Tn2 Magazine Issue 8

Two TRINITY NEWS

FILM

MUSIC

THEATRE

ART

FOOD

DRINKS

TV

FASHION

issue 8 14 March 2012

BOOKS

GAMES & REVIEWS

KEEPING HIS EDGE

by Alex Towers

50 South William Street, Dublin 2 Now open 7 days a week * 20% off Filter Coffee of the Day with TCD Student Card * clementandpekoe

2

Clement and Pekoe

#8

EDITORIAL & CONTENTS

MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF:

DROP THE MIC, WALK AWAY

March 13 2012

4: THE OPENERS

Alex Towers

Almodovar, Yeats, flash-games, puppets, Drake, chocolate beer, time-wasting websites, Trinity street style and a chance to win a Keywest album.

I

n recent years there has been a tendency to label anyone who likes a certain type of music, or films, or drinks or food or art a ‘hipster’. No one of course identifies as a hipster, but they will happily identify others for you (sort of like an ever-receding hipster theory).

If you like that band you’re a hipster.

If you drink that beer you’re a hipster.

If you get your haircut like that, you’re a hipster. If you take photos like that you’re a hipster. On Twitter? Hipster.

Some might say by reading this magazine, you could be classified as a hipster.

While the practice of identifying someone, as part of some sort of group solely based on preferences is a bit outdated for the twenty-first century, the idea has caught on. It could be seen as a reaction to the current overriding interest in justifying yourself culturally these days: people now stand at concerts recording through iPhones so they can upload the video on Facebook just to remind everyone that they were there.

Seven months ago I wrote another cringe-inducing editorial where I attempted to somehow legitimize the phrase “culture matters” in our first issue. Was I ever so young? Seven months of editing a cultural magazine has left me slightly more cynical when it comes to culture, but I still think it matters. To paraphrase a certain crime saga television show I’d like to think I learned some lessons and acknowledged some mistakes. Tn2 Magazine didn’t always turn out as I had hoped, but every now and then it actually turned it out better.

There were lows involving late nights and later articles but these have always been complimented by high points: such as meeting Omar from The Wire, talking to the Pixar guys on my first assignment and turning down a Glen Hansard interview. I’d like to think the staff and I have made a magazine that you couldn’t find anywhere else in the world aside from Trinity; actors were interviewed beside writers, chefs beside rock stars and porn stars beside poets. Take this issue for example, in which we host a selection of interviews, articles and reviews that veer from film directors to persecuted punk bands to Hollywood stars to “hipster” musicians.

In conclusion I want to thank the staff (and especially Deputy Editor Michael Barry) who all ensured that Tn2 Magazine achieved a standard we all aimed for. I also want to wish the best of luck to Aaron Devine who I have no doubt will trump the issues we’ve produced this year with his own version of Tn2 Magazine next year.

Enjoy the issue.

Sentence of the Issue: “Boucher manages to make her vocals sound like an entire choir, albeit one stuck in a traffic jam where every car has industrial synths instead of horns.”

-Michael Barry, Visions Review, page 24 Special Thanks: Clíona de Paor for everything, Aoife Crowley for all

the no-nonsense advice, Karl McDonald for the more pro-nonsense advice, Kate Palmer for leaving us to it, Damien Carr, Caitriona Murphy, Tom Lowe and everyone on the Publications Committee.

6: WHERE DID YOU SLEEP LAST NIGHT? Robert O’Reilly talks to director Rebecca Dalky about her new film The Other Side of Sleep.

8: CLIVE BY SHOOTING Josh Roberts talks to Clive Owen about his new IRA thriller Shadow Dancer. Apologies for the titles.

10: RED RIOT Patrick Reevell talks to some of the members of Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot before their incarceration for their protest performances during the Russian Presidential election.

13: WHERE DO I START Patrick Reevell chats to author and documentary film maker Angus Roxburgh about his new book and television show.

12: FUNNY GAMES Robert Costello interviews comedienne Maeve Higgins.

14: YOU WANTED A HIT Alex Towers talks to James Murphy about the new LCD Soundsystem film Shut Up and Play the Hits.

16: COATURÈ Bella Davey takes to Dublin’s streets to find out what makes a good coat

16: NOISE ROCK & FOOD CRITICISM Clare Kealey has a boozey lunch with Tom Doorley and Alex Towers talks to Brooklyn noise band Yvette

16: RICE TO MEET YOU Clare Kealey teaches the tricks to a perfect Risotto while the sex diary gets self-referential

19: REVIEWS All the latest reviews, including 21 Jump Street, Magnetic Fields, Dice Bar, Conversations and the Playstation Vita.

25: HOW TO/ GUILTY PLEASURES Cormac Cassidy turns rubbish into modern art with the Enviromental Society while Hannah Little confesses to spening a little too much time on the Daily Mail Online showbiz section.

26: GIVIN’ IT TO YOU RAW WITH NO TRVIA Karl McDonald’s last enty in his near five-year stint at Tn2 Magazine is a list of things he just didn’t have the time to write about.

Editor: Alex Towers Deputy Editor: Michael Barry Art Editor: Róisín Lacey-McCormac Games Editor: Andy Kavanagh Books & Literature Editor: Patrick Reevell Deputy Games Editor: Neil Fitzpatrick Deputy Books & Literature Editor: Annelise Berghenti Music Editor: Gheorghe Rusu Copy Editor: Sinead Nugent Online Editor: Keith Grehan Fashion Editor: Stephen Moloney Socities Editor: Cormac Cassidy Deputy Fashion Editor: Hannah Little Theatre Editor: Henry Longden Film Editor: Robert O’ Reilly Deputy Theatre Editor: Liza Cox Deputy Film Editor: Nicholas Maltby TV Editor: Laura McLoughlin Food & Drinks Editor: Clare Kealey Deputy TV Editor: Emma Jayne Corcoran Food & Drinks Editor: Aaron Devine Staff Photographer: Atalanta Copeman-Papas 3

OPENERS

THINGS TO DO IN DUBLIN #8

IN THE COLD, COLD NIGHT ART IN D U BLIN

LIVE- M USIC:

GROUPER The Unitarian ChurchMarch 27th: Liz Harris (also known as Grouper) is set to give a haunting new performance comprised of tape loops, field recordings and submerged atmospherics presented a set of naturally resonant and specially customised gig. With special guest Raising Holy Sparks, Grouper will be playing at the Unitarian Church, Stephen’s Green.

Drake, The 02, March 30th: Bedwetter rapper Drake comes to Dublin’s docklands to bring his own brand of emotional lyricspitting. It might just be the last great gig before the exam season kicks in.

THE ATRE: Monster/Clock, Collapsing Horse Theatre/ Smock Alley Theatre, 26th March-7th April. An exciting new piece of musical puppet theatre that tells the life of Toby, a castigated monster and apprentice watchmaker, who finds his world blown apart by a raid on his workshop, and the kidnapping of his mentor and guardian.

You know, for kids!

BREAK ON THROUGH FILM Director Pedro Almodovar’s Los Abra-

zos Rotos (Broken Embraces) was released in 2009 and shot in the style of a 1950’s American film noir.

Almodovar’s inspiration from this genre can be seen throughout the film, with its melodramatic aspects and focus on illicit passions. The original release poster is strikingly similar in style to traditional film noir posters.

The colour red plays a significant part as a visual metaphor in a number of Almodovar films, and Los Abrazos Rotos is no different in this respect.

The colour is linked to passion and death throughout the director’s work, and the red colour of Penolope Cruz’s dress in this film poster is meant to emphasise the strength of women: red is often used in order to empower Almodovar’s female characters.

Cruz’s striking and anxious pose in the poster hints at the tumultuous and intense nature of the film, which is a must see for any Almodovar fans.

Akash Sikka 4

There is No Night, (1949)

by Jack B. Yeats The National Gallery of Ireland For the final installment of this series, we will be spotlighting There is No Night (1949) by Jack B. Yeats. The title of this piece is appropriated from a passage in The Revelation of Saint John, which describes the Apocalypse, or, the complete and final destruction of the world.

The appearance of this piece could be described as a culmination of many different textures. Up close you’ll notice how a barely-there application of paint, as seen in the upper right corner of the sky, is contrasted with more concentrated areas of colour worked up through a heavy ‘impasto’ technique, as seen in the area around the reclining figure. The term ‘impasto’ refers to the thicker application of paint and, in this painting, contributes to the stunning surface qualities of the work, casting certain passages of the painting in relief.

Although this work is abstractly rendered in an expressionistic style, we can just about make out a reclining figure in the

foreground, painted in strokes of white and pink paint, and his horse who may be seen frolicking around in the background. It is understood that the figure is just after waking from a slumber to find his horse scampering about in the surrounding landscape.

In the case of this painting, it is likely that the title was chosen in order to contribute to its overall meaning. Thus, although the scene takes place in an abstracted Irish landscape, we may infer a deeper, more profound meaning from the painting than that of a mere landscape study. For example, one reading might interpret the stunning visual effects of the brightly coloured and non-naturalistic passages of paint as abstract references to an oncoming apocalypse. Who knows? The interpretation is ultimately open-ended and up to the viewer.

Róisín Lacey-McCormac

TN2MAGAZINE.IE COMPETITION

Would you like to win a special edition of Keywest’s new album The Message? All you have to do is find the golden ticket that is hidden in a copy of Tn2 Magazine and run enthusiastically up to the Publications Office in House 6 à la Charlie Bucket to collect your prize.

ONLINE tn2magazine.ie has a collection of live gig reviews ranging from Maccabees to First Aid Kit and expanded versions of the interviews we have in this issue. Also we’re now taking applications for staff positions for the 2012/13 run of issues T WIT TER: Follow us at @tn2magazine for online content, regular updates of events and gigs in Dublin and to bear witness to the Editor having to hand over his beloved magazine to his successor.

OPENERS

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING AT ONLINE

TRINITY STREET STYLE

ONLINE Roisín Lacey-McCormac – Ad-

vanced Style. Ari Seth Cohen, who focuses exclusively on photographing people of a certain vintage, runs this New York-based streetstyle blog. While the fashion mavens he photographs rarely compare to the likes of Iris Barrel Apfel, (the doyen of mature style) this blog is nonetheless admirable for its progressive nature.

Michael Barry - Butt’s Monthy. Don’t let the name put you off, it’s only occasionally about butts. It’s mainly the best place on Tumblr for posts about art, pizza, contemporary classical music, and the trials of being an alt goddess.

Robert Costello – Jurassic Parks & Recreation. Although the plethora of “image from one show, quote from another” tumblrs are becoming ubiquitous (Eastbound & Downton anyone?) this one brings pure unfiltered joy through a cocktail of dinosaurs and Ron Swanson quotes. Although it is only penetrable to those who love both Parks & Recreation and Jurassic Park (which should be everyone).

Alex Towers - 27bslash6.com. Although most trolling sites tend to evoke vicious playground bullying escalated to a global level, this one from Australian graphic designer David Thorne has kept me amused for the last four years. Whether photoshopping Justin Bieber’s face onto his co-workers photos or trying to pay a chiropractor’s bill with a drawing of a spider, his child-like interactions with his increasingly frustrated acquaintances remains one of my favorite parts of the internet.

Idea by Roisín Lacey-McCormac

OÙ EST LE POOL?

