Vol XXII - Issue 5 - OTwo

January 26th, 2016

OTwo

Issue V

Featuring interviews with: The Maccabees Heathers Yuri Lowenthal & Tara Platt

Plus:

Food, Fashion and the latest in Games

Contents

2 Letter from the Editors 3 What’s Hot and What’s Not 3 Mystic Mittens 3 Soapbox: EuroVision - Patrick Kelleher 4 Spitballin’ with Alison Spittle 4 Kanye 2020 - Rebekah Rennick 5 Las Vegas - Karl Quigley

Letter From The Editors

FOOD&DRINK 6 Fresh Food Here - Ciara Forristal 6 Cooks Corner - James Holohan 7 Maki Sushi - Gemma Lynch 7 Sandwiches - Niamh O’Regan

GAMES

8 Remaster Disaster - Adam Donnelly 9 Game Reviews - Adam Donnelly

FILM&TV 10 Transgender Film Roles - David Monaghan 11 Interview with Tara and Yuri - Eva Griffin 12 Film Reviews 13 Equilibrium - Owen Steinberger 13 Top 10 Journalism Films - Ciara Forristal

CREATIVE WRITING 14 Red and Blue 15 Selection of Poetry

CENTRE 16 Maccabees Interview - Eva Griffin

MUSIC 18 David Bowie - Adam Lawler 19 Album Reviews 20 Gig Guide - Aisling Kraus 20 Radar: Saints Boulevard 21 Heathers Interview - Gráinne Loughran 22 East India Youth Interview - Patrick Kelleher 23 Ones to Watch in 2016 - Rebekah Rennick

FASHION&STYLE 24 Dublin de Rigueur - Lucy Coffey 25 Louis Vuitton - Katie Devlin 26 Spring Fling Shoot - Lucy Coffey

ARTS&LITERATURE 28 Kevin Curran Interview - Meabh Butler 29 Brand New Retro - Niall Murphy 30 1916 Commemorations - Rosemarie Gibbons 31 Fatal Fourway: Most Sexually Confusing Films 32 Fotografie

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THat’s Eva and Karl

Good day, Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, etc.

WELCOME students of UCD, and all others who are given the privilege of gazing upon this magazine. This is OTwo, your tri-weekly dose of culture. Here at the Observer we hope you had an excellent break and are ready for another soul crushing, mind bendingly oppressive semester at the lovely University College Dublin or UCD Dublin as they’re so fond of saying.

Our content has had a good long while to rest up and so we have a terrific issue lined up for all you readers and perusers out there.

As always we start with Rebekah “My father (who is also a vet)” Rennick as she brings us up to speed on What’s Hot and What’s Not! Followed, of course, by the newest predictions from Mystic Mittens, our magical feline magician. And once again we are graced with the presence of Kanye West as he continues in his preparation for his presidential race of 2020.

We’re joined as always by the one and only Alison Spittle in her latest article as she struggles to find a substitute for our favourite F-word.

The page over, Karl “I swear I’m not 12” Quigley describes his visit to Las Vegas over Christmas. Cocaine, flashing lights, and gambling abound, all of a particular variety found only in the entertainment capital of the world.

Niamh “Dat bulge tho” O’Regan tells us about a little sandwich gem in town alongside an interview with the founders of Emer’s Kitchen. A lovely Japanese restaurant by the name of Tomohachi is reviewed alongside our newest recipe in our Cook’s Corner.

A few pixels over in Games, Adam “what day is it” Donnelly pens a feature on the current trend of terribly remastering old classics. Also reviewed is a quirky, cheap RPG about men in suits and an unusual game that sounds interesting, if not exactly fun.

In the next scene, David “I didn’t want to see Spectre anyway” Monaghan opens Film with a piece on trans identity in film and how it’s treated. The power couple of Yuri and Tara are interviewed and we have a number of excellent films reviewed for your pleasure. Our Top Ten this issue concerns films about the profession we all love: journalism.

As usual Roisin “I can totally spell” Murray has a number of poems for your artistic pleasure and a lovely short story which is sure to entertain.

Our Centre this issue is presented by the indomitable Eva “Wigglesworth lover” Griffin with her interview of The Maccabees. They’re both lovely and interesting, so do give it a look.

Music, ever moving under the watchful eye of Aisling “Phresh” Kraus, begins with a feature on the late legend Bowie, and is followed by interviews with The Heathers and East India Youth. We have a number of excellent album reviews for all you out there and a gig guide from the Phresh one herself.

We move onto Fashion, opening with street style and an article on Louis Vuitton’s new face and Lucy “Ron Pope is great!” Coffey will show you the meaning of true fashion in the first shoot of the year.

At the end of our fabulous magazine our own Maebh “Who needs titles?” Butler interviews Kevin Curran.

We have reviews of Brand New Retro and Citizens for you and a look at the upcoming one hundred year anniversary of the 1916 rising.

As always we hope you enjoy our magazine and we’ll see you in a few weeks.

what’s hot & What’s not

Soapbox EUROVISION

Hot

Not Hot

Leonardo DiCaprio:

January:

Sallow skinned and blue eyed, soft-spoken and mysterious (we could go on), Leonardo DiCaprio is the hottest tamale in the basket. And his acting talent surely hasn’t let him down either, albeit the omission of a shiny Oscar statue, but we’re all dealing with that together. Not only has he crafted an impeccable acting career, and given Lady Gaga the best side-eye grimace to date, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is shining light on some of the biggest issues regarding climate change today. As award season heats up, Leo is the name on everyone’s lips.

Yeah, yeah it’s all about turning over a new leaf and being a better person. Pity no one actually sticks to that transparent plan for the rest of the year, and we all end up shriveling back to our disappointing selves come February. First it’s the resolutions, then the gym selfies, followed by the inherent healthy-eating high-horse behavior – and don’t even mention the sub-zero temperatures. Time to gather up your modesty and welcome the Spring season.

People From Bands Actually Being Good Solo Artists:

Bowie’s Passing:

Who’d have thought it, huh? The past few months have shone new light on otherwise overshadowed members of certain bands. The most notable and exciting being techni-hair-coloured Jenny Lee Lindberg of Warpaint origin, and Chris Baio of Vampire Weekend. Baio comprises all the jangly bits of Vampire Weekend into a pick n’ mix record of infectious tracks, while jennylee showcases not only her love of lower case lettering, but a solid, base-heavy tune. Take a walk through their solo repertoire to discover the hidden talent behind their receptive homogenous band units.

Celebrity Big Brother:

Goodbye, you brilliant, eccentric man. You gave us all so much, enriching our world beyond belief. We will miss you forever.

Exam Results Reality: How enchanting blissful ignorance can be. For the past month, UCD students have been indulging in life’s pleasures, unperturbed by the insidious exam results ready to raise their scary little heads tomorrow.

Flashbacks of study week come racing back, and a mere mention of the RDS makes you break out in a slow, itchy sweat. But don’t fret student body; as my dear mother and all her candle lighting goodness proclaims: “This too shall pass”. And so it will, and life will go on and you’ll all be perfectly fine.

Call it a social experiment or nonsense television show, this year’s CBB house is a cooking pot of confrontational, incompatible Z-list celebs and it’s absolutely fantastic. Love or loath it, the Big Brother house has been a claustrophobic confederacy of dunces over the years, and exposes both the nasty and nice side of human nature. This year sees bullies, cheats, explosive personalities and David Bowie’s ex-wife come to terms with their inconsequential celebrity status, losing all forms of perspective in the process. Tune in now to catch the last few days of coverage, and don’t worry, no one seems to know who these people are.

Mystic Mittens Aries

It’s going to be tough, and at times you’ll feel at your lowest and ready to give up, but don’t worry. Just keep swiping left until you find the one; your right-swipe, knight in shining Tinder armour will be waiting for you when you least expect it. Probably when you’re on the toilet, so watch out.

Taurus You may have over-indulged this Christmas but start this semester as you mean to go on. That does require pants and getting out of bed before twelve though, sorry.

Libra Alex Turner isn’t going to reply to your pleading tweets. Close the laptop and move on in your life while you still have time.

Scorpio Bus fares will now require one of your limbs and a contract offering your first-born child to get into town for a burrito. And they say the best things in life are free, eh?

Gemini

Sagittarius

In case of a fire or any such other disaster, don’t send a Snapchat. It really doesn’t come off very well on camera.

Cupid’s arrow is aimed at you this semester. If you dodged it in Diceys on Black Monday, prepare for a very long and lonely life.

Cancer After watching Making A Murderer you’ll be convinced this month that Librocop is framing you for eating in the library. “I don’t even like popcorn!” you’ll proclaim, but will anyone listen? No.

Leo Perhaps it’s time to stop bringing turkey sandwiches for lunch. It’s just a suggestion.

Virgo You’ll convince yourself the moustache you grew over Christmas will keep you disguised from campus security, making them forget about your Semester 1 misdemeanors. How wrong you were. Security never forgets.

Capricorn Scared of change? Best avoid breaking any notes then.

Aquarius ‘New Year, New Me’ as they say. Time to try ‘healthy’ so best start photographing smoothies for your Instagram account and get up on that high horse because someone’s gotta do it, fatty.

Pisces Whatever your Mam tells you, wetting the bed at 23 really isn’t normal and you should seriously get it checked out.

AS AN Irish person, I feel pretty much compelled to like the Eurovision. In fact, ‘like’ doesn’t even really cut it. I’m dedicated to it in the most alarming way. I tell anyone who will listen that whatever entry we have pulled out of obscurity is the best. They’re always definitely the hottest entry on the ticket (and this was particularly hard to justify when we sent Jedward to Eurovision. Twice. Dustin the Turkey was sexier).

But I feel like it’s time to resign myself to the sad truth: that Eurovision is actually a bit shite.

I know most of you will consider this something of a betrayal. But it is time we acknowledged the truth. No matter how many hot, blonde guys Europe wheels out in shiny suits or with violins in attempts to make us swoon so hard we actually vote, Eurovision is actually really, really stupid.

Some might say that I’m just bitter – that I’m just upset that we have failed to win now since I was an infant. And yes, I am bitter – wholly and completely bitter. But since when did we shy away from bitterness in this country? I say we embrace it, and accept now that we will never win this competition. We just aren’t kitsch enough anymore.

Gone are the days of the Johnny Logans (hold us, Johnny) and Linda Martin. We can reflect with fondness on the time that we managed to win with that especially shite entry, ‘The Voice’

by Eimear Quinn. There was once a time when we could win with shite entries (Dana, if you’re reading this, know that we love you. This is not your fault).

The fact of the matter is that we can’t compete with Europe’s (and the whole world, apparently. Every country seems to compete these days) incredible ability to put hot guys on stage singing about stupid things. This year, Ireland is of course casting the net once more, in the hope that we will catch something to feed our starved ego. So Nicky Byrne (the one from Westlife who couldn’t sing) has been reactivated for a short time to try and win us the title. I can imagine Ryan Tubridy in the RTÉ studios, sticking a pair of double A batteries into the old codger. “Everyone loved him a decade ago, they’ll love him now too!” But Ryan, no. Just no.

He’s Nicky Bloody Byrne. We didn’t even like him when he was in Westlife.

And you know what’s worse? The song is called ‘Sunshine’. Sunshine? Love, we’ve had maybe thirty seconds of sunshine in the last six months. The lyrics are also incredibly dodgy.

‘Touch who you wanna, kiss who you wanna’, Byrne tells us. I’m pretty sure that’s a punishable offence, Nicky. The whole thing feels like a utopian universe where we have sun and hot men, something we all know to be a big lie.

It’s a sad state of affairs when we have to wheel old Nicky Byrne out of hiding, give him a bit of a quiff and some designer stubble, and pretend he’s hot enough to win Eurovision. He’s not. And the sooner we stop pretending, the better we’ll be.

Words: Patrick Kelleher Illustration: Joanna O’Malley

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SPITBALLIN’ WITH ALISON SPITTLE

Alison tackles the fine art of book reviewing and the delicacy of finding the right curse word substitute

Photo Alison Spittle PERFORMING IN EDINGURGH

THERE is a new book out called The Life Changing Magic Of Not Giving A Fuck by Sarah Knight. I was asked to review it for Breakfast Republic on 2FM. I was so afraid of saying the F-word on air – it’s on in the morning, children are eating their Cheerios sweetly while their loving parents watch on with that protective gaze shielding them from the dark, dark truth. I’m not the person to tell them and this is not the time so I needed to find a substitute word – fig? Feck? It’s too close to the edge, I can’t risk it. I can’t do the sharp intake of breath like I’ve burnt my tongue that I do to rap songs: You know what the Midwest is? Young and restless Where restless WHISHT might snatch your necklace And next these WHISHT might jack your Lexus Somebody tell these WHISHT who Kanye West is So I thought ‘what is the polar opposite of fuck in sound and sensibilities?’ Don Conroy. What the Don Conroy are you talking about? For Don Conroy’s sake. Get the Don Conroy out of my house. I’m going to Don Conroy you up outside Supermacs. It just works.

So, here is my review:

The Life Changing Magic Of Not Giving A Fuck by Sarah Knight THE ART OF CARING LESS AND GETTING MORE Are you stressed out, overbooked, and underwhelmed by life? Fed up with pleasing everyone else before you please yourself? It’s time to stop giving a Don Conroy.

Sarah reveals why giving a Don Conroy about what other people think is your worst enemy – and how to stop doing it. How to sort your Don Conroys into four essential categories; simple criteria for whether or not you should give a Don Conroy (i.e. “Does this affect anyone other than me?”); and the two keys to successfully not giving a Don Conroy without also being an asshole.

So, get rid of the mental clutter, ditch the perfectionism and create the life you want - for good.

This is a great book; I’ve never given a Don Conroy most of my life – I wear what I like, I go to weddings and give a picture frame and a homemade card with no money in it because I didn’t ask to be invited to sit down drinking soup while your asshole colleague says “Are you the comedian? Tell us a joke,” as you’re scooping out the soft bit out of a bread

Kanye 2020

Rebekah Rennick Sir-

With the presidential race truly heating up this year have you been keeping track and taking notes? If so, how do you think you would fare if placed into the race right now?

Hey dawg. Yeah that whole rat race is gettin’ pretty intense. I took some ‘me’ time and put together a few new tracks to get my mind out of the race y’know and keep ma head clear. One of my biggest Achilles heels has been my ego. And if I, Kanye West, can remove my ego I think there’s hope for my campaign in 2020 y’get? I don’t know if that can happen for some of those candidates now though.

I gotta stop lookin’ at that Trump guy’s face, that’s all I know, it’s really been getting me down.

In truth, I been keeping my feet firmly in my new footwear range and my eyes on Kim. That’s all the direction a guy gotta need in my type of situation and in preparation for 2020. With my campaign, the only concrete plan is that I plan to use concrete.

I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but goddamit it gone work and people gone see how Yeezy can make anything right.

I am God’s vessel and the presidency is waiting for me to take. It’s like if you’re swimming through the ocean for 10 years, 12 years, 13 years of your life, and now with this new year I feel like I see

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Illustration

by Joanna O'Malley

sand. I can see the beach and that’s inspiring. You get me?

What I notice about creatives is that, and one of the reasons why I get into trouble, is, not only do I want to design video games, or make music, or ride bikes, I think one of the most important things in my ability to create so much in the past 30 years is my desire to play sports. I been keepin’ pretty grounded by playing a lot of water polo recently. It really keeps me in touch with not only reality but the purity of water and my unbounded talent for polo. I knew I was a talented guy, but sometimes I, Kanye West, even surprise myself.

Kanye 2020 promises everything, keep the faith man ‘cause I ain’t letting this go.

YeezyAfter 38 years of life, numerous records released and a clothing line firmly in place, least of all a marriage to Kim Kardashian; what wisdom and knowledge will you bring to office if you are elected in 2020?

I respect those comments, I gone bring a lot of knowledge to office, a lot a lot a lot. I feel the pressure under scrutiny and I shine in such situations. I feel like I’m too busy writing history to read it so the first thing I’m gone do when I get into office is publish my own Yeezy history book so everyone gone know my background and start to walk the same path I did.

The most important thing I learnt is that no one is looking at what President Obama is wearing.

That ain’t the case with me, I under the spotlight constantly. I fight the paparazzi but hey I don’t blame ‘em. Michelle Obama cannot Instagram a bikini pic what Kim Instagrammed the other day and man I tell you that’s the difference right there. You might not see it now but in four years time you’ll be thinking to yo’ self “Yeezy taught me”.

Bro, I was just a kid from Chicago Illinois once upon a time. Now I’m Kanye West, sampling Drake’s uncle’s music, cause I can.

That in itself is a well of knowledge and wisdom so who knows what I gone be doin’ to music and life itself in 2020. Y’all just gotta wait and see.

roll in the hope of making a savoury Ferrero Rocher.

When my band The Glitter Babes broke up before our big audition for Star Stream, a talent show on The Den in the early 2000s, I didn’t give a Don Conroy and auditioned as a solo artist, and when I didn’t get through I didn’t give a Don Conroy. And when I was asked to review this book, I didn’t give a Don Conroy so much so that I just looked up a review on Amazon.

'' I go to weddings and give a picture frame and a homemade card with no money in it because I didn't ask to be invited to sit down drinking soup while your asshole colleague says "Are you the comedian?

Tell us a joke!"

A week in.......

Photography & WORDS: Karl Quigley THE CITY of Las Vegas is often claimed to be the entertainment capital of the world, and after spending a week there it certainly is a hot contender. I began my trip to Las Vegas on the 21st of December, travelled across the Atlantic and then travelled across America and arrived on the same day. Tired of airplanes and thoroughly ready for bed, stepping off the plane is only the beginning of the surreal experience that is the city of Las Vegas. Suddenly, sleep felt like a very silly option.

The thing you have to understand about Vegas is that it doesn’t stop. Clubs open at the usual times, and stay open until the shops begin their sales early in the morning.

Casinos are always active, new dealers and players constantly flowing in, and the lights never dim. Stepping off the plane into Las Vegas airport, you’re greeted with slot-machines. Gambling is kind of big there if you hadn’t heard. Taking stock in the taxi that took us down The Strip, it’s quite hard to describe what you can see. There are little parts of the world just inhabiting different blocks of land. To the right, the MGM Grand. To the left, a pyramid. A massive, black reflective pyramid. It’s a hotel and it dominates that part of The Strip. Further down, Caesar’s Palace, and the Venetian and the Palazzo. Little chunks of Rome and Venice respectively just plopped in the middle of Nevada. The Venetian has its own little river running through it for romantic gondola rides. Another hotel has its own roller-coaster.

The city isn’t normal. It didn’t seem real until I had actually walked through it. Standalone casinos, shopping centres, restaurants, and a few more casinos make up most of the city, excluding the hotels themselves. That isn’t to say Vegas isn’t

beautiful or amazing in more than one way.

