Year: 2017

Kamila Shamsie in conversation with Jeanette Winterson

Written by Alice Porter on 30th October 2017. Posted in Books.

Ahead of becoming a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Manchester’s Centre For New Writing, Kamila Shamsie sat down with Jeanette Winterson on the 17th October, to discuss her latest novel Home Fire.

Based on Sophocles’ Antigone, it questions the sacrifices we will make to protect the people we love,through the story of two families, whose fates are inextricably linked, in the midst of jihad and political unrest. It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017 and is the sixth novel of Shamsie’s, who was selected by Granta as a Best Young British Novelist in 2013.

She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London and whilst in conversation with Winterson, she discusses her experiences in both cities in reference to writing and Home Fire itself, whilst highlighting the importance of art and culture in times of political discord.

Jeanette Winterson began by describing Home Fire as having a “contemporary relevance” after Shamsie read an extract from the novel about one of the characters being rigorously questioned by airport security, alluding to the current political climate of Trump’s America.

Shamsie’s reply stated the inevitability of writing about politics and current affairs when it is “breathing down your neck” although she did assure us that sometimes she is much more inclined to pick up her copy of Pride and Prejudice for the seventeenth time, a comment that was evidently relatable for much of the audience, as it was met with a sort of reassured chuckle.

The evening was full of insightful, colourful, and articulate comments thanks to Shamsie’s complete and coherent explanations of her novel itself and the issues surrounding it. Whilst discussing metaphor and allegory in the novel generally, she said “sometimes people are able to look most clearly if you give [things] to them indirectly”. This quote resonated with me as an English student who cannot help but consider the implications of not only the nuances within texts but also within the smaller things in life.

A question that was brought to the forefront of the evening was whether art should stand — or whether it is possible for art to stand — as Winterson put nicely, “on the side lines of history?”

This led Shamsie to explain how this novel in particular offers a different and more realistic story to the accepted political rhetoric regarding race, immigration and different cultures in Western society.

In reference to ISIS, she discussed how the novel highlights how the extremist group perhaps does not primarily appeal to the people it aims to, because of its violence, but because its primary recruitment method is tapping into the vulnerabilities of its target audience, offering a sense of belonging and a lack of racism.

The central question of Home Fire is, as Winterson highlighted, “what would you stop at to protect the people you love most?” and the two authors explored this question throughout the evening.

“I don’t know what I’d do” was Winterson’s answer, saying that this is what really disturbed her about the novel. Shamsie focused less on her own stance and more on the issues surrounding the question, questioning whether it is fair to judge people who have been put in compromising positions and stating that the real question is why people have been put in those positions in the first place.

The answer to this question, she explained, lies on the first page of the novel: “The ones we love are the enemies of the state.” The ambiguity of this sentence unravels as you read further into the book.

Questions of morality were also discussed and Shamsie came to the conclusion that essentially, morality is irrelevant in the face of love. “Who are you if you don’t make [morality] an irrelevance?”

Shamsie, in discussing her dual citizenship as a citizen of Pakistan and Britain, explained her ability to feel comfortable in many different places that are important to her. She commented on the strangeness of the accepted custom of having “a monogamous relationship with the isle of home”, an observation which one audience member called the stand out moment of the night.

Shamsie has been met with acclaim in both Britain and Pakistan and, fittingly, her photo is now in the British Council Library in Karachi where she grew up reading.

The most interesting part of the evening for me was the discussion concerning the necessity, effectiveness, and urgency of culture in times of political unrest, a topic that was returned to again and again.

Shamsie summarised her viewpoint by beautifully stating: “Art is not going to be the thing that brings down borders and barriers… but art may remind us of humanity.”

She puts emphasis on the importance of this “in times of darkness” and I think that this is something that is relatable for many today.

Listening to the effortless, colourful conversation between two authors who were clearly both passionate and knowledgeable about the topics they discussed was a delight.

Winterson’s humour combined with Shamsie’s extraordinary insight and integrity made for a discussion that flowed and intrigued the audience, so much so that I am ready to go and re-read every novel of Shamsie’s, as Winterson regularly encouraged us to do throughout the evening!

Cultural Commemoration: Remembering Slavery and Abolition in Manchester

Written by Florrie Badley on 30th October 2017. Posted in Arts.

Earlier this month, Professor Alan Rice delivered a lecture in an intimate back-room of the Portico Library, entitled Exhibiting Slavery in a Post-Imperial Context: Reflections on 2007 and Manchester’s Contributions. The 2007 context that Rice refers to in his title, is the outburst of bicentennial commemorations which acknowledged 200 years since the abolition slavery in Britain. His talk was one in a series of lectures built around the Portico’s exhibition Bittersweet: Legacies of Slavery and Abolition in Manchester.

You may not have seen Bittersweet. It was an elegant and sensitive exhibition which stitched artefacts, contemporary artworks and historic printed texts together, to tell a fragmentary story of Manchester’s black Atlantic history. But it was also a noticeably small exhibition — and it was only on display for a month.

This was something that Rice drew attention to in his lecture: in comparison to the exhibitions which had dominated galleries ten years previously, Bittersweet was a marginal contribution to the narrative. His concern, that the topic of slavery had been a fleeting art world trend which has since been re-shelved to gather dust, was evident.

Manchester isn’t often a city associated directly with slavery, like the port cities such as Bristol or Liverpool. However, the pro and anti-abolition debates were just as active, since its industry relied heavily on the import and manufacture of cotton.

Rice, himself, had been a contributor to the 2007 commemorations. He co-curated the Whitworth’s own exhibit Trade and Empire: Remembering Slavery with Su Andi, Kevin Dalton-Johnson and Dr Emma Poulter — his 2017 lecture reflected mainly on this event.

Not many of us will have seen this exhibition either, but its merits sound convincing, highlighting hypocrisy and generating juxtapositions. On one wall, two Turner paintings were put on display. But they were hung on top of an enlarged post-slavery photograph, of some ‘free’ African cotton-pickers, working under Jim Crow laws. The label next to the paintings, then, would make the reader aware that the Turners had been purchased by abolitionists, who had nevertheless made their riches in cotton.

One difficulty Rice alluded to, in regards to such cultural commemorations, is the danger that historicising an atrocity suggests that it is overcome, or consigned to history. It was crucial that curators kept this in mind: abolition did not mean total freedom, because did not deliver anybody from discrimination. Commemoration should not, and does not, wipe the slate clean.

Around the time of the bicentennial there was a surge in the visibility of organisations such as Fairtrade, who aimed to raise awareness of what they called ‘modern-day slavery.’ The photograph behind the Turner paintings, were intended to amplify how slavery is often so easily masked.

Interestingly, Rice spent the most-part of his lecture discussing artefacts and artworks that he had left out of the exhibition, or items that he would re-introduce if he were to curate it again. He did this to remind us the view created within an exhibition is never complete. We should never accept its story as the definitive narrative.

One of the greatest issues that historians of black Atlantic history face, is the lack of archival information available. En-slavers did not photograph or document slavery — which was Rice’s secondary reason for placing a post-slavery photograph behind the Turner paintings.

Rice rung other alarm bells, such as the tendency to focus on the white parliamentary role when commemorating abolition (for a lack of any other information) as opposed to the contribution of black Atlantic, black British or black African agencies. He warned also of a tendency to unify these voices within themselves – there is not just one black Britain.

We often rely on tropes when telling a historical story, returning to the same tired or ‘acceptable’ characters. Rice highlighted Olaudah Equiano as one of these gentrified ‘familiar faces.’ This is particularly illuminating, since Equiano was the figure chosen by Google to occupy the logo of its home-page just last week.

Rice ensured us that that there are so many other exciting and radial figures which we know nothing about, because they do not conform to the pre-ordained story of slavery which has been written for us. Robert Wedderburn, who wrote The Horrors of Slavery was one of his examples. He said that he has forwarded this book to all of the foremost critics of 18th and 19th Century literature that he could contact — to no palpable response.

Rice emphasised the importance of creating new responses and narratives, and artists have begun to do this exceptionally, interpreting black and other histories through their imaginations. Mary Evans and Keith Piper (exhibited in Bittersweet), Althea McNish and Lubaina Himid are just a few examples of artists who have achieved this, whilst overcoming the sometimes reductive or despairing nature of our collective imperial history. They have shown us how to remind without undermining, conveying messages of hope and progress without stifling the suffering that underlays it.

