University Observer Volume XVIII - Otwo Issue 1

20th September 2011 Issue I Volume XVIII

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The Arts & Culture Supplement of the University Observer

á v o l g r I a t Marké Also inside >>

Jape Interview | Observer Man | Can Games be Art?

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contents Page 3 - Regulars

Aoife Valentine moans about evasive landlords and boasts about her hot air balloon-flying abilities in Soapbox before espousing the virtues of Punky and lamenting UCD printing in What’s Hot, What’s Not.

Page 4 – Spiritual & Gender-related Advice Mittens returns and she’s cattier and more psychic than ever.

She’s joined by one Dixon Coltrane, a post-war detective hellbent on telling the men of UCD what’s what. You’re welcome, ladies!

Letter from the Editors

Page 5 – What’s On

Jordan McMahon and Steven Balbirnie will guide you through the cultural gifts that UCD and Dublin at large have to offer you in the next couple of weeks.

Page 6 – Fashion

Sophie Lioe suggests how your fashion choices should change as autumn rolls around, before getting a taste for the Irish fashion blogosphere.

Page 9 – Food

Stuck for creative cooking ideas to fit your meagre budget?

Don’t worry; Elaine Lavery is here to tell you how to stretch your last few Euro and still sample a food delicacy.

Page 10 – Travel

Megan O’Neill went to Chicago this summer and had the mad bantz, while Elaine Lavery tried out a staycation in Glandore.

Keeping it local, Conor O’Toole makes a fascinating trip to the hidden gem that is the National Print Museum.

Page 12 – Games & Technology

We take a look at Deus Ex and Rugby World Cup 2011 in our new games review section, whilst Jon Hozier-Byrne considers how gaming became high-brow.

Page 14 – Cover Feature

Academy Award-winner Markéta Irglová talks to Aoife Valentine about her life post-Once and the eminent release of her new album.

Page 16 – Film & TV

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, 30 Minutes or Less and Tomboy get the once over, Dermot O’Rourke mourns the death of the Star System and four adults argue over children’s cartoons in Fatal Fourway.

Page 20 – Music

Jape, Frank Turner and your man from Alkaline Trio get a good grillin’, while we also scrutinise the latest albums, tell you what gigs to go to and intrinsically link societies to their respective songs in Mixtape.

Page 26 – Otwo Attempts...

Did you see that mentaller running around campus in his tights and cape? Yeah, neither did we, but it’s still documented in our first Otwo Attempts of the year.

Page 28 – Ordinary Level

Comedian Kieran Lawless gets to sweat his Leaving Cert once more and we catch up with those (un)lucky souls who got a glimpse of the Amazing Observer Man.

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Issue 1 - Falling Slowly In Our Tights and Cape Dear Reader, You have picked up a copy of Otwo’s first issue of the college year. If you’ve immediately shed the surrounding Berliner edition and skipped straight to this letter then all the better; you’re clearly a trendsetter. As you can see, Otwo can rhyme words with other words, but we can also produce 28 pages of top-quality student journalism relating to the bantz, arts and culture, all for your benefit/apathetic disregard.

If you’re a fresher, congratulations on getting to UCD. Make the most of it; these are the best years of your life. If you’re a returning student, we feel your pain and the end is near, but you should find solace in what we have to offer you this issue. No guarantees though.

You’ll be glad to see that Mystic Mittens is back and fully rested after her traumatic de-worming. She’s returned to the Windowless Office of Doom and she’s more spiteful and psychic than ever. Mittens is accompanied by our mysterious new masculinity columnist, Dixon Coltrane. If you find your thighs to be quivering at the very utterance of his name, just relax. He has that effect on people.

In Fashion, Sophie Lioe tells you how to dress and then recommends more people to tell you how to dress. Whilst in Food, Elaine Lavery gets creative on a budget and advises you on how to make use of any spare sheep intestine you may have lying around. Lovely.

Our newly extended Games section now includes reviews and less ‘Hey, remember Zelda? Zelda was cool’ kinda stuff, so look out for that. Other new features include Fatal Fourway (which is neither about wrestling nor our adventurous sex lives), our What’s On guide to UCD and Dublin and the Ordinary Level questionnaire, which, this week, is answered by legitimate comedian Kieran Lawless.

Music and Film are crammed with features, reviews and interviews, along with the respective returns of Mixtape (formerly Shuffle in the pre-LMFAO era) and the Top 10. To top it all off, we have an exclusive from the elusive Observer Man as well as a wonderful interview with Oscar-winner and allround nice person, Markéta Irglová.

That’s about it. Well, not really, but it’s as much as my word count will allow.

So, whether you’re just flicking through or reading from cover to cover, enjoy.

Regards, Aoife and George

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What’s hot and what’s not Already gotten your new college year off to an uncool start? Let Aoife Valentine put you back on track

What’s Hot

A Betrayal of Penguins

Fresh back from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, A Betrayal of Penguins have replaced Foil, Arms and Hog as Otwo’s favourite sketch comedy trio.

Palpable energy and some mad improvising skillz make for a thoroughly entertaining show. Unpredictable and original; the sense of fun is infectious.

Aran cardigans

Summer came and went on that one Tuesday in July, and right now it’s looking more like the middle of winter than back-to-school season. It’s the kind of weather that makes you want to stay in bed, wrapped in your duvet forever. Lo and behold – the Aran cardigan. It may make you look slightly elderly, but you’ll essentially be wearing a hug. So cosy.

Punky

Punky is a little girl with lots going on. She has lots of friends, and lots of fun. She has a dog named Rufus and a very grumpy granny called Cranky.

Sounds like your average cartoon, but just you wait for the twist! Oh RTÉ, you try so hard. The forthcoming version translated into Irish can only add to it. Amazing.

What’s Not

The lack of Insomnia on campus

How is anyone supposed to be motivated to walk to Roebuck for a 9am lecture in the coldest theatres on campus without first purchasing some vanilla-y hot chocolate-y goodness from Insomnia along the way? Any complaints of your probable imminent bankruptcy should be withdrawn; campus needs decent hot chocolate.

UCD’s new printing system

Just when you finally think you’ve mastered the fine art of printing to the printer nearest you and not in some building across campus, they change the rules so that your student card is also your printing card. Getting printing credit onto your student card is a whole new problem, especially since the machines seem to hate everyone.

Christmas paraphernalia in shops

The weather may make it feel like it’s mid-November but surely someone in the world of retail can read a calendar? It is September. There is no need for anyone to be this prepared for the holidays already. Anyone who even tries to buy rolls of Santa-covered wrapping paper should be promptly hit over the head with it by the cashier.

Soapbox Tormented by daft.ie and lured in by landlords, Aoife Valentine finds herself losing the househunting battle

Home: where Mammy is always there to cook for you, bills don’t really exist and you probably don’t run the risk of catching typhoid. It’s easy to see why moving out is usually a mildly scary but rather exciting venture. Growing up, becoming a real person, all that jazz - thrilling altogether. At least, until you venture onto Daft.

When the website actually chooses to function correctly, which is not as often as you would think, there is still an endless list of troubles. Landlords and letting agents may advertise their properties but in reality, they’re just teasing you.

They like to play hard to get – either they don’t put up photos of their property, leaving you wanting its perfect location but fearing that the lack of images means you’ll be living in a hovel, or they simply don’t answer their phones. Ever.

If it’s not that, they’re playing other games.

Sneaky games. They lull you into a sense of false hope, where you’re led to believe you’ll be paying a stupidly low rent, only for them to later reveal that you will in fact be sharing the room with a total stranger. This also makes entering the maximum rent for a room option essentially redundant, just to screw with your search a little more. Boo-urns.

If you’re lucky enough to get someone to actually answer their phone, and they don’t automatically assume you’re the devil incarnate come to wreck the gaff with your wild and crazy parties simply because you’re not a mature student, you might actually get around to viewing the place. At this point you’ll realise that the “10 minutes walk to UCD” actually means that you’ll have a good half hour walk, after a short journey in a hot air balloon, before you’re even in the general vicinity of a UCD gate.

It will also become apparent that “cosy” either means, “Your room is actually located in the closet under the stairs,” or that the double room you’re paying over the odds for is actually the size of a postage stamp. The fact that they managed to somehow squeeze a double bed into the space almost becomes impressive rather than infuriating. Landlords of Dublin 4 please be aware: Just because you put a double bed in the room, doesn’t make it a double room. You’re just making me claustrophobic.

And finally, the most heartbreaking of them all – you’ve found the perfect place and fought your way past all the hurdles: you’ve beaten the terrible search system, you’ve managed to pin down that elusive landlord and most importantly, you’ve finally mastered that hot air balloon, only to be finally told that they let the room earlier in the week, but forgot to take the ad down. It’s almost soul destroying to have to begin the process all over again.

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Mystic Mittens’ feline fortunes Taurus (May 14 – June 21) You will have a serious accident in college involving a copy of a local student-run newspaper.

Virgo (September 17 – October 30) Expect a very personal encounter with your new lecturer. No, not the young one.

Sagittarius (December 28 – January 20) There’s nothing to report this fortnight. Just remember: suicide is not an option.

Gemini (June 22 – July 20) New year, new you, right? No, we all preferred the old you.

That you made us feel good about ourselves.

Libra (October 31 – November 23) This week you will be lying in the gutter, and you will most certainly not be looking at the stars.

Capricorn (January 21 – February 16) Venus is waning, so you will probably watch a lot of Big Bang Theory this week. Sorry about that.

It’s been a long, boring summer for Mittens, so don’t expect any mercy from the stars this fortnight

Cancer (July 21 – August 10) This week, you will go on your annual trip to the library - with sexy results.

Scorpio (November 24 – November 29) This week you will learn some Oscar Wilde quotes, just don’t be a dick about it.

Aquarius (February 17 – March 11) Things go from bad to worse when you start taking your life advice from a very good looking cat.

Aries (April 19 – May 13) Be wary as Mercury continues to retrograde, it’ll be sure to wreak havoc with your hair.

Leo (August 11 – September 16) You will decide to run for president. This can only end well for you.

Ophiuchus (November 30 – December 17) This week you will realise that all of your imaginary friends have been talking behind your back.

Pisces (March 12 – April 18) You will get off with someone who got further in the Iron Stomach Challenge than they would like to claim. Things are looking up for you.

By Mystic Mittens

Dearest Dixon, In a day and age where strippercise is considered a fun and legitimate workout, you’d think man would be the master of all he surveyed. I, however, can only feel myself being crushed under the thumb of my domineering lady friend.

We watch what she wants to watch, we eat what she wants to eat, we dress how she wants to dress, it’s just depressing.

As the days pass and the seasons change, I feel my sense of masculinity becoming a distant echo in an echo-y cave, in the past. As you can see, she’s got me writing really shitty prose too.

Frankly, I’m disturbed by the sway she holds over me, and was wondering if a man of your standing could help me out.

Yours, Jack’s Raging Bile Duct, Apartment 6, Merville

Listen here Jackie-boy, It’s good you came to me first.

I’ve dealt with more dizzy dames than Douglas Fairbanks, but take it from someone who writes excellent prose all day long; dizzy dames are dime a dozen.

Top-notch ankle won’t respect you if you let them walk all over you. I’ve known some broads who’d drain you dry and leave you without a penny to your name if you let ’em.

They’ll leave you lying naked in a flea-bit six, holding your own filmflam. Sometimes, a man’s just gotta say no.

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Dixon Coltrane Real Men Smoke on Airplanes Romance is dead, sonny boy, dead as vaudeville. It’s time you stopped bending over backways and frontways for a piece of frilly skirt-sandwich. It’s time you bucked up, buckled down, and started being a real man.

The first step is to drop that double-breasted floozy as if she was hot, drop her like a Chinatown roscoe. Sure, it’s never easy to lose a dame, just like it’s never easy to lose a buddy to the switchblade red, but Jackie-boy, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

Now you’ve given that two-pot tramp-daisy the bum’s rush, it’s time to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and earn some self-respect. Buy a suit, and get it pressed. Wear your hat at a jaunty angle. Take up chain-smoking and only speak when necessary, if you can manage to respond with exclusively monosyllabic answers, then you’re halfway to manhood, son. Maybe get some venetian blinds for your bachelor pad. You want top o’ the line gear, none of that cheap stuff - all the better for staring at suspicious folk and the like.

In the first of a new series, Dixon Coltrane, our masculinity columnist, teaches the boys of UCD how to be men

Then get out there and meet some new lady friends who’ll treat you with the respect you deserve.

