The University Times Magazine Volume 2 Issue 3

20.11.12

The University Times

Magazine

DISPATCH FROM ELECTION HQ OF DEMOCRATS ABROAD ON COUNT NIGHT P. 6 A TRIP TO BELFAST IN SUPPORT OF THE MARIE STOPES CLINIC P. 15 AN INTRODUCTION TO GLITCH ART P. 18

The University Times

November 20, 2012

Magazine

FEATURES THE IRISH CONNECTION

ELECTION NIGHT

BY D. JOYCE-AHEARNE

BY JAMES BENNETT

Irish-American culture is its own phenomenon, and with Obama’s grandfather’s grandfather hailing from Moneygall, we talk to his distant cousin about the world’s most powerful chancer

Watching the count come in with Democrats Abroad, in the most Oirish place in Ireland

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15

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THE BUS THAT COULDN’T SLOW DOWN

BY TOMMY GAVIN Aboard a bus destined for Belfast whose passangers will be marching in support of the recently opened Marie Stopes clinic

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GLITCH ART

BY ARAN KLEEBAUR As our entertainment and socialising is increasingly digitised, we take a look at an appropriate artform for the digital age

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EDITORIAL There are two broad themes running through this issue: The US election, and the abortion issue in Ireland. Every four years, the world is occupied for months by the great theatrical drama that is the US presidential process. The myth is that the rest of the world cares and follows it because as the world’s most powerful superpower, the outcome affects the rest of us, so we watch out of rational self-interest. This of course is a load of “malarkey”, as Joe Biden would say. We watch it because it is soap opera. So rather than commenting on how or why it works, or doesn’t as the case may be, as the line in the Simpsons short Citizen Kang goes: “the politics of failure have failed, we need to make them work again,” we preferred to tackle the subject from an Irish perspective, and look at where our national cultural idiosyncrasies lie in its regard.

In that same Simpsons short, is that brilliantly illustrative exchange between an alien impersonating presidential candidate Bob Dole and a crowd: “Abortions for all!” “Boo!” “Very well, no abortions for anyone!” “Boo!” “Very well, abortions for some, miniature American flags for others!”

We had no way of knowing, when undertaking a feature about the Marie Stopes Sexual Health Clinic in Belfast, just how strongly the winds of ire would blow, but it should be obvious to everyone now that there is a lateral consensus on the need to legislate for the X case, and to decide as a country what we want our national abortion policy to be. Infamous battle-axe and anti-divorce campaigner Úna Bean Mhic Mhathuna said in 1976 that she wasn’t surprised that “the call for abortion came from Trinity College where contraceptives were freely available and students were pressured into having sex by family planners.” We here at the University Times Magazine are proud to carry on that tradition, but above all stress the need for discourse, that we as citizens can arrive at some kind of consensus, or at least come to understand where we all stand. That is the real reason for undertaking the theme of abortion, that you either stand with us, or engage with us and each other in rational dialogue. There should be nothing controversial or extraordinary in that sentiment. Professor of Irish History Roy Foster, who went to Trinity, wrote in his book “Luck and the Irish: A Brief History of Change from 1970” that Irish identity changes roughly every thirty years, and as one former TN2 editor observed, we live in a country where magic mushrooms were made illegal because of agitation from Joe Duffy. That needle swings both ways.

Tommy Gavin, Editor ABOVE: Photograph by Tommy Gavin COVER : Photograph by Tommy Gavin THE UNIVERSITY TIMES MAGAZINE |

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CONTRIBUTORS EDITOR DEPUTY EDITOR CREATIVE DIRECTOR CULTURE EDITOR MUSIC EDITOR FILM EDITOR FASHION EDITOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

Tommy Gavin Michelle O’Connor Caelan Rush Maria Giulia Agnostia Eoin Hennessy Robert O’Reilly Aoife Considine Chloe Keoghan // Ana Lezacano Cadwallader

ILLUSTRATORS Michel Summers // Oisin Miliano // MODELS Darragh Sweetnam // Ronan McCann // Daire Collins // Colm Moore WORDS Stephanie Lord // Caroline Egan // D. Joyce-Ahearne // James Bennett // Anna E. Clifford // Phoebe Gallagher // Aran Kleebaur // David Wall // Liam Maher // Diarmuid Cushen // Jawad A. Anjum // Darach Mac Mathúna // Oliver Nolan // Justin Murphy //

REGULATION 5

CULTURE

LOITERING WITH INTENT

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MO-TOWN MADNESS

FLICK SUPPORT

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MUSIC

[SIGH]

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Stephanie Lord on the need to legislate for the X case

Caroline Egan on conflict tactics on the cinema

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Laura Gozzi takes us through Tory MP Nadine Dorris’ bizarre decision to abandon her parliamentary post for “I’m a celebrity... get me out of here”

Photoshoot of the best movember taches we could find

Eoin Hennessy and Liam Maher bring you the freshest cuts, and the return of the hip hop clique-

FILM

Justin Murphy reviews Seven Psychopaths, Oliver Nolan reviews Gambit and Diarmuid Cushen goes through his top 5 Bond songs

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FASHION

Darach Mac Mathúna on the building a Winter wardrobe

ALSO 9 MORMONS 17 TIME OUT OF MIND 10 DIARY OF A POLLING CLERK 20 LORDS OF STRUT 4

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21 TRACK DAZE 25 THE LAST STRAND

LOITERING WITH INTENT...

FLICK SUPPORT

Hell is cinema-talkers

BY CAROLINE EGAN

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ver the last few years I have become quite cynical about going to the cinema. Funny, you probably think, considering my favourite thing in both work and play is film.

This is not the same thing though. In an age where you can download a high quality film is there much point in supporting mediocrity? Perhaps not, but that is not even my real issue with the cinema theatre. My issue is with other people.

The Death of Savita Halappanavar

by Stephanie Lord

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reland has one of the most restrictive abortion regimes in the world. It is a country that has time and again forced women to go through the courts to be told what their rights are regarding abortions in Ireland, and what rights they have to access to them overseas. A court case is traumatic enough and entails significant personal upheaval when people are in the full of their health. It is a deeply upsetting event for a pregnant woman who has either done it to get access to an abortion or who has done it in the aftermath of her abortion so that no other woman ever has to go through what she has gone through. Or rather, what Ireland has forced her to go through. Current attitudes to abortion amongst the political establishment dictate that what a woman feels about her own pregnancy when there is a threat to her life is not relevant. It was not relevant to them in 1992 when a 14 year old suicidal rape victim had to go to the Supreme Court in order to travel for an abortion, and it is not relevant to them in 2012 when they learn of a dead woman who pleaded for an abortion that might have saved her life.

We have seen women who have been raped and suicidal forced through the courts to plead for an end to their pregnancy. Women have had to go before judges to secure the right to travel out of the country to have an abortion.

Women who carry foetuses with no prospect of surviving go home from their hospital

scans and are told by doctors to wait for their pregnancy to end naturally, or get on a plane. It is a cruel thing to put any woman through when she wishes to exercise her right to make her own medical decisions - even more so when her life is at risk.

Brave and strong women who have gone through the courts to seek some small change in the law have sometimes had success. In the ABC v Ireland case, the European Court of Human Rights said that the State must legislate for abortion in cases where it is already legal – that women are entitled to know the circumstances under which they are entitled to a lawful termination under the terms of the X Case of 1992. Put simply, the State must legislate for abortion in cases where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the woman. The current lack of legal clarity has led to women with life-threatening conditions having to travel overseas for medical treatment and it is clear that had we legislation in place, Savita Halappanavar might be alive today. Furthermore, the Government are fooling nobody but themselves if they think that Savita Halappanavar is the only woman who died as a result of being refused an abortion in an Irish hospital.

The ABC judgment was delivered in 2010 and the Government, in order to get out of actually dealing with the issue convened an “Expert Group” to decide how the State would provide women with this “le-

gal clarity.” Let there be no mistake about this, it was a delaying tactic. The State has been party to that many abortion-related court cases that there is no absence of knowledge as to how one would legislate for the issue in either the Department of Health Minister James Reilly’s own office, or in the office of the Attorney General. One could be forgiven for wondering how many other women will die while the Government continue to kick the can down the road.

It is now 2012, and a woman has died in an Irish hospital after appropriate medical treatment was withheld from her and she contracted an infection and died. There may be no clarity in law for when women may have a termination and when doctors may perform one, but there is clarity in the fact that in Ireland women’s bodies are not their own to make medical decisions for. They are the property of the State and at the moment, the State does not have a problem with a woman dying after being refused what could have been a life-saving abortion. If they did, legislation would be in place already.

Not only are we bombarded with 20 minutes of advertising which we did not pay to see before the feature, but we have to endure other people. Forget about crying children – if you go to a kids’ movie you have to expect it. Forget about people going to the toilet during the show and barging past. That’s not the clincher – the real problem is people paying to see a film that they obviously didn’t want to see. The real situation involves people ruining it for everyone else. This could take the form of talking to their friend for the course of the film about inane crap which is irrelevant to the film or even getting and accepting a phone call. In very extreme cases, as a friend once told me, a man lit up a cigarette in the middle of a day showing. No matter how scary or annoying these situations are the lack of consideration these people have for their fellow audience members is dumbfounding, and let’s be honest, truly disgraceful.

I don’t mean to go all Joe Duffy about this topic but it is very important to me. My relationship with the cinema has been tarnished as a result. This tends to not happen in small or independent theatres for some reason, which is fine as I would rather support them. This is not an attack on any specific grouping either – I have encountered offenders of all social backgrounds talking loudly throughout films. My suspension of disbelief and, in fact, my entire experience in the cinema is destroyed when I hear someone discuss their plans for the day (loudly) on the phone.

Not only can I not enjoy the film but I also get so angry that I cannot concentrate on it after the fact. In this position you have a number of choices – the first is to tell them all to be quiet – I manage this in a non-confrontational way by shushing them without visibly moving or turning around. Nobody ever knows it’s me.

This has mixed results and often ends with the offenders starting up again. The next is to leave the screen and ask a member of staff to remove them. This rarely works out – they are mostly given a warning and you’ve missed a chunk of the film. The last approach, however, is perhaps the one I may use next time, depending on the severity of the infraction – I will leave the cinema, complain, demand a refund and download it at home. How’d you like them apples? It is only when theatres are held accountable for these problems that they will truly get the message about enforcing these rules.

Women cannot be left to die as a result of political cowardice and a refusal to acknowledge that women who have life-threatening conditions in pregnancy are entitled to necessary medical treatment.

There must be no more martyrs for abortion law reform on this island. The Government must legislate for X now.

THE UNIVERSITY TIMES MAGAZINE |

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THE IRISH N O I T C E CONN D. Joyce-Ahearne considers the deep ties binding the American president to his ancestral homeland, and the nature of IrishAmerican culture

uspicions that Barack Obama was a “sound lad” were confirmed in May 2007 when a Salt Lake City genealogist traced the president’s roots back here to the home country, to Offaly of all places. Obama, of the Moneygall Obamas as he put it himself, is one of over 36 million Americans who claim Irish ancestry. He is the 22nd US president to come from Irish stock, a figure that testifies the incredible input of our good selves to American life and history.

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The recent US election was another testament to the influence of Irish-American culture. Along with the incumbent being an honorary BIFFO (Black Irish Fella from Offaly), both VP candidates were Irish-Americans; with both Joe Biden, who is particularly vocal about his roots, and Paul Ryan, drawing on their immigrant Irish heritage in speeches along the campaign trail.

Biden’s frequent use of the word malarkey (which is an IrishAmerican thing apparently) and his master class in thinking of any word that wasn’t shite (that is to say his ‘this is a bunch of stuff’ line) brought Irish shite-talking back to the fore of American politics, where it belongs. When Biden was asked to explain his ‘that’s a load of stuff ’ line, Ryan actually said “it’s Irish”. One of the main subjects trending on Twitter after the debate was malarkey, as the 280 million Americans without Irish roots tried to figure out what the fuck the Vice-President had been talking about.

