scene “I don’t think anyone has a completely stable gender identity.”
INTERVIEW: VERITY SUSMAN
Speaking in Tongues What Can We Learn from the World’s Best Restaurant? ‘Cinematic Theatre’: A New Beginning for Film?
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scene
Tuesday 20th May, 2014
MUSIC//BOOKS
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Not all is what it seems
Success is better when achieved twicE
ecently, Nirvana re-formed at the induction ceremony of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio, with this year being their first year of eligibility. Although bass guitarist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl were present, there was an obvious missing presence in the shape of the late frontman Kurt Cobain. Such absence was filled by female singers including Joan Jett and Lorde who put their own unique spin on Nirvana’s grunge tracks; a decision approved by Grohl and Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love, who pointed out that no suitable male singers were willing. Grohl reuniting with his former bandmate reminded many that before Foo Fighters, he was in one of the biggest bands in the world. He joins a select few musicians who have had success in more than one band and in some cases have had solo success.
I along with rival band Oasis caused one of pop music’s best rivalries in 1995, was dubbed “The Battle of Britpop”. In overall figures, Blur unfortunately lost, with all of Oasis’ studio albums going to number one and the latter having twice as many top 10 singles. Unlike Oasis, Blur were not as well known for the spats of the Gallagher brothers, but have managed to cause controversy in recent years (if cutting off Adele’s acceptance speech at the Brits is considered a controversy). After Blur, Albarn was the vocalist and co-creator of virtual band Gorillaz. Although Gorillaz made a dent on the chart and won significant airtime on the then ailing, now ailed, MTV music, they never quite invoked hysteria in such a massive way as Blur. Albarn has recently released his debut solo album ‘Everyday Robots’ which reached the top 10 in the album charts, showing continual growth as a musician.
t’s always exciting when a character surprises you, and ends up being completely different from how you thought they’d be. Whether it’s a classic rags to riches story, or a good guy gone bad (or vice versa), character reinvention can really make a novel what it is. Let’s have a look at some of my favourites. A piece on character reinvention would be nothing without looking at J. K. Rowling’s complex Severus Snape. We start the Harry Potter series hating Snape almost as much as we hate Voldemort. He is greasy, mean and sinister, making potions in the dungeons; the dreaded bane of student life at Hogwarts. He sides with slimy Slytherin whenever possible and you become convinced that he must be on the side of the Dark Lord. Yet it transpires that he is the most brave and loyal servant of Dumbledore’s of the lot. You don’t find out until the very end that he risked his life over and over again by acting as a spy for the good side. He plays the part so well he fools us all, characters and readers alike, and by the end we feel guilty for hating him all this time. We could all learn a little from Severus’ painstaking faithfulness and courage. And then we have Émile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin, the protagonist of the famous book of the same name. She begins the novel as a meek and mild woman, unhappily married to her egocentric cousin, Camille. Thérèse lives an uninteresting and frankly depressing life running a shop in the back streets of Paris, each day as dull as the last. This is until she meets Laurent, a friend of Camille’s, who changes Thérèse’s life dramatically. They enter into a sordidly passionate affair, one you would never expect Thérèse capable of. Her life becomes one of danger, passion and murder, a far cry from the mundane life she lived at the beginning of the novel. Zola truly brings her out of her shell, which is both exciting and terrifying.
Paul McCartney is easily the biggest success in the case of multiple bands, having a music career spanning over fifty years. Originally part of the biggest band of all time with songwriting like no other, The Beatles are one of Britain’s pride-and-joy acts in the music world, with McCartney writing over fifteen of the band’s number one hits. After disbanding in 1970, Paul McCartney formed second band Wings with wife Linda McCartney, with which they produced one of the most successful and famous James Bond songs of all time in ‘Live and Let Die’. Whilst the later project was never going to match the former’s dizzying heights of success, its output in no way tarnished McCartney’s legacy and paved the way for later solo work; his latest album reaching the top three, something which he is probably used to by now.
“With a more electronic feel, New Order were a far cry from Joy Division, which is what made them great.” Despite having a short career of four years, Joy Division were a pinnacle of the English rock scene. They gained cult status similar to Nirvana after vocalist Ian Curtis committed suicide, with ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ reaching no.13 in the charts. Sticking to a pact they made, remaining members Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris formed a new band: New Order, one of the 80’s biggest successes. With a more elecronic feel, New Order were a far cry from Joy Division, which is exactly what made them great. They were able to adapt to the sound of the time whilst making a name for themselves and were hugely successful because of it. Damon Albarn remains, despite a multitude of accolades, an underrated modern great. Part of one of Britpop’s biggest successes, Blur, who,
Representing the females, Joan Jett famously started out as part of all-female rock group The Runaways, the inspiration behind the mediocre Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning fronted film of the same name. The Runaways had a major cult following and showcased women in the rock genre. However, the band disbanded and Jett managed to create a name for herself in her own right, with her being the main star alongside backing group The Blackhearts. This was huge for Jett with songs like ‘Bad Education’ and ‘I Love Rock and Roll’ showing her unique, growly voice to the masses and showcasing that which makes her the ‘Godmother of Punk’. When Dave Grohl formed Foo Fighters, he became the monolith of Americana rock he remains to this day. He is the modern pinnacle of not limiting yourself to familiarity.
Mairead Kearins
Perhaps one of the most famous and classic character reinventions of all time is that of Mr Darcy. Many of you are probably bored of hearing about how wonderful he is, and how all women swoon over him, but at the beginning of Pride and Prejudice he is nothing short of an arse. He is rich, arrogant, demeaning of Elizabeth and downright supercilious. Over time, he realises his love for Elizabeth, but the gap between their social status still bothers him. Eventually, Darcy reveals himself as loyal, trustworthy and truly decent. It is this hidden decency that makes the reader fall in love with him, much as they eventually do with Severus Snape. There’s nothing quite like a love-hate relationship, and a complex character who keeps his brilliance hidden beneath the surface. Lilith King Taylor
scene
Tuesday 20th May 2014
A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS Hi everyone! We are your new Scene Editors; Tim and Charlie and the team are really excited to welcome you to the first summer term edition of Scene. You may have noticed, or will soon realise, we have made some massive changes to Vision’s arts pull-out. This is the reinvention of and a new beginning for Scene. We hope you like it as much as we do.
SCENE TEAM Scene Editors Charlie Benson Tim Douglas Music Editors Milo Boyd Mairead Kearins Deputy Music Martin Waugh Louisa Hann Film Editors Will Addy Sam Stockbridge Deputy Film Zoe Bennell Michael Cooper Life & Style Editor Selina Melissa Pope Deputy Life & Style Maddi Howell
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IN THIS ISSUE
TV Editors Zena Jarjis Tom Davies
Stage Editor Will McCurdy
- Success is Better When Achieved Twice - Not All is What it Seems
4-5
- Review: Repugnant at Norman Rea - Shame vs. Nymphomania - Interview: Verity Susman
6-7
- The Most Influential Book Adaptations on the Big Screen
8-9
- Where the Book Things Are - Mindy’s Messed Up - New Beginnings and Bitter Endings: Authors’ Most Dramatic Breakups
10-11
- Summer Ballin’ Fashion Spread - What’s in: Summer - How to: Hair Chalking
12-13
- What’s going on, UoY?
14-15
- Waxing Lyrical - Speaking in Tongues
16-17
- What Can We Learn from the World’s Best Restaurant? - Desperate Housewife - Foodstagram - We Need to Talk About Innovation - ‘Cinematic Theatre’: A New Beginning for Film?
18-19
- Ch-Ch-Changes: When TV Took Liberties - Mythology Re-told - The Future of Gaming - Something for Nothing?
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- Turn up the Heat - Party Holidays: Yes or No? - It’s All About Barcelona
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Tech Editors Costas Mourselas Adrian Horan Deputy Tech Michael Cooper Tom Davies
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Books Editor Maddi Howell Deputy Books Phil Watson Becky Boyle
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Food Editor Jim Dee
ON THE TWEET... Fact @Fact Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream had the 1st recorded use of the word “swagger.”
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Lady Gaga @ladygaga It looks like green hair and mechanical horses are the thing now...
Guardian Books @guardian books “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” ― Ernest Hemingway
Mindy Kaling @mindykaling So springsteen RETWEETED ME EVERYONE. GUESS I’M ROSALITA AFTER ALL YA HATERS
scene
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
NORMAN RAE//NYMPHOMANIA
Repugnant: Norman Rea Gallery
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s I travelled on the 44 to the art show ‘Repugnant’ in the Norman Rae Gallery over in the Hub on Hes East, I was more than a little terrified of reviewing art. I am at best a mediocre reviewer – the Ultimate Frisbee team are still after my head – and I know next to nothing about surrealist art. However, this is welcomed over at ‘Repugnant’, with the artist, Jake Francis, describing himself as “an inadequate person” who “lacks the basic skills of many human beings”. It is this that we have in common, sharing a “physical appearance [that] is both peculiar and uninteresting”.
a pool of blood – it reminded me of American Psycho. I think it was supposed to, as it was about how we don’t think about the gruesome things that people could be carrying in their bags and suitcases on the train on the way to work – a severed arm, ten dead frogs, a wide and varied collection of the tongues of cloven hooved animals... This was ostensibly supposed to be a dead body, stuck like a pig.
“No collector could ever love a work of art as much as a fetishist loves his shoe.”
This self-deprecating approach, and a quote from one of my favourite authors, Angela Carter, set my mind at rest as I set about exploring this interesting, and at times both disturbing and hilarious, art show.
Stoopid, which was one of those silly glasses and nose things stuck to a white cube made me feel stupid for not understanding it, so I swiftly moved on.
