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Day: 11 May 2017

University of Manchester to cut 171 jobs

Written by Rosa Simonet on . Posted in News.

The University of Manchester has announced plans to cut 171 staff. The proposal approved by the board of governors on 3rd of May involves a reduction of academic and support staff from the faculties of arts, languages, biology, medicine and business.

According to the University and College Union (UCU), 900 staff will be put at risk by the proposed cuts. Sally Hunt, the UCU general secretary said: “We see no economic rationale for jobs cuts on such an enormous scale.”

Union chiefs also claim the university blamed Brexit and new government legislation for financial uncertainty.

A spokesperson from the university responded to criticism stating “Brexit is not the reason for these proposals”, but that “Brexit and exchange rate fluctuations are features of the external environment in which all British universities and other organisations are operating at this present time.”

The university “believe that these proposals are essential to meet the University’s agreed ambition” as a world-leading institution. Though “detailed plans to deliver a significant growth in funds” from a range of activities are already being implemented, “further action is necessary”.

“The University proposes to open a voluntary severance scheme for staff at risk, to avoid the need for compulsory redundancy if at all possible.”

The proposals have been heavily criticised in light of the university’s recent financial report. The report reveals £1.5bn in reserves as well as a £59.7m surplus for the year in 2015-16.

In an email to all university staff seen by The Mancunion, the university outlined that “the University of Manchester has a bold ambition to be a world leading institution, with a reputation based on academic excellence.”

They added, however, that “in order to meet this ambition, we must improve the quality of our research and student experience in some areas and ensure the financial sustainability of the University. Realising this ambition will require a capacity to invest in our strategic priorities.”

Students and the University of Manchester Students’ Union have been responding to the proposed cuts on social media. Campaigns & Citizenship officer Sorcha Floyd says the cuts go against the university’s unique core value of ‘social responsibility’.

In another statement, Floyd extended her “solidarity to the workers with their jobs at risk,” adding: “The exec team will be a releasing a statement on our position on this next week, after meeting with the trade unions.”

According to the BBC, Union members are due to meet on Friday to hold talks about the proposed cuts.

The Legend of Thierry Henry

Written by Aadel Shaaeri on . Posted in Sport.

The legendary Thierry Henry has forged his respectable name primarily at the Emirates Stadium in North London, where he spent eight precious years as a proud Gunner. During his entire career as an exceptional footballer, Thierry has earned countless trophies and personal titles, creating a long astonishing list which most players can only dream of.

In regards to his beloved club, Arsenal have earned a special spot in history by the end of the 2003-04 season. They won the Premier League trophy, which Henry clinched twice during the English portion of his timeline, in a very rare pattern. They strolled around the nation without a single defeat, a journey in which Thierry missed only one league match.

As an ongoing recognition, their remarkable squad from that period have been honourably named as ‘The Invincibles’. During that unforgettable year, the spectacular forwarder also achieved a club record of having the most goals scored in a Premier League season (30) — a figure which the Dutch Robin van Persie equalled during Arsenal’s 2011-12 season.

Thierry Henry also adored playing for FC Barcelona, a transfer which was granted by The Gunners. During his phase at Catalonia, he was playing the beautiful game alongside many other legends formed under a mighty emblem.

The attacking force of Barça during that era was unbelievable, as it consisted of Henry, Samuel Eto’o, Ronaldinho and Lionel Messi. Within their midfield, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández were mastering the playmaking role, feeding the front with utter precision.

Majestically, the captain who led this magical team was the Spanish Tarzan Carlos Puyol, who was unquestionably a paragon of defence.

As a youngster, Thierry started his professional career in AS Monaco FC, making his debut under Arsène Wenger. Le Professeur managed ASM from 1987 till 1994, during which he discovered Titi (a nickname that most of the player’s admirers fancy calling him by) within their phenomenal youth system.

As a previous member of Les Bleus, he left a memorable mark in the French history books. In personal terms, he became France’s all-time leading goalscorer with 51 goals, a record which still remains intact.

As a squad, the most valuable international trophy he helped to achieve is unanimously agreed on to be the FIFA World Cup in 1998, a marvellous victory that will ever be remembered by the French citizens.

As an ending to his tremendous career, he travelled to another continent in the far west to sign a multi-year contract with the New York Red Bulls. Impressively, Henry led his American team towards winning their first ever trophy in the franchise’s history, which spent seventeen years in the making.

For his last triumph, he boosted the New Yorkers into receiving the MLS Supporters’ Shield in 2013, a grand reward given to the team with the best record in the regular season. As a final token, he left the MLS by leaving another club record behind him, as he became the Red Bulls’ all-time top assister with 42 assists.

After hanging his boots up, Henry remained within the sport’s realm. For a while now, he has been working brilliantly as a television pundit for Sky Sports, a job in which he has long proven to be beyond competent to thrive in. His vast knowledge about the sport, and the characters within it, make him an invaluable gem for this industry.