But the best thing, or at the very least word, to pop up on the Irish-American radar during the election has to be McBlackpac (yes, that’s correct MCBLACKPAC). According to Stella O’Leary, the president of the Irish American Democrats, McBlackpac “is a Super PAC, building on the shared history of African-Americans and Irish-Americans, from Frederick Douglass and Daniel O’Connell, to President John Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King, and now President Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”

Henry Healy knows more than most about the Irish-American experience. He is President Barack Obama’s eighth cousin,

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or as eighth cousins are known in Ireland, cousins. I spoke to Henry about his famous kinsman and his experiences so far as a blood relative of the leader of the free world. “I can still picture the president leaping from the SUV on the Main Street of Moneygall village. I can only describe him as warm, friendly and easy to engage with. I was never conscious of the fact that I was talking with the most powerful man in the world it was so relaxed despite all the TV crew and the 3000 people on the street greeting and meeting with the President.”

Some saw Obama’s Irish trip as nothing more than a grab for the Irish-American vote and that his own ancestry was far from his agenda but we Irish are far too quick to dismiss Americans’ interest in their Irish identity. We seem to get annoyed that Americans treat Irishness differently to ourselves, without taking into account that being Irish and being Irish-American are two completely different things. We think differently and act differently because we are, in fact, different.

One of the best examples of this is the I.R.A., or Irish Rhetorical Assistance. If, for example, I was on the side of the road digging a hole and an Irish-American offered me a hand, I would say yes thank you, and he would gladly help. After all he did offer. He’s American and if he didn’t want to help me he wouldn’t have asked and I know this. If, however, an Irishman was walking by and offered me a hand I would know to say no.

If he really wants to help me, he will ask me two more times and if I really want his help I will consent to let him help me on the third offer. If he only asks me once, or even twice, he is simply being polite and in no way wants to assist me. To accept his offer on the first attempt would be not only a dreadful faux-pas but a disgraceful abuse of his goodwill and might well lead to me being banished from the village.

I remember once I was breezing through the kitchen, freshpoured cup of tea and book in hand, on my way to the sitting room to read. An American friend, who was a guest, was washing the dishes and as I was leaving the room I threw an offhand “Would you like a hand?” over my shoulder. As I was in the process of closing the kitchen door after me I heard her say yes. I nearly dropped my tea. What followed was quite the awkward,

but necessary, conversation in which I explained to her that I didn’t want to help her at all. I was merely being polite, and her accepting my offer was culturally insensitive, if not downright rude. I know she has now learned to be more culturally aware because she has never asked for my help again.

According to Henry, “the President stepped into his ancestral home which is open to the public now and he was genuinely taken aback. I can say with confidence it was genuine because there were no cameras or photographers in the house just the President and First Lady along with the owner of the house and myself. I still hear the echo in the room as the President stomped his foot on the ground and said ‘imagine my ancestors lived in here’.”

“The President also took great interest when Canon Neil went through the parish records that recorded the baptisms of his ancestors. The President called over his own photographer to take a picture of him holding these records. The First Lady also asked Canon Neil to explain the records to her as she wanted to be able to tell her daughters. I was fortunate enough to meet with the President on St. Patrick’s Day this year and he told me that he was taken aback by what he felt in Ireland, and that he realised then that his Irish connection was as close as many Irish-Americans as it was only his Grandfather’s Grandfather who left from Moneygall in 1851.”

Obama, more than most Americans, has had to struggle with his identity. Even to this day there are those in America who claim that he was not, in fact, born in the US. Others claim that he is actually a practising Muslim. Like Frederick Douglass 150 years ago, Obama must have appreciated coming to a country where, for the most part, nobody cares whether he’s black, Muslim, or even from Offaly. From talking to Healy, it’s evident that there’s definitely some Irish in Obama still.

“One of the most amusing questions I get asked is did the President finish his pint? I always reply that yes he did and people are amazed. When we were in the bar in Moneygall with the President, he made a point of saying, ‘Just in case they ask, I finished my pint’.” The cute hoor, sure isn’t it no wonder he’s president.

BY JAMES BENNETT

ER LE C T I O N NIGHT

A D I S PAT C H F R O M T H E T E M P O R A R Y H Q O F D E M O C R AT S A B R OA D O N T H E N I G H T O F T H E I R C A N D I DAT E ’ S V I C TO R Y

he Arlington Hotel on Bachelor’s Walk is an isolated bio-sphere created especially for American tourists. It was designed by Michael Flatley, and is the last remaining place where the High King of Ireland is the official head of state. Brehon Laws operate within its walls, meaning you can kill a man without going to jail. Just give his widow the finest bull in your herd. Sorted! Diddlyeye music is available on tap throughout the day (unlike good Guinness, more of that later). In short, this little haven on the northern banks of the Liffey is more Irish than Ireland itself.

And it was here that the Dublin branch of Democrats Abroad chose as the location for their election night shindig, which consists of staying up all night in the hotel bar and watching the results of the American presidential election come in on a

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big screen. I went along to observe, hoping to regale the readers of this magazine with stories of crazy but adorable statesiders trying to do politics. Look at them with their little flags! Cute!

Not wanting all the slick New-Yorkers, radical surfer dudes and Silicon Valley upstarts to realise that I was a sad loser, I got two friends to come with me. We arrived at eleven and managed to get one of the last remaining tables. I got up and went to have a word with my contact: Denis Desmond, the chair of Democrats Abroad Dublin. He was jovially distributing Obama 2012 badges from a freezer bag. I asked him for one, deciding that journalistic impartiality was a stupid idea anyway. He was very busy, and hesitated when I asked if he had time to sit down and talk about what his organisation did. I reassured him that it would only take five minutes, and we could do it later if wanted.

He looked pensively for a second at the pint that he was holding: “I think sooner would be better than later.”

Interview in the bag, I went to get a drink so I could sit down and enjoy the election coverage. I went for Guinness. In a place as Irish as the Arlington it would surely be amazing. I was already composing sentences to do it justice: “The smooth and velvety nectar of the bog, distilled through hundreds of years of tradition.” Turns out I was wasting my time. It was possibly the worst Guinness I’ve ever had. It tasted like it had been wrung out of an old carpet. I can only imagine what state the pumps were in. They probably haven’t been cleaned since Flatley himself installed them two hundred years ago. In short, this was not a nice pint. And yet, in a display of true Irishness, I drank the whole thing. Too right, it cost me a fucking fiver!

THE UNIVERSITY TIMES MAGAZINE |

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“This was not the first time I had heard someone mention good plain ol’ racism as being a significant factor in the race to the White House”

The results started trickling in around midnight our time.

Romney took an early lead with safe Republican states such as Alabama and Kentucky declaring early. Obama unsurprisingly claimed New England. The mood in the room was confident, but it was a jittery kind of confident. Everybody thought Obama would win, but there was one possible scenario where, if he didn’t take Ohio, Romney could come out on top. Ohio for the moment was proving too close to call.

Meanwhile, Denis came over for the chat that he had promised me: “See, I didn’t forget ya!” he announced, sounding vaguely like one of the Kennedys. He was keen to talk about Democrats Abroad: “Our main goal is to get American citizens living abroad to vote. We help them through the whole process of registering for the absentee ballot. However, the Irish branch is slightly different. Whereas in other countries organisations will only help people of their own party register, we help everyone. Democrats Abroad Dublin will help any American citizen in Ireland register to vote, because we know that the Irish vote will always be at least seventy per cent Democrat. So when people come to us for help, we don’t ask what party they’re from, because we don’t care. That’s pretty much all we do, apart from holding a few fundraisers.”

I asked him about Obama’s visit to Ireland: “Unfortunately our members didn’t get to meet the president. It was a State visit, so it wouldn’t have been appropriate for him to meet with political groups. We did get VIP passes to the College Green speech though. A lot of our members got to shake

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hands with him there, which was pretty cool.”

We then started talking about the presidential race. Denis was quietly confident, which indeed seemed to be the mood of the room. I asked him if there was a different atmosphere among supporters than in 2008: “Yeah, I think in 2008 a lot of people were intrigued by Obama. There was a certain novelty about the whole thing. Now what we have is a real passion. A deeper commitment. There are a lot of people out there who really want this for him, and are working really hard to put him back in the White House.” Obviously, Denis would say this. There was no question of acknowledging the millions of Americans wearied by a continuing recession who decided to give the president a second chance, but who could hardly be said to be passionate about him. At the end of the day, look at the alternative: a Mormon billionaire who doesn’t give a shit about forty-seven per cent of them. And he speaks French!

Really, it was never going to happen, Mitt.

When I realised that I was being spun for an election that was already over, and that I didn’t have a vote in anyway, I wrapped up the interview. Denis went off somewhere to get pissed. We continued watching the results which were trickling in as predicted, with no major upsets. Everything still depended on Ohio. I got talking to a woman from Missouri, who was in Ireland doing research for a thesis. I asked her about the local dynamics of her home state: “It used to be a swing state, until there was a black candidate. With Obama running for the Democrats Missouri is a safe Republican state, which is

really sad. I was part of the Obama campaign team in 2008. I did a lot of knocking on doors. The most interesting thing for me was seeing that a lot of middle aged white women reacted in the same way. They would lower their voices and say: ‘Yeah, put me down for Obama. But don’t ever come back here, and don’t ever talk to my husband.’ I couldn’t believe that so many women were still afraid of their husbands. It was surreal.” This was not the first time I had heard someone mention good plain ol’ racism as being a significant factor in the race to the White House. Someone else who had worked on the 2008 and 2012 campaigns summed it up nicely: “A lot of people just won’t vote for a black guy!” Fortunately, there weren’t enough of them to swing the election. However, they do still exist. I’m still undecided as to whether or not the current policy of not acknowledging them is a good thing.

The results trudged on into the small (and then medium) hours of Wednesday morning. We ate poor quality and overpriced hot dogs and chicken wings to keep us awake. When eventually Ohio was called for Obama, a huge cheer, which contained the tiniest grain of relief, went up in the hotel bar, reverberating through the old beams bedecked with starspangled bunting. Meanwhile at Fox News headquarters in New York City, conservative pundit Karl Rove was busy explaining to his viewers that the mathematicians who had meticulously worked out the projection for Ohio were wrong.

That’s just numbers folks! Mitt’s got it in the bag!

Business as usual…

MORMONISM: A Cultural Primer

BY ANNA E. CLIFFORD

Despite his Rumpelstiltskinian evasiveness in deflecting questions about his faith, Mormonism is said to permeate Mitt Romney’s worldview entirely. Here we offer a glimpse into the religion of the failed candidate.

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’m in Utah, and the girl in front of me has the same colouring as I do, and we fall into conversation about our origins. Her badge has already told me she is from Ontario, Canada. This is her first time away from home, and she will have little to no contact with her family during the eighteen months she spends in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is on a mission for the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS) and has hit the jackpot in religious terms: as her job is to give tours of the house of Brigham Young, the second Mormon prophet. The house is small, the tour lasts 20 minutes and she admits with a slight roll of her eyes that she knows it pretty dam well by now. I like talking to sister Rosemary (again, her badge), I am also far from home and know few people in this city. But I have to go, and the punchline of our conversation soon comes - had I had a chance to talk to someone about the church, what did I think of it and could she put me in contact with someone in Ireland?

Her eyes are round, her voice earnest with a touch of genuine concern as she delivers the closing line, ‘I just know it is something that would really bless your life.’

For the majority of us, the Mormons seem a far cry in the distance - both geographically and indeed from reality. The Mormon stories seem bizarre - not because all religions don’t have fantastical stories - but because they seem so blatantly made up. But Salt Lake, Utah’s capital city, is built on these stories - the streets are built in a grid centred on the first Mormon Temple, and structured and named accordingly. So it’s unsurprising that 41 percent of the population in Salt Lake are practicing members of the LDS church, which is a lot compared for example to the 14 percent mass attendees in Dublin.

And if you’re born into that, it’s a lot harder to leave.

For many people on our end, Mitt Romney’s Mormonism seemed to trump even his abhorrent perspective on women’s rights (“and feck it he’s a Mormon!”), so I decided to catch up with Cory Bushman - a resident of SLC, a Mormon and a feminist. When I first met Cory she was living in an alternative (secular) community for orphaned children in Southern Russia and running The Mormon Worker, a publication promoting anarchism, pacifism and Mormonism. Now, she is living in SLC and works as a case manager in YWCA, a non-profit shelter for female victims of domestic abuse.

So, what do you and ‘your people’ think of Mitt Romney? Was much made of his religion during the election campaign?