I made my way, glass of wine in hand and true to form, towards the dildo in a tackle box, aptly named Tackle Box. It was certainly repugnant to some, however the tackle tickled my fancy and made me laugh. I think surrealism is sometimes supposed to do that. My favourite exhibition was the suitcase with all the knives sticking out of it, in
I was unsure of the meaning of Fester, and by this time was too tipsy to ask, but it was a clown about to be burnt at the stake. I am terrified of clowns, and of being burnt, so I found it more than a little disturbing, especially with the creepy music. There were a lot of little pieces to explore in this room, and the thing about surrealist art, I
think, is that you can take from it what you want. It is supposed to shock and confuse you (probably) and to make you laugh and gasp and think ‘oh, that’s clever’. There were a fair few Vision worthy puns in the mix too, which is always a winner. It pleasantly surprised me, how accessible most of it was, and how anyone could go, speak to the artist who was there, and learn a little about art. In fact, the literature and the thought behind it were even more enjoyable than the pun about the dildo. It was intelligently and humorously put together and if you had a little understanding of literature and a tolerance for the macabre you would probably have enjoyed it, so I’ll lazily leave you how the artist, Jake Francis left us, with a little quote about the show found at the back of the pamphlet: “No collector could ever love a work of art as much as a fetishist loves his shoe.” Helena Horton
Shame vs. Nymphomania
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Photo credit: Jack Western
Eliza Gkritsi EXPLORES: Sex addiction and gender stereotypes in film here is a lot of sex in film, and I mean a lot of sex. It is used as a catalyst, a plot device, or just to spice things up.
But what happens when a lot of sex becomes too much sex? What happens when Alfie’s favourite pastime becomes an addiction? Steve McQueen (Shame) and Lars von Trier (Nymphomaniac) tried to answer this question in two of the most shocking and honest films about human relationships. Shame’s protagonist, Brandon, is portrayed excellently by Michael Fassbender in what has been described the performance of a lifetime. Nymphomaniac’s Joe is portrayed in the narrative present and past by Charlotte Gainsburg and Stacy Martin respectively. Already we can see the major difference between the two movies. McQueen explores the character in a specific point in time, when he is old and successful. Von Trier, however, examines the whole of Joe’s life, from the age of sexual exploration to the dawn of sexual maturity.
don’s relationship with his sister, the only one that is continuous and important to him, is suspiciously sexual; they are often bumping into each other naked. The sexual element is an obstacle to them, convoluting the normal sibling relationship since, unlike the Lannisters in Game of Thrones, they do not want to indulge in it. Conversely, Joe’s relationship with Jerome – her first lover, husband and the father of her child – is purely motivated by sex; their marriage deteriorating when she stops taking pleasure from it. These films turn the idea of gender stereotypes on its head. Joe’s character is more masculine than Brandon’s; Brandon’s sexuality destroys the relationship he cares about the most whereas Joe chooses to destroy all relationships that offer her no sexual satisfaction. In the end though, her two most intense and real relationships use sex as a way to put her down. The visual aspect reveals these differences. Von Trier uses a clean, honest and all-showing style with bright lighting.
Both are tormented by their “appetite”. Their jobs are affected, their bosses complain. What is really interesting, though, is the two characters reactions. Brandon is secretive, Joe is shameless; she considers her nymphomania as nothing but a trait like any other, describing how hard it was dealing with tens of lovers at a time.
There is no comedic relief, no easing of tension; the next scene is Jerome making her choose between her child and sex. It often felt to me as if von Trier was trying to exhaust the viewer, yet in truth he was merely being honest. McQueen is much darker and dirtier.
Whilst she makes her life fit her addiction, choosing professions with low skill demands, Brandon struggles to maintain his success and keep his addiction from becoming a hindrance. In the end she even takes up a job, in which she excels, using her knowledge of men to succeed. Brandon takes on stereotypically feminine traits; secrecy and guilt over his many partners. Joe, on the other hand, walks proud. Bran-
The sexual encounters happen mostly in clubs or alleys, showcasing the antithesis between Brandon’s white collar job and his secret life. Overall, Shame depicts a sex addict whose addiction destroys him and torments him. Nymphomaniac depicts one who takes pride in her addiction.
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
SPOTLIGHT//VERITY SUSMAN
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Women’s hats contain so many possibilities for subtle sensual expression. When I wear one, it entices the opposite sex with erotic suggestions which they interpret without confusion and which I have never figured out. My wife is always able to predict when I’ll forget our anniversary, how thin she’ll look on my birthday, and who ate her box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Without my hat as her radar, I would have absolutely no insight into her total inexplicability.” This little passage from internet author and playwright Bauvard’s The Prince of Plungers manages to do two things very well. For one, it draws on the same themes that makes Verity Susman’s public image enchanting. Much as Bauvard’s protagonist Jackson, Susman is a woman keen to blur the lines of gender specifics. Like Jackson, Susman understands the power of erotic suggestion and revels in the inexplicable. Beyond these parallels, parallels that illuminate part of the artistic attractiveness of one of Britain’s most overlooked performers, it also offers a suitably glowing endorsement of hats. The musical career that precedes our phone call and my increased insight into the creative process of this enigmatic woman is rich with variance. Enjoying a childhood of piano, clarinet and saxophone, Susman officially began her career with Electrelane, a Brighton based band cut from the same cloth as Sonic Youth and Stereolab. Following the band’s first split in 2007, a solo career was embarked upon. Initially this saw Susman adopt the stage name Vera November and a piano driven style, stripped back in comparison to Electrelane’s grungy roots. Departure from a somewhat little known, yet critically regarded, band (in 2001 NME understood the quartet as “utterly focused and stripped of all extraneous flab”) to take on an inauspicious, underplayed style isn’t generally recommended. Yet Susman thrived, shrugging off November and embracing her own name in time with the re-layering up of her style. The Verity Susman that walked onto the stage at Yoko Ono’s Meltdown Festival on the Southbank last November was one clearly moulded by this thorough musical upbringing. There were blaring saxophone solos, wailed lyrics and thumped beats. More surprisingly, there was also a huge fake moustache on Susman’s face, a robotic voice droning out filthy soundbites throughout and an accompanying video filled with ejaculating trombones and huge, green lactating breasts. Enthused by the topic, Susman explains that “The breast thing
came from a lesbian fiction story available online about Star Trek Deep Space Nine characters that start a half borg/half human relationship that can only be sustained by the lactating breasts of the borg. Whilst it’s funny, it’s also really heartfelt and beautiful. That’s how I wanted the show to be.” In witnessing the mixture of confusion and laughter present in a firmly enrapt Southbank audience, it is clear that this desire has been fulfilled. Yet with all electro-jazz music performed over the top of loud, visual innuendo, if there’s no substance, there’s no sincere reaction. At no point does the music come second to the message which, despite being conveyed in the brightest of colours, is less than overt.
“I don’t think anyone has a completely stable gender identity. Sometimes you feel a bit more male or female but you’re socialised to behave in certain ways.” The majority of the songs are ethereal, synth driven numbers, constructed with multiple loop peddles and toe-tapping drum machines. At first listen, the obvious comparisons are bands in the ilk of Hot Chip and War Paint. But lean a little closer and the inevitable descent into echo-chambered vocal weirdness and robotic filth holds further flung influences. One particularly sordid and fantastically named track, ‘The Phillip Glass Ceiling’ is thematically and sonically reminiscent of the weirder parts of 80’s electronica – the Siri spoken refrain “open your legs, I want to put my fingers inside you” emerging as the product of some weird Kraftwerk/The Orb crossover lovechild. As much as the music stands on its own, the visual presentation is impossible to ignore. The message behind the live show, Susman’s main focus, was understood after the event. “I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it and planning it out,” Susman suggests, “I did it instinctively and then looked back and thought what does this mean?” This seems to be a question she is still struggling with. “The drag thing” was done with a slight air of irony, designed to be slightly over the top and act as a disguise. For Susman, it is influenced by something her parents said in the 80s. “I asked my parents if
Boy George was a man or a woman and they said he’s a man, pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man. It was really confusing but stuck in my head.” So much so that the idea was, despite no previous cross-dressing history, incorporated into the show. “I don’t think anyone has a completely stable gender identity. Sometimes you feel a bit more male or female but you’re socialised to behave in certain ways... people view you as one thing, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect how you feel.” This last sentence is very much the point. Susman may have an understanding of herself, but it is, as with all of us, constantly changing. There is no obvious message of the stage show to be had. It is purposefully open-ended, purposefully provocative and keen to draw on a multitude of influences and styles. As with all art, the audience gets out as much as and whatever they put in. The same adage holds true for her recent work with electropioneer Peaches, someone Susman describes as the “one of the most amazing women” she’s ever met. The pair were invited to play a piece by the composer Pauline Oliveros. Oliveros lays down the structure and then invites the orchestra to bring their own improvised styles and ideas to play within it. The outcome is a fluid, ebbing and flowing piece, punctuated with Peaches’ guttural vocals and balls-out attitude. In Susman’s shows she brings the structure, the audience brings the understanding. This conceptually hands-off approach is something that permeates Susman’s art and her tone as she pleasantly answers my questions. Despite being fawned over by Yoko Ono, left-field parts of the critical world and acclaimed French film director Katell Quillevéré (to the extent that she invited Susman to compose the score for her recent work Suzanne), Susman’s rise to the mainstream is not imminent. Not that this seems to concern her. Her focus is asking the questions left somewhat unasked in contemporary music; presenting a product so flagrantly outrageous as to be previously unseen beyond the warped world of 90’s acid house. Our conversation is not built on the foundations of promotion; the album is barely on the horizon and the stage show won’t be restarted until September. It is a conversation built on Susman’s love of music, outright positivity and generosity; the loss of all of her musical equipment at the hands of thieves is “a bit annoying”; she is not bent on conveying a message, but only “interested in how people react to it”; Deerhoof are rightly described as “absolutely fantastic.” Even if lactating green breasts don’t appeal, the warmth and desire to perform that radiates off Susman is worthy of our attention. Milo Boyd
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scene
Tuesday 20th May 2014
THE MOST INFL ADAPTATIONS ON
COLLABORATION FEATURE//FILM&BOOKS
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Blade Runner A
dapted from Philip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, this 1982 classic helped to catapult science fiction into the public domain as a legitimate genre in its own right. Its gritty story and dark atmosphere, set in a dystopian LA, ushered in a new age in sci-fi filmmaking. Where Star Wars had paved the way as an entertaining epic, Blade Runner became a leading example of the neo-noir style, later influencing other films such as Ghost in the Shell and Brazil. Not only did it do wonders for the
film industry, it also brought other sci-fi authors to popular attention, of which Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert and Kurt Vonnegut are some of the more notable. But the film especially worked wonders for Dick, whose other works would later be adapted to the big screen, with the likes of Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly and Paycheck on the list – it’s safe to say both his literature and the associated cinema have left an important mark on the genre.