To progress further, Henry has been learning and practising in deepening his coaching capabilities in order to receive the necessary badges to hopefully manage a professional team one day.

Quite recently, he has been officially welcomed to the Belgian national team’s staff as an assistant coach under the Spaniard Roberto Martinez, which is definitely a profound step towards management.

Dennis Bergkamp, an outstanding Dutch retiree who formed an attacking front alongside Henry during The Invincibles’ historical season, mentioned the Frenchman admirably. He said, “if you look at the whole package, with everything Henry has, I don’t think you can find that anywhere else”.

Well, we can only await for a validation and see if a firing phoenix will ever arise from Thierry Henry’s ashes.

Album: Mac DeMarco — This Old Dog

Written by Joe Casson on . Posted in Music.

Released 5th May via Captured Tracks

7.5/10

Mac DeMarco had to grow up one day. For a few years now, it seems like the Canadian singer-songwriter has been tentatively trying to get out of the corner he’s painted himself into: despite a notably more downbeat, introspective and synth-streaked turn on 2015’s mini-album Another One, he’s still widely perceived as a carefree prankster — a ‘pepperoni playboy’ in Pitchfork-language — and he’s attracted a cultish fanbase of sixteen year-olds in Mac-approved dungarees and caps.

It’s an image that aptly suited the greasy haze of his earlier music, but more recently it feels like he’s been courting it by necessity. When he gave out his home address and invited fans to visit him at the end of Another One, it felt less like a chance for him to party with his admirers and more like an opportunity to show them that he’s not the person they’ve made him out to be. Turns out Mac DeMarco is a normal dude who gets sad sometimes, just like the rest of us.

His new album, the unassuming This Old Dog, is in the same spirit. After enduring the inevitable twenty-four-seven visits to his home, DeMarco would be forgiven for wanting to turn away from the spotlight to get some peace and quiet. Instead, he’s opened up even more with his barest and most personal album to date. The slippery guitar work and odes to cigarettes are out, replaced by simple, warm arrangements and some serious soul-searching.

It’s not a sea change — you wouldn’t mistake him for anyone but himself on any of This Old Dog‘s songs — but it’s surprisingly becoming. Beneath all the hi-jinks, DeMarco has always had a refreshingly direct turn of phrase and can effortlessly write a winsome melody. By stripping away most of the silly signifiers which have made him something of a marmite figure previously, he’s shown that at his core Mac DeMarco is a very accomplished singer-songwriter.

With a handful of exceptions, the songs on This Old Dog are bright and clear with acoustic guitars front and centre. Over the last few years, DeMarco has been modestly expanding his repertoire, adding synthesizers to a few tracks on 2014’s Salad Days and giving them a more prominent role all over Another One.

There’s still some of that here, but mostly he’s pulled in a different direction; the downtrodden ballad ‘One More Love Song’ boasts a real piano in the chorus to striking effect, while ‘A Wolf Who Wears Sheep’s Clothes’ is streaked with harmonica.

‘Dreams From Yesterday’ is basically a Bossa Nova track, and with lightly strummed acoustic guitars and wafting keyboard lines it’s possibly the most laid-back song he’s written — and this is a man who doesn’t exactly shy away from that sort of thing.

If his previous aesthetic choices have made it feel like you’re watching him on an old ’90s TV set, here it sounds like he’s right there in the room with you.

The songs feel a lot more lived-in than any he’s put out before, likely due to his choice to let their demos sit untouched while moving house over the summer — probably the first time he’s really halted his relentless cycle of recording and touring since 2012.

Photo: Coley Brown

Then there are the synth tracks, which, although strong pieces of music on their own, sit a little uncomfortably with the rootsier sounds on the rest of This Old Dog. Songs like ‘On The Level’ and ‘For The First Time’ resemble distant cousins of previous songs like ‘Chamber of Reflection’: spacey, weightless and just a little eerie.

DeMarco is just as compelling when he’s spaced out and electrified as when he’s lucid and contemplative elsewhere. Yet although it’s certainly satisfying to see him take some tentative steps away from the sound that was just beginning to feel slightly limiting, in the context of the album it feels like he’s pulling in two totally different directions here, undermining This Old Dog‘s cohesiveness a little.

The music’s not the only thing Mac has changed up here. Lyrically, the album is a lot more introspective and serious, miles away from the radio skits that punctuated his first release, Rock and Roll Nightclub, back in 2012.

The grave illness of his absent, alcoholic father is a persistent theme: from the chorus of opening track ‘My Old Man’ (“uh oh/looks like I’m seeing more of my old man in me”) to the frank and painful closing track ‘Watching Him Fade Away’, DeMarco is preoccupied by his complex feelings of grief for the prospect of losing his father and indifference towards a man he barely knows. The last track in particular has some of his most moving lyrics.

