Issue 119

Vision York Student

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HOLIDAY HELL

VACATION FIASCO THREATENS DEGREES

BITTER COMPLAINTS have flooded into Helen Woolnough, the SU President, regarding the way that students were mistreated by the University over the Easter vacation.

So many students mentioned their grievances that the SU put a poster campaign into effect, inviting anyone who had been adversely affected during the vacation to register their complaints officially.

The worst complaint came from Sue Fletcher of Derwent College. One of only three undergraduates placed in her block, Miss Fletcher was surrounded by predominantly male conference guests. One visitor returned to bed late and drunk, threw up violently and audibly down the corridor, locked himself out of his room and proceeded to try and force his way in using a fire-extinguisher.

The terrified student repeatedly tried to call porters and security but was unable to get any response whatsoever. She finally called some male friends across from another part of campus to offer her some protection.

By the time porters finally arrived to let the visitor into his room Miss Fletcher’s friends had been with her for some time. Fortunately no permanent damage was done.

In a four-page report to the ViceChancellor, Ron Cooke, completed at the beginning of this week and leaked to Vision, Helen Woolnough writes, “The fact that this situation was allowed to occur is totally unacceptable, especially as it could easily have been avoided by more careful consideration of the allocation of accommodation to conference guests…In light of this incident it would seem sensible that conference guests are not given access to blocks where students are staying in the future.”

Another common complaint, affecting a far larger section of the student community, was that access to the JB Morrell Library was grossly inadequate. Throughout the holiday the library was only open until 5:00pm during the week and was closed at weekends. This left hard-up students who had to get paid work during the day stranded, unable to access the library at any time.

In addition, noisy building work on the top floor of the Library caused severe disruption to students when they actually could get into the library. Gemma Astbury

York

described her disbelief at witnessing a large plank of wood falling from the top floor all the way down through the stairwell past the desk she was studying at and crashing to the ground floor of the Library. A builder then shouted down, “Well that was a piece of luck wasn’t it!”

In the days immediately preceeding week 0, in which many students are faced with crucial final exams, the library was shut for four days due to the bank holiday weekend. A significant number of students who did not have housing in York over the vacation had to sit exams on Tuesday of week 0. As a result the last time that they had access to the Library before their exam was five weeks previously, at the end of last term.

At a time when the University is reported to be planning to scrap college libraries and centralise resources in the JB Morrell, confidence in the library’s adequacy as the basis for most students’ degrees could not be worse.

The SU President’s report goes on to cite a vast list of complaints concerning the catering facilities in the open college, Derwent. Students complained that the snack bar was rarely open at the times advertised leaving many with nowhere to eat. When food was being served, conference guests, who ought to have been catered for elsewhere and who were presumably attracted by cheaper prices, often descended on Derwent and made the queues prohibitive.

Alcuin students claimed that building work which has been in progress for months ceased when conference guests arrived and began again when they left.

However Glen Dewsbury, spokesman for the Facilities department, told Vision, “That simply isn’t true…if anything the work became more intense during the day because conference guests are never in their rooms then.”

Helen Woolnough described a general mood of dissatisfaction with the way conference guests are treated so well, seemingly at the expense of the students who do remain resident in York during the vacation. One student encapsulated this sentiment with the words, “There was a psychological feeling of trespassing every time I went on to campus….like I didn’t have the right to be there.”

Nobody in University Administration was available for comment.

Ben Hulme-Cross

COURTESY OF THE EVENING PRESS, YORK

Aidhean Campbell and Helen Woolnough: ‘Sh*te’

REPUBLIC CAMPUS?

CONTROVERSY SURROUNDS the Students Union after officials Helen Woolnough, President and Aidhean Campbell, Deputy President Services, turned up to a meeting with Princess Ann wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan ‘Think it, Talk it, Full of Sh*te’.

The slogan, part of the official Students Union T-shirt, was not meant as a strike for republicanism but was, according to Helen Woolnough, “So we could be identified as SU Officers.”

“It’s silly. We got asked to meet Princess Ann when she toured the campus over Easter as student representatives. We preferred to wear our T-shirts rather than the badges Admin gave us as the T-shirts give all the SU details. If we had wanted to make a protest against royalty we wouldn’t have bothered turning up.”

Aidhean Campbell added: “The

v Lancaster

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York Student Vision

Princess did not seem in any way offended by any of our actions, in fact I doubt she even noticed the slogan written on our backs.

“I don’t think she would have given a sh*te anyway. She seemed quite down to earth and bored. And I don’t blame her.”

The matter, which was publicised in the Evening Press, York, brought comment from one elderly citizen of the city, who wrote to Helen Woolnough, stating: “You are to be seen as being absolutely and totally lacking in manners, common courtesy and consideration for others.

“The disgraceful words on the backs of your T-shirts – apart from making no sense at all – should, in themselves, disqualify you all from any position of responsibility at the University in which you have, apparently, little, if any, pride.

They certainly offer a real indication of your level of maturity.

“If your aim is to shock people like

me then you succeed very well and do much beyond that since I am utterly disgusted. What little respect I have held, hitherto, for ‘young people’ in this country, who are so over-indulged and underdisciplined, is diluting rapidly to the point of near extinction, as a result of antics such as those you demonstrate.

“Do you care? I fear not, your only concerns appear to lay in yourselves and not in other people’s views of you.”

In response, Helen Woolnough wrote back highlighting all the good work the SU does for students, charities and the local community, emphasising the fact that out of the £52,000 RAG raised last year, £16,000 went to Help the Elderly.

The citizen has agreed to visit campus as a guest of the SU. A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace stated: “It’s not something we would comment on, it’s a matter for the individuals.”

Tom Smithard

ROSES

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

2 NEWS York Student Vision

GRADUATION CELEBRATION

News in PLAY FOR A DAY The Students Union are to perform a play to woo visiting sixth formers during the University open day, on 18th May. The short tale of student life, written by Press and Publicity Officer Dan Simon, will feature the ghost of a run over duck guiding a new student, Bob, through the services that the SU provide, including the minibus, the bookstore and ‘the dance of the condoms’. An all-star cast will include Dan himself (as the duck), along with sabbatical officers Ian France (Bob), Ange Davison and Aidhean Campbell, along with many other SU members.

IMAGINE HARDSHIP Two themed weeks are to take place this term. The first, taking place in week three, is Hardship Week. Run by the SU, this will draw attention to the everincreasing financial strains being placed on students and what the SU are doing about it. The second, Imagine Week, takes place during week seven, and is a week long celebration of the arts on campus. Drawing together many of the ‘arty’ societies, organiser Jacob Hope plans on promoting awareness of creativity and expression, and will include various performances and workshops. For more details e-mail jah111.

CON-MAN ALERT Following on from Ferdinand Friere, York is again being stalked by an imposter. The man apparently uses the alias Anthony Pollard and claims to be a lecturer at the University of Southampton.

He often claims that his wallet was stolen and he needs the train fare back to Southampton. He appears to target students. He has been described as of an Afro-Carribean appearance, aged between 40 and 50. Do not approach this man.

Instead, ring the security hotline on 4444 immediately.

SUPER SAINSBURYS Sainsburys have applied for planning permission to destroy their supermarket in town, and replace it with a larger store.

Currently there’s a 27,000sq.ft store in Foss Bank. Under the plans, to be discussed over the summer, this will be knocked down, along with the adjacent Homebase and a 40,000sq.ft store will occupy both sites. The new store will include a coffee bar.

VISION THANKS Vision would like to say thank you to Claire New for her painful and selfless service as editor, Sabey for being ‘up front’ and to Hanna-Mari Ahonen; to Westcountry Publications Ltd, Lisa Forrest, Kieran McIntyre, as well as to nouse and their iMacs. Vision meetings take place in D/130, Mondays at 7:30pm.

Graduates at last year’s Ball AFTER THE success of last year’s Grad-Ball this year the organisers promise the same again…only better!

The venue will once again be offcampus at Elvington Air Base, where last year Terrorvision, the Bootleg Beatles and Mark Lamaar gave graduating students a send-off that few would ever forget. And of course -perhaps most importantly of all - a 6am licence is again planned to keep the brave and foolhardy partying into the

CAMPUS ATTACK

dawn.

This year a combination of campus, covers, and big-name bands (although the names have yet to be confirmed) will be performing against the imposing backdrop of a full-size Lancaster bomber in Elvington Air Hanger.

Meanwhile a marquee will be the venue for a series of top comedy and cabaret acts to entertain students until 10pm. From then on, it’ll become a dance tent with a requisite bottle-bar to refresh revellers. And, should some even then

find their energy flagging in the early hours, a visit to the forty-foot “Red Bull Marquee” should prove more than enough stimulation to keep them going into the twilight hours.

Finally, for those looking for a more sedate pace a third marquee with tables, seating and over-sized board-games will provide a relaxed atmosphere in which students can sit and chat. Meals will again be available within the NAAFI, while it is planned that last year’s rather limp buffet will be replaced by stalls across the site

supplying hot-dogs, doughnuts and other treats.

Ticket prices have yet to be confirmed, although initial estimates are of a cost of between £50-55, plus drinks. With a budget of £70,000 however, while he expects to break-even, SU Deputy President Services officer, Aidhean Campbell is determined that every penny from ticket sales will go towards making this a memorable night.

Gareth Walker

VIOLENCE AND DANGER struck again over the Easter Holiday as a female student was attacked on campus. The incident occurred at 9:20pm on Saturday 15 April in between the Banbury and Bleachfield University blocks near Thief Lane. The woman was grabbed from behind as she made her way across campus.

Police stated that she succeeded in struggling free of her assailant’s clutches and calling for help. Sgt Colin Ventress, investigating the incident, said the attacker had been described as a white male between the ages of seventeen and twenty who was wearing a dark jacket and trousers.

A spokesman for the police said, “An attack like this underlines the need for students to remain vigilant at all times, particularly at night. Some incidents such as these can’t be avoided but many can.

All the normal rules apply, don’t walk around in the dark on your own if you can help it.”

He went on to stress the importance of retaining the same level of caution through the summer: “As a parent and a police officer I’m very conscious of these matters.

“There is a temptation to feel that because it gets dark so much later during the summer months there is less danger but a lot of attacks happen before dark.

Sometimes it can’t be avoided but when it can, don’t walk around on your own in the evening. Just be as careful as you possibly can.”

Ben Hulme-Cross

Sam Booth and John Butler on top of a minibus going to India

PASSAGE TO INDIA

SAM BOOTH and John Butler, both studying Environmental Sciences, are planning to take a minibus half way across the world in order to raise money for Madras’ ‘New Creation School’ and for The Teenage Cancer Trust.

Driving 6,500 miles through Holland, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, stopping to help out in a centre for orphans in Auroville, Romania, delivering a minibus to Madras, India, making a film and stripping off to raise money in the Merchant Adventurers Hall, York. All of the above are part of the fund raising activities sur-

rounding two James students’ plans for Summer 2001.

John explained how his five month stay at the orphanage as part of his gap year had inspired the project, named ‘Next Stop India’. The fund raising is well underway. John and Andy organised an Easter Ball, held on Friday, Week One. Over 80 people attended the event, enjoying a four course meal, a band and disco, all within the magnificent environs of the Merchant Adventurers Hall.

Nigel Revell, a representative of the Teenage Cancer Trust, gave a speech explaining how the aim of the charity was not only to ‘raise money’ but to ‘raise awareness’. The charity urgently needs money to fund specialist wards for

teenagers with cancer, so they no longer have to be treated in children’s wards or, for older children, in wards for the elderly.

The fund raising antics also stretched as far as a strip tease. Revealing ‘the full monty’ to the sounds of Hot Chocolate, Andy and John raised an additional £110 in a pint glass. They would like say thank you to everyone who came enabling them to “Get behind the steering wheel and set the wheels in motion.”

Also special thanks to Katy Few and Thea Darricote for their support.

For more information contact: nextstopindia@hotmail.com or www.teencancer.org.

Frances Lecky

YORK STUDENT VISION www.yorkvision.co.uk Editors: Ben Hulme-Cross, Wesley Johnson  Deputy Editor: Alex Watson  Managing Editor: Gareth Walker  News Editor: Tom Smithard Deputy News Editors: Tim Dean, Brendan Spencelayh  Politics Editor: Danny Goldup  Deputy Politics Editor: Fraser Kennedy  Features Editor: Ann Smith Deputy Features Editors: Victoria Cole-Jones, Barbara Stainer  Telescope Editor: Post Open  Deputy Telescope Editor: Post Open  Arts Editor: Vicky Kennedy Deputy Arts Editor: Sarah Mort  Films Editor: Philip Diamond  Deputy Films Editor: Christian Bunyan  Music Editor: Tom Nall  Deputy Music Editor: Kate Wallis Sports Editor: Tim Burroughs  Deputy Sports Editor: Paul Wrigglesworth  Photo Editor: Post Open  Deputy Photo Editor: Post Open  Chief Sub: Post Open Artist: Helen Dempsey  Vision online Webmaster: Jonathan Carr  Deputy Webmaster: Post Open  Advertising Manager: Post Open Grimston House, Room V/X/009, University of York,Heslington, York, YO10 5DD. Tel/Fax: 01904 43 3720

Email: vision@york.ac.uk

Opinions expressed in Vision are not necessarily those of the Editors, Senior Editorial Team, membership or advertisers. Every effort is made to ensure all articles are as factually correct as possible at the time of going to press, given the information available. Copyright Vision Newspapers, 2000

York Student Vision

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

York Student Vision NEWS 3

CENTRAL BAR AND VENUE TO REPLACE GOODRICKE

YORK IS CLOSER to getting a Central Bar and Venue than at any stage since Central Hall was declared unsafe. The SU are in the decisive stage of talks with University Administration discussing plans that could make the dream a reality.

Plans for the amalgamation of Wentworth, James and Goodricke facilities in a large nucleus based in Goodricke have been drastically altered. In a meeting with the Vice Chancellor, Ron Cooke over the Easter vacation, the SU’s proposals for a larger scale venue in Goodricke were accepted.

The current proposal is to construct one large building that could be subdivided. One half would be a night-club style venue with a capacity of around 800.

The SU would hope to arrange events three nights a week, radically improving the scope of SU Ents events.

The second half of the building would be a dining hall that could be used as a catering area for both James and Goodricke but also as a venue for conference banquets.

Although final architectural drawings will not be prepared for some time, the University is already battling it out with the SU over the issue of who will control the venue when it is built. If this matter is settled soon enough then Aidhean Campbell, Deputy President Services, will propose a motion in the Week 4 UGM suggesting that the SU lends its full support to the plans.

Central Hall: finally to be superceded He is confident that the SU will win control of the venue. Speaking to Vision, Aidhean explained, “The University has a high regard for the SU’s professionalism and recognises that many other SU’s across the country control their own venues with great success.

“One of the big differences that this will make to students is that we’ll be on the band circuit at last and we’ll be able to

CAMPUS THIEVES CAMPUS SECURITY was undermined again when, three weekends ago, three minors were spotted attempting a break-in on Alcuin Porter’s Lodge.

On Sunday evening after arriving back on campus in a taxi, two students, Dave Peel and Mark Jackson observed the crime in progress. The delinquents had forced entry with a screw driver and were busy ransacking the Porter’s Lodge while he was on duty elsewhere.

On discovering that they had been rumbled, they fled the scene in the direction of Tang Hall and a chase ensued.

Later, they were halted and the stolen objects retrieved.

Earlier in the holidays on March 30th, Gareth Simkins, a student from Holgate Hall, fell victim to another breakin.

This time the thieves were more successful and after gaining access to his room were able to steal Gareth’s PC and his very expensive collection of 40+ CDs, undisturbed. They even made off with the goods in Gareth’s rucksack.

His CD collection included some rare bootlegs and the PC had roughly a year’s work and a lot of personal e-mails.

The poor second year was disparaging in his criticism of Holgate Hall security: “There is no portering and rare visits from security. Utterly abysmal is a compliment: it is used as a dumping ground for excess first years.”

When asked what could be done to

improve things: “Improved? Don’t use it at all! Alternatively, put grills over the windows. That would have saved my property.”

According to Gareth, the police have no suspects and it is doubtful whether they will be caught.

He believes the burglars were kids, telling Vision: “I reckon it was a bunch of idiot fifteen year olds as they left the power pack to my PC behind.”

Students off campus didn’t escape either, as nouse arts editor, Anna Orridge and her housemates recently had their house in the Hull Road area broken into.

Two computers, two TVs and a stereo were stolen.

These latest campus security breaches have prompted concern from the University’s Director of Security, Ken Batten, and also Sue Hardman, the Academic Registrar who is responsible for the student side of security.

Mr Batten, speaking with regard to the incident at Alcuin Porter’s Lodge, said “These are known offenders, known to the law and to the University alike.

Presently, the police are dealing with the children.”

Sue Hardman spoke to us and stressed just how seriously the University takes security and believes immediate action is necessary.

To this end, she has arranged a meeting with anxious senior Holgate Hall residents to discuss this matter of concern in detail.

Brendan Spencelayh

York Student Vision

get some decent gigs.”

Glen Dewsbury, spokesman for the University Facilities Management, was also keen to emphasise the positive aspects.

“Obviously while proposals are in development, nothing can be determined for certain but there is a very positive climate and a real possibility that things can be agreed pretty quickly. Naturally we’re

very keen to work with the SU. Relations have never been better.”

However both parties are well aware of the many problems they face. Glen Dewsbury explained, “We’re particularly concerned about the issue of continuity given the rapid rotation of sabbatical officers.”

However, there was concern expressed by the SU President, Helen Woolnough,

who said, “There might have to be a scaling down of colleges, but JCRs will still continue to have an important role in contributing diversity to campus…possibly operating on a smaller scale than is now the case.”

Indeed under the new proposals Goodricke would not have its own bar and would in effect be relegated to the status of James, only a college in terms of accommodation. The strongest opposition so far has come from Goodricke’s outspoken JCR Chair, Rory Dennis, who fears that his College would become obsolete under the new arrangement. “All of my JCR Committee bar one are utterly against the proposal – that reflects how strongly students feel about their colleges and we oppose any plan that would undermine the collegiate system.

“The SU should be separate from JCRs not trying to take them over. When this gets to a UGM I’ll get as many members of Goodricke as possible to attend and block the motion.

“What worries me the most is the trend towards the destruction of colleges.

Our college system might be quirky but it’s unique. If we lose it then being a York student will come to mean something entirely new.”

However the SU and the University seem determined to carry the plans forward. Aidhean Campbell said, “We may have to redefine the structure and meaning of colleges – but we’ve got to be prepared to change.”

Gareth Walker & Ben Hulme-Cross

UNIJOBS FOR RADIO FOUR THREE YORK students will be taking to the airwaves later this month on a Radio Four documentary.

The documentary will be looking at students who manage to hold down interesting or unusual jobs whilst studying for their degrees.

The students are employed in various positions, from taking tours around York’s only brewery to playing the piano in hotels.

Tom Nall, a second year English student and Vision’s music editor, works 15 hours per week as a mystery customer for a leading car parts supplier.

He joked, “I create false identities and false scenarios and then, with deceit and guile, I mercilessly goad phone operatives into a level of customer service which is then scrutinised on tape by their very bosses. The worst name I’ve ever used was ‘Rob Matyre’ in Newcastle!”

He added: “Eleanor Sharp, of UniJobs, is like a mother to me - she even remembered my birthday.”

Another second year interviewed was Angela Murray, a biology student who works as a tour guide for York Brewery.

She told Vision: “As well as being fun, I’ve also learned and put into practice a lot of presentation skills. UniJobs has really helped me - they are much more flexible, which is exactly what you need when you’re studying as well.”

UniJobs is a new initiative funded and paid for by the University, which offers a database of jobs for students on

Rob Matyre, aka Tom Nall…what you never see campus. Its co-ordinator, Eleanor Sharp, told Vision: “The Radio 4 programme is absolutely marvellous. We believe and hope we offer a very useful service to students, and the more exposure which we receive through programmes such as this, the more employers will know about us.”

Sue Coffey, spokesperson for the University’s Press Office, added: “The ‘Learning Curve’ programme is a very prestigious programme which influences

many people beneficially, and this was a particularly enjoyable project to be involved with.”

The documentary will be broadcast on Radio 4’s ‘Learning Curve’ programme later this month.

Any student who would like more information about UniJobs can drop in to see them in the Careers Centre.

Wesley Johnson

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

4 NEWS York Student Vision

TORY STRIFE

Gareth Knight on Gypsies:

“They smell… they probably shag their sisters… they should all be rounded up into gas chambers and dealt with.” And “They should be burnt alive, starting with their foreskins – prisoners could do it because it would be unfair to let decent law enforcing people close to the smell of these gyppo scum.”

A LEADING CAMPUS Tory has come under attack after making what are seen by many to be obnoxious and extreme comments on York’s public newsgroups.

Gareth Knight, former Chair of the campus Conservative and Unionist Association, and now an Honorary Vice-President, has recently presented arguments against both ‘gyppos’ and ‘tramps’.

The comments made about gypsies, which he has since refined to be ‘new-age travellers’ and not the Romany race, are shown in the picture box.

On tramps, now changed to ‘bogus beggars’, Gareth Knight has stated: “Let some lower division footballers use them for football practice… moving on until they are all dead. At the end of the game, all the bodies could be rounded up and thrown down the gents loos and the doors locked.”

Many critics believe that Gareth does not entirely believe what he writes. Brendon Fletcher, former SU LGB Officer, told Vision: “On the whole, I fail to take most of the remarks of Gareth Knight seriously.

That’s not to say I don’t think Gareth has ridiculous and extremely right-wing views, but that his primary motive in such debates is to stir up trouble.”

As Sanjeev Vadhera, SU Black-rights officer, stated to Vision, Gareth Knight might not totally believe what he has stated but it is still highly offensive. “Gypsies are under constant pressure and strain and are often given a stereotypical image of being uneducated criminals. It is the type of thoughtlessness that Gareth has shown in his postings on gypsies and tramps that leads to such stereotypical images and racism.”

When asked by Vision whether he still stands by his comments, Gareth replied: “Yes, in the sense that I dislike the behaviour of certain travellers and bogus beggars, but they were clearly an exaggeration to provoke debate, so in that sense, no, those postings were certainly not my genuine views, and I retract them.

“Newsgroups are for open discussion and there is nothing inappropriate for them.

One prominent member of the Labour Club recently said the damage to the Churchill statue and the Cenotaph was justified. I note that if the Labour Club could be seen in a bad light, little is said, but if a Tory says something, all hell breaks loose.”

Much of the criticism of Gareth reflects on his prominent position in the campus Conservative Association. According to Peter Bancroft, President of the York European Society, Gareth’s comments are typical of the current campus Tory party.

“Just because Gareth is no longer powerful does not mean his legacy is over, especially with all the members of the society who have never tried to distance themselves from these views in the past.”

Brendon Fletcher agrees. “The claims made by Gareth about both the homeless and ‘gyppos’ are devoid of any genuine criticism and full of racism and ignorance.

Gareth is a perfect model for what British conservatism is all about – ignorance, intolerance and bigotry.”