Be assertive with your new lady, but never hit her – unless she’s a commy, then you can send that who-ore straight to Hell. Instead of throwing punches, throw out a devastating one-liner or two, just to ensure your rugged embrace is all that broad thinks about.

If that doesn’t work, why not audit one of those stippercise classes?

They sound like a grade-A hoot.

That’s the rub, Dixon Coltrane

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Jordan McMahon finds out why you can’t get enough of a good thing, or at least a good Dramsoc play The play follows four girls getting ready to go to a Dublin nightclub, and attempts to portray how young women deal with the “sexual freedom” they have today. Daly explained: “It’s just about how girls deal with being able to have as much sex as they want, and their different attitudes towards it.”

However, the inspiration for the topical play has not only come from Daly’s own experiences as an Irish teen, but was also largely drawn from the rom-com classic, Pretty Woman.

A speech about the film was the starting point for Daly, and the rest of the script was then written around it.

“I just think the whole thing of Pretty Woman is quite ridiculous.

Julia Roberts’ character is all ‘I’m in control of being a prostitute, I pick who I have sex with’ but actually that’s not it at all, it’s never that simple. If it hadn’t been played by Julia Roberts and Richard Gere… you’d have a much seedier film.”

The play reached a wider audience at the Edinburgh Fringe this August, but the Sluts team were worried that taking the play to a different

Sluts Last January Dramsoc premiered which according to Daly is “almost Sluts, an original script written by unheard of” when dealing with an society member Caitriona Daly. original script. However she did It was a huge success on campus, concede that when “naming a play drawing the biggest audiences ‘Sluts’, you’re bound to get that kind of any Dramsoc show last year, of response.”

audience would result in it losing some of its comedic value. However, the reactions were largely positive.

“The play is very much grounded in Dublin; a lot of the references are very Dublin, things like Pat Kenny and Centra. We were very nervous going over that nobody would laugh.

The play relies heavily on laughs because it is so ridiculous but it was received so well.”

Daly credits the Slut Marches happening at the time with helping to raise the profile of the show. “It’s been topical. We were chanting ‘Sluts’ on the Royal Mile trying to get people in and people were chanting “Sluts” back.”

Sluts will open the year for Dramsoc in UCD as their flagship show, and then Daly hopes it will continue its success in later shows in Kenmare, Listowel and Waterville, Charlie Chaplin’s Irish home in Kerry, in October. “We’re doing well, and it’s just about whatever comes up after that.”

Sluts will run in the Dramsoc Theatre in the Newman Building on the 28th, 29th and 30th of September.

A Touch of Culture The late-night artistic, literary and musical feast that is Culture Night promises to be as captivating as ever this year, writes Steven Balbirnie

The now well-established ‘Culture Night’, first set up by the Temple Bar Cultural Trust in 2006, will this year be taking place on Friday the 23rd of September in 127 locations across Dublin, and 30 regions throughout Ireland. Its purpose is to promote Irish cultural venues by opening them to the public, free of charge, for the evening. CEO of the Temple Bar Cultural Trust, Dermot McLaughlin, explained that “Culture Night is a unique experience packed with fun and atmosphere where you have an opportunity to sample forms of culture you may not normally make time for. It’s also a reminder of what

we have all around us, often on our doorsteps, every day and night of the year.”

There will be no shortage of free events taking place throughout the capital, with the following being only a taster of some of the highlights.

The Guinness Storehouse and the Old Jameson Distillery will no doubt prove to be popular venues on the night, offering free admission and a chance to sample their wares. The Irish Film Institute will be giving visitors the opportunity to gain a rare glimpse of Ireland’s cinematic history with a special screening of the O’Kalem collection. This collection

“There will be no shortage of free events taking place throughout the capital”

includes some of the earliest films to be shot in Ireland, such as 1910’s The Lad from Old Ireland.

Literature lovers should head to the Irish Writers’ Centre where there will be readings in conjunction with Poetry Ireland featuring Mark Granier, Sarah Griffin, Nessa O’ Mahony and Noel Duffy. For those interested in emerging Irish bands, the Grand Social on Liffey Street will surely be the destination of choice as it hosts a showcase from IMRO, with performances by Danielle Harrison, the Hot Sprockets and Ghost Estates.

Many of the sites integral to Ire-

land’s history will also be throwing their doors open to the public on the night; such as the GPO’s An Post Museum, the GAA Museum at Croke Park, Dublin Castle, Kilmainham Gaol, and Glasnevin Cemetery.

Those who aren’t in the capital on the night shouldn’t worry as the multitude of events taking place outside Dublin include night-kayaking in Cork, tango classes in Limerick and a troubadour performance in Waterford.

All events are free, but keen culture vultures should be aware that some will require advance booking.

See www.culturenight.ie for full event listings.

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OTWO Fashion Florence wears: Pastel jumper · €14· Penneys Pink maxi dress · model’s own

Dressing betw

Rachael wears: Green cardigan · €14· Penneys Boots · €21 · Penneys Blouse and shorts · model’s own

Photographer: Leo Mc Keever · Make-up artist: Lucy Cullen

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o the holidays are finally over and your suitcase probably still remains unpacked in the corner of your room, full of all those pairs of shorts, sunglasses and sleeveless t-shirts from travels far and wide. But now what? Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t actually necessary to buy an entirely new wardrobe to get you through the looming Irish winter. With a few layers and autumnal accessorizing, your

summer wardrobe can see you through the shorter days and freezing temperatures. However it’s safe to say that your bikini can be packed away for the foreseeable future.

Take your favourite maxidress, team it with a comfy, woolen jumper and it is instantly wearable through the winter.

In fact, suddenly you have the most sought-after skirt length of the season, right there in

your summer wardrobe. The dramatic length screams high fashion, when really you’ve just recycled your favourite summer piece, which you thought only belonged on the sunny beaches of Barcelona.

The trick to making your summer wardrobe last you as long as possible is layering.

Summery shirts and blouses are perfect for brightening up your winter basics. Throw a

Fashion OTWO Rachael wears: Super-Skinny Jeans · €11· Penneys Orange top · €10 · Penneys Blouse and boots · model’s own

ween Seasons

Rachael wears: Maroon jumper · €16· Penneys Flares · €11 · Penneys Florence wears: All model’s own

Models: Rachael O’Higgins and Florence Meagher

thick, cosy jumper over a summery skirt, layer tights and socks with your favourite pair of denim shorts for an instant wardrobe update.

Silky, spring-like scarves are perfect for lifting a dreary winter’s day and can be contrasted with your new knitted buys to ease you into autumn. Twist a woolen scarf around a silk one to keep your outfit from being stuck in a wintery rut.

Penneys have nailed the transseasonal problem with their new denim range, which can be used to warm up any summery favourite. The super-skinnies look great layered with chucky knit socks, while the new-season 70’s flares are a refreshing break from the skinnies. They’re also highwaisted, so you can wear those summer crop tops without worrying about showing too much skin.

So as the henna tattoos fade, the hair braids gradually come unraveled and we all slowly resort back to using Sun Shimmer - the real tans only existing in those sun-drenched holiday snaps - there’s no need to let go of the summer in its entirety.

With a bit of layering and some inventive summer recycling you can hold on to it for that little bit longer.

by Sophie Lioe

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OTWO Fashion

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for the masses: @ Fashion an online revolution

uccessful Irish fashion blogger, shop-owner and journalist Blanaid Hennessy refers to her blog, blanaid.com, as her “little edited scrapbook”. The site is a treasure trove of much-loved images gathered from various obscure corners of the internet; simply a place to record thoughts, ideas and opinions. So how has blogging become such a forceful influence in both Irish media and on a global scale, transforming fashion journalism from an aspirational but unattainable medium watched from afar into something which is within the reach of anyone who pursues it?

The blogging revolution has begun to essentially circumvent oldschool fashion media such as print and television, to the extent that successful bloggers have gained such influence and prestige that they sit on the front row of shows at New York Fashion Week. Internationally renowned bloggers have been catapulted into the spotlight, such as the fourteen year old sensation that is Tavi, to Rumi Neely of fashiontoast.com, whose blog receives about 35,000 hits per day - helping her on her way to becoming one of the most influential style bloggers in the world. So how can worldwide acclaim and an astronomical level of influence on fashion journalism be justified for the individuals who find themselves at the helm of it, with little effort and experience?

For Blanaid, “blogging is no less a medium than anything else”, and success is well deserved for anyone who puts themselves out there, generates a following, and isn’t afraid to give the world a taste of their own taste.

As far as Blanaid is concerned, blogging is simply a compartmentalising and organisational tool for creativeminded people who feel the need to filter their ideas. Blogging can also, potentially, prove to be an effective marketing tool for other projects - in Blanaid’s case her boutique on asos. com, “Blanaid”, as well as her own media company and clothing store, Shutterbug.

It proves to be an effective reference point for potential employers, as well as having its own personal benefit as an archive and memory box. When asked if she has any tips for upcoming bloggers, Blanaid’s advice was simple: “Write whatever you want, whenever you want”. She also emphasizes the importance of keeping your own voice, an essential rule for bloggers today - with the sheer depth and breadth of the fashion blogging world, it’s easy to get lost.

Someone who has managed to keep her voice heard loud and clear in the fashion world, however, is the American fashion blogger Ryann Foulke.

In between classes at the Fashion In-

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With blogging shaking things up in the fashion world, Sophie Lioe speaks to acclaimed bloggers Blanaid Hennessy and Ryann Foulke about their experiences

You can read Blanaid Hennessy’s blog at blanaid.com

stitute of Technology in New York and her internship at Vogue, Ryann still manages to find the time to keep up her blog, butaccordingtofashion. wordpress.com. Here, she posts her own outfits, provides commentary on what’s happening in the fashion industry, and sometimes even gives a sneaky peek into the inner workings of Vogue; “the photo shoots I work on and clothes I get to see at work really help me write my blog and come up with ideas for it.”

As President of the FIT Chapter of Ed2010, a website dedicated to fashion internships and careers, Ryann organises an Editor Panel every semester, whereby students can seek advice on furthering their careers from editors of high-fashion magazine such as Vogue, Teen Vogue, Elle and InStyle. “When asked what we as students could do to get ahead in the fashion world, or to stand out and help our career they all said that having a blog is the best thing for that”.

Ryann’s advice for potential bloggers focuses on the constant search for and hoarding of information

from as wide a range of sources as possible - “as far as starting your own fashion blog I would suggest either finding a photographer friend or learning how to take great photos of yourself if you want a personal style blog. If it is more of a writing-heavy blog, I would suggest constantly looking at the newest fashion shows and researching where they got their inspiration. Also, look at as many magazines as possible, both foreign and not, to see what trends are popular in different parts of the world.”

The consensus, therefore, seems to be this: take your own opinions, ideas and influences within the context of fashion and be aware of the constantly changing environment around you, but don’t let it influence you completely. A blog, after all, is wholly personal; a diary-like medium for you to express yourself. Blogging, as a vehicle, has proven itself to be the antithesis of what was once the sacred exclusivity of fashion; so if we are given the opportunity to be You can read Ryann Foulke’s blog at involved, why not take it? butaccordingtofashion.wordpress.com

Food OTWO

NOM NOM NOM

with Elaine Lavery

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n the last couple of years Ireland has gone artisan food crazy. From Gubeen Farmhouse Cheese and Ballymaloe Country Relish, to Murphy’s Dairy Ice Cream and Silver Hill’s Duck, the list continues to grow and we just can’t get enough. Not forgetting that we are in a recession, the trend of late has been to bulk up on cheap everyday essentials from generic supermarkets. However, an increasing number of people are willing to spend that bit extra for hand-crafted goods. Needless to say, we students have little disposable income. We do have one precious commodity on our hands however – time – which means that there is no excuse not to become your own little artisan food producer.

As a long time kitchen experimentalist, this writer knows that there are some things you cannot beat making from scratch. A case in point is hot chocolate. You can buy branded, artificially flavoured powder, the result of which is sweet grey milk. For practically the same effort, however, you can make smooth, rich, chocolaty chocolate. Stir about 30g of finely chopped dark chocolate and a teaspoon or two of sugar into a cup of hot milk. Reheat and stir until fully combined. You will be immediately transported to the

Delicious DIY

Step away from the ready meals – our resident food guru Elaine Lavery shows how homemade meals and snacks are a piece of cake

Swiss Alps.

Another DIY meal which I make regularly is pasta. It really is a labour of love, but making pasta by hand is very satisfying. Try it just once. You don’t even need one of those fancy pasta machines – get yourself a rolling pin or an old wine bottle and you’re away. If you are going to the bother of making your own pasta, do the whole egg yolk variety (and use the whites to make meringues). Jamie Oliver has fresh egg pasta recipes all over the web, so follow him as a guide. While you’re at it, try throwing together some simple homemade pesto. This is real Italian, trattoria food, which you would be hard pressed to find anywhere in Dublin.

