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Day: 1 February 2013

DmC: Devil May Cry

Written by Alasdair Preston on . Posted in Games.

Much has been said about the Devil May Cry reboot. The fan reaction seems to be largely negative; they miss the Japanese design of the past. For an outsider to the series such as myself, this Dark Knight inspired makeover is a vast improvement. The new Dante is a younger, crass, and infinitely more likeable hero. He’s the type who will gladly tell monsters where they can shove their evil intentions, and use every swear word known to man while going about his daily routine. That’s my kind of hero.

When he’s not cursing at demons, Dante uses a range of weapons and abilities to kick ass as violently, and imaginatively, as possible. The hordes of enemies each have their own attacks and weaknesses to exploit. On screen action flows smoothly and looks gruesome, while an engaging soundtrack composed by Noisia and Combichrist plays in the background. Moving around in DmC can be rough, especially during platforming sections that can be clunky and cause frustration, especially when they’re only serving to break up the action and cause Dante to fall to his inevitable death.

Dante’s dual pistols, combos and giant swords are all upgradable to deal more damage and perform even more over-the-top tricks. Rewards come thick and fast, allowing for rapid improvements. Success and diversity earn higher score multipliers and ultimately leads to a better rank at the end of the level. Furthermore, there are countless hidden challenges and collectibles in every stage that’ll take even the most meticulous a good while to discover.

Ninja Theory wants this game played over and over again. Not content with including generous lashings of hidden content, DmC has a multitude of difficulties. While I doubt many will survive the fiendish “Dante must die” setting, there are many others to suit all abilities. DmC will definitely keep players busy.

Trailer:

Bogle 2013

Written by Rachel Heward on . Posted in Societies.

Bogle 2013 is organised by Manchester RAG and has been a highlight of the calendar every year since 1961, providing an intense challenge for students as well as raising thousands of pounds for charity. This year it will take place Friday 1st March to Saturday 2nd March.

This challenging walk started fifty-two years ago when a group of UMIST lecturers missed the last bus home in Lancaster and decided to walk back to Manchester. Allegedly, along the way some of the group started to hallucinate and saw the Bogle (a Lancashire imp of folklore). The Bogle began to taunt the walkers, willing them to give up, yet they powered through and defeated the Bogle, giving the event its legendary name.

Now, the walk anticipates 500 people taking their own challenge and offers three levels of difficulty. The Bogle Stroll is a fifty-five mile walk taking between fourteen and twenty-five hours to complete. The Bogle Ramble is a twenty-five mile walk taking up to ten hours to complete and the Bogle Roll is more suited to two wheels as it is a seventy-eight mile cycle taking about five to six hours to complete. The sponsored walk aims to support many charities, and walkers pick a charity of their choice to support. Last year Bogle walkers raised money for over one hundred different charities. Bogle also has a chosen Charity of the Year which this year is Mencap, who work in partnership with people with a learning disability. They provide services that allow people to live as independently as possible in a place they choose as well as providing advice through helplines and websites. They are the voice of learning disability, campaigning for the changes that people with a learning disability want.

The route takes the walkers to Manchester Airport, Stockport, Failsworth, Farnworth and Salford, and whilst it is an exceptional challenge, it is also extremely rewarding and can often be a lot of fun. Previous ‘Boglers’ have many stories to tell, including this great one from Sarah Barnes who tells of her experience last year. She explains, ‘I walking through deserted, deepest darkest Stockport, it was about 2-3am and our morale had begun to drop. A man pulled over in a car and wound down his window- I was a little worried but I was with three lads so it was ok. He asked what we were doing, and looked at our British Heart Foundation t-shirts. We explained, and he drove off. Two minutes later, the same man drew up alongside us, and handed us £20 in cash. His father had a lot of support from BHF in his later years, and he wanted to give something back. It really raised our spirits- there are good people lurking in the dark!’

If you would like to get involved, either by volunteering to help the walkers or if you fancy a go at the Bogle yourself, visit www.manchesterrag.com/bogle for all information about how to sign up, including sponsorship and what you will need to be prepared for the big day.

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Written by Jack Crutcher on . Posted in Games.

Aliens: Colonial Marines offers fans a new experience in the Alien Universe while aiming to please hardcore followers with plenty of references to the movies. The storyline acts as a direct sequel to James Cameron’s 1986 movie Aliens but takes place after Alien 3. Playing as Corporal Christopher Winter accompanied by a team of Colonial Marines, you set off on a mission to investigate the strange goings on aboard the USS Sulaco in orbit around LV-426.

The FPS gameplay may make the enemy Xenomorphs a bit easier to kill than in the movies in order to increase the fast paced action-packed value of the game; but for most fans the opportunity to explore familiar locations such as Hadley’s Hope, the surface of LV-246 and plenty of other recognisable visual additions, will temper the relative ease with which some enemies can be defeated.

Gearbox offer a four player co-op experience (two for split screen) as well as a powerful looking arsenal, including pulse rifles, smart guns, auto turrets and robotic loader suits – all customisable both visually and in terms of functionality – offering gamers the opportunity to personalise their experience in a genre which has previously lacked such depth in its games.

Multiplayer team death match (Marines vs. Xenomorphs), a 4v4 objective mode called Escape where a squadron of marines must reach an evacuation point whilst under siege from the Xenomorphs evoking memories of Left 4 Dead and perhaps most importantly, following the success of Horde mode in Gears of War, a survival mode will be offered where four Colonial Marines take on waves of Xenomorphs!

Aliens: Colonial Marines will be released on PS3, 360 and PC on February 12.

Trailer:

High speed rail to run under Owens Park

Written by Jonathan Breen on . Posted in News.

The next phase of the new high speed rail link is set to go right through the heart of the Fallowfield student area.

The government unveiled proposed plans for the route of the transport link from Birmingham Monday January 28, which show a tunnel passing directly underneath University accommodation in the Fallowfield Campus.

David Meechan a spokesman for HS2, the company in charge of the rail line, told The Mancunion the impact for people above ground would be minimal.

“We can tunnel these days with out anyone really being aware,” he said.

“During the actual construction there may be some slight vibration.

“It is something that can be done without really affecting homes and businesses above the tunnel.

“For phase one from London to the West Midlands, which is a bit more advanced, we have done a lot of work trying to reassure people living above tunnels that the impact would be minimal.”

The plans are the second stage of the multi-billion pound high speed railway line said to cut journey times in half between Manchester, Birmingham and London. There will also be lines running to Sheffield and Leeds.
Construction on phase one is expected to start in four years and open to passengers in 13 years, with the route announced last week set to open six years after that.

However, the phase two route is at an early stage and still open to changes, added Meechan.

“What we do is we publish a preferred route, which we have done today and then that is opened up for consultation,” he said. “This is what we think is the best route, but there are local consultations that have to go on.

“During the phase one consultation a lot of the route did change afterwards, there are changes that can be made; this is not fixed by any means.”
Second year Thomas Young felt the train line would only be acceptable if when it is running it does not affect the people living above.