The simple scale of things is impressive, and an entire day was spent just walking between the hotels and having a wander. During the day, even in the run up to Christmas, the streets were busy in the holiday town. There are all sorts of shows and timed events that occur throughout the day. A pirate ship battle in the waters outside Treasure Island and the fountains outside the Bellagio which most would know from the Oceans trilogy. They never played Clair de Lune though.

It’s at night when it becomes Las Vegas, the city we see in movies and on television. Lights everywhere, dazzling and beautiful. Casinos move into full swing, packed with the lucky and unlucky. The streets filled with entertainers and advertisers, each and every one of them competing for the attention of the hundreds of thousands that pass by. I was even offered cocaine by a lovely, totally not shady individual on the way to my hotel.

It’s hard to say where is a ‘must-see’ for those who may visit Vegas. It’s more of a where to start. Pick the hotel you’re staying in, and just wander. There is never really a lack of things to do or places to see. The hotels themselves are varied enough that it never truly gets boring and there are more than enough restaurants of choice. The food is the same as most of the US; portions are massive, and there’s a lot more processed food so being health conscious will take a bit of of extra effort.

If you’re in the mood for gambling, which you may well be considering your choice of destination, each and every hotel has its own mind-boggling casino. It is also impossible to leave your hotel without passing through the casino. Just a few tips if you are inexperienced and want to gamble there: Google the rules of whatever game you’d like. The dealers are usually quite cordial and welcoming to new players, often offering advice. Know the hand signals, because it’s all for the security cameras. Be aware that it’s as easy to go through twenty dollars as it is a hundred.

Things move fast in a casino and time passes even faster. There are no windows, and certainly no clocks. Stuck in perpetual, artificial, daylight it’s tough to track the passage of time without a watch or phone.

And never, ever touch the cards on the table.

Don’t ask me how I figured that rule out.

Each hotel has its own shopping promenade, complete with an artificial roof that makes it seem like it’s daytime. It almost feels like the city doesn’t want you to sleep, but fret not. Vegas certainly caters to all folks.

If you want to take it easy, drink or not, have a bite to eat, and a wander, Vegas is perfect. If you want to gamble for your entire stay, Vegas will provide. And if you want to go absolutely mad, well you won’t be disappointed. It’s an artificial city that is made for those who want to be entertained and occupied for almost every second in it. But it’s not oppressive or intimidating. Nor is it demanding of a certain attitude. Vegas adapts to you and there is always choice in this dazzling city. Bring some nice clothes and an open mind and Vegas will be an unforgettable experience, no matter how you spend it.

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Fresh Food Hero: Emer Kingston

Standing proud among the offices and schools in Dublin city centre is a bright, warm and welcoming shop, Emer’s Kitchen. Ciara Forristal talks to proprietor Emer Kingston about its success a year after opening

Photographs courtesy of Milimetre design

“FRESHLY prepared food as an everyday experience,” is the mantra of husband and wife duo Emer Kingston and Brendan Murphy of Emer’s Kitchen, a charming and quaint café nestled on the southeastern corner of St. Stephen’s Green. Although having only recently celebrated its first anniversary, the café has become a stalwart establishment in staving off the hunger of the lunchtime crowd.

Indeed, come by Emer’s Kitchen at lunchtime any weekday and be prepared to find a queue of both young and old, professionals and passers-by, lined up to sample the constantly evolving and freshly prepared produce that Kingston herself prepares daily.

Having taken a risk with a limited menu, Kingston confesses there was some hesitancy towards such a bold move: “We weren’t sure if people would get the concept of a very small menu.” Kingston’s locally sourced, healthy and reasonably priced lunchtime meals have proven to be a runaway success. Kingston attributes her ever-increasing customer base to having perfected the basics. “We just took stage by stage by stage and we added on, even just the smallest things... You get the first stage right and then you add on and before you know it, you have a full-stage

menu going, and that’s the way it should be.” Having created a delicious blend of authentic homemade meals which always include one vegetable soup, one vegetarian frittata, a selection of salads and one meat sandwich to satisfy the meat lovers, Emer’s Kitchen has proven that it is quality over quantity that matters.

Kingston, however, is not content to rest on her laurels, and her ever-changing daily menu highlights this fact, with the menu influenced by the seasonal produce of locally sourced fruit and vegetables.

Experimentation, for the café, is key to survival, with Kingston encouraging her staff to try out new ideas: “If it works, it works and if it doesn’t, we’ll fiddle it out and see what happens.” Such recent attempts have yielded customer favourites such as peanut butter and white chocolate blondies, as well as a gluten-free chocolate, coffee and cardamom cake.

Moreover, this experimentation is part of Kingston and Murphy’s larger exploration of the Irish and Dublin food scene which they believe to be on par

with the likes of well-established food capitals such as London. Murphy believes that the explosion of artisanal brands and small-scale and well-crafted enterprises, something which were little to non-existent, have been a staple to their success. “I’d say five or ten years ago it would have been a real struggle, we’d be serving the same bread as everyone else, the same coffee as everywhere else.”

It is not only the lure of freshly baked goods, nutritious breakfast and lunchtime meals that draws customers to the café, but its sense of familiarity and warmth that transports its patrons from the hustle and bustle of city life into a blissful haven. “I wanted to make people feel that when they walked into it that they are actually walking into a cosier kitchen, as opposed to a shop,” Kingston says, adding that the décor was influential in striking the right balance. Inspired by a food establishment in London’s East End, Kingston was driven by the interior that “just goes that little bit further,” and was determined to mount a bike on the wall (the wheels of which help spell food), despite much scepticism by well-wishers. With its eggshell blue exterior, Kingston believes it adds colour and vibrancy to a street known more for its corporate practices, recounting

having recently taken the time to stand on the opposite side of the road and to glance across into the café. “It was like a star, just bright and welcoming.”

Indeed, Kingston herself is a constant fixture in the café as “that was the whole thing – it’s called Emer’s Kitchen,” and having worked in the hospitality sector for over two decades, she understands the importance of a personal touch. Preferring to refer to her staff as her team, Kingston reiterates the importance of co-operation and a shared vision towards providing the best possible produce and service for the customer. The kindness and friendliness of the staff is a key component to fostering this sense of familiarity and warmth which has proven vital to their success. “They get a smile and a welcome, and if they’re new I would always welcome them to the shop, just saying good morning and having a smile and saying ‘may I help you’, it just makes such a difference,” Kingston adds.

Having built a loyal customer base, some of whom come in at least twice if not three times a day, Kingston believes her patrons “don’t want to be hassled, they just want a friendly chat, a hello, a smile, and then

they’re gone again and they’re happy out.”

With plans to expand to new locations in the future, particularly in areas where office staff don’t have many options for lunchtime meals, the future looks bright for this dynamic duo. Indeed, their ability through personal warmth to transform a cup of coffee or sandwich into the beginning of a long-standing friendship rather than a purely commercial transaction, is a truly refreshing and sorely missed experience in Dublin city centre.

COOK’S CORNER

Crème de Chorizo This little beauty is quick, simple and relatively cheap to make, and also a delightful treat for the taste buds. An ideal dish after a late library trip, this meal can be ready to serve in under twenty minutes. With minimal cooking utensils required, (a frying pan and pot should suffice) this piece is an ideal dinner for two. It is worth noting that it is indeed possible to construct this meal without every ingredient. However, for ultimate taste satisfaction one must encourage the use of each ingredient if possible.

Ingredients: 1 Bell Pepper 1 Onion

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1 Carrot Punnet Mushrooms Handful fresh Parsley Chives Carton of cream (low fat is possible if pressured by a guilty conscience) 120g Pasta 200g Chorizo Sausage Pinch of Fresh Chili/ Chili Flakes (optional) Method: Finely slice carrot, chives and parsley and leave to one side. Add dollop of cooking oil to pan and heat to medium temperature. Slice chorizo sausage and add to heated pan.

Allow juices to sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add the pepper, onion and carrot, allowing them to sweat in juices.

Once the vegetables are tender, add chopped parsley, chives, mushrooms and chili (optional).

Keep heated, add cream and gently stir for two minutes before leaving to simmer for a further two minutes before serving.

Cook pasta for eight to ten minutes, and finally serve sauce over pasta or tossed through.

Photograph courtesy of James Holohan

James Holohan describes a recipe that will tickle your tastebuds with delight

Miso Soup and Maki Sushi at Tomohachi With more demand for new and affordable dining experiences, Gemma Lynch ventures to Tomohachi, a family run Japanese restaurant YOU’D expect Dublin city centre, clustered with various restaurants, to be the ideal destination to find food of various cuisines which are not only kind to your wallet, but also comprise of warm staff and efficient service. However one cannot help but feel overwhelmed with the amount of choice the city has to offer, especially when all you want to do is get rid of that lingering hangover. It can be hard at the best of times to stray away from the countless fast-food chains spanned across the city centre. This is why Tomohachi, a family run Japanese restaurant, is the perfect place for a relaxed yet enjoyable dining experience. Situated on Wellington Quay, it is very accessible, standing right beside Temple Bar and close to the Ha’penny Bridge. Normally no reservation is needed to secure a table at lunchtime, so it is ideal for the spontaneous type.

Immediate greetings from hospitable and helpful staff welcome you inside and explain the menu fully before leaving you to your own devices; literally. In Tomohachi, the menu is presented on an iPad and diners are able to select and order their meals by it, which cuts out any unneeded confusion or wastage of food whilst ordering.

The menu is extensive but not overwhelming.

For lunch, sushi is a filling option without leaving one immobile. While waiting for your meal to arrive, customers can avail of Miso Soup, a light broth with tofu which is a delicious introduction for someone who has never explored Japanese cuisine.

Opting to try something different, Gyuniku Gimbap accompanied by Kani Hosmaki, served on traditional Japanese delph was a good option.

The Gyunika Gimbap was filled with Korean

Photograph courtesy of Gemma Lynch ''Diners are able to select and order their meals via iPad which cuts out any unneeded confusion or wastage of food whilst ordering.''

''Tomohachi is the kind of restaurant that will suit both avid sushi lovers and those who are just looking for a change of scenery and to try something new.''

beef, egg, cucumber and pickled radish, and the taste, the most important factor for any foodie, was impeccable. The crisp yet moist cucumber combined with the subtle sweetness of the beef made this dish second to none. Of course, this would not be true sushi tasting without fish getting a mention and the Kani Hosmaki (Kani meaning crab meat) did not disappoint. The crab was fresh and with the addition of a little wasabi and soy sauce made it go down a treat. The portion sizes are quite large. This alone was enough for two.

In terms of affordability, this venture promises to save you funds with a two course early bird costing €19.95 and large maki sushi for under €10. Apart from sushi, the menu also

includes, japas, tempura, ramen, hot pot and more. There is also a good choice of desserts and a range of beverage options. Overall, Tomohachi is the kind of restaurant that will suit both avid sushi lovers and those who are just looking for a change of scenery and to try something new.

Tomhachi is open Monday to Sunday 12.30 - 22.30 Reservations can be made through the website HYPERLINK “http://www.tomohachi.ie/”http:// www.tomohachi.ie/ or by phone on (01) 561 5687

Life is too short for an overpriced, soggy attempt at a sandwich; Niamh O Regan suggests you buy a decent one in Oxmantown

Hidden Gems: Oxmantown SANDWICHES are severely underrated. The fear of carbohydrates and gluten puts many people off the thought of a sandwich for lunch, but they are truly the owners of lunchtime. Fresh soft crusty bread spread with a thin layer of soft butter and filled with a multitude of exquisite fillings is a pleasure not just for your stomach but your eyes, nose and mouth. A good meal is certainly hard to beat.

Oxmantown is a nifty little sandwich shop in Stoneybatter, halfway between the Four Courts and Jervis and around the corner from Brother Hubbard. Standing unassumingly on St. Mary’s Abbey is a shop/café home to the most delicious sandwiches and coffee.

The menu is not particularly extensive; breakfast consists of three sandwiches (Black Pudding Sausage, BLT) and choice of granola.

Lunch is a choice of daily changing soups and salads and six sandwiches along with a selection of five staples, which are regulars for those visiting the shop more than a few times.

Teas, home-made drinks, and coffee roasted

by CloudPicker, Dublin’s first micro-roastery, are there to wash down the lunch or to accompany one of the sweet treats on offer.

The beauty is in the simplicity, no fuss, great staff and an appreciation for a job well done; great food and a good cup of tea or coffee are impossible to beat.

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Remaster Disaster FOR THE first time possibly ever since the inception of the gaming medium, the industry has snagged on an obstacle that can be best described as “diminishing technological returns”. In the decades long history of this pastime, this feels like the first time in which the steps taken forward with each new generation have become more and more ambiguous. Resolutions are sharper, but not by much. The new consoles seem more focused on improving performance and connectivity in subtle ways while also broadening their modus operandi to multimedia. But when it comes to the games – the way they look, the way they sound and the way they play – the wow factor has been lost. The PS4, Wii U and Xbox One feel like extensions of their yester-year counterparts rather than fully fledged successors. It’s a case of evolution as opposed to revolution. Obviously the games that are made to run on new devices simply could not exist on previous iterations, but on the surface the improvements aren’t that noticeable.

There is one way to display the graphical grunt of newer machines however: remaster old games that weren’t made with the hardware in mind.

There’s no feeling that’s quite like the nostalgia of taking something old and making it new again.

It’s for this reason that the Final Fantasy VII Remake is set to reduce many a grown gamer to tears of awe and wonderment. It’s the model remake many have claimed and it plays like a completely different game, one that will capitalise on the hardware it’s running on. But the heart of the original PS1 classic beats on like a drum to the rhythm of the 1990s.

So what’s the problem? Why can’t we have more remakes to bridge generations? The problem is that Final Fantasy VII is the exception and not the rule. What’s par for the course in today’s age is minimalist re-releases and remaster jobs that come across as being dumped into a new age to artificially and forcefully showcase new technology.

While such games are generally inoffensive and serve as an opportunity for gamers who missed out the first time they were released to finally take the plunge, they can also be quite the double edged sword. Two recent examples spring to mind: God of War III Remastered and Grim Fandango Remastered both reveal the negative aspects to remastering with little thought on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Grim Fandango Remastered is a more blatant example. The original is an old game, first appearing on store shelves in 1998. It didn’t sell

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With the recent rash of remastered game releases, Adam Donnelly looks at the problem with today’s gaming industry and the remastering fad

well but became iconic enough to achieve cult status. So when it was revealed the game would return as a remastered title to the Playstation 4, there was naturally a lot of excitement. When the game arrived, it was good, fantastic even.

However it was only fantastic up until the actual remastering came into the equation. It looks extremely dated by today’s standards, and the result of the forced visual upgrade (that is to say, hastily upscaling the resolution and not touching anything else) is that it looks even uglier. It’s also aged in the gameplay department. What might have been considered a challenging puzzle in 1998 is a mere frustration today. A few extra tidbits like developer commentaries were thrown in to sweeten the deal, but the fact that it’s otherwise the exact same game is slightly troubling.

Then there’s God of War III Remastered. It looks and sounds amazing, and plays excellently. It’s also a five year old game. Why did this need to be re-released? The changes are barely noticeable.

In the defence of Grim Fandango, it’s an old game with suitable demand. Was there anybody clamouring for God of War III to be re-released when the original game is still widely and readily available? Probably not. You might as well just buy the PS3 edition of the game. With barely any additional content to its name, the remastered version seems like a cynical attempt to get players to buy what is essentially a five year old game at a premium price. It’s not a full priced game, but it remains substantially more costly than if one was to buy the original. The same could be said of the Last of Us Remastered, a game that came out two years prior to being re-released.

These remakes are simply easy ways to pad out a console’s library when the pipeline for new releases becomes clogged. As the cost of production for new games rises, re-releasing popular titles under a new coat of very thin paint is an easy, risk free way of sucking money out of wallets. Again it’s not necessarily a bad thing as it enables newer players to get in on the fun, but if the purpose of these remasters is to show off how new hardware can breathe new life into a game, there’s little to impress these newcomers and even less still to reward veterans. The sting was taken out of the bite some five or so years ago, when companies would at least bundle multiple titles together under the “HD Collection” roof. It’s hard not to be sceptical or cynical over buying old or existing games as new when it’s now literally one single, uninspired package.

That Dragon, Cancer review Words by Adam Donnelly

Developer: Numinous Games Publisher: Numinous Games Release Date: 12th January 2016

THAT Dragon, Cancer is an astonishing game. Even calling it a game comes with a considerable degree of hesitancy, as this is not something played by a player in the traditional sense. It’s an experiment, an experience, and as both these things it performs with varying degrees of success. Seeing a video game play out as a documentary is an honest to goodness rarity, and that it’s all based on a true story makes it all the more compelling. It doesn’t take long at all to see that Dragon is a passion project in perhaps the purest sense of the words, one brimming with sentiment. The emotions will pull the player in and chew them up in the best possible way, but its functionality as an actual game being sold as a product may leave some people wanting. That Dragon, Cancer is an up close examination of the Green family coming to grips with the fact that their son Joel has been diagnosed with cancer. It is a father’s love letter to his child.

Joel passed away in March of 2014. As the game description on Steam states: “Can you find hope in the face of death?”

That Dragon, Cancer is an ambitious endeavour for a modestly proportioned indie game. Videogames are a vastly underrated medium for storytelling but

it is so for a reason. Other mediums enjoy a sort of linearity. The subject of cancer is one that has been tackled across books, films and television because, as hard as it is regardless of context, being a spectator is far easier than finding yourself in the thick of it. Games typically require agency from the player. How does one incorporate such circumstances as these into an interactive space? Simple: just tell the story. For this reason, That Dragon fares better as an experience than as an actual game. The more explicitly “gamey” parts of it prove to be its weakest limb.

Through a series of first person point and click sequences, we see Ryan Green and his family unravel in the wake of the terrible news about baby Joel. We observe simple everyday family tasks like pushing him along on a merry go round or see him go down a slide. The game manages to find that much needed balance between sweetness and bitterness. That Dragon is not completely miserable or dark.

Many instances depict a happy display of father-son interaction that is full of heart.

Then the grim reality crops up; moments such as trying to console an uncontrollably wailing Joel before saying a few desperate prayers.

Cancer is not the only force to contend with in That Dragon. All manner of domestic issues, from marital strife to isolation are confronted through the use of eloquent, if limited gameplay that often feels like poetry. As mentioned earlier it’s the more “this is a game” parts of That Dragon that let it down. The clunky mini games throughout come to mind. In one such instance, baby Joel soars to a distant planet on a bouquet of inflated medical gloves while black cancerous cells attack him from all angles. Eventually it becomes impossible to succeed, and while that’s the point given its role as an actual gameplay metaphor, the emotional weight is quite lost as the mechanics were dull and frustrating. A boss battle with the titular Dragon feels awkward and shoehorned.