his is an example of a film adaptation that caused more controversy than its original novel form. Everyone loves a healthy bit of dystopia, but Burgess took this to the extreme in his shocking story. A Clockwork Orange was written in a three week bout of inspiration in 1962, and was set in the ominously near future. Brutal teenager Alex narrates his sociopathic, random acts of sadism and his ensuing experiences with the sinister authorities which seek to ‘reform’ him. All this occurs in a form of invented slang coined as ‘Nadsat’, which in some ways softens the pornographic content of the text, but also functions to ‘brainwash’ the reader. Kubrick’s film of 1971 adapts this psychologically heavy work into even more disturbing manifestations on the screen, in particular the mental conditioning exercises involved in his rehabilitation. As in the book, Kubrick
has Alex narrate events in ‘Nadsat’, providing an eerie sense of immersion in his psychosomatic world. The use of soundtrack in the film enhances this immersion, as Alex is a keen lover of Beethoven until his therapy renders it unbearable to him. It is clear that the screenplay remains faithful to the book on a number of levels. Despite accusations of glorifying violence, the film made $26 million – no small feat considering their budget of only $2.2 million. It was a film which hailed growing acceptance of violence in cinema and, despite distressing images and subject matter, continues to be ranked highly today; AFI recently rated it at the fourth top sciencefiction film to date. No doubt, this adaptation has increased the infamy and durability of A Clockwork Orange, as it continues to force us to question our own morality and the dangers of brain-conditioning... Maddi Howell
William Addy
“All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die”
A clockw
"It had been a wonderful evening the perfect ending was a
The Shining I
f there is one name who stands out in the world of book to film adaptations it’s Stephen King. The first film to be made from one of his works was the 1976 horror flick Carrie. Since then, King has seen somewhere between 50-60 of his short stories and novels make their way onto the big screen. Not that these have disappeared into the back catalogue of B-movie horror either. King is responsible for the likes of The Green Mile, Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and no less than three remakes of Carrie. Leading up to the making of another of King’s creations, seminal horror film The Shining, Kubrick locked himself in a room with piles of classic tales of terror. In his desperate search for inspiration, “Kubrick’s secretary heard the sound of each book hitting the wall as the director flung it into a reject pile after reading the
first few pages. Finally, one day the secretary noticed it had been a while since she had heard the thud of another writer’s work biting the dust. She walked in to check on her boss and found Kubrick deeply engrossed in reading The Shining.” It is easy to see why King’s stories so intrigued directors and film fans alike, as their ability to blend the sinister and the scary with something ultimately intelligent and thought-provoking is unparalleled. The sheer brevity of adaptations of his work makes his name well known, and surely the fact that Kubrick was so engrossed is enough to make anyone want to go back and find out what everyone sees in a Stephen King novel.
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”
There Will be Blood P
aul Thompson Anderson is well known in Hollywood for being perhaps one of the most interesting and underrated directors of our generation. He is in a sense the directors’ director, having produced some of the most challenging and thought-provoking films of the past decade. His adaption of the book Oil! to the film There Will Be Blood was no different. The Oscar-winning film handles a small segment of the novel focusing more on the father of the book’s narrator. Cinematically the film is breath-taking. Anderson’s understanding of character and atmosphere are second-to-none; Daniel Day Lewis’ Academy Award winning performance being the highlight. For those who have read the book though, the focus on the moral
integrity of Daniel Plainview (Lewis) and also the town’s pastor, Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), will seem somewhat to miss the point. The novel Oil! is vast and is, predominantly, a critique of American foreign policy. Although the film does manage to retain some of the books introspection surrounding greed, it does not highlight the terrible bloodshed that America has caused around the world securing its oil interests. For these reasons the title of the film is appropriate; it is not an investigation of the history of oil in the way the book is, I believe it is something very different. I believe both deliver what they wish to deliver, but they should be understood as very separate entities.
Michael Cooper
“I did what your brother couldn’t. I broke you and I beat you.”
Zoe Bennell
7 scene COLLABORATION FEATURE//FILM&BOOKS
Tuesday 20th May 2014
LUENTIAL BOOK N THE BIG SCREEN
The Shawshank Redemption T
he Shawshank Redemption is another Stephen King adaptation, this time directed by Frank Darabont who saw this as his “chance to do something really great” and the outcome definitely was great.
work Orange
The story of Andy Dufresne, wrongly accused of his wife’s murder and imprisoned in Shawshank prison, is beautifully told, both in the book and the film. This, coupled with excellent performances by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, pushed the film to the IMDb user favourite top spot in 2008 where it has stayed since.
g and what I needed now to give it a bit of the old Ludwig van."
ou’ll be hard done by finding someone who scene is during the night of the final hunt for the can’t recognise John Williams’ menacing shark. After excitement all day and near misses, ‘Jaws Theme’. the crew of three takes to the hull to drink beer. The tension builds as they swap horror stories, Already a successful novel of the same proving the severity of the attacks with nasty name (selling over five million copies when the scars. Just as you’re engrossed with the Captain’s film adaptation premiered), Steven Spielberg’s story, Spielberg juts in with a final assault on Jaws became an instant classic, kick-starting Jaws, bringing the film to a satisfying pinnacle of Spielberg’s long and successful career. Al- action. though inspiring three sequels, without input from Benchley and Spielberg, none reached Filmed on a relatively small budget of $9 milthe dizzying heights of the original film. It has lion, this film took over $470 million at the Box set the benchmark for all modern monster Office. Adapted by the original novelist, Peter movies and is a stand-out example of how to Benchley, it stayed true to the key themes that create blockbuster suspense with an awkward made the book so successful. Nail-biting action, and mechanical fake shark. superb acting and a giant mechanical shark prove its place on numerous ‘Best Films’ lists. The UnitSpielberg found the right balance between ed States Library of Congress has archived a copy, suspense, lulls and climaxes to give the film labelling it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically constant movement and drive. A standout significant”. Sam Stockbridge
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat”
All in all Shawshank is a timeless classic, discussing the idea of freedom in a captivating and honest way that has kept audiences coming back for the last 20 years.
William Addy
“Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
Jaws Y
While King was already a respected author with many previous successful adaptations such as The Shining and Misery, the film did wonders for Darabont’s reputation. He later came back and proved it was not a fluke by adapting the wildly successful The Green Mile to the big screen as well.
FORREST GUMP I
t is hard to describe this film and the protagonist Forrest Gump. He is a unique character with an extraordinary life, which makes for a great book and an equally enjoyable film. Although the adaptation deviates from the book somewhat, the story is just as humorous and endearing to Forrest Gump fans (however, seeing Forrest work with NASA and have an ape named Sue would have been great in the film!).
cessful restaurant chain. There are 32 ‘Bubba Gump Shrimp Company’ establishments in America, Malaysia, Japan, Mexico, Indonesia, Hong Kong and the Philippines. The restaurant appears in the film when Forrest leaves the army and buys a shrimping boat. He struggles at first, but after a hurricane destroys all other shrimping boats he makes a huge profit.
The widespread use of visual effects in the film to insert Forrest into a multitude of famous archived footage and feign amputated legs exceeded limits on the realistic look of CGI. Another highlight is the fantastic score, which in itself sold 12 million copies worldwide; it really helps to bring the viewer into the various precise time periods of the film.
Constantly referred to as a movie great, Forrest Gump is filled with hidden meanings and symbolism that keep film admirers watching it time and again. It went to take over $670 million at the Box Office and won numerous awards including Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects and Best Film Editing. World renowned and critically acclaimed, it is a must-see for anyone who likes an exceptional story.
The film is so influential, it even became a suc-
Sam Stockbridge
“Run, Forrest, run!”
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scene
Tuesday 20th May 2014
LIBRARY//LIFE&STYLE
TOM DAVIES takes a looks at the university library and its assorted tribes...
HARRY FAIRHURST
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he men and women of Fairhurst are a twee folk. Insouciant, highly sociable and found primarily in small packs. When a Fairhurster finds themselves separated from the group, they will sit alone at a table which seats four or five people whilst the rest of the library is entirely full. Nobody quite knows why, but it royally sticks in my craw and no mistake. Architecturally speaking, Fairhurst is a preposterous, post-modernist adventure playground run on the principles of 19th century American anarcho-individualism. The inhabitants of the Fairhurst frontier live by only one rule; that of “no zone but the studious buzz zone”. A rebel people, proud and brave, if often asleep, those who frequent this part of the library firmly reject the tyrannical values enforced by Morrell. Ragtag dreamers, exiles and
Fairhurst: Library on LSD
people to get a bit of a bonk on over interactive whiteboards and booths with flat screens are all welcomed within its walls. In Harry Fairhurst it is not only legal but encouraged to be in possession of a studious buzz, particularly with intent to supply. Its denizens scorn their bitter rivals in Morrell, mocking their lack of bean bag chairs and shortage of vending machines, never seeming to realize that you have to get up at 3am to secure one of those bean bags and that all of that open plan space that the architect was probably very proud of is essentially just going to waste, which is why it’s virtually impossible to get a seat at peak times. Above all though, Fairhurstians value their freedom. Their freedom to walk about, their freedom of speech and their ability to easily buy and then eat a packet of quavers without the person opposite looking like they’d happily see them flayed alive.
JB MORRELL
A
grim, totalitarian dystopia run by semi mythical overlord JB Morrell, the master of silence. In the JB quiet zones you can hear them whisper that “JB is always watching you”. In the silent zones you hear nothing but the occasional, brief whimpering of somebody who’s finally snapped before being dragged away for disturbing Morrell’s perpetual and total peace. Some say they are taken to meet the man himself, but nobody knows for sure. Built on three floors, Morrell is an endless, hodgepodge maze of shelves, different zones, computer suites, study rooms and work desks. I’ve never even been on the top floor, so god knows what’s up there. Architecturally speaking, the library has the look of third class on a turn of the century cruise ship, only obviously with bookshelves.