“If you can feel vibrations from the train going underneath then it is not ok,” he said. “But if they can guarantee that its not going to affect people’s daily lives at home then there is nothing wrong with it.”
Second year Biomedical Sciences student Joe Brunner said,“I am not going to be here, so I don’t care, but  if I was here I would probably be annoyed if there was any noise.”

Leader of Manchester City Council Sir Richard Leese said in a statement released by Transport for Greater Manchester that he supported the government’s decision to implement the plans in the face of opposition.

He said, “We see high-speed rail as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the rail network, which will not only tackle the West Coast line’s capacity issues – including the lack of capacity for local commuter and freight services – but will unlock the economic potential of the North West and create much-needed jobs.

“The UK is lamentably playing catch-up to our global competitors in our rail transport systems, but it is crucial that we close the gap. Without this link the North West – and Manchester – will be left stranded, unable to compete with the likes of Munich, Milan and Copenhagen who are already well ahead in the high-speed stakes.”

Outrage as exam papers ask ‘unanswerable’ questions

Written by Jonathan Breen on . Posted in News.

Students sitting exams last month were given papers with multiple mistakes in them, The Mancunion has learned.

Exams in Linguistics, English Language, and Nursing were among those with errors.

“For three out of four of my exams at the University of Manchester to have mistakes is quite a big deal really,” second year English Language Tom Ingham said.

The exams, taken as part of semester one modules, included unanswerable questions, repeated questions, and confusing printing errors.

“In my Introduction to Middle English paper, there was a question that was unanswerable, so it was either from another paper or the question had been mistyped,” said Ingham. “What they asked you to look for, which was ‘can you identify these old English pronouns in this Middle English text and can you identify a relic,’ well they weren’t in there.

“So you’d spend ages and ages on the question, and panicked yourself. That was worth 20 marks in the paper and it was a question you had to do.

“Out of the four compulsory questions on the paper, one was unanswerable and the component to answer one of the other questions was missing, and we were only told 30 to 40 minutes in.”

Ingham also had mistakes in two other exams.

“In my Logic of English paper, we were asked to analyse a formula – part of the formula was missing. It you had revised it enough, you could have made an educated guess that it didn’t matter, but we had never seen formulas like this. It was very obscure to look at. And it was a compulsory question.

“The other mistake was a printing error on a diagram in my Introduction to Phonology paper. Again, if you used your intuition you could maybe have worked it out, but you couldn’t be sure.”

Ingham added, “The problem is, now they’ve said they are not going to mark those questions, so they are going to be disregarded. That isn’t fair, say if the questions that did have the mistakes were your strong points, and they’re just being completely disregarded you are being shafted in a way. Even though they will up-mark the other ones, it is a very dodgy balance.

“And then you have the re-sit system, for some courses you can only re-sit if you fail and if you re-sit you can only get 40 per cent.”
Second year Mental Health Nursing student Joe Vickery also experienced problems and said it affected his ability to do his exams.

“In both my exams questions were repeated, and a couple questions were not numbered properly,” he said. “In one exam they asked a question, and then asked a different question straight after, so people didn’t know which one to answer – there was a question about a paragraph of text and then a separate list of questions relating to the same paragraph with instructions to answer one from the list.

“There were also loads of questions that were badly worded, which made it really difficult to understand them.”
One way teachers have responded to the errors is to disregard questions with mistakes from the final mark of paper.

Ingham and Vickery were emailed by their lecturers saying they had not seen the mistakes and were amending the problem.
Wendell Kimper, a lecturer in Linguistics, emailed students who took the Introduction to Phonology paper saying their grade would not suffer because of mistakes.

“A few of you have expressed concern that disregarding the two erroneously formatted questions means that all of the other questions will carry more weight,” said Kimper. “This is true, but remember that your raw score is not the same as your mark — there is a scaling process to turn the former into the latter.

Linguistics and English Language faculty member Antonio Fortin emailed students who took the Logic of English exam saying, “It was brought to my attention afterwards that Q6 had various errors in it. I do have a copy of the final version of the exam that went to the printers, and it had no such typos on it, but they nevertheless crept in during the admin/printing stage.

“Once I receive the scripts, I will work out exactly what I need to make allowances for, but I wanted to reassure those of you who might be worried about that question that you will not be penalised if there are errors on the exam itself.”

Vickery added that the head of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work made an appearance in his lecture on 31 January to apologise for the exam blunder.

Happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking

Written by Andrew Williams on . Posted in Features.

We are barely into the second month of the year, yet the chances are that your New Year’s resolutions have already gone out of the window. Whether it’s quitting smoking, dedicating more time to your degree or – God forbid – tempering that overactive sex drive, the chances are that you have capitulated at the first sign of temptation. You are not alone. According to the Mental Health Foundation, 80% of us fail spectacularly in achieving the goals we set ourselves as Big Ben strikes midnight on January 1.

The thought that we might all harbour a deep-seated desire to turn over a new leaf was thrown into sharp focus at the start of 2013, as 10,000 people pledged their commitment to Cancer Research UK’s much-publicised Dryathlon. It is not a stretch to speculate that for every sober ‘dryathlete’, there were several less resolute participants who made it to the first major social occasion of their month-long challenge, only to take a shortcut to the end of the course via half a bottle of vodka and several Jägerbombs.

Oliver Burkeman thinks he has an explanation for our apparently barren reserves of willpower. An expert on the burgeoning self-help industry – his weekly spot in The Guardian, ‘This Column Will Change Your Life’, takes a look at various aspects of the world of social psychology and the science of happiness – Burkeman believes that we are, quite simply, daunted by the enormity of the kind of overarching, life-affirming goals which manifest themselves as New Year’s resolutions.

“One of the many problems with goals is that very, very large ones can lead you astray – either because they become all-consuming and they distort other areas of your life, or because you deplete your willpower too quickly by trying to make all these different changes at once,” he suggests.

Instead, Burkeman advocates a less radical approach to goal-setting. “Resolutions are about trying to change your life consciously and staying aware of all of the new things you’re trying to do, whereas it’s well-established in the psychology of habit change that what you really want to do is to try and make it as automatic as you can, so that you do just go to the gym at five o’clock every day. What you should really be doing, in incremental ways, is setting up the conditions to generally tend your life in a more healthy direction.”

Burkeman didn’t bother setting himself any such targets this year – “partly because I would have felt too hypocritical having just written an article telling people that they shouldn’t!” – but he understands that many of us feel compelled to do so.

“I mean, who doesn’t want to turn over a new leaf? I think especially in Britain we’re quite bad at admitting that we do have those flaws,” he says. However, the New York-based writer has come to the conclusion that we are increasingly encumbered by an unhealthy obsession with what may or may not happen in the future.

“Goals are by definition achieved in the future and, whilst I’m not totally hostile to all goals, it’s to do with holding them loosely, using them as a gentle guide so that you act in this way rather than that way,” he explains.

“A big problem with a lot of the stuff I characterise as positive thinking is this idea of ‘future orientation’ – the idea that the time that really matters is some time in the future, rather than now. So you are going to set goals, and then one day achieve your dreams; you are going to retain hope at all costs because at some point that hope will come to fruition.”

