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Day: 11 March 2013

Social Junkies flyer ‘makes light of alcoholism’

Written by Michael Williams on . Posted in News.

A Social Junkies flyer which “glamourises drunkenness” has led to action from Manchester City Council.

The flyer, advertising the Wednesday night event ‘Rehab’ at The Birdcage venue, bore the slogan ‘Fit Alcoholics #CheckIn’.

Flyers were distributed through doors of student accommodation, and feature the logos of both Social Junkies and The Birdcage.

Home Office rules, as per the Mandatory Licensing Conditions of April 2010, state that promoters “cannot use materials or signs on or near to [their] premises to advertise promotions there if they condone, encourage or glamourise anti-social behaviour or refer to getting drunk in any positive way.”

Cllr Nigel Murphy, Manchester City Council’s executive member for the environment, said: “We are concerned by any promotions in the city that might seek to glamourise drunkenness.

“All licensed premises in Manchester have to meet a requirement that there shall be no irresponsible promotions of alcohol.”

“We will now be discussing the contents of this flyer with the licence holder at The Birdcage to ensure they are complying with this.”

When contacted via telephone, a Social Junkies spokesman said there was no-one available for comment.

As well as potentially falling foul of the law, the promotion also offended students.

One student, who asked not to be named, told The Mancunion that he felt the marketing campaign “made light of alcoholism”.

“My family have had to deal with issues with alcohol in the past,” the student said, “and it’s the worst thing you can imagine.”

“I get so annoyed when I see people take the piss like this.”

“People don’t understand it’s a disease,” they continued.

“You wouldn’t see flyers making light of cancer, but why is it okay when it’s about alcoholism?”

Andrew Misell, Manager of charity Alcohol Concern, told The Mancunion that event organisers and promoters should “give some thought to sensitivities around alcohol addiction.”

“Anyone who’s experienced alcoholism amongst their family or friends is unlikely to consider it a suitable way to market a drinking event,” he added.

Last month, The Mancunion reported how The Birdcage lost its weeknight license after a fight at the ‘Rehab’ event, during which a knife was used, left four injured.

The club later regained their weekday license after a review hearing.  ‘Rehab’ returned to the venue on the 27th February.

The Birdcage were unavailable for comment.

Wristbands force Cardiff students to ask how they ‘got home last night’

Written by Ben Marshall on . Posted in News.

Students in Cardiff could find themselves with a new yellow wristband when they wake up the morning after the night before, asking: “How did you get home last night?”

The scheme is co-run by the city’s universities and local police authority, and offers free lifts to students who’ve had a bit too much to drink, allowing them to get home safely.

It hopes to highlight the risks posed by too much alcohol.

A police officer and a small group of student volunteers drive around the city in a minibus each night and stop to help anyone they see in trouble.

Recipients of this service have bright yellow bands slipped around their wrists saying “How did you get home? Safely, thanks to the Student Safety Bus”, reminding them the next morning that there was someone caring for them when they were a little worse for wear.

It is hoped that students who are driven home will think-again how much they drink the next time that they go out.

Emma Robson, the universities’ joint student liaison officer said: “In the morning [the wristbands will] hopefully encourage the wearers to think a bit more about how they came to have it in the first place.

“We were concerned that we can take people out of danger, but that when they wake up in the morning they underestimate just how vulnerable they were. Sometimes they’ve even forgotten altogether how they got home, and just shrug and laugh the whole thing off.

“The yellow wristbands are slipped on, but in the morning they’ll hopefully encourage the wearers to think a bit more about how they came to have it in the first place,” she said.

Third year Chemistry Student Becky Pyke told the Mancunion that she did not think that a free mini bus would necessarily be a good idea.

Asked if she thought it would dissuade students from drinking excessively, she said: “I don’t think it would at all – it would have the opposite effect. People will think ‘well if I do get really drunk, I’ll have a free lift home.”

Another student agreed that the yellow bands may not have the desired effect: “They’d be badges of honour to some people. If I had one though, I wouldn’t care – I’d just cut it off as soon as I woke up in the morning.”

Retro Corner: Tekken 3

Written by Sam Dumitriu on . Posted in Games.

