roles, instead it’s a combination of lack of versatility and a lack of stories. Right now a friend of mine can’t get financing for a film about Madam C.J. Walker. He’s been walking up and down Hollywood a year now. But if the story involved Tyler Perry’s Madea character then it would have been green-lit yesterday. Not that there’s anything wrong with Madea, but we need to bring greater versatility and that’s what I hope to do with my new production company- Freedome Productions.” Just before the interview comes to a close I remember his agent told me about the new Michael K. Williams twitter account. “Oh Yeah I’m real active on it! It’s @BKBMG”. When I ask what it means, he laughs his distinctive laugh before saying “It stands for Brooklyn boy makes good.”
intervie w
Laughing Alone With Salad by Annelise Berghenti
E
dith Zimmerman is the kind of writer many bloggers wish they could be. Having written for New York Magazine’s Vulture Blog and Esquwire Magazine, she’s also the editor-in-chief of The Hairpin (sister site to Alex Balk’s The Awl). Recently she made headlines for her GQ profile piece on Chris Evans, where she avoided the “Where do you get your inspiration?” route and took a more offbeat approach. This approach involved flirting, drinks, being introduced to his mother, being called a ‘mystery maiden’ by the tabloids and ends with her climbing out his window (and forgetting her coat) for a cab after passing out on his couch from intoxication. She’s also known for her popular blog that featured her viral hit Women Laughing Alone With Salads, which recently earned her a place on Salon.com’s 10 Funniest Woman Internet Writers. Though The Hairpin is aimed at women, under Zimmerman it’s attracted a male audience as well, despite the banner reading “Ladies First”. “I usually say its ‘a women’s website’ but hate the way that sounds so I follow up with some apologetic and convoluted “…but it’s funny?” Zimmerman explains, “But it’s lame to say ‘it’s funny’. It’s a people’s website that covers a lot of ground and ties to approach serious and playful stuff with a warm, welcoming, and occasionally unhinged sense of humor.” While this seems ambitious, she maintains that the simplest approach is often the best: “When people ask what to pitch, I often tell them to think of their strangest passions and go from there. The weirder the better. But I totally stole that idea from Alex Balk who told me that when I started. He’s a genius.” Like many bloggers, Zimmerman started her blog for herself as a place where she could share her writing. But it soon started to develop a strong following, thanks in part to her super short quirky stories such as this one, entitled Candy: “Hi Kids!” I said to the trick-or-treaters who had gathered on my porch. “Do you guys
like candy?” I asked as I brought out the Halloween bowl. “Yes!” they screamed. “How much?” I asked. “A lot!” they screamed. “Do you love it?” I asked. “Yes!” they screamed. “We love it!” “So why don’t you marry it?” I asked. “Nooo!” they screamed. “Why not?” I asked. “You can’t marry candy!” they screamed. “Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do,” I said, fiddling with my wedding ring. “Ever.”
“I’m very proud of the Praying Mantis. That came out pretty ‘PrayingMantis-Y”.” But everyone who wants to be a writer inevitably has a personal blog nowadays. So how did hers get noticed? “It just sort of happened naturally. I wrote these goofy little stories on my personal blog for fun and then a friend gave me a job at Vulture” Zimmerman says, “and then when The Awl had an opportunity to start a sister site, they came to me”. One of the best parts of The Hairpin are the pieces written about experiences outside of the norm – an anonymous essay by an abortion provider, or a list of pros and cons for donating your eggs for example. So I was interested if she reaches out to writers with a specific idea in a mind. Instead she encourages people to send in their work to the site and says “A lot of the pieces come in as unsolicited submissions. We just read everything that comes to us”. I said that if I were writing online, I think I’d probably obsessively Google myself and
she admits she is similarly minded. “I try to read all the comments, so many of which are hilarious. I have a Google alert on my name and I learned how to search myself on twitter and saw that ‘Edith Zimmerman’ is my mostsearched thing. Wait. I think I wasn’t supposed to reveal that… I don’t think it’s really affected my writing though. It’s definitely important to know who’s calling me stupid and ugly and who ‘liked’ what…and then plotting it all on a wall sized chart.” In terms of influences, she takes inspiration from a broad sphere. “Maeve Higgins is hilarious and I love her. As are Jack Handey, John Mulaney, Patricia Marx and Tig Notaro. And I just read A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole which was brilliant.” Zimmerman says, “and I’m always inspired and impressed by the women who write for The Hairpin, their stuff always makes me happy.” The question I most wanted to ask was about her ‘food art’. Since May 2007, she has been making celery octopuses, flour ghosts, butter skulls and cabbage bras. But where did the inspiration come from? Was she peeling an apple one day and looked down and it had transformed into a grasshopper? “I fell down in the grocery store and grabbed some cucumbers to break my fall. When I unclenched my fists they had been transformed into perfect doves. The rest is history” she explains. “No. I just thought it was funny to do really bad art out of food and then as I worked at it I kept thinking it was funny. Gradually I got better at it and then I started to do ‘real ones’. I’m very proud of the Praying Mantis. That came out pretty ‘praying-mantis-y’. In fact I challenge anyone to make a better praying mantis out of scallions.” So with The Hairpin and her writing getting more attention, I expect we will be seeing plenty more of Edith Zimmerman and her thoroughly-impossible-to-replicate food sculptures in the future. “Wait, no!” Zimmerman says just as our interview ends “please make sure no-one tries to make a better praying mantis from scallions! I think that would mess up my-self esteem.”
13
M usic
Casting Shadows by Gheorghe Rusu
A
fter a solid on-going career with Brooklynite folkrockers Grizzly Bear and an extensive resumé as a producer, I talked to Chris Taylor about his first ‘almost-solo’ outing. You might know him as the bassist for Grizzly Bear, who’s been the producer for their last two albums – the acclaimed Yellow House and 2009’s follow-up, Veckatimest. In his capacity as a multi-instrumentalist (playing woodwinds and accordion along with bass), producer and vocalist, he has been essential in polishing their sound with flowering harmonies and lush echo. He co-wrote the band’s biggest singles – “Knife” has been covered by Brazilian dancepunkers CSS, Born Ruffians, and Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox, “While You Wait For The Others” is the only song to have gotten a perfect score in Pitchfork’s track reviews section, and “Two Weeks” was featured in at least one Volkswagen advert.. Jay-Z and Radiohead are also big endorsers – Jay and his little-known spouse Beyoncé were in the crowd for one of the band’s Brooklyn shows, and Jonny Greenwood called them his favourite band and invited them to open for Radiohead on a US tour. “It feels surreal. I don’t put too much stock into it. I don’t really 14
“I don’t want to disapPoint myself. and I always have really high standards...My Head isn’t the most chilled-out place to live”.