That Dragon, Cancer will alienate as much as it will inspire. The game’s emphasis on Christian faith will have little bearing on those whose understanding of death and the afterlife is completely different. Those who have been affected by cancer, either directly or otherwise, may be reluctant to step into its world, as for all its sweetness, it is intentionally afflicted with the horrible knowledge that the hammer will drop sooner or later. Yet, for those who remain curious, it’s not a particularly fun or enjoyable game. But art does not necessarily need to be fun or enjoyable.

Suits: A Business RPG

RPG (Role-Playing Game) Maker is a programme that allows the everyman to create, develop and play his or her own role-playing game. While the scope of ambition, talent and creativity of the gaming community should hardly be a secret by now, a lot of user generated content rarely manages to escape the purview of “novelty” or “curiosity”. While they’re fun to play, they are not exactly something an average consumer would be prepared to spend money on. Enter Suits: A Business RPG, an RPG Maker creation that is deserving of your attention at only one euro. It’s a real steal as this game is worth far more than its asking price. A decent JRPG (Japanese RPG; think Final Fantasy) styled game, but also a fiendishly funny satire on the corporate world, pop culture, and life itself.

The game’s aesthetics are soul destroyingly bleak. Showered in shades of grey, it takes the monotony of office life to the extreme. But fear not; Suits remains one of the most colourful games ever to be literally devoid of colour. Its simple sprites manage to squeeze out a lot of emotion, blending the pixels with scribbled doodle style drawings. Backgrounds and enemies appear to be scrawled by the hand of an employee, with fantasy style monstrous qualities that allude to the implicit horror of the daily grind. Beyond its graphical appeal, this is a game that is brimming

with personality, and its slashing satirical humour creeps up on you from just about everywhere.

The quality of writing in a game is something that isn’t often paid enough attention.

It’s a treat when a game proves to be so consistently funny. In its basest form, players can expect to find themselves chuckling at the many puns littered throughout, to the quirky social observations with enough truth in them to be relatable as well as funny.

Gameplay is that of your standard JRPG affair with turn based combat and the like.

The game isn’t entirely perfect, however. It takes a slight nosedive into grinding territory before long. Expect to spend a lot of time battling weaker enemies to become strong enough to stand up to the bigger baddies in the corporate colosseum, though of course in a game like this, “a lot of time” is all relative.

An average run of the game will clock in at around two hours. Ordinarily for an RPG a run time as short as this would be a downside, but here it sits snugly. There’s an awful lot of substance here for 99c and the game knows better than to outstay its welcome.

Unfortunately replay value is rather limited as there’s no significant hooks to the game post-ending other than to experience the story again.

Suits: A Business RPG is low in price and steeped in value. A consistently clever game, its appeal lies much deeper than its gameplay.

Words by Adam Donnelly Developer: Technomancy Studio Publisher: Technomancy Studio Release Date: 5th January 2016

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Photo: Eddie Redmayne as lili elbe in The Danish Girl

Reel Identities: Transgender Representation in Film and TV Following the backlash The Danish Girl has received for casting Eddie Redmayne as a lead, David Monaghan looks at how trans people are represented within film and television 2015 was the year of trans. We saw a surge of support for trans rights as Caitlyn Jenner came out on social media to a predominantly positive and supportive public, later winning the Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year award. On home turf, the Irish government passed the Gender Recognition Bill, allowing Ireland’s trans citizens the right to self-identify without the need to provide testimony from psychiatrists or doctors.

And more recently, in Northern Ireland a Green Party candidate has become the first transgender person to stand for election within the state. Most spectacularly is the fact that a film that deals with trans issues has reached the Oscars: Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl has landed four nominations: for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design.

The battle for recognition at such a prestigious awards ceremony was difficult, and not without controversy. A lot of criticisms levelled at the film stem from Eddie Redmayne’s casting as the historical Lili Elbe, the first woman to undergo sex reassignment surgery. He joins the ranks of Dallas Buyers Club’s Jared Leto and Transparent’s Jeffrey Tambor under cisgender actors cast in transgender roles. To many trans activists such a move is considered a joke, and sends the message out that in order to succeed, even in a world where trans people can finally be depicted in mainstream media, you must still be cisgender.

Of course, there are exceptions to this ‘rule.’ Orange is the New Black’s Laverne Cox is a trans actress who plays an openly trans person within the show. Her character, Sophia Burset, deals with the stigma and challenges that come with being trans in a despotic and often harsh prison environment: she puts up with inappropriate conversation from fellow inmates, such as prison chef Red who tells her that she could never accept a child of hers who would make such a transition. In season three she faces her biggest stress as she is assaulted in her salon by embittered prisoners. The threat of violence is an unfortunate reality for trans peoples worldwide. Burset’s problems are viewed as somewhat more valid than that of Redmayne’s as Elbe or Tambor’s as Maura Pfefferman, as Cox has experienced first-hand the hardships people face when expressing their gender identity, while the former two come to their work with a degree of separation from the subject matter. It is worth noting, however, that they both depict characters who are in the process of transitioning, and spend a portion of their respective pieces presenting as male. An argument can be made for their casting with this in mind.

Despite the drawbacks listed above, it is a step forward to acknowledge trans people through the medium of film without the need for cloak and dagger storytelling. In years previous, trans people were treated as the butt of the joke. When they did appear, their stories were not treated with the respect or gravitas that they deserved. In a strange coincidence, the rise in support for the trans rights movement happened concurrently with a sudden boom in Irish cinema, with Ireland bagging a total of nine nominations at the Academy Awards this year. Irish director Neil Jordan won an Oscar in 1993 under the Best Original Screenplay category for his film The Crying Game, which deals with a multitude of social issues, among them issues of gender: one of the characters within the narrative is trans. Stephen Rea’s Fergus is overcome with revulsion when he discovers that his love interest, Jaye Davidson’s Dil, is a transwoman, her gender identity reduced to a mere plot-twist. This does not mark the only time Jordan has dealt with trans representation: his 2005 adaptation of Patrick McCabe’s Breakfast on Pluto treads similar ground.

The film centres on Patrick Braden, later Patricia ‘Kitten’ Braden, and her journey from rural 1970s Cavan to the bustling metropolis of London in a strange quest to find her mother. The word ‘transgender’ is never uttered however, possibly due to Patricia’s inability to receive education

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''The battle for recognition at such a prestigious awards ceremony was difficult, and not without controversy.'' on the transgender movement and/or the social ignorance of such a topic in the 1970s: “I am a boy, not a girl!” Patricia’s adoptive mother forces her to say. While Patricia says she is female and presents as such, different pronouns and descriptions are used to refer to the character throughout. Her childhood friends use female pronouns and are fine with her style of dress, while other characters, such as the deeply-closeted singer-cum-republican Billy Hatchet, call her ‘Patrick’ at times. Some characters see Patricia as male, while others see her as female. In a scene set in a London nightclub, a man flirts with Patricia before exclaiming, “Christ, you’re a bloke,” to which Patricia responds, “Ten out of ten, Sherlock.” When magician Bertie Vaughan falls for Patricia, she is forced to tell him “I’m not a girl.” He responds by saying, “I knew that, princess.” Film critic Roger Ebert spoke about this, writing: “[Patricia] doesn’t care if you think [she’s] male or female, as long as you think [she’s] Kitten.”

Indeed, as the narrative progresses, it becomes less a realistic story of coming out as trans, and more a quest of individuality and acceptance in an inherently oppressive society. While the film fails as a trans narrative, it succeeds in depicting the struggle of being different within a suffocating space. This film, and the earlier Crying Game, are indicative of what trans people had often come to expect from cinema before the surge in support for the movement: stories where trans identities are not concrete or treated with enough gravitas. Exceptions like the biographical Boys Don’t Cry did exist, however, offering hope to a misrepresented community.

But now trans representation is at a point, surely, that suggests we are a more welcoming and accepting society? Perhaps not. Recently, Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globes and made remarks about Caitlyn Jenner, using her old name in the process. He also joked about what Jeffrey Tambor does in his role as Maura. Trans people, alongside other members of the LGBTQ+ community, are still treated as the butt of the joke within major Hollywood narratives, as a September 2015 YouTube video from GLAAD, titled ‘Hollywood Must Do Better,’ demonstrates. It shows clips from films such as Ted 2, The Wolf of Wall Street, Grown Ups 2, Instructions Not Included, Anchorman 2, and a host of others, that feature trans people as caricatures or walking punchlines (or in some extreme cases, punching bags). The unfortunate thing is that all of these films were made within the last five years, telling us once again that, while progress has been made, there is still a long way to go in creating better representation for trans people within the medium.

“GINGER Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire 2nd did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.” This well-known quote is echoed by Yuri Lowenthal’s admission that he’s just the male version of his wife and co-worker, Tara Platt. While they’ve yet to don their dancing shoes and foxtrot across the screen, it wouldn’t be surprising for the pair to add yet another talent to their respective résumés. As both stage and screen actors, prolific voiceover artists and heads of their own production and publishing companies, the duo have worked tirelessly for over a decade to carve out impressive careers in the entertainment industry. With roles ranging from animated show Tiger and Bunny to voicing well-known characters from the DC universe and finally wearing the superhero capes on in web series Shelf Life, one look at their IMDB pages involves endless scrolling.

Their obvious need to conquer all facets of show business stretches out in a limitless list of credits. And yet in person they remain suspiciously perky despite jet lag taking hold.

On their determined work ethic Lowenthal muses, “I think we just always keep moving and we always keep trying different things. We’re either publishing, writing books or we’re doing our own productions and then working for other people as well. I think a lot of it is about creating relationships with people and showing that you’re trustworthy and can do the job that they’re looking for and they’ll remember that.” While Platt agrees that building relationships is key, she’s keen to point out that a passion for the craft is the main thing pushing their workaholic nature into gear. “I think also it’s because at the heart of it we really just want to be storytellers. Whether we’re telling our own stories, we’re creating them or we’re telling somebody else’s stories, it’s about bringing to life an exciting adventure that we’re passionate about so I think that’s why we have that body of work is because we’re like ‘let’s do it, let’s tell this story, let’s do this one!’ It’s fun.”

At the mention of that all-important F word, Platt concedes that while both she and her husband have a constant desire to create, following someone else’s script comes with its own perks. “We literally have a whiteboard at home on our kitchen table that has things that we want to do. There’s a lot of projects that we’re in process on that we’d like to do, and then of course it’s always exciting and flattering when someone else wants to cast you in their project because then that means that you’re not having to do the work to create it, you just get to go play!” Lowenthal, however, is eager to point out the toll a constant creative output can have on an entertainer. “It can be exhausting.

We have a lot of fun and we love but it can be exhausting to constantly be trying to produce your own content.”

Creeping through their respective credits, it can be hard to pin-point what aspect of acting drew them in – screen, stage, voice work? Juggling all mediums seems to come naturally to both as their careers have rolled along, and for a pair so well matched it’s not so surprising that they each found themselves on the stage first. For Platt, it was a love kindled during childhood. “I was nine and the very first play I did was called ‘Wait Until Dark’. It’s a theatre production; straight play, no music. I happened to be the little kid in a cast of adults and I was like ‘oh, this is the best thing ever’ and from there that’s how I decided that I wanted to be an actor.” Despite the many paths her career has taken her on, Platt remains a believer in the craft of theatre. “I was very committed to getting a degree and pursuing that as a career, but it all started on stage. For me it’s all about stage work.”

Lowenthal was more of a late bloomer, but still young when he started doing theatre work in his last year of high school. An avid returner to the stage now in his forties, he is quick to praise the immediacy of theatre. “You don’t get that in anything else that we do.” Platt agrees. “I love the idea of having to create the beginning, middle and end all simultaneously in a live format. I love doing film and I love having the sets and the costumes and all of that, but there’s something exciting about theatre because you are doing the

entirety of that story in a set period of time, whereas when you’re doing a film, you might be shooting for two months… with theatre you have to find the whole arc of the piece and be able to carry that character through that in a set piece of time and you go on that cathartic journey.”

With the interview taking place during downtime at MCM Comic Con, the obvious question is whether Lowenthal and Platt grew up on the other side of the signing booth.

“When I was growing up comic books were not cool at all; superheroes were not cool,” Lowenthal says. “I had a very small group of friends and we played D&D and didn’t hang out with a lot of other people. And now it’s the cool thing!

Now I play D&D as a job with Will Whedon as part of his table top show called Titan’s Grave. It was sort of a high point of my career to play D&D with Will Whedon and get paid for it.”

As regulars in the convention circuit, both have noticed the increasing popularity of such events, with Platt stating that they can get invited to appear at a convention nearly every weekend of the year somewhere around the world.

The change is almost inconceivable to Lowenthal, who grew up as a fan of a little known sci-fi show. “It was me and three other people who knew about Doctor Who. It aired late at night on public television or early Sunday mornings and now everybody watches it.” While the two are now a successful pair of nerds both in love and work, Lowenthal claims that his affinity for The Doctor wasn’t so hot during his teenage years: “Tossing my 12 foot scarf around my neck? That never got me a girlfriend.”

Illustration: Rene gagnon

Taking a quick break from the comic convention circuit, the dynamic acting duo of Yuri Lowenthal and Tara Platt speak to Eva Griffin about their prolific acting careers and Doctor Who’ s rise to hotness

''I think a lot of it is about creating relationships with people and showing that you're trustworthy and can do the job that they're looking for and they'll remember that.''

Photo: Yuri lowenthal and Tara pLatt

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Director: Tom McCarthy Actors: Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery.

Release Date: 29th January

SPOTLIGHT is a film about a dying profession. Though it mainly serves as a retelling of a clerical scandal in early2000s Boston, it combines this with an intense passion for meticulous investigative journalism in the classic broadsheet sense. Without adding too much ‘Hollywood’ to a busy news room, Spotlight manages to be a successful dive into the everyday realities of investigative journalism – warts and all.

Based on true events, the film opens in Boston during the summer of 2001. With a new editor of the Boston Globe in charge (Liev Schreiber), the internal four-person team known as ‘Spotlight’ (led by Michael Keaton) is assigned to use their intricate investigative skills to build a story on the widespread cover-up of Catholic Church abuses in the Boston area.

The film itself shines on its performances. The action

THE HATEFUL EIGHT WITH The Hateful Eight, it is easy to tell that Quentin Tarantino aims for something different. He raises the bar in some of his filmmaking trademarks, namely engaging dialogue and depraved characters, while also introducing newer elements to the mix, creating something familiar yet refreshing.

Set during a blizzard in a barren Wyoming landscape, it tells the story of two bounty hunters, Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) and John ‘The Hangman’ Ruth (Kurt Russell). They share a stagecoach with criminal Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and supposed Sheriff Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins) to Minnie’s Haberdashery.

The set pieces, such as snowy, mountainous forests, set

Director: Paolo Sorrentino Starring: Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano, Ed Stoppard Release Date: In Irish cinemas January 29th

of the film is simply journalists doing their jobs, with little added glamour. Mark Ruffalo’s portrayal of Globe reporter Mike Rezendes is impressive in how annoying he is – though he manages to remain sympathetic despite being wholly dedicated to his career and little else. The entire cast is packed with big names, with Rachael McAdams and Liev Schreiber also turning in solid performances. On top of that, writer/ director Tom McCarthy delivers an Aaron Sorkin-lite script, with plenty of rapid dialogue and fast-paced conversations to keep the pace steady throughout the two hours. The moments in which abuse victims detail their stories make for difficult yet enthralling viewing.

The film in many ways is a love letter to broadsheet journalism, even with the odd criticism of the Boston Globe.

The film does not get grouchy or preachy about its love of the past, with the internet as a quiet spectre throughout the

the film apart from Tarantino’s 2013 film Django Unchained.

The eerie set design, combined with a slow pace and Ennio Morricone’s chilling score create an ominous and tense tone.

The characters contribute significantly to the sense of unease. Unlike Django, there is no inherently “good” hero in this film. Rather, there is a collection of amoral characters who never gain the trust of each other or the audience. This dynamic gives Tarantino great opportunities to show off his talent for dialogue, raising viewer interest with the intensity of the conversations. It is compelling, despite the narrative being somewhat basic.

The performances are brilliant. Russell gives a solid, unfaltering performance as a ruthless bounty hunter who

brings his convicts in alive, as does Jackson as one with a chequered past. Goggins and Bruce Dern also impress as the only Confederates of the eight. However, Jennifer Jason Leigh stands out. She brings Daisy Domergue to life, creating one of the most detestable Tarantino characters yet. Some fail to make an impression, especially Michael Madsen, who does not bring much to the table, and Tim Roth, whose underutilised character results in a fairly one dimensional performance.

Tarantino’s tendency towards violence and gore is still present. However, there are a few instances where it borders on cartoonish. Limits are also pushed in terms of shocking material – one exchange between Dern and Jackson is not for the faint of heart. Despite all the sensationalism, the film holds up. The end result is like Christmas morning for old and new Tarantino diehards, and also entertaining for the casual fan.

WE ARE all just extras. This is the message director Paolo Sorrentino hopes to convey in Youth, his second English language film after 2011’s This Must Be The Place, and his first cinematic feature to follow his 2013 Oscar-winning The Great Beauty. It acts as a reflection on life, death, and everything in between.

Set against the backdrop of a luxurious resort in the Swiss Alps, Youth follows Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine), a retired classical music composer, and Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel), a filmmaker in the process of writing his latest feature titled Life’s Last Day. The pair are close friends who also happen to be connected by their respective offspring: Fred’s daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz) is married to Mick’s son Julian (Ed Stoppard). Their relationship is made complicated when Julian leaves Lena for pop star Paloma Faith, who plays herself in an awkward and clunky cameo. This marital breakdown drives the narrative forward, but narrative and plot are merely secondary in a film preoccupied with

symbolism.

Fred and Mick spend the majority of their vacation at the resort discussing the past and the future. Now that they have reached old age their memories have started to fade, and they see little hope in coming times. Their anguish over growing old acts as a counterpoint to the vibrancy of the Alpine setting, which is visually breathtaking – cinematographer Luca Bigazzi is to be commended. The aging pair encounter various other characters at the resort, such as a retired Maradona (who plays himself), disillusioned actor Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano), and a Miss Universe (Madalina Diana Ghenea), all of whom reflect on their lives and careers. They offer levity in a film steeped with heavy-handed visual metaphors, which make the film feel rather bloated at times. Also of note is how wonderful sequences, like one in particular in which Fred flashes back to all the starlets he has worked with

Freeheld FREEHELD has all the tell-tale signs of a film directed under someone removed from their subject matter.