While there have been eight instalments in the Tekken franchise, it’s very likely that your lasting memory will be that of Tekken 3. The PS1’s Tekken 3 is widely considered to be the best title in the series, and one of the best beat ‘em ups of all time.  The fighting system had been expanded to include sidesteps, adding a new layer of depth to a previously simplistic fighter.

One of the great things about Tekken is how accessible it is for beginners, as a party game it’s hard to top. Characters like Eddy Gordo mean that a button-mashing beginner won’t be absolutely humiliated when a veteran Jin Kazama comes along.

Paul Phoenix was always my pick, his gravity defying hair always made the trash talk fun. Other iconic characters include Bruce Lee knock off Marshall (Oh I see what you did there) Law, robot samurai Yoshimitsu, and tiny dinosaur Gon. This was an eclectic cast of characters only matched by Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat in terms of memorability.

Being so widely played and iconic also lead to it crossing over into popular culture. In a memorable argument between Tim (Simon Pegg) and Daisy (Jessica Stevenson) on the TV show Spaced, each blow in the argument was matched with a blow on Tekken, when Daisy wins the Tekken voice over announces her victorious and she does the victory pose of Tekken fighter Nina Williams.

As a series Tekken is still going strong, with the latest entry Tekken Tag Tournament 2 remaining a popular fixture at arcades. Comparing old and new, one notices that the older Tekken’s feel like they’re taking place in slow motion. While many new characters have come along in the series, players are likely to still pick their favourites from Tekken 3 like Eddy Gordo, Paul Phoenix and Marshall Law.

All lectures to be podcasted by next year

Written by Kyriaki Levendi on . Posted in News.

The University is undertaking a podcasting programme, aiming to provide automated lecture capture facilities in all university lecture theatres by September 2013.

The project has been trialled in 10 university locations over the past two years but will be expanded to 100 locations including 74 lecture theatres and 26 seminar rooms.

During the trial around 5,000 students made use of the system, downloading 163,000 podcasts.

The most popular lecture series created over 13,000 downloads.

The reaction from students who have been using the podcasts has been positive, with a survey finding that over 99% stated that they believed having access to podcasts would improve their examination results.

88% felt that their unit satisfaction had improved and 94% wished to see the technology used on a greater scale.

Talking to the Mancunion, Stuart Phillips, Media Technologies Co-ordinator at the University and part of the project board wanted to enforce the ethos of the project: “the podcasts are an additional tool for students to revisit content rather than a replacement for lecture attendance.”

“We measured lecture attendance during our pilot programme and found that as few as 6% of students were willing to use podcasting as an alternative to experiencing a live classroom session. Interestingly, an independent study by EPS came to the same conclusion, measuring a 6% change in attendance for podcasted lectures,” he added.

University Education Officer Luke Newton agreed: “There is loads of research that has gone into it and statistics from the university show that students actually do still attend lectures.”

“You get more out of a lecture by actually being there than re-listening, but podcasting is a useful revision tool to go over everything.”

Vanshika Gupta, a third year Economics student who has been using the podcasts said: “Though podcasts don’t give you the same experience as lectures, it is very important to review what you have learned in class.”

 

Tomb Raider

Written by Jonathan Lee on . Posted in Games.

Looking back on the 17 year old super franchise, Lara Croft has always been a contention point in the discussion about video games. She simultaneously holds the title of sex symbol and icon for women in video games at the same time. She appeared as a premiere female super hero in the 90s and was one of the few of the kind at the time and an important step, but married with the skimpy outfit and an exaggerated bust she is still dismissed by some to be derogatory. Over the years she has move further away from the stereotype, but limited by her static 2D persona, she lagged behind as better female leads developed. Since a revival of “old” Lara wasn’t viable the only route left for Crystal Dynamics was a reboot. A dozen plus releases and two films after the first game, the twin pistol toting, superhero, sex icon has had a major “reinvention” and Tomb Raider takes it in its stride.

The story begins when a recently graduated Lara is mysteriously shipwrecked on an expedition to Japan with her friends. Lara grows as she learns to traverse rooftops and scale mountains from one brilliant set piece to another to escape the island and uncover its secrets. Lara’s emotional arc has twists and turns that guide her from a morose but driven student, to victim, murderer, and finally hero. Camilla Luddington’s stellar voice acting and animation capture delivers this fantastic emotional rollercoaster despite relying heavily upon exposition.  You will be tearing up at one point and cursing the next. However the same could not be said for any of the other characters. They’re not terrible, but when compared to how much you see and feel of Lara, they simply don’t match her depth.