go into the studio and think about that fact. It doesn’t affect me in that way. It’s such a crazy, unbelievable compliment though. It’s a trip. I guess I’m a little bit in – not disbelief – but it’s awesome. It’s weird. How would you feel? It’s flattering but I don’t let that stuff go to my head. I could easily put out something that they hate.” Beyond this project, Taylor has been plenty active. As he puts it, “I produced a lot more
records than Grizzly Bear records.” Among these are works by Dirty Projectors, Department of Eagles and The Morning Benders, in addition to instrumental aid to TV on the Radio’s breakthrough full-length Return to Cookie Mountain. His versatile – not idiosyncratic – production style, a (“basket of whatever I’m into at the moment and whatever else seems to work”) also happens to present itself on one of last year’s best albums: Twin Shadow’s Forget, a heartbreaking, nuanced callback to the danceable melancholy of new wave. Taylor has never sung lead on a Grizzly Bear track, and with his proficiency it was only a matter of time before a solo effort would appear. But the wait is over with Dreams Come True, under the name CANT, being released this month. For it, Taylor enlisted the help George Lewis Jr., aka Twin Shadow. Taylor sings his praises: “I wanted to work with him because we had grown really close in working on his record and I couldn’t think of anybody more talented and more appropriate to have a go at making the music I wanted to make. He’s one of my favourite musicians that I’ve come across and been able to work with. I feel lucky to have met him as a friend and a musician.” But this isn’t exactly a solo album (“It’s really collaborative.I didn’t do it
by myself. Is Neil Young a solo album? Then yeah, sure, it’s a solo album”), with Lewis taking a big role: “We just set up in a bedroom in a big house my friends let us use, because that was the only space they would let us use. We started making sounds that we liked and started making songs out of the sounds. We had no plan. We wrote it together, like a band would. We did a lot of work in a week and a half, we kinda wrote 60-75% of the record.”
“I didn’t have any desire to make anything that sounded like Grizzly Bear. Or I would have done that with Grizzly Bear.”
The rest was completed by Taylor alone, but strangely the end result is more akin to Twin Shadow’s brooding electric instrumentation than Grizzly Bear’s organic, unprocessed tunes. The folky hallmarks you may have gotten used to with them are conspicuously and deliberately absent. “I tried to use a different bag of tricks for this one. There’s no acoustic guitar, the harmonies serve a different purpose than they would in Grizzly Bear. I didn’t have any desire to make anything that sounded like Grizzly Bear. Or I would have done that with Grizzly Bear.” Instead, formative influences shine through, the music “I grew up on. Anything from Nirvana to Joy Division to D’Angelo to Otis Redding,” with the ultimate goal of “trying to make pop music out of all that stuff.” The accessible R&B of “The Edge” contrasts with “She Found A Way Out”’s doomy post-punk drone and thudding drum machine, while the title track reminds us of Radiohead at their most experimental. There’s an uneasy feeling that Taylor is perhaps actively and contrarily focusing on moving away from the style he’s known for, and as such the album is eclectically sculpted. But this is Taylor in his most unaffected form. “I had a lot more say and was able to dictate how
things happened. I could go for aesthetics that I was singularly into as opposed to having to appease everyone else in the band and do the producer’s role of bringing everyone’s creative visions together and having to synthesise it into something. I didn’t have to do that on this record, and that was really fun, cause I feel like all I’ve been doing is that sort of role, and I felt like pursuing something a little bit more specific as to what I was into.” And the shift in style is clearly tipped considerably by Lewis’s presence. “Part of the reason I worked on Twin Shadow’s record is because it’s the kind of music I wanted to pursue. I give credit to George everywhere I can.” There’s no pressure to please, Taylor is content with his own appreciation of the music, and when asked about whether there’s some obligation to satisfy his regular and famous fans, he’s typically self-aware: “I don’t want to disappoint myself and I have really high standards. Always. And for me that’s way more than enough. My head isn’t the most chilled out place to live, actually. I’m satisfied with that amount of criticism.” And with that we come to the conclusion that above all, the music is unfettered and pure. “I believe in what I’ve done, I stand behind it. It’s honest. That’s all I can hope for.” 15
Books
Quantum of Solace by Kevin Breathnach
t was way back in October 2010 that I first asked Trinity graduate, Belinda McKeon, to do an interview with Tn2. But since Solace, her novel about the tensions between a farmer and his academic son, had not yet been published, any interview would have to wait. It was not until five weeks ago, in fact, during the week of her book launch, that I sat down to talk with McKeon. In the time since then, Solace has earned both critical and popular acclaim. Yet it is only now, on the eve of a deadline almost a whole year since the interview was originally proposed, that I’ve taken it upon myself to actually write the piece. Deadlines, as McKeon herself will freely admit, can have such a mobilising effect. How did Solace come about? It actually started out as a short story I wrote for the first Davy Byrne Awards in 2004. I hadn’t been finishing anything, so it seemed like a good deadline to work towards to get a piece of fiction together. But of course I ended up writing it the night before the deadline, which is pretty typical of me. I wrote it overnight. It was about five or six pages and it wasn’t really a story. It was very obviously a fragment of something – a scene between Mark and Tom, playing on the kind of tensions which ended up being developed further in the novel, the tensions between a father who’s a farmer and a son who wants to build his own academic life in Dublin. There were several things present in a very undeveloped and inchoate form. Do you know what you are going to write before you sit down at your desk? No, it comes to me. There’s an actual physical element to it. Unless I’m touching the computer keys or have a pen to paper, it won’t come. Whatever way my brain is wired, there seems to be a relationship between the action of writing and the release of material. Sometimes imagery comes during the offtime. If I’ve been keeping a good routine, an image will pop into my head when I’m washing dishes or taking a walk. But that can’t be a conscious thing. You can’t think, ‘I’m going for a walk to think about my novel’. MFA programmes have come in for a lot of criticism in recent years. Can you talk about your experience of the course at Columbia? 16
I went to Columbia with a very specific demand. I wanted to have deadlines. You’re there for two or three years, you have constant deadlines and everyone around you is trying to finish their book. That has a very motivating effect. But I honestly don’t think I got a whit of formal training out of the course. I didn’t have a class on how to write a sentence or a paragraph. But then I didn’t go in looking for that. I went there to force myself into an action that recognised the seriousness of finishing the book. And so I agree with a lot of the criticism of MFA programmes. I think an awful lot of them are just rackets. But the deadlines were very important and I met some really terrific writers who are now my readers and peers. Do you have any intellectual insecurities at all? Too many to even articulate. I feel a huge nostalgia for when I was at your stage, when I’d just finished my undergrad and was immersed in so many different genres, reading and learning so much every day. If I have an
“There seems to be a relationship between the action of writing and the release of material”
insecurity, it’s that that slackens when you leave academia. Journalism does that to you as well because you become an expert in everything for ten minutes. When I was an undergrad I would just live in the library, completely immersed in it. I don’t really do that so much anymore. I had such a great time in Trinity. I took each of the writer-in-residence workshops – except one, which I didn’t get into – which were great. The first year I did it, Paul Murray was a fourth year at the time and he was in that class. That’s where I first met him. He was telling me recently that Skippy Dies was started as a short story in 1994. He wouldn’t have been even twenty at the time. I mention that because, as I said, Solace came out of a short story six or seven years ago; Skippy came out of one from almost twenty years ago! These things lodge and ferment. That’s what they should do, anyway – which is why the deadline for my next novel is causing me quite a bit of anxiety. I feel I should probably have negotiated a little more time for myself. Have you had time to sit down and work on that? I have had time. But I haven’t really availed of the time very well. It’s a strange experience to be writing a different novel to Solace. A little bit painful, actually. In some ways I feel like it’s my first novel. But I am just doggedly writing down all the crap, because I really believe in the idea of a shitty first draft. Claire Keegan says that certain stuff has to burn away before you can get to the core of what you’re writing. Yeah, you just have to write through the shit really.