Current Chairman of the campus Conservative Association, Stuart Lennon, disagrees. “I strongly believe in Gareth’s right to freedom of speech and I agree with the comments Gareth has made about new age travellers behind Halifax Court and tramps who earn up to £60 a day in town. If he had said something racist I would be very annoyed and have a stern word. He is not advocating genocide. However I don’t agree with the harsh way that he has stated his comments, perhaps he’s stepped over the line of decency.

“Gareth Knight has done some good things as Chair. He has restructured the constitution and is exemplary at organisation. People don’t associate his views with the campus Conservatives. We’re no longer seen as people who walk round campus with suits and briefcases, but instead our image is of ordinary people.”

This has not prevented pressure from those unhappy with Gareth’s comments

from calling for him to be removed from his position as Honorary Vice-President of the Conservative Association. According to Peter Bancroft, “Expelling Gareth would send a powerful message that the Tory society has changed from its bigoted past reputation, however there seems no willingness to even contemplate doing this.”

Sanjeev Vadhera agrees. “Maybe he is just having a laugh. But in a position such as Honorary Vice-President of the Campus Tories, I believe that he should be more careful in what he says and realise that he could well be offending people.”

Stuart Lennon disagrees. “I am not going to chuck any one out from my Association. Gareth will decide himself whether he feels that he should resign. As it is Gareth leaves the campus at the end of the term [although he will remain Honorary Vice-President until next Spring term].

Gareth is no longer a member of the [decision making] Conservative committee.

“It is not pleasant for me to put my mark on the Association and to have that being interpreted as being prevented by the actions of former members of the committee. If someone did no-confidence Gareth I would, as Chair, remain unbiased, but if he went, all other Honorary Vice-Presidents [Phil Witcherley, Jonathan Rowing and Toby Stanway] would also have to go.”

Gareth Knight said that he is unlikely to proffer his resignation. “The campus Conservatives have always maintained that the views and actions of individual members are entirely their own business. I have received little condemnation from the members of the campus Conservatives and as my position is an Honorary one and not an official one, my actions can not affect the fact that I was once Chair. If I was Chair when I wrote those comments, I would obviously be considering my position. As it is, I am no longer Chair and therefore have no intention of resigning at all.”

parking permit will, however, be drastically reduced. The ban on first and second years having cars on campus will from October 2000 be extended to all campusbased under- and postgraduates. From October 2001, this restriction will also apply to under- and postgraduate students living off campus within the vicinity of the University. The existing regime of penalties for breaking car-parking rules will also be tightened.

Facilities Management Liaison Officer Glen Dewsbury explained the reasoning behind the proposals. He told

Vision, “The main single factor was from a planning context, we were obliged to implement certain measures by the City Council. It emphasised the importance of the University limiting car parking and encouraging other forms of transport.

Also, we are a responsible institution and we need a sustainable transport plan anyway.”

On the issue of restricting student car parking, he said, “The main concern was to inconvenience as few people as possible, and the majority of students live on campus so they will be less affected than

Tom Smithard

HOUSING WOES MANY OF next year’s finalists face uncertainty over accommodation after learning that their applications for University residences have been refused.

This has resulted from an increase of applications from finalists. But despite the comprehensive housing policy of the University, there are some cases where more deserving candidates “slip through the net”, with finalists losing out when, for example, rooms are allocated where a preference has not even been indicated.

This procedure is monitored by provosts and bursars, as well as by the Accommodation Office. But as David Maughan, Accomodation Officer, said, “It would be impossible to check every application.” This has led to calls for the procedure to be monitored more closely to ensure that this does not happen.

The number of finalists applying for University accommodation has decreased since last year, but with more first years coming into the University there will inevitably be further disappointment for finalists. University policy prioritises first years and those with health reasons in awarding University accommodation.

Finalists come third. There is a subset of particular categories and those not fulfiling any of these criteria are treated equally, meaning that for most people, getting a room is a matter of luck.

This provides little solace for those without accommodation. One finalist told Vision: “I’m really disappointed, especially as my house-mates all got back onto campus. Some of the allocations just seem really random. I’m on the waiting list now but I don’t know that I’ll definitely get a room and living out is too expensive.”

Many other students felt they had been betrayed by the prospectus and respective provosts after thinking when they originally joined the University that they would be assured accommodation in their third year.

Some are inclined to have felt cheated out of a room by people allegedly lying on the special reasons box - daubed by some ‘the excuses box’ - that is set aside by the University for compassionate and medical grounds.

One Langwith student is known to

have called Provost Ron Clayton a ‘liar’.

Particularly distraught are final year scientists who are meant to be given priority on the accommodation list. So far they haven’t even been given priority on the waiting list.

Also aggrieved are those who have felt that they have given much to University and college events, yet who have been excluded from University accommodation. They are particularly disappointed at the fact that many students who put in few extra curricular hours have got back onto campus.

Other instances include a member of Goodricke College changing to Langwith College in her second year to be with her friends. She has got onto campus to the annoyance of many Langwith second years who have missed out.

To help alleviate the stress, the SU runs a Housing Fair. The idea, pioneered

by Deputy President Welfare and Academic Affairs, Pete Campion Smith, allowed people with rooms available and those looking for rooms to meet.

Long term it seems like the demand for more campus accommodation will be fulfiled. The University aims to be able to house two thirds of its undergraduates.

New blocks have already been added to James and Alcuin, and further rooms are planned for Halifax Court, Wentworth and Goodricke.

A solution may be to allocate University accommodation at the same time as the housing list comes out. However, Mr Maughan told Vision: “The accommodation decisions used to be issued at the same time as the housing list. The housing list was then issued earlier at the request of the SU. It would be difficult to issue accommodation decisions earlier as timing is linked to estimates of the first year intake, known availability of leased accommodation and refurbishment and new build progress.”

As for the problem of finalists without accommodation, it seems that there is no easy solution. The current procedure seems as rigorous and effective as any could be, and until more accommodation is built it will be impossible to keep everyone happy.

Holly Cartlidge & Ryan Sabey

Vanbrugh College: would you fight to live here?

CAMPUS CAR CHAOS

THE UNIVERSITY plans to increase restrictions on use of cars on campus from October 2000. These plans will further restrict students’ ability to use cars in and around the campus.

The proposals will incorporate introduction of a two tier charging structure.

Staff and some students will be able to apply for a parking permit, with students paying £15 a year in advance. A pay-anddisplay system will also be introduced.

The number of students eligible for a

York Student Vision

other groups. A wide range of opinions were taken into account in discussing the proposals.”

Glen Dewsbury predicted that environmental concerns would lead to general student support for the plans, but added, “The document is balanced - it is not just about new restrictions, but also new benefits, such as the planned shopping complex on campus and improved cycle facilities. Implementation of the plan will mean implementation of all the proposals.”

SU President Helen Woolnough said,

“The plans are good in terms of encouraging use of public transport and environmental awareness. However, this may not be the whole motivation for the restrictions.

“As the University is campus-based, there’s less of a problem with reaching facilities than at other universities, and so the vast majority of York students do not really need a car. An element of flexibility may need to be incorporated for mature and Health Studies students, who live further away from campus.”

Simon Keal

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

York Student Vision NEWS 5

IN A LEAGUE OF ITS OWN

IN THE recent Times Higher Education Supplement league table published on April 14th, York failed to perform in certain crucial areas.

While teaching remained superb (third behind Cambridge and Imperial), library and computer funding was comparatively low. In a survey averaged over three years, York was found to spend £483 per student on all libraries, learning resource centres and non-administrative computers.

Some of the top universities have spent over £1,000 per student in this area and surprisingly, York was placed lower in the league than universities like Westminster and Hertfordshire.

Pete Campion-Smith, Student Union Deputy President Welfare and Academical Affairs, told Vision: “The SU has been campaigning for better library and computer facilities for twenty or more years.”

University Librarian Elizabeth Heaps was “not dismayed” by the league table but “would expect to find us higher up.”

She also commented on University plans for a £2 million humanities resource library, due to be built in 2001 along side the existing JB Morrell building.

Perhaps the low computer funding figures are not surprising considering students’ frequent complaints of long queues for PCs. Another favourite grumble regards lack of availability of core course books in the library.

Library and Computer Spending

£ per student 3 year average

1 Oxford 1291 2 SOAS 1069 10 Heriot-Watt 658 14 Sussex 580 16 Bangor 572 18 QMW 570 19 Abertay Dundee559 20 Stirling 555 24 Aberdeen 521 27 Kent 508 28 Essex 506 29 Hull 504 31 Aston 494 all.

32 Loughborough 489 Mr Muckersie also expressed con33 Hertfordshire 487 cerns that the short-term three year aver34 of spending Westminster 486 age could be misleading.

35 institutions York 483cash Some have injected large

Possible total: 100

1 2 3 4 5 8= 8= 11 15 18 20 23 25 26 29 30 31

Sheffield Leeds Manchester Edinburgh Bristol Cambridge Warwick Oxford Cardiff Strathclyde Liverpool Loughborough Hull LSE Brunel Brighton York

91.92 91.3 90.99 90.02 89.83 86.9 86.9 84.51 81.63 79.8 79.39 78.76 77.91 77.81 76.89 76.83 76.52

We’ve all seen the pictures, but is the York University campus as glossy as the prospectus makes it out to be?

In a separate league table, The Virgin Alternative University Rankings, York was placed 31st over all, with universities like Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester taking the top spots. However, it could be argued that this particular ranking system concentrates too much on the non-academic side of student life.

For example, library facilities, percentage of 2.1s, teaching and research are

YORKIES TO BUY OFF YORK?

CONTROVERSY SURROUNDS a proposed donation to the Students Union from Nestle. The exact amount of the donation is unknown, but believed to be around £7,000.

Nestle have approached Aidhean Campbell, Deputy President Services, with an offer of ‘branded sponsorship’, whereby one of their products would be prominently displayed on an SU service, the most likely of which being the SU minibus.

Where the problem arises, however, is through Nestle’s perceived unethical status. According to John Naylor, SU Press and Publicity Officer, writing on a public newsgroup: “Nestle gives free samples of powdered baby milk product to new born children in third world countries. The upshot of this is that when the free samples have run out, the mother’s breast milk has often dried up, thus forcing her to use the Nestle baby milk product, which they cannot afford. This forces them to dilute it with infected local water, and it kills thousands of young babies.”

The issue was discussed in last week’s SU Executive Committee meeting (a weekly meeting in which all SU officers and JCR chairs decide how to implement SU policy) and provoked heated debate.

The question of whether an underfunded union could afford to turn down such an offer split the members.

Some, such as Pete Campion-Smith, Deputy President Welfare and Academical Affairs, were strongly against the deal, which they believed would undermine the ethical status of the union that it strives strongly to promote. Pete’s views were echoed by John Naylor, when he stated soon after the Exec meeting that: “We should not have anything to do with Nestle.” Helen Woolnough, SU President,

Virgin Alternative University Rankings

Nestle. Evil, but tasty agreed, stating: “Because of the ethical dubiousness of Nestle, I would personally be reluctant to accept the offer.”

Others are not so sure. Former Debating Society Chair, Phil Witcherley, has gone on record as saying: “We should always put the interests of students above our liberal, sandal wearing politics. The majority of students would benefit and we’d be taking money off this organisation. I very actively support sponsorship from Nestle.”

Ange Davison, RAG President, also wishes to place pragmatism ahead of ethics, stating in Exec: “RAG needs a new minibus. Why shouldn’t we benefit from Nestle? It’s not as if we’re condoning them.”

The matter is likely to be taken to a UGM to let all students decide. With a sizeable campaign from YorkLEAF, the environmental pressure group, around the corner, this is likely to be an important and long running issue this summer term.

York Student Vision

Tom Smithard

all condensed into one category - teaching, whilst factors like social scene and numbers of campus societies are given their own categories with equal weighting.

David Muckersie, a spokesman from the University Planning Office told Vision that while the University studies such league tables with great interest, it views them as a guide and not the be all and end

sums into libraries and computing in recent years which could raise them higher than other universities where there has been a more sustained period of spending.

The factors that the University considers the most important are teaching and research which are determined by external peer review, many of the other categories being purely statistical and internally pro-

vided. Perchance, this is a reaction we might expect as the University does consistently succeed in these areas.

Brendan Spencelayh

SU TO FIGHT FOR FREE EDUCATION ON CAMPUS

A STUDENT is in imminent danger of suspension from the University after refusing to pay his tuition fees in support of the free-education campaign. It is the first case of its kind to have reached such a stage in York.

Now the first year English student, who is thought to be the only current political non-payer in Britain, has the potential to provoke York’s biggest conflict yet over the issue of student fees.

Having chosen not to pay his fees, the student approached YUSU in the final week of last term for their support.

Campaigns Officer Ffion Evans told Vision that, once the student had made clear his unwillingness to pay, she felt that the University authorities had been “Completely unprepared for such a situation and had basically no real idea of what to do next.”

She also acknowledged however, that the SU itself was caught unprepared.

Despite their continuing support of the campaign for free education, nonetheless she felt that after two years of fees an “atmosphere of complacency had developed.”

Subsequently, throughout the Easter holidays the SU have been actively lobbying the University to treat the case sympathetically. In particular in a series of letters President Helen Woolnough drew attention to the inadequacy of the current appeals system, whereby a student could only defend his case by writing directly to the Vice Chancellor; and the unfairness of a decision being made during a vacation time.

Meanwhile, at one point plans were under discussion to call an emergency UGM and propose a boycott of Open Week should the University have gone ahead and suspended the student.

The Tuition Fees March, November 1999, failed. What’s next?

The University’s response has been to stress its willingness to be flexible and explore all possible means of alleviating genuine hardship. Nonetheless Deputy Vice Chancellor Ian Wand has stood by the University’s current appeals system for the handling of such cases, stating “It is exceedingly unlikely that the University would wish to change its appeals procedures.”

Under this system established in 1993 - four years before the introduction of tuition fees - the final decision as to whether a student should be suspended rests with Professor Wand, upon the advice of the

Finance Officer.

Although unprepared to comment upon specific cases, Academic Registrar Sue Hardman confirmed that a student had refused to pay his tuition fees, and that as yet no decision had been made as to whether the student would be suspended or how the situation could be resolved.

It is thought that the student would be able with “considerable difficulty”to pay the sum he owes. However he has since dropped out of contact with the SU, and was unavailable for comment.

Gareth Walker

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

6 NEWS & COMMENT York Student Vision

Vision

ROUND THE U-BEND

York Student

Editorial PERHAPS THIS time the central bar and venue really is getting closer to becoming a reality; but I’m not holding my breath. Even if it happens, it’ll probably be greeted with relief rather than celebration.

Yet still people are complaining and questioning it. Indeed, for me personally, there’s certainly something odd about campus with a ‘venue’ in the middle of it. Or dancing on Goodricke’s grave. (Or maybe even in Leeds. Who knows where it’ll land?).

I’m not saying I don’t want a venue - I do, I want everything that comes with it. A decent nightclub on campus. Proper bands that I’ve heard of and are bothered about seeing play live. A massive bar. But there’s also things I don’t want, that may result from its construction like the weakening of the college identities, and the amalgamation of every bar into one characterless airport lounge that’s just going to be Vanbrugh on a larger scale. But without being ‘Vanbrugh’.

However, this is just me moaning. If it gets built, people will get used to it, and it’ll probably be really good. This editorial is proof that the one certainty about students - other than their bizarre devotion to The Gallery and Toffs - is that they will complain and question.

Even if, when we return in ten or twenty years for a reunion, or just some fresh duck-meat, the University is very different, the students - and probably Vision - will be questioning the facilities on campus. Not that that’s a bad thing - after all, if we - as both students and as a newspaper - just repeated what we were told (by whoever, be it the SU, the University, or the government) - things would definitely be a lot, lot worse.

Alex Watson

THE BOGROLL Crisis Campaign began in Autumn 1999.

Since then, Bogroll Ben and his unique brand of toilet humour have progressed from the bizarre to the downright potty (no pun intended).

When Ben Barreth discovered that the University had changed its policy on providing toilet roll to students with en-suite facilities, the James finalist pledged to supply bogroll to every needy bum on campus.

With Bog Standard rolls at 30p a time and Andrex Deluxe at 50p, Ben will gladly sell to anyone who requires the service, and he delivers for free. To date he has sold over 50 rolls.

Ben’s crusade for publicity began in the form of posters around the University and later developed to include advertisement trailers before York Student Cinema films. Now, he’s founded his own website - The Bog Roll Crisis Centre. Where will this madness end?

The website comes with the cheeky slogan “Student run for student runs” and contains all manner of humourous toilet related features. These include the Bog Chatroom and the inspired, Bog Poetry.

Also, keep your eyes open for the Bog Poetry competition coming soon. There’s a Sainsbury’s luxury moist toilet roll up for grabs for the best poem.

This handy site lets you catch up on the latest news, check local bus and train times and even gives useful takeaway

numbers. Ben’s internet exploration has been so successful that there has also been the possibility of sponsorship from the Graduate Job Recruitment service.

If you’re interested, the site’s address is www.bogrollben.co.uk The idea has always been a solo run thing and Ben spends a lot of time designing the web site and making deliveries when he really should be revising for his finals. As a result he gets his fair share of stick from his chums about his rather obsessive hobby.

Ben has received quite a lot of feedback in response to his campaign, including one from a disgruntled student who told him that he and his James student pals should be grateful for their en-suite facili-

the voice of

from our sponsors...

WE HOPE that you have all returned from the Easter break refreshed and ready for another term.

You will be pleased to hear that the drinks prices at Ikon and Diva have not changed. Drinks still start from 70p, and VK Black and Melon are still only £1.

In addition if you bring this editorial with you to Ikon and Diva any Thursday before the end of term you will receive PRE-PAID ADMISSION. The free bus service is still running. It picks up at the bridge by the library at the following times: 21.50; 22:30; and 23:10, returning from Ikon and Diva every 15 minutes from 01:15.

If you want to give Ikon and Diva a try on another night, on Friday the 19th of May we have a 2 HOUR DJ SET FROM SASH. Doors open at 8:30pm. Sash is on at 9:15pm. NUS admission is £3.

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Brendan Spencelayh

Letters To The Editor

ikon

CLUB HOTLINE 01904 693999

Ben Barreth - Facetious Faecies

ties and stop whinging. Ben also once received an e-mail from one of the University librarians. “I don’t know what they’re doing looking up the site”, he said.

Lately, Bogroll Ben has been growing weary of this lavatorial expedition telling Vision: “Once I had dreams of accepting my diploma from the Vice Chancellor and giving a bog roll speech to all the other new graduates. It’s a monster I’ve created that’s grown out of all control.”

With graduation approaching, Ben is currently looking for a successor to the bogroll throne and has got his friend Tim, also from James College, in mind. “Toilet roll Tim” will be his new title. As yet, Tim doesn’t know about any of this.

What’s bugging YOU? Dear Editor, I would like to express my disgust at University provision for students facing examinations at the beginning of this term.

I have heard several people saying that the closure of the library over the four day Easter weekend severely hampered their exam performance. I would be loath to suggest that the library staff do not deserve their bank holidays off. However could the library not have been open in the same way it is on Sundays during term time, with no library staff and one security member? I’m sure that this would not have presented any huge financial inconvenience.

As it was I had an exam on the Wednesday of week 0 for which I desperately needed access to the library.

Fortunately I had returned from the vacation early and was staying with a friend in York in time to take books out. For others less fortunate than myself the closure meant that revision was impossible for four out of five days before our exam!

This is insane. If the timetable dictates that the beginning of term must fall over a bank holiday then the University has an obligation to its students to make the very slight effort to keep facilities in general and in particular the library as accessible as possible.

Many university libraries are open twenty-four hours a day. York claims to be one of the best universities in the country.

Yet our library was shut for the four days directly preceding several examinations.

Spot the hypocrisy.

Yours sincerely, 2nd year history student Dear Editor, May I take this chance to compliment you on the fantastic offer in your last edition.

As a great believer in the relieving of the stress built up over a hard day in the chemistry lab, I’m a great fan of the club scene here in York. As Thursday is by far the most stressful day of the week (lecture after lecture - and a few workshops thrown in for good measure), there’s nothing I like better than a good boogie down in Ikon.

With your free admission voucher last edition, my trip was made all the more pleasurable. Please keep it up!

Yours avidly, Paul Garvey, Goodricke And there’s another one this week Paul. Enjoy yourself! - Ed Dear Editor,

I am not in the habit of congratulating journalists, I find them a tiresome breed.

However I was unreservedly impressed by

your coverage of the SU elections. In stark contrast to the normal student drivel, this was an informative and balanced piece of work that has forced me to rethink my opinions of campus media. I look forward to your next issue with a fresh view of Vision.

Congratulations, James Fletcher Dear Editor, Thankyou very much for running the competition for tickets to New York. The Big Apple was everything we'd hoped for and more, though a proper pint was hard to come by - still, not your fault I suppose.

I've never been such a blatant tourist in my life and I think we annoyed almost as many Americans in a week as have annoyed me in my life - which is a lot.

Keep the competitions coming.

Thanks again, Lee Netherton, James

Please

send all

correspondence to

York Student Vision Grimston House

e-mail:

vision@york.ac.uk

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

York Student Vision 7

POLITICS WHO’S DADDY IN LONDON? Fraser Kennedy examines whether Ken Livingstone is really the thug Labour perceive him as

DOES NUS CONFERENCE MATTER?

THE NATIONAL Union of Students held their annual conference at the start of April, but for many of us it simply passed by unnoticed.

WHETHER LONDONERS wanted one orall not, they’ve got a Mayor.

Like the great urban metropolises, London has unique big citywho needs requiring big city solutions.

Hard hitting mayors like New champion of tolerance’, Rudy Giuilani, cut crime are needed.

It has is‘zero time for thedramatically, sameYork’s treatment London’s streets where not even the war hero Winston Churchill’s statue is safe. meet Soon how’s this come about?

The Greater London Authority Act of 1999 has established a new form of city government which, supporters say, will London’s needs.

London doesn’t just get aunique mayor - (GLA) the GLA also consists offour an assembly accountable to 5 voters. million The mayor himself heads up four new bodies.

And these aren’t just ‘noddy bodies’ – the agencies will directly influence issues ranging from Londoners train ticket fares towas the aone sentence dealt to lapel. their crack dealer. local Good reason, might assume, for Labour to be terrified of ‘Red Ken’ who until recently pin in Labour’s On the face of it you’d be right – but delving more deeply it is not the case this new tier government an independent ‘Peoples Republic ofseems London’.

And is Ken really that bad?

Itthat only time will tell, but… ifesto Itof must be borne inrepresents mind whilst in the Labour party Ken Livingstone voted 98% of time with the government in Parliament.

Moreover, Livingstone’s manis the very similar to that of Labours own cuddly puppet, Frank Dobson.

Livingstone’s and Dobson’s manifestos were against the privatisation of the tube, both agreed that congestion charges may be necessary and stated that public transport fares should be reduced (albeit bya different means). rather So is Livingstone really ‘a bit of lefty’.

A bit perhaps.

Most political pundits would agree that he is certainly more likely to cuddle up close with unions than businesses.