With the social change seen in 2015 for LGBTQ+ people, the archetypal gay characters in Hollywood are beginning to show their age. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Peter Sollett’s latest film. It follows Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore) from her first encounter with her future partner, Stacie Andree (Ellen Page), to her diagnosis of cancer and defending her legal right to give her pension to Stacie upon her death.

Scenes are scored by painfully banal guitars and pianos for emotional moments that are reminiscent of a Lifetime film. Julianne Moore breaks character in key scenes and instead operates in a standard mode for her, which has been seen countless times before.

What merit the film has comes in reminding us why marriage equality was of great importance. However,

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the film demonstrates this with condescending and clunky dialogue.

The film also retains hesitancies about gay people. Laurel and Stacie never kiss during the film; they dance. Not only does the film’s narrative mirror that of Philadelphia but the depiction of physical intimacy between its gay couple is mimicked – except Philadelphia was made 23 years ago. Later, the intimate relationship between Laurel and her detective partner, Dane Wells (Michael Shannon), becomes the film’s focus; both Laurel and Stacie become supporting characters in their own narrative, as the slightly homophobic Dane becomes the protector of gay rights.

What’s worse is the sudden appearance of Steve Carrell as comic-relief Steven. While almost all the actors, with the exception of Page, sleepwalk through

this movie, it is Carrell’s flamboyant character that becomes a jarring stereotype in a film that is trying to be serious. It doesn’t help that his desire for marriage equality is seen, by the film’s logic, as exploitative of the U.S. law. The film’s worst offence, however, is in being a bland and forgettable. It is no surprise it was lost among other contenders in the current Oscar season.

In a Nutshell: Freeheld is not a bad film, just a bland and forgettable one. By far its biggest problem is that, in 2016, we should expect a much better representation of LGBTQ+ people than what was made over 20 years ago.

MICHAEL O’SULLIVAN

SPOTLIGHT movie. That said, some of the symbolism is ridiculously blunt, with the worst offender being a shot of a giant church overlooking some small suburban town houses.

It is easy to see why Spotlight picked up so many Oscar nominations, as it is a classical award season movie. It delivers great performances, some nostalgia for the past, along with a harrowing story of abuse taken straight from the headlines.

IN A NUTSHELL: Spotlight is a well-spent two hours – believe the Oscar buzz.

MARTIN HEALY

In a Nutshell: A change from Tarantino’s recent features that still retains his trademarks. Violent, sometimes shocking, but most of all entertaining.

JACK SHANNON

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins Release Date: Out Now

Youth over the years, are let down by others, such as when we see Michael Caine conducting a field of cows into musical symphony.

IN A NUTSHELL: Youth is a sometimes-poignant, but often self-indulgent reflection on life, death, and aging; overbearing symbolism does not always work in its favour. It is worth watching for its stunning photography and emotional soundtrack.

DAVID MONAGHAN

Director: Peter Sollett Starring: Julianne Moore, Ellen Page, Steve Carrell, Luke Grimes, Michael Shannon Release Date: In Irish Cinemas from February 19th 2016

Netflix Better/Chill Harder: Equilibrium

Top Ten Journalism Movies

Having sifted through the slew of content on the streaming service Netflix, Owen Steinberger brings you something worth watching: sci-fi spectacular Equilibrium LET’S face it, Netflix is full of terrible movies: your choices ranging from that musty straight-toDVD 80s horror flick nestled at the bottom of the page, to that new bloated, directionless Hobbit sequel, or to one of four different documentaries concerning the Amish. Good films are like wheat to so much chaff. You have to dig down to get them, and it’s not fun.

This is why no one pays for their own subscription anymore; friends commonly split the pot between three or four, willing to put up with a crowded queue on occasion for the sake of better value. The quality of the service takes a nosedive once you’ve finished watching the essentials. Already watch Breaking Bad a year ago? Just finished Fargo? At this point, suspicious properties like Lilyhammer become appealing, and that’s when it’s time to close the window and move on to something else. But what else is there to do, other than Netflix?

We hope to make sure you never have to answer that question. OTwo has done all of the necessary digging, sorted through heaps of worthless slush to find some real gems. Perhaps that monthly nine euro will be worth it after all.

Here’s a pick to enjoy with a group of mates, with your significant other, or alone.

Approved for all forms of chilling, Kurt Wimmer’s Equilibrium is not a masterpiece. It is damn entertaining, though.

The Third World War has come to pass and civilization has survived, if barely. A dictatorship has come to power in its wake, bent on preventing future war by suppressing all human

emotion. The mind-altering drug prozium is prescribed to every citizen of Equilibria, forcefully.

Christian Bale stars as John Preston, a warrior-priest “cleric” with some serious combat capabilities. Sean Bean, his sidekick, turns in a familiar performance as Man-That-Dies. The two have been tasked with cleansing civilization of “sense offenders,” those who have the gall to feel in a post-war world. They comb Equilibria’s outer reaches, searching for outlaws who may be hoarding priceless works of art, and they have been ordered to destroy whatever—or whoever—they find.

Bean’s death comes when he sacrifices himself for the sake of an ideal. Brazenly quoting Yeats from a smuggled copy of his Collected Works, sense-offending right in Preston’s face. Over the top, intense, incredibly entertaining nonsense.

Fight scenes are built around the martial art gunkata which uses the physical gun as a weapon, not just the bullets it fires. Typically found in Hong Kong action flicks, and first envisioned by the legendary director John Woo, Equilibrium approaches the technique from a Western perspective, and does it justice. Not only does Preston fight dozens of men simultaneously with only his quick wits and trigger finger at his side, he also engages in intense one-on-one duels that play out more like swordfights. Quick cuts and fantastic choreography inject so much energy into these sequences that they feel like they’re building up friction, and are about to burst into waves of static electricity. In Equilibrium man and gun are one entity, whirling at their opponent with

unstoppable fury and minute precision.

Simple things stir emotion in Equilibrium— the sunlight streaming through a window, a record playing on a dusty old turntable, a snow globe upended. Roger Ebert called this movie an “action picture… with a mind,” and if you don’t want to believe us, at least believe him. Equilibrium does more than most of its peers: it speaks from the heart. Preston’s suffering feels overdone at times, like most things are in this movie, but the honesty of the message and the rapid-fire waves of action that soon come rolling in distract from most groan-worthy moments.

There are plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing throughout. Taye Diggs soon enters the fray as Bean’s replacement, but he has a secret, deadly purpose. Preston’s rebellion begins silently, but it might not stay silent for long. This is all just in the movie’s first fifteen minutes. That’s what makes Equilibrium stick out in your mind after you’ve watched it: the movie simply refuses to take its foot off of the gas. What happens when the government’s best soldier turns against them? Will Preston be able to keep the powerful agents of the Equilibria government off his tail? And what’s really at stake? The questions keep coming.

While the premise is predictable, and a bit overdone — hats off to The Matrix and friends —the intense, inventive gunplay, the goofy rollercoaster of a plot, and the genuine emotion that lies beneath it all make the movie stand out regardless. If you want a popcorn flick that won’t kill any brain cells, Equilibrium is exactly what you’re looking for.

''The Third World War has come to pass and civilization has survived, if barely. A dictatorship has come to power in its wake, bent on preventing future war by suppressing all human emotion.''

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State of Play (2009)

This political thriller set in Washington D.C. deals with the fatalities that occur when a congressman attempts to investigate a controversial private defence contractor. Exploring not only the consequences of the privatisation of American homeland security, the film also interrogates the close interconnected relationship between politicians and the press.

9 8 7 6

To Kill a Messenger (2014) Focusing on the C.I.A’s involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking in Nicaragua, this crime thriller is based on the true story of reporter Gary Webb in the mid-1990s. The film follows the lead up and subsequent media smear campaign that threatened to disgrace Webb as a credible and groundbreaking journalist.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (American Version) (2011) This film follows Mikael

Blomkvist, aided by the eponymous heroine, as he investigates the disappearance of a woman over 40 years ago. The film deftly blends old-school detective skills with the advanced technology skills, resulting in a winning formula of high suspense, intricate plot and grim undertones.

Almost Famous (2000) Loosely based on Cameron Crowe’s biographical experiences as a music journalist for Rolling Stone, this film charts youngster William Miller’s coverage of the fictitious band Stillwater as they propel into stardom. Delving into the hazy drug-fuelled world of groupies and rock star antics, William hones his skills as a reporter.

Frost/Nixon (2008) Based on the 1977 Frost/Nixon interviews

between British journalist David Frost and U.S. President Richard Nixon, this historical drama depicts the epic battle that will make or break either of their careers. This edge-of-the-seat journalistic depiction of fleeting opportunity highlights the skilled rhetoric and perseverance of journalists when in search of the truth.

5

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) This tongue-in-cheek comedy follows the fictional

San Diego television station, KVWN Channel 4 in the 1970s. Ron Burgundy’s success as anchorman is threatened by the hire of co-anchor Veronica Corningstone. Their rivalry leads to romance, teleprompter sabotage and near death at the hands of a Kodiak bear.

4 3

Citizen Kane

Considered to be one of the greatest films of all time, this cinematic masterpiece is a thinly disguised biopic of American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Told through a series of fragmented flashbacks, the story follows reporter Jerry Thompson as he attempts to uncover the man behind the larger than life persona of Charlie Kane.

All the President’s Men (1976) This political thriller follows reluctant partners Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post as they investigate a seemingly minor incident of burglary at the Watergate Complex. However, things are not what they seem and they soon uncover links to both the CIA and President Richard Nixon which unearths the corruption of his administration.

2 1

Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

This historical drama charts the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow and anti-Communist Senator Joseph McCarthy at the height of the Red Scare. Murrow sought to discredit McCarthy, highlighting the media’s obligation to present a dissenting voice during times of oppression and scare mongering.

Night Crawler (2014)

Following freelance cameraman Louis Bloom, this neo-noir thriller questions the morally invasive and legally questionable decisions that lead to stories being featured on the prime-time news. This thought-provoking film challenges the audience and their vested interest in all things scandalous, bloody and salacious.

Words: CIARA FORRISTAL

13

I had never known coldness like this before.

Not just the long drawn face, the moon-lit eyes, the silver strands that falls with rigid perfection by her shoulders. Her temperature as well – as soon as I touch her skin I feel it. A spasm, a kind of electric shock, runs through me. It is as if my own blood is coming into contact with a foreign body and doesn’t know how to react. It slices into me, and I feel an upheaval of my gut, my stomach, my entire being, as if I’m suffering some sort of fatal heartburn. She must feel it too.

The heat was too much for me.

His whole body is a furnace, generating his own warmth, and you could see this, it covered the outer layer of his skin. His skin glimmered and shined, as if all the room’s white light was directed at it. There is so much life in him.

Even from a distance it consumed me. Yet I reach for him. His eyes are brown ovals melting. Two pools of rich chocolate, with flamed specks of red chilli, swimming around and never coming to a standstill.

There was a moment, poetic in how it hovered and refused to move with time, where we both stared at each other. We looked into each

14

other’s eyes. What we looked at was impenetrable. There was no romanticised understanding, no feeling of seeing each other’s souls. Instead, we simply stared at the colours.

The blue crystals, so brittle it looked like it could shatter if she should dare blink. And the pupil. The black core that grew as I stared at it, hypnotic in its blackness, in its refusal to reveal anything. This moment of disconnection, of failed connection, lasted for longer than time itself. It burned into my mind. The girl. Unknowable and sacred.

As we kissed I saw her eyes.

As I removed her top I saw her eyes. As I tried to engage, to throw myself at passion, at lust, at a longing that appeared to be simultaneously fading and increasing, all I could see was her eyes, her eyes, her eyes. They drew me out of myself, further from her, further from life. At times I felt I was in her pupil.

Peering out over the dark edge to try to see what was happening.

There was movement and clutter, and I turned her side to side as if she were a porcelain doll. I had a wild notion that if I placed her in the right position, some sort

of light would enter her, some sort of heat would fill her up, like a balloon, and that we could, finally and fully, have each other. But with each movement she became more lifeless. It was not that she lacked enthusiasm, or that she were limp in the physical sense.

Rather, her enthusiasm blatantly concealed something else. It painted over her true feeling of disconnection, of isolation. She did not believe sex changed anything.

This was about the only thing I was sure of. She thought of all this as some kind of performance, an activity to partake in, but to keep separate from herself. She was drifting in and out of the moment, like a planet large enough to orbit its own space, unaffected by the objects attracted to its path. And if I did not make any connection with her, at the least I caught her disease. I began to drift too, and there were whole moments where I was absorbed by blackness.

Even when this occurred it was clear that we were still in separate spaces. Her disconnection was different from my own. After, when we lay side by side, we both naturally moved from each other.

Not only did it seem distasteful to be near each other, it also felt somehow wrong. I stared at the

ceiling and all I saw was her eyes. I breathed in and in, trying to obtain as much oxygen from the room as possible. I need to refuel. She emptied me completely.

When we kissed his lips were full and active, trying to transmit a signal that was getting lost on the tip of my tongue. I was the cause of our disconnection. I know this.

His efforts were failing, and I felt almost sorry as I watched them fall to the ground like disabled animals, limping solemnly around the room. When he held me his palms were full of his energy, his passion, and I could feel this heat die slowly and painfully, a most disgraceful kind of death.

When we looked into each other’s eyes there was a certain quality in his that I couldn’t discern. I smoothed the image over in my mind until it was flat and malleable. I could describe in detail the colour and shape of his eyes but nothing beyond. It was the light behind his eyes that I needed access to. And something within me called desperately to something in him, like a child throwing itself into a warm sea. Waves and waves of this desire of mine arose and attempted to reach this something of his, but in travel, in the air, these waves froze and remained

there, like evidence to a crime scene.

When it was over we could not stand each other. Not only was he on the other side of the bed, he may as well have been on the other side of the world. I felt as if a vacuum engulfed me, and I were in a glass box with no sound, no action, and most importantly no heat. There was a certain beauty when we had looked at each other’s eyes. There is a reason why I cannot get the image out of my head. I think we realised that we were looking into our opposites.

There is an emphasis on love being about knowing somebody. And this may be true. We are two circles—one red, one blue. Attracted to each other by the intensity of our different coloured flames. We merge then separate. Nothing was made, there was no purple in-between.

What was between us was not love. But there was something classic about it. Staring directly into the eyes of a person you will never know.

Realising your sphere of humanity has its limits. That sometimes, beauty, is about friction and contrast.

The knowledge that nothing will go any further, that we will never know each other. The night and the two of us are contained in separate vases.

Like flowers we grow and flourish.

Without entanglement. And without the weed of love.

POETRY

Coffee Shop Limbo

Sit, gather, use words to lather the matter.

The matter that revolves in the palm of a giant hand, Holding us: A fortune ball of foreseeable lulls.

We mask all that is pure in consumerism and sly looks to the side, and words that don’t quite fit, but are somehow accepted.

People have flocked to this coffee shop with their cutlery and china and slurping and guzzling and nature is unfolding from a wrath of fake flowers by the artificial light mocking us, taunting us, pointing its finger to blame us – us!

As what do we know about living?

Everything is coated in pink frilly dresses, Music that subdues and undertones that bloom, Searching for an outlet, a place where Truth can find some room.

There is no truth in this coffee shop.

Our lives are an elaborate lie.

We sit in indoor places with indoor faces, so complacent, so Fucking vacant, and sip, sip, sip, as if we were so delicate.

We sit so calm we talk such trite, We are the stars of forgotten light.

Why do we live so stilted, as if our hands were bound? I want to chase a fiery future, I want to breathe in less ground. I want to not sit here and feel subdued. To not sit here and feel us all tilting to the side, as our eyes and our bodies fail to match our minds

Dermot Christophers

Retelling Of Silence

offering nor receiving. asked!

Perhaps the body Even now at eighteen, he eviscerated was I know I would laugh at public property, not such a proposal mine to begin with Old as he was!

Surely then I could The alcohol on his not claim assault or breath that evening was I. misuse or damage. reason enough for me to If I could forgive He’d come and he’d say ‘no’. But the stranger who gone and I was left I was not there to gave me my first being and not being, speak. kiss— Knowing and not First he took my lips, His lips full force knowing. my teeth, my tongue on mine, tongue then he swollen and Swallowed my voice But there are convulsed, Banging off every details. These are the II. corner of my mouth, things my mind could not discard.

The moon is blue From the roof to These are the small tonight and my hands the floor and all the truths: are cold teeth in between.

That empty day, at I’m not saying there’s What a fucking the centre of Galway any connection lie it would be if he city. called it an act of End of autumn, old Just that I feel lonely desire as he was And my face feels so It was a rampage, a He might as well strange like it’s not scavenge, and I was have been a dead leaf fitting right. victim, Blown into my face Why do my hands That is the only by a wind that was refuse to write out these language I know to neither convenient words ? articulate it Nor inconvenient.

The ones in my head I In that way perhaps, mean His madness--there is nothing to My hands, I wish they regret. would fall off; my hands, I would have to be they refuse to let me a different person, a But he was not a live; my hands separate object from dead thing Insist my pages feed off my own being. the past, Not the girl who’s Call me a liar and stab He was a man and I body that day, was me with my own silence. was still a child. a lamppost to be It was five years pissed on, ago, I cannot say the [It’s not relevant but A glory hole in Cliché exact date.

I’m listening to Lorde a rundown men’s All I know, I was Again and she pulls the lavatory not old enough to small truths out of me A small space for Forgive and Forget look myself in the desperate offloading. they say eye after.

Like a small fortune Quick.

Time and time again I did not cut the out of a broken cracker] I was a thing to be two words chanted memories off my skin rushed at. like a mantra until, or numb my brain A medium of It’s a hazard really They begin to warp with poison.

These things that choke and lose all meaning, release that could This is not a tale you till you can’t cough Sour on our withered not be wrapped up of addiction or and taken and stored up any more lies. tongues. depression. away.

This is a retelling I’m not saying there’s Forgive and Forget of silence, I was not I was neither any connection but my You say, teeth are tired I will not tell you how many times I Of pushing past truths pulled at the tight Grinding down skin of my temples as memories I tried to Biting down till my Forgive and Forget tongue tastes blood and you. drips the lies That are not really How many times mine I wrung my hands, I promise – I am an white as the walking engorged quill dripping dead, and watched my With ink I did not father cry create. the desperate tears of a man willing I’m not saying there’s to sell his soul to the any connection, I only Devil for a crumb of write kindness from You To keep my hands And yet warm.

You say If I lose any more blood To Forgive and I might as well be dead.

Forget The lies (that are not really mine) Ezra Maloney Have run-dry And there are no more ways to recycle silence.