McNish’s ‘Golden Harvest’ from 1959 for instance is evidently saturated with Caribbean influences, but its vibrancy was initially inspired by a field that the artist saw in Essex. It was then manufactured as a Liberty Print. Whilst Lubaina Himid is Rice’s co-director at the Black Atlantic Research Institute in Preston. She is one of the four nominees to be selected for this year’s Turner Prize.

Sometimes it is the gaps in our archives which say significantly more than the things which are there. Large or small, a single narrative can only leave a chip in the surface of a much larger reality. To overcome the silences we have been left with, Rice encouraged his audience to keep searching.

Blade Runner 2049: a tale of caution?

Written by Holly James on 30th October 2017. Posted in Opinion.

Margaret Atwood, best known for her book ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, recently adapted into the critically acclaimed Channel 4 series, has often remarked that there is nothing in the aforementioned book that “had not already happened” at some point across the history of human civilisation.

Rather than ‘science fiction’, she refers to her work as ‘speculative fiction’; the former grounded in fantasy, the latter grounded in real and distinct possibilities for the — alarmingly near — future. Upon watching Blade Runner 2049, this quote struck me as particularly resonant — where The Handmaid’s Tale represents a future fabricated on the fears of the tense political and social climate of the 1980’s — 2049 is a portrait of our current way of life taken to its logical conclusion.

Given its tone, one could almost take this to mean literally.

As in Atwood, there is nothing here that has not already happened — or is currently happening — to some degree. The Los Angeles of 2049 is characterised by its astounding levels of technological advancement. Airborne cars and sentient holograms occupy streets whose only source of light appears to be the insipid neon glow of signs and adverts.

Names like Sony, the film’s producer, Peugeot, and Coca-Cola light up billboards and buildings across the city in a nod to the Times’ Squares and Piccadilly Circuses of our times.

However, it is clear that the sophisticated, high-tech boulevards of LA come at a price. Deserts, wastelands, dumping grounds, and exhausted farmlands lie just beyond the city’s outskirts and become a testament to the cost of such an existence. This kind of consumption and development always has two sides, and in Blade Runner 2049 they exist side-by-side as a demonstration of the sacrifice that is made in the name of advancement.

This is free market capitalism in overdrive and undoubtedly an image of contemporary neo-liberalism taken to its logical conclusion.

One of the most characterising features of this portrait of 2049 is the erratic weather patterns. Tropical storms and acid rain are common features across an America that is in some places utterly Saharan and in others dank and wet. Implied in these conditions is a society in which global warming has utterly reshaped the landscape of the USA.

In some places, what appear to be the remnants of nuclear bombing makes entire cities uninhabitable, while in others they are converted into waste disposal areas stretching for hundreds of miles.

Much of the film’s power comes from its ability to show, not tell. The only explanation the audience receives is from a small paragraph of text at the beginning which tells us that there have been vast environmental issues.

In these portraits of landscapes fundamentally changed by our own irresponsible behaviour, Blade Runner 2049 provides an image that should be shocking to the nation that needs to hear it the most: America. Amidst Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal from the Paris agreement and his notorious ignorance of the environment and especially climate issues, this is a picture that shouts “do something now, or else these will be the consequences”.

Indeed, we are already seeing the magnitude of the problem. Recent hurricanes Harvey and Irma are only the latest natural disasters in a long line of extreme weather that scientists believe to have been worsened by the effects of climate change.

Issues such as deforestation, fracking, and the rapid depletion of fossil fuels have a permanent place in the headlines as environmental activists struggle against big businesses and international corporations to impose stricter regulations on consumption. A world in which refuse disposal spans entire cities and tropical storms hit every day suddenly does not seem as if it could be so far away.

Blade Runner 2049 is undoubtedly a film of outstanding visual beauty, but it would be a mistake to see this is as a portrait of a desirable future.

The glowing lights act as a mirage whereby technological advancement masks the depletion of the earth and the impending doom of a future running out of options.

Above all, it is a warning: If we continue at the rate we are going, we may indeed end up here sooner than we think.

Lack of living wage makes young people poorer

Written by George Walker on 30th October 2017. Posted in News.

New research shows that without the National Living Wage, over a million under 25s are being paid up to £3.45 less than over 25s for the same job.

The study, conducted by the Young Women’s Trust, means that under 25s are missing out on up to £6,300 per year. This is detrimental to the economic security of people coming out of university, and has proven to be largely unpopular.

A survey of 1000 people done by CV-Library showed that around 8 percent of respondents believed the living wage should also apply to workers under the age of 25.

The University of Manchester Living Wage Campaign have stated that “all workers should be guaranteed the Real Living Wage.”

They continued: “This ensures that it pays to be in work, and provides those on low pay with a decent quality of life. Not only is the current National Living Wage insufficient, but it unfairly discriminates against those under the age of 25 who face high living costs and are struggling to get ahead in life.”

Furthermore, the Young Women’s Trust Chief Executive commented that under 25s are “falling into debt, using food banks in greater numbers and their self-confidence is low. It’s no surprise when they are paid less for the same work.

“We all need a basic amount of money to get by, no matter how old we are. The bus to work costs the same, whether you’re 24 or 26. Gas and electricity costs the same, regardless of age. Rent doesn’t cost any less in your early 20s. Much more needs to be done to improve young people’s prospects and give them hope for the future.”

In the past, doubts have been raised about applying the Living Wage to under-25s, for example Conservative cabinet minister Matthew Hancock argued under 25s shouldn’t have the living wage because they are “not as productive” as older workers.

However, now given the rise in inflation levels after the Brexit vote, and continued economic certainty as the EU negotiating process seem to be going little to nowhere, real wages are at risk, and a living wage may well be needed to fall back on for under 25s who are already struggling.

Scary snot and sinew soup aka pumpkin soup with melting cheese and bacon

Written by Millie Nettleton on 30th October 2017. Posted in Food & Drink.

Wanting to get in the Halloween spirit? Try this easy recipe for a spooky Pumpkin soup. The non-carnivorous can skip out on the bacon.

Ingredients:

A Pumpkin — judge size according to guests
A large onion — two if a big pumpkin
Chicken or vegetable stock
Gruyère cheese
Bacon lardons or Pancetta — optional

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. Slice your pumpkin into wedges and remove seeds, painting each side of the flesh with a bit of oil. Tip: try sesame or nut oil for an added smokiness. Cook in oven for 30–40 minutes or until the flesh is soft.

3. In the mean time: Fry onions in a frying pan with a little oil or butter till soft, keeping the heat relatively low so they don’t brown.

4. Fry up your bacon lardons. Feel free to preserve a bit of the oil to add to the soup later for extra flavour.

5. Dice up your gruyère, about 1cm cubed.

6. When your pumpkin has roasted, scoop the flesh into a pan with your stock and onions, cover and leave on the hob for 20 minutes. The flesh should decompose somewhat, so check occasionally to avoid sticking.

7. Blend the pumpkin mixture or push through a sieve into a bowl if you have the energy, then return to the pan to reheat. Add your bacon ‘sinew’ and it’s juices if desired.

8. Serve the soup into bowls, before scattering the gruyère ‘snot blobs’, which with the heat of the soup should go stringy round the edges. Season with pepper and serve with some crusty bread.

Extra serving options: Add a swirl of double or sour cream, or some nutmeg if you fancy getting a little festive. If you have some soup left over, let it cool before freezing.

Bone-appétit!

Review: Middle-Earth: Shadow of War

Written by chrisglover on 30th October 2017. Posted in Games.

Like 2014’s Shadow of Mordor before it, Shadow of War offers an open-world action RPG set within Tolkien’s universe, though one that stands proudly as a great title in its own right.

The bulk of the praise of Shadow of Mordor was always on its innovative Nemesis System, and Shadow of War builds upon that in a big way. In short, the Nemesis System is a game mechanic by which named members of Sauron’s Uruk army rise or fall in power throughout your playthrough, dependent on Talion’s actions.

Each ‘Nemesis’ is randomly generated and has their own personality, combat mechanics, weaknesses and fears. The result is a dynamic game-world that truly feels alive, offering incredibly memorable moments that are unique to every player.

Random generation ensures every Orc is unique. Photo: Monolith Productions

The immense merit of the system made itself clear in the very first encounter I had with Orc captains: fresh out of the prologue mission, I wandered into an enemy camp to have no less than three captains engage me in combat simultaneously.