Originally a quiet detractor of self-help culture – “I’d always had a totally ambivalent attitude towards it… I had always thought, ‘this is rubbish, I’m too sceptical for this stuff’” – Burkeman has since read “hundreds and hundreds” of ancient texts and motivational books, each claiming to hold the key to a happy, healthy and successful life. It soon became apparent to him that the majority of these imparted the same, singular message – “this basic idea that the path to happiness and success is to fill your mind with positive thoughts and positive emotions”.

Maintain a positive frame of mind at all times, and your inner positivity will inevitably produce tangible positive consequences – or so the theory goes. It is a bright and breezy life philosophy with an edge of steely determination; a future-oriented fantasy which will, one day, become a perfect reality.

Yet Burkeman refused to accept that fulfilment could lie in such an unsophisticated solution. In fact, slowly but surely, he became convinced that the exact opposite was true. “All the stuff that worked, that seemed to resonate with me, that was backed up by the research, or seemed useful when put into practice in my own life, had this alternative take; this idea of becoming more comfortable with negative things.”

On Burkeman’s view the ‘new year, new you’ phenomenon is merely one component of a myth, propagated by the self-help industry, that our collective quest for future happiness should rely steadfastly on the doctrine of positive thinking. His latest book, The Antidote, rails against “a culture fixated on optimism and positivity,” suggesting instead that we should embrace failure and negativity as inevitable and, more often than not, valuable and meaningful.

Determined that there must be an altogether more erudite path to happiness, the book charts Burkeman’s journey through various cultures and religious traditions in an attempt to uncover the factors which might contribute to a pessimistic but applicable alternative. “It’s new and counter-intuitive compared to the last century of popular psychology, but it’s as old as the hills,” Burkeman says of his approach.

The thought of travelling to a secluded retreat high in the mountains of Massachusetts for a week of total and utter silence isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when we consider potential paths to happiness, but for Burkeman it was a revelatory experience. Entirely removed from the distractions and complexities of modern life, he and his peers were coaxed into seven days of Buddhist meditation. Within 24 hours, the early monotony had given way to a very real sense of security and tranquillity.

Burkeman admits that there may have been “an element of Stockholm syndrome” to his week of contemplation despite it feeling, at times, “like a combination of courtroom and torture chamber”. Tormented by the high-pitched screech of Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’ – which lodged itself in his brain, on a loop, for 12 hours – he was on the verge of going stir crazy.

“Then, after all of the nonsense, and the stupid song lyrics, you get a lovely calm which is delightful. Then you sort of berate yourself about everything you’ve ever done which is bad,” he tells me. I put it to him that, more than anything, it sounds like a mind-numbingly tedious experience, though Burkeman explains that it is anything but.

“Oh, it’s never really boring. And that’s kind of the revelation – how ceaselessly noisy it is inside your own head. I daydreamed a lot, and I was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination at staying focused on the object of meditation, but when you are its either interesting, or occasionally distressing, or aggravating.”

A more mundane – but equally unusual – attempt by Burkeman to discover the path to happiness took place in the altogether less glamorous surroundings of a commuter-filled London Underground train. In honour of the Stoic tradition, Burkeman attempted to conquer his own human nature by dispensing with all notions of embarrassment… and announcing every stop on the Central Line at the top of his voice.

He still recoils with horror at the very mention of the experience. “I was quite terrified, and at first I did it very quietly. I think the interesting thing is, why should that be so terrifying? You’re not insulting people, or hurling abuse; it’s so odd that that should be so scary. It’s just because it’s so weird that it’s so embarrassing, and that’s a very interesting fact about anxiety and worry.”

From a personal perspective, Burkeman’s nemesis when it comes to anxiety and worry has long been his penchant for procrastination. “I think I was probably slightly atypical as a student – I freaked out with stress,” he recalls of his time at Cambridge. “It’s good to have some structure in your day and certainly in some student contexts you can go for days without anywhere or anything you absolutely have to be at which, for me personally, is the absolute death knell of productivity, because you need to impose some kind of structure.”

“On the other hand, there is certainly something to be said for a degree of idleness and for having that kind of space. Sometimes I think I’m a bit too much in the opposite direction – I often feel that an hour isn’t a good hour unless I’ve ticked something off the to-do list. It’s great not to feel that way.”

It is a state of mind that almost every student can identify with. Whether it’s fretting about the next deadline or putting off thinking about your dissertation until after the weekend, the university experience sometimes feels like a constant battle against distraction after distraction.

Burkeman has a very simple solution: he carries a kitchen timer with him in his pocket wherever he goes. “It’s silly, but creating little blocks of time – whether it’s an hour to work on something or two minutes to work on some project I really don’t want to work on – reduces the intimidation. It’s childish and stupid, but we are quite childish and stupid deep down.”

Though he does not claim to have found the solution to the future happiness of all humanity, Burkeman is unequivocal when it comes to the pitfalls of baseless optimism and short-sighted positivity. “One of the many risks with positive thinking is that you come to see everything as a dress rehearsal, because you are putting everything in place for some future shining vision, a grand moment of truth when it’s all going to have been ‘worth it’.”

“And I think that some people don’t mind living that way, and never getting there… but the point of that is to have a good experience now rather than to mortgage your whole future happiness on some point in the future.”

‘The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking’ is out now in paperback

Table tennis glory for Manchester women

Written by Den Chuang on . Posted in Sport.

At the beginning of the 2012/13 academic year, ex-chairwomen and star player Li Hang announced her retirement from the table tennis team to dedicate more time toward completing her PhD. The team that won last year’s championship in Sheffield would miss her. Or maybe not.

On Saturday 24th November, the table tennis women’s 1st team travelled to Leeds Cromer Terrace to play the round robin BUCS Northern 1A league, where in one day, all league matches would be played. In women’s table tennis at BUCS, matches are played between two players with a total of four singles matches and one doubles being played; essentially, games are best of five.
Manchester’s women had a straightforward start to the day, beating Liverpool 1sts 4-0. Helen Rutherford and Bai Xue had no problems winning a fixture that in previous years would have been more closely fought.

Next came the home team Leeds. It all seemed easy when Manchester took a comfortable 2-0 lead in the opening matches. Rutherford, though, saw her 2-0 set lead against Leeds’ Hayley Potts taken to a fifth set, where she would narrowly take the victory. Final score; Manchester 4 Leeds 0.

The next match was against defending champions Sheffield. Despite having lost a key player in Dominika Kolarova, they were certainly the team to beat. Rutherford opened the match as underdog against Sheffield’s Rebecca George. Going 2-0 down, it appeared George was going to seal the first point for Sheffield, but a remarkable comeback saw Rutherford take the game 3-2. Manchester would go on to win the match 3-0.