The average Morrellian is docile and thoroughly peaceable unless disturbed, at which point they can become highly irascible in a quiet, giving-you-the-deatheye kind of way. Normally clad in coffee stained pyjamas, these bleary eyed wanderers between the shelves keep a fierce vigil over their sovereign territory. Morrell’s main resources are books and dust, food and drink are scarce and in some areas, forbidden, with disciples of JB often being forced to venture to the library cafe when the need for sustenance arises. Morrellian’s dismiss their neighbours in Fairhurst as feckless loud mouths, existing in a state of perfumed decadence akin to the last days of Rome, viewing themselves as the last bastion of order and justice in these increasingly uncertain, loud quaver eating times.
JB Morrell: You will conform!
RAYMOND BURTON
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nitially believed to be an urban legend perpetuated during the exam period which spoke of a land where space was aplenty and no weary library goer was forced to work on the floor. Burton is a small, passionately independent state loosely comprised of a seminar room which never seems to actually host seminars, a couple of quiet reading rooms and a handful of reference collections.
If the Raymond Burton library were a teen archetype, it would be a hipster. Too cool to be a part of the mainstream FairhurstMorrell dichotomy. These are people who preferred the libraries’ early stuff, back when it was in touch with its routes and before, y’know, it went all Hollywood. For this reason, Burtonites can often be heard uttering such phrases as: “I study in Raymond Burton, you’ve probably never heard of it”.
BORTHWICK ARCHIVES
W
ith its entrance located just beyond the Raymond Burton library, little is known about the Borthwick Institute for Archives. Rumour has it that it stretches far down beneath the University in a vast subterranean labyrinth, inhabited only by legions of C.H.U.D, Morlocks and a Balrog woken from its eternal slumber by digging to deeply and too greedily into the earth. Borthwick institutes a security system on a par with Fort Knox, almost no personal effects can be taken past the reception area and the temperature
within the search rooms is kept at a level roughly comparable to the Murmansk seafront in mid November. What the archives contain is just as unclear, but it is believed that all of our completed dissertations eventually end up residing deep within the bowels of Borthwick. I personally choose to believe that somewhere in the lower reaches of Borthwick they’ve got a Department of Mysteries style set up with some kind of hall of prophecies containing the results of YUSU elections and the college cup for the next one hundred years.
Borthwick Entrance (artist’s impression)
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BREAKUPS//TV&BOOKS
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ZENA JARJIS looks at The Mindy Project and TV’s will-they-won’t-they couples...
n/off couples are a staple of TV sitcoms. The formula is basically the same in every show: two characters start off as friends or colleagues, there is a mutual attraction which goes unacknowledged for a while, then they hook up a few times and eventually start going out. It never works out the first time, so the couple breaks up and gets back together over and over again until the final episode when they decide to stay together for good and we’re expected to believe that all the problems they had before have completely vanished. This plot was interesting to watch the first hundred times, but by now it’s getting a bit cliché and predictable. It happened with Ross and Rachel, Lorelai and Luke, and Ted and Robin. The most recent TV couple to go down this road was New Girl’s Jess and Nick, who just broke up for the first time. We can expect at least three more seasons of willthey-won’t-they tension before they inevitably do, and all the reasons they decided to break up in the first place are just forgotten. When The Mindy Project started airing in 2012, it didn’t seem like it would follow this pattern. Mindy Kaling knew what she was doing – she had worked on The Office, mocking on again/off again couples in her own character’s ridiculous relationship with Ryan. The Mindy Project, with all its romcom references and autobiographical elements, seemed too self-aware to go down the same road that so many other sitcoms have. It was still pretty obvious from the first episode that Mindy and Danny would be the central will-
they-won’t-they couple. Even though they were just friends, they were completely perfect for each other: Mindy’s naivety balanced out Danny’s pessimism, and they riffed better with each other than with any other characters. However, it still seemed like Kaling was smart enough to hold off putting the two together until they were ready and the relationship would last. But she didn’t. The Mindy Project is only at the end of its second season, and Mindy and Danny have already started dating, broken up, and got back together again. Even New Girl didn’t force Nick and Jess together this quickly. Obviously, Mindy and Danny aren’t going to stay together for good – it’s too early in the show’s run for that and viewers would get bored – so we will be subjected to many more break-ups, arguments and plenty of drama before they somehow pull themselves together in the series finale. The Office’s Jim and Pam are the best example of a show holding off putting a couple together for ages despite clear mutual attraction. Even though it took them ages to actually become an official couple, once they got together they stayed together. The quality of the show didn’t suffer, and The Office managed to maintain will-they-won’t-they tension without millions of break ups. The delayed gratification was rewarding for fans, and the progression of Jim and Pam’s relationship was still interesting to watch even without the drama. The on/off formula does have its strengths. It is interesting to watch, and a lot of shows would be
boring without it. Friends got the balance right, with Ross and Rachel providing the relationship drama and Monica and Chandler acting as the stable, longstanding couple. And, even though in real life when a couple breaks up and gets back together it rarely works, it is still fun to pretend that, despite all their problems, a fictional ex-couple can work it out and stay together for good. But Mindy and Danny worked better as friends with unacknowledged sexual tension. Inspiration for their relationship has clearly been drawn from When Harry Met Sally, and Harry and Sally were a good couple because they were friends for years before they first slept together, and the ending of the film shows them beginning a relationship for the first time with no past break ups to get over. We’ll never see Danny comforting Mindy after a break up again, and Mindy teasing Danny about his terrible flirting won’t be the same now that they’ve been a couple. The Mindy Project is a strong enough show to still be hilarious and interesting to watch, despite following this tired cliché, but its dynamic changed drastically when Mindy and Danny’s friendship did. They do work well as a couple, but they definitely should have waited a few seasons.
New Beginnings and bitter endings: Authors' Most Dramatic Breakups JACQUELINE SUSANN
T
his party-going lady and author of contentious novel Valley of the Dolls wasted no time in articulating her brutally honest feelings to her husband Irving Mansfield when things were hitting the rocks. Dolls was published in 1966 and hit out against the way that rich men treated their women as toys, rendering them reliant on stimulants and antidepressants. We love her no-nonsense
tongue-in-cheek letter to Mansfield, and we doubt that she had too much trouble moving on to her next affair with comedian Joe Lewis: “Irving, when we were at the Essex House and I had room service and I could buy all my Florence Lustig dresses, I found that I loved you very much, but now that you’re in the Army and getting $56 a month, I feel that my love has waned.”
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
R
enowned author of For Whom The Bell Tolls, amongst other works of fiction such as The Old Man and The Sea, had another string to his bow as a womanizing four-time husband. But the most dramatic of his many liaisons and break-ups was the end of his third marriage with Martha Gellhorn, who refused to give up her career in journalism to comply with his vision of a traditional wife and even journeyed across stormy and war-torn seas when he
attempted to prevent her travels. No need for extra drama to spice things up in that relationship! Martha went on to cover the Vietnam War, the Six Day War in the Middle East and the civil wars in America, witnessing and documenting the most significant of historic changes around the globe. We detect a hint of sarcasm in her famous quote: “I daresay I was the worst bed partner in five continents.”
T
hese two probably constitute the best known tempestuous literary pair of all time in both the States and the United Kingdom. Hughes published a glut of works including poetry collections as poet laureate, children’s books and plays, but his output has been overshadowed by his personal life. Controversy has plagued the public perception of Ted’s treatment of his wife Sylvia Plath, given her suicide in 1963, and the ensuing suicide of his lover Assia Wevill in 1969 in a chain of tragic endings and questionable beginnings. Clearly infidelity and emotional fragility did not make a successful match. Plath’s
TED HUGHES AND SYLVIA PLATH novel The Bell Jar is seen to be semiautobiographical and provides an insight into her world. Although death parted them, the ending of this story continues to be a subject of tumultuous speculation. In 2010, a poem in which Ted addresses her last days was published for the very first time entitled the ‘Last Letter’. He describes the news of her death as a ‘measured injection’ and recalls his final meeting with her just two days before her death. A draft of the poem is available to view in the British Library. Maddi Howell
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
LIFE&STYLE
Summer Ballin’
Cara's Casual Chic
Stay on trend with only £58
Cut-out Top, £25, ASOS; Jacquard Trousers, £29.99, Zara; Black Platform Heels, £22.99, New Look
Selena's Elegance Make an impact this summer for £78
Burgundy Gown, £60, voguepromdresses.com; Crystal Drop Earrings, £18, River Island
In this feature, Vision draws inspiration from the recent Met Ball for some handy fashion fixes just in time for summer partying. Whether you want to dress glamorous like Selena Gomez, simple yet sophisticated like Rihanna, or casual but with an impact like Cara Delevigne, read on to find affordable alternatives to these A listers’ style choices.
By Selina Pope
WHAT’S IN?
Round Lens Sunglasses, £17.99, Zara
Hibiscus Bardot Bandeau Top, £24, Topshop
Rabbit Print Tight
Lemon Print Skort, £34, Topshop
Caged Mesh Insert Plunge Halter Swimsuit, £30, ASOS
LOHA Printed Platforms, £68, Topshop
Hat Trick Leather Healed Sandals, £35, ASOS Hibiscus Spliced Midi Skirt, £38, Topshop
Firestorm leather £25, ASOS
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
ts, £8, ASOS
sandals, S
11
LIFE&STYLE
Rihanna's Simplicity
Hair Chalking 101
A must-have for this ball only £13 High Neck Longsleeve Crop top, £8, Boohoo.com; Chiffon Maxi Skirt, £5, New Look
step 1 – prepare the hair Wet the hair so that the colour of the chalk will stick. However, do not wet if you have very fair hair, unless you want the colour to stick longer.
step 2 – apply the chalk Apply the chalk to the strand of hair in a downward motion, twisting the hair as you chalk. You can try for a fun ombre look, or just do a couple of strands.
Sierra Revo Cateye Sunglasses, £16
Aloha Floral Strappy Playsuit, £34, Topshop
Rainbow Straw Clutch, £25 Leaf Print Cutaway Crop Top, £24
Fang Chunky Sandals, £48, Topshop
step 3 – set the colour While you can blowdry your hair, others recommend air drying so that you don’t blow off the chalk. Once dry, seal the colour in with a flat iron or a curling iron to add waves. Apply hair spray as a final step.
step 4 – wash out the chalk The colour generally will only last one shampoo; however, if the hair is more porous, such as colortreated blonde hair, it can last a couple of shampoos.