Although there are some debatable choices, such as relying on quick time events, the clean UI and simplified controls is the most noticeable. There is no crouch, nor cover button. When you get into the vicinity of an enemy Lara crouches to tell the player that she’s in danger. In this mode, she automatically takes cover and then leans out to shoot at your command and thanks to the third person viewpoint it isn’t as clumsy as FPSs. The climbing is smooth and easy to manage, and as such every time I missed a jump I was to blame and not the game. All this combines into a neat and fluid movement system and small things like reacting to her environment really help the immersion. Accompanied with a simple level up mechanic and neat combat design that balances stealth, and close and long range combat, and outsmarting your enemies feels slick and rewarding every time.

Exploring the island is a treat. The game is beautifully rendered and the island has some of the most breath-taking vistas. From parachuting to climbing, each set piece is exciting and gloriously pretty. Whilst it suffered for demoting puzzle elements to optional secret tombs that have no consequences on the plot, it successfully carries on the tradition of epic adventures that has been a hall mark for Tomb Raider games. Extra credit has to be given to the effort they put into Lara’s hair, which flows naturally strand by strand, making Lara even more believable whilst my PC screams in pain. The music isn’t stellar, but it adds to the gravity of each emotional moment. Although the gunfire lacks impact, the ambient sound from wildlife and the environment are excellent and bring the world to life.

The multiplayer feels forced. It isn’t bad and utilises all the mechanics in the game, but pales in comparison to the single player. It was hard to find a server, not because there was bad matchmaking, but because there was no one playing it. It’s best to ignore the multiplayer and focus on the story.

All in all this game is fantastic for anyone, fan or not, who wants an immersive adventure with a compelling lead character and a wonderful world to explore; this game is a shining example of how reboots are done.

 

IGN leave e-Sports league in jeopardy

Written by Jacob Harrison on . Posted in Games.

On the 21st of February Ziff Davis, the parent company of IGN, announced in an internal memorandum that they had taken steps to ‘simplify and focus’ their online content.

Among the losses for the online consumer are the websites 1UP.com and GameSpy.com. While this may be unwelcome to many, the estimated worth of these websites combined is only $3,240,038, a fraction of IGN.com’s estimated worth of $44,558,047.

A lesser-known but potentially more important loss to the online consumer is in the proposed sale of IGN’s competitive gaming arm: the IGN Pro League or IPL. The league has received acclaim in the competitive gaming (e­Sports) community for it’s high standard of content; especially in the publication of high level play of Blizzard’s real-time strategy, Starcraft 2. IGN have announced the cancellation of IPL 6, IPL’s large live tournament event. The tournament which was scheduled to be held at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas and was one of the world’s largest e-Sports events. This has left gamers who’ve bought plane tickets to Vegas out of pocket. In an attempt to steal some market share, MLG CEO Sundance has offered discounted tickets to MLG Dallas which is taking place the same weekend.

By putting IPL up for sale, Ziff Davis are not only casting doubts over the longevity of one of North America’s largest and most respected competitive gaming leagues, but also over the sustainability of one of the giants of gaming media. While international economic difficulties at such a time as this mean that measures to reorganize businesses are not uncommon, this is still far from good news. We can only hope that under their new structure, the staff at Ziff Davis and their subsidiaries will be able to replace what they have lost.

Review: ‘My Boy Jack’ – MIFTAs

Written by Andrew Georgeson on . Posted in Theatre.

As we approach the centurion anniversary of the First World War, the increase in war themed productions is startling. The renaissance can perhaps be cited as starting with Speilberg’s popularization of ‘Warhorse,’ and ‘My Boy Jack’ was a welcome addition to the wartime productions.

It revolves around the story of Rudyard Kippling, wartime polemist and author of classics such as the Jungle Book, and his family’s very personal involvement in the First World War and the aftermath of their life following the death of their son in the war.

From the offset Rudyard was presented as the archetype British male and a proud member of the greatest empire that the world has ever seen. His character, brilliantly portrayed by Matt Holt, constantly kept the audience amused, shocked and at time bewildered by his apparent ignorance and his seeming desperation for his son to fight.