Chiamaka EnyiAmadi

15

Out Of Hours before they storm The Olympia armed with fresh material and newly pressed suits, The Maccabees’ guitarist Felix White and drummer Sam Doyle chat to Eva Griffin about their latest album, questionable DJ sets and the art of Sociology THE ELUSIVE number one album – a mere pipe dream for some fledgling bands and a mark of respect for some veterans. It can be trying to discern what sonic recipe sends an album straight to the top of the charts: stick to what you know, blend into the trends or come out guitars blazing with the most original material you can muster? An audience can be hard to please, and a solid fan base can prove impossible to please album after album. For London based quintet The Maccabees, a band lauded by NME as the “band to bury landfill indie”, hitting that height hasn’t necessarily been on their radar four albums down the line.

Doing the press rounds from their dressing room ahead of their highly anticipated set at The Olympia, guitarist Felix White and drummer Sam Doyle seem largely unfazed by the number one achievement, finally attained by their July release, Marks To Prove It. White certainly appreciates the recognition, though he concedes that a band’s stance on the charts can be problematic: “It is difficult not to quantify it sometimes because not always the best music is the most successful music, and you don’t want to mark your band by just wanting to have number ones, but honestly it felt great.” Doyle echoes this sentiment, adding, “It’s nice to have a sense of progression - not that we obsess over chart positions - but for it to keep getting better and better feels like a nice sense of reward.”As they gear up to tour their first album in four years, the pre-gig jitters are palpable as the pair swing their legs haphazardly from the dressing room table. Fans have been eagerly awaiting a follow up to 2012’s Given To The Wild, and it seems the band shared

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that anticipation, though with a tinge of unease.

“We were manically trying to make a record,” White admits, and though both he and Doyle follow the statement with a laugh, the creative slump has only taken on a humourous quality in hindsight. Returning home from touring a successful album and finding themselves stuck both physically and sonically was certainly daunting, with Doyle claiming that during that time the band didn’t enjoy the luxury of a break.

White paints a particularly morbid yet mundane image of the process: “It was like a three year black hole while making the album. We probably should be cooler about it and be a bit more mystical and mythical but we just find it really hard to make a record – it takes ages.”

Forcing themselves into a myriad of creative constraints proved fruitless until their chosen – and certainly humble – abode of Elephant and Castle opened up a different kind of inspirational door.

Marks To Prove It is a well-paced affair; it shoots and scurries via infectious hooks, pausing to peer through vignettes of South London life and ponder old age in the affecting lyrics of frontman Orlando Weeks.

Choosing a local monument to adorn the album cover, the Faraday Memorial blinks out from a night-time backdrop, a far cry from the earthen tones of Given To The Wild and the standout pop awash on their debut’s sleeve, and a move towards mature, universal lyricism. “‘You guys are old and miserable and you’re all dark... you guys got kind of weird.’”, White quips when asked if this dip into gloom is just an ageing effect.

All five members are now edging towards middle age; White’s brother and fellow guitarist Hugo and bassist Rupert Jones round out the line-up. White pauses to consider the band’s progression. “I think the first album there’s – definitely, listening to it now – a massive sense of naivety to it and it sounds very young, which is really nice in a lot of ways. It’s kind of always sentimental even playing it now.

I don’t know about sounding darker... if that was necessarily intentional, but the new record does feel quite introspective and literally dark, it sounds like evening to me.”

While the evocation of evening suggests a sense of calm, the album starts with a scream, one that White claims as his own while pointing out that it comes with connotations of horror films like The Shining – perhaps then, the album examines the horror of modern living? Doyle has a more lax suggestion for why the scream is a fitting introduction: “It’s got that kind of urgency and immediacy that we’re looking for in, not only that song [‘Marks To Prove It’], but in the object of the record.” With that in mind, it could be that the pressing need to finish an album influenced the overall sound. Doyle almost agrees. “Maybe subconsciously. I think the track ‘Marks To Prove It’ came quite late, it was one of those latter tracks as we were finishing so maybe there was a bit of that sense of venting a little bit.”

The frustration at their own perceived inability to rectify time spent with amount of output seems to have pulled The Maccabees in a new direction.

Indeed, across their career the band have been loath

to cling to just one sonic tether tying their distinct sound together, having swapped out preppy rhythms for Americana horn sections. White admits that the number of instruments and layers has decreased in order to close the expanse that was Given To The Wild.

While this has added a sense of delicate intricacy to their musicality, it comes with the advantage of being more natural to replicate in a live setting. “It just felt kind of exciting to be that exposed and vulnerable,” White explains. “These days you can sometimes fall into the trap of making everything sound perfect… I think we ended up with a record that does just sound like The Maccabees, which maybe we hadn’t achieved before.”

If Marks To Prove It is the closest the quintet have come to distilling their sound, do they think it’s necessarily plausible for a band to progress their career with a chosen, static style? “I think some bands are really good at it,” White admits. “The last three or four of The National’s records have sounded aesthetically roughly similar but the content is good and interesting enough to hold your attention. I think that’s quite cool when a band just says ‘that’s what we do’, but we’ve never been like that, we’ve been a bit restless.”

That inability to stay put has kept The Maccabees on a constant cycle of moving between the studio and the stage. At this point in their career, they’re looking forward to taking a proper step back from their instruments after this tour, with Doyle adamant that it will be a beneficial break. “That’s [the lesson] we kind of learned from after Given To The Wild, because we

The Wild ''I was super into the matching outfits. I'm trying to still get everyone to wear suits together, but I just can't organise that sense of cohesion with us.'' didn’t take a break at all and went straight back into the studio. That was detrimental because there’s no breathing space. You need to live a bit of life to have something to write about in the first place.” White also notes that being in a band requires downtime, and the lack thereof can leave you feeling as if you’ve missed something. “Of course there’s a life beyond it. I think you do realise that the things that you said to yourself when you were fifteen, that you would sacrifice anything to do this, you actually have sacrificed them. I wouldn’t change it though; it’s a blessed existence.”

Touring offers the obvious possibility of travelling, though constant gigging and the continuous press circuit mean bands very rarely get to see the sights. Thankfully, both White and Doyle have enjoyed “some good nights out in Dublin”, citing Whelan’s as a favourite spot. White even got to explore another side to his musical talents when given the opportunity to DJ in The Academy – will this be his next pursuit when The Maccabees tour comes to an end? “Have you heard us DJ though?

We’re kind of out of touch with what people even listen to in clubs anymore.” At White’s confession, Doyle desperately interjects to save face among the cool kids of the dance scene: “No, Felix, we’re trying to get more gigs! Spread the word – we’re great DJs.” So if you missed their raucous set at The Olympia, be sure to catch them spinning some delectable tunes at a club night near you.

Diving into the subject of alternative careers on the back of White’s DJ confession, both musicians

initially come up blank, though Doyle has a background in film and theatre that he would enjoy pursuing if time allows. White, conversely, doesn’t seem too keen to continue his foray into sociology that began his university experience, especially since he struggles to explain his long lost art. “Sociology is the study of society with application and reference to human behaviours in different topical contexts…” he trails off, leaving Doyle shaking his head and whispering the refrain “You’re just making that up.”

With this challenge to flaunt his knowledge, so begins a rather odd digression as the interview further descends into laughter on Doyle’s end. “I could tell you stuff about Japanese business models compared to other business models... not business models but like how they treat... oh I’ve forgotten it now.” Though White attempts to explain himself further, it seems most of his time in sociology lectures gave way to daydreams of studios and stages.

“I’ve literally come up with that now,” he concedes, before finally answering the initial question with tongue firmly in cheek. “If I did something else in my life I’d probably pick up a bit more of my own Japanese research on business models, just take that further.”

If the sociological end of things doesn’t hold up, can we expect to see The Maccabees on tour forever? Probably not, according to White. “I can’t see us rocking in our sixties,” he says, though he admits that the temptation to

switch things up lies on the horizon. “I was super into the matching outfits. I’m trying to still get everyone to wear suits together, but I just can’t organise that sense of cohesion with us.”

White isn’t the only one upset with the lack of formal wear in their stage shows, as Doyle recalls a similarly dissatisfied fan of fancy. “I think it was in Berlin after Wall of Arms came out… the cover was by an artist by Boo Ritson where she literally covers you in paint, so we were all painted and photographed.

This woman came up to me and said ‘yes, I thought the concert was good but you didn’t wear the outfits,’ and I was like ‘what outfits?’ She said ‘the outfits from the album’! I was like ‘you think we get covered in paint every night?’”

Though touring is often the great love easing its unsteady arms across a band’s career, musicians pressed for ‘fun’ backstage tales of debauchery can disappoint clamouring journalists. White namechecks Carrie Brownstein and her book Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl to illustrate that tour life is simply life on the road: equally as dull. “She was saying it’s the worst thing trying to explain to people what it’s like being on tour… It’s based around trying to work out where you’re gonna get food and how you’re gonna sleep and getting hot water... just very basic things

[but] people always want to get this thing out of you.”

That said, the band do come armed with a set of favourite stories, one revolving around Doyle and the band’s old penchant for drinking before and after gigs.

During a previous festival season where a pint provided not only some relaxation but refreshment from the blistering heat, Doyle passed out backstage donning a Led Zeppelin t-shirt. “Whilst he’s passed out it becomes a bit of a photo opportunity,” White explains. “We start putting peanuts on his head, that kind of thing. He becomes a bit of a tourist attraction and people start taking notice.” Then divine intervention swoops in and lands Them Crooked Vultures backstage, the super group comprising Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and one John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame. White sees an unmissable opportunity as these stars align. “So I – in a fit of real drunken confidence – just bolt straight over to them and explain the situation that Sam was passed out there and it’d be great if we got photos with them.”

And so, there exists in the universe a photo of Jones next to an unsuspecting fan. “They told me at around midnight when we left the festival,” Doyle shakes his head and casts a side-eye at his bandmate. “Very cruel.” So, is that the drummer’s proudest moment in his 12 years with The Maccabees? “No, not that proud of that one,” he sighs, before White pipes up, “It’s my proudest moment.”

Marks To Prove It is out now.

Photographs courtesy of Mischa Pearlman and Q The Music

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A figure larger than life: David Bowie

The passing of a man lost in time has left the world in mourning.

Adam Lawler examines why the space between earthling and outsider defines why we love David Bowie

ILLUSTRATION: Poland SPRANG IT HAS been two weeks since it happened, and it hangs over the world like a fog still. On the streets of Brixton walk figures with their heads hung.

David Bowie is gone. People who grew up loving his music for five decades are distraught; people who never considered themselves fans still find themselves oddly affected. The outpouring of grief has been both heartening and heartbreaking, but what is it about this larger than life figure that has commanded the devotion of so many?

Bowie had endless reach, and his influence permeates almost every aspect of popular music. His contributions are wildly varied. He played with perceptions of gender, shifting between forms with fluid grace, making androgyny cool. There was the spectacle of his live shows: mime, make-up, and drama, never content just to play the songs. The Berlin trilogy was arguably the most innovative period in his career. Along with Tony Visconti and Brian Eno he cooked up what had become known as the Berlin Sound, a blend of pop, rock, funk, and European electronica that made albums like Heroes, Low, and Lodger so futuristic. In 2002 Bowie even predicted the impending dominance of file-sharing, saying that “music itself will

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become like running water or electricity”.

Which is the real inspiration we can Come the 80s he could have called For the younger generation, we take from him beside his legendary it a day. The spectacular run of records cannot know what it must have been music career.” between The Man Who Sold The World like to see Bowie’s career unwinding.

None of this explains the stream and Scary Monsters would be enough to It would have seemed like a gimmick of tweets lamenting his passing, from sustain any artist for the rest of their lives had it not been for the undeniable people who weren’t even born when and ensure an almost mythical status. connecting power of the songs. Songs ‘Let’s Dance’ was released. His music is If he had ceased along with the 70s he like “Starman” will last forever for the timeless, but it’s more than that which would have been firmly remembered as thousands of people who gathered in captivates our imaginations. To us, he part of an era, a fond memory coated in Brixton, Bowie’s hometown, for a mass represented something sexy, silly, and dust and crackling through the speakers. singalong in emotional homage. With challenging. He showed us how to strip “He was that weird, wonderful alien every gimmick stripped back – the ourselves back and build ourselves up man,” people would say, and Rebel experiments, make-up, costumes, again – he showed us how to recreate Rebel would still be heavily rotated on personas and metanarratives – what and reimagine. He flamboyantly daytime radio. But this was never going remained was an incredible songwriter. illustrated the fruitlessness of settling. to happen; Bowie has always been of his Looking back at a period in his career is He taught us how to be every version time and ahead of the curve at once. akin to walking into a history book about of ourselves at once.

“It’s just really hard to compare the era. He was so inextricably linked He showed the outsiders an yourself to someone like Bowie,“ says to every scene that alternative way to '' He taught us how to be every version he inhabited that it live, defying genres creates a vivid picture and giving lost souls of ourselves at once.'' of a time and place. a gentle push in Most recently, he the right direction, jettisoned his regular band from “The invigorating and inspiring us. The Duy Nguyen, co-creator of the website Next Day” in favour of the jazz quartet feeling of listening to Bowie for the supbowie.com, which tells you what who he invited to feature on Blackstar, first time is a sense of belonging. “Oh the star was doing at your age. “Not his latest, after catching one of their no love, you’re not alone,” he called only because he was a musical genius shows at a New York jazz club. He loved to us. And so, adults will cry over their and a talent, because many people are. music unconditionally. This is why he ticket stubs and lyric booklets, and What really sets him apart is how he returned after a decade of silence with millenials will sit in a dark room and used all that. By not stopping when he the feeling that he just couldn’t keep stare through misty eyes at the Top Of could have, he always kept going. Kept himself from creating.

The Pops performance of “Starman“, experimenting and tried new things.

knowing they will never see an equivalent spectacle in their lifetimes.

“Look up here, I’m in heaven. I’ve got scars that can’t be seen,” comes the tortured croon. “This way or no way, you know I’ll be free; just like that bluebird.”

These were the lyrics of his last single, Lazarus, from his last album, Blackstar, released two days before his death. The clues, although cryptic, were there.

For some the lines between his public persona and his private self have always been blurred; the media report his “secret” battle with cancer and his “secret” cremation as if the right word for his personal affairs isn’t “private” – but he never once sold himself or the people in his life as part of the façade. He gave so much to the world yet kept himself to himself. All that the papers and the gossip-mongers can do is assume, like they always did with Bowie. You get the feeling he would be pleased.

In the end he was a man, a husband, a father, and that’s all we get to know. He is a permanent lodger in our hearts and consciousness, an earthling, a spaceboy, and a hero, and he will be sorely missed.

QUILT

Mystery Jets

Plaza

Curve of the Earth

QUILT, a four-piece troupe of psychedelic rock revivalists, with a hint of pop flair, are set to release their third album through indie label Mexican Summer. Their new record follows up 2014’s Held in Splendor, which was a pleasant acoustic affair with soft, silvery vocals and the playful use of a sitar. Its second half suggested a shift towards a heavier, broader sound; two years later, Plaza completes and solidifies this transition. The instrumentation has become more varied, more vibrant and colourful. The album feels expansive, voluminous, and welcoming.

Plaza is the summer to the previous spring.

Despite this sense of progression, however, this album fails to develop past its predecessor where it counts. Instead of pushing the rest of their work forward, the group re-treads tired ground in their songwriting, and especially in their vocal performance. Quilt proudly sews their influences onto their sleeves; they stand out like bright patches, masking their flaws rather than leaving room for much-needed craftsmanship.

Innovation is sorely lacking on Plaza, but several songs do manage to stand out due to engaging songwriting choices. ‘Padova’ is led by a reverb-heavy strummed guitar which rolls over a warm, summery synthetic mist, which halfway through the track is crushed by a thick, heavy, deep-sea bassline, shaking things up just enough to be exciting. ‘Own Ways’ starts off in middling fashion, but manages to build itself into a storm of wailing guitars and pulsating drum patterns, reminiscent of Spiritualized, ending the album on a surprising high note.

These tracks aside, Plaza is burdened with cheesy, forgettable lyrics (“open up your windows, your windows are closed”), predictable songwriting, and singing which often sounds like a cover of a Beatles cover band. It’s not a terrible listen, but after sitting through it once or twice, there is little reason to ever listen again.

FROM the prog eccentricity of their debut to the Americana of 2012’s Radlands, Mystery Jets are Britain’s quirky kids who can. But with the quirks sanded down and the tension between Britannica and Americana firmly leaning towards the latter with this release, what could be left?

Sonically, the title is the best point of reference. Spacy and epic, the album begins with ‘Telomere’, a tense and questioning stormer featuring plaintive bleeps of morse-code guitar.

The production is rich and textured throughout the album, and frontman Blaine Harrison’s voice pleasantly recalls Thom Yorke at his most mellow.

There is nothing new or groundbreaking about the instrumentation, but it is lovely; ‘Midnight’s Mirror’ has a slow, stoner groove by way of Pink Floyd. ‘1985’ is a gorgeous ballad that blossoms into a transcendent climax; ‘Blood Red Balloon’ is blissful.

Despite the sonic coherence, it is confusing at first as to what the band are trying to achieve.

The songs are more conventional than anything they’ve done thus far. To quote the band themselves, they wanted to create “a suite of songs that could transcend our own skull-sized kingdoms”.

All becomes clear on album highlight ‘Saturnine’. “To be famous and thin is the greatest goal of the age we’re living in,” sings Harrison, as the song builds to a hopeful crescendo of “never fade away”. The sense of reaching a new understanding is palpable. This album, for all of its preoccupation with DNA, astronomy, and society, is grounded by the search for meaning in the transition to acceptance and maturity.

‘The End Up’ is a fitting conclusion, as Harrison reflects on friends and lost loves: “it’s me who’s finding my feet” he sings, full of pathos, and the message is powerful.

Curve of the Earth is expansive and beautiful; existential balm for the soul. It’s like the first illuminating rays of sun creeping over the earth, captured in the album artwork. Close your eyes and it will sweep you away.

In a nutshell: Plaza is about as dull as its name suggests. This album fails to offer anything new or refreshing, aside from a few faint glimmers of hope, preferring to languish in indie and psych rock clichés.

Owen Steinberger

In a nutshell: Ambitious on a grand scale, this album represents an elegant and beautiful step into musical and emotional maturity.

Adam Lawler

Tindersticks

Savages

The Waiting Room

Adore Life

IF EVERY album is a journey, then The Waiting Room is one detailing a mellowing maturity that comes with age. This offering, which is the tenth album from Nottingham natives Tindersticks, brings together a host of influences, and is like a magpie’s collection of shiny objects to the ear.

And yet, despite this pattern of different sounds, the album is not flashy –it exudes a confidence which is only found in musicians who have explored, and have found their place.