GAME S There’s a dearth of free online pool games out there, and al-

though the quality of these can vary greatly you’d be hard pushed to find a better competitor than Quick Fire Pool Multiplayer.

The game offers a surprisingly deep experience to those looking to waste hours at a time, while also offering rapid, short-lived bursts of sheer playability to those looking for a quick procrastination session.

The gameplay itself is extremely tight, with players taking on friends and strangers alike in a hugely competitive setting. An in-depth stattracking system monitors wins, losses and skill levels, giving serious gamers plenty to obsess over. It may be a bit too competitive for some, but Quick Fire Pool Multiplayer gives an impressively deep challenge to those looking to prove their virtual pool skills online.

Just don’t expect your real-world pool skills to improve too much. h t t p : // b i t . ly/1UunvF Neil Fitzpatrick

FASHION Cillian O’Connor, SS Film Studies. It’s nice ending

this segment for another year with a glimpse of what at least one member of Trinity’s male contingent is wearing. There’s a lot to be said for mixing navy and black despite what you may have been told, and you ought to trust Cillian as a good source of authority, (his blog Male-Mode is the best of the best as decided by public vote. Oh, and Vogue.) An affection for the nautical (we agree that there is no such thing as too many Breton-striped tees, the colour navy, or JPG sailor references), as well as time spent studying in heady and eternally cooler-than-you Berlin has certainly shaped and informed his dress-sense. Acid wash jeans, for example, are made acceptable when teamed with measured everything else. As a whole this is a nice re-working of classic sportswear separates, not involving emblazonment with the letters H, C, O, A, or F. Stephen Moloney

BROOKLYN BREWERY- BLACK CHOCOLATE STOUT DRINKS I was reluctant when making my choice of beer for this

issue to stray away from Irish craft beers. I have been unashamedly championing the home industry all year, so it has taken something very special to make me look all the way to the USA this time round. And this seasonal beer from Brooklyn Brewery truly is something special. Under the watchful eye of BB’s renowned brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, six different malts are blended to produce this rich, strong, and impossibly dark beer. It’s a real shame it’s not available all year round, but this beer will also age well (if you can resist opening it). To make keeping it for summer worthwhile, you can look forward to enjoying a beer float: simply drop a scoop of vanilla ice cream into a glass of the stout and enjoy with some spiced dark chocolate. Available from www.drinkstore.ie. Aaron Devine

5

FILM

SEND ME TO SLEEP Robert O’Reilly talks to acclaimed director Rebecca Daly about her new film The Other Side of Sleep following it’s selection for the Cannes Film Festival ebecca Daly has just recently taken the step up from making short movies (Joyriders won her an IFTA for Best Short Film) to directing her first full feature, the brilliantly eerie The Other Side of Sleep.

The film tells the story of Arlene (brilliantly played by Antonia Campbell-Hughes in her first lead role), a factory worker in an unnamed rural Irish midlands town, who suffers from sleep deprivation and sleepwalking episodes. When Arlene wakes up from one of her somnambulist excursions in a local forest, she finds herself beside the fresh corpse of a young woman. Uncertain as to what happened to the girl or whether in fact she has dreamed the whole thing, Arlene’s life begins to unravel as she realises that the girl has been murdered in reality, and even starts to befriend two of the prime suspects in the case.

However, just as you might expect the film to be heading in a certain direction, it precedes to boldly go off someplace else.

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Rebecca found the jump from making short films to a full feature to be a highly intense experience. “You have to manage so many more elements,” says Daly. “It’s a real test of your stamina, and also how long you can go without sleeping,”, she laughs. Although 6

many actors auditioned for the role of Arlene in the movie, Rebecca was delighted to finally make what she felt was the right choice for the film. “It was such a big decision to choose who played Arlene in the movie, but Antonia instantly made a big impression on us and we knew she was the right person for the role.

She just really stood out.”

Although Daly has never suffered from any of her protagonist’s ailments personally, she found researching about sleep disorders highly intriguing. “I read some fascinating articles about people using sleepwalking as part of their defence in murder cases,” says Daly. “One man I read about had woken up on the top of a crane in a building site, just as he was about to plunge to his death. You see,

“I DELIBERATELY SET OUT TO GO AGAINST THRILLERS THAT USE THE TYPICAL ‘WHODUNNIT?’”

sleepwalking is really your subconscious at work, but most of us don’t move when that normally happens, so our subconscious has no impact on the physical world. For a sleepwalker it does, so where does the responsibility for their actions lie?”

The Other Side of Sleep is certainly an extremely difficult film to categorise, refusing to be the thriller or mystery movie audiences might expect it to be after the film’s opening. “I deliberately set out to go against thrillers that use a typical pay-off, the whodunnit”, says Daly, “but I did want to get at some of the underlying fears of those kind of films, like grief and loss for instance. I was also interested in the type of fear that you can’t actually define, because you don’t know where that fear is really coming from.” Although obviously influenced by real-life cases of small-town murders, Rebecca is quick to highlight that her film is not actually based on fact, “but I guess every film is inspired by some element of real life,” notes the director.

Daly’s film not only portrays Arlene’s often confused point-of-view, but we also get to see how the town as a whole reacts to the murder. “I wanted to explore why a town might find fault with a victim,” says Daly. “I guess people sometimes need to believe that there is a reason as to why something horrible

FILM

has occurred, so in a way they can protect themselves from it happening again”. Antonia Campbell-Hughes (Albert Nobbs and TV series Lead Balloon) is excellent throughout the film as the sleep-deprived Arlene, and Daly witnessed her commitment to the role from the outset. “Antonia arrived on set three weeks before shooting actually took place, she moved into a bedsit that was like Arlene’s, wore her character’s clothes and even spoke like Arlene all the time. In a way, she became the character.”

Certain critics believe that Daly’s film emphasises mood over plot a bit too much, but the director suggests this might be because of her movie’s unwillingness to play up to genre expectations. “The film doesn’t hit the conventional turning points or story arcs typical to the thriller or suspense genres,” she says, “and it follows its own path and narrative which is dictated by Arlene’s journey. I guess it doesn’t follow the twists and turns that one might expect from more straightforward thrillers,” The film was co-written by Glenn Montgomery, who also worked with Ms. Daly on her first short movie, Joyriders.

“Glenn and myself usually came up with ideas for The Other Side of Sleep together”, says Rebecca, “but we didn’t necessarily always write together either. I know Glenn for more than

“THE FILM DOESN’T HIT THE CONVENTIONAL TURNING POINTS OF STORY ARCS” ten years, so we have a very easy working relationship,” Rebecca is a huge fan of Michael Haneke, whose anti-Hollywood filmmaking style has obviously had a big influence on her debut feature. “My favourite films tend to ask the viewer to be the last piece of the movie, to contribute or decide their own meaning,” says Daly. “This makes the viewer more active in the viewing experience, as opposed to just having everything handed to you on a plate”.

Even though The Other Side of Sleep does make the viewer carry out a lot of their own detective work, the film’s director wasn’t worried about possibly alienating her audience.

“I had to make the film I wanted to make,” he says. “The Other Side of Sleep may not be a film for everybody, but from my experience so far, there’s definitely is an audience for it.

Some people have told me that the movie has left them feeling haunted, and that tells me

that my film has worked in some way,” The movie does portray an extremely bleak view of Ireland, and although it’s probably a safe bet that it would never be recommended by the Irish tourist board, Daly does feel that the film’s look was necessary in conveying the story she wanted to tell. “It’s a very particular world that the film is set in,” she says, “but it’s a world that, along with the atmosphere and the mood of the movie, all function to serve the story of the film.” Daly was also the first Irish female to be included in the Director’s Fortnight selection at Cannes but she appears extremely modest about the achievement. “I just made my own film and it just happened to be selected at Cannes,” says Daly. “I only know my own experience”.

The Other Side of Sleep has generally been on the receiving end of very positive reviews so far, but its director doesn’t take any criticism of her work too personally. “It’s inevitable that not everybody is going to like my film, but when you make something artistic and put it out there in the real world, you can’t control what people say or even think about it. Also, there’s not much point in paying too much attention to reviews. You can end up in the unfortunate situation where you’re just trying to please the reviewers.” The Other Side of Sleep hits Irish cinemas on the 16th of March.

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FILM

CLIVE TALKING Josh Roberts, talks to Clive Owen about his rise to fame and his new Irish film Shadow Dancer he prospect of interviewing Clive Owen usually meant I received one of two reactions when I told people. Girls (including my mother) tended to gaze skywards, let out a longing sigh and (although I can’t confirm this) spent the next couple of minutes thinking what it would be like to ‘date’ Clive Owen. “Imagine”, their doe-eyed facial expressions seemed to say, “imagine, how safe you’d feel being held by those big, muscular arms”. Blokes, on the other hand, tended to be more to the point with something along the lines of: “ask him what Angelina Jolie’s bangers are like up close.” Regrettably I hadn’t the balls (metaphorically, obviously: I do actually have balls) to ask either for a hug or for a pic of Angie’s tits. I did, however, get to talk about plenty of other things.

Reading Owen’s early biography you could be forgiven for wondering how on earth he ended-up being one of Hollywood’s leading men. Born in Coventry in 1964, Owen didn’t have what you might call an easy ride. His father, a country and western singer, left home when Owen was just 3 (they would later meet when he was 19) and the Binkley Park Comprehensive School which he attended was hardly a ‘star factory’. Nevertheless Binkley Park did give him his first experience of acting. “I played the Artful Dodger in a school production of ‘Oliver!’, he reflects, “ from that point forward, I said I wanted to be an actor.

Nobody in my family took it seriously, but I saw no other path. This one teacher said: ‘You’re a working-class kid from Coventry.

What do you know?”

After leaving school Owen, like so many teenagers of that era and geography, went straight into unemployment. He spent two years ricocheting around Coventry until he took a leap and applied to The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) where he was accepted. How did being on the dole affect him? “Those two years were, in some ways, the most formative for me”, he responds, “I think it was very important to have lived some real life before going to Drama School, and it also helped me appreciate the opportunity I was given”.

It was undoubtedly a golden time to be studying at RADA (his contemporaries included Ralph Fiennes) and Owen went about gaining “a very good grounding for a life in acting,” taking on parts in classics such as Henry IV and The Lady from the Sea. This formal training is still a huge influence on his performances today although, he is quick to add that, you need not go to RADA to be an actor. “There are no rules and I have worked with some brilliant untrained actors”, he says 8

on the subject, “but the discipline I learned in those years is still a part of me”.

Following his graduation from RADA Owen went on to join the Young Vic theatre company and it was here, as cliché would have it, whilst playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet that he met his now wife Sarah-Jane Fenton (yes, she was playing Juliet). It was around this time that Owen’s career began takingoff. In 1988 he made his film debut in Britishmade Vroom and became a fully-fledged TV star playing devilish rogue Stephen Crane in Chancer. The success of Chancer made Owen uncomfortable and fearing that he would be typecast (an estimated 70% of the show’s nine million viewers were female) he sought more

“WHEN I SAID I WANTED TO BE AN ACTOR NOBODY TOOK ME SERIOUSLY- ONE TEACHER SAID ‘YOU’RE A WORKING CLASS KIDWHAT DO YOU KNOW?” varied work, including his role in Close My Eyes, in which he played a man who acts on his incestuous desires for his older sister, and the part of Max in Sean Matthias’ film adaptation of Bent.