Despite describing his son’s death as the proudest moment of the young man’s life, we learn that his pride and faith in the unity of war is perhaps fleeting, and instead of whole heartedly believing the words that he pens to send more young men to death, he simply uses them as a coping method.

The character of Jack himself was a clear crowd pleaser and perfectly cast in the person of Joseph Aldous. The character is suffocated under the pressure of his over zealous father.

He tells his sister that he is joining the army as an escapism, despite his severe short sightedness and the timid nature associated with his youth, a mere 16 years, he cannot bear to live in this home.

The presentation of Jack’s final moments shows the stark reality of war. The chaotic sound of shells, whistles and machine guns that gets loud to the point that you can no longer hear the actors frantic shouts, comes to a devastating silence.

The silence, broken only by the Jack’s shrill whistle of attack, is a time for the characters to contemplate what for most was their last moment. The silence is a broken banana only by the whimpering of Jack’s brigade, before a short monologue by Jack, which he finally concedes despite all his bravery, ‘I’m scared.’ The soldiers go over the top, and the first act draws to an end.

The second act revolves around discovering Jack’s fate. At the beginning of the scene we discover that Jack is missing presumed wounded, yet a painstaking effort, we hear that Rudyard interviewed over 340 members of the Irish guard, who were Jack’s battalion on the off chance that he might be able to find someone who knew Jack or saw what happened to him.

The climax of the play sees the introduction of one of the men Jack led over the top, Guardsman Bowe, played by Joe Bradley. He survived the attack, yet is incredibly badly affected by shellshock. He movingly recants the attack to the audience, revealing Jack’s gruesome fate, and apologizes for not helping Jack more than he should have.

The confession acts as some form of closure for the family, and the final scene shows his daughters wedding. After her marriage, she is moving to France in order to start a new family. This time, however, Kippling appears to be far more reluctant to allow another one of his children to travel to France.

 

Four stars out of five

Obituary: Hugo Chávez

Written by Andres Porras Chaves on . Posted in Opinion.

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, President of Venezuela from 1999 and leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), died from cancer on the 5th of March 2013 in Caracas; He was 58 years old. Hugo Chavez was one of the most influential Latin American politicians of the 21st Century


Born on 28 July 1954, in the rural village Sabanetas, Chávez was born to a lower middle class family of Amerindian, Afro-Venezuelan and Spanish descent. The second of seven children, Chávez was raised mainly by his grandmother Rosa Inés, a devout Catholic. The poverty he experienced during his childhood made him committed to social justice from an early age.


At 17 he entered the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in Caracas, and in 1976, following his graduation, he joined the military. During this period he read the works of Karl Marx, Lenin and Ché Guevara, and became interested in the figure of 19th-century Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar, among others. In 1982 he founded the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement (MBR-200), a secretive cell within the army that rejected both neoliberalism (at the time widely applied in Latin America) and Soviet communism.

On 4 February 1992, the MBR-200, led by Chávez, attempted a coup d’état known as Operation Zamora against the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez, shortly after the Caracazo massacre (when hundreds of people protesting against Pérez’s neoliberal reforms were killed by the military). The coup failed, ending with Chávez giving a speech on national television: “Comrades: unfortunately, for now, the objectives we had set for ourselves were not achieved in the capital city. That is, those of us here in Caracas did not seize power. Where you are, you have performed very well, but now is the time for a reflection. New opportunities will arise and the country has to head definitively toward a better future”. His statement that he had failed ‘for now’ was widely remarked and he became a popular idol, especially for the lower classes.


He and other members of the MBR-200 were sent to prison, released in 1994 by President Rafael Caldera. After being released, Chávez went on a 100-day tour around the country to promote his social cause, gaining support from local-based newspapers and media. In 1997 he created the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), with which he ran up for the 1998 Venezuelan presidential election, which he won with more than 55% of the votes.


Chavez’s election was the starting point for a wave of left wing governments in Latin America (the so-called “pink tide”). During his years in office, he passed a new Constitution that included rights for the indigenous people and women, environmental protection and public access to education, health, housing and food. He opposed US foreign policy, supported the Palestinian cause and established strong links with Cuba (describing Fidel Castro as being like a father to him). Other South American countries with left-wing governments, and some controversial Arab leaders, made him become quite a contentious political figure. Chávez’s government suffered a failed coup d’état attempt in 2002.