In terms of more everyday practical foods, there are a number of items you can make in advance, some of which keep up to several weeks. Granola is a personal favourite of mine. There are numerous recipes online, and all you need to do is keep it in an airtight container to ensure freshness (tip: make sure the cooked granola is cold before adding dried fruit and sealing in the container – this eliminates all moisture).

Artisan condiments are notoriously expensive as they can be labour

intensive, but making your own jams and chutneys pays long-term dividends. Most recipes you come across produce large batches, which can be stored in jars for months on end. This time of year the hedgerows are laden with blackberries, which make the most delicious jam. If you are more of a traditionalist you can make fantastic strawberry or raspberry jam relatively cheaply using frozen fruit. At home, I always have a few jars of apricot jam in the cupboard which I use for gifts, as well as in my own desserts. And guess what? I make it from inexpensive dried apricots pre-soaked for 48 hours– no one can ever tell the difference.

If you’ve got a sweet tooth, you must attempt making fudge. Licking the bowl is almost better than the finished product. Packed prettily in recycled jam jars, fudge can be stored in a cool, dry place for months, if you can manage to keep your hands off it for that long! White chocolate, double chocolate, rum and raisin, lemon bonbon – discover your favourite flavour.

So go on, unleash your inner chef in the kitchen. As well as gifting what you make, if you are good enough, you could even start making a few bob selling your produce.

Food Delicacy:

Chitterlings The French have brought a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘waste not, want not’, writes Elaine Lavery

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recent survey conducted by AA Travel Insurance found that three quarters of Irish holidaymakers only ever eat local fair when dining out abroad.

While it is refreshing to learn that we are keen to embrace different cultures on our travels, there is a snippet of advice that should be abided by all: when in a foreign country, do not be overly adventurous when you are ravenous.

Thankfully this writer learnt that lesson from another’s mistake. After a long day pounding the streets of Paris, steak-frites was the safe option. Not so safe was my adventurous companion, who took a punt and ordered ‘chitterlings’.

While France may be famed for its snails and frogs legs, this delicacy takes the biscuit. The dish arrived; anaesthetically pleasing, with the appearance of fat cocktail sausages, and a truly overwhelming stench.

While there is nothing that would not pass this writer’s lips simply due to its origin, the smell alone was enough to make me physically sick.

A first hand account of taste and texture cannot be proffered, however my companion gave the dish a fair attempt, declaring that; “they don’t taste as bad as they smell”. However after one retch too many, even he had to admit defeat.

Later a bit of Googling revealed the true identity of chitterlings: ‘a traditional dish of Gironde (southwest France), made of pig’s lower intestines (colon/rectum), boiled and grilled’. If that was not enough to turn anyone’s stomach the explanation continues: ‘Care must be taken when preparing chitterlings, due to the possibility of disease being spread when they have not been cleaned or cooked properly.

Chitterlings must be soaked and rinsed thoroughly and repeatedly picked clean by hand, removing extra fat, undigested food, and specks of faeces’.

A hangover from the days of peasantry no doubt, but with modern preservation techniques there really is no excuse for the existence of chitterlings in this day and age.

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OTWO travel

Hidden Gem N ati o nal P r int M useum

Glandore,West Cork In the first of a series on Irish holiday destinations, Elaine Lavery comes over all patriotic to show that Ireland’s fields truly are the greenest

You don’t have to travel too far for our first Hidden Gem, as Conor O’Toole examines the fascinating history to be found at the National Print Museum

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he National Print Museum, in the grounds of the Labour Court in Beggar’s Bush, is unquestionably Dublin’s premier museum of print related artifacts and apparatus. Nestled away in the back of a curious building that’s halfway between a church and a warehouse, the items it houses are far more important, as far this writer is concerned, than anything contained in any church or warehouse.

It is truly amazing to enter the building and see a drawer labeled ‘Times New Roman: 12pt’.

The physical metal type is all on display as it would have been stored originally, the capitals in the upper cases and smaller letters in the lower cases. Suddenly, the ‘cases’ make much more sense. The room smells of oil and ink. You can touch the fonts and marvel at the minute curves, which would have originally been carved by hand.

The Print Museum boasts a large collection of type setting machines including a Linotype machine, named so because it makes lines of type. An upcoming film Linotype: The Film will document this device, so make a point of visiting it before you have to apply to join a waiting list to have such a privilege.

In the museum, you can also see an original copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

These massive documents are both fascinating historically and typographically. A shortage of lower case Es at the time mean that the Es are all a different a size to the rest of the text, and there’s at least one case of an upper case E being fashioned from an F and a bit of wax.

The museum frequently runs workshops and presentations on various topics and by assorted speakers. They have a mailing list that you can sign up to which is, unsettlingly, set in Comic Sans.

From the signage around the museum, which is largely in Arial, one can assume that the curators of the museum are not as au-fait with modern day views on type as they are with typesetting of the past.

Regardless of this, they still keep a lovely museum running on an often-overlooked craft, which has been fundamental in the evolution of print media, and as such, culture as a whole.

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Above, one of the decorative presses that inhabit the National Print Musuem

f you have not had the privilege of visiting Glandore, a town 72km west of Cork City, then you have missed out. Perched over an inlet, it is perhaps the most picturesque harbour village in Ireland. This is no secret – go there on a summers day and you will be hard pressed to get a table outside Hayes’ pub to enjoy an open prawn sandwich on homemade brown soda bread, let alone find a spot to abandon your car along the bumper-tobumper hedgerows leading up to the village.

Every season in Glandore has something to offer. Go there in spring to descend the winding stone steps on the harbour front and discover a tiny secluded beach where you can skim stones across the water. In summer drive down to Tra Long for a pre-breakfast dip in the ocean and spend the afternoon sipping cider, overlooking the sailing boats making trips across to Union Hall, a well-known fishing town. In autumn, pick blackberries from the brambles lining the country roads to bake in an apple and blackberry tart, and in the depths of winter go to Glandore to enjoy hot whiskies

into the night, cosied up by a log fire in Casey’s pub.

For the Duracell bunny type there’s plenty to do. Remember the Drombeg Stone Circle from Junior Cert history? You might pay it a visit, where you can appreciate the Fulcaht Fia, whilst trying to recall its purpose. If the sun is shining (which it does surprisingly often) try a bit of pedal boating or kayaking down at Roscarbery’s Lagoon Activity Centre. Or, spend a rainy afternoon at the Celtic Ross Leisure Centre and Spa next to it. And when you get hungry, the foodie will never be disappointed in West Cork – seafood platters, chowders, artisan cheeses, meats and homemade treats are all in abundance.

With the new road from Dublin to Cork, the beauty and tranquillity of Glandore is not out of reach. Out of season, the Glandore Marine Hotel, as well as a number of B&Bs, offer comfortable accommodation at very reasonable prices. There are also a number of self-catering options available. To learn more see glandorevillage.ie - it’s time to appreciate what we’ve got on our doorstep.

travelOTWO OTWO travel

Summer of J1 A right of passage for Irish students since what seems like the beginning of time – Megan O’Neill shows you how a J1 summer is done he 'J1 Summer' tends to be a talking point at college from about Christmas onwards, with potential travellers asking who's going where and where's good to go. The truth is, no matter where you decide to go in the United States, there will always be something to suit you.

If by a very slight chance you don't enjoy your chosen destination, there is nothing but a few miles of highway to stop you going elsewhere.

The hotspot for this year's batch of J1 visaholders was crowned in May: Chicago. Four thousand Irish students arrived in the Windy City within the first two weeks of June. For those considering a J1 for the summer of 2012, it is advisable to get to your city of choice early, as it makes finding a job and a house a lot easier. Job hunting can be exhausting, especially in a huge city such as Chicago. A good aim for any Irish student in America is to find a job as a bartender or server. If you work in a busy establishment, tips can amount to $200 a night. If you're willing to work weekends you may make a small fortune (thanks to your Irish accent), though don't expect wages on top of your tips. Finding work is often relatively easy for girls as restaurant and bar owners often look for female staff, but job hunting can be a lot more difficult for male would-be employees.

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House-hunting is another gruelling task. Many landlords don't want to give out three months leases, especially not to a large group of Irish students.

Staying in hostels for the first few nights can prove useful as you may meet people who can advise you on places to look for houses and jobs. When you do find a house, don't expect luxury. Expect to sleep on an air mattress on the floor and live in a house that never has food in the cupboards (but always has plenty of alcohol in the fridge).

mers because their winters are disastrous, which is why you will not find another city that is more fun in the summertime.

Chicago is also well situated for travelling to other parts of the States. You can get to New York by train in just a few hours. In Wisconsin (an hours drive away or a Metra Train ride) you see the real American countryside; corn fields, wildlife, small country hick towns. In Northern Illinois or Wisconsin you can go camping in the middle of nowhere - a great escape from the city for a few days. Things to do include fishing, hunting, hiking, and horseriding, although personally, roasting marshmallows over my own manmade fire was a particularly proud moment. Alternatively, you can travel from Chicago to the west coast on a short flight that costs around $250 round-trip if booked last-minute. If you don't want to fly, the historic Route 66 begins from Chicago, and undertaking that famous roadtrip with a group of friends could potentially work out as a cheaper option.

A J1 summer is an unparalleled experience. It is worth every penny it will cost you, every hideous hangover and every greasy Eurosaver menu meal that you may endure along the way. It's even worth the post-J1 depression you will experience when you get home. If you want the summer of 2012 to be one that you will never forget, your only option is to book your J1 now.

“The hotspot for this year's batch of J1 visa-holders was crowned in May: Chicago” Having visited quite a few cities around the States, Chicago stands out as my favourite. There is something to do or see 24/7 - beach parties, music festivals, open air concerts, outdoor cinemas, volleyball tournaments, the City Zoo in Lincoln Park, bike rides, boat tours, shopping, art, food festivals and baseball games in Wrigley Field to name but a few activities. Wrigleyville, Chicago's largest bar, is a great place to kick off your holiday, especially if the Cubs are in town. Once you've settled in, the nightlife downtown will drag you away from the touristy Wrigleyville to discover the most bizarre nightclubs and extravagant rooftop bars. There is plenty of outdoor nightlife including free weekly concerts in Millenium Park, at one of which Glen Hansard performed earlier this year. Chicagoans make the most of their sum-

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OTWO Games

powered by

REVIEWS Future Shock

After a decade of Deus Ex game releases, Stephen Balbirnie examines what the latest in the series has to offer The game’s setting is 2027, where contemporary fears about the future have been realised; multinational corporations are more powerful than countries, private military contractors have replaced most armies and police forces, global warming has devastated the environment and terrorism is a societal norm. The key conflict in this cyber-punk dystopia however, is between purist humans and ‘Augs’ – humans who have been enhanced through revolutionary bio-mechanical technology.

One such ‘Aug’ is the game’s protagonist Adam Jensen, the security chief of Sarif industries, who becomes augmented as a result of the terrorist attack which kills his girlfriend.

The game’s plot follows Jensen’s efforts to unmask the perpetrators as heunravels a web of corporate espionage, crime syndicates, terrorism and corruption.

Deus Ex plays like a combination of a first-person shooter, detective thriller, stealth action game and an RPG. While this may sound convoluted, it actually works quite well as it gives the player the freedom to choose from a variety of approaches to tackle a given situation. For example, when you need to access a building you can try bribing your way in, persuading a guard or sneaking in through an air vent. All options are valid solutions but the choices you make throughout the game affect the development of the plot and other

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characters’ perceptions of you.

Even as small a detail as walking into the ladies’ toilets will affect character responses.

Attention to such small details contributes to the game’s immersive experience. Whether wandering the derelict streets of Detroit or exploring the sprawling two-tier Chinese metropolis of Heng Sha, the game’s central hubs feel like real breathing cities. It’s possible to read newspapers, e-books and even people’s emails if you hack into their computers. There’s plenty of scope to advance the game’s sub-plots by accepting side quests. Exploration is facilitated by upgrading Adam’s augmentations, enabling him to jump security fences, punch through concrete walls or use pheromones to convince people to do what he wants.

Deus Ex’s only real weak points are the disappointingly linear locations outside the main hubs which feature arbitrary boss battles that don’t gel with the rest of the game.

As a whole, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is an enthralling game featuring a novel hacking system and conversational dynamics as well as an emphasis on choice that will ensure replayability.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is released on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, and is out now.