His big break came in 1998 when he was chosen to play the lead in the Mike Hodge (of Get Carter fame) film Croupier. His portrayal of a struggling writer-turned-casino croupier who falls for a femme fatale scam artist became a hit in the US and soon after Owen began “meeting serious people”.

Parts in huge films such as the Oscar winning Gosford Park, The Bourne Identity and Closer (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and won a BAFTA) soon followed and Owen cemented himself as a Hollywood A-Lister. Since then he’s starred alongside some of the generations best known actors including Denzel Washington, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine and Cate Blanchette among many others.

Given the level of his current success and the fact that his name alone is enough to get a film made, I’m keen to know how he picks

his projects. “It always starts with a script”, he says, adding, “but film is a director’s medium, and for me they’re the most important thing. It’s no good telling a great story... badly”. Which directors would he most like to work with? “Two who spring to mind are Paul Thomas Anderson and the French director, Jacques Audiard”.

In a world where celebrity and overnight success are valued more than talent and graft Owen, as a movie star, is somewhat refreshing. His career has been hard-fought and slow burning, he diligently learnt his craft, has chosen projects for substance rather than dosh and has managed to avoid all the usual pitfalls of life as a movie star. He fiercely guards his family’s privacy (“because that’s something I don’t think I should be putting out for the consumption of a newspaper”), and has chosen not to relocate them to Hollywood like many British actors. “Hollywood has been very good to me and given me some wonderful opportunities”, he says, “but gone are the days when you have to move to LA to make it in movies. It’s a much more global, international industry now”.

Indeed, so ‘global’ has the industry become that Owen spent last summer on Ireland’s fair shores filming the upcoming Shadow Dancer. The movie, which has been described as “a taught thriller”, follows an active IRA member as she becomes an MI5 informant to protect her son. It is directed by Oscar winner James Marsh (Man on Wire) and although set in Belfast was partly filmed in Dublin. Of the film’s subject matter he says, “it’s very interesting dramatic territory for film-makers from the British Isles. It happened in our lifetime, it threw up these extraordinary situations which, speaking as a dramatist, are very rich to explore”. And what was his experience of Dublin? “I had a really great time”, he says of his time here, “...but maybe drank a little too much Guinness.”

When he’s not downing pints of the black stuff Owen dedicates time to his other passions, his two teenage daughters (Hannah and Eve), Liverpool FC (he admits to being star-struck when meeting Steven Gerrard) and horse-racing on which he’s previously said “anybody who bets on horses and says they win is probably a liar”. Betting on horses might be a bit of a gamble; but betting on Owen’s career prospects is anything but, this year will see him alongside Uma Thurman in the hotly anticipated Blind and he’ll also be filming Harold Becker’s Recall.

As a final point I’m interested to know how this 47 year old actor intends to ensure a lasting career. “Like everything else”, he responds simply, “by working hard”.

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9

M USIC

CATS OUT OF THE BAG Patrick Reevell interviews Russian feminist punk outfit Pussy Riot before their arrest during the Russian Presidential Elections

oly Shit, Putin’s pissed himself!” Three slim figures in bright summer dresses, electric leggings and balaclavas made from fluorescent bobble-hats are alternating in prostrating themselves and jumping up and down at the altar of Moscow’s principal cathedral; in an asp, four more are furiously scratching their guitars; all of them are screaming “Holy Mother of God, chuck Putin out!” This is Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk protest group who have launched a campaign of foul-mouthed and fluorescent-coloured actions against the regime of Vladimir Putin.

Pussy Riot are a feminist punk-protest band based in Moscow and dedicated to “preparing the Russian people for battle with a corrupt regime which is an enemy to all free people”. The group specialise in guerrilla punk concerts in provocative places- since their formation the band have sprung up atop unsuspecting buses, in boutique stores; in one memorable performance (although they’re all memorable), the band opened up on a roof overlooking a prison, doing guitar windmills and setting off flares while the inmates chanted “Go on lads!”

The group formed in the autumn of 2011, and came to the world’s attention with their performance of “Suck it Putin!” opposite the Kremlin, which became viral hit. But the 10

group have only really achieved serious recognition within Russia following what they call their “punk prayer service” in the Church of Christ the Saviour. This action, according to Russian radio, prompted “You-Know-Who” (a.k.a. Vladimir Putin) to personally order the creation of a “special interagency staff” for the apprehension of Pussy Riot. It was one week after this, that the group agreed to speak to Tn2 Magazine.

Pussy Riot’s members operate according to a principal of strict anonymity and agreed to be interviewed only as a collective, refusing to give any biographical information beyond their average age (25) and that their background included “art, theatre, music, rock climbing and philology”. Among their influences, the group listed Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, the Stonewall Rioters, post-colonial theorist Gayatri Spivak and the ancient female philosopher Hypatia, who was torn apart by fanatical Christians in the 4th

“TOLERANCE AND PATIENCE ARE IN SHORT SUPPLY IN RUSSIAN SOCIETY”

Century.

“Tolerance and patience are in short supply in Russian society,” the group tells us. “We promote gender equality and LGBT rights.

Our goal is political change and the development of a protest culture.”

In pursuit of this “tolerance and patience”, Pussy Riot sing clever rhyming songs with titles such as “Dicks to the Sexists”. Authorities encountering the group are usually too stunned to react at first. The band tell of one occasion where, approached by police, they screamed so hard the officers ran-off backwards. But the group’s latest stunt was a scandal in Russia, with one opposition leader labelling it “idiotic”. The group defended their position to me: “If someone is offended by our actions it shows that he is not yet versed in the world of modern art, music and protest activism. If this state education system, which leaves people slow and conformist, won’t do this, then we’ll have to.”

The group applied the same logic to Putin and the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, saying the two men had reacted childishly to their “prayer service”. They also condemned the hunt for them as an “ordinary case of political persecution, which is only cloaking itself in faith and mystery so as to legitimise itself.”

Two days after I spoke to them, on the eve of the presidential elections, two members of

MUSIC

Pussy Riot were snatched by plain-clothed police as they exited the metro. Three more members were picked up on polling day. A day later, the first two members appeared before a court, revealed as Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhin, and accused of hooliganism and inciting religious hatred, a charge which could carry a 7 year prison sentence. The two women have since begun a hunger-strike in protest.

The past six months have seen the largest mass protests in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union, with an estimated hundred thousand people assembling in Moscow in December to protest against abuses under Putin’s rule. Despite these demonstrations and talk of a “Russian Spring”, Putin secured his return to the Kremlin comfortably, employing tricks new and old to rig a ballot that he would almost certainly have won in any case. Following the elections and the arrests, a member of Pussy Riot still at large, told me: “The elections made us vomit”.

That sentiment is shared by many Russians and 20,000 turned out the day after polling to express it. But this was small compared to earlier demonstrations and already the wind seemed to have dropped, the talk became of consolidation and patience, rather than revolution. Putin’s words at his victory party seemed to have a disheartening finality: “We have won.”

“IT IS AN CASE OF POLITICAL PERSECUTION...

CLOAKING ITSELF IN FAITH AND MYSTERY” But here enter Pussy Riot. Noise is something the band can do and in the strange, flat atmosphere of the post-election anti-climax, the band’s trial, and its free members’ calls to defend it, have crashed out to remind Russia and the world that, yes, in many ways still, “Putin Sucks!”.

Russian observers largely agree that the group has been selected for harsh treatment as a signal to the Kremlin’s critics to expect business as usual. But in doing so, Putin has inadvertently made the band, which previously infuriated many in the opposition, a cause celebre, a focal point for a movement which had appeared to be drifting.

Pussy Riot are brave and the foolhardiness of their actions is their defence. Undoubtedly, the “prayer service” was distressing for many who otherwise share the group’s goals,

but the purpose of it was not to preach hate, but to dispel fear. As the group say, their aim is to create “a protest environment”, and this is achieved by showing people not to fear the State, by performing outrageous acts and getting away with it. Or, if not, then taking the consequences lightly: on the day of their arrest, Pussy Riot tweeted: “No harm done.”

Prior to their arrest, many accused the band of playing into the hands of the regime by giving it grounds for dismissing its critics as anti-social anarchists. Pussy Riot reject this, saying: “We don’t represent the whole opposition and people know this very well.

But if we must now be silent and not speak out for our rights and interests, then we will never be heard, even after a changeover in power.”

Pussy Riot were disappointed by the relatively small protests following the elections, they had hoped the people who attended the peaceful protests might have “grown teeth to begin demanding political change in a more aggressive key.” Many Russians appear to have felt the risks too high. This is understandable. But Pussy Riot refuse to accept the arguments of stability, the argument that things could be worse. In a moment of defeat, a statement by the band, made to us before their arrest, marks Pussy Riot out as much as their multi-coloured masks: “You need to put yourself in history’s way 11

BOOKS & TELE VISION

WHERE DO I BEGIN?

Patrick Revelll talks to journalist Angus Roxburgh about his new book The Stongman and series Russia, Putin and the West.

wo Sundays ago Russia witnessed Vladimir Putin secure a return to the Kremlin as president in elections described by international monitors as “skewed”, and by one Belorussian official, who should know about these things, as “elegant.” Putin’s victory puts him on course to become one of Russia’s longest serving leaders. If he completes his six year term he will have matched Brezhnev’s 18 year reign.

In light of Putin’s extended stay, Tn2 Magazine talked to Angus Roxburgh, a former Moscow correspondent for The Sunday Times and BBC, who reported firsthand on the collapse of the Soviet Union. In late 2011 he published The Strongman and in January was the principal consultant for Russia, Putin and the West, a landmark BBC series on Putin’s Russia. If these weren’t qualifications enough, Roxburgh is one of the only foreigners to have worked within Putin’s personal staff, having served as a public relations advisor to the president’s office.

The last 6 months have seen massive demonstrations in Moscow of unprecedented scale, expressing discontent with Putin’s rule; Russia’s young middle-class appeared to have awoken politically, tens of thousands assembled repeatedly in freezing temperatures calling for an end to Putin’s 12-year domination. But on polling-day, Putin still won with a comfortable majority (60%), albeit suitably inflated by dirty tricks. As Roxburgh comments, “The fact is, Putin won, and he would certainly have won even if there had been no fraud or manipulation at all.”

More than the tricks, as Roxburgh’s book suggests, Putin’s victory was assured by his centralised system, the “power-vertical” which narrows the political arena to a straight shaft around the president. Quite simply, despite the presence of four other candidates 12

(most of which had previously run), there was no one else to vote for.

“The opposition is still waiting for an electable leader,” says Roxburgh. “Usually in Russia change comes from above, not from street leaders, so I think Russians may have to wait for a reformer to emerge from within, rather than expect to find one among the “non-system” opposition...”

In other words, a palace-coup, that favoured mechanism of change under Communism. In Roxburgh’s view, such a “reformer” almost emerged in the last year in the form of Russia’s current president, Dmitry Medvedev. Four years ago, Medvedev was installed as a “modernising” seat-warmer while Putin spent four years as prime minister skirting a constitutional rule barring a president from more than two terms in office.

Roxburgh believes that “Medvedev got to like being president and wanted to stay on.

He made speeches, appealed to his core of support, and openly criticised Putin over certain things, like Libya… but he was not able to persuade Putin to let him stand again. His ratings would have had to soar much higher before he would have had the authority to oppose Putin.”