The toughest fixtures had been played and Manchester would end the season unbeaten, winning the fixtures against the Durham 1st and 2nd team without any problems and a league match against Newcastle 3-2 at the Sugden Sports Centre. The fantastic form of the women’s 1st team meant that they finished the league with a 100% record, dropping only two individual games along the way.
Alongside the success of the 1st team, for the first year ever a women’s 2nd team was entered in the BUCS leagues. On Sunday 18 November, Cindy Pun and Daphne Lie played for Manchester in the Northern 2A League at the Headingley campus of Leeds Metropolitan University.

Manchester entered with high expectations and did not disappoint in their opening match against hosts Leeds Met. Unable to make use of key player Charlotte Spencer, who was playing British League table tennis, the hosts were forced to get two tennis players to play for their table tennis team.
Manchester’s Pun said that, on seeing one of the tennis players perform a two-handed backhand shot that she ‘thought she must be joking.’ The final result was, unsuprisingly, Manchester 5 Leeds Met Carnegie 0.

In the next match, Manchester comfortably beat Sheffield 5-0. The final game would be against UCLAN 1st, who were also making a table tennis debut in BUCS. With both sides having comfortably won their first two matches and shown good table tennis, this promised to be an exciting finale.
Both Lie and Pun won their opening games against UCLAN’s Adele and Sarah respectively, to put Manchester 2-0 up in the match; things were looking good.

In the third and fourth, both Manchester players had contrasting games. While Pun took the first set and third set before facing the fifth, Lie had a troubled start against UCLAN’s Adele losing the first two sets 11-2.
Nonetheless, Lie’s cool and Adele’s nerves helped the Manchester side battle back 12-10 and 15-13 to take each game to a fifth set. Both fifth sets reached a 6-6 score in a nail-biting finale. Despite Pun falling to the pressure of the occasion, Lie rallied with 5 straight points to take the game 11-6.

Manchester would also win the doubles; making the final score a 4 – 1 victory. Manchester women’s 2nd had won in their debut season; a stunning achievement to cap off a fantastic year for the club. With the league titles secured, the teams will now look towards the cup competitions for their next challenge.

To join the University of Manchester’s table tennis teams, look on Facebook for information on upcoming fixtures and events.

For and Against – Spotted: Manchester University Library

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in Opinion.

For

As someone who had heard of, but had not yet been acquainted with the wonderful world of Spotted: Manchester University Library, I did not know exactly what it was I was getting into. Granted, I had a few preconceptions of what to expect from second-hand accounts. Expecting to find myself wallowing in a degenerative cesspit of 4chan-like proportions, I find myself ever so slightly disappointed, like a child who has snuck an early peak at his Christmas presents.

For the most part Spotted seemed harmless. The very worst stuff I found were juvenile and shallow expressions of lad culture, hardly anything worth acknowledging, let alone taking offence from. Some people have claimed that the fear of online ridicule has driven them away from using the Library, but it seems so insignificant and inconsequential. If it bothers them so much they don’t have to use Spotted, and if the sheer thought that someone somewhere who they don’t know is judging them, then it is a wonder that they can even successfully interact with their fellow human beings at all.

Granted, there is the issue of privacy violations from people’s pictures being uploaded without their consent, usually pictures of them sleeping in the library when they should be working. But again, this seems almost inconsequential. I find it unlikely that anything uploaded to Spotted is going to destroy any future careers.

Some have condemned it for being a source of procrastination, particularly damaging to students during the exam period, but let’s be honest here, simply adding or removing potential sources of procrastination will not prevent procrastination. As long as there remains some conceivable way to waste time, then time will be wasted, and blaming Spotted is little more than an excuse.

Furthermore, there are times when Spotted can be useful. When browsing through the Spotted Timeline I saw a post asking for men of Pakistani origin to fill out some questionnaires for someone’s dissertation research. Not to mention all the lost property notices, often accompanied with pictures of the lost item to assist in identification.

And, as has already been discussed, whilst some of the posts are crude and vulgar insults to humanity by virtue of their existence, I did find some of it genuinely funny. There is something liberating about the anonymity Spotted grants its posters. It gives them the ability to say the things that they lack the courage, or the good taste, to say in public – like telling the girl using Skype in the Library to shut the hell up.

Against

Countless numbers of students avoided the library over the January exam period after reading some of the posts on the ‘Spotted: University of Manchester Library’ page. The idea itself is rather creative and it was initially very positive. Using it to compliment ‘the fit girl in the green jumper’ is perhaps light-hearted and harmless. Many of the posts provided a humorous distraction from revision.

As time went on, the page lost its inoffensive tone and it became a medium, used to humiliate students when their stress levels are already sky-high. Some of the posts went beyond banter. Vivid descriptions of people with reference to their weight, figure or clothing choice were plentiful and these merely highlighted how shallow many young people are in today’s society. Who goes out of their way to look their best when going to the library anyway?

The case of ‘Spotted’ highlights a wider problem of anonymity on social networking sites. Although very cowardly (and incredibly sad), the founders of pages such as this obviously get a kick from the fact that they’re unlikely to be traced, if this is what they so desire. It must take real front to submit a post on a page such as Spotted.

Are people really so inept in conversation in 2013 that they have to hide behind a Facebook tab to ask people to turn their iPods down or stop their conversation with their friends in the library? For goodness sake talk to one another.

The worst part about the more insulting posts on this page is that many were targeted are vulnerable in our student community anyway. These range from those who are likely to have appearance or self-confidence issues, or maybe international students, who find it difficult to communicate and feel welcome anyway. Taking pictures of these people without their consent is unsympathetic and pathetic.

If you’re going to make the effort of going to the library, would it be too unreasonable to suggest spending the time doing something that may actually contribute towards your degree? But if you believe in such cowardly means of procrastination, make it a little more positive at least.

Students should support High Speed 2

Written by Clifford Fleming on . Posted in Opinion.

The debate on High Speed 2 this last week has re-sparked a passion of mine. My first love was Thomas. He was a steamy, old-fashioned type. I was four years old and full of locomotive-inspired romance. Thomas was a tank engine, a beautiful, fun-loving blue train. ­There’s something quite magical about steam engines of long ago, something hard to put into words. The billowing steam that trails behind as the engine chugs along the line, pulling along passengers in decorated, wooden carriages. There’s the Hogwart Express of the Potter books and films, giving picture to a beautiful, sleek red train full of magical students carrying their spell books and luggage. I love trains, I’ll admit it. Trains of today, alas, are nothing of what I imagined and hoped for when I was younger. The romantic, novel-rousing steam engines are long gone; their replacements, whether electric or diesel, look tired, worn-out and depressed.

As a student you and I both know how much we rely on trains. The semester ends with lectures full of people and their suitcases, all geared up for their journey home. Make no mistake, the journey I take on the Virgin Pendolino service every few months isn’t the smoothest of rides. Firstly you’ve got to deal with actually buying the tickets. To avoid being charged ludicrous amounts you have to carefully scan national rail online or the trainline for the cheapest possible scenarios, weeks in advance. Do not forget your student rail card, it’s a life saver. I was perplexed the other day to discover my housemate does not own such a necessity. I spluttered in disbelief as he told me he would spend £30 to Birmingham. ‘£30!’ I screamed. How on Earth could he be so blind? Planning train journeys is a skill. Once I got back to my sleepy home town of Arundel, five hours away by train, for a mere £11. Screw you Richard Branson.