“The fact that he was Mormon was HUGE for a lot of people. I heard several stories of people saying that they were voting for him because he is Mormon, from Mormons. Mormons are not well-liked by a lot of other Christian religions, so I don’t know how much support he got in the South. It was probably rough for a lot of Southerners to have to decide between a black dude and a Mormon dude. There is one elderly woman I know who has been a Democrat all her life, but voted for Mitt just because he is Mormon.”

What is the post-election atmosphere like in Salt Lake, in light of Obama’s victory?

“It’s varied...I work for a non-profit that is more left leaning, so the atmosphere there is good. Most people are relieved that Obama won. Actually, most people I associate with felt relief...however, my aunt feels that America has hit an “all time low,” that America is going to collapse because of Mitt not becoming the president. There were a lot of crazy e-mails circulating about Obama being Muslim and not USborn and all that stuff. My aunt was really into those. Really though I see relief more than surprise. My view is also skewed because I live in SLC, which has a much larger democratic population than rural areas in Utah. So, I am sure that there is a lot of disappointment. However, there is also a growing Libertarian movement in Utah--so those people didn’t want Mitt or Obama to win.

Mormonism has a prominent history of allowing polygamy. How do you reconcile that legacy with your feminist credentials?

So when Mormons first came to Utah they came to set up their own government, and at this time there were many more female than male members of the church, which is really how it happened. But you could never just be a polygamist, you had to have a calling - and because that happened there were a lots of advancements for women in the church - firstly, they had the most liberal divorce laws of anywhere in the US. Secondly, many of the first female doctors in the US were Mormon, as they were able to leave their children in Utah and go back east and go to school. Polygamy was outlawed in 1890 though, and any polygamist now would be excommunicated. There were communities who broke off and went to Canada and Mexico. Polygamy is interesting in that it’s not unique to Mormonism - there are sects of Muslims that are polygamist to this day, and there are sects that practice polygamy in Utah still - they’re not associated with the LDS church though.

When it comes to feminism there are a lot of LDS women who are pretty outspoken, who write a lot who are fairly well known here. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is a feminist historian who coined the phrase ‘well behaved women rarely make history’… well it’s popular here, people have it on bumper stickers and stuff.

At this point, Cory stops me. She has a few bones to pick with me about her favourite new discoveries from this side of the pond: British comedy quiz shows and Jedward. Two cultural phenomena I unfortunately cannot explain. I quickly change the subject, and try to impress on her just how weird Mormons seem.

Stephenie Meyer [the author of Twilight] is Mormon, right?

Some of the Mormon stories - the magic glasses and the magic plates and the magic underwear - are pretty crazy. Am I right?

Well played. Lastly, do you think the US would be ready for a Mormon president, either now or in the future?

I really really love and value the mystical components of Mormonism, and the sense of community, there’s a lot of love and strength in that. For some reason the things that seem so elaborate or outlandish, for me those are the easiest things to believe. The Joseph Smith story I think is really beautiful.

And we also use the Bible as our scripture - the stories in The Book of Mormon are less parable-like, it’s more a documentation of what was going on at the time, and written by a lot of people too.

Yeah… But that’s like saying Jedward is Irish…it’s not like something we’re all proud of. But yeah she is. So is Mitt Romney.

I think it would be ok - I think it wouldn’t be that big an issue for America to have a Mormon president. However I personally think that anyone who gets to that that level of political power is either really out of touch - Romney is definitely out of touch, with a lot of demographics but in any case, anyone who gets there has basically sold their soul to do so. I think it goes for Obama too, he has had to do things that I’m sure he isn’t that proud of to get to where he is. I don’t think its possible not to have compromised a lot of your morals to get into that position of power.

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Diary of a Polling Clerk

James Bennett relates his experience working as a ballot-jockey in Wexford during the Children’s Rights Referendum.

08:30 Good to be back in Crossabeg National School. Even if it does smell like cow shit. Anne (my boss) is in flying form.

She’s been up since 05:30 shaving the calves or something.

We both agree that there won’t be a good turnout today.

12:30 Anne’s bffl Bridey came in to vote and they talked for about half an hour. Mainly about bus tours. The last one they went on was to Newbridge. Bridey couldn’t believe that the ladies bought so much jewellery there. Sure it’s only silver plated! If they get a drop of perfume on that it’s ruined. Bridey always says if you’re buyin’ you’d want to buy silver or gold. There’s no point in anything else.

11:45 The poll has been open for almost three hours and five people out of four hundred in our catchment area have voted.

Understandable really. It’s only, like, children’s rights and stuff. Anne’s getting jittery. We’ve had about ten cups of tea each already.

15:00 Turn out has been static for a while now at 11%. A woman came in about ten minutes ago and gave an almighty speech while voting. It’s disgraceful what they’re trying to get us to do! Vote to put little children in mental hospitals! Absolutely disgraceful! So on and so forth for about five minutes. Taxi!

19:00 It’s what we’ve been waiting for all day! The crowd coming out of mass! Hive of activity. All the gals were there: Phyllis, Mags, Assumpta, Nell. The vote was gotten out of the way quickly so they could have a chat about the trip to Knock last week. Mags is the only one present who went. Her enjoyment was hampered by the fact that she had to push ‘the quare wan’ around in her wheelchair for the whole week. Out of one mass and straight into the next. I tell ya Anne she’s some woman to pray! Between novenas and rosaries… Oh lord jaysus, she had us wore out! We put the wheelchair in front of the telly then on Friday night so she could watch the Late Late while we went for a few jars. Sure we didn’t get back ‘til one o’clock, half-scuttered. She wasn’t impressed at all. But sure fuck her! She’ll be alright!

21:30 22:00 We’re done. Tired and happy that it’s over. It’s handy money but it’s a long day. Surprised at the amount of negative opinions I heard today. Hope it gets passed. God help us if we ever have to work in a gay marriage or abortion referendum.

10 | THE UNIVERSITY TIMES MAGAZINE

Half an hour left until the polls close. A late burst has pushed us up to 40% turnout, which is much better than the national average. Never want to see another cup of tea in my life. Avril Doyle, local politico and former MEP came in. Put her ballot paper down on our desk and voted (yes) in front of us. As if we give a shit.

MO- TOWN MADNESS PHOTOS BY AOIFE CONSIDINE 1. THE MONKEY TAIL - DARRAGH SWEETNAM

THE UNIVERSITY TIMES MAGAZINE |

11

2. WOLVERINE - RONAN MCCANN

3. THE PROSPECT - DAIRE COLLINS

4. THE OMEGA-TACHE - COLM MOORE

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>>

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BLI U D : E UR

T R A P E D

N W O D W O L S T ’ N D L U O C T A H T THE BUS >>

ST A F L E L: B A V I R AR

ONE WEEK PREVIOUS TO THE MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION OUTSIDE THE DAIL, TOMMY GAVIN WENT WITH A GROUP OF PRO-CHOICE DEMONSTRATORS TO THE MARIE STOPES CLINIC IN BELFAST

It was Saturday the 10th of November and I was ten minutes late for the departure of a bus to Belfast. Organised by people behind the facebook page “unlike youth defence, I trust women to decide their lives for themselves” which sprang up in reaction to the religious group’s advertising campaign in June, the bus was to shuttle people up to Belfast for a march in support of the Marie Stopes sexual health clinic which opened in October. The clinic offers sexual health testing, ultrasound scanning, and non-surgical medical abortions up to nine weeks gestation, which is 3 weeks shy of the second trimester. Anyone over the age of 16 can access the centre by appointment only.

sentiments, though of the latter, it seemed somewhat glib to tacitly express solidarity with an event that itself was organised to express solidarity. You’re only screwing with the headcount. Especially since Cathie Doherty, who organised the bus asked people to confirm attendance.

My initial understanding, as I related to everyone I talked to the days previously, was that it was to be a meta-protest, protesting the protesters protesting the clinic. There have already been demonstrations against the clinic, and antiabortion activists maintain a permanent presence outside it to intimidate its patients. I’ve been in the student- journalist game long enough that this wasn’t my first rodeo, but I still wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.

There was some debate as to whether it would be cheaper to just get a bus from Bus Eireann, but it ended up being pretty much the same price to just take the coach, and while it was a shame that the partial subsidisation raised by the Irish Feminist Network wouldn’t be bringing more people to the March, we didn’t want to be late, so on we went to Belfast. There were eleven of us who made the final cut, and I was among the three males in attendance.

Fortunately, the bus had not left without me, but unfortunately, turnout was much lower than expected. As anyone who has ever organised an event on Facebook (i.e. everyone) knows, clicking ‘attending’ can mean many things. It can mean “I give my solemn word that all the armies of Europe and Asia could not by force keep me from this event in the trial of a thousand years.” It can also mean “I have no intention of actually showing up to this, but wish to extend my personal seal of approval to its purpose and/or ambitions.” It seemed that the people who clicked ‘attending’ to this particular event, were of either side of the two

One of the other males was Arman Maroufkhani. He joined Choice Ireland two years ago after moving to Ireland, partially out of guilt from having political views and not acting on them, and partially because he felt that Irish people don’t have the same rights that people take for granted in his native Sweden, though his parents are from Iran, where abortion policy is surprisingly similar to Ireland’s in its legal ambiguity. “You can’t get an abortion here if you need one, or want one, and I think you should be able to. When I came here, it was harder to get the morning after pill, and it’s been made easier since, but there is still a

The actual attendees made up a decent cross-section of people who would care about the issue, from activists affiliated with political groups who would be involved in a range of social issues, to organisationally unaffiliated people like Anna Kerslake, a freelance creative fashion photographer, there because they consider themselves feminists.

lot of work to be done. I live in Ireland now, and even if I’m not a citizen I still feel like I should get involved in things I think are morally right.”

While we are talking, the group conversation on the bus among our fellow passengers has somehow drifted onto the topic of Dundalk, and whether or not it is a kip, drifting towards “yeah it is”. It’s possible that one or more of our contingent is from Drogheda, and felt emboldened by their recent 3-2 victory in the Louth Derby, but as it awkwardly turns out, our driver is from Dundalk, and we settle on “ah but it’s lovely really”.

Still unsure what the anti-abortion turnout will be like, I ask Arman if he’s ever been confronted by the Youth Defence League. He says that he’s been to counter demonstrations before, and its actually kind of scary. People can get very emotional because it’s such a divisive issue, and there was a march last year where a man was right in his face screaming “Nazi! Hitler would be proud of you” at him, which I imagine is kind of surreal.

Then he had a run in with the actual Youth Defence League, who, while we can all agree abortion is a nuanced and complicated issue, are just scumbags. Founded in 1992 by Una Bean Mhic Mhathuna, (or her daughters depending on who you ask) who referred to Women’s Liberation activists in the 1970’s as “fornicators,” “dirty sluts,” and “filthy bastards who should never get married,” and famously called pro-divorce campaigners “wife swapping sodomites” during the 1995 divorce referendum. “Yeah I was confronted outside the GPO when they saw my Choice Ireland badge and I was discussing it with them, and suddenly there was 5 of them surrounding me, and they brought their like guru

THE UNIVERSITY TIMES MAGAZINE | 15

lady over but they don’t scare me.”

I point out to Arman that our gender seems under-represented on the bus, and ask him if he’s used to it, being involved in Choice Ireland. He says that when he first joined, there were no other guys involved. “I can understand it because I think a lot of guys who even would be pro-choice just try and stay out of the way like ‘it’s not my business’ or whatever. I generally don’t think about it, but when I do it’s because I’m at a meeting or something organised by pro-choice people, and there’s an even split, and then it feels like there are more women then there actually are, just because you’re used to women being under-represented.”

I had intended to get around the bus and talk to everyone, but without realising, I’d spent the whole time talking with Arman, and suddenly we were disembarking on York Street in Belfast, where the march we were to join was about to begin. As on the coach, there wasn’t a massive turnout, but I reckoned there were about 300 people in attendance which was enough to get a decent march going. As on the coach, the crowd was noticeably diverse in its make-up. Naturally, crusties and left-wing political groups were in the fore, but most people seemed, for lack of a better word, normal. I don’t mean that in a condescending way (no disrespect, crusties), but in a way that they were the kind of normal people who don’t necessarily demonstrate much. The clinic had only been open for a few weeks, and people had seen something in it that was worth showing up to defend.