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
SCENE//WHAT’S ON
Inside Llewyn Davis at York Student Cinema York student cinema are showing the 2013 comedy-drama epic Inside Llewyn Davis on 6th of June, a film that regulars in visual and musical pleasures. The film is showing at 7:30pm in P/X/001; so make sure you make time to attend. The story follows a young folk singer trying to make it big in the competitive Greenwich Village Folk scene of 1961, encountering several setbacks hampering his success.
Added to the authenticity of the story is the poignancy of the music, setting itself aside from other modern musical classics. Sounds are mainly acoustic in nature and feature a distinct folk ballad ‘Fare Thee Well’ performed by Marcus Mumford and Oscar Isaac. Even if you’ve witnessed this modern classic before in the cinema, no more academic pressures mean that you have no excuse to miss it!
Dramasoc: Glengarry Glen ross Dramasoc presents Glengarry Glen Ross, a play that revels in gritty drama plots and moments of unethical behaviour. Written by playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner, David Mamet, the play follows the lives of four real estate agents who prepare themselves to engage in several illicit activities in order to achieve their malevolent aims. Selling real estate to their unwitting buyers, they only begin to wise
as they face serious competition from their sales colleagues. “Both darkly funny, and wholly tragic”, as DramaSoc describe it themselves, the performance which is set to start on week 5 is guaranteed to both shock and invigorate its audience. Performed by York students, the talent is very local and refreshing. A fresh take on Mamet’s award-winning classic, this certainly isn’t an event you want to miss.
PROJECT D: 9th June Picture this: you’ve just finished exams – you’re tired, relieved, but you aren’t ready to relax just yet. You seek some form of subtle sensation to celebrate, but Willow seems to have lost its flare throughout the term. How do you go about satisfying yourself? Project D is the answer. The phenomenon, which takes off on Monday 9th April, is one of the most highly-anticipated college events of the year. Project D prom-
ises big things: five headline acts, four different rooms, three rooms of music, two bars and a hella amount of students. This is the place to be. With tickets currently at a mere £17.50, there really isn’t much excuse to miss it. Organisers stress that students snap up tickets early, however, since they are at a first come first served basis. Setting aside all the admin, it really is worth stressing just how big
this event is going to be. You can expect a huge range activities going down throughout the evening, and from shisha tents to bouncy castles, there really is something for everyone. As the Project D Facebook page describes it, “It will be a night you’ll never remember; but a night you’ll never forget”.
What's go
Tim Douglas and Charlie Benson unveil York's mos anticipated campus events set to kick off in the near future
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
SCENE//WHAT’S ON?
MUsicsoc: Concerts, BBQ and much, much more MusicSoc boasts a plethora of events this summer term – from regular weekly performances to an all-inclusive BBQ event in week six, there’s never a dull moment. The Chimera Ensemble electro-acoustic performance on the 23rd of this month in Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall is not one to miss, promising novel performances such as the UK premiere of Beat Furrer’s Aria for Soprano and small ensemble. Founded by composer and York lecturer Bernard Rands, this event guarantees versatile and accomplished playing, a true musical treat that should entice
any student to attend. If that hasn’t yet won you over, maybe a BBQ will. Kicking off in week six, this event is all-inclusive to MusicSoc members only, so get joining! MusicSoc is also now introducing practice rooms in Derwent College for members to book and practice their musical skills, providing free instruments for some rooms. Allowing students to book via the online booking system has facilitated the booking process, so grab a set of mates, start up a band and discover that musical talent of yours!
oing on, UoY?
st
Comedysoc PRESENTS Never the inconspicuous, ComedySoc are always at the forefront when it comes to hosting some of the most invigorating events on campus. Sketch shows occur weekly and are certainly not to be missed, especially the return of Have I Got News For York (HIGNFY) which kicks off on the 28th of this month. This is sure to have you whipping with the utmost excitement. ComedySoc elections start on the 24th May at 2pm to please all the ambitious folk among you. This gives members a chance to become more involved with the society and have a say in how it’s run. The excitement doesn’t stop there – weekly open im-
provisation sessions every Thursday in V/123 should allow for some banter-filled comedic fun. Workshops for writers and individuals interested in stand-up are too run by the society, allowing students to polish new material and receive valuable feedback from experienced performers and writers. Further events include an Edinburgh preview of a sketch show in week six. The ComedySoc hope to take the show to the Fringe Festival this summer so it’s something of an exclusive occasion specifically for York students. It’s free, high-quality comedy – no excuse to miss it!
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
MUSIC//STAGE//SPOKEN WORD
WAXING LYRICAL
M
att Daniels, a New York-based designer, coder and data scientist, recently examined the vocabulary of hip hop artists to see how many unique words could be found in rap songs. Daniels says that “literary elites love to rep Shakespeare’s vocabulary”, and the Bard uses 28,289 words across all of his works. In his study, Daniels used the first 5,000 words from 7 of Shakespeare’s works, and the first 35,000 lyrics of various hip hop artists. Shakespeare came in 16th place, being beaten by the likes of Ghostface Killah and Wu-Tang Clan. Unsurprisingly, artists like DMX and 50 Cent are among the rappers with the least original vocabulary, whereas rappers like Nas and Common are higher up. At the end of his analysis, Daniels quotes ‘Moment of Clarity’, in which Jay Z, who does not rank particularly highly on Daniels’ list, admits “I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars”. Critics have pointed out that this is certainly evident on Jay Z’s latest album, ‘Magna Carta Holy Grail’, with Jesse Cataldo accusing the rapper of putting in less creative effort because of his financial success.
Curtis James “50 Cent” Jackson III Right at the top of Daniels’s list are relatively unknown artists like Aesop Rock, GZA, RZA and Killah Priest, who have not received as much commercial success as Drake, for example, who ranks third from last for original vocabulary. It would seem, from this data, that there is a need for hip hop artists to ‘dumb down’ their lyrics, or repeat themselves, if they want to top charts.
U
Tupac Shakur However, this does not necessarily mean that there is a deterioration of quality in popular hip hop today. Neither Kanye West nor 2Pac rank particularly highly on the list, but are responsible for intelligent and commercially successful songs like ‘All Falls Down’ and ‘Changes’. So, even though Jay Z may feel like he has sold out and Daniels’ research suggests that rap with diverse vocabulary is unlikely to gain mainstream success, many hip hop artists have shown that it is possible to say a lot with few words, while at the same time appealing to a large audience. Zena Jarjis
niversity is the ultimate melting pot. The rich and the poor, the nerds and the cool kids, the northerners and the southerners are forced together. Squashed into what is essentially prison cell blocks as freshers and forcibly coerced into befriending people they’ve never meet before and probably have nothing in common with anyway. But the result is so frequently a very disappointing one. We go on the same nights out, dance to the same songs, and join the same societies. The fresher experience is sadly a very much defined one. Rarely do people do anything that is truly unique with the opportunities they have been given, and the infinite potential of youth is squandered. But some students have chosen to do something a little bit different. Zara Daswani, a third year history student, and a host of her friends, have instead chosen to make a change, and to do something that little bit different with their university lives: “Speaking in Tongues is a non-profit organisation which aims to bring the vast amount of creative people in York together, whether they are students or locals, to have a bit
Will McCurdy of fun with their own work. My aim was to create a performing platform where all felt welcome and involved, for those who already write or even to encourage those who don’t to come together under one roof.”
and poetry society events for students, but no real unifying thing that brought all these people together.” Her experiences in York as someone who was involved in alternative music nights also played a part in the decision to launch the night. “Since being a student at York I’ve been
“The final result was incredible and inspired me to find some sort of outlet and platform for young writers in York.” She was inspired by her experience of growing up in London: “I got into ‘spoken word’ after going to a charity-led initiative which took children ages 14-18 from big inner city schools to study Chaucer for six weeks and adapt the pieces they were allocated into a form they could relate to and understand – spoken word and hip hop.” She was pleased with the results. This spurned her on to replicate this success story in York: “I researched around a bit and saw that there were a few informal open mic nights for locals
involved with a lot of the new and up and coming music events which are trying to help York become more diverse in its gigs and nights, allowing more to feel welcome and a part of its musical scene.” Boasting a selection of the finest poets, musicians and spoken word performers all under one roof, hosted in the relatively unknown venue of Orillo Studios, the event seeks to combine creative people together under one roof to create inspirational performances. The final result we have today has come about organically as a result of the wealth of
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MUSIC//STAGE//SPOKEN WORD interesting and talented performances in York: “I was working in an office over the summer and after going to this Chaucer/Hip Hop I thought ‘we need this in York!’, so after a heavily caffeine fuelled day of organising, I got in touch with a few friends who I knew were itching to have a different sort of poetry night on. We brainstormed ideas and set the ball rolling with getting our name out there and organising our first event.
“I think that the degree of creativity in York is huge but there is a lack of bringing all these people together and collaboration.” “I got in touch with Orillo studios, a wonderful space run by ex-York St John students who were incredibly helpful in allowing me use their space. From there I just utilized the networks I had made in the past two years and put in motion having a Hip Hop DJ for our first night, as I thought the spoken word suited hip hop perfectly. We contacted students and locals and put together our first gig which went down as a huge success and seemed to bring a lot of writers and poets out of the woodwork which is great. I’m in my final year of university now, but this is something I really want to see grow so off the back of our last one. I organized our second event, this time profiling some York based musicians, playing jazz and allowing others to come up and jam as well. I really think this will be a recurring event, branching out to art exhibitions, other music nights and all sorts of fun and creative events for all to enjoy, focusing on promoting new talent, regardless of age.” In her opinion, “This is the key to making this city realise its creative potential.” She feels there is a void inherent in the York scene, that there were too many generic club nights and
not enough of the individuality that is present in other scenes around the country. “It seems that York has fallen behind many other major cities in the North; Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield to name a few. It seems to be the lack of individualism which is rife in places like London and nights such as Milli Vanilli and Breakz are trying to fill the void many generic and mainstream nights seem to leave. There is so much already existing in York and having relationships with these people meant that putting together Speaking in Tongues was relatively easy.” She is keen to dispel the myths and clichés of poetry as a reserve of the wealthy and educated elite, and instead to present it as something communal that everyone can enjoy and learn from. A form for the people: “I think that poetry is often aligned with people who have time and wealth to sit and reflect on philosophy or their lives and is only suited to those who read Milton or Shakespeare.” But new movements are changing this public perception: “I think the rise of ‘beat’ poetry is good as it’s allowing people to access writing on many different levels but I do thinks it’s important to not keep this kind of stuff in the realms of ‘higher culture’.” She admires the ability of modern hip hop and spoken word to move away from this and inspire the youth in positive manner outside the confines of gangsta rap culture. “It helps us move away from this elitism and understand that anybody can write and be inspired by different people in various pockets of music and writing. The work of George the Poet or John Agard, who run poetry workshops for kids in schools, particularly underprivileged ones, opens children’s eyes to music and poetry that isn’t moving in ‘gangsta rap’ circles, but into using it as an expression that is actually meaningful and purposeful to their lives. Hip hop is something she believes is helping to break down the elitism that surrounds poetry in the 21st Century.