Chávez had great impact on the political structures of South America, with Venezuela playing a key role in the creation of the ALBA alliance of Latin American nations, the Bank of the South and the television network TeleSUR. In Venezuela, he encouraged non-profit community media and created the Bolivarian Missions, which provided public services. During Chávez’s government, poverty and illiteracy were significantly reduced, according to statistics by the UN and UNESCO.


Despite several criticisms by the political opposition in Venezuela and different international organisations, Chávez passed away after winning with absolute majority all four presidential elections he ran up for. Seven days of mourning have been announced in Venezuela, and a state funeral will be held in Caracas on 8 March.

Book Club is back!

Written by Phoebe Chambre on . Posted in Books.

Hi Harriet, how are you?
Hello! I’m drowning in essays and trying to ignore looming deadlines.

What are you reading? What’s it about? What are the characters called? Do you like them?
I’m reading Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens. So far we have Pip, Magwitch, Mr and Mrs Joe Gargery, Estella and Miss Havisham, amongst others, all carefully drawn, nuanced characters which have somehow, I think, crept into our cultural consciousness – Miss Havisham and her burning wedding dress, Magwitch suddenly coming into focus in the marshes…the images are quite haunting and don’t leave the mind easily.

Is it great, just good, or not worth the trees?
Pretty good effort from Dickens I’d say… It’s fantastic! The scope of the plot is extraordinary, chronicling the growing-up of the protagonist, Pip, and his relationship with Estella, the adopted daughter of the now-iconic Miss Havisham of Statis House, but that doesn’t inhibit the detail with which motivations are discussed, secrets revealed and identities developed.

Do you generally go in for plot driven page-turners or word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence thrills?
I like word-by-word thrills I think. I don’t think that much has to really happen in order for there to be something interesting to say about it.

I was having a conversation with someone the other day about whether students read or not – I felt they didn’t (in general) and didn’t buy books, but the person said that if they (the students) do read they’re likely to read quite a lot, and buy all the books that they want to read. Do you feel that these types hold up? Which are you?
Or alternatively, just tell us about your reading/book buying habits:
I think some students don’t and some do much in the same way some people don’t and some do – I don’t think there is anything about students that makes them any more or less likely to read, if they have always read then they will continue to do so. I read a lot for my course, but I still don’t get through everything – I think you have to pick your battles to an extent. I buy a lot of books – I like the physicality of them and I like having books which have been well used and scribbled in, I think you get a very different reading experience from a Kindle or an iPad, even though both are useful for some things.

There’s been a spate of literary anniversaries recently – Pride and Prejudice turned 200, it’s been 50 years since Sylvia Plath’s death – and more to come later in the year. How cynical do you feel about these, is it any excuse (and any arbitrary years since…) to squeeze some more publicity and more sales for already published books, or should we take the time to celebrate great writers and great books of the past?
I think the book industry works as a business like any other – they have to shift copies to stay alive and if that means reprints of classics enable the publishing houses to keep supporting emerging writers, or rediscovering lost ones, then that’s fine by me. I do also think that we should value our classics, because so often newer books have been influenced by old stories or old styles of writing, and it’s interesting to get a sense of what a modern authors’ influences might have been, and how well they re-imagine old texts, or reinvent old styles, for themselves.

How do you choose your next book? Are you more likely to take a friend’s advice or a ‘professional’s’ (critic, journalist, lecturer…) in terms of recommendations?
I try and mix between those – I read on friend’s and lecturer’s recommendation, and pick things up in bookshops a lot – I’m easily swayed by a nice cover. The Penguin English Library has made a lot of money out of me recently from some nice cover art.

If you could have written one book (that someone else has written) what would it be?
The Tiger Who Came to Tea – Judith Kerr.

Surprise and delight at The Castle Hotel

Written by Annie Muir on . Posted in Books.