Around the margins of this emotional core, Mac isn’t getting any younger and spends a lot of time looking back — see lines like “There’s a price tag hanging off of all that fun” and “No amount of tears/Could roll back all the years/Bring back all your dreams from yesterday”. His songwriting has always been more sincere than you would imagine from his public image, but here in particular he does seems a lot more concerned with directly expressing himself and leaves little room for people to misinterpret how he feels.

If his previous output was suitable for an afternoon barbecue (this is only partially metaphorical — 2015 instrumental EP Some Other Ones was literally composed for a barbecue), This Old Dog feels more appropriate for a campfire heart-to-heart. We’ve always known Mac DeMarco was someone you wanted at a party; now, we know you want him around when times aren’t so good too.

This Old Dog is a welcome change in direction for Mac DeMarco, appropriately changing up a formula that was just beginning to show its age. DeMarco is showing his age too, and his decision to apply his astute songwriting towards more mature matters pays off.

Abandoning the instrumentation and sensibilities he’s best known for, he’s shown himself to be more than the scene he’s come from and the persona that’s formed around him. For the first time, he doesn’t at all resemble the somewhat cartoonish figure his press coverage and social media presence paints him as.

Mac DeMarco is a real person, and a mighty fine songwriter as well — looks like you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Review: Boss Baby

Written by James Gill on . Posted in Film.

With the constant release of top-tier animations from studios such as Disney/Pixar or Warner Brothers Animation, it is easy to forget how good we have it.

Thankfully every few months a film is released that is such lamentable drivel that we are brutally reminded of our privileges. No, this wasn’t Illumination Entertainments newest endeavour, it was actually a DreamWorks Animation feature.

The most glaring fault with the movie is the lack of, well, anything. It’s difficult to choose a single core failing when almost all it tried to do fell flat. I have to empathise with Alec Baldwin as the veteran SNL performer tried with all of his might to drag the film upwards to no avail.

Go look up a poster of the film. How long until it becomes unfunny? Two minutes? Five? Ten? What about 98 minutes? Writer Michael McCullers seemingly refuses to extend the humour beyond that of ‘Oh look! It’s a baby in a suit’.

When he does, it falls into one of three categories. The first being generic baby jokes. There are only so many times you can see a baby’s bottom before it becomes tasteless. And that number is one. The other two categories can be put down to the need to appeal to adults too, with office and pop culture references.

Now these can both produce incredibly funny moments if implemented successfully. Sadly McCullers seems so desperate to pander to the adult demographic that he forces them in any nook and cranny he can find leading to an incredibly messy script.

The most notable of these is seven year-old Tim’s speaking wizard alarm clock. Each scene it appears in it spouts the most irrelevant Gandalf quotes in a very, very loose impression of Sir Ian McKellen’s iconic character.

It is more than just lazy writing, it’s insulting the intelligence of every unfortunate audience member sitting in the theatre. How any of these jokes made it through every stage of production perplexes me.

After you’ve torn off each layer of stale jokes you can finally look at the story within. But the plot is just as messy as the humour. Babies aren’t born, they are manufactured, but by other babies? When created they are separated into two groups, ones that will go to live on Earth and the rest will be managers to help in the creation of more babies.

Bewildering enough on it’s own, the test to see who goes where is a feather. If you laugh you go to Earth, if not you are upper management. Cue laughter.

Our focal baby, Boss Baby (yes that is his name) is sent to Earth to sabotage ‘competing’ company Puppy Co, who create puppies out of thin air in the same manner.

The sabotage is to stop the puppies getting a majority of parents love, taking away from their own share. While this seems to be the bizarre result of a focus group of small children, the film reaches a semi-heartwarming moment at the end of the second act once they have achieved their nonsensical goals.

Rather than end it here, the baby and ‘brother’ Tim then board a plane of Elvis impersonators to Las Vegas for the third act.

You might think that this film is so wacky it would be a hilarious watch. Don’t be fooled, director Tom McGrath somehow manages to make it impossibly dull. If you are on a long-haul flight, and this film is your only option for entertainment, go to sleep.

Interview: Enemies Within

Written by Eloïse Wright on . Posted in Film.

French director Selim Azzazi brought his captivating short ‘Enemies Within’ to the Lift-Off film festival this year in Manchester. Over a run-time of 27 minutes the audience could very well be watching a play due to Azzazi’s attention to detail, sharp dialogue and use of only two lead characters in one space.

These elements emphasise the multiple layers to this necessary short about the scars of France’s colonial past. After asking Azzazi himself questions on the subject of ‘Enemies Within’, we begin to delve into these layers.

Beginning with the production process, Azzazi explained that it started in May 2015, gathering around €100 000 through the CNC’s financing (French National Centre for Cinema). This allowed them to pay every crew member and build a set. An important aspect this budget allowed them was to rehearse for two weeks with the two actors, “just like we would for a play”.