I can’t be sure if he knew why we were there, though he must have from the banners, but with the dismissive shooing away from a wino shouting “go on yiz pricks, fuck off ”, the march began. What entailed was an orderly amble through Belfast (my first time since my only other trip to Belfast at aged 14), with chants of “not the church, not the state, women will decide their fate” coming from the rear, and a samba drum ensemble leading the front. Samba drums, it must be said, are much better for demonstrations than snare drums, the difference being that between having a 2/4 beat to get you into a jaunty rhythm, and the feeling that you are about to be executed by firing squad.

The march progressed for the most part without incident.

The only interruption came when a man tried to set up some kind of conscientious obstruction, right arm raised clutching a

“RIGHT ARM RAISED, CLUTCHING A ROSARY, AS IF HE THOUGHT OF HIMSELF AS SOME KIND OF CHRISTIAN SUPERHERO”

port for the clinic then a meta-protest. There were three people brandishing signs about blood and sin (two of whom were men), and they were well past the age where they would be personally considering abortion anyway. The first speaker was Mara Klein Clarke, a yank who founded the Abortion Support Network, which issues grants to Irish women seeking terminations on the grounds that “women who can afford it already get abortions, poor women have babies or face dire situations, and it is they who can’t afford to travel that need the help of the Abortion Support Network, and legislation.”

She told us that requests for grants from Irish women doubled this year, for the third consecutive year, that the Irish women seeking help from the network range in ages from 14 to 46, and that at least a third were already mothers. Last year alone, 1007 women from Northern Ireland travelled to England or Wales for an abortion, as did 4149 women from the Republic.

Her speech was temporarily interrupted, there was a near scuffle as the anti-abortion woman tried to flaunt her sign in front of choice signs, which were then held up in front of hers.

It was an almost comically juvenile bid for attention, and seemed to be mostly for the cameras. Clearly outnumbered, the people protesting the clinic skulked off, and Mara continued, though the PA system was eventually abandoned in favour of a loudspeaker, due to bad wiring.

The other speakers included Aobhan McCann, who I was told basically IS socialism in Northern Ireland, after I inquired who he was when he was introduced as “a man who needs no introduction” (people seriously do that apparently), and a woman who spoke personally about her own abortion.

rosary, as if he thought he was some kind of Christian superhero. This culminated in a brief showdown, as he stood opposite a woman holding a placard simply reading “Extend the 1967 act” (referencing the 1967 abortion act which applies to England, Wales and Scotland, but not Northern Ireland). He was then asked to move along by the police.

Before long, we were at Belfast City Hall, where the crowd was to be addressed by a few invited speakers through a PA system hooked up to a generator. I was expecting more of a confrontation, but it turned out to be more of a show of sup-

After the demonstration wrapped up, there were plans for pints in a bar in the area, but first, my fellow coach passengers wanted to get something to eat, and so we went to what turned out to be some kind vegetarian punk café, and ended up staying there drinking tea and discussing the day’s events.

I actually somehow forgot that they don’t use the euro in the North, and pathetically had to borrow a Pound from Jacinta Fay, also involved in Choice Ireland, so I could get a cup of tea. She had been involved in her own sign skirmish with two anti-abortion protesters, where “we had a general argument and they walked away.”

We don’t have time to meet with the rest of the demonstrators at the pub, out coach is waiting for us to bring us back down to Dublin. We all chat amicably on the bus, oblivious of storm that was coming. In retrospect now, the anti-abortion demonstrators protesting the Marie Stopes clinic seem trivial. The abortions are conducted through the ingestion of a pill, and they only take patients who are up to 9 weeks pregnant, and there still must legally be a “threat to the life of the mother.”In England meanwhile, an abortion can be carried out during the first 24 weeks on the NHS. As we arrive back in the Republic and Arman and I walk back through town, I suggest that it is just a fact that in some ways, men and women are different, for example, men will never be able to understand what it is or what it’s like to have periods. That abortion is fundamentally a woman’s issue, because in that sense, it deals with something that men just won’t be able to intuitively comprehend. He tentatively agrees, but reiterates “either you support a woman’s right to choose, or you should get out of the way.”

Three days later, news would break that a woman who was denied a termination at a hospital in Galway had died of septicaemia because “this is a catholic country,” catapulting the issue to the front and centre of Irish politics. Seven days later, approximately 20,000 people would demonstrate demanding legislation outside Dáil Éireann.

16 | THE UNIVERSITY TIMES MAGAZINE

TIME OUT

OF MIND

REVIEW BY PHOEBE GALLAGHER

S

tretching down a long corridor , connected to high ceilinged rooms, lies distorted ‘traditional’ sculptures, pencil drawn moving images, and a block of ice.

Alice Maher’s latest exhibition, ‘Becoming’ displays her most important work to date, collected from the 1980s to the present day, including a variety of different artistic mediums from photography through to video installations to paintings. However the one uniting feature is that in their rather unique way they all link and portray a different representation of something transforming or rather ‘becoming’ something else, often going from something familiar to something more unrecognisable.

Alice Maher, born in Tipperary, attended first the University of Limerick and later Cork’s Crawford College of Art, before moving into art full time. She was and remains fascinated by metamorphosis; the quick complete biological and physical change in an animal after birth, but also was inspired by the more abstract nature of it, as shown in Ovid’s epic poem, ‘Metamorphoses,’ literally translated as ‘transformations.’ It is this theme which really carries thorough the exhibition, and one notes not only a change in subject matter but also in her use of materials. On entering upon the first room, one is greeted with a series of bizarre disjoined singular sounds composed by Trevor Knight , which run with the constantly transforming drawn picture work formed into a five minute long video. So the lady with a swarm of bees by her, turns into a women with spots, and that transforms into a leopard and so it goes on. Titled, ‘The music of things,’ the four animated videos found in a few various rooms include about 247 drawings each rubbed and redrawn on the same A4 sheet of paper, so that by the end the once white background has all the ghost marks of the previous drawings, leaving behind the grey history of the animation’s transformation. The narrative in each of these videos is distinct and follows the artist’s change in thought and choice leaving behind a more solid understanding of the whole sequence once the film has concluded. Although often quite peculiar the drawings do portray the evolution of both a spiritual and emotional metamorphosis, and brings together all types of life change, highlighting in particular the classical paradigm of music as a connection between the mortal and immortal origins of art, fitting in with her fascination with ancient mythology. Her etchings on a few ostrich eggs depict very similar imagery to that of the drawn images used in her videos but without the music, thus concentrating one on the rather juxtaposed organic and artificial life that is being created. Her drawings look like they are depicting the unique creatures that are held within the egg, but the rather grotesque images contradict the notion of absolute innocence inherent in the birth of new life. A further obscurity is the very fact that these images are inscribed onto the delicate eggshells; a rather unusual format.

Tucked in-between the wooden floorboards in the same room lies a row of short ‘shurbs’ named the ‘Hedge of Experience,’ consisting of ‘a forest’ of sapling oak trees, acting as an inversion of the traditional associations of strength and fortitude, since it instead appears comically small and vulnerable. This transformation of ‘the mighty oak,’ whilst very simple sums up Maher’s work, as she turns common and traditional motifs on their head.

The sculptures found in the later rooms refer to classical portrait art, manipulated in a similar style, but with a critical distinction or two. ‘Double Venus’ is a duplicated bronze cast carving of the Goddess linked by a small tube attaching at their brains.

There are further sculptures and even a few paintings that have this similar idea running through them, hinting at the subversion and distortion of classical imagery and introduces psychology into this rather more traditional framework.

One of the main old lecture rooms was left totally untouched apart from hundreds of small hanging lights shining in the darkness, creating a rather serene atmosphere and contrasting with the other abstract works that were on show. ‘L’Universite,’ appeared as a starry night’s sky, but when looking more intently you noticed how these ‘stars’ lit up certain written comments/drawings on the work desks beneath them, highlighting the characters of students who once sat in this classroom, leaving their indelible markings behind but who have now forever moved on from this momentary transition in their lives.

Earlsfort Terrace, provides the perfect setting for such artwork as Maher’s which links into threads touching on tradition, history and memory; aspects which Earlsfort Terrace encompass so much. Originally built as part of the newly established University College Dublin in 1912 by Rudolph Maximillian Butler, and meant to have been at least doubled in size, it was one of or even the last project by the British administration in Dublin, making it a particularly poignant piece of architecture, alive with its history and memory, and a transformative setting much like the art it is now housing.

Alice Maher’s work was engaging and exciting; full of different portrayals on a similar theme with an array of media being used. Having known literally nothing about her before I got there, and totally uncertain of what to expect, I found myself in for a real though provoking treat.

Alice Maher’s retrospective, ‘Becoming,’ is being shown at IMMA @ NCH Earlsfort Terrace until 3 February 2013.

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GLITCH I

ART

t is a phenomenon we encounter on a daily basis. Mostly, it is a random occurrence, a chance happening, the shape and form of which cannot be determined. The glitch; that sudden and random moment when technology malfunctions, the flow of data communication and transmission is disrupted, our computer crashes or our avatar is not following our controls. However hard one might try, its occurrence at some point is inescapable. Even though our technologies for data communication and transmission, be they our laptops, iPhones or kindles, are becoming smoother and faster, we can still testify to the veracity of information theorist Claude E. Shannon’s statements from 1948, that “every transmission comes with noise“, that “exact transmission is impossible.”

The potentiality for glitches is all-prevalent, and accordingly there has been an increasing number of artists who, fascinated by the natural attributes and implications of these ‘noise artefacts’, are deliberately manipulating, distorting and corrupting both analogue and mainly digital technologies to conjure, perform and ‘stage’ glitches in their myriad forms.

Since modernism, the intentional employment of some form of disruption and breakage is ubiquitous in the practices of art.

A text such as the futurist Luigi Russulo’s The Art of Noises, Brecht’s concept of the “Verfremdungseffekt” (the estrangement effect), or Cagean aesthetics all point in varying ways towards a growing emphasis on performance, materiality and chance.

Within our technologized culture, the glitch can be seen as the exemplification of these three principles, since in its natural occurrence it is a purely haphazard occurrence acting out what we might now call the “materiality of communication”. In particular; the manipulation and disruption of media technologies

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Remember that bit in The Matrix where Neo sees the cat, and the cat glitches, and they know that agents are coming?

The corrupted data shatters the illusion of reality.

Aran Kleebaur takes us through the use of the glitch as artistic expression, and talks to Recyclism, an artist at the forefront of the movement

has always been a strategy for video and media artists, as well as experimental musicians since the second half of the 20th Century. Early use of the glitch aesthetic can be found in the video-installations of Nam June Paik or the works of the videoart-duo Steina and Woody Vasulka.

Similarly, in the vast experimental music scene since the second half of the 20th Century, elements of noise and chance were being utilised more and more often in varying styles, be it John Cage, the circuit-bent instruments of Reed Ghazala, Industrial- and IDM musicians, or even DJ-Scratching. Disruption, therefore, is a phenomenon already deeply rooted within 20th Century aesthetics. Within contemporary New-Media art, this fascination with glitches has culminated into an ever-growing number of artists focusing more and more closely on investigating and employing such technological breakages in their work, leading to a field of art that may now be termed Glitch-Art. To find out more about Glitch-Art field, and to outline some of the intentions and processes of these works, I talked to one of the main progenitors and active members in this field, the New-Media artist Benjamin Gaulon (aka Recyclism), about his work. Gaulon, who also teaches at NCAD, hacks software, corrupts data or bends circuits within a variety of contexts and forms from his “Hacklab”, where he works and holds workshops, just outside the doors of Trinity,. His approach in his work is mostly playful, yet they pose critical political and environmental questions on the manufacturing and use of modern media technology. He talked to me about the different ways and reasons for employing the glitch in his work, in particular with regard to his many projects comprising his on-going Corrupt. series. This series consists of the different projects Corrupt.Online, Corrupt.Movie, Corrupt.Video, Corrupt.

Desktop, and his latest work Corrupt.epub (aka Kindleglitch-

er), which automatically damages and corrupts the data of webuser’s uploaded images, real-time webcam footage, his desktop or electronic publications.