Bad Language is a literary organisation based in Manchester that holds a free evening of spoken word performances every month at The Castle Hotel on Oldham Street. When I walked into the small pub on February’s evening last week, I asked the bartender where ‘Bad Language’ was and she must have misheard me because she directed me to the toilets. The actual room was small, high ceiling-ed and low-lit, with chairs lined neatly in rows. I sat next to a young woman who offered me a cheese and onion crisp (I accepted) and told me about the novel she has been writing from her mother’s house in the middle of nowhere (Exton). Look out for a novel by Charlotte Haines!

There were a lot of different acts: a mixture of first-timers and regulars, poetry and prose pieces, and one short play/dialogue at the end. Mostly I preferred the poetry, it was snappy and funny – such as Fat Roland reading a poem from his book HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY, and a confident first-timer reading his poem about porn. Sometimes when someone reads out prose in a crowded dark room it’s all too easy to switch off for a second and miss something vital to the plot. This was not the case, though, when, for the headline prose act, Sarah Butler read from her debut novel Ten Things I Hate About Love. I was sceptical when I heard the book’s title, but she read it as if it was poetry, full of pauses and internal rhymes, so that – despite the microphone problems that made it sound like she was beatboxing when she said any word beginning with ‘p’ or ‘b’- it was very enjoyable to listen to.

I had passed the mass of people going into the Palace Theatre to see The Lion King on my way there, and I saw them flood out on my way back. I felt my evening compared favourably to theirs; as a ‘show’ where you don’t have to spend money, can decide to go an hour before, sit in any seat, and have the surprise of having no idea what you are going to hear or see that evening.

Surviving Supper: DADA

Written by Lucy Johnson on . Posted in Arts.

Background

Dada was an early 20th century avant-garde movement that was originated in Zurich in 1916 by a group of artists associated with Hugo Ball’s Cabaret Voltaire. Dada was anti-war, anti-art and against Bourgeois society which resulted in irrational, autonomous and sometimes outright ludicrous artworks, performances, essays, poems and manifestos being created. For example in Tristan Tzara’s Dada manifesto he states, ‘DADA doesn’t speak. DADA has no fixed idea’ and he declares that ‘the Holy Virgin was already a Dadaist’. This being said it was an incredibly influential movement that can be seen as the forerunner to conceptual, abstract and performance art despite the fact that the movement itself was more of a ‘meta-movement’. Dada was suspicious of the hierarchies of art and the unity of movements such as cubism and futurism. The Dadaists spread their manifestations around Europe via a series of art journals and magazines and the title of the original magazine by Tristan Tzara called ‘Dada’ gave the group their name.

Style

Dada rejected the traditions of art and developed artistic techniques aimed at the de-skilling of the artist. These included collage, photomontage, assemblage (a kind of 3D collage) and the use of the ready-made. The most famous example of a ready-made and one which aptly defines the nature of Dada art is Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’. Duchamp entered a porcelain urinal into the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York in 1917 which he had signed ‘R. Mutt’ and titled ‘Fountain’. He was suggesting that whether the artist had created the object themselves or not, by signing the work, giving it a title and entering it into an exhibition, it could be called art.

Key Players

Due to the all-inclusive and non-hierachical nature of the Dada movement there were many figures who considered themselves Dadaists and Tristan Tzara stated that ‘all members of the Dada movement are presidents’. There are certain artists though who contributed more significantly with artworks, manifestos, poems or edited the various Dadaist publications and these include: Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Arp, Francis Picabia and Andre Breton.

Works to know / Manifestos to read

Tristan Tzara’s DADA manifesto (Paris, January 12th 1921)

DADA Magazine (7 issues)

Fountain – Marcel Duchamp 1917 (replicas in various museums including Tate Modern)

L. H. O. O. Q. – Marcel Duchamp 1919

 

Interview: the life drawing model

Written by Annabel Herrick on . Posted in Arts.

We’ve all experienced the same nightmare, standing in a room full of strangers realising you are stripped naked, baring all to a scrutinizing audience, but for Olive* this is how she spent one afternoon on a stage in the union for a bit of extra cash.

After attending the MUSEA’s fortnightly life drawing class I was intrigued to find out how it feels to submit yourself to such intimate examination for 90 minutes, all in the name of art. “It’s actually quite meditative,” Olive explains, “at the initial moment I have a lot going around my head, mainly worried that I’ll see someone I know, but watching the crowd and the rhythmic sea-wave of heads going up and down, by the end my mind goes quiet.”