The next task comes with the less-than-convenient spacing allocated for suitcases. If you’re early enough on the train you can slide your suitcase straight into the lower compartment and avoid the jigsaw operation that follows. Then the hunt begins in search for your reservation seat. Constantly you see students’ heads bobbing up and down, eyes focusing and ears pricked-up like meerkats. Do I have a window seat? I hope so. What about a plug socket? Do I even need a plug socket? I definitely want a plug socket. Sometimes you encounter the modern-day miracle that is of having a four-seater table to yourself. That definitely is living the sweet life my friends.

You see when the UK government announced that they would be upgrading the London to Manchester line to high speed rail, along with other lines too, I was astounded to find so many of the public who were genuinely outraged. David Thornhill from Campaign for Better Transport responded to the news by saying “I have rarely come across such an environmentally catastrophic scheme that is so pointless and so wasteful of money”. Okay, so it’s a lot of money, £32 billion, but it’s also set to create thousands of much needed jobs and make it a lot quicker to get around the country. It will also encourage a lot more people to use trains instead of carbon-intensive cars and planes. Some concerns I can understand. Residence or land owners on the proposed route may have genuine concerns of losing their property. Even discussions on whether spending the money on improving inner-city transport are a good debate. But in my eyes, the proposed investment in infrastructure from a Conservative government should be celebrated.

Our train tickets are over-priced, our luggage-compartments too small and our train conductors grumpy, but us Brits shouldn’t be all doom and gloom. One mention of something funded by the state and we go into a cynical, miserable rant. High speed rail is expensive, not perfect. It will damage some land, and will be an eye-sore. But more importantly, high speed rail will provide a more connected Britain. More jobs and will likely encourage infrastructure investment from all sectors. We have a tendency in this country to get irritated by almost anything. We should stop being so pessimistic and hail this new investment. You and I dear reader, as students, should realise how much we rely on our shabby trains and get behind this upgrade.

My political hero – Anne Brontë

Written by Georgia Tate on . Posted in Opinion.

Let’s take a moment to wonder at the general awesomeness of the Brontë literary family. Three single ladies living under the same roof in a Yorkshire parish: Charlotte, Emily and Anne are responsible for creating some of the most memorable characters of all time, and were undoubtedly pioneers of women’s literature. Unfortunately, discussion of the Brontës all too often starts along the lines of “yeah, Charlotte was great, and Emily, and… er, who was the third one again?” Poor Anne. Charlotte rocked worlds with Jane Eyre, Emily had the infamous Wuthering Heights, and Anne wrote the much less well known – at least these days – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

Except, not ‘poor Anne’ at all, because Anne is great! Like her sisters, she wrote a fair bit of poetry, as well as the novel Agnes Grey, a semi-autobiographical depiction of the oppression and mistreatment of governesses. However, today I’d like to take a look at the aforementioned The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall. In this book the heroine, Helen Graham, falls in love with the handsome, dark, brooding Arthur Huntington (think Heathcliff, think Rochester, think Edward Cullen) and marries him. Unsurprisingly, Arthur – let’s wittily call him Loser – turns out to be a manipulative, abusive alcoholic of a husband. Now, if this was another book, perhaps written by Em or Char or by E. L. James, the heroine would love Loser all the more for his tempestuousness, and perhaps her love would tame him somewhat, and they would live together in impassioned bliss and have really good (implied – this is the 19th century!) sex. Except this is a novel by the amazing Anne Brontë, so Helen ditches Loser, illegally runs away with their young child and eventually gets it together with the nice young chap narrating the story. What a refreshing turn of events!

The Byronic male character was one of intense fascination in the 19th century, and still is today. The brooding, dangerous anti-hero seems to have lingered in the collective unconscious of straight women for centuries. Anne’s deconstruction of the romance surrounding this figure is interesting because it was brave, for one: while The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was a best-seller on publication, it was criticised heavily for its coarseness and brutality. Among its critics was Anne’s sister Charlotte, who deemed it a ‘mistake’ and prevented re-publication of the novel after Anne died of consumption (don’t be jealous, Charlotte, Jane Eyre is still great).

Which leads me onto the other reason I find Anne so interesting: her scathing dismantling of the brooding hero is in stark contrast to the way her sisters seem to valorize said hero. Rochester and Heathcliff are both manipulative and sadistic, and do dark, terrible things, yet seem to emerge as dreamboats (perhaps Rochester more so than Heathcliff). I am loathe to criticise Charlotte or Emily, whose work I completely adore, but Anne’s story is a massive game changer  and is actually really, really inspiring, being lauded as one of the first sustained feminist novels (according to Wikipedia, which is always right). In 2013, it is a huge struggle both emotionally and socially for women to leave their abusive partners. If we imagine how much harder it was in 1848, with the law and convention against women every step of the way, perhaps we’ll have some idea of how radical Anne Brontë’s writing was at the time. In a world of Christian Grays and Edwards Cullens, where 1 in 4 women experience domestic violence over their lifetimes, this woman’s stance makes her my political hero as well as my literary one, even 160 years on.

Open letter to the British public: why don’t you want to be European?

Written by Victoria Sorensen on . Posted in Opinion.

Deciding to go to university in Britain and leaving home – Denmark, was one of the major decisions in my life. And I can honestly say that I have no regrets about it what so ever, I love Britain. However, sometimes I get the feeling that the love between the majority of the EU member states and the United Kingdom isn’t as mutual as my love for scones and clotted cream.

Sometimes I feel that my fellow students only love me for my Nordic blonde hair.  This feeling I had all the more strongly following last Wednesday, when the Prime Minister David Cameron announced his plans for a referendum on EU membership. And it seems that the population as a whole want to distance themselves from Europe, statistics show that only 40% of the British population actually wanted to be a part of the Union.  As well as this, I have come across a mystery. It seems that whenever I am in a deep intellectual discussion about culture or integration with one of my fellow students (British, not to forget), they keep referring to `Europeans’ in the 3rd person. A European is I, and everyone else in the EU, but yourself. So, why do you not want to be European?

I came up with three possible reasons. Firstly, the pride and stubbornness of an old Empire. As a result of this arrogance, a constant strive towards maintaining the global power image Britain enjoyed up until the early 1900’s. Secondly,  the European financial crisis. It’s caused problems throughout all European economies, ultimately sending most member countries in a state of recession – even those who opted out of the Euro. And finally, the geographical divide. Is it the water? Is it really the water? Seriously?

As David Cameron may have been forced by his own Tory backers to take on a certain attitude towards the EU,  his speech last Wednesday may well have been nothing more than a strategic move. Or it may have been  some kind of attempt to try to improve British standing in any future EU negotiations, showing that you are willing to leave if need be. However, if we consider the scenario of Britain outside of the EU, we can see the foolishness of David Cameron’s position. Britain would no longer favour financial regulation, the elimination of tax barriers, and free movement of employment and education. All of this would ultimately affect the national economy, making it difficult for Britain to compete with faster growing economies like China and Brazil.  Furthermore, it will lose its strong opposition against the US in preserving interests across the Atlantic. The US would be in a difficult position, trying to juggle a relationship between Britain and the EU. All this leaves us with the question; is Britain really capable of going on by itself? I dare say no.