Nevertheless, he’s certainly moved tofor the The old Labour stress on non-custodial sentences has been abandoned and the centrepiece of Livingstone’s manifesto isright. more resourcpay and power the police. es, This isKeeping assuming his manifesto isstrong to be believed. his word watching his tongue has never been Ken’s point.

His remarks about theand anti-capitalist ‘direct action’ demonstrations in Washington were both mocking and jovial (‘direct action’ resulted in violence and in London). vandalism Blair believes this is a blatant mark of disrespect and the wrong attitude for a Mayor to take.embarrassing In the Mayoral campaign itself, Ken’s ‘schoolyard’ taunting of Dobson were for Tony and his party. in these Ken, like most politicians, also finds keeping his word something of a challenge.

Most notably his emphatic promise never to stand against a Labour candidate elections!

Alas, politicians will be politicians… crack However, Livingstone has proven to have the charisma to fight and stand up against thehis New Labour Machine.

Furthermore, victory may represent inlike the solidarity and cohesion ofa New Labour. leader) Nonetheless, willLivingstone we see clashes those witnessed over apolitical decade ago between the Greater London Council (GLC) which Ken was the and the previous Tory government? (of According to his manifesto, ‘no’ would be thewillingness logical answer.

Therefore, ittoeing appears Blair’s opinion of is unfair.

Ken’s However, it maybe the persona of Livingstone and his to keep his word in the party line that Blair fears, rather than his policies.

Shape of things to come? Ken has praised ‘direct action’ of the type seen in London recently

Ken, like most politicians, finds keeping his word as something of a challange

So what actually happened in Blackpool, and was it worth it for York students? Pete Campion-Smith, YUSU’s Deputy President of Welfare and Academic Affairs, told Vision what it was all about: “It’s York’s chance to elect people and to democratically decide what our national union does.”

Motions were passed which aim to help students at work by fighting for their rights in the workplace, but also by looking towards working with unions and providing careers information.

Owen James was also voted in as NUS President-elect, and will begin his work in July.

But Pete added: “The National Executive is virtually the same as last year. There have been a few changes of name, but policy-wise it is very similar.

“It is still very Labour-student controlled. Even though Owen is officially an Independent, he’s still part of that camp. I think they’ll get on with it the same.”

Stuart Lennon, chairman of the campus Conservatives, commented on why he went: “I’d been before and it was a bit of fun. It’s nice to have some feeling of influence. It’s the one time in my life I feel like an Independent.

“It’s good to see how the NUS works, and I was encouraged by what I saw this year. They looked at skills development as well as the students at work motion. A lot of it made really great sense.”

THE DESTRUCTION OF A NATION

Wesley Johnson

A white Zimbabwean reports on the current crisis there, arguing that the land seziures are unjustified and damaging to the entire country PEOPLE ALL over Britain have been swamped recently with the news of the unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe. Farms have been invaded and people, white and black, have been killed and beaten.

War Veterans have appeared on the BBC on numerous occasions, singing war songs and demanding that their land be given to them.

People are suffering in rural areas while next door fat white farmers are enjoying the life of kings, basking on their huge estates enjoying the luxuries of cars, televisions, swimming pools and tennis courts.

What is the moral dilemma surrounding acquisition of white owned land? Few journalists have really tackled this question.

Zimbabwe has a history of tribal colonisation which occurred on a regional scale. Land was taken unfairly and often brutally from one tribe by another.

Colonisation of Zimbabwe by white people in the late 1800’s was no different to what had been going on in the past.

Present generation people are not mystically connected to the past - blaming

the Shona people for what their great grand parents did is futile, and so is blaming present generation white people for what their grand fathers did. Land ownership only exists because laws were created

of communal farm overpopulation must be solved in a modern way.

Commercial farms in Zimbabwe produce all of the country’s food and approximately 40 percent of the country’s

Relieving the pressure of people in these areas by relocating them to commercial farms does not cure the problem, it merely postpones it for another generation, after which the problem will have become worse. If Mugabe’s thugs destroy commercial farms they are destroying Zimbabwe.

Mugabe has demonstrated a consider-

race on our hands. In reality, with the exception of Mugabe’s ‘veterans’, blacks and whites have been driven closer together in concern over their leader’s sanity.

The feverish activity of Western media and governments is totally misdirected. In the early 1980’s the ruling party Zanu PF orchestrated the brutal killing of

Why was nothing done 16 years ago when 5000 died?

Perhaps this disaster might have been averted if more countries believed that the lives of black people meant something too

Crowds gather following the recent siezure of a white farmer’s land to allow it, and this was done to prevent people going around and bashing one another over the head for it.

What white people did was brutal and inexcusable, but retaking land which was ultimately taken from someone else on the grounds of avenging people who died 3 generations ago is both morally unjustifiable and counter-productive. The problem

York Student Vision

exports.

The people living in communal farms are subsistence farmers that live mainly in poverty and cannot afford the necessary input required to make their farms productive. The state owns the title deeds for communal land, which makes it impossible for farmers to secure loans on their plots.

able understanding of the relationships between commercial and communal situations, which is why he engaged with the rhetoric of pretending to take away farms. For 20 years he has made announcements that white owned land will be returned to black people, in reality he knows it is bad economic practice and has avoided it. Nonetheless he is expecting people to believe that land will be given to them now when for 20 years no one has received anything.

It is to draw attention from this issue that Mugabe has tried to convince us all that we have an uprising by an oppressed

5000 people. Matabele Men, women and children disappeared over night never to be seen again.

It was reported on by journalists and the world stood back and said nothing.

Now, 2 white farmers have died and there is utter shock and dismay engulfing the whole of Britain. Why was nothing done 16 years ago when 5000 people died?

Perhaps this disaster might have been averted if more countries believed that the lives of black people meant something too.

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

8 POLITICS York Student Vision

STEPS TO VICTORY As William Hague rubs shoulders with teen favourite, Scooch, Vision looks at the rise of ‘pop’ Parliament

WHAT IS it with Westminster and pop culture? Do politicians really think that being photographed in jeans next to Liam Gallagher will win them credibility among young voters?

Rumours have it that William Hague is trying to adopt the Scooch song ‘The Best is Yet To Come’ as the Conservative Party’s anthem. This seems like an attempt to do what Blair did with D:ream’s ‘Things Can Only Get Better’.

What will Hague accomplish with this? The music of Scooch is almost exclusively bought by the primary school crowd. The Party won’t therefore be getting their (non-existent) vote.

The music of Scooch is about as appealing as Ann Widdecombe in a bikini anyway.

Are we going to be subjected to watching the Shadow Cabinet act out the dance routine to the song as well?

(Mind you, I’m sure Portillo will be a natural at it.)

The Tories are following in the footsteps of that style guru Tony Blair.

For years the prime minister has wowed the voter with his knowledge of youth culture. We’ve seen him dance to indie and rub shoulders with Oasis.

He has even modelled a pair of Levi’s in public. In fact, the denim

...IN A NUTSHELL A study has found that pupils excluded from school are twice as likely to end up with criminal convictions. This follows an announcement from David Blunkett that 800 schools for persistently disruptive pupils are to be established. Critics have dubbed them ‘sin-bins’.

A prominent bishop has accused William Hague of courting racism to win support. The Right Reverend Wilfred Wood said he was looking for ‘cheap votes from racists’.

In a classic piece of spin-doctoring, Tony Blair met the wife and oneyear old son of a worker from the troubled Longbridge Rover plant at Downing Street. Expect to see Tony and Cherie behind the wheel of a V-reg Rover on the front pages soon.

Politicians are turning to pop bands in order to achieve credibility among the young company are blaming him for their loss of credibility among teenagers and have sought a new image.

I feel sorry for Tony Blair’s chil

Are we going to watch the Shadow Cabinet act out the song’s dance routine as well?

dren. Most of us only had to suffer the embarrassment of watching our parents bump and grind together at the school barn dance.

The Blair kids have to see their

dad bop to ‘Praise You’ on national television. Imagine the stick they get at school.

Politicians and popular culture do not mix. These days even the Liberal Democrats are at it. Mayoral hopeful Susan Kramer had a theme song for her campaign, which featured.

Cringe-inducing lyrics like ‘I’m walking along those city streets, got a pair Doc Martens on my feet, I’m moving to the rhythm of the London beat.’ Lennon and McCartney it ain’t.

Maybe we’ll even see Ms Kramer as the supporting act for Scooch’s imminent UK tour.

If Parliament has to get trendy, my advice to Blair is this. Hire Steps for the next general election, a far superior teenybopper act than Scooch.

“I’m walking along those city streets, got a pair of Doc Martens on my feet” Lib-Dem Mayoral theme song

Not only will he get one up on Hague, but if things go wrong in your second term we can all say what a tragedy with a smile on our face.

Teen favourite Leonardo DiCaprio grilled President Clinton on his environemntal policies in an interview for ABC nerws. The celebrity is well known for his womanising, highly sexed lifestyle, while DiCaprio is best known for Titanic.

Vision wants Politics writers to inform and entertain. If you’re interested e-mail us at:

DENYING HISTORY Daniel Goldup

Gareth Walker argues that the Irving libel case could result in a re-writing of history in popular conciuosness

STRANGE THAT at the start of a new century, an English court was still left to debate the events of the last. The legacy of the Jewish Holocaust is not of the sort that fades into history like other memories, however.

So it was that David Irving found himself in court, having brought a libel case against the Jewish historian Deborah Lipstadt for her accusation that he was a “Hitler partisan” who was at the forefront of those who have attempted to deny the existence of the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

The judgement of Justice Grey was damning. Irving had indeed “deliberately skewed evidence to bring it into line with his political beliefs. He appears to take every opportunity to exculpate Hitler”. However, it is a verdict which will not prove as definitive as one would either wish or hope - the mistake of too

Irving recently launched a new book on 26th April, Hitler’s birthday many has been to believe that a line has now been irrevocably drawn. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth.

Despite his ostracisation by both reputable publishers and historians, Irving himself remains: a figure in equal parts pathetic and dangerous. Worse, many who should know much better still persevere in blithely consigning Irving

to the drawer marked “English Amateur Historians - Eccentric”. For them Irving is a worthy researcher ‘gone wrong’; with valuable things to say, if only he wasn’t so cranky about the whole Jewish thing.

It was just such a foolish misconception which could lead John Keegan - an otherwise well-respected historian and defence editor of the Telegraph - to declare the day after the verdict that although he abhorred Irving’s opinions on the Holocaust, nonetheless at least he is “certainly never dull.

“Prof Lipstadt, by contrast, seems as dull as only the self-righteously politically correct can be... Most will not want to hear from her again. Mr Irving, if he will only learn from this case, still has much that is interesting to tell us.”

Irving has certainly cultivated the

York Student Vision

‘engaging eccentric’ image, as the enfant-terrible goading the ‘establishment’ with pranks that would seem childish were they not so sickening: most recently a party to launch one of his books which ‘coincidentally’ coincided with Hitler’s birthday.

As such, it is tempting to read much into the story Irving regularly retails, that back at grammar school he picked Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ as school prize, not out of any appreciation of the Fuhrer, but simply to shock.

The problem is, of course, on this basis Irving’s efforts to deny the systematised destruction of millions of lives amount to nothing more than the miserable attention-seeking of a man deluded by his own vanity into thinking himself a martyr. Irving’s public pronouncements are no less deceptive.

His books, undoubtedly well-written and deeply researched, are careful to steer clear of directly addressing the

The briefest tour of the internet reveals dozens of sites devoted to the denial of the Holocaust Holocaust itself - he declares himself ‘bored’ with the topic. It is in his interviews and speeches in which a less guarded Irving reveals his true colours.

How can someone who declared that “more people died in the back of Kennedy’s car at Chappaquiddick than died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz” - or who referred to an “Association of

Irving labelled Auschwitz survivors as ‘ASSHOLS’ Auschwitz Survivors and Other Liars, or ‘ASSHOLS’ - possibly have anything useful to tell anyone?

Even should Irving have been irrevocably discredited - he will not be the last.

Even the briefest tour of the internet reveals dozens of sites devoted to the denial of the Holocaust.

The hardcore of supporters has always been, of course, an irredeemable core of genuine neo Fascists.

The greatest threat of Irving and his ilk however has been less to persuade the majority to deny the Holocaust than their ability - with a single distorted fact, or a suitably distorted statement - but to slowly spread the seeds of doubt among even the most sensible of people.

The harvest the Holocaust-deniers

reap is a fear to enquire into the past: they offer an all too easy means to escape confronting the awful but irrevocable facts of the Nazi policies of extermination.

Is the answer, as in Germany, to ban denial? In Britain this would only be to play into the hands of the likes of Irving.

The facts of the Holocaust, awful as they are, are there to be faced in the documents, in the accounts of eyewitnesses, in photographs and in the decaying buildings dotted across Eastern Europe.

Education and understanding in how these facts are to be approached, understood and reasonably questioned and debated - these are the only means by which Irving and his arguments can be exposed as the flies in the face of truth

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

York Student Vision FEATURES 9

Vision

FEATURES

York Student

NEVE CAMPBELL INTERVIEW

NEW MEN WANTED?

WES CRAVEN INTERVIEW

MEDIA VIOLENCE EXPOSED

BOSNIAN PHOTO -JOURNALIST INTERVIEW

The Big Issue is celebrating nine years of publication. Victoria Kennedy meets the founder and editor-in-chief, John Bird, to discover what the publication means to him, how he is going to revolutionise homelessness and the reason why he has a vendetta against the national press.

I DON'T know why I am surprised when John Bird doesn't show up wearing a suit. I suppose the stereotypes of an editor led me to expect a man in pin-stripes, braces and shiny shoes.

So when John Bird arrives in black jeans, with a polite, but unconventional, South London accent complaining that he hasn't, at 5pm, yet been to bed after a heavy night out, I realise that he is special.

Once homeless himself in Paris and Milan, preferring not to be in London so that he could best “look lost and get money”, Bird learned the ‘Catch-22’ many homeless people feel caught in: “you get annoyed when people don't give money, but annoyed also when they do”.

In 1991, he decided the homeless problem in Britain was a crisis in need of “a business response.”

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‘The Big Issue’ was the result, and it has grown into a true international publication, published in countries ranging from South Africa, Australia, to the Czech Republic, and in less accessible places, such as Budapest, the Ukraine and Romania. The magazine provides an alternative to begging, an act which is often demoralising and frequently leads to crime.

Whilst Bird is keen to stress that the magazine not only deals with homelessness but also other serious subjects such as transport and pollution, he does want it to be fun as well, as he admonishes, “A lot of street papers are f***ing boring, they don't leave out the homeless but they leave out the reader instead.”

Citing the magazine ‘War Cry’ published in the 1970s, which many bought but few actually read, he believes his biggest problem is to make ‘The Big Issue’

into a magazine in its own right - something people want to buy, not simply as an excuse to give money to the homeless. “I don't want a magazine going on about the horribleness of living on the streets. I want it to be something the homeless are proud to sell.”

The most original concept of ‘The Big Issue’ is the way in which it is sold. With little publicity, the magazine sells mainly as a result of the homeless vendor's efforts.

The idea of street selling stems from Bird's own experiences when he worked between the 1960s and 80s selling the revolutionary, anti-capitalist publication ‘Worker's Press’.

Although he describes ‘The Big Issue’ as more of “a publication of balance”, the principle of street-selling remains the same, enabling the vendors to strike up a relationship with society. As Bird confirms, “it not only offers the homeless an

instant income through sales, it increases their sense of self-esteem and self-being, their social mobility is upwards rather than downwards.”

Countering the oft-perceived divide between the homeless and the rest of society is something Bird is keen on : “I wanted people to be able to go up and talk to the sellers.” Some people however, do more than talk, Bird wryly smiles, “a number of people have actually married Big Issue vendors! Never works in the end, but God bless ‘em!”

‘The Big Issue’ has strict regulations for a person who wishes to sell the magazine, these include the rules that they are not allowed to be drunk, racist, sexist or rude whilst selling, on the grounds that if they are they may be banned from vending for up to a year. continued on page 10

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

10 FEATURES York Student Vision

“THE DEAD HAVE NEVER LOST THEIR FASCINATION FOR ME”

less ennui and angry idealism.

Writing the book was certainly part of analysing what he calls such a “strong, formative and intense experience.” As he states: “Rather than let it drift into memory, I wanted to clean up and write it. Put the passage of my last few years into some sort of ordered context. I’m sick of reading total crap about war… people writing about what they think should have been said and should have been done. Casting themselves as heroes. I wanted to write the truth, however uncomfortable it was going to be.”

And the truth is what Loyd reveals; or tries to - ‘My War Gone By…’ is certainly not a book that comes up with easy solutions and pithy conclusions. As a reader, you are aware of Loyd

Alex Watson talks to Anthony Loyd, author of My War Gone By, I Miss It So - an extraordinary memoir of his dark, disturbing and powerful experiences in the midst of both the horrors of the Bosnian war and Heroin addiction...

THE MODERN mind is saturated with images of violence; so they tell us, at any rate. ‘We need guns. Lots of guns’, says Keanu Reeves in ‘The Matrix’, his eyes hidden behind the oil slick lenses of his sunglasses. We deify guns and explosions; images of Rambo and Arnie as The ‘Terminator’ flicker on the same screens as the real-world carnage of numerous conflicts, replayed by TV news.

journalism course, Anthony Loyd hitchhiked though Europe to the front line of the Bosnian war. His incredible journey through the Balkan conflict, drawn on by his dark desire to see a ‘real’ conflict forms the basis of the book.

Despite originally going to the Balkans as a photographer, Loyd’s writing style is beautifully bereft; sparse and grim, and ‘My War Gone By…’ is extraordinary in the way it deals with the violence of the war.

Indeed, one of the book’s main achievements, as is obvious from the pas-

“When I wrote the book I was aware of a distinct choice… it could have been just dreary reportage without ever examining my own reasons for what I was thinking and what I was doing. My job as a journalist was to publish other people’s experiences and what happened to them, so I wanted to be true to myself, and not be afraid of turning that light in on myself” Yet we feel little for either. Perhaps the slick, ‘cool’ violence of Hollywood has much more in common with the cold regularity of casualty statistics and vaporous headlines of real war. It is on a personto-person basis that we form the closest and firmest emotional connections.

This is perhaps why Anthony Loyd’s breathtaking book, ‘My War Gone By, I Miss It So’ is perhaps the most vital book I have personally read in too long a time.

In early 1993, following a brief photo-

BIG BIRD SPEAKS

sage below, is to destroy the easy and inadequate journalistic phrases that fail to bring back the conflicts real impact and importance.

“If a chart could be made of ways to die then Srebrenica’s dead had ticked off most of the options. Some had gone by their own hand in panicking despair; others in confused gun-battles with their own troops or those of the enemy; many more had surrendered, taking a last long walk in the summer sun to stand in rows with continued from page 9

There are, however, inevitably those who break these rules. The press recently picked up on a Big Issue vendor who was discovered to be a rapist.

The controversy that surrounded the news threatened to destroy the magazine's credibility.

It is a situation which makes Bird very angry with the press, “What the paper failed to say was that it was me who discovered that he was not safe and, after two days of vending for us, it was us who made a citizen's arrest and were later commended by the police. They didn't choose to mention that.”

John Bird's own ‘big issue’ is clearly with national newspapers. And I get the impression that he tries to take any opportunity to clear up his maltreatment by them, as he bitterly recounts the story of a journalist from The Observer who Bird

York Student Vision

their comrades, the languid working of machine-gun bolts behind them the final sound they heard, except perhaps for a few last whispered words of love or contrition”.

A s Loyd hims e l f acknowledges : “When I started writing the book I was aware of a distinct choice I had… it could have been a very dreary account of ‘I saw this, and that’… but without ever examining my own reasons for what I was thinking a n d what I was doing.

My job as a journalist was to publish other people’s experiences and what happened to them, so I wanted to be true to myself, and not be afraid of turning that light in on myself.”

Indeed, having read such descriptions ofthe violence in the book, you certainly have to wonder what drove Loyd to the front lines of Europe’s most barbaric war since 1945.

To say the least, it’s complicated; drugs (Loyd was a smack addict for much of the war), his own family experiences (including his difficult relationship with his father), and his curious blend of reckclaims, “made it look like he was in LA on the streets, when really he was in an office in England, and gave the impression that ‘The Big Issue’ had cashed in on ‘Street Spirit's’ sales [an American homeless magazine].”

Visibly angered by the thought of the situation, Bird confides that “the point was I thought they were on my side, when really they didn't check their stuff.”

The psychological link between the war and the heroin - and the dark potential that they unlock is the book’s strength. For Loyd Bosnia was “like a first love - there was something I found particularly characteristic and revealing about it.”

beautifully honest book as this cuts the reader to the bone. And it is all the better for it.

are sympathetic.”

He is visibly too concerned with the future of the magazine to get too burdened by people's opinions of him.

Now Bird has teamed up with ‘Body Shop’ founder and environmentalist Anita Roderick and her husband, he is planning a revolutionary series of solutions to the current homeless problem.

Bird is looking forward to the change

“We want the homeless to be like the celebrities who can afford to buy drugs, the homeless at the moment have to steal for their habit.”

John Bird, Editor of ‘The Big Issue’

Bird's anger, however, quickly returns to a whimsical appreciation of the sceptical nature of the human mind, as he smilingly acknowledges that “there are a couple of cynics who want to know if I have a private bank account, but mostly people

consciously peeling back the skin, desperately trying, in a way to go beyond the image and the photograph.

When confronted, as he was, with such sickly graphic violent events, any attempt to make ‘sense’ is a brave journey indeed - into a deep and depraved hall of mirrors, as the passage below shows.

“Smack - my most intimate and possessive lover, before whom any other dark angel would be a fool to tread…. But the power lies not in inanimate powder, but in what it unlocks in your psychology, that same force that led you to load up on it in the first place.”

Indeed it is this subtle psychological link between the war and the heroin - and the dark potential that they both unlock that is perhaps the book’s greatest strength.

It comes as no surprise to learn that Loyd thinks Bosnia was “in some ways like a first love - there was something I found particularly characteristic and revealing about it.”

The end of ‘My War Gone By’ is perhaps the only thing I was tempted to find disappointing; yet I think ‘hard’ is a more truthful view. There are no easy conclusions to this story, and the fact that Loyd’s experiences have made the transition from fragmentary and harrowing images to a fully emotionally involving and moving story is perhaps meaning and conclusion enough.

The modern mind is saturated with images of violence, so they tell us, at any rate. Perhaps they re right. Perhaps this really is the problem. It’s not images we need; rarely does a photograph live up to its promise of a thousand words. What we need are stories; the full realities of the violence of our world. This is why such a

- “we never thought that we could ever do more than supply an income, now we're international and expanding”.

Their next step is to set up an edition in Los Angeles - as Bird controversially concedes, “We want the homeless to be

like the celebrities who can afford to buy drugs, the homeless at the moment have to steal for their habit - we're playing devil's advocate really.”

Bird is also setting up poetry readings, promoting self-publication by the homeless, but most importantly he is beginning to establish classes to train the homeless to use modern technology like computers and the Internet, so that they have the necessary skills to give them a chance of getting a job, and becoming part of society again.