Regarding his first interest with glitch and its use in the Corrupt. series, he says, “it was a continuation of another project called Digital Recycling, which basically is or was, because it’s not really working anymore, a website where people could dump digital garbage. This project came from a very simple accident of trashing a file in the bin and deleting it. I then used this data recovery software to get it back, and I got it all glitched, which I thought was interesting, because you know when you trash a piece of paper in the bin with coffee and food or whatever, it’s all glitch , it’s corrupted. So I thought it was an interesting analogy between the two things, considering that we use this physical reference, the trash bin of the computer. You have paper in it and it even makes the sound of paper crumpling. So then I got into this whole data-corruption idea and how it works, like when you open an image with a text-editor and mess up the code just to see what happens. This wasn’t practical however, so I decided to make a tool for it where you could just load a file, read the binary code of that file, then replace 0 and 1 randomly and then when you open it you have these weird glitch images.”

This was the start of Gaulon’s involvement in employing a glitch aesthetic. From there he went on to position this aesthetic within the realm of user-interactive pieces: “People can go on the website, upload a picture, and then you get 10 corrupted glitch versions that you can download and use.” Corrupt.Movie, his next work, consisted of six years’ worth of the users’ uploaded images, resulting in an hour-long, non-linear video with hypnotic qualities. “I found it interesting not only because of the glitch part, but also in what it says about people and the internet of that time.” In a very similar vein, Gaulon’s

next project in the series was Corrupt.Video: a software that creates corrupted gifs made from real-time webcam footage of the user. This software is also connected to a website called uglitch.com, a youtube-like website in which the Corrupt.Video software you can make a 10-second animated gif that is uploaded directly onto the website. This led to another project called Corrupt.Desktop; an app which, when you open it, actually glitches your computer screen. “We made a second version of the app and went to Apple-retailers, to download the app and install it on their computers, so that their whole screen would glitch. We also made it that if you pressed any key on the keyboard it would quit, so you don’t know what’s going on. We also called the app Safari and used the Mac icon. Then we go and download it and replace Safari with our own Safari app which then glitched the whole screen. So every time you tried to start Safari the whole thing crashed.” Behind such acts there is of course a critical agenda, ”it’s kind of a retailer-hacking strategy, and a bit of a disruption in the whole consumption and capitalism process; a humorous, fun way of talking about Apple, their closed system and their slick-looking devices, and to try and disrupt that;” a notion he continues with regard to Amazon and electronic publications in general in his latest project of this series, the Corrupt.epub (aka Kindleglitcher), which will corrupt your electronic publication file so you can see it all glitched when you read it on your Kindle.

Disruption, for Gaulon and other glitch artists, is a means of exposing the politics and systems that govern technology. This trait is made even more explicit in another one of Gaulon’s ongoing projects, the collaborative media installation ReFunct Media. In this installation work, Gaulon and a group of artistfriends take old obsolete technologies found in rubbish heaps and, like Certeau’s “trailblazers in the jungles of functionalist rationality”, hardware-hack and circuit-bend them, connect them all together and create an autonomous, symbiotic yet non-linear media-installation, filled with glitchy images, clicks and blips. Shifting from the manipulation of software to that of hardware, Gaulon nevertheless sees strong similarities between the two projects and their different processes: “I see a very close connection with circuit-bending and data-bending or glitch because you’re opening up systems and making connections that are not meant to be, and then from there you’re telling a whole different story. They are all a way to engage in a critical discourse on technology; to talk about materiality, disposal and planned obsolescence. For example, the way Apple, makes these devices that are obsolete as soon as they are out.

They’re not backward compatible, so they use different connections each time which you need to buy. They make new phones every six months, or a year that make the other ones

“We made a second version of the app and went to Apple-retailers, to download the app and install it on their computers, so that their whole screen would glitch.

We made it that if you pressed any key on the keyboard it would quit, so you don’t know what’s going on.” obsolete. Not because they are technically obsolete but because they are perceived as obsolete, and that’s also why I chose them for my retailer-hacking.” On the technological obsolescence, an important theme in Gaulon’s works, he continues, “there are two types of obsolescence: planned obsolescence, making devices break purposefully so people buy new ones. But you also have the perceived obsolescence which is about the design and marketing; making objects obsolete because the new one looks better or seems to look better.”

I was lucky enough to see Gaulon and the three other artists, Tom Verbruggen, Gijs Gieskes and Niklas Roy prepare the ReFunct Media installation over the course of three days in Berlin last year, and two aspects struck me during their process. Firstly, how underlying the serious questions and implications posed in their work there is nevertheless a playfulness, humour and genuine child-like curiosity. And secondly, how even though these artists’ use of glitch-practices is connected to a certain naivety and simplicity, there is nevertheless also a great amount of expertise, hard-work and time that needs to put in to creating these effects. This latter point is a factor that needs to be mentioned and of which one should be aware, since the increasing popularity of the glitch-aesthetic is unfortunately running counter to these principles. Rosa Menkman, a glitch-artist and theorists, writes in her “Glitch Studies Manifesto”, “not all glitch art is progressive or something new. The popularisation and cultivation of the avant-garde of mishaps has become predestined and unavoidable. Be aware of easily reproducible glitch effects automated by softwares and plug-ins. What is now a glitch will become a fashion.” Proof of this trend is in the multitude uses of glitch effects in current music videos.

At times these effects are used very aptly, like for example in the videos for Venetian Snares’ “Szamar Madar”, or maybe the KVB’s “Dayzed”; yet at other times, like in Chairlift’s “Evident Utensil” or Kanye West’s video to “Welcome to Heartbreak”, the use of glitch effects appear merely as a tool for making mediocre songs seem more ‘interesting’ or authentic. In another

example, did you notice the stylised use of glitches in Derren Brown’s recently aired show Apocalypse? For a Reality-TV show like Apocalypse, or for fake documentaries like the fictional web-series MarbleHornets, the glitch becomes a powerful tool to suggest and emphasise its authenticity.

I asked Gaulon about this problem of glitches becoming easily reproducible and fashionable: “each file compression or file format will have a different glitch effect based on the compression.

In the same way, when you use software’s made by others they will have a certain aesthetic or characteristics that other people designed for you to use. That’s why I’m also teaching people to make their own tools and software. I had this teacher who once told me this phrase that I think is very good: ‘when you use somebody’s software you live someone else’s dream.’ Any tool has certain characteristics that come with the package you bought. So I think it’s important to disrupt this and be critical of it and I see glitch as a way of doing that. Not just a pure aesthetical thing. True, you see a lot of advertising or videoclips using it as a tool. This cool edgy thing that I suppose has this reference to hacker-culture. But for me it was never really about the aesthetic even though I appreciate some of the effects generated through the glitch on the images. It’s really more about the process and what it says about technology itself, and I think that’s more interesting. Not to say that you can’t make pretty images using glitch, I mean, why not? There’s no reason you can’t. But I think if you’re just using it as another filter for your things it doesn’t really engage you in a reflection on technology or the medium itself, you’re just using another of the tools. Then again, I wouldn’t say ‘do this or do that’, that’s not the way I think.”

Although glitch-art as a genre has not been around for long, its status is already in danger of becoming too intertwined in the inevitably of glitch becoming fashionable and emplyoed only as mere effect. It takes artists such as Benjamin Gaulon, with their insistence on a performative and process-orientated approach, to be able to continue to use the glitch phenomenon for a critical discourse; to continue to make aware of its inherent potential to thwart the systems, illusions and powers that determine our everyday habitually determined use of technologies.

Benjamin Gaulon recently exhibited in Paris, and will be exhibiting in Chicago and Berlin over the next few months.

To find out more about his work and to participate in his Corrupt. projects, visit his excellent website http://www.recyclism.com/

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19

LORDS OF STRUT By Michelle O’ Connor

P

eople familiar with the theatre and performance scene in Dublin know how hard it can be to find interesting performances to go to that aren’t in Players following the end of the ABSOLUT Fringe Festival. Lords of Strut found that too, but a the discerning punter can with some small effort can find really interesting shows for about €10, like the Lords’ Sell Out Tour. I was curious to see what two guys who describe themselves as ‘carnies’ were about, and what made them branch out into the world of theatre.

Before our interview, I got a text confirming the time and place which ended with, “You’ll know it’s us when we get there.” This instantly made me inquisitive as to what exactly would make them less than subtle. While I was waiting outside the cafe, I heard music blaring down the street. Assuming it was someone vibing particularly heavily their car, I paid it no heed…until I saw two lads clad in neon adidas jumpers pushing a trolley-like contraption with LORDS OF STRUT stencilled on its side. I didn’t think that they were going to bring, what I found out later they called their ‘portable DJ booth,’ inside, but bring it they did. It sat beside the umbrella stand next to the milk and sugar.

Cormac had always wanted to be a DJ, but their portable DJ booth is not the fulfilment of a life’s dream, or a publicity stunt to promote their show in Smock Alley but rather, to bring to the streets some free entertainment. “If we had to get money in the hat from what we’re doing in the street, we’d be doing it completely differently. We’re just doing it for the buzz now.

We are promoting our show, but that doesn’t mean we’ll get more audience members from having a buzz on the street.” As men who started out as buskers, they acknowledge how much of an impact that street entertainment can have on a population. “With this particular thing that we’re doing, it creates a

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really light-hearted environment, more people want to stop and investigate what’s happening than do. You can see people make the decision inside between whether they want to stop or whether they keep going because they’re busy,” said Cian. After the interview, I followed them around the city while they, ahem, strut their stuff. After five minutes, I saw what Cian was talking about – so many people wanted to stop but felt obligated to keep walking.

I first heard about the Lords when they emailed me back in August to ask if I wanted to help out with their ABSOLUT fringe show,. In the email Cian told me that they’re carnies, which naturally piqued my interest immediately. The type of circus most of us are familiar with is the big-tops like Fossetts, Cirque de Soleil and the occasional juggler or unicycler busking on Grafton Street. According to the lads, there are two types of circus. “Traditional circus will tend to be families and will buy in acts. They have an amazing skill level and they’ll come and perform an act, and it’s probably an act that’s been in their families for years. There’s not really a story in traditional circus, it’s stayed in the same place for years. New circus branches into dance and theatre; it’s a more contemporary thing. We’re not from circus families, but we found an interest in it as we were growing up. As more people get into it without too much of a background, they can push it forward.”

“You don’t know what affect something has on somebody’s day, which is one of the cool things about art, and particularly street art,” said Cormac, “somebody can see something and it could inspire them for the day. A woman told us yesterday, ‘do you know what? That’s after making my day!’ and another guy came up, walked past, stopped for a while, then kept walking, and then came back and gave himself [Cian] a big hug. We can

be stressed about so much, like getting people into the shows or whatever, but it’s an uplifting thing for us to uplift other people.”

When I asked Cian and Cormac to describe what their show ‘Sell Out Tour’ is; comedy, theatre, or circus they told me it is a mix of everything. It contains aspects of comedy sketch, circus and theatre because it has a storyline, but it is not something that can only be performed in theatre spaces like Smock Alley where they’ve booked twice this year. They feel like they can and could perform in comedy venues, too and to expand the audiences they attract. “All we really need is a space where [Cormac] can stand on my head,” remarked Cian.

As we finished up, I asked whether they were going to be back in Dublin in the near future. I wasn’t expecting the answer I got, which is the guys have toured in more than twenty countries throughout the world from Europe to Australia. Last year, when they were performing at the Christchurch World Buskers’ Festival in New Zealand they had a 4.2 earthquake during a show. “We just make the earth shake,” Cian said with a laugh.

Lords of Strut Irish tour dates are as follows: November 2012 22-25 Tralee Circus Festival 28 Belfast – Black Box 30 Wexford – Arts Centre December 2012 19-20 Dublin – Project Arts Centre (with Pony Dance) From January to March they will be in Australia and New Zealand before returning in May for the 10th anniversary of the Belfast Festival of Fools.

T R A C K D A Z E BY D AV I D WA L L

The first shock of the day was finding that my warm indoor velodrome had turned into a hollow recess in an outdoor mound.

The track surrounds what looks like an abandoned running track, itself surrounding an abandoned football pitch. But the track is not abandoned, in fact it has only recently been done up, and I’m assured that “it’s faster than it’s ever been”. So I settle in to watch a group of people do endless laps around me.