Doesn’t even Try With the Rugby World Cup in full swing, Jon Hozier-Byrne boots up the official tie in

Rugby is one of the rare sports that has, traditionally, translated very poorly to video games. Sure, most of us will have fond, misty-eyed memories of 1997’s Jonah Lomu Rugby, but peel away a layer of nostalgic mis-remembrance and most rugby titles released to date have been buggy, simplistic, and shallow. Now, amid the furor of the sport’s biggest tournament, Rugby World Cup 2011 has strode onto the field of play, ready to continue that long tradition of mediocrity.

RWC2011 marks the first rugby union title since Rugby ‘08, all of four years ago, and not much has changed. The entire game feels decidedly last-gen, and bar a minor HD graphical overhaul, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were back in the good old days of the PS2. Players float around the pitch without any apparent connection to the field, computer-controlled AI has defenders frantically running away from the ball, and a huge, poorlyanimated crowd move eerily in unison. All this could be forgiven if the gameplay was up to scratch; however, the game mechanics are accessible enough to pick up in five minutes, and shallow enough to get bored of in ten.

The only major difference between RWC2011 and HB Studios’ previous rugby title is that they seem to have stripped away the vast majority of the features. The game offers astoundingly little variety for a full-price title, with only the one eponymous tournament to play, and only twenty teams to play it with.

The worst offence, however, has to be the licensing. As a game officially branded Rugby World Cup, you would expect, at the absolute least, the complete roster of teams playing in the real-life tournament. Only a frankly startling ten of the twenty competing teams are licensed, excluding Australia,

and even the host nation, New Zealand. Sure, you can bring a slightly outdated official Irish team through the World Cup, but you will be meeting fifteen completely fictional All-Blacks in the final. Not having the two most iconic teams in world rugby in a supposedly official World Cup title is nothing short of ludicrous - and the Kiwis don’t even do the Haka.

Jonah Lomu Rugby Challenge will, most likely, be released here on October 7th, and will feature ninety-four teams, thirty-one stadiums, and cannot but feature more gameplay depth and re-playability. As exciting as the prospect of a new rugby title is, hold off until then; RWC2011 is incredibly shallow, unpolished, and even the most ardent rugby fans will get bored after a few hours of gameplay.

Rugby World Cup is out now for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

GamesOTWO OTWO

In the wake of the US Supreme Court ruling that video games are indeed an art form, Jon Hozier-Byrne looks at the nature of an emerging new medium In January 1954, Francois Truffaut’s article, ‘Une Certain Tendance du Cinema Français’ appeared in the Cahiers du Cinéma, which posited, amongst other things, that there was an essential dichotomy in contemporary cinema between the film-as-art, and conventional commercial cinema. The work of auteurs, such as Renoir, Bresson and Cocteau, was in Truffaut’s opinion marked as having an artistic, authorial intention beyond the domain of traditional film.

Even after six decades of the existence of film, and hundreds of works of (what we now acknowledge to be) unquestionable artistic merit, the debate about whether film represented a true art form remained unsettled. Now, a mere forty years after the very first coinoperated video game system was sold, the medium has commercially surpassed every other pre-existing entertainment form. The release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 represented the biggest launch day release of not only any videogame, but of any release in the history of the entertainment industry - $401.6 million in a single day. Video games have financially surpassed both the music and film industries, and now represent the most pre-eminent, if not the most prominent, form of entertainment.

Much in the same manner as film before it, video games are slowly becoming accepted as a legitimate art form, and in the last few months alone, the medium has made astounding progress. L.A. Noire, Rockstar’s detective-thriller that famously attempts to bridge this uncanny valley, was the first video game to be shown at the Tribeca film festival.

Jack Nelson’s flash game Scrape Scraperteeth was commissioned for inclusion in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s continuing series on interactive art forms, and represents a surrealist deconstruction of both the traditional video game aesthetic and, more importantly, the very mechanics of interactivity.

Video games do surpass any other artistic medium in that solitary regard: the necessity of interactivity. While the work of the aforementioned cinematic auteurs appeals to active audience participation, video games alone deny the viewer the option of passive engagement. Video games literally replicate the modernist deconstruction of the art; without the presence of the viewer, the art form cannot function.

The role of the participant in video games presents new opportunities to play with and challenge the nature of artistic interaction.

can games be art?

blows a single petal around a field, Perhaps most notably, the Metal or Limbo, in which the player takes Gear Solid series actively challenges on the role of a boy’s silhouette, the viewer to consider the artificial navigating a nightmarish mononature of the experience the game chrome landscape, represent the offers. At various points throughinfancy of the art form, and the out the series, in-game characters potential it possesses. repeatedly tell the player that what In 2006, Roger Ebert famously they were experiencing is false, that criticized the concept of games-astheir saved files had been corrupted art, due to fact they can be ‘won’, and destroyed, or to turn off the rather than simply experienced, in computer and go outside. Much direct contrast to any other prein the same manner as Michael existing art form. The year previHaneke’s Funny Games or Michael ous, he commented that games do Powell’s Peeping Tom, the series not have the capacity to examine directly challenges the viewer to the human condition with the consider the artistic, even ethical depth and complexity of literature implications in their participation. or film, and that the interactivity By re-appropriating the formal necessary in games provides a maltropes of the medium and presentleability to the plot which denies ing the in-game narrative of cognoscente of the limitations of that form, any attempt at artistic authorship, citing a hypothetical video game the game challenges the viewer to version of Romeo and Juliet with consider the nature and the value of the possibility of a happy ending. the not just the game, but the mode However, contemporary releases, itself. such as Heavy Rain, Fallout 3 or The increasing accessibility of even Deus Ex: Human Revolution the medium has encouraged a new (reviewed this issue), explore, with sub-genre within video games, one remarkable poignancy, fatherhood that has become increasingly important to the movement as a whole. and bereavement, brutish human nature and disability respectively.

Indie games, unburdened as they The controversial upcoming reare by huge budgets and therefore, lease Catherine explores emasculaenabled to take greater risks, are tion and stunted sexuality through further widening common concepthe optics of a surrealist puzzler. tions of what constitutes a ‘game’.

The medium has advanced in a The likes of Flower, in which the manner equaling, even surpassing player enters the dream of potted ‘high-art’ media in its capacity to plant, and controls the wind as it portray artistic examinations of the human condition. Now, as the US Supreme Court has ruled that video games are protected under the First Amendment, and as such, are artistic equals to literature and film, the debate seems to have been settled for us; video games represent not only an art form, but perhaps the fastest growing and most culturally pervasive artistic mode of modern times.

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OTWO

o n c e i s n e v F Markéta Irglová our years ago, at the age of nineteen, Markéta Irglová starred in the film Once, along with Glen Hansard, her band-mate in The Swell Season. The two had written all of the original music in the film, and their song, Falling Slowly¸ went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song that year. This made Irglová both the first Czech woman and the youngest person ever to win an Academy Award in a musical category, and more curiously, the first person ever to be brought back on stage to finish her speech.

Both the film and the Oscar took Irglová’s career to a whole new level and brought a large amount of press attention to both herself and Hansard. It was around this time that they began consistently using ‘The Swell Season’ as the stage name for their musical collaborations. The two have since released two albums along with the Once soundtrack, and have toured extensively together.

chats to Aoife Valentine about her move to New York, songwriting without Glen Hansard and her disapproval of today’s celebrities

“What I do is very much feminine”

Just over a year ago, they announced that they were to go their separate ways, with Hansard returning to his band The Frames, while Irglová announced plans to record a solo album. She moved to New York and into an apartment in an old building in NoHo, but as her piano could not physically be brought into her new home, she had to go in search of other options.

It was then she discovered Zora Space, an intimate art and performance room in Brooklyn, which allowed her the means to begin writing songs. It was there that she gathered much of the inspiration for her music. Irglová explains: “Having a workspace that I could go to was wonderful. It created the circumstances where the music could come and what inspired it, very much so, was the company I was keeping at the time, which was Zora, the owner of the space, and my friend Aida, who’s from Iran originally, and so she was introducing me to the whole culture of Iranian music.”

“Everything about that time in my life was so new to me, a lot of it made its way into the music.

Also, I had a lot of free time so I was reading books and I was reading poetry and I was walking and I could soak up stuff from my surroundings and let it come to my own filter and influence my own creations.”

This was the first time since before the Swell Season was incepted that Irglová was really writings songs alone, which lent her much more creative scope in her writing than when collaborating with Hansard. She does, however, acknowledge the impact Hansard has had on her craft, explaining: “I think that whenever I’ve been working with Glen I’ve always viewed him as a teacher in a way and me being the student. I’ve been picking up so much from him in terms of song writing and lyric writing and the whole structure of songs and performing them.”

“All the times I’ve been working with him I’ve always thought of him as completely more evolved in that way, so I would have looked up to him a lot and respected his opinion, so I guess what is nice is me knowing that or the feeling that I don’t necessarily need his approval at this stage.”

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“I always want to remain in a situation where I just another person. I want to give bac

She continues: “It’s not that I felt limited by Glen but I certainly feel it’s been nice for me to explore song writing on my own in a way. There is an element of breaking free involved when you’re out on your own and you have to do it yourself, there’s more responsibility and when you take it, you’ll benefit also.”

The 23-year-old Czech-born songstress is not remotely nervous about releasing her solo album into the world without back-up from Hansard and his fellow Frames members. Having spent years performing and working with them constantly means that the stage might be a little lonely when she goes on tour next month, but that doesn’t worry her. Irglová insists she is nothing but excited about getting started, but she reflects contentedly upon the differences between the previous and current situations.

“The dynamic between Glen and I has always been he’s writing most of the songs. Even on stage he was the leader and it was his vision, and we were all very happily part of the vision and following him in that, wherever he wanted it to go. This time it’s a very slow project that started with me wanting to record a few songs of mine as a little EP, really as a way of just passing the time, and a way that felt enjoyable and productive. It’s not that I’m nervous because I’m honestly excited.

I’m filled with joy about everything, how it’s growing. I didn’t expect it to grow into this so this is really exciting for me.”

It is interesting to contrast the Swell Season albums with Anar, Irglová’s solo debut. Irglová’s music contains a sort of gentle, poignant tenderness that was perhaps drowned out a little by Hansard’s slightly domineering sound. She insists

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v e r e n o u g h Her sense of humility also comes through when speaking about the forthcoming documentary about The Swell Season (of the same name); she is conflicted in her feelings about its release.

“It’s called the Swell Season documentary but to me it’s misguiding a little bit because it’s not really about the band. It’s mainly about Glen and I. I guess to me The Swell Season was always everybody; it was the boys from the Frames and me and everything that we were going through together, so to me The Swell Season is so much bigger than just Glen and I and whatever relationship that we have or had.”

“I don’t like the idea of celebrities; I don’t like the way celebrities behave” She also expresses her antipathy for today’s celebrities. “The celebrity aspect of [her career] came right after the Oscars; I think that confused me a lot. I don’t like the idea of celebrities; I don’t like the way celebrities behave. I like the idea of being appreciated for your work and acting with kindness and humility and not with this ‘Oh now because I was in a film or I’m a celebrity, I’m something more than everybody else,’ and so the idea of people waiting outside of the bus to take a picture was very strange to me.”

That period, around the time of the release of Once and the Oscars, was obviously manic, but it look her career to a whole level. It is something, which she admits herself, she is still constantly asked about. It would be easy to see why she may be sick of it by now, but as Otwo has almost come to expect as the interview progresses, she is nothing but grateful for that experience.

“I reflect on Once and everything that came forth from that movie in such a joyous and positive way. It was a beautiful time in my life. I’ve always had this attitude of whether it lasts or not it doesn’t matter. I already feel that even having just one day of this, I feel like the luckiest person in the world. I obviously can’t expect things to last forever and they don’t. They shift and they change and they morph into other things, one thing ends and another thing starts so it’s okay, it shouldn’t be a cause for mourning.’