Bird is excited by the freedom he has with ‘The Big Issue’, even joking that the next issue could just be a magazine filled with blank pages if he feels like it.

With a broad smile, he enthuses, “Nobody is watching us, we can do what ever we want!” However, I, no doubt the press, and many others will be waiting for his next social innovation.

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

PUNCH UP WE NEED NEW MEN!

ATTACK

DO YOU really think that a new breed of man has emerged in the last twenty-odd years? Kind, caring, sharing, sensitive, in touch with his feelings? A new breed that wouldn’t recognise testosterone if a power-syringe full of the stuff stuck him between the eyes?

Sound a bit too good to be true?

Course it is!

All that’s happened is that some guys have realised that to get into a girl’s knickers they might have to do a little bit more than flex their muscles. So the new man is defined by the way he appears to treat women - sensitively and with no desire to be in control, treating her as an individual in her own right and never as a sex-object. WAKE UP!!

Fight hard, Hit hard, Drink hard, Screw hard, Might is Right, Size is everything, Birds love it, NICE!!

Every guy wants to control everything all the time and if he doesn’t imagine jumping into bed with every piece of totty that walks by then he’s either a eunuch or it’s Saturday afternoon, his football team’s just lost and he hasn’t had time to get smashed with his mates yet.

Think of anyone you know who might pass for a new man in the way he treats women and tell me honestly that he doesn’t act differently when the girls aren’t around. The only way anyone benefits from this invented phenomenon is that girls occasionally feel they’ve been treated with a little respect by blokes.

They haven’t of course, but it makes them feel good.

As far as being a new man’s concerned, you only lose. You’ve constantly got to be changing into something you’re not whenever a girl walks in and you’ve got to do your share of the bad stuff like cooking!

Just be honest with the girls and yourselves guys - show your true colours.

Fight hard, Hit hard, Drink hard, Screw hard, Might is Right, Size is every-

Ben Hulme-Cross

DEFENCE

WHAT POSSIBLE benefits could being a modern man have?

And who benefits? Should men be turning into ‘modern’ men purely to please women? Of course not. The truth is, we gain so much more than simply making women happy.

OK, so some women like their men to be butch and macho, but an increasing number have simply had enough. I'm not saying today’s women want weak men who burst into tears at the first opportunity, but similarly they don’t want someone who’s going to burp in their face and fart in the cinema. Stories of drinking 30 pints before throwing up over a campus duck outside Goodricke just aren’t going to impress.

But what’s in it for us, the men who have to make, or have made, the change?

The caring, friendly and understanding listener-type, someone to whom women think they can talk, trust and someone who will take the time to listen to their problems, has got to appeal to women across the country.

And it’s not even that hard. Research shows that women, unlike men, don’t talk about problems to find a solution. The fact is, they know the answer before they start talking: they just want to get it out of their system and into the open. All a modern man has to do is sit back, listen and reap the benefits of being the one who was there when they were needed!

Frankly, it all comes down to what you’re after that counts. If you’re after a “bird and a bed” for the night after getting it together in the Gallery, then, in all honesty, being a modern man probably isn’t going to help.

But if this isn’t what you’re after, if you do want to be remembered once the woman in your life (albeit maybe only for one night) has sobered up, then the modern man comes into his own.

Instead of cave-man antics which belong in the dark ages, in today’s world it’s the ‘gentle’ in the gentleman that counts – no one wants a wimp who backs away from their problems.

Be a real man, a modern man, and reap the benefits!

Wesley Johnson

York Student Vision FEATURES 11

FOCUS ON...

Amsterdam

Paul Wrigglesworth heads for Amsterdam, finding out that there’s a whole lot more to enjoy in Europe’s most notorious city than sex and drugs...

AMSTERDAM, HOME to sex, drugs and err, trams. Throw in one hundred York students and you have the perfect recipe for a fantastic weekend in Europe’s most liberal city.

The fifteen hour coach journey and army barrack style hotel was soon forgotten, and faces visibly lit up as ‘Smokeys’ in neon lights appeared on the horizon.

Feeling obliged to visit, (purely on the readers behalf of course), we entered through a wall of smoke to the sound of slow, ambient beats and were presented with a menu of the local delicacies.

This style of coffee shop proved familiar - others played upbeat reggae music, and others were just like English bars. Rumour has it, one York student dabbled with Mary Jane slightly too much, ended up getting lost and mysteriously found himself in the Red Light District. At least that’s what he told us!

One strange phenomenon in Amsterdam is the fact that although cannabis is legal, there is a grey area in the law as to how it actually reaches the cafés.

This probably accounts for the number of men we saw jumping out of expensive cars, only to run across the city with sports bags over their shoulders.

This is no joke. If you get the chance to visit, keep your eyes open for the runners. Visiting the Red Light District by day was an enlightening experience, even if the offerings were not quite what we expected.

Think grannies in lipstick and suspenders and you’re getting near. By night however the transformation was remarkable.

Out went the Camillas and in came the ‘page three girls’, the tourists and, most notably, the groups of English blokes all “chipping-in” to get their would-be groom mates their last fling with freedom.

Sex shows, erotic museums, shops and cinemas, all seedy tourist traps, yet all the more fascinatingly compulsive viewing.

When queuing up everyone anxiously looks at the people next to them, just to see what ‘type’ of people go to these shows.

Worryingly the majority were middleaged couples obviously looking to rejuve-

Amsterdam: more canals than Venice. More dope, too. nate their sex lives. Worrying, as my parents visited the ‘Dam’ a month earlier!

However, to focus on this side of Amsterdam is to do the city disrespect.

Looking around you instantly become

The unique architectural style of the houses that line the canals, the breath-taking Dam square and the cosmopolitan nature of the inhabitants make Amsterdam a seriously happening city aware of its impressive cultural heritage.

The unique architectural style of the houses that line the canals, the breathtaking Dam square and the cosmopolitan nature of the inhabitants make Amsterdam a seriously happening city.

Undoubtedly the highlight of the trip was the visit to the Stedelijk, or Museum of Modern Art, one of numerous art galleries within the city. Van Gogh’s happens to be next door.

The likes of Mondrian and Kandinsky sit alongside the more recent works, which I would only describe politely as ‘experimental’.

However I was soon reassured by a history of art colleague that the ‘ideas behind’ the paintings were what mattered.

We all left the building feeling much more educated and much less guilty about those coffee shops and sex shows!

The great thing about Amsterdam is that the mix is just right. It may be a cliché, but there really is something for everyone.

The shopping is great, there are hundreds of restaurants at very reasonable prices, and the bars stay open until the small hours, creating a lively but relaxed atmosphere.

For clubbers the main venues are the Melkweg- Milkway, and Escape, but there are also a number of smaller soul clubs which we were told were very good.

On the other hand there are the historical sites such as Anne Frank’s house (if you can bear the queuing) and parks surrounding the city.

The York trip to Amsterdam was a huge success. The return journey was noticeably quieter, perhaps because everyone was ‘partied out’, but everyone had had a fantastic time.

A weekend is just enough time to spend in Amsterdam. Any longer and noone would have would have wanted, nor would have been capable of, returning to

Vee Cole-Jones gets in a flap about York’s feathered fiends and wants nothing more than to send them pecking LOUD? LAZY? Full of s**t?

No, it’s not your housemates, it’s the ducks.

Peking or Mallard, ducks are one of a kind. And that’s a nuisance. Your misheld beliefs of cute, feathered friends are soon shattered once you meet the York University ducks.

The Mondex cards give it all away really. What other university has wildlife scenes on their university cards? Our reputation precedes us, with “oh, the university with those ducks on the card.”

Or the fact that if you kill a fellow student (once serving time in jail, obviously) you can return to York to complete your degree.

York Student Vision

But kill a duck and you’re out permanently.

Ducks come in all shapes and sizes. (crispy aromatic is my favourite).

Elongated and fast as a bullet. Or blocking a path like an over-sized rugby ball.

And why on earth are they so slow?

And that’s when they actually decide to get up and move at all.

Have you ever noticed how it is always you, rather than the duck that has to move over?

They won’t even let you live your life in peace! Whatever you’re doing, they always manage to be there and to be insanely annoying.

Their most current role, now the sum-

mer is here, is to act as the sun-bathing police. Just imagine: the sun is out, you’re laying back, weeks of exams over, you stretch out, lie back and then... peck! You find your side being punctured by a viciously sharp beak without warning!

Ducks even have the cheek to leave their excrement just where you are about to rest your weary body after a hard morning of lectures.

And why don’t they ever shut up? A chorus of quacks intrudes every moment of campus life.

But don’t think leaving campus means you escape the ducks! Oh no!

Before you know where you are they will be pecking at your rubbish in the most

quietest of side streets.

The university’s ducks appear to be produced to a specialist mould. Some of them are so huge!

If I had my way , campus would be a duck free zone. I mean, exactly what use are they to a set of concrete buildings?

They don’t add any countryside feel. The only feeling you get is of being part of an experiment to fit as many ducks as possible into the smallest space.

Ducks are like old people. There are lots of them, they’re slow, and they’re noisy all the time. Pension ducks off, give York University a reputation for good degrees rather than “that funny concrete place with all the ducks!”

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

12 FEATURES York Student Vision

GORMONGHASTLY

Mark Ellis investigates the much maligned BBC adaptation of Mervyn Peake’s epic fantasy saga, and discovers that when it comes to screen adaptations, the books are always the best...

CONDENSING THE first two books in Mervyn Peake’s Gormonghast trilogy into four hour-long episodes was always going to be difficult.

But excuses aside, after five years in the making, the end result, whilst remaining admirably faithful to the original books in terms of the plot, failed to inspire many of those viewers who were unfamiliar with the text.

As the dwindling viewing figures suggested, to an impatient audience, the first few episodes may have appeared too bizarre and disjointed to sustain the interest created by a massive publicity campaign. A common complaint is that in the absence of some kind of trusted narrator figure, or other means to give events a secure grounding, it was a struggle to work out exactly what was going on.

This is a great shame because, although admittedly starting off slowly, the episodes got steadily better until a superb finale when the various plots converged to bring about Steerpike’s violent demise.

Upon seeing the first of the four episodes, my own reaction to the televised world of Gormonghast was that it didn’t possess the brooding menace I had imagined to inhabit the world’s every corner.

Many of the more dramatic events translated very well onto screen, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers playing the role of Steerpike with great energy, sliding between moods effectively as the antihero ingratiated, manipulated, and murdered his way from lowly kitchen urchin to positions of increasing power.

Vision HAS teamed up with The Times and Orange, the future of communications, to bring you The Times Student Crossword competition.

The Times holds the reputation for the most challenging crossword of any national broadsheet paper. So put your IQ to the test: complete the crossword to win up to 300 free minutes of phone calls per month, together with a new ‘Boxed and Ready’ Orange phone.

This 12 month package includes a phone, 10 minutes off peak, standard rates calls per day, together with Wildfire.

Wildfire is an intelligent, invisible personal assistant, who uses the latest speech recognition technology to listen, react and respond to spoken requests.

Send your completed entry to: The Times Student Crossword Competition, 5 Shepherd’s Place, Upper Brook Street, London, WIY 3RU. Include your name, home address, email, phone number and NUS number. The winner from York, and answers to this crossword will be printed in our last issue this term. The closing date of entry is 26th May, 2000.

The winner of the last competition was David Knowles, who wins his weight in Ben & Jerry’s - luxury ice cream with a chunk of humour.

Answers to The Times Student Crossword Competition One are: ACROSS: 1.

HadriansWall 9.Newsprint 10.Pixie 11.DryRot 12.TrueBele 13.Gambit 15.Concerto 18.

PinceNez 19.Andrew 21.Claptrap 23.Strait 26.Eliot 27.Eliminate 28.UnitedStates.

“This season I ‘ave mostly been quaffing too much ye olde ale”

A particularly striking image is when Steerpike rips the spinal columns from the twins’ seated skeletons and brandishes them aloft.

Many big names accompanied his performances, including Christopher Lee in the role of Flay, and Ian Richardson as Lord Groan, but perhaps the most exciting prospect before the series began was the wealth of comedy stars present in the cast.

Despite the presence of those such as Stephen Fry and Martin Clunes, however, the comic elements of Gormonghast

didn’t really sparkle, since the text’s humour is to be found more within the peculiar slant of Mervyn Peake’s descriptive powers than in the dialogue of the characters themselves.

This slant is peculiar in the best sense of the word: It is both entertaining and engaging, combining darker elements drawn from his harrowing service in the

Second World War, with a witty, vibrant humour which creates a range of experience not fully received through the dramatisation.

Many of the characters such as the twins Cora and Clarice, for example, have been criticised for appearing too simplistic and one-dimensional. Within the books, however, our knowledge of them is not only more extensive, but Peake uses the archetypes very much to his advantage by purposefully mocking their simplicity as an essential part of the story’s content.

Essentially, the depth of atmosphere, character detail, and subtle moods which the books themselves generate proved impossible to recreate, and this may have been the reason why the series failed to win over as many new fans as it had hoped.

Despite this, for those familiar with Gormonghast already, watching the television adaptation was actually very enjoyable. The cast’s appearance suited the respective roles incredibly well, and it was intriguing to witness characters previously only imagined taking life upon the screen.

Upon attending The Mervyn Peake Society’s AGM earlier this year, it was clear that the general feeling was that the BBC had done exceptionally well in their casting.

The one slight exception from the female contingent being that Jonathan Rhys Meyers, whilst bearing a remarkable likeness to an original sketch of Steerpike, was really “too pretty” to play the villain’s role. It was agreed this was an acceptable fault. Other than this, although regretting that the story’s events

CROSSWORD #2

and sub-plots could not be fleshed out further, it was the widely shared opinion that given the difficulty of capturing the true feel of Gormonghast in a dramatisation, the BBC had done a pretty good job.

The BBC's adaptation even contained occasional moments of brilliance, such as when Steerpike rips the spinal columns from the twins’ seated skeletons and brandishes them aloft, which formed a particularly striking image.

Unfortunately the inescapable curse of such a dramatisation seems to be that rarely will the adaptation actually improve upon the books for those who have read the originals, whilst the compromises they have to make run the risk of reducing the work to a bare minimum which is unappealing to those being newly exposed.

For those who saw something of interest in the series but became disheartened, if you can find the time to read the books you’ll find your efforts richly rewarded.

There is a wealth of the most incredibly arresting imagery and subtle symbolism just waiting to be enjoyed, neither of which could be portrayed by the dramatisation.

Gormonghast really is classic escapism at its best. After all, it’s often referred to as “fantasy”, but rather than being populated by trolls and goblins, the selfenclosed world which Peake created is very much like an alternate world to this, where everything is viewed from a curious angle.

Take a moment to immerse yourself in it and I'm sure you will appreciate Mervyn Peake’s imaginative talents. Best to read the books first and then enjoy the series.

Or just read the books.

in association with

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Competition Rules

THE WINNER will be drawn from all correct eligible entries.

No purchase is necessary. The winner will be notified by post within 28 days from receipt of entry. You can obtain the name of the winner by sending a SAE to 5 Shepherds Place, Upper Brook Street, London, W1Y 3RU.

Only one entry per person. Competition open to all undergraduates aged 18 and over.

Employees of Orange Personal Communication Services Limited and its agents or their families and any company associated with this competition are not eligible to enter.

By entering all entrants will be deemed to have accepted these rules. All entry instructions form a part of the terms and conditions.

Incomplete, illegible or late entries will not be accepted. No photocopies will be accepted.

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York Student Vision

DOWN

ACROSS

1 It can affect a hock well before French wine (6).

4 Might he follow a hobby, say, spasmodically? (8).

10 Place not recommended, currently, for exchanging punches? (9).

11 Rich entertainer (5).

12 High pitch? (7).

13 Not made up every day, in a word (7).

14 More than one spoke of these bones (5).

15 Pimento left in special stew (8).

18 Seafood for schools, not unnaturally, on board (8).

20 Scale of calibrations? (5).

23 Mind but do not raise the issue? (4-3).

25 Draw in a Manx event with right performance (7).

26 Baggage returned to a place in Oklahoma (5).

27 Jogger, say, has to snatch a rest (9).

28 Box of salt? (3-5) 29 Fabulous performer over the sticks, we are told (6).

1 Wide lid of grave resting on openings (8).

2 Dido ran off to find a switched-on sort of chap (7).

3 Perception of socially-acceptable training (9).

5 Tiller girls in the second row?

(6,4,4).

6 In diplomacy, one is understood without speaking (5).

7 Residence, almost palatial and very impressive (7).

8 Old bugle call - clear off left! (6).

9 He keeps order in the house and treats managers badly (8-2-4).

16 George under water? (5-4) 17 It is hard for players joining club (4-4).

19 Lamb after a highball could be a bloomer! (7).

21 Pirate child at school? (7).

22 Which cricketer is presenting a wooden defence? (6).

24 Great hit or disaster? (5).

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

Name:

Dan Charrington

Studied:

BA (Hons) Architecture, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne Regenerating urban areas thanks to activate.co.uk

Works:

York Student Vision ARTS 21

MAGICAL MYSTERY TALK Greg Doran, director with the Royal Shakespeare Company, is bringing the medieval York Mystery Plays to a modern York. Victoria Kennedy speaks to him about his aspirations with the plays and the dream he has of no tomorrows…

GREG DORAN is the first director at The Swan theatre in Stratford to be an actor, an Assistant Director and a Director in that space.

It is an achievement of which he is justifiably proud, “It just gives you a completely different perspective, because directors who don’t act never try to solve the problems for the actor... I suppose from the inside I can see the problem that the actor is challenged with, and I don’t necessarily know the way out of it, but I can find a way of him unlocking the problem by asking the right questions.”

Doran has a contagious enthusiasm when he talks about the round-about way he became a director. Starting out as a professional actor, Doran recounts a pas-

All the amateurs just do it for the love of doing it so that means that their commitment is astonishing… that in itself is a new thing from my point of view sage in Flaubert which most impressed itself upon him in his early twenties, “it said that ‘most people end up in life doing what they do second best.’”

Not contemplating it further, he then joined the RSC, but, as with most theatrical success-stories, his luck did not end there, “one day the Casting Director came to me and said she wanted to have a word and I thought ‘ok, it’s obviously Hamlet next year’, and she said “we all think you should apply to be Assistant Director here and then carry on in the company”, so in a way fate took a hand at deciding what I did best really.” The position has consequently led him to direct Shakespeare worldwide, in countries as diverse as Nigeria, Thailand, Brazil and, most recently, Japan.

Every year, Doran directs a play outside of his commitments to the RSC - last year it was a collaborative piece with modern playwrights Peter Chaperone and Tom Stoppard, while this year he is at the helm of York’s celebrative piece for the millennium, a revival of the York Mystery Plays at the Minster.

It is a challenge which he embraces, explaining, “from my point of view there’s a completely different set of disciplines around these plays because I’m working with amateur performers and the distinction between an amateur and a professional actor is that one gets paid for it.

“All the amateurs just do it for the love of doing it so that means that their commitment is astonishing…that in itself is a new thing from my point of view.”

The enormity of the Minster as a theatre for the plays is still challenging for any professional. “It’s daunting,” Doran confesses positively. “I’ve worked with that size audience before but obviously the craft of the job involves being able to work in the space and react with the space.

“In the Minster there’s no point in doing a lot of fussy psychological detail that won’t read because the audience is so far away.

“It’s about really making sure that the audience can focus on the right bit at the right time, that the diction is clear enough so that in the reverberative space the words can come across.”

The Mystery Plays invite an exciting plethora of questions, not least because no-one can really tell who wrote them.

The plays chronicle various biblical stories that were written for the tradesmen in York to lavishly act out with comical irony – Noah’s Flood would have been humourously enacted by the ship builders.

Doran has a mechanical, yet necessary, understanding of his part in these plays, “A directors job really is to reveal an author’s intentions and obviously with the classics, with Shakespeare and these plays or whatever classic you do, the director’s role is more prominent in a way

and more criticisable than with a new play, when you can’t tell necessarily if it is the directing or the writing, or what’s making the play work.

Some people love it because they don’t have to work with a living writer!” he laughs. “I think it is very dangerous as a director to go into a play…and think ‘What am I going to do with this play?’ because then what happens is you do it for the sake of being different or an attempt at stamping your mark, meaning your ego upon the play, means that you put yourself in front of what the author’s intentions may have been.”

Many will, however, be relieved to know that Doran has created a modern slant to the medieval dramas, “My position is quite clear,” he confirms, “this is York’s, if you like, celebration of the mil-

The Casting Director came and said she wanted to have a word and I thought ‘Ok, it’s obviously Hamlet next year,’ she said “We all think you should apply to be Assistant Director” lennium.

“The plays are, I think, a celebration not only of York’s heritage but also of York now, so…basically we have people doing various accents,…some people speak in received pronunciation, some people have broad Yorkshire accents, some people have Lancashire accents and there are a couple of Geordies, because that is who the people in York are at the moment, so that’s the way we chose to do it, not to add a filter of tile-thatchers, nailers and parchment makers but, from my point of view, we’ve got kitchen porters, teachers and taxmen and all of the equivalent.”

Whilst Doran has no intention of returning to centre stage himself, he has a

Mystery Man - Greg Doran strong admiration for those who do it as a career.

When I query him as to whether actors are fickle to work with, he replies poetically, “I think actors have access to emotions which makes them astonishing... to produce their performances a layer of skin is peeled off so sometimes they are more easily hurt which some would say was ‘touchy’ but on the other hand you could say was ‘vulnerable’... nobody goes into this business, especially with the RSC, to carry a spear; everyone goes into it because they want to play the lead, but only one person gets to play it. So in this

precarious profession you’ve got to be quite tough as well as quite vulnerable and that’s difficult.”

Although Doran looks forward to directing a film in the future he is wonderfully obtuse about the possibility of one day running the RSC: “When we were travelling in Brazil, in the Amazon, somebody told me that the Indians have no word for ‘tomorrow’ and I thought what a wonderful wonderful thing not to have to think about what I want to do tomorrow!”

RIDING HIGH

The previously travelling Riding Theatre Company open their new firm base in the centre of York, promising to bring us some fantastic contemporary works.

SETTING OUT on a beautiful May afternoon to investigate a new theatre opening in town, I didn’t know what to expect.

I found the Friargate Theatre nestling

The Alchemist - Another York resident going for gold

York Student Vision

on the riverbank close to the famous student landmark The Gallery.

Met at the door by marketing officer, Anthony Dunn, I encountered a lively scene. There were painters and builders adding finishing touches to the theatre alongside manic rehearsals for the opening production ‘The Alchemist’ by Ben Jonson.

The Riding Lights Theatre Company have been based in York for the last twenty-four years but have spent the time touring accross the country and around the world.

The Friargate will be their new home, at least for a trial period. Dunn explained the relative frustration felt by the entire company as they have always been ironically ‘more famous in Bristol and Clywdd than in York’.

The company wants to maintain grass root support, particularly as it is an entirely independent association, funded by 2,500 members who bought the half million pound building. There also is an intention to ‘fill the void created since the closure of the Art’s Centre’.