Games & Fashion
Et in arcadia ego e convention, a mass gathering of nerds, geeks, introverts, extroverts, heroes, villains, otaku, loli and others, has been an important part of nerd-culture for longer than anyone would probably care to remember. In Ireland, con-season covers the celebratory drought that sits between Easter and Christmas and this year, TN2 Games will be covering con season, giving you an insight into one of the most cherished and frequently misunderstood aspects of geekdom. We kick off con-season 2011 with the maiden voyage of @rcade-Con. @rcade-con is the first convention run by gaming and geek culture website The@rcade. ie and while most anime conventions acknowledge the overlap between gaming and anime enthusiasts, @rcade-con prides itself on being the first cross-media convention and its gaming presence could be felt throughout the entire weekend. The guests included Laura Bailey (the voice of Street Fighter IVs ChunLi) and Travis Willingham (Knuckles of Sonic
The Hedgehog fame) and the console room was open all weekend for anyone to come in and get their game on. Saying that, no gaming event is complete without tournaments and added to the usual cocktail of Call of Duty and Halo were slightly more niche options like BlazBlue and MvC3. This effort to appeal to all tastes is admirable but doesn’t come without a cost. With so many people wandering in and out, picking up and playing as they pleased, the tournaments lost much of their spectacle. An MC, a more visible sign-up system or even just a guy with a loudspeaker could have saved their sense of event. Still, the enormity of the endeavour can’t be overlooked and these issues can be easily resolved next year. The traders hall was especially impressive
and the temptation to blow my lazily-earned cash on rare figurines, dvds and collectibles was difficult to overcome. The artists alley is deserving of particular praise, showcasing fantastic work and the chance for genuinely talented artists to make some money selling it. Shout-out to the artist who sold me the picture of Faith from Mirrors Edge. It’s behind my TV looking awesome as we speak Being an inexperienced con-goer I missed a lot of events at @rcade-con while taking in the general ambiance. But by the closing ceremony, I had seen enough to make me regret not seeing more. @rcade-con 2011 wasn’t without its issues, but the attendees and staff share a unique enthusiasm for the event that will see it marked on many a con-goers calendar next year and beyond. Andy Kavanagh
that university life administers to its charges. For we now have free reign over how to present ourselves, and at a period in life that is all about carving out an identity, this idea could only evoke feelings of great excitement and distress. Gone is yesteryear’s uniform, and with it the naive hope that you were somehow emulating Ralph Lauren’s preppy aesthetic, or Chanel’s run of school blazer inspired jackets (you weren’t). So given these sartorial shackles have been removed, you are now tasked with the quite novel concept of dressing yourself without restriction. The bones of a fairly non-comprehensive list reads as follows. First and foremost, remember where you are. Trinity has a fairly lengthy, though unwritten, history of eccentrics, in both thought and appearance. If
you’re vying for a best-dressed crown, be sure your game is thoroughly upped before going through front arch, and get in line. Be warned that shock tactics rarely work. Next, remember the pressures your new routine is going to exert upon you - early lectures require an early start, and when coupled with near daily hangovers, tactical planning is of the essence. Thirdly, it’s better off to ignore the icy glares of the BESS-heads - outside the realm of UGG boots, sweats, and Paul’s Boutique, their authority is void. Finally, if you’re studying science or engineering, please ‘werq’ like you’ve never ‘werqed’ before, and bring some much needed glamour ‘down that end’ of campus. So that perhaps this year, the Hamilton could trump the Arts block. Well, a boy can dream... Stephen Moloney
Style So Fresh ost of you reading this will probably have motored through the last ten years within the safe confines of an ill-fitting, gaudily coloured, and decidedly non-chic school uniform. Gone are the shapeless v-neck sweaters, shamelessly stuffy blazers, long (or fearfully short) skirts, and obligatorily hideous footwear. With all of these risky sartorial variables no longer looming over you, you’d be forgiven for thinking that things could only get better. In reality, I see no more fitting a response than to quote Miranda Priestly and ask; “Did you fall down and smack your little head on the pavement?” You see, one of the most frightening elements of getting dressed is the very freedom
17
SeX
recipe
Hibernian Psycho The Boy Skout Monday I recently discovered an unexpected para-
philia lurking in the back room of my sexual consciousness. I think it began when a girlfriend offered me her defunct Myspace password for reasons too complicated for you to really care - the upshot was that I hijacked her profile and started talking to all the eager boys that live to message girls they assume are desperate enough to send them dirty videos. I only kept it up for a week before guilt ruined the perverse amount of enjoyment I was juicing from pretending to be a different person, being flattered for my ‘sexcee pics’ and ‘cute face’. But this week I discovered the Skout App for iPhone, which is a straight version of Grindr, the controversial gateway for no-strings GPS-relevant sex. I make a profile using a horde of photos from a girl in California I once... well, convinced into Skyping dirty videos to me.