Britain needs to get over its Europhobia. The incentives of being a member country of the EU have undeniably diminished over the past few years, but the EU is more than just financial and strategic perks. It is in fact largely a project of peace and securing order in our region of the world. For that project to succeed, we have got to cooperate. Britain is dependent on the EU, and the EU needs Britain. The United Kingdom freed my country and most of Europe from totalitarianism in 1945. Now you want to free yourself from the project, which has been the very armour against new wars and tyranny in Europe. Does Britain really want to be the country to throw the project for peace down the drain? I don’t get it; I love you, why don’t you love me?

 

 

Postgraduate funding needs reform

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in Opinion.

At undergraduate degree level, everyone seems to care about widening access. The numbers of students on free schools meals are scrutinised. Stats are collected on state school attendance and forms are given out to find the financial backgrounds of a new undergraduates’ parents. An awful lot has been done to help to widen access at undergraduate level,  with loans, scholarships and grants now available. Things aren’t perfect, for example loans often don’t cover  first year hall costs. Fine for the worst well off as they receive grants, less okay for the lower middle classes whose parents then have to struggle to make up the gap. But things have improved, and for the most part for undergraduates the cost of University is not a barrier.

Recent controversy from the University of Oxford has shown that this is not the case for postgraduates. 15% of prospective postgrads offered a place at Oxford have to turn it down because they do not meet the University’s financial requirements. Not only do they need to prove they have the money for course fees, but also £12,900 a year in living costs. Now one potential postgraduate student, Damien Shannon, is suing an Oxford college after they barred him from taking up his postgrad place. Damien secured a place at Oxford to read an MSc in economic and social history. but because he could not guarantee this level of funding, he was not able to take up his place.

Scholarships for these postgrad courses are thin on the ground. This is not just a problem at Oxford. Often the only option for postgrads to get funding is to take out a Professional and Career Development Loan, letting them borrow a maximum of £10,000. These loans are provided through banks, and charge commercial rates of interest. Whilst the government does pay the interest for you whilst you are studying, a month after your studies have finished you have to start paying that loan and interest back. If your fees are several thousand pounds already, plus living costs on top, this loan won’t even cover it. For most, this will not be enough to pay for a yearlong masters.

What you are left with is a situation in which those with the money are those with postgraduate qualifications. If mummy and daddy can foot the bill for your masters or PhD, you can have that extra qualification, and along with it that extra advantage over your peers. This gives the financially better off an unfair advantage in the job market. But perhaps even more importantly, postgraduate qualifications are done by those who really love their subject. Thousands of students are being priced out of pursuing their passion in academia, despite being good enough to secure a place to do so.

A better system for postgraduate funding is a necessity, as the current system unfairly favours the wealthy in a way we would never accept it doing for undergraduates. Why is postgrad so different? Now that so many people are getting postgrads, someone without one has an unfair disadvantage, just as it used to be for an undergraduate degree. Some may see a masters as pointless, but if you want a career in academia they are a necessity. Many people use a masters to change career paths, perhaps wanting to move into Journalism or Law. They facilitate in just the same way undergraduate degrees do, in that they allow you to get a better job than you would have otherwise, and hopefully a job you enjoy. This shouldn’t be a choice only for the wealthy, so reforming postgrad funding should be a priority for the government. A system needs to be put in place whereby the amount that can be borrowed can cover both fees and living expenses. Even if this is still done by banks, and commercial rates of interest are charged, it would help open the door for thousands of prospective postgrads. Postgrads know their qualification is a good investment, and they should pay it back when they can do so, but at the moment they don’t even have the option to have the money at all. It needn’t be a massive expense for the government, but some money and will are needed to change the system and ensure opportunity is open for all.

But with Oxford University having to operate under the current system, are they at least being as fair to postgrads as they can be? It would help no one if several postgrads each year were starting at Oxford, didn’t have enough to live on, and dropped out within a few months. Their space would be wasted, a space that someone else could have taken. But Oxford’s projected living expenses are set much too high. They include an estimate of £56 a week for food – are they really too detached to envisage a student having baked beans on toast for dinner? Oxford are needlessly pricing students out of attending. By lowering their bar to a more reasonable level (Damien Shannon had £9,000 available for living expenses a year) they would considerably widen access, something that is as important at postgraduate as undergraduate level.

New: Biffy Clyro – Opposites

Written by Samuel Ward on . Posted in Music.

The release of Biffy Clyro’s first top ten single, ‘Mountains’, four years ago, marked the beginning of an era of success for the band that’s seen them move from support slots to festival headliners. The polished Only Revolutions followed it as the band’s big breakthrough album, moving towards a more traditional rock sound than previous efforts.

Opposites delivers the classic run-about riffs and bellowing vocals we all know and love but adds the extra level of detail that sets this album apart. ‘Biblical’ is a massive track with plenty of Biffy sing-a-long song writing charm, mixed with trance synths and danceable drum beats.

Opener ‘Different People’, on the other hand, combines the band’s signature guitar sound with a string section. ‘Fog’ sees the band on more experimental form, building into a giant harmony of synths and noise and providing a clear example of how the band have embraced electronic music throughout the record. The variety in this album and the sheer amount of tracks – twenty in total – means there’s plenty of depth to lose yourself in. I’d happily hear the full album played live track for track; a new song emerges as your favourite with every listen.

Each track seems to have its own identity, with trumpets blazing on ‘Spanish Radio’ and funky twang guitar on ‘Trumpet or Tap’, and yet still remains true to the band; who have clearly pushed themselves sonically throughout. Opposites isn’t a giant leap for Scottish kind, but it’s another step towards a new direction that provides compelling evidence that Biffy Clyro’s best days may still lie ahead of them.

Manchester’s Olympic legacy of sports facility closures

Written by Lisa Murgatroyd on . Posted in News.

Plans to close Withington Baths and other local facilities have been met with strong opposition from the local community.

A flashmob outside Withington Baths on Sunday 27th January was attended by a number of residents and key figures, including local DJ Dave Haslam.

In a bid to save £80m from the Council’s budget, Withington Baths is not the only facility to face closure; four other pools are listed in the proposal, and six libraries, including Fallowfield.

Campaigners have set up a Facebook page, Twitter accounts, and e-Petitions which have received over a thousand signatures and counting for the various causes.

“Is this the Olympic legacy, Manchester?” asks Sian Astley, business owner and former student who lives opposite Withington Baths. “This is our building, it doesn’t belong to Manchester City Council; this is the community’s building, the community’s land.

“It’s not just a pool that’s being closed, it’s actually an integral part of the community.”

Ms Astley spoke to The Mancunion of the massive impact losing this facility would have on the local community, from children to the elderly. “I’ve been meeting people who’ve been swimming here for 70 years. I’ve met ladies who’ve had breast cancer and been treated at the Christie Hospital who credit the pool here with helping them get back to full health.”