The Waiting Room feels like a moment of transition. It has elements of the band’s characteristic style – a blend of soul, indie, lounge jazz and orchestral backing – while on the other side, there are elements of folk and world influences. This is most evident in the opening track ‘Follow Me’, which forms a haunting instrumental prelude to the rest of the LP. A rich, naturalistic sound echoes throughout the album, and while the production values are faultless, it is still deeply imbued with a certain homespun feel, as though this album were the product of a night in; recorded in someone’s sitting room among friends.

The spirit of collaboration is evident in this album, both from its content (it contains duets with both Jehnny Beth of Savages, and the late great Lhasa De Sela) and from the collaborative film project which has been released to accompany it. Perhaps the greatest test and achievement of this album is that it refuses to settle, and each track balances nostalgia with experimentation. It proves, time and time again, that ten albums on, a band can push the boundaries of familiarity and strangeness. It’s a testament that sometimes, old dogs need not be taught old tricks after all.

SAVAGES’ newest album Adore life has been highly anticipated by head-banging hipsters the world over. The album clearly has something to say, but, ironically, their need to promote their message takes precedence over their musical craftsmanship across the album.

The first track, ‘The Answer’, blasts the album into the musical space that Savages are famous for. The instrumentals in the song gel together. The metallic accompaniment adds an extra layer to the music, filling it with an aggressive quality.

The album’s second track, ‘Evil’ is a run-of-themill punk anthem. There are harsh and jarring melodies on guitar as vocalist Jehnny Beth explores how love confronts evil. In ‘Sad Person’, Beth sacrifices melody and tonality for personality.

The blunt, eerie, intimacy of Savages reaches a high in ‘Adore’, an album highlight. The music is urgent with low, discordant guitar adding tension, leading to an unusually catchy chorus for Savages.

They prove themselves as more than just reheated post-punk leftovers with this track.

This burst of talent highlights how weak some of the other tracks are. In ‘I Need Something New’, sub-par vocals and repetitive lyrics fail to heighten meaning or contribute to the song in any positive way at all. The drone of ‘Surrender’ with drummer Fay Milton’s off kilter rhythm breeds nothing particularly interesting. There are many points like this on the album, where the band fail to distinguish themselves from the decade old post-punk revival groups like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs or The Strokes.

‘T.I.W.Y.G’ deserves some merit. It boasts an impressive mesh of sound between Gemma Thompson on guitar and Aye Hassan on bass. The album ends on a low with ‘Mechanics’, with its slow tempo and echoing bass notes. Do the Savages mean that to adore life, you must embrace sadness, mournfulness and death? The whole thing is a bit of a confusing, mixed message.

From the opening, it’s clear we’re getting to see a new side of Savages. After their debut two years ago, we get to see their passion take a different form. While they are still raging and blasting instrumentally, the vocals insist love is the answer.

Savages, despite their ‘it’s all about the music’ approach, seem to put their own personalities and performance above musical quality in this album.

In a nutshell: An album that exudes warmth and vibrancy, from its opening to the close.

Síofra Ní Shluaghadháin

Grace Conheady

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GIG GUIDE

Radar: Saints Boulevard

Aisling Kraus gives the lowdown on the highlights of the Dublin gig scene in the coming weeks

Frontman of Dublin’s Saints Boulevard, Brian Moriarty, talks to Harry Ó Cléirigh about David Bowie’s passing, setting up Indie labels and the Dublin music scene

Youth Lagoon

PHOTO: Saints Boulevard

Lanterns on the lake Lanterns on the Lake / The Workmans Club / Saturday 30th January English indie rock outfit Lanterns on the Lake create sounds as hazy and dream-like as the ethereal imagery evoked by their striking moniker. The standard guitar-based indie rock set-up takes on a refreshing tone with the addition of mellow strings and haunting vocals. Having formed in Newcastle in 2008, the band started out as a “DIY” effort, marrying eclectic instrumentation with “retro” recording methods to produce their first two homemade releases, and playing their first gigs in such unusual environs as a boat house and the highest-up pub in Britain. The group has since added more mainstream venues to their live performance resumé, having toured Europe and the U.S., receiving excellent reviews for their unconventional performance styles.

Ryan Sheridan / The Academy / Saturday 30th January Homegrown Irish talent and Rubyworks labelmate of Hozier, Monaghan native Ryan Sheridan has built up his profile over the last few years with an extensive international tour schedule and an impressive string of high-profile support slots for artists as major as Taylor Swift, Bryan Adams and The Script. His gifts for songwriting and for percussive, energetic acoustic guitar-playing brought his second album, released in 2015, straight to number one on the Irish charts.

Thanks to his experience of rocking arenas around the globe, Sheridan’s stage presence is a force to be reckoned with.

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Youth Lagoon / Whelans / Saturday 6th February In his creative ventures of personal expression, Idaho-born Trevor Powers swapped his given name for the more artistic Youth Lagoon in 2010. He set out to translate his feelings and ideas into melancholy low-fi sounds, blurring the lines between electronica and psychedelia. Three full-length studio albums later, he has chiselled out a sonic niche for his atmospheric, introspective material somewhere in the midst of acts as trailblazing as Pink Floyd and Beach House. Powers now takes his European tour in support of September 2015’s Savage Hills Ballroom to Whelans. Reviews of Youth Lagoon’s live performances drip with admiration for the artist’s uniqely bizarre charisma.

Mystery Jets / Whelans / Friday 12th February Mystery Jets originally boasted the charming quirk of being a father-and-son band, having begun life as a family project when frontman Blaine Harrison was a tender twelve years of age. Drawing inspiration from an array of influences ranging from Syd Barrett to Jimi Hendrix, the band created and recorded their first demos in 2003. Thirteen years, five LPs and several personnel changes later, Mystery Jets have evolved their indie-rooted sound with each installment of their discography, moving from classic and psychedelic rock to progressive rock, to pop (heralded by a collaboration with Laura Marling on the track ‘Young Love’ from Twenty One) and 1980s-esque soft rock, while staying true to their distinctive sound and characteristic danceability.

''It is truly your own integrity that will bring about opportunities.''

ERRING on the poppier side of post-grunge, threepiece Dublin rock outfit Saints Boulevard’s music is as eclectic as it is indebted to the genres it seems pleased to emulate. Glam metal and post-grunge seem to be the most obvious influences with Pearl Jam and Def Leppard coming to the fore, but tracks like ‘Feeling I Wanna Feel’ seem to be influenced by a more authentic, hard rock sound.

The band’s frontman, Brian Moriarty, admits as much himself: “I guess the biggest scenes that struck me growing up was the Seattle grunge scene and the L.A. hair metal scene. I loved the aggressive guitars and the attitude these bands had. Especially the likes of Pearl Jam and Def Leppard. I would definitely mark those guys as my biggest influences growing up.” To this day, Saints Boulevard have not strayed too far from the key musical influences of their formative years, with Moriarty adding that “I still find these genres so relevant to our sound.”

This is not to say that their influences don’t come from further afield. “Bowie was for me an

icon and his death was a devastating loss. His lyrics really struck me throughout so many of his songs and Mick Ronson’s guitar playing was phenomenal.

The whole glam scene has always intrigued me, as not only did I love the music but the focus on the image itself really defined so much about society in the eighties.”

Not content to leave their musical careers in the hands of fate, Saints Boulevard have emulated their Seattle grunge icons and have gone down the more DIY route in recent months, establishing their own label with the other bands within their collective: Lifecycle Records. “Lifecycle Records is an indie label we started ourselves with our mates. It’s really more to put our bands on the road through extensive gigging more than distributing our music. That stuff is as easy as ever in this day and age.”

The DIY approach that is evident in Saints Boulevard’s sound management largely translates into the manner in which the band conduct themselves on stage and their attitude towards

playing live. “Forget about which A&R scout is about, or who is down to play Electric Picnic this year, for me it’s all about the music. I find that the DIY attitude is essential if you want to make an impact.” says Moriarty. “It is truly your own integrity that will bring about opportunities.

That’s something I have learned ever since I began playing in Saints Boulevard.”

Working within the restrictions of a three-piece band, Saints Boulevard find their limited instrumentation rewarding as much as they find it difficult, remedying any perceived lack with gusto and aggression. “Playing live at points can become limiting, especially with our guitar parts, but the aggressive playing style of this band helps provides a big sound, and we do everything possible to make our live sound as big as possible!”

Having received some decent airtime both in Ireland and the UK In 2015, expect to see Saints Boulevard gigging in Dublin in 2016, with an EP surely on the horizon.

Gráinne Loughran talks to Louise Macnamara of Heathers about their new single, working with your sister and what it’s like to play in front of Steven Spielberg HEATHERS may have been quiet on the Irish scene in recent months, but they certainly haven’t been idle.

Twins Louise and Ellie Macnamara launched onto the scene back in 2007 when their single ‘Remember When’ hit the Irish airwaves. The 17 year olds were in their Leaving Cert year at the time. Now 25, and with a whole lot of life experience under their belts, they’ve released their first single since 2012.

‘November’ marks a change in Heathers’ vibe, with a mature, more ballad-driven sound; they’re back with something that feels closer to the true Heathers than perhaps ever before.

“We wrote our first record when we were 17 years old, when we were just finishing up school,” says Louise, who makes up one half of the Heathers duo.

“We’re now 25, and definitely in a different place to where we were then. I think we’ve developed as people but also as songwriters, and our taste in music has changed and I think that’s probably going to affect the type of music we write. Doing the same thing all the time would probably get a bit boring for us.

So I think we like to change it up and do something different. I think what’s different about the music, for example ‘November’, in the past a lot of our songs have been quite metaphorical and not necessarily so straight forward. I think that November is a bit more out there and obvious in its lyrics, and in that way it’s a bit different as well.”

It’s been three years since Heathers’ last album, Kingdom, but despite the stress, the pair have been busy with touring and other projects since then. “We recorded Kingdom in 2012, or released it in 2012, and I think with that record, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves and we felt a lot of pressure,” says Louise.

“Things were probably a bit rushed, moreso than we would have liked. So we spent 2012, 2013, 2014 touring the record here, then in the States and Canada and central Europe. And by the end of that we were like ‘OK, we’re ready to get back into our cave and write new music’, and we said to ourselves, this time, we’re gonna take our time and really focus on honing our songwriting craft, and developing Heathers’ sound.”

The pair are doing things a bit differently this time following the stresses of Kingdom, and have decided to release singles over several months rather than a full album all at once. It’s an interesting choice and one that they seem much more comfortable with. “I think for us we sound a whole process of, you know, the album cycle, so recording, then you might be waiting a year until the album can actually be put out, and then you’re touring, then you’re back into the writing process – it’s just such a long cycle, and lots of lulls and waiting around. We feel like this time around we’d like to just keep consistently putting out singles every

few months, so I think the next one we put out is going to be around March-time. And then just continue on from that,” says Louise. But not only will this take the pressure off slightly; it’ll allow them to create a collection of songs that they’re happy with, but that might not necessarily add up to a coherent collection.

“With the writing this time, we found that there were kind of two sides to Heathers, and it’s hard I guess to put that collection of songs on one record. So it’ll show different sides, the singles will show different sides… I guess ‘November’, we show one side, so the more emotionally, ballad driven side to Heathers, moreso like stripping it back, the way we started off, just quite acoustic. And then the other side would be more pop driven side, upbeat, energetic Heathers.”

There’ll be plenty to look forward to in the coming months in that case, but there’s been plenty of times in the past where the Macnamaras have had to pinch themselves to check if it’s all really happening to them. “A few years ago we played a pre-Oscars party in LA… JJ Abrams [was] throwing an Oscars party in his production studios in Santa Monica, and we were invited over to play at it,” laughs Louise. “It was absolutely insane. We went over and played, and it happened to be Steven Spielberg and himself standing right in front of us watching us play. It was unbelievably surreal.

We chatted to them for a while after, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget that, it still feels a bit bizarre.

But yeah, I’d say that’s probably up there with one of the best gigs, definitely.”

Working as sisters ultimately has to bring the pair back to earth, but there are certainly advantages to working with your family instead of friends or strangers, and Heathers certainly seem joined at the hip. “We like working together, we get on well,” says Louise. “It’s really nice to, number one, have your sister, a member of your family out on the road when we’re touring. You can get homesick and have Ellie there for support.

And again, in terms of songwriting, we can be completely honest with each other and we’re not going to hate each other for life. If there is an argument, we make up after ten minutes. There’s no issue there. But at the same time, anyone who spent 24/7 with their family would go absolutely mad, maybe. So we do, we have other things going on and we have our own lives, and when we are home we do make a conscious decision to spend time apart as well. But ultimately I like working with my sister.”

At just 25, the Macnamaras are hopefully just at the beginning of their careers as musicians. But if their release of ‘November’ is anything to go by, they’re certainly not hesitant to try doing things a bit differently, to experiment with new sounds, and above all, to keep moving forward.

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William Doyle, more commonly known as East India Youth, speaks to Patrick Kelleher about his Mercury Prize nomination and his unique musical and visual style

Photo: Jamie Milton

'' It was all about how the visual plays alongside the music, and that was really important to me.''

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WHEN talking to William Doyle, better known as East India Youth, it’s easy to forget that the English singer, songwriter and musician is only 24 years old. In the last few years, he has managed to achieve a rare feat for someone so young, having produced two critically acclaimed albums, the former of which was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize. Combining melodic pop with pulsing electronic beats seems like a fairly simple formula, but Doyle brings something entirely different to the table. His blend of dark, often fatalistic lyrics with his unshakably tight sound combine to create something truly unique. It’s not hard to figure out why. Despite his successes, Doyle doesn’t take himself too seriously, but does concede that the critical acclaim has had its effects.

“More than anything it’s been a morale boost for me,” he says. “The album [Total Strife Forever] was being received well anyway, and I was having a really good year and really enjoying the recognition I was getting from it… I guess a lot of people are quite modest about their expectations, but when you’ve made something in such a lo-fi context… I didn’t go to a studio to do that album or anything like that, it was very much a DIY home grown thing, and for it to be nominated for the Mercury Prize alongside Damon Albarn or FKA twigs… feels weird. It felt really nice to have that recognition, and that inspired me a lot. I really enjoyed the whole process actually. A lot of people would ask if there was any kind of… ‘do you feel pressure from it’, or ‘was it hard to do the next record given that you’ve set the standard with that nomination?’ but I kind of knew I wasn’t going to win anyway, so I just enjoyed the whole process and felt encouraged by it.”

Before setting off on his own to forge a career in electronic pop music, Doyle was in his own band, which never exactly took off. This may have been to do with the fact that, underneath it all, his

loyalty rested with pop music. Critics have attempted to categorise his music since the release of his debut LP, and still nobody has managed to classify it as belonging to a distinct genre. It seems that Doyle himself hasn’t particularly felt the need to do so.

“Pop music really is whatever you project from it, I’d say,” he explains. “My musical ideal for it is, it’s got a surface layer that’s very strong, a melody or a hook, something that can hook you in instantly and captivate you, or transports you instantly. But then underneath that is bubbling a lot of wider contexts, a lot of different influences coming from different areas. So with Culture of Volume, the idea was to do a lot of surface level, more immediate hooks than the first album, and everything was propping those things up, which were coming from more varied, deeper and interesting places. And that’s what I admire about any great pop artists.”

A major feature of this brand of pop that Doyle is working on is image-based, and he is eager to explain the visual elements behind his music. Usually seen onstage in tailored suits, and appearing in music videos in the same fashion, he has clearly created a specific image which he wants to maintain.

It is evident that this aesthetic is completely rooted in the music itself, however. Reinforcing this visual idea is crucial for him, particularly in the music videos.

“It was all about how the visual plays alongside the music, and that was really important to me,” he says. “After we did [the first music video], it set the standard for where I saw them going from there on, so they’re all framed in a similar way. I thought it was important to keep a very strong visual, aesthetic identity throughout all of the stuff. So even when it comes down to press shots and photographs and even the covers we’ve chosen for things, they’ve all been framed in a very similar way because [we’re] creating this world for people to enter into. The more you can reinforce those visual ideas, the better.”

One of Doyle’s most emotional – and successful

– tracks, ‘Carousel’, also has a particularly striking music video, following in this central style. The idea behind this video came from a surprising place. “Bizarrely it was my manager’s idea and he had never directed a video before! So he ended up taking on that job, which actually now that I think about it – it was a while ago – was so crazy that it ended up being that. I thought it came out really well though.”

The small-scale but inspired style behind Doyle’s music videos makes sense when you consider the low-key way in which he rose to prominence. His story has taken on a folkloric quality. Doyle gave some of his recordings to John Doran, the founder of UK Music website The Quietus, in 2012 when he met him at a gig. The result was astonishing. Doran loved the demos so much that The Quietus subsequently founded a record company especially to release Doyle’s music. Since this particularly unusual beginning, Doyle has been signed with XL Recordings.

“Before my first album came out, I’d started a relationship with [XL Recordings], so it was kind of a slow, natural thing that happened really.

They’re very accommodating and have good resources for their artists… so I felt very at home and welcome… I’ve really enjoyed being part of that family and everyone who works there at XL. There are some brilliant artists on [the label]. It’s crazy, I never thought that my music would end up in that space.”

There is a tone of surprise still hanging somewhere in Doyle’s voice that he has gotten to where he has, and perhaps even a hint of disbelief. Understandably so – the last two years have been an astonishing whirlwind for the electronic pop artist – and it’s still only the beginning.

Whatever comes after Culture of Volume, we can be sure that it will continue to develop the unique style and sound of East India Youth.

Tuned in: Ones to watch in 2016

Rebekah Rennick takes a look at some of the bands that should have caught your attention in 2015, and if not, here’s your chance to start 2016 with your finger firmly on the musical pulse UPCOMING bands and musicians have always been a cornerstone of music, continuously reigniting the energy of the sound that characterises a moment in time. Yet from one year to the next, bands come and go, and it takes a unique voice or melody to shatter our acquiescence and make us sit up to take note. It’s rare to come across a new Bowie or Morrissey, but in the past twelve months the music sphere has conjured up a billowing plethora of bands in every shape and size, both homegrown and abroad. Some have toed the radar of recognition, while others have gone somewhat unnoticed. The following bands undoubtedly deserve a place on your playlists this year.

Pleasure Beach: Following their supportive slot with The Vaccines in December, the Belfast quintet are on a steady trajectory of success and general buzz. Drenched in synth and layered vocals, Pleasure Beach conjure up images of expansive and echoing landscapes, while simultaneously creating a sense of closeness. The intensity that flows steadily as an undercurrent to tunes such as ‘Hayley’ and ‘Go’ strengthen their impact. While young, Pleasure Beach project an authenticity that allows them to side step any preconceptions and stride confidently ahead. If you’re

not humming that closing melody of ‘Go’ by the end of the month you’re simply missing out.