The upstairs theatre will provide a base for the touring company, as well as a chance for them to establish themselves locally. The theatre space itself seemed

A play that is as relevant to the audience today as it was in the 16th Century small, but the 100 seat venue will seek to capitalise on the intimacy of the surroundings, engaging the audience in close proximity to the action.

All these aims will hopefully be realised in the opening production, running from May 11th to July 1st. ‘The Alchemist’ is a comical satire about a deceptive conman who promises citizens ‘anything

from the secret of eternal youth’ to a recipe that can ‘turn a tin can into bankable gold’.

The play will seek to address timeless issues about ‘business, gambling, quarrelling and sexual conquest’. Set in modern day York it will place these issues in a contemporary context. The Company will also be producing ‘The Complete Works of Poetry and Prose’ during the season, which aims to provide entertainment based on the entire literary world.

Dunn explained that the aim of Riding Lights has been to put on a play that is ‘not afraid to speak out about problems in society’. The production team are looking to produce a play that is as relevant to the audience today as it was in the Sixteenth Century.

A venue that dares to tackle contemporary problems in York? The exciting atmosphere I encountered on my visit suggested this could be the case. We shall have to wait and see what ‘The Alchemist’ brews.

Frances Lecky

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

AU Presidents Ben Harding (York) and James Crouch (Lancaster) with the Carter-James trophy. Lancaster won the annual sporting contest between the two universities by 151.5 to 77.5, bringing their total victories to 19, to York’s 17.

“The sun has shone and everyone has enjoyed themselves” Ben Harding, AU President

York men’s volleyball team waltzed to a straight sets victory over a lacklustre Lancaster side.

From the outset York looked sharper and more of a unit. Lancaster were never really able to get going as York defended superbly and showed class in every area of the court.

Though captain Riberio said it was not a ‘vintage performance’, he was delighted with the defence but felt they could have attacked more and killed off the opposition earlier.

Riberio wouldn’t name a man of the match, feeling it was a team performance, but there were notable performances from the captain himself, Ivan P and Ricardo Blanco.

Lancaster’s below-par performances had few plus points but maybe their saving grace will be that no York players will be returning next year.

York’s female volleyball team which finished in the top 16 last year was expected to fair well against Lancaster, a team they had already beaten this year.

Lancaster thrived in their role as underdogs and appeared far more relaxed in the first set, in contrast to a York side that though vocal seemed to lack an real conviction. Lancaster comfortably ran out 25 - 12 set winners. York seemed unable to gain any momentum as they claimed only four more points to lose the second set 25 - 18.

This was without question a shock defeat with regards to York’s past record but in truth it was a disjointed performance which though never lacking effort did flatter to deceive.

In the mixed volleyball, a contest worth no points, the atmosphere in the main hall was totally relaxed and it was clear that the players were there to enjoy themselves.

Volleyball

York

In the hockey both men’s and women’s sides were defeated overall, but the camaraderie within the team and effort put in by all involved was a true refection of what Roses is all about In men’s firsts York put in a good first half performance, building up a 2-0 lead before half time.

The second half was to give no more joy to the away side as some questionable umpiring decisions allowed Lancaster to claw back for a 2-2 draw.

The men’s seconds had even less

Hockey

success, losing out 3-2 and adding to the home team’s rapidly growing overall points score.

Again the performance of the umpires came under question as the women’s firsts lost out 1-0 in a game which included the awarding of two penalty flicks to Lancaster, one of which bringing about an undeserved victory.

The seconds match was a shining light in the bleakness of the weekend’s results with a Gemma Gill goal bringing the points to York.

Unfortunately it was the performance of the seconds’ captain’s dog Frickham which stole the show in a dull encounter, providing great entertainment with a series of pitch invasions and tricks.

In a hard-fought encounter the York 1st XI football team lost 2-0 to Lancaster, who went on to win the overall foot-

Football

ball title for the first time in three years.

The York women’s football club fared better, managing to beat Lancaster in both the five-a-side and

Sleeping beauties In the face of a well-drilled Lancastrian team, despite a spirited resistance York’s men’s team was quickly brought to heel.

York captain Matt Phillips was the first to fall, beaten two games to one.

O’Neill’s two-one victory over Jones gave temporary hope, but a subsequent series of four victories for Lancashire left York playing for but pride.

Pool

In the Men’s singles tournaTennis ment, after superb displays on the part of both sides, Lancaster emerged 4-2 winners. York’s Captain meanwhile, felt that his team couldn’t simply blame the schorching weather for their performance. They did better in the doubles where they won 2-1.

In the Women’s Tennis, after a series of closely battled matches, the result was a 3-3 draw which reflected the evenly matched singles competition.All the girls agreed that the experience had been an enjoyable one with a nice banter, a good atmosphere and games played in a good spirit.

The regular conferences between captain and players suggested that over at the women’s table an altogether more tactical game was in progress.

Again, games were always close.

Lancaster started confidently.

York team captain Lotie Boer praised her team’s performance against a more experienced Lancaster team.

LANCASTER

roses roses roses

2000 2000 2000 Vs YORK With Lancaster making the shots that mattered and some wayward York shooting, the Men’s Basketball ended with a 21 point victory for the home side.York fell behind early on, but fought back with renewed vigour. They were unable to really get going, and combined with a couple of injuries and the extreme humidity of the sports hall defeat was always on the cards.

If ever a side lost a Roses game and yet came out with more credit than York’s women’s basketball team, I would be surprised. On the court, however, there was much drama, especially during the closing five minutes. The final score was 58-56 yet for long periods York were leading.

With impressive performances from Lina Paumgarten and captain Sarah Maddrell, relentless running and a competitive work rate were the key to York’s early success.

With one York player with a shoulder injury being replaced by spectator and netball player Kelly Robinson, a now shattered York team were hit by a Lancaster squad, refreshed from the injury break.

The game was fought competitively but fairly and the partisan crowd made for a wonderful atmosphere.

It was a game neither side deserved to lose.

Basketball

In the foil Lancaster were fired up from the outset and inflicted what amounted to a rout.

However, the aggressive continuity between fencers was broken by a different York line-up for the sabre, and the tension relaxed with a 8-1 York victory.

The tide turned slowly in York’s favour, and with a 6-3 victory in the

Fencing

epee, York came out on top of the men’s fencing 17-10.

In the women’s fencing Lancaster regained some of their pride with a 13-5 victory. Both teams fenced well, but the Lancastrian ladies’ greater experience gave them the edge.

However, overall York can still claim victory as the men’s competition counted for four points to the women’s competition’s two.

Contributors : Tim Burroughs, Paul Wrigglesworth, Greg Paterson, Gareth Walker, Linus Koenig, Sam Macrory, Adam Curran, Alex Cooley, Ed Senneck.

Thanks to Sarah Smith and everyone at Scan

Streakers

Lancaster streaked to victory, then cracked open the champagne with bare-faced cheek

“I bet you’re used to this heat, coming from the Lebanon.” “Well, actually there are no deserts in the Lebanon.” “Oh.” I sat down. It was a sweltering day outside, and sweaty already inside, and one had to pity the poor table-tennis teams.

Lancaster, though, appeared prepared. They had an air of professionalism about them from the outset. With a place in the last 16 at the BUSA finals last season, a healthy squad of 40 from which they’d drawn their teams, and a substantial supply of chilled mineral water, Lancaster were ready for action.

York, in contrast, could only produce one universitylevel player, and were far more amateurish in their approach. A replica Ronaldo shirt added a sense of irony to the scene. For, although Lancaster didn’t actually have any Brazilian signings, they has players from France and Germany, and from as far afield as the Lebanon – I refer here to Raja Ghoussov, Lebanese Schools’ Champion.

The uncomfortable heat in the Minor Hall, along with the intense tempo of table-tennis at this level, combined to make the games very hard to follow (for this journalist anyway).

Heroic underdogs York – many of them fatigued from an early morning coach journey or else two nights with the rugbies in Lecture Hall 3 – put up good competition, but Lancastrian victory never looked in doubt.

Martin Styles’ one victory in the men’s seconds exorcised the spectre of total defeat but nevertheless it was York’s only victory and Lancaster won the table-tennis 17-1 overall.

Martin Styles was philosophical after the match: “That’s what it’s all about in the end. Sunshine, beer and a few sports.”

Table Tennis

16 FEATURES York Student Vision

SCREAMADELICA Victoria Kennedy likes scary movies. Especially the third Scream film. All bets are off as she talks to legendary director Wes Craven and Scream star Neve Campbell ple to begin with though, “In the first one we had a lot of cuts and it was getting to the point where I was not sure that the film would even exist because they really wanted us to cut the entire ending.

We had eight major cuts and sometimes they were not in the nature of ‘remove this bloodiness’ but ‘remove the intensity from this section’ of a 100ft tape, which, when you are making this kind of film, just makes you batty.”

the actress they eventually found in Campbell. “I think that when you read a character you get a definite image in your mind of who she is, and then you just kind of go looking for her and hope that she exists somehow in real life.

“Certainly we looked at Neve’s work and had conversations, but she is Sidney in that sense of having quiet dignity and strength and, after that, she’s a dancer so you can ask her to do all sorts of rough

“It’s like being on a roller coaster, you come out knowing that life is worth living, and it’s a little bit more precious” Wes Craven

THE CREATORS that made horror movies popular again, are back with their final offering to the trilogy, Scream 3. Vision talks to the perpetrator, director Wes Craven, and his perpetual victim, Neve Campbell, on the force of censorship, the art of suspense and exactly where fear comes from…

Wes Craven and Neve Campbell make for a fascinating team. In interview they inherently play their professional jobs to rote, Wes as the verbal force of energy, re-enacting and directing to me the intended meaning of Scream 3 as if I am one of his cast; Neve as quietly creative and responsive to what I ask of her.

They are perhaps the most unsuspecting people currently pinned, amongst others, dangerous perpetrators of violence, in an impressionable contemporary society.

As murders become more frequent and increasingly more distinctive, the need for censorship is further encroaching on film releases.

Craven, the renowned creator of Freddie Krueger and director of all three Scream films, concedes, “It’s never a very friendly relationship with the censors.

I think Scream kind of won their respect during the course of three films, I certainly felt the lessening of pressure as the films marched along.” It was not sim-

The success of the Scream films lies in its careful juggling of the serious with a tasteful splattering of ironic humour, a balance which is exciting when set against the grotesque material previous genre horrors could only offer.

The mock-spoof humour potentially prevents the horror of the films from becoming too intense, and consequently from being taken too seriously.

Although Craven jokes now, explaining that David Arquette, who plays Dewey in the film, “was an advocate of a great slashing at the end! I think he wanted the cameras zooming in and having me with a knife grimacing!”, he was very nervous that the barrier between humour and seriousness was never crossed in the film.

“I think Neve’s character not having the funny lines was key to it,” he explains, “The real heart and core of the picture, that is Neve’s character, is kept separate from that irony… So the traumatic deaths, the deaths that are most real are kept sepa-

and tumble things and she somehow survives it!” he laughs.

Amidst the gore and the harrowing chase scenes, Campbell wanted to create an incentive for her character, and consequently, a reasoning for human emotion.

“In the end Sidney is the victim of her circumstances but she becomes a heroine, she becomes strong. For me it’s just that as long as I find that the character has complexity and has reason behind whatever she is, it isn’t important if she is a very vulnerable character or if she is a very strong character, as long as we understand w h y. ” It is noticeable that Campbell is once again inhabiting the motives of her character, her direction with Sidney’s persona is so tunneled that you get the impression that she is reverting to her character’s mind in order to get behind the answer to the question.

It is an attribute Craven likewise noticed during the making of the film,

“Suspense is literally what it says, it is a tease in a way, it is a presentation of something and then the threat of a second appearance.

It is in that sense a very simple mechanism that in Scream it is played out with a ferocious first act, leaving the audience reeling and off-balance, and forever after when you deal with that presence you simply sugg e s t that it i s

the responsibility for social violence, insists that he is not creating fear, “I think that what I am doing is summing up fear that is there. The truth is that what gets an audience going is what comes up from their own personal fears and that is what I think is the process of what a scary movie or a scary story is and why they’ve been with us since day one.

There is a kind of exorcism that takes place and it is the only way we can explain why people would pay

nearby, then you go through various suggestions that it may be around the next corner.

“There’s also the sense of a much more complex character, knowing that

money to see it. You do not pay money… to have fear put in you, because that makes no sense. So you think: ‘well people don’t do this’, the fact is that something has happened that is good.

“There is a kind of exorcism that takes place and it is the only way we can explain why people would pay money to see it” Wes Craven

rate and the more zany are more specifically with Dewey and Gail… so that you don’t make fun of something serious, but you do observe that the tension is sometimes broken by laughter.”

With hindsight, and a bigger bank balance, Craven has an honest admiration for

York Student Vision

“It’s interesting from the outside watching Neve work, and I’ve seen it with other great actors that I’ve worked with, they will not leave their characters between takes, most of the other actors will but Neve will sit quietly some place and be in ‘that place’ while we’re aligning the next shot.”

He proudly continues, “I will see her not smile, she might be reading a book or something, but quietly sitting…it takes tremendous mental discipline and it makes a difference to a performance that really ends in a proper piece, with continuity.

“The other thing about Neve is that she would quite often finish a harrowing day and then, because of the crazy schedule that we would have, would get in the car and drive to the set of ‘Party of Five’ and do another day’s work, which took mental and physical discipline.”

Campbell shyly admits that it was tiring, “ I was pretty drained by the end of the film. I always know when I’m doing Scream movies because I’m covered in bruises and my eyes are swollen… I get pretty shaky because you have to imagine yourself in the circumstances for the audience to believe that it’s true, and I hop a lot!” she jokes as Craven does impressions of her.

Retiring to the seriousness with which she treats her profession though she continues, “You have to believe it and it has to be kind of a reality. You have to make the audience care, the more that the audience care about you, the more that they will fear for you.”

Taking the director’s seat, Craven explains it with an unexpected passion,

“I always know when I’m doing Scream movies because I’m covered in bruises and my eyes are swollen… I get pretty shaky because you have to imagine yourself in the circumstances for the audience to believe that it’s true” Neve Campbell

somewhere there is a secret that she doesn’t know and then the final revelation that maybe will totally alter the way she sees her world.

“I think it comes up with an initial presentation and then a removal of that object of impact and a reintroduction of the final tease in a way that the audience doesn’t know when it’s going to finally make its appearance.”

Craven, who is now tired of bearing

“You see when audiences come out of a scary movie by and large they’re laughing and they will have a buzz and electricity, so I think that something happens in that communal sharing of fear and terror, that you scream together and you know you’re not going to die.

It’s like being on a roller coaster, you come out knowing that life is worth living, and it’s a little bit more precious.”

I would be more scared not to believe

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

York Student Vision FEATURES 17

VIOLENCE DOESN’T HURT?

Is violence in the media responsible for copy cat killings, or has it merely become a convenient scapegoat for society? Vision’s Features team goes for the jugular and questions the link so often made between books, films and violence.

MOST of us make a bee line for the Odeon to part with a fiver in favour of watching for the third time round a host of Neve Campbell’s friends being slashed, gutted and gored.

As we happily munch on our peanut M&M’s whilst arteries are burst, intestines exposed and bullets offloaded, it all starts to seem uncomfortably familiar.

Turn on the telly and there’s David Jason leaning over a mutilated corpse..

Tune into the radio and there’s the bullet backbeat to Lock n’Loads’ number one.

Even switch on your N64 and you’ve got a well dressed, two dimensional Pierce Brosnan kicking the crap out of various knife-wielding Eastern Europeans.

Violence. It’s fun for all the family...

And as we become increasingly more conditioned to this, the nation’s favourite form of entertainment, the question is wanting: how much does life imitate art?

Copy-cat murders and replica shootings seem enough for us to point the finger. To psychoanalyse and rationalise, and to lay all the blame for the dysfunctional individual on the box office.

The influence of a film is often undeniable, as in the recent case of a boy from Coventry stabbing his parents to death under the guise of the familiar Scream

slasher. Or perhaps the disturbing parallels between the Columbine High shootings and The Basketball Diaries.

In such circumstances it is difficult to disassociate the films from the reality.

And as we reflect on the media’s obsession, and consequently our fascination, with all things violent, the blame seems to have been well and truly secured.

Life no longer imitates art, but is the inspiration for it By dishing out heavy helpings of violent sensationalism, a full house is guaranteed. We expect violence, we even demand it.

It has become such an integral part of both entertainment and culture that the distinctions between Hollywood glamour and social reality have become blurred.

Boundaries are crossed, and the more violence is glamourised the more it is seemingly emulated.

However, is it that we are simply grasping at the closest and most convenient scapegoat? O.K, so violent films may be the opium of the masses, they may provide entertainment for the many, but surely only the template for the minority?

For the most of us, Wes Craven’s latest provides us with little more incentive

other than to double check the Yale lock.

We do not feel the Scream trilogy to be an open invitation to mass murder, nor do we sufficiently lack the morals and ethics to imitate what we see. The line between right and wrong is clear. The bad guy is usually caught, the good guy left to see another crime fighting day. Everything is as it should be.

Finding entertainment value in the darker nature of the human psychosis is a perverse concept, but an understandable one, projecting what we fear most on to the screen and distancing it as best we can from our own realities.

Certainly the media should accept a certain responsibility for the role it plays in the violence within society, particularly amongst the younger, more impressionable generations. But perhaps we should be addressing from where it gains the initial ideas.

Life no longer imitates art, but is the inspiration for it. The evidence is there in this morning’s papers, it will be there again in this evening’s news.

And the problem is not as easily resolved as a heated letter to Miramax or getting Mr Tarantino’s knuckles wrapped.

Perhaps a film may suggest the accessories, but it will neither encourage nor deter an individual bent on violence.

TEENAGE TANTRUMS

It is when these emotions turn into acts of violence that the horror really starts.

within the films can cause emotions to rise within the viewers. This is expected and is the aim of the film makers at the outset.

It is when these emotions turn into acts of violence that the horror really starts.

However, I believe that the inclination to commit these crimes already exists. It is impossible to lay the blame

BOOKS, FILMS and violence – is there a link, or are we just reading too much in to it?

Violence in the press is often inescapable as we learn in the headlines of the latest outrages against society.

But do we expect it from the novels we choose to read? Obviously, there is a multitude of novels available that do not contain violence.

Yet, the truth is is that we have been exposed from a young age to violence in novels. Think Red Riding Hood (Cannibalism), Cinderella (Slavery) and any number of Roald Dahl stories that had us, as children, baying for the ‘baddie’s’ blood!

We have been programmed from a

Clockwork Orange and American Psycho evade the censor’s net.

So authoritarian censorship doesn’t really work so what about the publishers, and the writers? What should they do to make their novel, which could seize anyone’s deluded/deranged/dull mind(delete as appropriate), user friendly? Who knows…

With the re-release of A Clockwork Orange, the debate about romanticising violent novels has risen once more to haunt the centre pages of the tabloid’s cabal.

Yet, in this instance, the novel is generally regarded to be far more violent than the film; the rape scenes far more shocking in print than on the big screen.

And so with this year’s American

Nothing can be created for the general public that can be worse to picture than that which the human mind can create

IT IS often asked whether we are anywhere nearer finding the truth as to why people kill.

Or more relevant, perhaps, why people are influenced to kill.

With the release of films such as Scream 3 and The Clockwork Orange recently, it is often asked whether there is such a thing as copy cat killings.

A year ago, on April 20th 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a killing spree in their school, killing fifteen, this became known as the Columbine High School Massacre.

This spree was attributed to a number of sources, including the films Heathers, The Basketball Diaries and The Matrix.

Is Scream 3 likely to cause similar incidents? In this time of freedom within the media, is it possible that some material that the majority of us dismiss as harmless fiction, is actually influencing and causing people to commit violence and even murder?

An example of where this may have been so is the murder of Jamie Bulger by two schoolboys, many similarities in the murder were linked to the film Child’s Play.

It seems possible that the violence

MURDER SHE WROTE...

on films as the final trigger that causes a person to go out and kill another human being.

How is it possible to restrict these films of harmless fun to many to be kept from those who are likely to commit a crime?

ride, humans like nothing better than the enjoyment of fear, which can clearly be gained from films such as Scream 3.

The Columbine tragedy was not necessarily attributed to fear. The Trenchcoat mafia (the ‘gang’ to which the killers belonged), were not necessarily influ-

Like the thrill from a fairground ride, humans like nothing better than the enjoyment of fear In short it is virtually impossible to do so. The only way of doing this is to ban them to the population as a whole.

It can be argued that copy cat killings are just a way of a crime being committed in one particular way, a crime that would have been committed regardless.

Many argue that the simple answer is to stop the production of this violent material altogether. This stoppage however would only exist in the legalised system.

The production of snuff movies and similar illegally made material would still continue regardless.

Allowing the film censors to give us basic guidelines to what is suitable to watch is the only sensible way of seeing emotive films of the horror variety.

Like the thrill from a fairground

York Student Vision

enced by horror films they saw, computer games they played, the rock music they listened to, or even the style of clothes they wore.

They were classed as outcasts within their school for being different.

And it was this resentment of being classed as weirdoes by their contemporaries which eventually reached boiling point and ended in tragic circumstances.

Moreover, these films portray as well as horror, the despair that can be reached.

And instead of blaming films for the criminal effects, it may be worth looking to the reason behind the horror and trying to solve the reasons why, before tut tutting at the after effects..

Vee Cole-Jones

young age to want to hear these ‘moralistic’ fairy stories, which in later life develops into an overwhelming appetite for horror in both novel and film.

Generalisations aside, it is unlikely that the average person on the street hasn’t read a ‘nasty’ book. Indeed, what defines ‘nasty’ is very hard to pinpoint as, it would seem, the most innocuous of texts is potentially a dangerously loose cannon when placed in the wrong hands.

John Lennon suffered largely due to a gun-toteing reader of The Catcher in the Rye, whilst it is anyone’s guess how many millions have been killed due to the influence of The Bible. Scary huh?

So how do you spot a dangerously violent novel either in the making, or already unleashed on society? The answer is you can’t.

So, should there be ratings perhaps on books like there is on films? After all, reading, unlike film is more of an immediate source of ideas.

With film, there is a distancing and, in the main, a moralistic undertone to any dubious ending, which effectively sets the audience in the ‘correct’ moral mind. It is the film-maker’s reponsibiliy to do this to make sure that violence of any kind is not glamourised.

Yet whilst film’s are heavily policed, no-one can invade that close link between reader and text; it is a vastly more personal experience and one which perhaps needs greater restrictions on it.

But, censorship, as this would undoubtedly lead to, is unwarranted, and leads to grave errors of judgement. Lady Chatterley’s Lover gained greater fame and a wider readership than it might have gained had it not been banned, whilst A

Psycho – the 1990’s ‘Book they shouldn’t print’. Now its violence is there for us all to see. Or is it?

Directed by Mary Harron, the film is a castration of the original text, with very few of the violent scenes making it from paper to celluloid.

Are these celluloid censorship slashes worth it though when ‘those’ scenes have already been written? They are already out there for people to read.

Nothing can be created for the general public that can be worse to picture than that which the human mind can create.