Roxburgh’s book and series are portraits of Putin which look back over his rule, based on remarkable interviews with an astounding list of leading political figures, which include Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Putin’s closest advisers. Few, if any, documentaries give such a striking flavour of everyday diplomatic practice in the course of remarkable events. The productions also make use of fascinating archive- particularly memorable is early footage of a newly-appointed President Putin, still unsure how to walk on camera.

But when it was shown in February, Russia, Putin and the West came under attack from Russian dissident circles and the British

press. The Daily Telegraph accused the documentary of a pro-Putin bias, pointing to Roxburgh’s time with the Kremlin as evidence.

Roxburgh is brisk in dismissing such claims: “It’s nonsense - no right-minded viewer sees them as such. Those who said this have an axe to grind, including against the BBC. The films are scrupulously fair. For my own part, I should say I actually tried hard to steer the producers awar from being too Kremlinfriendly, the opposite of what is said about me.”

Certainly, the criticisms are curious: the picture of Putin presented in the four-part series is hardly positive; the Russian leaders successes are shown in detail but Putin’s brutality over Chechnya, his enslavement of Russian television, the corruption, his chauvinism are all present: Putin the bully, the eternal secret policeman is very much still with us.

But this is not why Russia, Putin and the West or The Strongman are interesting. Putin is already a byword for rigged elections, political persecution and Soviet revanchism. His rule is more complex than this, and the two works showed this, but with each passing year its face, like Putin’s own, becomes flatter, cruder. Roxburgh insists on recognising Putin’s achievements (he’s right to) but Putin’s time has passed, he has failed in much and what is broken he cannot fix.

“Nobody criticises Putin , not even, I think, behind closed doors,” says Roxburgh. “He has created a top-down system which instills fear in his subordinates. His personal hold is almost unassailable. Putin will probably make cosmetic changes, but not real change.”

The hundreds of thousands who protested this spring knew this, although the small size of post-election protests suggests many have been quickly disillusioned. Putin’s continued presence is stifling, his system narrows. But stagnant waters sometimes breed life.

INTERVIE W

TIE MAEVE UP, TIE MAEVE DOWN Maeve Higgins, comedienne and star of Amusing Notes, Fancy Vittles and Naked Camera tells Robert Costello about gags, twitter and Englightenment Night. aeve Higgins is borderline national treasure material. She is probably our country’s most successful comedian when it comes to striking a balance between surreal, offbeat jokes, and that brand of humour that’s awkward precisely because it’s so recognisable. After getting her start on a Today FM competition, she went on to star in RTÉ’s hugely popular Naked Camera, before striking out on her own. Since then she has gone on to become one of Ireland’s most recognisable comedians, while still retaining a cult edge. Despite being exceptionally busy she still took time out to give an illuminating insight into how she manages to do everything that she does.

Maeve is one of the many Irish comedians who have embraced social media as a way of honing their craft and interacting with their fans. However, while acknowledging its benefits, she is wary of seeing Twitter etc. as representative of the comedy scene in general, especially with regard to the scene’s gender balance. “Twitter is pretty democratic, but it’s important to bear in mind how inconsequential funny tweets are in the grand scheme of things. As for the comedy scene’s gender balance, or imbalance, I would like to see it improve, and try to play my part in that. I worry more about women being under-represented in other worlds though, like politics, finance and literature, because those are so much more important.”

Maeve’s current main project is a radio show on Today FM called Amusing Notes, in which she talks to a different guest comedian each week about the influence of music on their work. She seems to feel that this is a particularly personal project, in several respects.

“I think a lot of comedians wish they were musicians. I do! Music is so pure and great compared to comedy. I can’t actually sing or play music but ideally I would be Marvin Gaye. So anyway I talked to a few comedians about what kind of music they love and what influence it’s had on their comedy. I produced and presented it which meant I had loads of freedom, but also that I shocked even myself at how long it took me to make. It turned out good though.”

On top of her continued radio work Maeve is also the driving force behind the monthly “Enlightenment Night” showcase in the Workman’s Club, although she admits that despite her profile she encounters the same problems as promoters around the city. “It’s a brilliant night, really fun to put together and host. Each month a collection of assorted brainiacs and wisecrackers do short presentations on something they know a lot about. We have had all sorts of people talk about all sorts

of things. Oh and all the money goes to a different charity each month. I wish more people would come along, you guys should come please. I’m crap at promoting it and making people come along. That side of things really bugs me, and then I see loads of people drinking in a pub not learning anything or laughing and I think ‘damn it Maeve, you could have made those bozos’ nights!’”

Unfortunately Maeve’s plans do not include another series of the fantastic Fancy Vittles, an RTÉ series in which she riffed on various subjects for a half hour while baking with her sister Lilly. “I heard that Fancy Vittles wasn’t recommissioned as RTE said it was too niche.

I thought we should do another one, because it was good. Lilly wasn’t sure because it was hassle for her as we made it in her house and I never gave her a script or anything, but now I’m sort of glad we didn’t because I am not too hot about being on TV. I prefer writing. However, I do think it’s stupid to stop making good things just because they are not popular. It clearly leads to all sorts of crumminess.”

Maeve’s projects for the future include a book and to keep on doing gigs. “I just signed a book deal so I have started writing an essay collection. The whole thing is so exciting to me, I bloody love it. I have a few gigs still, but the book is my main focus. That and making sure my butt doesn’t quit. Gotta keep my butt going.”

13

M USIC

GET YOUR PAYMENT

Alex Towers interv tem creator Jame new film Shut Up

A

t a gig in Brooklyn last summer I saw someone with a peculiar tattoo. Granted, given the type of clientele that were drawn to a dank, remote warehouse to watch the beyond obscure indie band scratch ukuleles across their guitars, the occasional eye-catching tattoo was to be expected. But what caught my eye was only four words in helvetica (obviously) inked across the neck of someone who couldn’t be older than 22. “But I Was There” the tattoo declared to anyone who happened to stand behind its owner. This struck me for two reasons. Firstly because as someone who’s never really liked anything enough to get it permanently etched on to my skin, the idea of getting a lyric has never struck me as a good idea. The twelve-year-old version of me would probably want a chorus from a Limp Bizkit song, the sixteen-year-old version would have wanted one from Joy Division and I know the thirtyyear-old version would regret whatever indie nonsense the current version of myself would go for. But clearly these worries didn’t plague the man who wanted to tell everyone behind him that he “was there.” Clearly those four words meant something much more to him than a simple reminder that there was a band he liked. He was right though. Those four words do mean a lot.

Which brings me to the second reason I noticed it. The tattooed lyric in question is from a song called “Losing My Edge” by the band LCD Soundsystem. When it came out seven years ago the song received attention for its combination of repetitive throbbing electronics, snarky lyrics mixed with a desperate demand for recognition and anxiety about being replaced. For the most part the song is a list of bands that at one particular time were extremely important for what they were doing musically. As the bands are listed the singer attempts to reassure both himself and the listener that when these important bands were doing things that no-one else at the time had heard of before or could imagine, that he was there, appreciating it before everyone and anyone else. He sings that even though kids today can tell you about the specific date when 14

albums were released and at what time a band started doing something new, this doesn’t matter as they are all merely coming after the fact and that they simply weren’t “there”.

They can’t fully understand it. They are just imitators, preeners and posers pretending to have always listened to and appreciated music long before you, or anyone you know, had even heard of it.

It’s hard to tell what came first, the Hipster or James Murphy. At a time when people began identifying others as ‘hipsters’ based purely on what they wore/listened to/ drank/watched he was making music that played into it. Murphy of course didn’t mean for this association. Instead he simply began to be associated with ‘the hipster’ because of his status as both a reluctant rock star and indie rock producer svengali of DFA records.

By thinking the word ‘hipster’ was idiotic he ironically played right into the association. He also wore ties, which probably didn’t help.

LCD Soundsystem was also never really a band. It was a musical project Murphy put together following years of frustration producing. Deciding he could do it better than the bands he was overseeing he hand-picked some of the best musicians and put them to work helping him make his own fusion of synth and dance punk. The self-titled debut LCD Soundsytem came out in 2005, Sound of Silver followed in 2007 and This is Happening in 2010. Then after his third album Murphy decided to stop. He decided he had done what he set out to do with his musical project. Across five years LCD Soundsystem had reshaped the genre and achieved a level of critical and cultural success that arguably no other band has ever matched; one small,

“I SAY IN THE FILM I JUST WANTED IT TO BE THE BEST FUNERAL EVER”

but telling, example can be seen when readers of The Guardian voted ‘All My Friends’ (a delicate and nostalgia-heavy lament that you probably have heard when house parties wind down at 4am while everyone looks at each other dewy eyed), the best song of the last ten years.

When Murphy announced he was stopping LCD Soundsystem he decided to give the band a funeral in Madison Square Garden: a three-hour concert that sold out in record time which would act as both a dirge and a full stop. Now a year after the concert and a year without LCD Soundsystem, Murphy is releasing Shut Up & Play The Hits, a documentary about the final show, the fans and Murphy himself. The film’s directors Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace intercut footage of Murphy wandering around New York post-concert with an interview with the journalist Chuck

MUSIC

TS FROM THE NATION

views LCD Soundsyses Murphy about his p and Play the Hits

Klosterman, as well as documenting the fans watching LCD Soundsystem in the audience: from those dancing enthusiastically to those sobbing over having to watch their favourite band for the last time.

“MY BIGGEST FAILURE WAS MISSING THE DUBLIN SHOW BECAUSE OF THE VOLCANIC ASH CLOUD” Murphy doesn’t really do interviews. However after more than a year of pestering he agreed to answer a few questions about Shut Up and Play the Hits following its recent rapturous reception at the Sundance Film Festival. “I say in the film that I just wanted to have the best funeral ever” he tells me, “I didn’t want to do the usual thing of either succeeding by getting bigger or fail by getting smaller.

This was the way to end it.” But how much of a hand in actually making the film did he have? “I mixed the sound,” he explains, “that was important to get right. It needed to be immersive at times but also I didn’t want to distract the audience.” As someone who is well known for his perfectionist attitude towards even the slightest and most trivial aspects of production, was working on a film that will be so associated with the LCD Soundsystem ‘canon’ difficult considering other people were directing it? “I don’t think so. It was fun making it. LCD Soundsystem will always be the albums though.”

Although the clichéd question concerning “what are you doing next?” has been plaguing Murphy of late, his plans are anything but predictable. Throughout the film he frequently is seen either making a cup of coffee or drinking

one. “That’s accurate” he says “I’m going to be making my own coffee blend actually. It won’t be huge or anything, but I’m excited about it”.

Murphy also recently collaborated on a special track produced by Converse with Andre 3000 and Damon Albarn. “That just sort of came together,” he explains “I got a call and was asked if I wanted to work with them and I just agreed. It was a lot of fun.” However Damon Albarn famously walked away from Blur vowing never to return but can now be seen doing the festival circuit with his old bandmates. Did working with him inform any feelings of nostalgia for Murphy’s own band? His answer is typically to the point: “not really”.

In Shut Up and Play the Hits, Klosterman tells Murphy that many bands nowadays are defined more by their biggest failures than their successes. Following this he asks Murphy what he considers to be his biggest failure. Murphy answers by citing the time when he missed the opening show of his This is Happening tour in Dublin due to the volcanic ashcloud. Klosterman isn’t convinced however and pursues the matter, eventually drawing a one word answer from Murphy that seems more honest: “stopping.”