From Once, to her collaborations with Hanto hear. That’s the only premeditated thing I had sard and The Swell Season, to releasing her debut when I was going in to the recording.” solo album, perhaps she has a point. That stage in Perhaps the most striking surprise while talk- her life has come to an end, but there is no doubt ing to Irglová is how humble and unassuming she that she’s not shying away into retirement just yet. seems, particularly for an Oscar-winning song- It seems Irglová’s career is going from strength to writer. This much is evident when remarking on strength, and she is nothing but excited. “I didn’t in her feelings about responding to messages from expect it to grow into this so this is really excitfans on Twitter; “Everybody who writes is putting ing for me. I’m more excited to spread the music so much affection and love [in their messages]. It out there and to play shows and stuff, rather than feels wrong to be getting all these messages from nervous.” people and the idea of those messages never getting answered. Why should it be like that? If someone Markéta Irglová plays the Pepper Canister gives you a compliment, you say thank you. If some- Church in Dublin on November 3rd. Tickets body says hello, you say hello back. That’s how you priced €20. Anar, her debut solo album, will be usually are. I always want to remain in a situation released on October 11th. where I feel accessible to people, that they feel that I’m just another person. I want to give back love to the people who send it to me”

I feel accessible to people, that they feel that I'm ck love to the people who send it to me” however, that she was never consciously trying to make an album that was some sort of antithesis to her previous work with Hansard.

“What I’ve really enjoyed when I was working with Glen is that we always seemed to compliment and complete each other very well. What I do is very much feminine. Glen can be very passionate in his expression; just judging by the state of his guitar you can see that there is aggression in [the way he plays]. With this record it was just me, so it’s definitely lacking that element of Glen’s robust input. I’m absolutely okay with this album being what it is because it’s my own creation so it’s always going to reflect me. I wanted to achieve a sound that was kind of transparent, that if an instrument was coming in, it made an entrance in a way that you knew that it was in and what exactly was playing, that your ears wouldn’t be straining

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OTWO film

REVIEWS

30 Minutes Or Less Title: 30 Minutes Or Less Director: Ruben Fleischer Starring: Jesse Eisenburg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Nick Swardson Release Date: Out Now

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eemingly intent on destroying any of the artistic caché he established with The Social Network, Jesse Eisenburg plays Nick, a slacker pizza delivery guy who ends up at the wrong end of a scheme by wannabe criminal masterminds, Dwayne (Danny McBride) and Travis (Nick Swardson). After a pizza delivery goes wrong, Nick finds himself with a bomb strapped to his

chest and ten hours to get $100,000.

He enlists the help of his best friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) in an attempt to rob a bank, with passably entertaining results.

Although this film is billed as a comedy, it feels as though the filmmakers couldn’t settle on one definitive tone. Most of the time the movie is as bleak as its backdrop, but occasionally it switches to frantic and

Title: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Director: Tomas Alfredson Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch Release Date: Out Now

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omas Alfredson’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy effectively tarnishes the conventionally exciting spy thriller with the sense of loss and austerity that seized post-World War II Britain.

It’s 1973, and Britain is struggling to establish its importance in the Cold War’s new world order.

MI6’s dutiful old guard, including George Smiley (Gary Oldman), are being forced out after the murder of trusted spy Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) at the hands of the Russians. As a result, a new wave of administrators come in, desperate to curry American favour, whilst suspicions rise among high command (or ‘the Circus’, as they call it) as to who might be a double agent. Smiley is brought back by the Government to find the mole and unravel a greater conspiracy that goes deeper than he could have imagined.

Throughout this adaptation of the John le Carré novel of the same name, Alfredson inhibits the film with a claustrophobic feel, and there’s an omnipresent grain in the shot, which only weighs down proceedings further. Working in Tinker, Tailor’s favour is a sense of overwhelming tension created by Alfredson and helped by an all-star cast, including Colin Firth (A Single Man, The King’s Speech) and Tom Hardy (Bronson, Inception). The film’s emotional high points are left in very capable hands and all involved get a chance to shine.

Firth is bullish and gets all the best lines as the suave Bill Haydon, Benedict Cumberbatch (BBC’s Sherlock) has a couple of devastating moments to play and it’s nice to see Mark Strong in a more nu-

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energetic. It attempts to mix light- to him, but he’s a little too deadpan hearted laughs with crude clichéd to match the high-energy comedy humour, but most of the laughs come the movie attempts to capture. Aziz from Nick and Chet failing at being Ansari, however, is excellent at yell“badass criminals”, sincerely saying ing and being wide-eyed, and is the things like ‘Have a nice day!’ after most likeable character in a movie robbing a car. A lot of the jokes are filled with nasty and selfish people. gratuitous and would have been bet- Both pairs of wannabe criminals are ter traded-in for more satirical fare. annoyingly idiotic and whenever they Apart from the moral of the mov- do something smart it just seems unie, which apparently is that having a believable. bomb strapped to your chest is the The movie is slow to start and ends best way to go from slacker to hero, messily, but the rest is fast-paced and the underlying theme seems to be the energetic enough to be diverting. If importance of friendship. The prob- you’re looking for an hour and a half lem with this is that Eisenburg and of raunchy humour and inept crimiAnsari lack any kind of chemistry and nals, this is it. Otherwise, save your it’s hard to buy into their ‘bromance’ money. once you discover that they are actually horrible people, which results in In a Nutshell: 30 Minutes Or Less the film lacking any real sense of pa- tries to blend together Pulp Ficthos. tion violence with Superbad broJesse Eisenburg just isn’t really mance, and achieves neither. suited to comedy. He portrays well the panic of having a bomb strapped

by Elizabeth O’Malley

Tinker Tailor Soilder Spy anced role than his pantomime villain typecasting. ley breaks his reserved facade and Oldman gets to However, with such a large and talented ensemble, be truly mesmerising. In the end, there seems to many promising subplots are left unsolved. Le be too much plot to fit in just over two hours. The Carré wrote several books that revolved around ending comes off as clumsy, hurried and somewhat these characters, so the story probably lends it- unsatisfying, but there’s a lot to like about Tinker self to a sequel. Hardy is the obvious victim; Otwo Tailor. Otwo anxiously awaits the highly probable couldn’t help but feel that his story was especially sequel; they might work out the kinks next time undercooked. round.

At the centre of it all is Gary Oldman, whose main objective is to marshal the plot along and In a Nutshell: A taut political thriller that for the most part, he is left to look stoic and allow leaves too many loose ends to be considered the other players to bounce off him. It may seem a truly great. thankless role, but there are moments when Smiby George Morahan

top10

film OTWO

TOMBOY

Films within Films

Yo dawg! Otwo heard you like films so Dermot O’Rourke examines the films in your films so you can watch a film while you watch a film.

10. Nation’s Pride (Inglourious Basterds) It’s the Nazi propaganda movie Triumph of the Will could have been. A lone Nazi sniper in a bell tower takes on hundreds of Allied troops. Goebbels and rest of the lads would have been proud.

9. Swallow My Cockuccino (Zack and Miri Make a Porno) It’s a porno in a coffee shop. Is there any need to comment on the motifs, mise-en-scene or even the plot of this film?

8. Good Will Hunting II: Hunting Season (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) Directed by a preoccupied Gus Van Sant, Will Hunting is back to school you on the Southern Colonies again, expect this time with a shotgun.

Apple sauce bitch!

Title: Tomboy Director: Celine Sciamma Starring: Zoe Heran, Malonn Levana, Jeanne Disson Release Date: Out Now

T

he plot of Celine Sciamma’s Tomboy is neither fresh nor surprising. From the thinnest summary we immediately know how this is going to pan out; someone lies about their identity, the lie grows out of control, feelings are eventually hurt.

In this instance our lying protagonist is Laure (Zoe Heran), the eponymous ‘tomboy’, and new kid on the block. When Laure introduces herself as ‘Mikael’ to the local children she finds not only the friendship and camaraderie she’s been longing for, but also the complications which come with leading a double-life. Chief among these is the attention she receives from Lisa (Jeanne Disson), who is drawn to the enigmatic ‘Mikael’ upon seeing how different (s)he is from other boys.

Meanwhile, Laure’s family are none the wiser about the new identity she has adopted. But as the summer draws to a close and the new school year inches ever closer, the truth refuses to remain hidden.

Though the same story has been told countless times in many different guises, what sets Tomboy apart is Sciamma’s keen direction and careful approach to the film’s subject matter. Treading the waters between childhood alienation and adult themes of sexuality and gender identification is no mean feat, but

Sciamma manages it with the utmost grace and tact. To be frank, other directors would struggle to depict a young girl moulding a phallus for herself out of Play-Doh with the same level of nonchalant decorum displayed here.

Where the film truly shines, however, is in the charmingly natural performances coaxed from a cast made up almost entirely of children. Heran is perfectly cast as the shy and awkward androgyne, while Malonn Levana steals every scene as her rueful younger sister, Jeanne. The scenes of play between children are refreshingly natural and believable, lending the film an almost documentary-style quality in parts.

In addition, Tomboy is simply a very pretty film. Beautifully shot with recurring motifs of thresholds and spatial contrasts, it further drives home the themes of burgeoning adolescence and the restrictions of social norms. Ultimately, Sciamma has created a deft and touching examination of gender roles and taboos.

In a Nutshell: A delicate portrait of childhood innocence and adult taboos. Strong performances and keen direction breathe new life into a tired story.

by Saoirse Ní Charagáin

7. Simple Jack (Tropic Thunder) Unlike Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man or Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Tropic Thunder’s Tug Speedman (Ben Stiller) broke the golden rule for a guaranteed Oscar: never go full retard.

6. The Thr3e (Adaptation) According to Charlie Kaufman the two most over used ideas in movies are serial killers and multiple personality disorder. What results is a thriller about a serial killer and his love interest versus a cop with the shocking twist that, you’ve guessed it, they’re all the one person.

5. The Case (Super 8) In Super 8 the children make their zombie picture The Case for the Cleveland Super 8 Film Festival.

This is unfair on the rest of the contestants, really, considering they had help from JJ Abrams, Steven Spielberg and a full professional crew.

4. Untitled (Stardust Memories) The dramatic, artistic film shown at the beginning, reminiscent of Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, is the type of film Woody Allen’s character is harassed about throughout for being inferior to his earlier comedies. Sound familiar?

3. The Dancing Cavalier (Singin’ in the Rain) A musical within a musical. As camp as it sounds.

2. Meet Pamela (Day for Night) In Francois Truffaut’s amusing introspective look at filmmaking, Meet Pamela serves as an insight into egos, the melodramas on set that supersede the ones on screen and the frustrations of getting cats to act.

1. Habeas Corpus (The Player) Although pitched as a film with gritty realism, no stars and no happy ending, the final scene is Bruce Willis bursting into a maximum-security prison and saving Julia Roberts from the lethal injection with moments to spare. Great opening tracking 17 shot though.

OTWO film

A Fading Star System As A-list Hollywood stars fail to sell tickets at the box office, Dermot O’Rourke explains why their appeal is waning

Robert De Niro was depicted as having a larger role in the promotional material for Limitless to bolster publicity

United Artists was formed by (from left) Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks in 1919

18

Who is your favourite movie star? If your favourite movie star is cast in any movie, does the movie For stars such as Tom Hanks and Julia Robbecome mandatory viewing? It is these questions erts of box office failure Larry Crowne there is Hollywood studios still consider when produc- a more pertinent factor that can limit a movie ing their new movies, however, it appears that star’s economic power: a rapidly fragmenting this attitude does not reflect the consumption entertainment marketplace. Other public figures behaviour of modern audiences. In recent times, such as pop stars, reality TV stars and sportsmen many of Hollywood’s biggest stars have failed to have become more influential in the products the illuminate the box office. Some stars, including public consume. The market has become saturatTom Hanks, Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts are ed with people craving public attention, which among the biggest earners in the film industry often dilutes the exposure of the movie star. yet their movies are failing to generate the revThe Hollywood studios have recognised their enue that their status or wages command. diminishing grip on the front pages of magazines Hollywood is currently dependent on star- and this is reflected in their confidence in emergdom to sell movies. The studios employ movie ing stars to generate the publicity to sell movies. stars not just as actors, but as the representation For instance, recent promotional posters for The of the film in the public domain, and are reliant Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds declared: on a star’s celebrity status in the promotion and “Hal Jordan is the Green Lantern.” This suggestconsumption of their films. However, if Holly- ed that the studio did not believe Reynolds could wood casts a star on their ability to sell a film, a sell the movie to a wider audience beyond the prerequisite for which is a star’s exposure to the fans already familiar with the material. Similarly, public, it does prompt the question - in an un- for the film Limitless starring Bradley Cooper, precedented time of celebrity voyeurism, why is Robert De Niro was cast opposite Cooper and it that the most famous cannot seem to appeal to was depicted as having a larger role in the prothe public? motional material to bolster publicity and appeal This system of promoting the star as a mech- for this high concept premise, despite being only anism for selling tickets was conceived in the introduced in the second act and having very few Golden Era of Hollywood (1920s-1950s). At that scenes in the film. time, filmmaking operated under the studio sysThere are stars in the modern era, however, tem, and each major studio had all personnel, in- that are anomalies to any concept of stardom as cluding stars, under long-term contracts. With an essential ingredient to the success of a film. these contracts, studios had the power to con- Leonardo DiCaprio had relative success before trol decisions on the stars’ roles, and by sending he was propelled into the stratosphere with his publicity materials to media outlets about their starring role in (what was) the most successful private lives (designed to complement their on- film of all time, Titanic. DiCaprio has since had screen image), they could construct a coherent tremendous critical and commercial success identity for each star. with multiple films including Catch Me If You In the modern era, Hollywood stars are lib- Can, Shutter Island and Inception. However, Otwo erated from restrictive studio contracts and are do not think that the success of these films has largely the manufacturer of their own image. In been solely due to DiCaprio’s stardom. Although contrast to the professional image seeming to his fame has been a complementary factor, their reflect the private life of the stars in the Golden popularity is a result of collaborations with some Era, there appears to be a paradox of images for of the greatest filmmakers in American cinema. certain movie stars of the modern era. For actors While the breakdown of the studio system has such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise, the pub- given stars new independence it has ultimately lic are acutely aware of the distinction between meant less productions and higher job insecurity. their screen image as charismatic leading men Studios are placing too much weight on the apand their involvement in Scientology, which has peal of a star when they are certainly not a predamaged their appeal - From Paris with Love and condition of profitability at the box office. With Knight and Day having both performed poorly at an oversupply of actors and a star’s status defined the box office in 2010. Mel Gibson has seen his by their latest film, there is always a sense of any public reputation so irreversibly damaged that star being replaceable. Well, except Leonardo Dihe is considered toxic in any film, as his role in Caprio.