After barely managing to kill all three using some Gollum-level slyness that I’d rather not talk about, I was finally felled by a javelin thrown by a lowly grunt Orc.

Cue this lucky weasel proudly naming himself as ‘Snafu the Tark Slayer’, earning a promotion off the back of my embarrassing defeat and becoming somewhat of a rival of mine.

Throughout my playthrough, Snafu came back from the dead no less than five times. Each time, he’d come back pieced together with bits of metal, becoming ‘Snafu the Machine’ and constantly reminding me with increasingly manic dialogue that I was responsible for turning him into this monster.

Sorry, Snafu. Photo: Monolith Productions

This is just one example of how successful the Nemesis System is in generating genuinely compelling little narratives, often with character arcs that no other player will have experienced in quite the same way.

From Act II onwards, you begin to build your own Orc army. Effectively trying to out-Sauron Sauron, your task is to use this army to usurp his own from the six areas of the game, each with its own stronghold home to an Overlord and a hierarchy of captains.

This successfully weaves the brilliant Nemesis system into the main narrative and overarching goal of the game — though it does get repetitive eventually.

The Overlord of each stronghold can’t just be attacked and killed outright; you must first recruit some of the lower-level captains under his charge and infiltrate his higher ranks, leaving him wide open to a large-scale assault on his fortress.

This sounds like a lot of fun, and it is — the first few times. After that, things start to feel a little grindy, but it never quite becomes a chore until endgame, which I’ll address shortly.

In regards to the audio and visual experience, Shadow of War’s huge budget makes itself known with gorgeous and varied environments, whilst the musical score is compelling if somewhat generic.

Mordor is as huge as it beautiful — a fact you’ll find yourself resenting occasionally when you have to cross huge distances to start missions. Whilst Talion does mercifully learn abilities which make traversing the landscape much quicker, these are too often impeded by Talion’s most fearsome nemesis of all: ledges. These frequently halt your superhuman progression across the landscape as your character slowly prises himself off them, feeling more like a kitten stuck in a tree than a centuries old Gravewalker.

My enemies patiently wait for me to get off a ledge. Photo: Monolith Productions

The combat, on the other hand, is always delightfully responsive and smooth. A multitude of combat skills ensure that Talion always feels as powerful and efficient as The Bright Lord should, whilst the hordes of Orcs that often rush you at once ensure that even on Normal difficulty, the combat never becomes so easy as not to be fun.

Regrettably, it would be impossible review this game and not address the Oliphaunt in the room: microtransactions. For months, WB Games have come under fire for their implementation of loot boxes in Shadow of War.

The loot boxes contain armor and weapons, or Orc captains who can join your army to help defeat Sauron.

Whilst offering extra paid content in full-priced games is arguably questionable at best by itself, Shadow of War further offends by insidiously integrating the loot box system into the core game, making frequent trips to the marketplace deliberately unavoidable.

For example, you acquire a currency called Miriam simply by killing enemies and completing missions, though there is very little to spend it on other than loot boxes. You inevitably end up with thousands upon thousands of Miriam, leaving you no choice but to visit the microtransaction marketplace.

The Headhunter celebrates another loot box sale. Photo: Monolith Productions

At the marketplace, you soon realise that Miriam can only buy you the bottom-tier silver chest, and to buy gold and mithril chests you must use a premium Gold currency acquirable by paying real-world money.

It quickly becomes clear that the game has forgone the opportunity to implement a rewarding in-game economic system (a marketplace updated daily with cosmetics or legendary gear, for example). Instead, it really feels like every Miriam that Talion earns serves the sole purpose of manipulating you into opening your wallet to buy gold chests instead.

The worst part about all of this comes at the endgame of Shadow of War — not-so-curiously named ‘Shadow Wars’ — which sees a “bonus” ending of the game held hostage behind a mammoth grind so mind-numbing that players are driven to buy premium loot boxes just to speed it up.

Needless to say, the loot boxes are a disappointing smear on what is otherwise a very enjoyable game.

The gameplay is solid, the storyline is mostly enjoyable — though deviates from canon lore; Tolkeinites beware —, and the varied mission structures ensure that, endgame aside, the Orc-slaying never becomes tiresome.

Though frankly, even if this were not the case, the Nemesis System ensures that Shadow of War is still worth playing. As it has yet to be successfully replicated by other titles, the Middle-Earth games remain completely unrivalled in their ability to use player-NPC interaction to create a gloriously dynamic gameplay experience.

Rowing Club takes gold at home

Written by Mia Gair on 30th October 2017. Posted in Sport.

Saturday the 14th of October saw the Manchester University Boat Club (MUBC) take to the rocky waters of Salford to battle it out at the Agecroft Head Rowing competition. The competition saw boat clubs and universities from around the Manchester area come together to compete at one of the first races of the season. With the — sort of — home advantage, the teams started in the middle of Spinningfields and raced the 3.25km race down to the Lowery in Salford.

The first boat of the day was senior woman Ruth Haigh who powered through the wind in her single taking fourth place. Followed by Oliver Collinson and Sebastian Baylis in the double who won MUBC’s first gold of the day. The senior men narrowly missed out on the gold in both the coxed four and the quad races.

Luckily, however, the senior women’s coxed fours had better luck, with Rowena Bailey, Marianne Blight, Alice Peachey, Celine Vine, and their cox Thomas O’Hanlon taking home gold. The second women’s coxed four and the senior women’s quad were also purple and proud, both coming in a close second place.

Despite the tough conditions, all of the boats made a great start to the season and year ahead. Taking home a total of seven medals across the breath of the senior squad sets up MUBC for a successful year. The club was even joined by one of its alumni Mr Richardson who represented the Alumni Club Nemesis Boat Club in the single, showing us that MUBC rows on after graduation!

The club was joined by even more members of the Alumni Boat Club on Sunday for the Nemesis training day. Whilst our competitors were resting, both the seniors and novices at MUBC we put through their paces by experienced rowers who all had MUBC in common.

Across two venues over ten crews were sent out in sculling boats, fours and eights to undergo a technical analysis from those who know it best. Novices were given the chance to cox down at our Boathouse in Sale, whilst the seniors enjoyed the sunny weather out on the open waters of Salford Quays.

Overall it was a great weekend that signalled the beginning of a winter of hard work. Pushing our squads to train harder and smarter, and get the most out of rowing and what MUBC can offer. Let’s hope we can reap what we sow and add to our Silverware collection!

‘Vivid’ Dreams and Developments

Written by Mancunion on 30th October 2017. Posted in Food & Drink.

Let’s talk about development. Developments in the food critic world, developments in the student union, and developments in east Manchester.

Marina O’Loughlin has stepped into the shoes of the late, great, AA Gill. Perhaps the most accomplished voice in food writing, AA Gill has left some sizeably large shoes to fill, but if there was ever anyone for the job it is O’Loughlin. The Guardian’s loss is The Sunday Time’s gargantuan gain.

Her first review for the Sunday Times came out on the 15th and was accompanied by a small list that contained five of her favourite restaurants, one of which was Manchester’s own Siam Smiles. The northern Thai restaurant and supermarket is indeed one of Manchester’s finest, and Thai food is what was on offer at Vivid Lounge, the subject of this week’s review, but more on that later.

So, the ground floor of the Student’s Union. Isn’t it great when a large amount of money is spent on making something distinctly worse? A source that wishes to remain anonymous has told The Mancunion that foot-traffic is down 50 per cent since the development took place.

This should come as no surprise as what was a perfectly fine cafe and an adjacent shop is now a vacuous hole of confusion and slowly served coffee. I mean, who the hell masterminded this operation? This indoor land of garden sheds pleases no one, student cafe satisfaction is at an all-time low, and the coffee drinkers of the world are on strike.

Anyway, moving on, next to Ancoats in east Manchester is a part of town called New Islington, but might also be called Ardwick, depending on when you moved there. I’d never heard of New Islington until I moved there, but it comes across as an example of a development gone right.

New Islington is one of the seven Millennium Communities Programme areas. Funding for the area was secured in 2002 and property developers Urban Splash have been at the forefront of developments. Some of the blocks of flats are nicer than others, but the renovated mills outlined by the canals are beautiful.

Sadly it doesn’t have the retail units of Ancoats. There’s a Costa and a Dominoes, but the one thing it does have is Vivid Lounge. Sounds like a shit club, but is actually cafe/restaurant bar amalgamation that serves it’s community wonderfully.