Murphy has never really been very open about his thought processes and so many fans will probably be agonising over the interpretation of this answer. Is he saying he regrets ending LCD Soundsystem? Or is he just acknowledging his own inability to legitimise fronting what was gradually becoming one of the biggest bands of our time?

Shut Up and Play the Hits contains a great deal of wistful reminiscence and celebration.

LCD Soundsystem meant, and still means, a great deal to its fans and Murphy himself. The love and perfection he poured into creating his band has by no means evaporated (one of the most poignant shots of the film sees Murphy checking the sound equipment after the show has ended). But could this nostalgia ever turn into returning to LCD Soundsystem? Murphy as always, remains both mystifying and direct in his response; “I miss it”.

It would appear LCD Soundsystem will just have to be remembered through the music. That and the neck tattoos.

15

FASHION

SWAG JACKETER Bella Davey talks to some Dublin inhabitants about what makes a good coat rom pastel pleats at Prada to the sweet simplicity of Celine, obnoxious florals and minty hues are at our fingertips this season.

By the time next Autumn/Winter’s campaigns descend though, who honestly cares that the mule is the summer equivalent of the Acne pistol boot, or that only Christopher Kane can get away with charging £605 for a bedazzled failure of a flip flop. It’s still Dublin, it’s always going to be cold and we are always going to be broke.

My advice this spring, when toying with the idea of cashing in on the abominable Pucci boob tube that wouldn’t look disjointed on a retired courtesan is to hold your pennies, sod the peplum and buy yourself a transitional

coat. 5 Dubliners encompassing a spectrum of lifestyles summarised what makes a fantastic transitional coat to take them from winter to (slightly) warmer weather.

Mark Baker, singer in St. John the Gambler ¾ length in leather or wool is preferable and must have an inside pocket to fit a passport, notebook and a sample CD. There’s nothing worse than putting in years of work and having nothing to show for it when you’ve left your music in the hostel. Epaulettes are always a bonus if you can get them.

Aisling Farinella, Editor of Thread Magazine It’s got to be cosy and warm, with a collar you can flick up to shield you from the elements. A mac is perfect to whip out in spring and an army parka for nights out in the city.

David Hogan, Chairperson of Trinity Hiking Society The main factors that would be definitive in a transitional piece is a jacket that is lightweight, warm and sways more towards practicality and utility. While it is wholly justifiable to invest in a coat, jackets designed for extreme weather conditions and mountaineering should be put to their created use, not a brief exposure to a light drizzle in the smoking area of the Arts Block.

Aodhain Von Splinky, aka LampLove, Graffiti Artist A large peaked hood that’s removable is essential to keep the rain off your face and identity concealed. Waterproof to prepare oneself for whatever the day or the locals in

Dublin 8 may throw at you. Two large upper pockets that can either hold two large cans of spray paint or a large bottle of hooch depending on where your night is going, with two lower pockets for stickers and keys.My ideal would probably be a conglomerate of elements from Patagonia coats; however knowing me I would probably complain about it a few months down the line because I thought of something else I could have added.

Davina Divine, Drag Queen Season appropriate, eternally glamorous and timeless is what a good coat should embody- A leather biker jacket with more than a whiff of Pamela Anderson circa Barb Wire would be my utter ideal.

My favourite coat in the world is my neon pink 90s DKNY fitted long blazer, which is both drag queen and clubber friendlyI’ve made an oath with myself never to part with her.

Wise words indeed.

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News, Features, OPinion, sport, web, photo, video, CHIEF Copy EDITOR. We are also taking applications for the role of Business Manager who will be in charge of TN advertising and be paid a commission.

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MUSIC & FOOD

HEALTH PACK Alex Towers talks to Brook yln band Yvette

I

’ve never had a problem with noise.

But seeing the two members of Brooklyn noise rock band Yvette (cositing of Noah Kardos-Fein and Rick Daniel) play a live set left me cowering in the corner. They are a band whose sole intention seems to be to reduce you to a gibbering wreck, hands placed firmly over your ears through their deeply primal booming static.

So when interviewing them, my first question was just why are they so loud?

“It’s a question we asked a lot. The reason we formed the band was because we were tired of hearing the same old thing. So it was sort of reactionary in a way. Then we decided the main way to get people’s attention was to just to go really fucking loud.” Kardos-Fein explained before Daniel adds “It’s also kind of to do with that we are only two guys and we’re trying to make the sound equivilant of four or five guys. There’s a practical thing as well

though- we use a lot of feedback.”

But with wall-of-sound style bands such as HEALTH, Mars and DNA making music that shares a lot of similarities while also remaining fundamentally different, is it hard to ensure one particular crescendo of noise is different to another? “There is definitely an element of sharing there. We are friends with HEALTH so whenever they get some new gear we’re pretty interested in finding out what it does. But at the same time it’s more about finding our own sound.” Daniel says, “We really don’t want to rip off another band. But with bands like Liar and This Heat we have definite influences and certainly in terms of texture with HEALTH. But we always want to find accessibility”.

However with songs that mostly combine guitar feedback with tribal drumming and exploding synth effects, how does putting a song

together actually happen? “We really just pick a starting point which is often really different, a texture or a drum beat or something that we like and we just work from there. Again it’s about accessibility” Daniel says before Kardos-Fein adds “A lot of what we do is thinking how the audience is going to react.” But how do they approach working together on such distinctive songs? “We work really well together” Kardos-Fein says “we got together because we were nerds who just liked the same electronic music. It’s frightening how similar our tastes are.” Yvette’s album is available at http://yvette.bandcamp.com/album/yvette Alex Towers

that if the Law Soc or Phil wine receptions are anything to go by, things haven’t changed much. He brands The Buttery as “the orange painted hell”, describing food in Trinity as a “crime against humanity”. Again, I assure him that not much has changed. I then ask whether the young History student cooked much while at college. He responds, rather sheepishly, “when I was at college, being a boy who cooked kind of cast skepticism as to your sexual orientation. There was a suspicion of a gay element there. And I mean I was cooking spaghetti bolognese.” We discuss how this societal element has changed considerably, it now being cool to be in to food. He retracts a bit however, “food as a lifestyle accessory really gets on my nerves.”

Doorley intimately remembers the first he meal ever reviewed. The story begins with the description of an accident where he slipped a disc just a few days before the ceremonious first review and how his agony was relieved

only by copious amounts of painkillers. Hilariously, because of the nature of his injury, Doorley was unable to sit in a regular chair and had to borrow what he describes as “a kind of Victorian bath chair”. Safe to say he gave them an overly complementary review.

“There was a lot of ibuprofen involved.”

The ever popular topic of Come Dine With Me is brought up and I ask if he is a fan. “The thing about the show, which I think is absolutely compulsive viewing, is that it’s not really about the food.” He states how it is equally filled with both “pretentious foodie gobshites” and “those with no shame whatsoever”. He explains one of the show’s tribulations being that the scorers never seem to make allowances for the fact that they are usually completely pissed when calculating the score. I note however, that Doorley is not much for following his own advice, contentedly sipping on his third glass of wine during lunch.

Clare Kealey

FEELING DOORLEY Clare Kealey has a chat over lunch with critic Tom Doorley

om Doorley is one of Ireland’s best known food critics. He is currently one of the stars of RTE’s The Restaurant and has written for the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the Sunday Tribune and presently for the Irish Daily Mail. He is a likeable figure among both a scourge of Irish chefs and indeed diners for his unvarnished and honest reviews.

Doorley is a Trinity graduate and describes his time in college fondly. I question him about his dining and socializing whilst a poor student and I am greeted with a honest chuckle. “Quinnsworth used to sell a white wine for £1.49 a bottle. It was really really horrendous.

You certainly didn’t sip it- you could lose your tongue doing that! You kind of just popped it over you tongue to avoid the taste. It needed an anesthetic really.” He continues with great enthusiasm, describing how a bottle of red, stolen from a society event, curdled after being placed in front of the fire. I commented

17

SEX

RECIPE

GIVE A LITTLE LOVE

RISOTTO VOCE Clare Kealey

The Boy Who is Just A Hopeless Romantic

MONDAY: “What’s your preference?” The benefit of

buying condoms in Boots on Grafton Street is that it’s always jammed; nobody notices you. Today a pretty little sales assistant finds the time to take me by surprise.

“Fetherlite, usually,” I respond hesitantly. “Not Extra Safe?” She has quite a gorgeous Dublin accent, there’s a bit of Give Up Yer Aul Sins about it. “Just remember, if she puts out on the first date then she’s not worth your time.”

I think she winks at me before she turns on her heel but I have no idea because I’m occupied with temporarily falling in love with her vanishing come-and-ride-me eyes. I fall in love every few minutes.

TU ESDAY: She has a lecture at 10am so we have a quick

one. “Oh, very fast this morning!” She is impressed, though it may not read as such. “I’m grand with working to deadlines,” says I. I decide when I finish. I’m a sexual stallion, which is a useless talent when you’re only riding your mate. Last night we shared two bottles of wine while watching Jackass 2, then went to bed and had sex for the entire length of the Bay City Rollers’ Best Of collection, a mutual love of ours.

Once iTunes trickled onto the Beastie Boys, I decided that was that. We fall asleep discussing who we Twitter-fancy respectively. We wake up in each other’s arms.

She’s one of my best friends. We have no real romantic tie. We do not kiss when she goes. We high five in an ironygasm because neither of us like high fives.

WEDNESDAY: “Did you text her?” I obviously did. I

mugged myself off. “I did. I mugged myself off.” Immediate response. “LOL Frank Skinner! Any joy? Did she tell you to fuck off?” It isn’t even weird. The girl I have sex with once or twice a week, a dear friend, is hazing me about my inability to get into another girl.

“She’s been making sounds that she’s not into the idea of a relationship.” Fourteen minutes. “Want to have veggie burgers later?” Yes. “Yes. Seven.” She comes over at seven. We have burgers and rut like stags.

TH U RSDAY: “Twelve.” I have no idea how this has

happened but I am in a tutorial class and we’re talking about sexual partners and we all seem like we’re being honest (except for Sophia who says one, her boyfriend, even though I came in her hair). “Not bad!” The guy on my left is congratulatory, and doesn’t know that I have those very words tattooed on my person.

FRIDAY: “You know those sex columns in Tn2?” I hesi-

tate. “Yes. Read a few.” One minute. “I wrote one. Look over it for me?” One minute. “Yes. Email.” One minute.

“Sent. They’re all composite characters. Don’t worry.

Also, the saviour girl in the Truman Show looks like Rebecca Loos.” Worry? Never. Sure the sex column is anonymous and the stuff that happens in it is well removed from real life.

Submit your anonymous sex diary at http://tinyurl.com/tn2sexdiary

18

“I’m occupied with falling in love with her vanishing come-andride-me eyes”

Risotto is a wonderfully versatile meal and relatively easy to make as long as you’re patient. My risotto with mushrooms, a hint of lemon and white wine is perfect for a comforting night in. Seasoning is key with any meal but particularly with risotto so make sure to taste as you go. The end result should be oozey and creamy, packed full of flavour.