Tu e sday I’m in the Mac Room availing of free internet. Twenty different guys have messaged me over night, some with pictures, some with compliments, some with sinister desperate pleas to make me their girlfriend (which would make a fantastic story to tell our grandkids, if I wasn’t actually just conducting an experiment in psychosexual narcissism). I chat back to some of them. Darren is 5.9 miles away and offers to pick me up ‘at work’ in his van. Whatever for? ‘To tease you for a few hours with my tongue’. This could be fun. I hope I have enough credit. Th u rsday I’ve spent a couple of hours on Skout every
day now - interestingly, I listed myself as looking for both boys and girls, but it’s been the expected watershed of loneliness, the perverted and the desperate. I’ve never been the pulling type, and this whole thing only serves to reinforce the regressive effect chasing women has on guys. This is precisely what cavemen would do if they had iPhones. Darren and his van still aren’t letting up, and he’s pushing for a meet. The other guys I’m teasing are more up for phone sex, internet sex, and exchanging pictures. I now have a collection of 34 grainy-resolution penises in my image folder. I don’t like to look at them. It’s the flattery and the attention I like. Even though it’s directed towards a fictional character I’ve magicked up. My iphone vibrates. 35! And it’s a good one.
Friday Darren says he’s out in Clonsilla. He’s invited
me to come and learn some knot-tying skills to use on him. It’s nice to have a real conversation. I learn some shibari knots from Wikipedia. The Tasuki one was difficult. I tell Darren I have to babysit and watch 16 & Pregnant and get drunk alone on vodka cranberries instead.
Satu rday: I am usually dilettantish with things like
this. It’s been a week, though, and my Skout compulsion remains. My fleeting flashes of guilt, and my consciousness of becoming a living parody of some Internet 2.0 Bret Easton Ellis character are fading: I simply don’t care. I wonder what colour Darren’s van is?
18
“It would make a fantastic story to tell our grandkids, if I wasn’t actually just conducting a experiment in psychosexual narcissism”
Stew the Right Thing Clare Kealey A good stew is like a good cuddle; comforting, snug and warm. It makes us think of home and our mammies. This recipe is very straightforward and any type of seasonal root veggies can be added or substituted to your taste. I also believe that it tastes even better a day or two after you make it. Make sure to use fresh sageyou won’t regret it (mammy knows best!) and no need to use expensive wine, it makes very little difference. My favourite way to serve stew is with crunchy warm bread and garnish with fresh parsley.
Missing Mum’s Stew
Olive Oil A Knob of Butter 5 Garlic Cloves, 5 Carrots, 3 parsnips & 3 Medium sized potatoes, all peeled & chopped. 1 Large onion, chopped 1 lb of beef stew meat Flour to dust 300 ml of red wine 1/2 pint of beef stock 2 Tablespoons of tomato paste A handfull of fresh leaves Some chopped parsley to garnish Salt & pepperPreheat oven to 160ºC/300ºC /Gas 2 1) Dust the meat in some flour. This helps thicken the sauce and keep the meat tender. 2) Cover a pot with some olive oil and a knob of butter. To this add the sage leaves, garlic and chopped onion and cook for about 3-4 minutes, allowing the onion to soften. 3) Toss the meat and chopped vegetables in next, along with the tomato puree, red wine, stock and plenty of salt and pepper. 4) Bring to the boil, pop a lid on top and place in a preheated oven until the meat is tender. The time for this may vary, usually 2-3 hours depending on the quality of meat you are using. 5) Garnish with parsley and serve with warm, crusty bread. Your mother would be so proud.
&
reviews Music
Books
Games
Art
Films
Food
Theatre
Drive by Robert O’Reilly
19
&
II.1
Drive Director: Nicolas Winding Refn rough the years Hollywood has had an obsession with films where the acting out of masculinity takes centre stage. Scorsese is perhaps the expert in this field, the likes of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas conveying the sense that men sometimes have to put on a macho act within society, and when cracks in the male persona do start to appear, the walls often come crashing horribly down around them. Cassevetes’s The Killing of a Chinese Bookie centres on a similar theme as does Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, and Drive can park itself comfortably amongst those classics of modern cinema. Pipped at the post for the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year by Terence Malick’s incredibly overrated The Tree of Life, but still managing to pick up a Best Director gong for the highly talented Refn, Drive trail-blazes onto Irish cinema screens this month with exhaust fumes and the screeching of rubber tyres trailing in its wake. Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson, Crazy, Stupid, Love), plays a part-time movie stunt driver and underpaid garage worker (his character is never actually given a proper name throughout the film’s running time, the credits merely calling him ‘driver’) who is also employed as a hired getaway for criminals in his spare time. A strict timekeeper, he only ever gives his clients five minutes to get whatever it is they have to get done, otherwise he’ll take off down the road. He also keeps track of any incoming law enforcement by using a police radio which comes in handy for getaways. The ‘driver’ doesn’t really partake in smalltalk but he certainly is all action when it 20
comes to evading the attentions of the police, his talent at manoeuvring cars around bends would even give Michael Schumacher a run for his money. Although laconic and reserved, Gosling’s character soon begins to come out of his chassis a little bit when he befriends his next door neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan, from An Education, Never Let Me Go), who lives alone with her son Benicio (naturally the husband is currently serving a term in the chokey for an unnamed misdemeanour). Both mother and son take an instant liking to the quiet, hard-working stunt-driver. So, it’s all set up for a quirky Hollywood romance, with an awkward love triangle wrapped up by a bittersweet ending. But Drive soon veers off into some very dark territory indeed, and this is one movie that certainly doesn’t stop at any red lights but goes rapidly hurtling past them like Jenson Button through the Nouvelle Chicane. Things start to quickly roll downhill for our lead actor and his new companions, when husband Standard (played by Sucker Punch’s Oscar Isaac) appears on the scene after being released from prison. Some nasty gangster types, who are looking for protection money that Standard owes them, are hot on his heels and desperate to get their cash back. When the ‘driver’ finds Irene’s husband beaten to a bloody pulp in the basement of their apartment complex, Benicio also having had a bullet placed in his hand as a warning, and Irene seemingly next on the gangsters’ hit list, our gear-changing anti-hero steps in to try and help out. He agrees to work as getaway for a pawnshop robbery that Standard is taking part in to pay back his protection-money
debts, but things don’t quite go as planned and the ‘driver’ ends up becoming gangster enemy number one. Like its lead character, Drive initially appears calm, cool and collected on the surface, a well-acted drama with perhaps a few surprises up its sleeve, but underneath this slow-burning, sometimes broody but placid exterior, is a fuel-injected, turbo-charged, road-raging, ultra-violent and simmering engine of hatred that is just waiting to explode into life. And Drive certainly does explode into life, when Refn’s slow build-up of tension is released in sequences of blood-splattered carnage that wouldn’t be out of place in a Friday the 13th movie. The director’s follow up to 2009’s Valhalla Rising starts in first gear but once Refn puts his foot to the peddle, he doesn’t let any cinematic roadblocks get in his way and the film builds up a powerful head of steam. Although Drive doesn’t have very much in the way of an actual plot and perhaps some viewers might ask what the point of it all is in the end, if ever there was a film destined to become a cult classic then this is it. Refn makes the film feel and look like it was made in 1983, with tacky Risky Business-type credits and a superb 80’s electronica-inspired soundtrack by Cliff Martinez (ex-drummer with Red Hot Chili Peppers). Gosling is perfectly cast in the lead role, his friendly surface demeanour superbly masking the film’s seething anger. In fact his latexfoam rubber stuntman mask comes across as an ironic metaphor for the acting out of manliness itself. All of the other performances are terrific throughout, including Bryan Cranston (Little Miss Sunshine, Breaking Bad) as the driver’s garage boss and Hellboy’s Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy and is a dead ringer for Tom Waits) as a foul-mouthed gangster. With crisp editing by Mat Newman, moody cityscapes captured beautifully by cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel, and Refn perfectly directing the film’s many shifts in gear, Drive is a cracking 100 minutes of entertainment and a cinematic ride that you certainly won’t forget in a hurry. Robert O’ Reilly