Perhaps authors should curb their fantastic minds, and not write what are potentially lethal characters and stories.

However, it remains to be seen just how many Patrick Bateman-inspired murders there has been or will be.

Whilst Chloe Sevigny (who plays Jean) found the novel to be ‘hilarious’, Christian Bale’s scathing analysis on his character being ‘a dork’ would suggest that it would be distinctly uncool to follow in his murderous footsteps. So Eighties, Ann Smith dahling…

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

18 York Student Vision

TELESCOPE . . . b o o k s . . . g a m e s . . . i n t e r n e t . . . t v. . . r a d i o . . .

BEING AS it’s now the summer term, and it’s nice and sunny outside, we thought it’d be a good idea to recomm e n d s o m e web-sites to glue your eyes to.

GRAPHIC VIOLENCE Risking moral corruption, the intrepid Telescope team fight it out with a host of new computer games

the

WEB RAMBLE

So begins Vision’s brand new ‘web ramble’ – just like a real walk with the Outdoor Society, we take you to some of the most windswept and desolate corners of the (digital) world.

Our quest for entertainment begins at www.bored.com. This select links page is a great place to find somewhere to waste a few hours on-line.

But after checking out the next site, I’m not sure I should be wasting too much time. The Death Clock (at www. deathclock.com) is a bizarrely morbid web-site that totally inaccurately (at least I hope it’s inaccurate) predicts when you’re going to die. Enter your details, set a mode (try sadistic if those essay deadlines persist) and see if you really need to bother worrying about a career. Not only does it give you a date, it also provides a counter ticking down the seconds until it’s ‘game over’.

What will you do with your life up until them? No idea? See how other people spend their days by reading their diaries at www.opendiary.com.

For some reason a lot of very strange American kids are leaving their private thoughts for millions to read. Although judging by the standard, they’re probably going to remain unread for a while yet.

Click the random button and see if you get a Marilyn Manson fan, or a ‘Saved

By The Bell’ reject (as far as I can work out, these are the only two varieties US teenagers come in).

If angst isn’t the answer, cheer yourself up with some on-line retail therapy.

Check out online auctions at ebay. co.uk, or visit www.whattheheck.com/ ebay to see what kinds of weird stuff people have tried to sell. For example: “Snow, powder, 12”+, buyer must pick up” or even one enterprising young man’s virginity. I think (especially judging by his picture) the winning bid of 10 million dollars was a joke.

By now, you’re probably very confused. But is dat not racialist? What you need to be do is keep it real. Aiii, wiv mackers.com/alig. Simply provide it some text or a web address and Ali will ‘G’ up any page you want. Staines 4

DoBeDo Winner Congratulations to Ste Curran who won the DoBeDo.co.uk competition.

Ste inventively named his imaginary island York, and decided to build a big concrete universty there.

WITH THE May-Day anarchists long gone, who is left to cause Urban Chaos you may ask? Well, no-one apparently, and so we have to journey into the world of computer games to get our street brawling and sack beating fix.

Urban Chaos (PSX) appears to have all the right ingredients to be a smash hit, unless of course you actually play the game for very long.

The huge number of missions rapidly diminishes, as you realise that 90% of them are too frustrating to even contemplate; the impressive assortment of weaponry peters out into a pathetic three, and you end up resorting to hurling insults (technically, strongly worded questions) at your gang-land foes; the well-written

option of extracting your opponent’s liver with a lengthy grappling hook?

Significantly superior on the graphic comic-book violence front is Vampire Hunter D (PSX). Incomprehensible plotline involving the distant future, demon warlords and half-Vampire bounty hunters aside: this is yet another ‘Resident Evil’ clone, although a good one nonetheless.

The area of game-play is sprawling, the graphics and sound spookily atmospheric, the puzzles plodding but nonetheless involving and – most importantly – the blood and guts flow in copious quantity.

‘Vampire Hunter’ sadly shares the flaws of the ‘Resident Evil’ series.

Movement from room-to-room is inevitably presaged by an irritating ‘door-opening’ cut-scene. Meanwhile, the angle of

With TV, films and computer games having suitably desensitised us to all but the most grotesque scenes of violence, what point is there to a computer game which conspicuously fails to give you the option of extracting your opponent’s liver with a lengthy grappling hook? storyline and plot becomes laughably samey as you pursue the latest baddie down ‘Random Alley X’; and although the top-drawer graphics remain just that, they start to infuriate you immensely as you focus on them as the only positive facet in this nauseatingly run-of-the-mill title.

Why Eidos decided to release this game escapes me. ‘Urban Chaos’ is ‘Tomb Raider’ through khaki-tinted spectacles, and is none-the-better for it. (5/10) Next to lumber up for games-player’s attention is the new Playstation boxing simulation Championship Boxer (PSX) Sadly, when it comes to the entertainment arena it’s far from a heavyweight.

It’s all quite simple enough. With a number of characters to choose from, ranging from the quick and deadly to the fat and comic, you can opt to spar in the gym; pick your opponents and pursue a career; or else go for a little two player action.

The graphics themselves are efficient, although it is disappointing that neither

the player’s viewpoint is such that all too often one finds one’s attempts to fend off the monstrous hordes of Satan blocked by our fearless Vampire-hunter’s bum protruding from behind some obstruction.

These qualms aside, if ‘Resident Evil 3’ has failed to satisfy your lust for death, destruction and the decorative use of human entrails, then ‘Vampire Hunter’ may be just the thing (although so too might be psychological counselling and a generous prescription of Prozac). (7/10) The dullest moments of ‘The Phantom Menace’ (and there were more than a few to choose from) were those in which a vast army of computer-generated droids took on a vast army of computer-generated sea-people.

It’s a pleasant surprise to discover then, that such a scenario nonetheless makes for a seriously entertaining PC game in the shape of Star Wars, Force Commander (PC-CD), a real time strategy game in the mould of ‘Command and Conquer.’

Given the angle of the viewpoint, all too often one finds one’s attempts to fend off the monstrous hordes of Satan blocked by our fearless Vampire-hunter’s bum the backdrops change, nor do the crowds grow as your progress through your career. Meanwhile, with a rather slender range of punch and block options at your disposal, fights themselves rapidly descend into the usual mad-button-bashing The problem is, it’s all a bit dull. Like other boxing games ‘Championship’ has to cope with the fact that compared to other ‘fight’ games, shuffling round a confined space poking your opponent in the stomach seems rather tame. (5/10) With TV, films and computer games having suitably desensitised us to all but the most grotesque scenes of violence, what point is there to a computer game which conspicuously fails to give you the

York Student Vision

A suitably cinematic storyline takes the player from Obi-Wan Kenobi’s hut in the wastelands of Tatooine, to the Ewok villages of lush forests of Endor. A series of excellent in-game tutorials helps the player come to grips with an otherwise bewildering array of keyboard commands.

In-game graphics are exceptionally detailed, with the player free to shift the camera to any angle, rotate it, explore the entire battlefield, or zoom-in close upon a particular unit. The downside to this is that ‘Force Commander’ demands a gra-

CONTRIBUTORS Adrian Taylor Gareth ‘AT-AT’ Walker Alex Watson

tuitously large corner of your hard-drive, while the game has a tender to chug reluctantly along on even the speediest of computers.

Nonetheless, if the idea of taking control of either the ruthlessly efficient Imperial forces, or the heroic Rebels, takes your fancy, then it’s a desire that ‘Force Commander’ more than adequately fulfils. (8/10) There are a lot of things about Battlezone II (PC-CD) that are confusing. The first is that it has very little at all to do with the first Battlezone game, that was released sometime before the dinosaurs became extinct. It’s actually the sequel to Activision’s Battlezone game that was released a few years ago to universal critical acclaim and public indifference.

The problem with this new sequel is essentially the same; it’s not quite sure what sort of game it is. In the first few missions you pilot a hover-tank around, in a very similar fashion to ‘Mechwarrior’.

Then you realise you can get out, and walk

who bothered to play the original ‘Thief’ quickly found that going in all guns (or crossbows, this is after all, medieval) blazing soon found that the Rambo approach just didn’t work.

Instead you get to creep through the shadows waiting for your moment. This is a professionally done sequel – the graphics are noticeably improved, there’s more weaponry, and the levels themselves are just as much fun.

However, at the end of the day, it’s just a sequel, and it’s everything you expect; nothing new, just… ‘more’.

‘Thief 2’ remains a welcome and refreshing change to plot-less gore fests like ‘Quake 3’ and ‘Unreal Tournament’.

Holding the action back means that the tension levels are much higher. That, and watching the hapless guards jumping nervously at every noise is enough to elicit a malicious chuckle from almost any player. (8/10)

around, and it looks very like ‘Quake’. Then you log-on to a console, and control several units, ‘Command and Conquer’ style. This all results in having to remember a large number of controls, and feeling extremely pressured in what should be the very easy early levels.

‘Battlezone’s graphics are excellent – the alien ships morph in combat impressively, and although the weather effects are a tad out of place, they certainly lend the game a sort of Vietnam-esque war feel.

Having said that its mix of genres is confusing, ‘Battlezone’, once you work out how to play it, is a lot of fun. The story line is quite impressive, even narrating plot details while the levels load up. Like its predecessor, it’s fundamentally a great game. It just requires a player with a seriously open mind. (7/10) Another sequel, and it’s another ‘Quake’ game.

Or not. Anyone

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

York Student Vision TELESCOPE 19

BEHIND THE SCENES

Victoria Kennedy talks to Whitbread prize winning author Kate Atknison about her new novel, Emotionally Weird “I DON’T like author events, I don’t like interviews and publicity and all that stuff because you end up saying the same thing… sometimes a question comes up for the one hundredth time and you think ‘aargh!”

In another situation, interviewing someone else, this would be a terrifying sentence to hear from the person you stand poised with questions to interview.

With Kate Atkinson it feels instead as if I have been clutched to her bosom and been confided a secret, I am on her side, this is not an interview, it is female bonding.

As she sits after a reading, visibly tired from signing a pile of copies of her latest novel she laughs, “It would be quite interesting one time to answer people’s questions differently, depending on how I felt and just throw people entirely.”

The title of her latest novel, ‘Emotionally Weird’, is apt for an author who is palpably fuelled by emotion.

Authors have their own individual reasons for writing, some because they simply enjoy it, others for wealth, a few because they can but write - they are drawn to it, it is their quiet release and they will always write, whether it is read or not: it is an unreckoned force.

For Atkinson, it is clearly the latter.

She greets the subject of her Whitbread success with her first novel, ‘Behind the Scenes at the Museum’, after only previously publishing short stories for woman’s magazines, with startling humility. Whilst

a piece of work should not be judged upon the prizes it receives, it should not be understated that the Whitbread not only labels the author a glittering success in

Macmillan, £9.99



‘PERIDO STREET Station’ is disgusting. And nasty. If you’re thinking that this is sci-fi fantasy like Terry Pratchett – forget it.

Miéville’s world, centred around the sprawling metropolis of New Crobuzon positively swims in a criminally creepy and fascinatingly foul flow of description.

And it’s great. Owing a debt to Meryn Peake’s ‘Gormonghast’, Miéville’s novel is an eclectic melting pot of Dickensian type characters, William Gibson steampunk, and the ‘dark satanic mills’ of a positively primeval technological and industrial revolution.

The plot, given its gloomy background, is similarly full of shady characters, and dark twisting alleyways of subplots. But make no mistake, these twists are certainly not the quaint ‘snickleways’ of York.

The two main characters are Isaac and Lin. Lin is of a race of people who have insect heads, and she’s an artist. Whose medium is her own spit. Through a network of dubious dilettantish connections, she ends up doing a portrait of a crime lord. Meanwhile Isaac, ever the scientist on the edge (and remember, in New Crobuzon, alchemy is recognised), is working on some plastic surgery with a difference.

Whilst it doesn’t move as fast as most blockbusters, or even sci-fi novels, the

spill food on, it becomes real and ‘out there’… I think writing is just ordering all the stuff that is inside into things that are outside”.

“I think writing is just ordering all the stuff that is inside into things that are outside”...

Atkinson does however have fun in the process:

“I find it quite hard to write a straight-forward novel, because you can do what you want when you write and it seems a shame not to” literary circles but also, (potentially), more than doubles book sales, “It was surreal at the time,” Atkinson admits.

“But it was more important to me when I won the ‘Woman’s Own’ Short Story Competition because it was the first time that anyone had said ‘this is good.’”

END OF THE LINE Perido Street Station China Miéville

She admits that she would never have had the nerve to contemplate publishing her work in the first place if she had not failed the doctorate she had been studying

fascinating setting, and the small, but impressively detailed asides and ‘one-off’ characters easily hold the reader’s interest.

However, having said this, ‘Perido Street Station’ is extremely long, and with its extended descriptions, it’s not exactly a light read.

As I said before, it’s not Pratchett, and at times Miéville does tend to lay on the ‘gloom’ a little too thickly.

for at the time; “I guess I wanted to show them”.

Atkinson describes writing as a necessary vehicle to deal with emotions: “It is very cathartic. Things get given a place.

It’s no longer chaos inside, it becomes an object which you can tear and read and

She does however have fun in the process, “I find it quite hard to write a straight-forward novel, because you can do what you want when you write and it seems a shame not to”.

‘Emotionally Weird’ is a rare work in the sense that it openly plays with the

TELLIN’ STORIES

Emotionally Weird Kate Atkinson £16.99



THERE ARE plenty of weird things about Kate Atkinson’s third book. It’s a book in which everyone’s writing, and everyone’s telling their own stories.

Imagine Scream – where every character is the rules-espousing film geek.

Weird indeed. Emotional? Well, no, that’s the problem…

The main story, as such, concerns Nora and Effie, mother and daughter, sit-

Effies is a load of old student clichés – think the English student who hasn’t got out of bed in two years, the neurotic lecturers, and the wannabe revolutionaries and novelists.

But Effie’s story isn’t very funny, or involving – too often it just reverts to clichés, and one suspects that a) it’s is heavily autobiographical and that b) you really had to be there to find it at all funny. If I were a harsher critic I might be tempted to dismiss this as a middle aged writer gazing wistfully back at her student past.

Experiences that may well mean a lot to her, but frankly, for the reader, compare little to the hilarity of an average evening

Comic student cliches/experiences may well mean a lot to the author, but for the reader, compare little to the hilarity of an average evening at The Gallery (and with that place, you have to laugh…)

In the end, ‘Perido Street Station’ is an amazingly inventive novel. The detail is spectacular – the city itself is fascinating, and the characters are equally well constructed.

Both decadent and decaying, ‘Perido Street Station’ is a great novel – perhaps similar to the dark and disturbingly faded glories of the station itself, which towers over Miéville’s city. (8/10)

Alex Watson

ting alone on a dark Scottish island telling each other stories, as a storm howls by.

Effie tells her mother of her time at University, whilst Nora’s distinctly more reticent tale hints at a tragic family past.

The problem is the ‘as such’. For a book so noticeably concerned with fictionality and narrative, there is very little plot drive or intrigue. It is Nora’s story that is infinitely more interesting and involving, yet we have to wade through pages and pages of Effie’s rambling, plotless, stream-of-conscious tales of stupid student stone-dom, (all set against an authentic background of smelly patchouli and festering tie-die) before we get to anything remotely emotionally involving.

Nora’s tale is dark and romantic, whilst

at The Gallery (and frankly, with that place, you have to laugh…)

However, for all these complaints, ‘Emotionally Weird’ is actually quite readable, and its experiments with fictionality are quite interesting and at times clever.

‘Emotionally Weird’ seems to consciously reject notions of plot – it’s a book about books, and about stories, but, just as with ‘Being John Malkovich’, by the time you’ve finished you can’t help thinking that maybe it’s not as clever as it thinks or wants to be. In ‘Emotionally Weird’, the clever title pun and multiple fonts for each narrative are about as meaningful and emotional as it gets. (6/10)

contemporary concept of the ‘English novel’. As characters within Atkinson’s story start writing their own stories, ranging from the criminal to the Arthurian chivalric genre, the novel teases with the restraints normally left unchallenged in contemporary fiction-writing, as she stresses, “I really wanted to be playful.”

The novel chronicles the stories that the characters Nora and Effie tell each other whilst lonely on an island off the coast of Scotland. These alternate between Nora’s ancestral history and Effie’s days with her stoned boyfriend at Dundee University.

The university is a place close to Atkinson’s heart as she was herself a student there in the 70’s, the period in which the story is set, in fact many of the exam questions included in the narrative were questions Atkinson had had on her own university papers.

In effect the story becomes not only a light-hearted myriad of stories within a story but also a self-criticism of the stories within the story, as characters interrupt and correct the narrative themselves.

It is almost as if she has tried to negate literary criticism by already acknowledging possible errors. Atkinson reasons, “I’m a perfectionist because I hate criticism, I just hate the idea that someone will come back and say ‘do you think you could do that’ and ‘don’t you think it would be a good idea if you did that’

See below for a review of Emotionally Weird Advertisment

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York Student Vision

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

20 York Student Vision

ARTS Sponsored by YORK THEATRE ROYAL

ART

York City Gallery (01904) 551 818 Contemporary Work Yorkshire Printmakers Until 21 May Impressions Gallery (01904) 654 729 Highland Roadworks Michele Lazenby Until 21 May City Screen (01904) 541 155 Caroline Mole

THEATRE Friar Gate Theatre (0845 961 3000) Alchemist 11-23 May 29-30 May Grand Opera House (01904) 671818 The Rise and Fall of Little Voice 24 May York Theatre Royal (01904) 623 568

STUDENT STANDBY ONLY £3

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POETRY

Borders (01904) 634 123 Open Mic Poetry 17 May

JUST A PERFECT DAY Victoria Kennedy goes to Darren Day’s dressing room to meet the real man behind the technicoloured persona THE REAL Darren Day lies somewhere amidst a muddled turmoil of titles, “Mr. Nice Guy” and “Love Rat” being the two that most readily spring to mind.

His image has been so jostled and contorted that it is difficult to place him, either as the cheesy boy-nextdoor presenter of mindless game shows such as You Bet!, the seriously successful lead in top-billing musicals Joseph and Summer Holiday or the ‘rodent’ who broke the heart of a series of treasured soap stars, Anna Friel, Tracy Shaw and Isla Fisher, among them.

The only thing that is clear is that he loves to be in the professional limelight, especially if there is a live audience. And, furthermore, he is good at it.

“The main thing I like is the immediacy of a reaction,” Day enthuses. “If I record a TV series or record an album or a single, you’ve got weeks or months to wait before you find out how, one: the public is going to react and, two: how the media is going to react to it. But with theatre you get the immediacy of the audience straight away, and then your reviews generally come out the next day, so it all happens spontaneously.”

Starting out at a young age as a stand-up at working-men’s clubs, Day laughingly recalls, “Manchester police club was probably my worst...My first ever gig for them was about 10 or 12 years ago and I think the second I opened my mouth they hated me ‘cos I was a Londoner. I’ve had people come and grab the mic off me and throw bread rolls.” These days, the tables have turned; awarded the Manchester Evening Press Award for Performance of the Year in 1999, he now no longer walks into ‘a hostile atmosphere to be met with an ‘entertain me’ attitude’ but into a theatre filled with an audience, which has paid to see him.

There is a warmly honest quality to Day, which has been largely overlooked by the press. He is so excited yet shocked by his fame that he heartily offers conversation like no other celebrity I have interviewed.

Despite his obvious singing talent,

D UP

WHATS ON!

N U RO

by Sarah Mort

York Student Vision

Boy next door? he lists all his successes as a result of Andrew Lloyd-Webber, “I honestly believe that I would be back on a building site now if it hadn’t been for him. Everything that’s happened has been as a consequence of Joseph.

There was no other theatrical role that could have launched me in such a way because, I mean, at the time London was thinking ‘who is going to be the new Joseph’, they were talking about names like Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt

way the media has treated him, on one occasion he was almost on the verge of suing, “It perplexes me really, in the fact that the media’s been quite hypocritical in some respects with me.

Literally one day I was voted by one teen magazine as the ultimate boynext-door and the other day it said that I had beaten Will Carling in being Britain’s number one ‘love rat’. You can’t be both, you know. And I think the ‘love rat’ thing has been blown out

I was supposed not to be the last one left at a party, not to be found falling out of a nightclub drunk and you kind of live up to that but in the end you think ‘Who’s happy here? Everyone else but me. because the press were saying ‘it’s got to be a bigger story than Philip Schofield taking over from Jason Donovan’, so they were talking about big Hollywood stars, and fortunately Andrew decided to go with a different line and do the unknown.”

The fame, however, inevitably intensified his press attention and prompted a media circus of his life.

Looking back he is still angry with the

of proportion, I mean Anna Friel and I are still very good friends, Tracy Shaw and I are still good friends…I think if you put anyone’s love life under a microscope then anyone’s like that.”

When he took on Sir Cliff Richard’s character in the musical version of Summer Holiday the attention only increased. Whilst he respects Sir Cliff, Day is the first to admit that he is unable to live up to the lifestyle

WHEN DRIVING through endless rows of fields, I often feel the unbelievable urge to fling myself from the car and grab the air deep into my lungs as the beautiful scenery takes me to another planet.

But that feeling is so intense and

lying amongst them…pure bliss!

However, I advise that anyone with severe problems of paranoia should stay away. The fifteen enlarged sheep heads, all staring directly into your eyes is enough to make anyone nervous!

Highland Roadworks can be seen at the Impression’s Gallery until 21st May. If you feel inspired by Lazenby’s work, and fancy yourself as a photographer, she will be holding a workshop on 16 May, at the gallery, where you can produce your own work, that just might be exhibited in the gallery later in the year.

A good film isn’t the only reason to visit The City Screen as the wanna-be artists of York have the opportunity to display their work. The present exhibition of

refreshing that it cannot possibly be equaled by mere photographs. I was wrong. Michele Lazenby’s photographic exhibition, ‘Highland Roadworks’ challenges the romanticised impression of the Highlands imprinted on us by Hollywood directors by giving images of flowers and animals that are so close you could be

which Cliff has come to represent, as he wryly smiles, “I’m from a council estate in Essex and I like going out with the boys, getting drunk and stuff.”

In hindsight, Day has reasoned that the first five years of his career were marketed incorrectly, “My PR was being pulled in one direction by London Weekend Television, in the other from my management, the other from my record company and the other from my production company for theatre. So they all had their own idea of what ‘Darren Day’ should be. I was supposed not to be the last one left at a party, not to be found falling out of a nightclub drunk and you kind of live up to that but in the end you think ‘Who’s happy here? Everyone else but me.’ It was at the end of about 1996-97 that I actually thought:rebellion! And I did sort of rebel. I think if you’ve been suppressed then you’re going to rebel, you’re not just going to sort of undo them at the padlock and the chain and just step out.” The result was the lead in The Rocky Horror Show musical, a cathartic role which permitted him to swear on stage.

Day is currently plotting another change in his career next year, when he stars in a television drama as a Scouse welder in an Evida-esque production written for him by Carlton TV. He is also excited by the possibility of a film, “I get film scripts on the table now, I’ve turned maybe five movies down, not because I don’t want to do it but because theatre is eight shows a week. I’ve done back-to-back theatre now since 1993 and you just can’t commit to anything else”.