“Rappers such as Akala show that the
“Seeing those people get up and perform with power and conviction is beautiful.” written word is powerful and it can be used by anybody. It’s good to realize one’s responsibility once becoming prolific. I think it would be naïve to always associate poetry with classical writers – poetry is timeless and shouldn’t just be categorized to people sitting by
a fireplace contemplating Mark Twain with a glass of brandy. The influx of spoken word artists in the media shows this I suppose – it’s one form of expression that may or may not suit you, but is open and encompassing. I think that the stigma attached to poetry can leave a lot of people thinking it isn’t for them or that they don’t have the ability to write. What we try to encourage at Speaking in Tongues is to also bring people who have never performed before to an intimate and supportive space where you can outlet your creativity and feel welcomed regardless of who you are.” Poetry, in her opinion, is something with an unparalleled and timeless ability to move that lasts throughout the ages, with a real potential to change things: “I wouldn’t go far as to say ‘poetry can change the world’ but understanding poetry opens up a historical and social understanding of society and knowledge is power.” With so many highs it is difficult
“Poetry is accessible to anyone and can be found in many different mediums.” for her to pinpoint the things that have made her the most proud, but there is definitely a strong sense of achievement there: “I think for me personally, the standard of writers we’ve had is what has been truly wonderful to see. I couldn’t pick one moment that has stuck with me as, all in all, both events have been great and a real pleasure to be a part of, but I think seeing those who have never performed before, be it a friend or complete stranger, get up there and speak with such honesty and vulnerability is incredibly inspirational
and priceless. Before each event I’ve had poets come up to me and say ‘I can’t do this, it’s too personal’ and have sat with them and helped them to overcome their nerves and to realize that people aren’t there to judge your insecurities and fears, but applaud you for having the strength to perform. The founders are not particularly concerned with leaving a legacy behind, instead they are fixated with issues more permanent than that’; “I don’t want this kind of thing to stop once I leave – if anything it should encourage those who are dissatisfied with the crap we are pushed into caring about in Freshers to start up their own thing and if they’re bored, do something about it! I think York is a great place to get things going; people are willing all over to help out.” It’s easy to be cynical, particularly as a student journalist. But Speaking in Tongues seems to be the real thing; people getting together and simply doing what they love. I like that. I like that a lot. People getting involved and doing their own thing outside of the confines of the average student experience, and then inspiring those around them. They seem confident in the event they are producing, and so am I. “I think my message was clear so maybe that’s why it has been so successful thus far. If you really want to do something that will cultivate talent and inspire people to get involved and don’t wait for somebody else to start things up for you then a place like York is the place to be. Once you get out of the student bubble it’s not hard to find people pursuing their own thing, what we need though is more collective work and bridging the gap between the passionate people on campus and in the city. Speaking in Tongues will be the first of many things we want to do, not the end result.”
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FOOD&DRINK//TV//BOOKS
food for free
N
oma has reclaimed its place as the world’s best restaurant, according to San Pellegrino’s recent list. In a list populated by some of the post-elBulli Spanish giants, what makes Noma number one? Coming in at number four, New York City’s Eleven Madison Park will dazzle you with stunning foie gras preparations, but people expecting such luxury ingredients at Noma are likely to be disappointed. The philosophy at Noma is one of hyperlocality: ingredients are foraged from the restaurant’s immediate surroundings, and dishes attempt to celebrate Danish cuisine. The mastermind behind the restaurant, René Redzepi, eschews Spanish saffron and Italian truffles, instead offering dishes like ‘slivers of cod liver and crispy sweet milk’ and a ‘broth of ramson leaves’. He has inspired worldwide interest in foraging and making the absolute most of the food on offer to us.
Chick pea wafer, cream cheese, herbs and flowers at L’enclume. Almost every restaurant in this country will claim that it is passionate about local and seasonal produce, but putting asparagus on your menu for two weeks in May is not a real relationship with the local ingredients, especially if you serve it with olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. In England, for a true example of a restaurant proud of what our countryside has to offer, look at L’enclume. Simon Rogan’s restaurant in Cartmel scored 10/10 in this year’s Good Food Guide, and overtook The Fat Duck for the first place position. His passion for British products is admirable, and though not necessarily practical to entirely implement his philosophy at home, we should still be inspired by what he is doing. What is it about Noma and L’enclume
that continues to mesmerize critics and connoisseurs? In my mind it is their ability to reconsider and redefine what luxury is. Sensationally fresh and local ingredients should be part of our daily diet, but in a world where English supermarkets are filled with Spanish strawberries and Peruvian asparagus, good quality British ingredients shine through. Any good restaurant can impress you with well-cooked lobster, but there are very few chefs who can excite their customers with braised leeks or caramelised cauliflower. Perhaps their ability to treat every ingredient with the same high level of respect is what elevates chefs like René and Simon to the heights they achieve. As students, we should be naturally predisposed to foraging for fresh ingredients, because they are free. There are several excellent ‘Edible York’ allotments dotted around campus and town, and we should make the most of the produce which grows there. By Vanbrugh College there are several purple sprouting broccoli plants, one of the tastiest (and most expensive) vegetables on offer at this time of the year. The leaves are also delicious, just cut them away from the stem and blanch before serving with a little butter. The broccoli plants are also beginning to flower, so pick the little yellow flowers and use them in a salad: they look incredible and have a subtle flavour.
Rosemary growing on campus.
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Cook like your favourite TV characters with ZENA JARJIS’ TV Cookbook...
thyme
A dish at restaurant Noma: Salad of
1. Susan’s Chipotle Glazed Chicken Wings, Desperate Housewives
wild flowers. plant which I snip a few sprigs from two or three times a week, and a little further uphill you’ll find borage plants. The blue flowers have a delicate cucumber flavour, and when young enough the leaves can be used as well. Off campus there are a myriad of possibilities for people who want to forage. Try picking the top few leaves from nettle plants, which can be used to make a good soup or even nettle tea. Familiarise yourself with chickweed, it has a flavour somewhat similar to spinach and often grows in shady areas. If your garden has a weed problem, harvest the young dandelion leaves, wash thoroughly and use in a salad. If you are feeling particularly adventurous, the roots of the dandelion can be caramelised in sugar or maple syrup and used to add bitterness to a dish. Broad beans grow in the ‘Edible York’ allotment next to The Barbican, as well as rocket. Both of these plants have flowers which can be used to add vibrancy to a dish. Try rolling broad bean flowers between two sheets of fresh pasta, then serving with fresh broad beans and peas. There are countless other flowers and wild herbs growing in the area, and there is still a staggering amount for me to learn, but living in an area with such beautiful countryside invites making the most of what grows around us.
Mix together 1 cup of honey, 3 tablespoons of chipotle paste, 2 tablespoons of mustard, 4 tablespoons of ancho chile powder, salt and pepper, 4 tablespoons of sesame oil, 2 teaspoons of ground coriander, 2 teaspoons of ground cumin and 2 teaspoons of paprika. Coat chicken wings with the spice mix. Cook under a medium grill for 25-30 minutes, turning frequently.
2. Scones, Downton Abbey Preheat the oven to 220C. Mix together 225g of flour and a pinch of salt. Rub in 55g of butter. Stir in 25g of sugar and 150ml of milk to get a soft dough. Knead very lightly on a lightly floured surface. Pat out and stamp out scones using a cutter. Brush the scones with beaten egg. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Serve with clotted cream, jam and a cup of tea.
3. “MY SANDWICH!”, Friends Make a sandwich of roasted turkey breast, stuffing, cranberry sauce, lettuce and tomato. The secret ingredient is a third slice of bread dipped in gravy, or a ‘moist maker’, in the middle of the sandwich. Take it to work with you, but be sure to label it...
4. Cheesy Blasters, 30 Rock You take a hot dog, stuff it with some jack cheese, put it in a pizza... you’ve got cheesy blasters!
Jim Dee
Opposite the Berrick Saul building is a
Foodstagram 1
Desperate Housewife
ZENA JARJIS recommends the best Instagram accounts for food-lovers...
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1. @sweet_almond Delicious pastries and desserts 2. @deliciouslyella Healthy salads, smoothies and more 3. @razawdiako Traditional Kurdish dishes 4. @freefrier Clean eating meals
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
17
COMMENT//TECH&STAGE&FILM
We need to talk about innovation T
he term ‘innovation’ has become somewhat tainted as of late. While it used to mean coming out with something revolutionary and eye opening, it’s now used in irony by cynical industry watchdogs. It wasn’t always like this; the technology industry used to be constantly changing. We saw monitors and TVs shrink exponentially in width in a matter of years. The unveiling of the original iPhone drove consumers crazy.
However, these consumers are not the ones lining up at midnight to pick up the latest iteration in Apple’s long list of products. This is a controlled craziness, a craziness orchestrated by Apple’s meticulous marketing techniques and cult-like appeal to tech-savvy geeks. The problem with the technology industry today is that consumers aren’t seeing or feeling change. The introduction of the DVD for example, represented a tactile and visual change, a change the average consumer could appreciate. A
change that mattered. The average consumer doesn’t care if X piece of technology has an i3, i5, i7 processor or if a processor has Hyper-Threading; I mean, what does that even mean? Making your device slightly slimmer and snappier doesn’t matter any more. It’s a case of diminishing marginal returns and is not change that consumers can rally behind or get excited for. Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and all the familiar suspects need to understand that if their RnD department is focusing on making a product thinner, lighter and more powerful, it’s barking up completely the wrong tree. Only the heavy hitters like Apple and Microsoft can get away with that and even they are receiving scathing criticism as of late. Innovation in the technology industry stems from two core concepts; providing a product that consumers need and providing a product consumers don’t know they need. However, innovation in capitalism is a two-way street. It doesn’t just stem from consumer need, it also stems from the need of corporations to remain competitive and survive. It hasn’t suddenly become more difficult to innovate; consumer needs will always exist, they just haven’t been revealed yet. Rather, the industry has become so entrenched with familiar corporations that there is no longer the need to innovate to be competitive. The solution? We need an upstart company to come out of nowhere to rattle their cages, to provide goods or services that consumers need but haven’t realised until now. That, or industry underdogs will attempt to seize more market share and cause a tussle. Until then, all we can do is vote with our wallet.