I
II.1
Out of the Dark Room: The David Kronn Collection
Jo’Burger
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham
Art The American writer Susan Sontag
once said: “To photograph is to confer importance.” Now this may not be true of all postLeaving Cert holiday photos on facebook, but a visit to IMMA’s current photographic exhibition helps give merit to Sontag’s assertion. A photographer’s choice of subject matter is, if only in part, their art, and Out of the Dark Room: the David Kronn Collection is certainly a testament to that art. Drawn from the collection of Dr David Kronn – pediatrician and TCD graduate – Out of the Dark Room gathers 160 photographs by 85 famous artists from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The works on display range in subject matter and do not easily take an over-arching theme, but subjects such as childhood, abstract landscapes, and Ireland recur. The works of Harry Callaghan and Irving Penn feature heavily with an entire room dedicated to each artist. Callaghan’s work, portraying the American landscape in abstracted formal shots, gives the viewer an unexpected and often beautiful vantage of seemingly everyday sights. A forerunner of Callaghan’s style, Edward Weston’s images are juxtaposed with the work of the generations on which he had an influence. Stunning prints by Ansel Adams, William E. Davis and Brett Weston (Edward’s son) appear beside Weston, together demonstrating the “sculptural beauty in natural forms” evoked with apparent ease. Beauty is found by reassigning the viewer’s attention to what is usually unnoticed: a broken window, a copse of alder trees, long grass, a seascape. The experience goes something like this: the image defies comprehension
appearing foreign, abstract and unknown. However with perseverance the structural intricacies give way to recognition and a night scene of black water, bone-white reeds and an immaculate reflection materialize within the rectangle in front of you. Time features as another theme, with Ken Kitano’s One Morning to Evening a highlight. The passage of the sun is captured in a blaze of azure and turquoise, creating an arresting otherworldly sight. Given Dr Kronn’s profession, it is not surprising that the theme of childhood figures prominently, and provides an evocative medium for many of the photographers featured. Irina Davis’s portrayal of children in a Russian state orphanage is poignant and suggestive, while Martine Franck’s images of children on Tory Island remind the viewer of merry, naïve elation. The social tensions of apartheid South Africa are subtly explored in David Goldblatt’s A Farmer’s Son and His Nursemaid. We see the young white boy with the young black nursemaid and the obvious affection between them. Civil unrest in Northern Ireland is shown by Rosalind Solomon’s Another Day of Action, Belfast. It portrays a tough looking toddler dwarfed by the plastic ice-cream cone under which he perches, beside a news board announcing sectarian warfare. Boding well for the future, this exhibition marks Kronn’s pledge to donate his entire collection to IMMA over the coming years. After viewing a third of the entire collection, it’s clear the rest will be worth the wait. My advice – see this exhibition while you still can, it will be running at IMMA untill October 9. Robert Blake
Rathmines Road
food Call me cynical, but it seems to me that a lot of the accoutrements Joe McCracken drapes over every inch of his restaurant empire are attempts – albeit a well-intentioned ones - at being wacky and cool. The resulting impression a lot of people seem to take away is ‘style over substance’. However I can confirm that, acocoutrements or not, the man still knows how to make good food. As I sat down on a long bench in his original Rathmines burger joint, I was handed the usual old children’s book and delved into it with delight, savoruing the allure of the ginormous burgers being consumed by my fellow diners. As I waited for the server to take my order, my old beano annual/menu cleverly provided ample distraction during to pass the short waiting time. There is always a satisfying choice of meat on offer: beef, chicken, lamb, and even fish of the day. The success of your meal here is down to which of the many delicious combinations you choose. A safe bet would be the lamb burger with “Orlando” toppings (harissa mint aioli and rocket), or chicken with “Mofolo” (chipotle, pineapple, balsamic relish and rocket). The burgers come in a huge bun dressed with a somewhat overwhelming lettuce leaf. Underneath the trimmings, the beef patty contained within my burger was actually smaller than I would have preferred, however, the lamb proved to be a much more substantial offering. A taste of some of the regularly-changing, mouthwatering special side orders, was the last thing to confirm that Jo’Burger is still substance over style. And it does have a lot of style. Just look at the dinnertime music. The staff here act as DJs, picking some great chill-out beats to accompany your meal. The atmosphere is improved further by sitting so close to others around you, while some might feel uncomfortable at first, they’ll soon warm to the casual, communal nature of eating here. It’s affordable and very tasty. Add to that an interesting drinks menu and you have the makings of a relaxing, enjoyable night. Aaron Devine
21
&
II.1
Queen of Tarts III Cow’s Lane
Melancholia Director: Lars Von Trier
film The enigma that is Lars von Trier gives
us Melancholia, a film of two halves. The first part of the diptych, entitled ‘Justine,’ focuses on the wedding reception for Michael (Alexander Skarsgård) and Justine (Kirsten Dunst). The second part, “Claire,” sees Justine arrive at the lavish home of her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) after the immediate failure of her marriage due to her crippling depression, her ‘melancholia’. There is another Melancholia though, a massive blue rogue planet that is about to crash into the earth. The film is bookended by this apocalypse. The first images we see are prophetic scenes of the fatal impact, but seen from space, on the large scale. The final image is of the personal and earthly, as Justine and Claire perish into infinity with Claire’s young son. Both scenes are beautifully crafted in sound and vision, creating a poetic futility of life and being, of the banality of everything that has seemed so important. The greatest pity, as the world explodes in front of us, is that von Trier found it essential to so rigorously display and ridicule the banalities of human interaction and ritual. Von Trier’s script fails almost completely and dies during an excruciating conversation between Justine and her employer, an advertising executive, about how hollow he and his business are. The clumsy and heavy-handed manner in which social ritual is deconstructed only reminds the viewer that it is a pale shadow of other such endeavours, most notably Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen and Luis Buñuel’s later works. It must be said that Melancholia’s second half is better than the first - they are very separate pieces of a whole - yet it is still a little dim in execution. While the Danish director again proves that he can compose wonderfully evocative images, he only punctuates the film with them. The majority of the visuals are shaky camera zoom in, zoom out again Modern Family style nausea that serves no point at all, featuring clunky conversations about nothing. And yes, you get to see Kirsten Dunst’s tits. Lars von Tired. Cathal Wogan
22