Manchester City Council have proposed to build a new £10m facility in Hough End to replace the Withington and Chorlton Baths. There has been criticism that this is a u-turn on Labour campaign promises to open a joint library and leisure facility in Chorlton centre.

Organiser of the flashmob protest Jill Woodward is a retired Withington librarian. “I have swam in this pool over a 35 year period, and I’m currently training here for a triathlon.

“Elderley people that walk and swim will not make it down to Hough End.”

She added that the building itself has historic importance. “I just love the architecture, why get rid of it? There could be ways that the roof could be dealt with and keep this lovely facility in the community rather than knocking it down.”

There is uncertainty over what the Council plan to do with the building and the land should it be closed after the three week consultation period.

“All the children at the schools will suffer,” Ann Gerraghty, mother of two children that attend Cavendish Primary School. “They walk up here every Tuesday for their swimming lessons, then walk back to school. They’ve got to keep it open.”

Lib Dem Councillor for Chorlton, Victor Chamberlain, has opened a petition to save Chorlton Baths. “Many people come to Chorlton to go swimming and support our shops afterwards. I’m worried the Council’s proposals could also hurt Chorlton’s independent traders as there will be significantly less footfall.”

Real Contact Theatre

Written by Hannah Lawrence on . Posted in Theatre.

Over the coming few weeks Manchester’s Contact Theatre are running a session of workshops, giving you the chance to get involved:

Media Drop  

Media Drop offers a drop-in session for those interested in art to share and develop media digitally. It is based in the Contact’s Media Lounge.

Runs weekly, Wed and Thurs, 18th Jan to 28th Jun, 6pm to 9pm. Entry free.

 

Monday Drop  

For those interesting in developing their drama and acting skills, giving you the chance to learn from poets, performers, actors and directors.

Runs every Monday 4th January to 11 March, 7pm to 9pm. Entry free.

 

The Future for Queer Artists in North West England

This session looks to gather information to help the CTF (The Cake Tin Foundation) to create a support system to help emerging queer artists develop and perform in the North West. This study will tour Liverpool and Lancaster before returning to the Contact to run their final session at the Contact.

Runs 9th February 11.30 am – 2.45pm. Tickets free, to reserve a place ring 0161 274 0600.

 

Owen Parry – The Only Way is Freaky

A two hour practical session with Owen Parry, a UK based artist, in which he looks to harness the powers of the freakier side of human nature. The Contact writes of it: ‘from stamp collecting to unashamed exhibitionism, we will begin building an institution for our own freaky exploits’.

Runs 9th February, 3pm. Tickets £3.

 

Must See: 4th – 11th February

Written by Hannah Lawrence on . Posted in Theatre.

The Royal Exchange offers a month long run by young director James Darce.

The Accrington Pals

Based on the 1982 play by Peter Whelan the drama follows a Pals Volunteer Brigade in First World War Britain and the barbaric reality of life in the trenches. Described by The Royal Exchange as an ‘epic and deeply humane play’.

Runs from 17th January to 16th February at The Royal Exchange. Tickets £5.

 

 

The Contact Theatre proves it has a lot to offer, starting the year off with a week packed full of performances.

Raw Jam

Running for two lunchtimes these performances offer two community groups a chance to share their experiences. Wednesday sees the University of Manchester LBGTQ society performing a compilation of acoustic music. On Thursday Cheryl Martin and The Lesbian and Gay Foundation explore life as an older member of the LGBT community.

Runs 6th Feb to 7th Feb, 1pm at the Contact. Tickets free.

The Secret Diaries of A Teenage Queer

Drama based on a true story, about dealing with sexuality. The Secret Diaries of A Teenage Queer draws upon 10 years of different teenage diaries, combining a focus on sexuality and life in the 1980’s.

Runs 7th February at the Contact. Tickets £5. 

Shortcuts

Combining performances from both Debs Gatenby, with ‘High Anxiety’ and Cheryl Martin, with ‘My Foo-Foo Needs You’, Shortcuts presents a ‘work-in-progress double-bill of queer theatre’ (Contact Theatre).

Runs 7th February, 9pm at the Contact. Tickets £5.

The Polari Mission

Focusing on Polari, a dying language, artists Jez Dolan and Joseph Richardson give a performance in aid of reviving the endangered language.

Runs 9th February at the Contact, 4pm and 5.30 pm. Tickets £3.

 

 

This week The Lowry offers a taste of Broadway.

Hairpray

A musical set in Baltimore, Maryland in 1962, this production follows the story of Tract Turnblad and her dreams to dance on television. In doing so it offers a social commentary on 1960s America.

Runs 11th February – 23rd February at The Lowry. Tickets £29 – £46.

 

Ones to watch in 2013

Written by Aimee Grant Cumberbatch on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

Trend: All White

A new year, in many cases, means a fresh start and the catwalks of SS13 certainly detoxed. There was a common theme of new minimalism: sharp clean lines, fresh faces and unfussy geometric prints. And it wasn’t just in the conclusion ‘it’s hip to be square’ (see Louis Vuitton’s checkerboard prints) that couture showed its smarts. One of the most visually stunning catwalk themes was also one of the, seemingly, simplest: all white. Some went clean, some went clinical, but all went clever, showing how much figurative colour cut and fabric can provide. Stella McCartney’s bold top-to-toe use of suggestively sheer broderie anglaise, Balmain’s oxymoronic baroques and Chloé’s laser-sharp cut-outs were textural stand-outs. Bleached, yes. Boring, never. And white’s pervasiveness among accessories will ensure that, come summer, every little thing is going to be all white.

 

lamodellamafia.com

Model: Cara Delevingne

She’s here. She’s there. She’s everywhere. On the cover of Vogue, on the catwalks of 38 separate SS13 shows, in campaigns for Chanel and Burberry. And her eyebrows are better than yours. It can only be Cara. I would tell you Model Of The Year 2012 Miss Delevingne is one to keep an eye on in the coming months but you’ll hardly need to. Those cut-glass cheekbones, envy-inducing eyebrows and tousled dish-water-blonde locks are set to be unavoidable this year. If I’m sounding like I’ve got a girl-crush that’s because I do. But I make no apologies: have a quick browse through her chucklesome Twitter photo feed and tell me you don’t have one too. Thought so, we’re all suckers for a sense of humour.

 

Britishfashioncouncil.com

Designer: J.W. Anderson

If you missed the vivid animal prints, bold breton stripes and innovative use of quilted fabric (proving it’s not just for grandma’s dressing gown) of his Topshop collection, you can just about be forgiven. However, in 2013 as his womenswear lines begin to find their feet, ignorance of J.W. Anderson will become a crime against fashion. King of contradiction, his designs blur gender boundaries, bringing a refreshing androgyny to both menswear and womenswear. Named Emerging Talent of 2012 at the British Fashion Awards and an ardent avoider of evening-wear: he’s causing something of a sartorial stir that’s set to whip itself up into a fashion frenzy come September’s catwalks.

 

Our picks of the year ahead

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in Books.