“You want to do stuff that constantly involves searching inside you for something more.” He describes as I leave, “I think a lot of the roles I played were pretty one-dimensional in the past…I’d much rather play a psychopath or a tormented soul because it is too easy to play good. It’s much more fun to play slightly screwed up!”

An ironic statement to hear from the man who reinvented the ‘wholesome good guy’ in the West End but miserably failed at playing the role in his real life.

Caroline Mole’s combines all kinds of ‘bits and bobs’ to alter appearances of normal decaying and boring objects. It’s creative, but to be honest I think her collages would make very nice greetings cards.

Even if you have a minimal affection of art, you’ll be sure to find at least one piece that impresses you at York City Gallery.

‘Print 2000’ displays work that ranges from painted amoebas to wood-cut cockerels and sharp colourful modern prints to detailed sketches. Well worth a look, but remember your York card to get in free of charge, as they’ve recently started to charge us poor students!

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

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York Student Vision

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

York Student Vision 23

FILMS

Please Kill Me

BEFORE SCREAM the horror genre was on the point of no return. For years it had been characterised by tired clichés and lack of imagination.

Typically horror films were spawned by directors that believed in the saying that 'if it's not broke don't fix it'.

It was Wes Craven (the king of the genre), who realised that this tried and tested formulae no longer cut it with the audience and added an aspect of originality to horror films.

This was the birth of the scream franchise. The joke was that the cast of the films were as clued up to the happenings of horror films as the audience at home were.

For me the Scream Franchise is dead; let’s just hope they have the sense to bury it before it starts stinking.

They anticipated the killers move's and mocked the rules of the horror films.

Scenes such as where one of the boys recites the basic rules of a horror film: 'Don't ever say you'll be right back….

Don't have sex' live fondly in most people's memories.

Quite deservedly the film was a hit and spawned the even better sequel Scream 2 and now Scream 3.

While Scream 2 was still fresh and original, Scream 3 isn't.

Obviously motivated by the desire to make money above the desire to make a good film. It retains the same formulae used in the other Scream's.

Yet in a post Blair Witch age it simply doesn't cut it.

It seems as tired and unoriginal as the films it initially tried to mock.

As with the previous Scream instalments we are treated to a whole wealth of new bit-part actors.

Their role in the film is not to act but sim-

Everybody Hurts Sometimes

Film: Boys Don’t Cry. Cert 18. Review Out Now

SHOCKING. DEEPLY shocking. And very, very good.

Boys Don’t Cry was never billed as a pleasant film nor as an easy watch. With enough emotional impact to halt you in your tracks, its brutal scenes of sexual violence made every single person sitting in the auditorium grimace at the truth behind this harrowing tale.

It’s not a pleasant film to watch, and to label it as simply “good” does it a vast injustice. It’s far more than that. Boys Don’t Cry draws you in so much, you feel a part of the dark story itself…although you’ll wish you weren’t.

The young lesbian transvestite Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank) is on the run from the beginning, believing she is leaving behind the troubles of Teena’s life in Lincoln with the sex change of the opening scene.

Creating a new identity, Brandon,

now a ‘he’, sets forth as a newcomer in the small rural community of Falls City, Nebraska, after befriending a couple of pool players amid scenes of drunks and violence.

His innocence and admirable qualities soon make him popular with the women and he appears to win favour with the blokes.

But after episodes of being bullied into bumper-riding, Brandon’s new love, Lana (Chloë Sevigny), takes him into dangerous ground with ultimate finality.

His love for Lana antagonises her macho friend, John (Peter Sarsgaard).

John, along with his drinking partner, are both crazy ex-cons who bear the scars from wounds received where they experimented how deep they could stab themselves before having to stop.

Once they decide to suspect Brandon isn’t all he seems, he finds himself in a world of suspicion and fierce tension where he is an outsider and at risk.

This life of mystery and violence closes in upon him, producing one of the most harrowing scenes on the big screen in recent years.

A lover, fugitive and victim, Brandon is just a young adult who has his life cut brutally short.

Based loosely upon the true story of 21-year-old Nebraskan Teena Brandon - a person who simply wants to have a good time and to fall in love - the film was directed by Kimberly Pierce, with a superb acting performance by Swank.

As one critic said, “It’s Romeo and Juliet in a trailer park”, and it’s one of the best films of the year

Wesley Johnson

York Student Vision

masked killer sets about recreating the film in reality, picking off the cast of the film one by one.

Inevitably the survivors of the Scream movies get involved and off we go for Scream 3.

To be fair Wes Craven has tried to introduce new ideas, such as giving the main characters alter egos from the Stab 3 movie.

Neve Campbell’s is actually quite good and gets the best lines in the film.

The rest (especially Courtney Cox's character), are just plain annoying.

Yet any of his original ideas are by far overshadowed by the re-spawning of old one's. The most blatant one is Randy's (the film nerd who bites it in Scream 2), reappearance to explain the rules of a trilogy.

There's quite simply no point to

In the post Blair Witch age it simply doesn’t cut it.

Scream 3, you know what's going to happen before even seeing the film.

For me the Scream Franchise is dead; let's just hope they have the sense to bury it before it starts really stinking. ply to provide fodder for the killer’s blade.

The basic story of scream 3 is set around the filming of Stab 3. The White

Truly Epic

Philip Diamond

Film: Gladiator Cert NA. Preview Out Soon Gladiator was far from a certain success when $100m was lashed on its production. The director Ridley Scott has not had a success in years (his recent works include G.I Jane), the lead Russel Crowe (despite his outstanding performance as Bud White in L.A Confidential), was hardly an ‘A’ grade star and the Roman Epic genre had been buried years ago.

Yet the people who control the money must have seen something in the script, and they will be far from disappointed with the final product.

Gladiator captures the audience from the opening Saving Private Ryan style opening forest battle and never lets them go until the credits are rolling.

The film shines from start to finish as an example of what can be done without technical wizardry and special effects but rather good old fashion action. This is an epic in every description of the word. The images are breathtaking, the performances excellent, the script great and the battle sequences fast-paced and vivid.

The story tells the tale of Naricissus Meridas (played near perfectly by Russel Crowe), a great Roman General and friend of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Marcus Aurelius death is the

Alien Antics Film: Galaxy Quest Cert 15. Review Out Now

EVER FORKED out good money to see the latest Hollywood comedy blockbuster but later wished you'd stayed in and watched Ground Force instead?

Well, when Vision asked me to review Galaxy Quest, I half expected it to be another unfunny farce. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

Galaxy Quest is a hilarious parody of the Star Trek TV shows and is crammed with every sci-fi cliche in the Captains Log. What's more, you needn't be an avid fan to get the gags.

Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver) and Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman) star as cult heroes from the 70s TV show Galaxy Quest.

Nesmith plays Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, the dauntless Captain of the NSEA Protector, DeMarco plays Tawny Maddison, his busty blonde side kick and Dane is the token alien from another galaxy, Dr. Lazarus - a kind of imitation Spock.

In the present day, their acting careers over, the cast are reduced to appearing at conferences organised by their cyber-geek devotees.

At one of these, the guys meet a group of obsessed fans dressed as aliens who tell them of the plight of their people at the hands of an evil extra-terrestrial pest.

It turns out the fans really are aliens and have intercepted broadcasts of the TV show, believing the characters to be real.

Before they know it, the cast and the

Tim Allen is full of extrvagance........This is a film that really works.

cat-

Almost Charlton Heston!!!

alyst for the film. The void left by the death of the emperor is filled by Commodus who sees Meridas fame as a danger to his power and disposes of him and his family. Meridas survives and ends up fighting in the Gladiator Arenas.

Driven by the desire to avenge his family Meridas fights with passion and strength.

Earning him a feared reputation and the right to fight before the emperor.

Gladiator marks the triumphant return of a genre that died with Ben-Hur and Spartacus. It is a mesmerizing experience; its moving cinematography and vivid action mark it as the zenith of film making. A sure hit.

Philip Diamond

rest of the crew are whipped away to do battle against the evil Sarris and his hideous minions, forced to show their mettle as real-life super heroes.

For me, what sets this aside from many other big budget films of the same category is the likeable and funny characters and the top quality acting. Tim Allen in particular is full of swank and extravagance and Weaver sheds the hard-boiled image built up in the Alien films with great success. With a few amusing supporting roles and some smashing special effects to boot, this is a film that really works.

It mocks the Trekkies without giving offence and the lampoonery goes just far enough to keep a strong story together. Is this the dawn of a resurgence of the spoof genre? Only time will tell.

Don't worry if you don't know your TNG from your DS9 or if you wouldn't know an Algorian Mammoth if it bit you, Galaxy Quest is a really funny picture. Go and see it, you might just have a laugh.

Brendan Spencelayh

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

24 FILMS York Student Vision

Hostile Takeover

Film: American Psycho Cert 18. Review Out Now

She and director Mary Harron portray Bateman as an empty excuse for a human being whose biggest worries are his complexion, restaurant seating status, and avoiding staining his designer suits with the blood of his victims.

While the cucumber cool hitmen of Tarantino thrillers have a certain pop culture appeal, Bateman is simply a drone

IN A SCENE FROM 'AMERICAN

PSYCHO',Wall Street psychopath Patrick Bateman pursues the witness to his latest murder with a chain saw, having been inspired by repeated viewings of 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.'

The scene echoes the senseless mur-

ders which have allegedly been encouraged by such films as 'Natural Born Killers' and 'Scream', crimes against society which have popularized the debate about violence in the movies to a level not seen since the "video nasty" scare of the early Eighties when 'The Exorcist', 'Driller Killer' and the aforementioned chain saw opus were revoked from rental shelves acrossthe country.

Further fuel to the fire was added when Stanley Kubrick withdrew 'A Clockwork Orange' from distribution following threats against his family.

Recently these films have surfaced again. 'The Exorcist' was re-released in 1998 to unanimous acclaim, while a number of now tame exploitation films are making their way to HMV. However, stories of the "the film made me do it!" variety are still top tabloid fodder and it seems that every week a new release is about to send the audience into the street with an insatiable appetite

American Psycho has been dealt a great disservice by being dragged into the violence-in-films debate

Colonel Mustard wasn’t quite sure where Miss Scarlet was hiding the candle stick. for aggravation.

What is notable about films which are singled out for such scrutiny - 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Fight Club' amongst them - is that they are often the wrong films since gore-fests with titles like 'Decapitation Camp 6' find no problem receiving a video release.

Which brings us back to 'American Psycho', the film which the moral majority do not want you to see this month.

A largely plotless excursion into the mind of Patrick Bateman (a revelatory Christian Bale), a stock broker by day and serial killer by night who slips further into

Totally Mesmerising

Film: Ghost Dog - Way of the Samurai Cert 15. Review Out Now RELEASED ON a shoe stringbudget, from a relatively unknown studio, and with a stupid sounding title Ghost Dog has done well to even get to England.

Boasting unknown actors and an untested director Ghost Dog will never be a mainstream movie.

Yet that is where its strength lies. It does not have to seek to constrict itself to box-office rules (huge special effects, an inevitable love scene and under-performing stars), instead the director has used it as a vehicle for his own peculiar ideas and beliefs. Where many other films are tired and repetitive this oozes with energy and vision.

It tells the story of a contract killer who bases his beliefs on the ancient Samurai code.

Named Ghost Dog because he is untraceable he is the complete professional with no fear of death, and a lifetime allegiance to one of the gagsters.

Using the Samurai code as the backbone to the movie we are offered a rare glimpse to an ancient culture based on honour and respect.

Much of the code still seems to ring true today and shows us how much our culture has regressed as well as progressed.

The leads reflections on his actions are often moving and create a character with a level of depth that is almost unparallel in modern Cinema.

Double-crossed by his employers the

insanity - yet also towards humanity whilst avoiding the attentions of a private investigator who may have him pegged as the killer of a rival trader.

A brave, occasionally brilliant indictment of Eighties yuppiedom and male machismo, 'American Psycho' has been dealt a great disservice by being dragged into the violence in films debate.

The screenplay was adapted from the notorious Bret Easton Ellis novel by lesbian commentator Guinevere Turner, who has managed to tone down the excess of the text whilst retaining the jet black humour.

lead seeks revenge in the only way he knows how, through blood letting. He turns on his employers (a particularly fat and useless group of gangsters lying in complete parallel to his cultured and disciplined life style).

The ending is especially well thought out and moviing but the whole film overflows with quality.

At times funny, at times moving and always able to make you stop and think this is one film that I would rate as totally unmissable.

But be warned this film will not please all, it is a slow starter and demands a lot more from the audience than the modern crop of blockbusters.

If you can live with this go see it as in my opinion it is one of best cinematic experiences of the year.

Philip Diamond

York Student Vision

John Berra

Mission Unbearable

Film: Mission to Mars Cert PG. Review Out Now

WHATEVER HAPPENS, we’ll always have 'Scarface,' the best film about irresponsibly used grenade-launchers ever made.

You looking at me?

and it is impossible to imagine any audience member wanting to emulate a man with musical preferences from Whitney Houston and Phil Collins.

Equally clever is the way in which the tone of the killings becomes less humorous, making Bateman's literally lifeless lifestyle entirely unappealing.

Infinitely more intelligent and ultimately less offensive than the multiplex friendly adventure movies which offer the audience sensationalist thrills through white male icons like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Steven Seagal, 'American Psycho' could well be 'A Clockwork Orange' for the credit card generation.

Although he clearly isn't capable of another three hour epic (or indeed anything with a plot. See 'Mission: Impossible') DePalma still has his moments.

'Snake Eyes,' for example, had the eminently watchable Nick Cage team up with the eminently reptilian Gary Sinise for a claustrophobic corruption 'n' boxing crowd pleaser. It was finely paced, competently scripted and technically stunning.

Its opening twenty-one minutes comprised one continuous dolly shot.

Tim Robbins is aware

that one of his stature has no place in this film

Unfortunately, 'Mission to Mars,' the film that reunites Sinese and DePalma, will not have you talking about much afterwards.

This will probably be because you will lapse into a stunned and horrified stupor as soon as the credits role.

How? You will ask, numbly. Why? Oh God, why? The 'film' (and I use the term loosely) traces the events leading up to first contact. The 'plot' (by which I mean a random collection of images) kicks off when the first astronauts on Mars are mysteriously sucked into a giant alien hoover.

The only survivor is the token person of colour, a likeable bland man played by

a likeable, bland actor. He buries the bodies and then inexplicably sets about becoming a wild-eyed, greasy dreadlocked Rastafarian.

He passes a year making a greenhouse and filling it with suspicious looking houseplants.

Back on earth, everyone gets understandably upset, especially the Rastas' friends, including Gary Sinese and Tim Robbins (that's right, the Oscar winning actor/director).

Instead of waiting for government approval, they ask an old man with an indeterminate accent if they can borrow his spaceship. He agrees. Off they go.

At this point, I should add that 'Mission to Mars' is set only twenty years from now.

To cut a boring story short, everything goes disastrously wrong. There is a meteor shower, the spaceship explodes, all communication with Earth is lost.

Aware that someone of his stature has no business in this film, Tim Robbins takes his helmet off and eats space. For some reason, this tense moment is accompanied by the theme tune from 'Willy Wonka.'

Meanwhile, B-Movie legend Gary Sinese finds the alien hoover and spends the next hour looking like an awed weasel as he solves the universe's great mysteries with unlikely ease.

He cracks the code to various alien conundrums with all the gracelessness of Adam West's 'Batman' ("Jumping Jehovah, Robin! That's it!") and is rewarded with a trip to another star. To think, he could have just rented '2001' instead.

Sixties Relived

TO MOST Englishmen America in the sixties invokes pictures of a world of Beehive hairdos, games of Chicken in neon cars and fast food restaurants manned by waitresses on roller-skates.

Few people could honestly say that much of this is sorely missed. Yet what about another endearing feature of the 60's; the drive in-Cinema.

In America they were once the cornerstone of youth's social life and still remain relatively popular to this day. Yet England was deprived of them, our climate acting as a dampener to any idea of exporting them to these shores.

That is until today, for I read with interest that a chain of them is being opened throughout the country's major cities.

In true retro style there will even be the option to buy fast food from roller skate propelled vendors sliding between the cars.

The company behind this venture none other than the supermarket chain Asda. Using their car parks as the venue they will be showing a variety of classics including Jaws, Grease, Saturday night fever and The Life of Brian. The cost to the consumer a mere £1, all of which goes to charity.

York piloted the scheme back on the 3rd of April with a sell-out showing of Grease and will continue to show films throughout spring and summer.

With demand so high I would recommend booking early to avoid disappointment.

I’ll try to keep you informed on what’s on in the next few weeks so as they watch this space.

Philip Diamond

CINEMA INFORMATION ODEON CINEMA Blossom Street, Micklegate Booking Line 01904 623287 WARNER VILLAGE CINEMAS Clifton Moor, York Booking Line 01904 691199

SITES AND SOUNDS www.scream3.com Not as you would expect about ‘Scream3’ but rather about the Stab triology that appear within the film. Great, never the less. www.americanpsycho.com The introducation when you open th site is the best that I’ve ever seen and the site itself is a rather nifty little package of interviews, photos and trivia. www.scoot.co.uk Get the listings for your local cinema on this rather handy little site.

Essential before any night down the pictures.

Christian Bunyan

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

MUSIC

York Student Vision 25

Have you seen this man?

Kate Wallis talks to Merz about goodness, poetry and his indefinable sound

C. CONRAD MERZ. A pseudonym randomly found inside an army surplus shirt. Why does everything have the habit of coming full circle? Everything somehow comes back to a strange but appropriate reflection of yourself.

After the inteview finished Lambert turned to me and asked – “Are you an English Literature student interested in making music?” Is he psychic? No, my questions, on reflection, were a bit of a give away!

It was refreshing to meet someone with so much genuine enthusiasm for what he is doing and so much emphasis on giving back to the public rather than taking from it.

“I’m a musician, playing music is kind of the reason why I’m doing it and there’s so much other stuff involved that actually coming out and playing shows reminds me why I’m doing it. Playing music to people, it’s the bottom line - and the top.”

Knowing that he had been quoted as saying he was essentially about goodness, I had wondered if he was going to be slightly pretentious and thought I’d see if he could justify himself. I was pleasantly surprised.

“What I was getting at was that I always try to have a positive end to my work because I consider it a job as well as a pleasure. I like to approach the music as a service, a public service because for so many people in this country their job is

THOSE WONDERFUL people at Vitaminic are offering what must surely be one of the cheekiest student competitions ever run.

Blurb are working with Vitaminic in trying to find 5 regional slaves, err... winners, who will each become one of 5 regional lackeys, er... representatives, to help Vitaminic in their quest to spread the word of the digital revolution.

It’s a great way to get a foot in the door of the wonderful world of the music industry.

There’s even the chance of turning it into a full-time job!

All Vitaminic want you to do is, in no more than 100 words, tell them why you think Vitaminic should employ YOU! Answers should be emailed to: competition@vitaminic.co.uk

computer generated samples – how do you begin to create something like that?

“A lot of the songs on the record are written from loops and sounds on my sampler. I used to write with an acoustic and occasionally I do, with songs like ‘Forsaken’ but most of the songs I just get a beat or a loop and then I use that as inspiration for a melody which I just try and craft or carve out of the sounds that are going round and round – you just sort

I like to approach the music as a service, a public service because for so many people in this country their job is public service. I think that’s got a bit lost in modern day society

Merz : Don’t you love me? public service. I think that’s got a bit lost in modern day society, that entertainment is a public service as well because it’s so wrapped up in ego and fame and superiority - entertainment essentially should be a public service as well - we’re there to augment people’s life and to consolidate their feelings, emotions and the things they’re

going through. That’s why I said it’s about goodness because ultimately the end of my job is good.”

Merz’s sound is so difficult to define I decided to take the back to basics approach and find out how he goes about writing music. He merges the acoustic ballad with break beats, keyboard jams and a range of

of carve a song out of a loop really.”

There’s only one song that Conrad didn’t write the words for on the album, and he took the lyrics for it from ‘Starlight Night’, a poem by Gerald Manley Hopkins. Not a trait often practiced by the music industry, I wanted to find out how it had come about.

“I wrote it when I was 16 actually and at the time I was listening to a contemporary jazz composer called Mike Westbrook and he did a whole album of William Blake poems set to music and I related to that and was influenced by that. A friend of mine was studying Hopkins at A-level

and told me about him and I checked him out as he thought my lyrics were similar to his work. In a way he was right although he’s a great poet and I’m a songwriter. So I just wrote that on the piano at home when I was 16. I’d like to do more poetry, I’ve got some plans in mind for new recordings using poems in songs.”

Conrad Lambert is very definitely a man trying to give to the world his own personal very varied experience of life, through different musical forms. But what about the other people on stage?

“Its my music but it’s very open for other people’s contributions and I recognise other people’s contributions, as opposed to a band like Massive Attack who are a collective as well and use a lot of people to help create their music but most people don’t recognise that, because of the public image of Massive Attack, they are just not credited. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing or either way, but as opposed to that I do acknowledge people who have had an influence.”

Well I come no closer to being able to wittily define Merz’s sound and am left almost speechless by the latest Underwolves remix of ‘Lotus’! However talking to Conrad Lambert, it is obvious that he is not concerned with sounding different for the sake of it. He is a man happy with his current success, with a lot of perception and ideas, who wants to share them. I’m prepared to let him – are you?

Angelic Dust

AFTER MANY months of putting it off I ventured across to Leeds to check out a night I’ve heard a lot about, the night is Dust, the place Liquid. Liquid itself is a neon, bubble-tubed fantasy-world where the DJs play on a pile of bricks in the corner, still let’s ignore the décor and get on with the music.

With energy flowing out of the room and onto the street as I walked in I knew that there would be something special within...

I was not disappointed, with a classic track from Nirvana kicking off my night and theirs. To describe it as a ‘rock’ night would be insulting; soon I was catapulted into the late 90’s with Fat Boy Slim and all the energy that nineties dance music has to offer.

Soon the music had moved into the time that fashion forgot: the 80’s with Madness and other classic Ska and punk tunes which reminded me that not everything in that decade was baggy clothed white guys [trying] rapping and I was soon a part of the music.

With the change from one sound to the next happening in an almost seamless flow, it’s got its roots held firmly in the modern dance arena. The Dust DJs looked to obvious influences such as Prodigy and

York Student Vision

Do you know what this stuff does to kids?

“It’s not only homegrown talent who frequent Dust: Korn, the rockers from across the pond turned up to check them out after a gig in Leeds... and I’ve been, so nuff said really!”

Goldie as well as the more traditional rock bands such as the Rolling Stones.

In keeping with the colourful mix they play funk, skate, rap, metal, plenty of drum ’n’ bass with added hip-hop and big beat to make it a very eclectic night indeed.

Dust has hosted many gigs from upand-coming artists such as Manchild and York’s own Tung. But it’s not only homegrown talent who frequent Dust: Korn, the rockers from across the pond turned up to check them out after a gig in Leeds... and I’ve been, so nuff said really!