Food Located in the medieval quarter of the city, just down Cow’s Lane off Dame Street is a quaint tearoom and pâtisserie that as well as being crammed with decadent pastries and cakes, also offers a relaxing, self-indulgent experience for its customers. On arrival to the snug café, I was struck by the wonderful aroma wafting across the inviting room as we were immediately welcomed by the warm and pleasant staff. The pretty décor is complimented by an enticing and colourful display of luxurious confectionery presented on charmingly quirky fine bone china. At first glance, my friend and I were impressed by the extensive menu, with options for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea available. Breakfast runs from eight until noon, with wholesome dishes such as a Full Irish (also available as a vegetarian option) accompanying items more suited to those with a sweeter tooth, like freshly made muffins and Danish pastries. We had come in for some lunch, but with everything on the menu sounding so delicious, choosing what to order proved difficult. I eventually decided on the red onion, potato, cheddar and rosemary tart. The flavours were well balanced in this tart, which was unexpectedly light. The smoked salmon sandwich served with lemon crème fraiche was definitely a highlight, as was the spinach, brie and pecan nut tart. If you are simply interested in a quick snack, a different soup is on offer daily,
of course served with homemade breads. This is also available as part of the soup and sandwich combo, costing €9.95. Desserts are a key part of the menu and are perhaps the main reason for Queen of Tarts’ popularity. For chocolate fans like myself, the menu presents another dilemma. There are lighter options, like a simple yet delicious chocolate chip cookie, alongside offerings such as the chocolate fudge cake or chocolate pecan tart for those looking to spoil themselves. Two different cheesecakes are also available, as are some of the best scones I’ve tasted in Dublin; a single bite transporting me back to my granny’s kitchen. It is fairly difficult to get a bad dessert in this café, with the owners Yvonne and Regina Fallon being New York-trained pastry chefs. Couple these skills with a clear passion for home-style cooking and you have a winning formula. It is no wonder, then, that this establishment is often recommended to tourists, and you may struggle to find a table in the Dame Street tearoom at busy times. However, a newer, larger restaurant is open on Cow’s Lane, so an opportunity to sample this delicious home cooking will always be (literally) just around the corner. There is also a takeaway service, though I would recommend enjoying the relaxing surroundings of either café, as each one is an ideal haven for a quiet snack or three-course lunch with friends. Nora Eastwood
II.2
Page ONe Director: Andrew Rossi
II.1
Strange Mercy St. Vincent
M usic In the time since St. Vincent/Annie Clark’s last album the industry has become even further awash with weirdo female performers with secondary school productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as their stage shows and lyrics that are seemingly lifted from occult self-help books. Although only ever superficially comparable with these acts, her third album risked getting lost amidst all the dry ice and plastic garlands they left in their wake. However, while still meriting of descriptions like “ethereal”, and still sometimes inviting what end up looking like lazy Kate Bush comparisons, Strange Mercy sees her significantly beef up her sound and tone down her soiled wood-nymph persona. What is perhaps most notable about St. Vincent’s new album is its surprising decisiveness, both in terms of its lyrics and its music. Although both vocals and instrumentation are still frequently distorted, Annie is never less than clear in what she is saying. “Cheerleader” is probably the best example of this new clarity of purpose. Over preprogrammed drum beats she details her own dating history and tries to link it to the ills of contemporary America, and manages in one song to sum up the main musical and lyrical concerns of the album. She is speaking in specifics this time around, and is interested in constructing a convincing polemic, a welcome change given before she would have just filled in any gaps with yet another abstract
putdown of her ex’s mulitple sexual failings. Where Strange Mercy excels in particular is the way in which it not only manages to make unusual motifs seem rational, but also argues conclusively in their favour. On “Dilettante” Annie successfully makes folksy accordion sound like the noises emanating from the sleaziest person you’ve ever queued beside at the bar, which adds an eerie level of recognition to what is already a disquieting song. Meanwhile “Northern Lights” contains a breakdown that sounds roughly like someone trying to vigorously unjam a caught zipper, while also seeming to propose that a Semisonic revival wouldn’t be entirely without merit. This stubborn insistence on the normality of eclecticism obviously has its drawbacks, and sections of the album risk descending into a supremely awkward evening of musical genre speed-dating. “Hysterical Strength”, for example, starts off like the soundtrack to an aerobics video before morphing into what sounds like the soundtrack to an “aerobics video”, in the pubescent euphemism sense. It doesn’t quite work, and some of the other juxtapositions are not as striking as they were perhaps conceived. However, these are minor quibbles on what is otherwise an excellent effort. Overall Strange Mercy succeeds by managing to both reference and bypass current musical trends, while simultaneously standing as St. Vincent’s most individual album yet. Michael Barry
film Page One opens with languorous shots
of The New York Times printing press. Robots assuredly transport enormous cylinders of newsprint. The camera glides along folded newspapers sweeping through the plant. Loaded trucks pull into the dawn. It belies the filmmakers’ romance for newsprint — you couldn’t make a documentary about The New York Times without being a newsprint romanticist. But what I see is millions of dollars of capital invested for mere pennies in return. It’s this crisis that is the story of Page One, although romance dictates that diversions must be taken to cover the Times’s triumphs — Wikileaks, the Pentagon Papers, a Pulitzer, the Baghdad bureau. (The paper’s criticised pre-Iraq war cheerleading is included for balance). Editor Bill Keller says in that he’s not sure the solution to paper’s misfortune can be boiled down to an aphorism, and he’s right: no-one knows what is going to happen to newspapers. You get the impression this does not sit easy with those whose business is knowing what’s happening. To figure it out, the Times created a media desk. Media columnist and reformed crack addict David Carr is the undoubted star of Page One. His gaunt frame, bent neck and growling voice make him easy to underestimate, as interview subjects frequently do. Also on the media desk is Brian Stelter. The Times unmasked his anonymous blog and then hired him. The grudging respect Carr and Stelter have for each other — both born journalists, but otherwise opposites — is the most interesting part of the film’s characterisation. (At one point, Carr deems Stelter a “robot created in the basement to destroy me.”) Arianna Huffington, Nick Denton and Michael Wolff, all appear to represent the new media threat. During a debate on the demise of the traditional media, Carr dispatches Wolff with a print-out of Newser’s homepage with all but one of the stories chopped out. It’s entertaining but it is also the kind of aphorism that Keller found simplistic. Page One does not offer a whole lot more depth. Nonetheless, Carr’s newsroom banter makes it well worth the price of admission for media wonks. Martin McKenna 23
II.2
Father Son Holy Ghost Girls
M usic It is really unclear as to whether this album marks a progression for Girls or a further regression into their influences. The skilful, consistent juggling of their influences was of course what made Girls so interesting a prospect on their first album, and was ironically what gave them their distinctive sound. This new album is different to its predecessor, but only insofar as it ignores previous distinctions. Given the plethora of ex-girlfriends and attention-seeking self-conscious introversion on the album, the best lyrical reference point is probably High Fidelity by Nick Hornby, a project of reflection that yields some sharp observations, but which in the end doesn’t reveal anything the protagonist didn’t already know. Musically the band seems to have adopted the maxim of, when in doubt, add a gospel choir. Gaudy neon signs of Americana are visible too in the copious use of pedal steel guitar, and the band’s unashamed employment of decoy fade-outs on “Die”. Highlights include “Honey Bunny”, which if they ever get around to making a cereal made up of wrap-around sunglasses and ‘Motilium’ should undoubtedly soundtrack the advertisement, while “Myma” succeeds as a less butch reworking of the “The Greatest” by Cat Power. Michael Barry
II.1
REd State Director: Kevin Smith Film Kevin Smith’s Red State is certainly
a shock to the system. Bouncing skillfully between moments of distress and humour, Smith manages to create a film which takes a long hard look at cults in the USA and how the American Government deals with them.