The track consists of two long slightly inclined straights, and two round ends which are inclined up to 35 degrees; the total length being around 400m. The idea of track cycling is that each bike can only be slowed by back-peddling, or by moving up the incline. There are no other brakes, and bikes should be as light as possible – usually carbon framed. The inclines are calculated so that at speed the cyclist will naturally be dragged around the track and steering is barely necessary. When racing, the cyclist drops down into the narrow zone nearest the bottom edge of the track, which is about half a meter wide. Racing above this zone will only add extra meters onto your race, and

so is pointless. But with racers trying to hold this tiny zone, and no brakes, you can only imagine that things get nasty when something goes wrong.

For this reason, Track Cycling Ireland offer track accreditation courses throughout the year. Over four weeks they teach cyclists the basics of how to use the track, how to slow down, and most importantly, how not to end up using your head for a brake. From my short time at the track, it seems rule number one is always always pull out by going up the track, not down.

The racer behind you is going to tuck in behind you rear wheel, overlapping on the inside, not the outside as in road racing.

When you’re at the front of a race, and you’re ready to pull out, you have a little look over your right shoulder to check no one is there, and then pull up the incline to slow down. The racer behind you then belts up your inside and away to glory. It seems that the week before I came down someone didn’t take this advice, resulting in a visit by a fire engine and an ambulance! But with danger, comes excitement!

The session this week is being run by Ger Ivory of Bray Wheelers and Stephen Gibbons of Lucan cycling club. Stephen tells me he knew nothing of the sport, but gradually got into it through looking for a sport for his daughter to enjoy. While boys have football or rugby, he found young girls had few sporting options. So he runs sessions for youngsters most weekends.

Indeed, as we are leaving, lots of kids come in dragging bikes that look far too big for them. What’s great is the unisex nature of the sport. In fact an Irish woman and member of Sundrive

15˚

TRACK GUIDE

INCLINE

35˚ INCLINE

ON STRAIGHTS

ON CORNERS

I must make a confession, I lied at the beginning – this is not Ireland’s only cycle track. There is one in Belfast (does that count?) and one in Kanturk, County Cork. Unfortunately, however, despite Track Cycling Ireland’z offer of design advice, the brains behind the Kanturk track decided there was no need for that and got a buddy to build it instead. It seems this expert may not have known about the precision needed in calculating the inclines, making our third track practically useless. Sundrive Club decided to bring some kids down to check it out (hoping that the kids would be slower) and it seems that in the first race, instead of being brought naturally around the track, two kids went straight over the outside edge!

So we have two tracks in good condition, Dublin and Belfast, apart, of course, from the patches of tar in Sundrive that had to be replaced after local vandals caused €20,000 worth of damage to the newly refurbished track in 2010. Ah, nothing like the reliability of scumbags! But the track seems to be smooth again, and the special fast-draining tarmac has been replaced. Decent quality carbon bikes can be borrowed from the club for a nominal fee per session (€10 I think it was), who also have helmets, shoes and everything to get started. The track has closed for winter but will open again for accreditation sessions in February. Check out sundrivetrackteam.com and trackcycling.ie for more information. And remember, if you’re tempted by speed, use your head, not you head!

IIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIII

III II IIII

VELODROME

Track Club, Susie Mitchell, won gold in the World Track Masters championship in Manchester just two weeks before.

II IIIII II

10

am. The last Saturday of October. I’m dragging myself out of bed because I’ve promised to check out Ireland’s only cycle track on Sundrive Road, Kimmage. After the splendour of the Olympics, with their temperature and wind controlled state of the art track, I want to see how we’re getting on in comparison. I have an image of a large indoor velodrome with its smooth inclined wooden track. At least if I get bored of watching people circle around me, I can have a little snooze in the warmth, I’m thinking.

>52MPH

TOP SPEED

R AC E R S M U ST K E E P BETWEEN RED AND B L AC K L I N E

FINISH LINE

BLACK LINE

SPRINTER’S LINE

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21

MUSIC

The Evens The Odds

Now-married parents of a four year old, Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina A.K.A. The Evens, have had to change their vocal agenda.

No longer can songs be about getting drunk ‘til 7 o’clock in the morning or taking preposterous amounts of drugs. Instead, The Evens confront topics such as being in their fifties and still being punks and accepting responsibility as an adult in order to take care of their child. That’s not to say that the tone of The Evens’ new album, The Odds, has changed. Their happy indie rock sound still reverberates throughout the record while MacKaye and Farina’s vocals sound as monotone as ever. As always, the comparison with The Pixies and The White Stripes is never too far away. However, this resemblance is soon forgotten as one be-

comes lost in the rudimentary drums and smooth bass lines so associated with The Evens. In fact, one of the standout tracks on the album, “Competing With The Till”, is only based around these instruments and MacKaye and Farina’s vocals. The lyrical content of the track also sees The Evens at their peak. It folI can see many people getting put off Sigha’s debut LP when ‘Mirror’ begins to play. Without any beat to anchor it, the free form and highly distorted main ‘melody’ (as much as it can be considered to be melodic) does not make for easy listening.

This is a pattern throughout Living With Ghosts, an album which explores the darker and heavier sides of techno. ‘Scene Couple’ exemplifies the formula of the record perfectly: the song is anchored by a heavy kick drum while a sinister bass synth propels the track forward. An indecipherable vocal sample then enters and syncopates the rhythm, while some hi-hats appear intermittently. This is then stretched out over six minutes with minimal variation, resulting in an intense listening experience.

Many of the songs here are comparable to Ital’s Hive Mind LP which was released earlier in the year. However, Sigha’s songs lack the melodies and hooks that Ital was able to weave in and out of his restricted song template. This lack of melody works against the album, as one gets the sense that if any of the album’s heavier cuts were dropped in a club – the acid test for any kind of electronic music – it would be far too heavy for most of the attendees.

Tim Hecker & Daniel Lopatin Instrumental Tourist In May, Tim Hecker provided Dublin with one of the most mesmerizing and enjoyable gigs of the year. Hecker’s creepy electronic sounds reverberated throughout the Unitarian Church on St. Stephen’s Green, providing an ambience matched by no other. The church, only illuminated by two candles, was filled with haunting menace as synthesizers and keyboards were pushed to their absolute limit. Only six months later and Hecker has returned but this time in the form of a new album with Daniel Lopatin A.K.A. Oneohtrix Point Never. The album, entitled Instrumental Tourist, maintains the trademark drones and atmospheric fuzziness so associated with both artists. Immediately, one can make a comparison to both Oneohtrix Point Never’s 2011 album, Replica, and Tim Hecker’s album of the same year, Ravedeath 1972. Standing at fifty four minutes and only twelve tracks long, Instrumental Tourist takes the listener on a journey into an unknown world filled with feedback, drones, buzzing and almost every other sound under the sun. The opening track, “Uptown Psychedelia”, is filled with so much stereo panning one can almost reach the point of nauseousness. This uneasiness remains throughout the rest of the record yet one grows ac-

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customed to it quite quickly. All the sounds on the album seem to weave in and out of one another in a sort of dreamlike state, while the occasional feedback and hiss remind the listener that they are still in the real world. This way in which Hecker and Lopatin manipulate their instruments is reminiscent of free jazz but in this case with synthesizers. However, it is not only synthesizers that are used throughout the album, there is also the infrequent introduction of the organ or harp as is heard on “Scene from a French Zoo”. The originality of songs like these is amazing, although some tracks like “GRM Blue III” and “Racist Drone” could be compared to early Aphex Twin songs. Despite the harshness of the record, it is still capable of moments of intense beauty like on “Grey Geisha” where a pan-pipe-sounding synthesizer is brought in to provide one of the most entrancing solos of recent years. While this album may be a massive struggle for some listeners, I urge people to listen to Instrumental Tourist in its entirety so as to experience its pure emotive power. It seems as if Tim Hecker has not only given us one of the best gigs of the year but he, along with Daniel Lopatin, has given us one of the best albums of the year.

EOIN HENNESSY

lows the classic band story of them playing a gig where the promoters and organiser provide the band with broken equipment and only focus on how much the bar is making while having no interest in music themselves. “Our audience is your clientele”, MacKaye hollers, which rings a very true note about what most booking agents are like. Aside from this track, The Odds seems to be laced with songs that are all replicas of each other. Few tracks differ much from one another and the simplicity of the instrumentation can become boring. Although it’s only forty minutes long, The Odds definitely goes on a bit too long considering not much happens. It’s the sort of album that would be played in the background of Tower Records; it’s not risqué, it’s pretty soft and it makes Tower appear slightly more “hip”. While not being a bad album, The Evens’ new record is certainly not the most engrossing or original. Despite this, the album does have its moments and it’s certainly better than a lot of other stuff coming out today. Both MacKaye and Farina have showed that you don’t need to be young in order to make semi-decent music.

EOIN HENNESSY It is when the album relaxes on tracks such as ‘Suspension’, ‘Aokigahara’, and, to a certain extent, ‘She Kills In Ecstasy’, that Sigha really succeeds. The former two are an exercise in atmospheric ambient and the latter provides one of the catchier techno tunes on the LP, where an intense broken beat is offset with an ethereal synth appearing over the top to great effect.

Siren

Mirror

While there are moments of brilliance on this record, they are placed in between cuts that are far too intense for a whole album’s length. Having already put out eleven releases before his debut LP, one gets the sense that Sigha is much more of a singles artist at the minute. Thus, this album lacks the variation that would come with having to release full lengths regularly. Hopefully this is something that Sigha addresses in the future so he can capitalise on his talents.

LIAM MAHER

WHO YOU BE DOWN WITH? HIP HOP CREWS AND THEIR HISTORY AND RE-EMERGENCE.

BY EOIN HENNESSY The early 2000s saw the decline of the legendary hip-hop crew. Crews like Roc-A-Fella, Dungeon Family and Bad Boy disbanded while newer crews like G-Unit and the Cash Money Millionaires just didn’t seem to be up to the same standard. However, the past year has seen the reemergence of the hip-hop crew in all its glory. In honour of this, I will now look at some of the crews who first started it all and also profile some of the newer posses who are on the scene today.

The Juice Crew It can be said without hesitation that the Juice Crew was the first rap collective to rise as a crew. Aside from this, they’re probably one of the most original groups to ever have graced the hip-hop world. The group consisted of Marley Marl, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, MC Shen and Masta Ace to name just a few. Their defining moment came in 1998 when Marley Marl released “The Symphony” along with several other members from the group. While the song may not have been a huge success, it’s still a renowned hip-hop classic today. The group reached mild crossover success in 1989 for Biz Markie when he released “Just a Friend” and for Big Daddy Kane with his gold selling album, It’s a Big Daddy Thing. However, the emergence of West Coast rap in the early ‘90s rendered the ‘Crew increasingly irrelevant.

Native Tongues Possibly one of the biggest groups to have been around at the time, Native Tongues had one of the most impressive line-ups in history. While their time may have been short lived, the group achieved some impressive feats throughout their career. The Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Leaders of the New School, Queen Latifah, Prince Paul and Black Sheep were all members and together sold over 9.7 million records.

While their roster may have been large, no track exists with every member performing. The track with the largest amount of members on it is A Tribe Called Quest’s 1992 song with Leaders of the New School, “Scenario”. Despite their original fashion style and great music, Native Tongues would eventually disband due to the rise of Gangsta Rap in early ‘90s. Native Tongues’ message of peace and happiness was crushed by all of the negativity surrounding Gangsta Rap.

Death Row The most notorious crew in the early in the early ‘90s was easily Death Row. The crew was led by convicted criminal Suge Knight. Knight was the first person to preside over a hip-hop crew despite not being a musician. The crew consisted of Dr. Dre, The D.O.C., MC Hammer, Snoop Dogg, 2Pac and Tha

Dogg Pound. 2Pac’s only reason for signing to Death Row was due to Knight paying for 2Pac’s bail. It was clear from the start that Knight’s dodgy dealings would only end badly and in September 1996 2Pac was shot dead. Many people blame Knight’s encouragement of the feud between Death Row and Bad Boy for causing 2Pac’s death. After 2Pac had died, both Dr. Dre and MC Hammer left the crew and in October 1996 Knight was incarcerated for a probation violation leading Death Row to come to an end.