Mr Damp Sock himself joined me to try it out, sadly we went during a menu change period, thus a few items weren’t available. Damp Sock and I are trying to get our food podcast off the ground so we came back after eating and recorded ourselves talking about Vivid Lounge, here is part of that conversation transcribed:

Felix: I think the first thing is, when you look at the menu, you expect Thai food, and you realise they do breakfast.

Damp Sock (aka Joe): Yeah I know, and not Thai breakfast either.

F: Do you know what Thai breakfast is?

J: Ummm…

F: Because you’ve been to that part of the world haven’t you?

J: I have been to that part of the world, but I just ate noodles for breakfast. I don’t know that if that’s just because I was trying to get into the culture, or maybe it was just… it was just me. I feel like they have a kind of continental breakfast, where the bread’s kind of a little bit sweet.

F: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

J: And they have like… not cheese, but… lots of fruit actually.

F: Hmmm.

J: …and sweet bread.

F: Mmm hmm.

J: …and strange butter.

F: Is that for westerners or is it something they eat?

J: Erm… I would say, no, I would say a lot of people eat like fruit.

F: Either way, Vivid is trying to do a very Anglican breakfast. They have a big breakfast menu. Maybe it’s a financial thing. They don’t get much lunch trade. Dinner is popular. It’s a bar. But they need to do the breakfast thing.

J: The breakfast thing — it looked good. It’s strange having the breakfast menu next to a bunch of curries and Thai dishes.

F: It was a good menu.

RIP AA Gill.

RIP the Old Student’s Union.

149A Great Ancoats St, Manchester M4 6DH

University of Manchester suffer second defeat

Written by Sam Cooper on 30th October 2017. Posted in Sport.

Following the disappointment of their 4-0 away loss at Newcastle last week, University of Manchester’s Mens 1st team were looking to bounce back with their first home tie of the season against Liverpool John Moores. The Armitage welcomed the players along with an overcast sky, but there was no threat of actual rain.

The game started as an even contest, both teams struggling to get maintain possession, with many long balls being played forward. The first effort of the game came from Manchester’s number 8 but he could only direct it over.

The majority of Manchester’s attacking threat was coming from the number 10 who was occupying the right flank. His pace was allowing him to get in behind the Liverpool fullback, and a good cross was causing them trouble.

Number 5 was also proving an attacking outlet for Manchester. First, his long-range effort was deflected for a corner and moments later he dragged another attempt wide of the left post.

After a spell of Manchester domination, Liverpool finished the first half strongly. Creating chances through their number four and number seven. But like Manchester, these openings were more half-chances than clear goalscoring opportunities.

The half time whistle blew at 0-0 with both sides reasonably content with what they had seen.

The second half was a different affair entirely. Liverpool started with an urgency that both teams were lacking in the first period and grew into the game as it went on. The goalkeeper was forced to make a great instinctive save after Liverpool’s number ten fired a shot goal bound. The close-range effort came from near to the penalty spot and the keeper did exceptionally well to push it wide.

Manchester were finding it increasingly difficult to maintain possession as Liverpool picked up their pressing efforts. The away side were forcing Manchester into giving away the ball easily whether that was through misplaced passes on the ground or overly ambitious long ball attempts.

Liverpool’s pressure and overall second half performance were rewarded in the 70th minute as they got the game’s only goal. Their number 8 turned in the penalty box and fired his effort low into the bottom right corner. The speed of the ball from such a close proximity meant the keeper had no chance of keeping it out. The away side took the lead and you have to say it was deserved for their second-half performance.

With time running out, Liverpool marshalled the game well. Slowing down play and making it difficult for Manchester to gain any momentum in their quest for an equaliser. The travelling team saw out the final stages of the match to take three points back to Merseyside.

It was a disappointing defeat for Manchester as they find themselves bottom of the Northern 1A table. They look to bounce back on Wednesday with an away trip to Liverpool Hope.

Men need an alternative to the toxic men’s rights movement

Written by Sam Glover on 30th October 2017. Posted in Opinion.

Why is it that every advocate of so-called ‘men’s rights’ is a person with odious views who says odious things? The issues being talked about don’t seem to naturally lend themselves to people with odious views: reducing stigma around male mental health, helping boys who are struggling in school, helping men who have suffered sexual abuse, and so on.

But it might as well be one of those glib adages like Godwin’s Law or Poe’s Law, maybe something like this: every man who purports to be interested in tackling the difficulties that men face as a result of how society thinks about gender will inevitably turn out to believe and say vile things about women.

It’s odd because the reverse isn’t true at all. Women who campaign on improving women’s rights and almost always thoughtful and empathetic. The trope about radical feminists hating men has never had borne relation to reality.

It’s slightly depressing though because a movement to think about the way that society thinks about gender and how it negatively affects men could be a really helpful one. In fact, a lot of the claims that ‘Men’s Rights Activists’ make are true and important: there is a mental health crisis among men that is largely a result of the widespread belief that men should be stoic and indomitable.

Working class boys are facing an uphill battle to do well in school, and that’s partially as a result of the way that the education system isn’t designed with their interests in mind. Men who are sexually abused do find it difficult to speak out, especially if they were abused by a woman.

But when these messages are delivered from behind an anonymous Twitter handle — that also tweets about conspiracies to poison the water supply with oestrogen as part of a plot to feminise men — they lose the force that they ought to have.

If you stumble onto a men’s rights forum online, you would be forgiven for coming away with the impression that the greatest threats to the well-being of men in the 21st Century are government initiatives to end the gender pay gap. Articles are posted with titles like ‘the gender pay gap is the most outrageous lie of the modern era’, and ‘when accounting for the choices that men and women make, women actually earn more than men for the same work’.

These articles are filled with bogus arithmetic and statistical legerdemain that, if you aren’t neurotic and vigilant about the misuse of statistics — as most of us aren’t —, you are likely to be taken in by.

Whether or not the claims made by Men’s Rights Activists about the gender pay gap are true (they aren’t), the important takeaway from these online message boards is that the people claiming to care about improving the wellbeing of men who are suffering actually aren’t interested in that at all. What they are interested in is beating down feminists and working against the rights of women, rather than promoting the interests of men.

So, I feel as though I have a duty to call upon men who don’t have odious views or do odious things to denounce the vile ‘Men’s rights movement’ and start a decent alternative. There are plenty of young men who take to online message boards to say horrible things about the women they know — as well as women they’ve never met.

Where does this anger all come from? I think it’s mainly a result of a lot of young men who are anxious about their future, who are feeling that protections are being afforded to other groups — women, ethnic minorities, transgender people, etc. — that aren’t being afforded to them.

For the most part, the vile things that they say aren’t a result of hatred, but of fear and insecurity. An alternative movement that really focused on addressing the causes of that insecurity would be useful both in helping alienated young men with their problems and reducing the appeal of extremist anti-women rhetoric.

There are some groups that are already doing valuable work in addressing the issues that men have without being bundled up with a load of bile. CALM, the campaign against living miserably, has done loads of excellent work on helping men suffering from mental illness, and of reducing the stigma for men with mental health problems.

There are also feminist groups who try and explore how the patriarchy can be detrimental to men as well as women. But I think that there’s still a lack of a real movement that is run by men, for men, to help address social issues that affect men without making women the enemy and resorting to lazy caricatures of every feminist as a pimpled, pink-haired virago.

Maybe if such a movement existed, the existing Men’s Rights Movement would shrivel up and poof out of existence like it ought to, but I won’t hold my breath.

Review: We Are Ian

Written by Georgia Carney on 30th October 2017. Posted in Theatre.

As you walk into the theatre, immediately you are bombarded with the sound of rave music combined with a flashing, neon: “We Are Ian”. Taking a seat, you are apprehensive of what is to come. 45 minutes later, dancing on the stage with your fellow audience members, it takes a moment to process the pure crazy genius that you have just encountered.

The three actresses, In Bed With My Brother’s Kat Cory, Dora Lynn, and Nora Alexander, begin the piece with a mad dance to classic bass beats, showcasing their stunning light up trainers, stopping only to listen to Ian. Represented by a glowing light bulb suspended from the ceiling, DJ Ian Taylor becomes an almost God-like figure, rhythmically pulsating with light as he speaks. His “followers” listen to his every word, as do the audience, captivated by this simple use of staging.

Following Ian’s stories, the three women take the audience on an oddly beautiful journey through the Manchester rave scene in the eyes of Ian. The best thing about this show is the way they make the audience feel involved, teaching us dance moves — specifically the hot potato and waterfall fingers —, giving us “drugs” (biscuits), hugging us, and just generally sharing the party with us.