24
Between Michael Parks’ singing, dancing, sociopathic preacher and John Goodman’s world-weary government man, the film gives you every piece of information and every side of the story. It wanders between hilariously funny and somewhat traumatising but it’s certainly a film that will keep your mind whirring and the adrenaline pumping long after you leave the cinema. For those unfamiliar with Smith’s work, I could most liken this film to anything by the Coen Brothers and it certainly does seems that Smith, after the poor showing at the box office of his previous two efforts, Zach and Miri Make a Porno and Cop Out, has indeed decided to go back to his indie roots for some much needed inspiration. Robert O’Reilly
The play’s bleakness is tempered by humour. Reid has the audience breaking out in laughter two minutes into the show, in tears at various points throughout and on their feet by the end. Director Annie Ryan, writer Michael West, and Paul Reid, its star, have created a truly innovative show blending existential anxiety, family tragedy and slapstick humour. Liza Cox
II.1
The Ico & Shadow Of The Colossus Collection Developer: Team Ico/Bluepoint
I
Man of Valor Director: Annie R yan
The atre Man of Valour is an extraordinary one-man show, with Farrel Blinks, a Walter Mitty-esque civil servant, as its hero. He’s crippled by social anxiety, haunted by demons, and given to wild flights of fantasy. A whole world is created using little dialogue and no props. So effortless does Reid’s mime appear, so fluid his transitions between characters, and so assured his every movement onstage, that it’s easy to forget, drawn in as the audience is, just what a remarkable physical performance it is. Reid remains entirely in control throughout - a slight alteration of his facial expression, a shift in posture, and he is suddenly a different person. The show’s momentum, which has Reid drenched in sweat by the end, is what makes it so compelling.
Games Let’s get this out of the way, despite it’s reputation as one of the best RPGs of all time, I never understood Ico’s appeal. The game revolves around a young boy, imprisoned within a castle who upon discovering a ghostly young girl must protect and guide her through murky dungeons and monotonous puzzles. While the developers have rightly used the European code for the collection (featuring all sorts of goodies the yanks didn’t get first time around), the gameplay remains as infuriating as ever thanks to some genuinely stupid A.I and the new PS3 HD visuals do little to improve a game that has clearly aged beyond its years. In contrast to this we have Shadow Of The Colossus, a game fully deserving of its almost universal praise that in most instances doesn’t seem to have aged at all. Gameplay is divided up between exploring the landscape surrounding the temple and fighting massive colossi, which involves a slick combination of puzzle solving and platforming. SOTC is not without its issues, the camera is erratic, the controls are clunky and unresponsive and while the enormous landscape is beautiful to look at, it’s remarkably easy to travel for five to ten minutes in the wrong direction. Despite these flaws SOTC is a musthave for any gamer and, my feelings for Ico aside, makes this collection more than worth its price tag. Andy Kavanagh
How to…
guilt y ple asures
Win at Poker Cormac Cassidy teaches the things he learned in Cardsoc.
We are fortunate to have 106 different and diverse Societies as well as 50 Sports Clubs, from politics to poker, economics to literature, juggling to jazz in Trinity. This year I’ll be working with a particular society each week in order to bring you the ‘Societies How To Guide’. I can say with absolute confidence that I am a terrible Poker player; I’ve simply seemed to happen upon a few good results with some easy to follow rules. So here are a few ways that have allowed me to mislead my mates in Cardsoc and the somewhat slutty Lady Luck, who everyone’s had a go of on occasion by now. Take note and learn How To play Poker with Cardsoc: One: Relax. Remember you’re playing a friendly game of Poker in a College Society. Not everyone’s priority is solely to win (though of course there is a competitive bunch), many are here to socialise and for a laugh. Take the opportunity to sit around a table getting to know new people without the need to break the ice, the razorsharp cards will do that for you. T wo: Learn the rules. It sounds silly but a lot of people who like poker and the concept of sitting down for a game of cards don’t actually know which is better: a flush or a straight (it’s a flush). I certainly wasn’t 100% sure when I signed up this time two years ago. Three: Pay attention to the board and the players. A lack of concentration can lead to you thinking that you have something in your hand, only to “flip ‘em over” and realise that you were missing a card from that straight you thought you had. Meanwhile there was an obviously played flush on the table and the game won by your better-handed opponent. I have often made that “dope” move, one of which cost me about five carefully rationed College meals that week and an unhealthy slice of dignity. Fou r: Something that took me a while to do, boys and girls when you’re playing poker you have to grow a pair. Don’t be afraid to mix up your play, to provide inconsistencies. Be loud and obnoxious or quiet and mouselike both when you decide to bluff and when your cards are good- i.e. don’t freeze up when you have good cards it’ll be obvious and don’t choke and let the fear prevent you from shoving your chips in there. Get on with it. If you have the best cards then you’re in the best position, don’t feel otherwise. Five: Don’t bullshit too much. Play your good cards well and be patient. You may go hand upon hand of fold upon fold, but generally, if you play with an edge of caution, focus and take your opportunities with both good cards and the exaggeration of those, you’ll be just fine. Six: Most importantly, take it as it comes and enjoy it for what it is. There is a large element of luck in this game, but you will see people make their own. I can absolutely guarantee you that shit will go against you, nothing you can do about it. Just make sure to make the most of your luck. If Poker and Cardsoc sound like your things and you want to get involved, contact bridge@csc.tcd.ie
THE EAGLES by Aaron Devine
“Be loud and obnoxious or quiet and mouselike both when you decide to bluff and when your cards are good”
O