Wu-Tang Clan Still around today and constantly changing members, the Wu Tang Clan (now going simply by Wu Tang) were the first group to become a corporate entity with their logo of big W at the forefront. Although it’s always been disputed who’s actually in the Wu Tang Clan, its main members consisted of RZA, GZA, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa. The crew alone sold 20 million records and made a fortune in clothing sales. Despite not disbanding, each member now does their own solo thing with RZA directing and starring in a new film entitled The Man With The Iron Fists (due for release on 7th December) and Method Man doing bits of acting. The death of ODB in 2001 due to a drug overdose was a big loss for the group but they still tour with him missing.

A$AP Mob One of the newer crews that has only emerged in the last year due to the success of solo rapper A$AP Rocky. Its members include A$AP Rocky, A$AP Ferg, A$AP Twelvy, A$AP Yams and Ty Beats. A$AP Mob burst onto the scene last year with the release of “Peso”. The song was heralded as a hit as it contained a distinctly southern beat while being produced and rapped over by a New York crew. A$AP Mob now have an almost cult-like following with many people trying to dress like the streetwear conscious crew. Their slogan “Fuck Swag/Stay Trill” also seems to be making the rounds at the moment. Although they have only been around for a short period of time, they have already sparked some controversy with A$AP Rocky threatening to

smack “the shit outta” Tyler The Creator on Twitter after Tyler allegedly criticised Rocky’s video directing abilities.

Black Hippy Possibly one of the most successful crews around today, Black Hippy are a foursome from L.A. comprised of Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul. The group is without a doubt on the path to glory after the release of Schoolboy Q’s album Habits and Contradictions and Kendrick Lamar’s raved about new album good kid, m.A.A.d city. The group are already being lauded by music fans of all shapes and colours. Their contrast of extremes works well as a crew environment, with Schoolboy Q being quite grotesque and outspoken while Kendrick Lamar stays more subdued. Indeed, Schoolboy Q’s Twitter feed must be one of the best accounts online with such brilliant judgements as “@MacMiller u smell like a used condom”. It even gives insights into his day-to-day tribulations “My weed man in ATLANTA always Have da fire, now He not answering my calls lol...... I Hope cuHz see dis tweet”

Taylor Gang (Or Die) The least interesting group on the list comes in the form of Taylor Gang (Or Die). The group is comprised of Wiz Khalifa, LoLa Monroe, Chevy Woods and Juicy J. Aside from the massively talented Juicy J, the other members of the crew are, to put it nicely, a few clowns short of a circus. The crew has recently launched its own clothing line and label adopting similar tactics to the Wu Tang Clan. The group have received commercial success with Wiz Khalifa’s 2010 release “Black and Yellow”. While the group have not yet disbanded, one would hope for the sake of humanity that they will. It thus shows that the re-emergence of the hip-hop crew is a double-edged sword with only some being talented.

Other new groups to check out are: Pro Era, Raider Klan, Brainfeeder (although more of a production crew)

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO Lunice & Angel Haze – Gimme That A great collaboration between Michigan rapper Angel Haze and genius Canadian beat maker Lunice. The collaboration is part of the Songs From Scratch scheme which is run by Yours Truly and Adidas. They also commissioned works by Danny Brown, AraabMuzik and Joey Bada$$ in the past.

Braiden – Paganini Taking a sample from Ella Fitzgerald’s “(If You Sing It) You’ll Have To Swing It”, Rinse FM DJ Steve Braiden has created an all-out balls-to-the-wall dance classic.

He’s managed to alter the vocal enough so as to not sound too much like the original while still maintaining its original flare. A sure fire classic.

Foals – My Number Taken from Foals’ new album Holy Fire and premiered on Jules Holland, the band has gone back to their roots of upbeat, jangly mathrock. While the previous single “Inhaler” seemed a bit lifeless, with this latest venture Foals have gone for a sound similar to their 2008 debut album Antidotes and we love it.

Nicolas Jaar – Play The Drums For Me After releasing one of the best albums of 2011, Nicolas Jaar is back with an unapologetic deep house track. The song features on the new Acid Pauli mix CD which was made for Crosstown Rebels. The track, which is only five minutes long, contains a weird vocal sample of one man’s philosophical epiphany. Typical Jaar.

Leaders Of The New School – What’s Next In 1993, Leaders Of The New School were one of the most original hip-hop groups on the circuit.

Comprised of Busta Rhymes, Dinco D, Charlie Brown and Cut Monitor Mil, the group worked fantastically as a team until it became clear that Busta was by far the most interesting member. Taken from their brilliant album T.I.M.E., “What’s Next” is one underrated hip-hop classic.

THE UNIVERSITY TIMES MAGAZINE | 25

FILM Seven Psychopaths

Justin Murphy

Diverging from the linearity of McDonagh’s In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths tells the wonderfully convoluted, meta-indulgent story of an alcoholic writer, Marty (Colin Farrell), trying and failing to write his second screenplay, a film about psychopaths. Marty’s friend, the eccentric Billy Bickle (Sam Rockwell), who runs a dog-napping business with the equally onerous Hans (Christopher Walken), tries to help Marty with this writer’s block.

Instead of inspiring him though, Billy gives Marty first-hand exposure to psychopaths when he steals the Shih-Tzu of a local gangster, Charlie Costello (Woody Harrelson).

This description is necessarily confusing; Seven Psychopaths is a film that is fundamentally uncomfortable with genre or convention. Put most simply, what the film is about is Marty’s efforts to write a screenplay about seven psychopaths. Writing and the desire to produce something, not just of quality, but something that is in some way “affirming” is the film and Marty’s ultimate goal. The act of narration is foregrounded in this schematic, and much of the film includes segments of narration in which Marty describes the psychopaths that will feature in his film.

If this sounds more like a discourse than a film, slightly indulgent and egotistical, and a bit too self-reflexive, that’s because it

is. But this is never boring even at its most indulgent. The tangents, mini-films within the film, are some of the best scenes.

One story includes a cameo by Tom Waits which is truly stunning. Indeed, for all the film’s myriad meditations on how to circumvent Hollywood conventions, what is truly glorious about it is the attempt to transcend cliché through cliché.

Christopher Walken is wonderfully weird and entertaining as Hans, an elderly Polish gentleman with a penchant for religion and dog-napping. For Walken’s performance alone the film is worth going to see.

Words, mostly swearwords, and language are at the core of McDonagh’s aesthetic and this isn’t surprising considering his roots in theatre. But too much emphasis on narration, or discussion of how to narrate, seems a waste of cinema’s cinematic qualities; is too cumbersome; is more the illustration of a story than a film.

McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths is sustained by moments of brilliant dialogue and is still extremely entertaining. This entertainment is rooted in the presentation of fantastically clever dialogue and characterisation though, and is essentially the visualization of a very good play rather than a film.

Gambit Firth does the best with what he’s given, which ultimately boils down to being punched in the face infrequently and in the film’s sole rib-tickling moment, snooping around elderly women’s hotel rooms with no pants on. These moments aside, Dean is a bland creation, unfortunate without being amusingly inept, and lacks the warm familiarity of the Coen’s more memorable protagonists. The very annoying Diaz admittedly turns in a game performance in a role that amounts to nothing more than a tired ‘look how stupid Americans are’ stereotype. There’s a distinct lack of chemistry or humour in her scenes with Firth and the idea that their characters develop any kind of bond is founded on nothing other than following narrative convention. Rickman has a lot of fun as the outrageous Shabandar, but much of the film’s humour hinges on whether or not you find Alan Rickman in the nip to be the funniest thing in the world, which it sadly is not.

Oliver Nolan There’s something particularly tragic about a bad comedy that marks it out as worse than any other kind of ‘bad movie’. It’s a bit like being cornered by that guy at a party who keeps trying to tell a story but can’t get past how hilarious it is, making it difficult to maintain interest. A mess of a film that confuses caricature for character and slap-stick for true wit, Gambit certainly feels a lot longer than its 88 minutes.

It’s a shame. All the ingredients are here for what could have been a bit of a romp: a script by the Coen brothers paired with Colin Firth at the peak of his powers and Alan Rickman at his most OTT. However, the film comes with the caveat that the brothers opted out of directing their own script, something they haven’t done since 1985 when Sam Raimi directed their Crimewave script. Without their Midas touch and distinct stylistic approach, the film winds up feeling like a pastiche of better work.

Gambit finds Harry Dean (Firth), an underappreciated art curator hatching a plan to swindle his repugnant boss Lord Lionel Shabandar (Rickman) by selling him a fake Monet painting.

Central to this plan, - though you’ll really wish she wasn’t – is Texas rodeo starlet PJ Puznowski (Cameron Diaz), the gambit of the title, used to sway the libidinous Shabandar into believing she just happened to come into possession of a real Monet.

From the off, certain aspects jar terribly, and while the film bares little resemblance to the Michael Caine starring 1966 original – itself no masterpiece - the feeling that the film is a pale imitation never subsides.

Michael Hoffman, who helmed the little seen but much admired The Last Station, seems uncomfortable with the comedy format, and the film’s irritating soundtrack plays non-stop throughout most of the movie, perhaps hoping you won’t notice quite how unfunny it all is. The aforementioned hotel scene where Dean unwittingly achieves Don Juan-like notoriety does admittedly raise a smile, but the fact that the climax is little more than a retread of a scene from The Hangover should indicate the level of humour on show here.

‘What a complete waste of time’ remarks a character as the film draws to a close. Sadly, Gambit can be described as such, and all involved will probably wilfully forget their involvement, as will audiences.

In the wake of the recent release of the 23rd James Bond film, Skyfall, Diarmuid Cushen lists his personal favourite theme songs from the series.

NOBODY DOES IT BETTER

GOLDFINGER

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

// CARLY SIMON

// SHIRLEY BASSEY

// SHEENA EASTON

// LOUIS ARMSTRONG

// CHRIS CORNELL

A song presumably written about Roger Moore’s portrayal of Bond.

So iconic that Bassey’s voice has become as much associated with James Bond as Sean Connery’s accent or Roger Moore’s eyebrows.

A surprisingly tender song for Bond. Very beautiful, even if it sounds a little like a Eurovision entry.

Satchmo’s sweet lament following Tracy’s death is undoubtedly the best thing about this film.

Excepting George Lazenby’s kilt and acting skills, that is.

While anything coming after Madonna would’ve been met with relief, Cornell’s adrenaline-fueled anthem brought Bond into the 21st century with a bang.

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WE HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD

YOU NAME MY NAME

The Last Strand Jawad A. Anjum laments the loss of one of Dublins oldest sartorial establishments to the ages

T

he repetitive thumping bass, the laminate necklaces and the dead, tasteless décor are but a few of the joys of the modern clothing outlet. If transitory trends, fads and ridiculous notions of outrageous fashions don’t tickle your fancy, where can the modern man find suitable attire today? Until three weeks ago, the 21st century gentleman would have found himself at home at an elegant shop located right outside our own college.

Kennedy and McSharry menswear on Nassau Street was a station for high quality, tailored men’s clothing – selling suits, coats, formal wear, jackets, shirt, nightwear, hats, trousers alongside all the associated accessories. Sadly, desperately sadly, the store has now closed its doors for good. It is not alone in an increasing list of businesses that became the victims of excessively high rent during the Celtic Tiger in Dublin city centre and faced insolvency. To give an example of the level of the artificially high rents they had to pay, take the year 2000 – the rent for that year was €166,000 which goes to of all people, to Aviva, a multinational insurance behemoth.

For the customers, this has been devastating and the reaction has been quite strong. For many, they have had a relationship with the business for multiple generations. There are countless stories to stoke your nostalgia – ranging from “I remember my father taking me here to buy me my first suit” to “Before my first formal ball, I didn’t have a notion what to look for in a tuxedo, one of the staff walked through me through all the basics” etc. etc. To witness the evisceration of the premises during its closing down sale was heart-breaking. The place was being gutted.

Every customer there gave their sincere condolences to the staff.