The Beaver and its subsequent flop proved.

Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception

Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts

Television OTWO

Fatal Fourway George Morahan SpongeBob SquarePants

Dermot O’Rourke Pinky and the Brain

Jon Hozier-Byrne Invader Zim

Aoife Valentine Recess

You know SpongeBob. You love SpongeBob. And in one way, it could be perceived that SpongeBob has it pretty rough: the dude is about 20, completely oblivious as to how much his neighbours hate him, stuck working a deadend job, unable to pass a driving test and living in fear of an evil piece of plankton. In another, more accurate way, SpongeBob is awesome. He lives in a pineapple, his pet snail is incredibly insightful without being credibly comprehendible, and he’s optimistic at all times. He’s an inspiration to us all and his show is an all-time kid’s classic.

The animation, which is at times is joyously simple, can also be nightmarishly grotesque, the pace is reliably break-neck and the storylines are some of the most random and hilarious you will ever see in television.

Among the world’s most famous sponge’s fans numbers Liam Gallagher, but don’t hold that against SpongeBob, he’s just so amazing that even known troglodytes cannot resist his charms.

I’d tell you we should all be more like SpongeBob, but I don’t want you to. He’s one of a kind. He’d be the best yellow cartoon character of all time if it weren’t for a town called Springfield. He’s at least better than Hans Moleman.

The cartoons you watched on The Den in the 1990’s fell into two categories: they were either an outlet to sell you toys or programmes that you enjoyed, but were ultimately over your head.

The episodes of the cartoons you nostalgically reflect on - Pokémon, Transformers, Mighty Max – were essentially long adverts for the associated merchandise squashed between shorter adverts for the same merchandise and adverts for Push Pops. The latter category, however, were absorbing creations that can really only be appreciated in retrospect; Pinky and the Brain is one such cartoon.

The show was a spin-off from the Steven Spielberg-produced Animaniacs and was about two lab mice (one is a genius, the other insane) and their nightly endeavours to take over the world.

The humour was a mash up of satire, pop culture references and a sprinkle of Orson Welles. One such ill-fated attempt by Brain to take over the world was the invention of a set of teeth that matched the dentistry of celebrities to make the public adore him for no good reason and, logically, make him ruler of the world.

Despite the simple premise the show was incredibly subtle and satirical with jokes wasted on me and any other Push Poploving Den viewer at the time.

Look, I count the three of you as my closest friends, but part of that closeness is knowing how wrong you can be all the time. If being wrong was heroin, you guys would really, really like heroin.

Also, I’m pretty sure Aoife likes heroin.

The best kid’s TV show of all time was, undoubtably, Invader Zim. It’s about a little green alien called Zim and his mentallychallenged robot servant Gir trying to take over, and, it is heavily insinuated, commit genocide on the entire human race in the name of the Irkan Empire. I know, it’s already the best thing ever.

Invader Zim is one of the most wickedly funny television shows ever to feature a mentally-challenged robot, and presents its human characters to the audience through Zim’s eyes; as fat, pointless, consuming animals.

It’s also, by far, the darkest kid’s show of all time. One episode saw Zim grow tired of his best friend, and then rip out his friend’s eyes and replace them with metal orbs so that he wouldn’t be able to bother him.

This was on Nickelodeon. It’s probably Jhonen Vasquez’s best work, and easily the best kid’s TV show of all time. It’s good that you guys like being wrong so much.

Guys, I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but Recess is the best animated children’s TV show of all time.

Nothing any of you come up with will rival Recess. Centring around children practically forming their own feudal system in the school-playground, it has everything you could possibly want, whether it’s King Bob who rules the playground with his unwritten code, or Ms. Finster killing all the fun with her weasel-like sidekick Randal, or the Ashleys and all their scandalous happenings in their very own exclusive clubhouse.

The main characters – all rejects from other cliques - make the show. Spinelli is tough and as foul-mouthed as childrens’ TV allows while TJ is constantly trying to pull one over on King Bob with his ingenius pranks. Gretchen is the nerd who is world yo-yoing champion, because apparently that’s a thing, and Mikey loves his poetry and eh, his “Bonky the Dinosaur”. Vince is the manly man who’s always competing with Lawson, the jock/bully, over sportsball and other manly things while Gus is the naive, quiet one, though he introduced a “cookietax” when he usurped King Bob and the power went to his head, which was literally the greatest thing.

But really, you all know you love Recess mostly because Spinelli is badass.

Have your say; vote for the best Kids’ TV show of all time on the University Observer Facebook page. The Fatal Fourway Winner will be announced in the next issue.

19

OTWO Music

Long time Alkaline Trio bassist and keystone of this year’s Revival Tour, Dan Andriano looks back on his career with Cormac Duffy

B

alancing three overlapping musical projects, as well as a busy family life, is certainly a challenge, but one that Dan Andriano has found himself in the midst of. “My life has never been more hectic.” he admits to Otwo, as if we couldn’t tell by the tiredness in his voice. The 43 year old, best known as the bass player and singer for sardonic pop-punk heroes Alkaline Trio, is stepping out on his own this year. First of all his solo project, Dan Andriano in the Emergency Room, released their debut album Hurricane Season, a collection of poignant, acoustic songs that recall Andriano’s gentler moments with Alkaline Trio.

Now he’s taking the material on the road as part of the European stint of The Revival Tour. The tour, the brainchild of former Hot Water Music front man Chuck Ragan and his wife Jill, finds punk musicians leaving behind their electric guitars to pay tribute to folk music by performing acoustic renditions of their own material. Having done the rounds in America with various musicians since 2008, it has established a solid reputation. “I’ve been really excited about what Chuck and his wife have put together over the past few years. When he called to ask me, I was like ‘where do I go and when do I go there?’” Andriano says with a laugh.

For its first European leg, the tour’s delegation is made up of Andriano and Ragan, as well as Brian Fallon of blue collar rockers The Gaslight Anthem and Dave Hause of The Loved Ones.

The tour is heavily rooted in Ragan’s ideas about music. Punk and folk are closer than they seem. On a superficial level, one is about aggression, the other about gentle introspection, but they both hold strong grassroots appeal and are common outlets for political opinion. There’s also a sense of community among artists in both scenes that Andriano cherishes. As he sees it, the tour is “based on friendship and camaraderie and is the point of why guys like us got into playing music.”

Even as Andriano sets off on new projects in go to iTunes and make your own greatest hits.” two to three years. I guess it was just getting down relatively strange lands, his day job still beckons. They considered a simple acoustic album, but to finding time to record them.” He talks of the “This year is a big year for Alkaline Trio, just in that idea didn’t interest them. “Why just pick a stress of writing and recording the entire album by the fact that we’re celebrating our fifteenth an- bunch of songs and play them on an acoustic gui- himself. “It kind of drove me crazy, made me a litniversary as a band.” In those 15 years, they’ve tar when there’s so much more you can do in the tle neurotic for a couple of months. More neurotic, left behind some quality material. Anyone with studio?” The culmination of their discussions was I should say.” Without band mates to encourage even a passing interest in rock should make time Damnesia, an album that presents some of their or advise him, he was left to obsess over the qualto listen to the raucous punk of Goddamnit, the catalogue highlights in a stripped down format. ity, constantly editing and rerecording until he Bukowski-in-corpse-paint wit of From Here to “Acoustic guitars were the root, but we also used was satisfied. When you hear the songs that made Infirmary, or the refined power-pop of Agony drum loops, keyboards and sound effects to make the cut, it shows. & Irony. In a genre often so resistant to change, it as interesting as possible. Try and make it like a We end by asking what we can look forward they’ve shown a willingness to shift styles when real album.” It manages to take on a rare quality to when the Revival Tour hits Dublin, and are ofthey felt they needed to. “That’s kind of the best for such a project, standing as a distinct volume in fered a classic rock star guarantee. “Everyone in thing about Alkaline Trio; we’re always just going their oeuvre as much as any of their studio albums. the house is going to have a good time.” he promto do what we want to do.”

Talk moves to Andriano’s solo project, Dan An- ises. Given how much he’s done in one year, what’s But for their crystal anniversary, they thought driano in The Emergency Room. When quizzed one more triumph? they’d do something special to commemorate it. on the genesis of the project, he puts it down to a “A couple of people suggested that we put out a build up of material more than a master plan. “I’ve Dan Andriano plays The Academy on September greatest hits record” Dan explains. “That idea tried to always write a little bit here and there. So 29th as part of The Revival Tour. Tickets are €20. wasn’t appealing to a lot of us. It’s 2011, you can I’ve had a bunch of these songs, some of them for Damnesia and Hurricane Season are out now.

Dan Andriano Revival Realised

20

a p e J

Music OTWO

Better Than Leading Brand Toilet Cleaner

Electric Picnic, hibernation and interconnectedness take centre stage as Otwo’s Ethan Troy-Barnes chats to Jape’s Richie Egan

J

ape, the electro/indie-rock solo project of The Redneck Manifesto bassist Richie Egan, has been around for quite a while now.

With two albums already under their belt and a forthcoming third offering, Ocean of Frequency, out this month, the band are no strangers to the Irish music scene.

Following a successful set at Electric Picnic, Otwo caught up with Richie Egan on a rainy midweek afternoon for a chat. We begin by reflecting on Jape’s latest performance: “I felt it was good. I mean, it would’ve been nice if the album had been out beforehand, but we had to choose between either playing a load of old songs and kind of getting the vibe going with the crowd, or else just going ‘well you know we have a lot of new songs and we need to play them.’”

However, despite concerns from some festival-goers and critics that the set may have focused too much on new material, Egan remains positive. “I think it was important to play new ones. People seemed to really listen to the songs, which was great, which maybe wasn’t what they were expecting.”

For Egan, discovering new music at a festival is part of the fun. “You can find a gem that actually makes you go ‘Whoa that was amazing!’”

This kind of exposure is crucial for upcoming artists. “It gets a buzz going. If you’re a young band and you play a set that gets people talking at a festival – [it] either has people going ‘I was there, it was amazing!’ or ‘Shit, I missed that. I’ll check them out the next time they play.’”

In particular, Egan praises festivals such as Electric Picnic for featuring new or unknown bands; “I think Electric Picnic is especially good, because they actually take a chance and book a lot of Irish bands that maybe other festivals [don’t].” Not only does this benefit the musicians, but Egan considers it a foolish move for festival organisers to exclude less well-known groups: “I think that kind of insults audiences, because I know a lot of people – myself included – would like to take a chance on watching a band that maybe they’ve heard about. You can always leave if

something’s shit!”

However, with the imminent release of his third album pending, talk soon turns to Oceans of Frequency. “If you had to put a theme on it, it’s

probably interconnectedness,” he says, reluctantly, because “it’s weird with records because you often find that they have a similar theme, or a similar vibe, or something that

“I just hope that even if I’m not successful, I stay musically relevant.

Like Neil Young, he’s fucking cool”

you’re not actually aware of at the time when you’re doing it.”