Costas Mourselas
‘Cinematic Theatre’: a new beginning for Film? T
he Oculus Rift has saturated recent technology news, exciting gamers and tech fans alike, and with the recent buyout by Facebook the stage is set for a successful new gadget. Using this technology exclusively for gaming would be a huge mistake, the developers must stay open minded to the multitude of applications for this revamped VR eyewear. Imagine being able to look around the eerie hotel from The Shining or explore the vibrant and visceral forests of Avatar as though you are actually there. Couple the Rift with the omnidirectional treadmill and Potter fans could wander around Hogwarts Castle finding even more ‘errors’ in the movie adaptation. In my opinion, the film industry could harness this new form of VR and truly engross their viewer, achieving what 3D films have been trying to do for years. As cool as this sounds there are issues to be
possible!) or it would have to be computer generated. This argument has already risen to the fore with recent controversy over whether Gravity’s cinematographer deserves as much recognition, when almost all of the frames were rendered in post-production. It would seem that the best way of creating this virtual reality set would follow in Gravity’s wake and use CGI to create a fully immersive world. However, if the viewer were allowed complete freedom to walk around the world of the film, then following the story would become less straightforward. You could guide them promenade theatre style but this would require some sort of AI character, meaning the fourth wall is always broken. Does this also mean it is no longer considered film but rather some sort of ‘cinematic theatre’ or experience?
'revolutionary visual experience or perhaps 3D's long awaited leap to adulthood”' addressed. Firstly, if the entire world of the film is available to the viewer, allowing them to look at whatever they want, then the cinematographer doesn’t have the opportunity to show off their fancy framing or meticulous composition. The job becomes almost obsolete with either the whole set filmed from every angle (if actually
Another worry would be the quality of the actual viewing experience. Testing on the body’s reaction to such lengthy stints of virtual life would have to be carried out, people may become like the confused ‘dreamers’ from Inception. A vast number of people lead sedentary lives and may be put off by having to exert energy to enjoy a film so the industry would lose regular income. How do we keep up with fast moving
objects or jump to new locations? Fast and Furious would be a completely different movie if you were chasing after the drag racing cars the whole time. We would lose the relaxed viewing habits that have served cinema for over 100 years. But reservations aside, this technology could be a seed to a revolutionary visual experience or perhaps 3D’s long awaited leap to adulthood. Why stop at just film? We could have VR tel-
evision shows, music videos, even a more intrusive Google Earth. Museums and tourist destinations could bring their landmarks to an audience who may not be able to go there or are too apathetic to leave their own home. The Oculus Rift has definitely sparked my imagination. This technology is going to be mass marketed in one form or another and whether it’s a business triumph or technological flop remains to be seen. Sam Stockbridge
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
COMMENT//TECH&STAGE&FILM
CH-CH-CHANGES: WHEN TV TOOK LIBERTIES In the wake of the Game of Thrones ‘rape scene’ controversy TOM DAVIES and CALLUM SHANNON look at when other TV adaptions deviated from the source material..
True Blood: Lafayette was supposed to die
Rome: Caesarion was (also) supposed to die
Dexter: Rita actually WASN’T supposed to die
Everybody’s favourite gay, cross-dressing short order fry cook from the popular vampire porno True Blood never made it much further than the first chapter of The Southern Vampire Mysteries, the series of novels on which the TV series is based. However, due to the popularity of the character, played masterfully by Nelsan Ellis, the show’s producers chose to ultimately save the man’s life. They gave another poor secondary character the chop instead.
Not so much an adaption of something else as a series which was supposed to be loosely historical. By all means not the first inaccuracy within the show but perhaps the largest and most deliberate. Child of Caesar and Cleopatra, Caesarion, is rescued from certain death by the show’s protagonists, legionaries Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, despite in reality meeting much the same fate as his mother. Presumably the producers felt that depicting child murder may have been a stretch too far.
Showtime’s Dexter series seems to buck trends by being even more bloodthirsty than its original source material, with several characters currently still alive in the books being brutally killed off in the show. Most controversially the character of Rita, Dexter’s wife and probably his main relationship on the show which makes you forget just how utterly cuckoo-clock he is. Whilst in the latest book the pair remain happily married, on TV she met a grisly end, even by the show’s own famously high standards of bloody violence.
World Without End: Edward II and III’s impossible fight scene World Without End was a historical epic, one of those novels that despite not happening, there are no real reasons why it couldn’t have happened. After several major character who survived the book dropped dead of the plague throughout the series, the cherry on the cake came in the season finale. Gone was the pathos of the world’s tallest spire being built and in its place, a sword fight between Edward III and Edward II in a burning monastery... despite the fact the latter died decades earlier.
Mythology re-told
Maddi Howell discusses the continuing impact of mythology on fiction novels
A
s spring rolls around, various essays have been handed in and exams have come to a close, it is satisfying to turn over a new leaf (or rather, page). With the latest crazes stocking up the shelves, from Divergent to Fifty Shades, it can be even more satisfying to return to classics retold from fresh new perspectives. And what could be more classic than that treasure chest of stories, mythology? From Margaret Atwood to Angela Carter or the fantasy novels of Rick Riordan, some of the most gratifying (and subversive) fiction features, the re-telling of myths and the recycling of ancient archetypes.
This fantastical author is scheduled to complete his Heroes of Olympus collection of five novels by October this year, chronicling the struggles of demigods to prevent the earth goddess Gaia from awakening from her slumber. The clash continues as the offspring of Greek and Roman deities war against each other over a stolen statue of Athena, but must unite against their ultimate antagonist.
The premise is that demigods are still hanging around in the modern era, descendants of the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses of old. Riordan created these new stories out of existing ones when he ran out of bedtime stories for his son based on classical mythologies, creating new characters to interact with the old. Check out the first in the series, The Lost Hero, and the film adaptations of his previous series, Percy Jackson. Definitely one for escapism... And what if the gods were kicking about amongst us?
Atwood’s The Penelopiad is a genre-bending, feminist re-telling of The Odyssey. It was published in 2005 as part of an exciting selection of rewritten ancient myths by contemporary authors. By giving a silent figure of myth and legend a narrative voice, this novella has something to say about the perspectives in storytelling and
Angela Carter is a distinctive voice when it comes to making old stories new. In her radical collection of stories, The Bloody Chamber, she turns fairytales such as Beauty and the Beast and the legend of Bluebeard on their heads in a sadomasochistic goth fest. In The Tiger’s Bride, the female heroine transforms into a glorious tiger in an intriguing reversal of the traditional tale, in which the Beast must conform to become a handsome suitor. Carter’s mission is to extract the latent psychological content and she succeeds; you will never be able to read your childhood favourites in quite the same way. Particular favourites in the collection are The Bloody Chamber, Wolf-Alice, and The Snow Child.
tackles the possibility of historical misconception head on. It speaks sarcastically on behalf of the women of myth: “Point being that you don’t have to get too worked up about us, dear educated minds. You don’t have to think of us as real girls, real flesh and blood, real pain, real injustice. That might be too upsetting. Just discard the sordid part. Consider us pure symbol. We’re no more real than money”.
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
COMMENT//TECH
CS: There’s no denying it, the gaming industry has been blown into the stratosphere, thanks to the smartphone. However, the gaming market’s success is increasingly looking like its own downfall. Smartphones have muscled into handheld gaming, a once niche area, and risks supplanting my handheld gaming consoles completely. Take the Nintendo DS for example – unleashed into a smartphone free market, it stormed the world and sold almost two hundred million units. Its successor however, the 3DS, was not so lucky. Despite boasting improved graphics, internet capabilities and 3D screens, it sold only around 40 million units. The fact is, casual gamers don’t want to fork out £150 for a console and £30 for games when they can buy games on a phone they already own for 99p. It just doesn’t make any sense.
CS: Ok, I wasn’t saying that handhelds and consoles fill the same space in the market, because it’s simply not true. However, it’s impossible to deny that they aren’t connected. Console manufacturers produce both kinds of gaming platform and if one is losing the money, the other is bound to suffer due to their technological symbiosis. Therefore, any money the smartphone gaming market (which makes up about 75% of app profits) harms the mainstream gaming industry.
CS: While consoles may be safe for the time being, there’s no way of knowing what the future will hold. You hit the nail on the head about handheld gaming: it is dead in the water. And whatever is developed for the smartphone platform will never meet the standards of classic Nintendo. As a Nintendo investor once said, “Just think of paying 99 cents just to get Mario to jump a little higher.” That’s simply the nature of smartphone games: you have to keep paying if you want more. Imagine if Pokemon had been developed for the iPhone, having to pay for rare Pokemon. Also, think about how much storage space it’d take up. Although the console market survives (for now), smartphones have undoubtedly knocked the gaming sector off balance.
THE FUTURE OF GAMING IS DOOMED TD: Right, let’s all be perfectly honest now. Is anyone seriously going to tell me they believe that console video gaming and handheld gaming are the same thing? Something like Call of Duty or Skyrim is self-evidently incomparable to Flappy Bird or Candy Crush Saga. We’re talking about completely different markets here. You pay more because you get more; with the exciting things modern technology can do your average gamer is not going to turn their back on big bucks console gaming, just so they can strain their eyes out playing some 99p smartphone timewaster. Which is what they are, be fair now. They just can’t compare to what you can get on console or PC, and never will.
TD: To be fair, handheld consoles are essentially dead in the water. But does this necessarily spell doom for the big game and console developers? Of course not, these big dogs will either cut their losses and retreat entirely from the handheld market, or go into developing smart phone games. These are clever people, even if a lot of recent triple A titles wouldn’t necessarily have you believe it. More importantly, they’ve got a LOT of money to throw around, with a solid market of ‘serious’ gamers to lap up whatever comes out bearing their logo, whatever the price.