However, there is a poignancy to the story as we begin to hear Ian cry, upset that the good times are over. Blaming Margaret Thatcher, we see video clips of her, merging with clips of workers and factories. In front of this, the three actresses continue their repetitive dance, over and over again, as the clips introduce Ronald Reagan before including images of Theresa May and Donald Trump, alluding to the idea that nothing changes politically.

All the while the women are dancing to the point of exhaustion, the audience have a genuine concern for them until they eventually collapse on the stage, physically unable to move.

The actresses have a beautiful dynamic, creating crazy, clownish characters, which an audience develops an amazing connection with. Their pure determination and energy are applaudable in themselves, without even commenting on the fantastic acting that is occurring. Cleverly choreographed, together they create a rapidly fluid piece, dragging the audience along with them.

In Bed with My Brother manage to fuse together dance with politics to create an immersive piece of theatre which highlights the lack of political change since its setting. At just 45 minutes long, this piece certainly leaves the audience begging for more.

Interview: Ian Hislop & Nick Newman

Written by Sophie Graci on 30th October 2017. Posted in Theatre.

Sophie Graci (SG): First of all, how’s it going? How was the West End run [of The Wipers Times]?

Nick Newman (NN): It exceeded our expectations. You know, you put this stuff out there and hope that people share your view that this is an interesting story. This time last year we were in a tiny little theatre outside Newbury called The Watermill, and it sold out there. You think ‘oh wow, two hundred people coming to it, that’s amazing’ and then a year later we’ve just done a week in Richmond which had eight hundred seats and that was sold out. So it’s really delighted us.

Ian Hislop (IH): It just keeps going. We thought ‘we’ve done the West End’ and the producer said ‘No, no, we’re going back out on tour, we’re going to do the big theatres.’ So we’ve been down to Cardiff and there’s Manchester and Newcastle and then Glasgow later on, so it’s quite ambitious, but it’s been fantastic so far.

NN: Our initial concern, because we were [in] such a small theatre initially was how would the set even look in a big proscenium arch theatre? Luckily almost all proscenium arch theatres are the same dimensions so you just move the wings out a little bit and there you are. It’s a challenge for the actors. We’ve gone from theatres where it’s all up and down so you’re playing to the gods and we’re now at Northern Stage, which is in Newcastle, and it’s wide. It’s a good challenge; it’s interesting how it all works in different places.

SG: Why did you decide to adapt The Wipers Times for the stage? Has it brought something to it that it didn’t have on film?

NN: We’d actually started writing it as a play before we did it as a film. We had spent so long trying to convince TV companies that this was a story worth telling and getting nowhere, so we thought ‘let’s try it as a play!’ It’s quite a theatrical story: a lot of their jokes are about music hall and characters in music halls. We were about a third of the way through [writing it as a play] when out of the blue we got a call from BBC 2 saying ‘we’re interested in this.’ So we wrote a film, but we always felt it was unfinished business.

IH: So what you’re seeing now is the result of having done a thing on the telly. People write to you once it’s been on and they tell you ‘we’ve got this, we know this story, have you looked into this?’ which meant we could put all that in the stage version. We could up the number of musical items because you can weave it into the change of scene and it makes it richer. We had a female director who basically said, ‘too many boys in it – can we have some girls now?’

SG: (laughs) Lovely!

IH: So we did what we were told! Which helped hugely actually.

NN: It broadened out the story.

IH: We found out a lot about the temperance movement and about alcohol, which is a big theme of The Wipers Times: booze really running the war, people at home trying to stop it, and our lot not being very keen on that!

NN: All those elements came in after the film, which is great [because] it made it much richer. Particularly the use of more musical numbers, because we what we’ve done is taken snatches of verse that they wrote and set them to music. They’re about silly things, about [the] company commander losing all his hair or ‘they say that love makes the world go round, it was rum that made the world go round for me last night.’ They’re little snatches of verse, but it’s using more of their words which we’re very keen to do.

SG: It seems almost like the BBC was an initial try out, and now [the play] has come back to the stage where it was intended to be.

IH: Film is very cool essentially; you don’t get a lot back from it. With theatre it changes every night, it changes from town to town. It’s the pleasure of seeing it live, you can go and sit in the back and watch the effect of what you’ve written, and then the effect of something you’ve changed, or you’ve seen it on another night and thought ‘that doesn’t work’ and put something better in.

SG: Or an actor tries something out.

IH: Absolutely, and it works, and you think ‘great!’

NN: One of the things that we really liked in the film was the noise, and the explosions and we achieved that in the film by an app where [the director] could set off different levels of bombs around the actors just to surprise them. Putting that in the theatre is fantastic. Our sound chap, Steve Mayo, has devised this amazing soundscape, which puts you in the action. Your seat shakes when these bombs go off. It makes the whole thing much more immersive.

IH: Nearly all the action is in dugouts, in small, enclosed spaces, in trenches. This is sort of built for the theatre really; you don’t need sweeping panoramas because no one saw any of that! Our lot saw the parapet and just three feet in front of them and that was the war. I think that comes over from putting it in a theatrical context.

SG: How did you come across the story?

NN: Ian came across it. He was working on a documentary about something incredibly boring…

IH: Thank you, Nick!

NN: He came back and said ‘have you ever heard of this?’ He showed me a copy and neither of us had heard of it at all. If you find something nobody’s heard of or forgotten you feel a bit excited that you’re onto something.

IH: It’s such a brilliant story I couldn’t believe no one else knew it. It’s so unlikely: they go into the ruins looking for salvage, there’s a fully working printer. The sergeant in their troop used to work on Fleet Street. They were both engineers – they weren’t journalists, they hadn’t written before – and they thought, ‘oh we’ll set up a satirical trench paper.’ It’s quite a strange thing to decide to do, and they were brilliant at it. We didn’t think ‘oh this is quite quaint’ or ‘this is amusing old-fashioned humour.’ This is rude, modern – I feel, in tone – and funny. I mean really funny, not pretend.

SG: I like [the paper’s unofficial catchphrase] ‘are we being as offensive as we might be?’

NN: It’s brilliant, and the high command didn’t get it! Our chaps fell on that with glee.

IH: They repeated it endlessly. It became their running joke – ‘Are we being offensive enough?’ ‘I don’t know, we should be more offensive. Let’s be more offensive.’

SG: Why do you think satire in particular appeals to people in politically trying times?

IH: I think firstly it’s a release mechanism. It is a sort of great British tradition in that we do tend to say ‘well, one way of fighting this is to laugh at it’ and it has traditionally been for our democracy a very effective way of keeping people honest, by fear of ridicule.

NN: You’ve got in Jeeves and Wooster stories the fascist Roderick Spode: it’s not the black shirts, it’s the black shorts. Men walking around in black shorts are silly.

IH: It was incredibly effective. People were scared of [Oswald] Mosley and then Wodehouse creates a movement of grown men wandering around in black shorts. It is that thing of refusing to be scared and humour allows you to display that. I think what appeals about the satirical response to things is that it’s a robust response.

NN: The spirit is the same today: how do we respond to Trump? We try to make fun of him.

IH: He hates it. Half his tweets are comments on how unfunny Saturday Night Live is. They must be so thrilled.

NN: Last year we did a Private Eye cover before the election saying ‘Vote Trump’ and we had this great picture of Trump just pointing at his head looking completely bonkers and saying ‘it’s a no-brainer.’ Trump saw that and re-tweeted it and sa[id] ‘British media get behind me.’ It was so pleasing that he just didn’t get the joke.

IH: He didn’t have a clue. We couldn’t have written it, it was just so good, and that gives you small amounts of pleasure ’cause you think, ‘well, alright, that’s a response.’

NN: There’s an irony there as well as given about how much Trump goes on about fake news and here is a bit complete fake news that he hasn’t spotted!

SG: You guys have known each other for a very long time, how do you keep a working relationship fresh and keep things bouncing off each other?

NN: I buy Ian flowers and chocolates… show him how much I love him.

IH: That really is fake news! (laughs)

NN: The writing projects where we’ve got three months to write a script don’t happen very often, so when it does happen we’re very pleased to do it. We’ve got a film that we’ve got to write coming up and I think we’re both really looking forward to it because we know now where it’s going to go and we’re very behind it.