nly a couple of weeks ago, I was on my way to the Ulster Hospital on the outskirts of Belfast for a check-up appointment. As I neared my destination, on my left was Stormont, home to the Northern Ireland Executive. When I saw the imposing building looming at the end of the long driveway, I didn’t ponder about the rebirth of Northern Irish politics or the fact that my cousin works there. I didn’t think of Martin McGuinness or Ian Paisley. Instead, I reminisced about my first major live music experience, which took place in those grounds ten years ago. On June 29th 2001, I went with my family to see The Eagles. This was my dad’s favourite band back then (“Desperado” was his party piece”), but, embarrassingly for myself, even he has now come to realise that they are no longer “cool” - or any good. At that time, however, I was probably the first in my class to go to a big concert; the act that was playing was irrelevant. As such, the notion that I was somehow cool by going to see The Eagles was instilled upon me at a considerably young age. This perhaps means that my affinity for the band is particularly difficult to suppress. However, let’s not bog ourselves down with child psychology. Could it not just be true that their songs are amazing? I actually think Hotel California is a stunning album no matter what you think. The eponymous single features surely one of the all-time great guitar duets (you heard me – a duet), and Don Henley can even sing and play the drums at the same time, so what more do you want? I must admit they have their faults. But so what if their use of metaphor is too heavily reliant on the hospitality industry (“Hotel California”, “Sad Café”). So what if their backing vocal harmonies are more Backstreet than Beach Boys. They may be the whitest band ever (brilliantly satirised by the Coen Brothers in The Big Lebowski), but so what if Don Henley’s gospel-style singing on their 2003 elegy of 9/11 “Hole in the World” is a tad cheesy. Let’s not forget that this is a band that started off – and are often still categorised – as a country group. They have, however, taken things much further. They have branched out into areas as far-flung as folk, and even rock! So, you could say that The Eagles broke boundaries, pushed the envelope and defied the restrictions of their genre. You could even say The Eagles were avant-garde. It doesn’t get much cooler than that. Then again, maybe not... 25
The Chaff
The Soil from where Them Rappers be gettin’ They Lingo From. Karl McDonald
N
ew York is the city on the hill when it comes to rap music, the place where the music was invented and the home of most of its Hall of Famers from Afrika Bambataa to Wu-Tang to 50 Cent. But out west, 350 miles north of Compton, the San Francisco Bay has a proud history of remaking rap’s vocabulary, from ten new words for a car to things that weren’t even concepts before one of the local self-contained superstars imparted them over the hook of a Bay slap. The most famous progenitors, or at least those who claim credit regularly, are the venerable Too $hort and E-40, each recording since the 80s and, though more so with the latter than the former, still relevant. Too $hort, from Oakland, is broadly credited with inventing the term “biotch” (i.e. bitch), having committed it to vinyl as early as 1988. In 2000, he told Vibe Magazine, “that’s my gift to rap music…. They didn’t ask me could they use it, but it’s cool.” E-40, who’s been popular long enough to have songs with both Tupac and T-Pain, developed a rap style that almost reaches Lewis Carroll levels of nonsense poetry, but a million times more threatening. In 1996 on Rapper’s Ball, he originated the term “fo’ shizzle” and thus everything that followed that. “I told Jay-Z after he used it on its record [H To The Izzo], I said, “That’s a Bay Area word, man.” That’s from the land where they pop they collars and jack they slacks,” he told Vice Magazine in late 2009. He also claims to have invented saying “you feel me?” - “that’s straight from me” - and “it’s all good” - “I was the first cat who ever put that on wax” - in 1992. By the mid-2000s he was promising to write a dictionary of slang that still hasn’t arrived, and being co-opted into the ‘hyphy movement’, a super-energetic dance-led style of hip hop emerging in the Bay.
“They developed a rap style that almost reaches Lewis Carroll levels of nonsense poetry but a million times more threatening”
same thing but geographically limited to the Bay Area. That’s a regular thing, denying that he has any time for something (e.g. gang-banging) but then admitting to what is basically a Bay-specific synonym (e.g. set-tripping). It’s a matter of local pride – few Irish people wear sneakers, for example, but plenty wear runners. After an appearance by Keak da Sneak, who tells everyone he’s “off that 1800 juice” (Jose Cuervo tequila) while sounding like he’s swallowed a scissors, E-40 returns for what is effectively just a call-andresponse list of hyphy words and concepts. It’s an education, and you can tell he takes no small joy from the idea that people in clubs across America and the world are shouting “thizz face” (it’s drug-related) and “ghostride the whip” (it’s complicated and involves pretending to drive your still-running car while beside or on top of it). There are plenty more. You might have even used some, in fact, which is testament not only to the Bay’s influence on rap but also rap’s ever-spreading influence on mainstream culture. If you’ve ever chillaxed after ballin’ too much, holla at your boy. You know, the one with the ginormous scraper (yes, even ‘ginormous’ is claimed by the Bay; a scraper is a car). But if you finna slang yayo to get that mayo, the Elroys’ll get you. Undasmellz that.
If your looking for more of
Hyphy’s national hit, E-40’s confusingly Lil Jon-produced Tell Me When To Go, is almost profligate in its use of slang. 40 Water invents the word “ghettro” casually during the first verse (it’s a phone) and is keen to point out that he does not “bump”, like every other American hip hop artist at the time, but rather “knocks”, which essentially means the 26
Karl, why not download his podcast, Them’s The Vagaries? It would make his day: http://themsthevagaries. tumblr.com/
Fuschia Macaree
T I C K E TS
VIDEO CONFESSION BOOTH UPLOAD VIDEOS STRAIGHT ONTO FACEBOOK
€15 AVAILABLE FROM WWW.TRINIT YEN AND SU OFFICTS.COM E
MAGICIANS CRAZY GAMES GROUND-BREAKING AUDIO VISUALS
MADHAUS
PIMP!
FEATURING
WRETCH 32 TH E
MADHAUS LAUNCH LI N EU P
WRETCH 32 JAPANESE POPSTARS THE KANYU TREE
@ THE ACADEMY WED, SEPT 28TH
CASHIER NO. 9 MADHOUSE DJs
YOUR NEW FAVOURITE BANDS Doors 9.30pm. R.O.A.R. TCD Ents, proudly sponsored by
vodafone.ie/playground
27