The DJ’s describe dust as ‘the alternative block party’ as they play sounds from across the musical spectrum. The night is run by people who like to party and make people dance without indulging the DJ’s whims.

They are into music and having a party, and claim not to do it for any corporate company money shenanigans which is all very political for what started as a simple need to explore the musical avenues that are open to us all.

Dust can be found every Wednesday at Liquid bar, but if your finances don’t allow it or you just cannot be bothered then Dust can be found on Saturday week four in Goodricke where I'm informed that they will ‘rock like a funky mutha’

Rory Dennis

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

26 MUSIC York Student Vision Armand Van Helden ‘Koochi’

John & Ryan’s Friendly 4our”

It seems a long time since Armand Van Helden’s breakthrough track ‘You don’t know me’, and subsequent release ‘Flowers’; though this is the first slice of new material to be taken from his forthcoming album. This first release from Van Helden indicates a shift in direction for the New York house guru, suggesting a return to funk and hip-hop influences. ‘Koochi’ is basically Van Helden’s funked up cut of Gary Numan’s classic ‘Driving my car’, with some full-on scratching thrown in for good measure. An unexpected come back single from Van Helden , though surprisingly this is strikingly fresh and far removed from much of the influx of charty house to flood the charts of late.

Paul Van Dyk Riddle)

feat

St.Etienne

‘Tell Me Why’ (The

Lord of the trance Paul Van Dyk returns to the charts with a stunningly effective new track. Currently dominating radio station play lists all over the country, this is another slice of Van Dyks superbly produced trance to breach the mainstream. The St. Etienne vocal mix is the one you are likely to have heard, though it is worth checking out the remixes to fully appreciate the track. The track will inevitably be a huge chart success on its release. Expect this to be in subsequent compilations for years.

Sonique ‘It Feels So Good’

This is a welcome re-release for femme diva DJ Sonique. This track was originally released a couple of years ago following immense popularity in clubs, though its poor chart position simply didn’t reflect the sheer quality of the track. This is an absolute choice record slickly merging Sonique’s piercing vocals with uplifting orchestral hooks. This is currently dominating Radio one playlists throughout the day, and without doubt it will be huge on release. This should signal Sonique’s rise to the DJ’s major league once again.

Sneaky Armada…feat DJ Sneak

This is a record that has been around for a while on test pressing, it seems that this is the track that everyone is talking about. A Behemoth of a track that has been caned in clubs up and down the country. Already it has been made an ‘Essential’ track for Pete Tong and a ‘Tried and tested’ cut for Judge Jules. The chances are you will have already heard this infectious bootleg, noticeable for its sampling of Groove Armada’s ‘Shakin that ass’. This track is currently awaiting an imminent major label release, and following recent successes of bootlegs in the charts i.e. the Phat divas; Fragmas or Progress.

Coming at ya

One-Step Ahead

THE UNIQUE sound of UK garage has massaged the ears of many since the start of this year, but has been around a lot longer than people may realise.

Since 1993 DJs such as Norris Da Boss, Mat Jam, Tuff Jam and Dreem Teem’s Timmi Magic, amongst many others have been spinning the wheels of Garage to a minority underground audience. The Gass Club on a Sunday was the first venue to spin out the latest garage vibe in the early 1990s.

Since then, UK Garage was kicking out its now distinguishable 2-step rhythm only in the underground London clubs and pirate radio stations until its recent commercial success.

The classic 1997 tune Double 99’s ‘Ripgroove’ was a hit in Ibiza and made its way onto Ministry of Sound Annual III as one of Pete Tong’s essential tunes of the year.

There were many other UK Garage tunes that were a huge success namely Sneaker Pimps ‘Spin Spin Sugar’, Todd Terry ‘Something Goin` On’ and Tuff Jams remix of Rosie Gaines ‘Closer than Close’.

Since 1997 Garage has had little commercial success as trance took over as the latest dance phenomenon. However UK Garage promoters worked extremely hard both domestically and abroad to lift garage onto the commercial scene.

Shanks and Bigfoot rocked the charts in the spring of 99

with ‘Sweet like Chocolate’ and ‘Straight from the Heart’ but it wasn’t until the latter half of the year when everyone felt the full effects of the explosion. Artful Dodger’s ‘Rewind’ reaches dizzy heights of 2nd in the charts at the same time DJ Luck and MC Neat were enjoying chart success.

The turn of the year marked an excitable period for UK Garage. The Dreem Teem began their Sunday morning slot on Radio One broadcasting to the nation the finest sounds of UK Garage. Record companies were quick to jump aboard the garage bandwagon. The Ministry of Sound quickly signed up UK garage’s potentially most talented producer: Artful Dodger.

Garage critics argue UK Garage is still fundamentally a London thing.

However the splendour of Craig David’s voice originates from Southampton as he rocks Garage industry with the vocals from ‘Rewind’ and ‘Fill me in’.

Sweet Female Attitude hails from Manchester whose single ‘Flowers’ has currently been in the charts for four weeks.

Garage is now becoming a nationwide dance genre, which provides an alternative and unique sound to the increasingly massive dance industry.

Many of the summer classics this year will be garage anthems and listen out for the sound of UK Garage on adverts later this year. Although UK Garage is becoming increasingly commercialised the roots of the underground are too strong to die.

York Student Vision

Ryan Garner

Dark Hoarse

UNLIKE, IT seems, the majority of the folk gathered to witness the last night of Macy Gray’s European Tour, I wasn’t there to hear either of her two singles, which, let’s face it, have been played to death recently.

I was there to see if

vocal similarities between Gray and the bearded yokel front man of ‘The Wurzels’.

The crowd were getting restless after a 20 minute wait still hadn’t yielded a reappearance. All was explained when the whole band reclaimed the stage along with support act Black Eyed Peas to perform a track they’d written her live act could add together and all 22 of another dimension to her them were in match45 minute long overing white outfits! played album. Does it Then Macy growled really justify one magaher way through a zine’s acclaim of one the version of ‘No best 12 soul albums of all Woman No Cry’, rectime? Can she prove she “Not just instrumental solos and vocal ad- ognisable only by its ‘everyis worth all the hype?

On stage she definitely libbing - but even, in the case of Sex-o-matic thing’s gonna be alright’ singa-long middle-8, before finalmanaged to add extra depth to Venus Freak, microphone fellation!” ly deciding it was time for ‘I her album, aesthetically as well Try’.

She didn’t as musically – the guitarist Soul then degenerated into Disco even need to bother opening sported a fantastic mullet and the backing singers were not only well when Macy, already clad in a red her mouth – the whole audience knew the tasty but kept the songs going as Macy sequinned suit, was joined on stage by words already. The eccentricity of Macy’s careered back and forth encouraging ‘showbiz pal’ and fellow fruit cake Roisin attire, the volume of matching outfits on Murphy from Moloko for a duet of last stage and the whole crowd singing along crowd participation.

– it seemed almost like a carnival.

As for the tunes, they were played summer’s no. 4 hit ‘Sing it Back’. more or less in the same order as on the Macy continued with a cover of clas- But if its not about giving a performalbum, but given an added bit of spice! sic soul track, which most of the audience ance what is it about? And Macy sure These included not just instrumental solos mistook for its famous ‘re-interpretation’ gave us that! and vocal add-libbing - but even, in the by ‘The Wurzels’ as ‘ I’ve Got A Brand case of Sex-o-matic Venus Freak, micro- New Combine Harvester’, which was an easy mistake to make considering the Greg Ayles phone fellation!

Like ‘em? Bukem JUNCTION 21, a small clubbing venue in the heart of Leicester has provided some of the greatest clubbing experiences in the UK. Every week, this newly renovated 700-capacity arena, brings in a selection of the most respected DJ’s in the clubbing world.

Nights such as Get It On (Fridays)

and Hotdog (Saturdays) have seen J21 favourites Norman Jay, playing his set of rare groove and funk classics, and wonderful Lisa Lashes, dropping the more conventional house plates in the main room.

More recent guest DJ’s to feature behind the decks include Deejay Punk Roc, 808 State and the Mo’ Wax head and UNKLE co-founder, James Lavelle.

However, the usual mixture of hard-house and trance were traded-in for a mesmerising night of ‘intelligent’ drum & bass by the Good Looking Organisation headed by the pioneer of the genre, LTJ Bukem.

The ‘journey’ began with Rantoul and Blame who started the night off. Within a few ‘miles’ of the journey, the mood on the dance floor was intense with Rantoul delightfully mixing his way through slightly harder & faster bass-lines and instrumental beats.

Judging by the crowd reaction and the energy displayed within the club, both Blame and Rantoul were well-received and set the scene perfectly for Bukem.

When Blame had finished, suddenly the lights dimmed and behind the decks could be seen a tall man with an athletic

frame and an even bigger talent. LTJ Bukem was unmistakable in his trademark blue-tinted sunglasses.

The anticipation had turned into adoration and Bukem was now in control. The man whose sets have been regularly described as ‘seminal’ and ‘groundbreaking’ broke off into some of the tracks from his previous compilation albums; the Logical Progression and Earth series.

The set slowly shifted into new sounds from his latest epic, ‘Journey Inwards’. Here he showcases his favourite compositions, with the result being a mixture of drum & bass, ambience and jazz-fusion.

While he spins “Sunrain”, the mood in the club relaxes as he combines a chunky, Curtis Mayfield-influenced guitar riff with subtle keyboards and sultry vocals.

However, the highlight of the night was the laid-back groove of “Rhodes to Freedom” during which the atmosphere was electric. The show concluded unexpectedly with the crowd being fulfilled with his latest ‘journey’ into drum & bass but still wanting more.

After his set, he came down from the box and shook hands with a couple of his avid followers. If God is a DJ, he couldn’t get much better than LTJ Bukem.

A truly great man.

Abhishek Das

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

York Student Vision MUSIC 27

News,Views and Reviews

Artist: Eagle Eye Cherry Title: Living In The Present Future Released: Out Now 'SAVE TONIGHT' overplayed, infectious, not really my kind of thing. My final exams draw ever closer and I start grooving away in my bedroom to Eagle Eye Cherry's second album - have I finally cracked up?

Is what was previously annoyingly repetitive now the only form of data entry my tired brain can take or is this album a step forward? Interesting question.

Eagle Eye Cherry makes it clear that he can still do the up tempo catchy ballad, you can actually sing 'Save Tonight' over the top of 'Burning Up', and 'She Didn't Believe' is in the same vein.

However if you've found a sound that makes your debut album go platinum across all Europe and America it would be foolish to abandon it. Let's face it, if its catchy people buy it.

However Eagle Eye worked on this album with Rick Rubin, founder of Def Jam and producer of the Chilli Peppers, Beastie Boys and Public Enemy and this perhaps explains the greater depth and variety of sounds on the album.

Although his vocals are still the focus, there is a much heavier guitar sound. 'Are You Still Having Fun?' pounds through rock riffs and the melodious punching guitar of 'First to Fall' is a perfect compliment to his low, sexy, vocals.

Diversity is definitely the name of the game; other tracks are very blues orientated. The emphasis on live recording means every scrape of the guitar can be heard in 'Together' as it moves into an almost Beck- like groove, playing with harsh echoing voice effects and even very urban electronic sounds.

Similarly 'One Good Reason' starts with blues guitar and even generates into scratching sounds; this topped of with haunting vocals and pumping drums, it

Singles Bar

SCOOBY DOO! I blame the state of the world today on those ‘pesky little kids’. If it wasn’t for them we’d believe in ghosts and I wouldn’t have seen their smug, smiling faces as they unmasked my dad as Santa - some times they simply go too far.

becomes quite reminiscent of Lenny Kravitz.

The album includes the long awaited duet with sister Neneh Cherry and the harmonies on the track 'Long Way Around' are undoubtedly beautiful.

Neneh's rap ' to the beat y'al' seems a bit forced and out of place - any excuse to take us back to those happy 'Buffalo Stance' days!

The last track features Santana and not only is the guitar stunning, the duet brings out the 'Prince' in Eagle Eye. 'Wishing it Was' is a funk performance including vocal harmonies and growling!

Such concerns seem far far away as we get back from our Easter vac BUT NO! These same kids have come back brighter, and disguised as Marbles. ‘Fallin’

Overground’ is the short annoying one that doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.

Artist: Renaissance Album: Awakening Released: Out Now

Although still repetitive in places, the lyrics are darker and often more perceptive. He talks of burying his lover in 'Together', and 'Shades of Gray' is a haunting examination of the bizarre perceptions of modern society, 'The pigeons are ravens, and the gulls are vultures. And trash is art and cash is culture'.

After initially feeling affronted by 'She Didn't Believe' and its suggestion that women are gullible and easily deceived by men, I realised I certainly wasn't in a position to disagree.

Simple language and chord sequences create all the songs, but this album shows the different methods available for playing with a basic form.

Eagle Eye Cherry remains a very accessible artist, the question is has he given his album enough depth to prevent it sinking into the quickly overplayed category? Scary to think I'll be a real person with a real job by the time I find out!

Kate Wallis

ARE YOU sitting comfortably?

Good, then I’ll begin. Some six years ago a legendary album was released that was to become widely accepted as the greatest mix compilation ever made. A compilation that reflected the beginnings of Nottingham’s superclub Renaissance.

This compilation was the first of a long running series of Renaissance albums. It was mixed by the legendary/ infamous partnership of Sasha and John Digweed.

This pioneering compilation introduce us to the likes of Jam & Spoon’s ‘Utella’, Moby’s ‘Go’ and Leftfield. More importantly though, it set the foundations for what we now call ‘progressive’. It was an album that was years ahead of its time, establishing the conventions for what we now term ‘trance’.

Six years on, ‘Awakening’ is a realistic reflection of what is enticing clubbers to the dance floor of Renaissance every

Artist: Moloko Title: Things to make and do Released: Out Now AFTER THE chart success of recent hits, ‘Sing It Back’ and ‘The Time Is Now’, plus the Best New-Comer nomination you could almost be forgiven for disassociating Moloko from their two previous albums, which were anything but mainstream.

So, what should we expect from their recent release ‘Things To Make And Do’, which way will it go? After listening to it I think you’ll agree it gives it out both ways, (pardon the expression).

The album still has the quirky eclecticness of ‘Do You Like My Tight Sweater?’ but overall has a more mainstream sound. ‘Things To Make And Do’ gels better than earlier releases, but still contains the kitsch sounds and titillating vocals that make Moloko’s style so distinctive.

Whilst hating to come out with a cliche, it’s a real cross-over album, mixing

tracks that make you want to boogie at Toffs (The Time is Now), with others that make listening to the album a growing

York Student Vision

experience (Mother).

Musically the sound is as diverse as ever, the variety of sounds – hammond,

Saturday night. ‘Awakening’ is mixed by Dave Seaman - no, not the England goalkeeper but the criminally unheard of DJ. This album delves into Seaman’s sophisticated and progressive soundscape.

It is hard to find a flaw with this compilation simply because there aren’t any. This is by far the most sublime and listenable mix compilation I have heard for a long time.

It really is a rich and diverse collection of beautiful music compiled onto two lovingly crafted CDs. The music swirls effortlessly in different directions, binding throbbing basslines and breakbeats with spine tingling vocals and electro synth samples. Essentially this is a musical journey in its own right .

It is difficult to identify singular tracks that stand out simply because the tracks function more as a suite of music and an album; though ‘Melon Kolic’ and BT’s ‘Dreaming’ provide stop-off points. ‘Awakening’ is a seminal piece of music that stands head and shoulders above any similar dance compilations of this kind. It is one of those rare albums that simply keeps getting better the more you listen to it. An essential compilation for anyone’s collection.

John Donaghy

brass and strings- is matched by Roisin’s chameleon voice.

It sounds more like three or four voices, ranging from demure whispers to soaring cries, and her unmistakable sharp, dark twists (with hints of Sheffield) in tracks such as ‘Indigo’.

But whereas on ‘Do You Like My Tight Sweater?’ Roisin’s vocals occasionally grated, being just too harsh at times, on this album the sound is more melodic.

Parts of the album have a space-age, celestial edge to it, with icy synthesiser and keyboard, but the real treat of this release is the chunky bass, especially on ‘Absent Minded Friends’ and ‘Indigo’.

Really catchy tracks, ‘Remain the Same’ and ‘Pure Pleasure Seeker’, contain bizarre and unusual sounds, proving that originality in music does not necessarily exclude it from the mainstream.

Going out on a fine note, the album ends with a different mix of ‘Sing It Back’ (Boris Musical Mix). For sound bytes from the album go to www.moloko.com.

The site is not brilliant but does contain a discography and tour dates among other general bits of info.

Nicola Midgley

Oh yes, it has all the youthful vitality the Marbles can muster, but the lyrics seem to have been written in crayon by a less than water-tight small child.

‘You got it, I want it’ whispered a faintly simian Charlatan. ‘Impossible’ I snorted, unmask that man! Some hairpulling later and the Charlatans were exposed for what the Marbles had suspected all along - drums by Mani, vocals

by Ian Brown.

It’s a ‘Sign of the times’ lamented Lee Griffiths, sat self-absorbed at the piano. Ugh! It makes you feel like you’ve just walked into that painful emotional bit in Ally McBeal. “Let’s not write lyrics” Lee seems to croon, “let’s make lists of “isn’t it ironic” observations and pass them off as empathy instead.” This man was Scoobied long before the Marbles came onto the scene.

Then something amazing happened, Cousteau sang ‘She don’t hear your prayer’. The guy’s voice is like Tom Jones but without the effort. Before you get time to think “elevator music” the tune has changed and it sounds like you’re in outer space!

Now ‘I’ve seen some things’, but not by Hobotalk before. If Cousteau was laid back this man’s horizontal and thinking of New England. Between them these singletons reminded me why Ben Harper will always be a joy to listen to.

Good stuff.

Suitably refreshed, but not for long, as who should appear but the people’s favourite Precious with ‘It’s gonna be my way’. I hate to tell you this girls, but if you get a little bit of grit and force it into an oyster you get a pearl, do the same with five bits of irritant and a record label, you just get disappointed.

Just when I thought the Marbles had

succesfully despooked the singles bar, Eat Static come along with ‘Mondo a Go Go’. I’m having flashbacks to Prince of Persia, and I’m dancing like I wish my knees had universal joints. Be warned, to listen to this single in public is to make an abject fool of yourself - magic.

12th May, 2000 Issue 119

Vision

Sport

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ROSES COLOUR SUPPLEMENT - CENTRE PAGES

YORK DEFLOWERED BY LANCASTER We came, we saw, we had a good laugh. But sadly we were conquered. Tim Burroughs and Paul Wrigglesworth took a Vision team to Lancaster and saw events unfold in Roses 2000

LANCASTER RECORDED a comfortable victory over York at Roses 2000 to regain the Carter-James trophy and restore a twopoint 19-17 lead in the series.

Most of the damage was done on the Friday as the home side won twenty out of twenty-four events including a complete whitewash of York in the squash competition.

York restored some pride on the Saturday with the sailing team and Boat Club particularly dominant.

While York’s sailors won all their events, the Boat Club were denied a similar honour by a starter’s fault in the women’s novice competition.

“I would just like to thank the spectators and competitors. It’s the best Roses I’ve ever known”

York Won Men’s & Women’s Skiing Canoe Slalom Golf Women’s Rugby Sevens Women’s Indoor Hockey Women’s 5-a-side Football Men’s & Women’s Rowing Men’s Fencing Archery Netball Sailing Men’s Volleyball Women’s Football

Lancaster Won

James Crouch, Lancaster AU President

Nevertheless Lancaster retained their advantage in the overall competition, winning 151.5-77.5. Due to the sheer size of Roses - 85 different fixtures in 34 different disciplines - it is becoming increasingly difficult for the visiting side to dominate. With impending exams and uninviting floors to sleep on, it is highly unlikely for the number of visiting participants to exceed those from the home side and so an away victory would be an achievement indeed.

The show-piece events were always going to be the rugby and football matches. The 1st XV rugby in particular was given an incredible build up as it was preceded by a parachute jump onto the pitch with jump master Major Mike Jeng presenting the match ball to the captains.

The game was every bit as exciting as the parachuting with the two sides fiercely determined to win the closely fought contest. After an early exchange of penalties that put York 9-6 ahead, Lancaster seized the initiative and broke through to score a try resulting from some clever play in the backs.

York’s pressure in the second half was rewarded with a try to take them into a 14-13 lead. The match was then finely balanced, but Lancaster eventually fought off late pressure to secure victory in a contest that was a credit to both teams. Three members of the crowd chose to express their appreciation in a more artistic manner - streaking across the pitch mid-match.

The 1st XI football tie failed to live up to its showcase billing as chances were limited in a very hard fought match. York got off to a poor start, conceding a header in the opening minutes, but went on to dominate the first half without creating clear-cut chances.

The closest they came was captain Jim Horsfield’s powerful header which was tipped over.

Lancaster defended resolutely and doubled their lead with a clinical half-volley. York failed to impose

Roses Results

Line-out action during the 1st XV Rugby Match themselves and couldn’t mount any sustained pressure. Horsfield said of his side’s performance: “In the second half we were muscled out of the game, but we dominated the first and were unlucky. ” Lancaster captain Ali Merry claimed his side “were confident as we had already beaten York twice this year” while York striker Phil Darby blamed defeat on inconsistency: “We worked hard and played better football, but conceded sloppy goals. It’s the story of our season.”

Roses climaxed with an outdoor presentation on a glorious Sunday afternoon. Awards were given out to the winning captains by Professor Ritchie, Lancaster University Vice-Chancellor.

Despite the Lancaster victory, York AU President Ben Harding was upbeat about the weekend. “Friday was disappointing as we lost so many events, but after that it became fairly even. The sun has shone and

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York Student Vision

everyone has enjoyed themselves, and that is the most important thing.” Asked about results he found particularly satisfying, he said: “The volleyball was very good and then the Boat Club and sailing team were excellent. I enjoyed the men’s rugby and the parachute jump before it was a great success.”

Ben expressed mixed feelings as to whether he was relieved his work was over: “The organisational side has been heavy but at the same time everyone has had a fantastic weekend.” These sentiments were echoed by Lancaster AU President James Crouch who cited: “Three months of hectic preparation and two hours sleep in the last three nights” as being particularly draining. “I would just like to thank the spectators and competitors”, he continued. “It’s the best Roses I’ve ever known.”

Water Polo Riding Men’s & Women’s Cricket Men’s & Women’s Squash Men’s & Women’s Badminton Men’s Rugby Sevens Karate Rugby League Men’s Indoor Hockey Swimming Men’s & Women’s Pool Men’s & Women’s Darts Lacrosse Men’s, Women’s & Mixed Hockey Korfball Men’s & Women’s Rugby Union Men’s & Women’s Tennis Ballroom Dancing Women’s Fencing Women’s Volleyball Table Tennis Men’s & Women’s Basketball Ultimate Frisbee Men’s & Women’s Football

Final Score York 77.5 Lancaster 151.5

*HAPPY HOUR* 5:30 - 8:30 EVERY DAY - ALL NIGHT WEDNESDAY ALL NIGHT THURSDAY FOR AU MEMBERS

12th May, 2000 Issue 119