For Egan, writing music is less like a careful game of Jenga and more of an accidental process; “So with this one, it’s taken three years and I’ve written a lot of songs that didn’t end up on the album,” he explains. “Time’s a great editor because you go away from it, and then you come back, and you’ll go ‘That’s shit,’ or ‘That’s good.’” Comparing Oceans to his previous outing, Ritual, he says “Ritual was more rough and ready, whereas this one I would think of as more sort of laid back, and you have to listen to it a few times to get into it. But I think that in the long term, it’s more rewarding than Ritual.”

Accompanying the new album, Jape will be touring Ireland and Europe. However, this will be different to previous tours; “There’s places on this tour that we’ve never played – we could go and there’d be like five people there, or we could go and it could be amazing. When the record’s out, it’s cool to tour as much as possible.

And then go back into hibernation [laughs].” Although he does enjoy playing live, Egan admits “I would definitely prefer to be in the studio.”

However, he takes a dim view of artists who avoid touring. “Financially, realistically, if you want to be able to survive, you have to tour,” he insists, “if there are people who are willing to invest in you to put out the album, and you just go ‘Fuck you, I’m gonna stay in my house’, that’s not so nice.”

So, what does the future hold for Egan? “New Rednecks stuff, slowly.

New Vision Air [his side project with The Redneck Manifesto’s Niall Byrne] stuff, slowly.” At the end of the day “I just hope that even if I’m not successful, I stay musically relevant. Like Neil Young, he’s fucking cool!”

Finally, the big question: what does ‘Jape’ actually mean? Egan himself doesn’t even seem to know. “I don’t even like the name. Somebody said to me it sounds like a toilet cleaner! [laughs]. I’d rather not talk about it…”

Jape plays The Button Factory on October 1st. Tickets are €15. Oceans of Frequency is out on September 30th.

21

OTWO Music

That’s All Folk F

rank Turner initially received recognition as a member of hardcore-punk group Million Dead, but upon going solo he made a U-turn down the long and winding road of folk music. Million Dead broke up pretty acrimoniously and as he explains to Otwo: “I just needed to do something different for a while ... I remember at the time it all made perfect sense. It’s funny because now, looking back, it actually seems a lot weirder to me.”

However, he modestly adds that “it’s worked out.”

Talk about an understatement.

Turner’s career has most definitely “worked out”: the singer-songwriter has supported the likes of Biffy Clyro and The Offspring, he’s been nominated for two Shockwave NME awards and has four albums under his belt to boot. This couldn’t have happened without the support of various music industry big shots who heard Turner’s music and offered to help him out. Not bad considering Turner didn’t have a typical rock n’ roll start to life; born into a privileged upper-class family, Turner was educated at Eton and even shared classes with Prince William. However Turner is taking

and listen to a song by that band in thirty seconds. Radio is more like a pathfinder… because there’s so much music out there.” Turner is adept at using modern media to reach his audience - in fact “Best Band Blog Or Twitter” was one of the NME awards he was nominated for. He admits that the Internet has, thanks to illegal downloading, had a negative impact on the music industry, although he embraces the chance to communicate with fans. “I’ve never been a believer in the mythology of rock and roll, the idea that musicians are this separate species of weirdoes from another planet, I think that’s nonsense.” Turner believes that by blogging “you can break down barriers between people who make music and people who listen to music.”

This desire to involve his fans is evident from Turner’s video for the track ‘The Road’, taken from his album Poetry of the Deed. This video sees Turner playing 24 shows in 24 hours - many in houses and back gardens of fans keen to lend a hand. “I’m glad I did it and it’s a good video but I’m never doing it again” laughs Turner when asked about the experience. ‘The Road’

“I’ve never been a believer in the mythology of rock and roll” to life as a wandering folk singer is a song characteristic of Turner’s like a duck to water, describing the rollicking, sea-shanty, sing-song experience as being “entirely surreal style, reminiscent of The Counting but good. I’ve spent a fair amount Crows and Joe Strummer and the of time recently just pinching Mescaleros. It also perfectly sums myself.” Vinnie of Less Than Jake, up his lifestyle, which is dominated Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion and by his intense touring schedule. “I Grammy-nominated producer Alex haven’t actually lived anywhere for Newport are just some of those who about six years now,” says Turner. “I gave Turner a hand up the first few don’t have a specific house or room rungs of the music industry ladder. that I think of as home.”

BBC Radio One was also This brings us to Turner’s new instrumental in bringing Turner into album, England Keep My Bones. the spotlight. He admits “the role of “My internal conception of what radio has changed, originally it was a constitutes home is more abstract way to disseminate new music, but and just becomes England generally,” today if someone mentions a band he explains. However, he is keen to name to you, you can go online point out his wariness “of using the

22

Folkie Brit Frank Turner speaks with Alison Lee about homelessness, patriotism and his online adventures

word ‘patriotism’, because I’m not some sort of flag-waving cheerleader for England… the bits I love are the inert bits like the landscape and the coastline, and quite often the people in England depress the hell out of me.

It’s not going to be my central theme for the rest of my song-writing career. I’ve made my statement about England and I’ll write about something else next.”

This highlights Turner’s desire to develop as a musician. “Some people seem to be incensed that I’m not just replicating my old style again and again, but as a human being I want to change all the time.” He believes his style has indeed changed since

going solo: “I think I’ve just gotten better at writing songs.” he laughs.

His backing band, The Sleeping Souls, have also made a difference: “I always wrote for it to be more than just a voice and an acoustic guitar, but now that I’m writing with the Sleeping Souls in mind rather than just a theoretical band… that’s changed the way that I write.”

It seems that the only way is up for Frank Turner. If you made it to his gig at Whelan’s, you will no doubt understand what all the fuss is about.

If not, you won’t have to wait long before Turner returns. This singersongwriter is unlikely to be taking a break anytime soon.

Music OTWO

album REVIEWS Laura Marling A Creature I Don’t Know B+

The Kooks Junk of the Heart

Jape Ocean of Frequency

C+

B+

Since Laura Marling left Noah and the Whale in 2008, the 21 year old wunderkind has released two acclaimed albums of her own pop-folk stylings. Her latest album, A Creature I Don’t Know, is her best work yet.

This new album takes a deeper look into Marling’s personal life and as a result has a more sombre, mournful element to it. With ‘Sophia’ being the catchiest song and ‘Night After Night’ the darkest, these are the two to look out for. They capture the polar ends of the album and demonstrate Marling’s flexibility.

This darker, struggling side of Marling’s personality is not one that has been heard on record before. While the similarity of some of the slower tracks may give the record a slightly monotonous feel, she is still exploring something new throughout. Whether or not you have been a fan in the past, this is essential listening.

The Kooks’ third album Junk of the Heart is exactly what the title suggests; thirteen indie-pop songs concerning matters of the heart, both positive and negative. Lyrically, the album suffers at times. Songs such as ‘Rosie’ come across as lazy and repetitive, but the album is saved, to some degree, by the musicianship.

The band finds a great balance between the summery acoustic sound they’re known for, and some newer touches, including synth and in some cases, even an orchestra, which makes for a far more interesting listen than you might expect. According to the band, the album was largely influenced by both LCD Soundsystem and The Beatles.

The influence shows, especially in their use of harmonies and just the right amount of synth. By no stretch of the imagination is this an album to rush out and get, but if somehow it finds its way to you, it’s worth a listen.

For the unaware, Jape is the Choice Music Prize winning solo-project of Crumlin born jack-of-all-trades and The Redneck Manifesto bassist Richie Egan. Throughout his run, Jape has kept on the fringe of the Irish music scene, usually dabbling in a novel mix of indie rock and electro. Ocean of Frequency, his third offering, is no different.

However, the latest record feels more polished than before. Where Jape’s previous outings felt raw and rough around the edges - a quality that conveyed their experimental style - the new album has a touch more sophistication. On the title track and ‘Internal Machine,’ you sense that Egan is finally mastering his art.

The album is instantly accessible with ‘Scorpio’ being a poppy delight while ‘One of Those Days,’ has a charm that truly improves with time.

Overall, this is great album. Nothing groundbreaking, but a standard all Irish music should aspire to.

In a Nutshell: Marling manages a hat trick.

In a Nutshell: Surprisingly listenable.

In a Nutshell: Jape’s back, and he’s brought his A-game.

by Sara Holbrook

by Hannah Higgins

St. Vincent Strange Mercy C-

Annie Clark has said she likes to “blindside” her listeners by suddenly changing the direction of her songs.

Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost B-

Freedom never sounded so sweet to Christopher Owens. Growing up in a repressive religious sect known as the Children of God, he was forbidden from listening to music from the outside world.

Father, Son, Holy Ghost unleashes all the creativity and bottled emotion that Owens has absorbed since his escape.

Without the Beach Boys-inspired, happy-surfer vibe of their last album, Father, Son, Holy Ghost takes inspiration from old fashioned rock and roll, gospel and everything in between.

Lyrically, Owens has bravely chosen to touch on his troubled upbringing. Tracks such as ‘Just a Song’, ‘Vomit’ and especially ‘My Ma’ sound like melancholic diary entries, exposing Owens’ mixed understandings of life after the cult.

‘Magic’ breaks the morbid chain with feel-good harmonies until, inevitably, we’re presented with a line such as “nothing is going to get any better.”

In a Nutshell: Melancholic, but you would be too if your mother was a prostitute.

by Ethan Troy-Barnes

by Sean Finnan

However, even new St.Vincent fans will have learned her sharp turn formula by the third track, where these twists become predictable, even tedious.

The melodies themselves showcase Clark’s guitar skills with a richness that reels you right in. That is, until she pulls a mad hatter move again and you’re back to massage-parlour synth with delicately whispered lyrics.

In ‘Surgeon’ vocals that make the command “come cut me open” seem like a dirty proposition shift into a petrified

plead for help. ‘Cheerleader’ benefits from a less restless arrangement and serves as a tasteful alternative to Lily Allen’s chart-topper ‘Not Fair’.

These songs almost make you want to forgive her firm grip on old methods. It’s just a shame that they get a lost in the chaos of lesser tracks.

In a Nutshell: A patchy effort with some high points.

by Lorraine Haigney 23

OTWO Music

mixtape Society Anthems

90’s pop stars Where they goez?

Aaron Carter

Crazy little party boy and my first love, he burst onto the music scene in 1997. Presumably, the highlight of his career was taking part in the sensational Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba In Concert experience. After an attempt to kick-start his music career last year with Flo Rida and a cheeky drugs bust, he was admitted to a treatment facility “to heal some emotional and spiritual issues he was dealing with”.

Like why he didn’t choose me.

Aqua

Following an apparently surprising failure as a solo artist, front-man René decided to pursue a career as a rugby player and an actor. Front-lady Lene’s brief solo project suffered a similar fate, although she did briefly taste sweet success when she dated Brian McFadden.

Despite the critical acclaim received by keyboardist Søren’s first single with Lazyboy TV, ‘Underwear Goes Inside the Pants’, the band are set to release their third album, Megalomania on October 3rd.

5ive

The bad boys of 90’s pop released the grammatically offensive Slam Dunk Da Funk in 1997. With their brazen “I’ll punch you at a football match” attitude, they won over many young hearts. They split in 2001 following sales of 20 million and an Irish court appearance for “brawling”. Inspired by the lyrics of R Kelly, members are still chasing superstardom, performing for the SU and in cafés. To make ends meet, Scott runs an autograph collectors’ shop in Essex.

Buffalo G

Naomi Lynch (youngest sister of Shane) and Olive Tucker were the brains behind this disaster. Their raucous rap-talking singles, “We’re Really Saying Somethin’” and “Better in a Sweater” (feat. Dustin) have inspired artists like The Script to pretend they’re not Irish. Naomi (aka Firechild) is now a successful fire performer and has worked with “critically acclaimed contemporary circus companies” i.e. she joined the circus. Olive is on Facebook and has yet to accept my Friend Request.

Rik Waller

The Pop Idol revelation made more headlines for his obesity than his music. He reached number six in the UK charts with his debut single, but achieved little success after that. An appearance on Celebrity Fit Club only fed tabloids with ammo to make amazing puns.

His UK tour was cancelled when his Devon concert sold only two tickets. Lol.

by Donna Doyle 24

Not sure which society to join this Freshers’ Week?

David Moloney provides the perfect playlist to enlighten you about the various cliques in UCD SU – Gym Class Heroes ‘Cookie Jar’ This song is about a guy who can’t stop cheating on his girlfriends, and after a few encounters with the SU, you’ll soon feel like one of those girls.

They try their best but, unfortunately, can never stop helping themselves to ‘Cookies’. Their loss.