RUSTIC RISOTTO Ingredients: 1 and ¼ litres of hot stock, either chicken or vegetable 1 small onion, finely chopped 2 celery sticks, finely chopped 3 garlic cloves 400g risotto rice Olive oil 200ml of white wine 6-8 handfuls of a variety of mushrooms (try shitake, chestnut, button or oyster) 25g butter A good grating of Parmesan cheese (about 2 handfuls worth) Juice of 1 lemon A few springs of fresh thyme and rosemary Salt and pepper 1) Simmer the stock in a saucepan on a low heat.

2) Place half of your mushrooms in a bowl and pour

over enough stock to cover them. Leave for a couple of minutes to soften.

3) Fish out the mushrooms and chop, preserving the soaking liquid 4) In a large pan, heat a sizeable glug of olive oil along with the chopped onion and celery. Slowly fry for 10 minutes.

5) Stir in the risotto rice and wine. Keep stirring until the liquid has cooked into the rice. Next, pour in the mushroom soaked liquid and one ladleful of remaining stock. Turn down the heat to a simmer 6) Keep adding in ladlefuls of stock and stirring, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next.

This should take around 30 minutes altogether.

7. Meanwhile, cut up the remaining half of your mushrooms and place them in a roasting tray along with the garlic, herbs, olive oil and season. Place under the grill on a medium-high heat for 15 minutes until dark brown and almost crisp.

8 . After all the stock is absorbed, pop in the grilled mushrooms. Stir in the butter and Parmesan. Allow to relax for 3 minutes, taste and season accordingly.

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REVIEWS Music

Fashion

Books

Food

Games

Art

Films

Theatre

PLAYSTATION VITA

by Andy Kavanagh

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PLAYSTATION VITA Sony

S

o Sony have just released their newest piece of hardware into the cold, unforgiving world. Fanboys are feverishly devouring anyone who dares speak out against it, but soon find themselves to be in the minority. Its price is being criticized as is its somewhat lackluster launch line up and many are declaring it dead before it’s even entered the race. The year is 2006, and I’m talking about the Playstation 3.

The PS3 was, of course, alive and well and just over half a decade later is showing no signs of losing momentum. The PS Vita on the other hand has just been set loose and is coming under the same kind of fire as its big brother before it. Anyone with a clue could see the potential of the Playstation 3 and worried not for its future, but the Vita is a slightly different story. The portable market has never been good to Sony; their PSP struggled to hold the attention of developers and gamers alike and despite numerous re-designs it just couldn’t make them as much money as the rampant piracy on the platform was costing them. In a world where the Wii outsells the collected efforts of both its high-end, high-def competitors and a world in which people think living vicariously through various Apple devices is something to brag about, it might not be enough to simply be made of the best stuff.

For better or worse Sony have crammed so much stuff into the Vita, it’s difficult to know 20

where to begin writing about it. The 5-inch OLED multi-touch screen is joined on board by a microphone, two analog sticks, a d-pad, face buttons, two cameras and a somewhat inexplicable rear touch panel. Its graphics, while not quite up to PS3 standards, do a remarkable job at imitating it (Easily as good as the PSP was at imitating the PS2 and probably better.)

It’s not a small device, certainly not something you could fit in any conventional pocket, but it’s not exactly large either. I’d read so much complaining about the size of the Vita in the run up to its release I was half expecting to be playing Uncharted on a modestly sized coffee machine. It’s slightly larger all-round than the PSP3000, but doesn’t feel substantially heavier. I, like many of you I would imagine, was ready to completely ignore the launch of the PS Vita until its inevitable redesign, just as I had done with the 3DS, a strategy that had worked resoundingly in my favour if that hideous Circle-Pad thing was any indication. It only took ten minutes with the Vita to change my mind. Its extra width makes it feel much more like a controller than any handheld before it and also renders the PSP’s dreaded fish-hook fingers a thing of the past. Make no mistake, a smaller, sleeker redesign is en route. In this case though, I’m not sure it will be for the better.

The most obvious difference between the Vita and its Sony brethren is the interface.

Gone is the XMB. In its place screens of apps presented in the form of colourful, floating bubbles. The interface is much less comical in reality than it may have appeared in videos or photographs and is, for the most part, intuitive and easy to use. It’s clear that Sony are aware of the ever-present threat of Apple and Android to their ‘dedicated gaming device’ and are aiming to make the Vita as ‘Apple’ friendly as possible.

Unfortunately, the apps are the most

uninteresting and at times confusing, parts of the Vita experience. ‘Near’ works reasonably well. Using my wi-fi connection it managed to, rather spookily, pinpoint my location and bring to my attention other PSN members in my area. The rest of the apps don’t fare so well, however. ‘Party’ and ‘Group Messaging’ seem to differ from each other in title alone and the separation of ‘Friends’, and ‘Trophies’’ into separate apps, when both are viewable in ‘Near’ is simply bewildering.

Despite clearly harbouring pretenses of competing with Android/Apple devices, the PS Vita is, at its heart, a games machine. And any games machine lives or dies on one thing and one thing alone: games. The Vita launch line-up might, at first glance, appear somewhat lacking, but given the chance some of these titles prove to be more than worth their price of admission. Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Wipeout 2048 are two of the finest portable games I’ve personally ever played and Everybody’s Golf has turned out to be just as fun and addictive as Lumines: Electronic Symphony. Modnation Racers: Road Trip might not be particularly well presented, but you could certainly do worse to kill a few minutes on a short commute. Little Deviants aside, the Vita has a solid line up of first and third party titles available at launch, which is more than could have been said for the PS3.

Only time will tell if the Vita will stand toe to toe with the Apple and Android devices it sees as its peers. For high-end gaming, the control options are a revelation, but the PSP as a format was mostly ignored by thirdparty developers, and it was always going to be tough for Sony to convince people to follow them on another handheld adventure.

Thankfully, the PS Vita is a fantastic, reasonably priced games machine with a selection of great games and the potential to house even greater games in the future. It’s hard to resist an argument like that. Andy Kavanagh

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I

21 JUMP STREET

DICE BAR

Directors: Phil Lord and Chris Miller

Smithfield, Dublin 7

FOOD As a proud native Irishman, I once be-

FILM The prospect of a cinematic re-jigging of

a long-forgotten (at least on this side of the Atlantic) 80s TV cop drama into a teen comedy is hardly an enticing prospect.

In spite of this, 21 Jump Street somehow manages to work. Early on, a character laments a current trend of “recycling the same old ideas again and again”, and this occasional knowing wink to the audience is what really gives the film its strength. Channing Tatum and a notably slimmed down Jonah Hill play Jenko and Schmidt, two unfathomably crap police officers chosen for their youthful looks to infiltrate a drug ring emerging in a local high school. Thankfully the premise is ridiculed from the get-go (‘what age did you go through puberty, seven?’ someone asks Tatum’s chacter when he arrives at the school) and this sense of self-awareness permeates the whole film, only occasionally managing to stifle the humour.

What little plot is evident in the movie (they go back to school, it’s not what they remember it to be, they find the drug dealer, they learn some valuable lessons etc) is well padded out by some outrageous set pieces. For example, on getting the job, the cops celebrate by taking turns hitting each other with cars. This sense of anarchy recalls the likes of Anchorman, with whom it also shares about the same level of concern for narrative structure.

It’s only in the film’s last 40 minutes that the plot becomes of any real concern, yet thankfully this doesn’t weigh down on the

narrative, and it simply jumps head first, guns-a-blazing towards its ludicrous, bloodsoaked finale.

The film’s success can be largely put down to the chemistry between Hill and Tatum. After a shaky, mawkish start, the two are put on their first job, and then things really start to pick up. This is of course Hill’s first ‘postweight loss role’, and while his new appearance is initially jarring, he’s still playing a variation on Seth from Superbad, although he’s shown recently he can move on from this kind of character judging from his Oscar-nominated role in the excellent Moneyball. Tatum is the real surprise here. Having slipped into a habit of playing increasingly bland characters in the soppy likes of Dear John, here he displays a clear verve for physical comedy, whether he’s sitting on a squirming Hill’s face as he tries to make a call, or smashing his way through an orchestra recital, high as a kite. Of the supporting players, it’s only really Rob Riggle (Big Miracle, The Hangover) as the school coach who gets some big laughs. But there’s also a cameo from a certain star of the original TV series, which is probably even funnier if you don’t understand its relevance.

21 Jump Street takes several pot-shots at the buddy cop and high school comedy genres, while also subverting some of the original show’s plots, but in the end it doesn’t really strive to be anything other than two hours of dumb, undemanding fun, and is all the better for it. Oliver Nolan

grudged the many Americans who call themselves Irish simply because their great-greatgrandfather was from Killarney or because they have distant cousins in west Donegal. I always found the ‘Irish pubs’ dotted throughout New York completely artificial. But then I took a little stroll through Dublin and realised that we’re doing exactly the same thing on our side of the Atlantic. So I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to the American readers for my attitude, and for all Eddie Rocket’s diners, for every imitation sports bar and any other blasphemous interpretation of your culture, past and present. I can only presume that, for a US tourist, seeing Captain America’s restaurant on Grafton Street conjures the same uneasy feeling that I had when walking

by O’Lunney’s Irish Pub off Times Square.

That being said, it is sometimes possible to capture an accurate glimpse of another nation’s culture; that is precisely the case with Dice Bar, a grungy watering hole in the Smithfield area of Dublin. The reason for the success is that it isn’t a self-aware copy of a typical Brooklyn dive bar (although it wouldn’t look entirely out of place on Bedford Avenue), but it seemingly has allowed itself to be subtly influenced by that same scene, while maintaining some of the original Irish charm gathered throughout the building’s 300 year history.

Since assuming its current guise a decade ago, Dice has become an eclectic neighbourhood local, as well as a rockers’ hangout.

Inside, the walls are painted black and the main source of light comes from the oversized candles dotted around the room, so the atmosphere is thoroughly cosy. At the same time, it doesn’t get too busy, so you will more often than not find a comfortable corner table or a seat at the bar. The soundtrack to your night will definitely be a good one, and it’s played at just the right volume, so you can enjoy a good chat over your pint of their tasty homebrewed ales. There are great drinks promos most nights, and it’s just around the corner from the now-reopened Lighthouse Cinema.

It serves as a great bar to get the night started, and would suit a Sunday afternoon drinking session perfectly. One word of warning though: watch out for the biker with the tattoos on his face. Aaron Devine 21

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II.II

LOVE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA II.I

Magnetic Fields

CONVERSATIONS Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin 8 ART ‘Conversations’ is the title of a photogra-

phy exhibition which has recently opened at IMMA, comprised of more than 100 works drawn from the Bank of America’s art collection. The works on display have been the subject of previous exhibitions in both Milan and Boston and are now on display at IMMA until the end of May. Its title, ‘Conversations’, also refers to the theme of the exhibition. The works on display are arranged in such a manner as to stimulate dialogue, and the layout of the exhibition across three floors communicates this theme in a really comprehensive way, casting certain juxtapositions into sharp relief, given the smaller spaces in which they are viewed.

The first room which you will enter, for example, features mostly large-scale landscape photographs, placing “The Ramesseum of El Kurneh, Thebes, Second View” (1857-8) by Francis Frith, a pioneer of the medium, alongside “Ticket Booth and Pyramid, Giza, Egypt” (1989), a modern interpretation of a similar archaeological subject by Richard Misrach.