On a weekly basis, we have, say, three writing sessions together a fortnight for Private Eye. That’s always good fun, ‘cause they’re not very intense. We spend a few hours churning out ideas. One of the great things about having known each other for so long [is] there’s no embarrassment or awkwardness if one or the other doesn’t think the idea’s working. You just say ‘I don’t think that works’ and we move on to the next one.

IH: Writing with someone is great in terms of not only sort of bouncing stuff off [each other] but also being able to edit very quickly by saying ‘That’s not very funny Nick.’

NN: We’re sort of editing each other all the time. I think makes it a slightly quicker process. You sort of feel if both of us like it now we think it’s probably ok and then if somebody else doesn’t like it they’re idiots obviously. (laughs)

IH: You’re not defending your patch as it were. If there are two of you you’ve gone into it and you’ve compromised and agreed already. I think that is very helpful.

NN: Writing’s bloody hard anyway, but because I draw cartoons thinking of a complete sort of little scenario, the punch line is what it’s all about. Whereas when you’re writing a script there are so many avenues you can go down, and that’s where it’s so it’s just great collaborating with somebody.

IH: Also because Nick’s a cartoonist he’s got a very strong idea of what it looks like, and I’m much more wordy. It means Nick can say ‘that’s very elegant and very well phrased, but quite dull,’ and that helps a lot.

SG: Do you have any advice for student writers, cartoonists, and satirists?

NN: Do it, really! That’s the only thing you can do is do something and send it off and get rejected. Don’t be hurt by the rejection because the best cartoonists in the world probably get a one in ten hit rate.

IH: On the journalistic front, I would really recommend the postgrad courses. They are fantastic for making contacts, and they’re very good on placements. Apart from that, just send stuff in. All editors pretend they’re not desperate, but they are!

NN: There’s a very classic Private Eye cartoon, which was attributed to Peter Cook, which is of somebody saying ‘I’m writing a book’ and the other person saying ‘Neither am I’ and that is the truth about most people who say they’re writers.

IH: If you actually do it, there’s no substitute!

The Wipers Times plays at The Opera House from October 31st-November 4th. Tickets can be purchased from here.

Live: The ‘Honey G’ Show

Written by Elizabeth Gibson on 30th October 2017. Posted in Music.

Manchester Academy 3

The 10th of October 2017

Before attending Honey G’s first ever headline show, I was curious about the demographic it would attract. During her time on X Factor, many of her fans were children who enjoyed her larger-than-life persona and knack for making rap classics lighter and sillier.

However, Honey has often declared herself to be a true urban artist more interested in creating straight rap than crossover material. I was therefore intrigued as to how she would balance humour for the kids’ entertainment and serious stuff for her own musical fulfilment.

The crowd turned out to be pretty diverse, with a range of ages and, yes, lots of families. We were kept waiting for Honey to arrive due to lengthy technical issues — forgivable, what with this being her first gig, but frustrating nonetheless. At last, the familiar figure bobbed onto the stage in her shiny tracksuit and shades, and plunged into “The Honey G Show”.

The hit did a good job of setting the night’s tone: energetic, rather odd, but undeniably enjoyable. The balance of fun songs and edgier ones felt about right, though there were a few moments that had parents gasping — one sudden vulgar line made even me choke on my drink. Still, fine-tuning her tone is something Honey has time to work on.

As the show progressed it became clear that the technical hitches were going nowhere. We frequently had to wait for backing tracks to kick in, or Honey would demand that a song is started fresh. She also dashed offstage twice for costume changes, progressing from a gold tracksuit to a blue tracksuit to a silver tracksuit. While this was a novelty, it might have been one better left for a future show, considering tonight’s had already suffered such disruption.

Fortunately, Honey G can work a crowd. She had the kids hollering along to her call-and-response, and was able to improvise without hesitation when things didn’t go to plan technically. She has a rare charisma and warmth. The image pushed by many X Factor viewers of some naïve fool with delusions of grandeur has been swiftly erased from my mind and, I imagine, many others’.

Whether or not her character is real, Anna Gilford is clearly a very smart lady who knows exactly what she is doing, and this gig showed she has an audience for it. I’m very curious to see what she will do next.

7/10

“Mixed heritage is a great asset” – Mabel at Neighbourhood Festival: Interview

Written by Jack Greeney on 30th October 2017. Posted in Music.

I clambered aboard a tour bus in early October to meet rising R&B star Mabel McVey before her show at Manchester’s Neighbourhood Festival. The singer is set to perform at Gorilla this evening, a date which comes right in the middle of a headline tour.

“It’s a different vibe right now,” she says of the festival, “there’s a really good energy, a cool lineup”. Whilst she’s here she’s making time to go see her friend Zak Abel perform, as well as Dan Caplin. It’s her first ever show in Manchester, somewhere she says she’s “really excited to be performing”.

Mabel, still very young, is racking up the play counts online: her biggest hit, ‘Finders Keepers’, an ephemeral, intensely catchy single about no-strings sex, is currently ranking 12 million plays on Spotify, and counting.

How much attention does she give to that kind of thing? “It’s motivating: it’s a good feeling, good feedback”, she says. But it’s clear too that they’re not everything, not overly useful. She’s keen to avoid complacency. “At the same time, it’s not good to just sit back and watch play counts, is it”.

So what of live performance? Mabel is an artist who has gradually grown into the performance side of things: it’s gone from her most nervous aspect of being a singer to her favourite, her most confident. She’s looking to continue that in good stride later today, at the intimate venue under the Manchester railway tracks.

So far on her tour, she’s been to Birmingham, London and Bristol — “all really fun” —, and she’s set to set to get through Paris and London again by the end of the next week. This all feels like it’s building up to the hotly anticipated release of her mixtape, Ivy to Roses, due to be released the week after. She’s clearly excited for that — and why shouldn’t she be? It’s an exciting time.

Another thing that fills her with enthusiasm is an album that’s in the works and out next year. She’s been back and forward between London and L.A. to produce it, whilst keeping herself in an “always-writing mentality”.

This is a person for whom moving around has been a constant theme throughout life, having grown up variously between Malaga, Stockholm, and London. I ask her what advantages this unique aspect about her has on her music. “Where you are is always great influence”, she says. “Mixed heritage is a great asset”.

Her one-place-then-the-next upbringing is not the only point of her childhood often brought up under interview. Mabel is also the daughter of a singer-songwriter, Neneh Cherry, and a record producer, Cameron McVey.

I ask her if a family well-esteemed in the music industry helped or hindered her in her own career: “both”, she definitively states. Obviously, music was always going to be apart of her life growing up. Her parents continued on and had her playing the piano from age 5. “Work and family are kept very separate,” she says of home, “but it’s good to have support from people who’ve been there”.

When she was younger, Mabel ran a Swedish style blog: after I mention this we talk about the importance of image. To Mabel, visuals are important — she’s “super visual” — but at the same time they’re just “another piece to the puzzle” that makes up the whole package.

Fashion is another form of expression to her: but not the most crucial aspect when it comes to music. What is, however, is storytelling. It’s definitely the strong point of her music: evocative lyrics that tie together to form a strong narrative.

That’s what she’s aiming for with her singles, her mixtapes, and her album. But it’s also what she’s here to do at the festival later this evening. For Mabel, storytelling is an essential part of music.

Mabel strikes as a figure whose rising ascendancy and status in the music industry is only set to continue in that same direction. In equal measure, this album in the works will be a hotly anticipated one if the singles, mixtapes and live performances continue on in the same pathway she looks to have forged for herself.

University of Manchester professor in ‘sexist’ twitter row

Written by Cameron Broome on 27th October 2017. Posted in News.

A University of Manchester professor has been accused of sexism after tweeting about waking up next to the University of Cambridge’s Students’ Union Women’s Officer.

The tweet has since been deleted but screenshots show that it was sent at 7:30PM on the 25th of October to Lola Olufemi by Robin Marshall, University of Manchester Professor of Physics and Biology.

It read: “Imagine what it must feel like to wake up in the morning and realise you are @CUSUWO [Lola Olufemi] OR worse waking up to realise you’re lying next to her.”

Lola Olufemi has recently led a call for the University of Cambridge English Literature department to “decolonise” its curriculum by introducing more non-white male authors and authors from the Global South to its reading lists.

The tweet caused a backlash on Twitter, with one user calling the professor “a sexist arse.”