I point out that there are other ways to make money and they don’t necessarily involve taking your clothes off, she laughs and says “I love to do things that scare me and I’ve always had a strange relationship with my body, in fact it was a boost of confidence.” I tell her I imagine it to be quite an empowering experience and she agrees, “Life drawing is a practice that has an established historical basis and having tried it myself I understand the way in which the body is looked at. It’s seen as a shape, something aesthetic to be drawn in a mathematical way; it’s important that the proportions are accurate to get it right.”

After the interview she had not only laid herself bare physically for the sake of art but she had divulged her personal thoughts as a life model too, thoughts that usually remain hidden even while her body is completely exposed, and for that reason I think we could all use a bit of her courage. Nevertheless, it seems anonymity is key as when I tell her one of the drawings will be printed next to the article she cries “As long as you can’t tell it’s me!”

*Name has been changed

Women for Women International

Written by Kate Bullivant on . Posted in Societies.

Women for Women International is an established charity which works within eight war-torn countries. It betters the lives of women in these countries by partnering them up with people around the globe, who sponsor them to undertake a year-long program to educate them in areas such as skills, rights and health education. Many of these women have lost everything due to war, including their families and their livelihoods. The partnering scheme is not only successful on a practical level, but also offers emotional support and hope for these women at a time when they are surrounded death and violence.

Last week Women for Women International held a screening of The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo. This documentary was created by Lisa F. Jackson from Washington, who is herself a victim of rape. This compelled her to highlight the trauma of women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where rape is used on a daily basis as a weapon of war. The documentary was a real eye-opener to the consequences of rape, not only on the women affected, but their families and the community. It really showed how damaging this weapon of war is in an already fragile country.

I spoke to the Chair Rawnak Jassm, who explains why this charity is so important and why she wanted to get involved. “I simply fell in love with the way the charity gives women of war a second chance. It educates them, teaches them about their rights in society, provides them with skills that allow them to become financially independent and allows them to become socially active. This charity does not merely hand over money or a bag of rice to a woman to sustain her for a month or so, but the money raised is an investment into a woman’s life, as well as her family’s, and the economy as a whole.”

The society aims to raise awareness for the charity, as well as raising money and offering students the opportunity to support this worthwhile cause. They organise many different events in order to raise money, including a weekly Zumba session, bake sales, and barbeques. The society is also looking into the possibility of holding an educational event to portray global issues surrounding women after war.

The society was only started in 2012, but it has already been very successful. However, their main problem is that by having ‘women’ in the name of the society, they have few male participants. In the future they look to advertise this society for everyone and not just for women. With 25 current members, they are hoping to expand in the future, especially as this society deals with such current global issues, offering support in a unique way.

“There is always space on the committee for those that feel like they have something to offer- everyone is welcome to either commit to a role or just volunteer occasionally- everything is pretty casual and the results are always rewarding.  Events and fundraisers are open to everyone and you can keep up to date by subscribing to our emails, Facebook or twitter. It would be lovely to meet anyone that is interested in the cause or would like to learn more.”

For more details you can contact them at:

[email protected]

www.facebook.com/wfwi.manchester

Follow us on twitter: @WFWI_Manchester

‘Man, Woman and not-at-all Mild!’ – MIFTAs review

Written by Ben Marshall on . Posted in Theatre.

Entering the theatre for a play whose title is a relatively unknown word is always fascinating. Audience members possess a sense of open-mindedness and intrigue of the spectacle they’re about to witness – and Hugo Timbrell’s “The Maenad” is a fine example of this.

With its Ancient Greek setting, tone and ideas, the production was an entry in this year’s Miftas. It did deal with a theme (gender) that has already been thoroughly explored in theatre, but despite this, some very impressive performances were demonstrated, with interesting visual and sound techniques, which made for a strong overall delivery.

For the uninitiated, the Maenads were the mythical, female worshippers of Ancient Greek figure ‘Dionysus’, the God of wine, pleasure and ecstasy. Timbrell’s plot presents us with the Maenad, a frustrated female in a male-dominated world where women are merely sex-slaves.