Quilt: Not a new or upcoming band per se, Quilt have been hanging around since 2011. It wasn’t until 2014’s Held in Splendor, however, that this dreamy psychedelic group really came into their own. Originally from Massachusetts, Quilt are a band from the 60s finding 21st century living a little uncomfortable.

While it’s easy to fall into the blasé characterisation of retro-pop, the shared vocals between band members Anna Fox Rochinski, Shane Butler and John Andrews are a refreshing gust of dream pop wind. Tracks such as ‘Saturday Bride’ bounce with frenzied enthusiasm, while ‘Just Dust’ tints the listener’s viewpoint with a soft-focused filter that’s difficult to shake. While the album as a whole is a hypnotising experience, transporting you back to a summer in the swinging 60s, follow-up record Plaza, to be released in February, will undoubtedly hold as much promise, if not more.

Saint Sister: Morgan MacIntyre and Gemma Doherty comprise the otherworldly essence of Saint Sister. Formed in 2014, the past 12 months have shone a soft but vivid light on this duo and their ethereal, atmospheric music. It’s almost

difficult to believe the textures created by these two, as distinct vocals beautifully compliment the plucky punctuation of harp. Saint Sister allow the silences in their songs to make as much noise as the haunting folk-infused musicianship created by their partnership. While their EP Madrid is a beguiling cauldron of beautiful songwriting and tonality, they truly shine in live performances, defying all expectations and enchanting us all.

Me & My Dog: If you like your tunes with a healthy dose of wry humour and West of Ireland accent, then look no further then Me & My Dog. Hailing from Westport Co. Mayo, these dogs have been around the block, but with surfpop melodies acting as the backdrop to Luke Healy’s honest observations they’re slowly but surely becoming steadfast veterans of the Irish music scene. Whether it’s hip-swaying ‘Always All Alone’ or retrospective ‘Better Than I Thought’, this quartet mould together in a quirky, unique way. Look out for Me & My Dog on a line up in Whelans or Bello Bar soon to experience the intoxicating energy and good time vibes that emanate from these four. And if you’re lucky enough, they might even share a can with you.

Field Trip: Four Galwegian ruffians,

birthed from a milky cauldron of woozy vocals and toe-tapping garage pop melodies. Now under the guise of Field Trip, let the tandem union of Wayne Foy’s sharp lyricism and Sean Walsh’s smooth guitar with a sucker punch bring you for an enjoyable ride. Although somewhat under the radar, Field Trip’s swaying, infectious tunes are not without energy; coupled with engaging words and plucky guitars. This cheeky quartet are a refreshing mixture of all the juicy bits of Irish garage pop music today. Throw in some Mac DeMarco, a bucket hat, and a catchy hook and you’ve got yourself a trip to remember.

Hinds: If these Spanish niñas, with their sun-drenched tunes and unbounded energy, haven’t caught your eye yet it’s time to come out from under that rock. Previously recording under the name Deers, the band originally comprised of Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perrote, before they were forced to change to Hinds due to legal issues. They then recruited bassist Ade Martin and drummer Amber Grimbergen to complete the quartet. While their relaxed demeanour and quirky style embodies their unit as a band, don’t let the goofy personalities detract from the solid repertoire of fuzzy garage pop that makes up their debut, Leave Me Alone. Opening track ‘Garden’ is a warm welcome to a hazy record that reminds you of those lazy summer days. Cosials

and Perrote’s mix-matched vocals interact perfectly, dancing around one another, yet it’s instrumental gems like ‘Solar Gap’ that capture the woozy, positive essence of Hinds, making you wish you were one of their gang by the end of the record.

Bully: Alicia Bognanno is the femme fatale of Nashville punk rock group Bully.

Just as the darkened roots merge into her characteristic bleached blonde hair, Bognanno’s vocals undulate between an endearing whisper to a ferocious snarl. The band’s brash approach is perfectly counteracted by Bognanno’s unflinching honesty, noted most candidly in her lyricism. Their debut Feels Like, released in 2015, is a tangy cocktail of perfect pop and punch-throwing indie rock, as Bognanno channels the essence of grunge, one emotive howl at a time. In an age obsessed with nostalgia, Feels Like is the perfect 90s revival and coming-of-age soundtrack for those still holding onto their flannel-shirted adolescence.

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Dublin de Rigueur A slice of UNIVERSITY Fashion Name: Michael von Lierob Area of Work: Holiday Maker Clothes: Coat – H&M Shoes – Converse Quote: “I’m in holiday just visiting my friend. Honestly, I’ve been here so many times – I prefer the countryside. I’d rather have gone to Latvia. Um, I got my bag from a Belgian guy and I like my shirt the most because I ironed it this morning.”

Name: Emily Johnston Area of Work: Both study and work.

Clothes: Red Coat – Charity Shop beside the Ha’Penny Bridge for €5 Grey Scarf – The Design Fair Quote: “I LOVE my trousers – they’re black velvet and I got them as a present for Christmas too!”

Name: Alba Virta Cabello Area of Work: Both study and work Clothes: Brown Coat: Liffey Street Green Scarf: George’s Street Arcade Quote: “I adore my shoes – they were a surprise present from my friend for Christmas.”

Ciara Duffy DIYs three of Lush’s best products this January to beat those empty pocket blues WITH Christmas now a distant memory, it’s likely that your standard of income has dropped from wine and chocolates to stale cornflakes. But just because your budget has taken a hit doesn’t mean your beauty regime has to. If you’re someone who went a little overboard during the January sales, then we’ve got three DIY dupes that will keep you feeling fresh and smelling sweet. As always make sure to do a patch test on a small area of skin before applying your homemade products – just to make sure your skin isn’t allergic to any of the ingredients.

1. Face scrub and mask Lush have a fantastic range of face and body scrubs that smell good enough to eat. But with prices starting at €9, we’ve got a quick fix solution that will keep your skin feeling fresh at a more accommodating price. Green tea is packed with antioxidants that will calm your digestive system and brighten your skin, while Manuka honey has active ingredients as well as a calming texture for dry winter skin,

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so this recipe works a treat.

Ingredients: Two used green tea bags Manuka honey

Directions: Mix the contents of the teabags with three tablespoons of honey.

Apply to face, preferably after a warm shower when the pores are open, in circular motions.

Allow to sit for fifteen minutes, then rinse with warm water.

2. Blemish control While Lush’s Grease Lightening spot treatment is a trusted favourite due to its natural ingredients, you can strip back your blemish treatment gel to a single ingredient product: Aloe Vera gel. Aloe Vera has natural anti-bacterial properties and helps calm and soothe skin. Though you can try everything from La Roche Posay to Acnecidem, this approach takes a more natural route to soothing acne. Lush’s recipe keeps skin a little softer, since Aloe Vera dries up those pesky under-the-skin sore spots within five days of

Well LUSH! using it day and night. It’s a little drying, which makes it a perfect all-over base for oily skin.

3. Bath bombs The Lush Bath Bomb has become one of its most iconic products to date. But with the delightful treats costing a bomb themselves, a little DIY magic will get you through without the price tag.

Ingredients: Epsom Bath Salts Vanilla Essential Oils Optional: Cocoa Brown Golden Goddess

Directions: For an average sized bath, mix about two handfuls of Epsom bath salts with 15 – 25 drops of oil, depending on how strong you want the scent to be.

Run the water over handfuls of the salts to create a luxuriously scented bath that will not only leave skin soft and sweet, but also give your muscles a deep soak.

Afterwards, use some Cocoa Brown Golden Goddess (available in Penneys) to add some shimmer to your skin if preferred.

Louis’ New Face?

Katie Devlin looks at Jaden Smith, Louis Vuitton and what is considered ‘Womenswear’ WHEN Louis Vuitton unveiled their latest womenswear campaign earlier this month, there was a confused reaction to their choice of frontrunner: Jaden Smith. The fact that he is featured in the campaign wearing a skirt has divided opinions, but seen as more bewildering is the fact that the new face of a womenswear collection is male.

Women wearing trousers has only become common or even widely accepted in the last hundred years and even more recently, ‘masculine’ tailoring has been a consistent staple in womenswear trends. Pieces for women that stress typically masculine traits, such as oversized blazers and trouser-suits have made appearances in the collections of numerous designers over the years.

‘Boyfriend’ style jeans and cardigans regularly fill high street stores. So men in skirts is the next natural step, right? This is not a completely alien concept and Louis Vuitton are certainly not the first to explore this idea.

As far back as 1984, Jean Paul Gaultier had men wear skirts in his menswear runway show. Last March, Kanye West announced his plans to create a clothing line of skirts for men, saying “we have been brainwashed into thinking this is some sort of feminine act”.

David Beckham was once famously seen in a sarong type garment. Designer Marc Jacobs has been wearing skirts and dresses for years. This is not even the first time Smith himself has been seen in a skirt, having worn one to accompany actress Amandla Stenberg to her prom last year. However, today’s culture does not look at women wearing trousers as an attempt to imitate masculinity,

whereas when a man wears a skirt, it is assumed that they wish to present themselves as feminine.

The fact that Louis Vuitton chose to have Jaden Smith model their womenswear collection instead of including skirts in the menswear line and featuring Smith in that campaign could lead some to believe in the idea of men wishing to appear feminine.

However, there is also a strong belief in the opposite effect. In a statement, Louis Vuitton, creative director Nicolas Ghesquière said of Smith: “Wearing a skirt comes as naturally to him as it would to a woman who, long ago, granted herself permission to wear a man’s trench or a tuxedo”, and described this “integration of a global wardrobe” as “a new norm”. This is not cross dressing. This is not Jaden Smith wanting to look like a girl nor is it Louis Vuitton encouraging men to be ‘feminine’.

This campaign is saying that skirts can be masculine in the same way that trousers can and have proven to be feminine.

The days of separating clothes and trends by gender are numbered. Louis Vuitton have their finger on the pulse of today’s fashion industry and the culture and society that it reflects.

Their decision to feature a male model in a womenswear campaign strongly embodies this idea of a “global wardrobe” and in addition to reflecting today’s culture of unisex dressing and dissolving gender boundaries is indicative of the future of the fashion industry. Eventually, there may be no division between men’s and women’s collections, campaigns or shows at all, and Louis Vuitton are taking the first steps towards dissolving the boundaries between them.

'' Wearing a skirt comes as naturally to him as it would to a woman who, long ago, granted herself permission to wear a man's trench or a tuxedo.''

Chilled weather chic January is as cold as ever, but Kiera Black dishes on her top three ways to stay chic and warm for the start of Spring THE aftermath of Christmas and New Year is always decidedly grim. Time to pack away the festive jumpers, gem-studded tops and snowflake-print pyjamas and return to reality – which in Ireland’s case means rain, hail, more rain, deadly chills and the perpetual fear of skidding through slush as you make your way out the front door in the morning. There is nothing chic about vaguely damp hair and mild frostbite – so how can we make the most of this most frightful weather?

Well to tell you the truth, we love dressing cosy-chic. Hats, scarves, polo necks, faux fur – they’re our best friends.

Advocating hugely for the season are faux fur stoles - an instant quirky boost to a minimal outfit. While the likes of Rosie Fortescue can afford to boast colourful pieces from Charlotte Simone (£245: pocket change), you can find similar sultry and oh-so-soft delights for as little as €7.00 now at Topshop.

The second exciting part about this disastrous climate is the return of the parka coat. This cute and most convenient piece can now often be spotted on such

fashion-queens as Gigi and Cara. Teamed with the right leather boots or even wellies (a bit of extra grip never goes amiss) and a faux-fur bobble hat, you’re guaranteed to look more Kate Middleton than Percy the Park Keeper in no time. Top choices include such navy gems from Zara for €79.95.

Item number three which wins out every time is the roll neck jumper. In terms of skin on show this season less is definitely more, as often shown by Victoria’s Secret Angel Taylor Hill (when she’s offstage, obviously). Incredibly feminine, soft and snug, the woollen roll neck is the student’s best friend. French Connection, Zara and Marks and Spencer have oodles of options – just another excuse to get on down to the sales (any excuse will do).

In the words of the great Virginia Woolf, “…Clothes have, they say, more important offices than to merely keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world’s view of us.” So - good luck and god speed in your quest to stay both warm and chic this month.

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Spring Fling

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OTwo’s very own Miranda Priestly, Lucy Coffey, debunks florals this spring and looks at this season’s trend of atonal minimalism

“FLORALS? For spring? Groundbreaking.”

It was this magnificent line, delivered by Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada , which first drew attention to the tired invention of using floral print every time spring rolled around. The old standby has long been seen as lacking by designers and so ateliers have been producing spring lines in direct contrast to the over-used flowery backgrounds, ones that stress militarism, clean lines and understated elegance.

This season, the mainstream market has gone a step further and what can be spotted in every high street shop from here to nirvana is atonal minimalism. With backers of the shapeless and almost too-big-to-wear look being stars such as Kanye West and designers like Vivienne Westwood, we looked at some of Dublin’s chicest boutiques for this season’s style inspiration, and we found it in the glossy windows of Folkster.

While usually a store noted for intricate beadwork and formal dresses, what many people tend to forget is that Folkster also hosts a plethora of contemporary fashions, from mineral rings to floor-length woollen coats. All of them highlight the best of the season. With this fact in mind, we picked some of the best

minimalist pieces on show and headed over to an old venue made new: Wigwam.

Wigwam is a cafe/club, and has seen some of Dublin’s best action in the last few years under its previous name The Twisted Pepper.

For this shoot Domonique sports several key pieces of the season. She shows off the smart but sleek lines of the individual garment as well as the almost toneless colour pallets. One of the bigger stresses of the next few months is placed on white – the softest and cleanest colour, and one which can be worn by almost anyone to great effect. Her high necked dress, which supports a tight-fit skirt and backless top layer can be changed to suit the size of the wearer.

Two long ties that extend from the neck to the floor can be wrapped around the bodice to lay emphasis on hips or waist, depending on which you would like to show off, as well as rendering the dress looser if you tie the ties around the neck and leave them trailing behind you. When paired with a smooth collared coat in blush, the shape of the outfit becomes that little bit more formal, and augments the look so it can be worn not only at night but also during the day.

With the emphasis clearly placed on relaxed

silhouettes, we see the epitome of the season in the marsh green maxi-skirt and beige polo neck draped on Dominique’s frame. High necks and stiff, militaristic colours are muted in sheer and cotton materials, so that the garments can retain a high colour gradient without formalising their cut. This fusion of a military colour scheme with the materials of spring take note of the climate and make the pieces far more wearable as they are warm but can match easily with other staple pieces in your wardrobe. Pair the maxi skirt outfit with a good leatherette clog or loose-fit leather jacket and you could wear this to a bar, church or cafe.

The last, but possibly most key maxim to this atonal minimalism is the carry-over of last season’s pieces. January is a particularly hard month, and everyone feels the Christmas pinch in their purses, so being able to bring pieces from the previous season over is a great marker for the New Year. 70s style was where the emphasis lay in the autumn/winter period, and this motif hasn’t been completely abandoned this season either. A dusky-pink suede mini skirt, with a button up front, is paired with a deep v-front body con and instantly adds a retro feel to any club outfit, as well as allowing the wearer to accessorise with jewellery in

atypical colours, like rose gold or pearlescent hues. A backwards necklace and a few opal rings make a big difference to even the most simple outfit.

This season the stress lies on minimalist renewability; incorporating some simple colours into your wardrobe that are so effortless they’re an instant staple. Wearing slightly oversized jackets, coats and jumpers will not only keep you warm but they’ll allow you to play with the form and undertone of your outfit, making it as malleable as possible.

This season’s styles allow you to conquer the day to night look as simply as adding a waist belt or by taking off a pair of tights.

Words: Lucy Coffey Photographer: David Winn Model: Domonique Cleary Stylist: Megan Hickey Clothes: Folkster Accessories: Stylist’s Own Venue: Wigwam

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Kevin Curran Revisiting History WRITING two books in five years is certainly no easy feat and without a doubt, Kevin Curran has his hands full as he balances his classroom, his two children and his writing. Somewhere in the midst of this, he manages to take some time to discuss the release of his second novel, Citizens .

Working as a teacher of English and a little bit of History in Balbriggan, OTwo wonders what – if any – kind of impact his career has had on his writing. “Not this one”, Curran says in reference to Citizens . This one “is not really informed by teaching at all.”

The same cannot be said, however, for his debut novel, Beatsploitation, as it is “literally set in Balbriggan about a teacher robbing beats from a black Irish student. That came straight out of, obviously, my experience.” Like most writers, some aspects of both his and his friends’ lives seem to find their way into his work. Although Citizens is a far cry from Curran’s classroom in Balbriggan, there are links in the story that are close to home for the writer. There is the similarity of protagonist Neil and writer Curran sharing the same job at a mortgage centre. Also, like Neil who wishes to follow his girlfriend Kathy out to Canada, this is a similar situation to one a friend of the writer found himself in. Most notable, however, are the diary entries.

The diary entries in the novel are produced from The Bureau of Military History, documents compiled by Curran’s great grandfather, Harry Colley, an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who fought in the Easter Rising. He was unseated in the Dáil by Charles Haughey. Reading Citizens , it is difficult not to pick up on the political notes, yet Curran admits that it wasn’t politics which was a motivating factor behind writing this book. “The politics came second… this has been in my head for a long time. I don’t know why, just the idea of a pathé newsreel camera man…

It was kind of sitting with me for a while with the whole idea of heroes.” The camera is an important plot device for Curran in Citizens as it allows him to do something a little different.

“There’s so much reading out there, so much on this 1916. I just said ‘right I’m going to follow his movements, my great grandfather’s movements exactly, and just pretend that he had a camera, and that he was motivated not by the idealism of patriotism or nationalism but of art’. So I stuck a camera in his hand.”

The Easter Rising is being discussed

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everywhere at the moment. With all of this talk of celebration and pride over our 100 year old republic, it is difficult not to feel a little sour at the loss of so many of our young people to emigration. Curran feels that The Bureau of Military History belonging to Harry Colley seems little more than idealistic as we approach the one hundred years celebration.

On the front cover of the documents are Harry Colley’s own words ‘Ireland Gaelic and Free is the Road to Prosperity’. “As a growing cynic in this country, you kind of think, my God,” Curran muses, “How naïve and ridiculous does that sound now, to someone in the year 2011, let’s say, when the IMF were coming into the country and the whole crash happened.” Curran refers to Blindboy from The Rubber Bandits’ appearance on RTÉ’s The Late Late Show on the 8th of January and how he feels that Blindboy’s comments “My generation are jumping on planes or jumping in rivers” were some of the more accurate and truthful words spoken in relation to the 1916 centenary.