But you couldn’t manage that. Indeed, sexual insult was the first thing you went for. Which rather suggests you are a sexist arse.
— Nearly Legal (@nearlylegal) October 25, 2017

In addition to the tweet sent out on the 25th of October, the professor has sent out other controversial tweets including one which read: “If you do not like facts and you are PC, LGBTIDK, vegan,flat earthist or whatever do not read this thread. Nor am I interested in yr thinks” followed by a threat in which he said “… please shut the fuck up. You really piss me off”, attacking “parents of Ch.”

https://twitter.com/TheProfRobin/status/890992603809927168

https://twitter.com/TheProfRobin/status/890993566545326081

https://twitter.com/TheProfRobin/status/890994430370619392

When asked for comment, the University of Manchester said “the academic in question has since made a full and unreserved public apology for the inappropriate comments and any offence caused.”

He also also liked several controversial tweets, one of which read, “White men see: something beautiful to cherish & protect. Muslim men see: something to hate, violate, & desecrate. Stand by our men.” alongside a photo of a male and female on a bike.

https://twitter.com/CarolynEmerick/status/913239831936946182

Some more controversial tweets that the Professor has liked include one which read: ” Has anyone ever seen Jews in Europe marching in the streets, demanding to force Jewish law? England wake up you have a serious problem” and another that said “The war against the Nazis was over in just a few years. We were smarter then.”

https://twitter.com/EngageTheRebels/status/893311852683427842?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthetab.com%2Fuk%2Fmanchester%2F2017%2F10%2F26%2Fexclusive-university-of-manchester-professor-comes-under-fire-for-sexist-tweet-30411

A University spokesman said: “The University of Manchester would like to make it clear that we have a zero tolerance approach to any form of bullying and harassment.

“We are aware of this issue and, after looking into it, found the comments were made by a former member of staff who holds Professor Emeritus status.”

Live: Loyle Carner

Written by Calum Pinder on 27th October 2017. Posted in Music.

Thursday the 12th of October

O2 Ritz

This year Benjamin Coyle-Larner a.k.a Loyle Carner put his first album out. After generating a significant fan-base from the few singles he released prior to Yesterday’s Gone he visited Manchester for a number of small shows. Now with a debut album and a Mercury nomination under his belt, he returns to Manchester to pack out the O2 Ritz.

Loyle Carner’s family-oriented brand of confessional hip-hop is reflected in the staging at the Ritz. A lamp illuminates the decks from where Carner’s longtime friend and producer Rebel Kleff provides the beats. An armchair sits off-centre next to a whiskey cabinet and potted plants are dotted around.

The effect that you’ve entered Loyle Carner’s London home seems at odds with the fifteen hundred yelling fans as Carner walks onstage. Nevertheless, as the show gets underway it’s hard not to feel a sense of familiarity with the grinning 23-year-old. His continuous bantering with the crowd and genuine warmth are infectious and are reciprocated by an attentive and eager crowd.

Loyle Carner works his way through the material from Yesterday’s Gone as Rebel Kleff lays down simple yet groove filled beats. There’s nothing too complicated about the production but that simplicity works well mixed with Carner’s intelligent lyricism and energetic delivery. In the absence of layers upon layers of instrumentation what remains is stripped back hip-hop that’s refreshing and fun.

If there’s any major issue with the show it’s the lack of material. With only one album to his name, Carner doesn’t have much variety in the tracks he plays. However, with stories and jokes woven between tracks it never becomes too noticeable and on ‘Damselfly’ Tom Misch’s rich backing vocals provide a welcome change of pace.

On ‘No Worries’, Rebel Kleff emerges from his corner to join Carner on stage. Although he doesn’t detract from the performance his flow is a little too similar to Loyle’s to make his rapping feel necessary. However, consistent with the album version Loyle Carner ends the track in fantastic fashion with a brilliant freestyle.

The show closes with Carner and Kleff jumping across the stage and the crowd singing along to ‘NO CD’. The two walk offstage and the crowd begins to filter out. It’s certain that Loyle Carner has celebrated great success this year and it’s easy to see he deserves it.

With his abundant supply of enthusiasm and energy, it is clear Carner won’t be showing any signs of slowing down. It will be exciting to see where the next year takes him. Hopefully, back up to Manchester.

7/10

Album: And So I Watch You From Afar – The Endless Shimmering

Written by Callum Lunn on 26th October 2017. Posted in Music.

Belfast-based band And So I Watch You From Afar have unfalteringly released a new album every two years since their debut, And So I Watch You From Afar, in 2009. During this time, their innovative instrumental blend of more intense, sweeping, post-rock and melodic, yet technically complex math-rock has granted them a sizeable cult following.

Distinctly lacking from this album are any vocals at all — while the band are primarily instrumental in nature, tracks such as ‘Redesigned a Million Times’ from 2015’s Heirs featured muffled, distorted vocals, using them as yet another layer to add to their incredibly complex, yet expertly crafted sound. This sound, however, is not gone. Replaced by their earlier style of complex guitar melodies interspersed with crunchy, powerful riffs, I don’t think anything is lost.

The band do a great job of building up tension on tracks like ‘Dying Giants’, the song slowly building up with increasing intensity until brilliantly timed breakdowns – almost like a cliff-hanger in a book or film, one has to keep on listening to see how it ends. They don’t drag on for too long, however, so it’s never quite stressful to listen.

The third track, ‘Terrors of Pleasure’, reminds me very much of a Battles piece, the rapid muted guitar riffs, drum sections you can’t help but tap your feet to, and an altogether upbeat feel that communicates certain feelings completely without the need for any words. Similarly, on tracks like ‘Mullally’, it feels like the guitars are doing the talking, and voices would just muddy and hide some of the great guitar interplay between guitarists Rory Friers and Tony Wright.

A wholly enjoyable listening experience from start to finish, this album would serve as a great introduction to post-rock; though that is not to say it is simple. The varied feel of the tracks, ranging from the lighter, more upbeat opening track ‘Three Triangles’, to the darker, cinematic stylings on closing track ‘Chrysalism’, provide a brilliant show of what the band is capable of, without ever overwhelming the listener. This album has a huge amount of replay value; the complexity of the album means one can listen to this album several times, without feeling like one has.

All in all, And So I Watch You From Afar have once again do what they do best – catchy, upbeat, post-rock, and I would absolutely recommend this album to absolutely anyone.

9/10

Halloween Picks 2017

Written by Jamie McEvoy on 26th October 2017. Posted in Film.

This time of the year, it’s a great excuse to sit down and embrace the horror cinematic genre. Every year, studios release a new batch of terrifying, gory and spine-chilling movies to coincide with the festivities. This year sees the latest unnecessary sequel in the Saw series, and the Groundhog Day-esque Happy Death Day hitting the big screen.

However, online or on shop shelves, there is a whole world of ghoulish horror flicks for viewers to bite their nails, hide behind pillows, or laugh along to. Here is a selection of films outside the usual Halloween suspects such as Scream, Hocus Pocus and A Nightmare on Elm Street…

Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Touted by many as not only one of the greatest horror films of all time, but one of the best films ever, Roman Polanski’s psychological horror is a true classic. Inspiration from Rosemary’s Baby can be found in a whole host of horrors since, a recent example being Darren Arronofsky’s Mother!

Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes play a married couple: Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse, who, after moving into a new New York City apartment, become friendly with an elderly couple next door, the Castavets. However, as John grows closer to their neighbours, Rosemary begins to suspect something sinister is afoot, especially after the Castavets discover she is with child.

A claustrophobic, suspenseful masterpiece by Polanski, Rosemary’s Baby is embroiled with themes of Satanism and paranoia. Devoid of jump scares, but brimming in slowly-brewing terror.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Donnie Darko is a science-fiction/drama in which Jake Gylenhaal’s eponymous teenager starts seeing apparitions of a man in a ghastly rabbit costume who calls himself ‘Frank’. Following a plane accident after which a jet engine falls through the Darko household into Donnie’s room, the adolescent begins to see more and more of Frank, who starts to weave a tale of time travel and apocalyptic destruction. The young protagonist believes Frank’s stories, yet his psychotherapist played by Katharine Ross puts Donnie’s hallucinations down to schizophrenia.

The film sees the influence of the monstrous Frank grab hold of Donnie’s conscience more and more, as those close to Donnie attempt to prevent him from going down the dark path the sinister rabbit appears to be luring him down. Mind-boggling yet still grounded enough to be dubbed ‘cult’, Donnie Darko is a dark tale of the troubles of youth and the incomprehensible paranormal.