Through a chain of sexual encounters with misogynistic men, the Maenad demonstrates her ability to manipulate males and achieve her goal of redemption for women. Daisy Church, with her powerful, attention-demanding voice, shone a ray of mystery on the Maenad and managed to attribute to her a degree of masculine-style control, which was essential in showing how she was able to defeat the men.

Church’s character was also key in showing some themes of this play; frequent but gentle physical contact exerted on the Girl (Leela Carr-Bond) awoke touching connotations of a mother teaching her daughter the ways of the world, and its dangers.

The beautiful white dresses worn by the two characters further emphasised their similarity and also a supposed purity and innocence of the female kind.

However, in a bizarre u-turn, the final scene has the Maenad extracting the heart of her young companion in an unnerving ritual; indeed Maenads themselves are often perceived as drunk, over-excitable beings, and this final act questions the true intentions of this character and the disturbing methods of escaping a world of female suppression. Slow, almost sinister piano music and a bright red, lustful curtain serving as the backdrop backed up this theory of her controversial nature.

Other notable performances came from Remi Lagache and Andrew Dixon’s dim-witted personalities of ‘Man 1’ and ‘Man 2’ respectively, which provided the humorous bone of the play. Lagache was definitely the crazier of the two, with his creepy gestures, stooped posture and unhealthy obsession with sex, while Man 2 was infinitesimally more controlled, but still laughable in his failed attempts to guide his stupid partner.

A slight niggle for this reviewer is that there was an air of familiarity with key ideas and characters of this play, with various aspects strongly resembling Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, an Ancient Greek sex comedy, which also has a central female figure hitting out against the males. Theatre-lovers may notice these, and possibly more similarities that at times seemed a little too coincidental. Of course only the playwright can state the true extent to which ideas have been borrowed from other works.

Aside from this, the main questions the playwright addressed (‘What makes a man’, and ‘What makes a woman’) are treated well, and it takes a subjective analysis of the action to come up with the answers. Indeed, the men and women take it in turns to be oppressors and the oppressed in this work, and the dim stage lighting put an omnipresent mood of evilness around all the characters. This ultimately means the true positions of each gender in society is down to the individual viewer’s decision, and a good play definitely gives this level of freedom for the audience to decide.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Written by Robbie Davidson on . Posted in Theatre.

It had been a number of years since I last read Harper Lee’s ground-breaking novel, but Christopher Sergel’s adaption has maintained all the poetry and poignancy of the 1960 classic.

The beauty of Lee’s novel was that it explored the potent theme of racism in the Deep South through the prism of the bright-eyed naivety of children. The task to transport this unique viewpoint onto stage is a challenging one but one which Sergel and director, Max Webster, rise to magnificently.

Webster has cast three ‘child’ leads who perfectly balance the rambunctious and indignation needed to play Scout, Jem and Dill. In particular, Shannon Tarbet delivers an endearing and energetic performance as Scout, capably handling the scenes of both humour and pathos. Tarbet is supported by the excellent Rupert Simonian and James McConville as Jem, Scout’s protective big brother, and Dill as their friend who stays with them during Tom Robinson’s trial and whose character was rumoured to be based on a young Truman Capote.

Webster and co. have also found themselves a fantastic Atticus in Nigel Cooke. Cooke captures all the meek and mild-manners of Atticus which make him such a beloved but frustrating hero. Cooke also benefits from a great physical resemblance to Gregory Peck’s Atticus from the 1962 film which adds to the gravitas of the production.

James Cotterill’s set is functional and effective but adds nothing of particular interest to the production. The most interesting stage choice the producers have made is instead of having actors play the jury during Tom Robinson’s trial, they have the audience themselves stand in as the jury.

This means Atticus’ wonderful closing statement to the court is said directly to the audience. An original and provocative choice given that the one thing both the jury and the audience shared was that they were both almost entirely white.

If there are any aspects of the play which falter then the decision to have the actors break character and read extracts from the original novel is a curious and distracting one. It has the unfortunate effect of diluting the intensity of the scenes and becomes quite jarring. The three man band which played during scene changes also struck a slightly bemusing note as their role in the play was never clear and I felt their removal would have been no great loss.

However this problem is minor and does little to detract from what is a terrific staging of Lee’s seminal masterpiece bolstered by some inspired lead performances.

 

4 out of 5 stars