TD: Whilst your use of the phrase “consoles may be safe for the time being” has made me suddenly worried they might one day develop sentience and murder me in my bed, I have to accept that smart phone gaming could be viewed as a pretty cynical business model. But they work, because there are enough people pouring loose change into the game to speed things up or purchase the union jack pool cue that the rest of us can enjoy them for free, or near enough anyway. But it isn’t the same, and for that reason if nothing else, console gaming endures.
TOM DAVIES & CALLUM SHANNON
Something for Nothing? G aming as an economic concept is indeed a strange one when you think about it. Essentially, one pays money (often £30-£40) to view and manipulate a bunch of pixels assembled on a screen into discernible forms, creating an ‘unreality’ (i.e. a virtual world) in which the controller in question is expected to become invested. Some of the more fervent parts of the gaming community thus often find themselves under fire from those sceptical of the worth of gaming, as having ‘no life’ due to the fact that they enjoy immersing themselves in a narrative which has no basis in physical reality. Without getting into a philosophical debate about what ‘reality’ is, the idea of becoming emotionally invested in something which cannot reciprocate this can seem bizarre to those unacquainted with gaming, especially as emotional investment is the precursor to further economic investment. One might argue, ‘why not spend your money on something real? Something worthwhile?’ There is no straightforward answer to these questions, no logical basis on why one should or should not pay for games and gaming; there are only differences of opinions, perspectives that are hard to reconcile between those within the gaming community and those without. The word ‘community’ is key here, as that is largely what
one is allowed access to when they buy or play a game. Take the immensely popular Halo franchise, for instance. What started out as a virtual sci-fi world, containing a linear narrative by which the player was led has evolved into something much greater than the sum of its parts. The Halo protagonist ‘Master Chief’, by virtue of the rich detail in which the world and his narrative is rendered, has allowed the pixelated character to make the leap from its – or should I say his – virtual world into our real, tangible one. We can now buy Master Chief action figures, posters, bedspreads, life-size facsimiles of his armour – the list is astoundingly large. This transition from one reality to another works in a kind of inverse way for the gamer; in essence, Master Chief has become an avatar for each and every gamer who has ever controlled him. Master Chief becomes an extension of the player that allows them to affect a world outside our mundane, singular one, and it is this feeling that provides the alluring immersion, maybe even escapism for some, that gaming offers. United by their mutual investment in its alternate reality, ever dedicated player of Halo find themselves part of a global community, a community whose fervour allows their beloved avatar to become a physical reality. The competitive online aspect of gaming further facilitates the development of such a diverse community. Halo, as one of a
multitude of games, can be played online with the purchase of Xbox Live, which thus allows an individual player from one side of the world to interact, play along with or compete against another from potentially anywhere else on Earth. Gaming as a competitive sport thus functions to varying degrees as, say, the Olympics do, with people from all over the world representing not just themselves but their broader, perhaps even national, community. Players can also alter the appearance of their virtual avatars with other economic purchases, such as ‘skins’ which allow for rare, if not unique, modifications upon the generic avatars, to further impress individual identity upon other gamers. This article is just a tiny insight into the vast dynamics of gaming and its effect upon our physical reality, a cursory glance at a phenomenon on which books, even volumes, could be and probably have been written. The crux of the matter is this; gaming, like any other inter-personal activity, creates a community – imagined or otherwise – that some will live and breathe for and others will look upon with contempt. But if you’re one of those people who criticise a game-player for having ‘no-life’, just think; is it really a case of not having a life, or just choosing to live part of it elsewhere?
Philip Watson
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
Travel
Turn up the heat
NO
YES
Vision gives a rundown of its favourite party island destinations in the mediterranean for you this summer
Izzi Graham
E Ibiza
If you want sun, sea and nightlife that has proven itself for decades, Ibiza is the destination for you. Lively and closer to the UK than any of the Greek resorts, it is clubbing convenience at its finest.
Malia
New kid on the block Malia makes its USP the number of high profile DJs it attracts to its megaclubs. For a tiny Greek resort it more than punches above its weight.
very year there are horror stories reported of teens being reckless, drinking too much and getting hurt when abroad with their friends. So these holidays can only be a bad thing, right? Wrong. We should not let these incidents, which are far in the minority, put us off what can be a fantastic trip and a positive learning curve. So you’ve finished school, just turned 18 and are excited to go away with your friends and have some independence. This means you have to take care of yourself and anyone who’s done this will relate to the panic of thinking you’ve lost your passport (usually to find it’s in your hand, these are the things you will laugh about later!) For a young adult, particularly one who is about to move out of the family home, this can be a taster of just how much there is to think about when you go it alone. The knock on effect of this is that you begin to appreciate how much your parents do for you, as we see teenagers confessing on programmes such as Sun, Sex and
Suspicious Parents. I know I finally understood just why my parents get so stressed at airports! The other major plus of this kind of holiday is how close you become with the people you go with. Yes, you’re bound to have a few fallouts – 10 teenagers often intoxicated or suffering a hangover is not a situation for peace treaties – but the bond you form from spending so much time together, taking care of one another and sharing such amazing experiences means these are people you will not forget in a hurry. My post-exam holiday was made by the people I went with and we can sit for hours going over the whole thing – the good, the bad and the downright embarrassing! We have made memories that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. Just like any other situation; if you’re sensible and aware of the dangers then it’s not hard to stay safe in these holiday destinations. The memories you make are second to none and, after all, don’t we deserve a bit of a break after the stress of exams?
S
hould getting smashed every single night, being hungover every single day and repeating this until you go back home, looking like you need to go to rehab, be the sole purpose of your holiday abroad? Absolutely not! Unless you are 12, have never been to a proper party and have never had an alcoholic drink, you should not consider the fact that you managed to not sleep in your own vomit a victory. Seriously now, if you still feel like you need to travel to Zante, Malia or Magaluf just to get drunk and have fun in a crowd of people who all eventually end up throwing up everywhere and imagining they had the best time just because they don’t remember, they probably passed out in a pool of, well, you can guess, that probably means you’ve been overprotected or lived in the most boring place on Earth. If that’s the case, trust me on this: you can get drunk and have just as much fun anywhere. With a little luck you’ll find a place to do so where the average age is higher than 15, where people are over the ‘Woohoo, I’ve just discovered alcohol’ phase and where you can actually have fun,
Adela Iacobov rather than simply assuming you had fun because everyone around you seemed to have fun, because how can you not have fun the first time you are given access to vodka and a crowd of equally drunk and horny people who are still going through puberty? I’ll let you in on a secret – you can now do that pretty much anywhere you want. So if you decide to spend money to travel abroad, you might want to consider going to a place you actually want to see. You can get just as drunk, have just as much fun, and you might also remember some of the cultural, traditional or touristic highlights as well, as opposed to the beauty of the absolutely identical teen paradise resorts, with the exact same scenes, hotels, bars, views, marketing strategies and types of people. By now, you’re supposed to have discovered vodka, sex, hangovers and clubbing; you’ve been initiated. It’s not a big deal anymore, act cool. You successfully became an adult. That means it’s time to move on from Malia, Zante and Magaluf. Congratulations. Now you can actually have fun.
Kos
Besides the relentless cycle of clubbing, sleeping and sunbathing, Kos puts its emphasis on activities like watersports. Advisory note though – water-skiing on a hangover is not the one.
I Zante
If relentless partying is going to grind you down, Zante at least offers respite from the clubbing scene with its polar opposite – sleepy traditional villages – in the north of the island. After some R&R you can then lunge back into the action on the strip.
it’s All about Barcelona
t’s rare to find a coastal European city that combines beauty, vibrant culture, bustling nightlife and proximity to urban escape as well as Barcelona. Shirking the scorching heat of southern Spain, the grim concrete facades of the Costa del Sol and boasting enviable transport links to quieter parts of the Costa Brava, Barcelona is a city you should put high on your bucket list.
The city’s premiere attraction is the Sagrada Familia. Designed by Antonio Gaudí, the Church has been under construction since 1882. Though its interior to a large extent resembles a building site – because it actually is one – the exterior is breathtaking and the design of the building is hugely reflective of Gaudí’s style which is repeated throughout the entire city. In typically Spanish fashion most of the food specialises in a lighter touch which suits tourists because you’re on-the-go and locals because nobody wants to eat a heavy meal in the summer heat. Bacoa is a must visit – it’s basically what’d happen if Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Jamon Iberico were dropped in a blender and spat out at the other end. Predictably the burgers are to die for!
Kavos
Channel 4 may make Kavos seem like a horror story but that’s not the whole story. With the urban legends of Kavos come legendary status; and infamous cocktails make it a night you’ll never forget… unless you have too many.
Another must-do is brunch – desayuno is a Spanish staple and the Federal Cafè will furnish all your post-hangover needs. It covers all typically British bases but also boasts juices and shakes and has a thoroughly cosmopolitan feel to it. If you want to ease into the day with more of a Mediterranean twist, Picnic offers a seafood twist with
an emphasis on freshness that most UK seafood restaurants could only envy. The prawns and breadcrumbed hake are standout dishes. A truly wacky day out is the Salvador Dali museum. This is ideal in the extremely unlikely event of a rainy day and will keep both arts enthusiasts and everyone else entertained. Dali is completely off the wall and the scale of his very physical art should be something to keep everyone amused, including the iconic living room piece that doubles vaguely grotesquely as a face. The added bonus of Barcelona, though, is its proximity to the coast. Besides its own beach it’s also within a short drive of the sleepy coves of the Costa Brava. Though the Costa Brava is probably among the most underappreciated in Spain because of its inaccessibility and shorter season, both those reasons actually make it among the best in Spain. Just a few shorts hours away are sleepy beaches whose isolation from the outside world is all part of the attraction. Tamariu is a particular gem. Though it regularly becomes busy in high season May-August, the village is enviably underdeveloped and lacks much development beyond the beachside cafes and bars that have been there since time immemorial. If you want a city break that offers a beach holiday, cultural attractions and cosmopolitan nightlife – truly, there’s no city better than Barcelona. Angus Quinn