“I saw the clip and I was like, ‘fair play to him’, because there’s so much hullabaloo about 1916 and what not. We haven’t heard any – genuinely, I haven’t heard – any voice from anyone of a younger generation talk about what it actually means to a younger generation, this 1916 lark, and what the country now means to them… You know the facts are there. What, there’s 205,000 less 20 somethings in Ireland since six years ago, and there’s an increase in every other age group?

I was joking with the publisher, I was in with them on Tuesday, and I said to them, maybe we wrote the book for the wrong generation because they’re not here to buy it.”

Curran’s words are brimming with a sad truth, and it is for this reason that he says he wanted 1916 to speak to a 21st century reader.

Writing a modern novel with interruptions from 1916 must have proven difficult, however, when trying to engage with a contemporary audience’s way of speaking. Curran says that he kept close to the real Harry Colley when writing the diary entries of the fictitious Harry Casey.

This proved somewhat difficult, as Colley’s language in the reports was “self conscious” and “very stiff”. “It’s a different world of language. But you have to in some ways make it accessible to a 2016 reader. You have to modernise it a bit.”

Despite the movements and actions of Harry Casey being based on the actual reports of Harry Colley, Curran clashed with a historian during the writing process of Citizens . The incidences in Citizens of the characters in 1916 robbing coats from an outfitters shop, going to Kilmainham in July, and the inclusion of the three kisses at the end of the letter at the very beginning of the novel are all ones that a historian dismissed as “nonsense”. However, they were incidences that Harry Colley had actually noted in his historical reports, and the letter at the beginning of the novel is word for word an original, apart from a sentence or two created about the film reels.

Transitioning from academic to fiction writer also posed some difficulty for Curran as he, like Harry Colley, wrote “too self-consciously” after completing a master’s in Anglo-Irish literature. “The worst thing I think a writer can do is do a master’s – an academic master’s. It’s just because it took me about eight years to get it out of my system.” Teaching didn’t come until a little later for the writer and despite enjoying teaching, is writing something which Curran would eventually like to do full time?

“Aw, I’d love to, but then again I love teaching.

It’s the best thing I did. The kids are great in Balbriggan. There’s such a mix. It’s great, you’re just exposed to all different cultures. But it’s tiring.”

Despite needing a break, Curran says that he is still working away on other projects. “I’ve a few other things coming up, but I’ve started on a third book. I’m taking it easy for now. I think a few short stories and just relax.” Clearly relaxing varies in its meaning, but Curran is right to keep himself focused. “You never know,” he says, “one book could change your life.”

Kevin Curran takes some time out of his busy schedule to discuss his latest novel with Maebh Butler

Brand New Retro: A Visual Experience Niall Murphy reviews Brian McMahon’s visually engaging Brand New Retro a fashion magazine. In the back section of the book, Readers’ Lives, you will find some particularly funny and telling agony aunt letters from the late 60s. One reader asks, “I am a girl and I am nearly fourteen. I had French kissing [sic] with another girl just for fun. Could this lead to pregnancy?” to which the answer begins, “Straight answer to a crooked question: no. Now the pair of you would want to get wise to yourselves.”

There are also plenty of eyebrowraising clippings, such as a full-page advertisement for The Irish Times in a 1971 edition of Women’s Choice which features a picture of a frightened young boy about to be slapped on the hand with a paddle, and the caption: “A bit of stick never did anyone harm, now did it?”

BRAND New Retro: A Visual Experience is an attic collection of old photographs, magazines and newspaper clippings taken from the author’s youth, as described in the preface. This humble beginning sets the tone for what follows and gives Brand New Retro an organic authenticity which is not easily imitated. At just over two hundred pages you might think that it was ambitious to try and cover a period from the 1950s through to the 1990s, but here it is done seamlessly. While most of the content is centred on the thirty years from the mid 60s until the mid 80s, these are the years that come to mind when you consider the word retro. In the Irish context, they represent a period of liberation and growth which is brilliantly captured here.

Instead of the material being arranged chronologically, McMahon has cleverly divided it into sections titled Fashion, Lifestyle, Music & Showbiz, Sport and Readers’ Lives. This allows readers of all interests to instantly enjoy the book, and observe the evolution of different facets of Irish life. The pages are full of all sorts of curious and often humorous titbits, such as Ronnie Drew modelling clothes in

Brand New Retro is not just a trip down memory lane; it is a firm riposte to the notion of Ireland in the 70s and 80s as a place of doom and gloom. It is a nod to an Irish brand of pop culture in a pre-internet age that was full of vibrancy. It has particular relevance in Ireland today, where young people have adopted a reverence for all things retro. Likewise, the young reader can find resonance with the people of the 70s and 80s who were searching for their identity as the dust settled from a period of economic hardship.

McMahon has selected the most colourful and exciting images and his use of text is succinct and informative in a book that is all about a visual experience. This is a book that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages, and makes the perfect coffee table book.

''One reader asks, "I am a girl and I am nearly fourteen. I had French kissing [sic] with another girl just for fun. Could this lead to pregnancy?''''

Citizens: In Review Maebh Butler reviews Kevin Curran’s second novel, Citizens AT FIRST glance, Citizens is just another addition to the melange of literary creations and cultural events for the much discussed 1916 centenary celebrations.

Another exhibition, another printing of the proclamation, another attempt to glorify the heroes of our republic. It is, however, so much more than this. Kevin Curran’s second novel is an overtly accurate representation of the challenges faced by so many young Irish people today. With the 1916 Rising as contextual background, the novel only emphasises the issues of unemployment and emigration that are facing young people in Ireland today.

Citizens tells the story of 26 year old protagonist Neil as his plans to emigrate to Canada with his girlfriend Kathy are put on hold. Neil and Kathy are both let go from their jobs and, like many of Ireland’s graduates today, make the decision to start life afresh in Canada. Everything changes, however, after the death of Neil’s granddad and Kathy is forced to travel without him. Neil, who was raised by his grandparents, is left with the responsibility to care for his grieving grandmother while simultaneously dealing with his economic obsessed aunts and uncles.

With dreams of both Canada and Kathy gradually slipping away from him, Neil

finds an unexpected interest in the diaries and film reels of his great grandfather, Harry Casey. Quickly realising the potential goldmine behind his family legacy, Canada and Kathy begin to drift towards him again. Neil’s interest, however, begins to become one more than just of money and suddenly he finds himself in a moral dilemma. Selling Harry Casey’s legacy is a betrayal of his grandparents’ ideals, but in 21st century Ireland ideals aren’t enough to get by on.

Citizens holds something relevant for most of us. The deaths of loved ones, emigration, unemployment, Skype relationships, four day long sessions and irritating family members are interwoven throughout. In the middle of these modern complications is the legacy of the Easter Rising.

Curran creates two parallels in Citizens .

One is depicting the life of Neil, an unemployed young Dublin man who is more concerned with coming into money than anything. The other is of Harry Casey, Neil’s great grandfather, and a man more concerned with filmmaking and art than his patriotic fellow soldiers.

''Despite the excite­ ment and idealism of the diary entries and film reels, there is a depressingly mun­ dane reality to Neil's life that rings true of Irish society today.''

Curran’s novel is grippingly real.

Despite the excitement and idealism of the diary entries and film reels, there is a depressingly mundane reality to Neil’s life that rings true of Irish society today. The constant struggle to know what you’re supposed to be doing or where you’re supposed to be going, the language of money and the sense of disappointment in the country in comparison to the promises and ideals of rebellion. Citizens is an important story to be told, and with plot twists and a captivating narrative, it’s an undeniably good one too.

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Quills and Guns: The artistic side of 1916 Rosemarie Gibbons takes a step back from the hype and looks at what’s really being celebrated in 2016

“Downtown Abbey with guns”: This was the official verdict in the Twittersphere regarding RTE’s new historical drama series Rebellion, which sets out to commemorate the events that happened during the 1916 Easter Rising.

Although reviews of the home-grown series have been mixed so far, it has achieved its main aim of making us think about these events. As the specially commissioned ‘1916 Office’ unveil their vast programme of events to commemorate the Rising, you can’t help but think – what is the difference between commemorating the Ireland of yesteryear and celebrating the Ireland of today?

It would be foolish and a touch unpatriotic to think we could not hold any events to commemorate the Rising. However, sometimes it can be hard to decipher the core message of these celebrations. Are we paying respects for the hundreds of Irish men and women who lost their lives during the battles, or are we seeking more out of it? Is it the sense of glory and heroics that the likes of Rebellion are trying to convey in period costume that motivates us? Ireland’s relationship with nostalgia is welldocumented but are we in danger of turning the commemorations into an extra-long episode of Reeling in the Years? If these commemorations are an exercise in showing how far we’ve come as a Republic, perhaps we should ponder upon our successes as a nation before blowing our own trumpet.

With the advent of legalised gay marriage arguably the high point for many Irish people in 2015, for most this is one landmark worthy of celebrating our progression as a nation. However, with the issue of repealing the eighth amendment tied up in political limbo, and Ireland’s status with asylum seekers and refugees being fairly ambiguous as of late, it feels like the 1916 Rising anniversary may be the perfect distraction for some individuals and government bodies. All (necessary) cynicism aside, the activity surrounding the commemorations has provoked some interesting debate: Sinead Coole’s excellent piece in The Irish Times ’ recent guide to the 1916 centenary about the ‘Women of the Rising’ cuts through any doubt surrounding Irish women’s involvement in the rising. In addition to this, the conversation in November regarding #WakingTheFeminists assured us these women’s efforts in theatre and the arts, both then and now, refuses to be overlooked.

1916 usually conjures up images of young men in battle, or Pearse declaring the independence of the country. However, behind the scenes, Ireland’s writers, poets and playwrights were busy documenting what was happening around them; creating some of the most revered works in Irish literature and some of our most

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''If these commemorations are an exer­ cise in showing how far we've come as a Republic, perhaps we should ponder upon our successes as a nation before blowing our own trumpet.''

valuable resources that captured the feeling of ordinary people at the time.

One of the greatest examples is Sean O’Casey. His most famous play, The Plough and the Stars was a fly-on-thewall observation of Dublin working-class people during the time of the Rising.

It has a personal resonance as O’Casey was a member, and later a critic of the Irish Citizen Army. O’Casey was showing the gritty, inglorious side of rebellion:

innocent Dubliners shot mistakenly, young families torn apart by casualties in war. It was this more honest portrayal that upset many nationalists when The Plough and the Stars premiered on February 8th, 1926, as it was known that many working-class Dubliners were conflicted over supporting the efforts of the uprising, or were at least extremely wary of it. O’Casey’s cri de coeur was defended at the time by W.B. Yeats. In reference to the earlier

‘Playboy Riots’, over J.M. Synge’s Playboy of the Western World, Yeats asked of the ardent rioters: “You have disgraced yourselves again; is this to be the recurring celebration of the arrival of Irish genius?”.

Yeats is perhaps the most recognised literary figure we associate with 1916.

His poems are still on the Leaving Cert syllabus over one hundred years after their first publication, and anyone who

was once a student of Leaving Cert English could instantly recognise iconic lines such as, “all changed, changed utterly/ a terrible beauty is born”. Having played a large part in the Irish Literary Revival at the beginning of the twentieth century, Yeats acted as a social commentator for the times, and his openly republican views only spurred in his work. He was very aware of the reach his work had and even questioned if his earlier play Cathleen ni Houlihan , which was co-written with Lady Gregory (which had very prominent Republican overtones) had played some kind of part in fuelling the rebellion: “Did that play of mine send out/ Certain men the English shot?”

Despite his slight paranoia, his works became a key to deciphering public opinion during 1916, and commemorated those involved in a way only Yeats could.

The role of women’s involvement in the Rising has long been overlooked; unfortunately their work was merely recognised as ‘behind the scenes’. In the literary and theatre field, many women were also forgotten; you only need to search the #WakingTheFeminists hashtag on Twitter to see the uproar over the Abbey Theatre’s fairly unbalanced programming for their 1916 commemoration, ‘Waking the Nation’. However, one unlikely but nevertheless important historical document long disputed was that of Linda Kearns, a nurse at the time of the Rising. ‘In Times of Peril: Leaves from the Diary of Nurse Linda Kearns from Easter Week, 1916, to Mountjoy, 1921’ was the account Ms. Kearns kept whilst she set up a first aid hospital. She decided to set up the hospital to help wounded Irish soldiers after being shocked at the conditions in Belmullet Hospital in 1912.

However, as she also treated British soldiers, people opposed the inclusion of her name on the roll of honour (a list of over 300 participants who contributed ‘reckonable service’ during the time of the Rising). Nevertheless, her legacy and political endeavors live on in print form.

In spite of any qualms, it seems like the people of Ireland have a genuine interest in preserving and acknowledging the efforts of those who fought for our freedom. Certain attempts may be slightly misguided, but it offers people a slice of history and a chance to reflect on our country’s achievements or failures so far.

So, for now, you could do worse than join in the celebrations – but maybe pass on the Easter Rising-themed chocolate bar.

FaTal Fourway

MOST SEXUALLY CONFUSING FILMS Niamh O Regan - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire SO IT might not be the most explicit choice, but give me a chance here. Goblet of Fire is full of confusion and I mean it is rife, mainly due to the ample choice across sexes and on all sides. Everyone is all grown up! Harry has the rough and tousled indie look that was so, so attractive in the mid-noughties. Cedric is fresh faced and still alive with those bright cheeks.

Cho Chang and Hermione look positively ethereal at the Yule Ball and Fleur is the definition of beauty.

Viktor Krum is, well… Viktor Krum.

Let us also not forget the moment when Harry climbs into the bubble-filled bath of the prefect’s bathroom while Moaning Myrtle is present. Then, you slip to the dark side when you realise that Lucius Malfoy has that strange alluring presence

and you think it must be that Legolas inspired hair.

The younger Malfoy looks dapper in his dress robes and Barty Crouch Junior has such a perfectly angled face. In between the two is Rita Skeeter’s flirty enticing gaze and Professor Snape’s hypnotising yet terrifying voice.

Normally, a film is filled with incredibly attractive people in lead roles. The difference with Goblet of Fire is that there are attractive, arousing characters at every turn, trying to lure you into their lair. Who do I like? Is it a boy? Is it a girl? Is it that middle aged man with the excellent conditioner? Is it just the voice of the middle aged man? Where do I stand and what am I and is it okay if I think the Hungarian Horntail is kinda hot for a dragon?

David Monaghan - dISNEY’S HERCULES life, and Hercules… Oh my God, is he flexing? Can you literally see his abs through his armour? Did he just WHY DID I agree to take part in this Fatal Fourway?

I’ve been trying so, so hard to build up my reputation KILL A FRIGGIN’ HYDRA WITH HIS BARE HANDS? This is all too much, can I go back to shoving mála up my as a respectable journo/film critic combo at the nose now please?

Observer offices. Whenever I walk in, my fellow This would not have been too bad an awakening if writers greet me with high-fives and cheers. After Hercules was real, but he’s not. He’s a cartoon. He they have read this, however, I have no doubt that does not have corporeal form. He’s not tangible. He’s all that hard-earned respect will slip away as they read the depraved thoughts I harboured for a certain as real as Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Keanu Reeves.

Wait, Keanu Reeves is real?! But he’s so flat in his animated hero. “Good God,” they will say. “I thought movies (badum-TSH). What makes it worse is that the he was normal.”

Disney’s animated films have taught us a lot over the characters within the film actively encourage you to years. As a bumbling and stupid child Beauty and the find him attractive. The Greek muses sing that he puts “the glad in gladiator,” ask if he’s sweet and answer Beast taught me that outsiders have a place in this world too. The Lion King taught me about the circle of by saying that he’s “[their] favourite flavour.” In fact,

the film opens with the shortest muse, Thalia, saying that she’d like to make “sweet music with him”. Surely with this in mind my childhood awakening seems a little less weird, right guys? Guys? Fine, I’ll just go back to my childhood stage of pretending to fancy the Spice Girls.

Eva griffin - Tim Henson’s Labyrinth THE BATTLE of the Boyne? Sorry to all you history buffs out there but I’m more interested in The Battle of the Bulge. What’s that you ask?

Oh, it’s just the 102 minute long struggle of the late, great David Bowie’s ridiculous tight pants to contain his, erm, excitement at starring in such a well-loved film. While most of you are familiar with the Thin White Duke’s incredible musical output over the course of his career, there are probably some people out there unfamiliar with his Thick White D— I’ll try to keep this out of the gutter. Picture this: adorable mop head me scurries onto the school bus in my tablecloth dress ready for another

day of picture books and gentle arithmetic. Little do I know the bus driver, or some misguided parents’ association, has decided that for this and every bus ride thereafter, the innocent children on-board will be subjected to watching Labyrinth on loop via the tiny TV at the top of the bus. And so, my not-so-magic school bus became the mobile home for Jim Henson’s delightfully musical quest as a young Jennifer Connelly attempts to save her baby brother from one devilishly handsome Goblin King, played

by Bowie.

The voice, the dance moves, the hair that’s been back-combed to shit and the weirdly feline allure

of his made-up face – Bowie, then known to me as Jareth, stirred up some funny feelings on those dreamlike trips to school. Half-asleep and wanting to vomit in anticipation of ANOTHER day of LEARNING (ugh), the mystical maze and the man dancing through it were my salvation… except for the fact that Bowie actively terrified me. His intense stare and gender-bending appeal were enough to upset the little naïve girl that I was, but I now know that sometimes you can fear someone thinking they’re a tasty dish. See? I’m still sexually confused!

Karl Quigley - James Bond -

were stuck to the screen.

For some context, I was shown plenty of these movies when I was far too young (cheers Dad); Austin Powers, Goldeneye all the James Bond films, Blazing Saddles, Spaghetti I’M NOT too sure what other films have been chosen Westerns, these kind of films. So here I was, far too young to comprehend what this woman was trying by my fellow fourwayers, but I had to think for but a moment until I remembered one particular scene to accomplish. I was somewhat aware that yes, she that had my young, little mind thoroughly confused. was evil. But she certainly didn’t seem to have ‘EVIL’ intentions when she starts.

James Bond – Goldeneye. You already might know I’d heard about this kind of thing, they both seem to the scene I’m talking about; that crazy ass Russian be enjoying I – oh what the hell?! First biting – not woman finds our serial womanising, every STD holding, hero in a sauna. I distinctly remember my six that uncommon. But then he’s slamming her into year old or so brain being so confused that my eyes walls and she’s choking him out with her thighs. I

swear to god those things could crush a foot of concrete between them. He’s brutally trying to dislodge this desperately, sexually confusing link between their bodies. And as you all know, 007 does not mess about. She’s moaning and groaning all the while. Our hero is gasping and choking for air until he lands her butt onto the hot coals of the sauna. Even in her growls of anger as she stops latching onto Bond like some kind of sexual leech, she licks her lips and she looks angry – one thing my mind made clear; this woman is cray cray, and how the hell do I interact with women now?

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