Grave Encounters (2011)

Grave Encounters flew under the radar upon release – in fact, it was not released theatrically here in the UK. However, following viral interest — the trailer has amassed over 30 million views — the Canadian horror film was made available on various online streaming sites and was given a worldwide DVD release, in 2012.

Grave Encounters is a found footage film which provides video evidence why a famous, fictional ghost-hunting TV series was suddenly cancelled, and what happened to the cast. The crew, led by host Lance Preston, investigate a mental asylum, expecting the same farcical nonsense as with all their previous ventures. However, much to their horror and surprise, they realise their scepticism was perhaps misplaced, and that the ghoulish lies they were going to fabricate were perhaps dangerously true.

Despite belonging to a genre which has arguably died, thanks to the ever-returning Paranormal Activity series and the infuriating Blair Witch sequel, Grave Encounters is pleasantly terrifying, and spawned a weaker yet equally scary sequel.

Black Sheep (2006)

Shaun of the Dead meets its woolly Aardman counterpart in this hilarious New Zealand zom-com about carnivorous sheep. Lead character Henry, suffering from a phobia of sheep due to a childhood trauma, returns to his family farm in New Zealand, just in time for an outbreak of blood-thirsty, ovine monsters. A ridiculous romp which somehow is still more believable than B-movie monstrosities such as Sharknado (2013) or Dinocroc vs Supergator (2010), Black Sheep is a hidden gem which is will have you bleeting with laughter and terror.

The Babadook (2014)

Across the Tasman Sea, Black Sheep’s Aussie neighbours have created an absolute treat. Sweeping up awards in its home nation, as well as in New York and from Empire, this directorial debut from Jennifer Kent is haunting and terrifying. It is a tale about a widowed mother Amelia, and her six year old son Samuel, the former plagued by her child’s obsession with an imaginary monster called the Babadook. However, as Amelia struggles to dispel her son’s unearthly fantasy, a dark and malicious presence begins to terrorise the mother and son.

The Babadook is oppressively tense, and is a sheer nightmare of a film. As much a meditation on grief and depression as a monster movie, this Australian production is one of the most intelligent and powerful horrors of the 21st century, maybe even of all time. The bogeyman which Kent has conjured up here is bursting with originality and is viciously malignant, and the nursery rhyme-esque tale which plunges him into the characters’ lives will stay in your head way past the closing credits.

Is there life on Vase?

Written by Arthur Salisbury on 26th October 2017. Posted in Sport.

By the time I’d got home I was knackered. Heavy rain, heavy eyelids, and with heavy heart I hereby report West Didsbury & Chorlton’s run in the FA Vase is at an end. Out in the first round proper for the fourth time in five years, but who can blame them? After all, they were playing the world champions.

Supporters of West Auckland Town will be sighing in dreary recognition at that sentence. He couldn’t even go a paragraph without mentioning it. I’d enthusiastically told the famous West Auckland story to my girlfriend on the way to the match. It lost its sheen, for us both, the third time we overheard our fellow attendees regale each other with the ripping yarn they already knew. Well, I’m back in the league world now. So here it is:

Sir Thomas Lipton, of Lipton tea fame, was a jolly old Scottish Victorian entrepreneur, a sports enthusiast, and philanthropist who, in 1909, established the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy. Representatives of Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and England were invited to take part. It’s unclear why West Auckland, then as now a small village team in County Durham, were invited to represent English football. A very tenuous legend has it that the club benefited from an initials-based mix-up and that Woolwich Arsenal were meant to have been sent. This is very probably not true but I’ll be damned if I’m leaving it out.

West Auckland went on to win the 1909 trophy, and two years later were invited back. In 1911 they beat Zürich in the semi-finals and in the final met Juventus. They took them to the cleaners, and, as 6-1 winners and two-time champions were allowed to keep the trophy, which they subsequently pawned. The trophy was returned to the club in 1960 after the village raised the funds, but it was nicked in 1994 and never recovered. In 2009, Juventus sent their under-20s to West Auckland and won 7-1, meaning that, in terms of head-to-head, Juventus are now as good as West Auckland.

To the present day and more pressing concerns with the FA Vase. What tremendous fun the FA Vase is. It’s my one opportunity to patronise clubs even smaller than mine. The Vase is better loved than the Trophy but it has a serious design flaw, and that is the dominance of Northern League clubs. Eight of the last nine finals have been won by a team from the Northern League, which is the strongest league at Step 5 (consensus is that the Essex Senior League is the weakest).

Still, West Didsbury would’ve fancied themselves in with a chance to reach the second round proper for the first time in their history. They beat AFC Blackpool and Stockport Town to get here and have had a very decent start to the season in the North West Counties Premier. But, I have to say, what a terrible game of football that was. Our brothers over the Atlantic might have mocked heartily our small-fry storm but it certainly made watching a bad football match more tedious than usual.

In fact, I remember nothing of the first half, nothing beyond the guilt and shame familiar to all supporters when they’ve brought someone along with them. It was not end-to-end stuff, nor was it fought in midfield. It wasn’t really fought anywhere. The ball was here and then there and then there, seemingly random movement with no pattern like the quantum movements of an electron. Nathan Fisher put West Auckland in front on 49 minutes, offside contentious but played to the whistle. Didsbury were a bit tireder and a bit smaller, and perhaps on a sunny day they could’ve made a match of it. But football is much harder in such conditions. The Vase is a great leveller; the rain is not.

Two goals in three minutes prematurely swelled the bar. A defeat to West Auckland Town, finalists at Wembley in 2012 and 2014, is nothing to be too disheartened about. Seasons come, seasons go, but the Northern League conundrum lives eternal.

DM17 Film Season: Frankenstein & Bride of Frankenstein

Written by Jamie McEvoy on 26th October 2017. Posted in Film.

In collaboration with the Manchester Gothic Festival, The Dancehouse hosted a double bill screening of 1931’s Frankenstein and 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, both directed by English filmmaker James Whale, and starring the iconic Boris Karloff. The screening, held in the beautiful Dancehouse theatre, was preceded by a talk by Sir Christopher Frayling about the history of Mary Shelley’s timeless story. He also gave a brief overview of the evolution of the cinematic adaptations, from the 1910 Edison motion picture, to Kenneth Brannagh’s 1994 version.

A re-imagination of Shelley’s creation, Karloff’s monster in Frankenstein has shaped the way we see the character today. Dwight Frye’s hunchbacked lab assistant, Fritz, is the inspiration for minions and sidekicks across hundreds of novels and on-screen productions since, and Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein arguably lays down the foundations for the generic mad professor trope which is a staple of so many science fiction and horror pieces.

It is this adaptation and modification of Shelley’s characters, along with the superbly handcrafted Gothic visuals, which makes Frankenstein arguably the most significant horror film ever made. The scale of the sets used for Frankenstein’s castle is astounding, with indisputable inspiration from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) in the young scientist’s laboratory.

The Bride of Frankenstein was Whale’s attempt at extending Shelley’s story, taking elements from a subplot in the original novel, and transforming it into an immediate sequel. Karloff returned to reprise his role, and Elsa Lanchester was enlisted to play yet another iconic role, albeit brief: the titular ‘Bride’.

A rare example of a sequel held in higher regard than its predecessor, Bride of Frankenstein (a title which, as pointed out by Frayling, suggests that the films’ distributors had the similar problem as many have, in confusing the scientist Frankenstein for the monster) gives Karloff’s monster much more screen time, and deservedly so. He cuts a tragic, alienated figure, whose only desire is to have a friend. The sinister Dr Pretorius, played in brilliant camp fashion by Ernest Thesiger, grants him this wish, in creating a bride for the monster.

To see these two films resurrected on the big screen at The Dancehouse was a true pleasure, in a surrounding not too dissimilar to that which would have hosted the original releases of both classics. Whale’s films have provided a multitude of iconic scenes and characters, from which images have resonated and have been paid homage to for nearly a century in the world of cinema.

Despite the vast array of remakes and reboots which have been emerged, and which will continue to be churned out (Javier Bardem will attempt to fill Karloff’s monstrous shoes in Universal’s upcoming adaptation), these 30s masterpieces are not only definitive Frankenstein, but definitive horror.

Sir Christopher Frayling’s Frankenstein – The First 200 Years is available now, and Universal Studios’ remake of the Bride of Frankenstein, starring Javier Bardem as the monster, will be released February 2019.

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Year: 2017