Lawsoc – Bloody Beetroots ‘I Love the Bloody Beetroots’ With the reputation of being the most arrogant and cocky society on campus, this had to be the song for Lawsoc. Seven and a half minutes with only the lyrics ‘We love the Bloody Beetroots,’ repeated. Replace ‘Bloody Beetroots’ with ‘Lawsoc’ for a sense of this society.

L&H – The Hives – ‘T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S’ Often referred to as Lawsoc-Lite, the L&H share the arrogance of Lawsoc but try to distinguish themselves by adding a bit of (often misguided) humour. Note the song’s tongue-incheek yet arrogant tone.

C&E – The Coronas ‘San Diego Song’ The lyrics ‘We sleep all day and we drink all night,’ basically sums up the ‘lad’ mentality of this society. The satirical value of this choice may be diminished however, because they’ll be chuffed to be associated with this song. Sigh.

Fashion and Design Society The Grand Spectacular ‘Being a Dickhead’s Cool’ You’ll see them, decked out head to toe in this season’s latest trend, before they even bother to look down disdainfully on whatever haphazard assortment of clothes you pulled on in the mad rush for lectures. Video features cameos from real society members.

QSOC – John Cage – ‘4:33’ This society markets itself to the same group as C&E but never seems to do anything. Like the piece ‘4:33,’ QSOC manage to do nothing repeatedly, and yet somehow differently, each year, by simply changing their freshers stall.

Dramsoc – Jamiroquai ‘Deeper Underground’ You’ll soon start to notice curious little creatures scurrying from dark corner to dark corner beside the theatre under the arts block. Don’t worry, they’re not homeless, they’re just Dramsoc members.

Mature Students’ Society Benny Hill – ‘Yakety Sax’ The members of this society are going to bother you to an unimaginable extent during the year, so here’s a stress relief tool to deal with them; hum this song to yourself whenever they’re doing something and you’ll suddenly find them endearing. You’re welcome.

AgSoc – Mundy – ‘Galway Girl’ You can’t really take the piss out of this society because they’d probably take it to heart and bundle you into the middle of a bale of hay. Instead, here’s a nice song to appease them and help them forget that they had to read something today.

Socialist Workers Party Los Del Rio – ‘Macarena’ The ‘Macarena’ is that really annoying song that refuses to go away or make any sense. The SWP is that society. You’ll often see a few members protesting around campus about things most people don’t care about. Total nuisance really.

Show Patrol Gig of the Fortnight: David O’Doherty October 1st – Vicar Street - €24 With two books, an RTÉ series, a feature film and over a decade in comedy to his name, the Edinburgh Award-winning David O’Doherty is not a man short on talent, yet still remains one of the most personable performers on the circuit.

Mr. O’Doherty brings an everyman quality to his work that shines as much as any of its other elements. This old friend that you’ve never met is a must-see.

21st of September Doug Paisley & Rhob Cunningham – The Grand Social – 20:30 - €13 22nd of September Guinness Presents Arthur’s Day at St James’s Gate – St. James’s Gate – 16:30 - €15 Cooly G - The Twisted Pepper Dublin 22:30 – €11.75 Fred Cooke - The Laughter Lounge 20:30 - €27.90 23rd of September Echo and the Bunnymen Olympia Theatre - 19:00 - €33.60/€39.20 Youngsta (Rinse FM) The Twisted Pepper - 22:30 – €14.35 Andrew Maxwell - Vicar Street - 20:30 - €25 24th of September Primordial - The Academy - 18:00 - €25 Emeralds – Whelan’s - 19:30 - €16.50

Music OTWO

25th of September The Glee Experience Olympia Theatre - 15:00/20:00 – €15/€20 26th of September Christy Moore with Declan Sinnott Perform Songs for Somalia - Vicar Street - 20:00 - €40 Ghostpoet – Whelan’s - 20:00 - €12.45 27th of September Fink - Crawdaddy - 20:00 - €14 Crosby and Nash - Vicar Street – 20:30 - €59.80 29th of September The Revival Tour The Academy Dublin - 19:30 - €20 Donka, a Letter to Chekhov - Gaiety Theatre 19:30 - €25/€35 30th of September Scott Matthews - The Sugar Club - 19:30 - €18.50 The Kanyu Tree – Whelan’s - 19:30 - €10 Skepta – The Academy – 22:45 - €12 1st of October Kina Grannis - Academy 2 - 19:00 - €10 Jape - The Button Factory - 19:30 - €15 Prins Thomas, Rob Acid, the VRJ & More The Twisted Pepper - 22:30 - €17.60 David O’Doherty - Vicar Street - 20:30 - €24 2nd of October Alela Diane - The Button Factory - 19:30 - €15 3rd of October Rihanna - The O2 - 18:30 - €54.80 – €70.70/59.80 Gruff Rhys - Olympia Theatre - 19:00 - €23

bressie Sat 15 Oct 11 The Academy 25

OTWO

OTwo attempts...

being a

super

hero

He may just be an urban legend these days, but there was a time when Observer Man was integral to the safety of UCD, as George Morahan reports.

2011 is the year that Hollywood went too far. My tolerance for superhero movies had finally worn out; the market was now oversaturated and one question continued to plague my mind - If Greg Lantern can do it, why can’t I? I would defend the people of University College Dublin, fighting off the evil and maniacal degenerates of our fair concrete jungle and throwing out a few witty one-liners for good measure. I’d need to conceal my identity though.

First, I’d need a name, and there could only be one option. Observer Man was the unanimous choice, and would now be the hero synonymous with unwavering moral strength and an undying pursuit of justice in UCD. Admittedly, the name provokes images of dubious-looking men wearing trench coats and stalking public toilets, but every self-respecting superhero should have an ample blind spot for his own absurdity.

I decided to forgo giving Observer Man some tragic back-story, but his costume would make up for that.

No Hollywood budget would be afforded to him - I think the total cost was something like €11. And the cos-

26

tume wouldn’t be tailored to the very specific needs of the modern crime fighter - a quick trip to his friendly neighbourhood Penneys would do nicely.

An outfit was fashioned out of two pairs of tights, a red t-shirt with the University Observer logo proudly emblazoned on its front, a pair of winter gloves and a cape made from a curtain. In homage to Superman, I’d wear pants outside of my tights.

And we couldn’t let the five pack we bought go to waste, so the allimportant mask would also be shaped from men’s briefs as well. The whole ensemble looked suitably ridiculous.

Judgement day. It was time I suited up. The mask’s eye holes were a little too big for my liking, so we covered the bare skin around my eyes in black white-board marker.

I felt tears coming to my eyes, but why? The ink could have been irritating my skin, or maybe I just wasn’t

reveling in the prospect of running around campus in a cape and tights for a couple of hours. Have you ever seen a superhero have an existential breakdown? It’s not pretty.

In the days leading up to this epic moment, all I could consider was what hard liquor I’d be funneling down my neck beforehand. As it turns out, three bottles of Bangkok’s finest ‘nrg drink’, Revamp is all I would need to muzzle my rational self. One final touch: A shiny leather belt with an obscenely large buckle gave my costume the camp factor it had apparently lacked.

So many questions were racing through my caffeine-addled mind.

Would students welcome this reckless vigilante? How would I react to oppressive college authorities when we came to an inevitable conflict?

Just how revealing was my costume?

But this was not the time for questions; this was a time for action. I was ready, but not really. Either way,

“Have you ever seen a superhero have an existential breakdown?

It’s not pretty.”

it was time to go.

I strutted out of the office and into the Student Centre, because even if I didn’t feel that confident, I had to be strong for the citizens of UCD. I was followed by my entourage, which consisted of my personal photographer, film-maker and DVRcarrier. The three of them lagged behind as I jogged through Brava.

As I hollered my way through the unsuspecting crowds, disaster struck. The camera had run out of battery and without photographs, we would be excluding those unlucky enough to miss Observer Man in the flesh. We dejectedly trudged back to the office. I checked my e-mails and a few minutes later we were ready to roll. We stormed out of the office once more. Shit was gonna get fucked.

Instantly, my Observer Senses (i.e. my eyes) started tingling as I recognised a couple of freshers in danger. Flame on. They were having trouble finding the Student Centre on the map; I told them it was right behind them. Things were looking up - maybe this wouldn’t be such an insurmountable task after all. As I wandered down the concourse, I saw a great sense of relief wash over

OTWO

the faces of everyone I passed. They needed someone to keep them safe/ give them directions when their Orientation Guides were busy. I would usually be happy to oblige, but for Observer Man, it was a duty not to be shirked.

I went to patrol the lake. All was calm, but that’s always the first sign of danger lurking. Naturally, I decided to see if I could fly. Observer Man leapt off a high wall as all around him marvelled, before coming down to ground with an earth-shattering thud and a bruised heel. Failure. It appeared that his powers had been sapped and he would have to get by on theatricality and extraordinary moxy. Now, more than ever, he needed to persevere and ensure that the student body kept faith in him.

It was an inspiring sight for all to see as Observer Man staggered along, conversing with his admirers, having photos taken with them and even attempting the ‘Single Ladies’ dance.

In truth, it was all becoming a bit too much. Every great superhero should be a silent guardian of his people, but I was attracting unwanted attention. I needed to escape, and fast. I whipped my cape over my head and headed to a nearby building; it was as stealthy a getaway as I could possibly manage.

The smell of fake tan, instant coffee and pending unemployment stung my nostrils. I had to be in Newman. Sure enough, I found a young woman using Facebook on one of the Stand ‘n’ Surfs and it was

all I could do not to punch her, and proceed to ‘frape’ her repeatedly. A vocal humiliation would have to be sufficient; it seemed as if she had learned her lesson. Observer Man’s mistrust of Arts students knows no bounds, so this was clearly an area he

These bikes are safe would have to closely patrol, but I really needed a piss first.

I headed to the men’s, where I was faced with another psychopath.

A young man, fresh from the urinals, had not washed his hands. I soon set him straight, striking the fear of God in him, but I was beginning to feel that Arts was a lost cause. What was the point?

I could feel my cynicism grow during the lecture I gave in Thea-

tre L. It had only been attended by two girls. There I was, gifting these pearls of wisdom and nobody cared. I was being taken for granted by those people I had done so much for. I just wanted to feel appreciated, but this was becoming a demoralising exercise. I was slipping over to the dark side.

Where once I had been a beacon of light and truth, I was now about to use my fame and dizzying physique for more self-serving ends. Those two attendees are now in are now in my phone book, I commandeered the TV cameraman outside Theatre L to film me as I ruthlessly beat his colleague and then ordered an O2 sales rep to give me a superhero discount on their student internet package. I was on a rampage and nobody could stop me.

Observer Man’s conversion to nihilistic super-villain only accelerated as he left the Arts building. When presented with a No Smoking sign, what did he do? He smoked two cigarettes simultaneously. He didn’t give a second thought to the impressionable young minds that surrounded him. A few minutes later, he saw a flower bed, so he started kicking it, like some kind of remorseless bad ass. And then, in the Orientation Tent, he faced off with Education Officer, Sam Geoghegan. He broke his nose, but that may have been somewhat deserved. To top it all off, he tipped over a bin when it got in his way - and didn’t even stop to pick

it back up. All the while, I could feel that this was not the way to regain UCD’s respect and appreciation. I was ashamed of Observer Man. I was ashamed of myself for letting him become this monster.

“...I was beginning to feel that Arts was a lost cause.”

I was left to consider Observer Man’s legacy in the Student Bar. In light of his recent actions, it was obvious he had failed. Pint in hand, I came to the decision to retire Observer Man before he became too big a burden to the people of Belfield.

Also, my foot was beginning to hurt and I’d become more comfortable in my tights than I would ever want to admit, but it was mostly the burden/ pure evil thing.

For all my good intentions, Observer Man was easily corruptible and ultimately served to inspire horror and panic in the good men and women of UCD. In short, I was pretty shit. I wasn’t the hero UCD needed, but the hero it deserved.

For more photos of Observer Man and exclusive video content, see www. universityobserver.ie or ‘like’ The University Observer and Observer Man on Facebook.

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Ordinary Level

What did you think of Observer Man?

“The physical nature of this man is unreal. He’s a credit to his parents and society in general. That’s the calibre of students we bring to UCD.”

Jonathan O’Keeffe Ahern, 3rd Biomedical & Health Science

“Really strong, really, really strong. Bit of a rebel.”

Helen O’Sullivan, 1st Animal Science

“He looks like a sidekick.”

Adam Turner, 1st History and Politics

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“The superhero, what a guy. It’s a great outfit, bit revealing but he’s gonna get the ladies.”

Alan Fitzpatrick, 1st Commerce