The 122 year history of the store is a rich and colourful tapestry by any measure. It was established in 1890 by John Kennedy and Michael McSharry, who trained in Arnotts. In 1973, the previous premises, the Regent hotel, was destroyed by a fire which prompted the move to their new location. Their client list had its fair share of famous figures, ranging from sports personalities to politicians. Among these, the most prominent customer was a young gentleman by the name of Michael Collins. Their brochures from the 40s and 50s really are a piece of Irish history,

showing the progression of clothing preferences, not to mention the change in prices and the somewhat different values potential customers placed in choosing their establishment of choice.

Over the past few decades, the business was run by brothers Tony and Neil McSharry, grandsons of the founding Mr McSharry. The Kennedy interest in the store was bought out and now remains in name only. As for the brothers’ future plans, they are by no means out for the count. The brothers are partners in the Magee men’s shop on Wicklow Street – which is run by the Donegal Company. Also, they are looking at the option of opening a business catering to a more niche market such as a hat shop for men.

Something that instantly strikes you about the shop is the panel wood, the carpeted floors – elegance is the word that comes to mind. Its sophistication lies in its simplicity. The effect of the interior design however, while making a solid impression, is dwarfed by that of the staff. The people of this shop are its spirit, its driving force. It is nigh on impossible to meet a staff, firstly, so well versed in their respective area of business, and secondly, so enthused to help you with whatever you need. The relationship with their customers is remnant of a time when everybody knew everybody else; there was a stronger sense of community, of belonging.

However, this is not a story about “back in the good old days…”

Constantly harkening to a bygone era does not an adaptable, and thusly, successful business make and they knew this. You had a conglomeration of brands, a mixture of classic and modern albeit some items were distinctly trends no longer seen – the cufflink is playing less and less if a role in modern men’s clothing and let’s not forget hats and caps. I don’t quite know why they went out of rotation but they definitely have a place in any outfit.

Since, ‘Mad Men’ has graced our screens there has been a bit of a bump in sales but nothing significant.

Of course, the products they sell is one side of the business. The other is the service of tailoring, which they do particularly well.

The business of tailoring is one that has gradually been grinded down to just a few locations throughout Dublin. It used to be the case that tailoring would be almost mandatory, I mean it makes sense for your clothes to fit you and be adapted to do so. You’ll often hear the phrase “Everyone looks good in a suit!”.

This is utter hogwash, if there is one glaring flaw in the suited men seen walking about town it is that it is often ill fitting. It is far wiser to buy a cheaper suit than you normally would have to spend the rest on getting a good fit – that attention to detail is what separates a suit from a statement.

Oscar Wilde said “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable we have to alter it every six months”. Fashion can be bought but style, true style must be cultivated. An establishment such as this encourages you to build a wardrobe over time with carefully selected, tailored pieces that will last practically forever. It is antithetical to the modern chant of novelty, disposability and instant gratification. The care and craftsmanship of the manufacture of the clothes along with the expert tailoring means you can splash out on a piece of clothing because you know it’s going to be with you for quite a while.

Investing in the diligent workmanship of such clothing means you don’t have to deal with fashion or trends because your threads now transcend all that nonsense of spring and fall collections from Dolce Armani and Louis Klein and whoever else.

It is classic; it is in a word, timeless. I’ll leave you with a few words from the ineffable Quentin Crisp: “Fashion is what you adopt when you don’t know who you are”.

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FASHION Its Winter and last Summer’s clothes won’t keep you snug anymore, so you need to update to a brand new wardrobe for winter. It seems that during this time of year we also have a massive tendency to get very lazy and just throw on the warmest thing we have in our rooms. Whats a quick remedy for the perfect winter capsule wardrobe you ask? There is none. You need to plan what you’re going to wear this winter to stay nice and cosy when Front Square starts getting icy and the library becomes a warm shelter. But before you run off shopping like third world dictator giddy at the prospect of squandering his country’s resource wealth, let me tell you about a few ideas you might find interesting.

WINTER IS HERE

BY DARACH MAC MATHÚNA

Concentrate on the coat as a foundation piece for your winter wardrobe. You will probably end up wearing it most of the time. The coat covers most of what we wear underneath and in many ways winter forces us to dress twice. What I mean by this is that your outerwear needs to be able to cope with what the Irish skies throw at you, but when you get inside, what you wear under your coat then becomes the central focus of your look. This can be challenging at best, as there needs to be a congruence of these looks. If it’s raining and cold you will probably end up shivering and wet so the challenge is being functional but keeping style.

The transferring of your own style is a sort of translation process, where fabric colour and size need to change in order to meet the elements. What I found as winter approached was that a number of basic articles were missing and I chose this as my starting point.

Stripping everything away I needed to see what I actually had. A coat is probably the most important part of any winter look and I didn’t have one.

well as the choice of choosing a Shearling collegiate form or a trench with Shearling detail. When dealing with the cold another great option is to look at the puffer trend. The puffer jacket made of thick yet light material is perhaps a better choice if you don’t feel like marching around with a heavy trench.

When choosing a coat, size, shape and colour are both very important. Winter gives you the opportunity to pick several different types of coats. For a larger, longer coat something like the trench or overcoat is a favourite again this season. Balenciaga trends for the trench include a sharp fabric and colour contrast in the coat about mid-way. Jean Paul Gaultiers’ winter collection provides contrast higher up around the collar area whereas Kenzo offers a simpler yet strictly tailored version of the trench coat. Prada’s trench coats seemed to also play around with the block contrast design around the collar of the garment while Marc Jacobs’ colour contrast happens around the midway point also. Dior’s use of contrast fabric was somewhat different. Dior opted for a deconstructed inside out creation to create a similar contrast effect with a barer, simpler trench. This balance between the shirt, coat and pants is key especially with a coat with more muted tones The shorter coat has its origins in the collegiate jacket, which is also a big trend for this season. Its probably no harm having a jacket like this in the wardrobe as its also quite important not to over-wear a coat like a trench but to switch between a few.

If jackets are mentioned, leather needs to be discussed and it became a big trend this season. Although not the most common material worn in Trinity and to be honest I haven’t flirted as much with leather although it is present in most shows this winter. It seems the high street has also grappled with it and leather is mostly seen in a fabric blocking effect on the sleeves or up around the collar. This construction is very effective. What also seems to work during the cold spell is a Shearling fabric coat. This coat offers warmth as

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It would be just rude to avoid the military trends this season. The military jacket is another great interchangeable jacket this season. The military trend appears either in colour or design. In design the coats from the show are a great source of inspiration and in colour the jumpers from the Jean Paul Gaultier should give an idea of a military colour palette. Sometimes I forget that it’s important to look at military inspired clothing for winter as the armed forces are always dealing with the elements. Look for a tough functional jacket, which can be paired with some nice, tailored pants and shirt. With military less is always more, as you don’t want to end up looking like a soldier. Pockets on military jackets are also very useful and a big trend for this season. The functional pockets can be seen in the Marc Jacobs show as well as in the Galliano show. Where the military trend was a central focus of the whole show. Oversized cape-coats were seen on the catwalk and the Dior house opting for a thick military fabric detail. The Parka with a faux fur hood seems to be everywear in college these days and I would advise choosing a different take on the Parka making sure if possible that it’s waterproof.

Finally an outfit for this weather needs to be cleverly teamed with a pair of stylish gloves and a quality bag.

Shoes need to be well looked after as the water can really take the life out of the fabric. The shoe fabric needs to be protected by a spray if possible or if needed a pair of boots might save the day. Scarves are always in and the bigger the better. It can change a look completely and investing in a fine fabric scarf is really worth the money. For more inspiration I would advise checking out some Scandinavian fashion blogs and similar climatic countries that always battle the elements and see how they stylishly deal with weather challenges. A final word is not to overlook the vintage shops where you can find some great deals and when the skies open and the Irish weather gets you down always let your style shine through this autumn/winter.

THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE by Laura Gozzi Last week it was announced that Tory MP Nadine Dorries would take part in the new season of “I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!”, alongside various other representatives of the British cultural and intellectual scene, such as Helen Flanagan (Coronation Street), Hugo Taylor (Made In Chelsea), and Ashley Roberts (One Of The Pussycat Dolls Who Isn’t Nicole). For anyone who is not familiar with the magical world of trash tv, “I’m A Celebrity” is a reality show during which celebrities live together in a jungle environment for a few weeks and have to take part in a series of nasty/humiliating tasks in order to earn food. (It is as stupid as it sounds.) Nadine Dorries has been an MP for for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005, and has since been involved in numerous controversies including one concerning high heels, in which she campaigned against a proposed ban of said high heels in the office. But Nadine Dorries had also a constructive influence in the Parliament, proposing a bill that would ensure that sexual education in school would promote abstinence (only for girls, though, which presumably meant that boys would have had to have sex with the girls who hadn’t been paying attention in class).

But last summer, Nadine Dorries decided to take a break from her glowing career within the British Parliament. Without making any official statement about her participation on the programme, which, if the public votes for her, may last up to one month, she packed her bikins and explorer’s hats and set off to Australia.

She may have forgotten to notify her boss, Tory MP Sir George Young, about her departure, but at least she remembered to tell the Sun about the reasons behind her choice to take part in the reality show. “I’m doing the show because 16 million people watch it”, she said. “If people are watching I’m A Celebrity, that is where MPs should be going. I’m not going in there to upset people, but I have opinions.” Funnily enough, within twenty-four hours, she had not only managed to upset quite a lot of people, but also to make many of us wonder what she meant by “opinions”. She tried to justify her appearance on the programme by saying that “...a lot of people don’t vote and if they can see I am a normal mother who comes from a poor background and who didn’t go to a posh school, they may think they can be a politician too.” However, it seems to me that watching a “politician” demean herself by rolling around in the Australian mud and eating a kangaroo’s penis would induce a feeling of revulsion in the public, rather than a powerful drive to Be Just Like Her. But I might be wrong.

Ms. Dorries made a few other comments about her adventure in the jungle, including one about her fear at the prospect of having to go weeks without tea or coffee, but remembered to note that “I’m A Celebrity” would serve as a platform to reach the public and

raise awareness about issues such as a reduction in the abortion limit from 24 weeks to 20, which she has campaigned for in the past. When asked what she would miss out on during her stay in the jungle, she replied ““Local elections, a by-election, whether President Obama will still be in office or not and the Tatler ball.” Trivial stuff to say the least. Soon after that, and helicopter picked up her and her fellow B-list celebrities contestants, and dumped them in the middle of the jungle.

That is where it gets entertaining: once the contestants arrive to their destination, they are cut off from any contact with the rest of the world. All they have is each other. (The “other” is usually a darts champion or an Eastenders actress. Forget eating lamb testicles – I suspect this is the real ordeal). Ms Dorries has therefore been blissfully unaware of the furious reactions by the other Tories over her appearance on the show, which is a pity, because they were all quite entertaining.

First of all, she was suspended from the Conservative party, in a frantic attempt to show its votersthat any MPs that thought it alright to miss a month of work, and potentially earn £40,000 atthe end of the show, would be seriously reprimanded.

While David Cameron made some vague comments about Sir George Young having made the right choice by suspending her, many of Ms. Dorries’ colleagues hastened to show their contempt at her decision in much harsher terms. Louise Mensch was quick to tweet that “Nadine pretending that a serious issue like abortion rights is why she did this is the lowest of the low”. Claire Perry came up with the witty “I’m not fit to be an MP – kick me out of here?”, and Glyn Davies assured his voters that he would never take a month off to appear on such a programme – though he “would eat a rat for £40k”.

Luckily for her, however, Ms. Dorries still has a few supporters – namely one former LibDem MP who had also taken part to the show, and who enthusiastically tweeted his support: ““Good on Nadine Dorries for the jungle if she’s really going in. Go gal!”. The entire situation must be highly entertaining for Labour MPs, who generally restrained from commenting, presumably watching drama unfold while smugly purring in a corner.

In the meantime, Ms. Dorries, who had been informed of her suspension from the Conservative Party but decided to go ahead with the programme, has already survived several tasks in the jungle, although there are doubts about her objective of focusing the attention of ordinary people on politics. It’s hard to imagine her lecturing a hungry Hugo Taylor about the role of the NHS, and even harder to picture Helen Flanagan making an interesting point about the expenses scandal. Yet Ms. Dorries claims that the jungle is more similar to her workplace than one would think, stating, a little before entering the wildnerness: “I will be working with rats and snakes in a jungle. It’s not really very different from Westminster after all.” Good luck to her.

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