As the subject has such depth and the actors’ performances are so gripping, I could have imagined a full-length feature version being equally as powerful if it could hold the same high-standard throughout. But Azzazi had always imagined ‘Enemies Within’ being a short film and was meant to remain that way, making it clear that he “never imagined or hoped on doing it a feature version”, and was always meant to be “only worked as a 20-30 minute intense duel”.

Despite only being a half hour long, the script took three years to write and to gather the financing, then taking ten months to produce entirely. This time was essential to the development and perfecting of details, such as the feeling of claustrophobia.

Azzazi stated that “the sound was crucial in order to get that claustrophobic atmosphere”, turning the space into an anechoic chamber that absorbs sound instead of it reverberating. To do so, they made use of “several huge velvet curtains” with which they surrounded the set, and hung large acoustic foams from the ceiling.

The sets location being in an unused government building, they managed to reduce the original cathedral like sound “to a very pure dry sound”. An important factor for Azzazi, in order to “enhance the feeling of claustrophobia for both the actors and the audience”.

In an article published on the Qualia Films site, Azzazi mentioned rehearsing for a play that centred around the HUAC (House of Unamerican Activities Committee), and how he made the link between America’s despising of communism and their “enemies within” and France’s refusal to see Algerians as French, especially after the war of independence.

I asked if he could go into more depth about how he felt the way HUAC dealt with communism in America was similar to how France dealt with Franco-Algerians, to which he replied: “There are similarities in the way a society builds up the image of ‘an enemy from within’. In France for example it was the case after the 1870 war against Prussia after which many accused French-Jews to be responsible for the defeat. Antisemitism grew on that idea and it led to the Dreyfus case 1894.

“The same with the French -Muslims originating from North-Africa (mainly Algerians) especially when the independence war started in 1954. In the mind of many, every French-Muslim became a possible threat. So this idea that North-African people are a threat from within has been around for over 60 years now and it’s been very costly to our society (lack of integration, inequities, unemployment, riots, etc)”.

He also pointed out that it is easy to find the same mechanics in the Soviet system “with the ‘enemy of the people’ image”, in addition mentioning a British play he loves that deals with that called “Collaborators” by John Hodge.

Hassam Ghancy and Azzazi worked together as actors in an adaption of The Sunset Limited, of which the setting was also in a singular closed space. This was another source of inspiration for “Enemies Within”, with actors Hassam and Najib’s insight and feedback enhancing the quality of the script.

On this subject, Azzazi responded that “great playwrights are always inspiring as they manage to bring characters to life from what they say/do or don’t say/do. So working as an actor was definitely crucial for me in order to grasp what writing was about.

“The same with working with Hassam: his feedback was very important to me because although he isn’t a writer, he could tell me when what he was reading didn’t feel right. He would say it with his own words, which would necessarily translate into answers for a writer, but which would point out problems to solve. It is very important when you have no experience to be able to trust the actors you work with. Both Hassam and Najib were dedicated to help me bring out the best of this script”.

‘Enemies Within’ is powerful because it’s topic is the much-ignored bloody colonial history of France, which led to questioning France’s trouble facing this past. Azzazi expressed disappointment and shame, observing that France’s political debates constantly overlook the subject.

Azzazi does not mince words — “there is still a large amount of my fellow countrymen who refuse to acknowledge that the French military went into the undifferentiated slaughtering of a massive number of people in order to invade their land. You can call that however you’d like: the fact remains that the French army came to Africa and they burned, killed and expropriated.

“We have to live with this. Yes France also built cities, roads, railways and hospitals but it doesn’t wipe out the slaughtering. To get over this and happily live altogether with this common history will remain difficult if this isn’t at least acknowledged”.

This led to the government’s paranoia of enemies within the country, and looking at when this idea of enemies from within started. Azzazi located the French-Muslim target as a problem coming “at least from the Algerian independence war in the 50s”. It is in fact from a book by French sociologist Mathieu Rigouste that covered this area called L’ennemi intérieur.

Whilst Azzazi could not divulge much about his future projects, he did say that he will “keep on writing about identity and the French colonial past but not only!”

His inspiration is fuelled by great plays and character driven stories, which led to me asking him which in particular touched him the most. Too many coming to mind, he settled for his three personal favourite playwrights: “Shakespeare – Ibsen – Pinter”.

Along the same lines but mostly just out of interest, I asked him for his personal top five films: “That’s very difficult to say. There are so many. All I can say is that my favourite films would involve Kurosawa, Truffaut, Hitchcock, Tarkovski, Lumet and The Monty Python!”.

‘Enemies Within’ is a rare window into the paranoia of the French government. Azzazi’s profound knowledge on the subject in addition to his background in theatre are very much what made this short such high quality.