Misrach is an internationally renowned artist whose work really struck me when I visited ‘Conversations’. Presented in large-scale format, the photographs inevitably make a strong impression on the visitor and, in his work, the photographer generally explores the effects of human activity on landscape.

The real clincher for me, however, was the order in which the works were presented. While the upper stories display mostly black and white photographs, by the stage at which they reach the basement, the visitor is plunged into a room full of large-scale colour photographs, their saturated tones cast into relief by the white background against which they have been hung. Here, for example, you’ll find works such as “Untitled (Memphis)” c.

1970 by William Eggleston, a photographer credited with elevating the status of colour photography in the 1970s, at a time in which black and white photography prevailed.

Whether the type of conversation which this exhibition strives to present is one you’re interested in having or not, ‘Conversations’ succeeds in delivering a history of photography in such a way that books cannot, providing the visitor with an instant visual history of the medium. Róisín Lacey-McCormac.

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M USIC Without wanting to appear too fan-

boyish or to seem like I’m introducing an arse-covering disclaimer on the very slim off chance that he reads this and tries to rescind my gay mafia membership, it’s worth starting off by saying that Stephin Merritt is one of the greatest contemporary songwriters. Conversationally blunt but allusively intelligent, Merritt has a better grasp of human nuances than Nick Cave, and is a considerably more accomplished bitch than Bob Dylan. However, despite promising a return to the synth instrumentation and thematic concerns that characterised his band’s masterpiece 69 Love Songs, LATBOTS is a tame affair whose infrequent highlights are outweighed by messy orchestration and lyrical water treading.

The album starts off well with its three strongest songs. “God Wants Us To Wait” is a short and funny 8-bit tale of the particular problems involved with Christian lovin’.

The lead single “Andrew in Drag” is the most well-rounded song on the album in terms of story-telling. It also contains the best use of Merritt’s dry delivery, which manages to successfully render the otherwise awful couplet “A pity she does not exist/ A shame he’s not a fag,” into the most fantastically witty thing you’ve ever heard. “Your Girlfriend’s Face” is a brilliantly bitter diatribe about a straight girl stealing his man, whose deadpan matter-offactness is unnervingly reinforced by the fact that revenge is seemingly being planned over a casually cathartic game of Space Invaders.

Unfortunately the rest of LATBOTS is a

mixture of aborted refrains and cul-de-sac synth flourishes, which at times almost topples over into Andrew Lloyd Webber levels of bombast. While the band’s music has to some degree always been secondary to Merritt’s lyrics, his usually genius adeptness at mixing spite with sentiment is also absent.

“I’d Go Anywhere with Hugh” even incorporates the idea of Merritt being on autopilot into its narrative structure, gradually devolving into a bland repeated pitch about how “I’d go anywhere with Hugh/Who’d do anything for you”. The lacklustre lyrics are elsewhere compounded by the odd production choices.

“Machine in Your Hand” takes its central metaphor to what for a two minute song is a painfully drawn out conclusion, which might still have been passable if it didn’t sound like it was recorded in the Funderland car park.

It’s easy to moan about how there’s nothing on LATBOTS that approaches a “Yeah!

Oh Yeah” or a “I Don’t Believe You”, but at the same time it’s hard to ignore the fact that a large bulk of the album is a disappointingly shapeless mush, which primarily comes across as a series of sassy responses thought up way after a confrontation. Like most Magnetic Fields albums LATBOTS insists on working at the level of arch double address, but lyrically and musically doesn’t put the leg work in to make this viable. The listener is subsequently left with a bunch of over-literal paeans to lost love that, God forbid, almost make it sound as if Merritt is being wholly sincere. Michael Barry

II.I

777 South Great Georges Street, Dublin 2

FOOD 777 is Dublin’s newest trendy haven. I

I

MACBETH The Helix, Dublin 9 THE ATRE Second Age Theatre Company was

founded 22 years ago by Alan Stanford with the mission to provide accessible and regular productions of Leaving Cert texts for those in secondary school. Naturally the aim has been to make plays accessible to a younger demographic than usually grace the foyers of Dublin’s theatres. Far from displaying a simplistic interpretation, director David Horan creatively expresses Macbeth in an aesthetic, rapid, action based display that is stripped of explicit brutality and indulges in post-cinematic drama techniques.

Macbeth (Will Irvine) is displayed as a constructor of his own fate, fully aware that his actions are wicked and more importantly as responsible for the path he chooses. The supernatural is embedded into materialistic form initially through the three witches possessing the bodies of fallen soldiers. The spiritual potency is lost from the famous first scene, but does frame the play within an imminent product of the characters wills and desires, rather than a struggle with providence.

Lady Macbeth (Maeve Fitzgerald) is relegated to a secondary whisper in the ear, when too often she is read as being central to the atrocities. In doing so Macbeth’s fate is imprisoned within his own character’s inevitable will to power.

Fight scenes are beautifully choreographed and acted out in slow motion. The tragedy and disregard for destruction is powerfully accompanied by the somber tones of Radiohead’s “Videotape” from In Rainbows. The

Five Acts are not so much drenched in blood but interspersed with individual sharp explosions of red sand. A powerful device which helps in proclaiming the tragedy of each blow, it avoids saturating the plays brutality in fake blood.

As is necessary with most Shakespeare, fast transition of scene keeps the intensity of the blank verse. Actors entering the stage before the previous ones have left, stop in freeze frame allowing the audience to process the fate of each transition in much the same way as Macbeth sees his future.

Will Irvine delivers another strong performance; his Machiavellian paranoia is worryingly balanced with strength of thought and valor. Irvine’s eyes seem possessed as he looks beyond the audience, above the stalls and into his desired ends. Maeve Fitzgerald nicely conveys desperation for power, her fragility exacerbates her incoherent notions on responsibility, unfortunately lines are lost in an unnecessary Scottish accent. Notable performances come from Enda Kilroy as Banquo, Will O’Connell as Malcom and relieving comic relief from Damien Kearney as the porter.

The destruction that lies on the hands of Shakespeare’s most reviled protagonist has always drawn a crowd into theatres. Second Age’s modernisation of the piece has provided both an educational portrayal of a certain interpretation and a spectacular piece of theatre for its own sake. One is left cursing the brevity that lies on the hands of the school children’s wandering attention. Henry Longden

waltzed in on a Sunday evening and was surprised that not only was there only one table left, but that we were expected to leave after an hour and a half to accommodate other eager guests. This, after opening its doors just ten days before, says a lot about the quality of the restaurant. It does not disappoint.

The decor is part Mexican cantina, part hipster ville hot-spot. Butcher-style tiles, paint peeled ceiling and a very quirky vintage brass sink in the bathroom creates an inviting, low key atmosphere. The menu stands out among Dublin’s wannable traditional Mexican joints (it may surprise you that your beloved burrito is considered Tex-Mex and not Mexican) and their tequila menu, complete with 80 varieties, is incredibly impressive. I ordered the zingy pink grapefuit ‘Pomelo Quemado’ cocktail, complete with an oddly complimentary nutmeg-sugar rim. Bernie ordered a lime Jarrito, a Mexican kiddie favourite, which was overpoweringly sweet but actually worked well with the spice of the food. For starters we chose a variety of taquitos, one fish, one chorizo and one pork.

Each were incredibly delicate and full of flavour. My favourite was the fish, served lightly fried with a grilled corn relish and apple habañero salsa. For the mains we ordered the pollo pollito (roasted organic chicken), the asada de carne (steak) and the fideo con mariscos (grilled fish, langoustines, clams, chile bisque and fideo noodles.) The meat was cooked to perfection and served with ‘chimichuri’, a vinaigrette with fresh parsley, oregano and red pepper. Bernie’s ‘safe option’ chicken was surprisingly tasteful and the fish dish was wonderfully fresh. The only disappointment were the patatas bravas which were bland and undercooked. For dessert we were recommended the ‘pan de pudding’ which was without question the nicest bread and butter pudding I’ve ever tasted. We also tried the cucumber and mango-chilli sorbet which were a welcome lighter option for our bursting waist lines.

777 is a welcome newcomer to Dublin’s lacking rustic Mexican restaurants. The food is wonderful, albeit expensive (it’s extremely easy to run up a hefty bill here) and I highly recommend it. Clare Kealey 23

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II.I

BREAK IT YOURSELF Andrew Bird

Andrew Bird has, on many occasions, been called a musical genius. His multiinstrumentalist talent is indeed undeniable but his latest offering, Break It Yourself, is just a whole lot of okay.

In this new material Bird once again shows off his skills, primarily through the use of violin, and creates some truly haunting trills and vibratos. His voice weaves in and out of instrument solos, sometimes singing, sometimes whistling lilting melodies. The opening song, “Desperate Breeds…”, begins with crashing, clashing piano chords before moving into a melancholic melody. Songs like “Hole in the Ocean” sound like lullabies, soothing the listener into a trance, whilst other highlights, such as “Danse Caribe”, interrupt the conscious journey with jaunting rhythm and violins plucked to electric guitar style chords.

So what, then, is so average? The answer is the melodies themselves. Bird’s songs make for pleasant background listening, but not one of these songs sticks in the head of the listener – you certainly won’t find yourself humming the tunes later in the day. Bird goes to huge lengths to show off his talent and his instruments, but the music seems almost inaccessible or perhaps just forgettable. Fans of Bird will not be disappointed with his latest offering, but newcomers may disagree.

Catriona Murphy M USIC

utilised. The objective standpoint reinforces the idea of a child forced to have a resilient character,.However it fails to convey the humanist emotion that could be expressed as the outlet for wartime periods.

Set in a prison in 70s/80s Northern Ireland, a story is crafted with the intention of clarifying why the young girl has ended up inside the four grey walls. As the story descends into devastating revelations, her imagination is expressed with beautiful imagery and succeeds in removing the audience from the unravelling tragedy. While all those around her are pushed to the bottle and depression, the child is seen to have an irreverence to reality and escapes through the abstract.

Emma O’Grady executes a tragic performance and is aided by somewhat surprising use of music and effects. A simplistic set is enough for what was originally a radio play.

Grenades utilises the disparity between adult and youth perceptions, crafting a childish resilience to external events. Although powerful and heart-rending, the effects of war are more readily applied to emotional expression, in ignoring this Grenades is limited to a single story rather than being applicable to a wider meaning. Henry Longden

II.I

KHODORKOVSKY Director: Cyril Tuschi

II.I

GRENADES Bewley’s Cafe, Grafton Stree, Dublin 2 THE ATRE Retreating from the grey, damp

lunchtime scrum of Grafton Street to the Bewley’s Cafe Theatre is one of the most homely luxuries for a student to indulge in during a long term. Settling down to a warm bowl of soup and brown bread one would be mistaken to expect comfort for the duration of Tara McKevitt’s Grenades. A monologue tracing the shattering experiences that built a young girl’s identity; the audience are drawn into a painful proximity with the plays protagonist, Nuala Kelly (Emma O’Grady). The play has a powerful effect with imagery and imagination well 24

FILM When Mikhail Khodorkovsky was ar-

rested in 2003, he was worth $15 billion. The owner of Yukos oil company, he was the supreme oligarch: both the prototype and archetype. At his richest, he was worth one and a half Abramoviches, or seventeen paltry Berezovkys. Khodorkovsky’s arrest had such political impact that George W. Bush expressed his concerns about it live on television the following morning. Russian government is a law unto itself, and Khodorkovsky has been in prison ever since.