The naysayers nay-sayed their way through 2012: books are dying, no one uses pens any more,  soon we will all live on screens. Things looked bleak. Random House and Penguin seemed to confirm their pessimism with a merger. No one wanted to publish anything except celebrity autobiographies. And yet. The cynics forgot to account for all the many beautiful books that were published last year. And judging by the wealth of new books coming out in 2013, for a dying art form the world of literature is overstuffed with new books and new writers: books by Sheila Heti, Margaret Atwood, Lena Dunham, Neil Gaiman, Khaled Hosseini, to name only a very few.

It’s also a year of anniversaries reminding us to look backwards as well as forwards for reading material: Pride and Prejudice has already turned 200 (happy birthday!); the 50th anniversary of Sylvia Plath’s death will be marked with a re-issue of The Bell Jar; and November will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Albert Camus and the 50th anniversary of the death of Aldous Huxley.

Here are some of the books we can’t wait to read this year:

Joelle’s Picks:

1. The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman (18th June, William Morrow)
Neil Gaiman’s latest offering is described by his publishers as “a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac.” Strong words, but for an author whose back catalogue includes American Gods, Stardust and Coraline, and is an equally highly-regarded graphic novelist, then maybe reshaping modern fantasy isn’t such a leap. The story remains something of a mystery. We are told that it is “a novel about memory and magic and survival, about the power of stories and the darkness inside each of us”. That at its centre a man battles for his life against “ancient powers better left undisturbed” with help from three women who live at the end of a lane, all because 40 years previously his lodger committed suicide in the family car. A tricky set-up but Gaiman’s strengths in detail and clever twists will surely make this novel worth a read.

2. A New Bridget Jones novel – Helen Fielding (October, Jonathan Cape)
Helen Fielding has announced that 17 years since Bridget Jones’s Diary first hit bookshelves she is writing a new diary for literature’s most famous singleton. But when we last saw Bridget she had secured her man and seemed to finally be leaving the single life behind for good. This new novel will be set in current-day London and Fielding says it will focus on “a different phase in Bridget’s life”. Will this mean nappies and school run then? Or maybe a high-flying career? It doesn’t matter, either way this will surely be an immediate best-seller, gratifying millions of fans worldwide, who undoubtedly can’t wait to see what awkward situation Bridget has managed to get herself into now.

Phoebe’s Picks:

1. The Tenth of December – George Saunders (3rd January, Bloomsbury Publishing)
My first book is already out, and I can’t wait to read it. George Saunders, master of the short story, returns with a collection that promises to combine his characteristic surrealism (previous stories feature sliding brains and a futuristic holographic advertising) and an all too familiar glimpse of reality. As author Hari Kunzru points out in The Guardian, his work is often more subtly, and disturbingly, resonant of the world we really inhabit than much non-fiction.

2. The People of Forever Are Not Afraid – Shani Boianjiu (7th February, Vintage Publishing)
The debut from this Israeli novelist comes with plenty of good recommendations. As with the best female writers, she deals with the full complexity and contradictions of life, in this case the life of female soldiers in Israel’s national service. I got my first taste of Israeli fiction last year with Etgar Kerrett’s short stories, and am looking forward to getting some more with this book.

3. The Bleeding Edge– Thomas Pynchon – (Penguin Press)
It has been announced that the famously reclusive author, of previous tomes of American postmodernism Mason and Dixon and Gravity’s Rainbow, has written a new novel that will be published sometime in 2013. The blogs are all aflutter with the news. And this makes my list, if only because Pynchon is an old-fashioned rock star of a writer, and it’s exciting to still see a writer (and writing) provoking such fervour. Who knew there were so many rabid Pynchon fans out there? (Well, Pynchon obviously). Maybe I won’t even read it. I’ll just sit back and watch the mayhem unfold.

Live: Akala

Written by Sean Doherty on . Posted in Music.

Sound Control

29th November 2012

8/10

Having delivered a lecture at MMU earlier in the day, Akala brings his Knowledge is Power tour to Manchester with this electric performance at Sound Control. In depth discussions in the crowd regarding the state of modern hip hop and misrepresentation in the media reveal a level of engagement amongst this fan base which matches any lecture audience.

Up first, Mic Righteous provides an intense warm up as he mixes a passionate, barking delivery with raw confessional lyrics exploring family troubles, isolation, past angers and present insecurities.
Akala begins his set with some tracks from his Orwell inspired third album DoubleThink, getting an initially reluctant crowd jumping with ‘XXL’ before bringing the tempo down with the more recent ‘Absolute Power’. After silencing one crowd member’s drunken (though well-intentioned) calls of “Free Palestine” and “Fuck the Tories”, Akala explodes into an a capella sprint, daring the audience’s minds to match the speed of his mouth as he lets the syllables fly. He gives his lungs no break as he recites his ‘Fire in the Booth’ (all eight minutes of it) to a group which follows his every word. The rapper’s appreciation of Shakespeare is acknowledged as he performs ‘Comedy, Tragedy, History’, a track consisting of the title of twenty seven of the Bard’s plays and sixteen of his most famous quotes.

The Knowledge is Power tour name is fitting and tonight plays out like a captivating lesson as Akala has the crowd calling out “Knowledge is Power” and “Educate Yourself”. “Sorry if I don’t dance enough for the radio to play my stuff” he chimes; no matter, the crowd moves for him and as they head for the doors when the lights come on conversations can still be heard about the issues he’s raised. Class dismissed.

What could you do this term?

Written by Harriet Hill-Payne on . Posted in Arts.

Improdigy at the Frog and Bucket 

We’re proud to present our most exciting project to date: Improdigy – Manchester’s hottest new improv comedy troupe appearing every third Wednesday of the month at the Frog and Bucket Comedy Club.

Students love comedy, and we’re hoping this night will be the go to place for those hoping for high quality entertainment that won’t break the bank. Tickets are only £3 for students, and if you really like what you see – we’d love you to be part of it! The only rule is that there are no rules. Our troupe currently consists of former Manchester University graduates – and we’re looking to get current ones on board too. University can be stressful at the best of times, and we believe this could be the perfect tonic.

For more information: [email protected]

The Manchester Art Group

The Manchester Art Group is an undergraduate collective from the Art History and Visual Studies department at the University of Manchester. We curate events, talks, and exhibitions and promote those organised by other institutions that engage with contemporary art. Keep an eye out for future events and exhibitions on our Facebook page, under Manchester Art Group, and if you are interested in becoming a part of the committee or submitting works for future exhibitions, email us at [email protected].

The Mancunion: Arts and Culture 

Oh yes, your favourite Arts and Culture page is looking for reviewers, photographers and people with an interest in what’s happening around them – could that be you? If you’d like to get to know the city better, or if you feel you know it inside it already and there is something we’re missing, then this is the time to get in touch and get involved this semester! Weekly emails detail what’s on, but we love hearing ideas from you (they are often better than ours) – we also meet to catch up and share ideas in the Student’s Union.

For more information: [email protected], or search ‘The Mancunion: Arts & Culture’ on Facebook