Cyril Tuschi’s helter-skelter investigative film makes no attempt to conceal its admiration for Russia’s divisive former billionaire.

At the end of the documentary Tuschi finally gets to speak to his hero, after court proceedings have ensured Khodorkovsky will remain in jail for the foreseeable future. Tuschi risks the wrath of state guards to gain a brush with Khodorkovsky’s hand. But after that, even more surreally, Tuschi conducts a revealing interview with him, before Khodorkovsky begins his 9000-mile journey back to Siberia.

It’s a marvellous coup for the film and entirely in keeping with the ramshackle fortune of Tuschi’s wanderings across Russia.

Khodorkovsky’s presentation is occasionally disingenuous. Its editing can be manipulative: for example, images of tanks raging menacingly down the street dramatize sinister Russian government, but any viewer who understands Russian can see the banners within the same shots that read ‘Victory Day’, and thus realise the tanks comprise a benign celebration. Yet Tuschi’s candid strain of filming is brilliantly revealing. Khodorkovsky makes clear that its protagonist returned to Russia knowing he was going to be arrested and exiled by Putin. It also explains that he did this with the intention of running for political office. Khodorkovsky shines astonishingly bright light into some of the darkest corners in world politics; but what nobody is able to reveal is what happens next. Nicholas Maltby

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VISIONS Grimes M USIC Grimes is Clare

Boucher, a one-woman band who continues on the (surprisingly consistent) tradition of former art school attendees who fell into music as an extension of whatever multimedia papier-maché display they made for their Grad show. Visions is her first album for new label 4AD, and offers the best showcase of her talents so far. Here Boucher allows for a sharper contrast between her flaky vocals and the backing electro-pop, and gets rid of her former GarageBand mannerisms. She also maintains a better grasp on quality control, and although the tracks may frequently ramble on past the five minute mark it no longer feels like an exercise in ice queen masochism.

Tracks like “Know the Way”, “Infinite Love Without Fulfilment” bring real heart to a mini-genre that frequently consists of nothing more than the pointedly blank enunciation of high fashion buzz words over a pre-programmed drum machine, while on “Genesis” Boucher manages to make her vocals sound like an entire choir, albeit one stuck in a traffic jam where every car has industrial synths instead of horns. Michael Barry

How to…

GUILT Y PLE ASU RES

SAVE THE WORLD Cormac Cassidy attempts to make art and save the planet this week with the The Enviormental Society Society during the recent Green Week

THE DAILY MAIL ONLINE: TV & SHOWBIZ

by Hannah Little

n my last “How to” I look to the future, which seems to be accelerating its alarming approach. This issue, I embrace an area that I’m attempting to pursue a career in, imposing “sustainable living” on the rest of you.

The TCD Environmental Society ran an art competition during Green Week, with two Trinity Ball tickets up for grabs. The catch you ask? The entry had to be primarily composed of components from a bag of refuse-derived fuel they gave you. Guessing that nobody knows what that is, I quote our most used, but never referenced source: “refusederived fuel is produced by shredding and dehydrating solid waste with waste converter technology. It consists largely of combustible components of municipal waste such as plastics and biodegradable waste”.

Another way of describing refuse-derived fuel is smelly, degradable shit. This issue looks at How to Save the World through producing a piece of art from glorified rubbish.

ONE: Collect your bag of tools in the Arts Block with a smile.

T WO: Quickly realise that this stuff smells really badly. Try to hide the stench; put it in a closet, cupboard, a pot with a lid on, the shower, anywhere that you’re not. Feel a genuine sense of dismay when you realise that you can’t hide odours.

THREE: Feel an huge sense of gratitude that your window ledges are an unnecessarily generous size and that you can store it out there. Hit yourself for not realising sooner.

FOU R: Grow frustrated at making zero progress and how you lack any sort of spatially creative fibre. Try to repress the memories of Pass Junior Cert Woodwork that come flooding back as you flick on the lamp that your roommate made. This beacon of supportive light could help guide you through your struggling time as an artist.

FIVE: Give into our generation’s defining characteristic; the ability to steal from the talented. Google: “refused-derived fuel art” and try to leech off someone else’s efforts. There’s no Turnitin software involved here, so you won’t need to hide your plagiarism.

SIX: Scare the usual drop-ins away with both the scent seeping through your window and your general discontent. It’s no wonder you’re disgruntled though, the only thing people did talk about when they came round, was the smell, which inevitably led to you explaining your struggle.

SE VEN : Amuse yourself by sculpting some suspicious shapes and getting your thinking cap on. Soon after, accept that your sudden inspiration did not carry new, previously untapped talent with it.

EIGHT: Conclude that you can’t possibly enter a crudely fashioned penis made from shit, despite that interesting twist. Don’t quit, rather acknowledge that your entry would not be the winner and declare yourself out of the running.

Saving the world with an issue-defining piece of art was probably out of reach anyway, as were those Ball tickets.

NINE: Show up at the unveiling and confirm that you could not have won this time. Know your skill set. Admire the winning piece, an excellent video from Cat O’Shea.

“Conclude that you cannot possibly just enter a crudely fashioned penis made from shit, despite the interesting twist”

We live in times full of recession, political furore and environmental breakdown. Anglo, IMF, ECB.. etc. etc.

Can I please be forgiven for harboring a bizarre urge to read about The Only Way is Essex and their diamante-encrusted world of oversized boobs and laminated teeth? The Daily Mail is renowned for it’s right-wing articles written by outspoken journalists such as Jan Moir (whose Stephen Gately piece prompted 2,500 complaints) and Richard Littlejohn. It is a world where a headline reporting clashes in Syria is replaced instantly by the breaking news that the world oldest sheep ‘Twiggy’ has sadly passed away. (fell off a cliff, poor Twiggy).

MailOnline, the tabloid’s website, was the second most visited news site in the world in 2011, just falling short of The New York Times. Clearly, I am not alone in my fascination with voyeuristic smut and the dregs of sensationalist journalism. Scrolling through the concise, attention-grabbing titles which have just a tad more decency than literally stating “Look, it’s Ke$ha’s flabby arse!” or “Christ, Rumer Willis is wrecked! - the picture-heavy, mindless content is a delight and a welcome antidote to the academic jargon I spend most of my day trawling through. I almost commend the Daily Mail writers on their scrupulous quest to solve some of today’s most pressing issues through an overanalysis of paparazzi photos resulting in the never-ending accusations of “Pregnant or Just Bloated?” “Forgot their wedding ring or DIVORCED?” With the Leveson inquiry still fresh in my mind, I’m not going to question where they find these ‘intimate newlywed pics but presumably somewhere right now a fat bald photographer is hanging off a palm tree in Barbados trying to get a snap as another celeb “pours her curves into a tiny bikini”.

I really don’t care where they get them if just for the sheer delight that an un-airbrushed photo might satisfy my inherent female envy which craves to see a celeb with bad skin or a wonky tit. As well as keeping me up to date with my vacuous TV & Showbiz gossip the MailOnline ‘Best Rated’ and ‘Worst Rated’ comments provides endless sources of amusement and horror.

I highly suggest visiting any article containing the Queen, immigration or social welfare to remind yourself that although you might feel dumb in the odd tutorial you simply do not have it in you to regress to the levels of stupidity held by some of these racist, small minded twits. “Evolution is discredited - anyone with a brain knows that” says Tom from Coventry. Nice.

With 84 million online readers a month, does this represent the decline in journalism, a society dumbed down by Kardashian-culture, unable to process anything longer than 140 characters and a shitload of blurry photos of coked-out celebs?

Possibly so, but Jesus Christ, did you see Lindsay on Saturday Night Live?

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The Chaff

DEEP TYPE FLOW Karl McDonald

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hit From An Old Notebook: 20 column ideas I will never get to write.

1. Jedward’s shifting levels of apparent selfawareness. “What comes into your head when we say jump on my _____ or get on my ______,” the boys tweeted recently. Parse that however you like.

2. The internet making every joke repetitive within seconds. There is no International Men’s Day because every other day is International Men’s Day, and your Kony jokes are not only weak but racist.

3. A consideration of how many old timey sweet shops Dublin could legitimately support and some suggestions for which closed down businesses to put them in.

4. Getting mad at skinny people. The whole idea of not body-shaming is that people don’t have to feel bad about themselves, come on.

5. Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow being apparently favoured by God. Why does God favour the devout sometimes and murderers, rapists and dogfighters other times? Does God even care about dogs at all? Is there a separate dog heaven and if so, are there visiting hours for the human dead?

6. People telling me I’m not black. I know I’m not black.

7. Kanye West wearing a skirt on-stage. Kanye is the embodiment of the idea that if you just act like you know what you’re doing, people will presume you do.

8. Paul Galvin, who disproves the above hypothesis.

9. The entire collective experience of Irish history happening through the lens of two or three Yeats poems that everyone did for the Leaving Cert.

10. Irish-American rapper Macklemore and his claim on ‘Irish Celebration’ that “we” made petrol bombs to defend the country when the English came, ignoring the 700 year gap between the initial Norman invasion and the invention of petrol and generally

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“11. The idea that the established art world would cease to exist entirely if giving away wine was banned”

appropriating our culture in an annoying way.

11. The idea that the established art world would cease to exist entirely if giving away wine was banned.

12. A comparative study of Shakespearean tragic heroes and the self-projection of certain rappers, especially Rick Ross.

13. The idea that high fashion is an exercise of ritual and not supposed to be understood by those who don’t understand the visual and critical vocabulary, and not feeling bad because you don’t understand how that person wearing a tent relates to what’s in Penneys.

14. David Norris actually stopping people getting into Ulysses because they can’t help reading it in his voice.

15. A list of spelling or syntax errors in any given issue of the Irish Independent.

16. An attempt to get people from the Liberties to admit that they hate NCAD students on the record.

17. Some sort of more concentrated effort to promote my podcast, Them’s The Vagaries, which you should listen to.

18. An unreadable tract on what I think student media is supposed to do.

19. Calling the Adrian Kennedy Phone Show and reading out a list of annoying things I’ve heard people in Trinity say, and then dissecting the responses using anthropological methods.

20. A valedictory and self-serving piece about this probably being my last piece of writing for a student publication, after nearly five years. I’ll spare you. It’s been fun, Trinity.

If you’re looking for more of Karl now that his column is over why not download his podcast, Them’s The Vagaries? It would make his day: http://themsthevagaries.tumblr. com/ Illustration generously provided by the exceptionally talented Fuchsia Macaree

THURSDAY NIGHT— BUTTON FACTORY, TEMPLE BAR 11PM—3AM €8 entry €5 with Concession WITH MUSIC FROM: KANYE WEST MISSY ELLIOT LUDACRIS WU TANG CLAN LIL KIM NOTORIOUS B.I.G. OUTKAST WILL SMITH TUPAC A TRIBE CALLED QUEST XZIBIT SEAN PAUL JAY Z NICKI MINAJ DRAKE AZEALIA BANKS USHER

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DRINKS:

BOTTLE 33CL BEER €3 ALCO POPS €2.50 VODKA AND ENERGY €3.50 / DOUBLE €6.50 SELECTED SHOTS €2.50 GLASS OF WINE €3 PINTS €3.50 3 JAGERBOMBS €10

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